Neaxan

Sunday started not so bright and not so early, After a shower and a bit of repacking we ordered an Uber to the port. Amazing driver with awesome choice of music – him being a Venezulean with his own metal band. We skipped breakfast thinking the food coma would start soon enough – spoiler alert: it already has We arrived at terminal C at 10 am sharp and were able to leave our luggage with the porters and get in queue as the terminal wasn’t open and they were still disembarking passengers. Fair enough, we received an e-mail telling us to arrive at least 30 minutes later than booked as boarding wouldn’t start before noon. Well, I don’t see an advantage in sitting around at the hotel compared to sitting around in front of the terminal so we chose to ignore the e-mail – along with everybody else with a 10 am to 10.30 am timeslot They opened the terminal around 10.30 am and check in was a breeze. Some more waiting around IN the terminal and boarding started at 11 am. And that’s when the zoo started. The escalators in the terminal where still going downstairs so everybody had to drag their carry ons up the stairs. I might or might not have learned a whole new array of Spanish expletives Arriving on board we weren’t able to book entertainment via the app so we had to get in line at the kiosk. After waiting around some time a very nice crew member showed us that we were just constantly looking the wrong way – oops. With that out of the way I tried booking dining via the app but was unsuccessful. The app told me to go to guest services or a kiosk so we got in yet another queue. When it finally was our turn the mad hatter took our reservations but was unwilling to book our lunches or the second week. We were told that we could only book the second week dinners from next Sunday on as this was a new cruise. Ahem, I’m so not disembarking the ship in the middle of the Atlantic... Not being a Karen I unfortunately decided to let it slide. We were tired from queuing and starving from skipping breakfast. We had planned to do The Mason Jar Brunch but it was closed for maintenance. The only specialty dining open was Giovanni’s so we went there for lunch. They were quite short staffed and it took ages to order. Not a problem, we made the most of our time by trying to book dining via the app. Well, after endless tries we were somewhat successful and have our dinners covered. Unfortunately by then Chops was already booked solid for the whole cruise so we only have one dinner there. We weren’t able to score a Mason Jar brunch reservation as it’s only open 4 times in 14 days ☹ Possibly due to staffing problems? To say I’m p***** is quite the understatement. With over 400 B2B cruisers, a few hundred Pinnacles and a forever sold-out UDP there’s only so much time you have until every slot is gone. Lunch was a bit slow but other than that we really enjoyed it. I’ve apparently forgotten how to blog (or we were just starving that much?) that I mostly forgot to take pictures. I’ll try to improve in the future. For starters we shared the Meatball Gigante and the Calamari. Due to some hiccup in the kitchen we also got the Calabrese – funny enough this was the best of the 3 even if we didn’t order it. Michael went with Lasagna for his main and I tried Steak Muffuleta. Lasagna was meh or maybe just not what we’re used to. The steak was really enjoyable, just waaay too much. With dessert (Tiramisu and Go Bananas) we were completely stuffed. We ended lunch about 2 pm and went to our cabin. We found all our luggage in the hallway and used the time to unpack. Met our staterrom attendant Igede and were able to order a kettle for Michael and distilled water for me. Our cabin has the bed next to the balcony – no idea if this is the better configuration or not. Writing this on day 2 I fear we may be spoiled already and can’t go back to an Interior cabin. Well, I have a few ideas about a Sky Junior Suite anyway – if Icon ever comes over to Europe… Between unpacking and dinner we managed to spend some time on the pool deck making the DBP magic work. Dinner was at Izumi Sushi. We won’t be doing Hibachi this cruise as we feel it’s a been there, done that thing. For small plates we had the Pork Gyoza Dumplings and Crispy Rice Spicy Tuna – of course I forgot to take a picture Our large plates where (from left to right) Izumi Ryu Futomaki Roll, Crispy Philly Roll, Champagne Lobster Roll and Snow Crab California Roll. Three rolls were really good, only the Crispy Philly Roll was a bit boring. All in all, we had totally forgotten how much food you get at Izumi and food coma was already kicking in. For dessert we went with the German phrase „Eis geht immer“ (Icecream is always possible) and chose Assorted Mochi Ice Cream and Green Tea Ice Cream. Tbh our food coma (and maybe sleep deprivation?) was so bad that we just went to the cabin and took a nap. We had a real hard time getting up for our inTENse reservation but boy were we glad we did. From our last transatlantic we had learned the hard way that you should reserve the Aqua show as early as possible. Hiro was postponed about a dozen times and the other Aqua show didn’t run once. The center seats were once again reserved for the Key guests, suites and Pinnacles with the exception of the center splash zone. I didn’t mind, because I was pretty sure the whole center seats might get wet. The fact that the reserved Star Class seats were quite a bit off center was a dead giveaway We thought inTENse was amazing, even more impressive than Hiro. Unfortunately the pictures don’t do it justice. We’ll maybe try to sneak in to the show again (time permitting), we‘re on deck 7 aft and there is a door that leads directly to some seats next to the rock climbing wall at the end of our corridor. We took a detour to guest services for the German cruise compass for tomorrow and to get our DBP cups – afterwards it was straight to bed.

