cruiselvr04

Heading to Amsterdam, then Norway, Iceland, Greenland. All our excursions are paid for and I’ve read tips are not expected except in Amsterdam. ( I may be wrong). I’m only taking 100 Euros and will wait to get them there. We will use our card for everything except a bathroom and tips. I’m not planning on exchanging money for the rest of the trip. If they don’t take a card we won’t eat, drink or spend money. It’s too much of a hassle and as someone stated you’re left with bits to try to use up. I have exchanged small amounts on the ship. It’s not my first choice but in NZ it was just the easiest. If you only need 40Euros it’s not that big of a deal to get the best rate, just saying. A few dollars isn’t going to break me for the convenience. We do use a card with no transaction fees. A note on pickpockets. We use pack safe or travelon bags. I have a small crossbody and he has a sling. These are small enough to be allowed into museums so we don’t have to check anything. We are still careful, keep them in front of us, don’t take them off while eating and don’t lay our phones on the table. We aren’t paranoid but alert.

If you check the box that says you have a cough on the pre board questionnaire you may need to see medical before boarding.

I’ve used my ceramic hair dryer and straightener on lots of ships in every class. So this must be new to Icon?

I can understand your point of view. We’re getting closer to Pin. This has made us want to finish out as soon as budget allows so we can get top perks with both Celebrity and Royal. We were looking at other lines but now this may keep us in the family. Unless it’s a specific itinerary that Royal and Celebrity doesn’t do it makes sense for us to stay.

Oh boy. We’re going to have to get TOGA outfits!

We’d love a ship Galveston!

Lol. Kim Crawford. Twice now when I’ve asked for it the bar staff has substituted another one. They always act surprised when I catch them…. We love KC with dinner!

The whole Haiti revolution is very sad for its people. It has never been very stable but seemed to go downhill after the earthquake years ago. We love Labadee for its natural quietness compared to CocoCay. They both have their place and we enjoy both. Scheduled to stop there in a years time. I’m not hopeful we’ll actually go.

During the pandemic, after the restart, we avoided bus trips and I think that helped. In the past year I’ve gotten sick on every cruise we’ve taken. Covid at the end of an Alaska cruise tour( very mild). Panama Canal a terrible cough, not covid. Australia DH had something the first cruise, we had a cough the entire second cruise, again neg for covid. Finally by the third cruise we started to recover. People would sit behind you in the theater and cough the entire time or cough on the bus right behind you. It was impossible to avoid and we tried! Since the vaccines I don’t think our immune systems are as strong but that’s just my opinion. We even tried elderberry this last cruise and it didn’t seem to help. I’m thinking at least one of those times it was RSV. Now we’re headed to Norway. I’m taking twice as much cough medicine, twice the cough drops and some antibiotics I bought in Mexico just in case it goes to our chest. Honestly if you’re frail in health, I don’t think cruising is the place to be. The longer the cruise, the worse it seems to be for us. It only takes one person to come on board with something and spread it around. Royal tries with their screening but people aren’t honest.

Those would be quickly cut. I know there was a thread on this but what was the real reason. Seems crazy.

I’ve been tempted but no I wouldn’t. The glass on the balcony is sometimes so bad you can’t see through it. To the Op - unfortunately you can’t bring your own. We never use it in a suite and when sailing in Australia/UK for instance ask them to remove the coffee “kettle” in a balcony cabin. We do visit the coffee place every morning though. Order your expresso from there. I have brought on board a cardboard carrier to take it back to the room.

Definitely longer rather than a suite. We don’t like to fly OR drive for less than 2 weeks. Since Royal has changed to anything above a balcony as non refundable Jr Suites may be a thing of the past for us. With prices getting so high we may be looking at more OV or insides. We’ve always said we’d rather have an inside then not go. We’ve loved a suite when we had them but honestly are just as happy in a balcony.

We haven’t seen that happen in a few years. If I remember right, the last one didn’t sell too well although I’d go now.

