WrittenOnYourHeart

That's obvious.

Protestant. Because its cheap. ;)

Do you realize how many different protestant denominations there are??

We're flying from Raleigh-Durham to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday AM to cruise on Oasis (Eastern Caribbean itinerary, ports of call in Nassau on Sunday, St. Thomas on Tuesday, and St. Maarten on Wednesday). For those who are following the storm a little more closely and have more experience sailing when there's a storm out there, what's the most likely scenario? From other posts I'm seeing it seems like these are options but as we've got friends coming with us who've never cruised before I'd like to help assuage their fears here - so which is it most/more likely to be?

 

 

• Itinerary modification (substitution of a port or ports)
  
• Itinerary change (Western rather than Eastern)
  
• Delayed departure
  
• Some other change?
  

Any, all, or none of the above

 

For sure, the ship will rock due to wave activity

Assuming you even get there in time to make the ship flying the day of. I'd expect there will be a lot of weather-related flight delays and cancellations.

Coco Cay is a tender port, and if the weather is too rough, the tender operation becomes unsafe.

FWIW, even Disney - which has a dock on their private island - doesn't always make it to theirs. The ships have to get into the channel, and if the currents are too strong it doesn't happen. So having a dock doesn't guarantee anything.

There have been some excursions for the July 2016 Brilliance since at least July 31 (when I booked it). A couple of others have been added in - but I'm prioritizing which ones I want and booking them in that order, then reserving the right to cancel and book a different one if one becomes available. Yes, a bit of a hassle, but I'd rather know I've got one I'm happy with than hold off to see if something else becomes available only for nothing else I want to come open and then the one I wanted be booked up.

281 days to Brilliance Med/Venice!

Even in Alaska on the 7/31 Radiance cruise they were doing check-in/check-out for the towels.

I believe that would not be legal in the US. This already happens in the UK -- where it is allowed. Katherine

There are certainly non-refundable hotel bookings in the US - you make the booking at a lower rate than what would be offered if you just put a credit card as security and understand that it's non-refundable and cannot be changed.

I don't see how non-refundable deposits would be any different. As long as it is made known at the time of booking that it is non-refundable, which I've always seen made VERY clear when things are not refundable, there would be no problem with it. In fact, Disney already has some non-refundable deposits - if you book concierge on DCL, that deposit is non-refundable.

When was your cruise? Ours was August 23rd on the Navigator. Maybe they have changed it since that one?

Less than a month before that on the Radiance.

We received $200 OBC for booking another cruise while onboard. We were forced to use it on the cruise even though we did not want to. It was the last night of our cruise and we didn't really have much of a balance. We asked if we could use it on a future cruise because we didn't have a use for it on that cruise. We were not allowed to do that. We ended up going to the casino and taking the money out on the Sea Pass card. This cost us 5% of the total, but the balance we have set aside for onboard a future cruise.

 

 

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Weird. I was asked if I wanted it on the cruise I was on or a future cruise.

I was absent the day they handed out the ability to sleep late, so I'm pretty much always up early unless I'm 100% exhausted.

And I *can* stay up, but given that I find the late night "games" and such moronic, I'm not wasting my time going to those. If I am up late, I'm either in my cabin or somewhere quiet reading, or maybe just strolling around on the outer decks.

It's not but all they need to do is swipe it ☺

 

And I won't tell her

There is a code on the cards - I want to say an M somewhere for "minor". I know one of my friends on the Radiance with me this summer had a card coded wrong - hers was coded "minor" and even though she is well over 21 much less 18, she was unable to buy drinks until she got it corrected.

It's so funny to me that this is a question. Back when we went on the SS Emerald Seas when I was in 6th Grade, the pool was ONLY open when we were in port! And you had to climb down about 3-4 feet before you even hit the water!

A couple of quick questions about cruising over the Christmas holidays on an RCCL ship:

 

1. Does the MDR (or any specialty restaurant) serve a traditional Christmas dinner? (If so, what is that considered to be on RCCL bearing in mind different countries have different traditions?)

 

2. Do the ships do anything extra over the festive period to make your Christmas cruise that extra bit special?

 

Yes, I know I'm planning early but if I need to book in advance, when the "window of opportunity" opens I want to be ready with all my reservations!

You nailed it right there. What is traditional to one culture is not to another. Heck, even here in the US what is traditional for my family is completely different to what is traditional to my friends' families.

292 days to Brilliance Med/Venice! (Which means 289 days to the last day of school!)

Enjoy the cruise!

(I tried the "famous" roast beef sandwich on Radiance, and honestly my reaction was "Meh. It's good, but it's not this life-changing thing people make it out to be.")

