jticarruthers

Generally count on two and hope for more.

When you walk in the door at Port Canaveral (As of 11/22/19 and same in May and June) there is a line all the way to the left for Expedited Arrival. All 4 times they have let the whole group use the line as long as "some" of us had it showing on our passes. ("some" varied between 8 out of 11 this past trip down to 0 out of 3 on the trip in June). This allows you to walk down the length of the terminal through the facial recognition machines and then through the security machines before heading upstairs to wait for boarding to be called (or walk straight on if they already called expedited boarding).

My experience has been that it is a "visual" check .. if it looks like a wine bottle and is sealed they arent really reading the labels to see what exactly it is. We brought Mead on a cruise a few years back, technically "honey wine" could be used to describe it ... it came in standard looking wine bottles, they had us unzip the wine carrier, glanced at the two bottles and waved us through. Similarly took a couple of bottles of sour beer on a cruise, they were packaged in corked 750ml bottles, the labels clearly said BEER not wine ... they didnt even glance at those, i held up the wine bag from publix with the tops sticking out and they waved us through. Every situation is different and on both occasions i was fully prepared to have them say no and move on no big deal but if whatever you are trying to take out on "looks" like wine you have a good chance of making it. Also depends on time of year to some degree, they seem to be much more aggressive in screening spring break style cruises, etc.

It depends on whether you want it for the whole cruise or not. If you are going to get it for the whole cruise then the 20-30% cruise planner sale should be equal to or better than your onboard Diamond discount ... if you only want it for a day or two then the free day or two onboard is the way to go IMO. Disclaimer: Off the cuff remarks based on my experience on a couple of Mariner cruises this summer, not backed by actual math performed in a spreadsheet.

I noticed this as well when looking at the Alaska itineraries for 2021 last night ... i think they have figured out a new way to fleece people. Oh you want two rooms with an adjoining door ... upcharge 🙂 It was clearly coming up as a whole separate category of room with a higher price, regardless of occupancy levels.

Just got the exclusive invite for C&A Members to book Alaska before the general public ..... 🙄

Click ... nothing... 😞

The king bed can be split into two regular beds (twins?). Not an ideal solution but at least they arent sharing a bed.

Click ... nothing... 😞

Click ... nothing .... click ... nothing ...

Consistently inconsistent .. the Royal Caribbean motto.

Adding to that i live in Tampa and have cruised out of Tampa 6 times ... 5 no issue, 1 disaster. If you get a fog day and cant dock then it doesnt matter which flight you book but if you are willing to do early walk off and the ship docks on time you will be fine.

Like all ports there can be good days and bad, airport is about 20 minutes or so from the port. Personally i would be ok with booking the 11.45 flight but planning to do walk off disembarkation to get into the line early.

Firmly in the TMobile camp. Its good enough at home but every cruise i have been on you just turn on the phone, connect to the local network and facebook/texts/emails work normally. And its all included at no additional charge (At least on my plan, check your plan before you assume its the same on all plans). The best part is voice is not included so unfortunately i don't answer calls while on vacation 🙂

The best advice here is to try not to dwell on what you could have saved if you had waited to book and focus on the fact that you were happy to pay what you are paying for what you are getting. I would look at upgrades though, I just moved up from standard Oceanview to panoramic Oceanview because the price for the better room had fallen below what i was paying for the lesser room. I try to look at it as "i got to pick the room i wanted and now i get a better room for the price i would have been happy to pay". It does feel sucky in some ways but it beats waiting for the price to fall and then not getting on the cruise at all 🙂 !!