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You'll find this advice in various blog posts, threads and just about everywhere. Yesterday while traveling unrelated to a cruise I saw some unfortunate cruise guests learn this lesson the hard way. My own travel was changed three times due to a canceled flight and then separate delayed flights for my alternate itineraries. This has become a new normal occurrence on more and more of my air travel recently. I'm well used to misconnects and delayed flights as a former business traveler who used to take over 250 flights per year, year after year mostly domestic. Yet I'm experiencing it more now and the time to recovery is greater than it ever was back in my hayday of being a very frequent flyer. Yesterday as I was in the process of working with a gate agent to find new alternatives for a delayed Seattle flight I saw two separate groups explaining to other gate agents they are going on an Alaskan cruise and now they were going to miss their cruise. There was nothing the gate agents could do, there was no alternative flights to put them on. Our plane broke to the point they took it out of service and they were working to find us another aircraft. One party stated they had bought travel insurance. That was wise but they are still missing the cruise, a cruise they probably spent a lot of time preparing and planning. Getting some or all of your money back through travel insurance softens the financial impact but insurance will never make up for the time invested and the disappointment of not sailing on a cruise you've been excitedly waiting for a long time. In my case they re-routed me (again) through a different city but I followed the progress of that delayed Seattle flight and it didn't work out well for any cruise passengers looking to sail yesterday. I heard one gentleman ask the other party impacted "they'll give us our money back right?". That's when the other party stated they bought the travel insurance so they'll get their money back. The blank response from this person told me he hadn't bought travel insurance. You could see his mind doing the math to calculate his losses. Many years ago I learned this lesson myself the hard way. Flying from Denver to Houston the day of a cruise involves a short direct flight. Southwest had five flights that would work and I was on the first one. What could go wrong? We got on the plane right on time. Fully boarded we were ready to depart on time. That's when I noticed they hadn't closed the boarding door. Then we didn't depart on time. Then they cancelled the flight and asked us to deplane. No problem right? Four more flights could get me there. I was solo. I just needed one seat. The best Southwest could offer was the same flight the next day. All of their flights were already full. By that point the ship would be well at sea. After a prolonged battle with my travel insurance provider I did get all of my money back, eventually, but I still missed the cruise. So as tempting as it is to save the cost a hotel room, just don't do it. Don't fly in the day of the cruise.

I have officially announced and decided that this will be my last ever contract as a crew member for Royal Caribbean. After a long career with this company, it is now time to move on to the next phase of my life. I am excited and nervous for what is to come, but just wanted to thank Matt and this community for allowing me to share my life on this platform.

5 years as a Casino Host, 5 years on YouTube! 2024 - Quantum Dry Dock 2024 - Icon Start Up 2023 - Symphony Dry Dock 2022 - Ovation Restart 2021 - Odyssey Start up 2020 - *pandemic* 2019 - Oasis Amplification My career over the last 5 years has been very eventful. Thank you for following my journey!

Here I am again with another ambitious project - making photo menus for all dining venues on Royal Caribbean ships. It's for people like me who "order with their eyes." I have one REQUEST: To make it easy for others to browse the menus this topic, let's keep discussions to a minimum.

You would think it would be more efficient to flip the smoking and non-smoking casinos. Give smokers a compact space to smoke and breathe each others smoke, give non-smokets an expanded space.

Happy to announce that I've been promoted to Casino Host! Let me know if you are cruising onboard Quantum Of The Seas anytime soon. Here's me explaining all the details about my promotion!

