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I dreamed last night that Royal Caribbean started selling FCCs- like a gift card, but it was restrictive like a normal FCC (can't be used for taxes, gratuities, etc, and must be by Dec 2022). All of my clients thought this was the world's best idea and I kept trying to talk everyone out of it! And then, of course, none of the FCCs worked. I can't escape it all even in my sleep

I think you meant to say "drink some wine"

Day 10 - Panama Canal Wow. I love it when something you’ve built up in your head delivers in real life! The weather was a bit variable — thunderstorms, sun, on repeat, but it didn’t matter at all. Panama City in the distance: We approached the Miraflores locks at about 7am, after passing under the Bridge of the Americas. One of 6 mules that guided us through each section: Pretty sure this guy was some sort of supervisor : The entrance to the new locks on the Miraflores side. Hard to show, but that giant ship is already about 35 feet above sea level. Once past Miraflores, we had a stretch of more natural feeling waterway on our way to the last lock before Lake Gatun: One of the many tugs that shepherded the various ships: A closer look at workings of one of the locks: We had a couple of rain showers while we were in Lake Gatun so the photos weren’t stellar. Finally we came to the Gatun locks and the Atlantic Bridge: We reached the Caribbean about 4pm, so the whole transit took approximately 9 hours. The captain said that was about as fast as it is ever done. What an amazing day!

I've had dreams like that too... ...but then I remembered I had an MEI travel agent to handle those kind of problems! Hope you sleep better tonight @Sharla!

I wish that we could search sailings by room category. I also wish that the default price was the refundable price, or at least they'd state the refundable deposit option was available without having to go as far in the booking process.

1. Remember that the casino know you are captive , its not that you can go to other casino next door ... Therefore you will see things like single odds craps tables and not so good odds at the machine (just my impression anyway). 2. If you are playing the machines remember to check how many points you have at the last day. points can be converted to free play (without any impact on your status) for example if you have 1000 points you can can convert them to 20$ of free play. Many people are not aware to it or just forget to do so. 3. Since its a cruise expect to see many first timers in the casino , do not be surprise to see people splitting 10s or standing on 14 against a face card / taken a card on 13 against dealer 6. Anyone is allow to do it , you just need to decide if you want to keep playing there or go to another table. 4. Check during the first day if you got any free play , many time the casino will give everyone between 5 to 100 $ in free play which is good only for the first two days. 5. Ask the Casino manager how many points you accumulate during the last day , mainly if you played the tables , sometimes you are entitle to some cruise vouchers which are not automatically being processed. 6. Always show your card and use it at the machines , even if you are going to play just with 20$ , remember , its not about how much money you put at the beginning its about how much you played with this 20$ . For example if you are playing blackjack and play 20$ each hand for two hours and you win every second hand and lose the following one you considered as you played average 20$ for two hours . Same with the machine , if you started with 20$ and played for 1 hour 5 $ each hit, winning every second hit (in average) you actually played total of 1800 $ (5$*60 minutes * 6 (playing every 10 second) . 7. Do not start a game few minutes before a show or dinner time , saw many people that got good hands , saying "just one more hand" and missed shows/dinner , its never good for the relationship 8. Remember your plans for the next day , you don't want to play until 2-3 am when you have early excursions ... 9. If you used the option of getting money from your on board account and you are lucky enough to win some money and hold to it until the end of the cruise , consider to go to the guest services and pay your on board account using cash , (that is if you are not collecting points on your credit card , in that case ignore it) 10. Have fun , you are on vacation not at work ...

Competent IT department (but that is clearly a pipe dream).

On the Oct. 8, 2021 sailing we have 3,300 guests on board so the WJ is open for dinner!

Hi, I'm Luke and I am new to the blog and just created an account today although I have been a big fan of Royal Carribean blog and been reading the blog and the forums for years now. I just booked my first star class cruise on Allure of the seas sailing May 8, 2022. I honestly cant believe I did it because normally star or even a suite for that matter would be way outside of my budget but I booked a 2 Bedroom Aquatheater suite for 6,500! An incredible deal. So excited!

