topnole

If your talking about passports I agree. But if your comment is in reference to insurance, I’m not sure I understand your point? Either way, I agree 500 isn’t chump change for most anyone. Neither is the cost of a cruise. But, at the same time, the cost of a cruise is not a catastrophic loss for anyone or they would never be on the cruise. A catastrophic loss is by definition something you can’t afford. Insurance exists mainly to protect against catastrophic loss although insurance companies certainly aren’t any to sell insurance for non catastrophic loss items nowadays. That catastrophic number varies for everyone, but that is why we don’t typically insure $10 or even $100 products (although insurance companies will try to sell you insurance on many things in those price ranges). I insure my car because the law requires it. A 50k loss, for example, would be horrible (albeit not catastrophic). The liability could be catastrophic though, so we all need car insurance. What I don’t need is $1500-200 insurance on a $1000 appliance. I can just buy a new new one in the rare event it breaks prematurely. Most people simply self insure moat things they own. They only insure the really expensive things that are catastrophic or close to it.

Insurance has zero to do with a passport. Absolutely zero. As far as insurance, other than medical, for many there is no need for travel insurance. If you can afford a cruise, by definition, the travel component wouldn’t be a catastrophic loss. Would it suck? Sure. But it wouldn’t be catastrophic, so that is just for peace of mind. Losing a vacation isn’t like losing a car that must be replaced. And for medical, many folks way over insure because they don’t realize the coverage provided by their existing insurance. Sure, some folks need it. But many don’t and buy it not realizing most of the coverage is redundant. So in fact many buying insurance are also foolish because they don’t know what they want or need.

Yeah. My kids have passports. But I’m not going to go as far as to say everyone needs them. It’s clearly a personal choice for closed loop cruises out of the US and it varies by situation. If close looped cruising is all someone plans on doing (let alone maybe just a one time thing) a passport can be an unnecessary expense. The odds of young healthy folks needing to fly home early is infinitely small. Otherwise they would require passports for all. And if a family has one or two kids, with plans for more, there may well be good reasons for them assuming international travel requiring a passport will not be happening in the next several years. In many situations it could a total waste of money. Again, it’s personal choice and there can be good reasons for going either way. Suggesting otherwise is denying reality. You’re very welcome as well.

Pros and cons to it all. This risk of flying home is incredibly small and folks can make up their own mind on how to plan for that risk. For no reason? People act Iike the cost is nothing. If you have a few kids that isn’t true by any stretch. I just got three kid pass ports and it was over $500 when all was said and done. If you only get it for a cruise, it may make sense to skip the passport and assume the hassle in the highly unlikely event of needing to fly home mid trip. Again, everyone can judge for themselves.

And even if the kids parents were gold when the kid did their one and only cruise? So they keep getting elevated until 18 even if they never cruise again? That’s what always confuses me. You’d think they would only get the status they had on their last cruise with Royal. In other words, to get D, you’d have to go on a cruise with parents when they were D.

Are you sure a passport doesn’t require updating for a name change after a certain amount of time? My be better to use a DL and BC with the marriage license as the bridge. But even a DL is supposed to updated at a certain point. OP could also just book the cruise using the name on their passport? Same for any flights?

If you need to fly back it will be very expensive regardless of documentation.

Yep. That is all you show them. No problems. I’ve done this many times with my kids as toddlers.

5 year amortization if you want to be precise. And you can’t really use it too close to the deadline and you have to account for lots of extra time beforehand. So more like 4.5 years. For some it isn’t worth it if they only plan to cruise once.

The thing I always wonder is if a kid goes with parents once only (at say 1 year old) and never cruises again, they get the status of their parent (say the parents become D+ 15 yeas later) regardless? In other words, you never have to cruise with them later as they elevate in status to get that higher status? Such an odd way to do it if so. I used to think a kid had to cruise with their parents to assume their status, but I think I was wrong. It seems a child’s status could go up as the parents elevate in status, even if they don’t ever cruise again. Then when they hit 18, that status becomes locked in.

