JLMoran

Wow, your family and mine are on almost exactly the same schedule, just a year apart! Our cruise on Freedom this March is for all the same milestones, except for my birthday (just turned 48 this week). And in our case we're throwing our 20th wedding anniversary into the mix. Congratulations on the graduations, and for starting your sixth decade!

Wow, looks like you were second row this time around. Really good shots! Curve of the stage edge on some of the shots makes me think you were using wide angle lens for the full-stage pics, tele for the shots on small groups? Or was this a prime lens with a decent range of focal lengths?

@ellcee, very glad to hear your friend had such a positive outcome. In my case the surgery procedure itself is already about as basic and routine as it gets, it just happens to be one of those operations that simply needs a longer time to recover because of incisions into muscles and such. Without going into detail, suffice to say that it's a routine operation that many many men have to undergo at one time or another in their lives. In my case, I've just got the bad luck that this will be time #3, and it's just the general timing of it that had me so wigged out yesterday. I do feel a fair bit less stressed out today; maybe because I'm simply accepting that I've done all I can for now and did it as quickly as I could, maybe because I've had time to process it all and get a little more of a grip. For sure the feedback from you all is a big help as well, just to hear the reassurances from folks who are friends and not immediate family (there really is a difference ). Yesterday just felt like the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. We had a scare with my wife last month (seems to have been nothing in the end, but we're staying vigilant), then the knee issue, then this. They say bad luck comes in threes, so I'm really hoping this will be the end of it all.

Randomwind.com and http://soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.html Second both of those suggestions, especially Soualiga Destinations (disclosure, I'm booked with them in March). However, you'll need to contact Random Wind as their ship was sunk when Hurricane Irma (Maria?) struck the island. Hopefully by the time of your cruise, they'll have recovered the ship and made her sail-worthy again. Soualiga lost 3 of their boats, but had 8 left to keep their business going. Depending on the timing of your trip, they may end up being the better (only?) option. Also, both of those excursions sell out really quickly, so you'll want to contact them and arrange booking well before your sail date.

OK, I'm 65 days from my cruise, and have gone from feeling increasingly psyched to feeling incredibly stressed out. About a month ago I tore the meniscus in my left knee. I'm scheduled for arthroscopic surgery to clean out the tear on Tuesday. Relatively low deal, recovery supposed to be only two weeks and fully back to normal. Plenty of time before vacation starts. And then this morning I found out I'm going to need another surgery, which absolutely cannot be put off between risks of things getting worse and the fact this other operation, even though it's laparoscopic, has a 5 to 8 week average recovery for resuming full activity. Did I mention I'm nine weeks away from my flight down to FLL? The silver lining I keep trying to remind myself of, is that I did have the need for the second surgery happen when I actually still have time to do it and recover, and not the week before I'm scheduled to fly down (or worse, after the cruise started). But today has been nothing but stress, worries, and questions, with more to come, I'm sure. Main goal of today was to find a surgeon who's in network; decently rated on HealthGrades; affiliated with my local hospital; who can get me the required initial consult ASAP (which has been Monday for everyone I found, so that's what I've booked); and who can hopefully get this scheduled in the next week, two at most. I have to find out at the consult whether this can remotely be timed where I can still get both surgeries: Either have the knee work done as planned on Tuesday and quickly follow with this second surgery (if the surgeon is OK with me having general anesthesia twice in just a week or two, and if the timing works for full recovery); or cancel the knee, get this other surgery done ASAP, and then pray my orthopedist gets another opening in late February / early March so I have enough time to fully heal and be able to fly and do all the walking that will come with this trip. And in the dead time between phone calls, searches, and so on, a million questions plaguing me. What if I can't get the knee done? How would that affect what I can do on this cruise? What if I don't recover fast enough? I'm not exactly a spring chicken any more. What is the financial impact of this going to be? It's not even the end of January and before these two surgeries, I'm already within a couple hundred dollars of satisfying my insurance plan's high family deductible. At least I budgeted the cruise, excursions, packages, etc. and paid it all off ahead of this! Does Karma have any more surprises planned for me and my family? It's not like the last three freaking years haven't had enough piled on us. I'm trying really hard to stay positive: I'm 100% sure that I'm still going on this cruise, come hell or high water. I'm about 90% sure I can get the scheduling worked out so that everything is done with enough time to fully heal; and that in the end I'll be fine and able to fully enjoy the trip. That other 10% scares and worries me. I'm maybe 75% certain that if I can't get the knee fixed in time, that I could still find a way to do most of what I was looking forward to on this long-overdue and long-awaited getaway. But I won't lie: If I have to miss out on some of the things I've been looking forward to the most, I'll be really disappointed. But I'm a planner, and nothing stresses me out more than having totally random crap come along and even risk screwing up the plans I've spent months working out. So if you can send some positive thoughts / vibes / etc. over my way to help right this proverbial ship, it would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I understand. And I'll admit that there is some personal baggage that is very much coloring my view on this. Will leave it at that.

