Dan83

Silly question, for the OP or anyone who has sailed Harmony recently since we started daylight savings time. Do you recall the local port times in Roatan? Itinerary lists 8-5 but since Roatan is behind ship’s time, I suspect that the local time in port is 7-4. I’ve sailed the western Caribbean route out of Galveston several times and I’ve seen the time differences in port handled different ways. 

Now that song will be stuck in my head all day, lol

16 minutes ago, MiniChunks said:

I really don't understand how anyone has sympathy for people missing the boat. When you step foot off the ship, and don't take an excursion with Royal, you're putting your fate in your own hands. If I leave the ship on my own, I plan to get back at least 2hrs before all aboard. That gives ample time for unforeseen issues, and if I don't make it back on time, I would expect to see the ship leaving without me. Royal can't sit around and wait forever for people who can't manage a clock. 

No one is advocating that the ship wait on those that are late for whatever reason. It can’t. I’m just saying have a heart. Ship happens. 

17 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

In the end it's their fault, no matter the reason. They took a non-RC excursion and knew the risks.

I can’t go along with this either. The cruise lines sell so so many overpriced and over crowded excursions based on this scare tactic. Although rare, there have been reports of cruise sponsored excursions missing the ship. At some point due to operational necessity or even cost considerations, they will absolutely leave an excursion group behind. Yes the cruise line will pick up the tab for transportation, and if lucky may even provide a small amount of compensation. But someone’s vacation will no doubt be ruined. There’s always some risk to everything we do. And I certainly don’t blame anyone for not taking the “safest” option. But if I limited myself to only cruise line excursions then I wouldn’t be cruising at all.

Tough crowd. I feel bad when someone misses the ship whether it was their fault or not. You don’t know their story. They could have had something beyond their control or they could have been drinking at the bar two blocks away. Either way if there’s kids involved it wasn’t their fault. 

My mom had to make a cancellation claim with royal’s insurance about a year ago. It was processed and paid quickly. Paid within a couple weeks if I remember correctly. As with any insurance, dot your i’s and cross your t's when filling the forms. 

Drop off and pickup at adventure ocean is always such a headache. If the genie can fix that then we will be hooked on star class. That and embarkation/debarkation. Those are the pain points for us. Reserved seating for shows is ok but sometimes we prefer to sit in the cheap seats. 

First time star class suite booked for June. 2BR aqua suite on Harmony.   Since we cruise or travel about 5-6 times per year, I won’t be splurging on a star class suite very often. So I need to make this one count and get the most out of it. I’ve read quite a bit here on CC, and I’ve seen the “blog” video for star class suite tips. Does anyone care to share some unique or uncommon perks you have received while staying in a star class suite? We are traveling with 3 generations: kids, parents, and grandparents. All six of us packed into the aqua suite. 
 

I do have a couple silly questions. 1. I’ve read that to assure favorable times for hibachi, you should book that in the cruise planner and then hope to have it refunded onboard. Is that still a thing? I’m assuming the same up charge for hibachi and chef’s table as the ultimate dining package? 2.  How do you communicate with the genie? Do they just come around every so often or do you call them when you need something like a reservation? 

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The deposit is per person not per cabin so on a 7 day cruisevthe deposit fir 6 will be $1500 or 10% of the cruise fare whichever is higher. 

 

The cancellation policy is different for guests 3 through 6 and generally penalties do not apply until the 100% stage.

 

All passengers over the first 2 guests will pay the same rate. 

Thanks! I’ll send an email to the world’s best TA 😉 next week to get those 2 extra guests added to the reservation. 

I have my family of 4 booked in a 2 BR aqua theater suite. This cabin has a max capacity of 8. It looks like we will be taking 2 more with us for a total of 6. This is for a June sailing.  A few questions. 

1. Will this require an additional deposit and if so, due to capacity limits, would it be too risky to wait until final payment? 

2. Is the cancellation penalty schedule the same for passengers 5 and 6? 

3. I understand that the pricing for passengers 5-6 will be the same as 3 and 4. Is that still correct? If that’s the case then it’s actually cheaper to put these 2 in a star class suite with us than it would be to book another inside cabin. 

On our recent Symphony cruise, I submitted an online form 2 days in advance. I requested our connecting door to be unlocked and for the bed to be separated in the kids room. Both requests were already done when we got to the cabin. I also got a gallon of distilled water and extension cord that I didn’t request. The link to this form was in an email from Royal two days before departure. 

For a closed loop Caribbean cruise, one that accepts a birth certificate and photo ID, an unexpired passport will do just fine. As long as it doesn’t expire before date of return. If it were something like a transatlantic or repositioning cruise, or one that visits certain countries, and a valid passport is required documentation, then Royal is more likely to be sticklers on the 6 month validity rule. I found myself in this position for a recent transatlantic cruise. I had 3 months validity left. And even though I was legal to travel to all the countries on the itinerary with 3 months validity, I didn’t want to chance it with  Royal’s 6 month requirement. So I had to rush a passport renewal before traveling. 

Off the ship at 7:05. Almost to PBI in a pre scheduled Uber. Debarkation went smooth early on. But there were some pileups building. I think it will be a mess later. Lots of families that have never cruised before. There were a ton of people trying to get off early that put luggage out last night. I could tell that the crew were already getting frustrated. 

Adding some pics from Nassau. It was a lazy day. I overdid a few things this week and we all needed an easy day. First we walked to the end of Junkanoo beach.

Stayed only about 2 hours and then we started back. Had to stop for a coconut. 

And thanks for the suggestion of the pirate museum. The kids liked it a lot. 

Back to the ship for some pool and water slides. 
 

And since the timing worked out, we saw another showing of Flight after dinner.  Great show. 

This lifeguard saved a life this afternoon. He pulled out a kid that was struggling and went under. Happened very fast. Very smooth operation, almost like they’ve practiced for it, lol. Two other lifeguards came to assist. The supervisor came over to give him a fist bump and let him go change into dry clothes. And he was back at work in just a few minutes. 

Nice rainbow over Nassau this afternoon 

1 hour ago, udamom said:

Did you have trouble with the car or driving in the area? Thinking of renting a car

My wife left one shoe in the parking lot, so we went back to get it. That ate up all my extra time buffer to get back to the ship.  I do recommend the car rental for Curaçao. It was a blast. 

Very nice yacht parked next door 

I see the elves. I see no Daryl. Elf it I’m done. No more searching for Daryl. 

things are getting out of hand 

Alright. I’ve been tipping these guys $2 per Diamond drink. Now they wanna charge my wife’s adult Diamond drink when my daughter scans her minor card for a virgin daiquiri.   I’m done. They get zero from here on out. I’m not standing in line at guest services to fix this. 

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Keeping a good pace

 

Mudslide and kraken colada 

 

 

a couple hurricanes 

 

Portside hot tubs. 

1 minute ago, h20skibum said:

Great job on the weight loss.  I thought I did good with a 34 pound loss. I know I have put on a couple this cruise. 

For a one week cruise, I gain about 12 pounds. Most is water weight that I retain from eating carbs. It takes about 2 weeks to get back to pre-cruise weight. That’s just resuming the normal low carb lifestyle, I don’t try to lose the vacation weight quickly. It’s about long term. 

So 4 vouchers burned on Kentucky summers. I’ve started on the 6 pack of truly that we got with the cooler bag purchase. No Daryl sightings but I sent out a search party.