Leaderboard

I realized that I never recapped my thoughts on the UDP. As you remember, this was an experiment for us to see what level of specialty dining is right for us on future cruises. I am glad we tried it, but it will probably be our last time with the full package for a few reasons. On the plus side, we enjoyed all of the specialty restaurants that we tried. There was enough variety of food was enough to keep it interesting on an Oasis class ship with all the different restaurants. The food quality and service was really good. The price is also good when you figure in the cost of UDP for the week divided by the 7 dinners and 4 lunches we had. It added up to less than $20 per meal. On the negative side, there was just too much food. I would probably never eat a full meal at lunch and then follow it up with a full dinner, especially if I had breakfast. I think it may have worked better if the ship had portside BBQ or Playmakers where we could have had a lighter lunch. We also missed having the same waiters for each meal in the main dining room. I definitely can see why some would rather pay extra for the improved food quality vs the MDR, but we like the MDR food. We will definitely still use specialty dining going forward, just not the UDP.

I am on Navigator as we speak. Two of these bags were delivered to our room and I've gotta say these bags are very substantial, very well made, and very attractive. When I get home in a week I'll post some actual photos.

In honor of being -11 degrees and Mt Washington breaking the record for the coolest wind chill (-106 degrees). . . .

Navigator, Freedom, Oasis, Odyssey, and Wonder have them. Mariner does not.

I'm finally packing today (sail on GR tomorrow !!).

Day 4 - Ensenada We stayed on the ship again today, but so did a lot of others. It really felt like a day at sea with fewer things to do. I took a couple of calls in the morning for work, and then we ventured out for breakfast up in the Windjammer. We've found that breakfast at WJ is great for us because of the variety. We wandered around after that and did a lot of people watching and chilling. We grabbed lunch around Noon and then got into our suits for an afternoon in the water. We attempted to enjoy the main pool and sit in the chaise lounges in the shallow water for a while. I had successfully fallen asleep and a mini-human jumped over the middle section into the water next to me, which splashed me in the face and promptly woke me up. We hung out for a while longer and when more mini-humans joined forces, we vacated and went to the Solarium pool. We ended up in the water for over three hours, and were very wrinkled when we finally got out. We attempted the dining room again, and this time I ordered the Chops Grille Filet Mingon for $19.99. I ordered it medium-rare, and was a touch on the rare side, but it was excellent overall. It came with a choice of peppercorn or butter sauce, and I chose the butter. It was just melted butter, and I didn't use it. I ordered a baked potato with it, and they brought out mashed potatoes instead. I didn’t bother saying anything because I finally had good food and the mashed potatoes were fine. After dinner, we wandered around to various venues looking for a place to hang out, and ended the night in the Schooner Bar with the piano music and vocals that were okay. Came back to the 2nd and final towel animal of the cruise. Apparently, they don’t do them every night anymore. I miss them!

We had a 1030-1100 check in time. Got to the port at 1030. Onboard by 1050. No one was inspecting check in times as it really wasn’t necessary. A much nicer experience than boarding in Boston back in October. No one was yelling at people as they went through security The longest wait was actually in traffic leading up to the porters. Security wasn’t bad at all

So true about people not knowing. Our cruise on Allure leaves tomorrow…I snagged the earliest check in time possible on the day check in opened back in December. Meanwhile my SIL (who has never cruised before) waited til a couple weeks ago to check in for herself and BIL and was “so happy the latest check in time was the only one still available…why would you want to get there any earlier than you have to just to sit around and wait?”. I was so baffled by that statement til I realized she was probably imagining it more like checking in for a flight and couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to sit and hang out at the airport for five hours or so before departure.

64 days and counting!!!! Cant wait for the worlds largest cruise ship (for now)!!!!

I have never asked them to serve me multiple of a course at the same time, but any time I have ordered multiples they had my second plate at the server's station waiting for me to finish my first. Since all the dishes are plated separately in the galley I think it's as much a space at the table issue as it is old school proper etiquette. Your server is fetching stacks of plates with lids and bringing them back to their station to distribute for efficiency purposes. That's why you will often see them use an entire plate for a single side order...that's just easier for them to carry to dining room. It shouldn't be an issue to ask for both plates at the same time, but it's going to get crowded at the table when multiple people do this.

We rented a Casita on our last cruise and yes, all day. We like the button you can push service even though we were in front of bar so they were always available! You get water included in an ice bucket and we ended up getting a nice fruit plate that was delivered to us. We liked how we can have a designated space to relax. You choose your Casita location when you sign up on ship.

You should be fine with the day you've reserved. The only time I observed crowds on the pool decks and solarium were during sea days. I believe you'll enjoy the casita (we only live once)!

Maybe the admins can add a 'rainbow' avatar (with LGBT across it) so LGBT members can select and ID themselves should they wish to.

