bryresangel

Thank you! We are sailing out Christmas Eve, so that is so good to know. The way I figure, it's good practice for our Alaskan cruise in the summer!

On 12/7/2022 at 8:53 PM, NotPayinExtra said:

If someone needs to push a small dog around in a stroller to feel safe and comfortable (the person, not the dog) then I do see that as emotional support. Maybe not specifically defined by any organization, but just by me. How anyone can not see that as an emotional need is beyond me. Not talking laws, rules, etc. Just as a person looking at the need of the person with the animal. If it's that important and someone is willing to go to that much work, then who am I to care. My only concern is the safety of the animal. But overall it's like shorts in the MDR. Do your thing, I'll do mine. Life goes on.

EVERYONE'S pets provide emotion support. My sorta trained dogs are a comfort and a Godsend. But they are not trained to the standards to be on a cruise, nor would I ever presume to take them everywhere on that basis. An emotion support animal is not a service animal, and a service animal has to go through rigorous training to be able to do their job. There are dogs that provide specific types of emotional support (like for PTSD) that are well trained to detect certain markers and provide support, but those are SERVICE dogs for an emotional disability. Not a pet that makes you feel good.

They really do need to have a license for actual service animals and fine people for falsely claiming their animal is a service animal. The sense of entitlement displayed by people who do this is quite honestly disgusting and ranks right up there with people who park in handicap parking spaces illegally in my opinion.

I'll step off my soapbox now.....

I used GoPort the last time we sailed out of Port Canaveral. They have a package that includes a shuttle from the airport to a hotel, shuttle from hotel to port, and shuttle from port to airport. I found the cost to be very reasonable and overall a great experience. My only issue was I called to make sure my reservation was good (because I'm paranoid) and at the time their voicemail was awful and I couldn't understand what they were saying. But if I hadn't called, I would never have known.

11 minutes ago, wordell1 said:

Yes, they will refund his excursions if he is denied boarding.

Thanks much! I was wondering if I should cancel his excursions now and risk them either being full or having to pay a lot more. 

Good evening fellow cruisers!

We have a cruise coming up over Christmas. Long story short, one of our party MIGHT be denied boarding (is a Permanent Resident Alien of the U.S. but does not have a passport from his home country). We have excursions booked for several port of calls. If he is denied boarding, does anyone know if they will they refund his excursions? Thanks for the help!

We usually get the Refreshment Package. I NEED my fancy coffee in the morning, and will usually pick up a water as well. Then there is the fresh squeezed orange juice and my personal favorite way to get fat on a cruise, fancy mocktails! I will down quite a few in a day, making it WELL worth it! I tried just getting the coffee card last time and had to really monitor my mocktail consumption, which probably saved me some calories, but at what cost????

6 hours ago, bobroo said:

I think it will be a bubble tea stand and the pearl shape is a reference to the pearls of tapioca at the bottom of your bubble tea.

 

 

I WISH! They would have ALL my money if there were a bubble tea place on board!

On 5/24/2022 at 11:42 AM, Al Miller said:

Y'all got it all wrong. It's the next logical step up from Indoor skydiving and bumper cars... 

 

I came here to say indoor skydiving as my guess....

Happy Labor Day,

My father in law is a permanent U.S. resident who has retained his Mexican citizenship. From what I have read from doing a search, he should be able to board closed-loop cruise using just his Green Card and his other documentation. I don't think he would be able to disembark in Honduras or Belize. However, since he is actually a citizen of Mexico, does anyone know if he would be able to get on and off the ship in Mexico? It would seem odd if he needed a Mexican passport to get off the ship, but I'm a little worried about getting back on the ship. For the record, he doesn't have a passport and probably won't have one by the time we sail. 

I plan on asking our TA, but wanted to see if anyone had actually tried this before and what the result was. Thanks!

What ship? We were on the Jewel out of Miami and had an 11:30 time. I think 11:00 was the earliest. We were early (around 11am) due to me scheduling an uber from Ft Lauderdale early because I'm paranoid, but the line was not bad and it moved very fast. They took us upstairs and there was a waiting room to sit in until boarding began. They called people by their time, so when the 11:30 people were called, we got up and boarded. It was pretty painless, but it's a smaller ship and they were still operating under restricted capacity at the time. I hope it goes similarly well for you!

