Leaderboard

Sucks to get old but I have sadly come to the conclusion that, although I might have 5+ drinks a couple of days, I can’t do it every day anymore. Thankfully after this next cruise, we’ll be Diamond. I’m pretty comfortable with 4 comped drinks per day & paying OOP for the few extras.

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough. So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am. Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand. Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together. Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on. After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap. Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing. We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning? We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times. I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations! We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other . We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs. Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths . Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room. After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet. Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc). Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)

I respect everyone's choices and wasn't looking for a debate or to be told I didn't have to wear one. I know people get upset when it's mentioned and I definitely have left the site when people could only talk about their views on covid. Just trying to be as respectful as I could while still mentioning a topic that can set discussion off.

I agree, the social aspect was nice, but most people (myself included) prefer the vouchers so you can order anything at any time at any venue. As a frugal cruiser who isn't a huge drinker, I enjoy being able to get free frozen drinks during the day rather than be limited to more standard cocktails from the old limited DL happy hour menu.

It's kind of humerous that we have to convince ourselves of the value of the Drink Package (which we purchase when cruising) based on a average per drink cost. We all go through the metrics of when we will drink, what pace we will consume, and come to the conclusion we will EASILY hit that 5 drink break even point. Then support it with. "I just want to relax and grab a drink when I want" , "throw it out when I want", "get another one when I want", etc. The irony of the matter is we all have to accept the absurdity of drinks being $14+ each, and then use it as an acceptable baseline to make us feel good about the purchase. lol Not too far off from celebrating $4.00 gallon gas dropping to $3.79..... Even though I plan to continue to purchase the drink package when cruising, the $100 per day mark is not far off. That carries some weight when you are looking at another $1,400 for the trip.

I am "that guy" as well, I always try and keep the access doors closed.

I am this neighbor but I have horrendously annoying family members that enjoy randomly showing up and knocking on our door at the worst times. It’s really nice to be able to control the situation on deck 17 and I apologize in advance to those whom I inconvenience.

Hey, I just got my stock share OBC for two upcoming cruises. Only 39 more cruises before I break even

Well as it turns out the Surf and Stream is not great on deck 12 forward which was where our cabin was located. I got way better service mid deck but after losing a post before uploading it I gave up on the Live portion of this blog, oops!! We are home now and had a great time! I will add some more recap photos in the following posts. On Friday after boarding/muster/excessive water sliding we had reservations at Izumi. I ordered two sushi rolls but actually received three since our waiter really wanted me to try the Tataki roll. It ended up being my favorite one! So happy he did that. The Izumi Ryu Futomaki roll was the most impressive visually but the least impressive flavor-wise. The mochi ice creams were so tasty too, especially the mango one. I will definitely be back at Izumi on future ships! How cute is this chopstick holder? I usually make one from the paper wrapper they come in. I love gadgets and things that serve only one purpose! After dinner we hit up Navigator Dunes for a round of mini golf. Always fun and a challenge when you refuse to put down your cocktail as you go along. My one-handed swings became pretty accurate by the last hole! We had planned to see the ice skating show but decided to call it a night early. Henry was there to see us off to bed! haha

If I had cruised any time between 21 and 35, I would have made out like a bandit with the deluxe drink package. Seven drinks a day are rookie numbers for a service member trying to reacclimatize. Thankfully those days have been behind me since I was 36, and I’m looking forward to using my upcoming Diamond vouchers for more mundane beverages such as bottled water.

perhaps, but its highly individual. I drink like a fish on cruises at baseline, but i also get specialty coffees and drink nothing other than pelegrino mineral water at all meals. So even without the booze lumped in there that adds up quickly. So for me, even with diamond vouchers, it makes sense to get a booze package as long as its not astronomically priced. I understand i am an outlier.

Last time we tried to do the 5+ on day 1 , we missed our Chops dinner reservation - pretty lame right?

Matt's article is great just a couple of notes/quick summary on using the App. (We have looked at the in room TV video but had already completed on the App so not sure of the exact flow there.) Viewing it on the App can be done before boarding and that seems to be the easiest since you can stop by your muster drill location to do the final part of the check off once on the ship. So, for example, on the morning of the cruise you can log in to the app and find the safety icon at the bottom of the screen. Click that and view the required information and videos, drill, horn and station. Once each step is "completed" it will be noted in the app. At that point all you need to do is drop by the station check in once on the ship. Everyone in the party should be done in one viewing but if there are multiple reservations each reservation will need to complete the sequence.

This post should provide an easy to understand walkthrough of the experience: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/11/13/what-expect-royal-caribbeans-new-virtual-safety-drill

I got Soda and Internet for $17 last Black Friday. Booked it for all of my 2022 cruises.

