hugger

for your prompt replies. I can appreciate WHY they did it then.:)

And, this will be our first RCCL out of here. We normally arrive early so that we can enjoy the ship and get settled in early.

What is a good time to arrive at the port to board the Vision on Saturday the 2nd of April?

How does RCCL handle disembarkation morning? Can we linger and let the people who need to catch flights disembark early? Or, do they push you out of your cabin and only serve breakfast in the dining room until 7-7:30?

I am only a GOLD level C&A = as we have traveled other cruise lines more in recent years.

And, is Tampa more apt to let us take on bottled water and soda than FLL?

THANK you for your help and insight

doesn't sell a 40.00 fifth through room service or ship services? They are basically forcing people to buy the drink packages then???:confused:

I see where we can bring a reasonable amount of water on - we are 3 in a cabin I wonder what reasonable is - water is my drink of choice. And, the ships water tends to make me retain water after 2-3 days.

Also, wondering IF we can take soda on to consume in our cabin?

BTW are there any happy hour's available in the bar's on the ship? Or drink special's at all?

THANK YOU for your help

I appreciate your help with this all - it's been several year's since we cruised RCCL. Have been doing Princess, HAL and Celebrity the past 15 years.

Your C&A coupons are loaded on your SeaPass card. If you want to use a coupon, mention it to the server who takes your order.

Oh, it's just a one time use thing then? I thought it would work as it does on Holland America.

We get it for the entire cruise. Good thing I am asking :confused:

Thanks

have sailed 7 times with RCCL year's ago. Haven't ever been able to get them to give me my credit except for the one cruise though. I digress though

My question is

How does the buy one get one free beer, wine,soda and Milk shake work? And, the 25% off on coffee - does it appear on your receipt or your onboard account. Do I need to show them My C&A card or will it just be linked with my seapass card?

is it during certain hour's?

Thanking you in advance for your help in this matter.

Our sail date is 7/2/16 5 night cruise to Bermuda. Noises are not bothering me much now just occasionally. I am working on balance with therapy but on a whole that is pretty good too just sometimes I lean to one side or the other. My headaches are managed by several different medications. Amyitripline 25 mg really helped trick my brain then they added B2 400 mg and Magnesium Oxide not sure what mg. My main problem is fatigue and retintion. Headaches and nausea are now occasional PTL!!! First couple months it was very ROUGH!

check with your doctor about using an ADHD medication while you recover. I tried several different ones Ritlin and Daytrana patch worked best for me. But, each case is different:confused:

your own pillow from home. IF you've found a pillow that works for you that is I could start a pillow store I've tried to many over the year's.

Finally my Chiropractor told me to get the pillow with the micro beads that are very small and squeshy. It works - I found it on AMAZON two for 25.00. LOVE THESE PILLOW's - be sure you get the very small beads though and the ones that are reviewed to NOT make noise.

Just a thought from one TBI cruiser to another ;)

Thanks for the patch suggestion! I will look into it, I am on Magnesium Oxide and B2. Seems that the brain depletes B2 with a TBI.

THANKS as I didn't know about the B2 I will check into that for myself. I do take a special B12 complex to help with brain function.

I to would second the caution's IF you have to fly to the ship. When I was early in my recovery I wouldn't have been able to fly for about 2 yrs.

However, if you can drive to the ship then in my case I would have gone on a cruise. However, that is just me.;)

Ask your doctor about the TransDermal Patch for sea sickness JUST IN CASE you need it. Geez, I believe that is the name of it with TBI you know the "Swiss Cheese" memory. Doctor will know about it. If you experience any vertigo problems be careful on the staircases as well. Maybe use the elevator's for this cruise.

Then go and ENJOY - be sure you take your meds just in case you get a migraine - be proactive.

May want to ask your doctor about Migrelief and Magnesium supplements too.

As they have helped me tremendously with the headaches.

HAPPY CRUSING:)

They have a shuttle that picks you up at the pier - they are about a 10 minute ride to their office at Quay Center. Saves you some taxes and fee's at the airport too.

