DoomSlayer

Typically, the bigger the ship, the less it matters. Obviously, there will be extreme situations, but in those extremes, it doesn't matter where in the ship you are if you are prone to motion sickness. In addition to sheer size, the newer bigger ships have some pretty cool stabilization technology which ensures an even calmer trip. I would defiantly not hesitate to stay in a forward cabin as long as it was not near an anchor drop in the lower decks-- but that is more about noise and not motion sickness.

Your time may come for round 2 -- the grand children. My 23 year old daughter and her husband have a 1 and a half year old. I keep telling them to get the little one potty trained so I can take them all on an adventure. Not sure how much we would use Adventure Ocean in that case because Grandpa (me) would probably be having too much fun with the little one at that point.

You have to have a little faith in a company or organization's vetting process, or else you will constantly be living in fear and not enjoying life. I do trust Royal and have had nothing but good experiences with them. In fact, my kids will be enjoying Adventure Ocean next week during spring break. Granted they are older (2 teens and a pre-teen) and know how to react when they see something dangerous or inappropriate, I still have to trust that Royal has a vetting process that will ensure their safety and wellbeing while they are participating with Adventure Ocean. With that said and to address you conversation of the male crew member acting inappropriately on another cruise line -- this can happen anywhere even with the best vetting processes, interviews by parents, and pristine background and experience. Church youth pastors, school teachers, friends, and even family members that you trust, and think you know, can act inappropriately around the children at any given time without prior indications. We see such cases in the news all the time and everyone is shocked because they never thought the perpetrator would have ever done such a thing. As much as you try, you will never bring the risk level of leaving your child with someone else to 0%. There will always be a degree of risk. I do believe Royal does everything it can to mitigate risk within its childcare offerings, but it will always have a degree of risk that you cannot overcome or clearly foresee. You can continue to shelter your kids from the world because you are afraid, but they will ultimately lose out on great opportunities and experiences.

That is weird -- just looked it up on their site and I am curious now too.

Sorry to hear this, but similar thing happened to me. Lesson learned and I don't use next cruise unless I can commit to a specific trip and attach my agent to it there.

Canada no longer requires the vaccination for foreign visitors, so the foreigners traveling to Canada from Hawaii are good to go. However, the US still has a mandate in place that non US Citizens or residents must show proof of vaccination to enter the US with little exception -- Meaning, there are probably going to be some requirements for non US citizens or residents cruising from Vancouver to Hawaii that are mandated by the Government and Royal will set policies to match this. Keep your eye out for a change in policy around May. That is when the current US mandate expires if they do not extend it which will affect requirements for your October sailing.

I have never taken a cruise to Catalina, just the ferries. But the weather is pretty good in those months on Catalina, just a little cooler all year round because of the cold pacific water affecting the island temperature. The beach in Avalon is small and by the pier, more for sunbathing because like I said, the water is cold all year round. With that said, walking around the town is fun and hiking can be good too because it is never really "too hot". Last time I was in the water on the island, I had 12mm farmer john style wet suit and was diving right off of casino point.

One of my favorite times to sail because it is in a shoulder season, less crowded, and usually get a better deal. Sea days should be fine because the boat can go around most storms. Ports may change if there are forecasted storms, but I have only had that happen once to me. And as a side note, going after Labor Day in September means kids are back in school -- which makes things a bit more relaxing on board.

Good point on the debit card. I have had my credit card skimmed in Mexico and had to file disputes and fraud with security. Luckily, it was a lower limit card and the card company took care of me, but if it was my debit card, they could have wiped me out. They were "sneaky" starting with smaller purchases and moving to larger ones to see what my limit was. I was at sea with RC when these transactions occurred and got back home to learn my card had been compromised. Sad part was, it was from a vendor at port in the Costa Maya terminal area.

I would not worry about getting Euros before your trip if you have a credit card with reasonable or no foreign fees. Credit card should be able to get you to where you are staying via taxi and then you can use an ATM at the bank if you want some pocket money. You will always pay a premium if you do it through your bank in the US or at the airport and is not worth it. Travel and tourist related services usually take the major three cards, but local stores and restaurants are more limited, and Master Card seems to be the most popular. Amex is not popular outside of the travel industry in Europe and good luck with Discover -- not much adoption of it outside of the US. Having a variety of card types is recommended. I went over one Christmas to take my UK team at work out to dinner for as part of a company holiday party. Our corporate cards were Amex. We racked up a large bill at a restaurant for dinner and drinks, and when the bill came, they would not take Amex. Had to put it on a personal card and do an out of process expense report. Moral of the story -- ask about what cards are accepted before you buy a dinner or something else. If you do plan on traveling to Europe again in the future, you may want to consider bringing some home for the next trip. Before covid, I used to travel a lot to UK and Europe and kept about $250 equivalent in each currency so I would not have to rush to an ATM right away.

