packercruising

It depends on the day. Windjammer would typically be open about 7-11 but if it was an early port day or disembarkation day then it would open at 6am. MDR breakfast was usually 8-9:30, sometimes not open on port days for breakfast. On one of the sea days MDR had brunch which I believe was 9-1?

Days 10-11 (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day)
Ah, finally a day to sleep in. Good thing, because I wasn’t feeling great. I would have stayed in bed, but I was told that they were giving out gingerbread house kits in the Windjammer and I didn’t want to miss watching the kids put those together. I sat back, and just enjoyed the moment, made sure J got a gingerbread kit, then went to sleep for 4 hours. J wanted to bring home her gingerbread house to put it together with her friend. DH and grandparents helped out with kids while I slept and they enjoyed swimming and E did the Flowrider for something like 8 hours straight. 
After resting I watched E and his surfing abilities have progressed so much; he could also do spins on the boogie board. He’s been talking about us getting him some hourly reservations at the “local” Flowriders. There are two, one is about 30 minutes away the other an hour.
Tonight was formal night. We decided as a family that it would be red night as well. Since each adult that is diamond level gets a free photo I knew this formal night photo was the one I would want so we found a photographer that could handle our group size and got some pictures. They like to pose you really weird for these and separate into tiny little groups and it takes forever. After the group photo he tried to get smaller groups and we told him we were good with just the group picture. 
The show was Abbey Road, a Beatles tribute band. I got a text from H during the first number, “I thought Abbey Road was a single person…” I reminded her the description did mention it was Beatles songs and there were four Beatles. She apparently thought it was a single girl named Abbey Road. We all had a good laugh over that. MIL and FIL enjoyed the show so much that they went to the second one.
I believe the Quest was tonight as well, but nobody attended. We’re just so tired and the Quest is always the same, so once you’ve been a couple of times you know all of the things you need to bring for your team to win. 
Not much to blog about since I wasn’t fully coherent most of the day. As you walk down the hallways you hear people coughing from their rooms. There is obviously a respiratory infection going around. Now that I’m home I don’t have access to the cruise planner to go back and see what was on the schedule to remember if I’m missing anything that we did. 
 
