UkuleleCruiser

We actually enjoyed the protected shopping area. I went in to an expensive watch store, and asked them, "So, is this company headquartered here in Jamaica? Is that why your store is here?" Of course the answer is no. "So, is there a large manufacturing plant here? Is that why the store is here?" -- You get the idea. About 15 minutes of fun. So, I'm banned from that watch store. But there are others....

Matt had a guest post about chef Emily's food tour on cozumel which we are doing great in April. I'll let you how we liked it if you are not cruising before then.
 
http://www.cozumelchef.com
 
http://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/10/04/excursion-focus-cozumel-food-tour

Falmouth Jamaica.....stay on board the ship. Unless you want to do some heavy duty shopping! Just do not go outside of the fenced in area, you have been warned. :blink:

No...I hear ya, but I have sailed out of Galveston several times from both terminals 1 and 2 and have never had any issue with embarking, if anything it is usually debarking that is slow. 

Oooh! New Voyage and Oasis models.... They don't look that much different from my Paperwhite, but I'm interested...

We did a cooking class through Royal years ago at Playa Mia.  It's a beach resort, but all of the cooking was done in the covered restaurant area and included preparing a three course meal and plate decorating.  I really enjoyed it and drinks were included at the time.
 
The turtle farm was interesting as was the island tour in Grand Cayman.
 
I can't help with Jamaica as I haven't been there yet, despite all of my Caribbean cruises.  First time will be next year.

I think I have decided that my favorite ship is the one that I am on.

I haven't been on it, so I can't comment directly. My wife and I have looked at it many times as a way to sneak in an extra inexpensive cruise. I have seen the triumph docked in Cozumel -- They seem to have all the little Booze Cruise ships huddled together like a pod of whales. Made for a great picture.  I'd say go for it.

Not knocking triumph, just a sarcastic reference to that one incident. With some of the complaints I was reading, you'd think it really was something that dramatic.

I can spend a lot of time talking about this, but I'm about to head to the airport, so to Matt's delight everyone get's the short version:
 
The RC branded Visa isn't an inherently bad card, but if you like to travel, and you spend money on travel, there are *far* better cards to get.  Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) or Preferred, AmEx Platinum or Gold, CapOne Venture, etc.
 
I use largely Chase products for this (though I have others).  For travel and dining I get 3 points to the dollar on CSR, for rotating bonus categories I get 5 points to the dollar om Freedom, for all else I can get 1.5 points to the dollar on Freedom Unlimited.  But, in addition to lounge access, many trip and purchase protection items, primary rental coverage, hotel perks, etc - I also use the CSR to make all the mentioned points worth 1.5x as much (if spent on travel).  In that way I get 4.5% on travel and dining, 7.5% on various bonus categories, and a minimum of 2.25% on everything else.  Yes, the CSR has a hefty fee, but they do many things to quickly offset it ($300 auomatic travel credit, GE/PreCheck reimbursement, the other mentioned benefits, and more).
 
That in mind, everyone finds their own stride in the points game.  Do a search on "churning" and you'll see the possibilities here (many people take it to an extreme, I tend to keep it simple).

I don't have the RC credit card, primarily because I like my other cards, which offer cash back (or points) that can more generally used. While I do cruise often, there are so many other things out there that cash back makes more sense to pay for.  Plus, you can argue about how good/bad the RC credit card rewards actually are.
 
If you're bored, ask MonorailMedic to regail you with his views on credit cards. It's the closest thing to stories from the "old country" this generation has.

Kindle Paperwhite is my choice. Wouldn't cruise without it. And here's a faily exhasutive sometimes repetitive list of books taking place on cruise ships:
CRUISE SHIP MYSTERIES (YA) Deadline by Eric Weiner (YA) Mystery Cruise by Gertrude Chandler Warner A Clutch of Constables by Ngaio Marsh A First Class Murder by Elliot Roosevelt Birds of Passage Bernice Rubens (not quite a mystery but interesting) Birds of Prey by J.A. Jance Board Stiff by Tony Alexander Buzz Cut - James Hall Charlie Chan Carries On by Earl Derr Biggers Cooks Overboard - Joanne Pence Damned in Paradise - Max Allen Collins Dana Chambers' THE BLONDE DIED FIRST Death in a Deck Chair - K.K. Beck (1984) Death in the Middle Watch by Leo Bruce Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie Death Takes a Passage - Sue Henry Decked by Carol Higgins Clark Don’t Blame the Snake by Tony Fennelly Inspector's Holiday by Richard Lockridge Jane Heller: PRINCESS CHARMING Killed in Paradise - William DeAndrea Lori Avocato: DEEP SEA DEAD Maddy Hunter: HULA DONE IT Murder in Absence by Vincent Starrett Murder on "B" Deck by Vincent Starrett Murder on Deck - (ed.) Rosemary Herbert Murder Sails at Midnight - Marian Babson Nancy Fairbanks: BON BON VOYAGE Nancy J. Cohen: KILLER KNOTS  Night Train to Memphis - Elizabeth Peters No Honeymoon for Death - Mary Kruger Nobody Cared for Kate by Gene Thompson Risk by Dick Francis Several Deaths Later by Ed Gorman Shelley Freydont: HIGH SEAS MURDER Singing in the Shrouds - Ngaio Marsh Susan Sussman: CRUISING FOR MURDER The Angels Will Not Care - John Straley The Case of Sonia Wayward by Michael Innes The Cruise of a Deathtime - Marian Babson The Fennister Affair by Josephine Bell The Goddess Affair by Lillian O'Donnell  The Informant - James Grippando The Midas Murders - Margot Arnold The Patient in Cabin C by Mignon Eberhart The Trouble with Going Home- Camilla Crespi The Widow's Cruise by Nicholas Blake To Davy Jones Below by Carola Dunn  Too Much of Water - Bruce Hamilton Voyage into Violence by Frances and Richard Lockridge You Belong to Me - Mary Higgins Clark

