Leaderboard

Update - Since the listing on our VA house went “live” yesterday (Thursday), we decided it would be best just to skeedaddle and run away to western MD to visit my daughter and see her new house. For @coneyraven, they live in Garrett County in Oakland. I don’t know much more about the area except that it is beautiful out here in the sticks (meant lovingly). We watched a big (probably 8 point) buck with his deer-ladies grazing in their yard (5 acres). Simply beautiful. Of course, all Dan could talk about was shootIng them with a bow, but I avoided a philosophical confrontation on the subject. Back to the house. I am overwhelmed by the attraction the house has generated ! We have over 30 confirmed viewing appointments between Thursday and Saturday plus an open house on Sunday. Getting out of town was the RIGHT move. We did have 1 negative review (objection to the yard slope, which is legitimate) but everything else has been ragingly positive. I think we’re going to be very happy with the decision to sell now. Our Agent is very pleased. We told him to hold all offers until we get back. Don’t want to deal with that right now. I change my mind daily (even more often some days) about whether to accept the job offer I have and remain in VA until the FL house is ready or move straight away to FL. He keeps sweetening the job offer so it’s getting harder to decline so I outsmarted him (I hope). I sent him a list of all my cruise dates for the next year ! That should discourage him ! Lol Off to breakfast with the fam.

Maybe the fact it's phasing out is a signal we may see things spin up later in the year. Just a guess.

Dinner in CK on Allure last December... our last cruise before multiple cancellations... Here's hoping for more CK memories in 2021!!!

These recommendations are totally incomplete. No mention at all was made whether hiding rubber ducks would be allowed.

Standing orders are fine. It is easier to note this in an email to the Genie. I cannot stress how much each Genie is different. Be very careful while reading about the experience of others. Make sure that you give your Genie space to act creatively as well. Most Genies to send random snacks throughout the sailing but they can also be requested or denied (meaning just ask your Genie not to send them anymore) if you are not using them. I have said it before, and I say it again. SC is food overload. The idea of snacks delivered each day seems awesome at first, by the middle of the cruise, you might be turning them away lol. DO NOT CALL ROOM SERVICE IF YOU ARE SAILING SC! You could, but it is way faster calling or messaging your Genie. And the Genies will tell you that as well. They will arrange for food to be delivered from restaurants as well. Here's my #1 tip for blogging while sailing SC. You might have good intentions, but sailing SC is busy lol. I would try to blog, but take time to soak in all the experiences and moments that only the SC experience offers. Don't miss it all because you are trying to blog/vlog. It is truly a very unique sailing. Take the time to enjoy it as well.

*****UPDATE***** I purchased the duplicate birth certificate due to the information received from this strand within 5 days I had it! Now this morning, I just received an email from the Department of State (passport agency) that my daughters passport was complete and they were mailing it out. Targeted date to be here in Florida is 30 September 2020, I have to sign for it. I went to my local Post Office with her old passport book and completed her application on 27 August 2020, so lightening fast! Just wanted to update here on the time it took I think doing it before sailing resumed may have been the smart move. Thanks again for all the help with this one! FYI we were told at the Post office we would be lucky if we had it by the end of the year.

I really had no intention of using it but with pandemic and kids virtual schooling the school board took away vacation dates that would have been for one of our bookings. I researched other sailings that might work and gave them a call. I had a "favorite" in the list of potentials but figured "not in a million years". The agent read off the three most likely that would match up and then "Oh one more. Yes it qualifies" ! It was my dream trip. We locked it down. It cost me about $80 in extra taxes. But saved me over half of what I would have had to pay if I had tried to book without the L+S... If you are considering L+S don't let it get away without at least calling and seeing what you can come up with...

I dont think anyone can really answer that since it is all likely to be different when cruising resumes. Personally i wouldnt bother with it just for the boarding benefit, if the other perks are of value you to you then maybe thats the icing on the cake.

I agree with @MLH. I have found the only reliable (and easy) way to get orders is via the Genie. It has been my experience that the room service number is useless. I am almost never able to get through. Also concur that standing orders - particularly for Starbucks In the morning - is ship-dependent. Some will, some won’t. I almost always have to tell the Genie to STOP bringing food. We can never eat everything they bring and I hate wasting. If there’s something you know you want and will eat, bring it on ! But unsolicited random food deliveries are rarely consumed by us. The arrival day snack is standard. Let the Genie know beforehand what you want and they will get it if they can. Just keep in mind that most of the specialty restaurants are closed during boarding hours so extensive specialty restaurant items will probably not be possible.

Yes to standing orders. The Drink of the Day may be not as easy. We did have Starbucks delivered every morning on Harmony but were not allowed on Oasis, There are always a sushi and canape in the cabin. Sometimes they show up, but you never know when. We had standing orders everyday and ended up wasting a lot. I would give the genie a heads up the morning or evening before versus standing based on your acitivites for the day. I would have every thing go through the genie. They know the order takers and can stress the importance rather than ordering yourself and waiting a very long time.

