TwoMisfits

It is - I'm on the same sailing - look again.

I've actually booked all 4 shows plus the comedy show. Following advice here, I did not book their last showings (in case of technical/weather issues). The shows lined up nicely for me with early dining, so that made me happy. We have Hairspray Day 1 at 7:45pm, 1977 Day 2 at 7:30pm, Hiro Day 4 at 8:30pm, Comedy Day 5 (for the adults) at 8:30pm, and Flight Day 6 at 8:15pm. There were late shows, but 10:15 and 10:30 are a little late for me for show start (I'm an earliesh to bed and earliesh to rise person - I turn into a pumpkin at midnight or so, but don't want to be "hyped" or "excited" and then immediately trying to sleep. A wind down hot tub or book reading or drink is where I live after 10pm...

Hi everybody, I woke up this morning, and all my entertainment options were available for my late May 2024 Symphony cruise. Happy booking!

Keeping their liability down - if they didn't report him instantly, their possible civil damages could have been epic.. Once the police have all the victims identified, RCCL will be paying out the nose anyway to each of the victim's families to avoid the inevitable civil suit. This one, b/c RCCL is the actual employer and it happened on their watch, will be pricey.

So, I know you just wanted to know tree nut items, and you said contamination can be okay...but... You will be out to sea, away from premiere medical help if your spouse does run into the allergen. While his previous reactions have not been life-threatening, that may not be the case for his future ones. So, failing to inform the waitstaff of allergies seems like a really bad idea. I understand your spouse may get more limited in his selections - I also have tree nut (and mango and dairy) allergies. But more limited safe selections should always be preferable to unsafe ones. If the allergy is not mentioned, it will not be prepared in a safe area nor with as much care. It will be in a contaminated fryer (if it's a fried item) or in a contaminated grill/pan, possibly right next to tree nut products. It may get made with someone making a tree nut dish, and then turning around and prepping your spouse's. It's just not worth a gamble, since eating out with allergies is ALREADY a gamble, and now you're just adding to it. If he won't mention the allergy, I would skip all vegan friendly items and all Asian items (especially Indian and Thai) and Mexican moles. Cashew dairy products and unsafe almond flour (since all tree nuts, except coconut which is not biologically a tree nut, in the US are processed on the same lines without allergen level cleaning/sanitation UNLESS the product specifically says something like "these almonds were processed in a dedicated almond only line/facility") will be used extensively in vegan friendly stuff. And Asian cuisine LOVES tree nuts in their savory dishes. And all moles include nuts. Again, though, I'd contact special needs and get his allergy listed. If he already needs Benadryl just for ingesting a few nuts, he needs to be safe with his choices, and he can't be safe if the chefs and waitstaff don't know about it.

That's me. If I have free drinks every day, maybe it would be a harder call, but I don't, so it's easy to shop. I have RCCL this year, and next year looks like land based trips...and then we'll see if value returns for certain cruises on any of the lines I'll sail in 2026...

Thanks for letting me know about breakfast/brunch pre-orders. Since I have allergies that greatly affect the regular menus, I'm sure they'll want me to pre-order those, too...and I never even thought about those meals til now...

Normally, they make 10% off the throughput, and most gamblers will not stop and only gamble one cruise to get perks. They will gamble on their free cruises, thus ultimately paying for the cruise through the throughput on that cruise.

However, if you buy now, you will set the base level for dynamic pricing...aka, the more folks who buy, the less likely the price will ever drop...so only buy if it's a price you will definitely live with. Like, the drink package is the cheapest for my cruise (even more than Black Friday - albeit just $2 cheaper/day) - still too high, so I still won't buy...but we'll see if it comes down more as folks hold out. If everyone holds out, that's when prices drop with dynamic pricing.

My Symphony is still $73/day + tax/tip. My spouse has said he doesn't want it for more than $60/day b/c he doesn't want to get fat on the cruise - gotta love the reasoning, but I am saving a ton of money. This is its lowest price...so there's that. But it's still ridiculous. Guess we have a lot of drink voucher folks that need to be covered by the alcohol department on my week...

