brillohead

I think I might actually be on the October 9th sailing with you... Explorer? I travel solo most of the time. I meet people in advance on Roll Calls, and I also tend to meet people just out and about. I rarely feel "alone" on a cruise ship.

I'd recommend propane (LP) gas rather than electric for a tankless water heater.

I don't use them for packing space but rather for overall organization. Originally everyone touted how you could "pack so much more in the same space" and that just didn't make sense to me, so I avoided them for a long time. But once I used them, I realized that they made sense for me from an organizational standpoint. I group items together -- all my t-shirts in one cube, pants in another, undies in another, socks in another, swimwear in another, etc. I also pack my embarkation day outfit all in one cube on top of my suitcase, so I don't have to go through my whole suitcase at the hotel -- my outfit all put together in one place. When it's time to unpack, I just remove a cube, unzip it, and place it in the designated spot (shelf in closet, drawer in vanity). I'm completely unpacked in minutes. Throughout the week, I put dirty clothes in the empty suitcase under the bed. If I get laundry done or hand-wash some items, I put them back in the applicable packing cube (shelf/drawer). When it's time to pack to go home or to my next ship, I can pack in minutes -- I just have to zip each cube and drop it in the suitcase. Anything not in a cube needs to be laundered; anything in a cube can be worn or put away when I get home. I don't think it really matters what brand you get, as long as you don't go super-cheap (you want a quality zipper). If you need to create space in your luggage, the compression bags are handy.

Tankless water heater commentary: We have one at the house I moved into last year. The hall bathroom used to have a huge whirlpool tub (it got torn out to put in the elevator to the basement), and I could fill that thing with piping hot water in a flash and never run out of hot water. Lawdy, I miss that tub! Water/sewer commentary: Where I used to live, the sewer charge was based on your water usage on the fourth and first quarter bills, so filling a pool and watering your lawn didn't count against you for sewer usage -- they just based the sewer portion of your bill on the water you used in the off months. Don't get me started on the concept that you shouldn't have to pay for water that you wasted .... let's just say that OB and I agree on that one.

I've done B2Bs in California, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale since the restart. In each case, we met at a lounge (typically the one above the theater, or even the theater itself) around 9am. In some cases they just had us sit down and they came around to us, in some cases we had to wait in line as we entered. They gave us the envelope with our new room cards, and we waited around until the rest of the passengers were off the ship. Some ships needed to retake pics of our passports and vaccination cards and some didn't -- Royal's IT department is as efficient as always. When the time came, we all lined up and got off the ship, using our old card to "bing" off. (Some ships "confiscate" your card at this point and you have to go to Guest Services to retrieve it later -- absolutely stupid procedure and one I hope they do away with fleetwide.) Depending on the port, we had to show our passport/docs to a CBP agent, or utilize the facial recognition portal. Then we would wait around for a few minutes (5-30, depending on the cruise) before being escorted back to the ship, at which point you "bing" on with your new card. You don't have to go through the typical check-in process of waiting in line with everyone else -- you never even go to that part of the terminal. And you're the first ones onto the ship for the next leg. Do make sure that you complete the online check-in process for each leg of your cruise, though -- that will help on turn-around, because they'll have to enter all that information, contact info, emergency contact person, credit card info, all of that, if you didn't do it in advance.

I often get virgin frozen drinks with my vouchers, and I have had numerous bartenders at different bars on different ships who never bothered to charge them to my D/D+ vouchers. I tip a dollar for each drink, and after a couple times at the same bar with the same server, they just didn't bother to run it through. I'm guessing that it was a combination of the fact that it was a non-alcoholic drink plus the fact that I always had dollar bills with me. And no, they didn't just remember my room number and process it from memory -- the $0.00 charge never showed up on my account, which means they didn't charge it against one of my vouchers.

I haven't seen a Consecutive Cruisers "informational meeting" in ages. They just aren't doing this at all anymore. To the OP: They'll leave a letter explaining the process in your room mid-cruise. If you don't have one by the second to last day, check with Guest Services. If I have to move rooms, I prefer to go meet the room attendant for my new room a day or two in advance, and make arrangements to bring my luggage to the room myself around 8am on Turn Around Day. I put it in the closet and it's out of their way while they're turning over the room. The new room attendant can prioritize my room for turn-around, and then I can come back later in the morning and unpack before the general public has access to their rooms. (You'll get your room key for the second cruise before you get off and back on for Customs.)

Your TA isn't very knowledgeable then. They could have added the prepaid gratuities even after final payment. Also, doing it at Guest Services is as simple as making one payment on the account in the amount of the total of the gratuities to be charged -- you don't need to make individual payments for each day's gratuities as they are charged.

