MuttMutt

I know there are tons of different things that can be done. I like making custom tags up because no one will be able to claim mine as theirs plus I get to do a little shameless advertising on my bag.

Have to agree is width being close to the port. Depending on the departure day Houston could be tough to get across. Last cruise I went on I drove down and stayed near Kemah TX since it was a little cheaper than staying on Galveston Island but I wouldn't want to be much further north of that area. If you stay on Galveston Island I believe that a few of the places have a shuttle service that can drop off near the terminal but Uber or Lyft are options. I know that there are also some places that rent the little 4 person utv's if you get down there early and want to explore a little bit.

So I booked a dive in Cozumel on my next sailing but it looks like the odds are against it happening. If it is canceled how long will it take for the OBC to come back or is it just lost? I know it will take a few days for the rest of the payment to go back to the card but I would rather not lose the OBC to the void.

Yeah with that woman I did. She would not even acknowledge me until I put my hand on her wrist and her husband was about 8 feet away calling to her because he had her bag already. She grabbed on and was just not interested in letting go at all. For a minute I thought she was going to try and take a swing at me to be honest. I don't think it would have been a fair fight though since I am about 30 years younger and easily had 100 pounds on her, LOL. Hopefully my new tags will solve that one.

I definitely feel odd when on land after being on the ship for a while. A lot of times I make it worse because I then go for a ride and get on a boat and then hop in the water for a few hours. I think a major reason for me is because I feel the motion of the ship even in light seas. I really noticed it on my recent B2B because while sitting down I could feel the ship rock back and forth less than a degree of movement and my girlfriend looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead when I kept saying I was feeling motion. I eventually ended up grabbing my phone and pulled out my level app. We watched the ship rock back and forth about .5 degrees total while sitting in the promenade at Sorento's. I even noticed that I walked along like I was drunk because I felt the motion so much. On a couple days where motion was closer to 3 degrees while walking along on deck 4 on the outside I was weaving back and forth as much as 6 feet due to the motion. It lasts for about 4 or 5 days for me usually but I am ok to drive and actually after the last one I got home and was working on the roof of the house and that is about 33 degrees of angle. I think it's actually worse while I lay in bed but thankfully I have a couple things I take that pretty well knock me out though one of them also makes me feel like I am moving around a bit anyway.

So the other day I remember reading something about marking your luggage tags in some way so they are easy to spot when getting off the ship. It's been playing over and over again in my head because on my last Liberty of the Seas sailing I had a woman who was tenacious in holding on to my girlfriends bag and basically ignoring me while I tried to explain to her she had the wrong bag. After multiple times of being extremely polite and being ignored she started to walk away and I held her wrist to prevent her from walking off and again said that it was not her bag. Anyway I get on Adventure of the Seas in a couple days and I came up with this: I think it will work quite well in preventing someone from accidentally taking my bag again. Figured I may as well share for anyone interested in making their own and It's not too hard to do so if someone wanted one and doesn't have the ability to make one up I can easily toss something together when I get back home. It's basically setup to be folded twice with the large blank area folded underneath and stapled or taped around a handle much like the luggage tags. I can EASILY make them the same size as the luggage tags as well if someone wants them that size. Anyway just wanted to share the option as it may be better than stickers or markers on the tags given out on the ship for spotting bags.

Took some stuff on with my last cruise and left it in the room with some cash as well. Going to do the same thing when I am on Adventure of the Seas on the 23rd. While things are being relaxed for people going on shore it's not an all out everyone can get off the ship. So a couple cheap packs of razors, some soap, some toothbrushes, and a few other things as well will be left again. I picked up a bunch of the fruity KitKat bars and will leave a couple for different people as well as a couple bucks for those people who excelled in helping on the last night before getting off the ship. Wrote a little note that was simple to print off and with a stapler that will make a nice little pouch to hand over as a way to say thanks. The way I look at it is there is likely someone that will need a couple things and I am sure that crew will trade a little here or there. The only thing I ask in my note with the vast majority of stuff is to not let things go to waste. I don't care if they drop something off with their family to use or take it with them when they head home for some time off. Sometimes simple little things can bring a smile to a face or make their day better. Now if EVERYONE did it I probably would scale back a little bit but picking up 10 bucks worth of stuff at the Dollar Tree with a couple food items seems like an OK thing to me. And when I pick up soap I never know if the attendant will be male or female so I grab one of each and figure they will know someone else who can use the other. And I am sure that there are people working in the mechanical area's of the ships who will likely benefit from something like this that I could never even see to give it to.

