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Funny packing story You should have seen it. There was a time she was traveling for work or maybe a cheer competition for the daughter......regardless, she was driving there. She asked me to carry her suitcase down the stairs for her......What I didn't realize is that she had packed her weighted blanket in the suitcase to bring with her. I grab the bag thinking its going to be light since it was a two day trip, and nearly dislocated my elbow yanking on the bag...... At least with us flying, she won't be packing that...I think...... I'm starting to think this will be me at the port

So I spoke with The Boss this AM. She has already started plotting what she can put in the daughter's suitcase. She informed me that she "doesn't like" the ship towels, so she ordered microfiber towels from The Amazon to bring with us..... Just call me sherpa

12 more hours of work to go! Thankfully the EMS part of my job did not involve any medical care last night and got to experience its secondary meaning.

The daughter has told me that she is packed. She also sent me a picture of the luggage scale. While part of me is proud that she was able to “pack light” as she told me. The pragmatic side of me looks at that, and has the sneaking suspicion that The Boss will see that as an opportunity for her to pack more her own stuff into that bag……soon we will have luggage carts looking like @asquared17

So this is the teenage daughter....Supposedly The Boss went over her packing list with her so hopefully she has everything. I will verify soon when this tooooo long shift is over. This is ALLLL The Boss. She practically cocoons herself......me, I hate them. I prefer to sleep.......without getting too TMI.......with the barest minimum of things. Give me a pillow and a sheet and I am happy. Ask The Boss....I'm confused as well

RIP to my back..... yes you read that right.....her current blanket is 20lbs!!

Coastal Kitchen As you may recall from my earlier posts, they would not permit us to use our BOGO coupons except for the first night and since we wanted to enjoy the filet on night #1, there were no other chances to do any specialty dining unless we wanted to pay full onboard prices. Uh...no. So we decided that we would eat in the CK every night since the Maitre'd said that we would have no problem making reservations for all 4 nights. We had 4 dinners, 3 breakfasts and 1 lunch in the CK. Believe it or not, that one lunch that we ate there is the one and only time we have EVER had a lunch in a CK on any ship ! We have always either been Star Class or GenPop on an Oasis class ship and before becoming Pinnacle, we had no access to the CK unless we were in a suite and the only suites we've ever had on an O class ship, were SC suites and we were eating our lunches in specialty restaurants for the most part. The service in the CK was amazing. The Maitre'd, restaurant manager and our own personal server (Anelyne) were just spectacular. I could not have asked for better service. Period. The food was hit-or-miss for me. Dan was a cappy hamper the whole time. He loved everything that he got and so he was in heaven. I did not care at ALL for 2 out of the 4 menus that we had. I've already discussed the night that they gave me the wonderful a la carte options from the kids' menu. That was really a good recovery for that night and I thoroughly enjoyed my low budget chicken parm. But the last night. Ugh, Dan had his beloved lamb shank but there was absolutely nothing on that menu that even sounded remotely good to me. I finally opted for the cauliflower fried rice and it was....not good. The breakfasts were very good but it'd kinda hard to screw up breakfast. Standard stuff. Nothing amazing. The lunch was fine. Nothing spectacular. Dan and I split a chicken sandwich and fries. I guess this immersive CK experience reminded me that I am not, and have never been, a huge fan of the CK. It's not awful but it's nothing special EXCEPT for the views and the extraordinary service, both of which we have always appreciated.