I recently tried a GigSky cellular data plan that included coverage on a cruise ship. I’ll get into the details and provide more background below but in summary GigSky has developed a roaming agreement with Cellular At Sea that provides an alternative to buying internet access from the cruise line. It uses the cellular equipment onboard and is available for many cruise lines in different regions. Some plans also include roaming coverage on land at ports of call so if your home cellular provider doesn’t offer international roaming or their roaming plans are costly this may be an alternative to consider. During my testing onboard a Royal Caribbean ship I observed 3G type HSPA cellular data service using band 2 with speeds up to 6 Mbps down and up to 0.5 Mbps up but more typically speeds were around 1.5Mbps to 3Mbps most of the time. It worked around the ship with some important caveats. The most important of which was that it didn’t work in my cabin or on my deck 6 balcony. It worked outside of my cabin in the hallway however the all steel cabin door was very effective at reducing the cellular signal strength to the point there was no cellular data inside my cabin with the door closed. The 24 hour plan cost $19.99 USD with no additional taxes or fees. At time of writing it appears to be less expensive to purchase additional plans for ongoing coverage, at least at the moment. The plan I chose provided 512 MB of data for a 24 hour period. This was the least expensive plan offered. There are additional plans available to suit your needs that provide more data and more time to use that data. I was automatically offered a $1 credit after my purchase to apply to a new plan of my choosing. It’s not clear if this credit expires. Here is more detail and the specifics of my test. I spent my own money for this test. No one from any organization was involved or informed that I would be performing this test. There is no sponsorship involved, no kickbacks or revenue links used in this review. It is simply my own personal money that was not reimbursed. I received no compensation for doing this test. I paid what anyone else who purchased a plan on this day paid. To set the stage I am on currently on board Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas on a transpacific voyage from Australia to Hawaii. We left Auckland two days. We crossed the Antimeridian yesterday and we are approaching the international date line as I write this. Basically we are in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. I have a paid Voom plan, Royal Caribbean’s marketing name for their onboard internet access. This allowed me to download and install the required GigSky app from the Google Play store and later to purchase the GigSky cruise ship eSIM directly from GigSky within that app. Having already paid for my plan I was now offered discounts for additional plans but you can see the regular or full price below. I recently upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to a Galaxy S25 Ultra. I’ve moved most of my personal stuff between the two phones but I brought the S22U along on this trip in case there was something I forgot to move to the new phone. I also have a iPhone with me that I’ll use to capture some photos of this test. My S22U has no other active SIMs or eSIMs so it was a perfect device to use to perform this test without risking my normal cellular lines becoming active on the onboard cell towers risking undue cellular charges. That isn't really an issue for me since I use a prepaid cellular provider who doesn't have a roaming agreement with Cellular at Sea but I am including it here because most people with normal post-paid cell plans have to be very careful not to roam onto Cellular at Sea or they can incur significant charges. Initially I was in my cabin using Voom when I ordered a GigSky eSIM and I struggled to get the new eSIM to activate. I later learned this was because the cellular signal in my cabin wasn’t strong enough. I had what appeared to be lots of bars of service but the signal quality at the desk in my cabin was too poor for data or for activation. After a number of reboots and after going out into the guest hallway activation was easy. Initial speed tests were pretty decent but they wouldn't always be this good. The important thing here is to be in an area with lots of cellular signal for the first activation. My phone was originally carrier locked to a traditional and well known US based cellular provider. Many years ago I paid off the phone and unlocked it. It is no longer bound to any carrier and I have used this phone with other prepaid NVMO cellular providers for some time. This is an important requirement. A phone must not be carrier locked and it must be eSIM capable to be able to use a GigSky eSIM. Despite being unlocked and no longer using my old cellular provider my phone has always booted up with a familiar pink splash screen at least until now. After installing the GigSky eSIM my phone now boots up with an AT&T logo. I’ve never had an AT&T plan associated to this phone so I am fairly certain this new splash screen is due to the GigSky eSIM being installed. GigSky must be associated with or partner with AT&T in some way. Once I had it working the 4G LTE indicator on my phone was displayed but it’s not clear that I had true LTE or 4G service. Speeds observed certainly did not approach LTE expectations for my tests. The cellular industry has a long history of tickling the 4G indicator on consumer phones while not providing a full 4G or LTE experience. This has long been a marketing game of making 3G look better than it is in a race to claim the fastest network. It’s not clear to me if that was what I experienced or if the ship, satellite uplink and region underperformed 4G LTE expectations. I tested the connection using a number of apps. One benefit of using an Android phone for this test is the variety of apps that can provide some technical details regarding cellular signals while the same is locked out on Apple devices. For some reason Apple doesn’t want you to know anything about your connection details. The best speeds I achieved were around 6 Mbps down. The latency was much higher compared to Voom and Starlink which suggest that Cellular at Sea may have their own VSAT legacy satellite uplinks independent of the Starlink terminals that Royal Caribbean uses to offer Voom service on board their ships. VSAT is more prone to rain fade during inclement weather but I wasn’t able to test that on an otherwise pleasant but windy sea day. It is something to consider as you weigh the pros and cons. Bionic bar overlooking the Esplanade signal strength: That's pretty good signal strength. Bionic Bar speed test: The download speed is okay but that upload speed is really slow. I couldn't imagine texting lot of pictures to friends and family back home at these speeds. Pool deck signal strength: Not the strongest signal but okay. Pool deck speed test: Two70 signal strength: Two70 speed test: I was surprised there was no coverage on my deck 6 balcony. I had envisioned a cell tower on the top of the ship delivering the Cellular at Sea connection. This proved to be a wrong assumption. Instead as I walked the cabin hallways I observed a number of strong signal areas at specific locations along the guest hallways walking from full aft to full forward. It appears that Cellular at Sea has a number of micro cells on board most likely to deal with all the steel that ships are made of. I did not perform a detailed or thorough signal strength analysis but there are definitely some areas with strong signal strength and areas with less signal strength as you walk the halls. Since I am fairly forward on deck 6 I am forward of the nearest point of strong signal I observed which may be why I have no coverage in my cabin or on my balcony. Inside my cabin signal strength: That's pretty bad. On the balcony with no signal: Very little signal, no data indicator and just a faint hint of any cell signal while outdoors. Cellular 3G and LTE band 2 uses 1900 MHz which will penetrate steel cabin walls only slight better than the 2.4 GHz WiFi band does. However there are many more WiFi access points in guest corridors resulting in better Voom WiFi coverage compared to Cellular at Sea. Quantum class has traditionally not had the best WiFi coverage as ships go but they have upgraded the WiFi equipment on Quantum and WiFi performance in my cabin has been fine. Voom is also faster than GigSky/Cellular at Sea with lower latency or ping times now that Voom uses Starlink satellites. Voom using Starlink speed test: This Voom speed test has been fairly consistent for this voyage. One thing I like about GigSky is that it allowed me to hotspot the cellular data plan so I activated my S22U cellular hotspot feature and connected my iPhone to it for some more testing. At these low speeds the hotspot feature does fine with minimal losses. At higher speeds the built in hotspot can be a limiting bottleneck but since GigSky isn’t very fast this wasn’t an issue. This may be an attractive feature for families traveling abroad on land or at sea since one plan sized appropriately can be shared by many as long as everyone sticks together. iPhone connected to S22U cellular Hotspot: I was able to VPN using a corporate SSL client over GigSky without issue. For all of the testing I ran around doing I had consumed about 200Mb of my 512 Mb plan. Later I left the phone on doing smartphone stuff as I went to lunch and walked around the ship being a guest at sea. This consumed a little more data. The GigSky app allows you see your usage as you go. However the app needs a data connection to function. If you don't have a GigSky plan you need to be connected to the internet to purchase one. Plan ahead. This tracked a little higher compared to what my phone thought I had used: Another appealing aspect of GigSky is the coverage on land plus at sea if your normal cellular provider doesn't offer international roaming or has costly day passes that add up over a week or more. My prepaid cellular provider is US Mobile. I pay for an annual plan that comes out to less than $33 per month that includes coverage in over 100 countries around the world. This has worked well for me as I travel so I don't need the land coverage that GigSky includes. As a Pinnacle member in Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society I get free Voom for one device. However I sail other cruise lines that don't always give me free internet plans. GigSky is a nice alternative for those that don't have international roaming or internet onboard a ship already included. Having no data coverage in my cabin is definitely a downside to GigSky or Cellular at Sea in general. AT&T is also offering plans that include cruise ship cellular coverage. They use the same Cellular At Sea micro cells on board so I would expect similar performance and coverage. One thing to consider or at least be aware of is that Cellular at Sea automatically turns off when a ship is within the 12 mile territorial boundary of any given country. This is to avoid Cellular At Sea interfering with or running afoul of local laws for communications in any country. Until the ship is far away from land you may not have GigSky data coverage. Due to the location of Auckland for example, we were within New Zealand's 12 mile boundary for nearly five hours after leaving port. The casino didn't open until 11:30pm. I'm sure Cellular at Sea was off until then as well. Ultimately the unlimited nature of Royal Caribbean's Voom plus the much better performance makes Voom a clear winner for my needs. Streaming, uploading pictures or having a video chat with family back home has become commonplace using Voom. If GigSky was significantly less than Voom I could imagine it would be fine going without those things and if you need land coverage too then GigSky maybe a worthy alternative to consider. Check with your current cellular provider to see if they provide usage statistics so you have an idea what you and your family consume for data on a weekly basis. That may help guide you to the best approach for your needs. Ships in the Royal caribbean fleet that are included: Some Visa cards may come with a free or discounted GigSky plan! Pros - Works on land and at sea, hotspot data sharing allowed, some plans less expensive compared to Voom for the full voyage. Cons - Not all cabins or areas around the ship will have service, variable performance that is slower than Voom with much higher latency, rain fade likely with inclement weather, some plans offer no savings compared to Voom, gaps in service until the ship is far out at sea.

