tidygirl

I will say I am frugal! We have cruised 1o times and all but 2 have been inside rooms. We just got back from the Jewell a couple of weeks ago and had our first balcony room (only because of price drops 2x and getting upgraded after calling) it was nice but can't say I'd pay the price difference!

Cruised last fall with 3 adult kids and new SIL- newlyweds got their own room the other 2 kids and hubby and I shared an inside room! Crowded? A little but hardly ever in the room!

We are actually booked in Sept on a cruise out of Barcelona with all the kids again after watching prices got what I thought was a decent deal booked then they had the 3/4 passenger free and a price drop which I took advantage of! So now the 2 kids are cruising in our room for $100 a piece in port taxes!

Now looking how to do our touring on a budget as I have trouble paying $700-$800 a day just for transportation not counting admission prices.

We don't drink, gamble or do fancy restaurants so we can have a low tab at the end of the cruise my biggest splurge is usually family pictures as I can't get the family to do that at home!

We looked into that but dont want to leave 3 year old buy herself in the other room.

Just curious if it's cheaper to go with connecting rooms why it would be an issue if your 3 year old is in the other room? The connecting door can be left open so you can hear what is going on and walk back and forth as needed. Unless you are used to them sleeping in your bedroom at home you are probably closer this way than you are at home. Just an option to consider.

The backward hat comment made me smile. I believe it is an age thing. My MIL and son argues all the time about him where his hat backwards! To her it was disrespectful and rebellious to my boy he just liked it that way!

As far as hats in the dining room my hubby always made my son take his hat off while eating he was trained by his grandpa you just did that! Though now a days alot of people especially the younger generation think nothing of it!

Also the $15 khakis (look) dressier than jeans. To a lot of people and again referring to my MIL she hates a guy going to church in a pair of jeans she thinks they are "everyday clothes" and you should put a little more effort in when going to special places.

Well I won't let how a person dresses ruin my cruising! I will continue to dress nicely and enjoy my trip!

I'm not sure when you are flying home but if you have a later flight you can get dropped off on OSJ at Barrachina restaurant and leave your luggage (for a tip) and look around and go to the fort. We had a 4:00 Pm flight and was downtown by 10 or before.

We are not staying overnight anywhere in San Juan :( We are flying in the day of the cruise. Our flight arrives at 3pm on Saturday Nov 8th and the ship sails at 8:30pm that night. I was hoping the port area was close to a town where we could look around for a few hours before the ship sails at 8:30pm.

We were just on the Jewell 2 weeks ago we landed at 2:00PM and got to the ship by 4:00PM the people in our taxi was wanting to purchase wine so we asked the taxi driver if he could stop somewhere as I saw a grocery store right off the exit (he said no place close) well the couple just said forget it and waited till the terminal. There is a place inside to purchase wine etc. but not sure how the prices compare. There is no other place close!! I had wanted to go to Old San Juan and look around but by the time we checked in would have only had and hour and a half and didn't figure it was worth $24 rt pp

In 10 cruises we have only ate at the MDR one time, but we still dress up eat even in the WJ!! I really don't care if a person dresses real fancy but I still think it is courteous to dress up a little. How hard is it to get out of shorts and for a guy wear a short sleeve shirt?

Two weeks ago was on the Jewell and on formal night we went into the WJ the girl at the entrance noticed we were well dressed and commented how nice we looked. So workers notice too!

We were in Freedom in Sept. so kids were back in school and the ship didn't seem that crowded to us. We had 4 people in an inside room I believe it was deck 8 or 9. We only ate in the Windjammer In our travels on Royal (#6) it seems like the WJ is busier for breakfast and around the time everyone is getting back from the excursions (close to port departure.) Dinner is usually pretty quiet though we were surprised on the Jewell couple week ago how many more people were in there (I guess the secret is out that it's a good alternative if you don't want to sit for 1-2 hours to eat)

We just did the Jewell out of San Juan on April 19th and I had my fan and I believe it's closer to 9 " ( I can't sleep without it!) I was concerned as I had read some people have had theirs confiscated but this was cruise #6 on Royal and I have never had my fan taken!

In our experiences when we book off the ship the taxi driver or tour operator usually plan the day so you are back to the ship in plenty of time!

We have been on 10 cruises and most of our excursions have been done off the ship as we usually have paid for 5 people the savings add up, plus we have smaller groups with a lot more interaction and unique experiences than on our ship excursions.

When I booked my Choice Air flight a few months ago I was told they charged more if you booked over the phone versus the website. I tried checking the website for your cruise date nut it says it's an invalid sail date so you may need to call to at least ask what's going on

Be aware that if you have a balcony on deck 7 most all of the rooms have an obstructed view. We had no clue what it was nor did the agent we spoke to, but it is the roof covering the lifeboats. You can not look down into the water but can see fine looking out. My hubby likes to watch in the water for fish etc. but it was not a big problem for us as we had been upgraded from an inside room! We thought we had hit the jackpot! If you are choosing a room and that's important to you just keep that in mind!