I have only been on two cruises, last one was mid-2018 and was a repositioning Port Everglades to San Juan with stops in Nassau, St. Maarten, and St. Thomas. Ship was (if I remember) Freedom. This one is easy. Second full day, the first of two sea days between Nassau and St. Maarten, was rainy and very choppy. I'm not one to get motion sick, so I ended up having the pool to myself as, it seemed, all 4,000ish other passengers (including my wife) were staying in their rooms. Literally, I had the entire pool complex to myself, and I sat in the pool, sloshing back and forth with the waves, rain coming down, with a few drinks (hand over the top between sips to keep the rain from watering them down) and watching ChiveTV fail videos on the big screen for about two hours and laughing my ass off. Next day the pool deck was packed in the sun, but I will never forget those hours I had the entire pool to myself on a 4,000 passenger ship.

MMMMMM the mushroom soup was fantastic. ?

We obviously can't be certain what will happen post-COVID and what that means for check-in, but we were on HOTS in Port Canaveral in January of this year, DID NOT have the Key, and we were on the ship before 11 am. We got to the terminal just after 10 am(ish). We are "lowly" ? Gold C&A members, with nothing special one way or the other, and we were held up maybe 5 minutes for a few of the higher-up classes and some Suite guests to be lead on, and then we were sent right on, right along with some Key holders. I'd say for boarding purposes alone, the Key wouldn't provide that much benefit. Some of that would have to do with the time you arrive at the terminal too, because even if you had the Key, and say, showed up at 1 pm, and here I am Gold only, but showed up at 10 am, that obviously would impact it too. Maybe that changes post-COVID to give some extra Allure (pun intended) to the Key, but pre-COVID I'd say boarding was of no extra benefit, in my opinion.

? agree with @Lovetocruise2002on this. The food coma is real! It will come down to personal preference and how much time you spend in your stateroom. We stopped all food and beverage deliveries by day 3 of our cruise. We would return to a table full of watered down drinks and felt it was wasteful. We didn’t want to handcuff our genie’s creativity so we limited snack deliveries to those on our questionnaire and agreed to message drink requests when we knew we would be in our stateroom to receive them. Balancing the food overload is real! So pick your food choices wisely. LOL Do not call room service; call or message your genie. Be sure to include absolutely everything you want with your order including condiments and quantities. Do not assume they will include the basics such as condiments because in our experience they did not. I blogged on our first cruise with Royal and it was star class so definitely still new at this but agree with @Lovetocruise2002. As first time cruisers plus star class we wanted to do a lot of the ship board experiences and as a result were on the go a lot. If you blog my advice is to find a balance that works for you that still allows you to enjoy the SC experience.

Also concur with @Lovetocruise2002 She responded before I finished pecking !

Truth be told .... I didn't take that shot.... I have no idea who did so I'm unable to give photo credit. In fact, in that shot, we have a Celebrity ship and, I believe, a Norwegion, but, I do love it either way. It gives a great overview of what's where.

What percentage of the chairs had been grabbed by the chair hogs who never used them?

We loved everything about our sailing on Symphony last Sep 2019 from the time we embarked all the way through the disembarkation. As we walked off the ship our only regret was not booking a B2B. Luckily, we now have a B2B planned for Sep 21...we'll probably wish we booked a B2B2B when that trip ends, too.

Sail away on Symphony of the Seas from Miami, just realizing that I won't have contact with work for 7 wonderful nights and nothing to worry about, since I can't do anything about it. I refuse to access / pay for the internet service, just to decompress for a few days.

For what it's worth, I don't see them getting rid of the room service fee.

we are cruising on December 13

Per @Matt's article from earlier today, Royal Caribbean said this is just a reflection of the fact that so far there is no further extension of the global No Sail order.

I wasn't connecting to restart, but the migration of the 2.0 to the Celebrity app. As this is the first cruise window that's opened for us (that the app actually connects), it was cool to see the link to the muster video. The video was in Chinese which was entertaining.

That would be a great gesture. Allows those who aren't ready for more public dining settings a way to mitigate concerns.

I did mine by phone after researching as close to apples to apples. I found options that worked and they did as well. One was a dream option . I asked on that one and they granted my wish!

I believe that everyone is beyond ready to start cruising again.

Hopefully since the ball has started rolling we can start cruising again soon! I know that I am beyond ready for a cruise vacation!!!!

That’s yet to be determined but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

I personally would be more concerned about itinerary changes than ship changes. I know everybody has personal favorites when it comes to ships and it seems like the changes are between somewhat comparable ships. It's not like they are taking you of Brilliance and putting you on the SS Minnow! At least you're cruising, right?

