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Well we are now at T3 in LHR waiting for a gate to be posted. They will not post the gate until an hour before departure. How can I describe the chaos that is T3 at LHR? The train ride from T5 (where Sofitel is) to T3 was quick and easy. Things started to go wonky when we went to check our bags. Because we are Canadian citizens, but flying into DTW, there was a slight delay as the ticket agent explained that their system doesn’t allow them to check off that we are just passing through the US, and their is no address that we are staying at. I already anticipated this would be a hold up because yesterday when I was doing the online check in, it wouldn’t let us check Hubby in online. And when I was filling in the contact tracing, it would not let me check that I am passing through and not remaining in the US. Anyway, after explaining to the ticket agent that our car is parked at DTW and we drive back to Canada from there, they said all is good and boarding passes were printed. I told them that as long as there is no trouble at the gate, we are all good. Next came the part where everything you see on the news lately (about LHR) is true. Massive lines to get from checking your luggage to security. The line was wrapped around to the outside, 5 lines deep. Hubby took a pic but the pic doesn’t truly show the craziness here. Once you make it into the part of the line that is inside the terminal, it’s about another 75-90 mins to actually get to the security check point. As the ever optimist (glass is half full person), Hubby said at least there are lots of staff directing the crowds, which there was. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 12:55pm. Last night before bed, the family discussed what time we should get to T3. In normal times, 3 hours is the general guideline for international flights. I told them that news about LHR has not been the greatest. We decided to give ourselves 4 hours and we left our hotel room at 8:30am this morning. Thank goodness we did. It is now just past 11:00am and we are relaxed and waiting for our gate, praying that our flight does not get cancelled. All is on time for now. Fingers crossed. In other news, lots of reports from our FB roll call group this morning and last night of people getting home and testing positive for covid. Not great news for FR coming up.

Headed home.

Update on us! Like @Lovetocruise2002 we left CK that morning, and were in our ride 15 minutes later. We used blackberry cars again and 2hrs later we were in London walking into our hotel. We will be here in London for another 5 days. We don’t have a bunch of Suite credits and we were also looking for convenience, we we are in a Premier Inn, within a very short walk to Paddington Station. It’s a place to sleep and one that also claims to have the space for 4 people in the room. Well this room didn’t match the picture on the website. It’s a bit snug We will make it work. It would be better if there were more options for storage. The AC is nice and cold, which will be good for Monday when it’s due to be 101 degrees. That’s 38.3 for the neighbour (neighbor?) that lives in the ingloo I’ll have much more to update everyone with as we go along, but I have to be careful with my phone battery. Like an idiot, I brought the wrong outlet adapters for the UK, so until I can get a few, updates will be sparse.

All is good. Phew! Hubby did not have to show his new food coma cruise bod.

Okay, backtracking a little bit here. So where we left off, we had caught our ride up to London to the hotel. We dropped our bags and headed out into the city to explore. We started with a hop on hop off bus tour and headed to the direction of Tower Bridge. We got to see many sights along the way. We drove down Regent Street with all its shopping. Johnny’s ears sure perked up when he heard about the 7 floors of toys at Hamleys! We saw some of the West End and Soho. Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Westminster, Houses of Parliament, the clock tower that contains Big Ben, Downing Street, the financial district and on and on. It was a good way to see a lot of the city.

Perhaps they caught you trying to smuggle a genie home in his luggage?

There have been reports of genies testing positive and in one case two genies tested positive on the same cruise. When that happens they have to quarantine. Suite cabin attendants can also test positive and need to quarantine. They can try to move a regular cabin attendant to cover but that person hasn't normally proven they are capable of serving suite accommodations. There are scenarios right now that can impact all levels on a cruise including Star Class. Star Class is not immune from the potential from impact. Those are the risks cruising right now. The entertainment cast might test positive and that prevents a show from going on. Everyone on board is impacted. When Star Class resources are made unavailable unexpectedly it can impact the Star Class experience directly. Perhaps now is not a good time to travel if this potential outcome is unacceptable to you. That is a perfectly acceptable and understandable position to take given the money spent for the elevated experience you should expect but that may not always be possible at the moment.

