leaveitallbehind

Not me. While it is unsettling, 1 crewmember out of 28 ships and 35,000 ship's crew - not overly concerned. Hopefully it shouldn't become a trend - LOL.

There may be limited bar and food service, but it will be available. The Windjammer and few others (El Loco Fresh, Park Cafe, Sorento's) should be open. The Solarium is certainly open and a great time to avoid any crowds there.

While I feel horrible for the individual and the family involved, IMO this is an unfortunate consequence of a litigious society driven by questionable attorneys whereby people attempt to deflect responsibility for their own actions on anyone other than themselves.

There is no trick, but you may be seeing two different things. The Select internet benefit is published as 25%. The 20% showing on the app may be the current promotional sale being offered for that internet package to anyone on that sailing. Call CC to confirm which is which and determine the better value for you. Note that the CC discount is valid only for purchases made pre-cruise and is independent of promotional prices. You cannot combine the two,

Sorry for the frustration and hope your partner recovers quickly. It is important to understand the terms and conditions associated with advanced purchases such as excursions. I realize this doesn't help the situation now, but for future reference, unfortunately the 48 hour cancelation window is common amongst a number of cruise lines as it relates to closing transactions related to that itinerary prior to departure. There also typically are on board restrictions regarding cancelations that may result in an OBC versus a refund. It varies by cruise line, which is why it is good to understand this at the time of purchase. As mentioned, the more important issue is with your partners health and I hope they recover fully and quickly.

Yes - the main pool has stairs into the pool with handrails on both sides. They enter from either side at the head of the pool to a landing in the water from which you can enter the pool at its shallowest end. The handrails are also accessible at the landing from the pool. This is the same for the Solarium pool. If you google the ship and go to images you should find pictures.

RCCL's primary cruising demographics is families with children and Quantum is one of their premier ships for families. The kids club program IMO is one of the best in the industry and there are a lot venues that are oriented towards kids. They will be more than entertained and you will have the ability to have free time to yourselves as well. Study the ship and what it offers on the RCCL website to get a better idea of what to expect ahead of time.

I realize that and not being critical - just was suggesting that would be the only sure way to know instead of hoping someone here knows for sure. Enjoy your cruise.

I guess there are always exceptions with the check in timing, and I was only providing our experiences. You may be able to check in earlier once at the pier. But that is not something I am assuring or recommending. Anything that can be scheduled ahead of boarding would be in the planner. But, yes, some things can only be scheduled on board. Along with our phones we also put the app on a tablet as an alternative.

As alternatives, RCCL and Celebrity, as two examples, have sofa beds in many of their standard staterooms. Many also have the drop down upper berths. IMO, however, the upper berths are more comfortable. Again, JMO.

IMO, I think the only way to be sure is to ask the maitre d or the waiters once on board. I would not rely on CC posters to be certain. Otherwise there may be items in the ingredients that may cause concern and if you don't know, then there could be an issue. Wouldn't he rather not be served foods that may include those items? It's kind of a Catch-22 in that you don't want to eat foods that contain those items but you don't want to find out if those items are in the foods. If it were me, I would ask. Again, JMO.

You are correct that the times are check in times. However, since they started the check in time queues, we have only been delayed and not gone directly on board once after we checked in. That one time occurred when we were scheduled with the first check in time and the ship was delayed in disembarking the prior itinerary's final passengers. We waited in the seating lounge upstairs where there was plenty of room for about 15 minutes. We then boarded. Otherwise we have always gone directly on board once checked in. This, at least, has been our experience over at least eight cruises since that started from three different embarkation ports.

Have you ever been there? (Labadee, not jail - lol)

Stay on top of your TA. I can see an over the weekend delay because a lot of TA's don't respond then. But certainly by tomorrow you should have something from them. Hopefully it is a live person with a brick and mortar agency and not just an on line entity so you have someone to talk with.

