OCSC Mike

I don't think the OP was asking if every sailing for every ship in the entire fleet was currently sailing at 100% capacity.

You typoed alcohol.

Don't trust the forecast for the Bahamas and don't expect it to rain the entire time you're at Cococay or on the ship any other day. My main activity is eating... weather doesn't affect that much, lol. Check the app/compass for daily activates like trivia, random classes/demonstrations, afternoon shows, etc. My wife and I usually spend a couple hours in the Solarium each day when on the ship but we're not beach/pool people except on Cococay. There's plenty to do.

Adults can wear shorts, so yes. The "dress code" has become more of a suggestion and is not strict. Just don't wear clothes from the pool or gym and you're fine.

Every flavor daiquiri available (it may vary)... strawberry, mango, tropical, banana, etc. Pina Colada Miami Vice (half pina colada, half strawberry daiquiri)

Yes, have been for months.

Love this, especially the roadmap!

True. There's also a beach somewhere for employees only.

Happy sailing John. We'll be crossing paths at PC when you get back on the 24th.

FYI, you can just hit "Review" after you click the add to apple wallet button, you don't actually have to add it to your wallet unless you want to.

Big fan of Park Cafe for breakfast (egg sandwiches and bagel bar) and lunch (paninis, kummelweck, and my wife says they have salad but that sounds kinda healthy).

No. Some of the bars open pretty early though if that counts. 😁

See post #4 in this thread.

This has always been my response when someone says GTY's get the "undesirable" cabins. Your deck 2 motion sickness example is a good one. Deck 2-3 is honestly the only place I personally don't want to wind up, only because I'd rather be somewhere in between the promenade and higher decks so I'm not too far from either. After that, I prefer aft to forward, but obviously others prefer forward or midship.

Put me in the camp as one who has successfully moved my GTY assignment for free as recently as July. More importantly, can't imagine how one argues with your main point of "there's nothing to lose by asking." Anecdotally, I have a GTY for a sailing in 9 days, got my official assignment 14 days out. It's fine but not my preferred location and there is only one cabin in my category I could switch to and it's in a very similar spot so no point. We have a RoyalUp in and I check several times a day for other cabins in my category to appear but if we wind up in our current cabin, we'll still have a great cruise! P.S. Your muster station advice is of course accurate and helpful to those not as well-versed in all things GTY.

As suggested above, find an independent excursion.

Are you expected to? If you'd like the server/bartender to receive a tip, then yes. You will be charged nothing. It's up to you to tip on your own. It's common practice to tip $1-2 per D drink but tipping is, of course, a personal matter.

No way in hell would I pay money when I get the machine for free but to each his own. Everyone has their own values and preferences, no judgment. I'm admittedly frugal and not incredibly picky about my coffee but the cappuccino (my specialty coffee of choice) from the machine tastes just fine to me. I generally have 3 every morning. I do enjoy whatever the iced coffee drink is I've gotten from Cafe Promenade when killing off D vouchers on turnaround/disembarkation morning but not enough to pay for it.

There is at least one 3rd party company that owns their own lodges in certain areas and has relationships with hotels/lodges in others. This company planned and booked our 10 days on land after revising the itinerary 57 times with my wife. It included every hotel/lodge, train ride, and most of the excursions we did. I'd love to mention them but not sure it is permitted. We actually "borrowed" the lobby of a Princess-owned lodge while we had some time to kill in the downtown area of Denali while waiting to take a bus back to our lodge. It looked very nice.

I have the exact same RoyalUp in for a lesser amount. It's not worth $200 to us but we would like to try that type of cabin just for the heck of it. Obviously not a huge deal though or else we wouldn't have booked an interior GTY. Enjoy the view!

Very long trip report in my signature of my 2018 Alaska trip which included a 10-day DIY pre-tour. It may or may not help if you're dead set on a RC pre-tour but figured I'd mention it. If nothing else, and it's a shame that the road is impassable due to a rock slide, SEE DENALI! FWIW, I had no interest in renting a car so we flew into Fairbanks and took the train the entire way down to Seward before cruising Southbound (with many stops over the 10 days of course). The Alaska Railroad is amazing. Hotels get your luggage to the train for you; you don't have to be on a cruise-sponsored land tour.

I don't care about my cabin but somehow I make it work in the summer.

It depends greatly on a number of variables. There is no one "answer." We book late as well b/c we live an hour from PC and are flexible during a certain time of the year but lots of people book very early and wind up with very good prices. Many people also want to make sure they get a certain cabin type and/or location. This is not a subject you can generalize about.

Tons of people. We live an hour from PC and just sail whatever ships are there b/c it's an hour drive. Been to several ports enough times that we don't even get off. We're happy to just be cruising and going to Cococay. Along those lines, we did a B2B with nothing but Nassau (which we don't care for at all) and Cococay in July so we could go to Cococay twice and otherwise just enjoy the ship. We're doing another 4-nighter on the same ship/itinerary in 11 days b/c it was super cheap. Everyone has their preferences. Different strokes...

Yes, go see the Loyalty Ambassador onboard and they should be able to promote you to D if the system hasn't already.