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Just got off the Adventure yesterday and I did the birthday package for my wife. One thing I have to brag on RCCL about is the fact that when we got to our room, the cake and strawberries were there, but no decorations. I went to Customer Service to inquire and explain that the surprise had already been a wash, so they kindly refunded the entire cost of the package. Lo and behold, when we returned to our room, the decorations had been hung. I called to cancel the refund, feeling like I was taking advantage of their kindness......but they refused my request and told me that they would refund with no questions asked. Kudos to RCCL for great customer service!!!

Yesterday's MDR was Italian night which has my favorite dish on all the menus. I call it the Indian meatballs dish. It comes with papadum and roti, too. Bonus is that they usually have it in the WJ..so I can always get a second helping. They also have traditional eggplant parmesan in the WJ, which they don't have on the MDR menus.

TL;DR - I’m fairly confident that I will be able to use a BOGO on a night other than nights 1 and/or 2 on Explorer Man, that was waaay more complicated than it should have been…. I stopped by Chops this afternoon and asked the simple question - can I use my BOGO on a night other than nights 1 or 2 ? I got the deer-in-the-headlight look from the Junior-est-looking officer I have ever seen. He had a bare epaulet with no stripe or insignia of any kind. I’m betting he hadn’t had it a day ! He was clueless. Had to make a phone call…to someone similarly clueless. After an unbelievable long wait, I began hearing Junior saying, “Yes….ok…only nights 1 or 2…ok…thank you”. So I was prepared for a “no” answer to my question. No worries. I knew I had a 50-50 chance. Then, the Boss walked up to Junior and asked if he could help. I asked the Boss the same simple question I had asked Junior and got an immediate, no-hesitation response - “Of course !” So, I think the answer is - yes, you can use your BOGO on a different night, but I will suggest that (as is the case with most everything at Royal Caribbean) it may well depend on who you ask. I plan on asking the Suites Concierge to make my BOGO reservations for me on the last day of this sailing and see how it goes. This, in itself, might present a new problem, as I have heard from other Pinns that some of the Suites Concierges are hesitant to assist non-suite Pinns with such tasks, although this has not been my experience so far in my very young Pinn-life. I will report back on how all of that goes ! FYI, Chops, which is located adjacent to the WJ, is used as secret overflow seating for the WJ for both breakfast and lunch (on port days). I knew they used to do this in the “olden” times but I thought it had been completely discontinued. Apparently not. There were a few secret squirrels sitting in there munching on their WJ grub when we stumbled in. It is definitely NOT publicized. The Suites/Pinns breakfast location on this ship is Giovanni’s, which is located forward, port side, between the casino and the theater. I have seen Chops, Giovanni’s and Izumi located in this area on different ships. This space used to be a 2-story disco which they removed quite a few years ago and replaced with this specialty dining venue and, I think, some new cabins on the once-upper section of the old disco.

Years ago when we were further away from becoming or acting like vintages we went to a local Irish pub for trivia almost every week with a group of friends & I think I got fish n chips 95% of the time.

Continuing day 2. Today is the first full sea day and is traditionally the day that they have the Top Tier Event and the Cheer With an Officer luncheon. Typically, they have the Top Tier event at 10:30 followed by the Cheers luncheon at 11:45/12:00. For some reason, today, the TTE was held at 5:00PM. The Cheers luncheon went as expected at 11:45. There must have been some kind of scheduling conflict for the morning TTE but if there was, we never heard what it was. The Cheers luncheon was typical; the food was surprisingly good. The event was held in the MDR, deck 4. The Pinns were on the port side of the dining room and the D+ were on the starboard side. Dan and I both had the clam chowder and filet. Lots of wine was poured. We skipped dessert as we usually do. We did manage to nap past the beginning of the TTE (most likely due to the wine consumption !) so we skipped it. Since our lunch was so filling, we decided to change our second BOGO reservation (Chops) from 6:00 until 8:15 which is very late for us, but we both knew we would not be ready to eat another big meal so soon. Looking forward to that, but no way will I eat another steak as I had a half of a filet yesterday for lunch and a filet today. I am actually not much of a steak eater so I’m “steak-out” right now. Probably get the shrimp. Tonite is formal night but we left the tux at home (intentionally) so we will relax the formal attire this time. Things have been pretty positive so far in the casino, which has been surprisingly slow. I expected lots of gamblers to be on this cruise and so far, there hasn’t been much evidence of that. Since we have now started a new casino year, I thought everyone would be scrambling to make Prime right away. That has been Dan’s plan and he’s succeeding nicely. I have decided to wait and make my “push” on our Wonder cruise in May. We are both pretty much dead even (money-wise) but of course, he has accumulated far more points than I have, which is by design. I may have spoken too quickly about the internet performance. Suddenly it is sluggish and has kicked me out twice today. Probably a gap in the Starlink coverage or some such thing. Hoping for a return to the robust service we had yesterday.

