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Dinner We headed to chops for dinner and of course, we had to do the customary star class seafood tower. Eli did mentioned that all up charges where waived for star class. While I was already aware of this thanks to the lovely people on this forum, she noted that many star guest don’t know and end up not taking things they may have wanted. On top of that we also took the mushroom soup, crab cake and beef carpaccio. As for the entrees, I took the bone-in ribeye, thinking that I’ll go for the filet on our second trip to chops. And I can say I was not disappointed at all. Dare I say, I prefer the ribeye to the CK filet at lunch. We also got the lobster because my dad’s a seafood fanatic. Now, I’m on the fence about ordering the ribeye again instead of the filet for the last night, but in the interest of science, I need to see this through. To give my take on the Chops vs CK debate Headliner Show After dinner, we headed over to Two70 to watch headliner act Steve Rawling, who is a comedy juggler. While the show wasn’t bad, I think circumstances might have led to a less than stellar atmosphere. As a comedian, I think a lot of it depends on how the audience reacts. His show required a lot of audience participation and with it being a mainly Asian audience, who are a little more reserved, it left a lot of awkward silences. But still entertaining nonetheless. The show also started with the dancing robot screens And that concludes day 1

In suite dining Dinner Now this was the absolute motherload of dinner spreads. In a way, it was our own little version of the Taste of Royal meal. Firstly, an assortment of sushi sashimi and Japanese spread from Izumi. Supplemented by some familiar items from Chops. And to top it off, I saw they served the beef Wellington in the MDR on their Christmas and New Years sailing. I requested if they could have it prepared and they could. For such a thick slab of meat, it was surprisingly tender. We didn’t have steak knives, only the blunt table knifes and we had no trouble cutting through. To close off the meal, we wanted desert from Wonderland. This is where Eli and the kitchen staff really went above and beyond. Due to our dietary restriction of pork, we are unable to take gelatin. Consulting with Eli prior to boarding, she checked with the Wonderland staff and confirmed that it did contain gelatin, to which they mentioned they would prepare something specially for us. Come today, and I receive a message from Eli, asking if I was able to take beef gelatin instead. (Yes, by the way). So, not only were they able to accommodate my needs, but managed to give me the authentic wonderland experience as well.

Okay time to catch up on our first day while I have some time. Activities First off, we went for the bumper cars. As Star class guest, Eli brought us to the front of the line in a designated area for star guests. Before that, we also helped reserve the slots we wanted to seaplex activities like foosball, Table Tennis and pickleball. According to Eli, there is no basketball due to physical distancing. After that, we decided to explore the top deck a little since we were already there. Walking around the outside to snap some shots before taking a break at the Solarium. Pina Colada anyone? Finally, we headed for our flight on the North Star. Let me just preface that I’m absolutely terrified of heights, but figured that I won’t be able to pass this up, so I put on a brave face and ascended to the skies. I’ll be covering dinner in a following post

There was. It’s one of the measures to assist with contact tracing. When passing by certain checkpoints in the ship, you tap your seapass to pass. I feel like it’s a little too many checkpoints though, considering we are using the tracelet and the Singapore contact tracing app in addition. But hey, it’s a small inconvenience It’s to help differentiate the different tracelets in your group. Since we’d remove the tracelets in our stateroom, our tracelets won’t get mixed with other people in your room. Everyone in my group has a different color code.

To end the day, we headed over to the Music hall to catch some after dinner music. We checked with Eli beforehand and she confirmed she wasn’t able to assist in reserving a space for us. Also, recuperating from our massive feast, we were a little late, which meant many of the seats were already taken. We still managed to get in and listen to the music, though we didn’t have a good view of the stage, so unfortunately no photos. And that’s day 2 wrapped up. Finally caught up to the present. Now hopefully I can keep it like that till tomorrow ?

Good Morning everyone. Another lovely day out at sea and there nothing quite like seeing this outside your room Starting off the day with a little R&R in the thermal suite The thermal suite pass is around $20 pppd but you do not need to get it for everyday of the sailing. However, you will be required to book a reservation. That said, the thermal suite will be private to you and your party which is kind of sweet

OMG.. If they don't come out soon I don't know how much longer I can go without showering, but I know if I shower, they'll open them for booking. The struggle is real.

