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I just saved a bunch of money....I switched to GEICO!

Here, let me fix that for you... "21 days to go until I will be able to enjoy the ship (and send A LOT of pictures)" We can't wait. Seriously, we can't.

Happy cruise day! We flew in on Jet Blue last night. I was nervous as we’ve never flown on Jet Blue and we have no status but was pleasantly surprised. Nice leg room, TVs, friendly flight attendants, full size soda cans and chips. We were delayed about 40 minutes but the desk kept making announcements keeping us informed. It’s the little things. We are staying at the Springhill Suites in 2 rooms, both are 2 queens with a pull out couch. The hotel has a free shuttle from the airport. We arrived at the hotel around 8:40pm and quickly walked to Chipotle. There’s several fast food options and BJs is right across the street for wine...you can use your hotel key as a membership card. This hotel is packed with cruisers and offers a shuttle for a fee.

I found a solution to the website! It's booze. As for my cat, he can't be bribed into accepting anything but purrfection. He also knows "too soon" of a roll out of a website when he sees one. Happy Friday!

Spacious ocean balconyone thing I like is the connecting door is towards front of stateroom. On Liberty they were in the middle of the room. Someone asked about youth C&A coupons. This is gold.

Cococay was cancelled at the last minute so our last 3 days were sea days. It was fun and relaxing, but two cold to go outside. I love lunch in the main dining room. On wednesday I had the tuttie salad bar, but here are photos from my fish enchiladas on thursday and my tilapia on friday. Overall, this was another great cruise! I look forward to my next one in October for our 20th anniversary! Random observations: The drink or beer card was never offered on this sailing! I enjoyed the Grandeur fair yesterday which offered several stations with fun and games. Cupcake decorating, bar games, and bed making competitions with the room stewards!

Here are more photos of the Chef’s table! The picture of the bowl was a base for a tomato bisque. We got the filet for our main entree. It was amazing!

Can't wait for Easter Sunday. My favorite Youtuber will post a complete tour of Symphony then. The one on Harmony was around 70 minutes long. I'll post the link as soon as it's up if anyone is interested - just be aware that commentary will be in German.

And another black cat fan here on the boards! This is awesome! Happy Caturday!

I knew she was a bot. USB-Hub? Ethernet-Hub? Regardless, I knew you were a bot. Takes one to know one...

We even finally got back our old Canon SLR so I hope for some better photos

Since we were swindled out of one of our C&A points when RC went from counting cruises by single points to counting by total cruise nights (currently sitting at 22 points for some inexplicable reason ), we'll be one point shy of Platinum after our December sailing on the Oasis. I was thinking that one of the short jaunts on the Grandeur to Bermuda would be a perfect lower cost way to bump out of Gold a bit earlier than we could otherwise afford. Our first trip on Grandeur, back before they stretched her, was memorable in that when the luggage arrived at the stateroom, we discovered that MsDig had somehow forgotten to pack any of her dresses (most everyone dressed better for dinner back then). I was seriously considering calling our daughter who had driven us to the terminal to ask her to run to our house, pack them in a bag and drop them off of the Key Bridge as we passed beneath! I mean really, what could go wrong? Cooler heads prevailed and we decided instead to purchase suitable dinner clothing for her in the next port. True story, though!

21 days to go until I will be able to enjoy the ship (and send some pictures) Can't wait.

We might be eating red velvet cake at the same time. My husband gets an extra slice, hides it in the room and makes me find it. The last time it was on the balcony with a glass of milk. Very romantic.

Sorry I did not think to document that info that day. In retrospect, it would have been helpful to others like you. Anyway, I can tell you that it wasn't very windy in the air but I could tell by looking at the water that it probably wasn't going to happen. The water was not smooth, but not bad enough that you saw the white caps either. Somewhere in between that. From what I understand, it has to be pretty ideal, all day, for tendering. Like @twangster said, I'm sure many factors are considered. I can tell you they tried that day. We were in our room the whole time but I could hear them trying to drop anchor and manoeuvre for over 1/2 hour before the Captain came on with the announcement. One tip here...if by some unfortunate luck you end up missing it, make sure to check you account for the refund in port charges. We got ours within a few hours but in talking to others, some were not refunded at all.

