First cruise in 5 days, some questions

[glenn29]

Hello all, I've been reading the boards for weeks now, just registered today and figured I would post and ask my few (hopefully simple) questions.

 

I did try and search for answers but wasn't successful or found conflicting information, so I figured I'd find out what all the people in the RCCL forum felt.

 

We are cruising on the Majesty of the Seas out of Miami (4 nights) on the 27th of April. Ports are Nassau, CoccoCay and Key West. My GF has cruised before but this is my first and I'm very excited.

 

We got an interior room on deck 5 all the way at the back of the ship (is that Aft?). I'm prepared for a very small room and I'm fine with that, don't plan on being there much except to sleep and shower.

 

OK, so I'll get right to my questions, hopefully someone has some insight for me, nothing super important, just things I'd like to know.

 

Does anyone have some insight on staying on deck 5 on the Majesty? Good or bad?

 

Can I bring cans of soda and or bottles of water on board with me? If so how much can I bring? I assume this would be with my check baggage. If I bring a case of water for instance, do I pack it in my bag, or do I put it with my bags somehow tagged with our room number and name?

 

I found information about tipping (about $10 a day). My question is, on a 4 night cruise is that $40 per person or $50 per person? Technically it's 5 days, although the 5th we are only on board till the morning. I'm ok with it either way, just would like to know the norm in this area.

 

Has anyone stayed at the Rodeway Inn at Port of Miami? It's got terrible reviews on another site, but the hotel and $5 per night parking was cheaper then parking at the terminal alone, and since we are driving down from NY we definitely need a place to stay the night, I'm not looking for anything deluxe, just don't want critters around.

 

Thanks so much for all the information I've already learned form all of you by reading these boards. You are all just so full of information and willing to share it, i think that's great, and hope to be able to add some of my own tips and tricks someday.

[Loyal2RCCL]

Your cabin on deck 5 will be very small, but should be quiet.

 

You can bring water and soft drinks onboard. If you don't want to pack them in your luggage you can attach a bag tag to the case and send them along with the checked bags.

 

The gratuity will be $40.00.. it goes by the number of nights of the cruise not days..

 

Don't know anything about the Rodeway.. but some of those franchised hotels in Miami can be scary.

[Sue L]

Try the Holiday Inn Downtown, port of Miami, decent hotel and very close to the pier.

[glenn29]

Thanks for the quick replies. I will check out the Holiday Inn suggestion. I will also know how to send my water on board.

 

I did just have a scary thought. We only booked this cruise last week. Are we supposed to get some kind of cruise documents in the mail? I have the stuff we printed online and planned on checking in tonight. Is this something I should be worried about, or be calling RCCL about? We leave NY on Saturday so if we are waiting on mail hopefully it will be here soon.

[cb at sea]

The last morning doesn't count--you'll find out why! They will rush you off the ship ASAP--all of the good service you've come to expect disappears when you go to bed on the last evening....

Tips are per night!

You don't need much (if any) water--the ship's water is fine to drink, and you won't be going to any ports with "iffy" water!

[QLUVS2CRUZ]

 

 

OK, so I'll get right to my questions, hopefully someone has some insight for me, nothing super important, just things I'd like to know.

 

Does anyone have some insight on staying on deck 5 on the Majesty? Good or bad? I haven't been on the Majesty, so I can't say for sure about the deck, but it should be fine. You may feel a little more movement aft than you would midship, but most people don't notice a huge difference. You also have the advantage of being a little closer to the water than the upper decks, which helps stabilize a bit.

 

Can I bring cans of soda and or bottles of water on board with me? If so how much can I bring? I assume this would be with my check baggage. If I bring a case of water for instance, do I pack it in my bag, or do I put it with my bags somehow tagged with our room number and name? We usually put our soda and water in a bag. When we sailed on another cruise we had to do this, couldn't just put a luggage tag on it, so from then on we've just stuck them in our checked bag. You can probably just stick a luggage tag on it, but you could also take a small zipper bag or something just in case. We don't take a lot of water, because the ship water is good. We take diet coke and such so we don't have to buy the soda package. We usually take a 12 fridge pack.

 

I found information about tipping (about $10 a day). My question is, on a 4 night cruise is that $40 per person or $50 per person? Technically it's 5 days, although the 5th we are only on board till the morning. I'm ok with it either way, just would like to know the norm in this area. $40 per person; however, you will want to have some cash on hand if you get room service (those people aren't in the tip pool). I usually tip about $4 for room service. I think they've instituted a service charge for the wee hours of the morning, so that would be up to you if you want to tip above that charge.

 

Has anyone stayed at the Rodeway Inn at Port of Miami? It's got terrible reviews on another site, but the hotel and $5 per night parking was cheaper then parking at the terminal alone, and since we are driving down from NY we definitely need a place to stay the night, I'm not looking for anything deluxe, just don't want critters around. We stayed in a Hilton in Miami, but we had our car, so we didn't have to stay right near the port. Holiday Inn is near but expensive.

 

Thanks so much for all the information I've already learned form all of you by reading these boards. You are all just so full of information and willing to share it, i think that's great, and hope to be able to add some of my own tips and tricks someday.

 

Have a great time on your cruise!

[temple1]

Thanks for the quick replies. I will check out the Holiday Inn suggestion. I will also know how to send my water on board.