Ok...so we're home. Fairly uneventful last couple of days. I will just throw out some random thoughts. The Shows Aqua Theater show: I had forgotten what a real Aqua Theater show is like. Allure reminded me. It was all about the diving and the water talents and less about aerialists, stomping and splashing. While nothing beats Aqua80's on Oasis (primarily b/c of the musical arrangement), I think OceanAria is a close second. I almost decided to skip it. I'm glad I didn't. Ice Show: Blades is very different from what I am used to with ice shows. I liked some of it and I hated some of it. I think the hardest part for me was that I was unfamiliar with some of the music and that made it hard to enjoy. It is what it is. The skaters are all very talented and that's always fun to watch. Blue Planet: I was very surprised to find that a great deal of this show has changed since the last time I saw it ! This is another one that I nearly skipped but I'm glad I went if only to see what has changed. I suppose someone must have fallen from the living tree at some point and they basically quit having the performers "hiding" up in the tree. There were still some performers "hiding" in the roots section of the tree but primarily the performers "coming to life" in the tree branches is now GONE ! They also changed the music. I recall there being a whole section of Beatles music which is also gone. There are parts of the show that are little changed but great parts of it have changed significantly. No wonder this show is now a "snoozer" to some. I felt it was a snoozer, too. Mama Mia: I enjoy the Abba music but I have always hated the "plot" of MM. We DID skip this one this time. One and done for us. Stupid and pointless with the music being the only redeeming part of the show.

All this talk about booking '25/26 cruises with the schedule extension and I just YOLO'd a cruise for this year.

you people are crazy!!! I love my heated blanket, but never thought of traveling with it on a cruise

We can thank bezos for our luggage scale. It's a lifesaver, we have never had to be those people removing stuff at the airport and having to repack. I watched so many people doing it and had some vintages do it our trips.

this is a rookie move. first of all, you never admit that you have room left in the bags. secondly, you should HARDLY send ACTUAL PROOF of said room!!!! ...also i suspect the boss will turn you into a luggage cart and make you haul it all, ala me

Our spring break is the following week. I haven't been to KSC in forever but it's cool to visit. Actually... spring break mostly applies to my wife... so if you only have one freeloader, does that mean you have room for another?

I was literally catching up and thinking the same thing! @asquared17 and @GregD you're going a on Caribbean cruise! Why on Earth do you need a weighted blanket? lol

Assuming I do one for March, just drop in with comments or pics whenever you feel like it like you mentioned (and are sober enough). I don't detail anything pre-cruise. If I did it would be something like this... Saturday: Wife finished packing, I have most of my stuff packed. Sunday morning: I folded and added my shirts (b/c I hate wrinkles) and we we left the house around 8:45am to get there a little before 10am to park in the garage.

For me the big ships are as much the destination as any port. My issue with a B2B is coming back to canaveral after the first leg , getting off the ship and then reboarding, and then having to change rooms if you couldn’t line them up when booking. I’ll pass and wait for it to eventually do longer sailings

You'd be shocked how many policies can be danced around simply by being genuinely nice to people.

YOU HAVE DISCOVERED MY SOUTHWEST HACK. I seriously book flights the day they become open (7-8 months in advance) and then cross all my body parts that they will have to change the time of the flights (actually pretty likely). THEN I change to the better (read - more expensive) flight time. It doesn't always work out, but it's worked out enough that I pay attention to when they release their schedules! You all and your weighted blankets. I can't sleep with one, it makes me feel like I'm suffocating. Spouse got me the 10 lb one once (since I love comforters, quilts, and blankets), but I had to pass it off to one of the daughters because it was...too much. And weighted blankets in luggage for flights? What the serious heck. @GregD, 28.8 lbs in the suitcase - did she just throw in a pair of shoes and her toothbrush?!?!? I'm *constantly* trying to adjust between 48-52 lbs in my suitcases. This next trip is going to be bad because I'm flying straight to a work conference after debarkation! #thankgoodnessforsouthwestflywith2bagsfree

everybody wants to rule the world just came on and honest to god — i looked around for the aqua show dancers.

kindly pass this along: hello to the boss: you are inspiring. please accept this humble offering of a travel weighted blanket so that you can continue to travel in style. https://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Weighted-Original-Traveling-Outdoors/dp/B09J1M896K/ref=mp_s_a_1_3_maf_1?crid=2VACFN3OCGXSF&keywords=gravity%2Btravel%2Bweighted%2Bblanket&qid=1708098387&sprefix=gravity%2Btr%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-3&th=1&psc=1 best, a hurricane of a human who overpacks

can’t wait to hear about utopia!!! not sure i’d know what to do with all my time if i didn’t live blog you’re stuck with me, my friend!!