I feel you. My first ever cruise is in just 12 more days, only 9 until I get on the plane down to Florida. My family is as excited as I am but really tired of me going on about every little update I found. "Hey, I just discovered this on the boards I follow...", or "You've got to listen to this podcast episode!", are becoming phrases that evokes fear and dread in my home. Well, either that or the feeling that an intervention might be necessary.

There have been multiple cruises when I have NEVER made it even to the MDR for a meal...windjammer works for me. As you can prob tell I am not a huge foodie nor am I hard to please when it comes to food. I have seen some good offers with the BOGO but the first day/night on board there is no way I am in any shape for a nice long drawn out meal....the drink package is getting a workout that day.....ha

Hi all...sliding further into "bot" territory and going more incognito...No longer "sabrinaklai"...but still Sabrina

First, I’ll introduce myself, I’m Mel and traveling with my DH, DD18, DS14, DS11, DD6 and MIL (MIL first mass cruise ship). Staterooms This trip we have 3 Spacious Oceanview Balconies on Deck 12 (category D3 and D5). DD18 and MIL in one, next to ours with our room connecting to the 3 younger kids. All 3 in a row and hopefully we can open all the balcony dividers. Why we booked: This is our fourth family cruise all on RC. We’ve only cruised during Spring Break as that is a good week for vacations for us. DD18 just had a birthday and will graduate high school in May, MIL celebrated 70 last summer and we were not able to go on a trip with her then, and DS14 will celebrate a birthday on this cruise. DH loves the fact it is a Sat-Sat cruise. He hates going to work the day after we get back. I appreciate that we can get back on Saturday and still celebrate Easter as last year we were home very late on Easter. Our schedule: Day 1: Embark at Fort Lauderdale Day 2: Sea Day Day 3: Sea Day Day 4: St. Maarten (private island tour) Day 5: San Juan (walk around forts) Day 6: Labadee (Beach bungalow and zip line) Day 7: Sea Day Day 8: Back to FLL What we are looking forward to: *Large ship – first time on an Oasis class ship *Different entertainment (AquaTheater and Grease) *New things to do (Ultimate Abyss) *Zip lining *Large outdoor track *DD6 should be tall enough for the big water slides Concerns: *DD18 just turned 18 a few weeks ago and worried about meeting other young adults without teen club. *Is the ship just too big? *Will the staterooms be too small? They will be the smallest (square footage) we’ve stayed in. *Is it worth the extra “surcharge” for this class ship? The price per person per night is significantly more than other cruises...even staying in a JS on Liberty last year the week before Easter. We’ll see if we feel it is worth the extra cost. Even with those concerns, we are easy going and we always have a great time. I’m sure there will be things we love and things we don’t but usually the good outweighs any bad. After all we’ll be on a cruise and we can’t wait. Right now, I do not have any specialty dining planned. I did buy the drink package during the Black Friday sale. This will be my first time with the drink package but I didn’t want to deal with buying wine in FL when we get in late Friday. I am hoping to take a break in the afternoon from the family to come back to this page so feel free to ask questions.

Hello all! Id like to go ahead and get the thread started for those sailing on Serenade of the Seas between 30 MAR and 09 APR. This will be our third cruise (2xdisney, 1xRCL) with this being our first on RCL. We are stoked!! Will be flying in from Asheville NC to Ft Lauderdale, and will spend a night on the 28th. From there on the 29th, we will embark! The Wife and I hope to meet new friends! Bon Voyage, Shipmates!