My first Oasis Class cruise was on the Oasis, it was also my first Royal cruise. After being loyal to Brand X for many years and some major disappointments with them, we decided to move on and try something different. Up until then, the largest ship we have been on was, I believe, the Freedom or Dream of Brand X. Well, we walked on Oasis into the Promenade and just couldn't believe our eyes. I just couldn't believe how big it was, massive and the décor, lighting and ambiance was fantastic. It really didn't hit home, how big it was until we had to walk from our suite, Aqua Theater Suite, which is at the very very aft of the ship, to the theater, which is at the very forward of the ship. It seemed like I should have called for a Uber. Now, none of this is negative, just the opposite. I truly love Oasis Class ships. I was just looking at some of my videos of my whole family entering the Oasis and the looks of my daughter, her husband, and our Grandkids was absolutely amazing and a treat to watch how happy they were. Their eyes just got so big, their mouths dropped, their faces just glowed with joy and anticipated excitement. I just wish I was a better word smith to express how it made me feel. This is why I'm so loyal to Royal. Yes, there are issues. But, trivial compared to the joy we all experience while ON THE SHIPS.

After we got off the bridge, we were pretty hungry. This sign lured me in. Like any typical male, I didn’t read the whole thing at first and was disappointed when I walked in. Despite my disappointment the food was good. This place is called The Vault and is built into the bridge pier. We got fish and chips, and we are firmly on the side of malt vinegar @JLMoran There was also a burger and some nuggets. The Boss found her new favorite drink

My kids claim they can happily sail in a regular cabin. In fact, they keep telling me they look forward to it. They say that I am the only suite snob in the family. We shall see

For anyone staying in Athens before or after a cruise, I’d like to add to the thousands of positive Trip Adviser reviews and highly recommend Hera Hotel as a fantastic place to stay. The Hotel is a small, boutique style place without the boutique hotel pricing. We stayed for two nights, in two rooms (wife and I in one, our daughters in the other). Both rooms were nice and very clean, staff was great, and the price was phenomenal: €115 per night at time of booking, plus €31 in taxes and €12 in local taxes/fees. For that, we got two large and comfortable beds in each room (ours were pushed together to make a king bed, though there was about a 4-inch gap between the mattresses). Our room had a balcony large enough for two to sit on and enjoy coffee, with a view of the local downtown and a tub shower with a VERY high step-in. The girls’ room has a much smaller balcony, more decorative than functional, and a walk-in glass shower stall. The rooms are definitely varied. But the biggest draw of this hotel is its location. It is a 2-minute straight walk to the Acropolis and its museum. It’s also on a road load with restaurants and shops, with many more in equally easy walking distance. All of them good, all of them reasonable even for being in the most touristy and busiest part of the city. Only negative comment I have is that the night life around here gets loud and on a Friday night goes until 2:30 AM or slightly later. Not any fault of this place, though. That’s just Athens in general. Definitely look at staying here if you need to spend a couple days in Athens, and especially if any of that time will be spent exploring the Acropolis.

Some fun things we saw on the way to the bus. Nothing says “we are an international tourist destination” when they have to put this on the roads to remind everyone that the direction cars come is different than everywhere else. We also like to find highly rated local restaurants to try out when we travel. It’s a good thing there are so many…… Next stop Tower Bridge

Harmony uses RFID cards. The problem isn't the chip but the antenna wires that run throughout the RFID cards. Here is a Royal card held up against a very powerful LED flashlight. The flashlight reveals the outline of the RFID chip but also the antenna wires that run throughout the card in an rectangular pattern. If you cut the antenna wires the card is rendered useless. Back in 2019 Ovation was briefly providing pre-punched cards. All cards had a hole in them but the card was manufactured with the antenna wires closer to the middle of the card away from the edges and even farther from the bottom edge of the card and the pre-punched hole : Once this card stock was depleted Ovation then used regular card stock that didn't have the pre-punched hole. Royal routinely obtains different card stock from various vendors. Each vendor can have a different manufacturing process so a ship might have a punch that works with one vendor but months later the same punch doesn't work with another vendor's cards.

Our trip is saved! Our trip is saved Adapters have been secured! While it’s great to be able to charge phones etc. The Boss is happier now that she can do her hair!

