Leaderboard

Didn't bring my laptop so I couldn't do a live blog and my sausage fingers don't work so well on my smart phone. The Anthem was FANTASTIC and so was Bermuda. For those of you who have cruised her, you know what I mean. The 270 was a mind blower! Twangster was on point when he recommended getting something for breakfast or lunch at the 270 Cafe and eating in the 270 and enjoy the view. By the way, the Kummelweck sandwiches in the 270 Cafe were to die for! We did the Silent Disco there one night and saw Spectra's Cabaret twice, what a show. I wanted to meet the tech guy that ran the show before it began (Cush) but he wasn't there yet. But I did meet his assistant. Nice young man who graduated form the University of Vermont this year and has only been on the job for 4 weeks. I asked him how he liked it and he almost broke his face smiling! We had a junior suite (our first time) and it was nice, especially with a full bathroom and a half bathroom. Junior Suites from now on! We had dinner in the MDR Grande and the Coastal Kitchen, breakfast in the Solarium and lunch in the 270 (did I mention those fantastic Kummelweck sandwiches?). The first night when the head waiter came to our table I asked why there weren't any savory bite briskets and she told us that the bakers on all the Royal ships don't do those anymore because a lot of people didn't eat them. But, she said i we would like some she would talk to the baker and viola, every night we had them, even in the CK! We had the key and it worked like magic. Talk about dirty looks when we disembarked on the 18th with the Key guide and cut in front of line! Oh well....Will we do the key again, absolutely. Only complaint we had was about the Solarium. Very hot, even on cruise days. Could not open any windows. Explanation was after the the storm the Anthem went through in 2016 Royal decided to keep the Solarium windows locked shut. Apparently the ship took on a lot of water during that storm though the open windows which caused a lot of flooding and damage. Well, now Royal has their own meteorologist and it would seem to me that he could warn the Anthem about an approaching storm with enough time for them to "batten the hatches". Oh yeah, we went to Vintages for a Margarita and were told they didn't have ANY Tequila left. Seems as though a group from the previous 9 day cruise consumed all they had. Wonder who that was? PS - This cruise pushed us over the 80 points and we are now Diamond level!!!!!

I wasn't sure I would live blog this trip but Empress is secret favorite of mine and she doesn't get much attention here in the live blogs. Empress is a small ship yet she doesn't feel small on board, as long as you pick the right cabin. In the wake of the abrupt Cuba changes fares have been very reasonable including Junior Suite rates. On a small ship the added space and balcony of a Junior Suite goes a long way to not feeling the size of the ship. The fact that cruising solo in a suite will net me triple Crown and Anchor points wasn't lost on me. That's a whopping 42 points for the price of a 7 night cruise in a balcony on an Oasis class ship. Since I'm flying to the ship I always prefer a B2B. If I'm coming all this way I might as well cruise twice. I thoroughly enjoyed my last Empress cruise so given the great last minute rates and affordable suites I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sail this little beauty again. Itinerary 1 - 6 nights Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel Itinerary 2 - 8 nights Key West, Costa Maya, Belize, Cozumel, CocoCay I like to scuba dive so the opportunity to visit Belize again was appealing. This will also be my first trip to see the new Perfect Day additions. Cozumel is a perennial favorite as is Key West. Costa Maya is also an easy port to spend a day at. Put it all together and the answer computed to... YOLO, why not? I am going to take a more relaxed approach to blogging this one. It is after all a small ship and I've got two weeks to spread my posts over so I may not be as active on this one as I have on other cruises. Flying in the night before my plane takes off in a couple of hours. Time to finish packing and get moving.

Yes, a very nice 5-10 minute walk along the beach. Since South Beach is closed for construction we'll have to split between Chill Island and the pool. The pool is so huge, it's actually not terribly far from anything. Picture doesn't do it justice.

I have yet to be to Perfect Day at CocoCay but this pic is my desktop background. I have high hopes of the time we get to spend on the island. I invite others who have been there to share their favorite memories there here. I hope this doesn't sound too corny.

Going back in October. We are sure it will still be great, but we'll surely miss the bungalow we had on South Beach in May.

We've been trying to coordinate booking for our family vacation on Oasis October 2020. Well this weekend's balcony sale convinced part of us anyway to go ahead and book :) Not only did we get a deal on our neighborhood balcony, Michelle Cunningham hooked us up with a resident deal for additional $80 off. I love that we upgraded for just over $100 a piece.

