fonemanbob

Hi there.  Having the ship to yourself isn't the worst thing.
We are supposed to go on the Mariner this Friday, September 6 on a 3 day cruise.  (Fri to Mon).  Royal is still saying we are going out????  Really??  The port is still closed as of now.  I'm flying in from New York and if the Orlando Airport doesn't open by Thursday eve., I certainly will have an issue making it to Florida nevertheless getting to the Port.  Darien is just passing Orlando now.  Not sure whether i should I pack or what?  I know Royal doesn't want to lose money, but this is cutting it close and making it difficult for their passengers.  Sometimes you just have to call it for the sake of your passengers and the situation at hand. 
I pray for these poor people that have lost their homes and have lost probably most of everything they own.  Mother Nature can be very beautiful in so many ways, however, she can be soo unkind and ugly at times as well.             

When you say $200 for the two of you for the week, is that the 2-device package or are you looking at the 1-device plan? $200/7 is about $28.50 per day which makes me think you’re buying two 1-device plans.
If you each plan to use just one device at a time, just one of you can buy a 2-device plan and it’s usable by both of you. That should be much more reasonable, especially if you catch a good sale.
On my 5-night Anthem sailing in October, the 2-device plan is running about $23.00 per day right now ($12.50 per device) with no sale in effect, vs $13.00 for a 1-device plan. But you can get much better sale prices. On the Black Friday sale last year, I was able to get 2-device VOOM for $17 per night.
You can buy the plan now at current prices to lock them in, then cancel it and rebuy if a sale comes along. 

I like your reasoning on going with the 3 Central Park cabins.  6 K is a whole lot of drinks, dinners, excursions, etc.  On sea days you will be at the pool, etc. Not sitting on a balcony for a long period of time.  And port days the balcony and room will be empty for the most part.

To Key or NOT to Key.    NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    NOT getting  it.  NOT worth it.   So much $ for so little.    Even on sale it would be a hard sell.  But that`s me.       

I always pack a small scissors, corkscrew,  and pocketknife.  Never have had an in issue from RC.And it is in the checked luggage. And duck tape.  

Do not be discouraged if there is a long line at some of the photo stations. If it is a backdrop that appeals to you get in line. They move fast. Take lots of pictures.  We have gotten some great casual pictures over the years as well as formal,etc.  The photos at the dinner table we wave them off a lot.  Yes the package costs a little bit BUT just 1 photo can be PRICELESS. Watch for the photo package to go on sale.  Welcome to the board. Enjoy the cruise.  And congratulations.  

Save your coins.  So not worth it.  Coverage is very spotty at times.  You wonder if you are using dial up.

Welcome to the board and to Royal Caribbean. Enjoy the cruise.

Welcome to the board and to Royal Caribbean. Enjoy the cruise.

We definitely used to leave our then-3 year olds past 10pm. They would have a GREAT time with the staff, watching movies, etc. Potty training aside, they loved it.
We prefer to feed our kids at the Windjammer at 6pm and then drop them off at AO at 7pm, and then enjoy dinner in MDR at 8pm.
Nothing wrong with dining with your kids in MDR at all, just our personal preference.

Be careful about choosing a pre-paid credit card (Revolt appears good ) I bought a pre-paid visa/master card, loaded it with a couple thousand only to find out once overseas it was only good in the US.

@kittysoul  When you walk in to the DL during the "event" (4:30PM - 8PM) the Diamond Concierge is usually sitting right there next to the main entrance.  For two reasons I think; 1st to help Diamond members with requests as they walk in, and 2nd to keep an eye on who is coming in.  Assuming there is no one inspecting sea passes at the main DL entrance the concierge will see who comes in and can check them against his list of Diamond members on board.  Our experience is that the concierge will figure it out sooner than later.  We had family/friends come in about a half dozen times and only once were they not caught (or asked to leave).  And getting caught is somewhat embarrassing.
Kind of sad, but on our last cruise an elderly lady came in with her daughter.  The story goes that the lady's husband had recently passed and her daughter took his place on the cruise.  The lady was diamond, but her daughter was not.  The lady argued her case but in the end the concierge would not allow her daughter into the DL.  In this case he enforced the rules without exception.  The lady's story was probably true, but my guess is that the concierge has heard all of the stories before...

