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Welcome to the boards! This is the packing list I use that I put together for our last cruise. I print it out and check off everything as it goes into a suitcase. I use the space around the clothes section to make notes about which specific tops, shorts, etc. I want to bring, and I make the kids' clothing list on the back. Hubby is responsible for his own clothes/toiletries. I'm going to tweak a few things that we wound up not using or taking at all for our next cruise: reusable straws- some people love them over the paper straws, we found them to be a burden and were fine with what the ship provided, glow sticks for the kids - they thought they would be fun to have for a parade, we never used them, liquid hand soap - we didn't bring, we're fine with bar soap for hand washing in the cabin. I saw this on a video and added it at the last second, but I don't think it's necessary, shoes - pare down the list accordingly. Typically, my tennis shoes, flip flops, one pair of heels, and one pair of flats are all I take. We knew the beach we were going to was rocky so we added water shoes. Also, DH and I used to be competitive ballroom dancers, and we bring our competition shoes if we're planning on doing a lot of dancing. Most people won't bring a specific pair for this. ? One thing that's not on the list because they stay in the suitcases is a pop up hamper. I LOVE having this on trips with the kids. We have a USB charger that lets you plug in multiple regular plugs and usb cords similar to this one. With two phones, two kindles, a camera, and a tablet, we felt we had plenty of plugs without needing a converter. Search cruise usb charger on amazon, and you will find several options. We haven't had any issues going through cruise security with this kind in our carry on (yet). Master Packing List.xlsx

We are also due to be travelling out Dubai on the 12th for our cruise on the 13th. I called Royal Caribbean today and they said no change and they wouldn’t sail if it wasn’t safe. She said nothing has happened yet .....REALLY! Ok so let’s wait until they retaliate and cause loss of life before we cancel ? They have a lot of money to refund if the cruise is cancelled so unfortunately I don’t think they will despite the warnings. Personally I’m going to take the loss my life is worth more.

@Lovetocruise2002 Did you say that you went to the WJ?

One week out! ? We have been in contact with Luciano about weekly with different requests we have came up with. I am going to start packing later today, Our daughter would go ahead and fly down now if we would let her. This week will hopefully fly by ? , we are actually asking about getting a specialty liquor on board. I will let everyone know how that goes. (picture is from Harmony in March) I am so ready for some peaceful relaxation time on this balcony.

Ghassem Soleimani was responsible for hundreds of U.S. service members deaths as the leader of Qods Force during Operation Iraqi Freedom of which I deployed five times so if he met his very untimely death I won’t miss a night of sleep. If this situation wrecks some cruises because of larger global issues than so be it. I personally lost people because of this guy so forgive me if I don’t blame the U.S president. This is a raw subject for me so excuse me if I come off too strong.

As a new to Royal cruiser the only way to speed up the boarding process is to book into a suite cabin or purchase "The Key". No such thing as a stupid question, ask away!

We went to the Oceanview Cafe which is the equivalent to the Windjammer. It offers most of the same food but is better spaced out on pods or islands. There were two egg/omelette stations it was very empty until after 8:00 today, a sea day. There was a featured item of the day cinnamon rolls. They were pretty good but could have been a little softer. I noticed in the restroom outside of the buffet they have both paper and cloth hand towels as hand drying options.

Calling it a night since we are still behind on sleep from staying up late the last couple of nights. We had a nice dinner in the MDR. Nothing was extremely exciting but there were a few highlights: a feta and beet salad, beef spring roll, chocolate cherry trifle and a pomegranate mojito. The comic was good but not side splitting funny. His name was Miguel Washington. Tomorrow is a sea day. We booked a behind the scenes ship tour that we got on a cruise planner sale.

Uber was much better then Lyft. No issues going to ship. We had a very nice driver.

Cool! I can see our balcony in this photo! In return, here's a photo of Adventure heading into the setting sun at the same time:

A few random pictures from around the ship. You don’t have to check out the pool towels and they are plentiful. Adventure of the seas was also departing today as well. There were a total of seven ships in port when we arrived. We have a comedy show at 7:00 and the late dinner seating at 8:30.

Jeep tour in Curacao. More photos and updates coming soon!

Taking it easy today. Enjoyed lunch at Oceanview Cafe. Some featured foods were fried calamari, pork ribs and fried chicken. Multiple desserts look really good. I enjoyed the Mexican food section by making some nachos and I also sampled some Indian curry. Surprisingly I really enjoyed a creamed spinach with corn.