That's right, frenz, you've just stepped right on into another episode of 'Two Idiots Spending Absolutely No One's Inheritance.' Except that I am excited, a little sad, and friggin panicked at the same time. You see, Batman and I decided to retire. Our last work day will be tomorrow, 1/3/25. Voluntarily. My company went and lost its dang mind. We’ve been festering in hot water for a while, but it was starting to boil, and it was time to bail before we completely lost our health and sanity. Our company was actively looking for insane ways to get good people to quit, and we caved. I hate that we gave them exactly what they wanted and they won. For now. In the long run, I think we made the right call. I will miss my team dearly (DEARLY!), but our CEO is a hot steaming turd, and I hope he rots in hell. That wasn’t very Christian of me. Sorry. Let me rephrase. I hope he repents and finds Jesus. That’s better. Anyway, we saw the proverbial writing on the wall, and thankfully started getting our ducks in a row 18 months ago and working with a CFP so that when the next dumb thing dropped, we were ready to go quickly. Well, that dumb thing dropped towards the end of November, but we had a nice staycation till the beginning of December, and then promptly announced our retirement upon our return-to-work. December has been one WILD emotional ride. So, I think this cruise will be a GREAT way to start our retirement, and we won’t have to worry about getting back to work when we return. I don’t even know what that is going to feel like. But I’m excited to find out! Well … now that that is out of the way …. My goal has been to do longer-than-a-week in Star Class for ages and with shutdown and then restrictions, we've not had much luck. Here's how this one worked out. I didn't realize that Royal had released Bayonne/Cape Liberty itineraries for early 2025 until the evening of release day. Once I realized it, I began searching for cruises > 7 nights. Odyssey is doing two 11-night itineraries and one 12-night after the two 11- nights. By the time I checked, there was exactly one Star Class stateroom left on all 3 itineraries. It was actually a good price. I immediately emailed my TA to hold it for me, and luckily, she saw my email straight away and did so (IFKYK). I know why this cruise was the least popular of the 3 .... it has the least exciting itinerary. I would've ’d Barbados (my fave!!!) like the other two have as a port stop, but i chalked it up to kismet that the one SC room left was over Batman's birthday (Jan 6), which we typically never get to celebrate in a big way. (I truly think God knew we were going to NEED this cruise on this date!) I kept this cruise a secret from Batman for a while because …. Batman does not want stairs in his stateroom, and I knew this would be an issue because, as you know, the only Star Class staterooms on Odyssey are lofts. He HATES Grand Loft Suites! Last time we did a Grand Loft on Anthem, we mastered throwing items up and down from the bedroom to the living room and vice versa. I didn’t break this cruise to him until we went on Oasis in Sept 2023. To be fair, I didn’t exactly break it. He saw it as a booked cruise when he was checking in for Oasis and asked, “what the hell is this?” He was ok with it. And by OK with it, I mean I responded by shrugging my shoulders and him saying, “OK.” (You've been there yourself at least once, admit it!) However, I didn’t tell him what room we would be in. Our Genie Lety helped me do that while we were sailing Oasis. I used Lety like the nice restaurant a boyfriend takes his girlfriend to dump her, so she won’t throw a major scene. Batman kept his composure in front of Lety. I told him he’ll use the downstairs closets and bathroom and only climb the stairs to sleep and like it. He acquiesced. Sort of. Just two weeks ago, Batman asked me out of the blue “do we have a good room?” Sigh. I had to explain that if he wanted Star Class, I booked the only type of room available and tried to get him excited that there are only 5 SC rooms on the entire ship of like 2100 staterooms. This also prompted questions like … “how close are we to the Suite Lounge?” And, “oh, is it like Allure?” Batman thinks we’ve sailed on the Allure. We’ve never been on the Allure. We’ve been on the Anthem, which is the ship he insists is the Allure.... We are in Stateroom 8324. Maybe a month after I secured our room, I saw the Owner's Loft suite back in inventory, but it was a lot more than what we paid, too much for such a slight upgrade. I'd have booked that in the first place, because i think Batman would've liked it better. Oh well. (I stopped short of wishing a pox on the house of the person who held it for such a short time, though it was tempting!). Then, nearly a year later, someone let one of the other Grand Lofts go. By that time, Royal priced it more than double the price we paid when they put it back into inventory and got it. It was available for like 2-3 days before someone took it off the market. Good for them. I hope the crazies who paid that have a way better cruise than us in the same exact Stateroom at half the price. When I last checked cruise prices in September of 2024, the Junior Suites were nearly what we paid on release day for our GL. This cruise was the poster child for booking on opening day. Here is the itinerary: Jan 5 Sun: Cape Liberty, Depart 3pm Jan 6 Mon – Jan 8 Wed: @sea (3 consecutive sea days) Jan 9 Thurs: St Maarten 8a-6p Jan 10 Fri: Antigua 8a-6p Jan 11 Sat: St. Kitts 8a-6p Jan 12 Sun: St. Thomas 8a-6p Jan 13 Mon – Jan 15 Wed: @sea (3 consecutive sea days) Jan 16 Thurs: Cape Liberty 6am We do have excursions booked at every port through Royal except for St. Maarten (sadly Holland House is sold out that day, so we are heading next door to Nu Love). Batman is not exactly thrilled with 2 of the excursions, but that’s what you get when you’re Mr. Just-Tell-Me-Where-and-When-to-Show-up-and-What-to-Bring. I’m especially excited for what I booked us in St. Thomas. Only because Batman has been complaining about it for months. I think it’s going to be hilarious. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. I booked these excursions over Labor Day, thinking I’ll get them locked in and then go to town on the Black Friday sale. Nah, the prices shot up after Labor Day and then returned to Labor Day pricing on Black Friday. This was only annoying in that i was constantly barraged by notifications to not miss the Black Friday sale! Hurry! BEST PRICES OF THE YEAR!! Now, I know that this is @asquared17’s worst nightmare. NJ. January. What could go wrong? Well, when you’ve survived the Norwegian Breakaway Bomb Cyclone cruise over NYE 2017/2018 (you can google it or search YouTube for videos as we did make the CBS Evening news!) …. I’m sure this will be a walk in the park (I hope I don’t come to regret these words). We’ll see. What a great retirement kick-off it will be either way. We're just going with it at this point! Once again, Batman doesn’t know I’m blogging, and I like to keep it that way, despite having to blog from a bathroom or closet. Or pretend I’m doing something else when he asks why I’m on my phone so much. I need some more creative excuses. For half the Oasis cruise, he believed I was on my phone playing Wordle ... Wordle! Then he played Wordle himself and realized, “I’m confused: this doesn’t require a lot of typing?” I never responded to that question but instead handed him a beer and changed the subject. So far, he hasn’t figured out that I’m on my phone way more on Royal cruises (blogging) than Norwegian ones (not blogging). Hiding this blog from him has literally turned into a Blood Sport, and it entertains me greatly. Someday, I’m bound to meet one of you on the ship, and you’ll undoubtedly ask, “hey Batman, did you remember your underwear this time?” and then I might have some explaining to do. And for the record, he will want to know how you know his nickname is Batman, but the underwear comment will likely go over his head (he’s sorta proud of surviving the week with one pair of undies, like a badge of honor). #WelcomeToMyMarriage

Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday and a healthy New Year!!!

Welcome to the message boards This is not Royal Caribbean's fault. The "fault" lays with yourself for not paying closer attention to the exact cabin category you picked. If you booked with a travel agent, perhaps your agent could have explained it better. If you booked a guarantee cabin, then that's the luck that comes with those sort of cabins. I don't see any correlation between your Crown and Anchor status and the cabin you chose at the time of booking. The choice of cabin comes down to the guest, and if you did go for a guarantee, cabin assignment has nothing to do with loyalty status.

In honour of bringing it back to where it all began, photo drop circa 2002, pardon the early 2000s fashion San Juan boarding, and proof that I was not always a suite snob

We have about 4 hours left of our flight. We all passed out for a bit but now awake and probably not going back to sleep because I don’t want to throw off my schedule too much tonight. Now seems like a good time to sum of some of my final thoughts. To echo what many of you have already said, from beginning to end, this trip has been nothing short of amazing. It is hard to put into words how incredibly grateful we are to have had this opportunity with the girls. Something we will all cherish for the rest of our lives. I was just going through all our photos earlier and Barcelona was only two weeks ago, but yet seems like ages ago. So this trip has felt long, but yet also whizzed by if that makes sense. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, despite the heat, and the messed up shore excursion, it’s just all part of the memories now. And we cherish them all. As a family, we have come to several conclusions. We will be very careful when picking where to go in the future during the summer months. The last few days in Rome were pretty rough with the heat and I think if we were going to head to the hotter ports of Europe, we would wait a few years and do it in the cooler months. The heat and the massive crowds do make it less enjoyable. If we were to head back to Europe in the next few years before I retire, then we would do Northern Europe itineraries instead. We loved our experiences with LivTours. I am now convinced that for “must see” destinations, private tours is the way to go. The flexibility and the speed at which you can move is worth it. And it really is like having your own local person taking you around, they know all the tricks and things to avoid, right down to which water fountains to avoid (because of lines) and how to move through the crowds, and which restaurants have AC lol. And LivTours is a fantastic company to work with in pre-planning as well. I think that is all for now. Thank you all for coming along with us. The more the merrier. I am sorry that in the last few days I was only able to update at the end of the day. It was just the nature of the day long tours and the exhaustion that followed. I am happy though that I managed to keep this blog “Live” and not fall off. I have never done that before and wasn’t about to start now I will admit it was challenging though this time. We are exhausted, but we are so thankful, and Hubby and I are off again in one week from today!

Someone had to post it...

Today my daughter sent me a picture of my youngest grandson (10 months old) enjoying himself at Chops aboard Utopia. His 2 1/2 year old brother was with my son in law eating ice cream and dancing up by the pools, waiting for sail away... As she detailed their boarding and activities my mind drifted back about 25 years. We had planned for her mother and another couple to join us but work schedules wouldn't permit. She was crushed thinking the trip wasn't going to take place. I wasn't about to let that happen and it was a daddy daughter epic that followed. I closed my eyes and could hear the horse drawn carriage. hooves clopping along Nassau's Bay street, I could see her happiness. She laughed when the "man" asked me to not fish off our balcony. The "pirate coin" i planted at Coco Cay for her to find was a real hit. Especially when she showed it off at a tiki bar. Before we knew it the area was jammed with new "friends". In response to the harp music being played at the midnight buffet "Daddy am I dreaming"? Today I knew she would make memories for herself and my grandsons along the same lines. I'm far from done but that torch has been passed. I am pleased beyond words...

