alex_drew

I will give both of these a try! Thank you!!!

On our cruise out of Baltimore in April 2022 the agent (this was on Enchantment) that checked us in said that the room (Jr. Suite) was ready and we could go right up and pick up our Seapass cards. Well, I was surprised, but happy, as this was about 11:30 or noon and I didn't expect the rooms to be ready so soon. Well...of course the rooms were NOT ready, the room stewards in the hallway were distressed, but when I relayed what the check-in agent had said, they let me go to the room and pick up the Seapass card and we didn't try to go in or drop our luggage. It was embarassing for us because we are veteran cruisers and do know that the rooms are generally not ready until 1 or 2 pm, but when your check-in person tells you that your room is ready...well of course you think they know what they are talking about and you want to take advantage of that happy news! Anyway, I guess she must usually work at the Baltimore Port for Carnival, which is the other line that sails from Baltimore, OR it was her first day on the job... Anyway, I believe that The Gremlin probably was told that the cabin was ready. It happens.

Sadly, I find that nothing is "easily searchable" on this site. I really hate asking a question that I am sure there are already answers to, but I can't find any pertinent results. If I'm searching for something that I KNOW has been asked a bazillion times, I put in what I think is a good question and get too many results that have one word that I used, but no result for what I wanted/was trying to ask, so I rephrase my question again and again and finally give up! I need a tutorial in how to "search" for an answer. 😝

Was skiing once in my youth and one guy always brought a beer to breakfast. His thought? Juice for breakfast? Beer = wheat juice.

Yes, I should have said that I almost always ask for 2.

This is how I keep everything straight. With the price drops, cancelled and re-booked items, it is exactly what mets07 said: click on the little circle w/your initials on the upper right of the screen after you sign into your RCCL account on your computer and then click on Order History. I can't find anything on my Royal App, but when I sign in on my computer, I can find a lot more info.

I would definitely not pay for a separate water pkg for your room. We drink a lot of water, but with the beverage pkg, just always, always ask for a bottle of water (or 2) when you get a drink, and then take them back to your room. As another poster said, the bartenders get used to you and as soon as you approach the bar they will automatically pull out the water for you.

I love ship private islands!!! The first one I ever went to was Holland's Half-Moon Cay, about 30 years ago, and I was hooked! Cococay and Labadee in the "olden days" were both just pristine beaches with chairs and the RCCL barbeque. I must say I was a little shocked that Labadee had gotten so developed the last time we were there, but having said that, I just love a "free" day on the private islands. If you enjoy the beach, you can find quiet areas to just relax and chill on the included loungers and shade either from palm trees or umbrellas. The included food at CocoCay is very good, and there are both bars and clean restrooms nearby...what more can I ask for? I enjoy a beach day at ports, but it is always a bit of a hassle to get a cab or bus (or excursion) to the beach, pay for the chairs/umbrellas/food/drinks, etc., so for me, especially with the ease of docking right at Cococay, it truly is a Perfect Day. 😉

As Cruisegirl1 said, I always print out my second b2b paperwork just in case. Have never had anyone ask, but one time we did go through separate check-in lines...

Same with my husband...ankles swell a LOT when he drinks ship water, but mine don't. Have no idea why. So we do buy bottled water for him and I drink both bottled and ship water, and I'm fine. Maybe it is some of the heart or other medications that he's on that cause the reaction to the ship water. It's a mystery, but real.

We always tip; the amount depends on the length of the tour and how much effort the tour guide put into their presentation. We always tip the driver separately, too, just because I'm never sure if the tour guide is splitting the tip with them. There are two of us, so driver usually gets $5 and the tour guide usually gets $10 or $20 (so $5 pp or $10 pp), just depends. One time we gave the driver more because he was great and we gave the tour guide less than the driver because the tour guide was just, well, less than stellar...

Thank you, Shof515 and BirdTravels, that's exactly what I thought, but I just wanted to double-check! Thanks again for the information.

A friend is going on a cruise with a group of us in late May. She is a single in a Jr. Suite but wants to upgrade, if possible, through the Royal Up program to a Grand Suite. Her question is, if she is a single, how should she enter her bid? Since it says "per person", will they know that she is a single if she puts in $1000 and only charge her $1000? Or will they charge her $2000? I told her I think they will assume there are 2 people in the cabin and charge $2000, but I said I would ask on CC because you guys know everything!!! Thank you so much for your help!!!

