EM1016

It was a really great question and I also enjoyed reading responses. We're still a ways from retirement, but my husband is a saver. Even with our travels, we'll be ready (hopefully). It's funny how you mention the challenge of switching from that "cautious spending" to being ready to spend some. Our financial advisor is often advising my husband of this already - because he thinks my husband will struggle to "enjoy" the fruits of his labors.

We work at a university and my husband used to be in athletics. We both work at many athletic events doing stats (and some other things), so we stay busy with that in addition to our regular jobs. We don't really have athe opportunity for overtime, but if we did, I'm sure my husband would take it!

This sounds a lot like us...minus the vacation property and the kids. But we also work side hustles and don't spend any extra on our trips. We also have zero debt - student loans, house and cars are all paid off. We're mid-40's and solid middle class as well.

I think it's a great question. I'm not sure that we're "frequent" cruisers in the past, but we do have several cruises planned for the upcoming year. We do opt to stay in "cheaper" cabins because we just want to be on the ship. We have never spent a lot of time in our room. We also are able to travel at times when cruises are a bit cheaper. We don't have kids and we work at a university, so we can avoid the crowded times when others are constrained by kids' calendars. We have good jobs, but don't make a ton by any means. We live no where near a port, we're not retired. We do get a decent amount of PTO where we work. We make a lot of decisions in our everyday lives to save money because we want to spend it on vacations. We do not eat out often, don't go out to movies, etc. We're very happy and don't feel like we deny ourselves anything, but I'm sure our friends think we're too frugal. But, when I'm on a cruise (or other vacation), I'm not really worried about what they think. I guess it's all about priorities.

That's what I was thinking looking at the schedule. If we end up with a table just for us, I'd do that. If we end up sharing, I would feel a little bad if we show up late.

Thanks! We're on Vision, so small. And, it's just me and my mom, so we'll be able to move around quickly as there's only two of us to make decisions, etc. I had seen about the change in the menus (we've done one other RCCL) and am interested to see how that is.

I've mostly been on DCL, where show times are specifically spread opposite dinner and dinner tends to run fairly long, so I'm not sure...Our dinner time is listed as traditional dining at 7:45. I can now see activities in the app and it's showing the evening theater show at 7:00 and 9:15. Do we go at 7:00 and be a bit late for dinner or will we be done with dinner in time for the later show?

What informaiton did you provide in the email? Reservation number, etc?

I was coming to post a very similar question, I'll be checking in myself and my mom (who doesn't live near me) in a couple of weeks. A few follow up questions: Do I need just the passport information (number) or an actual photo of her passport? Can I add a credit card number for each person so that we have separate charing, or would I need to do that once on board? For the "selfie", I just need a head shot other than her passport photo? Thanks for the help!

Thanks, Matt! Those are helpful. I'm happy to report we're all good on the advice from the "Cruise Mistakes" video and agree with the veteran cruise advice as well!

Thanks! I have actually seen the helipad in some videos, but had forgotten about it. It's good to know how to get there.

Sounds like perfect tips for us! The Solarium pool is on my list and we do enjoy walking around looking at Art, so that's a great tip. I will definitely check out the slides. Hopefully I can get my husband on them, too! How do we make reservations for the show? In the app when we board?

Thanks, we are stopping at Coco Cay and are really looking forward to that!

We'll be doing our first RCCL cruise (Independence of the Seas) in a couple of weeks. We've sailed on 6 Disney cruises, but this is our first on Royal. It's only for three nights and we're mostly excited to relax and explore. That being said, we don't want to leave and think, "if we'd only known..." What advice do you have to help us avoid any "rookie" mistakes? Do we have to make reservations for shows? Any must-do snacks or treats? Activities that you've loved? FWIW - we're two adults with no kids. Not big drinkers or gamblers. For this trip, we're not planning on doing any specialty dining or big "extras". We're more looking for what's included that we should check out and explore. We'll save "extras" for the next time around!

Thanks!