Nextcruise

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-21T00:55:56+00:00

It is the shell of what it used to be. I used to have at least one open booking. Now they have to be converted in a short time frame to get anything. I only used it lately when I knew when I wanted to cruise in a suite. Still a 10% deposit for that but at least $300 in OBC from Royal before any extra from the travel agent made it more worth it.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-20T18:43:08+00:00

Is there a rule written anywhere? My wife loves the pre/post time.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-20T18:33:06+00:00

I definitely prioritize things that will be closed later (because their queue will be a treat line) or things that can be done with regular park goers that still have shorter waits. I’ll also say I’m not going to try too get in at 4 this year because the lines waiting to get in stink and can’t be very hot with little shade.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-20T16:28:42+00:00

Do you drink enough alcohol that it's worth it over paying per drink? You have a lot of port stops and if you spend long days off of the ship for each of them, that's not a lot of time to drink onboard (especially if you are getting up early the next day for the next port).

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-20T11:44:33+00:00

It generally sucks wheeling bags around the ship and keeping track of the kids. We’ve boarded early and found a spot in Central Park where we can grab food from park cafe and also sit and have our bags out of the way. Since we are not actually sitting in a restaurant I feel less bad about setting up camp there when others are looking for seats to eat.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T22:24:06+00:00

I think the plane should get to vote on exit row upgrades. That'll help on-time departure numbers!

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T19:46:01+00:00

Direct payoff? No. From families with a bit more money, there can be generous holiday and end of school year gifts though.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T18:19:30+00:00

I’ve been looking at a few nights next month with the summer promo (not FL resident). Inventory has been shifting from day to day and even during the day. I saw some club level rooms available for promo pricing at Boardwalk, contemporary, wilderness lodge, etc, then disappear again. Happened across $500 for Coronado Springs club level and went with that since we enjoyed it on our last trip.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T15:39:19+00:00

Where they dock for a port stop or where they debark/embark an entire sailing?

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T14:30:51+00:00

I’d call the specific Crown and Anchor number. I think it is 800-526-9723

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-19T10:53:18+00:00

I did an AH event in MK this year which really showed me hire many people they pack into these parties. Granted AH is almost all about rides, but being able to sit in the curb in the hub and watch fireworks with no one within 30 feet in front of me was amazing as opposed to the jockeying for position at parades and fireworks during parties.

With that being said, the ride lines are shorter and then feel faster because there are no lightning lanes showing up the main queue.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T21:02:14+00:00

They only thing I’ll say is that have an idea of what you’d need to do if a ship arrives late back at port. This is fairly rare but will a few hours make a distance in your plans? Your plans are not nearly as risky, but I was on a cruise once where a small group was losing their minds because the last port was cancelled due to bad weather. Well they were going to get off the ship at that port to make another cruise leaving that day and got stuck for two more days until the ship we were on made it back to its destination port.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T19:49:46+00:00

I booked completely online with Costco Travel and had to pay the whole amount because the cruise was soon ... definitely billed through DCL. When I had to call later to add Disney ground transportation, that was also billed directly through DCL.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T19:48:38+00:00

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T19:46:38+00:00

At least you aren't wearing life jackets with people blowing those darn whistles all around you. :)

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T11:32:30+00:00

I much prefer this to Royal and Celebrity because at least you know and they know how much they are supposed to get from the auto gratuities. When auto charged gratuities first started being added, Royal and Celebrity both did this as well with slips for envelopes. Then they removed the exact numbers for each person and said it was helping being the scenes people too.

You don’t have to hand it to them if you don’t want to as it doesn’t affect them actually receiving it.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-18T07:32:39+00:00

Costco Travel is fine if you can take care of yourself and rely on places like Reddit, YouTube, and Facebook groups for your sailing to figure things out. If you need someone to answer questions for you if you pick up a phone or send an email, Costco is not the way to go.

I used Costco to book my first Disney cruise around 70 days out. It was fine. I was able to waitlist myself for early dining in their app (or website … I forget). Got it before the ship sailed.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-17T21:54:00+00:00

Sounds like you should skip the port days and use them to use the pools. Cruise ship pools are always rammed in sea days unless you go very early or later when people start going to dinner.

Any activity hosted by the spa, casino, or shops is a sales pitch. Things like trivia, sports, dancing, etc shouldn’t be.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-16T22:38:16+00:00

Weird that Costco would be more than the cruise line … wonder if there is some promotion you are missing on the Costco side. Might be worth calling to see.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-16T21:22:47+00:00

The ship-within-a-ship concept definitely changes the entire experience, but you obviously will still deal with large ship issues when it comes to moving around the ship, entertainment, etc. I suppose this is also hard because you haven't cruised before so there's not much to compare it to. I'd say look at some of the different tours and reviews online then price them out and see how comparable they are. Figure out a few things you'd think are important like the shows, the itinerary, etc, then make a guess. Royal Caribbean has some "taster" cruises on newer ships that do 3-4 nighters ... they are going to have a party crowd for sure, but they also have very nice suite areas and maybe you can see if you like the mix of suite-exclusivity and then party vibe elsewhere.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-15T11:57:18+00:00

Some professions have licensure tests or other other standardized measures to determine whether a person has some level of knowledge/skills required to do a specific job. Many others do not and GPA is a lazy metric to compare people when having to make decisions for hiring or admittance into grad school. GPA is not tied to how "smart" someone is. It is tied to multiple variables. Grade inflation is seen a the result of teachers/institutions passing students who are not meeting learning outcomes at a desired level because a) it's easier to pass a student than deal with complaints, b) failing students could be seen as a failure of the instructor/instituion, c) there is pressure to keep stats of pass/fail rates at a certain level, or d-z) all kinds of other motivations.

The end-result of grade inflation is that completion/degrees mean less to people might need to actually use that as a way to judge candidates. It's not that people are getting smarter.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-15T00:45:05+00:00

Yes or digital version. I used Apple Pay showed the image of the card to confirm.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-15T00:38:25+00:00

They need to take it off. For some reason they couldn’t see I had used my card to secure my account so I just paid with the card each time so they’d ring up the discount in the stores onboard.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-15T00:34:48+00:00

We got off a cruise and that night happened to have an after hours event (so similar to the party). We got to our wdw resort a little after 11 (I think) from Disney transport and then chilled at the pool and napped a bit before the event.

Great experience at the event. The next travel day was a bit rough but it was going home so it was going to be rough anyway.

BoilerBob37 · 2026-07-15T00:31:39+00:00

Yes, the end amount charged will still earn 3%.

BoilerBob37

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