Lovetocruise2002

Oh, this whole trip in July is YOLO unfrugal! I wanted to pull the plug on the whole thing but we couldn't do that to D17 since it's for her graduation. I get it. Hubby still thinks he is 20. lol

We looked up a tour by them. It was the Key Master tour, the one where you open the Sistine Chapel. It was almost $4K for all 4 of us! I closed that browser pretty quickly lol

That sounds exactly like my 17 year old lol

It was discussed in this thread and I think also another…. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/44059-what-ship-will-replace-the-harmony-in-galveston-in-2026/page/3/

I looked at so many tour operators over the last month. We ended up booking with LivTours for all our tours in Barcelona and Rome. I would have loved to book with them for the port days too on the cruise but I chickened out and went with the cruise line tours. Don’t want to risk missing the ship in an area that I am not familiar with. I was really impressed when dealing with LivTours over email and Whatsapp while planning, hoping this means the actual tour will be great too!

No offense taken! The OG credit here goes to the likes of @twangster @WAAAYTOOO and @CGTLH. I was reading those blogs long before I ever started blogging. And I fully agree with @OCSC Mike, any blog is better than none. And it’s even better that we all have our different styles. I too am looking forward to following @calvink669’s trip! I have plans to go back on Icon one of these days!

You mean the Intercontinental? Lol. I do love that place, even though our last stay there in March had some hiccups. We will still be back. BTW, I am so jealous that you will be spending 14 nights in that room!

We are doing a private golf cart tour and the food walking tour as well! We are booked with LivTours. @Jkaczano spoke highly of them in her previous blog. Can’t wait to hear about your experiences!

It does! We had it booked for the 4 of us for NYE 2018 on Indy (not Mariner but I believe those rooms are set up the same). That was a sailing that we booked only a few months out from sailing so there were not many choices left. But then closer to the cruise, I couldn't bring myself to do it. A Cat. 1K (Ultra Spacious Ocean View) opened up and I moved us. In retrospect, that was the worst room that we have ever stayed in! Front of the ship, so loud, so much motion. I would assume the Panoramic rooms on those two ships are going to be similar.

For us, it depends who the cruise director is. That is how we decide if we are going to attend or not. If it's a high energy, funny, CD, we try our best to go. Much like The Quest, IMO, the CD makes or breaks that show. However, our last two sailings, we have skipped (even one with Ricky Matthews who we love), because of the times that others have mentioned above. They keep doing the show at 2:30pm now and that does not work as well for us.

This is how I feel as I am in the thick of researching places to eat in Rome for July. Every restaurants looks good to me, but I don't even know what authentic truly is lol

No kids is way better than RU lol

Chops is not open for breakfast on Oasis class ships. The only time they might open it for breakfast is for overflow Pinnacle guests. I think I remember @WAAAYTOOO saying that before.

If you win a SC upgrade, you either have to cancel the packages yourself prior to the Cruise planner closing, or your Genie can cancel it for you once on board. Royal will not automatically refund those on their own.

IMO If you self carry your luggage and get off the ship early, totally doable. MIA is only about 20 mins away from the port of Miami. However, curbside Terminal A (assuming this is your terminal) at the port is awful if you debark after 8am so make sure you get leave before that.