packercruising

22 hours ago, Matt said:

You mean the ports RC begins its cruises from? Canaveral, Miami, etc?

No, we are on the Snowbird cruise from Quebec City down to Ft. Lauderdale. I think it is like the one Nate is on now, except they disembark in NJ. Boston is a port we are in for the day.

Speaking of which, (I will start a new topic if you would like), Our Adventure Of The Seas cruise next month includes a stop in Boston. That is the largest port we have ever stopped at. It is separate from the terminal port, isn't it? Also, two of my brothers are meeting us there. Where is a good meeting spot?

Thanks!

10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I happen to agree with you on this one.

No more than tipping your waiter/waitress at a restaurant back home. 

38 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Wait, so are you saying that even though it reflects only 1 point for the old cruises they will recalculate back to 7 points for an old 7-night cruise if you talk to the right person?  Or am I not understanding (cuz that would be a huge difference).

With mine, they automatically recalculated. When I added up all the points using 7 points instead of 1, it comes out the the number of points we have been credited for.

2 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

When the system changed to points per night rather than points per cruise, you one point from 2008 became eight (7 for the "typical" cruise plus an extra point for up to three total cruises).

Your status accumulation reflects this even though it still shows up "wrong" in your previous cruises page.

You are right! Thanks!

We are 4 points away from Diamond and have a 13 day cruise coming up. I was looking at past cruises on the RCI site. Our first RCI cruise was March, 2008 Any thoughts on why we only got 1 point for it? There must be a logical reason for this, but it looks like we should already be Diamond.

Some entertainers aren't on the ship for the entire cruise, let alone multiple cruises. Staff might leave for their down time, so if someone posts You have to have (Name) for your waiter or bartender, they might not be there when you sail. But, by and large, the format stays the same and view some, especially recent ones, can be a big help.

I have never been disappointed in an RCI mattress. Hope that holds true next month on Adventure.

Terrific idea!

On 9/6/2019 at 10:23 AM, MaryS said:

I love going to the MDR for breakfast on every cruise everyday.  Oh I will graze at the Windjammer after the MDR breakfast for a little pastry or muffin.  I don't think I've ever had lunch in the MDR.  I'm not really a lunch person.  I always go the the MDR for dinner too.  I like getting to know the waitstaff.  

We never seem to get waiters that keep my coffee cup from getting empty. We do MDR for breakfast occasionally, though.

We used to do Specialty Dining a lot, but not much anymore. The MDR depends on several factors. One is the menu. I am not a gourmet food type person. Sometimes time is a factor and Windjammer always has something good and pretty quick. Otherwise, we like MTD.

I always figured the Schooner Bar was an escape room.  

On 8/29/2019 at 1:15 AM, KesTag said:

 I don't understand the above statement, I'm from Melbourne and I think someone is pulling your leg (probably someone from Sydney ). Shops are open Tuesday in Melbourne  - even the Victoria Market opens on a Tuesday (closed Mon&Wed).   It's the second (or could be the first now) largest city in Australia. It's a very beautiful city with wonderful architecture, great shopping district, and considered Australia's culture, food and cafe capital. Adelaide is a lovely city - the city of churches. Sydney is in a beautiful location.

Also - South Island New Zealand is on the cool side, even though it is the middle of summer (roughly 18C/64F). 

All I know is, somebody screwed up. This wasn't Melbourne. This was a much smaller town north of there. And yes, shops really were closed. They were scheduled to open later than our tour was going to be there. We never did get to actually see Melbourne, so it is no knock on your city. 

We started out in Perth for 2 days and it was 104 degrees. The day before we left for the cruise, we had 19" of snow. One constant on this cruise was that the people at every port were really friendly. Except maybe for a barista in Sydney that didn't want to give me a cup of black coffee.  

2 hours ago, Matt said:

During check in, there's an option in the app to do so via your phone's camera.

Not a pain, but 50% of the time they make me re-take the photo at the terminal anyway.

They don't already have yours on file?  

For us, flight home is usually determined by the airlines. We fly Delta out of Green Bay, WI and it is not often we get good flight times.

You have "best month" in the header. We have been twice in May and once in August. We much preferred May. We saw much more wildlife both times. Have not been on Ovation Or Rhapsody, but we  have been on Vision, which is the same class as Rhapsody. We loved that one.

Neat, thanks!

On 8/11/2019 at 8:37 AM, WannaCruise said:

Lots of discussions on drink packages...especially lately with the $18 "sale" / "error" and now with the crazy $$$ price.

