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It was JUST accepted. We sail in two days. Junior Suite from OV balcony GTY!!!!

I picture a TV commercial featuring Bubba Gump... There's, uh, almond butter, almond milk, Almond Joy, almond extract, Jordan almonds, almond flour, almond oil, almond paste, marzipan, almond cream..."

Almond butter for those with allergies. Disclosure: I profit from almond butter sales.

I know I have seen several people ask about the Key onboard as they are currently still selling it in Cruise Planner. I have a buddy sailing next week who purchased the Key and received the following email that he shared with me. I asked earlier in the cruise about the Key and was told that it was cancelled through 2020 but it appears to be starting again next week on Symphony. Hope this info helps someone.

Yes and yes! We have our best friend officiating for our vow exchange. And we are sending a VERY long detailed itinerary and wish list for the day including photos of past star class food spreads and cakes and things we love. It’s going to be in the balcony at sunset on Day 2 after Coco Cay. We are going to bring things like a runner for an aisle & cake topper and garland for rail etc etc. and the rest we are just trusting the magic. We already have such a BEAUTIFUL backdrop and amazing friends that we know whatever the genie does will be amazing. We really just want yummy appetizers and a champagne toast and a cake that feeds 12 LOL I’ve seen people get more than that for their birthdays And yes the rest will simply be a much needed vacation with friends! The Mediterranean honeymoon cruise will come later

My daughter renewed her passport recently. Filed the paperwork at the local post office on August 16th with normal routine processing and NO expediting service. We received her new passport exactly 5 weeks later on Sept. 20th, and received her birth certificate and other official paperwork separately in the mail about 3 days later... We were also told at the post office that it would be at least 12-16 weeks, so was pleasantly surprised when it arrived in 5 weeks!!!

Well…J’s review was rather blunt, but factually accurate. I would characterize the tour as disorganized and chaotic. I think we’ve gotten spoiled in that I usually book private tours, but this went a little beyond that. I would also say that the families being separated was also due to them not being together in line. Dinner tonight was Chops again. It was much better tonight than the other night. I think J has now reranked it to be tied with 150.

Wow complimentary room service - That’s a good perk to have. You can definitely get your money’s worth between the internet and if you get room service a few times.

I go into trips thinking the same, then the drink package changes the situation.

I've had an opportunity to cruise a few cruise lines during this 2021 cruise restart. All of them have been with reduced capacity. Having recently encountered two terrible boarding day procedures I've got give credit to Royal Caribbean for implementing the best boarding day process I've experienced. On those other lines it took hours for me to board the ship. Neither of them improved the muster drill routine to a notable extent. For both the other cruise lines their boarding day process cast a dark cloud on the start of my cruise vacation and in both cases it took a few hours after finally getting on board before it felt like I was on vacation. Even then I felt exhausted and didn't feel like doing very much on the first night. Contrast that with Royal where I was car to cabin in 20 minutes. Upon boarding I was free to grab a bite to eat and a beverage then I could visit my muster station at my convenience for a one-on-one safety briefing that took less than 60 seconds. Upon boarding Royal I immediately felt like I was on a cruise vacation. It was like I got an extra cruise day to enjoy. I was quickly into vacation mode and it was all stress free. I will say people arriving before their appointed time is a problem on all cruise lines. Don't be that person. If you arrive before your time you are part of the problem and you deserve the long wait times you will encounter. However once you are allowed inside the terminal there is no excuse for the other cruise lines to make boarding such a stressful and lengthy process. Hat's off to Royal for creating the best boarding day process.

Happy to say the price drop went through without any loss of OBC or issue! Yay! $240...SAVED!

Right now, I see 1600 passengers for Odyssey next week.

Why, I'll tell you why! Because we need this, we want this. LOVE has a way of making everything so much better. @Booscruizewhen I read your posts I feel JOY! I can not wait for your wedding blog, I promise you I looked at my calendar & tried to free up time to join you, bless you both! Have an amazing sailing and an amazing life together.