The wait is killing me and the forums are a bit quiet so I decided to start this one a little earlier than usual. Standard warning... My intro posts are very long but my actual blog posts are usually shorter and full of pics (mostly food & drink). Blog Title I couldn't really come up with anything clever involving the word Utopia, especially knowing I may be doing at least five of these Utopia B2B's, so the thought of a series of blogs led me to coming up with a long running movie franchise. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan (apologies to @Lovetocruise2002's hubby). I do hope the majority of readers understand the reference and why I started with Episode IV even if they're also not big fans. I tried coming up with five titles in advance but I'm only happy with two of them so far; the rest are a work in progress. Intro I'm WONDERing... oh wait, we're finally going on a new ship! We haven't done that since our first Wonder cruise back in 2023. OK, so Utopia is pretty identical to Wonder as far as layout but there are new shows, destination elevators, a new tiki bar with new drinks to try, a fake food truck, Giovanni's Kitchen is up on decks 11/12 with an outdoor terrace, and the Crown Lounge has been newly relocated to deck 16 and has windows! As a fairly boring creature of habit, this all sounds pretty great to me. We get to keep our general routine (with a few twists) while experiencing the subtle differences from Wonder, most of which seem positive. Cabin After a glorious week in a CP balcony last month (during which I might have spent a total of two hours on said balcony), it's back to the caves we go! We're on deck 10 near the forward elevators, just like all of our Wonder interiors. We actually have the same exact cabin booked for every Utopia B2B. I learned from Wonder that there are at least three different interior layouts and we prefer the one that's similar to a balcony cabin (bed on the side wall, not in the back). We also like to be in the outer hallway, opposite OV balconies, rather than in the maze of interiors that can be found in the middle of most higher decks. Those two layouts alternate along the outer forward hallways on deck 10 so I just grabbed the closest one to the elevators. Bonus Savings We got some dumb luck on our two B2B's for this summer as well as next March as my TA had some sort of promo that gave us double the OBC when I booked these last March (with group rates). Then it got even better when Royal had the brilliant idea to sell gift cards at 20% off which I jumped on before they quickly ended the promo. By no means are these inexpensive compared to my past Wonder group rates but the extra savings certainly made the total cost more palatable. Itinerary Who would want to just go back and forth from PC to Nassau and CocoCay with a turnaround day in between? Obviously us. I'm sure this sounds incredibly boring to many and that's understandable. In my mind, it's not really all that different than getting off the ship to go to CocoCay once and a Cozumel beach club once, which is what we did on two of our last three cruises. As the regular readers know, we primarily sail for the ship and still enjoy CocoCay after 11 visits. There's also a financial benefit in that we won't be spending a penny on excursions which helps offset the inflated cost of Utopia. We don't plan to get off the ship in Nassau and we don't spend anything on CocoCay except to tip on voucher drinks. This one is a 4/3 leaving on a Monday... Day 1 - PC (Embarkation) Day 2 - Nassau Day 3 - CocoCay Day 4 - Sea Day Day 5 - PC (Turnaround Day) Day 6 - Nassau Day 7 - CocoCay Day 8 - PC (Debarkation) I've never been a fan of PDCC on the last day but it's fine. July is a 3/4 so we'll end with a sea day and our specialty meals will shift around a bit on that one. Having been at PDCC with two Oasis class ships (including last month), it's never a concern to us. We get off the ship early, grab "our spot" by Oasis Lagoon, and watch as it doesn't get busy until after 10am. That said, I certainly don't mind if we're joined by a smaller ship and we got two good draws on this one. Grandeur will be with us on the 1st leg and Jewel on the 2nd leg. But wait, there's more! At some point I noticed @WAAAYTOOO will be onboard Jewel during our 2nd leg! After multiple mentions of me being an introvert followed by telling each other that meeting will be a disappointment on both ends, lol, I hope to at least say hi. Planning As the regulars also know, I enjoy overplanning, so I had fun trying to fit in new show reservations and figuring out when to schedule our specialty meals. I'm keeping an open mind but I don't expect to love every show (I'm looking at you, All In). We also don't need to see every show twice in seven days. However, the planner in me couldn't help but come up with a chart that allowed for everything on both legs. Better to have reservations and not use them than vice-versa... even though I'm well-aware that you can easily walk into any show via standby, especially the main theater shows (which now also includes adult comedy since The Attic is no more). You also never know when an aqua show will be cancelled due to weather or technical difficulties and it's tough to cram everything into a short sailing. Dining As far as specialty goes, we're sticking with Giovanni's Kitchen for our night one D+ BOGO which will be our anniversary dinner (a day late), going back to Mason Jar brunch on the one sea day after trying dinner last month, doing GK lunch on turnaround day, and having our usual Playmakers dinner one night but that's TBD. Now for some new wrinkles... Utopia has the seafood buffet in WJ on embarkation day (meaning we have it twice). That's not exactly optimal since I usually try not to go nuts on embarkation day with GK dinner that night and for the 2nd embarkation day we have GK lunch. That's just how it worked out and I'm not skipping the seafood so it is what it is. Between show schedules and factoring in my wife (who will want no part of the seafood), I wasn't going to reschedule things around WJ lunch no matter how much I may enjoy it. After I thought I had everything scheduled, I then noticed that GK is actually open for lunch while we're in Nassau. I guess it's a Utopia or a shorty thing. I went back to see if it worked out better to move that lunch to one of the Nassau days but for various reasons decided to leave things as-is. One last twist... we're planning to skip the MDR entirely. We've never been big fans and two of the three menus with entrees my wife will eat aren't part of the Utopia rotation. We have our two specialty dinners (counting Playmakers), two specialty brunch/lunches, and two lunches on CocoCay which my wife enjoys. Since I can always find food somewhere and my wife knows she will enjoy breakfast and at least one other meal on six of the seven days, she's not concerned about the other dinners. It goes without saying but she doesn't exactly eat like me. We'll check out WJ dinner (she's usually happy with the cook to order stations), have some CL snacks, get her a custom pizza at Sorrento's, etc. I also reminded her that GK Wine Bar also has a la carte pizza as well as one of the desserts she likes and her favorite MJ dessert in on the late night menu so she'll be fine. I'm looking forward to skipping the MDR. Besides the seafood buffet on embarkation days, I've seen and heard about some pretty good dinner items in WJ on certain nights (including more seafood on the last night, which I already love b/c it's Indian night). Miscellaneous Cruise Director - We normally pay little attention to who the CD is at this point but we're looking forward to sailing with Marc Walker (Bing Bong) again on this one. He used to live very close to us and my wife has a loose connection to his daughters (who happened to be visiting him onboard the one time we sailed with him a while back). Regardless of all that, he's a fun CD and since we're back to attending lots of shows, we'll actually see the CD far more often than we did on Wonder. We may even try to go The Quest (haven't done that in a while). Crown Lounge - As mentioned, the CL has moved to deck 16 aft. I'm definitely looking forward to the new space and the windows. The only catch is that I'm used to being right above the CL where it's just a quick elevator down for my early morning coffee run. With the new location, I'll likely go up to deck 15 or 16 and cross the ship outside. As lazy as I am, a 6am outdoor walk while most of the ship is asleep and the sun is rising could be pretty nice. Internet - Another small but not insignificant perk for us on a 4/3 B2B is that we usually share one internet account so it becomes completely free with our two free D+ days per person on each leg. We'll even each have our own account at times, especially during the 3N portion. Photos - I didn't wind up taking many non-food pics last time (except when asked for Solarium pics) but I will again try to take more. Hopefully a new ship with new venues and decor will inspire me. Parking - If you read my last blog, you may remember that when we got to the port around 9:30am the garage wasn't open yet so we just parked in the surface lot right next to it (which we had done one other time). It's honestly easier than parking on level two of the garage since we only bring one rolling suitcase each. Wheeling them over the short ground level walk to the porters stationed on that side is quicker than getting them down from level two. We also aren't forced to go through the drop-off loop by bypassing the garage entirely. So as of now, the plan is to park in the lot again... and we may get there even a bit earlier as Utopia is known to begin boarding before 10am. Weather - As most frequent Caribbean cruisers know (especially FL residents), the forecast isn't to be trusted even the night before (or morning of TBH). That said, I can't help but glance at it and it's potentially not great right now. We could never leave the ship and have a great time, so it is what it is, but we'd obviously prefer to get off at PDCC (and for others to get off in Nassau, leaving us with an emptier ship to enjoy). I think that covers everything. As always, questions, comments, and tangents are welcome both pre-cruise and during. With no significant travel, planes, or hotels, I normally don't have much to share in the week leading up to embarkation day.