Embarkation Day was awesome! Spoiler alert: I already don’t know how we are going to sail any other way We arrived to the port at 10:45am and there was already a long line of guests waiting for the port to open at 11. We pulled up to the star class flag (Zone 6) and another Genie waved us to drop off our bags to the Star Class porter. The other Genie immediately said, “don’t worry, Shane is right behind me.” And sure enough, we met Shane right outside the port doors! Right at 11am, we were escorted into the port with the other Star Class families. There was one other Star family with children that needed to be tested at the port, so we went in one line and the other families headed to the other. Port testing was easy! They checked our negative tests, vaxxed cards, and IDs, then sent TJ off to get a little swirl in each nostril (no worries, it wasn’t the brain tickler ). After that, we did the normal check in process- made sure our photos were good (I forgot to upload one for hubby, ooops!). We showed our vaxxed cards again, as well as ID, and once hubby took a pic, they escorted us to a section to wait for our results, via e-mail. The results arrived in about 50 minutes and we were ready to go! We have been communicating with Royal Genie Shane via WhatsApp for about two weeks prior to embarkation day, so we were able to text him that our results were in, and he met us to escort us on the ship! (They asked for our vax cards a third time, as well as our negative tests from 2/3 days ago, and TJ’s negative test from the port). And just like that, after 800+ days since our last cruise, we were back on a ship!!! Ok, I’m heading to 150 Central Park for formal nigh dinner tonight! When I get back, let me tell you about this MAGNIFICENT Star Loft Suite!

We got my least favorite thing in the cabin today, the departure flier. Nooooo! But we also go invited to a game night in the Suite Lounge. Something I hadn’t seen before. I think they were trying to add some value since there are no ship tours allowed right now. It ended up being sort of a quiz show, with many prizes handed out. I won this bag of logo gear — day pack, hat, water bottle, cell phone charms, and bottle opener: I also noticed today that there is breakfast served in both Chops and Giovannis. Chops is for suite guests and Giovannis is for Pinnacles. I don’t know if that sort of thing has always been the norm, but since the two restaurants are right next to each other it was more obvious. We also did a Macallan whisky tasting in the pub. I know next to nothing about whisky, so it was fun!

During one of our last pre-pandemic cruises, hubby was trying to download funds from our credit card for the second time on a slot machine, and noticed that it would no longer do so. He had planned to use the money that he cashed out in other slot machines and at table games. A staff member in the casino told him that so many people try to use the slot machines as a free ATM that they allow people to use it only once and then they lock them out. After verifying that hubby was a Prime member and that he was truly trying to gamble on the slot machines, etc., they did something to unlock him and he was able to continue the process. Now we just charge the money we will use to our room - it’s tied to our credit card, there are no extra fees, and we earn double points with the credit card. If we do want actual cash, we both are currently Prime, and they will waive the transaction fee for Prime and higher-level members. However, we no longer see any point in carrying around large amounts of cash.

Crew members can get off the ship in Port Canaveral now and use a shuttle service to go to Walmart

We had lunch at Sabor, which we ALL loved but the portions are huge. I had the chicken stuffed jalapeños and shared quesadillas with DD6. The staff was also really good, especially with the little one. There’s not many things she likes better than being called princess Dinner was at Coastal Kitchen. I’ve talked up the filet so much (after reading all about it here) that everyone other than DD6 got it and everyone loved it.

So getting on the ship was horrible! We arrive at 11:30 and didn’t get on the ship until about 1:20. It took forever to get the test result for the little one. Finally get the negative email and finish checking in and we had no clue if we were supposed to wait for Smitha or not. I ask someone if we’re supposed to be with our genie and they went and asked a different person who told them that Smitha had been there waiting for us. Once we got with her, she took us to our room which was full of snacks and drinks.

