tjcruisers

Welcome aboard. Be prepared for a lot of advice . When Matt wakes up he'll probably link some videos

Been to Jamaica many times. If you stay in the port shopping area or tourist areas you’d have no worries. The issues with Jamaica is usually around Kingston on the south side. One note is I found the drivers are a little crazy

I'm scratching my head what type of argument somebody could have during checkin to end a 20 year friendship. Usually people are quite happy at time as their getting the ship

After reading this, if true, I have a whole new level of respect for Royal customer service having to deal with this. Only thing I could fault Royal with is letting you and your friend on the ship in the first place

My last 14 day one only had 1 lobster night

Gotta love Matt. Checking out today's youtube video for Royal Caribbean Blog titled "The worst cruise ship cabins?". The people ask, he gives

So the OP books a GTY stateroom, then complains it's not in ideal location. The GTY being far cheaper than pick your own room would have been something that I'd spend some time investigating as to why (there is a reason). A few simple searches on youtube about GTY statements or what rooms to avoid yields 100's of videos

Been there twice, first time got the ship, second stayed on exactly for the reasons Matt brings up. First time made it to the 2nd shop and said screw this shit. Out of all the ports I've been to it's definitely been the worst experience

Do it now, pay a little extra to be it expedited. If you've already made final payment, too late to really cancel

An Under Armour duffel bag. Fits in the overhead compartments on planes. Can easy hold 5+ days worth of clothes/toiletries for a trip (use it when I go away for the weekend). When in port use it to carry towels and such. Wife on the other hand, she packs like were going on a 5 year mission to mars

Used the tag covers, definitely worth the money

Yep. I should have also mentioned that while on my last cruise that had it, during the captain Q&A the priest thanked the captain for allowing him to do it and the captain thanked the priest for doing it. At that point many hands went up complaining why nothing was done for their religion (ended up highjacking the Q&A).

On our last cruise they had a priest who was travelling and offered to do mass. It was in the cruise compass from what I remember. Having said that I would think having it on the message board should be sufficient.

We haven't done a cruise just to get points, really do to not living anywhere near a cruise port. We are looking at buying a vacation house in Florida which would make it easier to do so.

Ok, I didn't do mine on a cruise but just the local pool. On a few cruises I walked by and watched a few times, seemed to be far more relaxed than when I did it. Not sure if if our instructor was doing just the PADI course or if he was introducing navy diving stuff as well. Tinfoil thing (or anything to block out your mask would do) is we'd line the inside of the mask with tinfoil so you couldn't see. The instructors would put your equipment in the pool (which was 15 feet deep). We had to put the mask on, go down, feel around to find your equipment and then get dressed underwater. Another one was dive to the bottom with your equipment on, take it all off, including your mask and then surface. Take a few breaths, go back down and put it all back on. Some other crazy ass crap we had to do was swim the length of the pool and back underwater on one breath. Don't remember how many dives I did on my OW. Did it in a quarry in a place called Innerkip Ontario around early May. A little chilly Did a handful of dives on first day and I think they signed us off that night at dinner. I wasn't old even to drink at the time, but the adults had party they night for passing. Next day was an optional dive, there was cave/mineshaft they took you in.

How are the diving courses on the ship? I got my PADI cert back I the mid 80’s but remember it being like a 10 week course. Instructor was a navy diver. Do they do the tinfoil in the mask?

I've always been somewhat paranoid and screen cap/print the confirmation number. Just the had same thing happen 3 weeks ago with a big box home improvement store, never received the email. Sometimes the email client gets a little to clever when trying to filter spam emails. Does it show up in your history when you log in? We purchased a bunch of stuff Thursday night and they showed up on the CC Friday. If you not seeing, maybe it didn't go through.

Was a restaurant my wife and kids wanted to book. Booked it along with a whole bunch of other things

Reading your post your arrival is stressing me as well

Last cruise found the ice machine in the WJ would work on them, but almost no soda. On the promenade outside of Dasani they were stocked but the ice machine wouldn’t work

Bring masks just in case. There are cases you might have to wear them on the ship. In my case my wife got covid and was isolated. I tested negative. I was allowed to walk around the ship but I had to wear a mask. As well they have set up a cabin near medical to do covid testing. Anybody in close contact who tested negative has to go down and get tested every day (need to be masked up), you need 5 negative tested before they clear you as negative. As well we always took them when we got off the ship at ports (when she didn't have covid).

We were there a few months ago, just wade up. One additional world of warning, if you notice from the pictures half has shade half full sun. The shaded side fills up pretty quick. Those on the sun side resemble the colour of the lobster on your plate at dinner that night.

Not sure why they don't have it in the cruise planner, but we got of TA to call and add it or he might did it when booked (I let the wife work with the TA).

Not sure if it would make it onboard. I would think no. Thinking some of the stuff getting confiscated you wouldn’t want on the cruise ship as it visits other countries (ie firearms) For us we never had an issue sailing out of Florida, we ran into this sailing out of NJ. I chalked it up to Florida processing far more ships and the security down there being more accustomed to it

Ontario, but you are right, looks like they changed it last year (since my kid worked in restaurants). Used to be server staff had a lower minimum wage. I don't know anybody who ever backed out the GST or alcohol or even heard of that, then again when it came out I was still in high school so my experience was limited to fast food. I did grow up near the the border so I might be more Americanized then Canadianized