Due to some technical difficulties (and a lot of sleep deprivation) I’m a bit behind on the live portion of the blog. But we’re now in Palma de Mallorca and I have some time to catch up. Saturday was as long and relentless as imagined. We had an early start at 5.45 am to walk the dog and round up the cats. After dropping off the cats we had some time to cuddle with Ronnie until we had to drop him off at the kennels. Back home we did make final preparations for our house and finished packing. We took our Covid tests at 2 pm and received the results 20 minutes later while we were already on the motorway. I have never felt soooo positive about being negative As this Saturday was the first day of the Bavarian autumn school holidays, we arrived at the airport very early (4.30 pm). Unfortunately, check in only opened at 6.30 pm. If you ever use Munich airport, try to take an airline that uses terminal 2 because terminal 1 doesn’t have anything to offer pre-security. We were lucky to find some seats. Post-security there is only one restaurant and it was nearly sold out – not too nice if you’re starving. Boarding was delayed by 20 minutes because the plane arrived late – but hey, at least it was there. We had booked the two seats in front of the emergency exit to not have to cuddle with strangers but were forced to give up our seats because they had additional crew on the flight that needed these seats. Due to this „inconvenience“ they switched us to a row with 3 seats where we could leave the middle seat empty – I count that as an upgrade European airports currently have a lot of problems with getting the luggage to its destination, so we were really happy that all our suitcases arrived with us in Barcelona. We did crosspack, but I prefer having everything I planned with. On this cruise are quite a few people who have arrived in Europe days or even a week in advance and their luggage is still lost who knows where. Due to a late shuttle to the hotel and a waaay too looong queue at the reception we finally made it to our room after 1 am. No pictures of the hotel (Alexandre Frontair Congress) as it is really nothing to write home about – we chose it solely for convenience – being near the airport and offering a complimentary shuttle to the hotel. If you’re still on the fence about how cheap it is… this is the hotel that Royal booked for their incoming new crew for Wonder. We met a few guys in the shuttle who will be starting their contract with Royal on this transatlantic and the hotel had a looooong list of crew for Wonder that would be checking in that day – were talking at least a hundred people. I really felt sorry for the guys as they also got their room around 1 am and their shuttle to Wonder was 6.30 am. At least we would get a few more hours of sleep with our 10 am boarding time. But Sunday is a tale for another entry as we’re now off to lunch

Haha, didn't even realize it, I'm just so used to seeing him with the neon yellow leash. Unfortunately he can't be off leash because he LOVES hunting everything from mice to birds, rabbits and deer. Lucky for us he dearly loves his feline brothers.

Some of you might remember my last live blog from the Symphony TA. We were so happy with this cruise that we decided there and then to do the Oasis 5 TA. Unfortunately Royal announced Wonder would be going to Asia, so no TA. Instead, we booked an Eastern Med cruise on Odyssey for 2021. And then Covid happened. Odyssey was first relocated to Israel and afterwards to the US, our cruise was cancelled. We used Lift & Shift to protect our price for an Eastern Med cruise on Odyssey in 2022 – thinking Covid would be over by then. Well, how wrong you can be… In April we finally gave up on that cruise as neither Italy, nor Greece or Israel were showing any signs of stopping the craziness. As Germans can only book with non refundable deposits, we were looking for alternatives – and stumbled upon the Wonder TA. So four years after our first Royal cruise, it’s finally happening again – and it’s the cruise we wanted all along! Here are the basics of this trip: Travelling will be me (Kerstin, 39f) and hubby Michael (38m). We’re in 7310, an Ocean View Balcony. Funny enough, this will be first time ever we’ll be in a Balcony, we’re usually Interior people but got the opportunity to jump from Interior Virtual Balcony to GTY Ocean View Balcony for a steal price of 27 €. We have purchased UDP, DBP and Voom Surf & Stream. This cruise brings us from Barcelona via Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Cartagena, Malaga and Nassau to Port Canaveral. We have planned nothing for the port days. If we’re in the mood we’ll just get off the ship and walk around town, if not, we’ll just stay on board and enjoy the empty ship. Saturday will be a loooong day. Drop the 5 cats at the cat hotel at 8 am, drop the dog at the kennel at 11 am, take Covid tests and drive to Munich airport for our 8.55 pm flight to Barcelona. We’ll be arriving at 11.05 pm and have chosen the Alexandre Hotel Frontair Congress because they offer a shuttle and it isn’t far from the airport. Our boarding time is 10 am on Sunday which leaves us no time to do anything in Barcelona, but been there, done that… For disembarkation in Port Canaveral we’ve rented a car and will be spending a week in Florida essentially doing a road trip. Last but not least, time to introduce the only good thing that came out of Covid (apart from this cruise of course ) – our newest addition to the family. This is Ronnie on our summer trip to Sweden with the RV. He’s a Romanian rescue dog of unknown breeding, history and age (approximates say 2 to 4 years). Thanks to Covid we can now mostly work from home and have enough time to do him justice. Even without Covid restrictions we’re only required to meet in the office once a month so it’s easy to make sure he’s not home alone. Only hard thing will be not seeing him for three weeks The cats are used to spending their vacation at the cat hotel, but we take Ronnie with us on our RV trips. He has been practicing by staying at the kennel for a few days twice so I’m sure he’ll be fine. So in the spirit of live blogging, feel free to ask questions and I’ll do my best to answer them, take pictures and keep this as ‘live’ as the DBP allows

