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I was wondering when these message boards would be reach the point someone would be speaking Klingon...

Juneau - Evening A quick look outside to judge sunset potential. Here is Explorer. The Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise was on Explorer in June and around this time of night in Juneau I was on that ship looking over at Radiance. A quick scope at 7:30pm: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1lPKqkdEmwLJb?t=39s Up to the Concierge Club to hang out with my new friends for a few drinks. From here I could see a sunset getting better so I ventured out through the Viking Crown Lounge to take a look. The sun was going quickly. This next photo was at 8:10pm. Sail away soon after the 8:30pm all aboard. My sunset scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1vOxwVZblXLJB We departed first with Explorer soon to follow. We'll meet again in Skagway on day 4 and based on my Explorer experience, Radiance goes in first and docks, then Explorer occupies the end of of the pier in front of Radiance. Juneau sail away scope, sailing past Explorer https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1PlJQryRWDvxE Heading in deck 12 after this I looked down through the glass portal into the Centrum: Off to the Schooner Bar, another nightly tradition where I met the same folks night after night. If you go during the shows it's empty and we enjoyed engaging with the crew. As soon as the show lets out the bar gets quite busy. On another night one of the musicians was very talented on the piano. On this night the duo on strings were very good but their soft and slow music was putting me to sleep so I went off in search of something more lively. Not finding it I went to bed. The amount of daylight and sunset is remarkably different tonight compared to June. These were taken from Explorer in June as Radiance sailed past Explorer at the same time of day:

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier With an 8:30pm departure there was lots of day left to keep exploring. I had visited Mendenhall Glacier by helicopter and on a tour bus as part of a tour. I didn't like the short times and must-follow-the-leader tour bus approach. I checked Lyft,. Ride-sharing services are new to Alaska within the last 12 months. They didn't work in Anchorage in June 2017. Uber isn't active in Juneau yet ( it was in Anchorage). For a solo traveler, $29 each way doesn't make a lot of sense compared to the local shuttle called the Glacier express or the "Blue Bus". It is $45 round trip and that includes the park fee. I walked up to the line of excursion kiosks on the pier and paid by credit card. A bus, in the parking lot on the other side of the tram station was just about to leave. It's a short ride through town, the Lyft app above shows the route. It takes about 25 minutes and the driver acts as a guide and provides color commentary along the way. The bus parking lot is a 4 minute walk from the visitors center. In this map you can see it as a U shaped area on the left of the road. At the end of the shuttle bus lot is a nature trail with a viewing platform. From here you could see Salmon spawning in the river. Here is a short video I took of them: This nature trail continues towards the main visitor's center and is a path our bus guide took us down in June. It's an elevated boardwalk where sometimes you can see bears looking for food in the river. No bears today. Continuing along the boardwalk takes you to the main part of the park. Walking past the visitor's center there are trails (in the map above) for great views of the glacier. This is from the orange trail in the map. My scope from this area: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1BRKjeegRqZxw Today I wanted to explore Nugget Falls to the right of the glacier. It's a 30-45 minute walk along smooth paths, paved in areas, packed gravel in other areas. A scooter could do this trail. This trail is the dark blue line on the map above. There is a lot of mist in the air and it's hard to keep a lens clean. Kayak and canoe trips to the glacier face are popular and you can see them in the water here: Cell signal was strongest here so I scoped again: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1ypJdYYqBwYxW By this time I had spent 3 hours here so I wandered back to the fish creek to see if any bears had arrived. Unfortunately not. Tired after my morning hike up Mt Roberts and wandering around here I found the blue bus getting ready to depart (every 30 minutes). I determined that I needed to get back to Diamond happy hour the ship.

