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I really didn't know so many people were disgusted with others wearing their C&A pins. I just may have to find mine and wear it on my next cruise.

I have a cruise hat that I've decided to decorate with pins from port stops that i visit and I put my RCL loyalty pins on there... but don't feel the need to wear them constantly on board. But whatever someone else does with their pin really doesn't affect me at all.

I hope all our board members in Florida evacuated and are doing ok. My prayers for those of you that stayed put and weathered this storm.

Day 5 (Cozumel): Day 4 pics will be uploaded with day 5 since I forgot to do that earlier! Today was amazing! It was mom's birthday celebration today and she was treated like the queen she is! We started the day off getting ready for our excursion and then all heading to Coastal Kitchen (the suite restaurant) for breakfast where Jay had our coffee order delivered and waiting for us right when we walked in the door. Star class is so nice!!! The girls followed shortly after because their excursion was about 30 minutes after ours. Gede (our server that we've had each time we've been to Coastal) was on it and we had breakfast in about 7 minutes. The girls arrived and their breakfast was just as quick. It was perfect! Jay came up to get us in Coastal and escorted us off the ship and to the excursion meeting area. He got us settled and then got Kenzie and Kayla set up for their fun day. Smooth sailing! Mom and Cindy were doing a dolphin encounter today, Kenzie and Kayla were doing a beach day, and Tim and I were accompanying Mom and Cindy...Tim to be paparazzi and I was down by the encounter area to assist with mom if needed. I didn't want a repeat of the plane, and she's about as light as a feather in water that was a little choppy. I was glad Cindy was in there holding onto her. Others around her also assisted with Mom, holding onto her to keep her steady, then offering a hat when I got worried she had been in the sun too long (they wouldn't let anyone wear sunscreen in the dolphin enclosure). We got hundreds of pics, and then purchased the package of all the digital pics and two prints. The pics made Cindy tear up every time she saw them because this was something she had always wanted to do and never thought it would happen. I love that this made her that happy!!! When we were waiting on the pics, they offered lunch and drinks, and we declined both. We asked about water, wanting bottled, and they said no, it was filtered tap - um, can someone say NO WAY!!! I think she was offended, oh well! I'm not going to let Mom end up with tummy problems because we let our guard down. We ate at Coastal Kitchen as soon as we were back on the ship. Waaaaaaay better than any free lunch at a dolphin encounter place!!! After lunch, we put our suits on and went to the Solarium. It was nice - busy in there, but nice. There was only one server in there trying to manage drinks for everyone - holy cow!! Kudos to Wei! We got our first drink round and ordered another one. In the two(ish) hours we were there, we got 2 drinks each and were waiting on a water for Tim, and finally gave up. We came back to the room to another star class snack (I mean feast) and hung out on our balcony for a bit. It was so windy, and we realized there was no way we could eat on the balcony tonight. We messaged Jay and found out that our meal was about to leave the kitchen and head our way. We tried to figure it out but Jay ended up setting us up in Coastal Kitchen and had our food rerouted. Gede was our server once again and he got us all square away. He delivered the food that had been traveling all over the ship, and the kitchen did everything they could to revive it. By this time in the cruise, we've eaten so much food that we really could have skipped this meal entirely, and we wouldn't have felt it, so the steaks that were very overcooked because of the reheat, didn't really bother us. Everyone ate what they wanted of the dinner, and it was great because this was Mom's birthday celebration night. We made a big deal about it and she felt special! We had originally forgotten them, so Kayla ran back to the room to get the birthday queen tiara and sash. She wore them both proudly and got happy birthday wishes from so many people all evening! She loved the attention!!! Cindy snuck back to the room just as we were leaving port so she could take some cool pics leaving the port in the sunset. We asked Gede to send mom's cake up to our room and we met Cindy along the way to the comedy show. While waiting for Jay outside of the show, everyone leaving the ice show saw mom in her tiara and were telling her happy birthday. Cindy and I were about to break out in song for her just to see if the group would join us, and that's when Jay showed up. I'm pretty sure they all would have started singing had we started it. The comedy show was great! The first guy was really good, and the second guy was good, but not as good as the first. It is not a clean show, so set your expectations! If you like comedy, we would recommend this show. There was one gal in our audience that had this loud, high-pitched cackle and the first comedian called it out saying it was a great laugh. OMG! She got so loud after that and super annoying. Aunt Cindy wanted to strangle her by the end of the night!! The second comedian wasn't as amused by her, and it pretty much shut down the laugh - thank God!! We came back to the room and found Kenzie and Kayla passed out from the long day in the sun, so we called it a night. Tomorrow - no coffee delivery and no breakfast order! We're sleeping in as long as we want and taking it easy! Pics tomorrow.

