packercruising

For a 7 day or longer cruise, we take $200 each, because we spend a couple days in the port city before sailing. Once you are on the ship, everything but gambling and extra tips go on the sea pass and we don't gamble. We might spend some in ports. We have gotten past the Everybody back home gets a gift, stage. 

Just so you know @twangster live blogged that cruise last year if you are looking for some additional insight. 

Thanks Ashley!
teddy- My brothers are very familiar with Boston, so no problem there. We want to see the USS Constitution. My brother has it planned out for the 6 hours we will be there.

Hi @Matt!  I have a request and/or suggestion for future blogs. I think we need dedicated vlogs with information on the various ports that Royal Caribbean uses, one vlog per port if possible.  I think it's undeniable that every cruise starts with the port experience. It would be very helpful, especially for first time cruisers, to find information on nearest airports, train stations, rideshare app availability, taxis, airport transfers, baggage handling, tipping, hotels with shuttles, etc.  When I made a search in the blog, I found one for the Port Tampa quickly. Then after some more searching, I found one for Fort Lauderdale.  While "shopping" for cruises, I've found myself having to look in many places for this kind of information.

This is how they did the calculations when they switched from credits to points. Credit: a host on CC.
"Prior to January 2011, there were no cruise points.  Each cruise was one credit, with an extra credit for a JS (or better) stateroom and an extra credit for cruises of 12 nights or longer.  So you could earn 3 credits per cruise. 
Credits were converted into cruise points in Jan 2011 using this formula:
If credits were 1-4, points = credits * 7 + 1
If credits were 5-7, points = credits * 7 + 3
If credits were > 7, points = credits * 7 + 13"
I checked against my own cruise history and the numbers match up.

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 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.
 
7 Night Southern Caribbean Cruise Adventure of the Seas Mar 2 — Mar 9, 2008 Points earned: 1
7 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Freedom of the Seas Feb 27 — Mar 6, 2011 Points earned: 7
After 7 years, past folios
become unavailable.
 

I reached out to MEI having never sailed Royal before. Sharla was assigned to me & she has put me at total ease as well as saved me money after I booked as a promotion was introduced.  Can't say enough about the TA-MEI experience. Once you do it I'm sure you will love it. My experience was an A+

I will not pay extra for dinning. I have had it as a bonus for booking the cruise and we went to Chops, but pay extra? No way!
We have done all the other dining for breakfast and lunch, but stay with the MDR for dinner.
I like the MDR.

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. ? 

I always figured the Schooner Bar was an escape room. ? 

I always figured the Schooner Bar was an escape room. ? 

I always figured the Schooner Bar was an escape room. ? 

They don't already have yours on file? ? 

They don't already have yours on file? ? 

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.

I think to a lot of people the convenience is as much a factor in purchasing a drink package as the unlimited drinks. 

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.

The earlier you get there, the sooner your vacation starts. Don't go by what it says on your docs. If you get there by 11:00, you have a good chance of getting on board fairly quickly.

We were at the Seattle port at 10:30 and on the ship by 10:40.

The earlier you get there, the sooner your vacation starts. Don't go by what it says on your docs. If you get there by 11:00, you have a good chance of getting on board fairly quickly.

YOLO- WTG Matt!