Leaderboard

Dinner on the first night lead us to our favorite meal from Harmony, Jamie’s Italian. It’s our eight year old daughters favorite, and she nearly screamed when I let her know yesterday that Oasis wouldn’t get a Jamie’s when it gets Amplified. Jamie’s features the updated menu that rolled out when Navigator was relaunched, which for my wife meant I was missing the crispy Salmon she adored on Harmony. The location is also a big departure from Harmony where the restaurant is off of Central Park, here it sits off the rather noisy WindJammer buffet. This does however mean it gets some stunning ocean views during sunset. Garlic bread Calamari Bruschetta (which I caught one bite late) Short Ribs Shrimp Linguine Truffle Linguine Pan roasted salmon. This one was a bit of a miss as the red sauce didn’t help the dish Tagliatelle Bolognese. This is my second favorite bolognese out there, only behind Lidia Bastianich’s recipe. Which unfortunately takes a full day to make.

Day 6 - Hubbard Glacier Our progress at 4:22am: I was hoping for a sunrise and managed to get a glimpse of a sunrise through the breaking cloud cover. Our destination began to appear in the distance. It was pretty windy at this point but seas were pretty calm. Here at 7:30am the Solarium was still pretty empty. Some guests secured a front row seat. You can't see it here but it was pretty windy. The glass panels did a great job deflecting the wind but allowed me to stick my camera through the space between. Weather like this isn't unusual here. I've seen it be like this and clear up later so I wasn't too concerned about the high winds and drizzle. The shops had set up on the pool deck selling hats, gloves, jackets and stuffed animals. As we got closer the winds died down so they were able to run the North Star through a test cycle. This allows them to validate winds at elevation and ensure the ride is ready for guests. Something you don't see very often is the North Star going over the sides of the ship, at least not here in North America. This is part of the new North Star Alaska Experience that is a paid option. At this point it's 8:50am and we've entered Disenchantment Bay. Click here for more details on the North Star Alaskan Experience.

The cruise ship terminal at the pier in Sitka has shops for those last minute typical souvenirs. It's an active boatyard for servicing the smaller fishing boats and it's been quite busy with a number of boats being lifted out of the water and maintenance performed on the hulls. Back in my cabin I looked down to see this guy walking around with some king crabs. Basking in sunlight I thought it might be an opportunity for some photos given how overcast much of the day had been so I headed up. Bumper cars were going with a small line as bumper car lines go. No line for the North Star so why not? Soon after our sail away commenced and we started to see the landscape we missed in the morning due to the heavy cloud cover earlier. Pictures don't do it justice. It's simply breath taking views everywhere you look. Some flowrider action. Plus some instruction going on in the iFly. It was Diamond happy hour so I happened across the North Star bar. The North Star bar has been a favorite place to get a drink and soak up the views. Looking back towards downtown Sitka on the lower left. Our position as we turned into the Pacific to head North towards Hubbard Glacier. I really enjoyed this call at Sitka. The presence of the largest ship to ever visit was the talk of the town. Extra buses were brought in and anyone who had a commercial driver's license was engaged to keep guests moving. Our bus driver on the return shuttle to the ship lives in Juneau for the summer but was flown over to work in Sitka for the day to make sure the shuttle lines between the ship and town were never too long. After we leave he'll fly back to Juneau where some of us will see him driving a bus there.

Also worth noting that Royal Caribbean Blog Insiders get a 24 hours advanced notice on group cruise announcements.

Dinner on night two took us to Hooked Seafood for the first time. Hooked is located right by the theater and has doors that fully close, so avoided the same noise issues that plague Chops and Jamie’s. All things considered, I’d put Hooked at the bottom of the Specialty Dining restaurants onboard. The items that were fried had a breading that lacked flavor, and the “Maryland Crab Cake” that is on the menu doesn’t belong in the middle of the sea. Our server Chedee (first syllable sounds like Cheddar) was great and was the highlight of the meal. Hooked Sunset Calamari and Peppers Shrimp Cocktail Surf and Turk, Lobster Mac and Cheese, and grilled corn Whole Maine Lobster Lobster a Roll Seafood Platter Hooked Sunset Whoopie Pies Caramel Bread Pudding Boston Cream Pie After dinner we walked around the ship a bit as Navigator has a great ambiance on the pool deck at night. We also used this opportunity to play some miniature golf in the dark before heading to bed.

