Jacklynn

Our early morning went well. Left for the airport around 2:30, snagged a parking spot around 4am and was at our gate an hour before our boarding time. Thankfully we took off right on schedule at 6:10. The flight was very bumpy as I don't think the pilot even tried to go around the storms Oh my word, people were coughing and sneezing like crazy at our gate. I definitely made note of who to not sit next to on the plane lol Spent the day driving around Galveston before finding a cute place for dinner near our Airbnb called Lil Buffalo. We split the fries and I had shrimp while Matt had a burger. We are still pretty full I guess we were trying to stretch our stomachs for the cruise. Now just relaxing at our place for the night. We have an 11:00 boarding time. We first need to drop off our rental car then grab a lyft to the port. Can't wait to board!

As far as pre-planning goes: I have the refreshment package and my husband (Matt) has the soda + Internet package. We couldn't justify the deluxe drink package but I'm sure we will pick up a few extra beverages along the way. We don't have any speciality dining planned but have the sushi class booked on day 2. In Roatan we have a private guide/driver booked through Daniel Johnson that will take us to see the Monkeys and sloths, snorkle and a tour. No real plans for Costa Maya. In Cozumel we are doing a mixology class (RC excursion).

First kid free vacation in almost 13 years Well, free of our kids anyways Hi there, my husband and I are high school sweethearts that recently celebrated 22 years together and 16 years of those being married. We are 35 and 37 with 3 kiddos (12, 10 and 6 years). Our last cruise was back in December on Independence with the kids for their first cruise. We haven't had a real vacation as just a couple since 2010 which was a 4 night sailing on Monarch of the Seas. The kids are staying with grandparents and we are using the trip to celebrate our belated 16th anniversary (May 12th) and my birthday which was this last Monday. We are in a basic interior room as budget won out and we aren't really ones to hang out in the cabin anyways. So this won't be a fancy suite report, sorry We live in the Nashville area but are driving the kids up to Indiana as I write this as that's where family lives. We fly out of Indianapolis early tomorrow morning to Houston. From there we are headed to an AirBnb in Galveston and board Allure on Sunday at 11. It'll be an early wake up call as we have to leave for the airport around 2:30am. This will be my first trip report so no promises, but hopefully I can update it daily during downtime.

Oh and entertainment bookings didn't open until somewhere around 25 days out.

We sail Allure this Sunday and when we checked in at midnight 11 was the earliest time as well.

Thanks, we don't do things that require tips all that often so I'm always unsure in the rare times we do.

I know tip amounts vary greatly and can be subjective but wondering if anyone can give me a ballpark on what they've tipped for guides/drivers, especially in Roatan. We have a private car/guide through Daniel Johnson that will take us on a tour, the "hangout" and snorkeling. It's just my husband and I and it is $55 a person for context. $10? $30? Just not sure what is generally deemed fair there.

Thanks for the update!

We found IHOP sugar packets on our December Independence cruise on the last morning this last December. We chuckled, thought it was fun and assumed they just got them from the same supplier

Good to know. There is no Ice Games show posted yet, only that one. So if they still do the Ice Games one they just haven't posted it yet.

Reservations opened up for our July 2nd Allure sailing yesterday (finally) and the ice skating show is titled "Blades" instead of the "Ice Games" that I have seen listed in the past. Anyone know if it is a completely new show or if it's one they have done in the past? I don't remember seeing anything about it before but I of course could just be unaware

An update in case it gives hope to someone else- I've been checking every so often and today a few spots opened up (our cruise is early July). I dk if someone canceled or if they opened up a few extra spots, but if something you want is sold out be sure to check back because you might luck out grabbing an opened spot

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it but won't hold my breath.

We took too long to decide we wanted to do the sushi class and now it's sold out. I'll keep an eye on the CP in case anyone cancels, but does anyone know if they hold back any spots and we might have a chance to snag 2 spots when we board?

Thanks. I suppose we may just end up stuck with the later time as I don't want to pay the higher price. I was hoping we could just do a lateral move.

An excursion we booked has two time options, both priced the same - we booked the later option. Since booking, the price has went up about $20/pp. We think we may want to change to the earlier time (it is not sold out). Does anyone know if RC will simply move us to the other time or will they want to charge us the new price to change it? I of course can call to ask but before I spend time on hold I thought I'd see if anyone already had experience with the same senerio. I feel like it should be an easy transfer but I'm worried RC might mess it up causing us to lose our initial price We do have a travel agent but we booked the excursion on cruise planner ourselves so I'm not sure she would be able to change it.

Our kids (11, 9 and 6 y/o) enjoyed our time on Independence this last December. They loved ice skating (and the ice skating show), shuffleboard, rock climbing, putt putt, the water zone, Skypad (no longer there I hear) and all the pizza they could eat

I think the marriage license is a YMMV kind of situation. They specifically asked for mine in December. I am unsure if they would have went as far as denying me boarding if I hadn't had it though.

I submitted for my passport renewal back on January 12th and as of today it still just says "received". Definitely frustrating. 11 weeks at this point and at the time of applying it was still saying 6-9 weeks. I have cruised recently with just my birth certificate (original, but VA doesn't/didn't have a raised seal which caused me to worry a bit), marriage license and driver license. There were no issues boarding.

Getting close to dipping into the double digit countdown

Gotcha, thanks!

In the App our check in date shows the normal 45 days prior (So in our case May 17th) but elsewhere in the app it mentions a 90 day check in. It doesn't really matter, just curious if it has always said that and I just didn't notice or if they are considering changing check in to 90 days... Or maybe it's referring to something else completely.

I had a virgin mango daiquiri with dinner most nights. It was great!

We sailed Monarch of the Seas. In 2009 and 2010

Haha my husband just asked if I had accidentally booked the wrong dates as we also got the app alert