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I think I read that he has a home in Miami. Wonder how he is holding up, spending so much time on land. Another observation: With how DANGEROUS ive been reading cruise ships inherently are, its amazing he survived living on a ship for so long. Maybe someone should look into that conspiracy.....?

Out of wine and beer. Had to break out the emergency bottle, even though it's a bit warm for this... .

Wait. What? @Matt endorsing CK? That's it. I'm done. Mission complete. I've now seen everything that's possible to see.

I think the $18 DX intern is back... and looking for retribution.

I've been away from cruising so long now, that I'm ready to hop on a Sabrina CK extravaganza if it means cruising again!!

If he was with you he'd probably wear a tux with tails and a monocle to coastal kitchen.

Watch out for the checked bag fee! ???

Lol exactly. He’s also an overweight smoker and seems to be just fine.

Why did the cowboy decide to adopt a dachshund? He wanted to get a long little doggie.

@JLMoran Wow, I remember Rumple Minz. Used to drink that in college because it would "do the trick" and give us minty breath!

My Jan 2021 cruise on Navigator finally loaded beverage packages in the cruise planner today at a whopping $89/day! The booze/voom combo is wild. ? Make that money Royal!

I agree with this. We have a June flight on a Friday that was cancelled. The airline automatically switched us to Thursday which we can make work. It led me to check their schedule to see how expensive our Thursday flight is on the airline's website. The cost of the new flight is... wait for it............. $11. That's right and $11 fare, Indy to Orlando in June.

This! I will raise a glass with you there. 6ft away of course ?

@bobroo Actually for my Master degree thesis that was part of the thesis. It was a study not on the cruise industry, but the airline industry. I did this in 99. It was a thesis about how SWA differed from the traditional airlines like United, AA and Delta. The three key components of differentiation at that time were: SWA purchased fuel at least 6 months out; operated 1 specific airframe and flew in/out of unique airports. In the end my thesis stated that SWA would become the model of the future for the airline industry. Interesting that you can see the same for cruise lines, especially RCL Traditional airlines at that time were buying 6 months out also for their projected needs, however SWA purchased more than they needed if the price was low, so if the price went up they had a cushion from fuel costs and could pass that savings along to their passengers. Whereas, the big guys now had to purchase at the higher cost, in turn, the passenger cost flying with them went up. Passengers decided to go to SWA' Now if RCL does buy fuel on the cheap right now, even though they spent more capital, they will be able in 9 months from now to keep sailing with lower costs compared to, let's say NCL or CCL. If they are smart and pass the costs along to the cruisers, than they get a bigger hold on the market in the future. SWA only operates 1 airframe. There are multiple reasons for this. Just like the bridge crew and maintenance officers on a ship, having only 1 airframe meant they lowered operating costs, especially from a training aspect. Same airframe = same parts. Same airframe = employees, be it mechanics or pilots could work on every plane. A 737 is different than a 767. A pilot or a mechanic can not just jump from 1 to another without additional training/certification. Look at RCL right now, they are getting rid of their smaller older ships, albeit they are very profitable, they are taking the sale of those ships and investing in larger ones. You could take the Captain of Celebrity Edge and throw her on as the Captain of Harmony with ease. Same with the engineers. That equates to lower operational costs due to training. Same is true for parts and upgrading systems. Little known fact about airlines, the gates at the airport are "leased". The reason SWA flies into Love Field and not DFW is because all of the gates were leased. Love Field is close to DFW. BWI is their hub in the DC area. The lease cost is lower. Just a thought, but this also may be why the company is spending capital to build all of their new private islands. The cost maybe high, but in the end, they are saving costs from a port tax/fee. Plus, nobody else can sail there. Both NCL and DCL prior to this announced they were going to expand their private islands. Why? Because of the success of Coco Cay. They are now playing catch up. RCL now is dropping $$$$ in Bahama to create their own version of a beach excursion, instead of having to pay for an Atlantis excursion. The only question that lingers for me in that situation, is tax implications for them. Do they now get a tax break, aka lower port fees for the passengers bc the company now physically owns land in Bahama? Regardless, to me it is a smart decision fiscally, bc Bahama is no longer a go to location, and many cruisers tend to now not get off the ship. Having their "private beach" on Bahama may mean this is the 1st sign of a new design for cruising. Hop on hop off. IE build a hotel there. Fly into Bahama hang there for 3 days at their hotel/beach, get on Navigator for a 3 night cruise and come back to Bahama. Makes even more sense since Bahama has agreed to upgrade their port. See above...NCL and DCL are again behind the 8 ball. Their $$$ is tied up in competing against Perfect Day. Part of me thinks they are taking a page out of DCL's playbook. IE many passengers do a 3 night at Disney World and a 4 night cruise as a 7 night bundled package. Now let's be real, RCL will always have the smaller ships in their inventory. Baltimore is a money maker for them, but due to the bridges, they can never have an Anthem sail out of there. Plus, there will always be passengers that do not want that "big ship" feel. Now after this novella, here is my question.... will RCL in the next few yrs become a pioneer again regarding ship size? I mean, do they start building a new Lady G or Enchantment so they can sail out of smaller ports like New Orleans, Charleston, or Baltimore. If they do CCL is in trouble. Look at Baltimore it is only RCL and CCL. If they build a brand new ship with the bells and whistles, but small feeling Carnival Pride does not stand a chance. Once again, CCL is caught behind the 8 ball. Tie it all back up and if RCL used this credit line to purchase fuel at a larger amount than they need, than that money later on will go back into their future. The lower fuel costs can go back into building their new private islands = lower port fees = lower sailing costs = the ability to build new ships. Thanks for reading this, and yes, that was the defense of my thesis for why SWA was a better investment than the big boys.

