bcarney

Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale? Heck I'd much rather drive that (relatively) small distance than mess around with all the nonsense at the airport, lost or overweight luggage, backups at TSA checks, parking costs, etc.

I'm on Majesty's July 17 5 day sailing. They want a $700/pp minimum bid for an upgrade from a Oceanview GTY to a Jr. Suite - that's now 2x more than what the cruise cost after the Cuba cancellation refund. $1K for Grand Suite, and $1,700 for Owners.

For me the hilarious bit is that they fell for buying that craptastic "artwork" they sell onboard - look at the walls behind them! LOL

For those on cruises that were going to Cuba, check your planners for price drops. I just logged into mine and the Deluxe Beverage Package is now down to $44/day!

Havana has been replaced with Costa Maya - that makes me happy, as I'll be able to go to Maya Chan again!

Our 7/17 sailing now has Costa Maya - which means I'll be able to go to Maya Chan again! ? Woot!

I have to say, that 50% refund has already taken much of the sting out of this, for me anyways. Now I'm just hoping they don't turn it into another sea day.

This is all my fault. I booked a Cuba cruise, and now this. My apologies.

You are correct, I didn't include that in my calculations. Mea culpa.

If you go to the Diamond Lounge, they can make some 'better' drinks for you. I discovered the joy of a simple Lemon Drop there last month on Rhapsody. Well, more accurately the joy of 3 of them one evening... ?

On all my recent cruises mixed drinks were $12 plus tip so $14.16. At $49, the break even point, if solely considering alcohol, is 3.46 drinks. A recent cruise I scored the package at $46, so break even was 3.25. On my last cruise I had the package at $49, but had to cancel it before the cruise for financial reasons (I wear black on Tax Day, LOL). When I got onboard I saw the package was $65/day plus tip...I was really kicking myself for cancelling it. I settled for the $79+tip drink card offered on Day 4.

We've slowly become disenchanted with the quality of food and frantic service in the MDR (with the exception of a Vision cruise in early 2016; the food that cruise blew us away). On our most recent cruise we deliberately decided not to visit the MDR at all as an experiment (for lack of a better term) to see if we'd like cruising that way better. Since we were on Rhapsody with only three specialty restaurants, I picked up the 3 night dining package, and we planned the other days in the Windjammer (specifically Indian and Caribbean nights). Night 1 was at Izumi, and the waiter was one of the best I've ever had, land or sea. Enjoyed him so much we wound up booking the sushi making class as well as our last night at Izumi again! I don't remember what order we did the rest but we wound up in the WJ for Caribbean night and I think German night and two others (Indian was on the buffet each evening), and we also did Chops and Giovannis. Pros: We were able to eat when we wanted to; 7:15pm today, 6:30pm tomorrow? No problem! Less stress. We didn't have to rush to get to the early seating after a day off ship (we have kids so late seating is out). Less cost (almost)! Not having to pay airline fees for an additional bag of "fancy" clothes and shoes that we would only wear for a few hours saved money, and was used to subsidize the cost of the speciality restaurants. The Windjammer food was of better quality and better selection than the tired MDR menu, IMHO. No pathetic dried out duck with a side of red cabbage...that has been on the menu since the time Noah was captain of Arc of the Seas. Cons: None, really. We didn't miss it at all. They missed us, though. They called on Day 3 to inquire as to why we weren't showing up. I wish I could say "we're done" with the MDR but that wouldn't be true as our next cruise is on Majesty which I don't think has speciality restaurants. But I think it's pretty unlikely we'll be back in the MDR very often in the future.

They edited the article and removed that sentence.

Won't happen for cruises, like mine, where the second day is in Cozumel. Too far to travel in one day, I think. PS - this is all my fault. My final payment for my Cuba cruise was 4 days ago.

For me...it would be the bar tab. The number of trees that would have to die just to print off my end of cruise statement would be truly horrifying.

Being from the Frozen Mitten I can't wrap my mind around the idea of sailing to places, on purpose, where there are no palm trees... I couldn't pull a @monorailmedic and watch a ship sail out for a fall Canadian color cruise. I'd be on the dock waving my hands and yelling to the Captain "you're going the wrong way!!!"

I went through my old emails and this was in it: If you would like to cancel your reward, please follow the steps below: 1.) Go to your wallet in the rewards section by clicking on “My Purchases” 2.) Click the “Redemption Pending” tab and select the reward you would like to cancel 3.) Click on the “Cancel Reward” link above “Contact Number" When unredeemed, your Loyalty Points will be refunded, and the reward will show up under 'Refunded & Expired' in your 'My Purchases'. For rewards that offer a self-cancel option, you can cancel up to 5 rewards in 30 days.

And smoking, if that's a factor for you.

My wife pointed it out to me in the Compass, and I did see a sign at a couple of bars, but it definitely wasn't prominently advertised.

If it's just a drink, I'll hand them a buck when they deliver it. In dining if they've worked hard enough to earn a tip, I'll fold it up and give it to them as I'm shaking their hand and expressing gratitude for their service. This also allows me to look again at their name tag and make a mental note of it for my post-cruise survey.

Wow, I didn't know you could do that! We didn't use the MDR at all on our last cruise, and would have rather the tip gone to the staff in the specialty restaurants we visited (on top of the cash tips we left). I'll remember this in the future as we've pretty much decided we'll be skipping the MDR from now on.

@hsweat22, I doubt just changing cabins would restart the 30 day clock. I believe it's a third party firm working for Royal that processes the points, but that's just a guess. If the voucher is denied they send instructions on how to add the points back to your MyVegas account. I cashed in some for a previous cruise and was denied as I had some sort of "Casino Discount Code" (of like $13) on the booking, and the denial message had the instructions on how to do that.

I'm somewhat familiar with Tanduay - they were exhibitors at the Miami Rum Festival last year (won a gold medal) and I was able to taste their products. They don't currently sell in my state, however. They also just recently became the #1 selling brand in the world. Someday I'll be able to add them to my collection.

I redeemed mine last week. It took 4 days, but it did post yesterday (a Sunday).

Assuming you still have to handle your luggage at the airport, the first thing you want to do when you get there is to run it through the agricultural scanners immediately to the right and left of the doors where you enter the airport. Lots of people skip this, and then are turned back when they try to check in. They'll put little stickers on your luggage to indicate they've been scanned.