Sarvowinner

My mother and my daughter (78 & 17 at the time) did the Hornblowers 49 day cruise around South America on the Mariner (along with Merion_Mom Hi Carol!) yonks ago.  Mum was going to book an inside but we upgraded them to an OV as my daughter would never have out of bed without the natural light.  They had stacks of room for a very long cruise.

Our cruise out of Brisbane has just dropped the daily package down to AUD100 per day so that is more attractive than the original $155.  You need to figure out how many you would drink per day - on the back of an envelope I would calculate the average drink would be around $15 so if you plan on more than 6 drinks per day, it is worth it.  My husband can’t drink right now and all adult cabin occupants have to buy the package so it is not on the cards for us.  Saying that, I wouldn’t drink that many per day plus we can bring on two bottles of wine.

Going off topic slightly - my husband asked if we could bring our Soda Stream on board to make own soda water?

That's a pretty cool trip - Tanzania from Sydney [emoji23]. But if you aren't going to leave Australia, no customs. When we did the TP, Immigration boarded in Noumea & cleared us the day before.

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Could you answer what is in this link then. It scares the daylight out of me and I am book with them for Mar. 2017.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=985

Did you read the second review - I would go with that. Make sure you book your shows and restaurants beforehand and you should have a wonderful cruise.

I use this to store my bottles and such; hair spray, suntan lotion, body lotion, hair brushes, etc. Anything you think of putting on a bathroom counter in a hotel i place in here. Then I don't have all my stuff and my friend's stuff crowding up the small bathroom. I love it

Yes, I put up a photo of my organiser at home. On the ship, it held everything from sea passes to baseball caps.

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. I bought this one at Walmart in Maui for about $10 plus a pop up hamper for $5. I like this one as it is very light.

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Aft 9392 on Explorer of the Seas. Loved it. Never windy, noticed very little ash, superstructure always allowed some shade. Initially there was a weird incessant tapping at the top of the balcony door which generally stopped when the door was unlocked or open. Maintenance took the exterior pelmut off and fiddled with cable in the sliding mechanism which seemed to fix it.

For some reason, having the balcony door open didn't seem to create that massive wind tunnel when the corridor opened, it also didn't interfere with the a/c so we slept most of the 24 nights with it open.

The interior is a little smaller than the normal D cabins - a love seat rather than a full sofa.

We ordered breakfast most mornings, made our own coffee with our bodum press (they offered the tea making service with kettle) and our own Illy coffee. Such a pleasure to eat on the balcony with a good sized table.

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I have never locked my bags...ships, planes, trains.

Locks are for honest people and will not stop someone who wants to get in.

Don't see the point.

 

Raina

We also never lock our bags - last month en route to Italy we spent a week in Sri Lanka. We had stacks of luggage as we were bringing equipment to Lucca for our cooking school. Arrive at Colombo Airport close to midnight, take our bags around to the left luggage office (which was in a different terminal), only to find each bag needs a lock before they will store them. Have to go back through security to a little shop with a display of locks. Each lock was 3,500 rupiah. I miscalculated thinking they were very cheap at AUD3.50 - paid 10,000 rp for three locks. As we were driving off in the taxi, I realised I had paid AUD100. THen to top it off, one suitcase was opened when flew from Colombo to Rome and the lock has gone to lock heaven somewhere.

On another note, we do pay for the package, but we like to enjoy a cocktail in our cabin without having to walk to a bar and bring them back.

The menus are the same, the meat & fish is sourced from the US, but the produce is local & so much more flavoursome.

Hi, I am currently in Italy, but when I try to get into the Australian Royal Caribbean site, it bounces me to the Italian site and I can't find the drop down menu to revert back. Also the page they bounce me to says the page is not found. Any ideas?

We did this on the Allure last year, we had warm/hot weather for about 8-9 days.

If you want to be on simultaneously, you need to select a 2 Device package. If you want to stream, take the surf & stream option.

We had Topi on a New Jersey/Quebec cruise on the Legend in 2014. I think he is great, very warm and that 50s night is brilliant. He does take extended leave. He did a wonderful enrichment lecture about sailing across the Pacific (with no sailing experience).

The new flyer shows 40% off bottles under $100 with the Ultimate Package.

I'd like to know as well as we are doing the TP in October. :)

Any beverage purchases have an automatic 18% service charge added - either packages or individual drinks.

The reason you go to the "naughty room" is because they don't know if those bottles are in addition to 2 bottles that you carried on. Also over the years I have witnessed liquid running out of stacked luggage to the bags below!

How do they know people have carried on their two bottles?

On our TA last October on the Allure, we streamed Rugby Union Grand Final on my laptop which was connected by HDMI to the TV. This was when the ship was outside satellite TV coverage.

No problem at all sharing bottles, they will even pour the bottles for as many people as you like.

Thanks Bob. I really only drink at dinner - wine so when I realised the Ultimate was 40% off, it justified upscaling my husband's package from Premium for our 24 day TP.

Check out this version:

 

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

 

Notice the difference in the wine bottle discount.

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/royal/media/royal/shared_assets/pdf/beverage-flyer-cruise-planner-v41.pdf

This is version v41 - and says 40% off wines under $100 I will take a print out. In the past, there has been no problem sharing bottles of discounted wine. Has anyone heard if this has changed?

Makes a difference on the Transatlantic. Europe to N. America, you want to be on the Port side otherwise you don't get sun.

Hanging shirts and Tees on inflatable clothes hangers dries them very quickly as the air circulates inside the garment. On the Allure, there are perforations in the ceiling in the sitting area. I popped the hooks through the holes - took no time at all to dry.

Australian website was down today for upgrade. Perhaps there is a glitch when it was rebooted.

In Australia, you can only deal with the call centre in Guatamala. And only during Australian business hours which does not make sense.