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6 days into our first ever cruise and we have booked our next with plans for 2 more before we go on that one. Addicted!! Thanks to everybody for helping us make this leap! Nikkoo

I for one have stopped trying to promote the cruise industry and agree wholeheartedly with everything they said. The last thing I need is more people to book cruises (driving up the cost for me). It's terrible out there folks. The sea was 90' yesterday (away from the Promenade deck). I hear that 99% of all cruise ships got stranded (away from a boring existence) yesterday. Everyone on board is sick (of being on land). I went missing (and none of my clients know I'm on a ship). There were 75 mph winds (for anyone driving on the interstate with their hands out the window in Florida). Yep, it's not a life for the faint of heart. Avoid cruising (so I can book cheaper cruises). If they don't want to go, please don't try to correct them.

If they mention getting sick from the food... ask them where they last went out to eat at. (then look at them with a very judgmental look) If the mention getting stranded... tell them, you would much rather get stranded on a luxury cruise ship than stuck on the Tarmac of an airport. If they mention people missing... tell them happens everyday on the city streets. Rarely on cruises. If they mention crime and sickness... same as walking into a Walmart. Stuck in a storm.... Cruise ships will avoid storms... they have something called navigation. lol Finally... ask them how many cruises they have been on. Then stare at them in judgement again. :-)

In my old age I have learned a few things. One of them is that there are always going to be negative people who don't have a good / nice thing to say about anything or anyone. They always complain, always find something "wrong" with stuff, and are the first to focus on the negative. They don't bog me down because I ignore them. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

You should share with them Matt's podcast #284 - Reasons people avoid going on a cruise (and why they are wrong) I'm assuming people who say things like that have never been on a cruise themselves (like my brother in law!). Don't let them get to you and have a fabulous first cruise and many more to you!

Check your Cruise Compass for when/where the Friends Of Matt H. meetings are held. They can help you deal with your addiction.

Hi Everyone And Welcome To My Not Live Blog Of My Cruise On Harmony Of The Seas. I Plan To Take A Lot Of Video And Post It To My Youtube Channel. Also I Am Going To Be Using A New Camera. More On That Later. So This Is Our Itinerary On This Sailing. Day One: (Orlando) Port Canaveral Day Two: Perfect Day At Coco Cay Day Three: At Sea Day Four: St Thomas Day Five: St Martin Day Six: At Sea Day Seven: At Sea I Am Really Exited For This Cruise Because Today Marks 24 Days Until I Board!! So With Out Further To Do I Hope You Will Follow Me For This Cruise Adventure!!!

I just own the wrinkles and go for it. I'm on vacation. I don't iron when I'm home and I'm SURE as sh*t not gonna iron when I'm on a cruise !

When we cruise out of Port Canaveral and arrive a day ahead we do the following: 1. Rental a car at the airport from Hertz for a one-way rental to be turned in at Cape Canaveral. There is no one-way surcharge for a one-way car rental. 2. Stay at the Residence Inn 8959 Astronaut Blvd, CC 321-323-1100. The cost was $195 plus tax The reason to rent with Hertz is b/c the Hertz car rental office shares a parking lot with the Residence Inn. You are able to use your rental car all day to do whatever you want to do - go sight seeing - visit Kennedy Space Center - eat lunch, dinner whatever you want. Then you can return the car after hours, leave the keys in their late night drop box and walk a few steps over to the Residence Inn for the night. The Residence Inn has a shuttle to the port the next day.

You're not wrong by thinking that the Radiance itineraries are superior, because they are. The issue with Radiance is you have to fly to Vancouver (international flight versus Seattle), plus of course the cost/extra time to fly to/from Alaska. Not to mention for your kids, Ovation will offer so much more. If it makes you feel better, the Seattle itinerary is still awesome. It's not like you're visiting Hoboken, New Jersey or something.

It's all about timing ?