Waking up at 7:30 for Perfect Day was both a blessing and a curse. As I got up, I noticed the floor near the front of the cabin was wet, which we eventually found out was coming out of a pump room outside our room. I quickly moved into mouth-wide-open smiling at the view from our aft balcony as Navigator had backed into its space on the new pier. Disembarking was a breeze as most others were sleeping at 8am, while I was skipping across the pier ready to be near the front of the line for DareDevils peak. Once inside of Perfect Day we immediately made a bee-line for thrill Waterpark. As we didn’t bring waterproof cameras and mounts we set our stuff down and headed for the slides. That means I don’t have any cool pictures or videos, but luckily @Matt took lots, including the Drop Slides that he thought he might die on ? We spent a bit of time at the wave pool, which during the morning had waves big enough to make us feel like we were on a fishing boat on the show Deadliest Catch. According to others they toned down the waves later in the day. We also made our way over to my new favorite pool in the world, the Oasis Lagoon. The Oasis Lagoon is not only big, but also very well thought out. It’s got plenty of seating around the pool, lots of ledges and chairs inside the pool, and trees to add some natural shade. The swim-up bar was very nice to have, as the waiter from onboard neglected us each time he walked by. The bar would however take on a “meat market” vibe later in the day. Most of that is probably because of the three day cruise, but time will tell. At 11:30 lunch opened up at Skippers Grill. If we’re comparing the food at CocoCay to Labadee, CocoCay is a new Michelin starred restaurant compared to a Shoney’s. I was so pleasantly surprised with the variety and quality of the food on CocoCay. And that was even before discovering the Snack Shack. As @Matt has mentioned, they’re chicken sandwich is delicious. I’m really hoping they don’t cost-cut the quality out of the CocoCay food because they knocked it out of the park. On our way back onboard we found the stowaway piano player technically not being a stowaway. Perhaps he was doing his @BrandonOwen impression and trying to stowaway on the island After we got back on, we found an industrial dryer in the room, and also found that the plumber who plugged in the dryer had left the bathroom door open which had led to a Vortex of Toilet Paper (Which would be a great punk rock band name) We also discovered the pitfalls of having a private island where the drink package carries over. I witnessed more than one person needing to be pushed to their room in a wheelchair because they had over indulged on the island. One woman I saw was screaming in the hallway and didn’t know where her room was.

Family comedy in Royal Theater tonight. CD Mike is a magician. He did about 20 minutes and was funny and talented and very touching at the end. Love and Marriage is on later and we are really looking forward to that. Comedian Simeon Kirkiles was decent. Comedian Rodney Johnson was hysterical. We will try to catch their adult shows also. Here's the backstory on Mike

Since you’re not allowed onto the Helipad on Oasis Class vessels, we decided to take in part of the Sail Away from there (a certain blogger said it was “too hot” out there. We decided to see how the sail away looked from the balcony. Norwegian Sky departed right before us and Carnival Victory was right behind us

Once inside we were pleasantly surprised by the general space of our junior suite room 1394. There was ample storage and plenty of room to move. The bathroom however was a big step down from the same room type from Harmony with very little room and still having a shower curtain rather than glass doors The walk in closet was also much smaller and I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a walk in closet. On Harmony you could have slept an extra person in the closet The bed was quite comfortable, but the sofa bed was rather scratchy, but got the job done. Our aft balcony was a great find, and in total was probably about a hundred square feet with four standard chairs and two lounge chairs. The view was not listed as obstructed but as you can see the view down was partially obstructed.

I'm sure it doesn't hurt the timing that there's a bar right next to where you get on line. "Hmmm, line's looking long. Bartender! Another kraken lava flow, hold the lava and hold the flow!" 15 minutes later: "Hmmm, line's looking long..."

