monorailmedic

Awesome advice (never hurts to ask) and neat review and pics.  Thanks for sharing.  Also, post moved :-)

Thanksgiving 2015 was full of drama at the in-laws so we stayed with my family in 2016.  Happy to say that things are better now, but when the 2017 sailings opened up we immediately booked a cruise to avoid reliving 2015. Glad we followed Matt and Billy's advice about booking as early as possible and got a great deal on a 9 night sailing (Labadee and the ABC's) on Navigator. We were able to get a Grand Suite for under $1600 per person. That same cabin last month was over $2500 per person and today the Junior Suites are $1900 per person. 
We arrive in Miami on Thanksgiving day around 1 pm and will board Friday morning. I have a couple questions:
Can anyone make recommendations on places to eat on Thursday that will be open on Thanksgiving for lunch and dinner?
Will they start decorating the ship for Christmas during our sailing?
Looking for excursion suggestions in Curacao. We have a reservation at a resort in Aruba and doing and snorkeling with Woodwind in Bonaire. The wife is more of a sun bunny. She enjoys the sightseeing seeing ride to and from the beach from the ship. She likes shopping as well. Obviously we will be relaxing on Barefoot Beach in Labadee. 
 

Awesome advice (never hurts to ask) and neat review and pics.  Thanks for sharing.  Also, post moved :-)

Special request: Please drag hilltop cabana closer to the beach. 

The same reason my cancelled sailings still show on my list of cruises...
 

The same reason my cancelled sailings still show on my list of cruises...
 

In the Caribbean, it's easy to use USD as it's accepted everywhere. In Europe, fewer places accept USD, but Euros are accepted nearly everywhere even in non-Euro countries. Keep in mind though that you'll always get the best deal outside of the Caribbean by using the local currency. 

Yeah, saw this.  May write it up in a bit.  Not too shocking as they've been doing well in Europe and Edge has got some great press.  Again, 4 Edge class ships at least - so we'll have plenty of time here.  Now, to warm up a CC for Europe ;-)

Sorry, I got confused!! The Edge is coming in December this year, was thinking 2019!  So now I'm really excited to hear all about it! Wish i was sailing in a few months! LOL

Not sure how many here follow @monorailmedic's blog Cruise Habit, but he recently put up a post discussing a fleet-wide refurbishment for Celebrity that will start in 2019 and is planned to wrap up by 2023. This sounded pretty impressive to me, especially as they indicated that on at least some ships they were going to not just refresh the decor of the cabins, but totally tear out a bunch and replace them with new designs and architecture. Plus changes to common spaces, a new sundeck and lounge, and more!
The timing is really interesting for me, as I'm looking at a 2020 booking and was seriously considering a few itineraries on the Eclipse. If that ship has its refurbishment towards the start of the cycle, I could have an even nicer experience than I was already looking at!

I think what you are missing is when you use wi-fi you are not calling internationally, you are calling thru the web,

Customs times vary quite a bit, and can be a bit longer on TA repositionings.
As far as the cost of a taxi, this article breaks down the costs via taxi, uber, and cruise line transfers, and goes over options for getting between several South Florida destinations.  http://www.cruisehabit.com/uber-lyft-cabs-shuttles-how-get-and-your-cruise-easily-cheaply

Customs times vary quite a bit, and can be a bit longer on TA repositionings.
As far as the cost of a taxi, this article breaks down the costs via taxi, uber, and cruise line transfers, and goes over options for getting between several South Florida destinations.  http://www.cruisehabit.com/uber-lyft-cabs-shuttles-how-get-and-your-cruise-easily-cheaply

Yup, @Matt did a great job researching that for us all! Saved me the trouble of actually booking a cruise that went to Coco Cay, taking the measurements, doing the table comparing features,...
Seriously, though, this is probably the best part of the site. The sheer wealth of actual research and reporting back to us that @Matt and others like @monorailmedic and @mpoole3 (not to mention @bcarney, @WAAAYTOOO, @RestingBirds, @KLAconQueso of course, @Sailor_to_Cruiser, and all the other veterans who chime in regularly) do for all of us. So when someone new comes along and has a question like this, chances are pretty good that someone on the site is probably going to remember reading about just that thing, be able to look it up and double-check everything, and give back the right information to help the person asking that question.
 
And with that, I submit what is officially my 500th post since joining this site 10 months ago. ?

