melski94

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.

This has prompted me to read the fine print on my policy. I had another question about my insurance so I called and asked what happens if my flight is canceled. This is a lesson learned as my assumptions were wrong and thankful for the opportunity to learn through others. I thought I'd share what I learned about my policy for education purposes. I buy my trip insurance from C&F Travel insured through USAA and so your results might be different. If my flight is delayed by 3+ hours and I miss the cruise, it is considered a "Missed Connection" (look that up in your policy). I will be reimbursed up to $500 per person to join the trip plus $200 per day for hotels, etc. If I am delayed by 6+ hours, then it is considered "Travel Delay" (once again in your policy with different amounts). Reimbursement is up to $1000 per person. The bottom line is that insurance expects me to meet the cruise at a port. However, if I am unable to get there with at least 50% of the cruise left, then and only then, will I be reimbursed the cost of the cruise. I wonder what RC would say if I tried to meet the ship at a port? What is the process for that? We also have passports so this is possible but if you traveled on birth certificates there is no way to meet the ship. Go Preds!

I've said this before but thank you for blogging this for us. This is a real eye opener. I would have assumed that if my flight is cancelled, I could get the rest of the trip refunded. We do fly in the night before but not 24 hours before as taking another full day off of work/school gets to be hard. Between the Boeing Max problems and weather delays so many flights have been canceled recently that I wonder if this a way for the insurance to not pay out. I think it would be rare to have your flight cancelled and then the airline can book you immediately. My experience is that the airline (SW) can get you to your destination 2 days later if you are lucky since most of their flights are full. It makes me wonder what we would do if we had to deal with canceled flights. The Max 8 planes were grounded 2 days before our spring break cruise so I was thinking through all the possibilities in case that happened. Rent a SUV and drive one way? It would be a long miserable 16+ hour drive but we could do it. Purchase on another airline? Its spring break so many flights are flying full. I wonder if I'd have been covered. Time to break out the fine print and see what my policy says.

Here is @twangster blog. He was there on Christmas day

Bungalow capacity is 8.