There has alway been issues/tension between Iran and the U.S. If you feel uneasy about going, why not transfer your sailing to another sailing, the most that you will lose would be $100 per person, unless you're in a suit. I don't know what that would entail.

Update on sofa bed: We all know how awful sofa beds can be so this was a big factor when settling on a hotel. At the time of booking at the Conrad, the housekeeping manager assured me that the sofa bed was recently upgraded and was very comfy. She tried to get me to book the king room with sofa bed for a view of the Hudson River but I wasn’t convinced. Well, this was the most comfortable hotel sofa bed. ️️️️️ to The Conrad hotel downtown NYC.

I'll add that if you don't arrange for that spouse status match for your husband, then no, he will not receive the same benefits as you. So definitely call Crown and Anchor!

Have not done it but I did look into it last year for our cruise, and after looking at the times I decided that it was not worth it whatsoever! I can not remember what time you have to meet your transport to go to the park, but what I do remember is that you have far less than 6 hours to be in the park. That to me is not worth the cost of the ticket and transportation, if we had the chance to have at least 8-10 hours there I would have done it but it just was not worth the short time. We cruise out of Port Canaveral often enough that one of these times we will just get there a few days early and spend the time there prior to getting on the ship that way we won't feel rushed.

Muster drill is completed and we set sail at 3:30. Probably going to watch from our balcony on the port side. My early impressions are the ship has an intimate feel to it. We finished exploring the ship just prior to the muster drill. The concierge lunch in the main dining room was a nice alternative to the buffet restaurant but was nothing fancy. The Apple pie ala mode was really nice.

I think @KristiZ may have talked about this in her recent live blog (or at least she'll probably know).

We are sitting in beautiful terminal 25 waiting to board. There is a separate waiting area for concierge class. It looks like we may have priority embarkation behind suite guests. The sea pass card is at your room on this ship and they encourage you to drop off your carry on luggage and pick up your card. Expedited check in was super quick. It took less than five minutes to checkin and get through security. There was a separate line including security screening for expedited guests. We boarded about 10 minutes to 11:00 and we are exploring the ship. Lots of cool features to share with you.

Only a couple? I think I asked for a couple of couples. My record is 8 tails. The waiter stopped serving them one at a time with all the sides and fancy plating. He just brought out 3-4 at a time. LOL

My wife initially suggested this cruise about 10 months ago kind of half joking because the kids would be back in school and the price was really good and there was a promotion that included 4 perks (tips, premium drink package, internet and an OBC). Well I called her bluff and we ended up booking this cruise a couple of days later with Michelle from MEI. It is on Equinox, a five night cruise departing from Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale). It ports in Cozumel and then Key West on the way back. We booked a concierge class balcony room. Since we live in the Orlando area we decided to drive down the day before to a hotel we booked so we could be on the ship as early as possible without having the stress of driving down in the early morning hours. Anyway, I plan on sharing photos and a description of what we did each day and am open to any questions about the cruise or ship. More info to follow.

I'm excited for you! Love the picture of that deck - I spent a ton of time out there. We had breakfast there several times!

That isn't quite true. They grandfathered existing bookings in if you prepaid your gratuities. If you waited until the cruise began and allowed the gratuities to be charged to your sea pass account your were charged the new rate. So if you wanted to use on-board credit to pay your gratuities you were charged the higher rate.

Thanks y'all. Now I'm hungry.

Hmmm...you happened to pick both a ship and departure port that I’ve never been on/to ! ...but in general, make sure you have your paperwork in order....you Set Sail Pass, luggage tags and passport. Get to the port early (10 -10:30 AM). That’s about all you can do, really. Good luck !

Thank you. Looking forward to more cruises when I retire July 2021.

My first visit was on Harmony in June 2019. There were 6 of us, my wife and kids plus my parents. We splurged for a Oasis Pool Cabana and it was $499. We used our onboard credit to cover some of it. It was a great hangout spot, but not sure I’d pay again. I did purchase two water park tickets for me and my son, they were $74.99 each. We went down the big slide after almost a 2 hour wait. We got there about 30-45 min after docking. After that we went to the Cabana and never came back. It was my fault for not going back later and doing some of the other slides, but my son got busy with other activities.

