Tunkhannock

Could you send me a copy as well. We are going on the liberty in August.

Sent.

I too would like a copy of the 5 day bermuda, liberty compass. We are doing this route in October. Thank you!

...and sent!

However, it's just a glitch in the system and can be ignored as the real people (aka not the computer system) are able to tell it was a reduced deposit special.

When we booked in January during the "No deposit due until July" BOGO special, I noticed that our TA "paid" our deposit. When I asked about, they explained to me that it was only so the RCI system wouldn't glitch out and flag our account as "overdue" on the deposit.

That said, parents also need to keep their children under control and well mannered. The couples cruising without children, while they need to be accepting of the fact that there are children around, should not be subjected to rude behavior from unruly children

(trying to frantically press the "like" button)

This. A hundred times, this.

We are a childless couple. We have zero problems if a family wants to bring their kids aboard. The more, the merrier, right? I don't even care if the kids get a discount or get on for free, as long as it doesn't mean higher prices for me. But if I'm trying to eat a meal or watch a show, and I have a screaming kid right in my ear... that gets extremely old, extremely fast.

Even the best-behaved child will occasionally get fussy. Such is the nature of children. But, parents, please... when it happens... take Junior out of the venue so he/she doesn't give everybody in a 100-foot radius a migraine.

(also, if you find yourself sitting with a couple who never had children in the MDR, please don't start gushing about your kids/grandkids. Doing so is a sure way to alienate them. Just a bit of advice, there.)

That's the perfect location for people who might get motion sick. Where are you sailing from?

Bayonne, NJ to Bermuda and back.

Hi would you mind emailing it gee1209@aol.com

Sent.

If the vacation is over when you're out of the cruise ship, then I'd probably want to stay on board as long as possible. But when I still have one final day of vacation in New York to look forward to, I think I want to get to it the sooner the better :).

Yeah, we're just driving back home to PA, so no rush.

Thanks for the info!

If you look up the roll call for the Liberty of the Sea 5 nights to Bermuda on 03 October, somebody who recently cruised will gladly e-mail you the Compass she scanned in.

I still have it. If you want me to e-mail you a copy, just let me know your e-mail address.

Turns out, nobody ever needed it. ... I took back over $50 in stuff. Good luck!

Hopeful our experience is the same as yours. Thanks!

Thanks again for your expertise, Carol.

 

A couple of follow up questions:

 

1. Are there others cons to self disembarking, besides having to carry your bags yourself?

Is there any downside to waiting it out? We'll have our car parked at the Port and really have nothing pressing to do on Saturday, so hanging out on the ship is an option.

Also, is you cabin type and location are proper for people who can get sick?

We've got a JS on Deck 9 near the hump, more-or-less near the middle of the ship.

If you are worried take the medication such as Bonine a couple of hours before you board the ship.

Thanks for the reply!

Are we correct in assuming you actually have had motion sickness previously in cars/coaches or aircraft? Have you been on ferries and had problems?

Not I, but the DW is definitely susceptible to it, and has in fact suffered from it on smaller boats such as ferries.

Okay, reading up on CC I've found out that the two recommended over-the-counter sea sickness medications are ginger and meclizine (i.e. Antivert, Bonine, Verticalm).

We're going to be taking our first cruise in a couple of months and we're wondering when we should start taking them? The DW is very concerned about sea sickness. Should we start a few days in advance, when we board the ship, or when we have symptoms of motion sickness?

Thanks for the advice.

Us and some friends (all middle-aged professional couples) just played a round of CAH last weekend. We had a blast! The DW had to step away for a bit because she was getting a "laugh headache". :p

It's certainly a lot more interesting than, say, gin rummy or shuffleboard...

Just to muddy the waters a bit, here are the requirements from RCI for a non-retired vet:

Veterans with an Honorable Discharge serving a minimum of 2 years, or 6-months in an active war zone, in any of the United States service divisions listed above. Proper identification in the form of a DD 214, plus a current photo must be presented at time of check-in.

Now, here in Pennsylvania, one can get a "Veteran" designation of their license. Part 2 of the requirements says:

2. Applicants must have a character of service under conditions other than Dishonorable:

a. Honorable (HD)

b. Under honorable conditions (UHC)

c. General (GD)

So, at least in PA, somebody can get a "Veteran" designation but not meet the requirements set by RCI.

I imagine that there's going to be some celebration, as Dynamic Dining appears to be rather unpopular here on CC.

I'm wondering how many times I'm going to have to enter in our passport information for the online check-in.

