whenismynextcruise

Its probably been covered here before so sorry if this is a repeat question. Does the "included" tip go the the person that served you? At the coffe shop I had mazing service. I added a buck each time because I wasnt sure. Same for a bartender or two. I wanted to reward that person and I wasnt sure if the18% went into some sort of pool to be split (and taxed!) amongst the varying servers.

As fromal as you want it to be but there is no real requirement to it anymore. We dont dress for formal night. We dress nicely every night but a suit or tie never make it into my suitcase. It will be noted in your daily schedule that that that your room steward leaes in your cabin. You can also ask any of the cruise staff as well.

NCL is good for service but I have found that the Dawn (this past may Boston to Bermuda) and the Breakaway (May 2017 NYC to Bermuda) are small for my taste now that I have been on the larger ships that RCL offers. I am booked on Anthem again for Thanksgiving and NCL Bliss in February and its pretty new so I will have more to say about that comparison soon.

Yes @WAAAYTOOO that is what I was referring to. I dont normally use a TA for booking. When I have in the past I just pay in full. You can still book for yourself online with the minimum deposit and then make payments along the way until the final amount due. In my case I use my debit card so I am paying cash. The make a payment option is there when you log in and go to the my cruise section and if you have an outstanding balance there is the option to "make a payment" What I was specifically referring to and I wasnt very clear about it seems is that these arre 0% interest payments in how we are both paying for the trips. With this new finance option with the 15% interest rate showing up I was wondering if that was a new trend for Royal - Take awy the 0% and only have the 15% finance option.

i wonder if this option is going to away in lieu of the new financing. I am regularly making a free payment on cruises that I have booked out. Then I can pay as I want to and can afford to. Adding 15% finance charge would make me think much differently about booking ahead. IIt seems that a lot of people do this based on just the postings here. I would think RCL would risk losing a lot of future bookings this way. Which would seriousl affect thier ability to forecast future earnings.

From Boston here. Just take a cab. they are readily available and it is a very short trip.

The jet ski adventure is pretty fun too. It is less of a "tour" than a high speed race around the islands though. Great scenery along the way.

Well that explains it then. Thanks everyone.

Sailing on Anthem at Thanksgiving and I have yet to see the dining package come up in cruise planner. I didnt want to miss out on my usual favorites so I went ahead and booked and paid for specialty dinners already. Is there a rule of thumb on this? I booked the cruise in january and have religiously checked for when the dining packages will come up but I have yet to see it.

as someone who regularly has dress pants and shirts cleaned at the a dry cleaner I am noticing that the prices are not all that far off from "land" prices. If something is hanging in your closet and it needs pressing then dont bother before you pack it. Plan to have it done on the ship I say. You are on vacation after all ?

Thanks @Mljstr and yes that is really stupid. I kindly told the rep when I called that this is a ridiculous policy

I hops this in on thread but why cant I find what I paid for an upcoming cruise on the website? Stupidly I somehow lost the email confirm. I am ok with that because I was good with the price I paid at the time. But as it nears time to board I was looking to see what upgrades might be available if I rebook but without the original price to refer to I am at a loss.

Is RC banning straws now? I have heard of this new revolution elsewhere but until I saw this post I didn't realize that RC had adopted this. @J. Woody said they are on Harmony still. I am on Anthem in November. Does anyone know if they stopped allowing them on her? Is this a ship by ship thing until they cover the fleet? - Thanks

I am on Anthem for Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed for the pier to be ready at least. Tendering is such a hassle with the crush of people back and forth. Although the trick to tendering I have found is separate your party as much as you can. If you are in line for tender go as a "single" you are typically moved right to the front of the line. As my mom used to say about friends for dinner "there is always room for one more"

I will admit that I hadn't thought of the service dogs which I fully understand. It's the other dogs that @Blondie511 references. If we are going by US law ESA pets are not ADA approved and should not be allowed anywhere where animals are not typically allowed. My apologies to the OP as this is going way off topic for this thread.

