Hopalong60

Here's what I did inside cabin 8350 RCCI NOTS - it made the entire trip fun. I hung whirles with dolphins above the sofa and desk unit, paper fish in the walls and a set of window clings on the big mirror. Little plastic fish, honeycomb sea life and some fold up fans finished off the ledge.

Here's what I came up with for our 9/13/15 NOTS for Caribbean trip. Fish are on Oriental Trading online.

My mom has a terrible cough that has lasted since we got off on 9/20. However, who's to say it wasn't contacted on the airplane home?

Don't take the train to the Yukon ...it's slow. Book a private tour with Trail of '98 up to Carcross from the dock in Skagway. You get expert commentary from the husband/wife owners and stops for pictures, even binoculars to search for sheep on the mountainsides. We stopped to drink glacier water, built inukshuks (sp) and saw a bear. We had a delicious lunch at Carcross and stamped our passports. We also visited the old cemetery above the town. And, we were treated to sparkling juice for our 40th by Emerald Lake, one of the prettiest places on earth. The water is really that color.

It's one of the best trips I've ever taken. And I'm ready to do it all over again.

Good idea about the credit card! I'll do that on any of my trips now.

We just got off the RCCL Navigator and everyone was wearing lanyards....except us. They wanted a minimum of $6.95 for one so definitely find something fun on eBay, Amazon or Goodwill. I will find something interesting for our next one because sometimes it's just easier to have it around your neck!

Be sure and decorate your cabin door with something fun. It won't take much room for the supplies but you'll have such fun every time you leave and come back!

These fish are from the Oriental Trading website. Three fish and a border - took 10 minutes to attach (duct tape to rescue) and compliments galore.

I also decorated the cabin with items from the same site and it was so festive. I'm going to do something similar on our next one. I left most of it with our steward - she was going to decorate her cabin and a few of her friends' with the booty.

This is an activity to do while you wait for your bags the first day.

I purchased a large zippered plastic bag at IKEA - the ones at the checkout - and slid it into the front section on the outside of a suitcase. It was the perfect clothes hamper which looked colorful and kept the area neat. I then used it as my "personal" item for a carryon on the plane - minus the dirty clothes. [emoji4]

I also put my underwear into gallon size ziplock bags to keep grubby TSA hands off them. Take a few extras to put wet swimsuits in for the trip home. I also use the plastic bags from the newspaper to bag up each shoe to keep the dirt off our clothes.

Another tip is to wash your hands often! And use Clorox wipes, not only on the door handles, but the phone, the keypads on the tv remote and the bathroom button for the toilet.

Roll your clothes! You get much more in your suitcase. And take an electronic bag scale, so you know before you leave if your bag is overweight. It's no fun to shuffle things in front of the counter.

Oh, yes - forgot to add putting your tubes of soaps, etc into ziplock bags just in case one decides to leak all over. I had one tube of shower gel this time that would have been a huge mess if it wasn't in one.

Pack a tube of Woolite and wash your clothes in the sink. I used our balcony more for clothes drying than sitting. I could wear my favorite shorts several times that way.

Check the airline to see if the plane has power and keep your charger handy to keep your phone powered up to access maps, etc , once you land.

I took 3 swim suits on our Caribbean cruise so I always had a dry one to wear on excursions or to the hot tub. Don't forget a long sleeved UV shirt for the sun!

I always dress for dinner, both formal and casual nights. It adds to my experience and I don't care if anyone else does. I started

putting these outfits together, along with jewelry, about 6 weeks early to give me time to buy what I needed. This time I made a list of the pairings which made it easy to replicate on board. I bagged up each jewelry set in snack size ziplock bags. I also chose one skirt to wear with all most all the tops and took only one pair of dress shoes. I created a handwritten list that I added to as I thought of things. I like the idea of a what to bring next time list but I wouldn't have had one this time. I ended up with more space in my suitcase going home, even with buying souvenir shirts!

One thing I found on Amazon were luggage tags sized for the cruise lines' bag tags. They have a wire cable that screws together, so no lost bags this time when a tag came loose. They are reusable, so a good investment. I gave them away as presents to my group, too. A useful Bon voyage gift!

We were on there last week and I saw a price list for the Starbucks offerings. The prices were comparable to those on land which was a surprise. The Rhapsody in Alaska 2013 had almost double prices.

Lots of people had the soda drink mug on the cruise 9/13-20/15 but you have to drink an awful lot of Coke to make it pay. I used the experience to wean myself off soda and drank iced tea. It was strong and good, with plenty of caffeine too!

I posted a long review of our cabin 8350 and the cruise itself somewhere else on this board but will add something here.

We were on the NOTS 9/13-9/20/15. Dinner in the MDR was generally very delicious (and I'm something of a food snob living here in PDX) and a comfortable room. The bed itself needs to be replaced. There are no more egg crate mattress pads - a lawsuit has been filed over them. The steward down the hall said that last week (before our cruise) there were piles of them in the dumpsters as they all had to gone off the ship.

Our MDR table was next to the windows on deck 4 so we had a great view of the ocean every night. Ask for table 414. Room service wasn't very good - sour/unripe fruit unimaginatively plated, cold/rock hard toast, baked scrambled eggs, inconsistently cooked bacon, even warm yogurt cup one morning! It arrived up to 1/2 hour earlier than requested. It still beats going to the Windjammer and eating too much for breakfast!

