gotcha3

Celebrity also saves a lot of money by doing an overnight. All that fuel from going to another port and dockage and port fees not spent adds up to a pretty penny I bet.

I thought we paid the port fees and taxes.

Any info on shops in St. Maarten, San Juan, or Labadee that sell cuban cigars?

 

Thank you.

Try this guy in Dutch St Maarten......I've used him for years......

http://www.cigaremporium.biz/c_a__s_promo

you can walk to his shop.

The limit is 100 cigars, but technically your spouse/significant other could bring in 100 as well. Here's the rub; real Cuban cigars are not inexpensive by any means. I think the tax free limits for goods from the Carib is @$800 per person or $1600 for a couple. In Feb I bought 65 cigars from this place and the total was @$1100. Add 2 bottles of high end Scotch @$50 per and with a few purchases from the wife, we limited out on the "free" part of the duty thing at (amazingly) $1597. I believe anything over that is taxed at a flat 3% rate up to the next level whatever that is. Be careful buying in Cuba as I understand counterfeits are everywhere down there.

This is absolutely incorrect information. I have written verification from the CBP in Washington when I wrote to and got this exact kind of erroneous info from the Miami office. You can bring up to 100 cigars (Cuban or not) per person from anywhere in the world. Your only limit is the "duty free" exemption limit of $800 per person.

xxx

People are lining up before 6 PM.?

Summit in Feb, they were lining up before 5:30......the satff was having to open BLU at 5:30. My wife and I would arrive @6:30-6:45 and had to wait 3 times! One night we waited for over an hour.

We were recently in 9112 and it was always very quiet.

My wife and I always get independent insurance when we travel. We learned the hard way. After buying more policies than I care to count, a question occurred to me. If we aren't concerned with covering pre-existing conditions (neither of us, nor family have any), is it any cheaper to buy insurance just prior to or just after final payments as we'd have reduced the time of insurance by at least 9 months? Would airfares be covered if, although purchased a year out, wouldn't be included in the insurance until say, 3 months out? Thanks.

Please do it. I got the survey request....and gave them an earful.

Is the chef's table a set time every night? Our cruise only shows availability at 6:30 every evening. I'm kinda assuming this is a set time every night.

We had 2 long days in Livorno on an RCL cruise long ago. Called Rome Cabs and had a private car/driver for both days. Stefano just sent a car and driver up from Rome, he stayed in the Pisa area overnight. No problem getting back to the ship, just keep an eye on your time.

Hard to say, but it reminds me of what many folks noted at Walt Disney World when they introduced dining plans.

 

While the theme park had typical crap food since it opened, around 1994-1995 that all changed, with over a dozen fine restaurants opening, a couple even inside the theme parks (though the rest at the deluxe hotels but still Disney owned). These restaurants offered an amazing dining experience given the circumstances - for many a perfect combination of Florida theme park casual with quality ingredients, quality preparation, and quality service.

 

The dining plans were introduced in 2006 and very soon thereafter people started blaming the dining plans for changes and compromises made in the fine dining offerings. There were some very obvious interactions: certain selections not available on the dining plans, selective surcharges, and in some cases, counting single meals at some of the restaurants as two meals. Claims were that there were other, less obvious interactions, including smaller portion sizes, simplification of menu items, lower quality ingredients and even reductions in service quality. How much of the degradation was real versus imagined is an open question, however there's no denying that the number of restaurants there that can be still considered "fine" is much lower, perhaps countable on the fingers of one hand.

 

I'm not sure why, but at least in that case, "packaging" food and beverage did have a negative impact.

 

Which comparable cruise line does this better?

Celebrity

All great ideas, thank you.

