brillohead

Well, I learned a new phrase today! I've seen the process, before, but had never heard it referred to that way.

The passport card is pointless for what you would be using it for. The main point of having a passport when cruising on a sailing that doesn't require a passport (closed loop from the USA) is to be able to fly back to the USA if needed. You cannot fly internationally with a passport card -- you have to have a passport book to fly internationally. There is literally no reason for having the passport card to cruise for a child that has a birth certificate.

That post meant that you have to use vouchers for drinks in the Diamond Lounge (as in no "free/unlimited happy hour drinks" anymore), not that the vouchers are ONLY allowed to be used in the DL and not anywhere else on the ship.

Only minor children share status, so unless your grands live with you as their legal guardians, they do not share your D status.

Are you thinking of Royal's pier, or Carnival's? Because there isn't a hill near Royal's pier.....

Clarification: you are free to go ahead and do it, but it won't help you any.

Nope. Pretty much impossible to get a "false positive" with an eMed test.

Yes and (probably) yes. Be sure when ordering a beer that you specify DO NOT USE MY DIAMOND VOUCHER. If they don't ask you to sign a slip, they did NOT charge you for the drink. As for your son's status, most people report being able to use a child's D vouchers for adult beverages, but once in a while it has not been allowed. I would imagine it varies based on the bartender, so if not successful at one bar, try another. You can also use the tried and true method of tipping in cash -- staff seem to be much more amenable to requests when paper money is involved.

It's only available on board, you can't book it in the Cruise Planner in advance.

Because there aren't always open tables available to change to. That's why waitlists are created sometimes....

Just so you know, the "straw market" as such no longer exists. There are no locals selling their own wares. It's all little buildings/shacks selling commercial goods (usually made in China) and manned by Royal employees (who are "local residents" [citizens of the Bahamas] but not the actual proprietors of the stores). If you want to purchase "authentic Bahaman goods" you'll have to do it at another port.

I was discussing cruise expenses with my son yesterday (we're going on an Allure B2B in January after he finishes his Army contract). He's paying for all the expenses for him and his girlfriend, so we were going over all kinds of different line items. One of those line items was alcohol. For some context, my son is 22yo and in the Army, and his GF is 21yo and in the Marines. As one can imagine, they are no strangers to alcohol consumption in a social setting. We did the math, including taking into account that we will have three port days on each cruise (which are not Coco Cay or Labadee). He came to the conclusion that the DBP doesn't make sense for them, based on what they will be drinking and when/where they will be drinking it. It would POSSIBLY make sense for him on the first week (we'll have friends with us the first week who WILL have the DBP), but when you add in getting the Refreshment Package for his GF (since they'll be in the same room), that puts it way over the point where it makes financial sense. If a young adult can figure it out, you'd think that grown adults could figure it out! It works for some, it doesn't work for others. It's not rocket science, folks.

In my experience (13 cruises since the restart), it still seems that the inexperienced bartenders are the ones doing more closely measured pours, while experienced bartenders may have the jigger in their hand while they're pouring the liquor, they typically overflow the jigger and continue to pour liquor into the cup as they're pulling the dumped jigger away from the cup, resulting in a very heavy pour even though to the casual observer, they're "measuring" the liquor.

So glad that you were able to get it taken care of -- happy that the CC crew came through again!

Okay, that's just WEIRD.... what the heck, CC????

I'm trying to figure out the name of the town, since it was blanked out. Can you post it with a space between every letter so it goes through the filter?

I don't see that as the same thing at all.... they utilize the drink package because even with the free drinks, it's financially better for them to get the package. Why would you bother to use the free drink vouchers if you had the package anyway? (I guess you could use them to buy drinks for people around you, but you're under no obligation to do so.)

I thought that this was just a limitation due to Royal's ever-stellar IT department, and if you called (or booked through a TA), you had no problem booking it solo? @Ourusualbeach can you confirm if these are able to be booked solo through a TA without having to book a fake second person?

Yes to both. There are trees providing shade, plus many umbrellas, and chairs in sun and shade both -- all free/included. Pics below are from a couple weeks ago. View of the ship from the beach at Columbus Cove. The jet-skis in the foreground are in storage only; the actual jet-ski excursions take off from a point closer to the ship. View to the right from the center of the beach: View to the left from the center of the beach: View to the right from my chair a few rows back (my chair was under trees and umbrella for maximum shade): View to the left from my chair:

Better off than you were before still counts as a win! Hopefully you still get incremental improvement as time goes on and things continue to heal and rebuild!

I was gone for five weeks... I didn't even TRY to keep up while I was gone (you know what Explorer's wifi is like!). So, how's the knee doing?

I came to this thread specifically to see if someone had made this type of comment. CC does not disappoint! LOL

Symphony, Explorer, and Allure all had the Strawfish "biodegradable plastic" straws in April and May, but Explorer's first cruise out of Miami still had lots of paper straws because previously it cruised out of San Juan and was subject to fines if not using paper straws. By the second cruise on Explorer, though, all the bars had the Strawfish version.

I'm curious if the OP even understands what generates CO.... and if so, how on earth do they expect it to get into their cruise ship stateroom?

This is when it helps to have a TA....