zanydoc

We’re Diamond Plus, too. You have a couple of preteen kids, right? My family really enjoyed Moon Palace Cancun when my son was that age. In fact I think we may be looking at that for spring break next year. Lots of fun things to do and many different tasty restaurants. Great kids program, rock climbing, huge arcade, fun shows, golf, flowrider. I think they still offer resort credits that you can use for excursions. And it is very close to the airport in Cancun. Only “bad” thing was they didn’t really have a nice beach. But they had an awesome pool than went all around under bridges and stuff-kinda like CocoCay, but bigger. We loved it there! We also have booked a Pre-Christmas NCL Breakaway 5 day cruise, so I’ll try to report back about that.

Lol! That’s like when I go in to do the eye exam and the patient calls me the Obstetrician!

I’m pretty sure this is the card my husband has, and is the one I was hoping was good enough for ID purposes on this cruise.

Yes, it’s in the cruise compass. The last one we went to was on the Odyssey on a sea day around 10am, I think. It was in the Two60 venue and it was almost packed! The captain and the CD were there and did a little speech. They played the National anthem and at the end, taps. They did a little demo of the Two60 theater also and that was cool. Then they went around the room with a mic and anyone who wanted to state who they were, what branch and how many years served and where from spoke. And if I remember correctly they had free Mimosas as well! It was really nice

That’s nice! We’ve only been on 1 Princess cruise and that was many years ago. Maybe we’ll have to try again. My husband does usually go to the military appreciation event they have on most Royal cruises. It’s a nice way to meet other veterans and thank them for their service, too.

I’m sure you’re right-

I liked having the staff serve it-It seemed to take longer, but I felt it was a bit less messy and definitely more sanitary. I’m gonna miss it!

Agreed. They definitely should not use it as a marketing tool. We live by Pensacola where many businesses offer good military discounts and truly appreciate and honor our veterans. This is the first time in all of our sailings that I tried the military discount and it actually worked in our favor to the tune of $300 less than the “sale” price. So, I want to make sure not to mess it up. I appreciate all of everyone’s responses and I will bring his Veteran’s card and the DD form as well just to be safe. Odd that many people reported that they didn’t even ask for the identification.

Thank you! I just don’t want to get to the port and have them say, “Oh, this isn’t sufficient and you will have to pay another $700 to board today!” Lol!

Hello, fellow Royals! I finally was able to snag a military discount for our upcoming Independence cruise and trying to figure out what to bring for the identification. My husband is a Coast Guard Veteran honorably discharged after 6 years of service, 28 years ago. He has a Veteran’s ID card with his picture and the paperwork (Discharge papers). On the Royal website it says he is supposed to have a United States UNIFORMED Blue identification card. This is not something that we have as he is not active duty. Will these ID’s be sufficient? Thanks for your help!

Has this been the case on Indy lately, or just Harmony?

Lately, how strict have they been about checking in during your assigned time at Canaveral? Particularly Indy? I booked a last minute and as a result got a semi-bad check in time. For me anyway! I prefer to get in and get going on the 1st day of the cruise. Are they still being sticklers or is it more relaxed now? Thanks!

I guess we know what your favorite drink is, lol! Were they sticklers about check in times?

Does anyone know if we still have to actually bring and show our vax card after September 6th? I just completed check in for Indy September 16th and it just asked if I was vaccinated in the health questionnaire. It didn’t request a picture like my previous cruises, nor did I see anywhere that it stated we had to actually show proof of vaccine. Thx!

I’m getting it also for Wonder November 13th.

Yes, it was the Ecstasy. We sailed on the old gal because she’s ported near us. Looks like maybe near you, too? I did a little mini review and posted on Carnival forum. Very small ship, but good for a quick 4 day weekend getaway.

Thanks for posting!

Not a whiny child...just being honest! This happened to me on Harmony of the seas in Chops one time. It’s hard to not let an experience like this color your overall opinion of a restaurant. Sometimes things are just off, right? I appreciate your and everyone else’s feedback so much.

Thank you for all of your replies! I love a good steak, so Cagney’s sounds like a winner...but I love Japanese, too. Sounds like we’d be perfectly happy eating most dinners in the dining room with the one specialty dinner. I did notice the gratuity charge...that’s fine. I think it will easily work out to our advantage as we usually have a beer with lunch, few pool drinks and a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. Is it best to grab a glass of wine at a bar prior to dinner, or just order at dinner? I have found that on Royal, sometimes the drink service is very slow in the main dining room-especially since the short staffing after the reboot.

Hello, Norwegians! I’ve booked a pre-Christmas 5 day cruise on the Breakaway and am very excited to be trying out NCL again. It must be over 10 years that we last went with them. I was hoping for some advice about dining and also some clarifications on the Free At Sea offers. It seemed like a great deal and appeared to be all-inclusive. Free drinks, free specialty dining and free internet...what’s not to like? So, I was a bit thrown off by the small print in regards to the dining after I booked...I didn’t realize that the offer really only includes 1 specialty dining option for the first 2 passengers. What restaurant do you recommend I utilize the free dining on? Is it worth purchasing more specialty dining days? Or is the dining room sufficient for the rest of the dinners? We are not super picky and generally do just fine eating in the main dining room on RCL ships. I have booked a Club balcony suite, so when can I make reservations for the specialty dining? In regards to the Free drinks...It is my understanding that it is anything up to $15 per drink, is this correct? What liquors does this include? Grey Goose? Woodford Reserve? How many drinks can we get per day? What are your favorite bars? Does the drink package include the Ice bar? Lol, I sound just like that kid in Home Alone that throws off the count in the van before they’re heading to the airport! Thanks for all your responses and happy sailing! PS: And kudos to NCL for dropping the pre-cruise testing requirements for vax passengers. I sure hope Royal follows...

Yep! We just went on a Carnival 2 weeks ago which, by the way was actually quite fun! Although, my hubs dearly missed the flowrider, lol! And just booked NCL for Christmas as well. But, I do have a couple of Royals booked and am hoping for dropped testing by then...October 1st and Nov 13th.

Well said @drrich2! I completely agree! We just need to move on and live with it as best we can. COVID is not going anywhere, but will continue to be a thorn in all our sides-just less thornier than before. There is no need to continue to test pre-cruise at this point. RCL will probably never recoup all of the financial losses they incurred during the shutdown, but they will continue to lose out if they don’t follow suit with the other cruise lines who are dropping COVID requirements. If people don’t feel safe, they don’t need to cruise.

Thank you-yes, I emailed him directly as well!

Hello! I’ve booked a an RCCL cruise within the final payment window for Allure Oct 1st for my Mom’s 90th birthday cruise and my birthday, too-although not quite as exciting birthday number! I thought I would go ahead and get the travel insurance now, like I always do with my family, but I just didn’t even think about the pre-existing situation that I have now encountered with trying to get it with my Mom added on. She has had a pacemaker for years and takes heart medicine-the same ones for years. Does anyone have any advice or personal experience for what company may provide travel insurance under these circumstances for our cruise? Or are we just SOL? I have contacted my TA as well, but haven’t heard back from her yet, so I thought I’d put the question up to you all. Thanks in advance for any help!

We are sharing a room. Oddly, I never really considered buying the Royal travel insurance and I don’t even know how to go about getting it. I never book my cruises directly through Royal and I always just buy the insurance on my own. Is that something my TA can do, or can I somehow do it on line through the Royal website?