Fast forward to day 2. After our visit to the spa, we went for a quick (read: too filling) breakfast at CK. Here are some but not all our choices. After a quick break back at our stateroom, it seemed like too soon before we were already off to Jamie’s for lunch. You ever regret eating a good meal. Yeah that’s us in regards to breakfast. Jamie’s appetisers were definitely the stars of the meal. The pasta we ate was kinda meh but the baked mushrooms...hmm so good We were originally gonna head to the seaplex for some pickleball, but changed our plans on account of our full stomach. Headed up to the suite sun deck for some sun and to take some timelapse videos of the North Star. temp_video_1614693127511.mp4 Next up, we headed to the Royal Theatre to catch the production “Sequin and Feathers” a show with lots of music, dancing and show girls. Lol Speaking of North Star, I decided to go for the extended experience today. Since we saved on a few things here and there due to star class privileges, thought I’d experience this. Gave me good shots from the exterior of the ship too.

I feel like with news that the US will have so much vaccine in a few months time Canada should respond to the plead from Congress to open their ports with... We can open the ports... for ten million doses.

I’m not real comfortable with heights either but I was pleasantly surprised at how uneventful (for me) North Star was. I think, b/c it is such a smooth movement, I hardly even realized I was going up. I really enjoyed NS. I think we went up 3-4 times during our 2 cruises on Anthem.

It was painless, the app was kind of buggy so when watching the safety video on my phone, I couldn’t mark myself that I was done. In the end we watched it on our stateroom TV. Reporting to your muster station was also hassle free. It overall took maybe 15 minutes from watching the video in the stateroom to finishing up at the station. They will put a sticker on your seapass once you’re done to indicate that you’ve completed the muster drill

Each time we ate at Chops I had the ribeye ? and it was delicious. I am from a province that is known for its world quality beef so my expectations are high. I can’t compare it to the filet in CK because I totally missed it. Rookie mistake LOL

This is me since Friday when those test loads came out:

@LogicallyLazy Thanks for sharing all of this with us. This has been a lot of fun to follow, and live vicariously through you. I cant wait to see what else you share with us. Hey @Lovetocruise2002, I wonder if the North Star while in Norway will go off the side of the ship?

Pain before gain. ? I'll admit, it has most definitely been painful to watch through January and February but it is looking brighter by the day. News just out about an hour ago, Canada is expecting about 1 million doses this week and another 900K or so next week. Way better than the past two months.

You did make EVERYONE look though. So thanks for that. ?

I am a big fan of the CK filet but let's be honest... it's a cut of meat. Even at an expensive "proper" steakhouse on land sometimes the cut of meat leaves something to be desired. I have mostly had great filets in CK but I have also had an encounter with a less desirable cut of meat in CK. It happens.

Hello I’ve been lurking for years but have finally decided to post. I have also received two emails saying the same thing for my May 29th Symphony cruise. I ignored the first one but called after the second one and they sent me an invoice saying I paid and had no balance. It was a “system glitch”. Luckily I have been following this blog long enough to know that isn’t completely out of character for the RC system otherwise I would have been panicked. Thanks for the collective wisdom you share.

Unfortunately, it’s a paid activity for Singapore sailings so no unlimited rides. But we do have the 1 complimentary ride for star class

I can't even with this photo - it's over the Autobahn, and I get that part, but what witchery is this??? It doesn't look like there's room for a river up there, much less a ship IN a river over a bahn (auto or otherwise). (Ok, maybe it's an optical illusion and this isn't a photo of the Autobahn - they made it sound like this was it, but it makes zero sense).

Well this got fun to watch!

The internet is slower in cold weather. Good luck refreshing the webpage once it gets colder overnight. That's really why frequent cruisers move to Florida. Faster internet means we can book desirable cruises faster.

Maybe because...

Stateroom So we’re staying in the Owner’s Loft 8720. Just walking through the ‘gated’ area makes me feel so fancy. Lol. I think it goes without saying that the room is gorgeous. It’s definitely the biggest room that I have stayed in, even on land. A little snack left by Eli Together with the standard information given like voom internet and our star class itinerary, they also provide 1 mask per guest as well as a bottle of hand sanitizer. It is indeed. ?

