NerdDad

My ratio is currently 8:1. Meaning 8 weeks of recovery for every one week of cruising. I'll try on those jeans again at the end of June.... Maybe July to be safe. 

Actual conversation on our aft balcony :
 
Are you seriously drinking champagne and eating grapes right now? 
 
Yes. Life is very hard for me. 
 
Which one is that? 
 
The Moet. Want to try it? 
 
Yes....... Tastes like a Brut. 
 
Did you say that because that's the only kind of champagne you know? 
 
Yes. I wanted to sound smart. 
 
What did you think of it? 
 
It was smooth. I mean, not as smooth as my Coors Lite. BTW, do you remember singing along to the guitar player last night?
 
No. 
 
And I'd like to offer a blanket apology to anyone in the Pub with us. Sorry. 
 
 
 

We downloaded some Netflix movies to our Ipad so we didn't use data and had something to watch in the evening if we wanted.

I agree. I ended up waiting until my last sea day last time and even forwent the deals on the first day and seemingly got the best price. Your mileage may vary but given the Cruise Planner prices have _no_ discount generally speaking you'll likely have better luck on-board.

So far, I have found it better to book on board. There is always some package deals on board and daily discounts that are not available pre cruise. I booked 3 sessions for last December sailing pre cruise only to find that I could have gotten at least a 30% discount had I booked them on board.

I am always hearing about how little the crew get paid and now people will be angry because gratuities go up. It's truly damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Maybe people just like being fault finders.

On boarding day that is unpredictable.  
Sounds like a serious talk with the boys is in order. 

I’ve found at ports that sometimes switching airplane mode on and off or going so far as to restart my phone has helped the “no connection issue”. I don’t know the actual reason behind the problem but have had similar experiences with international travel where a phon restart was usually 80% effective at fixing the problem. ?

If you aren't paid in full, I would wait to use it.  If another offer comes out that's a better deal and doesn't include an OBC, it will fall off.  You'll have 24 hours to make payment on the cruise planner to keep your purchase from cancelling.