mac66

One thing about the drink package....it makes you want to drink.  We stuck to our diamond vouchers last Dec, no problem.
Was recently on an Celebrity cruise where the drink package was included in the cost.  Bloody Marys (sometimes two) in the morning, beer and burger at lunch, a couple frozen drinks around the pool in the afternoon. Wine and/or a pre dinner cocktail. At least a couple glasses of wine at dinner. An after dinner drink or drink at the show and perhaps a night cap. That happened every day and night for 12 days.  Am now practicing Dry April.

One thing about the drink package....it makes you want to drink.  We stuck to our diamond vouchers last Dec, no problem.
Was recently on an Celebrity cruise where the drink package was included in the cost.  Bloody Marys (sometimes two) in the morning, beer and burger at lunch, a couple frozen drinks around the pool in the afternoon. Wine and/or a pre dinner cocktail. At least a couple glasses of wine at dinner. An after dinner drink or drink at the show and perhaps a night cap. That happened every day and night for 12 days.  Am now practicing Dry April.

We finally booked our make up cruise from 2020. Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia to Boston on the Summit in August.   Originally it left out of Ireland and we had a land tour scheduled there. So we're still going to Ireland first, then picking up the ship in Iceland.

I loaded up my tablet with TV shows/movies from Netflix and Prime for my 12 day cruise. Never took it out of my suitcase. Was never in the cabin long enough to watch even one.  .  Watched an in flight movie on the plane on the way down so didn't use it then either.

Look up the Perfect Day at Coco Cay on your cruise planner. Lots of stuff to do there, pool, water parks, snorkeling, diving etc. etc. Some of it is free i.e, you can eat, lay on the beech, go snorkeling, walk around without having to pay for anything. Or you can go whole hog, rent a cabana, do the water parks etc, etc.

Yup, this....MDR food and service went down hill when they started pushing $pecialty dining.

Quality varies ship to ship and cruise to cruise. Was on Allure in April 2019 and again in Dec '19. Food and service was marginal in April, better in Dec.  Was on Oasis last Dec after a 2 year hiatus. I thought the food was better than on the Allure two years prior.  Was on Celebrity Summit in Feb and Celebrity Equinox in March. Food was worse on the Summit than on the Oasis but better on the Equinox than the Summit.  Pretty much the same menu on all the ships.

I just read the John Hopkins study. It is full of terms like "may be more harmful"  "studies suggest" etc. References to modified vaping devices and dangerous chemicals and those who vape THC products to get high. The study seems to suggest that introducing nicotine through vaping is dangerous but without mentioning the fact that you can buy vaping products with reduced or even no nicotine in them. Often used as a smoking cessation device.
Bottom line is this...."Regular tobacco cigarettes contain 7,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic. While we don’t know exactly what chemicals are in e-cigarettes, Blaha says “There’s almost no doubt that vaping exposes you to fewer toxic chemicals than smoking traditional cigarettes.”
So vaping might/may be dangerous but they "don't know exactly what chemicals are in e-cigarettes".  Nicotine in e-cigs is bad even though you can reduce it to zero. "Studies suggest" but there is no facts to support how dangerous vaping might or might not be. 

I don't know about Kraken but most booze is cheaper on board and cheaper still in most Caribbean ports.  We were looking at bourbon and it was about 4$ cheaper on board and up to 6$ cheaper in the ports we stopped at.  
BTW, the last two cruises we were on they allowed you to bring booze on board from the ports we stopped at. We bought a bottle back, opened it and drank it the rest of the cruise to supplement our diamond drinks. We didn't have (or need) a drink package.

I don't know about Kraken but most booze is cheaper on board and cheaper still in most Caribbean ports.  We were looking at bourbon and it was about 4$ cheaper on board and up to 6$ cheaper in the ports we stopped at.  
BTW, the last two cruises we were on they allowed you to bring booze on board from the ports we stopped at. We bought a bottle back, opened it and drank it the rest of the cruise to supplement our diamond drinks. We didn't have (or need) a drink package.

Yup, a negative test is a joyful thing.   We got off a cruise 2 weeks ago and both of us came down with a slight cough/ post nasal drip. First my wife and then me. We did an at home govt supplied rapid test and were negative but we've learned that about 100 people came down with covid on the ship we were on so you never know.  Did a pre-cruise test today for a Sunday boarding and was negative again. Very good feeling.

Yup, a negative test is a joyful thing.   We got off a cruise 2 weeks ago and both of us came down with a slight cough/ post nasal drip. First my wife and then me. We did an at home govt supplied rapid test and were negative but we've learned that about 100 people came down with covid on the ship we were on so you never know.  Did a pre-cruise test today for a Sunday boarding and was negative again. Very good feeling.

