ARandomTraveler

If you want to fly all the way to Asia, the Spectrum has private karaoke rooms you can book. I think it's the only ship that has them.

That's so nice of you. I'll keep your email handy. My daughter and I will be there on Friday the 28th through Monday the 31st. I have a tentative list of things to do, but we're not sure how we'll adjust to the time difference so we're waiting til we get there to map out our days, but it might turn out to be a good option to have a local guide for a few hours. That's really nice of you to offer.

This actually might be a good idea. Someone might be willing to add him to their room for a fee, and then he can sleep in the room with your family.

I wouldn't have waited that long. If I'm waiting on someone else to make a decision, my cut-off for their answer would have been way before the final hour. They could have bought the dining package a long time ago and then just canceled it if their travel partners changed their minds about their own plans. I don't think it's fair to blame RC or the travel buddies, this was 100% in the OP's control.

See post from @Ourusualbeach he's a travel agent and can see room availability on the ship that the rest of us can't see. I think you're gonna have to either leave the husband at home, or lose 75% of your cruise fare (unless you have travel insurance) and book a different cruise. Or, if there's 1 kid that's young enough that they wouldn't care that they missed the trip, and you have a relative at home who wouldn't mind sacrificing a week of their time to watch them, you could swap passengers and get your husband on the ship and leave 1 kid at home. Super disappointing situation. I'd be furious. But also wondering why you'd have the reservations sent to 2 different email addresses, and why there was zero communication between the two of you with sharing booking numbers and receipts from deposits etc. One of you should have noticed that this didn't get done a long time ago.

I kid, I kid. I'd be surprised if a room didn't pop up before the cruise. My July 31st sailing was 100% sold out of everything from inside through balcony for about 4 months (10 months for the insides and ocean views), but 3 weeks before the cruise, several rooms opened up.

Divorce

I'll definitely check. My guess is that it's smoke free because it leaves from Singapore, so they're operating with Singapore smoking laws. I double checked to see if another cruise specifically listed the casino as a designated smoking area. I looked up Odyssey's sailing for next week and it does list the casino, so I feel pretty confident that Spectrum will be non-smoking, which I'm excited about. I'll check in 2 weeks when I'm on board.

That's not what it says in the app for my upcoming cruise on Spectrum.

I had this same question when I sailed Symphony. The comedy shows didn't show up on the schedule until boarding day (I think 1 or 2 might have popped up a week or so in advance). I was pleasantly surprised when I boarded to find there were many comedy shows throughout the week. Maybe they let the comedians pick which days they feel like working each sailing or something. Who knows.

Colorado's casinos are all non-smoking

From what I understand, the casino on spectrum is entirely smoke free. Of course it's serving a different market so not sure if it offers any real indication of how it would be on other cruises.

Well shoot - I better get on top of this and figure out if I can exchange some dollars here at home before I leave. I'm pretty sure my bank charges a hefty International ATM fee, and my credit card company charges a fee for "cash advances" which is what it would be to take out money from an atm (if that's even possible). I've read posts from people saying they've gotten foreign currency from their local AAA. I have one near me so I'll check there tomorrow and see what they say. I leave in 8 days so I might be too late. Thank you to everyone for your replies.

I just bought the Japan Rail pass, which should arrive in the mail in a day or two. From the research I've done, the Japan Rail pass is worth buying if you'll do at least 1 round trip from Tokyo to another city like Kyoto or Osaka. You have to buy it and have it shipped to your house before you get to Japan (shipping says it takes 2 days, but if you purchase on a Thursday or Friday, it will take closer to 5 days to get to you). If you'll only be using local trains in Tokyo (or Kyoto or Osaka), the SUICA card is more useful and less money. You buy the actual card, and load it with money, at the train station in Japan. The difference between the SUICA and the ICOCA (from the limited amount I read about it) is where you can go to get your money back if you don't use up all the money you pre-loaded onto it. The excess funds on the SUICA card can be refunded in Tokyo, and the excess funds loaded onto the ICOCA can be refunded only in Osaka or Kyoto or something like that. Otherwise they're basically the same. I leave for my trip next week so take what I've said and do some backup research in case I'm wrong. Heres a blog I read that gives a lot of info: https://www.twowanderingsoles.com/blog/how-to-purchase-japan-rail-pass-ticket

Thanks everyone for your tips! I'll be headed to Singapore next week for several days before my cruise, which will drop us off in Japan. Very excited to get to see this country!!

