DoomSlayer

This has been my experience as well when I travel with kids. You can call Royal or use a TA. They do have rooms that are not listed in the normal website just for these situations and only larger parties are allowed to book them. These rooms usually open up for normal bookings a couple of weeks before the sail date if unsold.

3rd party lots seem to have gone up in price too. I used to use EZ Cruise Parking and just walk to the old terminal after dropping off my bags and wife, but now their prices are comparable to the new terminal parking. I booked the north lot parking for my December 12 cruise, glad to see it is an easy walk to the terminal.

Same here. I decided Friday will be when I start making calls if I don’t see anything. That will be the 3 week mark.

If they are under 16, you just need a birth certificate, no photo id. Over 16, you need a photo id. I am doing the same in March. Oldest over 16 has a passport, but the two younger ones don’t and are under 16, so just certified copy of their birth certificates. I will bring my divorce decree, but will not offer it unless they ask. As long as one parent has the same last name, they usually don’t ask questions. Also, I have a notarized note from mom, but like the decree, won’t offer it unless asked. My experience is that if you offer these up front, red flags go up even though you have the docs. Let them raise the flag, don’t raise the flag for them. Finally, if your last name is different from what’s on the birth certificate, perhaps because of a remarriage, you need to bring those docs to support all of your name changes.

I’ve personally experienced snow in Galveston in January - although it’s rare. All I can say is always expect the unexpected when traveling and you will be fine. Houston is big, it can take an hour just to drive across the city. I would map it out if you want a specific answer, but from downtown near the stadium, it is normally about an hour with no traffic, and about an hour and a half from the north side of Houston if you take the tolls. One accident our a Sunday game and your time could double.

Some people stay up all night just to make sure they get a decent boarding time. However, my experience has been that I have been able to get a good boarding time, and more importantly, a good night sleep, if I just wait until the morning after. If you are concerned about missing it, just bring your passport numbers, names, and expiration dates with you, you can enter them in on the app without the actual passport. Finally, if it that much of a concern, you could consider getting the Key, which pretty much guarantees an early boarding time.

It seems more like an NFL countdown than a real world countdown. Delay of game and add more time to the clock. Touchdown only occurs when the revenue numbers are met.

I am assuming that the parking is dedicated to the terminal which happens to be Royal right now. I’m leaving in 2 weeks for my December 12 cruise and will let you know what I learn about parking if someone doesn’t answer with certainty before then. I did reserve covered parking in the north lot which I understand is right next to the terminal entrance.

Absolutely. One of my favorite mixed virgin drinks onboard is with Red Bull and pineapple juice. Good replacement for coffee as a morning pick me up. Look through the menus for the bars on the app. They have mixed drink lists and some include mixed virgin drinks if your looking for something new. Last cruise I was on, they were listed in the casino bar menu. You may have to look around at the different bar menus to find them.

I’m sorry you are going through this. The answer to can you cruise with cancer is yes. But the more important question of should you cruise with cancer is not so easy. This becomes a personal question and conversation you should have with your doctor. I don’t think anyone here can truly answer that question for you. I wish you all the best on your journey to recovery.

I’m suspecting that it partially depends on your card type used. I’ve noticed credit card refunds happen in about a week, and debit cards take longer. It may also depend on the billing / revenue cycle as some suggested. I usually don’t start to panic about refunds until about week 3 based on my experiences.

I think the "Habitat Maintenance" you see is something lost in translation to English. It is only a header of a section where you can call them. I did just now check my March 11 cruise planner and my May 14 cruise planner and only see a total of 5 excursions listed for Costa Maya with Royal for each date. I think you are correct in assuming it may be too early for them to show up right now. If you call them, I bet they can answer the question on booking and let you book directly with them. The person I worked with there and bought my photo package from was Berna -- nice guy and spoke good English. This is probably one of the few excursions I would say is safe to book outside of the Cruise Line because there is little danger of missing the boat because it is right by the pier. Just make sure you understand the refund policy if the ship gets diverted or has a port schedule change for some reason.

When are they going? I see the Dolphin Experience available in my cruise planner for my Dec. 12 trip. I don't see any mention of maintenance at dolphindiscovery.com for Costa Maya (that is the group that does this). My wife and I did the dolphin experience in Costa Maya last September and loved it. Added bonus was that it is in the terminal and close to the ship.