I can't help with this as we always choose to walk off the ship with our luggage. We did not use the feature, but I do remember that if we wanted to use it then we couldn't be first off the ship since the Genie (we had the guy you always see in the pictures, which was super fun!) was the one arranging to have our luggage taken down. We just let him know that we'd be walking off instead. I will say that anytime we didn't use him for something I honest to goodness think we hurt his feelings a bit, lol. I got the room because it was a two bedroom aqua theater suite and I just thought it was awesome, I knew we weren't really going to use the Genie, but once we met him on board I tried to use him because he'd always come by and talk to us about all the things he could provide. We did end up having him get us seats to the shows, and that was really convenient. Oh, when you board, be sure you don't walk on with your luggage (we're also those people), that bothered the Genie a lot as well. He wants to DO IT for you, ha ha. You're going to have so much fun!

We used Port of Seattle's "Port Valet" luggage service when cruised the first week of June this year. We received out luggage tags the day before debarkation. We checked three bags on Southwest from SEA-BWI. Everything arrived without any issues. I highly recommend it if your planning to do any touring after the cruise and before you fly back. Here's the link to self-register: https://maketraveleasier.com/PortValet

I was just curious, how come kids can be unvaccinated and still cruise but kids/adults 12 and older have to be vaccinated? Don’t kids under 12 have the chance of getting Covid as anyone else. Plus I’m reading many times people testing positive for Covid after cruising.

That's b/c you leave their a$$es at home when you don't cruise in SC ! LOL [just kidding !]

I have a moment to add some quick background info - 1) I ordered the emed test 3 pack through RC on 4th of July weekend WITH expedited 2 day shipping and it still took 9 days - came yesterday and was supposed to be here July 9, so not sure if it was a holiday issue, or UPS having to be deployed for prime day or what, but promised shipping timeframe was WAY off and that was with the quick ship option! We still have a few free drive up Covid testing options in CO so we are scheduled for that as well tomorrow morning with emed as a back up, I don’t even want to to take a chance with invalid results —- Our planned Christmas cruise 2021was derailed by 1 of 4 being positive for Covid in the holiday wave 2) I’ll be comparing the standard suite class offerings on Royal with the Haven on NCL as far as amenities go so when we can rebook a longer family holiday journey we can decide on NCL vs. Royal - we were lucky enough to score a super reduced Alaska sailing in a single Haven room when the kids were small enough to share a double sofa when they repositioned the Joy from the Asian market last minute a few years back, so our most recent family cruise was in the Haven and I have to say the bar is pretty high there in terms of beautiful spaces and food —- I didn’t find the butler to be anything special, he left snacks - but I did enjoy the haven Lounge and restaurant and pool area. 3) my kids are both excited for the teen area on the Harmony, NCL left a lot to be desired in that aspect, and they both loved the Disney clubs when they were younger - also they are in the same teen activity age group for this sailing which makes it easy to have a buddy. 4) I can’t wait to check out CocoCay and Labadee - from the looks of it they blow Castaway Cay out of the water. We have water park passes for the day at CocoCay and a beach bed on Chill island ( where I’ll be lounging with a cocktail and a book after I am Waterparked out - although my kids may stay on the slides all day. Hopefully my next update tomorrow includes negative Covid tests and an on time departure on Southwest Saturday morning ! please let me know if anyone has any questions about anything on this thread, I have found these forums super helpful for planning our trip and am happy to contribute anything that hasn’t been covered.

Goodnight all! Hubby

Tomorrow we are going to push disembarkation as late as we can (eye roll here, yes, we are going to be “those people” this one time) because we are spending one extra day in the UK before flying home on Saturday. The rationale here was that we did not want to face a long flight home on debarkation day. Staying an extra day gives us a chance to rest and reset before flying home. As we were packing up today, Hubby said to me, “We aren’t staying in some fancy hotel tomorrow, are we?” Well, I wonder if after almost 20 years of marriage he really knows me lol. I am also willing to bet he doesn’t know we had 5 Accor Suite Night upgrades and not 4.

A gorgeous sunset to cap off a beautiful vacation. Hubby We feel incredibly blessed. There were a lot of hurdles to clear to take this trip and everything went so smoothly, right down to perfect weather even on days that we forecasted to be not great. Someone was definitely watching over us. Over the last two weeks, we have experienced so much as a family, it’s going to take us a few days to get home and really digest and soak in what we saw. Meeting @GregD and his family has been a real treat! It is always great to meet and sail with people you have gotten to know over the years. Our cruising community is small, goodbyes are just a “so long for now”.