Freedom of the Seas in 2010. It was my hubby and my honeymoon. We loved it so much but did not have an opportunity to go on another cruise until what was to be this October 2020. Due to obvious circumstances we will be going next year October. Cant wait!

Can't say I remember that...but I doubt many. The weather got bad overnight and was projected to remain bad, so I think most people assumed the pool deck was a wash for most of the day.

It is certainly terrible, no one can possibly argue that. But given the incubation period, it is highly unlikely she contracted it from the ship. The timing of this is really suspect given what's going on right now...

There are so many memories from our honeymoon this past January on Mariner! This was both our second cruise (he was 13 when his family did a Carnival cruise and I was a senior in college on Majesty)! We loved watching a movie on the pool deck while enjoying some drinks, we loved our jet ski excursion at Coca Cay and our sunset cruise at Nassau! We loved hanging out at the English Pub with our favorite bartender, Anthony as well as Schooners with Charlene! The best part (as cliché as it sounds) loved being together and being cut off from the real world! We were supposed to be making more memories in 3 days on Oasis and celebrating our 1st wedding anniversary but #rona had other plans ??! We are hoping to do the same cruise on Oasis next fall!

There are so many memories , if i have to pick one it would be going on our first RCL cruise on Oasis this past january . We drove from Ontario Canada . We left snow to go on this cruise , it was for my 60th birthday . My wife said pick your vacation .. I heard great things about Oasis prior to being amped , but wow what a ship . We did as much as we could on sail days and enjoyed the ports when we stopped . I enjoyed the the Escape room , the rock climbing wall , zip lining , wave rider , water slides , my wife did some of this as well but sometimes watched the crazy guy lol. I still rave about the food , and the shows especially the Aqua 80s show and the ice show .. they were all good but these stand out .. I will give my wife credit she did the zip line on the island laying down , she thought she was doing the one sitting down .. i believe that she will try it again .. The people you meet and the crew working here were all great .. one thought that i had going was how long of a wait in line to do the activities and i was amazed how quick it was to do anything ... We did not want to leave , we are hooked cannot wait to go again

For us, me especially, the last one we did was Harmony in late January and coming down from Maine, we appreciated the warmth and humidity! That first time stepping onto the ship, hearing the loud music, feeling the warmth on your face, knowing you don't have to shovel for 7 days, and then look for a bartender...it's a wonderful feeling! ? And on that particular sailing our daughter's birthday was our day in St. Maarten, so swimming and enjoying the ocean and beach with her, in that setting, was something I'll never forget. Too many memories to pick a best! Can't wait to make many more!

I barely recall :( I guess I would say snorkeling and walking around all of Coco Cay back in....le sigh...last November. And side sad note and word of caution, don't click on past cruises - your cancelled ones show up and make you weepy! My two are there for this year, hoping the third doesn't end up there as no points awarded ?

I'm not blaming the family at all, but what would lead them to this belief? Did they think they were sailing on Mayo Clinic of the Seas? "“We were always under the impression that the medical facilities and staff on a ship were world class and world leading."

It was a family cruise (Liberty of the Seas) with my grandson (4). He loved escargot - had it every night. He also loved waving the napkins at the final dinner in the MDR when all the staff starts their parade.

My last Bermuda sailing on Anthem, I got to see Joyce Kuo (lead guitarist for We Will Rock You) perform acoustic guitar in the Schooner Bar on our first night out. But the really memorable part was that I got to spend about 10 or 15 minutes after her set just chatting with her about her background in music, the experience of auditioning for WWRY and learning the music, and what it was like to be a performer on board. All from the context of my daughter being a musician (singer) and looking to find a career performing. She was so down to earth and friendly, and more than happy to talk about her career and offer tips to relay to my daughter. I felt bad when I realized how long I'd been talking with her when she needed to get to another performance that night.

Oh wow...my Freedom in August is down to $46 when converted from CAD. First time I've seen a cruise planner sale for this sailing. Not sure it's worth it though as it's a 5 day Bermuda cruise and we'll probably be off the ship for 2 of those days (or 1 day for sure).

Just don't leave your car jacked up on cinder blocks in the front yard.

L&S'd Dec 2020 on Allure to Dec 19,2021 on Oasis. Changed June 2021 on Anthem to June 26, 2021 on Symphony.

Please add 20 January 2022 Ovation

...and here I was about to welcome you to South Carolina....

Must have hired someone from Disney to set pricing

I’m a glutton for punishment. Booked Navigator for 1/1/21.

Lifted and Shifted: From: Harmony of the Seas (November 1, 2020) To: Harmony of the Seas (November 14, 2021)

Wife decided to add this one.

Mod... ban this creaton from the boards post haste!!