PrincipalTinker

I completely agree! When my old TA left MEI I was reassigned to Michelle and she has been fantastic!

I know you all work with Michelle from here but I must say “the other Michelle” is my TA and she has been pretty amazing too.

I know you all work with Michelle from here but I must say “the other Michelle” is my TA and she has been pretty amazing too.

great point,  hadn't even considered that as a "hidden" benefit to using MEI.    I'm a stubborn Scorpio so sometimes it takes me multiple perspectives before i see the obvious  lol   thanks!

I can't give Michelle at MEI enough credit here ..... granted, we are new to her, but the ability to remove the stress from my shoulders has been priceless.  Full disclosure, my next cruise was too far along for her to takeover, the two after that, on Brilliance & Freedom, I was more than happy to transfer over to her.
She has been incredibly fast and even more importantly, patient with Tyna and I, with all the questions we have. 
I know when it comes to clients, I'm sure there are many more that do a lot more business with her than we could ever do, but you would never know it by the Royal treatment she gives us.
Thank You Michelle for restoring our faith in travel agents (our local one was a total bomb),
Mark
 

Interesting experience tonight booking Radiance. (YOLO moment).
It's a 2019 cruise and I wanted something refundable so I emailed my usual TA.  I received a bounce saying she is out of the office and I was interested in a specific cabin so I called Royal direct, given that the website doesn't offer refundable anymore.  I booked direct it, refundable and paid the $450 deposit.
Had I fully read the bounce email from my usual TA I would have seen she was actually working tonight which I learned when she called me.
For the same refundable cabin, she was $200 cheaper, I get $50 in OBC, a spa treatment, one specialty dinner, plus 15,000 miles on my favorite airline.  Oh, and no deposit. 
I cancelled my direct booking and booked it through my normal TA.  Same cabin.  I added the prepaid gratuities and I'm still less than RCI direct without prepaid gratuity.  
Other observation - I first called the RCI 866 number and listened to MOH (Music on Hold) for about 10 minutes.  I hung up and called the C&A number who answered immediately.  I booked it through the C&A team, then an hour later cancelled it through the C&A team.  No issues cancelling the refundable booking but it will likely take a few days for $450 deposit to appear as a credit.
Radiance here I come!
EDIT - To be fair,  I don't get spa treatments and specialty dining on every cruise booked.  They are occasional perks typically on longer cruises but with double digits of cruises booked, I've yet to find a downside of using a travel agent.
The airline miles are nothing to sneeze at.  I'm flying on points to 3 cruises this year (so far) including Barcelona in the comfort plus cabin for Symphony and will likely get a 1 or 2 more cruise flights for free before 2018 is done. 

No more life jackets is so wonderful.   Friends of ours were on a carnival cruise 2 weeks ago and 1 person did not show up for the muster drill. They went to his cabin and found him drunk as a skunk.  They proceeded to remove him from the ship.  And sailed off into the sunset without him.  Most muster drills are on the deck but can be held in various other locations.  Especially during inclement weather.  

Hello all,
Just came back from a 7 night Bahamas cruise leaving from NJ. Wanted to let all you guys know that the Starbucks on Adventure of the seas was included in the deluxe package (My boyfriend had the deluxe package) and even in the refreshment package (I had the refreshment package). We enjoyed many coffees at no extra charge other then the packages we had ordered before cruise. I Think I read somewhere that Starbucks was not included even with packages so I though to share my experience, and we went May 11 to May 18 2018 and it was included in the drink packages. 
On another note this was my first RC cruise with my boyfriend (we both have done other cruise seperate on other cruise lines) and we loved it. Not only was it our first cruise together, when we got back we decided to book 9 night May 2019 cruise leaving from NJ again. We are so excited to see Athem of the seas ship for the first time in 2019. 
Happy cruising.

So the update is that we woke this morning from an email from Royal to find out we have been upgraded to a Crown Loft Suite. ??

The ship is in great shape. The update and new additions are really nice. The water slides look fun (I can’t test them out as I am over the weight limit of 220 for one and 250 for the other).  Even though so far it has been fairly rough waters and very windy the slides get good traffic. 
I need to try out the two story miniature golf  it’s a unique set up  
While I prefer the Oasis class, the Independence was my introduction to royal Caribbean so this ship feels very familiar. 
The outdoor movie screen does have a huge pixel out  looks like a foot square of blank. It is  distracting while watching the video clips they play  
So far the crew and staff have been great to deal with. My issues were resolved quickly.

