teddy

15 hours ago, basil said:

Help! I cant find Matt's post. I'd love to check out the tip. Both my husband and I severed in the Marine Corps.

Semper Fi

88-96 here.

8 hours ago, twangster said:

First of all thank you for your service. 

The part of diving and flying is aimed at the inability to fly after scuba diving for ~ 24 hours.  Nitrogen levels take ~ 24 hours to stabilize after a dive so the idea of flying between islands to dive many different places can't happen.   Staying on a ship at sea level and cruising between islands is perfectly fine making diving very complementary to cruising.  

Oh...lol  I was thinking it was a lot easier to get to the water from a ship rather than a plane.

That makes sense now that I think about it.

Thanks again.   

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Great choice.  The world underwater is quite awesome and cruising and diving is usually very compatible (compared to diving and flying).  

Your last part made me actually laugh out loud.  Thanks. 

Just signed up for the PADI Open Water course on our Adventure sailing in Jan 2020.

I had a chance to get certified 30 years ago when I was in the service and passed it up because going out drinking was more important.  I've regretted that choice for a long time.

 

There are a bunch of hotels in the Seaport area of Boston.

I've personally stayed in the Renaissance, Westin, Aloft, and Element over the years while volunteering at conventions held at the Boston Convention/Expo Center.  Decent hotels.

Aloft was a smaller room which was set up a bit different than "regular" hotel rooms...the beds were perpendicular to the windows.  Our room in the Element had a kitchenette which was nice.  The Renaissance and Westin were just your standard hotel rooms.

For the past few years I have purposefully chose the Aloft despite the smaller room because they always recognize me as a Marriott member, and make sure I have early check-in (much appreciated when tens of thousands of people are converging on the area). 

I've never stayed in any of the suites, just the plain old "two queen beds" room.  

In all the hotels, the rooms were clean, the breakfast good, the wifi fast, and the staff pleasant.

 

16 hours ago, AnnetteJackson said:

Or you could do the Matt method....

He typically checks with me to see what price is he is booked at or will send me what next cruise is offering so I can check with what he is booked at.  Then he knows if he needs to book on board or not.  Check with the agent you are working with or I can assign you to an agent prior to your sailing - and then work with them to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck!

Thanks for the help. 

We'll be in touch once we get through the end of November.   

Very excited to go this route as opposed to trying to learn everything ourselves.

That's really helpful.  Thank you so much for taking the time to help.  

We appreciate it.   

I did a bit of searching to see if this topic was covered at some point.

Not sure whether it is better to piggy-back on another thread or make my own, but yolo....sorry if I have commited an internet faux pas

We've never used a TA before, however we have decided to go through MEI for our next cruise.   

Our original plan was to book at Next Cruise on our Jan sailing on Adventure.  We definitely want to wait until this sailing as we are contemplating sailing out of Puerto Rico and want to see what it's like there on the port cali in San Juan before we book.  We are thinking of spending a day or two extra in San Juan.

Now that we have decided to use MEI, what is the best way to move forward?  Book on board then contact MEI to have booking sent to them?  Contact MEI before booking on board?  Say the heck with Next Cruise and just go through MEI exclusively?

Thanks.

We got our room assignment 15 days prior to sailing on our 10/10-10/14 cruise on Vision.

We knew our deck number around 30 days prior (it was on our Set Sail Pass).

We have cruised twice so far and went to Cozumel both times.

First time was last January on Mariner, and we did the Tulum Ruins/Beach tour through Royal.  It was a looong day.  45 minute ferry ride then an hour bus ride each way.  When we got back to the ship, we were exhausted.

Second time to Cozumel was a couple weeks ago was on Vision (size is in between Mariner and Empress).  When we got there this time, we went on our own to Paradise Beach.  It was relaxing.

While Vision is bigger than Empress, it is smaller than Mariner.  One thing I noticed on Vision is we saw the same people (other guests) quite a few times and got to know them.  The smaller ship had more of a tight-knit community feeling than the larger.  

We did not do the Key for either sailing.  We are contemplating it for our upcoming 8-night on Adventure in 3 months based on our experience on Mariner....not a bad experience, but I'd like time to do Flowrider and Rock Wall away from general public times (among other perks).

Don't get me wrong, we loved Mariner, but Vision definitely had a different vibe.

We were recently on Vision of the Seas and had an interior room on deck 7.

We had the thermostat turned all the way down and were very thankful we brought a small usb fan for sleeping at night.  It wasn't intolerably hot, but without the fan, it would have been borderline too warm.

When I was younger, I just figured that in the early days of travel, there were some magnetic anomalies that caused navigation errors in vessels/planes that relied solely on compasses.  I've been in places in northwestern Maine where compasses do not point north.

I never put much thought into it other than that, but the whole volume thing makes sense.

Edit: I'm not talking about magnetic declination, rather places where compasses are off by 90+ degrees.

I use the "all-in-one" soap/shampoo in the dispenser.  It's on par with the similar stuff in hotels I've stayed in.

I shave my head every 3-4 weeks, so I really don't have much hair.

After our first experience, my wife now brings her own shampoo/conditioner (as well as hair dryer).

Edited to add: our experiences are in Balcony and Interior staterooms.

I got caught up in the hype after our first cruise.....then realized what was happening. 

In hindsight, I should have known better as I've worked in retail for over 30 years and see my company doing this with sale items occasionally (albeit on a lesser monetary scale).

It really is frustrating.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.  It's fun to live vicariously through your videos.

I wish I had known about this whole thing 25 years ago.   

10 hours ago, PRebecca said:

@teddy came across this searching for Tulum and breach break info- how much beach time did you get after the ruins? Thank you for the info you've provided here!

We were at the beach for a couple hours.  This includes the time eating.  

We use a usb powered one.  It is surprisingly strong.

We power it through a usb hub so we can charge other stuff while it's running

For any trips, I usually start staging stuff 3-4 days out.  For our last cruise, I packed the night before (then went to work at 3 am the next morning with a 330 flight that afternoon, but that's another story).   

Suffice to say, I misjudged some things.   

To piggy-back on what Twangster mentioned...I had a really neat conversation with one of the engineers about the propulsion system and how dated it was.

We just got off Vision and did the "All Access Tour".  I'm one of those people fascinated with mechanical things and what makes them tick....I'm one of those guys who took apart an automatic transmission to learn how it all worked...

 While I did enjoy the "official" tour, what I enjoyed even more was looking around at everything in the spaces we were at and seeing how everything fits/works together.

There doesn't look to be a lot of room on that ship to add the bells and whistles of the Amped Up ships.  It's pretty tight down below.

My wife and I bring a small travel Scrabble set.  We like to sit and play while we people watch.  It also helps for layovers when flying to/from the port.  

We just got off Vision and there were some games in with the books (no "proper" library on her).  On each day, there were a couple hours set aside for "Informal Cards and Games" in the Portside Dining Room.  Also had Family Wii Sports in the Schooner Lounge each day.

Other than my enlistment, I've lived my life in Maine (I'm 49).  I'm partial to New England. 

That be being said, I feel Alaska out-wows New England.   I'd love to visit again. 

My wife and I both have iPhones so imessage worked well.  Pictures were iffy even with Surf and Stream though. Seemed to be hit or miss. 

Facebook messenger worked great for pictures, whether we texted each other or sent people at home pictures. 

Edited to add this was on Vision.  

Following this with interest as we are considering booking a 9-night southern Caribbean for Feb 2021

We brought a USB powered fan with us this past week.   It made a huge difference. 

We had a 6 port USB hub to power it without losing the ability to charge phones/tablet/etc.