Jill

4 hours ago, DDaley said:

I brought one of these on our southern Caribbean cruise and used it in St. Thomas, St. Kitts and Barbados. We used it on beaches where there were umbrellas and chairs for rent and set up directly next to them with no objection. I've also brought a tent like this as a 3rd carry-on on a plane and no one batted an eye as it fit in the space between my seat and the fuselage. I loved having it! 

PS. my second favorite cruise/beach purchase were a pair of these floats, everyone was asking where we rented them from! They fold up super small and only take a couple breaths to inflate.

 

These are great floats too. I bought these for our May 2020 symphony that was cancelled and have moved it 3 times now. Hoping to use them now in October! 
 

BADIQI Swimming Inflatable Pool Float,4-in-1 Pool Hammock (Lounge Chair,Saddle, Hammock, Drifter), Portable Water Hammock,Pool Chair https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XZ7917K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_R1PC5H5W11G08A9GJ34T?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

1 hour ago, Koepper said:

Me too. I have that JS on Radiance on 05/01/22 for an Alaska cruise. I will be interested in what you learn if your sailing is before mine.

Nope I’m 5/27/22. You let me know! Lol If it’s loud, please go up to windjammer and complain so it’s quiet when I’m in there!  

Someone posted in Royal Caribbean Cabins on Facebook that this JS is their absolute favorite. 

2 hours ago, DDaley said:

Oh no! I have this JS on Brilliance and didn't even thiiink about the location, booking it immediately upon seeing that mega balcony. At least we usually wake up early but I am now dreading the scraping sound of chairs being pulled out at dawn. 

@twangster assured me it was a great cabin. Yes that balcony is way cool! I saw the video of the Radiance one on YouTube. 

2 hours ago, mattymay said:

According to early pictures of the build, Icon is of a similar width to Symphony of the Seas when comparing images at the same stage. At 218,000 GT she's not far behind the early Oasis class ships.

 

Hmmmm I wonder if that points to a possible Central Park/Boardwalk kind of thing. Hope so! 

8 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I'm not as  concerned about the suite perks for this particular cruise as much as I am double (quadruple in this case) points to get us to D+ in calendar year 2022.

Our Alaska cruise will give us 40 points. Tacking on the 3 night land tour was a bonus in more ways than one! We’ll get to Diamond Plus also in 2022. Getting to the next level was not really on our radar. Mostly because we were somewhat newly Diamond and Plus seemed pretty far away. 
 

Now it’s fairly attainable and we’re going for it. Our kids are out of the house and we’ve got 3-4 European bucket list cruises we want to do and becoming Plus will really add to the experience for us. 

1 hour ago, RG306 said:

following, we booked a W guarantee for our Feb cruise. it's our first time ever booking a guarantee cabin, so we're going in with low expectations a junior suite in the worst location.

 

Right under the windjammer lol 

I shouldn’t laugh. I booked a corner aft JS on Radiance for Alaska (which I’m told is in high demand) but it is under the windjammer outdoor seating. Who eats outside in Alaska? Lol Hoping it’s quiet! Balcony is HUGE! 

2 hours ago, JohnK6404 said:

Definitely not... they just grabbed a generic cruise ship image.

I believe the estimated size of the Icon class is around 200,000 tons... somewhere in between Quantum and Oasis class... I don't believe any official drawings or schematics have been released to the public yet. They may not even be done with the final design just yet. Can't wait to see what she'll look like!

 

 

Ok good. I don’t like that ship lol  

4th of July celebration from CocoCay tonight! 

This is the first I’ve seen of the new Icon. @Matt can you verify? 
 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/ships/Icon-Of-The-Seas-2110

4 hours ago, Pooch said:

He was potentially positive and you tested negative and your first reaction was to run to the bar before they caught you???

I could see me dashing to the bar Gotta get your money’s worth out of that drink package! This wasn’t me BTW. It came from a Royal Facebook group

Whew! Good point to not automatically freak out! Just read this in a Facebook group: 

Thought of the day, DO NOT PANIC!  We are beginning to wind down our amazing cruise on Adventure of the Seas with Royal Caribbean.  We departed from Nassau Bahamas on Saturday and have enjoyed a very relaxing time.  One requirement of re-entry to the United States is a negative Covid test.  Royal Caribbean International is currently offering this service to all passengers departing from the Bahamas.

