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My phone and iPad finally synched, so I have some photos from Antigua and Grenada. Let’s see how this goes. I’ve had some trouble spacing them and inserting text. I’m terrible at this stuff. This is the floating platform in Antigua for the stingray swim. It made the entire experience so much better than in Grand Cayman. It was much easier to get into and out of the water These mysterious blobs are obviously stingrays. They are so docile and sweet. You can almost see the tail ! This is St George, Grenada with Explorer in the background. I really liked Grenada. Nice people, beautiful island, shitty roads. Obviously, I’m having a bad hair day. The town of St George really reminds me of Curaçao, which is one of my very favorite places. This town just looks so quaint. Shamefully, I got very few photos of Ft Frederick. These monkeys are native to the island and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know their proper species name. We caught a fleeting glance at one in the rain forest. …and finally, the waterfall at Annandale. Very beautiful place. Kinda like a cenote in Mexico.

27 days to go....... Since I made my brother prime, he gets a nice number of monthlies. Usually, they match with mine but of lesser value. Most of my offers are OVs and my brothers are interiors or "1 complimentary guest." It works out the same for us moneywise, but gets us double point, so we booked 2 sperate rooms for the first two sailings as the upgrade option is just OV when you combine. I hate OV so I will often just take the interiors, in this case the first two sailings are GTY. I normally prefer an aft cabin and to pick my own, but I also like a cheap sailing. I really spend minimal time in my room, so location takes a backseat to savings. My brother was excited about his first B2B and then he decided it would be nice to bring our mother along. She of course is sharing a room with him . But she didn't have enough vacation time to do all three, so she will just join us for the first two. We are gifting this as her Mother's Day present. For the first cruise, check-in opened on the 28th of March I believe. The earliest slot was 11am, which wasn't a big deal because we are flying in the day of......first flight out as usual. I never recommend this, but I have insurance and live in hub city, meaning there are usually 3-4 flights after mine that will get me there. Which brings me to a side rant: there used to be more flights. I remember when there were flights between 8pm-10pm that went to Mia, MCO and FLL. Now the last flight is often around 6:45 to 7pm, which is not ideal when flying with my mother who has church until at least 3pm and requires another couple of hours to be ready. So 5am flights are what I have to deal with, and the sucky part is my preferred airline makes those the most expensive flights. So even though I complain and say I hope to never fly them again, I am often stuck with SWA...... and their crappy boarding procedure . I don't know if 10/10:30 opened up, I didn't bother to check. We will be on the ship for 11 days so I can care less about getting an earlier time. Plus, there are no reservations required for Freedom class entertainment. My brother brought his own snorkeling gear, the price for snorkeling all day at PDCC is like $50 on sale now . No ecursions are planned. I used the barcode trick as soon as I checked in and I was able to see our room assignments. For the first leg we are on deck 3 in rooms #3253 and 3251. On the second leg we are on Deck 2 in rooms #2567 and 2569. I chose my own room for the last leg with deck 9 and room #9391. I was happy that the rooms were assigned so close to each other. We have traditional dining for all three legs at 8:30.........which will probably be 8 in most cases. Since the reservations are linked, they should sit us together at a smaller table, if we are assigned to an 8-top I will request a different table. My brother doesn't want people judging him as he eats all his meals. I will not be pre-purchasing anything. I get 2 free days as D+ and then can use my prime discount on the remainder. I will also be using my BOGO. There will be the B2B'rs lunch so I will take advantage of that to avoid the WJ. Plus, we will do embarkation day lunch at Playmakers. I plan to prepack each leg in its own packing cube. I am also bringing a ton of casino-friendly snacks as I have a 2025 S2S2S or B2B2B to plan. I am following @AshleyDillo advice and bring specific clothes for the casino, so the rest don't get smoky.

So things really did pick up at Hideaway after my last post. By the time we left the place was packed. The music finally got to me….and I tagged out. Will I go back ? Probably not. There is very little at Hideaway that I could not get elsewhere on the island for -0- $$. 1. Hideaway pool is heated. I liked that…but I was still chilly when I got out of the water. 2. Dan said the choice of alcohol was better at Hideaway. E.g, he likes Grey Goose for his Bloody Mary and he said he couldn’t get that on the “regular” side. I have no idea since I’ve never had a [alcohol] drink at PDCC 3. Padded chairs and couches. I don’t recall seeing that outside of the Beach Club. Maybe they are somewhere that I haven’t seen. 4. No kids Other than these few things, the “regular “ side and Hideaway are the same (to me). We each had a crispy chicken/mozz sticks sandwich and I had 1/2 of a fried dough ball with powdered sugar on it (can’t think of what it’s called). Pretty tasty.

