SG65CB

39 minutes ago, CruiseBride926 said:

On the bright side Disney is wonderful this time of year 😬

Yes but he'll be lonely there by himself. 

2 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Factual oddities, 21 million people have the exact same birthdate.

Yes, but how many have the exact same first and middle name? 

Basically the in transit pass will allow you to leave the ship, go on your tour, then get back on the ship without having to check in like the new passengers. You will only have to go through security when you get back to the ship. When you have your back-to-back cruiser meeting ask them how to get off the ship and go on your tour without going through customs or waiting in customs line - usually they bring a customs officer on board to process the back-to-back cruisers so you won't ened to go through customs again.

The birth certificate and driver's license will have the same date of birth, helping validate the identity as the same person. 

Question for you: has she ever been on a Royal Caribbean cruise?

Question for others: If a person has never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise can they become Diamond before they have any points? Do they need to take cruise first and become gold before inheriting diamond?

It's easy to get this done on your next cruise, visit the loyalty ambassador during office hours (listed in the Cruise Compass) and they will switch her to diamond. You'll be able to get her a new diamond Sea Pass card right away on that cruise. In person can be easier than phone calls. 

2 hours ago, poocher said:

8 suitcases for 4 people?!!

One checked bag and one carry on. It's pretty standard here in the US. 

We put the carry-on bag inside the checked bag and slide it under the bed. 27-29 inch bags. Eight suitcases for four people fit under the bed. 

Odyssey for the same reasons as everyone else - More days, lower cost, preferred itinerary, more convenient departure port. 

My thoughts: you want to sail on Mariner, and I think you should definitely do it. You'll have a great cruise and won't be kicking yourself thinking you could have had a grand suite. Yes GS is better on Oasis class, but you wouldn't be in GS on Wonder so it's a moot point. Voyager class ships offer a great cruise experience. 

Early traditional dining, late traditional dining, or My Time dining are selected at the time you book the cruise. You can switch between these options but you need to call your travel agent or RC (depending on where you booked your cruise) to change the option. At this late date it might be too late to switch, often they'll say the option you want to switch to is full.

If you do select My Time Dining during booking then you can reserve dining times in the app. The traditional options have a fixed time and you will have an assigned table noted on your SeaPass card - no need to wait in line at the dining room, just walk in and go to your assigned table. 

For priority boarding you still need to reserve a time to arrive just like any cruise. They will tell you it's OK to arrive up to an hour before that time. The priority occurs at the terminal where there will be a separate line to get into the terminal and a separate check-in area. Also, if you are checked in before boarding starts, you will have a separate place to wait and be among the first to board. 

At the pool there is a separate area of chairs for suite guests. You will need a suite SeaPass card to use this area. Make sure everyone in your party brings their card, I have seen crew go through and make sure everyone sitting in this area is in a suite. I have also seen the suite concierge do this. The specific chairs are not reserved, they are available on a first-come first-served basis. 

Mixed drinks including rum and coke are generally $14. 

I only see a few possible expenses. One is cash gratuities if you want to give something extra to your cabin attendant, waiters. etc. 

Pre-cruise transportation and hotel, post-cruise transportation. Parking fees if you are driving to the port.

The other expense is a big one and hard to gauge, and that is expenses at each port of call. 

Need to know more to be able to budget for this expense. Are you going to book excursions? Are you going to go on your own to the beach? Walk around the immediate port area and get back on the ship?

I think the biggest risk is in the Windjammer, not a particular food. You use the same serving utensils as everyone else, then eat without washing your hands. This is not as big a risk now because they force everyone to wash their hands on the way in. But it still bothers me when someone uses a serving utensil and then places it in the tray of food with the handle touching the food. 

50 minutes ago, Turk1 said:

Is anyone using a specific app for WiFi calling? Believe she has iPhone.

You don't need an app for WiFi calling, it is built into the phone and you turn it on via the phone's settings.

Instruction guides and videos are readily available, for example:

https://www.hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-enable-wifi-calling-on-iphone

Do you need WiFi calling enabled for texting? Or only if you want to make voice calls?

If you plan to use WiFi calling you should set it up and test it at home. Make sure it works on your phone and with your carrier. Some carriers require E911 setup when you turn on WiFi calling the first time.  

Buy the one person two device package. It costs less and the only difference is you will share the same login ID and password. 

The only advantage to people having their own separate one-device account has to do with technicalities where each person is using more than one device and switching back and forth, it's easier to switch devices without accidentally kicking someone else off if each is on their own account. 

Just rub a bunch of Ben Gay on that shoulder. But please don't sit near me in the theater.

Last month on Voyager I asked for rum punch twice - two different days and bars - and the two drinks were made differently from each other. Maybe one was old recipe and one new? Maybe each bartender has their own recipe? Both had a bunch of ingredients in a cup, shaken with ice, then poured through a strainer into a glass. 

On 4/4/2023 at 1:07 PM, fishiecrackers said:

I'm not sure what I would even want to spend it on once we're on board, as we're not planning on specialty dining or anything like that.

Unless you have prepaid your gratuities the daily gratuities will be charged to your account and will use up any OBC that is in your account. 

Junior Suite on Freedom. 

How much do you drink? Happy hour in the suite lounge includes unlimited drinks. We have a couple before dinner, and a couple more after dinner before the show. Four drinks a day times $14 times 7 days plus 18% gratuity is $462 per person in free drinks. We obviously don't buy a drink package. 

1 hour ago, Katems75 said:

Are you saying you can get into the porter line even if you don't hire a porter?  What exactly does the porter do?

The porter puts all your bags onto his cart and takes them out to the street for you. 100% tip-based work, and to make sure they can make as much money as  possible they are allowed to bring their customers to the front of the customs line. You cannot use the porter line if you are not with a porter. 

If you want the old style lines then sail out of San Juan. There a porter will save you from a long wait in line. So will a Suite or Pinnacle Sea Pass card. 

Facial recognition systems fix all this. 

There can be a line to get off the ship since you need to have your SeaPass scanned, then another line to go through customs. 

Once you are off the ship and pick up your bags, if you hire a porter to transport your bags they will take you to a separate customs line and bypass all the people waiting to go through customs. Grand Suite and above passengers along with Pinnacle members have a separate line to bypass the crowd waiting to go through customs too.  

In ports like Miami it is so quick to go through customs using facial recognition that they do not need separate lines.