Great article in NY Times re the conditions in St. Martin and the differences there between the Dutch and French sides. Beautiful pictures also. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/travel/st-martin-after-hurricane-irma-.html Here are the last 3 paragraphs. Each day, progress is beginning to take hold. By the end of June, inventory on the Dutch side of the island is expected to grow by 560 rooms with properties like Divi Little Bay Beach Resort and Oyster Bay Beach Resort expected to reopen. On the French side, roughly 600 rooms will be added by year-end, according to the Kate Richardson, the director of St. Martin’s tourism office, including intimate boutique-style properties. Among them: the Hotel La Plantation on Orient Bay (April), the Mediterranean-style Le Petit Hotel (June) and the Grand Case Beach Club (October). New tourist attractions are also welcoming visitors. In November, Rainforest Adventures opened a new zip line — the Flying Dutchman — in Emilio Wilson Park. Visitors can tour a new museum dedicated to the history of the site, a former plantation dating back to the 1700s, and dine in a refurbished stone building that was once the sugar cane boiling house. And with the island’s natural attractions still intact, tour operators continue to offer sailing trips, snorkeling excursions and hikes up to Pic Paradise, the highest spot on the island. “There are some things that the hurricane just couldn’t take away, said Marc Petrelluzzi, whose family owns Le Petit Hotel and its beloved sister property, L’Esplanade. “It’s the view. It’s the sea. It’s the beaches. It’s the vegetation. It’s nature.” They also did write ups on St. John and Dominica and San Juan. You can see them here. Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated islands in the Caribbean last September. Six months later, how are they recovering? To find out, writers for Travel spent time in St. John, Dominica and San Juan, P.R.

The CD, in short, is responsible for managing all the on board activities for the cruise. He/she has manages many people and activities so the Activities Manager assists him/her. A good CD doesn't make or break a cruise but does enhance it if they are fun, active, comical. They host/lead the major activities such as show intros, The Love and Marriage show, the Morning show, Belly Flop contest, Sexiest man contest, etc. There is usually one active CD per ship. Sometimes there might be 2 during a transition or training.

I must say being there 3 weeks ago they have come a long way. Still not 100% but very close. Some older buildings (not to modern codes) are beyond repair and being torn down but this was a very small amount. I actually noticed worse conditions on the French side than the dutch. We did a full ATV tour that circled the entire island and was a great experience.

The time is sometimes set once on the ship I think. I asked in the Vintages on board and they told me it had changed days. I included it in my Anthem Live Blog here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5387-anthem-11919-9-night-bahamas/&do=findComment&comment=55343

Day #6 -Nassau We did the bites of nassau food tasting and walking tour that we booked directly through the tour company. The company had several walking tours that day. Our tour was fro 11:30 to 2:45 and we were asked to meet the guide at the Christ Church cathedral on the corning of George and King streets. The meeting spot took us about 10 minutes to walk to once we were outside the port and was right across the street from the pirates of Nassau Museum. Our first stop was our favorite. We went to a small local restaurant and were served a plate of 2 conch fritters each with conch sauce and then a plate of Bahamian favorites: shredded seasoned chicken, beans and rice, macaroni and cheese, plantains, and a small container of coleslaw. On the way out, we recieved a lemon flavored drink that we got to take with us to the next stop. Our next stop was inside a pet friendly little botique hotel that was called the , talking stick. Here we were given a bahamian cocktail, and got to tour the roof of the hotel and one of the themed rooms on the top floor. Our next stop was the Graycliff hotel. We got to tour the hotel and grounds and then got a special tasting at the chocolate factory. Each of us got a square of white chocolate key lime pie and a dark chocolate marmelade flavor. Both were good, but I liked the key lime pie flavor the most. I enjoyed touring the Graycliff. We learned that a daypass to use the grounds and pool is only $35 per person and you get to apply $25 of it to food our drink for the day. They said it is mostly quiet, except when the cruise ship dancers come for a pool day. The dancers apparently also find this a great value! We walked back across the grounds of the city capital and got a great view of the city. We had 3 more stops. The first stop was for a johnny cake and humus and tea. The next stop was one of my favorites at a greek restaurant. Here we got a cup of really tasty conch chowder. We ended the day at the Tortuga rum factory with a piece of rum cake. Overall, it was a lovely day in Nassau and I would return to some of the sites we went to on the tour. After the tour, we walked to the Pirates brewing company and split a beer flight. The only thing I was disapointed with is that I could not get any good wifi at any of the locations we went to on the tour, and was hoping to get some at pirates brewing company with disapointment! I am glad we had this tour scheduled here. It made the day much better here!

Day #5 was miami. The weather was nice in the 80's this day. We did not arrive in Miami until late morning so I enjoyed sitting out in a shaded chair by the pool that morning. We were supposed to do our catemeran tour in the afternoon. We took a lyft to the meeting place at the harborside marketplace several miles a way, but my DH started having stomach pains after we arrived and we were afraid to be stranded out on the boat with him feeling miserable. It was very hot and humid in Miami. We just took a cab back to the ship and I returned to my shaded seat by the pool to people watch and listen to my audio book with some afternoon cocktails. Overall, it ended up being our only really good pool day. We did not leave miami until later that evening the sailaway and nighttime view of the city skyline was gorgeous. Enchantment was docked behind us for their sunday embarkation!