Our first B2B was just an awesome experience! We were on Liberty for a 4 day to Halifax and then 5 to Bermuda. We had the same room for both and it's really cool because it really feels like home if that makes sense. It's like settle in because we are 2 cruises 9 days. The transition from the 4 to the 5 was really, really cool. Almost feel like a celebrity, I would say there were 34 of us on back to backs. I forget the little theater room we all met in but it was nice. They took a new pic for the second cruise and handed us new cards. Old card to get off, new card to get back on. Wisked off to customs and turn around back on. This was Cape Liberty so it was cool to see a completely empty cruise terminal. Really fun experience I have to say. We did have a consecutive cruise lunch. That was a nice touch. The cruise themselves, well I just it's Royal Caribbean so it was FANTASTIC. We are just a Royal Caribbean family what can I say. I do all the bookings, I typically don't even ask as my wife and the kids trust me with everything. I chose 2 really great excursions. Halifax was the island hopper which is a truck/boat where you go through the city and the bay. That was so much fun! Great tour guide and driver. They worked so well together. Bermuda we did a full tour on a small bus. Our freaking guide was just amazing. A local Bermudian, family arrived in Bermuda in the late 1,800s. This guy knew every nook and cranny of that island. He loved to take pictures for every one at every stop. He was so nice to my little 3 year old son. We were walking about one of the stops and saw us and brought us over to this spot and pointed out that beautiful colorful fish to my son. Anyway great, great 2 cruises. Awesome back to back experience! That was a fun thing to try. Definitely want to try that again. Not as easy to do from NJ as it is in Florida. Oh and Liberty of the seas, love her. That is a great ship and even for her age and needed a makeover. Awesome room, extra large promenade view.

IT HAS BEEN. AN ETERNITY. IN DRY DOCK. but!!!!! we sail in just over a month!!! there is MUCH to catch you all up on, but i will leave you with this quick gem for now while i gather some thoughts together: entertainment is OPEN. i've just reserved the aqua show (hiro), hairspray, and the comedy show. ...will we get to these? ah, well. we are pre-vintage. so it's really anyone's guess. but at least we have the resos if we need them!!

Here's the deal- you're paying for a travel agent whether you use one or not. Royal pays agents out of their end so you're paying either way. Agents can get you the same rate or better. And we have expertise on the cruise and destinations. However, not everyone should use a travel agent. If you are not going to trust us with your reservation, please book on your own! I have clients who book with me who need hand holding through the entire thing, and some who book and never ask a single question. Both are legitimate. We are here to provide a good experience that makes things easier for you- if that's not what you want out of it then book on your own. But if you want someone who knows the Royal Caribbean policies (often better than they do) or who knows what to do if things go wrong, then reach out to MEI or other reputable agency.

I could chew through that with my nail clipper.

So remember that Plan B refundable flight that I grabbed this morning? Well it went down $500. So I just cancelled and re-booked it. Hubby said, "Wait a second, so now you are price adjusting a back up flight?" old habits die hard lol

Summer Vibes: Raise a Glass to Freedom; Symphony of Serenity; A Wonderful Life – FR 06.30.2025; SY 07.27.2025; WN 08.15.2025 Back with a triple sailing this summer! I had thought of taking a break from blogging as I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep starting up new ones in such a short time span (over two months). But then @asquared17's blog that never ends gave me an idea. I am going to combine all our summer sailings into one blog that I can pop in and out of and not have to start up a new one each time. Here we go, let’s start by “Raising a Glass to Freedom”, appropriately named I think, because finally, I am free from the burden of this school year and summer finally is here!

Happy to be on board!

Intro My pre-cruise intro posts always wind up long-winded... you've been warned. The actual blog will have far shorter posts with pics (mostly of food & drink). Some parts are also going to be redundant to the live blog regulars but I can't help but write as if people aren't familiar with my live blogs. This is going to be VERY similar to our July 2024 Wonder cruise... same Western Caribbean itinerary, same one excursion besides PDCC, mostly the same meals, etc. You can find my live blog for that one here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/47621-wondering-about-paradise-beach-crowded-cococay-and-aqua-nation-july-14-21-2024/ How Did This Cruise Come to Be? We originally had what was to be our fifth and last Wonder cruise booked for my wife's spring break the week of March 16th. Unfortunately we had to cancel it as a huge conference for her aspiring voiceover career was held earlier in March than usual this year. While disappointed (cancelling any cruise sucks but we also had a really nice group rate for this one) I of course support her in chasing her dream. As I was suffering through our dry dock since July I was checking for random deals, the GGG flier, etc. even though I was pretty resigned to not sailing again until our Utopia B2B in June. My wife, a kindergarten teacher, has a ton of PTO saved up but hates having to make sub plans for a full week. Anyway, during a GGG sale in January, there were suddenly several Wonder sailings in April/May listed with quite reasonable prices (for Wonder in the current climate at least). I mentioned them to my wife not expecting anything to come of it... until she said she may be willing to take off the week of April 20th. We didn't even realize it was leaving on Easter until several days after putting it on hold. Public schools don't get any days off for Easter here. Obviously you know the rest or else I wouldn't be writing. How Did We Wind Up in a Central Park Balcony? Anyone reading who knows me knows we're very happy to sail in interiors so naturally that's what I originally had my TA place on hold, an interior GTY. Then while playing around with the RC website I noticed that it was combining my D+ balcony discount with the GGG sale price, making neighborhood balcony GTY's only slightly more than interior GTY's. I fired off an e-mail to my TA and, as dumb luck would have it, he had a promo beginning the next day that would both increase our OBC and included a complimentary specialty meal for two for all balcony bookings. This made the difference between the two options even smaller. I was fine either way so I left it up to my wife who decided we might as well try a neighborhood balcony for the heck of it (we've never had one before). I was bored a couple weeks ago and checked CruisePlum. As it turns out, the balcony price during that 2-day GGG sale was the lowest that was ever offered for this sailing. *Pats self on back* We had a strong preference for CP over Boardwalk for several reasons... my wife envisioned listening to some CP music from our balcony (we'll see if that actually happens), I didn't want to be stuck with the long walk from far aft, we're not big fans of InTENse (the aqua show) so we had no desire to watch it from our balcony, and we also don't usually stay up super late so we didn't need the noise from the show on nights we may crash early. As you already know from the blog title, the GTY gods (aka Royal's mysterious algorithm) smiled upon us and we were assigned CP. We originally had a connecting balcony on deck 11 but got lucky as there was a non-connecting balcony available on deck 11 pretty close to where the musicians set up which is exactly where my wife wanted to be so I quickly had our TA move us to that one. There were only about 6 left to choose from. Deck 10 is our preferred deck on Wonder so deck 11 is certainly close enough. Maybe we'll even like it better b/c it's closer to the Solarium (and bistro), WJ, Mason Jar, ELF, etc. Really not important, we just like being between the pool deck and the lower decks so it's not a terrible walk either way if we're avoiding the elevators. Where/When/What Are We Eating? As this will be our 4th time on Wonder in genpop (5th overall), we have a pretty set routine. One difference this time is that we're going to try Mason Jar for dinner for the first time after four brunches since we have that free meal from the promo. This one was my call as my wife orders savory stuff and dessert at brunch so nothing will really change for her. I'll miss the breakfast items but we have brunches booked on Utopia for June and July so this was the perfect excuse for me to try the dinner items. The rest of our dinner routine involves using a D+ BOGO for Giovanni's Kitchen on night one, having burgers at Playmakers for dinner one night, eating in the MDR during the three menus my wife doesn't mind, and one night in WJ after an all-day excursion which happens to also be my favorite WJ night (Tex Mex plus butter chicken). One other difference... we have MTD this time with reservations at 6:45pm for our three MDR dinners. As usual, other meals and snacks will come from various included venues (I try to hit them all although some far more often than others). We usually have breakfast in Solarium Bistro after I grab cappuccino and "pre-breakfast" from the CL in the early AM and I hit up ELF just about every afternoon unless we're off the ship all day. We'll also probably check out the evening CL snacks more often than we have on recent cruises. Will We Use Our Vouchers? As most of you know, my wife barely drinks and I failed in my mission to use up most of our combined 10 vouchers last trip. I vow to do better! Are We Seeing Any Shows? We've never been big fans of the shows on Wonder besides the ice show and having seen it four times now, we may even skip that one too. We usually check out the headliner for the heck of it but Wonder has been rotating the same 3-4 acts for the past couple of months and we've seen all of them and have no desire to see any of them again. No biggie, we'll find other stuff to do. We always go to adult comedy so we'll definitely do that at least. *For anyone who read my blogs last summer, you may remember a 2nd aqua show called Aqua Nation had been mysteriously popping up on day 7 on Wonder and we got to see it in July. It was more of a showcase of different skills and was far more entertaining than InTENse. It has again been popping up in the app on day 7 as recently as last week so if that's running, we may see that again. What Are Our Ports And What Are We Doing? Exact repeat of July... Day 2: PDCC - Our usual spot by Oasis Lagoon to use vouchers while making Snack Shack and Chill Grill runs. As Floridians who get enough heat at home, we're looking forward to some cooler weather there. Day 4: Cozumel - A return to Paradise Beach. We had a great time on our 1st trip there and with no plans to be back in Cozumel for a while I couldn't pass it up as much as my frugal side says to just stay on the ship with vouchers and included food. We switched from a beach daybed to a pool daybed this time after my wife scouted them out and took lots of pictures last time. I couldn't let her research go to waste, right? We're in #21 (one of the new ones in the back) for those who followed along and helped with my planning last time (or anyone else familiar with PB). I'm looking forward to it being a bit cooler than it was in July so I can better take advantage of the all-inclusive food. I really enjoyed it but even my appetite is affected by extreme heat. That said, it should still be plenty hot there so we'll just take dips in the pool to cool off and keep the frozen drinks flowing. Day 5: Roatan - Stay on the ship, relax and use vouchers in the Solarium, snack throughout the day, do some trivia, etc. Day 6: Costa Maya - See above. Wonder always leaves this port early when we visit (gangway up at 1:30pm) so while I would normally consider a beach club or something else, I'm not a big fan of short morning excursions. Miscellaneous I've tried this before and failed so no promises on too many non-food/drink pics but I'll try again. Maybe I'll take some of the cabin/balcony since it's new to us. I should have some from Paradise Beach although I already posted a bunch in my last blog. Beyond that, who knows? There's a brand new MSC ship (World America) joining us in Cozumel so I'll try to take some pics of that when we get back from Paradise Beach since it docks two hours after us. As usual, I've been on my pre-cruise diet for the past few weeks other than when we went to see my FIL for his birthday this past weekend so I'm ready to gain my standard 10 pounds or so. Without going into detail, some real life issues have been popping up over the past few weeks. Everything should be fine once taken care of but we're really hoping to escape reality... which has always been a big part of our cruise enjoyment anyway but it's a little different when you have specific things on your mind. Closing That's about it. I rarely have much to share leading up to embarkation day since we pack late and only have a one-hour drive to the port so there are no travel stories, no hotels, and no special pre-cruise meals (no one wants to see grilled chicken and brown rice from our kitchen). We usually get to the parking garage around 9:30am or so and have been onboard before 10:30am every time. We had Express Boarding in July when it was pretty new to PC and it didn't do a whole lot. I've read that they've updated the procedure a bit and it actually does speed things up a little now (although it's always so quick and smooth I'm not sure how much faster it could be) so hopefully we get it again. The sooner we can get onboard to make our dinner reservations, get muster out of the way, use my first voucher (likely on a Mississippi Moonlight), and get to WJ while it's empty the better! As always, questions, comments, and tangents are welcome both pre-cruise and during.

