WAAAYTOOO

Unfortunately, you cannot place yourself on the upgrade list. Either the cruise line will call you and offer the potential for an upgrade or they won’t. It’s a crap shoot.

On our recent Grandeur sailing there was a Top Tier event one evening. To my knowledge that is the only loyalty event that we had. Typically we don’t attend these events but we went to this one. I don’t believe they even have the Welcome Back parties anymore, do they ?

Wow ! I didn't even know we had a hurricane out there ! Good luck and be careful.

I did this MANY years ago and we enjoyed it. I have no idea what the cost is these days. I wouldn't pay for it again but I think it was fun to do it once.

For our Grandeur cruise that ended yesterday, we ate breakfast as soon as they opened the MDR (6:45 AM), went back to our room and gathered our things and walked off the ship at around 7:30. We walked directly up to Customs and were off the ship in 5 minutes. They do expect you to be out of your room by 8AM as Twanbot noted. If I recall seeing the schedule correctly, I think they were allowing walk-offs until around 8:30 at which time they would start calling luggage tag numbers. Yesterday's was one of the easiest disembarks we have ever had. Only the Genie made it more enjoyable !

To add to fonemanbob's comment above, if you go to Next Cruise while you're on a cruise that was booked through a travel agency, your next cruise booking will automatically be given to the same agency that you booked your current cruise with. So, if you are inclined to change your TA for the next trip, make SURE that you tell the Next Cruise agent that you do NOT want your Next cruise booked through the current agency. It is very difficult to have the booking switched over to a different agency. In fact, some agencies will not do it at all and then there are hard feelings. If you are happy with your TA then there's no problem but if you want to make a change, do not forget to tell them NOT to give the new booking to the old TA.

I've only had 1 experience with this. One of our group paid for their cruise in full at the time that they booked it (rookey mistake !) and tried to have it moved over to our MEI agent. Since the cruise had been paid in full (even though it was well within the 60 days AND well before final payment date) they were not allowed to move it since it had been paid in full. Maybe they sometimes make exceptions to this rule but I don't personally know of any.

Yes, I liked him very much, too. He went out of his way for us a couple of times. He would make a a GREAT Genie.

Yippee ! Have a great time. Don’t stress about “the others”. After many group cruises I have found that it’s best just to let everyone do whatever works for them. Herding cats is no fun for anyone.

We were very surprised to find that on the Grandeur this week they have a Diamond breakfast area in the MDR (deck 4). I haven’t seen one of these in YEARS. It was really nice. We had the cutest set of identical twins from India who worked the Diamond breakfast area every morning. One of them was named Yogi (his full name was much longer but the “Yogi” part was obvious and that name had apparently stuck with him for years). I really never figured out what his identical brother’s name actually was, but b/c Yogi was Yogi, it was unavoidable that his brother is known as Boo-Boo. OMG were they cute. I thought they had completely done away with the D breakfast area. It was nice to have it back - at least for this week on Lady G.

I can confirm that the glass bottom boat trip on Bermuda was just “meh”. We took the evening one. I was ok with it but would not do it again. A little coral reef action but almost no fish to speak of. The sunset was beautiful but you can see that from anywhere.

Wonderful selections. You are going to have a great cruise !

I love fushias but the just don’t survive well in VA. Too hot I guess.

I think it’s an Asian port

I think this is an excellent recommendation !

Yeah, I noticed that the prices had all gone down. Weird. I just did a mock booking for the $884 extended balcony and it came out to $2056.52 including taxes and port fees (this figure does not include grats). Are you sure you were looking at the correct number ? The $2802 was before the BOGO was applied. This was a for a category 2C amidships (+$20). If you do the regular balcony amidships (category 2D) it comes to $2008.52 with taxes and port fees. We went with the regular balcony (cat 2D) b/c the room is actually larger in this category than with the extended balcony and being Feb from NJ I don't think we'll be spending THAT much time out on the balcony. I'd rather have the extra space in the cabin.

Oops...forgot about the land portions. Sorry

I assume you are referring to cruise (loyalty) points ? For all regular rooms, it is 1 point per night, so on a 7 night cruise you would receive 7 points, 5 night cruise is 5 points, etc. Anything Junior Suite or above is 2 points per night (14 points for a 7 night cruise). If you travel solo and pay the double occupancy rate you receive 2 points for each night (14 points for a 7 night cruise) and if you cruise solo and pay the double occupancy rate in a Junior Suite or higher you get 3 points per night (21 points on a 7 night cruise). There are some esoteric subtleties relating to discounted cruises which are too complex to explain here (not that I fully understand them myself !) but generally, 1 point per cruise night for every person in the room for inside - balcony. The cruiser receives the points regardless of who pays for the cruise.

One thing I noticed on Epic (which is the last NCL ship I cruised on) was that the balconies were much smaller (shallower) than any Royal Caribbean ship I have ever sailed on. I also recognize that the Epic is a horrible ship which nobody really cares for. I am actually interested in trying one of the newer NCL ships and I appreciate jti's analysis. Once I get to Florida when I will no longer have to fly to get to a cruise ship, I will probably diversify a bit - just for research purposes, of course !

Just shove me out the door. I will drift down to the helipad just fine....

Earl Gray !

Bailey's in your hot tea is also very yummy

I’d be shocked if they don’t

Joe, I like NCL. Frankly, I find the 2 lines more similar than dissimilar and I would say that if you find a cruise that fits your schedule and budget, go for it. If it weren’t for the casino benefits related to Royal, I could just as easily be a loyal Norwegian customer as I am loyal to Royal. I’m not quite as fond of the MDR concept on NCL as I am with RC but NCL was the originator of specialty dining so they’ve de-emphasized the MDR for some time. On the newer ships even the entertainment has improved vastly. If there’s a reason, I say give NCL a try.

The color of the ice.... simply stunning