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Its possible that because your room category is sold out that it will drive the price up on that specific category. Supply and demand. I got the same answer last night when I called to reprice and the price of the room was a little cheaper but we had 3 or 4 smaller discounts stacked so we actually had a cheaper rate in the end. Sometimes the way they list pricing and word everything can be confusing.

My smallest bid for the Spacious Panoramic Ocean View on Freedom was accepted. First time I've tried RoyalUp, thanks to this message board. Didn't even know about this before.

I think that is quite fitting I've always known that @Booscruizegets me. Right from the start lol

Excited doesn’t begin to describe our feelings for our cruise taking place on 10/2 aboard the symphony of the seas! There are a total of 5 of us going: me, husband, 2 girls (5 & 10), and my mom. We’re booked in a balcony room and mom is in an ocean view. Both rooms have pending bids on upgrades. Hoping for that 2bdr grand suite! This will be my 8th cruise total, 2nd on RCL, and 1st cruise since 2018. Most recent cruises include the Oasis on RCL and Horizon on Carnival. Welcome to our journey! 7 days till boarding: Mission 1) Get those negative tests! Husband and I are doing telehealth sessions Thursday morning (2 days prior to sail) and the kids have appointments scheduled for Wednesday evening (3 days prior to sail for kids 2-11). Wish us luck!

Just got off of the Freedom no traclets just a blue wrist band for the vaccinated.

Today’s the day!!!!

While not confirmed, I think this is about ensuring the ship has a Bahamas visit so Royal Caribbean can require adults to be fully vaccinated because of the Bahamas' mandate for it. That's just a guess, no firm evidence to back that up.

