harryfat1

As I said in the very first post in this thread, I’m not a professional cruise reviewer. A case in point is that I didn’t take any pictures of the cabin electrical outlets for this section. Another incident of “Been there, done that” syndrome where you have cruised so often that you take for granted in not taking pictures of items you plan to discuss later on. Anyway, look on YouTube for the electrical sockets (or lack thereof) in the cabin. One very obvious sign of an older ship is a shortage of electrical sockets/USB ports. The advancement in technology over the past 20 years has left these cabins very dated in the electrical setup. In our cabin, we had 2 regular North American electrical outlets. That’s it. Period. No more. For world travelers, you have one European plug that you can use your travel adapter to change to the North American voltage. So the maximum number of electrical sockets you can have inside these older ships is 3. If you have multiple electronic devices, you will need to share. No big deal, you say, I will just bring a surge protector from home. I have many of these at home. Problem solved. What is this anal idiot worrying about? Ha. This anal idiot will now remind you to go read the list from above once more and see that extension cords (surge protectors) are on the prohibited list. Can’t have that in the cabin. OK, now what? Nowadays you can buy USB hubs that you can charge all the USB-based devices, including the many laptops that need 65 watt power to power them. Here’s what I bought from Amazon. No, I don’t get any commissions for the link. Buy this model or any other model on sale. Matters not to me. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGLTD816?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 The top slot has 65 watts to charge my laptop if I needed to bring one on my cruise – I never do but some people need them for work. Many USB sockets that you can charge phones/tablets/watches on. The really powerful ones can charge 2 laptops at the same time but those cost more and since I don’t bring laptops or tablets for that matter on the cruise, this model at less than $40 does the trick for me. The newer cruise ships’ cabins now have extra USB plugs so you can just use the cables there but if you are on the older ships regularly with multiple devices, look into investing in a USB hub charger.

Good to talk to another long term cruiser. The new generation of RCI folks only know RCI from Oasis class onward. Yeah, hard to get the little ones to stand outside with lots of people around and in heat (or cold). Don't think anyone misses that part of the Muster Drill.

Good to know. So let’s “walk through” the process with some hypothetical time stamps to see how everything will unfold with the tight deadline: 2:30 - Arrive at Pier via Lyft cursing the airline delays and bad traffic on the way that made you late 2:32 – Give the luggage to a porter, who by now is standing by the pier chilling’ as 99% of the passengers are already on board and he is talking with other porters about their Fantasy Football League 2:34 – Go back to the curbside to pick up your luggage after the porter threw them out by the sidewalk because you forgot to tip the dude 2:36 – After tipping the nice man, you walk up to the non-existent security scanning lane. Take off your belt/cell phone but your new $200 sneakers have a metal plate at the bottom that triggered the security system so the security people had to “wand” you a few times while asking you to empty your pocket. In the middle of all the commotion, you dropped your cell phone and now it's not working anymore. 2:41 – Walk up to the non-existent line of Cruise Check-In and let them scan your phone App but since your phone is dead from above, you frantically search for the hardcopy “backup” in your backpack while silently giving patting yourself on the back for being super anal in bring a paper hardcopy 2:45 – All passports and documents scanned and you made the cutoff list for the ship to submit the manifest to US Customs Patrol 2:48 – Need to use the restroom as all the excitement made your bladder weak and must go NOW 2:52 – Run up the escalators as the people at the balconies are harassing you for being late and videotaping you as a “pier runner” for YouTube upload to embarrass you for the next 5 years 2:55 – you were running too fast and lost your balance and banged your knee on the pole at the way to the long gangway ramp 2:59 – You officially made it onto the ship but you need wheelchair help to take you to the medical center to look at your knee which will result in a $500 RCI medical bill added to your account 3:05 – They wheel you to your Muster Station on the other side of the ship to officially say you checked in for your Muster Drill So it looks like arriving at 2:30 at the dock is doable. You are good to go. Enjoy your cruise…

That's a cool waterfall picture of the pool due to the waves. Yeah, the area between Cabo and Ensenada going north can be rocky. Lots of ocean movements. Especially if you encountered one of the winter storms coming down from Alaska between November and April. Or the "Pineapple Express" storm from Hawaii that packs a lot of water.

