WAAAYTOOO

Congratulations, Parrotheadtoo !!! That's a LOT of cruisin' ! I doubt I will ever make it to Pinnacle but it is a goal worth seeking, I guess. What is a Stratum ? Hopefully you will get all of the perks that you had anticipated on your cruise in October. What ship will you be on in October ?

Well first of all, welcome to the blog ! You have come to the right place. ...and you've made an excellent choice with Navigator. I am doing a Christmas cruise on Navigator myself...but next Christmas (2016). I am assuming that you meant Christmas 2015...and if that is the case, you will be on a 6 night western Caribbean cruise visiting George Town, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti. IMHO this is an excellent itinerary...and a very good choice for your first RCCL cruise !! This link will take you to the right place on the RCCL website. http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises?shipCode_NV=true&vacationTypeCode_CO=true&dates_minDate=12%2F01%2F2015&dates_maxDate=12%2F31%2F2015 Just poke around a little bit on this blog site and you will shortly figure out how to find what you're looking for. There are lots of blog threads regarding drink packages....with discussions about whether they are worth the money or not. From the main "Message Boards" page you can do a search (upper right hand corner) on "drinks" or "drink package" and a number of blog threads will come up. Do the same from the "Home" page and you will see a number of discussions. Drink packages just happen to be one of the hot topics at the moment...we've had lots of recent and ongoing discussions about them. There is not a specific section dedicated to the different ships on this blog (or if there is, I haven't found it yet !)...but there is a section (unfortunately, not utilized much) for cruise reviews. You might find something in that section re: Navigator but I will warn you that it is probably not very current. Anyway, I hope you will stick with us and work your way through using the site. We are a good, friendly bunch and always happy to have someone new !

Nice job, Marc

Wow, I haven't been on one of those ! Not sure I like that...kinda overlord-esque

I'm sure you're right re: the price going up.

Since I figured out how to attach a photo I will now go crazy and post another one ! I hope you got the ones I sent in an email but here it is again since I now know how to post it !

I normally recommend AGAINST booking the boardwalk balconies on deck 14 because of this....

I checked on CruiseDeckPlans.com and unfortunately, your room is not among those for which there are photographs. My guess is that the "obstruction" is the HUGE Allure sign that spans the aft of the ship (support structure I assume). My guess is that you will have a limited view of the Aqua Theater and perhaps the ocean because of this ship superstructure. There may be some other obstruction but if my memory serves me well (and it often does NOT) those rooms on deck 14, Boardwalk view are unobstructed except for that big sign. Eureka ! I figured out how to attach a photo. Hopefully it will come through. The sign I am referring to is in this pic.

Montocguy, I guess I am technology-challenged. I have a photo of the obstruction (lifeboat) but I don't know how to upload it to this site. IMO it is a very significant obstruction. Send me an email at [email protected] and I will email you the pic. Sorry...I tried a simple copy and paste and that didn't work.

WOW, that is incredibly useful information ! Who knew ?? Thanks, both of you ! I am going to get it right away.

Doc, I've never heard of such a publication. Sounds useful. Can you share the info on this pub ?

I have always heard just the opposite - that you should NEVER take your p'ports off the ship. We never do. The only situation where you would need to have your p'port would be if you are leaving the cruise and going somewhere else. If you are left behind (do not get back to the ship on time) then you will be SOL but I have heard that someone from the ship will actually go into your safe and retrieve your p'port and bring it to you on shore if the ship hasn't actually left the pier yet...so there must be circumstances under which you can "miss the boat" when it's still in port....kinda like not getting to the gate on time at the airport but you can still see your plane sitting at the gate... I think the risk of losing your p'port on shore (or having it stolen) far outweighs the risk of missing the boat. BTW if you book an excursion with RCCL then you are guaranteed that the ship will not sail without you...so when I know that my excursion is distant from the boat (e.g., Mayan ruins, etc.) I always book through the cruise line even if it costs a little more.

Thanks, Angie ! Those look really awesome. We are booked in 11330 on the Allure in Feb. I sure hope the Allure has the nice deck furniture like you had. While not huge, the table you had looks like you could have dinner there. We hope to have dinner out on the deck at least a couple of times. We did that in May on the Freedom in the Royal Family suite and it was so nice.

