Sigyn

We're on the Millennium in July. Will there be shows that we need to pre-book? And, if so, when do those open up for reservations?

Drink packages aren't worth it for everyone. Even at current prices of $77.89 a day, which is 20% off from the regular price of $98, it would cost me $545 for a drink package for our upcoming 7-day cruise. There's no way I'll drink $545 worth of beverages in 7 days. I'll have 1-2 a day at most, 3 if I'm wild and crazy. I'm opting to buy as I go.

Sounds like a great deal to me!

I paid $11.99 for 12 bottles about a week ago for our April 1 cruise. Now it no longer offers 12 or 24 bottles. It does show 24 bottles, but says "SOLD OUT."

This is not being extra. This is being interested in details. 🙂

You'll be going down a hallway from the elevator and stairs, and then turning into your room, so there will be a wall and a short walk down the hallway between your room and the elevator/stairs. That will provide a noise barrier. Therefore, I would definitely pick 8566. It looks much more convenient for early morning coffee and the previous point someone made about if you want to use the public restrooms if the one in the cabin is occupied.

Interesting! I'll look at the map of where the excursion will go and compare it to where the ship goes.

Booking just opened up this morning around 10:30 am ET for my April 1 cruise on Harmony in 28 days. It isn't showing up on the app, but I could book it on my laptop using the website.

Good to know! He loves "drip" and "bling" and that would suit him just fine. I asked him if he would prefer another beach day or shopping day and he chose the shopping, "if you let me buy stuff, mom." Can we walk to those stores from the port?

Of course. But I like to do an early dinner then a show, and maybe a snack afterward. Just a personal preference. I'm traveling with my 15-year-old and he's always hungry, so he doesn't like to wait until after 8 pm to have dinner.

My son and I (he's 15) will be in St. Maarten in a month, on a Royal Caribbean ship, and since we'll have two beach days at other ports, we'd like to spend this day shopping on both sides of the island, and having lunch somewhere. What's the best way to do this, and do it safely? There isn't a ship excursion that offers this option. I looked on Viator but all excursions with shopping are long sightseeing excursions. And as a 55-year-old woman, I don't want to hop into a jeep with a stranger for a private tour. That would feel a little risky, since you just never know who you're getting into a vehicle with. I'd like for there to be at least a few other people with us. Perhaps the best option is to simply opt for the Dutch side of the island where we get off the ship and shop and eat there? Not sure. Would love advice. Thanks.

Right?! 29 days out and it's not possible to book my April 1 Harmony cruise. Whether it's a glitch or something else, it's frustrating. I even received an email from RCCL saying it was time to reserve my shows! Guess what...it's not time. They're not open yet for bookings.

I wouldn't visit Denali unless I could go the full length of the park road. That's why for our July 2023 cruise we're skipping Denali and waiting until we return in 2024 or later. I really want my husband to see the park but there's so much that he'd miss only going on basically half the road. I took the bus into Denali to the end of the road in September 1999. I was with an old boyfriend. It was literally the last bus in for the season, on the last day, before the road shut down for the year. If I remember correctly, they were letting in a few private cars the next day, who had won some sort of lottery, but this was the last bus and so we picked up all of the end of season campers and backpackers at Wonder Lake campground at the far end of the road since we were their only ride out. It was quite something, coming back at dusk with a full bus. Everyone was in a great mood. Dirty, hungry and happy at the end of the season. I wasn't a "real" camper but they made me feel like one of them. We even saw a lone wolf standing by the side of the road as we got closer to the main visitor center. There had been two young bull moose sparring and their antlers locked and the wolves had brought them down. So other wolves were coming over for dinner. It was an amazing sight. But there was so much to see after we passed Pretty Rocks, and even after Eielson. I remember at Eielson there was a momma grizzly bear and two cubs, and two bicyclists, and they used our bus as a barrier between them and the three bears and our driver drove slowly so they could use us for protection until they were safely past the area. I mean, where else can you experience something like that? It was just amazing and the sights at that point were so incredible. We saw 17 grizzly bears that day, moose, Dall's sheep, eagles...it was unforgettable. Obviously. 24 years later and I can still picture it all so clearly.