I'm getting this one in under the wire! Just booked a 7-Night Alaskan Glacier cruise on Quantum for 2022! This is the first times we've ever had multiple cruises booked! I blame all of you for being such bad influences!

Every technical change is vetted through Royal Caribbean's' Technical Confusion Mandate Enforcement Department before it goes into production to ensure it gets implemented in the way that presents the most confusion for anyone to figure out what it means.

What is this "other cruise lines" you speak of?

I am both excited and terrified to begin my first live Blog here of my first ever Star Class sailing and also….our wedding! I can only hope it is HALF as good as the amazing bloggers I read religiously here! 48 DAYS! Here we go! The Story- My husband and I (I will explain!) booked this cruise for our wedding 2 YEARS ago during a Black Friday sale at an amazing price! We both LOVE cruising…so much so that we have a YouTube channel called BoosCruize so it seemed natural that we would choose to tie the knot in a small ceremony on the high seas! So after much research we decided on the Star Loft Suite 1720 on Oasis Of The Seas! This suite had a HUGE rectangular balcony that could fit guests and also give us the ocean view we wanted….and a Genie to help us pull it all off! What could go wrong?!? Enter…COVID As you can imagine we basically needed a new pair of britches every other day for the last two years as things changed. It’s a good thing I buzz cut my head or I’d probably be bald and NOT by choice LOL A year later we weren’t even sure if this cruise would happen but we also KNEW we wanted to be married. So when a company came to us and asked to throw us a huge West Coast “David Tutera” style wedding in Hollywood that will be published for magazines we obviously said YES! We now have two bi-coastal weddings Lol It was amazingly gorgeous but nothing was our choice. It was all chosen for us….right down to our tuxes. We feel BEYOND blessed but it also wasn’t what we had in our head two years ago. So now here we are….our guest list of 50 has gone down to 12 due to covid complications. Are we upset? HECK NO! We completely understand and are going to have the time of our LIVES on a gorgeous ship surrounded by people who love us! We can’t wait! Who: We are an LA couple. Jarell is an international Flight attendant (yaasss benefits!) and I am an actor who just moved from NYC in time for a pandemic to close Hollywood Where: We are sailing on the Oasis Of The Seas out of Miami in the Star Loft Suite 1720 with stops at Coco Cay, St.Thomas, and St. Maarten When: We sail November 7th-14th, 2021 I think that covers most of the back story and introductions! So happy to meet you all and take you along with us on this very special journey that is over 2 years in the making! Can’t wait to see who our Genie will be! For good measure I have included a photo of the happy grooms from our West Coast Wedding!

I intend to tip. No reason not to. But I would imagine that after not working much through all the happenings I'm sure there are expenses that need paid off. And since they can't go to shore they can only purchase what is on the ship from what I understand is an inflated price. I would rather pick up 30 bucks worth of stuff that can be shared than to throw 3 times that in cash so they can buy the same amount of stuff on the ship. Everyone is welcome to do as they wish but I think many of the workers will appreciate when people bring stuff to the ship since they will get a larger variety of things and the fact that some people will show they truly care. I was also thinking about seeing if I could do a run to the store on my B2B, im sure I could take a drive to the store and pick a few things up if needed.

Even if you *aren't* Star Class, don't be afraid to ask the staff for accommodations, especially when it comes to kids. My daughter was so jet lagged and tired from the initial travel go Seattle for our Alaska trip that she had a full blown meltdown in the MDR the first night. I took her out (of course we were seated in the very back corner) and tried to get her calmed down. Once it became apparent she wasn't gonna settle, our wait staff quickly offered to have our whole meal sent up to the room so we could eat and she could get in bed.

Whoa! I didn't even know this was a thing. I will have to make plans to catch this when I'm Odyssey for the throwback to my middle school summer camp days. I remember the bruises well!

