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Day 3 - At Sea Good morning/ afternoon all. We totally lost time this morning as we did not wake up until an hour ago. Interesting observation as I have never done daylight savings on a ship before. My phone said 10am when I woke up as did all our other devices, but, Royal IQ, wonky as usual, looked like this: Threw me right off as I did not know if being on Airplane mode affected my phone's ability to change time on it's own. So I texted my sister back at home to see what time it really was. Phone was right. Royal was wrong. Down here on Deck 4, the big clock on the Esplanade also says 11am. Maybe this is cost savings by RC to ensure that some people become pier runners tomorrow ? It's bit warmer today. And since I cannot cannot compete with @twangster's tech skills here's another view from the balcony to show where we really are ? I am not a bot, fish, or a man in short sleeves lol. Currently siting in La Patisserie waiting for WJ to open for lunch, since we missed breakfast. I can't remember if @twangster included this in his blogs but here is the menu: Nice place to relax and blog ? Going to check on Hubby and kids back in the cabin. Hopefully chaos did not break out while I was here.

I'm not buying it (I see a guy in short sleeves). Nice try...? In other news, I hear it's rather cool in Labadee today...

Kids are having Sorrento's pizza and chips on the balcony and I had some time to put this together. This was probably the coolest sailaway I have experienced. After putting this together I had to laugh at myself, I am the whimpiest Canadian. Can you tell I hate the cold? Lol. Hence the retirement plan to move to Florida.

Back from rock climbing. Hubby and kids got there at 1:30pm for a 2:00pm start. They were first in line. By 2pm when I got there the line was very long. I did not get a pic in the frenzy but the line started to the left of the wall and it was past the giraffe (not my pic...credit to google search). You are required to wear socks. They provide the shoes and harness. No helmet for this activity. Beginners: He's done it before: Ever wonder what happens if you lose your seapass card? After rock climbing hubby could not find his. He went back to rock climbing to see if he dropped it. No luck. Went to to guest services and they basically deactivate your card and WOW band and issue you a new card. Pretty easy. Then D1 found hubby's card...location? In the slot for the lights! ?

CK Night 2: Formal night 1 For D2, my picky eater. At least it looks nice lol. Lobster Salad: A; on the small side but good flavours and fresh Zucchini Spaghetti: Interesting twist on Spaghetti in that the noodles are actualLy Zucchini and it is in a Marinara sauce. Not to my liking as the texture is off for me but hubby likes it. The flavours are good and it's a fairly healthy dish. Grade: A- Caesar salad: Fresh...interesting set up...other than that, it's Caesar salad. Grade: A Chicken leg: I did not try this on Harmony and wanted to give it a try tonight. Sorry to say that I did not enjoy it. The flavours were wonderful but the texture was weird. It's almost as if the chicken seemed ground up. Not sure if I am explaining this well but it was just strange. Grade: B- Pappardelle: Excellent flavours, pasta could have been a bit more "al-dente" but overall a good, solid dish. Grade: A Crab and Shrimp Crusted Pollock: This was Hubby's dish. He liked it enough to order it a second time (he had this on Harmony). He's not here right now to give it a rating. Living it up in the Seaplex with the kids. That's what cruising with kids is like ? Dessert! As mentioned before, D2 is a very picky eater. Our waiter is amazingly patient with her. She took it upon herself to create her own desser tonight. It's chocolate chip cookies with a cup of vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce for dipping. She said it was delicious! So I guess the rating is A+? ? Valrhona Chocolate Bar: What can I say about this? It's rich chocolate, melts in your mouth, yum! Rating: A+ After dinner we went to see "The Gift" in the Royal Theatre. Set design, choreography, vocals, acting, dancing, all superb! Storyline...a bit strange. I almost want to see it again as I had a really hard time following this one. Currently passing time writing this as we wait for the late night comedy show. The comedian is Kivi Rogers. He did a bit on the Welcome Show last night. We found him quite funny so heading back to see his late night version. CD Clo continues to be very entertaining and amusing. This is our first time having a female CD. The vibe is definitely different, but a good different. Still have not had a chance to do WJ recon. ? Going to try tomorrow... Random stray observation: Star Class does not seem to be as "in your face" on Anthem. Other than the Theatre, I have yet to see a Genie walking around. On Oasis class, we saw them everywhere. Good night for now. Hopefully tomorrow brings warmer weather, and sun. It was cloudy and cold today. Then it rained...

Lunch in the WJ was uneventful. It was crowded again and people were not moving through it well. We got there at opening too...11:30am. I didn't bother taking food pics. It was too crowded but did get some dessert station pics. It's rock climbing time...

