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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.

No kids *is* a Royal Up

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.

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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

Perfect! Thanks for the info!!

We do but I’m not sure you have to. The room attendant knows what your new room number is so it’s probably not truly necessary…but yes, we do.

My wife, Nina, and I will be joining the Serenade OTS for the Venice (Ravenna) to Rome segment. Look forward to running into you on the Serenade soon.

We got $231 one way and $260 the other. Too cheap not to go!

The option may require some price changes. An important note is unless you have permission to handle both reservations, the lead on the second room will have to call and make changes. It also depends on where you are in time in regard to the booking. If final payment has been made, your options are limited.........the same way if you did nonrefundable deposits. You could swap names for the two rooms, leaving the no-show in your room. They would get taxes and fees back if you are past final payment. Or you can call and move to a 2 person and have to pay the new prices. The person on the second reservation would have to swap out names.

I love the little tucked away rooms, they are often quiet.

No kids is way better than RU lol

Yeah I vaguely remember that. Thanks! Jane

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.

YIPPEE !!! I got a $$ off offer but that's basically useless unless we have a real comp offer to put with it, but we don't as Dan has barely been in the casino on this leg. We know better than to chase an offer on a short cruise. I'm really glad to hear that M got a good one ! I saw you at breakfast but didn't want to interrupt !

Us too, but just across the hall. Not going to complain because Mrs. JustMe hit it nicely in the casino last night! Got her (guess that's really us) back in the green, and she got a comp offer delivered to the cabin today. WooHoo!

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

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.

I like to take advantage of public transportation whenever I can since it's sorely lacking in Florida. And I like to save money. If you have a tap to pay credit card or can tap to pay with your phone you don't even need to purchase a ticket at the ticket machines...just tap and enter the turnstyle. There's only one way out of the Miami Airport station so hop on the first train. The first stop is the transfer point if you're going north, but the port is south so you stay on the orange line towards Dadeland.

Don't blame ya for avoiding the trolley but you know I'd already be heading for the Metrorail to save the $16 or whatever.

I have time to kill and it's $32 for rideshare from the airport to the port..or it's a $2.25 Metrorail ride and a $13 rideshare from the station to the port...hmm There's a bus (trolley) stop at the port (Indy goes out of G) but I have a full size suitcase that I'm not keen on lugging up onto a city bus.

Last night DH asked if we wanted a to go to a specialty restaurant one night. We checked MDR menus and decided to reserve 150 Central Park on night 5. He's calling it our third formal night. Right now the night 5 MDR menu is not listed in the app, but the current sailing shows the Taste of Asia. I also went ahead and booked flowrider lessons for me and the kids. There is an indoor flowrider about 45 minutes to an hour away from us at a community center's pool, and we have been to go a handful of times since our fall cruise. DD is almost able to self load for surfing, and once she's in the current, she can stay up for quite a while. DS has gotten really good at boogie boarding and has learned a few tricks that I don't think areRoyal Caribbean approved (there's a YouTube video out there by one of Royal's sports staff explaining what they will and won't allow. I'll see if I can find it again). DS says he wants to try stand up again. I really like the lessons because the wait time between runs is minimal.

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.