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Singapore is not COVID free. They haven't eliminated COVID. There are new cases in Singapore everyday. Eleven new cases were announced today. There is no community spread from these cases because they are being caught as they enter the country and isolated. They are caught because of mandatory testing upon arriving. Despite the newly imported cases that have been occurring regularly since December in Singapore, there remains no cases on Quantum. Cruising in Singapore has occurred absent of a vaccine since vaccines just recently started entering the picture. Protocols plus a vaccine will make everything so much safer. As more vaccine is administered the overall risk of an outbreak decreases everyday. The number of vaccines administered today will be dwarfed by the numbers by May 1st. A positive case may still occur once cruising restarts just like Singapore is detecting new cases entering the country everyday. Here in the US if a positive person doesn't book a cruise and just goes about their routine they will be spreading the virus everywhere they go. On land there are no procedures to detect and isolate anyone who doesn't decide to go and get tested. They will continue to be a risk to the community unless they have a reason to get tested. Cruising will be that reason to get tested for anyone going on a cruise. If that same person books a cruise they will need to get tested. Ideally they test positive before going to the port but if they slip through the cracks and on board is where it's detected that they are positive that is actually helping society overall because they are isolated and contained. That would never happen if they were back on land going about their weekly routine. Every positive person who is detected because they are about to go on a cruise, or every person who is detected once on board lowers the risk for society in general. In this regard cruising will help reduce community spread because guests will be monitored and isolated if required just like community spread has been lowered in Singapore where positive cases are caught upon arriving. When you combine the vaccine with the protocols it is safe to resume cruising and it gets safer every day with more vaccines getting into more arms every day. It's coming folks. Cruises will be able to restart soon.

That's easier than you may think...

Usually I try to update at least once per week. You can always tell from the last "heart" reaction that I have given what point I got up to. @MuttMutthad a great suggestion a few posts ago to note on the Master List when the last update was so I have implemented that suggestion. If you go to the master list, you can see near the top (in purple) when the latest update was.

I agree with @twangster in his assessment. There is a lot of positive change coming, and I think we are on the precipice of many promises finally coming our way. The rollout of the vaccine, plummeting cases, very good news about its efficacy, and imminent information from the CDC for cruise lines all point to ships being able to sail again. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will be on a cruise ship as a paying guest by the end of 2021.

I getting really tired of seeing an adorable husky pup giving us so much pessimism! ? LOL!

