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I often read negatives about what didn't go right. Now its time for what did go right, which was most everything. From the time the taxi pulled up to the big blue girl all was good. The Key whisked us past the crowds right on board to a great chops lunch. Muster was quick and easy but required a red do as something didn't register with the system the first time. No problem I like deck 4 any way. Room great, attendant great, pre-ordered blanket and water in place. Ketchikan maintained its rep as my favorite stop. Shopped till we dropped. Gal got a mastodon or mammoth bone bracelet. We watched the salmon in the river. Then we ducked the long lines of the fish house for my snaky "best place" the Crab and Go. Chowder of course good but the halibut they do is the best fish dish I have ever tasted (and I'm a pro fishing boat captain). We did the bears in Sitka and they didn't disappoint. Lunch there was at a street vendor and we had snow crab rolls and wild berry tea. Juneau we got lucky . Cab ride to the glacier was shared. The fog lifted allowing us to see it in all its glory. We saw eagles as well. We had done lunch aboard before going in to town so no food secrets there. Found a blanket in town for 1/4 the price they were charging back on the ship. Sea days were spent on the balcony spotting whales, dolphins, mola, a couple otters and puffins. Even a school of tuna that I had no idea went that far north. We stayed aboard in Victoria. Hated to get off. We did a day room thing in town. Revisited Pike's place. Then off to Airport. Heard nightmare stories about long TSA lines.... They were not exaggerating! Should have listened to advice. Flight packed but smooth. Found out the hard way that sleeping on an Alaska air 737 wasn't gonna happen. Still sleepy as a person could get , I stayed awake reliving the great rip we just had. The mindset on Fiancé was that this would be a one time thing. Not a full day after getting home and she's already fine tuning one southbound on Radiance to get more Alaska time and maybe some inside passage time this trip.

Ms Marva is our suite attendant. We had her on our b2b on Oasis. She always leaves something special I always enjoy a great artist at work

Ok, I'm gonna try this blog thing again. We sailed Oasis in January to PDCC\Cozumel\Roatan\Costa Maya, and I attempted to "live blog". I think I posted about 4 times and it was like two days later every time, which by then I forgot all of the details of my days, so it wasn't a very good report. SO I will try this again. For one- we will have more than one Wi-Fi plan, so that will make it easier on me not having to fight the kid to use the log in, lol. This will be the same trio as the last trip, Myself, wife (Lisa) and 11yo Son (Chase). Wife has a Deluxe beverage plan, I have a Refreshment package (I'll be celebrating almost 2 years sober on this trip) and the boy doesn't drink much other than water and some juice, so he's going ala carte. This will be our first cruise out of NJ, and really excited to NOT be flying in. We live in South Philadelphia, right near the famous cheesesteak places and the Italian market (you may know this from the famous Rocky running scene-before the run up the steps) We are still going back and forth about getting there, I'm 99% sure I'll just drive but we have weighed the option of the train-but at the end of the cruise, I'm just going to want to get in and go. As for the cruise itself, we are doing the Port Canaveral\PDCC\Nassau run that seems to be the most common run from Port Liberty. Our last time on Oasis we had a boardwalk balcony and actually really enjoyed it, when I booked this one right after the previous one I picked another BW Balcony, but picked the very last one in the back- hoping for a nice view of the water and the aqua show (noise doesn't bother us). I then transferred the reservation to a TA, my first time using one. She got in touch with us a few weeks later to inform me that OV Balconies were available and would be about $200 more total for the three us to upgrade, so we jumped on that, moving to Deck 14, port side Aft with an ocean view balcony- we appear to be directly below the mini golf, which I assume won't cause much noise from above. This will be the first time any of us have had an ocean balcony, so that adds some excitement. Ok, I've laid the ground work and bored you enough, I'll update with excursions and other plans we have made as we get closer to sail time! Oh- last time we didn't do much on the ship other than Aqua show and Ice show, so this time we will be doing a lot more of the other stuff like comedy shows, headliners, game shows and such...I may even do a little Karaoke! Excited to bring you all along for our little journey.