Day 7: Sea day! All 4 of us get motion sickness yet we had no issue at all on this cruise. I packed half a Rite-Aid “just in case” and we used nothing. The lozenges came in handy for Yen who had developed a very scratchy voice. After CK this morning we had the Star flowrider - there was only one session for the whole cruise which was a little disappointing. Marcus was too short to ride so it was just the 3 of us and just one other guy so we did get about 5 goes each. Was great fun but we thought the instructors should have gone over a few things beforehand - it was impossible to figure out what progressions they were asking you to do whilst riding. We legged it from the flowrider to Jamie’s for the cupcake class where we made a frog. It was nice to do a quieter, craft activity and everyone had fun. Our fave waiter was there to look out for us too. I believe this one isn’t actually included for Star but we were not charged. Yen had booked Andrew for a whisky tasting so I took the kids to Schooner Bar for trivia. This was our first time being in a gen pop area. It was virtually impossible to get a drink. It would have been quicker to message yen the order and have a totally different bar deliver it. Most of the people in the bar looked like they should have been cut off hours earlier. We did semi ok in the trivia and then headed back to the seaplex for the escape room. Yen had organised a private session for us as the kids are both under 12 and no other Star Class passengers had signed up. Andrew got lost after his whisky tasting (he was the only person on the tasting) but eventually joined us. The kids were great at it, especially Marcus who loves math. The adults couldn’t have done less and the staff member was laughing at us the whole time. We didn’t finish Dinner back at Chops - Andrew and I both had lobster which was fantastic. Sonic Odyssey wasn’t on until 8:30 so we went back to the room to shower to save time later. By this time Andrew was half asleep from the whisky tasting and the dinner wine but he managed to make it to the show. He then slept through the whole thing. We loved Sonic Odyssey - it was well worth the later night. Day 8: last day at sea. After breakfast in CK we did the galley tour which was really interesting. Our CK maître-d took the tour. It was interesting to hear how long serving some of the staff are - it’s so rare these days to see people working for the same company for 15-30 years so RC must be doing something right. After the galley tour we did a few more rounds of bumpers and then the laser tag which was crazy fun. Andrew got the high score and I came third, the teenage boys on the other team were livid. The laser tag was supposed to be Star only but nobody other than us had signed up. Yen said her other 2 rooms didn’t really do activities and when we saw Jade she said the same. We headed back to the room as the kids wanted to do some art for the tip envelopes and go and give them out. Marcus and I went to Jamie’s for lunch so he could give Kadek his tip and drawing and Jordan and Andrew went to Izumi. We found our room attendant and apprentice on the way back so the kids could give them their tips. When got back to the room we had a lovely cake waiting. Yen had organised a thermal suite day pass for Andrew and I so we went to the suite sun deck for a while and then left the kids to run out the rest of their arcade credit. The thermal suite was dead quiet so felt like a private oasis. The kids had organised a pizza and banana split delivery with Yen for their dinner as they didn’t want to come to Wonderland and had asked Bagus to leave the bed out so they could watch Five Nights at Freddy’s. Off we went to Wonderland which was fine but very much a one and done for us. When we headed back the kids had just finished their movie and had lots of stories to tell us. Wijaya had come to clear away the afternoon snacks and had made them some lovely origami animals, Yen had popped by to deliver some gifts (kissing mugs for us, shark blanket tails for the kids) and Bagus and Iskander gave them a mini towel animal workshop when they were doing turndown. Day 9: Disembarkation. We had a later flight so stayed on for as long as possible. There was no room service which we didn’t realise so Yen bought our coffee order. We would have told her not to worry if we’d known! We had a late breakfast in CK. I haven’t said much about the CK service, our main server generally seemed very distracted. She missed items and forgot entire meals loads of times and she called me Melissa more than once… Yen came to meet us at 9 to walk us off. Disembarkation was seamless and we were off by 9.30 and in a taxi to the airport. In a full circle moment it was pouring rain again in Brisbane. I got rather teary saying goodbye to Yen. She was just amazing and was the perfect fit for us. Overall the Star experience exceeding our expectations. We very much did the cruise for the kids but turned out that we also loved it. The kids were so well behaved the entire time and really seemed to grow in confidence and got a little bit of independence. I found the blogs so helpful as a new cruiser so a big thanks to everyone who posts about their travels

