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Post cruise antics: As I mentioned earlier, we are staying in London for 5 days after the cruise to do all of the touristy things. We ended up booking a Premier Inn as our hotel. This one is super convenient because its right near Paddington Station. This gives us easy access to the tube, and when it's time for our journey to end, we can take the Heathrow Express to get to the airport. While in London we have plans to try to see many of the sights. On the list is the hop on hop off bus tours, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, We have tickets to go up into The Shard, we will probably also do the London Eye. We too are big Harry Potter fans, so we have a walking tour booked. We would also like to see Windsor Castle, and we have a Palaces and Parliament tour booked that will take us through Westminster, and see changing of the guard etc. Our final day in England we have rented a car and I get to practice driving on the other side of the road. The Boss is a huge Downton Abbey fan, so we are going to spend the day at Highclere Castle where the show and many other movies etc were filmed.

Stateroom: As we all know, we are star class neighbours (neighbors?) After Sabrina sent me that message and I had the “STAR CLASS IS A REQUIREMENT” ultimatum from The Boss I quickly pulled up the cruise online, and sent the TA an email to move the 2021 Norway cruise to 2022. We specifically wanted Grand Loft Suite 10324. The whole time I was waiting for the response I was panicking because we were quite specific on the room we wanted because; 1) being neighbors (neighbours?) To the OG suite snob allows me to check that off the bucket list. 2) Not have to worry about noise from 270, 3) have a better room layout than the corner suites. I can’t think of a better way to view the fjords while sipping on a cocktail with those aft views. After two days of We got the confirmation and we were officially moved. I’m super excited for this stateroom. This will be our first foray into the loft category. Normally my sister is with us, so we are limited in our choices with 5 passengers, but this will just be the 4 of us. The wow factor of these rooms will be awesome too with surprising the kids.

47,000 people tested positive in the US this past Saturday, June 25. Just saying, being on a ship or on land makes no difference. I choose to just live my life

Ducks are given only for fun, with no strings attached. Being a Facebook member is not a requirement to do whatever you want when finding a cruising duck. We have distributed two hundred ducks so far, and maybe have seen 10 posts from folks finding our ducks. But it doesn't matter. We love it when a toddler or other youngster finds a duck, and it's unlikely they are on Facebook.

In the terminal all checked in. Waiting for the suite folks to be called then I guess we are up next. Getting close.

The most interesting part of this thread (for me) is realizing that I am not the only person on the planet who does not have a FB account ! I’m delighted to find so many people who do not do FB !

As of today, June 26, 2022, All travellers must still fill out an ArriveCAN form when crossing the border.

Day 7 - At Sea I thought I’d use today to talk about the stray observations I’ve had so far. I usually wait until the end, but we’re going to be so busy the next few days I’ll probably forget everything from the beginning of the cruise! - We have passengers from 52 different countries onboard. I love it! Americans are less than half the group, which is rare on Royal outside of China. So many languages! - This cabin (9656) is listed on the Royal site as holding 8 people. NOPE. There’s no way. Maybe 6, if four of them were tiny humans. Better 4 or even 2. It is perfect for the three of us. - There are a lot of new staff in training, in all areas. Also, a number of the crew have had their contracts extended or are expecting an extension shortly. The ship doesn’t feel particularly understaffed, but it does feel a bit stretched. No complaints about service so far though! - This is a great itinerary, but if I had a choice I would take one that included Longyearbyen. If I’m going this far north I might as well go all the way! - Our weather so far has been absolutely phenomenal. It may not hold, but I’m so grateful for what we’ve had so far. - Shows have been a bit limited so far, at least on the production side. Supposedly we’ll have one later in the week, but so far everything has been magicians or guest singers. Not sure if that is covid related, or due to the large number of languages to accommodate, or what. - Food has so far been quite good overall. MDR service has been not quite as good a pre-pandemic (same as the other two cruises I’ve been on since the restart). I think the dining room staff is less experienced than they were before. - While I’m certain the answer to my walrus question is going to be no, we have seen Minke whales a couple of times, which I wasn’t expecting (not sure why I wasn’t expecting it, but there you go). - We have been exiting the ship on deck 2. This is because all the ports we’ve been to lack a long enough gangway ramp; our choice has been deck 2 or stairs to deck 5 that no wheelchair passengers could navigate. In order to accommodate the tidal flux, we’ve had to shift ballast in the ship to lift our dock side up so we could exit on deck 2. This has meant almost crawling out of the ship at times, the clearance was so low. Apparently the ports have been unwilling to buy new gangways due to pandemic related cash flow problems. Half way through!