23 hours ago, Blur said:

People seem to love the aft but if you want less motion middle would be the way to go... It's like asking do you like appetizers, entrees or desserts?  I am sure there are people that like different things.

Or like saying which is best, cake, pie, or donuts? It depends on the person, but all are delicious!

Second those above that said what is above/below you are more important than the location of the balcony (unless it's obstructed). We have done mid and aft, and I prefer aft, but would not take an aft balcony that was likely to be too loud. 

10 hours ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I voted for gym and spa but really it's only the gym part I'd drop. For my first 3/4 cruises, I would take workout wear thinking I'd use the gym....but I never did and those clothes never got worn. But that's just for me and I think there are enough people who still use them to make them worthwhile. Plus, I think the crew also uses the main gym.

 

Honestly, if I got rid of anything it'd be the casino and smoking.....

+1 for the smoking (and casino if you can't have it without smoking)

Hubby and I were JUST talking about this last night. We also hope it is around for a good long while. Our plan is to sell our stock portfolio when we are ready to retire and do this. We both have pensions after retirement which should take care of the bills.

1 hour ago, JR&EM said:

We are cruising this September on the Serenade of the Seas eastbound Panama Canal cruise. Our flight home from Tampa airport was scheduled for 4:30pm, we just received notification that the time has been switched to 11:05am. We are scheduled to dock at 7am. Will we be able to make our flight on time or will we need to reschedule the flight time?

Thank you in advance for any information.

That happened to us before. I would just call them and say that time will not work for your return flight. They should be able to book you on something closer to your original time. Typically, they put you on whatever flight and hope it works out, but sometimes it doesn't. But definitely call!

To add, we won't need airport transfers. Right now we are looking at the Sailport Resort.  Does anyone have any experience with this place?

Greetings and Happy Father's Day to all you dads!

 After much deliberation we are considering driving to Tampa as opposed to flying due to the cost of the airline. Can anyone recommend a good place to stay park and then cruise with transfers included? I've seen some websites that have recommendations but that I'd ask here before we start looking further.

Thank you!

On 5/25/2022 at 12:54 PM, DunkelBierJay said:

Idea...consider issuing SeaPass cards at muster...the con of this is how do they staff that...

Idea...open the muster stations right as boarding begins...it opened a full hour after I boarded my last cruise...have signage making it the first requirement once you board...

Otherwise, it seems like this is a characteristic of return to cruising.

The last cruise we went on, the muster station was open as soon as we boarded (we were in the 11:30 group). We literally did the online piece while waiting to board, and the VERY FIRST thing we did was go to our muster station. It was nice because it was on the same side of the ship as we boarded, near the next set of doors to get into the ship. It could not have gone any smoother!

I can't wait to find out what this was!

On 5/14/2022 at 6:36 PM, anxiouscruiser said:

He had a high fever and started coughing. I brought tests from home. Tested him and self reported it to the cruise line. Wanted to do the right thing by reporting it and trying to make sure no one else got it from us. 

I'm sorry this happened to you, but you absolutely did the right thing! Think I will pack some of our home tests on our next cruise just in case.

I can't wait to see what this is! How exciting!

Coconut Mojito Blended. I do mine without alcohol usually, but I've had it with and it was just as good!

13 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

They never offer excursions into the "real" Haiti

Then what's the point? I thought it was just due to the unrest.

We just had a stop in Haiti on our cruise. Unfortunately, they weren't offering any excursions except those that were in Labadee (nothing to tour the island outside of the area). I was disappointed because we didn't have any options for Haitian food  I would say enjoy the trip and hopefully when you DO get to go again, you have more options!

16 hours ago, Wanderlust876 said:

Seriously?!?! This was one of the reasons I booked Royal as opposed to a few other cruise lines.  It's so gross, especially now. 

According to the blog post, they will still have single-serve options. That was also on our cruise. For example, there was muesli that the attendants put on your plate, or cups of it that were already plated where you just had to grab the cup of it and go. That may be a better option if there are concerns about people touching everything.

I will say I think it will be faster. I heard they are having some staffing issues, and it was a challenge for 1 attendant to try to serve two lines at each station, especially when people would stand in front of two different sections of the same side (like the fruit and the oatmeal).