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What's your worst cruise mistake?


Matt

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Like many have said, lack of knowledge/research. Our first cruise was 6 years ago on Enchantment to Nassau. I did not really look into shore excursions figuring I would just get off the ship and wing it.  My actual plan was to go to Atlantis and play poker.  I was big into the TV poker and they used to play a tourney from Atlantis.  Our first big mistake was not realizing how far from the port Atlantis is.  We rode the little ferry across the water, but then walked the rest of the way.  A bit of a hike.  Then to find out that the casino at Atlantis did not even have a poker room in operation. We spent most of the day walking to and from and not actually doing much.  My wife did get to do some shopping and we ate a decent meal at a restaurant close to the port but it felt like a wasted day due to lack of planning. 

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I'm sure there will be many who disagree with this being a mistake, but my biggest mistake was not getting the internet package on my cruise and thinking I could just unplug. I later realized that I value being able to text or message the other people in my party too much and that I felt as if not being able to do so limited me in what I could do. For example, if I was hanging out by the pool and wanted to go to trivia, I felt like I couldn't because I had no way of telling the others where I was going and didn't want to worry them that they lost me. I also undervalued how much I rely on looking things up during a conversation to either illustrate a point or check something. (ie: "where do I know that actor from? It's going to bug me so much!" "See! I'm not crazy. Folding the cold butter between layers of dough is called lamination and that's how they can get the puff pastry"). I now get the internet every time.

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On 12/5/2019 at 11:44 AM, Jack_Lime said:

The only mistake I made was OVER PLANNING. RCI had the cruise planner on the app a week before set sail. And I obsessed with it, planing to do Everything.

 

Over planning may be unnecessary, but I think the excitement leading up to the cruise can be just as much fun

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Before the nonsense of Hurricane Dorian, my biggest mistake was booking my arrival to the port city the day of embarkation.  Even though I didn't go on the sailing, I was feeling the stress of having the flight the same day.  Will not be making that mistake this summer and will see a little what Miami has to offer.

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  An early mistake was not doing research on how to play blackjack.  How hard can it be to count to 21?  My first trip to the blackjack table was not good.  There were some unhappy campers at the table by the time I got run off.  If you plan on playing blackjack,  read some books on the how to play smart.  It will not only pay off money wise but you won't have some people throwing things at you the rest of the cruise.

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On 12/9/2019 at 10:06 AM, MikeK said:

  An early mistake was not doing research on how to play blackjack.  How hard can it be to count to 21?  My first trip to the blackjack table was not good.  There were some unhappy campers at the table by the time I got run off.  If you plan on playing blackjack,  read some books on the how to play smart.  It will not only pay off money wise but you won't have some people throwing things at you the rest of the cruise.

Amen !

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Not my mistake, but...  A few years ago a neighbor and some of her family members booked a cruise and asked my youngest daughter and a friend of hers to come along.  We paid our share and threw in some discretionary money.  Well, the friend didn't realize that she needed her passport to board and showed up with just a drivers license.  She was denied boarding, and the rest of the party couldn't leave her abandoned at the port some 700 miles from home, so the entire trip was aborted.  They ended up finding an inexpensive hotel on the beach near the port and spent the 4 days as a beach vacation.  

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Our rookie mistake was years ago back in 2007 on my hubs first cruise. We did a rookie mistake to book flights the same morning of embarkation day AND that was with a RC cruise leaving from San Juan, Puerto Rico as well!  We almost missed the boat. Total rookie mistake and I am such an over-planner that I can't believe we did that. Fly in a day early and book a hotel near port! 

 

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@thepants  That is such a common mistake.  My hubby and I now use the Air to Sea program with Royal if we can't get in the day before.  We especially do it for overseas cruises.  The reason is they price match, or at least have done it with us (might be where we fly out of) and they guarantee that they will get us there or at the worst get us to the next port.  Never had a problem since if we have to fly out that day, we take the O dark thirty flight and it is only 90 mins to get to Miami.

My niece did her honeymoon cruise in Italy/Spain.  They planned to be in Barcelona the day before.  Her flight was cancelled, it took off the next day, and got there only a few hrs prior to departure.  

The one thing she did not listen to me about was buying travel insurance.  They saw it as an expense they wouldn't need.  They were young so the medical coverage didn't rock their world.  They knew they had the time off so, they didn't want that coverage.  What they didn't realize was that because their flight was cancelled, they incurred about $750 in hotel costs.  They had a night flight out of EWR.  Had to stay in a hotel, and United was not offering them a hotel, just a food voucher since that airport is open 24/7.  On top of that bc they had a room booked at a hotel in Barcelona.  The hotel charged them for the room because they cancelled less than 24 hrs. 

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1 hour ago, lisa6191 said:

We flew in the morning of our cruise and it was totally fine, but I was such a basket case about it from reading the horror stories on message boards that I would never do it again. Fortunately, our next cruise is from somewhere we can drive to, and the one after that is in Europe and we are going several days early.

