dmattinson

Sailed twice from Port Canaveral this year and only used digital boarding passes for my wife and I.  We have iphones on ATT and have had no issues with service to show the passes from the Apple Wallet.  Typically, passes in the wallet get loaded and stay there and will update as needed.  But taking screenshots is smart advice just in case (plus having the photos in the cloud is nice to have in case your phone gets lost or damaged in a rare incident before getting to the terminal).

now we'll see the local CL listings for "negative" tests for sail...

On my sailings from Port Canaveral this year, this is the brand of water we've been given:  https://truegradefoods.com/products/truewater/

Tastes better than local Zephyrhills water we have prominently in Florida.

I had a RoyalUp accepted to move to a JS for $75pp on a 3 nighter...then Royal cancelled the sailing.  

I'd say now that RoyalUp will either be limited in offerings, have steep upgrade costs, be offered to higher C&A tiers, or vanish completely as bookings are up and ships are sailing with fewer open rooms left on board.  

I do the following and generally wait to the end of a typical 7-day cruise (note, I am generally on the Deluxe Bev Pckg)

Stateroom attendant (just 2 adults that keep a clean room) - $20 on 1st sea day and then anywhere from $20-$50 on last full day (in evening for turn-down) depending on how good the service was

Waiter / Asst. Waiter - $20-$40 ea (in envelope to avoid alienating the other tablemates as I don't discuss tipping with them typically) depending on how they handled us during the week - fast but efficient (and correct) gets a little more, slow and non-attentive gets less but they always get something (I haven't had consistently bad service on board and if I do during 1st night, I ask to change tables like I did when one of the servers was doused in very cheap aftershave that gave me a headache)

Bartenders / drink waiters - If I park in a lounge for a majority of the week, on the last night I'll go in and spread the tips among the entire staff - again, drink package has the gratuity built in but I will give them extra.  I spread around about $100 in the Boot and Bonnet on Harmony last time including the entertainer.  Otherwise, if I hit a place a few times throughout, they'll get $5-$10 if they remember me (I'm hard to forget) and make the drinks good.

I don't tend to take tours but if I do, depending on the service, $5-20 for two of us.  A bus driver that picks up and drops off gets less.  A guided tour with someone that engages the whole time gets more.

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

The bar for cheesesteaks here is understandably low, lol, but not Cococay low. Can find passable ones but nothing any of us would consider "good." I've found places that actually import Amoroso rolls... then their meat is awful. Found a deli owned by a family from Pittsburgh whose kids when to PSU, great meats... roll was as soft as a hot dog bun though.

 

Have you tried Daniel's on E Plant St in Winter Garden?  Best I've found around here...  Joe's Pizza in Ocoee is the best pizza I found.

On 8/17/2022 at 4:48 PM, OCSC Mike said:

I grew up outside Philly, so no comment on the "steak sandwiches", lol, but glad you enjoyed them. I've never actually tried one to be fair.

I don't get to eat Mexican much at home as my wife is picky so any all you can eat taco set up tastes good to me. Freshly making the tortillas is a nice touch though.

That said, what you missed were the "snack shacks." One is between the pool and Chill Island. There are also snack shacks in the water park and on South Beach.

They're really just small counter service places but they have great fried chicken sandwiches, mozzarella sticks, and the aforementioned funnel cakes.

I like the chicken sandwiches how they come but one hack is to get a plain one and put the mozz sticks and marinara on top for a chicken parm sandwich.

Where about?  I grew up in the city, lived in Lansdale and Newark, DE (and worked in Langhorne and Newtown). 
 

Those chicken sandwiches are good with a little mayo. I’ll have to try the mozzarella and sauce now

5 hours ago, ZMANATL said:

Currently my cruise has a 30% off Deluxe package.. priced at 67.99..  that's the lowest I've seen.. course I booked cruise after Black Friday and will sail before this coming Black Friday..  30% seems to be max off outside the biggest sales. Am I correct? 

That’s a pretty good price. I’d buy it at that price. 

Thanks to @Lovetocruise2002 for pointing out a very good deal on suites on a 12-night repositioning cruise, I am booked on this sailing.  Itinerary looks great and sailing on this class of ship will be a new experience for me, as well as sailing in an Owners' Suite.