If it helps at all, I just got off Navigator this week and spent every morning of my 3 night cruise up on the jogging track at 5am. At 5am, the chalkboard signs for the reserved casitas already had names on them for the day ("Welcome, Smith Family!"). So, it really is aaaaaall day. I also agree with @14Terry- it was flipping COLD up there on the pool deck! I felt sorry for all the people competing in the belly flop competition - there I was wearing a coat and wrapped in my blanket while they were in swim trunks only... Pool deck and Solarium were NOT crowded, but the hot tubs were!!!

Tonight was the parade of nations with all of the staff carrying their nation's flags. It was really fun. Lot of national pride out on the Dancefloor! today passed by in a blur. At one point the seas got quite rough outside but the ship wasn't bouncing too badly. There was a lot of pushing to shop and use the casino because they had to close those around seven, once we entered Chesapeake Bay. There was a comedian this evening, they had captains corner today, lots of live music both in the day and in the evening, and then they had a flash mob this evening for about five minutes. They've been practicing that Flashmob all week and it was cute. then came the parade of nations which was really nice, followed by a big dance party. My puzzle buddy and I were at the table a couple of times today, but the puzzle table seemed to be newly discovered by families today. Lots of families with kids crowding around wanting to work on the puzzle so my puzzle buddy and I left the table whenever that happened so everybody could get a chair and get a turn. Café latitudes had a long line all day long and naturally, I got one last scoop of Ben & Jerry's. The ceremony honoring the veterans this morning was really nice and they had a very big cake afterwards which was beautiful. I'll include a photo below. I've come to bed relatively early so I can finish my book and donate it to the little library next to the puzzle table. I've got the TV on and of course it's playing the "wash your hands" song. I'm self assist in the morning so I'll be barreling out of here and grabbing a cab for the airport. all in all it's been a good trip and a nice break, which is really all I wanted. And every time I cruise solo, I figure out things that I like, things I don't like, things I want to do differently next time, things that I look forward to each cruise. It's certainly a different experience each time. I mean this time I tried gambling! And had those massages, which I haven't had in years. and with this cruise, I've sailed all of the classes of ships that royal Caribbean offers, so now I have a great frame of reference when planning. Thank you so much to everybody that followed along and commented… It's been really fun sharing my photos and adventures with you. Safe travels!

Well, it didn't really make sense as clearly there were many many couples who chose to not share their table with other couples and were consequently seated at eight-tops all around the restaurant. There were plenty of tables to go around. The servers were on top of things and didn't mind seating people by themselves it was just the hosts that seemed to have been instructed to try to get singles to share.

I'm OK with not making Pinnacle in my lifetime - I don't really need another nametag... LOL - I must say, I do love the cruisers that are very proud to wear those nametags though - I just wish they wouldn't complain to the Diamond concierge about every little thing. My parents are at 163 and never received a crystal block at 140...I wonder how back-logged they are? I'll hit 140 on our next cruise!

So things have been so crazy the past year and a half since moving to Florida, I’ve been lax in doing liveblogs. I’m hoping I can use this cruise as the way to get back leading to being probably one of fifty liveblogs on next year’s icon inaugural. Some background- this will be my second time on Odyssey. Was able to sail her during the “dark times” of October 2021 when the ship was mostly empty and you couldn’t even sit at bar stools. I still loved the ship so when the opportunity came up we jumped at it. The Specifics Guests-It’ll be me, my wife, and my 12 year old daughter on this sailing (who the other day informed us that she had counted and this will be her 17th cruise), My mom and aunt will be on as well in their own room Room- we’ve booked a junior suite on Deck 11 pending some unforeseen RoyalUp magic. After having one in 2021, I’m a big fan of the split bathroom over the walk in closet. There’s still lots of room for clothes and having more space to get ready is better. DX- can’t do that one anymore. Stress related epilepsy and a neurologist who says no drinking. Luckily she didn’t say no gambling, so you’ll still find me at the blackjack table, just with a “plain” Coke in hand instead of a Captain and Coke. Dining-not long after we book onboard Harmony this past April, the dining package went on sale for 235, which giving the selection of specialty restaurants seemed like an OK deal, it’s also the last time we’ll be able to get children’s pricing as our daughter turns 13 in June itinerary- as with most southern Caribbean this is a sea day heavy sailing. Our only stops are Labadee, Aruba, and Curacao. Luckily that leads to pretty long times in port with time to explore. We’ve been to Labadee several times, and have flown to Aruba for weeklong vacations. So Curaçao will be the first time for us.

More jellyfish in July and August. The longer it's hotter, the more they are there. Use lots of safe sea sunscreen and water shoes. Long sleeve rashguarde swim shirts help too.