I wish the RC website had an option to save a favorite cruise (itinerary) so you can come back and book it in the future. There are so many cruises I want to take but I have to go through the process of finding it first out of hundreds of cruises. This would be a nice option to have. And maybe along those lines a way to save your favorite ship or write reviews of dining, excursions and other experiences. Also on the app: I wish that I could see my purchases BEFORE cruise sail date somewhere in my account. Like all the packages I purchased, what my balance due is...just like on the website. Also in our account/profile a place where we can save our passport and vax card so we don't have to keep uploading it for each cruise. I'm new to both of these, so i'm sure after my first cruise i'll have more suggestions, but... What are some of your wish-list items for a better RC website and app?

Believe the sign on the door when you get there and the instructor or guide in the room. The mask situation is changing all the time and it may change every single day till the time you get on the ship. The key to everything is to be flexible and ready to deal with things as they happen without getting majorly upset or going off the handle on the ship. However if you can't do that it's best to delay things till they are more stable.

I have to agree with so many about a lot of tips, both for gambling on Royal and gambling in general. My September trip on Oasis was my first Royal cruise, and I told myself before I went that I was only going to play what I could afford to lose. Unfortunately for me, I didn't keep that number constant. I kept letting the siren song of the casino draw me back, telling myself I could lose a little more and still be okay, and I ended up a lot more down than I planned. Not to the point where I've wrecked a bunch of things, but it did definitely make me kick myself. From now on, it's hard-and-fast limits plus any free play/earned play from points...then done. On the upside, after a reminder earlier in this thread to check offers, I see that the points I earned have already gained me a $100 instant-savings certificate, which will come in handy. Still, lesson learned -- walk away when I win and know how much I can truly stand to lose.

CocoCay! We had a Thrill Waterpark cabana so kids could get their fill of the slides. Weather wasn’t bad, but wasn’t amazing either. Mostly cloudy, with three times they had to shut down the slides for weather. Strangely, never rained. South Beach reopened. I’ll have a photo update on the blog tomorrow.

We ended Day 8 at Chops. I have to say, I have not eaten at Chops since 2014 during an unfortunate trip on Legend. We had an ABYSMAL waiter and painful 3+ hour dinner with unimpressive food and swore off the venue. Fortunately Serenade has redeemed the brand. We had a great dinner with excellent service. MomMe declared it the best meal she had so far. (She was actually on the ill-fated Legend trip but had blocked out the memory of the Chops visit.) We had crab cake (more of a seafood cake and adequate), bacon (it’s actually pork belly, so don’t order it thinking it’s bacon), filet (excellent), spicy prawns (tasty but not spicy), asparagus (decent), mac’n cheese (fantastic), and mashed potatoes (excellent). The food at Chops is good, but the plating is uninspired so there are no photos until dessert. Key Lime pie and (in honor of @Sweety’s return to the blog) Red Velvet Cake: Kenneth is getting creative now:

I believe the rule is as long as one person from the original reservation remains, you can swap other names with no penalty.

Similar to viewing the seatmap of an airplane flight without having to buy the ticket first... I'd like to see a map of available cabins on each sailing without having to go through the booking process. ie. I hate selecting "connecting balcony" because it's cheapest, only to click through and discover there's only 1 cabin on Deck 6 remaining and that's it. Then I have to back out and pick the next "spacious balcony" category or whatever it is, and repeat the process. Even better would to be able to just view Deck plans for a given sailing and "hover" your mouse over the cabin and have a price displayed ... like how on aa.com I can see my Main Cabin Extra seat is $35 right on the seatmap.

Don't feel bad - I didn't get the reference until you posted saying that *you* didn't get the reference.

I think this is a mistake. Instead, find the best hotel you can find at the best rate. Then take Lyft or Uber to the port. Trying to find hotels with transportation is not only very limiting, but you then have to go at someone else's schedule.

They are doing them, i just got one on Mariner this weekend. Had no idea what it was for at first but realized they were right and i did hit 140 on this cruise (with the double points deal). I did not get asked anything, just had a shiny block of crystal sitting in my cabin waiting one evening.

