Atlantix2000

There are 2 types of restaurants: Those with a cover charge and those where you buy food by the item. At Cover Charge restaurants, the menu has no prices and the package includes all those items. However, a few restaurants have a specific item(s) that has an extra cost (the Seafood Tower appetizer at Chops is an example but it isn't available right now). These will be the only items with prices on the menu and you would pay it even with the package. At Pay-As-You-Go restaurants, every item on the menu has a price and you can order as much as you like. Here, the package gives you a credit for a certain amount of food. For example, at Playmakers, you can spend up to $20 per person with the package. Anything over that, you would pay for.

On any US-based sailing, the legal drinking age is the US drinking age - 21. Whether your son can drink while on shore in the ports is a different question subject to local laws.

Officially, yes you would have to cancel. However, a pregnancy opens up a lot of undocumented exceptions to the rules with a lot of companies. They will probably work with you on options. Congrats.

There's no real reason to request a later disembark group. The earliest you are supposed to get off is when your group is called but you can always be the last person off the ship if you want. However, there's not much open and breakfast closes at some point. Your room steward also wants you out so they can clean the room. So you are mostly left with hanging around in the common areas. I've done that when we weren't in a rush to catch a flight. The people watching can certainly be interesting. Your luggage will still be at the sign for your group's number regardless of when you actually get off the ship.

That sounds like a Canada rule not a Florida rule.

Doesn't change the answer. You don't NEED any form of passport to do a closed loop cruise in the Caribbean as long as everything goes according to plan. The problem is if something happens and you get separated from the ship, the only way to fly home internationally is with a real Passport Book. It may be a really small risk but it is a risk and only you can decide if you're comfortable with that risk.

A party doesn't have to stay together the entire day when using Genie+! When you book each ride, you select who is going. If someone keeps selecting the whole party, that person is messing things up. At least that's my understanding.

We are booked at the Poly for this coming September. It is very hard to book a room there right now. We actually booked before the holidays and didn't get our first choice of week. It seems to be totally booked now for that month. Due to pent up demand, they aren't offering any sort of discounts at the Poly because people are paying full price. The overwater bungalows at Poly are actually DVC (Disney Vacation Club) properties. That means almost all of them are only bookable by DVC owners or those willing to rent points from owners. (There are several reputable companies that will help handle those type of transactions.) Disney itself only owns a few percent of the rooms at each DVC property and makes those available on their website for cash rentals. However, since there are only 20 bungalows, there are probably only 1 or 2 that are actually rentable from Disney. This means you will probably have to book very far out and the website will almost never show any availability. At this point, all the Deluxe resorts have a DVC section. At Poly, 3 of the buildings (those closest to the Ticket & Transportation Center) were converted to DVC some years ago. The same is true at the Grand Floridian (they are actually about to convert another building there). At the Contemporary, they actually built another tower (Bay Lake Tower) to be the DVC section so the main tower is still all Disney owned. The side effect is fewer rooms available for normal rental at the Deluxe properties.

This post is almost 5 years old! I'm not so sure this is accurate anymore.

I would say it's worth reaching out to the vendor to discuss with them. If their business is big enough to book multiple of the same excursions each day, they might collect all Royal passengers into the same trip. In that case, the start time is probably flexible with the ship's schedule. If they only offer one trip combining locals, hotel guests, and cruisers, they may be less flexible because they don't want to keep everyone waiting. Another consideration - if they are picking you up at the port, they are probably used to cruise ship schedules and will adjust. If you have to get somewhere (by walking, taxi, bus, etc.) to meet at a specific time, that would be riskier.

Giving Royal your bags has nothing to do with getting it to the airport. If you put your bags in the hall, all Royal does is take them off the ship and organize them in a giant warehouse so you can find them. For example, if you are in Disembarking Group 6, when they call that number to disembark, you get in line, get off the ship, and then find the signs for Group 6's baggage. You cannot take multiple trips to get your luggage off the ship so if you have a lot of bags, you will need to follow this procedure. If you can carry/roll everything in one trip, you can basically get off whenever your want. The only delay is how many people got in line before you on the ship, then the line at customs on shore.

You can just click the follow button rather than replying. It's near the top of the page in the same block as the thread title and above the "Start new topic" and "Reply to this topic" buttons.

Try not to use the word double. The formula is actually very simple: Points per night = 1 + (1 if traveling in a Junior Suite or higher) + (1 if traveling alone) = 1, 2, or 3 Points for Cruise = Number of nights * points per night

Generally, it's against the rules (both ship and local laws) to bring food ashore unless it is pre-packaged (which means factory sealed, not something you put in a zip-loc).

The 14th as in 10 days from now, Feb 14, 2022? I'd be surprised if they were still accepting Royal Up bids this close to sailing. As mentioned above, you won't get the extra points for sailing in a suite if you use Royal Up and there aren't really any suite perks for a Junior Suite. So the only thing you are getting is a bigger room and bathroom which you may not need when sailing solo.

I see your location says Dublin. Part of the confusion is that most answers here come from the US but the rest of the world gets shown things a bit differently. Someone in the US, might see a daily price of $60 but when we go to check out, we are actually charged $60 * 1.18 = $70.80 per day. International prices (generally) already include the gratuity so for that same cruise, you would only ever see ~$70.80 per day but in your currency. That's the theory anyway because prices seem to fluctuate somewhat randomly. But the good news is that if you have a package, you've already paid the gratuity.

For the most part, it's better to think of a junior suite as a larger balcony room with a better bathroom (shower/tub instead of tiny shower) and walk-in closet (depending on ship class). You also get the extra point per night. (Extra not double, because you can also get an extra point for being solo.) Real suite perks start with Grand Suite.

Do the cruise docs describe the tags as showing the cabin location? It's possible the graphic actually shows the location your luggage should be taken on a lower crew-only deck during the boarding process.

This has already been confirmed in this thread - see posts from Jan 21-22.

That will depend on which ship you are sailing and when. There's no way to know for sure until after you book unless you can find someone already booked on the same trip who can check. Once you book, you can look in your Cruise Planner to find the prices.

Specialty coffee basically means the drink includes shots of espresso - so yes for lattes, cappuccino, machiattos, frappes, etc. (pardon my spellings). Could probably also define it as whether it's normally made by a barista. Drip coffee or keurig/pod style stuff is free (where available) and generally self serve (depending on current covid protocols).

Despite the wording on the website, some ships treat those cards as 15 shots of espresso not 15 drinks. Depending on what you drink, that seriously changes the math so you may want to wait until boarding before purchasing.

With MTD, you don't have to do anything together whether you are linked or not. Even people in the same cabin can eat at different times if they want to. Just make each reservation for the people that want to eat together.

No drink package is good for a beer drinker. In the past when I've purchased these cards, the bartender has even stressed "Don't use this for beer."

Large outbreaks for a cruise ship, yes, but still pretty small compared to pretty much anywhere in the US around that same time. I would say it's safe to assume the numbers are going down onboard just as they are on land.