Traveling Mike

Titanic of the Seas Revenge of the Seas Black Pearl of the Seas

Depends on your age. If you are old enough nobody thinks anything about anything you do or wear. My son has a mini backpack he likes carrying. Amazon.com | adidas Women's Linear Mini Backpack Small Travel Bag, Jersey Grey/Rose Gold/Onix Grey, One Size | Casual Daypacks

I know some things have changed since my son was little, but some things stay the same. Sign them up for the kids' clubs and let them spend some time there. They will have fun and get to meet some new friends. Yours is a little young but when they are a little older you need to decide if you want them to have the ability to charge on their cards. It can get expensive if they are not careful, arcade, specialty ice cream, smoothies... In that same thought, when they are a little older make sure they understand what is free and what cost money. My son got some ice cream one cruise and did not know it cost money until after he got it and he was shocked and really worried when he found out. He was afraid I was going to get mad at him for charging. There is lots more to the ship than the pool. Make sure you explore the ship with them. To many parents spend the entire cruise at the pool with the kids and do not spend the time showing their kids the other things to do and see. Nap time. They might not be used to naps but they are also not used to going from early in the morning to 10 or 11 at night. I did this on Disney Cruises but it will work on any of them. Let them pack their bags and after they are done sneak a special gift in their bag with a special note. Then when they go to unpack their bag they will have a special surprise.

One thing to remember is this is post Covid. The ships are understaffed, and a lot of the staff is new and still learning. If they get back to pre-covid standards, you will like it much more.

Most everything will wait. I go directly to a specialty restaurant and get all my dinner times set before they fill up. While the staff is setting my dinner times I am on the phone setting my show reservations. After I have that done then I do the muster station.

You need to remember that Gratuities do not go to your cabin Stewart, waiter, assistant waiter. They go into a pool and split according to a formula. I asked my waiter on my last cruise and he said the gratuities that are on my cruise account would go into the pool. The cash I gave him on the last day would be split between him and the assistant waiter. This is one of the reasons I pay the base gratuities and then give some extra cash to the people that take care of me.

I stayed in London and took a shuttle to Southampton the next day. The drive is 2 hours and there are lots of companies that do shuttles. On my last cruise out of Southampton (that got covid canceled) I was going to take the train. The train from London to Southampton is only 1 hour 25 min.

I travel solo 80% of the time. When I book a regular cabin I get double points because I am paying for two people. When I book a cabin for a solo person "Category 2F - Studio Ocean View Balcony Stateroom" I get 1 point because I am only paying for one person. I have had a cruise that I booked for 2 people and my son did not go on the cruise and I ended up getting double the points and his taxes and port fees refunded. Crown and Anchor can fix any of them that are not correct they just need a booking number to look up the cruise. On one of my very old cruises I did not have a booking number and they told me to give them a picture of me on the ship and they would give me credit.

What would the cruise line do if everyone stopped drinking. A cruise ship full of people drinking the free drinks or tap water.

No you are miss reading it. The first paragraph is for the "Best Price Guarantee Program". The second program talks about the Cruise With Confidence and a link to that information.

Matt, it looks like they moved the "Up to 48 hours guarantee" to the Beast Price Guarantee Program. This is from the RCL site. What is the Best Price Guarantee Program? | Royal Caribbean Cruises

Here is some that I have done or have scheduled. I live in Fresno California USA. Looks like there is no limit for any cruise. Cruising out of Los Angeles 220 miles Cruising out of Vancouver Canada 1, 100 miles Cruising out of Florida 2,900 miles Cruising out of Tokyo 5,300 miles Cruising out of Copenhagen 5,500 Cruising out of Spain 6,000 miles Cruising out of Sydney 7, 511 miles

This will help you. If you know your cabin number(s) there might be details on it.

Last week I called Costco Travel and the agent told me I could not reprice and RCL would only let me reprice one time. She would not do anything and dropped the call. I called back knowing it was not correct. The next agent got me a reprice that gave me $550 OBC on a $2000 cruise. They then sent me to a supervisor that said they would follow up with the first agent and sent me a Costco card for $50 for my troubles. So, the answer is most of the time you can reprice.

The RCL Facebook site is hit and miss. If you word your issue correct, they will respond. They are not responding to everything.

I am cruising out of Seattle and from my research I need to fill out the form for our last port in Canada. It does not matter if you get off the ship or not. We will be at a Canadian port. I will also need it for my excursion that takes me into Canada.

I have 5 cruises booked right now and that is about the price on all of them. There is not much difference in any of them.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Compass | Royal Caribbean Blog

I have tried to keep track of my weight on the last 3 cruises. The problem is it is not correct when the ship is moving. There is a scale in all the gyms. Go in while it is in port and get your weight before you take off. Out of three scales all three were wrong but it gave me a base. Then in each port I went back and checked it. Note: The last 14 day TA cruise I purchased a pair of blue jeans that we a size smaller. I checked how they fit and I used them to check my weight on the cruise. 1/2 way though the cruise I was able to switch into the new jeans. When I was done with the cruise I had to wear a belt with the new jeans. Note 2: The one thing I did that helped is did not let them bring bread to the table at the beginning of the meal. I also only at desert if it was worth the calories.

