EBFURR

Oldest: Majesty Newest: Harmony Favorite: Majesy (sentimental) Mariner (active)

On Harmony last year we went down to the Attic after boarding to make reservations. The young lady didn't seem to know what she was doing and wound up just writing down our information rather than entering it into her tablet. The reservations never showed up on our calendar so we went to the Diamond concierge. He said everything was fully booked by then but sometimes they reserved some seats for late booking. He was able to get us in for all the shows we requested.

We are Diamond (almost plus) but have never tried Celebrity. I just booked a Celebrity cruise for next year on Beyond for a veranda guarantee and it was considerably less expensive than the Royal Caribbean cruises I found for the same week. That said, the Celebrity prices did increase shortly after my booking. There are definitely deals out there if you shop around.

Inspired by Caps_Shield. GET OFF MY LAWN!

Are Crocs & Socks appropriate?

Thanks! No suite for us this time so we are on our own. It has never been an issue for us before because all we did were a couple of specialty restaurants which we booked on board. We have always been on Freedom class or smaller so we have no experience with Oasis class. We probably won't go to any of the main theater shows or ice shows but the Aqua Theater and comedy shows are hopefully a go.

We have been printing black and white for a while with no problems. Printed color for last cruise because my wife did it at work. The color codes do mean something to the porters and maybe make their job easier but lack of color doesn't keep your luggage from being delivered. All that said, the color ones look cool.

We haven't been on a Royal Caribbean ship in several years although we have been on enough to be almost D+. We have not had to do the reservation thing nor have we had to do the checkin time thing on Royal (we have on Carnival). We were on a cruise when the checkin window opened for our upcoming Harmony cruise so by the time I got started we got an 11:30 arrival. Do you anticipate us having issues getting our reservations with that boarding time? We are primarily concerned about the comedy shows and getting decent times for our dining package. Thanks.

To my recollection it went from no charge to $3.95 per person then 5.95 and so on, apparently to infinity. Doesn't bother us. We just don't go there. Apparently a lot of people do though.

We just did our first balcony GTY on RCCL. Harmony on Oct 16. We are not unhappy with our assignment. The cabin number showed up on our docs about 4 weeks prior to cruise date but there was a "hack" somebody posted on that other platform. Around 45 days out the documents showed up on our planner but the cabin number still showed as GTY. There was a barcode on the documents however and if you scanned it you get a series of numbers. The last 4 are your cabin number even though it doesn't show up yet on the documents.

Bad stuff can happen but you sometimes have to work with what you have and try to minimize risk. We've been in your shoes. Make sure you have the cruise insurance first of all. I only get the insurance about 10% of the time but would have it in this case. Second I would go for the less expensive flights but I'm cheap, so.... One factor to consider is transportation costs and availability from both airports. We once flew into Sanford Airport and got a rental car to the port but couldn't get one for the return flight so I had to find a shuttle. There was only one company and he turned out to be a jerk and a crook. Long story but we eventually got to the airport late but luckily our flight had been delayed. Moral is to be sure you have reliable transportation.

We've done 11 AM and made it. Can't guarantee it, just saying we made it with plenty of time to spare.

We have done that multiple times but not in the last couple of years. Our experience has been that it's really easy and definitely worth it. I have had a couple of problems with their shuttles on occasion. They don't seem to be super predictable and dependable. On one occasion I got tired of waiting for their shuttle and just called a cab. These days I would use Uber instead. Uber costs from any of those places to the port is going to be in the $10 or less range so worst case scenario you drop the car and get Uber.

That's pretty much our drill at any port. Get a hotel that allows cruise parking and use Uber. We even do it in Charleston which is 90 minutes away from home. In August I got a room for $102 including taxes and Uber was $11 each way for a total of $124. Port parking was $105 so we effectively paid $19 for a hotel room and breakfast for us both. Not too shabby.

I have a similar shirt. I only wear it on cruise formal nights with either a white or black dinner jacket. Black dress pants. I also get tons of positive comments and compliments. These days I am almost over dressed it seems. A lot of people don't even realize it's a tshirt. Once I was in Chops Grill and a guy across the room kept glancing over. When we passed by on the way out he stopped me and asked if that was a tshirt. He thought it was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. I have a tux and used to wear it every cruise. For some reason it seems to have shrunk over the years.