Dinner at Chops tonight and Leroy had some nice things for us. It was a great way to end this cruise. What The Boss didn’t know was that Leroy reached out to me and asked for pictures of the two of us together and this was the result. For dinner, The Boss had shrimp cocktail and the goat cheese salad. The camera forgot it’s bite there. I had the wild mushroom soup that everyone apparently loves. For me it was just okay. We both had the petit fillet, and I added the lobster. I was informed that they didn’t have the full lobsters and just had the tails. No big deal for me!

Star Class has changed a lot since the restart, have had two experiences with Star Class after the restart and a few before Covid. I am focusing on the restart, one Genie was over the top ~ and the other Genie was not and RC totally heard about both. The Genies due to protocol were not around as much, one Genie we saw every day from a distance (we were walked on and off), and the other Genie we were lucky to see (if ever) even when we disembarked. I have mentioned this before, you "pay a premium price for Star Class" and that is what I expect. Prices on everything is going up and for our vacation dollars I don't want less for more, and when we do the next star class - hopefully RC and the Genies will be better.

Ice cubes, can't select crushed or not.

But not an ideal family cruise. What I don't understand about Carnival and RC who both cater to family cruises (most parents of kids don't smoke) is that they don't offer some ships as smoke free and others at smoking out of major ports. You have multiple Oasis class ships sailing out of Florida, why not take advantage of that and make one Oasis class ship (one with lots of family slides and stuff) a non-smoking ship. This would allow them to appeal to a large population of families who would love to never smell smoke and also not effect smokers who can just not pick that ship. It really would be an easy fix. I report people ASAP who smoke on balconies at non-smoking resorts, I would have zero issue making a phone call if someone was smoking n a balcony on a cruise ship. Like you said it is a fire hazard if they are throwing butts off the balcony. But I paid for a balcony to enjoy and I won't be stuck inside because of some idiot smoker who isn't following the rules. When you paid for the cruise you knew there was no smoking on the balcony, why would you then break that rule?

The passport in the safe or the pocket is like religion. Some people are in one camp and other people are in the other camp. A passport card doesn't really do you much good in the event you needed to fly home so if you are off the ship in a port of call there isn't much value having a passport card in your possession. I suppose it might grease the wheels at a consulate or embassy trying to get a passport book issued in an emergency just to establish your identity but I don't know that is a fact. A damaged passport is useless so if are going to carry it off the ship have a means to keep it secure and protected. Don't put it in a backpack that could be stolen somewhere while at a bar or eating lunch in a cafe off the ship. On a sailboat excursion for example it could rain or a wave could soak a backpack so having passports in a ziplock bag may offer protection from water damage. A port like CocoCay probably has less risk or need to have your passport with you while a port of call in another country where you could have an incident that keeps you from reboarding the ship may mean it is more desirable to take your passport with you. At the end of the day know the risks and make a decision you can live with since no one here will be there to assist you when the unexpected occurs.

@Moby Dick i understand the comparison but Disney deals in volume and unless you pay extreme amounts of money (far beyond my reach) Disney is self-guided whereas RC markets Star as a personalized experience. Don’t get me wrong, we still love Royal, just saying they might want to put a little elbow grease on the star and make it shine again. If you are selling intangibles (ie an experience) and market it that way, a company should be prepared to deliver. They are selling that fab anniversary, that amazing 16th BD, that memorable family reunion. Seems to us that has been lost somewhere in the numbers. Star is not supposed to be nor should be routine.

