BND

Basically they just confirm the three health questions you answer on the app two days before you board. Arrival time is the time to arrive at the terminal and you select a time when you do your online check in.

They only hand out stickers for some excursions, usually those that meet onboard the ship and walk off together by group or are tendering. And, that is normally in the theater. There is no desk there, usually just staff walking around or meeting people at the door, sometimes maybe a table is set up. Excursions that meet off the ship you just go to your meeting place (on pier next to ship, or end of pier, for example).

That is only to see if everyone has arrived for the excursion. They will wait a bit for late arrivals but they only know they're missing if they keep track. They won't check anyone off until they are actually there. Just show up together.

Our experience is they aren't that different. But, being D+ on Royal gets us a lot more. Carnival perks just aren't as good.

Baltimore is so easy. We've done at least 11 cruises from there. All but one on Royal. One on Carnival Pride (same class as Legend). We prefer Royal, but we're also D+ so we have more perks. We've done 6 on Carnival but not the same perks at all. Carnival was fine, but the only reason we did Pride was we did a last minute anniversary trip and Royal was sold out. We're on Vision in April 2024 for a b2b and we didn't even look at Carnival. You will get a different answer on the Carnival boards. Do not make your decision solely on "opinions" of others. Carnival cruisers will tell you Legend. Royal Cruisers will tell you Vision. Just pick one.

I have never seen that done before people show up at the meeting point. You can pick a time for an excursion, but beyond that, when you show up to meet, you then board. Nothing is preassigned other than time.

They don't assign seats ahead of time (or at all). Get in line together at the meeting point and board the transportation together.

Every cruise video I have ever seen has young, fit people in it. Now, tell me what you actually see on a cruise? It's purely marketing and has nothing to do with any "age limit" (BTW, not gonna happen).

I make homemade pecan pie and I rarely find it anywhere that tastes anything like mine (or my mothers or grandmothers). It's not that forgiving really. It can be ruined several different ways. While I love chocolate, it doesn't belong in a pecan pie. Traditional southern pecan pie has karo syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla and pecans in a regular old pie crust. I've had some not so good ones in several restaurants.

I was heading out so didn't have time to google it this morning LOL.

Until we moved 10 miles farther south, we lived 5 miles from this location (Udvar-Hazy) near Dulles Airport. Just for an FYI, like all Smithsonian museums, admittance is free, but parking costs $15 per vehicle. Besides the actual museum which is full of all kinds of airplanes including the Enola Gay, there is a mock up of the death star used in filming for Star Wars. There is also a tower you can watch planes take off and land. There are uniforms, weapons, planes, etc, The original space shuttle that was there was moved several years back and replaced with the current one. I have pictures taken from my back yard of the original one leaving Dulles on the back of the 747. I can never remember which shuttle is where.

Anyone who stayed onboard missed out. We've walked from Times Square to the port a few times, including taking the Circle Line one time and touring the aircraft carrier Intrepid once. It's an easy walk. And, Hell's Kitchen has some good restaurants. Also Restaurant Row isn't that far. Our favorite place there was Sangria 46. It was permanently closed during Covid unfortunately. The one time we cruised from NYC, we took a taxi from the Marriott Marquis but only because we had luggage we didn't feel like dragging over.

There's a whole thread by someone who is on this sailing.

We don't use the coffee machine in the lounge.

That doesn't change our experience (EN in April). We were able to. Sorry you couldn't.

All of ours we've been able to watch it the morning of before boarding, including just this past April. We literally watched it, got in our car and drove to Baltimore, boarded and went straight to the muster location.

Just talk to the LA. I accidentally threw our D pins out on the cruise we received them but never replaced them. Our D+ pins are on the card they came on in a bin with other cruise junk. We never wear them either.

We had that happen once when the coffee machine in the lounge was broken.

We're on Vision in April and booked it for $43.99 each. We figured at that price, we can try it using most of our OBC. I checked our other cruises and it's over $50 for the ones we have booked into 2025.

If it bothers you, don't read it. Simple fix.

And we've been on 8 since restart and haven't had Covid at all (or Noro ever). We do the same precautions we always have. We wash our hands. I do get a flu shot but I am not getting another Covid shot.

Which does not prevent you from catching it. At most, it makes the symptoms less but if it's like the previous ones, that only lasts a few months at most. You're just as likely to catch something else, such as the flu or Noro. Everyone should always wash their hands regularly and the panic over Covid needs to stop. As for pre-existing conditions, the flu can be just as bad for someone with them.

We've never had to wait for a table. Tables are close together and there are a lot of them.

It doesn't take 1.5 hours. At most an hour or so but it takes time to tie up, etc. We've cruised out of NY before and out of Bayonne and circled around the Statue of Liberty. The Manhattan piers aren't far from Bayonne. We eat at Juniors every time we're in Manhattan, usually for breakfast but we've had other meals there too. But, that said, there are a ton or local diners that have really good food also. We just stop by any place that looks interesting and has an "A" health dept rating and we've had some great food in everything from corner diners to small neighborhood bars.