brillohead

Because there aren't always open tables available to change to. That's why waitlists are created sometimes....

Just so you know, the "straw market" as such no longer exists. There are no locals selling their own wares. It's all little buildings/shacks selling commercial goods (usually made in China) and manned by Royal employees (who are "local residents" [citizens of the Bahamas] but not the actual proprietors of the stores). If you want to purchase "authentic Bahaman goods" you'll have to do it at another port.

I was discussing cruise expenses with my son yesterday (we're going on an Allure B2B in January after he finishes his Army contract). He's paying for all the expenses for him and his girlfriend, so we were going over all kinds of different line items. One of those line items was alcohol. For some context, my son is 22yo and in the Army, and his GF is 21yo and in the Marines. As one can imagine, they are no strangers to alcohol consumption in a social setting. We did the math, including taking into account that we will have three port days on each cruise (which are not Coco Cay or Labadee). He came to the conclusion that the DBP doesn't make sense for them, based on what they will be drinking and when/where they will be drinking it. It would POSSIBLY make sense for him on the first week (we'll have friends with us the first week who WILL have the DBP), but when you add in getting the Refreshment Package for his GF (since they'll be in the same room), that puts it way over the point where it makes financial sense. If a young adult can figure it out, you'd think that grown adults could figure it out! It works for some, it doesn't work for others. It's not rocket science, folks.

In my experience (13 cruises since the restart), it still seems that the inexperienced bartenders are the ones doing more closely measured pours, while experienced bartenders may have the jigger in their hand while they're pouring the liquor, they typically overflow the jigger and continue to pour liquor into the cup as they're pulling the dumped jigger away from the cup, resulting in a very heavy pour even though to the casual observer, they're "measuring" the liquor.

So glad that you were able to get it taken care of -- happy that the CC crew came through again!

Okay, that's just WEIRD.... what the heck, CC????

I'm trying to figure out the name of the town, since it was blanked out. Can you post it with a space between every letter so it goes through the filter?

I don't see that as the same thing at all.... they utilize the drink package because even with the free drinks, it's financially better for them to get the package. Why would you bother to use the free drink vouchers if you had the package anyway? (I guess you could use them to buy drinks for people around you, but you're under no obligation to do so.)

I thought that this was just a limitation due to Royal's ever-stellar IT department, and if you called (or booked through a TA), you had no problem booking it solo? @Ourusualbeach can you confirm if these are able to be booked solo through a TA without having to book a fake second person?

Yes to both. There are trees providing shade, plus many umbrellas, and chairs in sun and shade both -- all free/included. Pics below are from a couple weeks ago. View of the ship from the beach at Columbus Cove. The jet-skis in the foreground are in storage only; the actual jet-ski excursions take off from a point closer to the ship. View to the right from the center of the beach: View to the left from the center of the beach: View to the right from my chair a few rows back (my chair was under trees and umbrella for maximum shade): View to the left from my chair:

Better off than you were before still counts as a win! Hopefully you still get incremental improvement as time goes on and things continue to heal and rebuild!

I was gone for five weeks... I didn't even TRY to keep up while I was gone (you know what Explorer's wifi is like!). So, how's the knee doing?

I came to this thread specifically to see if someone had made this type of comment. CC does not disappoint! LOL

Symphony, Explorer, and Allure all had the Strawfish "biodegradable plastic" straws in April and May, but Explorer's first cruise out of Miami still had lots of paper straws because previously it cruised out of San Juan and was subject to fines if not using paper straws. By the second cruise on Explorer, though, all the bars had the Strawfish version.

I'm curious if the OP even understands what generates CO.... and if so, how on earth do they expect it to get into their cruise ship stateroom?

This is when it helps to have a TA....

I'm so glad the mobility accommodations you opted for made such a great difference for you! I often cruise with friends who are wheelchair-bound due, and they've always been treated well with Royal.

I gave up on trying to keep up with this thread while I was on my five cruises (especially since three of those five weeks were on Explorer with its awful internet).... did I miss anything important from April 23rd until now, or just more of the same good chit-chat and photos as ever?

I really think that Royal needs to put signage up on every single elevator door that reads, "please stand to the side and allow others to exit the elevator car before you enter". Not sure why grown adults need this pointed out to them, but it's been occurring regularly for years and years. They need another over the elevator call buttons that say, "if the elevator car is full, please wait until the doors have closed before pressing the call button again". I had one cruise where the doofus kept pushing the button over and over again, and I finally stuck my head out into the lobby and said, "our car will NEVER LEAVE so another one can come for you if you don't let the doors close before you push the button". And as someone else who was on this same cruise, I wish they'd put personnel at the top of the stairs during Mamma Mia to stop latecomers. I had people walking in front of me and the row in front of me AN HOUR AFTER THE SHOW STARTED to get to a seat. I'm not talking about people who were there from the beginning of the show and had to make a quick bathroom trip, or just a couple of people on time, I'm talking about more than half a dozen different groups of people who didn't show up until ten minutes to an hour into the production! How rude!!! It's not Royal's fault that people are rude idiots, but some signage and some stair-blockers would make the experience better for the rest of the passengers.

Not many longer cruises offered by larger ships. Not everyone wants to cruise for a long period of time on a tiny ship without the amenities of a bigger ship. (Personally, Voyager class is as small as I like to go.) And when there isn't a longer cruise to choose from, consecutive cruises (back to back or side to side, or a combination of both) are the way to go. As someone who has to fly to the port, each consecutive cruise I add on effectively reduces my per-cruise cost. A $1000 cruise with a $500 flight costs me $1500/cruise, but two $1000 cruises in a row with that same $500 flight costs me $1250/cruise.

For many people, the reason we CAN cruise is because we are frugal.

For future reference, the highest they will match is Diamond on RCL and Elite on Celebrity. Even Pinnacle on RCL only gets you to Elite on Celebrity, and vice versa with Celebrity's upper levels only matching to Diamond on RCL.

Nope, never had any variant, unless I had the original back in January 2020 before we knew that this was going to be made into a big deal. (Early January I had what I assumed at the time was influenza -- fever, fatigue, cough -- unsure which it was, don't really care, as the treatment for both was the same: rest and fluids.) I've only been regular-vaccinated, no boosters at all. Meh, for the vast majority of the population, it's only ever been the equivalent of a regular cold. I understand the need for extra protective measures for those at risk (elderly, immunocompromised, comorbidities), but the general population hasn't had nearly as much to fear as the media and government have wanted us to believe. JMHO

Everyone is allowed to vacation how they want. Not the way I want to spend my money, but it works for them.

What I did on my last move was go the night before and meet the room attendant for my future room (note, they may or may not be the room attendant for your sailing as well -- they often get assigned to new areas). I explained the situation, and that morning I brought my luggage to the new room myself at 8:00, and the room attendant let me put it in the empty closet. Then when B2Bers were allowed back onto the ship, I was able to go right to my room and unpack instead of having to wait until later in the afternoon when it got moved for me. Note: if you're moving rooms and have door decorations, DO NOT put the decorations on your new door until the afternoon. The crews that strip the rooms will assume that the door decorations were left behind by the previous passengers, not newly-placed by the new passengers, and they will be discarded.