PIR8LUVR

Solarium Bistro. It was much less chaotic.

On 11/18/2019 at 8:29 PM, travel_wendi said:

We just bookEd a Western Mediterranean cruise for September 2020. Will Royal Caribbean  email me with drink and food packages offers at some point? I guess I thought I would be getting some kind of emails from them already. I have heard Black Friday is good, will I be notified of this in advance? Thank you!

I get e-mails almost daily from RCI regarding discounts on drink packages, excursions, wi-fi, etc.

Yes, they start to go up the day after. We’ve been several times during Thanksgiving week. We’d go out on excursions and be shocked to see how much was done while we were out.

They may only offer these on ships that go to Coco Cay, but the Coco Loco is mango, strawberry, and pina colada. That and the frozen mojito are my favorites!

When I cashed in points before our summer cruise, the OBC showed up in Cruise Planner very quickly.

Thank you! I'm interested in the one in May. It also had a big price drop.

1 hour ago, boontj2003 said:

We're looking at booking a cruise to Alaska in 2021. It appears that June will be the best month that works for us. I'm only Platinum on Royal and currently have 2 cruises booked on Celebrity. I love having the drink package I'm just not sure if I should ditch all the others and go with Princess or Holland (never been on either.).

 

Where do we start, Vancouver or Seward? North bound, South bound or close loop? Should we spend the extra $$ on a balcony?

 

No kids, 2 couples. I really just need to know what to book then I can figure everything else out.

 

 

**side note, we have to have at least one stop in Juneau since husband was born there**

Absolutely get the balcony. We always get a balcony, but Alaska was the most we ever used it. 

You can can see more if you don’t do a close loop, but it’s more convenient.

We used Jiffy Jeff https://www.gojiffyjeff.com/

a few years ago and he was great!

I was on Freedom last week. I decided not to take my own hair dryer and regretted it immediately. I have a lot of long, thick hair. It took forever to dry with their little hairdryer. Plus, you have to hold down the button the whole time!

On 10/29/2018 at 5:40 PM, hmhanel said:

We also just finished our cruise and had stateroom 9640 (hello neighbor!). We were also concerned about potential noise being located by the stairs and elevators but didn't have any issues whatsoever. We really enjoyed the ease of access to the stairs and elevators as well as the view from the hump balcony. Would not hesitate to book that stateroom in the future.

 

Also want to give a shout out to the excellent staff in the Bull and Bear Pub. Aldric, Ferdy and Christino were fantastic!

Great to hear! I will be in that cabin on Sunday! 😊

20 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

 I know a lot of people have questions about the situation in San Juan, I know I have been following the news the last week knowing that I would be here this weekend.

 

We flew into San Juan Friday and stayed at the Hilton Caribe in the Condado area, everything was smooth and you wouldn’t know that anything was going on. Cabs and Ubers were plentiful. 

 

We we went to Old San Juan yesterday and did a Segway tour. There was a noticeable police presence but all in all it seemed to be business as usual.  The protesters for yesterday were mustering while we were shopping around, we chatted with them, got to hear their side of the story and all in all had a great time. 

 

Transport to the ship this morning was super smooth, and we were on the ship by 11:30. Had a great day onboard, there has been a flotilla of protestors around the ship occasionally, they were shown support from those onboard, and they caused no problems. 

 

We are off to Muster drill, I will try to post more later and entertain questions as the Wi-Fi will allow. 

Thanks for your post. We are flying down on Saturday, also staying at the Hilton Caribe, and sailing on Freedom. This makes me feel better about things. Have a great cruise!

2 hours ago, mrsaknar said:

Our absolute top favorite pool drink is always the blended mojito!!  Now that we are home and dreaming of our next cruise we are wanting to try to recreate these here. Has anyone paid attention to the mix that they use?  It was in a container that resembled an OJ carton.  Or does anyone else have a favorite way to make them?

Thanks 🙂

Margaritas have always been my favorite, but on cruise the frozen mojito is one of my go-tos. I love it! I'm 6 days away from having one :).

