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We just completed an 8-day cruise on the Odyssey and we had 4 sea days. As you can imagine, the chair hogs were out in full force but Odyssey’s staff were ready. Each pool area had at least two attendants that worked all day long…They were tagging all unoccupied chairs and removing the items if the person didn’t return in time. They were using little yellow stickies to mark the time they placed the tag, the number of chairs and they placed the tag on the chair in a location the person would not notice. The staff got lots of thanks and I only witness one upset lady…She came back three hours later and was upset her stuff was removed. Way to go Royal!!!

We’re pulling into St Thomas 2.5 hours early (Crown Bay). It’s 9:30 and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until noon. The Cap made an announcement that we pushed to get here early due to a medical emergency so I’m assuming it’s related to the AAA we heard last night, but that’s pure speculation. We are scheduled to leave at 8 PM. Strange schedule. We’re not getting off today in St Thomas but this remains one of my favorite ports as far as the view is concerned. It’s truly lovely here. Now that my expensive jewelry-buying days are behind me (thank goodness) I have little reason to disembark. …but for those of you who are still IN their expensive jewelry-buying days, St Thomas is an excellent choice. Today is my first W&F laundry day for this cruise. You’ll all be happy to hear that I have achieved a new “personal best” by stuffing 24 pieces into that W&F bag. I just keep getting better and better ! . I have begun using the “rolling” technique and it’s proving to be a game-changer ! So, today is doomsday for those who care. Apparently we will be treated to the partial solar eclipse at approximately 2:44 PM. Since NASA will be firing 2 rockets into the atmosphere, willy nilly and CERN has decided that it would be a great time to push the world’s most powerful particle accelerator to its maximum power for the first time in history, it should be interesting. I’m fully expecting the black hole to materialize whereupon the demons of hell will be transiting to our dimension. That should be fun. Put on the Armor of God and all should be fine. (I’m only partially kidding) Sitting in the CL as we dock in St Thomas. I’m very surprised at how few people are here in the mornings. We avoid all lounges in the evenings so I have no idea how things are in them during the happy hours. I guess I should pop in an evening or 2 just to report out.

Dan and I hit a Royal Flush on video poker tonite ! Woohoo. Too bad we were only playing a quarter. …but it made us much healthier than we were ! He will definitely make Prime on this cruise as he’s more than halfway there and this is only night 3 of 9. Yikes. Sorry this picture is so big ! About 5 minutes ago we had an Alpha, Alpha, Alpha call come over the stateroom speakers. I don’t recall them usually making that announce inside the rooms. It is for a passenger cabin on deck 12. I hope whoever it is will be ok.

I napped a lot this cruise. It was glorious. Last night in the MDR was Caribbean night which is my least favorite menu, so I had the French onion soup and strip steak, my usual standby order. Then I went and casinoed. I finally got up the nerve to play 3-card poker after I had decent success with the slots. I bought in for $200 and played for nearly 4 hours and left with $665 My points total jumped up over 400 points from the last time I was at the slots. This was the first time it automatically showed in my points total without having to ask the casino host to convert my table points for slot freeplay. Of course I had to play up to an even amount I did well on my Radiance cruise too..earned about the same number of points..so I'm 80% of the way to prime for the new casino year. I wasn't trying for any instant certs. I checked the 1200pt list on Radiance but didn't look on Independence. I didn't expect to point churn so much on either sailing. I didn't keep track...but I only brought a handful of singles onboard and left with almost enough cash to cover my onboard account on both sailings. This includes daily service charges too.

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.

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.

This was interesting to see during out stop at Coco Cay this morning. I’m currently on Icon and noticed the Royal Bling Cup at a cabana on Coco Cay and went to speak to the guy who was very friendly and mentioned what he intends to do with it after the cruise. It was a shock to see it being used as an actual CUP (sorry the actual name of what it is alludes me at the moment)

Woke up to this... And this... Then debarkation was a cluster. Only one gangway was open and they had two places for self-assist to congregate at 7:30 the MDR and the theater. My room was more forward so I went down around 7am and they had the doors from the elevator to the theater closed so everyone was piled into the Schooner. They had the casino doors closed as well. Elevator after elevator of people and luggage were coming down and trying to exit to the closed off lobby. They made an announcement for no one else to go down and finally at 7:30 they opened the casino doors and made us drag our luggage through the casino and Playmakers all the way to the dining room where they sent us out the port side of the ship and back to the forward entrance We were then fed through the theater and out the starboard side of the ship to the aft gangway where we merged in with the MDR folks getting off the ship. They didn't use facial recognition at this terminal and the passport guy was having a full on conversation with every party. I was finally off the ship and on the road by 8am. Parking at the garage across from terminal G was $88 for the 4 nights.

