Leaderboard

So as it stands I haven't slept. I'm actually eating at the WJ and will nap. My mother's flight was delayed and departed after 11pm. So she got in at 2:30, waited 45min for luggage and then needed a Lyft at 4am. I waited up for her, I was able to finished one book and start another. I had to wait until she made it home safely. So I decided to see if the casino was open........it was and I had my pick of the machines. There was maybe 5 people there besides me and the machines were loud. I earned my cert at 80 cents. Tonight is Giovanni's, I am so looking forward to something different.

Day 6: * Sea Day * (CONT.) After Christine woke up and was ready to head out, we went to Surfside Eatery to check out their “mini” breakfast buffet. They had French Toast sticks, pancakes, scrambled eggs, egg omelets, etc. Not quite as expansive as the breakfast buffet at El Loco Fresh on Wonder or the “Windjammer Lite” buffet at the Solarium Bistro, but a nice choice for a quick and quiet breakfast. After breakfast we headed back to the Hideaway for the rest of the morning… Once again, it does not get crowded until around lunchtime and it tends to be crazy throughout the afternoon as they have a DJ and a fun party atmosphere. So, while we were taking a break from the pool, another “Rover Alert” came in! We rushed over before she moved on! She was near the Sprinkles ice cream machine and I finally met her! Looks like she was a little wet! She's so cute and tiny… I think she’ll be smaller than our Bella (62 lbs.) and certainly smaller than our Jake (86 lbs.) when she’s full grown. I think she's still only 8-10 months old now. OK, now I can enjoy the rest of the cruise, LOL! Mission accomplished! We walked past Crown’s Edge… we're scheduled for that later in the afternoon! We headed back to our cabin to change before lunch. A couple of shots of the balcony… Never tire of this view! Lunch at Hooked today… Took some pics of the Chef’s Table / Celebration Table area once again… The cheese biscuits… very tasty, but not nearly as flaky and delicious as Red Lobster! We both ordered the New England Clam Chowder for our starter… tasty as well… Christine ordered the Messy Fish Sandwich and I ordered the Steak and Lobster… For dessert, I ordered the Coconut Cream Pie and Christine ordered the Decadent Chocolate Brownie. During our meal, our awesome waiter/sommelier (Ljubo) from Chef’s Table kept checking in on us. He of course recognized us from the other night. Today, he was a food runner in Hooked… I’m sure he enjoyed the less stressful duty today! After lunch, we wandered around the ship and then made our way to Crown’s Edge. I’m proud of Christine as she is terrified of heights, but wanted to give it a try! Some screenshots pulled from the videos you receive as part of the fee for this activity… You can see the fear and concern on the first run… Now, my turn for my first run… they only video the first run. We were allowed to go a second time. Christine at first decided against it, but once she relaxed for a moment she changed her mind and did the second run! She actually loved it the second time! For the $32.99 pp we paid for the activity, we felt it was worth it. Would we do it again? Maybe a few years down the road. After Crown’s Edge, we went back to the Hideaway and sat at the bar for a couple of drinks. The area was buzzing at this time (around 3:00 PM) with the DJ. You can see it’s getting crowded. We had no problem finding a seat at the Hideaway bar (in the shade as we were sweating from wearing those suits for Crown’s Edge!). OK, bedtime once again! I go back to work tomorrow… Have a great night!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, I love you all and thank you for reading my shenanigans

Not to be a downer but in all honesty I had a horrible childhood. There were plenty of times I had to be an adult. For years I didn't have a relationship with my mother. But therapy has allowed me to accept her for who she is.

oh my gosh you didn’t even sleep. what a time. at least you got your cert!!! i am hoping for a delicious giovanni’s meal for you AND a lengthy nap in your future

Who doesn't love a puffin ???

We went there while staying in Seward for a couple days before our cruise... great place! My wife loves puffins so we paid a little extra to do the puffin encounter... got to spend a good amount of time feeding them fish inside the habitat. Enjoy!

Portside BBQ will be two days. Thank you Royal.

A few days ago I was able to upgrade from an OV to a spacious balcony and still saved $25. A gty balcony on that sailing had previously been running at $600 more per person than my original OV price so I have to assume that the spacious balcony dropped even more than that. I wonder if this is a sign that the bubble is starting to burst?

