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Cruise Summary What really made these three recent Empress cruises stand out as cruises I'll remember are not only the places we visited but the people I met. I've met not only great crew and management employees but also many frequent cruisers with conversations I've enjoyed every night. Almost every one of them has overlapping future cruises where we'll meet again. You don't get to meet great people like this on big ships. I've met some great bartenders but the ones on Empress really stand out. I remember certain bartenders from this cruise or that cruise but on Empress I've added three stand out bartenders to my list. I'm hoping I'll see them at some CocoCay bar when we share the pier with Empress on an upcoming cruise. Going to Jost Van Dyke has been on my mind for some time now and it was great to finally make it back plus see it return to 100% after the hurricanes. I'm still in love with Empress despite her small size. It's probably her big heart that attracts me to her. While she is an old ship she was refreshed quite extensively when she came back for Cuba, granted cabins were not made any bigger. Small ship cruising isn't for everyone. That's okay, there will be more room for me on the small ships. I still love big ships too and there is always room on big ships for everyone. My favorite remains Voyager class but I'm glad Empress is there when I really want to experience the sea even more. It's going to be interesting moving up to Majesty. It's kind of funny when moving to Majesty is stepping up to a bigger ship! I'm still trying to figure out if I can squeeze Empress onto my cruise dance card over the next few months. I'll definitely go on Empress again. All cruises will create memories you won't forget. Some of my best memories come from this, the smallest ship with the biggest heart. I hope you enjoyed following along and I thank you for viewing. PS - look for Cruise Compasses soon, once I get home from Majesty and can scan them in properly.

Fresh of the Empress with a night in a hotel in between I'm ready and pumped for my next cruise. Did I mention... IT'S CRUISE DAY! I thought about starting this thread before my Empress cruise even left the dock (like some others around here do) but that just wouldn't be right. This five night Majesty of Seas cruise was necessary. I needed something to justify the airfare to Empress so this side-to-side was the perfect solution. Itinerary Ft. Lauderdale Nassau Perfect Day at CocoCay Sea Day Key West Ft. Lauderdale I love Empress but this way I'm upgrading to a much larger ship! Plus, I gotta get back to CocoCay. :) I originally booked a number of Empress and Majesty sailings when the Cuba cancellations were forced upon the industry. I feared Royal might move these ships out of the fleet. My plan was to take lots of pictures and document this legacy class of ship that were the foundation of so much that became even much more on later ships. It was because of the success of ships like this that Royal has become what it is today. Success breeds success. As it turns out they aren't moving these ships out to pasture just yet plus I get to sail on some of the best (small) ships in the fleet! That's a win-win. To be fair I split my time between Empress (3 bookings) and Majesty (3 bookings). I already had some fall bookings that were bucket list type cruises so I had push some my Majesty cruises into October but that's okay, she'll be here waiting for me. When you stay in a hotel and pay for things like meals and drinks you quickly appreciate the value that cruising represents. Spoiler alert - the view out my hotel window never changed and I woke up right where I was the day before. #boring Cabin this time is an Ocean View on deck 4.

