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I don’t think we would be able to make it there by early morning.

We happen to be on Caribbean Princess currently. IC is open 24/7.

Looks like we are missing Grand Cayman today. Weather is terrible..

Thanks for the update! We leave in 8 days!

I believe that you can have the option to drive home if that is feasible.

I would agree with this, however, we also prefer Princess and lately, we've been finding prices on Princess to be equal or even less than on RCI (especially the Oasis class ships), and the drink package (though they are increasing it on Princess) is way more affordable that what RCI offers.

Yes, apparently, the main office never got the documentation from the Crown until a few months after. Not sure why. So, they actually can see (when we call) that we are on the list to get FCCs, but every time we call, they keep telling us "it will be in within 2-4 weeks". We've gotten that story for a couple of months now...

Don't expect it soon. DW got COVID on the May 27th Crown Princess this past year and we were quarantined 2 days. We still haven't gotten the FCC from Princess, just a bunch of run-around...

Have you tried the Mardi Gras? It not only has Guy's Burger and Blue Iguana, it also has Shaq's Big Chicken (VERY good, and fries are much better here), Guy's Pig and Anchor BBQ, Java Blue, and the Street Eats stall included along with the Lido, Sandwich, and Pizza stations. Also, the 2 "specialty" restaurants, Cucina Del Capitano and ChiBang are included. They've upped their game with Mardi Gras. We have only sailed Oasis for the Oasis class and for included food, it was either Windjammer, MDR, El Loco Fresh, Park Cafe, a few (inedible) things at Cafe Promenade or the dog place (Solarium Bistro was closed on our sailing). Mardi Gras had way more included food... Don't even get me started about the lack of included food on Indy...

If you just want some more reinforcement on this, go look at all of the early reviews (and issues) for the Disney Wish from long time DCL passengers... And it came from Meyer Werft...

I just hope they go back to expanding the buffet...

We've been on Scarlet Lady twice and have had a blast both times. It's a very different experience, but one we very much enjoyed. That said, we are not really beholden to one cruise line or another. This year, we've cruised with Disney, Virgin, Princess, Royal, and Carnival, and for the most part we've enjoyed all of these cruises. Strangely enough, our Princess cruise was on Crown Princess and we were kind of approaching that one with dread with all that was going on with that ship, but were very pleasantly surprised about how good our cruise actually was, once we went on it. To top it off, they gave us a 50% FCC for the missed ports issue. Also, for whatever reason, our App experience worked pretty flawlessly (thanks, in part, to the Medallion desk on Crown that adjusted a few settings on my iPhone). So, unlike many here, we've actually booked a few more Princess Cruises and look forward to doing so in the future. Also, after being on so many different lines this year, I know this sounds corny, but being on a Princess ship, it just feels like home. Maybe the best way to put it is that perhaps it isn't the best at any one specific thing, but it seems to do everything well, or at least it did on our cruise. For instance, the food maybe isn't what you get on Virgin (or maybe Disney), but I can always find something I like to eat (that is complimentary, mind you). But it was way better than what we had on Royal. Likewise, there may not be some grand production (Disney or RCCL, though I would consider "Cats" as a big negative there 🙂 ), but we always found something to keep us entertained. Don't know, it's like that suit that just fits right. Maybe just my opinion... As to the others... Scarlet Lady has amazing food. Hands down best we've had at sea. Also, it's a very upscale, relaxing ship, which surprised us a bit (we thought it might be a "Tattoo parlor at sea"). The Duel Reality show is amazing and there are just lots of little nooks on the ship to relax. And loved the hammock, way more than I thought we would. That's exactly how I would describe it. Relaxing. Will definitely do more VV in the future. We sailed Carnival Mardi Gras. Yes, I know what many people think when you say Carnival, but it was an absolutely great cruise. We loved the ship and all of the included food options. We came to the conclusion that Carnival has great "quick service" food (Shaq's Big Chicken... Yum), and the fact that they are currently including two of their normal upcharge places (Cucina del Capitano and ChiBang) gratis didn't hurt either. We actually never ate in the main dining room. Really enjoyed this class of Carnival ship. It is definitely a different mix of passengers (with a LOT more kids), but very enjoyable and a very fun vibe. Not sure I'd sail one of the older ships, but definitely impressed by Mardi Gras. We also sailed Disney Magic to the Greek Isles and did the Maiden Voyage of the Disney Wish. The Disney Magic cruise was amazing. Maybe the best one we've ever done. As to the Disney Wish, well, go look on DCL sites and you'll see that many opinions about how the direction that is going in sort of reflects what you see on this thread. We actually ended up liking the ship (had really good food), but definitely prefer the 4 original DCL ships. Honestly, if $$ didn't matter, being the Disney fans we are, we'd sail them all the time... but $$ does matter. As to Royal, we've sailed Oasis and Independence this year. On Oasis, we were bored. I know that sounds crazy, but it was in January and there were only 2,400 people on the ship (out of 6,000). Seemed empty and because of that, many things, like the Solarium Bistro were closed. Also, I noticed that most of the restaurants on RCCL are the upcharge places. The buffet was OK, but very heavily influenced by Indian dishes, which are fine, but not what I want everyday. It also bothers me that the RCCL ships don't have an included poolside grill, which most of the others seem to have. Did not care for the Burger or Dog that was stashed under the heat lamp in the buffet. Yuck. You could get Johnny Rockets, but it was $15 per person. And why the checking out of towels??? It also bothered me that the soft serve ice cream shut down at 5:30pm, but they left the extra charge ice cream place open until 10pm. I did enjoy the shows not named "Cats", especially Aqua80, but on the whole, it didn't live up to our expectations (like everyone we talked to talked about how wonderful the Oasis class ships were... we just didn't see it, of course, we don't do rock walls, or zip lines, or flow riders, etc., so not sure that ship is geared towards us..). And as we found Oasis to be sort of, "meh", we just didn't care for Independence outright. The lack of included food options being the main issue. Last comment about RCCL is how their "Cafe Promenade" just really lacks when I could compare it to say the International Cafe. The pastries were terrible and the sandwiches were a joke. Never found anything in there I cared for...