We turned on every notification thing we could find (for the Royal app) as well as “Always show previews” in the general notifications settings

Thanks for this blog @JohnK6404! I know that I am late in posting this but following this blog has made me pretty excited to sail Wonder in a few months. I feel like everyone has sailed Wonder but me and I sort of put it on the back burner. But I am definitely looking forward to this coming July!

This is sort of how I felt as well on Freedom last July. BTW, late to the party on this blog but enjoying following along. I have yet to sail Navigator....

5 is what they were at anyway. Basically, it prevents them building another pier or allowing more ships in via tendering.

We had an issue with spam bots, so @Matt turned on the auto moderation. I think it is tied to amount of time since joining rather than number of posts. I've manually taken you off moderation so you should be able to contribute freely now!

Just to close out this thread -- someone on my roll call found a third-party tour group in Guadeloupe with an acceptable tour, so wife and I joined that for 190 Euro total. And we now have a private tour booked with Beyond the Beach in Martinique; that one is $$$$ -- 320 Euro total for a half-day 5-hour booking, that's just barely 50/50 between driving time and our time at the botanical gardens and Anse Mitan beach. Plus a 15-minute stop at a bakery to grab a quick bite, since the area restaurants get very crowded on Sundays and it would push us into even more expensive full-day booking territory. But it's still a better choice for us than their stock tours, since those include stops we just don't care to do. But I have to say that working with Beyond the Beach was very pleasant, considering I was putting together a booking last-minute, and they definitely tried to help me with making a multi-passenger option that I could post to my roll call. No one was interested, though, so I'm "stuck" with the private booking for just the two of us.

... and if you're by chance sailing on Wonder, they have the most common Starbucks items also available in the Cafe Promenade and they are included in the DBP. We had Starbucks hot/iced coffees, lattes, cappuccinos, and frappuccinos throughout our cruise last month just because we could! LOL!

Man, am I ready...

I'm trying this.... everytime I try to save, it just never reloads the page.... Nvm it worked, I was just impatient.

NP, I'm standing on the shoulders of the others who figured it out here.

Does Mr. Bayley need a better razor in that video, or is he going for a scruffy look?

Thank you, @AshleyDillofor changing the title; I realized after I posted it that it was probably difficult to read.

Got back from our trip last weekend. She went to the desk when we arrived and they let her switch her time, no problem. The check in process was actually very easy

I just received word that our Crystal Block is on the way! It's here!

This is day 1. Strolled through Ocean View Cafe. It's busy, lots of choices beautifully presented. Lunch at Lumanae. Very busy. Service prompt despite this. Extra staff is obvious so is training and experience level. It was very noisy. Surprising. Split pea soup with ham and scallions. Soup was poured from a taurine into a small bowl containing ham and scallions. Very nice. Delicious - one of my Celebrity favs. Kale salad. Small, good for a starter. Quinoa, orange sections, light lemon flavored dressing also nice. Tasty. Steak Frits w/bernaise. A medium sized uncut sirloin a bit fatty and undercooked but tender. Two potatoe wedges as frits. Taste was good. I can think of a lot of ways to improve presentation. Dinner next. Overall B+.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites the two times we sailed out of San Juan. Near a couple restaurants, grocery store, pharmacy and has easy beach access.

I stayed at Hotel Casablanca in Old San Juan before our cruise. We were coming in with a large part of the day to explore and wanted to be where most of the sites are. The airport area would be OK if you are coming in late without much time to explore San Juan.

Another issue I have with Nassau is the people themselves. I don't expect them to kiss my a$$ but generally, I have found them to be very unpleasant or even rude. Last time I went ashore, I had one vendor very nicely yell about his excursion and when I said, "No thanks," he told me to go f**k myself. I'm sure there are nice people in Nassau but I think I'll just stay on the ship.