Adventure is one of the smaller ships. However it still has a lot to offer. One thing that’s nice is you don’t have to pre book shows like the big ships. Enjoy the ice show, production shows, flow rider, pools and hot tubs. Mini golf. Adventure ocean has lots of kid activities. Specialty dining isn’t necessary, especially for a family it can get pricey. For a nice dinner out, it’s worth once for a couple on a cruise. The price has risen so much we don’t do it much on a ship this size unless we get some kind of a deal like a BOGO. We were on her sister, Navigator, a couple of months ago. It’s a very nice size, easy to get around, entertainment venues aren’t too crowded. Cabins are dated but functional with lots of storage. Use the cruise planner to help you plan and watch for deals on drink packages, dining and excursions.

I have done it. It wouldn’t let me pick the arrival time until I went back to the cabin and put all my passport info in. We used ship WiFi at the time through the app. This was about a year ago so maybe it’s different now?

This is a good lesson. If you get left by an excursion immediately call the port ( which they did) and look for alternate transportation if it’s close to all aboard. Do not depend on others. It was too far to walk ( where they docked was 25 min by car outside of town). Not sure if Uber or a cab was even available. I feel for this family as I doubt they were experienced travelers or cruisers. Even those experienced can have this happen.We really try not to book independent excursions that are not scheduled to return at least a couple of hours before sail time.

2-3 days of clothing Clothing for me that’s hard to replace like swim suit, bras Extra pair of shoes, sometimes dress shoes Medication Toiletries, Make up Anything electronic or with a cord cash, passport, travel documents contacts, glasses Basically it’s anything that can’t be or would be hard to replace. Or something that I can’t do without for even for a few days. I do this for every trip I fly, not just cruises. Bags get lost or as a recent cruiser reported her bag fell into the ocean while being loaded on a ship.

We’re going to try inside Port Parking this time around. DH likes at least covered and it’s $5 cheaper per day than surface parking at the port. If the shuttle is slow it’s walkable without bags. We’re doing 15 nights so it does add up. Since the new terminal opened it’s gone up $7 a day!

We didn’t plan well. We’re on Explorer when the Bella cruise is happening. It would be nice to put names and faces together.

In May of this year no one checked or cared. It was around 11:00 when we walked on.

We’re doing a week in Barcelona next April. We’ve been before and I thought we’d be bored to stay that long between cruises but I’m finding there is a lot to do in the surrounding area. We’ve never taken the time to go outside the city so now looking forward to it.

Royals new terminal is mostly solar in Galveston so the terminal should be ok. But getting provisions into the port may not be possible. TBD. It probably depends on how fast the water recedes and debris on the roads. It didn’t sit on top of anywhere like Harvey so that’s a good thing.

Beryl missed the Dallas area. We got a little rain, no wind. Some of the pictures out of south Texas make you sad with homes flooded and damage from trees falling on homes. It doesn’t sound like Galveston is open yet, Mariner is out to sea, she will come in the morning if the port opens. Harmony left just before it hit.

We tried Carnival, last pre covid, and on the last one we mutually said not again. Cheapest is not always worth it. We love Royals but we are open to trying Princess again or HA if the price is right. Princess and HA have a-lot more interesting and longer itineraries. We’ll be doing some Celebrity cruises coming up. We’d love to do Silversea and Viking (we’ve done Viking River) but right now we’re more into quantity, trying to travel to get to as many places in the world as we can over luxury. We have a yearly budget. I’d rather do 80-100 nights a year right now then 30 or less. With Royal raising prices and putting so many ships in the same ports over and over in the Caribbean it will become necessary to do some “cheating”.

It just doesn’t work like that. Not always but most of the time, newbies seem to be given better cabins. Perhaps to have them come back? You can call and ask to move to a different cabin if you don’t like your location and it’s available. Otherwise try for a Royal Up. As you know a Gty is not always great, but I’m betting you saved money doing it. The only way we’ll book one is if there’s nothing else left. Enjoy your cruise.