KimKTN

I just want to clarify something. If we want to "self disembark," then we would not put our bags outside our room the night before we dock. We would just keep our bags in our room, then take all our luggage with us when we leave and get through customs.

 

Do I understand that correctly?

 

In the past we have put our bags outside our room and then found them in the customs area, etc.

 

But we are going to be on the Oasis in December and the day we dock we are going to WDW. So I would like to get off the boat as early as possible, get through customs, and get to the auto rental desk so we can drive to Orlando straight away.

 

I just want to make sure we do the right thing the night before.

 

Thank you.

Yep!

Hi,

 

I am taking my 14yr old and 16 yr old grandchildren on this cruise next week. Last year we went to Alaska with RCL Majesty of the Seas and they did not like the teen lounge at all.Did your kids utilize the teen lounge on the trip?

No, they did not. When they went to the activity that first night and after 45 minutes it hadn't even started, they got bored and left. And, they never went back. Now, they were lucky that they had each other to hang out with. I saw a lot of teen boys playing basketball together. I would encourage them to go at least once. That is the advice I was given. I wish the boys would have done "Kick Off Party", which was later that first night. I think they would have done more if they went to that.

Grand Cayman Day

I got up early and went to the track to try to work off some of the food and drinks I have been consuming. It was quite crowded by 8:00. I ran/walked 4ish miles and then met some of our crew at Windjammers around 9:00. It was CRAZY crowded. So hard to get a table. I met the other “mom” in our party at 10:30 to get in line to get our group passes to get off of the ship in Cayman. They were supposed to start disbursing the tickets at 11:00. (Disembarkment was supposed to be at 11:30.) There was a huge line by 10:30. They started passing them out about 10:40, which was good because there was nowhere for the new people getting in line to stand. They announced that only one person per “party” had to get in line. We both came in case it was “per family”. We found for sure only one of us had to come. You just tell them how many passes you need. You don’t have to show anything. (So, note if you have to do this. Only one person go. This would help the line crowd.) Even with getting there 30 minutes early, we were still in group #6 to get off of the ship. We didn’t get off until about 12:15. (They called the groups by 2’s. So, they called 1 and 2 together, and so on.) It was quite frustrating because we already felt we had so little time in Cayman anyway.

When we got off of the ship, we looked for a taxi for the 8 of us. There are SO many large vans for taxi service. We assumed this would be for the 8 of us. They kept piling people in this van, which was probably now looking like a small bus. They were unfolding chairs out of other chairs. It was ridiculous. There was no A/C. If we had to do it again, we would exit the port further and find an actual taxi that was only for us. And, looking back, we should have just gotten out of the van/bus. It had to stop at several places before we had our stop. Many people had to get out so the people at that particular stop could get out. Anyway….

I am lucky enough to have a client who is a condo association on Seven Mile Beach. The manager was nice enough to say we could come hang out at the beach while we were there. We had a great few hours. The boys went to the resort next door and rented jet skis. The girls rented a paddle board. We have stayed there several times, so, we know a good snorkeling spot right down the beach from where we were, in front of the Governor’s house. (We brought our own gear.) We saw SO many amazing fish. The day was great, but WAY too short.

After booking this cruise and planning our port days, I quickly realized you need to not only look at the ports in deciding what to book, but, the time you had at each port. (We had a snorkeling/sting ray city excursion that we always do when we are on vacation there. Due to the lateness of our arrival, we knew we wouldn’t have time to do it.) With not getting off of the ship until 12:15, and having to be back to the ship an hour early “just in case”, it just wasn’t enough time. Quite disappointing. But, as always, Grand Cayman is BEAUTIFUL!

We had MTD dining at 8:00. Once again, we missed Leo and Rico. Our servers were OK, but, like last night, all business. Not very friendly. (My son saw Leo or Rico one at Windjammer this morning. He spoke to my son and even remembered his name.) We inquired earlier about being seated at one of their tables for the rest of the trip. We were told the only way was to eat at 5:30. We knew we couldn’t eat that early tonight or tomorrow night due to excursions, but made sure they put us down for their table the last three nights of the trip. We already had had MTD around 5:30 for the future nights.