Not to hijack your thread, Traveler but I have a disembarkation tale to pass on.
As most of you may recall, it was 1 year ago that LIB in Galveston lost our luggage at the terminal.  Since that time we no longer leave our bags outside the night before disembarkation; instead, we choose to keep our bags and walk them off when we disembark. Ok.  Nothing unusual about that BUT our car wasn’t coming to pick us up until 9:00 and the last thing we wanted was to leave the ship with the early birds and then be stuck out in the hot Texas sun for an hour or more.
I asked the Suites Concierge if she could help us but her time for walking off luggage was too early and walk-off scenario for later departures included stairs which was a no-go for us with all that luggage.  So, we were left to our own devices.  We decided to leave our suite at 7:30 and wait at Boleros on deck 4 until 8:30.  It was perfect. We found chairs next to power outlets and our hour passed quickly BUT we could see the departure line getting longer and longer and longer and longer.  We were suddenly not too happy with our plan.  They had security posted strategically to keep the line jumpers away.  
If things had been left to me, we would have just made the long and sad trek to the back of the line but Dan is smarter than me.  He went up to one of the security guys, told him we were in a suite (our luggage tags confirmed that as well),  and to my utter astonishment, he took us some circuitous route through closed doors, past barriers, past long lines of people all the way through to a special exit kiosk.  Even our Concierge never took us that far !  As a matter of fact, last year when we disembarked, our “expedited disembarkation” was a ticket to the back of that very long line.  We remarked at the time, “I could have done this myself.  What did I need the Concierge for ?”  I’m sure this saved us at least 40 minutes !  So the moral of this story is....don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.  Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t. Luckily for us, this time, we did.

I would if I could, although, I might break a hip.  Right now she's meandering in the Patapsco River while the Carnival Pride turns over it's passengers.  Perhaps this could be a blessing in disguise considering the projected path of Dorian as it moves north.  You wouldn't want to be on a ship that's limping along when the sea is churning.

Sorry to hear that.  If its not propulsion issues its hurricane issues.  What a mess for RC and its guests.

We are on Anthem on Sept.12,  and still getting royal up notices. It has been sold out for a while.  Hello RC.  Earth to RC.  

I can’t think of anything interesting for you to do so I’ll offer to go in your place so you won’t be bored!

We were on a Hawaii cruise last Christmas. Having previously visited a Pearl Harbour we climbed Diamond Head this time. Not too strenuous for a couple of 66 year olds.

Annabelle's!

As far as changing times, absolutely you can reschedule your reservation for another time, assuming there is availability. As far as changing days, the rule states that you have to use one of those meals on either the first or second night so there could be an issue with changing nights. In reality, they are probably unlikely to give you a hard time about changing dates unless the restaurants are really booked up.  They want you to good experience so unless there is a real reason to be strict about day 1 and 2, they would probably permit it. I’ve read of many people who have been allowed to slip their BOGO reservations past days 1 and 2. 

We are on Anthem on Sept.12,  and still getting royal up notices. It has been sold out for a while.  Hello RC.  Earth to RC.  

My experience has been that when your close-in Cruise disappears from the website, it is considered “sold out”. It’s entirely possible that it will reappear if cabins become available but if it has disappeared, you can consider it sold out.
I really hate when they do this. I would prefer that they just leave it on the website but show it as sold out.

I will be doing Oasis next summer out of Cape Liberty (Caribbean again).  It will be the only time Oasis will be there so I am going to take it with my family.  I knew that Anthem was leaving for the UK, and Oasis was replacing her just for the summer. Adventure would be staying in NJ.
Lo and behold, I saw that the Empress will now be in NJ next summer to do the NE/Canadian run.  She will stop at 1 port that I love.  Newport RI.
Kind of weird for Cape Liberty to have 3 RCL ships., and especially the small ship size of Empress.   I am not a fan of the smaller size ships. but that itinerary is amazing.  I would do that over Adventure in a heart beat.

Expect to pay about 3x-5x for a bottle on the ship vs. what you'd pay for the same bottle on land. I mostly drink zinfandel at home and sometimes chianti, and "every dinner" zins that I can get here for $10-$12 a bottle go for $12-$14 a glass on board, over $35 a bottle (plus gratuity on each).
If you have the drink package, getting wines is worth it in my book because you just pay for however much a glass exceeds the per-drink covered amount. You can try some new wines each night and see what you like, maybe find some new brands / varieties to enjoy at home, and only be out of pocket another $10-$15 a night depending on the wine. If you don't have the package, though, I recommend just bringing your allowed two bottles per cabin and splurge on something nice. If you bring on two $25-$30 bottles of wine to enjoy with dinner, you're coming out way ahead.

Typically the next cruise is shortened but the one after goes as planned.
Refunds are offered and for guests on the ship when it gets extended they get a longer cruise for free.  They typically are also offered super cheap rates to stay on the next shortened sailing.  
When this last happened Harmony turned the subsequent 7 night into a 4 night.  A lot of people took the refund, some guest stayed on and the ship had 1/3 the number of guests compared to normal. Imagine an Oasis class ship with only ~2,000 guests.