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The illegal taxi thing is a big hustle in San Pedro. They know there won't be enough Ubers/Taxis so they go there and try to get rides off the books (which is illegal) with a huge upcharge. The San Pedro port is out of the way, so there are not many Uber drivers in the vicinity in the first place. And because the Nav docks on Mondays and Fridays you are competing with normal workday demand rather than usual Saturday/Sunday mornings. Since it is usually bedlam outside they just wait for someone to look confused/frustrated and they pounce. We once had to wait 30 minutes for a legit Uber, so I got to see the whole thing in action. Even talked with one of the drivers and he explained it to me. He had a Suburban so he was waiting for the right whale to walk off the ship looking for something big who didn't want to wait. He said he could make as much for that one ride as he could make doing multiple hours of Uber runs. I didn't like the idea of jumping into a stranger's car in LA with no record of me doing so, but plenty of people didn't have an issue. But then again I can't count the number of times I have done this in a port in foreign countries during cruises.

Try going on a single Flowrider ship on a holiday/peak kids week. The scenario you describe would be when I wouldn't expect them to charge, but those Day 7 sea day afternoons where there are 40 people in line would be a time they could charge a fee to do that session, and limit it to a certain number of people. You get a specific colored wristband to show you paid for that session, and off you go. I have bought the Key a few times when it was reasonable just for the exclusive hours on the Flowrider, and I know of others who have done it as well, so this isn't a new concept. The way I see it, stand-up Flowrider on RCCL is an endangered species anyway. The only reason it is still around is because there is a segment of loyal to Royal customers where stand-up Flowriding is a major part of their cruising decision making. I for one have been "No Flow - No Go" for years. You have lawyers who have whole practices dedicated to suing cruise lines, and Stand-Up Flowrider is a cash cow for them. Due to the lawsuits, Royal has put more and more rules in place, to the point where they have made it harder for noobs to even try stand-up, so the overall pool of people who care to do stand-up is already shrinking. I love an empty Flowrider queue as much as the next person, but don't think the higher-ups in Miami didn't notice all those hours of 6 people sitting on the bench at the 2nd Flowrider waiting their turn to use something that takes up prime deck space, costs a million dollars to install, thousands of dollars to run/maintain and millions of dollars in litigation didn't play into their decision to install only one of them going forward on the biggest cruise ships in the world. They still put one on since it is a differentiator with their competition, but all those young families going cruising on RCCL for the first time aren't going to care if they can only boogie board. I saw the future when I cruised on Spectrum out of Singapore a few weeks ago, and they had three one-hour stand-up sessions the whole cruise, and boogie boarding was mobbed with that all important young families with children demographic the rest of the time. When I asked about it they said "Welcome to cruising in Asia". Basically they don't have that segment of the market who cruise for stand-up Flowriding there, so they have all but phased out stand-up on those cruises. In this new reality, unless RCCL finds a way to squeeze incremental revenue out of stand-up Flowriding, expect it to become more and more rare in the future.

I'd probably be OK with this if they used a demand-based model similar to what they have done on North Star. During off-peak times it's free (day one after boarding, port days, etc.), but a charge during peak times like sea days to limit the crowd. I usually plan my Flowriding based on when I think it won't be crowded, but I would probably shell out a few bucks here and there on a sea day if it meant I could get more than one run in an hour. In reality Royal would probably find a way to screw it up and make it boogie board or mixed wave for a fee at all times as a way to kill off stand-up once and for all.

Hopefully this helps for a 5 year old. I had my kids with me as well, but they are 21 and 25!