Earnest Hemingway wrote “Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?” When this old man is at sea, and in Star Class, the answer is hell YES! Let’s enjoy every minute. This year’s spewing of my thoughts will cover our 4th Star Class adventure and this year we will return to the scene of the crime where it all began – the Royal Loft Suite aboard the Allure. Feels like we’re going back home! We began this nonsense of spending the annual budget of a small city for Star Class back in 2018. And as someone on this site likes to say, it’s been wash, rinse, repeat ever since! 2019 brought the RL on Harmony followed by the same room on Oasis in 2020. I know the Symphony should have been next in line but that would have required a 2nd city’s budget. So we’ll rough it again on the Allure. This replaces a cruise scheduled for last August on Oasis to celebrate the 21st birthday of the youngest of our litter. Which was replaced with a late celebration last November on the Harmony, which obviously didn’t happen either. . Poor kid is already 22 but we will still be celebrating! There will be 11 of us taking the journey this year. Most of the group have been on one or more of the last three: my bride and an awesome nurse Stacy, our 21st birthday party deprived preschool teacher Taylor, the red headed hurricane DNP Dr. Kaitlyn, my bride’s twin sister and food connoisseur Shari, brother-in-law school district management suit Mike, their oldest son and quietest guy on the ship Caleb, and family friend and all around fun guy Cody. Now even when you add me, the Old Guy, into the mix that’s still only 8 people and I said 11, right? Right. We will be joined by 3 new members of our cruising crazies. Our oldest daughter, her husband and our 16 month old granddaughter. They have asked to remain nameless and faceless in this blog and I will of course respect their wishes. One of them might be in the Witness Protection Program or something, who knows. But they’re part of the crew and I know they will do things that deserve, or demand, mention in this saga so I have to come up with something to call them. I know I can refer to people as like DD, for darling daughter, but that’s, well, so Disney. I’ll come up with something. I worked in the Nixon White House and the name Deep Throat comes to mind. That person did a lot. Said a lot. But never showed his face or gave his name. Might work. They could be DT1, DT2, and little DT or LDT. We will occupy the Royal Loft, the adjoining Crown Loft and an ocean facing Crown Loft on the starboard side. This group isn’t nearly organized enough to have any real plans for the week. Except food and drink. I’ve already explained to our wonderful Genie that she just needs to throw food and booze at this group and her mission is complete. Set the food and booze on a table. Slide it under the door. Hell, hang it down over the balcony by a rope and they’ll snag it in mid-air. They are a food crew. From the early morning Starbucks to the 2am pizza feeding frenzy. Food. Booze. It’s an awesome thing to watch! I joke, but not too much. We will, as a family, discuss dinner and entertainment plans when we gather this Sunday to welcome Dr. Katie’s new boyfriend for dinner. But that’s another blog – a well trained musician and great singer who can’t play a Willie Nelson Song. Blasphemy. Anyway, I think the group agrees that we will have dinner at Coastal Kitchen, Chops, Izumi, 150, Giovanni’s, and Chef’s Table. I may not do Chef’s Table. I’ve been polite and done it twice with the food zombies but it’s just not my thing. First, my entire expertise with wine was swigging some Mad Dog 20/20 back in the early 70’s. That doesn’t pair well with anything. And while listening to the Chef explain, in excruciating detail, the ingredients, preparation and presentation of something that looks like it’s already been eaten once, I’m thinking about tossing some chicken, onion soup mix and a little heavy cream in the crock pot. Guess I’m just too low class for that event. I think we’ve decided to have embarkation day lunch at Sabors simply because of the location. While most dine, one or two of us can grab some guacamole and go out and entertain and chase LDT. The other meals for breakfast and lunch will be decided later. A couple of these travelers probably won’t be sober enough for breakfast. Maybe even lunch! I see some breakfasts out on the amazing balcony. We’ve enjoyed that in the previous cruises. The entire group loves the entertainment and will I’m sure see all of the shows. Most of us are especially looking forward to Mama Mia again. Very few plans for the ports yet. We’ll probably discuss that Sunday as well. The birthday girl wants to see the Yoda Guy in St Maarten so that will probably happen. We did spend part of LDT’s college fund for an over the water cabana at the Coco Beach Club. I’m already picturing the lobster sandwich being sent down the slide into the waiting mouth of someone treading water. We received our Star Class survey thing 53 days out. I only really remember a couple of questions. One was something about if Elon Musk invited our party on a spaceflight and we could each bring one personal item, what would the item be? My answer was that, as a guy who who had the great fortune to work for a few years supporting the U.S. space program, I wouldn’t fly on anything built by the low bidder. But I’m sure for the others it would be food. The other was the old question about which 3 people living or dead that I would invite to dinner. My answer was “Prince, Madonna and Aracelli. Yeah, THAT Aracelli. Because I wanna know why they only need one name and I need two. But let’s get real, that ain’t happening. So how about just coffee with Marc Walker so I can ask him how that Carvana thing works?” (Some will probably google Marc Walker now!). We received the email from our Genie, Romina, at the 29 day mark. I can tell after trading emails that she is efficient, professional and has a great sense of humor. I’m looking forward to meeting and getting to know her. I’ve warned her about the family. Poor thing. Like many of you this cruise is a special return to a ship and a vacation. Our last was in January of 2020. During the shutdown most of us continued to work. Our Doc Kaitlyn spent most of it as an RN in the COVID ICU. My bride, Nurse Ratchet, worked the entire time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The preschool teacher taught preschool. The school administrator figured out how to do it remotely. Everyone adapted and trudged on. DT1 adapted to the zoom method of her work and managed having a baby during a pandemic. I promise this is probably the only time that I will be serious in this entire blog. But the crazy folks I’m cruising with, like many of you, are looking forward to this cruise more than they ever have. It’s been a long road. So I invite you to follow along with us as we prepare for an amazing vacation. As you have surmised by now, I’m not a serious, detail oriented kind of writer. Actually I’m not a writer at all! But my hope is to, while maybe being entertaining and informing, document our trip as a memory for the family. When I wrote last year’s blog I didn’t realize that I was creating something we would read again to remind us of special memories. But it turned out to be our online scrapbook that we visit now and then. Thanks Matt for providing the platform for us to share.

