melski94

Many of the questions have been answered but I'll expand on #8 MTD. There are several decks of the MDR. Typically traditional is on 2 decks and MTD is on its own deck/restaurant. Your sea pass card will tell you which restaurant and deck you've been assigned. You can make a reservation in the cruise planner before your cruise. We like to make reservations at 6:30 every night and on every cruise we've had the same wait staff and table. The only time we don't have the same wait staff and table is if we make our reservation much later due to an activity. We like having the same wait staff and table as it makes service much easier as they get to know you but I don't like the traditional dining times as they are too early or too late for my family. We have no problem seeing shows for the most part. With MTD, you are more likely to sit at a table with your own party as many people with MTD hate the traditional dining of sitting with strangers. You can chose to not make reservations with MTD but then it is like a land restaurant and you may need to wait for a table to be ready. The first night is a bit crazy with long lines as everyone is trying to figure out the tables, etc but after that it moves very quickly.

If you are on a Transatlantic or Pacific, the ship will change time zones usually at 2 am. I would highly suggest you take your watch off the auto time zone and manually set it to match ship time. If your ship is in the Caribbean, the ship time doesn't always change to match local time. Thats up to the Captain to decide to change time or not. If any doubt about time, just check with the crew or your TV in your stateroom. Any time changes will be listed on the cruise compass. When we leave the ship at a port, I always verify with staff what is local time vs ship time.

We have March 2021 booked already (actually 2 weeks booked as I'm not sure of our Spring Break dates yet). I always book the refundable deposit. Yes, the price is higher initially but it is will still cheaper than waiting until November when I am sure of our dates as I know the prices will go up. I also like the ability to change our plans if something comes up. I have a Alaska cruise booked in 2020 but my daughter may study abroad. If thats the case then we may go visit her instead of going to Alaska. I like knowing I can change my plans and get my money back up to final payment which is 90 days before the cruise. We like connecting staterooms and those will go quick on March cruises so I book those as soon as I can.

Us too. We can only cruise during our summer dead period which lasts only 2 weeks (and my daughter has a championship meet the first week) so really only 1 week which we will be on Navigator this year. Only 2 more summers and then hopefully more time. Really love the idea of both ports and hope they do this more! It will be interesting where Independence will sail.

Is the bus transfer available on your shore excursion page? Have you called RC to ask your specific question? Are you using a travel agent? If so, I’d ask them to figure it out. While we can try to help, most of us have never taken a cultural cruise out of China. Yes, the transfer is 2 hours but if you head to the airport from downtown, it’s at least an hour in the opposite direction to the port. The airport is located near Shunyi on your map. There was a really great China RC (I don’t remember the exact ship) cruise blog on cruise critic a few weeks ago. I found it very interesting as I lived in Beijing many years ago. I hope you read it so you know what to expect.

You should check with your Travel agent. China does allow visitors from certain countries to enter certain cities for up to 72 hours visa free. You need to research this to see if you qualify for the program.

It depends on the itinerary for us. There are some cruises in the Caribbean we get off at each port and others we have stayed on the ship during one port. I personally find it tiring when we have 3 port days in a row. My husband loves/needs to get off the ship at each port where I could stay on the ship. That being said said it can quickly up doing a shore excursion at each port. We try do make 1 day a beach day, 1 snorkeling day and 1 quiet walk around the port or stay on the ship day. Now RC is doing 4 ports on some of my 7 day Caribbean cruises. Not sure how I feel about that as I think I’ll miss the sea days! I think we will plan on staying on the ship in 1-2 ports to enjoy the ship without the crowds.

Until I realized the system, I was irritated too as we pay for 2-3 cabins for each cruise. However, you need to think of it as airline points and not hotel points. I know with hotels each room gives us points on our master account. However with cruising, same as airlines, each person accumulates points.

That is a great find! Thanks for sharing!

There are some fish in Columbus Cove. However because of the pier nearby and the landing point for jet skis and more the swimming area isn't very deep. I think they actually made the swimming area smaller in March compared to previous cruises. It isn't great snorkeling but if you are looking to kill a bit of time it would work. There were pretty big schools of fish that came almost up to the beach. Not the brightest color fish and the water was somewhat murky but my 7 year old enjoyed it. It was better in the morning than later in the afternoon.

