AandD

2 hours ago, teddy said:

21 days. 
 

We gotta get those numbers up. 

Thanks to double points, the wife agreed to 3 cruises and 21 days also. Now I have to figure out how to keep those numbers.

On 12/12/2022 at 5:48 AM, foxrunner said:

Is this your 1st time going to Alaska? If so and you think you'd like to go back, I'd go with the convenience of Seattle. Bye the way you will want to go back! 2nd cruise one way out of Alaska with a land tour. Start saving now as it isn't cheap. 

Thats us. We did a cheap one right after restart out of Seattle. Didn't have to mess around going to Canada. Seattle transportation is easy with uber. The one week inside passage gave us a good taste for Alaska.  Now saving for one way with land tour. 

7 hours ago, culebron said:

I canceled several drink and internet packages on 11/18 and rebooked them with the sale then.  I just got my refunds today posted on my CC.  It seems it took 14 business days (remember the Thanksgiving holiday in between there).

About the same length of time for us.

6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

LOL.  Yep.  Gonna give it a go.  Gotta be some sacrifices once we are both retired. Quantity over quality !  I even have some interiors still on the books.  I have been slightly upgrading some of my casino comps but some of them are still interiors (at least, for now).

Try the interior with the virtual balcony.  The light is interesting at sunrise. 

Thanks for the blog, Neesa. We board Serenade Saturday at 11 for the same cruise. Hopefully!

So, we will be on the same cruise in 2 weeks. What are we supposed to do if we find a duck? I don't even know if we will look but was just wondering. 

Thanks Neesa. I agree with "Itinerary: Tour of the Bahamas, seriously a snooze fest but I'm sailing AND I Love Sailing!" We have the same cruise in 2 weeks. Did it because the price was right and gets us of northwest Missouri one more time before winter. Looking forward to your post. 

3 hours ago, asquared17 said:

i scored coco cay beach club passes @ 89.99 in the app for our symphony and harmony sailings. they wanted another $10 for odyssey next month and i'm too cheap/would rather put that into voom/key if i can.

except we can't get the key/voom on the app,,,, and it's showing as down for us (same as everyone else) online. i was afraid if i didn't grab the beach club pass, i'd never get it. figured we could cancel it if we had buyers' remorse.

We got the same price for coco beach club next fall on the Wonder. Also Voom Surf and Stream at $13.99 on Quantum from Hawaii next spring.

1 hour ago, FloatyBoaty said:

Agree - I've had a mix of delivery times so far and I always tip literally everyone, but the time my bag came the fastest is when the porter and I were joking around as I made the handoff. Surely coincidence, but? 

Also - be certain you don't have any prohibited items in your bag so it doesn't end up in "jail"

We have usually had decent delivery times, but I agree with "tip literally everyone". I started carrying $1s, $5s, $10s. Baggage guy first. Stateroom attendant second. Then nearest bartender. 

On 10/12/2022 at 4:13 PM, FloatyBoaty said:

Booked this recently - anyone joining me?

There will be 10 or 12 of us from Northwest Mo. with you. Me and the wifes first time in Hawaii. Our first time on a cruise with extended sea days.

On 10/23/2022 at 8:08 AM, PG Cruiser said:

I wish port cities would expand this to include other pick up and drop off points.  When I visited Madrid some years ago, taxi fares to and from the airport were at a fixed rate, $20 (or Euro?) I think.  I've forgotten all the caveats but it was very stress relieving.

I dont know if you have been to San Juan but they have something like 4 different zones from the airport and prices are fixed.

We usually go. It is nice to meet some of the upper-level cruise staff. Last cruise the captain came out on a Zamboni talked a little and answered questions. I also like to see the people with the most Crown and anchor points get recognized.

11 hours ago, Jipis said:

Sailing the 8-night Enchantment leaving Dec 1? Us, too.

We haven't planned out either of the Bahamian stops yet. I'm thinking we'll hit (probably walk to) John Watling's Distillery. And maybe walk a tour of Parliament Square, Queen’s Staircase, and Fort Fincastle as recommended at https://www.pedalgoa.com/travel/cruise/things-to-do-nassau-bahamas-cruise-port/. 