Very nice. Didn’t realize Patti had joined the Line Club/Cult. You had better luck in seeing the “locals” than us. I have seen them on YouTube but didn’t see any up close in person. The workers that were tying up the Line chased them away early in the morning so I only got some water splashes but two on the side of the rocks before they were chased away as well. NO sea lions at the same location as Patti's pictures As y’all know I don’t just show you the final product, but the process of getting there. To even take a picture as Patti did of the one and only Line tie-up, you have to walk all the way to the front and then back. See how they fenced off the area. You can't even come close. Same for the Aft area with fence gates. Can't touch that... That’s me in the red arrow as my wife took my picture the rest of the family just shook their head as more of the “weird things that Dad does that can’t be explained” as I walked 100 yards to take a picture of some dumb ship line ties…

This brings up the next question – how early do most people fly in pre-cruise? I assume most people play it safe by flying in at least one day prior to sailing. Especially with various airline delay issues, we saw last year and this year (we all remember the Southwest debacle from last winter), the high risk of flying on the day of the cruise is too stressful for the 8+ anal scale people. Having said that, when I was younger (more clueless days), I once flew a red eye on my first Caribbean cruise in the '90s. Back then airlines were more reliable, and I felt OK to arrive at FLL at 7 AM on a red-eye from California and take the shuttle to the port for the cruise. No way I would do that nowadays. Seeing last winter storms' impact on airline flights, arriving 2 days pre-cruise doesn’t sound as anal as once thought. This reminds me of our red-eye story: Back in 2013, we were going on the Carnival cruise sailing out of Boston to see the US/Canadian Northeast region. Having never been to the historical Boston area, I booked a 2-night hotel in the area and red-eye so I could maximize my 2 days in town. Got on the plane around midnight and after 2 plus hours of them trying to start and reset the plane’s flight instruments, they declared that flight to be dead. Everyone had to de-plane at 3 AM and we all had to call the 800 number of the airline to re-book our flights as there were no on-ground agents there to help the couple of hundred people from the plane. There was a big family group of around 10 people, and they were going on the HAL cruise out of Boston that next morning after the red-eye landed. Well, that’s not going to happen now. So half of them were on the phone with the airline and the other half of the family were on call with HAL at 3 AM trying to figure out how to catch the cruise ship at the NEXT port of call as they won’t make it to Boston on time. During busy traveling periods, it's not that easy to find 10 empty airline seats from point A to point if most of the flights are already full. Easier to reroute 2 people on a different flight. Not so easy to reroute 10 people. Think all of them were ready to cry at the airport as they realized they were going to miss the first few days of their cruise as they had to deal with connecting flights on another airline to get to the port where they all could board the ship. As for us, after a while on the phone with the airline, we were able to find 6 seats to Boston on a later flight but that would be at a different airport. So we all drove home and got back at 6 AM after not sleeping the entire night. Took a morning nap. Called the hotel to explain that we can’t make it to day 1 of the 2-day hotel reservations. The manager was kind enough not to charge us for the first night booked and just switched the reservation for one night instead of two. Total mess. After that, you couldn’t pay me to go on any red-eye flights to arrive on the day of the cruise…

