AACJ

I have a whole list of hacks I use/bring on cruises.  My best one is to bring a night light.  The your whole stateroom and bathroom is completely dark at night and the bathroom light is either off or fully, bright on..no in between.  If you plug a small night light in the bathroom receptacle for shavers, it easily cures stubbed toes.  The ONLY caveat is that you have to get one with NON polarized plugs.  Polarized do not fit.  

 

Among other hacks, we bring clothes pins to keep the curtains honest...we like to sleep in, past sunrise and don't like the sun peaking in through the cracks in between curtains.  Magnets on the outsides of the curtains will keep them up against the wall as well (as someone mentioned that the walls are metal...they are).  A hanging shoe rack, you know those cheap plastic ones you can hang on a door?  Put that on your bathroom door and it will add a ton of storage for a lot of little things.  Baby power, when sprinkled on wet, sandy feet will dry the moisture and the sand comes right off.

 

I'll post a few more when I check my list.

Bad news!  Just got off the Freedom and the plugs are actually non-working plugs UNLESS the bathroom light is on.  So this eliminates the whole reason to bring them, at least to plug in the bathroom.  We ended up plugging it into the outlet on the desk and put a Cruise Compass in front of it. Provided just enough light to see the room when making a "midnight run" but not originally as planned.  

I suppose the newer ships have switched outlets like above, because every other ship I've been on, we could use the outlets with the bathroom light off.

The shoe organizer has been suggested for years. However, ive been on two dozen cruises and have never had a need for one. What I do find valuable, though, is a hanging toiletry bag. I'm also a big fan of zip ties for securing luggage as they can easily be cut off by the TSA if needed and I know that someone has been in my bag if they're missing. With the TSA locks, there's no way to immediately know if someone has been through your luggage.

I put duct tape on all my locks, ALL AROUND it.  If it's been pulled off, or has rips or holes, someone has attempted to get in, if not...no one has been in.  TSA is also supposed to leave a note in your luggage if they opened it up.  

I will admit that I cheated on this one.  I managed to wrangle an invitation to join the suites for priority tendering.  We were able to board the first tender along with those who were meeting very early excursions on the pier.

 

Honestly, I don't know if they had tender tickets or what.  I totally bypassed that whole process (thankfully).  From what I could see, the tendering went very smoothly even though it was POURING rain while we were getting to shore.  Luckily we were going snorkeling anyway so who cares if you're wet !  After the deluge, the sun came out and it was beautiful.  It was the best snorkeling we've ever had and it was almost free ! (all we paid for was $18 ea to rent mask, fins and snorkel).  If anyone is interested I will pass on information.  We were snorkeling at the same location that others who were on expensive excursions were snorkeling !!

 

We had a very short wait to get on the tender coming back but we didn't wait until late in the afternoon, either.

 

I absolutely HATE tendering so I am so happy to hear that GC will be building a pier !

I am interested!  We will be there in 8 days (next Tuesday) and are considering either the Turtle Farm, Crystal Caves and/or snorkeling somewhere.  

Thank you in advance!

I have a whole list of hacks I use/bring on cruises.  My best one is to bring a night light.  The your whole stateroom and bathroom is completely dark at night and the bathroom light is either off or fully, bright on..no in between.  If you plug a small night light in the bathroom receptacle for shavers, it easily cures stubbed toes.  The ONLY caveat is that you have to get one with NON polarized plugs.  Polarized do not fit.  

Among other hacks, we bring clothes pins to keep the curtains honest...we like to sleep in, past sunrise and don't like the sun peaking in through the cracks in between curtains.  Magnets on the outsides of the curtains will keep them up against the wall as well (as someone mentioned that the walls are metal...they are).  A hanging shoe rack, you know those cheap plastic ones you can hang on a door?  Put that on your bathroom door and it will add a ton of storage for a lot of little things.  Baby power, when sprinkled on wet, sandy feet will dry the moisture and the sand comes right off.

I'll post a few more when I check my list.

My last cruise on RCCL was also my last as a Gold member (now Platinum).  Both my wife and I received coupons for drinks.  I believe we both received one free alcohol drink, one free specialty coffee and one coupon for a certain percentage off of one drink (not sure what that percentage was).  There were a few other things, I think one was a free spin on a machine in the casino, don't recall what the rest were.

I love the fact that I can see the Cruise Compass for our up coming cruise.  But how do I print all of the days out?

We will be boarding when you are departing the Freedom.  Hate those days, departing I mean.