smokeybandit

It only gets frowned upon when the C group people are boarding and only middle seats are left.

That's not necessarily true. I've gotten RUs a few times when none of the upgrade categories were available.

If you really want to do an excursion, there are always reputable 3rd party vendors to book from. Depending on the port though, there can be plenty to do right there in the downtown/port area.

Once you snag your slot with the app, you can use the website check-in to upload an existing photo. Just if it gives you an error, just try the same one again, it'll likely work.

Just note that you don't *need* to check in right at that magic midnight time to get an early slot. Being a few hours ahead, you could wake up your normal time and still be nearly guaranteed to get an early slot.

I like Southwest. Very flexible fares, still typically a good bit cheaper than legacy airlines once you factor in seat/luggage costs, and living near a WN hub I can get to any cruise homeport typically with a direct flight. That said, boarding early definitely is the key.

My son is 11 and this next cruise will be the first where we're going to let him sign himself out of kids club during the night session. Not sure how I really feel about that but he's earned it and he knows how to navigate a ship.

I think it depends on ship class if it's 11 or 12

In the past they'd offer 2-3 different types of bread. Since the restart it has only been one that I've seen. Usually a basic white bread.

You will see shorts and T-shirts all the way to tuxedos on formal night. The food still tastes the same though.

I'm not sure the point. Norovirus has always been a risk of cruising (albeit low) and the CDC has always monitored it on cruise ships.

I've got an 11:05 out of FLL next month. I just plan to be out of customs by 8am.

The bread GF quality varies widely in quality from ship to ship. Sometimes it's quite good. Other times it's pretty mediocre (which isn't a cruise ship complaint, just it's tough to make a good GF bread)

We had that same smoke a few weeks ago in Colorado. It didn't get nearly the coverage of this though. You could literally smell the smoke.

The Pullmans come down from the ceiling and act like 2 top bunks. You'd want to have that king bed split into the two twins if you had more than 2 in that room

Not enough that anyone will really notice, but the Bahamas is really taking advantage of their uptick in traffic. $7 per head in new taxes, plus $5 per head increase in the existing cruise passenger tax (or $7 if your only Bahamas port stop is a private island) http://www.tribune242.com/news/2023/jun/01/govt-near-tripling-cruise-departure-tax-145m/#:~:text=The Passenger Tax Amendment Bill,from a private island not

Which stinks because Playmakers is the only thing I care about on an amped ship.

Adventure has not been amped. She was supposed to be in 2021 but of course that didn't happen.

I'm on Adventure next month then again next June. Adventure was my first post-restart ship, too. Good ship.

Every company likes to use that "up to" discount wording. Airlines love the opposite case. "Airfare as low as $39 one way!" Then you realize the only tickets at that price are to Peoria or Amarillo at 5am or 11:30pm

I remember a few years ago sitting in the NextCruise office waiting for an agent to free up. A guy was furious that using his C&A discount resulted in a higher price than using the current promotion. He just didn't get it (and the agent didn't explain well) that the C&A discount isn't stackable with the current promotion.

Anecdotal reports say it varies from ship to ship

Definitely cheaper and with more options staying inland. I don't think Galveston is worth staying in pre-cruise unless you really don't want to deal with the ride in on the day of the cruise.

Over Christmas the head waiter came around with bottles of champagne. Not sure if that was just a Christmas thing or something else.

I mean do we have the official final tally of restaurants on Icon yet? ICON IHOP has a nice ring to it.