Morganno

Why would you be more worried about the flu which A) already has a vaccine & B) has a drug to help prevent the more serious symptoms (Tamiflu) Rather than Covid-19 which has neither of those ?

We go in May but have to pay the cruise next week. Lucky we have good cancellation insurance. Not to worried as even if we didn't have insurance we simply wouldn't take a risk. We are in Europe and cruising in Europe on Anthem so will wait and see. PS anyone from the princess died yet ? I don't think they have.

My son dreads going on cruises we have persuaded him again for our cruise in May but he's not happy about it. So i will have to make an extra effort for him. He enjoyed his first cruise at 12 didn't mind the May one last year at 13 and hated the Harmony one last August stayed in his room the whole time. I hope he meets some friends this time but suffers from shyness (age related.) We offered for him to bring a friend but he didn't want to. Not sure why. Hope your kids enjoy it.

It's even harder for European kids. In Belgium you can buy a beer at a bar at 16. This year was hard for my niece going to the states and not being allowed to drink. If you go on a European cruise from UK it's 18. I think that's Europe wide and Belgium is just the exception. As an aside I'm 46 and ordered a beer at TGI's in Atlanta Airport and was carded. Made my day I can tell ya. ?

Schooner bar on Harmony and the Spanish dancing bar (forget what it's called) does also. ? As do nearly all pool bars. ?

Please for the planet if you get a coffee for the room use porcelain cups there are plenty next to the free coffee. The planet will thank you. Or better yet take your reusable bamboo cup on vacation. ?

You can book the escape room via the cruise planner. Note I complained about my Escape room experience on Harmony. We were 16 people and it was just too busy there was literally not enough space to enjoy the puzzles. Also there is a crew member in with you and our crew member was way to generous with hints. We finished it 20 minutes early. ?

We bought some in Boston and took it on we didn't ask and just brought it on with medication. I think my wife would have went into full meltdown as it was really helping her health problems.

I tried two ? ?

Hi all, We are in the top 1% of the world's population that has a house, inside toilet, and enough disposible income to take a cruise. This is my mindset going on any holiday. Any problems we have are very minor first world issues. Firstly a bit of background. We were on a 2.5 week extended vacation visiting Boston, Cape Cod, Orlando then the cruise from Port Canaveral. Travellers were myself, my darling wife, sis in law, niece (16) who thinks she's 21 and son (14) who would prefer being on the PC than on vacation. We hired a car in Florida so got up late around 9am sunday went to IHop then drove the hour or so to the Port. Filled up with gas before hire car drop off. I dropped the car off first then arranged for my wife who has mobility issues to get a wheelchair then drove back to the car hire place. Point of note, the supervisors at the drop of point do not have a lot of patience for those lingering after bag drop but once I explained the situation with my wife they were ok. We were escorted through the process by the person wheeling the chair and we were on the ship after 15 minutes of checks and photos. Once we thanked the chair person we made a bee-line for the rising tide bar to sip our chocolate martini's until the cabins opened. (Time was around 12.30 so not long to wait.) We hired an electric chair for the duration of our cruise from special needs at sea. The process was painless and we thought it was good value at $185 for the week. It certainly afforded my wife much more freedom during our cruise. We even took it off ship for excursions. Day one evening was chaotic, we had to do windjammer as MDR mytime was just too long a line (stretched past the elevators) and we were peckish having not had lunch that day. We were enjoying the atmosphere and exploring the ship. We were going to turn in early as it was an 8am start in coco key. However due to a medical emergency we were back at Canaveral at 1am and so we didn't get to coco key until lunchtime which actually suited us as my wife isn't great in the morning. Coco Key was great, we hired the snorkels but at 47$ they were a lot more expensive than the 10$ we paid in Costa Maya and Cozumel. I wouldn't hire them again at the key as there isn't a whole lot to see but it was still fun. We ate the mozarella sticks and crispy chicken recommended by @Matt but didn't get the "secret sandwich" ? There was no shortage of chairs and my wife could easily take her chair to all places. There were even beach type chairs with big wheels available for free. Highly rate Coco Key for travellers with mobility problems 5* for RCI. That evening we choose to reserve the Bistro. I really enjoyed the entrees but the choice was too limited for some members of our party so we decided the next night to try for MDR. There was no shortage of food options on the ship anyway. ? The next day was a sea day and so relaxing on our balcony, this was our first balcony cabin and I would recommend it 100% it will be hard to go back to an inside. My niece met some friends the first night but my son didn't so he spent a lot of time in the cabin and hanging around with me which I really enjoyed we had some checkers games in the games room (Deck 14) and did the perfect storm slides together. We didn't do rockclimbing or bogeyboarding due to the 4 days at port we were off the ship alot. To be continued..... First sight of ship after hire car drop off at Alamo. First photo on Deck 16 Had to try the bridge glass walkway ? Isn't she a beut.... Courtesy Coco Cay photo lol I love this photo it's my fav. ? Back on the balcony about to go for early dinner. One of many fun checkers games. Final score that day 2-2 ? These biscuits are my fav.