Masks come off fast and frequently. The bigger issue is remembering where you put it when you need to put it back on.

I wish that the cruise planner will be updated immediately once an itinerary change happens! Also agree with above wishes!

If you're on a ship that allows guest access to the helipad area that would be the ideal spot.

Yes, I know! My MEI TA is @Sharla and she showed me, broke it down. There are 3 of us and it was probably close to a little more than $100.00 each in port fees and taxes each added to the 2021 taxes and fees. Inflation from 2021 to 2022! At least my sailing was price protected, the sailing fare itself was double the cost.

Hey @SpeedNoodles, MisterZ thanks you again for the reco!

I made a name change last night and linked two accounts - I called the C & A customer service number @ 800- 526-9723 and got it worked out in about 10 minutes.

Day 8 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica Oh, hey, a port day! I almost forgot what those are like Puntarenas is a tiny (tiny, tiny) town that pretty much exists to provide a berth for a cruise ship. This is literally the whole town: We chose this excursion: The bus was nice. The trip was about 2 hours each way, unfortunately. It was broken up with a photo op of an old church on the way up and a souvenir stand on the way back. This was our guide’s first tour in 20 months! They also opened the nature park just for us. Costa Rica has been hit hard by the lack of tourists. There were news crews filming as we got off the ship and everyone we met was so happy to see tourist again. The Costa Rican Minister or Tourism was even there, welcoming the ship! Reminded me once again how lucky we have been during this whole mess — both MisterZ and I have been fully employed the whole time. We had a nice hike in the cloud forest and saw interesting flora and fauna. Here are a few snaps: Full disclosure, MisterZ took the hummingbird pics with his good camera. We left port nearly an hour late, as one shore excursion ran into a delay and was late getting back. Fortunately they were a ship excursion and we also were going to be at sea the next day, so waiting wasn’t a problem.

I too was not thrilled about the concept of masks and cruising. I cancelled some cruises because of the mask requirement back when cruising first restarted. I booked another cruise line that didn't require masks. Then shortly after they restarted they updated the policy to require masks for my cruise. Doh. I was invited on the Allure's simulation cruise and despite needing masks I couldn't resist a free cruise. Once onboard it wasn't nearly as bad as I had made it out be in my mind. Based on that experience I stopped canceling cruises and have now completed seven cruises all with masks. I've got nine more cruises in 2021. The mask has become automatic, I hardly think about it anymore. Got off Freedom this morning, boarding Allure on the weekend. No fears or concerns about masks now. So glad to be cruising again.

Always print them out and take them with you. Back up is sometimes a wise move. This way if no internet connection, you still have a way to board

Adding to your departure date wish, I would like to be able to ask it to show me cruises departing within a specific date range, e.g. 16 October to 16 November, instead of both the entire months of October and November. You used to be able to do that in the past, but they took it away during one of their "enhancements".

I think peak Milky Way time is October 31st.

Royal will post a release (deployment) schedule which specifies the week (but not day) of release for each block of itineraries. These blocks are grouped by cruise length and region. If one follows this blog, the release schedule will be posted with plenty of notice to prepare for making a booking.

Ships that have forward access to the helipad are best for night gazing since the bridge requires it dark at night to keep watch. The milky way season is coming to an end, it's better in the summer months. This time of year the view shifts South and over the winter the southern hemisphere has better visibility of the Milky Way. Cloud cover is often an issue and/or a full moon which can light up the sky. For this photo it was cloudy and stormy on the horizon but the clouds broke enough to capture the Milky Way. The Milky Way isn't this apparent to the naked eye but a 10 to 15 second exposure with a good camera will capture it. You have to get lucky. New moon, no clouds, right heading, low wind so the ship isn't rocking much. This aft balcony on Odyssey was pretty good for night sky viewing. The lights of South Florida and the afterglow of the sun setting earlier illuminated the clouds on the horizon. On some nights my neighbors left the balcony light on or had the curtains open and light on in the cabin, both of which made it pretty hard to realize good night vision. But I got lucky since it was cloudy for most of the cruise.