So we have just returned from Bermuda aboard the Summit yesterday (more on that on another venue, but great time!), I said, I haven't checked my bookings in about a month. I did a mock booking on our February 14th Grandeur and lo and behold, it REALLY came down in price. I called my RC Planner who was out for the day so they transferred me to regular reservations. I said, I just did a mock booking and it looks like the price for a GS went down $875.00 for this cruise. Answer: " well if you change for the lower price you will lose your $100.00 OBC". I sat there for a moment, thought to be smug and say "Oh gosh, no please keep my $100.00 OBC, I certainly don't want to lose that" but instead I said 'seriously???" Dead silence. Oh well, moral of the the story is, saved $875.00 which is huge and I am doing my happy dance!!

I decided against a daily blog of the Allure as this ship was so very close to the Oasis of the Seas. Instead, I will call out what I think are the main differences I noticed. The good: entertainment - overall a step above the entertainment on the Oasis. Mama Mia was the Broadway show on board. I think that because I grew up with the music of ABBA I enjoyed this show better than Cats, the Oasis Broadway show. Headliner show - Ronn Lucas was the ventriloquist act. He was good and very funny. Blue Planet production show - good but I thought it had so much more potential. The effects were great but the lack of story dropped it down a bit for me. The bad - The food- bad isn’t the correct word, but the selection seems thinner and more items I have enjoyed in the past are disappearing. New items are not showing up to replace them, just repeats from previous days pop up on the menu more. the Coke machines- my big complaint. On a ship this big it is just wrong to sell soda packages based around coke machines that are almost always behind locked doors. Four in the Windjammer that are inaccessible when it is closed, or even when open, two are unavailable because that side is closed. One in the Wipeout Cafe that has very short hours. Two in the Promenade 24/7 but usually with at least one out of much of its product and in need of service the number of machines is probably about right, placement is bad. The Other- itineraries: I wish there was greater variety of itineraries Out of our three stops, I only bothered to get off the ship in Puerto Rico. St Maarten and Labadee are one time visits for me. I know everyone is different and this is very subjective. I do look forward to my June Amsterdam cruise for new destinations. The ship overall is in good shape no complaints there. I had the internet “surf and stream” the whole cruise. I Speedtested it multiple times and consistently got ~3mbps. Not blazing fast but it’s in the middle of the ocean so no complaining from me I consistently got notifications from my security system and the video loaded after a short wait. I didn’t see the rude passengers we have encountered in the past. The school year kept the children to a minimum. Elevators were rarely packed and when it was busy people seemed willing to pack a few more on. Overall, I would rate my week on the Allure of the Seas a solid 4/5. Oasis class remains my favorite.

Since you are not in North America they must be using the European metric-english system. Some metric, some standard in a complex formula based on your latitude and longitude. Or it's just wonky IT... again. Or you hacked Super Mario's account.

Nuqjatlh are these Royal Cruises tlhih jatlh of? Are tlhih a king? My Klingon is rusty. (TWSS).

With RC website its more :

I didn't use any filters on this trip although a polarizing filter would have been very useful with the Salmon in the river. I use Adobe Lightroom and I shoot all my pictures in RAW format. This allows me to adjust the pictures later and recover or compensate tone, lighting and color. This does take some time and it's why I didn't want to run this live blog from the ship - not enough time to process thousands of photos. Here is the location of Nugget Falls. It's a very easy path that you could do in flip-flops or running shoes.

....of the Jewish faith, have a safe, healthy and happy New year.

I keep my kids' SeaPass cards with me. They're too careless to be trusted with it.

Juneau - Dinner My Time Dining. Fish of the Day was Salmon. I'm not a huge fish fan but I know it's good for you and I went with it.

