mac66

Only 39 more cruises and I break even

It kinda depends on what your intention is. I bought 100 shares this summer because A...I thought it was likely to go up in value if/when the cruise industry bounces back and B...for the onboard credit. I also bought Carnival stock because it was dirt cheap and A..above and B...same OBC deal as RCL. And even though I am unlikely to sail Carnival, I may sail on Princess or Holland America or even Cunard in the future.

I don't think the OP would take it ashore in a foreign country. It would stay on the ship. Rules are sometimes arbitrary and it's difficult to exist in this world without breaking a rule or two every day either on purpose or accidently. Ever go over the speed limit, who doesn't? Not to mention cruise lines don't always follow their own rules. And just to be clear, I don't use it or any cannabis products.

I doubt cruise ship drug dogs are trained to detect cbd. The feds don't even train their dogs for that. Here's what I would do. Take some on your person. I don't ever recall being sniffed by a dog while boarding. Since its not illegal the worse they could do is confiscate it. I'd also pack some in my carry on along with my other meds. Again, confiscation is the worse that could happen if they happen to sniff it. Also, some in checked luggage. I don't think they sniff checked luggage, only xray it.

I assume since you paid for the cup you have a right to use it.

As was stated non refundable OBC can be refunded by putting it into a slot machine and cashing out. You don't have to gamble. Just take the cash out slip to the cashier and get your cash.

How would anyone know whats in your pills unless you tell them. I take meds, they have never, ever been looked at.

I'll be that guy...In the past an un-activated/unused cup could be activated and used on future cruises. It worked about 5 years ago. Not sure if that is still the case. Regarding whether it is "right" is open for debate. There are things that are wrong morally and things that are simply regulated. Violating a rule that is imposed simply to make more profit is not morally wrong IMO. Besides if you paid for soft drinks and never drank any, here's your chance to get your money's worth.

I was going to say, how do they make sweet tea? Add sugar. There you go, you're welcome. BTW, I like their regular iced tea. Pretty much that and coffee and water is all I drink on a cruise. Occasionally I will add a touch of lemonade to the iced tea to spice it up.

On our next cruise the drink package cost more than the cruise. Going to have to pass. Who'd a thunk that we'd be paying over $1,100 on booze to drink for a week and think that normal?

I thought the less than stellar dinner service on the R&R cruise was due to the fact that in order to feed everyone they split the attendees into two groups Silver and Gold. Silver ate while the gold was at the feature concert and vice versa. Of course that's normal on a cruise, early and late dinners/shows. The cruise was sold out, the ship packed. The dining room was very crowded and we never sat in the same place twice. Service was rushed, food sometimes cold. The staff was scrambling. But we met another couple and started hanging out and going to dinner together so it was tolerable. Go with the flow.

If...they see it they might hold it. Just carry it you when you walk through security and you'll be good to go.

We've been on the Reflection and the Equinox a couple times. And of course the Connie and the Summit. We're heading back to Royal for our next two cruises. Wasn't very impressed with X on the 3 cruises we did this year. Service and food weren't really up to standard on the 2 Summit cruises. That was understandable on the Rock and Romance cruise, last February with it being a charter, not acceptable on the 12 night out of Iceland we did in August. The 12 night Equinox cruise in March was better but lacking. Again service and food weren't really up to par. Or maybe it's just 12 nights is too long on a ship. Don't know if this is a post Covid thing with them trying to get staff and supplies or it's the new standard. Anyway, have fun on your Jazz cruise.

Interesting....we've never had any interest in the Edge class ships. We tend to book a cruise based on itinerary not on ship type. One of our favorite X ships is the Constellation. We had one great cruise on her once and would do her again in a heart beat but they've moved her to Europe mostly. Having said that, I am sure there are some big differences between Edge and Summit but you'll be so busy with your Jazz thing you won't notice or care.

The other option is to BYOB and wine.

We were on the Summit as well for our R&R cruise last Feb. It was a good time. We were also on the Summit this past August for a 9 night Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia to Boston cruise. It's a nice ship. The only thing about those music cruises is that when you go back on a regular cruise, you wonder where all music went. Except on port days, the concerts run about 12+ hours a day.

Well, we're on the Explorer the Saturday after Thanksgiving and on the Serenade on Feb 4 so maybe we'll see you around.

We did a Rock and Romance cruise this past winter. It was very good, constant music but you don't get the perks you get with any status you might have through X (we are elite). You have to pay for drinks etc. We did buy a bottle of bourbon at the first port and openly brought/walked it back aboard and drank it the rest of the week. Of course we also brought wine aboard in our carry ons. There was one night which included free drinks for everyone. YMMV.

I've been on 1 RCL and 3 X cruises this past year. The food quality and menu in the MDR is the same. X might be a little more elegant served but it's the same food. Same with the buffet, though I was disappointed in X. More people apparently eat in the buffet on RCL so the selection/variety is better in the buffet than on X, at least in my experience. We walked out of the MDR three times each our last two X cruises due to poor/non existent service and went to the buffet for dinner instead. 2 of the 3 times the food was mediocre. The third time they had something different and it was quite good.

Elite drinks between 5-7 only in any of the lounges, not MDR. But unlike Diamond/+ vouchers you can drink as many as you can hold during 5-7 if you can find a waiter, barman to serve them to you..

Your estimate of distance and speed is real close to actual. I tend to go 70 mph most of the way. Our car actually gets about 30 mpg at 70 so that would be $153.51/each way. Of course weather, traffic, construction, season of the year and day of the week affects overall time.

LOL, I like to drive. So we plan to take a couple extra days, drive down straight through, relax and spend some time at our place then go on a cruise. So it kind of works out for us to drive. Not all the time but sometimes. The 17 hour thing started because we got about half way down and couldn't find a hotel. The longer we drove the closer we got to our destination and the less sense getting a hotel made. So it was 10 pm and we were 4 hours away. Didn't make much sense to get a hotel when we could make it in 4. Since then we pack our road meals, leave at 5 am put on an audio book and get in about 10 pm. Done that half a dozen times and it works well. What I don't like doing is driving to the airport a couple hours early and waiting around on the tarmac to take off or landing and taxiing then transporting to a hotel, then to the port the next day and doing it all over on the way home. A 2.5 hour flight usually takes 6.5-8 hours out of the day anyway.

I find myself drinking way too much with the drink package (DP). One tends to order a drink just because you can instead of wanting one. A Bloody Mary in the morning, a beer or two at lunch, a drink or two or three around the pool and/or at trivia in the afternoon, pre dinner drink(s), Two or three glasses of wine with dinner, a drink or two at the show and a nightcap. So that's 6-13 drinks a day. It really adds up and you will become physically dependent on alcohol if you even drink half that much. We don't drink FO-FO drinks, bottled water, soda, or fancy coffee's so that part of the DP doesn't justify the cost.

Non issue for me since I don't get the drink package anymore. That's partly because of cost, partly because we drink way too much with the DP and partly because we get the diamond vouchers. The vouchers along with wine we bring is enough to drink.

Cruise line stocks jumped up today. CCL was up 10%. RCL was up 5.4%, NCCL up 6.7. So I guess, like most other stocks, be in it for the long run. As I said before cruise lines may be too big to fail. Even so, I'm concerned about the massive debt they are in.