Did you have travel insurance? Some policies and companies will pay for tour bankruptcies...

Immersive Africa would also be my no brainer decision. I don't remember which one gets more OBC, but the sea days to stop days are just better spread...and why not see some African sites if you're gonna sail around it?

Okay, if that is lobster mac and cheese, it does look awful...and lacking lobster and thickness/creaminess.

You've hit the nail on the head. If the vouchers were removed, I'd expect alcohol would get just as much uproar as the milkshakes, b/c both are ridiculous...

The Key on most ships gives a reserved time for attractions 1-2 times during the cruise. Lines will be short during those times, especially since they aren't popular times (think early and meal times). I'm not sure they have ever put "short line" waits on most ships (although maybe that's coming to Icon). If that reserved time works for your son, you'll be set. If not, cruising on a megaship where activities are "seen" every day but need to be waited for a lot, may not be the best vacation for your family.

But still at kid dinner time. They go from 7-10pm with nothing. 3 hours of play and a kid is ravenous after...at least mine always were...like clockwork...

I can totally see parents with kids leaving kids program at 10pm and being shocked they can't pick up a treat and drink for their now-starving kid at the buffet. In fact, I am surprised WJ isn't open til 10:30pm, just for that...I mean, if it's a family line, 5pm kid dinner is pretty early and then they don't serve food in the kids' room, I don't think... I say this as one, who in days past Carnival, Disney and even Royal cruises, may have been the parent sitting at a buffet from 9:30-10:30pm with a kid and a brownie or soft serve ice cream and a glass of water or milk...

Hmmm, I see my joke about the ziplocs ridiculousness missed:)... Yes, you can't take food off anyway (at least not legally), so the previous poster's concern that it would be the "snack off board" is an obvious non-worry...

If you want to bring your own ziploc products on board to take a cookie or carrot for your airplane ride after spending probably $1K/person minimum for your trip on board - well, you can. And it's not like you can't do it with morning breakfast, when the stuff would be a lot fresher...

And who wants to order room service just for a PBJ or bag of chips or a piece of fruit? You'd cut down on so much waste (people taking things back to the cabin "just in case" and then not eating them) and personnel time (huge burden of room service vs just one extra snack area) if you'd just keep a single serve snack section open at Windjammer all night (or at least til shut down of all night activities)...

I would love a single size snack section open on Windjammer. Whole piece fruit, cookies, pretzels and potato chips, baby carrot or celery sticks, single package cheese, biscuits or bread or even crackers, single serve peanut butter and jelly packets, applesauce packs, jello cups, etc. Things that wouldn't go bad all night, but would be nice late for kids or adults. All of this could sit out hours with almost no issue (one employee would just need to be around to keep it up)...

It's funny - pre=Covid and before my allergies, I would ask for the vegan entree but with a fish filet on top (I'm a huge fan of veg and fish). Half the time, I got one plate exactly as requested...half the time, I got both entree plates in full delivered together (and then wasted the sides from the fish, b/c I didn't want them - thus why I ordered the vegan entree as the base)...

\Maybe that's when they are moving to senior living.

EXACTLY! In dynamic pricing, you NEVER buy early unless you can live with the price you got. If you buy early, you've guaranteed the price will never drop below a certain baseline for every purchase. RCCL items are now like airplane seats. They set a certain base price, and if they don't sell anything, they might drop the price, but if they do sell, the future price will never be below that base price. I gave in and bought one lunch this black Friday so my kids could try oysters for the 1st time ever...it was under $100 for 6 all in (5 adults/1 kid), so that was good enough for me. Everything else was a pass...and will continue to be at these prices...

Yeah, since my allergy combo is the dreaded "dessert" combo of dairy (kills regular desserts) and tree nuts (kills vegan desserts b/c tree nuts are almost always the dessert dairy replacement), I'm hoping that if I don't see any possible desserts, I can ask for a bag of plain potato chips or a scoop of (non-mango) sorbet. Not sure either will be possible, but it can't hurt to ask so I don't just always end up with jello.