Bowen

You can’t cruise with the passport as far as I know. I know for sure you can’t use it for international travel. You can use a driver’s license and birth certificate though if that’s easier than expediting a passport.

Yep! We homeschool so we always go in the off season and the clubs are always open. I think you might be pleasantly surprised at how many kids there are on board. COVID saw lots of new families deciding to homeschool permanently. We took a cruise in January that had a lot of kids on board. Normally we might see 20, but I’d bet on our latest cruise there were at least 50. And that was just in the teen club age range. I recommend heading to the sports desk when you board if you have a teen club kid who will want to participate in activities through the club, like rock wall, flow rider, zip line, etc. You can sign that waiver on the first day so it’s taken care of for the duration.

Really??? My mom got her passport stamped at a little hut in the Roatan port. Is this not a legitimate stamp?

Our kids got them at the same time, so 2 and 5. When they are that young you have to renew every five years. We’re waiting to renew a couple more months so the oldest will be 16, which is the ten year renewal age. It’s easy to do and even our tiny town has a passport post office location. I feel much more secure than when I would bring them with their birth certificates.

Thanks everyone! My kids are Diamond on their own, but I’m not sure the oldest will hit D+ before 18. It’s all good though, Diamond perks are very good.

When your kids are young they share your status, but when they turn 18 they do not retain that status but go back to their points, is that correct?

If you don’t have one by November I’ll grab one for you, but hopefully you can find one before then. When we are on Liberty this year we could only find a magnet that was a clip with the picture of the ship. We also like the ship shaped ones.

What a great idea! We started buying ship magnets a few years ago, but we never got Rhapsody or Serenade 15 years ago ish, and we forgot to get Allure and Ovation more recently. I’m going on Allure again soon, but I might try to find travelers on the other ships to grab me one and in exchange for money and gratitude.

Yeah that’s why I said I wasn’t sure how much faith I’d put in it.

You can put a 24 hour hold on the cruise with the deposit. I was told on the last cruise I booked that the 24 hour hold with the deposit is automatic, so you basically have 24 hours to make a change or cancel without losing that money. I’m not sure how much faith I would put in that, but it worked for me when I booked a cruise and then a family member who’d been pumped about it two hours before suddenly decided they didn’t want to go

I didn’t know this about milk shakes! So if there is a Ben and Jerry’s on board they can use their coupon for a milkshake there?

I thought of more: On a sailing out of Bayonne we disembarked and got all the way to the airport where I was fishing our tickets out of my bag and realized I’d left my MacBook in the state room. It had fallen between the bed and the wall. I left my mom and the kids at the airport and took an Uber back to the pier where I had to go find the dock workers to get someone to go back on the ship and retrieve it. This is why I never ever complain about getting to the airport a few hours early. On another sailing my husband and I went and rented a jet ski in St. Kitts. We had to leave photo ID with them and all I had were our passports. After much fun and many drinks we got all the way back to the ship only to realize our passports were still at the beach place where we’d gone jet skiing. The husband took a taxi back and did the pier run while I stood near the ship and cheered him on.

My mom forgot her passport because she thought she could board with just her driver’s license. We were in another state, in line to check in when she realized what she’d done. Thankfully they let my dad send her a picture of her birth certificate and Royal printed it out and allowed her to board.

I’m just guessing here, but I’d think you’re good inside a year.

Back in the day when I was in an MLM they would sometimes reserve an entire ship. The people booked would normally get an FCC. These were generally booked by the MLM about a year out. I was on Facebook at the time so it was pretty easy to join the sailing page and see what they booked passengers were saying.

Same!

I wonder how many people barfed in that attraction. I definitely would.

It’s like “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. You can write books like those, but if you use that name you are going to get sued.

Yes, this. I have a friend who performs on the ships in a jazz band and this is really only his major other duty.

The only ones we had a problem with were the smaller comedy venues. Those we could not get in to, but every other show was no problem without a reservation.

Yeah same. I don’t drink soda, have one cup of plain black coffee a day, and a maximum of three alcoholic drinks. It’s kind of like the old Disney Dining Plan (not sure if that’s still a thing), great if you just don’t want to worry about it when you’re there.

This is a ship with a centrum, right? I haven’t seen one in so long, a few years. I agree it’s not like a promenade, but it’s grand.

We went on our years ago, it was a beautiful ship and quite large! I was thinking it might feel small, but no, not at all. Great ship! We’re actually taking the sister ship (Radiance) on a Panama Canal cruise next year and cannot wait.

My only issue with one a day is the beds that you can’t put away on your own. Like the ones that come down from the ceiling or wall. Is there a key? They’re not going to give it to me so I have to have that bed down until they come, and then they’re just going to leave it down for night time, so I’ve got a bed taking up room over the couch all day. This would bother me. We have a room like this next month so I’ll be eager to see how it goes.

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