We were on the Walk for wishes with several high up RC workers we mentioned about our cruise in the Mediterranean in Sept. He said be careful with the passports as many people show up to cruise and have had them stolen! They are not allowed to board! I asked him what we should do when we get off for the day he said keep passport in the safe and take a copy with you! I asked him what happens if you miss the ship how do you get home? He said they will go to your safe and get your passport and leave it with the port agency (I think that's what he called it) so that made me feel better knowing I will at least be able to get out of the country even if it's without my luggage! All our other cruised we take our room key and drivers license and that has always worked for us.

I specifically looked last week on the Jewel as I thought I read on CC you could use the razor outlet as an outlet but not the case! I have never found any outlets besides the 2 in the desk area.

You are supposed to be on board a half hour before departure time. I always prefer to be back in the area of the ship 1 to 1 1/2 hours ahead of time that way I know I can make it back to the ship in time. We always use this time to look around in the shops if we want any souvenirs. We were on a cruise last week was supposed to be leaving and they had all but one gangway up, I saw several security people talking on phones figuring something was up well 3 people came leisurely walking toward the ship at 5:10 if it would have been me I would have been running as fast as my little legs could take me!! We saw some other people a different night coming on late as well. I prefer not to stress myself out like that!

Alpha means a medical emergency

Oscar means man overboard

Bravo means fire

Thank you!!

Just curious does anybody know what code Alpha means? This came over the loud speaker last week and was curious what it meant.

And I would like to add, that until right at this moment in time, I didn't know that their income was from tipping, where I live, we are payed by the hour from our employer. Or paid a salery. A "tip" to us, might be from a customer paying a bill for $19.45 using a $20 note and saying jeep the change.

I have never cruised before, with any cruise line. This will be my 1st cruise.

Now after understanding that is how tips are used etc. I am happy to pay it. And also tip my room attendant and waiter extra.

I just think that a lot if you, need to learn some manners, not go flaming people, and verbally attacking them. And also just use a simple answer when a question is asked.

Other like myself, may be knew to the cruise industry. And have very little understanding of how it all works.

This is the reason I joined this forum in the 1st place.

For help and advice! Thanks for nothing.

Try not to let people bother you! When we went to Australia I had lots of questions too and if you don't ask how are you supposed to know?

We are planning a cruise in Europe and I have no idea are we expected to tip the baggage handlers, taxi guys etc. etc? as it's not customary or are we perceived as cheap Americans because they have come to expect it from us? I had one guy or Trip Advisor get kind of rude and nasty with me and it was irritating as I don't know what to do in some situations! Take the good advice and the ones that get mean ignore!

We was talking to a Dj on our cruise last week he said all room attendants and wait staff ONLY make tip money! So if this is the case if everyone decides no tips they get no pay! The one bad thing my hubby hates about this policy of pooling the tips and then dividing it is that if 1 person goes out of there way to be friendly or work extra hard they get paid the same! For example on our last cruise we saw our neighbors room attendant way more than ours he was very friendly. Well I'm not going to tip him when he hasn't done anything for me, but he should be acknowledged for acting like he enjoyed his job!

Does the Windjammer have ham for breakfast?

We were just on the Jewell last week and they did have ham I believe every morning!

They did not have the scoopable ice cream in the Windjammer at night just the soft serve! Though on our other 5 previous cruises we have always had scoopable for dinner.

Just finished cruise #6 with RC on the Jewell last week and have always ate at the Windjammer on every cruise except for 1 time we did the MDR! We have always had sufficient food and like the relaxed pace in the evening plus can eat and go whenever we are ready!

The cost of a t-shirt was $10 on the Jewell last week. Not sure how large of sizes they had but they had several piles and I'm guessing they went on past large!

My DH is an early riser so I told him to go sit by the pool and read till I got up! He was out around 8:00AM and it was already starting to get busy! If you don't care about being around the pool I am sure you could find a chair somewhere!

I know when we left from Port Canaveral in Sept. we left our formal wear and carryons in the car so we didn't lug them around. It was a pain getting of as the machine didn't want to accept our sea pass cards to go off had to have a couple security guys try to figure it out and we wasted a lot of time, I know we won't bother doing that again unless it's an emergency!

Now we just returned from San Juan and I had been told by an agent on the phone we could NOT get back off the ship to go look around downtown, but found out they would have let us if we would have had the time!

Just off the Jewell Sat. and did our first Make a wish walk and purchased t-shirts with the Captain and several officers signing it for us!

I usually do not worry about negative reviews, however, when I see quite a few different reviews with the same complaints, I start listening.

 

Anyway, we have booked on the Jewel and looking forward to trying out Royal Carribean for the first time.

Just got off the Jewell Sat. I went on the ship trying to figure out what everyone thinks is so terrible. I am pretty easy to get along with and as long as my room is clean I'm fine. The only things I did notice and I don't blame the crew members but the passengers for discarding glasses wherever they felt like even on the mini-golf course, and with the towel policy people aren't considerate enough to return them making it very difficult to know if the lounge chairs are empty! I know I am on vacation but I guess I am used to picking up after myself and don't think it's someone else's job to follow me around cleaning up my mess!