Phew, a long day. Time to catch up. Let’s rewind back a few hours Coastal Kitchen Lunch Tapping our seapass to get into CK, we were brought to our window side table with a view. To be on the water, even when in port, it’s giving me the feeling of being free For our appetisers, we went for the cilantro fish soup and oven baked scallops. Both were delicious, though the fish soup was definitely the more memorable of the two. For our entree, as arranged by Eli, they managed to prepare the filet mignon for us specially. While it was definitely good, I think I may have hyped it a little bit too much in my head. We’ll see how the filet at Chops compares. For desert, we end it off with the Royal cheesecake, dark chocolate cookie and creme brûlée. The cheesecake was decent, but I think the cookie and creme brûlée left more of an impression. Though it was a little too sweet for our usual tastes, I loved the cookie, though it was more like a thick fudgy brownie, than a cookie. By the end of the meal, we were stuffed. Our initial plan of getting some stuff from Windjammer was put aside.

This conversation went through my head Me: Chief, I can’t come to work tomorrow. Chief: Why are you sick? Me: Nope, but RC may release their next itineraries tomorrow, and I can’t miss it! Chief:Um………..

Meanwhile... over at Royal HQ in the deployment department:

Because few others are interested in Celebrity. Just talking to myself.

Same here. This has been the rule on all of our SC cruises HOWEVER, I will say that for our Harmony cruise with the Jim Twins, they had a party in their suite (more like a royal rumble....it was wild !) and food was coming in from EVERYwhere. We had food from Sabor, the MDR, all of the specialties. We finally had to start turning food away there was so much.

Interesting that you were able to order from multiple venues for a meal. On Anthem our genie said it was limited to one. Maybe this policy has been relaxed due to Covid?? Or maybe it’s ship specific or maybe just another one of those star class inconsistencies. Lol ?

Final post before heading to bed. In the past, some cruisers contacted their Genie through the loop app. For our sailing, that wasn’t mentioned at all. I heard some using Facebook messenger before. Once on board, Eli informed us to contact her through WhatsApp. I think this changes based on what’s most convenient where they’re sailing from. Almost everyone uses WhatsApp in Singapore which makes sense for them to use it too. Sorry, just a random thought before bed.

I agree!!

YES....Ready for the Pool Deck.. ? SAFETY FIRST I assume this is what were talking about ? Just a bit difficult with my drinks ?

I walked through once and it was really crowded. Felt a little out of place to be taking pictures so I walked through with my 360 camera. The photos are screenshots from that. Sorry, it was the best I could do. For the slots, there are machines not in used for social distancing, but I see people in the same groups next to them with no issue. Tables seem full and it looks like on lookers have to stand some distance away from the table.

Royal's Conveyance Infographic https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/infographic/77/odyssey-of-the-seas-conveyance-infographic/

I just did this yesterday ! We are not staying in a hotel (flying in on cruise day) so I can’t help you with hotel info....but we did book air through A2S. It was very easy for us as we are just flying from Miami. Obviously your air would be much more complicated but I feel confident that A2S is the way to go for you. The airfare booked through A2S is completely refundable up until you make final payment at which time it becomes non refundable. You do not pay your airfare until you make final payment. Airfare comes 2 ways - either booking a regularly scheduled flight with the airline or a charter flight. Prices will vary so you just have to call and see which works out best for you. We went with a charter flight for the moment b/c the regular airline itineraries are not yet out for our sailing (we are more than 330 days from sailing) but once we are within the 330 window I will call back and see if the regular airline scheduled flights work out better. If they do, I will change. If they don’t I will keep what I have. I have a phone number for A2S but I don’t think it will help you, in Oz. Good luck.

I just got my 2nd vaccination this past Friday, my wife get's hers this Friday. We're book on Allure of the seas this December. Hopefully thing's will be normal ? by then.

Day 2 is my favorite day of the cruise. First full day onboard and all the day 1 footwork is over. How was eMuster?

Masks: YES. Vaccine: YES. Cruising at that point: YESSSS!!

I am just trying to mind my own business here in my frigid igloo. ?

I always get a laugh out of your choice of words. “Royal rumble” ? Love it!

A reminder this thread is about going on a cruise

At this point, I don't really care if we have 7 sea days! I'm just excited to get on Symphony! But yes, I could see more changes coming but that's part of cruising just going with the flow.

Darn ... now I am constantly checking. I have a bad case of "Lovetocruise2002itis". There is no known cure. Curt from Canada

I tune into Matt's live broadcasts.

Royal has made their Odyssey conveyance video public. https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/video/1178/odyssey-of-the-seas-conveyance-vinfographic-/ Good explanation of the process.