7 hours ago, pezgirlroy said:

Hi, we leave in two weeks on the Freedom from San Juan. We were going to be staying at an Air BnB in Old San Juan but given the protests that are happening right now I decided to change that. We are now staying at the AC Hotel Condado.  The hotel looks nice and is close to the airport and the pier.  My hope is that we will still be able to go to Old San Juan in the afternoon on Saturday when we arrive by taking an uber or taxi over.  Anyone stay at this hotel? suggestions on things to do near by. Restaurants for dinner/breakfast? Bars? really anything.  My plans have all now changed. Thank you as always for your help and reading. 

We are on this cruise, too. I’m hoping the protests will be over by then.

Chocobar Cortes looks good, but it’s in Old San Juan.

1 hour ago, Prewittsgal said:

Anyone have experience with beach excursions in Bermuda?  I would like to go to Horseshoe Bay for the day, but doesn't seem worth to buy through the ship when it is a limit of 4 hours.  Would it better to catch a taxi on our own head to the beach and stay as long as we want.? Or is there a curfew for cruisers to be back on board? 

 

Thanks for any advice.

It’s easy to do on your own. There is a desk in the port after you get through security. You can buy a bus pass. We bought the two-day bus/ferry pass and got our money’s worth. Just beyond the shops at the dock is a bus stop. It takes about 20-30 min to get to the beach stop.

19 hours ago, pezgirlroy said:

Hi all, thank you in advance for reading. My husband and I will be on the Freedom of the Seas leaving San Juan on July 28th for a kid free vacation. The stops are Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire and St. Maarten.  I am having a very hard time figuring out what we should do in each port. We do want to get off the boat at each port. We are willing to do shore excursions either through RCL or not. We like sight seeing but wouldn't mind some time on the beach. What I do not want is something super expensive and full day. Really looking for half day adventures.  I am not even sure where to start.  Anyone done any excursions they loved? or can you just explore on your own?  Thank you so much. 

My husband and I will be on the same cruise. I read through the excursions on the Cruise a Planner to find ones that combined sightseeing and time at the beach. We still haven’t booked anything for St. Maarten. We book through the ship more often than not. In Bermuda two years ago we cut it too close getting back to the ship!

On 6/22/2019 at 10:43 AM, scorpluvsdolphins said:

Hello 

I normally drink red wine, but my friend likes sweet white wine. 

I get 3 free bottles from C&A. 

Please tell me what I should call and ask for?

Thanks

I also like sweet white wine. Moscato is always good, as is a Spatlese Reisling from the Mosel Valley (Germany). I’ve had both on board in the past.

On 5/23/2019 at 11:51 AM, unittech said:

Going on Freedom out of San Juan on Aug 11-18.  Been watching pricing and today I noticed a big drop -- $335.  Called C&A and got a very nice gentleman, explained I had made final payment May 13 and asked if any chance I could still get a credit.  He was very kind and looked but said no, they couldn't do it after final payment.  I had a feeling this would be  the answer but wondered if anyone might have a way of asking that I missed.  I think I may call back later and try again and see if maybe a supervisor could help.  We are Diamond so I thought just maybe that would help.   Guess not.  Oh well, I tried.  

Thanks for sharing. I am sailing on FOTS a few weeks before you. I noticed an $800 price drop over the weekend and debated calling.

On 4/25/2019 at 2:26 PM, Merion_Mom said:

 

 

Most (I won't say all, but most) of the ships are now allowing the vouchers to be used in the MDR.  (and the other restaurants around the ship)

Late in our cruise last summer I asked our waiter in the MDR and he said we could.

Yes, it was moved to Noon. I saw another poster say his flight was at 11:30, he was honest about it on the form, and they still let him do it.

When I sailed on Explorer last year, your flight had to leave after 2pm to be eligible for this service. I’m curious if this has been moved up since our flight leaves at 1:30.

 

I use this service at every port that offers it. What a great service!

Seattle! Shortest wait time ever and friendly staff.

We saw everything on Explorer last week. However, the host did tell one main wearing a tank top that he needed to change or put on his jacket. I didn't see as many people in super casual clothes as I would on a Caribbean cruise, though.

I just got off Explorer, yesterday. We had a balcony on deck 9. Our table was high enough to play games on,

They offer a nice variety of breakfast items — fruit, yogurt, pastries, cereal, cheese, cold cuts, etc.

I got off Explorer yesterday and we were able to use our drink vouchers in the dining room.

The Diamond Lounge is on Deck 14. My husband and I went every night, and some days in the mornings. We enjoyed it. It was never very busy. Service was excellent!