Juneau - Mt Roberts Tramway Weather looked good so around 9am I headed off the ship and purchased an all day ticket for $34 in the tramway station. There were no lines so I walked right to the front to wait for a descending tram to arrive. Later in the day there would be long lines. There were still some clouds lingering near the top but I figured they would clear while I was up there. Soon enough a tram arrived. The tram had been in and out of the clouds so there were drops of water on the windows but it was still quite amazing. I secured a spot looking back as most folks ventured forward. I knew the best views would be rear facing. I scoped the the ride up : https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1lDGLXXlElmGm At the top the clouds were moving back in. There is a raptor center that contains a bald eagle who was injured, walking trails and hiking trails. The trails near the tram station are easy to walk while the trail to the very top of Mt Roberts is more aggressive and better suited to people used to hiking. It was clear then more clouds moved in. You can barely make out the outline of a ship along the edge in this photo. There are viewing platforms that can easy to access for non-hikers. Here is a short time lapse video of the clouds from that viewing platform. I quite enjoyed watching the clouds roll through the valley. I continued up the trails in the direction of the peak. Mt Roberts is names after Father Brown, a Jesuit Priest who was an avid hiker and volunteered with a newly formed trail association in Juneau in the early 1900s. He erected a cross, long since replaced with this more modern version. As you climb higher the trail becomes more suited to hiking boots over sneakers. Fortunately I had brought mine. With the clouds clearing I spotted an old friend who has been stalking me on this cruise. That's the Explorer of the Seas making her scheduled noon arrival in Juneau as her first stop since leaving Seattle on the same day we left Seward. I scoped her arrival from this location: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1LyxBQQgXapJN After this I continued the ascent. The trail was getting steeper. At this point it was noon and I was getting hungry. Plus I wanted to visit Mendenhall Glacier. The peak was another 90 minutes up which meant about the same to get back to this spot, plus at least that much to get all the way down. Did I mention I was having Windjammer withdrawal? With the weather clear I was able to get a great view of the ships as I retraced my steps heading back down.

Day 3 - Juneau I woke early to capture our arrival in Juneau. I had the helipad to myself. At this point we are still 20 miles or so from Juneau but this is what sets an Alaskan cruise apart from the Caribbean - sailing down channels with mountains on either side of you. Our progress so far: Overnight we sailed right past Icy Strait Point. We head back there after Skagway in two days time. Pictures are great but here is a video from the moment so you can experience it better. I also scoped a little on our approach to Juneau as well: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1YpKkLLwzAdGj Approaching the pier you can see the Mt Roberts Tramway and the clouds at the top. More on those later. Prime pier location this morning, right off the Tramway station and bus parking area used for many excursions. No excursion booked today, just plan on doing my own thing. I wanted to see how weather would be and would make a game day decision on the Mt. Roberts Tramway. The other idea I had was to visit the Mendenhall Glacier Park on my own.

The train is a great way to get from Anchorage to the port. Here is a scope while I had cell coverage: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1BRJjeeRkyNGw First drink of the day, Mimosa! Another scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1gqxvXXdqyeGB This is all glacier silt from thousands of years of run off. Our guide tells us they once wanted to build a bridge across this channel. They needed to find bedrock so they started drilling into the silt. They gave up at 2,000 feet. The announcer or guide spent most of her time in our car and it was nice to chat with her between announcements. Here we are beside the Seward Highway. Our bartender on this day... Time for a Bloody Mary. I really enjoyed the glass ceiling. The views were incredible. The dining car area was on the first floor below us and they led us down in groups as it only hold 20 at a time. Breakfast is included with Goldstar service, including another Mimosa I discovered. I had the Aurora Breakfast last year so I tried the Sourdough French Toast. It was very good. Back upstairs the conductor was punching tickets and talking with passengers. A moose was announced on the right. I saw it very well but by the time I raised my camera all I got was a blurry back end of a moose running away. Can you see it? We made a quick scheduled stop in Girdwood to pick up a few more passengers. After that we continued into the mountains. Glaciers were announced as we approached them. More moose spotted: Yet another scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1YqKDQQjAYzGV?t=28s The train slowed as we crossed over this stream so we could see dozens of spawning Salmon. It was easier to see with our eyes but if you look closely you will see the deep pink fish in the river. Finally our ship appeared in the distance. With that we had arrived in Seward. A scope of our arrival: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1dRJZggRdmrxB It's hard to capture the beauty of Alaska with a simple camera. It really needs to be experienced first hand.

