Leaderboard

The build-up. Counting down the days and obsessively checking the Cruise Planner to try and snag a good deal on something. Checking a gazillion excursion websites for each port in an effort to find the best ones. Reading and re-reading the live blogs for our chosen ship in the run-up to cruise day. It's hard to get excited and enjoy the thrill of planning when you can't be sure your cruise is even going to happen.

I miss CK!! ? I have to keep cooking dinner these days!

Just being away from the "real world"

So I have folks in my neighborhood (Harbor Inlet Neighborhood) in Fort Lauderdale that see the ships coming in and out on a daily basis and are fuming mad that “cruises are still operating”. Literally people so uninformed as to believe that cruises are coming into Fort Lauderdale and leaving with passengers. I’ve had to explain to my neighbors and friends that these people they see on the ships going out the inlet are in fact crew members not in uniform. Interesting to note we are seeing lots of ships come in for fuel & provisioning then heading back to anchor off shore.

I miss everything. The excitement of embarkation day, the first drink by the pool, getting to see our room for the first time, first night in the dining room, and so on. But one thing that particularly stands out for me is watching the sun go down, the stars come out, smelling the clean ocean air, and watching the wake drift lazily behind the ship. Such a calm and peaceful experience (for me anyway).

Under no circumstance should anyone book an aft balcony on any ship. As a service to all of mankind, when I cruise, I will think of the other person first and take the aft balcony off of someone else's hands. It's a heavy price for me as just one humble individual to pay, but someone's got to do it. TIC of course. Aft balconies are the bomb.

Wow, the above is the first post I’ve ever made that got all six possible reactions. RCLBlog achievement unlocked! ?

Hearing "welcome home" as I board

Well everything but that is not the real question. I love when you first enter the ship, first walk onto the ship, that to me is when vacation officially begins and this is my home for 7 days. God I love Royal Caribbean!

Other sites are reporting positive tests for Corona-virus amongst the crew on Oasis, let's hope they all have a speedy recovery and that Chris Wong is well back in the UK, scary times ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVHHMkz2Tz0&t=106s

We have an aft JS booked for Odyssey inaugural. It will be our first aft cabin. Sure hope we will be able to go!

We had 1388 this Past Christmas and 1390 for New Years on the Adventure. B2B

Now for the Izumi enthusiasts! Complimentary Edamame... Shrimp wonton soup... Pork gyoza dumplings... love gyoza! Snow crab California roll and Surf & Turf roll (I believe is the name)... yumm!

Perhaps some Jamie's from Anthem? Peperonata Bruschetta Simple Baked Lasagna:

Pre-dinner cocktails at the Champagne bar (sad its gone off Oasis), sitting on the balcony with a cup of coffee in the morning, hitting Sorentos 10-12x per day for a slice, basically everything!

I miss night one dinner & Jamies/Giovanni’s (early of course because I have 2 young kids). After dinner I usually hang out on the promenade with my family and get the kids tired & ready for bed. I really miss that first night in the casino Royale after the kids are in bed. It’s the simple things about cruising that make me happy. I really enjoy an early morning walk with a Starbucks coffee in hand and being one of only a few people out & about the ship. I am hoping this crisis is behind us by Thanksgiving because I have one heck of a great trip planned on Oasis of the seas!

No words needed ????

I miss watching the people, kids so tired they can´t hold their heads up, parents also. lol Breakfast on the open deck at the back of the windjammer on the Anthem. My wife makes crocheted snowflakes and gives them to crew members before christmas, the joy in their faces is a great gift, You are right the RCL crew is the best!

I'm not sure when Chris shot this video, but he posted it today... at the airport...

I miss the experiences, emotions and the feeling of nothing holding you back. I miss the RCL crew the most. Without them cruising would be uhmm blahs!

I simply miss the views of the open sea, at & just before twilight.

... I also miss that first tropical drink after lunch to kick off the cruise!

Everything except for the last day! If I had to pick one thing... definitely the moment after checking into your cabin and the unpacking is complete... realizing that your cruise is just about to begin and you're now ready to leave the cabin and explore the ship!

Meeting New People ?

At this point I miss just being excited about any of my future cruises. There are just too many unknowns.

Apart from all of the wonderful aspects of cruising, right now, I am missing the anticipation of the next trip. Even with upcoming cruises, the usual excitement is tempered knowing they may not happen. ???

No matter how late I stay up being an early riser on the ships is one of my favorite things too.

Just me, but I would do Brilliance over Rhapsody due to the size of the ship. However, the negative I find with the Brilliance is I don't like 4 night/5 day sailings, they're just too short.

That's me too! I also take so many photos at every port and just stare at the ship for a few moments before moving on for the day. Sometimes it drives my wife a little crazy, but she of course knows me! LOL!