To close this - I escalated, and escalated, and escalated until there was no one higher up to escalate it to ... and finally they agreed.  It took what I consider an inordinate amount of time for them to accept my additional money, but they did.  Now I'll have a balcony for 7 days to replace the 3 days in Old San Juan that we'll have to forgo pre-cruise due to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.  To top it off, my airline waived the change fees so that we fly in the day of the cruise, so all in all this was a good Monday. :)

It's an unfortunate situation, and if I was booked on this cruise I too would likely be frustrated by much of the uncertainty.  
Subjectively, I'd suspect that there'd be less of a negative feeling about this post if the subject didn't insinuate that uncertainty around a cruise vacation is in some way a humanitarian crisis analogous to over 3 million people being uncertain of when they might get clean water, medical supplies, etc. 
More objectively, with regard to the amount of time the ship would need to be cleaned - these ships have same day turnarounds every cruise.  They're cleaned, sanitized, etc.  The ships also generate their own supply of fresh potable water, so in a sense, the cleanest, safest place in Puerto Rico is likely Adventure of the Seas while she is in port, and there hasn't been a reason that the ship isn't able to maintain that type of operation at any point.
With regard to the scheduling and uncertainty, I'm sure that Royal Caribbean and everyone else wishes things were different.  If they cancel a sailing and it turns out they didn't need to be because the port re-opened and sailing was a safe and practical option then people get upset.  If they wait until the last minute to cancel that makes planning very difficult.  If they don't cancel there will be some who are glad their vacation is on, and others who don't feel they should be sailing for any number of reasons.  In a sense they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
In terms of reviews - whether for cruising or anything else, you can almost always find multiple reviews to back up any opinion.  This is great/this is terrible.  It's clean/it's dirty.  Service was fast/service was slow.  I try and look for the specific complaints or praises within a review, especially those points which are measurable and objective, and decide what those mean to me.  I also avoid giving much merit to reviews that give extreme praise or disapproval.  
For the record, I sail many cruise lines and haven't a reason to defend or knock RCI.  I've got no skin in the game of reviews.
Ultimately, I hope that if you want to sail, then you are able to without a hitch, and that if you don't RCI will work with you.  I can appreciate that at this point you just want to know where you'll be and what you'll be doing in a few weeks.  I hope you let us know how it all goes.

Bring them in your weekly organizer, you do not need proof, so no reason to bring actual prescription with.

It's an unfortunate situation, and if I was booked on this cruise I too would likely be frustrated by much of the uncertainty.  
Subjectively, I'd suspect that there'd be less of a negative feeling about this post if the subject didn't insinuate that uncertainty around a cruise vacation is in some way a humanitarian crisis analogous to over 3 million people being uncertain of when they might get clean water, medical supplies, etc. 
More objectively, with regard to the amount of time the ship would need to be cleaned - these ships have same day turnarounds every cruise.  They're cleaned, sanitized, etc.  The ships also generate their own supply of fresh potable water, so in a sense, the cleanest, safest place in Puerto Rico is likely Adventure of the Seas while she is in port, and there hasn't been a reason that the ship isn't able to maintain that type of operation at any point.
With regard to the scheduling and uncertainty, I'm sure that Royal Caribbean and everyone else wishes things were different.  If they cancel a sailing and it turns out they didn't need to be because the port re-opened and sailing was a safe and practical option then people get upset.  If they wait until the last minute to cancel that makes planning very difficult.  If they don't cancel there will be some who are glad their vacation is on, and others who don't feel they should be sailing for any number of reasons.  In a sense they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
In terms of reviews - whether for cruising or anything else, you can almost always find multiple reviews to back up any opinion.  This is great/this is terrible.  It's clean/it's dirty.  Service was fast/service was slow.  I try and look for the specific complaints or praises within a review, especially those points which are measurable and objective, and decide what those mean to me.  I also avoid giving much merit to reviews that give extreme praise or disapproval.  
For the record, I sail many cruise lines and haven't a reason to defend or knock RCI.  I've got no skin in the game of reviews.
Ultimately, I hope that if you want to sail, then you are able to without a hitch, and that if you don't RCI will work with you.  I can appreciate that at this point you just want to know where you'll be and what you'll be doing in a few weeks.  I hope you let us know how it all goes.

This is peculiar indeed.  I'd put it under the "call back and ask someone else" category, but perhaps your TA already has.  Do let us know if anything changes.