We will be on the Eurodam tomorrow. I thought we were leaving at 4PM. I'll have to doublecheck.

 

Thanks,

Helen

With seven ships in port maybe some rescheduling.

Weather in FLL rain and more. Got soaked walking from hotel to Schula's Burger's.

Yum

They are saying more of the same for tomorrow

Happy to hear DH is ok though.

You will be boarding with us on Sunday then - we are heading to FLL later this morning. Time for bed I guess

See onboard - I'll be looking for shoe's :p

I ended up with 10 pair - they're small :rolleyes:

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your very useful and in-depth assessment. I would have responded sooner but we were on Oasis.

 

Prior to reading your response, wife and I had a series of discussions on the things we've liked and the things we would like in the future. We've decided that we probably would prefer a smaller ship experience for many of the reasons you mentioned. We have three cruises booked. I expect we will cancel our Regal cruise (Mar 17) and rebook on Oosterdam.

 

BTW, thanks for the mention of one way rentals. The wife has been complaining about the mileage on her car. Based upon your suggestion, I did a mock booking for Budget for our next cruise. About $300 round trip. Of course we would save $100 on parking so that's not bad. Picking up a rental would delay us an hour or so departing FLL but it would be doable. Would work even better from TPA.

 

Update, we got the biopsy from the tumor on our great dane's ear. Not malignant. We were really worried. It looked ugly.

 

Thanks again.

First off GREAT news on your furry kid's ear tumor WHEW we know how scary that can be - greyhound's battle cancer often.

Happy that the Budget tip helped you and your wife. In fact, we just picked up our rental for our journey to FLL tomorrow. They gave us a NICE upgrade for all of our luggage :-) We are bad always over pack.

How was the Oasis? Beautiful ship - when we've seen her. We are actually on the Regal Princess next November to celebrate a friend's 50th b-day. Looks beautiful and HUGE!

We will board the Eurodam on Sunday for 16 days - we are SO ready to walk on the ship. Getting goose bumps already - even though this is my 45th cruise I still get so excited when we see those ships.

Can't wait to hear what you think of the smaller ships and HAL.

I keep saying I'm not going to tell anyone else about how much we love the balconies on these cabin's.

The balconies are directly next to the lifeboat's. Meaning you do have a lifeboat either directly behind your balcony or directly ahead. However, that makes your balcony very deep. A bit of shade from the balcony overhang above. However, mostly sun - we literally booked the same exact cabin on the Eurodam we had last year we enjoyed it so much.

We had a smooth ride even though we were in very high sea's - some of the worst I've seen in 44 cruises. People are able to look down on your cabin so if privacy is an issue you wouldn't like this cabin.

if you take a look at the Eurodam's deck plan's you will see them on the bump out's. We also had no problem's with noise from above or below. They are a Cat. VA when you looking at the pricing Mid ship. There are only 4 of them on Deck 4.

Just my 2 cent's worth ;)

Thanks so much for doing this "live from" thread. We are boarding for 1 week on Sunday Nov. 22. I was excited before reading your thread but now I am bordering on crazy...and ready to go. Thanks again!!

 

Helen

MY DH and I are also sailing on Nov. 22nd for the 16 day cruise. We like you and your DH LOVED the Eurodam b2b last November so much that we are back on again this year. I see you and your DH cruised her in April 15.

Wonderful that you live so close to port. We drive in the night prior from Tampa Bay so that we can get onboard early and start enjoying the ship.

For me I don't really start to feel like I'm on vacation until our luggage all arrives and I can unpack and settle in . . . then I start to really get in cruise mode.

Having this live from thread has been so wonderful - maybe I will start relaxing on the drive to FLL.

See you onboard . . .

on the Eurodam. Some day's I'd have to keep walking down to see IF it was posted yet.

I never thought of asking the night before our "captain" was so nice. ALWAYS, a big smile for me - my DH quickly caught on that it was "best" to let me check in with him nightly. He found us such Great dining mates and tables :-)

On our Anniversary we hadn't even thought to mention it to him. However, when we arrived for dinner that evening. He looked up and beamed his gorgeous smile. He had a table set up at the window upstairs in Traditional Dining just for us that evening. Talk about SERVICE that night!!! We were SPOILED big time. So sweet of him

Hope he's still there this year.:)

And, I see you are on for another week YEAH! You will have been able to enjoy this evening onboard. As opposed to spending the afternoon and evening packing and saying goodbye.

