kwokpot

Depends on the ship. The newer ships it's definitely slot credit or promotional table gaming chips. Some of the older ships they give actual cash.

Your assigned dining room is Blu and there are no reservations for Blu.

OP here. as a thread follow-up we had my parent's put back on Early Set Dining so they wouldn't have to contend with the possibility of getting a buzzer every night and not knowing exactly what time they would be having dinner. 6:00pm isn't too early for them. Based on postings here about current staff shortages on the Beyond and wait times with Select Anytime Dining we definitely made the prudent choice for my parents. Thanks for everyone's input on this. We'll see how it goes in less than two weeks!

We're on the February 18th Solstice cruise along with my sister and husband (She works for a Public School system so the cruise is perfectly timed) and agree the airfares from the East Coast are ridiculous. Luckily the four of us already booked our airfare with a mixture of paid and points. But RT fares from NYC are $5,6,700 and up for Economy! that's craziness!

If your cruise is a 7 day that's dirt cheap for the thermal suite pass and I would buy it in a flash and stay in the regular IV cabin. Onboard a daily pass on the E-class is around $70-$80 for 1 day!

What you're not understanding is on Excel class ships Cucina and Chibang are defacto main dining rooms for Your Time Dining passengers. Set early or late dining customers have a guaranteed table, unlike Your Time Dining passengers which have to 'find' a table every night. The official main dining room for YTD doesn't have the capacity to seat every passenger when they want to have dinner, which is not the case for set early or late dining. That is why Cantina and Chibang are utilized as defacto MDRs and YTD passengers are given 1st preference to dine there.

Correct. If you have fixed early or late dining you can't reserve Cucina or Chibang until later.

What exactly do you want to know? There should be a paper bag in the cabin closet or the desk/vanity drawer along with the Laundry List form which has an area that specifies the Platinum/Diamond free laundry benefit. Fill in the proper folio number, fill the bag, and put the slip in it, and hand it to the cabin attendant. That's it!

Not a problem at all, don't worry about it. No activation or stickers are needed.

I was on a Suez Canal cruise in 2019 that ended in Dubai and there was all this pre-cruise worry about the UAE looking for drugs that were supposedly banned substances. Turns out the worry was all for naught. The luggage came off the ship, past through your typical airport/cruise port scanner, and that was it. No one cared one bit.

I'll checkout the rolecall. For reference here's a photo from our cruise in July on the Scarlett Lady. Edit: Yes, that's currently my favorite shirt, lol!

While technically it could be an issue, realistically it's not and not something you need to concern yourself. Just carry your medications the way you always have and don't worry about. 99 cruises under my belt and never an issue,furthermore, in forty years of flying it's never been an issue at the airport.

Having read your previous review I was looking forward to see this particular character but he was already missing on the Seashore's 9/24 sailing.

Shorts are fine in the MDR on US based departures. On my Seashore cruise there were large percentages of men wearing shorts, Americans and non Americans alike.

Attached is the Info sheet for disembarkation at Port Everglades back in March. It will take between 35-45 mins car ride from Port Everglades to MIA. We always use Lyft and it's never a problem, usually only a 5-10 minute wait for a car.

I'll be on the 10/26th sailing of the Beyond in Aquaclass and my parents. 84 & 93, joined us only two months ago but in an inside cabin. They know we have a separate dining room and they're fine with their set Early Dining. We plan on meeting up for breakfast and lunch. Don't ever let others cause stress with of all things your vacation plans. As others of suggested be honest with them and discuss that being in a suite you want to enjoy some of the benefits that come with it. Discuss with them your plans for specialty restaurants and invite them to join you;however, if they don't want to spend the extra money, DO NOT shame them for their decision.

I sailed the Meraviglia five years ago from Genoa, Italy during Christmas and was just on the Seashore from Miami Sept.24-October 1st. For me the two cruises were indistinguishable from each other in terms of food, service, entertainment and general vibe. The only major difference besides the Ports was on the Meraviglia there were multiple embarkacation and disembarkation Ports, so the rhythm of the cruise is different since not all the passengers get on and off the ship at the same time.

Self walk off starts at 7:30am so you'll have no problems making a 12:00 flight. Don't worry about it.

The majority of the passengers are non Americans, so the vibe on the ship is completely different. As others have said the employees aren't there cheering you on to have fun, they're in the background taking care of the ship and serving the customers. The ships are beautiful and glitzy but in a tasteful way that Carnival could never match,even on their newest ships. Buffet is definitely much better than Carnival and MDR food is a small step up compared to Carnival. The pool decks do get busy with sun seekers and for some reason the buffet is always a madhouse, crazy busy. Because the buffet is pretty extensive there's way fewer complementary alternatives for meals. You'll have an enjoyable experience but just remember less than 25% of the passengers will be American and many can't speak a word of English despite the ship leaving from the US. You can compare it with a Carnival ship leaving from Italy where the majority of passengers are American and everything about the cruise is geared towards Americans yet it's sailing in Europe. This is the reverse.

Both! 😁

Sounds good, thanks for explaining, and enjoy your cruise!

Yes I know that. What time was your boarding time? We choose 11-11:30 and we were assigned boarding zone C02. On our cruise they hadn't even started boarding when we were checking in. As I said, It's not priority boarding it's priority check in. If, for example, a non platinum or diamond happened to be able to choose an early boarding time they would have been given a higher number just for the fact that they choose an early check-in time.

Once you achieve a certain tier level within BCC you get a drink package as part of the bennies, which doesn't require you to be gambling to get a drink in the casino. Same with Carnival; certain casino offers require you to play in order to receive a drink while there are other offers that give you a beverage package anywhere on the ship. Royal's the same way too. NCL may be more liberal with their initial free drinks under their casino program but remember they are the ONLY cruiseline that charges a stupid 'Administration Fee' to book a comped cruise under their casino program unless you're in the highest tier. Carnival charges a non refundable fee but you get the same amount back with OBC so basically no fee. We stopped cruising with NCL's casino program due to that ridiculous fee.

I enjoy wearing a nice pair of jeans and a cotton pullover sweater without a collar shirt underneath.