Following two delays at the shipyard, one mechanical and the other weather related, Allure of the Seas finally arrived in Barcelona around 1 am this morning, local time. Boarding has been delayed by several hours so our new time will be 3 pm instead of 11 am. DH is upset at missing his WJ boarding day lunch. This live blog will be mostly photos as it's only a 4-night cruise and we're bringing along some newbie cruisers who will require "shepherding". Any questions, please feel free to ask. I will likely complement this with a fuller post-cruise report. Tagging @TessFromFlorida and @JohnK6404 who I know are eagerly awaiting info.

That's right folks. My first suite experience and somehow all the lucky cards fell into place and I ended up in a Star Loft Suite. I have decided to start the blog and hoping my wife doesn't try to get into the site as she does not know that we are in a SLS. My last blog she finally caught onto me and figured out how to find this site and saw my blog on Utopia. Let's hope she doesn't think about checking it out this time until we are on the ship. So how did we end up with a SLS you ask.....well I was fortunate enough after a cruise in November 2023 to have gotten an Instant Certificate from the casino that had a few select sailings with a Junior Suite offer. Since I have never cruised in a Suite and at this point in my life don't see me splurging to pay the additional cost of one I knew I wanted to take this opportunity to book one. When I saw that Harmony was an option I had to pick it. This was my first ship ever sailed back in 2018 and it started my love for cruising. Plus at the time I didn't get a ship model and have since started collecting them so needed to get back on the ship for that. A few months after booking I was reading on this site and someone mentioned checking their offer and getting an upgraded room for pretty cheap so I started looking at pricing and called Casino Royale. I was able to upgrade to a GS for about $400. Since I always get the internet for my wife and me and this room came with the internet it really was an upgrade for only a couple hundred dollars. I kept watching pricing and all of the sudden a CLS room didn't look like that much more than a GS on the website so back on the phone I went with the Casino. I was shocked when they said I could upgrade to a CLS for NO additional charge. I was thrilled and couldn't believe my first suite experience was going to be a CLS and it only cost me like $800 or so including port fees, gratuities, and the original upgrade I paid for. Then came the RUB emails. I put in an offer for the 2BR ATS at about $750/person, and the SLS I put in at $1740/person. I think the minimum was like $1600/person so I went just a little above the minimum. I really thought at that I had zero chance of winning, but figured if I did win this would be a once in a lifetime chance to go Star Class and to be able to do it only spending like $4K was a steal. Well 2 weeks ago I got the email that I WON the RUB!!!!

“Family Thrills and Utopian Chills!” – Utopia of the Seas 03/10/2025 – 3/14/2025 It’s been a bit since the @Lovetocruise2002 extended family has gone on a family vacation! We are beyond grateful for another opportunity to travel together. Our last sailing together as an extended family was on Harmony March 2023 (live blog here), and as many of you know, since then, life took our family for a bit of an unexpected turn. Even though much as changed over the last two years, some things still remain the same…we are all still a little bit CRAZY, a little bit LOUD, and there is still a whole lot of LOVE! Who’s Going? Let me introduce you again to the @Lovetocruise2002 extended family! · Mom & Dad – my parents · My sister · BIL – brother-in-law · N13 – Nephew (13 years old) · N11 – Niece (11 years old) · Hubby & I · Only one freeloader just D16 with us on this one Flight Flying out separately to MCO. My sister and her family are heading to Disney World a few days early. I have to work until Friday, March 7th, so we fly out early Saturday morning. My sister wanted my parents to head out early with her to Orlando, but my Dad was not down for hanging out at Disney’s Polynesian all day long. He said he would be bored (as you can see, I don’t take after him in that respect lol), so they will fly out early Saturday morning with us. All flights are DTW-MCO on Delta. We did not book through Air2Sea this time (long story) so fingers crossed for no flight shenanigans! Pre-Cruise Stay Since my sister is doing the parks with her family, and she’s a semi-Disney fanatic, staying at the Polynesian was a given for her. Seeing that I am the exact opposite and want to avoid Disney and small children at all costs, we decided to stay elsewhere. My parents were not initially coming with us. My sister and I booked this sailing at release, February 2023. Then, my Dad’s health took a turn later that year and we weren’t sure he could travel ever again. Anyhow, praise God my Dad is now stable, and has been for the last year. They decided about 6 months ago that they wanted to join us. Prior to my parent’s deciding to join us, we thought of staying directly in Cape Canaveral. But when they decided to join us, and did not want to stay with my sister at the Poly, we reconsidered and decided to stay in Orlando instead. There are more options for rooms that can accommodate 4+ in Orlando, and the cost is cheaper than booking 2 separate rooms for two nights. In my search for two-bedroom options in Orlando, I came across a place that close to Margaritaville where Hubby and I stayed back in July 2024. We’ll be spending 2 nights at the Embassy Suites Sunset Walk. This is a newer hotel (remodel? Not really sure) but they have two-bedroom suites that look more modern, and fresher compared to other Orlando properties, so I decided to give them a try. And some exciting news! Just recently, while trying to find the nearest Publix to the hotel, I realized that we are 3 mins away from a Raising Cane’s location! @Jax…we will need to try this out for sure! Our plan is to meet up with my sister on Sunday. They should be done with the parks by then and we’ll do some stuff in Orlando together. Or rather, the plan is they will do some stuff together and Hubby and I are heading to the outlets in Orlando. As for getting to the port, both my sister and I rented cars, so we will all be driving ourselves to the port on cruise day. Itinerary 10 MAR ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL 11 MAR NASSAU, BAHAMAS 12 MAR CRUISING 13 MAR PERFECT DAY COCOCAY, BAHAMAS 14 MAR ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL Cabins We’re staying separately this time. No villa on UT. My sister and her family in one cabin, and my parents with us in another. My niece has already asked for our room key lol Pre-Cruise thoughts - It’s everyone’s first time on Utopia. I feel like this ship has escaped me in the sense that when it first came out in July 2024, we were in Europe, and then doing our S2S, and I could not keep up with all the inaugural news. Then, work started back up and it’s been crazy town since then. I am trying to do some fast research on this ship so that I don’t miss too much. - Last sailing with the extended family (two years ago), I said I was really going to cherish the memories. My resolve to do that has only grown since. Every day together is a gift, not to be taken for granted. - We have lost one freeloader on this one. This makes me sadder than I can put into words. It hits a bit different. We have taken many trips without both, but to bring one, and not the other feels very odd. - Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions. I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you. - When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply. It just makes for easier scrolling. - Lastly, I will try to post videos and stories on Instagram. You can follow me @lovetocruise2002

