Tatka

🙂 Real Costa Maya port is a CRUISE PORT (developed specifically for cruisers even 20+ years ago) with stores, large pool with swim up bar, flamingo, large parrots... dolphin shows so cruisers who do not want to face real Mexico (o pay for excursions) can spend a day there. There is no real Costa Maya as real Mexico . You can wander beyond, take taxi to Mahahual tow, take excursions to other places, I think you can rent a car. But that will not be seeing a real Mexico in port itself.

It is your choice of course... but we never encountered this with Royal,, so it is not something common.

We stopped there several times and I am not surprised it is picked for PD. It is already something a bit artificial. Port is created for people to stay ... pool, restaurants, stores, small museums, flamingos, parrots ... and many stay. We went to Mahahual and were not impressed at all. We looked for a bottle of rum.. somebody offered us to follow them into some shady backstreet. 😞 There are some other POI, but not very close. PD will be something more like Taino Bay in DR, but with more included.

OBC can be used to pay them on board.

They get promotions, bonuses... demotions etc.

Why do you want to pay more money just to have 1 charge instead of 2? How is this simlier? I'd rather pay $18.50 per day when I am on cruise.

It will be more expensive for us. They will need to include higher amount as right now autogratuities are not counted toward their profit.

To me highlight of Saint John is 1. Fundy Parkway NP. (Closer) 2. Hopewell Rocks tidal parks (a bit further away) You can do both with stopping at St Martins caves which are beautiful too. We rented cars twice for Fundy Park 2019, 2024 , once for Hopewell Rocks 2013 and once I went with ship tour to Hopewell Rocks 2021. This year we also stopped at Reversing falls As we were in St John for two days this year we spent the first exploring city itself. It was nice, but only if you have additional time.

So verified. There are only 14 officially named menus. For 16 nighter Radiance shows 14 menus with names. Days 10 and 15 are unnamed. Nice dishes though.

I meant Royal Night aka Lobster Night. 🙂

Sailings to watch to determine other menus (on longer than 14 nights cruises): Radiance 16 night October 5, 2024 Ovation 19 night October 13, 2024.

Yes. Missed Royal Night. Slow Friday. For some people (not from Northeast) it is one of the most important nights. 🙂

From what I remember it is Welcome Aboard Taste of France Taste of Italy Taste of UK Taste of Asia Taste of USA Taste of Mexico Taste of Caribbean Taste of Mediterranean Taste of the World Taste of Classics Royal History Bon Voyage Soon some Royal ships will start 14+ dayers. We can check for menus then. :)

There are at least 14 known menus, but people say more exist now. First is Welcome Aboard, last one is Bon Voyage. In between there are all kind of Taste of France, Taste of Italy (of Asia, Mexico, UK, USA, Mediterranean, Caribbean etc), Royal Night etc

I bet it is #3 and #6

IIRC there was a way to apply "do not upgrade" so room is not changed.

Booking GTY always even 20+ years was a way to save money. Back then I did not hear "cruise line picks you a room", but rather you are guaranteed to have a room not lower than such category.

Of course. We usually have 8-10 cruises booked and most if not all are booked with refundable deposit. We use online agency.

I always thought of it like this.

You did not mention which ship. Not all ships have bookable entertainment

We have many people on various programs ( TPS Ukraine, Haiti etc) who are trying to make living and support themselves. Many do not speak English on comfortable level.

I completely forgot about this. Where I grew up Solarium (it was called Solariy) wasn’t wasn’t even a space with a pool. It was a premise with glass ceiling. We lived in somewhat cold climate maybe a bit colder than New England. More continental. Solariums were places where even during winters people could get some sun as disease prevention.

I understand. This is an additional wish, You can still sail without it. During sailings in late September - October to Canada on Liberty Solarium is almost unusable unless you drink and jump into jacuzzi. 🙂 Thats why when I read that someone prefers solarium on Liberty to … Quantum class… we need context.

We gotta remember that solarium rating often depends on where a person saling in/from. We in Northeast need a different solarium than many people sailing from Florida.

Harmony does not have a solid roof, right? They only started adding solid roofs from Wonder