Day 1 Boarding 
we took a Lyft from the hotel to the cruise port. $33 wasn’t bad and since it was my first time using Lyft I learned a lot. Definitely recommend Lyft if you need the lift to the port. Choose your ride carefully. A smaller car would never have fit three plus our luggage. 
Check in went great. We have a Jr suite for the first time so we got to take advantage of the suite seating area (nicer padded chairs my tailbone liked)  and were some of the first to board. Great!  Right up until we got to the boat and their new system couldn’t read our set sail pass. 20-30 suite guests standing in the wind and light sprinkles while they worked on the problem. They finally gave up and manually entered us to get the line moving. I think it got fixed later though because the flow of people on board grew pretty fast. 
In keeping with the theme of overspending I had pre-booked Chops Grill for lunch. As always the food there was great. Unfortunately they seemed to know nothing about the set sail passes being used until you could pick up your cards at the stateroom after 1pm. We had to explain to the waiter the process, something Royal should have sufficiently trained on before the first guests arrived. So far it looks like it got straightened out. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 After lunch we went to our room. It was not quite yet ready but our bags were already delivered!  My wife unpacked while I hit guest services because my internet code had not been delivered. The guy at the internet table graciously helped me and it was time for the drill. 
The safety drill went fast despite as many people showing up late as possible. Shortly after we were sailing out of the harbor. 
Next up, finding some Bonine for my very motion sick 19 year old son who can’t show he is getting sick until too late. Now when we go to pay we find out our set sailpasses have not been activated to pay for stuff. Since it’s my card on file I know it’s all set up. Back to guest services to activate all three cards for the family. I am really beginning to suspect the manual entry they did to get me on the ship didn’t save me any time. 
Booked an additional cruise through NextCruise even though the benefit seems almost non existent. 
Had dinner in the MDR. It was ok, not my favorite. Waiters were excellent and made sure we had plenty. 
The short Welcome Aboard show was a small peak at theweeks entertainment. Looks like it should be fun. 
Then, either because I am starting to feel old or because I am just boring it was off to bed.

 
 

I love seeing Royal Caribbean ships doing things like this...sorry for the image quality...basically, Navigator provided diesel to this sail boat in the open ocean when their rudder broke and weren't able to navigate by sail, but could using their motor. The problem was they were over 1000 nautical miles from shore.

I may be a little late on this but just in case no one has checked their online C&A account.  RC updated the website well at least a little, including adding the countdown back.  It also doesn't look so plain.  The added color and pictures are welcoming.  It still needs work but i will take it.  Hopefully they keep working on it 

I cruise solo often but I am also a frequent business traveler and for years I've grown accustomed to eating alone on business trips. 
I tend to go with My Time dining in the MDR.  I've never asked to be placed at a shared table.  I am always seated at a table for two but by myself.  Generally speaking the two seat tables are pretty close to each other so it's easy to start a conversation with tables around me.  Sometimes those people are not into that, sometimes they are.  On Serenade I was given a bottle of wine for issue I had in Chops and I shared it with the couple at the table beside me in the MDR.
I generally look at the menu and decide if I want to go to the MDR that night or eat in the WJ.

Whoa!  Calling in the big guns!

I have to agree with another post in Central Park, I know its more than one choice and somewhat near a pool but I would have to say the big papasan chairs at the front of the ship in the Solarium in the evening as well.  They are the perfect size to get close and talk with the one that you love the most and relax.?

Strangely enough, Deck 4 chairs by the shuffleboard court!  While our wives were off at cupcake class, my son and I just sat there, shared a drink and talked life.  Most relaxing moment of the trip (even though neither of us cared for the drink (Dublin Ice Tea)

Why is the moon cuddling with your better half? And why do you seem OK with this? ?

Watching the ocean go by in 270 during the day on Anthem of The Seas...

Any deck with aft-facing chairs; grab a plate of cheese, crackers etc from the WJ, glass of wine, and sit and watch the wake. 

Depends on the ship.
Vintages, Schooner, Pub, Champagne
In other words *bar
 

Schooner, anytime...
 

Thank you for this blog and answering my questions. I learn so much from your posts!

It seems like the prices for the Deluxe package are higher on shorter cruises, for sure.  The lowest price per night for the Deluxe package I have heard of is $39, and I think that was on a TransAtlantic.  On our upcoming 12 night British Isles cruise we got the Deluxe package on sale for $41/night (plus gratuity).  I'm pretty sure the reason for that is it's probably a lot harder to consistently drink enough to make the package "worth it" 12 days in a row! (Although we will certainly try our best. ☺️) 

And to make it more confusing yet, the on-board pricing can vary on the same ship, depending on sail date. Not as common, but I do think this was the case for my sailing on Freedom that spanned Spring Break week, as I was not seeing nearly as low drink package prices as others on the same ship and itinerary but earlier / later sailings than mine. Best I ever saw was $43 per night for Deluxe, and others were seeing as low as $39 for their own Freedom sailings.