PrincessArlena'sDad

One free bag of laundry is a perk of staying in a suite. That's how we got it. Diamond/platinum also get free laundry.

Do you mean leave the stuff at the hotel... or the kids?

FTTF gets to board before general boarding, but only if they get an early arrival time. If they are not able to get an early arrival time, they will board upon arrival, just those without priority do. They can use the priority line, but, with the enforced arrival times, the priority line isn't that much shorter than the general line. I didn't say there is no benefit to FTTF. As you said, you still get early cabin access, debarkation priority, guest services priority, etc. But, FTTF having to stick to the arrival time, and not getting the extra two days, results in getting less for your money for FTTF.

I'm doing the CoC dance! (That's code of conduct email I just got)

On the horizon we made use of the free bag of laundry. We stuffed it to bursting. We got 3 bags back the next day (we didn't send it out until late afternoon). Very nicely folded and smelled freshly cleaned. No issues.

If FTTF has to stick to the arrival time, but doesn't get the 16 day check in, the priority benefit is highly diluted.

Thanks!

You should add suites to your list of those who are allowed to drop off their carry ons.

It actually stated a couple years prior to covid.

This is correct. You get them in your cabin mailbox, placed there by the steward when the cabins are ready. Until then, you use your boarding pass to make purchases (and sign in for muster).

Ha! Only time we completely missed a port was our January, 2016 cruise to the Bahamas. We couldn't dock in Freeport because of the wind.

I just did check in a few days ago. I stayed up till midnight (eastern time) to get the earliest arrival time; I got 10am- mission accomplished. And that's all I did that night. When you start the process, you'll see a list of items on the right. Just click arrival time, click your time, and hit save. Then I closed out and finished in the morning. It only took a few minutes to finish. You'll need your passport (if you are using one), flight info (if you are flying), and credit card (if using for sail and sign). Not a big deal.

It's free, self-guided, do it yourself. However, it does have museums on the list of things to see, which you can choose to go into, or not. Those have a cost, obviously. We also went by tons of shops, restaurants, and such, that we could choose to stop in at our leisure. We didn't come close to finishing it. Actually, less than halfway. We hope to get back to Curacao one day to finish the tour!

We were just at both Curacao and Aruba. For Curacao, I highly recommend a DIY walking tour of the city. Here's a link to the one we did: Architectural Walking Guide - Historic Willemstad | Curacao, the Caribbean Getaway For Aruba, we went to De Palm Island. Also, highly recommended. We did the sea trek helmet dive, but they also have a snuba trip and a beach day. Let me know if you have questions about either idea.

I'm not at single digits... but anyone mind if I do the 10 day dance? 😆🤣

Update to "Tales of a Garment Bag" The online tracking information had no new information. And Rynn's luggage did not respond to the online email form I sent in on Monday. So, I resorted to an old-fashioned phone call. The guy I spoke to was friendly. He thanked me for calling and said that because the claim had been sitting there for over a week now, he could expedite it. The frame of the garment bag was cracked and cannot be fixed or replaced. Therefore, they are ordering me a new one from Macy's, which will be shipped to my house. He said I should expect delivery Monday or Tuesday next week and will have a tracking number by the end of this week. I will be happy if I get it by Thursday. I pack our elegant outfits the night before anyway, to minimize wrinkles. As if sitting in the garment bag for 3 days will be so much better than sitting in the bag for 4 or 5 days. The power of self-delusion! I think I'll be optimistic about the resolution for this and start filling out the claim forms for our travel insurance. But, with a touch of pessimism, I'll wait until receiving our new garment bag before submitting the claim. I feel I should give a toast to the demise of our garment bag. It served us well for five years, but sadly spent most of its life in the back of our storage closet, waiting for Covid to end.

We're sailing on the Glory, Sunday departure (Aug 13). We have a 10am arrival time. We plan on driving to the port, and parking in the Erato terminal garage. I'm trying to figure out what time we need to leave the hotel that morning, which is in Hattiesburg, MS - an hour and forty-five minute drive. How much time should I budget for traffic near the port, waiting in the line to pay, waiting to drop off checked bags, finding a spot, and taking the elevator down. My gut says we should plan on seeing the creepy mask over the entrance to Mardi Gras World around 9:15 (and pull out of the hotel at 7:30). Too early? Too late? Just about right? Thanks!

Midnight buffet is back as of this month, actually. But, I don't know how it compares to the old one.

I don't know about this situation in particular. But, in the past, I had a price drop after I paid in full. They wouldn't give me a refund, insteadi gott refundable on board credit. I used it up, so no test on how I would get it back. If the same happens to you, you'll use the non refundable credit first, then the refundable.

Just to clarify, the $500 cards have $5 shipping, so that nets a 7% savings.

I remember that. The problem was they included both prints and digital. If it was just digital, it probably would have been fine. Disney cruise makes a fortune in photos. Their prices are high, but reasonable. I think it's $300 for unlimited digital, down to $150 for ten photos. I wouldn't be surprised if over half the ship gets the unlimited.

On the Horizon, it took almost a half hour. They checked us in, and asked us to have a seat. They waited until about 30 people were there before doing the demonstration on how to put on a life jacket. The demonstration took over 5 minutes. Then we had to wait for them to give us the green wristband (for kids 11 and under). There were a few people waiting when we got there, and they said they had been waiting for a bit before we arrived. We had boarded at 10:45, dropped off our carry ons in our suite, had lunch between 11 and 12, and arrived at muster just after noon. So, don't count on it taking just a couple of minutes.

You don't have to go right away after boarding. You can have lunch first. I think they asked everyone to do the muster by 3pm. I would suggest that if you board early, eat lunch first before lido gets crowded. If you board later, do the muster first and eat when lido gets less crowded.

My take is that they completely slashed the program in an attempt to increase profits, and the result was members stopped using it, resulting in the program no longer being financially viable.

Spirit class also has three pools on Lido, only the aft pool is Serenity for adults. Having the two midship pools is really nice. Conquest class only has one midship pool. I guess it would make sense to have the aft pool be adults only during school, when there aren't that many kids. However, during vacation time, there are too many kids to expect them all to use the one midship pool, and therefore it would make sense to make the aft pool for kids also. I don't know if they actually do this, but it would make sense.