Mikamarii

People like to tell themselves they tip based on service but a quick google search of studies shows that in tipping, service can have very little to do with it. Go over to the Australian boards and pose the question of how much you should tip while there. The whole notion of tipping is absurd. Including it in the fare wont change a thing. Book any ‘all inclusive’ in Mexico and each one will say “gratuities included’.

We got the dbp on our 19 night transpacific cruise back in October. Got it for a steal at 55 Cdn (think is was about 40 US at the time). This was the first time we got a drink package. Every day we'd each grab a couple bottles of water in the morning after breakfast. We'd each have a fresh squeezed juice sometime in the morning (who knew combining orange and carrot juice could be so good!). An ice coffee somewhere throughout the day (maybe 2) an alcoholic drink or two between lunch and dinner. 1 or 2 drinks at dinner and maybe 1 or 2 in the evening during a show or hanging around. We'd grab a couple powerades and water before heading out at the port for the day. We also gave the freestyle cups to our two kids as we never used them. Some days we'd have more and some we'd have less. On the low end it was about 60usd a day we drank. People will say they drink extra because they have to feel they got their money's worth. We never felt that way; rather, we drank more than normal because we could, not because we felt we had to. (Why not have that second ice cold beer by the pool?!) The one main reason I'll likely never get a drink package again is simply all the sugar/calories we consumed over a short period of time.

We watched Pixels a few times when we were on Ovation last fall. Kids loved it so they wanted to watch it again. Was curious about Spectras so pulled up a you tube video and it looks exactly the same as Pixels.

According to this statement no. This is from the cbp website. The CBP interview can occur only after the CBSA portion of the interview has been completed and the information has been shared with CBP. We applied for nexus in 2020 and have been waiting as well to get interviews done. It's been frustrating. There aren't many direct flights to the USA from our airport so trying to work it in to our next trip has been difficult as we are gambling that our layover will be long enough for us to compete it and they'll actually be available to conduct it during that window we have. We decided to just book an appt and take an 8hr road trip this summer down to the border and do it at a land border crossing.

I'm not sure if I'm answering a question you didn't ask but, if doing the airport route, you don't need to do both interviews on the same day. You can do your Canadian interview anytime and then the US interview when you are actually flying to the states. It doesn't alleviate the fact that you need to be flying to the states to complete the process. To schedule step 1 of your interview: visit the Trusted Traveller Programs scheduler select an open Canadian airport enrolment centre select the date and time To schedule the step 2 of your interview: before your flight to the U.S., arrive early at a U.S. preclearance location (does not have to be same day as your Canadian interview) indicate to an officer that you want to complete your NEXUS interview

Vodka paralyzer Vodka and kahlua mixed with coke and milk. Just make sure the coke goes in first then the milk. I’ve been surprised how many bartenders have never heard of these!

Norway has always been my number 1 bucket list country. We had a trip planned in 2021 but something happened....can't quite remember what...but everyone had to cancel all their travel plans. We're are doing a 2025 trip as well and have my TA already putting us on a list to book rooms the day they are released. Looking at 2024 prices now compared to last Oct/Nov they have jumped quite a bit. I want to do a land trip to Norway but being able to visit the northern tip feels like a must do and with kids in tow, cruising is the best/easiest way

eeek Americans and health care premiums. Now I'll admit socialized medicine isn't the be all/end all but both wife and I have travel plans through work. Amongst all our other benefits included she gets 5 million per person/per incident and pays $13/cheque for the entire benefit package for our family. Mine isn't as great as I pay $40/cheque and only get 2 million per person/per incident in travel benefits. Ok sorry about going off topic.

not when converted to Cdn 🤪🤪

Haha they've never been on a cruise. That's the one thing we couldn't get them to do. They would come to Disney with us, or Hawaii, or just road trips to the mountains.

My wife and I got certified a couple years ago. We did a transpacific cruise last year and there wasn't a single scuba excursion offered. We had to go 3rd party. I asked while on board and was told they can only offer scuba excursions if a master diver is on board which likely will only be on larger, caribbean orientated ships. Buy not a guarantee. We have a back to back to back out of Ft Lauderdale this December. There are scuba excursions but no courses offered. It's either excursions for fully certified divers or intro to scuba.

These discussions always make me laugh. I get the same at work. I make decent money but nothing crazy. My wife works part time so we could raise our kids. Other than our mortgage we have 0 debt. We have a retirement plan in place. We go on at least 1 big family vacation a year. We finished one last year that we probably could have paid cash for a loaded suv. Family vacation is where we prioritize our money. Every year I had to convince my parents, I don't want your inheritance I'd rather you come on this trip with us...and they did. That was better than any cash they could ever leave behind. I dont need nor want their money. Everytime we go on a trip someone at work "you're going away again? Must be nice" as they walk out with their 500$ jeans to their 90k truck towing their 60k trailer from their 850k home to their 500k cabin on the lake. We dont have any of that. We're happy with our choices. Just this month 4 young healthy co workers have departed this world. All that saved money doesn't mean much.

Our OBC just posted. We have a b2b with 2 rooms each cruise. We booked 3 packages total and got 50$ American per package so 150$ total.

I found it interesting they referenced what “all the social media posts” stated. There is something very odd about this whole situation. I booked 2 packages for one cruise and one for another. So far only got one email. Wonder if it’s $50 per booking or what. Not that I expect more….just curious.