One of the most Incredible part's of doing a B2B or Collector's Voyage is the feeling you get when YOU GET TO STAY ON THE SHIP for the 2nd part of the cruise.

We had always been so envious of the people that we saw lounging by the pool on our last morning. Or, enjoying their balconies. . .

NOW for the 2nd time since DH retired last year. WE GET TO STAY ON THE SHIP TOO! Can't wait for next SUNDAY when we board. It was such a cool experience last November when we were enjoying our breakfast on the balcony viewing the other ships in port. And, hearing the other passenger's bustling about in the hallways as they departed the ship.

Of course, the one thing we had yet to learn at that point is the maintenance crew comes through and unlocks all the balcony door's to wash everything down with hoses :-) Not only were we startled the poor guy was too :confused:

It was great to see how the ship does their turn around day. We stolled down to the embarkation luncheon and enjoyed meeting new people as they were embarking.

AH, nothing like the feeling of it NOT BEING OVER just yet! Of course, then the day does arrive when you MUST disembark :(

I truly think I could live on a ship or at least cruise for several weeks at a time.

If only the stock market and DH would agree with me.

BONVOYAGE and ENJOY

Live from thread for us we are in the midst of packing to board the ship on the 22nd.

I believe Captain Scott is the same captain we had last year - can't seem to find my log of the cruise - I know I filed it somewhere ;)

If you are disembarking tomorrow - have a safe and smooth trip home. If not enjoy the upcoming leg of your cruise.

Don't forget the $18 corkage fee. Only one free... All the rest pay the corkage. Someone will please confirm.

per 750ml bottle of wine. You are only allowed one per person 750ml of wine free to enjoy in your stateroom/balcony.

Thanks all..

 

I don't plan on multiples of everything but from looking at some menus I can see the desire to double dip on occasion. If I do I will definitely try to minimize any impact on fellow diners...

I can see being tempted by shrimp salad and escargot....

 

I promise to leave some food for everyone else... :D

 

kenie

Another option that we do some evening's - is once the restaurant is open you can order items on that evening's menu from room service within the first 45 minutes they are open I believe.

If we see that there are several things that we like on the menu we will skip lunch and order appetizer's from room service to enjoy with a glass of wine on our balcony for "happy hour" and then we don't hold anyone up in the dining room when we go for dinner later in the evening.

ENJOY your cruise

Just received the Ebola Warning too.. It was sent to our Travel Agent who forwarded it to us..

However, it seems to me that we did get it last November.

I had no idea that there was so much we were missing out on - I will try to call them tomorrow.

THANKS

This just happened on the eurodam cruise October 18 to November 1, 2015. Wouldn't it be strange if that thing was floating around for a year.

I can't believe it would be the same thing! It was kind of grey and they never could actually find it again. However, several people saw it and didn't report it immediately.

If I remember correct the first person reported it like 45 minutes after seeing it. Then a few other people came forward saying they had seen it as well. They turned the ship around and we head back towards where we had come from. We were a LONG way's from land - we had left port the night prior. I believe it was about 3-4 hours later before they stopped looking for it. They did come across a very small fishing boat that was way out there. They asked if they were ok from what was announced and they declined needing any help. Supposedly they were from Caracas, VENZ. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be that far out in a SMALL boat fishing. They said they hadn't seen anything else.

I know I for one stayed out on our balcony for a couple of hour's with binocular's. I could see them doing the same thing from the bridge. I am sure they had a much better view than I did. Amazing how it would seem like you saw something then it would be gone. I was impressed that the captain and HAL for that matter made such an effort to locate whatever it was again. I never saw it myself and I don't think they ever found it again either. They said it was something grey and a small boat of some sort???

If it is the same thing - can you imagine how many times it's been sighted and searched for . . .