So it is officially my birthday as i type this. Matt is on this sailing and we meet on the casino. Super nice and down to earth guy. I also met Andy and Sheryl.....I think that's how her name is spell....also super nice. I was planning to play until my mother called and said she landed. But I played until I felt like my luck ran out, already at 440. I'm back I'm the room reading and waiting on her. There was casino shenanigans, mainly people fighting over machines.

So somehow we were delayed leaving. The casino was supposed to open at 6pm. We went down at 6:26 and they said they woul open after 7pm. I told my mother to try for an earlier flight and hers has now been delayed until 11pm. The connecting flight was only delayed 45min and she would have been home. The plan was to get room service but they said because of the late start, they wouldn't be taking orders until after 7pm. So we are heading up to the WJ. So far my impression is a ton of smokers and children. Despite the casino not being open we saw a favorite server and he got us a couple of prime drinks. The internet does work well everywhere but our room. I tried to make a work call and had to leave. The WJ has ribs and donuts, so that was pretty much all I got. My brother said the crab cakes were better in here than the MDR. People are letting their children run wild in the WJ. I'm heading to change into my casino clothes.

A review of our thoughts about our cruise, things we liked and things we felt could use improvement. We have only cruised Royal so this is really a comparison between the two. First off we thought the ship was beautiful. The decor was upscale and classy as opposed to the Vegas Casino feel that you get with some Royal ships. We felt the service and food were definitely a step up from Royal and more reminiscent of what Royal was pre shut down. I can say that we had no meals that we felt could be improved. We did sail Aqua Class and used Blu for the most part aside from specialty dining. All of our meals came to our table piping hot so much so you couldn't touch the plate. What we did notice was that in the dining venues we didn't see them using cloches to keep the food warm which I feel has a tendency to make crispy foods a bit soft or soggy. The Oceanview Cafe was also very good with a large selection of different items daily. We are not buffet people but we did enjoy the Oceanview Cafe. The specialty dining was exceptional on this ship we ate at Fine Cut, Raw on Five, Le Petite Chef, Rooftop Grill and Eden. Our favorites were Eden and Rooftop Grill not saying the others were bad we just felt the overall experience was better at these two venues the food at the others was just as good. Now on to the bar service. Like I mentioned we sailed in Aqua Class and opted for the inclusive package which included the classic drink package any drinks up to $10. The classic drink package would work for people who are really just wine or beer drinkers as they have a good selection of beers and wines at the $10 and under price point. If you prefer mixed drinks as my wife and I do I would recommend upgrading to the Premium package as I don't recall seeing and mixed drinks for under $17 so you would get charged the difference to you stateroom bill. The bartenders were friendly and worked very hard to make sure everyone was served in a reasonable amount of time and they poured heavy compared to Royal, never any need to ask them to add more liquor. Many of the bartenders kept track of your name and cabin number so we never really needed to present our sea pass for a drink particularly the bars we frequented. Now to the things we feel could used to be improved keeping in mind these might be a bit trivial but I'll mention anyway. As with any cruise you will run into "hogs". We were in Aqua class and had access to the thermal spa which we both enjoyed aside from the heat bed hogs. It was almost impossible to get time on one of the heat beds as people would spend hours either surfing their phones reading or completely sleeping and snoring. How they could improve this I don't know aside from more policing by the staff which as we know leads to poor customer surveys "which by the way I hate". The show times could be pushed off another 30 minutes to allow for people to eat dinner and still have time to catch a show afterwards. We didn't see a single show due to time conflicts with dinner and I'll explain. This cruise had many elderly people who would line up at the theatre an hour to an hour and a half early which was a frustration not to mention the theatre only seated 900 passengers for a cruise that had 3000 people on it. Most of our dinners took 75 minutes. We had an early seating time which I can't understand why they ask your preference being as there are multiple dining venues. The first night Blu didn't open until 7:30 which is entirely too late for us to eat we like to try and stay on our home eating schedule as best possible I know it seems trivial but we have a pretty set eating sleeping schedule so we tried eating at Normandie grille. We went to Normandie at our set time of 6:00 and were promptly informed that the dining didn't work that way. We were told that it would be a ten minute wait and were handed a pager as if we were waiting at Applebees which I felt was a bit tacky and the wait turned into 25-30 minutes. The good thing was we were Aqua class and we could get into Blu at any time we chose after the first night. As I mentioned in another post if you don't see anything you want at any of the main dining venues you can order the signature dishes from other restaurants at all of the main dining rooms. Other than these few gripes overall the cruise was excellent and we might be Celebrity converts now, although we do have a Caribbean cruise booked for Halloween. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to respond.

