KJones

We used Cortrans for port-to-airport transportation, $20/person each way. They also have Orlando airport area hotel-to-port routes, but not all hotels are available. Even though our hotel was on their route, we opted for Lyft to the port so we could get there earlier than we could have with a shuttle.

1 hour ago, Nathan_O said:

GUMBALIMBA PRESERVATION PARK in  Roatan 

I believe these buses were lap belts only

1 hour ago, TJ! said:

Was there a price difference to get the real ID and is it mandatory?

In California, it varies between $28 or $36 - though I don't recall what the determining factor is.

To me $300 seems a bit high, but not by very much. I've gotten flights from SFO/OAK to SEA anywhere between $150-300 depending on when I booked and flight times.

I second the surprise at the flights being available to book this far out. Were all the airlines available? If not, you might want to wait until more are released, which (in theory) might lead to lower prices among all carriers once there's some competition.

We stayed at the La Quinta Orlando Airport North. Nothing fancy - bed, bathroom, standard complimentary breakfast (I saw signs for a pool but we weren't there long enough to use it). But it does have a shuttle to/from the airport and is within walking distance of dinner options (mostly chain restaurants) and a Walgreens (for any last minute supplies, and has selection of wine to bring onboard). It was easy to be picked up by a Lyft to the port the next morning, took about 45 minutes on a Sunday morning.

Tip: if you book directly via their website, there's free cancellation. So if you find that the rate has gone down it's easy to cancel and re-book with the lower rate.

4 hours ago, Danielle OG said:

My second question is about dining. It's just my bf and I on this cruise and we have selected My Time Dining and made reservations. We were wondering if it's possible to always have a table for two when we have dinner. Is this something that needs to be requested or will it happen automatically?

This will happen automatically. When you walk up to check in they'll verify how many are in your party and then seat you at a table for that number. If you have a specific table you would like, you can request it but might not get it depending on availability. Odds of getting it increase if you reserve the same dining time each night.

The fridge in our interior room was empty. It actually did a pretty good job of keeping wine bottles chilled!

Also, you may have to mix an RCCL excursion with a non-RCCL one. I've noticed that ship excursions tend to all leave in the AM, and don't usually offer an afternoon option, unless its only an hour/ two hour excursion. But this could just be my experience on Caribbean-based sailings

Drink packages don't apply to room service so you would be charged the full cost of the drinks plus gratuity.

2 hours ago, HeatherP said:

Thank you all:)   The gift card is being sold through my daughter's dance fundraiser from Scrip.  It would be an actual hard gift card which I assume is directly from Royal Caribbean.  No credit card points.

I have bought these, from the Scrip program. They are paper certificates and can ONLY be used when making a NEW booking. Not usable for later payments on a cruise already booked, or for OBC.

Edited to add: There will likely be fine print somewhere on them that mentions these limitations.

1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

My Time Dining, based on anecdotal evidence, is more crowded and hectic than either Traditional Dining

Agreed. In our singular experience with MTD, we would be brought over to Table A only to discover there was already a party sitting at it. Then, the staff would wander around looking for another table to give us without consulting the front desk. The staff would give us Table B, and soon after another party would walk over to it because the table assignments hadn't been updated to reflect that Table B was taken. It was a little chaotic, but overall our MTD experience was much more positive than negative.

As @CruisinUpinLife mentioned, larger parties are might be better off using Traditional Dining. MTD was easy for just 2 people. On cruises where we had 8+ in our group, it was nice to have a set time for everyone to meet up every night and not having to wait for a table large enough for all of us.

19 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

What's the cost difference for the Royal Up?  With a JS on Adventure, you get double points and a larger bathroom (with tub) and closet.  I would bid if the cost was below $500 total.  Anything more, probably not for a JS.

I thought you don't get double points for suites if RoyalUp was used to get to the suite category? Maybe I misread another thread

This doesn't fully answer your question, but at minimum you can take them off at the top (yes, you would be mostly blind on the ride itself) and hold them during the slide. They won't make you walk all the way back down. For the slides with rafts/ inflatables, I wore no-strap sunglasses while waiting in line until it was my turn for the slides. Once settled, the crew said to hold them in my hand, while holding the raft handle. For the slides at the Devil's Tower complex, I didn't bring my sunglasses, but I did bring my phone. Same deal, just held it in my hand.

58 minutes ago, Fairlynew said:

 If you bring you own refillable bottle, you cannot fill it directly from the containers around the ship; you have to pour it in a cup and then into your bottle to limit exposure to germs.  

This is what I opted to do. Filled somewhere on the Promenade, went to the gym, refilled on the Promenade. There may have been cups at the fitness center, but I didn't notice.

16 minutes ago, TJ! said:

How does one prevent this nightmare from happening?

You can't ever fully prevent an airline from losing luggage. It helps to not check your bags in too close to departure time - runs the risk of the bags not having enough time to make it onto the plane. And making sure there is plenty of time in between connecting flights. I've had luggage not make it on the 2nd flight because the turnaround of it getting off one plane and on to the other was too short (1st flight was delayed, so ended up being only 25min to change terminals at LAX).

It is also beneficial to arrive at port the day before cruise departure (or even earlier). It allows for extra time for the airline to find your luggage and get it to you before you become unavailable/ unreachable at sea. Not sure if they would hold the luggage until  you're back on land and can pick up at the airport, or if they would ship it to your home while you're away.

In my LAX case, the airline reimbursed me for up to $ X amount/day I was without luggage ( I don't recall what the amount was), provided I submitted receipts for toiletries/ clothes/ etc. Since it wasn't permanently "lost, there wasn't a flat reimbursement fee. The airline was responsible for delivering it to where I was staying.

Travel insurance policies will also offer options on lost baggage coverage.

Pre-purchasing shore excursions. A relative always booked our reservations, so never had access to the cruise planner site. We always booked excursions on the ship - so at full price. Wasn't until cruise #3 when I booked on my own and found out about the cruise planner and sales

9 hours ago, Bakerette said:

Not true, The Oasis class ships do not have electrical outlets next to the bed.

Harmony has an outlet next to the bed, below the light switches.

3 hours ago, bossdog421 said:

Price seems bugged. It says price is per floating cabana @ 1499 for me but when i added in guests it was trying to charge 1499 per person. I booked it for just me to lock it in and im going to call to add in the other guests.

As with other cabana locations, you only need to select one person for the reservation. Selecting multiple guests will lead to multiple cabanas being reserved. The other guests who will be using it don't need to be named until the day of the excursion I believe.

I've used Cortrans Shuttle to get from the port to airport - $20/person each way. We opted for Lyft to get to port, but they also do airport to port routes for the same price. Offered several times to leave/ arrive. We had scheduled the 10:30am return to the airport, but we made it out of baggage pickup and customs much, much quicker than anticipated, and they let us use an earlier shuttle so we wouldn't be standing around for an hour plus.

On our Harmony sailing, it was offered on Day 6.

Our Verizon plan was $5/day for Mexico, $10/day for the Bahamas. For us, this was much more cost effective than VOOM, since we only wanted occasional internet access.

Even at the self-serve coffee/water/tea areas you have to take one of the provided cups and use it to fill your reusable cup.

I didn't see the Cococay cups available for purchase on Harmony when I was aboard a few weeks ago. Only saw them on the island.

And for whatever cash you do bring, make sure you have small bills! I'm not sure there's an easy way to break $20's onboard...

We received one envelope on the final night. I went to guest services earlier in the week to get a few extra, as we wanted to tip the MDR waitstaff we had for several nights and weren't sure if we would have them again before the end of the cruise (we had My Time Dining).