Knighton

Hopefully there will be some information about cruises and how they are affected. I had heard a few months ago that getting off the ship by yourself might be against the new rules, so unless you are on a ship sponsored excursion you won't be able to get off. That would suck-going by ourselves in a '58 Fairlane convertible to the Tropicana was so much nicer than the cattle call ships bus. I read through what I could find on state.gov and there are no specifics about cruises so we'll have to wait for info.

Yep, same here. I booked an inside on the Infinity 11/19/18 (Thanksgiving) 5 night. It was already inexpensive considering it's a holiday sailing, but I just upgraded to a Concierge balcony (c3) and added $300 OBC for only an extra $40, and they even offered me Aqua if I wanted to do an extra $140 instead. Passed on that one, Concierge is fine, but it sure pays to keep checking!

I got a terrific upgrade for next to nothing. I booked a Thanksgiving 2018 cruise on the Infinity (11/19) originally because I had looked at Disney, who wanted $4000 for a 4 night cruise inside cabin the same week. I am a Disney nut, but there was NO WAY. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I knew I could do better, so I found the infinity for less than 1/4 of that price, and 5 nights instead of 4 for an inside cabin. Anyway, I just checked and prices have gone down so much that for only $40 extra, I upgraded all the way to Concierge (C3) and also got $300 OBC. WOW!!

Not knocking Disney, I know someone will actually pay that price, but I'd rather have 4 cruises on another line instead of 1 on them. My 12 year old son this past summer had a choice of another cruise line (not Disney) with lots of bells and whistles and kids activities or Celebrity, which he's been on before, and he said he prefers Celebrity because "their service is tons better." Quite a discriminating palate for a 12 year old, so I knew he'd be just fine with the Infinity for thanksgiving 2018.

Well personally, I call this discrimination and this business model is illegal in many countries. Just my opinion. Maybe Disney cruise line should ban people over 50 because they're boring LOL

There are adult only resorts on many islands in the Caribbean and noone complains about that. How is it illegal in many countries if these resorts exist already? Heck, how about over 55 communities in the US? Noone sues them for not allowing families with kids to live there.

Don't forget the show at the Tropicana. Do NOT take the shore excursion. Reserve online and you pay in cuc when u get there. Good opportunity to hire an old car to get there. We had a pink 58 Fairlane convertible take us there- took about 30 mins and was worth every penny! Also plenty of taxis to get u back to ship. Shore excursion people get cheated-they were made to leave before the whole show was done. (And someone from that group asked if they could stay behind and just taxi back. They were not allowed to.)

Perhaps Cruise Critic can start a Virgin board.

There's been one for a couple of weeks already.

TONS of questions. I get that it's a refundable deposit, but I would hate to waste my time plunking down coin on something either way out of my league or not interesting enough, and then waiting to get it back. They won't say how much cabins might cost (that's a HUGE factor for us. It makes a difference if it's a $2000 cruise or a $20000 cruise). Where is it sailing from? Plane tix to FLL-$400. Plane tix to Europe-Yikes! Where is it sailing to? (That's not so much a problem for me-it could sail in circles for a week and I'd be happy, but my hubby is destination driven, so anything caribbean is out.) I'm very excited, but very mystified.

The casino (and I would imagine it's bar, too) is open very late for your donations. :D

There are plenty of snacks to be purchased post-check-in. Not sure why someone would bring food other than specialty items.

 

 

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Big can of Pringles at Walmart: $1. Big can of Pringles at airport store: $5. Snacks for a family add up, especially since the days of airlines giving you anything worthwhile on the flight are gone.

I'm PRE-TSA and was asked if I had any snacks in my carry-on. :confused:

That's really bizarre. I checked TSA's website and they listed most foods according to if you could/could not take it through security (mostly liquid stuff is prohibited) but it doesn't say anything about having to take it out of your bag and show it to them separately. I believe you guys that it happened to, and I'm wondering if either the TSA desperately needs to update their website or there are certain TSA officers taking the new rules a bit too far. I don't want someone pawing through my food. Packaged stuff, maybe, but what about the burger and fries I just bought?

Thanks everyone for the advice and concern -- this is admittedly not an ideal plan -- thanks, Royal Caribbean! I've taken the Disney bus excursion from the Breakaway multiple times without a hitch, hopefully this roundabout adventure from the Anthem will work out. When it's all over, I promise to report back whether this ends successfully or is a complete disaster!

Since you're set on it, here's advice. If what you really care about is food and wine festival don't do any rides at all in future world. Go directly to world showcase or you'll never finish. And I wouldn't do a table service restaurant. That's 2 hours right there.

