rudeney

I see what you are saying there! 🤣 Yeah, but not enough to be convinced that a two-week vacation only lasts for one week!

You will need to call my wife and convince her. Being gone for 9 days for a 7-night cruise is a hard enough sell! Quite often we set out for a week at the beach and we stay only 5 days because she's homesick.

I suspect it used Bluetooth, which has a very short range. I'm still researching to find one that works on a wifi network without Internet where all you have is a local IP address.

You are right - 5 days is probably a better expectation. I looked back at my concierge emails and it varied from 6 to 10 days, but that was pre-COVID (and the 10 day email was way back in 2007!)

There are "peer to peer" or "mesh" texting (and calling) apps you can use, but most of them rely on Bluetooth, which has a short range (especially shorter inside a metal ship). Of course if a bunch of people on the ship would use the same mesh app, then rang would not be an issue as it can "hop" through nearby phones. What would be interesting is an app that could use the limited free wifi on the ship. Even without paying for wifi or messaging, you can still connect and use the RCI App onboard. It wouldn't take much for someone to build a peer-to-peer messaging app that can take advantage of that connection without needing Internet access.

Unless it's changed, the Travel Pass does not include cruise ship cellular systems - it's only for foreign countries.

Thanks! That does look like an incredible trip, but I have to stick to a 7-night cruise. I might be able to stretch it to 8 nights, but that's the limit for my wife being away from home!

I think that the IT and LA people on that ship were simply providing incorrect information. There is no way to block "VPN" access. Some VPN's use standard WWW browser ports. But many use oddball ports, and as I've said before, the ships likely block ports that are not used by most common Internet apps (browsers, streaming services, etc.) It may be that the IT team on different ships chooses to block different ports, and that's why sometimes it works. Not only do I have my own VPN in my house, and one for connecting to my office, I also routinely connect to my clients' networks via their VPNs. I often do have issues connecting to some of these from airport and hotels and even client sites when I travel. I do have one client that uses a completely browser-based solution. You login to their VPN in a browser window, and then all network resources (shared drives, servers, RDP hosts, etc.) are available within that browser session. It's nice because it's totally portable with no need to install a VPN client and it's never blocked.

Doesn't Diamond status extend to spouses?

What almost always happens to me is that some charge is wrong and I need it adjusted. Instead of standing in liem, I can just tell the concierge and get it looked at and corrected if necessary. For example, it seems that on almost every cruise, we get hit with strange "mini bar" charges for a few dollars, yet we have no stocked mini bar. And it always shows up on the last night when I know GS is going to be a madhouse.

When I said, "On the Freedom/Voyager class ships, Chops is usually open for lunch on embarkation day exclusive to suite guests. They don't serve food - it's just a place to sit after you get your plate in the adjacent Windjammer." I was referring to previous cruises, pre-pandemic where that was a suite guest benefit. It does seem it has changed.

@SeannieAbout 10 days before your cruise, you should receive an introductory email from the concierge that will ask if you need assistance with things such as pre-booking spp treatments or specialty dining. The concierge should see that you have the UDP, but if not, just include a reminder in your reply to ask for the venues and times you want to book. You can book individual specialty dining meals in your Cruise Planner, but even with UDP, you will have to pay for those. Once you are on the ship, you can have those charges refunded as OBC (the concierge can help with that), but keep the reservations. I have not personally done that, but I have heard others who have. I don;t do it that way because I have pretty much pre-booked and pre-paid for everything so I don't need OBC on my cruise.

Our next cruise will likely be Alaska. I would like to think we'd do this next year, but it's more likely to be 2024. Looking at itineraries, Enchantment has the best port options, but I'd rather sail on a larger ship. We really like Voyager/Freedom class, but also would like to try a larger ship. Should we look into a Quantum-class ship, or are the smaller ships a good choice?

According to CDC research, a person infected with the highly contagious Omicron variants can infect between 7 and 14 other people with close contact. "Close contact" is defined as being within 6 feet of infected persons for a cumulative total time of 15 minutes or more. On a cruise ship with between 3,00 and 6,000 passengers, it won't take long for one infected person to infect the minimum 7 others, and for those 7 others to infect 7 others, etc. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead of "super spreader" events, we have anecdotal reports of some cruise passenger testing positive. Hmm....

While I do agree that ignoring a problem does not make it go away, testing doesn't either. The only way to prevent COVID from being brought onto a cruise ship is to have each person begin testing 10 days from their cruise, and be totally quarantined until the cruise. Of course once onboard, there could be no shore excursions or contact with people who had not been tested and quarantined for 10 days prior. Short of that, or until the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates to the point of being benign, there will always be COVID on cruise ships, and other places where large numbers of people closely congregate. A snapshot test taken two days prior to boarding is a waste of time, money, and anxiety.

I have poked around on some other cruise line websites, including MSC, and none of them are very good. I've even used som TA websites, and while some of them are better than RCCL, some of them are actually much worse. Even though they may have versatile search and comparison tools, there was a couple that I considered booking through, but the process to do that became so tedious, I just quit trying.

On our upcoming CAN/NE cruise in October, I wanted a port-side cabin, but the only ones available when I booked in March were connecting rooms, so I chose a non-connecting starboard suite. I did see a port side suite open up a few weeks later, and though about changing, but by the time I was ready to do that, it was booked. Also, when I was first browsing for this cruise, I noticed that if I went as far as selecting a cabin, and then backed out, it seemed to "hold" that cabin as unavailable for some time - maybe a few hours?

Yeah, I was probably not clear in how I first describe that! 🙂 I am still questioning if UDP can be used on embarkation day for lunch. Looking at the app, all three specialty restaurants show as open 12:00pm - 1:30pm each day for lunch. UDP can be used on "sea days", so I wonder if embarkation is counted in that. I guess it's really not a sea day since it leaves port, but there is no "destination" that day. Also, with them being open for lunch, I am guess no more using access to sit in Chops for suite guests on embarkation day. ☹️

But you can "check-in" 45 days before your cruise, so.... 😜

That's right - they can't really block VPNs, but they can block ports that are not commonly used by web apps, and corporate VPNs often use oddball ports. I don't believe they do this to prevent VPN access, though. It's probably that they are trying to limit hacking by cutting down on the number of open ports.

On the Freedom/Voyager class ships, Chops is usually open for lunch on embarkation day exclusive to suite guests. They don't serve food - it's just a place to sit after you get your plate in the adjacent Windjammer. They will bring/refill drinks and clear tables. At least that is how it worked prior to the pandemic.

I haven't seen that. We only cruise once every few years, but always in a suite, and either Freedom or Voyager class. I am fairly diligent in checking prices almost daily, and I can readily see the suites getting booked up. Of course on the larger ships, this might not be the case.

Yeah, they are pretty bad. I've been in software development for nearly 40 years now and am currently heading up a total rewrite of my company's software as a web-based application. I have a virtually unlimited supply of examples showing "what NOT to do!"

Back to the original subject of UDP and specialty dining on embarkation day...I decided to buy UDP for our October cruise on Voyager. I checked the app, and it lists all three specialty restaurants (Chops, Giovanni's and Izumi) open 12:00-1:30 on Day 1. Does that mean they would all be available for lunch with UDP? I thought they usually had Chops open just for suite guests for lunch on embarkation day (we are in a GS).

I just replied about booking suites early as they often sell out. In my experience, I have not seen much of a price reduction on suites we've booked. In fact, it's always been the opposite - they go up in price. The one exception was an OBC offer that came up right before final payment, and other than that, the price was the same, so I was able to get that changed. But we also don't book "far" in advance - maybe 10 months at the most.