km5377

Does anyone who has gone to Cuba recently know if they are still charging a 10% tax to exchange USD?

The Cuban government mentioned that they were going to lift the tax in March 2016, but I see on cc boards as recent this December that they were still charging it. The Cuban bank's website now lists it as 1USD =1 CUC, so I'm curious if it is still better to being EUR or MXN to exchange in Cuba.

Thanks!

Its for the Talkeetna Air Taxi. Available all days in the summer through the Northern Lights Entertainment Coupon Book (Google it). :)

Is anyone going on a cruisetour that will be staying in Talkeetna the afternoon on May 28 or will be there on own that date?

I have a coupon for 25% off a Denali flightseeing with glacier landing tour. It's the same tour company Royal Caribbean uses, but the coupon is only good if we have 4 people.

With the coupon it is quite a bit cheaper than Royal as they are charging almost $400 a person and it would be about $275 each booking direct with my coupon.

Please let me know if there is any interest and I will send you the details!

Thanks!

We did a RCCL wedding at sea and it was amazing. It was on a sea day and done by the captain. RCCL has set packages with all the details lined up. There is a brochure on their website. We did it on a larger ship and had about 60 guests. You will want to work with the wedding department and the groups department. The wedding department will handle the ceremony details and handle a reception if you want after (you can rent out a lounge privately and have a band or DJ with drinks and appetizers).

The groups department or your travel agent will handle your group reservation & dining. You can all sit together in the main dining room and the groups department will give you the dining room table layout and you can set the seating arrangement. You should also get group credit that you can use towards various items.

Personally - I would look for a 4 night cruise on a larger ship. You can find for about the same price if your dates are flexible. Majesty is ok if that is your only option. I would ask to be married in the Viking Crown Lounge with windows overlooking the sea. :)

Aloha,

The ship we are sailing is only in Kauai from 10:00am-6:00pm. Can anyone recommend a Na Pali Coast Boat Tour that fits within this schedule?

Most morning tours leave at 8:00am and afternoon tours arrive back too late. I found one tour that is from 12:30-4:30, but it leaves from Hanalei and they are telling me that we would never get back in time with the traffic.

Royal Caribbean is not offering a boat tour and the ship isn't planning to sail the coast.

Thanks!

Vegas82 - shoot me your email. I travel and it's easier for me than posting on the boards.

Our day looked as follows:

Bride got hair / makeup at salon with bridesmaids in the AM. (the wedding or groups dept can help you book this)

2:30-3:30 - Wedding

3:30-5:30 - Cocktail Hour (open bar, hot and cold canapés, live band) - this is where we did the introduction of the bridal party, first dances, etc...

6:00 - ? - Rented Chops out for the entire night. Had a live duo that played on and off. Chops had a wireless mic. We did toasts, cake cutting ceremony, etc.. at Chops. The price included all food, but Royal Caribbean likes to do a set menu for large parties. Chops holds 100 people on Allure, so if you have considerably less people you might be able to negotiate something. I see that they do now have a separate beverage minimum, I don't remember having that. Chops typically is divided into two rooms, so maybe you can work with them to rent out only one of the rooms.

Late Night - Dancing at the Disco

The Viking crown does overlook the ship / sea, but it's still a great view for a reception.

You can order fresh flowers from the wedding department. Just send a photo of what you are looking for and they will come back with quotes.

The Viking crown had it's own sound system. We had a mix of live music and music from a CD that we burned and brought onboard. There was a member of the entertainment team that help us coordinate the cd music once onboard.

As for decorations, we brought a runner, sand ceremony, bows, centerpieces, toule, even globes to hang from the ceiling. The family helped transform the room the morning of the wedding along with the onboard wedding coordinator. During the reception, the wedding team decorated Chops with instructions that we went over with them the day prior.

I will say that it does get frustrating dealing with the group and wedding departments. Unlike a land wedding, they have everything (catering, music, event space, etc...) already onboard the ship and it's just the nature of ship life not to really focus on the details until they are just a couple of sailings out. They could really pull everything together in a couple hours in they needed to. It will all come together, but if you want to plan things out way in advance like we did, you may have to follow up with them more than you ever dreamed.

Hi there!

We did a wedding at sea on Royal and did everything that your suggesting, plus we rented out a specialty restaurant for an actual dinner reception. The wedding department only will be of help with the ceremony portion. The groups department will handle everything else.

The Viking crown lounge has a nice view of the sea. You can ask for specific locations on the ship and the groups department will contract the ship directly to see if it will be available. You can also bring decorations aboard. It was a lot of work, but we brought aboard everything you would have at a traditional wedding with instructions on how everything was to be setup. Since our wedding was at sea, once on board we walked the wedding coordinator through everything the day before the wedding and it more or less turned out as well as we hoped. We even had large centerpieces for each table and fresh flowers ordered from their catering department.

This is the link for many of the options that are available through the groups department.

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Incentives/Customization_Section.pdf

Hope this helps!

Must have just been the Solstice then....

We just got off a 12-night voyage on the Solstice and were informed that Celebrity stopped doing their massive brunch about three cruises prior. The dining room manager believed that it was fleet wide.

For those of you who don’t know – the brunch was Celebrity’s “midnight buffet” of sorts with every food imaginable. It look the entire main dining room. Let’s hope this is just temporary as the sea-day brunch was something that we always looked forward too.

Congrats!

I think you will find this Oasis class document helpful in your planning.

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Incentives/Oasis_Class_Guide.pdf

The next step, if you havent already is contact the groups department. They will reserve a block of rooms at a set price, handle group dining, and any other group items. You also get special perks once you reach 8 cabins booked.

My email is my user name, but with a kjm instead of the km at yahoo. Feel free to email directly if you have specific questions. We just went through this whole thing, but for a freedom class ship.

We are having our wedding on the Freedom of the Seas - the buy outs are a bit cheaper. We're paying the same price for Chops. Anyway, there are also private sections in the main dining room that you can use for all your guests to sit together. We plan to dine together every night and we have 60. It looks like on the Oasis class the private dining rooms hold either 40 or 148. They do not charge extra for you to sit in these rooms and the menu is the same as the main dining room. Otherwise you can rent out a lounge and have just a cocktail hour on the ship. A group specialist can send you all the info. Below is a link to the facilities on the Oasis Class for Groups.

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Royal/Incentives/Oasis_Class_Guide.pdf