NutsAboutGolf

Sounds like you want a more "traditional" standard, as "modernize" would mean more casual. The dress code always trends toward more casual, 20-25 years ago it was rare for offices to allow jeans other than casual days. Many companies that now want their remote workers to return to the office have relaxed the dress code to eliminate one pain point. You now have X more aligning itself with RCI, there's now Coco Cay, more short cruises, cruises out of Port Canaveral which attracts young families to Disney World, etc, all these new things are going to attract more casual and often younger cruisers. There's a dress code violation every dinner, if one doesn't see it, they're not looking hard enough. Perhaps X is intentionally not enforcing the dress code to not tick off the younger generation. Maybe they want to compete with Virgin. Just some food for thought

At the moment, no, X does not have a program like RCI where they list free cruise QR codes by tier point levels

No credit check enroll/play. The credit check is only if you want a "marker" or a line of credit with the casino which eliminates the need for bringing large quantities of cash.

FYI, this is true yet is a newer rule so due to existing contracts, there can be two large ships in port

@Tauntony, I would recommend you don't eliminate itineraries with the Bahamas (which is not considered the Caribbean) as it could work for you. This is if you can overlook the culture, but there are beautiful beaches many on Nassau, it great to wander, there's lots of shopping, you can tour Atlantis for free and can try local food like conch. Yet the shopping area by the port is very hustle and bustle, you aren't going to befriend any locals, and nearly all will try to sell you something which isn't uncommon by cruise ports Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for me, the beaches in Nassau and Bimini (haven't been to Freeport) are simply stunning because the sand is white and the water is turquoise, some Caribbean islands have neither. I could be biased as I live at a CA beach that has dark tan coarse sand and dark blue murky water This is Cabbage Beach in Nassau

I agree with @Tapi. You would only have one sea day and since you're not really doing tours, you can sleep in late if you wish, come and go as you please so it won't be too exhausting. If you want the ABC island, I would recommend doing one that does the Panama Canal. For the most part, every Caribbean island and the Bahamas (which is not part of the Caribbean) has nice beaches but they may or may not be easy to get to or be free

Give the app a try if you already haven't

Typically off by 715am, I've arrived at the airport by 730am yet I have been delayed, it can happen but is not very common. I've made flights as early as 8:47 am in both FLL and Mia yet I do have airline status and Clear In your situation, even if you're not self-carrying, you need to do everything you can to get off the ship as early as possible to give yourself the best odds of not running through the airport. If your ship lets folks off on time, you can get off the ship early and are not wait long for your arranged transfer, there's a good chance you can make it but you still need a backup plan Here is what I normally tell people which is different than your situation: 1) If you or anyone in your party gets easily stressed, reconsider... 2) Have a backup plan and understand on the day of, later flights could be completely full 3) You could book a later backup flight the night before as you can cancel airfare within 24 hours of booking and receive a full refund. Don't worry about "taking someone's else seat", it'll be either not a full flight or if full, when you cancel, your seat will go to someone on Standby. All flights could be full or those flights could be expensive 4) Self-disembark 5) Take a Taxi, Ubers may get spooked by the Port Everglades checkpoint and cancel wasting precious time Other than signing up for Global Entry or Clear, you've done everything you can in your power to make the early flight

Avoiding the ship water is probably unavoidable but I do my best to minimize it. When it comes to the food, they usually heat the water. I've never been an ice guy and request sparkling water which comes from a can/bottle. Essentially utilize the same protocols as visiting a 3rd word country

Correct and I never said the magic pipe (for dumping) had anything to do with faucet water. I'll remove my reference to "black water" since that's an official term and will just use the informal term "dirty brown water" from now on. I am most bothered there aren't more fail-safes to prevent dirty brown water from flowing through the pipes; in a single word for me it's "distrust". I don't understand why there isn't more effort to prevent this. There are threads, some with pics, that show dirty brown water happening. I have never seen anything other than clear water coming out of my home's faucets. I also want to mention I doubt it's just X's ships and is probably the majority of the cruise ships