I once stayed at a Holiday inn express.

I always thought that Diamond status luggage got 4 free drinks and complimentary robes to use while being transferred from the port to your room!

I thought I was going crazy. Since last Oct, I haven't seen the 2500pts, it just goes from 2k-3k. I found the trick for looking up the comp sheets on the website. You just go to "Certificate Offer code Look up" and it is year, month, the letter C and level. So 2404C06, should be 1500pt level of cruises.

While it doesn't matter, as long as your setsail/seapass says Diamond you are good, I have found the tags revert to the lowest level in the room. I am D+ but if my mother stays in the room, the tags say "platinum."

Two videos which future gamblers doing it for the comps might find helpful for understanding slots. How Slot Machines ACTUALLY Work From a Slot Tech and Engineer - Gamble Smart - https://youtu.be/bjXhjbf1M4o Truth of Cruise Ship Slots Leave your cruise a WINNER! Don't make this mistake! - Cowboy Slots - https://youtu.be/b_dwe5Ha2UA As an aside, based on the point accumulation rules and Royal's typical video poker tables I've seen, whether playing slots or perfect video poker, gamblers will lose approximately the same amount of money either way. If you're in the casino just for the comps, might as well skip the video poker (and learning perfect play) for slots.

Me too! Definitely booking at least once, some longer South Pacific with extra ports from the usual would be perfect! Maybe the Red Sea issue has worked in our favour this time, too hard to send it anywhere else so might as well keep it in Brisbane year round? I would definitely chose Voyager over Carnival Splendor and the P&O ships that are here in the winter.

Just got back last night. I assume you were talking about Wonderland for the restaurant. Was not sure on the other clue to be honest, although I looked all over the rock-climbing wall, flow rider, and ice rink thinking that could be the family fun area. Unfortunately, I could not find anything Competition was fierce with all the kids on spring break looking. We hid about 30 ducks ourselves on the trip.

Pretty good logic and reasoning. Just got off Symphony and I went through about $1100 to get 1500 points this time around. Just enough to get the free instant cruise certificate I wanted and a good start towards maintaining prime for the next casino year. I actually waited to start playing until 6pm on April 1 so all of my points would count for the new year. I've had trips where it cost me $700 to achieve the same level of points, and trips where it cost me $2000 to get the same points.

I know, right ? As soon as you hear that first drum you’re looking for the other 2. I’m usually disappointed…

Our first cruise. So excited!

One of my bookings just offered 600.00 OBC. When I ghost booked the cabin with all of the "discounts" that included the OBC the sailing was 1600.00 more, so essentially I would be paying for my own OBC. It's taken years but I finally figured it out. As sailings move forward and book up the "discounts" and "specials" are eye catching for sure, but not once has my out of pocket original cost become less. (after Royal come back was well under way) Book early and often, LOL!! Seriously, they raise prices and then slip in the "specials" so nothing special about it. I'm sure if a sailing albeit ship/itinerary isn't doing well there may be a deal BUT I'm sure those are few & far between. I used to bother @Sharla every time I saw one of these, I'm not sure how in the heck she kept reading my emails.....

A Gobbler bowl from Wawa is a better Thanksgiving meal than the one we had in the MDR on Jewel of the Seas November '22. The Centrum was decorated and the 8 day itinerary to the ABC Islands was great. Reality is, no theme park, cruise ship, hotel, resort or restaurant is gonna beat holidayhome cooking. But I'm grateful Jewel's culinary staff worked so hard so Mrs Geezer & I didn't have to......especially the cleanup and dishes part.

It's always repriced at prevailing rate, so that's the same as rebooking in terms of price. I don't disagree with you for your sentiment, but that's not how Royal sees it. The promos are meant to drive up new bookings.

I am always very suspicious of people who hide behind an avatar. I have nothing to hide. Jealous much.