4:45 am alarm goes off. 5:00, maybe 5:20, stumble to coffee. 5:30 am blink and look at computer to figure out where I left off the prior day with work. Oh, that alarm – yeah, that’s my damn body alarm. When you wake up early (way early) and do a ton of reading about cruise stuff, you realize that writing up your own personal experience from start to finish is a cool way to document your vacation. Reading all the blogs tends to get you excited. You start thinking, yeah, cool, I can do this. No problem. Oh yeah, it was my sister that was the English major (#InsertExplicit). That just means I hope she never finds this thing. My grammar probably isn’t that good, but it’s communicable. Countdown started a long time ago, but now we are exactly 2-weeks from boarding. Let’s push the rewind button and see how we got here. April 2016, after taking a financial break from cruising (our last cruise was 2012 #ugh) to ‘fund’ our home renovations and finish our Master’s degree, we realized it was time to take a real vacation and celebrate a few things. One of our big celebrations was wanted to take the kids, my mother-in-law (MiL) and sister-in-law (SiL) on their first ever cruise. My SiL turned 50 and my MiL turned 70 – sshhh – ok, so those are big milestones, #meh, they won’t care. We needed a cruise that would accommodate all of us for a reasonable price. Many spreadsheets later and seeing as how we would ‘split’ the MiL’s cruise fare with my SiL, we landed on the Oasis of the Seas, A1-8330 Aquatheater Suite w/ Balcony. It was the 7-night Eastern Caribbean on May 28, 2017. Oh yeah, and it was our first time to experience Star Class (SC). #Ruined While on the 2017 cruise, there was a lot of discussion about when / where / how / etc would we do the next cruise. Well, we didn’t sign up on Oasis in 2017 for the next one because we just hadn’t figured out all the logistics. Maybe I’ll try and remember to write up something about that cruise later, but for now … need to fast forward a few months to the current cruise. There were months of research, discussion, pricing and justification before we finally landed on something. Let’s play from here. In January 2018 we confirmed the cruise ship, route and room. #MonthlyPaymentsStarted During all of our researching and planning, we laid out plans for the next 6 years of cruising vacations. This includes starting plans for the kid’s graduation cruises, one in 2023 to Italy and one in 2025 to Ireland. Plus, SC cruises in 2020 and 2021. We'll probably have to skip 2022 and 2024 to accommodate a 2-week vacation / cruise in 2023 and the other in 2025. More on those later. One of our cruise goals is to try all the new ships coming out for RCL. We prefer the larger ships with all the cool activities and shows. Finding the 9-night Bermuda cruise on Anthem was an awesome find. While we are still working for #TheMan, our vacation and cruise budget limits us to about one cruise a year. We booked the Owner’s Loft Suite 8720, which falls into the Star Class. I can blame the kids for wanting to only cruise in SC now. #Damnit #BadDad Oh, and since we found the Coastal Kitchen, we are now ‘required’ to book something that gives us access. #Spoiled Planning for this cruise is pretty much a weekly discussion over the weekend mornings while drinking coffee and scanning cruise ‘stuff’. Travel arrangements We booked our flight on 12/12/18 (about 25 weeks out) on Southwest. Flight on 5/5/19 and returning on 5/15/19. Since we are in Nashville, Southwest is our preferred carrier. Over the past few years, I’ve flown for work and we have taken a couple of Vegas trips, all on Southwest. So, those points FINALLY paid off. Rather than paying close to $1200+ to fly all four of us up to Newark, NJ, we paid about $50. I cashed in all my points for me and kids. There was almost enough left to pickup my DW’s ticket (I’m guessing this acronym means Dear Wife ? ) so, we paid the transfer fee to have her points transferred to my account to give me enough to get her ‘freeish’ ticket. Thus the $50ish buck was for the transfer and taxes. Not bad, fly all four of us roundtrip for $50ish ? #KeepCasinoBudget When cruising, we always fly in the night before just to make sure if there are any travel issues there is time to deal with it before getting on the cruise. I give credit to my dad for teaching me this. I’ve been cruising since early 2000’s and have always made sure to fly in the day before. Plus, we can start our vacation a day early. My better half did a lot of research on hotels around the port Bayonne in NY. She found a nice hotel, forget what it was, but really wanted to stay in something a little nicer. We talked about the Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson, but it was about $300 more for the night than what she originally booked. She really wanted to stay there because it looked really cool and is right across from the NY skyline. I felt bad because that really wasn’t in our budget. But wait, lookie what I found. We have some ‘cash-back’ rewards on one of our credit cards. Let’s us that to upgrade to the Hyatt and use our rewards to pay the difference. Done. Booked. Confirmed on March 5th. We’ll get to the hotel earlier enough that we are planning to go see the 911 Memorial and take the ferry over to the statue. Was hoping to be able to see the statue from the North Star as we left, but after a few postings and great information, that doesn’t seem to be an option. The only other pre-cruise travel stuff we did was book a spot to drop the car off. More than likely, we’ll grab us an Uber to get around everywhere else and to take us to the port on the morning of our cruise. Right now, we are planning to leave the hotel about 9:30 to give us an hour or so to make sure we are at the port and in the right spot by the Star Class to meet Yen. I’m the type of person that wants to be early to almost everything – I would rather wait than to have someone waiting for us to show up. #IsThatOCD We got our first RoyalUp email on April 26, about 6 weeks before our cruise date. This was the first time we ever received one of these. We talked about attempting to upgrade, but couldn’t justify an additional $2400 IF we sent in the lowest bid of $1200 pp. I mean, we ‘could’ have swung it but that would have taken away from our casino budget – yeah, we quickly shot it down. Now, if we could have bid maybe $500-$750/pp – that we would have considered a little more. Just to note, they would only charge us for the first two guests – so, technically, it was like upgrading with the kids sail free. Yeah, only way kids sail free is if we put them to work on the ship cleaning dishes or something. They are 12 and 14 now, so I’m SURE that would go over just peachy. Anyway, I guess we didn’t pay enough for this SC cruise so RCL was trying to get us to pay a little more. I’m not going to post what we paid but let’s just say I booked this thing about 16 months prior so I could make monthly budgeted payments. Yes – we actually have a cruise budget ?. We did reprice a few times over the course of time that saved us a little extra. A second email to upgrade came in about 2 weeks later on 5/7/19. I guess the second one was meant for @Lovetocruise2002, since she’s never gotten one. Lol Evidently, they wanted us to upgrade to the Royal Loft Suite which looks amazing, but, hey, we are happy to stay where we are at. There weren’t any other suites included with this email. Side note. We got the RCL credit card a long time ago on one of our past cruises. Yeah, the perks aren’t as good as other cards, but we designate this card for pretty much cruise only related stuff. Over the years, we obtained some of those MyCruise Points that we were able to use for some nice OBC. #BonusCasinoFunds We get double points by putting the cruise payments on this card, which can add up to some decent OBC. Plus, it keeps our cruise finances separate from our normal daily financials. Star Class Notes Our first welcome aboard email from the SC came in on 4/13/19. What’s this, about 8ish weeks or so before our cruise. It was just a generic welcome to the royal genie program where you can fill out a questionnaire. On 5/8/19 we got our first email from Yen Lee, our genie for this cruise. We are excited to have her and have heard great things, especially from @WAAAYTOOO. Here’s a snippet from her initial email: “Once I hear back from you, I’ll reach out again to confirm all the exciting details. From this point on, any questions or requests can be sent my way. I’m looking forward to seeing you onboard soon Please allow me to provide you with directions to the STAR Class arrival area and guarantee a VIP boarding. Kindly be advised that your drop-off point at Cape Liberty Cruise Terminal will be Zone 6. There is a large purple banner, which says Star Class, at the location. Please do not get off at any other zone. Once at Zone 6, kindly identify yourself as a Star Class guest and the assigned pier staff will ensure that your luggage is loaded onto a cart and will be sent directly to the suite while you go through the check-in and security screening process. Due to the nature of the Star Class program, you would understand the services and amenities listed in this email are exclusive and limited to guests residing in these suites. We appreciate your understanding when it comes to the exclusivity of these privileges. I would like to offer you Expedited Boarding services and I would also like to give you my undivided attention. May I suggest arriving at the terminal at 10:30 AM? I have 3 Star Class Families in total and I want to personally escort you inside the Ship. “ We are not the type of family to require a ton of assistance or demands on things, as we want to do all of our own planning and organization. But when cruising SC we allow some of our obsessive planning nature to be done by our genie. After coming up with a list of ‘must-do’ activities on the boat, we sent that over to Yen to allow her to plan the best times. Being in SC does have its perks – two of the main ones we enjoy is the ability to have someone help make sure we can enjoy ALL/ANY activity on board. This is really something that the kids enjoy. The second is the up-front reserved seating for all the shows. Of course, there a lot more benefits, but we can elaborate on those later. Over the past few weeks, we have been communicating with Yen to have her send us the dinner menus for the Coastal Kitchen #teamCK and the other specialty restaurants. I have 11 PDF files of these, so might load those in a follow-up to this opening blog. These will include Izumie, Jamie’s, Chops and Wonderland. We asked for the cruise planner, but haven’t gotten it at this time. Now being two weeks out, this weekend is dedicated to cruise shopping. We all need a few new things for the cruise like some new clothing, shoes and other misc. items. Our new suitcases came in last week, so those are setup in the living room to get ready to start packing. My DW wouldn’t really allow us to start packing any earlier. We don’t have a spare bedroom for a staging area, so have to use the living room. Oh well. Cruise Planner Being in SC, we pretty much get most everything available in the CP, with the exception of the excursions and a few other items (the photo package comes to mind). We did a lot of discussion around the excursions and talked with the kids to see what they wanted to do. For the most part, they just want to swim / snorkel the entire time. Paying some of the prices for the excursions was something we had a hard time justifying. On a prior cruise, my DW and I did a kayak, hike and snorkel excursion in St. Maarten but was pretty disappointed. Paying a few hundred for that excursion didn’t help us want to pay for another one, when we could potentially just walk somewhere and snorkel or walk and tour on our own. However, in 2017, we (all 6 of us, including my 70 yr old mother in law) did the Loterie Farm Zipline. Now, that was well worth the cost. So much so, that we booked it again for this cruise. This is our only purchased excursion in the CP. They did get hit really hard by the hurricane later in 2017, but from their recent pictures looks like they have rebuilt. We are happy to support them by taking this tour again. I’m going to pause for now but will pick up later as we get a little closer. I will also be attempting to do a few live periscopes as @CruisingHobby with #rcperiscopers and will also post more here during the cruise.