I definitely have a trend. I do bad at the beginning of the cruise and even worse towards the end !

We were those people once. We hated every second of it. Worst part was we weighed the bags before going to the airport too.

Yes! So my new rule for pre-cruise flights after March 2022 was to take the very first possible flight out of DTW. Then the ATL fiasco happened in July 2023, and my new rule is: take first flight out of DTW, and fly in two days early whenever possible. I am really liking that extra day buffer.

Thank you... It's also not lost on me that here I am updating this blog...while getting paid. Hopefully tonight, I can turn the EMS (Emergency Medical Services) portion of my work to mean Earning Money Sleeping

This was me...until March 2022....lol My whole family, except me, are not morning people. However, ever since that March 2022 fiasco (still traumatized from that), I told them that we are no longer going by what is "convenient for all". We are taking the first flight possible out of DTW on the day of travel. If that means we have to roll off our driveway at 4:30am then so be it. They are all grumbling but at least it gives us more time to drive or make other arrangements if you know what hits the fan. I am kicking myself because for our cruise in 3 weeks, it was considerably cheaper to take the afternoon flight to MIA from DTW. I booked it thinking I would move it to the early 8:30am flight before final payment. Then, things got crazy in December (when it was final payment time) with my Dad and I forgot to move it. Anyhow, now I am praying that doesn't come back to bite me in 3 weeks. The freeloaders and Hubby are happy though.

Casino As I mentioned in an earlier post, the casino was insane most evenings. Like @Ampurp85, I seem to have better luck during the days when the casino is fairly slow. Once things start getting crazy at night, my luck goes bye-bye. We played more video poker on this cruise than we have ever done in the past. It's kind of Dan's new "thing". We even played some kind of pig game (can't remember the name of it) which was fun. We needed just a few points to get to the 2000 level so we sat down there and got what we needed. I find the whole video poker thing to be too stressful. I have to "think" too much and I got bored really fast. But then I get bored with any kind of slot machine. They just aren't my favorite way to lose money. As [bad] luck would have it, we found absolutely NO good luck on the non-smoking side of the casino. We opted to spend more time on the smoking side and that just doesn't agree with me anymore. I am a former smoker but I just can't tolerate it now....plus you go home stinkin' to high heaven. UGH So we made our 2000 points (we only used Dan's card in the machines so the cert is in his name, not that it matters) so we got a very nice certificate and have already booked an 8 night Oasis cruise in January 2025. I got a $$ of cert so we combined them to help with the cabin upgrade and other associated expenses. A free cruise can get very expensive !

She did get 1 pair of new shorts. We went out the other night searching. Being the moody teenager she is, she is extremely picky about the color wash that they are.....and god forbid she gets two of the same ones....so that was fun. I do though have a little bit of sympathy for her. She is old enough that that she wants things from the women's section, but she is too skinny to fit the smallest size, so she is still stuck in the kids section......so you can imagine how well that goes over. She also has a bunch that she uses at the cheer gym that she probably packed. She tells me that she packed two pairs of athletic shorts, and three pairs of jean shorts.

As I said , I’d be glad to contribute. I could even add a little pre cruise info like where we are coming from and staying in cocoa etc. add some color if need be.

Utopia doing short cruises is maddening. I would love to sail her, but it ain’t worth it for 3 or 4 nights.