Phone dry bags work. However the straps break. Found one that had been in a lake over a year.

Have a favorite recipe you REALLY want to share? Well I know I do so why not right? I am very fluid in how I cook so please feel free to adjust for your tastes. If you have a favorite sauce or are like me and jazz up a store bought sauce go for it. Anyway here goes: An Italian twist on Chicken Cordon Bleu Ingredients: Chicken breasts or thighs Spaghetti sauce Olive oil (or some other cooking oil) Italian seasoning mix Garlic Crushed red pepper flakes Chicken Bullion powder Block of mozzarella cheese or string cheese sticks (1 piece per breast) Pepperoni slices (I use 10 to 12 per breast) Some sort of pasta (I use spaghetti but anything will work) Mix some oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, about a tablespoon of chicken bullion, and Italian seasoning till it is pretty well just a thick mush. I end up with about 8 tablespoons when cooking 6 chicken breasts. Think of something like a pesto or humus for consistency. Butterfly the breasts and add about a tablespoon of the mix and spread it around the inside. Place pepperoni slices into the breast then place a piece of mozzarella cheese on top folding the breast closed when done. When all breasts are done use the rest of the pesto like mix on top in a thin coat. Bake the breast for 40 minutes in a oven heated to 350 degrees on a cookie sheet. At about 20 minutes left warm your sauce and doctor it to taste. I add Italian seasoning, garlic, beef bullion powder, a touch of red pepper flakes and a couple packets of artificial sweetener to take just a touch of the sour taste out if it has it. Move to the back burner and allow to slightly simmer or just keep warm. Start your water for the pasta boiling and at about 10 minutes till the chicken is done add the pasta to the boiling water. Everything should be ready to go at the same time. I like to place the pasta on the plate, add the sauce as I see fit and then top with one of the chicken breasts. I made this tonight and my girlfriend and her son both loved it. Hopefully you will as well. Just remember to do things to your taste. If you don't have the chicken bullion (I highly recommend using it in place of salt, beef is used for things that need a beefy flavor and chicken for most anything else) then use regular salt though you may not need very much so consider just sprinkling a little on.

I may have found something that will work for you and I actually want to try it sometime. Anyway there is a project that is geared to long range off grid communications called Meshtastic. There will be some initial cost but it's pretty much a one time deal and can be utilized outside of just being on the ship. The boards are about 30.00 each and will require a touch of soldering to attach the screen but once that is done it should be pretty well good to go. The device is battery powered and with line of sight can function at a distance of about 11km or 6.8 miles. Naturally on the ship this will never be as far but I suspect it will work throughout most of the ship. The software communicates with your phone over bluetooth so you will need one for each person involved and it probably would not hurt to have one in your room to act as a repeater especially if your room is close to the middle of the ship. But the potential is there for free text based communications. I literally just found this project and have not had the time to get anything setup but once I do I will report back if there is any interest in others using this as well. https://meshtastic.org/ is the project website for anyone interested.

No one knows. We know the maximum occupancy and things like that but have no clue how many people will be on a ship or what level of occupancy they have been having. The people who do know are the bean counters in the offices and they aren't talking.

When I go on an excursion I take along a backpack and a dry bag. The dry bag carries things I don't want to get wet at all and everything including the cry bag goes into the backpack. I SCUBA dive so that bag goes on the boat with me. Never had an issue of things staying dry at all inside the dry bag. The backpack gets a little wet but my towel and dry clothes are generally fine. If I go to the beach and snorkel or something like that the dry bag goes with me into the water with anything that is valuable and the rest stays on the shore. If someone wants my clothes and a towel that bad they are welcome to it though I doubt they will be happy with what they get. I should also mention that my dry bag is quite large. 10L if I remember right.

Not sure about the size of the machine but I wouldn't see that as a problem. However any supplies you need to take along may require some doing if my understandings are correct. I would not however allow any employee handle the machine which means you will need to carry it on and off the ship. And for sure contact and make arrangements with RCCL first.