Yup, a negative test is a joyful thing.   We got off a cruise 2 weeks ago and both of us came down with a slight cough/ post nasal drip. First my wife and then me. We did an at home govt supplied rapid test and were negative but we've learned that about 100 people came down with covid on the ship we were on so you never know.  Did a pre-cruise test today for a Sunday boarding and was negative again. Very good feeling.

Yup, a negative test is a joyful thing.   We got off a cruise 2 weeks ago and both of us came down with a slight cough/ post nasal drip. First my wife and then me. We did an at home govt supplied rapid test and were negative but we've learned that about 100 people came down with covid on the ship we were on so you never know.  Did a pre-cruise test today for a Sunday boarding and was negative again. Very good feeling.

Yup, a negative test is a joyful thing.   We got off a cruise 2 weeks ago and both of us came down with a slight cough/ post nasal drip. First my wife and then me. We did an at home govt supplied rapid test and were negative but we've learned that about 100 people came down with covid on the ship we were on so you never know.  Did a pre-cruise test today for a Sunday boarding and was negative again. Very good feeling.

I have a "friend" who's done it.
And....People do actually sell the cups on ebay. 
Not to mention that people also remove the chips and tape them to other cups and use them with the freestyle machines.  There are youtube videos.
Also you can use the Freestyle machines as ice machines without using the cups or buying a beverage package. Which is handy if you're a rum runner.
 

Here's a little known tip... there is a chip in the bottom of the Freestyle cups that is activated for the length (however many days) of your cruise not to the ship.    So if you get a beverage package and don't activate the cup (use it the first time) you can use it on another RCI cruise/ship. However, it will only work for how ever many days your original cruise was. If the original cruise was 5 days and your current cruise is 7, it will shut off after 5.
 

I have a "friend" who's done it.
And....People do actually sell the cups on ebay. 
Not to mention that people also remove the chips and tape them to other cups and use them with the freestyle machines.  There are youtube videos.
Also you can use the Freestyle machines as ice machines without using the cups or buying a beverage package. Which is handy if you're a rum runner.
 

Here's a little known tip... there is a chip in the bottom of the Freestyle cups that is activated for the length (however many days) of your cruise not to the ship.    So if you get a beverage package and don't activate the cup (use it the first time) you can use it on another RCI cruise/ship. However, it will only work for how ever many days your original cruise was. If the original cruise was 5 days and your current cruise is 7, it will shut off after 5.
 

I have a "friend" who's done it.
And....People do actually sell the cups on ebay. 
Not to mention that people also remove the chips and tape them to other cups and use them with the freestyle machines.  There are youtube videos.
Also you can use the Freestyle machines as ice machines without using the cups or buying a beverage package. Which is handy if you're a rum runner.
 

Here's a little known tip... there is a chip in the bottom of the Freestyle cups that is activated for the length (however many days) of your cruise not to the ship.    So if you get a beverage package and don't activate the cup (use it the first time) you can use it on another RCI cruise/ship. However, it will only work for how ever many days your original cruise was. If the original cruise was 5 days and your current cruise is 7, it will shut off after 5.
 

When we made diamond we stopped getting the drink package. We don't drink pop. We fill our water bottles from the tap. Regular orange juice is fine. Don't drink foo-foo coffees, regular coffee is fine, iced tea makes up what else we drink. We bring two bottles of wine with us.   We've found that limiting our drinks to 4 a day, plus the wine is plenty.

Here's a little known tip... there is a chip in the bottom of the Freestyle cups that is activated for the length (however many days) of your cruise not to the ship.    So if you get a beverage package and don't activate the cup (use it the first time) you can use it on another RCI cruise/ship. However, it will only work for how ever many days your original cruise was. If the original cruise was 5 days and your current cruise is 7, it will shut off after 5.
 

Update....
Our 12 night S. Caribbean cruise is good to go for Sunday, except for them switching around some ports and canceling one island and adding another we are good to go.  Fortunately the covid thing has settled down some.

I just ran across the last day itinerary for the R&R cruise. They put one out every day (night before). There was a theme every day as well as swag. We got hats, tote bags, note books, album covers, etc. First night were shirts, so the second day's theme was R&R shirt day. There was also a disco night, dress your best night, represent night (team, alma mater etc). A lot of people dressed up, a lot didn't. The last night was pretty much get drunk night because you have to go home tomorrow.  But this schedule kinds of gives you an idea of how it was organized.