CruiserLucas

I've been cruising since I was your age, 25, and tried to attend the meetups the first few times. The problem we had was that there were no people at the meetups or there was no central organization to ensure people who came knew what was going on. We still could pick out other individuals or couples at other times on the ships, but never made friends with anyone, though we'd like to. Now that I'm "old" in gay years it feels like, since I'll be 31 on our next cruise, maybe it will be like the movie They Live, and when I go to the meetups - I'll be able to see all the gays. 😜 Good luck on your cruise and have fun!!!

Sign and Sail Card only for the whole room - machines and detergent dispenser.

We stayed at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront in February. It was nice and is near the port. Not directly across level of near, but 10-15 minutes down the road.

Whether on a cruise or not I've been throughout Europe, Russia, America, the Caribbean, and Australia. And while I've been more mindful in certain locations or situations of not drawing overt attention to the fact that I'm gay, it hasn't stopped me from visiting or having fun. On a cruise, you're likely to be or have the easy choice to be in safer tourist areas of even the more anti-LGBTQ destinations. Since gay dollars have the same value as straight dollars, the tourist places are happy to take them and give you an enjoyable visit so you either come back or tell your friends so they get more money.

This is what I do at home and wondered if it would be blue cheese stuffed olives. me: clicks on recipe link No, no it wasn't... 🤢

Of cruises I've been on, I'd never say they were what made the cruise good or bad, but like any one you interact with, you form an opinion of who you like or dislike. I've only had 1 CD I thought was fun, funny, and really good at the people managing aspect of his job. Dec 2018 on Dream - first name was Alex, I think. Can't remember his last name. Otherwise, I've just had ok CD's to one that seemed nice but it felt like he tried way too hard to be funny. It appeals to some, but it didn't appeal to me. C'est la vie. Still didn't ruin my cruise, so I can't even say that a great CD like Alex is what makes the cruise either. There were still problems on that cruise, none of which were his fault or things he could personally fix.

My suggestion, since they're older and might not like the decorations you picked you said, is just ask them to decorate the door, and you provide one to add on to the door. Yours could a family group photo or something recognizing your daughter's birthday during the cruise. But then they get to collaborate and "own" the majority of the door. Might make the son feel more included. Personally, I don't think it's like "everybody needs a trophy." He might honestly just feel a bit unseen if the whole family is pushing to do something fun for his sibling's birthday. You're going on a big trip and it's her birthday, and she gets decorations. Just let them do the decorations together and I think he'd be happier, because it's less you forcing him to have fun and celebrate something for her and not him.

Good question! I don't remember really, unfortunately. I think so, BUT it was VERY windy that day, so that may have muffled it. We also spent most of our time in the water, so we were farther away from the loungers area, other than walking to get food and drinks and to/from the ship - so I didn't pay attention out of the water.

I've never seen less than $25/24 hour period on each of the cruises I've been on. We've also bought day passes for my partner to check school items like you're planning, but he hasn't used Zoom on it before. It was reliable and fast enough for simple tasks, but we still had random connectivity issues at times. That was in our cabin. Maybe the card room/computer room or something would be empty for you to use and have a better signal if you plan to Zoom?

No deal breakers for me that I can think of. Not even interior or balcony issue. I've had 2 interior cabins and 3 balcony cabins. The balcony was nice, but I realized it wasn't a necessity to me. And maybe I'm weird, but I love the absolute pitch black room for sleeping that you get with an interior. Our next cruise we booked is a guarantee interior, which really doesn't bother me. I can sleep through most anything if we get a "crummy location" lol

We haven't in the past, but I'm considering it for the next cruise in December. Going to put my artist SO to the task. Make him practice what he's been learning in classes. 😜

I have two I'd say 1. My first cruise in 2017 on Carnival Conquest. A present to myself for finishing my master's program. I always wanted to cruise through college and when I started working, but that single supplement on lines and not finding a solo cabin on any NCL itineraries I checked was quite the barrier so I waited until the time was right. Went with my then new BF now long-term SO, who had been on a cruise with his family before as a teen. It was awesome and amazing and I was hooked on cruising since! 2. My last cruise, #5 overall. It was our first time on RCCL on Harmony. Our first time trying a new line after all Carnival previously, and we were blown away by the difference and step above Carnival in every way. It was a gift to ourselves after 2 years of no vacations through COVID and having sold our house when we moved, and I'm so glad we took the trip. My partner had just started back to college, too, which is hard enough as an older adult, so we used the college's spring break week to relax. And even though we were nervous that it would be more rowdy during spring break, it was not at all. I also got to check off one of my bucket list items of going to Maho Beach and seeing the plane landings and blast of a jet taking off. Sorry, I'm an avgeek, so I was like a kid in a candy shop lol This just reminds me of a conversation the other day when my partner said, "They're a naturist" and I corrected him to it's a "naturalist" in the context he meant. I'm sure it would have been a really memorable cruise with a naturist onboard who told you what to watch for! 🤣

The one time I’ve done that it was not on purpose. Just a bad port experience. Our Uber dropped us off at the New Orleans port for our cruise on Dream in 2018, and as we were getting our bearings, a very cranky and loud terminal worker just yelled at everyone to stop standing around out front and made us go inside. We didn’t have a chance to drop our luggage off with the porters.