Final random thoughts and pictures. I ordered the brownies from Royal Gifts in the cruise planner, had them delivered mid week...omg, they were awesome. More like fudge with a thin layer of brownie on top. I loved having the coffee maker in the room. It wasn't the best coffee by any stretch, but it was so nice not having to run up to the Windjammer, or have room service to worry about. The Schooner Bar on Radiance-class is huge. It was my go to drink stop. I loved sitting on the backside of the bar so I was facing the ocean. The suites have doorbells, which are actually very nice to have, I was surprised I liked it so much. But...we had some ding-dong-ditchers one night. They rang and ran 2 or 3 times, and it woke my wife, thank God not the baby. We told guest services about it and asked if they could have someone turn our doorbell off. Sure enough a few hours later one of the ship's electricians came and unhooked some wires for us. Cozumel from our balcony Grand Cayman tour One of the many elevator rides Smith Cove on Grand Cayman

Quick post before dinner. Hubby and kids went roller skating in the SeaPlex. I did not go. I avoid that place like the plague. Too much like work lol. ?: Hubby After that it was soft serve ice cream time. It was nice that there was a hand washing station right near it. Dinner time! CK and Spectra's Cabaret tonight.

I totally can allow for the complexity of migrating a database to a new architecture, especially if they were previously using an open-source system and now migrating to a proprietary / commercial / enterprise system. BUT... As @Traveler noted in his comment, part of any big migration like that also should include having parallel systems in place in production, or even entire redundant data centers, so you can migrate data to the new system / center while the old one stays online. Don't bring the new one online until everything is migrated and tested; if it takes longer than expected, have a process in place to do nightly transfers of new data from the old system to the new so data stays in sync. But above all else, keep the main system online and don't cut over until it's ready for cut over. For a big job like this, send out an announcement and maybe even plan for full outages that last a day or two. I realize this isn't a Wall Street financial system that requires five-nines uptime and has service level agreements to uphold. But it's still a system that thousands of travelers need reliable access to every single day when their trip is coming up. This rollout is nothing short of a gigantic bungle on Royal's part, and whoever was responsible for planning it and executing it needs to be disciplined at a minimum, possibly fired for the clear lack of process on display here.

Since it was nearly two years (I know, I suck) since our last cruise, I had completely forgotten the smell. OHMYGOSH - when we boarded a few weeks ago, it all came back to me and I was literally overwhelmed. I really did feel like I was where the Lord meant for me to be.

Who hasn't experienced the death grip syndrome holding a phone near or over the railing of a ship to take a picture? I took a wrist strap from an old relic point and shoot camera that was collecting dust and I found a way of modifying a plain phone case I bought at a local discount store for $10. It's a Speck case and does a decent job protecting my phone but it didn't come with a wrist strap. I simply drilled two holes in the corner of the case and using the strap from my old point and shoot camera I now have a wrist strap for my phone. Now when I take a picture I can hold my phone over the railing and I am relaxed without any concerns I might drop my phone in the sea. If you don't have access to a drill, you can loop the strap through one of the slots on the case that is used for the microphone or speaker on the bottom of the phone. This approach isn't as strong but it works in a pinch. If you don't have an old wrist strap you can buy them for a few bucks on Amazon. It's amazing what a difference it makes knowing your phone is safe. I've grown to like it so much it stays on my phone now and it does a great job when walking the dog! Buying a cheap case and strap is a small price to pay compared to losing your phone even if you only use it when cruising.

That's what RC Blog is all about! I learn new things all the time too. Every cruise is a learning experience!

Yes, excursion tickets work as tender tickets.

Day 3 and no drink cards spotted yet....

There was an ice cream stand set up in the WJ earlier. The guy was ringing a bell. Never came across that before. I wish I could have gotten a pic but it was too crowded. No charge ?

You know, I would be much more understanding and accepting of these issues if I received any communication regarding the issues and timeline. Instead, I continue to get emails telling me there is a sale and I should book another cruise. Just one little email, “ we are experiencing difficulties and please accept our apologies. We expect this issue to be resolved no later than than March....”

And you eat it with mayo. Ooops, that's the pommes!

You can resize photos with sites like this: http://www.simpleimageresizer.com/ Just upload your photo, set the new dimensions, and download the resized photo, which you'll then use for the site. If you have any trouble let us know the exact errors or other messages you're getting.

A word of warning if you ever find yourself in Germany or Austria... real apple pie and also apple strudel always have raisins

I'm a teacher and a mom. We are great at multi-tasking ?

Not just first time cruisers. Up until Friday, hubby was telling everyone that we were flying to Florida. At the border into the US earlier the conversation with the customs officer went like this: CO: Where are you headed? Hubby: New Jersey CO: How? H: uh...by plane CO: What airline? H: uh...(looks at me) Me: Delta CO: When are you coming back? H: uh.... Me: on the 17th Not sure at this point if he knows what ship we are on tomorrow. ?

