jticarruthers

We didn't do a long excursion at Belize but have gone over to the mainland a couple of times at Cozumel, both times we (a whole bunch of we, not just the immediate travel group) were pulling up to the dock on the ferry back from the mainland about 30 minutes AFTER the scheduled departure time for the ship which certainly made me glad the excursions were purchased through RCI. I don't mind doing local/self organized excursions to save the money when we are staying nearby and/or doing something that will be over hours before all aboard, but when its a long excursion that might end up cutting it close I will pay extra for the security of "RCI has to wait".

My parents are just back from Enchantment and got switched from traditional to MTD onboard without even knowing :) They had traditional early confirmed, showed up on the first night with a table # printed on their card. Maitre d for some reason intercepted them, scribbled MTD on their card and sent them to the MTD desk (without explaining why). They showed up every night at the same time and couldn't figure out why the service was awful and they kept getting different tablemates every night. They eventually figured it out but do not have a favorable first impression of MTD. Anyway, my point being if they can involuntarily move you to MTD I am sure it is possible to voluntarily be moved as well, probably depends on the mix of MDR/MTD for that cruise and which is more popular ... if MTD is crowded maybe not but if they are trying to make space on the MDR side they may welcome your offer to switch.

I thought I had read that Royal quietly discontinued the prepaid grats being required and made them optional, perhaps that was only on the Oasis/Allure as part of their MDR/MTD or DD limbo that has been dragging on for so long.

Good question, I am sailing out Greece next summer ... watching that with some interest as I was toying with booking airfare soon :)

I spotted those as well Matt but interpreted them as "events happening on the ship unrelated to DreamWorks" since I have seen scavenger hunts and late night partys before ..... so maybe those now have DreamWorks theme ....

Sounds the same as what we have experienced on Freedom and Allure in the past. More marketing spiel ... quick lets make something out of nothing :)

There is also usually lemonade and sometimes flavored water (Mio drops or something similar) available for free. The gratuity referred to is actually 18% now not 15%. Depending on the ship the soda package (which is fairly cheap) can be a great deal. If your ship has the soda machines on board then you can get flavored water, powerade, lemonade,etc from the machines in addition to just soda. Anyone recall if Navigator has the machines or not ?

Karate, The Royal Caribbean website (www.royalcaribbean.com) will have a cruise planner section that goes over drink packages for your cruise and excursions being offered for that particular cruise. This website is a blog site with a lot of good information about Royal Caribbean in general, but not that level of specific detail. RC does have a kids club that is very good, very similar to the Disney/Carnival offering. It is all in one area but broken down into groups by age.

RCI is already more casual than that though Doc, I have done shorts on more than one night (with collared shirt) on our most recent cruise and not even gotten a look from anyone walking in. Not trying to be disruptive but it was the S Caribbean itinerary with a port stop every day and we were off the boat most of every day. Early dinner and getting back on board late afternoon, I figured I would try not changing and if the staff doesn't enforce anything ... no one can tell once I sit down anyway :) I think it pissed off our tablemates though ... mostly because his wife made him dress up and mine didn't. By the end of the cruise he was comfortable and casual too !

First couple of cruises we used to carry them ashore. As Matt says the main reason for having them is to get home if something goes wrong. However, they are a pain to carry as most shore excursions we do seem to involve immersing ourselves in the Caribbean, at this point we leave them on board. We do carry our Passport cards as ID ashore since those are wallet size and plastic not paper, but they are not useful for traveling home since they don't cover air travel. Seems like the cards being usable for air travel would be the logical solution but the government doesn't do logic so that's out.

FYI - Terminal 1 does not look like it is anywhere near the other terminals. The old terminals are all clustered on what is almost a small island, terminal 1 looks like it is a mile or so east of there on the "mainland" .

So Google Maps is our friend. Looks like there are four restaurants along the water between the new Terminal 1 and the rest of the Port. Millien's Reef, Rusty's Seafood and Oyster Bar, Fishlips Bar & Grill and Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar. Any blame for these restaurants no longer existing should be given to the great god Google that shows them all in a row . There is an area on the point, if I had to guess a mile and a half or so down from Terminal 1, labeled Jetty Park Compound ... google shows greenery and some sort of a beach. No comment on good beach or bad beach, it just looks like sand on Google Maps :) Zooming in does show umbrellas and people though so at least some people seem to be enjoying it.

I thought I had read about a bar/restaurant of some kind that was a good spot to watch sailaway from ... probably walkable from the terminal but apart from that I cant think of anything that would be real convenient. Drove in/out each time we have sailed from Canaveral and don't recall seeing much near the port.

Generally the attire is trending more and more casual. If you want to dress up more you certainly can though. I have increasingly gone with jeans and polo on non-formal nights and slacks and a button down shirt for formal night. If my wife is good with it (which she is), I am not bringing more dressy clothing than I need and Royal doesnt seem to have any opinion on it, so casual is better for me.