Santa came during the night but the kids were kind enough to let us sleep in a bit and went to the Windjammer when they woke up. MIL (who we’ve started calling Grandma Elf on this cruise) put some bags on the kids door the first day and was giving them trinkets/candy each day. Christmas Day they got bigger gifts from her, like tickets to a play, the symphony, and for our oldest she got gift cards to survive college. Funny story, remember MIL was wearing the shirt “Most likely to forget the hidden presents.” She again wore it on Christmas Day. Well, she had purchased some gifts cards as part of my kids school fundraisers and was going to give two to H for Christmas. When they weren’t in the gift bag I reminded her about them and she gave me the most befuddled look insisting that I never gave them to her after the fundraiser ended. I reminded her I did, and then she remembered she had received them and had given some to her neighbors but doesn’t know where the rest are. This is the same with every birthday and Christmas, hence, the t-shirt. We love her just the way she is though. 
Afterward, Santa was arriving on the ship. I heard from my dad, who was playing Pickleball, that Santa started at the sports court along with a small band, and I guess he made his way down to Studio B from there. He was to be at Studio B from 10-12. We arrived about 10:30 after D finished playing pickleball with his grandpa. The line wrapped around from studio B, back by the elevators and around into where you look at your pictures. It was well organized, but this is our fourth Christmas cruise and I have never had to wait in a line for the Santa gifts. They had 8 rows filled with people and would call one row at a time to come down. You could choose to not wait in the rows and go pick up your gift not from Santa, or wait in the seats until you were called and get your gift from an elf then get your picture with Santa. The littles wanted to get their pictures so we waited. We got to Santa about 11:30. In the past they had gifts separated somewhat similarly as the Adventure Ocean ages, then another different gift for the teens. This year only under 5’s got a separate gift and everyone else got the same gift. It’s some sort of beach tennis game. The rackets were like pickleball rackets with a small foam ball the size of a ping pong ball.
Afterward MIL and I wanted to go to caroling and balloon drop on the Promenade but the kids wanted to swim so DH took them swimming and we went to the Promenade.  It was the same songs as the previous time we caroled, then the balloons dropped. They must have overinflated them because as they fell and touched anything all you could hear along the whole Promenade was popping balloons. It was a mess afterward. 
By this time I needed another nap so the littles kept swimming, E spent another 8 hours on the Flowrider, and H did whatever H does on a cruise. My parents went to Izumi to spend their onboard credit. I had hoped to go to Izum; I love their dynamite rolls, but between my massage on one of the days during the lunch hour, Giovanni’s for lunch another day, then not feeling great it just didn’t work out. 
Tonight was lobster night. Only about half of us like lobster, but we ordered one per person and they all got consumed by those that wanted more than one. In September DH and I were on a cruise and the lobster was itty bitty, tough, and just not good at all. The lobster this cruise was SO good!
The show tonight was at 8 instead of 7 so we went back to our rooms to pack, which is way sad to do ON Christmas Day. The show was another headliner, LA Hardy. He was pretty funny. He did an adult only show later but we never go to those because we don’t find the late night shows humorous; it’s just not our style of comedy. We prefer the family friendly stuff.  
Little thoughts, H said that she didn’t like being by the area where the stateroom attendants keep everything. It was across the hall from their inside room and she could hear them talking late at night and early in the morning. She claimed 5am, but I never saw them out that early so I suspect since she likes to sleep until noon that it was likely 8am that they would start talking.
For the person that had been asking me about the scooters, I did see someone coming out of their room with an electric scooter and asked her a few questions. She said that Royal gives you a list of 3 companies to rent from and you pick one. Upon arrival in the room the scooter was already there and the cord was in the front basket. You just charge it in your room as needed. She couldn’t speak to how long the charge lasts because she got sick on day 2 and didn’t have much opportunity to use it. She mentioned she thinks you can also request wheelchair service on embarkation day until you can get to the scooter. I hope that was helpful. 
I loved the view from our balcony facing backwards, we never had any issues with soot like I had read about. I liked drying our stuff out there and felt like we got a good enough breeze to dry stuff without worrying it would fly away. That being said, the room was very vibrate-y. It was like always sleeping on a vibrating bed and some of the walls and doors vibrated as well.
Curaçao was my favorite port, despite the rain. I would like to go back there someday and explore more and spend a lot more time on the beautiful beaches, they have so many beaches.
We did self assist disembarkation and it was very smooth, as always…except E left his backpack in his room. Of course I checked every nook and cranny for things that were missed but I never envisioned him leaving his entire school backpack. He realized it after luggage pickup but before we went through customs. There were some pier agents that could help, but then I remembered my parents might still be on board. I called my mom and she was walking out of her room at that moment and was able to be let into the kids room to get his backpack. Phew. We couldn’t go home without it because it had ALL of his school work. 
I’ve enjoyed blogging this and reliving each days’ memories by writing about them. I hope this has been helpful! Our next cruise is next Christmas for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and my siblings and their kids will also be there! I don’t believe any of them have ever cruised so I’m very excited. There will be 23 of us and we take up almost the entire front of the 11th deck of the ship. It will be on Navigator to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo. We’ve done this Christmas cruise before, but I’ve never cruised with this big of a group. 

Curaçao is my very favorite Caribbean island !  

Two at the desk. None by the bed or anywhere else. 