I can say for a fact that TA's are fine with you making just the deposit up front, and then making payments over time. I'm doing that right now through my agent Heather at MEI Travel. Just put $400 towards our cruise this week, and she said just email her whenever I want to make another payment.
 
Don't know about the "little extras" (yet), but Heather did make a point of putting notes in all caps on our reservations that my wife and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary, and that our older daughter is graduating high school (plus a comment that all of us are first-time cruisers). Will see if that brings us anything after we're on board. ;)

We were "fogged in" to Galveston, and had to spend the first night in Galveston at Port. (By the way, there's a big hallabalu about The Majesty being in port for the night due to a lifejacket issue -- Doesn't seem like a huge hardship to me. But then, i think it's a shorter cruise the mine.) We had a great time: Vacation started as soon as we were on the ship. However, the delay meant we couldn't make Belize City, the murder capitol of the Caribbean. They substituted Costa Maya. For us, we had no shore excursions in Belize City, so we didn't care. And I liked Costa Maya. Actually bought a hat there. The guy said he made it himself. I examined the hat more closely when I got back on the ship. Apparently, his name is China. So, if you want a good hat in Costa Maya, ask for China. He makes good hats!

We were "fogged in" to Galveston, and had to spend the first night in Galveston at Port. (By the way, there's a big hallabalu about The Majesty being in port for the night due to a lifejacket issue -- Doesn't seem like a huge hardship to me. But then, i think it's a shorter cruise the mine.) We had a great time: Vacation started as soon as we were on the ship. However, the delay meant we couldn't make Belize City, the murder capitol of the Caribbean. They substituted Costa Maya. For us, we had no shore excursions in Belize City, so we didn't care. And I liked Costa Maya. Actually bought a hat there. The guy said he made it himself. I examined the hat more closely when I got back on the ship. Apparently, his name is China. So, if you want a good hat in Costa Maya, ask for China. He makes good hats!

I had read something that they were only offering to pay for their flights home up to $300 at the next port.
 
I think this was a long cruise...16 days or something and this was the second issue on the cruise already?
 
I just skimmed a news article or two about it so not firsthand information.
 
Either way, these issues are not fun. But I would rather be stuck in port I think. Although it did say that the power on the ship was still working and bars/restaurants/entertainment was proceeding as normal so really....

We were "fogged in" to Galveston, and had to spend the first night in Galveston at Port. (By the way, there's a big hallabalu about The Majesty being in port for the night due to a lifejacket issue -- Doesn't seem like a huge hardship to me. But then, i think it's a shorter cruise the mine.) We had a great time: Vacation started as soon as we were on the ship. However, the delay meant we couldn't make Belize City, the murder capitol of the Caribbean. They substituted Costa Maya. For us, we had no shore excursions in Belize City, so we didn't care. And I liked Costa Maya. Actually bought a hat there. The guy said he made it himself. I examined the hat more closely when I got back on the ship. Apparently, his name is China. So, if you want a good hat in Costa Maya, ask for China. He makes good hats!

If you go to the Cruise Compass link on the main site here, that will let you know. Typically, days 2 and 6 seem to be the norm.

Following this thread closely...

I think cruising is a lot like pizza: When you have a good pizza, it's really good. When you have a bad pizza.... It's STILL pretty good!

I think cruising is a lot like pizza: When you have a good pizza, it's really good. When you have a bad pizza.... It's STILL pretty good!

I think cruising is a lot like pizza: When you have a good pizza, it's really good. When you have a bad pizza.... It's STILL pretty good!

So, much to my chagrin, my wife isn't too keen on going back to the islands this year.   :angry:
 
So, an alternative is that we go up to New England and Nova Scotia.  I figure we would leave out of Port Liberty.
 
Have any of y'all done this one?  It's 9 nights on Anthem, so that will be cool.  And September should be nice.
RCCL currently has a nice discount of an Oceanview Stateroom with Balcony for outside pricing - basically, for
two of us, we get $1145 off, resulting in a cost of $3081.   I think that's a pretty good deal.  I only have 57 hours
to make up my mind.  Might just do it.  
 
Suggestions?  Recommendations?
 
 

Based on everyone's feedback, I do see the value at $250 or $300, but I think I will still pester people to take our picture and spend that money on drinks, food, and other non-essentials.

Just received a discount for my 2/4/2018 Liberty of the Seas cruise. The discount was only $22 off what we had booked on the ship, but that is a couple drinks, right? Anyway, you might want to check your upcoming cruises and see if you might save some sheckles.It was easy to do. Just had to sit on hold for awhile. Which led me to wonder about Royal Caribbean's on-hold commercials: I don't mind waiting on hold, but if they know I'll be there awhile, shouldn't they produce LONGER spots? I had this one memorized and was annoyed by it in just a few minutes! :-)