Doesn’t sound harsh to me. Essentially that IS your “justification” (or reasoning, logic, thought-process, call it whatever you want). I look at it pretty similarly to you. We can mostly only sail when school is out b/c my wife is a teacher. For March 2024 - March 2025, we initially booked 4 cruises (all 7N on Wonder so it’s really apples to apples). The spring break cruises were a good bit cheaper than June & July. But that’s what we wanted to do this summer so we chose to pay the premium. Sure the March cruises are a better value but the Summer prices were worth it to us. For similar cruises further out, prices were even higher and March was similar to June/July. For now, we decided they were still worth it to us (booking refundable group rates helps b/c we have plenty of time to change our minds). There are a couple other factors that will make the total costs closer to the earlier cruises but that doesn’t really matter as far as my main point… Everyone values things differently. If cruising at current prices is still worth it to you, great! If it’s not, that’s fine too. I would never buy an expensive car or jewelry but if someone values those things & can afford them, no judgment here.

FYI...The letter C lists are for the 6+ nt cruises. Use the letter A for the 3-5 nt lists...2404A06 in your example.

That is a long day in St Thomas. But congrats on the Royal flush, I have no idea how to play video poker, but dancing drums is the only game my brother "knows" how to play in the casiner. You are also right; I can get two dancing drums all the time and 3 or more rarely but the sound of them keeps you hooked.

Dan just downloaded the comp sheets from the casino (EX 4-5-24). Surprisingly, the 2500 level list has disappeared. It jumps from 2000 to 3000 points. Seems a bit shady since the 2500 point threshold for making Prime was previously a logical goal. The lower-level comps have always been weak but they’re really bad now. Nothing much at all until 2-3000. If anybody wants to see them let me know and I will try and upload them. I’m terrible at this stuff but I’ll give it a go…

You could go to the Shore Excursion desk and request one, but otherwise, they assign you one when you arrive.

Hey all! We are just back from our Spring Break Oasis of the Seas sailing, which sailed away on Easter Sunday. Below are my key takeaways from the cruise, and I'm open to any questions you may have. Notes: This was an Easter sailing, which sailed away on Easter Sunday. There were over 2,000 kids on this particular cruise. Our original itinerary included Labadee, but it got switched out with CocoCay, giving us back-to-back days at Perfect Day. We were in an Oceanview stateroom on the 3rd deck. Highlights Aqua80 is just the best show at sea. I would sail Oasis just to watch this show. One of our Perfect Day stops was shared with Symphony of the Seas. I was worried about crowds, but the island handled it so well! This may have been one of the best bar staffs I've ever encountered. All of them were friendly, and the service was fast! There were several surprise and delights on this trip, including balloon animals every morning in the Windjammer. Low-lights The Supercell Waterslide was broken the entire week. There were some unexpected signs of wear and tear across the ship. Hot tubs were in dire need of resurfacing, there was more rust than I'm used to seeing on Royal, and we noticed several dining chairs with rips and tears. Our stateroom attendant was unusually rude. On debarkation day at 7:45 am, he knocked on our door and told us to hurry up and check out because he was coming in at 8 am to start cleaning whether we left or not. Yikes. I'm still concerned about the quality of the free food around the ships. Since COVID, I've noticed a pattern of decreased food quality.

We are simply offsetting the higher rates with fewer cruises. In 2023, we sailed 7 times all 7+ nights in GS. This year we only have 5, that is nearly a 30% reduction. In 2025 we are planning land packages to Sedona, Key West, and Aruba with only 3 cruises.

I was on that cruise and think it may have been the person in the cabin next to me. When I woke up that morning that they had a lock on the cabin door next to me and someone was guarding the door all morning. i saw a person go in that cabin day 1. I thought it was a teen boy or could have been 20. I wasn't really looking at him cuz I was decorating my door when he came and used a key to get in. My daughter and I were telling him how I sometimes put my deco on other doors the last night to confuse people. He laughed. He was black, quiet and polite, not someone who seemed like a raging alcoholic like the press seems to be saying. It could have been the brother though. We never heard a noise out of that cabin, no partying, no arguing, no slamming doors. I looked over our balcony at theirs after I saw the lock, there was nothing but chairs there.

It's quite easy as noted above. Just never be shy about asking for a manager if you don't get a specific question answered, especially in the Windjammer. In the MDR, most dishes they can make gluten free, including chicken cordon bleu on French Night and fish and chips on UK night.

