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October 9, 2019. Back from the wasteland of being land locked, I'm writing this from Majesty's VCL. Rather than creating a whole new thread I'll just revive this one. IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! This booking started as a Cuba booking departing on Oct. 14. As it turns out that wasn't going to be so to drown my sorrows I added the Oct. 9 cruise. Very recently (last week) the Oct. 19 sailing was very inexpensive. I looked at Southwest and could change my return flight for a $2 credit. So... YOLO, this has become a B3B. When you can book a Royal Caribbean cruise at these rates it's hard to say no. 5 nights to Mexico, 5 nights to the Bahamas and 4 nights to the Bahamas. Cozumel, Costa Maya. Key West, Nassau. Key West, Nassau. I've managed to book the same cabin for the first two legs but change cabins for the 3rd. We embarked at terminal 19 in Port Everglades today. Arriving to the terminal at 10:21am I was on board at 11:01am after a short wait in the terminal. I'm going to be lazy from this point forward, only posting when it's blog worthy. Cabins are almost ready, time to go...

Day 7 - sea day and see day. We all know the problem on a 7 day cruise is the 7 day, I think they should always do it X +1 until we say enough is enough or we will become super Mario. We again woke up up early and eat breakfast at 270 , the buffet breakfast is an experience I can leave without. We went to the Captain correner which always includes interesting information again it was done in English follow by Mandarin translation . The Captain explain about the Typhoon and why he decided to go passing near it . It was only category 1 and no were to hide from it , the port also not allowing to have the ship staying at port so nothing really could have been done. We also got explanation about how the Chinese environment lows are very strict , for example the ship is not allowed to dump any treated water while entering the Shanghai channel or in port so they need to store it. Many questions were asked and the 270 was quite full during this event. We went to check the Seaplex for the bumping cars but lines were big so we just relaxed at the Solarium for a while On the way back we notice the mobile piano, the ship has almost everything the same as other ships but still different. For lunch we went to the Silver dining room which offered sea food buffet, it had chilled lobster salads , some ceviche and fried shrimps which were very good. Even the red velvet cake is back Past through the Casino which was packed so we did not stayed too long and went to Schooner bar to listen to some melodies. As we did not sleep that good we took some nap , hey that's what you have sea days for, not ? It was time to try the Fencing again so we went to the SeaPlex , no lines we just join few people. First they give you some protect gear and you suit up. They start by teaching you the basic move (ready, stop , move forward , move backwards and attack ) then we practice them first without the swords and then with swords against electronic board. The last step is to practice against each other. I was against my spouse , now the suites dose not contain sensors so it's hard to track score but I am quite sure I won and lost at the same time. You see I was blamed for taking it too seriously. Oh well after years of practicing by watching movies like "The three musketeers", Star wars and game of thrones (maybe not the last one as I did not try to decapitated her ? ) what you can expect ? I must say it was very intensive practice. Post the fencing lession we finally got to the bumping cars as everyone was eating dinner. Some night time view of the ship My spouse had to rest as she felt weak , so we went to the room to enjoy the balcony. As we already mentioned missed dinner we ordered in , must say it was not bad at all. Believe it or not at our 12 cruise it was our first time for using room service. We went to see for the last time the let it be AC/DC , here you can see two new fans Back at the room , what you see here is not lights are on the shore but lines of ships waiting to get to Shanghai port. Very busy route. Well , it's the last day so we packed and called it off early .