Lost $45 today but I won’t cry too much as I’m still “up” slightly for the first leg. I just have keep this momentum going for 2 more weeks ! I earned enough points for a comp cert myself although it’s the lowest level comp cert so the pickin’s are pretty slim. Most likely I will still use the cash value to upgrade Dans comp but I purchased a Next Cruise future cert so I will have the choice to book from the very short list of offered cruises if we choose to do that. We picked a 10 night EX in March 25 for Dans comp. I won’t be able to book it until tomorrow so I hope there are still some of the pano ocean views left by the time I get around to booking. I’ll take care of that while we’re in port on TAD. Dan enjoyed his lamb shank and I had the spaghetti in the MDR. I love that they put the Pinns at window tables (at least, whenever they can). It’s a nice perk. Also, on EX, Pinns have priority seating for MTD so the waiting is minimal. They told us to just go straight to the podium and that’s what we did. I will say, the MTD lines have been longer on EX than they had been on some of the other cruises we’ve taken recently. The priority seating was particularly nice on this cruise. We have the same room for leg #2 so we don’t have to pack - thank goodness ! So nice to be staying on when you see everyone else’s luggage outside and you are still snuggled in your stateroom ! It’s a great feeling. Stand by for Part II !

If you are trying to effect change for future builds, all you can really do is log the suggestion/complaint. There really are no next steps there. If you want to switch to a room that's guaranteed to have the bed setup you desire on your future sailing, you need to pay for the upgraded room.

Pretty lazy day today. Sea day. Spent a fair amount of time in the casino and happy to say that my upward trend ($$) is continuing. Nothing to crow about, just slightly “up” each time I go in there. Up is better than down ! Dan hit his goal of 3000 points so he made Prime and will get an instant comp reward. Whatever points I have (currently at a little over 1000), I will use to upgrade his comp offer with my otherwise useless $$ off reward. It was Royal night in the MDR. We both ordered the lobster as an appetizer since that portion is pretty small. I ordered the chicken Marsala as my main course and Dan ordered some curry shrimp dish (can’t remember the name). Both were very good. I will give my little Promenade view room some kudos (8311, 2T). I truly believe that this room is the quietest room we’ve ever had. It’s far enough aft to avoid the Promenade noise and there is absolutely no noise at all associated with the elevators. It’s very, very quiet and I love being so close to the aft elevators. We’ve been very comfortable in this room, which is a good thing since we will be here again on the next leg (5 nights, 4-14). For leg #3 (4-19), we have to move.

To the room... There are so few rooms in this little loop and it's behind a door so likely to be pretty quiet. The wifi is fast in the room too From the decor it appears this is a bunch of newer rooms perhaps? It definitely looks different from my last room here: Got my C&A amenity.. Even the bathroom is a different tone from the last one..

Morning #5....last day of leg #2. Sea day. Our SL Concierge (Gigi) disembarked yesterday in Jamaica for vacation and Vanessa, who was in the CL has moved down to the SL on deck 9. The other CL Concierge (I'm ashamed to say that I have not yet learned her name) is now in charge of the CL. I was able to give the new CL Concierge (I promise I will get her name and remember it before I disembark in 10 days !) a list of the specialty dining for next cruise. We have 2 BOGO (which I will use on nights 1 and 2 just to make things easier) and then a 3 night package to cover the nights that we do not care for, in the MDR - namely, USA, French and Caribbean. Then we will have 4 nights in the MDR. It's nice to have this taken care of before TAD and now I won't have to mess with it when we get back onboard, tomorrow. Since there is a complimentary B2B lunch on TAD, I had no need to purchase a specialty lunch for either of our TAD's. I only purchased a specialty lunch on our very first embarkation day. We met Mrs. @JustMeJoe yesterday. SOOO glad to have them on board next week. We will definitely make some plans to spend some quality time together. Not much (anything ?) planned for today. Dan is going to the sauna and I am pecking away on the computer in the computer lounge. Dinner tonite is the MDR. No idea what the menu is. It will be surprise ! Of course, we have to change cabins for the last leg (BOOOOOO) which means we have to pack tonite or first thing in the AM. Dan has already put the new luggage tags on the luggage. We will be able to leave whatever is hanging in the closet and only pack the "loose" items. Our current cabin attendant (Rozel....who has been wonderful for 2 weeks !!!) will move everything to our new home waaay up on deck 12 all the way forward. We have a Panoramic Ocean View for leg #3. We've had this category of cabin before and we like it. Yes, there is more motion all the way forward, but it really doesn't bother us. It will be nice to see the sun and the ocean again from our room ! Being in the Promenade View interior for the past 2 weeks, we never know what time it is or whether or not we have docked, etc. Our itinerary for next cruise is exactly the same as the 9 day cruise that we just completed. We have 1 excursion, which will be in Puerto Plata, DR. We are swimming and snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks ! YIKES ! The passenger dynamic is undoubtedly going to change again on leg #3 as we already know (from being kicked out of the SL) that there will be many more upper tiers on this next leg and presumably, fewer children. Just for the record, we had 32 Pinns onboard on Leg #1 and 16 onboard for this leg (#2). I will let you know how many are on #3 once I find out.

