Kathleen

@Riley @smokeybandit @twangster thanks so much for all your information. We will disembark on Friday October 4 and Stay at the Fairmont Airport and fly out on Saturday October 5 at 730. We have pre Check but not Nexus. (Maybe I should look into that) Should we a lot for 2 1/2 hours or 3 hours prior to boarding to Check in and clear customs at YVR. I know this is all pretty far in advance but I’m a planner, and find that is half the fun of traveling!!! 

@Riley We will fly out of Vancouver and currently can fly through DFW with a longer layover of 2 1/2 hours or flying through MSP with just 55 mins (which is not a lot of time regardless). Also we are more than likely going to stay at the Fairmont at the airport the night before. 

US Citizen here. I’ll be flying home from Canada and not sure of Customs clearance upon entry airport into US. How long of a layover should we plan for? TIA

@Pattycruise thank you. Your answer was exactly what I was wondering. I have a 1 device internet package for the week. I just want to access my free Diamond day on a second device at the same time on one day. Your first scenario answers this question. Much appreciated!!

I was going to use it on one day and choose to have 2 devices at the same time on Wi-Fi without toggling back and forth. Is this a possibility or does it mess up the log in/ off process for the other dates?

I was able to save $100.00 by repricing an Alaskan excursion on Royal Caribbean and $75 total ($65 on one and $10 on the other) on two Celebrity excursions. Glad I checked again. 

20 hours ago, SpeedNoodles said:

I'll be looking at those NE sailings.  They've been doing 11-night, round-trip sailings from Boston to Quebec, spending 2 nights in Quebec.  We did that back in 2003, and it was THE BEST itinerary we've ever done.

Thank you so much for passing that along. We had tossed about those itineraries but will definitely look closer.

I ended up booking a 9 night Spain/Portugal  balcony cabin on Independence out of Southampton with refundable deposit for September 2025 for just under $3000 including taxes and port fees total for the both of us, from our travel agent. Seemed like a win/win at this point. Was glad to grab what seemed such a good deal. 

Ferry would is quick and fairly easy.

https://www.clippervacations.com/seattle-victoria-ferry/?mkwid=s_dc|pcrid|679089733888|pkw|victoria ferry|pmt|b&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpYKknOO_ggMVDiqtBh0Fpw0tEAAYASAAEgJavPD_BwE

We just took this same cruise in 2022. We took the Haleakala sunset excursion the first night and the hike and waterfalls the second day. We loved both. 

The only down side I see is when the price drops on the UDP and you want to cancel and rebook for a savings. I’m thinking if you’ve already booked your reservations you are less likely to cancel and reprice UDP if price falls.

On a Facebook grouping I follow as well as the blog, I saw the below RC deployment schedule. Anyone know if Celebrity Cruise line has released their schedule? Inquiring minds…..

Just saw this Royal Caribbean Deployment schedule for 25-26. Does anyone know if a Celebrity one exist yet.

I’ve done the closed loop Seattle inside passage on Ovation withDawes glacier (I believe) and really liked it. A few years later, my husband and I returned to Alaska and mapped out and reserved our own land trip covering areas from Denali down to Seward and Kenai Fjords and everywhere in between. We did that using just busses and trains. We loved that experience also. 

1 minute ago, OCSC Mike said:

Needless to say, having no personal pregnancy experience, I had never seen anything like it, lol.

I actually forgot my pills on one cruise... which was fortunately a shorter one and after some more googling onboard (hooray for Voom) learned that lying in bed and raising your legs up on the wall (where a headboard would be) helps some.

Sailing in January again. I am going to try the water pills you have tried with success. It’s more of an annoyance than anything but my rings feeling so tight on swollen fingers is also bothersome. Thanks.

32 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

After several cruises with no issues, my legs/feet suddenly swelled up like balloons. Until I googled and learned it was a common cruising thing from the excess sodium, I was a little freaked out.

After about 9 or so cruises this happened to me on our most recent cruises. At first I was very alarmed, but then heard someone else saying much the same thing. I don’t think I’d seen my ankles that large since pregnancy, which was a loooonnnggg time ago!

Lavazza coffee machine and pods are provided in the suites. Excellent coffee. 

On 3/23/2023 at 3:27 AM, Xaa said:

I'm certain they didn't see me.  They wouldn't have put the card if they had.  The tub is elevated by 3 or 4 stairs and we were looking out to the horizon.  Didn't even see them in the area that I recall.

I wasn't upset about it.  Happy actually.  I do worry though about people in a similar situation who might be upset about it and would be right to be.

This was done at a hotel we stayed in. If we returned to the chairs when the note was present you’d simply return the note to the towel stand which monitored it. They routinely made rounds and cards were not placed until the towel had been left with no people for sometime. Happy to hear this is being put into action on Royal Caribbean.

We have done it twice and loved it. You will have plenty of sushi to eat. I could not eat it all! Highly recommend.

You can put a credit card on file for your card and no card on his. For him to charge you must place cash on his account in advance. I’ve never seen where they allowed charging without a credit card or cash on file. We placed cash on an account who was a frienD of a child and not our child. It worked well. You can replenish cash on the account when it runs out at guest services. When the cash has been spent they will not allow the charge and tell him to check with guests services. This is when you know to place more money on card or they have reached the end of spending.

Going to be cruising out of Galveston in the future and have searched this thread and found that Tremont and Harbor House were walkable to the port. I could only find old posts so they may have predated the new port. I want to confirm this. There were also a lot of nice photos of the suite boarding area line but from 2015. My search of the blog only yielded these but I’m not the best at that! Any more recent advise on nearby hotels and suite boarding area would be much appreciated @Galveston Steve any hints?

I’ve sailed 11+ cruises (5 on Oasis and Quantum class combined) and I can’t remember seeing popcorn! Where is it usually found?

Thanks for the post. I took the survey. Lots of interesting questions.

That has happened to us before and we were able to check in a week to two weeks later. I checked on and off but was a member of a Facebook group and was alerted it was up and ready through one of those members. Was still able to snag the first boarding time. Also check in time, if you’re checking in at midnight will be midnight of the time zone where the ship is sailing.

If you eat in Coastal Kitchen during the suite Happy Hour times, most time the wait staff include your drinks ordered as free happy hour drinks. I believe those hours are 430-730. Although it is not written anywhere, Oasis class ships serve free beer and wine in the suite lounge from 11am-11pm. This was the case when we last sailed in January. You can have the concierge make your Coastal Kitchen reservations when they reach out about a week before sailing.