No, but I would bet my safety on the decisions of the cruise line which would be passengers, crew, and ship safety before any risk at a port of call. I am rather certain they would suspend that stop before ever putting anyone at risk. They have done it in the past. Keep in mind they also have employees there as well for whose welfare they also have a primary concern.

BTW thank you for clarifying from your prior post. Hard to say whether or not you should upgrade as I think it is pretty much a crap shoot as to which staterooms are affected and which are not. There are 1,649 staterooms on Beyond and I think the problem is random, so IMO the odds are pretty low that you would be assigned one of the affected staterooms. But who knows? Also, I don't if Blue Chip bookings - perhaps based on tier status? - would have different outcomes for upgrading GTY's beyond the initial category in which it is booked. Others with direct experiences would have to respond. But I do know that with standard GTY bookings, as I mentioned before, the odds are very slim to none that it would occur.

When we use a TA, they provide not only a copy of their agency invoice but a copy of the cruise line invoice as well. This is updated from both real time with any transaction made and come as two attachments with the same email. (There have been times when it wasn't necessary for my records to have the agency copy and, when requested as such, the agency would just send the cruise line copy as that is the only one that ultimately matters). The benefits are obvious for two reasons: first, it confirms all aspects of the booking and provides a cruise line booking confirmation number, and second, confirms that all financial transactions were processed by the agency to the cruise line and that they received it. If you are not receiving a cruise line copy in the above manner, then I would call the agency and demand it, and failing that, call the cruise line to explain your concerns and have them confirm receipt of payment. I realize the TA "owns" you booking, but in an instance such as that the cruise line can confirm payment.

I did not suggest a time and only mentioned MTD as an alternative to consider. In our experience MTD on RCCL starts at 6:00, and we have done MTD numerous times well before 7:00. But I'm not debating that point only suggesting that as an alternative to consider so as to not potentially inconvenience the servers. Do as you wish with your arrival times - the MDR will always try to accommodate you.

I think @firefly333 touched on the concern in terms of holding up service. But I am going to take it another direction as you indicate that you will be at a table for two. The scheduled times are not just for the convenience of the passengers, they are also to keep a pace for the servers and preparers as there are other scheduled times to follow yours. If you are consistently late you will be compressing the timing of the servers who will already, as example, be serving appetizers to the rest of the room when you are just arriving. This, IMO, could be inconsiderate to the servers who now will have to alter the intended pace to accommodate you. If you don't want to consistently arrive until 5:15 or 5:30, my suggestion would be to consider scheduling My Time Dining, so that you can arrive at your convenience. You also can just arrive at MTD without reservations and wait until a table opens.

I don't disagree that it is necessary to monitor and I am certain RCI is doing just that. I was also only passing on anecdotal information indicating the strength of the relationship that at least at one time existed.

As indicated, it is an either / or situation - you either pay the discounted price through the planner (or on board if it is offered as such) -or- you use the Captain's Club discount. @Arizona Wildcat provides good information as well - you can buy the Classic via a promo, then apply the Captains Club offer as an upgrade value to Premium on board if that would net the better price for the Premium.

Very true and Labadee supports the local economy not only by a per passenger fee, but, also as you indicate, by providing local staff employees. Anything can happen, but I am certain RCI is monitoring the situation. But as a side note, I know that RCI is seen favorably by Haiti as during the 2010 earthquake, RCI ships continuously delivered relief supplies when calling on Labadee. Not only was this reported in the media, but I know this as I was on board one of the ships when many pallets of supplies were off loaded. I don't think the government would want to see a disruption in the cruise line relationship.

I don't disagree and was only speculating on a reason as our bookings, as stated, typically open up earlier than that claimed by the OP.

We did the inaugural cruise on Grandeur of the Seas in 1996 and they gave us each a hard bound book describing the build, the ship, the launch staff, the company management staff, along with a story about RCCL. It was actually very nice.

...which is the size I had been describing.