As you all know, dinner was a Mason Jar tonight. My parents decided that they did not care for MJ after brunch on Day 1 so last night Carlos moved them over to 150 CP for tonight. They reported back that they loved it. We had a great meal at MJ! We tried and shared a whole bunch of things and my niece had two chicken pot pies! This remains one of my favourite Royal restaurants. Probably this one and Giovanni’s Kitchen. I am pretty certain I liked the Apple Pie Old fashioned because I normally sip Anejo at home. It really does remind me of that. My sister had a sip and it was not for her. So our waiter was spot on for that.

the ladies that sat down next to us tonite were new dinner companions. …or so i thought. until one of them asked me, “are you the napkin lady?” immediately i froze in panic. NAPKIN lady??? had there been a napkin folding activity that i had participated in and simply blacked out on? did i have a secret doppelgänger on board?? what other things had been done in my state of blacking out??? what the hell was in that pina colada today?!?!?!?! …then it started to come back to me. “yes,” i said, grabbing the woman’s arm in abject relief. “i am the napkin lady.” you see…. i had gotten dogs from the mast grill on monday. and the cloth napkins weren’t doing much, so i grabbed a handful of small paper napkins with which i intended to blot up the ketchup and mustard spills that invariably trailed like a pollack painting all over my hands and towel. except for one thing. i had not accounted for the insane wind of our sea day. so when i lifted my cloth wrapped utensils… the napkins went flying everywhere like a flock of gulls. it was so epic that i actually froze in sheer panic for a moment in time. when i came back to it, there were two women trying to stave off the worst of it, halting whatever napkins could be found in their path by any means. …so the answer is — yes. yes, i am… the napkin lady.

We have landed. Our bags were the first from our flight. It looks like MIA migh have removed some carpet.

Isn't the Stanley Cup a little big to be dragging around the ship to drink from?

You always have the option of moving your cruise to a later date. This option only cost $100 per person…but of course you would have to pay any fare difference…but it certainly beats losing the entire cost of your cruise.

planning & prep As a planner, this trip has been a bit of a crazy whirlwind, despite the long lead time. We had most of the details booked & planned for our spring 2023 Greece trip, and summer 2023 trip to England & Scotland, and just after Christmas 2022, were deciding where we’d head on the 2nd overseas family trip, for summer 2024. We’d briefly looked at cruises mid 2022, but didn’t find a great option, and it was annoying trying to find options for 6 people. Knowing that Italy, Spain & France were the summer 2024 destinations, we looked a little more, our first look was at Princess, then we looked at Norwegian and Royal and we realised we’d not be able to just book online the self-serve way for a family of 6. I had a few wishes for our accommodations - 2 bathrooms, and at least 3 separate sleeping surfaces for the kids (no shared beds for the older 2), with some doors/walls, and not splitting the family into two rooms - keeping us together in one unit, as those things make vacation more pleasant for all of us. Within a few days, knowing almost nothing about cruises, we found the 2 bedroom Aqua Theatre Suite, available for 2 different weeks in August, and booked it. It looked like a reasonable ‘deal’ for what it was (or the little we knew of what it was), after a quick tally of 2 connecting balcony rooms, drink & dining packages etc, it not the same price as those options but not as much of a difference as it is today. We might have just gotten a lucky day with the price or ‘sales’. We booked through Costco. Maybe that wasn’t our best idea, but it hasn’t yet been a problem. Again, we knew nothing about cruising, or how TAs could support or re-price or anything. We’ve purchased many other services through Costco and been happy, so it made sense in the moment, at the time there was a cash-back Costco card offer. We had no idea then, or until pretty recently, that this is an ‘interport’ cruise, and most guests will board in Barcelona, with a smaller portion doing so in Rome with us. So the first half of our cruise will have ⅔ guests that leave and a new batch that arrives. It’s made things like roll calls here, on another forum, and on social media, challenging. I still don’t know how it all works, and based on the discussions it seems a lot of people don’t think it even happens at all, so there’s not a lot of information. It was a week or so after we booked that I began to read about the Star Class differences and the Genie. Now that I’ve had a chance to dig into all of that, I’m really looking forward to a trip where I am not carrying all the mental load! Many members of this forum have been a great source of that research, your live blogs gave me a lot of info! I do want to thank all of you for the time & effort you put into sharing your vacations! I hope I can do as well as you have. I've read so many on this forum, and during my planning stages, I relied so much on your info. I will miss someone I'm sure, but thank you to @Lovetocruise2002, @WAAAYTOOO, @Jax, @Ampurp85, @asquared17, @OCSC Mike, @Rags1, @Yesiamthere, @SweetPea, @Sweety, @Plasticbrain, @LandstromCruise, @GatorCruiser and @GregD for your live blogs and your helpful comments on others' live blogs. Your pre-trip planning, buying tips, advice about arriving well ahead, where to eat, and on ship activities you loved (or didn't), and adventures in what got forgotten in the luggage, have been both entertaining & helpful. We’re a carry-on only family, despite free checked bags, and this week has been a lot of packing, then repacking. I rely on Travel Fashion Girl’s master packing list, and it never steers me wrong, but I definitely pile a lot of ‘just in case’ items onto the chair of things to pack, and then put them back in the closet when I actually fill the suitcases with only the items that match that TFG list. I’m committed to travelling light, and being able to manage all our luggage ourselves, all the time.

Last day - PDCC I have no clue when Hubby took these. Woke up and found he sent these to me. Adventure pulling alongside PDCC a few hours ago. And then Royal’s newest and brightest rolling in. Can’t wait for March! I should have booked a S2S AD to UT!

22 years ago, we would never have thought we could be so blessed to sail in rooms like this. The Royal Suite on Adventure of the Seas.

Last blast from the past….. See you again soon Adventure! This was taken on disembarkation day in 2002.

Well the mall trip was perfectly timed because somehow i busted the zipper on my favorite shorts...so a trip to Gap and nice new pair of khaki shorts later,I'm back in business. We ended up just doing Ruby Tuesday across the street from the mall... we sit down, and someone walks up to our table and says "is your name Scott?" My wife is like umm...who the hell do you know in Elizabeth NJ,lol. Turns out it was a couple from the FB group of our sailing and her wife recognized me from my profile pic. My son now thinks I'm Facebook famous and my wife just thinks I'm crazy. Watched a great lightning show from our room over the city to end the night-bed time! I'll probably check back in from Sorrentos after we board tomorrow!

From town hall we walked to the famous Santa Maria del Fiore. I fell in love with the facade of this cathedral 19 years ago. Something about it is just so stunning and different from all the other cathedrals out there. It made me so happy to be able to bring the girls back here. And the Gates of Paradise, just beautiful depictions of the Old Testament.

