dmattinson

We had an accessible room on 14 (14295) - I wasn't a fan...the zip line came right over head of our room and the teen area was right above just to the left of the room (when sitting on the balcony) where there were always teens standing and looking over the railing throughout the day.

I'd avoid deck 14 and even 13 to some extent closer to the base of the U.  

5 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

You left your cabin without checking for your wallet?  

Right?  It's like a ritual every time I stand up...keys, phone, wallet pocket check - if I have my passport, it goes in my pocket with keys or if I'm wearing a shirt with pockets, in my left breast pocket.  

iphone had issues earlier - told me I had the wrong password...so I changed it and was able to log-in after that

Port Canaveral - Wonder on May 12 - 10:30 check-in attained

On 3/23/2024 at 7:48 PM, smokeybandit said:

I got off Adventure (8 night) this morning. A guy near me wore a different Detroit Lions shirt all 8 nights. That's fan devotion.

I'd do the same with the Eagles...I say that man is a true fan.  #GoBirds

38 days to go!  Hope everyone was able to secure their show bookings and got a good time for boarding!  

I did 12 nights on Serenade and I had no issues even with 5 or 6 sea days - Freedom is almost 75% larger than Serenade and there will be plenty to do

Just for perspective, Freedom is still larger than Celebrity's largest ships.  It's a big ship in the world of cruising despite its age.  

13 minutes ago, Biaggio said:

Money making opportunity for the photographer. Wear what you want (within reason) , what’s comfortable. You are on vacation. 

Agreed - resort casual should be the norm for your cruise vacation (most likely to the Caribbean) and suits and tuxes kept for the transatlantic and cold weather cruises.  If a cruise ship has orange, pink, green, and blue ornamentation on the pool deck, don't expect anything more than a relaxed attire anywhere on the ship (and I know people do dress up, but some folks get huffy about others not dressing up too).

On 5/21/2023 at 11:12 AM, Liftedhands said:

This is the info I was hoping for on this thread. Thank you for sharing. I will definitely look into this when I’m Aruba. 

The Cigar Emporium in Aruba I tried to stop at in September but they were taking a long lunch and I didn't get a chance to see what they actually have BUT it is close to the cruise pier in the shopping center with the pink buildings, even closer than the LCDH. 

if you stop in Grand Cayman, there is a LCDH there on the street where the tender ferries dock and they are fine, but there is another shop a block or so off the waterfront called Old Havana Cigars that are legit and priced well enough for the current conditions.  They were cheaper than LCDH for the sticks I was looking for (Partagas Serie D No 4) by enough to be considerable.

Also, while the selection was limited, the LCDH in Bonnaire had prices comparable to Old Havana In GC.

On 3/13/2024 at 6:51 PM, CHRIS WONG said:

We have a 20% crew discount!

Not enough IMHO  

When they build that station, they are likely going to have to provision "cruise express" train-sets to cover the volume of passengers from Cocoa to MCO - I could see them setting up a service like Disney used to have where after gathering your bags post-cruise, you tag them at a set of kiosks or service desks like you see at self-serve stations in the airport check-in lobby and load the bags up with Brightline porters on specialized carts who take your bags on trucks/cargo vans or load up luggage cars on the train itself and provide streamlined luggage transfers to TSA and onto the airlines to put on the flights - talk about a "value added service".  If they coordinate with the cruise lines and get these kiosks set-up in an area of the ship, you might even be able to not worry about your bag before even getting off the ship (although the security logistics make me wonder how they will secure the chain of custody to ensure nothing gets placed inside someone's bag once the bag is set out in the hallway the night before). 

I'm curious, compared to guest areas, how are the crew prices for things like coffee and bottled/canned beverages?

looks like there might be a light or speaker there above and below the balcony - also, the balcony has a slight reducing curve to it as it transitions to oceanview rooms in front of your room which may be part of the "obstruction"

My last trip to NYC earlier this year had me take an Uber from LaGuardia to financial district and back the next day - $100 each trip.

If I was near EWR airport, I'd likely try to find my way to the ferries and then take a subway up Broadway from there...but if not familiar with the transit system, it would be confusing, especially with a person who has sensory stimulation challenges. 

I have sailed on Harmony, Oasis, Independence, Odyssey, and Serenade in the last few years - all of them have had metal ceilings in the bathrooms.

We hang our bathing suits in there across a few hooks to spread them out around the ceiling vent to promote airflow to dry them out - they fare better there than over the string clothesline

7 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Though if RC offered Cruise Cash the way Kohl's does, that could get dangerous

Well, there is NextCruise... 

Just look at the dollar amount - that is the price per person with all discounts baked in (it really doesn't matter on 2nd person or not as my wife doesn't drink alcohol due to medical reasons and I get the displayed price when I book it).  

My Wonder sailing has been $72.99 pretty consistently - hasn't gone lower (aside from targeted senior citizen sales which I don't qualify for) but does go up in the day or two when they aren't running a "sale".  Its like Kohl's...always a sale aside from a couple days every month.

On 2/28/2024 at 8:45 AM, TLane said:

Thanks for the recommendations! Yeah, I was planning to use the USB ports only to charge our mobile devices (phones/smart watches/earbuds). The only other devices we'll have to plug in are my CPAP machine at night and possibly my son's laptop. He's in college and will have some summer classes, so fingers crossed the ship wifi is good enough for him to join his online classes.

