jticarruthers

I thought that was the cartel twangster was referring to ?

I thought that was the cartel twangster was referring to ?

…not to mention the extremely unfavorable environmental regulations of CA…

"Not that hard"  
Are you serious?   It's incredibly complex to build a new port on the West coast.  The terrain and geography just don't lend itself and the risk of the cartel wrecking it all is very real.  Mexico is the last place cruise lines are going to invest $200 million only to see it lost with one cartel event. 

I had to laugh when I read the article.  [paraphrase] …the idea of all-Bahamas cruise itineraries was a huge success….right up until the company went bankrupt !

I will take sides. I blame the family; they acknowledge they were giving the option of disembarking at San Juan with the body to go to a morgue. They chose to stay on the cruise for 6 more days, knowing that anything could happen. 

Not in any way taking sides. This is a horrible situation and I hope whatever happens with this, the family finds peace and consolation for the loss of their loved one.
But…as @twangster pointed out…there is only the one side of the story right now. It reminds me of that other horrible situation where a small child lost their life falling from an open window on an upper deck. The story put forth by their lawyers gave the impression that the window being open was negligence on the part of the ship…and that was the reason the child fell. As the story gained traction…as the lawyers probably intended…the cruise line was careful not to respond. Apparently for two reasons…one, they wanted to let the investigation continue until all the facts were available. And two, they didn’t want to bring more pain and suffering to a family already suffering unimaginable pain. 
But…the lawyers were looking for public shock, disgust and support so that they could influence a future jury…or manipulate a more expensive settlement. I’m not blaming the lawyers for being the best advocates for their clients…that’s their sworn duty. Finding truth and justice is not their job…representing their clients is.
The cruise line finally felt they were forced into releasing some of the videos. Just enough to support their position as to what happened on that terrible day. Turns out there was another story.
So, I’ll wait and see what results from this investigation before making a judgment. And I’ll try to get my information from a reliable, reasonable source. Not some of the agenda-driven, click-bait-seeking, usually slanted media. Just my opinion.

The cruise line is hampered by not being to provde another perspective or side to the story.  An empty refrigerated storage locker may be an acceptable place under the circumstances.  We'll likely never know.  The money seeking lawyers have the advantage of using the media and in the media they can lie and say whatever.  They won't do that in Court, but in the media truth doesn't matter.

We just did a cruise with two couples, booked the guys in one room and the girls in one room to take advantage of the C&A Balcony discount on both rooms (GF and I are D+, the other couple were first timers).
When we did our check-in's my GF and I were checked in together putting all charges to my card and the other couple checked in together putting all their charges to their card.
When we got onboard we requested an extra key for each room from Guest Service, those cards did not have charge privileges but let us have extra keys so we could get into the cabins with our respective significant others 😉
All charges went to the "right" credit cards based on whoever did the charging.
We didn't try the room service for example so I am not sure how they would decide which person's folio they would charge that to but my guess would be "guest 1" and the charge would then flow through to "guest 1"'s linked credit card.
The final statements actually grouped my GF an I as one charge and the other couple as a second charge even though we had crossed cabins.
RCI actually did a good job with the ease of that process.
 
 

We just did a cruise with two couples, booked the guys in one room and the girls in one room to take advantage of the C&A Balcony discount on both rooms (GF and I are D+, the other couple were first timers).
When we did our check-in's my GF and I were checked in together putting all charges to my card and the other couple checked in together putting all their charges to their card.
When we got onboard we requested an extra key for each room from Guest Service, those cards did not have charge privileges but let us have extra keys so we could get into the cabins with our respective significant others 😉
All charges went to the "right" credit cards based on whoever did the charging.
We didn't try the room service for example so I am not sure how they would decide which person's folio they would charge that to but my guess would be "guest 1" and the charge would then flow through to "guest 1"'s linked credit card.
The final statements actually grouped my GF an I as one charge and the other couple as a second charge even though we had crossed cabins.
RCI actually did a good job with the ease of that process.
 
 

We just did a cruise with two couples, booked the guys in one room and the girls in one room to take advantage of the C&A Balcony discount on both rooms (GF and I are D+, the other couple were first timers).
When we did our check-in's my GF and I were checked in together putting all charges to my card and the other couple checked in together putting all their charges to their card.
When we got onboard we requested an extra key for each room from Guest Service, those cards did not have charge privileges but let us have extra keys so we could get into the cabins with our respective significant others 😉
All charges went to the "right" credit cards based on whoever did the charging.
We didn't try the room service for example so I am not sure how they would decide which person's folio they would charge that to but my guess would be "guest 1" and the charge would then flow through to "guest 1"'s linked credit card.
The final statements actually grouped my GF an I as one charge and the other couple as a second charge even though we had crossed cabins.
RCI actually did a good job with the ease of that process.
 
 

We just did a cruise with two couples, booked the guys in one room and the girls in one room to take advantage of the C&A Balcony discount on both rooms (GF and I are D+, the other couple were first timers).
When we did our check-in's my GF and I were checked in together putting all charges to my card and the other couple checked in together putting all their charges to their card.
When we got onboard we requested an extra key for each room from Guest Service, those cards did not have charge privileges but let us have extra keys so we could get into the cabins with our respective significant others 😉
All charges went to the "right" credit cards based on whoever did the charging.
We didn't try the room service for example so I am not sure how they would decide which person's folio they would charge that to but my guess would be "guest 1" and the charge would then flow through to "guest 1"'s linked credit card.
The final statements actually grouped my GF an I as one charge and the other couple as a second charge even though we had crossed cabins.
RCI actually did a good job with the ease of that process.
 
