monorailmedic

One challenge to keep in mind is luggage. If you're using luggage valet, then this becomes a non-issue, as ideally you don't want to tour Ft Lauderdale carrying all your bags. Staying close to the port, you could look at the Ft Lauderdale Beach area. Starting at The Elbow Room and going north leaves you countless bars, restaurants, people watching, etc. If you want a quieter beach/boardwalk experience go south to Hollywood Beach. If you're "beached out", then you can head to Las Olas, a shopping and dining area near downtown Ft Lauderdale, where you can also find a near children's museum, and some small historic sites. Other completely random suggestions: New York Grilled Cheese - awesome grilled cheeses (many options) and decent beer selection. Funky Buddha Brewery - fantastic beers and a good restaurant, all while being reasonably priced and spacious. Across the street from FB (literally like 20 feet away) is 10th Level, a video game bar. Looking for uppers rather than downers? Alchemist Coffee has great coffee in a unique environment with indoor and outdoor seating. Let us know what type of things you're looking for and I might have some better suggestions.

Ding ding ding. I remember years ago DCL wanted you to be able to download their Navigator app easily from the ship, so they whitelisted certain domains which were required for the app store and app market. As a consequence of their "less than clean" methodology, gmail and google talk worked. BTW, for those finding this thread later on and wondering about staying in touch at sea, check this out: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise

I think when you see situations like this, where a GTY is more costly, the general cause is simply that rates have been adjusted, and no one changed the GTY rate b/c well, it just wasn't important. If someone wants to pay a higher rate for a GTY they can, but few will - especially if the GTY is priced higher than the highest category within that stateroom type (meaning that even someone magically knew they'd get assigned the highest cat, they'd still be spending more).

It's subjective - like many things, but I've found few people that think it's "good" thought plenty who find it "good enough." HAL does really great made-to-order pizza on deck, proving that floating is not an impediment to the pizza-making process.

Welcome! Costs you may not have yet paid for: gratuities alcoholic beverages/specialty coffees internet misc toiletries (aside from basic soap) shore excursions retail/merch specialty dining tastings spa treatments behind the scenes tours Side note and true story, when I was thinking of the above things, I thought, "I feel like I've read an article about this before." I googled, found an article...that quoted me after an interview. My memory may not be working well.

Welcome! There are tons of tips to be had on the site, I'm not sure where'd even start :-) You'll find a ton of drink package info here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/drink-packages This is where you can fund all the articles specifically about Enchantment: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/enchantment-seas That'll get you started. Reach out with any questions at all.

If someone needs to reach you they can call the ship from a regular phone: Calls made from land to your Royal Caribbean cruise (shore to ship) can be achieved by calling (888) 724-7447/(321) 953-9003 to reach passengers. The cost of this service is $7.95 per minute, and is chargeable to a Visa or MasterCard credit card. This is from https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/07/27/how-stay-touch-someone-your-royal-caribbean-cruise where you can find information about staying in touch. As far as the set sail pass, yes, if all names are listed you're good to go. Honestly, the set sail pass is more of a time saver than a necessity. You want it if you can print it, but it's not as if you'd be unable to board if you didn't have it with you. Now, your ID (passport, birth certificate, birth certificate, etc) - that stuff is essential.

Yup same exact idea. I'd say the primary difference being that a crew-member or officer reading this flag knows that it was put there by someone in management at corporate.

Generally this is a flag in the reservations system to make sure someone gets extra attention. The Hotel Manager will likely send a gift or two (sparkling wine, snacks, etc) and you'll probably get a call from him/her or a representative thereof. Others will see the annotation as well, such as the dinging room staff, guest services, etc - anyone who accesses your reservation.

As a guy who has some strange tattoos, I look forward to one day sitting down and learning more about this.

Click on your username in the upper right of the screen, then select "account settings." From there you'll see an option on the left (assuming you're on a desktop) which will allow you to adjust your signature. Let me know if you run into any trouble!

I'd very much like to try TUI and AIDA. They've got interesting products.

As far as scrubbers they know it increases the value of the ships, but *many* environmental enhancements to cruise ships are a combination of marketing (not to say they're not effective - just consumers demanding enhancements) and requirements by different ports. More and more ports say you can run diesel engines while berthed - gotta use shore power or in some cases turbines (one of the reasons several Princess ships started w/ GE turbines) - others have this as well. As far as brand overlap, while they don't want to step on each other it's less complicated than that - the separate brands exist in order to cater to different markets. If one wanted to steer toward the other's market they'd be recreating parts of the brand which already exists and is related.

Michael Bayley is the CEO of Royal Caribbean International, a cruise line. Richard Fain is the CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, a company which fully owns three cruise lines: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Azamara Club Cruises. They also hold a 50% stake in TUI Cruises and 49% stakes in Pullmantur Cruises and CDF Croisières de France. I'm guessing this is the source of the confusion, but if not, it may help understand the structure anyway.