I have searched and read many threads concerning RCL's onboard internet. I don't understand most of it ie, jigajoules versus bandwith, streaming and surfing etc. Here is my dilemma; the wife and I are Diamond and will be cruising the Med on the Jewel in May. We enjoy keeping up with email and following news maybe once a day while online. We don't text, tweet, facebook, snapchat, skype or stream. We will only use 1 device (IPAD)......A precruise package is $15.36/day. On my laptop it says that this is 20 or 30% off of onboard prices. It doesn't say that on my desktop computer, and knowing how RCL prices sales, etc, who knows? I think that we might be able to get this further reduced by 20% (precruise? onboard only??) for Diamond status but am not sure. I also believe we get some sort of freebie onboard due Diamond status, but again have heard several versions....1 free 24 hr period or maybe 1 hour free p/p. I have been on many ships where the internet speeds were so bad, we just gave up using it. Based on these assumptions, is it prudent to spend $100+ for 9 days of RCL internet? Thanks in advance from an old fogey who still uses a "flip phone."

It is often chartered during the Feb-Mar time frame.

Doesn't Costco use Travelex as their insurer?

Yes, they do.

May I ask the dates of your cruise? Thank you.

Don't forget the solarium pool. That was the main reason my wife and I chose the Millenium to see Alaska. Don't really care for those new Reflection class ships.

I purchased the deluxe beverage packages for my wife and myself directly on the RCL website, even though the cruise is being handled by my travel agent. Shouldn't I be able to see the purchased packages on the RCI website somewhere? Maybe on the travel planner? Thanks.

With the change to RCL's liquor packages which look to be more in line with what Celebrity offers, does anyone think there is a chance that RCL will start to sell liquor and setups for personal in cabin use?

Chris,

Is there an extra charge to dine in Arthur's? Thank you.

Does anyone happen to know, what is the difference between Stefano Rome Cabs and Stefano Rome Tours? Is Rome Cabs the primary company for transfers and 'do it yourself' tours that are coordinated by their people and is Stefano Rome Tours more of a set schedule type operation? Thanks in advance, gotcha3.

There was no welcome letter with a schedule of events for past cruisers. We did receive 2 sheets of Elite coupons for use on the ship but no letter. We used up both of the 90 minute internet coupons just checking email as the internet was terribly slow. We are Elite with Celebrity and separately Diamond with RCL, have been for many years. We usually don't go to these planned events, but it's nice to be invited, just as we don't go to the mix and mingle thing, but I always signup as I know others like them and our signup counts as 2 more towards the 25 minimum. I sometimes find others wanting to share too much information......things I don't care to know. We did go to some sort of a 'meet the crew' cocktail function, but quickly found that the crew didn't really care about what we had to say even when we were asked our opinions. After reading something here on cruise critic, I thought back on our recently completed Reflection cruise and realized we didn't get any of the usual invites. I didn't think about it then - only afterward. It's no big deal, as we really don't care much for that sort of thing, just nice to be invited is all. Might have been a slip up by our cabin attendant, no worries as he was the best we've had. We enjoy the prepaid cocktail packages, so free booze doesn't hold much allure for us. I have to admit, I was not aware there was any kind of breakfast get together in the Tuscan Grill.

We travel with friends alot, but when it's not possible my wife and I enjoy each other's company and have for 43 years, she likes to say 'we don't play well with other kids.' I agree.

You got the Welcome Letter with your sheet of coupons right? The one that outlined the morning breakfast? And the other Elite events? It was on that letter

NO. That's exactly my point. We never got ANY kind of welcome letter. I really didn't/don't care about any sort of cocktail hour for Elites, so I didn't notice the oversight until doing some "reading" on this site and thinking back on our recent cruise. I've never even been to one of those things as we really aren't interested in that sort of thing.

Anyone who stumbles across this thread, please carefully read my original comments. I only called it "Elite Happy Hour" as I didn't know what else to call it, and I certainly DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM as was stated by someone in an earlier reply. Whoever suggested that I have some sort of elitist attitude should take off the hair shirt and take a deep breath. My goodness, I asked a simple (I thought) question, you've got no cause to jump all over me.

PS What's this about a 'morning breakfast?'

PSS I also enjoyed the comment about politely asking someone if I didn't get notified. Exactly how does that work? [For the slow ones out there...... how could I possibly ask about something I didn't know about?]

Use of vouchers depends on number of elites and is the last option. Cocktail party is the first option and this can change from week to week on the same ship.

I understand, but I think we still should have received some sort of notification.