The headliner for the show was comedian/impressionist James Stephens III. We adults LOVED him! They kids were completely bored. Most of the impressions were of older people and they just didn’t get it. I enjoyed it more than the guy last night. The kids thought I would crazy. (Like my husband said, it was like comparing apples and oranges because their “comedy” was so different.) But, if he’s on your ship, go see him!

Headed to bed after the show.

Was the 20.9 year old able to drink in some ports? (Not Labadee I know) This is something I' haven't to think about in a while as my daughter is 32. But I figured you mentioned 20.9 for a reason :D

I mentioned 20.9 because she brought it up ALL of the time! On a cruise...less than one month from your 21st birthday. :) (She's going into her Senior year of college. She has a late birthday. ALL of her friends are 21. It's torture, she says, when they all go out. 18 more days.....) Not sure what the drinking ages were in Cayman and Honduras. We weren't at drinking places. It was 18 in Mexico, where we were at all-inclusives both days. She took full advantage of those places!

Day 2 was a very relaxing day at sea. I put my order out for room service for breakfast the night before so I could get to the adult pool early and get a few chairs. (Since the youngest of our group are 16, we are glad we can do the adult pool. I am sure we would enjoy the regular pool, too, but adult pool seems much less chaotic and crowded.) I was mad because my room service (requested between 7:30-8:00) was late. It didn’t get there until 8:40. In the meantime, my daughter got out to the pool at 8:30 and secured some chairs. I got there about 9:00 after eating quickly. We were quite surprised how there weren’t really many people, yet, at the adult pool. We soon realized we had missed the note to change our clocks! She was there at 7:30 and not 8:30. My food WAS on time. (Felt really stupid because there were notes in the cabin to change the time.) We did realize that if we would have waited until the real 8:30, we could have gotten chairs at the adult pool, but, they would have been way back. (We really wanted in front.)

The adults and 2 girls just hung out at pool all day. They boys were at the pool, eating multiple times at Windjammer, Flow Rider (probably only once because they said it was so crowded). We enjoyed “people watching” at the pool. There was PLENTY to watch! It was really crowded in the pool. There are actual stools built into the bottom of the pool and a “table” from one side of the pool to the other. Those were always full of people. We took full advantage of the bar. (Note: Sometimes that bar was really full. Hubby would go to another one on the same deck that had shorter lines. I never went, so, I don’t know where it was. Must have been close, though.) We spent a lot of time in the pool on the sunbathing deck. (I think that is what it is called. Very shallow part of pool where you can just sit and it’s only a few inches deep.) It was very refreshing as it was a hot day!

We all rotated going to lunch for Windjammer. Other mom and I weren’t too crazy about any of the choices, so, we went to Café’ Promenade to grab a sandwich and bring back up to Windjammer and eat with the kids. We had gotten a sandwich there late the night before and they were good. I had some kind of shrimp sandwich, which was pretty good. I, also, got a roast beef sandwich. It had one TINY sliver of roast beef. Not good because all bread! (The one the night before was good as it had plenty of meat. We got sandwiches several other times during the cruise and had much better meat to bread ratios.) As for Windjammer lunch, the kids found plenty they liked! This is when I discovered the sugar free lemon cookies in Windjammer. They are SO good!

We had MTD at 7:45. (When I called prior to the cruise to make MTD reservations, I could either make them at 5:30ish or 8:00ish. There was nothing in between. The servers weren’t nearly as good as Leo and Rico who served us the night before. They weren’t bad, but, they were all business.

Although I was pooped and wanted to go to bed after dinner, the kids guilted us into going to the “Late Night Adult Comedy” show starring Jeff Norris. He was very funny and very adult. (Maybe shouldn’t have brought 16 year olds, but they loved it. It’s nothing they haven’t heard before, I am sure.) If you are very PC, don’t go. If you are easily offended by politics, race, religion, weight, etc., don’t go. You will be offended. I thought he was funny. As mentioned, the kids LOVED him.