Hello Everyone! Leaving soon for Liberty, NJ to board Liberty! Lets honor America's military men and women who lost their lives in service to their country.. This is my retirement cruise..35 years of Military and Law Enforcement, so I'm starting my next career as a Cruise Ship Captain..haha. I wish..see ya onboard.

If it was Mexican night, people could have made their own bubbles.

Maybe not burst, but at least self correct. I just checked mine again this morning both cruises that dropped last week have dropped about $120 again today. I kind of feel bad bugging my TA again but that money adds up.

Dinner of champions!

Day 6: * Sea Day * (CONT.) Let’s wrap-up Day 6! We went back to our cabin to get ready for the second formal night. Tonight is “The Royal Night” menu. For starters, I had the French Onion Soup and Christine tried the Avocado and Melon Salad… We both had the Maine Lobster Tail. Shhhh … they do give you more than one tail at no additional charge… YMMV… I noticed the table in the next section asked for additional tails, so I asked and our waiter took care of us as well! For dessert, we both went with the Baked Alaska! Back to the cabin once again to change to something more comfortable for tonight’s show, “The Effectors: The Origin Story” in the Royal Theater. We heard the earlier performance had been cancelled due to technical issues and had hoped the issues had been resolved. After waiting for the show to start, Gemma (CD) came out to explain the show would have to be cancelled due to issues with stage lighting. Both of today’s cancelled performances would be rescheduled to 7:00PM and 9:00PM tomorrow evening (Day 7) and would be open seating since it was too late to move all of the reservations in the system. Disappointed, we headed back to the cabin and changed to hit the pools and hot tubs. After an hour or so, we called it a night knowing tomorrow (PDCC) was going to be a long day!

Just woke up from my nap. Dinner is at 7:30. Oddly enough I switched to MTD and haven't been able to make reservations in the app. Not that it matters, since I have no plans to eat there. When I went to the casino there was almost nobody there and those that were there, were doing the most. A lady was either drunk or delirious because she kept asking if I seen her phone and why were there no crew. Her machine was loud as hell. Eventually I went over and told her the phone was right there on the machine. She laughed and lost it an hour later. Another guy sat at one machine drinking coffee and chain smoking, talking to himself......he could have had an ear piece because I was at a machine on the opposite side. As I have stated, the wifi is bad in our room. My brother ended up going to the library to work while I slept. Also none of the amenities were sat up in this cabin. The water that comes out of the basin smells like sewer. I normally wash my face before I get in the shower, but the water makes me leery. Yesterday the thermostat didn't work. So my brother turned it halfway on warm, now it's too hot in the room. I used no vouchers yesterday but I will use them up in Giovanni's today. My cooler isn't super cold but it's currently filled with water, sodas, sparkling water and 2 Stellas. I need to drink them. The drinks really pile up when you are on foe 11 days.

The Oasis of the Seas group cruise is October 5, 2025. It is a 7 night Eastern Caribbean from Ft.Lauderdale. If you have an MEI agent reach out to them for pricing. If you do not I am more than happy to help.

Never mind, I found it "RCBLOG" -- how simple I reserved #10. Looking forward to how you liked #22 @OCSC Mike.

I HATE loud machines in the casino. I always turn the volume off, if I can (most of them can be turned down somewhat but very few can be silenced). When the casino is empty it's the WORST. Why do people want their machines blaring like that ??

Happy Born Day! This is what we say in Jamaica.

I saved money on my two Oasis cruises. 250 on each ship.

with the GTY (Guarantee) cabin you could end up anywhere on the ship. I booked a GTY cabin last week when I booked a trans-Atlantic on the Allure. Once you get assigned a cabin you can call and get it changed but they must have a cabin you want with the same cabin catagory as the one they gave you. I do a lot of GTY cabins because I value the saved money over the location or balcony type. I would expect the worst cabin in the category and that way you will be excited about getting anything better. We have done the same cabin on the Allure and Symphony ships. The only differance is the Symphony has a dry slide that blocks part of your view. The Allure does not have the dry slide. You can see one of my videos on the Bordwalk Cabin on the Symphony. If you jump to the end it shows the balcony and views.