Day 9 (Sunday 12/23/24)
Today we were in Curaçao! Oh my goodness this place is beautiful. The city is so colorful, the roads are well done and not insanely busy, people don’t drive like maniacs, there are actual road signs and stop lights, and we felt very safe. Today we rented a 10 passenger van from Smart Wheels. Pickup is at the terminal was crazy simple and fast. We made a reservation about a month ago, and they did sell out for the day. While we were there they put a sign on the door that they were sold out. Our rental was $150. Sounds pricey, but remember this as a massive van. It was actually a 15 passenger van so we had plenty of space. It worked well, was very clean, and the AC worked great. 
I had researched ahead what to do and landed on seeing flamingos and beach time. DH drove for us. The roads were very easy to navigate with google maps. First we stopped at Jan Kok flamingo area. Along the way we saw a wild pig! I had read when stopping here to make sure to lock your vehicle. We did do that, but there were also two security people there watching after cars and helping people park. There were a good amount of cars there, but it wasn’t overwhelming and was still peaceful and didn’t feel rushed. There were so many flamingos!!! It was amazing! It was about a 17 minute drive from the cruise ship. They weren’t too far away, but we brought binoculars to be able to see them better. 
I had also researched ahead on beaches. I believe all the tours go to Mambo beach so I knew I didn’t want to go there. We drove to Grote Knip beach. It was an additional 20 minutes away after the flamingos, so a total of about 40 minutes from the ship. This beach is gorgeous, but I do recommend water shoes. I had read that but didn’t listen. There is so much coral and rocks on the beach and not much sand so it hurts to walk around. The entry of the water is the same. This makes it perfect for snorkeling. You could just stand there and stick your face in the water and see fish all around you. If you walked out a bit there was sand, but depending on your height you may not be able to stand and have your head above water. MIL forgot snorkel gear and there was some available for $5. There were life vests, but they were $10/hour! Instead I got the kids pool noodles to hold onto for $5 each to rent for the whole day. We setup camp under a tree because it was cooler than being under umbrellas (this was a mistake, explained below). The chairs were $5 each to rent. I believe the setup with an umbrella and two chairs was $15 each from what I could hear. 
As gorgeous as the beach was it just kept raining and raining, so we wished we had umbrellas to keep our stuff dry. We’d get rain for 15 minutes, sun for 10 minutes, pelting rain again, then sun. That rain hurt and was cold. Part of the rental agreement is minimal sand and no wet seats or you’re charged an additional $50. So we took all the towels to the vehicle to save for the drive back. Our stuff was so wet. We got to the beach at 10:30 with an agreement to leave at 2. We left about 1:45 in the gorgeous sun. Because it was so rainy we didn’t get pictures until we were leaving. The water was warmer than the rain so being in the ocean snorkeling during the rain was fine. As we drove back everything else on the island was dry. We just got stuck in this pocket of rainstorms. 
We got back to the ship about 3. The rental return was simple and we avoided the $50 penalty, phew. Paying for gas to fill the tank was weird. You pull in and wait in a line, there’s a metal box and you put in how much cash you want to spend, then they tell you which pump to go to and it stops when you get to that amount. They luckily took USD. 
I wanted to walk to the Queen Emma Bridge but by the time we got the kids situated it was 3:30 and it looked like it would be difficult to get off the ship because everyone was coming back and going through security. All aboard was 4:30. I realized we could see it from the front of the ship so I looked at it from there and that was good enough. H and I watched for pier runners. Nothing too exciting there. One tour bus arrived at 4:30, and another at 4:45. I’m assuming they were Royal Caribbean tours. Considering how empty the roads were I have no idea why they would have been running so late. 
Tonight was Taste of Italy. Food was good. The production show was Wild, Cool, & Swingin’. I wanted some quiet time to catch up on the live blog and just have it quiet so I stayed in and typed. DH said the show felt like it was an eternity, J said it was a good show. 
My mom was still sick today but on the mend. If she’d looked as bad as yesterday my dad was going to take her to the medical facility. She sticking to her room and we’re taking her food and drinks as needed. 
Tonight we go back an hour, we’ll see if they remember to change ship time. Two more sea days and then we’re done. The kids are sad it’s coming to an end, especially D, the 9 year old who loves his independence on the ship. 

