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I wasn't sure how to word the title without it sounding like bait or trying to be controversial, so I will elaborate below. I am in my mid-20s, autistic, and transgender. While I am more accustomed to dealing with the world around be as an autistic adult with minimal support needs (more so concerned about loud noises and how "picky" my food tastes can be, but not a real concern), I am mostly asking how I will be treated as a transgender man who is very early into my physical transition. There is a stereotypical kind of person who enjoys cruising, but I truly love relaxing, laid-back experiences, hot tubs, fine dining, classic rock, and spas. Cruising sounds like a perfect vacation for me and I am very excited to embark on my first one! (I tend to get along best with "older" people and am the closest with coworkers my parents age as we usually have more in common lol!) However, I know I visibly appear very gender nonconforming and I am no stranger to people being rude, uncomfortable, or straight-up hateful for my appearance or "unique" name (which was actually picked out by my father and wasn't me trying to have a ~different~ name, but I love that it's uncommon anyway). In my swimsuit I appear much more like a 13 year old boy than the 24 year old man I actually am, and in more formal wear it's about the same. I am on hormones and my voice is deeper, but I am still usually referred to as a girl by strangers. While I don't think I am going to be discriminated against or anything of that sort by the staff or yelled at by other cruisers, I do worry about how I will be treated in general. Will people make comments to me if I use the men's restroom? Will I get weird looks while swimming? If my party is seated with other cruisers at MDR will they judge me and make my dining experience uncomfortable? Obviously I am aware no one can answer these questions for me, but I was wondering if there were any other trans, queer, or allied people who have noticed anything while cruising royal? Is it a generally accepting, chill experience? I just want to be respected and viewed the same as other guests, but unfortunately this is something I worry about with any new environment. Note: this is NOT a post to discuss LGBT+ opinions, topics, identities, politics, or anything of that nature! I am only making this post because in my two years of researching cruising since I booked mine, I haven't seen anyone discuss anything like this. I am not looking to "invade" any spaces or make anything about "being trans/gay". I am only asking from a comfort and safety standpoint. No discourse, PLEASE. I would not be asking this or making this post if I didn't have reason to be. Please be respectful and kind. Thank you
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After over a year of planning, it is almost time for (future) dear husband and I to depart on our honeymoon and first ever cruise! This forum has been a great help in planning this trip, and I hope it lives up to the other awesome live blogs I've enjoyed in that time. We are obviously very excited, but I am more so excited for DH because he has never been out of the country, much less traveled a lot within the US at all. This was more of a "him" trip than for me as I've had my "big" trip to Paris several years ago. Cruising was on both of our lists to try one day so I thought, go big or go home. Wonder of the Seas has more than enough for us to do and if we never have the chance to cruise again, I want to experience it all if possible. We depart three weeks after our "big" day. <3 Pre-cruise: We'll be driving to Port Canaveral from Central Mississippi a couple of days before, with a pit stop in Alabama to visit some family. Altogether about a 12 hour road trip with the plan to arrive the Saturday night before to rest up. Staying on Port Canaveral and have a fun little meetup with a FB cruise group at Fishlips that night. Who - Me (Holly, 31) - travel bug, type A and pina colada enthusiast and Dear Husband (DH 32), ADHD techie who still thinks we're going to St. Lucia (even though I've told him the destination 5 times) Itinerary 10/29 D1 Embark 10/30 D2 Coco Cay 10/31 D3 Sea Day 11/1 D4 St. Thomas 11/2 D5 St. Maarten 11/3 D6 Sea Day 11/4 D7 Sea Day 11/5 D8 Cry off the boat and drive home Room - Ocean View Balcony on Deck 12, Midship. We managed to find what we thought was a decent price on an ocean view balcony room during black Friday last year. Excursions/Extras Champagne, Strawberries, and 24 pack of water. We're not big drinkers so I'll problem bring the allowed wine on board, but I wanted to splurge on Evian if that's still what they're stocking. It's so cheap in Paris and I honestly got hooked on it after that trip. Beach bed on South Beach at Coco Cay. I know we wouldn't have had an issue finding chairs on Coco Cay, but we liked the idea of having a designated home base that we wouldn't risk losing if we wandered around the island. Being a little more secluded from the lively areas also appealed to us and it comes with the coolers with water. 