Just checked my cruise planner for 2 rooms booked for November, we got $50 a room.

Anyone think all of the travel industry isn't going to be offering crazy good rates coming out of this? June 4, Indianapolis to Orlando on Frontier Airlines is $11.

Just got an email from Club Royale saying that everyone’s casino status has been extended until March 31, 2022. It also states that if your “free” cruise was cancelled or you were otherwise unable to take it, you now have until March 31; 2021 to use it. Great news all around. First good cruise news I’ve had in weeks !

This isolation bug has gotten the best of me. This makes three cruises booked in the last three weeks. please add me to Harmony of the Seas August 16th 2020.

Dear Club Royale Member, We hope that this message finds you and your family well. The world truly is going through an unprecedented time, and we have all felt the impact of our decision to pause all global sailings. As we continue to evaluate what’s next, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to the cruise industry, and we have been diligently working through how all of this impacts our fleet, crew and staff, and of course you — our Club Royale guests. It means so much to us that many of you have reached out, eagerly awaiting your next offer or looking to rebook your impacted vacation. You want to get back onboard soon — just as much as we do. We are so thankful for your loyalty to Club Royale and we want to show our appreciation by sharing a few key updates we’ve made to the program, so you can enjoy your benefits even longer. 2019 & 2020 TIER STATUS EXTENSION. All Club Royale members will receive an extension of their 2020 tier status through March 31, 2022. Additionally, members who were in jeopardy of losing their tier status on the recent April 1, 2020 renewal date will receive an extension on their status through March 31, 2022. This means you will enjoy all your benefits and perks for the next 24 months. ANNUAL CRUISE BENEFIT. Any members who were not able to take advantage of their 2019 annual complimentary cruise benefit will be able to redeem it through March 31, 2021. CRUISE OFFERS. We remain committed to extending our cruise offers to you, and our Casino Representatives are here to assist whenever you are ready and able to travel once again. As part of the Royal Caribbean and Club Royale family, our Casino Representatives are available at 888-561-2234 to support and assist with any questions or concerns you may have. Or you can visit ClubRoyaleOffers.com and enter your Crown & Anchor Society number to view your current available offers. Please keep in touch and we look forward to welcoming you back onboard. Sincerely, Club Royale

See? This board is a veritable mine of highly specific and useful information.

I had this exact situation with my 3/15 Oasis sailing. I learned that Royal will apply the OBC from the cancelled sailing to a new sailing. If you contact rewards (888-305-4626) with the cancelled reservation number and the new reservation number they will make the transfer. Additionally, they told me that this applies to any NextCruise OBC from the cancelled cruise also.

Love all the "cheers" photos, @coneyraven!!!!

But it's Frontier. Ugh. I've flown them before, once, then said never again.

Maybe I can sublet part of my April 24, 2022 villa to the Hochberg clan ?

That Star Loft is a fluke. They are both gone. I have one and my friend has the other. I don't know why it keeps showing up. And hello?! We keep telling you to get on that sailing!

Sounds like it’s time for Matt’s first star class liveblog. Are you thinking Villa Suite, Star loft, or Aquatheater?

Never tried Rumple, but during my college nights we would drink Bud Light chased down with shots of Peppermint Schnapps...thank goodness social media wasn't around back in the 80s! ?

I apologize if people who aren't on Facebook can't see this - I haven't found the YouTube link yet (if there even is one). I'm not crying, you're crying.

You'll be in my thoughts this evening. I hope you'll be doing a supply run tomorrow.