Good news with the VOOM difference. I got it back, plus a few dollars extra. All good now.

Funny story…So as we headed off to dinner, D17 was running a few steps behind us. D15 and I left first. As we were on our way out, we passed by Hubby practically running back to the room. D17 had her AirPods in while getting ready and did not hear him come in. She leaves, and puts the sign out for our room attendant. I love our room attendant. She is hilarious, loud, and brash, very much like us, I think that is why I like her so much. Anyhow, you can probably guess where this story is going. D17 puts the sign out and heads to the MDR. Room attendant, thinking everyone is gone, comes in. Hubby, thinking D17 heard him, and assuming he was going to put the sign out, walks out of the shower (dressed thank goodness) and both he and room attendant start screaming. I wish I could describe this better cause if you all knew our room attendant, this would be even funnier. We later had a good laugh about this when we ran into her again after dinner.

Wonder 4 Boost

What do you mean it's not available? I've never seen that before! What nonsense is Royal IT up to... oh wait. Did I check in? Did I? So I've cruised a bunch and I have a routine. I check in usually within hours of it becoming available months before the sail sail date. Except this time I booked this cruise a couple of weeks before the sail date and I had two other trips involving cross country flights, and my dog ate my homework. Or something to that effect. Bottom line I didn't check in. Not at all. So now what? Here is my review of a time when I was that guy that failed to check in at all, in any way, shape or form. The app just said "Sorry" and the website returned a blank screen when I tried to pull up my Set Sail pass the night before I sailed. I searched my email account for proof that I checked in. I found a number of results from other cruises this month that I did actually check in for, just not this one, since I apparently did not check in for it. Oops. The only helpful comment the night before the cruise was "Check in is now closed, please proceed to the terminal to check in" so that is what I did. I did have a copy of the invoice for the cruise which is something I am fanatic about asking for and keeping. So that was my paperwork I had in hand to offer at the terminal when it was my turn to explain I am an idiot. As it turns out, despite the dire warnings you must use the Royal app to check in, you don't actually have to. The terminal process was quite routine. Show my paperwork (invoice) with my name, ship and sail date along with my passport. Into the terminal, through security and then when it was time to scan my Set Sail pass with a tablet, only then did they say "okay, no problem, let's get you checked in at the counter". They walked me over to the counter, they asked for my passport, they checked me in and that was it. It added maybe 5 minutes to the terminal day of departure routine. They instructed me to take a picture of their tablet with my newly created set sail pass on the screen. Using my phone I took a picture of their tablet displaying my Set Sail pass. That was it. I was good to proceed. When it came time to board I produced the picture of the barcode I had taken with my phone and "badoop" I was scanned onto the ship. "Enjoy Your Cruise!" Thank you very much, I will! I had already watched the safety video and listened to the emergency signal in the app so upon boarding I went directly to my muster station and produced the same picture of a tablet with my newly created Set Sail pass on it. Muster complete! I am now fully in cruise mode. Seriously it took 5 minutes more of my time. Moral of the story, try not to be that guy, but if you are, it's not a big deal, you can still cruise assuming you have supporting documents like a passport or original birth certificate and ID when that is allowed. PS - always ask for your invoice to be emailed to you at booking, payment or any other change. Thank me later.

So, in order to deter the chair hogs you're going to become a chair hog ? Not sure I'm following your devious plan.

They finally added times to the ports on the app...

Ironically when it happened to Jewel last week it resulted in a number of busses to transport the thousands of guests to the alternate port in both directions and dozens more trucks for supplies and luggage . The additional vehicular traffic generated more pollution compared to letting the ship reach the port. Their actions are actually increasing emissions substantially. You can't fix stupid.

With some Copilot help, I was able to find a picture of what a "beef bug" looks like. They seem to want to fly around cruise ships.

Good Lord….

Final thoughts: The ship was nicer than I expected, I see a lot of "it's run down and outdated" comments, but I honestly didn't notice. There were a few things that could be updated-the public bathrooms were just odd, a lot of the men's rooms had one urinal and one stall, but the doors to the bathroom opened up to the hallway, so when the door was opened, it was a clear shot of the guys at the urinal. My Wife said some of the women's rooms only had a single stall,- so you had to go through the main door, then lock that unless you wanted someone trying to open the stall door while you were in there. A few of the auto sliding doors to get to the outside deck on four were a little slow or delayed and our bathroom light took a little trickery to open, but other than that- I thought the ship looked great, It's a really beautiful ship. The promenade is nice, the casino is a bit tight- especially since you have to cut through there to get to the other side of deck 4 unless you go along the outside. Oh yeah, we were on deck two forward. You can only access the FWD cabins of Deck 2 and 3 via the forward elevators, so that was a little hassle, nothing major, but kind of a pain to get to the room from places like Windjammer or the dining room, where we'd have to go down to 4 or 5, walk across then take the other elevator the rest of the way down. We found that out the hard way on day 1 when we wandered around deck two trying to figure out where the hell our room was, lol. The shows were all good, Saturday night fever was really fun, the juggler was way better than I expected and the comedian was hilarious once he was doing the 18+ show, he struggled during the PG show. The ice show started slow, but it started rocking at the end and turned out to be a fun show. Food was good, like really good. We enjoyed every meal this time around, and tried Giovannis lunch for the first time- which was an amazing meal. The Filet was perfect, the service was great. We will definitely do Lunch there again next time. The service in MDR was just ok, they took our order, dropped our food then that was it. Never really had any kind of conversation with them or any real connection. Our kid was a little let down, but that's because our last cruise MDR server was AMAZING, he still talks about Edgard and compares any server at any restaurant we eat at to him, ha. The only time we talked to the server more than a few words was, of course the last night when he reminded us FOUR times during the meal to make sure we give them good reviews. Service on the ship - it was good and most of them were friendly, we just weren't blown away. There was one bartender who we really liked, he remembered everything we drank even when we saw him at his secondary bar in the theater, and actually talked and conversated a bit. Most of the staff just seemed to be there to do the job, usually with a smile, so no real complaint-just not overwhelmed by it. I think if it was someone's first cruise or we did this ship before the Oasis cruises, we'd be blown away- but that last cruise on Oasis was just so good and everyone was so insanely friendly and went above and beyond, we just got spoiled. Bermuda was AMAZING and we already plan on going back- especially since they announced cruises would be sailing from Philly to Bermuda starting in just over a year... that's a $15 uber ride from my house, so we will definitely be trying that at least once!! We would absolutely do Liberty again (or try one of the other Freedom class ships). It had everything we needed and enjoyed the pools and bars. I liked the slightly smaller feel, but we all missed having the boardwalk area- that seemed to be the only thing all three of us mentioned at least once "this would be a great time to be hanging at Playmakers on the boardwalk". So our next two cruises will be our first Non- Royal cruises, Princess from NYC without the kid, then the MSC from Miami with him. This is the first time we left a cruise without laying a deposit down at NextCruise.... we are still trying to figure out whether we want to do Symphony from NJ, splurge a little and do a B2B on Utopia or go all in on MSC and try the ship they have out of NY. Thanks for coming along, logging in and out of wifi all week made it a little more of a job than I wanted it to be, but I think I hit on most of the important stuff.

Our tour got off to a very interesting start. The tender was actually the RC lifeboats. It was cozy. Upon leaving the platform of the ship, we heard the crew driving the lifeboat say something about his engine not working. Not a great sign. After some floating in the water, he managed to get it going towards the dock of Portofino. As we approached, the lifeboat stalls again and we hear him call for help because he can’t dock or he will hit the fancy yachts. Someone on the ship end tells him to return to the ship platform. Everyone shouts out, “No!” Then he tells the ship that he can try to dock if they send him a rescue boat. After some aimless floating in the water, a rescue boat comes along and he tries to dock. I am not @twangster so I don’t know all the terms, but basically he did not have as much maneuverability to dock. As we get close to the dock, the lifeboat had to push us into it to get the lifeboat tied up.

After lunch we headed to the Accademia Gallery to see David and other works of art. We have a ton of photos here but I will not post since it’s a family blog Hubby said to leave you all with one.