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Riley

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Everything posted by Riley

  1. The lounge machine is good but I don't add pumps into my coffee - though on occasion have been known to Irish up my latte with one of my free drinks - so I'm not the best to comment on whether it will work for your Hubby. There is an awesome bar just a couple blocks from the dock in Juneau with ALL the good Alaskan Brewing Co. beers on tap... don't recall the name but it is literally 2 blocks "uphill" and has an outdoor bar space. I'd say I remember it well, but did I mention they have Alaskan Icy Bay IPA on tap?
  2. Welcome to cruising, dude! Your Cruise Compass (we still ask for a paper copy as we are old but I think it's all online these on the RC app) will indicate the time/place of the LGBT meeting. Also depending on the ship there is a physical message board (usually near the Cafe Latitudes or Ben & Jerry's) that will include this. When in doubt ask Guest Services - they will not judge and will be happy to assist you locate the meetings.
  3. Mad respect for the leather bikini bottom!
  4. Echoing what others have said - most folks will think nothing of it. There is a wide variety of people on cruise ships and I doubt most of your fellow passengers will notice. Of those who notice, most will be polite. Crew won't care (tip your bar tender and they will love you no matter how you appear!) and everyone from the Captain on down to the guy scraping and painting the rail is there to make sure you enjoy yourself. There are meet-ups for LGBT+ travelers, solo travelers, "Friends of Bill W." and all sorts of others you may tap into. Be sure to explore the ship itself for the areas that meet your needs (I enjoy the Schooner Bar at the very far back of the ship for a place to settle in with a book and a drink when I want peace and quiet, for example) and be sure to talk with your wait staff for any food concerns... your head waiter and the chef will do their best to meet any and all dietary concerns including if you want to stick to a limited "safe" menu (I have to strictly limit my sodium and my go-to dinner is always a strip steak or chicken breast with baked potato and whatever steamed veggies they have). Ask and they will try. Most of all, have FUN and welcome to cruising!
  5. If you have travel insurance you may be able to make a claim, depending on the policy.
  6. Another strong vote for the train! It is inexpensive and simple and getting transport from the station to the ship is too. The hardest part is getting out of the train station (you have to go down via stairs or a small elevator to get under the tracks to exit). There are cabs waiting if you're in a hurry for the 10-minute or so trip to the dock, but shuttle buses also run between the station and the dock... there are different colors for the different cruise lines so ask the driver to make sure you get on the RC shuttle. They are cash only (was 3 Euro per person a couple years ago) and very easy. For two people it can;t be beat, plus once you get out of Rome the train through the countryside is lovely.
  7. Feel free to ask the first night for low-salt preparation options - your waitstaff and the kitchen will do their best. Some soups and sauces can't be adjusted but the chef can limit salt in many dishes and it's not an unusual request. As someone who has to limit sodium, I order dinner the night before through our section's head waiter and am always pleased with the results, including getting off-menu options when there's something that simply cannot be adjusted... my fall-back is a steak with a lot of pepper but no salt, a baked potato and whatever steamed or roasted veggies they have available.
  8. We were on that one! *waves* That unscheduled stop in Manhattan was a bonus, as far as we were concerned. Sorry to have missed Halifax on that leg but the DB hadn't been to NYC since the 1970s and was just charmed by the changes. Bottom line? You will be fine - roll with both the waves and any changes and enjoy the experience!
  9. Bar backs (re stockers) should get something, or it could be a math error ($1.12 is 8% of a $14 drink). Or the other 10% might go into a general fund. In any event, good stuff here.
  10. I do love those machines but IMO the grounds reservoir isn't big enough... most of the time when the machine is "down" it's because the little box where the coffee grounds are shunted to is full. Are guests supposed to empty it? No way. Have I been known to if I'm there by myself with no witnesses? Maybe...
  11. I believe Royal Up is *technically* run by a third-party vendor... saw that somewhere. As for best way to secure an upgrade, to me it's like the slot machines. There's a rhythm to it but darned if I know. Put in what you're willing to pay and go from there.
  12. If you go into Manhattan the night tour from the Hop On Hop Off bus is great in good weather and picks up/drops off directly at Times Square (find the M&Ms Store).
  13. Two thumbs up for the Hilton Home2Suites across from the Newark Airport - free shuttle that was easy to find and a terrific room. The only downside was you can't walk to food but we loaded up at the airport (there is a massive food court inside Security where you can get all sorts of meal options... ended up with a couple subs and a nice "by the ounce" salad from a salad bar plus drinks that was realatively well-priced) and had a relaxing night before the cruise.
  14. On some smaller ships it's on deck 5 or 6, portside bow, under one of the bulwarks. Little (maybe 3x3) patch of fake grass but enough for business to be handled.
  15. Congrats Patty! Enjoy those 6 daily drink vouchers! As other folks have noted, using the value of the "free" cruise toward a more expensive option means you get points for the cruise - we used the $2400 as a credit toward a nice balcony on one of our Alaska cruises and enjoyed it tremendously.