I have been teaching Civics for years. Last year the new mayor of Chicago came to my class to talk with the students. We are going to the DNC in Chicago with students.

I started teaching in September 2000. The year 2030 makes an even 30 years for me. I told Hubby long ago, regardless of what my pension is at that point, it's time to go. So that is as long as I am willing to stay. I even made sure that I paid back all my pension contributions when I took maternity leaves when I had the girls. Depending on how much teaching changes over the next few years, I might even be tempted to go before 2030. But the end is definitely in sight, and that is a good feeling!

Snacks delivered to the room today and yes white chocolate covered strawberries ….yum

Tonight for dinner brought us to Izumi. shrimp firecracker spring roll Shrimp and pork Wonton soup Pork Gyoza dumpling Shrimp& vegetable tempura Champagne Lobster roll

Our towel animal farm has started

My wife's friend's husband teaches civics and between that and Florida's mandates (not looking to get into it but I'm sure you know what I mean), he's not exactly happy. She's been working on an actual 2nd career that would be great if it worked out. But Disney is definitely an option for a lot of people. Some of her co-workers have been working part-time or seasonally at Disney while teaching (usually just for a little extra cash and the park perks). A PE teacher at her school is some of the characters b/c she's short (a big requirement, especially for Donald Duck and some others, lol). In her early 20's, my wife sold tickets part time for a while, but that was obviously a long time ago.

I avoid all the sales on the Promenade, and talked about why in my latest video

Wow all you crazy kids start blogging so early! We'll keep the ship warm for you as we'll be getting off when you get on on the 1st. And is the only way! NJ born and bred here, only 65 miles from the port. Heaven! And i agree.... unless you're a Philly transplant to some other part of the country, every other cheesesteak is simply an imposter. I just watched a YouTube video where a lady made her cheesesteak with Steakums. Frozen Steakums. No. Just no right there! Rocky is also one of the greatest movies ever, but who the hell runs to train in Chuck Taylors?? Batman and i make that comment every single time!

I'm in the minority is seems. But I actually like the change to make each night more 'thematic'. I don't have lofty expectations of the food, but I find the MDR to be almost always good. Not like ohmygod this is the best meal ever, but much better than many of the complaints I've read (aka. Barely Gas Station quality, Worse than Applebees, etc). My only complaint is that they should probably lean into the cuisines of each theme night even more (Risotto and pasta on French night? That's pure chaos). Ok, 2 complaints: Why don't they have Indian Night (at least I have never heard RC has one) and instead put one indian dish daily? They almost always look delicious. I dined every night on a 7-nighter on Allure in Juanuary. This is my very quick review, take it as you will: Welcome Abroad Fried chicken is blah. Not crispy. I also noticed that a the New York Strip was ordered much more than when it was down in the 'classics'. Stay away from it. It's a thin piece of meat that there's no way to cook correctly. Crab cakes are good. The peanut-caramel square is basically a rice krispies square with a bit of peanut butter swirl and berries. I'm doing another 7 nighter next year, and we are going to the Solarium instead of WA. French Night Beef Bourguignon was good. The cream puffs were pretty good. But they are cold, I - for some reason - wasn't expecting that. Just putting it out there in case cold desserts are not your thing. The cobbler is good too. Italian Night My favorite night, by far. The Lasagna is probably my favorite MDR dish. Risotto is solid. The Arancini is...well, it's fried rice with cheese. It's great. Make room for the Tiramisu and the Chocolate-Hazelnut cake Caribbean No real recommendations, but my pork chop was dry. My wife enjoyed her double dose of shrimp starter and entree. Mexican Night This night I decided to try the Butter Chicken and I have no regrets. The Warm Chocolate Chip cookie is a warm cookie in a cup and it's delicious. Corn cakes are good too. Royal Night I don't love lobster, but be sure that if you say I can only have one tail, I will have one. It's...well...lobster. I also had the Chicken Marsala and...well...I don't remember it. Bon Voyage The lamb is a winner in my opinion.

