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We are winding down at the Hyatt inside the Orlando Airport for the night. The super early wake up and travel day, followed by a few hours at the pool have all of us ready to get a good night’s sleep before embarkation tomorrow. This Hyatt is an absolute sea of pleasant calm in the chaos of the airport, and so convenient for a pre-cruise stay. We went with a patio room this time because the rooms that look over the airport atrium don’t have doors that open even though they have balconies, some sort of “safety risk” and I love the fresh humid air and rain that we don’t get at home. We are using the ship’s bus transportation in the morning to the port so it’s just a matter of getting up when we are ready and going down to level 1. No proper breakfast needed for sure, as we will be starting our 7 days of food. Here are some pictures of the room ( 2 QNS with patio), the very quiet hallway atrium outside the room that you would never guess is right above the hustle and bustle of the security lanes, and the rooftop pool area with views of planes taking off — definitely not a resort mega pool area with bells and whistles, but more than enough to swim in and cool off, and way bigger than anything we will be dipping our feet in on the ship! We can’t wait for tomorrow, my son asked whether we will be on the loud terminal forklift loading side at PC, or the harbor side looking out towards Cape Canaveral. I’m not sure how the ship is normally oriented while in Port so we will find out soon.

My wife just hit me with something that I just don't know how to deal with it. I didn't think I'd have to deal with this for at least another year or so. I am at a cross roads and I don't think I can handle the old bag anymore. I've been think of getting a new one but it's cheaper to keep the old bag. So I'm asking for your help, any and all comments are welcome and please be candid with your suggestions, answers, criticisms, I'm a big boy and can take it. My wife want to buy new luggage. I've told her the old bags are just fine, at least until our next cruise in Jan 2024. So, my question is: Hard side or soft? Which is the most durable. I like soft sided but I've never had the hard sided ones. She wants hard, imagine that. Besides the B.S. innuendo, this is really a serious question.

Not sure there really is much of a difference between soft side and hard side luggage. The bigger decision for me has to do with the wheels. Pushing, pulling or rolling the luggage around is much easier with the newer style 360 wheels that roll around any which way you want them to. Oh…and the weight of the empty luggage! The lighter it is empty…the more “stuff” I can fill it with before hitting the 50lb mark!! Who knew there was so much to consider when thinking about trading in older baggage for newer ones??

After lunch we headed across the bridge again over to the Tower of London. This fortress was larger than I thought and we explored all over the place. We saw some of the carvings that the infamous “guests” left in the walls and eventually saw the Crown Jewels. They don’t mess around in there with their no photography policy. There were many teenagers who got yelled at for simply having their phones in their hands. Traitors Gate Johnny was ready to defend the fortress! We didn’t try messing with these guys… We were in awe as to what was inside here.

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

Wow! I can’t say enough about suite class so far - I would pull the $$ trigger on that again in a heartbeat JUST for embarkation on an Oasis size ship. We finally left MCO at 12:15 and the bus ride was uneventful in a good way. There were several people dozing off in the cool A/C after whatever “hurry up and wait” travel situations have finally culminated in getting to the ship. The last few times we have used transportation from the Airport to the ship have been on Disney years ago and the mood on Disney is considerably more amped up with people wearing Mickey ears while being inundated with DCL cartoons and Mickey shorts. I would compare it to a weekend trip to Vegas - the Friday night outbound flight is hooting and hollering ( DCL) and the Sunday flight back is hungover and asleep ( RCL). Speaking of which …. The RCL port rep came on board to let us know there are 6000 ppl checking in, a long line ahead and to have Covid test, and Covid cards at the ready for phase one of spot check. We bypassed the entire cluster of what looked to be nothing short of a 500-800 person line, were shuttled past everyone and waiting behind one family to get into the terminal. 20 minutes from off the bus to door on the ship, but I can feel the elevator pain already as it took almost as long to get to 17. Made it Suite lounge and Coastal kitchen by 1:35, and Mario already handled the aforementioned adult 12 year old dining situation with the UDP. Interestingly enough, not one person in the whole chain has told us how to get to our room? I guess we just see if there’s keys there. More later - I keep getting alerts that I have a few hours left to complete the safety drill. Here is the line at the port at 1 pm

It was Probably my irish gypsy ancestors who quoted for resurfacing the road that runs along it

More importantly once you force a logout, it’s tricky to log back in. Friends don’t let friends logout.

