packercruising

If you get a chance to do that, try for the full canal cruise, not one where you go 1/2 in and then turn around and go back.

Space out your drinks. You will probably start earlier in the day than you would at home. Everyone is different.

If you carry off your own bags, they usually want you to disembark early.

Wow, that is late! People have posted that they have been able to pay extra to stay on the ship until afternoon. I have no idea how that would work or how to go about it, though. Maybe someone else does. Good luck!

There have been a few that we have talked to during the cruise and told they were doing a good job.

Thanks, I will check that out! We are staying at Crowne Plaza by the airport, in February. We have stayed there before and our TA got us a really good deal.

We have never gotten excited about whoever the CD is. Everyone must have better luck or different viewpoints, but we have only had a few that we really liked. The rest were fine, except for the one on Celebrity who was really horrible.

We are on our second bucket list. ? We have done the Caribbean (almost yearly), Panama Canal, Alaska (3 times), Australia/New Zealand, Baltics, and Norwegian Fjords. In October, we are doing Canada/New England. If we can find the right itinerary, we want to do Iceland.

Some people use a hand held scanner and get good results. I use the flat bed scanner at home. It is not necessary to include every page, every day. Some are basically a repeat of other days, so I will scan once for a Sea day and once for a Port day.

Or you could drive down the night before. We have to fly for our cruises, basically as we live about 1,500 away from most ports. Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale isn't that far, so driving should work fine, even with added traffic.

Thanks!

We always prepay gratuities, which it looks like you did too. Beyond that is at your discretion. The last couple cruises, we haven't had good MDR service (neither were RCI), but usually they get tipped extra. We get My Time Dining, so when we like wait staff we like, we stay with them. Also, we gravitate to the bars that have the bartenders we like the best and they get tipped extra toward the end of the cruise. Same with the cabin attendant. Seems everyone has a different opinion. What this will very possibly do, is get you addicted to cruising. The only known cure is to book another cruise. BTW, we are doing this cruise in reverse, in October, starting in Quebec City. Our first RCI cruise was on Adventure Of The Seas.

Just curious, if they do, how much of a savings it might be.

Thanks for the pics! We are on her October 7.

That is what we figured. We haven't had any problem with that.

Very simple. If there is something in the refrigerator, ask the cabin steward to get the wine steward to lock it, if the steward doesn't have it. How old are your kids that you don't trust them to not get into the booze? Put an adult in the cabin with them.

Do they make them with built in converters these days? All of our Devices are 120.

No point in trying to figure it out. ? I have know idea if a cash tip goes to the person you give it to or if it gets shared. I hope it goes to the person.

First, it is called a cabin and a deck. Now you can sound like an experienced cruiser. ? We always pay additional gratuities (you prepaid the gratuities, right?) toward the end. Tipping up front, is like tipping your waitress at your restaurant at home, is soon as you sit down. Makes no sense to me. Some people like to do it that way, any that is fine. We have not seen any lack of service with our cabin steward by tipping at the end. Unfortunately, we have not been able to tip any of the MDR staff extra. We usually find bar staff that deserve extra, though. Enjoy your cruise!

We make copies of all our documents and put one in each of our bags. My wife carries the originals in her purse so they are readily accessible.

When we were on Harvest Caye, with NCL, their time was a 1 hr difference from ship time. It was very confusing.

That is almost impossible to do. Absolute least favorite is Carnival Glory. No contest there! We really like Radiance and Vision. We have liked all of the RCI ships we have been on better than the ships from any of the other lines.

A regular koozie works for us, but we don't drink that light beer in a metal can stuff. Do they make koozies for pint glasses? If you are in doubt, you can get wrist koozies, which are really neat.

There was a bartender on our last cruise that said she was required to uncap the beer, but she saved the caps so we could recap them right away. Other bartenders, on the same cruise, had no problem leaving them capped. She might have been new.

No. I usually have a few beers in the mini-frig. Even if you don't buy it by the bucket. A good bartender will give you two beers and leave one capped. Those are the ones that get extra tips. ?