I am going to sub at my school when I retire. I can sub for 140 days with extra pay on Mondays and Fridays. The subbing won't affect my pension.

I also got my cruise duck supplies delivered and designed my tag that I’m going to attach to them. I have never done them but do love to look for them.

We are in Roatan Honduras today. We have an excursion through Royal. The monkey, Sloth and Iguana interaction. Hope to get some great pictures to share.

They still do that here too in Ontario. We cover government in elementary school and all Grade 10s are mandated to take a civics course in order to graduate high school.

She loves her kids, but Florida keeps changing so much stuff that she winds up working after she gets home and on weekends for hours on end. The whole thing is very sad and very broken. We're financially stable and thankful for what we have but I do wish I could tell her to just quit and pursue that other career full time. Her position last year was partially admin stuff and partially going into the lower grades to provide extra reading help to kids who needed it. So she still got to interact with the kids without having to spend all those hours re-doing lesson plans and whatnot to meet the ever-changing requirements. That said, if she wound up with an admin job like supporting teachers and lost contact with the kids, she'd probably jump at it just b/c her workload right now is so ridiculous.

^^^this 100%

Truthfully, so am I. But I also need to at least go a few more years, same thing, for various reasons. Cruising being one of them lol I am sure that helps. Even here, there are many teachers that take short term positions still within the board, but outside of the classroom to take a bit of a break. I never do that because I love being in the classroom. I would see no purpose in teaching if you took me away from my kids. But that is why I have kept these leaves that I take every few years. Gives me a chance to reset.

@Lovetocruise2002 I understand completely. I started in 2002 & teaching has changed so much. I teach government, so I have to be especially careful not to upset parents. It's ridiculous. @OCSC MikeTexas provides a buy-in option for health insurance, but it's not cheap. I'm trying to figure out how to get my social security credits to get at least half of what I paid in before I started teaching. #thankswindfall If we lived in Florida, I'd try and get a Disney job for the perks.

Sounds like some of the nonsense my wife will be dealing with here in FL. After 30 years she can continue teaching while receiving her pension at the same time for up to 10 years (it's called DROP, whatever that means, could be an acronym, I'm not sure, lol). One of the big issues for her (aside from how underpaid tenured teachers are here) is that her retirement comes with no health insurance benefits of any kind so there's a big gap between 30 years and medicare when you start teaching right out of undergrad. On the plus side, she almost never takes days off so she has enough saved up to get paid for an entire year without working (or cashing them out when she actually retires which is what she plans to do).

I could retire in December of 2029, but if I go until Dec 2031 it will increase my yearly pension amount by $5,000. Texas' retirement math is funky & state legislature has not given a cost of living raise to retirees in over 20 years. So even when I retire from public school, I will continue to teach adjunct at the college level online to supplement my income. Gotta pay for cruises somehow. LOL!

Hey now... if you lived 1000 miles away you'd learn to appreciate them, lol. I'm not chopping my own raw steak like that friend of my wife's does. (We don't actually make steak-umms very often but we have).

Give me a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie any day! Pretty much the only cookie i eat!

We are officially 25 days away and we got our Genie email yesterday. We will have Wendy Zhang as are genie for this trip. If my family thought I was crazy before then it’s only going to get worse, lol . Having Genie confirmation makes it all real.

Tonight’s show was

I love Marva!! We had her in 1718 on Oasis and she said several times she wanted back on Allure. Glad to see she got her wish.

Don't fear the "culturally enriching"! English will still be a primary language onboard. We loved all our cruising in Asia, particularly the diversity. Shanghai - while I've never sailed out of the port, I've visited many times. Speaking exactly zero Chinese of any kind I still found it easy to get around the touristy bits. It's also comparatively inexpensive to hire a private guide/driver for a day or two before or after the cruise if you want to see some of the city. (The second link above is me )

Sure wish they would have given the same compensation for the Panama Canal cruises that they're giving for these

Less than five years to go.

