DukeASUGirl

10 hours ago, Oxo said:

When did RCI change MTD to 630pm?

 

We have always used MTD at 530pm.

 

 

 

How can they call it MTD if they open at 530 but MTD doesn't start until 630pm?

 

TIA

 

 

I didn't end up getting to go on my October cruise due to the hurricane, but when I booked dining times for it back in April, the MTD didn't start until 6:30. So it's been at least several months now.

20 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 I guess I am going to show my age here but I do not understand this obsession that some seem to have with wearing shorts to the main dining room.  What am I missing?  

 

And I don't understand this obsession some seem to have to with caring what others are wearing. How does it effect your cruise or your dinner to see someone being comfortable and dressing the way they wish to on their vacation?

Teen, but can't use the text feature on app (because that's 13 and up), so it's a bit annoying if your 12 yr old makes new friends in the Teens club and then can't contact them.

34 minutes ago, Seville2Cabo said:

Can you drive into Mexico without a passport?

To Rocky Point (Puerto Penasco), yes. We have never used passports. They don't check at all going into Mexico, and they do check on the drive home to Phoenix, but a birth certificate and driver's license has always been sufficient to reenter the US.

Confirmed by call to border control station literally every time we go (which admittedly has not been many times, but when we do go, it's a relatively spur of the moment thing, so no time to get a passport for a trip for which a birth certificate is totally fine).

18 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

My disagreement is that I don't believe the reason is weird. Most travel that requires a passport is far away and expensive. In the USA we have sea shores, mountains , lakes, a great National Park system, resorts, vineyards,  California, Florida and Disney World.  And you can cruise the Caribbean without a passport.  A passport is nice to have but not necessary to have for travel for most people.Also a $100 or whatever the fee is now does not sound like much but multiply that by the number of family members and it adds up. In addition unfortuayly unlike Europe and other countries Americans don't get much vacation time. So not weird at all. 

This.

Between my kids' activities and school schedules, and my husband and my careers, we don't get much vacation time. The longest we can squeeze away at a time is a week, and most of the time that's REALLY pushing it and my husband would prefer 4-5 days max. So grand overseas vacations requiring passports just aren't in our plans for the time being, even though I do love to travel.

Most of our "vacation time" is actually allotted to travel for our kids' sports - figure skating competitions, hockey tournaments, much of which is out of state but not out of the country, so doesn't require a passport.

The last "big vacations" we've taken have been a drive over the border to Rocky Point in Mexico or a cruise to Mexico, both of which can be done with a birth certificate and ID.

Is it cheap enough to new a passport for me and my husband (both our passports have expired before the kids were born) or get passports for the kids? Sure, in the great scheme of things. But that $520 for the 4 of us can be spent on other things. That's airfare to synchronized skating Sectionals. Or 10 3-on-3 tournament entry fees, or 10 half-hour ice dance lessons.

It's just another $500, but if it isn't actually needed for our trip...

I would prefer to wait on getting passports until it's actually needed. I know that "it lasts 10 years" (5 for kids) but if we aren't going to use it again during those 10 years, why not wait until we actually do need it?

We do plenty of travel in the US. I do miss international travel (had extensively traveled in Europe in my 20s) but that will have to wait until the kids are out of the house.

7 hours ago, Biker19 said:

How long ago was this? For a while during the COVID restart Royal Up offers were like this, but I think they went back to the pre-COVID norms (of limiting offers to two major categories above booked category) for several months now. 

This past October, but admittedly people were canceling cruises left and right due to the hurricane. (We actually ended up canceling as well once Delta canceled our flight and couldn't get us there on time) So it could have been a completely unusual situation since they wanted to salvage the cruise as much as possible.

But there was a Suite Royal Up offer on the website for me when we checked it in mid-September (and I bid on it), about 2 weeks before the cruise. We didn't end up cancelling until Sept 30 (Oct 2 cruise), although I do understand that many Floridians began canceling around Sept 25/26 or so. But even so, the cancelations began about 10 days after we put in our unsuccessful bids.

3 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

 

On Navigator?  I was under the impression that Johnny Rockets breakfast was only available on oasis class ships.  
 

m

It says on the description of Johnny Rockets for Navigator: "Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner" but I can't tell if that's just a generic description that Royal puts on all their listings, regardless of the actual ship or not. 

That's why I'm asking if anyone can confirm that Johnny Rockets actually has breakfast on Navigator..

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

What you can bid on depends on cabin category already booked - for example, someone with an inside usually won’t get an offer to bid on suites. 

It allowed us to make a bid for a suite even though we had an Inside. We just weren't successful, and the minimum bid was WAY higher than the minimum bids for Outside or Balcony.

Navigator is Voyager class, and it has Johnny Rockets. It is listed as "breakfast, lunch, dinner." Would breakfast be free on Navigator as well?