Just to wrap up this post, I decided to do the Misty Fjords and Wilderness Explorer excursion.

Can you call it if you've never sailed on RCCL before? I don't have any Crown and Anchor status.

ah, yes, I see your reason for concern. I agree with the others who recommended driving inland and heading north. it's definitely worth it if it's a bucket list item. I was in Alaska from Labor Day weekend until mid-September - 2-1/2 weeks - and the only time we saw them was that night, driving north, heading up to Denali. The rest of the time we were in Homer, Alaska and around Anchorage. It really took heading up that way, getting closer to Fairbanks and Denali, to see them.

It's ridiculous that they didn't!

Good to know. This took about 24 hours. The customer service agent never mentioned a waitlist as an option.

I wanted early dining for our upcoming April cruise but it wasn't available, since we just booked the cruise a week and a half ago, so I had to settle for MTD. I called RCCL and asked customer service if they could help, but they couldn't. All that was available for reservations with MTD was 8:15 pm and later, which would interfere with booking any shows. They offered to reserve those times for me, but that wasn't feasible. Then I read somewhere that if you send a DM to Royal Caribbean on Twitter that they'll help you with dining times. So, I sent a DM and they quickly responded and offered to put me on a waitlist for early dining, which I accepted. I now can see on the app that we have officially been booked for traditional dining at 5:15 pm, no longer a waitlist. So, if you're having trouble booking something with Royal, reach out via Twitter DM.

I'd give myself plenty of time to get to the port from Rome. That's the one port my husband and I ended up being dock runners for our day in port for our Mediterranean cruise, despite getting a taxi in Rome at 4 pm and our ship not leaving Civitavecchia until 8 pm. It was a series of mishaps, from no one in the train station speaking English and us unable to find our train (part of the station had plastic sheeting for construction), causing us to miss our first train, to then having a delay on the tracks, and then arriving in Civitavecchia and the bus driver telling us we had needed to buy a ticket first before we could board and leaving without us as we went inside to buy the aforementioned ticket, and then no taxis available to drive us to the actual port, and us walking there and our phone batteries dying as we were walking, so we couldn't use GPS, then getting to the port at 7:30 and the shuttle buses to the ships already stopped for the night. For anyone who has been to that port, you know that it's about a mile or two from the big port gates to all of the ships. I was recovering from a broken foot and couldn't truly run. But I tried. And everyone on the ship was clapping and cheering for us as we trotted up at 7:55 pm. It was just horrendous and super embarrassing. That said, just get to the ship. Forget lunch in Rome. I have nightmares thinking about it all! There's too much that can go wrong between Rome and the ship in Civitavecchia. It's also given me great empathy for dock runners. You simply never know what has led to their circumstances. And you know they're insanely stressed to have to run for the ship.

Where are you going? Is Skagway the farthest point north you'll be? I was in Alaska in mid-September many years ago and saw the northern lights as we were driving from Anchorage to Denali. The farther south you are, the less likely you are to see them.

There are also $3,499 cabanas sold out at CocoCay, but that doesn't mean they're worth it. 🙂 Seriously, you just have to figure out whether it's worth the cost to you and your family. I had thought about doing the Beach Club but it's $235 per person, and I decided it's just too much, particularly since my 15-year-old son isn't going to want to stay in the same place all day. Too much to see and do on CocoCay. I'm sure the water park will be a blast for your family. But accept that they won't want to be there all day, they'll want to leave the water park and do other things, too. So if you're okay paying the cost for, say, a half day, then go for it.

Thanks! There will be one other ship there when we are there. I had considered how if it was my husband and I, we would be much more inclined to do the Beach Club, but my son is going to want to run around and see the girls and hang with the teenagers. I am happy reading a book and sitting in the shade. I burn very easily! So, not spending the money. It's settled.

What does Johnny Rockets have for breakfast?

Right?!!! My problem is when I do the search with AND - CocoCay AND Beach AND Club the search feature falters and I get an error message. It isn't working for me once I add Boolean operators to the search function.