For me, it's just knowing the ship's pipes can and do on occasion produce brown/black water which is a huge and preventable "oops". Thanks to a whistleblower we learned about Princess's "magic pipe" and we know cruise ships don't always follow the rules. The Edge just recently got too close to Kauai's Na Pali. Mistakes can and do happen and the outcome can result in brown/black water flowing through the pipes And I know someone's going to say "Drinking the brown/black water is fine", which is literally and figuratively telling someone to drink the Kool-Aid...lol

X is now big into "flash sales", the good news is you can book your packages/tours now and if they go down in price like when there's a flash sale, you can just cancel and rebook at the cheaper price. Even if a tour is full, you can cancel and rebook it 10-20mins later yet do take a slight risk of losing it during that 10-20mins

FYI, During a Q&A session, Capt Matt said it takes 3 years to secure a new cruise's ports/itinerary

It felt premium and you could easily refill it assuming one is okay with the water running through the ship's pipes. An X bartender told me the secret to opening them, holding the top static and twisting the bottle open. Larger diameter = greater mechanical advantage

This is why we need to dive deeper into things increasing in price relative to inflation vs the simplistic "everything has gone up"

Truth be told, most cruise ships for fuel use Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), why do you think the E-Class Aft staterooms like the SVs get complaints about soot? New ships are coming online with the ability to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) which is overwhelmingly greener from "mine to prop" yet those ships rarely use LNG and continue to use HFO. As an individual, any green behavior you perform on the ship is just a drop in the bucket, yet taking some green actions makes me feel better so perhaps makes others feel better Next, we have the recycling facilities themselves, their recycling capacity/effectiveness is based on Government/municipal funding meaning your tax dollar somewhat dictates how much these facilities recycle The transition to biodegradable plastics has already begun which ultimately is a good thing because you don't need to change your behavior. This study is 6 years old but the % is high; biodegradable plastics will solve this

I could tell you, but would you prefer not to know? To be clear, I wouldn't call it unsafe, perhaps very undesirable

Not really the right question to ask, the question to ask is what pricing has increased over the rate of inflation? From the sailings we've looked at, X seems to have at least doubled in price over the past year for balconies and AQ

@markeb There are two things you can do to increase your odds on a United flight. First is to be flexible, as it gets close to the flight, check the day before or after, and maybe there will be more biz/1st availability. Second, if all your flights are the same reservation if you book all economy, see if there's a $150 or less to upgrade one segment. Doing so increases your upgrade priority on the waitlist for all segments yet there needs to be availability

And when that day comes, hopefully, the 2-4 daily marketing emails fall victim also...lol

I just tried a quick test for my FLL sailing Pre-cruise, you cannot fly more than 3 nights in advance; for my sailing that starts on the 16th, I can book the 13th but not the 12th. There is also some sort of distance restriction, I can fly roughly 330 miles away from FLL into Jacksonville but not Atlanta roughly 630 miles away from FLL Post-cruise, my FLL sailing ends on Aug 19, it lets me book on Sept 1 from Iceland to Vancouver Canada. Maybe there are additional rules but it does let me let me depart from one country to arrive in a different country which is a different country than the cruise starts/ends KEF = Iceland YVR = Canada

I specifically had issues where you call up, try to redeem a sailing, and they say they've reached the limit on casino staterooms on that sailing and give me a list that differed from the sailings in the BCC offer email. I have to do a little research and talk to "Ms. Nuts", we pick a few sailings, call back, only to find the new sailings aren't part of the deal after all and I am able to book the original sailing I wanted and the rep states there were lots of casino rooms still available. Also had issues onboard with the future cruise who could in past book casino deals where different people telling me I qualify for different sailings

If your play is on the cusp, a new lesser offer where the player is comped but they have to pay a "discounted" rate for the second person even if you want to go alone. If you have enough play, you will get a fully comped offer for two but this has confused many

Consider asking the current rollcall. If you're wondering if they've gone back to aluminum cans, it's a pretty safe bet they've permanently moved on. As biodegradable plastics become cheaper, more and more companies will use them so that's most likely the future