Highway27

When we did a VH guarantee on the Nieuw Amsterdam (I don't know if you can actually guarantee a higher class or not), we ended up with a VB. I had the same thought you did: There are only 4 of them on the ship. And even if we got one, it's still not bad.

We did buy some reusable luggage tag holders. I thought they worked very well. We attached them prior to arriving at the Port.

Second weekend in a row watching a weekend sailaway for me. Interesting to do something that other people are doing at the time.

45 minutes ago, cruise kitty said:

Wondering if one of us upgrades does the other person in the cabin have to upgrade as well? 

The answer, to the best of my knowledge, is yes.

To answer a couple of your questions:

There should not ever be a problem with your whole group showing up for Anytime dining and being seated together, although it's possible there may be a short-ish wait for you if it's during a particularly busy time. You might work around this by arranging your meal times to be when people are expected to be finishing up from the early seating for scheduled dining. And I noted that having a reservation for time didn't really speed it up at all, unless you maybe have a very large group. As to specialty dining, I really liked the Tamarind restaurant, it's worth going to no matter what. Others can give recommendations on other specialty restaurants. You should be able to make a reservation for the whole group there.

The Signature Beverage Package (SBP) only counts alcoholic drinks against your 15 drink limit. You can have all the water and sparkling water you want, although you may have to get them one at a time. It also includes coffees and can sodas, although on the Konigsdam it does NOT include fountain sodas from the Coke Freestyle machines (the EBP appears to include this last). The SBP will be fine in the MDR, they will bring the drinks you want. I don't believe room service will be able to use your SBP privileges, so you will end up paying extra for any drinks delivered to your room.  You can go to the bars and get the drinks to take back to your room.

Drinks that cost in excess of the $11 limit for the SBP you will be charged the full price plus gratuity. HAL does not charge the surplus over $11. This may limit your choice of wines by the glass. You might consider upgrading to the Elite Beverage Package (EBP) for the $15 dollar limit, but it may not be worth it. I think this is a recent bar menu to check prices: http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Bar-Menu.pdf

The bartenders are pretty good at making sure that your drink doesn't exceed your package.

3 hours ago, RuthC said:

Yes, it's the same as far as I can see. 
The Pinnacle ships have been assigned/suggested arrival and boarding times, but they are not enforced, and they are the only ships that do have the staggered times. 

Just to expand this a little, we had the same staggered time email for our cruise on the Signature-class Nieuw Amsterdam in November. I don't know if they are continuing to do it, but it had just as little enforcement as you say here (none).

My experience in November was very easy. You go across the drop-off lanes to the private pickup stand, set up your ride, and done. We had no trouble on a Saturday morning. It's really not far from the terminal exit (this was at terminal 26). 

Our rides around Ft Lauderdale were all in the 12 to 13 dollar range, excluding any tip. Even from the Crowne Plaza right outside the cruise port to the terminal.

1 hour ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I can understand reducing plastic use when possible.  But why the restrictions on paper straws?  It’s from a renewable resource.

The material is a renewable resource, but it still requires energy, emissions, and space to manufacture and stock them. So it's a savings to discourage use, or even to see a reduction by not offering unless asked.

1 hour ago, HAL Sailer said:

Just refared Nov 10-day Seafarer. Cabin price the same, lost $50 beverage card, but doubled OBC (kept V&V OBC; added equal amount in 3-Day OBC) so a better deal overall.

I just got the same deal for December 11-day, but also had the chance to add the ZPM promotion, so big success for me.

2 minutes ago, RuthC said:

Tom is correct about the reason everyone with Luggage Direct has to disembark at the early hour. The luggage is all sent at once in the truck. 
The remedy, if someone doesn't disembark when directed, is that none of the luggage is sent to the airport until that person chooses to show up. In that case, people with early flights may get home to find their luggage did not come along for the ride. 

Thanks for the information. Guess I'll have to get up early again.

22 minutes ago, Tom O. said:

I confess that I have never used Luggage Direct, but I was wondering if the reason for early departure is that all of the Luggage Direct bags are put on a truck together, regardless of flight times. If that is the case, then if one bag is delayed, it might hold up the whole truck load. They would have to get all of the luggage to the airport before the earliest flight time.

So, then even if someone has a late flight, if their bag is the one held up by customs, it could cause a bag with an early flight to miss the flight.

Don't know if this is the case,  just an idea on my part. Probably only someone who handles the luggage could tell you for sure.

That's an interesting idea, and you're probably right that to economize the operation they need to minimize the number of trips from the port to the airport. I wonder if the remedy would be "you forfeit the service if you needed to be interviewed by Customs and didn't show up".

I do have to say that I found the Luggage Direct service to be a pretty good deal, since for us they also waived any bag overweight fees, in addition to providing boarding passes/check-in. The early time would be a bit more palatable if the reason was something like this. It was just somewhat of a surprise to us that "hey, you have to get off the ship first" when we had planned on being off last.

We wondered about this also. We used Luggage Direct at Port Everglades, our flight was at approximately 6:15 PM, yet we were in the first disembarkation group at 7:30 (which we definitely didn't want).

I was wondering in the future if there was trouble to get in if we just... didn't leave until later. I figure they're not going to hold up groups because some straggler from an earlier group hasn't made it off the ship. Sounds like the customs issue is only one of delay if you have a short transfer window also. So I think next time we'll just sleep a little later, grab breakfast, and then mosey off the ship if we have the time. Not having to drag the big bags around is a great service, but having to get up early felt like a punishment (we are not early risers).

Is there any lasting downside to staying on the ship past your disembarkation group? I don't mind a light scolding in this case.

My only experience with the music venues is on the NA last November, but I didn't find the volumes at any of the venues to be out of character for a performance of the type of music that was played in the BBK Blues Club. It was loud in the venue, but I found that the couches / seating just across the hallway outside the venue were also an excellent place to listen to the live music at a very reasonable volume, since at that location there was very little contribution from the on-stage amplification.

Also, I am a rock musician and do wear earplugs for every practice and performance, but I didn't use them on the ship (although I had brought them). For musicians, it's more of a factor the long periods of listening to the elevated levels of music.

For those who are interested in the music and atmosphere in the venues, but are bothered by the higher volume levels, a suggestion is to look into custom-fitted earplugs, which can be bought through an audiologist. I have a pair: they're easy to carry around, easy to wash (just make sure you don't wash the insert) and unlike foam or gel earplugs, they have a much more even reduction of volume, so that the relative mix of highs and lows is preserved. They cost in the neighborhood of 200 dollars US, which is a little high, but they last for years.