Land Ho ... Canary Islands My live blogging has taken a dump because the internet on the Vision of the Seas has taken a dump. The internet is the joke of the ship. Even the staff has trouble with running their apps. As an IT person I wonder what kind of IT they have on the ship. Maybe they need to hire some retired IT to fix their ship. Well off to the Canary Islands. We stopped at two of the islands. They could not be much difference. The first one was La Palma. The volcano erupted for a couple of months back in October and November. The island was all volcanic rock and small shrubs. Nothing much grows because of the wind. The roads were small and there are old volcano holes every ware. I did a 4X4 bus that took us down a very step hill that at one time was a lava flow to a small fishing village that had one family living there. We then went to a place that they moved the volcanic ash and created a new mountain of ash. They fed us lunch that I was glad I did not pay for. Not to good. After that we had to drive back around the island to see the live volcano from a distance that is still smoking. We could see the lava flow that has turned into rock. It was very large and intimidating. The next day we were at Tenerife. This island was larger and modern. We took a bus up to their national forest and on to their live volcano. The roads were large and 4 lanes part of the way. We spend much of the dive in a large forest with large trees. On the way back we stopped at the old town square and spent a couple of ours shopping and having lunch/dinner. I ended up eating at a home cooking place with grandma cooking in the back.

I am spending Friday and Saturday in Barcelona. I am going to get a two-day pass for the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. I just keep changing what company I want to purchase. Does anyone have a preference between the two HOHO busses in Barcelona?

The others have already said it but you will be surprised how quick you will have lots of waters in your cabin by taking one back every time you head there. I have done it both ways and it is not a big deal. The cruise I am on now I paid $17 for a case of water in my room. My last cruise I took a bottle every time I headed to my room and by the 3 day I had a dozen bottles in my mini frig.

Day ?? - I don't know I am lost.... The internet has been so bad I cannot post or work on the internet. Last night it was so bad I could not see emails or websites. The strange thing is I could still make WiFi Calls and was able to do Facetime with my son and the two boys (Standard Poodles). The dogs were excited to be able to hear and see me. Next time I need to get my son on his laptop so they will have a bigger screen to see me. This morning is the first day I got out of bed before 10:30 am. I got up at 7:00 am and went to the buffet for a fresh cooked omelet. The breakfast was not bad. I was working on my computer and about 8:30 am people started showing up and the internet went south. it is better because I am able to load this blog and type in it. I knew the closer we got to land the better it would get. Left Right Center Just a quick note. We played the game Left-Right-Center today and had a great time. There was about 15 people and we were very loud and had a blast. We are playing it agian tomarrow. Tonight I think it will be a lay in my bed and go to sleep early night.

Day 6 - Geriatric Cruise Ok, I am not a spring chicken but there are times on this cruise I feel like I am on the wrong cruise. The last two nights there we two different times. Two nights ago it was a Twist dance competition. Out of everyone on the ship they picked three couples to do the competition that were all over 70 and could hardly dance. Last night was worse. They had a game "Love and Marriage". This is a game with three married couples answering questions. They started out asking for the couple they have been married the longest; they got a couple married 55 years. Then they went for the newlyweds. The newlyweds they got have been married 4 years and dated 5 years. And to top it off they were somewhere in their late 60's. Then they got the middle marred couple; they had been married 50 years. To Be Fair... this cruise is not young but it is not that bad just at times it feels that way. There are lots of younger people but they seem to stay away from the nightly shows and gathering. I know when I take a 14 day cruise in April I will be with retired people. Wait and Wait and Wait then Frustration The internet has been very good until yesterday. I am hoping it is because we were in the middle of the Atlantic. I am back to the internet of 1993 where you type the page you want then go to the kitchen and get a snack and you were excited if the page was up when you got back. Today (day 7) it seems to be a little better. Hopefully it will continue to improve as we get closer to land.

Day 5 - Walking and missed Breakfast and Lunch I got up earlier today, but it was still 10:30 am. I got in shorts and a t-shirt and went to get some exercise. I found that the top deck with the jogging and walking track is not very good. It has lots of wind and chars in the way. Not much fun walking ... BUT ... on deck 5 is the perfect place for walking. There is a wooden deck that goes almost all the way around the ship. On the back of the ship, it goes all the way around. Then in the front it stops short, but you can go through automatic doors to get to the other side. I walked about 5 or 6 loops and was able to get 2 miles. I was hoping for 5 miles, but my body had other ideas. It started out with my hips hurting, then it went to my back and when I ignored that my body said, "OK, you think you are tuff, take this" and started making my head light headed and things spinning. I gave up and stopped at 2 miles. It is amazing how your own body will attack you when it is not happy. Food ???? After waking I went back and cleaned up in the cabin. I though I was fine for time because it was only 1 pm. I went to the main dining room where I ate a good meal yesterday and found out they closed at 1 pm. They told me to eat at the Buffett. I asked him if he has every ate there... he was smart enough to not answer. Well I tried the buffet again and once again I was sorry. It was bad again. I should have just skipped lunch and been really hungry for a good dinner and loose some weight. New Friends ??? I am on the 5th day and am getting lots of people stopping and visiting with me. I have my trivia team I see every day at 3:30 pm and lots of others that I keep seeing at shows and other events. Today I stopped at a bar to get a Diet Coke and ended up with a group of 10 people that seen me and stopped to talk about what was going on. This is the nice thing on a cruise like this... everyone is looking for new friends. Now it is time for dinner and then off to a game show about marrage. I am sure it will make me feel good about being single.