Chickie95

Our check in was on the 9th. I live central time zone, so around 11pm, I launched the app and saw that my check in had opened. I haven't ever done this before, so no clue on what's changed, but I got green checks after completing all of my travel info and arrival time selection. I took pics of our vaccination cards for each respective vaccination section, but it is now gray, has an hourglass, and says "We are validating your record." The only area on there is Health & Safety, which can't be done until embarkation day. As a result, it has an orange bar at the bottom that says "Not yet cleared to board."

I've seen this article, or variations of it, pop up several times in the last month or so. The first time I went to read it, I thought I might learn something, since I am also a first time cruiser. Then I realized that I'm a VERY DIFFERENT kind of vacation planner (at least compared to the article author). Mind you, I fell behind in my cruise research due to some critical health issues, but once I was well...I was a research fiend and am still learning things. Our first cruise will be a group trip with family who are all avid cruisers and I've learned things they never even knew! Still, I think if you're well versed in planning vacations...any kind of vacations...you're probably going to dig into the details to be as prepared as possible, regardless of where you're going. I suspect some of this could be the author's age. I wasn't much younger than her the first time I started looking at cruises (eons ago) and I probably would have made a ton of planning mistakes or not planned enough. That's not to say all young vacationers are ill prepared, but it seems to happen more than with someone who has decades of trip planning under their belt.

Did you have any troubles finding spots? My original plan was to skip the hotel's package and just use RC's garage at PC, but I saw a video from a few weeks ago where it was full. The poster said they were diverted to an open air overflow lot and other commenters noted driving around the garage hunting for spaces. They blamed it on cruises sailing at higher capacity and multiple RC ships going out of PC. My fear is that what was good with this garage several months ago may no longer be the case.

I'm in a similar situation. We're also cruising on Harmony in July. Initially, I was thinking we'd use RC's garage, but I saw a YouTube video showing how jam packed it was now that ships are sailing with much higher capacity. There are two other RC ships also going out of Port Canaveral at this time, so three ships worth of passengers means a lot fewer spaces. I decided I don't want the stress of hunting for a spot in the garage on embarkation day. We're spending the night before the cruise at the Country Inn & Suites, which offers a package for parking for the length of our cruise and shuttle service. It was cheaper for me to book the hotel room sans package via Travelocity and then they said I can add on the shuttle/parking portion a few days before embarkation. Cost for the add on is $65 + tax. The reviews seem to be really good, so this is now my plan. If for some reason we can't get a good shuttle time slot, the backup to the backup plan is to get an Uber or Lyft and still pay the hotel fee to cover the parking aspect. Not sure what day in July you're sailing, but for our date... if I'm reading the port schedule correctly, the only other ship leaving Port Canaveral that day is the MSC Divina. So, not as many cruisers needing shuttle service.

Ours has been fluctuating for Harmony in July. I didn't even know this was a concern until I saw the recent video about the risk of not buying in as soon as you know you want it. This is our first cruise, so I missed out on it when it was $69.99 pp/per day (pre-watching the video). It jumped to $72.99 when I ended up buying (after getting educated on this) and it has since gone up to $77.99. We're going with family that are avid cruisers and they had no idea this was even a thing. At least I cashed in on a price drop for the refreshment package we booked for our kids and saved around $116. It seems that prices have been changing each Wednesday, so I keep watching just in case it drops again.