IIRC Falmouth has a pretty cheap beach excursion through the ship, nothing special just a pleasant beach, something around $20 pp ? Lost my wedding ring in the water there a few years ago. At Cozumel there are many options, we have taken a taxi over to Chankanaab Park on a few occasions and enjoyed the beach there. From memory, $10 each way for the taxi (total not per person) and something like $25 pp entry fee. They have some nice palm huts on the beach that are free to use, waiters will run a tab, etc. They have the dolphin swim area and lots of other activities that seem to attract the crowds and the beach is usually quiet until later in the day.

Think I found the details: Under 5 nts - No OBC 5-7 Nt - $50 Interior/OV, $100 Balcony/JS, $200 GS and above 8-10 Nt - $100 Int/OV, $150 Balcony/JS, $300 GS and above 11-14 Nt - $150 Int/OV, $200 Balcony/JS, $400 GS and above 15+ Nt - $200 Int/OV, $250 Balcony/JS, $500 GS and above Definitely rewards long cruises and big suites, not much for the others but better than nothing ... no joy at all for your Enchantment cruises though :(

They are usually good about honoring the Terms and Conditions on those, haven't tried it myself but heard lots of stories indicating they are good to use.

I think the nextcruise OBC is pretty simple, don't have it in front of me but basically the two variables are length of cruise and type of cabin. From memory inside & oceanview are now lumped together and balcony & suites are as well. I know for the 7 nt in a balcony I reserved in march it was $100 OBC. I think the Inside/Ocean OBC was maybe $50 for that cruise. Shorter cruises were less.

I signed up for Nextcruise in March, at the time the cruise I purchased gave me a $100 OBC which was immediately added to the account on my current cruise. I believe you can choose whether to take the OBC on your current cruise or the future cruise you are booking for. The option was not presented to me it was just automatically done for my current cruise, I would have picked that anyway so I didn't ask. Since I have already spent the $100 my deposit is not refundable but it was only $100 anyway, so worst case I cancel and have $0 out of pocket, best case I already spent the OBC and have $100 deposit applied against the future cruise.

Tried Walkie Talkies once or twice, usually ended up getting not enough signal or too many people on the channel to be effective but got a little use out of them. Tried the rental iPhones on Allure, waste of money, too many dead zones that you had no connection in. We do a lot of "we will be at x place around y time, see you there or if not find you somewhere"

Have not put multiple rooms on one charge card but I know it offers me the option to do so when I do my pre cruise registration. I would assume at that point that just like with multiple people in one rooms it creates a "folio" for each person but then moves all the activity off each folio onto the master folio. If that's the case then all the OBC and all the charges regardless of who "earned the OBC" or "charged" the expense would end up in one account, net against each other and then the remaining balance billed to your card. Looking at the other side of the question. I know when I have redeemed my RCI Visa OBC in the past it asks whether you want it all on one name or split between the two occupants of the room. So it would seem that the OBC can and should be assigned to each folio based on how it was earned. Back to the OP, I would expect each of your accounts to have half the OBC assuming you setup two accounts. Regardless, a trip to Guest Services should be able to move OBC around between the folios if you need it to be on one of the other account (Unless one of you doesn't know he is getting OBC?)

I believe it depends on how the credit was earned and how you setup the onboard charging. I always take "responsibility" for my wife and son when checking in so we are all setup as one "account" with all the OBC on it and charging to my card at the end of the cruise. Not sure how it works though if you have separate accounts.

At present I don't believe Freedom of the Seas has the option of either of the Dynamic Dining styles it is purely Traditional Main Dining Room vs. My Time Dining. I will also be on her in November but thought the rumors of DD on Freedom class had died so I am addressing my comments as Traditional vs My Time, if you were implying changing to a different ship to have access to the Dynamic Dining options that would be a whole 'nother answer ! In terms of Traditional vs My Time; there are a lot more similarities than there are differences since they both refer to eating in the same restaurant with the same menu. The only real difference is whether you prefer a fixed dining time, at a set table, with the same wait staff and tablemates or prefer the flexibility of dining at the time of your choice, in which case you can either make reservations or just show up and you will be seated at a table with possibly the same wait staff. Personally we have always been very happy with the Traditional approach and have no interest in trying My Time so read into my comments some bias if you wish :) I do know it is possible to try and replicate the Traditional experience using My Time, by asking for the same table/wait staff and that many people have reported it working fine.

I thought there was an announcement a while back that Divinely Decadence was being converted to the complimentary Solarium Bistro in order to provide another complimentary option. Could be imagining it though as my Quantum interest level dropped way off.

We do springbreak and thanksgiving regularly, those are the only two (non-summer) windows where I can know my sons school schedule far enough in advance to book a solid deal. Currently booked out for Thanksgiving this year, Springbreak next year, Thanksgiving next year and starting to work on some thoughts for Springbreak 2017. His school wont actually release the calendar until January 2016 or so, but I usually end up dropping 2-3 deposits on interesting options that seem like they should be in the right timeframe and then cancelling the others once the schedule is released.