There are 2 important things I learned on Crown Princess this past summer that really, really helped my app work MUCH, MUCH better. 1) Put the phone in airplane mode when on the ship 2) Go to the phone settings, and turn off the "Private Wi-Fi address" and "Limit IP Address Tracking". The Medallion desk had me do this and it was amazing how much better the app worked after that. We loved being able to order drinks/room service, etc. to wherever we were (which was often the Explorer's Lounge :)... )

No, nothing meant by that. I guess my point was that there are differing philosophies on cruising in suites, it seems. Some people, that is what they will do and will save up to only cruise that way. Others, stay to the lowest price cabins and it's more of a volume thing. As said before, is one way any better? Nah, it just comes down to personal preference. Wouldn't be any fun if we all wanted the same things... Thank you for your service, BTW...

And that retrofitted Princess ship was a retrofitted Renaissance Cruises ship 🙂

RCCL's beverage package, I have not found to be a great value. We have done 2 RCCL cruises this year (Oasis and Independence) and I want to say that for either cruise, the cheapest I ever found the per day drink package was maybe in the high $60's per person per day. As we are lowly Gold members, we don't get free drinks, so we definitely kept an eye on this, but found in the end, it was just too pricey. Compare that to our experience on Crown Princess in Alaska in May. It was $40 per person per day (FYI, it has now gone up to $50 pp/pd) for the "Princess Plus" package. That included not only the drink package, but gratuities ($14.50 pp/pd) and Wifi ($10 pp/pd). And, as you have to pay gratuities anyway, it's almost like a no-brainer, even at $50 pp/pd. I think that X does something similar.

Yeah, I get that. We've actually never done anything above a standard balcony room on any line, and quite honestly, usually just book insides. Our philosophy is that we could take more cruises rather than the upgraded rooms. Is one way better than the other, nah, just depends on the person. I will say though, that is probably why I don't get as much out of RCCL as a number of folks here. We are just lowly Gold C&A members and don't book in suites. As such, we have a very different experience than a number of the long time Royal enthusiasts on this board. No free drinks or lounges for us. That is probably why we focus on the limited included food options at time compared to other ships. We don't have status on Carnival either, but there was so much more included on something like Mardi Gras food-wise, compared to say Oasis that it keeps us from really doing more RCCL cruises compared to other lines. (Though in fairness to Oasis, the Solarium Cafe was closed "due to COVID", and Park Cafe had limited hours, so we probably didn't get the true experience). If we stayed in a suite, or were D+, I'm sure our experience would be much different... but, that comes at a cost... This is why I am focused more on what I posted above as what I'd like to see from RCCL...

Johnny Rockets, thought is NOT complimentary. If you want to continue to pay extra for it, go ahead. As to Carnival, we did the Sunshine years ago, and had a good time, actually, but it paled in comparison to Mardi Gras. We really enjoyed Mardi Gras. So many included food options and we thought that the ship itself was much nicer. You may not want to go on it but it is a really nice ship and a big step up for Carnival IMHO. As to Cafe Promenade, we've sailed on Oasis this year, and I stand by my opinion, but again, it's just my opinion, YMMV...

