alfaeric

We LOVE those cabins, too. But there is one issue- the superstructure of the ship. This does get in the way of the view, but we don't think it's a big deal.

Either way, it's not free, as some seem to think it is. Charge to the Pinn, D+, D, or seapass card- it's like being at a normal bar. If they are in a GS or up, this whole thing is moot- they already have access and it's free.

If they want access to the SL that bad, go for it. That's a lot just to get into a place and sit to talk and eat more stuff. We certainly would not do that just to get into the SL - there's zero financial benefit for it. Maybe for CK. But to go through all that effort for CK? Ok... The number of people who actually go through all of that would be even smaller than the Pins who are sailing with friends in the same cabin.

Never been a problem for us.

FWIW, if you sail suites, I could not find any TA that would give better rates than directly. I recently tried a handful of them, one even gave me a higher bid that direct. The only way I'm seeing that TA's are a big help are to get group rates, so balcony and lower.

AND any drinks come off of the 6 on the Pinnacle's account.

I don't see this as a massive increase, or even a minor one. How many Pinns go on cruises with friends that are not Pinnacles and share a cabin? I see more solos than met Pinns that brought some random friend to share the cabin. This isn't about a spouse- since they are given the same status as the main person. This is about a friend.

Clearly, the answer is yes, or they would not be asking. It's not nearly as bad as you make it out to be- as we've been carrying on for +60 cruises now. But that's also not the question the OP was wondering about.

Funny- we were on Liberty and Symphony last December, and weather was a big issue. We missed ports because of it. That being said, the ship dealt with the weather fine, so Wonder should not be too bad, IF it's bad. There's a good chance the weather will be just fine after this year.

When we were on the Symphony in December, 5:30 was the actual time. We were just on a cruise where the official time as 5:15, but they told everyone 5- which was the time the doors opened. YMMV, but hope it's early.

It's been a while, but we have. A medium bag should not be a problem at all. The scanners are actually a little bigger than for airports, so that's a bonus. We just carried on a pretty bulky bag in Baltimore, no issues at all.

Well, for $7, we went both ways and didn’t have to pay again. With the wristband. This was about 2 weeks ago.

Just want to confirm this- we were there a couple of weeks ago, and the water taxi dropped us off at the pier in the middle of town- not at either end. Not sure if that's every taxi or not- maybe we got lucky. And the cost was $7 for round trip paying before, and if you just take it back- there's also a fee and they direct you to the ticket window as you depart the boat. That being said, had we been 100%, we would have walked. It's not long, just hot.

Nobody is "immune" to the unrest. But the unrest ISN'T happening at Cap Haitien right now. It's +5 hours away. You tell others to do their research, but somehow you are immune to your own requests? You should google Cap Haitien and check out the situation. I did. And the only recent news is about the voodo festival, and that local residents are keeping their eyes out for people coming from Port au Prince. Again, if you don't want to go, great, don't. If others feel that they are ok with it, why are you so insistent that they don't?

Yes, they would. We've been there when a 2nd ship had to delay their passengers to allow for a medivac. Which is a whole lot easier than doing it on the ship between Haiti and Cuba (which we've also been on a ship where that happened).

Not that some people care, but Royal pays Haiti $12/passenger, which adds up to about $700k/month. Not sure how much the market sells, but I'm betting it isn't that much. But the people who work there do get a salary, which I can't see just being taken by random criminals who are 7 hours away by drive.

And over 5 HOURS from Port-au-Prince- where all of the turmoil is happening. The most recent news coming from Cap Haitien is the recent Voodo festival. Not what is happening in Port au Prince. Check your map.

So you want to cut off the only source of revenue these people have? Seems like taking jobs away would just compound the problem. It may not be a lot, but it's certainly better than nothing. Which is also why there is a local reason to prevent any action. Nothing wrong if YOU don't want to go. But why would you want to prevent others from exercising their judgement and go? Makes no sense.

If it's so easy for a couple of armed people to storm the area and take the ship, curious that it's not been tried. Don't need 4000 escaped prisoners to do that.

Pretty much everyone misses the fact that McDonalds are not sued for the amount rewarded- they were rewarded that because the jury thought McD's actually did need some kind of punishment because they had had so many complaints about people getting burnt. The original law suit just wanted to cover the person's hospital bills. Again, that's not this situation at all.

And that news always drowns out legitimate law suits that are done because some companies are genuinely negligent. Not this time, but that does happen.

If by "modern society" you mean at least the last 50 years, if not more, sure. This kind of action is hardly new. And I doubt you can actually date the time that people didn't blame someone else- heck, I'm pretty sure many people blamed Eve for the apple. And we can see that Shakespeare even complained about lawyers.

Just quoting this as it's 100% on how we done the Anthem class as well. Including eating early. So more than one of us has had it work multiple times. And planning on doing the same thing on Odyssey later this year.

Our receipt shows the change fee, as well as a change fee credit. So there was a zero charge change. And we were able to cancel the second cruise for no penalty.

??? This happened months ago. Why is your TA telling you this now? Back when we got it changed, it was free. Actually, we got a free change to a trans Atlantic instead before the jewel gets to Boston. edit- looks like this happened at the beginning of November ‘23.