Raye, This happened to me TWICE. The first time was on Allure and I was in an Aqua Theater Suite.. Basically my bag never made it off the ship and they had to wait a week for the ship to comeback and they found my bag and shipped it to me.. Then a year later this happened to me on Anthem. So basically after both those times I have no confidence in them delivering me my bags lol. I now carry them off my self which is difficult but I just can't risk them losing the bags. Glad you got free cruises from the Casino though.. Thats always fun.. I meant to ask you I noticed you are going to try MSC. Did you happen to get a comped cruise on that sailing? I would like to try MSC but I wanted to see if I could get a discount thru their casino. Let me know how you did it and again I hope they find your bag so frustrating when this happens.

Day 4 - Evening. We followed Explorer down the channel. It was another beautiful Alaskan evening. Early start with a 7am arrival in Icy Strait Point in the morning. Time for bed.

Skagway - Klondike Gold Rush National Park National Park Website: https://www.nps.gov/klgo/index.htm Entrance Fees: Entry Fee - $0.00 Entry to Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park is free. Some services, such as a hiking permit for the Chilkoot Trail or camping have associated fees. Another good planning site http://skagway.com/ Trail map from skagway.com website: Skagway-Trail-Map.pdf

That's @Matt's job!

I am finding this survey is asking me to make an impossible decision! I'll gladly sail any RC ship - although I'll hesitate to step back on the Majesty. It doesn't offer Chops or a few other options the rest of the fleet offers. Some people seem to favor either a small or large ship, but I love the Enchantment as much as I love the Oasis. So.... I'll have to sit this survey out. ?

Skagway - continued... While in town I found a small museum on the edge of town near the train tracks. Admission $2. I was welcomed in and informed I could take pictures. Bear! White Pass had it's own airline for a while. With a map like this no wonder everyone thought gold was abundant and all you had to do was bend over and pick it. This is what led to the Klondike gold rush of 1898. There's gold everywhere! The reality was a little different. Now I understand why the railroad built and owned the pier: Outside they have an old locomotive on display right beside the active train tracks. The museum is all on the 1st floor and not large by any stretch but it was full of history, some native, some gold rush and some war time. It was $2 and money well spent leaving me with memories I'll bring back on my next trip to Skagway.

I'm not sure this far North. A great question for the Park Rangers. They have a office on the main drag. When I stopped in they were giving a daily briefing to a group of hikers about to set out on their way up to Canada.

@twangster, I brought a new camera backpack from Altura. I brought the explorer due to all the lenses I purchased. I will be doing this cruise in 2020 or 2021. I am waiting to see if a group cruise for Canada/New England will be announced in December. Your pictures are awesome.

This was a hard one to answer. We have mostly sailed on the Voyager class because of the embarkation port of Cape Liberty. However we cruised on Anthem and Oasis and enjoyed them. We recently sailed on Adventure and it was great because she recently came out of dry dock and the crew was wonderful. Oasis is nice because we never felt like we were on a cruise ship - no motion at all. Downside to Oasis for us is you have to fly. Anthem is like a super sized Voyager class ship. The only time we felt crowded was embarkation day or sale days. We are going on Anthem again and may book another one. We like the convenience of driving to the port instead of flying.

It should show your the credit card info below the onboard credit slider

Rita's is still there, but mostly a bar.

Don't worry got plenty of them. Normally the part that ends up breaking is the zipper seal after opening it a few times. Good thing is once the card is in the pouch it never needs to come out. Got your info, will mail them out tomorrow.

AO will encourage you to take their cards with you especially in the Aquanauts group. You do need their card to check in to AO but your card to check them out. AO will give them an AO lanyard which does help especially when leaving and coming back to the ship.

When my kids were that age I tended to be the 'keeper of the cards', especially leaving the ship where the odds of a card being dropped off a gangway was high. Not until they were old enough to wander on their own did they need to keep their own cards.

Liberty off peak has great deals. I think I paid $359 pp earlier this year. However it is never fair to compare the newest ship where rates will always be highest in the fleet to an older ship from the previous class. Virtually all ships are cheaper than Symphony right now. What you have noticed for Liberty fares is the only factor in making me wonder if they truly will bring OA class to Galveston as speculated. If they can't fill Liberty off-peak without lowering fares, how will they fill Oasis?