Ship: Quantum of the Seas - Easter sailing Room: Grand Loft Suite with genie Yen Itinerary: Brisbane > Noumea (New Caledonia) > Mystery Island (Vanuatu) > Port Vila (Vanuatu) - 8 nights Who: Andrea, 43; husband Andrew, 43 and kids Jordan, 11 and Marcus, 8. This was our first ever cruise. We would definitely go again but only in Star Class (where are my fellow suite snobs at?). We flew from Melbourne to Brisbane at 8:00 with no delays, arriving just before 10:00. In an Uber on the way to port and found the Star Class banner by 10:30. A short delay behind the B2Bs but all checked in and through security with Pier genie Elliott by 10:45 where we met our genie Yen. Straight to Vintages after muster for a drink and run down with Yen to tweak the itinerary a little. We received white WOW bands instead of purple as they had run out of purple a couple of sailings back. Room was ready by 11:30 and full of snacks, drinks and bottle of Moët for sail away. Sadly the weather in Brisbane was dismal and was grey, gloomy and raining. We didn’t meet our room attendant until the evening. We had lunch at Coastal Kitchen which was very quiet before heading off to explore the ship before the crowds really kicked in. There were 4900 people on the sailing including 1300 kids. Due to the weather we didn’t taken many pics on embarkation day. We went back to the room for sail away which was spot on 4:30pm and then headed back to Coastal Kitchen for dinner. The line for the Windjammer went all the way to the stairwell. After dinner we headed to the headliner comedy show where Yen had drinks waiting for us. The comedy left a bit to be desired so we headed off early to get an early night. Day 2: First sea day was action packaged for us. Breakfast at Coastal (we didn’t set foot in the jammer or the MDR the whole time), bumper cars, rock climbing wall, ifly, suite sun deck, lunch, back to the sun deck, Star Class bridge tour then dinner at Jamie’s. Jamie’s was easily our favourite specialty restaurant, both the food and the service were top notch and there were lots of options for the kids. Our Jamie’s server ended up being our favorite person on the ship other than the genie. No show tonight as I didn’t think Sequins and Feathers would be appropriate for the kids. I read a lot of Australian naysayers saying that nobody dressed up for any of the themes nights. Garbage! Almost everybody was dressed up for formal night in some capacity and looked fantastic.

Worst case, the porters can fill out luggage tags for her at the port.

Last year I was on hold for 4hrs trying to use my prime certificate......and I was on a ship.

Just want to share a success story I have for upcoming 4/22 sailing on Allure. I booked a GTY balcony. First I want to confirm the bar code trick I learned from thus and other forums worked. For those who don't know this is a way when you have GTY cabin to find out your cabin number before its officially assigned. I believe it only works after you checkin. I did it as soon as I checked in which was right at midnight when it opened. You scan the barcode on your set sail pass and the last digits are your room. I just used the qr code reader app to do it. Got my official assignment today which confirmed that was in fact my room. Second thing I want to share is it is a great room! It is boardwalk view. No obstructions. And it has a view of both the ocean and the aquatheater. Exactly the roomtype I would have chosen myself! Side note: I'm on a streak of unicorn room luck. For those disney people out there (I have noticed a lot of overlap with royal caribbean and disney community) you'll get this. Last disney trip booked standard room at baylake tower and got view of magic kingdom so I could watch fireworks from my balcony. We are doing disney and staying at Boardwalk (our home resort) just before upcoming cruise, have garden/pool booked and hoping our luck continues and we get one of the rooms on village green which gives views of boardwalk and epcot

