Dan83

stowaway piano is very good

Kids found a “duck”. This is a good find.

Weather was the reason. There was rain and some pool sloshing. Rescheduled for night 4. We may have to use our cruise superpowers and sneak into another showing.

Where is Daryl? I’ve been searching this ship high and low. No sightings to report.

we made it through about 3 minutes of Hiro before they stopped the show and canceled. Seeing this show at least once is a bucket list item for this cruise. It hasn’t happened yet but we won’t stop trying.

So my 9 year old. She picks up the chopsticks and uses them for the entire meal at hibachi. No practice. She’s just a natural. She did this for the first time last year when she was 8. Even the rice. She eats rice with chopsticks while her drunken dad is using a spoon.

I always like to bring a bottle of wine to Hibachi. The problem is my wife doesn’t drink wine. So I take it upon myself to drink the entire bottle myself. Apparently, I embarrassed my family tonight. Usually it is the other way around. At least I didn’t drunk email my travel agent. I know it’s weird but I’ve done it the last two cruises. He even responds to drunk emails in like 90 seconds. That’s how awesome he is. Must be a Canada thing.

We had hibachi tonight. This was the last of my January 2023 cruise planner pricing mistake. Hibachi dinner for lunch prices. This dinner did not disappoint.

I’ve been looking for Daryl. I’ll let you know when I spot him.

lol , we were in the hot tub other side all afternoon. Just missed you.

This was the first time flying in to PBI for a Port Everglades cruise. It went very smoothly and I won’t hesitate to do it again in the future. Overnighted at a Boynton Beach hotel. I saved enough on a one way ticket alone to more than compensate for the $80 Uber cost. Round trip for a family of 4 equals huge savings over FLL.

Yes they do. Onboard at 11:30. Went straight to the hot tub and burned through all 4 Diamond drinks by 2 pm. The doctor did say to keep drinking liquids.

I just wanted to share some of our excitement about tomorrow’s cruise. I’ve had a bad round of kidney stones these past few weeks that has threatened to put this trip in jeopardy. The doctor went in and got the stone Tuesday. And this morning I had the stent removed. Three hours later we boarded our flight to West Palm Beach. I’m not going to let a little 5mm chunk of calcium get in the way of this vacation. To say the last few days have been uncomfortable is a bit of an understatement. But when we board the Symphony in 12 hours, all will be forgotten.

We plan to be on this cruise. Flying to PBI on Friday afternoon. With your permission, I’ll add some photos if I see something noteworthy.

Thank you for posting this. It is helpful to read about a very close call. I’m glad you made it. I always plan port days on our own because I don’t like larger tour groups. I also enjoy the freedom to use our time how we want. However that does carry a risk like you just described. I always try to have a backup plan and also I’m thinking about what resources are available if we get in a bind. If we cruise long enough there will eventually be a time when a flat tire or blocked road will get the best of us.

I agree with OP. Some notification in advance is more respectful. It’s not a big enough deal that I would fuss though. If I get woke up from a nap I might fuss. But not if they do it while I’m gone.

We were on the Odyssey TA as well. As a family with young kids we didn’t fit into the main demographic of this particular sailing. For the first week, I felt like we were on a half empty ship. But it was port days for the first 4 days in a row. And we were doing lots of the kids and family activities. I felt way more crowded in Cinque Terre than I did on the ship. Even the windjammer at peak times you could easily find a table. I’ve been able to navigate the crowds on a ship fairly well on previous Royal sailings. But half of the ship was diamond or above. Everyone was using the same tricks and they just didn’t work. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a pinnacle name tag. I gave up on solarium bistro the first day. I’m not lining up 15 minutes prior to opening for that breakfast. Lines to get in the theater started at least a full hour before showtime. We can easily deal with all that. I adjusted my strategies accordingly, and we continued to have a good time. I’m the type that absolutely hates being in crowds. Really I shouldn’t even like cruising because of this but I still do. Towards the end of the cruise I really started feeling the pinch. And the day of the Bermuda stop was the day I was ready to be off that ship. The one thing that really gets me is not being able to find a place to sit at the windjammer. Up until that day, we could walk in at peak hours grab a plate and have a seat. Now we have to spilt up to go table hunting. And take turns getting up to get a plate for us and the kids. Many other venues seemed more crowded those last few days as well. Surprisingly there were many more families with kids. There were just enough that my kids easily made friends but adventure ocean never came anywhere near capacity. On a typical 7 night Caribbean, getting the kids into the evening session means lining up 20 minutes prior to opening. We still have next year’s Odyssey TA booked so it wasn’t all that bad. However, I won’t book a 7 day holiday sailing on Odyssey. I feel like Oasis class handles crowds for that demographic much better.

