ARandomTraveler

I never did figure that out when I went. We let the waiter pick everything for us except the main course, which we picked ourselves based on the section of the menu he told us to look at. I think the waiter picks one item from each section of the menu, but then again who knows. I think we had 5 or 6 courses at least. It was fun, very unique, and the food is actually good. I'd go again.

The kids sail free might not work for teenagers, but it's probable that the families who have these teens also have younger children who that promo did work for, and made it so their family vacation was less expensive. And with younger children to tend to, these parents are probably not paying close attention to the older teens.

I pre-paid for the hibachi on symphony to make sure I had a reservation, and I was able to get my money refunded since I had the UDP. They refunded it to my credit card, not as OBC.

Same. I cruised with a 2 year old and I would never do it again. Didn't cruise again until she was 11. We cruised with 5 adults, all of whom wanted to enjoy their vacation, and not be a babysitter. If I went on a cruise nowadays with anyone who had a small child, I would not appreciate any expectation that I'd be available to help out with childcare during my vacation, and wouldn't volunteer.

I'm traveling to Hong Kong this summer on a cruise which is under a government level 4 (level orange) "reconsider travel" advisory. I personally wouldn't choose to book a vacation to Mexico right now via plane where I'd need to travel by car to a resort, but if I already had it booked I'd probably still go, and just stick to the tourist areas. And I'd definitely still go if I had a cruise booked with a stop there. Although I'd assess the environment when I got there before deciding how far outside the port to travel on my own, depending on which port it was.

Well that didn't take them long at all 😂. Too bad for all those people who cancelled the Internet packages the bought on Black Friday.

I found one on the symphony, but since I don't have a Facebook account I wasn't able to participate so I just re-hid it.

Nope, not showing on my Spectrum 12 day in July

We had a 6pm flight out of Miami and went straight to the airport. Ended up sitting in the lobby of the airport for 4 hours with a whole bunch of other cruise passengers before we were allowed to check our bags and go through security. It was a pretty miserable wait. We were too wiped out to want to go tour around Miami (and had already done that since we got there a couple days before the cruise). Plus there wasn't anywhere to leave luggage. I wouldn't suggest a 6pm flight unless there's no other option.

I wish they'd put bigger ships in San Juan. I liked when they had the Freedom there. Sometimes they have a Voyager class ship, but they most often have the smaller ships there. Even though those routes are port heavy, I'd still prefer a better ship.

$288 is already a pretty low price for a 10 day cruise, I don't know if I'd expect it to go much lower.

I haven't tried to book a cruise through ultimate rewards, but I've done it with hotels, and in my experience the entire balance has to be paid all at once. It seems like all reward travel booked through ultimate rewards requires full payment up front, though I've read that there are supposedly hotels and packages that you don't have to pay in full right away, but I've never come across them. I transfer my points into Southwest Airlines and get my flights for free, which always seems like a better deal than using the points to book other travel. I looked at a hotel this evening and if wanted to use 58,000 points for a $600 hotel, which is nuts! I could get 4-6 flights on southwest for that many points, a value of well over $600 (closer to $1200-$1800). Using the points to book travel just doesn't seem like the best use, even when they're offering 1.5 or 2x value. Oh and the other thing is that when you pay cash for travel booked through ultimate rewards, you earn 10x points. But you don't earn any points when you use the points. I think you get the most dollar value out of using the points to book plane tickets and then using the money you saved on the plane tickets to book the travel and get more points. Just food for thought.

What did you think of the ship? Did it seem weird to have so much of the ship segregated for silver and gold passengers? How different were the food menus from the usual Caribbean sailings? Did you try any of the specialty restaurants?

Mine isn't until July 31st

I was using 2 days for the calculation based on your statements that you usually drink in the casino. But that you'd be in Cococay one day where you'd be on the island instead, and when in Nassau the casino wouldn't be open, and therefore you were considering the package because of those 2 days.

Symphony definitely has starlink, I used it in November and it worked great!!

I do both, but sometimes stuff comes up that just makes it more convenient to change the date of the trip by a week, or a month or whatever. I often book 2 or even 3 plane tickets when I travel, knowing that I might want to leave a day earlier, or at night instead of in the morning. With Southwest, I can keep all 3 flights right up until I get on my flight, at which point I cancel the other 2. The travel insurance is for when the refundable flexibility goes away once the 90 days hits. I'm not gonna lock myself into a date a year ahead of time, when lots of things can come up that might make me want to stay home that week. And for a savings of just $300? It's just not enough money to lock myself in.

I look at that as the regular price, and the non-refundable price is the discounted price you get for taking a risk of losing your flexibility. I've never found my cruises to be more than $300 more to book refundable, and I travel during prime times (holidays and summertime). I don't feel like $300 is too much to pay for the flexibility, but I do feel like $300 is not enough savings to take away my flexibility. I guess it just depends on what you value more. My travel plans have changed before (I moved a cruise date 3 times last year). I don't like being locked into anything with a penalty if I can avoid it.

It sounds like you're considering buying the package for $550 for just 2 days of drinking. That's $225/person, or $112.50/day. That's about 8 frozen alcoholic drinks, or like 15 other types of drinks. This is on top of the 4 Diamond drinks, so you're looking at 12-19 drinks each day. If you can drink that much liquid go for it, but if not, you do realize you're allowed to pay for drinks out of pocket right? Might cost you less than $550.

You'll be fine. We had a flight out of Miami during thanksgiving week (meaning it was a busy travel week). Our flight was really late (6pm-ish) and so we tried to stay on the ship as long as possible. We had a departure group #3, which was pretty early, but chose to stay on until the final call to get off the ship. We had to wait quite a while for an Uber because of the crowds (around 30min), and still got to the airport by like 10am or 10:30am. Had to sit in the lobby for 4 hours before we could even check our luggage and go into the terminal because you can't check your bags more than 4 hours before the flight. We definitely would have made it onto a 12:15 flight. I would have booked a 1pm flight, which is my preferred time, but it wasn't available on my chosen airline.

ABR, always book refundable

You'll lose $200 ($100 per person) if you move to a different date. When you move to a different date, you'll have to pay the $200 to get your deposit back to $500. If you cancel altogether, they won't offer you a future cruise credit, you'll just lose the whole deposit.

$50 dollars a day!? What cruise are you seeing those prices on? All of my cruises for the past several years have been $185 per person, per day (or more) for a regular balcony cabin. I know I'm booking on the higher end of prices because I sail holidays, summers and prime spring weeks, but I can't imagine the price difference for sailing a less desirable time is that much.

Looks like we'll need a recount

You can switch a refundable fare to a non-refundable fare when you're more confident in your plans. Your cruise fare will re-price to whatever it is the day you change it, which could be less money than your original booking, or it could be more.