Did anyone else book this one?

26 minutes ago, teddy said:

There are currently a decent selection of cabins available, but if we wait until flights are available to look at in October ‘23, the cabin type we want might not be available anymore. 

I think this one came up as being cheap and having availability because there was a planned cruise for Northern Europe leaving on Sept 10, 2023 that was cancelled and the ship was rescheduled on this itinerary. 

6 hours ago, dmattinson said:

I ran it by the wife and she said “nope!”  
she’s from Boston and is concerned that once word got out, it would be expected that she makes calls to the family in the area before we head back to Florida. 

I talked her into it. We booked the last 1BR owner’s suite. It was too good of a deal to pass on. We haven’t been on a Radiance class yet and the stops are all great. 

1 hour ago, teddy said:

lol

 

....and now I have to convince my wife this is a good one us to book event though we're headed to Italy in October 2023 for a 7-night....I wonder if she'll buy into the fact that it ends in Boston, and that's only a couple hours from home??

I ran it by the wife and she said “nope!”  
she’s from Boston and is concerned that once word got out, it would be expected that she makes calls to the family in the area before we head back to Florida. 

Itinerary:

2 cruises this year as gold, no offers in my cabin. Something to look out for next time…

I saw someone make it into the terminal at Port Canaveral with a bag of tortilla chips and salsa, crack them open while waiting (at 10:45-11A) and proceed to have the family come and partake in the feast.  If its sealed and doesn't set off the detectors, I'm sure you can make it on with it.

The only cruise I've been successful on RoyalUp was one that got cancelled  

I have only done a cruise before the holidays (as the price is usually better for the period after Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas - This year Dec 3-4 and 9-10 seem to be lower priced in cruises I've looked at) but the ship will have a Christmas tree somewhere like the center of the main dining room and/or near a staircase/photo spot on the Promenade.  Islands will also be decorated in varying degrees.  I thought it was odd to celebrate Christmas and it be 82F and sunny.  Now living in Florida, I think its alright    Picture is from the restaurant next to the California Lighthouse in Aruba.

I've had cards validated overnight and on another sailing, it took weeks. If there is a problem with the image, they will give an error in the app and ask you to re-upload.

@mom2bat - I don't know if they take a picture of the vax record when you check in manually or not.  If they do, its getting "uploaded" somewhere regardless.

As someone that contracted COVID post a week long, Eastern Caribbean cruise in June but was fine after a April weekend cruise to Coco Cay only, I really suspect that the COVID cases on board and post debarkation is mostly coming from the ports visited.   Testing eliminates the obvious cases from getting on board.  New variants are contagious but lighter in symptoms.  I was tired for a couple days, had a head cold and irritating cough.  My wife was down a little longer but as someone with diabetes, she tends to take a little longer to get over things.  She was feeling tired on debarkation day and tested positive the day after, it took me 3 days post to test positive.  I could have got it from her or from anyone else.  I figure though it was the shops in Sint Martin as that was 5 days before I tested.  If people were incubating prior to the test, there would be a lot more sickness early to mid cruise vs. those coming down with it with 1 day left or post cruise.  

I fold then roll.  I wear the bulkiest shoes I am bringing (usually sneakers) and limit my other footwear to 1 flip-flop/sandals and 1 dress shoes. 

I can get 1 week of big and tall clothes in my carry-on.  Its bulging a little (extender zipper isn't unzipped) but I haven't been stopped by an airline since I gave up flying Frontier a while ago.  I don't bring a dinner jacket and keep my clothes to lighter fabrics.  My shorts aren't bulky cotton cargo style, they are polyester golf shorts.  My shirts are lightweight fishing shirts and dry-fit polos.  Socks get stuffed inside my dress shoes.  My toiletries get limited to a quart sized zip-lock bag.  Travel bottles are key!  Medications go into a pill by day holder (flat).  If I pack it right, I can do layers with dress shirts and khaki's on top folded only and not rolled.  Underwear goes into the flap zipper pouch.  On the outside, my bag has an upper small pouch and a larger lower pouch.  I can get my size 14 Olukai flip-flops in this pouch. Having clothes made with fabrics that don't wrinkle easily (or un-wrinkle when hung) is helpful.  Even with this, I find I still come home with clean clothes because on a swim day, the non-swimming outfit will get worn portions of two days as they don't get that dirty.