On the HOTS FB page lots of Americans just use drivers license and birth cert to board, what if they get stuck in Honduras and miss the boat. Can you travel internationally with such documents? I'll be taking my passport with me if I leave the ship.

Hope you had a great time Joe. Fellow Scot here and living in Belgium, we are on 8/18 Harmony cruise after a Boston visit. Just wanted to post that any tutting or vocal comments on someone taking an elevator for 1 floor could make or break a holiday for the person with a disabilty. Not all disabilites are visible but can still be highly painful for people. Anyway enjoyed your blog and good luck with your studies.

Fingers crossed. With the cancellation of Indy next summer RC cruises have shot up in price. I'm hoping nearer the time prices drop a little. I'm sure by Dec 2019 they'll slash prices as all forums I've been reading for Anthem for 2020 are complaints about it being too expensive.

I think so they don't really want you getting off the ship at all which makes perfect sense to a company. I see more and more European cruises being offered on smaller ship as cities dictate capacity.

I agree but you do not need to ignore formal attire on formal night there are various other venues to eat from. I would fully agree with dressing down on formal night only if the MDR is the only location to eat but it's not. I can fully understand RCI's decision not to enforce it but I feel that those choosing to ignore formal night are spoiling it for others and reserve the right to say so.

I'd love to just wear my swimming thong and wet the seat for the next person is that ok? Let's just scrap formal night on RC cruises then since it doesn't suit you despite there being various other venues to choose from ? talk about selfish.....

in Europe It's only available on day 1 and 2 of a 14 day cruise. Not sure about America but on Europe I can definitely confirm on Day 3 it was no longer possible to purchase.

My son came off the ship with 13 passes . On our 14 night med cruise there wasn't one stop where we didn't have to go to CS to get yet another pass that would let him off the ship. Each new pass cancelled the old one lol

thank you but you say set sail pass ok so we carry around the bit of paper? Thanks I will ensure my family have downloaded the app as we all have the cool DX on our cards ?

This is cultural if a cruise ship is operating in Europe it should be forced to obey the laws of the country it's departing from. Including it's social and cultural norms. There is minimum wage in Europe and RCI should respect this when offering cruises in Europe. Your anger should be at them not at people who pay 3 or 4 times the amount of the same days for a Caribbean cruise.

You are treating the crew on your boat as if they are homeless and feeling good about it? wow how about just treating them as human beings instead of those to be pitied ?

But I won't have my seapass until i get to my room? This is the bit I dont get. On my previous 3 cruises as soon as I got on I went to champagne bar and bought a round of champagne either paid or on deluxe but I required my sea pass card. How does it work this time I won't have my card until i visit my room which may be a few hours later?

I've only sailed from Southampton in the UK before and you got your seapass when checking in. We are sailing on HoS in August from Canaveral and I've read that the cards are outside your door, this begs the question. what's to stop people taking your pass to access your room and also use it for a few free drinks? how do I get my deluxe package free drinks without the card? This may seem like a newbie question but I don't really want to rush to my cabin after boarding....

I haven't researched it so much but yes you will get great value on eating off the boat but it will only be lunch. What are your return times to the boat, we have done the med twice and the return times have been really early so no chance for dinner. You have picked a great time as in the summer the restaurants will open much later and might not do lunch. To be honest we did the med twice and I wouldn't have bought the drinks package as you can get great drinks for $5-6 in southern Europe and a bottle of wine will set you back maybe 25$ Have a great time look forward to hearing about it.

Sorry but they are talking about European Ports in the Med. They don't need cruise ships and it's the greedy local government that is cashing in not the people. Barcelona is a prosperous European city and the capital of Catelonia. Venice witnessed recently a ship 100x the size of a normal boat enter the canal without stopping. I think this makes perfect sense and so does RC which is why they are building ships that are self contained cities. They don't really want to dock anywhere but their own islands and if they could buy 4 coco keys then they would do just that. Let's face it every hour in port is money lost in the casino and onboard activities like the SPA etc. The US is lucky that you have many inpoverished nations with great sunshine to visit wereas Europe doesn't and the market will get tougher in Europe in the next few years with Norway assessing the environmental damage of cruise ships to it's Fjords. Expect all but the cleanest to be banned from visiting this time 5 years. EDIT : I just want to add that I live in Belgium and they quote Turner said Belgium was among countries making major efforts to diversify tourism. It is moving away from marketing its medieval cities like Bruges and Ghent as it tries to lure cyclists, art lovers and beer aficionados to its country lanes, cultural gems and monastery breweries - taking them off well-worn tourist trails. Well we did a 50KM bike ride last weekend and only 1 out of 7 Breweries were open so perhaps the tourism reps want to speak to the breweries ?