Once the phones are setup for wifi calling you can try this at home, right now. Turn on airplane mode, connect to wifi at home and try texting each other. On my phone with T-Mobile it tells me when it's connected to their internet service. You can see I'm in airplane mode and the "T-Mobile Wi-Fi" indicates my phone is connected to their internet server and ready to do wifi calling and texting just like I'm at home with a cell signal. Verizon should be similar. As far as free - Like many things on the ship not everyone wants it. There is no "free", just included in the price. To make it included base fares go up. For those cruisers that desire to disconnect and never use it, I'm pretty sure they don't want to pay higher base fares for something they have no intention of using. Just like specialty dining or drink packages or laundry or <fill in the blank>. Why should I pay a higher base fare for something I fine doing without just so that someone else gets it for free included?

Very cool!! I used to love sailing from NY! Looking forward to it again. I hope you have a great time at KSC!! Love your blog!

Really enjoying your blog! We cruise on Anthem for the first time in October 2019, but planning is essential! Enjoy your day at KSC tomorrow.

Will do.

You can do My Time Dining and make reservations (for times) ahead of the cruise. 6:30 one night, 7:00 another night, etc. We like the MDR just fine. I've occasionally had something that I didn't care for, but I just ordered something else. As someone stated, if you're a gourmet or foodie, you might not think it's great but it's certainly not bad.

Verizon will roam onto the cell tower on Majesty operated by a 3rd party Cellular@Sea. From the Vz website: Or you can turn on airplane mode and purchase Voom wifi plans from Royal. You can find pricing for multi-device plans in the cruise planner.

Smells like ......money.

Really liking this blog! Don't worry at all that it's boring, I'm seeing things on the ship that I haven't seen before, like the Patisserie! Between the Ben & Jerry's cups and the chocolate specialties, that could end up becoming my mid-day snack stop. At least, assuming the Ben & Jerry's cups are actually full cups and not the little 2-ounce mini-cups that I've seen in some places. $4.50 for one of those tiny things would be insulting in the extreme.

Nice pic, but where's the balcony view?

It's awesome!

Photoshop strikes again!

I use vacation countdown app from App Store.

I use an app on my phone called Image Size. I generally go for 900 pixels wide unless a menu or text then 1500 pixels wide.

I'm really enjoying your blog, Sabrina! Thank you for taking the time to show lotsa pictures (the twangsterbot needs to up it's game!) and great dialogue. Here's hoping y'all (that's southern for "you Canadians") find some good, warm weather soon. It was pretty darn cool and windy here in Charleston today, but not as bad as NC. I'm sure you'll find it!

Nope. I don't like red velvet cake. But D1 got one. She loved it!

Although I could login with the direct link (thanks @rjac and I I found a dissimilar that "even if you do not see same things between the site and apps do not worry it will be ok" I would wait with any updates until the site will be stable. My recommendations, if your cruise is not in the coming week wait with any updates transaction on the site (cruise planner changes for example) as RC did not finished the migration/upgrade process and things can be lost during this process. So unless anyone wants to spend hours with RC customer care trying to find were is the special restaurant your order and paid for , just wait for Monday or Tuesday . My next cruise is in one month from now and that is what I am planning to do. By the way , if anyone looking for a CIO job in a major cruise line , it seems to me that one going to be available soon

Thank you for your recommendation. I have booked beach front cabana and zip line/ alpine coaster. !!

Use a picture program (photo editor) to shrink it - it has to be under 50Kb - which is really small. Most computers have such programs on them already.

I’ve found cape liberty is the smoothest boarding process I’ve had. Went on Anthem last year and adventure in May. It took all of 10 minutes and we were in the wind jammer

@Floski It's actually very rare that guests will buy something like this. It's often found cheaper in the Duty Free shops in port, like Jamaica. We actually don't get individual commission! We have a sales target at the beginning of every cruise, and anything achieved more than that, will result in a bonus on our salary.

At the CC meet & mingle right now. It's in the Music Hall. Cabin crawl to follow after this. Clo just announced that there are over 2000 Canadians on board ??? Free mimosas!

@PrincipalTinker Try this link: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/mycruises/processLogin.do. That will get you into their website so you can access your reservation. If that does not work get back to us here on the board.