As long as the final payment date has not passed, you can cancel or transfer the booking without penalty. If the final payment date has passed, there will be a cancellation penalty that is not recoverable. If Royal cancels then all of these cancellation fees are waived but in the absence of official cancellation, the penalties are in effect. This is for North American booking rules. Other regions have different rules.

Celebrity does not do dynamic pricing like Royal does. The drink package is the same price no matter what sailing, which ship, on every date. That being said...I have experienced sales on said drink package. For our Summit sailing last October, we booked a resident rate which came with no perks. At the same time, the premium drink package was discounted to $34.50 a day. We couldn't afford it at the time, so we did not book it. Our status recpricoty (sp?) make us Elite, so we knew we had free drinks for a couple hours most evenings, could bring two bottles of wine, plus Celebrity gives out free drinks everywhere, so we weren't concerned about not having the drink package. About a week before our sailing, we got an offer for a BOGO premium drink package; so we got it for $34.50 each! By then we could afford it so we grabbed it right up. Definitely the right choice as we spent every afternoon camped out at the martini bar. ?

Going ashore on a late-December cruise, water was sold for to departure for $2.36 (including tip).

I seem to forget about time until were around day 3 or 4 and then it all of a sudden time speeds up way to fast.

I went last July on the Serenade of the Seas. St. Petersburg is very safe. As you mentioned you either need to obtain your own Visa or go on a government sanctioned tours that do not require a visa (99% of our sailing did the tours!). The port has had a very recent renovation and is very modern and safe. You are a short drive from the city but every tour bus I saw and went in was very modern. I didn't notice any speeding or unsafe driving. There are plenty of shops at the port for souvenirs and most of the major sites will accept credit cards. I would check with your own bank for any possible fees or restrictions. We took cash to avoid any potential problems or fees. Let me know if you have any other questions

This is actually not fact. Your "recyclable" plastic used to get sent over to China where it was turned into various other products like benches etc. Due to China closing those doors your only recyclable containers that are sometimes used anymore are registered as 1 and 2. Sometimes 5. But your 3-4, and 6-7 are put into a landfill. If your worried about cost in regards to a water container, maybe consider drinking tap water instead? I mean, let's look at Coca Cola. They are the number one polluter of plastic in the world due to people buying plastic bottles. You have an ocean full of plastic and you're worried about a few cents? In essence, most of your plastic ends up in a landfill, which in turn drifts downstream into the ocean. Then ends up in the food chain.

No raisins in the apple pie. That’s why I enjoyed it so much. They let the apples be the highlight of the pie. RC ruins it with raisins.

Umm, nope. Have not been so fortunate. Usually, it's the other way around. It feels like it goes by way too fast!

Thank you for this lovely telling of your cruises. Makes me really want to go on one of these too now.

Celebrity does indeed have a Cruise Planner, and that’s its name. ? Being part of the Royal line, and sharing the same IT team, I guess they decided to save some programming effort and just keep the names the same. ? I can’t say that I’ve seen any sales at all on the drink packages with Celebrity so far; Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s... None of them have triggered a price drop of any significance. Classic package is normally $59 per night per person (plus 20% gratuity charge), Premium is normally $69 pp/pn + grats. I think with their current year-end sale it’s actually down a little bit, like $10 pp pn, but it’s still ludicrously expensive for a 14-night trip. Non-alcoholic packages are also pricey, at $22 pp pn for the premium version that includes sparkling water, fresh and bottled juices, etc. If you take the “all four perks” option with the cabin booking, that includes an upgrade from Classic to Premium beverage package for a couple hundred bucks (at least with my sailing; probably different for shorter sailings). Maybe see how that works out?