Our family has always sailed in suites. DH and I in Jr Suites before we starting letting the kids tag along, and then the 2 bedroom grand every time the kids have been with us. We really love, and need, the extra space of the separate living room. DH is up without an alarm by 4:30 every morning, and he needs a place to go while the rest of us sleep until a more decent hour. DD is on the spectrum and needs a place to really move around to process the activities of the day before heading out to dinner. Being spoiled in the suite lounge has been a big perk for us too. We're budgeting to replace a car and living room furniture soon though, so we decided to try out connecting balconies for the next few cruises. We're almost diamond plus, so the drink vouchers help take care of what we are missing in the suite lounge, but we sure will miss the service and breakfast in Chops or Coastal Kitchen! Along for the ride: Myself, DH, DD (15), and DS (12) Rooms: 12150 and 12152 - pretty far forward for us aft facing dwellers. Itinerary: 7 day Western Caribbean - Galveston, Sea Day x2, Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Sea Day, back in Galveston. Pre cruise purchases: soda packages for the kids, 50 photo package (pared down from our usual 100), 24 bottle water package, 3 device internet. We have MTD with reservations at 6:45 each night. I would do 150 Central Park, Jamie's, or Sabor, but we were in a star class room a year ago on Allure, and didn't eat in the MDR. Since we have only had the new menus on our Liberty cruise this past fall, we will most likely stick with the MDR this time. Who knows, maybe DH and I will have a date night and just send the kids to the WJ. I'm sure we will do Johnny Rockets once for lunch - it's kind of a tradition, and the kids have already been asking about it. What else... I booked all our entertainment. I want to say it opened up about 45 days out. I meant to make a note, but forgot. I also was able to book Escape the Rubicon about a month ago. It's still showing on my calendar, and they haven't refunded my money yet, so hopefully it is opened back up. We have a little bit of OBC that will find its way to the casino from the RC card - we redeemed the points on the Bank of America site about 30 days out and they posted to the cruise planner just a couple days later. That's all I can think of for now - let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them along the way.

Day 3 was pretty slow. Woke up at 9:27 so missed our breakfast for the first time on this trip. Had to go to you-know-where and was NOT happy about it. On EX, they use Chops as overflow seating for the WJ so that’s where we sat. I just got some fruit and a bowl of grits. Happy to get in and out quickly. it was a zoo. I did my usual morning routine - up to the CL for a cappuccino, then down to the computer lounge, which is right around the corner from our room on Deck 8. Rozel always cleans our room while we are on our morning walk-about but she got a late start today since we totally dicked up her schedule by sleeping in. I’m sure she was cursing us but still all smiles when we saw her in the hallway. I don’t deserve such good service. Today is a sea day; on our way to Falmouth. Since it’s the first (of 2) sea day, it is the traditional day for the Top Tier event. For some completely unknown reason, EX has the TTE at 5:00 ! What a lame time to do it ! Early diners have dinner at 5:00. We totally missed the TTE on the first leg but went today. I’m guessing there were maybe 20 people there ? It was embarrassing, TBH. They usually have the TTE on the first sea day at 10:30, followed immediately by the TT (Cheers with an officer) luncheon. That makes SO much more sense than doing it like they did it here. Of course, no luncheon on this shorty 5 night cruise so I really just DO NOT understand doing the TTE at 5:00. We visited both the CL and the SL during Happy Hour today - first time on this trip. The CL was D.E.D. The SL was much busier, which surprised me. I thought it would be reversed. Shows how much I know…. I took some pix but, as you all know by now, must wait for the pix to populate on my iPad. Gigi, the Suites Concierge, is leaving tomorrow in Jamaica for vacation. Not sure who will be taking her place. No casino today or tonite. I won a little at Ultimate last night but are being lazy today and staying in. Kinda nice, actually. We went to the ice show last night. We always enjoy the ice show no matter which ship it is. Sorry…nothing really interesting to report - oh wait ! I met @JustMeJoe last night ! That was very cool. Looking forward to chatting more since we also have the next cruise together.

Mods, please can we shut this one down ? Nothing useful here.

I disagree that there is no way to identify staterooms with a sofa bed. Deck plans show which rooms have a convertable sofa vs. Pullmans. Do your homework before booking. Is it quick and easy during the booking process? No. Is it impossible to get the information in advance? Also no. I would also note that the implications that Royal should not allow a room with Pullmans to be booked with children younger than "permitted" to use a Pullman or that Royal is not "accomodating a family with young children" because of the existence of Pullmans as the lower cost option are both invalid. If you want the cheaper stateroom, the children can use the regular beds and the parents can use the Pullmans. We did exactly this when our youngest child was seven but very small - regular beds were Mom and youngest, Pullmans were Dad and older child.

