LeeW

Refundable to credit card. Supposed to be the one you used but might actually go back to the one you use onboard. Can take a while so better to take any excess out in casino before leaving ship.

You want to avoid using a debit card for onboard charges - Royal will put holds on it each night and then charge the full amount at the end of the cruise. This means that until the holds vanish your account was charged twice for the onboard expenses. If you have a low amount in the debit account it can get overdrawn and not pay other automatic bills. You can use a cash account onboard - this limits your charges to (normally) $500 before they will call you down to Guest Services to pay it off.

Lots of discussion on Gulf Port board: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/316-gulf-coast-departures/

The no sharing language is really for the drink packages.

Check the Gulf Coast Departure boards for more info, including hotels, transportation and lack of car rentals on the island (And the closest one on mainland is closed Sunday). Galveston shuttle is pretty good. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/316-gulf-coast-departures/

Wrong. If you miss the ship in Canada and all the other ports including the debark port are in the US then you would be taking a trip from one US port to another, illegal. The EZ Air guarantee doesn't apply if PVSA will not allow it. People do miss the ship in Vancouver all the time on one-way itineraries and they are not allowed to board in another port. If the cruise is roundtrip Canada, you can legally get on the ship in Skagway, Juneau or Ketchikan and end in Vancouver.

Military shows up without requesting it but I can see that in my Princess account. Shareholder requires that I send in the broker statement.

Just note that EZ Air can't put you on a plane to next port for cruises leaving from Vancouver unless the ship is coming back to Vancouver at the end of the cruise. If you are on a one-way cruise to Whittier you would be boarding in a US port and debarking in a different port, which is a violation of the PVSA.

Normal. You likely won't see these until you connect to the ship wifi. You can try selecting the current sailing from your profile page (bottom, select different sailing, select ship and then date). Might give you an idea.

Recent past the beach bars in quite a few Eastern Caribbean ports have been only open to ship tours. Assume that is changing slowly. Magen's Bay they have a parking space for your bus but the beach is open to all and you have to go to the store to get things like floats. Don't remember ever paying for chairs. Places like Playa Mia may put you all in the same area for their convenience but it varies all over the place. With ship excursions you get to wait for all the people to show up, load the bus and unload. Then you get to wait when they don't show up at the assigned time at the far end. You really don't save any time with these - people going direct beat you to the beach. Some tours include chairs, umbrellas or drinks. Some do not. Also note that boat excursions tend to pack in like sardines on ship excursions - much better to book these independently. Now if you have the OBC, it doesn't hurt to book excursions. But a straight beach trip may not be worth it - look for extra features. Or pick excursions that can only be booked through the cruise lines when ships are in port. Some places like Cozumel have cabs that charge by the cab - 4 people to Playa Mia is the same as 2. Take that into account if you are picking cab trips. Or book through the consolidators like shoreexcursioneer and shoreexcursionsgroup.

Note that the coconut cookies there are a large chewy macaroon rather than the normal coconut ranger. DW wishes these were available onboard.

In the past have seen dining and drinks well over a year out. Now my January 2024 cruises only have one Nassau excursion and nothing else. Possible they are shortening things up so that when they make changes to the cruise they don't have to do as many refunds.

We set my watch and had a tiny folding alarm clock (need for early excursions even though ship docking wakes us up). Problem was that both have pushbuttons to light up the display so you have to fumble to find out what time it is. Found this clock and really like it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NM45VJX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Fairly large (4" wide) but it is both battery powered and lighted. Battery lasts at least 6 weeks (still running on originals). Easily visible across the room (although that location not good for an alarm).

We prefer partial transit (sometimes with small boat excursion through rest of locks). We've done 3 partials and 2 full transits. Excursions on the Pacific side have very long bus rides, plus we like cruises that go to the ABCs as well as the Canal. Had a 19 day Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver cancelled in 2021...... Not impressed with Chiapas on Pacific side, although Puntarenas was great and we did have one cruise that stopped in both Nicaragua and Guatemala.

All three people will move but you only pay the bid for the first two. Same for 4 person cabin.

Yup. Our assistant on last cruise considered it a challenge/fun to get in and and out quickly. Gave him more time to speak with us as well. And most of our orders were "special" with substitutions. Allure had a special challenge because the kitchen is on a different floor from the dining room we were in. He had to use the escalator each time.

Not with the soda package. Gun only (unless the guns are not working at that particular bar). You might look into the canned soda package in the Gifts area of the web site. Slightly cheaper than bar price for single can.

Most ships let you do a room charge but you can't put winnings back into the room account. You take a ticket out of the machine to the cage, get cash, and then you can reimburse your room account at Guest Services if you wish.

Typically they let you take one of three buses back to the ship, leaving roughly on the hour. If you miss it you wait an hour. The big key is when the water park opens - 10, versus when your ship arrives. They walk you from the bus/taxi area through the hotel to the other end of the water park to process in and spend quite a bit of time touring you through the area. Either buy direct or through a local hotel day room (depends on how many people if this is a good option). See the Nassau board for how this works.

The pier is in the general aviation airport, so no hotels near the pier. There are a few cheaper ones near the end of the entry road and several around the Sheraton. Beach ones tend to be expensive. We prefer to stay out in the Carolina area north of the airport (Embassy). This trip staying in the airport hotel. Cheaper (even has a rooftop pool) but since we don't get in until after 10 made more sense than taking a cab anywhere. If you have an early flight the next morning you also can't beat being already in the terminal. No sightseeing from there, though. Remember that all bags have to go through agricultural xray before they will check you in at that airport, so allow a bit of extra time for your flight. But they also won't let you check bags more than 3 hours before flight out.

The Tabyana ship tour tends to be cheaper than taking a cab and paying admission.

In September Radiance had the indoor pool open for kids 8-10 and 12-2 every day both weeks we were there. That said the waves were high enough on a few days end of first cruise that nobody was allowed in the pool. Even the dams of towels the pool attendants were trying to use were not keeping the water in the pool. Sorry about rotated picture.

That class of ship may have some special menus in the Park Cafe. Have seen BBQ at least once on Brilliance and Radiance. Not late at night, though. Many buffets have a special huge dessert menu available for lunch on one day with lots of chocolate stuff. And lately they have been doing the large welcome back cake (had a welcome Wonder of the Seas cake on Allure this fall).

Interesting. In Fort Lauderdale in October and all the taxis we took had a big sticker on the side window indicating the fixed price for trips to and from airport or cruise port.

Sky also has a lot less shade in the Sanctuary than older Grand class ships. It does have a gazebo with couches, but only a couple of loungers in the very front sides have shade (obviously depends on sailing direction, but we were in Caribbean).