Located at the top near the tram station is a raptor center where you will find Lady Baltimore. She was permanently injured and is non-releasable so she is in the care of the non-profit Juneau Raptor Center.

Hi, you can also click on "see if you qualify for exclusive rates" when booking. You will have the option of entering the crown and anchor number at this point. On the Australia/New Zealand website I have generally found that booking with the 30% off with OBC is better value then using Crown and Anchor rates. This is because if you book using C&A RCI when they have a $400 OBC sale you will get a discount off the cabin but not the OBC.

Day 2 - Evening. Formal Night. I had a 7pm My Time reservation but with my stomach still on home time two hours later I wasn't going to make it. Dinner in the Windjammer! This gave me more time to enjoy the Concierge Club and take some pictures. A regular crowd had already bonded in the club and sitting around the bar as a solo was quite enjoyable. Much better than alone at a table for two in the club. We continued down the coast and much like last year some very prominent mountains were floating in the sky off our port side. Another relatively early night for me. I wanted to catch our arrival in Juneau in the morning.

The Captain had originally come in and placed the ship so cabins on one side could see the glacier. By the time I took the video above the Captain had turned the ship so that cabins on the other side could see the glacier. I sensed our time was coming to an end so I ventured around the ship to get some ship photos with the glacier as a backdrop. With that we began our departure from Hubbard Glacier.

Day 2 - Hubbard Glacier, continued... After lunch commences with a distant view of our destination. It's raining lightly and quite overcast. Pretty much the same as my last visit to the Hubbard Glacier. I scope because I can! I was surprised to see enough signal to broadcast so I scoped while I could! https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1OyKAQQeMkeKb The weather was clearing and our views improving. Periscope was still working so I scoped again as we approached closer. https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1YqKDQQnRXLGV Crowds were starting to build on the helipad. With my telephoto lens I could start to see the glacier in greater detail. The skies were really clearing now and it was turning into a glorious day. Drinks were offered for purchase: I was moving around enjoying different perspectives from around the ship. We sailed through a group of ice that made this weird but incredible sound as we pushed through it. It was very cool and deck 5 was the perfect place to experience it. I moved up to deck 12 to try to take in more of the entire face. We started to see some hints of calving. It had been pretty quiet up to this point. I switched to video and managed to catch some great calving action on video. Here are some still frames from that video: Here is another section giving way in the right half of the face: You can see it started with a small shower of ice falling away. To the right of this partially hidden another small shower begins: In the hole in the glacier I could larger pieces caving in: A larger section then broke free and fell into the water: Soon after a much larger section started its slide and crash into the water: The splash was immense: A decent sized wave started coming our way: It's much more impressive on video so I uploaded some of my footage to Youtube: It was incredible and the pictures and videos don't do it justice. It's something best experienced live.

We need a watch party. First one sees the new deployment schedule, I informs all.

Day Two - Hubbard Glacier Our arrival at the glacier was set for early afternoon so we had a regular sea day for the first half of the day. I discovered a letter on my cabin door informing me I had not attended the muster drill. I had attended muster and gave my cabin number like I always do. The letter said to attend the secondary muster at 8:30pm - the previous night. I stopped by guest services and showed the pictures on my phone of the rainbow with a timestamp two minutes before muster officially started. They said not to worry about. They didn't ask my cabin number or name, they just told me it's okay. I had been in and out of my cabin several times and had gone to bed after 8:30pm yet don't recall seeing the letter on my door the night before. Nothing more came of this. I was up early due to my body clock being several time zones earlier so I took the opportunity to take some pictures around an empty ship. The Centrum Radiance does not have a Vintages. Instead it has the Champagne Bar with awesome sea views and seating right by the windows. I've often thought the entrance to the Schooner Bar on Radiance class ships is a waste of space since cruise ship real estate is hard to come by but it's pretty to look at. Radiance class does have great views of the sea from many different public venues. Breakfast in the Windjammer. Custom made omelet at the omelet station and fruit. The abundance of fruit is something I always try to enjoy in the Windjammer. Our progress so far: Lunch in the Solarium, double Kümmelweck. Noted these options as well:

If your husband is going by the number of invoices you're paying off, and he sees the bills / emails / statements, then B2B counts as two cruises (separate bookings and reservations). But if you're the master of the treasury and all he does at the end of the day is hand his paycheck to you for bill payments, and he never so much as sees a statement... well, then you just have one unusually long itinerary and he can find out the realities of the B2B disemarkation / re-embarkation when the day comes. ?