Cruising is by far my favorite way to vacation. I will miss the build up/anticipation that builds as the time grows near. I will miss the vision of the ship for the first time as we pull into port and be in awe of its size. I will miss the first steps on the ship and the feeling of vacation. My wife makes fun of me, but I really will miss waking up early and watching the sunrise with a coffee at the back of the ship on the top deck then head to the gym. I could go on and on, but even though my sailing (May 24 on HOS) hasn't been canceled yet, and I'm sure it will, I am switching my sights to our April 2021 sailing on OOS.

I agree, when you step foot on the ship after walking up the gang way and a smiling face welcomes you aboard.

The link embedded in this email should work for any cruise in the latest phase. To avoid waiting on the phone to cancel, please click here and we will get the process started for you. https://rccloffer.questionpro.com/ This takes you a questionnaire where you enter ship and sail date and initiate the refund process.

Yes, I have seen they are mostly anchoring in the same area. They are probably enjoying their self isolation a lot more than we are.

I just made a new booking using the casino discount offer. As @michelle noticed, it looks like the gratuities for suites has gone up from $17.50 PP/PD to $19 PP/PD. Not sure if the other stateroom categories has gone up or not. It looks like there was a 38% discount on the upgrade. Not great but no worse than last year so that's a relief !! 2 years ago it would have been in the neighborhood of 60%. UGH