After dinner we scurried down to studio B for ISkate. This show was much better received by the family than the forced “we do what we want” ISkate show on Harmony. The choreographed drone routine was awesome. The routines in the show also seemed more coordinated and skilled even including an on ice backflip from one of the skaters. There must have been 15 costume changes during the show. The conclusion of the show was also where we first, and last saw Hugo, our cruise director. I got too accustomed on NCL of seeing the CD’s just walking around and being part of the action. On RC they seem to take a much more business oriented MC role After the show I headed down to the casino, which seemed to feature several oversights when it came to design. There’s just too many tables crammed in to where you can’t get buy when someone is sitting down. During my visits there it was a mixed bag of dealers mostly unfortunately featuring less than enthusiastic personalities. It’s a huge departure from the rest of the crew who actually seems happy to be there. Once she saw it in the cruise compass, Addie wanted to stay up for the Midnight balloon drop. I was ready to go to bed by then, knowing there was a long day upcoming at CocoCay. Addie won out and we crowded into the Promenade just before midnight.

Haven't forgotten about this request... just need to figure out where the MDR is. Even with this being the second time on Symphony I've yet seen it.

Embarkation Day Part 1-as usual I couldn’t sleep as I was ready to run to the pier as soon as the sun came up. Unfortunately I’d have to wait until 10 o’clock to check in at the pier. We grabbed some breakfast at the Hotels Concierge lounge, or more specifically the family did as I never eat as I’m rearing to get going and get onboard. While the lounge at the property is on the 36th floor with great views, breakfast is on the 2nd floor with basically no view. Once 9:45 arrived requested our Lyft XL to the port which was 18.51 and was a suburban so plenty of room for us and our bags. It worked out great as the driver was around the corner so we waited less than a minute. Total time to Terminal A was only 12 minutes, and we passed right by the Intercontinental property so many of you like. At that time of the morning the departing crowd had left and the incoming crowd was probably still sleeping or working so they’re was zero traffic. There was no wait to unload our bags, and we quickly made it past a slew of porters offering to take our carry on bags. Terminal A from the second you pull in is in a class of its own, the drop off area is full covered so provides lots of shade for those hot Miami afternoons. Once you hit the doorway you’re right in front of the beautiful Propellor-mobile that looks like something I’d have loved over my crib as a baby. Within a few steps we were escorted over to a red carpet and into the elevator towards the suites-pinnacle check-in/ waiting area. The area itself is well appointed with comfortable couches and chairs where each guest is checked in. Rather than the traditional waiting in line, a representative comes to you for check in and to verify that your picture works. About 3 minutes after arriving in the area we were all checked in and asked to wait until they got the B2B cruisers off and back on. The area has refreshments while you wait but there wasn’t much waiting. We also saw a RC luminary as Super MARIO was on this cruise with us At about 10:45 a representative came out and let us know that they were finishing up a coast guard drill but we’re going to start boarding. However, guest related services would not open till 11 which meant some waiting to drop off our carry on luggage, but no big deal. My wife walked our luggage to the theater while my daughter and I went to hook to secure our dinner reservations. We had already purchased the ultimate dining package so it was a simple two minute conversation to secure Jamie’s, Hooked, and Izumi for the three nights.