Royal definitely made money on us with the $18 error.  We had never gotten the drink package before, but when two of our cruises next year had the $18 price (or $23 CAD for us), we jumped on it.  Typically, DH gets the soda package, we bring wine on board and the rest we purchase a la carte.  But for that price, to be able to try any drink + coffees + water + soda for DH, it's a no brainier.

But then it got us thinking...our 2 cruises next year with the $18 cost are with our kids so will definitely watch how much we drink.  But...DH and I have a 6 night cruise in Dec where it's just the 2 of us.  That would have been the perfect cruise to have gotten the $18 drink package.  We did the calculations at $62 CAD and he would break even,  but I would not.  (This was just before the recent price hike)

But kept thinking...it would be nice.  It would let us try new drinks without thinking about it.  There are so many neat cocktails, and can give different wines a try. If don't like anything, then order something else. Or if I've had half of the drink and it's enough, then no worries.  Toss the rest away.  DH also loves beer, scotch and other type alcohol.  I'm the type that would stick to the drinks that I know so would be a nice perk of the package.  And then you have the fancy coffees, etc that we typically wouldn't purchase (DH maybe, but I wouldn't).   Having said all that, I'm not a big drinker...would probably have 3-4 drinks (and fancy coffees, water) + any extras that I tried but maybe didn't love.  But...we went ahead and purchased it.  So now, all because of the $18 error, we have purchased the DBP for 3 cruises.

Anyone purchase the package more for the convenience than the savings?

P.S. - I've started a spreadsheet of great drinks to try. 

For my wife, it is worth it, but I am a beer drinker. I probably do not break even, but the question was about convenience and I love the convenience of it.

We watch some runners from our balcony once. They were allowed on the ship, but it delayed departure. Hard to feel sorry for someone like that. It might help if the ship time was the same as port time. Last Feb. Ship time was 1 hr different from port time in Belize. Made it confusing for catching our excursion. But what the heck, they have Belikan Beer! If you get to Belize there is an awesome woodcarver there. The best shopping is behind pier 4 where the locals are.

Welcome to cruising and to the forum! Usually I would say that flying in the day of departure is a bad idea, but this is obviously an exception. Considering the distance, it is probably a direct flight? Lots of good ideas here. The carryon only idea is really good, if you pack right. Also, have all your documentation. Someone mentioned a private car. That would be more expensive, but might be worth it for you.

17 hours ago, Vanessa77 said:

January is the middle of summer here, so you can expect temperatures anywhere between 25 and 40 degrees Celsius. Normally the south would be cooler, but during summer it’s just bloody hot everywhere. Except maybe Tasmania. In Queensland it will be hot, but the worst part will be the humidity. North of Brisbane is tropical region, so expect 70%+ on the humidity scale. 

Really, shops closed on Tuesday? I’ve never heard of that. Restaraunts closing Monday isn’t unheard of, but never heard of shops closed Tuesday. But then again I’m generally working so.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

i am going to noumea in December and their local market will be closed the day we’re there. Pretty bummed about that

We were on an excursion that included that included a forest and then shopping in a small town. The forest was terrific, but we only got 1/2 hour there. We got to the town and most of the shops were closed. Probably those little towns can't afford to have shops open every day. The ship was supposed to let them know we were coming, but someone dropped the ball. We had a good time, though. 

4 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

As far as weather is coming in January a good time?  Is there any areas in Australia or New Zealand that a more chilly at that time of year? 

It's their July, so think hot! We were there in March

9 hours ago, Vanessa77 said:

Haven’t been on my fist cruise yet, but I am Australian and have done quite a bit of travel around the country, so I can at least comment on that! 

The commenter above mentioned Australia zoo, and I can’t reccomend it highly enough. I live in Melbourne where we have a great zoo, but Australia zoo is something else. Do not miss the midday show. It blew me away. 

 

Our favorite port (Other than Sydney), was Adelaide. Beautiful city. They even had a band great us as we came in to port. I became a Adelaide Crows fan during that cruise.  Melboure was a disappointment as we were there on a Tuesday and apparently shops like to close on Tuesdays. Poor planning on the ships part.

Can only tell you what we did. We had an 18 day cruise on Radiance that started in Perth, did the Southern coast, Southern New Zealand and ending in Sydney. We spent 2 days in Perth and 3 days in Sydney and did excursions through Shore Tours.

We shared a Towne Car with another couple and were dropped of at the pier.

If you were sailing from Pier 91, is there a reason Uber didn't drop you off there?