 

I did just have a scary thought. We only booked this cruise last week. Are we supposed to get some kind of cruise documents in the mail? I have the stuff we printed online and planned on checking in tonight. Is this something I should be worried about, or be calling RCCL about? We leave NY on Saturday so if we are waiting on mail hopefully it will be here soon.

 

Welcome to the boards, Glenn. Don't forget to visit the Roll Call page for your cruise. You will meet some great people over there.

 

You don't need anything in the mail. You can take care of everything on line. Just go through the check list on the RCI website and you will be fine. When you are done you can print your set sail pass and that along with your id's is all you need to have. That will also help answer some of your questions.

 

Have a great cruise.

[sailingawaysoon]

Have a great cruise! I know you will be hooked after the first one. Just a thought, there are a bunch of neat bars/restaurants in Key West that have webcams. If you do a google you can probably find which ones, or ask when you are there...anyway, what we did was find one and texted our friends back home and they got a kick out of seeing us mid-week on the webcam. Anyway, just something humorous we did after having too much to drink in Key West. Have fun and let us know how it was when you return!

[ladylikes2cruise]

We will also been on the same cruise with the both of you.:D

All you will need is your setsail pass, so make sure you fill it out and print when its complete.

Warning, do not wait, as the window will close on the chance three days before the cruise (24th:confused:) and you will have to fill everything at the cruiseport by hand.

We were on the Majesty last year on the 5th deck, found it very nice as you be near everytihing in the heart of the ship (shops, casino, etc.).

Only, if my memory recalls (and I'm very likely to be wrong:p) deck 5 and 6 only go to the mid of the ship kinda like a split deck, so it may not be a true aft room.

Everyone is correct about water and soda, we just put a sixpack of each in a small sportsbag.

Can't help you with the inn, as I have family in ft lauderdale and stay with them mostly, but we once had to stay at the redroof inn airport and it was fine, had a free shuttle to the port.

Take care driving down, and we'll see ya soon onboard:cool:

[unklez]

Yes you can take as many cans of soda and bottles of water on board. If you want to just shrink wrap them and tag them with your name and room number that should be fine. By the way filtered water is available free on ship and tastes great. They charge you for bottled water though. Also, for soda they usually sell on day 1 and 2, a soda which will cost you like $6.90 per day (times 5) for unlimited soda. If you are into budget mode, get only 1 soda card for the 2 of you. Probably safer than carrying cans of soda which could get break and mess up your other stuff.

 

Re the tips, the cruise is counted as 5 nights, so the "suggested" tips would be $50/person. You can of course pay more or less depending on the service. Do not forget that the dining room wait staff and the room steward work very hard to make your vacation fun and a major part of their income is tips. Unless the head waiter provides some special service, you can forgo his tip.

[amybeth4]

I was in cabin 5077, which is more centrally located. I could hear muffles of people talking next door, but that was the only sound I heard. Deck 5 is good because it's near everything (except the Windjammer cafe and pool, of course).

 

The room will be tiny but it's only 4 nights.

 

The Roadway Inn is probably pretty crappy. If I remember correctly, it's right near the airport and I think it's like down the block from the Comfort Inn, where I stayed. My room was $130 including tax, in Feb. The hotel was fine and probably better than the Roadway.

 

The above-mentioned Holiday Inn is right by the pier. Hotels by the pier are more expensive than by the airport. However, it's also by Bayside, which is full of little shops and restaurants, while the hotels by the airport (there's a whole street of them) have NOTHING nearby, except like an IHOP, a McDonald's, junk like that.

 

A taxi from the hotels by the pier is about $8-$10, while by the airport are $25-$30. As far as I know, some hotels have port shuttles, but they're not free.

 

The Comfort Inn has a shuttle but it's run by a different company. You have to sign up the night before with the bellman. It's $10/person. I was alone so I went for the $10 shuttle instead of the $28 cab but for two people, maybe it's best to take a cab so you're not at the mercy of the shuttle's departure times, which is like once an hour!

 

Grrr.

[amybeth4]

Re the tips, the cruise is counted as 5 nights, so the "suggested" tips would be $50/person. You can of course pay more or less depending on the service. Do not forget that the dining room wait staff and the room steward work very hard to make your vacation fun and a major part of their income is tips. Unless the head waiter provides some special service, you can forgo his tip.

 

Don't confuse him! It's four nights. $40. :)

[glenn29]

Thank you everybody for all the info. I'm feeling better already.

 

SailingAway, we will definitely find one of those bars with the webcams, my friends will get a big kick out of that, it's not even an international call to let them know we are on.

 

LadyLikesToCruise we'll see you guys on the ship, not long now :)

[unklez]

Don't confuse him! It's four nights. $40. :)

 

LOL ik. I had misread the original question. You are right.

[amybeth4]

I'm glad this thread came up to validate me. It had been a while since I previously cruised, so on my last cruise (4 nights) I tipped $40 but kind of wondered if $50 was proper. My justification was I was there Monday to Friday so the steward cleaned up my mess Tue morning, Wed, Thu and Fri. That's 4 X 10. (Or you could say he was "my steward" Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu and then I handed him over to the next cruiser on Fri for THAT person to tip him.)

 

Whew. :)

[pcur]

If you're interested in my newbie cruise guide that I wrote a while back for my sister, email me at pcurri at yahoo dot com, and I'll send it to you. It's in pdf format. Just sent one out this morning to someone from CruiseCritic!

 

We were just on the Majesty from 4/6 to 4/10 and had a WONDERFUL cruise. You will really enjoy her.