The Sain

We are taking a red eye to Galveston in Nov using same thought process as you. If you are landing early enough you should be fine. We are getting in at 6:45am and booked ground transportation through RCI so I'm feeling confident. Plus we booked our air travel through Choice Air so any flight problems will be put into their hands.

Congratulations. What type staterooms did you sail in? Like you, we want to get to daimond quickly. Right now only 38 points but on our last cruise we decided to start booking suites.

Sailing in Nov will bring us to 52 points. From there just two more 7 night cruises in suites and helloooooo diamond.

Just wish we knew this from the begining and would have started in suites. Oh well....loving the journey and the process.

One word of caution - I went on an 8 night cruise on Independence of the Seas out of Ft Lauderdale the 2nd week of Dec (Dec 7-15) and it was FULL of senior citizens (I have never seen so many walkers, scooters, etc).

 

When I mentioned this demographic to table mates at dinner (we were lucky enough to have late dinner -- apparently the early dinner was wall to wall people!), they said that the cruise line offers package deals to the senior citizen communities in FL on the cruises between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We were on this cruise too and while we had a great time it was wall-to-wall scooters and cranky guests. Still, we would do it again. We booked a Nov cruise out of Galveston hoping to avoid a repeat situation.

Nothing but total sympathy for any and all of us who have spelled this wrong.

More impressive is hearing how many ways to pronounce it. I was saying 'La-bay-dee' & 'Lab-ad-ee' untill I heard it pronounced as we boarded and came to understand the correct pronunciation of LABADABADOO!!!!

If you are the only ship in port that day then there is plenty of beach front for everybody. If there's more than one ship, get an ideal spot a quick as possible. We choose Columbus beach at the far end with lounge chairs right in front of the water yet under palm trees to avoid sun burn. It was great staring at our ship across the bay and being able to watch everyone at the aqua park.

I noticed that many of the dancers/singers from the theater and our waiter and his wife also were in this vacinity so I would have to assume they know the best places to stay when in port?

When we were on Indie in Dec there were 9 ships in port all leaving. It seems Indie is last (as was our case) and we pulled out around 6:30 pm. I wonder if all ships were delayed and it caused a domminoe effect?

We did this on Indy. We dont drink but it was still so very woth it and entertaining. Loved having Giovanis all to ourself as a group of 75.

No Keurig machines in the cabin. They are the drip type coffee makers which we never used. Just easier to order room service and have a fresh pot delivered.

The hot water kettle is separate from the coffee maker and again we did not use ours. It looks a bit cruddy to me when I inspected it and thought better to keep clear of it. The outside of it has some type of residue like duct tape would leave behind.

Still, loved the aft balcony. Cant wait till we do Alaska again and can sit on our balcony while going in circles at the glaciers.

We just got off Indie in December. Did mot take our 19 & 21 year old but my DW & I both said they would have loved this cruise. Of course they would of had each other to hang out with. We are an active family so the parents can go well into the wee hours hanging out with our kids.

In your case I would be concerned letting my 19 y/o daughter adventure on her own on the ship and ports. Habe you comsidered having a cllse friend of hers (that you all get along with) join your group? Would almost be certain that they would have a good time then.

Did we luck out? We made an open booking last month on Indie. On Christams day we made an online booking. Later that week we called RCI to have our open booking deposit merged with our online booking. Botom line....we got discount on our junior suite, savings certificate and OBC of $100. We are platnum level.

This is a bit off topic but we linked our sea pass card to our RCI Visa but when I went to purchase a high end watch at the jewelry shop I asked if they were able to swipe my Amex card since it offered better protection on my purchase.....they glady did without any problems.

The Sain,

 

My DH is making time lapse videos with his GoPro. You can see them

.

 

He was allowed to use it on the Norwegian Breakaway (but not inside the slide, only for the rope thing and "The Plank"). He also made several time lapse videos leaving ports like Venice, Amsterdam and more.

 

steamboats

Thanks for sharing

I was hoping for a GoPro from my family for Christmas. Didnt happen so I was sure it was coming for my birthday 4 days later....no dice. I'll have one before we sail in Nov.

Watched a video someone made using time lapse on their GoPro with it mounted to their balcony at each port departue. It was amazing.

