rebeccac

Actually, if you go to the FAQs for both Royal and Celebrity, they do have the 6 month language in there. It is pretty standard language for all cruise lines. It is put in there as a CYA since there are certain countries around the world that do have that requirement. That being said, it is rarely a requirement from most of the Caribbean countries you will likely visit from Miami. I am honestly not sure if the cruise line "requirement" or the individual country requirements are the ones to follow.

For me, while I do like VV and they do a lot of things I really like, the three things that keep it from being the only cruise line I will sail are the lack of interesting itineraries, the ridiculously small pool and the uncomfortable mattresses in the regular cabins.

I had that exact same thing happen to me in Miami. The lady outside the terminal refused to give me my band, but would give my husband one. The people inside the terminal gave it to me right away.

There are no tables in any dining venue that will accomodate 22 people (at least not that I can think of). However, they most likely can put you on several tables near each other. The time you want to eat will make a huge difference in whether or not this can be easily accomplished. If you are an official group cruise, you (or your TA) should be able to contact the groups department to have them help you out. It is possible that you can't do anything in advance (each cruise line handles this differently) and at this point it is likely that it is too late to do anything in advance even if you could have at one point.

One thing to note about the port at Fort Lauderdale is that you will likely be required to show ID at the entrance to the port not just at check in. We have had this happen whether taking our own car or taking an Uber/Lyft.

At least until Sun Princess where in the three level dining room, one level will be fixed dining, one level will be anytime with reservations and the remaining level will be anytime without reservations.

While I do like spicy, I was more referring to flavor being bland. I have a hard time imagining the food getting more bland. The last NCL cruise we did, we only did specialty dining for dinner and I will be really sad if that has gone downhill as well.

Our first NCL sailing was in 2018 (our most recent in 2021) and I have never liked the included food. For my tastes, it is too bland and not adventurous enough.

You can google "Virgin Voyages bar menu" and you will find several people who have posted the menus with prices. One thing to bear in mind is that the prices you see are the actual prices, there is no gratuity added on top.

It really depends on the local laws. Not sure what the particulars are in Spain, but in the US, they are required to totally zero out the ship between cruises, so you have no choice but to do the u-turn. Hopefully, someone can tell you specifically about the procedure in Spain.

We are 0 for 2 as far as actually getting into GSC. Maybe someday, we'll make it in. 🙂

We were on the Sirena over the holidays and really enjoyed it. Most of the food was quite good (there are always going to be some things that don't appeal to some individuals, myself included). We didn't have any particular problems, but the service in general felt very good to us. The excursions were admittedly a mixed bag, but we also booked fairly late, so there may have been some good ones that were no longer available. We were in an Oceanview cabin, so the storage was fairly limited. We even had to lift the bed up a bit to be able to slide our full sized luggage underneath due to the lip on the bottom of the bedframe. The bathroom was very small, but certainly workable. Personally, I would have no problems going back on the Sirena.

Whatever it is, it offers only very minor improvement.

You can also find a lot of TAs by searching on TikTok or YouTube. Watch their content and if you like them, you can try them out.

Usually, the one category upgrade is factored into the pricing, so likely what your TA sent you is the correct upgraded price. That being said, it doesn't hurt to ask your TA just to confirm.

Then you're lucky because earlier this month on Valiant, I only got a comforter.

You do not have to bring towels from home. If there are no beach towels in your stateroom (I've had it both ways), then just do as suggested and grab one from the pool. Unlike some other lines, you are not required to check out towels.

What they put on the bed is not an actual mattress topper. I asked for this also and I lifted up the bottom sheet to see what had been done. It was just another comforter placed between the mattress and the bottom sheet. It did help a tad, but they are still very uncomfortable IMHO.

Do a google search for "Princess bar menus" and you will be able to see the offerings. I know there are several non-alcoholic cocktails as I have tried many of them, but I can't remember which one was my favorite.

Carlos was on Valiant for Thanksgiving and at that time, her show was still in the Manor, I would love to see this new version!

MSC is the only line I can think of that does this.

I guess the lighting in the YC bathrooms is better than for the rest of us. It's plenty bright, but due to where the mirror is located, there are some odd shadows that get cast making the lighting less than ideal for doing anything that requires precision.

I'm also on this cruise, no propulsion issues, just weather that will make navigating into the channel in Port Canaveral difficult (at least that is what we've been told and we don't seem too be having any speed issues).

Be sure to let your server know that you have a show to get to and they will do everything possible to make sure your dinner ends in time.

It is accurate. We have sailed a B2B on Princess that was sold as one cruise and we did have to disembark when we returned to the embarkation point mid-way through the cruise. I don't recall it being noted that this was going to happen, but I did know about it from research prior to going on the cruise. This will be true of every cruise from the US (I understand the rules are different in Europe). Now as to MSC being disorganized in their process, that may well be true. On Princess, it was a fairly quick and painless procedure.