letscruise

I do hope you'll reconsider and continue hiding ducks for others to find. Even as an adult, I get a thrill when I find or see a hidden duck. I'm not a duck hider myself, but absolutely appreciate the others who bring and hide ducks.

Are you seeing the charges to your credit card? I'm not, though I don't want to re-buy and then have duplicates. This is so annoying, year after year with this mess.

My new orders are not appearing in my Order History either - though my 2 canceled orders are showing. I have also not received email confirmations, though it's only been about 20 minutes since I've purchased.

I canceled my original Unlimited Dining package purchase and now when I attempt to re-purchase it says "Sold Out". Do you think this is a glitch or am I truly out of luck? I am so mad b/c I really want this package. I tried calling and the wait time is over 100 minutes, so I won't be doing that right now. Thoughts?

You MUST do this, OP! You will be so happy to have the extra space - I can't even imagine squeezing into a room with my two teens and husband. We have done two connecting balconies, two side by side balconies (not connecting), and one balcony (parents) one interior across the hall (teens). We were perfectly fine in all of those scenarios, though my control issues preferred the connecting, just so I could more easily make sure everything was okay. That was a "me issue". One thing I really love about cruising with teens is the ability to loosen the reigns in a safe environment and give them freedom they might not necessarily have otherwise. I think the teens on your trip would really think it's cool to be on their own and in their own cabin with you next door.

I recently switched from a balcony room to a Junior Suite GTY for a cruise next year on Liberty and I'm so excited to see where we end up! I've never sprung for the Junior Suite, but the price was right and it will be huge surprise to my son! I don't plan to tell him about the room until we get to actually go to our room (if possible!!). As far as he knows, we booked a balcony. I never even explored the cost difference between balcony and JS, but I think I will from now on. I need to book an 8-night JS for the double points to get us to Diamond. Enjoy your kid-free getaway, you deserve it and they will be fine!!!!

We arrived a day early and stayed at the Westin in Jersey City. Very nice hotel with a mall behind the hotel that we enjoyed walking through. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (very good) and walked along the water that evening. I would recommend this hotel if you were okay being about 20 minutes from the port and would enjoy walking around. We also stayed at Renaissance Newark Airport hotel and the hotel itself is fine. We ate in the restaurant for dinner, but nothing to do there around there in terms of walkability. We are sailing Bayonne in June 2025 and I'll either do the Westin again or just choose a nearby hotel as close to the port as I can get, depending on dinner options.

Mariner and Liberty are our two favorites ships - they just seem to be the perfect size for us. I can't wait to sail on Liberty in June 2025.

A New England/Canada itinerary is on my "to do" list, though with kids in school, it's not something I can do for a few more years. Thanks for the great review, I enjoyed reading it. We sailed Liberty a year ago on the 4-night to Halifax, and have it scheduled again in June 2025. We really like the ship, though we missed the Freestyle soda machines. Did they add them, by chance? Wishful thinking, I'm sure. We hate bothering the bartenders for a soda refill when we're used to getting them ourselves on other ships.

If you are thinking of Ben & Jerry's, I believe they were removed from ships about 2 years ago.

In August, I booked our transportation using Galveston Saltwater Moms. They were great, reliable, and I would use them again. You have a large party, however, so I'm not sure if they have one vehicle that could accommodate everyone, unless you're willing to split up. Worth exploring!

In August, we stayed at the Grand Galvez, which is at the beach in Galveston and walkable to dinner, the pier (rides, food, games), and shopping. We really enjoyed it and were fine flying in the day before our cruise--great hotel. You may want to add that location into your research! We booked our transfers with Galveston Saltwater Moms and had a great experience. ...and to the OP's comment about sailing every terminal so far except Galveston, we were similar. We gave sailing out of Galveston a try to mix things up, but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle for us. We flew from the DC area into Bush and the long car ride was a drag on either end of our trip - we had no trouble, but it's far enough away to feel like a hassle. We had zero issue with getting on and off the ship at the terminal, so no complaints there! In general, it would need to be the right ship and the perfect itinerary for us to opt for Galveston over ports in Florida, as a personal preference.