Are we sure the employees have to purchase anything?- as in, does it come out of their pocket? Or is it just that they have no choice. Don't get me wrong - I'd rather a cash bonus but this is the norm in my industry. I was using mandatory ESPPs just as a general example of "compensation" policies that I find objectionable. This particular reward being given to RCI employees is purely in the form of directly rewarded shares that they will earn after the 3 year vesting period. It could be I'm missing a key piece here. If this is in addition to some regular cash bonus the employees already get, then I'm a little more on board with this. If this is their only "bonus" for the year and they see nothing else on top of their regular salary, that's where I have a major problem. It's only free money if the employee is able to stay. What if that employee was working at RCI to pay for college and this was the year they were starting or maybe returning to school after a year on leave, having already submitted their acceptance notice? No bonus for that person! Or a member of the entertainment staff who suffered an injury that ended their career and they have to leave the ship to retrain in something new? Nothing for them either! I know, I'm making some very specific, semi-contrived examples. But they're real-world possibilities and such employees would not be at all happy if that was their only source of "bonus" income, now lost.

Just realized this is better suited to the "Royal Caribbean News and Rumors" forum rather than general discussion. @Matt / @DocLC, any chance one of you can move this over there?

Matt just shared a link about a reward being given to all RCI employees, excluding the corporate officers. At first, this sounds great -- company has doubled its earnings per share as well as doubling return on investments, and as a thank-you to the employees they are being given a 5% salary bonus. But then I read this further, and I'm less impressed. This isn't a cash bonus the employees are getting now and can use for paying bills, maying saving for education for themselves or their kids, or just putting into a bank account. They're all getting stock shares equivalent to 5% of their salaries. At a current price of $132 per share, employees making between 30 and 60k are going to get a whopping 11 to 22 shares. The price would have to grow a lot to make holding on to that small a holding remotely worthwhile. Not only that, the shares don't even vest (actually become owned by the employees) for three years. If a particular employee leaves before that three year period, the shares (or at least a portion of them, if the vesting is partial with each year completed) are gone. So the employees have to potentially stick around for longer (maybe a lot longer) than they planned to if they want to actually see that "bonus", and if anything negative happens to the share price in the meantime, they have to suffer the loss in value. I've worked in the financial industry for over 20 years now, and I have to say that I personally find vested stock "bonuses", mandatory employee stock purchase plans, and the like to be the absolute worst form of compensation to give the average employee. It's hard enough when you start at a company and find out that the employer match on your 401(k) plan isn't really yours unless you stay employed with them for a full five years (although you usually get 20% of the total each year until the 5-year mark). But to then be given a "bonus" that you can't do anything with for 3 years? That kind of compensation is supposed to be for C-suite execs, where you really do want to give an incentive for them to keep on with the company; make sure the company as a whole does well, not just their already-loaded bank account; and not just run the company into the ground and then use their golden parachute. Regular day-to-day workers should simply be paid cash, as it's the most useful for them and absolutely the most appreciated. Or at a minimum, give the employees the choice of taking cash or the stock shares, where they can think about it make an informed decision. K, I've said my piece. What do you all think?

