JoCo Cruise Crazy 5: The Basics

edited February 2014 in JoCo Cruise

JoCo Cruise Crazy 5 was announced on February 13, 2014.

JoCo Cruise Crazy 5 is a 8-night Eastern Caribbean
cruise on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas; sailing Saturday,
January 31 to Sunday, February 8, 2015. It departs from Port Everglades
in Fort Lauderdale and ports include St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Puerto
Rico and Labadee.

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Comments

  • What the heck? 8 days, sweet. 2 new ports, even though I'd have not yet been to Labadee yet, also sweet. Same boat, more sweetness. New game, hide things on the boat to see if we can find them a year later.
  • Whoa! We got the day back that we lose this time! It's like somebody put their calendar forward a day at the wrong time because the waiter at dinner told them!
  • "New game, hide things on the boat to see if we can find them a year later"

    *blink-blink*  That... is brilliant! 
  • I'll bring some googly eyes. I think moustache-hiding was also a thing on the first cruise, but we didn't get the chance to look for them a year later.
  • There was a conference called MacHack, which had as a central theme the hack contest, where you had three days to create something clever with the Mac OS to make it do something that it wasn't really meant to do. The best known example is overriding the trash can so, whenever you emptied the trash, Oscar the Grouch would sing a line from "I Love Trash."

    Because it was always in the same hotel, Adam Engst would take a yardstick each year and hide it around the hotel. If he could find it the next year, that was his hack. It worked every year except the last, when it was found and disposed of.
  • Here's the full story of Adam Engst's stick: http://tidbits.com/series/1278
  • Yes, small stuff would be good, maybe leave a little note or small animal in the safe.
  • Thanks for the link, @Kevin; so much nostalgia about old Apple stuff, and so many interesting hacks. :) I remember hearing about Crrrhaaack at the time.
  • Anyone remember the Banana 2000 Finder for the original Mac?
  • Actually, the 6/8 day split makes sense if you think about it.  Over a 2 week period, you get one 6 day and one 8 day cruise with the same ship.  St. Maartin was fun last year and there were some nice tours I didn't do, and St. Kitts has a lot of history (a friend just spent several days there doing Revolutionary War/War of 1812 re-enactments.  Never been to Puerto Rico, but it has a lot of history too.

    My one problem with Labadee is that because it is a malaria risk area, I am deferred from donating blood or platelets for a year, so that would make it 2 years in a row.
  • In re: St Maarten, I cautiously suggest that anyone with even a casual interest in sailing look up the 12 Meter Regatta excursion on offer there. 

    It was amazing fun. And it would've still been amazing fun even if I hadn't gotten to crew the actual Stars and Stripes 87, i.e. the boat the won the America's Cup. (It appears THAT BOAT might not always be in St Maarten, but 12 meter sailing is 12 meter sailing regardless of the name on the hull.)
  • Fellow Stars and Stripes crew!  I agree, I really enjoyed that little lesson/demonstration of yacht racing. Easily my favorite excursion from last year.

  • JCCC5: Feel free to visit the

    Facebook Group http://on.fb.me/1idayrr

    and

    Wiki http://bit.ly/AAU2t6

    YAY!

  • edited March 2014
    ( @bry and admins, could this thread be pinned, please?)
  • I'd like to echo what others have said about new Sea Monkeys not knowing about this forum or the facebook group. Could The Home Office add links or mentions to both in one or more of the emails sent to cruisers along with booking info and updates?
  • +1 to links.

    I learned about the forum from a friend, but since said friend doesn't use Facebook I didn't know about it until later and doing a search led me to many, many JoCo related groups of which I wasn't sure which was the right one.
  • I'm pretty sure the Home Office included the forum link on the emails (as well as the FAQ section) that mentioned finding a roomie and maybe newbies thought the forum was only for those who wanted to share a cabin?
  • @TheFoodGeek - it's been at least 20 years since I called a Mac my main computer, and I _still_ miss Oscar.
  • Mike! You were with us!

    I like to think the $20 I slipped the guy who lined us up got us on the "right" boat. ;)
  • It occurs to me I have the group photo from that Stars and Stripes excursion but I never scanned/posted it anywhere.
  • edited March 2014
    I have one, but it's mostly just of me. I'd love it if you scanned that, though. 

    I mean, and shared it. Just scanning it is probably a good idea for lots of reasons, but it does me no good all on its own. 
  • edited March 2014
    Open booking in only 28 days!  Does that mean those of us that pre-booked on the boat can start paying down our JCCC5 balances then?  
  • I have a question about the payment schedule.  I want to know if $250 per person is due at booking, or whether it will be $500 (minus the $250 I put down while on the boat).  The real concern is when that initial payment is accounted for.  Is it taken off the total, or does it count as the first $250?
  • I have a similar question, which is whether the amount due between when the first payment is due and the last day to have your deposit refunded is also refundable.