Do you have a recommendation for a room fan? Found several on Amazon, but I have analysis paralysis.

Yes - cheap enough to leave behind if needed but has enough performance to move good amounts of air and be loud enough to provide that white noise that some of us require to sleep

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001R1RXUG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

dang...I wanted my Emerald pin for the short time I will spend in Emerald status

32 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I would disagree with this. The promotion did exactly what they wanted. Ensured that people would sail during a time when most people wouldn't and rewarded those who were loyal. I don't think it made too many diamonds. Every time someone post the numbers after a top tier event, I am shocked at how low the numbers are. Shocked because people keep saying how that promotion made so many diamond or higher members. On any given cruise the combination of diamond and higher combined, are less than gold or new cruisers. I think it put people where they would be, had they not lost out on 15mths of cruises.

Saying all of that, I don't think there needs to be another tier. I know it is 525pt to get to the next "official" tier once you make D+, but the in-between perks are better than being recognized with a pin or some element. Its 25pt between emerald and diamond, why would they put another tier there, they would have to rework everything. Also by having diamond at 80 points it is realistic. That is only 11 seven-night cruises in a balcony or less.  Royal's program is pretty great, I just wish it was more standardized across the entire business. 

I don't know if it made too many Diamond members but it sure helped people that knew how to game the "cruise with confidence" promos that were offering essentially a no-penalty of cruise fare postponement and was giving people double points for booking during specific times (that often coupled with the cruise with confidence forgiveness).  I think it sped up the timeline for some cruisers that were able to take advantage of the lower fares and get the extra points while having a little flexibility in future cruise plans.  Those folks have all met the tiers that they were going to meet by now or are getting close to meeting the next tier and their cruise with confidence bookings are all exhausted.   I know I personally benefited from one of these double point promos getting 14 points for staying in a balcony room on a 7-night Harmony cruise in 2021 (after the original 3-night sailing offering that promo was COVID cancelled and FCC applied to a future sailing also carried the double points credit).  I also benefited from a surprisingly cheap fare for a suite on a 12-night repo cruise netting me another 24 points (I mean, the fare for 2 in a 1BR Owner's Suite was cheaper than 1 person on Star in a Surfside family suite).  But I'm still not at Diamond...16 more points to get there with a 7-nighter in a balcony in May and a 5-nighter in a JS in April 2024 which will get me Diamond with one extra point over prior to our Star sailing in Sep 2024.  

Prior to 2021, I sailed Royal 1 time and had only credit for 1 sailing from 2005 in the C&A account...since then, I will have sailed on 7 unique sailings with a mix of balcony and suite rooms to get to Diamond.  

If you park on the surface lot, stay away from the spaces with trees - I heard that some of the trees drop a sap-like substance that it brutal to get off and/or birds sit in the trees, eat, and do bird things on cars.

We were directed to a lot in front of the ship when we sailed on Odyssey.  My wife is disabled so we got a handicapped spot right along the fence (red Toyota hidden by palm).  The walk was short along a sidewalk to the terminal but we had to walk up the side to the front doors to enter (she has a scooter, I walked and MIL walked but took many breaks) - the red line is the walk and the orange circle is where we parked.  You can see the other lot shown too in the satellite image - the lot we would have prefered was the one across from the doors to the terminal but because we arrived early as people were still leaving, they wouldn't let us park there.

Any terminal will be busy up to the 10:30 check-in arrival time.  There are still many departing passengers waiting for pick-ups or Uber/Lyft rides up until 10:15-10:30 making the amount of cars coming in to the drop-off area significant as many are loading people up instead of dropping off.  

We did Miami last April for Oasis and took the tunnel in - it was backed up in the tunnel and down to the U-turn around 10:15-10:20 - once we dropped the bags off and made it back around for the garage, things had noticeably calmed as many of the pick-ups were done and the trucks that were bringing in re-supply items were in the load/unload areas and not backed up on the road. 

If I were leaving out of Miami, I wouldn't pick the 1st time slot now, I would pick 11:30 or so and have less traffic getting in to the terminal. 

Port Everglades was slightly less busy (and a little confusing on where they wanted us to park after the luggage drop off as we were there early), Port Canaveral seems to get people out quicker for some reason and Tampa seemed pretty well organized as well when we went out on Serenade.

On our sailings in 2021, we heard the song on the ship and a couple times on the island.  The last few cruises since, we did not hear the song at all.  

Just don't blindly go to an agent to book - get recommendations of specific agents from agencies before you decide to use one.  Just because there is a prefered agency in the group, doesn't mean all the agents are stellar.

The last thing you want to hear when messaging your agent is "I'll get to it later", "I'm working right now and don't have time", or "I was travelling and didn't have access to your booking" 

There are a lot of people out there that get affiliated with a larger travel agency because they want the commissions on their own sailings/bookings.  They started helping out friends and opened their availability to outside bookings because that commission is decent as a side hustle.  But they still have full-time day jobs, many professionally, where they aren't always available.  Maybe its just me but anything longer than 4 hours during the day or 12 hours with a 8P or later inquiry/request is too long, especially when you find a sale price.