alfaeric

Funny how every single thread that a person asks about carry on luggage ends the same. The only thing missing from this thread are people complaining that they are being held up by people carrying their luggage on or off the ship. Other than that, everything else has been covered without answering the OP's question whether they can do what they want. -too much effort -want to be on the ship first -have to check out of the hotel early -too big of bags -don't want to lug your bags around the ship Almost need a sicky since this subject repeats the same trend every time.

Maybe stay in a better part of town? South Beach is a whole lot nicer than the beach area in Ft Lauderdale. But to each their own, we like to wake up, tour around where we are staying, have a late breakfast, check out late, and step on board at 1pm. Even IF we got there at 11am, and used porters, you are still lugging around your carry ons. Wandering around the ship with a backpack or two, doesn't sound that appealing. So we just take everything on at 12:30, walk to our cabin, unpack and done. Unless our muster station is between the boarding area and the elevators. And sometimes the restaurant is in the way, too- so a brief stop to check out our table... We also never go to the WJ. Pretty much the entire cruise.

Touring around and enjoying where we are. Makes for a brief extra vacation. Miami Beach is pretty nice in the morning.

The search engine uses the same popular TA as I have seen on line. And I've never encountered a "deal" for any of my cruises that Royal didn't offer. Maybe it's the time of year we cruise, dunno. Just did a mock booking for a cruise we just booked- same answer I got when I looked just before booking it on board. I'll keep trying, but not very hard.

Another one who does it all the time. It's really nice to be totally unpacked at 2pm, and not have to worry at 6pm if our last piece of luggage will show up or not. We also don't really understand the allure to be the first on the ship- you can do 3 things, eat, drink, and swim. While all of those can be fun, doing it at 11am vs. 1pm- not sure why it's *that* important.

It's exactly the same value. We would take the points and convert them later. You can use them as $300 or later for $500 off, or continue adding them up to other values.

Thank you, no, I don't. Not worth the time. When I see one of them present a price that was higher than what I would pay booking directly- tells me that they have their own shenanigans they play to make it look good.

We've also used the business cards that we have been given by crew. Don't bother buying one when people certainly have a good replacement in their possession.

We were just on her for 20 days, and would not hesitate to book again. That being said, you REALLY have to adjust your expectations. First thing we noticed was that our JS was smaller than the modern ships. Got used to that really quickly. And you have to really be able to create your own vacation, as there are less things to do. Maybe this would be the time to participate in events that you would not normally do. That's how we approach it. One other thing we had to kind of get used of were huge groups of friends cruising together. Which meant the Schooner Bar was super crowded at times. And when you are trying to listen to the piano, it can be a problem when you have a large group of older people who are speaking loudly both to talk over the entertainment and they have lost some hearing ability- it can get a little hard to like that. But you can find the times where they mostly leave. Given that pretty much all of these groups of friends are within a short drive to Baltimore- that's really why this ship is so highly rated internally. IMHO, the people want to maintain a ship in Baltimore as much as they can- so they will rate it as high as they possibly can. A thing we really like about this and other small ships is that it's easier to meet the entertainment cast and the rest of the public facing crew. Didn't really notice her being old- some rust here and there- just like every other ship. But she's pretty updated and nice. The upcoming dry dock next month isn't going to be much of an update inside- unless things are broken.

We LOVE those cabins, too. But there is one issue- the superstructure of the ship. This does get in the way of the view, but we don't think it's a big deal.

Either way, it's not free, as some seem to think it is. Charge to the Pinn, D+, D, or seapass card- it's like being at a normal bar. If they are in a GS or up, this whole thing is moot- they already have access and it's free.

If they want access to the SL that bad, go for it. That's a lot just to get into a place and sit to talk and eat more stuff. We certainly would not do that just to get into the SL - there's zero financial benefit for it. Maybe for CK. But to go through all that effort for CK? Ok... The number of people who actually go through all of that would be even smaller than the Pins who are sailing with friends in the same cabin.

Never been a problem for us.

FWIW, if you sail suites, I could not find any TA that would give better rates than directly. I recently tried a handful of them, one even gave me a higher bid that direct. The only way I'm seeing that TA's are a big help are to get group rates, so balcony and lower.

AND any drinks come off of the 6 on the Pinnacle's account.

I don't see this as a massive increase, or even a minor one. How many Pinns go on cruises with friends that are not Pinnacles and share a cabin? I see more solos than met Pinns that brought some random friend to share the cabin. This isn't about a spouse- since they are given the same status as the main person. This is about a friend.

Clearly, the answer is yes, or they would not be asking. It's not nearly as bad as you make it out to be- as we've been carrying on for +60 cruises now. But that's also not the question the OP was wondering about.

Funny- we were on Liberty and Symphony last December, and weather was a big issue. We missed ports because of it. That being said, the ship dealt with the weather fine, so Wonder should not be too bad, IF it's bad. There's a good chance the weather will be just fine after this year.

When we were on the Symphony in December, 5:30 was the actual time. We were just on a cruise where the official time as 5:15, but they told everyone 5- which was the time the doors opened. YMMV, but hope it's early.

It's been a while, but we have. A medium bag should not be a problem at all. The scanners are actually a little bigger than for airports, so that's a bonus. We just carried on a pretty bulky bag in Baltimore, no issues at all.

Well, for $7, we went both ways and didn’t have to pay again. With the wristband. This was about 2 weeks ago.

Just want to confirm this- we were there a couple of weeks ago, and the water taxi dropped us off at the pier in the middle of town- not at either end. Not sure if that's every taxi or not- maybe we got lucky. And the cost was $7 for round trip paying before, and if you just take it back- there's also a fee and they direct you to the ticket window as you depart the boat. That being said, had we been 100%, we would have walked. It's not long, just hot.

Nobody is "immune" to the unrest. But the unrest ISN'T happening at Cap Haitien right now. It's +5 hours away. You tell others to do their research, but somehow you are immune to your own requests? You should google Cap Haitien and check out the situation. I did. And the only recent news is about the voodo festival, and that local residents are keeping their eyes out for people coming from Port au Prince. Again, if you don't want to go, great, don't. If others feel that they are ok with it, why are you so insistent that they don't?

Yes, they would. We've been there when a 2nd ship had to delay their passengers to allow for a medivac. Which is a whole lot easier than doing it on the ship between Haiti and Cuba (which we've also been on a ship where that happened).

Not that some people care, but Royal pays Haiti $12/passenger, which adds up to about $700k/month. Not sure how much the market sells, but I'm betting it isn't that much. But the people who work there do get a salary, which I can't see just being taken by random criminals who are 7 hours away by drive.