It is time for the shenanigans!!!! It seems like I haven't been on a cruise in forever, but it's actually been like 90ish days . These 11 days of cruising are actually 3 shorties combined. It is a 4n, then a 3N, and then another 4N. They are all casino comps in some capacity. The first two are monthlies, which are random offers the casino sends out either through mail or email. The last one was earned on Wonder. I only paid taxes, fees and gratuities for them. Which amounted to a whopping total of $595.05 for all 3, making it only $54/N. I have OBC on some and Freeplay on all. Itinerary: Nassau and PDCC X3, I never get off in Nassau and PDCC is a casino day. People: myself, brother and mother x2, myself and my brother x1 Flights: SWA and AA Extras: Chocolate birthday cake $25.99 My brother's birthday is on April 27th and mine is May 21st. I ordered the cake for the 3n to split the difference. My 39th birthday, hence the title name , is on the second day of the last 4N cruise, and we will be in PDCC. This is the first time ever that I will be on a cruise for my birthday. Normally its work or Vegas. I mean truthfully, I don't really celebrate it, but I do acknowledge it. It is also the first time I will be sailing in May, my normal window is September through April, excluding March and Easter sailings. So, I am thankful it won't be too hot but warm enough from Chicago to not have bulky outerwear.

Moving on to leg #2. Explorer 5 night 4-14-24 thru 4-19-24 Turnaround was uneventful. We met in the Star Lounge at 9:15 and the B2B parade started a bit after 10:00. It seemed like we were a bit behind schedule but not significantly. I’m guessing there were 30-40 B2B’ers. Frankly, I expected more. We had a very short walk through CBP and then right back on the ship. There was a tasty B2B lunch at 11:30. Upon our return to the ship we made our BOGO reservations and visited the mustard (sic) station. That was it. Interesting cruise passenger make-up dynamic between this cruise and the last….very predictable. Many more young families on this shorter cruise. Not nearly so many scooters…but more strollers. Not sure which is worse ! Bad start in the casino. I should have stayed in the room. . At least I had the good sense to cut it off and go home. Dinner at Izumi tonite. Yum. Chops tomorrow and then MDR the rest of the nights. We went to the ice show. We always enjoy those even if we’ve seen the show before. When we came back to the room after turnaround, but before going to the B2B lunch, I called and booked our 2 instant comps from last cruise. While my original plan was to use the cash value of my cert ($300) to upgrade Dans, we changed our mind and instead booked a 5 night Enchantment cruise (1-27-25) from the short list of comp cruises on my cert. We have never been on Enchantment and we decided that if we were EVER going to book EN, this probably the only chance as we always look past EN to choose a newer/bigger ship. So we booked it. Dans cert went for a 10 night EX southern Caribbean (3-20-25). Tomorrow is PDCC which is usually a stay-on-the-ship-day but we will be going to Hideaway Beach. I had no intention of ever visiting Hideaway b/c I thought it was so slimy the way they originally announced that Hideaway would be adults-only and complimentary and then decided to charge for it. But I got it for $19.99 PP so we will see what it’s like. I’m not one that enjoys laying about in a lounger (it kills my back) so not sure what we’ll do, but I will give it a try.

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. Govern yourselves accordingly … Curt from Canada

I tried to pull a @WAAAYTOOO and grab my SeaPass card from my stateroom door, but it wasn't there. I didn't break any rules or go behind any signs that said rooms wouldn't be open until 1pm. But my room this time is tucked in a little hallway next to the stairs.

Here we go again...it's early (5:15am) and Tallahassee International () Airport is hopping. Only reason I'm early is because I'm checking a bag. My flight boards at 5:45am.

I didn't expect our certs to show up until this afternoon (according to the release schedule) but they both showed up early this morning. I spent ALL morning on the phone (we are in Falmouth and I used the ship's phone to call) BUT we ended up with some great results. I was able to book both Dan's and my Prime comp cruises for B2B SY sailings (Miami) and we were able to get XB (ocean view balcony guarantee) for -0- upgrade as the XB category for our cruises was lower than the 4V interior room on both of our cruises !!! We are on 3-9-25 and 3-16-25. I am not a huge fan of ANY kind of GTY but in this case, it will be worth it, no matter where our OV balcony is. Yes, we will have to change rooms but we saved probably $1000 by opting for the XB over a chance to choose our cabin. ANY balcony will beat ANY interior ! So be sure to check and see if the cost of an upgraded category is actually less than the interior fare, which is most likely what your offer is based on, if you are Prime.

Here are our plans for the ports. Roatan: We booked the 3 Reef Stop Snorkel with Roatan Getaway Tours. We paid a deposit by PayPal and will pay the balance when we meet them in port. Communication by email has been pretty quick. Costa Maya: We're staying on the ship. The current plans are Flowrider in the morning, and we have Escape the Rubicon booked that afternoon. If that does wind up getting cancelled, we'll probably all laugh at how bad mom is on the golf course instead. Cozumel: Paradise Beach. We've been here a few times, but not since February 2020. Usually I can get the kids to wrap up our school year before we leave on an April/May cruise (we homeschool). This year though, they are both dragging their feet in a couple subjects. They will both have papers to finish when we get back and DD, who is taking Biology this year, will have a couple labs to complete. All their other subjects will be complete this week. This is also the last week for our co-op, so after Friday, my teaching duties are over for the year. I gave myself a break with work this trip too, and my last wedding is this Saturday. I'll have all next week to pack! DS is the only one who may need a new shirt for formal night. The rest of us are all the same size as fall's cruise, and I just replaced the kids' swim suits right before we went to Great Wolf. I actually feel prepared and calm - not normal for me, but I like it!

