clover18

Anyone know if royal has the ability to let you still see your pictures from the photo store and buy them after the fact?

Word to the wise: Aquaventure is a lot of fun. If you can get a day pass through the paradise island website, you should do that and take a taxi to get there. If you book an excursion through Royal Caribbean, you will be subjected to standing in an extremely long line at the pier, you will be loaded into a very small van, group by group as they become available. Then driven to Atlantis/Paradise Island. Discharged from your van, and then stand in another very long line to get into the resort. When we went through Royal, it took us a full hour and a half to get from the pier to the Aquaventure entrance. A second piece of advice, for those who might want to go back to the ship early, is to bring cash. And lots of it. The taxi drivers on paradise island, and in downtown Nassau do not take credit cards. We made the stupid mistake of going out without cash. We were horrified when the taxi driver brought us back from Atlantis to downtown Nassau so that we could return to the ship and he told us our fare. We handed him a credit card and he said “I don’t take credit cards. You need to give me cash.” We had no way of getting cash with our AMEX card, so we had to stand on the street and beg people for cash. Fortunately, someone from the ship was walking down the street with their family members, and recognized us from the ship. They loaned us $40 so that we could pay the taxi driver. It was the most unreal situation we’ve ever been in in our lives.

From experience: we were on Odyssey in December 2021 and did a scheduled stop at coco cay. Then after that all our shore excursions were cancelled due to an Covid outbreak among the crew. so they took us back to coco cay on the last day. The only other country that would let us dock was the Dominican- which was not on the original itinerary. Otherwise I don’t know of any itinerary that includes two stops at Coco Cay.

We arrived on Explorer yesterday. Chose this sailing because our daughter (16) is a folllower of Jordan Bauth. The ice skater. It’s all she can talk about from instagram and you tube. This morning Jordan posted on her story that she left the ship yesterday even though her contract was through March. Yeah yeah it’s just a disappointed teenager “she’ll get over it.” But when we researched all the cruises over this two-week time frame we ultimately chose THIS one so we could see and meet Jordan!” So bummed because we could have picked any other number of ships that are a lot nicer than Explorer. C’est La Vie, right?

Oh wow that’s really interesting. When did they let you know about that change? It really makes no difference to us, but we just would be grateful to know if they are going to change our itinerary which is 12/15 to 12/24 on explorer out of Miami. Thanks so much! Hope you have a great trip.🤓

Who has the best information available for the forecasted high seas and possible severe weather updates for this weekend’s sailings out of south or central Florida? Lots of handwringing going on by folks on the page not to be named. Thanks!

My 16 was allowed in the solarium on Adventure last spring. Next week she won’t be allowed in on Explorer. She’s disappointed but we get the reasons. There were several 16-17 y/o on Adventure last spring who were over the top obnoxious, loud & disruptive.

We both had to delete the app and re-install it.

Keep in mind that one side of the shady areas near the pool in this picture is the smoking section. I believe it's on starboard, but I can never remember. So if you want to sit in the shade by the pool, and you don't want to sit in the smoking section, you want to get there early on sea days to get a good chair. Bring a book and plan on relaxing!

I would get up there around 7:25 I believe and there were already two or three people waiting. YMMV.

We booked Casitas a couple days on Harmony and Odyssey. On your first day, walk around up there on that upper deck where they are located, and on the pool deck where there are a few more, and figure out which one you like the best. Take note of its number. Then first thing in the morning of your reservation (around 7:30) you will go up to the bar on the deck above the pool deck, and wait for the guy to come out. The first person in line at the bar gets first choice of Casitas. Then they will put your name on it. Only people who have reserved in advance for casitas show up there, but it’s still a bit of a psych out. People were getting there earlier and earlier each day to be first because some people only wanted the one next to the pool and some people only wanted one on one side of the ship or the other. It got to be really stressful if you ask me. You also have to think about possibly ending up on the smoking side. There is definitely smoke wafting into the pool area on one side where they allow it. Maybe people who have genies don’t have to go through that process but everyone else does. Good luck!

The pool at coco Cay is freezing! We were there last in December and the air was warm but the water…my gosh!!! Brrr. Plus pretty crowded and the music is quite loud.

Thanks to all the responses. Totally agree about waiting for the shuttles to fill up. That is a pain. We will probably just Uber over there as our flight lands at 9:15. I don’t feel like hanging around the airport. Thank you.

If you don’t use the air to sea program for your flight reservations, can you still reserve a port shuttle through RC? Or should we just Uber? Flying into MIA. Thanks.

Explorer has a great ice show that plays 4x a week on 7 day cruises. Maybe an extra one on longer? There are comedians and sometimes singing groups but no big shows. There are musicians in the lounges every night.

You also have to spend $1000 or more with the card in the first 90 days before you can get the 25,000 points. That equates to $250 credit. So if you want or need another credit card it might be worth it.

Solarium pool is nice. Not that crowded. And even though it’s for 16+ we didn’t see a lot of teenagers in there. Caveat is the pool is cold! There are two hot tubs on either side of the pool to warm up.

You can always leave the bathroom light on and just crack the door wide enough for the light to come through.

With the very limited number of star class suites available, it’s very unlikely you’ll get upgraded from a crown loft to one of the three or four star class suites available on the ships. Those book out way in advance. I guess it could happen if someone were to cancel, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

If you book this, be prepared for an UNGODLY long line at the pier waiting for the vans to pick up those who are going to Atlantis. It is a major PIA to get there and the vans hold 8-10 people each. When we went last November, we waited in line over an hour to get the van, and then waited in another line at the entrance to Atlantis. We decided to leave early to go back to the ship, so we took a cab. PRO TIP: The cabs do not accept credit cards and we had no cash on us...so that was another fun experience. Hubs had to run back to the ship while my daughter and I waited on the street in Nassau with the cab driver who was furious with us....It was totally dumb of us to not have brought cash with us, but Atlantis is cashless and so we thought we wouldn't need it. $40 from Atlantis to Downtown Nassau. The waterpark is actually a lot of fun. The lazy river is one of the best we've ever enjoyed - and the park was not too crowded once you got inside.

Thanks for all the replies. Taking an Uber to hobby from port and sticking with our 11:00 flight.

We are just exploring. Our 11 o’clock is already booked, and we don’t want to stress out. Our daughter has an event at school that she would love to make it to, but it’s not really that important. If we could walk off at 6:30 we would probably be fine but 730 would be pushing it.

What time is realistic to walk off the ship with our bags in Galveston? We are thinking of catching a 930 flight from Hobby. Currently we are on 11 o’clock but hoping to get the 930. Thoughts? Thanks.

This looks amazing!!

Hadn’t thought of that!