Yep...We will end up with 81 just enough for Diamond!!!!

Just Skip, not a problem. I just got off a B4B on Symphony a few weeks back. I changed between several cruises. After we were allowed back on, I went to the Loyalty Ambassador, Mary, at the beginning of the next cruise around noon, handed her our seapass cards, and she either put a little sticker on it saying our correct level, or when she had blank cards, reprint new cards the card with the correct level. Additionally, she handed us all our pins for our new levels. It generally took about 7 days for the system to catch up with us, and being in suites, by that time, we were changing again. However, the system may not be ready to give you 'Next Cruise' correct level discounts, unless you are longer than 6 days. That was the only place where we had an issue , but it recorded, and we corrected it on the last night of the 7-day cruise.

That is awesome! Congrats! You have given me hope. I have a bid on a JS for the Odyssey sailing after you. Actually I put in multiple offers for other suites too but all of them are expired except the JS one and now I cannot change/modify it. Hearing from others it seems like it's likely to go through but I have also heard of times where it hasn't. Either way I happy yours did! I am traveling with my wife and son so the extra space and tub would be AMAZING!

Yes, they'll honor the change for the third segment. It would be ideal to speak with the Loyalty Ambassador just so they are aware.

From an @AshleyDillo post. "I've been able to take food to go with the UDP. Izumi Sushi is usually pretty good about allowing it, as did Playmakers and they actually had disposable takeout containers. On my Oasis sailing I was even able to get Chops to go, but I did make a reservation ahead of time and showed up and asked if I could get it to go when I got there. Chops wasn't equipped for to-go orders with takeout boxes, so it was my food on a plate with a room service lid over it. Experience can differ ship by ship, but I've found if you ask nicely usually they will accommodate you where they can. I wouldn't expect them to do a 4-person full 3-course meal to go order from some place like Chops, but asking for a single entree, dessert, or appetizer usually won't put them out too much. It will help to make sure you have a reservation if you want to try to do a to-go from one of the sit down places. I was able to use the app and make several solo reservations at different restaurants without issue outside of the busy dining times."

I can see both sides of this, and see why you say can't fault the people. My only issue with that, though, is when we sailed out of Miami on 9/20, many people tried to get into earlier lines than they had for check-in. If you want to show up early and wait, so be it, far from me to tell anyone else what to do, but if you have a 3:00 pm check in time, and you stand in the 12:00 line, that's a problem. We had a 12:00 pm check in time, and when we got there around 11:45, the 12:00 line was huge, probably over 125 to 150 people. The 1:00 line had maybe 15 to 20 people, and the 2:00 line had about the same, maybe a few more. There was no line for after that, that I could see. Thankfully for us, right around the time we got there, a Port employee came over and started giving instructions for times/lines/etc. and checking people's time's on their passes or app, and then our line "miraculously" cleared out to about 25 people, and the other 2 lines grew exponentially. I can understand showing up early, getting in your line, and then if the earlier lines clear out, they would take you and check you in. I'm all for it. But those that do show up early just have to respect and understand the process in place and allow it to work. Then it will actually go quicker for all of us, I would think.

Got two in at the last minute. Dec. 2021 on Serenade and July 2022 on Symphony.

It's because of Royal Caribbean that I drink. Or cry. Or both.

The double points are irresistible

We’re going to end 2022 with 79 points. Not too shabby for a couple who never cruised until 2019. Double points definite helps.

