rudeney

We took the All-Access Tour for Voyager on Oct. 8th. I think that was the first one brought back on Voyager.

The stingray video is amazing! I did that once on DCL's Castaway Cay with my granddaughter. It was a lot of fun to interact with them. They reminded me of cats.

If you're not yet booked, find a current Roll Call for the same ship/itinerary and post the question there so that someone can look for you.

But that might block the view of the belly flop contest!

The reserved pool deck seating is the elevated section on either side of the Pool Bar leading up to the Sky Bar. On Voyager, they placed rolled-up towels there so suite guests didn't need to go to the check-out station.

I bought some Blanton's at Publix in Florida back in August. They had two bottles just sitting on the shelf!

So I took $100 in one dollar bills on my last cruise with the DBP. For each drink ordered, I handed the bartender/server $1. I did this partly because I just don't feel right not tipping "something" even though I know the DBP has an 18% gratuity built-in. But I also did it so I could count how many drinks we had to see if the UDP was worth it. I think I came back with just over $40. But that didn't count drinks ordered while dining, fresh OJ, bottled water, etc. And then Jan reminded me that I had comingled change from where we spent money in port with my stack of ones so it's possible I spend more than I took with me, so this strategy probably didn't give me a good count. Regardless, I tended to go to the same bars - the Pool Bar as it was the closest to our room, High Notes because we spent a lot of time in VK lounge, and the Schooner Bar when in the casino because the casino bar didn't have Johnnie Walker Double-Black. Bartenders there got to know me and while the bars were never crowded, I was definitely acknowledged and give good over-pours. I drank High Notes out of Double-Black, so Lanvin, the bartender there, would just serve me a double or Black Label. BTW, if you are on Voyager, go up to High Notes and tell Lanvin that "Mr. Johnnie Walker" says hi!

The verbiage about not being able to cancel The Key is that you can't cancel it once you board, but you can cancel it in Cruise Planner before it closes (up to 48 hours or so before boarding). The challenge, however, may be in that they sell a limited number of The Key (I've heard that it's only 100 or so). If you cancel, and it's sold out, you may not be able to repurchase it. If it works like limited-seat excursions, it will be "returned to inventory", but maybe not the moment you cancel it. So you may have to keep checking and hope you find it available again before someone else does.

Happy anniversary! That meal looks great!

We always bring at least one fan, usually two. I have one a mini "tower" fan that's about 15" tall. My wife has one that clips on to things. Never had a problem bringing these onboard, although I've always worried that someone might see my tower fan and think it's a space heater.

Years ago, before the washy-washy stations were installed, the entrance to Chops was inside the Windjammer. On embarkation day, suite guests were welcomed to sit in Chops with their plates from the Windjammer. Now Chops is separated and there is no special suite accommodation for lunch on embarkation day. Now, Chops is usually open on embarkation day as an extra-cost lunch option (or included with the UDP).

So on that North Atlantic cruise where there were only four or five of us crazy people in the pools, the towel guys weren't getting much business. Once when I walked up and presented my silver SeaPass, the guy just handed me towels and said no need to scan cards for suite guests. When I went to return them, another guy tried to scan my card to "check in" the towels and I told him no need, but he insisted. Of course it wouldn't work, but he kept trying. Another day, I guess it was too cold for the towel guy, so I just grabbed a couple, and again, upon returning, he insisted on trying to scan my card which didn't work. Apparently, you can't check-in more towels than you've checked-out. Dang!

Really I'm only trying to impress my wife!

Thanks! Someone brought Widow Jane a few months back and it was very good! I'll look for the others - I always need something interesting. I almost always have to go out of state for anything good - Alabama's liquor board only buys what they want us to have, and a lot of stuff is "allocated" - and not crazy stuff like Pappy, but typical choices like Blanton's and Woodford.

Oh my gosh! What a very moving story! ❤️

This is an issue with the ship's internal wifi access points. They don't use a true "mesh" system and their equipment doesn't do good hand-offs so as you move around the ship, you are left connected to a distance access point with a weak signal. I just found myself turning my device's wifi off and on every time I moved around. Unless they upgrade their onboard wifi, the switchover to Starlink won't make this any better.

Which likely means that you keep up with the time and stick to the schedule so that you make it back to the bus or ship on time and don't inconvenience others causing them the hardship of having to wait on you. Or even the worse hardship of causing your non-RCCL tour run behind so a whole busload of people miss the ship.

There were absolutely no chair hogs on our last cruise. Of course it was in the North Atlantic with highs barely into the 60's...🤣

I'm not much of a bourbon drinker. I prefer Scotch, but I joined our neighborhood bourbon club mainly for the social aspect. Each month we meet and have a theme. One time it was "bourbon NOT from TN or KY" and someone brought that Balcones, and yes, everyone agreed it was horrible. One that was surprisingly good that night was John Emerald's Purveyor's Double Oak Bourbon from Opelika, Alabama.

Correct. You will all use the same single login. If you login on a 5th device, it will bump off one of the others, and you should get a warning that it's going to do that. We did a 2-device on our last cruise, but used it on 3 devices : My phone, Jan's phone and my laptop. More than once when switching between using my phone and laptop, I'd bump Jan off, so I got in the habit of entering the "logoff.com" URL in my browser for the device I wasn't using.

I don't tip for two when dining alone, but I do tip a minimum amount regardless of my check. For example, back when I was working in an office, some of us would go out to lunch and spend $7 or $8 each on a sit down meal at places like Texas Roadhouse, Chilis, Applebee's, etc. (that gives you an idea of how long ago that was). A 15% tip would hardly be $1. It just never felt right to tip only $1 because the lunch menu was half that of dinner, and the server did just as much work. So yes, I tipped more in that case. I have a natural curiosity about many things, but I'd never ask a server or crew member what they are paid. It isn't really any of my business, but I am still curious and would like to know that the crew is compensated fairly. I tend to believe they are because there are long-term crew that come back year after year. If it were a horrible job and didn't pay well, I'd assume they'd quit.

First of all, I took that comment by @neverbeenhere as humor. But besides that, for people who pay for suites, why not let them have some perks? My wife and I always cruise in a suite. Not because we are "elite" but because it's what we enjoy. We like the space and the handful of benefits that come with it. It also means we have to save a bit and only cruise once every 2-3 years.

Based on checking Cruise Planner each...and...every...day from when we booked in March until our cruise on Voyager Oct. 2nd, $65 is as low as it went, so $70 is mot too bad, especially since they just recently raised most all onboard drink prices by $1 each.

Yep, we paid $65, so the total bill was close to $1,073.80 for a 7-night cruise.

I think $70 is the per-each price after the BOGO50.