FionaMG

I saw that. My fingernails are bitten up to about my elbows.

I'm inclined to agree with you. It was probably just some loophole that was created inadvertently. I did make use of it once and put in - and won - a bid for an RU after I found out where I was supposed to be going. But that benefitted Royal too so I don't see why people doing that would be a reason for shutting it down.

It was a way of finding out what room you had been assigned before it showed up as officially assigned. However, Royal eventually cottoned on and have now closed that loophole so it doesn't work any more.

Historically, it will probably be around November this year.

As well as what time is the earliest shuttle, where are you flying to? If it's to the US you need to be at the airport 3 hours before the departure time, so 9.10 am. It takes about two and a half hours from Ravenna to Marco Polo so if that shuttle leaves any later than about 6.30-6.45 you may very well be in trouble. However, if you're flying to another European airport, especially if it's in the Schengen zone, that would give you an extra hour's leeway. In either case, I'd be nervous about it. Any hiccups on that 200 km (124 miles) journey and you'd likely need a plan B.

Cruise ships have to do a mandatory dry dock every 5 years (or every two and a half years after they reach a certain age). Harmony's inaugural season was 2016 and her first mandatory 5-year dry dock was in 2021 (I sailed on her here in Europe during both those seasons). That means her next one is 2026. I'm sure it won't be as extensive as the one Allure is going through right now, though. That is because Allure's current dry dock is the "amping" one that was due to take place in March 2020 but was postponed until now because of the pandemic. Purely as a matter of interest, Allure was actually on the transatlantic crossing from the US to Europe to undergo that dry dock when everything shut down. Some posters on these boards were on that ill-fated sailing and had to really scramble to get themselves back home afterwards. @twangster

Yes, Harmony is due for dry dock in 2026.

Video of the ongoing work, taken by the husband of a poster over on CC.

If any of you are interested in brunch at Mason Jar, check your Cruise Planners. It just showed up as bookable on mine. Not on the app yet and no sign of dinner still. P.S. I am doing the single digit dance this morning!

April fools joke would be my guess. It's already the 1st of April down there, isn't it?

Barcelona is the home port on this itinerary so the menu rotation starts from there and that will be day 1. All of the week's menus will be calculated on that basis so when you board in Civitavecchia for your "day 1", everything on board - activities, shows, menus, etc - will actually be on day 5. It's still a little bit too early but once the ship begins the regular 7-night route on the 20th of April you can look at that sailing in the app and see what menus are being offered on what nights. These will remain pretty much the same throughout the entire season apart from occasional changes on any given date that may occur due to operational reasons.

Yes. Our clocks went forward across Europe last night so Barcelona is now back to its usual 6-hour difference with EST.

I recently watched a great series about a 16-night round trip cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii on Princess by Jamie from Travel Blog Jamie. He covered the whole trip from start to finish.

You couldn't make it up.

Photo report of the ongoing work: https://thepointsguy.com/news/allure-of-the-seas-cruise-shipyard-photos/

Photo report of the ongoing work: https://thepointsguy.com/news/allure-of-the-seas-cruise-shipyard-photos/

Not long to go now!

That is so weird. I hope the LA is able to get it fixed for you.

Go for it! You can do it!

Yes, that's correct.

For me, the highlight of Naples is Pompeii. If you want to do that and Capri you're best to do a ship-sponsored excursion as the timing will be tight. If you want to do just Pompeii, again an excursion is a good idea because you really do need a guide to make the most of your time there but, in this case, since won't be pushed for time, you might want to find a tour with an independent operator that will be kinder on your pocket and potentially save you from the more or less mandatory visit to the cameo factory that is included in Royal's excursions. If you want to do just Capri, don't book it through Royal. It's a total rip off. You can tickets from the ticket office just steps away from where the ship docks. Round trip tickets cost about $50pp. Royal generally charge more than double that. Note that there are different ferry operators and they don't always return to the same place so check when buying your ticket. Once you get to Capri, tickets for the funicular are €2.40 each way. I have not been there myself yet but have read recommendations to get the funicular up and walk back down, assuming you are mobile. There is website called Capri.com that has lots of useful information.

Note that it might not be absolutely on the dot. Just keep refreshing the page. For my sailing it finally showed as open at about 3 or 4 minutes past the hour.

There are a couple of things you could try before subjecting yourself to the pain of a call. Firstly, log into your account, go to the loyalty section, delete your C&A number, type it back in and hit save. This can force the system to actually display points that have already been assigned but which, for some reason, it's refusing to show. Sometimes this works even just by deleting and retyping the very last digit of your number rather than the whole number. If the above hack doesn't work and you have Facebook, you can contact them by private message through the C&A FB page. I've done this on several occasions. They responded quickly each time and my issues were resolved within a few hours.

I actually found these badges purely by chance because I was checking my profile email after reading about all your C&A woes. It's kind of silly to put the work into creating something new and fun only for it to be relegated to "stumble upon status". I would have to agree that the time and money would be better spent fixing at least some of the eternal IT issues we so often encounter.

Looks like they have them on the Celebrity app too. I haven't sailed with Celebrity so it says "No badges earned yet. Time to book a cruise!"