travelgrl1278

So what are you supposed to do with your carry-ons while you're trying to get some lunch :confused:????

You have to carry your stuff around with you, which is part of why the cruise line suggests not arriving until after 1pm. My boyfriend and I ususally go to the WJ find a seat, one of us goes and gets a plate while the other sits with the bags and then switch. Last year as far as carry ons go we only had one laptop size bag each...so it made it easier.

I'm glad a new thread has been started for this! There used to be one floating around but was very large and had some outdated info I feel.

One "secret" I've learned. If you are in need of something on the ship and you don't see it in the store, ask someone...on both of my past cruises we had the most helpful staff help us. On my second cruise my boyfriend forgot his belt and his "dinner" pants were to big. We stopped at the shop and didn't see any, he asked and they told him they don't usually have them out until the last day for the "mega sale" but if we could give them a half hour they would see if they could find one, asked what color/material. We came back in a half hour they said they couldn't find any. No biggie we figured he'd just pick one up in port the next day. Later that evening many many hours after we had asked we were walking through the shop area the worker we originally asked stopped us and told us she had finally found 3! and sold him one for $5 and helped him get it cut down to the right size (it was an adjustable length and was made very long). She kept apologizing that it took so long. Just so nice of them to even keep looking!

2 Non cruise stories -

1. My father lives in Newport Beach. In 1999 I was very excited to be taking my first "adult" vacation to visit him (meaning I paid for it all by myself). I parked at the airport, the shuttle picked me up and took me to the terminal. For whatever reason I felt the need to pack 9 million pounds of stuff and as I was going to get off the middle step of the shuttle both my ankles gave out on me at the same time...I managed to toss my duffle bag onto the ground and land on that saving me from road rash, however I did severely twist both my ankles. The airport security and shuttle drive came rushing to my aid. I just kept telling them I was fine because I didn't want to miss my vacation. My legs, ankles and feet were as big as tree trunks for the entire vacation! But I didn't let it stop me.

2. April 2010 - 5 of us are going to NYC the Monday after Easter for the week. We are staying at my cousins condo while he's on vacation. 3 of us are taking 1 flight, and 2 are taking a later flight. Our flight is set to depart Detroit at 6:30AM. My friend is a horrible vacationer (sp?) and can't prepack to save her life, so her and I were up until 3am the night before our trip trying to get her packed. We needed to leave for the airport by 4:00...because of her madness we didn't get to leave until 5:15...her husband drove like crazy and we got to the airport in about 20 minutes (usually a 45 min drive). We walk into the ticketing area and it was sheer chaos. The airline only had 2 reps working and the entire terminal was packed with people needing to check their luggage even though most had prepaid their bags & check in online. We are watching the minutes tick by barely moving in line knowing we are most likely going to miss our flight. We FINALLY get to the counter at 6:03...we are told we cannot make our flight because we are past the TSA departure checkin time. We beg and plead the agent final says "I'm very sorry but even if I could get you the exception, there are only 3 seats available on the flight"...my reply was

"Yes I know...there are 3 of us who you are saying didn't checkin even though we did last night". She offers to rebook us...departing on Wednesday...well that won't work we have 2 other people meeting us in NYC and I am the only one authorized to get the keys to the condo.

We were dropped off at the airport and my friends cousin took the car to work...she could not leave and come pick us back up. We ended up renting a car and driving 13+ hours to NYC...we had to go the long way because none of us had Enhanced Licenses or Passports with us and it was right after the new rules had gone into effect so we couldn't cut through Ontario Canada. We should have been in NYC by 9am but we didn't get in until 11:45 that night! Then the rental car company told us the wrong information about the return location in NYC so my friends husband and another traveler had to drive around NYC for over an hour trying A)find a gas station to fill up the rental B)Get in touch with the car company to find a place that was open so we didn't have to pay for a second days rental fee. Needless to say waking up the next morning at 6am to go to the Martha Stewart Show wasn't very easy!!!!! But we got lucky and had beautiful 90+ degree weather the first week of April for the entire trip!

We left Monarch 10 days ago :mad:, and I am still feeling slightly off. My first cruise it only lasted about 3 days...this one has been much worse. The weekend we arrived home it was horrible. I had a horrible moment on that Saturday and almost fell down our flight of stairs at home...that happened twice so my boyfriend wouldn't let me "walk" down the stairs the rest of the weekend...he made me scoot down like you do a toddler when they are learning stairs. My cats would sit at the bottom watching me like I was nuts.

My boyfriend on the other hand had very mild symptoms and felt fine by that Sunday. Maybe I'll try some bonine when I get home.

While they do use kiwi as a garnish in many dishes and desserts, I'd be more afraid of the latex gloves worn by the workers in the WJ as well as the food preparers. That's a really tough allergery to have.

That was exactly what I was going to say! We are just off Monarch on Friday and I saw stateroom attendents, windjammer staff, maintenance people and many many other RC staffers wearing gloves, now they may or may not have been latex, but thats just not a chance I'd be willing to take with my life! I think you'd be hard pressed to find any kind of vacation spot these days where workers aren't using gloves. I work at Boston Market and we have latex gloves for handling raw foods...so basically everything gets touched with latex.

10 short little days!!!!!:D

32 short little days!!!!

40 days until Monarch!!!!

Has anyone done the Glass Bottom Boat Tour or the Eco Adventure Boat Tour in CocoCay? Just trying to get a feel for which would be better. Give me your likes & dislikes please!!!:D

Remember that your first meal on board is not your last! There is no need to push, shove, fill 6 plates for one person...they have more food on board and aren't going to run out...

On our first cruise we headed to the Windjammer (Royal Caribbean) for lunch and literally got pushed by this lady behind us at the salad bar, I'm not blowing this story out of proportion...my friend almost fell this lady shoved into her so hard (we weren't holding up the line or anything, there were just 3000 people trying to eat). When I turned around to ask why she felt the need to shove into us (which caused us to bump into the people in front of us), this one person somehow had 6 PLATES full of food and acted like she had never eaten before. I tried to give her the benefit of doubt that she maybe had kids/elderly that she was also getting food for, until she sat down at a table right near us and proceeded to eat the entire 6 plates herself. She was extremely rude to the staff, it was horrible. I heard her say to a staff member, "I hope you do a better job the rest of the week then you all did in here today, the lines were horrible and the staff was useless"...that was the final straw for me, I'm not a person to keep my mouth shut, so I turned around and asked her if she planned on acting like a spoiled child the entire trip, because if so she may want to look into not being around people...she got up in a huff and stormed off. The staff memeber grinned. I saw her a couple of other times that trip and she seemed to still be acting like the spoiled child...but at least I felt better that I said something when she was being rude to the people who work so hard! I should mention this woman wasn't a child by any stretch...she was easily 50+ years old...who acts like that!