Leaderboard

Day 6 continued: When we got back to the room, Sunil had a surprise waiting. Right now, they are not allowed to do the cupcake decorating class, and he told me he had tried his best but they aren't allowing it, so he did the next best thing and brought us the stuff to do cupcake decorating. The kids were so excited, and they had a lot of fun decorating and eating cupcakes. This was not something we asked for. It was just yet another thing Sunil did to make the trip special. He also got Steven and me a ship model, but he went one step further and had it signed by the Captain. The kids have already told us they want to request Sunil when we go back on Symphony in April and we are in complete agreement with them. Cupcake decorating:

Just repriced our room for $705 less! Woohoo!!! And didn't lose the shipboard credit.

Day 5 St Thomas. We arrived around 7 to the Island, not that we planned to be up so early but still. After breakfast on the balcony (from day 4 they started to enter and prepare the table by themselves) we went to walk around the ship (always enjoyable during port day) we did not had any special plans so we just went down to the port. There we met with the king of the pier , he was walking around dominating the area , taking photos with everyone that wanted . I thought he will ask soon for a tip He had many friends around enjoying the sun Later we just jumped on one of the taxi to downtown which cost 4 dollars per person per each way. We strolled around main street until we decided to head back to the ship. Near the port I spotted a supermarket and a pharmacy so we decided to split and I went to buy some razors and some of the counter medicine I needed. The pharmacy and the supermarket are around 5 to 10 minutes walking from the port. Coming back to the ship I got a message from my spouse if I can go and grab some drinks for her. Coming back to the cabin I saw that Although a week or so delay but it was nice surprise. Sunil came to hang some decorations and did a good job , he also brought a cake. And no , it's jus a coincidence we are not copying from our upper deck neighbors . Late lunch was in WJ which was good. Post lunch I had to work again but we still had time to rest and enjoy the rain and the cake. We had some more visitors that wanted to check our balcony. We had dinner plans at wonderland , it's our fourth time in wonderland (if you counting the one in Spectrum which was totally different) so no surprises but it still fun and the drinks are very good. Sunil came to say hello and brought a friend And how can we do without the famous dessert The second cake was waiting for me back at the cabin , but with only one plate , how can I share it like that ? We than headed to the casino were we had a nice chat with the @Tiffeven Which we also saw in wonderland , I think Sunil is making his schedule easier by need to be in only one place at a time. We had plans to go to check out red the experience but at the end we both were too tired and called it for the day.

Day 6 - sea day. I love sea days , no need to plan too much , no need to rush to anything. We had breakfast (we replaced the eggs Benedict with Mexican eggs) and started our morning walking in the promenade which was quite empty considering they were doing the two T shirts in 20$ and all the other once in in a lifetime sells that happens in every cruise. We went to deck 15/16 but it was a very warm day so we got back to the aircondition. Later we went to the Casino ready to spend some more money but that time we hit one of the jackpots , it was very surprising as until now it was not going that well we left so we can enjoy the win and to put the money in the safe (well at least some of it) do you think the genie was listening to my previous request for a jackpot ? And if yes , here another example that you need to be specific with genie request and ask for mega jackpot but not complaining. Lunch was again in WJ we did not feel like going and spend an hour in one of the resturants. We went to the Symphony trivia , I must say we did quite OK although I still claim G muster station is in boardwalk and not in the aqua theater , there were people that knew much better than us. Next we went to do something we never done it riding the rising bar. We were the only one and it was fun , it also brought us to our deck just in time for our nap. Dinner was at 150 , this was our first time there and it was enjoyable, but once again , too much food. We took the beetroot salad , short rib , Cesar salad and lobster. For dessert we took the famous fried cheese cake Short rib Lobster Beetroot salad Cheese cake Coming back to the room we had a new friend waiting for us Later we went to see the ice show 2.0 which was , as always fun.

A friend asked me if she was a Cruisaholic because she booked another cruise. She said she did so just because she had an extra test kit and didn’t want to waste it. I told her “Of course not! You’re just frugal!”

