virginiab

I believe Holland America still provides Catholic Mass. I think they do it daily. Maybe someone has better info on this than I do. I think it helps them recruit their staff, which is all from the Phillipines.

If you don't know your cabin assignment before you arrive at the port, the porter will be able to look it up for you, so that you can leave your luggage with them.

Laundry rooms can be busy, so it helps to know the locations of all of them so you can increase your chance of finding available washers. We always plan to do a load of laundry mid-cruise, so we pack a detergent pod and a dryer sheet in a ziploc bag. I also take a mesh bag for more delicate things that I will hang in the room to dry.

The Dream is a lovely ship. I hope you thoroughly enjoy your cruise!

I don't know if this will apply to this particular cruise, but cruises with late sailings out of San Juan have open seating for dinner, as they know some folks will miss their assigned dining time. I hope that is true for this cruise as well.:)

In those circumstances, we sometimes rent a car to use as a rolling luggage locker.

When we were in Tampa before a cruise, we enjoyed a tour at the Big Cat Rescue Center. I don't know if that would interest you or not, but we thought it was pretty interesting.

I've gotten senior discounts a few times. They seem to pop up for a while when they need to fill more cabins on particular cruises. I have usually gotten them for Inside cabins. I'm not sure how many categories of cabins may be covered; it may just depend on their inventory in different categories. If you are already booked, keep checking rates and you may (or may not) see a senior rate pop up at some point.

When it's available, it will be the first rate you see, then they will ask you if you prefer to choose your own cabin.

The last time we stayed in a 1A porthole room, the steward waited until we arrived so he could ask if we would rather have him make up the sofa as a bed (which remained as a bed all week) or to make up the bunk which would drop down from the ceiling. So check whether your cabin has that feature as well. We chose to use the sofa as a bed. This is not a fold-out type of sofabed. it is a twin-size mattress with chunky foam bolsters at the back to make it comfy for seating. The bolsters are taken off when you use the sofa as a bed, but the bolsters are still in the cabin if you want to use them on top of the bedding.

Some ships have Obstructed Ocean View cabins at the very back corners of the ship. These rooms are kind of triangular in shape and the layout varies from room to room and ship to ship, but some offer 2 windows instead of a single window and have extra floor space. If you are interested in these, do a search on here for the cabin numbers you are interested in and you will probably find some photos.

We once got a modified interior cabin as a guarantee. Once they make the entrance door and the bathroom door wider, there isn't much wall space left for closets, and the room was shorter because the bathroom was so big. Alas, we did not get bumped from this cabin.....

I have made the change from another rate to Early Saver a couple of times and one time it saved me a lot of money. Other times, not.

I think you have some excellent reasons for making the change! Whatever you decide, have a great cruise and enjoy that birthday.

There is a tall threshold on the door from the hallway to the front "balcony" area, so accessibility there may be limited for some folks.

Yes, they do!

It could be any minute, or not until you get to the port. Hang in there, and keep checking if you are curious.

I've learned to unpack the laundry bags as soon as I see them come back from the laundry because at least once, they came back a little damp and needed to be hung or laid flat on the beds and other furniture to finish drying. The skill on folding the clothes varies a great deal. Sometimes they are nicely folded and once in while they are not so well folded.

We use the free laundry service for undies, nightwear, tees, sweatshirts and such. Slacks, skirts, better tops, and bras we wash ourselves in the washers.

Once when we cruised with other family members, we dropped the other folks and all the luggage at the pier then went looking for gas to top off the rental car tank. We found a McDonalds near the community college and ate there. It wasn't too far from the pier, but probably not something you would walk to.

I've had an ankle replacement and sometimes get pulled aside for pat-down and wanding. We've learned two things:

1. Allow extra time for screening, and

2. If you are traveling with someone else, have them go through first, so they can collect your belongings that go through the scanner, rather than having your stuff just hanging out there as a temptation for someone to take.

The port is practically AT the airport, so you can look at all the car rental companies at the airport. There should be shuttles from port to the car rental places at the airport, but if you find a great price at a rental place that doesn't have a shuttle, the cab fare won't be very much.

I've heard you can request a shower stool or chair (not sure which it was). You may be able to put that in the tub and lower yourself onto it, then bring your legs into the tub. I haven't heard of a transfer bench being available, but it might be. The shower stools and transfer benches I have seen all had individually adjustable legs.

You may want to keep calling special needs until you get a live person to talk to. I hope the solution turns out to be way simpler that any of us out here on land are thinking of.

Thanks for sharing your experience. We're looking forward to our Magic cruise and I'm much calmer about our timing for the flight home. Thank you for helping!

We no longer live in Chicago. We are now in downstate Illinois. I think we can do the fingerprints and interview in Springfield or Chicago or Indianapolis. We'll work it out.

We are considering TSA PreCheck. We would have to drive a few hours to an airport that has it available to sign up, so it's mainly a scheduling question for us now. We're looking for something fun to do in one of the areas where we could do the precheck process.

I'm sorry about the packed shoes! I had a close call once with overpacking on the last night; I was just lucky that my bag was still outside my door when I figured it out.

Now that I have made reservations for the proper day (and not the day after), it turns out the flight on Saturday is at 12:40 instead of 12:20 on Sunday. It also cost us fewer SW Rapids Rewards points.

Thanks for all of the advice and ideas. You guys are great!

Thanks to both of you for your help. I did have the date wrong; that could be embarrassing to get to the airport 24 hours early!