Thanks for posting this @Shari! Yesterday, I wasn't able to get on the message boards until close to dinner time. Saw this thread and immediately checked my sailings. Two price drops on July 2025 and August 2025 sailings totally to just over $500. Not huge, but much appreciated after seeing no drops for what seems like forever!

YUM lobster hideaway pool looks so nice…. without any humans LOVE the balcony shots. you guys are so brave, doing crown's edge!!!!

Phew. We are home! I never like a red-eye, and this was no exception. Tack on a 3.5 hour drive home and then dashing to our son's first post-season baseball playoff game and we were TOAST by 9 p.m. ET. I managed to make a small dinner, do 2 loads of laundry, and clean up all the dog hair that accumulated over the week before passing out. I usually struggle with jet lag on day 2 after coming home but today hasn't been that bad. My sister is feeling a lot of land sickness, though. Mr. Regular is usually a little woozy for a week after disembarking, too. Anyhow, here are some wrap up observations and final thoughts on our Brilliance of the Seas Alaska cruise. Like with most opinions, these are mine. They may not be yours. They may align with your previous experience and worldview, they may not. And that's all ok. Please avoid slamming mine for slamming's sake, though here on RCB there's so much less of that than of FB or other sites. The Itinerary We picked this itinerary because it went to Alaska, lol. It also aligned well with the timing of my super short break from school and earlier in a shoulder season made the price point such that we could afford the aft balcony room we had. If I could change anything it would have been trading the stop in Sitka for Ketchikan but only because the photos I've seen of Ketchikan are so cool. We would also re-think sailing out of Vancouver. While we really enjoyed the city, traveling in and out of Canada so much and having to clear customs multiple times was draining on my aging parents. Next time we will probably aim for Seattle for ease of travel. The Ship This ship is showing her age. She needs some major updates, new furniture, replacement mattresses, new fixtures, and pluming. Our bathroom smelled like our septic tank most of the time and no air freshener would make enough of an impact. Sometimes I could smell it in the aft hallways. Common areas of the ship are a bit run down, furniture is really showing wear and tear. However, it is SPOTLESS. Crew are cleaning all the time and take a lot of pride in making the best out of what they have to work with. I don't mind a small ship, but I did find myself missing some of the amenities of the larger ships in the fleet this cruise. We did spend a lot of time on our balcony as a result, so I guess that's a positive! The Crew The crew on the Brilliance are absolutely outstanding. One of the other benefits of a small ship is you get to know the crew on a human level because they aren't stretched as thin as on larger ships. We have sailed the Rhapsody, Mariner, and Anthem and this crew was the best since our Rhapsody cruise. We feel strongly crew are not there to cater to our every whim or be at our beck and call. Crew are humans with interests, families, and inner lives and deserve to be treated as such, so we like to get to know them and have conversations and build rapport. The only other ship we've had an opportunity to do that on was Rhapsody. I understand that not every crew member appreciates that so your mileage may vary. Anyway, our room steward and dining team were absolutely fantastic. We had some dietary needs and allergies in our party and the wait staff made sure everyone was accommodated and could enjoy meals in an equitable way every night. The entertainment crew are a small but mighty team of only three people to run all the events onboard. The cruise director is a friendly guy but I usually don't connect well the the CDs, I usually like to interact with the activities staff much more. We were so pleased with all the service we received this sailing! Other Guests and use of space There were under 200 children onboard, and they were mostly littles and elementary aged kids. We noticed maybe 4 teenagers the whole sailing. A mix of nationalities like most other cruises I've been on, but a very noticeably high concentration of Aussies onboard. We met many who were on a land tour in the USA and Canada before boarding the ship. Since this isn't a fun-in-the-sun style cruise, there were no chair hog issues on the pool deck and most people in the Solarium were great about not saving a chair and disappearing for hours. The ship was pretty full but it was fairly easy to get a seat at a show 15 minutes before curtain, but closer to the start time some shows got quite full. The Windjammie at breakfast was the only space that was very difficult to navigate. In cold weather, there simply is not enough indoor seating for everyone that wants to eat between 8 and 10 a.m. Several mornings we made plates to go and ate on another deck inside or in our staterooms. If the weather is nice enough later in the summer there is outdoor seating to the back of the Jammie which will help. But if it's raining or under 60 degrees f, you will struggle at peak times for seating. The entertainment & activities A tradeoff to a small ship is an equally smaller number of things to do on a sea day or evening after being in port. Alaska is a port heavy itinerary and we were struggling with the jet lag so we only caught 3 of the evening headliner shows. We walked out of the "comedian" on night 5. He was not