A good way to start the day

Day 6: Today is a mixed bag of emotions. We are, of course, so happy to be on a cruise, but today is the last sea day and tomorrow is the last full day of the cruise, so we are starting to get the "cruise is almost over" blues. I feel like there is so much still to do onboard. It really is amazing how much there is to do on an Oasis Class ship. We decided we'd use the first part of the day to try to do some activities that we haven't got to yet, so after breakfast, we set out to have some fun. Christian wanted to do the zipline, so we headed there. It was supposed to close at 11:45am, and Christian and I got there at 11:25am. The height requirement is 52 inches, and he was plenty tall enough; but the weight requirement is 75 lbs and he was 74.2 lbs. Steven showed up 2 minutes later and took him to get a water at the bar right near us to see if it would push him over the 75 lbs. While I was getting my harness on for the zip line, I told them that Steven also was wanting to ride and Christian wanted to try to weigh himself again. They told me they weren't taking anyone else,and this was at 11:34am which is 11 minutes before they were supposed to close. I know I could have called Sunil, but figured I'd just mention it to him later. The Ultimate Abyss is right near the zip line and it was another thing on our to-do list for the day, so Steven, Christian, and I all rode it. It was slower than I expected after all the youtube videos I've seen, but I was told the humidity can affect the speed. It was still fun though, and Christian rode it twice. We passed the pool deck at one point and were so surprised at what we saw. We counted 33 people in one pool at the same time. I guess they are loosening some of the restrictions. In addition, almost all of the pool deck chairs were taken. It almost felt like pre-Covid times seeing everyone out on the deck having a blast. We then went to Sugar Beach, before heading to our room for lunch delivery from Johnny Rockets and a surprise from Sunil. Zip line and Ultimate Abyss:

Some things that I noticed today. The outdoor pools have capacity limits but they weren't being strict with that. The furthest Aft pool across from the kids water park was NOT refreshing at all. It had to be close to 95 degrees...Definitely too warm to be refreshing. That pool is limited to 9 people while the other two are 7 people. There were a lot more people than 7 in the other two pools...maybe around 15 or so in each. Because we are sailing at less than 50% capacity, getting an elevator, drink at the bar or anything else you would normally have to wait for doesn't exist which has been Amazing! Plus, with so few guests, you run into the same people a lot...sometimes I do wish there were a few we didn't constantly run into! For those that love BBQ, Portside BBQ is amazing but there is a lot of food. I ordered ribs and pulled pork and it didn't even look like I touched it when I was done! We watched Aqua 80 again from our balcony and I definitely recommend it! It was very entertaining and scary what they do at times!! We didn't do anything in Nassau today but relax, get a little burned and eat a lot. We are on our way back to NJ and have two days at sea so we are going to try some slides and zip line next.

Do you want to change rooms? If it's the same category of cabin, you can just call and reprice your current cabin. Either way, it shouldn't effect your deposit or on board credit.

Update: I followed the group's advise. I called this morning and it is done. Everyone has a C&A # now and is attached to me. Thanks everyone for your input.

I cant wait for Winder to sail from Barcelona! and its on my wedding cruise in September!!!

Updated version of the Fact Sheet: @Matt, can we have a clarification on this?

If your hotel is on 17th Street in East Fort Lauderdale then your in close proximity to many dining options both a short walk/ Uber ride. Las Olas Blvd has a little of everything. Here’s a good mix: 1. Louie Bossi Las Olas. Great scene and good quality Italian food. 2. Bombay Darbar Las Olas: if you enjoy Indian food I recommend this place. The scene at night is energetic. 3. Boathouse at Riverside Hotel: Adjacent to the New River you can watch the boats. Laid back for lunch and busier during happy hour. Great chef. Menu = all over the place. American fused with a mix of everything. I had some blackened shrimp tacos that were great. 4. Le Tub Saloon- Hollywood: 15 minute Uber from 17th street. Made famous by GQ many years ago for America’s best burger. On the intracoastal and quite a scene. The place is made out of reclaimed driftwood. Burgers take some time to cook but the wait is worth it and the beer is cold. Laid back & very casual. I take my boat there at least once per month. 5. La Bamba 17th Street: Located in the Publix plaza on 17th street & Cordova rd adjacent to Embassy Suites. Great Mexican & Spanish food. Very casual. My kids request the pollo a la plancha every weekend. 6. Sistrunk Marketplace: Food Hall. Mix of everything. Great scene and highly recommended. 10 min Uber from 17th street. I can go to # 100 if necessary. If your into beer breweries there’s many popping up in downtown. I recommend Koffner Brewery inside Sistrunk Marketplace. American Icon Brewery, LauderAle and Invasive Species Brewery. For a laid back locals scene we all go to Laser Wolf which has a great craft beer menu and an AWESOME taco food truck. Everything in East Fort Lauderdale is pretty much accessible by a 15 min or less Uber and you can even take a water taxi to most waterfront locations.