I understand there is the Facebook group for cruising ducks which is very good, the only problem I have with it is that there are so many posts that it can get lost in all the posts and you might miss someone finding your duck or not seeing you find their duck. What are your thoughts on a cruise ship duck website where each duck is assigned by the website a duck number and the ducks can be tracked and logged when found and rehidden. Each duck on the website will have a photo (both when hidden and found, the hider(s) or finder(s), the cruise line, cruise ship, duck origins, hint on hide or reside, special note on duck or cruise or cruisers, and the date. It can be searched by cruise ship, cruise line, or duck ID number. Would a website like this be helpful ( hopefully because it is almost completely built)? Thank you for your feedback.

“The Starry Neighbor (Neighbour?) Chronicles: Pining for the Fjords” – Anthem of the Seas, July 8th-15th, 2022 PININ' for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that? This cruise…long awaited, cancelled, booked again, wasn’t sure if was going to happen, now it looks like it might. That’s definitely the definition of “pining”! We started this journey pre-pandemic when @Matt announced the Anthem Group Cruise to Norway for July 2021. We had never entertained sailing to the Fjords prior to that but could not pass on the opportunity to sail with friends and sail an itinerary that is out of the norm for us. We all know what happened after that. Pandemic came, GC was cancelled, goodbye Norway sailing. When European sailings were released for Summer 2022, we discussed in detail what we would want to do. At the time (it was December 2020), we were still in the height of the pandemic, and it seemed crazy to even thinking about travelling internationally. It was a toss up between a Greek Isle sailing or try again for Norway. We let the kids decide. One kid loves nature and the other loves big cities, neither one has even been to Europe. It was an easy decision to try again for Norway, which would have us sailing out of Southampton. That checks off nature (the Fjords) for one, and the big city (London) for the other. After we decided on the itinerary, the next part was deciding how big we would go for this sailing. I promise that I have always had in my mind that we would do a smaller, older ship for Europe. It was beyond my control that the only ship offering this sailing (in July 2022 which we needed) is Anthem of the Seas. It is also beyond my control that Anthem’s only suites with aft views (which I really wanted for the Fjords) are the Star Class lofts. I was good, I held several cabin categories and waited for Hubby to come home. Then I sent a message to @GregD telling him of our plans. We (Hubby, @GregD, The Boss, and I) were supposed to sail the original Odyssey Inaugural together in November 2020 along with a ton of other blog/Insider friends, so we were sharing our misery together over that lost sailing. The conversation went like this: Me: I am pretty sure the GC to Norway is not going to happen so this is the replacement in 2022. Prices are way better than 2021. I am thinking of Star, and I want those aft views of the Fjords. Greg: Yeah, star class would be awesome on Quantum class ships with all those activities. Me: We’ve been on Anthem twice already. Hubby really wants to try SC on Anthem. (See my justification there ) Me: YOLO Book It! for you and fam? LOL Greg: I will talk to the boss. The Boss: Norway is a must do, and if we are looking at a third cruise being cancelled, STAR CLASS IS A REQUIREMENT!! Me: Woohoo! @WAAAYTOOO said to stay away from the corner lofts, they are way smaller. Greg: Yup. Greg: So, I did a thing… (sends email to TA to inquire) Me: Let me know how it plays out. ---Day after--- Greg: STAR CLASS NEIGHBORS! And so, the “Starry Neighbor (Neighbours?) Chronicles” begins!