Many people are starting to put GPS trackers in their luggage for this very reason. It may not help the airline get your bag to you, but you may be able to determine if it's still with the airline or if it's been stolen. One example is below, but there are certainly others. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NRS3YP8?tag=cttv04-20&linkCode=ssc&creativeASIN=B08NRS3YP8&asc_item-id=amzn1.ideas.3RY5B8EG2VXLP

I hesitate to comment on this thread since I have not cruised (any class) since the re-start, but I will say something about the luggage delivery situation since this has been a pet peeve of mine for some time. There is really no excuse for your luggage not being delivered to your suite in a timely manner. I concur that this is a matter of poor training and lack of oversight. Even though your Genie is not the one delivering your luggage, he/she is the one responsible for making sure you are happy (don't read too much into that statement...I fully realize no one but YOU can "make" you happy)...and delayed, incomplete or piss-poor luggage delivery will not make a guest happy...and it's a very bad way to start the cruise. TBH, I feel like the luggage delivery schema for SC has been sketchy all along. I totally understand about reduced resources but as I said, I think this has been a problem from the beginning even when "reduced resources" (how much do I hate this excuse !!) were not necessarily an issue. The promo video shows Reyno climbing the stairs, swinging a suitcase, smiling all the while. So much wrong with that picture.... This is the primary reason that we have, in the past, insisted that our luggage remain with us during embarkation. The reasons are: (1) You know where your luggage is at all times ! It never leaves your sight. (2) We make sure that the luggage "handler" (BTW, this can be a complicated situation.....particularly in Bayonne where there are, in most cases, 3 separate "groups" of people touching your bags. It could be like this at other ports too but I know for sure that the Longshoremen in NJ require only Union labor touch your bags prior to them getting onto the ship) takes the bags UPSTAIRS, not just leave them at the foot of the stairs or worse, outside (which HAS happened to us even when SC) ! (3) Of course, if you and your bags arrive at the same time then you can begin unpacking immediately, if this is your choice. If not, do whatever you choose to do...but you will know that your bags are there and waiting. One less thing to worry about. Certainly there are situations where your room is not ready yet or for whatever reason, you do not go directly to your suite, in which case, we have them go ahead and take the bags to the suite with instructions for the bags to be taken upstairs. We haven't had that scenario fail us YET.

This is exactly my assertion. I agree with it 100% especially the airline scenario. The second disgusting thought I didn't love & I would assign a disgusting response if there was one. There is NO excuse for the failure pertaining to human fluids. It just seems everywhere I go prices are up and quality is down. Star is about the experience & while I loved it and MAY book it again waaay in the future Sky is still my happy place, but taking a break from Royal right now sadly makes me happier. Just want to give her a minute to figure things out instead of me feeling my experience is meh for the $$. I am a glass half full person in life, but I can also see a diluted experience/product that should not be. I know this is a fan site so I'm sorry ahead of time if I offend with this post.

Will be headed to Port Canaveral in a few hours for lunch!

Sitting at the gate after a too early wake up, so early in fact we saw one set of the neighborhood bears crossing the road. The Denver airport is ridiculously far from everywhere so it’s always a lengthy process. Southwest just added more gates too, I wouldn’t want to be in gate 99 - already clocked over a mile according to my smart watch from the curb to gate 62 . I’m going to practice uploading pics so apologies if they are in the middle of text or out of sequence - want to get it right before I we get on the ship ! Nothing like an understaffed airport Starbucks with a barista who seems to be in slow motion - and a group of teen girls from some sort of sports team ordering an endless amount of Venti frappuccinos. My mile long walk to the gate.

Serenade in 2023 offered many Baltic itineraries that included a stop in Russia. Some had overnight stays there. That is why she was redeployed. Other Royal ships from Europe in 2023 never included Russia so they are not impacted by this update.

We had an experience in New Zealand in 2018, before current fiasco. We used our agent to inquire through American Airline, and they just said they lost visibility when Air Tahiti Nui took over. We filed luggage claim in Auckland and then told Customer Service when we boarded the cruise the following day. Royal had a team that worked with NZ Air to track down the luggage-we gave Royal Staff a copy of our claim. They gave us a t-shirt and toiletries, provided free laundry service, and eventually delivered our luggage about day4 of our 14-night cruise. We had to buy extra clothes and "beauty aids" in NZ and our trip insurance covered all costs (delayed luggage claim with receipts provided). Could it have been worse? Yes, the bags might have been lost or stolen. Hence, a few extra items need to be in your carry-on, always cross-pack, always have a TA, and always have trip insurance of some type (some Airline Credit Cards have luggage coverage).

At the gate now. They just announced boarding in 10mins time. Hubby has been taken to another area for a random “special search” Looks like they are just searching through all his carry on items in detail, I hope.