A time lapse of our visit to Hubbard Glacier from my balcony. Another time lapse illustrating the difference between the North Star Alaska Experience and the complimentary North Star Experience as we pulled out of Disenchantment Bay.

Not even dinner time on day 6, but a survey was left in the cabin for the Key. Other than odd time for ice skating (day 2, 9:30PM), they truly earned all 10s. I guess they'll ask about the departure day breakfast and priority debarkation when we get home. I cannot believe we are up to this point already. Fastest vacation ever. This goes with the lollipop Quest tonight. Woohoo!

This visit to Hubbard Glacier is a special one. Hubbard Glacier is not a regularly scheduled stop for Ovation of the Seas. This may be one of those rare occasions when an itinerary lines up like the stars. Who knows when Ovation of the Seas might return? While the day started out cold and wet in full Alaskan fashion that didn't last long and we we treated to a fantastic finish. From North Star as we swung out over the side of the ship. Pretty cool seeing Ovation slowly navigating through large pieces of glacial ice in the water. Zan Ma and Li Bao's first visit to an Alaskan Glacier. Not a bad seat in the house. Talk about a change in the weather? What a glorious day! Alas it was time to leave... My third stop here at Hubbard Glacier and this is the best weather I've experienced. What a special day!

Finally getting to yesterday's St. John's excursion. We chose the Royal's Trunk Bay outing just to have the piece of mind of the ship waiting for us. We paid $66 for it and felt it was worth it. It included a narrated 40 minute or so boat transport from St. Thomas to St. John, a narrated 20 minute or so ride from dock in St John to Trunk Bay Beach, guided snorkeling with free rental gear. The driver to the beach (on very winding roads) was the safest, nicest driver we've ever had. If you get the chance, ask for Smittie. We were amazed at how uncrowded the beach was considering there were other ships in port, some hotels have reopened and locals. White sand was fine, water was clear, no rocks or sea weed...very beautiful. However, in my opinion and despite how long I've waited to get there, it came in 3rd on my beach list, tied with Megan's Bay in St. Thomas. 1 is Barbados and 2 is Bermuda (we have not been to Europe). Sorry, no pictures from snorkeling. Stunning nonetheless. Learned some very interesting facts (well, to me, anyway) about St Thomas and St. John After the hurricanes they were without electricity for 150 days. Only 3 hotels have reopened..Marriot is still gutted inside and Ritz Carlton has reopened only 1 of 6 sections. USVI has 32 islands, only 8 of which are inhabited. Some of those have as little as 1 resident! Pillsbury Sound starts where the Sea ends and runs between St. Thomas and St. John. These condos started at $1.3M and by the time construction finished were selling for up to $3.5M. House on the left with the white staircase (leading to a pool) was used in filming the first 6 seasons of Charlie's Angels. House next to it was Carol Burnet's (dating myself...most of you are probably saying "who is that"?) And next to that is Kelsey Grammar's. Further down (not shown) is Kenney Chesney's. Finally got some shots of the entire ship.

After dinner a sunset caught my eye just before 10pm. An extinct volcano seemed very majestic in the distance. Time for bed, early start in the morning. Our Captain has been early at most ports so far and I didn't want to miss our approach to the Hubbard Glacier in the morning.

Gorgeous, warm sunny day today (day 6, sea day). Didn't get to the pool until about 10 but we were still able to find seats.

I think this does happen to some. I have long since given up worrying about whether I get my money's worth or not. I never, ever do. But I don't buy the DBP to save money. I buy it to save energy and to have the flexibility to get whatever I want whenever I want it and also to prepay this expense so that I do not have to worry about how much we are spending onboard. I never get the combo drinks+internet package. We purchase the internet package once onboard, using our D+ discount. This is the only cruise-related expense that Dan pays ! ...and usually there is more than enough OBC from our RCCL Visa points rebate to cover it so he rarely pays even for that ! What a great deal !

I agree with you. It seems like the self-assist crowd is growing on every cruise. I always avoid using self-assist unless I have to use it. It is always so unorganized and loaded with line cutters.

Cats = 3 hours of free time for something else! Anything.

Would rather have Hooked than a BBQ joint.

Or you could just go with the YOLO mentality and keep your booking and add in the GC! Been there, done that. @Matt will vouch that I kept saying I could not in any way go on the Anthem GC since I had already booked SY before the AN one was announced. The cruises are two weeks apart. Well, guess what I am doing this July...?