Hello All, we just got back from a 5-day Bermuda cruise on the Anthem of the Seas and I wanted to share my "lessons learned" as a "pay it forward" for all the great forum members who provided advice to me for several questions I posted. We are a 4 person family (42M, 39F, 13M, and 10F) and we had 2 balcony rooms booked on Deck 13 forward. I hope I can help some newbie cruisers with the info below! 1. Do Show Up Early on Embarkation Day: Our ship was schedule to leave from Bayonne, NJ cruise port at 4:30pm. Coming from NH, we drove to Danbury, CT the night before and stayed at a hotel (Did you know Ethan Allen owns a hotel?). That put us about 1.5 hours from the port. We got there right at 10:30am when the terminal opened and there was already a good number of cars in front of us. I dropped off the family and our bags and the porters quickly put our checked bags on the carts. I parked the car in the garage, met up with the family and headed inside to check-in. Check-in was painless, and we were literally stepping onto the ship at 11am exactly. They told us our rooms would not be ready until 1:30pm, so we mainly stayed in the outdoor pool until we could drop off our bags. We hit Windjammers at 1pm and they announced that all rooms were ready at 1:15pm. 2. Windjammers is great, but watch out for peak times if you hate crowds: As you probably know by now, Windjammers is a (extremely large) buffet that serves breakfast and lunch. I think 99% of all passengers can easily find several things they like on their diverse and plentiful buffet stations (vegetarian, vegan and GF too). However, it can get VERY crowded at peak times. One of those peak times is lunch on embarkation day. I think it was the only place open for that meal since not all passengers had boarded yet. While we were able to get our food fairly easily. finding an open table was tough! You really just need to hang out near a family that looks like they are wrapping up and pounce as soon as they get up. Hail one of the Windjammers employees to clean the table for you. The only times I would say Windjammers wasn't moderately to severely crowded was during lunch on the 2 days in port. 3. Prepare to be STUFFED: RCL should just partner with medication companies that have drugs for blood pressure, cholesterol, etc... cause I can guarantee you will come back at least 5 lbs heavier. We purchased a 3-night specialty dining package and got an extra night free from our Cruise travel agent (CruiseOne). We ate at Izumi (2 times), Wonderland, and Jamie's Italian. If you like sushi, Izumi is wonderful! At Izumi, you get a $35 credit per person... so we had $140 to use each night. We got at least 6 specialty rolls, a few makimono rolls and the sushi deluxe and easily stayed under. I think we had everything on the menu after the 2 visits. Wonderland is almost a dinner and a show... the dinner IS your show! Here, you don't order... they just bring you just about everything on the menu. It was pretty amazing. Jamies was great as well... they bring you samples of all their apps (charcuterie, fried rice & cheese balls, calamari, cheeses, olives, etc..) and then you choose a main and a dessert. I got the truffle noodles and they were amazing! We only ate at the main dining room once and it was OK. My wife's fish (Barramundi) was a little "fishy", but my fish (can't remember the name) was good. The shrimp cocktail were very small... but the birthday cake (RCL is celebrating 50 years) and the cheese cake was very good. FYI, all the specialty dining and main dining room have kids menus. I highly recommend visiting Solarium Bistro for breakfast (also a buffet, but much smaller than Windjammers... but WAY less crowded). You'll find all the common staples for breakfast. Café 270 is great for lunch and dinner/late night snacks (only certain nights is it open). Great paninis on pita bread, wraps, salads and dessert. Sorrento's pizza was great for late night craving, but they also serve breakfast (no, not pizza... mostly breakfast sandwiches). Room Service for breakfast is free as long as you order from the "Continental Breakfast" section. All other times its a flat $7.95 per order (regardless of how much you order... so ahead, get one of everything if you like... it will still cost $7.95 total) 4. To deluxe beverage package, or not to deluxe beverage package... that is the question: I was on the fence on this one up until a week before the cruise. I do like to drink, but I try to stay clear of everything with sugar. I'm not a big wine drinker, so just bringing 4 bottles on board with me was not that enticing. I pulled the trigger and paid the $50/day. My wife doesn't drink, but I was in a stateroom with my son... so I only had to pay for me. I knew from other posts that knowing that the drinks average about $10-13... just having 5 would be my break even point. Yeah, I ended up get my money's worth and then some. No, I didn't go on a bender and forget most of the hours of my cruise and end up naked in the engine room! It really wasn't that hard. They have mimosa and bloody mary carts setup for breakfast. Sir, would you like a Mimosa... why, yes please! Can I make you a spicy bloody mary with bacon and horseradish? Of course. How about a vodka, club soda and extra lime while you hang out by the pool? Sure! Can I get you a Jack and Diet Coke while you wait for the show to start? Yes please! As long as you pace yourself, be sure to eat and stay hydrated, stay away from sugar drinks (I never once ordered a pina colada or strawberry daiquiri, which were so prevalent I couldn't open my eyes without seeing someone having one), and keep any minor "overindulging" until after dinner (so you can sleep it off), take some precautionary Advil or Tylenol before bed... you'll do fine. Never had an signs of a hangover (mostly from following the rules above). I probably averaged 8-12 drinks/day. I know that sounds like a lot (and probably is according to my doctor!), but I did find that their drinks are a little "light" compared to your average bar. They do jigger pour every drink which means you are only getting 1.5 oz of booze per drink. Sometimes they would pour a little more. They also tend to give you a tall glass for your standard "spirit & mixer". So, if you order a "rum & coke" you are getting 1 shot of rum... and then like 10oz of coke. Of course, they are doing this to get you to take longer and therefore, order less drinks. Be sure to ask for a lowball glass. I also got my money's worth by ordering a few Patron Reposados tequila (which are like over $15/shot in most bars). Be sure to ask for a bottle of water with each drink. Even if you don't want it now, you can put it in your fridge and bring ashore when you visit a beach or go shopping. 5. Bring your Cruise Compass with you wherever you go!: The Cruise compass is a printout brochure of the next day's open times, activities, shows, etc.. You stateroom attendant will put it in your room every late afternoon. Review it, highlight it, and do some planning. I was kinda disappointed to see that RCL hasn't created a digital version of this yet. They do have the iQ app, but it only shows you your dinner reservations and the shows that require reservations. I'm hoping they enhance this soon as it could be a real value-add to their guests. We attended some great trivia sessions, info sessions on the ship and Bermuda pier and shopping, listened to some great small musical groups, super funny comedians, and attended some great onboard shopping sales. While it's great that RCL offers so much to do everyday, the hardest thing was making the schedule work! Many times we came up with a plan, only to realize we couldn't do it because we had a dinner or show reservation that conflicted. We found compromises and made it work the best we could. We definitely weren't disappointed or had any FOMO! 6. You kids will love the Adventure Ocean Club or the Teens Club: Both of our kids were excited about the kids and teens club. For those under 13, parents needs to check the kids in and out (for the kids 10-12, you can give consent to allow them to check themselves out). There is a morning, afternoon, and night programs they can join... all are included. The only exception is after 10pm its $7/hr per child (very reasonable) and they can stay until 1am. The counselors are excellent and they do fun and educational activities with the kids. The Teens club is free to come and go and my son made a some friends and they often went swimming and played in the Seaplex together. 7. Make your show reservations in advance for the ones you can... and make the other activity and dining reservations as soon as you get on board!: I made reservations for "The Gift" and "We will Rock you" a few weeks in advance on the RCL website. The only thing I couldn't make reservations for in advance for shows was "Spectra", but I was able on the second day of the cruise. We also made all of our dining reservations as soon as we got onboard. On the second day, we tried to make reservations for the iFly (indoor skydiving) but they were already booked up for the whole cruise! :( Lesson learned! Also, if you are like me and like to sit up front at the shows... show up about 30-40 mins early and you will have your pick of any seat you wish. They have waiters taking drink orders and usually have popcorn and snacks/candy available for purchase... so the waiting isn't so bad. We had front row middle for "We will Rock you" and it was awesome! Spectra was a great cabaret style show, but I think they had some technical difficulties with their vistavision (these are the 19 projectors that can make the 270 degree backdrop appear as just about anything you can imagine!) The robots with the flatscreens were working fine and are amazing! 8. Bermuda is great, but not a lot to do in the port: This doesn't mean we didn't have fun! We took people's advice and waited until the 2nd day to go to the famous "Horseshoe Bay Beach". Luckily, it was overcast and a little showery on the first day, and the second day was mostly sunny and 83 degrees! Of course, many other guests followed the same plan. Anyways, on the first day we decided to stay in the port area (Royal Navy Dockyard, aka King's Wharf) and check out the shops. We went to the clocktower mall and explored the shops. We also went into the "Diamonds International" store which was heavily marketed by the Anthem's Shopping Director (Paige). While seeing all the very beautiful jewelry and rare gemstones is great, the customer service is horrible if you aren't looking to spend a few thousand dollars. After seeing pieces that were $5k-$20k, I asked one of them what is the cheapest jewelry they had for sale... she said they had an earring set that was $1000. When I said you are still way above what I'm looking to spend... she didn't say "I'm so sorry, we don't have anything under that pricepoint".... Nope, she just turned around and walked away. How f'n rude! We ended up finding a much better service at a jeweler in the clocktower mall and my wife got a great sterling silver ring made with a stone made from the pink famous sands for a much more reasonable price. After about 2 hours, we pretty much saw everything in the port area. We went back on the ship (which can take about 10-15 mins as you have to go thru security), had some lunch, and then put our bathing suits on an went swimming at Calico Jacks. This is the black pirate ship that is literally the first thing you reach after getting off the dock area. It's a bar/grill that has its own swimming area. There's no beach... they have a ladder into the water and have plenty of foam noodles you can borrow so you can just float and relax. They also have a plank on the second level that you can jump or dive off of... as well as a giant inflatable slide. Unfortunately, they don't keep the slide wet... so almost everyone came to a halt before hitting the end of the slide. They charge $10/pp to get a wristband to use their water access. Rum swizzles were $10. We also checked out the "Frog & Onion Pub" for a quick snack and a "Frog Grog" and bought some swag. The second day we took a shuttle to Horseshoe Bay Beach. I wouldn't recommend paying the $35/pp shore excursion to the beach through RCL. They have public shuttles for $7/pp that are continuously headed to the beach. It's about a 20-25 min beautiful drive. Our driver the way out to the beach was great, he pointed out all the landmarks and gave details about the homes, resorts and golf courses. You can rent loungers, beach chairs, umbrellas and tents at the beach... but they are a little pricey. We got 2 loungers and it cost $44. They do have guys who will drag your lounges/chairs to wherever you want, but be sure to give them a tip (we gave him $5). The water was stunningly beautiful. Perfect temp! Some pretty good waves due to the weather over the past day, but nothing too bad. The grotto area to the right as you enter the beach was really neat. I would recommend water shoes/socks as it can be a little rocky in that area. While you aren't supposed to climb up the massive rock cliffs... there were dozens on the top of the bigger ones. Some of the smaller ones teens were jumping into the water. There is a bar/grill at the beach, but the prices are a little inflated (Burger & Fries for about $12). Recommend bringing waters with you... and if you can, pack some snacks (Café 270 will pack food to go). Be sure to leave the beach by 3pm to ensure you get back with enough time for any "unexpected" happenings. The shuttle drivers guarantee that if you get on one of their shuttles at 4pm... they will get you on the ship without issue, but I'm not willing to play with those odds! 9. Adults can take naps too! With shows/activities often scheduled to 1am, I strongly recommend trying to find a time for a quick siesta in the late afternoon before dinner. It will keep you fully charged to enjoy the nighttime events! Also, try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night if you can. No reason to go to Windjammers at 6am just because it's open! 10. Be sure to keep an eye on your account! Your Seapass card can be used to purchase ANYTHING on board.. and I mean anything! Be sure to keep an eye on your account (you can use the iQ app, but send you an email at the end of the cruise). You'll automatically be charged for gratuities $14.50/pp per day, but you'll also see all your other charges. Remember, things add up quick! 11. Keep an eye out for flash sales and good buys on the ship: I ended up buying my wife and gorgeous diamond tennis bracelet on the ship. It is stunning, very sparkly and she was smitten as soon as she saw it. The regular price was $195, but we ended up getting it for $99 during a sale. OK, of course at that price.. it's not a lot of diamonds, but lemme tell you.. it really sparkles and she has already gotten tons of compliments on it. They also have 2 for $20 T-shirts which make a great souvenir. They also have duty/tax free booze for purchase, but coming from NH where liquor is state-controlled, the prices were already comparable. If you buy bottles on the ship, they hold it until you disembark (except on the last full day, where you can take it to your room). 12. Most importantly, have fun!: It's your vacation! Try something new... or stick to your favorite activities... it's all up to you! I hope this has helped you. Please feel free to leave feedback and any questions that I might be able to help with. If I can't, I'm sure another forum user will!