It's just annoying because we are ending up paying more for this cruise than what we had been paying, despite it being a cheaper cruise on a less desirable ship, just because she turned 13. Even though she won't eat anything other than grilled cheese the entire week because she still eats like a kid.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

You are not gomparing the same cabins or categories.  Cabins that hold 2 are a different category than those that hold 4.  Compare 4 adults to 2 adults and 2 kids. 

Yes, the only way to compare it is to compare 4 adults in a room (or 2 adults and 2 kids when there isn't a KSF sale) to 2 adults and 2 kids. 

20 hours ago, iuki said:

Thank you for the info.  So, 12 and above is considered to be an adult. 

Sorry if I wasn't clear. It's 13 and up. 12 is still considered a kid. Sorry if I phrased that weirdly before.

My daughter was 12 during the cruise we had to cancel. When we rebooked using the credit, she was still 12, but would be 13 by the time we sailed, which was annoying. But yes, she counted as an adult, so we have to pay for 3 adults and 1 kid now.

5 minutes ago, iuki said:

Curiosity question:  When “KidsSailFree”, does a single parent with 2 children qualify, or does the single parent pay for 2 adults and only one child sails free?

It's 1 kid under 12 per adult. So if it's 1 adult with 2 kids, then you're paying for 2 adults and only 1 kid is free.

3 hours ago, jerseygirl3 said:

Make sure your return flight isnt cancelled. If you're not on the outbound flight, your return us automatically cancelked, unless on a different locatir number. 

Southwest allows you to cancel an outbound and leave the return flight intact. I just did it this morning for our trip to Silicon Valley. Our flight to San Jose for tomorrow night (Dec 28) was canceled because of the Southwest debacle. (I was on that flight with the kids, but my husband was flying outbound on American because he had credit to use, and then we were all going to fly home together.)

He will get there on American on time, but Southwest couldn't get the rest of us there until Saturday, so I canceled that leg, and ticked the box indicating that we want to keep the return flight. I have gotten confirmation emails stating that our itinerary now consists only of the return flight as a one-way.

The kids and I are now flying on American to Monterey (about 90 minutes from where husband is landing at the same time) and spending the night in a hotel until he and my SIL come get us and make a day trip out of it to Monterey.

It's a fiasco. We are being reimbursed for the canceled outbound flight, but are $1200 out of pocket for the one-way on American. I submitted a request for reimbursement, as per all the Reddits I'm reading and Secretary Buttigieg's comments, and statements from Southwest pilots on CNN. Fingers crossed we'll be reimbursed for the increased travel costs - there are reports that people are getting reimbursements because Southwest wants to avoid the PR nightmare.

On 12/23/2022 at 4:58 PM, hal2008 said:

Grown adults not having passport means they have never traveled outside USA ever!! 

 

 

Or it means it's been more than 10 years since the last time they've traveled outside of either the US or a closed-loop cruise, which is definitely possible if they have preteens/younger teens.

On 12/23/2022 at 1:55 PM, robtulipe said:

. Guests age 16 and older that present a Birth Certificate will also need to provide a valid Driver’s License or picture ID issued by the government.

That stinks for teenagers who live in states where 17 is the driving age.

On 12/9/2022 at 8:12 PM, RainforestRoomer said:

GOOD:

• The iSkate ice show is INSANE, the skaters INCREDIBLE. Wife was glad we came just for this. Makes the one on the Allure look quite sad in comparison

My daughter's former coach just finished a 9-month contract skating on Harmony, and when we told her we will be going on Navigator in May, she told us that she LOVES the Navigator show. She says it's one of her favorites, and that if she ever does another Royal contract, she wants to join that show.

On 12/3/2022 at 5:20 PM, Biker19 said:

Unless you see it in the planner or app, no. I don't recall anyone reporting it being available.

We ended up not making our October Harmony cruise due to hurricane, but I saw it listed on the entertainment schedule for about a week before. So I think the murder mysteries may be happening again.

Is there an email address for Special Needs, or do you have to order this by phone?

Personally, I love interior cabins. I sleep amazingly because of how dark it is, and we're never in the cabin enough to justify the cost of a balcony. Too many fun things up on deck or in other places on the ship.

My parents and I have MyTime Dining, and I'd like to link the reservations so I can book things for them. How do I do that?

Does anyone have an entertainment schedule for Navigator? I'm looking for general showtimes so I can try to plan our dining.

We're doing a 7-night if that makes a difference.

Thank you!

We finally got the FCC for the cruise we had to cancel this October due to the hurricane. I want to book our replacement cruise today before the Cyber Monday sale ends.

I have the certificate numbers - how do I use them? Can it be done online, or is it better to call Royal and ask them to apply the certificates? I have two rooms to book, and ideally I'd like to book them relatively near one another so maybe calling is best.

I should note that the people on my FB group who waited to try to make MTD reservations until 2-3 weeks in advance on the app found that all the 6:30, 6:45, and 7:00 timeslots had all been taken by the time they looked. That's because those of us who did it in Cruise Planner had already booked those slots months earlier.