Pulling away from Puerto Plata, DR currently. At least, I think we are. I can feel some movement and all aboard was supposed to be at 3:00 (it’s now 4:17). Those 2 pieces of evidence together tell me we’re on the move since I can see NOTHing of the outside world from my little Promenade view interior. We did not leave the ship today as we have called here twice in the past couple of months and we will be back here during Part III on 4-22 (I think). On that visit, we will be swimming with sea lions and sharks. Yikes ! Dan is napping (again) so I’m sitting in the dark tapping away on my iPad. Dinner tonite is in the MDR. It will be our first visit to the MDR this cruise. Mexican night, as I recall. It’s not a fab menu but I can tolerate the controversially-named pork enchilada/burrito/chimichunga. Dan likes the carne asada (I think that’s what it’s called). We have MTD. Hopefully EX has “caught on” to the way other ships are handling MTD and there won’t be any lengthy lines. My recent experiences have been that they are simply seating MTD folks amidst the traditional folks at vacant tables as they become available. It seems to be working fine but I think it’s very labor-intensive and stressful for the dining staff as they are turning tables over (figuratively, of course) many multiples of times per meal. They’re damned good at it, too. I’m amazed at how quickly they can re-set a table and have new folks seated. Impressive. Then it will be off to the casiner (sic) to try and put ourselves back on our earlier “winning” track. We were derailed last night…we both had miserable gambling experiences. We actually ended up playing a little Dancing Drums (actually, a LOT of Dancing Drums), which is extremely unusual for us but as I’ve mentioned previously, this is Dan’s push for Prime so points are important and the tables just don’t cut it for us as we aren’t big wager-ers. Slot machines are mindlessly boring to me but we played together on 1 machine and it was kinda fun. I was THAT person last night. I was sitting next to Dan, playing with him (no smart-ass remarks) so obviously I was sitting on a stool, in front of another Dancing Drums machine. I heard someone make a loud [intentional, I’m sure] remark about all of the machines being “taken” so I was guilted into putting $20 into the machine in front of which I was sitting, and pressing the button every minute or 2 just for the pretense of playing. Since I was paying absolutely NO attention to what was going on, on that machine, I actually ended up breaking even ! Too funny. Of course we lost, eventually, on the machine we were jointly playing, but Dan got a good number of points, which was the goal.

So very sad for the family no matter what the details truly are. And also for the cruise line!

Booked a last minute from Honolulu to Vancouver. April 30th on Ovation. Great deal and Great first class airfare.

I did try it..it's actual white meat chicken in a panko coating..definitely not hand-breaded. They weren't bad but they're also available in the WJ. The fish is hand battered..I saw the flour dredge bowl and the batter bowls back in the kitchen. They need a dessert though... funnel cakes or churros would be easy.

No wedding ring I see.... Smart man keeping his wealth to himself

Day 3: Another packed sea day. Andrew and I went to Pilates in the morning and were the only people there. The instructor told us that the class is always busy and then people show up late due to the time change backwards. Our genie had warned us that our phones wouldn’t automatically update - guess nobody else got the memo. Our Starbucks standing order was waiting when we headed back which we took to CK. Then it was another 2 rounds of bumper cars before the backstage tour of the Royal Theatre. The tour was some sort of Crown & Anchor event that we had glommed onto and was full of fairly rude pinns and who did a lot of interrupting and touching stuff they weren’t supposed to. The kids said the oldies were worse behaved than kindergarten kids on a field trip. The tour was interesting, if a bit long at a full hour. Lunch at CK before more time on the suite sun deck. The belly flop competition had just finished and the deck was an utter shambles. The kids blew through some of their arcade credit in the late afternoon while Andrew and I had some down time. We did sign them up for kids club but it was so disorganised and chaotic that we did not send them. They’re very mature and responsible so we were happy to let them spread their wings a little on their own. I bought a family pack of octopus plushies for arrival and the kids had a huge pink one that was spare. They took it to the arcade and asked a little girls parents if she would like it. We ended up seeing them on a tender after that and she was still holding on tight to it. Too cute! Dinner at Chops. I didn’t seem to take any photos. The food was fantastic but the service was very mid. Certainly nothing like the warmness we had received in Jamie’s. We went to the hypnotist show which the kids just adored and then did some roller skating before bed.

I struggled with whether to do a live blog for these 3 rather mundane EX cruises but I decided to give it a go. I even have some photos ! Shock, I know….these might be the only photos you get but at least there will be some ! Absolutely nothing interesting to report about our drive in. Left Port St Lucie at 5:30AM and arrived at the parking garage (finally….more about that in a minute) at 8:00. Since we had an 8:00 reservation, right on time. We normally do not plan to arrive quite THAT early, but since we have a couple of “firsts” on this trifecta, plus, it being a weekday, we decided to leave a bit early. In the end, it was a very good thing we did.