Ya, you really don't know when they were made. I would prefer to get them out as soon as they get made. I will try to remember to take one tomorrow for you. My Periscope name is @LetsTryThisPlace

So today was Laberdee. I have to say coming from Cayman it really isn't much for us. My original plan for today was to go to the floating bar and have a Laberdoozy. We got off the ship a little before 2, I then went to look for the floating bar. I must admit I really thought it would have been more towards the cove side as it was much calmer there. We found it we went to go into the water and realized it was too cold for us. Not extremely Cole but for us, it was too cold lol. So no floating bar for us. We also found they were also all out of Laberdoozies everywhere. After 0/2 we walked around and took some photos for you guys with some hints. If you would like to avoid the market there is a walkway just after the gold card area on the right side. We found this on the way back so we didn't have to be asked to look at every stall (I swear just looking over at them that they all have the exact same stuff???). If you are interested in some stuff but don't want to be pushed as much, then I would recommend the first shop that looks kind of like a barn. When we got back on the boat I discovered the Royal Castle and although a little strong is so good. Very flavorful and a lot of citrus, its really good) For dinner we both had the caesar salad to start again. Sandra also got the tomato seafood risotto. Sandra had the chicken coq au vin which she liked. I got the Royal Strip Loin first and didn't like the olive taste it had, the table next to us also found it to be a little tough. I then got the baked perch instead and that was really good (no photo of the perch) For desert, I had the cheesecake and apple pie again. I'm not sure if they read my post because now it went from 3 raisins to a whole box lol. Not sure why they are there still. Sandra got the cheese plate. We then came home to find this little guy.

I'm in my Toms! The rest are flip flops. Lol. I refused bring boots too! ?

Here is a breakdown of food on Allure: Complimentary Restaurants Windjammer: The main buffet. It never lets you down. Main Dining Room: Complimentary sit-down service available for all guests. Park Café: Casual café in Central Park some would compare to a Panera. Solarium Bistro: Healthier dining in the adults only area. It is a buffet during lunch but converts to a sit down restaurant/buffet hybrid in the evening. Vitality Café: Healthy quick-serve options located right outside the gym. Also has protein shakes. Sorrento's: Pizza joint in the Promenade that is open 24 hours. Café Promenade: Serves sandwiches and other items in the Promenade. Dog House: Hot dogs on the Boardwalk. Coastal Kitchen: This is a main dining room for suite guests only. Specialty Restaurants Chops Grille: Royal Caribbean's classic steakhouse. Usually around $49 for dinner and $22 for lunch. 150 Central Park: Farm to table style restaurant by celebrity chef Michael Schwartz. Usually around $49 for dinner and $22 for lunch. Izumi: Great sushi. Also has a hibachi option like a Benihana. Pricing is a la carte for sushi and $45 for the hibachi experience. Giovanni's Table: Classic Italian restaurant. Usually around $35 for dinner and $25 for lunch. Sabor: Mexican restaurant with great guacamole and margaritas. Usually around $22 for lunch and dinner. Johnny Rockets: A classic Johnny Rockets just like on land. There is a small charge for lunch and dinner but they serve complimentary breakfast. Chef's Table: This is the Ferrari of specialty restaurants. It's a private 5 course experience. Usually around $95. If you decide to eat at multiple specialty restaurants I highly recommend a dining package of some kind. A dining package makes the cost per meal significantly lower. Usually around $20-$30 per meal depending on the package which is almost a 50% savings at some restaurants. There may also be an option for buy one get one free available depending on your sailing. Also, do not make a reservation for kids 12 and under. Just let them know onboard that your kids will be joining you and there is a $10 charge for kids rather than the full price you would pay online. You don't have to eat at a specialty restaurant at all if you don't want to, but it definitely adds to the experience. You have found the perfect place to plan your cruise. There is literally no other resource like this blog out there, period. If I have questions about a Royal Caribbean cruise I don't call Royal Caribbean or go to their website, I come here. Check out the Royal Caribbean blog podcasts on the website or on iTunes for free. Matt also does live Facebook and Periscope Q&A sessions daily where he always answers everyone's questions in real time. They're fun to listen to when you have a question or just want to get excited about your vacation.

Don't be overwhelmed! We are all here to help. This is a great place to start. Also, download the ShipMate App. Lots of good info there. Have you set up your My Cruises account with Royal Caribbean using your reservation #? This is also packed with info specifically about your cruise. I hope this is helpful!

Lol! @twangster and I are thinking the same thing by sending links!

Child care will be offered ok port days and on sea days. Unlike Disney, though, the clubs close for a few hours on sea days. Opening hours are usually 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10. After hours care is available for the younger ones at around $7-8 per hour charged in 15 minute increments and did not need to be prebooked. Prebooking shows is helpful, but you can also wing it, but I wouldn't recommend this for the aqua or comedy shows. Dinner is either fixed or flexible depending on what you booked. Like Disney, you can go to specialty restaurants or stuck with the complimentary restaurants. A great complimentary option for breakfast is Johnny Rockets. Many are fans of the Park Cafe, too.