topnole

I’ve read one person swear they did it (on CC I believe). But I agree, not supposed to be possible. Barring some type of mistake that doesn’t get caught, it simply isn’t possible. Otherwise, lots would book as 3-8th in sky and Star class suites and then book a cheap inside cabin for sleeping.

Yeah I here you, and I understand what you are getting at. My family is very very far from what you are suggesting. But, I’ll just say paying a premium for a suite/service isn’t entitlement (again I understand your point). I’ve now done enough suites to not be so “unentitled” that I don’t ask the concierge for help when appropriate. I don’t expect things and I treat them with respect and always tip well for the services they provide. Last two cruises the SL concierges went above and beyond for my family without us even asking for things. They were truly fantastic.

I can’t add too much for you as I haven’t cruised NCL in years. But I can say these ships are not similar in size. Symphony is demonstrably bigger. Royal is definitely family oriented so I don’t know if that is good or bad thing for your young adult children. Depends on their interests. But at their age I would’ve been living on the flowrider most days. Many other fun things on Symphony for that age of into sports.

I like oasis and allure SL/CK better than Harmony and newer. The bar is so much nicer. Since this is your first RCL trip, I’ll mention to not hold back asking the concierge for anything. They will help with show reservations if shows get cancelled, dinner reservations, key replacement, etc. They can do almost anything that can be done at guest services (and more) so don’t wait in that line unless you have to. Enjoy.

Allure is mostly all original. She was in great shape last summer when we cruised. As mentioned, never amped, which for some is a nice thing. If you don’t have kids and like the boardwalk, no huge ugly purple slide. If you have kids, I have to admit, they liked Harmony and Symphony more due to the water slides and the huge ugly abyss slide. If it was just my wife and I, we wouldn’t care either way. Allure is fantastic.

Well, obviously a machine can go down at anytime. Likelihood is much less when the machine is newer. Only machines I recall having regular issues when I sailed were Freedom class ships and that was a solid 10 years ago when we rotated between those and oasis class. Now we almost always sail oasis class. Never experience a DL or SL coffee machine down on oasis class.

It’s definitely not included or open bar. They’ve run my card many times. They didn’t charge you because you were wearing the Star band. Probably just put Star down or whatever. Bartenders vary in how they handle things.

Allure doesn’t have a hot tub either. FYI.

Yes. Just like any other public bar. It isn’t like the CK/SL with included beer/wine.

Harmony suite sun deck has a hot tub too. I love the suite deck on Harmony. Almost always chairs availability with sun or shade. And a bar and bathrooms up there. Yes, you must climb one flight of stairs to get there. You must use your key card to get up there. It is for suites and pinnacles only.

It’s definitely different, but why not. I have a 7, 5 and 2 year old. We’ve done 3 cruises in the past year including a transatlantic. My 7 year old did her first cruise at 6 months old. She had done many by the time she was 2. Enjoyed all of them a great deal. But yeah, it’s definitely not like going with just adults. My wife and cruise a lot before kids so it was a drastic change. Accept that and enjoy it as a family. That is my advice. I would recommend Oasis class. The carousel alone will provide hours of entertainment for a three year old. Since kids I’ve probably spent a full week of time on it. Harmony and Symphony have great kid splash zones. Better than oasis and allure. Haven’t done Wonder but I’m sure that is great too.

For us you go to the county clerk office to process applications in person. The guy that handled the applications for my kids talked me out of expedited based on trip dates. He said it says 6-8 weeks (or whatever it was at the time) and pointed to the date at end max time to get them back which was well before our trip. What I realized later is these folks really have no idea. They don’t work for the state department and are just guessing like anyone else. The guy was 100% confident in what he was telling me and had been processing applications for years (as he told me). It’s the only reason I didn’t choose expedited. I wouldn’t trust what anyone says that doesn’t work for the state department. If you need it within several weeks after the longest normal time frame, you should 100% do expedited or be prepared for the potential of a lot of stress and/or to miss going. Of course, for many cruises a passport isn’t needed. But if it is needed, do it well ahead of time or expedite it. If not for our congressional office getting involved, we may have missed our trip. In fact, if I didn’t hear a call at nearly 10pm at night from the passport office out west that was working on them, we would’ve driving 10+ hours round trip 2 days before our trip with the hopes of getting an emergency passports completed for 2 of my kids. The other had arrived a month earlier even though all sent out in the same envelope. We were past our original max time and to get them processed they charged me the expedited fee plus express mail. I was grateful to get them processed at that point, but what a scam. Can you imagine if a business did that to you.