We did the same cruise as the OP the week before Christmas, and then spent a week in Singapore. For a 5 year old you will find more for her to do in Singapore. We did Go City passes, and went to just about everything. Singapore Singapore Zoo - They have 4 different zoos - Singapore Zoo, Bird Paradise, River Wonders, and Night Safari. Took us a day and a half to see the 3 daytime zoos and another evening for Night Safari. If I had to pick one, it would be River Wonders since they have the pandas. Gardens by the Bay ArtScience Museum - this is the Lotus Flower looking building next to Marina Bay Sands. great interactive exhibits Merlion Sentosa Island - lots of kid-friendly things there, along with a Universal Studios. Penang Didn't see many kid-friendly things. We hired a taxi driver for the day to take us around to all the temples. Some of the Temples had lots of steps, so not kid-friendly. The walk up to Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Hindu Temple was about 500 steps! Kek Lok Si Temple was the highlight for us. The main Buddhist Temples were much easier to reach since they were in the flat part of town and right across the street from each other. Phuket Patong (where the boat tenders) was more of an adult playground, but you won't be able to beat the elephants for a 5 year old. We did the elephant trek where you ride them. Initially we were not going to do it, but our son talked us into it. We bought lots of bananas to help ease our guilt. We also visited the Big Buddha Can't beat the view from here @EllaDuChien, sorry if I hijacked your thread. I was planning on doing a llve report on my cruise, but between getting to Singapore, the jet-lag, and the mad dash at every port, I didn't get around to it.

This. I stayed at the Ritz last time I was in Singapore in 2005, and that breakfast buffet is still one of the things I remember from that trip. They had EVERYTHING western and Asian. Glad to hear it's still great. Leaving next week and staying at the Fullerton for the night before our cruise and the Conrad for a week post cruise. We did the 6 day GoCity pass, so we hope to do just about everything. So much is new in Singapore since we were last there. This thread has been great!

We're going to be in Singapore from December 24-30 after cruising on Spectrum OTS. I used to manage a team in Singapore so I visited every few months and knew my way around at the time, but my last visit was during the mid-2000's. During my last visit the Marina Sands was under construction, and the other newer attractions in that area didn't exist, so I have plenty to catch up on. This trip is my youngest son's graduation present, since he was very young when he first visited, and he wanted to visit again so he could really enjoy all there is to offer. Originally we were booked for his high school graduation four years ago, but Covid had other plans for that vacation. Now he is graduating college, and he still wants to get back to Singapore. I have two questions. First, does anyone have any experience with Fraser Place Robertson Walk and/or the Robertson Quay area? Since my company's office was in Suntec City, I have stayed in just about every hotel in that area (Ritz-Carlton, Conrad, Mandarin, Pan Pac, Swissotel, Fairmount, etc.), but Fraser Place has 2 bedroom apartments which should be better for 4 adults (my oldest son is joining us) for 6 days rather than 2 hotel rooms. I have spent time in Boat Quay and Clark Quay, but Robertson Quay will be new to us. Second, if any of the Singapore locals (or anyone who has spent Christmas in Singapore) have any advice/recommendations for Christmas Eve and Christmas, I'd appreciate it. Sounds like Orchard Road is a must-see, but I'm not sure what will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

Best bet may be to just leave them to work in the stateroom. That would be more secure, and when in port, the crew will probably be doing drills and making announcements over the PA, which will be heard in the library, but not in the stateroom. I have worked in both the library and the conference center on port days, and the crew drill announcements are very annoying when you are trying to concentrate.

On older ships like Voyager class, it's not worth having the door opened. Here is a picture of the door open on Navigator (they were cleaning this day, which is why it was open). They once opened the door for us when our teenage kids were in the next non-connecting room. Since these doors were designed for ship utility purposes rather than guest convenience, the door ends up blocking the door into the stateroom, so it is a pain to have to navigate around the door and the table and chairs to get into the stateroom. And because there is no securing mechanism, it swings around and bangs when the ship is in motion. Doesn't make for a pleasant night of sleep in rough seas. On newer ships they re-designed them to take into account the passenger convenience piece, and that's why they are smaller so they can be opened where the door seats and is secured against the dividing wall (sorry, I don't have a picture).

Cleaning. Easier to open the doors and hose down a bunch of balconies in one pass, rather than having to go into each stateroom individually and worry about passing the hose to each balcony.

When they first introduced the Key, they did a private hour on the Flowrider every morning for Key holders. Most people who got the Key were interested in the other perks like special meals, reserved seats for the shows and not having to lug bags around on embarkation, not the Flowrider benefit. So my son and I ended up with 6 hours of having the Flowrider all to ourselves on a 7 day cruise. We were planning to get internet anyway and the Key was only a few dollars more a day, so instead of $349 an hour for the private hour on the Flowrider, it worked out to just a few bucks a day. To top it off, they also did not make my wife buy the Key even though she was in the room with us. They have since cut back the Flowrider Key hours to one day per cruise, they make my non-Flowriding wife buy the Key now, and the only perks she would use it for she gets already via being D+ and buying the unlimited dining package. So the Key no longer makes sense to us, but it sure was fun while it lasted!

