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Another terrific day, totally lit as the kids would say ? Finally made my first visit to Labadee and she did not disappoint! But first it was off to the MDR for French toast breakfast.. Time to get off this gorgeous ship and explore! I really enjoyed my time on Labadee today and hope to make a return visit on a future cruise ? Just a nice, relaxing day at the beach! I have a few comments to make: If possible, please leave your expensive jewelry in your stateroom safe. A lady lost her wedding ring in the sand on Adrenaline Beach today ? People, the ocean is NOT your trash can, put away your garbage. ? Saltwater is not meant to be drank, I threw up my breakfast after accidentally doing so snorkelling ? I managed to walk the entire property very easily and grabbed a chair on Adrenaline Beach (partially because at that point I was starting to boil like a lobster lol) close to Cafe Labadee, Schooner Bar, Floating Bar. After a quick snorkel (and vomit into the ocean ?), I decided to continue my walk until call for 11:30 am lunch. I walked all the way north toward beach beds, basketball court, and turned around south to the Artisan’s Village and Market. In no way did I feel threatened to buy anything; sure, they tried to get my attention but a simple “no, thanks” sufficed. The walking path led me to Columbus Cove... ..and Nellie’s Beach. By this time, I was starving and it was time for BBQ lunch ? After lunch, I grabbed a Labadoozie, pulled out my People magazine, and drank, read in the sun for an hour. Needless to say, I needed to cool down and the ocean did its job ? I snorkeled again and chatted with a few people in the shallow end. I slowly made my way back (lots of photo ops) and was onboard the ship 30 mins prior to sailaway which I witnessed from the helipad. It was an eye-opening and awesome experience watching the ship back away from the long pier and then pulling forward. (I took video of sailaway, will upload later.) Goodbye, Labadee!

Good morning, it is.. Today’s MDR breakfast: Just stopped by Guest Services, and, sadly, one one of the dudes there knows me by name lol. The water temperature in my shower is still cold ?

Tonight’s entertainment was Invitation to Dance by the very talented Royal Caribbean singers and dancers, the definitely-not-for-children Blankety Blank, Love & Marriage game shows. ??? (Yes, I took some video!)! This couple, married for 27 years, ended up winning. The oldest married couple at 65 years. The newlyweds at 3 months. A couple of notes before I leave you all for the evening: - have had a few maintenance issues (burned out lightbulb, lukewarm water temperature) with my stateroom and had to contact Guest Services to get them fixed. This is in addition to missing Voom letter and Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle invite. -Service in MDR was slow on the first day, but picking up in speed in recent days. We have a late port arrival in San Juan tomorrow, so I’ll probably be able to post an update before I leave in the afternoon ? Good night!

Another delicious dinner in the MDR: crab cake, spinach and ricotta ravioli, and Grand Mariner soufflé ?

It’s been an extremely lazy morning with no plans whatsoever. ? Just wanted to mention that I appear to have a case of sea legs in which I feel motion swaying back and forth while on land. ? Currently in line on the Royal Promenade waiting to get picture with Santa and spotted a service dog! Forgot to mention that I needed to stop by the Voom service desk as I dropped the access code I had jotted down somewhere yesterday. No issues, old code cancelled, new one reissued. Manager there told me that the satellite outage from a few weeks ago was his first week on the job and directly related to fires in California. SANTA!!! <insert Buddy the Elf voice>

Day 2 , First sea day ! we are in Nassau :-) , regular breakfast at the WJ (7 AM at the morning) it was amazing to see how many people were in the WJ so early, I even found some vegetables to eat. Although we had no special plans we went down to walk around and increase our step counts. We even bought some gift to bring home..The water color and the view was very nice , the weather was changing every 5 minutes between sun and clouds with light rain from time to time, it was not too warm to walk and browse the city. Although we heard many bad things about pushy sell people we did not felt it too much, yes , many offer you few hours trips but once you say no thank you they leave you alone. After few hours we went back to the ship , I called CK to reserve dinner and catch lunch at Solarium bistro, it was not bad , I preferred on the WJ lunch, less option = less temptations to resist ? . Post lunch we tour the boat and I must say it was quite empty for Nassau port , many disembark from the ship , no issue to find prime location near the pool. I went to rest for few hours , much needed to gain back some of the missing sleeping hours .., that was good, finally it felt like vacation ? . We went up to the CK , as it was official nigh I wear some dress shirt and my spouse went with a dress, we felt over dressed in the CK ? I counted 10 man (And some woman) with shorts , many with polo shirts and T-shirts ... For us service was very fast , we both took the lobster salad for starter , for main I took the veal tenderloin and my partner, the prime rib ,the portion of the veal was quite small but it was enough for me , both were good but not something special. For desert I took the Velarhona bar and we also tried the cheese cake. We brought wine with us but since they wanted a 15 $ corkage fee so we decide to skip it and just use our BOGO offer for two glass of wine (total 11 $) , it strange for me to pay 15$ to open my 14 $ bottle ?. On day one we were very tired , so although we went to see MamaMia and enjoyed it my souse went back to the room after the break. Today we waited for the brake, entered in the theater, waiting until the show will start again and found empty chair to enjoy the second half.