Check your cruise planners. Sailing Liberty in August and my deluxe drink package dropped to $46 a night. Lowest I had seen was $49. Saved my wife and I $50

I am loyal to Royal, but to me this is above and beyond nickel and diming. I checked on my cruise planner today. Under On Board Activities Ultimate Flowrider was there What I didn't care for was the description. Please show me how long this excursion lasts? How many people can partake? Overview Personal one-on-one lessons with our experienced FlowRider instructors are a great way to get more time on the water, master the basics, perfect your form or pick up a few fun tricks! Only Royal Caribbean lets you discover the thrill of surfing on our 40-foot-long wave simulator while at sea. Reserve the FlowRider for your family, friends (even yourself!), and learn how to maneuver with a boogie board, or stand up and hang ten with an exclusive private lesson. I really feel that before you offer something like this, should state more. Flow Riding lesson excursion is 69. It states it is a group and the duration is 1 hr. There is none of that for the Ultimate. Might be just me, but between these new items, and of course private times for The Key, it appears to me that either there will be fewer open "FREE" time at the Flowrider, or they are testing to see if there is a pay for market like specialty restaurants. I have no bone in this fight. I will never do the flow rider since I had a full knee replacement when I was 19. I am just throwing it out there for others that enjoy this amenity. 552 is more than I paid for my cabana at Coco Cay and that is for 8 hrs. OBTW I did try to do a fake booking. It only allowed me to do 6 people, but no times were available. It appeared that the site has yet to finish the reservation program for the Ultimate FlowRider.

Awesome! That's what happened March 2018 as well. You know what that means??? Two opportunities for CK Pork Belly and Filet!!!!!

You need to look at it a little differently. The soda/coffee/bottled water package on my cruise is running at 20.99. I got my DBP for 47, or 26 more, hence 2 alcoholic bevs per day. If you are not going to drink any soda, fresh OJ, specialty coffee and bottled water than you would basically need to drink 4-5 alcoholic bev per day.

I spoke w. Michelle and she was very helpful. I think I'm going to keep my April booking and I'll definitely use MEI for my next cruise (and I think there's going to be a next cruise!!! ? )

Living in MD my whole life my basic philosophy is that there’s only a 90 minute radius where a crab cake should be consumed.

I'm still hoping they will change their minds.

Yes...make's it more "vacation-y". lol. no worries.

Ok - me first - ha ANTHEM OF THE SEAS | 9-NIGHT BERMUDA | JUNE 6, 2019 AN-Wonderland.pdf AN-JamieOlivers.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 7_0129AD_ENG.pdf AN-Chops.pdf AN-Izumi Menu.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 1_0129AD_ENG.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 2_0129AD_ENG.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 3_0129AD_ENG.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 4_0129AD_ENG.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 5_0129AD_ENG.pdf Coastal_Dinner_Day 6_0129AD_ENG.pdf

Still waiting. I am beginning to feel offended lol. I just take matters into my own hands now and upgrade myself. Following along on this one for sure!

Rest assured, I pay full price like the rest of ya for these group sailings. But in terms of planning them, I usually wait for new itinerary releases before deciding on which ones to do.

2012? WOW!!! The ship is extremely late!! ??

Wow! He's a jack of all trades...DJ, CD, magician, police officer, and Canadian!

Also not TeamMDR... I started cruising on Royal in 2006 and the food in the MDR was delicious then it happened Oasis came out and they released those stupid Spice Menu's. They obviously also bought inferior ingredients and the food started to go South really quickly.. Now I buy an Ultimate package for every cruise. I also don't mind. People say oh but the food is included why would you do that.. For me its simple I love Royal and I am not going to win and get them to make the MDR better so I bite the bullet and pay for the better package and I have a wonderful cruise every time..

We arrived to Chops at about 11:20 and they weren’t yet ready for lunch. I’d prefer if they just started letting people in for lunch as it would cut down on some of the traffic and rush once 11:30 hits. We were promptly seated but that’s where the delays start. It took quite a while to get drinks, then to get orders in, and even longer to get lunch. Hopefully they’ll get the program refined as they don’t seem ready to serve 100 guests all at once. branzino Chops Sides Chops Cheesecake It took till almost 1 o’clock to finish lunch, but that want a big issue as since there was a coast guard drill the rooms wouldn’t be ready till 2 o’clock. We then took time to change and headed for the pools and slides. After some fun in the sun and trying out the new slides for the first time we walked down to our room on Deck 10. It was timed perfectly as right as we hit the steps there was an announcement that rooms were ready.

Once we had given up our backpacks and carry on luggage, we walked the promenade before heading to Chops for our Key Lunch. Playmakers To Dry For Bamboo Room Menu Bamboo Room VW Buggy We also got to walk to through the Solarium which unlike Harmony has its own pool not just hot tubs

I have never used a bar on an RCI ship as I don't drink and I always bring enough soft drink so that I don't need to use the bars, however when purchasing drinks on board an 18% gratuity is automatically included. If you want to tip extra I have tipped in both Australian and US dollars. It is probably easier in USD as the smallest denomination note in Australia is $5.

