PASiggy

When it was free it was ok. I don't think it's worth the $10 pp over 6 years old I believe it is. There are plenty of DreamWorks photo ops throughout the cruise that are available to take with your own camera. When I did it on Allure in 2012 if was free and there were at least 5 characters that come out. On Quantum in Nov there were only 3 and the only reason we did it was we had booked before the charge was put into place.

When I did the character breakfast on Allure in 2011 they were not doing autographs, only photos.

I'm in agreement. If it's $100 total not pp for a 7 night cruise go ahead. $100 pp for a 4-5 night cruise I personally wouldn't do it. Otherwise I have no problem with an inside and I've sailed everything from inside to junior suites. In fact the last oceanview I booked was only about $25 more for a short cruise (4 night) and even then I only did it because there were almost a dozen balconies open a week before sailing and I was hoping for an upgrade, that never came.

Bars are open while the ship is in port, however shops and casino are not. Although there have been some recent changes authorizing shops/casino to open when the ship is in port overnight or late (Bahamas and Bermuda). The disco, casino and often Viking Crown lounge normally are open past midnight to early morning. Centrum, R-Bar, Schooner Bar type of lounges normally close around midnight.

If you chose to stay in Houston you can still fly in before the day of sailing and use the ships transfer. All you have to do is give RCI phony flight information for the day of sailing. I've done it before on other sailings, not Houston-Galveston. Fly in, stay in town, go back to airport the day of sailing and use the ships transfer from the airport.

I have made it to CocoCay on 7 or the 8 voyages where we were scheduled to stop there. On my most recent sailing on Majesty I spoke with one of the ships officers at the C&A top tier event regarding CocoCay and tendering issues due to high winds/seas etc. He indicated that there would be too much environmental damage to either dredge out the port or to run an extremely long pier out as far as necessary to where the ship can dock. Don't think it's in their plans.

Yes it only works if there is no change in your cabin price. I was lucky and had two 2015 cruises where there was no increase in the price of the cabin. TA called Royal and they applied the obc without a problem. Same booking, same cabin.

3 of the 4 Radiance class ships now have single occupancy cabins (Jewel doesn't) but its only 3 cabins per ship. The single occ cabins on Quantum are linked to the JS and balcony cabins as part of a family set and not available for individual booking on line. Not sure if you called you could get them to release one but from what my travel agent told me they hold them as part of the three room suite. So I think it's kind of misleading they advertise single occupancy cabins for Quantum. Sort of like the 18 dining venues they advertise.

It depends on the type of booking. As I understand it a deposit on an open booking is nonrefundable whereby a future booking of an actual cruise it can be refunded. Therefore to cancel a cruise that was booked using an open booking future cruise reservation would result in loss of the $100 deposit.

I haven't even seen that. I was on a cruise just a month ago and the pool patrol came and took a picture early in the morning of 6-7 chairs with towels on them. I figured they were time stamping them with a camera. They never came back to remove the towels and it was well over an hour before any of the cruisers showed up to take a seat.

From my observations I would say the ships pool patrol are probably the least attentive people on the pool deck.

At least one ship, I don't remember which, had a Brazilian steak house but the reviews I've seen on it weren't that flattering. I had heard somewhere that they were supposedly replacing Rita's Cantina with Margaritaville but that may just have been a rumor.

It has been hit or miss with me getting them. I usually ask at check in if they fail to give me one. I just got back from Vision and in Key West we disembarked on deck 1 (crew deck) and went through the hall to get off and there were photos of crew members receiving awards (quarterly awards, employee of the month etc.) and one was for receiving the most WoW recognition for the period. Not sure what all they get but some of the awards, I don't remember which, specified a monetary award.

I agree with your observation that life guards on board would further result in parents having a greater feeling of lack of responsibility for watching/supervising their children. To enact a requirement for life guards to be present while the pools are open most likely would also result in elimination of having pools and hot tubs open 24/7 with restricted hours for swimming. It is not uncommon for hotels to not have life guards, keeping in mind your statement that this is different in some states. I remember a few years ago I was at MGM in Vegas and they kept closing pools and moving people to other pools because a life guard was due to end his/her shift and there was no replacement life guard due to cut backs.

I was also selected and chose American Icon figuring it looks like the easiest and there is always enough going on Day 1.