Here’s what I saw

I'm based in Palm Beach but most of my work takes place at West End, Grand Bahama. Chub Cay between Nassau and Coco Cay, in the Berry Islands) is another favorite haunt. Then the little island of Bimini has served as a second home for years.. Walkers Cay at the north end of Abacos will reopen this year and if I can find a ride I will be there... I migrate from Bahamas to New Jersey also chasing sea serpents. My cancelled Indy that I should be on now resulted in a booking on Oasis out of that Jersey end of things. Hope that one goes.. If not It's simple. I will book again also for near future... Side note... They have really clamped down on their curfews and lock down... This one will be revisited 4/14.

Why did Johnny eat his homework? The teacher told him it was a piece of cake!

Day four now has us in Jamaica. ***Let me just note one thing. As the title of this blog infers, it is in fact not live (SpOiLeR!!!). So as I write this, I am (was) watching love at sea (started piecing this recap together on Saturday night). So, for your own quarantine pleasure, please just picture a 28 year old guy on his couch at 11:30pm on a Saturday watching a hallmark movie. Ok, now back to our regular scheduled programming. So for Jamaica, we originally had nothing booked. Leading up to the cruise I was looking at a bunch of different excursions both through Royal and external. Truth be told, I would have loved to have done the all of major excursions: Dunns River Falls, The Blue Hole, etc. But at the end of the day, the price was not worth it based on the the travel time and knowing how big of attractions they are based (there were three other ships in port - including Ocho Rios) We figured to skip getting off the ship. Now for those people that know me and Rebecca, that is a big no no. I know for a lot of people, the ship is the destination. And it is for us, but we truly believe that if we are going to wake up one day in a new country, we want to say we at least saw something other than the port. So eventually we found a pretty cheap beach excursion through Royal on day one so we booked it. That morning, the alarm goes off. Almost made it to sunrise yoga (jk lol). And when I say sunrise yoga, I mean the Solarium Cafe for breakfast (by myself). After my solo food excursion, I went back to the room, armed with a latte, frosted mini wheats and a mixed fruit cup (cue the "Awwww, what a good fiance") ?. Once back at the room, we got ready and headed out to disembark on our beach excursion. Once we get off the ship we head to our meeting area. Long story short (and kind of what we expected), it was organized chaos. But given we knew that most beaches near the port needed to be part of the group we sucked it up. The beach club over all was not bad, it just was not great. We still had fun and enjoyed the the whole environment. You could just tell that it was cash cow tourist trap. Oh well. So we probably left the beach around 130 to head back to the port. Once back in port we shopped around (the Falmouth port is actually the best ship ship port we have been to - I know I am not saying anything astronomically enlightening). After walking around we decide to head back to the ship. But literally as we are about to walk through the cruise ship entrance, I see a sign that caught my attention. Margaritaville - Free Pool and & Wifi ?. I point it out to Rebecca, who like me, was a little ashamed to mention it. But we both were not ready to head back so we made a u-turn and headed to say hi to Jimmy. The entire complex was actually pretty nice. It was like a Margaritaville built within a pool resort. There was a massive pool with water a water fall, swim up bar and a massive hot-tub in the shape of a margarita glass. It was essentially a slightly (key word, slightly) classier version of a spring break pool party... which for us was just hilarious. I am not proud to say this, but if Jamaica is ever on our itinerary again, we are skipping the excursions... and I think you know where you will be able to fine me. So we ended up spending a few hours just lounging around and then decided to head back to the boat (and good thing we did). As we were going through port security a huge thunderstorm rolled through essentially closing the gangway. We actually were right about to walk onto the pier and into the ship but decided to hold back to not get drenched. After about 20 minutes we were allowed to board. **The pic are the doors leading out to the gangway where we got stopped right before the storm. Kinda pointless pic but trying to give the people a visual. When we got on board we headed to Izumi to see if they had any open reservations for Hibachi that night, and luckily for us, they had two spots! So with dinner reservations secured, we went back up to the Solarium and did some more soaking in the hot tubs and hitting up the slides which were particular nice to get a great view of the island and sunset as we sailed away. As creatures of habit, we then headed back to the room to get cleaned up. After changing we decided to head to the schooner bar to take in some music and good conversation before heading to dinner. For the dinner itself, it was delicious and fun time as expected (below is proof of my unprecedented athleticism on display... catching a diced pieced of chicken on the fly). Our table mates for hibachi were all great (two other couples). After dinner, we had some time to kill before the ice show we had booked so I am sure we just ventured around the ship. The ice show, which was the first time ever seeing on any ship, was terrific. After the aqua show, this was our next favorite. You might be wondering why we have never seen it before? Well to be honest, if it wasn't for reading other peoples reviews, we probably would have skipped it again. I know, I know. We are idiots. Literally, even reading the most negative and terrible reviews on cruise critic (I am sorry, it is a guilty pleasure), people would somehow muster enough props saying the show passed their extravagant expectations and needs. So this time we were determined to give it a try. And hand up, it was less Rebecca and more me wanting to skip. Rebecca is very much go with the flow. So this is all on me. Anyway the show was overly entertaining and quite funny, especially with those adorable little ducks. For those that do not know, the ice show is all based on different Hans Christian Andersen stories. I am by no means a playwright reviewer nor am I going to try to be. So I will it at Royal did great job putting together a wonder show. Would highly recommend, and yes... I will never skip the ice show again. After the show it was back to our normal nightly routine of meandering to all the different venues (jazz on 4 was especially ?tonight). I might add, if anyone was wondering on my nightly roulette spins... 22 black and me are now back on speaking terms. And his friends, 0 & 00... great guys. May invite them to the wedding. After quitting while I was ahead (and getting the evil eye from Rebecca), we headed back up to the Globe and Atlas to chat with Rudy a little more before turning in for the night. Tomorrow is a sea day. Will Rebecca have breakfast with me? Will my Vitality Spa haircut make me look like Ryan Reynolds? I guess you will just have to click back in 1-2 days when I finally get around to writing about it!

