fireclan

I'm sure this won't be a popular opinion, but I will admit to doing this...
Just slip the "foreign" coin into a bet (put it on the bottom) and it will eventually get mixed in with the others.  I've done this maybe twice...and it was never noticed.

Thanks to @jbrinkm for posting the link. And here's a delicious memory for you missing those wonderful soft crab sandwiches with Eastern shore grown tomatoes!

I definitely have a trend.  I do bad at the beginning of the cruise and even worse towards the end !  😔

Thanks to @jbrinkm for posting the link. And here's a delicious memory for you missing those wonderful soft crab sandwiches with Eastern shore grown tomatoes!

https://www.amazon.com/Drink-Caddy-Portable-Carrier-Reusable/dp/B08K2Y6CPK?ref_=ast_sto_dp (the 2 cup one)

Looks like we lucked out if that’s all we have to look over! Thanks for the link and video. 

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

Hello all!

My husband who is an engineer likes to dabble in side projects, and recently was working on an idea for a simple site to track cruise prices in real-time.  As avid cruisers, this is something we've often discussed as a 'wouldn't it be nice if' type of feature.  Aside from asking a travel agent to keep an eye on the price, the only way currently to track if pricing trends up or down on a particular sailing is to manually log in to the RCI site and do a mock booking. 

The site he has put together grabs all of the data in real-time from the direct RCI site so users can easily track the prices and use that information to make or modify bookings.  

It's currently still in the very beginning stages of operation and the full dashboard isn't quite ready yet, but we wanted to share the link to sign up in order to gauge how much interest there might be in something like this! 
If you do check it out and have questions or feedback, feel free to drop them here and we will use that feedback to help build out the site in a way that will better serve cruisers' needs!
https://cruisesavvy.app/

Now that the 2025 NJ cruise schedule has been released I am honing in on [maybe minutes away from booking] a back to back cruise, 2 shorts together to make a long cruise. Liberty OTS out of NJ 4 days to Halifax Canada and then 5 days to Bermuda. We will be booking the same cabin as that is easiest and suggested. Any info, suggestions, tips, insight would be awesome. Kinda excited at the idea and I LOVE the idea of going North to Canada and then south to Bermuda. An interesting combo. Thanks for any info.

We went on our first cruise in 20 years last year and I just thought I would share what we learned. 
You don’t need a huge fancy ship on a long cruise to see if it’s a good fit. A smaller older ship has plenty of sun, sea, music and new things to experience. 
Do grab any available discounts (in advance on the royal website) for things like drink or water packages if you can get them. The offers do go away. Rookie mistake in waiting. 
if you are doing a shorter budget cruise you will be just fine without premium dining. 
This may vary from port, but we toured Cozumel on our own and were really glad we did that. There are lots of beach clubs you can do on your own or go into town. I am glad we rented a car. I’m not glad we got a parking ticket. 
In Galveston we did a hotel with a shuttle but it was a SLOW process, might not have made that a priority. An air b and b and an Uber booked ahead would have probably done the trick, though do plan for parking. 
We made the trip to the port and the port stay an important part of our vacation, we stayed 2 nights before and that helped us feel less stressed embarkation day and we loved Texas. 
if you don’t have a passport BRING YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE! Our travel agent never mentioned this and thank heavens we had backup documents. 
There are beer buckets on board but we didn’t really budget enough for drinks. We did bring soda and water on and grabbed more in port.  The ship has plenty of food but grabbing a quick snack isn’t always easy, not the worst idea to bring a few nibbles. 
It can be cold and hot and everything in between. Layers are great. 
Talk to people, make friends, we got to interact with all sorts of folks from all over. 
Try things you would not normally do, trivia, shuffle board, hide ducks, dance class, ICE SHOW.  We ate a lot of Indian food on board. 
We avoided crowds by doing everything on the late side, later meals all day.
Grab a paper cruise compass. 
Don’t worry about keeping up with everyone else. We didn’t have all the magnets or sparkle water bottles or fancy outfits but we had a great experience. 

 

 

 
 

One option is to use the Bounce app to leave your luggage somewhere for the day: https://usebounce.com/
Another is get a day pass to a hotel to hang out there (luggage, you, or both!): https://www.dayuse.com/

...unfortunately...
I wish they would just spruce AL up a bit - paint, new carpeting, replace some furniture and call it "good".  But that's not going to happen.  😪

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

According to my husband,  who fetches our coffee from the Crown Lounge each morning,  this 2 cup carrier gets many positive comments from others. It's made his daily trip much easier. He's happier (less grumpy) so I'm happier.

Magnetic hooks!

Gosh, @WAYNO's wife experience sounds almost exactly like what happened to me many years ago in the vendor area. It was my first and last visit to the vendors.

Gosh, @WAYNO's wife experience sounds almost exactly like what happened to me many years ago in the vendor area. It was my first and last visit to the vendors.

Folks see what they want to see, so answers will be polarized.  What is viewed as pushy to one, may be seen as a  quaint custom to another.
Last time I was in Labadee, I professed the vendors to be the pushiest of any in the Caribbean.  They are your friend.  What's your name?,  they ask.  If you tell them, in seconds they'll have your name carved on one of their coconut trinkets.  Then you better darn well buy it. 
My Wife was there a few days ago, bringing with her a friend who's never been there.  My wife said it's even worse now.  Vendors were grabbing their arms, separating them, and attempting to drag them into their little vendor shacks.   These vendors were ravenous.  My Wife had to yell at them to leave them alone, causing attention from the other vendors and other tourists.  It was because of this, the vendors backed off. 
I am done with Labadee, other than the beach areas. 

I have attached two more photos that I was not able to upload in the previous message.
We had a wonderful time. I hope you enjoy the excursion as well.