Asphodel

A lot of people recommend this, this is actually the wrong advice. Depending on what country you're in, you're probably not going to be near to the Consulate. What you need to do if you miss the ship is seek out the Port Agent. There should be contact information for the Consulate, the Port Agent, etc on the top page of the Cruise Compass. You can get waterproof pouches. The one I have are a bit pricey - they are Aquapacs. A quick Google search turned up lots of waterproof pouches if you wish to shop around. I once bought some logo brand ones from the ship. Hard plastic and bulky and one broke almost right away, I would not recommend those. And no, you're not being overly paranoid about theft. I almost had a camera stolen from me by a fellow passenger! She took it off the xray screening belt while I was still on the other side of the metal detector.

San Juan is a noisy city and not having gotten a lot of sleep the first time I was there, I looked for a quiet hotel. Found one - the Howard Johnson Centro Cardiovascular San Juan. As you might guess from the name, it is located in a hospital. An entire floor of hotel rooms, but they are run by Howard Johanson. A little out of the way and some of the taxi drivers (and dispatchers) don't know where it is (so be sure to take along the address). I found it blissfully quiet. Also for the budget minded. If you want a hotel that's in the middle of everything, this probably isn't the place for you.

All my excellent Southern Caribbean excursions have involved catamarans. Last year in St Kitts we were on a catamaran named Adventurer, was really nice.

Doesn't mean they're safe. Incidents are not reported or if reported, aren't made public. Quick Google search will show that water slides have the highest amount of accidents which is more significant considering they are among the lowest number of rides of that type. I'm not explaining this well, there are lots more roller coasters than water slides but fewer accidents on coasters. More accidents on fewer water slides. I can give my personal experience which I realize is a very small sample. I've gone on a water slide twice. Both times I had a problem. The first time was a vertical drop slide, I threw out my arms in reflex when I dropped and scraped my elbow. Did not report this. The second time was a speed slide. When I came out the bottom of the slide, I slipped under the water and became disoriented. Took me about 15 seconds of floundering about before I surfaced. At no time did anyone there assist me while I was under the water. Did not report this. Water slides scare me. Seeing those water slides on Liberty overhanging the ship scares me. Seeing that open Tidal Wave slide scares me - I can just picture someone getting slung off the ship. Traipsing up to the slides to see how they worked and standing there less than a minute, seeing a woman exit the bottom of the slide and like me, experiencing a problem - that scared me. I'm not a fuddy duddy. I've ridden roller coasters dozens of times over 40+ years without a single incident. I'll be the first in line for the meanest, baddest roller coaster, I guarantee. Feel free to risk your livlihood using a water slide. I'll pass, thanks.

I can't believe RC is installing water slides on their ships. Those things are dangerous. Tidal Wave in particular looks like an accident waiting to happen. I personally witnessed an incident when I went up there to check to see how they were operating to make a decision whether to ride them or not. Needless to say, my decision was a resounding NO.

Cruise Critic once upon a time used to be a fine and useful site but has suffered in recent years from "tragedy of the commons". Specifically the increasing tendency for mocking and abuse, especially for their own entertainment. To post an account of something and then have a slew of people gang up on you, mock and scorn, tell you you're wrong (on conjecture), Generally be rude and scathing and disrespectful. Does not make for a very constructive environment. It's a huge site, lots of fluff and dreck to sift through to try to find answers. People who quote long posts just to add "me-too" at the bottom. Many meta-discussions. Worth a look, I wouldn't call it a community anymore. An over-bloated monster washed up on the shore.

One suggestion I have is to take lots of small bills if you intend to be out spending money in the countries. Especially if you're going deeper into some of the less affluent countries like Belize and Mexico. Have on hand lots of one and five dollar bills. I have more than once seen people confused because they could not make a purchase because the people did not have change for a twenty dollar bill. They don't seem to realize this is 1) a foreign country whose monetary unit is not the US dollar and 2) the people are not going to have even a moderate amount of US change on hand. You may get the local currency back in change as well. I've seen this happen on a ship sponsored tour when someone tried to tip with a 100 dollar bill. They got the change but had to collect enough tips from other passengers first. Speaking of $100 bills, I wouldn't recommend them either given an account I read of someone who had trouble in Grand Cayman I believe, being accused of holding counterfeits. (according to the poster they were legit, just the older style without the new fangled anti-counterfeiting features) Largest bill I take is a twenty. I'll typically take $100 in ones, $100 in fives, $200 in tens, $100 in twenties. As for how much to bring. Hm. Two to three dollars per bag both going and coming for the porters. Five dollars per person per shore excursion. Twenty to sixty for slots. (we are very conservative gamblers) More if I'm going to be in a shop intensive port like Cozumel or Falmouth. I have to figure in ten dollars per port for tshirts for my son. Anything I have left at the end of the cruise goes on the onboard account. I've never had a problem with credit card abuse but YMMV. Worst problem I had was the opposite - the restaurant couldn't get through to their cc service to validate our card. We scrambled to come up with the cash and barely covered the bill ($2 short) which made for one unhappy waiter. Just thought of a second worst problem. The restaurant didn't take Discover so I used our return taxi fare to pay the tab. Was contemplating walking back to the ship (from Chankanaab) when some nice people offered to let us share their cab.

