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We just got off a very short cruise and wanted to share our experiences with both the ship and the port. We flew Southwest the night before (Thursday) and stayed at the Best Western about 10ish minutes from the airport (FLL). The room was about $120 after taxes and fees with an additional $25 deposit. The hotel offered a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise port for $15 per person. We opted for rideshares instead of the shuttle because reviews had said that they waited a while for the airport shuttle at night. The rideshare was around $15. The room was pretty much what I expected for $120. It was clean. The decor is a little outdated and the lobby could use a bit of a makeover but that’s me being nitpicky. If you are sensitive to noise or light, this hotel would probably not be good for you. We could hear and feel every door open and close all night. The doors slam close every time. Our room faced the shopping center right next to the hotel which had a McDonalds in it. It would have been fine if the thick curtains closed all the way but they didn’t. Only the thin curtains closed all the way and they let a lot of light in. The hotel has a pool and a complimentary breakfast. We did not use the pool but my travel companion said it looked nice. We did eat the breakfast which was your standard hotel breakfast. A small selection of hot items, juices, coffee, pastries and bagels. It was good and kept us full until lunch. We took another rideshare around 10am to get to the port. We had an 11:30am check in time because that was the earliest I saw after checking the app a few times after the initial check in period. I was fine waiting in the port until 11:30 but I wanted to get there and be ready to board. A first for us was having to show our passports to simply get into the port area. At other ports, we’ve just driven right to the terminal. The signs for the ships were a bit confusing. Liberty was listed at both terminals 18 & 19 but was actually docked at 18. The porter at terminal 18 was very rude to the Lyft driver, yelling at him to pull all the way up and how they wished rideshares would be illegal. It was around 10:15am and there was only one other car in the area for drop offs. I’m not sure if this is normal or this porter was simply having a bad morning. We checked our bags and proceeded inside the terminal. No one asked us for a check in time. We breezed through check in and when we went upstairs, they were seating you in order of when you came in not by your check in time. Boarding started around 11am and was very orderly. They came to your row and told you when they were ready for you to go. They weren’t allowing anyone to skip ahead or go before their row. The terminal wasn’t very full when they started boarding. Maybe 10 rows of seating were full. We were on ship with drinks in hand by 11:15am. Our staterooms were ready by 1pm. We had an interior. We checked 3 bags. 1 showed up around 1pm but the other two didn’t show up til closer til 4pm. We did not see or interact with our stateroom attendant the entire time on ship. That was another first and very odd to me. We had requested one bed instead of separate beds. They did not put a single big mattress pad over the bed but instead used the twin ones so the bed had a big split in it where the two bed were pushed together. I was worried that the beds would be pushed apart or the seam would be a divot that would make sleeping uncomfortable. It did not so we chose not to say anything about it. The last night, instead of a fitted sheet over the mattress, there was only a flat sheet. So every time we moved, we pulled the sheet and mattress pads. I move a lot in my sleep so when I woke up, I was laying on the bare mattress pad tangled in the flat sheet that was acting as a fitted one. If it hadn’t have been the morning we disembarked, I would have said something to guest services about it. For meals, we ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer and dinner in the Main Dining Room. The Windjammer food was good for buffet food. And while it was crowded, it didn’t feel overcrowded. We always found seats. In the MDR we had My Time Dining with a 7pm reservation each night. On boarding day, I went and requested a table next to a window if possible. We ended up loving our table and were told if we wanted the same table to show up at 6:45pm each night instead of 7. We had Frank as our head waiter and Kudakwaishe as the assistant waiter. They were amazing. The first night, Frank heard us talking about how we wished we would have ordered the fried chicken to split and he brought us a plate with our meal. Whenever we ordered multiple of anything, they were always brought at the same time. Frank would also bring us something extra at each course. Our ports of call were Nassau and Perfect Day. We did the base dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon at Nassau. Before you board the ferry, which looked much newer than the last one we were on, you have to sign a sheet with your name and stateroom number in case anything happens. Once on board, the rows have numbers and someone comes around and notes which seat you’re in and you have to show your excursion ticket again. They do give the same talk about which celebrities are in each house. Upon arrival, they tell you what time your ferry is going to leave. I do wish that you were able to catch any ferry back instead of having to wait for your specific one. With the animal encounters booked through Royal Caribbean, lunch is not included. It’s $35 per person for the buffet lunch. Our ferry left around 9am and we boarded the return ferry at 1:30pm. We opted not to pay for anything extra and brought water and snacks for the lagoon. This was our first trip to Perfect Day and we had reserved Hideaway Bay because the tickets went down to $20/person which we thought was reasonable. Both Allure of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas were docked that day. Allure was there first and while we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship, we did get off around 8:45ish to get good chairs at Hideaway. It was maybe about a 5 minute walk to Hideaway from the ship but we’re fast walkers. They did have trams running every 2-3 minutes. We did get front row chairs close to the bathrooms, bar and food and far enough away from the DJ to still hear the music but not be overwhelmed by it. The ocean water was a little cold. I think someone said around 60 degrees. The pool was heated and it felt like lukewarm bathwater to me so I did not spend a lot of time in it. Even in the pool, the music wasn’t super loud. The bars get overwhelmed very fast, especially the swim up bar, so be prepared to wait. The pizza looked similar to Sorrentos so we opted for a fish sandwich and chicken sandwich to split. Overall, I was happy we only paid $20/person and wouldn’t pay more than $25. Disembarking was easy. We did self-assist and were off in under 10 minutes around 8am. We were in line for airport security by 8:30am. I would definitely sail out of Fort Lauderdale again. TL;DR- Food was good. Ports were good. Stateroom was okay. Hideaway was okay. Disembarking was fast and smooth.