You've thought about it, you've dreamt about it, you've researched it - Are you going to do something about it? Lets have a look and see what I did. Many Many Many years ago, my parents took the whole family on cruises around the south pacific. I still have a hand carved fisherman's sail boat model from Fiji with 1977 carved into the side. (Hmmm 43 years ago) Back then you could throw coins over the side of the ship when in port and the local would swim down and pick them up, how times have changed. We are addict's, all it took for me then was a taste 43 years ago and even to this day I love cruising !!!! I had wanted to cruise for a VERY long time and based on my professional responsibilities it just wasn't possible. My best friend and I had talked about taking a cruise for a very long time. And it took a long time for both of our schedules to be in line with each other so that we could take time off work to go on a cruise together. In August of 2019 on the celebrity reflection, my best friend and I (Including Families) took a 12 NIGHT SCANDINAVIA & RUSSIA CRUISE. Well like a junkie that has been clean for decades, my cruise addiction got what it needed and like a fresh blood transfusion "CRUISING" was back in my blood. Within a month of returning from Russia, I had booked a cruise for my family. The problem I had, was that it was going to be a surprise, a VERY BIG surprise and I could not tell them. Every chance I got, I was watching Royal Caribbean Blog, The Klaykowski's (AKA The ship show), Cruise tips TV, Tips for Travelers and on and on. "I LOVED IT". Some of it as silly as it sounds was over my head and not until now do I understand what and why they were saying things. If it was mentioned, I bought it. Magnetic Hooks, Highlighters, collapsible laundry hampers, first aid kits, dental kits, sunglasses, sunhats and the list goes on. If you recommended it I got it. My mother had died in January and I thought that it would be a great surprise for my father to go on a cruise with us. In short my father has become a home body and getting him to the cruise terminal in Sydney, let alone out of the house was a bigger task than I thought it was going to be. After three subtle attempts to see if I could get him to Sydney (Australia) to go to sea world, I accepted that he was simply content at home and that was OK. So how do you purchase all of these cruise must haves and not have anyone catch on to the fact that that's exactly what you are planning. EASY - You invent a cruise !!!! What I mean is, you let them know that you are planning a cruise sometime in the distant future but not when they expect it. At the time, we were in Hong Kong and I had told them that I have arranged a vacation at Sea World on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia). Everyone was happy we were going on a vacation. Problem was that the cruise I had planned was departing out of Sydney and Sea World is in another state, Queensland. Kind of like saying we were going to Orlando but needed to go via New York. When going to Australia we always flew into Sydney, so telling them that we would fly into Sydney spending a couple of days there and then flying to Brisbane did not draw any undue attention. The reason I used Sea World, was because they had already been there before and they knew what to expect. Because it is a resort it was easy to explain why they needed swimming paraphernalia, hats, sunglasses and so on. So how do you explain why they need cocktail dresses, evening wear, high heeled shoes and so on? I know - tell them that I have prepared a professional photo shoot. We need everyone looking their best so the family can have some lovely photo's to look back on. I had planned everything down to the most minuscule detail. I went to a photo store to laminate their boarding passes, I had their bag tags printed in color, I had personal lanyards made. I even bought them Samsung tablets (Not iPads) as a ruse to give them gifts that included their boarding passes in a bag. Being the genius that I am, I forgot where I hid the damn things before we left. Using some Sherlock Homes logic I worked out - now where would you hide those things if I were you. I FOUND THEM. Afterwards thinking what kind of an idiot would hide them there. Just think about planning a cruise months in advance and 1.) You cannot tell anyone and 2.) Getting them to pack for it. It's crazy !!! My wife though I was nut's, because I was watching her pack. I've never done this before, but she is a genius at packing. (Yes I got the CUBES) This was to ensure that she didn't forget anything (She did - no magnetic hooks or collapsible clothes hamper.) Who needs that stuff at sea world right. A small side note. We had a mini brake in Japan earlier in the year. We were staying at Universal Studios (Osaka) Japan and on one of our day trips went to Osaka Aquarium for the day. To get there you take a short ferry trip from universal to the aquarium. After the day at the aquarium, on the way back to our hotel. While we were on the return trip on the ferry, guess what ? We passed Spectrum of the Seas. I just wanted to explode, I just wanted to shout out and say "LOOK THATS WHAT YOU WILL BE ON AT XMAS" It took so much strength to keep my mouth shut, but I did and the surprise was still safe - so the story continues. We arrived in Sydney two days before the cruise, so we were in no rush. Qantas for the most part are very reliable, so I was not expecting any flight delays. I was able to upgrade of flight tickets so the surprise was just getting better and better. They didn't know about the business class seats either. When I mentioned that I had planned this down to the most minuscule detail I was not kidding. I had booked a hotel in Sydney that would require us to take a ferry into Circular Quay. Circular Quay is where the cruise ships dock in-between the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor bridge. This would have us pass the Ovation of the Seas before reaching the wharf. I had made sure that I had the current time table for the ferry, so that we would pass the ship just at the right time and subsequently we could board the ship at our predetermined boarding time. I don't know what time we went to bed the night before the BIG SURPRISE cruise, I was so paranoid about sleeping in and missing the ferry. Remember my wife and two daughters thought that we were going to Sydney airport from the hotel to fly to Brisbane. I'm so close at pulling this off. so so close. We had stayed at this hotel before and my wife new that we could get a reliable airport shuttle service. From the hotel to the wharf, where the ferry was to depart was about a 5 minute work downhill (A very steep downward hill) We had five large suitcases, backpacks, camera bags and nick knacks hanging off us. We looked like Sherpas taking guests belongings to the top of Everest. I'm so close, we were all struggling going down the hill with all of this luggage. My wife looks at me like you cheap bastard you could not even cough up enough money to get the airport shuttle. We are half an hour away from the greatest surprise ever and do I have to take this #$%@ from her. YES YOU DO! She doesn't know and I probably would have thought the same thing. We get to the wharf everything is on track, we are early for the ferry and we are almost there. One thing I have not mentioned is that this ferry is designed for commuters carrying either a hand bag or a brief case, not a family of four going away for two weeks on a cruise. In Australia everyone is quite nice and patient so like a worker bee I grab one bag put it on the ferry and run back and get another till we have everything onboard the ferry. Now I have to get the timing just right, as I had envisaged such a long time ago I was going to get this on film. How do I get them outside while I get their xmas gift bags ready? We will be passing the Sydney Opera house which is on the left hand side of the ferry and the Ovation of the Seas will be on the right hand side as we pull into the wharf. I ask my wife to take the girls out and get some shots with the Sydney opera house in the background, OK - no problem out they go. Every second counts now I have to get it just right. I get everything organized, all of the bags are in order and ready to be given out. I go out the back and ask them to stand on the opposite side of the ferry and this is what happened. When booking the cruise I figured this will be a one off and if I am going to do it I should go all out and give them a cruise that they will never forget. Hence the cost of the surprise, you only live once and life is here to be enjoyed and experienced to the fullest. Also when I booked it I planned for my father to be in our room as well so we needed a large room. We got a suite and every extra possible, the only thing I regret now is that I didn't know about STAR class. (SKY class sucks, it's like being a brides maid.) To follow up their surprise about finding out about the cruise, the next surprise was going to be seeing their room. The next video is of the family seeing their room for the first time. If you cannot smile while ,during or after this room (I cannot really call it a room tour) surprise you need to go take some happy pills. I hope that you have enjoyed this little adventure and trust that you can have as much fun in the future cruising as we had in the past. Just so that I could link these videos to this BLOG, I had to create a YouTube channel about half an hour ago. Nothing sexy to see, just life in the raw. Maybe I will be as creative as Matt and learn how to edit one day. Best Regards Rick I was also wrong about this cruise. I thought that it was going to be a one off - NO - I have four more cruises booked with more surprises to come.

