FionaMG

If you go into your sailing on the app and click on the little head&shoulders icon top right it shows you the opening date for check-in towards the bottom. My sailing on 23 September opens on 9 August so yours will likely be a few days before that.

What gorgeous scenery and total cuteness overload with the puppies!

I think they may not be leftovers but rather a conscious decision to have the pie and curry options on all European sailings. We had them on our recent Odyssey cruise to the Greek Isles too, which never went anywhere near the UK. I was delighted! Can't say I'm a fan of salt cod either. It's pretty much the national dish where I live, supposed to a different recipe for every day of the year. Give me a nice fresh sea bass (branzino) any day of the week!

You'd think they could come up with something a bit more creative to serve with cottage pie than mashed potatoes!

Absolutely gorgeous

I do have a transferwise card that I could use but what concerns me is that it's a debit rather than a credit card. I'm not familiar with revolut, although I've heard it mentioned a couple of times. Maybe I should look into it.

It doesn't apply to most of you on the site but for the minority, of which I am part, who are paying dollar amounts with cards in another currency, it's worth keeping a regular eye on the exchange rate. If it's in your favour, even if it means paying before final, it can sometimes save a decent amount.

This is what I want to do as my retirement cruise a few years from now.

We also lost a Norway cruise to COVID, back in 2020. Hoping to make it happen next year so will be eagerly following along. Have an amazing time.

We had an excellent obstructed balcony cabin on our recent Odyssey sailing. It was 6622, which we actually chose based on @twangster's predictions in the original post. Lots of open space and water. It was hardly obstructed at all, as you can see from the pics below. All of the pics were taken standing up at the rail except for the last one, which I deliberately took sitting down to demonstrate what the view would be like from that position. The seating area just beneath us was rarely used, so we were never bothered with noise and, since the smoking deck on Odyssey is on the port side, there was no smoke to worry about either. The only thing to be aware of is that, if you are on your balcony, you are visible to people on the deck beneath you, so you'd not want to be doing anything out there that would be best left unseen! Also, the cabin next to ours, 6624, would have an even better view but it's a 3-berth cabin so it would be a great choice for a family of three. The location of this cabin is great too. Not quite half-way between the two sets of lifts, making it really convenient to get anywhere on the ship and, of course, just one deck up from the public areas, restaurants, Two70 etc on deck five. I would highly recommend this cabin if you're looking to save a few pennies by booking an obstructed balcony.

You would but say, by way of an example, your OBC is $200 and you'll save $400 by repricing. That means in the grand scheme of things you'd still be saving $200 if you reprice. By not repricing, you'd be giving up the chance to save that money.

We're probably going back about 5 or 6 years now, so I guess the process could have changed in the meantime. Or maybe it was because I had made part payment with a credit card as well. But, yes, you're right, the original price was lower so I'm glad I got to keep it.

I too lost OBC when repricing once and had used it to buy CP items. I received an email telling me I owed money on the items in question and that I had X number of days (can't remember how many as it was a while ago) to pay the balance if I wanted to keep the items and that if I didn't pay by then they would be cancelled.

There is usually always one vegetarian dish on the MDR menu each evening, but it is not usually Indian. There is a nightly Indian dish on the MDR menu on European sailings but it is not usually vegetarian. I have not noticed any Indian dishes on the menu on US sailings. Any time I have been in the Windjammer there has always been a vegetarian Indian dish. If you speak to your wait staff they will almost certainly be able to get you an off-menu vegetarian Indian dish since they are usually making this type of dish anyway both for the WJ and for the many vegetarian Indian crew members.

@ticoman I'm sorry to hear this has happened to you. I have two suggestions. 1. Reach out to Royal on their social media platforms, that can sometimes sting them into action because of the massive visibility. And 2. Send an email to the executive office at [email protected]. Flag it as urgent. Obviously, the top man himself (Michael Bayley) doesn't deal with these matters personally but he has a team that of people who do. Try to keep your email as concise and factual as possible and not get carried away with emotion however hard it will undoubtedly be. I hope it works out for you and you will have a fabulous cruise. Please come back and let us know.

That's the good thing about having a buffet in the MDR. When they have it, it works in addition to the table service as opposed to instead of, so you can get the best of both worlds. It's scaled down in comparison to the WJ but it still usually has all the basics so it's handy when some in your party prefer one and some prefer the other.

Exactly. I make two paper copies of everything, one for me and one for DH AND put a copy of everything on ALL of our devices. Think I might be overdoing it? By the way, tell your Irish travel companions to have at least an idea of the dates and types of all their jabs, because we were asked for this information when we checked in for our recent Odyssey cruise. This is because the EU, in its infinite wisdom, decided that only the date and type of the very last jab (even if that was a booster) should appear on the certificate.

I did not even bother uploading my EU certificate because I knew it would only cause bewilderment. I simply took it to the port and showed it there. Where I had to explain its unfathomable contents to the check-in clerk, vindicating my decision.

On my Odyssey sailing on 7th May, only three shows required booking once on board: Showgirl, the Effectors and the Book. All the others were first come first served. There was a section of seating at each show that was being "guarded" by an employee for priority seating (The KEY, suites and possibly D+ and Pins). About 10 minutes before the start of the show those seats would be released for general use. If you're interested, my recap blog will give you an idea of what to expect:

Need a "Yum!" emoji. I love those prawns.

Ok, you've convinced me. I need to do a cruise that sails from Amsterdam!

I think I've seen a couple of reports of these being validated but you're going to have to show it at the terminal anyway, whether it's validated or not, so there's no point worrying about it. The validation is not a requirement for boarding.

Sorry to hear about the "downs" but I'm glad that the "ups" appear to have good. Wishing you a speedy recovery and looking forward to reading about your adventures when you're feeling better.

Fabulous itinerary. Look forward to "travelling" along with you. Enjoy!

My pleasure.