Will talk about our day in St. John later or tomorrow (sea day). In the meantime, I'm starting to believe pop up piano man is following us. Here's #4 in front of MDR. And MDR night 5 menu.

Day 6 - Evening After dinner I always like to go top side and take in the views. Shows and entertainment are great but I came here to see Alaska. This particular stretch of coast has a long running mountain range. It's basically the coastal area of Glacier Bay National Park, the same mountains I flew over just a few days ago. In the evenings like this the North Star bar is often empty but there are great views. This one section has a number of glaciers right next to each other. Early start in the morning, time for bed.

We like the Hyatt on 17th St. However, the price has gone up there recently (or maybe it's because I have to travel over high season) and it is again a bit dated compared to the Holiday Inn Express (new section). They are very close to one another.

Thanks @Skid for providing your recap! Key thing when it comes to Wonderland is if you like something ask for another "bite". It can be filling depending on number items brought out. Also if you want to try something in particular just ask for it up front. What the "guide" brings out is a great start for the experience. Just be honest about any dislikes. At the same time I hate saying it, as @WAAAYTOOO would put it "You always have Windjammer afterwards"... (My own input: Just depending on time you get out. Otherwise Sorrentos or Cafe Promenade will have to finish off the meal.) The Globe/World offering, melt lapse Think the reason behind not taking photos was due the shadow I was casting. Hate using the flash in a dark/lowlight environment.

I just saw that the Embassy Suites on 17th is getting ready to start a complete makeover this Summer. This will certainly add a premium to the nightly rate once complete.

Absolutely agree. Not only does the novelty wear off, but on most of the ships on which I have sailed that have a BB, the thing is either down for repairs or demands constant human supervision. On Anthem in Feb a poor girl was there 100% of the time to clean up after its messes and ensure that people were getting their drinks. COMPLETELY defeats the purpose (and allure) of a BOT.

Something else I forgot to mention... Normally the SeaPass cards on ships that use RFID can't be punched because you could cut the antenna embedded into the card. Here on Ovation the RFID cards come pre-punched in the lower left corner. This means traditional lanyards are back in play. This is the first I've seen this, granted my last RFID ship was back in November.