We were also on the Odyssey TA. I found your 10 pounds. I should have turned them into guest services but I decided to take them home. I was just going to post here on cruise critic and offer to mail them to the rightful owner. In all seriousness though. We had a good time and opted to switch next Fall’s Oasis TA to the Odyssey TA. I still like the Oasis class ships a little better but the Odyssey is a nice ship. I don’t think it disperses the crowds as well as an Oasis ship does. I don’t think I would sail Odyssey on a holiday sailing at max capacity.

I did this once for my kids and don’t recommend it. There will just be a credit on their seapass and it’s difficult to know the balance. You can have guest services set it up to have the seapass stop working when out of credit but again, it’s a pain to check the balance. Then there’s the issue of machines not working. But not coincidentally, the card readers on the machines will still work and the kids will swipe it five times or more trying to make it work and each time the balance is ticking down. $100 in credit per kid will be gone very very fast leaving the kids unsatisfied and the parents frustrated. Royal provides many opportunities for people to waste money, but the arcade in my opinion is the most egregious.

Transatlantic cruise planner is offering a 10 night dining package. Is it possible to use an extra dining credit for a guest each night, essentially making a 5 night package for two?

Yes it’s doable. I have booked 11:45 flights out of PBI for a Fort Lauderdale cruise in December. From Miami it will be more expensive and more risk. You will need to make the calculations judgment call for yourself. Have a plan and a backup plan. The savings of flying from PBI can be significant. Especially if you’re buying tickets for a family of four or five. Even with an Expensive Uber to the airport you may come out well ahead. One thing that gripes me about this board is that people love to tell others how to spend their money. “Just pay the extra and fly from Miami” is easy advice to give when you’re traveling solo and not buying tickets for an entire family. Just do your research and make your decision based on your own comfort level. Just food for thought about missing flights. In a worst case scenario, the ship is late or any other reason beyond your control, you miss the flight. Depending on the airline, most of the legacy carriers will give you flat tire standby. Depending on circumstances this may be a non event or it could be a nightmare. Your confirmed ticket just became a standby ticket. Flying standby sucks these days with flight loads being so high. But it’s not the end of the world. I fly standby all the time. The flat tire standbys get a higher priority than any non revenue standby and they usually get on the next flight or in most cases will get a flight out later the same day. And if you’re cutting it close that’s an important thing to research. How many later flights that same day would get you home? If there are several more then your chances of getting on one with flat tire standby are very good. And that’s if you miss your planned flight which is unlikely if you’ve planned ahead. Now take my advice with a grain of salt. I travel domestically quite a bit and I’ll take some chances. I once made an 8:35 flight from Houston Hobby after disembarking Adventure of the Seas in Galveston. Now that one was close.

Unless you have a good TA, all you will get is more guesses.

I’ve read enough about them on this forum to know that they are a hassle. I’d never buy one but my wife received a gift certificate from her coworkers. I submitted the online form to be redeemed as onboard credit on an upcoming cruise. There’s no email confirmation sent and after a week it doesn’t show up in the cruise planner. I’m thinking that it may show up onboard like a travel agents OBC would show up on the second day. I resubmitted the form after a week and it says already redeemed. So I know they’ve processed it. Anyone with recent experience on this? Side note: I submitted shareholders benefits form at the same time and OBC showed up in cruise planner about 3 days later.

If the cabin number is only visible with the barcode trick, can it be changed to another same category cabin?