Ok, this alone would creep me the frack out.

Let's see who understands tis one.?

I agree and optimistic that there will be some type of sailing from U.S. port but I HIGHLY doubt it that the entire fleet will be sailing. The earliest I see anything happening is around Labor Day and that's hoping that the CDC will soon get their act together.

You should know better than to trust Michael Poole with matches.

You could do that. I am not sure about the refund part as I have not come across that particular situation but money can be applied to an onboard account once on board. An alternative would to get them a gift certificate. My sister did this for me once back in 2019. She was not sailing with us but she knew that all I really wanted (other than to cruise) was a cabana. So a few months prior to the sailing, she called Royal and purchased a gift certificate for me to use towards the cabana. She didn't even have my reservation number, they were able to look it up with the information that she could provide. Once onboard, that money was already applied to my on board account.

Wait a minute Matt has to pay for his cruises?..

Look! A cute baby!

I know, right ?

I have cruise July 11-th. And I am hopping it will happened. Somebody is saying in the beginning it will be boring?! I say , nothing is boring for me on cruise . It is better then staying in any resort.

I was just thinking the same! ?

The good news is ... if they are in your cabin and you buy the drink package they are not required to also buy the drink package since they are not of ship drinking age. Normally everyone of drinking age in the same cabin must buy the drink package if anyone in the cabin does. That worked out well for me sailing with a 20 year old. Now that she is over 21 it's gotten more expensive every time we go to dinner at home.

In my experience if the price of the Royal excursion includes alcohol while on the excursion they implement their standard ship policy. My guess is they don't want hyper overreacting parents outraged at them for getting their kid drunk and falling down. Meanwhile if the same kids walk into a bar on the same island and gets drunk that's okay. I know it seems a double standard but you can thank all the social justice warriors for attacking the cruise line. If you pull out your wallet and buy them drinks, or they purchase their own drinks that's another matter. Royal didn't participate in the transaction that put alcohol into them so that tends to be okay. It's not like the local tour guide is going to run into the frame and stop the bartender from accepting your money. Excursions on sailing catamarans sometimes include beer or wine. On these excursions I am confident the tour operators were told not to allow under ship age drinking but it's possible the local tour operators may not enforce that with the same zeal that Royal does on the ship. YMMV.

