Orange Crush

Mariner. Which has Izumi, Chops, Jamie's & Playmakers. I just looked again today and it's there for $76 per person (whole cruise, not per day). I was able to book it this time.

I just checked the cruise planner for our October trip & it's not there. Although I did notice a couple weeks ago the old Unlimited Dining Package showed up, but I couldn't actually book it--just came up as no times available. I don't know if they sold out or that was just something weird in the system, but doesn't look like I can get it on my sailing. It's a short 3-dayer, so that might be a factor too.

It needs at least three meters for the unicorns that hold it up in the water

Are you sure you're not looking at the price for three or four cabanas? It's a little confusing in cruise planner when you put it in your cart. You only want to buy it for ONE person in your party. If you add all the people in your reservation, you're ordering everyone a cabana of their very own.

I got a small drop on some things for my upcoming 3-day in October: DBP dropped from $56 to $52 Full day water park at Cocoa Cay dropped from $35 to $33 Nothing to scream about, but five minutes of rebooking saved me $34.32. I'll take it!

I-4 has a charming ability to turn a 30 minute stretch into a 2-hour stretch, especially when you've got a ship to catch

It's also hard to get a real sense of the true height of a ship while you're standing on it. If you're looking from a pool deck at the ship in the next parking space, there are some odd angles and forced-perspective going on that can make the neighboring ship appear much taller than it really is. It's also hard to adjust for how much more ship is above you. Theme parks use this trick on purpose to make the attractions seem bigger from the ground.

Is the drink package cap still $12/drink, or did they bump it up to $13 like the Oasises & Quantums?

Royal Caribbean has been building bigger and bigger water slides and ziplines. A mountainside cruise-launch system is the logical next step.

I believe you don't get the perks, but you still get the points you otherwise would. And the packages typically available (i.e. drink packages) don't typically get offered, so expect to pay an upcharge for all of your Blood Wine & Raktajinos.

Yeah, most of the time I see Junior Suites closer to twice the price of the next level down regular balcony. I'd rather go on two cruises in a regular balcony if that's what the cost is going to be comparable to. But for some reason there's not nearly the price gap on the 3-night trips out of Canaveral in October. Not sure if that's seasonal, local market, length of the trip, or some combination of everything. Maybe it's Royal Caribbean's attempt to hook relatively new cruisers on nicer cabins so they're more likely to splurge on bigger trips later. I've got no idea, but I'll take it

I agree, except for when the price difference is small. We did a Jr Suite on our last cruise and are doing another JS on our upcoming trip on the Mariner. The price difference between a regular balcony and junior suite was only about $100 out-the-door when I booked it, so I splurged for the extra elbow room and double points.

The system is dumb, it will actually charge you if you go through with booking the restaurants now despite having the package. With the package, you have to book your reservations once you get aboard. They book one automatically for you, but you can override that once you're on the ship. As soon as you step on, I'd make a beeline right for one of the restaurants (any of them can do all of your reservations) or look for somebody standing at a kiosk. A lot of times they set one up near the entrance on boarding day.

Nassau is fine. Some of the excursions are duds (don't bother with the Land and Sea tour or anything that will take you to Atlantis. Nothing against Atlantis, but if you want to check it out, pay $6 for a cab not $60 for a tour group), but there's still plenty worthwhile to do there. It's safe to walk around, just stay with the crowds. If you venture too far, you'll know. As you exit the port, there's a bunch of knick-knack booths. Hang a right for all the slushy-rum-thing bars (Fat Tuesday, Senior Frogs, etc.) and straw market. The straw market is mostly more knick-knacks and knockoff sunglasses & bags, but it's fine if you need a cheap pair of sunglasses (like if somebody sat on and broke the pair you brought with you. Not that that's ever happened to me . . . ) There's also a flight simulator people here have recommended but I haven't gone myself yet. And, of course, it's also a good time to check out stuff on the ship that usually has a line when everybody's aboard (i.e. flowrider)

Yeah, I don't think you can buy drink packages for the linked reservation. I had to log out and log back in as them to book the other cabin's stuff. The rest of the reservations let me book everybody all at once.

So that's a cool thing I didn't realize--they basically whisk you past the regular security line while boarding? How do they scan your carry-ons?

That was kinda my logic when I got my MIL the Refreshment Package vs just putting some credit on her SeaPass. She doesn't drink alcohol at all (she will have one drink once in a blue moon and then she's good for a couple months, lol), but I wanted her to have free reign of any sodas, blended drinks, coffee drinks, whatever she felt like. It wound up being $72 or so, and I know she didn't get anywhere near $72 worth of beverages. But if I hadn't gotten her the package, she would've stuck to the free water, tea and lemonade because she'd worry about chipping away at the set budget and the whole point of the trip was to make sure she didn't have a care in the world. I'm sure it will, you've got plenty of time. I'm still looking at $56 in October, but I expect I'll get it for $45ish eventually.

We've taken to using phone cases that hold up to 3 cards. Just the SeaPass while on the ship, and then SeaPass, driver's license & credit card when ashore.

Key West is fun, I highly recommend it, but I'm torn about taking a cruise there since I can drive there & they seldom stay past 5pm or so, which misses all the night life. Since we usually sail out of Canaveral I've just come to accept that "no matter where you want to go, you're stopping in Nassau." Although it's really just an extra hour in the car to get over to Tampa for the Key West/Cozumel runs, but then you start getting into 5-day territory which burns up more vacation days, and start thinking "well, if I'm going to burn 5 vacation days, I might as well make a full week out of it" aaaand you wind up eyeing that 7 day that hits Belize or the Caymans, so let's splurge on a suite. . . and it just spirals downhill from there. I've probably booked or been on the brink of booking that cruise at least 20 times now. ?

Does Vintages take the drink package or are you 100% out of pocket? I was a little confused on that point on the Allure. Maybe it was just the food bites that had an upcharge. I think they've got the standard house wines and basic coffees within easy reach; I've always had that refilled quickly. But cocktails take foooooreeeeeeeevvvveeeer. And specialty coffee drinks were even worse.

One device at a time, but you can switch devices by logging one off and logging the other on. You'll get a code to enter when you connect to the wifi, and when you want to switch, just go to "logoff.com" and it'll log you out so you can connect a different device. EDIT: @spiralqueen beat me to it! ?

I've never had a break, just some leakage out of the cap--it was a screw-top so I figure it either got loosened a bit or had a faulty seal. Tasted just fine.

Yup. They'll randomly drop for no apparent reason at all. Check OFTEN. You were also talking about getting Internet, I'd just go ahead and book it. You can always drop it at the last minute if you decide you don't want it. $14.99/day is the usual price, but I've nabbed it for as low as $11 & change during an unannounced sale. We usually only get 1 device and take turns.

It's the old saying--a happy customer tells a friend, an unhappy customer tells ten. I've seen a few grumpy-pants show up here and start a complaint thread but they often don't respond to any of the regulars trying to help or understand what went wrong for them. They just wanted to post a complaint and get validation from others piling on, but we're no fun because we won't take the bait.

Anything below $50 is a good price, I'd jump on that $46 right now before it pops back up. My upcoming cruise is still at $56 but I'm watching it like a hawk in case it drops. I don't remember what I paid on the Christmas cruise, but I feel like it was around $42. That was my cheapest ever.