I was on two weeks ago and had the same experience. Filet and tenderloin were fairly early on, we absolutely had the red/green disc, and the servers had no issue at all if any of us wanted to skip a particular meat. Our experience was somewhere between 90 mins. to 2 hours, but that was definitely more of an us issue than a them one. It was only about 60% full and still a long ways to closing, so we didn't feel rude lingering and enjoying a few glasses of wine...

My name is Tyffie (pronounced Tiff-E) and I will be sailing on my second RC ship (Ovation of the Seas) in 387 days!!! Back to Alaska I go- first time was on Serenade of the Seas last year. Can’t wait to share my experiences and gain more tips!

I am currently at sea on Liberty of the Seas. Being a watch guy I was intrigued by a contest they were holding at the jewelry shop to guess the price of a Tag Heuer watch. All the hype around the contest and the staff lead you to believe the prize was the watch on display that you had to guess the price on. This evening was the drawing and myself and about four others guessed the exact price of $1450.00 so they put our names into a bucket to draw the winner. Sadly, or as it turns out not sadly, I did not win. The person who won was called up and instead of giving him the Tag they gave him a crappy Fit Bit knock off worth about $40.00. This is my first cruise and I have to say this has soured me, not to the Jeweler (they are bad in their own right), but to Royal Caribbean. Don’t they know it is bad business to allow unscrupulous raffles with a bait and switch ending? Royal Caribbean reign in your retail partners because, at least in my eyes, they are giving you a bad name. There is an old saying RC, people judge you by the company you keep. I am judging RC hard. Mike the watch guy.

Sorry, a few days late in getting this out September 2023 3 - Crusin and Boozin (Allure) 3 - Snotarni (Wonder) 7 - shady (Liberty) 8 - mutantsfornukes (Independence) 9 - CruiseMsclDad (Mariner) 10 - AKM (Explorer) 14 - YOLO (Jewel) 16 - SuperStarian (Harmony) 24 - Mike.s (Explorer) 24 - A and M (Oasis) 29 - Snotarni (Independence)

I have kind of a funny story about this. I lived in China for two years and still go back regularly for work, but I am a black guy who is a dual US/Namibian citizen and speaks English with a midwest American accent. My spoken Mandarin is good, but not great. Anyways, I was in Hangzhou, ended up at a karaoke bar, and overheard people (who didn't know I understood them) questioning why I was there since most everything was in Mandarin. So of course I went up on stage, belted out a pretty damn good Mandarin cover of "Friday" by Rebecca Black (because it was Friday, and I was drunk), looked a them, and dropped the mic. We spent the rest of the night together bar hopping.

My heart goes out to all of you teachers! I retired in 2012, taught part time for 3 more years then said that’s it. Taught in FL and GA. Too many changes! Retirement is great! Y’all will get there!

Wow ! Awesome that they still teach any kind of government/civics classes in school. I thought that had all gone away. Yay for TX !

Of all the reasons to be soured off of cruising.............

That's exactly when my wife started but she worked at a Charter school her first year before switching to public so she's a year behind as far as pension years go. She's ready to leave ASAP but there are a bunch of variables that will ultimately determine what she does when the time comes. I'm sure it's a great feeling and I feel bad that my wife can't fully have that feeling yet. Hopefully some of those variables fall our way and she doesn't have to keep going if she doesn't want to. In the meantime, she's qualified for various out of the classroom positions and when she had one last year she didn't mind it nearly as much as she does when she's in the classroom (we even went on a cheap 4-night cruise in October when she already had Monday off, and I drove her straight to work after we disembarked Friday morning, lol) so getting back out would be a big plus.