Welcome to the message boards! I would think the app would still display the blood sugar levels but it would not get sent over the internet to your HCP or doctor until it reconnected to the internet. Honestly it's not something I've thought about. Here in Colorado when I go skiing or camping our phones often have no internet for days because there is no coverage in the mountains away from the interstate. Is that scenario a show stopper for you? It's an interesting situation. I guess we have become so reliant on technology and the internet that now our very healthcare for some people depends on it. That honestly scares me a little because the internet is best effort and never guaranteed all of the time. It's also a interesting social issue. Internet is usually not free. You have to pay for a cell phone data plan to be connected to the internet for example. Some public libraries offer truly free internet although taxpayers pay for it in the end. Most of us pay for it in our homes. As I think more about medical devices and the internet it raises a lot of questions. Should health insurance pay for the internet so medical devices can be connected in our homes for example. If you are on a 20 hour flight should the airline be required to offer medical connectivity? Some airlines don't offer internet. I enjoy these exercises because it makes you stop and think where our society is going and how reliant on the internet we are all becoming (and in technology in general). So different from just 10 years ago. That dependency also makes us vulnerable to attacks. One hundred years from now will we all be so dependent on internet connectivity that our quality of life is in jeopardy when we aren't connected? Interesting topic. Cruise lines can refuse to allow guests with extreme medical needs from boarding. At what point will a cruise line have to determine that a medical device that must be connected to the internet cannot be accommodated because they can't guarantee satellite internet 100% of the time? No one can guarantee internet connectivity, not on land and certainly not at sea. So many sides to the story. Please let us know how Royal responds.

Be prepared with lots of seasickness meds for the ferry ride from Cozumel to the mainland. It's very choppy.

We made it to the hotel and got checked in a little before the official check in time of 3:00. The hotel is similar to some Embassy Suites that I have stayed in. The rooms are around a courtyard lobby that has some nice fountains. The rooms have a kitchenette and desk area in the front with the bathroom in the middle and the bedroom in the back. Our room is overlooking the pool area. The rooms are fairly simple in their decor and furnishings. There seems to be mostly stucco type walls as opposed to drywall. Brunch at First Watch near the Orlando airport was a while ago. I had a really nice breakfast burrito that was on the seasonal menu. We had some fish and chips from the bar to hold us over until we go to La Bamba for dinner.

Wow! @KristiZ what an awesome blog! I really felt like I got a chance to sneak a peek at a ship that I now really want to sail but probably won't have the chance to. And those two restaurants that are exclusive to Spectrum, I would love to eat there! Maybe one day...

Which I dislike, I don't want all the other fixings each time after the first time, just bring me a few tails on a plate.

Yes, you should have lobster night on the last (2nd) "formal" evening of the cruise in the MDR (complimentary). It's usually the last sea day that is not the last evening of the cruise. You only pay extra for lobster if you order a whole Maine lobster (on any evening) which is $29.95 extra. ... and you can have as many as your heart desires... our group had 3-4 tails each and a friend of mine that sailed on Harmony told me someone next to him was on his 11th tail! Our waiter kept asking if we would like more and we had to cut HIM off! ? It's not Maine lobster, but we thoroughly enjoyed it! Here is the menu for the 2nd formal evening (Allure, last May)... the menu tends to be consistent across the fleet especially if it's in the same region (eg. Caribbean vs. Mediterranean itinerary):

We are now 6 sleeps from boarding. Yesterday I got mani-pedi. Packing today as well as Family Christmas. IMG_0132.MOV

For my trip the water park is going for $131.99. I feel like that is a lot to spend. In comparison I could get tickets for Disney World cheaper with more things to do. So, to me that price for the water park seem excessive.

I agree, prices are quite high for things on Coco Cay. When I was there in September we got lucky and booked a chill island cabana for a reasonable cost. A few weeks later they were 1000usd. Everything else went up too. A few weeks prior to the cruise, prices dropped dramatically. I am on the Odyssey Inaugural sailing and prices are high for everything. Interestingly, water park cabanas are 1/2 the cost of all the other cabanas right now. Coco Beach club cabanas are insane money. I think as long as people actually pay these prices Royal will keep them there. Prices will drop when people stop paying them (though, I doubt people will stop)

RCBlog group cruises are fun. There are a lot of adult activities, we sometimes have cake, we definitely have booze, we also play Jenga and do shots, and try to get the pub singer to hate us. And as an added bonus you get to hang with the Cookingyo family. Well worth the price of admission to a group cruise. ???

Actual conversation on our aft balcony : Are you seriously drinking champagne and eating grapes right now? Yes. Life is very hard for me. Which one is that? The Moet. Want to try it? Yes....... Tastes like a Brut. Did you say that because that's the only kind of champagne you know? Yes. I wanted to sound smart. What did you think of it? It was smooth. I mean, not as smooth as my Coors Lite. BTW, do you remember singing along to the guitar player last night? No. And I'd like to offer a blanket apology to anyone in the Pub with us. Sorry.