Been on Freedom of the Seas 5 times and on deck 10 four of those times, did not have issues with noise on my cruises but again I agree with others who said each person has a different level of tolerance when it comes to those things. Benefit is you are close to upper decks where a lot of activities are and the Wind Jammer Buffet is close too, and do not forget about the ice cream stations that will call your name. I know it will sound crazy but my wife and I are big Freedom of the Seas fans one of our absolute favorite ships in fleet.

Do you see this option under the one you already bid on?

Yes, exactly! No worries, it's confusing.

Yes, Izumi is typically open for lunch. Note it is normally open only on sea days for lunch. Dining credit from UDP is still the same $35 at lunch. First time experience, depends on what your comfort factor is when it comes to eating raw fish. If raw fish is an "ick" factor just keep in mind any rolls with fish or sashimi listed will typically have raw fish. Shrimp, crab, and krab will be cooked. Don't forget Izumi also has kitchen cooked dishes if you're not ready to venture down the sushi trail. If you're willing to be adventurous you could always tell your server to go the "omakase"/"I'll leave it up to you" route. My own personal selections based off going Prix Fixe way: crispy rice spicy tuna, spicy crispy shrimp roll, champagne lobster in yuzu wrap roll, and for desserts whatever catches my eye at that point.

You can't meet a bot. They're not real.

Glad to see Florida doing the right thing and standing up for peoples rights.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats!

ahhhhh....took me a while to get this one. ..."spilled the beans"...

The third dose has nothing to do with a “fully vaccinated” status. The policy states you must have final dose of your vaccine 14 days prior to embarkation. This would equate to second dose of Moderna or Pfizer or first dose of J&J. Receiving a booster shot does not change your status.

I think LDT will just be left at the beach to fend for her wee self.

So….if the OTW cabana holds 8 and you add 2 for $50 each, using OLD math that cyphers out to 10. Who’s getting left on the beach ?

Details, details… The Old Man will head to the sea early on the morning just 23 days from now, which is the day before the cruise. We’ll fly from Palm Springs, California, at 610 am, change planes in Dallas and arrive in Orlando at 419 pm. Last sailing from Port Canaveral we used Go Port Canaveral for lodging and transportation and it worked great so we’re doing that again. They will fetch us from the airport and deliver us to the Orlando Hampton Inn. Star Class has not yet been activated! They include a free breakfast so there’s that. On cruise morning they transport us to the port. When we return they will provide transportation back to the airport. Plans for the evening in Orlando will be a casual meal a couple of drinks and a good nights sleep. We have made very few preparations up to this point. I have closely followed information supplied on this site about how the return to cruising is going. Most of the family are members of several FB groups. Now and then I also peruse the other site where everyone is really, seriously a cruise CRITIC. The most valuable information has come from the Live Blogs here and the many FB postings on the Insider’s page. For our pre-cruise COVID test everyone will be using the at home proctored test from EMed. Nurse Ratchet ordered them a couple of weeks ago and they arrived in less than 24 hours. There will be NO group swabbing but everyone plans on doing the deed on Friday morning. I’m just happy these are the less invasive tests. I had the one at a hospital several months ago where they shoved it up my nose almost to my Crown and Anchor! On pre-COVID-19 cruises the Nurse carries over the counter meds for anything that might come along. I can’t wait to see her medical bag this year! As I’ve said, we received the Star Class survey 53 days before the cruise. I think Stacy and the Doc filled theirs out, not sure about the others. I’m not convinced anyone read them the last 3 years. But it begins to make us realize it’s getting closer. Fun to receive the email! We heard from Genie Romina at 29 days. She and I have communicated with emails several times already. As I said before she has been very responsive and I can tell we share a sense of humor. We have mainly just shared pleasantries and jokes so far. She has provided all of the basic information and instructions and is awaiting the “wish list” from Nurse Ratchet. I did request that she confirm an issue with the cabana. I had read somewhere, I think by some guy named Matt, that although the limit is 8 you can add 2 additional people for an extra fee. She quickly confirmed that Matt had told her the same thing! Actually she confirmed with the Excursion Manager that you can add two people for a fee of $50 per person. The Nurse will send our requests to her after our family gathering on Sunday. Our initial requests will be pretty basic. Which items to stock in the coolers, morning Starbucks for those who never served in the military and just regular coffee for me. We will celebrate Taylor’s birthday one day so will ask for something special for her. We will celebrate Mike’s birthday which is actually in October. I don’t know which day his birthday is. That’s why Old Men like me have amazing spouses like the Nurse. She wakes me each day saying things like “take your pills, text Mike it’s his birthday and you need hay for the goat.” Works well. We will probably request drinks and snacks for the balcony on embarkation day. We’ll tell Romina the places we want to eat and ask her to suggest a schedule that makes dining work with the entertainment. Everyone in the crown lofts have both the unlimited dining and the drink packages so it’s easy when we gather as a group. I’m already very confident that we’re in good hands. In fact, I think we even have backup Genie coverage. I wrote in the blog last year that one evening I wanted to see the second headliner show. But I let Jack Daniels email our Genie Allan Fajardo to make the request. Jack sent the email to the wrong ship! If that were to happen this year Allan is on the Oasis so he will realize it’s Jack and could just ask Romina to save me! Awesome!