Day 8 - every good thing must come to its end . We planned for 5 PM flight (that was the cheapest time slot when I booked it) since we had to kill few hours I booked a shore excursion to take us to Shanghai to some panoramic tour with drop at the airport. a day before I got a call telling me that due of lack of participate the tour was canceled. We had a disembarkation time of 8:30 am , so I set a clock for 7 , this time the alarm was working well , we start to get organized and I went down to 270 to bring something to eat , I saw the lines of the self disembarkation it was very very long and went all the way from one end of the ship to the other , I guess many choose to do self disembarkation and I was glad we chosen not to do so this time. Came back to the room and got a call from the photo gallery to come and pick our pictures , I forgot to do it yesterday so it was quite nice of them to give me the chance to collect them on the last day. we finish our last packing and went to our meeting point which was the music hall. Apparently it was the meeting point of all the international guest , at 8:35 they took us out and let us disembark. It was quite quick , we pass the immigration , pick our suitcases and pass the custom , took something like 15 minutes. I must say everything was well organized. We went out from the terminal to find a taxi , there was one guy who tried to convince us to come with him as he like Chinese Uber, we refused and continued to the taxi stand which is quite a walk from the terminal. after short line we were on a taxi that took us to the airport. it was almost one hour ride and cost something like 35 $. We had to wait for the counters to be opened , once they were I asked them if its possible to catch the earlier flight and what do you know they had open seat. We paid 50$ for the change and even got the emergency exit which was better seat from our original flight. We went to the China Air lounge which serves all the star alliance , we eat lunch and went to catch our 5 hours Singapore airline flight. Flight went fast , they have very good service (full alcohol option, private screens and not bad food , although we were full from the food at the lounge). The good think was that although its just day 8 for us its still the middle of vacation , we landed , got our suitcases and after 20 minutes ride we got to our new home for the next 3 days . Here are some pictures from our room on the 37 floor and yes its has a balcony , crazy. I will add some summary about the ship in the coming few days , for now going to the pool. And a day view Oh , this one was waiting for us in the room , just to let us feel we still on a cruise Let me know if you want me to share more information and pictures from Singapore although it's not a cruise already

I'm thrilled to report the hotel did indeed hang onto my hat for the week and we were reunited on Sunday! Hugged the hat. ?

The thought of being dry-docked for another 564 days until Symphony in APR 2021 was way too much for us to bear especially after our awesome experience on Allure this past May! We can't stop talking about that cruise! @Lovetocruise2002... yeah, we're hooked on Oasis class! As you all say... YOLO booked it! We had to take advantage of an awesome deal especially while she is here in NY in our backyard! Yay, no airfare or hotel! Can't wait to sail through the harbor again and go under the Verrazano this time on Oasis! Oasis... May 31, 2020!

I have always been "colorful" and not one to follow the beaten path. I have had a couple occasions where staff had to ask me nicely to stop fishing off my balcony. This time I decided to go a slightly different direction. Brought my daughter to Coco Cay when she was about seven and came up with a "good way" to spice her trip up some. I brought her to the little shallow beach away from the popular snorkeling one to do some "special snorkeling". Being a fisherman and diver over the years I developed a collection of old galleon "pirate coins". brought one along tucked in my waist band. The water on that south beach was maybe knee deep, sand bottom and of course gin clear. We were maybe thirty yard from shore and I tossed the coin out in front of us without her seeing... I nudged her and kept her on course to "find" it... I remember her making noises through her snorkel when she "found" it. "Daddy its a pirate coin!" Wow was she excited! Mission accomplished (or so I thought). We exited the water and she ran off showing the coin to every person she saw. Before I knew it, the other areas emptied out and we were "joined" with a couple thousand "treasure hunters"... She's 27 this year and getting married. I had that coin set and unbeknownst to her I will make it available for her to wear when I walk her down the aisle... ?

I have 2. 1st story I work for a national mens clothier. I go off and buy what I think is a great outfit for my husband. White/navy blue striped cotton sweater, and navy shorts. One a.m. we were at the pool and it was kind of chilly, but he knew it would warm up, so he wore this outfit. It is @ 10 a.m. and he is sleeping on a lounge chair next to me...snoring. Passengers are walking by and glaring. Thus, I nudge him so he will stop snoring. He stops snoring, but they are still walking by and mumbling under their breath. Huh? I don't get it, why are they looking at him this way. A few mins later a bar staff member walks up to me and asked if I needed a drink. I looked at him, looked at my husband and broke out in laughter. His outfit was almost identical, just different stripe design on the sweater. I am positive all those passengers thought he was part of the crew sleeping on the job! 2nd story We as a family (siblings and cousins) decided that we were going to surprise my Mom for her 80th with a cruise. She got wind and said she was not going. We (siblings/cousins) decided we were still going and celebrate my Mom's Bday without her. My brother is a practical joker. He went to Staples and had a 24x32 picture of my Mom printed up. In his mind, she was going on this cruise with us no matter what. He took it with him on the ship, but kept it a secret. Formal night rolls around and VOILA he pulls this picture out for the photos.. I can't recall the Captain's name, but he was European and needed staff to translate. There is my brother asking the Captain to take a picture of him holding this huge picture of my Mom. The captain could not wrap his head around he was being asked to do. I am pretty sure when he got back to the bridge, he told everyone, now he has seen it all for the photo ops. My brother also makes calendars for every family member as a xmas gift. Every month is a photo. That yr. her bday month was the picture of the Captain holding this picture of her

Depends what kind of movie. Some are very entertaining.

