Lanyards and clip |
Musing About Cruising
Tips and teasers designed to entertain and inform veteran and newbie cruisers alike.
Blogs Directory
Sunday, June 9, 2024
Be in the Know Before You Go on Enchanted Princess
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Returning to Royal: Review of Wonder of the Seas
Breads and such in the Windjammer |
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Be in the Know Before You Go on Wonder of the Seas
the Seas, he went to the ticket booth, only to find that all the shows were sold out. Yikes! How did this happen? Clearly, a lot of people knew something he didn't.
Read on for important tips on what you should do and what to expect in the lead up to your Royal Caribbean cruise.
Once You Book
·
Save on eat, drink and surf packages – If you’re looking to buy a package, know you’ll have plenty of opportunity to get it at a discount before your trip. Royal Caribbean will barrage you will promo emails—ours started four months before the trip—even before we made final payment.About
a Month Before Your Cruise
· Download Royal Caribbean’s app. Then, when you do online check-in, (available beginning about 45 days before the trip), you’ll get a digital boarding pass called the “SetSail Pass.”
Main dining room on Wonder of the Seas |
Print luggage tags – You’ll get a “Guest Ticket Booklet” PDF via email, with the luggage tags on some of the pages. You can print the tags in black and white, but Royal Caribbean prefers color. We loaded the booklet onto a thumb drive, took it to a local Office Depot and for a few dollars, printed the luggage tags in color on the self-service printer.
Sign up for shows now – In the “Manage My Cruise” section of Royal Caribbean’s website, you can make reservations for the date and time you prefer. The longer you wait, the fewer choices you will have.
Dine your way – You can also make reservations for the main dining room if you’re on My Time. It’s a good idea to do this, especially for formal nights, to reduce the wait at the MDR doors.
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Keeping track – Your booked shows and meals will be listed in the Calendar section of the app. Also, consider making a paper chart and mounting it on the cabin wall with a magnet. It’s a good way for you and your roommate to see your schedule at a glance. I list for each day what port we’re in, where we’re eating and what show we’re seeing.Before Leaving Home
· Print your boarding pass – While you’ll show the SetSail pass on your phone at the port, it’s a good idea to also bring a paper copy, just in case the wifi in the terminal is down, you left your phone in your suitcase, you run out of battery juice, you dropped it in the toilet…
· Ban the banned stuff – Double check that your carryon doesn’t include banned stuff.
My spouse forgot he had a Swiss army knife in his toiletries bag and it was
taken from him.
If something does slip by you, you’ll get it back at the end of the trip. A table was set up outside the cruise terminal in Port Canaveral on disembarkation day. Your possession will have plenty of company—our knife was nearly obscured by a vast collection of irons, steamers and power strips.
Musing’s Top Tip: If
you’re doing a specialty restaurant, do it on the first night. Chops Grille was nearly empty, the service was attentive and it was just plain lovely. It was the
opposite experience a few days later!
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Beyond the T-Shirt: Shopping the Islands
After 27 cruises and a whole lot of shopping, my home office looks like a shrine to the Caribbean.
Some of the stuff is the usual, like key chains, magnets and snow globes. And I even have a t-shirt. But the souvenirs I really love were made by hand or unique to the island. They’re harder to find than ever, but they’re there.
Here are a few of my favorites:Woven baskets from Dominica – The specialty of this Eastern Caribbean island makes a terrific souvenir or gift because it’s portable and practical. And handsome.
Wood art from Roatan – Honduras is known for its wood creations – especially those made from mahogany – and you can find cups, bowls and carvings at the cruise port at Roatan or Mahogany Bay.Peasant
tops from Costa Maya – There are a
number of shops and stalls at the pier that sell locally made clothing. I
bought a delicate, one-of-a-kind colorful hand-woven blouse there for a very
reasonable price.
Painted shells from St. Kitts – Walk through the cruise port towards town and you’ll pass an aisle of small vendors in covered stalls. One of the first vendors, is an artist selling her own work—magnets, small boxes and other objects hand-painted with tropical scenes, including the island’s wild vervet monkeys.
Paintings from Labadee – Royal Caribbean’s private part of Haiti has a thriving artisan market (see left), with dozens of stalls selling paintings of many sizes, and painted boxes and magnets. Some of the paintings can even be purchased without a frame to make it easier to get them home. Note that bargaining is expected!
Madras from Martinique – Ramble through the streets of Fort-de-France – or go no further than the cruise pier – to find examples of the local colorful fabrics. In town, you can buy fabric to make clothing. Or, you can get souvenirs made from madras, such as a little parrot I bought at a pier shop (see left).And then there’s rum. Everywhere!
In short, when you cruise the Caribbean,
there’s plenty to buy beyond the T-shirt, but you’ll need a sharp eye to find
it. Happy shopping!
Sunday, April 2, 2023
Cruising a Classic
Atrium artwork |
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Cure for Chaos
If watching the news about cruising is making your head spin, know that you’re not alone. Who knows when and how it will all shake out, but in the meanwhile, we can nurture our passion in any number of ways. Here are a few:
Don’s Family Vacations – If you want to know what’s happening on a daily basis, you can get it from Don. His lively reports will have you grimacing and laughing, as you experience the full craziness going on right now.
How to find it: Don posts regularly on YouTube. Just search for “Don’s Family Vacations.”
Nova, Season 44, Episode 4, “Ultimate Cruise Ship” – This is a fascinating look at what it took to create Regent’s Seven Seas Explorer, from its bronze propellers lovingly calibrated to avoid vibration to its funnel of aluminum, designed to counterweight the ship’s decadent marble suites. We may not all be able to shell out more than $650 a night, but we can vicariously enjoy—at least for 53 minutes.
How to find it: You will need to purchase PBS Passport. It’s inexpensive and provides a vast array of programming.
Fast forward to 2021, with 26 cruises behind me, I can enjoy comparing Hollywood’s version to the real thing. I imagine you will too.
Regal Princess' shrine to the TV show |
Sunday, July 19, 2020
What is it About Cruising that Makes Us Love it So?
Colorful Curacao |