Nassau review for Blog We took a Royal Caribbean tour to blue lagoon to see dolphins and sea lions. The animals were amazing. With covid we had to keep masks on the whole time, except for the beach. Some of the staff were unorganized and careless. They were filling boats to the max of people, and separating families. You could hear the separated families screaming from ground to boat try to figure out what was happening. If that wasn’t enough, when the second boat arrived, 2 young men threw metal stairs on someone’s foot. LOTS OF BLOOD. Also, when I was on the boat there. The woman on the intercom was mumbling while the engine was roaring, you couldn’t hear a word she was saying. On the ride back, the music was insanely loud playing “Party in the USA”… NOT FUN. Blue Lagoon was so hot even w/o mask. I definitely was about to have heat stroke w/ the mask. Final opinion: Animals were very fun, and very trained. Blue Lagoon was extremely beautiful. Staff sucked. One last thing… Get changed and use bathrooms on Cruise ship. I had to get changed in the bathroom at Blue Lagoon, nothing like hearing a couple having S3X and seeing a pair of two feet, one w/ nail polish. There was also a man who sprayed sun screen in the middle of the bathroom. It felt like a gas chamber.

After lunch we had another session with the North Star. Something about being 300 feet above the sea instead of the land is actually a little scarier. I had no issues when we did it over land but I held onto the railing this time. After that I wanted to drop by the casino just for a little while. Normally we spend a good bit of time down there but since we paid for the upgrade to the room and we have a good many more cruises coming up in the next year we decided we weren’t going to play this trip. Buuuuut we decided maybe just a few hands of Ultimate Texas Hold Em would be fun. Since we were being super conservative we only had the minimum bid down and I didn’t even bring my phone down since we were not staying long…well what do you know. I hit the Royal Flush on the second hand of play. Doh! Never complain about a win like that but i sure wish I had been betting my more normal amount. Play stopped for the table while they figured all that out and we played a little more, ok we played for a couple hours. Luckily we left with my winnings intact! I headed to a pirate themed meet up at the Ale and Compass bar that was organized on Facebook and met a few new folks. After that it was back to the room for some wine and to get ready for formal night. Well at least shower up and put on clean clothes. We hit Boleros for our pre-dinner cocktail and to listen once again to the acoustic guitar player who must be getting tired of playing for just us and the bar staff? Next up Chops dinner.

They do. I've chatted with crew members who were fellow Filipinos. They sort of shared this "insider" information about being tested regularly.

Thank you so much for following along and for your kind words. Cruising Star Class really does make cruising with kids so much easier. Like you said, don't be afraid to ask for what you want and always tell the genie your expectations from the start. If you want a fast dining experience, tell them. If you want to have food ready when you arrive, tell them. If you want to have the dessert delivered to your room, tell them. They are there to make your trip everything that you want it to be. They are also very good at accommodating any last minute changes. On night 1, we had every intention of eating at Coastal Kitchen, but with kids, things don't always go as planned. I felt bad calling last minute and canceling in lieu of having food delivered to the room, but Sunil didn't make us feel bad about it at all and was so quick to adjust to what was best for our family. On another cruise, the little ones were super fussy at Chops, and we had only had our appetizers and were still awaiting our entrées and desserts. We could have stuck it out and made it through the meal, but we asked if we could just have the rest delivered to our room. They quickly accommodated this, and because we made this change, the little ones were able to rest which put them in better spirits. This made the rest of the evening so much better. You may feel like you are inconvenience them when you make certain requests, but you are not. They truly want your experience to be amazing, and the best way for that to happen is by telling them what you need and want. You and your family are going to love Star Class. As for November, Steven made me promise I'd take it off from blogging. I plan on doing more live blogs in the near future, but November is going to be our lazy, lay around watch movies, and do a whole bunch of nothing cruise.

Not sure when you last cruised, but people have been wearing whatever they want to the main dining room for a long time now. The official dress code recommendations are just that. Recommendations, not enforced. Swimsuits are pretty much the only thing that will get you turned away.

Steven made me promise I'd take this one off from blogging. Last cruise, I stayed up late every night making sure I blogged for the day while he went to sleep only to wake up 2 hours later and me still be up blogging. Blogging is a ton of fun, and I plan on blogging many more in the near future, but this cruise I'm going to let @Booscruizetake point, and I am just going to be lazy haha. While it does add more onto your already full plate, you will be glad you did when you look back and you have all the memories written down of your amazing trip. I went back and reread one of my live blogs during the shutdown, and I was amazed how many of the little details that I had forgotten. This will be a special way to always remember the lovely time you and your husband had with all of your friends.

