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CruisinUpinLife

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Everything posted by CruisinUpinLife

  1. I believe you can still plan to do that. This 3pm is just a suggestion, just like they have a suggested embarkation time for everyone. If you want to get on first, just get there early and you can expect to get on early if there are no reasons for a delay such as CBP inspection or technical delay or anything of that nature. Just know that as usual, rooms will not open up until 1-130pm. Have a great trip! I'll be on Freedom soon enough and CANNOT wait given we hit a record low where I live today. I'm ready for sunshine and warm temperatures!
  2. I believe the set sail time is 8 or 830pm. It leaves much later but you can still get on at a "normal" time of approximately what you see here. Of course, they could have a surprise inspection which would cause a little later time to embark. Basically because it leaves late, it just gives you more time on the ship before you depart or more time to enjoy SJ before you depart.
  3. I don't believe Harmony has CP150. EDIT: Do not listen to me. I am wrong.
  4. I kind of agree with you. I've had a couple of great desserts but in general, they aren't always worth the calories.
  5. Here is @twangster's Live Blog experience when he missed a cruise earlier this year. He details his situation very well.
  6. In general, do not shop on the ship unless you aren't worried about how much money you spend, know what land pricing is for the items, or you need a particular item urgently and cannot wait to pick it up in a port. They definitely will make you think it's the deal of the century but when you get home you may find it was cheaper at home. They do a great job of luring in those that love a "sale" and don't realize the true value of what they are buying. They just see it as x% off the original price. It reminds me a lot of how annoyed we all get when they say "sale!" on their website for pre cruise purchases and you'll find the "sale" prices all over the place when they are all 20% off on board pricing. It's an operational model that truly fascinates me.
  7. As someone who is eaten alive by mosquitos, the permethrin stuff works amazingly well....if you remember to use it! ?
  8. Maybe she's extremely tall? But you are right....now looking at it again it does seem rather strange.
  9. I can only wonder why she thought to do this....why put yourself in any potential position to more easily get hurt? I wouldn't even want to attempt this. Unfortunately @PG Cruiser I think you are right....if something bad had happened we'd have people saying that balconies need to be enclosed in some way....which is silliness!
  10. Your best bet is to try one way of dining this cruise and try the other way on your next cruise. I find a lot of these things are personal preferences and until you do both yourselves, you don't really know what works best for you. I can understanding gathering pros/cons to try to do what may work best for you first. Personally, I didn't care for MTD but that is probably because we weren't very organized and were a group. We should have done traditional dining. It was also our first cruise we had been on since the early 90s....lots of things had changed! Most for the better.
  11. If you are prone to allergies, make sure you take your meds or avoid Central Park. Central Park is very beautiful and I loved it but it didn't agree with me very well. AND I forgot my really good meds.
  12. We got so lucky and were able to find flights for $800 total for 2 people for trip there and trip back. We did one way flights due to how the flight schedules were released. We had the flight there available for a while and I just kept checking on Southwest constantly. American had a good priced flight but it was an ON flight arriving at 3am or so which wasn't ideal so I kept looking. Then suddenly I checked one day and found a flight to SJ (of course not nonstop but that is not possible to do where we are from) for $260pp. Then I saw where Southwest would open the next chunk of their flight schedule on August 15th. I kept looking all morning on the 15th until bam...the new dates appeared to allow us to book a return flight. What do you know...found a flight coming home the day of our cruise for less than $200pp. I was shocked...like seriously shocked but quickly got the OK from my husband and booked it. Bottom line....just keep looking and note when the airline will release the flight schedule for a particular time period. I've also heard from others on here that if you book a flight with no penalty to reprice/rebook then go ahead and book but keep looking.
  13. If you look at a recent Cruise Compass (see top menu bar of this webpage) you can get an idea of show times and what is currently being offered. Cruise Compasses can change but generally does not change greatly from sailing to sailing on the same ship. I believe Mariner of the Seas does not do online reservations prior to sailing. I believe with the Key, you will find that the major productions will have an area of seating reserved for Key members but would still advise you going to the show a little ahead of time. I cannot recall if they release the Key seats within 5 minutes of show time if there are open spots.
  14. Depending on when you arrive to the airport and what airline you are flying, you may not be able to store your luggage at the airport. I do not have a lot of experience but just suggest you investigate. When my husband and I returned from our cruise in Dec 2018 to Port Canaveral with a flight time later than yours we ended up renting a car. We also rented a car from the airport last minute because it was scheduled to rain all day long-and rain nearly the whole day it did. I hope you have better weather though that was the worst weather our whole trip so we lucked out overall.