On top of $212 in OBC for this being a cancelled Cuba cruise I discovered another $50 in OBC on my account that must be from my TA. I'm actually having trouble spending it all. On CocoCay I bought a shirt at a Royal Shop kiosk where they take SeaPass cards (the straw market is cash). On CocoCay they don't apply the logo shop C&A discount plus since it is the Bahamas there is a 12% VAT on any purchase. Last night I ate more Ben & Jerry's and had an iced coffee to burn up some OBC. I asked at guest services and they tell me my non-refundable TA OBC should be consumed first and any of the refundable OBC left over should be applied to my credit card as a credit after the cruise.

Check out this post from lovetocruise2002:

We end up doing a Pub Crawl, Poker Run ...... All participants put in $5. At every bar, not only do you have a drink, you draw a card ...... at the last bar, you find out who has the best poker hand - that person wins the cash ..... I was fortunate enough to win two years ago w/ 3 Kings ... Nice .

Different people have opinions about everything, thats whats great ,we are allowed to have opinions. Personally I have opinions about certain types of travel, hotel brands, specific places in the world etc. The great thing is they are just that, my opinions and other people can have their own and we should all be able to get along happily ever after. :)

Day -1 Milan. We arrived Milan around 11 PM , quick walk from the bus stop and we arrived the hotel , check in was slow as only one person answered the phone in parallel trying to check us in . Finally we got in the room and just went to sleep as we both were very tired. On the way to the hotel we also lost one of the suitcase wheel , lucky for us it was quite near to the hotel so we managed it. At morning we struggled to catch breakfast around 9:45 (breakfast was only until 10 am) , breakfast was good ,it even included vegetables (you see RCL its possible to server vegetables at breakfast). We bought daily ticket for the subway (7 $ for the full day) and did our way to the Duomo, the subway station brings you just outside from the Duomo , if there is one thing you must see in Milan its this Cathedral, its very impressive , all cover with marble. There is quite a big line to get into the Cathedral but there is a way to bypass it . All you need to do is to buy combo tickets to get onto the rooftop of the cathedral which is a must and from there you can get down directly into the cathedral. That is exactly what we have done , we bought the tickets, went on the rooftop (very pretty) and went down to the cathedral, there we also went under it to see the old church remains (from around 450 AC) . Post the cathedral we went to eat our second breakfast of frozen pistachio ice cream and went to the Aperol terrace to drink our first travel drink , and no the drinking package is not working there. The next station was castle Seforza , we took our lunch near by . I stopped in a sport shop to buy some roller blades wheel so I can fix the suitcase (I had to replace at least two wheel as they were not the same size but it did the trick for now , I guess its time to replace this suitcase which my spouse using for the last 14 years. It was time for dinner , real this time , Pizza and a salad near the cathedral Near the cathedral there is the oldest mall in Europe , in one place were a new tradition started , on the floor there are some mosaics of animals , now it consider a good luck if you go over the bull mosaic private part and turn three time using you shoe heel , do not know who came with it but its sure funny to watch. . Tomorrow we have early train to catch so time to catch some sleep , its cruise day soon.

I haven't been on my first cruise yet since its in Jan, 2020 and i'm already addicted! I'll be on the Symphony of the Seas Jan, 2020 7 days! I've been on this blog and youtubing cruise NON STOP since I booked it.

Interesting..and good to know. Sorry to hear as well. Perhaps 2nd place is a free cruise..on NCL.....

I don't think these negative nancys are really trying to rain on our parades. I think they might just be THAT uncreative when it comes to vacations that they have to rattle off 8 unrelated reasons why they don't cruise. It's a big cover to hide the fact that they're too scared to undertake the booking process (or whatever) and try it out. whatever; less lines at the Windjammer for me!

My first response is: "Cite the case" Those examples are either myths (where the case can not be cited) or a single event (where your "higher odds" thought is 100% right). After your trip, make sure you bring lots of pictures back showing how you had a blast. In the end ... Don't ask for security, ask for adventure. Have a blast. Curt from Canada

Ok well, this just explains it all right there! ?

@Katy I think you will find that Victoria is a great port.