We took our tests this morning and went on about our day at sea heading to Freeport as our last port of call.  The testing process was very simple by signing up via an email.  We were in and out in under 8 minutes.  Woohoo. Cocktail time with our favorite bartender in Schooner Lounge with some 90’s Trivia. 

A few minutes into trivia, some ship’s officers showed up and spoke to Tim for a moment and he said he was going to the cabin.  I was a bit puzzled until another officer approached me.  He said Tim’s Covid test was positive and he needed to go back to our quarters.  I was simply blown the $&@) away!  I dashed right up to the cabin.  Tim confirmed what they said and we both were in shock.  Here we are on a full day at sea, hundreds of miles from home, and totally freaking.  15 minutes later a guy from medical shows up to perform a PCR test, the one that takes a sample of your brain according to Tim. 

The phone rang while we were waiting.  I answered and the voice on the other end said he was chief of security.  I put Tim on and he walked him through some things on his phone to set up contract tracing.  I’m still freaking that we are going to be confined to our cabin, or confined to medical.  F$&@!!! OMG we are going to be on the news! 

I finally checked my email and my results were negative.  Woohoo!  I can make a mad dash to the bar for a cocktail before they can catch me.  I wasn’t even told to stay in the room.  I get to the bar and order drinks.  A few minutes later Tim shows up.  Omg, he broke out of jail.  I just knew they would find him and make him walk the plank.  Luckily the results of his PCR test came back NEGATIVE!  What a sigh of relief. 

Moral of the story, stay calm and DO NOT PANIC!  We can’t thank Royal Caribbean International for taking amazing care of us during an extremely emotional time.  Loyal to Royal!

Micheal Bayley posted a response to someone on one of his Facebook posts that if we’re still wearing masks in October, we’ve got bigger problems. So I’m taking that to mean dropping mask requirements come Fall. But as we all know……nothing is certain even 24 hours from now. 

1 hour ago, CrznTxn said:

Wish we were as lucky. Our kids expect us to buy them a cruise as we did several years ago. Told them it a once in a lifetime event but for some reason they expect us to repeat it.

Ok well when we booked Alaska for next may, our youngest (21) said, “I wanna go!” I justified her coming as a college graduation present. So that then required a Junior Suite. Then hubby said, “We’re only going once.” So then I had to add a 3 night land tour. 
 

Dear daughter is now helping to paint several rooms in the house this summer. What started as a reasonable trip has exploded. She’ll need to work some of that off! 

19 minutes ago, MadamG2U said:

LOL, Im just your average working person.  This trip was a gift to my parents celebrating their  63rd wedding anniversary.  Star Class sort of fell in my lap, I grabbed it and ran with it

I think I need to start dropping hints to the children lol! We’re only at 32 years but maybe by our 40th they’ll have enough disposable income to treat us! One can hope! 

I have $100 OBC that showed up on my odyssey holy land/Greece cruise. Our original got cancelled and that had a $50 OBC because it came with the group rate. 
 

I don’t know where this one came from and we didn’t lift and shift because they wouldn’t let us L&S a 9 night to a 12. It might be because they canceled all Odyssey out of Rome this year. Anyways, guess I better find something to apply it to in case it disappears 

This whole hostility thing is just a mirror of today’s society unfortunately. Why can’t people just be happy? 

18 hours ago, wordell1 said:

What will be interesting is what they will do with the cruises that have been offered from last year and are booked closer to 100%.  Will they cancel some people? If so, what will be the criteria?

There’s a post in a Royal Caribbean Facebook group right now of a travel party that just got cancelled for Friday’s Freedom sailing. Apparently Royal didn’t offer them anything which I find highly suspicious. Trying to figure out a way to verify this rumor, which is what I think it is. 
 

I know some got cancelled on Anthem out of Southhampton when capacity was reduced from 50% to 40% but those that were cancelled were offered 150% (I think that number is correct, it was several days ago). 
 