Great and successful Day 2!

Day 1

We had booked our transfer from the airport Hyatt to the port with Orlando Chauffeured Services. They had a large van waiting to pick the 8 of us up at 9:00. We had him stop at the store and pick up some wine to take onboard. The trip, including the stop, took about an hour.

The van pulled up directly to a porter waiting to take our luggage. It was a quick/easy process! (Note: I had taken tape and taped the paper luggage tags I printed to the bags the night before. Our friends were going to do it when we got to the port because I had the tape. The porter had a stapler and stapled hers when he saw her get the tags out. It was MUCH easier and quicker!) We tipped them and walked in the building around 10:15.

We put our bags through x-ray machines went through the metal detectors. We proceeded to the main room and agent instructed everyone coming in to sit in the chairs in the room as the lines hadn’t yet opened. They have some water stations if you are thirsty. As you are facing the check-in area, they had a section of chairs to the left, which must have been where they told the “higher level” guests to sit as they were going to be in separate lines. When this section was called to get in line (by called, I mean, they didn’t announce it….the “hostess” verbally motioned for them to get in line, best I could tell), we moved up there so we could hear what was going on as there was now “movement”. They, then, signaled for everyone to get in the lines to check in. There was a line to the right and one to the left. We happened to be right in front of the left hand line and were one of the first in. (Again, I didn’t realize we jumped in front of people until we were done and I heard someone say “it’s basically on the honor system that you get in line as you are seated. YIKES! I felt bad, but, honestly, the line moved quickly and we were only a few rows back to start with.) I am guessing they started having everyone get in line around 10:30. You show your passports and paperwork, sign some forms, they take your picture, and they give you your SeaPass card. Then, you go back to the seats until they announce your number on your SeaPass card. We probably were called 5 minutes or less after we sat down. Our friends were probably 10 minutes behind us.

We went straight to the adult pool and grabbed chairs on the front row. There were only a couple of people already there. Everyone else must have been headed to Windjammer to eat or for chairs at the regular or kid pool. (And…we were one of the first on.) We had all 8 chairs in the front row on one side. We weren’t hungry so we put on swimsuits and enjoyed the pool and bar. As we got hungry, we rotated to eat in Windjammer. The boys checked out Flow Rider at some point. We rotated checking out our rooms. No luggage was there for our two rooms, yet. Back to the pool until the right before the 3:45 muster drill. Each of our rooms had 2 of our 3 bags delivered by drill time. When we got back from the drill, the kids missing bag was there. Our door had a note attached that we had to go pick it up on the first deck because it contained a “prohibited item”. I couldn’t think if anything prohibited that I had. When I got to the first deck, I was told there was a note on my bag that it contained “tools”. My husband thought that was funny because my brother was just making fun of him because he had no tools. (He’s not very handy…) I did tell them I had scissors and asked if they were prohibited. (Wasn’t sure what bag they were in, though.) The very nice man re-scanned and gave us the bag. They didn’t go through it or anything. Again, they were very nice.

I had to hurry and get ready because we had MTD at 5:30. Our waiters, Leo and Rico, were AMAZING! They were so friendly. They asked our names and remembered them the whole cruise.

We encouraged the boys to give the teen club thing a try. They went to the 9:00 “Terminator” event, which had the note “Get ready to dodge!”. We assumed it was dodge ball. They came and met us at the 9:45 “Welcome Aboard” show because the were bored and said the teen event hadn't started doing anything, yet. And, it wasn’t really dodge ball. You ran around with a ball and tried to touch someone. (I know it’s “safer”, but, 16 year old boys want to THROW the ball.) No big deal that they didn’t stay. The club people should know, though, that if you are doing nothing for 45 minutes, the teens are going to lose interest.

