CruisinCons

They just about always serve lemonade and one or more different flavored water at the WindJammer all the time for FREE..... I really enjoy the flavored water. I find the lemonade a bit too 'sour' for my taste. But a little sugar added to it would fix that. We always carry out a glass or two back to the cabin for drinking later in the day.

Thanks everyone - I got a complete list from a past cruiser in a different thread.

Thanks for the update. So it looks like 2:30pm is the new time.

Have an awesome cruise! Let us know what you think of Mamma Mia...and the rest of the cruise. And enjoy the cookies!

Don't hold the times too close - I got an e-mail a couple days ago changing my Day 2 time from 9pm to 8:30pm. Luckily we dind't have a dinner reservation that night to interfere with.

So, if you sat up by the pool lounging (or were a bit late boarding) until 3pm... anyone in your hallway could enter your room until your first visit? You could have sail-away gifts or anything in there, right?

I was going to ask the same thing - how is this okay? What is stopping anyone from coming into your room before you get there?

OMG SausPud you are awesome!! Thanks so much!

Thanks - most helpful!!

He will drink the Minute Maid stuff usually, and the Powerade. So I guess we will get him the package too.

I always bring a highlighter to mark what we want to do the next day. We get so excited when the Compass is waiting for us in our stateroom...we love to see what is coming up next. I found that if I don't highlight what we want to do, we tend to forget or miss it the next day.

I agree with the ziploc person too - it's nice to be able to bring a few cookies back to the room and keep them fresh for munching on later.

I'm looking at the soda package for my teen boys. I have one that will drink soda, one that will not. The one that doesn't drink soda pretty much is a milk & water kid, but does like lemonade - not ice tea. He will drink apple juice, but not a lot of it. I read somewhere here that there was no complementary lemonade anywhere, just ice tea. Is there juice available all day anywhere?

What else comes out of the machines besides soda? Is there a fruit punch or anything non-carbonated? Trying to decide what this kid is going to drink for 7 days. While I am happy he doesn't like soda, it can be inconvenient sometimes.

Oh, not doing the bottled water package. He thinks bottled water tastes funny. haha

I'm looking at the soda package for my teen boys. I have one that will drink soda, one that will not. The one that doesn't drink soda pretty much is a milk & water kid, but does like lemonade - not ice tea. He will drink apple juice, but not a lot of it. I read somewhere here that there was no complementary lemonade anywhere, just ice tea. Is there juice available all day anywhere?

What else comes out of the machines besides soda? Is there a fruit punch or anything non-carbonated? Trying to decide what this kid is going to drink for 7 days. :) While I am happy he doesn't like soda, it can be inconvenient sometimes.

Just looked up the Fume Blanc - why they listed it under Chardonnay I am not sure, as it is a Sauvignon Blanc...and acc to their website it is oaked.

The Beringer Rose is going to be sweet - it's White Zinfandel, which is a a semi-sweet wine. It usually has added sugar in it too, depending on the Brix level of the zinfandel grapes it's made from. It shouldn't be listed as a rose...it's really not one. The Whispering Angel is more of a true rose wine; it's a dry blend of more than one wines.

Yes, I work at a winery. :)

Love the viewpoints from both of you; will be a similar experience for me & the hubby when we go in March. Love reading your posts, thank you so much for doing this!!

I will be following you to the end...we are debating on the drink packages; we are not huge drinkers, but love our coffee and wine. Rarely drink soda. I don't think we will be getting our money's worth from it.

I'd love to know if you think it was worth it; for it to be for us, we'd have to get the package that includes Starbucks. :)

It does hide under Onboard Activities and not Dining as one would expect, but you can pre-book or at least I have. It'll be breakfast for my 40th birthday and I'm so happy about that. :)

I just tried again for my March sailing and it says no, check when we get on board. Either it's sold out or they are waiting for some reason. :(

We had free wifi on 1/23 so can't really answer the question re: Royal IQ. I will say that it did show my calendar (some of it with double restaurant bookings (LOL), it did not show my luggage, and texting through the app was pretty hit or miss. We used regular text messaging via the wifi for that.

 

They did not give out tickets to North Star, and told me that they were no longer going to do that. You'll have to line up when you see a short(er) line. They had problems with tickets because the North Star shuts down due to weather and other operating difficulties. People who had tickets for a time when it was shut down came back when it was working and demanded to be accommodated ahead of the new people, who had tickets for that particular working time, thus unpleasantness ensued. (or worse). So it's just first come; first served. If it breaks down, go away, come back and get back on line when it's working.

 

If you're hanging around the pool deck you'll see a number of times when the lines are shorter. Don't stress about it. We went once, and had no desire to go again, but noticed no line just before 6:00 pm one day, so we went again.

 

Also, as an aside - I stressed a lot about Star Water, getting there early to get a good seat etc. We saw it 2 and a half times - the other 1 and a half just wandered in before it started. They show it A LOT. They show it so much that sometimes there's nothing else to do at night.

Thank you - good to know about Northstar. All the CC I have been seeing are older.

I'm actually "double booked" for Starwater, acc to RCCL as I have a dinner reservation at 9 in AIG and Starwater is at 10:30. We're prolly going to try to switch when we get on board or just walk up earlier. But I wanted to make sure we had something.

What was your experience with excursions?

Hello!

Thanks so much to all who have cruised the Quantum already and are being so kind to come and answer all our questions. You are all so fantastic!!

I've been reading and re-reading and re-reading and I hope I'm not repeating questions already asked and I just don't seem to see the answers to.

1 - The Royal iQ app; to use this you need a wifi connection, yes? So if I don't buy the no longer free wifi it's useless to me? I'm travelling with two teens boys and I don't want to buy wifi...I want them to enjoy the activities, not their phones. hee hee

2 - Northstar tickets: I've been looking for Cruise Compasses that are for my itinerary (Florida & Bahamas) and I see from others that you can pick up Northstar tickets in the mornings. Do you just get up and go get in a line, and hope you get a ticket, and if not get up the next day? Or is there some other way of getting them?

3 - Excursions: there are very few (for the amount of people on the boat) listed on the RCCL website. Are there more available once you get on the boat? I don't want to sign up for one of the two snorkel choices (can't afford the Atlantis choices for 4 people) just to find there are better or more choices once I am on board. We've been to Nassau twice before; once we took an island tour by bus and another we got off, walked around a bit, got tired of being hassled to braid my hair, so we had a cup of coffee in a small coffee shop near the port and got back on the boat. Left the kids on board for that one. :)

Thank you so much!! We aren't travelling until March, but I am so exited to get away from this NJ cold weather I am totally in crusin' mode now!!