very engaging to us. The ship orchestra, singers, and dancers are all very talented people but the material they have to work with is not good. The Broadway review show had some good numbers in it but they did 3 songs from The Full Monty, which hasn't aged well at all as a show. It was popular when Brilliance launched and it hasn't been updated since. The Center Stage show, which is a similar variety hour style review, was much better. But my favorite thing to see on a ship is the crew flag parade. I LOVE this event! They do it in the Centrum and the crew come out to represent their countries, culture, and people. I always get very moved while watching it. We also participated in some trivia and name that tune games, and listened to some of the bands in Schooner Bar and the Centrum. We enjoyed the piano and violin duo and Blackjack Band very much. When we weren't at an activity you could usually find us on our balconies, because even though the ship may be light on activities, an Alaska cruise IS part of the entertainment just watching the inside passage go by or spotting whales and other marine life swimming near the ship. The ports & excursions We decided to book our excursions through Royal via the cruise planner for convenience sake. Since I had booked our rooms so early, there was nothing to book excursion wise until about 8 or so months before the cruise. I was able to take advantage of the lowest prices before they got outrageous. If I hadn't, I think we would have done more on our own or with a 3rd party. In Sitka we did the Bike and Hike, which was so fun despite the rain. In Juneau we went to the sled dog run. And we had ample time to explore Sitka and Juneau after the excursions, which was nice. We didn't have time to explore Skagway at all, which we were unhappy with. That excursion was from Haines. We docked, then took a ferry to Skagway, boarded the train at the port, took the train up the pass and then returned to downtown where we only had 30 minutes before we were required to get on the shuttle to the port to get the ferry back to Haines. The excursion was billed as 7 hours with more free time in Skagway than we got, which was disappointing because we had picked out places to visit and eat in town. We asked if we could get a later ferry and were emphatically told no, mostly due to capacity on the ferry that runs between Skagway and Haines. I appreciate not displacing full time residents and locals, but I wish the amount of time in Skagway had been better communicated beforehand. There were many from our ship on this excursion that were also expressing displeasure to the guide. It wasn't the guide's fault, but they bore the brunt of everyone's disappointment. We had some unexpected free time in Haines, where there wasn't that much to do other than eating a very late lunch. It was a nice meal but we would have much rather been in Skagway. Our glacier viewing day was spectacular! While not a port or excursion it was a truly remarkable way to spend a morning. The Food and Drink Food on this cruise was ok. It wasn't bad, but not much to write home about. I've felt ambivalent to "meh" about the updated menus. There were benefits and tradeoffs to the change last year, one benefit being a more streamlined experience and tradeoff being loss of variety and lower quality in the dining room. We tried the Windjammer for all three meals over the course of the week and I was pleasantly surprised at how good dinner was. Even though Windjammie dinner menus aren't much different from selections in the MDR, it's nice to have the additional options of the pizza, salad bar, other desserts, and soft serv if we wanted it. I missed getting to the MDR in time to get the Italy menu so I went up to the buffet and sampled almost everything anyway and had extra desserts! I ordered room service breakfast twice. The first was the free continental items like croissants, coffee, and fruits. The other time was hot breakfast of an omlette, bacon, hashbrowns, coffee, and toast. Both times were fine but I wish the hot breakfast was included like it used to be when the restart was happening. It wasn't worth the delivery fee. Bar service was fine, some bartenders were better than others but overall met our needs. We had refreshment packages and carried on 4 bottles of wine plus ordered wine and cheese delivery to our rooms through Royal. We ordered cocktails a la carte and spent waaaaay less than a deluxe beverage package would have but Alaska vibes are very different from Caribbean vibes. Final thoughts Would we go to Alaska again? YES! Would we do some things differently next time? Also yes. What would we do differently? If we could have traveled to Vancouver earlier than the day before the cruise, we should have done that to help us adjust to the jet lag. We would have also thought about mobility and accessibility needs more after MIL's stroke. We were caught unaware about how much disembarkation would be hard for her and there were only 5 wheelchairs available that could only be operated by staff so the wait to disembark was excruciatingly long. Would we sail on the Brilliance of the Seas again? Unlikely. This is no shade or a knock on the crew or the ship itself. There was nothing terrible about our experience. But, I think if we were to do Alaska again I would advocate for either sailing from Seattle on a more modern ship or even think about a different cruise line from Vancouver that may be visiting other ports. Please post questions if I can help with your future Alaska cruise or sailing on the Brilliance from other ports of call!