Just set sail a bit ago and recently returned to the cabin with a final cocktail for the night as we are running on about 1-1.5 hours sleep since 6am PST Saturday. Hopefully sleeping early tonight will reset my internal alarm for early natural rising on AST! The clouds here are unreal Aft port panorama

@Big Dawg Ron: Matt! You've gotta come back with me! Matt: Where? @Big Dawg Ron Back to Perfect Day at CocoCay! Matt: Whoa, wait a minute, Ron. What are you talking about? What happens at Perfect Day at CocoCay? What, do we sign up for a cruise with @monorailmedic or something? @Big Dawg Ron No, no, no, no, no, Matt. You turn out fine. It's your weekend, Matt. Something gotta be done about your long weekend! ----- Friends, it's time to go back on board Mariner of the Seas over Labor Day weekend for a quick jaunt to Perfect Day at CocoCay, and a return to a live blog here on the forums! With an extra day off on Monday for the Labor Day holiday, I couldn't help myself but book a quick weekend cruise on Mariner. Originally I was on Navigator of the Seas this weekend until a certain person decided to hold a celebration of their final days of being single there and I was forced to change ships. Instead, we are headed back on Mariner of the Seas and down to Perfect Day at CocoCay. Another visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay is always welcome, and these weekend sailings line up quite well with my schedule. I can work until lunch on Friday, head over to the port and then wrap up my day while onboard the ship. Then the rest of the weekend is enjoyed onboard the ship! Not only am I looking forward to getting back to Perfect Day at CocoCay, I am looking forward to @mpoole3 not ruining the weather this time around. Cabin For this cruise, we have a category 2T Promenade View Interior room. As I recall, prices for a balcony were a bit out there and a Promenade room gives us a much better value. Plus, on a 3-night cruise without kids, how much time will I really spend in there? We will visit Nassau and Perfect Day at CocoCay. No plans booked for Nassau yet. Will wait and see what I feel like and then decide on something. For Perfect Day at CocoCay, I reserved an Oasis Lagoon cabana in the name of "science". I've stayed in the Thrill Waterpark and Chill Island cabanas, so now I need to try the Oasis Lagoon Cabanas to fill out the trifecta. The live blog kicks off on August 30. Until then, I will be counting down the days until we depart.

