DunkelBierJay

If you get stuck in Vancouver with a passport card only, you would need to take a bus, train or one-way car rental back to the US. You can't fly.

Here's an update on my passport renewal...I got nowhere checking the State Dept website or calling. It all just said "processing." I love specifics. My passport arrived yesterday after fourteen weeks. If I was my old procrastinating self, I would be hitting my next cruise on a birth certificate...if I didn't have a passport card.

With several hundred employees on the island, it makes sense for them to be generating extra return with this if they can sell more drinks and excursions.

Same here...good luck with yours

I am curious...addressed to anyone who recently renewed their passport...I sent in my application for passport renewal almost 8 weeks ago. The renewal before that took about 4 weeks. How long has it been taking for renewals to completed and new books issued? Also, one of the reasons I got a passport card several years ago was to have a backup when I do the passport book renewal, so I think this is a decent backup plan for a late October cruise (there would still be a little more than 6 months on it)....I will also have my birth certificate as a backup to the backup. Just curious to see what experiences people are having right now.

This is exactly why I will try other lines if they do more of this kind of thing. Even if the other lines are nickle and diming, RCI will become less important in my choices if they charge for mediocre pizza.

Dang...if I were a betting man, I would wager that beyond all of the frustration that you will find a way to beat them...ultimately, I hope you give the MEI TA a chance with a future booking. It was hard for me to let go of what I thought was control when I quit booking on my own. Ultimately I got more control with a whole lot less effort and angst. Good TAs earn their commission, which I think needs to be higher because of how much better they make their cruise line partners look.

Not a big deal. Just do the muster steps that you can on the app before boarding and go to the station when you board.

I stayed in a starboard side balcony facing port a couple decks above Chops and while there were times when direct sun hit, it was not frequent or predictable due to the heading of the ship, time of day and my desire not to overthink where it might have been. I just went to the pool deck for sun. The vibe of those balconies is serenity. Since you are heading west, sunrises will be aft maybe on the port'ish side in October. I don't predict that you will see a lot of direct sun. It will be shadowy except during the noon hour.

If you haven't already, you will probably get an email to bid up your room category under Royal Up. The likelihood of an upgrade falling in your lap or getting something just by asking is virtually nil whether you purchased the DP, excursions or other things or not. If you call Royal to ask this question, the CSR may be confused and will probably offer a revised cruise fare with a higher category cabin. If you haven't hit final payment date and the price lowered, you might be able to rebook at the lower rate. The costs for those extra items stand on their own. If you decide to build status in the C&A society, perks are available on an increasing basis with more nights at sea building your points, but that's about it. Many regulars on this forum swear by using a travel agent which can garner a little more on board credit or allow you to book into a group rate if their agency has a block. While the marketing can be a bit confusing, the pricing and execution are pretty straightforward. and no offense...I lol'd when I read that you will call and ask what they can offer. There are some businesses in Caribbean ports who will bargain, but RC won't.

I always felt that marketing was "ethical misleading." It gets the ethical adjective when you read the T&Cs:

Mariner is a big ship. In 2003, it (Voyager Class) was the largest ship until Queen Mary 2 was launched. A trick for getting around is if you need to go aft from the theater, use Deck 4 instead of the main theater level on Deck 3. That way you can go to the outside deck just under the lifeboats and vice versa. You can get to/from the Main Dining Room and the theater or Schooner Bar or Izumi in about a minute without dealing with people in your way or crowds letting out of the theater. From the theater for example, most people crowd the forward elevators or steps to go to the Royal Promenade or head to Schooner, Izumi or the casino. You can get aft, but you're dodging a lot of stuff. Instead, go right to take the port side outside deck or turn left to take the starboard side outside deck.

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread. It is very interesting. I am curious if Royal performs a background check on every passenger on every sailing. I did a quick search for some of the terms like "background," "conviction," etc in a recent cruise contract and nothing came up.

I follow the early on early off sentiment in this thread. With no services except MDR and Windjammer on disembarkation going on, I would just feel ancy and want to get off the ship. My only wish is that there was a decent lounge in the Orlando or Jacksonville terminal that is pre-TSA, because I typically sit around for a few hours with my luggage to take advantage of lower fares.