Day 1 - Embarkation Day After over a year and a half of waiting, but a "scant" six months from our very first cruise, my wife and I were finally heading out for our long-awaited trip to Bermuda! We'd packed only the night before; partly because it was such a short trip that we didn't need to pack much, partly because work was crazy busy for me the previous two weeks and I just didn't have the time or energy to pack before then! ? Since we live only 45-60 minutes from the port, depending on traffic, we didn't need to get up at the crack of dawn. I was still up at 7:30, because ? come sail away, come sail away, come saiiiilll awayyyy with meeeeee! ? I ate an early breakfast with my younger daughter, and my wife came down a short time later. While we were sitting at the table, our daughter asked what kind of room we had, and my wife answered, "A balcony, like last time." The time for the big reveal had finally come. ? I said, "Well, actually... there was a really good sale about three months after I'd booked, and... I upgraded us to a Junior Suite." Cathy was very happily surprised by this, and as I told her about the room (tub and shower, bigger balcony with loungers instead of chairs, access to CK each night for dinner), she just got happier and happier. This was the kind of surprise she really liked! She was excited for the trip before, but now she was really excited! With breakfast done, we wrapped up the last of our packing, I went to the bank for cash, and we took care of some final things to make sure the kids would be OK while we were gone. It ended up taking longer than expected (doesn't it always? ?); I'd planned to be on the road at 9:30 to do our checkin right when the terminal opened at 10:30, but we didn't actually back out of the driveway until just after 10. Traffic was still pretty light, and we pulled into Cape Liberty port a little bit after 11. I'd seen from a Periscope that @KathyC did a while back that the terminal road just leads right up to the terminal entrance and porters, so I just stayed in the outside lane I was in and waited for the traffic to crawl its way forward. Other drivers weren't so patient; I saw one guy try to go into the left breakdown lane and cut off some other drivers, only to be halted by the port staffer who was directing traffic there. Guy was forced to wait his turn like everyone else, and I was glad to see it! And then the really crazy driver appeared; someone driving a minivan, possibly an Uber/Lyft, refused to stop when the port worker said to wait a moment, and just blazed on through the road to the pickup area! That port worker was livid, especially since he'd just narrowly avoided being clipped by the driver! After that bit of excitement, we were directed to one of the drop-off zones at the terminal entrance. A porter took our suitcases, and we made our way to the parking garage where I had the first nice surprise of the trip; the entire ground floor is reserved for drivers with handicap placards! I was directed to a spot and parked the car, we grabbed our carry-ons, and in short order we were inside the terminal building. Now I've only seen Port Everglades before this, but talk about a night and day difference! Where Terminal 29 in PE looks every inch like the refurbished cargo warehouse I'm guessing it once was, Cape Liberty is a bright, airy, modern looking building with nice decor inside. We made our way to the security checkpoint lines, and thankfully I thought to look for a suites line because the woman who looked at our Set Sail passes had us enter the general access security line. We jumped over to "our" line, which had only a few people waiting in front of us, got through the scanners without incident, and made our way to the suites and pinnacle checkin line. There were about a dozen passengers in front of us, with four port staff handling checkin. We got our turn in about 10 or 15 minutes; I know many here have said they ended up having their pictures re-taken after submitting them online for pre-checkin, but we must have done it to their liking because as soon as our passports were scanned, we were good to board! From garage to ship was maybe 20 or 25 minutes total. No pics of the terminal, our line, or the regular access line (which was a lot more crowded but also being serviced by a lot more people and moving noticeably faster than the one I was on); I'd promised my wife I wasn't going to go overboard with the picture taking (at least until we were in Bermuda and both of us were gawking), and I was not going to break that promise in the first hour! Before we could start exploring the ship, we had two important things to take care of first -- Making our reservations for CK each night, and getting a couple's pass to the Thermal Spa. We hit CK first, since it was the deck below the spa, and I was happy to see there was no line. We got our reservations squared away in just a couple of minutes, and there was no problem getting the times we wanted for each night. As we walked away, some other passengers had lined up behind us to make their own reservations, so we made the right call going there first. I found a Royal IQ terminal nearby and used that to cancel our MTD reservations. Next up was the spa. We went up one deck and all the way forward, and while waiting for a chance to ask about the pass, who should we run into but @ellcee! She recognized us from the pictures I'd posted of our last trip. We chatted for a couple of minutes, then went our separate ways to take care of our appointments at the spa and get on with exploring the ship. I found out that the thermal spa's steam room was having mechanical issues and wasn't going to be available until the next day, and the spa staff were giving a small discount for the passes as a result. This was fine by us, and our OBC (and then some!) was gone in a swipe of a pen on the receipt. We were instructed to come back to the spa after rooms opened and we got our SeaPass cards, as they would need to be stamped to show we had access. By now it was after noon and we were getting hungry, so we headed down to deck 5 and Cafe Two70. Sorry, guys, but no kummelweck for us (not fans of roast beef). I started off my drink package with a Royal Dream spirited coffee along with the sandwich and pasta salad I'd taken; it was very tasty, and very strong! After finishing our food, I wandered to the far back of Two70, where the panoramic windows are located, and found this interesting chair that from where we'd been sitting just looked like some kind of decorative piece. Just after 1, while still in Two70, we got the announcement that our rooms were available. We headed up to deck 7 and finally got to see our Spa Junior Suite in person. Sorry, but once again no pics; my wife hates when I take a bunch of room pics and hold up the start of unpacking. ? But suffice to say that we both loved this room. It's located right next to the aft stairwell, so there's no travel down the hall whatsoever. And being on deck 7, we could easily use the stairs for access to everything except the amenities on decks 14 and 15. The balcony, while not huge, was a good deal bigger than what we'd had in our balcony cabin on Freedom. Being 6' 3" (1.9m) and long-legged, I was grateful to be able to stretch my legs out while sitting in the chairs. We went to the general info session and raffle at 2:30, didn't win a single thing. Since most of what they were offering was stuff we'd already bought on the Cruise Planner, it was just as well! We cut out a little early and went to Silk, which was our designated station for muster drill. We were a smidge early, but the bars had already closed and I didn't want a repeat of the standing room only experience we'd had on Freedom. We grabbed a seat at one of the tables and waited for the presentation, which was delayed a bit by 4 passengers who didn't bother to show up when the general notice went out. Like @monorailmedic says, they were closing bars and taking names!! No in-person explanation of the procedures, we just watched the washy-washy song, the secret agent video (with a crew member showing the life jackets), and we were free to begin our cruise in earnest! With sail away close at hand, we headed over to Boleros for a proper beverage; I got their Mango and Melon Rita, while Cathy got a virgin cocktail. Drinks in hand, we headed up to our room and sat out on the balcony in the still-chilly air to enjoy sail away and watch as we went under the Verazzano Narrows bridge. We were underway at 4 as scheduled, even with the slight delay in starting muster drill. We had a coast guard ship escorting out of the harbor, a fire fighting vessel by the look of it. The Manhattan skyline was receding behind us faster than I'd thought would happen. I always thought the Hudson was narrower for a longer time and that we'd be following the coast of Manhattan for longer, but it was far off in just a few minutes. Had to use my tele lens to get this shot. We quickly approached the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. A Chinese cargo ship was coming the other way, and we passed close by. As big as that ship was, ours was bigger still. And then we were passing under the bridge, maybe all of 10 minutes after we'd left port. I thought that the bridge would be the boundary between New York and entering the Atlantic, but the channel actually goes on for a really long way. When it looked like we were reaching the end of the channel and getting close to the Atlantic, our escort was joined by another Coast Guard fire vessel. They sent us off with a water gun salute, which I honestly wasn't expecting to see. Does anyone know if this is standard for all cruise ships that depart from New Jersey and Manhattan? I thought that our escort was leaving us after this, but it stayed with us and made sure the other smaller vessels that were out kept a good distance from us. At this point we went back out to explore the ship for a bit. The logo wear store was having a two for $30 sale on hats, towels, and tees, but it was tough finding a pair that was valid and that we liked. In the end we got a tee shirt, a hat, and also found a couple small items for souvenirs for the girls. We saw through one of the windows that the sun was setting, and we stepped outside to enjoy the first sunset of our cruise. It was truly spectacular, as the now-distant remnants of hurricane Michael made for a "sailors delight"; these pictures don't do it justice. To be continued.... Coastal Kitchen awaits!