WhiteSoxFan

I have done MTD on a couple of cruises and I don't feel the experience is any different than traditional.  We have, however, always had a reservation and have never been seated at a larger table and, with the exception of one night, we've always had the same table/waiters.  We are taking a 4 nighter in November and have planned to "not plan" anything.  When we're ready to eat, we'll head there so my experience will probably be different.

Thanks again, the blog post was very helpful!  

 

Booked it for the extra room, especially on the balcony, with no expectation of any perks.  So all ok.  Free wine is usually bad wine, anyway.

It should be noted that you do get double cruise credit in a JS.  That is the only suite benefit you receive.

Thank you very much for your answers everybody, though your answers vary a lot.

 

Forgot to mentioned, yes, we're flying out of Fort Lauderdale.

I can see that some of you would never book before noon and some other are confortable with it.  

I can tell you that I agree that I might be putting to much stress on myself by choosing a early flight. And things can go wrong at any time on disembarkation day. 

As I said I would have no problem booking an early flight from FLL if I was on the Allure or Oasis but you must decide what level of stress you can deal with.  So many feel less stress by planning for that <1% event.  I always have travel insurance when I'm cruising and the trip home is certainly less critical than the trip there in my mind.

I had a 10:25AM flight from FLL off the Allure and we had no problem getting to the airport on time.  Allure docks very early and you can self disembark very early.  As I recall we got off the ship about 6:30AM - 6:45AM and we were thru customs, to the airport and through security well before 8AM.  Sure there is always the chance that there me be a delay in arrival but based on my experience, as well as several others on other message boards, you should have no problem making your flight. 

 

The advantage is very short lines at Customs and no wait for taxi's.  They are lined up waiting for people to get off the ship.

 

If it were another ship besides the Allure of Oasis, or you are going out of MIA then I wouldn't do it, otherwise I would have no problem booking an early flight again.

There's only 1 exception that I have seen. When you are a suite guest and you book a cabana at Labadee or CocoCay before the cruise through the concierge they will charge it to your room; you do not pay for the cabana when the concierge books it for you. That's the only prebooking I have EVER done that I didn't have to pay for at the time that I booked it.

We had the concierge book a few shore excursions for us prior to boarding and the excursions were charged to our onboard account.

Personally, I prefer East, especially if St. Martin is a stop.

I agree with this wholeheartedly.  Another bonus of the east is San Juan and St. Thomas are US territories so cell service is free for most providers, a plus if you need to check in with anyone mid cruise.  Also higher duty free allowances from St. Thomas if that is important to you.

When you mentioned onboard booking you don't say if you booked a specific cruise or just purchased a NextCruise certificate.  If the latter I would skip doing it again as the incentive, other than the reduced deposit, is negligible.   This will allow you to get out from under this TA for the future.  I would think, but perhaps I'm wrong, that if you book an actual sail date on board you can specify if you want to use the TA or handle it yourself.  Certainly they shouldn't make you use a TA you do not want to use.

We have sailed the Explorer, the Voyager's sister ship, when it was spring break and fully loaded with 3600 passengers.  Of course the pool is crazy on sea days but the only other time remember it being really crowded was during the parades on the promenade.

We did a couple of cruises while my daughter was in that age range and had the same concern.  They have activities every night geared to the 18-20+ as they refer to it.  Check the compass once onboard and you should find a Meet & Greet or similar around 10:00PM for them. 

 

My daughter is pretty outgoing and never had a problem finding people to hang out and do things with.

I always have a tendency to ignore the really great reviews and the really horrible reviews and look at the rest.  There are some people you just cannot please and there are the cheerleaders.

 

My advice, this being your first cruise, is to not have any hard and fast expectations.  Be flexible, go with the flow and you'll have a great time.

My daughter was in the same situation and they did have a meet up for 18-20+.  Check the cruise compass when boarding.  If you take a look at the compasses in the Cruise Compass section of this website you will see a listing for Club 18-20s on the last page of the Day 1 compass, usually around 10:00PM.

I, too, WhiteSoxFan, love supporting local businesses and thus the local economy.  That said, I've also had some exceptional online TAs when I couldn't find a local one with knowledge, which I depended on much more when I was a newbie to cruising.  Now, I have a fabulous TA, although my specific knowledge of the itineraries and ships usually exceeds hers mainly because I'm a researcher by trade and an nerd when it comes to travel.  With Matt's site and podcast, the other podcasts and site I peruse daily, it would be hard for my TA to keep up given her workload. :). What I'm looking for is an advocate and assistance, and that's what she provides and was a godsend when I ended up in surgery just 12 hours before a previous cruise and precruise trip.  In that situation, she was able to make all of the necessary changes so that we could still make the ship and even was able to get cancellation fees and penalties waved which made the travel insurance claim even easier as the amount of the claim ended up being minimal.

I couldn't agree more with what you have said.  I am in the same boat in that I'm not looking to a TA for their expertise. 

 

That being said I always tell novice cruisers to consult with a TA as they can help guide them toward the right line, ship and itinerary given their personal situation. We jsut did this with one of my wife's co-workers.  They went to the TA with one thing in  mind and after consulting with her wound up on another line.

As I've said before I always use a local brick and mortar TA.  I do not really receive any additional perks & I am the one always checking rates and available cabins, so why do I use them?