I’m sorry, but if we ever earn Pinnacle…I’m wearing that dang tag! Think about what it takes to earn that honor…We would wear it with pride. Just bring honest

We have arrived in Ft. Lauderdale. No issues with weather in traveling. Next step ….tomorrow is ship day!

Those suite guests and Pinnacles can get pretty rowdy between 5 and 8pm

I hate going to the concierge club on Anthem....it is just too far away from everything and there is no easy way.......the elevators are such a long walk and there are no back stairs or anything for public use to short cut the treck.......I suppose what I'm saying is......how many people actually go

I'm on Allure in December and had planned on skipping Samba. Not anymore as it sounds amazing.

It's a very nice itinerary. Very easy DIY ports that don't really need excursions. The only one we booked was the bus transfer to Puerto del Carmen beach in Lanzarote because it's a pain to get to on public transport. However there are plenty of taxis on the pier if you prefer to go on your own schedule and for two the round trip cost of the taxi is about the same as the bus transfer if you book it during a sale. Otherwise we're just doing our own thing. There are "free" walking tours available in some of the ports, the ones where you pay what you want at the end of the tour. We've used a company called Guru Walks for these in the past and they can be useful for a brief overview and to get your bearings. The weather has been very pleasant, perfect for sightseeing in non-beach ports and nice and sunny and warm for the beaches too. The really good thing is that if this were your standard 7-night cruise, we'd be on our way to the airport now, but instead we have another 5 days!

From P&O for Feb sailing..

I got all my pins up to Diamond, making D+ in Jan, but they are still in the thing they came in. I am indifferent either way, wear them or don't. My issue is the people who throw their status around: i.e. "I am diamond do this, give me that, pledge your soul.......etc." My last cruise had about 5 pins, they were are pretty nice and they all wore their pins. People would indeed come up to them.......but people would also come up to me and ask questions. Lots of newbies would ask what "diamond prime" means when they read my seapass card.

There is a discount onboard It is for D+/Pinnacle. Irecall a fellow passenger asking for the discounted rate when she was at the bar on embarkation day and receiving it. The bartender had a “cheat sheet” that showed the various discounts, and total cost. when I started this response I thought it was for Diamond on up, but I did find it in my photos, and modified my post. Keep in mind this was a price list from last fall.

Thanks, Robert.

I don't normally, but am considering using them as rank insignia if I wear a Star Trek uniform for Halloween.

I think you'll be safe. The suite guests go between 5-8 for cocktails and finger food and the Pinnacles to complain. Bill

I look at it like: 1 - you can wear them but if you are a braggard, then you get looked down on 2 - if you look down on someone wearing them, it better be because they were braggards and not just wearing them

The best excursion that we ever had was one through https://www.thenativechoice.com in Costa Maya. At the time it was billed as a cultural experience (dinner with a Mayan family) plus the Chacchoben ruins, but that exact one no longer exists. A lot of their staff are current and former educators. It was just wonderful and I would highly recommend any tour that they offer. There is currently one called “Mayan Family + Seven Color Lagoon Tour” and also “Chacchoben Ruins Tour.” We also love Jaime’s Blue Reef in Costa Maya since we have now done a lot of the tours because we’ve been to Costa Maya so much. It is in a more rural part of Mexico, but not very far from the port. It is a small, all-inclusive with super friendly staff (shout out to Digby). But, you do need a reservation. http://www.jaimesbluereef.com (Royal Caribbean blog also recently posted its own review of Jaime’s). In Cozumel, we have done Mr. Sanchos many times and can *no longer* recommend it. The food and drinks are now more like fast food, it is too crowded, and the service is fair to poor. Nachi Cocom is highly rated and what we have reserved for an upcoming West Carib cruise. We prefer Mexico to many of the Caribbean islands, I think you’ll enjoy it!