Be careful adding cash. I did this for my son on our last family cruise. He didn’t use it all and cash does not go to your card on file. (Who knew?!) He was flagged getting off the ship to go to guest services where he had to wait on a line to find out the issue and was quite relieved it was a cash refund and not anything else. Thankfully we were not rushing to the airport as this was an unexpected blip.

Haha, did anyone else immediately go to tax evasion?

I had Hotel Indigo booked for the longest time (since prices were released) but recently let it go. The price never went down, and for what we could get for the same price at H10 or Marriott Grand Flora (even better room for our family), it was a no brainer. And I never loved the location of Hotel Indigo. I just grabbed it initially because it's IHG and most of my points are there.

You can use the app chat function for free

! Thanks for your blog. Yen seems like a gem. I know @WAAAYTOOO speaks highly of her as well! Sounds like you had an amazing cruise; thanks for sharing!!

News Update! Cruise Planner added Baha Bay Day and Lunch excursion for decent price and the Moms in my group wanted to switch! So…no more Margaritaville for us. Interesting point…when we only had Resort for A Day to use, the pricing was ridiculous as we were going to have to pay the Adult price for all the kids since they are all over 48”. So a family of 4 would cost $640 even though the Adult =$160 and Child =$65 because we weren’t able to use the Child price! Hence our decision to go to Margaritaville! Royal’s price for a family of 4 is $451.96 AND that includes lunch which the ResortaDay did not include! Oh and also a ride to the Resort instead of us walking to Margaritaville! After changing this I thought…Oh! I’ll be back in Nassau in September so I can check out Margaritaville then! Ummm, Nope cuz we will be on Utopia and with only a 4 day cruise we will need to use that day as a sea day to have enough time to check out and enjoy the ship!

Recently we sailed on Allure and the B2B lunch was exactly as WAAYTOOO described. Very calm and the food was great. That said we took B2Bs in 2022 on Grandeur and Radiance and we had no lunch.

Good Morning! we are UNDER 40 days and counting! 39Days

DH turns 60 this year and we would have been onboard for it but I just wasn’t happy booking hotels, visas, flights and vaccinations only to find out really close to sailing that it was cancelled. so we decided to change and do Vancouver to Sydney instead and then realised flights to Seattle were cheaper and got a cruise up to Alaska to make it a B2B2B for just a bit more than the difference in flight costs from Scotland!

OMG, i wish i could remember the name of the place we went. We hired a private driver for the day to pick us up in Southampton, and we told him we HAD to try fish and chips. He took us to his favorite and ordered for us. Yum! Huge pieces of fish that were perfectly breaded, yet light. Though i could easily eat Fish & Chips in Maine too and be just as happy!

Agreed. I still think funnel cakes should be on the Boardwalk on Oasis class... could add them to the Dog House... but adding them to a place already frying stuff is a no-brainer. WJ had churros on Mexican night on Wonder that were a bit misshapen (random chunks of dough, lol) but tasted good.

I agree. Speaking for myself, something that I could handle today felt insurmountable back when I was 20.

Back to the Crown Lounge discussion… Some photos below (with permission from the folks in the room). Yes, the CL Concierge is Vanessa. Lovely lady. Like @JustMeJoe, I am tiring of the CL/CL confusion and writing out “Concierge” every time is tedious, so, heretoforth, I will refer to the Concierge Lounge as the Suites Lounge (SL). When you see CL, I am talking about the Crown Lounge. Ugh It seems that most of the Pinns are doing the same thing we are - going to the CL vs the SL. I guess the only unfortunates that are doomed to the SL dungeon are the Suites who are not yet Diamond or above. They have removed the once-present computers from the CL. To make more seating available ? Who knows. I am using the computer area on deck 8, which is a mere few steps from our room and it’s very convenient. I guess now is the time to mention that the Internet has been awesome so far.

And he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling bloggers !

ngl, I had to check the post date of this multiple times to confirm it wasn't an April Fool's joke. Matt! Matt! Why hast thou forsaken us?!?

