loki007

Do you have kids with you? The jolly Pirate is a lot of fun. Takes you to a couple nice snorkeling spots, provide all the gear, open bar, rope swing.  It goes out of eagle beach. Take a cab there, rent some chairs, lots of food options around. highly recommend Pelican Pier, or Nos Clubhuis at the Marriott. 

only and an oasis class ship. Older ships do not have a spa cafe 

Same with the celebrity site 

Never had a problem getting a drink whenever I felt like one

22 minutes ago, Xtentions said:

I have another parking question.  We are cruising out of Miami in November and January.  We are full time RVers and will be driving our F350 Dually down.  Will our truck fit in the port parking garage or will we be forced to oversize?  We may be buying a small car while we are in Florida for the winter but we may not have time prior to the November cruise as we arrive in FL the weekend before the cruise.

there is plenty of parking, both covered and non covered. i think you will be fine with the truck

45 minutes ago, JNS123 said:

When are private sessions available to purchase?

you should see them on the cruise planner, unless they aren't doing them post COVID?

lines aren't terrible. sessions are a few minutes depending on how busy it is. I would recommend buying the private lessons. The staff will spend a lot more time with your kids and make sure they have fun. 

beach loungers are free at coco cay and there are plenty of them. If you want to buy upgrades there are day beds, cabanas, and i highly recommend the coco beach club. 

On 5/16/2022 at 7:02 PM, gakarl said:

New to cruising. I bought “the key” thinking it would be nice for my up coming 4 night cruise in June on Independence. I missed the early check in option not knowing and am checking in at 12:30pm. I see the welcome lunch is only open until 1:30pm.  I am guessing more than likely I’ll miss the welcome chops lunch. Is it still worth getting “the key” or should I cancel and get a refund. 

we always buy the key and enjoy it. You will get an email a couple weeks before embarkation that you can check in early with the key. Its usually around 11:00

we have verizon unlimited and didnt  have to do anything on our recent cruise. when you get to port and your phone connects to the local network you should get a text from verizon saying if you use your device its $10 for 24 hours. We had several travel pass credits and didnt even have to pay the $10. 

https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/

just need your Crown and Anchor number and you can see if you have any offers

In curaçao we hired a driver for the day (Eddie) at the taxi stand right off the ship. We had 8 people, total cost was $200/family. He stayed with us all day, gave us a tour of the island and took us to some amazing beaches. The highlight was snorkeling with sea turtles. We have been to Aruba before, lots of great snorkeling spots, or just take a cab to eagle beach. We rented golf carts in Bonaire. Not much to do there other than snorkel. Few food options. We got back on the ship early. 

we cruised on Mariner in July. I could't believe the crowds. definitely higher than pre-pandemic. Its was our 13th cruise and we had never seen anything like it. If you wanted to go to a game show had to be there at least an hour before. Pool chairs in the solarium 630am,. Food was very mediocre. We were 2 families of experienced cruisers and we all agreed this was our least favorite ship and cruise. Hopefully crowds will decrease after this initial demand post pandemic. I'd stick with Oasis class if I were you or Celebrity.

we always buy the key, but its not for everyone. My take is if you are buying wifi you may as well spend the extra $10/day and get the key (make sure you wait for a cruise planner sale). 1) Priority embarkation is great, you basically board with the suite guests. 2) Chops grill lunch is usually great (Oasis class yes, freedom class/voyager class iffy), 3) my teenage son got the uses of the private times at the flowrider. 4)reserved seating at the shows is a good perk but you need to get there early. 5) Priority Debarkation is one of the best perks. 

As for the wifi, each person gets 1 device at a time. You can log in and out of multiple devices during your cruise. 

7 hours ago, Kris123 said:

I leave Sunday for a 7 day cruise out of Galveston on Liberty of the Seas.  I booked the cruise last min and the earliest check-in avail was 12:00 - 12:30.  I purchased the Key which comes with a lunch but I understand that it closes at 1:30.  

I haven't cruised in about 40 years so timing to get on the boat is new to me.  Will I have time with a noon checkin to make it to the lunch?

I called Royal to get an earlier check-in and they could not accommodate but told me if I had the key I could check in at 11:30.  Have any of you with the Key been allowed in at 11:30 even though your designated time was earlier?

Thanks!

You should get an email instructing you that you can come early with the key or use your assigned time. If checkin opens at 1030 I think 11:00 would be the key time. 

curacao is so beautiful. we were just there in July on Mariner. We didn't do a ship led tout but walked off the boat and hired a driver for the day at the taxi stand (Eddie) and he took us around for the day. We swam with sea turtles, went to amazing beaches, and learned about the island. Unfortunately we did not leave time to walk around the downtown (think amsterdam) and must go back! 

sound like another >100% capacity cruise. 

i do not believe there is any hold before the cruise but as you charge to your sea pass card on board they will place pending charges on your card which fall off after they bill the final balance. I noticed after my july cruise the pendings and final charge double hit my "balance" for about 3 days until the pendings fell off. 

4 hours ago, Mikei31 said:

Not sure if this is the right place to post this.  But I just returned from Oasis-OTS..  it was a little disappointing.  The boat felt crowded.  There were long lines for the main dining room every night,  the 2nd day there was a huge line  for breakfast at windjammer.  Also was difficult to get chairs on the pool decks sometimes. People everywhere in the walkways on the pool decks.  It’s not just the lines but it also felt chaotic.   I don’t remember this on other cruises.

 

I don’t want to complain too much, but this was my least favorite cruise.  Have Also been on anthem, freedom and a competitor.

 

I do want to say every single employee we encountered was beyond amazing,  but I will be rethinking future cruises on the mega ships.

I agree. I just got off Mariner in July and had the same experience. Royal is clearly booking ships over max capacity (which I guess is understandable given how much money they lost during the pandemic) I have never seen crowds like this even before the pandemic. We r trying Celebrity in December and hopeful it will be better. If not we may not be cruisers anymore. 

Port Canaveral and the Bahamas can get some cooler weeks but anything further south is great

I would just sleep there if you want one, all taken by 6:00am on our July mariner sailing. If you want a seat in the solarium get there by 7am, and don't expect to put stuff out and leave. The pool enforcer removes peoples belongings after 30 minutes until about 10am, then apparently its ok to leave your stuff all day. Not sure what's so special about 10am?

Check these tag holders out on Amazon. They are great for the paper tags. 

https://amzn.to/3cK5BcY

39 minutes ago, Diane.M said:

Thank you!  We all have the Key, I assume we will have early check in times?  We are cruising Oct 30.  Thanks for your help.  

You’ll chose an arrival time when you check in online. Check in as early as possible when it opens. You’ll get an email about a week before sailing that you can arrive at 11:00 with the key regardless of your assigned arrival time. 

1 hour ago, Diane.M said:

Good to know!  Thank you for the info. Some of my family going on this cruise we had to talk into going because they hate lines … Hahaa would really put a damper on their first cruise to stand outside for 2 hours. 

Probably highly dependent on your check in time. We just sailed on Mariner out of Port Canaveral. Our family who did not have the key were on the boat right behind us. We had 11am check in. I’m sure it gets backed up with a 1:00 or 2:00 check in 

the key line in Terminal 1 at PC is awesome ( I assume Harmony is T1). It starts out side the terminal, security, check in, on the boat. Love the Key