Next, off to the Captain’s Reception on the Royal Promenade; thank you for the free champagne, Royal ? Met the amazing Isaac in person, got my picture taken with the captain, and watched the tree lighting ceremony.

Then it was time for formal night, starting with MDR dinner:

Thanks...that was easy...even a caveman can do it! ?

Was saving for the day recap ?

Actually, Joe, with all the knowledgeable posts you have made over the past few years, your technical insights and financial analyses ....with only TWO RC cruises under your belt....I thought you were a Jedi!

Day 1 : Yesterday was all about contribution to the US economy, which was OK for me for the first two hours ? but since there is huge price difference between the US and home we to advantage of it. Anyway its just to explain why although originally we came with two suitcase now we had three , good that I printed enough luggage tags. Finally it was the cruise day, we woke up around 5 am (Jet Lag) and started to get organized while I had to take some working calls. The plan was to start and drive around 6:30 AM so we will drop the luggage at the port and I will continue and drop the car at the airport. We checked out from our hotel, Holiday inn suites across Universal , its perfect hotel if you visit Universal , the room are big and comes with kitchen and allot of space. The hotel is quite old and need some ramp up but its clean and its the second time we stayed there. As we start our way to the port , my spouse ask if we can go for few minutes to Walmart to complete some last minute shopping , I knew Walmart is never few minutes (because of me most of the times, I always need to check the outdoor section and electronics) but I said why not , although we planned to be at port around 10:30 ... but its not a deal breaker. Around 7:45 we started our way on the turnpike. the drive was OK most of the time , not much traffic on Sunday morning. when we were getting close to Miami three things happened , one , the traffic started to be slow , second , the car complained about the gas level (I was prepaying for gas) and it started to rain heavily. Quick assessment of the situation and we decided to go first to the airport to drop the car and catch a taxi/Uber to the port. That came to be a very good decision as the port was very busy. We arrived to the car rental center around 11:15 , dropped the car and took a taxi (flat rate of 27 $). At port we were around 10 minutes in traffic but once we arrived all the check inn process was very quick. We dropped the suitcases , gave some tip to the porter and went enter terminal A. We went to the second floor to a very quick check in and went to the ship , all in all I estimate it around 7 minutes (including security). First stop was the WJ , nothing much to say as not really existing food. During the lunch time a lady approached us to offer dining packages , I have asked her about chef table , she went to check for us for any promotion but came back with zero of them , oh well we will try next time. the rooms were opened at 1 PM , I looked at the key room and saw that again they did not linked my account with the my club royal status , I was annoyed as I called them before to cruise to make sure there are no issues and they promised me everything going to be OK. I called club royal , waited on line for 15 minutes to get one person who did not helped much, the call was cut at the middle so I had to dial again , waited another 15 minutes until got another person who after another 15-20 figure out what happened and how she can fix it. She told me they are going to send an email to the ship and I should go to guest services to re print my key (which as you know on day 1 of the cruise the lines are crazy). I wanted the status associate mainly because the internet (and yes also the free alcohol). It was not such a good start and it also made me to be late in reserving CK , but hey I am on vacation and not going to let things like that to ruined it. Another thing that was missing was the C&A free water, but since I am already used to it I just notify the cabin attended and he fixed it for us. We went to explorer the ship for a while , for some reason we did not find the water slides and the dry slides , but what do you know we found Sabor ? We took our first drink and went to the muster drill. After the drill ended we went back to the cabin for sell away from our balcony . Since we did not had reservations to CK we went up to try our luck , as I wrote before no much luck (at least for the time we wanted) so we went to the MDR which was not bad and took only one hour. Post the MDR we went to the casino to talk to the casino host about the status , he said he got the email and added a sticker to my card , he also made a call to IT and they add the internet to our account, so issue were fixed just on time before we had to go to see Mama Mia, we both thought the show is one of the best RCL production so far , not so for the set but more about the performance, or maybe we just liked the fact we know most of the songs :-). Mind the show is 2.5 hours ! (with 15 minutes break) and for sure is not suitable for kids. That was a long day (including 3.5 hours driving) , well tomorrow its a sea day , we are arriving Nassau