Yeah, I think I saw some documentary on the Travel Channel years ago on the inner workings of the Fort Lauderdale cruise terminal on boarding day. Some families had problems boarding due to insufficient paperwork as they couldn’t get the other notary work faxed in on time prior to the 90-minute cut-off on the shipping manifest. Being late to the dock and being denied boarding is brutal. That’s one thing Newbies don’t know as the difference between flights versus cruises. For a typical flight, if you have no check-in luggage, you can arrive at the smaller airports that typically have short TSA lines and be aboard the plane shortly thereafter. Getting to port at least 90 minutes ahead of time is not mentioned on the cruise documentation (at least I don't recall seeing it). Even if you look at the phone App, for the 4 PM sailing, they have a check-in time slot of 2 to 2:30. That’s cutting it very close. If you are a Newbie and you select the later check-in time slot of 2 to 2:30 thinking of avoiding the long lines that want to board early and you get delayed by traffic and don’t get to the port until 2:35. You would think that is still OK if you are flying as you could still make it on the plane if the TSA line is short (or you have the TSA pre-check clearance to avoid the regular lines). Not sure you can board the ship if you arrive at the port at 2:35 and with the 90-minute manifest requirement that you will be allowed to board… Not sure any cruise lines should even have the 2:00 to 2:30 check-in time as an option. They should make the 1:30 to 2:00 as the last option to give some notoriously late people some leeway…

As we unpack, now is a good time to emphasize what you can and can not bring on board. RCI has a website that lists prohibited items. If you are new to cruising, you need to check that list as some of the stuff you can pack for a land-based vacation is not allowed on cruise ships. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/prohibited-items-onboard-policy Some banned are obvious like weapons and illegal drugs that you couldn’t take on the plane anyway. But as a Newbie cruiser, you will be surprised by other prohibited items like Coffee makers, clothes irons, or extension cords. Regular household items at home are not allowed on cruise ships. If you pack them the ship’s X-ray machine will detect them and the item will be confiscated. If your luggage doesn’t arrive on time, chances are they are being detained in the “naughty room” way down on deck 1 and you have to go down and get them while talking to security about what happened. Yeah, avoid the hassle and check the list of what is not allowed before leaving home.

One more picture and that’s enough of the ship tour as we need to go back to the cabin and hopefully, the suitcases will have arrived and we can unpack. Speaking of which, does anyone here NOT unpack? Meaning they live out of their suitcases for the entire cruise? I would think for the shorter 3 or 4-night cruises some people might be tempted to just leave everything in the suitcases but will likely unpack for the longer sailings. Happy dance to see all our luggage arrive in tack. Never did hear back from the cruiser that got his luggage left behind from a Princess cruise on what happened. As I posted previously, you only miss/care about your luggage if they were misplaced somewhere by the workers. Otherwise, you will just take your luggage for granted.

Just took a couple of pictures on the Blue Moon from my cell phone while walking around the neighborhood tonight. I posted these pictures on my current trip report thread but since I'm like the 3rd cousin twice removed in this community family here, I'll post here as well. I'm the relative that only shows up at weddings and funerals and everyone whispers - who is that guy? We're not related to him, are we?

Glad you are holding up well. 12 inches of rain in a day! People in California have NO idea what that even means. The average rainfall in Los Angeles for the ENTIRE YEAR is 12 inches. You got it all in one day. People in LA would lose their minds if they even got 6 inches of rain in a day. Forget about 12 inches and that's not even the heaviest amount of rainfall... https://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we09a.php#:~:text=Average for seasons 1944 through 2022%3A 11.86 inches*&text=See month-by-month numbers as season unfolds. Yeah, Central Park on the Oasis ships is very nice at night. We listened to classical music one night there. Although we prefer the noise and hustle/bustle of the Boardwalk area slightly more. You can't miss either area. Just a question of personal preference. Hope the rest of Thursday is a good one for everyone in SC as the storm blows by on the way to the Atlantic.