It's an unfortunate situation, and if I was booked on this cruise I too would likely be frustrated by much of the uncertainty.  
Subjectively, I'd suspect that there'd be less of a negative feeling about this post if the subject didn't insinuate that uncertainty around a cruise vacation is in some way a humanitarian crisis analogous to over 3 million people being uncertain of when they might get clean water, medical supplies, etc. 
More objectively, with regard to the amount of time the ship would need to be cleaned - these ships have same day turnarounds every cruise.  They're cleaned, sanitized, etc.  The ships also generate their own supply of fresh potable water, so in a sense, the cleanest, safest place in Puerto Rico is likely Adventure of the Seas while she is in port, and there hasn't been a reason that the ship isn't able to maintain that type of operation at any point.
With regard to the scheduling and uncertainty, I'm sure that Royal Caribbean and everyone else wishes things were different.  If they cancel a sailing and it turns out they didn't need to be because the port re-opened and sailing was a safe and practical option then people get upset.  If they wait until the last minute to cancel that makes planning very difficult.  If they don't cancel there will be some who are glad their vacation is on, and others who don't feel they should be sailing for any number of reasons.  In a sense they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
In terms of reviews - whether for cruising or anything else, you can almost always find multiple reviews to back up any opinion.  This is great/this is terrible.  It's clean/it's dirty.  Service was fast/service was slow.  I try and look for the specific complaints or praises within a review, especially those points which are measurable and objective, and decide what those mean to me.  I also avoid giving much merit to reviews that give extreme praise or disapproval.  
For the record, I sail many cruise lines and haven't a reason to defend or knock RCI.  I've got no skin in the game of reviews.
Ultimately, I hope that if you want to sail, then you are able to without a hitch, and that if you don't RCI will work with you.  I can appreciate that at this point you just want to know where you'll be and what you'll be doing in a few weeks.  I hope you let us know how it all goes.

It's an unfortunate situation, and if I was booked on this cruise I too would likely be frustrated by much of the uncertainty.  
Subjectively, I'd suspect that there'd be less of a negative feeling about this post if the subject didn't insinuate that uncertainty around a cruise vacation is in some way a humanitarian crisis analogous to over 3 million people being uncertain of when they might get clean water, medical supplies, etc. 
More objectively, with regard to the amount of time the ship would need to be cleaned - these ships have same day turnarounds every cruise.  They're cleaned, sanitized, etc.  The ships also generate their own supply of fresh potable water, so in a sense, the cleanest, safest place in Puerto Rico is likely Adventure of the Seas while she is in port, and there hasn't been a reason that the ship isn't able to maintain that type of operation at any point.
With regard to the scheduling and uncertainty, I'm sure that Royal Caribbean and everyone else wishes things were different.  If they cancel a sailing and it turns out they didn't need to be because the port re-opened and sailing was a safe and practical option then people get upset.  If they wait until the last minute to cancel that makes planning very difficult.  If they don't cancel there will be some who are glad their vacation is on, and others who don't feel they should be sailing for any number of reasons.  In a sense they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
In terms of reviews - whether for cruising or anything else, you can almost always find multiple reviews to back up any opinion.  This is great/this is terrible.  It's clean/it's dirty.  Service was fast/service was slow.  I try and look for the specific complaints or praises within a review, especially those points which are measurable and objective, and decide what those mean to me.  I also avoid giving much merit to reviews that give extreme praise or disapproval.  
For the record, I sail many cruise lines and haven't a reason to defend or knock RCI.  I've got no skin in the game of reviews.
Ultimately, I hope that if you want to sail, then you are able to without a hitch, and that if you don't RCI will work with you.  I can appreciate that at this point you just want to know where you'll be and what you'll be doing in a few weeks.  I hope you let us know how it all goes.

It's an unfortunate situation, and if I was booked on this cruise I too would likely be frustrated by much of the uncertainty.  
Subjectively, I'd suspect that there'd be less of a negative feeling about this post if the subject didn't insinuate that uncertainty around a cruise vacation is in some way a humanitarian crisis analogous to over 3 million people being uncertain of when they might get clean water, medical supplies, etc. 
More objectively, with regard to the amount of time the ship would need to be cleaned - these ships have same day turnarounds every cruise.  They're cleaned, sanitized, etc.  The ships also generate their own supply of fresh potable water, so in a sense, the cleanest, safest place in Puerto Rico is likely Adventure of the Seas while she is in port, and there hasn't been a reason that the ship isn't able to maintain that type of operation at any point.
With regard to the scheduling and uncertainty, I'm sure that Royal Caribbean and everyone else wishes things were different.  If they cancel a sailing and it turns out they didn't need to be because the port re-opened and sailing was a safe and practical option then people get upset.  If they wait until the last minute to cancel that makes planning very difficult.  If they don't cancel there will be some who are glad their vacation is on, and others who don't feel they should be sailing for any number of reasons.  In a sense they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
In terms of reviews - whether for cruising or anything else, you can almost always find multiple reviews to back up any opinion.  This is great/this is terrible.  It's clean/it's dirty.  Service was fast/service was slow.  I try and look for the specific complaints or praises within a review, especially those points which are measurable and objective, and decide what those mean to me.  I also avoid giving much merit to reviews that give extreme praise or disapproval.  
For the record, I sail many cruise lines and haven't a reason to defend or knock RCI.  I've got no skin in the game of reviews.
Ultimately, I hope that if you want to sail, then you are able to without a hitch, and that if you don't RCI will work with you.  I can appreciate that at this point you just want to know where you'll be and what you'll be doing in a few weeks.  I hope you let us know how it all goes.

Special request: Please drag hilltop cabana closer to the beach. 

Special request: Please drag hilltop cabana closer to the beach.