If you are sailing out of Italy on Royal Caribbean as of summer 2022, there are some things I'd like to make sure you know before you come. And, I'd like to share my experience. Myself and my family of 4 are currently in quarantine on Odyssey of the Seas that sails out of Civitavecchia, Italy. My son became sick on day 4 of the cruise. He tested negative for covid. But was required to isolate in our room. We do not have a multi-room suite, but a regular balcony. So, keep in mind there really is no isolation in a regular room. Plus, he is 7. So he has to be attended to and kept company. Similar to the YouTube video by the Royal Carribean blog, my daughter and I were still able to leave the room. We had to remain masked and could no longer eat in any of the restaurants. The next day he was required to test again. At that point he came up positive, and so did my husband who spent the isolation time with him. The rest of the family was required to come to medical and test immediately. My daughter and I came up negative. Both my husband and son were moved to deck 3 in the ships locked off quarantine zone, while my daughter and I were allowed to stay in our room. Same rules in place. We could leave the room, but had to continue to wear masks and not allowed to eat in restaurants. The following day, my daughter and I were required to re-test. We both tested negative again. However, we had a new physician who said b/c of our close contact we needed to be moved and join my husband and son in quarantine. So now we have two confirmed positive covid guests being put in the same room, the size of a large walk-in closet, with two covid negative guests. We requested multiplied times to guest services that we be separated into 2 rooms. We were always told they were working on it. Nothing ever happened. We were then told we could get off the boat in Civitavecchia and there is a hotel they will put us in there and we could finish our quarantine. The day before we got off the cruise, guest services called and said all the hotels in Civitavecchia were full. So we have to stay on the boat for the next sailing. This really concerned us as we were all put in the same room, and if one of the negatives comes up positive later...then we get stuck fulfilling a whole new quarantine requirement. Here is what I didn't expect...Sure enough on day 3 of quarantine. I turn up positive. Keep in mind all 4 of us have had covid more than once and are fully vaccinated with boosters and all. Even my 7 yo. So I turn up positive, and now they reset quarantine for EVERYONE in the room. Even though my husband and son tested positive and were put in quarantine 3 days prior to my positive (and I had also been in quarantine for 2 days) , they reset the quarantine period for the entire party based off the most recent positive test. Which means, if my daughter tests positive at any point before the end of the quarantine then we start ALL OVER again. Now per the ship protocol, they retest you on day 5 and day 6 (keeping in mind the first day of your positive test is day 0). But that is day 5 and day 6 of the person who has the most recent positive test. So that moved my husband and son to day 7 & 8. If you test negative and both days you can come out of quarantine, but you still have to wear a mask and cannot eat in any of the restaurants. However, if you test positive, then they extend the quarantine to 10 days. The room we are in does have a window, which we appreciate. However, it is extremely tiny. Especially for 4 people. No room to exercise, or do anything but be in bed or the sofa pull out. So just keep in mind you're really in confinement. We do get food delivered 3 times a day. The room does not get cleaned, or the towels exchanged. Perhaps packing extra underwear and comfy clothes just in case isn't a bad idea. The rules in Italy are VERY strict for quarantine. So if you test positive the port authority has to agree to let you off the ship. So, yes, quarantine will happen one way or another. In Italy it is a mandatory 7 days quarantine. You have to retest on day 7 and if you are still positive then you have to extend quarantine to 10 days (again with the day you tested positive as day 0. Both the cruise and Italy count from your first positive test, not when you started having symptoms (like the US). The idea that quarantine is based for all parties on the most recent positive for the group is something I have never heard of before, and I am a medical professional myself, who has been providing anesthesia care for over 15 years and worked in Intensive care units with covid positive patients. It appears that the rules for quarantine are very fluid and change by the day. I have zero idea what the science is behind this protocol. In regards to what to expect from day to day, we never hear from medical. A nurse does come to take vitals once per day, but when we ask questions we get answers that defer to the doctors that never appear to be available. With Guest Services, each person we talk to tells us something completely different, and getting answers that are consistent has been extremely challenging. Please be careful!! I know no one likes to wear the n95 masks (not the same as the k95 masks). But if you're traveling to Europe right now, Covid is really spiking. To prevent your vacation turning into a nightmare, consider wearing the masks. Protect yourself!!! I am curious if anyone else has had an experience like this? Where is the Royal Caribbean quarantine protocol? Not just something fluid, but an actual written and available for public viewing protocol? If anyone can find it that would be amazing!! Has anyone else had covid neg and covid positive mixed together in the same quarantine room? I feel like they put the negative guests as risk big time. Especially my daughter, who clearly wasn't infected. She has been asymptomatic and has tested negative 4 days in a row. Can I refuse to let them test her anymore if she isn't symptomatic? Thanks!!

The don't understand the cruise world

Oh wow, I wish you would have! To be honest I totally understand though. I was in a panic when I landed in the @Lovetocruise2002 star class take over! Would I mesh with the group? Would they think I was a jerk? OMG, the panic! All for naught, everyone could not have been friendlier. I have been fortunate enough to meet so many wonderful people from this site, I hope I can remember them all, @wordell1@SebagoSue and @bellemiche everyone kind and smiles for days. I even waved at @Matt on our first return to sailing cruise from the Bahamas when we both had cabanas in the CoCo Cay waterpark. Back then I didn't want to encroach on his family time and he was clearly documenting the sailing for this blog, so I kept my distance as well. I get it, I really do! Thanks again for your efforts for us on that sailing. My daughter always says "mom I'm not allowed to meet any of my on-line friends, how are you meeting the cruise blog strangers any different?" Because it is! Gees

Oops. Duplicate post. I’m well on my way to getting the $58 Royal Caribbean owes me from their bars. Lol.

