bcarney

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.

Actually that's my concern - I plan on exchanging a bunch of cash into CUCs upon arrival (11am), but I'm concerned I won't be able to exchange back to USD$ when I plan on getting back to the ship (around midnight).

Sad that they changed it. When I went (granted, it was 20 years ago), they walked you through the entire process and you got to see everything. One of the reasons I remember it is because the bottling line had Bacardi Silver and a bottom shelf "5 O'Clock"-type brand coming off the same line. What distillery/ies did you visit in Barbados, @4ensic? I've been to the Mt. Gay distillery (the one in the north end of the island, not the visitors center in St. Michaels) twice and got to hang out with the soon to be retired Master Blender Allen Smith. We also visited the small St. Nicholas Abbey operation, and the West Indies Rum Distillery that produces Plantation, Bumbu, and a bunch of other products. Even got to sample a distillate that came off their newly restored Vulcan still - kind of cool to have a sample of the first batch to come off that still in 140ish years! Yes, you could say I'm really "into" rum. ?

This summer we're sailing to Havana, and will be there from 11am until 5:30am the next day. I was wondering how late the currency exchange is open at the port in Cuba? I collect rum, and am planning on bringing a bunch of Canadian dollars with me to exchange into CUCs for my purchases, but don't want to be stuck with a bunch of unspent CUCs if the exchange closes relatively early, especially since they're unusable anywhere else but Cuba.

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.... ;)