  Dont assume just because your driving you can leave on the morning of the cruise.  Traffic accident that backs up traffic,  your car breaks down, you have a minor accident etc etc.  Still leave a day early and get a room.  I live in Fl and drive to about 90% of my cruises and I always go a day early.

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20 hours ago, MikeK said:

  Dont assume just because your driving you can leave on the morning of the cruise.  Traffic accident that backs up traffic,  your car breaks down, you have a minor accident etc etc.  Still leave a day early and get a room.  I live in Fl and drive to about 90% of my cruises and I always go a day early.

While I would agree with you, one can assume that if you're close enough to drive, you're also close enough to know back roads and different bypasses to get you around any incidents.  That's exactly what happened to us heading down to Baltimore .... we were on I-70 east west of Hagerstown, when, wouldn't you know it.... Accident..... fortunately, to our rescue came US 40 and MD 144 --- both parallel roads to the interstate that eventually, we were able to use to access other back roads to get around all the crap.  Easy Peasy for a local.

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Mine just happened on my last cruise in November. My wife and I went on a cruise in Sept with our birth certificates. After reading how much nicer it is to cruise with a passport I decided to get ours. Mine was easy because I had one in the past. My wife has never had one. I filled out the paperwork and sent her to get her passport. Well I forgot that they kept your birth certificate so when she came home I asked if they gave her the BC back. When she said no I freaked out because it would be cutting it close to our next cruise. We had to expedite a copy of her BC and pay more for something we didn't end up needing. The passport came in time. Lesson learned.

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17 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

While I would agree with you, one can assume that if you're close enough to drive, you're also close enough to know back roads and different bypasses to get you around any incidents.  That's exactly what happened to us heading down to Baltimore .... we were on I-70 east west of Hagerstown, when, wouldn't you know it.... Accident..... fortunately, to our rescue came US 40 and MD 144 --- both parallel roads to the interstate that eventually, we were able to use to access other back roads to get around all the crap.  Easy Peasy for a local.

It's about 6 hours from where we live in Ohio to the Baltimore port, so we leave the day before and spend the night at Hagerstown. It's just over an hour to the Port, so we get there, check our bags, and are having a drink at the R bar by 11.

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5 minutes ago, Bob Wise said:

It's about 6 hours from where we live in Ohio to the Baltimore port, so we leave the day before and spend the night at Hagerstown. It's just over an hour to the Port, so we get there, check our bags, and are having a drink at the R bar by 11.

Which way do you come into Maryland..... PA Turnpike to Breezewood and down, or, 79 south to Morgantown, then 68 east through Cumberland to Hancock & 70 east?

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10 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

Which way do you come into Maryland..... PA Turnpike to Breezewood and down, or, 79 south to Morgantown, then 68 east through Cumberland to Hancock & 70 east?

We use 70 e to 68 east to get to Hagerstown, then I think 70 to the Port

Would need to find the trip tic to be sure, lol

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4 minutes ago, Bob Wise said:

We use 70 e to 68 east to get to Hagerstown, then I think 70 to the Port

Would need to find the trip tic to be sure, lol

Good .... going through Morgantown & Cumberland is the way to go .... you avoid the Turnpike (which they just raised the tolls on).  I actually work & live near Cumberland so you travel through my neck of the woods ..... takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to the port.

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19 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

Good .... going through Morgantown & Cumberland is the way to go .... you avoid the Turnpike (which they just raised the tolls on).  I actually work & live near Cumberland so you travel through my neck of the woods ..... takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to the port.

I love me some good Maryland interstate talk! ?

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3 minutes ago, FManke said:

I love me some good Maryland interstate talk! ?

We had some crazy ice this morning here in the far west ..... I know the Weather Channel posted a small clip of a truck spinning on a bridge this morning.  I went across that same bridge about an hour before things got real bad.  Of course, a few weeks ago, we had a 50+ car pileup on 68 about 10 miles to the west of that location of the truck spinning on ice.  Perhaps, instead of salt, we should put down Old Bay on the roads..... yeah, that's the ticket.

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My confession is completely forgetting to have some cash available for tipping the porters on embarkation day.  We had a rental car to return that morning, so my husband dropped me, our kids and our luggage at the cruise port, then drove off to return the car.  After a porter took care of our luggage, I realized all our cash was still with my husband and I had nothing to give him except a profuse apology, thank you, and a hand shake.  Awkward.....

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On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 3:45 PM, Bob Wise said:

It's about 6 hours from where we live in Ohio to the Baltimore port, so we leave the day before and spend the night at Hagerstown. It's just over an hour to the Port, so we get there, check our bags, and are having a drink at the R bar by 11.

We do something similar for Baltimore departures from North Carolina - Waldorf is a convenient location along US-301 to be within an hour (give or take) of the port.

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