I was on Navigator and the shore excursion desk was willing to work on cabana location. I went on embarkation day to ask about our cabana. They originally assigned me one but then said they were trying to put adults only groups in one area and groups with kids in another. I wanted to be near the slides and we were assigned near Daredevils tower and were happy. Grandeur was also in port the same day as us so I'm not sure how they decide the cabanas between 2 ships.

I wish I could remember what was served...I just remember that it was a set menu from Portofino's (the Italian restaurant of the day). I do recall that the meal was ok but not great. The show, however, was a hoot.

For some reason, they are way better on Anthem than other ships. Or maybe it's in my head? Welcome to the "Suite Snob" club! lol Please tell me you ate in CK on night 1.... It was @Matt 😂

Now I really don't know what to do, which is really a great problem to have! :) We're in Cozumel on Dec 4 from 8 am to 7 pm and are only in Costa Maya from 8 am to 5 pm. Perhaps the better plan would be to cancel our reservation at Mayan Chan and take the tram to one of the other beach clubs, like we did last time, or simply stay on the ship as we'll be in Roatan the following day and have booked an excursion to Big French Key. It's a pretty port-intensive sailing, with only two sea days, and with three ports days in a row it may be good to sit out one port...which isn't so terrible as we've been to both Cozumel and Costa Maya previously. It'll be our first time at CocoCay and Roatan! Our itinerary is as follows: Dec 1 - leaving Ft. Lauderdale (We've booked The Key, mostly for the embarkation/ debarkation and show seating benefits) Dec 2 - CocoCay 8 am to 5 pm - nothing planned Dec 3 - at sea Dec 4 - Cozumel 8am to 7pm Dec 5 - Costa Maya 8 am to 5pm, currently booked at Mayan Chan Dec 6 - Roatan 7 am to 3 pm - Big French Key booked through RC Dec 7 - at sea; however, booked Mama Mia for 1 pm Dec 8 - home.

It Passed Victoria This Morning And Is In Route To Alaska

Congratulations and welcome to Diamond level! I can now resuming talking to you.

LOL Joe! Forget about a Genie... for $38K, the service best be on par with this on and off the ship... and my wife better get her own chair! 😂

Yup, Royal doesn’t seem to like having base prices that aren’t round dollar amounts. The real fun one is when the base works out to $65 and you then multiply by .7 to see what a theoretical 30% discount offer should be. You get $45.5, which leads to why some days showing a $46 sale price, and the next day it changes to $45 (this actually happened to me once). Love it! 😂 Still more love! 😂😂

Darn it John, I was JUST going to book that stateroom and YOU pulled it offline for 15 minutes with your mock booking. Shame on you! 😁😁

I wonder if Azamara includes the DBP... LOL! Ahhh... the things you research online while waking up to a cup of coffee on a SAT morning!

Nope. Just me again!

Dad? Is that you?

What I do takes longer but is the same thing. I pull up the excursion, see the price, them go back to my calendar on the planet and see the price I bought at... If it's higher, I cancel and immediately rebook. The spreadsheet with all the amounts would save me an extra trip with each excursion. Jane

Yep, the spreadsheet is the way to go to for an accurate price comparison. My point is that you can't rely on the quoted percentage discount, except perhaps as a flag to look more closely. Your system takes a little work but has netted you positive results.

I will be happy to listen to your complaints (with drink in hand). Cheers!

Right there with you. Hard to complain toooo much because did get the $18 deal for one

This gives me some hope. Your sailing is a month before mine, so maybe I’ll see the DBP go to $49 in another month / around Labor Day.

The adventure begins with my 6pm flight delayed to 7pm, then delayed again to 7:30pm. New arrival time 1:45am. And so it begins...

The CocoCay excursion is fake. The guy literally said he got the pigs at a slaughter house and brought them to the island. He has a pig pen that goes into the water. It is a false representation of the Bahamas' Swimming Pigs. These are not them and they barely swim in the water. These are just regular pigs. Don't waste your money. Norwegian uses the same excursion, on their website they are honest with their guests that it is not the real thing. RCCL gives you the impression it is. I contacted RCCL and have been completely ignored. Very disappointed and a huge waste of money.

Sorry Sabrina, CK on night 2. It was formal night. Honestly, we were happy with both. The food and service was great in both and we liked the decor of the MDR Grande better than the CK.