We were laughing at the reports on TV yesterday while chilling at the hotel re: the heat wave. Where we are in Ontario, I work in a non-air conditioned school, with a class full of 13 year olds, in over 40°C (100°F) some days in June.

When you pay for Star, you are not paying for a list of tangible items. Star is an experience. The greater industry is not germaine. By your logic, you are saying if you paid for first class on an airline on a transatlantic and was seated in economy plus or coach, you would be ok with that due to changes in the travel industry post-pandemic. I dont think you would find that a good value. The fact is Royal is 100% in control of their genies and how they market and execute the Royal Class program. I am not interested in comparisons to the industry at large. If I spend 15k on a vacation, I expect 15K in value based on previous experience in Star. I am not comparing Royal to NCL, Carnival, Holland America. I am comparing Royal to Royal. The pandemic has nothing to do with customer service, that is up to the Genie. What Royal allows as acceptable in respect to their Genies is completely up to the company but in my opinion, customer service costs nothing to the company unless the customer decides there is no longer any value. The fact that Star suites sell fast is no reason for half-tailed service. Lets be serious for a moment, a bucket of champagne with no ice at embarkation, lost luggage and human fluids on the wall after a “special” cruise. The hotel manager himself scrubbed our walls while we were in port at CoCo Cay. In what world would you consider that luxury. The fact my daughter had to see that much less live with that for 2 days is disgusting and not what we paid for.

Covid results are in and we are clear to sail, here’s hoping the air portion from Denver to Orlando goes smoothly. I can’t wait for that first waft of hot, humid mildewy jetway air as we emerge into the MCO terminal, that makes me sweat in places I forgot I had sweat glands living here in the dry prairie that is Colorado.

Chai tea latte isn't coffee. So, for someone who isn't a coffee drinker, and isn't a tea drinker, this isn't "fancy", it's just a hot drink in the morning (or iced, if it's hot). It's just not that complicated.

I did not do the VIP tour, just the regular tour =transfer and entry ticket, as this was a port day for us. When we boarded the excursion bus at the pier there was an info pamphlet/map of NASA. It had the info gif the app. Look at the material snd download the app. The driver was excellent and told us when we got to NASA to go directly to the free bus that would take us out to Apollo Saturn center, so we did just that. It’s a bit of a drive but there are information videos that go with the sites you are seeing as you head to that center. You catch a free tour there and it’s very informative. You can take your time and catch the free return bus to the main campus, where you first arrived, and explore that area until it was time to go to the bus back. It’s a beautiful campus, I wish I had more time there, I’d go back in a heartbeat. sorry I can’t give additional info

My first cruise was on Freedom in April 2015, and I was that guy with the jaw on the floor. I was absolutely blown away, from how easy it was to board all the way to disembarkation. The ports (St Thomas, St. Maarten, and the original Coco Cay) were fantastic as well! Loved it so much that as soon as I got home, I booked the exact same cruise for the next year. So, two Freedom, two Oasis, and two Harmony's later, I'm stoked for Wonder in December!!

Paging @SpeedNoodles. She did the bike trip

This is my favorite suite perk, to be honest! Order about 40 min before you think you'd like to eat. Also, the room service phone answerers these days may get confused, thinking you can only get MDR delivered if you're in quarantine, but just gently remind them you're in a suite and they'll remember.

@Lovetocruise2002 and @GregD Thanks to you both for taking us along. You are beautiful people with beautiful families. Every evening I would look forward to your pictures and commentary. Last night hubby put in a DVD for a movie we wanted to enjoy, he was like "I'm ready!" I responded "I'm not, still catching up with Sabrina and crew!" He laughed and did something else until I was finished. Then he said didn't she go to Norway? So we revisited all of the photos from page 1! The content was amazing, you guys did great, I felt like I was there with you. I felt the cold, I felt the food coma (with zero calories) but most of all I felt the joy! Happy Birthday D16 and Happy Anniversary Greg D family. I enjoyed your journey and personally feel like I visited myself, thinking of checking this one off my bucket list, I even stayed Star Class! Safe travels all, be well and until next time...

