WAAAYTOOO

According to the new “rules” of the Unlimited Dining Package, there is no maximum number of times that you can eat in any specialty restaurant(s). As long as they can accommodate your party, either by walk-in or reservation, you can eat. We had the UDP on our NAV B2B for the pas 7 days and we have never been turned away. We ate lunch at Izumi on both days (lunch) that we were in port in Nassau. We had lunch at Playmakers, we had dinner every night at one of the specialties and we had lunch again at Izumi today (sea day). Because we were overly concerned with ensuring we had reservations, we had the Suite Concierge make reservations for us for the first half of the B2B but it became obvious, as time went by, that reservations really weren’t necessary. Any number of times, we spontaneously changed our minds about when and where to eat and we were always accommodated. The one and only time we were not permitted to have our choice was on embarkation day. We wanted to eat at Chops and Chops was being held exclusively for Key members on embarkation day. They sat us at Jamie’s. Other than that, anywhere, anytime so long as the venue was open and there was availability. This was on NAV and I suspect that each ship will have its own “rules”.

Here are a couple of friends from our NAV B2B this week.

Not sure what that is, but it looks....well...horrible. Happy Cruise day !

The location to get the shuttle to the port is up on the 4th level. They will want to see a receipt from you car rental but the driver barely glanced at it. I asked if he was going to the PoM just make sure. He was. They stop at all of the port terminals but they start at Terminal A so we were the first stop, yippee !

Not sure about Adventure, but on NAV they would not allow anyone except for Key people to eat at Chops on embarkation day. We have the UDP and we had to eat at Jamies twice on our B2B on embarkation day

Haha. Together we had all the answers !

You (Mariner) are right down from us ! We are in Nassau on NAV. Hope you have a great rest of your cruise. Tomorrow is our last day. ??

I have no idea what kind of OBC you have, but if it is refundable OBC you can withdraw whatever you don’t use from Guest Services and so you would have cash to give the Genie. I would simply ask the Genie to confirm what type of OBC you have and ask for his/her help in getting it refunded in cash. They can pretty much do anything for you. As for tipping in the Specialty restaurants, we always (whether in Star Class or not) tip as follows: $5 for breakfast, $10 for lunch and $20 for dinner no matter where we eat, even if it is in the Windjammer or Coastal Kitchen. We tip in cash but you can certainly charge it to you Sea Pass account, which will essentially consume your OBC. Star Class do not pay a daily gratuity (well...of course, you are paying it but it isn’t charged separately).

Since this topic seems to come up every so often, I thought I would provide a little insight with a recent example. We are currently on a B2B on NAV (3 night + 4 night). On turnaround day we had some business to conduct and since there were going to be a few stops along the way, we decided that rather than Uber or taxi (as we had done in the past), we would use a “free” rental day from National. This gave us the latitude to conduct multiple stops without the time, pain and expense of hiring numerous rides. Let me offer some sage advice for anyone who wants to try this. MAKE ARRANGEMENTS BEFORE YOU LEAVE. This brilliant plan only occurred to me on day 2 of the 3 day cruise and I have to admit that trying to research this onboard was a grand PITA. It would have taken maybe all of 5 minutes to do from home but was a major ordeal using the fabulous NAV Voom. The primary problem for me was that, while I felt very confident that I could get a shuttle to take me back to the ship once I was done running around Miami, I had no confidence whatsoever that I would be able to get one from the port at 9:00 to take me TO the rental agency. Trust me when I say that nothing online was helpful in the least to getting my question answered. In the end, we figured that the worst that could happen would be that we would have to Uber from the port over to the airport so we moved forward with our plan. Online, I was able to log into my National account and reserve a midsize car using one of my (many) free days. I received multiple confirmations on this reservation so I was confident that all was well at least with the reservation. Once turnaround day came, we went by Guest Services to relieve our new Sea Pass cards, disembarked, went through the facial recognition scan and made our way towards the Terminal pick up area. I held my breath as I asked one of the agents standing about, “can you direct me to the rental car shuttle bus area ?” The agent directed me to cross the street and go all the way “left”. To our amazement and relief, there was the National, Enterprise and Alamo bus just waiting for us ! Yippee !!! As we stepped onto the bus the driver asked to see our reservation, which I had readily visible on my phone. I am assuming they are precluding scoundrels who would try and cop a free ride to the airport. After a very short wait we were off to the airport. At this point I felt all would be ok...this was the part of the plan that was tenuous, for me. While I did not stop and take notice, I assume that other rental car agencies had shuttle busses at the terminal as well. We were able to find a vehicle we were happy with (my only requirement was for an integrated GPS which was fairly easy to accommodate), a brand new red Range Rover. First time in one, ever ! We easily found our way to the stops we needed to make (I had research addresses that we needed to find while still onboard) and were back with the rental car in less than 1 hour. Shortest car rental in history ! The total cost for this entire adventure was $28.47 with $10 of that being for bus driver tips ! There were some taxes and whatnot associated with the “free” rental day. We were back on board by 11:45, just in time for our turnaround day lunch at Jamie’s. So...bottom line...yes, there are free rental car shuttles at a Terminal A in Miami that will take you round trip, if necessary. NOTE: I assume, but do not know for sure, that once the ships sail out of port for the day (e.g., around 5:00 ?) that these shuttles stop running. If there are no more customers to pick up/deliver then there would be no point.