As I said I don't guarantee it but I have no doubts that it happens in some form. It's easy enough for Royal to simply send over a list of people deemed truly eligible (like I said I doubt suite guests are included) and simply give them a set of numbers that give weights to each person. The company doesn't have to turn over all the data. I look at it like spam lists when you make a donation to a charity. Every single charity looks at the others and there are groups of them who pool data. Someone plugged into that group will get people's info and likely with a weight to whether or not they are likely to donate to a specific group or not. Remember these lists are known to exist but we don't know how they deal with them. But if you donated to the ASPCA be sure that within a few months PETA will send out a few requests. A ton of the companies share data with their partners. And they likely share data with some other stuff as well.

There are TONS of factors that fall into place here. Lets say that the ship has a lot of rooms in a certain class that are unsold a few months before. Odds are that those rooms will still mostly be empty but if cheaper rooms open up they have a better chance of selling. The idea is that if they get people to move up to other rooms they can get a few extra bucks from that person AND they can potentially book the previous room while bringing two more people who will likely spend cash on the ship as well. Even if the previous room didn't book the actual value of a room is based on it's location and what people are willing to pay for it. I highly doubt that a balcony will use more power than an interior room right? So if the costs for the ship are the same either way what's the better deal for RCCL? Taking that a step further how many rooms do you want to offer? With the current stuff happening they are keeping some stuff cleared out from my understanding. So lets say they have 100 rooms evenly divided between oceanview and suite. Do you want to let every person in to bid potentially driving the cost way beyond a regular price so that people go online and complain about it or do you want to limit that to say 300 cabins knowing that a lot of them will only bid on one room where only 30 are available to have someone complain they never win? By limiting the number of people it's opened to you end up reducing complaints in a way and since it's managed by a "third party company" likely owned by the brother of a guy who is a friend of the guy who runs something at royal at some point in time and only gets a cut in the cash so they can have plausible deniability for everyone not being picked to bid. And finally who do you offer it to? Well people in a suite won't be interested so that takes a few of the higher up points people out of the running, but the people who booked anything other than an inside room will then likely be sorted by level with diamond and up getting a higher chance than someone at gold in an interior room. Then assign a number to each group you create that says how many from that group will be picked. After that throw a random number generator at your groups and there you have it. A money making machine that took a few hundred lines of code for minimal extra expense. To increase your odds I would say (in no particular order): Bid on at least one room every time you get an offer and can. Increase your points level. Visit the casino for 1 pull every time you are on the ship. Buy an excursion through the cruise line at least one time on each cruise. Buy internet or a drink package when you cruise. Eat at a specialty restaurant at least once on each cruise if you can. Buy a single drink at the bar and pay cash if you didn't get a drink package. Buy a souvenir at a shop while on board. Basically anything you do that nets them an extra buck will put you into a higher category and increase your odds. We all know they have a database with our name on it so they can see EVERYTHING you do on a ship and throw that into the equation as well. I didn't get an offer on my first 3 cruises. My last 2 were a B2B on Liberty and while on the ship we had a couple drinks (had a ton of onboard credit on both), I went on a dive excursion in Roatan through the ship, bought a 3 device internet package for both sailings, and we both went into the casino to cash out a little bit of onboard credit but I made a point to spin the reels a couple times for each of us. Not to mention that I went up to 35 points after my last cruise. I get an email last month for the cruise I am getting on at the end of the February for Royal Up. Coincidence, I doubt it. Can't guarantee that the list above will get you offers but I am pretty sure it will increase your odds.

With the recent extension they should be good till around February 1st 2023. https://www.fda.gov/media/155326/download Note for future readers just in case: Tests bought from here on out should already have the 15 months of validity already applied so if someone comes along later and thinks their test are good for an extra 3 months be careful. The tests made after the date of the letter linked above should already have this factored in. So if you order after February 2022 more than likely the expiration date will be the correct and current one unless the test are old stock. If the tests expire ~ pre December 2022 you should be in the extra 3 months camp.

They are already starting to work on a combination flu covid booster if that says anything. But It's going to be a numbers game. Numbers go down and stay down then it probably will not be required. The opposite is also true.