I don’t think I’m cut out to do a liveblog. Y’all are detailed pre cruise and I know how lazy I am. Plus the beverage package interferes with me likely posting regularly. Good on you though. I’ll follow along.

i would love elite drink vouchers on celebrity

wait she ALSO travels with a weighted blanket?!?! maybe i can be the boss when i grow up

C&A status updated! Made it to Diamond level! So the math is interesting. Before the Cruise my login screen showed 78 Points and Emerald status. After the update from this cruise it is 81 and Diamond Status. I earned 10 points for going solo on a 5 night cruise but the previous total included a 7 night which my wife went on with a group several years ago. My individual points would have actually been 71 rather than the 78 the screen showed due to our shared status. So my points for the solo cruise were added to my individual total bringing it up to 81. Her log in screen now shows 81 points and Diamond level as well. So it shows which ever total is the highest for those entered in the system as a couple even though it uses the individual totals for the actual accrual. Most of the time this won't affect our planning as we rarely cruise without each other. However it is good to know how exactly RC does the math.

Access to group rates is where the TA can save you money. If you're booking insides or balconies for 2, there may be a group rate set up already for your sailing if you work with a TA that is part of a larger consortium. This is where you could see significant savings if you are booking more than 120 days out (before the group blocks have to be given back).

The Allure chips are as you can see, stamped with Allure of the Seas on them. They really can only be used or cashed in on Allure of the Seas. However...bring your chip to to the cage of Icon, be polite, explain what happened, and smile a lot.

It’s bad enough folks are using this forum to post other cruise line trip reports. Doing a train live thread here is even further far fetched.

I recently began using Josh from MEI. Have no regrets. https://mei-travel.com/josh.crothers

Found this picture....looks like something that would make my kids whine and complain

I would not give much thought to the survey. Out of all the star class cruises we have done, we are about 50/50 for getting the survey. For the one coming up on Oasis in March, we did not get our survey but we already heard from our Genie. That is the important thing. Any requests you have, just send that directly to Nityam. He is great btw. We have never had him, but we know him and have sailed with him a few times.

In fairness Royal's executive team has a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. That comes way ahead of building ships that a small subset of return guest desire. I agree with your assessment though. Most of my research now is going into exotic train journeys which come with stops at various places with excursions. They are like a cruise on rails with very good food, like Michelin rated food. My first train trip will take place this summer. There is one in Peru, several across Australia and New Zealand that look really interesting. Some of them are less than a balcony on Icon.

We are booked on the March 10th sailing, but I don't think we will stay in Orlando pre-cruise for this one. We are only down to one freeloader with us for this one and she wants to visit the Kennedy Space Center so we might stay in Port Canaveral instead.

If we don’t have to worry about weight, she will bring her weighted blanket, and her own pillow

Thanks to @jbrinkm for posting the link. And here's a delicious memory for you missing those wonderful soft crab sandwiches with Eastern shore grown tomatoes!

We had Nityam as our genie on our first Star class sailing last weekend. He was FANTASTIC! We never received that survey, but found Nityam to be excellent with both pre cruise communication, as well as onboard communication using the WhatsApp app. We absolutely loved every moment of our cruise with Nityam. If Nityam is your genie, rest assured you will be very well cared for and he will make magic happen.

As mentioned above... their groups rates will save you money, plus the OBC you mentioned.

I have received the survey each time, but I only sent it in the first time. Since then, I have ignored it. I send everything when the genie contacts me directly.

We are cruising with Nityam as our Genie next week I’ll let you know if we have any suggestions for you. We didn’t get the survey for this cruise either, though have for previous star class sailings

MEI is used by a very large number of regular contributors to this site and the overall experience has been very good….self included. No complaints at all. With that said, agents aren’t going to really save you money, other than maybe a $50 to $100 OBC here or there. They exist to save you hassle and stress. Generally the discount agents will give you discount service, which isn’t a good thing when you need them to come through for you.

By the time this ship is built, if Icon is any indication, it will cost $10,000 for an interior guarantee. No thanks. It's said in some quarters that they're still recovering from the Covid shutdown/losses. That's why the obvious cost cutting measures on board, such as blah, unimaginative dining choices, elimination of the turndown service, and institution of charges for room service, among other things. But throwing another $1B+ onto the debt load ??? No problem.