Day 6 (Friday 12/20/24)
Today was another port day in Cartagena, Colombia. We didn’t have anything reserved and had planned to take a taxi to Old Town to do a walking tour I had created on gpsmycity.com. It was going to be just over 2 miles and take a few hours. I had read ahead about how the taxi service worked, and it always gives me more confidence when DH can speak the language so there isn’t a language barrier. 
We got off the ship around 9 to explore the aviary inside the terminal. I had read it’s incredible and indeed it was. A couple of the birds enjoyed being pet and some bird owners taught me how to pet them so they love it. You push their neck feathers up toward their head and rub their neck. It worked and the bird fell asleep. H is going to college majoring in Zoology and wants to work with birds so she was absolutely in heaven. 
After spending an hour with birds I finally got everyone to the taxi area. It was already VERY hot and humid. 10 degrees warmer than the previous port and honestly pretty miserable. The grandparents are in good shape, but the heat and humidity was difficult for them and the little kids were struggling as well just in that hour we were outside. I knew the taxi service would try to convince us to do a full tour, and was going to say no. But the idea of having an air conditioned vehicle to go back and forth to instead of walking was quite appealing. We paid $20/person for 3 hours of private taxi service. Then we also paid quite a bit in tips, so probably an overall total of $250. I know we could’ve negotiated down but I’m of the opinion that the Colombians probably don’t make much money, so just pay them. Plus it’s the holidays. 
We went back through the aviary and were able to hold a macaw that was happily going from arm to arm. Once on board the ship we had some lunch and got in the pool.
Dinner was formal night. The prime rib was ok, better than I’ve had in the past. Again, no complaints from anybody except that they forgot quite a few of our appetizers that we had to request. 
E somehow found out there was a group stand up surfing lesson on Flowrider that still had availability. He asked to join, I said no, then the grandparents found out and said they would split it. The app was saying he had an existing reservation so I had to run to guest services to get him signed up since the lesson was in 30 minutes. It was $69. I was surprised this one didn’t charge any gratuity for the instructors.
The production showtime was Fast Forward. It was as good as any of the other shows. Afterward we watched E at the end of his group lesson and he was doing phenomenal. I couldn’t believe it. Grandparents agreed it was worth every penny. It was crazy windy, so fun picture of my hair below. Then we got the little kids in bed because we were moving another hour ahead. I’ve never had so many time changes on a cruise. The big kids stayed up with the grandparents and we played a card game called Skull King to keep us awake until the Love and Marriage Game Show which wasn’t until 10:30. It was the same as always, selecting the contestants using the same Tarzan/Jane call and all of the same questions as usual. I feel like there are quite a few frequent cruisers and it would be nice if they would switch some of these game shows up. The winning couple had obviously played before so it just wasn’t as fun. 
Overall, it was a good day, but awfully hot. A lot more pictures today since each kid pet and held a bird. 