Went to do the health questionnaire this morning because yay sail date but it has disappeared from both the app and the website. Do we think it’s a temporary glitch or is it gone for good? I was able to do the safety. And before today, the app had said to come back this morning to do the health questionnaire. I also checked my travel companion’s app and it was missing from there too.

I have 3 cruises on 3 different ships in 2024. One in 2 weeks, one in June and one in September and all three got to Coco Cay and all three have different base prices for Hideaway Beach.

I am 2 weeks away from sailing and was able to cancel and reprice Hideaway yesterday when the price dropped. No mention of nonrefundable.

$1773 for an interior on Vision out of Baltimore in June for 5 nights. I love Royal but these prices are making me have to look at other lines.

Or when a group of 3-5 people walk side by side going in one direction taking up the entire walkway with no consideration of people walking the other way. (This is a personal pet peeve of mine everywhere, not just on cruise ships)

About how long does it usually take for the website to be updated? The DBP is cheaper for me than the Black Friday sale so I canceled my previous order. And I received an email confirmation saying it was canceled but the cruise planner still says reserved. Edit: about an hour is the answer

I booked Giovanni's Table for lunch on one of my upcoming cruises during the Black Friday sales. But I find myself with some questions. The app says the dress code is formal- does this apply to lunch or just dinner? Can we order multiple entress and appetizers or is it strictly just one appetizer, one entree, one dessert per person?

My county recently put into effect that businesses aren't allowed to give plastic bags for purchases anymore unless they charge for it. They're attempting to reduce plastic in the world. Most places are only charging 5 cents per bag. But it was a shock when it went into affect without much notice, especially when I had a cart full of things and my reusable bags were at home. I can see charging 5-10 cents for a plastic bag but not over a dollar.

I saved $36 on Internet for one of my cruises so we'll call it a win but the big Black Friday sales are kind of meh for my cruises tbh. Some things didn't change at all. But oh well. we still get to cruise and save $36

Would it be cringey to ask the travel agency for a new agent? I’ve heard great things about this agency and would like to give them another shot.

How long should it take a travel agent to respond and fullfil your request? For example, I emailed my travel agent on August 10 about adding prepaid gratuities to all my current invoices. They responded in the same day that they would do it but took 15 days to send another email saying it was done (August 25). I didn’t receive my updated invoices to sign until September 19. That's over a month before the request was actually fulfilled in their system. This isn’t the first time it’s taken this long to finalize a request. I do know that the things I’m requesting aren’t emergencies and don't necessarily warrant a same day response and fix. However, there have been other minor issues such as me having to remind them when finale payment is due and they saying they have moved two of our cabins but only moving one of them. Basically, I don't want to be that person but I'm wondering if I need a new travel agent. I thought having a travel agent would alleviate some stress. I am not saying that my requests need to be answered immediately, just that I feel like a month is a long time for a request to be finalized in the system.