A giraffe staggers into a bar and a moment later collapses, dead. A minute later, a guy walks in and says, "Oy! What's this lyin' on the floor?" Bartender looks over and says, "That's not a lion, it's a giraffe!"

This was inventory on March 20th. Tomorrow at lunch I'll be making a supply run. Who needs toilet paper.

@monctonguy The thing is this is a cruise forum, but trust me, the entire hospitality industry will be hit just as hard, or harder, in my post I am talking about the airline industry since it is a close example of the cruise industry. Read me out. My husband is a retired AF flier, many of our close friends are pilots for airlines (Commercial, FedEx, UPS) My DS is a pilot. Airlines prior to this were recruiting so many pilots that USAF was giving a 25K yr bonus on top of their 10K flight pay to keep pilots and were still losing them at a 75% rate at the officers 10 yr point. These USAF pilots were actually taking a pay cut to fly for the airlines bc in the long run (5+ yrs) they would be making a lot more than that 35K they were being offered. My best friend's husband is a commercial pilot. His flight hours have been cut from 125 hrs to 70 a month. His airline pays them per flight/leg. That company is doing this just so they don't have to furlough anybody. AA today announced they are starting furloughs. Lufthansa has announced PERMANENT cuts. The thing to me is that I can see the cruise industry coming out of this faster than the airline/hotel industry. I can get to Baltimore, Cape Liberty, FLL without staying in a hotel, or taking a flight. I understand that is not true for everyone, but let's be real. If you live in Venice and want to go to Corfu, but not get in a flying tin can with 150 people, than a cruise is a great option. If you live in Texas and want to go to a beach destination, such as, Cozumel, than a balcony on a ship sounds better than a hotel. Same could be said for if you live in the UK. I would much rather jump on a ship that I drove to than get in an airplane. PS. I fly a lot. My husband and I just joked last night that a yr ago, we were in Madrid at this time. Came back flew to Alabama and TX in June. Flew to TX in July. Just saying no way no how will I fly b4 August at the earliest, get on a cruise ship in July, yep! Look at how clean they keep an airport the next time you are there. Have you ever seen someone wiping down the chairs by the gate after a flight leaves? Look at a cruise ship. Hands down cruise ships are cleaner, but than again it might be bc they constantly live under the fear of the Norovirus.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/cruise-ship/what-cdc-is-doing.html

Take a look at past cruise compassess here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass That should give you an idea if specialty dining was open on day 1.

Sob. Thank you for posting! I wish things were getting better instead of the other way around. I love the international crew. Our waiter last summer gave us his email address and invited us to his home for a visit. So many of the crew wish you well and are so kind and respectful every time you see them. The world gets a little smaller every time I take a cruise.

Speaking of prices, if anybody's interested in doing a Alaska cruise late in the season (if they go forward...please, let them go forward!), check out prices on August and September 2020 sailings!

More fun in Wonderland!

A little of the late, great Mitch Hedberg for you........ I bought some fake plants, but, I did not pretend to water them, so they died. I was at a friend's house and he asked me if I wanted a frozen banana. I said, "No, but, I want a regular banana later, so, yeah."

What do you call a sheep with a sword? A BAA-barian

When does a joke become a Dad Joke? When it becomes apparent.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a movement to mandate HEPA filters on cruise ships despite the statistics that show that the transmission of viruses and diseases is much more likely on land. The bottom line is if you act like an idiot and expose yourself, not wash your hands and take measures anywhere, you'll get sick.

This is great news ? if its from cabin to cabin via AC only then im just going stay in the bar 24/7 from now on.... ???

Chops dinner courtesy Empress of the Seas Bread: Crispy Goat Cheese Salad Grilled Black Peppered Bacon appetizer. Nine ounce filet. Some sides Ice Cream Sundae for dessert.