@Cruisely @coneyraven @Fuzzywuzzy Oh, boy!!!! Last week I played this category for $200 & now, thanks to @Screwed by Royal Caribbean I get to play some more..... I'll take "Things That Didn't Happen" for $400, Alex! There just seems like too many holes in that post to be true.

Reading this thread as I sit on hold to book a drink package..... eep!

Just got home from 7 days on the Harmony of the Seas, and while live-blogging wasn’t an option, I tried to keep a few things in mind to recap. I’ve pre-written most of this, and it got a bit long, so I’ll post in chunks today. Also, this is gonna be photo-free, because honestly between the main blog and the actually good live blog gang, better pictures of all these places are readily available. The cast: Me, late thirties, live in North Carolina, moved after 15 years of living in Orlando and never actually going on a cruise. This is my second cruise, the first was this time last year on Enchantment. A, the wife, similar age, same residence, grew up in Florida but also never cruised. E, our 7 year old (8 next week). His first cruise. W, my mother in law, lives in Titusville, has cruised to Alaska and in Europe, but I believe this was her first cruise on Royal or in the Caribbean. We’re generally very budget conscious, so we don’t do specialty dining and try to manage our port time on our own vs. excursions, so things like suites are out, but we do try to find comfortable rooms especially when traveling with the second grader. Cabins: 9506 & 9504, forward Ocean View, adjoining. Myself & A in one, E & W in the other. The space under the angled front of the ship is “free”, and made the room feel quite a bit bigger. Beforehand: The cruise was booked through MEI, our agent is Brock. Prices never moved after our purchase, but he was always on top of important dates, check in, etc. Good experience there. Pre-purchased the everything-but-alcohol package for me & A ($140 each, Black Friday). No package for E & W as neither of them like soda, and E could drink lemonade for days while W drinks tea. I had a deluxe package last year, and am in the group that a) feels compelled to over-indulge to keep up with the price of the package and b) does not drink enough at home to sustain that for 4-7 days. Happy enough to drink the sugar-coffees & sodas and order a cocktail once in a while. Also pre-purchased Coco Cay Thrill Waterpark passes for the whole crew ($59 sometime in March), a single Voom package for me ($84, Black Friday), and a $50 arcade credit ($40, always that price. Do not do this. More later.) Arrival & Day 1: Embarkation Sailing out of Port Canaveral is really easy, since A’s parents live there. A & E flew down Wednesday, I followed on Friday. Saturday we picked up a couple bottles of wine and assorted travel essentials, and were ready to go bright & early on Sunday. Arrived at the port around 10:15. No security line to speak of, walked straight up to a table person to check in, then waiting about 10 minutes for E to get a wristband. From there, directly onto the ship. Could not be easier, other than nobody understanding how to form a line for the wristband table. We did some light exploring, including lunch in the Windjammer sort of my accident- we were walking the pool deck, realized we were there, and decided to eat before the line formed. After that, wound up at the bionic bar watching the robots for a while, to E’s delight. Rooms opened at 12:58. Our rooms were very slightly mixed up, with the beds pushed together in the wrong room vs. our seapass cards, so we figured we’d just switch. This was slightly more annoying than we thought at first, since now we had keys to the wrong doors and the answer to “what’s your stateroom number?” became a confusing mess. I went down to guest services on Monday and they switched us over, problem solved. Meanwhile though, we had to ask several times to get our connecting door unlocked, not sure what that was about. Not much else to add about the rooms, so... Room Review: We did feel like our stateroom service just wasn’t quite what we had on Enchantment. Back on Enchantment, our attendant noticed we’d brought wine, and had ice and glasses for us without even being asked. When I asked our attendant for glasses this week, he just told me to call room service. We also had the morning service on a sea day missed, and one night didn’t get a new cruise compass. Nothing too bad or worth being upset about, just a little surprising. We also never actually saw him around- I think perhaps most of his rooms were down another hallway, but we saw the attendant for the block between us and the elevator us every morning, never saw ours. Location-wise, forward was...not great. The nearest Freestyle machine was down 4 floors and over to midship, the windjammer & MDR were a haul, and while the theaters were at our end, that meant packed elevators every evening. Some of this is the inevitable shock of jumping from Enchantment to Harmony, but (spoilers!) next time we’re going to try aft. Upsides: super quiet part of the ship! Never heard noise from neighbors or people in the hall, or even things like rooms nearby being cleaned. The forward view was really cool, especially in San Juan & St. Maarten where we docked nose-in. Also, for those ports, that meant our rooms were the first gangway you got to, saving a few minutes in the heat. Ok, that’s the room reviewed, now... Food Recap & Review We’re Main Dining Room people, and will continue to be MDR people until it lets us down. I had requested a window table for the 4 of us and they delivered, we had a really nice spot with a good view in The Grande, aka MDR Deck 4. Apparently on Harmony they don’t bother waking you to your table, so it took us a minute to find our table the first night, but after that, the system saves a ton of time. We had the 5:00 traditional seating, and that made for a tight turnaround on port days, but we generally eat pretty early at home so this was mostly fine. I’m not going to list out everything we ate, but most of us hit the MDR all 7 nights (W wanted to eat lighter a couple nights). I don’t think I ordered anything I didn’t like, I think the biggest complaint I could come up with is that sometimes the rice comes out a bit dry. Happy to answer questions about specific dishes, we ordered a lot of them! Our waiters, Nicholas & Jonabell, were great. They took great care of E all week, often bringing him little extras or surprising him with extra ice cream- despite him being overtired and a little surly one or two nights. Appetizers always came out quickly, and entrees & desserts always arrived quickly and at the right temperature once the preceding course was done. We also ate in the MDR most days for breakfast. The first couple days we got omelettes, but as the week wore on we just grabbed food off the buffet. The Windjammer might have had more selection, but we like the calmer start to the day that we found there. Lunch was usually Windjammer or Park Cafe, nothing to report there, always serviceable. We did decide afterward that 7 nights in the MDR was probably too much for a second grader, and should have given him a couple nights in the Windjammer. But for me personally, I don’t actually like the Windjammer at all- it’s the smells. The food is fine, but the place smells like everything and I find it unappetizing. That’s a me problem, not a buffet problem, but it’s why I’d pick the MDR every time. Ok, that’s the room and the food recapped, now back to the itinerary. The End of Day 1 After dinner, we had 1887, the ice show. Loved it. We had a reservation, arrived at 8 for an 8:30 show and sat in the front row near the end of the right hand side. My biggest complaint with all of Royal’s shows is that they don’t have any kind of Playbill or guide to the performers. I’d love to know who these people are and if I’d seen them somewhere else before. Anyway, I’m by no means a figure skating fan, I’ll watch it for an hour every 4 years, but really enjoyed the skating shows on Harmony. The other days are not this long, I promise...