St. Thomas: we just walked to the Skyride to Paradise Point and did this. Amazing views over Charlotte Amalie. I'd recommend to arrive early when there are no queues. On second thought, you might have to take a cab as I think Royal doesn't use Havensight pier? We were there with Princess and from Havensight it's just a little stroll. Barbados: we did a snorkel & jeep tour booked via the cruise line. Great snorkeling spot with some wrecks and a fun tour around the island. But YMMV as we were the first boat at the snorkel spot and it got really crowded when we were leaving. My memory might also be a bit clouded as this was such an amazing group and we had so much fun - and way too much rum punch St. Kitts: we did the railway excursion. Unfortunately it was raining cats & dogs all day with low hanging clouds but what we could see from the coast was very beautiful.

You can do Split and Dubrovnik on your own. Uber from the port to the city centre, both are very walkable and easy to navigate. Most interesting sights are within the city walls. In Dubrovnik you can take a stroll on the city wall, the route along the sea has beautiful views. Just bear in mind that it's quite a few steps and expensive. We did it in autumn of 2020 when there weren't a lot of tourist arounds so it was worth it. Might be different if the city is full of tourists and you're shuffled around the wall in a long queue.

Bit envious of the Brits right now. There hasn't been any promotion for drinks, dining or internet since we booked the TA in April. Guess Royal doesn't care much about the German market.

Thanks for the information. Then I'll just have to pay for the fried lasagna I'm planning to try

Awesome tips, thank you! I'm a sucker for milk shakes, had no idea Mason Jar had some. We have the DBP for this sailing so we'll have to try those.

Thank you so much Ashley! Guess this would be a cruise where a Genie is a godsend. Well, I'll just have to preplan and then start making reservations for entertainment and dining as soon as I have ship's WIFI. Getting really excited about this cruise

Finally back from our vacation in Sweden, so the TA gets more real now. After not being too impressed with the MDR on the Symphony TA, we decided to purchase the UDP this time. Last time we had the 5 night dining package, so I'm a bit unsure how the UDP details work out. I know that I'll have to do all my dinner reservations once we board, especially with all these seasoned cruisers on the TA. But how does lunch on sea days (or on port days when a restaurant is open) work? Do we just show up or can you also do reservations for lunch? And a few UDP questions specific to Wonder (read conflicting info on a few of these so maybe someone who was on Wonder can chime in): I guess brunch at Mason Jar is included in the UDP as it's more or less lunch? Can I make reservations for brunch? The terms state For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you'll receive a $20 food credit.* But in the fine print it states For restaurants with a la carte pricing, you’ll receive a $35 food credit, with the exception of Port Side BBQ and Playmakers which will be $20. So Izumi is still $35? Or isn't it a la carte anymore? Are the Mason Jar bar menu or Giovanni's Wine Bar menu included? Do they offer food in the pub? I was looking forward to trying poutine for the first time (we originally booked Odyssey) Looking forward to your input and thanks in advance!

We did Tallinn without a tour. We took a taxi to the Alexander-Newski-Cathedral first thing in the morning before the Hop on Hop off bus even starts. The taxis wait at the end of the pier. That way you beat the crowds and spare yourself from hiking the hill up to the cathedral. You then walk down the Pikk Jalg into the city centre which is easily walkable. After walking around and having lunch we took the Hop on Hop off bus to see a bit more of the city. Bonus point: the bus drops you off at the pier.

Our experience on the Symphony TA was that 12 nights were way too short to experience all the things we wanted to try on board. Bearing in mind that the Symphony TA only had two ports (Malaga and Port Canaveral) and the Wonder TA will have 5 (Palma de Mallorca, Valencia, Malaga, Cartagena, Nassau), I'm sure even 14 nights will feel like no time at all.