Day 6: Another tender port. We were off on tender 1 and got over to Port Vila before our tour company had even set up. We booked a local tour today as they all seemed to be the same and there was not a lot of risk in not getting back in time. Again, Yen said if I had roaming to message her when we were 30 min away and she’d come over and get us as everyone generally returns from the local tours at the same time. I’ve been to Port Vila before on a resort holiday and we wanted more than a beach day so we booked a tour that did the cultural village, back to eden cascades and blue lagoon. There were 11 of us in a mini bus so not too squishy. Eventually we were on and we made our way to an unannounced stop at a duty free store. Nothing was cheaper than at home but loads of people seemed to be buying up big. Yen told us a lot of people tender over just to buy alcohol and then go back to the ship *shrug*. We then took a very bumpy ride to the cascades. The current was very strong so the kids didn’t swim - I was too scared to try to jump for the rope swing so I only got in to cool off. We then had to switch buses from our tour guide who actually spoke, to a driver who didn’t even tell us how much time we had and spoke no English. Then it was off to the Blue Lagoon with about 1599 other people and a BBQ lunch. We then headed to the cultural village with a young couple while the rest of our mini bus went back to the pier. We were about 25% confident our driver would come back for us… We arrived at the tail end of the cultural village experience which we didn’t initially realise so it was a bit disjointed and out of order. Finishing up and our driver was…not there. He eventually turned up after about 20 min so I messaged Yen to let her know we were 30 min away. She was waiting when we returned and whisked us through the line and back on. Dinner back at Jamie’s with our favourite waiter. He remembered everything about us and we had a great chat about Bali and his life and goals. He’d make a brilliant concierge/genie in the future. Show tonight was a Freddie Mercury tribute act. Absolutely brilliant and we all had a blast.

Day 4: First port day in Noumea. We booked the Amadee Island day tour through RC which was amazing. We snorkelled with so many green sea turtles and it was picture perfect. The trip was a short bus to another pier and then a 30 min boat ride over to paradise. Amadee is apparently full of snakes but we only saw one in the water. Perhaps it was the wrong (or right, depending on your mileage) time of year. A glass bottom boat, buffet lunch including drinks and Polynesian dancing show was included in the ticket and broke the day up a bit. It was very hot although the island had a lot of chairs/umbrellas and was not overcrowded. We arrived back on the ship at around 5 and there was a lot of hair washing and showers to be had. Quick dinner in CK before an early bed time after a long day. The next day was our first tender port and we wanted off early. Day 5: Mystery Island. Our genie said they only get to MI on about 40% of the cruises due to wind or bad weather. None of that here! It was perfect weather. We had booked 2 beach huts through a local tour company which we were so happy to have. They also included 2 drinks, the inner tubes and a 30 min massage. We had a quick breakfast in CK before meeting the genie. Tenders had started earlier than expected so we were on tender 4. Thankfully nobody who arrived before us seemed to realise there was another side to the island so we still got a lot of great empty beach shots. Our genie asked what time we wanted to head back and we said we had the huts till 1 so around 2pm. We thought she was asking due to afternoon snack delivery but little did we know… The huts were a great place to relax and it was nice to have a base rather than just chucking all our stuff on the sand. The kids had a blast and spent their own pocket money to hire a clear SUP for an hour. We were right next to the tiki bar so had a few Vanuatu beers and cocktails. Gotta stimulate the local economy somehow. When it was time to head back the boys had a look in the markets for some trinkets and found a few souvenirs. I had some small USD left over from our wedding/honeymoon so they used that up. We were getting hungry then so went looking for the apparent lobsters that you could buy for $50 Australian dollars. They must be invisible lobsters or we had heat stroke as we couldn’t find them. We were lamenting the gigantic line to tender back to the ship when I heard a call of “Andreaaaa” in the distance. Yen had tended over to collect us! We were on in 5 minutes and back in 15. Yen had ordered some pizza and fries along with our usual snacks to the room assuming that we’d be hungry. What a gem! There were also some Easter eggs for the kids and a 3D puzzle each which was exciting. Izumi for dinner tonight. Again, the food was fantastic but the service was lacking. They were also out of quite a lot of items including everything for dessert. Thankfully Wijaya bought us more cookies than Mrs Fields everyday we we still had a sweet treat. We went to Starwater tonight which was spectacular. Easily my favorite show.

i have always wanted that trio of octo plushies and have been foiled at every turn. that they gave it away to another fellow tiny small was adorable!!

