LeeW

Normally takes about a week for points to get recorded. You will want to take cruise docs/card from first cruise to second cruise Loyalty Ambassador who may get them applied quickly and give you updated status on second cruise. Doesn't always work, though.

The question is whether the $400 for key is better than paying for lesson time on flowrider. BIL takes lessons on every cruise to get more time.

Radiance had a couple of speakers giving presentations up and back last fall. Nothing like the naturalist that narrated a lot of the days on Princess. Think they did bring sled dog onboard at one port.

Old post but FAA frowns on pressurized bottles on aircraft. These normally need to be shipped via ground. So anyone flying to a port would have a problem.

Since you are cruising for the ports, you win. You will notice less gaudy environment.

Water available from any bar or in buffet. Buffet has "juices" which are flavored waters and lemonade. Sodas with soda package (coke, diet, soda water sometimes ginger ale currently $8.99/day) are from a gun, unless the gun isn't working. Canned sodas are always extra, around $3.50/can with tip. You can order canned sodas precruise for around $12/6-pack. You can bring 12 cans onboard. I don't believe that Mariner has the Coke Freestyle machine that lets you get over 40 flavors with a special cup, so soda package will be limited in what you get.

You are reading the wrong blogs. We never prepay and only do Mytime.

Onboard credit is onboard credit. On slot machines you just do a room charge and it adds that amount to your stateroom bill. OBC reduces that bill. Note that nothing will prevent you from spending more than the OBC you have from the credit card.

Lots of nights missing steak. Not a good sign.

Not sure I have ever seen a wine listed as "house white". You can see the wine lists if you look on the app for the restaurant/bar you are going to. Sometimes they are out of a particular brand. On the app go to the page where you select which cruise you are on, at the bottom select the ship list instead of your cruise and then Jewel. Select the current sailing and you can see what people on the ship are seeing.

This is the standard location if you are doing a cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. We had a chance to meet some of the Gator Boys when we stopped there. Airport dropoff tour is really too short to do airboat, gator show, pet the gator, shop, eat, ... Agree that going on your own is better but they don't have a place to store your luggage. And this location isn't anywhere close to a National Park visitor center.

Selection at the Freestyle machines (4 at Windjammer entrances, 2 at Sorrentos pizza, 1 in Wipeout Cafe) is much better than bars. Bars only have guns with Coke, Diet, soda water and maybe ginger ale. Bars will rinse and fill your special cup if you want to use that. Freestyle machines require the cup.

Pre-covid Allure had two different ice shows and two aqua shows. No reservations possible for the alternate shows and their timing was such that they were half empty. In October Allure had two sessions of the Aqua show and they were working on a new show. We happened to go to both and while the theme was the same they were quite different. The ice show was offered multiple times and as far as I know was the same. Their updated version of the Monopoly show was much improved on the original but still recognizable.

You do know that US citizens don't need a passport for a closed circuit cruise to the Bahamas. If you need to renew a passport you have to send in your old one (can't do the emergency route with the online application) or your birth certificate for a new one. I don't see anything on the state department site defining "Urgent Foreign Travel" but you need to call them to schedule an appointment at a passport agency and then get to the agency. We just renewed our passports and were planning on using birth certificates for a cruise in February if they didn't arrive on time. It took 7 weeks exactly from when they received our applications on Nov 8. Probably half of the folks cruising these days use birth certificates.

We sailed there twice on Vision from Galveston. Interesting port with long jetty to the ship requiring a bus to get to town. Great place to visit ruins like Uxmal and Chichen Itza. If I had to guess the problem is bus capacity. They don't have much turnaround space at the port end and buses were having to wait partway down the jetty for the two buses at the end to fill and depart. Long lines even with just Vision in port, especially when ship tours were loading.

Lines like Princess close one side to reset for another meal. Royal closes the whole buffet for quite a while between meals.

Ours have taken about 4 days after a cruise to post.

Common due to covid during 2021 but haven't seen any in last year. Exception is the Hubbard Glacier Explorer, which boards directly from the ship and sails much closer to the glacier - there is no port there. Around $399pp last fall so we were not interested. As I recall there sometimes is a similar one if the ship is going into Tracy Arm.

Kind of liked the sheets, but the pillow keeps slipping around. And they are warm - like flannel. Try the Giza Dream Sheets - much better and cheaper. Coupons not worth much (unless you were going to buy at those stores anyway) but wife did win a massage. Problem was there were no appointments left for the cruise.....

Quick Shuttle picks up from pier and then several hotels before heading to the US. You get to take all your luggage off the bus and have it scanned at the border. Couple of stops, including casino on US side and some downtown hotels and ends at Seatac Airport. Left at 9 when we took it and total time to airport was around 5 hours. The problem we have had with car rentals is that Avis northbound has no dropoff charge but southbound was over $100. So we rent going north and bus going south if we are flying into Seatac. We have also taken 2 day Princess cruises from Seattle to Vancouver, stayed a few days and then taken a different ship south to LA. Also have take ship from Seattle to Vancouver, stayed a few days and then taken Vancouver to Whittier Alaska cruise - you can't stay on the same ship due to PVSA but can switch ships.

Checkin typically opens around midnight port location on checkin day. With app you can skip everything and just get the port arrival time and fill in rest later. Online has you do personal data, credit card, emergency contact, passport/id and photos before you do the arrival time. If you have security photos and photos of passport on your computer you can use those.

In October Allure had fixed seating in the MTD dining room at 5. We had 6:30 MTD reservations but they really weren't sending anyone in until about 6:45. Sometimes we had to wait for the table, latest was around 7:15. In theory the fixed seating folks could get in until 5:15, but sometimes they didn't show up until later. Lots of folks both in the MTD reservation line and non-reservation line were taken up to another level that had open tables. Our son did that on another cruise on Allure and seldom waited more than 10 minutes.

Typical balcony cabin on Symphony will have a couple of 110v US outlets at desk and 220v European outlet. Ours had another 220v under the desk that powered a multi outlet insert into the desk (3 US, couple of USB). Problem with most outlets is that they are clustered too close together to fully use them unless you have narrow plugs. There is also an outlet behind the TV that you might be able to reach.

Turquoise Bay is an AI resort on the NE end of Roatan. Fairly long bus trip from Coxen Hole. Three levels of experience, normal (chairs/umbrellas with food and drinks), VIP which has enclosed beach beds and upgraded lunch and the overwater bungalow. We did the standard and photo below shows all three levels. Water is smooth bottom, no decent snorkeling. Restrooms closer to the VIP area on a upper level shelf. Food at normal level was fine, they added steak and lobster for VIP. Some hammocks and tables in water.

Outdoor pool was warmer than indoor in September. But not many people in either, just lifeguards that didn't have much to do. Did have some good waves in Solarium Pool sloshing over the steps at the end and flooding a lot of the deck (our flipflops tried to float away).