Day 4 - St Martin. Today we got to our first port. The weather refuse to cooperate even when I waved our card at it , I guess it's color blind. We started with our breakfast outside but few moments after the rain and the wind started so I grabbed the tray and tried to run inside , results was my poor mimosa shattered on the balcony floor. Later we heard more noises of falling plates and other things , I thought we left something on the balcony but it was our neighbors from upstairs. Near us the old Grandeur of the seas was docking and there were doing some maintenance on it. She looked very rusty and sad, I think Royal should not dock a vision class side by side with Oasis class , make me think about our Rhapsody cruise next year , is it really the right thing We had a late shore excursion so my spouse organized with Sunil some spa treatment which she said that was very good , I stayed a while in the cabin working and later went to check how is the Starbucks today. By the way , it seems RCL have some agreement with the island government and the Casino was opened during the full day. For lunch we asked Sunil if there is any Thai food and he said he will organize something so we got to our room a TomKha soup (which was some spicy soup but not a TomKah) a green curry dish which was good and some cooked vegetables . It was nice meal. We then went to the peer to join our shore excursion which was the afternoon Oriental beach . Weather was still cloudy but at least the rain stopped. After 20 minutes ride we got to the beach , we got our beach chairs and the guide opened a rum pounce station , which had Rum , some juice , ice and lots of glasses , you could drink as much as you wanted. It was not a real good day for swarming so we stayed and rest untill we decided to take a long stroll on the beach which was nice. The sand is very soft near the water and every step we took we left a big foot print , I still do not know if it's the sand or it's the B2B endless food , I voted for the sand. After few hours we got back to the port, guess what , at the minute the buss entered the port the sun came out and it became a lovely day. We got back to our cabin to get organized for dinner. Today our dinner was in Hooked which I think is an hidden RCL gem hide ubder the shade of Chop's. We had a very good waiter name May and we started with some bred , shrimp cocktail and fresh oysters. That followed with some salads , captain plate and surf and turf. Everything was very good including one vodka oyster shoot I ordered. So far I think it was our favorite.

Last week, while on the Independence, we booked 2 more cruises for 2022. One is in April, one in the fall to Alaska. As we booked them on board, we had reduced deposits ($200 total), and $100 shipboard credit. I have been watching the price on both cruises to see if they drop. Today, the price on the Alaskan cruise dropped over $500, for the same cabin style (jr suite), on the same side of the ship. The room is a little further back, but that is OK. If we call in to try to change rooms, what is the downside? Do we lose our shipboard credit (which is a trade-off I'll take), or have an increased deposit?

As long as it doesn't become the golden shower room on some sailings....everything is ok

NEW CRUISE VLOG Is it safe to cruise? My take on the current health and safety protocols for cruising.

@skittermagoo, yes you can just upgrade yourself. We just upgraded from an OV balcony to Jr Ste yesterday. I paid the difference over the phone, and all my purchases transferred with it, no problems. It took about 10 minutes on the phone. I had a cabin picked that I wanted, by doing a mock booking, and it was a very simple process. You don’t have to do that, they can make some suggestions. If you want to let them suggest, I would have the deck plans pulled up on your device to see if the cabin is one you desire.

I ordered my three pack on Sept 1st with "Free Expedited 2 day" Fedex shipping. They finally arrived on Sept. 9th and there were only two in the pack. One of them was crushed and the box was popped open so I was concerned because of the big red square stating in bold letters "DO NOT OPEN until instructed to do so. I called and was very quickly and politely told that they would rush a third kit and a replacement kit for the one that was crushed. Two days later I received a package with the replacement kits. They are very helpful when you call them.

My check in time on the Allure last week was 4:30PM, but I dropped off my bags with the porters about an hour earlier. The porter did not ask for the check in time, he just made sure the luggage tags were on the bags.

The look so cute but I bet that sugar high....whoo!

I was worried about the testing as well, but they have done great. We only have had to do it three times though: three days before, at the terminal before boarding, and then on day 7 (tomorrow morning). It is really fast so I would not let the testing alone be your determining factor. After this experience, I am 100% doing my Star Class cruise in November. I had contemplating doing this one with all of the restrictions and testing requirements, and I'm so glad I did. We have had so much fun, and our genie, Sunil, has been amazing and has quickly resolved any issues we've had. All of the kids have had a complete blast. The older kids miss some of the stuff from before, but are still having a wonderful time. The little ones are going to be so sad when they find out we have to get off the ship on Saturday as they are loving every minute of the cruise. In fact, Kat (2 year old) keeps drawing us pictures of the cruise, and she always draws us her favorite things. Honestly, my recommendation would be to wait until the protocols for your sailing are released and decide then if you still want to cruise. Even on this cruise, the rules are changing every day. Many of them have gotten way more lax. As I mentioned in my earlier blog posts, a few days ago, they were only allowing 5 people in the pool at a time, and then, today I passed the pool and there were 33 people in it (31 at another time, and there's a picture below of the third time we passed by). Also, on day one, genies were not allowed to sign your kids in and out of Adventure Ocean, but now with parent's permission, they can. Things are constantly changing, and as annoying as the wait and see approach is, right now, it's for the best. One of the times I walked past the pool today and it's much different than just a few day ago:

Congrats, you're getting moved to the biggest cruise ship in the world

STOP!!! I’m trying to diet for my cruise & you make me want to lick my phone!!!!

