Trip followup -

The cruise was very nice and we didn't encounter any big problems. Some takeaways:
  • The Scottevest Pack Windbreakers worked great. We used them a lot more than we thought we would.
  • We purchased a "water package" from the ship and they delivered a whole case of 16 oz bottles to our room. We also bought the soda package for unlimited soft drinks.
  • There was a power outage in the hallway outside our cabin and I think some cabins lost power too (not ours). We turned on the scanner to listen and they were talking about a circuit breaker and the power was back on in about 10 minutes. So the scanner was very nice to have to hear the real truth almost instantly. Otherwise, we would have been grabbing our stuff like a big emergency was happening. Besides that one event, we didn't listen to the scanner much at all but it's amazing all the stuff that is going on in the background that you can hear over the scanner.
  • We didn't have any problems talking throughout the ship on the two-way radios and at one point we were pretty far away from each other - almost the entire length of the ship. We didn't take the two-way radios ashore in case they were illegal and we wouldn't have needed them anyway.
  • We ended up needing the long johns because our cabin A/C wouldn't shut off and it was about 60F one night. It turns out that too much wine will seriously impair your ability to operate a thermostat - lol. The next day we realized it was our own fault. We might add a thermometer to our list because I don't think the thermostat temp was correct.
  • Bringing snacks and candy was a good move. That stuff is super expensive on the boat. There is food available somewhere on the ship at all times but sometimes you just want a little bag of chips or a candy bar in your room.
  • The sat phone would not work in our room. It did work on the balcony but it would cut off the second you got about a foot away from the rail because of all the metal overhead. Gotta have a clear view of the sky.
  • The room safe was adequate in size to store all of our valuables for two people including electronics like cell phones, radios, sat phone.
  • We burned through most of the cash we were carrying. We had $1,000x2 spending cash plus $800x2 emergency cash. Between tips and trying to avoid international credit card fees, and hiring a fishing boat and guide, and then another day hiring a dive boat and guide - it got used up. Should have brought more cash. if there had been an emergency on the way back to Ft. Lauderdale we would have been caught short of cash.
  • Having a GPS with street maps was very handy when we were in port. This wasn't on our list but we brought our Garmin Nuvi in case we rented scooters or a car but it turned out that we used it for walking around town and finding places on foot more than anything else and we ended up not renting scooters.
  • Having a small first aid kit came in handy. We used a lot of items from it. Advil, band-aids, sunburn cream, zinc oxide to name a few.
  • We took the batteries out of our cell phones and locked them up in the safe. Royal Caribbean has wireless cellphone roaming on the ship and if your phone automatically gets email and other data like weather reports then it will find the ship's signal and then you get charged international roaming fees. We got this tip from our next door neighbor on the ship right after we checked in. Even if you turn off the phone it may still be connecting to the tower - you have to take the battery out. We took our phones with us onshore, but kept the batteries separate while onshore too - only wanted them with us in case of an emergency.
  • There are no irons in the cabins. There was no self serve laundry either. To have one outfit washed (pants, socks underwear, tshirt, shirt) costs about $15. We washed some small things in the sink like socks and underwear and hung them in the room using paracord for a clothesline. We used shampoo for laundry soap. We will add a tiny bottle of laundry soap to our list. Luckily we brought enough shirts and pants to last the whole trip and it wasn't too bad washing socks and underwear a couple times.
  • Some of the little miscellaneous items we brought came in very handy - deck of cards, duct tape, ziplock bags. We will add safety pins to our list of items that we needed to make clothing repairs. Ended up getting some safety pins from another passenger.