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I'm hoping for insight from people who have gone on the Bermuda "Catamaran Coral Reef Snorkel" excursion and/or the "Power Catamaran and Two-Reef Snorkel" excursion. My goal is to snorkel in the outer reefs, where the reefs are shallow enough that you just float over them and they are only a foot or two below you; we did this a few years ago as part of a private charter trip with a group on LotS, and I want to do it again, but not sure which trip would be the better experience. It would be great if anyone could tell me the actual provider of the trips so I could look them up on TripAdvisor. Also, I would appreciate any insight on how long you get to spend actually snorkeling, and/or a description of the reefs that you went to (depth, how far out, quality, etc. - I realize they probably use different reefs depending on weather, etc., but hoping for some additional info to put into the consideration). Thanks in advance for any help!

Just want to remind you that this specific boarding was the arrival of the Jewel back to the US following a transatlantic crossing after the summer in Europe, and the main holdup was the inspection. But in terms of who they let in first, they were going off of boarding windows, at least initially.

@smokeybandit I wanted to update you on how boarding went, since you seem to be extremely active on the group and might be able to help others with what we learned. Through random circumstances, we ended up arriving at the terminal at 11:15. There were already a ton of people in line. Priority guests were being allowed to enter the terminal; the rest of us had to queue up outside. At about 11:40, they invited people with 12 pm windows to exit the main line and enter the terminal. We were able to check in, and then we were directed to seating along the one side of the area which had been divided up into sections. As they filled one section, they opened the next. Maybe 60 people per section. Once the seating was full, they stopped allowing non-priority people to enter the terminal. Priority guests were still entering and were seated in a different place. There were staff who were going section to section letting people know that the inspection was taking longer than expected. Finally at 2:30, they started letting the priority guests on. As they were emptying those who had been seated, they were doing a good job of keeping those who were now checking in from filtering into the line of those who had been seated. We were super thankful we had ended up arriving early than we had planned, as we spent the 2.5 hours seated indoors chatting amiably with those around us, while everyone else was standing outside queued up along the main road for car and bus drop off. Apparently some people were quite irate at how it all unfolded. I think RC did a good job at preparing for the whole thing, and handled it as it unfolded as best they could.

So one of the surprising things on our Jewel of the Seas cruise is that the bed in our room didn't come with fitted bottom sheets; the bed just has a flat sheet tucked in. This has been less than ideal because every time we go to get in the bed, when we pull back the sheet and duvet we will be under, the bottom sheet comes completely untucked, as they are all tucked in together during the making of the bed. Worse, however, is that I have woken up and found myself laying on the mattress pads because as I have tossed and turned, I have completely moved the bottom sheet out from under myself. Additionally, the mattress pads are not anchored in anyway, so they have migrated as well, to the point that last night the mattress pads were twelve inches offset from the edge of the bed. We had to get out of bed and wrestle with the linens for some time to get the mattress pad and bottom sheet back where they belonged and flattened. We were on Liberty last summer and this was not an issue. On the second day - having realized the issue immediately the night before - I asked our cabin steward if we could have a fitted bottom sheet. He said that was not possible. I pointed out there was a fitted sheet UNDER the mattress pads, but he countered that those sheets were only to protect the mattress (although it felt exactly like the flat sheets). He said he could fix the problem, but as it turned out, all he did was remake the bed to shift the bottom flat sheet over more towards me so it would tuck in further. However, it eventually migrated back to the point where it was always untucked. So is the use of flat sheets for bottom sheets standard on RC in standard rooms? Do other people have similar problems? Are there hacks for dealing with this? TIA.

Just got this today for Sat departure (remember that ship is arriving after TA crossing):

We've only cruised once in the last ten years, and that was last year. I thought the new normal was that they didn't let people show up early and check in. Last year we showed up at our time (which was not the earliest time because of the preferences of others). Have you had recent experience showing up before the earliest check in and being able to proceed? What would be a reasonable lower bound if we did want to try to show up early? Thanks.

@Pattycruise Thank you. SUPER helpful.

Thanks! I'm assuming that is the early end. If we got assigned to the last group to disembark, when might we expect to be ready for pickup?

I was on the app at midnight when check-in was slated to open, refreshing every ten seconds until it did open. The earliest check in time available was 12 noon. I asked about that here on the forum, and people said it was because the ship was finishing a transatlantic crossing, and so there were extra clearance procedures.

Hi, Our Boston-based roundtrip itinerary to Greenland on Jewel of the Seas shows arrival into Boston on the last day at 7 am. We will giving our luggage to the ship the night before and going with their disembarkation process and timing. We're trying to put bookends on when someone should plan to pick us up at the terminal. What would be reasonable estimates for the earliest and latest times that we would be off the ship and ready for pickup? Thanks.