A bit of a funny story regarding irons (at least it was funny for my wife). Not suggesting anything here but wanted to share as you might get a kick out of it. We have been cruising now for over 20 years and back when we started we use to pack a travel iron. It was nice and compact while doing a pretty good job in getting most of the travel wrinkles out. As the years passed (and several cruises as well), Royal became more vocal on the prohibition of those type of devices. At the time we did not really have an appreciation for the risk associated with them on a ship but rather figured they just wanted to sell more services. We are not the type to really break any rules but are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We were going on our cruise and packed our garment bag at the time as we always did. We arrived at the ship and dropped off the bags with the luggage valet (as everyone always does), and proceeded to the ship. We spent the day as we usually do and went to the room to get ready for dinner. Everything was going as it always did and we were in the relax mode already. All was good until we looked for the bags in the hall and noticed that the garment bag was not there. Since we were sailing and it was well past the time to get bags to the rooms i elected to call guest services to inquire. Guest services then transferred me to security. Security got on the phone and said they had my bag and I needed to go down to deck 2 and see them. No real explanation so I now start to grow concerned. I tell my wife and off I go. When I get to security and tell them who I am they bring my bag over. I immediately indicate it is my bag and was relieved it was there. The security guard then asks me if I have any contraband. What? My mind is racing and I'm thinking someone stuck drugs in my bag or something and this is it for me. I responded with a very firm no, and thinking the worst, I then looked around to see if there were any gloves nearby. I was happy to see there were none. They asked me again if I had contraband and I said no, you can look if you want. They quickly open the bag (as if they already knew what was there and where it was), and pulled out the travel iron. I immediately tell them what it is and feel relieved that it was not what I feared. They proceed to educate me politely, retain the iron for the remainder of the cruise, and give me my bag. What a story to tell my wife. The following year we cruise again and low and behold it happened again. What is this woman doing to me? She just was in the habit of storing the travel iron in the bag and forgot to remove it. At that point I told the cruise to throw it out! Happy to report we are now about a decade free of contraband searches and I'm still married to my lovely bride :-)

Day 5 - Key West An early start to the day to watch as the Starship Majesty came in for a landing in Key West. Just kidding, the channel markers strobe every few seconds so I did a 30 second exposure as we made our way through the channel. Today we'll be at the NAS pier. Looks like the Carnival Sensation snagged the better spot closer to Mallory Square.

Day 4 continued... Majesty has the old style TV's and map displays. Our progress... Getting my steps in before... ... heading up to the VCL for the Diamond event. Like most Diamond events there are finger foods every night. The bridge crew did their best to avoid the downpours as day turned into night.

If @coneyraven is anything like me, that's all we have left!?

What a great topic! My partner and I are cruising... February 16, 2020 on Oasis of the Seas, leaving from Miami.

And be sure to prepare your next cruise immediately after or even during your first cruise! PCD (Post Cruise Depression) is real and there is only one cure! ?

Can only hope so! ?

I just tell them there right! I don't need another person competing with me for a cabin that I want.?

I'll be shoving photos and videos full of adventure and smiles in their faces Perhaps a powerpoint presentation or chromecasting my fun on the TV. Thanks but I still have 130+ days left to go ?

I guess that's their way of justifying not taking a cruise.... You will be able to give them first hand info when you get back! Enjoy your cruise!

I do believe you just described Keno. ?

Have not done this yet, put this is my plan for my Harmony cruise in October, followed @WAAAYTOOO directions and have everything booked.

Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion were on back to back every afternoon in my part of the world.

No you're not. Jonny Quest, Speed Racer and Underdog ring a bell?

Anthem does not have a Suites lounge but there is a Concierge Lounge on Anthem. As far as I can remember they do have a coffee machine in there.

On our cruise in April, we got to our room to see chocolate covered strawberries with a note saying "Happy Anniversary". Our dating anniversary is in August and we aren't even engaged yet let alone married! Not sure how it happened but I love me some chocolate covered strawberries so I wasn't mad about it.

I think I got spoiled as last November Symphony was my first Oasis class ship experience. I have since sailed Harmony. Have Allure coming up next weekend and then Oasis for Thanksgiving. All four Oasis sisters in a year...just did them in the reverse order!