I think it lasted about 2. 5 hours ( It started at 6pm). We were asked to meet at the R bar and got our first drink a glass of CAVA. The table on grandeur is smaller and is off of the top floor of the MDR right outside the Galley. I think their were 10 others dining with us. Almost all of them on that night had a dining package or a drink package and got the special deal that we were offered in CHOPs on the first night. Yes. The desert was amazing!

I agree with this, most people go to WJ and it is a madhouse, we were at the MDR on Freedom and it was pretty much dead. We had the 2 waiters there the whole time and was much easier then trying to fight people. We also left everything in our room so we could eat and just went back to the room to grab everything before we left. We didn't have anywhere important to be so we kind just took our time and tried not to rush leaving lol. Now only if it was as easy to get off the ship as it was to get on lol.

@twangster I think has done this. I have to try and peak at my cruise compass from Freedom to check.

I am in the airport at BWI and finally have Wifi again so catching up on the Blog. Last Saturday was our stop in Charleston for St. Paddy's day. It was a gorgeous day! We got off the boat around 9:30 am to meet our walking tour guide at the fountain at the waterfront park. The ship was already decorated for St. paddy's day that morning. The Charleston waterfront is gorgeous with a walking path along the park and lots of sailboats. We saw several dolphins while we were waiting to meet the guide. The 2 hour walking tour took us through the historic area and the french quarter. We ended the tour near king street and saw the end of the parade. We then grabbed an Irish stout at craftsman's kitchen and split a burger for a light lunch. There were meeting green drink specials on the boat. I tried a green godess martini, but was not a big fan of it. This was our first night in the MDR at MTD of the trip. We got sat at table 577 with Desmond and Shereen. They were very good and we were able to get seated in their section on all of the rest of the nights with the exception of the lobster night which was incredibly busy. We still got seated quickly on this night, but the service was much better with Desmond and Shereen. On this night. I had the strip steak and DH had the lasagna. We had the new menu on Grandeur. Sometimes this was frustrating as the menu on the screens was often not updated. We always like to check the dining menu during the day to think about what to order. I liked the concept of ordering desert with the rest of the dinner order. This definately seemed to improve efficiency. We like MTD because with 2 of us we are usually through dinner in an hour vs. 2 in the Main seating. Overall it was a beautiful day. We got to see both sunrise and sunset!

I love this --- one minor flaw in your story though, the Grandeur was never stretched ..... It was Enchantment. Although, Enchantment did do a stint in Baltimore for a while so you get a pass on that one.

Go to the main web page, click "Already booked", click "On line check in", you will need your reservation number and other pertinent information, then it should pull on the actual information that has to be filled in, once it is all filled in then you can print you Set Sail pass.

@DocLC, those are great photos! Wish I could do multiple reactions so I could do both "love" and "WOW!".

@bobroo - you inspired me to add some pictures, too! We spent four nights in Marseille precruise and really enjoyed our time there.

True story: I'm dating the woman who would become my wife, we've been together maybe a couple of months and I'm over at her parents for dinner. I'll be meeting her sister and brother-in-law for the first time. I get there ahead of the sister and BIL, sit down and visit with her parents for a bit. The doorbell rings, future MIL goes down and I hear the following: "Hello Ed. You're wet!" (pause) "It's... raining." I immediately holler out, "Rocky Horror Picture Show!" Years later, my now-BIL reveals that he knew from that moment we would get along absolutely swimmingly (which we have, and still do).

Yes. We had a slide excursion for the kids and they refunded that all the same day.