We bought the Photo Package on our two Mariner cruises this year and really liked it. On the first cruise we took home (digitally) over 100 pictures and on the recent three night adventure 90 photos. We made a point of stopping at each and every photo opportunity. We thought the quality of the pictures was very good to excellent. Usually you can see the pictures within an hour on board through the link they share with you and just the other day RCCL sent me a zip file with all of the pictures from this month's cruise. I usually send the ones we like best to Walmart for printing and to put in a small memento photo album. And the digital pics can be shared easily on social media and shared with family and friends. Discounts are always available on embarkation and the first day or two of the cruise. And when you get the package you also recieve some accessories. In our case we got a small album and a 5x7 RCCL frame.

Saint John wouldn't have much..Reversing Falls is neat to check out..has a walk out over the falls......small waterfront downtown area... Halifax has lots to see and do. If you like historical stuff there would be some tours around that, but to be honest there is lots to do and see on your own in Halifax and within walking distance of the ship. Excursion wise going to Peggy's Cove is a popular one but it takes pretty much the whole day I believe so no time to explore Halifax at all. I live 2.5 hrs from Halifax and 1.5 from Saint John...so can give some additional recommendations or hopefully answer some questions you may have come up as it gets closer. Bar Harbor is amazing....been there a few times...walking across the bay on low tide on a sand bar is pretty cool.....Cadillac Mtn in the park is great as well. Fly out of Portland often but haven't explored there much...I know the waterfront is very nice, but not sure excursion wise what there would be in the area.

After Our Arrival I Took A Quick Cat Nap. And Now It Time To Disembark The Harmony Of The Seas!! After That We Took The Shuttle To The Parking Lot. Well Folks That It For My Cruise On Harmony Of The Seas. I Hope You Enjoyed It As I Enjoyed Making It For Everyone. If You Have Any Questions Please Let Me Know.

So, our first cruise with my brother and sister in law on the Navigator. One cruise day after a morning by the pool, screwdrivers, bloody marys, beer, etc my wife says "let's get changed and have lunch in the MDR" to which we all concur. We get to the MDR and were seated with a group of folks from Missouri. Table conversations continues (my brother in law is a TALKER, he could be a politician) our lunch arrives and I chow down. My wife asks "so where in Missouri are you folks from"? One of the gentlemen replied " just south of Platte, just across the river from Leavenworth, KS". At that point in time, I quietly sit back, wipe my mouth and said "Leavenworth, yeah, I spent some time there." Conversations ended, there was a total silence and the Missouri folks started looking out the window, their plates and anything except us. Of course, after I explained to them that I spent a year at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth when I was on active duty they livened up and we were all friends again. We still get a chuckle out of that.

I purchased The Key for our Oasis of the Seas trip, 2/9/20 for $24.99 last week. Today and email came stating on sale. Not sure if other dates/ships are affected, but it is currently $21.99. Saved almost $50 with a refund and repurchase.

Vancouver tends to be one way itineraries while Seattle has the round trip option. I would choose based on ship and itinerary more that Seattle vs. Vancouver as both cities are great.

Hooray for beer!! https://tenemu.com/news/funky-buddha-royal-caribbean-collaborate-on-chilla-thrilla/09/2019

+1 for seeing the rest of your adventure!!

I want your cruise life!....I can only hope to one day be able to enjoy it as often as you do!

Oh my gosh - We'd have "Theme Nights" in college where the rules changed depending on the night... One night being "You can't drink it unless it's lit on fire." Pretty sure I should be dead.

Oh yeah..and the OP isn't even going there...guess I should follow the thread more closely.....

Out doors. And it's HOT in Galveston... don't be the one late guy that holds us all up! That guy sucks ? #lifegoals #dontbethatguy #nobodylikesthatguy

With RoyalUp, it's impossible to know if there is an actual room upgrade opportunity, but the bottom line is if the minimum bid seems reasonable to you, you could go for it. Keep in mind, if you bid and do not win, you owe nothing.

I think the takeaway was that if you forgo internet the first evening (depending on where you are sailing away from it works for a few hours anyways that first night) then buy later on.