Sailing Star is awesome stuff. We sailed Star on Anthem twice this year...the first time was in the owner's loft....the second time I got us into the Royal loft....except I told the kids we were going to be in a Grand Loft...so they expect the Genie....but not the room ? And what was really really nice. We had a last second change in Genie. Our Genie became unavailable so the two remaining Genies has to split up her rooms between them and handle more than usually. Yen Lee did it without missing a beat and the 'don't tell the kids what room we are in' surprise was communicated to her so we ended up with an awesome start. Overall the experiences are nice. Dinner reservations made, show seats reserved, things that are advertised and you expect....but its the little things that start to add up making it that 'little' something extra....time spent trying to find me a fishing tour in St Marteen (that ultimately never came to fruition, but the effort was made), popcorn/waters waiting at your seats when you get to the show.....little things ? like.....room service we didn't order dropped off 15 minutes after we got back on the boat from a caving excursion in PR (with all the food the kids had been ordering of Johnny Rockets) and I didn't even take a photo ? Or our youngest is a big queen fan who did this every chance she got She made us get front row seats for the "we will rock you show' which the Genie did for us (that's my son intentionally wearing a Zep t-shirt for humor) and Nina with her "killer bee" hat on that she wrote Queen all over. So then on the last night nite.....this stuff appeared in the room Two baseball hats signed by the cast of the show....plus a show cast photo with all their signatures on it as well. All of which was confiscated by Nina and now proudly displayed in her room

Those little Mio concentrated "water enhancer" packets can go a long way to keep the tap water more interesting, too!

If you are even considering any of the group cruises shoot MEI an inquiry for a quote. The group rate right now for the NYE GC on Freedom is less than half of what the price is on Royal's site. They get in on the cruise early and snag group rates before they go up.

Coffee, tea, water, iced tea, lemonade, and sometimes flavoured water. And milk.

Our experience has been consistent with what @DMLM reported. We use a travel agent, who typically follows-up with Royal to get us a seating in traditional dining after we've been defaulted to My Time. I also agree with @FManke , and have used that strategy after we checked in Day 1 (before Cruise Planner was created).

WHAT!? I cant bring my Illegal Drugs on board? What kind of world do we live in?

Royal coffee (free ones) always has a decaf. Regarding the specialty I think they just so espresso drinks and do not really have drip like a Starbucks would so not sure how they can do decaf.

Our home for the next two days : In preparation for the cruise : Nice all you need charging box with all kinds of cables, good if you forgotten yours at home One big king bad Huge TV And another important feature All in all its not the biggest room I saw but everything is new so it's nice

On my way to my cabin after taking the stargazing pictures I came in off of deck 7 and saw... So which way is the exit? Maybe it's just me in my happy hour induced state that found this humorous. Speaking of drinking, they're multiplying. Jorge the GSM who followed me over from Empress sent me a bottle of wine. Combined with the two from Crown and Anchor I've got a lot of drinking to do starting tomorrow, day 4 of a 5 night cruise.

There is a lot going on around the ship but I'll be back soon enough so I'm not doing the ship's entertainment staff justice. I'll post the Cruise Compasses once I get home to scan them in properly. Outside for a walk on the Promenade deck there were a lot of stars visible. That made me pull out my night sky photography app and see where the Milky Way might be tonight. Sure enough... Majesty has these shelves along the forward section of the Promenade deck that worked great for my little tripod. While we were well past sunset the long exposure catches enough light coming over the horizon to make it look like a sunset. The lights of a city were on the horizon to starboard. The big dipper was very prominent tonight. It stood out more with the naked eye compared to this 10 second exposure. In this one I caught a passing airplane with it's strobe light flashing every second. For this one I setup on the floor of the deck trying to get into the shade of those Windjammer lights. In the darkness of the forward deck I got some strange looks as random guests walking past were wondering what I was doing crouched down low in the dark. Oh well, all in the name of taking a picture. All in all not bad. Majesty like Empress is also a good ship for stargazing with it's dark forward Promenade deck.

So that will make it a $9.00 milkshake. That better be one Mfing good shake.