Here's my improvised three monitor setup on Allure. A Mac, a tablet, and the stateroom TV.

I prefer Navigator for remote working. It's 3 hours behind US eastern time, so I work eastern hours and by mid-afternoon I can (usually) revert to cruising mode.

We're also in Juneau on the 12th (Ovation OTS). We're using Alaska Tales https://alaska-whalewatching.com/. We used them last September about a week earlier and we saw lots of whales and it was the highlight of our cruise. The boat was a bit larger than 20, but we didn't mind since it poured the whole time and we were able to stay inside and keep warm while we were on the move between sightings. We did the Mendenhall Glacier/Whale watching combo last year but this year we are just doing whale watching since the Mendenhall part last year was a washout and we spent most of the time waiting in the pouring rain for the bus to return.

You know you are on a Texas cruise just by the number of people boarding carrying 12 packs of Dr Pepper. From what I have seen of how Freestyle machines work, Dr Pepper/Diet Dr. Pepper have smaller cartridges, since it isn't the primary soda choice anywhere but Texas. That's why it regularly runs out.

I remember Mr. Pibb in the early Freestyle days, which is made by Coke. It has now been Dr Pepper for years though. And expect the Galveston ships to have regular Dr. Pepper outages as the cartridges run dry. On Allure it seemed like every other time I went for a refill, the Dr. Pepper options were greyed out.

Every cruise I have done in a regular stateroom (including Navigator) the "sofa bed" is a futon as described. The only time I have ever seen a true sofa bed where an actual bed folds out of the sofa is in suites. A sofa bed has to extend out much farther than a futon, so it would make the stateroom even tighter when opened. I didn't think the futon was very comfortable since you have a dip in the middle where the two pieces meet, and it doesn't have much cushioning, but I never slept on one and my kids never complained. I have also heard of triple occupancy rooms with a chair that converts to a bed, but I've never sailed in one of those rooms.

I have had luck in the past as well. Once watched the World Series in the pub while the singer was actually playing. Half the pub was watching the game and half was there for the singer. He was very patient as people were cheering for the game in the middle of his songs. Currently though the Allure is awful for sports viewing. Needs a Playmakers badly.

We were on Allure last month and they wouldn't change the TV in the pub to a college bball game for us. They told us they were not allowed to switch the TV off of the channel which was showing the 70's parade for the 500th time. It was even the singer's night off and the place was empty. We tried to watch on a laptop, but the Allure wifi was so bad that it was unwatchable. Also, if you want to see a near mutiny, go to On-Air when they cut off karaoke to put on a sporting event. I'm not sure they even do sports in On Air anymore unless it is a really big game due to the popularity of karaoke. So you end up watching the TVs by the bar with no sound while karaoke is going on, or worse yet, watch one of the TVs through the glass outside On Air.

Juneau gone from Ovation Sept 8.

Depending on your timing requirements, I second the luggage valet idea. We put the bags outside the stateroom door on the ship the last night and the next time we saw them was on the baggage claim in Tucson. And to top it off, the service is free. Since our flight was later in the day we took an Uber downtown, explored the sights, had lunch, then took the light rail to the airport. All with no worries about our luggage.

On the Allure at the beginning of the month they had pickle ball sessions. The courts were full and there always was a queue about 6-10 deep of people waiting for their turn. Lots of them even brought their own paddles.

I went on Ovation at the end of August last summer, and got lots of time on the wave. They had the heat cranked on it, to the point that steam was coming off, as shown below. Wetsuit is a must, especially for this non-Canadian desert dweller. On the first day I was the only one there and had it to myself for 4 hours straight. I was so exhausted that I had to take breaks and sit and look at an empty Flowrider until I got my strength back up. A couple of mornings it was below 50, so I always went up to see if they were running it before I went to the effort of putting on a still-damp wetsuit. There was never more than 3-4 people using it, and it was mixed wave (boogie boarding and stand-up) for almost all of the sessions. Going again this year, but 2 weeks later in mid-September.

Yes. Right to the bag drop.

Heading to London in a month to see my beloved CFC ⚽. I'll be on the lookout for it.