Ret MP

It appears that the Messaging feature in this forum is disabled and I'm relatively new to this Cruise Critic Forum. But, I'm not new to cruising social media or cruising. I tried to message you with this but can't. I'm an avid recreational drone flyer (it is officially "Pilot", but I don't like to raise myself to that level) and I am very protective of preserving our right to fly and pointing out incorrect information about drone flying. So, I'm sorry that I feel that I must correct some information like this. It has nothing to do with you personally. In and of itself, flying near or even above a cruise ship is NOT illegal. The cruise line may have a policy/rule that they don't want its passengers flying drones from onboard their ship. But, it is not ILLEGAL. In the USA the only authority that can control airspace is the FAA (exclusive jurisdiction), with only a very very exceptions like the National Park Service. A cruise line can only make policy and if you don't comply, they can remove you from the ship. If the FAA has a permanent or temporary "no fly zone" where ever the ship is, than yes, it is illegal to fly in that zone. For example, Port Everglades is within the FLL airspace/no fly zone, so it is illegal to fly a drone there. But, the Port of Miami, for the most part, is not and flying a drone there is legal unless there is temporary restrictions. Under new and current FAA regulations, it is legal to fly over people and vehicles, just not sustained flight. Having said all that, Yes it is illegal to fly a drone at the Cruise Port in San Juan because it is controlled by the FAA. ALSO, Peeping Tom is always illegal and not ethical, obviously. Porto Rico does fall under FAA jurisdiction. Again, I wish the messaging feature was available and this is not personal. There is a lot of incorrect information going around out there.

I should have mentioned the Purple Heart, above.

I spent many winters in Montreal. But, most in Dania, FL

Hope so!

I'm going to have to try one of those. Never heard of them before until I started watching "Below Deck" a year or two ago. Until then, other than the basic Martini is all I've ever hear about was the Chocolate Martini. I do love olives.

From the age of about 8 to about 15 I would spend my summers in Stouffville and Richmond Hill. I'm originally from Montreal 🤫. My dad was a golf pro there, Montreal. He started out in Toronto though, The Toronto Hunt Club.

As of right now, I'm very loyal to Royal. With the exception of our last Ovation cruise, all of my previous cruises have been next to perfect, for us. BUT, I'm no "cheerleader" and I have no business trying to dictate what you should or should not do. I do find a lot of fault with Royal. Mostly with their landside operations (IT, for the most part). We save our pennies for a year or two and book Star Class, that makes all the difference in the world. Our next booked cruise is Jan 2024, I can save a lot of pennies by then and build up a lot of reward points on my RCCL/BOA C.C. Can't wait for the Aqua Theater 2 bdr suite. I sincerely hope you enjoy whatever your decision is. If you leave RCCL, my money is that you'll be back LOL.

My aversion to formal or even semi-formal doesn't mean that I don't like watching people on formal nights. I'm a people watcher. I love watching the pride of people, especially most/some of the kids looking their best.

A lot of people comment about how much they enjoy the Indian food in the Windjammer. I'm going to try some as long as it has curry in it.

I hear ya. I'm 3 months away from being 71 and I do my best to stay in shape and alert. Among other things, I walk/run (mostly walk, LOL) 3.5 miles a day. I travel to places to fly my drone and we shop a lot, we don't buy much but we look a lot. Too bad, it's getting too dangerous to shop malls anymore. I won't subject my wife to it. This is not intended to be a political debate, just a matter of fact. On a cruise, we spend a lot of time in the Promenade shops, but not looking in the cruise line's jewelry stores.

Many many many people wear nice blue jeans on formal night with a button down shirt and a sports coat. I won't wear any type of coat unless I'm cold and I don't get cold........... easy.

If you like beer and pork, you'd be in heaven.

I was!

True! And I love it! Well, within reason.

Yep, it's just a, mostly, ignored suggestion.

Ya, I forgot about the EU debacle. However, I do keep in contact with a German friend I developed over there. She doesn't complain about anything going on with their local beer there. This is in a little village called Vilseck. We actually had beer delivered to our quarters/apartment like Milk used to be delivered here in the U.S. Put out the empties at night, in the morning, all replace with filled bottles, but you didn't have to skim of the top of the contents. Loved it.

This is not intended to be a wise guy comment: I stay up until I go to bed. No, really! I stay up as long as I have something to do, as long as I'm being entertained, as long as it's fun. I don't need sleep, at least not much. I love sleep, I just don't need it.

We're not to different. However, I don't do liver, hearts, brains, tongue, knuckles or kidneys. A lot of that may be in some sausages but I usually check out the ingredients before I buy. I don't do "whole hog" breakfast sausage or Vienna sausage. One thing strange though, I love "blood pudding sausage", sliced and fried in butter. I don't do brown eggs, either. Why? I don't know, I just don't! We don't need excuses or justifications why we like certain foods. Oops, add tripe to that long list!

Now, I'm not saying that this happens(ed) to you guys. It just reminds me of our last cruise on the Ovation. One morning we went to the Coastal Kitchen for breakfast, and this is not a complaint, but I told the server that I wanted a lot of bacon and sausage. She brough my meal with 3 slices of bacon and 2 links of sausage. I, nicely, told the server that I wanted a lot of bacon and sausage, that was the standard amount, not "a lot". She excused herself and went right into the Windjammer and got a whole plate of sausage and a whole plate of bacon. I loved it! On Ovation there is a door that goes directly from the Coastal Kitchen into the Windjammer, which she used, didn't even try to cover it up. It made me wonder, (just because I'm the curious type personality type) if that is common practice. If breakfast food served in the Coastal Kitchen actually comes from the Windjammer. Well, except for the "made to order" items. I don't know and I don't care, it was good. Just funny to me.

Naaaa, not going there with you. You absolutely know what it's about.

It's worth calling a travel insurance company to find out about the situation I think you are trying to benefit from. Having said that, I don't think any USUAL travel insurance will cover the cost of a trip home for anyone other than those named on the policy, actually are sick, injured, and/or a traveling companion of yours, and are actually on the trip with you. Having said all that, I really don't know for sure. That's why I suggest you call.

We did that Anthem to Bermuda once. It was a great cruise. We love the 270 and the Music Hall. We also really enjoyed the Tribute Band for U2. They were great. I really never appreciated U2 until we listened to the Tribute Band. But, I digress. I think the main reason why we like the Anthem so much was because of the 270, Music Hall, Tribute Band, touring Boston, and Bermuda. Really didn't pay much attention to anything else. That was our first cruise on a Quantum ship. We did Ovation last May and it was Okay. But, to be honest, I believe most of the issues were because of the lack of sufficient crew onboard. It was her 2nd revenue cruise of the season, post-COVID.

I'm not a big fan of beers from the British Isles and my ancestry has English brewery ownership in it. But, I love most German beer (don't like Paulaner Pils). I find that most people that don't like German (I should actually say European beer) say they don't like beer served at "room temperature". That always makes me laugh because it really isn't served at "room temperature" as we would define it in the U.S.A. German beer, real German beer, is brewed to be served at their definition of "room temperature", which is cellar temperature, which is in the lower 50's. Not sure about now but when I lived in Germany (6 years), the local beer companies didn't have any preservatives added to their brewing process. American beer is brewed to be served at or near 30 something. I love most beers, not IPA at all, but I love them to be served at the temperature it was brewed to be served at.