OddHack

We did one some years ago, and one shore vendor had a sign: I Don't Work In Winter Sale We enjoyed it. One con is that there will probably be less wildlife; it also can be rainier and cooler (although we saw only a little rain on ours).

Have you seen this?

We were on the same cruise - it wasn't made clear whether RC was covering the gratuities or the crew members would just not receive any tips for that extra day. We assumed the latter, and tipped extra.

Didn't one line try one-way cruises at one point from Ensenada to Hawaii, where you would check in in San Diego and be bussed to Ensenada? Not sure if this would still be allowed, probably was judged to be a PVSA violation, similar to how a B2B of Anchorage->Vancouver and Vancouver->Honolulu (or California port) is, iirc, not allowed.

On our last Navigator cruise, we found that one side effect of not distributing printed Cruise Compasses is that many people will be unaware that it even is "dress your best" night -- we went looking through the app for that and it's there, but it's buried. So between the people who don't know it's formal night, and those who know but don't care, we didn't see a lot of people dressed up. Just wear something "nice" -- whatever that means to you.

If you don't have access to wifi calling, but you do have the internet package for all devices, then look into an alternate messaging app -- we've used WhatsApp in the past and been happy with it (both to communicate within our group and with family at home).