I would totally buy this on a hot weather cruise! Who says a blanket is only good for Alaska?!?

I have taken my son on a cruise without the other parent and never even thought of needing any type of consent paperwork. Good thing that I wasn't asked. Have another cruise planned for the two of us next year, and don't plan on doing anything different.

Unless you're willing to miss your cruise, I'd make sure to arrive a day or two earlier - what your friends decide to do is on them, but you should arrive in time to avoid any possibility of missing your cruise! Have a wonderful time!

One of our rooms on Anthem recently was a virtual balcony and I wasn't impressed. By the time the sun set, it's just a big black fuzzy screen. We would pull the curtain b/c it's pretty distracting to look at. Going forward, I'm not sure I would pay more for a virtual balcony vs. a simple interior room.

We always buy the drink package and find that we generally give at least an extra $1 tip when we are at the Solarium and ordering drinks (I think we feel guilty for literally sitting near the bar and still using the bar staff to serve us!) and in the bars in the evening (if not every round, at least every other). When we cruise, it's the one time we ensure we have cash on hand to get us through the week, and to especially take care of those serving us drinks.

Hi - I'll try to remember to do this for you. Would I do this transaction at the cashier?

That was actually the only show we enjoyed on Wonder, so as another poster commented, I would arrange your schedule so you can attend this one.

I hadn't seen anything on this issue, but did do a search of this site and see it now. We don't have any excursions booked at PC or Nassau, but agree skipping PC is fine with us. Our last 2 cruises were from there, so we are more than familiar with that port. We've never been to Nassau, but will just get off the ship and walk around. If you purchase an excursion on the cruise planner and they cancel that port, I'm certain Royal would credit you the charge. Check in is this week! It's going to be here before we know it!

How nice! I'm sure you will have a great time and if you found this site, you will find great information for new cruisers. Let me know if you have any questions, I was beginning to think we'd be cruising alone since no one had responded!

I absolutely agree with this one! In fact, it's one of the recent excursions, to include the Pirate Museum & Sky Ride in St. Thomas, that has made me now vow to only do private drivers and avoid RCL/organized excursions going forward. We just don't well in a large group environment, forced time at places, etc. When I want to leave, I want to leave....if I want to go back to the ship after only spending half my time somewhere, I want to be able to do that. With respect to Peggy's Cove, we could have definitely shortened the time spent at the Titanic cemetery to be able to spend more than the 30 minutes we were allotted at Peggy's Cove (an hour would have been much better though our bus broke down, so that probably cut into our time). In all, I think all of the excursions are too long and while I'm on one, I can't stop thinking about how I'd much prefer to be back on the ship.

No, there weren't any outlets. I think it's standard that there aren't outlets in cruise ship bathrooms, though I could be mistaken. In our balcony cabin, there was a very nice vanity right outside the bathroom and that's where I got ready with the hair dryer.

I spent time in the casino on our recent cruise watching my spouse play video poker. I really would have loved to spend time playing the slot machines, but don't know how to play and am too intimidated to practice with real money (or ask anyone - everyone seems so serious!!). I tried reading the descriptions on the machine, but that wasn't helpful to me. So, my question is - how do I learn to play? I did put $20 in a machine and "accidentally" lost it all on one play because I had no idea what I was doing and must have hit max bet. I have attended a couple of slot pulls, so I do kind of understand how that game works (I think it was Wheel or Fortune), but don't really understand the other games that people look so knowledgable playing. Does anyone have recommendations for slots (and the name of the game) that I can see if there is a "how to play" YouTube video or other recommendation so I can get a little smarter? Starter slot suggestion? How did you learn? Thanks!

I slept so well on Mariner and Liberty and loved the firm mattresses! On Wonder, I hated the beds (too soft!), so I guess it's impossible to please everyone. I enjoyed reading your recap - we really like Mariner and would likely choose it over Wonder. Please come back in May to recap your Icon cruise!