Tonight’s headliner was Clint Holmes, gameshow Majority Rules, solid performance by Holmes and hysterical responses by fellow cruisers to questions asked. ? I am really digging both Isaac and Kareem; they are a true asset to Royal Caribbean! I then walked around the pool deck where the Rams - Bears is still in progress as I type this. (Ship sure is pretty at night ?) Silent Party was hysterical and a TON of fun; have never done anything like this before. Pictures do not do it justice; I took video which I will upload to YouTube at some point. Well, that’s it for today, talk to you all tomorrow from Labadee!

After pool and hot tub time, I headed over to Cafe Promenade for a quick bite to eat. The coconut cookies (not pictured) were good, the less I have say about Royal’s “pizza” the better ? Attached were today’s offerings, I may try something different this week.

Took the stairs up to explore parts of ship which I missed yesterday and apparently woke up one of the ladies staying in an interior on Deck Seven (sorry! I just wanted to see your room ?). I also found Henry ? Stretched on a couch in Blue Moon, waiting for our Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle to start at 10:30. It is extremely relaxing being at sea ?

Good morning everyone! After following a ton of great live blogs, reviews on this site, I have decided to document my time aboard Adventure of the Seas commencing tomorrow ? I had intended to write a pre-cruise post yesterday, but, as it turns out, my day was completely crazy (thankfully booked a day off of work to complete my tasks and finish packing!). Currently writing this from Toronto Pearson airport with much needed coffee, flight to Fort Lauderdale has been delayed, so I have some time to start this after all ? A little bit about me: I’m in my early 40s, single, and cruising solo (actually love to travel on my own). My last cruise with Royal Caribbean was back in February 2008 aboard Sovereign of the Seas, but my family has actually taken quite a few cruises since then with other lines (most recently DCL aboard the Magic in March 2017). As I recalled having a blast on my first cruise, there was no doubt in my mind which cruise line I would take my next vacation with! Pre-cruise thoughts: I booked this cruise, an eight night Eastern Caribbean itinerary on Adventure, last August, a little over 16 months ago, and am booked in a studio interior stateroom in the basement on Deck Two. Why so far ahead in advance do you ask? Well, I actually scored a great price and the few remaining rooms sold out quickly. (Let’s hear it for listening to @Matt!) Anything else? I prepurchased the sofa plus Voom (physically cannot drink as much booze as you guys can lmao) as well as gratuities. My objectives for this cruise are a) not losing money to the casino (???this will NOT happen, trust me, but a girl can only dream) and b) to leave the ship with as minimal balance as possible. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the itinerary, all new ports for me, which leads me to my next topic... Itinerary: Friday, December 7th: arrive at Fort Lauderdale, stay overnight at AirBnB off Las Olas (scored great deal on both). Meeting up with a mod of one of the subreddits we moderate together for dinner at Rocco’s on Las Olas. Will pick up wine (let me know if you have any wine or store recs) and any last minute incidentals tonight before retiring to bed. Saturday, December 8th: embarkation day! Sunday, December 9th: sea day Monday, December 10th: Labadee - nothing planned Tuesday, December 11th: San Juan - self-guided walking tour Wednesday, December 12th: St. Maarten - SXM Island Tour I through Bernards Tours Thursday, December 13th: St. Kitts - Grand Tour of St. Kitts through Thenford Grey Friday, December 14th: sea day Saturday, December 15th: sea day (dining at Giovanni’s for lunch on one of these two sea days) Sunday, December 16th: in which Christine is kicked off the ship disembarkation day. Late flight home (9 pm), planning to store luggage at FLL airport until 5:30 pm cut-off. Guess whatever I didn’t get a chance to see today, I’ll be able to do that on my last day. As I wrap this up for now, just wanted to add that there are quite a few firsts for me on this trip: First cruise on Royal since 2008 (feel like a newbie again LOL) First cruise SOLO First visit to all of the port of calls mentioned Let me know if you have any questions! Christine