I had same thing happen this spring. It turned out, when I checked in, the Country of Birth somehow got dropped from the check in. I went back through on the web and added it back in, and all worked fine. Over on the cc boards, a bunch of people have complained about this glitch. I hope this fix works for you!

Check out this article we just posted: Best shore excursion in every Caribbean cruise port

Are you less than 45 days before your cruise? You have to be able to check in first before you can see SetSail Pass.

ooooh! This would be so cool! Do it! Pwease

I would probably put mine on the lanyard or carry-on, as has been suggested. Bathing suit (from an earlier post) no way! I think that the pins show you have experience and that you'd (probably) welcome conversations and questions (esp for newbies). I'm not comfortable with the phrase "earned it".....if others had more money and a more flexible job, we could "earn it" too. Just some tricky implications with that phrase. But, again, I don't default to assuming that's what people are trying to display. My thought is that they are kind of ambassadors who might be interested in telling stories, answering questions for the rest of us "earning" our way up!

While I do agree that it wont work, Orlando is the second stop and after that is Miami, after Miami the ship goes to Nassau and coco cay the foreign places and then back north. in either case she has found a separate solution where she will take the older son on cruise in January by himself which happens to be 11 nights. she sees this as win win for her

I am a college prof. Believe me, asking NOW (end of September) about a final in mid December to be date adjusted has an *excellent* chance of happening. Have them ask! I bet it can happen.

Guilty here. We and our cruising friends always have ours on because we attached them to our lanyards. We aren't arrogant about our status but we have earned that status and enjoy the perks. We have witnessed people who make sure that everyone knows that they are diamond or whatever (this was back in 2014) and they were jerks about it. I don't mind seeing people wear their status pins or not but we do enjoy wearing ours.

Casita was great, even in extreme wind and a little rain. MDR is the MDR. I’ve actually enjoyed the few meals we’ve had and the service is great. CocoCay was fantastic, not worth the price we paid for the beach club but absolutely no complaints. Lunch was fantastic and the service was also fantastic. There was only our ship so we really could’ve gone anywhere but now I know. Today is Nassau and after 20 minutes we finally were in the right spot- RC didn’t do a great job of marking the areas. We had the private cabana for 2 but last minute canceled when they offered money back for weather. I don’t mind rain but they mentioned lightning and since our transportation is a boat and the winds have been nuts it felt risky. I don’t take risks on vacation. Back in the ship and okay with it although this was the excursion I was looking forward to most. It’s nice when the ship is a little less crowded. Speaking of crowds, not really an issue and capacity.

So is it more snooty to wear them, or to look down on somebody who does?

My in-laws are very into status. They constantly brag about being D+ and are super impressed when they meet Pinnacle members. So I like to wear my Platinum pin when we go to the MDR with them so that I can wow them.

I like having them. They're fun, small round shiny things. Just made Diamond (but should be getting the pins on the next cruise). The mom and I wore our Platinum and Emerald pins on our lanyards with our sea pass. More to mark it as our Royal Caribbean Lanyard than anything else I think. TBH if I ever make pinnacle not sure I'd wear the bar just cuz it's bulky unlike the small round pins that can be easily placed anywhere. But in response to OP...it has nothing to do with "ooh I'm special look at me." I like things I have and I like to wear them regardless if anyone else notices them or not.

We are debarking tomorrow and had dinner at Samba this sailing. I’ll add a few notes. The meats vary but the tenderloin and rib were the best. They have three sauces and the chimichurri may help with the rounds. I was surprised that the bacon wrapped chicken didn’t please me. Bacon is always a plus but I guess this was the exception to prove the rule. For the self serve apps there are a couple selections that were interesting but it will depend on your interests. They bring a plate of vegetables to serve family style. The other apps were cheese empanada, yucca, and a fried banana. A plate of small “cheese” bread was the initial dish.