I picked these up at my local Walmart, on sale for $5 just this week. They take up a tiny bit more room than the ones you mentioned and have a cup holder

Beach Club passes dropped today for all three of my cruises in 2024. The cabanas with beach passes have been up for a while. April on Liberty - $235.99/person June on Vision - $283.99/ person September on Allure - $235.99/person Those prices are a little too rich for my tastes so we will be passing on it unless the price drops a good bit but I don't expect that.

They might also ask for your room number. All the bars did that on the first day of our cruise in May.

We did the Stingray encounter in 2022. You get to snorkel with them and feed and hold one. We had the first time for it and had a couple of hours (1-3) afterwards to explore/relax at the beach. When we got there, they gave us a specific time for our return ferry. There were at least 2 ferries for the amount of people doing the excursions from our ship. They didn't check anything when we boarded the ferry, just stopped letting people on when the ferry was full. There were ferries running all day. They have a sign posted that lets you know what time each ship is arriving and leaving. If you do an animal encounter and want pictures, ours took several hours to be ready to purchase. If you do buy them, they will email them to you. They also do a nurse shark encounter but I've only seen that on their actual website and not through Royal Caribbean. You can walk/hang out on the walkways that are above the areas where the dolphins are and can watch them swim. There's a pathway you can walk on that goes through a wooded area and it has signs about the native flora/fauna/animals.

That's fair. We were leaning more towards a late traditional dining time just to have a consistent time and because the groups wants the opportunity to eat together some nights.

I'm organizing a group cruise in 2024. It's going to be somewhere between 8 and 16 people all with separate reservations that will be linked together. Is it easier to do a Traditional Dining Time rather than My Time Dining? Not everyone will be eating together every night but we'd like to be sat together when we do eat.

I have 2 sailings in 2024. One on Liberty and one on Vision. Neither one are $89.99. We don't often do specialty dining because we don't find it worth it especially since we're already paid for all our meals. If we do any, we do lunches as they seem more worth it to us. In the end, you have to decide if it's worth it to you and that's a very subjective matter. For myself and my travel companion, we are content with the prices we pay for things and if it's too expensive for us, we simply don't pay for it. I've looked at other lines but find their prices to be similar to Royal's for the cruises I've looked at. I like the service I've gotten on Royal. The amazing staff and service I've received has made me loyal to Royal. I'm currently planning a cruise for my travel companion and his work friends and so far the general consensus is to use Royal. I'm sorry you feel you've experienced less than what you have gotten in the past with Royal and that's caused you to look elsewhere.

I would like to point out that as a 30-something adult, water slides, carousels, and bumper cars make me excited to cruise. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy these things. But I also understand that not everyone who is an adult enjoys those things and that with those things, that means there will be kids on the ship. And I'm okay with that.

Update: we couldn’t dock in Freeport because the ship we were going to take the place of was unable to move so we made the pivot to Nassau. However, we have now been informed that we have to stop in Port Everglades due to a medical evacuation of both a guest and a crew member. This is not supposed to impact our docking in Nassau. I’m hoping that crew member and guest are okay and get the help they need. This is definitely the craziest cruise I’ve been on. I’ve attached a photo of our route so far. I’m happy to be cruising and I understand that things happen.

Last night there was and Alpha, Alpha, Alpha call around 6pm. This morning we were notified that the captain had conferred with the Coast Guard to divert us to Port Everglades to disembark the passenger and he will come back with an updated itinerary. I hope that the passenger is okay.

We're on the Mariner of the Seas May 4th - May 8th out of Port Canaveral. As I was looking over my cruise documents, I noticed that the cruise documents say we're leaving out of terminal 5 but when I look up the Port Canaveral Cruise Schedule, it says we're leaving out of terminal 1. The only other ship in port on the 4th is a Carnival ship. It's not a huge deal as I'll be able to see the ship when we go to the port but I'd like to know ahead of time as I am a planner. So should we follow the cruise documents or the port schedule??

That is so smart! I'm going to try that.

With all the reports lately of the seemingly random confiscations of plugs, I've bought a couple more of the multiple USB plugs and plan on sticking a few of each in mine and my travel companion's carry on. I'm hoping that at least one or two make it through. It would be nice if there was a standard rule that the screeners follow.