Relaxing comfortably at the Sofitel Heathrow right now. We are camping out here until tomorrow morning. Then we fly home. I had 1 Accor suite night upgrade left to use. That is why we are here. Otherwise I would be staying in one of the T3 hotels instead. We have the Prestige Suite. It has one main bedroom, a living area with a fold out couch, one master bath with shower and tub, and a separate half bath with toilet/sink. Lots of space for the 4 of us.

We just settled into our hotel room. Kids: “Where is the cutlery in this room so that we can have a snack?” Me: Um, this is not star class. Remember in regular hotels there usually is not cutlery waiting for you. Lol

I can give you ALL the details! I was on this tour on July 3 while it was guided. We had been on site for about 30 minutes (max) when a security guard literally interrupted our guide mid sentence and physically pulled him away from our group. Come to find out, the operators of the visitor complex (Delaware North) decided that only their tour guides could provide guided services, and did not inform any of the tour companies of this decision. The security staff was extremely rude and ejected all of the group because we had violated their rules by having an unauthorized tour guide, no exceptions to allow us to tour on our own. Everyone from the tour guide, the tour operator, and Royal were all blindsided by this. They even had a scheduled time for a bus exclusively for our group to go out to the Apollo/Saturn center, but we were unable to do so. They literally had armed guards walk us out and got really nasty with us, and were glaring at us as we waited for our bus to return. Nobody in the group acted out of line or violated any moral/legal/or ethical standards, other than the fact we used a valid ticket to enter the complex with an unauthorized tour guide. The tour guide and tour operator had been doing this tour for Royal for years. While we were in the middle of this they stopped at least one other tour company. I would normally say it is worth a visit, but I don't want any money to go to that company. I had done this exact tour from Royal last November and loved it, so I wanted to try it again. But if you do go, I believe there are buses operated by the Center to take people out to the Apollo/Saturn center. I am not sure the visit is worth it without that, but the Atlantis Shuttle Center is pretty amazing and could make it worthwhile. One of the biggest values I found out of the excursion was the tour guide providing history of the space program and the area on the way there and the commentary/guided tour through the center. If you do go and you encounter Rex either on the bus or at the center distributing your prepaid tickets be really nice to him- he literally had the vast majority of his income evaporate in front of our group of 47 that morning.

Final thoughts of Star Class on Anthem: - SC definitely paid off for activities. We had zero stress getting to the bumper cars, North Star, iFly. - Specialty food options are lacking a bit on Quantum class, compared to Oasis. We repeated most of the specialty restaurants, they were all good, but compared to our other star sailings, this one lacked variety a bit. - At the end of our 3rd cruise now on Anthem, I can definitely say that they have the best CK staff. On all our sailings on this ship, from March 2018-now, this CK remains beyond excellent compared to other CK crews. There is just something extra about them. - Leroy, our Genie is fantastic! He is so well organized, kind, great with little kids, and pay attention to small little details. Every day he sends an overview of the day, reminders along the way, follows up on orders to the room, he is beyond thorough. Every dinner he showed up to walk us in (they don’t all do that), and no request was too much for him to handle. He is very dedicated to this job and it shows in his actions each day. He is headed back home soon for vacation but if anyone gets him in the future, they are lucky and in good hands.

Final thoughts on our Grand Loft Suite. I will admit, I did not set many expectations for this suite only because I am #teamDeck17 at heart. Several things did not surprise me about this room: - It is most definitely a long walk to/from the suite. - There is quite a bit of motion back here. - The missing vanity downstairs (compared to the star loft) was missed by the two teenage girls. It made getting ready a tad slower. A few things that did surprise me about this suite: - Aside from the long trek to/from the room, I liked the room a lot. It is not as “open” as the star loft but I did not mind it. - The master bathroom layout in this room is way better than the star loft on the older OA/AL, and the newer HM. It is more open and there is more counter space. This one wins for sure. - The view from this suite is the best. Hands down. No contest. On OA class ships, with all your Deck 17 rooms, there is either some obstruction from the back deck (flow rider, basketball court, mini golf, etc.) in your line of sight. The ocean facing ones are one sided. The ATS has the Aqua Theater in the line of sight. This room gives you a totally central view of the wake with nothing but the wake in your line of sight. No other room can do that. We have taken so many balcony pics this cruise compared to other cruises. Would I hesitate to book this room again? Definitely not.