Just reloaded the Find a Cruise page and the Summer 2020 itineraries for Cape Liberty are now showing! Here's what I see for July and August, and yes, Oasis of the Seas is sailing from Cape Liberty!! 7-night and 9-night Perfect Day at Coco Cay – Oasis 5-night Bermuda – Adventure 9-night Bermuda and Caribbean – Adventure 10-night Bermuda and Caribbean – Adventure Aaaaaannnnnndddd.... 9-night Canada and New England – Adventure – leaving July 15 and August 27! Ladies and gentlemen, I think we all know what the 2020 Summer group cruise is gonna be!! ??

Just wanted to give a shout to Matt for recommending the Priceline "Express Deals" on one of his podcasts. I was a little skeptical about it at first, but I decided to give it a shot. The way it works is you select a certain criteria such as location, number of stars, etc. that you are willing to accept. The site will then give you a price per night that you will pay, the general area, and the rating that the hotel will have. It is a lot like booking a guaranteed stateroom for a cruise. In my case it offered a rate of $102 per night for a 4-star hotel and showed that the hotel had a 8+ guest rating as well as the general area the hotel was located (See screenshot below). The idea is they can't tell you the specific hotel beforehand because the rate is much lower than advertised. To be honest I thought this was just marketing talk and I would get the cheapest possible hotel that was 4 stars in that area, which may be the case sometimes. In our case we ended up in the Sheraton Suites, which would have been a rate of $242 a night for the same date. So we were able to book a 4-star hotel in West Fort Lauderdale on a Saturday night for only $127 total after fees, and it was $143 cheaper than it would have been had we booked the same room directly. I highly recommend checking out this service if you aren't super specific about what particular hotel you stay in before your cruise. Just keep in mind that these deals are non-refundable. Thanks again for the recommendation @Matt! I solemnly wear to spend all of the savings at Sabor.

Another cruise is soon to start and after few discussions with myself I decided to write something . not promising tons of updates (need to work also ?) but will try. This cruise was booked around two month ago when we just came back from our Symphony cruise , I was looking for a cruise for my spouse birthday and the dates/price worked. When I booked the cruise I had the option of balcony or Junior suite , the difference was 600$ , we booked the balcony. For many days I was sorry for not booking the JS as we both have 71 C&A points , JS would brought us to Diamond ... so I kept browsing everyday just to see that all the JS gone. Few weeks after I saw one JS coming up and the price different was 200 $ ! , I called as fast as I could and successfully re booked and got the JS (that was a good answer to the question - can you change your cabin after final payment) . sometime YOLO cost more ? The plan : Flying to Miami , take a car , drive to Orlando for three nights, Enjoy Universal park + some shopping and on Sunday drive to Miami to catch allure. crazy I know but I could find only flight to Miami using miles and my spouse really had the craving for hot butter beer. I kept browsing United site everyday hoping to find a flight that will take us to Orlando ans save me the 3.5 hour drive after a long flight , what do you know , two days before our scheduled departure I found one , so I quickly changed our flight to Miami (via Swiss) to a direct Newark flight with a connection to Orlando , the bonus was that the Miami flight started at 5 am while the Orlando one 12 PM . Where we go and what we are planning : Day -3 Flying to Orlando , connect during the flight to work to cover my vacation (somehow not all my clients been told I am out for this week) . Day -2 Universal/adventure island - We both love this park and feel it has just the right attraction combination. Day -1 Shopping , working (again) and resting. Day 1 - Miami Terminal A Day 2 - Nassau , no plans currently , maybe to stay on the ship ,maybe to walk around for a while. Day 3 - Sea day - sushi class Day 4 - Cuzumel - Going to the downtown and maybe some other activities Day 5 - Roatan - ATV rides and a beach brake Day 6 - Costa Maya - We booked the Maya Chan per the recommendations from this site. Day 7 - Sea day. Day 8 - Flying back home Day - 3 It was as stormy day back home so we decide to take a taxi and not just walk to the train, arriving to the airport was quick (20 minutes) and check in was very fast. soon we found our self in the launch were I had to lead a working call (good the launch was empty) while sharing a presentation, surprisingly it went very well. I even found sometime to buy myself a book. Flight was on time , during the first minutes of the flights before we got over the storm clouds we heard twice a loud noise and very bright light , nothing that force the plane to turn around but still alarming. 15 minutes later the captain called it "our exiting take off". rest of the flight went Ok , saw some movies and eat a good lunch. 11 hours later we landed at Newark , immigration was quick and we could wait for our Orlando flight at the new United Launch (yes working again) , it was a good place to eat dinner. The Orlando flight was delayed for about one hour but it was not too bad. I slept most of the internal flight , landing around 10:30 PM , we quickly collected our suitcases and pickup the rental car from Avis. 20 minutes after we were at the hotel , just about time for me to take another working call with a south eastern client (and for my spouse complaining that this is not vacation if I am taking calls all the time) . Only one picture for today.