Agree with both Merion_Mom and luckyinpa, there are many chairs with shade on CocoCay, and so many different chair/shade locations, that I really don't believe you would have any issue. I would feel perfectly comfortable leaving my stuff on a chair there while I went for food or into the water and not worry at all about it. Having said that, I was a bit annoyed the last time we were there because we were in the last row in one of the groups of chairs and it wasn't quite as sheltered from the sun as I would prefer. There were two loungers right in front of us that had better shade, but someone had put a life vest on the table at the end of a row next to those two loungers, so we assumed that the person was using the chair next to that table, so we didn't move there. Turned out, several hours later, that the person who had put the vest on the table was sitting across the way on another lounger and came over and collected it when she left. *sigh*

We usually take a couple of N/A's on board, but not a six pack or anything like that. Usually there is no issue, but if there is, just point out that it is N/A and is allowed and they may call over a supervisor that will say it is fine. The last time (November) that we were on Enchantment, they had Heineken 00.

We were in a GS and heading to an excursion so ordered breakfast for 7 am...at 7:30 there was no sign of breakfast so I called and at first they couldn't find the order in their system, but after a couple of minutes they said it was on the way...45 minutes late and cold as a stone. I was not thrilled.

Yes, and the Concierge was going to also mention that same thing...that GS and above could order from the MDR menu so that the incoming staff knew this was one of the perks!

On the off chance that you get charged for room service in your suite, just bring it to the attention of the Concierge and they will have the charge removed. This happened to us on our last cruise and the Concierge said that there was new staff joining the ship and that they were being trained so she wanted to make a point of letting the outgoing manager know that we had been inadvertently charged so that the new staff would know the proper procedure for suites..

OMG, thank you!!! Yeah, I was one of the "lucky" ones that had snagged the $18 a day drink pkg until Covid wrecked our plans!!! This has all of the "earmarks" of that! I had a cruise booked for this coming April on Enchantment out of Baltimore but it was cancelled because they are moving her elsewhere and Vision is coming to B'more. I thought maybe it was some kind of glitch because of that...but still went to check all of my docs to make sure that I hadn't missed something along the way... 😝

On Enchantment the button on the phone to set the automated wake-up call didn't work, but I called Guest Services and they gave me the #'s to plug in to activate the automated wake-up call. Worked every time. Oh, and when we got room service they did NOT call prior to arriving with your breakfast as they have on some other ships, so I was happy that I had the automated wake-up call set.

We were on a b2b Nov. 11 and 19th on Enchantment out of Baltimore. We booked (for the first ever time!) a GS for our 30th anniversary. On the Nov. 11th cruise D+ were allowed in the CL. On the first leg of the b2b (Nov 11) there was a family who were in a GS next to us that had two small children 3 & 4 years old. A couple of nights they were able to get 4 chairs for the 4 of them, but most nights they had to get their snacks and go out to the VCL because it was so crowded. On this cruise both D+ and Pinns had access to the CL. On the Nov. 19th cruise only Suite and Pinns were allowed in the CL due to the large number of D+ on board. For those of you who don't know, on Enchantment, the Diamond lounge is on the floor above, but open to the CL and we clearly heard complaints from "above" that they were D+ and had been kicked out of the CL. We are also D+ so we have (thankfully) vouchers available. On the Nov 19th leg of the cruise we only went to the CL for "HH" once...and there were NO seats available. None. Now it was fine for us, we had the D+ vouchers so we just went to another bar, but honestly, if I didn't have the vouchers and I had paid for a GS with promised free drinks from 5-8, I would have been really unhappy to not be able to take advantage of that promised perk. The Concierge looked at us nervously when it was clear that there were NO seats available, but we didn't say anything and just left because it really didn't matter to us...but it really does put RCL in a bad position when a paying suite guest isn't provided what is promised. As I said, it didn't matter to us, as we had D+ vouchers anyway, but you can imagine the unhappy suite passengers that they may have had to deal with over a situation like this.

Always carry on two bottles of wine in my carry-on. Baltimore always makes me open the bag AND they take at least one of the bottles out to check it.

Thank you. I have made tentative reservations with another company but they are waiting for definite pick-up times prior to sending me confirmations. If this company doesn't work out I will reach out to Girlie Transportation. In any event, I will keep this information for future use. Thank you again!

We're in Alexandria, just fyi. Thanks, Princeton, for the suggestion of Blackane since I've never heard of them...will check them out.

Husband and I are now at a point where we are no longer going to drive the hour (well, last time it was 1-1/2 hours and was a total nightmare!) from Northern VA to the Port of Baltimore for our cruises. Anyone have a reliable car service (not Uber) that you can recommend? Uber used to be great, but since Covid, I've not had very reliable service so would rather book a regular car service to deliver us to B'more and be there to pick us up when we return. I realize this is a long shot since most people will drive to the port, but thought it was worth asking here! Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.