Day two of the land tour. We met in the lobby at 7:30am and got on the bus with the 40 other people on tour 3B to head to the train station. Our train left at 8:15am. We boarded a double decker, domed rail car. The dining car and restrooms were on the bottom level, and the seating area was on the top level. There was a narrow spiral staircase to get between the two decks, but they did also have a small elevator. I didn't get a great shot of the train, but on the back it said it was 18 feet 1 inch tall. Everyone started upstairs in the main seating area, and shortly after we left the station, they started seating people for breakfast. We thought the kids would enjoy eating on the train, so we opted to skip the buffet at the hotel. The kids both ordered the Miner's Breakfast and the Blueberry pancakes, and both tried the reindeer sausage. DH And I both got the Denali Scramble thinking we would get to try some of the kids' pancakes...we were wrong. Did I mention the bar? DH and I also had Bloody Marys with breakfast which I guess made up for the kids not sharing their pancakes. The train made a couple of stops along the way to pick up people in small towns, but the main stop on our 7.5 hour journey was Talkeetna. Our tour stops here on the way back. Everyone stayed onboard and we continued to Denali. Because we took both legs of the journey, we could also order lunch. This is a partial menu from the Wilderness Express website - they also had a vegetarian and kids menu. I didn't get any good food pictures from lunch, but the birch syrup ice cream was really good. The views from the train were stunning, and you could go out onto the platforms on the bottom level. Here are a few shots from our trek north. We departed the train at 3:40pm and boarded a bus to take us to Denali Park Village. The rooms in this hotel are teeny tiny, and when you're traveling with 4 people and your land and cruise luggage, it's a really tight fit. You know what else they don't tell you in the brochure? Most hotels in the interior don't have air conditioning. It makes sense when the highs only get to the 70s or 80s, but it was pretty warm when we arrived. Our room faced the sun, and with only a fan that we found hidden in the armoire, it was a pretty miserable night. There aren't a lot of dining options at this resort - the dinner buffet and the bar were the only two venues open when we got there, and the buffet was $55 per person. One of the optional excursions we wanted to do was the Husky Homestead which is in Denali. It started at 7pm and was about a 30 minute bus ride to get to the Dog Gone It Kennels in Cantwell. We had about 10 minutes to hold puppies, which would have been ok (let's face it, that's the real reason we came), but a second bus load of people pulled up behind us. There were about 100 people on this tour (45-50 per bus), and those other people cut into our fur baby time! We also got to see, but not hold of course, pups that were just born the day before. So small! Then we were walked around to where the older dogs were kept and they hooked some of the dogs up to a 4 wheeler for summer training. The next 1.5-2 hours was a very well put together slideshow and presentation about the Iditarod - how they train for and run the race. It was about 15 minutes too long for me, and about 30-45 minutes too long for the kids. They just wanted more time with the dogs. It was really well run, and a lot of interesting information. It was 10pm by the time we got back to the hot hotel, so we got ready for bed. Bags had to be out by 7:30 in the morning.

Thanks. It’s not sorted by a long shot. But I’m on board and not much they can do to me now I guess. Lol.

There will still be some 270 noise even on deck 10 but not nearly the disturbance that there is on deck 8.

Not sure if this is new, or if it’s because we are sailing from a European port, but I got this email this morning from Royal. It clearly lays out testing options. I have never received such an email like this since the restart but it puts my mind at ease for using Switch Health. Hopefully this pre-cruise test does not spell the end for us. To be honest, I am more nervous this time than other times because we are flying in earlier and spending time in London beforehand. Fingers crossed!

In threads like these it's important to understand the difference between what the benefits are officially supposed to be versus what some guests may have been able to exceed beyond that. When responding I choose to lean closer to what is supposed to be allowed, here's why: Over the years when crew have exceeded policy and allowed something that ventures past the published benefits that is always great to hear and well received by the benefactors. The problem becomes when that experience becomes the expectation. Other guests or when on a different ship with different management/genie may not realize the same stretching of the policy. When that occurs some guests who believe they are entitled to it feel they are let down or being cheated because they are not getting something that others have. Years ago there was a long serving Hotel Director who was able to get away with doing things that he wasn't supposed to do. He could get away with it given his tenure and reputation. He would do special things that other Hotel Directors could not. In the days before genies existed one such benefit he was in the habit of providing was a Pinnacle party on CocoCay. He would host the event that included special food and beverages and all the Pinnacles who participated loved it. Over time his generosity became an expectation. Some other HD's did something similar. Others did not. When sailing on a different ship with a different HD some Pinnacle became offended when the special event was not offered. Instead of appreciating the uniqueness of what that one HD did they decided to complain when they didn't receive the party they had become accustomed to. Upon receiving these complaints the cruise line president at the time said "What Pinnacle party? That's not supposed to be happening". As a result they clamped down and killed the event for all ships and all HD's. The HD at the root of it was strongly reprimanded. This cycle has occurred many times over the years when one loyalty ambassador, or guest services manager, or hotel director, or genie gets in the habit of doing something beyond the intentions of the cruise line. It always results in the company having to set the record straight and stopping it. It sets the wrong expectation and when expectations are not fulfilled you have unhappy guests. Now with social media guests are able to communicate faster and written words are read by many who don't participate actively in the discussion. They cherry pick threads like this not getting the nuances and that becomes their expectations. When their expectations are not met it ruins their experience. Someone else got something they didn't. How unfair. Time to complain. All this to say understand what the genie is supposed to do. That should be the basis of your expectation. If there is a request beyond that it may or may not be realized.

