Ditchdoc

Check in with guest services and make sure they know you are B2B. Let your state room attendent know. A day or two before turn around, you will get a note/letter on where and when to assemble that morning. Have your documentation with you. Follow their instructions. There is usually a select lunch for B2Bs once the paperwork is done. Enjoy

It takes a village....at the same time....you are not the parent. I would be real hesitant to correct some one else's child unless it were to prevent injury. Never the less... I understand. Sometimes I just want to strangle the kid, the parent, or both.

I am not so wealthy that I want to spend $1000 or even $500 to sit on the beach for a day. But .... isn't there always a but ... As said, if you get off the ship pretty early, you can easily find a nice spot to your liking most anywhere at no cost. Then again, I know that traveling with family, especially if there are several, can be like herding cats and you may not be able to find an area for everyone by the time you can get them there. Then again, , if the family is willing to split the cost, then perhaps one of the 'pay to play' areas might be a good option at a reasonable cost. Good luck and enjoy.

Humm ... been trying to think of something that was really bad ... nothing comes to mind. We tend to stick with scenic and water related or party boat tours. There have been a few where we got a little uncomfortable due to weather, rough terrain and so on. A lot of it comes down to being willing to "rough it" just a little and being prepared. I mean, if you go kayaking in Nova Scotia in October with a lobster cook out on the beach then flip flops, shorts and a T shirt are probably not going to work.

I could be mistaken but it appears to be on Deck 5, port side forward. This would be in the general area of the promenade near Spotlight Karaoke and Starbucks. That is said to be the assembly area. The life boats are on decks 5 and 6 just outside the assembly areas. They hang from deck 6 over the running track on deck 5. There are 18 boats, each holds 670 people. I hate to think of the terror and confusion that would ensue if they were actually needed. That is why I think there is an assembly station/area so crew members can actually coordinate boarding rather than have 600+ people fighting to get on board all at once. As others have have pointed out, it is in the app, there are signs, including the back of your room door, and any staff can help you. Oh yeah, then there is Google. Happy sailing

Next one will be 8000 feet long so they can land wide body jets and have a high speed railway in an oval to get around.

The best spot in CoCo Cay....stay on the ship...its nearly deserted....and free.

As stated ... there are passage ways fore to aft on most every deck passing the cabins. Occasionally, there are port/starboard passage ways creating 'blocks' of rooms. Some decks, usually upper, may have maintenance or crew access areas you may have skirt around. Elevators access almost all decks. There are elevator banks fore and aft and on larger ships, a central bank of elevators. Note, on some ships, only elevators on one side may go to the top most levels. On every deck, near the elevators, are plexiglass ship models showing all public access areas on all levels. At the entry of every passage way are port/starboard signs with room numbers accessible for that level. There are monitors located in strategic locations that are interactive with deck plans and events for the day. There is the Royal App for you phone with deck plans. I would recommend getting this and learning to navigate it. There is a lot of good info there. Of course there are deck plans on line you can print at home if you just have to have paper copies. If you are able, the stairs are your friends at certain times when elevators are crowded eg: dinner time, embark and debark, when shows let out etc. It takes new comers (and old salts) a moment to orient themselves onboard at times. After a day or two, you will be navigating your way around like a pro.

Its illegal and against RC policies to throw anything into the ocean from the balcony or otherwise. There are hundreds of video cameras all over the ships public areas and this includes the exterior of the ship. It would not surprise me if this action was not caught on one of those cameras. All it would take is a call to security. They would probably review the appropriate video and take action if it was indeed recorded.

Passport ... don't leave home without it. At Port Canaveral and probably others .... customs is a stand in front of a camera for 3 seconds and you are done .... IF you have a passport. As an added note ... we tend to travel with too much stuff .. even so ... with a roller bag ... a second bag looped over the handle of the roller bag .... and a shoulder carry on ... for each person ... you can wheel right off the ship ... step in front of the camera and done .... head to your land transportation. My apologies to anyone that may be handicapped or have 6+ children in tow. This may not work for you.

My technique .... find a bar I like .... chat with the bartender ... find out if they work there the same hours I intend to frequent .... if so .... drop a $20 tip on them early on .... guaranteed preferred treatment the rest of the cruise, no matter how crowded the bar gets. Been doing this since I was young and in my bar hopping days. Pretty much never fails on land or at sea.

$$$$ of the Seas

High of the Seas (for when cannabis is legalized on board)

A great source for hot water and more coffee stations at 5am.

Other than the perception the DL is "exclusive", it really does not have that much to offer. I would go by there to get coffee around 5am because there is almost no where to get coffee at that time in the morning. Even then, the coffee machine in the DL would not be stocked or out of order on more than one occasion.

As cruise ships get bigger and bigger with thousands of passengers and sometimes 2 and 3 ships in port at the same time, the sudden influx of 10, 15 thousand or more passengers puts a tremendous strain on port city'. Infrastructure, traffic, embark/debark hotels, restaurants, public transportation and so on. Amsterdam, Venice, Vancouver, Key West and others have had issues. Having lived in vacation resort town, I can sympathize with all the above not to mention high prices year round.