Heh, I went and booked my 2018 cruise last night. Snagged a new port by accident, I was looking at the GC/Jamaica itinerary and clicked on a different booking cause it was slightly cheaper. Costa Maya, will make my bf happy, he whines about the same old ports. But it means almost the same itinerary 2 years in a row, Coz/Roatan/Belize next year Coz/Costa Maya/Roatan year after. The funny thing is I just booked my 2017 cruise a little over a week ago. The 2 cabins I reserved are next door to each other. Junior suites, will get my bf to diamond status after the 2018 cruise.

It's changed, I don't know if it's because I was on a different ship or if their policy changed in general. It appears it varies from ship to ship. I don't know how long I've been booking Next Cruises, 4 to 6 years at least. Originally, one had to reserve a slot with the Loyalty Ambassador and those filled up quickly. Doing that I could get a Next Cruise booking number and the accompanying OBC, tho usually I would just go ahead and book my cruise anyway. Because it was so difficult to get to see the LA, they started doing the forms. Fill out a form, you'd get your booking number. In that case I would book my cruise at home within a few months. This worked fine until about 3 years ago when I booked my farthest cruise out, over 2 years away. It was so far out I actually went on 2 cruises in between the time I booked and the time I actually cruised. When that cruise finally arrived, I did not get my OBC but it had been so long since I booked, I couldn't recall if I was due any or not. Fast forward to last week. Because of the missing OBC from my previous cruise, I took documentation on board my last cruise. Once again, I did not receive the OBC but I had proof in hand that I should have gotten it. Easy, yes? No. A Guest Relations person told me if I was due it I would have gotten it (wrong answer)! Now this was on Liberty. On Liberty the Loyalty Ambassador did not do the Next Cruise bookings but they had a Next Cruise store in the Promenade. I turned to the manager there who said yes, I should have the OBC, we went back to GR, got a different GR person who took my docs and said they'd have to fax them to RC onshore who would ultimately say if I was due the OBC. Turns out they said yes but it still took them until Day 6 to credit it to me. Grrrrr. On Liberty it turns out, they did things differently. They not only had a sign in book and a dedicated store, but they had at least 4 Next Cruise people to help with new bookings. The deal I got was reduced deposit ($100 for 2 people) plus an OBC that got credited to the *current* cruise. So no more "lost" OBC. I liked that setup much much better. From your experience and my experience, it looks like it varies from year to year and ship to ship.

Do let us know how long it takes for your passport card to arrive. I think I'll do the renewal I was talking about and mail it off Monday and let you know when I get it back. Perhaps it's because I've been renewing that it's not taking so long, we shall see. If you have it when you travel, I would recommend taking it onshore with you. I've heard so many arguments that the risk of losing it or having it stolen outweighs the risk of missing the ship and being stranded in a foreign country without a passport. I think I've made my stand clear on that. In recent years RC has started putting contact information in the Cruise Compasses (at least on my past couple of cruises), something they weren't doing when I first started cruising. Be sure to take that info along with you as well. Also the customer service number in Florida as it'll be easier to contact them if you have a problem rather than try to call the ship directly.

Two weeks normally. Even back when there was the big crunch on passports and millions of people were applying and we were expecting it to take months to get back, it sitll only took a couple weeks. I think they're quoting worse case scenario, I just looked at the passport site and it said 6 weeks. To answer your question about the learner's permit, if it has a photograph it's a valid ID. If it does not have a photo, it's not. The neat thing about a passport is it's a valid ID *and* proof of citizenship. The bad thing about applying for a passport is you have to send them your birth certificate along with the application. You might consider applying for a duplicate birth certificate. The good thing about applying is they look at your travel plans and if your date is close, they'll push your application along. If you're going to do it, do it soon.