The 360 degree wheels are key.

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

We hopped off the bus at Tower Bridge and explored the area. You know you are in Europe when you see this live in an amphitheater. If you know, you know! Not sure of the significance of the monkeys, but we had to get a picture. We headed into the bridge, and started up the stairs. 206 stairs, and this one made sure to count every one to give us status updates. Once at the top, we headed across the upper walkway. There is a glass floor to let you see down. This one said NOPE to that floor This one loved that floor The views were expansive! Here was a neat view. This is inside the tower, looking up. After the bridge we got to explore the engine room that housed the old steam engines that were in use up to the ‘70s until they were replaced with electric motors.

I'm a guy and can do it easily. For Carribean, I pack 1 or 2 pants for dinner, 2 shorts, 7 underwear and socks, 1 swim suit, 7 polo style shirts plus 3 t shirts, a sport coat and my bathroom bag. I also take a normal size backpack with a change of clothes and usually 2 bottles of wine.

No wonder they call it by the old name !

Yes. Our Genie that we had in March 2022 would not return a reply for days. He turned out to be one of my favourites. How fast they respond is not a good indicator of what they will be like onboard (from my own personal experience).

We switched to hard side bags from Away Luggage a couple years ago. We love them, 4 wheel 360 degree design, good locks, and best of all LIFETIME warranty. We have used the warranty once for a broken interior zipper, and it could not have gone smoother. Called them and described the issue; 2 days later a new bag was on the porch, put the old bag in the shipping box, and Fed Ex came and picked it up.

I guess it depends how much you love the "old bag" Definitely cheaper to keep the older model....getting a newer model will cost you as it won't be just a standard bag it will come with lots of extra costs you may not have considered! Difficult one this! Soft sided ones are obviously more likely to let us down as they are more fragile Where as the hard sided while more robust come with other issues for a more senior person. You could keep the older soft one and your wife could look into getting a new hard one to cater for her needs. Theres always young men at the airports/cruise terminals who would assist in helping her with it.

Wasn’t that what the vaccination was for???

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!

Situated in the room for sail away after exploring the ship. We did have our sea pass cards waiting for us after we left Coastal Kitchen for lunch, and it’s a ridiculously easy walk from our loft suite to the coastal kitchen and suite lounge. Thanks to the good info on these blog forums, I am definitely glad we went with the deck 17 room, and did not entertain a Royal up that was offered on an Aquatheater suite. For this sailing the choices upgrading from a crown loft were the 2bd Aquatheater, the 4 bd villa suite, or the Royal loft with a grand piano — the latter two just way way too lavish for me and the teens! Oasis class general impressions : I can tell as echoed in previous reviews of Oasis class ships THE ELEVATORS ARE A PROBLEM. I can’t even imagine not being an able bodied person to take the stairs if needed - absolutely packed up and down all ways so far, it seems they are short by about half the elevators in both banks. Central Park is ah-mazing. What an awesome concept and kudos to the design team for the idea of live plants and the gardeners who tend the area. The whole ship is enormous and beautiful but the whole Central Park area is a wonderful standout, the kids and I agree hands down if you went with one of the interior balconies - definitely the Central Park vs. Boardwalk. The Casino reeks of stale smoke, we had to pass through there empty to find fhe hibachi place we are eating at tonight and our muster station, and it’s nauseatingly smoky…completely empty with machines off. I don’t want to think how gross it is when it’s open. I’ll be avoiding this area in passing if I can. Suite Class impressions : Wonderful. Mario helped me with the UDP thing for a minute on a busy day around 1:30 when the desk was stacked with confused arriving passengers, and when I popped in again to ask about Waterpark passes since I didn’t see anything in the shore excursions stuff in the room as we returned this afternoon for sail away, he greeted me with a hello by name. Maria in the suite lounge bar, who brought me a glass of chilled wine with lunch approached me immediately upon my return with a sweating glass of beer from exploring the ship waiting to ask Mario about the Waterpark and said “let me get you a fresh glass” Maria ( housekeeper) was in the hall when I was returning to the suite and went over everything about the room and our dining times and the sofa bed before I could even get the sea pass card from my pocket. Wonderful service so far. the Suite : there’s plenty of videos and pictures online of the crown lofts and it’s more spacious in person. Side note we are port side and do face Cape Canaveral for sail away. I was also pleased the depth of the upstairs bed to the railing is more than it seems online, I think I was picturing dropping something off the the side of the bed and bumping my head on the rail, but it is spacious. Here are some pics from wandering around today more later! We had masks waiting for us, different for adult, teen and 12 Also make Note of the super weird artwork piece of the half man half sea creature with a mustache being coddled by a man - my kids noted on the way to the casino, I’m not an HGTV designer but what exactly would be the appropriate room to display this ?? Feel free to tell me in replies

As an update, looks like the cups are back, or at least they are on the Allure. I saw someone post a pic on a Facebook group.