@Ampurp85 curious if you're seeing the really low price for the OTW Beach Club cabana on your May 20 sailing.

That’s exactly where I am right now ! I have to stay out of the sun and the loungers are not for me so I am in a nice comfy couch with cushions next to the bar. I actually loathe toes in the sand so I’m happy to be missing out on that. Agree that I’m not pleased with the loud music but my butt and back are thanking me for choosing this spot ! Dan abandoned me and found a lounger in the sun. This place is much bigger than it looks from the ship. The bar is huge ! So far the only disappointment (for Dan, not me) is that it doesn’t appear that there’s any real ocean access for snorkeling. Maybe there is and we just haven’t found it yet. We are here with Wonder and nowhere near capacity. Maybe that will change later. It’s a bit breezy but that will probably turn into a blessing as the day goes on.

Who knew this was the type of forum where strangers planned to meet up in real life and coordinate their undergarments?

Royal Caribbean should give me a JS at the price of an interior because that really fits my needs better………….

Pre-gaming before work with a Crown Lounge coffee. Scoped out the breakfast snacks..same old usual.

No SeaPass = no Crown Lounge so I just hung out in the public area up on 14 until the room announcements were ready. I like the location of my room other than it throws me at the aft elevators. Those are always the busier elevators since it's the side of the ship with all the food. Lots of people riding up to go down and filling up the elevators before it gets to deck 10. Fortunately I tend to spend a lot of my time on this ship on decks 11 and 14 which are close enough to be stair friendly.

The trolley stop is right there at the Metrorail station and it's only a couple steps..but the app said it's 20 mins til the right trolley shows and Miami is not air conditioned while my Lyft is..so Lyft it is. Good to know for the future, though.

I've been debating on whether to do a live blog for this cruise. I started one for Harmony a couple years ago, but we had a family emergency and didn't end up going. But, since I haven't seen anyone do a live Star blog on Icon yet, and we are now just 2 weeks out and fairly certain no emergencies are on the horizon, I figured I'd give it a whirl. Who's going: my Wife (Kelli) and I (Tim) Room: Icon Loft 17020 We are flying into Miami from Houston the day before and staying at the JW Marriott Marquis. We've stayed there before and I have a ton of Marriott points so its free! We got our survey way early on February 1st almost 90 days out! However, we didn't hear from our Genie (Marla Rivera) until just under 3 weeks out. (More on that in a minute.). Ironically we got another survey exactly 3 weeks out, which I thought was weird, but it turns out a tone of people got the survey that day. Even folks with sailings in July lol. Royal IT strikes again! Now back to the Genie e-mail; I kind of panicked when we didn't get contacted by the 21 day mark. (This is our 4th star class sailing and we've always gotten an email from the genie by at least day 28.). So, me having FOMO like you wouldn't believe, sent a message to Royal Caribbean International through Facebook messenger and asked them to please look into it the next morning. Imagine my surprise when I had an email from Marla Rivera by that afternoon. Apparently Sunil just left and the genie's have had to double up a bit which resulted in the delay. I've read nothing but great things about Marla as an OG Genie and so far she has lived up to the billing. I responded with our canned word document that includes our dining, snack, coffee, show, and beverage preferences. She had our entire schedule sent to us the next day with all of our requests! Since then, we have been back and forth a few times as we finalize our arrival in 2 weeks. Royal Up: So, the Royal loft suite had been available since we booked. It started out at 110K and has worked its way down to 60K this week and as of last night was still available, but it was gone this morning. (This has happened before as it would disappear from inventory as someone held it and then show back up a day later.) Of course I put a minimum bid on it just in case. We shall see what happens lol. The only place we are likely to get off the ship is Cozumel as we love Paradise Beach, so we have a reservation there with a day bed. We have a Casita reserved while we are in port in Roatan and we do have a reservation at the Empire Supper club which Marla confirmed we will be refunded and only charged $130 pp plus gratuities. Other Star Class up charges I will confirm if there have been any changes since Icon launch once we get on board (Chops Iconic cuts, Izumi in the park, basecamp, deserted) We are really excited and can't wait to get this started! More to come as we get closer

Lol funnel cake????? I love this description.

