lostchild

You should post on the cruise line forum to get more info. On Disney, they have wave phones which is really cool. Each cabin has 2 small wireless phones usable anywhere on the ship.

On Celebrity, we got the unlimited data packages as a perk so our son just use his iPhone and we can talk to him using Whatsapp.

Wow Disney's rescue again although this time is one of its own passenger. In January 2015, we were on Disney's Magic and we rescued someone in the water fell off from Oasis of the Seas left in the ocean for hours. Since we paid for our cabin, I would like to think we partially funded the rescue!

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/13/us/man-overboard-cruise-rescue/

Some credit cards will cover basic Travel Insurance. Chase Sapphire Reserve has $10000 per person, $20000 per trip, and $40000 per year travel insurance coverage.

We were a group of 27 and everyone who does not have it on a lanyard inside a plastic holder had their seapass demagnetized at least once. I don't know why they don't switch to the RFID card. Disney cruise has it years ago and it was wonderful. Even Disney World 2 days pass has it..and it is disposable. It can't be that expansive to switch to it. I think I read that they are going to start using it on the Edge class.

BTW, if you have a piece of plastic or synthetic material on you, you could try to rub the strip on the card against it a few times and immediately try to open the door. It works often. I learnt that trick from the supermarket checkout when the cashier made my demagnetized credit card work by rubbing it against the plastic grocery bags.

On our last cruise at Silhouette in April 2017, 12 and higher go to the Teen program. Our kid was 10 and he went to the 9 to 11 program. We have 3 boys between the 12 to 14 in our group, but none of them went to the Teen club. I think they went to the gym... One of them asked me.. Have you checked out the gym? It's amazing! "Hmmm... not yet.. but I will go check out the buffet..."

James Bond will go on a Cunard cruise.

Jason Bourne will go on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Jack Ryan will go on a Celebrity cruise.

My cousins from UK also did the onboard booking. They wanted to charge them the 80 pounds/pp non-refundable deposit but because we all booked originally from an US based TA, they get the same $100/pp fully refundable deposit.

Two reasons why auto grats work:

 

Peer pressure among and between crew members working in various departments to always give excellent customer service has increased as the tipping pool now applies to so many different ones;

 

And the crew members who faces you see the most--your cabin steward and dining room team should you have fixed seating time--are judged very strongly on the percentage of passengers in their stations who cancel the auto grats. Their future contracts depend on keeping that number very low.

It sounds more like car salesman "meeting the quota" than getting a tip. I have been giving our cabin steward cash tip every other days on top of the auto tip. I wonder if he really had to turn all of them in.

I always take a can back to the cabin with me. If I want a second, I go out for it or take it (and pay for it) from the mini-fridge. If you wish to stock your cabin, you should bring your own on board.

If you take a can from the mini fridge and replaced it before the room attendant got to check the fridge, they wouldn't charge you right? I was wondering about that. I noticed that the Evian bottle in the room looks different than the Evian bottle from the outside. So they will know for sure you drink the one from the room and replaced it. I think the cans of soda look the same though.

Toward the end of our Feb. Equinox sailing X posted numerous notices touting mobile passport. Unfortunately when we disembarked at Port Everglades terminal 25 the app wasn't working. Huge lines, but had our global entry cards. Was directed by cbp to a line with NO ONE in front of us. Out the door in 30 seconds. Strongly recommend this to all. Online application is easy, "interview" only took a couple of minutes and the $100 fee for 5 years coverage isn't bad if it speeds me through immigration lines.

Same experience, terminal 25, Silhouette, Global Entry was completely empty. Global Entry also came with free TSA PreCheck. Very few in line at airport security, walk thru keeping belt, shoes, jacket on, and laptop stay inside carry on...took 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes. Many credit cards now reimburse you for the $100 GE application fee.

Just did this last month. It was around $600 for 6 pictures if you want to have the digital images and the right to print them. It's cheaper if you just want them on framed pictures.

I did say "several different Companies" We've done RCCL, P&O, NCL, Celebrity and Princess, always look to see what's on offer and as I said not found a "good deal" yet by booking on board. Off again in a couple of weeks so will look again.

We did our first onboard booking last month on Celebrity. We were told that the $250 OBC and 1 free perk would be stacked with any promotion offered by our TA and transferable to other cruises. I don't know if this would work or not, but since it fully refundable, we just try it.

You don't have to wait until you get to the US. My cousins from UK and Australia all book thru an US website and the same perks/OBC as I (from US). I think you just need to call and ask and not use the automatic website system. It worked out great too because a few had to cancel the cruise and if they did it in UK, they would not have been able to get their deposit back.

Chase Sapphire Reserve card is really good for Travel. It covers Air, Hotel, Cruise, Car Rental, etc... You get 3 points per $ spent on Travel. And those 3 points is same as 4.5 cents if you spend on Travel. Last year they have 100,000 points bonus for spending $4000 in 3 months. This year it has been reduced to 50,000 points. But 50,000 points is still $750 in Travel.

Annual fee is high at $450 but you get $300 reimbursement in travel. If you travel at least once per year, you could easily get the $300 back making the annual fee $150. And it reimburse you for Global Entry application so that's another $100 off every 5 years. It also gives you Priority Pass Select membership for airport lounges which is worth $50 for just 1 visit. Points do not expire as long as you own the card.

It also let you transfer the points to major airlines and hotel like United, Southwest, Marriott, Hyatt, etc...