I was trying to figure out why this was parked outside my condo today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day One Embarkation Day! Popped straight over to the ship after arrival this morning to drop off all our bags and then we headed to Old San Juan with CBF's mom for some exploring. We walked down Fortaleza (unfortunately still no kites or umbrellas above the street), saw Castillo del Morro and stopped at a few bars along the way back by Carnival Fascination in the other port. What a beautiful city! Reminds me a loooot of Honolulu from the architecture and flora. 3 drinks in and waiting for muster! VACATION!! Looking back towards La Perla Loved Medalla! From the 1979 Panamerican Olympics Games Finally time to board! Our JS 9538 ? El Morro as seen from our port position!

I have been in dry dock for almost 8 years, and it’s finally (FINALLY!!) time for the uncontainable excitement I have for my upcoming cruise to boil over onto the Live Blog pages! We’ll be on Liberty of the Seas embarking September 1 for a 7 day western Caribbean cruise to Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. We're also heading to Galveston a couple days early to visit Space Center Houston. Unfortunately, this will not be a true live blog as we are unplugging for the trip, but list any questions you have here and I’ll do my best to get the answers when I’m on board then post when I’m back. I’ll post our plans and some details over the next several days and a review with photos once home. About us - I am 39 and DH is 47. I home school our two kids and run a wedding cake bakery from home. I like to think I can talk to myself in public and call it a parent-teacher conference. ? DH is an engineer. DH and I have sailed twice before, both on Royal - Independence Eastern Caribbean in 2010 out of Ft. Lauderdale and Voyager Western Caribbean in 2011 out of Galveston. We loved both of these, and our only “complaint” if we had to come up with one was that the dance floors were too small. This will be our kids’ first cruise; DD is 10 and DS is 7. DD has Autism Spectrum Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. A few years ago, she would have been diagnosed with Aspergers, but it’s now lumped in with ASD. She doesn’t generally need special accommodations as she’s mainly socially awkward (can’t remember multiple step tasks, gets distracted in her own world, interrupts you mid-sentence to tell you all about dinosaurs/Pokemon/every word of a tv show she saw once 6 years ago). With her GAD, she occasionally catastrophizes things. In her mind, wild fires in California mean the whole world will be consumed by flames type of thing, so we did a lot of video watching and safety type prep with her to hopefully ease any fears that might come up on board. I had several photos of a life boat drill and another crew drill from our previous sailings which helped a lot. DS is your typical silly, loud boy. Both the kids are extremely excited for the cruise. Right now they want to spend a little time in Adventure Ocean each day, but we'll be spending a good portion of the time together as a family. Why this cruise - I decided that it had been long enough since our last cruise, and that we were going to take one for my 40th birthday. It’s the same month as the sailing, so it counts, right? We actually had our third one booked in 2012, but we got pregnant with DS and wound up just cancelling due to timing of everything else going on in our lives beyond a new baby (aging parents, job changes, etc). We have been land vacationing a lot these last 8 years at Great Wolf Lodge as there is one less than an hour from our house, the kids love it, and it’s cheaper than Disney! Because we live in north Texas (Dallas area), we decided to keep it easy and drive down to Galveston. Liberty’s water slides and Splashaway Bay will be a good fit for my kids, and I wanted a 7 day cruise which Liberty offered as opposed to Enchantment’s 4 or 5 day itineraries. We booked during the 2018 Black Friday sale which featured a discount on the second passenger and Kids Sail Free promotions. We picked up about $500 in price drops along the way, even after our cabin category sold out thanks to @Lovetocruise2002's tips. More to come...

Perhaps to go back in time when you used to cruise?

Did Sabrina put you up to starting this blog a full 11 days before your cruise?

Correct! I must try that next time... Oh let me tell you booking dining for a big group takes hours.. I literally spent 7 hours on the phone with dining to book a group of 15 people.

So finally the RC UK site has the free all inclusive drinks package as part of their deal, this is where i finally find out the best deal available. Now when i started this thread back in march the costs were as follows UK Oceanview Balcony : £2,356.78 + free Wifi US Oceanview Balcony : £2036.50 + $50 obc ( RC ) + $50 obc ( MEI Travel ) THIS WAS BOOKED ? The cost of drinks package to purchase is round about £700 for my wife and myself, so total for cruise with purchased drinks pack will be between £2700 - £2800 for the cruise. Various sales BOGO etc on both UK and USA sites have to date been more expensive, thank you to Sharla from MEI Travel for constantly checking USA site sales and letting me know my original booking was still the best. On checking RC UK site today much to my DELIGHT the total cost for same cruise, same balcony stateroom, free drinks package and prepaid gratuities is............................£3,743.82 Throw in the $100 OBC i received and i'm roughly £1000 better off having booked when sailings first became available. The balcony stateroom room on same deck ( forward ) is £1789pp now compared to just over £1100 pp when booked. And the best part is because booking was made through Blog Sponsor MEI TRAVEL they will still check price when deals appear ?

Anthem Sept 26, 2019 Anthem Oct 5, 2019 (b2b) Allure Oct 20, 2019 Anthem Nov 2, 2019 Anthem Dec 8, 2019 Anthem Jan 27, 2020 Anthem Feb 15, 2020 Anthem Feb 23, 2020 (b2b) Anthem Mar 22, 2020 Adventure Apr 5, 2020 Oasis May 17, 2020 Adventure Sept 10, 2020 Adventure Sept 19, 2020 (b2b) Oasis Oct 4, 2020 Thank you!