Dear Someone_else, Well, welcome to these boards and discussions about RC. There are dozens of cruise forums, and more than a dozen cruise lines, and there are always complaints, questions, reviews, and discussions. Some people post the same question on different sites and responses will vary. Often folks disagree, and everyone's experiences are individual and unique. Remember, all these forums are used by fellow cruisers, who are busy with their own lives, but do enjoy sharing their cruise experiences. You were seeking feedback with an issue, and you received a lot, so you can either use some of the advice for your situation, or just realize your concerns will never be resolved. Then the choice is cancel the cruise and choose another ship, or another cruise line, or do some other kind of vacation that suits your family better. Unfortunately, in no way, shape or form is this a "government" issue (I know, I worked in government at one point in my life). You are simply a dissatisfied consumer. Remember that cruises today are mass market experiences, and the cruise line has no responsibility to meet every person's needs or wishes, nor do they try. Sometimes negative publicity pushes an event toward a more positive outcome, but also having worked in the travel industry at a very early point in my life, kindness and friendly relationships are a better choice in the long run. The bottom line is no one is making you spend money on a RC cruise, so if you are not happy, spend it elsewhere. Please continue to participate in forums and share your cruise experiences, because that educates others, and hopefully, will create future improvements. Best wishes.

Thank you ! We are very happy people….

Yep, on leg 3 we have to move up to deck 14 forward to a pano OV room. It’s one of our new fave cheapo cabin types. I’ve actually grown quite fond of our little Promenade view room, which is fortunate since we will be here another 5 days ! Truly, my only complaint about the Promenade view room is the fact that there are no drawers in the vanity except for one tiny drawer right in front. Otherwise, the room is fine. I love the little window love seat. That’s MY space. I sit here and do my blogging and it’s very comfy. I was able to watch the Promenade parade this afternoon -at least, one “end” of it. I expected the noise to finally reach us but nope. It was still very quiet here.

Then pay for a stateroom that DOES work for your situation or don't cruise, but don't blame Royal Caribbean for your family dynamic (ages) and physical characteristics (height/weight). Your opinion - better choices for families with young children and large adults should be available at lower prices. Reality - what's available is what's available.

Government agency??? You can’t be serious

Technically they did offer you are cabin that accommodates your party. Beds for children and Pullmans for adults.

A good travel agent would be aware of the room configurations and find you a room that's available with the sofa bed accommodations you are seeking or suggest other ships that might have those options. Most inside cabins are smaller and would not have the space for a sofa bed, which is why they tend to have pullmans. A solution if you really need the cheaper in price accommodations and are concerned with safety would be to sleep the children on the beds and put the adults in the pullmans. It's not ideal, but it would give you back the floor space.

I used the Facebook group's slot pull as an excuse to take a break from my work and leave my room. But I got there too late and they had already started so I played a little video poker instead and I'm up $25 for the cruise and have 28 casino points despite not wearing red undergarments Since it was 2:30 and I have 5:30 early seating in MDR, of course I went to the WJ before it closes at 3:00. They had shrimp pad thai...burger bun for reference.

I did meet my room steward yesterday. He is a talker. His name is Oscar..he is from Belize and he has done the drive from the US border to Belize and it is beautiful. Oh, and Quiet Riot is his favorite band. He asked me when I get up in the morning which is new to me. Usually they just tell me they clean once a day and give me their AM and PM hour range. This time he didn't even mention PM. So now I've committed to relocating from my cabin at 9am daily. I have to work today, so I will just spend a few hours working with a better view.

Packed a little but will pack the majority in the morning. Shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. Pretty uneventful night. Dinner was in the MDR; Italian night. Dan got some kind of lamb curry dish and I got the chicken parm (who’s surprised ?). Actually, it was the best chicken parm I have ever eaten on Royal ! Maybe I was just super hungry but I thought it was really excellent. Having -0- Italian genes, maybe I’m just easy to please. Purists probably laugh at me. So leg #3 starts tomorrow. Day 15 of 24. We barely darkened the door of the casino. We both played some Ultimate for maybe 30 minutes and then both cashed out slightly ahead. I’m still down about $400 for this leg but I’m pretty sure Dan is either up or even. The slots were not particularly friendly on this leg. We played some pigs yesterday and we thought for sure we would get our pig to “pop” but he never did. He was quite the porker though…so fat his feet wouldn’t even touch the ground. IYKYK.

I am super late to this party. The freeloaders have been keeping me so busy I have not been on the blogs for weeks now. This is the perfect time for me to read this blog. @TheBoss518 and I just booked Indy for August. We actually got a casino comp for the cruise. This is our first "free" cruise (we of course paid to upgrade to a suite gty) I feel pretty lucky because the last time we were in the casino was two years ago. I ran the Facebook page for that sailing and ran a slot pull. depite not spending any more money there, we still get offers and this was the first one we have been able to do. We are excited because we are leaving the freeloaders home with the grand parents for this one. I do have a question for all you casino pros. When you book a casino comp, do you get the opportunity for royal up bids? We did a suite gty rate because we would be perfectly fine in a jr suite since there aren't big differences in suite benefits moving to a GS. I don't feel like paying an extra 1k per person to book into a GS directly. There are so many rooms open still so fingers crossed we get a magical room assignment by default. I just found out that this cruise is also a Gaming and Anime convention cruise so I cant wait to see all the kids in their cosplay This should make for a fun blog when we go!