It's crazier - you're actually 35x more likely to get Norovirus on land. Check my link in the 4th post in this thread (don't wanna spam everyone with the link). I was shocked while doing the research - I figured it was overblown, but I'd never have guessed that you're so much less likely to get Noro on a cruise ship than elsewhere. All of that in mind, I do realize it's cold-comfort to someone who falls ill on vacation.

I agree, they should send every new guests an email encouraging them visit this site :-)

There are a few variables that can affect things. For example, the size of the ship will greatly impact the amount of movement you feel, as a 25mph wind will move around Majesty more than Oasis (for example). The same is true for where you're sailing - as the shape and depth of the ocean floor and other factors affect swells. Another variable is how large the storm systems are. There are times the forecast may be quite bad, but if the storms are isolated enough, the ship may be able to sail around them, providing you with great weather - but views of a storm miles off from where you are. What ship are you sailing on? One consideration, depending on your route, is that the straights of FL can be one of the rougher spots, where the rest of the sailing may be smooth. There are some tips for avoiding motion sickness at the below link, as well as information on how ships handle seas, but in short, stay mid-ship, look at the ocean (somewhat contrary to what many thing), and keep in mind the things you can eat/take/wear that will help (ginger, green apples, sea bands, OTC meds, etc.) http://www.cruisehabit.com/first-time-cruiser-series-im-worried-ill-get-seasick-do-you-feel-ship-move-seasick

As Matt mentioned, there is a great thread on this. That in mind it may or may not matter as I don't know if RCI is blocking port 5938 or anything else which might keep TeamViewer from working (they weren't in September on Harmony but I can't speak to anything more recent or on other ships). Partially because of that thread I recently started using Torguard (I used to use PIA). Torguard has several methods of stealth VPN access (beyond just using 443), including obfsproxy. You can find coupon codes (I think I used TGLIFETIME50) that will get the price down to $24 for a year of 5 simultaneous connections, and if you tunnel through them you can connect without issue. Once I saw that some things were being blocked I started building up a few plans just in case.

In addition to Noro, it's flu-season. Winter is usually when we see diseases like this become more common all over (not just on ships). That in mind you're actually 35 times as likely to get Norovirus on land in the US than on a cruise ship participating the US CDC vessel sanitation program. Either way, wash you hands. Constantly. On ship and shore. http://www.cruisehabit.com/one-step-you-can-take-avoid-norovirus-take-cruise

Ocho Rios/Magan's Bay is about a 90 minute drive and sees many cruise ships, but RCI doesn't generally sail there (as they and a few others, including DCL helped work out a deal to build up and sail to Falmouth). The cruise port of Falmouth is arguably an extremely safe place for the same reason that I don't love it - it's a guarded mall. It is as much Jamaica as Labadee is Haiti. It's separated from reality and the rest of Falmouth, the only difference is you can't leave Labadee, but you can, as a passenger, go between the Falmouth cruise port and the rest of the city.

Great question, Wilson. While this is the first discussion I've seen about cancelling for that reason (which totally makes sense), I've heard many folks talk about cancelling the package once on the ship. I've even heard of people doing this after they've had a few drinks (they simply bill for the drinks a la carte retroactively). As such, I'm eager to hear others' experience, but don't suspect this would be an issue/bad plan at all.

Agreed. My point wasn't to suggest they're all the same and probably could have made a better point of that. Many people are understandably spooked by these advisories, though they don't inherently mean that someplace is categorically unsafe. I bow to your better explanation. :-)

Safety is of course something to be concerned with. Unfortunately, this happens every year or two in Jamaica. While it's always good to keep these things in mind, I like to remind people of a few things: 1) Cruise lines have no incentive to put anyone in danger. Quite the opposite. 2) The majority of people in any given country with security concerns wake up, go to work/school, come home, rinse, and repeat. 3) Problems like this are generally related to internal political issues, and as such, are rather isolated from touristy areas. 4) For perspective, The United Arab Emirates, Bahamas, France, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Germany all have or have recently had warnings issues to it's citizens with regard to travel to the United States of America. As when going anywhere, maintain situational awareness, don't venture off the beaten path, etc. Among the best ways of staying safe anywhere are to stay with organized groups where businesses have a vested interest in ensuring your safety, and are run by locals familiar with any concerns.

Depending on the cruise line you're on and your cellular carrier, you'll likely automatically connect to the ship's cellular network (on RCI it's ATT's CellularAtSea). You'll want to be sure that data roaming is turned off, as you can easily get a bill in the thousands without even actively using your phone. For voice it's pricey, but a dollar or two cheaper than calling land from your stateroom phone. Texts are in the order of $.10 to $.25 each. You should get a text from your carrier (free) upon connecting to that network (which is activated once away from shore) explaining the rates.

Agreed that for occasional texting it's not a big deal. So many people end up on a slippery slope of either overuse or accidentally enabling data that while I agree (and sometimes offer that advice) I've started to try and just keep it simple :-) I actually use SMS via ship's networks on other cruise lines where the WiFi isn't always as affordable.