KristiZ

I've sailed on 9 different Royal ships and have loved them all... EXCEPT Legend. And she's gone, so nothing to worry about

I did an Ensenada run in the mid-90s on Viking Serenade. Is that what you're thinking of?

I can tell you that the sailing you have booked in the GS, you will get to access most of those activities for free at least once. For example, we got a free pass on the bumper cars that included a “jump the line”. Royal is just, for whatever reason, very circumspect about advertising the perks in that market.

We cruised over Christmas and New Years for the first time three years ago and are sold on doing it every year! We love the festive decorations and special events.

I think this is because all her remaining itineraries are 8+ days

I grabbed the Arctic trip on Jewel. Maybe 2022 will be my Arctic year, since 2020 got canceled and 2021 didn't run that itinerary! Fingers crossed!

We did a 12-day trip a few years ago. Even though it was port intensive, we didn't feel overwhelmed. I think you'll have no problem, especially if you take the turnaround day as a "day of rest".

I did! So far so good -- only been 7 weeks, so the new-car smell hasn't worn off yet Yup.

The Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka is actually pretty cool. We did it years ago on a ship excursion.

No.

I just moved from Tokyo to Managua. Part of the protocol involved a COVID test. In the major airline hub cities (and in some cases actually in the airport) you can get a RT-PCR test with a less than 12 hour turn around. Newark had facilities for this, for sure, and we actually tested at the lab recommended by Avianca in Miami, about 20 minutes from the airport. Cost was $189 per person and all you have to say to get an appointment is that you’re “traveling”. There was also a choice of lab that took 24 hours to return results but only cost about $90. So long as cruises are leaving from l

You should definitely wait. The current market is very screwed up with all the changes to service. I would start looking again mid-December, personally.

Please L&S my Nov 1 2020 Liberty sailing to Oct 3 2021 on Liberty (sigh) Please add Mar 26 2021 Grandeur

All true except the minimum is actually 8 cabins https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/staterooms-group-reservations

As @WAAAYTOOO says, I would definitely suggest not trying to rent a car. You would need an IDP to do it, and even if you could find a company that would come to the port with the car (a big if), you will only be able to estimate what time you get to disembark. The immigration process in Japan for cruise ships is definitely one of the, shall we say, least customer service oriented systems I've seen You will definitely need some yen if you want to do things on your own. While more places are taking credit card than have in the past, non-cash forms of payment being accepted in Japan is ne