You are most welcome! When you travel with that bottle just make sure nozzle is set to "X" (off) and I always tighten the head of the bottle and put it in a gallon ziplock just to be safe! :)

I'm huge on not having my name fully out there. There are some very strange people. I've been "found" online when using my full name on sites and harassed. Very long and super creepy story short - I have a physical disability (that means nothing in my daily life) and there is a fetish associated with it that took me until I was 33 to find out about THANKS INTERNETS. Someone saw a picture and my name and him and his girlfriend found me on multiple social media sites. Plus I work in the entertainment business and my name used to be in the credits of a few shows. I go in and check every year to see what loveliness google pulls up and delete what I can. While my story is a more than a little crazy and over the top I just like a little privacy. I think it's better you changed your name.

update: I did manage to log in and do the online check in. Feeling successful!

Grand Suite and above can go sideways. Junior Suite guests are only allowed to go up and down.

I am so jealous! We have 367 days left. Which ship are you going on? We will be sailing on Symphony of the Seas March 23rd 2019. My hubby and son would probably vote for intervention. I created a event on facebook.. I told everyone to turn off notifications, but one day they would appreciate all my links.

Saw this posted on the Symphony Facebook Group... Looks like a sampling for Playmakers

Can you once onboard inform them that you want have a cash account then pay with debit card on final day? this would eliminate the need to carry extra cash and also reduce the number of hold transactions on debit account

Well dangit, I'm too late to answer any questions...I'll just say Have Fun!!

In regards to the Murder Mystery, I will be doing it on my March 3rd cruise on Freedom so I will be doing a bit of a review (may have to do a non-spoiler and a spoiler version). I am not sure if photos will be allowed so not sure if I'll be able to share that or not yet. I'm not sure if it is available on your cruising though.

Day 3 - Last Day Woke up this morning at the same time as yesterday and we decided to go to Windjammers for breakfast again. There were even less people than yesterday so we were able to get a table at the back of the ship overlooking the ocean. When I went to get my porridge this morning I took extra care not to spill the hot milk on my hand. Again there was no brown sugar but this time I spoke to the Windjammer manager who sorted the issue out for me. After breakfast we returned to our cabin where we had a lovely surprise waiting for us. Rolly who was our stateroom attendant on Radiance, and who we met again last night, had organised for a bottle of wine to be delivered to our stateroom for us. It was a lovely gesture for which we were very grateful. He is one of the nicest people you could hope to met. After breakfast we headed up to the mini golf to play a round. I have an app on my phone to keep track of the score. I can save the courses from each of the ships as we go on them. As the FlowRider is next to the golf we spent a few minutes watching people having a go. There were about 10 people waiting for a go. On all the cruises we have done I never tried the FlowRider as I have terrible balance, as evidenced by my tragic attempts to ski We had a few photos taken last night around the ship so we headed down to Studio B. We found a couple of photos we liked and ordered them using our diamond free printed photo voucher. This is a great benefit as we allowed one each, saving $40. Next we headed off to the casino to get our 3 free spins. We didn’t win anything but the cashier did not swipe our sea pass cards so we will go back this afternoon and see if we can get another set of tokens. Rather than talk about all the things available on the ship I have taken some some photos from around the ship which hopefully you will enjoy. Shops and the Royal Promenade Outside Promeande Deck Gym,Early Morning Aerobics and Dive Centre Peek a Boo Deck. This is a great way to see the bridge without having to pay for a bridge tour. I think a lot of passengers don’t realise the ship has this feature and miss a wonderful opportunity. The cabin was on the bridge in these photos as they were re-calibrating the GPS. For lunch today we had a poolside barbecue. This is the first time I have seen this on the ship but the food was great. I hope we see it more often in the future. Some random shots I liked. Us up on the helipad Memories of my misspent youth. Seagull with an outside cabin A fun piece of technology outside the arcade. The Australians will love this. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the features and sights from around the ship. Tonight we went to Imuzi for dinner. It was very busy because Chops had been booked out for a private function. The menu on Explorer was much better than the one on Ovation. Ovation only had sushi but Explorer had the hot rock option. I opted for chispy chicken as the starter and surf and turf as the main. I really enjoyed the hot rock option and would now be happy to go to any Izumi that has this option in the future. Well that is pretty much the end of the cruise as we only have hand luggage so we will get up early tomorrow and disembark ourselves. Ouch that sounds painful. i hope you have enjoyed following along with me. It has been an interesting experience, especially when I was just in the process of uploading my last photo tonight and Safari on my iPad crashed and everything was lost At least the second time was quicker as I already had a template in my head. i have scans of the cruise planner and all the menus so I will send them through to Matt when I get home. Right I am submitting this now before something else goes wrong. Some bonus photos, these are the TV channels available on the ship