  • Hmm, here is the information from THO. IIRC, the original $250 onboard deposit was PER CABIN. If it was like last year, that $250 could be applied to the $250 per person on April 15. It also says that all deposits are fully refundable through May 23. YMMV.
  • The Official Word from On High (we're all sitting around at a meeting right now):

    The original $250 per cabin deposit you paid with onboard booking DOES count towards the $250 per berth deposit due when booking opens.

    Example: if your booking is for two people and have already paid the $250 per cabin deposit on board, then when booking opens, you must deposit an additional $250 for your cabin, for a cumulative total of $500.

    Another Example: if your booking is for four people and have already paid the $250 per cabin deposit on board, then when booking opens, you must deposit an additional $750 for your room, for a cumulative total of $1000.

    Make sense?

    Also, as Kate says, deposits are indeed fully refundable through May 23.

    The Management
  • AHA.

    That totally makes sense, and probably the fact that we were looking at that information while drunk on a cruise ship affected thinking abilities.
  • That was how I had hoped it would work...but like villicious said...alcohol seems to have affected some cognitive functionality... Thank you!
  • @paulandstorm I take it (given the information sheet Kate linked to) none of the information is a secret (I vaguely remember having to wait until an official announcement last time), so there's no problem with uploading video of the announcement? There's not too much point in it since most of it is about preregistration for people on JCCC4, and it might just make people annoyed that they can't get those discounts, but some of it would still be interesting to people who weren't there. After all, it's Paul and Storm talking about stuff for five to ten minutes.
  • ...On average.
  • Has there been any update on when actual cruise cost numbers will be available?  I'm a number cruncher, and a need to crunch me some numbers.   (I'm looking for something a little more specific than SOON™.) :D
  • @Anne, I would presume that more details will come out for cabin selection time, around April 15?
  • I know.  But, it would be nice to have some real numbers to play with before then, so I can figure out what cabins I can afford to select.  But fine...I will sit in my corner and pout until SOON™ arrives. :P

  • Don't worry; it's gonna be the future soon.
  • Can someone tell me how to join the facebook group for this? My facebook skills are weak.
  • https://www.facebook.com/groups/237680826415873/

    Towards the top right corner, there should be a Join Group button :)

  • I've done that several times in the past, but it hasn't seemed to stick for me. Today when I go I get the following message:

    The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.
  • Link me to your FB profile (PM if you like) and I'll try adding you manually :)
  • @dcwlopez Hello! I am an admin for the JCCC5 FB group. It has come to my attention that you would like to join. If you could please send a group request, I will approve it immediately. Thank you!
  • Thanks for the help! All fixed now :)
  • Guys, does anyone know if I can book  between now and whenever open booking starts? I just found out that I can make JCCC5 (cue *kermitflail*) but I've lost the onboard booking form. Any chance I can still get the early booking/returning monkey discount or has that boat (heh) sailed?
  • Yay @Sus! As far as I can tell, the Early Booking and Returning Monkey discounts will be available through "May 23, 2014." But, you would not be able to take advantage of the Onboard Booking discount.
  • Aren't we supposed to put another deposit down on April 15th for those that booked onboard?
    I haven't seen any email, and don't seem to have a link to any payment sites.

    Anyone get any email on this yet?
  • @sgradys I have not received anything, nor have I heard from anyone else confirming receipt.
  • There's an email and post coming by tomorrow, but the short version: because there's still some tinkering to be done under the hood of the booking engine, "Firsties" cabin selection for the people who did Onboard Booking on JCCC4 will open in the first week of May (with the next deposit being due then), and booking for the general public starting roughly a week after that. We will give everyone ample notice before cabin selection begins.

    Also: full JCCC5 cabin pricing information will be posted on the JCCC website later this evening.

    Sorry about the overall radio silence form the Home Office lately; LOTS of stuff going on at once.

    293 DAYS!

    P.
  • As a new seamonkey but former sailor, I'd have to say I was a mite confused.

    In the flyer (and around the watercooler), the initial rubric had indicated that deposits were PER BIRTH.  I'll admit, I reckoned that this meant it was PER CABIN.

    With the website update, it specified PER PERSON.  I was confused and concerned that there was a disparity.  It's good to see that paulandstorm had already spelled this out for those of us who went to internet college, though it's slightly disheartening to learn that the deposit is more expensive than I'd originally budgeted.

    Well ... hats off for being clear on the website update, anyhow.  And it'd be good to keep in mind that "berth" might be confusing in the future.  It means either "cabin" or "bed".
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