jbrinkm

Sometimes TAs will have a block of rooms available that don't show on the Royal website.

The people at Maya Chan said they are having trouble finding staff.

We were stopped just off the ship while a Celebrity cruise docked. They were wrestling some huge ropes around in the walking space between our RCI ship and the port. Took about 20 minutes and then they let the whole crowd that had built up go ahead.

This was us too - we bought aloe with lidocaine in port in Mexico and it was probably 4x-5x what we would have paid for a similar bottle at home.

@nelblu - you were able to convert your OBC to cash through Guest Services? I have always read that you can only do it in the casino. Did they charge you a fee?

Jaime's did offer us a PAYG option when we were there last year, even though they encourage AI. If you email him, you could ask. It probably depends on how busy they are that day...

We used them almost exclusively for 4-5 years for our usual flights that were anywhere from 2 hours to 4 hours. We were very happy with them and never had a problem. Then before our April 2022 cruise, they changed our flight where we would have missed our cruise so we spent 6 hours on the phone to get a hold of someone to switch our flight. They didn't even notify us - I found out because someone else posted that their flight times changed and I went and checked. THEN they changed the weight limit at the last minute for checked suitcases to 40 pounds (down from 50) which really screwed us. We wanted to just do one 28" suitcase for each of us (2 adults, 2 teens) and then a backpack or other personal item. We ended up having to scramble to add 2 additional carry on suitcases, and our big ones weren't even full after we pulled 10 pounds out of each. Now I tend to not even bother looking at them because the cost to add suitcases and seat assignments basically puts them in the same price range as the bigger airlines. Plus all that uncomfortableness in the tiny, hard seats, as has been mentioned. You might be fine, and in your situation you may still save a bunch of money. I hope so! Turns out that JetBlue and Spirit are merging and not Frontier (at least not yet...).

We were there in April 2022. Felt very safe. Pricing was quite a bit different from what it is now, but we had no concerns whatsoever. I don't think many of the warnings apply to Western Caribbean cruise ports. We did have a taxi driver try to convince us to go a beach club that we didn't want to go to, but it just felt underhanded, not dangerous. He never actually tried to drive us somewhere we didn't want to go - just lied to us about one club in order to (I assume) try get a kickback from the other place.

The charges on my cc are still showing as pending, so I'm wondering if it will even be a refund situation or rather just a "charges will drop off" situation. I know it is different for those of you waiting for OBC to be reinstated...

Not a very professional letter... there are other grammatical and punctuation errors in it as well. They were clearly in a hurry to get this out!

"interest"

How soon after booking or how close to your cruise date do they typically check in to tell you what you need to do to find the transportation and any other important details?

Yes, the under-21s are unable to purchase the package under their own names (greyed out) because of the champagne and wine that are part of this deal, but I think for those of us with kids & teens, we mostly just want to include them as part of the internet deal. It sounds to me like each Premier Pass includes a one-person, two-device Voom package so each adult buying this package can use their second device for someone under 21 with no problem. Bonus if we can include them in priority boarding.

If you aren't sure if you want one or two packages, just purchase the second package separately in a different transaction. Then it is easy to cancel later.

Please report back if you get answers to let us know!

I bought two packages also hoping this will be the case - we have our teens in a separate room as well. Really want the 4 internet packages for this price. The other stuff looks really nice, but Voom alone saves us about half of what we paid at Black Friday prices. Not cancelling our regular Internet package yet though...

Oh yeah - it's bad. Much worse than the last time I was on there...

I'm on Allure in April. Reservations opened up 29 days before the cruise. It was not the first of the month. Two days later, I got the email saying shows were available for reservations. The same day our reservations opened up, I saw someone post that their reservations also opened up for their cruise the week after ours. It appears to be very, very random at this point and the best strategy is to just keep checking.

Thanks, we'll consider it.

Unfortunately, not during the summer dates when we are available. That would have been the perfect solution!

Maybe Playa Mia? I haven't been there but I know they have an area called Buccaneer's Bay that the littles can enjoy. Or perhaps Chankanaab, the National Marine park. Not a party atmosphere at all.

We have typically been a RCI family for our cruises, but I'm stumped with Alaska and willing to branch out if there is a better option. RCI offers old, small ships that do one way tours, but I think my teens will be bored after day 3 (we've only done Freedom and Oasis class with them so that is what they are used to). The new, fun ships do round trips from Seattle, but we'd love to add a few days to see Denali National Park, so we'd really like to find a one way cruise. Is there a ship from another cruise line that you would recommend that does one-way trips and also has a few bells & whistles on the ship for the teens?

That sounds like a horrible experience. Could you say more about what you mean about the shuttles? I wasn't exactly clear on what specifically the problem was with the shuttles - which ones couldn't stand with signs? Companies like Galveston Express and Galveston Limousine that have an hourly shuttle? What about private transfers - could they stand somewhere with name signs? Were there problems for those that had reservations, that they couldn't figure out where to go, or just that people couldn't decide to take a private shuttle if they hadn't prebooked? Was that because of Royal or because of the shuttle company? I'd really love to understand the private shuttle situation better at this port.

Not an RC excursion but we did one through viator last year, run by Roatan Getaway Tours. They went to AJs and then the French Cay marine park -ish area for snorkeling. The snorkeling there was easy/beginner - very warm, clear, shallow water, but not too many fish (mostly lobsters and conch). It was really pleasant to float around in, but not the most exciting in terms of what you can see. We really enjoyed the tour company and booked them again this year for a full day private tour that includes a 3 reef snorkel, ziplining, AJs again and the chocolate factory. Their policy is to have you back to the ship 2 hours before departure and they are very responsive if you fill out the form on their site or email them.

The cabanas at The Cabana Beach have a ceiling fan (and an electrical plug) that does help a bit, plus obviously you're in the shade. The space around you is sandy, but the entry into the water is metal steps because you're on the rocky part of the island. If you like snorkeling, there are lots of colorful fish as soon as you get into the water there - that is the biggest advantage IMO to being in that location rather than the sandy entry into the water that you find further south at the popular beach clubs. There are also some hammocks around if you want to use them. The wait staff will come around and take orders, but it is not a huge place so there won't be dedicated staff for one cabana; there is just general wait staff around working the bar and the kitchen. We didn't eat much there, but from what we did have, I didn't find the food to be that great. If you want to go into Chankanaab, the higher # cabana are closer to the "border" (i.e. rope) that separates the two spaces. They may have taken that down now because everyone has to buy an individual guest pass that includes admission to the park when you book a cabana. When we went, the admission was optional but we did purchase the passes so we had a separate ticket to Chankanaab from the Cabana Beach.