Day 5 (Thursday 12/19/24)
Today was a port day in Colon, Panama. Our clock went ahead one hour during the night, which made for a very early morning since we had a 7:30 tour. There was a lot of confusion because once again ship time was never changed on the app. I saw one dad running down the hall, burst into his room and say “We gotta go! It’s 7:15 not 6:15.” There were a lot of frustrated people and I wonder if a lot of people missed their tours assuming when the woke up the app would be right. My mom always travels with a digital clock so that she can set it herself and not depend on her watch, phone, or in this case the app changing. Since I have an international phone plan I turned on my service to confirm the time. This is the second time this trip they’ve failed to adjust ship time on the app. 
Anyway, we booked a private tour through Tours by Locals with Mario. He has all 5 star reviews. He’s been in this industry for 20 years. He wasn’t where he had said he would be, but all of the other guides seemed to know who he was and called him. He had thought we were on the Viking ship that came in at the same time so he was at the wrong gate, but quickly came to get us. He had a very nice van waiting for us, big enough that we each got our own row, which was great because we had some long drives so the kids laid down for naps. 
One thing to note in Colon: there is a large mall to shop at that inside the port area that appears safe. Once you get to the parking lot outside the mall there are gates and it seemed to me that security would not let you outside those gates if you didn’t have a guide. We had read Colon is not safe and Mario confirmed that. He said it’s the 10% of the people that are unsafe that ruin it for everybody. He did say that Panama City is very safe and you could walk around there 24 hours a day without worry.
First, we drove to the Aqua Clara Panama Canal locks. Along the way we saw monkeys in trees that our driver stopped to show us. In July my mom and I were in Panama and saw the Miraflores locks, so we wanted to see the other locks, and it was important to me for my kids to see something of such significance in the world. The cool thing at these locks that nobody seems to tell the cruise passengers on cruise ship excursions is there is a free shuttle that goes down to a separate viewing area. There was a ship going through the canal that was in front of that viewing area so Mario took us to the shuttle and we were the only people in the other viewing area. Nice clean restrooms to ourself, and nobody to obstruct our view! As the ship continued through the canal we took the shuttle back up to watch it, then we watched a short 10 minute video about the canal. 
If you have a choice between the two locks, I would recommend Miraflores. They have an IMAX movie narrated by Morgan Freeman that is about 45 minutes long and much more informational. The viewing area is stadium seating so there is a lot more space to view the locks and ships. 
Next we drove to Gamboa Rainforest Resort for a restroom break before getting on a small boat to go find wildlife. It was a pretty long drive, maybe 90 minutes, and longer than usual due to construction on a road causing it to be closed. This is when some kids lay down to nap. On that drive the van came to a halt and reversed on the road because Mario saw a sloth. The sloth was directly over the road, and SO close!! As it was moving down the branch we saw a small baby on her belly! It was just amazing. Mario had a telescope binocular thingy that he setup for us to see the sloth and you could put your phone up to it to take a picture. 
We loaded our boat to go to “Monkey Island.” My mom and I also did a similar tour in July. This time we were on the water about 90 minutes as opposed to 30 last time, so this was a lot better. It’s cool to take the boat onto Gatun Lake, which is part of the canal. It links the locks on the Caribbean and Pacific. There were massive cargo ships that would cause huge wakes that were fun to go over. We saw so many monkeys, I think three varieties. We got to feed them some grapes. I noticed all of the guides are mindful of how much they feed the monkeys for two reasons. They want people on the other boats to have the opportunity, and they also don’t want to fill the monkeys so much that they lose the instinct to hunt and eat their natural food. We also saw iguanas and bats. We then went to a quieter area and just slowly went on the boat as Mario fed us the most delicious pineapple. If you haven’t had fresh pineapple in Latin America you’re missing out. American pineapple is gross comparatively. 
As we started our drive back I was a little panicky. There was traffic causing our drive to take almost 2 hours with arrival at 3pm. All aboard was 3:30, but I really prefer to arrive an hour early. We drove 30 minutes or so and as we approached the traffic Mario seemed to be in contact with friends who said there had been an accident and everyone was being diverted off the highway. My phone kept pushing back our arrival time. Then all of the sudden traffic moved and we were on our way. I guess the accident had been cleared and suddenly my phone said we were going to get to the port at 2:25. PHEW!
Mario was a phenomenal guide. I would recommend him to anyone. He said in 20 years he has never had anyone arrive late as he does try to give a 1-1.5 hour buffer of drive time as he did with us. Tours by Locals on the FAQ does state that guides do not expect tips because they have set their own fair price. Our tour was $1,000 for 10 of us. This was about the same cost as a similar tour on Royal, but with WAY less people. Totally worth it.
We returned to the ship and E and D tried out the Flowrider. E has done it before, but D was never tall enough until this cruise. He was really nervous and he did ok. Usually the flowrider instructors are really helpful, but this one would put him on the board, then he’d get carried up the water straight to the top, and did that four times. He never game him instruction on how to avoid going straight to the top, so now D is discouraged and won’t try it again with different instructors. The boys also went on the water slides a few times. 
We then went to dinner. It was Caribbean night. H sat and read the blog while we waited for our food and said to tell everyone she didn’t like the Pork Bao Tacos (and that the text size was too small hence the bigger text today). DH liked them just fine. The roasted Caribbean chicken was massive, I think it was an entire half of a chicken. Overall everyone seemed to enjoy their food. 
The headliner show as Laura Wright. She’s married to the magician from the previous night. She had a great voice, but H, who remember is 18, was frustrated at the end because once again she knew none of the songs. She’s tired of hearing songs from WAY before she was born and wished the show was more relevant to the younger crowd. 
After losing an hour of sleep due to the time change, having to be up so early, and spending lots of time in the hot humid air we were all very tired. While E did his school work in my room at 8:30 I fell asleep. There are always game shows in the Star Lounge at 8, but we have just been so exhausted and our younger kiddos really needed to get to bed. We have another port day coming up and had some sleep to catch up on. 

My kids almost always order Lime daiquiris. I have tried the pina colada and like it. I rarely get the frozen drinks because I prefer carbonated drinks, so I go with virgin mojitos, virgin blueberry nojito, Shirley ginger, strawberry limeade, and tropical crush with extra Red Bull. We just discovered yesterday that the Crown and Kettle on deck 5 has totally different options that no other bar offers so I’m making my way through those. The Citrus Tonic was too sour, the passion starlight is delicious, the berry press tasted good but didn’t have enough club soda so wasn’t bubbly enough for me. I haven’t tried two of the drinks there. My kids and DH also like to use their diamond drinks for shakes at Johnny Rockets.  
I can’t speak to the mobility scooter charging, but I have seen a few people with them so I know there must be a solution on board.

Thanks, but the disposable pads should be all that is needed. That is good information to have, though, in case the situation changes.