I was near the forward elevator bank on Adventure. Almost right across the hall from it. The view from my cabin door: Noise never bothered me. There is always the chance of a boisterous group talking loudly going down the hall but that occurs down the entire length of the hall where ever that group is at that moment. One time on a Carnival ship there were elevator doors directly across the opening (where you see stairs in the picture above) and in that case I did hear people as they stood waiting for an elevator. On every Royal ship I have sailed that is not how they design their elevator lobbies so it has never been an issue. I love being close to this entrance to the elevator lobby because it's easy in and out.

I don't know, I think we're a week or so removed from the the technical guidance being released, and I truly expect it to be underwhelming relative to what RC's healthy sail panel is already recommending. The fact that the CDC asked for details about RC's tracelet reads to me like they're copying their homework so to speak. I think things will move relatively quickly from that point. Also, the CSO expires at the end of October... There will be mounting political pressure for things to go back to normal before the holidays, no matter what the experts are calling for (not saying that to discredit them, but the world doesn't exist in a test tube). It's possible we'll be a lot closer to normal, even though that seems so far off now.

That is true. I always read and don’t comment a lot so it’s interesting to see where people come down on the sides of COVID issues. I know my cruising days are over for awhile and have had three cruises cancelled thus far so my thirst for cruising has diminished. Hopefully that will change in the future but it will probably be years. I have to wear a mask all day at work, because that’s where my livelihood comes from, but wearing a mask on a cruise that I pay dearly for is not going to happen. I’ve already made plans to go to the SC beach’s for the next couple of years until this craziness has subsided. We shall see.

I figured either you or @JLMoran would be in the market; looks like I picked the right dude....errr, I mean bot!

The protocols work in Singapore where there is no Covid. Like giving birth control to an island of only women and saying it worked because no one fell pregnant.

"Not as great as advertised. No bar service. No Aqua Theater. No Pool. No Central Park. No restaurants. No Flow Rider. Crew was apathetic at best. One ."

Things that caught my ear on the call: 35,000 guests have sailed on Quantum since she started December cruises This includes more "new to cruise' over expectations. Some 80% of Singapore cruises are being booked by new to Royal. When a buyer for Empress and Majesty was identified the question about Cuba was asked. They believe there are ships in the fleet that could sail into Havana if Cuba becomes available again. A survey of past crew last week indicated a strong desire to return for the overwhelming majority and that 4,000 of around 70,000+ crew have already been vaccinated against COVID-19. When Grandeur was opened for bookings in Barbados they achieved a 25% load factor within the first few weeks. Plus consider Odyssey will soon join the fleet right when cruises in Europe may be allowed to restart for her. That has the potential to be great fantastic timing. Most importantly 35,000 guests have sailed Quantum without a single positive case. The protocols work. Even the CDC has to be impressed by that.

I've received an update to my programming. We've all grown accustomed to yet another round of bad news, more cancellations, etc. that it's hard to believe the light at the end of tunnel is actually a light and it's getting brighter... and no it's not a train about to slam into us. There will be more cancellations simply because the entire fleet won't start sailing on May 1st so don't confuse my optimism as a suggestion of only good news from now on. There will be small setbacks and cancellations for some cruises coming. If you close your eyes and squint ever so slightly there are signs that we are moving in the right direction. It won't be overnight and it will take time. I have lifted my "don't book any more cruises" policy and I am now booking cruises to hedge my bet. Some are refundable and most are short cruises initially. I am picking ships carefully, buying the dining package and drink package knowing lounges may be unavailable. I'm spacing cruises out to ensure more than two weeks between them but I can already smell the Playmakers Burger that's on its way to my seat at the bar.

