IslandHopperPro

Hello everyone, We are boarding Serenade of the Seas in Honolulu in September (sailing to Sydney). We have to vacate our condo in Waikiki by 11am (no extension possible) and Serenade of the Seas leaves the pier at 10.00pm. Can anyone tell us whether we can still board roughly, say, 1.00pm considering the rather late departure time? Or are boarding times shifted to later times accordingly. I know we will get more information closer to cruise time, but this is the one last detail I haven't planned for yet. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Wow, so many to mention. You'll gets lots here from others but my tip is: From our experience, upon meeting our cabin steward at embarkation we tip them on Day 1 half the amount we would tip them for the whole cruise, then the balance at the end. This creates goodwill & we always believe this is why we have a great relationship and service from our steward throughout the cruise.

I agree with this. From Australia we monitored the US site virtually daily to wait for our chosen cruise to become public and get our first or second choice of aft cabin (we got second). It sounds ridiculous but the effort is worth it.

We had a deck 10 JS aft cabin on Radiance to NZ (Port side corner). The most magnificent cabin we ever had and the balcony was absolutely huge! Fantastic views greeted us everyday from our balcony. After that, we were totally sold on aft cabins. Next cruise is Serenade of the Seas from Hawaii to Sydney. Our cabin is two decks directly below the one on Radiance. Bottom line is aft cabins are great, very calm, out of the wind and the balconies are usually bigger than normal. The stern will move up and down gently while underway, but that's ok because I've never been seasick and the gentle movement puts me to sleep like a baby! I can fully understand why aft cabins are booked very quickly.

Considering that we always purchase Voom for both myself and the wife on each cruise, and that the cost of Voom makes up the major portion of the cost of THE KEY, for us the cost of THE KEY makes a lot of sense. If you do not value having internet access for your entire cruise, then perhaps THE KEY is not for you. Also remember, The Key is only available to a small number of guests....I mean, if everyone had it, what good would the exclusivity be?