WAAAYTOOO

I don't care for the WOW bands and never wear them but Dan loves them so it's a matter of personal preference.

I also agree.

Enjoy your cruise ! You so deserve it.

Yes, you change from refundable to non refundable up until final payment BUT they will reprice your cruisefare to the rate at the time that you make the change and as a rule, the cruisefare will be higher than it was when you originally booked. So most of the time, it will not make financial sense to make such a change. If however, your cruisefare has uncharacteristically gone down in price, it will pay to change from refundable to non refundable.

I had a sneaking suspicion that Galveston may not be filling the ships all the time as Galveston cruises often appear on the list of "free" cruises offered by the casino. Trust me, if there weren't open cabins there, the casino would NOT be giving them away. That's how I got my awesome OS on Liberty over Labor Day. Whether or not they could fill an O class ship or not is yet to be determined. I hope they give it a try. I enjoy cruising out of Galveston.

So have you pre-purchased Voom or are you going to use your D+ discount and buy it once onboard ? I know you did a whole bot-calculus amortization with cost averaging and depreciation on the various options of Voom purchasing but it was way over my mortal head so I can't remember if the 12+ days worked out cheaper to do the pre-purchase or onboard purchase. Please don't repost that link. It makes my brain cells scream. (which isn't real hard to do, BTW). ?

I tell ya....that French onion soup can be as hot as the surface of the sun...and it STAYS hot for along time, too !

This is great news. I know for sure that they originally required you to purchase food in order to get your "free" milk shake so I guess it was just too hard to enforce that rule. YIPPEE !! A rare "win".

obvious sand baggers.... ???

No, of course they wouldn't....but I promise you that they would damn well turn me away if I tried to get into Dazzles during "their" time. Not that I would, of course.

Yes, I read that one, too.

Wow ! That’s quite an itinerary ! Thanks for bring us along with you. Have a great time !

I totally agree with you about the Spanish steps, the nearby church and Trevi Fountain. When we finally found the fountain I was like, "What ? Really ? THIS is it ?"

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I HAVE sailed on Carnival and NCL but no other cruise lines besides RCCL.

Welcome, Shawn !

Is it because Janus faces in 2 directions ? Both forward and backward ?

Hi, Mike !

Frankly, I don't find Carnival, Royal and NCL to be that different when it comes to general service and activities. We have never sailed on any other lines. I have not sailed Carnival or NCL since I became a suite snob so I cannot compare those amenities. Where I DO see a difference is in the ships themselves. I just don't think you can beat the big Royal ships. We are sailing on MSC for Christmas 2019 so I will see how the Yacht Club compares to the suites services of Royal.

So the suites lounge will have only suites guests for happy hour ?

I think there is carry-on storage on Grandeur...at least there was a while back.

More Cow Bell !!

Welcome, Chill 6x6. So glad you found us ! Are you flying into Orlando and driving to the coast ? If so, may I recommend that you rent your car from Hertz (this is the ONLY time we ever use Hertz, BTW) and stay at the Marriott Residence Inn Cape Canaveral Cocoa Beach on Astronaut Blvd. The reason for this combination is that the Hertz rental car office in Cocoa Beach adjoins the Residence Inn...in fact, they share a parking lot. So, if you get the rental car in Orlando you can drive it as much and as late as you want and then return it even after the Hertz office closes and just walk over to your hotel when you drop it off. We have done this many times and it really works out well. The hotel is just 5 minutes (maybe less) from the cruise terminal and they offer a shuttle over to the port on cruise morning. You're going to love the OS. It is a very very nice room. In addition to everything else, you will have a nice comfortable place to eat both inside and outside. As nice as the GS is, there is really nowhere to enjoy a nice meal in your suite without shuffling food and dishes around the coffee table or eat standing up at the "bar". As with suites on other ship classes, you can have room service from the Main Dining Room delivered to your suite at any time when the MDR is in operation. Breakfast is especially nice to enjoy either inside or outside. There are a couple of very nice amenities that come with being in a suite on an O class ship that you do not get on the smaller ship classes. Probably the one that will make the biggest impact is the use of the Suites Lounge and Coastal Kitchen. The suites lounge is open from 11AM - 11PM and offers snacks, water, sodas, specialty coffees, beer and wine to suites guests. It is a very comfortable place to relax, eat, drink or just visit. Meals in the CK are very quiet and leisurely. While there are suites lounges on some of the other ship classes, none of them are staffed 11-11 for drinks. The bar in the suites lounge on Oasis is nice (better than the one on Harmony, I think) b/c you can see out to the pool deck below when sitting there. They moved the bar on Harmony so it is up against the wall. No view at all. As a full suites guest, there will be a reserved seating area in the main theater, the ice show and the Aqua Theater. You just need to be there no later than 10 minutes prior to showtime b/c at 10 minutes 'til, they release those reserved seats to anyone to use.

Don't know how, but I missed the whole "turkey pardon". Sounds very cute

I don't know if you are eligible for US government rates or not but the Ritz Carlton in San Juan is absolutely beautiful and they will honor a government rate - even over holidays. I had heard that this property was damaged during the hurricanes last year so I'm not 100% certain that they are back up and running but if you're looking to impress....can't do much better than the Ritz.

Nope. Never ever seen anything like those burgers on ANY ship !