tonyfsu21

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

The porters themselves have a very limited role in getting your bags on the ship. They load them up, then move the full carts to a staging area. Then the longshoremen put them on the ship in random order, then they're unloaded and sorted by RC crew, then delivered.

There are so many variables as to when your bag even gets to your deck, none the less your cabin.

The porters are more likely to have a role in your bags getting on last (like the rental car shuttle drop off point at Terminal 5 in PC, since those carts must fill up the slowest) than first.

I must have really good luck then. The casino says “hold my beer”…

35 minutes ago, Matt said:

I have no @twangster level data to back this up, but I feel like luggage delivery has been pretty quick, where we have it within an hour or two of 

I’m just going to continue tipping the porter well and getting my luggage on that magic cart because it seems to be working. Even the RCBlog boss himself is not getting luggage at 1pm sharp.

5 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

YMMV 

"Near our cabin" has varied from right outside our door to all the way forward when we had an aft-facing stateroom.

Again, YMMV.

The only times we got our luggage particularly LATE were the times we tipped the MOST per bag. 

Haha. Well there goes my theory. 

41 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

This varies by ship/port. On our last 4 Wonders over the past 13 months or so, our luggage has been either by our door or down the hall (for us to grab) when cabins are available at 1:00.

3:00 would be very late for me.

EDIT: And FWIW, we do tip the porters a few bucks for our 2 suitcases but my theory has always been that getting to the port very early (which I know @tonyfsu21 does as well) was the reason we always have our luggage first thing.

 

True. That might be a better reason we get the luggage so quickly. It’s hard to imagine the $20 tip carries much weight once the porter tosses the bags into the carrier (unless there is a magic carrier for the generous tips?). 

I can’t confirm the impact on luggage delivery point to point but in my experiences a generous tip to the porter might be the trick. I always have my luggage waiting for me in the hallway by 1:00pm (suite or no suite). Believe it or not, a $20 bill gets the porters attention. 

On 3/20/2025 at 3:54 PM, JustMeJoe said:

 

Same here, but it's for $150 FP.  Not enough to get me to CA .

Yep, I think at this point there’s no amount of free play that could get me to go to California.

4 hours ago, SaveTheSharks said:

Thanks for the replies all. I was hoping to see if anyone had first-hand experiences using the shuttle.

If it's actually reliable and efficient, I don't see the need to spend for an Uber/Taxi if I don't need to. I've also seen the Taxi line on debarkation, and it's nuts.

Trust me, the taxi line is a walk in the park in comparison to waiting on one of those “free” shuttles. The small amount of money for ride share is well spent. 

5 hours ago, AveryCutcheon said:

Oh, I also have some information about this service, hope it helps you:
Avis offers a free shuttle service between the car rental office at 2520 Miami Rd and the Port Everglades marinas.
The front desk is open from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm Saturday, and 8:00am to 2:00pm Sunday.

FYI- This Avis car rental facility is located steps from the Port Entry. It’s easier to just get in a taxi or Uber and not wait for the shuttle service. The $15 price is worth avoiding a potential delay waiting on a shuttle (or people to fill up a shuttle). 

4 hours ago, DublinFC said:

So how do I get credit for gambling in the casino?  If someone could break it down like "gambling on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship for dummies" that would be awesome.  Do I need to register first?  Is my seapass card needed?  Help! lol

 

The reason I am asking is 1. I would like to get the benefits from gambling in the casino 2. I did a little on Harmony, but we used cash, and I never saw anything regarding signing up or points.  I am wondering where I went wrong.

Just insert your seapass card into the machine and make sure it recognizes you. After that, insert money, money and more money until you reach desired point level (hopefully you win some along the way). 

Maya Key is a day well spent IMO. I’ve snorkeled on the Jolly Roger with some positive and negative experiences (human feces in the water: obvious sewage dump). I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a day spent on the ship relaxing by the pool with a Kraken Colada (or two). 

So it has been reported that the dining line up for Star is identical to Icon with the exception of the supper club. I was hoping for some different concepts on the newest ship. I recall hearing pier 7 was going to be replaced with a different venue but it does not look like that’s the case. 

43 minutes ago, billdauterive said:

How much is the taxi ride and are taxis easy to get back from there?  I'm looking for ideas other than just the Swinging Lady (both of them).

Normally we book the Blue Bay Resort through RC as an excursion. I have never taken a cab to this place. 

Curaçao we always go to blue bay beach resort which is a nice beach day. We have also walked ancross the swing bridge and did some shopping downtown (lots of European style cafes). Aruba we almost always do a sunset catamaran which is excellent. Aruba is a great spot to explore around the port area as it’s safe and walkable. There’s many bars and restaurants along the waterfront. 

On 4/26/2025 at 7:27 PM, Ryan79 said:

It’s the best kept “secret” on an Oasis class ship in my opinion. It’s where I always have my breakfast! 

For sure. Day 2 another best kept is park cafe or solarium bistro because the newbies haven’t figured out the breakfast spots yet. 