 

You cant have (as far as I can tell) the "pre-purchase" discount by booking ahead and also your diamond discount ... like so many of the C&A discounts it is devalued by the fact that they basically give the same discount to everybody for pre-paying for things.
 

You cant have (as far as I can tell) the "pre-purchase" discount by booking ahead and also your diamond discount ... like so many of the C&A discounts it is devalued by the fact that they basically give the same discount to everybody for pre-paying for things.
 

I haven't been on a cruise in almost 40 years (I would have been 7 or so my only other cruise I've taken). So this may as well be my first time. My wife and kids had never been on a cruise previously. 
 
We sailed on Indy over the weekend and some things stood out in relation to a lot of what I've read here and other places, both things that I felt lined up with what everyone said, and things that I thoroughly disagree with a lot of posters I've read. 
First - what an INCREDIBLE ship! I know it isn't the biggest anymore, but WOW what a lovely vessel to sail on! My family all agree, we loved her! The crew, the captain, the ship overall, just an absolutely fantastic way to travel. Really hard to believe there are much larger ships in regular use!! Lol she absolutely did not feel small. LOVE the promenade deck, LOVE being able to go to the bow. 
 
The third night we sailed through fairly rough seas and she rocked and rolled. My youngest (13) got seasick. But none of them were afraid. Some of us actually enjoyed watching the waves hit our porthole as the ship got tossed around a bit. 
 
Food - I read a lot about the desserts not being anything to write home about. I gotta agree on that one. Even the cheesecake, which is one of my favorite things usually, was just "meh". But aside from that I really do not understand the people that complain about it. We didnt go to any specialty dining and we NEVER went hungry and were never in a situation where we couldn't all find something we really liked. My prime rib in the MDR was tender and delicious and probably one of my favorite things I ate. (I've seen multiple posts staging the prime rib was bad). 
 
Windjammer was hit or miss. There was always at least a portion of what was being served that was really good. The roast turkey was delicious (I always go dark meat though so maybe the white meat wasnt). Even the steaks on the WJ were perfectly edible and tasty. I saw a lot of comments before I sailed that the Indian food on board was good and it REALLY was. But plenty of other offerings in the WJ were quite tasty as well. It IS too busy which can be frustrating but I expected that. 
 
Cafe promenade was impressive. Always open and always quality, tasty snacks. Sorrento's was perfectly tasty as well and my wife, who is gluten free, also liked their GF pizza. Fish and Ships was GOOD!! The only extra we spent on food was Ben and Jerry's and we all enjoyed all of our dining the whole time. 
 
The food on Coco Cay was, we all agree, really really good! The shaved ribeye sandwich was probably my favorite. The Cuban was also good. Of course the taco bar was great and most of my crew said that was their favorite on the island. 
 
Coco Cay itself is, in a word, fantastic.  Just beautiful beyond description.  
 
The crew was, without exception,  top notch. All of them. 
 
My nitpicks:
I really wish they had more freestyle machines. Having to wait in line everytime and hope it has ice was a little frustrating especially when you're REALLY thirsty. (Matters more to me than most probably because I dont drink alcohol and Im a bit of a soda fiend) 
 
The elevators being so full so often got annoying when we were trying to get somewhere. Minor and expected. 
 
The wifi signal in our stateroom wasn't very good. Nothing I couldn't live with, and on higher decks it worked really well. 
 
Overall, I, and the rest of my family, absolutely loved our experience.  My wife wanted to start with a short one to see how she and our kids would like it. I think the best way to summarize how we all felt about it is the fact that we went to NextCruise on our final night and booked a 9 night to Canada for 2024. (On Indy's sister ship, no less).  Cannot wait to sail again!
 
 

So a mini Coco Cay that you have to pay extra for? 

Meh

Hope I’m wrong but I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to be a “reasonable “ price - especially at first.  With prices going ever higher on PDCC add-ons, I expect this “experience” to follow that pattern.

It was 6 weeks for my one picture from Mariner of the Seas.

I was on a cruise right after the announcement that did the receipts by my one in Feb they were gone again.
My guess would be it wasn't very popular so it quietly died.

It's almost like the problem isn't the satellite provider... 
Oh wait.  I think I said that when they first talked about moving to Starlink.  

The key to scanning the passport into the app is to focus your camera on the "string of gobbledygook digits" along the edge. That is what it is scanning. The first couple of times i was going crazy trying to figure out how get to the picture and all the other information in a readable "picture" and then finally realized all it cared about what was the gobbledygook part. 

Now, now.  If stars align it could be partially completed in 2030.  
Oh wait.  Here come the environmental groups.  Make that 2040.  

Reminds me of my first flight back to the US post 9-11 ... the one where the "newly trained inspector" took the time to painstakingly read to me all of the reasons that it would be ok for me to be returning to the US with traces of explosives, gunpowder, nuclear material, toxic chemicals, etc. 
My numerous attempts to explain that my answer was no and I didn't want to hear the list went unheeded as he seemed to believe it was required for me to listen to the entire list before I could affirm that I was not a trained chemical engineer returning from mining nuclear material with explosives.
To be clear I did not have traces of any of those things on/with me but that didn't seem to be relevant either.

Reminds me of my first flight back to the US post 9-11 ... the one where the "newly trained inspector" took the time to painstakingly read to me all of the reasons that it would be ok for me to be returning to the US with traces of explosives, gunpowder, nuclear material, toxic chemicals, etc. 
My numerous attempts to explain that my answer was no and I didn't want to hear the list went unheeded as he seemed to believe it was required for me to listen to the entire list before I could affirm that I was not a trained chemical engineer returning from mining nuclear material with explosives.
To be clear I did not have traces of any of those things on/with me but that didn't seem to be relevant either.

Not at all. It's a rite of passage for those running late.