jticarruthers

Yeah it feels weird to pay the fee but on balance if that really is the gratuity portion, i will take a much cheaper drink package instead of a truly free one. Currently booked on a 16 night panama canal on Joy ... came with the free everything options and on balance if im paying $20 a day gratuity for a free drink package for the whole 16 days thats a pretty great deal still !

My general experience has been that if it looks like a wine bottle its good to go ... we have taken both mead and beer on board that was packaged in "wine style" bottles. Probably 3-4 times total, in all cases they didnt even question it. That doesnt meant hey wont take one look at your bottle and say no to it though.

Looks like people beat me to it but yes the questions for us were very benign, more of the "are you really you" kind. I do know a friend though that failed to disclose a legal issue (innocently, thought that since it was so old it had "cleared") but they jumped him hard on it.

In the neighbourhood of 10 mins or so. Not a long walk at all.

We signed up our son at 14 the same time we did ours. We did a Europe trip that summer which made the Global portion well worth it over the regular precheck. Process was the same for him as it was for us, we schedule all our interviews at the same time/place and they were very "gentle" with their questions.

I have used Global Entry with some of the ports. Miami has signs up for it but never honors it ... Ft Lauderdale honored it (they didnt have a line for it but just walked you around the line to the front) .... i think Canaveral honored it but i havent sailed Canaveral in a while.

Yes, 1st night is very minimal dress code ... basically as long as all the appropriate parts are covered your good.

Generally speaking the price starts at its low point when the itinerary is released and gradually trends up over time. With the never ending sale in its slight variations the price oscillates up and down slightly while on its gradually increasing trend. Its basically all marketing voodoo to make people think they are getting a deal and sometimes there are decent savings but the oscillations are basically due to RCI math.

The magic number is about 5 drinks a day (average across all days). It sounds like you would be getting the refreshment package anyway (coffees, juices, water, etc.) in which case your magic number drops to about 3 drinks per day. Even with port days thats not hard to hit, so i would go for it. For me the refreshment package doesnt really have any value so its a straight jump from 0 to deluxe but if you would do refreshment anyway then it really isnt a hard decision.

👍 This one gets my vote

Have stayed in several of the aft balconies on the Voyager/Super Voyager class ships ... loved them all and make it a priority to seek them out. The metal superstructure is "there" across the back, but for us the larger balconies (and occasionally larger rooms) more than make up for it.

Havent left from Barcelona but found it very easy when we arrived there a couple of years back. We just did a taxi from the port, seemed very easy.

RCI discovers another way to limit the benefits .... if we dont print it they cant redeem it 🙂

I was eventually able to get in, same price on drink package and the RC VIsa OBC still hasnt posted so I cant cancel and rebook to use up the OBC still ....

I have experienced the cancel the 3rd and get relocated to a double instead of a triple cabin. I think they always have the option to relocate you to a different cabin but would raise a stink about it if they are doing it "just because they can". If they opened up the inventory to allow 2 people to book a triple thats their issue not yours.