ARandomTraveler

No problem. I figured out where I saw it. It was in the cruise compass.

Yep, the on board price on Symphony this week is $98, and they're offering a BOGO with it. I was expecting to see them offer some nice Black Friday deals on board but there are zero deals.

I'm on Symphony right now. The papers in our stateroom told us the Internet was starlink, and somewhere online it also said that, I think maybe when I went to activate my account. I'll track down where I saw it and report back.

I went to playmakers last night on Symphony and I told the waiter that I understood the rules changed a couple weeks ago and that we're no longer allowed to use our credit more than once per day. I asked him the question about whether or not you could use the credit twice in one day as long as you hadn't reached the $20 daily limit yet and he looked at my like I was crazy. He said there was no limit to the number of times you can use the credit each day as far as he knows, and that if there have been any changes to that rule, he wasn't aware of it yet and he said it can sometimes take a while before they get notified of changes like that. And he said that as far as he knows, there's no limit and that as long as he's there when I eat, I won't have any problems using the credit as much as I want because that's how he understands it to work. We only used exactly $20 last night and we went to bed after that so I never tested it, but it sounds like you can still use the credit all day long on Symphony anyway.

They wouldn't punch a hole in mine yesterday on symphony., and I don't see anyone else wearing their seapass cards without the plastic holder.

I don't know about Wonder, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it on Symphony and it works great!

Izumi can't be used with the travel agent credit. Hooked is a casual seafood place but there's no non-seafood options for the one that doesn't like seafood, so I'd scratch that off the list too. The Italian restaurant (Jamie's or Giovanni's) has salmon and prawns on the menu. That might be your best bet. I boarded Symphony today and they had booths for making dining reservations all over the place on the promenade deck (the deck where you'll walk onto the ship). The earlier you board the better, because you'll have your choice of days/times. If you're not picky about when you eat then you should be able to get a reservation at the Italian place, but if you want a specific time slot, get on the ship before noon.

It's per cabin, but I'm pretty confident that I could have brought more wine on board today, and probably also could have brought other liquor. I boarded in Miami, and had 2 bottles of wine and a 20oz bottle of water in my suitcase. They didn't even ask what it was, or open it up. And yes there's a store in the terminal in San Juan.

But Voyager is in the southern Caribbean right now, which means lots of port days. Voyager also doesn't have freestyle machines (unless they've recently added them). So none of the drink packages are really worth it on that ship, or on that route, in my opinion.

So far so good. The phone has to be set really close to the door, just like the sea pass card. It's not like at a hotel where it can sense you're getting close to the room and you just click "unlock door."' But it's pretty convenient.

Oh also, escargot still there too

On the Symphony now. Didn't go to main dining (went to Hooked), but I did look at the menu and I see the spaghetti bolognese is still on there. Maine lobster tail being offered night 1 for $16.99. I had a lobster tail in hooked. They said it was 4oz, and it was warm water lobster. I'm not a lobster fan but I thought it was good.

On the ship now. Definitely seems like one could get by without it. One nice feature I didn't realize was on the app is that there's a digital room key on there. I'm surprised I haven't heard anyone mention that.

Reporting back with some updates: 1) I didn't need the printed set sail pass. No issues with wifi or LTE outside the ship, and I had the set sail pass in my apple wallet and that worked fine. 2) They ARE checking boarding times. They also have the "gates" up and are making people get into their proper lines, however, once everyone from the previous line has boarded, they'll start letting people on with later times. I got in my "11:00-11:30" line at 10:44, was on the ship by 10:53 (9 minutes). It was much more difficult to make show reservations that I expected. The app was giving everyone problems. Even once we connected to ships wifi, closed the app, refreshed the app etc. Then, to top it off, Hiro wasn't showing up on anyone's calendar, including the employees who were helping us. They had to search for it in order to add it for us. Got all my shows booked and went upstairs to one of the many booths they had set up for making dining reservations. Lines were not long at all, but I'm very glad I pre-booked (and paid extra for) Izumi hibachi because it was already completely sold out for the entire week by 11:30. Some of the other restaurants were already booked at prime dining times on certain days (150 Central Park, Chops, Hooked, Wonderland and Izumi), but I was able to get 5:30pm reservations for each place (except wonderland) as long as I was open to which day I booked. Very stressful hunger-games type situation booking shows and dining. 3) You guys were right. Major pain in the ass to get off the ship to find my daughter (but worth it because I wouldn't have been able to get the show and dining times I wanted had I waited for her). I had to go to guest services to have them print me a physical set sail pass first. Then I had to explain at every exit point why I wanted to leave, at which point some people had to get additional permission to let me off. There is no separate exit route off the ship, so I had to squeeze between the windows and the security lines, thank goodness I'm thin because no way a larger person could have gotten out. I had to go back through security on the way back in (which was a lot busier at 12:15) but it went fairly quickly, and we were on the ship at 12:33 (18 min, not including the time it took my daughter to get through the initial line outside, which took her 21 minutes). So me getting to the port at 10:44 got me on the ship in 9 minutes. Her getting there around noon got her on the ship in 39 minutes. Not bad. But good luck getting your shows and dining if you get there at noon on a busy sailing.