Had a table next to us (group of 8ish) that wore the same shorts + muscle shirts all week in the main dining room. My 9yr daughter kept reminding us they were dressed wrong and of course had to say it loudly every night.

I'm realizing that the pandemic will continue to create a myriad of travel problems. This is the new travel reality and it's not going away for a while, maybe ever. It seems most of us here are obsessive about planning and being prepared to not be surprised last minute, including myself. Up until just recently, it created a lot of stress that made the thought of traveling during the pandemic unpleasant. Surprise ...... things work out. This isn't to say throw up your hands and don't care. That's dumb. Do your research on the places you want to go and how you're going to get there. Know that there will be changes before you're traveling and probably while you're traveling. The most important thing is to get excited about the beautiful places you will visit and see getting there. Don't let the hoops you have to jump through to get there get you down or make you consider cancelling. Don't let changes that occur doing your travels upset you. Go with the flow ..... have a martini! Having said that, since July, I've been to Greece and sailed Apex out of Pireaus in the Greek isles for 8d and sailed a B3B on Equinox out of PEV for 28 consecutive days in the Caribbean. On September 27th we leave for 3d in Lisbon, on to Lausanne Switzerland for 10d to visit my daughter who lives there. She's had a baby, Elysa (my 12th grand child), who is now over a year old whom I have not yet held (current trip moved up from 2020). From there we fly to Barcelona and sail back on Apex to Fort Lauderdale, our current residence. So far, all the hoops jumped through have been totally worth it. For the trip to Europe coming up there have been multiple changes in flights, cruise itineraries and dates, health protocols for country entry and cruise ship boarding requirements. One good thing is that every carrier has been on top of these and kept me informed of what I need to do to comply. Like I said above, things work out. Testing in Europe is available all over, easy to locate and in some cases it's free. Traveling between EU countries almost always requires proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test (Molecular or Antigen). I'm ignoring the politics of COVID and most of the MSMS' reporting about it. Besides almost all of it having hidden agendas that bend their reporting on it to fit that agenda, It just causes me to get angry. Instead, I'm focusing on the joy of travel. It's there. It's just become more complicated to get to where you want to go ...... but rest assured, governments want their travel and leisure economies to grow and thrive while at the same time coming up with reasonable ways to keep COVID at bay. In some places, the travel and leisure sector IS that place's economy. The things I have to do to get to Europe and back this coming trip ARE complicated but easy to find what you need to know and do. Lots of testing and we are adding even more to protect my daughter's un-vaccinated little ones in case we were exposed during travel before we stay with them. We'll arrive from Lisbon, stay in a nearby hotel for 3d (a self imposed modified mini-quarantine; we'll visit outdoors or masked indoors but not stay overnight at their place), then test (easily available in Switzerland). If we're not infected, we'll stay with my daughter unmasked then test again at the airport to enter Spain/Boar Apex and on to Barcelona. This sort of thing is the new travel reality. Don't stress out over it. You can either let COVID keep you home or you can travel using the right approach to doing it safely. It's possible.