Most people do not but I believe that is because most people do not own snorkel gear. I have snorkel gear I bought around 25 years ago when I was in Hawaii (at a Sears of all places!) and yes, I drag it along to all my cruises. This is easy for me to do since I drive from Houston to Galveston to cruise out of Galveston so I don't have to worry about flying with it. In fact a couple years ago when we did fly to Puerto Rico for a Southern Caribbean cruise, we left the snorkel gear at home rather than try to check it. If you're not an avid snorkeler, then I wouldn't worry about it.

Couple times I've done things on my own. Maybe I did it wrong but I didn't see substantial savings. I have however, seen (well heard of) people missing the ship. My past cruise, the ship was delayed an hour and a half waiting on their own tour buses delayed because of increased traffic in Jamaica (that they warned about upon docking) because of a local election. On that day, I don't think it would have been wise to go on a third party excursion, no matter the guarantees. I've been on another cruise where departure was delayed because of weather causing traffic backup and the rumour later was people had missed the ship.

It will take about 2 weeks once you've filed, provided there are no glitches that causes the application to be rejected. The money is well spent. Your passports are good for 10 years. We noticed a couple weeks before our last cruise (that was last week) that my boyfriend's passport expires in October. I'm doing the paperwork to send off for that now, renewing is a lot easier than applying for a new passport. However, they've made it simpler to get a new one, many post offices do it now. Where I live you can go to a library and get it done. I know the expense can be inconvenient but like I said, you won't have to do it again for 10 years.

I was kind of surprised how many Diamond perks I used. Balcony discount. (tho I've been doing this since I was platinum) Priority boarding. Tho they seem to have fixed the boarding backlog problem in Galveston (at least this year). Free drinks. Yeah, lots of those. The free 24 hour wifi. I've noticed they've changed the structure on how they charge but my IT husband still is boggled they charge by time and not amount of data. The 20% spa discount. I had booked a couples massage before the cruise and when it came time to pay, it was "oh you're diamond would you like to use your discount?" That's 20% off $380, I said "yes please". The look on the bartender's face was priceless when I walked into Vintages and said "I'd like to use my BOGO" and ordered 2 glasses of Caymus. I used the single drink discount when ordering a drink (that I actually paid for!) and the bartender noticed mine was still active. Saved what? Two, three dollars? I've used the logo merchandise discount previous cruises but not this one. I've used the free photograph coupon previous cruises but not this one. We used to use the free spin ones but stopped when they stopped giving out keychains or whatever it was. One day they sent up a plate of sweets out of the blue, I think that was a diamond thing. Speaking of, you'll get a couple bottles of water and a package of cookies first day. Crew members tend to be more deferential when they notice you're diamond (but not always). Oh and you get a diamond pin but I've only seen the men wear those. They're so cute, especially when they get their first platinum pin. If you don't think you've had enough free booze, go to the Welcome Back event for some more. Oh something I used heavily - the coffee machine in the Diamond Lounge. Cappuccino with an extra shot of espresso, works for me. Anything else I think is too much trouble to chase down/arrange. And Bob's your uncle.

Okay, poster child here for hand washing/sanitizing (and I don't mind the nagging a bit). I'm normally manic about handwashing and sanitizing because I have asthma. If I catch a cold, or any respiratory illness, there's a good chance it'll segue into bronchial asthma which makes me much sicker and is not fun. I just got off Liberty from my 14th cruise this past Sunday. For the first time ever, I think I picked up gastroenteritis, tho I didn't start getting symptoms until Saturday night and it really didn't manifest until Monday. I've been unwell most of the week, starting to get over it just today. Despite my manic handwashing and sanitizing, something still slipped through. It's kind of interesting over the years how passenger attitudes have changed from when they first started putting the sanitizers all over the ship with people refusing to use them, to now most cheerfully taking a squirt while walking into the Windjammer or main dining room.

Having a passport facilitates a few things, like going through customs. But the main reason I would think of for having a passport is this uncommon scenario you may think will never happen to you but it has happened. Missing the ship. You're now stuck in a foreign country without a passport. If you think well, you can just go to the US embassy: for one example, if you're in Cozumel, the US Embassy in Mexico is located in Mexico City. Getting back to the US will be an extreme hassle and expense; once you do get to the border, you won't be let in because you have no passport! Really better to have one. This argument used to be back and forth hashed and rehashed with no resolution on some other cruise site I no longer frequent.