You can either prepay it now, by calling whoever you booked through (TA or Royal), or you can go to Guest Services at any point in the cruise and make a single payment on each account for the total amount of the gratuities. For example, a standard (non-suite) room with two people for a weeklong cruise would be $14.50 x 2 x 7 = $203. Anything that the room's occupants charge in excess of the gratuities would be their responsibility to pay.

When you first set up the package on board the ship, you designate a Username and a PIN Code. Everyone who uses that package uses the same Username and PIN Code. If you have a 2-device package, two different devices can be connected at the same time, both using the same Username and PIN Code. If a third device tries to connect using that Username and PIN Code, they get a notice that all available devices are in use, and they get the option to bump off one of those devices and connect to the system, or just not connect the third device.

Some online travel agent sites will occasionally have a reduced deposit offer, but read the fine print, because they often charge fees that regular TAs don't charge.

Y'all have any idea how difficult this process is if you've just moved to a new state AND you don't own/rent via traditional means? I lived in Michigan for over 50 years, and last November I moved to Illinois (actually moved in with friends I met cruising several years ago). Since it's not my house, none of the utility bills here are in my name. Since it's not my house, the mortgage isn't in my name. Since it's not my house, the property tax bills aren't in my name. Since I had just moved here, none of my bank/credit card bills came here (and all of those are online anyway, nothing ever gets mailed to me until my card gets reissued when it is going to expire). Since I had just moved here, I didn't have a vehicle registration here. Since I had just moved here, I didn't have a voter registration card here. Since I had just moved here, I didn't have any tax returns with this address on them. Since I'm not in the military or a sex offender or on Social Security, I didn't have any of those types of records. I had to change my address online on my bank accounts, then wait until my credit card statement cycled to generate a new bill (fortunately, Illinois accepts printed online statements, at least!), and then print out the rental insurance policy I took out to cover my belongings in the house (never trust someone else's insurance company to cover your property!). Then I could use all of this to get an Illinois DL, and change my car's title from Michigan to Illinois to get it registered in Illinois. The whole process took a couple months and was a complete PITA. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone without any money/credit. If you don't have a bank account or a credit card and you live in someone else's house so you don't have bills in your name -- what are you supposed to do in a case like that? Stupidly enough, ANYONE could have done the things I did to get an Illinois DL without actually living there... I could change my address on my bank accounts to any address in the state -- I never get mail there, so how would anyone know? I could also take out a rental insurance policy to any address in the state online and print the policy out -- how would the insurance company know if I actually lived in the house at that address??? Leave it to governmental agencies to really screw up what was supposed to be a standardized process.

Same. I've traveled twice with an underage girl who was not my daughter. Both times I had a notarized letter from her mother giving me permission to leave the country with her and make medical and legal decisions for her during the trip, but nobody ever asked for the documents, let alone actually looked at them. I'm guessing that it helped that she had a passport (which meant that nobody ever needed to look at a birth certificate, which would have shown that I wasn't a parent), but also that it's so common for children to not have the same last name as at least one parent these days that nobody even bats an eye. But I still would never take a minor child out of the country without a signed and notarized document from a parent giving me permission to do so. Also, regarding medical care, in the event of a true emergency, medical professionals will render life-saving care whether they have "parental permission" or not. A child won't bleed out while medical staff stand around twiddling their thumbs waiting for "permission" to administer medical care. For something that's urgent but not life-threatening (like surgery to pin together a broken arm), a half-hour wait to get Mom/Dad on the phone to give permission for surgery isn't going to kill the child (and it will probably take longer than that to call the surgeon and the rest of the surgical team in to the hospital and get the OR booked and all that jazz anyway).

What an awesome reveal idea! I love it!!!!!

A friend posted this commercial, and it made me think of all you booze drinkers in this thread! https://www.instagram.com/p/CekEEFcJQDZ/

Yes, before Final Payment and for North American bookings.

There HAS to be a story there.... I just can't imagine what it must be, though!

Exactly. That's why I was surprised that you knew why it was being filtered out... because it makes absolutely no sense why it would be filtered.

With a flight that early, I'd just book private transportation (Uber, Lyft, shuttle service).

You could always downgrade to a balcony room, if you're still unable to make the big step into the tub.

You know why it's blocked by the CC filters???

This is correct, for all ships that require reservations.

I put mine in a Ziploc sammich baggie and keep it inside my passport. The baggie was almost free.

Not during the 2-day cruise they are talking about. But if you would actually read instead of just knee-jerk blathering everywhere, you'd see that my comment was in response to their comment about getting a passport card for FUTURE cruises.... and my comment was about the fact that a passport card would provide NOTHING for them that the (ALREADY OWNED) birth certificate doesn't already provide.

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