dianajo67

We’re going on icon in the spring so had to get hubby’s passport renewed. Sent it off on 6 Nov, arrived in Philadelphia on 9 Nov, received the new passport today! We were shocked! I expected at least 10-12 weeks based on the website projections!

We’ve never had a problem getting extra towels….but we usually get a couple extra pool towels and keep them in our room on the off chance the attendant forgets.

I agree. Just don’t want to forget that the wages don’t just support the individual in most cases.

I never said that anyone said they shouldn’t be paid. I just think there are some pretty relevant issues being left out of the discussion of what constitutes a living way. It’s not personal.

Virtually every staff member I’ve talked to is married and has a family with children or elderly parents they are responsible for back home. A living wage isn’t just about the employee. It’s about the employee and his/her dependents in this case. Most of these folks are trading time away from their loved ones for the ability to hopefully improve the standard of living for their children back home. Some may even want to send their kids to college someday. I’m retired Air Force. Based on the logic I’m seeing in this thread, I should not be paid when I am deployed because I’m being provided a place to eat and sleep. Very narrow views that folks should just be happy with the potentially squalid living in their homelands and not be compensated for “deploying” in such a way they can have an improved life once returning home. Also, who says they don’t own homes they are paying for back “home?” BTW. Staff do pay for things such as internet, phone calls etc.

I noticed that Icon is selling in-water day beds for $350 for the day on sea days. Zero shade and no way to use your electronics etc. We’ve rented a casita before on Odyssey and found it to be a reasonable deal. These wide-open in water beds have no appeal (for us anyways).

Our head waiter on explorer during a post-covid b2b said that tables are not given away to MTD until 30 minutes past early dining time, ie. 6pm. Although MTD technically starts at 645pm, it’s actually possible to get an earlier seating than that if you are willing to show up earlier and wait to see if early diners are no-shows.

We did an owners and a grand on a B2B on Explorer. Much preferred the grand suite for the balcony. The separate shower in the owners is small and I hated trying to shave my legs in there as there is no place to put my foot. Having the tub in the grand with the extended back ledge was perfect. The whirlpool tub in the owners was not enjoyable as the water was rust colored. Actually it was pretty gross. It was right after covid, so maybe that problem has resolved itself by now and the pipes were just rusty from not being used for so long. Didn’t need the bidet in the owners bathroom either. Grand just felt like a better value if there are only 2 people. Living room in the owners a plus if you’re squeezing 3-4 in the room. Just my opinion.

I think Royal should issue every customer 1 pool towel for the week to help save the environment! Would also solve the chair hog problem as people would be guarding it with their life! Would prevent the huge rush to stock up on pool towels in the rooms to make up for the changes to room service. Expect to see trash and empty dishes etc in the hallways more frequently, especially around rooms that have 3 or more folks trying to be comfortable in such small spaces. Cruise lines should have self-service ice machines like hotels. That would save the attendants a lot of time. Just have an ice bucket in the room. Even super expensive hotels have that! Also, change the gratuity to a service charge that can’t be removed! Some of this is sarcasm btw.

Looking at JS on Voyager. Am not getting an option to choose refundable fare on the last page. However, when I look at cancellation policy below the quote, it acts like the default is refundable. Very strange and I don’t trust it! Same when I redo with a balcony room.

Perfect! Thanks! Anything can happen with the airlines these days…but I feel a bit reassured. Funny thing…my hubby is a retired operator who flew in fighters for years out of England and Alaska. We have facebook friends who are retired military who went to the airlines! Never entered my mind to just ask one of them. Granted, I hadn’t had my coffee yet this morning when I decided to ask! Just keeping my fingers crossed at this point!

Before I posted, I had been monitoring the current flight from FCO - JFK today as well as over the past few days. Todays route is significantly farther north than previous days. My concern was that it looked like the current storms (Earl and Danielle) would be so far north across the entire Atlantic by Saturday, that the airlines were going to run out of space North of the storms. I’m probably wrong to be concerned at all (frequently am), but figured I’d ask. I know we have some airline pilots on here. I’m aware that flights will occasionally fly above a storm if it’s low enough, but that’s not preferred over the ocean as there aren’t a lot of exit strategies if there are problems. Because JFK is on the Northeast coast, it doesn’t give the airlines as much leeway as if the airport was further west. Appreciate all who responded!

Flightradar24 is a great site! Thank you!

I’m supposed to be flying JFK-Rome this weekend for a cruise and a little concerned about the current Hurricane paths. While they won’t be impacting land, they will be pretty far north in the Atlantic by Saturday night. Does anyone have any experience traveling over the Atlantic in those conditions? Do the airlines cancel? Fly above? Fly over? I tried googling and it seems articles are mostly concerned with hurricanes that are going to impact airports and not mid-ocean conditions. Of course, we have to be ready for a cancellation, but I’d like a little reassurance that that might not happen if any pilots out there want to chime in! I understand trip insurance etc. and my concern is not financial. Was more interested in what airlines are likely to do. I’m more concerned about all the various tours/train tickets etc. i have scheduled the first day or two I’m in Italy. Will not have enough days on the ground to reschedule some of them. Thanks.

My son and I had a casita in March during our spring break cruise. The ship was full, so finding chairs on the pool deck would have been a challenge otherwise. I thought it was a good value for the cost, if you think about it as a “shore excursion” onboard. It comes with 2 bar drinks, 4 bottles of water, an ice cooler, towels, USB ports and a bit of shade. We had the last casita towards the back of the ship on the same side as the upper level hot tub. I liked that the ship superstructure in that area throws a bit more shade over the casita during either the morning or afternoon depending on which direction the ship is going that day. The actual roof of the casita doesn’t provide a lot of shade unless the sun is directly overhead. It does provide some though. It’s also close to the windjammer and rear stairwell for going down to the pool deck. Servers also stopped by to take drink orders fairly regularly. We’re going back on Odyssey out of Rome on 19 September and have reserved casitas for both sea days.