Full body costumes are ok. Here is someone we ran into a couple years ago.

i was doing some reading about the Voyager amplification and while it doesnt have all the features we were hoping for, they seem to be giving the staterooms a decent overhaul as part of the works. I read an article (link below) that says: Source: https://cruisepassenger.com.au/the-first-look-inside-royal-caribbeans-revamped-voyager-of-the-seas/

Adventure Snowbird...and St.John‘s is in Newfoundland vs Saint John in New Brunswick. I would think a Canadian would know that. Maybe you are a bot. Need to update. ??? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9521-adventure-ots-13-night-snowbird-migration-quebec-to-ft-lauderdale-oct-8-2018/&tab=comments#comment-86747

My JS experience on Empress: On Empress the flat panel is not integrated with the ship (can’t order room service through the TV). It’s an HDTV with a plain remote control. This means you can use the HDMI input very easily. The flat panels were replaced as part of the 2016 refresh so they are decent compared to Majesty where they are the 1950’s version of what someone though HDTV might be like in 2019. In November I’ll be in a standard cabin on Empress. I’ll see if non-suite cabins have the same.

I can help with Maine as I have lived here for 25 years. Portland - very walkable small city. You are right in the old port area that is a mixture of shops, restaurants, and yes, brew pubs. You may want to take a morning tour that will take you aroind town and to some light houses and walk the cobblestone streets of the old port. Tip -If you have a chance to climb the last remaining N.E. ship signal observatory on a tour, go for it. It's unique with an incredible history. Bar Harbor - Home base to the northeast's only National Park. It's an amazing place were the ocean meets not only the rocky coast but the mountains rising up to 1500 feet from sea level. If at all possible go explore the park. You may be limited to the park loop road but there are enough stops to get a flavor of the park. The downtown is charming and very well kept. Tip - I have hiked up most of the peaks on the island but with time constraints, find a tour that drives you up Cadillac mountain. 360 degree views and your ship will look like a bath toy from up there. Enjoy!!

Old thread, but just stumbled across it and had to add a story and reply to @SpeedNoodles ? My husband & I had this exact thing happen to us in 1998 on our honeymoon cruise on Nordic Empress (now Empress OTS). We got picked as the newlywed couple competing against two longer married couples, and had to say where the strangest place was we ever "did the deed". I won't say what our answer was here, but it was pretty shocking, and we got recognized all over the ship for the rest of the cruise with congratulations. We won the game, we'd just gotten married, and people were apparently impressed with our location answer - I'm not sure what the congratulations were mostly for. Most of the people also said, "How did you do that?!?" Not only did we get lots of crazy attention the rest of the cruise, but back then they offered a video for sale at the end of the trip of photos and video clips they took throughout the week. Our Love and Marriage answer was part of the video along with lots of other good shots of us, so we just had to buy the video. But it was pretty awkward coming home and showing the video to my new parents-in-law who are very conservative. We had to distract them through the game show clip so they wouldn't notice that part. Same thing we did recently with our kids who are 11 and 16 yo, shortly before we took them on their first cruise this year. We showed them our old cruise video so they could laugh at how young and "90's" we looked, but we had to fast forward through the game show part. You just can't let your in-laws or kids know all the things you did before you got married!!! ?

One other thing to keep in mind about a paper backup is that it’s great if you are on a ship where you get your sea pass card in your room when they are open. No need to hand your phone over to a bar tender who is around many, many liquids. Much less stressful to hand over a piece of paper vs a phone worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

We wish we would have known how much our kids would love the RC youth clubs and activities, how much great sans-kids time my wife and I were able to spend together because of that, and what an amazing value the complimentary clubs are. We would have started cruising years earlier had we known.

The app is my slate back up.

No. The Key has nothing to do with MDR dining. The Key gives you a special lunch on embarkation day and breakfast on disembarkation day.

No problems. Brought both in our carry on bags.

That is correct. The D+ discount is only good when purchased onboard. You cannot combine your D+ discount and a cruise planner discount. Sometimes it’s cheaper to purchase pre-cruise through the cruise planner than to wait to get onboard and use your D+ discount. The price for one of my upcoming cruises was discounted 45% pre-cruise and my D+ discount is 30% so I purchased it ahead of time. Obviously if you’re using the 2 free days, that has to be done onboard.

SIDE NOTE - do not pay the $8 locker rental when you do the wave runners! There is a compartment on the front of the jet ski and one on the back you can store things in. We had a rather large bag on us, a fanny pack, our tennis shoes - and everything fit perfectly fine. They did warn us that the compartments aren't water sealed but we had no issue. Everything was still dry.