That's cause he's extremely long winded ??

Imagine my delight when I woke up this morning to this sight from my balcony! Mr hayley_bopp says I'm more excited about this than going to Rome. I think he's right!

Let me start by saying I Love Royal Caribbean cruises. BUT dealing with Royal before the cruise is so frustrating. I don't normally do this but I just don't understand them sometimes. I need to book a reservation at Chops Grill of course I try to do it in the cruise planner online BUT I am linking other people from another reservation and the computer keeps saying error and doesn't want to let me. So I decide to just call. I pick the option to book specialty dining shore exertions etc etc.. After 20 min someone finally answers. I let them know that I want to book Chops and their response is oh I am sorry I am not the person who can book that.. Really? Then why did Royal route me to you in the first place when I picked the option for specialty dining. Its just so frustrating dealing with them!! I don't normally rant like this but for some reason this drove me crazy!! Lol.. Ok Rant over

Between you and @PRC, I am so jealous! I want to cruise, get off for a week, and cruise again over and over. Have fun ?

Let us make note again here that this blog was started 11 days pre-cruise. Brilliance live blog was 6 weeks. We will come back to this for future reference. ??

Yeah I cringe when I have to ask my TA something I know is beyond basic. It will take her hours with Royal. Other cruise lines not so much, but Royal can be a Royal Pain for TA's.

That's the problem right there....you didn't start the conversation off properly...it should have wen't like this.... You - This is (Insert Name & Travel Agency) and i would like to book a dinner reservation for one of my clients for Chops restaurant. RCCL- Sure, we can do this for you and your client, What ship, date and time would you like. You - date and time. RCCL- We have that available, name... You - Name given RCCL - Wait...that's you..Correct? You - Yes it is, Thanks, much appreciated..gotta go! ?

Day 8: Disembark I had a 12:10 flight home, and signed up for Luggage Valet, meanwhile A & E would stay in Titusville a couple more days. Bags went out at the appointed time Saturday night, and on Sunday we got down to breakfast around 7:45. I ate quickly and walked off the ship around 8:05, right into...an 80 person deep line for GoPortCanaveral, which I booked a month ago. This was looking dicey. Fortunately, they had two buses pull up a few minutes later, so other than being hot & sweaty, by 8:40 we were westbound to MCO. I cruised through security, picked up a second breakfast, and boarded an on time flight. Luggage appeared just as it was supposed to, so I’m a big believer in Luggage Valet now. Got an Uber home, total time gangway to living room was 6 hours, 30 minutes. Wrap-up and review-like content Obviously, we loved the cruise and we loved Harmony. That said, the ship is just absurdly large, and to us that became a detriment over time. You’ll note that nowhere in this incredibly long writeup is “we went to the pool,” because every time we walked by, it was elbow to elbow in the water, and a towel on every chair. We never consciously said “we’re not going to bother with the pool,” but we never felt like it was the most fun thing we could be doing. We also got a bit tired of waiting for elevators (I got to where I just hiked the 5 or 6 decks to wherever I needed to go). Other than the pool and the elevators, Harmony never felt all that crowded, which was impressive. The entertainment was top notch and the level of service we got was always impeccable. I think we’d happily sail on Harmony again given the opportunity. Un-Favorites: Ultimate Abyss, elevator wait times, crowded pools, too much seating blocked off in the shows (the entire balcony for Columbus? really?), long walks to refill soda cups. Favorites: The Fine Line, open skating, ice shows, Perfect Day, Castillo San Cristóbal, MDR food & wait staff, specialty coffees from Cafe Promenade (lines were never long and the coffee is good). Next time: With E loving the cruise, we decided to plan another one for next year. Right now, Oasis class 7 nighters are running pretty expensive next summer, and as mentioned, we wanted to find a somewhat smaller ship to try anyway. With that in mind, we booked a 5 night Independence cruise out of Fort Lauderdale for next August. It only has 2 stops- Perfect Day & Labadee, so while it won’t exactly be a cultural enrichment trip, it should be as relaxing as it gets. We booked an aft corner balcony on deck 10, which means only one flight of stairs to the WJ and the pool, and the MDR isn’t such a long walk either. It’ll just be me, A, and E, and the corner room looks to have enough space for the 3 of us, and I expect we’ll enjoy the balcony a lot. We booked that room for about half of what an interior on Harmony or Allure would have cost us around the same time (yeah, 7 vs 5 nights, but money is money). I’m excited to try that class of ship, and see if sailing with 30% less people helps with some of the crowding we felt on Harmony. Also really excited to visit Labadee. So that’s it, I know I’ve left some things out, so may add additional thoughts, but happy to hang out and answer any questions about Harmony on an MDR-level budget.