We're booked in a land cabana at Coco Beach Club. First time at Coco Beach Club!! We're also traveling with our children ages 1 yr--6 and plan on dining most of the time at our cabana. Can I request from our steward a high chair? What non-alcoholic complimentary drinks do they offer? Can I make special requests like the funnel cake or the famous chicken sandwich from the Snack Shacks? Can we order multiple times from the restaurant menu or is it only once? Also any other advice for the best experience is very much welcome!! This is our first vacation post-pandemic and I'm in serious revenge travel cruising mode!!

Well it happened! A much hoped for Royal Up from a casino comped Junior Suite to the Royal Loft Suite sailing this Saturday from Ft. Lauderdale. 4 Sea days (well 5 if you count Nassau-which I do) is the perfect cruise for this to happen. I plan to live blog this trip and hope you will enjoy following along. I wanted to go ahead and get started and do some test posting and photos before we leave since I haven't done a live blog on this site before. I haven't seen any photos of this room on this ship so I will be happy to post photos and answer questions along the way. A little about us-we are Janet and Leslie (a guy Leslie) married 5 years but together 20 and we currently live in Deland, FL. We are from Metro Atlanta and moved to Florida last March right before Covid. We previously owned a commercial construction business and right now we are enjoying traveling and our new Florida home. We have 2 cat babies that my husband adores and will miss terribly while we are gone. This is our second Star Class cruise, our first was a similar casino upgrade before the Royal Up plan was in place. We are pretty low maintenance and not big snackers so some of the Star Class perks are a little lost on us. I am a pretty big foodie and love to cook and critique other people's food so prepare for a lot of food photos. Last night in anticipation of finding out about our room today I made a little sample dining schedule as well as giving myself a "Star Class" pedicure for good luck (thanks Color Street!) See pedicure below...

No it isn't.

Thank you CGTLH. I had to look-up what the difference is between sushi and sashimi. (Such a newb am I.) Raw fish does not sound appealing, but tens of millions of people are goofy for it, so I'm going to give it a try. The worst that could happen is I don't like it. Then I'll just go the Dog House after I was Googling images of the sushi you mentioned. When the images for the champagne lobster in yuzu wrap roll shot your photos from May 2019 were given!

South Beach has been used for the ships crew to use. They are not letting crew get off at any other ports.

Maybe a bunch of people bid the max and they go by whoever bid first? That would be my guess...

And, IMO, they are much better at Playmakers. (As are the burgers).

It is. And holy crap! We get to sail with @twangster?? Maybe see you on board? Oh no. There has to be a plan for me to meet the great one! I shall ask the genie to prepare for royalty! How exciting. Would love to meet you.

