LeeW

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.

The letter normally says you have access to your room. In the meeting they do ask you to close the fire door after entering. Might be kind of fun to organize the B2B folks to "escort" the guests who are delaying getting off. Have seen a few that were proud to be the last off and were holding back to ensure they were despite being called by name multiple times over the PA. Thinking a plank ceremony....

Those holes through your big toes have to be painful....

Credit unions and banks have the ability to set up automatic payments assuming you can get a routing number.

Depending on the ship sailing direction, the area near the funnels may have shade on one side. Deck above pool can be windy. We usually can find something in the adult solarium area.

They have to zero the ship in Fort Lauderdale, so you can either get off and back on with the B2B or pick up your new cards and get off earlier. They will sometimes run tours for B2B folks but you are better off doing these on your own. Had two cases of getting off and getting new cards from ship staff in the terminal. One was ok (around 20 people, so we went through immigration and got new ones in line before boarding again). Second was disaster - around 400 people and they only had cards for around half. They finally let us all back on and we had to go to Guest Services for the new cards.

No points for any RoyalUp. In general you keep any existing perks from your booking.

Yup. Wife wanted to do this again last trip on Equinox and she convinced me to sign up again as well. Now we have an ornament (heavy, not really fragile), a drinking glass, and two fluted vases. Lots of fun and takes around 20 minutes each. Pieces are annealed overnight, packed in bubble and put in a white bag with your name on it available for pickup when the classes run the next day. As another poster has said, they do a demo around sailaway time and start taking appointments then, so show up BEFORE that demo time. Sign up for appointments right after each other and you can swap the camera to get pictures of both.

Only issue I can see is that you can get off well before the sea life center opens. So maybe go to the B2B group location and get your next cruise cards (or they will have you go to Guest Services to get them) and walk off the ship before the B2B group does. You can go to the center with her and then come back to the ship. Boarding runs late in Seward. We had time to take an 11am Kenai Fjord cruise and still get back before dinner.

Certainly. You can add cash any time. And last night can be a zoo at Guest Services. If you don't have a card on file they will freeze your onboard account when it hits $500 (this can vary with length of cruise) and call you to pay it down. Lots of folks use cash accounts.

On app you can select port arrival time without filling out id and credit card info. Then you can go back and do those later on computer. All people in your party can be done by one person if accounts are linked. Generally you can do this 45 days before sailing, midnight in the ship location. Sometimes you get an arrival time for all guests when you do the first. More often I just get one, switch to a different person and get theirs. And I use images on my computer for both passport and ship photos. App wants to take photos and scan passport.

Your room steward will ask if you want morning or evening service.

Snorkeling excursion works well there. There is an old sunken concrete ship that has a lot of fish around it.