I only went to City of Dreams and... The ONLY reason I stayed was I made the mistake of sitting in the middle of a row and people sat on either end, so I had no easy escape (unless it is an absolute emergency (as in I'm about to throw up), I do not crawl over people to get out of a row during a show). Even with CD Amy's warning that it might only make sense to people who had already been drinking, I figured it couldn't really be that bad.

It was.

Put another way, a friend in the group I was with only made it through 2.5 songs (she and her husband were sitting elsewhere and wise enough to sit on the aisle) bought me a drink the next night as "hazard pay" for making it through - my being trapped in a row not withstanding.

It was bad enough I have no desire to subject myself to ANY show on RCCL again (and I have no plans to sail any with "Broadway" shows on them - not that I'd want to see any of the ones they have playing anyway, much less give up 2+ hours of my cruise for it, so please don't use that argument to try and sway me into suffering through more torture). More time to explore the ship! :)

It can even go as late as the last week in April. That's when NYC schools are out for Spring Break.

Unfortunately, HIPPA laws (which do a lot of good in most circumstances) prevent companies from asking how or why a person is disabled. Therefore, Royal cannot ask "Why do you need a service dog." or even "What service do they preform." It makes it easy for people to take advantage. That is a shame because I think most people who require a service dog would be happy to show why or how.

In Disney World a person could get a 'guest assistance pass' until people realized they didn't need to have a real disability and started abusing the system. Since no documentation needed to be shown, people started making things up. They revamped the system and those with true disabilities suffered.

Not only making things up, but locals who DID in fact meet the qualifications the assistance pass was technically for started pimping themselves (or friends or family) out to the highest bidder.

Perhaps I am reading too much into the OP'S reply...but it sounds to me, that you have your mind made up to remove the gratuities. :mad:

No, I read it the same way. And not just their gratuities but those of their entire group. Very sad IMHO. :mad::mad:

I remember when I was in 6th grade and we cruised for Spring Break on the Emerald Seas. There was no "x per person per day that is divided up as A, B, C, D". There was a "This amount is the expected gratuity for your cabin steward. This is the amount expected for your server. Etc." so that my mom had envelopes with that amount already labeled when we boarded as well as an envelope with extra money we could distribute as we chose. And I know for a fact that the amounts were FAR higher than the IMHO pretty paltry $12/$12.95 per day or the suite amounts.

From the way it reads, you don't need any proof that it is a service dog, or even a doctors note that you require a service dog. That's crazy anyone could bring a dog and just say it's a service animal.

 

Evidence that a dog is a service dog is helpful but not required (such as identification cards, other written documentation, presence of harnesses and/or tags or the credible verbal assurance of the person with a disability using the dog).

Maybe not from the cruiseline, but I think the government regulation forms DO require some kind of proof. Especially since anyone can buy a vest for their little precious.

Outstanding.Thanks for the link. I see that my little fellow is allowed to join "the person with a disability in all public areas, including dining venues."

 

Just found a service dog vest for $30. Gonna get that shipped!

Did you read down far enough to see the links for the forms and regulations that must be met according to government regulations?

I've chatted with a family who legitimately requires a service dog and they said that the paperwork that has to be done every time is such that they could not imagine doing it for a family pet.

To summarize:

 

Where there are people, there are germs.

 

Period.

Exactly. And people - ALL people - are going to get sick at times.

It happens.

That layout is more common than not. The only airports I have experienced anything different, generally only have a couple of gates

Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia do not have that set up, and they are hardly airports with "a couple of gates". Ditto Nashville.

Orlando is the only airport I've ever been in where the all the gates are in unconnected (other than by monorail tracks) buildings.

What airports have TSA near the gates?

Most don't have them in a separate building connected by 4 monorails.

I sailed right on the cusp of the deadline when I was pregnant with my 3rd in 2009 and I wouldn't have wanted anyone judging me for that decision. It was just one of those things that was perfectly timed - three generation cruise, cousins had coodinating spring breaks - we had the airfare to San Juan long before I knew I was pregnant. I would have been devastated if I hadn't been able to cruise. I think I made it by 3 days.

 

Of course, the baby was not only not born on the cruise - he wasn't born until 9 days after his due date.

 

I looked for a good picture to show how pregnant I looked, but I must have been feeling huge because 80% of the pictures of me are from the waist up. There are, of course, none from the side. This one is pretty good -

I'm glad that everything worked out for you. BUT I suspect you'd be singing a very different song if things had gone differently. No one PLANS to deliver a preemie. The guidelines are set based on what the cruiseline has decided is safe based on their available medical equipment and staff.