I never try to justify the cost. That sounds harsh, but there really isn't any way to justify it the same way you might justify a car repair for example. I look at the cost and decide if I can afford it and if I want to go. Unfortunately, all travel us now outrageous. Therefore, choosing a different type of vacation never reaches the savings I anticipate.

He was quite savvy! I had told him he keeps what he doesn’t spend. I knew I gave him a challenge!

First of many...

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.

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?!?

I've always defended @Matt when someone claimed he was being a princess. Now I'm not so sure.

Loyal to Royal?!? Not so fast, here comes Princess Matt!

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.

Royal Caribbean’s ICON OF THE SEAS This was my first cruise ever and it exceeded my expectations. I traveled with my nephew and his in-laws (6) who are all big RC cruisers. I was not prepared for the quality of the staff, the food, the accommodations, the activities, and nightly parties at The Pearl (One Hit Wonders was WICKED BRILLIANT as was the Disco Party! Your entertainment rivals that of Broadway & Vegas in every way, I promise you. I have never seen an organization run more efficiently than RC from the second you make your reservations, step on the ship up to the minute you leave. We were "Key" holders and our staff in the Coastal Kitchen was top notch. Our Maitre'd, Suresh, our head waiter, Edwin and our mixologist, "Dr. Indy Jones" were all like welcoming, old friends. The food was exceptional, and the service far surpassed that. I was most impressed with the productions of The Wizard of Oz, The Aqua Show and the Ice-Skating production all blew my mind. As one of the country's first and top Plus Size designers and models from 1980-1998, I know design and those costumes and sets rivaled any production I’ve ever seen anywhere. Each venue was spectacular in its own right and each breathtaking, to say the least. I know the work that goes into those productions and couldn't find fault with anything. I even had a special leg treatment at The Spa by Susan (Kenya) that was incredible and wish I had visited her sooner for a much needed mani and pedi. Having been a hairdresser and salon owner in my younger days, I know full well what's involved. She's excellent at what she does, passionate about RC and just the kindest person ever. We took the exceptional All Access Tour of the ship. Our guides, Therrie and JuJu (Brazil) were very passionate about the ship, RC and everything they do, also. My favorite was visiting Cap't Loy on the Bridge. Being a former Private Pilot and amateur race car and race boat driver, I was particularly interested in how the Cap't steered that behemoth! Now I know. Cap't Loy was kind enough to give us a more thorough tour than want is the norm and I loved every second of it. As far as I'm concerned, there is no other cruise line that can even come close to comparing with Royal Caribbean and the Icon of the Seas. PS: Two things I do have a beef about: not enough regular electrical outlets in the cabins and the Pet Accessories Sale items were ordinary at best. I also designed and manufactured Canine Couture for my company, Snob Hounds (SnobHounds.com), for many years, so I know exceptional and unusual when I see it. I volunteer to be RC's buyer for that venue! Great idea, not great execution. Just sayin'. I could go on and on and on about my wonderful experience with RC's Icon of the Seas, but suffice it to say, Royal Caribbean is THE Icon of Cruise lines. I promise you. I was totally blown away by the entire experience. (However, St. Kitts is less than we expected. ) And if I had my little, 8-pound, Service Dog with me, I could stay on that ship for an extended tour! Most sincerely, Laura Dion-Jones Casey

Maybe I can finally convince my dad to cruise out of Brisbane now... his reasoning was that: it's the same ship as Ovation - so there's no point.

You will love Allure, she is a great ship!

Nassau has not been removed from any itineraries. It's fine. It's better than another sea day like some are getting.

Just at Nassau today. It’s not removed from itineraries.

The Captain Issued a MayDay before hitting the bridge https://www.times-news.com/news/update-cargo-ship-lost-power-issued-mayday-before-hitting-bridge-governor-says/article_fe986901-2e20-514a-9679-32d90341719c.html?utm_source=times-news.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnews%2Fupdate-cargo-ship-lost-power-issued-mayday-before-hitting-bridge-governor-says%2Farticle-fe986901-2e20-514a-9679-32d90341719c.html%3Fmode%3Demail%26-dc%3D1711464541&utm_medium=auto alert email&utm_content=read more

I've already reached out to Royal Caribbean for impact on cruises

I was shocked at the cost for sailing on Enchantment. I have friends who are sailing on her 6-22-24 and I thought about going along but 7 nights on that crap ship was over $5K (JS) ! ...even more once you added in grats. No f'ing way !