rcrabb1513

I understand that. I'm a real geek at heart, my wife not so much. I don't want to spend a bunch of $$$ on something just for me.

I was looking at Panama cruise that departs from Ft Lauderdale and journeys to Los Angeles. I could ask my wife if this would interest her but we all know spouses sometime answers with an expected answer rather than how they really feel. I'll pose the question to the women who been through the canal. Was it a bucket list experience for you?

I know you probably do not want my advice but planning 2 excursions at one port of call is really hard to pull off. In practice excursions rarely begin and end on time. If the morning excursion is late returning you stand a good chance of missing the 2nd excursion and there will be NO refunds available. Case in point, the White Pass railway excursion we were on had a locomotive breakdown and we were 2 hours late returning to the ship. Stuff happens!

I was watching a YouTuber (Tony @ La Lido Loca) who is currently on a Princess cruise sailing the British Isles. He said Princess required all passengers to surrender their passport for the duration of the cruise. One of the comments a viewer offered said it was a due to Irish immigration requirements. We will be doing a British Isles cruise on Pride which include two Irish ports of call. Is this comment correct? Did any past Carnival cruisers of the British Isles have to surrender their passports as well?

I agree the food was good. On Magic (during spring break and the ship was above 100% dbl occupancy) the service was slow on both "formal" nights but other than that I would much rather eat in the MDR versus the Lido Buffet.

I have applied CC rewards points to Royal OBC, not Celebrity, but they allow me to apply RC Visa rewards to Celebrity so I would like to think they have the same policies. I applied the rewards points about 3 months before the cruise sailed. They didn't show after a week and I called the RC rewards number and asked where my OBC was. I was told RC makes the OBC available about 2 weeks before the sailing but they could make them available immediately. I said, "Please do!", and they were shown on the Cruise Planner page within minutes. The OBC is of the refundable variety so any unused are applied as a credit to the CC on file. You might be able to get cash at guest service on the last cruise day but I have never done that. I believe rewards redeemed for OBC are now the same as cash and would be applied to the CC on file if you cancel but I have no experience with that scenario either.

we have used them twice and it has worked well for us. I would choose a 12:30 boarding window. The main early rush will most likely be over and the checkin process will be much less chaotic. I will add that the bus is a shared ride and you may stop at other hotels before making the actual drive to Port Canaveral. The pickup time at booking is an estimate. Our actual pickup time changed twice and was moved later by a total of 45 minutes via text messages from GoPort the day before.

Being able to see the estimated wait times and requesting a table on the app is huge for us. We can enjoy our time at the bar or lounge and be notified when our table is ready. Much better experience than waiting in a line at the dining room!

I don't care about wrinkles. So many others have the same issue.

What is a DD?

My original boarding group was "Priority" The updated boarding group was "E1." I had printed both boarding passes and decided I would use the first boarding pass. When boarding no questions asked...

When I checked in for our late March cruise that summary information was printed with the other documents when I first checked in. I logged in later that day and my boarding group was different and that summary information was no longer available.

I posted a review of our cruise on Magic out of Port Canaveral and I received a number of negative responses about carry on items checked by the drug sniffing dogs. The common theme was indignity of it. I really didn't care.

I can't say about Celebrity, but on Royal I found our bags about 10 cabins away from our cabin. It seems they get them close but not always at your cabin.

We sailed the late March and returning on Palm Sunday. The ship wasn't overrun with kids but our flight from Chicago to Orlando was.

We applied Royal CC rewards on our last Royal cruise. Since Royal and Celebrity are owned by Royal Caribbean International I would hope the OBC accounting is the same. I know we can redeem Royal Visa rewards for either Royal or Celebrity cruises and Royal applied our CC rewards OBC as refundable. Since it was a shared redemption $225 was applied to me and $225 was applied to my wife. The final tally included the $225 credit from both of us ($450) Here is the OBC line item from our final statement 10/2 CREDITS REFUNDABLE OBC - ROYAL CC REWARD -225.00 (me) 10/2 CREDITS REFUNDABLE OBC - ROYAL CC REWARD -225.00 (spouse) I did a room charge of $100 and applied it to a slot machine. The line item on the statement: 10/6 OA3372257 CLUB ROYALE ENTERTAINMENT GAMES 100.00 I did not lose the entire $100 and cashed out the remaining for $$ at the cage, I think around $45. We did charge more than $450 OBC in total and ended with a balance due BUT the casino charge to the room was included in the total and subjected to the OBC credit as a regular charge. What I don't know is what happens to unused OBC in this case. Is it returned as CC rewards points or a credit to the credit card bill?

Quantum class is our favorite. We have been on both Anthem and Ovation. Cafe TWO70 (aft, deck 5) is a great food venue for a lighter breakfast and lunch. It has almost identical menu to the Park Cafe on Oasis class ships. Less crowds as well earlier in the cruise as it isn't as easily discovered until more events in TWO70 bring people all the way aft. The Jr. Suites mid ship on decks 9 and 10 (forward of the bump out at the mid ship elevators) have both a 1/2 bath and a full bathroom. We like having 2 commodes in one cabin. Otherwise, there are more lounges and such on Q class ships. While they can carry more passengers the additional size seems to handle the population better than Oasis class ships IMHO.

I was told, FWIW, that cabins with 3 person occupancy have the bed by the windows and the 4 person cabins have the bed by the bathroom. The size of the sofa bed when pulled out for 2 persons is the deciding factor.

Thanks for the information I have read some nice things about the The Palace and I'll check out your other suggestions.

We pre booked Hop On/Hop off tickets for Dublin, Glasgow (Greenock) and Belfast. We do these quite a bit. We ride the full circuit noting researched stops and some presented during the circuit and then the 2nd time around we "hop off/hop on" at stops that peaked our interest. Those 3 booked tours added together for 2 (senior rates) were less than cost of most of the excursions cruise line offered excursions for 2 persons. We do not have experience with country-side tours.

Research has led me to Temple Bar area for a good pub for a beer and lunch. Anyone have a recommendation near Templar Bar or elsewhere?

I can understand fractional dollar amounts returned as a statement credit. What about whole dollar amounts of unused On Board Credit derived from Credit Card rewards redemption?

Yes, all need the Chat plan. I purchased the Chat plan thinking I would be able to chat with my daughter and son-in-law who had purchased the WiFi package. Nope! My daughter also had to purchase the chat package so we could keep in contact.

Was on Magic the end of March and the Pig and Anchor was only open for lunch on embarkation day and sea days. They closed at 3pm. The line began to form on the promenade deck 30 - 40 minutes before they began serving. I walked up for food around 1:45 pm and just one person ahead of me.

I really didn't care. I had read social media posts, taken with a grain of salt, that the smell of pot was pervasive in some areas of the ship. If this stops or even deters it so be it.