I just found this offer in my e-mails.....never used it..... can the second person in the cabin be non VIFP member to cruise with me?

Thank you

Yes. In fact I took my kid on one of my offers in the past.

Sea world and universal are at least 30 minutes from magic kingdom. Lots of traffic all the time down there. Excursion is 8 hours. An hour each way from Port Canaveral to Sea world then an hour or so total for the cab rides to/from magic kingdom. Leaves you maybe 5 hours in Disney if you're lucky. And what will you do if you miss the bus back to the ship if you don't get back to Sea world in time? With Disney tix being $100 per person for a 1 day pass it's not worth it. If you do decide to go I'd buy your Disney tix online ahead of time. Ticket booth lines are always long.

Look I get it. I LOVE disney. Disney world is fantastic and not everyone gets too many chances to go there. A cruise excursion especially one where it's this involved to get there for such a short time isn't worth it.

the ship usually arrives around 1, you should be able to get off the ship at around 1:10ish. if you purchase ship excursion/transfer to the park, that is around 1:30.

Sorry to correct you but it's an hour bus ride from Port Canaveral to Disney world. Description says excursion is 7 hours total. Very costly to only get 5 hours of time in park. Excursion is $59 and that only covers transport to and from Disney park. It doesn't include admission which is over $100 per person for a 1 day pass. If you decide to do it anyway I'd buy my ticket online ahead of time-the lines at the parks ticket booths are usually crazy long. Hope this helps.

I'm on one of the star trek cruises. We took the 4 payment plan. According to the website all payments made are non-refundable. But since we hadn't paid in full yet we got some $$ off of what we still owe when the prices dropped. The cruise has a website don't know if I'm allowed to post it here. Search for star trek the cruise. There are roll calls on CC as well.

I didn't see anyone talking about this. Check your casino offers. If you can travel in October or the beginning of November some cruises have $25 per person inside cabins with a $50 on board credit per cabin. I wish I could take advantage but I've got too much going on. There are even 7 and 8 night cruises available! I hope they do this again some other time. I also wish they would email me when these offers are available-I only saw it when I logged into my account which I don't do that often.

Not sure where to put this. Got a flyer in snail mail about a new condo resident style ship like the World of Residensea. Calling itself My Home At Sea. Starts sailing Sept of 2019. Website not too forthcoming about ship stats, only that cheapest cabins selling for $200,000+monthly fees and that you can rent them to others when you won't be there. Is it a new ship or an old one refitted? They'll give you more info if you provide your name and email but I don't want salespeople bugging me so forget that.

Loved the Mercure Paris Centre Tour Eiffel. Right next to Eiffel tower. Very clean. Rooms smallish but that's normal in Europe. Prices reasonable.

Here's a good one for you. St Thomas excursion on the usual unairconditioned open air truck. 2 1/2 hours into a 3 hour tour we go back to truck to find someone sitting in our place even though my backpack was clearly there. He said someone stole his seat. So he figured it was ok to steal mine. First I made him move cuz I was on the end purposely because I'm of the age where I feel extremely hot all the time so you can imagine how unhappy I was to be in a truck with no air conditioning (tour description needs to say this!!). I then confronted him and said well why didn't you say something and he gave me a crap answer saying it's vacation he didn't want to bother with it. (But doing the same to someone else was perfectly ok) Then later I found out he told the woman on the other side of the seat he and his wife moved cuz the speakers in the front seat they originally sat in were too loud. Not only was he a jerk but he was lying to either me or the other woman.

Celebrity overall is more mellow and adult oriented than royal anyway. They're really a step up from royal-quieter not so many kids and better service.

Try the cruise critic section pertaining to Ports of Call. More and better information there. Also, it would have been better if you had combined this into 1 post, rather than a duplicate post of the same question 6 times for 6 different stops.

A few years ago we booked 2 adjoining inside cabins, one for me and my husband and one for my 4 year old son and my mother in law-it was cheaper than getting a big suite that we all would be comfortable in. Thank goodness we had travel insurance. We were past final when my mother in law died so we got a full refund of her part of the fare (sent in a copy of the death certificate) and were still able to keep the adjoining cabin my son was in-the 2 cabins were only rated for 2 people each so we couldn't have moved him into ours.

Why is it necessary for some people to be so rude about this issue. It was just a question?

Pointing out the truth is rude? I could be Mary Sunshine and tell you nothing ever goes wrong don't bother with a passport.

Oh yeah. Don't know why I forgot about Dec '63. I thought they were really good.

If you make a speciality reservation prior to cruise, can you change it once on board (different time/restaurant) or even cancel for a refund?

 

 

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Yes. If u cancel on board it turns into obc.