TwoMisfits

Thank you for posting your dairy allergy meals!

Thank you for posting your wife's dairy allergies meals. This will help me a lot next month! Bummer that Izumi didn't have sorbet to go with the berries.

For sleeping...not in the entire room. Having the extra sofa bed means we can kick a kid between the cabins if needed...

Thanks for the barcode tip - if it's right, I'm very happy with the 2 interiors I was assigned. While not next door to each other, they are close and they are in a great spot in the middle of the ship (not under the pool, not over the dining room) where we can do stairs up and down to get places - and only 2 decks from central park, but not on the central park deck, so no traipsing folks coming down our hallway. Plus, they gave me 2 3 person rooms, even though I had canceled our 3rd person in one room months ago...so extra bed space is a plus...

Thanks! That's the info I needed - so 10am arrival, no earlier:).

That's my plan - I just didn't know if it started at 10:30am, or even earlier. I can get to the port at any time b/c I'm staying overnight (I was planning 10:30am, but might pop over at 10am if that's actually start of boarding)...

Hi everybody, I have a confirmed 11:30am check in, but I have the Key, so I'm just wondering what the earliest check in time in Cape Liberty for Symphony of the Seas in May 2024 is (b/c I need to get on board to reconfirm allergy accommodations with a few places - including the Key lunch, and I'd like to do it before the madness of a sold out ship all being on board). Thanks for any info you can provide!

It's actually VERY rare for soft serve to not have dairy. The only one that is widespread on the market is the one that makes dole whips. If you go to McDonald's, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, Mr. Softee's, etc - all those places have dairy-full soft serve. So, if you see a soft serve machine and the word "vegan" is not listed anywhere near it, you can be pretty guaranteed it's a dairy-based product. PS - And even dole whips - only the fruit flavors are vegan - if you are ever getting a vanilla dole whip, it has dairy. It is very hard to make a vanilla or chocolate soft serve that passes muster as vanilla/chocolate ice cream without using dairy.

The previous poster's response is incorrect. If there has been no change in RCCL's supplier, the soft serve DOES have (a ton) of dairy and lactose in it.

Funny enough, the only thing not sold out on my sailing ARE the suites. Inside, outside, and balcony are all gone. I was deciding if I should Royal Up, but for me, it seems like it will be pointless (since it's too many levels higher), so I'll stick with the insides I have...

And now we know most of RCCL's Baltimore folks also come from the west and south of Baltimore vs the north.

But you're rare...I'm betting Carnival looked at their passenger location stats, and that's why they made such a quick call, while Royal is still deciding...

I think anyone driving south and west of Baltimore won't go north now b/c traffic through Baltimore is now gonna be horrific for awhile. So I understand why Carnival went south and took getting through Baltimore out of the way for a lot of their cruisers (who, when driving, I expect come more from the south and west of Baltimore vs the north, b/c if you were north, you'd probably go to Bayonne/NY for the larger ships and more varied itineraries to start with)...

Guess Norfolk's reno was easy to finish quick... We'll see how long Carnival keeps Norfolk as a year round port.

Oooh...that's not good. If true, ignore my prior thoughts...

I assume all Baltimore cruises will now be VA ones, since Norfolk is used so rarely. There's no way cruise ships will be allowed to dock in Baltimore during the clean up and then rebuild of the bridge. And that will take awhile.

We have a few kids, so that helps:). 2 and 3 in our inside cabins. I don't look for big cabins to fit us all b/c I like multiple bathrooms.

Since it never hit my spouse's mental budget, we'll be cruising without a drink package. I don't drink (we have separate cabins), and he doesn't drink anything but coffee, water, beer, and alcohol, so it was all or nothing. Since the price was more alcohol than he would drink, we'll bring on 2 bottles of wine (for him) and 12 bottles of water each, and he'll get an evening drink every night (on top of the glass of wine, b/c it's all for him). I'll save about $60/day from the lowest the drink package ever got...

It is - I'm on the same sailing - look again.

I've actually booked all 4 shows plus the comedy show. Following advice here, I did not book their last showings (in case of technical/weather issues). The shows lined up nicely for me with early dining, so that made me happy. We have Hairspray Day 1 at 7:45pm, 1977 Day 2 at 7:30pm, Hiro Day 4 at 8:30pm, Comedy Day 5 (for the adults) at 8:30pm, and Flight Day 6 at 8:15pm. There were late shows, but 10:15 and 10:30 are a little late for me for show start (I'm an earliesh to bed and earliesh to rise person - I turn into a pumpkin at midnight or so, but don't want to be "hyped" or "excited" and then immediately trying to sleep. A wind down hot tub or book reading or drink is where I live after 10pm...

Hi everybody, I woke up this morning, and all my entertainment options were available for my late May 2024 Symphony cruise. Happy booking!

Keeping their liability down - if they didn't report him instantly, their possible civil damages could have been epic.. Once the police have all the victims identified, RCCL will be paying out the nose anyway to each of the victim's families to avoid the inevitable civil suit. This one, b/c RCCL is the actual employer and it happened on their watch, will be pricey.

So, I know you just wanted to know tree nut items, and you said contamination can be okay...but... You will be out to sea, away from premiere medical help if your spouse does run into the allergen. While his previous reactions have not been life-threatening, that may not be the case for his future ones. So, failing to inform the waitstaff of allergies seems like a really bad idea. I understand your spouse may get more limited in his selections - I also have tree nut (and mango and dairy) allergies. But more limited safe selections should always be preferable to unsafe ones. If the allergy is not mentioned, it will not be prepared in a safe area nor with as much care. It will be in a contaminated fryer (if it's a fried item) or in a contaminated grill/pan, possibly right next to tree nut products. It may get made with someone making a tree nut dish, and then turning around and prepping your spouse's. It's just not worth a gamble, since eating out with allergies is ALREADY a gamble, and now you're just adding to it. If he won't mention the allergy, I would skip all vegan friendly items and all Asian items (especially Indian and Thai) and Mexican moles. Cashew dairy products and unsafe almond flour (since all tree nuts, except coconut which is not biologically a tree nut, in the US are processed on the same lines without allergen level cleaning/sanitation UNLESS the product specifically says something like "these almonds were processed in a dedicated almond only line/facility") will be used extensively in vegan friendly stuff. And Asian cuisine LOVES tree nuts in their savory dishes. And all moles include nuts. Again, though, I'd contact special needs and get his allergy listed. If he already needs Benadryl just for ingesting a few nuts, he needs to be safe with his choices, and he can't be safe if the chefs and waitstaff don't know about it.

That's me. If I have free drinks every day, maybe it would be a harder call, but I don't, so it's easy to shop. I have RCCL this year, and next year looks like land based trips...and then we'll see if value returns for certain cruises on any of the lines I'll sail in 2026...

Thanks for letting me know about breakfast/brunch pre-orders. Since I have allergies that greatly affect the regular menus, I'm sure they'll want me to pre-order those, too...and I never even thought about those meals til now...