  16. Side note as I ran into this the other day - even though I *know* I entered everything correctly online the payment registered on a different segment of our multi B2B (the first leg, to be specific, which I had paid off over a month ago). The CSR was able to fix it without an issue but the website does seem to swing from "no balance due" to "you still owe us the world" right now.
  17. Thanks @smokeybandit for jumping in. If it was me, I'd do the longer layover in DFW, especially if I were sitting toward the back of the inbound plane. Minnpls isn't a big airport but a few minutes of "we are waiting for our gate to open up" and you're really squeezing it.
  18. Many Canadian airports have US Customs ahead of the US-bound boarding area, so once your flight lands you're typically in a domestic terminal with no need to go through Customs again. So if you're flying, say, Vancouver to St. Louis and going through Chicago you will not need to add extra time to clear customs in Chicago. HOWEVER going to the Canadian airport you will need to build in time to clear both security and customs before getting to your plane. If you give details I will try to answer further, as I have flown in and out of most large Canadian airports.
  19. We usually travel very light and rely on a combination of options so let me "talk" this out. First, I don't use them myself but people swear by packing cubes. I do use vacuum bags, both leaving and coming home (ask your room attendant to vacuum the bag the night before you leave). Also, if you're going to Europe know the Mediterranean is quite warm even in April and May - you're not likely to need more than a light jacket (though I recommend a travel umbrella to protect against the sun!) and a light fleece or sweater for layers, which I usually wear on travel days. You are flying into your departure port the night (or more?) before you leave - depending on how many nights, where you stay, and how many people are in your party it might be worth doing a small load of laundry the night before you get on ship. There may be either a laundry room or a coin-op close by your hotel. Once on ship, you can rinse out small items (think socks and undies) in the sink and there is a drying line in the shower (I have even washed jeans in the shower and then line-dried them, though that was an emergency basis and not what I would ordinarily plan). We bring a couple Tide Pods in a sandwich baggie, but the shower gel/shampoo works well enough. There is also usually a wash-and-fold special on board some time in the middle of the cruise that might be worthwhile. I don't recall how much a bag costs, but if you pre-fold your dirty items it's amazing how much you can cram into the wash-and-fold bag. Finally, we don't really pay a great deal of attention to "formal" night - neat and tidy is enough for me - so that helps with limiting the packing of outfits. Have a great time!
  20. Yup. I have 235 shares picked up over the depths of COVID and will hang on to 200 shares (sometimes depending on cost per day the DB and I book separate cabins if we're chasing points.... which at 200 shares means we both get the onboard credit in our cabins. I will likely sell the 35 extra shares but the 200 are not going anywhere!
  21. Check Cafe Latitudes - I don't know if Serenade's is open 24/7 but that's usually my go-to. A little finger sandwich is better than nothing!
  22. Quick note: if you're looking for a round-trip Transatlantic in October-November 2024 "Adventure" is going East for refurbishing. I know a lot of folks (including us) who are on the Eastbound leg for Adventure and then coming back a few days later on "Voyager". You have to get from Lisbon to Barcelona but it's a short flight and you get a true "round trip" adventure.
  23. We've done it both ways and there are good points to both. I'm a night owl so the Eastbound "losing an hour each day" was a bit much, but it made up for it by going through the Straits of Gibraltar early one morning; on the way West we went through at night and - whereas the lights were pretty - the sunrise Eastbound trip was amazing. Find out from Guest Services what time you're scheduled to go through and if it's even remotely light out GO up on deck to see. (Side note: I could not believe how windy it was... be ready!) You also won't have as brutal jet lag to deal with so that's like getting an extra day in Italy beyond what you'd normally enjoy.
  24. I am a bit surprised they haven't started talking - even in general - about another World Cruise, but I assume they are going to make sure this one is profitable enough to do it again. I am going to be very interested in how things are going, especially as we are booked on a few legs this coming Spring. It is going to be a terrific way to see basically all of Asia with only having to pack/unpack once (yes we change cabins, but once I'm aboard I'm Royal Caribbean's problem and the stateroom attendants always do a great job transferring everything), as opposed to land tours where you are packing or unpacking every day or two... Side note to anyone who does back-to-back and changes cabins: we usually do a bag of laundry very late in the cruise and leave it in its returned sealed bag, then toss the various miscellaneous stuff one always accumulates on a cruise into a reusable shopping bag... IKEA sells one for a few dollars that could have hauled half my first apartment, plus we often buy reusable bags as an easy souvenir/gift - they are cheap and pack down to nothing. The batch we brought back from Greenland (logo'd with the local grocery chain) for all our neighbors went over like gangbusters.
  25. Yes, but has anyone seen Blitzen lately? They do have other types of encased meats available (including I think a regular old hot dog...) Also they have a "Reuben dog" that is worth the ridiculous mess to try to eat it. I had not known I needed sausage, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and thousand island dressing on a bun, but I do. Oh, I do...
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