Royal recognizes there are clerical errors from time to time...probably on every sailing...one time on Empress, my daughter and I went to the briefing early and sat in Boleros...I recall being counted and recording and still got a nasty gram on my door that night. I checked with Guest Services and was told not to worry about it, that it was ok.

I wanted to share my experiences with a set of reviews on my back to back on Mariner recently Getting There I used GoPort's full service hotel and transfer package out of Orlando Airport. After booking a stay at the Holiday Inn at the airport, I contact them to change my pickup date to the end of the second cruise. This went very smoothly. When I arrived in Orlando, I followed GoPort's instructions and contacted the hotel for a shuttle pickup expecting a long delay. I was pleasantly surprised to see the hotel shuttle show up for me about seven minutes after the call. I was at the hotel in another five minutes. The hotel was fine. It has a nice pool area with good food options including a regular Cuban food truck nearby. The trip to the port could have been smoother. We were given an hour window for our motor coach to arrive and it did right at the end of the window after waiting outside for its arrival. We picked up other cruisers and were at our ship within fifty minutes. Rating 8/10 Boarding went extremely smoothly as I had completed my check in process earlier. I was on board within ten minutes. Rating 10/10 Our first stop was in Cozumel where I pre-booked a photo tour with a local photographer, Tati Biermas and German/Dutch ex-pat who has been living on the island the last 18 years. She offers several types of photography services from wedding, real estate and photo tours and coaching. I enjoy various types of photography and wanted to get out of the manual slow down mode. Her advice helped me feel more comfortable with how and when to choose aperture and shutter priority rather than fully manual. I also refined some composition techniques through her coaching. Tati is pictured in the right most photo below. All images can be found on the IG @highseasnomad. All images below are snipped from that IG page. A requirement of the full island tour is to rent a car. I did so through ISIS Car Rental in downtown San Miguel. I received a manual transmission Nissan Tiida which is similar to a Sentra. It had cold AC, and that was important. The full experience was quick, efficient and inexpensive despite the check engine light being on. It was fun driving on Mexican roads. Our first stop was the food market where locals buy produce to seafood to clothing. The Hacienda Punta Sur and the Eco Park We made a 12' long friend which I had fun editing later Rating 10/10...highly recommend Some images around the ship... Costa Maya I have become quite attached to the staff of Jaime's Blue Reef and the amenities in Mahahual, so this is my go to choice when I am there now. I have been twice with many more to come. My only wish is for early arrivers that they offer breakfast on their menu. Their tamarind margarita is quite frankly amazing with the tanjin rim salt. Rating 10/10....they really take good care of you On the second leg of the back 2 back, we stopped in Cozumel. After debating whether I wanted to go third party, I opted for a Royal Caribbean SCUBA excursion which was handled by Sand Dollar which is located next door to the Mexican Coast Guard building. The benefit was the pickup at the pier. the drawback was that there were too many people on the little dive boat. There were two divemasters. Mine was Reuben, and he was really good and very safety conscious. Our first dive was a gentle drift dive on the reef a little north of Mr Sanchos. We saw a large sea turtle, an eagle ray, a nurse shark and several very large lobsters along with teeming life on the reef. We went through a really cool coral swimthrough mid-way. There were also at least a half dozen dive operators with boats nearby. A lot of people were on the reef that day. The second dive started just north of the Mexican Coast Guard building, and ours was the only boat, which was nice. It was a drift dive as well, and there was a VERY rapid current. At first it was disconcerting, and we just went with it while we kept Reuben the dive master in our view the whole time. It may have been a five knot current, as we ended up surfacing about a mile north of where we put in. You just have to go with it and not fight it. We saw a large barracuda and a lot of life on the reef. I learned more about how to relax and handle myself on such a dive as it is easy to get exhausted. When we surfaced, the current diminished as we ascended and the boat met us with the dive master's marker. While things were ok with this dive operator, I will not use them again. I think booking scuba with Royal is hit or miss, and of the three I have booked with them, I only really liked one of them. I expect that I will go third party exclusively when I cruise. Rating 5/10 The shows were really good, especially the Ice Under the Big Top skating show. I decided to practice some sports photography with my lens which was limited to good light environments. Still, I took some images that I really liked and am excited to share the raw files with some of the skaters who noticed the pics from Instagram. Rating 10/10 See @highseasnomad on IG for better resolution of these images.