Seriously... We've had just about every sort of luggage over the years... The important thing used to be "durability"...but no longer... For us, the most important thing about ANY luggage is WEIGHT. With airlines allowing only 50 pounds and charging for additional pieces...and with us taking longer and longer trips...plus other considerations--like fitting our luggage into the trunks of Ubers and taxis...and schlepping it around airports and towns...It becomes very important that you can get more stuff in less space with less weight. If your luggage weighs 20 pounds, it only leaves you with room for 30 pounds of clothes and other stuff. If it weighs 8 pounds, you have space for 42 pounds of clothing and stuff...and it takes the same effort to lift or roll it. To that end, I have a very large soft side piece that weighs only 8 pounds--30 inch by Skyway... My wife loves her 30 inch HYBRID rolling duffel by FUL...She did have an airline break the wheel on one...and the company replaced the entire suitcase free of charge! Hybrid means the bottom is a hard-shell Polycarbonate, the top parts are soft nylon...and it has lots of compartments so my wife can organize better...and still it is extremely lightweight.

Personally I don't think it's worth it for Emerald. If climbing the CAS ladder is important to you in tne long term then consider this as a strategy in the future but for existing booked cruise it's not worth it. Cruise because you love to cruise. Don't chase points as a reason to cruise.

We had no expectations of what our genie could do for our immediate family and we were pleasantly surprised when we were able to sit together at shows (behind the other star families). Dinner reservations, as you mentioned, were easily done since we all had the dining package. Our genie allowed us to have my parents (non star) take the place of my two kids (star class) at chefs table and I simply paid the additional for my parents. In suite the family could come and go and help themselves to the drinks and snacks.

Currently waiting in the bus area for transportation the the ship. We got downstairs about 10:20 and waited about 15 minutes to get our tickets for the bus. There was a voucher page attached in our cruise EDocs that I just handed the agent, very simple. We should be leaving around 11:30. I asked what happens if you have an earlier check in/ port arrival and you are on a later bus, they said it doesn’t matter they will let you arrive whenever you say you just got off the transportation — ( so maybe if you are generally running late for your arrival you say you were on the bus ) There’s plenty of seating here and a full Starbucks so we will grab some coffee and wait to be called!

Rahul actually sent me his company phone phone number in our 1st or 2nd email conversation. I only used it twice, once to verify that it was, in fact, his phone and the 2nd time to let him know we were at the terminal. This was on our last Alaska cruise in May. That was a first. Before that (pre-COVID), we relied on email. For me/us, the availability to Whatsapp and virtually live communications with our Genie is a vast improvement compared to pre-COVID. I actually had a situation that I felt needed my Genies attention, in the Pub. I sent him a text and he was there in less than 5 minutes. All I told him was that I needed him in the Pub "ASAP". Poor guy had no idea what he was walking in to. All went well and clear-up.

Some Genies are better at pre-sail comm than others. I can't remember which Genie (I do recall that it was a male), but I have read a number of pre-sail concerns b/c that particular Genie was a poorer pre-sail communicator than previous Genies. When the time came to board, they found this Genie to be exceptional but simply didn't communicate that well up front. Concur with @MLHthat the Genies have to be very careful about what they put in writing. I had a Genie tell me that when it comes to emails and phone cons, they will never "say" anything that is contrary to official policy...but when it comes down to private conversations in person, the Genies will be more spontaneous. I wouldn't worry too much about a short lapse in return comm....but if it goes more than 3-4 days I would send a follow-up just to be sure that everything is a-ok. With Genies moving in and out of isolation so much, you never know what might be a legitimate concern and what might simply be overwork.

Cruise day!