Hi, Trying to understand the timing and process that determines DISembarkation time. We DON'T want to do the carry-it-off-yourself option, but we are trying to arrange for a family member to pick us up at the terminal, and they live 45 minutes from the terminal. Boston if it matters. To what extent can we specify what disembarkation time we want? How/when does that happen? And when do we find out what our target disembarkation time will be? And how close do they typically run to the target time? Thanks.

Right now for our 15 night Greenland cruise, the 3 night dining package is "on sale" for $94. I'm wondering if we might get a better price if we purchase on board. Can anyone give me some insight on if prices on dining packages are better in the sales on embarkation day, and also if the price starts to drop further into the cruise? Thanks.

Hi, Going on the Greenland cruise to see the Northern Lights and we expect to spend many hours on the deck looking for lights. We're driving to port, so no airline luggage limits. Can we bring and use our own portable camp chairs to sit out on the deck in areas where there isn't much seating (like the helipad)? Thanks.

We haven't been on a cruise with a tender port in quite a while (2013), and back then, it was just a mob crammed into the stairwells. Can you clarify how the tender situation works now? Especially the part about the tickets. TIA.

Hi, we are doing the Greenland cruise in September. Qaqortoq appears to be a tender port. Before RCCL opened up any interesting excursions for that port, I booked direct an excursion with Sagalands that has a meeting time of 9:15; port arrival time is listed as 8 am. I have been reading up a bit, and it seems that it can be quite an issue getting off the ship. Are we likely to have any issues if we plan to be in line for the tender at 7:45 am? We won't have any sort of priority.

@FionaMG, I looked and Yes!, the cruise right before the Sept 7 sailing is a 16-night Amsterdam to Boston cruise. Thanks for that insight!

I stayed up until midnight eastern time to be first off the line to select an arrival time for the Sept 7 sailing on Jewel of the Seas out of Boston. At midnight, it switched from check-in wasn't open to check-in was closed, and then - after continuous refreshing - at 12:02, it let me check in. The earliest check-in time was 12 noon. Did anyone else manage to get an earlier time? Is 12 noon the new normal?

Thanks. I thought "home port" was different from the embarkation port, that the "home port" was kind of like the permanent address of the ship. Thanks for clarifying!

Hi, I want to start check-in at midnight on the day check-in opens, and it seems from what I have read that I need to target midnight for the homeport of the ship. We are cruising on Jewel of the Seas out of Boston in September, but I don't think Boston is any ship's homeport. What time zone should I be thinking for calculating when to try to check in? TIA!

Hi all, I just wanted to report back that I just got cancellations of all the My Time dining reservations I had made, and when I went in to the app, I saw I now had Early Seating dining. We actually hadn't even been able to get on to the Early Seating waitlist when we booked, and it was only a week ago that our TA said she had been able to add us to the waitlist. Super thankful this piece of things worked out as I had hoped!

@Geoff P I'm no expert, but Celebrity ships were not designed with kids in mind, whereas Royal Caribbean ships were. I don't know that either ship has much for the under 5 crowd, but everything I've read indicates that while you can take kids on Celebrity, Royal is far better for kids. If we were taking kids, I would definitely stick with Royal. I'm only looking at Celebrity because this will be our first cruise without kids.

Hi all, We really enjoyed our cruise last summer to Bermuda on Liberty of the Seas, and would like to do the trip again. I was looking at the sailings for June 2025 that were just released, and website prices for two people in a choose-your-room standard balcony in the forward section on the five-night roundtrip to Bermuda from Cape Liberty on June 12 is $2784; our travel agent can get us a slightly better rate which includes refundable deposit. I happened to look at Celebrity, and the Silhouette will be doing a series of SEVEN night roundtrip to Bermuda from Cape Liberty in June 2025; on the website, the base price (no drinks/wifi) for a non-obstructed standard balcony on the June 15 sailing is $2896. I think I did an apples-to-apples comparison, and I am really surprised that I can get a two-night-longer cruise on Celebrity for about the same price I would pay for the shorter cruise on Liberty, especially considering that I thought Celebrity was the higher-end cousin of Royal. Can anyone offer some thoughts on this? Like why the pricing is that way, and things we should consider when making the choice? No kids in tow and just going for some unwind time in a beautiful context. 7 days to relax sounds nicer than 5 for the same price. Thanks.

Boston and Cape Liberty departures through Feb 26 went up last night (Feb 13).

Hi, We just booked a cruise for Sept, and had to go on the waitlist for Early Seating dining. In the meantime, we are booked with My Time dining, and I was able to go in and make reservations for all the nights of our cruise. Will the computer pass us over when it would be our turn to get off the Early Seating waitlist because we have the My Time reservations? Thanks.

Hi, Is there a way to figure out the cost to purchase the Royal Caribbean Travel Protection plan for a particular cruise without actually going through the booking process? Also, the word "may" in "In addition, should you need to cancel for "any other reason" you MAY be eligible for credit toward a future cruise " is a little bit concerning. Are there some hidden caveats that would make you ineligible for the FCC if you had to cancel? Thanks.