I find it hard to believe Royal wound cancel someone and not offer anything. It was claimed they were booked since February 2020 which I don’t think Freedom was even scheduled for this 3 night out of Miami back then. Sounds fishy

Currently all categories are open to book on your date. Most cruises now through the end of October show outside view as sold out and mostly only interior connecting available. 
 

It all depends on what this virus is doing. But from what I see, after the “technical” end of the CSO November 1, the ships open up to all categories. 
 

The CSO will possibly end early with the current ruling in the Florida vs CDC lawsuit

We’ve got 2 port intensive cruises coming up in 2022 (Alaska and Holy Land/Greece). I’d be really happy if they just load the drinks on my card for anytime of day. We won’t get the DBP if they do. After a long day of port stuff, 2 glasses of wine and hit the sack are good for me! 
 

I’ll buy water with my extra drinks. I know, that’s wasteful

25 minutes ago, twangster said:

I'm not going to lie.  This sort of reporting bothers me.  

I lived on St Thomas for a couple of years and while no where in the US is free of gun violence it is remarkably less so on St Thomas and San Juan compared to just about anywhere on the US mainland.  This is largely due to the much different laws that exist in the territories.  

It is regrettable that a tourist had this occur on St Thomas.  I'm not saying it couldn't or didn't happen.  However to frame it like every tourist should be in fear on St. Thomas is worthy of something CNN or Fox News would report. Sensationalism at it's finest.

Orlando has had 57 victims of gun violence in the first 5 months of 2021 with a total of 177 police investigated gun violence complaints.  I suppose no one should go to Disney because of the gun violence in Orlando right?

There is no mistake that bad things happen to good people everywhere.  However to frame St. Thomas in this manner is so terribly inaccurate.   

I apologize. I have dear friends in st Thomas and St. John. 
 

It was frightening when it happened and the only time on any sailing we knew of an incident. 
 

Lesson is: people let their guard down on vacation and can be a victim anywhere. 
 

We were just cased where we live in St Augustine and it was an uneasy feeling. 
 

yes it can happen anywhere. Be aware of your surroundings is key. Again, apologies. 

If you’ve never been, I think there’s a tour with a stop at Megan’s Bay. 
 

If you go shopping in Charlotte Amalie, stick to the open streets. Do not use Alleys to get somewhere faster. We had a couple on one of our sailings who were held up at gun point on their way back to the ship. They were in an alley off a Main Street. 
 

Sapphire Beach is supposedly nice and lots of people like to get the ferry to St John 

Both of these would be good for a first time visit

We were there last about 2 years ago on Freedom. Going back in October on Symphony. We did the excursion to Ffyres  Beach which included lunch at the restaurant there and I think 2 drink coupons. If you do that, go early. Our group of 4 couples left mid-morning from the ship and by the time we got there, the only chairs available were second row. 
 

Valley Church Beach is a favorite of @Matt

We were there twice in the mid 90’s on Monarch and both times did Jolly Roger Pirate Cruise (basically a drink fest). We were in our 20’s so ‘nuff said lol. 
 

There is a cute shopping area right at the port and we always get pizza and Pain Killers at Big Banana Holding Company 

Wow that’s awesome! Enjoy the lobster!

28 minutes ago, Fairlynew said:

We are sailing August 27, 2021, and there are very few excursions at any port and some are sold out.

There are at least 20 on my sailing. Too many to choose from lol. Did you check Trip Advisor for reviews? 

On 5/28/2021 at 8:13 AM, ChessE4 said:

What really opened my eyes was my first snorkeling excursion out of Labadee over 10 years ago.  To a degree, it changed my life.  But aside from that, Chacchoben, Dunn's River Falls Climb, and the Amazing Secret River at Playa del Carmen are ones I'd heartily recommend, physical exertion required!

In Europe, Pisa and the Acropolis were underwhelming, but Ephesus really piqued my curiosity.   Some historical sites you've just got to visit to compare your direct observations with what you've read over the years.  The quality of your tour guide makes a difference (not too much talk, not too little).

Ephesus was just added to our Odyssey Holy Land/Greece October 2022.