HappyTexan44

Wooo, I dodged a bullet. The football schedule was not on my radar when I booked our cruise for next year. I scheduled our wedding around the football schedule. Next year's Super Bowl will be a week later, Feb 11, and we depart Feb 19. Also before March Madness.

I guess if there is no need to show ID, it will be better for those of us who worry to show up on the early side so as to be there as they put out our time slot's luggage. I will forever think of that white house official when I think of luggage thieves. Also, even if they don't steal anything worth any money, it still really stinks to have your luggage stolen. It happened to me once in Barcelona, Spain. For the next couple of years I kept reaching for certain clothing pieces then to realize they were gone. You take your favorite things on vacation. ETA: I still mourn the less of those bright-red, wide-whale corduroy bermuda shorts.

The dog looks like it would be tasty. Although, even then it is probably Crisco frosting. Maybe ask beforehand if it will be a fondant frog and if so, cancel. I think I'd have removed the cupcake paper on the dog. The frosting on the bottom looks pretty, but I'd get it all over myself removing the paper.

I can understand not wanting to hand over your luggage to other people. I've had stuff stolen by airport baggage handlers. Even if it isn't a $$$$ something, it can be annoying, for example, to arrive in Taiwan and not have sunglasses. I also can not stand to turn my luggage over at a hotel. I had one turd in Germany slam my suitcase down right in front of me breaking my Czech crystal vase. He did that because I asked him to be gentle with it. That said, we'll be checking our luggage both directions on the cruise. I imagine the odds of petty thefts to be lower than say on a United flight. I think we'll also do the zip-ties.

Well, darn, I had thought that the Voyager offered this class. But I wasn't interested. Thanks to this thread I am interested. Just now I double-checked and I don't see it on the list of activities.

Could you tell me more about the sushi class? My daughter loves sushi but only particular kinds. So if the class was "We will now all make Eel sushi" she'd be disappointed. But if they had an array of ingredients, and some recipes, and sushi instruction that would be good. Actually she doesn't fall far from the tree, I'd happily eat several varieties of just shrimp sushi.

Or even just didn't hear because he was in the conversation and was focused on his friend. I don't know why, but I normally don't hear things from behind me. I've always been that way.

For home use, if you use the co2 cartridges it is pretty pricey. But we use a co2 tank. Amazon has a cable that connects the tank to the Sodastream. You can get the tanks from Lowe's. The price for a really large tank that lasts us many months is $25-$35ish. Maybe the OP could mention that idea to her niece and just bring a cable? I had been pondering the idea for price, but the soda cans were just so darn convenient. I had to give up nutrasweet when I discovered that I was addicted. Anything that wasn't air or water that made me feel that crappy when I went without, couldn't have been good for me. Getting sodas wasn't a problem, though, since Diet RC and Coke Zero both used Splenda. Then the lockdown happened. Diet RC disappeared and Coke Zero switched to Nutrasweet. Everything on the soda aisle was made with either corn syrup or nutrasweet, except for Zevia which tastes bad. Even the sugar sodas disappeared for a long time. So, we got the sodastream and I adore it. I've also made some syrups. That is still an ongoing process. The recipes out there fall into two audiences, the super-natural where you use fruit juices and maybe stevia, or those that want to use sugar syrup. So I modify. One try at Diet Coke ended up tasting like a Mountain Dew and Fresca had a child. Then I discovered that Sodastream has a Diet Orange! Diet and Orange together and tasting good. We taken it on road trips using the canisters. In the future, I'll probably just bring my syrups and buy sparkling water.

Except for the coconut part. : ) They do seem to have shrimp on the menu often, and not just the cocktail. That was what tipped me over into thinking the new menus were a positive.

Ok, I'll grant you the Tortilla soup. Enchiladas, yes. And pork, yes. Pulled pork, certainly wouldn't be called that, but if you have pork breaking it up is natural. Then the enchiladas were on flour tortillas. There are some Mexican states with lovely flour tortillas, so flour tortillas, Yes But they should be corn for enchiladas. I think the flour tortilla "enchiladas" and Pulled Pork in the name pushes it over into Mexican-ish to me. Also, if they were just translating the name, then Carne Asada should have been Grilled Meat.