Not really much to report. There is some kind of "tape" that was covering the incision site, and that's now started to come off on its own. Underneath, I can see what looks like a nicely healing incision. That's as descriptive as I'll get, to spare those with more sensitive constitutions. ? And we checked our daughter's bank account balance, to see how much see had actually saved up from work for the trip to Japan. She was thrilled to find out that even though she hasn't worked since February of last year, she was so aggressive with her savings during the time she was working that she has almost enough to pay for the whole thing! She had originally been saving up for a used car that she wanted to buy when she turned 18; but between learning about this program, and realizing that if she does move to Japan there would be no way to keep any car she bought, she decided when she applied that it was better to use the money for this. My wife and I will be paying the balance on the tuition along with her airfare, but she's done a great job of learning about saving, budgeting, and putting off some of those "instant gratification" purchases to be able to hit a longer-term goal. Oh, and we found out that 10% of the trip cost is being covered by the program operator through a merit grant thanks to her grades. Kudos, kiddo!

I forgot something in that last update. Our younger daughter (aka the artist, whose work I’ve shown in earlier live blogs) got her acceptance notice for the summer Japanese Language and Cultural Immersion program that she applied for nearly a year ago! Assuming she’s able to get vaccinated in time and nothing else comes along to muck things up, she’ll be spending 4 weeks with a host family in Kyoto from mid-July through mid-August. This is a huge deal for her. She’s been self-studying Japanese for almost a year now, and has been saving money from her part-time job to help pay for it (until her job was let go due to COVID-19 anyway). She hopes to live and work in Japan after college; she wants to get into character design for one of the smaller video game firms there. We’re really happy for her!

Why must you knock before opening the refrigerator door ? Because you wouldn’t want to catch the salad, dressing. ba-dump-bump

Booked Air2Sea. Fully refundable until final payment due date to go along with my refundable cruise fare. Air2Sea is $50 less than AA direct. El Cheapo airline offered through A2S is a charter airline that has terrible reviews and only BBB 1 star complaints. As much as i despise AA I think I'll pass on El Cheapo.

I read it to mean that the CDC wanted Royal to share what they have been doing to cruise safely, with them and the other lines. Much of this technology has already been patented and should be protected from theft. Most of what they are doing is not so technical that it could not be easily figured out by the other lines on thier own. Also, I think it would be naïve of us to think that the lines are not talking to each other behind the scenes about what has and has not been working. I work in IT, in a 'medium size city", but the IT section of the city is really small and we all know each other. You can bet that when there's a malware outbreak or something, that we are all chatting on the side about what was happening. Stay Safe.

Would love to see Florida try but Federal law supersedes State since Federal law is the controlling factor of U.S. boaders, ports and aviationn.

Oh I remember it. I just forgot about the freaky whatever that is. Actually, I think that is same sailing that Ken had the cabin that I just booked on Adventure.

I can't stress enough how important this is. I tried never to fly on embarkation day but when I did, I would always use Air2Sea for the air portion just to reduce the risk. IMO it is worth whatever small upcharge there may be with using A2S.

We had a boatload (see what I did there) of OBC that we didn't use on our cruise - we had to go to (gasp) guest services, although I suppose we could have gone to the concierge in the suite lounge, and got a form that we filled out to tip our Genie. I'm betting you could do the same with your onboard account.

I always agree that same day flights are a bad idea. However, when I called Air2Sea, it seems like the only decent flights available were same day. If I do in fact go (I have it booked), then I probably won't feel like I have much choice. I'll book it through Air2Sea and hope for the best. Royal guarantees you'll make your cruise, so at least it would fall on them to figure something out.

I believe it depends on which country/countries waters you are in. @WAAAYTOOO @twangster, correct me if I'm wrong.

This video may (or may not) help. It's from a Jr Suite on Deck 9 of Adventure. About halfway through the person steps out onto the balcony for a view from his perspective.

I've been updating this list since March 2019.

Confusion for sure! I know my may symphony will be cancelled so now looking at moving my deposit to October. We have odyssey in October out of Rome, but that’s iffy so moving symphony to October gives us a backup plan. We’d move odyssey to 2022. Even if she sails, that’s a huge trip to not be able to explore on our own. We’d cancel before final. My head hurts lol

True, but at least it is small enough to sail under the current CDC no sail order!

