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So there it was... our 4 day Cuba cruise now changed to Key West and Nassau morphed again into a cruise to Nassau and we stay docked until 6pm the next day. As we stared at the paper announcement on our stateroom bed, it was just 100% disbelief. Granted we were only at Nassau once before and went straight to Segway around Blue Lagoon but Nassau is the place that people stay on board, complain about, and generally avoid. What transpired was a terrific two days there. First off we had already decided to take a tour bus exploration excursion to get an overview and some history. It was fast paced and covered a lot ground but most of all we noted places we wanted to visit in the afternoon. After lunch back at the windjammer, we walked to the Balcony House. It's the oldest wooden structure on the island. The tour was informative and free. From there we walked around that neighborhood reading history markers and slowly walking back down to the ship. A stop for ice cream on a second floor deck overlooking the harbor completed day one. Well, actually we ventured back out around 8 at night but most everything was surprisingly closed down. At no time did we feel unsafe or hassled beyond the typical vendors trying to get us into their stores on the main drag. Day two brought great weather so off to the local bus stop to grab the 10 or 12b bus that runs along the North shore of Nassau. The goal was to find a beach far enough away from the tourists and the beach peddlers. Mission accomplished with a half hour ride shared with locals going to work. Found a beach that started with just us there and topped off at about 12 other RC toting towel folks. It was 100% what we had wanted. The small bar had 5 dollar beach chairs, food and refreshments. It was more island charm than resort which fit us fine! Nassau wound up being a very pleasant surprise. Friendly locals, easy walking to historical sites, and an accesable public bus system to get you to the beach with some local flair! If we stop in Nassau again, which is a cruise ship given, we will no longer moan but look forward to creating an adventure.

Yawn. It's 0330 and I didn't need my alarm to wake me up for my 0720 flight to Fort Lauderdale this morning. I'm always gunning to go when a cruise is pending. Might as well burn off some energy with my first stab at live-blogging a trip. ? Basics Ship: Allure Sailing: 9/29 7 night Eastern Caribbean Cabin: L2 Crown Loft (1722) View from the backyard. That isn't a sunrise. It's city lights.

Cabin Tour: We are in a 2br Grand Suite 8694. This is on the very back of the ship. General thoughts, there is tons of storage in this cabin. We did notice some vibrations when the ship was sailing. It never really bothered us, and at times almost seemed soothing. The times it was very noticable was when backing into ports and whether the azipods were fully rotated, or switched into reverse, you really felt the vabrations then. Unfortunately this woke me up each morning. So here I am on a relaxing cruise and I have woken up at 5-5:30 each morning.....Everyone else slept through it. Here is the kids room, prior to the beds being split Kids bathroom This stateroom had a large walk in closet Living room with more storage. There is also a table with 4 chairs. \ Master Bedroom Hers and Hers closets in the Master Vanity Area

Pictures to come, here is a time lapse of our 360° turn at Na Pali Coast.

2B or not 2B, is that the question?

Say what ?? Oh.....you mean the ones that hang out 3” from the boarding lane believing that if they’re the first ones on that they will win the lottery ?

Just some good advice, be sure to give credit to the person that took the photo especially if that person is in the photo. I always try to give credit to whomever took the photo. No harm in doing it, and it's the considerate thing to do.

Your credit card needs to be linked to your onboard account, meaning that's what you set up when you checked in for the cruise. Then you will sit at a slot machine and insert your SetSail pass. Select ACCOUNT. Then select PERSONAL BANKER. You will be asked for your PIN number. If you haven't set one up then it will default to your birthday as MMDD. You will then select TRANSFERS. Select ROOM CHARGE. Then you can select a preset amount or select OTHER and enter in your own dollar amount. You are asked to confirm the charge. Success! Added to the slot machine. From there you hit COLLECT on the machine and it will print out a ticket.

Okay, time to get caught up here. I give a lot of credit to those that are able to keep up with these. Its been a crazy busy cruise so far! So back to Day 1 stuff. Following luch we headed to the back of the ship to check out the slides. Day one lines were very short, so we all got lots of rides in. My younges was too short to do the blaster, but he loved the riptide slide. As I am typing this up I am sitting on the suite lounge deck and can see that the lines today are short as well. I'm sure that since most kids are in school, that is helping keep the lines low. There are very few children on this sailing. After the slides we got changed and ready for sail away, and the "mustard wharehouse drill" as Johnny called it. We did sail away on the helipad. He's ready to move on. Here comes the coast guard. Finally the lines are pulled And we are off New terminal under construction We are heading towards Miami because she was nosed into port. Need to spin around in the turning basin. Norwegian Sky is in port too. Once we turned around in the turning basin, we followed her out to sea.