Seems like "Scooter can enter" would be a good thing to have on the floor plan, although with for example "3-person"

Out of curiosity. Would travel insurance cover the flights if you couldn't take the cruise because of protocol changes?

RoyalUp had been on my mind originally. Not that I was going to count on getting something like that. Plus there was that advice floating out there (maybe outdated) that if you book gty you might get an upgrade. Now I've fallen in love with our two promenade view rooms. Voyager 7291 and 7293 with rooms above/below/left/right I'd say No to an offer of a free upgrade from our two connecting to even say one Junior Suite.

Well, maybe the room closest to where they smoke.

Well, this is helpful for me. I had been initially thinking one interior gty for price. But then I decided on two interior connecting, which automatically meant I had to pay a bit more to choose the rooms. But if the one 4-person room wasn't so expensive I probably would have gone with one gty interior. Like the OP I am very sensitive to smoke.

And make My Time Dining work better.

None of the others are as good as the Rome one. Because I devoured the Rome one, I've checked out some others. Maybe the others aren't done by the same people, or maybe it was that the other cities just don't have the depth of interesting stuff. The Florence and surrounding area one was worthwhile, maybe 70% as good as Rome's. Memory tells me it was probably done by the same people.

So to find out if there is charter on your sailing you have to wait until someone from that group mentions it on the roll call here? I was thinking about this recently. There was a thread where someone's cruise reservation was cancelled because it was switched to a gay cruise. Someone on the thread suggested that they sign up for the same cruise under the charter and that it was cheaper. I gave it some thought, and that would be a solid No. I wouldn't do a singles charter cruise either. I wonder if there would be a way to find out how much and what was blocked off for the charter? That would make a big difference to me. Guilting group spending all their time in the conference rooms? Sounds like a benefit to everyone else. Group booking the theater when there wouldn't normally be a show? Not a problem. Blocking off an area I'd like to visit for the entire cruise? A problem. I wonder what Royal's policy of on changes in this case? Thinking about it, I'd probably want to switch if it was a football related charter. I'd lose my husband to long football conversations. I don't want to compete with football, which is why we married in August. I wanted max time to plan, but before football started. I didn't want to know which of my friends would rather want a game on TV then go to my wedding.

The cabin is cleaned. As a sun phobic redhead the only use I can see for a balcony is to have a leisurely private meal out there. That does seem like it would be relaxing. They also do room service. Therefore many people don't have a problem with food in the room.

My first thought when I read this was "Well, Queso dip as Tex-Mex would be closer than what is there, and also very popular." But it really needs to be served at minimum very warm.

Couldn't you cash out every time you leave the casino?

The Mexican meal doesn't look very Mexican, or even under the broad category of Mexican-ish. I can still order a multi-course meal that night and be happy, so I'm not complaining. I'd put the Carne Asada as Mexican. Tortilla soup and Pulled Pork Enchiladas as Mexican-ish.

Beyond the dessert cheese tray (which does sound awesome) what do you recommend we keep in the room for afternoon hungries? Although, I don't remember seeing a cheese tray on the new menu. But, then I didn't pay too much attention to the dessert menu. If there isn't anything to tempt me on the dessert menu, the sky would be falling. Does the WJ have worthwhile cheese out? i.e. not sliced American. I don't have a problem with American cheese, but it isn't a snack cheese.

I know but it looked so like blood. (Note I deleted my post because the menus look better on second glance) Seems like Shrimp cocktail is there most nights and shrimp is enough to make pleased with even a *meh* meal. Also, at first glance I hadn't noticed that the Chef's row had different things than below. I had thought that they were just recommending a combination. There are some interesting things in the Chef's row. ETA: Although I stick by my original comment that 'white fish' is code for 'random trash fish.'

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