Cactus527

Congrats! You got that early boarding time!!!

13. My youngest was 12 this summer when we sailed, so we fudged her birth year in the app so she could appear 13 and have access. Can confirm the messaging app is free to use on board.

...and she's now docked in Miami! This has been a great morning to get up early on the west coast and watch ship stuff.

Wow, I just saw someone do the Crown's Edge on the live feed. That looks incredibly scary!

https://www.youtube.com/live/AZCXd-luMiQ?si=OZLrFGRekJd7kbUn

I'm watching the live feed from Biscayne Bay (DoubleTree) and it's magnificent!

I think the last I heard from Matt was "by mid 2024," so there's no confirmed date it will start. It is not in effect yet.

You can use it for all of the things that you have listed. That money is redeemable before the cruise as well as on board. Most of the time, though, it will just disappear if you do not use it at the end of your cruise (you can't get the money to take with you). I suggest you hop on the Royal Caribbean cruise planner and start booking things that you would like to do/have with that credit. Enjoy your cruise!

All I know is that its arrival is at 7:00am. The "official" celebration is at the Perez Art Museum Miami (per various news articles I've seen). If you can go, enjoy! I'm jealous for sure.

I paid $33.99 during Black Friday, and it's still better than what the Cruise Planner is offering right now. I appreciate the head's up though, @OCSC Mike. However, I am also questioning whether I want to go now that I've seen @newcruiser215's video post above. It *looks* like there are quieter areas away from the pool, but...maybe? Maybe not? At least I have some time to think about it before cruising.

My cabin or the Solarium. I'm also a big fan of the comfy chairs in Boleros and the R Bar!

It doesn't make sense to have three icon class ships sailing from Florida. I think chances are very good that one of those ships will end up in Galveston.

I've been finding this fascinating. Anyone want to guess when most Floridians are getting spring break?

I just saw this available on my March 2024 sailing and hadn't seen any comments about it on here yet. It's interesting.

Cannot wait to follow along. You guys do some epic coverage of everything adult on RCB, but I know there are quite a few people that would love to know what's going on with Adventure Ocean, Surf Side, etc. for kiddos under the age of 12. Even if you could just step in and grab some snapshots, that would be awesome. Enjoy the cruise! I'll be living vicariously through all of you.

95% of the time, I pay to pick my room. The only time I have done a guarantee, I got my room assigned at final payment and it was just fine.

I love Cruise Mapper. The more I use it, the more I discover is available on the site. It helped me track Icon across the Atlantic, showed me what's in port in Nassau the same day I'll be there, gave me different itineraries at the touch of a button for various cruise lines, and so much more. Love it.

Absolutely interested!

It's funny that you mentioned this- we recently visited SeaWorld and they absolutely close the doors at showtime and not let anyone in after this show starts. This could definitely work in favor of the audience on a ship!

We fit two large hard-sided suitcases under 1 bed (separated) and three carry-on-size hard-sided suitcases under the other bed on Allure this past summer. For the two bigger ones, it went under top-bottom-top-bottom (if you're looking at the bed from above). For the smaller carry-on suitcases, those went in sideways so all the wheels were facing one direction. No problem at all, and I was concerned about that too!

I use Tile. Super easy to put on/in suitcases, and the app is particularly easy to use for not-tech-savvy people (like me). I programmed mine to ring Jingle Bells if I'm looking for it. Nothing like hearing Jingle Bells coming out of the luggage chute at the airport when you're trying to figure out where your bag is. One other nice thing about the Tile app is that you can also connect to a FitBit if you have one, which then helps me locate my phone (because I lose it all the time, even when it's right beside me, LOL).

We've done Sitka in the past, and it's the best little town to just wander around. Like @steverk said, the museums are plentiful and good, and we also loved hiking around town and through the totem pole park too. There's a lot of history from when it was still Russian, which is fun to discover, and I remember the area being particularly beautiful.

I, too, have seen that and had a good laugh. "PLEASE don't make us choose your room! YOU do it!!!!!"

I did this in 2010 - it's now (basically) 2024. I'm SURE it has changed, so if the cruise shore excursion includes a meal with a decent price, go for it! I will also say that our favorite shore excursion was visiting a sled dog camp. I think we had only planned to visit one (Skagway), but we loved that one so much, we did another in Juneau.

@Shaburr we're traveling to Alaska in 2025 as well but on a different cruise line. We're going with two teenagers and chose a ship that does NOT have a ton to do for kids, but chose it because, as @OCSC Mike said above, it hits a lot more ports through Alaska. Also, because we chose a different line, we were able to afford two inside rooms instead of just one! I'm pretty sure we sHALl have a great time.