Doh, Line Pics! There are none, dude! This itinerary sucks in getting a good line pic. Catalina was a tender port so no lines. Ensenada blocks off the bow and aft part of the ship unlike Cozumel or other Caribbean ports where you walk past the aft of the ship on the way to the cruise terminal, Ensenada makes you walk AWAY from the ship to the cruise terminal. You will likely encounter this same issue next October when you come out. Cabo will be a tender port for you so no line pics there. Ensenada will be the same issue I faced. I have forgotten what the port set up was at PV as that would be your one and only chance to get a line pic. Although I did capture a few workers setting up the lines early in the morning at Ensenada

Thanks for the compliment on the pictures. I'm just the dumb dude on the other side of the phone clicking on a circle. The device/software does all the work. Having me take credit for taking good pictures with a great phone is like rooster taking credit for the sunrise. Speaking of pictures, tonight was the "Blue Moon". https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196637207/blue-super-moon-wednesday-what-time Took a couple of pictures from my cell phone via its big zoom. Actual footages. No photoshops or any post-production work. Yeah, just amazing what you can get from a cell phone camera nowadays. In the old days, I would have to get the mega zoom camera or SLR out. Now I just whip out the cell phone and take a picture. No skill was necessary to take this picture other than having a steady hand as it was zoomed out to the max.

The timestamp is now 3:10 and with the sail away at 4 PM, in theory, there’s no more boarding of the ship. Unlike airlines where you can board close to departure time, for cruise sailings, you must be ready to board 90 minutes prior to the official departure time. So it's not surprising you don't see any activities by the pier as most of the workers are done for the day That is why for the 4 PM sailing time, the latest check-in time from the app is 2 to 2:30. Nothing officially later than that. Has anyone heard/read stories here on CC that have people being denied boarding because they missed the 90-minute cut-off period? Most people here are the anal types so we typically error in arriving at the port TOO EARLY but how about arriving TOO LATE? I have seen YouTube Videos of Pier runners where people missed their ship coming from too much partying at the port stops but what about boarding too late on day 1?

The walk around deck 5 takes us to the front of the ship to the Helipad. I miss being out here. Many ships nowadays are not designed for access to the Helipad. Heck, the Majestic Princess ship doesn’t even have a total walk around the Promenade deck. It just ends at both ends as a dead stop. Oasis-class ship is only slightly better in that wraps around but is narrow at some parts and has no Helipad access Front of the ship where you can do the famous movie Titanic impersonation as well as get a different perspective on the USS Iowa museum Looking at the San Pedro port webcam which is probably in the middle of the picture at the small dark area

OK. Onward with the trip report: ++++++++++++ Catalina Ferry – This 4-day itinerary has us visiting Catalina Island on day 3 so I won’t get too far ahead of myself but since I have a picture of the ferry, just want to mention a couple of things. The island is about 25 miles from the coast of Southern California and people typically visit the island via the ferry from different ports in the region. One of the ports is right in San Pedro near where the Navigator is docked. See where the red arrow is for the ferry versus the purple arrow for where the Navigator & USS Iowa is located so you can see the Catalina ferry terminal is not that far from us So this ferry is headed out of San Pedro for Catalina, where we will be in a couple of days. Throughout the day, there were numerous announcements over the PA system telling people they needed to check in at their Muster Drill station or else the ship couldn’t sail. Here’s more numbers discussion that most people won’t care about. I think they said at the 3 PM mark, there were still over 200 people out of 3,700 that hadn’t done their Must Drill check-in. As the official double capacity of the ship is at 3,386 (Per Wiki), our sailing of 3,700+ passengers puts us at 109% of capacity. Which makes for a very crowded ship as we saw people everywhere. This is somewhat expected as the cruise industry has been having a banner year this year with people going on cruises in record numbers post the Covid lockdown/restrictions. The theoretical max for the Navigator is at 4,000. That’s achieved if they can fill every 3rd and 4th berth in every cabin. Those typically are on big vacation periods where families pack the clan into triples and quad cabins. As we typically only sail when the kids are out of school, we are used to having a ship full of people of over 100% double capacity. The only cruise we have that’s less than 100% full was last year’s Alaska cruise on Princess where it was around 65% but that was still during the Covid era where you have to show proof of vaccination as well as doing an Online test 2 days prior to sailing. Many hurdles prevented the average cruiser from wanting to be on a cruise. Now there are fewer restrictions but we are all seeing the cruise prices skyrocket. Only if my 401K holdings can go up as fast as my cruise fares…