My daughter was supposed to fly from College to home, and then fly with me to Miami, but she had a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something cool in New York, so she's flying in from there. Her passport was at home, and I didn't trust that it would get to her on time through the mail, and didn't want it to get lost.

I have the same issue. Zoom surf + stream for 1 device is $15.99/day. It says each additional person is $13.99/day (which should be $359.76 for a 12-day cruise). Instead, it's charging me $383.76, which is $15.99/day for each person. When I try to do 2 devices for 1 person instead, it's the same price ($383.76). They're only over-charging by $24 so it's not a huge deal, but it's not what's being advertised. I'm assuming they're getting lots of phone calls about these issues and they'll hopefully fix the website before the sale is over, so I'm just gonna wait and see if it fixes itself in a couple days.

For my Spectrum cruise next summer, the "Black Friday" sale for Voom surf + stream is currently $15.99. For $3 more ($18.99) you can get the soda package added. That seems like a good deal for anyone who was going to buy both anyway. *Correction: the soda and Internet package isn't for surf + stream, it's just regular surf. Regular surf isn't for sale in the planner yet so I don't know what the cost of that would be by itself. Soda package isn't for sale by itself yet either. And neither are any other drink packages. My cruise that leaves tomorrow has shut down the ability to order anything in the cruise planner (they shut it down 48 hours prior to the cruise), so I missed out on sales for that one too. I guess I'm not getting any Black Friday deals.

I sail tomorrow on the Symphony. When I logged in to see my cruise docs, I saw this note in big red letters saying "You are required to download the app..." Not sure if that's really true but you should download it anyway.

Most people have reported that times are not enforced (especially in Miami). I'm mostly wondering if the email that says they'll turn people away is a new thing they're trying, or if that's just a boiler plate e-mail they always send, in hopes that it deters people, but that really means nothing.

THREE QUESTIONS: 1) My cruise docs say that our set sail passes must be printed. I thought the whole point of using the app and having the digital version was to avoid all the printed pieces of paper. Can anyone confirm whether the digital version suffices or if I'll have to fill everything out again if I don't print it? 2) I got this email today (below) making a big point of saying we'll be turned away if we show up before our assigned arrival time. Does this get sent to everyone on every cruise even though they don't seem to enforce anything? Or is this new and they're really going to enforce boarding times? (Miami) I have an early boarding time so I'm hoping they enforce it, because the whole reason I made sure to get an early time was to get in the terminal and onto the ship first-ish in order to book dining and shows, and I'll be really annoyed if people who aren't supposed to show up until later are let on at the same time. 3) If I get on the ship early, can I get off to meet my daughter whose arriving later than me? I have her passport, but would rather not wait for her to arrive to check-in (see #2 above).

The only thing showing up in my cruise planner for next July 2023 Spectrum sailing is Internet (Surf + Stream is $18.99/day) and a Soda + Voom package (also $18.98/day), 3-night dining ($112.99/person which is the same as always), unlimited dining ($315.99/person, same as before). My $100 on board credit has disappeared.

Same

Even though the posts are old on the port of call board, the info is generally still relevant. People's recommendations for favorite beaches, tour companies and sightseeing stops don't change much. Check out the Aruba Trikes tour, it's a 3-wheeled motorcycle you ride around the island with a tour group. It's a good way to see the island. Very popular, and they only have about a dozen trikes so it sells out. There's also lots of debate about Palm Beach vs Eagle Beach in Aruba. If you read a bunch of the different threads about it, you should be able to figure out which one you'll like better based on what resonates with you (I much prefer Palm Beach. The areas at the Hilton and Riu hotels are nicest). The sand is soft and clean, the water is warm and calm and you can easily float in it all day long (Eagle has rougher water but is a quieter Beach if you prefer to hang out in a lounger and don't care about getting in the water). A lot of people rave about Mambo Beach in Curaçao. I thought it sucked. It's man made. It often has jellyfish warnings, and is basically just a crowded outdoor shopping center with water and lounge chairs. The moving bridge near the port is iconic, and there's pretty and colorful Dutch houses along the shoreline that make for pretty pictures. And you can buy big wheels of Gouda there. Other than that, I didn't think curaçao was that great, but maybe if you do a tour or go to a nicer beach it would be better. Haven't made it to Bonaire. I hear it's got the best snorkeling and scuba diving.

You can also bring two 750mL bottles of wine onto the ship with you per stateroom.

She didn't ask about going to Canada, she asked about going to Alaska, so that's what I replied to. My answer was correct for the way she asked her question.