packercruising

On 5/21/2019 at 12:26 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

I don’t try and figure it out.  We always tip the same (unless the service is bad....which is very, very rare).

We leave $5 for breakfast, even in the MDR or WJ, $10 for lunch and $20 for dinner.  Always the same. 

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.

23 hours ago, rtread said:

THAT'S what I'm looking for.....thx

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.

14 hours ago, rtread said:

When you buy a "bucket of beer" at the pool bar, do they pop the tops or not?

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.  

Two at the moment. Looking to book one more.

We have never tried it, because we get reward points for staying at certain hotels. Taxi to the pier is $40, no matter where you are picked up in Seattle. If you book through RCI, do you get any choice in the hotel or room? Is their price the same as you would pay for booking the same hotel? We always book our own. We prefer king size beds. If we plan on being in the room more than overnight, we like a mini frig and microwave. Make sure you know exactly what RCI is offering. 

If there are two people in the cabin, purchasing the one device package simply means you can not both be logged in at the same time. Basically you are paying for 1 log in ID and password.

We have a short extension cord with 3 outlets and 3 USB ports. Never had a problem with it in our carry on. Ships are starting to put in USB ports in the cabins now. The trick is to find them.  

We have had cabins with an adjoining room and it hasn't been louder.

1 minute ago, JerseyJoe said:

What about for children? Do we need birth certificates for them if they don't have drivers licenses?

Don't know about children. As soon as I posted that, I got to wondering when we have ever had to have another form of ID in addition to the passport, and could not think of one. So forget that. I haven't had any coffee yet.  Have a terrific time!

Just your passport and one other form of ID. Most people use their drivers license.

Thanks for sharing that! I always figured that all-inclusives would be more restrictive than cruising. We would never consider a resort, because we do not do beaches. We don't lay ut by the pool on the ship either. Very detailed review!

We are sailing on Adventure, October 7. It is 13 days, starts in Quebec City and ends in Ft. Lauderdale. We are excited because we have never sailed Canada/New England before. It had to be the right ports, because we get all the Fall colors we want right here at home. This is a Snowbird repositioning cruise and is the same price as their 9 day cruise that ends in New Jersey.

11 hours ago, rtread said:

We are planning an Alaska cruise for 2020, probably a 7 day cruise but possibly longer.

We need suggestions from those that have been on a RCCL Alaska cruise:

1.Best month of the year?

2. Best departure port? (We live in Texas so will be a long flight no matter which one. Vancouver appeals to me right now simply because we've never been there)

3. Best RCCL ship for Alaska cruise.

4. We will want a balcony (probably 2D) stateroom. How far ahead of time should we book?

What do you recommend?

We have been on 3 Alaska cruises (two were land/cruise), but not on RCI. 2 of the cruises were in May and we think that is the best time to do this cruise. Much more wild life. Lots of whales getting fat before they head to Hawaii, because they do not eat on the way. Two started from Alaska and ended in Vancouver. One was Seattle round trip. If you can do a land/cruise, that would be the way to go, because you get to spend some time in Denali and you get to ride the Alaskan Railroad. If you are going to start in Alaska, be sure to check out Alyeska Resort and Hotel. Best hotel we have ever stayed at and it is actually affordable at that time of year.

Our February, 2020 cruise(s) are really up in the air. It could end up being a 7 day cruise from either Tampa or Miami. But it could also be side by side from Tampa OR one Tampa and 1 Miami.

On 3/19/2019 at 9:40 AM, JennyB said:

We use a bright colored ribbon or strip of material on ours to help us (and others) distinguish our luggage. 

We use wide red tape for the black suitcase and wide black tape for the red suitcase. It hasn't mattered much as we have yet to see any suitcases that look like ours. This is really handy when disembarking when you have all the suitcases grouped together.

Our bags a pretty distinctive.  Hard case, but extra precautions are a good idea.

I wouldn't do it, if it involves flying, because too many bad things can happen. Being as close as you are, you could probably do it no problem. Why not just drive?

That is a good idea, thanks! Probably could attach them to the luggage for the flight home, too.

Very basically, 10 days beats 7 days. Depends on how bad you want to see the Mediterranean. Even then, wouldn't you want it to be longer, if you are going to go to all the expense to get over there? Whatever you decide, have a good cruise!

53 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

So my husband and I have decided that the only way to make the 5 years between now and retirement go faster is to take a cruise once every 4-6 months (yay!). The farthest out that I've booked so far is the October 2020 Group Cruise, so I'm starting to look at late winter/spring of 2021.  I want to avoid all of March and the first half of April due to spring break, as well as summer once kids are out of school, so I'm pretty much looking at February (and the itineraries are out) or waiting until the itineraries are out for May.   I may even go crazy and splurge on a JS or GS! (Shhhh, I haven't broken that part to my husband yet).

Having never been to the Caribbean on a cruise (ok, I guess Nassau/Coco Cay briefly, and I spent next to no time in the water), maybe some of you can weigh in as to what the advantages are to the different times of year.  I would assume that the water would be warmer in May for doing things like snorkeling, but that's simply a guess on my part (here in Minnesota I don't feel I can dip a toe into water until mid August, but I'm kind of a wuss that way - in May we might not even have full ice out in some years!).  Also I suppose the prices may be better in February as opposed to May?

We live in N. WI and always sail in Feb. Great break from winter.