...and Quantum class

This is my prediction

After many tries I still do not have SPG combined with Marriott. It’s not a huge problem for me since I had a very meager SPG holding. Marriott, on the other hand is my “big boy” so as long as it stays updated, I am happy.

In my experience, Swedish massage always turns into deep tissue. If she is sensitive to muscle pressure make sure she lets the masseuse know up front so that they can adjust the pressure. I always end up in pain since I think most of the masseuses only really learn deep tissue techniques.

^^. This

As far as I know, the “official” rule is that once you receive a RU cabin assignment, it is final (as opposed to other situations where you ARE able to change cabins within the same category), however, I have read of at least 1 situation where the RU winner claims that they were able to change their RU cabin assignment. Who knows it it’s true.

I wonder about this. All I have heard is complaining about this design. Of course, I haven’t even seen one in “person” so have no opinion of my own.

You would not double C&A points even if you got the GS. They are not awarding double cruise points for RoyalUp upgrades unless your original booking was eligible for double points. The only one of these options that I would stay away from were it me, is the one for the spacious ocean view balcony. I have read a number of situations where people who were already in balconies bid on a different category of balcony only to find out that it wasn’t really an upgrade at all. I think you would be safe bidding on any of the higher level categories though. Just keep in mind that you can’t move your assigned cabin if you win a RU upgrade. If you like the location of your current cabin and would not want to get stuck with an undesirable location then it might be best to not bid. That being said, the locations of most full suites are pretty centralized. The only one where you might get stuck somewhere far forward or far aft would be the JS.

We’re in Coco Cay today with Grandeur. It’s like old home week ! First time (for us) to have 2 ship at CC at the same time. No wonder prices were so high on this second leg of our B2B.

Welcome to the blog ! Unless you suspect there might be a price change, I would book sooner rather than later. I like to have all of the loose ends tied up but that’s just me. ...and on a personal note, I still have not arranged our transport from Hobby (Houston) to Galveston (and back) for our Aug 25 LIB sailing. I should practice what I preach !

We were on NAV on the last cruise, too....are also on this cruise. Saw the piano man on last week but so far, not on this leg. I’m sure he’ll show up at some point.

They actually mentioned that the published closing time was “late” which is fairly useless in terms of planning. I guess they just wait until 11:00 and if no one is ordering food, they shut it all down.

Yes there is construction at South Beach and yes, the floating bar was open yesterday.

Agree about the bionic bar. Complete waste of space.

We are on NAV and a couple of nights ago our friends went down to Playmakers at around 11:15 to get a snack after leaving the casino. When they got there, they were told that they quit serving food at 11:00. They were very disappointed. The server told her that if nobody is ordering food, they just shut down the kitchen. Lame.

We just witnessed this less than 5 minutes ago. We are in Nassau. A lady was eating plate of French fries. The seagulls swooped down, ,sent her running and snatched every one of those French fries right off of her plate. This was on the ship !