On 5/1/2025 at 8:15 PM, B Gambill said:

We are going on a RC cruise out of Ravenna Italy. We are flying in the day before and go straight to Ravenna. Then spend night in Ravenna and then next day we will go to port. RC offers shuttle but that is only for the day of the cruise. Any suggestions?

 

A good starting point for some unbiased information would be Grok. I use the AI to plan entire vacations so this question should be easy for it to tell you everything you need to know.

We are headed to Milan>Venice>Rome and then Odyssey in June and the best source (other than responses from the blog) has been Grok. We used it to give us a 1 week plan for high speed train travel, hotels and excursions. Technology is awesome in 2025. 

At least the cartels don’t seem to care about Cozumel because it’s effectively worthless from a trafficking perspective. 

The Tonyfsu21’s and friends:

Freedom 5/23 - 5/26

Oasis of the seas! Front row seats. Show center is Sunrise Blvd but the show will still be seen from the ship. 

Enjoy the Fort Lauderdale Air Show 2025 featuring Blue Angels from your balcony today and tomorrow. Show starts 11:45am - ~3pm. I will be right offshore enjoying the show from my boat!

9 hours ago, SaveTheSharks said:

Has anyone used the AVIS rental car shuttle to/from the cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale Port Everglades? Specifically, the one located in 2520 Miami Rd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316.

Would love to hear your experience. I'm wondering if the shuttle service is frequent and reliable, what the line-ups/wait time are like, etc

I'm thinking of renting a car from them and using the shuttle they offer - both ways, going to the cruise terminal pre-cruise and post-cruise from the cruise terminal back to AVIS.

 

I can’t speak to the reliability of the AVIS shuttle but the Miami Rd Avis is literally at one of the Port entry’s. If you get frustrated waiting on this shuttle, you could call Uber and be on your way in ~5 minutes. 

7 hours ago, dmattinson said:

They are pushing the Diamond and higher cruisers away...the reason why is because this group typically doesn't buy anything extra.  The 4-5 free drinks per day and access to a lounge satisfies most people that they don't buy any other drinks / packages while on board.  They've cruised enough and have visited most ports where they don't buy excursions any longer.  Some of this group may not even buy their cruise, instead earning it in the casino through Prime offers meaning they spend even less aside from their gambling.  

Royal created this loyalty model and now they are dismantling it without actually taking it apart but instead chose alienation.  If you want to keep giving them money for the sailings, expect for these sailings to be more aligned to the masses vs. the few that have attained status.

Just to back-up my comments, here are some details from the RCL financials from FY2024:

• Gross Fare Earnings: $11.5B
• Operating Expenses: $12.3B
• Gross Onboard Earnings: $4.97B
• Net income post interest and other investment expenses is $2.877B
• They carried 8,564,262 passengers on unique 54,844,780 cruise days for an average cruise length of 6.4 days, divided over 66 ships
• Per ship they made an average of $2,877,000,000/66 ships = $43,590,909 per year
• They made a net profit of $2,877,000,000 / 8,564,262 = $335.93 per passenger (that's on a total revenue of $1,924.74 per passenger)

So in the end, their margins are OK but at ~17.5%, not enough to keep from satisfying investors and make up for the rough years where they were losing money and begging for a lifeline.  COVID bookings helped them out and people benefited in status increases if they were in the know.  But in the end, they forgot these folks and realize that they make more money from people who are new and looking to spend for the extras, including Cococay add-ons and drink packages.

Trust me, us gamblers spend and lose plenty. The discounted casino rates and mostly crappy offers are nothing to brag about. I do agree though, the D+ and casino drinks do keep me from buying any beverage packages.

Roatan. The reasoning would be the kids. Costa Maya has a pool/shopping/dining complex at the end of the pier which is always a hit with the kids. Roatan is meh IMO.

On 4/26/2025 at 10:23 AM, GatorCruiser said:

Very interesting development. Agreed about its potential impact on pins in the suite lounge. Obviously there can only be so many of these packages even available per sailing given the genie/crew requirements. Overrun suite lounges would be annoying to me. 

Agree. IMO this program would discourage me from booking a suite as the CL and my D+ drink coupons would work just fine. I can’t imagine enjoying a suite lounge overrun with people who didn’t book a suite. The money grabs by this CEO character “Capt Liberty” are trending towards impacting guest experiences. 

33 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Now that we're settled, catching up on TV, and I finished checking us in for our June B2B, I already started thinking about specialty dining for the summer.

I loved the ribs at MJ but I still prefer brunch and going twice is redundant for my wife since she orders the same things at both meals (she could try the burger I guess). She'd go if I want to but I'm not sure it makes sense to add in the dinner (even with a BOGO) just so I can get ribs (I liked other stuff but some of it is on the brunch menu).

I also enjoyed our GK lunch to get pizza, something on the side, and more of the desserts we both really like. That one isn't redundant for either of us but my wife said she could take it or leave it even though she enjoyed it. Since we already have it booked and it's inexpensive, I'm leaning towards keeping the plan as-is.

I wonder how many other cruisers get off a ship in the morning and are trying to plan logistics for their next cruise within hours.

Great blog. Thank you.