Ditchdoc

I'd check your schedule but generally:

Ships arrive early ... often by 5 or 6 am.

Disembarking is usually arranged by stateroom color codes and designated meeting areas where you are called.

Having said that, I am sure that passengers with early flights can let the room attendant know or work with guest services and they can arrange for you to be among the first passengers to disembark. There is a good chance you can get off by 7am.

Couple that with Uber so you have a ride waiting and I think you have a good chance of getting out quirk.

Also pre-enroll with TSA for airport security and save time.

With planning, forethought and good communication you should do OK.

Good luck.

18 minutes ago, FroggyFlo said:

Can "sickdays" be used for vacationing?

In France you are not allowed a definite amount of sickdays. Of course. Either you're actually sick, and you stay at home (an inspector can visit you), as long as you're really sick; or you're not, and you're fit for work!!! This is a surprinsing way of considering illness!!!

Companies have different policies in that some count 'sick days' different from paid vacation time. I think in recent years Paid Time Off or PTO has become more trendy. More companies have established policies where they combine sick time/vacation time and so on into a fixed amount of PTO. It simplifies things. The logic is either you are at work or you are not and the reason does not really matter.

We have had laundry done a few times. The most was on a 15 day Panama Canal cruise. My wife is a real stickler about clothes and laundry in general and she only had good things to say about the service.

Personally, I think the cost of a bit of laundry compared to the overall cost of a cruise vacation is trivial. I would much rather spend a few bucks on laundry rather than hours of my valuable vacation time watching washing machines and dryers spin.

I think most US companies start with 2 weeks and you typically earn more with years service to the company that tops out at around 4 weeks with an option to carry over a week from one year to the next. Add another 5-10 days for various paid holidays, usually Christmas, Easter, .Labor day, Memorial day, 4th of July, New Years. Depending on what day the holiday falls on you might get a extra Monday or Friday thrown in and occasionally an extra two days if for instance Christmas falls on a Wednesday. Its nice to get those 3, 4 and sometimes 5 day weekends. Its not uncommon for people to take a vacation day or two in conjunction with those 'long weekends' and get a week off for the cost of a couple of vacation days.

Add to that, inclement weather days or snow days. Depending on the part of the country, its not terribly uncommon to get a few of those each each year.

I have been an advocate for years for a clement weather day holiday. Here in the south where summer temperature and humidity can be miserable, occasionally you get a day between 65 and 75 with low humidity  that should give you holiday to be outside and enjoy it

I have also advocated for getting one week vacation for each year of service. That way, by the time you put 30-40 years in a company, you are there so little you just retire.

Neither one of my ideas have garnered much support from employers for some reason. 

No doubt you will get a different opinion form everyone.

Personally I like my Nikon Coolpix A900. Its compact enough to slip into a pocket, cost about $300. The best feature other than being a 'Nikon' is the 35x optical zoom at the touch of a button. I have captured many wild life photos from a safe distance including bears, buffalo,  mountain goats, ships in the distance and so on. Add a 128GB memory card and you can literally take over 10,000 pictures in high resolution.

5 hours ago, twangster said:

Take it from an experienced Captain...

 

 

 

Ship vs boat has been debated seriously and in jest for years. A classic difference is a ship can carry a boat but a boat can not carry a ship. But then there are specially designed ships made to carry other ships that have been damaged or are not sea worthy. Does that make what was a ship a boat?

A more recent technical description is any vessel larger than 500 ton displacement is a ship.

Temps were relatively mild. Layer as others have said. The only really cold spot was Hubbard glacier. I put on everything I had and still could only stay on deck about 15 minutes. If you plan on any excursions to glaciers via chopper or dog sled I would plan on heavy clothes or check and make sure artic weare is provided.

Around the world.

There are 2 ports about 8 hours from me. I'd rather drive the day before and hotel it for a night than deal with airlines any day.

Never really thought about decorating the door. Might be a fun thing for a special occasion.

I have seen a few decorated doors. Best I remember they looked like a thin silver foil had been scotch taped to cover the entire door with some message like 'Happy Anniversary'. At the time I assumed it was one of those little things you could order on board and  the crew or your attendant would put it up. It seem to remember that, when  you make reservations, you are asked if it is a special occasion ..... and I just assumed .......

I may have to go to the local Party Store and look for New Years door decorations.

Timely ... I just ran across an article from USA Today ...

Some snippets:

This past week a 55-year-old Canadian man and his wife  were airlifted from Anthem because the man was suffering from abdominal pain.

In April, also on Anthem,   a 71-year-old woman experienced chest pain and the Coast Guard arrived and was able to evacuate the woman from the ship about 30 miles east of Asbury Park NJ.

In December of 2018 a 79-year-old man had to be airlifted off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina with symptoms of kidney failure, again from Anthem.

Seems  like Anthem is having a string of bad luck when it come to cruisers health. At least they have plenty of practical experience if you run into trouble.

.

While doing New England and Nova Scotia on Enchantment out of Baltimore:

Its a bit different in that from Baltimore the ship has to travel south all the way down the Chesapeake Bay, past Norfolk/Hampton Rhodes before entering the Atlantic and turning north.

On the way back there was a medical emergency and Enchantment made an unscheduled stop in Norfolk to drop the patient off. The dock was in an area used to load container ships and very 'industrial'. Waiting at the dock were an ambulance, fire truck, several security vehicles and so on. Half the ship was at the rail watching as the EMTs wheeled the patient off in the stretcher and loaded them in the ambulance.

It took all night to traverse the Chesapeake but we arrived in Baltimore on time.