Is it just me or does anyone else here feel jealous and left out when we read of our friends here organizing bar crawls and stateroom crawls?

Well, I always try things at least once ?

made the mistake of googling geoduck. NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE. More NOPE. My apologies though, I hope you enjoyed your meal!!!!

Don't blame Norweigan, blame the Chinese. Ruining cruises is just the beginning of this new sinister Communist plot. What's next? Raining on parades? They must be stopped.

I certainly understand the passengers’ frustration with all the port changes and cancellations but I wonder how these same passengers would have reacted if the Captain had made a different decision and there had been an accident due to the weather conditions. Like it or not, the Captain did what he did to protect the passengers and his ship. If there had been an incident resulting from bad weather conditions, these same passengers, along with the ones who did NOT “riot”, would have reacted even more strongly AND the Captain would have been liable for real.

I usually check everyone into the app, then take a screenshot of the set sail pass and have each person have theirs on their phone. That way if the app fails (which as we know it often logs itself out) we have a failsafe.

So, when she tries to take your picture just explain that you're in the WPP (witness protection program), give her $5.00 and she'll leave you alone. Well, that was my experience for me last year.....by the way, that's NOT really my photo over there on the left......

Since the banning of extension cords and power bars and with the hope of avoiding one of Royal's '25 Orange Extension Cords I have done the following: - For my CPAP I bought a 15' cord to replace the standard 6' cord that goes from the outlet to the power transformer block . You can buy them on Amazon as they are the same cords used for TVs and some computers. - I bought a 220v plug adapter with USB ports. This allow for an additional plug at the desk for dual voltage devices as well as 2 spots for charging phone, tablets etc. - Lastly, I went to the hardware store and bought an old fashioned 1 to 3 square block 110v adapter. These days as most things are USB powered … having 5 standard outlets and 2 USB outlets is all we need. Total investment was less than $20.

Day -1 , Shanghai. Today we foght to get up early to enjoy the breakfast which I heard it's very good at this hotel, the rummers were true. There are two main Islands , one western food and one eastern. The western includes fresh egg station , salads station and many fresh worm options. The eastern contains many kind of dumplings, soups, fried vegetables and other good things. I took one plate from each island Now that can be useful for busy days at the WJ buffet , just think oh simple life would be if we had this option After the big breakfast we went to check the big shopping street of Nanjin, my spouse wanted to buy some pearls for her mother, we went to a pearls mall, found something we thought is nice and started to negotiate. I must it's easier for me to negotiate with our clients than the sellers there but we got a good price for two chains which per our request combined to one. The street itself very impressive. We also passed this Royal Caribbean Blog caffe We walked all the way to the famous Bund street which as a perfect view on the Pearl tower and the other to towers. This area includes also some monuments and nice small gardens We wanted to cross to the other side of the river so we took the new small under the river train were we bought combo tickets for the Bund tunnel and Shanghai tower observation. The small tunnel trains take you into a tunnel full with light effects , nice but not a must: We got out from the tunnel and haded to the tower (around 20 minutes walk) passing near the impressive pearls tower, near buy you also have the aquarium and many other tourist attractions which we decide to pass We finally got to the second biggest building in the world , the Shanghai tower , it's around 650 meters high with 128 floors. The amazing thing that in one year from now it's going to be only number 5 or 6 in the world. At the ground floor you have some exhebition of how the build it plus the future and the past of skyscrapers. From there we took the super fast elevator (10 M per second) to the observation platform (118 floor) to watch the very nice view . After the Shanghai tower visit we went back using the Bund tunnel to the other side and walking to the hotel , lots of steps . It was already evening so we went to the lounge to eat something , lots of options, I do recommend to book a room with access to the executive lounge. I must say we found Shanghai to be very beautiful

Just curious where home is? Home is Tel Aviv , Israel

Or...

Sounds like the summer of '75 when I spent some time in Alcatraz. On a family vacation.

OBTW, my husband is a wise arse. He still takes/wears that outfit, but he says that he does it now hoping he will make some tips while on board to offset the cost of the cruise! If now only he would use youtube to learn how to make towel animals!

I wonder how many people are like me and would like to gamble but won't go near the casino because of the smoke. I can't stand the smell and hate how that smell lingers in your clothes after being around it.