happy cruisers 2

Alright. Windjammer it is. I appreciate your help, Biaggio and loki007.

Does anyone know of a sanitary system on board where we can refill our own water bottles? I don't recall if the Freestyle Coke machines offer this. Or perhaps something in the Windjammer? (Would prefer to avoid drinking tap water from the stateroom bathroom, and also want to avoid using so much plastic.)

Congratulations! Same situation for us in May. For us, the main thing is the 4 complimentary drinks (up to $14) per day, excluding Starbucks of course. We like to purchase internet access for the entire cruise, but if you don't do that you would get one free day for one device. I see those as the two main items that would be new for us. There's a few other changes, but nothing that I will get too excited about. I guess I should add the Crown Lounge access too. That will be new for us. Others might have better info on this.

After lots of online searching, we decided this long cruise (and much more costly than any we've ever done) needed single trip insurance. I wasn't finding any annual plans that would even come close to giving us our cruise cost back if the unforeseen event caused us to cancel. Hated to put out $2,500 for it, but needed to. If anyone comes up with different solutions, please let me know.

We also stay at Harbor House. We like the food options within walking distance and indoor secure parking (Port Parking) is very close too. For us, we like to be in Galveston the night before the cruise and know that we made it there and are ready to go! Yes, it will cost you more than other places though.

We are doing a long cruise (over one month) that will be expensive. Any suggestions on how you would insure it? I'm looking at an annual plan, but the dollar amount for the cruise (that insurance would reimburse) is nowhere close to the actual cost that we'll put out. Yes, I would hate to lose the money paid for the cruise. But I also want a decent amount of medical and possible evacuation coverage. It seems that a lot of the plans wouldn't fully cover the cost of the cruise. All suggestions welcome! Thanks. Additional info: Further research seems to show that a lot of annual plans don't cover the actual cruise cost (or at least not much of it). I'm thinking that annual plans probably don't work so well for a longer and more expensive cruise that costs upwards of $20,000 or $30,000 or more. Maybe they're good for the medical aspect, but not so good for getting cruise cost back?

You guys in Florida have such an advantage (for cruising, anyway). Flights are becoming quite unpleasant lately, but yes that is what we need to do for some variety in ports. A couple of NE/Canada cruises are coming up and we're also wanting to someday do the Panama Canal.

This sounds good, KWong. We'll certainly keep it in mind for future possibility. Thanks!

I'm very sorry for your lay-offs and I wish you both the best. I won't stop watching.

Your info is very helpful, SebagoSue. We're happy to know that we won't be held to a strict schedule or reservation. Thanks for your reply!

We're going to have a suite on an upcoming Celebrity Silhouette cruise and would love your input about that whole experience, but especially about how Luminae works. Whatever you can tell me about the dining time options would be helpful. (We usually like My Time Dining on Royal, although we tend to aim for 6:45 each night anyway.) We also like having the same table for two each evening. Does a MTD sort of arrangement work well with Luminae, or is it better to have a set time and stick to it each evening? Do you tend to get the same table each night? If you don't like your table location the first night, is it easy to get it changed for the following nights? Also, what about breakfast and lunch? I'm guessing those are probably more flexible?

Ha!! Wife and I like to watch the evening network news. SO MANY ads for medications we're to ask our doctor about! Meds for memory, for heart, for elevated A1C, for eyes, for crooked you-know-whats. Just last night we said something about how it must just be us "old people" who watch the 5:30 pm news because they sure are targeting us with all these ads. Another reason to turn off the news, I guess!

Great advice! So what, if you didn't do exactly as some of the other cruisers. We never dress up as much as some do. Chances are you won't see each other again, and who cares what anyone thinks (as long as you weren't really obnoxious!). You had a great time and that's what's most important.

Thanks for your info, OCSC Mike. Very helpful and much appreciated!

Well, we did book it. Kind of concerned that nobody has stayed there but I'll try to post an update after our cruise.

We like MTD around 6:45 pm. It gives us time to do happy hour first. Then dinner. Then we see a show before going to Boleros. No matter what, it's hard to fit everything in when you're on a cruise!

For those who have done the Royal cruisetour (land and cruise) combos in Alaska in the last couple years, I wonder if you could offer your thoughts. We're looking at starting in Fairbanks and then getting on the Seward to Vancouver cruise, maybe in June or July. We're more drawn to the 13-night trip vs. the 12-night. It seems a shame to spend time on a land portion and not include Fairbanks. We definitely want to do the land portion prior to the cruise, instead of after. Also, the chance to be on the glass-domed train for parts of 3 days sounds nice. My main question is about the Tundra Wilderness Tour vs. Denali Natural History Tour. I'm seeing some 5-star reviews and also lots of 1 and 2-star (for both tours). Modified school buses, for 5 hours or more with very limited stops, don't sound very comfortable. Some seemed to love it, but others said it was awful. I'm thinking both tours use similar vehicles though. We would rather do the RC tour than arrange our own land portion. It appears that the Natural History Tour, which ventures less distance than the TWT, is the only option on many of the pre-cruise trips. Another thought is to delay going to Alaska until the landslide on the road has been repaired, possibly in 2026, thus allowing for better scenery and animal viewing deeper into the drive. Would anyone care to share what you did or didn't like about the particular tour you have done? Thanks!

Great info, Ticca. Thanks so much!

Plus the fact that I would probably get better sleep!!

So you've convinced me that it would be much easier to let a TA handle this from the start. Thanks to you both for your help!

I'm not familiar with how to do this on the RC site. (Soon after booking, we'll be transferring the reservation to a TA.) Wouid I make a deposit on the second cruise and then do something on the site to cancel the first one and pay the change fee? My whole intention of booking as soon as I see what we want is to avoid losing out on the suite and location.

When new cruises are posted on the RC site later this month, we hope to see two itineraries that we're wanting (although just one cruise would be kept due to the fact that doing both might be more money than we want to spend in such a short period of time). We don't expect both cruises to appear on the site in the same week. Let's say one becomes available one week, and another becomes available the following week. Our thought was to book the first one to come available and try to get the cabin type we want (a suite). So my question is this: If we book one cruise, and a week goes by and we now are fortunate enough to book a different itinerary and cabin we actually prefer more, would we forfeit the full deposit we made on the first cruise? (I hope I made this clear.) Also, we're wondering if there's any particular time of the day that new cruises are posted or does this tend to be random and at any time of the day or night? Thanks for any help offered.

Greenland in September. It seems like a lot of OV balcony cabins still available. Maybe that's usual for 7 months out.

I sometimes look at available cabins for future cruises and see what seems like a large number of them still available several months out. Made me wonder if anyone has ever seen RC cancel a cruise when too many cabins went unsold?

When we know we'll be dining in the MDR in the evenings we try to deal with table preference the first night of the cruise. If you don't like where you're seated, kindly talk with the maitre d' later (ideally when not busy with their duties) and explain your wish. We have always found them to be quite helpful. I think if you approach it the right way they will do their best to help you.