So what “firsts” are we doing on this cruise ? 1. First time ever parking offsite. The second “first” (how confusing is that ???) is really just a subset of the #1. This is the first time we have used Premier Parking in Miami. 2. The only other “first” has nothing to do with boarding day - we will be calling on Grenada for the first time ever. Rare for us to have a new Caribbean port, but we do. As a matter of fact, we will be calling twice b/c our third cruise in this trilogy is identical to the first so we will be visiting twice.

During some idle time this morning, I was thinking about how pricing is through the roof, and wondered if a correction may be coming. I have no idea, because Royal Caribbean's marketing seems superior to the other cruise lines and demand seems disproportionate to Royal vs other lines. I looked for late May sailings from Miami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral and Tampa. I compared the May 25 sailing on Icon, Symphony, Wonder and Enchantment for similar category cabins to compare with Carnival Celebration. I realize it's not completely apples to apples, but this was eye opening. Results (guarantees when the option was available): Carnival Celebration -- 7 night sailing on May 26 from Miami -- total cost for two is $2,543.30 -- cost per night $363.32 Icon -- 7 night sailing on May 25 from Miami -- total cost for two is $9,767.38 -- cost per night $1,395.34 Symphony -- 6 night sailing on May 4 from Port Everglades -- total cost for two is $2,994.48 (the sailings from PE were limited to Symphony 6 night and 3 night -- not a good comparison) -- cost per night $499 Wonder -- 7 night sailing on May 26 from Port Canaveral -- total cost for two is $4,707.94 -- cost per night $672.56 Enchantment -- 7 night sailing on May 11 from Tampa -- total cost for two is $3,798.76 -- cost per night $542.68 per night I have to conclude that unless there is a correction soon, I may be trying other lines. I just don't see that the value that Royal has been known for exists right now considering a ship like Enchantment gets more for 7 nights than Carnival's second newest ship that has been getting good reviews. I am loyal to Royal, but there is a limit, and sadly, I am close to it. I'm curious to know what others are thinking.

by the way I own this cup

I like St Kitts, personally.

And after his nice parents do the triple points trick it sounds like he is just a 7 night in an interior from diamond my kids all get Emerald perks but were no more than platinum points when they turned 18 and disconnected from my level

That's an awful price then. Right now for my next 8 nighter in June, the 1/4 plan is $455, and that's at a crappy sale price, too.

Just one less thing to take care of once you arrive. If it works for you your way, go for it.

The only place with an actual stand alone bar is Wonderland, which you can pop in without a reservation and drink. The Cheshire cosmo is my favorite. I am unsure if Symphony has Giovanni's wine bar but that would be your only other option with the DX package. The other specialty restaurants don't have a stand alone bar, so you would have to dine in to get any other special drinks.

14 - Waaaytooo (Explorer) 19 - Waaaytooo (Explorer) 29 - Waaaytooo (Freedom)

Fish n Ships as requested. Everything just tastes beige It's dead out on the pool deck and everything was sitting there pre-plated already under a warmer..probably would be better if it was busy and things were being freshly made. When this was a pay venue the shrimp were Chops sized, hand breaded and fried and not these popcorn shrimp they have now.

So, we came up to the Crown Lounge and of course, it’s Happy Hour and it’s hoppin. I am too self conscious to take a photo of the crowd with so many people here, but this space is soooo much nicer than the Concierge Lounge. Plus, there is an outside seating are which is nice. I will try and sneak a picture of the treats but it appears that these people haven’t eaten in a month b/c they’re attacking these treats like locusts ! I doubt I will be able to get even close. I snuck in between some of them

Yes, I’m sure you will not be impressed with the Concierge/Suites Lounge on EX. I truly don’t understand why they haven’t moved it and renamed it yet. Oh well… I do enjoy this class of ships. They have everything I need (except for the cinema found on the Radiance class, which I really do enjoy). They are slightly “shorter” than their big brothers, the Freedom class, but it makes the walk down the Promenade SO much easier when you’re traveling the length of the ship. It certainly doesn’t have the dazzle of an Oasis class but I appreciate the better itins on EX as compared to the short, boring 4-nighters to Nassau and PDCC. I will go up to the Crown Lounge and take some pix up there. As @OCSC Mikementioned, it’s nice to have a choice.

Me too! Have a great sailing @WAAAYTOOO

I disagree. Another sea day>>>Nassau.