No way that will happen again! And if anything does happen while in London, I've got an amazing cousin (former Canadian) who could help you!

Pre-cruise travel for us: We booked our flights a while ago. I spent many hours looking over many websites and different departure airports. We live near Albany, NY so getting to major airports is not a big deal for us, so we looked at flights from NYC, Newark, Boston, Bradley and found that it was actually easier and more cost effective to fly from Albany. We ended up booking flights directly through British Airways, though the flights are operated by American Airlines. The cost difference to fly from Albany vs JFK for the same flight was $300 total round trip. Factoring my time driving to JFK which is about 3 1/2 hours each way and parking fees etc Flying from Albany is a no brainer. The airport is 20 minutes from my house, and we can get a ride from family. We were originally going to leave July 5th, but the OG flight got cancelled and moved to earlier in the day, but we couldn’t make that work with The Boss’s case schedule, so now we leave on July 6th at 4pm EST. We arrive in London on Thursday at 0800am London time. That gives us plenty of time if there are travel delays. Once we arrive in Heathrow, we have a car service booked to take us directly to Southampton. Hopefully we can get at least a little sleep on the flight to we aren’t completely exhausted. We plan to drop the luggage at the hotel and will try to stay busy as long as we can, and then crash. We booked a Novotel that is right across from the port, so getting to the ship the next morning will be super easy. The hotel is also not far from The cultural quarter and city center, so there will be plenty to keep us busy. We will also be going to London for a few days, but we are doing that after getting off the ship...more on that to come!

This is the one disappointment from this sailing, I really wanted this port. I should have followed my own advice on this one. @GregDbooked this one first and I was going to wait for the price to drop a bit in the CP as we still had months left. Then it sold out. We decided to do a "Highlights of Alesund" tour instead. Ditto for us. This was the last port to open up excursions. I even reached out to Private Journeys to see if they could get us tickets for the railway ahead of time. They could not but said they would notify us right away when it does open up. In the end, we caught it as it opened in the CP and booked it ourselves. There were a number of people in the FB group who were considering booking ticket on their own (instead of through Royal) because Royal released the Flam excursions so late. You know how we know that @GregDis an awesome guy? Because he grabbed 8 tickets directly from the railway for us while we waited for Royal to release it. In the end, both our families decided to stick with the excursion through Royal, just safer that way. Hubby is still disappointed that we are not doing the Pulpit Rock hike. Not that I was even entertaining that option to begin with. Last year we took a trip out to the Rockies and did a few "easy" hikes. My feet are still, almost a year later, recovering from that. I told him then that I was done with hiking. Definitely not my scene lol, especially not some 8km uphill hike! That is pretty much what made @GregDand The Boss change their minds lol