If you have specific questions just ask and I will answer later. I am at Labadee right now and heading off ship shortly

I am on Allure now and ate there Tuesday night. They have appetizers brought to table and other appetizers to pick your own on a display. They bring sides for your meal and the meat is brought on skewers…they bring each kind but you can decline if there is one or two you prefer not to try. The tenderloin is amazing as is the boneless beef ribs. Chicken wrapped with bacon, sausage, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, lamb are also on skewers. Meal is quite filling!!!

Sailing Aug. 14th 4 night Bahamas first time ever! We will be celebrating our 55th wedding anniversary. Looking forward to relaxing, having a few drinks, and the wife is going to be looking for the Lobster tails in the main dining room when they have them.

This! If I recall correctly on our Harmony sailing a few (3) ladies (pins) could not get their gold cards to open the door to the suite lounge. I was staying in a CLS and saw them getting angry and continuing to tap but the door wouldn't open. I went over and said oh I'll do it for you and swiped my sea pass for them. The door opened for me and they verbalized how it was disgusting that mine worked and theirs didn't. Wait, what? Then they continued they knew they weren't wanted in there but they were going anyway; wait didn't I just open the door for you? Not even a thank you and as I was following them in they didn't even attempt to keep the door from closing in my face. I promise you it actually took me a minute to keep my mouth securely shut as that door continued to close in my face behind them. It was a sad display and honestly I was like am I on candid camera? I find most pins will gladly share stories and such if asked, I get and feel their frustration as the experience I'm sure has changed a great deal over their 700 plus nights ie. teens in wet bathing suits and no cover ups in the lounge but wow, that really stuck in my crawl for a minute.

Unfortunately, this port seems to always have lots of seaweed no matter where you go…It’s been there every time we’ve been there. Most the resorts have a small army of people constantly raking the seaweed.

That's not it, unfortunately. Thanks for trying to help though! I only care b/c I have a GTY and would like to see my cabin via the barcode trick. Got my cruise docs 30 days out as I should have so I know my deck and rough location from the doc info and luggage tags at least.

Oh I know, it’s one of the reasons we made the switch to Royal. Out of curiosity I checked on prices over Christmas 2023 and a 1 BR concierge class suite on Fantasy is $37150 USD or $50773 CAD Our star class ATS this Christmas is looking quite reasonable in comparison. Nuts….

Samba was SO good. I really enjoyed the beefs best, discovered I am not a lamb person and enjoyed one of the pork selections. Really want to get a jar of those sauces to bring home. They were all so yummy!

I'd highly recommend comparing the list of covered events included in the trip cancellation and trip interruption portion of the policy statement and compare that with plans available via other travel insurance providers. insuremytrip.com is a nice site to compare prices and coverage from a wide selection of insurance providers. Allianz is surely the biggest provider, but based on what I've found, their covered events can be quite restrictive in comparison with other providers. For example, the list of covered events for the Royal Caribbean offered travel insurance plan is only half a page long, while the list of covered events for a WorldTrips insurance plan is nearly three pages. Also, when you purchase the travel insurance through Royal Caribbean when booking the cruise, you're only covering pre-paid cruise expenses and not other travel arrangements (flights, 3rd party excursions, hotels, etc.). When you say you have excellent health insurance, you still may not be covered for care provided onboard a cruise ship or in a foreign country. Having medical included as part of your travel insurance plan is a good way to ensure you're covered in the case of an emergency.

The UDP doesn't have a lot of upcharges, just more so restrictions. I don't eat lobster, but I have heard that most of it is good at specialty restaurants. Also, pretty much every restaurant has a steak and sort of upscale seafood option. Imho the steak at Chops is my least favorite, the one at Hooked is about 14x better.

UDP is the ultimate dining plan. Both of those restaurants are included with the UDP.

Platinum, which is the next level after gold. You should get one for every level after Gold and it is supposed to be delivered to your stateroom on embarkation day of the next cruise after reaching the level. So if you take a cruise that pushes you from one level to the next you shouldn't get it there (I say shouldn't because my mom and I got our Emerald pins on our Emerald qualifying cruise which we both knew was weird but I think they were just getting it out of the way) but it should be in your room on the next cruise you take after those points are added. Of course, with everything going on its been noted that the pins don't always make it to the rooms.

I do this all the time with @Sharla. Sometimes it’s the weekend or after hours. I’m impatient and when I find the room I want, I book it then send the reservation number to Sharla to put in for a transfer.