As rumors have it @Matt left his glass behind on Mariner of the Seas, looking for confirmation at this time ?

I can't think of any situation on a cruise where it would be rude to offer one. Tipping is very subjective and with added gratuities to drinks, room service, daily gratuities for room cleaning and dining it isn't really expected but is always welcome. I usually expect to tip for: The porter when I arrive to the port. This will be the person that rushes you to take your luggage to a cart so it can be loaded onto a cruise ship. This is probably the only point where I ever feel pressured to give a top. They often do expect one. The porters are NOT employees of the cruise line. I generally tip a few bucks per bag. Depends on what I have convenient in terms of small bills. They also are around when you get off the ship and can be a big help to get you through customs faster. I would tip more for that for sure but I've never actually ended up using one. Bartenders. Even though you are charged 18% with your drink I find that you can brighten someone's day and even get better service by handing over the occasional cash tip. You can do it drink by drink, every other drink, or if you visit the same bartender over and over again just do it in a larger amount one or two times. Room service. Unless you are ordering continental breakfast or are in a Grand Suite or above, there's a charge for room service. It's a single charge per time but you can order as much food as you want at once. You are charged an 18% gratuity to your room service order. I always tip whoever delivers. If it's just a tray with coffee in the morning it may just be a couple of bucks. If it's stacks of room service plates, then they will get tipped more. Dining. If you eat in the specialty restaurants you have the chance to leave a tip on your bill just like at a regular restaurant. I tend to tip $5 per person for lunch and $10 per person at dinner. It's been a long time since I've eaten in the MDR..but when I used to we would give a tip to the waiters at the end since it was a set dining time and you always had the same waiter team. Room steward. I end up tipping $20 at a minimum to the room steward, even if they don't do their job. If they are excellent and I have a good rapport with them I will give them more..usually hunt them down the morning of embarkation to give them the tip. Excursions. I tip for rideshares, taxis, tour guides. Some ports have folks out in the port area that expect tips if you take photos with their pet iguanas or monkeys..so be aware of that. If you have a cabana or waiter at a beach, you tip them. That's all I can think of off the top of my head that I deal with regularly on cruises. Ride on the gratitude that you feel when you give them the tip..I know that tends to make me want to be even more generous.

Thanks y'all. I got her set up and we will see if we can do enough cruises to get anywhere on the rewards program. If it were up to me, we'd take every vacation on a cruise. She likes them, too, but I think I'm the addict.

Twist my arm then.

Good Moring. Today We Are In St. Thomas. Before We Got There We Have A Half Sea Day. At Ten We Stared To See Land. At 12:30 We Spotted A Carnival Ship. And After That We Were Docked.

Flight is on time. ? Won at gate roulette. Gate changed from 90 (ass end of nowhere) to gate 61 (stumbling distance from a variety of places that serve alcohol). Next up: IAH (Houston) layover. If there's an airport I hate with a burning passion, it's IAH. 80% chance of it being a cluster-f*ck. I'll be brave and wear my big boy pants.

You're on vacation It's 5 O-clock somewhere ??

Your set sail pass will generally also say RR somewhere on it. This is what my mobile set sail pass looks like on the bottom

That’s the picture she sent me but it is apparently the same shirt minus the necklace hahaha, I do a ridiculous amount of travel for work and she finds this stuff and orders it so it’s always a surprise when we get to travel together

Well Today Was One Of Those Lazy Sea Day!! All I Did Was Ride The Flowrider. And Eat?

WE ARE ON THE SHIP!! Today went so smooth, after we left the waterless hotel! We piled the kids in the car with the iPads and off we went to the port. Lydia asked as we drove past on the causeway, are we going on a cruise?????? Nah kid, we are not. She bought that answer and went back to the iPad. I then had my parenting fail of the day. I reach behind me to tap Johnny’s leg, which of course makes him cry, so the surprise!! We are going on a cruise fell flat?? It took a few takes to get a good video to send to family. once at the port everything went according to plan. We pulled up, dropped the bags with the porter, drove the 6 minutes to return the car. we called our Uber which was there in 30 seconds and back to the port we went. Here is the obligatory propeller shot took this elevator Got our muster station bands The Royal Promenade windjammer for lunch!! from drop-off to on the ship was 5 minutes!! phone is in airplane mode, connected to Voom, LETS DO THIS!!!