Yeah, we went to play shuffleboard down on deck 5 on day 2. There were only a handful of people down there. However, if you go to Alaska, the Promenade deck gets awfully crowded on Glacier viewing days. These other 2 pictures are not from the Promenade but you can see on Alaska cruises, people look OUT a lot more than on other warm water cruises

Thanks. It's good to be back sharing my travel pictures and spewing every topic under the sun like donuts, Cirque and bed bugs with some Mexico cruise pictures in between as filler material. No worries about being late as there's a time warp within this thread since we are still on day 1 after various posts. Yeah, I can imagine being upset about leaving an electronic device behind. Good thing you were able to go back and get it as if you were on the plane back to the US, you would have to pay the shipping cost to get it back.

Will be more vigilant in inspecting the hotel rooms going forward. This has never entered my mind as I only associate bed bugs with lower-quality one-star motels but it sounds like it's very common at all the hotels.

Thanks for the info. Good to know that the cruise industry is vigilant on the pest issue. Especially problematic if a cruise is sold out and your cabin has bedbug issues. Not like they can relocate you to another cabin if there are no vacancies and you can't switch ships last minute.

December 1994 was 2 years before my first cruise on RCI. In many ways, the "hardware" of cruising has improved by leaps and bounds in having so many gadgets and fun things to do while on the ships. In other ways, the old timer cruisers like yours truly will look fondly at the old cruise days and think the "software" (as in food/glamours atmosphere) was better in the old days.

Going back down to deck 5 for the Promenade deck walk around with the workers just standing around chillin' waiting for the straggler cruisers to check in for the Muster Drill As much as I love the bigger Oasis-class ships, their lack of a wide Promenade deck is a big disappointment. Yeah, yeah, I know I sound like an old dude again in my complaints but I like the wide Promenade deck area. As much as I said I don’t spend much time looking at the ocean during the cruise, I still occasionally like to go outside to see the waters as I walk past on my way to do something... Deck 11 is too crowded and noisy for my liking and Deck 5 is much more tranquil if you ever want to sit and look at the ocean and think about the meaning of Life or at least think about the Talking Heads song on how you got here.... More pictures of the tanker ship and Star Wars Walking Tanks:

More pictures of the ship as we make our way to see the rest of the ship: Time to check out the gym area. Same theory as the bar. Just walked by and took a few pictures. Not a gym rat…

Good to hear the hurricane will miss your area but like you said, it will make landfall somewhere. Hopefully, the damage from the hurricane will be minimal in its path over the next several days. Yeah, I saw comments on YouTube on the Odyssey on their show. I know there's a drone display as part of the act on the show in 270. Is there a cost to participate in the iFly? I thought when Quantum first came out, that activity was free but like many things RCI is doing nowadays, there's extra charges tacked on. We will be the Northstar on a port day as I read there's a charge to be on it during Sea Days. Personally, I would think Port Days at the best for North Star as you get the pictures of the port area instead of the ocean that I can see from the ship.

Thanks for checking in late at night on the East Coast you guys are supposed to be in the path of the hurricane. Hope all is well. Let us know after the storm blows through on how you fared. At least the East Coast people are prepared. The folks here on the West Coast don't really know how to deal with hurricanes. As for Harmony cabin, I assumed you meant the central park view cabins similar to this one I found on the internet. Originally that was to be our type of cabin for the Allure as that was what I paid because it was similar to the Royal Promenade view cabins we had from the Mariner. Then just prior to sailing, we were given the option to upgrade to the Boardwalk balcony and we switched. So we never stayed in this type of room before but it seems to be comfortable seating by the window (at least softer on the butt to sit on compared to the Voyager class sofas). Yeah, I'm not a fan of the new MDR dining menu either and I'm that picky of an eater as I eat hot dogs and pizzas from Costco food court regularly but the new menu from RCI is not good from what we have eaten so far.