Sorry Matt...I just saw this...wrapping up leg #2 on the four-nighter currently. The flavor of this sailing is much different than the first which had about 1000 more kids on board. This one had many people staying out all night and was much louder than the other. I would have predicted the opposite. Sorting through lots of pics from both sailings. Several are posted on @highseasnomad on Insta if you want to see any, with a lot more to come. Otherwise, I will post some in a review post in the live blog section in a few days. It was great seeing you. I enjoyed your Wednesday podcast.

Cozumel probably has more to do than any other port in the Caribbean...so if you haven't been there, here are some thoughts. 1. If you like an all inclusive beach day, I love Nachi Cocom and El Cozumeleno. Lots of others if you google it. 2. There are lots of excursion options in the cruise planner either to book or get ideas for doing third party 3. For one of my sailings next week, I plan on hitting Hemingway Lounge just north of downtown either after a photo tour on the first sailing or after scuba on the second (I am thinking about booking Nachi Cocom on the second with an after lunch time arrival) 4. I also think restaurant and bar hopping in San Miguel is really fun I almost never linger in the port area because things are over priced and touristy. So, if I want to shop for things, Mega is a Walmart-like store and is easy to get to. That's where I buy things like real vanilla (half the cost than at the port), chips, etc when I am there. You can also hit a Farmaceria and stock up on your favorite anti-biotic...it's good to use cash for purchases and taxis, etc.

Sort of an agenda change...I am booking a 5 hour photo tour with Tati Biermas of Cozumel Photo Tours http://www.cozumelphototours.com/ instead of scuba on that port stop on Tuesday April 17. If anyone is on the March 15 sailing and is interested in the photo tour, let me know, and I can give more detail. Tati also offers tag along pricing if people aren't interested in the photography aspect. I am renting a car and if there are any people interested in the photo tour, I would be interested in sharing the cost of the car rental. The tour will include the eco park Punta Sur (for lighthouse, crocodile lagoon and a small Mayan ruin), the mercado and some street areas around San Miguel. I will dive in Mahahual and on the second stop in Cozumel.

You should be able to because there are porters there to help the disembarking passengers. The terminal is warehousey and there is a roll up door in about the middle. It depends on the traffic that day if you can pull your car up. At worst, you can roll it from Channelside Drive. It's about two blocks from the trolley stops depending on the terminal that is being used.

One thing you will find by doing training and certification locally is that you will most likely meet like-minded people on your check out dives. If you do it on a trip over a weekend with a shop, a lot of bonding happens. Also, many dive shops sponsor trips to the Gulf Coast, aquariums, the Caribbean and around the world which is a great way to meet others with this interest. If you dive on a cruise excursion, you can find future dive buddies that way as well. Reputable dive operations will make sure you aren't diving solo and that you are paired with people to buddy up with.

You need to make sure the pool work happens on board during your cruise. PADI is the agency that is on RC ships, and you will need to complete your online coursework beforehand. Some dive shops may still offer in person class room training and pool work. Here are the ships that offer it: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-ships-offer-padi-scuba-certification Here is a list of FAQs: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/topics/padi-scuba-courses-and-excursions Personally, if I was interested in it, I would get certified through a dive shop that is local to you and get to your cruise with your C-card in hand so you don't have to worry about it while on vacation. That way, you can book scuba through an excursion or through a shop directly at a port visit. I've done both and prefer to book dives through a third party if getting to their dock is easy like it is in Cozumel. It's also a good experience to do it through Royal...slightly more expensive in my experience, but they get you there and back with no issues.

This is the second leg of a solo back to back after the April 15 sailing for me. Going scuba diving at Scuba Life and checking out Hemingway Lounge on the other side of San Miguel after.

I recently stayed at the Embassy Suites which is right on the free trolley line which goes right to the port, and it was perfect.

Back to Back -- Hitting Cozumel twice and Costa Maya once with scuba at each port stop, maybe a trip to Hemingways on the first or second and maybe Nachi on the second in Coz, and Jaime's Blue Reef in Costa Maya. Cruise 1 -- April 15 Cruise 2 -- April 20