Ever been to Paris and walked the Champs Elysees? You gotta step over a loooootta gypsies looking to take your money there too. I've traveled a lot of places and the places I've felt the most unsafe in are all in the United States.

Adventure has them and yes they are available 24/7 on the promenade.

I got an email for Royal Up 18 days prior to my next cruise. It also showed up in my "upcoming reservations" section, right beneath the button to get into the cruise planner where you buy drink and dining packages etc. I didn't bother to try because I'm happy with the room type and location I picked. Our ship is sold out anyway. They're offering bids for rooms that haven't been available since 10 months ago.

It's not a 3-day pass, it's a 3-meal pass. So if you choose to use it for lunch one day, you can't also use it for dinner that same day without using up another one of your 3 days. As @Biker19 said, it makes little sense to use it for lunch. The price of a 3-day meal package is usually around $132, which is $44/meal. You can generally purchase lunch at a specialty restaurant for less than $44, so you'd be wasting one of your meals to use it on a lunch. I had the UDP on my last cruise and we got great use out of it, but we really had to force feed ourselves. Lunches and dinners at a specialty restaurant all in one day was so much food, and also so much time spent sitting around a dining table instead of doing something more fun or more relaxing (in my opinion). However, for my next cruise, I started buying dinners a-La-carte because certain ones were on sale, but then I got to the point where I had booked enough of them that I may as well have booked a 3 or 5 day plan, and then at that point I was like "f- it, I'll just book the unlimited plan again." So I went ahead and bought it, with the mindset that I won't get my dollar-for-dollar value out of it, but it would decrease the decision making about when to use the "coveted" days in one of the limited plans. It's there for it I want it, it opens up every dining option on the ship, any day I want it, and I don't have to worry about it. If I end up having over-paid for it because I eat at the windjammer or the main dining room more nights, so be it. Moral of the story - I'd either book individual restaurants that you know you want to go to (and therefore you can pick which day and time you want to go before getting on the ship), or just pay for the unlimited plan.

Did Spectrum have Starlink?

As someone who gets seasick, forward venues are where I feel the most movement, including on Oasis class ships in calm seas.

I'll find out in 2 weeks, not sailing Odyssey but I'll be on Spectrum, which is also a Quantum Ultra-Class, and it has the Patisserie. It also has a tea shop. I'm not sure if that's a venue specific to Spectrum or if Odyssey has one also, but to my knowledge, the drink package works there.

I'm 43, not a full empty nester yet, but my daughter is going into her senior year at college so she lives out of state most of the year. I will say that age-wise I don't necessarily fit the demographic, but I have the parental, financial and lifestyle mindset of an empty nester. We went on our first Oasis class (Symphony) during Thanksgiving week and loved it. I thought there was way more to do on the ship as a "childless" adult than there was for kids, and I think I enjoyed the ship far more with her as an older "kid" than I would have if I had brought her on there as an actual kid. I loved all the options for things to do, tons of shows, places to eat, music venues to hang out in, and places to find a lounger where there weren't any people with young children. It was great, my favorite class of ship of the 3 classes I've sailed so far (Voyager class, Freedom class and Oasis class).

I have 4 cruises booked right now, 2 with Royal and 2 with Celebrity, and the Celebrity premium drink packages are the most expensive at $86.99/day.

You'll get the whole $500 back as long as you cancel before the final payment date. The $138 just makes your final payment $138 more expensive. Definitely worth it in my opinion. I just put deposits on 2 cruises (back-to-back) that charged $450 each to make them refundable, and I thought it was worth it. The cruises aren't until next year and I'm willing to pay $900 more for the option to change my plans, rather than forking over an $1800 deposit and being required to leave it earmarked for another cruise or losing it altogether if I want to do something else. I prefer to have the flexibility of changing my mind. I look at the lower price as the discount for being willing to sacrifice the flexibility, rather than looking at the extra cost as a penalty.