Day 2: Coco Cay! Perfect Day is the real deal. Everything you’ve read is basically true, so I won’t belabor it too much. However, everything you’ve read probably includes long lines for the best slides at Thrill Waterpark. Those are true too. I wasn’t queued up at the gangway, but we were ready to go pretty quickly when they made the announcement. I reached the back of the line for Daredevil’s Peak at 8:23, and walked off the bottom of the slide at 8:46. By that time, the line had doubled. Anyone arriving after 9 AM would be looking at at least an hour in line. From there, I met up with A and hit the line for the big yellow raft ride, and that was probably about 20 minutes too, but I wasn’t paying as close attention. Anyway, next time we’ll go line up before the gangways go down, I think. That being said, all the waterslides were excellent, including the medium level ones. The only ones I didn’t get to try are the ones where the floor drops out from under you- just didn’t really have time. E doesn’t like waterslides, but loves a wave pool, literally spending the whole day there. We did get 4 chairs in front of the wave pool easily, made a great home base for the day. We lost about an hour to a lightning warning, but the storms passed by while we ate lunch. The buffet didn’t wow me, but I did enjoy the chicken sandwich and the funnel cake from the snack shack. We eventually dragged E out of the wave pool enough to check out the Chill Island side for an hour or so, which was uneventful. Pretty quiet on that side, at least toward the end of the day, with the water park pulling so many people in. Oddly, and not intentionally, I never so much as laid eyes on Oasis Lagoon. I’m sure it’s great, but the wave pool was enough for us all day. After dinner, I went to Grease with A. Excellent production, but I am not the target audience for Grease and to me anyway, the show is played out. We enjoyed it, but I’m good for Grease like once every 5 years, max, so I’m set for a while. Great performers & great production though. Spent some time later trying to figure out what musicals they’ll install when they’re chasing my money and not the boomers anymore. Day 3: At Sea This was a pretty uneventful day- we played some trivia, played some mini golf (tiny review: virtually unplayable with the terrible rubber golf balls you have to use. But E had fun so it was a win), and I rode the Ultimate Abyss. Pro-tip: ride the Abyss before you ride Daredevil’s Peak. After the water park, Abyss was, well, abysmal. It’s slooooow. Also I got stuck 10 feet from the exit and had to “paddle” out of the tunnel. Add The Big Dumb Purple Slide to the pile with Grease in my “don’t need this for my next cruise” list. We also checked out the parade in the promenade, it was fun. I especially enjoyed seeing the guys from the ice show bouncing around in pink pajamas. Our show on Tuesday night was the Fine Line, which again, was as good as advertised. Entertaining and often jaw-dropping from start to finish. I wanted to see it again, but the other show conflicted with our Headliner reservation. Day 4: San Juan We enjoyed San Juan. We hopped in a cab to El Morro, which saved everyone’s legs from the uphill walk, and also beat the crowds over there. The plan was to walk from there to Castillo San Cristóbal, but for various reasons not related to this review we had to get a cab back to the ship instead. We cooled down, got lunch on board, regrouped, and walked up to Castillo San Cristóbal, which is very close to the ship. While it’s not as scenic, we liked Castillo San Cristóbal a little more- the tunnels and the air conditioned museum were both really nice. Still, plenty of time to do both in a San Juan stop. Our headliner that night was Adam Kario, a world champion juggler. His show was great, mixed really impressive juggling with friendly comedy. E was enthralled- I guess he’s never been to a real comedy show, and he just loved the whole experience.

No need to block them .... they've only ever made one post ...... probably a troll.

July and August are blacked out for the reduced single supplement once you are over 340 points. Combined with it being the summer peak season that makes it very expensive for us solo cruisers. I'm only cruising this July and August because Empress and Majesty had reduced single supplement in the wake of the Cuba changes. The summer is normally dry dock season for me.

Lil guy has made several friends in the pool already! So cute! They are racing each other and having a ball. Dad and mom are relaxing...

You guuuuuys! You could see her upon arrival waiting for us! ?

I promised I wasn't going to say anything!

Booked my very first cruise with MEI travels after doing some research and hunting for a TA that would make me comfortable. (first cruise and first time using a travel agency) We're sailing on the Symphony of the Seas 7 days on Jan, 2020 and extremely excited!!! Blessed enough to have Kelley Hardy as our TA to answer the barrage of questions I have on almost a weekly basis. She has been amazing, so patient and informative along with being so kind. My girl knows how paranoid and cautious I can get but Kelley eases that part of my worries. (I tend to search for cruise/TA horror stories haha) Just wanted to let anyone who is considering a travel agency to give MEI travels a try and ask for Kelley, doesn't hurt just to feel it out and see if it's the right fit for you. As I'm writing this post i'm still barraging her with questions about flights, on-board cruise, cruise planner, hotels, etc etc. She's answered them all and provided some amazing insights and tips. I'll definitely update everyone as it comes closer to my sailing date and after my first experience! Keep up the hard work and always appreciate you Kelley!

I actually am a travel agent.. The line for travel agents is also a very long wait. And I don't like to bother them with small things like this.

Unless things have changed you may need an additional step. From any device go to your web browser and go to www.logout.com. This will disconnect your device from the network and assure you can get the other device connected. I have had issues connecting a device when another was already using the access code.

Emailed Crown and Anchor as suggested and all has been straightened out. I had two accounts, they combined them, and I now have my 9 points. Thanks to all for your great help.

We choose the week before christmas returning to port on the 23rd it was a lot less.

This post has some pictures from a few weeks ago. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14213-empress-b2b-14-nights-on-the-biggest-little-ship-july-2019/&do=findComment&comment=145159 This post has all Cabanas, bungalows and daybeds illustrated on a map. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/12079-cococay-cabanas/&do=findComment&comment=148864

On a different but related matter, make sure your travel insurance meets any visa requirements for your port stops. I recollect (from a previous post) New Caledonia (Noumea) has a minimum health insurance requirement.

My advice is to not rely on Royal Caribbean for any infant supplies. Bring your own, and pack more than you think you will need.

I think the only other benefit of booking with Air2Sea is that they're pretty much guaranteeing that you will get to the ship with any flight that you select through them. That said, due to the nature of air travel, things could still go wrong, but instead of YOU being on the hook for missing the ship, Royal will do everything possible to get you there - at least at the next port stop. From the Air2Sea site: ASSURED ARRIVAL When your vacation comes around, you don't want to miss the ship because of flight delays or cancellations. Book airfare through us and we guarantee, should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to get you to the first available port of call.

Your paperwork/receipt from Air2Sea will show your actual airline confirmation number. Use that to access your reservation directly with the carrier and confirm you have seats (you probably do). Then use it again at 24 hours prior to actually check in and print your boarding passes.

Welcome to the boards. It would be helpful if your title didn't say your name, but more about what you are looking for. Also, we need more details in your post. What information about sea day brunch are you seeking? Ship would be helpful too, so that people who have sailed on the same ship as you can answer your question. If you look at other posts, you'll get an example of how to post.

Unexpected gifts waiting in our cabin...hats and cupcakes. Such a great surprise!

We’re on board this absolutely gorgeous ship and it’s instantly clear why she’s a favorite among so many. ?? We checked out Central Park and the Boardwalk. It’s too early to put cash on our account and the rooms are supposed to be ready at 1:30pm. There is a different vibe on this ship. The guests and staff are ready for a good vacation. We already met “new familia” in the elevator. ? Our fish is already in the pool...