Itinerary: The original group cruise visited, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Alesund, and Bergen. At the time, I had nearly all the excursions planned out so when we switched to this one things were easy, we just now had to account on what the kids could tolerate. This cruise visits Kristiansand, Alesund, Flam, and Stavanger. The itinerary originally had Geriengerfjord which is so picturesque and had a really cool excursion to a glacier etc, but that got swapped for Flam. Still deep into a Fjord, and opens up other opportunities for exploring. Kristiansand: We opted for the Old Town Walking tour. This was on our choice on the original cruise. This will give ease us into Norway. Us adults get to see the cultural stuff without completely boring the kids, since it isn’t that long. Sabrina and her family are booked on this one too. Our tour ends around lunch time, and if the kids have run out of fun, we can send them back to the ship, and us adults can adventure some more. Alesund: Bring on the waffles!! This was also on our original cruise. This one just sounds so cool. Experience Norway’s dramatic scenery on a five-hour, fully-guided adventure that includes a ferry boat ride to Sykkylven, a cable car ride to the top of Stranda Mountain, and a picturesque bus ride along Storfjord. The epic journey and Norwegian landscapes begin on a 20-minute ferry cruise from Magerholm across icy-blue waters to the tiny community of Sykkylven, where a fishing and furniture-making industry flourishes. You’ll then hop in a glass-enclosed cable car for a sky-high trip dangling overtop thick pine forest and the snow-ski slopes of Strandafjellet Skisenter. At the mountain summit you’ll enjoy coffee, tea and waffles while overlooking the Sunnmore Alps’ plunging cliffsides and bright-green pastures. A ferry then transports you to Liabygda village, where you’ll relax on a coach drive that leads you along Storfjord. This breathtaking stretch of coastline is home to Europe’s largest glacier and deepest lake — and the surrounding fjord scenery will leave you in awe, as well. I’m hoping this still happens. It no longer appears in the cruise planner, but it has been sold out for a while. Also, when our cruise docs arrived, we dock in Alesund after this tour was supposed to depart. Flam: This will be a cool day. We will ride the Flam Railway, which is a short, but steep line up into the mountains. The stretch of railway is the steepest standard gauge railway in Europe. The change in elevation is 2841 feet, and there are 20 tunnels and one bridge. Our tickets are in the morning. In the afternoon we are also going to the Stegastein viewing platform which extends out from the mountain into the fjord. Flam itself is mainly a tourist destination, and there are some shops etc right there including a bakery that looks amazing. Stavanger: This stop our plans changed. The original cruise had two days in Stavanger followed by a sea day, The first day, we were going to do a walking tour and the second day I was going to hike pulpit rock while The Boss enjoyed the spa. There was a sea day after so I could spend the next day allowing my legs to recover. The new itinerary has one day, and with the kids in tow, we needed to make adjustments. We still kept the walking tour for Heather and the kids, and I was going to do the hike, and hope I don’t die. After some messaging with Sabrina, I found out that they were doing the Lysefjord cruise. We ended up switching Heather and the kids to that so they would have some familiar faces. Later on while checking my travel insurance documentation, one of the exclusions is “injuries obtained while mountain climbing.” Another trip to the cruise planner and now we are all on that cruise. I’ll just get to see pulpit rock from the bottom, and I don’t have to worry about my legs being jello for the rest of the cruise. Oh, did I mention there were waffles on this one too?

Perspective from the other neighbour (neighbor?) It seems so long ago when COVID wasn’t a thing, but our story started out on Empress. The Boss (Heather) and I were looking for an adults only cruise. There was an 8(9?) night Eastern Caribbean BVI cruise that we had booked. The week we booked happened to include Heathers birthday. I remember reading a @twangster blog that got me interested in that Itinerary. We had one of the aft owners suites booked I think. As time went on Heather was nervous about being on a little ship (she is prone to motion sickness) but we liked the idea of going to places that the bigger ships couldn’t get into I remember when @Matt announced the 2021 group cruise in Norway, and I thought this sounds like a great experience. I brought it up to The Boss who much to my surprise thought the same thing. As she tells it, she never thought about going there, but now that the idea was in her head, why not. We decided that Empress was out and Norway was in, so we jumped ship and the group cruise was booked. That cruise was also our Anniversary, so why not celebrate with friends. We booked one of the short lived spa balcony rooms, because suite prices were stupid money at the time. The Boss figured if she couldn’t get her suite, the spa bonus was a consolation prize and we didn’t need all that space since it was just us adults. At the time, we had a GS Odyssey Inaugural, a GS2BR on Liberty, plus an A2 on Oasis booked, so something had to give. Boy did it give. COVID happened and things started getting cancelled. We were so excited to be on those group cruises so that we could finally meet some of these people that we interact with online. The Boss was fully ready to learn from the Suite Snob master herself. As things were going from bad to worse, I remember getting that message from Sabrina about shifting the Norway cruise to the following summer. I told The Boss about it, and she demanded Star Class. You all have seen how that conversation went. After messaging my TA, and what seemed like eternity later, the switch was made again, and we all became Star Class neighbors, and the chronicles began. We couldn’t just stop there though. We also decided to make this an even bigger vacation. The plan was to do two days in Southampton pre cruise, then 5 days in London after the cruise. If you have read my previous Navigator blog, you saw how we like to surprise our kids. Well, we are at it again. The kids are now coming with us, and they have no idea. They think that they are staying at the grandparents while The Boss and I are on the cruise. They still think we are in a balcony room, so the star class room will also be a surprise to them. The plan of attack for letting them in on this is that my dad will drop us off at the airport. The kids will ride along, since they are going to his house after, and they will get the first surprise in the parking lot when we get there. We will still tell them we are in a standard balcony room until we get to the terminal and find the star class banner with an “oops…did we forget to mention we were star class too?" As we have gotten closer we have been teasing the kids about the things that we are doing. One of the booked excursions ends at the top of a mountain with a snack of waffles. Johnny lamented “but I like waffles.” Lydia was also whining about not going. We told her that she wouldn’t have any fun. The cruise will be mostly scenery and mountains, to which she replied tearfully “I love mountains….” Will the kids end up in therapy from their parents lying to them all the time? Maybe. Is it worth it for the surprises? Definitely.