Because then I would have full access to CK.

Or you could bring your own ?

OMG! What's up with these high priced TA's? I'm in sticker shock on the prices...and here i thought i could jump on a JS figuring it would be relatively inexpensive for the crossing....NOT! http://

@JLMoran Yes..that was JS price, no other listings yet for above categories. This TA was just listed this morning so there's no way its sold out. They want some of that @rjac kind of money ?

Still a newbie here! So we are looking at Radiance for an Alaska trip in 2020 (thank you all, especially Annette, for helping with my TA issues!). Would you recommend an aft balcony?

I am finding that cruises in my house get booked as soon as I suffer through the first really cold winter spell. Suddenly the need to have warm while in a deck chair becomes more important than the budget!!! I was all set to cancel the 2019 spring break trip and the cold started killing me....I found the plane tickets lol! Jane

Some Casino news (for me anyway) they added another level to the reward program- for 8000 points you get certificate for a free junior suite offer

Traveler, how dare you! Where's the desert menu!

CK menu

Finally arrived back at the room, first towel animal of the cruise! Goodnight!

So we maid it on board after a long drive , room is very nice , balcony is huge . Enjoying first lava flow

Writing this from a non-chair hogged lounger in the Solarium, Mr. Sun is glorious! Our Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle was a little smaller than I anticipated, but a good number nevertheless. (The CD Mercedes coordinated the draw.) Sadly, I did not win a prize although one of my MDR table mates did. Thanks for the free food and drink, Royal Caribbean ? I then decided to kill time in the casino afterward and lost the $7 I won yesterday plus the $10 I originally put in both machines lol. (?Hey, big spender!?) Decided afterward to finally make an appearance and took a dip in the Solarium while waiting for the World’s Sexiest Man competition to start. The World’s Sexiest Man competition was hilarious, Magic Marvin is an awesome activities manager! (He and Mercedes work so well together, their morning show is really entertaining ?) (This dude Darryl ended up winning the contest?) I went back to the Solarium, and, after my dip in the pool, discovered that someone has taken my towel? ? No clue where it went, but, no worries, we managed to exchange it for a new one after explaining that other one had been misplaced. Anyway, I’ll probably stop at the Cafe for a quick bite to eat as it is getting close to dinner. It is formal night tonight which means MDR, Captain’s Reception, Christmas tree lighting, and production show in the theatre.

Good morning! Woke up early and have just finished breakfast consisting of fruit, omelet, and toast in the MDR. They gave me a buffet option, but truly I would prefer to be waited on while on vacation. Just left at 9 am and a long line has formed outside, so it pays to wake up early ?

I then spent the rest of the evening at the Schooner Bar singing along with the very talented, very funny pianist named Keith and participating in the If You Know It, Sing It game show in the Imperial Lounge. Our current position FYI: - I had to inquire at Guest Services for my Gold letter of benefits and Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle as neither were provided in my stateroom. - clocks will advance one hour ahead starting tonight, ship will remain on local time. Until tomorrow!

Afterward, I checked out the Welcome Aboard Show featuring a very funny comedian named Dan Wilson and popped into the Royal Logo shop. Debating on either an Adventure mug, small purse or Adventure ship ornament. Decisions, decisions.. I stopped by the casino and deposited $10 into two machines. Hooray for not losing money!

My most excellent dinner consisted of escargot, salmon, and hazelnut chocolate cake in the Main Dining Room.