I was in same situation. Called RCI and had them delete my on line booking and use my future booking reservation. Im in a junior suite. I was able to get my $100 OBC, a suite discount of $150 and used a savings certificate of $150. You cannot combine WOW offer with any other discounts. I did forget to indicafe I'm military so will call back and see if I can save a bit more.

If I was you I would use your current open booking.

Good luck.

We were on Indy early Dec to Western Caribbean in a JS. Had 2 terry cloth robes. Supper stiff and rough like towels with no fabric softner. I was glad I brought my summer weight robe in my luggage. My DW wore hers but it wasnt for me.

We got off Indie last month and had a junior suite. We knowabojt early boarding feature, upgraded toiletries, robes and such. My question is, what does a silver sea pass card do for you on board? We are on another junior suite in November 2014 and are platinum members.

Thanks in advance for sharing your comments.

Can anyone tell me if the JR suites on the Independence have lounge chairs on the balconies? We are in E1's right now but JRs had a large price drop on our sailing and we are thinking about upgrading. :confused:

We were on the Indie last month. We had an aft JS. It was an extra large deck and we had 2 chairs, 2 lounge chairs & a small table.

Enjoy your cruise....we loved ours.

Labadee was our fav port. We were ther in early Dec and only ship at port. Merchants in the village were a bit agressive for me and. Most had the same stuff.

I have heard that the fee to dock at San Juan is very high and billed in the length of time the ship is docked. If this is true, I can understand the reason for the short stay.

In Hati, we rented a scooter from Liz Peiria Tours and loved being able to drive the entire island. We saw so much more this way including Turtle Bay and their multi million dollar estate homes.

I knew I wanted to buy a Tag Heuer watch on this trip. I priced them on board and then went into St. Marteen and got a better deal. Ended up buying 2 watches. Family next to us were buying their 5th & 6th Tag Heuer's. This was the highlight for my trip.

On board shopping was so-so. That purse store was a ghost town most times, the smoke shop was boaring and other clothing stores didnt have any awesome deals.

This is the first time we saw so much security visible during any of our cruises on board. Wonder why? Guess it was helpful when two older....uhm 'ladies' got into a physical altercation.

We will do this trip again. Right now booked on NOS out of Galviston in Nov 9. BTW - right now there is a 60%+ drop on cabin prices for this ships sailing on 5/24.

We made an open booking earlier this month on Indie. We just turned Platnum. On Christmas day I booked another JS on NOS for Nov. I noted there was a savings certificate AND the price being reflected showed $150 discount off the fair. I completed the reservation and entered the savings certificate but after completing the booking the savings certificate discount was not included. Yesterday I called and talked to my booking specialist. I asked that my open booking credit be applied to booking...no problem. Ialso mentioned that the savings certificate did not post and he said we either get the platnum level discount OR the savings certificate. Bottom line, I had him send us an updated summary of our booking and it shows BOTH savings certificate ($150) and platnum discount ($150) being applied to our balance....HAPPY NEW YEAR INDEED.

Sounds like what went through our family at begining of December. We were all gathered for a funeral in AZ. 20 of us came down with same symptons you had in a matter of days. I never vomit and it got me good.

Just looked this up. Its now $574 pp in a JS. Wow. We are booked on this cruise 9 Nov 2014 in. JS and paid $950 per person. What a deal for those going in May.

You can add them to your OBC account after booking. We did this and it went without a hitch.

We were on Indy Dec 7. Filled with way too many rude seniors. Even some of the RCI staff commented on how many of them were rude. My DW & I were so disappointed to even hear how senior couples were talking to each other. Regarding the snobs, we are looking forward to becoming Diamond in 3 more cruises but not so we can broadcast it, we like the perks that come with it. :)

Some Diamond folks can really make you feel like the lower class from the Titanic movie...lol. I dont let it bother me, I just chuckle and move out of the elevator.

We were originally on this ship for Dec 7 but switched to the Independance for the same date. Only reason is that I love the sauna and its free on some ships and on others they charge for thir use and some are co-ed which is not my style. Loved the Independance and all the ports. Just booked another cruise today for Nov 2014 sailing out of Galveston. Price was too good to pass up for a Jr. Suite.

We just got off Independance with an aft Jr. Suite. Wasnt a wrap-around but it was nice not having a strong breeze but the view wasa bit limited. We just booked another cruise in a Jr. Suite on the Navigator. It is a hump suite midship. We realized we spent just a little bit of time on the balcony and more in the room and we never kept the door open as we dont like the room to get hot.