No delays this morning and no we had a great flight on one of Alaska’s new planes. The first class seats were super comfortable with nice foot rests and our breakfast was great! Landed in LA and had to take a shuttle to the ride share lot. Got an Uber XL and just like that we were on our way to the terminal. The timing was perfect with us arriving just before our check in window!! We had put our RCL luggage tags on while we were at the airport and kept our carryons up front with us just in case the porters grabbed the bags as they came out of the van. The porters were respectful and let us make sure everything was in order then took them away with the promise that we’d see them soon, then into line we went. We waited maybe 10 mins and then made our way through security and into the terminal to check in for the cruise. A few mins later we were heading to the gangway and then we were on the ship! Super easy check in! We went straight to our muster station because we don’t want to be those people! We headed up to the pool deck on 11 and hung out for a bit listening to the tropical music that did not match the cold temperature! We sat there for about 10 mins until the Windjammer opened then went and found a nice spot by the window and grabbed lunch. Lunch was fine and we sat for a bit until we felt badly that the tables were filling up and thenmade our way to the promenade. After sailing on the jumbo ships for several years the Promenade felt uber small!! We found a comfy spot in the Cafe Promenade while we waited for our room to open up. I handled a few emails so my inbox wasn’t so overwhelming tomorrow and we people watched for a bit. That alone could be an entirely new blog! At 1pm we headed to our room and it was ready but luggage was nowhere in sight. We sat down on the bed to rest our backs and we just like that we were both asleep. Our room is super warm and we think it might be from the virtual balcony - which is kind of cool. But not cool enough to make me feel like a Thanksgiving turkey. We’ll see how it pans out. When we woke up our luggage was in the hallway and the unpacking commenced! We were almost done when our cabin attendant came by to introduce himself. Which was perfect timing because we needed hangers. We have Robert for all three cruises and so far we love him! We went to dinner in the main dining room and experienced the new menu. We were excited for it because the first night has fried chicken and hubby LOVES fried chicken. Unfortunately it didn’t pass the hubby test. My dinner was a bit of a flop too. I ordered prime rib and I was not very happy with it. Not only did both of our plates come out cold, but my prime rib came out nearly rare, which I would have been okay with had it not been cold. They only offer it medium rare or medium well which I thought was odd. It didn’t bother me because I order medium rare anyway. After not eating much of our dinner we went straight to the Windjammer and had a salad which was just what we needed. After the last three cruises in suites, I really missed filet night in Coastal Kitchen!!!!! We were so tired that after dinner we went back to our rooms with the intent of changing into our suits to sit in the hot tub but never left. It was a big day. We’ll sleep well tonight…even without the special star class bed!

A big family group will be on this sailing! Our first time in Star Class, we're going fancy this time.

Back on topic, god I hope they don't bring back the old muster drill. What a regressive step.

90 days and counting! We need to get together at sail away and send Matt a Royal Caribbean Blog fans picture and drink together.

We absolutely loved cruising on Allure in April 2022, so much so that we booked her again for this upcoming April. The ship just felt really elegant to me and had so much to do onboard. I'm super happy that we got a 7 night on her this time rather than the same 6 night we did last year because I'm thrilled to have an extra day on board with no port stop! My only complaint about the ship from last year is that we felt that there wasn't a ton to do late at night, but maybe that is because we don't drink (bars were open...). Food choices were very limited after 9pm and I got sick of pizza. But that may have been helpful that we went to bed earlier and weren't so sleepy to get up for our port activities. I loved OceanAria and the music in Mamma Mia, ice show was so-so. "Family" comedians weren't that great, but ok. I take my enjoyment of the entertainment with a grain of salt - it's all free and if I really don't like it, I can always leave and do something else. We didn't end up doing the adult comedians, but hoping to on this upcoming cruise. Food was pretty good, IMO. We primarily tried to eat in the MDR, due to my husband's preference, for most meals, but did try out some of the other places. I LOVED Central Park and the Boardwalk - both new to me since that was our first Oasis ship. I really enjoyed the free dance classes they offered. Our Voom worked pretty well (although it has switched to Starlink since then). Really enjoyed the zip line. My kids were happy to have 2 Flowriders. They liked going ice skating one of the days. The teen club seemed great, although neither of my kids really hung out with kids they met there - the oldest hung out with other teens from our roll call that we connected with beforehand (and met for the first time right before walking them all to the teen meet up the first afternoon). My younger teen really didn't end up connecting with the other kids and would either hang with the older sibling's group, or just stay with us. I think he was intimidated by a lot of the older boys in the teen club (he was still 12 and there were a lot of 15-17 year olds on our sailing). Pools seemed nice but we didn't spend a lot of time there since we had so many water activities during our port days. We chose to do a lot of the other stuff on board instead during the sea days.

My favourite thing about Allure is that when on the boardwalk you have a clear line of sight to the water. The other oasis class ships all have the Ultimate Abyss in the way.

I'm on Allure now and it doesn't feel old or outdated to me. I was just on Wonder in June so I do have a good frame of reference.

Welcome to the boards. First, check out a full walkthrough tour of the ship I think you'll find this article interesting: Is Allure of the Seas the "worst" Oasis Class ship? I went onboard to see for myself

I have made it onboard Symphony and have settled into my new home for the next 7 months. Once again, I am very excited to share with you guys my adventures over the course of this contract. It was a tough decision for me to come back to work, some of you may know that I went through some difficult circumstances back home, but I am happy to be back!

The same answer I used with my kids quite often... "We'll see".

If anyone is still following along, it looks like I got confirmation that we DON’T sail in the tour boat all the way to Juneau. At some point we do meet up with the ship and get back on (probably around 12:00) before we sail into Juneau.