Yeah. Pretty much a meaningless difference I think. What should have happened is she shared your status (until she was 18). So if your were gold at that point, they have it right (even though the agent gave you the wrong logic).

Agree. Now if the prices would go back to somewhat normal. Inside cabins are pricing out at darn near suite level prices from a few years ago.

I’m not a pin, just lowly D+, but I can say our last few cruises (particularly our last two), I could tell there weren’t many pins in the SL compared to pre Covid times. I’m not sure the exact reasons, but I imagine they either throttled back their usage or they counted each drink and thus they didn’t use the SL as much as when it was unlimited. I say this from the lack of meeting many at the bar compared to pre Covid cruises when the Oasis class SL bars were the typical hang out for vary pins in a given week. It seemed on my last two oasis classs cruises, all the pins I chatted with in the SL were in suites. I suspect they simply restricted use of the CK/SL. I always thought my favorite perk of being a pinnacle would be the SL/CK if I’m in a regular cabin. I guess that won’t be something to count on. That makes me care even less whenever it is I cross the threshold. The suites have me spoiled, so it probably doesn’t matter for me one way or another.

Not in the past. We did Sabor last year for lunch and it wasn’t that busy and no reservations required. I wouldn’t worry too much, I’m sure tables will be available. Sabor gets criticized a lot, but we enjoy the location for lunch since it is outdoors. Nice vibe on the boardwalk and a just nice place to enjoy a lunch. The food is fine. Not anything that special, but I thought it was good. Definitely worth a try if on the UDP.

Is this the norm now? I thought I’ve heard that something like 100 Pins on oasis class triggers the elimination of SL/CK for pins.

Also a panick attack if provides false information. Basically, it does no good for something so important if you can’t rely on it. It’s one thing to use for tracking a bag. If it’s wrong for a while, potentially no big deal. Not so with the life of a child.

Well. A Broadway show is like a sporting event in that it isn’t normal pricing for beers. Even our local large theater charges about double the price for drinks compared to the popular bars and restaurants right near by.

Ok. I’ll chalk that up to exaggeration from the other poster. Triple the price of Royal seemed a bit crazy. Your experience seems more in line with what I would expect.

I have young kids who we’ve cruised a bunch with. There isn’t a tracking device and there isn’t one you can buy that you can count on for reasons already mentioned. You will either need a leash if it is that big of an issue, or be prepared to chase and catch him. If you can’t do that and don’t want to bring some type of leash/restraining device, you may want to consider the wisdom of bringing them. There is certainly a lot of serious trouble a 3 year old could encounter on a ship. We brought a leash pack back once my oldest was walking/running. We never needed it however. She wouldn’t really run too far away from us.

At an NBA game, I could see 17 for a beer. Where I live, a major pro game is definitely about double the normal local bar prices. So those prices aren't shocking. Maybe the $32 for a drink is a bit much. Either way, if what the other poster said is true, a typical bar in NYC is charging $45 for a drink and $25-30 for a beer. Now that to me is crazy high. Haven’t been to a big North East city since Covid, but I will be soon so I guess I’ll see when I get there how bad it is. I’ll certainly be going easy if it cost 30 per beer.

Are drinks really $45 in NYC? Beers $25? If so, my goodness.

I think they might reallocate what was left behind and add in the new ones on top. Probably depends if the steward or turn around crews need any extra waters that day.

A true father! Cheers to all the fathers of daughters and well done sir. I might add that if it just a concern about the zip line, any pants will do the trick. Then go change back into the skort. But skirts are shorts with an extra layer of fabric. So what the concern is, I’m not sure.

But what does it say on his ID. Clearly they didn’t update the expiration that is stated on the ID. Definitely try to get a new one.

I still find it surprising they don’t require a BC in the sense that it is the document that proves the parental relationship. With just a passport for the child, for example, wife and I could easily bring a niece or nephew with the same last name and no one would be the wiser at checkin. But if I’m only one parent, I need a notarized form or I can’t even bring my own child. Just seems proof of relationship would be required when traveling and a BC does that.