KevinJ

Getting flagged for customs can be a real pain. My wife bought some Art on our last cruise, since it was on my credit card I got flagged at disembarkation. They don't tell you it's for customs, they told me it was a random security check and to follow the ships officer he'll get you right through. Yeah, right through to the customs office where they asked me to show receipts for what was purchased. Meanwhile my wife and son had already left and gone to the car in the parking garage so I'm left calling and texting trying to get her to find the receipts and get them to me. Got it all worked out but be aware if you make and large purchases, and I have no idea what the trip point is, make sure the person whose card got used has the receipts with them. BTW I did see people writing checks to customs.

Getting more and more fixated for our June 17 Ovation cruise. It's around this time I start trying to map out our days, activities, shows and entertainment. Being from the East coast I'm a bit concerned about how late we'll be able to stay up. One thing I insist on is being in the MDR for lobster night. The APP for this cruise does not list the Main dining room? I can see it if I select the June 13 sailing and it shows lobster night as day 5.

Scheduled on Ovation June 17th. Son tested positive three weeks ago, tested negative after 5 days, very minor symptoms. Now my wife just told me that the friend she had lunch with yesterday has tested positive. The nail biting wait begins.

Ha, we had booked Anthem to Bermuda April 2019. It was my second cruise. Couple mistakes made. It was Easter week and school vacation week, way too many kids. It was supposed to be 3 days in Bermuda. When we made final payment I saw it had been changed to 2 days in Bermuda and 1 day in Boston. I've lived within 60 miles of Boston my whole life. Worked in the city during the 70s. The only reason I go there theses days is to fly out of Logan Airport. We really didn't want to visit, but I know lots of folks really enjoyed the stop. We're on Voyager Oct 2nd with extended family for the first time. @Matt Hope you do get a group cruise from Boston, I'd love to go.

Whoa... name change in less that half an hour, cool.

10-42, I know you'll keep checking daily.

@rbdavis3591 are JS not able to go through the suite line, if there is one? We're in a JS for the June 17th Ovation. We had a JS on Oasis last October and that check in was also just a single line, but very fast due to lower capacity.

Thanks @smokeybandit I didn't even think of searching the royal site, I've not had good luck there. My son decided to book a solo before our January cruise so I can have him bring two bottles for me as well as I suppose they aren't going to check that he's moving into our cabin for the second cruise.

I totally agree with @PatsFanBrian air travel these days is definitely more stressful. We flew to FL for our Match cruise and had all sorts of problems but made it. Really glad we were flying in the day before. For our Alaska cruise in a couple weeks we're flying in two days early. Flights have been changed on us twice already.

@cruisecouple I would go for the emed at home tests. I've several times had last minute issues crop up with testing through either CVS or my doctors office and used the emed tests that I had as backup. Now I'm just using them as my go to option. Make sure to have a couple spares just in case there is an issue with one. There's enough time to order them now and then you can have a testing party

With the higher DBP prices I'm starting to look at alternatives. Using my 4 vouchers, and my wife's 4 since she doesn't drink, I'm mostly covered. However what to do when I'm cruising solo? Since I like to have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, I figure I can cover that by bringing on my two bottles. What do people do when sailing B2B?

Yeah, we're in a JS I went directly to CK last October when we were on Oasis.

Can you make Coastal Kitchen reservations at other specialty restaurants of do you have to actually go to CK?

@Reigert2008 To locate your muster station. Use the APP, click the Safety icon in the lower left. It'll show your muster station, note just below that you should see I ship icon with Find on Deck beside it.

Four cruises since Oct. We've always had 11:00 or 11:30 boarding times. Very first stop, muster station. Except our last cruise, March on Wonder. On board by 11:30. muster stations not open until 1pm. Now had to "remember" to do it at some point rather than having it already done. Still way, way better than the old system. No bars open until muster is done, then hang out for close to an hour while everyone shows up, no thanks.

Ahh, the joys of RC IT. I made a different check in mistake. I'm not quite fanatical enough to try just after midnight to get a good time, but am usually up early. So when I do check in I usually go straight to the time and grab the earliest available, I grabbed 11:30 for our June cruise. I was puzzled because at one point I noticed a message "see you at 11:00". I just plowed on setting the check in time for all three of us. I mentioned to my son that I got us 11:30, he then told me he had already grabbed 11:00. My mistake for doing all this before having had sufficient coffee to be sentient. A week later 11:00 became available again so I grabbed it.

@JennyB Totally agree. I'm Diamond now so get four vouchers. My wife also gets her four so could use her vouchers for total of 8. Then go out of pocket for anything extra. My October cruise where I have the DBP I've planned to use my vouchers to get a few drinks for other family members. I'm also concerned that I don't really want to worry about how many vouchers I've used and should I skip having a drink here and there. I enjoy socializing in the various bars meeting interesting people so over 12 hours you can rack up quite a few drinks. Oh well, "first world problem"

My DBP for October on Voyager went from 75 to 65, I can't do the BOGO 50% deals because my wife doesn't drink and I have top call to get an exception. Her Refreshment package went from 30 to 23. My June Alaska on Ovation has the DBP 66.99 BOGO 50%, I got it for 54 back in Feb. You really need to keep track of prices and keep checking to see if the "final" cost is better or not. I do see that everything is 10-20% higher than last fall. I'm hoping to get some deals on Black Friday for my cruises next year.

This is what I purchased https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SJ82QBS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 This cord replaces the two prong AC power cord coming off the power adapter for the CPAP.

I'm very interested in how you make out as we're on the June 17th sailing.

My Wife and I both use CPAPs. We never use the whole gallon. I bought a 12' TV extension cord that fits the CPAP power adapter so no more need for an extension cord. We also bring a multi-plug adapter for the since there is usually only a single power outlet beside the bed on one side.

The trouble I'm having is they seem to be only doing this by one get one 50% package lately. My wife can't drink, so I always have to call and purchase DBP for me and the refreshment package for her. This process makes it a bother to "reprice" the DBP. With the 50% deal it's difficult to figure out what the single prices would be. It also means a single purchaser isn't getting any deal at all.

I've been having problems making final payment for my June cruise. Seems they can't decide how much I owe because of a cancelled cruise planner purchase that has not been "cleared" properly. I was worried because I'm past final payment date. I did make a payment for what should have been what I owed, but I had also added the prepaid gratuities so it was a four hundred more. They charged my CC, but a two hundred less than it should have been. My TA told me that I'm covered for final payment because I did pay more than what was owed, they are just working through how much of the gratuities I've paid. Meanwhile they refunded that purchase twice in the last week, so I figure I'll be paying one of those back. Please lets not suggest that their IT try to add any more changes to their apps of booking software.

This is the only Duck I ever saw. It was on our March 25th Wonder cruise.

Our June Alaska cruise was going to be our 40th anniversary, two years of cancellations and it's 42? Oh well we still have our JS to enjoy.