If you have an Android phone and have data, and you have google location history turned on, it keeps track of everywhere you go and where you have been. It is creepy and cool at the same time. It shows you day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute where you have been. If you take any pictures that stored on google photo, they will show up in the timeline with location and name of the business or place. It's really helpful when you are looking back and trying to find out the name of the restaurant in Japan you had lunch 3 years ago.

Last year we took an excursion in Mexico. You get on a bus and take you to places. After we got back, I have the exact roads they took and names of the places. Smartphone is pretty useful even if you don't use it and just having it on you. :D

Go here to see if you could see your travel history:

https://www.google.com/maps/timeline?pb

I have not been on Equinox but I did the 7 days Western Caribbean on Silhouette which is a sister ship to Equinox. I believe the food would be much better on Celebrity, but entertainment would be better on Carnival. I don't gamble, but the few times I cut thru the casino on Silhouette, it was quite empty. Not sure what kind of "energy" you are looking for on the casino floor, but it is kind of like a Vegas casino at 6am in the morning. And this is on a sea day.

If you are not going off the ship at any of the ports, you won't have much to do on the ship during the day. They have a few game shows (Top Chef quick fire, Family Feud, etc..) here an there, but very limited. You can hang out at the pool, spa, gym, cabin, or eat.

If you get your comp cruise because your MLife status, I think you could get the same with Royal Caribbean. I think RC cruise will have more entertainments on the ship and more action in the casino.

T-mobile, Sprint : Free international data roaming (2g to 3g, paid extra for faster speed)

AT&T, Verizon: $10 per day international data roaming with eligible shared data plans (4g lte)

All you really need is data and you could make calls using different VOIP app. I keep my phone with me anyway even if just using it to take pictures. I have it on airplane mode but if I need it, I could use it for emergency communication.

I can't seem to get an answer to this. If we use Uber, will the driver make a stop along the way at a store? We are going from FLL to Port everglades and we just want to pick up some bottles of wine and water. And if they say no but have already pulled up, then what? Do we get a charge for cancelling the fare?

 

We don't have Uber locally.

I don't see that would be a problem. We sometime have them go to one place drop off a friend and then go to another place to drop us off. There is no charge to cancel unless he already started the trip. He is not supposed to do that until you get inside.

We just went on a 7 days western Caribbean cruise from 4/2 - 4/9. It is spring break for US and UK but there really not that many kids on board. I don't think you will get too many kids on board for either 11 or 14 days. But then my definition of "a lot of kids" is probably different than others. My cruise before that was on a Caribbean Disney cruise... LOL. There were over 1200 kids on board.

We noticed them really pushing Sushi on 5 too.

I think part of the issue is the misconception that they only serve sushi - raw fish. We had a great meal and one of our favorites was a dish with nothing raw - Scallop and Shrimp Dynamite. They have many other traditional Japanese menu items. It's too bad they didn't name or market it differently.

I think that's the problem. We love sushi and we live in Los Angeles where is a sushi restaurant in every block or 2. But even then, many people here don't understand you don't have to eat raw fish in a sushi restaurant. They should have named it Fusion Japanese Cuisine on 5. :p

10 years ago I had a cough that won't go away after months. Tried antibiotic and didn't work and my doctor recommended a natural remedy, Black Elderberry Concentrated syrup. It is super concentrated and tasted like alcohol but after a few days the coughing completely went away. Since then my whole family has been taking it whenever we got a cold or coughing and it never last more than a few days. It doesn't hurt to try unless you are diabetic then you have to watch your sugar because it does have natural sugar from the elderberries.

Here is the one that I order from Amazon, some others are cheaper but they are not as concentrated:

https://www.amazon.com/Natures-Answer-Alcohol-Free-Sambucus-Extract/dp/B0017QPM6S/

Bistro on 5 is now Sushi on 5. Since DH dislikes Sushi, it seems that X has saved us money;p

On our last cruise, I don't think Sushi on 5 is doing very well. Every time I passed by, there were only 1 or 2 tables with people. Unless you never ate sushi before, their sushi and roll look just like any other sushi place. And we know they are not doing well because during one of our dinner in the MDR, the guy came to our table and try to get us to go there next day in middle of our dinner. My aunt actually told me she has never seen that on a cruise where they are trying to sell you a specialty dinner in the middle of your dinner.

It is crazy at times but we have rented a car many times there and have never had an accident or incident. You just have to keep your wits about you and watch for people pulling u-turns at lights. I wouldn't discourage people from renting a car in Fort Lauderdale, but I would mention that parking a car at a downtown hotel can run you up to $30.00 per night. :o

At least it is not San Francisco with all the hills, taxi only lane, cable cars lane, one way street, and crazy tourist crossing the street. And parking is $75 a night!

I rented a car from the same Hertz location mentioned above earlier this month and I thought driving in Fort Lauderdale was nothing close to "crazy". :p The only thing I found is that people drive very slow and actually obey the speed limit. Here nobody drives speed limit.

If you have signatures turned off, you won't see it but we cruised with X to Alaska almost two years ago, now (May 2015). Phenomenal weather, great service, outstanding food.

I think 2 years ago they don't have Xcelerate yet. I was just on Silhouette and the internet was pretty good even better than some land hotel's internet. My son was streaming youtube in HD all 7 days. This was at the Caribbean though, but I think they use satellites so it will probably be the same in Alaska too.

We used to take water and pop in our carry on luggage. We now drink the water, the water they deliver to your room is safe.

The water from the tap is 50% from port and 50% from reverse osmosis sea water according to Silhouette's captain. It actually taste pretty much like any water from a reverse osmosis filter system.