You can move people pre cruise, however you must 1. keep one original booked person in each cabin 2. not move the person who may have caused a discount on that cabin (55+, military, resident location etc) 3 not place under 21 in a cabin on their own if the cabin is not located directly adjoining or across from the party traveling with them that is 21+ or you can wait until you board and go to guest services and ask to move people around and get new room keys. I did this for my 4 cabins and handed over a list of movement. It was so much easier than doing this verbally Ex. cabin 1234 Joe A to cabin 5678 cabin 5678 Mary B to cabin 9012 cabin 9012 Frank B to cabin 1234 etc. If credit cards are not linked to names and need to be do that when you do this, save yourselves another trip to guest services. Each person should check their account has their credit card attached. When they moved me on my last sailing they somehow knocked my account off the system (this never happened before)

If not for billing purposes, it doesn't matter where anyone sleeps. Mix and match all you'd like, you don't need permission.

You took the words right out of my keyboard

Yes! I'd guess it's roughly comparable in size to the Park Cafe on Oasis class (somehow we skipped the Park Cafe on Icon).

I was just perusing the CP and everything was working fine. Maybe they've resolved whatever demon infestation they had earlier.

Happy Birthday!! You are amazing, cheers to you!

Happy Birthday, Alicia !!!

I have to wait an extra EIGHT MINUTES to get my next adult beverage!?! How can I possibly survive THAT!?!

Was wondering the same thing. I want to get one a group cruise and that might be a good opportunity for me

The ones she bought were long and skinny - like 5 inch long vienna sausages. The rolls she got for them were more like a hoagie roll so she served them up with 3 "hot dogs" in each roll. This was probably almost 20 years ago now and it still ranks high on my list of most revolting things LOL.

The cups are smaller. They hold less than the standard cup you get in WJ or Sorrento's for water. The B2B lunch had the same menu. Only 10 of the 29 people B2B showed up for lunch. Last time the Key was on the right and B2B was on the left in dinning room deck 5. This time was the opposite. My brother got all three entrees. We had the same servers . We were done at 12:50 and waited until the rooms opened up. There was so many people just waiting in the hallway and on stairs. We are in room 9391 which is aft and definitely one of the older ones. It took us 15min to unpack and my brother headed to the WJ. The cooler seems to get cold. However the bathroom has that horrible shower head, so I think pressure might be on the low side. Both my brother and I have some work to knock out. So it will be dinner later and the casino.

We enjoyed Hideaway Beach. I believe there’s bathrooms on each end and one in the middle, so very accessible. The heated pool is massive. I don’t think pictures represent how large it is until you see it in person. I was able to swim, get drinks, play with the beach ball that was getting hit around in the pool. Hideaway gets busy but the far end away from the DJ has open chairs on the beach. No roving wait staff the day I was there. The music quickly dies out and you can barely hear it on the end of the beach by the hammocks. The food was okay but we prefer the buffet on Coco Cay. The pizza was Sorrento’s with different toppings, sandwiches, various appetizers. We’re vegetarian so take that opinion with a grain of salt. I didn’t try everything they had to offer at Hideaway.

We were partial to Sainsbury's ourselves but I'm with you. Thank goodness we had comissaries at both RAF Lakenheath and Mildenhall, you know, for the good old processed American stuff we couldn't live without. Oh, and Goya products to make real Mexican. Shout out to you DeCA. If you know, you know, lol.