Not that I know of. We were fortunate to do 2 days in CoCocay when we sailed Adventure out of the Bahamas last summer during the restart. My young adults liked it so much I purposely booked a 3night/4 night back to back so they could do it again.

Studio cabins do not provide an extra point for solo since a studio cabin is priced for a single guest. The keyword here is "Studio". If that word appears any in the cabin type it will not earn an extra point for solo. If the cabin would normally hold two guests but a solo passenger books and pays any single supplements for that cabin then a solo guests earns an extra point per night. If the fare is a GTY or "We pick the cabin" type fare and the ship has studio cabins they can assign you a studio cabin that would not earn the extra point. So as long you are not looking at a GTY type fare or a studio cabin then it should earn an extra point for a solo guest booked in that cabin. Also be aware that it only takes one of you earning 11 more points to cross the threshold. Technically you both don't have to sail if you wanted to save $1,100. Once C&A establishes that you and your wife are in a "relationship" then you both will appear to have the status or whichever of you has the higher points. If one of you has sailed more than the other they should be the one to go solo to cross the threshold. If you both have cruised equally then it doesn't matter which of you puts you over the threshold. However if you both want to go on the 6 night cruise then this is a moot point.

We just ditched some bigger hard sides for soft, expandable overhead bags. We are trying to travel with small rollers and backpacks. In training to whittle down the amount of stuff we bring on trips. Our hard sides took a beating and were dying.

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.

Made it MCO and waiting a long time for bags. The airport is very busy and the baggage claim ( at least Southwest) seems very backlogged. Just wanted to share something cool my son discovered on the Southwest in flight entertainment page - they must have upgraded the flight path Map - there’s now a 360 plane view with earth maps, right and left window views with maps and a cockpit view too. I admittedly geeked out for a few minutes but I haven’t really bothered to look at the map recently as I scroll through the TV and Movies. This button accesses all the new maps

Headed home.

LOL, I miss the good old days when you asked for a coffee or tea and the only options were, cream and/or sugar with that! Now a five person line takes about an hour and a half just for the people to order their coffee or tea. "I'll have a cafe latte, mogopichu, crem al la puke, semi sweet dark chocolate sprinkles, with marmot stool, vegan sweet cream, milk chocolate shavings, grande in a vente cup with Hershey strawberry syrup and a cherry on top of the whipped nondairy cream". Served exactly at 192 degrees with a side order of a glazed donut.

My cruise background: 2 Carnival Cruise, 1 Disney Cruise and 1 Norwegian Cruise. I have high expectation from Royal Caribbean. Heard lots of things about Oasis of the Seas, Almost book Oasis, then pandemic came. This is my first cruise since Pandemic. Overall my experience: 7 Night Perfect Day Bahamas Cruise on Oasis of the Seas 7-8-22 to 7-15-22. I booked a Central Park Stateroom: Room is kinda small. Sink really low and small, you can't even fit a cup in there. But I do like the shower, the water pressure is strong and pretty roomy in the shower. Bed is comfortable, but my bedsheet is not clean. Cleaning person was friendly and nice. Food from Main Diner: Breakfast is horrible. I try pancake, waffle and French toasted, none of them taste good. French toasted very hard, sausage link was way too over cook Only thing good is Corned beef hash & coffee is strong. Lunch: After order food, still have to wait over 30 mins before food arrived. The two tables next to me came after me, and got their food before me and they left while my lunch arrived. Waiter claim they have to cook my fish. Isn't all food is pre prepare? Dinner: My waiter is really nice and good (Top Notch Service) His assistant was horrible (By Day 3, they replaced him, we got new assistant waiter). Dinner food was ok. WindJammer: After the first two days of horrible breakfast from Main Diner. The rest of the cruise day I ate at WindJammer. Breakfast was decent, Great service at their buffet. Waiter walking around offering drinks and picking up the empty plate. Lunch was pretty good. The burger was pretty juicy, their fish was pretty good also. Overall, their buffet is pretty good. Shore Excursions: Booked Blackbeard's Pirate Revenge - Cancel on the day aboard the ship, due to operational reasons. Booked CocoCay Helium Balloon - Went there, and was told cancel due to high wind. I didn't feel any high wind that day. Booked Sushi & Sake- Lunch on Day 6. It was for a special birthday lunch. Lucky we checked and confirm, cuz It got cancel and we didn't get any notice. Went to customer service and check, they call the restaurant and the lady answer the phone said 'It's cancel and nothing they can do, with a very rude tone of voice, and told us we got our refund. that's not the point. Shouldn't we get a notices? there were no notice in my room. Very sad and disappointed with this Oasis of the seas cruise. Nothing came out right. Yes, the ship is huge, there's Central Park & Boardwalk. I guess that's why they make the room kinda small due to a huge ship. Food was just ok. The only thing I like about it is the Aqua 80 show & the frozen in time. Both show was really good. Cats was boring. Most of my party left in the middle of the show, I was the only person stay and finish watching the show. Compare to other cruise I been on, this ship is not as good as others. On the other ship, during the formal night, all the waiter perform a show and dance for us. Especially on the last nite. On Oasis of the seas, they sing the 'Sweet Caroline' on the last nite of dinner. Overall, my first experience with Royal Caribbean is not that great. Hopefully my next two cruise with Royal will be better. Already Booked: 5 Night Bermuda Cruise - Adventure of the Seas Sailing - Sep 10 2022 8 Night Alaska Glacier Cruise - Ovation of the Seas Sailing - May 11 2023