Its a great size. Have you asked if RC will allow you to book it for 2? Since a 1K will allow up to 6 passengers and March being a high family cruising month due to spring break, I wonder if they will allow you to book it for only 2 so far out. Sometimes, they won't allow a room for 4 to be booked by only 2 people. I just wonder if RC will give up the revenue of an additional 4 people by allowing you to book that room.

For many of my sailings, Black Friday did not offer the best deals. I found slightly better deals or at least the same prices in early October. I always have high hopes for Black Friday but am usually disappointed.

I haven't found a difference among service based on the size of the ship. I've been on similar size ships and have had different experiences and I think that is due to management. My best MDR experience was on Harmony. I don't think that was due size of the ship but because we had the most involved head waiter I'd ever seen. She really had control over her wait staff and you could tell her training of her people paid off. Now while not levels of service, I find that entertainment on the larger ships is far superior than smaller ships.

Absolutely safe. We really enjoy Old San Juan and my kids (youngest is 7) like walking the forts, especially El Morro. It’s only about $8 admission to both forts for adults, kids are free. Its cheap way to explore for a few hours.

TAs have to offer you the same base price as RC, however some will offer extra OCB, a bottle or wine or other perk. You need to shop around and make sure there are no booking fees and no fees to reprice. I use MEI travel, a sponsor of this blog. Only once did I stray for extra OBC and honestly it wasn’t worth the headache from poor service. I learned my lesson and back with MEI for the service I receive. When is your cruise? Many of us book cruises 2 years in advance so it could be a limited inventory, however look at the RC UK for a good look at available rooms.

Blue Hole is extremely popular for the adventurous however it is a 90 minute drive each way. Dunn River Falls is offered by RC but much more crowded. Those are for the very active. There isn’t anything really close to the pier except Margaritaville. I have heard good things about the Hilton Rose Hall for a beach excursion.

I’ve been on Liberty in the same configuration and was able to open the balcony dividers. Keep checking for dining and internet options. They should open up very soon.

I think the best thing to do is look at previous cruise compasses here https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass?ship=289 There are always onboard activities but we don't know which onboard activities are important to you. For my family, we like making a reservation around 6:30. That way I feel we get a full afternoon by the pool without rushing to get ready for dinner. Yes there are some activities that I will miss for this time especially if there is only 1 show in the evening. If there is more than 1 headliner show, then it usually isn't a problem to see the 2nd show. However, if its a non-Oasis class ship, I can take or leave the evening show.

We really like MTD and we do prebook in the cruise planner. For our family of 6, 6:30 works for us. We hate traditional dining as the early seating is too early and the late is too late. If there is some activity that will interfere with our scheduled dining, we just cancel our reservation for the night. I find it easier to plan the reservation, knowing we can change or cancel it if our plans change for the night. You can walk up to MTD without a reservation but you can wait a very long time and then become very unhappy which is why they really want you to have a reservation. Navigator is a Voyager class and Voyager class doesn't have Sorrentos. Freedom, Oasis and some Quantum class ships have Sorrentos. Many ships still have the self serve ice cream. I was another person who saw that after the AMP on Navigator there was no more self serve. None of the ships have it available 24 hours. Glad to see you made it and hopefully still had fun!

You may want to bring custody papers. I assume those say that your wife has sole custody along with parental rights. You may also want to bring your marriage certificate which could show your wife's name change and her previous name which possibly matches the birth certificate. Congrats on the adoption!

I don't know who will be on that cruise on this board. However, you may want to try your roll call on Cruise Critic or see if there is a Facebook group for your sailing.

We had lobster on our 5 night Independence sailing in November.

You could call again but from what I've seen is that you would need to get the refreshment package too. If thats the case, you just need to do the math. Would a Deluxe + refreshment work out better for you or a la carte plus your carry on allowance of 2 bottles of wine?

Where are you from? In North America, you can reprice with a NRD however in other markets (UK, Australia) you can't without a complete rebooking and loss of some deposit.

While we aren't in our room that much, we do appreciate the space to get ready. That being said with your motion sickness, location would be my top priority, mid ship on deck 6 or 7. You may want to get the patch. We still enjoy our cruise despite the occasional motion sickness. Some people will say to never get a flight before noon. However, many people get earlier flights. Just know you are taking a chance that you could miss your flight if anything goes wrong. That being said we are trying an early flight on my next cruise on Symphony too.