I travel for work frequently enough that having Global Entry (comes with TSA Pre) makes sense for the once or twice a year international trip and skipping the customs lines when coming back into the US (and for $15 extra, its a no-brainer).  The TSA Pre is valuable to me because, as a stocky gent, going through the body scanners has always flagged something that requires me to get the full frisk treatment pretty much every time I flew, not to mention, the lines stink in MCO, my home airport.

Now, I just take my phone and wallet and put them in my bag, take off my watch as well and drop my carry-on and back-pack on the belt.  Walk through the scanner (make sure to avoid bumping the sides as that makes it go off every time) and collect my things.  As people have been complaining about 45-60 min waits, I am frequently at the gate 20 mins after I park the car in the garage.  Time savings is huge and worth the $$!

Your time is what you make of it - and if you say you had a poor experience, you have to assume some of that blame.

Saying things like "no one could tell me how the dining package worked" tells me that you weren't asking the right people.  Did you even look in your app?  I find that to be very self explanatory for booking shows and dining venues once on board.

Yes, pools are crowded.  Yes, chairs are hard to come by.  Did you try the solarium?  Did you wake up early to stake your claim on the chairs? (its all part of the game)

Cabin steward harassed you about muster?  It sounds like you didn't follow instructions, didn't watch the videos, and didn't check in at your station.  The cabin steward came to your room to ensure compliance per Coast Guard regulations.  The ship can't leave without muster being performed for all guest.  You should have been scolded, not praised for waiting to be tracked down for that.

Did you review the Cruise Compass paper that was left in your stateroom to tell you what was going on and when?  Yes, bars fill up on sea days for trivia and in the evenings for sing-alongs.  Theatres get busy (but your reserve a show so you get a seat) and if you want a good place to watch the show, arrive early.  But unless you are sitting behind a support column, you aren't really going to have a terrible seat.  Arriving early is part of the game...get a drink and talk to others.  Be a traveler, not a tourist.

St. Thomas cruise port - yeah, its a pier with some shops...about 1/3 of which are shuttered.  But you failed to mention whether you left the pier, hopped a taxi and explored.  If you took an excursion here and had a bad experience, did you talk to the excursion folks and inquire about a refund?

Unless there was a crew switch-over in 3 weeks on the Harmony, I find your comments hard to believe.  On the Jun 5-12 sailing, I found the staff to be friendly, courteous, and happy.  They often went out of their way to engage me.  Now maybe I have a bit more experience understanding the personalities that tend to be attached to folks that come from SE Asia and India from my decades of working with folks from that part of the globe, but they went out of their way to engage me.  Courtesy is a two-way street.  If you smile, say hello and ask how their day is, you become one of those people they engage with.  If you bark out your order and don't say "please" and "thank you", then you get what you give.  

As far as Sorrento's, I find the line to move fast, the pizza to be decent (for quick service on a cruise ship) and the staff to be as courteous as needed for slinging pizza to thousands of guests a day.  

All in all, sounds like you may be a little reserved in nature, perhaps a little shy.  Sounds like you had expectations of a all-inclusive, wait on you hand-and-foot experience that cruise lines like RCCL do not provide.  I would hate to cruise solo on my 1st cruise with no friends / family with me (as an experienced cruiser, solo might be alright [don't tell the wife ]), especially if I were not an outgoing person.

One of my cruises I was able to get 3 pricing adjustments in a 4 day period this week. A sale, a meh “sale”, and another sale. Promos are different but base rate dropped the last two times. 
 

Another cruise I have w/ MEI changed on Thursday and I got over $200 off and my agent just got back to me for another $100 off. 

Not that I’ve seen but there are a few that go to Labadee and Coco Cay on the same sailing. 

I held my card off my last Harmony cruise (Jun 5-12) up to the light on my iPhone and it looks like there may be a spot in the bottom right that you may be able to punch inside the wire loop. Don’t know if that would make the card not tap anymore though.