packercruising

Indeed, the view is spectacular!
 

Indeed, the view is spectacular!
 

There are locks on both ends of the canal. If you do a round trip, you miss one of them. 

Circumnavigate Australia.
 

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.

I would love to do the Panama canal cruise one day.

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

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

Fair warning, the sailing from Bayonne is almost sold out at this point, and the prices on what's left are bananas. There is a mirror-image sailing from Dublin to Boston that hits all the same ports along the way, and I think that one hasn't been selling quite as well, so could still be an option. (and one that's more reasonably priced)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Matt has many Miami Hotel reviews if you go to the main blog page, Holiday Inn Airport, Intercontinental, DoubleTree, Holiday Inn Port of Miami.
I personally stayed at the Marriott and was pleased with it.

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.

We have booked air through them, and prices were comparable to domestic airlines.  In fact, we could choose who we preferred, or we could ask for "lowest price".  Since we did that in 2015, RCI has started charging an airline booking fee.  I suggest verifying what they are doing now.  I believe it is called Air2Sea.  Others will no doubt chime in on their recent experiences.

Yes it’scalled  air to sea you can find it in there website or call them

1.  Regretfully formal nights are getting more and more informal.  It is supposed to be a night the whole family dresses up and a lot of families have formal pictures taken that evening.  There are has been some discussion that cruisers are seeing even shorts on formal night.
2.  You take your luggage to a porter before you enter the terminal.  It is really an easy process.  It is recommended that you keep a bag with your jewelry, meds and electronics and maybe your bathing suit and change of clothes to carry on to the ship.  Don't forget to NOT pack your passport/birth certificates on your luggage you leave with the porter.  It will be delivered to your stateroom.  Most evenings by 5pm.  We usually only carry off one bag and get the rest from the pick up point off the ship.  I just read a post that someone had their luggage stolen and was only paid $300 from Royal for their loss so it's up to you whether you carry it off.
3.  Tips are included in your beverage package but I know that some cruisers tip above that to those who really provide excellent service.
4.  They charge your account daily for the tips, if you didn't pre-pay them.  I like to pre-pay ours so our credit card bill isn't quite as high after the cruise has ended.  In fact, I try to pay as much as possible before we get on the ship.  All our shore excursions are paid for, drink packages, tips on the ship and I also pay for our parking before we even get there. We are scheduled for December and our parking has been paid for a couple of months.
5.  There is always something going on somewhere on the ship so she really doesn't have to spend anytime in the room except changing clothes and sleeping.  I love to play trivia and play a lot of it on the ship.  I love to read so I usually take a book and find a quiet place on the deck someplace and read for a while each day ( and usually fall asleep 😴)
6.  Dressing for specials nights is optional.  It does make it more fun for you but the decision is yours.
7.  There are multiple pools on most ships. The ones with the solarium have a pool and hot tubs for cruisers over 16.  There will be other pools, not kiddie pools, that your children can use.  
8.  There are hangers in your room and if you need more ask the steward for more.  There is a retractable clothesline for across the shower.  I usually pack a few clothes pins to hang our wet clothes.  The magnets come in handy to hand your lanyard with your card, your hat, your sweater, etc.  Also, a lot of people take post it notes to leave notes for the kids to let them know where you are or they can leave a note for you.
9.  I believe that 3 days is too close to sailing date to make any purchases thru the cruise planner.  You could try calling RCI and see if you can sign up for Royal Up on the phone.
 
Hope you find this helpful.  Enjoy your cruise.  You are there to have fun and relax.

We are on Adventure in October so am loving all the pics.

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. 🙂 

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!

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!

Quite a dilemma! But it's really a matter of accepting the fact that your partner is making a career move which will impact your future also....and he is sacrificing big time by being in the academy at Christmas time.. You are booked on a pleasure cruise which is a moment in time that you will enjoy, but it has nothing to do with your future. I would think you should enjoy being with the rest of  your family and be appreciative of the fact your partner is pursuing an honorable profession. Enjoy the cruise and thank your partner for his sacrifices and future public service.
Also, the fact that he was unable to go gives you a really good reason to book more cruises as you mentioned in your P.s.
My $.02 worth 😉