Yes, there will be a "Wear your best" night on a 3 day cruise. Usually day 2

They do have a whole section dedicated to passengers booked in Grand Suites and higher. Even though this is an Oasis Class ship when you look at the deck plans you will notice from deck 6 through deck 14 there are no Grand Suites, no Owner Suites on any of those floors like you would find on every other Oasis Class ship. Outside of Junior Suites the only suites you will find on decks 8-14 are Aqua Theater Suites, all other suites from Grand and higher are located on decks 17 and 18 on Wonder of the Seas. I would suggest people look at the deck plans for Spectrum of the Seas (a Quantum Plus Class Ship) and compare her deck plans to Odyssey of the Seas another Quantum Plus Class Ship, the one thing you will notice is the placement of Grand suites (not the lofts the suite only) and the Owner Suites on Spectrum are all located on decks 15 and 16. Again there are far fewer Grand and Owner suites on Spectrum than there are on any other Quantum class ship. Keep in mind both of these ships were built for the Chinese market Spectrum went directly to China via the Suez Canal. Wonder was supposed to go directly to China but for now China is not allowing cruising to resume. Now because of everything going on the ship is coming to both North America and Europe, who knows when she will make her way over to China. The deck plan layout is the reason I don't think Wonder will stay in the US/Europe, I think the moment China reopens and allows cruising to resume within a few months Royal will send her to China, she doesn't have enough suites to remain in the US/European market.

Love it!

I don't think that the third dose is going to come into play as far as Royal is concerned.

Can’t wait to follow this!!!!

We just got off Freedom this morning and the CD is Tom Hopkins and the Activities Director was Eric but I didn't catch his last name. They did a great job and the other activities staff who helped with the events were all very fun and very good. Tom mostly stuck to the big production events and the theater but keep an eye out for Marvin during the trivia. He was hilarious and made sure everyone was having a good time.

I was lucky finally, got two adjoining - not connecting - staterooms aft on deck 10 - nice view and way cheaper than one of the two remaining (junior) suites...

the reason I don't feel guilty, is the alternative was I booked it myself, which in this day and internet age is very easy to do, and my TA would be getting nothing, it would all be company profit.

Definitely on the list! I had an Edge class on my list for the next time we travelled to the US without the kids, but now I think we'll start off 2024 with Edge out of Sydney.

No, this is not normal. Because the majority of crew joined the ship at the same time for the restart, a lot of the crew have similar sign-off dates. The process of changing crew member's sign-off dates has already started. Some of us maybe required to extend, some even shorten our contract. My contract has been extended for a couple of weeks.

I would be reluctant to spend money just for points. Consider the ship and itinerary to decide if amenities a Junior suite provides are worth the premium over a balcony. As an aside, for some, suites are like a black hole. Once you cross the event horizon it is not possible to see lesser cabins as an option.

I despise getting dressed up. Shorts and a button down shirt for me on formal night. I felt bad for about 5 minutes. To each their own.

LMAO this is why I have obliged and am deciding to making this drive. Inevitably we will also be THOSE tourists who pull over and gawk at the sunning reptiles as if I haven’t spent a lifetime of avoiding walking my small dog near our lakes for fear they end up lunch And yay there will be MUCH content to drown away in LOL I am already dreading getting off the ship and it’s a month and a half away! I’m gonna need a sedative on the plane home LOL

I mean even if it is reduced capacity and they're losing a bit (and exactly to the point that @twangster has made) - Royal is building a marketing story as cruising as a fun and safe vacation. Royal putting effort in to safety protocols and having people come back and say "that was great and the protocols were a minor inconvenience and I felt safe and wow that new muster function was awesome no one else is doing that" is a win for them and I think that people are starting to notice that cruising is back. Big picture, I believe.

Can I just say I love how this messageboard has become the unofficial Star Class live blog/review board?

If it happens again visit the loyalty ambassador on board. They sometimes have the CAS letters on display at their desk. If not look in the cruise compass for when they are open and they'll get you one. At all bars including the MDR you have to ask them to use the CAS beer/wine discount. By default they don't go searching your account to see if you have have used it already.

Stayed in GS on freedom back in 2015 of deck 10 and never heard a thing from above us. Morning noon or night

We have stayed in a few cabins on deck 10 Freedom Class ships a number of times in OVB, JS and GS all on Deck 10 and our experience is the opposite of @Pattycruise . We both go to bed and rise early and we have never been disturbed by a lot of noise. But i think each persons tolerance to noise is different so your experience may not be the same as mine.

I booked it for a December cruise, but the extra meal, ability to drop off my carry on stuff and Wi-Fi is enough value for me.