cruiseguy1016

I've never heard of it.

It all depends on the insurance carrier of course but this was my experience several years ago. We had a cruise booked with another couple, our best friends. One week before the cruise, the husband passed away due to a freak accident at work. I called our TA (everything was booked through her) and asked how to handle it. She called the insurance company and explained the situation. The insurance company had no problem refunding the full cost of the wife's cruise but they didn't want to refund ours. I argued that this was one of our trvael companions, our best friend, how did they expect us to go on vacation, and enjoy ourselves, when one of our best friends that was supposed to travel with us, had just passed away. They ended up agreeing with me and refunded our full fare also. This was several years ago and only one week before the cruise. Your situation is different in terms of timing and who it effects so your results may not be the same. But, if/when the aunt passes away, call the insurance company and explain everything to them and see what happens.

You should be able to see any cruise. This is how I do it. In the app, click on the ship icon. At the bottom click on "browse our ships". Pick the ship you want and then it will list the sail dates. Pick the date you want. Menus usually aren't available for future sailings but if you click on the current sailing, it will show you the menu.

Base on their popularity, some excursions will sell out in advance of the sail date. If there is an excursion that you definitely want to do, book it when it becomes available. Have you considered booking through an independant tour operator? If not, you should consider it. You can usually find an independant operator that will provide the same tour the cruise line offers but it will be cheaper and more enjoyable. With a cruisline tour you will be herded like cattle onto a bus with 50 other people. With an independant, you will be in a private van/bus with maybe 4 or 6 other people.

Voyager had twice a day service in our Oceanview cabin a week ago.

I have read that $2 bills often create confusion at foriegn banks because they are not common and some banks don't recognize them as being official currency. I don't know how true that is but it makes sense to me. Give out $1 bills so the receiever won't have an issue converting it to whatever currency they choose.

We have sailed Voyager class out of San Juan many times. There seems to be a smaller ship (Radiance Class) and a larger (Voyager Class) in the October - April time frame.

There was a group of (at least) 4 that brought bikes with them on Voyager last week.

Not sure where you're looking but on RCI's web site I can see cruises out of San Juan in every month of 2024.

Don't bother with a live review. Enjoy your cruise and do your review after you return home.

Me too, staying in Oceanview cabins our first several cruises and then moving up to balconies. We've never stayed in a suite. The only time we've gotten double points was on a post-Covid cruise. We only cruise once a year. We're still 57 points away from D+.

OP hasn't been back so I'll post what happened last week. Night 1 - No show Night 2 - A comedian Night 3 - Royal Caribbean singers and dancers Night 4 - No show Night 5 - Two Funny Guys (comedians) Night 6 - Royal Caribbean singers and dancers Night 7- Comedian The ice show was on two nights & Quest was happening. All of the shows for THIS week are in the app.

You come here looking for help and then you present that attitude? Good luck getting any answers.

No, I did not notice. Getting off the ship was very fast. We got a little delayed at Customs but it wasn't too bad, probably not any worse than other times in San Juan.

Try looking at the CURRENT sailing.

OP - I'll comment on the self-assist debarkation. We got off the ship just prior to you getting on. We left our stateroom around 7:15 to carry our own luggage off. The line for customs was a little long but not too bad. If you use a porter to carry your luggage (we didn't), you will go to the front of the customs line. We got out of the terminal, grabbed a cab (plenty of them available) and headed to the airport. We made a quick stop at our pre-cruise hotel because I had left my jacket in the room and wanted to grab that to have when we got back home to snowy New York state. Once at the airport we sent our luggage through the Agriculture scan and then headed to check in for our flight. We flew Southwest and there were no passengers in line so we zipped right through. We have TSA Pre-Check so security was quick. We were through security and walking to our gate at 8:40. I don't want to hijack your thread but, If you have questions about OUR experience, let me know, I'll be glad to try to help you out.

Wow. I can't believe this is what is being experienced on other ships. We just got off Voyager this morning. We had twice-a-day service every day. Our room steward left us his card on the first day and told us to call him if we needed anything. He seemed to always be around. We spoke to him every day, usually multiple times each day. We had towel animals on 3 nights. I have nothing bad to say about cabin service this past week on Voyager.

I haven't been following this thread all the way through, I stopped when the arguing about tipping started. I just want to maybe (ha ha) bring this back to the original topic and post my experience. We've been on Voyager the last 7 ays and have had twice-a-day room service every day.

You're not even obligated to pay the included gratuities.

For excursions, do you like to venture out on your own, or booking excursions with only RCI? That will help us give you ideas on what to do. The alcohol package can be a bargain if you drink enough. Drinks on the ship are in the $10 - $15 range. The price of the package varies by ship and sailing so you need to know how much the package will cost, then figure out how many drinks you need to break even. Depending on the cost of the package, you'll need to drink 5-8 drinks to break even. The wifi on the ships now is decent, it won't be as fast as you probably get at home but it'll get the job done. The best part about it now is that it will work over the entire ship, not just in select areas.

This is also how we handle it. We almost always cruise with friends/family, sometimes as many as 12 people. We used to all sit at one table but found it impossible to have a conversation with everyone. We now request tables no larger than 6. When we have 2 tables, we move around and sit at different spots with different people from our group each night.

Changing the time on the ship is at the discretion of the captain. Sometimes they change, sometimes they don't. The tour operator will know the schedule of the ship in port and will (most likely) adjust his schedule if needed to accommodate the ship's schedule. To be safe, I would contact the tour operator to verify that he will wait for cruise ship passengers.

It took 23 posts before someone "weaponized" a handy tool to have that can solve multiple problems. For those of us that use them, they sure come in handy when they're needed. For those of us that see them as a weapon, they'll never understand.

We usually cruise with friends/family. For the last several cruises we have requested a table just for our group. Prior to that, we sat at whatever table they assigned us to. We found that they always seem to seat us with groups like ours. If it was us and the kids, they sat us at a table with other kids. If it was just adults, they sat us with other adults. If you are interested in meeting new people, go to dinner the first night and see who your tablemates are. If you are not happy with your tablemates the first night, you can ask to be seated at a different table.

I was going to add that in my post but I couldn't remember the $$ amount so I left it out. I knew someone would post it. 😁