Dogs are allowed on Harmony????

IMHO I think that RC took the development of CC too far. I was excited for the new dock and not having to tender but not so much anymore. The Thanksgiving itinerary for Anthem is Bayonne, Port Canaveral, Nassau and Coco Cay. Canaveral/Cocoa Beach isn't a great port if you have been there more than once. Nassau is not worth getting off the ship for (discussed here many times in multiple threads) and with the changes at Coco Cay I don't think we will be getting off the ship for the whole cruise which is a bummer. I wonder how many more people will be staying on board.....so much for "quiet" days in port and being able to take advantage of the spa specials.....

Thanks @tiny260. I will check it out on my next sailing on Anthem in November. I have heard from friends on other recent cruises from other lines that the customs forms are no longer handed out or required at disembarkation. MY last cruise was in November on Anthem and they were required but I am finding a lot of people are saying this now on different forums. Anyone had this experience with RC? Its never really been a bother to claim the $40 I spent on 2 T-shirts but just wondering ?

Thanks @tiny260 we are also doing a fly out same day from MIA and I was wondering about flying out of FLL vs. Miami. We did book MIA flights (prior to reading this) leaving MIA at 12:30 ish but we did also did the same for first class tickets to hopefully breeze through security. What is this mobile passport check out that you speak of?

I was there in early may on Anthem. She docked starboard side. There was an NCL ship in front of us that docked port side. We were on the port side and you get a very nice view of the harbor and land going off towards St. George's. Many jet ski's, ferries and such pass by. For departure day watching people running for the ship (there were many!) you can get a good view of that from the pool deck :) Something that I noticed, and a thing that I hope RC will take note of. NCL offers free ferries to and fro for Hamilton and St. George's Parish. There never seemed to be a line and the ferrys were so close to the ship. It was a nice perk for them. Another guest told us that they didnt ask for sea pass identification to leave from the dockyard but for the return trip they did so they got out of line and purchased tickets for the "regular" ferry.

@Kona I have read so much great feedback that I was also looking at a Harmony sailing and was going to ask pretty much the same question!! Thanks @Lovetocruise2002 for the clear answer!

@JLMoran what you probably heard was that all of the other tiers there are ignored. If you are not a suite guest you end up in this giant scrum of seating. They have signs for the varying C&A levels but everyone sits in the same area. Our last trip on Anthem in Nov17 we had reached platinum. They directed us through the signs to the "platinum" waiting area which is the same area as new or non C&A members . It was no bother really and I have yet to experience suite check in so I don't really know what I am missing but I hope too soon! We ended up having a great chat with some folks from Wales who were first time cruisers and first time visitors to the US. The wait time (maybe an hour we got there around 10:30) Others have said it in this thread already but Anthem embarkation is smooth and very fast. I hope you really enjoy the perks!! Would love to hear from others who have embarked from the suite area there. Do you get on much earlier? Are you allowed to go to a different area of the ship once on to wait until the cabins are ready? Is the disembarkation better? We typically walk off and that is incredibly fast. Are the JS and above cabins ready earlier? The CK dinners and other perks are kind of less important to us. But smooth entry and exit are.

Also remember that the food from room service is free. You will pay the $8 for the delivery only. Order as much as you like each time. In our cabin we drink mostly water from the water package we pre-buy but I do believe that room service will charge you for any soda's you will order. Someone else with more experience here can chime in with details on that. I am not sure if the drink packages cover that or not.

You probably already know this but that is a week of school vacation in the US. They vary slightly in state to state. I would guess that it has to be one of the busiest cruise weeks of the year along with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I remember long ago being turned away at Chops because I was wearing shorts. These were pressed Bermuda type shorts with loafers and a dress shirt. I had to go to my cabin and change and then come back to meet my party there. I have noticed a much more casual trend though. We never really participate in formal night and opt for Windjammer on those nights. For years I have been packing slacks and shirts for dinner. Is this really not required anymore? It would save a lot on a post cruise dry cleaning bill and far less to pack.