I cannot speak to any of the technical aspects of how wifi works in general let alone ship to ship. We did a Transpacific cruise on Ovation last October and had the surf and stream. From my state room balcony in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between HAwaii and Tahiti and again between Tahiti and New Zealand I was able to easily stream live hockey games from my balcony. No delay, no cutting out. Ovation had a cap of 3000k people (due to new cruise passenger laws in French Polynesia) and don’t think it reached that so the ship was around 1/2 capacity and I’m sure not everyone purchased a wifi package. I’ve heard lots of reports about horrible wifi on cruise ships. Likely from full capacity ships sailing in congested Caribbean waters. I can only conclude that the internet is generally good on cruise ships but its limits are based on how many users and how it is being used. I’d assume (especially since covid) more and more people are taking week long cruises in the carribean as workations, video calls and such, completely taxing the system. My opinion only with absolutely no formal knowledge to back it up.

I love when people use tired cliches to try and sound smart or superior to the ‘common person’. Like the ‘if it’s too good to be true….’ Or “I have a bridge to sell you” We aren’t talking gold watches out of the trunk of a car here. This is a multi-billion dollar company with an established product and infrastructure. So if they advertise something something for a certain dollar value I can reasonably expect it to be true. This was advertised as a tailored product towards Royal’s brand so the “it was for another cruise line that mistakingly made it to our website doesn’t really fly. It was meant to be introduced at some point to Royal. I snagged the DBP for 59 CDN a night on our 19 night cruise last October. That was “too good to be true” but I enjoyed sipping every one of those “real” cocktails. People have posted and reported conversations with RC employees saying the package is legit. But one screenshot of a text conversation shows up saying it’s not and all of a sudden that is the only one that is believed? All the others are to be ignored? I still have the charges owning on CC and it is still fully showing as booked with product details in my CP. I have received no word from Royal what is happening and it has been a few days this has gone on. At this time, it is reasonable to believe that this is real until Royal official releases something. And yes, people have every right to be upset if this gets cancelled. Ok go ahead and tell me is “apples to oranges” “it isn’t the same thing”, correct my spelling and grammar, etc etc and no I dont want to buy your bridge.

A per day price wouldn’t make a lot of sense since there is only one thing offered that you would get each day and that is the internet. Everything else is a one time thing so it’d make more sense as a package price and not a per day price. Seeing how this was only offered for sailings ‘booked between’ and the window of booking is small I wonder if the price is right and it was a promotion that was accidentally opened up to more sailings than it should have.

We have b2b2b this December. A 4,8,6 night cruise. It was avaliable for all 3 but same price of 122.90 cdn for each cruise. Booked it for the 6 and 8 nighter. The internet alone is worth it.

We did a trans-pacific from Honolulu to Sydney last October. Applied for both NZ and Aus ETAs through their respective apps. Very very easy and quick. Both done in less than 30 minutes for the 4 of us.

We did the TP in October on ovation and had the surf stream package. Was easily able to live stream live sports from my balcony, two70, and pool deck during our 2 stretches of 6 sea days. I understand that a TP is not a TA so I don’t know if internet access would be different. Point being, in the middle of the ocean I was able to stream live sports which in itself is pretty awesome.

In October our family of 4 ventured on an 8 week adventure across the Pacific to Australia that included 28 days on a cruise ship, 7 flights, restaurants everyday, excursions, whole 9 yards. We only wore a mask when specifically required by a place (which wasnt very often) no one in our party caught it. No symptoms at all. We tested every 4 or so days out of curiosity so can't say we were spreading it asymptomatically. (We brought a lot of tests with us) The ones on our fb cruise groups that caught it were blaming all the "non maskers" for spreading it as they had wore them everywhere yet caught it. Disease can be so random. You might catch something you might not. Take precautions you see fit but when something goes wrong it's absurd to blame it all one thing and blame everyone else. This is just our experience and observation not an expertly run, medical journal published, peer reviewed, double blind study.

I’m in agreement. We were recently on the Ovation TP and no physical way for us to lock the doors. When we boarded, the rooms were locked and we had to ask our stateroom attendant who called his manager to come and unlock it with a special key. Once unlocked we could open and close them but no way to lock them.

I’m 6’6 and was over by about 8lbs. Couldn’t go on. Didn’t bother me too much as I expected it and says right when you sign up I’d have to be under 250. WHile watching my family another dad was beside me saying he was over by 0.5lbs and couldn’t fly. As someone said it is a safety thing so being strict with it is expected. At my height I doubt I’d be able to stretch across the tube anyway.We were on the TP cruise so I fly was free so don’t know about the refund. Only reason I could see them not giving a refund is the rules are very clear when signing up and if they deny someone it may be too short notice to fill it with someone else……

I think they say this is the largest zipline in North America. There are 6 lines that all go at once and they are pretty efficient moving people through. From what i can remember You are given a time slot and that moves pretty efficiently. If there are 15 of you you would go 6 ppl Over 3 runs. I'm not sure how booking for that would work but should be able to get you all in. They should be able to get loads of people through if they are only booking through the cruise line. The zip line itself only lasts a couple minutes but In zip line time that's pretty long. The website says you get up to 60 mph. I think the drive up was 30-40 min though.

We did the zip line about 5 years ago while on celebrity. I'm pretty sure I booked it on our own through the company directly where you book a time slot. So just make sure you give yourself enough time to get there from the ship and any delays. The start of the line wasn't for from the ship at all. Pretty much right after the welcome center. It was a bit of a drive up so you get kinda of a tour of the area as well which was fun. It was an amazing experience and beautiful view on the way down. Eta: went to the website and yes looks like you can only book through the cruiseline so sorry fornthe misinfo. Now I cant remember how we booked it. Either way it was a tonne lf fun and we'd definitely do it again if ever back.