LeeW

Disney has been doing this for quite a while (we had over $1300pp on Christmas cruise). Not going to affect us since all our FCC have been used up this year. Thanks Ken for info.

Price includes wine/snacks.

Did the Blue Lagoon VIP in Nassau back last August. Guy proposed there in front of the ocean and staff manned the camera. She said yes and he didn't drop the ring in the sand/coral (although almost did).

I assume you made the reservation for the passenger with a different name. Try logging on as that individual and see if it is there.

Actually this is defined as the worst cabin on the ship in that category, especially reserved for you.... Would never happen if these cruises were B2B.

A few pages can be useful. Page with onboard credit. Page that shows paid transfers. Last page with luggage tags. I do save a copy of the docs on phone to see all the rules agreed to but don't ever look at them.

Back in October had a young woman sailing alone on Celebrity Equinox not happy with the cruise. She walked off in Barbados and left at least minimal stuff in her cabin. At the time you couldn't leave the port without a cruise-line excursion. The country also wasn't allowing anyone to enter via boat/air. She either met a friend in the port and they managed to get out of the port or she left a cruise snorkeling excursion, never made clear. Six hours after scheduled departure we were still waiting and ship wasn't allowed to leave without accounting for her. Police and army eventually found her at friend's house. She did not get back onboard. Assume she and friend wound up in jail for violating health laws, entering illegally and helping someone enter illegally. After midnight when we left.

Very few people hit a new level exactly at the end of a cruise. If it is that important you can always take a short cruise before the next one you have scheduled (any excuse to cruise!). We worried about this for Elite on Princess and Diamond on Royal because next cruise was to be a long cruise where benefits would help (like laundry). Otherwise it really isn't a big deal.

So far, current rules for Florida are a proctored test within two days of sailing. Reports on Cruise Critic indicate that no testing is required for side to side or B2B sailing. The Celebrity site specifically says this for all cruises within the RCI group but the Royal site doesn't. Ask on your Harmony sailing - they might test you for Allure (last day, probably 6 AM). Sounds like they gave you an unproctored test, which isn't going to help under current rules (rules change on 5 September). Unless you get something from them indicating you are getting off Harmony and getting on Allure AND the new ship accepts rule that you don't need testing, you may need to get a proctored test. It really depends on how well trained the shoreside folks are when you check into Allure. If they don't know the rules they could require you to have a test. Or a supervisor might have to intervene. You really won't know until you show up at the pier.

Back during covid they escorted the VIP folks to a separate beach (north side across from dining area) and served drinks and food there. Very good food, your own umbrella and chairs, great service. During that time the dining and water toys were reserved for different ships, no mingling. Even then the regular beach inside the breakwater was crowded. Personally can recommend the service you get with the VIP package.

Great shot! I didn't realize that they were going to do that and didn't have my phone out.

1618 had three loungers, two chairs and a table back in October. Could have added three more loungers. This was one of the angled balconies. The sectional sofa could have slept three. Downside of this balcony is there are no lights on it - you either need a flashlight or open the curtains to read out there at night. Camera is up in the corner of the second picture that lets the bridge watch the side of the ship. Two invites to watch sailaway on the helipad.

On Harmony they also played this for the tween group of kids.

Don't think they actually sell insurance. They help you decide what you need. I found it a bit hard to look for annual plans on the site but it let me look at options eventually. Probably easier just to call.

We normally charge cruise account less than $100 at a time and have never been charged a fee for the transfer.

Shortly before covid they started doing an early-early fixed seating on Oasis class ships. Since they couldn't do this in the fixed seating area (messes up 6-6:30 early traditional), they stuck it in the Mytime dining room. Post covid they have expanded this to most ships. Since the people eating in that service don't get done until 6:45-7:15, Mytime isn't available any time earlier. So you have two options if you like to eat early. 1) Pick early fixed seating. 2) Book Mytime and make reservations as early as you can. This has caused problems on some ships - there can be a huge line of people that don't make reservations wanting to get in when the dining room opens. Lately they have been taking these people to other dining rooms but we have seen a couple hundred people in line and people coming up and asking why they can't eat now since a reservation isn't required. For us, 5:15 is too early and 8:00 too late, so we make the earliest Mytime reservations we can. Sometimes we have to wait for the table we want to clear but it usually only a few minutes. And with a lot of people doing specialty dining "our" table often isn't used before us.

You personally won't get points for five cruises, same as airlines. If you had booked your wife/daughter in a suite she and daughter would have gotten two points per day. If this caused wife to hit a higher level of Crown & Anchor they you and all kids under 18 would share the higher level (but not actually the points). Sometimes you have to call and link the people to the highest level person - system doesn't always get this correct. And make sure kids are linked before 18 so they retain the higher status. After 18 they revert to their own point status. So a kid (and you) could be Diamond Plus with only 1 point.

Insert room key card into slot machine (or tap in if machine has that feature). Set up your casino account (initial pin is MMDD of your birthday). Do cash transfer from room account. Cash out ticket. Remove room key from slot machine. Take ticket to cashier (or machine if it is working).

Since restart I have talked with many tour operators on 11 cruises. Most have been unemployed for 18 months and several were the owners of the company driving the tour bus. They lost tons of staff and are trying desperately to hire more. Also have had a ton of tour guides that had only been working for a week or two. They will expand operations as fast as they can, but many of their employees left the islands when the tourists stopped coming. Harder to book independently now as well. St Kitts still has some restrictive rules on tours. When we went there last October we had to take a ship tour that had a beach bar stop. Only our ship tour was allowed at that club, no locals. Of course we could see maybe 10 bars from there and most were completely closed. Now that ships are sailing full you should see improvement by December (although not as many Caribbean sailings until October or so because this is low season down there). But you might want to look at booking independent tours rather than wait for the cruise line.

Our first cruise on Celebrity we upgraded to a Celebrity Suite and ate in Luminae each night and most breakfasts. Superb service (usually same waiters and staff) and great food. Just as fast as buffet for breakfast. Were not sure about the weird menu descriptions online, but always found good food. Main dining menu was also available (on Equinox), but DW ate steak most nights. Although the "always available" would have been fine the waiter got her filet mignon each time. I tried something weird for dessert called the Dome. WOW. Chocolate cake/mousse combo hidden inside 4" chocolate dome. Then they poured flaming brandy over it so it melted. Quite a show! With Luminae you don't need reservations.

Good idea about leaving cup in machine - I hit the time limit regularly but tip cup to get rid of foam. Limit is still there (5 minutes, as of April on Symphony and June on Harmony).

And longest wait is when you or cruise line cancels the cruise. Much faster if you cancel purchases and then cancel the cruise (sorry OP).

Whenever we see a sale on purchases I cancel and rebook. Generally takes about a week for refund, and I do this pretty often. Not last few months - sales have been rotten lately.

With Mytime, certainly can eat at different tables each night. "Set time" usually means fixed seating, generally at 5:15 and 8:00 these days at an assigned table. Royal (unlike some other lines) lets you set up dining reservations for Mytime before the cruise so you can eat at the same time each night if you want. We book the earliest dining time and choose to dine at the same 2-top table with the same waiters for the cruise but you are not required to do so. We sometimes have to wait 10 minutes for the table to clear but that is our choice.

One reason we cruise Royal instead of Princess is there are more restrictions on Princess. But as others suggest we are taking more independent tours these days. A favorite small boat snorkeling tour in Bonaire now has a 60 year old restriction (been on it three times after 65 and easier ocean entry than most large catamarans) yet land sailing has a 99 year old restriction. It is whatever their contract with Royal specifies.