On some ships the laundry crew transfer the contents of the bag you cram into a mesh bag that keeps your contents together. When you cram too much into the bag it all gets scrammed into the slightly larger mesh bag and then into the laundry. When too much is in the bag the clothes don't get properly washed. This has been discussed on behind the scenes tours with the laundry crew. You may not be outsmarting the system as much as you think you are.

People are so weird when it comes to mask, so I understand why @ellcee says it is a sensitive topic. Port of Los Angeles requires a mask while in the terminal. So many people wouldn't put theirs on and threw all the mask staff gave them all over the terminals and gangways. I am always respectful of policies, and I will wear one if I feel like I will be with people who don't respect boundaries.

Will also be on the TA. Really hope it will be open, now that they post it in the daily programs.

Not sure if people have seen this, but here is a helpful YT video on how to maximize use of space in the laundry bag. These folks fit a lot more than one might expect into that little bag by tightly rolling their shirts/pants. Phil

If going the magnet route get one that is personalized so that no one else would want it, otherwise it will be stolen by magnet grinches.

Watch a video, go to your muster station to get credit for watching the video. Then go enjoy your cruise.

My October 29th sailing will be my first one as a Diamond. I will be solo and plan on visiting the Lounge. Honestly, just because I am so excited to be Diamond! Maybe there will be some nice folks wanting to chat, too.

I go every morning for multiple cappuccinos (and occasionally grab some pastries) and stop by most evenings just to check out the appetizers. Nice place to relax on ships that still have it in the Viking Crown like Freedom class. Not so much when it's in "the basement" like on Oasis class.

I boarded Serenade this morning. The first crew member I met said this was their first sailing without masks. It's a very happy crew!

You can be notified that you won once onboard and after you have unpacked. Some people don't want to have to re-pack and move even b/c of winning an upgrade so they cancel ahead of time.

Same! I have used magnets on each cruise and have never had them stolen. On our cruise last month we had white boards on the doors along with several magnet designs. The first morning I noticed someone had written “hi” from GA on my board. So I drew a smiley face and wrote HI back at you! All week we had people leaving us messages as well as letting us know which state they were from…it was so fun!

The South Beach cabanas get snack shack food delivered by attendant. We had one in April and as soon as we arrived our attendant took our drink orders and came back quickly with them. She then asked if we wanted fresh fruit and brought huge trays of pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, watermelon! For lunch yes we ordered from Snack Shack…delish! After lunch, our attendant brought us a few orders of the delicious funnel cakes. And of course, drinks were replenished all day long!

If you booked a Royal excursion, the times will be adjusted on the ship. That happened to us once at Roatan. If you book 3rd party excursions, they probably know about the change in arrival, but I would check with them to be certain.

You lose them. No rollover.

The Diamond lounge seemed consistently crowded on Allure - I'm going to guess because of the location.

Thats what I think as well. The only strange thing is that only about 2 or 3 weeks ago, someone I know was on Wonder and I had him specifically check the Escape Room, he said he was able to look inside but there was only an empty, bare room with a table inside. I would expect to have such things installed while they are homported in Florida, not while in Europe. The wording "This activity is held in the Escape Room" makes me think that they just use the bare room for jigsaw puzzels

Awesome, ellcee!! Bravissimo! So, forgive me if I'm obtuse, but I'm curious about wearing a mask being a sensitive topic. When we sailed on Harmony this spring, I felt a little "off" (it was not covid!), so unfortunately spent more time in our cabin, and when I did go anywhere onboard, I wore my mask. I don't recall feeling uncomfortable or feeling like people were staring at me. It sucked, and I wanted to go maskless, but I try to be a responsible person. So, I applaud you and A2 for doing the right thing!! Thanks again for the outstanding blog!

We stop by on my every cruise we go on, part of it is to be social and the other is sometimes the suite lounge is too packed. Seems to be the DL is usually less crowded then the SL, it is also great when you are NOT in a suite.

@RCLblue10 our go to is Etsy.com when we want cruise specific items. They have a great many offerings to choose from.

A nosotros nos pasó igual, embárcanos en el freedom of The seas el 03 de oct en Miami, dejamos todas las maletas por el puesto 1 con el Sr. Jamison de la terminal de Royal caribbean del puerto de Miami. Cuando recibimos las maletas en el camarote falto una maleta, la más grande que desgraciadamente tenía todos los regalos, recuerdos de nuestra semana anterior en Disney, cerré esa maleta con todo esas cosas para ni abrirla en el crucero, pero increíblemente desaparece, nadie sabe nada de ella, cómo puede ser que desaparezca una valija de 23 kl con colores llamativos con tag y candado desde el embarque en el puerto hasta la entrega en el camarote?, nadie me pudo responder!. Mi hija de 11 años está destruida, de la tristeza y el stress se enfermó en el barco y pasó 3 de los 4 días en la cama enferma, nos arruinaron las vacaciones, hasta el momento domingo 09 de octubre, nadie se responsabiliza ni se preocupa, la imagen de la empresa quedó por el piso!!!

