Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast, your weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean Cruising.

I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 438.

Today, it's all about you as we're diving into the Royal Caribbean blog podcast email inbox.

That's a lot of social media words right there, and we're going to answer as many questions as I can on this week's episode,

because after all, I want to make sure we catch up with what we've got. Here we go. So as you know, we always answer listener questions on this podcast, but this week I wanted to catch up on some of these emails. I want to make sure that they are timely. I want to make sure that if you take the time to send me an email, that I answer them in a reasonable amount of time. So that being said, if you want to send me an email to be answered on an upcoming episode, you can always do so by sending them to mat at royal Caribbeanblog.com. Matt, M-A-T-T at Royal Caribbeanblog.com. And after this episode, the email inbox will be substantially lower. So better chance of your email getting read a lot quicker. That being said, let's hop into the email starting off with our first email today, and that is from Renee, who writes, hi Matt. We're debating to drive to the port of Miami instead of flying for upcoming cruise. What is the best parking for a two-week back-to-back? So thank you for the email, Renee. And of course,, when it comes to parking, what Renee is really asking me is should she park at the port or should she park somewhere else? In general, I always advocate parking at the port. It's just so much more convenient for the most important reason. Number one, I hate shuttles. Every time I've ever parked off-site, the shuttle services have always just been slow. You've got to park your car, and then you've got to wait for a shuttle. They load your luggage on there. You're competing with other people to get a spot on there. And it's just wasting time. I would much rather park at the port. Yes, it does cost a little bit extra, but that convenience factor is worth it. And I would argue it's even more important on the last day of the cruise when you're getting off the ship. And all you want to do is get your stuff and go home. You're tired because you woke up early to get off the ship. You're disappointed, frustrated. The cruise is over. And now you've got to go home, but you want to go set on a shuttle bus with other people? No way. No thank you. So I definitely recommend parking at the port. It costs a little bit extra. And also on top of that, speaking of the cost, I really don't think you save that much money parking off site. Truly, it's not like it's like half off or a quarter of the price. Usually you're talking much closer to like maybe three quarters or something like that. Anyway, I just don't think this is where you should, you know, try to save some pennies. I think parking at the port is just the way to go.

It's just the convenience factor is worth it every single time. So Renee, I would definitely

recommend parking at the port. It's just super, super easy over there. Next email is from

Mylan Horton, who writes, hi hi matt i've been listening and watching your

youtube for two years now i just booked my first real creeping cruise for october 22 on symphony

of the season i got some real cribbing gift cards for christmas is it true i cannot use the gift

cards on board per the fine print they can only be used to pay down the balance of my cruise fair

thanks uh myelin you are correct.

Yeah, the Royal Caribbean gift cards, I don't recommend them at all. Now, you got one in Milans. I'm just telling me some of other people who may be thinking about it. Do not purchase Royal Caribbean gift cards or gift certificates or anything like that. They do exist, but they're not like a gift card that you get, you know, for Amazon or Starbucks where you take the gift card and it's as good as cash and you can use it.

The Royal Caribbean gift card that you get for Amazon or Starbucks where you take the gift card and it's as good as cash and you can use it.

The Royal Caribbean gift card slash gift certificates have crazy complicated redemption rules that just make it quite frankly unusable or untenable in my experience.

There are very strict restrictions and no, you can't use them on the ship.

Like, you know, you know, I'd like to order a drink. Here's my gift card. It doesn't work that way. It's, it's just something to be used before the cruise. In some situations, Milin, depending on your gift certificate, I remember one time we used one. And we could actually use it and I got applied as as an onboard credit.

So you've got one.

You got one for Christmas.

Of course,

you said thank you. You know, I would definitely apply it to an upcoming sailing. Make sure you read those redemption rules. Make sure you have enough time. As I also recall, there are specific, you can't add it at the last minute. It needs to be applied within a certain time window. Again, another reason why I don't recommend these. But you should apply to your cruise fare, knock down the price of it, however you want to do it. But in the future, tell your family member or friend, hey, while I appreciate that, don't do that. If you want to give a gift card to somebody, I would just say give them a visa gift card, something like that, that they can be used as cash, and then they can cash that out and just be brought on board the ship. There just isn't a very good option if you want to gift somebody money to be used on the ship. This is a very common request, and I'm quite frankly surprised real carping hasn't really moved in this direction to say, you know, if I want to gift somebody a hundred bucks, you know, for, you know, like, or more specifically a better example, but maybe like, you know, my mother wants to gift my daughter, you know, for, for her birthday, you know, some spending money on board, right? It doesn't really work that way. The only way they can really work is for, you know, her to give me the cash, and then I would maybe apply the cash to the onboard account or just simply pocket it and just know that my, you know, daughter can spend a certain amount of money on board the ship. You could, of course, take that cash, go to guest services, put it down as a credit, and that will absolutely work as well. But unfortunately, for the Crimean gift cards, it's just, they're not great.

I just don't recommend them at all. And it's one of those things that it's not even hard. It's not even easy to find. I think you have to Google it more than anything. It's not like if you go on the Real Corby website, it's front and center. So it's just one of those things that does exist, but again, not a fan. next email is from

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