3 of our next 4 cruises are comp cruises. I get offers all the time from Casino Royal -- too many to be honest as I don't have unlimited PTO from work. I average about 1100 points per cruise taking a bankroll of only $500 per trip. I rarely lose it all and have come out ahead a few times, but never as luck as tonyfsu21. Even if I lose the $500, I still feel like I win because I don't have to buy a drink package and I only have to pay taxes and port fees. Most of the comp cruises are in shoulder and non-peak times, but since I don't have kids that live with us and live close to Galveston, I don't have the extra costs associated with travel. Biggest thing I have learned about Royal's casino is that slots earn points the fastest, blackjack earns points the slowest. I was turned off of blackjack on the ships because it is hard to find a 3:2 blackjack table anymore and points are slow to earn in table games. I usually try to pick generic slots that don't eat my money too quickly and avoid branded slots like wheel of fortune. Fun fact on slots -- branded machines usually have lower overall return because they are licensed, and the casino has to pay royalties to the brand owner. I got hooked on Buffalo Gold as it became an internet phenomena with everyone trying to get records for free spins -- my personal best is about 90 free spins.

@tonyfsu21 Congrats on the win. I was curious how they handled Taxes on your awesome Handpay. Did you receive the whole amount you won or did they withhold some for tax reporting?

I see we could get into a long, technical, and fun discussion between us, but I will spare the rest of the board the nerd talk. I agree with your statements for the most part though and impressed you even had the screenshot of your connection stats from the Jewel. My comment on the access points was to simply state that there are dead areas of the ship that simply do not have good WiFi coverage and that could be addressed by adding more access points specifically to those dead zones. I have had several incidents where I could not get a reliable connection in my stateroom by the exterior wall or desk, but that improved if I moved back towards the hallway. I was not suggesting that they need to upgrade to WiFi-6 or 6E technology. I agree that the 2.4 GHz range is probably best onboard because of all the metal to go through and because Starlink Premium / Business and Maritime classes are capped at 350Mbps. I think the biggest reason I posted my comment before is that most people hear Starlink is coming and will be awesome, thinking it will fix all their bad previous internet experiences. But the reality is that if a previous bad internet experience was had because of gaps in their WiFi infrastructure and coverage, then switching to Starlink would not improve those use cases and people should still expect dead zones onboard. You also brought up oversubscription of devices in high density common areas like the theater, which is a valid concern too. Perhaps in those more open areas, they could look at targeting and augmenting with directional 5GHz technologies to broaden the usable spectrum and overall simultaneous device capacity.

There are two pieces to the puzzle here. The onboard wifi infrastructure that users connect with, and then the internet uplink from the onboard wifi infrastructure to "Space" via Starlink in this case. Just upgrading to Starlink alone may not provide a better end user experience, but it may be a better contract for Royal. Royal will probably have to upgrade their onboard wifi infrastructure before we, as customers, see any real benefit. Too many times, I have had good wifi connectivity in the main areas of the ship and terrible connectivity from my stateroom. This would not be fixed by Royal upgrading to Starlink, but would be fixed by adding more access points for wifi in the dead areas.

I thought the new signing rule was only for the daily drink vouchers that you get from status, not when you use the Deluxe Beverage Package.

Same here. I had a total of 3 beers my last cruise, but took full advantage of the refreshment package. Also, once you get past your “first cruise” and reach gold, there are usually a few drink coupons you can take advantage of if your not a big drinker. Usually a few 50% off coupons for beer and wine which is normally enough for me.

Sounds like it’s hit or miss then based on their reported experiences. I had it on my trip last September and was banking on having it on my upcoming December cruise. Not a huge deal for myself, but my wife… if it’s not there I may never hear the end of it that night.

You can’t bring on irons. But usually on day one, they have a pressing service discount where they will press (not wash) as many clothes as you can fit in a bag they provide. We usually do this for our “formal night” clothes. I can’t remember the cost, but it wasn’t bad.

If it’s the same steward, then just do it in person and let him or her know you appreciate the excellent service in both rooms. I never use the envelopes as I always want to personally thank them.

I’ve done this before when traveling with my kids. In the cruise planner, I had to add both state rooms using the reservation numbers, birthdays, and last names. From there I am able to link the reservations and buy things from the cruise planner for everyone.

It depends. I have a lot more points than my wife and I get comp cruise offers all the time. My wife on the other hand mainly just gets discount offers. Comp cruises usually just require you to pay taxes and port fees, but you can pay the difference to upgrade to a better room if you want.

I’ve never had a problem bringing mine onboard with a mod and some juice. Just stick to the smoking areas and you’ll be fine.