rudeney

I'm very much a "paperless" person, but I also know that things happen and a phone can die, get broken, malfunction, etc. Because of that, I prepare to use my phone for this infor, but I also have hard copies readily at hand. I just bought a couple of leather covers for our passports that also have a slot for our vaccines cards. I'll print my SetSail pass and COVID test results (for Canada) and tuck them in there.

If going to Canada, Bermuda, and some European ports, you will need the results of a negative COVID test (professionally administered or proctored). For Caribbean ports, that is no longer needed, except that unvaccinated passengers must show some sort of proof of a negative self-administered COVID test.

Were there separate entrances for key/suite/pinnacle, or did everyone cram into the same entry and then get split off in the building? Were they checking arrival times?

If you zoom in, you'll that the label states, "Keep it cool But not cold - this appliance is a cooler, not a refrigerator".

Step into my office...🤣

Yes, when you buy a drink package, an 18% gratuity is either added to or included in the price. You are under no obligation to tip anything additional when ordering a drink that is within the limits of the package. If you order a drink that is not included, or exceeds the value of what is covered by your package, you will pay 18% of whatever that additional charge is. Note that some people choose to tip extra. Those include people who have a drink package and those who pay per-drink. It's totally up to the customer. When I am concerned that a company is mistreating its employees or doing something I disagree with, I vote with my dollars.

By that definition, an inside cabin is a suite - it has a sleeping room and a bathroom and they are connected and used as a single unit. So maybe RCCL needs to rename their rooms: Inside Suite, Ocean View Suite, Balcony Suite, Junior Suite, Grand Suite, etc. Oh, and let's not forget the COVID Quarantine Suites! 😜

We're doing two - couple's massage on boarding day, and then again on day 6. It was still much cheaper to book in advance.

I'm glad I booked our spa services ahead of time - those prices are almost double what they were in Cruise Planner!

Yes, how dare I leave an extra dollar for the bartender! 🤣

Meh, I can go with the GS, OS, Royal, Sky and Star class rooms being called "suites". While they may not all have separate rooms, they have separate areas. Sort of "open concept" suites. We were looking at booking a suite on Celebrity - boy are some of theirs small! I think the entry-level suite is about the size of an RCCL balcony stateroom. DCL does suites pretty well - we had a 1BR on DCL Wonder that was wonderful - 2 bathrooms!

In terms of factoring in the cost of the missed MDR meal, I think the daily allocated cost of included food is about $15pp. Given that you're probably going to have breakfast or lunch, and may some snacks out of that, you might be "missing" $8 worth of food when choosing a specialty dinner. Are we really arguing about $8? 🤣

Yeah, but old habits die hard! And it still works. It's just he way my brain is wired - Royal Caribbean "is" RCCL.

I always call it RCCL. I still go to rccl.com.

Our daughter visited medical once and the last day of our cruise. She had a raging sinus infection and was sure they would give her something stronger than OTCs. Nope. Gave her Dayquil and charged us $200 (insurance reimbursed us). Never again!

Also, this: https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

The whole concept of the JS is bizarre. You get an extra CAS point, and you get to board early, but you pay normal gratuities, have no concierge access, and miss out on other suite benefits. It can be very confusing for newbies. Maybe they should just call it an "extra-spacious balcony room with a tub".

Actually, they have to go to binding arbitration, per their own rules. But if they were to file in civil court, it would then open RCCL to civil court filings by the affected passengers. Bottom line: they won't pursue this.

With this model, they are basically allowing people who are willing and able to pay more be the ones to absorb the extra costs. They can then keep fares low for the very budget-conscious cruisers. I guess when you pay $400 for your cruise, $500 for UDP seems ridiculous. When you pay $5,000 for your cruise, $500 for dining is not a big deal.

That is surprising. Because of the vendor fees they pay (over 3%) most car dealers won't let you charge a car. Some will let you charge a few thousand. Years ago, I worked at a Mercedes-Benz dealership as a factory liaison and they would let customers charge up to $5,000. Usually that was for a deposit on a special order vehicle. They were making about 8% of MSRP as gross profit, so a 3% hit for paying card fees was not going to happen. Of course they gladly took cards for parts and service - they have easily 100% markup in those areas.

You can't really use Apple Airtags with Android phones anyhow (there is "a way" but it's not very good). I think if I had an older Android that doesn't work with the Samsung SmartTag+, then I'd just go with Tile.

On Android devices, you can click and hold the app's icon until the info box appears and click the "i" icon on the top right corner to get to the App info screen. Click the "Force stop" button at the bottom. Next, scroll to "Storage" and click "Clear cache". at the bottom of the screen. 99% of the time, that clears up most app problems I've had (with any app). A few times I've had to click "Clear Data" on the Storage screen, which then makes me login and enter all other info the app had remembered for me. Doing this, I've never had to uninstall and reinstall a misbehaving app. I have no clue if there is an Apple equivalent to this process.

You are correct - AMEX does have some credit cards, but I can't imagine anyone with a $100,000 limit actually using that much credit. The interest would be killer! That's why I use my standard AMEX gold charge card which gets paid in full each month. They do offer some "pay over time" features, but I never use those - I abhor paying interest!

We never spend enough money on the ship or in port to worry about it. But once when I was going through customs, the CBP officer decided he wanted to really check out my watch - an older model Rolex GMT Master. At first he asked had I bought it in port, and I said no, pointing out the obvious years of wear on it. Then he said something about how transporting fake goods into the country was a felony. I explained to him that it was not fake and told him the name of the local jeweler where I bought. He said it didn't look like a real Rolex to him and he was still being prickly about it. I asked for his supervisor who took one look at it and told him that what I had was a "pilot's watch" and he let me go.

It sounds like this was done after the check was signed when the gratuity was being entered into the POS system. The crew member though he was keying in his POS password, but was actually on the gratuity field for the check. The passenger would not have seen this as a lot of times it's a manger that goes back through the day's checks to record the added gratuities. AMEX is a little different than most cards. Although they do offer "pay over time" features, it's not really a "credit" card but a "charge" card that you pay in full each month. Because of this, they have (in their words) "no preset spending limit". They use what is called a "total exposure amount" which is what they allow you to charge before freezing your card. And even if you do reach that limit, you can call and if you have a good reason, they will increase your exposure limit. Of course most people would not have a $100,000+ level of exposure, but many people who manage businesses might certainly have that level if they use their card for work-related expenses.