sparks1093

The option for pre-purchasing a bottle for the cabin has been around for a while, certainly before the pandemic. Each cruise line is a bit different, but Carnival still checks alcohol brought back ashore. There are two reasons for Cruise Cash- to give it as a gift to a cruiser (probably how it started) and for the convenience of the passenger. We used to purchase it before every cruise as a budgeting technique, but now we are empty nesters, so we don't need to. As for the drink packages, remember first and foremost they are designed to make the cruise line money, period. That they save some passengers money is how it is marketed, but just like with gambling the odds are always with the house. For every person that fully gets their money's worth there are likely two that don't. If selling some sort of partial drink package would make more money than they would be doing it. They have people on the payroll whose only job is to figure out new and innovative ways to part the passengers from their cash while they are onboard.

Yes, they do make choices but that doesn't mean that people should remove the tips that pay them. I know you aren't saying that but there are folks that say exactly what you just did and end it with "since I'm not responsible for paying them and they choose this job I remove the tips".

They were a hassle to load correctly and I had big, clumsy hands that didn't make it easier. One or two I didn't mind but if we had a special event in the ballroom and there were a couple hundred, egad. Our big, commercial dishwasher cleaned anything and everything as long as it was loaded in the rack correctly. Higher pressure and temperature than a home machine.

When we applied for DW's passport there was nothing indicating that additional documentation was necessary to support a name change. We sent in her naturalization certificate with her maiden name and a copy of her drivers license with her married name and the passport was issued in her married name. As I recall the only discussion about a name change was when one was changing the name on a previously issued passport and in that instance supporting documents were required. So I would probably be inclined to just submit the documents required by the website and then let State reach out if additional documents were necessary.

I worked as a dishwasher when I was a teenager and didn't like to see them come back into the kitchen, but as long as they got loaded onto the dishwasher rack correctly it was alright.

Is the difference in cost the same as what it costs to add that to the MSC booking? I'm going to guess that the online website isn't showing you your total and won't until you go to pay for it, but that is simply a guess.

Some of the clam shells are vented but you can always ask the attendants to prop the back up a few inches or do it yourself if you need to.

Yeah, I stopped reading when it started talking about liking to try different local cuisines. Granted, it might be hard to do that on a cruise ship but when one is in port it is most definitely possible. There are many cruise lines that do feature local cuisine for the ports visited as well.

When I was stationed on an aircraft carrier I had a young sailor that worked for me that had to be sent to bed if we took anything over a 1 degree roll repeatedly. Absolutely could not handle it. I often wondered if it was more psychosomatic then physical, but I never knew and couldn't ask. (To his credit he never took unfair advantage of his condition.)

Ok. As I recall he did have his expired passport with him, he used his birth certificate for boarding. Missed the ship because of a miscommunication with his family, he was waiting at the agreed spot and by the time he realized they weren't coming he didn't have time to make it back. Since his family was still onboard he needed to meet up with the ship. His passport was issued the next day, but he had booked his flight for the following day just to be on the safe side.

This wasn't the thread by klfhnger was it?

Which has always been a problem unfortunately, once or twice every cruise DW received one that wasn't melty in the middle.

As it does everywhere, of course. As I recall the normal serving is 4oz and that mold looks like it might be close to that anyway but it's hard to tell from the picture.

For me if it's not a venue that I happen to be using, not much.

I don't know. I would try to order both at once and see how it goes. I don't generally eat this dessert but DW loves it and has it almost every night.

Order two.

They might. I got insurance when we traveled sans passports for the same reason I get it now- to protect against the potential cost of a medevac. Would the policy have covered taxi's and meals? I don't know but my expenses for either would be minimal, even now that we use passports. And yet again we still butt up against the same problem- the decision they make affects neither of us so why worry about it?

There will be a delay, certainly but if that delay ordinarily took days I a certain that we would have read about it by now. I've read of three instances where passengers without a passport needed to disembark early from ports without any type of US government presence. It took a few hours for a waiver to travel without a passport to be issued. This was worked out between the cruise line and US authorities. The passengers boarded a plane directly to the US and when they landed they were sent to secondary inspection before they could continue their journey. Will it always be that easy? I don't know because every circumstance will be different but I have no reason at all to doubt that it is the normal procedure.

These are all valid things to consider. We were traveling with teenagers and had no one at home we would need to return for.

In our situation (as I've already said) we had no plans for any other travel. We knew we wanted to, but didn't know when. Besides cost passports also come with expiration dates and we didn't want to start that clock ticking if we didn't need to. We first cruised in 2009 and our first international air trip was in 2015, so had we gotten passports when we didn't need them they would have had six years gone by the time we actually needed them for the travel we could do. As it is we're renewing them next year.

Of course, IF it is actually needed. Spending $850 for a 4 day cruise for our family when we didn't need to spend it didn't make sense for us. Another family may have determined otherwise. Both options were legitimate.

Nope, it's roughly $150 per person payable all at once. When it involves a family it adds up very quickly.

I think the majority of people have mortgages but in any case the cost of a $200k plus loss is still far greater than a delay in returning home from a cruise IF something goes wrong.

Not quite the same since it is usually mandated and the potential loss is so much greater. If you want to compare travel to insurance a better example would be comprehensive auto coverage. If you have a loan you are required to have it. If you don't have a loan then it's entirely up to you whether to carry it or not and that decision is driven by many factors including how much your car is worth.

I was in the same position when we first cruised except it was 4 days and $850. We knew that we wanted to travel internationally by air one day but we also didn't know when that day was, so we decided to wait to get passports until that day came, which was in 2015. I'm sure many will be disappointed that nothing happened to us dunderheads.