LeeW

You won't know before you sail when the earliest flight is allowed for booking the ship shuttle. Normally 11:30 flight for the nearer airport and 1/2 hour later for the farther for Miami and Fort Lauderdale. So Royal isn't going to allow you to take their shuttle. I would suggest a transfer company like SAS: https://www.ridesas.com/html/returningcustomers.php They will pick up a group of people from your ship and take them to the airport. Of course if one couple in the group is running late it could mess you up, but it took us around an hour from getting off the ship to arriving at FLL. We had 8 people in the van. They may recommend you walk off the ship yourself - earliest bag service will likely be 8 AM. You can ask onboard for the earliest group. The ship will schedule you for a departure group based on your flight times but it is easy to take the tags to Guest Services and get earlier tags. Your steward will also likely have earlier tags. The transfer companies also will sell you a transfer for only your group, but this costs more. Not sure the transfer companies have child seats, but the Royal bus doesn't either.

Cruise more - we don't even get motion on land after cruising these days. Of course it can get a bit expensive....

Calendar typically doesn't show your reservations until you connect to the ship wifi. We go by what shows in the Orders page online.

Every time we go there the waves are breaking over the snorkeling pier end. Ride from the other port where Carnival docks can be really rough. The spot you picked can be really quiet and peaceful.

Didn't realize you can do a room charge without putting your card in the machine. Do you enter your room number and then PIN (MMDD)? Normally it gets room number from the card.

That tour goes by various names on various cruise lines but we have done it twice. Assuming you are on a partial transit from Atlantic side you tender off the ship in Gatun Lake and are bussed to the pilot landing at the far end of the lake. Then you proceed through the rest of the canal in the old locks and get back on a bus on the Pacific side. Bus trip back these days is much faster (nice expressway most of the way). Fairly long tour and one time we had to wait for our ship to get tied up in Colon before we could reboard. Good food/snacks on the boat. While there could be a delay, we haven't seen one. You can touch the lock walls as you proceed and view closeup the operation of the mules, which are not used in the new locks. Not sure if we will do it again on our next trip, but if you like traveling through locks this is more interesting than staying on the cruise ship. And you get to see a closeup of the Cut and areas you would only see on a full transit cruise.

Cruise Express works well. Take pier bus to terminal and look left. They are on the far corner of the street. Note that even if you buy online you still need to stand in line to get your return ticket and then they escort everyone onto the next street where the bus loads. Bus parking area is around 15 minute walk from the downtown area through a park. Return bus was on the half hour when we went in August. Note that most restrooms in town are inside sitdown restaurants. There is a public facility next to the bus park area. The bus that meets the ship goes to the railroad station and you would then still need to take the train to Bruges. Every third store there seems to be either waffles or chocolate!

Leonardo (and all other hotels) does NOT have shuttles to pier. Ask at either the desk or the Concierge to arrange a cab for the next morning for you. We asked for 1000 and they recommended 915 for an 1100 port time. That said, the cab was 45 minutes late and people walking along the pier road to the QEII pier were walking faster than he could drive. Next time we might just walk the mile. The people using Uber were having as much problem as we were getting picked up. We did like this hotel for access to the mall - lots of food options. No soda machines. Around a 20 minute walk to the train station if you want to take the train to Salisbury and Stonehenge. Nice indoor swimming pool.

Royal and Celebrity Planners don't let you put more than one "Mytime" dining reservation in the shopping cart at a time. Try going back and selecting a different day, book that and check out, then do it again for the other days.

Probably. Could cost $100 for that ride, though. A very long ride. Cruise lines recommend Miami flights no earlier than around 12:30 in Port Everglades. You might want to look into the various shuttle companies.

Radiance in Alaska had kids time 5-6 in Solarium. I think a couple of times when it was really cold outside they also had a morning time, but it wasn't every day.

Typically earliest is 11 or 11:30. Have had a few in Miami with 10:30. Latest time offered will be around 2 hours before sailing.

Marketing. Think of selling an inkjet printer for a low price and then forcing the user to spend hundreds on cartridges. This is a very old concept.

I can imagine an airport trying to handle 4000 bags on one carousel. Of course at an airport they are used many times in one day. Makes zero sense except as a way to get more Federal money.

Yup, Royal costs more than Princess for both beverage packages (except soft drink). As Biker says, watch for sales because prices may change several times a week. You can cancel and rebook any package. Lately internet has been stuck at either 20.99 or 21.99 per day depending on ship and sailing and you get a slight discount if you buy more than one login. Soda package is either 8.99 or 9.99 plus gratuity depending on ship.

Just to be clear - drop one of the two reservations you have.

Did you try the kid's menu filet? Not sure it is back yet on all ships but DW often will get it instead of the main dining steak. We buy 4 oz filets at home since that is the perfect size for us.

Probably depends on whether UK flights are "international" or domestic EU in Paris. With Brexit do you have to claim and recheck bags in Paris? If not, then you be fine. Check which gates your flights use in Paris. And info on connecting flights might help: https://www.parisaeroport.fr/en/passengers/flights/connecting-flights Some Brexit info available here: https://www.douane.gouv.fr/french-customs-information-available-english#Brexit

Should transfer automatically. Sign on to Celebrity website with your C&A email/password and it should indicate your status even if you haven't booked a cruise.

We've never been fond of Ice Games, but have seen cases where scheduled shows have been redone as "unscripted" when skaters are injured or sick. Lots of times it is the same show with an act substituted. Not much plot on any of these but we are always impressed how they can do what they do on such soft ice.

Good point. Not sure I have ever seen a sales tax on bookings here. Just port taxes. Do you have to pay VAT in Europe on cruise sales?

That's why we get arrival time on app and fill in info later with computer. I can use stored files for passport and onboard picture on the computer but can't do this online. Both options were available for when we checked in for January cruises. Haven't hit checkin date for February cruises.

That page comparing packages has been around for a few years now and sodas have always been in the classic package. If you look at the ordering page in the Cruise Planner, you can clearly see that soda is part of the package. My guess is that when they set up the spreadsheet that compares packages they ran out of room to mention soda and haven't bothered to fix it.

Have done multiple through and partial transits on Coral and Island Princess. Spent very little time on our balcony. Most interesting view is from the Promenade deck, since this is almost unobstructed and runs most of the way around the ship. Shore disappears as the ship is lowered. Great views from the front and rear "hidden" area on decks B and C. These are normally in crew-only areas but are opened for the transits. You need to move around a lot to get the full experience. Note that the Promenade deck and balconies feel like a furnace if you are in the sun. Typically very little breeze in the canal. Have also twice done the small boat through the rest of the locks on partial transits. Great tour, although expensive. Ask the pilot about the dent in the Miraflores Lock gate. You can touch the walls during locking. A bit too far to reach from the cruise ship.

Good point - my son had to go to Guest Services because his card was flagged and he couldn't get off. They owed him something like 80 cents.