There's that pretty lady... Well before we get to the good stuff, figured I would mention the lead up heading to the terminal. We probably got up sometime around 730 and headed out for quick bite to eat and to grab some coffee. That was then followed by one last trip to CVS. At around 930/945 we decided to get an uber and head to the port. The hotel to the port it was probably about 10 minutes. Easy peasy. So like I mentioned above, from our first cruise to now, we have learned a bunch of useful tips, one of which is getting on the ship as soon as possible. But given we are mere peasants (low men on the cruising totem pole), I needed to figure out how to get ourselves on that ship ASAP. From past experiences of going out of Puerto Rico, it is pretty much organized chaos when you checkin. So we really had no issue just walking on the ship at whatever time we wanted previously. However, since this was our first time going out of what I would consider a 'legit' port, I was worried that they would be a little more strict with boarding times. So what would the logical thing be? You guessed it, just buy The Key! And now here is my review of the said 'Key' program. Was it worth it? Meh It was great for someone like me (crazy neurotic person) the peace of mind knowing that we could board right after the fancy star class people. So this was the main draw for me. Rebecca was thinking of getting the internet package just because she needed it to briefly check work emails in the morning to ensure the world was not going burn. So this was beneficial for her. The chops lunch was very nice (and tasty) but I would not say it was a huge selling point (*I am still a huge windjammer fat boy). Other than that we didn't really use the other perks. Rebecca dropped off one her smaller bags to be deliver to the room which I guess was nice. There were some (not a lot) set times for some activities like ice skating, flow rider, rock climbing, etc. But truth be told, we never needed the private times because we were able to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted without a huge wait. I think we used the "special seating" once for a show in the royal theater but other than that we had no issue getting seats (and typically in a better location). Overall we probably would not purchase it again. Like I said, for me getting the key was about getting on the ship early. Possibly, if we do a cruise in the future where you needed to tender to shore... but other than that we really did not see a need for it (unless Rebecca is being a party pooper and checking work emails again...tisk tisk). So all that said, we now arrive at the port. I must say, complete 180 from Puerto Rico. However, the traffic getting to the drop off point was a little congested. But after a mind-numbing 5 minute wait we were dropped off and headed up the escalators. From the curb to the waiting area it legit probably took 5 minutes. It helped that we had the key as we had our own little check in area and the customer service was quite enjoyable. But I will say even if we didn't have the key, the general public line was pretty much non-existent. And in addition to all of this, we had done pre-checkin so we flew through this entire process. So after that we get up the waiting area to board and it was probably 10:25. At 10:30 they make the announce that they are starting boarding and at 10:35 we are walking onto the promenade. *definitely helped we were cluelessly walking around right by the entrance doors when they made the announcement. Once we got on the ship and had our 'oh sheet' moment, we decided to get all of our un-fun business (reservation making) out of the way. Now this is probably the only 'negative' thing I will say this entire blog. Like I mentioned in the first post, we did the room upgrade. And this ended up being a slight pain in the butt as we tried to book our specialty dinning reservations. And to be honest, we weren't really frustrated, the same thing happened last year on Freedom. But what happened you may ask? We go and get in line at guest services... which is already packed (you can somewhat see in the pic above). While in line they have a few employees walking around seeing if they can help assist so you dont have to waste an hour of the first day of your cruise in line. We tell the crew member we are trying to make dinner reservations and they so kindly tell us we can leave the line and head to Izumi (n00b move on our part) and book our dinners for the week there. Awesome! So we get out line and head to Izumi which was perfect, no one was there and walked right up to the host stand. But here comes the problem. We tell them our room number but since we did room change, the old guests names were still appearing and tied to the room. Like I said, this happened on Freedom and the system seemed to not have been updated to change the rooms and room names. Because of that we could not book anything and had to go back to guest services to get the room situation sorted out. Annoying? Yeah, but TBH I didn't really care. I was more concerned with the boardwalk dog house running out of sausages before I could get there (did I say I was neurotic?). So we go back to guest services and wait in line. And wait some more. And a little more. But we finally get things sorted out (side note - is it just me or does it seem like when you stand in line at guest services that your issue only takes like 1 minute to resolve but everyone else seems to be a half hour effort?) So we head back to Izumi and book Giovanni's for that night, chops for Tuesday and 150 Central Park for Thursday. Once we wrapped that up, we confirmed our show times, MDR reservations and then got those key card bracelets (was not a huge fan - mine seemed to never work but Rebecca had no issue). Now with all the business settled we set out to explore the ship. But first I can confirm they did not run out of hot dogs. So in typical first day fashion we set out explored as much as we would. The boardwalk, Central Park, the pools, slides, etc. All while making sure we were picking up our jaws up off the floor around each turn. Of course needed to partake in some of the activities while the lines were short and just lounge around until we were hungry for our 'key' lunch... (*I am absolutely terrible at the surfing on the flow rider. When 10 year old girls and 65 year old grandpas show you up, you just avoid the embarrassment) At around 12:30 we decided to head to the MDR for lunch. Rebecca decided to take the abyss slide as a short cut while I decided to make a detour to el loco fresh to sample a chicken burrito (whoops). Lunch was very good. Uncrowded (we were towards the tail end of the key lunch crowd). I got the bronzino and Rebecca got the filet. Once we were done with lunch we decided to make our way to our room. And in a shocking turn of events we did not get lost and found our luggage down the hall! The room overall was very nice. No complaints on anything. And with having our luggage we were able to unpack and not have to worry about making a pit stop back at room until dinner time. After that we did some more exploring until the muster drill which had us meeting in the royal theater. Now, being the clever guy I am, I made sure that we sat at the end of the isle. Why is that you ask? Muster drill was at 330 and the sail away time was 4pm. Needed to make sure we high tailed it back up to the solarium to grab that prime real estate for sail away. So after the all clear we booked it out of seats and more or less sprinted up 6 flights of stairs of which Rebecca was not too thrilled about. But I think she then forgave me when she realized what I was doing... After making our way out into the Atlantic we pretty much just ventured around the pool some more, hit the hot tubs and enjoyed a pretty snazzy sunset. As the sun set Rebecca decided to head back to the room to begin getting ready. *As we go though this blog you will see a trend with our evening activity as Rebecca typically needs a hour head start getting ready for dinner... So while the cat was away the mouse played. I decided to give the flow rider another unsuccessful go, hit the slides (yes I crossed my arms and legs with my head back and if I got stuck I used my hands to scooch myself down) and maybe tested out the bionic bar. With dinner at 8 I decided it was probably best to get back to the room and shower. Before dinner we did a little more exploring of the boardwalk + playmakers and then took in the sights and sounds of central park while enjoying a glass of wine from Vintages. *Beware of those arcade games. The amount of times I just said, "oh just one swipe". Next thing I knew I was on my 10th game of quick shot basketball. And it showed on the last day bill and seeing a zillion $1 charges. (had to hide that bill from the mrs). Anyway Playmakers was very cool. We were a little skeptical as we are/were big Sabor people (and of their margaritas). But overall Playmakers is a great addition, especially as a bigs sports guys to watch the games. And of course Central Park was amazing. We think Royal tapped our phones prior to coming on because they put our room on the same deck as Central Park and it was just perfect. By far our favorite neighborhood. And we also love Vintages. On Freedom, you could always find us there before dinner. So it worked out perfectly that our favorite venue was now on our new favorite deck and we didnt even have to walk up or down a flight of stairs. While we sat in Central Park waiting for our reservation, we experienced our only time being up-sold on something (chefs table). To which we really didn't mind it. After politely declining we ended up having a great 15 minute convo with the cruise member as his last contract was just on Grandure. Now dinner. We lets just say after being in the restaurant for 5 minutes I knew I was in trouble. From the service to the food, everything was top notch. Definitely set the tone for the rest of the trip (and also made me have to undo a notch in my belt). I cannot remember exactly what we had, but it is safe to say we almost had the whole menu. I think Rebecca got the gnocchi, I got the shrimp and polenta. I think we also had the antipasta platter, bread basket, salads and possibly a meat dish to share. Who knows, I was practically in a food coma. After just sitting back and relaxing and having some great conversation with our waiter we decided to skip dessert. Or at least we tried. Our waitress decided that was not an option and actually had some small little samples come out just so we could try. And of course they were amazing. Leaving dinner Rebecca had that look in her eye of "I told you so" since I may have been a little grumpy prior to dinner that we were not doing our traditional first night dinner in the windjammer. However, I was proved wrong (again I am big enough to admit - although I hate admitting it) and now could not wait for Chops later in the week. As we waddled out of Central Park we made our way down to the boardwalk as we had the aqua show booked. With seats already reserved we made our into the theater and caught what was probably our favorite show of the trip. After the show we did some more exploring of the entertainment venues (music hall, jazz on four, karaoke, etc.). We are not big Aerosmith people so the cover band in the music hall was not our go to spot, but the venue overall is pretty cool. Karaoke was always a popular spot thus never got the chance to light up the floor doing my best Frankie Valli. But jazz on four was one of our favorite spots enjoying some of the most talented musicians we have seen/heard, enjoying a nice cocktail in a very unique setting. This place became a main staple each night for us. We finally made it back up to the promenade to catch the ballon drop, check out the pub all before heading down to the casino to finish out the night definitely not breaking even on the roulette table and then finally heading to Blaze to grab another drink and do some ridiculous dancing before calling it a night... but not before making a pizza stop on the way to the room