As for safety, hadn't even considered it.  Maybe we'll see if anyone else is interested in walking those plus the distillery with us for some safety in numbers??

As for Freeport...  Not a clue. Maybe that'll be our beach day. (I'm really only good for one per cruise, as a not-a-beach-person.)

The only other thing I've thought to do is perhaps visit a fire station. It's a vollie-FF thing...

We are on the Serenade on the 3rd, else I would hook up with you. Thanks, anyway

Walk over and take a look at the Mikveh Israel Emanuel Synagogue on Curaçao. Also a little museum there. 

We have a cruise in early December that will stop at both Grand Bahama and Nassau. We would like to walk over and see the Queens staircase. But I have read that crime may be up in that area of Nassau. Anybody been there recently?  Has anybody done the Nassau Highlights excursion thru Royal? And any suggestions on Grand Bahama beaches or Royal excursions on Grand Bahama?  Thanks

We had an itinerary similar to that just before Covid. We had not been to any of those ports before. Felt like we had to do excursions every day. We over did it. If we had an itinerary like that again we might stay on ship 1 or 2 days. Or get off for a little while and walk around the port or lounge at the beach.

On 10/13/2022 at 2:57 PM, p5woody said:

We tried a CP balcony room, it was fun to try it once but probably won't stay in one again.  It was quiet and listening to music in the evening was fun.  Privacy was an issue for us, it seemed like we were always closing the curtains.  We love our oceanview balconies. 

I was wondering about the privacy issue. We were on the Symphony last spring, stayed in a virtual balcony room and  really liked Central Park. But we will still try the CP balcony at least once.

On 10/12/2022 at 7:28 AM, Coda_Sarah said:

Wow...good to know.  I am planning on staying in Galveston.  I thought there was only one hotel within walking distance to the already finished terminals, but I also am not sure if Terminal 2 will be further away or if other hotels are closer to it.

We didn't have any problem getting a Uber from out at the end of the sea wall the day of the cruise. This was for a sailing on the Liberty in September. I think 1 Carnival ship was also in port. But at that time Uber couldn't drop us off at the port. They dropped us off across the street and we walked a block or two. It wasn't a problem. Not sure if that is still true.

I don't know about NJ but the facial recognition in Miami and Galveston made immigration real fast and easy this year.

We just became Diamond this year. So I only heard about what it was like with free drinks. We went in before dinner a number of times on the Independence. Not to crowded, talked to a lot of nice people. I think I like it this way with the vouchers. 

54 minutes ago, Rob&Ana said:

This is really sad, slowly Royal is pushing out it's best employees. The same thing is happening on the ships. It really is too bad, the question is how much are we willing to accept before we look elsewhere....

I hope not. We like cruising and like Royal Caribbean service. But it's not hard to spend our vacation dollars doing something else.

23 hours ago, mac66 said:

We're diamond. Just need 11 more cruises to get to D+ so maybe in 5 years we'll make it at the rate we do cruises.  Less if we do a Jr. suite once in awhile.  We do have two cruises coming up. One in early Dec, one next Feb.

The issue is we've been all over the east, west and southern Caribbean multiple times so that means Europe, the med, maybe Alaska. We spent a month in Alaska camping a couple years ago we've never cruised there.

You forgot Hawaii. We have done about the same thing as you. So next is Hawaii. Then hopefully off to Europe or Mediterranean . 

Thanks teddy

This is our first time out of Galveston. We have cruised out of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami a number of times. Miami was really fast coming and going in May. We have a 10:30 arrival time. Not in a hurry to board but are they going by arrival time ? Or is boarding fast enough that its not a problem ? Coming back we have to catch a ride at 9:15. We dont mind carrying our own luggage off but how is customs ? Thanks

5 hours ago, WoodsTravels said:

New to this RCCL. reading all the great info on this MEI. Are they a really good agency? Should DH and I use a TA for our future cruise? We have never really used one, just always booked them on our own. They sound wonderful. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

We use a TA from different company even though MEI sounds great. TAs are great. Best price for a cruise ? I dont know, he takes care of us and dont worry about it.