I’m back! Well, when I left you guys, I had just finished lunch and decided to explore the ship until the staterooms were ready. Staterooms were ready around 1 pm and I went down to dump my bag and check out my new home for the next nine days. Overall, I really like it; has adequate space, amenities for the solo passenger. ? (I barely spend time in my room anyway, so it’s not worth it to spend a ton of money in that arena.) Now to explore the rest of the ship until muster drill! I then stopped at Giovanni's to inquire about the sea day lunch and a crew member ended up making a reservation for me. I spent some time outside on Deck 11 watching the Caribbean band play before heading inside. Back inside, I decided to stick around for the $500 spa raffle, but sadly no winner winner chicken dinner ? After freaking about the location of my muster station lol, I managed to locate it using the maps posted and arrived earlier (4:15) than requested in the Compass. It was time for sailaway under a brilliant sunset ? Going to stop here and post the remainder in a separate post.

Hello from Adventure! So, I started my morning bright and early and went to breakfast at the Floridian, located within walking distance of the AirBnB, with those two ladies booked on the same cruise as me. Thoroughly enjoyed my eggs benedict, recommend this restaurant to all! We then hailed an Uber to terminal 29 at Port Everglades and managed to locate a porter to drop off our bags (tipped him as recommended by @Matt). The entire boarding process was very quick and efficient: 24 minutes from curb to ship! Thankfully I printed off my SetSail Pass as they needed to stamp it at check-in. I was so incredibly excited that, at one point, one of the ladies in our company turned to another guest and said “don’t mind her, it’s her first cruise” ??? (Technically not my first cruise, but it sure feels like my first one on Royal after 10 years lol.) Next to the main dining room on Deck Four to change dining reservations; ladies have graciously allowed me to join their table. ? Then we split up to explore the ship, rejoined them on the pool deck for a drink, and went to Windjammer for lunch where I am writing this day’s recap. Had no issue btw ordering a Diet Coke with my SetSail Pass (SeaPass is waiting in stateroom). (They have since gone back up to the pool deck for more sun and drinking lol. I need a few minutes with my second Diet Coke to digest lunch and review the Compass.) I will post again a little later with pics of my prison cell..er stateroom, sailaway, dinner, and other fun ? Why, thank you, Royal Caribbean crew member for the Drink of the Day!

Day -2 4:30 AM I was up , Jet Lag you know (anyway that was my excuse , actually had to follow some working issues but do no tell my spouse, the good thing the JS has a big balcony , I think if I will continue like that this is were I will sleep at the next 7 days) . I still had to buy tickets to the park so I was waiting to 7 AM when the hotel ticket counter will be opened. on 7 AM I Went down to see that a small line already formed but no issues since two people were handling requests. when I finally got to one of the representative he gave me the detailed, took our names and told me that I am lucky has they still have place on the 8:30 shuttle , then he told me he needs to go and the other person will take care of me. on the same time another lady just arrived to the other representative asking for the shuttle and secured 4 places , when he started to handle my request he told me no more room on the shuttle. That really annoyed me as if the other guy would continue with my booking it would not happen. I told him if this is the case I would go and by my tickets (same price) online. So I went back to the room to book online . It was fast and also allowed me to save the tickets on there application so I do not need to print any paper. Since we did not had the shuttle we decided to walk to the park which was perfect , its only 15 minutes walk (our hotel is just across from the park), I did not want to take the car as the parking place locate not that far from the hotel so it might even take more time to enter the park , park the car and walk to the entrance . We arrived to the park at 8:50, happy to see it was already opened, was also very happy I booked my ticket online so I can skip some of the queues , or that's what I thought anyway. We went to the entrance, present our app just to get red light from the gate . They told us we need to go to the guest services to check it out .... Well here goes the "book online and skip the lines" ... after 15 minutes wait at the guest services (while I mumbling R rated words) we have been told we need to upgrade the tickets and it will cost 9 $ each. I asked how come I am required to pay more and have been told that recently they raised the park tickets fee and maybe they did not updated the web site , whatttttttt ???? , I explain her I bought the tickets one hour ago and ask if they raised the price during the last hour ? she said she can not do anything and maybe it is a glitch on the site. I claimed its a scam , and if they can not maintain the site they should blame there IT people (really wanted to ask her if by any chance they are getting IT services from the same company as Royal Caribbean). I really do not mind the extra money , I did mind our time that was wasted instead of enjoying the rides. I guess she saw that the "trying system" will not work here and hey what do you know she found a way to fix our tickets without extra cost. So we finally could get in. I thought to buy the express tickets , but it cost around 90 $ each (for one time per attraction) , well 90 $ is actually 3 night dining package , 6-8 drinks or Chef table ? so we decide to take the chance. Happy we did it , lines were no more than 15 minutes (many even 5 minutes) and it was like that until almost 1 PM. We done all the attractions we wanted and even got the hot butter beer (yes very sweet , but much better than the regular butter beer). We had something to eat at the city walk and went back to the hotel ,took the car and went to buy some food (so we will have better breakfast than what we had at the hotel ) and some very important things for the cruise (two bottle of wines ...) after all that we still had time to walk back to the park to enjoy the night show (very nice). All in all it was very nice efficient day. Oh , step count 32400 . On the way to the park Someone that was trying to use RC website : The harry potter castle during the night show Lots of walking today