Sounds good. I am honestly surprised the programmers haven't implemented a post threshold where post no longer need approval rather than requiring mods to make the fix. Usually on the forums I have dealt with you can set it at whatever number you want and then they are good to go unless they post a bunch of spam at which point mods will have already seen a lot of it and killed the user or they start posting some spam due to a hack or something at which point they are back on 'probation' again.

Agreed. The newer the newlywed the better your chances. Often there is a couple married within the last week or two who end up there. The next one is the couple married the longest. I think ours was around 50 years or so most of the time. After that you have to beat on your chest to be the best "Tarzan" as the guy and the best "Jane" calling for her Tarzan. So having a wife who shouts out nice and breathy, "Tarzan, Tarzan.... Where is my Tarzan?" And having your guy do something funny or shocking is the best way to get onto the stage. Last one we watched the husband picked his wife up and started running around with her on his shoulder. The "middle" group is the hardest one to get in on since they usually ask for between 10 and 40 years so prep accordingly.

Purchased from: eMed Order date: 02/02/2022 Approval date: 02/02/2022 Shipped date: 02/03/2022 Received date: 02/07/2022 Expiration date: 01/04/2023 Was supposed to be next day delivery on 01/04/2022 but with the winter storm multiple delays happened. Shipping was almost 22.00 so that has went up by about 3 dollars from my previous order. There is no date of manufacture on the label as there was previously so not sure if the 15 month window is already in there or not though I suspect no so these should expire around 03/01/2023

The boards used have some sort of algorithm in place, didn't spend a lot of time looking at it but one of the mods should be able to make an adjustment on a case by case basis. https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/451190-registered-member-cant-post-without-moderator-approval/ talks about it.

Watched it twice on Liberty of the Seas on our B2B at the end of October and beginning of November. It was great and my girlfriend loved it. They are using a single microphone for each couple and setting them a good distance away from each other with a helper to hold the microphone for the person talking. I told my girlfriend we could easily win if we get married the day before or on the cruise. We know each other very well and were laughing at all the tame answers. We hands down have one of the best and most unique places we have ever made "whoopie" after we joined the 650' underground club.

I still get some discounts using the residency information from time to time. Have seen where the price actually goes up on a mock booking that way though. Have been very happy with interior rooms so far, especially since I like the room to be dark to sleep. But have looked at some balcony's and eventually may splurge on one for an Alaska B2B but that won't happen till I get a few more things done on the house. Since my girlfriend is over 55 I also try checking and unchecking the box for that to see if that nets something better price wise if she will be going. It's kinda interesting to see how some things will get discounts and some will not. The 55 plus seems to net more discounts in Florida and next to nothing in Texas. Residency is hit or miss for sure. Haven't really paid attention to C&A prices since those are only applied for certain cabins.

Sorry, I stopped watching most broadcast tv a long while ago. What little I watch comes from OTA stations and they usually run commercials for the local furniture places and I am VERY good at tuning them out. Sometimes I think, "maybe I should go watch some of the commercials for the cruise lines on Youtube or something..." Then I laugh at myself and realize it's not worth messing up a good thing. I actually run a DNS filter on my router that blocks most advertisements from loading and what's left over is pretty well killed by Brave and uBlock Origin. Getting off the cable teat and killing most news watching has helped me mentally so much that all I can do is try and talk others into doing the same. Believe me, unless your job requires the information the things happening half way around the world does not generally affect the general public's daily life.

I had excursions in Mexico canceled on my B2B on Liberty in October and November. Not sure what all is up but they were both SCUBA dives. I did dives in Roatan without issue however and was able to book through someone else for Mexico. I am guessing there was something between the local regulations and RCCL that just didn't jive right so they decided to cancel them to err on the side of caution. I have a dive booked again at the end of this month in Cozumel and it will hopefully stick this time but I have to agree with all the stuff going on and different area's having different requirements finding things that will always work out can be tough. It kinda goes back to the statement of "be flexible" that has been made on the site multiple times. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/12/28/why-you-need-be-flexible-if-you-want-go-cruise-right-now Tons of things are changing and we have no clue all the stuff going on behind the scenes at this time.