Yeah, pretty sure that's the plan. It's gonna spoil us, for sure- already trying to find a Bermuda cruise for next year since we haven't been there yet! There are quite a few places down there, my buddy from Philly works at a bar in Jacksonville and does pop up cheesesteaks sales and they always look great, and I guess there are a few places near the Phillies Spring training field that are supposed to be pretty good. When we sailed from Miami we saw a cheesesteak truck outside one of the terminals when we were riding in, but it was like 3 terminals down from where we got dropped off so I never walked over to try it (plus I was getting on a ship and a cheesesteak was the last thing on my mind). I DID try the one on coco cay, just because I had to, lol. Thank you so much!!

hey liSTEN i love it!!! also the towel farm!!! LOVE

I never understand people who like white chocolate.

We did it with ours a few months older. Do everything @Momof4crazytocruise suggested. We also had a lighter car seat for flying. Pro tip, you can have Amazon deliver diapers, etc to the hotel you are staying at prior to the cruise. Most importantly, don't let others discourage you. Each cruise with a child is very different and we have never regretted one.

That's pretty significant because Diamond on Royal is where the meaningful benefits kick in.

The end is in sight! For me too. When I return to work in September 2024, I might go 5-6 more and that might be it.

My wife and I did the land portion of this land/cruise portion first. We finished up Denali and got to the Port in Seward on Friday, September 1st. Early on the motor coach the "adventure guide" informed us that she was just notified that the Radiance had a "propulsion system issue" that they were working on and our cruise might be delayed. We finally got to Seward about 5:30 and boarded the ship with no problems nor mention of any ship related problems. Once in our cabin, the captain made an announcement that the problem wasn't fixed, the ship had to go to dry dock and the cruise was cancelled. He did mention that we would receive a letter detailing the reimbursement packages and comps. We quickly headed to the conference room where four staff members were assisting guests with return flights home through Royal's Air/Sea. Within 1.5 hrs I received an email with our flight arrangements for Saturday night. So we headed to the nearest bar for a few complementary drinks then off to dinner. Saturday we took the last shuttle bus back to the Anchorage airport and caught our flight home later that night. Are we disappointed, yes of course. Butthese things happen and it was out of our control. We did get to see Denali and a few of the small towns around Denali. Didn't see Mt. Denali because of the clouds nor did we see any wild life but we really enjoyed that national park. We were totally satisfied with the way the captain, his staff and crew quickly reacted to this problem. Very professional, we can't complain. We look at it this way, we travelled to Alaska and got to have dinner and a night on the Radiance of The Seas. By the way, she's a beautiful ship for her age, just a "little" problem with her propulsion system. rjac

Regarding whether or not a staff member actually keeps the cash tips or puts them into a combined fund...I have finally decided that it isn't my business and I don't really worry about it. I leave the tip I'm going to leave and what happens to it after it leaves my hand is irrelevant to me. Sure, I would rather have the person who provided me the service get the money, but the tip sharing policy is not something that I have any control over. The only thing I can control is whether or not I leave a tip, so I do. I follow this "rule" whether it's a bartender or a meal server. I tip at every meal whether I eat at a specialty restaurant or the Windjammer. 99% of the time I leave my tip on the table and depart the pattern. What happens to that money after I leave is, and will always remain, a mystery. It's simply none of my business.

Yes, being a generous tipper to the bartenders is not only the right thing to do but also can garner some nice perks. I could stand 4 deep at the casino bar and it’s guaranteed my red stripe beer is going to be handed to me first.

We bring about 100 bucks in 1's just to tip bartenders and drink runners on the decks or wherever. If we decide right away that we are probably gonna be at the same bar most of the week (this past cruise we made a nightly stop at the upstairs bar of Music hall) we leave them a 20 the first night and man are they happy to see us for the rest of the week, I don't drink alcohol, and once they knew that- every time I'd step foot in that room, they'd start making me a different virgin drink every time. It absolutely helps. Also, my wife was a bartender for 25 years, she would feel so weird if she wasn't leaving a cash tip on the bar.