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What I've liked about my TA is the fact that she knows not just Royal, but Celebrity, MSC, and a bunch of others. So as I'm looking at 2020 and this Norway / Iceland or Eastern Mediterranean trip I want to take when the itineraries come out, I'm talking with her about the pros and cons of each line. Not just which line has the best port stops or gives the best bang for my buck; things like what do the different lines offer for activities if I want to bring my teenage girls and keep them entertained on sea days vs. if it's just my wife and me. What if I want to feel a little pampered because it's a big event trip, or want to splurge on a suite but not break the bank and have enough funds left in the budget to cover excursions. Or, for that matter, whether I should skip getting a suite because it's so port intensive that I really need to save my budget for the excursions. She's also been really good about watching those sales and letting me know when she was able to save me some money. I've tried many times now to self-reprice and see if I was right that the latest deal does come out better, and every time she points out something I missed -- the cost of the trip insurance, or the OBC I'm losing that makes it a net worse proposition. At the same time, she respects my choices if I decide to change a JS reservation from refundable to non-refundable so I can save a couple hundred on the base rate and also get some better OBC, even though it means I'm risking that deposit if the worst happens and I have to miss the sailing. I don't get any discounts off of what I'd see if I just bought directly on Royal's site, or any other "perks" in terms of an up-front cash reduction. But that expertise is definitely a big help, especially when it ventures into topics that the folks here can't readily answer because I'm looking at another cruise line they may not have sailed, or an itinerary that few have done. I confess to thinking about changing agents to save some money up front, especially when I'm such an alpha planner and tend to get all the info myself. But looking at my future plans in areas that are harder to learn about on my own, even with the resources available here and other places on the 'Net, I have to say that I'm finding myself willing to sacrifice a few hundred on any given itinerary in exchange for someone who returns my emails, patiently deals with me being a little neurotic over what direction to take, and genuinely gets excited when I mention an idea about a possible trip that we can work out together to make what will hopefully be a great experience in the end.

$42 is about the lowest I've seen it reported by anyone recently. I'd snag that if you're at all interested in it, then like @twangster and @Matt said, you can always cancel and repurchase if you find it drops lower.

Out of reactions already, but love those sunrise photos! Especially the way the clouds were reflecting off the glass in the second photo. It makes it look like the inside of that area is a giant aquarium or something, the clouds just look like flowing water!

If it's an excursion you booked directly with Royal and not a third-party, I'd imagine that Royal is keeping an eye on the situation just like they do bad weather or other things that pose potential risk to the passengers. They already demonstrated a willingness to cancel excursions and even entire port stops with their decision to stop going to Turkey while the civil unrest is still going on. So if the situation around Montego Bay spreads to include (or even get whatever they consider "too close" to) Bamboo Beach Club, they'll most likely scrub it and send you an email with a refund notice.

Yup, that's correct.

Based on @twangster's other reply about the yoga classes in my other thread, and requiring a signed waiver from a parent for both gym classes and massage, I'm inclined to believe the RCI rep this time around. Can't sign or even get the waivers online, so we'll have to wait until we're on board. At that point I'm sure it won't be an issue to cancel the re-booked solo massage and swap it out for the mother-daughter one, as long as they have some slots left open (just maybe not on the day / at the time they'd most prefer).

No.. No.. No-TOR-i-ous! No-TOR-i-ous!! Sorry, couldn't help myself. And now I have 80's era Duran Duran stuck in my head.

Thanks a bunch, @twangster! Seems like that took more than just "a little spare time", so it's really appreciated! If the menu is reasonably similar on Freedom of the Seas, my wife will be thrilled to have the Seagram's ginger ale option, and she and our older daughter will love having Vitamin Water offerings. My younger daughter, being the independent spirit that she is, is probably going to go to town with the Dr. Pepper flavors.

If you're only planning to have a few beers here and there, and don't expect to be having any wine, mixed drinks / umbrella-decorated beverages, espresso-based coffee beverages, or fresh-squeezed juice, then skipping the Deluxe Beverage Package might not be a bad idea. The package covers $12 or $13 per drink, and going by the menus others have posted the typical beer on board goes for $8 or $9. You'd have to drink a lot of beers and non-alchoholic "premium" beverages every day to hit a reasonable "break even" point vs. the typical daily price of the Deluxe package. At the lowest package price I've seen on Cruise Planner ($42 / day), that's something like 3 or 4 beers every day along with a couple each of premium coffees, bottled waters, and maybe a "mocktail" during the day or a fresh-squeezed juice or two with breakfast. That might be reasonable, depending on your beer drinking habits, preferences for those other beverages, and how much time you spend in the Alaskan ports / off the ship At the more-typical $55 / day, you're looking at 4 or 5 beers every single day along with those extra non-alcoholic premium items; I'd imagine that on a port-intensive trip like Alaska, that starts getting problematic.

