Geezer Of The Seas

Mr & Mrs Geezer reside in the Sabal Pointe area, close to shopping, banking, sorta fine dining, our collection of doctors. Everything a Geezer could need........well there is the daughter's family featuring 3 grandchildren 100' down the street.

The wild card is have you ever done it on a major holiday weekend? Is your route I-4 east to 528 or I-4 to 417 to stay south of MCO ( and a lot of traffic) and entering 528 east of MCO? Once east of MCO smooth sailing since it's Monday, but maybe give yourself 30-40 minutes more because of the holiday? Caveat: This free advice is coming from someone though a resident of Longwood, has booked hotels in Cape Canaveral 2x to arrive the day before our cruise. My traffic paranoia is boundless......

We ordered a bottle on one trip through Cruise Planner for delivery on embarkation day; one of the 'El Cheapo' corkscrews was included. Best corkscrew I've ever used, I threw out 2 I had at home when we returned. Dunno why, but no violence, bloodshed or potty mouth when opening a bottle now. Must be the crown & anchor logo embossed on it.......

HELL YEAH!!!!! Nuts to all the overpriced, underwhelming "do want a fried egg on your burger" designer hamburgers. My needs are simple. I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 & French fried potatoes..............Big Kosher pickle and cold draft beer, Good God Almighty which way do I steer? With apologies to Jimmy Buffett.....................

Itinerary dependent perhaps? We did a 5 day Western Caribbean on Mariner early November '23 from PC. No Coco Cay if memory serves. Honestly, it didn't seem any different than our 8 day ABC trip on Jewel Thanksgiving week of 2022, though there were 4 Code Alphas on Jewel in 8 days, if that means anything

Another one of the mysteries of cruise line IT. If it's any comfort, I have similar issues with HAL. Abruptly stopped receiving cruise related e-mails & marketing e-mails. Clicked the e-mail box again when recently booking a reservation, now I'm carpet bombed daily. Royal ? Never any problem, got the gift card offer e-mail and get the C & A newsletter at the end of each month.......and we're just common Platinum folk.

Don't sweat the check-in selfie. In 4 embarkations from Port Canaveral my DIY's have never been accepted. Typically, the reason given is insufficient lighting or background is too dark. Small detail, the terminal photo takes mere seconds and you're on your way. I'm always amused because the gate agent shows me the picture and asks if I'm OK with it or would prefer a retake. Standard response from me: No thanks, pretty passed me by a long time ago!

Fire and/or other emergency requiring ship evacuation. Somehow, I don't envision the real thing going as smoothly as the drills the crews perform periodically...........

You are not alone. Royal has to be profitable, I get that. But there's a fine line between that and jumping the shark with pricing. They might be approaching that. We've done 4 Royal cruises since 2022, each one has seen fewer shipboard add on purchases. We'll always book excursions that interest us, after all part of the reason we do this is seeing places we've never been, albeit in a very compressed time element. Increasing fares= fewer onboard bells/whistles. Just how we roll.

What you read is the truth. Same is happening with Lyft. The Uber driver that took us to Brightline Orlando a week ago also drives for Lyft. Similar treatment like Uber drivers receive. We selected Uber XL (Comfort) for all rides. We had 3 pieces of luggage so I knew a compact/subcompact vehicle wouldn't cut it.

Brightline station not the airport. Cab driver that did come and pick us up(less than 10 minutes after calling) after 40 minutes wait for Uber told us no Uber driver would show for a $5.52 ride of less than 5 miles. And the Uber driver that picked us up from Brightline Orlando to take us home (no problem for a near $70 ride apparently) told us the same thing. Matter of fact, I asked 2 Uber drivers that dropped fares at Brightline Lauderdale if they could even see our request in the app. One said yes and he couldn't help us. The second one I asked, I offered him $25 to take us 'off the books'. No joy there either. Couldn't line up an Uber from Port Everglades to Brightline either. Used a shuttle recommended by Crowne Plaza Hotel to get us from hotel to port and port to Brightline.

No, but during the course of my career I was shot at, bottles thrown at fire apparatus I was driving, physically attacked by patients I was dispatched to care for............all in the 'tourist capital of Florida'. Any points for that?

I have no movie channels. Your point?

@twangster, we agree to disagree. Haiti has been violent and dysfunctional............forever. A catastrophic incident involving a cruise ship going into a country that has been gripped by anarchy for decades doesn't add up to good business sense. Any cruise line resume sailings to the Black Sea (Russia/Ukraine) or Mediterranean Israel/Hamas/Hezbollah)? Not a lot of separation among them all; the 'war' in Haiti looks different is all. It just seems a bad idea. Haven't been in a major metro area lately...........well Ft. Lauderdale around the port last week.

Everyone says "but Labadee is 3 or 4 hours over land from Port au Prince". Personally, I think Royal (and any other cruise line with stops in Haiti) is playing with fire. An aircraft on a 'slow' landing approach is like shooting fish in a barrel. So, what happens when/if these bad actors come into possession of high performance boats and start busting caps at a cruise ship? They don't have to board, just squeeze off a few rounds at the pool deck would be all it would take to create a story the cruise lines couldn't deep six. My opinion, of course................