Day 2 Even after the long day yesterday I woke up today at around 6:50am. I think I am still on New Zeand time as it was 8:50am there. There was also a little bit of noise from the decks above. In in all it was still a pretty good nights sleep. We decided as it was early we would eat in the Windjammer today rather than Chops as it shouldn’t be too busy and the selection is bigger. We were right, there were plenty of tables free at this time. I normally have porridge (oatmeal) for breakfast. Firstly the hot milk next to the porridge was in a big vat with a ladle. Because of the design of the serving stations with the sloping glass cover it was really awkward to ladle the milk onto the porridge and I ended up burning my hand. Annoying and painful. Normally they have hot milk in pourer which is much easier to use than a ladle. Then I spend ages trying to find the soft brown sugar for the porridge but there didn’t seem to be any around. I spoke to a few of the staff before somebody finally understood what I was talking about and got some for me. Anita got a freshly made omelette from the omelette station which took about 10 minutes to prepare as there were a few people waiting. By the time we finished breakfast at the Windjammer at 8:30am it was starting to get busier as families with children starting arriving. There were still quite a few tables available for people who wanted them. Here are a few photos from Windjammer After breakfast we decided to go for a walk around the top deck. It was a bright sunny day with a slight breeze so conditions were very pleasant. As I walked past Johnny Rockets and saw people playing ping pong in the undercover alcove wondered to myself why the area didn’t seem to have lights so they didn’t have to play in the dark. We also want down to the helipad as most people don’t seem to realise you can go up there and have a “titanic” moment. When we were on Ovation you had to book with the photography studio (for free) to go up there. There were a couple of members of the crew there working as there’s is always something that needs to be varnished. ? “And my heart will go on” We always go to the gym on the ship and today was no exception. The gym is located up on deck 12 through the vitality spa entrance. Explorer has a large hot water spa in this area that a lot of people do not know about. It doesn’t have seating in it so you have to stand but it is great alternative if all the spas by the pools are full. The gym was reasonably busy around the time we went (11:00am) but there were still a few treadmills available so I jumped on one. Someone had left their sea pass card in the iPod dock on the one next to mine. A common problem I think as I have done this myself in the past. I took my iPad with me and streamed a show on Netflix with only one slight buffering problem. Because of the satellite connection I had access to the the US Netflix rather than the New Zealand one so there were some different shows to watch that aren’t normally available to us. Gym done it was time to think about a shower and lunch. On a cruise you always seem to be thinking about your next meal. We decided to go and see how busy Johnny Rockets was for lunch as on a previous cruise we had to wait over and hour before they could take us. We went up just after 1pm and timed it really well as the belly flop competition was on so there were a lot of people by the pool. Because of the belly flop competition there was no wait time at Johnny Rockets. We elected to sit outside as there was no wind and a little sun. I asked the server whether JRs was included in the ultimate dining package as I thought it was. He told me it was not and that a surcharge will apply. As this is different from what I heard I had a look on the RCI website but could not find any specific info on the UDP. There may have had some info on the cruise planner but because the cruise had started I could no longer see their t&cs. We do have another cruise booked but that is too far in advance to book the dining. The burger and fries were okay but nothing exceptional. I enjoyed the milkshake as it was nice and thick. By this time the belly flop competition had finished and quite a long queue was forming outside JRs. We grudgingly paid the bill and left so that the table could be allocated to somebody else. I did check with the concerige later and he also confirmed JRs is not part of the ultimate dining package. They should not be using the word ultimate, maybe it should “almost ultimate”. Apparently JRs is not a specialty restaurant which is why you have to pay. By the way it was $6.95 USD on Explorer. On the way back to our cabin we looked in on the Solarium. It was a lot busier today than yesterday when I had the whole place to myself. Another reason to get on the ship early. Just make sure you pack your swimming gear in your hand luggage. A busy Solarium. It was almost time for the ice show show so we changed into something warmer and headed down to Studio B where the concierge met us and let us in early to pick the seats we wanted. As it turned out we had seen the show Spirits of the Seasons last time we were on Explorer in Dec 2016 but thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. The venue was quite