That sounds like a criteria that I would use to choose a wine ! Lol

I'll play. Thanks to this forum!! Two couples cruising in November, i called my TA and was given $318 credit on my credit card. Alerted our travelmates who called same TA and received $368 in on board credit. They were happy and I am happy with my credit. Both of these were after final payment.

As fellow Floridians and folks who "tolerate" masks, I wasn't sure what to expect on our first cruise. Maybe it's simply because it's become the new normal, we honestly didn't have a problem with it at all. The biggest issue was simply remembering to grab it when we walked out of the cabin. We were on the Mariner and perhaps it was because we simply gravitated to non-mask areas, I don't think my DH or I really complained at all. The worst (longest) part of wearing a mask IMO was the boarding process where we probably had them on for about 30 minutes solid (checkin, 20,000 times showing negative test and vaccination, "drill" -we did this immediately upon boarding -); otherwise it was usually just as long as it took us to get where we were going <10 minutes.

Thanks for the pictures, brings back so many great memories. There is nothing like Alaska, we have to go back one day

Izumi has some amazing tables right next to some windows for several couples...be sure to request them when making a reservation. Hooked has some nice views, but the food at the other specialty dining venues is better.

BCBS isn't getting any money from the federal government for testing unless BCBS can prove they SPENT money on testing, they aren't hoarding some sort of windfall.

Internet To put it all in perspective, Serenade is this old: Any time you’re on one of the older ships you need to temper your internet expectations. It was remarkably good the first few days of our journey, but then we hit some rough patches as the weather got stormy. Here’s the speed range we’ve seen (note that “FAST” is the name of the testing app and in no way indicates the actual speed! )

After getting ready for dinner, I wanted to check out the Top Tier Party for Diamond Plus and Pinnacle guests. I think @twangster said it best when he said it’s important to go to these events so they keep them going.

Day 7 - At Sea We should have been in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua today. I’m disappointed this stop was canceled! Nicaragua is a newer addition to the cruise ship routes, so not many have had the opportunity to stop here. The country is also very poor (eclipsed only by Haiti in the region) and could very much use the tourism dollars. Fortunately for you all, we live in Nicaragua right now so you’re going to get my Virtual Shore Excursion photos! San Juan del Sur (SJDS) is a small town very popular with the surf crowd. Serenade (or pretty much any cruise ship) would have tendered in, but the wide bay is very smooth and the process would have been painless. Walking distance from drop off are a number of great restaurants situated right on the beach, including this fun one: Towering over SJDS on a hill north of town is Nicaragua’s answer to the Cristo Redentor: Lots of small resorts up the lovely coast from SJDS, where you can rent a hammock or a shade for the day, and take a ride on the beach. A number of the shore excursions (or private tours) from SJDS will take you to Granada, a picturesque colonial town about 45 minutes inland. Spanish churches and colorful houses, with lots of artisans and restaurants. Adjacent to Granada is Mombacho Volcano. There is zip lining, hiking, and a working coffee plantation on the slopes of the mountain. A bit further inland is the town of Masaya, which has lovely lake and a volcano of its own. (Those are not clouds. Masaya is a very active volcano and you can sometimes see the lava in the caldera at night!) Nicaragua is a beautiful country and the people are welcoming and warm. If you get a chance to visit, take it!

Day 6 ended with Main Dining Room room service delivery, eaten on our balcony. I will mention that we are totally abusing the free room service we get in the GS — we order dinner and then call back to order dessert. That way the ice cream isn’t melted and the warm desserts are still warm We also sat outside in the Suite Lounge and enjoyed frosty adult beverages in the balmy evening air.

Is it bad that I get a bagel and OJ delivered to my room, then go to MDR for Mimosas, Eggs Benedict & French Toast, then finish my morning at WJ with a Cold Brew & Bailey's, some bacon, and whatever else looks good on the buffet? I think I might be part Hobbit.