We went to “Welcome Aboard” show. The Cruise Director was Casey. He was SO funny! The show featured the comedian Jeff Norris. He was funny. This was supposed to be his “kid friendly” show. I didn’t think some of it was exactly kid friendly. (But, our youngest is 16, so, no problem for me.) The kids thought he was hilarious.

We were pooped after the show, so we called it a night. We were worried about the beds after reading complaints. After reading threads on this board, I emailed RCI a request for bed toppers for both rooms. We thought the beds were very comfortable with the toppers. (Note: As we were leaving the last morning, I looked in the open doors of the rooms that were being cleaned. I only saw one that didn’t look like it had a topper. I don’t know it they are keeping them on now that there have been complaints about the hard beds. Just an observation.)

Another observation from the first day…that carried out throughout the whole cruise…..The lines for the Freestyle Coke machines were SO long. (Didn’t affect me. Son was the only one with that package.) There were two machines each on the Promenade and in Windjammer. Both locations only had one machine working the whole time.

(Giving up on the pics now. Will try to make it work this weekend.)

My son’s baseball games were canceled so we had all day to pack and get things together. We were packed and ready in plenty of time to leave for the airport around 4:30 for our 6:25PM flight. As we were pulling out, our other party texted that the flight had been delayed an hour. UGH! We went back inside the house. We were bored with nothing to do since we were all packed and ready to go. We decided to meet at the airport, check our luggage and go get something to eat outside of the airport. Before we had even gotten out of our house the second time, the flight was now delayed to 9:05. We were in a panic because we HAD to be on a flight tonight so we would make sure and make the boat. (We checked online and all morning flights to Orlando were full. We were wondering if we were just going to have to get in the car and drive the 10 hours.) We went in the airport to talk to someone before we checked our luggage. We didn’t want to check it if we ended up having to drive. The agent assured us the flight would get out tonight. There was an issue with the plane and they were sending a replacement plane. She was so confident, we checked the luggage and went to eat. By the time we got back to the airport after dinner, they had moved up the 9:05 departure time to 8:45. We ended up taking off around 9:00.

We arrived in Orlando an hour and a half later. Quick flight! We were so happy we decided to spend a few more bucks and stay at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. We were tired and ready to go to sleep!

One way to add photos is to upload them to a photo sharing site, such as photobucket, and then put a link to the photo in your post here.

Trying now....

Kim, you can hit the red triangle in the upper right corner of your own post, then in the pop-up box, tell the mods that you would like them to fix your title.

 

:)

Done. Thanks!

OOPS! 6/26/16 - 7/3/16. Too late to edit post. And...am trying to figure out how to add pics!

Here is my trip report from our cruise last week. Will post some today and the rest next week.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I would be happy to answer!

Background:

Two families. Four adults. Two 16 year-old boys. 18 year-old girl. 20.9 year-old girl. Our family (16 year old and 20 year old), has cruised twice. A Disney cruise in 2006 and RCI in 2013. The other family has never cruised.

We booked this trip late, so, we really didn’t have great room choices that were close together. Our family had rooms 6508 and 6504. They looked over the front of the ship. Our room, 6508, seemed a little wider than 6504. What I also liked about it, too, was the couch was on the far side of the room and looked straight out the large porthole window. It was nice to eat room service breakfast and look out the window. (Not as nice as balcony we had on previous cruise, but, we were hardly in the room, so, it was fine.) The couch in 6504 was NOT on the far side. Our friends had two inside staterooms in the middle of the ship because two of them had motion sickness issues. She was told inside and middle rooms were best. She said if she had to do it over again she would do a balcony room and close the curtains if looking out at the water made her worse. She hated having no natural light. And, the rooms seemed smaller.

I did a lot of research for the trip. I found as many “tips”, packing lists, etc. as I could. Researched what to do at each port. (None of our excursions were booked through RCI.) I feel all of the time put in paid off in a more enjoyable trip. (My family made fun of me because I had a three ring binder of everything relating to the trip.)