You nailed it. This program is actually brilliant on several levels. It can maximize additional revenue with this chain acceptance method. It can be used for data mining to get an idea of what people may be willing to pay for cabins. It allows for a resale of last minute cancellations. That's why you can't really assume anything from what cabins are offered to you to bid on.

We were supposed to go to Wonderland on Tuesday night but honestly I was still full from sushi and I knew hubby wasn’t looking forward to Wonderland, we have done it before and let’s just say it “isn’t his favorite”. So I asked if he would rather just go back to Chops knowing I wouldn’t eat much and that way he could order “his kind” of food. So a quick text to Israel and we were lined up to head back to Chops. We listened to some music in Boleros and had a few cocktails before our 7pm dinner. I’d post more food pictures but we ordered almost the same thing as the night before so here is a photo my hubby with his giant shrimp cocktail in his Tiger King shirt (which ironically came from WalMart.). After dinner we both went to see Hector the magician. Again magicians are usually not my thing but he was really enjoyable. You can tell he’s got a really good personality to go with the magic tricks. He had some cute videos that were kind of Instagram-y if that makes sense and I thought overall it was an excellent show for all ages. Hubby gave up at that point but since I had had the giant power nap (otherwise known as sushi and wine induced sleep of the dead) I went ahead to the 10:45 showing of The Book in Two70. I had asked a technician a couple days previously about the “broken” robots but apparently it isn’t the robots that are broken but the platform they are attached to. So the platform can’t raise or lower. The robots still work but you can’t see the screen behind them very well. It’s a warranty issue with this new ship and getting someone to fix it apparently isn’t so easy. I thought The Book was very good, talented performers. It was a little “out there” and I knew my husband probably wouldn’t like it so it was good that he didn’t try to stay up. I was in a great seat near the front but if I saw it again I might go one floor up to get a better all around view of everything. One note, this venue is right under our room. We can hear music and such from this venue very late at night. Probably not enough to keep people awake if sleeping in the upstairs room but maybe in the downstairs room. I took a few pictures on the way to the Two70 at 10:30 to show you how dead the ship is…

Damn kids and their new technology .. I remember in the old days we need to wear these things call tracelets ... lol

Thanks so much @DanielB for sharing this

We sailed in July this year from Southampton (the first cruise from the UK after the pandemic) and Anthem was only at 1000 capacity, it was only a 4 night cruise and went to the bay of Biscay and back no stops. We play in the casino and it was as you can imagine quite empty. When we returned home we received lots of emails with "Great deals" etc but one said we had a voucher from the Royal Casino so DW called Royal and asked as we wanted to book another cruise for October. As she is on the phone she was getting excited and had to go and give our Crown and anchor numbers to the operator. She then ends the call and says, the good news is I have booked the cruise for 15th October for a 5 night cruise on Anthem again but the better news is we have been given a complimentary cruise from the casino and have been given a balcony suite!!! Could not believe it but am very happy we called! two weeks today we will be in Southampton boarding and cannot wait. (DW has told me not to complain if she spends too much time in the casino again and I won't ).

Lmao God help me…but yes it does. WHY I decided to throw a wedding, host guests, and film a vlog series AND write a live blog is beyond me

@Matt - check out this update on The Key.

No, not trying to get the crew to see it, just like spreading the word about good crew members so people know who to look for on their trip.

We would love to, but my wife only has three weeks vacation in 2022. Two of those are already taken up with cruises. We kicked around the idea of me doing a solo week to rack up points but after 25 years of working opposite days/shifts to keep the kids out of daycare, I’d rather not take a vacation alone. Once all the kids moved out, we realized we still enjoy each other’s company.