Yes, you used to go in on Concord St in front of the Customs House and there was a luggage drop there. That actually changed before the shutdown when Sunshine replaced Ecstasy. Due to the increased ship capacity they felt the need to move check in over to that warehouse building. I'm not sure that was necessary and it surely isn't more efficient but that's how it is. The actual check in is very smooth with the only bottle neck being loading those shuttles for the short ride to the main terminal.

We have our first RCCL cruise since 2017 coming up in a few weeks and are also curious to see what has changed. We have been diamond level for about 14 years and pretty much had it figured out but so much has changed since the shutdown we almost feel like first timers again. That's not entirely a bad thing but the comfort of having "done the drill" was pleasant.

Excellent. We just did an Uber drop off a few weeks ago. Although we have been through Charleston several times it seems to change with each trip. A word or two of caution. If you go to the port authority website you see this: Union Pier Main Gate – 32 Washington Street – is the designated entry point for guests being dropped off and NOT parking with the SCPA. This includes family drop offs, rideshare, taxis, hotel shuttles etc. The confusion here is that when you put that address in Google maps it points to a location a block north and across the street from where you need to be. I have done some research and confirmed that the drop off entrance is on Washington St but is south of where Google maps takes you. Here is the skinny: You can use your navigation to get on Washington St but then continue south (ship will be on your left). There will be a Harris Teeter grocery store to your right on Washington St. Immediately before you get to the store the main terminal entrance will be on the left and looks like the photo posted. Despite knowing all that, our Uber driver arrived at the correct gate and was refused entry. They sent him to the parking entrance where the port employees were apoplectic and demanded that he turn around and go to a point all the way around on Concord St where we were again refused entry. We asked several port employees where the drop off point was and got several different answers. None them were correct. The now irate Uber driver went back to where we started and insisted on going in. Once inside there are signs and arrows that take you to the drop off point which is about 50 steps from check in. The port employees seem poorly trained and somewhat apathetic. They are willing to tell you what you can't do but are unable to tell you what you should do. Once you run the gauntlet and get to the Carnival badge employees at check in it's smooth as silk.

Yep. I'm sure you remember when we got those coupon books in the cabin. The coupons varied with C&A level. I believe we did get a JR coupon along with free photo, photo discounts, spa discounts, and some other stuff including our drink vouchers. My wife took it as a challenge to use all our coupons. I bet you also remember when JR was a no upcharge venue. That didn't last long.

Ok, so what about us lowly Diamond cruisers without a suite. We haven't cruised RC since the shutdown but will be on Harmony out of Port Canaveral in a few weeks. We used to have a separate line and waiting area. Is that no longer the case? We got a later check in slot because we weren't able to check in when the window opened. Will they enforce the assigned check in time?

Hi IL, do you know how early they will accept luggage? Our pre cruise ritual has become breakfast at Grills, back to the hotel, then shuttle or Uber to the port. I am thinking maybe we can go on over, drop the luggage, and then get breakfast and hang out at grills until boarding. Being a growing boy I don't want to wait too long for breakfast 😉

I have to admit that I have sort of become one of those people. We rarely dress up any more. To do so puts you in the minority these days. We usually do specialty dining on formal nights these days.

Well, the mayor and city of Charleston sure are taking credit for not renewing it. Check out the Charleston local news. I am fairly certain there was a lot of pressure from local government according to the news reports and our local sources. In any case it will be gone.

Hi, we live on the SC coast and have long time friends who are Charleston natives so we get some inside scoop from time to time. One friend owned a business in Charleston for over 35 years and was active in the business community. A lot of the businesses liked the traffic that the cruise line brought especially after the closure of the naval base in the 90s. Norwegian was there for many years before Carnival. For many years there has been a relatively small but very vocal and politically active group who were strongly anti cruise port. They also are opposed to a lot of other tourism related businesses but that's another story. It appears that they finally got their way. The city of Charleston refused to renew the cruise contract. Nothing to do with Carnival. The land where the port lies is being redeveloped according to a redevelopment plan being drawn up. There are no plans for another cruise port. There are berthing facilities for cruise ships as a port of call but no plans to be a port of departure which requires a much larger facility than what will remain. Many business owners are not happy about the cruise port closing but the current local government climate is not very pro business according to my sources. There are news articles from the local news that confirm that it was the city government that ended the contract. Living only a little over an hour away ourselves we are pretty disappointed.