I think I would say virtually every post, and I totally agree with you, I am sick and fed up of it all. I know the Media need to inform the public but I can't understand why they feel the should only inform us about all the bad stuff that's happening to the extent that they totally crush us all with despair. I wish there was a law that obliged all news channels and publications to report on one happy/uplifting story for every doom and despair one. The big bad world isn't all bad; there are lots of good things happening too. I want to hear about some of them for a change!

That has been my plan since March 2020 lol. Problem is that now I am booking refundable land vacations in case the cruises don't sail so confusion is a real problem these days! ?

I have been looking at a new lens. How did you know?

Every other post is doom and gloom!!! Everyday is like groundhog day with the same virus talk being said over and over again. Im not wearing a mask onboard! Thats fine but you wont be sailing!! Its not a vacation!If thats how you feel stay at home!!! Cant make me do this or that! Well if you want to cruise they can!! Against my rights etc etc etc I can read and its on tv every hour i dont really want to log on here and its the same! Its boring to be honest! Way i see it we can all try and predict the future but no one really can, if we could would we really predict when cruising will restart or what that weekends lotto numbers will be? right now its all guess work and just waiting to see what happens. Personally i would rather read a made up blog about relocating to florida or whats the best beach or hotel in Bermuda than some of the depressing posts about Covid. Lets get back to the fun without all the covid, government and science posts, at the end of the day what will be will be and the only way we can change things is by following the rules and advice given

NCL has cut their deadline back. I got an email from them last week, i think it is down to 60 days but i will have to look up the details to be sure.