Thank you for your reply. I did call royal and on our sailing it would cost around 2500 to upgrade to a guaranteed junior suite. I agree about not booking the extra room only for the double points after reading the response above. We would rather spend that money on another royal cruise.

I hope the new mattress works out. I recall you like the expensive suites when you sail, the expensive bed-something you use almost every night, is likely worth every penny, as much as the suites you enjoy.

Yep, our last cruise, I went through 3 cards because the laminate kept peeling off.

We’ll it’s past 11:30 and they only just called a number 100 people before us when means we probably aren’t getting a bust out of here until 12 or 12:15. I would be stressing if we didn’t already have all our dinner times booked through the Suite concierge, or needed to take care of something that was a first come first serve thing onboard. I just hope Coastal Kitchen is still open for lunch when we get there, I wanted to try that today since we are already in dry clothes . It’s a struggle to get out of swimsuits once we are covered in sunscreen and enjoying the poolside. I doubt RC has much control over how quickly the buses arrive that they load and send back to the port, there could be incoming traffic, slow customs, etc. Mariner is also boarding today so that’s two ships needing transportation l. It does seem like Mariner may sail first / they were calling a lot of Mariner ticket numbers earlier for the available buses to get those people out to PC. Next update will hopefully include a pic of the Harmony of the seas as we approach the terminal! At least a later time gives us a chance that the room will be ready when we get on board so that’s good.

We just did the mattress thing too. I hate shopping for a mattress. They are so flippin' expensive and every store has their own brand so it's next to impossible to compare. We, too, had an old (maybe the original ??) full foam Tempurpedic and it weighed 3 tons. Even from the beginning I could never even lift the corners to make the bed. Dan always had to do the fitted sheet...then I could do the rest. I warned the store manager (where we finally bought our replacement) that he had better send at least 3 big men to pick up the old mattress...it's THAT heavy...but of course, he didn't. You should have seen those 2 poor guys trying to wrestle that hippo out of the house. I felt very bad for them. The new mattress is heavenly....but then, they always are...for a while. We have friends who bought one of the hybrid mattresses and they love it. We went with full latex (it's not heavy at all, surprisingly) this time but there is a fluffy topper so it's really like floating on a cloud. I had never heard of the brand before but so far.....

If the number of beer cans on the table is a sign of what's to come.

I took this pic from Oasis of the seas 2 days ago. Hope this help. Also, Here's a link: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/experience/cruise-casinos/rewards

Yeah its funny watching this! Its the same in winter England gets 1" of snow and it comes to a stand still and people get heating allowance if it gets a little bit cold. Yet other countries manage to survive in extreme heat or 2m of snow with temperatures dipping as low as minus 50

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.

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!

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.

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.

When an agency offers an automatic onboard credit for booking a cruise, this is known as “rebating.” The amount of the onboard credit comes out of the agent’s side of the commission. (Not the agency’s side.) With large Online Travel Agencies or Warehouse Agencies such as Costco who do a huge volume of business, their agents make a salary plus small commission so this does not affect their paycheck much, if at all. But for self-employed agents like myself, that onboard credit comes directly out of my pocket.

Yeah, those boosters’ll kill ya !