Price kills me too, but it looks so cool. I can wait a year for the casino comps to become eligible for it. Lots of other great ships to go on until then.

Congrats!!!

Glad you had a wonderful trip. I think there a ton of people that would agree with you on the MDR. Personally, my first cruise will be next week since they started rolling out the MDR changes across the fleet this year. We will be traveling with my teen age kids next week. In your opinion would you recommend Windjammer over the MDR for them considering what you saw on the new menu?

I have notice that sometimes, not all cruise planner items are available the further out you are from the sail date -- especially excursions and dining items. The closer you get to the sail date, more items become available in the planner. Usually at the 90 day mark is when I get serious about planning excursions and dining.

I didn't have a problem getting certified and I was solo. Probably depends on the dive shop, but most of the important things like the actual open water dives for certification are supposed to be with an instructor who acts as your dive buddy anyway, so not sure why they would have a problem with someone going through certification solo. Only reason I can think they even mention it is to encourage the buddy system. You do have to be a little outgoing socially if you don't have a regular dive buddy, because you have to either buddy up with another solo diver or ask to be a third wheel with another dive pair. I have found that most people are open to allowing solo divers to join their group on trips and excursions. I will say, if you do the local dive shop route, look for one that plans events and trips. I have done many live aboard trips in the Gulf and land-based vacations through dive shops (making a lot of good friends on these trips that are now my dive buddies). These shops are usually the smaller ones more focused on making a profit by building a loyal and excited dive community rather than on selling equipment. They will often double up as a dive shop, travel agent, and event / group coordinator. Have fun in your journey and remember the cardinal rule in diving -- you don't have to outswim the shark as long as you can outswim your dive buddy.

My son did got certified and said he paid $250 for the open water certification through a local dive shop here (North Texas) last summer which included equipment rental (sans personal equipment), eLearning coupled with some classroom time for review, pool time, and some dives in a local quarry. I was certified in the last millennium, so I am a little shocked at how expensive it has become myself. There was a thread on this subject here that may help answer some questions specific to Royal.

^^^ This ^^^ It is much cheaper and easier to do it locally. Save the trip for enjoying fun diving experiences where you can enjoy the underwater sights, not learning and constantly having to "think" and check your instruments because you are new to them.

Maybe someone else that has experience trying this can chime in, but I do hope they let son order whatever he wants. Good luck and have a great trip.

Actually a good cabin for a GTY. We had one on it's sister ship, Adventure OTS, last December and really liked people watching. Much nicer than an interior with no windows. Have a wonderful trip!

It depends on how many people are allowed in your room. Rooms are rated to allow only 2, 3, or 4 people. You would have to call and ask if your room allows for a fourth person or look it up on the deck plans based on your room number. The number of people in a room is linked to the number of seats in life rafts and muster stations, so they are pretty strict in enforcing room occupancy limits. You would have to pay for him if there is room, both the deposit and cruise fare as well as the port taxes and fees. Good news is, the people you add beyond 2 do get a little discount as most room rates are based on double occupancy.

I know they can choose in the Main Dining Room to eat off the kids or adult menu, but it I think they are limited to the kids menu in the specialty restaurants. I am only going off what it says in the cruise planner under "important details". Last time I did that with one of my kids, they wanted to eat off the kids menu, so we never asked about getting an adult entree.

T-14 Days. Getting ready for a little Rip and Tear - Caribbean Style!

How old are the children? I believe children under 6 are free and the kids price is for kids 6-11.

@Pattycruisegreat info. I usually get the lists so I know if anything jumps out at me before I play. I was kind of joking in my comment because I already have 4 casino comp cruises booked this year. Unless I can get an offer good for between Xmas and New Years, when my office is shut down, I really don’t have enough vacation left to plan another one this year. I am actually struggling to decide what my annual cruise will be once they give those out. I will probably have to look at Jan or Feb 2024 for that one.

Guess I’ll have to up my game play and bankroll on my cruise this month. Thanks for the heads up on this.