Every week I enter it up and print up the SetSail Pass, and then a couple of days later online check-in will change from "Completed" to "In Progress". Invariably, I'll have to plug in our passport numbers again.

Does anybody have any experience with the luggage tags offered in the Cruise Critic store?

Drinking on the ship. Me and my wife normally will have 2 to 4 drinks per day. We would have not benefited from the drink program. I also know that if I did get one of the drink programs, then I would have been drinking a lot more than I should, and that's not a great idea. I would have made sure I got my monies worth. But as far as the drink prices, I think that $14 for a Pina Colada is extremely high, as well as the cost for most of the drinks with the inclusion of the 18% gratuity. I definitely would have purchased more drinks had the prices been only a little over priced.

Exactly. The wife and I aren't what one would call "big drinkers". We'll have the occasional drink socially or at a special occasion, but that's it. As such, there's no point for either one of us to get one of the alcoholic beverage packages.

But the insane pricing on the alcoholic beverages completely discourages us from having that rare drink. We can easily do without, and probably will. So, lost income on RCL's part.

I think it would be a great idea for RCCL to have an app that would provide you the ability to communicate with others in your group on the ships.

Agreed, and rather surprised they haven't done so. And "communication with friends/family" doesn't have to be the end-all of it either. Simply set up a shipboard intranet and use the app to provide an interactive, handheld "cruise compass". Make it a game... allow people to "check in" certain locations for bonuses or whatnot (think the Foursquare app).

Thanks. We are a family of iPhone users. I don't know if you can answer this. Can you turn off the "Instant Message" (IM) feature on iPhones so that you don't need to rely on the internet?

I do know it can be done, because I've seen a friend do it, but I don't know how. Sorry. We've got Android phones, so I'm not really up to speed on iPhone stuff.

Thank you. I never tried hot spotting over wifi. (Only cell/data) so this makes sense. The other info sounds good but it sounds too technical for my abilities. I wish there were better packages for wifi for families larger than four. We rely so much on texting and feel like this would be the easiest way to keep in touch with our tween/teens on board. Thanks.

If it's just texting that you want (and by texting, I mean SMS texting that operates over the cell phone link, and not the internet data link) then consult your cell phone provider. Many cell providers can provide a'la cart pricing as well as package deals.

For example: the "Cruise Ship" rates for Verizon Wireless is $0.50 per text sent, $.05 per text received (so, if you're texting a family member on ship, the total cost would be $0.55 per text). They also have a package deal which may or may not be worth your money. (Verizon source: https://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/international-travel/ ) but your best bet is to contact your carrier directly and see what the rates are.

Longer answer: Yes, it's possible, but a pain to set up. Generally speaking, it involves rooting your phone's operating system and making some significant changes. If you're not sure what you can doing, you can brick your phone.

The "easiest" way is to use your phone to connect to the WiFi signal, and then "repeat" it using your phone's Bluetooth radio, but even this has its limitations (it's very slow, for example). Also, the receiving computer/device would not only have to have Bluetooth capacity, but also the software to "translate" the Bluetooth connection back into a datalink.

So, it is possible, but not really practical.

Perhaps not a phone.... but some repeaters can do the job.

I'm sure that Security may wonder exactly why you're bringing a wireless router/repeater on board.

As for the OP, I have to concur with clarea. Smartphones use a cell data signal to set up a WiFi hotspot. I know that if I attempt to use the "personal hotspot" feature on my phone (Samsung Galaxy Note 3) when I'm already connected to WiFi, it won't let me. I'm pretty sure they can't keep two separate WiFi connections active at the same time.

One big tip, if you want any chance at all of getting a deck chair poolside, you need to be there at the crack of dawn. By 9:30, the chair hogs are out in full force with every single one of them swearing that "he just went to get a cup of coffee" yet there are 8 chairs all with towels on them. Pool attendants won't do a thing about it. Very frustrating for those of us who follow the rules and don't save chairs

If they're not back in ten minutes, I'll move their stuff off the chair and occupy it myself. What are they going to do about it?

You can also book MTD reservations on line before arriving on board.

How wedded are you to the times you choose for your MTD reservation you made online? I've already "booked" some MTD times on the RCL website for our cruise, but to be perfectly honest I'm not happy with the options given to me. The times I really wanted were not available, and I picked the closest times that were being offered to what I really wanted.

If I booked a 7:30pm time, but we wander in at, say, 6:30pm, will we be told to come back in an hour?

If you don't have an Upgrade Preferences selection, then it's possible that your C&A number is not associated with your My Cruises account.

Or, like us, you don't have any cruises yet.