mac66

Just download the free app. You don't need internet or to buy a package to use the texting free on board the ship.

Yes walkie talkies work (sometimes) take them and try them for yourself. I admire the OP for not getting their 10 year old a cell phone.

Bring your own, its allowed

Okay so does HAL actually charge a corkage fee? Because every cruise line I've been on says they have a corkage fee but I've never, ever, ever been charged a fee for bringing my own wine on 5 different cruise lines over the course of 30+ years of cruising.

There are quite a few recommendations on this forum on where to dive in Roatan, Mexico and just about everywhere else. I'm going to be in Roatan, Coz, Costa Maya in Feb. I've used Sun Divers in Roatan. Probably will use them again I booked through the ship in Coz this time just to save a spot as the people who are going with us haven't decided what they wanted to do in Coz yet. There is another thread on diving in Coz here, so thinking about doing Blue Reef Divers combined with Mr. Sanchos resort for the rest of the group. Still trying to decide whether to dive in Costa Maya

I have two upcoming cruises, one in Nov, one in Feb. I have ship dives booked on both of them. However out of 3 ports on one, and 4 ports on the other, they were only offering one dive per cruise. I've been on cruises where there has been a ship dive in every port.

I've had a few ship dives canceled. One was canceled because the ship was delayed getting into port. I was able to find a local dive shop who got me on their afternoon dive. Another was canceled because not enough people signed up for it. Again I was able to find a local shop who fit me in. I have a cruise in Nov in the ABC islands. I booked one dive through the ship, two more booked privately mostly because there weren't any ship dives offered on the other two islands. As for price, I've found through the ship dives tend to be more expensive but not always. My ship dive in Aruba is cheaper than any private dive shop I could find. It kind of depends on the port. Some are cheaper, some not so much. I just checked my Feb '23 cruise. No ship dive was offered, now there is. It's actually comparatively cheap.

There is a snorkel/scuba forum here at CC. Probably get more answers there. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/24-scuba-and-snorkeling/

At current stock prices it would only take you 41 7-12 night cruises to recoup the cost of 100 shares. Having bought stock this summer I am now just 39 cruises away from breaking even. BTW, only takes 10 Carnival, Princess, Cunnard or Holland America cruises to break even at their current stock price.

We've done 4 cruises since "the end" of covid. I guess that says something. However, none of those cruises were as good as the pre covid days and all were make ups of cancellations, which I guess says something as well. We have one more cruise this year and one early next year. I'm guessing that those will continue or break our love affair with cruising. Frankly, I wouldn't mind not cruising for awhile i.e, 5 years or so. I'm tired of it.

Last April we bought a couple bottles of bourbon in the ship's store and were allowed to take them back to our cabin. That was on the second day of a 7 night cruise. We were surprised.

I bought RCI and Carnival stock this summer when it was relatively cheap. I bought with the idea that I would recoup most of my money in OBC if I continued to book cruises. Haven't really been on Carn in awhile but were looking at HAL and Princess cruises in the future. At the price I bought it it would take 8 cruises to break even. Now both stock prices have gone down again. The CEO of RCI recently said that they would have to raise prices to regain profitability but can't raise prices until they start filling their ships. In which case they have to lower prices to get people sailing again. So are cruise lines too big to fail like the auto industry? Will they get a govt bailout? Only time will tell.

On our last 3 X cruises we were allowed to bring back bottles to our cabin from port stops. Walked on board with a bag from the port liquor store fully expecting to have it taken. It wasn't. YMMV but we did it three cruises in a row.

First, thanks for the heads up on both Mr. Sanchos and Blue Reef Divers. I'd appreciate what you come up with. Going to be in Coz in Feb on a ship with two other couples. I'm the only diver so we were looking for something for them to do while I dived. I know Blue Reef says minimum of 2 divers but I might be able to find someone on the ship to dive with me. Already booked a dive through the ship (Royal Caribbean) as a fall back but I can cancel that if I have to.

BYOB...just saying

Thanks for the video Robin. I'm excited to dive in Bonaire

I dived with Aqua Mania in St. Maarten in 2019. Their shop is a short walk from the pier. I walked with another diver from the ship. When we got there they put him on a dive boat with 19 other ship divers and me on a boat with 7 otherswho had booked privately. Both boats went to the same dive sites but at different times.

I checked a number of recommended places and decided on Dive Friends in Bonaire. They got back to me very quickly and had a very reasonable/cheapest price. I'm actually diving on all of the ABCs this time. Went with the cruise ship in Aruba because it was just the easiest and actually the cheapest. May be a cattle boat but it's easy to dive on a ship excursion. I did check with Jeff at Happy Divers who I've used before. Something was going on with him, his price was way out of line this time. Went with Scubacao in Curacao. I've dived with them before and they do a good job and are reasonably priced. This will be the first time I dive three days in a row on a cruise. Partly because "why not?" partly because, we've been to the ABC a couple times before so have pretty much seen the islands and except for the ship excursion my wife can go along and snorkel while I dive so she won't be alone. With that option she's given me approval to dive every day.

Interesting thread. We booked a cruise out of Tampa on the Serenade in early February. First time on a Radiance class ship though we started cruising Royal on the Empress and Majesty in the 1990s. Going with two of my brothers and their wives. One brother has done maybe 5 cruises. He was on the last cruise in 2020 before all the cruise lines shut down for covid. The other I think this will be their second cruise overall and their first in about 15 years. Should be a fun trip. Never even looked to see what kind of ship it was. Just booked it because it was cheap, was leaving out of Tampa and was going to Roatan and Belize. Told my brothers about it and they signed on.

Going to the ABCs in late November. I'm set for Aruba and Curacao looking for dive shop recommendations for Bonaire. Probably looking for a 2 tank dive and suggestions as to where to dive would also be appreciated. When I was there the last time we snorkeled off Klein Bonaire and I saw divers way below, looked like a good place to dive but I'm open to other suggestions.

I'm bringing my own favorite on my next cruise.

Celebrity was having the same problem. Had the premium package, only trouble was the only "premium" whiskey they had left was Maker's Mark. I generally drink Scotch but the only scotch they had was Dewars, Can't drink that so I settled for bourbon. And I got used to drinking Guinness when I was in Ireland. Got the last two cans on the ship, that's all they had. Went to every bar multiple times, asked the bar managers on several occasions. None to be had. What a bummer.

We did a number of cruises on Royal then went to Celebrity (X). We liked X better but continued to go back and forth for various reasons i.e, itineraries. We then realized that it's easier to get to Diamond on RCI than it is to get to Elite on X so we focused on RCI until we got to Diamond which is recognized as Elite on X. We did three X cruises this year as Elites. However, post covid food and service were sub par. Our next two cruises are back on Royal so we'll see.

I usually take a sport coat ....because 1. My wife and I like to dress "up" a little once in awhile while on vacation. 2. sometimes it gets chilly in the dining room and it a way to keep off the chill. There are times when I don't wear it but I usually take it.

Wife and I and adult children were on the Oasis the first week of last December. The ship was about half full, no waiting for anything. Very nice. Things have changed. We have another cruise early this December on the Explorer. That's usually a down time to go but we'll see.