full but there were still a few seats available even if you turned up late. After the show we returned to our cabin for some balcony time before going up to the Diamond Lounge for refreshments after such a hard day. We went up to the Diamond Lounge at about 4:50pm and there was plenty of seating available, either inside or outside. We elected to sit outside as we prefer this space. It is a little noisy for people with hearing difficulties as there is the music from the mini golf and also the noise coming from the ship funnel. The snacks were okay but the skewered chicken must have been there for a while as it was tough as old boots. Snack selection in the Diamond Lounge. At about 6:10pm the ship started changing direction which meant the sun came down directly on the outside area and because of the direction of the sun there was nowhere to shelter. As all of the inside seating was taken by now we went down to “the cave” as passengers affectionately call the concierge lounge. Luckily for us it was not busy at all and it was easy to find a seat. We just had a couple of drinks and I chatted to the concierge for a while. This is his last cruise before heading home for a break. We also tried to book Chops for our final night tomorrow but the entire venue has been booked out by a large party so we booked Izumi instead. I am not a big fan of Izumi so we will see how it goes. Our dinner reservations were not until 8pm so we left the lounge and went back to our cabin. We checked our bill on the TV and found they had been charging us for gratuities each day. As this is part of the base cruise fare I found a copy of our guest invoice with this information and made a visit to guest services. Once they saw our invoice with the gratuities included they reversed the charges. We had dinner at Giovanni’s tonight as part of our ultimate dining package. It was scheduled for 8pm which is quite late for us. Before going to the restaurant we used a couple of our diamond drink vouchers to get something to take in with us. We arrived at the sitting change over time so it was not too busy. We were seated quickly and looked over the menu. It has changed since the previous cruise we did on Explorer in 2016. We both ordered the almond scallops and were not disappointed. Yum Yum For my main I had chicken and Pene pasta. It wasn’t outstanding but it was enjoyable. We both had tiramisu for dessert but in my eagerness to tuck in I ate it before taking any photos. I was tempted to post a photo of an empty plate but the server whipped it away before I had a chance. I don’t drink coffee or tea but Anita ordered a coffee after desert. We asked to have the coffee as part of our diamond discount but he said he never charges diamonds with a dining package for coffee anyway. After we left the restaurant and we were returning to our cabin we bumped into Rolly, our stateroom attendant from Radiance. It was really nice to catch up with him and have a chat. Hopefully we will see him again tomorrow. Well after another great day at sea it is time to turn out the lights and go to sleep. if you made it this far thanks for reading. Stray Observations Today they were doing some testing of the navigation and propulsion systems so we stopped dead in the water for a while and did a few sideways movements using the thrusters. If you want a ship model get them as soon as you can, don’t wait as people buy them 2 at a time. There were about 20 In the shop on day one but they were all sold out by day two. They were retailing for $32.95 USD. Update: some more appeared later in the afternoon of the second day. There is no formal night on this cruise. They do not have a top tier event scheduled. I thought they had for every cruise 3 nights or longer. We had one on the last 3 night cruise we did. Guest Services has a sign up saying the ship is full and there are no upgrades available. We had an email from the casino saying if we earned between 2400 - 4800 points we could have a free cruise. If only I hadn’t lost the first night maybe I could have earned a free cruise. I think I would need to spend more than $140 to earn a free cruise otherwise their rewards system conversion rate would be incredible.

As a first time cruiser, it's great that you are using this forum to answer your questions. I'm a newbie as well, and it has been a treasure chest of answers to my questions! Be sure that you understand that the drink package you plan on getting is going to cost ($56 + 18% gratuity) $66.08 PER DAY for EACH DAY of your cruise, whether you drink on any given day or not. You mentioned that you were trying to cruise as cheaply as possible. Although cocktails/beer/wine are priced higher than we are all used to regularly paying, are you sure you will drink enough on the cruise to cover the cost of the deluxe drink package?

We cruisers call them "pier runners" or apparently (according to @twangster) there are "pier swimmers" too lol. And there are almost some every cruise! Don't be nervous. Just check the cruise compass for the all aboard time and make sure you leave enough of a cushion. To be really safe, do excursions through RC. That is what we did our first few cruises until we felt more comfortable on our own.

Word to your mother........