teddy

I can only answer your first question. I had the soda package for the first time on Freedom back in November. Most of the time, the Freestyle machines on the Promenade were broken and the ones in the Windjammer closed. Most of the time I left my cup in the cabin and just got a soda at the closest bar. I even did that at Cococay. The bartenders all told me I could use the cup at any of the bars but were happy to just give me a plastic cup. I never felt awkward asking for a soda at any of the bars. Bars seem to have a very limited variety of soda….pretty much just the basics… coke, sprite, Diet Coke, ginger ale, and occasionally Fanta orange.

This ^^^ I would feel like an *** for even asking.

I have a iPhone so I add the set sail pass to the wallet. There must be a similar thing on other makes of phones? I’m also just old enough that I bring hard copies of everything, set sail passes included.

We went on the next to last cruise out of Nassau and had 780ish guests onboard.

I can’t see how it could get much lower than it was on Adventure out of Nassau. I feel the count would have to rock bottom for them to cancel.

So far away….. is October 2023 even listed in the thread yet?? October 22, 2023 Explorer of the Seas

Oh yes please. thank you very much

Yay!! We got the aft balcony on Explorer we wanted for Venice to Rome in October. edit: screwed up the dates. We’ll be onboard for my wife’s birthday

Interesting info, thanks I never knew it wasn't listed on all docs.

Your booking confirmation should have info on formal nights. Here’s a picture of the one for our upcoming sailing on Oasis. Formal nights are mentioned right below the itinerary on page two.

Absolutely

Thanks for sharing you experience

I’ve got Tuesday and Wednesday off this week…hoping for big bucks and no whammies. Hopefully they release the dates while I’m off

Want to talk about C&A confusion….our last name has an apostrophe. Sometimes I show more points, other times my wife does. We go to the Loyalty Ambassador on every cruise to straighten things out…. but eventually things get confused again It’s not just C&A. Airlines, TSA, government, etc get all confused

The only time we use an actual credit card is when traveling. As a rule, we do not borrow money, so we don’t charge any more than we can pay off immediately, but we do not use our debit cards while traveling out of state.

Regarding testing, have a back up plan. For example, we have a January 30th cruise and this is what we are doing about testing: -The local international airport hosts a company that does 2 hour pcr tests (at no cost) so we scheduled tests for the 28th. -As a backup, we have two 2-packs of the proctored home tests that expire in February if the airport tests fall through. While they may seem intimidating, they are actually easy to do. My wife needed to do one for our cruise back in November because her CVS one was inconclusive. -We will be scheduling tests at either Walgreens or CVS as a backup to the backup. When you get onboard, have the mindset that just being onboard is the vacation and anything extra is a bonus. Here’s a thought about the home test. Buy one of the non-proctored Abbot BINAXnow ones and use it before you have to do the proctored one. I’ve used a few of them and the components/procedures are identical to the proctored ones. By using a non-proctored one as practice, you will be more familiar with how everything works. Locally, the non-proctored home tests are running around $22-$25 for a 2-pack and…interestingly enough, $9.99 for a single.

The funniest part of this is that my wife said something very similar last night about 2020.

Worker or customer, a lot of people are straight up ********. One thing we noticed working retail: The pandemic has magnified peoples personalities. People who tended to be nice are even nicer. People who tended to be rude are even ruder.

Adventure and Freedom side by side at CocoCay and sunset leaving Miami on the second leg of our Freedom back to back We were on Adventure in September and Freedom in November.

We've seen some of them on You Tube and hope they are still on Oasis when we sail at the end of January.

Yup. I’m off today and was thinking I hit the jackpot as far as booking early even though the little voice in my head was telling me it was too good to be true.

…and it’s killing us. This was in a C&A email we received today. It’s just a bit premature.

Straight talk: If you are flying to the port, wearing a mask while indoors onboard the ship will be the least of your problems. Masks are mandatory while in airports and planes. With layovers and delayed flights, the travel day can be very long. I don’t see mask mandates going away any time soon. With your knowledge of how wearing a mask affects you, I think some really intense reflection of whether this is the best time for you to travel is warranted. I don’t particularly care to get into any discussion of the pandemic/politics/science/mask mandates, etc. Cruising at any time is a luxury and is much more so during current times. I want to cruise, so I agree to follow the rules because I know I am able to follow them. Those who can’t or won’t follow the rules should find another way to vacation.