gofast34

From all of the experienced cruisers out there, this will be my first cruise ever and boarding harmony of the seas. Wondering whats the best snorkeling excursion in cozumel trying to pick which one would be the best for my wife and I since we have never been snorkeling but heard cozumel was going to be the best of the ports we are visiting to do this. Any advice or experiences would be very helpful thanks

Even though I'm still a bit away from cruising in may of 2017 ill let everyone know my experiences since everyone has been great with all their help

ok great thank you great info. Thanks for the comments and thank you everyone for your advice it is really helpful being a rookie to crusing

Thats great info thank you so much, since this is my first time the little items like this that can make planning easier and a lot more fun are great. Can you use on board credits in the casino does anyone know? Since we don't know when our second cruise will be or when i plan on trying to take advantage as much as i can of everything to do on the ship while still trying to enjoy all the other amenities the ship has to offer

I just talked with my TA and had her see if she could take advantage of the cyber monday deals today. There is a deal right now for booking and you get 300 dollars on board credit. She ended up having to cancel and re-book my reservation to take advantage of this. The total of the trip went up 25 bucks but now i get 300 on board instead of the original 100 when i booked so was pretty happy with that and think its worth it. Since this is my first cruise, are there restrictions with the on-board credit or can you spend it with your sea pass on anything like dinners, drinks or merchandise?

i read on another thread about the royal casino program and seems like you will have to spend quite a bit then what ever amount they give you seems like wouldn't do me much good anyway since we haven't booked a second cruise or don't know when our next time cruising again will be. But regardless thanks for the info. Any word on that wristband program and what that entails or we will just need our sea pass for everything?

does anyone also know what the deal might be with the casino ? We are both gamblers and if we can get a rewards card or something to that extent what is the process for getting one? Im not a crown and anchor member though so do we still get anything? And also there is some wristband i have read about, would this be anything i should be looking into as well?

We are boarding in Ft. Lauderdale if that helps with anything

haha nothing is like Maine lobster ill tell you that! but thanks for the info, I had a discussion with the fiance earlier and i think we have made the plan we are going to try to book a restaurant the first night just to celebrate being on out honeymoon then do the regular dining room and atmosphere and eat there and meet all the other great people on the ship. As Foatme said i don't mind having the adventure of the unknown and see what we can plan each day or not plan and just wing it and see where the day takes us but i will keep looking at shows and reservations and see what we can get. We are too early out to book anything besides excursions so i will have to wait a little while but would love to see the shows and what ever else we can get into and enjoy the experience and all the ship has to offer and just keep looking at my planner online to see what we can get into. Thanks for the info on showing up early, knowing me and my first experience i just would have got there and they already would have given my seats away

Even if you aren't a member but are still booked in a suite do you still get the priority boarding or the different line or just be in the regular line? Are they also people in the terminal when checking in to steer you in the right direction?

Thanks Mike, i did double check with out travel agent to make sure that our names we gave her were the ones on our passports. One quick question, can i do some of these reservations in my cruise planner online before we get to the ship? Was also thinking that that first night on the ship maybe try to book one of the nicer restaurants because i have heard they might be less crowded or easier to book a reservation due to everyone wanting to explore the ship and the first night stuff. Is this true? and would it mess up anything on the my time seating? Thanks

MikeK thanks for the heads up, we were both planning on having our passports and she was planning on not changing her name till we got back. Our friends went on a cruise and she changed her name and they said it was a logistical nightmare so we figured not deal with the hassle and she will keep her own name for another week even though we will be married. Now if we have a passport there will be no need for a birth certificate right? I will also have my state I.D. and a credit card the normal stuff i keep in my wallet. Thanks also for the heads up on what line to get in thats why we want to get there so early so just incase we have any screw ups we will still be ok on time and try to avoid the big rush. I plan on being there before the terminal even opens and just wait so as soon as they start boarding we can go start our honeymoon. I think we were also planning on just drinking on the boat since we were leaning towards the drink package so we hopefully won't go too overboard (no pun intended) when we are in port FloatMe that is perfect looks like you had a blast and that would be right up our ally. We love adventurous stuff like that. Thanks for a great recommendation and from your pictures it looks like it was a blast i will be showing the other half your pictures she will be very excited to do that! Now one of her things she definitely wants to do is go snorkeling in one of these ports, any recommendations on which is the best place to do this with the best scenery under the water. Since she has never been to the caribbean this is one of her bucket list things so to speak. Thank you everyone again this is such a big help to a first time cruiser

Thank you everyone for your comments already. So first we are doing a western caribbean cruise with the stops being labadee haiti, falmouth jamaica, and cozumel mexico. My fiancé and i are the adventurous and action type from our backgrounds in race cars and racing. We don't mind relaxing either but really both of us would be bored after an hour on the beach. We both drink so i was looking into drink packages and think from what i have read on these blogs that that is the way to go. I tried to look into booking entertainment on the boat or reservations for dining but I'm not allowed to tie closer to the cruise. We are arriving down there the night before the cruise sails and plan on being there as early as possible so we can board the boat as soon as we can. I have been doing a lot of research since this will be my first time but that makes sense to not try to cram as much as we can into every day and just enjoy ourselves and the boat. Hopefully this helps with more tips and advice to everyone and thanks for your input again

Hello Everyone I just booked my first cruise for my fiancé and I on the harmony of the seas in may 2017 for our honeymoon. We are booked in a junior suite with balcony and As a first time cruiser I'm looking for any and all suggestions on what to bring, secrets of the ship, drink packages, places to eat, excursions, and fun things we have to do on the boat. I don't mind splurging a little since its our honeymoon but are there some discounts or upgrades we can try to get? And how to get every bang for our buck so to speak. Any help or tips or what to expect would be greatly appreciated and since this is our first time just want to have as much information and research i can before we go Thank you