 

1) As DocLC said, it saves me time.  One quick email or phone call and I'm done.  No website navigation, no entering information, no waiting on the phone. I email her with the sailing, the cabin I want and the price.  She books it.  If the price drops I email her and she gets is changed (that hasn't happened for a while) and if I see a better cabin I want available I email her and she changes it.

 

2) If something goes wrong I have someone working on my behalf that pulls more weight than I.

 

3) I pay no more and I support a local business.

Just got off Jewel last week.  Drinks were a breathtaking $12 plus tip - but buying a drinks package on a cruise that only had one day at sea didn't make any sense to me.

 

The good news is it saved me a TON of money - I barely drank anything at all.  And the Pool Bar was practically empty most of the time....

 

 

Do you think the vacant bar was a result of a la carte pricing or just a coincidence? Also did you hear much talk about the ship about this?

 

We experienced the same think at the end of January. Hardly any pool service but an empty pool bar.   This was before the big price bump though. I attributed it to the fact that there were a crazy number of multi -week guest onboard. 

We stayed at Rocky Point on our last Tampa cruise  There are several hotels there including a Best Western, HI Express, Chase Suites & I think a Double tree.  We were at the Holiday Inn  Decent room, decent rate.  They offer a shuttle or you can take a taxi for around $25.00.  HI included an airport shuttle.  We chose to take a taxi because, first, there were three of us so it was cheaper than the shuttle and , second, the first shuttle wasn't until noon and we left the hotel at 10:30.

 

We are going again in November and I am debating staying in the downtown area, although it is more expensive.  It will depend on what time we travel most probably.  I would check the websites, I think that the HI and Best Western offer park & cruise options.

We've had four in one taxi from FLL to Port Everglades on our last trip there.  We did have to wait for them to bring up a van as most of them were cars.  It took an extra 5 minutes at most.

WhiteSoxFan - If you find that you have leftover OBC that you need to use or lose, just go to the casino and get chips at a table for whatever amount you need to spend. Example....if you have $100 of OBC left unused, go to a table at the casino and as for $100 on your seapass. Now, they WILL charge you a 5% "convenience fee" (so there will be a charge on your account for $105) but you can turn right around and get cash for those chips at the cashier's cage if you don't want to use them to gamble. Sure...it will cost you $5 but at least you won't lose the $100 OBC.

Thanks, I knew about this but since they've raised Chops to $39 and they've raised the drink prices I don't think I should have any problem. 

 

I wonder what, if any, backlash they are going to see from raising the drink prices.  I thought they were a little high before but you figure you're a captive audience and your on vacation but now it's just flat out expensive. If drinks go up 25% they can still absorb a 20% dropoff on purchases before they see a dip in revenues.

I have $200 OBC on my upcoming 4 nighter in November and was wondering how I was going to possible spend $200.00 in 4 days.  Maybe it won't be as hard as I thought.

Well, that brings up a question. I thought that both persons in a cabin had to purchase the drink plan...that you could not have 1 buy and 1 not buy.

 

True or not true ?

That was the case when it was introduced, they have since change it.

Definitely good for the cruise line as there's a huge profit in alcohol. The dining plans run the same way at WDW. Unless you're going to eat an enormous amount every day, it's hard to justify the dining plan much the same as for the beverage packages.

I agree on those Disney Dining plans.  They seem like a good deal but I never would eat that much food normally.  Same with the drink package, it may sting when you sign for those drinks but in the end I never drink anywhere near the amount I would need to in order to break even (which is probably a good thing).  Of course, there have been many reports from couples who have only purchased one drink package that the bartenders and servers will occasionally put their partners drink on their package.  That helps skew the math a little.

On our last four cruises we have gotten our bags delivered very quickly.  Twice on the Allure we had all of them by 2:00PM and once on the Jewel they were in our room waiting for us when they opened access to the rooms at 1:00PM.  In all three of these occasions we were at the port early enough that we had to wait for boarding to begin, (10:30-10-45).  Our last cruise a couple of months ago on the Jewel we checked in about noon and had all our bags by about 3:00.  Everyone's experience may differ but we have had good luck the last few years.

So, can you actually let a couple of days elapse and THEN decide to take the package ? Will they reimburse you for the drinks you purchased prior to purchasing the package ? Not sure I understand that rationale unless they will pay you back for what you have already spent.

 

I definitely do NOT purchase the drink packages. I guess the main reason is b/c I just don't drink that much...but combine that with the fact that I drink for free in the Casino (Club Royale perk) and that is where I spend most of my time and I guess it makes sense.

 

There might be a day or 2 out of 7 that a drink package would pay for itself package but there is no way that I can drink enough every day over a 7 day period to make it profitable...especially when you have to get up early on port days and get off the ship. I would be hung over every port day (and every sea day too, I guess !!!) and that would truly suck.

 

It seems to me that RCI is trying to push folks towards the packages by making individual drinks outrageously expensive...and maybe that will work. What is amusing, to me, is the fact that RCI was one of the LAST cruise lines to even adopt the drink packages...and now they're practically making them mandatory. Go figure.

If you wait until, say, day 3 to by the package you are only charged for the remaining days (5 on a 7 night cruise).  All your previous idividual purchases remain on your bill. 

 

I agree that they are trying to force people into the packages, I think they are finding it profitable.

I wonder if they find they are making out on the drink packages overall.  By the time you figure port days, etc, they may be making a decent profit on them.  By raising the prices they drive more people into the packages since it appears to be a better value.  More packages = More $$$.