  15. I'm not familiar with other cruise lines who may have this same set up but with RCCL the closer you get to the 90 day mark the more likely someone is bailing on their cruise/room since that is when the full payment is due. Sharla would likely be aware of this so hopefully your future RCCL cruises bring you better luck and service with booking. No matter the cruise, enjoy your time!
  16. Did the crown loft appear at around 90 days out when maybe those folks were expected to pay in full and decided to back out? You seem like you may be a regular cruiser so I'm guessing you paid in full because you had to (at or after 90 days out from sailing). Of course Royal is going to do whatever they can to make money....and in putting it out there for RoyalUp is a great way to do that.
  17. I noticed in the new Cruise Compass format, it has a section for "Foodies". I've seen where it has various things like Scotch Tastings, Make Your Own Bloody Mary Bar, etc. I did not see a ($) as I would have expected for some of these. Does anyone know if they cost money or cost money if you do not have the drink package?
  18. People, think about going mattress shopping, particularly with a significant other/spouse. We all have different firmness/softness we like in a mattress. The same applies here. If you are not comfortable to the point where you cannot sleep, try to ask nicely to your stateroom attendant to see if there is anything they can do to make it better. But note, that they may not be able to however, it doesn't hurt to ask nicely.
  19. I'm sure Walmart or Target has some. I'm not sure what you mean by decent. I personally prefer my regular sized hairdryer over a travel one because I prefer the max wattage. I have a lot of thick hair though. Enjoy your cruise!
  20. I was wondering if Matt was planning to go too. It must be quite a heavy thing to consider leaving your home under these conditions. I hope for the best for all FL residents. We'll be praying for you all over the next several days.
  21. And unfortunately, Royal is probably bombarded with phone calls, emails, etc with the same staff they have on regular days. This hurricane is straining their resources I'm sure. I'm sorry you are in this situation-hurricane season when there is really a hurricane must be very difficult. I cannot imagine since I haven't experienced dealing with hurricanes personally. I hope everything works out for you with the refund.
  22. Starbucks is not included in any drink package or the coffee card. I am not sure of the pricing, unfortunately, since I haven't made purchases there on the ships. There is a coffee shop (NOT Starbucks) onboard that you can purchase a variety of expresso drinks at such as a mocha, vanilla latte, americano, etc but also not sure of their prices but believe they are cheaper than Starbucks and are included in the coffee card, refreshment, and deluxe beverage packages.
  23. The short answer is no. However, many post prices on their live blogs and you can find some of this information possibly in the menus section of this site. However, that does not mean that is the price for sure as some menus are old and are provided to the Admins by fellow cruisers. Royal does not post this information-probably so they can change prices as they wish without risk of someone having documented an expected price and find it's different on board. Someone on here may be able to give you general prices for various things. Starbucks is not included in any drink package. Regular brewed coffee is included as well as tap water with your cruise price-no package needed. Alcoholic beverages vary depending on what they are. Wines I've generally seeing around the $12-$16 per glass on up. Mixed drinks are around that price as well depending on what you are wanting. Beer prices are ??? as I don't often drink beer. Meals are included unless they are part of specialty dining restaurants. I say all of this information and it does NOT necessarily apply to cruises in the Asian market such as Spectrum of the Seas or any other ships over there. From what I've read from others on here is they have an entirely different way of doing things to meet consumer expectations in that area.
  24. If you truly signed up for MTD and got it, you should be able to make reservations on Cruise Planner assuming it's close enough to your cruise that it's open for that. What you are saying here makes me feel like you are currently signed up for Early Seating Traditional Dining. How did you book your cruise...travel agent or directly with Royal? If travel agent, have them confirm you are traditional dining and sign you up for MTD (or confirm you are waitlisted for MTD). If booked with Royal, call them to do the same thing.
  25. Are you working with a travel agent? I found that sometimes travel agents have better pricing because they are booking a block as "group" though it's not really a group cruise. You might want to check in with a travel agent and see how these potential cruises are priced for you-you could be surprised. But yes, only you can determine your budget. Would you rather do more cruises or more paid things on one cruise or spread your money out to two cruises? Also, keep checking the flights. I was watching them like a hawk for our FOTS Jan 2020 cruise (yes, this is right before it's amped but the price was right so we booked it) and found our flights home (not round trip) to be amazingly cheap-about half the price I was expecting them to be. I bought them the day they came out on southwest.com. We were looking at our flights to be as much as our cruise and by stalking the website frequently, we were blessed to be spending half that. You really just never know what you might find-just keep looking regularly. And remember, sometimes depending on the airline you can cancel and rebook without a fee. I'm all for YOLO but some of have to be honest with our budgets and what we are comfortable with spending/doing. Good luck but know that you can be surprised with prices!
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