I had to check out Fish & Ships again for quality control. This room is handy for running up/down one flight and grabbing some..or some soft serve..or hitting up WJ for a to-go plate. The chicken fingers were different this time. The fish they were frying fresh in small batches. It tasted less bland this time too..maybe because it was fresh. Of course I had dinner 3 hours later. I'm at a 2-top in a row of other 2-tops so I have neighbors to pretend to ignore. No great people watching to share. Now I'm in WJ for second dinner I needed vegetables because the MDR doesn't know what those are. They are frying donuts up fresh tonight... Those mugs are labeled as sugar donut with chocolate milk..because everyone likes their milk to sit under a heat lamp.

Pretty sure that was our chosen location on Indy a couple years ago when I was able to move whatever our GTY assignments were... deck 10 aft. Purely coincidence... definitely not the reason why... OK, it was the exact reason why, lol.

I was onboard by 11:05..very little waiting. You MUST spread yourself at least 3 escalator steps apart from the person ahead of you at Terminal G. They scream and berate people who do not follow this rule.

So here I go...."telling" on myself. Sheesh... I made the rookiest of rookie mistakes. I double-booked (overlap) cruises ! I still can't believe I made such a stupid, rookie mistake but I sure did ! When I booked our annual tier casino cruises yesterday, I booked the 9th and the 16th of March B2B on SY. All was well until I realized that we had JUST booked a 10 night EX cruise (an instant casino comp from leg #1 of this trio) for 3-20-25. That means that I would still be ON SY when it was time to board EX. OMG, the panic ! I felt like I was going to be sick. I had JUST spent HOURS on the phone with Club Royale to get these 2 bookings (plus fix another comp that had gotten totally FUBAR, but that's another story....) made and now I had to go BACK and move the March 16th to March 2nd. I was fully prepared to have to pay a $200 fee to move this cruise but it had to be done....moving the EX cruise was not an option since there was no other 10 night cruise in the casino offer to choose from. I got BACK on the phone with Club Royale and honestly, it could not have gone more smoothly. No change fee, she simply changed the sail date and that was that. I didn't deserve such an easy fix to a TOTALLY avoidable blunder on my part. The only problem was that there was a very small upharge for upgrading from the interior offer to the XB, Ocean View Guarantee for this sailing. For this particular cruise, the XB was slightly more than the 4V (which is the way it usually is.....I just got super lucky with my original bookings) but I gladly paid it to have my mistake behind me. In retrospect (this is not an excuse....just an explanation) this pricing upcharge is the reason that I originally chose the 9th and 16th instead of the 2nd and the 9th. The fact that I was already booked on EX never entered my pea brain. Anyway....crisis rectified. We are still on B2B on SY but slightly earlier than we were, originally. UGH

