NutsAboutGolf

Completely understand yet just pointing if one is attracted to an OBC to use the shareholder route

Standard practice is to keep selling tickets until some Gov't tells you to stop...lol

If I'm understanding correctly, you're on a cruise that stops in both ports? As I'm sure you already know, nothing is guaranteed with visibility and strong currents Curacao has better diving, you're nearly guaranteed to see sea turtles and possibly a sea horse. A kind of cool thing to do is the lionfish hunt, you pay a little extra, and they'll you a spear and training. If you're able to spear one you give the whole spear to the guide who will put the fish in their zookeeper and give you back the spear. As @ROUS points out, the dive bus would be a great option if you're there for a land stay but they have strict deadlines and you need to take a 15-minute taxi ride each way at tourist pricing. I recommend Scubaçao Diving Adventures which offers free pick and drop off and you also don't pay until the pick you up so if the ship can't make it or is super late, you won't even be charged in the first place Aruba, the Mermaid II dive boat mooring is about a 10-minute walk from the ship gangway. Aruba has two relativity intact jumbo jets you can swim in. It's been a year but they only charged $75 for a two-tank boat dive if you had your own gear. The plane wrecks aren't too deep and not too far from shore so it's possible to snorkel yet I'd research that more as your party's fitness level may be a factor. It should be noted visibility will most likely be worse in Aruba and there isn't a ton to see marine life other than small reef fish If it were me, I would dive both (lol) in the morning and join the rest of the party to snorkel in the afternoon

Most of us passport point brah's use www.points.me which usually has a free trial. Once the trial is up we pay $5 for the 24-hour pass and just park ourselves by the computer all day and research. Pretty good article explaining things: https://milestomemories.com/point-me-review-flight-award/

The spend required to get the OBC is ridiculous. All are without annual fees Chase Freedom Unlimited, Citi's double cash, and Citi's Costco card (if you have and plan to maintain a membership) give much better rewards with far fewer spending requirements. Also, why not invest in RCG to get the OBC?

It's a very conversational policy by the Dutch Government. All the buzz right now is will the US Govt take any retaliatory action and would that action be enough to make the Dutch change their mind

Technically using a VPN to change your location on a streaming service is a direct violation of their terms in conditions and some claim you can forever be blocked. They're even illegal with fines in some stricter countries For today's lesson, I almost typed Bl--kListed yet someone recently brought to my attention that the terms "Bl--kListed" and "CakeW--k" are offensive terms which I verified by googling

Once on board, you'll see a Continental Breakfast menu doorknob hanger. You don't need to use it, you can call room service during breakfast hours and order from the Continental Breakfast menu without a charge

You nailed it with short cruises. During the Q2 earnings call: -"putting really outstanding hardware combined with excellent destination into the short product market because it truly is the on-ramp for new to cruise and also first to brand"

I 100% agree. As you state they block "some" of them but not all of them. I haven't had a reason to use a VPN to change my streaming apps location as regular YouTube works fine. I have been considering YouTube TV yet it's not a huge deal to me if I can't watch it on a cruise

Maybe it's ship specific or maybe it's a certain timeframe such as all sailings past April 2024 The VIP pass doesn't appear at all for me for the Eclipse, Summit, or Reflection The VIP Passes tab DOES appear for the Infinity in the spring but only extend your stay:

Some apps like the big streaming ones recognize the free VPN's popular server and blacklist them. You can get around them if you use a VPN that uses Obfuscated servers

Zenith for 12 months for the low low price of only $2,999 + 20% gratuity A lot of airlines do this, one example:

The menus may have a new dish or two before then

I wouldn't be surprised if a new dish or two appears sooner than the end of the month; as stated I thought that was what was going on here when I posted these and attempted to validate they were new items by googling them but they were new names, not new items

They got me, I fell for the name change thinking it was one of the new dishes...lol...So the first posts menus have evolved (or devolved?) to the "before" menus

Yup! We didn't like any of the Jan 2023 cutbacks, thanks for listening and adding them back 11 months later

1.5 hours for both breakfast and lunch; usually noon-130pm. Not sure when the real deadline is (125pm?), I wouldn't be surprised if it varied ship to ship

@manmachine and @kands6191 nailed it, I'm just going to expand. Each sailing only allows a certain number of BCC bookings overall and then only allocates a certain number of rooms. In some cases, if you want a specific sailing, you may find the insides and cheaper OVs sold out but you can pay for a veranda. You should have at least three options (sailings and/or stateroom types) before calling because a lot of them seem to be sold out of insides and OVs. Also, before you call, make sure you have the offer code and CC# handy (CC# isn't in the free sailing email for some reason). Once booked, you can get on MoveUp by emailing the MoveUp; don't even bother asking the reps, they'll tell you it's not eligible assuming they even know what MoveUp is. There's some debate in the BCC community as some are able to apply for and receive the OBC for being a shareholder. Some claimed to have been awarded it but most get repeatedly denied, myself included. Summary (I use a spreadsheet) 1) Pick out at least 3 options, sailings, and/or room types 2) Have your offer code, CC#, and credit card handy 3) Call the BCC 4) If you booked something, email the MoveUP dept assuming you want to bid

Will there be a cruise planner flash sale? That's the elephant in the room

I sure did google it! lol However I googled not for the definition, I hadn't seen "pork duo" before so wanted to ensure it wasn't mentioned before

I did attempt to validate before post, I have never seen or heard of "pork duo" and even google agreed with me. Yet perhaps it's a Solstice thing

You had Pork Duo and Chorizo Linguine on the menu? I posted everything with the impression there would be updates

It's an F&B POC on the ship who is responsible for populating app menus. It's IT's responsibility to ensure that the F&B POC is able to successfully populate app menus

I've definitely seen changes in the app menus the closer you get and believe it will happen here. Yet these menus do list some new entrees which was why I posted them