OOOHHHHH.....one of my favorite things !! Let me first say that, as @Lovetocruise2002often mentions, all Genies are not equal...or at least, they each have different gifts and strengths. Much of the success of your Cabin Crawl will be dependent upon your Genie's party skills. Having said that, I will also make one more disclosure and it is tied in with the one above. I have read accounts, over the past couple of years, where the Genie has balked at organizing a large Cabin Crawl and has suggested to their SC pax that in order to arrange such a soiree, there would be a per-person charge. Hmmmm....so I think you may need to be very strategic in your approach to this. I would suggest that perhaps it would be best NOT to give a lot of advance warning to your Genie about your plans for a CC get-together. That is completely contrary to my original approach to doing a CC get-together. In the "early days" I always told my Genie up front about the event so that he/she would be prepared...but in more recent years, I have sprung it on them at the last moment and downplayed the event to keep it from sounding like a gala. Some Genies really seem to enjoy doing party events, and some others really seem to resent it. A lot will depend on who you get as your Genie. I have never had a Genie try and charge me, but I have heard of others whose Genie DID indicate that there would be a charge. That totally sucks. I hope it doesn't happen to you. Avoid using the words "Cabin Crawl" with your Genie. Call it something else. So....my first piece of advice is - keep it to yourself until you are onboard. My second piece of advice is, try and keep your event to 25 people or less. That is often hard to do when you have an open forum like a FB group. If you have a good indication that your group is likely to be larger than 25, I would reconsider being the host of the event. I have found that my most successful CC get-togethers have been when someone ELSE is the host and I just tag along as an interim stop. My third piece of advice is....if you are just an interim stop, and not the host, do NOT try and participate in the extended CC. IOW, don't try and go to all of the cabins along with the mob. You will have enough to do to keep you at "home" and organizing for your own event. The first 2 of these that I did, I tagged along with the group and went to everyone else's room and by the time we got to our suite, I was exhausted and found that I would have been better served to have stayed in the suite and made preparations for the others to arrive. This is particularly important for CC for GLS (and really...any SC suite on a Q class ship) and ATS. Those suites are SOOO far away from everyone else...it's such a trek. For the event itself, assuming you are allowed to cater without charge, the Genie can order food from any specialty restaurant (assuming your event is during normal operating hours of that restaurant), provide unlimited amounts of beer, water and soft drinks (there is a charge for wine and champagne, but it's very nominal in the greater scheme of things), get plates, napkins, silverware, table cloths, ice...literally everything you need for your party. It is very difficult and very expensive to get hard liquor brought to your cabin but it can be done....with persistence. We never bothered with liquor. It's just too much trouble. I strongly recommend that you approach your Suite Attendants to get an ice chest for beer. Room service will bring you those useless champagne buckets that hold nothing. You WILL need an ice chest and I have found that the room Suite Attendants are your best source for that. They will also be the ones to get your ice for you. Give THEM plenty of head's up. Timing the event is kinda critical. As I mentioned before, you can only order specialty food during restaurant operating hours and you will want to do this on a sea day so that means you will need to do this in the afternoon (between noon-2). Historically, cabin crawls are held on the first sea day immediately following the Top Tier event, which usually means around 11:00 AM. That's too early if you want specialty food - and you do. There is danger in waiting until the afternoon, but it really can't be avoided. People will get busy with something else and forget or just blow it off b/c they get sidetracked. Jamie's/Giovanni's food seems to lend itself well to CC get-togethers. The meat planks they serve at Jamie's are ideal. Just make sure that they deliver the food on the PLANKS and not in plates. This happened to me once and it doesn't have nearly the presentation on plates as it does on the planks. Finger food is great. Food that needs knives and forks is less desirable just due to logistics. Everyone will not be able to sit down at the same time. The Genie does NOT attend the event nor do they "help" other than ordering everything and coming to make sure that everything is on target. Room service will bring all of your tableware and then come and collect everything at the end of the event. You are responsible for serving and hosting your event. It is possible to get a server (for a fee...don't ask me how much $$. I've forgotten) but this might trigger the whole "fee" conversation. I would probably avoid that altogether. There will be lots of tipping involved. Make sure you have adequate bills for room service, suite attendants and folks I'm sure I'm forgetting. You will likely see each of these people only once...so please remember to tip when they provide the service. You will likely not see them again (except for the Suite Attendant and the Genie, of course). As for being the organizer, if that's still what you decide to do. I found it easiest just to keep a spreadsheet, which I updated periodically and published on my Roll Call site (I don't do FB so I have no idea how you would publish it there) with the names and cabin numbers for those who were interested in showing and another column for those who only wanted to "crawl" but not "show". Another hint is....you might think about limiting the number of cabin types to 1 cabin. IOW, you don't need to show 4 different inside rooms, or even 2 different Owner's Suites. They are similar enough that there's no need. Just limit the "showing" to the first person who signs up to show their cabin type. It's great if you can get lots of different cabin types...but not lots of the same type. Too much running around....and another reason to NOT be a crawler, yourself. Another reason to have someone ELSE be the organizer is....there is definitely a skill to organizing the flow of the crawl. You will most likely want to be at the END of the crawl....so whoever organizes it, just make sure that they know that you want your suite to be last. First of all, being last gives you the most time to get prepared and being last allows people to stop and enjoy themselves. If there are cabins left after they visit you, they will not feel as comfortable lingering. I guess that can be a good motivator NOT to be last but I always enjoyed having everyone hang around, enjoy their drinks and chat. Sorry, I did not intend for this to be so long !

We joined in with a great cabin crawl on our last cruise. The organiser did a really good job and even drew up and printed a "plan of attack" that included the details of all the cabins we were going to see. It was done through our CC roll call and she just posted the suggestion on the roll call and then those of us that were interested signed up. Once we had someone with a particular cabin type signed up, no other cabins in the same category would be accepted for viewing as that would have been pointless, but anyone was welcome to sign up and come along even if their cabin was not on the viewing list. I've attached a copy of the plan below. Cabin crawl plan.pdf

Donna and I are book on Allure of the Seas - Dec 5th 2021 out of Port Everglades. (10 months away) We snagged a great price on a Jr. Suite on the bumpout - larger balcony ($2200.00 W/ Insurance & 2 bottles of wine). Plus I got the RCCL Credit card, giving me $150.00 SBC and took $200.00 of the deposit. ? I also got a couples massage ($189.00 includes the 18% tip). ? Our Daughter and Son in-law did the exact same thing with us. ? - Wicked Smart.

Why did the girl bring toilet paper to the party? Because she is a party pooper! ?