Yeah, seems to me that there is a lot around there. We were on the Freedom in May and I recall thinking that there were a number of cute seafood-type restaurants right in the same area as the pier. Can't say that there is a beach per se but there definitely are restaurants. Don't think there are any hotels, but restaurats....yes

Another one for Cozumel that is within walking distance of the pier. Park Royal is a resort that has lovely facilities for day guests. You will be able to see the big thatch roof of the resort from the ship. Go out the gates, turn left and walk less than 5 minutes. There is a kiosk on your left where you can pay. There is no need to cross the street and go all the way up to the resort lobby. I think we paid $40 pp for the day. Note that this price does NOT include drinks or food...just use of the beach, chairs, swimming pools and whatever other things they have there...floats, etc. If you want to have a day pass for FREE you can bite the bullet and listen to their timeshare presentation. It wasn't bad. I told them up front that we were not going to buy and we're doing it only for the free day pass and they just went through the motions and pushed us through quickly. If you decide to do this, be sure you take ID and a credit card with you. They will not give you the presentation without both.

In Cozumel tell the cab driver to take you to San Francisco beach. It is a free beach RIGHT next to a paid beach (can't think of the name). Nice beach - great price !

It should also be on your confirmation documents

They run various specials that can cause the OBCs to vary. On a recent cruise (can't remember which one) they were advertising some super complicated OBC plan that offered up to $1800 OBC but it turned out to be a shell game. I can't remember the details but in the end, it was bogus and we ended up just going with the standard OBC and C&A discount...and then eventually we got a Club Royale discount that beat everything !

I tried the walkie-talkie path once. It proved less than effective. I have heard others say they used walkie-talkies and found them useful. I didn't...but maybe I just had bad luck or old technology (probably the latter).

Congratulations, Matt ! Excellent job !

Yep, Steph has it right, Gigi. The trick with getting the same table for MTD is to let the Maître di (sp??) know, when you leave after that first night, that you want the same table for the rest of the cruise. That is, of course, if you LIKE your table location and waiters....sometimes you WANT to change them but most often, you want to keep them throughout the cruise. I have never failed to get the same table and waiters when I did that.

Steph, I am in complete agreement with you. Glad to know I'm not the only MTD abuser ! I HATE to be in the middle of something (usually gambling !!) and have to stop and go to dinner. I would rather just eat early and get it over with so that I can have the rest of the evening to do what I want to do (usually gambling). One of the BEST things about being a suite guest is that you get to enjoy anything on the regular dining room menu in your room, if you care to do that. On our last cruise we were in the Royal Family Suite on the fantail and I have to tell you....we got pretty spoiled pretty fast for getting our dinner delivered to us on our balcony. I think we ended up doing that the last 4 nights in a row ! In that room we had a regular, full-sized table and it was very convenient to have our dinner delivered on the balcony. I'm not sure it's going to be QUITE as cozy in the aft Grand Suites on the Allure. From what I can see there are only small, low tables on the balconies in those rooms....but I'm certainly willing to give it a try !

Nice ! I guess the concierge is the difference. What a sweet (pun intended) service.

Actually, you CAN replicate the traditional dining experience with My Time Dining (MTD), but as I am often reminded, why would you ? The purpose of MTD is to allow you to eat at [almost] any time you wish vs having to eat at 1 of 2 assigned times. Having said all of that, I will say (as I have many times) I do MTD at the same time every night SO THAT I get the same waiters and have the same table. How is this different from traditional dining ? It is not. I am a MTD abuser. The reason I do MTD instead of traditional is b/c I like getting a private table and I have always believed that it was easier to get a private table (MTD upstairs) than it was downstairs at traditional. Since joining this blog I have been assured that I am completely wrong and that it would be JUST as easy to get a private table downstairs as it is to get one upstairs so I truly have no real excuse to continue using MTD like traditional dining except....it's habit by now. Truly, I do believe that the line is shorter waiting for a MTD table since you don't have a horde of people all trying to be seated at the same time but that's just my opinion. I'm probably wrong. So I will continue to abuse the MTD system and eat at 5:30 every night instead of going downstairs with the rest of the early diners...because I can.

Wasn't it a specialty turned complementary turned specialty ? I think they recently announced that it was going BACK to being a specialty restaurant after being free for a while. Maybe I have it mixed up with something else