Hi everyone. I was on Adventure of the Seas earlier this month. It was a 4-Day cruise to Halifax, NS, and was my first RC cruise. Had a great time. Definitely going to try one of the bigger ships next. I started my recap series on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to check it out. I'm new at this so I might sound a little nervous. Let me know what you think. Hope you enjoy! Adventure of the Seas Cruise Recap Series Playlist: https://youtu.be/peMHuVFWdu4

Crew had been testing weekly. (At least since January when I started inquiring) Apparently now it is every 2 weeks.

I'll be on Harmony in Jan 2024, while I don't participate in the Duck Hunting I like to hide something I purchase while in a Port of Call and leave it somewhere on the ship, then give a clue for someone to find it on the next cruise after ours. I'm going to make that MY custom on every cruise I take. I love cruising! I love making it interesting for not just my party but for others as well. I think you and those like you are doing a great job of that, too.

Not only do I cruise with a carry on, I also fit some of my wife's clothes in there that don't fit in her fullsize lol.

I usually either just take a picture or re-hide any ducks I find. I don't do FB so wouldn't be able to update it. I found a duck on Ovation last week and decided to take it with me and re-hide it on Voyager in October, maybe it'll start travelling the world.

I am not on Facebook or any social media sites. I’m actually surprised that I log onto this site as often as I do. When I find a duck I rehide it because I can’t post anywhere that I found one. Maybe next time I will go to the roll call here and upload a picture of whatever I find.

We had a group of 21 family and friend on Quantum June 13-20, and 8 tested positive in the week following the cruise.

It was all Leticia @Neesa, she’s definitely a rock star. Fyi, when you weren’t able to reschedule your hibachi, we were just one grill station over and saw you and your amazing family come in. I know the Evian was a struggle, lol; so glad you were able to enjoy the 80s Aqua and food show! It’s a small Oasis class world out there, maybe next time will get the courage to introduce ourselves, haha.

Here is the room tour if anyone is interested:

The time all depends on you. I am a solo traveler and I got out of 150 Central Park in 40 minutes. I do not eat bread and I am not there talking so the waiter pushes my meal along. Now two nights later in Chops there was two other couples I knew next to me and we talked all the way through dinner. That dinner took me 2 1/2 hours because we took time eating and the waiter knew we were enjoying good company. So the short of this story is you can push the dinner along if you let your wait staff know.

I agree, So far his communication has been great!

I will be sailing on Friday on Oasis and posted earlier about the parking. Based on what I gathered, they will direct you to the overflow as they let the previous cruise passengers leave. There is a possibility they open the garage once a good amount of passengers leave the multi-story lot.

I will say, I have been pretty impressed with Leory pre-cruise. As mentioned before, after sending out the initial pre-cruise welcome email at exactly 30 days, he has been fairly prompt with exchanges. On Friday, at 14 days out, he shared his Whatsapp info and over the weekend, he has already sent us several messages inquiring about different things. He also sent another detailed email on Friday about arrival in Southampton, which I appreciated since I have never sailed from that port. Our dining schedule was also shared with us over the weekend, with the understanding that we might move things around once we know the entertainment schedule.

All checked in at Port Canaveral. Can confirm 100% all they care about is the date on Covid tests.

I'm scheduled to work on the 4th, Im not giving up my double-time paycheck

Very patriotic of you to not be in England on July 4th, acceptable for Sabrina since she is Canadian.

Following along for sure, looking forward to your amazing adventures!

We've done the MDR our last few cruises, sometimes a specialty as well. Last week on Ovation we had a JS. We're probably not going to do another suite as I figure I can do two cruises for the same price so we decided to try the CK. Since we're from the east coast and always eat early I went up there first thing and asked about reservations for 5pm. I was told no problem, do you want that all week? Yes, I also decided to try new things on the menu as they prepare things so well. I did have to complement them on their steak cooking. I prefer medium rare but often ask for medium since most often they are under cooked, well I had three steaks, asked for medium rare and each time they were perfect. At 5pm there were never more than 4-5 parties in the restaurant so we had excellent service.