Click on "MORE FILTERS" and plug in your "RESIDENTS" & "CROWN & ANCHOR MEMBERS" information and then hit "APPLY". 1, 2, 3 ... Voila !!

Windjammer boarding day scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1ZkKzNNqokyKv I headed up and checked out the pool deck and other topside areas. The lifeguard informed me the outdoor pool is heated to 84° F. The terminal as seen from the ship: Solarium: Another scope while in port: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1MnxnZZaYdYxO

yep agree with @Matt have no idea how to play craps but love roulette -

Time for one last picture heavy food post for this cruise. Today during lunch in the forward section of Windjammer they had a "Live Station" (what I've been calling an Action Station) that was Mongolian Grill. The main area had the "Thank You"cake and a cream puff tower (sorry no pictures). Pizza of the day was "Carnivore" Menu in the Main Dining Room offered lobster tail. (This was also the first time the entire cruise I had any meal there) Windjammer Recon for Dinner, theme (unsure, already packed away the Compass) Really like the two level setup in Windjammer. Makes it feel so much larger and brighter during the day. Not mentioned before, think every night they have had a cold soup here. Carvery (Jerk Chicken and Pork) and Live Station (Crepes) Finally finish it up with dessert, where the Red Velvet cupcakes still roam free.

Here's a spoiler from the app on Allure IMG_0090.mp4

Leigh! I had them back in 2012 on Explorer and they were a great team. Leigh was a very different style of CD which was refreshing. I also had Frankie with Jimmy Rhodes in 2014 on Oasis. He seemed to be pretty good as well. I wish they were still with Royal, but maybe I'll give Carnival a try one day.

I wish they would build a new small/mid size shop , I am sure it will be much better and might get some of things which the 20-25 year old ships do not have and you can not ass them just by renovation

Here is the latest update: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/09/05/royal-caribbean-cruise-terminal-portmiami-photo-report-labor-day-2018

In reality, when we decide to go on a cruise, our first thought is about our finances. We live near Houston, so, if we sail out of Galveston, we save a whole lot of money. Then, I look for sale prices. We do like being in a Junior Suite. Frankly, all the ships are nice, so we are really driven by price and location more so than which type or class of ship. The itinerary is almost unimportant. There is always something to do at whatever port we go to.

True they need Sovereign of the Seas Great Again

I did my first solo cruise on the Summit to Bermuda in May 2018 and really enjoyed it. I decided on Bermuda because I am very comfortable with the island. My family spent many summers when I was in my late teens and 20's house and dog sitting for friends that lived in Bermuda (they would go home to England for holiday). I just needed a last minute get away (I booked an inside room deck 11 45 days out) and since I live in the north Philly suburbs no airfare required! I thought I would feel a little out of place cruising solo but the ship is so laid back & relaxing. It was an older crowd (50's and up) but that's what made it relaxing. Not many kids. I did get a little bored the second sea day. Did MTD and the main dinning room staff were wonderful (I requested them for the rest of the cruise) . I sat at my own table which was what I wanted but the tables are so close to each other that I could talk to other cruisers of I wanted to. The ship is a little worn but very clean. IMO the staff was the nicest & friendliest I have ever experience. Café Al Bacio is a wonderful place to sit and get a latte or tea and one or more of their free pastry. I was there in the morning and again late evening for my late night treat. The shows were okay just something to do at night. I am thinking of doing another solo cruise on the Summit in May 2019. Can't wait to see all the upgrades.