It’s just really inconsistent. You can’t count on their time ranges. Once it’s in process you have zero way of knowing where it is or when you will get it.

We sent ours off in December and the posted wait time was max 8 weeks. Well we passed that and eventually had to get help from our congress woman’s office. Weird is that 1 of 3 (all sent out together in same envelope) came back after about 6 weeks. The other two took way longer and wouldn’t have arrived in time if not for congressional help. If yours wasn’t expedited that was really fast, and I would say the exception not the norm.

Then you’ll probably have it back in a month. 😂😂😂

Fyi. Both parents need to present at the government office when you apply or you need to have a notary sign off on the parental approval form. It is also a very long wait for passports right now. If cruising in the next 3-4 months, best to do expedited or you likely won’t have it back in time.

Have cruised with young kids that age. With and without passports. Only matters if you for some unlikely reason had to fly home mid cruise. I wasn’t worried about it myself, but some would be. A passport for a kid that age is only good for 5 years. And the same price as adult passports that are good for 10 years (thanks state department). Pretty expensive if you’ll never use/need again.

Thank god no one is wearing what was worn in the 70s!

That is bad info by the way. If you wait until the week before you will not have time for the congressional office to help. You many even get locked out of any potential appointments at passport offices. You need to contact them w few times weeks prior and call for an emergency passport appointment appointment two before as I recall. If anyone is past their time frame and has travel coming up, I’d advice calling their congressional office immediately. If there is no travel, just be patient. We sent out three together in the same envelope. One of my kids passports came back and weeks later the other two still were in process. It took a call to our congress woman’s office to get them in time. Once they got involved things started to happen. It’s total BS they give time frames and then go weeks or months over. This isn’t a Disney ride line. People plan around those dates and spend thousands in travel. 1-2, or even more months past the stated time range is ridiculous and they should have a much better system of communication (tracking). They can’t tell you anything. Meanwhile you can order a $2 item from Amazon and know right where it is in the process. Even pizza chains tell you right where your pizza is, not something as important as a passport? The answer is we don’t know and can’t tell you anything, just wait and be patient. This is why hundred or maybe thousands of congressional staffers do this crap daily. What a poor system.

If you are getting too close to date of travel call your local congress rep. That have staff that deal with this issue every day.

Old ships, old machines? Never had this happen since I’ve became Diamond many years ago.

Not sure where you are from, but in hot weather environments like Florida, people wear shorts to dinner in fine dining restaurants all the time. It’s totally normal other than winter months on cold days. Why would the Caribbean be different? Plus, a lot of peoples like to dress in casual attire when on vacation in warm environments. I don’t get why this bothers people.

At that price it makes a lot of sense and you certainly can’t get Star class treatment in Vegas for $4500. You’d have to gamble $4500 every 10 minutes for that. I’ll say though that our last cabin was a 2 bedroom grand suite on Symphony (for my family of 5) and it was a fantastic experience and set up. Obviously Star is over the top great. We did allure last year in the deck 8 ATS. It was great. But I realized I am more than content with sky class. Only thing that I might miss is showing up to shows and going right to the best seat. Nothing else was that big of a deal to miss.

Everyone is different. I much prefer casual attire on vacation and have zero problem if people wear flip flops and shorts. Doesn’t impact my experience one bit. To each their own and obviously there are cruise lines that cater to your preferences which is great.

At least the one is wearing pants. I think this represents well the notion that not all pants are equal.