CruisinTexan

we are Serenade of the Seas, a new one for us! We really need the vacation this year, so I want to be well prepared for it.

We are going on a "holiday" cruise Dec 21-28. I cannot find any literary or ideas of what is available to make this special so they can bill it as a "holiday cruise". Has anyone been on one of these are know where I should look for my than the sailing itinerary (that is common knowledge). Would like to know what to expect and plan on. Thanks ;)

Really depends, usually the day of, but for our mediaterrian we arrive in Rome three days early to check it out! also gave us time to recover from some of the jetlag!!

Sorry, I just found my answer! Thought I would give you an FYI: Guests are not allowed to bring beer, hard liquor or non-alcoholic beverages onboard for consumption or any other use. Guests may bring personal wine and champagne onboard only on boarding day, limited to two (2) 750 ml bottles per stateroom. When consumed in any public area, each bottle shall be subject to a corkage fee of $25.00. This is from the RCCL website. I am SO excited!! Hubby will be too!

Hello, I was taking with some friends that said that they had taken 2 bottles of wine on their cruise. I cant remember the cruise line, but this person was allowed to take two bottles of wine, no liquor on board the first day of their cruise. the usual rules applied for port stops and such. Has anyone else heard about this? We like to drink Texas wines (we really try to support the locals) so we would love to bring a couple of bottles to our cruise. What's the consensus? Wine or no wine!?!?!?

Too many people! when you have 6000+ passengers even on a ship that large it is just too many! It was a working vacation for my husband (Nursing conference on board a beautiful cruise ship!) so I had lots of time to check things out and shop, but with so many people it was hard to get to the front and look at the goodies! Don't get me wrong the ship is beautiful and the service regular RCCL! Thankfully, we had pre-planned and ordered our excursions but the shows on board we didn't know we needed reservations, never had before! We like to look at all the art on board and cover every deck so the Oasis was a challenge!

Do a Med cruise, beautiful places and wonderful time. we had a balcony on the back of the ship...different view but cool

Hello, Kim and Bill, we enjoy cruising and were taking off pretty regularly until 2011 when we purchased 20 acres of farm,(while on a cruise, MIL signed the papers for us!) with the farm we have to be home more so we have to plan a little more for when the kids and come feed the animals! :)

December 21 on Serenade of the Seas, so ready

The hard part is finding Chefmakers on board...it is not common! Wish they would do it more! Yes Booze is involved, we had wine and the bar tender made us specialty drinks that were great!! A really good deal cause us learn and have a wonderful dinner! If you like to cook!

Where it is going! so far all the ships are great we have been on five different ones!

My favorite trip used to be a catamaran trip to St John and St Thomas on our very first cruise in 1993 (Dolphin Cruise Lines). But aboard the Mariner of the Seas (2009), we took a sailing trip in Puerto Vallarta, that included lunch, snorkeling and dolphin watching...it was wonderful. Lunch was fresh made guacamole and a delicious selection of sandwiches and other goodies, snorkeling was right off the sailboat and beautiful sights, and the dolphin were active and giving us an amazing show, then we laid down on our towels on the deck and took naps...relaxing and fun!

I am an early booker! Have to plan vacations at least four months in advance to get the time off on the work schedule! May try it the other way around and get the time off and see what's available...might get a great deal!!

One of the great things about vacation or just being away from home is trying other restaurants or dining experiences...so no chains on a cruise!! Starbucks is about as close as I can get to having something I can get at home! Love my cruise vacation food!!

We went on an East Med with a large group of Wine lovers and the owner of a local winery, had some special winery trips and other fun stuff on board. My all time favorite cruise so far! As for dream cruise...Panama, Australia,...I just love cruising!!

We sail out of Galveston as often as possible, it is only 4 hours from home!! parking isn't great but we have learned our way around. we are sailing out of New Orleans in December so we shall see how that goes! Any forewarnings?

We have sailed in August and October without any problems on board. The August trip we did watch the RCL website and NOAA for storms as there were several barring down on the gulf (we sailed out of Galveston) but we didn't have any issues and the trip was great! We have had other sailing that had rough water but the best thing to do is stay topside (stay out of your cabin, unless you have a balcony) and take meds! Our very first cruise, on a different line, the first night was very rough and I took my medication and went to the back deck out of the wind and slept on deck, it was actually a nice evening! RCL is very careful about keeping you safe, that is one reason RCL is our first choice! Canceled an Alaskan cruise when a group we are members of did a trip on RCL, best ever trip!

In 2009 we went on Mariner of the Seas to the Mexican Rivera. The trip was great and we enjoyed the port of call. But my favorite thing I have ever done on a cruise was cooking with a chef!! Chef Makers gave classes sing the galley and bar space of the Windjammer Café. granted the classes were a bit pricey, but you got a meal and drinks or wine to go with it. we took home wonderful recipes and some extra cooking knowledge from a real experienced chef. Has anyone else ever done this? Do any of the other ships have this opportunity? I keep looking, watching and hoping. B)