Doing New Years on Harmony ... wont be in CoCo until 4 Jan

Style and etiquette do not always see eye to eye since both are based on geographical social norms. I was brought up where men do not wear hats inside, especially at the dinner table. Social norms for others include wearing your pants almost to your knees. I guess you could wear your base ball cap and pants backwards if it suits you and if you don't care what other people think. Wearing shorts at formal tea with Queen of England would most likely not be allowed. At a formal dinner onboard, wearing shorts might be considered a faux pas in some eyes but again, if you don't care what some people think, go for it.

If its any consolation, once you have the passport its good for 10 years and in the future, to renew it is pretty simple. A short form, the old passport, a fresh photo, a fee and you are done.

There are some expediting services that can get your application moved to the top of the pile. Combined with guaranteed overnight delivery you can have a passport in a very few days if you are willing to pay the price.

I do all the vacation detail planning. I used to travel all the time for business and the travel agencies and secretaries could never make what I considered good decisions. If I said I wanted to leave early morning, next thing I know I'd have a mid afternoon flight. I could easily check to see if going though Atlanta was better than going though DC and what fit my time schedule better. Someone else would inevitably choose something contrary to what I wanted to accomplish and I would end up doing it myself anyway.

So these days, I can calculate travel times by car. I know about what time we get on the road and how long we want to drive each day. I know what kinds of hotels are suitable and  when we want to splurge a bit or wing it. By the time I can detail out what, when, how and where, I can usually do it myself.

I look nerdy enough with out also looking like I am at a convention.

I have managed to keep up with my license, credit cards, folding money, professional cards and more my entire life with out hanging them around my neck so I do not really see why I should start doing that while on a cruise.

Just my opinion.

No doubt and I do not disagree. The thread was about Puerto Rico and the Southern Caribbean so ....

With respect to our Puerto Rican neighbors, even before the hurricane devastation, much of the island is poverty stricken and ill kept. Much of it feels dirty and unsafe.

With that out of the way there are some very nice tourist areas and resorts. Castillo del Morro (a world heritage site) and some of the shopping near by are very nice. Saint Thomas is is also near by and a day trip by boat can give you a whole new island to explore before or after your cruise.

The southern Caribbean is my favorite Caribbean cruise. Saint Lucia is absolutely beautiful.  Many of the stops have a less touristy feel and have more of that tropical island getaway vibe.

I pretty much always like to get to the departure port a day early and spend the night. It makes for a far less hectic and stressful departure knowing you are close to the ship and have plenty of time to get on board. Puerto Rico is no different.

I like being organized as much as anyone but ... the word is not made into perfectly sized blocks like Lego's.

To me, the hard sided suitcase is cumbersome. If it does not fit in a space, it never will. If a closet is one inch too shallow, hard luggage does not fit. If the space under the bed is one inch too low, hard luggage does not fit.  The 3.5 cubic feet of a standard hard suitcase will forever take up that much space.

On the other hand, a soft sided duffel is somewhat malleable. It self adjusts to fit the curvature of a car trunk. A space that is a tad bit too small in one direction, the soft side duffel will probably squish one way or another to fit. When its unpacked, it can be folded and rolled to fit most anywhere. It absorbs shocks of being tossed, dropped and bumped around carousels with ease. Multiple colors can be had. Want lime green with orange webbing reinforcement, you can find it and its easy to spot among the 400 other black bags  on the carousel.

I guess you could still place packing cubes inside the duffel. I'm usually happy with putting a stack of T shirts at one end, underwear and socks at the other. I do have my 'ditty bag' for  toiletries and medications etc. I like the flexibility of being able to choose what I want to wear that day or time with out trying to pick it out and pack it separately weeks in advance.

On a short one or two night jaunt somewhere, I barely unpack the bag.  If I'm going to be in a room/cabin for several nights, I unpack everything and put it in drawers or on hangers in the closet and so on. It just feels more natural rather than 'here is your dinner wear cube, open it an put it on.'

That is just my opinion.

A credit card.

To be a bit more serious....don't over do it on the clothes. A 'look nice' outfit and casual clothes. Comfortable shoes. Sunscreen. A book to read. Toothbrush. Everything else is excess baggage.

I've cruised during hurricane season. Baltimore to Nova Scotia and Alaska. Didn't have any problem.

I never remember having any issues with boarding. Seems like one time we sat in a holding area for a short while but typically we arrive dockside, drop off bags, go through check in and board. Sure there are lines but I never remember waiting for more than a few minutes at any point in the process. We probably spent as much time walking up the long gangways to the ship as we did anything.

The longest lines once boarding are going to be Guest Services as people try to make various reservations and want to ask questions. Most reservations can be made via the TV in your cabin if you have access when you board. Specialty restaurants, some entertainment and excursions require reservations and the most popular ones can fill up pretty quickly. If there is something you can't reserve on line in advance or you cant access via the TV in your room and you are concerned about it filling up, then standing in line is about your only recourse. Just keep in mind Guest Services are open 7/24 and much of the cruise there will be no lines. Boarding time is probably the worst.

"

"get to the Port around Noon .... parked ....security ......boarding .....Specialty restaurant to make reservations ..... children to register for their respective clubs...it should certainly be after 1:00pm and we would meet back at the room"

That might be a bit much for the expected time frame. The ship is huge and you will not be familiar with it.

Don't over think it too much. It's certainly OK to have a plan and a list of "to-dos' but be flexible and take time to enjoy the journey with perhaps a bit less focus on the destination.

Have fun