150 Central Park Night 3 - We debated doing Chops plus one and using the plus one for 150 CP, but we're not really steak people so we just booked it by itself. We weren't thrilled by the menu for Night 3 (Taste of France) so we specifically booked for that night. This will also be Halloween. Day 4 St Thomas - Skyride, Drake's Seat, and Magen's Bay. Since we're only in St. Thomas for 8-hours we didn't want to risk being rushed or waste the time there. Booked through Royal on sale during Black Friday We've debated on booking Wonderland for Night 4 since we'll miss our reserved dining time of 5:15pm. We don't have anything like it here and we know we'll either love it or hate it, but life is about experiences. If not we'll just wing it that night. Booked all the shows, even the ones that sound a little cheesy. We're mostly looking forward to inTENse and TapFactory. Check in starts next week, hopefully we are the lucky ones to get those coveted early slots. We definitely want to take advantage of every minutes on this ship. Aside from this being our Honeymoon, this is a much needed vacation overall as DH has had several surgeries this year, long hours at work, promotions for us both (yay), and overall wedding planning is just stressful. We are easy to please people and simply can not wait for this adventure. Hoping this first time cruisers perspective makes you giggle at what I find fascinating.
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Hello first time cruiser here so forgive me if this is common knowledge. My family and I (6 adults and a 9 year old and 1 year old) are traveling on the Adventure of the Seas in August 2020 and our itinerary includes a stop at Labadee. I was looking into a bungalow rental for our day there, as a shaded home base for the kids and the older adults in our group. However the bungalows are showing sold out on the cruise planner. Are all the bungalows made available on the cruise planner or do they save some for on board reservation? Any suggestions on what I can do to try to get one or if the cabana is worth the extra money? Thanks a bunch in advance!
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Does the RC Harmony have something like a "magicband" wristband or something of this nature to serve as a Sea Pass Card? If so would you recommend? Where and when would you purchase them, I can't find anything like this on my cruise planner. I am not a fan of pockets or lanyards. Just curious for any input you can afford us, thanks again!
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First of all, i apologize for the silly 101-questions, this is first time i am sailing and found this board to rescue me. Here we go: My reservation is for the Oasis of the sea Eastern Caribbean cruise (7 nights) on the 20th of May. Occean view balcony (14th deck) 1) Beverage packages: From what i read, there should be some discounts/sale at some point, but it has been 2 months now since i made the reservation and i've not seen any discounts on the packages [ deluxe package remains to be at $55/p) and both people in the same room must purchase it? now my wife(to be) doesn't drink much alcohol, why shall i purchase her a deluxe package, is there anyway around this? 2) I am really lost when it comes to food on the ship!!! I read a couple of topics about dinner and that there are 2 options for that. What about breakfast and lunch? what are the restaurants on board and what times do they operate? are they all included in the package or do we pay extra? 3) In the plan my cruise website, when i check the dining options, the website says I cannot reserve this right now, does it open reservation a certain time before cruise day? 4) It says that the ship starts sailing 4.30 PM on the 20th of May, what is the latest time i can check in the ship? How long does the process take? 5) Internet package - shall i purchase that package now, or wait for a discount as well for this? 6) Do you recommend i choose/buy my off shore excursions now, or wait to find deals on the ship? 7) The cruise itinerary is Orlande, Labadee, St. Maartin and San Juan - Do you recommend any in particular shore excursions? 8) Shall i pay the gratitude package from now as well or do it on ship? i don't really understand the system. Thanks a lot for your help and once again i apologize for these questions, i am sure they were answered 100 of times before. Also if you have any advice for first timers, it would be great. cheers:) Ramy
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