ScottD

Well, I guess if you keep your phone off, it's a hassle. I already have my phone on, and usually have the picture of the boarding pass up on my screen while waiting to board. Again, don't use the app... a simple screen shot will always pull up on the phone even with no signal. The only reason I don't print them anymore is that I hate paper... I hate having stuff in my pockets, having to dig through my backpack or whatever to find it, I always have my phone in my hand

You can just screen shot it on your android, it saves as a picture in your gallery and easily accessed when ready to show it

I did this for one or two cruises then realized it was not needed (obviously if it makes you feel safer and easier about the trip, do it!). But I now have folders in my phone email app for each cruise, all purchases, third party excursion confirmations, the most updated invoice for the cruise itself, and a screen shot in my gallery of the boarding pass. I DO print that one page of the E-docs with the list of times and ports just to hang up in the cabin... but that's the only paper I'm carrying into the terminal other than my required Identification documents and cash!

There's a 15 day-er in March of next year if you wanna go to Europe...

YES... we tried Princess this summer, we absolutely LOVED the ship... we also, in our mid 40s, felt like the kids on the ship...lol

Unless you need to be pampered...don't rethink it. We did the normal old balcony room, no yacht club, on MSC and found the service, entertainment, ship, and food ALL comparable, if not some even better, to Royal. We have had nothing but great experiences on the phone, as well- I see a lot of people who have issues with MSC on shore customer service and I have yet to find that. I've called multiple times between booking, switching dates, changing rooms, and adding gratuities and never once was I on the phone more than 10-15 minutes, with super helpful and friendly staff, and as much as I'd hate to say this, all very easy to understand and communicate with. We actually did the oppposite as @teddy and paid a change fee to move our Symphony cruise this summer to another cruise next year (which we are now considering just eating altogether rather than add another change fee since that date isn't gonna work, either). We booked a B2B on MSC with all the extras for the same price as the week on SY with nothing included. We LOVE Royal, but as a single income family with a kid, the prices and what we got for it, is just too hard to pass up on MSC as the Royal prices go sky high.

Look at those WA cruises... I'm eyeing one up next March for spring break for three of us, at under $3k with the drinks\wifi packages. We are going to OC twice in a row this summer after missing it our first attempt on MSC in December. We were on Seascape, so very similar lay out and experience, minus the crowd- ours also said it was fully booked at Guest services, but either that was a lie or people never came out because it never felt crowded to us. Also, I've watched quite a few videos, it looks like they have 3-4 beaches if you walk around the island

Which, as someone who has done this a few times, I can say the line for Birth certificates is really no longer than a Passport line, it just takes an extra 1-2 minutes for the agent to physically look at the documents.

If you are a last minute person like we are, we always found a seat a few minutes before the shows if you go in through the upper level doors.. we sat right up in those last few rows with no problem every show

Phew, you guys are making my head spin! This is a lot of info... but now I wanna know what ship goes to Baltimore, I'd love to try a cruise out of there, even if it is an old ship...that's almost as convenient as Bayonne

I was loving all these pics, we saw this ship every single day sitting in the river here in Philly for almost 30 years, I work on the waterfront so it's been so strange looking across and not seeing those smoke stacks.

Up to this summer, we had only done Royal, but the wife and I tried Enchanted Princess and we loved it, great ship, a more relaxing cruise, we have a 12 (crap, he's 13 now!) year old and he probably wouldn't have loved it like we did- we are mid 40's and definitely on the lower end of the age group on that ship. We also tried MSC Seascape, and it blew us away. We weren't expecting much, you hear so many mixed reviews about MSC, but you'll notice most reviews of this ship are positive, and for a reason. It was beautiful, spotless, fun, crew was amazing, food was fine (we are easy when it comes to food), and they went out of their way to make sure you had a good time. We had an issue with our balcony door knob...it fell off... so I went to GS and just let them know and asked whenever they had a chance to swing by would be fine...no big deal. They sent guys up like an hour later, called us the next morning to make sure it was still working, and sent us fresh chocolate samplers from the chocolate shop on board TWO days in a row, AND sent a note to our room asking us to call if we needed anything else. The bartenders were all great, the shows are good... a little different because they don't really do actual shows, its mostly musicals with very loose story lines, but enjoyable for sure. By day 4 we were so sure we would do MSC again, we booked a next cruise out of NYC on Meraviglia for this summer, which a few weeks later we called and added a 2nd week to make it a B2B. This caused us to push our deposit for a Symphony cruise for this summer to next year since we were able to get the 14 night B2B, with drink packages for all 3 of us, and Wifi included for the same price as the 7 nighter with no packages on Symphony. We love Royal, but the price and what we got for it was just hard to resist for a second try.

I assume Wonder is set up the same, but our favorite part about that deck and location was the entrance to the 2nd floor of Music hall, we'd end our nights watching the band in there, if the kid got bored or tired he just walked down the hall, if we turned in early and I was still itching to hang out, I could walk right over there, and when we had enough Journey (back in the tribute band era, lol) we could just walk a few doors down and be back.

I just read on here that they are going to start docking in Ponce this summer

We loved our boardwalk balcony...we were in 9705. The only issue we had was the bell from the carousel, but even that we ended up not noticing after a few days

And then the room attendant comes in 2 minutes later and you're like, ALL YOURS...I'm heading out!

I got lucky a few times on DD, we used it for a Slot pull and we all won about 60 bucks, then I sat at the same machine later that night and hit about $350. I THEN saw a post on our FB group for that sailing and someone else hit a major jackpot on the same machine.

My kids school JUST got central air... they can't even put window unit AC's in a lot of the schools because they are so old they need to rewire them which would cost a ton. Jalen Hurts paid for 10 schools to get window units last year, so they picked schools that could actually handle the load.

They claim enough schools now have AC, so that's why they are going through with the pre-labor day opening. Yes, that crazy long Christmas holiday was very nice! The school district actually emailed me the next two years worth of calendars so at least I have something to work with now. They aren't "official" but they are supposedly voting to approve them this week.

Yeah, lesson learned for sure. Here I am trying to save money by booking at the very end of the summer, and it ended up costing me more in the long run

We have the 14th-18th,so just the week, and weekends so a total of 9 days. no Friday before or Monday after. The following two years it looks like its the same, just the one week, but apparently if they started after Labor day, it would cut them back to just 3 days for Spring break (5 with the weekend)

They claim the teachers voted for this (parents voted for post-labor day starts) because it gives an extra few days of Spring break, and they'd rather have the longer mid-year break than start a week later. I'm fine with it, I just wish the new superintendent didn't go out of his way two years ago to say we'd always start after labor day due to heat and lack of AC in a lot of schools.

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll just cancel and worry about it later at this point. And even if I decide to reschedule again, I have plenty of time to make that decision and just let the current reservation linger until I figure out what we want and can definitely do.

Thanks, yeah we originally moved from an OV balcony on Symphony to a surfside view room on Icon, at this rate to keep me from bleeding out anymore money we will end up in an interior room on a smaller ship!

Ya know, I was thinking the same thing, and usually do take him out for a week of school for vacation, anyway. BUT it's the first week of High school, and I feel like that's a bit more important so he can get to know his way around and meet people. Otherwise, I'd say oh well, we're going! lol