There is a restroom at the entry of the Solarium so you can change into/out of your suit before going into the hot tub. There were always a great quantity of the blue beach towels for use. They are at the gangway to check out before going a shore as well.

The elevators were almost always full at deck 8 so we learned quickly to go up if you wanted to go down and visa versa if you didn't want to stand around in the elevator lobby for 15 minutes. One elevator was out of order the entire cruise which didn't help with the overload.

The photos are no longer printed and posted along the walls. Kind of sad to see that go since you can't see anyone else's pictures but yours in your account. There is a Caribbean scrapbook set for sale.

If you want to watch the game or a movie on the pool deck, get there early as the chairs fill up.

The flow rider offers boogie boarding and surfing at different times so you can go when the "conditions" are right. It's a lot of fun and there are very nice, helpful staff to give you the best ride possible.

There is a library/card room on deck 7 under the art gallery. They post a daily suduko puzzle and trivia quiz. I wish I had know about that on the first day, not the 6th. There are lots of board games and a whole wall of books to choose.

If you play the Nations game, go down to the Ship's Doctor who is one of your bonus crew to collect his signature. The assistant cruise director is the bonus Scotland member. Lots of them are also in the shops on the Promenade or the Spa. Prizes were NOTS hats, RC pens, shopping bags and medals. Best score was 112 so you have to be diligent in finding them.

We did the spa tour but they gave tickets to everyone who showed up for the drawing so don't waste your time on taking the tour unless you're interested in that. One of the late comers won the grand prize of $500....

Tender day we stood in line to get our ticket (boat 7) in the photo gallery on deck 3 (by the ice rink) and as we waited, a crew member in charge of boarding came along and asked if anyone was ready to go and took those who were directly to the boat. I lead our group down in the hallway at the end of the line hoping we'd get on an earlier boat and we did. The same crew member told us to get at the end and on we went.

I have them for the week of 9/13- 9/20...what would you like to see?

Just off the ship and no CW night. Only the formal nights on Monday and Friday. Lots of CW music in the bars and I saw lots of dancin' going on!

We purchased the Houston Space Center tour and were given Green 1 for our bag tags. We were one of the first off the ship on 9/20/15 which was great. I'd buy that tour just to get off early!

Then when we entered the customs area, the agent directed us into line 7. It was so long, I thought about moving to line 8 but figured DH would have a fit not following orders. So we stood there behind 3 British citizens who had to do the eye/fingerprint drill. Luckily, our flight out of IAH was at 5:45 pm so everything worked out fine.

But, reading your experiences doesn't make me want to go back to that port any time soon. It was the dirtiest and messiest one I've seen and presents a poor picture of the port.

Balconies had 2 chairs and a 3 legged table that was the right size to enjoy room service on it without a problem! The chairs recline too, but don't have leg support.

Our cruise (9/13/15) had a high wind blow through our balcony dividing door of 8350 and sent it crashing against the ship at 2 am. It was so windy it forced the latch out of the lock even though it was locked!

I think you are wise to choose a cabin on the back side of the hump to avoid any direct hit by the wind that may arise. I enjoyed watching the wake and the trail of smoke from the stacks looking behind the ship.

Nope - I know the difference between diesel and sewage...and it lasted two days. Maybe it was a toilet issue and maybe it was something else. At least it faded away.

My comment is about the dining room staff and the word is unsettled. Neither of our waiters were on their first cruise, so it was odd to have such sub-par service. The last day had the same feel. No new crew members to explain that one. My guess is as good as yours....

We were on the ship last week too (9/13-9/20/15) and I came down with this for a couple of days - cough with a sore throat. Not allergies from experience. My mom came down with it later in the trip and has a bad cough now.

I wash my hands often and use the sanitizer wherever I find it to try to avoid this.

Also, our deck 8 smelled like sewage around the 8340 section for the first day as you walked through to the elevtators. I'm wondering what happened below decks that caused that smell and the weirdness at early dinner. The staff seemed a little shook.

We were on the ship last week (9/13-9/20/15) and my sister and mom had shared cabins 8360 and 8362. The balcony divider door was open and they had a small interior door between the cabins in the shared wall that was open as well.

Be aware that the door opens to the rear of the ship and takes up that amount of space along the wall. The balconies are somewhat crowded with the large scale of furniture on them. Also, you have to step over the <6" high section of the wall below the door so it's doable but not that easy to navigate.

I think that you have to book your cruise as a shared family to make sure that the door is opened. But you can always check with your steward, who I think is the one that opens it.

If your bag is overweight, they'll tell you at the check-in counter at the airport. The fee is published on your airline's website. They will give you the option to take out enough items to get your bag underweight, but then you have to figure out what to do with all that extra to carry-on the plane.

I'd suggest investing in a luggage scale to make sure you avoid this before you get out the door to your trip.

Here's the door sign for our 40th in 2013 on the RC Navigator of the Seas Inside Passage cruise. I had never seen this done on any of my previous cruises so it never occurred to me to do this. My sister is a crafty sista'! This time its my turn for their 10th anniversary in September to the Western Caribbean....I'm having a hard time deciding what to do after looking at all of these ideas.

Door photo reduced.pdf