Today was a perfect day at coco cay. We started the day with breakfast on the balcony and then Allan escorted us off the ship. Mike went with his parents to the beach club while mom and I went to the waterpark with the kids. Picture below is my mom with the boys on slingshot. The problem with the waterpark is that there is no central location to sit and watch the kids. It would be a real challenge with little kids to use a cabana. We ended up following the kids around the park. After about 2 hours, I decided it was time to head to the beach club so I could have a break. thanks to @AshleyDillo, we asked Allan to see if he could get us cabana 25, which he was able to do. It was a perfect location. J and most of our group had the filet and I had the crispy chicken sandwich with mozzarella sticks. You can see J’s filet review above. My sandwich was tasty but I’m now getting tired of food. DH, his parents, and the kids left the island about 3:30 to make a next cruise appt at 4, while my mom and I sent another 45 minutes hanging out in the cabana. dinner tonight was at Giovannis. Quite frankly, we were pleasantly surprised. The tagliatelle carbonara and J’s filet were good (see above review). DH’s Osso Bucco (sp?) was the “best meal he ever had”. Add to that a phenomenal server who was attentive and fun and a manager who offered to send our desserts to the room when we asked for them to go. Back in the room, Gusti left us a couple towel animals.

Yesterday was another great day onboard! I awoke early (again) to another pretty sunrise. Not quite as stunning as the day before but the balcony off the master bedroom (the one with the jacuzzi on it) is a great place to watch the sunrise on the side of the ship since we are currently sailing south. I got up and updated this blog again foregoing breakfast and the gym to keep you lovely folks informed on my adventures. I did hit the top tier event around 10:15 to check out how many folks were on the ship (728 guests and 1510 crew) and see Super Mario of course and there was a very good singer who sang a few songs along with the orchestra. It was a nice event. I’m glad to see things like this slowly return. We did the ifly (I have no pictures only videos taken by Israel for us which was super nice of him.) I did really well this time, I previously tried it on Anthem but that was 4 years ago. I think I am a little better shape these days and I was more relaxed. Because they limit it to 4 people per session (we only had 3 people) we each got to fly twice. I’ve never done any actual skydiving even though we live in the city that is the skydiving capital of the world (Deland, FL) but I wonder if it actually feels similar. I never wanted to do it because I hate to feel like I am falling but when you do this you don’t feel like you are falling at all (I guess because you aren’t) anyways… After iFly we stopped to check on our favorite art install of the ship, the giant cat made of roses. I wonder who brainstormed that up? “Hey let’s add a giant cat made of pink roses to the side of the ship?” What exactly was that person smoking that day? But we like it. I bet it looks cool when other ships pass as well. Lunch was at noon at the Teppanyaki restaurant. It is located up next to the Windjammer on 14 and has beautiful views. We were the only people in the entire restaurant and I will say it was one of the better times we have done this onboard a ship. Due to a little confusion on our part we ended up not getting the soup and salad and honestly I was so glad. We could enjoy our food a lot more not filling up on useless starters Steak and lobster for hubby and steak and scallops for me. Not always the best meal for photos but we enjoyed every bite and look forward to coming back for dinner later in the week.

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

Sea trials are technical in nature. No ship can obtain its insurance certificate or make it into the ship registry and begin service without sea trials. During a sea trial they'll do things like power turns simulating collision avoidance to ensure they ship behaves as expected. They'll do an emergency stop - going from full cruise speed to a full stop to validate exactly how long that takes so it's known in case they ever have to perform an emergency stop. They will have sensors on board to validate center of gravity calculations. All the things that computers estimated during design and construction will be validated. Under full power did the generators perform properly? Were any anomalies discovered when engines were at full power? Did the ship maintain a true course when directed to do so. Were any undue vibrations noted? If something is not working nominally they might go back, adjust something and do another set of sea trials. Sea trials have nothing to do with hotel operations such as... can a galley chef make Eggs Benedict properly.