We're booked in an aft cabin on Adventure on a Baltic cruise next year, and cannot WAIT...

I just prefer the configuration with the Windjammer in the aft as opposed to it all the way forward. The Radiance class is really an elegant class of ships - smallish sleek and very classy. Lots of natural wood. The biggest reason that I don't prefer the Vision or smaller class ships is b/c we usually book suites and the suites on the small ships are all the way forward - inconvenient and subject to motion, IMO. I much prefer suites in the center of the ship which is why I rarely go above a JS on any of the Vision class ships. The cabin are also a bit larger on Radiance class vs Vision class. I know exactly what you mean about getting lost and having to backtrack. It used to happen to us all the time when we first started cruising. I think you get better at navigating the hallways once you have had to take the walk of shame a number of times. LOL That's another reason why cabins midship are more convenient....less distance to walk if you go the wrong way !! Your opinion is always important and as you cruise more, your experience will make your opinion even more valuable !!! I have been on over 40 cruises and while some have been better than others, I have never been on a bad cruise. The truth is, we have cruised more on Grandeur of the Seas than on any other Royal Caribbean ship and Grandeur is a Vision class ship....so I do not DISLIKE Vision class ships, I just prefer the Radiance class. The good news is....there is no wrong decision here ! Good luck

I had one directly under the Windjammer last December (Navigator). We never heard a thing from it. The only thing was they kept the music on up by the Flowrider all night long - we could only hear it if we went out onto the balcony, but it was on all night long.

He was posting his vlog on a 1 day delay while they had the suspension. Based on that timeline he would've left on the 23rd or 24th, arriving home on the 24th or 25th. My presumption is that he's in self-isolation now. Also, that shot of the sandwich section at Boots was very sad. I've never seen one that empty...

So far we re-booked on the Symphony for 6/6 but that may be too close to getting operations back in order! We had the Indy 4 night booked for Turkey day on 11/26, going to add the 7 night starting on 11/19 to make it a b2b.

Those were my thoughts exactly !

OK, now some dessert in the MDR (same Allure cruise)! Baked Alaska! Birthday cake... silly friends (wasn't my birthday)... embarassing! Royal's 50th Anniversary cake... Pavlova...

How about some breakfast, Empress style. Eggs Benedict:

I agree, like I'm perfect for hurricane season because to me the ship is the destination. I'm flexible and don't care where I end up. The only reason that doesn't work for me is going to Bermuda because it's one stop and you need time to explore otherwise it's really a loss because that's the only place you are going to. If you don't get time there then there really is nothing.

I assumed since they were told 125% that it meant 125% of fare only. Moral of the story.....never cancel. Make the cruise line cancel first.

+1 on this one too. ?

Thank you for doing this belated review. It is well needed right now. I love reading about how your love of cruising happened. You never know until you try it . Looking forward to hearing more. Congrats on your engagement.

Beef tenderloin and Lobster tails on formal nights in MDR (Allure, 5/2019)... Another French Onion Soup pic... ... here's a video I just stumbled upon that makes my mouth water and crave the next cruise! Overview of Symphony's food operation... $1 million weekly budget! Somewhat of an abbreviated version of the Mega Foods episode on Oasis... just under 8 minutes long.

French onion soup. Main dining Adventure of Seas.