Has anyone here done the on-board yoga classes the gym offers? I took a look at the class listing sheet that @twangster posted in the other thread about the unlimited classes offering on Cruise Planner, but the only thing it says there for all of the offered classes is the name, "Pathway to Yoga"; no indication if it's a beginner class or what to really expect. Are they targeted to rank beginners? Can participants wear shoes instead of being barefoot? I'd be curious to get a sample of what yoga classes are like but with my uneven leg lengths I absolutely have to wear my sneakers at all times, and I'm betting there will be at least a few postures that would be... highly challenging. Not a high priority, by any means. I can always look for a yoga class here at home after the trip, and specifically find someone who can properly cater to my limitations. But I thought it might be a fun way to spend an hour one day on a sea day. On a side note -- is it a class my 17-year old daughter could take? She's been into yoga for a while now, but given my earlier post about how they have "teen" offerings that are still requiring at least age 18, I'm dubious about whether the instructor would allow her to join.

I tried booking this just now, as it's also showing for my cruise, but when I added to my cart it was rejected as not a valid selection. I guess it's part of the whole thing around the image being missing and Royal's general IT suckiness.

Now here's a surprise! After reading about the unlimited gym class offering here, I logged in to my cruise planner to see if it was there on my sailing. It is, but at the moment I can't actually purchase it --- trying to add it to my cart tells me it's not a valid selection. But there was a surprise in store as I was scrolling through what was suddenly a much larger set of spa offerings: All of a sudden there are "YSpa" offerings again! I was so excited that I messaged my wife to see if she wanted to cancel her existing massage appointment and replace it with the mother/daughter massage now on offer, and of course she said yes. So I cancel her booking, go to add the mother/daughter one to our cart... and see the restriction "Must be at least 18" Wait, what? I called Royal to get some clarification on that. Surely that just means that the mother has to be at least 18 and the daughter can be whatever teenage years she happens to be, right? The mom will be right there with the daughter, there's not a risk of something unwelcome happening. Well, nope. I called up Royal to get clarification on that, and after the rep spoke with his supervisor he confirmed that the restriction applies to both mother and daughter. I was told that my wife could go to the spa with our daughter when we board and see if they'd be willing to make an exception, but that restriction is firm for advance purchases and there is no way we can book that on the cruise planner. Sorry, but why in God's green Earth are you calling this "services for teens"? This is "services for people who have just crossed the threshold into adulthood", not teens (which in my book would go down to at least 15, if not the standard definition of, "Any age that ends in '-teen' "). I realize in the #MeToo climate that businesses are probably making damn sure they don't run any risk of harassment / child abuse accusations, but this smacks more than a little bit of disingenuousness. Epilogue: So I say to my wife, "OK, let's just re-book your individual massage so you still have the slot, and you can still do the check with the spa staff on embarkation day and re-cancel / switch the booking if they say they'll make an exception." All cool, hunky-dory... And re-booking her massage is now costing me an additional $15 over the original booking from a few months ago. I can't be mad at Royal on this one, I should have read that fine print before I jumped the gun and canceled the original booking. But I'm still annoyed by it.

Thanks for the info, @monctonguy! And also the offer to ask about whatever down the line. My wife still hasn't decided on a date that she wants to go and has asked me to back off pestering her about it for the time being, so away I've backed. But once we have a date picked and cabins booked, I'll definitely take you up on that and start peppering you with questions!

Having experienced not one, but two, late April blizzards in my life (admittedly in New Jersey, not Georgia), I wouldn’t rule out anything. ? If we’re all talking about Easter weekend at the very end of March, strongly consider flying down Wednesday instead of Thursday or Friday if you at all have that flexibility. Saved me $800 total on airfare, and even with an extra day in the hotel we’re still saving a lot. This was booking on United 90-ish days ahead of sail date; everyone’s rates have gone up a LOT since then, but those Wednesday savings are still very much there.

One clarification on what @Ray and @Traveler noted. If you booked through a travel agent instead of directly with Royal, you won't immediately see your reservation listed when you log in to My Cruises, and without that you can't get to Cruise Planner. You'll need to link your reservation using the confirmation number on the invoice your TA sent you. Log in to My Cruises From the blue side panel on the left, choose "Don't see your reservation?" You'll get a form you need to fill out Enter your last name of the person who is listed first on the invoice, since they're primary Enter the confirmation number This will be a 7-digit number, location may vary depending on your TA and their invoice format For MEI Travel invoices, it's at the top of the "Cruise Reservation" section of the invoice, in the right-side column, labeled "Confirmation No" Enter the departure date of your sailing Select the ship you're sailing on After you submit this form, your reservation will now be correctly linked to your My Cruises account. At this point you can click on the reservation number and get the screen with a link to Cruise Planner.