Day 3 ( Tuesday 12/17/24)
Today was another sea day. Last night clocks went back an hour, but Royal forgot to update the app until 7am, at which point people were already lined up at the Windjammer thinking the ship time on their apps was correct (DH saw them lined up when he went to the gym). Unfortunately they still had another hour to wait. I’ve never had that happen. 
DH and I took a nice stroll around deck 4 for an hour and saw lots of flying fish. There was a beautiful rainbow too! We then had the kids come out after they had breakfast with grandparents and attempted to play shuffleboard. We are so lucky to have two sets of amazing grandparents that enjoy spending time with their grandkids so DH and I can exercise. H helps a lot too.
Then it was time for more pickleball. H and I watched from the outdoor balcony of the diamond lounge and DH did some rock climbing. He climbs at home 3-4 days/week so that’s something he really enjoys doing. D joined him for some climbing as well. H, J, and I went to the star lounge for some mystery puzzle break game, but it required teams of 6-10. She and I are very introverted and had no desire to find random teammates so we left. 
We came back to my room and J did some school work while the boys kept playing pickleball and climbing. My 3 youngest are missing school this week, but H finished her last college final the day before we flew out. 
At noon the movie “Last Christmas” was playing in the main theatre. I made everyone go. Some of us grabbed pizza for the movie. Some of the kids weren’t thrilled about me requiring family time but we enjoyed chatting about the movie later at dinner. 
After the movie was the ice show. This one actually had some sort of story line as it went through the seasons. There were technical difficulties after the first 5 minutes, but it was resolved quickly and the show restarted.
J wanted some swimming time so I took her to the pool while E rock climbed and D hid some tiny ducks. Then it was off to dinner. Everyone enjoyed their dinners. The favorites were the fried chicken and the braised short rib. Today we all wore matching shirts! I tried to get a picture to see what everyone’s says, but here’s a list (they all start with “Most likely to…”:
FIL - Take a nap on Christmas
MIL - Forget the hidden presents
GmaK - Watch all the Christmas movies
GpaD - Play pickleball with Santa
DH - Hate the matching Christmas shirts
Me - Pet the reindeer
H - Make TikToks
E - Call Santa Bruh
D - Fart on Santa’s lap
J - Be Santa’s favorite
Next there was holiday caroling on the promenade. This was a magical memory for us the first Christmas cruise we did (this is our third and we have next year’s scheduled as well) so again I asked everyone attend. Then we went to see the show The Las Vegas Tenors. We’ve seen them before, though we can’t remember on which ship. While we enjoyed the show I think they need to make it more relevant and pick some more recent tunes, even just stuff in the past 20-30 years so the younger audience (and even myself) are more familiar with the music. 
Now it’s time for bed to prepare for our first port day!

Thanks for the response and the link!

Probably the best idea. We wanted to get by without the extra weight and space in the luggage. We have 2 indoor dogs, so we have piddle pads for them. Our sitters have the disposable ones. It is a rare occurance, but I plan to be drinking more on the cruise and want to be prepared.

I do not see it on the special needs form, but you can always call the special needs department to clarify.  There is also a section on the form for "other accommodations" where you could put it in.  If I were you, I would complete the form and and then reach out to the department.  Good luck.
 
https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs

Depends on perspective. We live in Wisconsin and generally cruise in Jan/Feb. Our chances of delays are undoubtedly higher. Two years ago the three days we were planning to spend in Miami was spent in our motel room in Green Bay. Even if they re always on time, there is stress related to flying and who wants to be stressed out embarking a cruise? Still, I understand that there are a variety of reasons people can't fly in early. 

Explorer Of The Seas, B2B- Jan 26&Feb 6. First time on Explorer, but we really like AOS. This will be more of a ship cruise than an itinerary cruise.

This will be the 1st time we don't get a drink package in years. I have been a big beer drinker, but have had to basically quit, due to health issues. Hopefully those can get resolved. I have had after effects of having Covid and pneumonia. So we are thinking the drink package won't be worth it. Subject to change if I can learn to like wine. 🙂 

We will definitely have to meet up
 

We're on these as well.  See you there!

You are right! Thanks!

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.

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.

We are thinking March 2 and 9, because 7 days is never enough.

Wrong forum, and what kind of headline is that?

Congrats on the Not doing Carnival again. ? We are Diamond on RCI and Platinum on NCL. We prefer RCI overall. You can always count on the Windjammer and Schooners, not matter the ship.  Someone did a YouTube video comparing them and RCI came out ahead on that one too. They did give kudos to NCL for the Waterfront concept.

Don't overlook a hotel in Orlando. If you are flying into Orlando, you may find hotel options there more plentiful and cheaper than Cocoa beach.