I

As far as the itinerary, I thought that all of the stops were fine, but had a bit of an issue with the time allotted for Grand Cayman and Roatan. Tendering is too chaotic and time-consuming when you arrive near noon because everyone wants to get off at the same time. Also, in my opinion one half-day on any island is not sufficient to do any excursions comfortably.

 

Overall a very enjoyable trip, and for the guest earlier that won the love and marriage show, I hope nobody was waiting outside of that Porta John. :eek:

I was on this cruise, too. I, too, was disappointed in the time on Grand Cayman and Roatan. If/when I cruise again, I will definitely note the times we will have in port in deciding on the trip.

And...I was going to comment, I will never look at the port-a-john without thinking of the cruise! ;)

Any time we've had OBC from a TA it has been refundable, but they won't give it to you until the last day. Last time, when I went to GS to ask for it, I was told it was not refundable, but I knew better and insisted that it was. The lady had to ask someone else and then was told to refund it to us. Apparently she was new and didn't know better. It is my understanding, only OBC from Royal is not refundable.

They told me mine wasn't, but, I didn't press it. Would have been nice if it would have been! But....cashing in at casino works, too, if you find it definitely isn't.

Just got off of the ship Sunday. :( On Saturday night I went to get printouts of the account for our two rooms. I didn't realize we had credits. They told us they were non-refundable. One room had $190. The other $56. I bought a purse at the MK store. Hubby used the $56 at the casino and (luckily) ended up cashing out evenly after playing a while for about $50.

If I would have thought about it, I probably would have done the cashing out for the $190 because the purse I wanted ended up costing me $80 extra. :) Oh well....It's vacation, right?!

Did you find it?

I did! I couldn't figure out how to print it, though. But, I can at least read it, even if I don't have a hard copy. Just wanted a reference on what to expect was going on when. Thanks!!

There are usually enough hangers, but if not, your stateroom attendant can get more.

Perfect! One less thing to bring....

Are there plenty of hangers in the closet, or, do I need to bring some?

There is a BLOG about ROYAL CARIBBEAN (google what I capitalized with the blog part at the end, it's a no, no posting links on CC) that has Cruise Compasses from all the ships. It also has the same itinerary as the original poster, your cruise, and my cruise in less than 4 weeks.

Thanks so much. I will try to find it!!

Thank you for the review! Look forward to Compass. Can't believe we leave in a little over a week!

If there is any way you could attach (or scan and email...kimkeidel@comcast.net) the Compass for this itinerary, it would be GREATLY appreciated! There are no Western Compass' out there since it seems this is a new port grouping.

We leave on this same itinerary in 10 days. :) Thanks for the heads up on Cayman. I was already frustrated that it was arriving so late. I don't want to waste any more time waiting to get off of the ship.

You have the ability to turn the phone off, are you saying you suspend your service when you travel? Do they charge you a fee to reinstate? Never heard of someone doing this.

I am not sure exactly what it is called that we do. (We did it for our cruise 3 years ago and trip to Cayman 2 years ago.) We are still paying for the service, but, we can't use the cell feature until we get it turned back on. A friend who worked at Verizon is the one who suggested we do this. With kiddos who wanted to use their phones to listen to music, we wanted to make sure they didn't "accidentally" turn it off of airplane mode if we were doing that option.

We have used FB messenger app for "texting" of course u will have to have a Internet plan. Phones should be in airplane mode with the wifi turned on, so no chance of calls or regular texting coming through and u end up with a massive phone bill. We even used this way while on the Brilliance in Norway and Iceland. Zero charges on our bill and we were able to keep in touch with family at home plus track down our fellow cruise companions on the ship.

Bev

To play it safe, before we leave port/leave country, we call verizon and have them turn the phones off so we don't accidentally get charged for service.

Also, if you have iphones, we realized when we were on vacation in Cayman a couple of years ago, we could get iMessages from other iphone users since we had wi-fi.

So, with this, I would assume if you want to try for an earlier time, it's best to cancel your later reservation and just go at an earlier time and wait for an available table. Correct?