Hi All! A little about myself since I haven't posted on here before, I am Ashley, a 30 year old from Arizona who has been cruising mostly with my parents (and grandparents before they passed) but sometimes solo, with friends, and with groups since I was 9 months old. I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each). Anyways, all that to say I am very loyal to Royal with nearly 80 Royal Caribbean cruises under my belt. When I am not cruising, I am a full time software engineer to pay for my cruising habit. And now for some history on this cruise.... my parents and I first booked this itinerary for October of 2021 in the summer of 2020. Heck, we also booked cruises in June of 2020 when our May cruise was canceled, August when June was cancelled, November when August was cancelled, so on so forth, you get the idea. Fast forward to summer of 2021 and well over 40 FCCs later, the restart was finally happening and the final payment due date for this cruise was quickly approaching. There we still a lot of unknowns about Israel and what the covid requirements would be to go there and as that was the main reason we booked that cruise (more on that later...), after a family meeting we cancelled it and I spent 2 weeks in October on the Symphony of the Seas with a friend (and my parents ultimately joining for the second cruise after some convincing) instead where I finally earned pinnacle after waiting the entire restart only a little more than 1 cruise away (I promise, I am not a snotty pinnacle, I refuse to wear the pin and prefer to go with the flow instead). With that I had finally made it back on a ship for the first time since January 2020 but I still hadn't made it to holy lands. Fast forward again to February 2023 when my parents were on the Celebrity Beyond celebrating their 40th anniversary without me (to quote Stephanie Tanner: how rude... not, they deserved the vacation without me and they had their neighbors with them to take my place, also I am pretty sure my work would have killed me if I took another cruise at that point). Before they headed out on their cruise, I looked at the itineraries released just a couple months before for Europe in 2024 and found this one, and made the mistake of emailing my parents with the details. It didn't take much convincing that we had to book this cruise. A week later, after a lot of back and forth with them and the future cruises agent on Celebrity Beyond, we finally got this booked and everything confirmed. Note to my future self and really everyone reading this: never book Royal on Celebrity, while we have successfully booked Celebrity on Royal before with no issues, this was a nightmare to say the least, the on-board agent had no clue what the different cabin categories were and after pleading with her that Odyssey had J1s, J3s, and J4s and they were all Junior Suites, she was finally able to find more than just the J1s available. With the cruise finally booked, let's talk about why we wanted to do it: Israel. My mom and I are Jewish and my mom has always wanted to go to the holy land but has said she would never do it by land, she just didn't feel comfortable due to some experiences her parents/my grandparents had when they went. And similar to me, she loves cruising. So this seemed like the perfect solution. I had also unfortunately aged out of birthright during Covid as a result of them changing the age policy during that time so this would give me a taste of Israel to see if I wanted to join a volunteer trip or something else in the future. When June 2023 arrived and the flights opened up to book, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that we were going on this cruise. Before booking the flights we had a family meeting and I made one important note to my parents: If this cruise doesn't go to Israel, are you still ok with going for the other ports? They both said yes. My mom has always wanted to go to Santorini since watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so while it was not Israel, there would still be something on her bucket list to cross off. Even though the itinerary at the time didn't have Ephesus, Turkey on it, we knew it was likely this would appear if Israel was removed and my dad wanted to see the House of the Virgin Mary after missing the opportunity to see it while on the Splendour of the Seas in 2000. After that discussion, our flights were booked and we started making hotels and other plans for the trip including booking excursions for every port except Israel since conveniently none were open for Israel and also I knew if we did make it there, we would want to do a private tour so we could cover both the Christian and Jewish heritage there adequately. Once again, let's fast forward this time to November 2023. Unfortunately, we all know what happened on October 7th. The days that followed made it very obvious that this was sadly not like other times Israel had been attacked. They were not getting out of this quickly. We received the not at all surprising email that this itinerary was changing. Out was Israel and in was Turkey, as I unfortunately predicted, along with Mykonos. After yet another family meeting (I think this is at least the 3rd one in this story, sensing a theme here...) we unanimously decided we were still going, barring any crazy world event. It was full steam ahead and I finally decided to start planning the tours for our pre-cruise stay in Rome. We also booked an excursion for Mykonos through the ship and I left my dad to figure out Ephesus himself. I still don't think he has that planned, you can tell who is the planner and who isn't in this family. Now let's fast forward to February 2024. It was Super Bowl Sunday and I had plans to go to the Phoenix Open with my dad in the corporate tents on the 17th hole. Instead, I got woken up by a call at 6am with news that my mom had passed out just before midnight the night before and they were in the ER room at Mayo Hospital. This cruise was far from the first thing on my mind, I wanted to know how my mom was doing, what had happened, if there was anything they needed as the hospital is less than a mile from my house, I can literally see it from my backyard. In the weeks that followed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors appointments, a couple dental appointments, and a surgery later, we finally brought up this cruise again. Her doctor's gave her the all clear to go, they just warned that we had to be careful, she couldn't over exert herself. Another family meeting and the swapping of tours later to some less strenuous ones, we were once again on track for this cruise to happen. Now finally we have made it to today. We fly out in a little more than 2 weeks on the evening of 4/30. We finally settled on a hotel for our one night post cruise in Rome before flying home so the last thing is planned. As many hurdles as this cruise had and the amount of times we thought this wouldn't happen, we are looking forward to it finally happening, even if it is a little different than originally planned. I am just grateful that we are all still here to enjoy this as a family. I have never done a live blog of a cruise before. Not here and also not on that other cruise board that shall not be named. Something about this cruise feels different, while I hope this isn't my last big European adventure with my parents, I know there is a chance that will be the case so I really want to remember this and document it. Not only are my parents getting older, I am also getting older and who knows what will come for my future as well. While we have plenty more cruises planned as a family out of the US to the Caribbean as well as the Mexican riviera on the west coast, I don't know that I will have a trip like this as a family once again. I promise my future posts won't be as much of a novel. There was a lot of backstory to cover and I hope I at least made it interesting to read. In the coming days I will start to talk about our plans for both pre-cruise and on the cruise but figured it made sense to start with the back story first. Since I have never done this before, not sure how to end these, I am sure I will figure that out better as I go. So for this one I guess I should say TTYL!

I like big ships and I cannot lie.

No other posters are missing the point. You had an interior cabin, it had Pullmans which according to you didn't meet your needs, you think Royal should have done something to improve your situation. The rest of us are just pointing out why your expectation is misguided.

Omg...some of these tangents from live blogs lol...first Batman and underwear math, now lucky red undies

Paying for an interior and expecting comfort for 4??!!!

There are no next steps and no one for you to contact that can resolve the problem you have created for yourself. I realize this is not what you want to hear but it is the truth.

You and Dan look so adorable and happy, it must be all the casino luck