Most browsers save names and passwords for you if you like so that they auto-fill. I agree the RC website could be better. There are two basic issues. Poor user interface or design and errors in information and lack of depth. The first issue of poor design is prevalent on a lot of web sites. I am not sure who companies hire and why they tolerate poor design, but they do. Cruising is a very dynamic field. Information is being added and updated continuously. That information is data and it takes work from real people and keyboards to keep that data up to date and correct. A lot of web sites fail at this. At the same time, there are excellent sites that have great design and they keep data current and pertinent. Amazon is not perfect but look at the volume of data they deal with. The "Trader' sites like auto-trader or rv-trader are generally well designed and give the user a multitude of filters to any make, model, price, location you want. Stock market sites update an enormous amount of data that continuously has to be current. They are all different but it goes to show what you can do. RC does a good job and I understand they are working with an international market that brings is own set of hurdles. At the same time, the web site has to transition from the desk top computer to their app. Some data can only be updated in real time. For instance, an excursion is cancelled due to ... whatever. The itinerary changes for shows, destinations, and a million other things. A lot of this could be helpful to peoples plans in advance. We see these kinds of 'what if' questions in this forum all the time because its just not available on line. Well... sometimes it is but people can not or will not find it for whatever reason. To me, this just shows a lot of information could more accessible with better design and current data. The information may be there but if its hard to find or incomplete then it cause issues for people.

I liked the Connoisseur Club a lot. It was never real busy but there was most always someone in there enjoying a good smoke and libation. Royal has moved away from sophistication to an amusement park mentality of noise and color. Basically the older generation has been excluded in favor of the sub 30 year olds.

Depends on which way the ship is going. You are going from Spain to Florida or basically traveling south-west. Late in northern hemisphere the sun will be lower in the sky. Very generally, the port side of the ship would be facing south or the direction of the sun when it is low in the sky during winter months. For most of the Atlantic crossing, I would say your balcony would be shaded most of the time. Central Park balconies are nice. You will like it.

It is state room dependent, not individual. As already said, we get our shore bag ready, with towels, the night before and go down to the exit a little early so as soon as allowed, we head to where ever so we can get a choice spot, usually in the shade. Note that twice now, there were two ships docked. Both arrived around dawn, and both started departure at exactly 8am. I think the captains do this so the passengers on both ships have the same opportunity. Also note, CoCo Cay is pretty big and it allows people to spread out. If you get a fairly early start, you really do not have to race to find a good spot. If you wait until noon, well, you get the left overs but there are still plenty of chairs etc scattered around. Finally, the staff at towel stands are not 'Towel Nazis'. Just be reasonable, return what you borrow, explain if you have some kind of mishap, and they will generally be OK with it. If you want 4 or 6 towels for 2 people, its OK. If you keep the towels overnight, its OK. At times, I've had them give me the towels and not even scan my Sea Pass. They do their job, but they are not going to crucify you over a towel. That is not to say they will not bill you if you try to keep them.

Did Captains Table twice. First time was an Alaska cruise and on the the exact date of our 20th wedding anniversary. The head waiter picked us because we were sitting at a table for two and he said he did not want to disappoint anyone else that might be sitting at the larger tables. Having seen how that system worked, on a latter cruise, we 'casually' mentioned to the head waiter that if he was looking for someone to sit at the Captains Table we were available ..... Well, he selected us. This time it was the Chief Engineer that sat with us. Both times we were met a one of the bars, offered a drink, escorted to the table, served beverages of our choice, wine was poured, a complementary photo taken with names and date, ship etc added to the borders. As you would expect, the service was exemplary and the meal excellent. Both times the table was large, round and sat in the middle of the dining room. I think four additional couples joined us so it was 10 people plus the officer. These were nice little perks that made a cruise truly special that cost RC almost nothing other than a few drinks. Its getting were nothing is 'special' any more unless you pay extra for it.

Dont forget the KY

Marketing is what it is .... they want to make you think if you don't act now, you are going to lose out on some bargain. I documented the "SALE" e-mails I got from RC for a couple of months. Virtually every one was $650 off +30% off every cruise. The lead in would vary with ... "Ends Tonight" "Ends Tomorrow" "Now Extended" Invariably, the exact same "sale" or discount would show up again in another e-mail within a couple of days. Occasionally they throw in : "Deluxe Beverage Package Buy One, get one 50% off" or "Up to 35% Off Internet, Drinks, Photo Packages" Basically, the pricing never changes, at least not in these promos and the promos seem to be nearly continuous.

Sounds like you are using CCPD. Talk to your doctor and perhaps for the duration of the cruise, you could do CAPD. I suppose you are more familiar with this than I am but essentially you manually exchange the fluid every so often rather than a machine doing the exchange overnight. Its more manipulation on your part but you don't have to lug the machine with you. Obviously if you and your doc decide CAPD is not for you, go with the machine.

Well ... there you have it ..... nice work