rudeney

Just know that the spa personnel are incentivized to upsell you on their products, so you may get a bit of a sales pitch. I have personally not done any spa treatments (although I have two booked for our next cruise) but my wife always does several and she has mentioned this every time - some are simple pitches, but a few have been "hard sells". I have heard rumors ranging from "the staff is required to meet a quota to keep their jobs" to "they earn a 75% commission on all sales" as to why they upsell so vehemently.

You really won't know until you get your luggage tags on the last night. We have always sailed in suites, so we get the first round tags. I think if you give them your departure flight info, that is considered. Like others have said, you can do self-carry if you need to leave very early. You may also be able to request and early departure group from your cabin steward - sometime they can work some magic for that.

Great info, Mike! I was considering OnPoint, but with all the problems reported about their proctors having communication difficulties, I think I'll go with RadpidTestAndTrace - especially being that is was proctored by an actual nurse in Canada.

My wife is very prone to motion sickness and on our first cruise, brought a bag full of meds. She never used them. She still takes some along just in case, but even when we've been in some rough seas, she was fine. I think with her, a lot of it is visual - she can't read text in the car, but she scroll through FB while riding.

WOW! 😮

I never thought of using a duffle bag - I used to just tape a luggage tag on it.

Platinum also gets discounts when booking balcony/suite cabins, but it's very small - like $100.

Additionally, guests in suites (GS or higher) have access to the Suite Lounge where they serve hors d'oeuvres and complimentary beverages from 5pm - 8pm.

If you install the Royal app, you can see the full menu for your sailing. If you aren't booked yet, just pick one close to what you are looking for. You tap the "Person" icon and then "get more details on ships we support"

Yes, it lasts from 12:01am to Midnight each day of your cruise! 😜 Seriously, no, they do not have a time where drinks are less expensive. They do have a "drink of the day" cocktail which is usually something like $10 instead of the usual $13 as long as you forgo the extra-price souvenir cup they promote with it. If you drink a lot, look into a beverage package and see if that would work for you. For comparison to pay-per-drink prices, use the Royal App and pull up the menus under "Dining -> Bars & Lounges"

I think it was about that price when the recent Memorial Day and July 4th sales were going on. But of course Voom was less, too, so that would probably still make The Key cost a proportional amount more. We always sail in suites, so I never buy The Key. I do always tell people who say they are buying The Key "because it's just a few dollars more than Voom" that they need to compare its total price to the multi-device Voom price before they really decide. Like you figured out, that "few dollars" x "number of people" x "length of cruise" becomes expensive. But of course some people will find value in what The Key offers and be willing to pay that price. I won't judge because we find value in suites and pay that (ridiculous) price.

That's a deal on the 4-device Voom S+S - on our next cruise (Voyager CAN/NE in Oct), it's $70.29/day x 7 so $492. The Key is $29.99/day x 4 x 7 = $840, so almost $350 more for its benefits for 4 people.

A mixed drink (e.g. gin and tonic, martini) is $9-$12 depending on brand. Cocktails and (e.g. Long Island tea, daiquiri) is $13.

I got vaccinated as soon as I could (early 2021) and took the J&J since my doc told me the mRNA vaccines were causing people with COVID antibodies a lot of adverse reactions. It was fine, and then I got a J&J booster in the fall of 2021. I travel a bit and we are not shy about going to concerts and events, and we've had no issues. If any of us have had Omicron, it has been so mild as to not even bother us - like allergies.

Same as the price for the "mixed" drink - e.g. $10 for Johnny Walker Black with ice and water, or as a shot - your choice.

I used to dabble in watch repair and would buy used and sometimes non-working high-end watches. I'd get them cleaned up and working, wear them for a while, sell, buy another, etc. We were on a ship and I was moments away from pulling the trigger on a new Omega Planet Ocean. But then I smacked myself and realized what a waste of money that would be - like buying a new car. I've been buying used late-model luxury cars for 20+ years now and my wife finally came to realize for her last car that's the way to go. I don't do watch work anymore since I am too old for that fine motor control. And last year, I succumbed to the Smart Watch craze. I do still wear a nice Swiss watch occasionally, but it's hard now to give up the benefits of the smart watch!

Same here. We tried to live as "normally" as possible. I have been WFH since 2016, and my wife was WFH 2 days a week, and then went fully WFH during the lockdown (and has stayed that ways since). I got COVID in Nov. 2020. I caught it the Wednesday before Thanksgiving from the lady who cleans our house. We had invited her to join us and other family for Thanksgiving the next day, but she called with regrets the next morning as she was not feeling well. She called Friday to say she tested positive. She got it from the client she cleaned for the day before ours. I had a head cold for a week but never ran a fever. None of the others who came over got it - not even my wife and kid who live with me!

I have no personal experience to share yet, but in reading posts here and on "other" forums, it seems that OnPoint is a bit disorganized, and their proctors can be hard to understand. I have yet to hear of anyone saying they were turned away at boarding when using either of these with a negative test result.

Honest answer: We eat out at least 3 nights a week. We were eating out the day before the restaurants were shutdown, and we were the first in-house customers at our favorite Mexican restaurant when it reopened. And during the lockdowns, we were in Home Depot, Costo, Walmart and every other "essential service" store several times a week.

Somehow, i thought I remembered the Windjammer having plate covers, like they do with room service. But maybe i just imagined that?

A lot of people tend to use the $13 drink price to calculate break-even, which is the price of a "cocktail", but there are less expensive drinks like beer for $7.50, simple mixed drinks for $10, and wine for $12 and under. I think a person really needs to list out what they expect to drink and make the decision. For me: $7.00.....2x bottles of water @$3.50 $24.00.....2x glasses of wine with dinner @$12.00 $33.00.....3x mixed drinks (Scotch) @$11.00 That's $64, so at a price of $65 for hte DBP, all I need is one more bottle of water, a fancy coffee drink, glass of OJ, or an extra cocktail or mixed drink and I'm "in the black". The issue is, with bringing 2 bottles of wine and access to evening cocktails in the SL (we always books suites) we've never considered ther DBP. But for our next cruise, I figured I'd try it, mainly for the convenience of not having to trek up to the CL when we want evening drinks. Plus, if it's already paid for, I won't be mentally counting all those purchases!

My understanding is that Surf is capped at about 0.5Mbps and Stream is 4Mbps. If Surf is so slow you can't read email or browse social media, then it's likely that the entire system is slow due to clouds blocking the satellite signal, a large number of Internet users, or weak wifi where you are on the ship. And in those cases, it will be slow for everyone - even those who paid for Stream. Upload speeds on satellite Internet service are always very slow, so sending pics and email is going to be an issue regardless of your speed level. One trick I have heard people use is when you move within the ship, shut wifi off and back on so you get a new connection. Apparently, the wifi routers on the ships do not do a good job of "handing off" to each other.

I am fortunate that I fly fairly often for work. I live in Birmingham, my office is in Richmond, and our development team is in Chicago, so I am on a plane about once a month and I stick to Southwest. Of course the points required for flights is proportional for cash prices, but I have a lot of points.

Jenga, for an extra challenge on rough sea days.

Interesting. Our public educators are prohibited from receiving gifts of any kind, unless they they are considered to be of "de minimis value". Basically, a fruit basket or box of chocolates would be OK, a gift card would not.