I took the UDP on Quantum of the Seas in Feb 2021 and was so glad I did. It was a cruise to nowhere (test cruise from Singapore) so we could go to the specialty restaurants for lunch & dinner. Breakfast is not included but we found a lot of options at MDR or Solarium Bistro. My fave was Wonderland (for the experience) & Chops (filet mignon of course), my teenage girl loved Izumi & my boy preferred Jamie’s & Chops. There’s something for everyone and desserts everyday!

150 CP. The urban garden martini….my favourite!

Other than Shoppers or Loblaws chains, here in southwestern Ontario, I have also discovered at least two local labs that will do testing for travel. Look around, they could be out there. The two local labs where I am charge about the same price as Shoppers, they both have great reviews, and the return time for antigen is 15 mins and PCR is no more than 48 hours (but many reviews say that they received it within 24 hours)

Well first off we were thinking about skipping Giovanni's because it just looked really casual and to be honest we didn't love Gio's Table the old concept. But we could not have been more wrong. Thankfully we decided to have lunch there on like day three and it was incredible and we went back for dinner on the last night. Everything is awesome. When we went for lunch they recommended three appetizers (The meat and cheese plate, stromboli, & Caprese) all was great but then we each ordered our own actual pizza when we could have split one or really just had the apps for lunch. It was just me and my Wife so we missed not having extra people to help with the sharable portions. Teppanyaki - has one of the best views on the ship and is definitely worth one of your dinners. Playmakers - Food was good sports bar food if you are into that sort of thing and was great to just munch on late night watching a game. I think you could order up to 11pm Wonderland - If you have never done it before I would say do it because it was an experience but you might have to get something to eat later on because it is not really a "Filling" meal. We missed the opportunity to have some food at Giovanni's Wine Bar and I found out they have fried lasagna bites that I wish we would have tried. Obviously CHOPS, CHOPS, CHOPS, everybody! CHOPS!

We just got accepted , from a balcony to a JS Yeah!

Day 5 continued: Dinner tonight was at Wonderland. It was our first time there, and it was a lot of fun. We booked it for the experience not necessarily for the food. The service was great, and the food wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. It definitely was interesting and very different, but I did enjoy some of the food. For the food alone, I doubt I'd book Wonderland; but between the food and the experience, I would go back. I honestly couldn't tell you half of what we ate as we went with the server's recommendations. At Wonderland, you choose an element or you let them pick and bring out the favorites or recommendations which ends up including foods from all of the elements. They brought Steven's and my food out as they normally would and gave Steven extra sriracha when we told them the spicier the food the better for him. For the kids, they left out any ingredients that would make it spicy. We had the kids try a lot of the food, but they were not fans of Wonderland until they brought them cotton candy. They also brought us an apple happy birthday cake and the kids got to blow out the candles. We ran into @Traveler at dinner and then again at the casino after we dropped the kids off at Adventure Ocean. After losing a little money, we were tired and decided to call it a night. Wonderland: Us with @Traveler:

The corridor on the deck has some bad smell , they took care of it for few days but it came back . I suspect it their C19 detecting system , of you are not complaining about the smell they are sending you to be tested.

My final payment for November cruise was due (and paid) back in August! Would have been nice to have another month and a half to pay it off especially because I have already gotten 2 price drops which are now OBC!! Would have been nice to have a smaller balance to pay! Oh well....I'm glad others are finding this helpful!

Congratulations, you just graduated from Royal Math Academy!