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

Day 7 Night As we make our way along the chain of Hawaiian Islands towards Maui the North Star was empty and they were begging for participants to justify the ride. Minimum 6-7 was being requested. So... why not? Later on my balcony I spotted an old friend... the Milky Way. We've come far enough South that it's still visible. It's hard when shooting off the side of the ship given the ship's forward motion so I had to crank up the ISO and shorten the exposure.

They Were Fixing The Aqua Theater Tonight. Here Some Radom Photos Of The Ship And St. Thomas Tonight I Did The Flowrider From 6:00 To 10:00 Which Was Awesome!! DJI_0281.MP4 After That I Saw Our Night Sailaway From St. Thomas! After That It Was Time For A Nice Dinner At The Windjammer.

Usually the way it goes.....one enjoys it..and the other person is addicted......guilty here!

He does..he invited himself on my Thanksgiving cruise on Oasis ??

They end in 229 and 629.

New aerial photos posted here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/09/27/photos-oasis-of-the-seas-begins-165-million-amplification

Following! Going on Allure Feb 2020 with @kuruczpa and our S/Os.

Oof. This flight has a bad gate lice infection.

It’s also a VERY long walk all the way aft which is the primary reason we quit booking the ATS. Waaaytooo much walking for me.

Our very first (2) ATS were the 1 BR ones. I would say that the ones on 11 are worth the money but the ones on 12 and 14 are not. They are so much smaller and the balconies (particularly on Allure and Oasis) are downright tiny.

I expect a full and detailed report

We will be on Oasis Dec 8, 2020 as well as Dec 1, 2019

Yippee ! Can’t wait to see her all spruced up in Dec !

Personally i think the best solution for uncomfortable beds is a bottle of red wine ??? After downing a bottle you wont care what the beds like! The only concern you will have is whether you actually manage to get in it or end up sleeping on the floor lol On a serious note Matt is correct What one person likes another may hate. I cant sleep with lots of pillows, in fact i can only sleep if my head is on about 2 square inches of the corner, yet my wife likes so many pillows that when she lifts her head up she bangs it off the ceiling. Remember you are on vacation dont let little things such as how comfortable the bed is be an issue ?

Peace out Miami! This was shot from our balcony.

You should see the purchase on the cruise planner - check the order history on the top of the page. Many people also print the email confirmations to take with them as well.

I really like taking the train from Anchorage to Seward. When you go Southbound you can catch the early morning train and be in Seward by noon. Check in and grab lunch on the ship then explore Seward. When you go North the train ride is late afternoon or early evening from Seward to Anchorage. I find that train ride at the beginning of the cruise sets the tone for the cruise and is an awesome way to start the adventure. The cruise just builds on top of that fantastic start. Going North the train is after the cruise and does not have the same wow factor.

I guess they're really big fans of Deep Purple. ?

She's using me for my C&A status.....

IDK why but the first time I read this I thought you got the CRUISE for $19.99/person per day and I was like "WHY DON'T I FIND THOSE KIND OF DEALS!?!?!" .. I'm following now. Thanks for the review! ... Brb finding more caffeine.

It’s cruise day!!! Zero days till we go on a cruise! zero days till we go! The sun has come up, let’s head to the port, zero days till we go on a cruise!!! (thanks @JLMoran)

Who knew there was so much to say about RCCL mattresses! I guess opinions are like some other body parts, everybody has one.

You’re in good company here.

IMO, doing the same itinerary again is not a big deal. When it comes to cruising in the Caribbean, it's pretty much expected. I find plenty to see and do each time.

You've definitely got to do it at least once, and cruising is an easy and affordable way to see it!

If you're into a beach break, Magen's Bay was beautiful and easily accessible by open-air taxi in the port. $10pp/way, also $5 adult entry to Magen's. Beautiful beach, no waves with a restaurant/bar and beach waiter service. Highly recommend packing a small float for ultimate water relaxation!

Thanks man, I'm just nervous about everything going good for me and my partner. It's our first cruise and my first time to the bahamas. I apologize if my response was curt. I have become cruise obsessed..lol...so I'm tryna detox myself????

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, just pointing out that you can probably find people that will say the mattress is comfortable and others that say it is uncomfortable. Quite frankly, not sure what that really proves, or helps you. My concern is I've seen too often people that read negative things and start to become overly concerned that their cruise is "ruined" before it even begins. I can understand your point here, and I think that's a good question.