alfaeric

To us, one of the best cities to visit is Quebec City. We stayed there for 3 nights before our cruise. And it will also include Boston on the way down, let alone a stop in New Brunswick. It's a longer cruise, but a really good one.

There are a few options... Quebec to New York- small ship for sure (Jewel has been doing it now), and you get to see some ports in the St. Lawrence that can only be gotten on that itierary. Baltimore north- small ship due to home port. New York north- variable ships we were on Anthem many years ago, but it's now a second ship Boston north- used to be a smaller ship, but we were just on the Voyager - which I guess is small these days. The itineraries are all the same, though- Portland, Halifax, Sidney, St John. The cruises from New York and Baltimore may stop in Boston, too. No more Bar Harbor.

Get a collapsible bottle that you can cap. We've been using them for running for quite a while, and they are easily small enough to travel with. Then you can fill them with a can of water, or by using a glass at a public water dispenser. (we travel light, too- with carry on only bags)

There's not a requirement to cruise, too. You can have perfectly fine vacations that don't require cruising. All of this is voluntary. If you JUST want to go on a cruise, fine. But what are the odds that you just want to do one closed loop cruise for the next decade? BTW, the requirement to have a passport on closed loop cruises is an agreement between our government and the governments of the islands in the Caribbean. It's not a one sided thing. Just like Canada is ok with people driving across the border w/o a full passport, but they do require it for flying in.

By that measure of "special", there's also nothing REALLY "special" in the US, as well. Just stay in your county and vacation at home. If one thinks NYC and Paris are the equal, or Dallas and London are the equal, or Chicago and Rome are the equal, well... why cruise at all? It's a lot cheaper and easier to go to the many beaches on the Gulf Coast than CocoCay. I'm sure one can find a dolphin encounter on the coast somewhere. If a passport is that much of a financial burden, I've tent camped for a song along the many beaches along the Gulf Coast and East Coast. By your measure, there's nothing special on a cruise vs driving to stuff in the US. In terms of closed loop cruises, that's also kind of restrictive, too. But if all one wants is to visit the islands on the closed loop cruises out of the US, find the same beaches along the thousands of miles of coastline found in the US. There's a lot of world out there that isn't the US. But if people just want to encounter themselves, that's fine....

No thoughts on going outside of the country other than a closed loop cruise?

As far as I can see, that's a different problem. That's a system problem vs, trying to game the system. So complain about that more than trying to game the system.

Wouldn't it be easier to just book a solo cabin? How would having a canceled roommate be helpful? You are going to pay the full fare with that short of a cancelation, right?

So you are angry that they closed the loophole that let you pay less than the solo supplement and get double points?

Or you can just book when you get on the ship. Plenty of options to do that- we did that a few weeks ago, and booked for the last night of the cruise- still got the BOGO.

Just like whiskey, it's subjective. Some people will swear that it is, others will say the $7 bottle is amazing. And is most cases, they are both right and lying. And worse, we've had wine that was really great on it's own, but fought with what we were eating, while other wine was meh on it's own and utterly amazing when matched with the right food. At some point, it sure seems that the diminishing returns means that the bottle is just showing off.

Must have been an agreement with the OEM you did work for. As a former OEM development engineer, I carried a lot of secure things, including a proprietary development computer, with me on flights. Had to check one of them, as it was huge (this is the computer that connected to the vehicle's computer and took over control and took data). The only time I was stopped for a slightly more extensive search was when I was flying international only a couple of days when the ticket was bought- and that was a trigger 20 years ago.

Bulk. Just like they seemed to turn Buffalo Trace to an easy to get brand (especially Blantons) to one that was allocated.

I would think vintage would have a major impact on various costs you see. Something that is older and rarer will be a lot more expensive vs something newer (and normally more abundant). This even applies if the old wine has over aged- part of the gamble getting a 30+ year old bottle of wine. But even for the less expensive wines on board, we have thought the bottle deals have been pretty darned good. Somewhere between what we can find in stores vs. the same bottle in a restaurant. It helps that RCI buys in much bigger bulk than most restaurants. edit- for fun, I looked up Opus One at a really large retail wine store- and found a 2019 Opus One for sale at $390, a 2012 at $790, and a 2016 Magnum (1.5l vs. 750ml) at $1100. The "cheap" one us the Overture Blend by Opus One at $145. If that info helps... (that's our local Total Wine)

Not quite a tent in the woods, but we very much camp a LOT now. COVID got us into trailer camping, and it stuck. Now that we are retired, it's pretty much a different season to our cruising time. But for that article, it's not an OR for the camping vs. cruising- just like it's not an AND for all of the things that are on the ship- we don't do them all at once. I would suggest that a newbie try things they've never done, but don't over do it. The only think we've not done on an Oasis cruise is the zip line- but other than that, we've done every thing that one can do over our many Oasis cruises. I agree that it's fair, other than that. I fully accept that cruising isn't for everyone (and if it were, it would be considerably more expensive). Just like I accept that camping isn't for everyone. Or going to Europe isn't for everyone, or going to races, or going hiking or going to shows..... Heck, the appeal to cruising is really different for everyone. Can't wait to get on the Allure in February. But I'm not taking the cowboy hat. Unless it looks like a Panama hat.

Can't say I'm surprised, but at least they implemented the most reasonable solution by adding the drinks to any bar. We've heard about the limits in the past to access the lounges- and given the size of the lounges, it really makes sense. And with the massive numbers of cabins that are sailing every single week, the numbers are just going to rise. Our previous solution to avoid lots of high level C&A cruisers was to sail on expensive cruises, which commonly happened over holidays- we were once top cruisers as D+ on a NYE cruise. Now that we are retired we look for cheap B2B's to sail on, which means we will be top cruiser in 30 more years of sailing.

We are on anthem now, and could get in the last two weeks as P, as there are less than 100 sailing As for Ps over the holiday, it depends on the cost. If the cruise is cheap, there will be a lot of Ps on board. But in my experience, holiday cruises are expensive.

So you would be ok with the same increase across the board for all cruise fares, then.

So people complain of the lack of service, being so hard right now to attract crew, and then complain about the rather obvious solution. welcome to cruise critic.

Checking the various sources, it looks like the launch was delayed a day. That happened not too long ago.

Sorry about losing the tour, but thanks for the heads up for the launch!!!! We will be out on the top deck to watch for sure!!!!!

This morning was better than yesterday, but we are in rain now. Hoping that Monday this will all clear out. We stay on for next week. Still smoother than last Monday, which wasn’t *that* bad.

Because seeing someone else’s picture is exactly like seeing them in person. Not. geez. And you won’t see our pictures.

I should have known that the Debbie downers of CC would try to lessen my mood. Oh, well, thanks to confirm why we keep to ourselves. BTW, we are in the Atlantic east of North Carolina. Shockingly cool to see in a surprise spot.

So there we were, having a birthday breakfast on our balcony when I heard a sudden splash, very different from the waves. We look out over the sea to see what it was, and see a group of dolphins dancing along side the ship!! They were not following us, just jumping out of the waves in different directions. Had we not been out there, we would have totally missed it. Happy birthday, indeed.