Debark I was in no hurry today so I took my time, enjoyed a last WJ breakfast and finished packing the last few items in my cabin. I'm renting a car today which I'll return in the morning but I wanted to keep it to a 24 hour rental to avoid hourly charges for going past 24 hours. My desired time to turn it in tomorrow drove my required pickup time today which I targeted 9:30am to 10am for. My JS came with luggage tag #1 but I planned to carry off my own bags. I wanted to be get out of my cabin so James my cabin attendant could sanitize and ready it for the next guests so I planned to sit around the Schooner Bar area until 9am-ish. Consequently I was out of my cabin well before 8am. Early to the pier they called self-assist starting at 7:30am a full 30 minutes early. I stayed in the Schooner Bar to kill some time. The self-assist line eventually made it through the theater, through the Centrum and into the Schooner Bar where I was working on my morning pictures I posted above. Several management team greeted me as they passed by doing their morning turn-around day thing. Talking with Jorge our GSM the day before he had stated they typically have to wait until all guests are off before departing crew leaving the ship at contract end can leave. Not wanting to extend that for them I headed off just before 9am. Carrying my own luggage I left somewhere around luggage tag 14 being called. That's normally 9:15am on the departure letter so they were still running ahead of schedule. Still routing through the theater and out onto the terminal bridge from deck 5 I followed the line a little but further than self-assist normally go since I was in the luggage tag crowd who had to reach the carousels to retrieve their bags. Past luggage and onto customs there were none today, we simply walked outside. Apparently CBP had really cleared the ship when they cleared the ship to debark. I had a short wait for the Hertz car rental shuttle. While waiting I saw car rental shuttles for Payless, Avis and Budget (sharing one shuttle bus) and National, Alamo and Enterprise (sharing a different shuttle bus). My pickup location was the 2nd Street HLE office for Hertz downtown Miami. Some of the other rental bus customers go to the Miami airport to get their cars. I'm using weekend points from my Hertz loyalty program so my rental is costing me a whopping $2.16. My rental only had a 1/2 tank of gas so I had to go back in and get my contract fixed to reflect that but even with that I was on my way and at my Fort Lauderdale hotel by 10am. My luck continued, they had a room ready despite being very early for check in. No real plans today, maybe some pool time at my hotel. Maybe I'll run out and buy two bottles of wine although I not sure I really need it with a nightly Diamond event on Majesty starting tomorrow night.

Tonight in the theater was the Royal Caribbean production called on board simply "Three". That's short for Three Sequins and Feathers. It's not to be missed especially on this night when it's the last performance of the current cast before they leave the ship tomorrow. Next cruise "Three" will continue but it will be performed by a new cast who have been on board for several weeks getting ready. I have some photos in my last Empress thread. It's a really good show, quite high on my list of ship shows. At the end CC our Cruise Director brought out many of the crew who have made this cruise such a great experience.

Day 8 - Sea Day Miami tomorrow and the dreaded debark. With a layer of cloud on the horizon this morning I could look at the full sun without burning my retinas. Our progress... Crystal block cruise! With my own little Empress sailing on the Seas I have another memento of this fabulous cruise.

OK, two points of clarification here. First off, if I understood @tiny260 correctly he just means that whether Royal raises the package price higher than he's willing to pay or not, he'll continue sailing with Royal because the overall product / experience is still superior. I did not in any way see him saying he'd continue to buy the package if it got too expensive. And apologies to all for hijacking the thread momentarily, but please do not say that iPhone sales stopped being their largest revenue generator because they got too expensive and people stopped buying them. The iPhone is not just the Xs, Xs Max, and Xr -- Apple continues to sell the iPhone 8 as the "low end" phone, had the fairly cheap (and comparatively tiny) iPhone SE up until last month, and even has a fairly steady supply of refurbished 7 models up for sale. My mother-in-law just bought an iPhone 8 after being on a "dumb phone" for most of her cell-phone-owning time. There are still a lot of phones being sold, it's just been slowing down as the market hits saturation and the models from five years ago hit the "good enough" point for most consumers that upgrading every two years no longer seemed like a no-brainer. I'm exhibit A on this. An iPhone Xr or Xs Max is not "too expensive" for me, but the improvements outside the camera are so incremental for how I use my phone daily that I continue to hold on to my nearly four-year-old iPhone 6s Plus. So does my mom and my older daughter (who bought hers refurbished about a year and a half after I got mine). I've been an investor in Apple since 2000, and I pay attention to every earnings call and quarterly report to make sure staying invested in them is the right course. Apple has been saying for almost two years now on their quarterly earnings calls that phone sales were hitting a plateau and would stop being a majority revenue driver, and that they were pivoting to services as a new revenue driver because the writing was on the wall. Frankly, I'm amazed that it took this long for the iPhone revenue percentage to start dropping, because the phones really have been at the "good enough" level for most people since about 5 years ago. Samsung is also getting hit by the slowdown in sales, but unlike Apple they have no problem with going into the "low end" of the market where a $200 throwaway phone is the norm. They're trying to "make it up in volume", but even they're feeling the effects of a saturated market. OK, rant over and thread back to the topic of Royal charging too darn much for us to get our drink on. ?

@princevaliantus What did you expect to see, an actual sale? LOL Look for prices to double real soon. ? Unless we call in the big gun's... Oh Matt, could you wave your magic sword around to RCCL and give us a true 50% off sale ???

I should probably stay out of this but I don't think "grammar shaming" somebody who is angry is anything except treating someone the way they said they've been treated already. If a mistake was made (and don't for a minute suggest that sometimes a large corporation and it's employees don't make mistakes--or are rude) why not just say so. I like reading this blog because it was so nice to see everyone's positive outlook on cruising. All of you love to tout how much money you saved, and the value of the dollar, and saving up your pennies to go on cruises. It's nice to read--so when someone is upset they've lost a deposit I"m pretty sure all of you would be pissed off if you were out $500 in 24hrs for a clerical error on your part. Anger can get the best of us, as clearly at has gotten the best of you at this person with their vitriolic language. Direct them and help, don't criticize them for their opinion....it's always our behavior in bad times that is a great reflection of who we are, and admitting when we are wrong and moving on....