I don't think CBP in the US after the cruise is going to be the issue, they know the requirements—it's basically the main part of their job. If there is going to be an issue, it will be the contract job port worker who is handling check in at the port. One of their many jobs is to make sure that nobody gets on that ship that is going to have any issues with immigration at any of the ports the ship is visiting, or any issues with getting back into the country. If there are issues, these countries are likely going to make Royal Carribean pay large fines, or even say that the ship is not permitted to dock. If this happens, that person who let them on the ship is going to get into trouble. So yes, I'd bring some printouts and such with me, just in case. Based on Murphy's law, if you have it, you won't need it. I guess if you want to be super safe, double check with St Maarten that the less then 6-month passport validity will be OK. It is possible that it would *not* be OK if she needed a visa, but she doesn't need a visa because she has the US one. I doubt they will care anyway, since she is traveling via cruise ship. The 6-month validity is more of an insurance policy for the country you are visiting, to make sure that you will be able to get *back* to where you came from in case something happens, and you aren't able to leave when you are supposed to. The ship is going to leave that afternoon.

At those prices, they had better get some premium brands back onboard.

But hopefully not all in the same cabin...

Your carry-on luggage is delivered to your cabin right away. The Key has no benefit for checked luggage, which will show up no sooner or later than anyone else's.

I bet those bags will be fine. I think they move the bags from the MDR pretty quickly to get them out of the way. Enjoy your cruise!

Isn’t confusion the point of an escape room?!!

@CravingaCruisethank you so much for your extremely helpful information and an awesome live blog !!! I love me a Star Class blog and yours was truly exceptional. I agree with EVERYthing you said about the pros and cons of the ATS. The only thing that I do not have experience with is the potential crunch of several people in that suite. It's always just been Dan and me so we always had more than enough room but I can totally see where 6 peeps in that space would be a challenge (can you even imagine having 8 people in there !!??). ESPECIALLY the bathroom situation. The horrible bathrooms in the 2BR ATS are its biggest disappointment (followed closely by the hike to and from). Why they put all of that thought and space into these suites just to skimp on the bathrooms is totally beyond my understanding. We, too, thought of the ATS as a must-try and we gave it 3 tries !!! We always had great cruises every single time but after 3 times, and after discovering the joys of Deck 17, we will not be back in an ATS unless there is a price point that we cannot pass up. The Deck 8 ATS on Allure and Oasis are significantly larger, both the living space and the master BR, so for those who are considering the ATS, I would definitely choose Deck 8 if you have a choice. For Harmony and after, I think they redesigned the ATS to some degree and I'm not sure that the extra space of Deck 8 is as pronounced. I also agree with you on many of your restaurant reviews...particularly Samba. In the beginning, they made a real effort to make Samba special. They covered the tables and chairs every night for dinner and they had live entertainment. The food was always a bit sketchy but at least they tried. Now, it's just like dining in the WJ. It seems that they have also done away with the little "stream" that used to run through the restaurant, which is a damn shame. It used to be so cute with that water running throughout the restaurant. Perhaps there was a weight distribution or fluid dynamics problem with the water running to and fro at that elevation...who knows. It's just a dried up old stream bed now.

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.

Got a text, message on the RC app to my apple watch and an email last night while at dinner and a show that they are monitoring the weather and there were no changes at this time. ooof. Finishing last minute packing stuff, drinking coffee and trying not to feel guilty for leaving my pup.

I've always gotten a GTY cabin. Saves about $220 per person min for an inside cabin. Never had any major complaints. But never expected anything either. You could always hate the people on either side of you for being to loud no matter what the location. Being near of far from elevators I can now see as a plus as I get older, but it's also good exercise. It really depends on how you look at it all.

I hope that couple earned a lot of cash back or travel rewards with their large dinner purchase!

It's both. I've found over the years (I managed a software department for five years) that roughly 90% of the issues and mistakes one sees in the workplace are ultimately a fault of bad processes or systems. Sure, it's the human making the mistake, but the system or process often has a number of flaws that invite mistakes and make them unavoidable long-term. They *will* happen because the process or system is not optimized for real usage. This can sometimes be aided by better training, for that one person and others to be on the lookout for this mistake, but at the end of the day, what will fix it long-term is updated software where this mistake isn't nearly as likely. Yikes!!

45 DAYS OUT Didn't sleep great last night, got up early for work, which worked out in our favor because I was able to secure a 10:30am check-in time!