I’m mistaken, it’s the loungers by Breezy Bay at Chill Island, not CocoBeach Club. The rest still stands. Free loungers, there’s a snack shack. Short walk to the grill for more food. 🙂

I didn’t say go to the club itself, though it reads close to that. On the map, though, it’s the closest thing to the free beach next to it. The beach by there is free and the loungers are free. The snack shack is right there. That might be why you walk to it. 🤦🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

We went to the loungers at CocoBeach Club - they're free and there were a lot. The beach was nice, it's in front of a bar & snack shack, not a far walk to the grill, and there's lots of fish in the water if you snorkel.

And if you left the ship without getting it refunded back in cash and it's over $10, they'll send you a check in the mail. That's what they did to me when I forgot to get my overage refunded onboard. Not sure why they don't just auto refund it to the card on file, though. Royal Caribbean refunded back to my payment card the same day when they cancelled one of our excursions. Anyways, hope you get your refund!

We did the Horizon cruise last August and loved it. I think La Romana and Amber Cove are better than Princess Cays and Grand Turk. For either itinerary you’ll get Aruba at least - which is nice. It’s really a toss up between Bonaire or Curaçao for ports in my opinion. Ours was supposed to go to Bonaire but due to COVID it was replaced with Curaçao, which was fantastic. But I can’t compare it to Bonaire since I haven’t been yet. Shipwise, I like Horizon. We had a bad experience on Dream, so hopefully her sister ship Magic is better if you choose it. 🙂 have fun on either one you choose!!!

We’ve been getting $0/person offers, which have now changed to pay a low rate and get it back in OBC, but none of the itineraries interest us or they’re not days we can get off work. I wanted to book the $4/person Australia offer I had for Christmas time with $300 OBC. Yes - even after port fees and taxes Carnival would be paying us to take the cruise (well if you count OBC as money to you since it’s in their own system)! But flights for Australia are prohibitively expensive and way outside our budget for now, so just couldn’t do it. 😞

Wow, that sucks. 😞 Have they offered you any OBC or other compensation at least for not informing you sooner? I also wouldn't put much blame on your TA - Royal has said it's their own fault, not someone else's. I'm not privy to how the system works, so throwing out a wild idea - someway to put you priority to an upgrade on an unsold/not bid upon suite? I can understand actually a desire to not want to have two separate rooms - my partner would also be against us being split in two rooms, yes even as "near" as two adjoining cabins... Wouldn't they have an easier time and make more money selling the two lower priced cabins back on the market to two other families/couples, and the extra revenue in other stuff they buy, than trying to find a right-price buyer/bidder to the suite while occupying two cabins with one family?

Harmony had a corner devoted to video poker when I was on late-Feb/early-March. About 5 or 6 machines I think.

Yeah, there are some crazy good deals still out there. I'm surprised how much ours has dropped on certain dates, so I'm waiting for another drop on our specific date so I can call again. It will have gone down by almost $300/person from when I booked based on what they have for the sailing after ours. I've noticed their pattern is to have that sailing price out for a few days to a week before it shows up on our date. Fingers crossed for another drop! 🙂 I think like you said it seems to be cabin and sailing specific - balcony and suite prices on our sailing haven't dropped quite as much as our interior. This will be a long December holiday cruise, so I suspect they're not getting enough families and guests as they choose shorter big-ship cruises around the holidays.

I'm glad you had a great time here! Marquette is definitely a very nice small city. I've only lived here about 1.5 years, so I have much to explore and see in the city myself. Yes! I saw you (the ship) in our local news. Ahh, the excitement in small town media. 🙂 But it is nice to see the return of Great Lakes cruises and coverage at the ports.

I'd call again. Both times I've now called after seeing the price drop they happily changed it, no questions asked by the agent. This may help, too, because I wanted it to be clear to the agent when I called what I was asking, I said, "I have a reservation and I saw the price online is now lower and I'd like to take advantage of the Best Price Guarantee." I'm not saying it was in your case but maybe your phrasing to the agents wasn't clear when you asked so they got confused? I just have my ship's sailings page bookmarked on my phone browser. When I open that page it automatically displays the lowest price date and you can click to see all dates' prices.