RCCL hasn't been our favorite line, but a few small changes would go a long way to helping us get there! Again, this is all just my opinion, so take it for what it's worth... 1). Ditch Johnny Rockets and add a poolside, complimentary grill option. I think RCCL is one of the only lines we've been on where they don't have this. DCL, Princess, HAL.. they all have them, and Carnival takes it to the next level with Guy's Burgers and especially the Shaq's Big Chicken. All complimentary. Adding El Loco Fresh was a step in the right direction. Need to continue that. Please don't make me have to go to the Windjammer for a burger or dog that is just sitting under a heat lamp... 2). Upgrade Cafe Promenade. We've done a number of cruises with Princess, and while that is a different experience, one thing that we universally love on all the Princess ships we've been on was the International Cafe. Having recently been on both Oasis and Independence and seeing the Cafe Promenade, it just doesn't compare to what the IC is on Princess, but I think that RCCL could easily upgrade the sandwich and dessert options to be similar. 3). Don't charge $11.99 for a stateroom movie that most other lines include complimentary (Virgin Voyages was especially good with this!) 4). Get rid of the towel checkout system (this goes for you too, Carnival!). Princess, Virgin, and Disney don't make me check out towels and I think they are making it OK...

We loved VV. We've been on twice and as others have said, they have tweaked some things. For instance, on our second trip, we noticed much more live music in the "atrium" area than on our first voyage. The food is amazing. All of the restaurants are good and we really liked the galley. I could eat Sushi for lunch everyday? Yes Please! I will also second one of the comments above. Duel Reality is perhaps my favorite show at sea (with the other being Aqua80 on Oasis). It's kind of a Cirque du Soleil kind of thing. Very entertaining. That said, we aren't big RCCL fans, and Virgin is very different, so if you like RCCL, not sure if you'd like Virgin. I'd agree with others where it's more like Celebrity, Princess, or HAL or something like that, but with better food... One other thing about VV is that ALL gratuities are included. On more than one occasion I would hear people asking where the tip line was on, say, the bar bill when you ordered a drink and the crew would just say "it's included, don't worry about it". I mean, I saw people literally freaking out because they couldn't figure out how to tip. Another example, at sailor services, someone in front of us wanted to adjust they "Tips" up. The crew member was trying to explain that all gratuities were taken care of and they didn't have gratuities . For whatever reason, that just didn't register with that person. He argued for about 20 minutes before leaving. I think that we are so used to the tipping culture that when you encounter a different system (like the "British" style system VV is using) it is hard for people to wrap their heads around it. Virgin pays their crew much higher wages and as another poster mentioned, they are poaching a lot of staff off of the likes of Disney, Celebrity, Princess, etc. And they all said they loved working for VV. Interesting enough, I found this out because we'd go eat in the galley and VV lets their crew eat in there as well and talk, etc. with guests. It was quite a different experience, but one that we enjoyed.

I've never understood why RCCL doesn't put Laundry on their ships like say DCL, Princess, and even some CCL ships. It is REALLY, REALLY handy for those longer cruises. We did a 9-night Greek Isles on DCL this summer which followed a 3-night pre-stay in Rome. We did laundry a couple of times and it was very nice to have it there, especially on these longer itineraries.

Isn't Pier 4 being converted to a Disney exclusive terminal?

Quick question. How far in advance do you know the terminal schedules at Port Everglades? Right now, it only looks a couple weeks out. My question is, say we were leaving on the Caribbean for the 10 night partial PC on December 18. The Regal Princess is also in port that day. Which ship would get Terminal 2? When CB comes back, I believe it will be the only Princess ship, so I assume it would dock at Terminal 2 then, but is there a chance that it leaves from say 26 and comes back to 2? If so, what's the best parking deck strategy? Reason I ask is because we were on Regal in 2019 and went out of 2 (so we parked there), but when we returned, we berthed at 26 and I had to take an Uber over to the North deck as there didn't seem to be a shuttle. Then I had to get the car and return to pick up the rest of my family, which required going back through the security. I could always do parkngo, but I'd rather have covered parking for the car.

I had to laugh at this a bit because this particular thing has been a HUGE point of discussion with Disney Cruise fans with the new Wish that doesn't have a full promenade (among other things that have caused quite a bit of discussion that people don't particularly care for on that ship)... It is an unfortunate trend among most lines these days...