I'm glad it worked in someone's favor! You just made the cutoff

Day 3: This was another sea day with the regular breakfast in the balcony this time I swap my espresso with latte as the espresso comes too cold. The juice of the day was carrot with ginger. At the morning I had to work , I had to do some candidates interviews using video call which mean I had to shave in my vacation morning. The video call went well the Voom supporting it nicely. Post the call I had to connect to some customer site but there was some issues with my two way authentication so had to spend another hour with the support. Thought maybe to ask Sunil to take care of it (he is a genie after all) but just the thought of heaving RCL IT near my laptop gave me the chills. During the time I had to work , my spouse went to catch some sun and bring up the steps count (our excuse for eating so much and feel it's OK) finally the issue got resolved and I could continue enjoying the vacation for now. We went to watch the flow rider and visit the solarium as it was started to be cloudy. Although not so hungry (comma food alert) we went to playmaker , our waiter suggested for us to seat outside which we kindly declined as we saw the clouds. Yap we had the same waiter @Tiffeven got , I asked for draft beer got a can , we asked for some silverware we got them 15 minutes later. Anyway we ordered the nachos which were very good , some chicken tenders and the onion rings as it looks good in the pictures . It started to rain outside very hard and after few minutes it's statrted to rain on our table ,let's just say I hope the people that built the playmaker roof did not design the ship haull I did not ask to fill my cup, thank you. We moved to another table while waiting for the campfire cookie which took 20 minutes to come , we should have asked for it at the beginning of the meal , the cookie was awesome. It continue to rain for a while so we went to contribute for you RCL revenue and catch some rest later. We later went to Harry Potter trivia , wow I did not know so many Harry Potter fans are on the ship most of them are far from being childrens , the place was packed. Apparently it's not enough to visit Universal and ride the different attractions in Harry Potter world to be able and answer most of the questions. We did not want to go to any restaurant so we asked Sunil to bring us few salads and we got the sea weed salad from Izumi and some goat cheese salad. After the light dinner we went to see the ice show, it was great to be able and come at the last minute and enjoy the show from the best seats , the show as always was excellent, I just always worries the drones will decide one day that they had enough and will go into the crowd (mmm , she'll I add any RCL IT joke here , naaa I think we had enough for one post). Post the ice show we went to check if we are missing anything around the ship to pass some time before going to the silent party Hush !. It was packed but anyone who wanted could get inn and grab the headphones. It was funny to see how everyone sync to the same channel after a minute or so. It was also fun to take off the headphones from time to time just to hear how it's sounds without them. So we took some drinks ( must for me before dancing) and dance although most of the time I was busy to make sure my spouse is not taken a video of me so I will be another family dinner main joke and yes she tried.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/09/15/royal-caribbean-redeploys-wonder-of-the-seas-fort-lauderdale-instead-of-china Sooo...when is the new Group Cruise announcement

So basically in the US it will become the Pinnacle Club/Jazz on 4 like the other Oasis ships?

Yep, picked a couple of those up for our last cruise. You have to take the card and passport out to show any official but it keeps them together and pristine.

I'm in Ottawa. Most of SDM here have rapid tests as an option. The result is ready in 15 minutes. I'm already booked for Saturday 5pm. That will cover both - my flight on Sunday and the embarkation on Monday. Fingers crossed.

Yes, largest by gross tonnage (aka, space)

Please let us know what happens.

Tried the hospital she got it at, they refused saying "Eh, what you got from the Department of Health should be fine. My manager is using one of those for her cruise next week." I would've been more comforted if that manager had used it last week...

Just for the record , this is not traveler , this is traveler after two weeks of B2B and endless food It was very nice meeting you again.

Day 5 continued: As I've mentioned before, we are calling this cruise a birthday cruise for the family. It really isn't any of our birthdays, but the kids have all had birthday cruises canceled because of the shut-down and they have been upset about that, so we told them when we eventually get to cruise again, we'd have a birthday celebration cruise. When we got back onboard, Sunil had left us a surprise.

We have done Chill island cabanas a few times and decided a few months ago to purchase a floating cabana for the day. Prior to getting on the ship we had contacted Derick asking him if we could reserve Cabana 16 for us. We had looked at a map and figured since it was the furthest out, the water would be deeper at low tide and there would be a better breeze. Derick worked his Genie magic and had that cabana assigned to us. We had a late night last night so decided to get off around 9 instead of any earlier. We took the Tram with Derick to the cabanas and all I can say is wow! The slide was so much fun too!

Final payment has already passed for all sailings November 14 and earlier (60 days for the shorties)

Call them at (800) 526-9723. I'm the first one to avoid making a phone call if I can send an email, but I wouldn't do it with Royal. I'd just call.

I've just updated the original post with the embarkation and disembarkation experience related to security, check-in, etc in Galveston. Go to the original post and scroll all the way down to "Embarkation Experience". This is based on the back-to-back that I just completed on Independence of the Seas. The best thing? Facial recognition replaced the face-to-face with a Customs and Border Protection officer and eliminated the long lines to get out of the terminal!

Channel your inner @Big Dawg Ron I believe in you.