Agree with @Neesa..the ice show was great on Mariner!

My experience is to expect at least 2 hours. You can let them know when you are seated that you're trying to make a show and they should try to move you through faster.

Just sailed on Mariner. In my opinion, the RC singers are not that great so after their first performance, we decided to skip their performances for the rest of the 8 day cruise. However, we very much enjoyed their Headliner show which is a tribute to Elton John. They also had a magic show and a juggling/comedy show on the other evenings.

I have taken 7 in home proctored tests for cruising. None of these tests have consumed more than 20 minute of my time.

Won't you have a day in Miami on the 8th? You could bring the tests with you and do the proctored tests while in Miami btwn Freedom and Explorer. As for the costs, the convenience is worth it - no dealing with making appointments or waiting in a line.

This poor genie has no idea what's in store for him......

Days Nine and Ten: Denali Park We woke up early and got our stuff together to drive to Talkeetna. We boarded a connection bus to get to Denali Park which arrived at about noon. We had booked a bus tour at Denali Park but didn’t know until that morning if it’d leave at 1:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. It left at 3:00, so we had three spare hours to explore gift shops and the visitor center there. They had these junior ranger activity books that we started. We got lunch at their little restaurant. They were the only food for a while so they could charge however much they wanted to, and they did, a burger and fries was fifteen bucks! After lunch we went to this short movie about Denali Park. It was really cool and if you go there and have half an hour to spare, I recommend it.Finally it was off to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. We got on a bus that was crowded enough that most people had to sit next to someone, but luckily enough I got two seats to myself. We saw a moose almost as soon as we pulled out and then along the way about five more. We also saw some caribou (which are just reindeer in the wild), a ton of ravens, and a ptarmigan, the Alaska State Bird. On one mountain we saw a bunch of Dall sheep. From a distance they just looked like little white specks, but the bus had this super zoom camera that linked up to little TVs on the bus so we could see the sheep on the screen. My favorite out of all the animals we found was this one grizzly bear. This one was trying to sleep but just couldn’t seem to get comfortable. It was kind of hilarious and adorable. Sadly, the cloud cover was too think to see Denali, but overall the tour was fun. The tour bus dropped us off at hotel near the Rainbow Village, where we were staying tonight. Along the way to the hotel we stopped and looked at some gift shops and got dinner! We went to this place called Prospectors Pizzeria. It was amazing, although a little overpriced. We got to the hotel and dropped all our stuff off then decided to check out this ice cream place a lady recommended to us. Sadly, by the time we got there it was closed. It occurred to us we’d want breakfast the next morning so we went and got some pastries at a small grocery store and some snacks. We tried to go to some other stores but almost everything was closed by 10:30, so we just went back to the hotel and went to bed.The next morning, we took a shuttle back to Denali National Park. We arrived early to board our train tour for the day, so we could watch a short sled dog movie. It was really cute and I’d definitely watch it again. My brother and I got to finish our junior ranger activity books. The prize for finishing it was a wooden junior ranger badge that had a special design on it since it was the hundredth anniversary of the Denali National Park Sled Dog Kennels.Afterwards we got on the train tour from Denali to Talkeetna. It was a really comfortable train with tons of leg room, a glass dome, and it’s own dining area. It was the last car on the train so there was this little porch you could go out on that was open air. We didn’t see many animals, maybe one moose, but the scenery was amazing. There was the Hurricane Gulch Bridge that was super tall and looked like you were on the top of the world. I kind of wish we could’ve stayed on the train longer. The train dropped us off in Talkeetna and we went shopping in a couple of the gift shops nearby and I got a dream box. Legend says that if you write down your dream and put it in, then hold the box and think of your dream before you go to bed every night, it’ll come true. Mine has my name on it and a wood burning of bears.Our cousins picked us up and we went to a river and tried to skip rocks. What we really did was sink a bunch of rocks. We picked up subway for dinner on the way home and a couple groceries. Once we got home, we ate and the played some board games. Then it was time for a surprise. Among the groceries was ice cream! After way too much sugar we played more board games. All the sugar was probably why we stayed up too late but at least we slept well once we all crashed. Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Waiter, head waiter, assistant waiter and your stateroom attendant. Yes, when you buy a drink package, you pay a "service fee" that covers gratuities. Every order they take, they get a bigger piece of the pie of gratuities for that day