Sorry for the late check-in, but I’ve had a long day! So, although the departure was delayed, we ended up arriving close to the original arrival 11 am arrival time which was good. What was not good was waiting 30 mins for luggage at the baggage carousel and also causing me to miss my Uber (which service I used for the very first time - another first!) and incurring a cancellation fee. Oh well, at least while I was waiting, I had a most bizarre piece of “artwork” to entertain me LOL. The luggage eventually did show up (yay!) and I did manage to hail another Uber to my AirBnB just off Las Olas Blvd. (Nothing but positive things to say about the driver - great, interesting convo, I tipped her appropriately.) I checked in early, met the host’s wife, dropped off luggage, and she then accompanied me with another guest to Las Olas as they were headed in that direction to a restaurant. I really have nothing but positive things to say about both of them (husband was at work when I arrived, but met him when I came home) and the place is really good for the minimal cost I spend (no fancy hotel room for me!). My second primary objective of the day, after checking into the AirBnB, was to send US and international Christmas cards and a Secret Santa gift. (It costs an arm and a leg to send US mail from Canada and my mother is nothing but cost efficient LOL.) After locating the US postal office around the corner, I then headed to the beach and cursed Google Maps for making that walk look much shorter than it actually was (close to 30 mins from the AirBnB) LOL. I didn’t complain because I’m on vacation and got to check out the homes, million dollar yachts along the intercostal en route to the beach ? I was grateful for finally reaching the beach because the water, weather was picture perfect warm - not humid whatsoever! I then walked from the Las Olas beach up to where the Westin/Hilton/W hotels are and, somehow along the way, met a Canadian family from Barrie (north of Toronto), also walking on the beach, who were sailing out on MSC Divina tomorrow ? (They’re actually doing a side-to-side from Miami: 7 nights aboard Divina followed by a 7 nighter on a Carnival ship. As they explained to me, a second cruise ended up being much cheaper than what a hotel and flight home would cost.) Anyway, so the family and I separated near the hotel section I mentioned earlier and I walked back south to Las Olas Beach. After a quick stop at CVS for wine, munchies, etc., I then walked west on Las Olas in preparation for objective #3 - meeting friend of mine at Rocco’s Tacos for dinner at 5 pm. Well, let’s just say that the driving gods did not want him to meet up with me on time - a crash on 95 delayed our dining time to 5:30. After a quick, “dude, it’s totally cool, I’m on vacation” text, I decided to continue walking along Las Olas for some window shopping and admiring at some very expensive cars in the neighbourhood. Eventually I stopped at SE 6th Ave, turned back until I reached Rocco’s, and my friend finally showed up for a most excellent dinner of chicken tacos with chips, tableside guac and Corona. And I then walked back to the AirBnB, situated conveniently around the corner from Rocco’s, and...ran into two ladies at my AirBnB WHO ARE CRUISING ON ADVENTURE TOMORROW. After a quick game of gin rummy and cruise convo, we have decided to stop at Gran Forno Bakery tomorrow morning before hailing an Uber to the port. I am sooooo happy that they want to get to the port early in the morning ? (Oh, and another thing, I have decided to keep track of my step count: today’s total was 26, 194!) Anyway, that was my fun day today, I hope you like the photos! I expect the cruise to range between semi-live to live; on port days, I probably will have to post my recap toward the end of the day like today. Let me know if you have any questions! Christine

I need to hit the books a little I think...but my excuse is I've only been "here" for like...20 minutes? ?

Well you convinced me! Transferred my Alaska 2020 cruise to Danette over at MEI last night. I normally like to do the leg work myself but with this cruise being so far out thought it might be easier to let a pro monitor the sales etc.

Ok.....let's sort this part out. True Voom is only available in Oasis & Quantum Class ships which would make this attractive. Any other ships will remain under old internet speeds, not as attractive. RCCL states that all of their ships have VOOM which is misleading and this was brought to their attention.

