HappyTexan44

I'd specified in extremely nice restaurants.

I honestly don't know. Some people say there is plenty of food. On the other hand that seems to be based on the number of courses, and then you add that desserts to be reported as mostly *Meh*. In an extremely nice restaurant, they will watch how much you are eating and adjust the size of the courses accordingly. Trying to look at this as nicely as possible, maybe since that would be impossible on a cruise they expect people to handle that themselves by ordering extras.

That Carne Asada looks soooo much better than other photos I've seen. Royal really needs to get smaller plates. The photos seem to have lots of empty plate showing.

This is going to sound like a crazy question. If we find ourselves in this situation will we be able to get cream and whole milk in Cozumel, our first port stop? DH will use cream or half-and-half and will get grumpy if one isn't available. DD only really drinks whole milk and water. We buy the glass bottle whole milk from a local farm so even run-of-mill whole milk is a downgrade. 2% and skim are really just white bad-tasting water. So, that would really stink if that was all they had. Note, I don't limit what she drinks, but I'm happy about it so I try to provide max. quality so she'll stay that way.

One thing I found helpful for planning for our 2024 cruise was that google document that helps you create a link to show what another cruise has for booking. So, I found an upcoming cruise this month that was the same as mine, and then looked at what they had. There is a thread here with that document. So, at least you can see what is likely to be offered and pick your favorites. Ours is in Feb and the excursions have been coming in in dribs and drabs.

Yes, that is why I mentioned what I was thinking of bringing onboard. That way people wouldn't just remind me that the food was unlimited. I'd also been reminded of the time I was randomly flagged for extra Customs search coming home on an international flight and the person at the front of the line had a couple of dozen eggs break in their luggage.

I wonder what is different about the bottled water? From what I've read they filter the water using the same methods as bottled water, then they add chlorine to it so that it is safe in the pipes. So maybe it is the chlorine?

Does Royal care about food you bring on board? For example, I was thinking about dinner mints, and the cruise not doing that anymore. My aunt has been gifting us these awesome mints from Canada that are even better than my memories of Fanny Farmer mints. So, I was thinking of bringing my own darn mints. We do often bring them along on vacations as a treat. That got me thinking. Maybe some chocolate covered strawberries for an embarkation snack. Maybe some candy for the teen girls. I wasn't thinking of food-food, more snacks and treats.

Is there a difference between linking the reservations (i.e. what I see when go to book add-ons for my cruise) and linking *dining* reservations?

That would be annoying to them pre-start on the dry dock work during my cruise. Checking for a cruise to exist after mine is something I'll remember to check next time. This time I got lucky.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to both link the reservations ahead of time, and then send in a dining request ahead of time?

I read that it is good thing to tell the dining room when you won't be in the next day. That way they won't hold your place and give yours to an early MTD'er. I would also guess that many people would eat dinner on shore on late port days.

My parents told me about being trapped in Spain because of a planned one-week strike in France. Tourists weren't told, but everyone else knew. It was just an extra week of vacation and nothing changed to make the strike end.

A half-hour to have it reserved and sit empty seems like plenty to me.

Do they seem to be the same wings? DH *loves* his wings. We won't be getting a dining plan.

Yup, and really it is just another vacation day. No one ever thinks they have too much vacation time.

I thought it was a goat. But then I have goats.

I can understand wanting a table where your chair didn't adjoin a walkway, and a window might do that. But, if it is dark outside ...

Royal took it seriously, or at least they seemed to, and then they never saw that person again. I don't think they followed up with corporate. I really doubt they'll be going on Royal again, so there isn't anything going to Corporate could do. And, really, it isn't like they can do a background check on everyone they hire. Even if they do, the person might be the miscreant nephew of someone powerful in the government, so they'd report a model citizen just to get the person out of the country for a bit.

Yeah, that is why we don't live in a major city. I estimate that I'm at most two-degrees of separation from everyone in our small town. If we were forced to live in a major city, there would be much different rules for my teen. It was a teaching moment for that family and our family. Our family discussed over dinner what should be done. I can understand the little girls instinct though, go to safety. She didn't know where her parents were, so she went to a safe haven, their room. Then she had trouble sleeping for the rest of the cruise "since he knew which cabin they were in." We'd also discussed the importance of always using the hardware locks on room doors.

Even then writing a program to handle that is a freshman level problem.

Well, you can bring Pepsi cans onto Royal. But, the plastic bottles are bigger and they allow that size.

I am *more* concerned about the ship, and in fact that is why we are bringing a friend of hers along. The cruise ship is effectively lawless and there is only as much protection as the company feels it has to provide, but even then people are attacked. Just a couple of weeks ago on Royal, the preteen daughter of a friend of mine had a crew member ask her for her phone number then follow her when she didn't give it. She went back to her room with him following, and then he pounded on the door to the adjoining room next door. If it had been empty, he was likely going to use his key to get in and then break through the adjoining door. But, fortunately her dad was in the adjoining room. When the Dad answered the door, the $^%$ pretended like that room had asked for maintenance.

I do remember reading the same thing somewhere in Royal. So LadySail2 isn't delusional. But, then I saw recent photos of plastic bottles, so I stopped worrying about it. It might have been pie-in-the-sky going green plan that hit the reality that purchased water is almost always in plastic.

You might want to look at photos of it. There are two docks and then between there is an area for the Manatees and another for the dolphins. What they might request is to be able to wait on the dock rather than on the beach.