OMG! I have an online English friend who mentioned canned hot dogs... I've made fun of them ever since, lol.

Be careful about referencing "Carolina" style barbecue. Within North Carolina alone there are three distinct styles - Eastern vinegar style, Western mustard-based (similar to upstate South Carolina), and the good stuff - Lexington-style. I agree that Texas is best for brisket and Memphis is the way to go for beef bribs. And please, please, please do not EVER refer to grilling burgers and dogs as a "barbecue."

We have found that usually (but not always), whichever individual is listed as the primary on the account can see all spending but the other can only see their own. There is no rhyme or reason to which person is listed as primary on the account. It's not always the order you're on the reservation; it's not always the name on the credit card associated with the account; it definitely isn't based on which person accessed the account first in the app (that would always be me). The only way to guarantee others not seeing what you spend is to have a separate card for each passenger.

Use the sea pass card from the room your girlfriend is staying in ? Sorry had to go there..

Mother shenanigans The B2B process was a lot for my non-listening Mother. Despite me explaining multiple times. She kept asking obvious questions, like what time will we leave the port......are all the people in the Star lounge B2B......the list went on. I could see in my brother's eyes, he was at his limit with her. She asked if we were going to the restaurant for dinner and I was upset. I asked if she wanted specialty dining and she said no. I asked which one and she said " you know, the one with steak and shrimp." I was like Chop's and she yes we ate there last night. In her mind she thought she said MDR . Despite having just had welcome aboard 4n ago, she was brand new. So in Jan my mother watched me earn my brother's status and ask if I would do the same. I know my mother, so I asked if she would use it. She eventually said no so I didn't bother. A few weeks before this cruise she decided she did want to cruise to Alaska. I said okay that sailing is on a 1200pt threshold. I asked if it is soldout but I earned the certificate will you go solo on one of the other cruises, she said yes. Between then and now I asked her no less than 14 times. The reason because she doesn't listen and just says yes. I want to point out my mother has done nothing alone both cruises. She is either with me or my brother......she only goes to the bathroom alone. So I was shocked she would be willing to go alone. I asked her before I started......again. So after I called and they said she had to choose a different sailing because it was sold out. I pulled up the list and she was BRAND NEW!!!. According to her she thought solo just meant her own room. I was super upset because she has wasted my money and time. She was supposed to join my S2S2Sin Jan but as of now she is only invited to one leg. I know I mentioned that she narrates everything but she also creates scenarios in her head and will start talking midway. Like half was running through her head and then she says the rest out loud. Which means you have to say "huh" or "what".....example......" I guess that kid got tired from running around the pool unsupervised and just sat in a casino chair...." I look up and it's a grown man who is just skinny. She has a habit of looking at people from the back and making judgment. Another " she must have a good job or rich husband, she playing $4.40 a spin." She is super distracting. I will be glad to play in complete peace next cruise.

I hope that line works better than what I saw on Wonder in March. We came out of early seating on deck 4 and had to fight through a sea of people backed up to the elevators. I normally just request a 2-top by a window but I asked for deck 5 for next month to avoid it. Still don’t understand why fixed times vary from ship to ship, especially in the Caribbean (I could see Europe being later). Late seating on Wonder is 7:45pm now. I know it’s typical of RC to not standardize things like this across the fleet… I just don’t understand the logic (if there is any). OK, he’s fine, lol… and I bet he is. I was joking earlier. I certainly don’t wake up every single morning wanting a huge breakfast… then it passes of course.

Even your brother? Is he OK? I'm concerned.

Yes, she is flying alone. The thing about this is we have to be available, she usually texts one us to assist her. My brother when she is doing airport things and me to call her a Lyft when she doesn't get her bff to pick her up. This is only the 3rd time in her 60 years of living she has flown alone.

Day 3: Roatan, Honduras (CONT.) Wow, falling behind… it’s the morning of Day 6 as I continue on with Day 3! After we returned from the Roatan excursion, we stopped by the 1400 Bar to try the famous 1400 cocktail since it was so highly recommended by @Lovetocruise2002! Very good! Tastes like lemonade! Gotta go! Christine is hounding me to head out if the cabin for breakfast! To be continued!

45/60mn with traffic Bus stop in bus station in front of city center. Nice place to walk, visite, shopping, eating italian icecram (or more)