Yes....After my declaration (above) that the prices have not come down since BF/CM, I checked after posting above to find that, in fact, the drink packages HAVE come back down again. I got an email advertising a "sale" on drink packages but I just ignore those emails b/c what's a "sale" to them is generally NOT a savings to me. But in this case, I think it might be legit. So if you've been waffling on the drink package, take a look today. It might be back down to a previous, affordable number. Dan is so funny about the drink package. He always tells me NOT to buy it...but then I do anyway...and then he loves it when he has it. Even though we get drinks in the CL/SL and we drink for free in the casino, it's for those times when we are in NEITHER of those places that we really enjoy having the drinks package. Most particularly, during meals and that welcome aboard drink in the champagne Lounge/R Bar. I will say though...2 drinks package for a 12 night holiday cruise is still pricey. YIKES ! I hope we can hang for 12 nights. There are 7 sea days in there though. Gotta do som'n to pass the time on a sea day !

Thanks guys! This was hugely helpful @love to cruise and @JLMoran!! And I also just finally figured out how to tag people!!!!!! Yeah!!! Jane

We gifted this New Year's cruise to my parents. This is a thank you for being the best parents in the Global World. We gave them a box full of party favors for New Year's. In the bottom of the box was their cruise documents. My parents were stunned and now they are packing. Look out Anthem, here comes my parents.

Day Seven Dinner By FlowBro Ty For Dinner I Had Coconut Shrimp. And I Four Scoops Of Ice Cream And Chesse Cake . Since Tomorrow Is My Birthday I Got A Cake. Then I Went To The Hot Tub. After The Hot Tub I Went To Bed. Tomorrow The Trip Will Be Over.

Table 687 at the late seating

By FlowBro Ty -Day One Port Canaveral Part Two- At 4:30 I Went To Muster. My Station Was In The Royal Promenade In Café Promenade. It Was Really Fast And They Did Not Play The Wash Your Hand Song Yay. In Ten Minutes We Were Sailing Away From Port Canaveral. After Viewing Our Sail Away I Hit The Flowrider Until Six. Then I Got Ready For Dinner At The Main Dinning Room On Deck 4.For Dinner We Had Table 678 And For Our Waiter We Had Sattyyendra And For Our Assistant Waiter We Had Vincent. One Of The Best Wait Staff Out There. Every Time I Was On The Oasis I Had Some Of The Best Dining Staff In The Fleet. After Dinner I Went To Bed Because Tomorrow Will Be Full Of Fun.

By FlowBro Ty -Day One Port Canaveral- Today Is Cruise Day! I Sleep In Today Because It Is A Perfect Way To Start A Vacation. For Breakfast I Got Up And Drank A Smoothie For A Snack Until I Got On The Boat. We Loaded The Car The Night Before To Save Time. We Left The Home At Ten And Next Stop Turkey Lake. The Port Is An Hour And A Half Away From My House. After A Hour And A Half Being Cramped In The Back Of The Car We Arrived At Park Port Canaveral. This Is A Nice Place And This Is My Second Time Using Them. It Is Less Than Five Minutes Away From The Port. And We Always Had A Good Experience Here. Today They Where Boarding At Twelve Forty Five Because The Coast Guard Were Doing A Routine Inspersion On The Boat. Because We Were In A Suite We Used Suite Check In. It Took Us Five Minutes To Get Past The Security People And Upstairs. When We Got There Then We Where Past Check And Headed On The Ship In Less Than Ten Minutes . So We Were On The Ship By 12:50. For Lunch We Tried To Go To The Windjammer But There Was A Line Down The Stairs So We Went To Wipeout Café. Not Disappointed The Food Was Good And Had No Line. I Had A Hamburger With Cheese And My All Time Favorite Free Drink Strawberry Kiwi Water. So Good.Then Since We Were Near The Flowriders I Had To Go On It. So I Did. There Was No Line For Stand Up Or Bogie Boarding Until 3:00. One Of The Workers Was Blown Away Because I Did Every Trick He Told Me To Do And I Did Not Wipe Out. Also Had A Great Chat With One Of The Worker. Now It Is Time To Head To Muster Drill.

They're asking as if RCblog group taking over the ship would be a bad thing. Oh no a fleet of people that love cruising and have a lot of helpful advice. THE HORROR.