We did Croatia and Montenegro by RV. Both Kotor and Split are easily walkable. Just get in town and walk around. Not sure about Montenegro as we parked directly in the city, but you can use Uber in Croatia if your ship is far out from the city. Usually Uber are normal taxis but you save the hassle of ordering and paying them.

Best part of our visit wasn't the excursion but walking into town. There's a nice fort on the way and you'll cross the pontoon bridge which is brightly illuminated after dark. Willemstad is pretty to wander around. There's also a very small beach in town if you want to cool off without taking a taxi. It's called Punda Beach or Playa de los Venezolanos.

Thanks for your input. Guess this will be a gamble. I currently have booked the package for 19,86 € (about 21 $) as it's down from around 23 € (about 24 $). As long as the onboard price is lower than 30 $, I'd save money by buying onboard. If it's higher (or the exchange rate less favorable) it's more expensive onboard. @Midwest Cruiser Interesting idea, but doesn't work out for us as we'll only be getting one Voom for one device. That's enough for being contactable and for hubby to watch soccer. Btw, before changing our booking from Odyssey to Wonder, we had Voom Surf & Stream for 13,21 € (about 14 $) per day... The current price is ridiculous.

We loved Wonderland on Symphony and are planning to do it twice on our next cruise. You should be a bit adventurous as they don't serve your run-of-the-mill food - it's just as advertised - imaginative cuisine. It's also helpful if you like seafood because quite a few of the appetizers are seafood. As for chosing what to eat, we let our waitress decide and it worked out great for us. If you want some ideas what to expect here's our first experience in Wonderland:

The current Voom Surf & Stream prices in the cruise planner are a bit steep for my liking (about 20 € per day) so I'm thinking if I should instead buy Voom onboard. The first five days of the TA we're in Spanish ports where data roaming is free with my current contract. So I'd love to know what the onboard price of Voom Surf & Stream is, maybe I could save some money buy only buying from day 6 onwards.

Following. We're also on the Wonder TA and if Royal/Spain relaxes the rules we'd like to get off and explore. If they don't, we'll just stay on board. I'll only start researching once it's clear we can get off without a test. Currently I've got enough research to do for our Sweden vacation in June

I bought one for my Mexico trip last year and it worked out great. No fogging, no trouble breathing. but I chose a special model with a CO2 certification. You'll have to take into account that diving is not possible with the mask as you don't exhale through the snorkel. Not a problem for me as I can get panic attacks when I can't breathe so I'll stay at the surface. Tbh due to my asthma I wouldn't be able to clean the snorkel of water by exhaling anyway.

We were thinking of the Interstate to St. Augustine but disembarkation will likely be pretty early so we have the whole day (minus a detour to Buc-ee's - after reading so much about it this is a must try). A1A and the drive to Sarasota look promising on the map, we'll do both if we can. Guess Everglades moves up on the list, I think we might try a kayak trip. We'll see if that leaves enough time for Key West - if not there's always next time Thanks for the suggestions!

Now that we've switched from a Holy Land cruise on Odyssey to the Wonder TA, we're looking for ideas of what to see in Florida. We'll be arriving in Port Canaveral on November 13th and leaving from MIA on November 19th. We've already visited KSC and Miami Beach on our last TA but that's it. We're not theme park fans so the mouse and Universal are not an option, though we might visit Disney Springs. My sister and my nephew are Disney nerds so pre-christmas shopping might come in handy. Other than that, Key West and St. Augustine are quite high on our list. If we're lucky with the schedule, I'll try to get us to a NFL game as hubby loves it. I'm not keen on it but I'll take one for the team. I'd love to read your suggestions for must-see attractions in Florida.

Don't know about Slovenia, but in Germany you can book directly with Royal. Repricing of the cruise is unfortunately not possible here but I was able to switch cruises and/or upgrade cabins without a fee as long as the new price was more expensive than the old booking. So if the cruise price drops much it might be an option to pay the same (or a few € more) and at least get a better cabin? As I don't book with a TA I was able to handle that by calling the Royal contact number for Germany. If applicable in Slovenia, your TA should at least be able to do that. Again not sure about Slovenia, but Cruise Planner purchases can be repriced by canceling and rebooking in Germany. Just read the terms and conditions, it should allow canceling up to a few days before the cruise.

Back on track with another Royal cruise. Rather than losing 450 € non refundable deposit (there is no refundable deposit option in Germany), we've changed our booking to the Wonder transatlantic starting 30th October 2022. At least I won't have to pay around 1000 $ for testing to see the ports. We'll just stay on board until Port Canaveral - I can visit Spain any time I want with our RV. Long story short: kindly add me to October 30, 2022 Wonder transatlantic. Thanks

I'm cancelling our October 7th Odyssey. The protocols are unfortunately completely unacceptable.