bcarney

Sold out 58 minutes after posting this.

On my last 7 day on Rhapsody they appeared on day 4, and the bartender indicated that was the usual day they've been released.

@suzi77, when you are in Old SJU, if you have a chance go here: https://lacasitarums.com It's a bar/restaurant/store that sells various Puerto Rican rums. I don't think the Bacardi tour would have anything that you can't get at your local store (they didn't when I took it, but that was 19 years ago), so take this an an opportunity to try a new expression or brand you haven't heard of before. Enjoy the exploration of a new rum! I've been on two rum cruises where we visited various distilleries on a number of islands. If you can share your itinerary, I'll let you know what to buy and where. Yeah, I'm a Rum Nerd, LOL.

@JLMoran thanks for the reminder about the podcast! We just booked a Havana/Cozumel cruise in July (I'll likely die from heatstroke, but anyways...) and I'm scouring the boards looking for Havana tips.

WHAT!?!?! But they have RUM there!!! ? When we went, even after being told 'no smoking' by all the staff there, one idiot lit up. He was all but body tackled by security. Certainly made the tour a little more exciting.

In Costa Maya we've done the water park/ziplining twice and had a lot of fun with the kids. On our last cruise we went to Maya Chan for a relaxing day on the beach. We'll be doing that again from now on, it was such a great experience for us and the kids.

"My luggage hasn't arrived yet" is an acceptable excuse to wear shorts in the MDR on the first night.

On my Serenade cruise last fall there was a number of Filipino staff onboard, so I asked the Head Waiter if I could have some of their types of food. They obliged, and it was quite delicious. If you're a curry eater on our last 2 (and probably more) cruises they had 2 types of curry (veg, non-veg) in the Windjammer each night, plus a few other Indian dishes.

Peppers of Key West, near Hemingway Rum Company Distillery where they make Papa Pilar rum. Both brought me much joy, LOL.

Last week we were on Rhapsody, and on the very last day I mentioned to my wife that I'd like to go to Cuba. She grabbed me by the ear and two minutes later we were at the NextCruise desk booking a 5 day on Majesty in July while the kids are at camp! I tend to hyper-analyze and mentally debate every single purchase I make, so this was definitely a YOLO impulse moment. Ours is a 11am overnight to 5:30am stop, so I'm hoping not to get into too much trouble at 3am in Havana.... ;)

I just disembarked Rhapsody yesterday. The onboard price for the Deluxe package was $65/day plus 18%. Drink cards were offered on day 4.

In regards to driving, I've found the port at Tampa one of the easiest to get to while driving, even better than Baltimore. I'll be down there for a Rhapsody sailing on Saturday. ?

My kids LOVE being able to have a pop (I'm from Michigan, it's NOT soda! LOL) whenever they want when on a cruise. The two of you will have a great time! Cheers!

I'm a "DXer" which is basically a hobby of hunting down and logging radio stations. Yes, I am a nerd/geek. There is a lot of noise (QRN) generated by the ship and the electronics on it, but if your hubby is really into it he can go topside and find a location that is a little less noisy, like the front of the ship or the helicopter deck. A lot of the comments above say you really can't hear anything, but it's not true, especially in the southern Caribbean. And if he switches from FM to AM, you can hear stations all over the Caribbean while onboard, especially at night. I brought my SDR (software defined radio - think a device like a DVR or TiVO, only for radio, and it can record the entire AM radio band at once) and let it record all day while I was in port. It gave me a lot of joy after the cruise listening to the recordings and being able to listen to every station broadcasting at that port was fascinating. Barring that, he can use http://radio.garden/ and listen to streaming stations around the world.

For me personally I find that most of the weight I gain on a cruise is water weight, due to the amount of salt used in the dishes (I normally don't consume a mot of salt). Weigh yourself two days after the cruise and it won't be so bad.

That's not water anymore, it's turned into H20 croutons.

We sailed on it in 2017, and booked it again for early April this year. Great crew, good price, and nice itinerary. You can get around this if you leave your luggage folded open rather than zipping it shut. The bonus is that you can pull it out a little bit, and put your dirty laundry back in it as necessary.

On the first week of April we are sailing on Rhapsody out of Tampa, and I'm curious if anyone has a current schedule of the special evening dinners in the Windjammer. Last year they had a Caribbean night, and an Indian/Asian night, that sort of thing. I'm looking for a list of those two nights specifically so we can schedule our specialty dining around them. Thanks, all!

Anyone who's cleaned up after my kids after lunch in the Windjammer deserves every penny of that tip, and then some (it takes quite a while to get into those hazmat suits). Kids make a much bigger mess than adults do; frankly, the mandatory gratuity for them should be more than those for adults.

Thank you! I did a Bing image search, and it sure looked like callos. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to having it again someday.

I cashed in 50,000 points for an OBC, but when I submitted it to RC it was rejected because there was some sort of "discount code" already applied to the room. Fortunately they provided instructions on how to get the points back into your account.

One night I had butter chicken at the Windjammer and it was the best I've ever had. Not kidding. @4ensic on my last cruise there was a lot a crew from the Philippines, so I asked for that style of food one evening. They brought out adobo chicken, and also a dish made from tripe. It was nice and sticky from the collagen, and a tiny bit spicy. I didn't catch the name of it - I don't suppose you'd have any idea what it was?

They had those on my recent Serenade cruise, along with chicken and turkey sausages at breakfast. Now, to me, a chicken 'sausage' is an abomination and perhaps a crime against humanity, but it's there for those that want to partake in such lunacy. ?

Yeah, but good luck finding any bar service in the MDR. You'll have a better chance of finding a leprechaun riding a unicorn through the MDR than finding bar service.

If anyone has the opportunity to sail with @RatedPG, please do so. He's a great person, with a perpetual smile on his face. I had the opportunity to shake his hand, and frankly that may have been the highlight of my cruise. He's a great human being, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to have met him. Blessings to you, RatedPG. I hope we cross paths again someday.