We have not worn our pins and don't plan to anytime soon but have no resentment for those that do.

I kinda enjoyed the wine tasting more than I expected. Especially since I already had the premium drink package. I didn't know about the 20% off a bottle of wine, that would be pretty useful if I ever book the non-AI rate.

Yesterday was a great sea day. Park Ave salad and hot dog place for lunch. I suggest the German hotdog, my friend wasn’t loving the regular one but I was happy. Dinner was Giovanni’s. Friend didn’t realize what pork belly was so was surprised when it came out. . Besides that we were happy with our meals. Our waiter even found us limoncello to end the meal. He was a doll and that little touch was appreciated. He got a good tip. I’ve learned I can’t blame waking up early on my dog. Today it was 5:30. I gave up at 6 and got myself a coffee to watch the sunrise and read. Both mornings I’ve been doing a little jogging. Testing a knee injury from February. My friend and I are meet up mid morning. I’m quiet in the morning and she’s raring to go so we do our own thing in the mornings. Today is the casita. We’re stopping in Orlando. Made it til just now and rain. Not too worried. Hoping it’s a passing storm but you never know. we keep missing any shows because we’re exhausted by 10 and like later dinners. No complaints at all though, we both seem to be content.

Reykjavik Iceland – Blue Lagoon I’ve been debating on how much to tell you about this trip. The first part of this trip it’s not very pleasant but I thought about it and you’re here to hear about my experiences so I’m going to let you know about the bad part as well as the good part. Feel free to skip the bad part. The bad part... One of the people from our Facebook group arranged a trip to the blue lagoon for everybody. We had 100 people traveling on two 57 passenger busses. When we got to the parking lot I was assigned the lead on bus 1 and she took bus 2. After we got everyone loaded, she was on bus 1 double checking our lists and someone from bus 2 came over and told us there was a medical emergency. I went to bus 2 to find out there was a man having a heart attack. I got the bus drivers to call for an ambulance and I went back to bus 1 to ask for a doctor or nurse. Right away 2 nurses jumped up and went to help. I was busy trying to contact the ship to let them know of the issue. When I want back to bus 1 I had some people on the front of the bus asking why we were not leaving. I told them we had a medical emergency, and they did not care. I was told, “This is my vacation, and it should not be affected by someone else problems. That is the other bus and not ours.”. I told her it did affect our bus because people on our bus was trying to save a life. We got everyone off the bus 2 that we could, and the ambulance showed up. I informed the ambulance crew what was going on and they went to work. At that point I got the husbands off my bus to stay with their wives and loaded my bus with everyone I could fit. At that point we left for the Blue Lagoon. One note: When we got to the Blue Lagoon the people had realized what they had done and apologized. Just remember we are all the same big family. Now the good part… On our bus was a guide to help us with the Blue Lagoon. He contacted the Blue Lagoon and let them know of our issues. They were great and told us we would get the full two hours there no matter when we showed up. When we got there, it was a large lava field. They have cut out pathways and the lagoon in the lava field. We had to go upstairs and take a shower with no cloths on. It was funny to see people in their 50’s and 60’s waiting for the private showers when there were ones without doors open. I jumped in the one that was open and took my shower. Then you put on your bathing suit, go downstairs, and jump in the lagoon. The water was blue and has a fog on top from the light rain hitting the hot water. It was fantastic. After getting our free drink (not much selection) we found our way over to the far end of the pool to get our face mask. It was a white paste that you put on your face and neck to open and clean all the pores. After about one hour in the pool everyone was looking at the clock and trying to figure out how long they could stay and still make the bus. I stayed as long as I could; 15 minutes to get out, shower, get dressed and get to the bus. I know I was pushing it but I was really enjoying the experience. If you ever find you way to Iceland, make sure you do the Blue Lagoon. If it is raining or snowing don’t worry. It just makes it a better experience.

Yup, my mantra is never use a debit card!! If they make an error charging my CC, a quick call to Chase isolates the charge until it can be fixed. No way I’m giving them (or anyone for that matter) access to any of my accounts.

Thanks for the info. Now I have to book another Allure cruise. I love this blog.