Jill

1 hour ago, rtread said:

WTG on your NED!  My cancer surgery was Jan. 2017 and my oncologist keeps giving me good reports. Wishing you the best!

All my best to you too! 

@TJ! if I were you.....I’d get a credit card that has airline miles. Go to Clark Howard.com and see what he suggests as the best card for miles. He’s a former travel agent who is now a multimillionaire that has a radio show for consumers. 
 

Id also consider doing b2b out of Florida to get a good bang for your buck. Catch a ship that is changing itinerary so you get 2 different itineraries on one ship (eastern Caribbean first week/western second week). 

Also if you book a suite, you get double points for Crown and Anchor so if you book super early in a Junior Suite, you’ll get double points and move up more quickly. We’ve never done a suite, but just upgraded our May Symphony to a Junior Suite for about $900. That now gives us access to Coastal Kitchen for dinner which is like specialty dining. 

So book early and get a credit card for miles. 

Which Symphony are you on? We’re May 2. 

We took 4 cruises before we had kids (1989-1993) when we were in our 20’s. All were RCI. (I took 2 booze cruise type cruises for college spring breaks on an old military supply ship turned cruise ship lol) 

We took a very long break while our kids were young plus we live on a horse farm and it’s not easy (or cheap) to find farm sitters. 

In 2011 we came back with our kids and did Oasis. Super fun! We wouldn’t cruise again until 2017. I was diagnosed with stage 4b cancer in 2015 and that cruise in 2017 (again on Oasis) was to celebrate 6 months of NED (no evidence of disease) and my 50th birthday.

Since then we sailed Oasis a third time in 2018, Freedom in 2019, Mariner 3 weeks ago and have Symphony booked for May 2020.

After our Freedom cruise, we achieved Diamond status. 

I’m now down to 2 horses. Our oldest is 26 and engaged and out on her own. Our youngest is sophomore in college. 

Hubby sold our business back in 2012 and now is semi retired. I have learned the hard way that life can be taken very quickly. I’m not as picky about farm sitters and have let go of my anal retentiveness when it comes to my animals. They are still alive when I get home! Lol 

Getting ready to book 2 cruises (another quick Mariner next October and a Mediterranean probably for 2021) over Black Friday. 

We have a wedding now to pay for so the Mediterranean may have to be pushed to 2022. 

Paying off my car this month and youngest daughter’s last month freed up a nice sum that we are putting some towards wedding and some towards us. I also may take in an additional boarded horse to help fund the addiction. 

Through my cancer journey I also found out I have a hereditary cancer gene (Lynch Syndrome) and have an 80% chance of developing another cancer so we are YOLO’ing as much as we can. 
 

**edited to add that we do live in Florida and can drive to ports although Miami is a bit far. (5 hours). When we flew to San Juan for our Freedom cruise we drove 2 hours to Orlando and flew Southwest. About $650 total. 

On 10/31/2019 at 12:44 PM, Jolly Ogre said:

How hard are these? Is there a way to make them more advanced?

I did one with some friends and it only took about 10 min. Very much a let down.

We were the first group out of 8 that finished under the hour mark. Took us 56 minutes on Mariner last weekend. 

13 hours ago, melmar02 said:

No, you can usually find a chair very easily if it isn't in the immediate pool area. 

That’s not my experience on the Oasis class on sea days. It’s quite challenging to find chairs. 

I would go to towel station and ask, “Can I remove towels from chairs that no one has been in for 30 minutes?” They will say yes. You remove towels, if person comes back you tell them towel station said to remove. Then they can take it up with the towel station. 

2 weeks before but we booked the cruise 4 weeks out

On 10/25/2019 at 5:23 PM, marti314 said:

Yes, your assumptions are correct.  You will find some people in shorts in the evenings but you will also find some people complaining to the diamond lounge concierge about that.  I find it funny that you can wear a goofy looking suit or silly Hawaiian shirt and you are good but the second you have shorts on in the DL someone has an issue.  

We all paid our way to get there, its usually HOT up there because of the number of people and the windows so let us vacation is what i say!

Just last night there were 2 older couples dressed in “80 days around the world” type costumes. Very elaborate and it’s not a Halloween cruise. 

Other than that, there were jeans but didn’t see shorts at night. 

This was on 3 night Mariner

I’ve heard the stuff on the wall is awful If you’re not picky I’m sure it’s fine. 

Your best bet is book as early as you can. 
 

I was able to transfer my symphony cruise that I booked in March to MEI about a month ago. RC sent me a denial letter but my T/A (Sharla) not only got mine transferred but also the couple we’re sailing with. Got an email this morning she found a Seekers Sale and got our cabin reduced by $108. 
 

I had always booked through RC before on the phone. To check prices, I’d always just call. We’re planning a Mediterranean cruise in the next year or so and I’m not doing that myself. So I thought I’d try MEI by booking a 3 night Mariner and moving my Symphony. So far I’ve been very pleased. Looking forward to what Black Friday holds!

7 hours ago, monctonguy said:

If your asking about these for white noise purposes...you might be surprised that you many not need one. I always sleep with a fan at home, but when cruising the hum of the ship and the AC etc is enough for me to block out other noises..

 

If you just want it for the air movement, well that's different.

There’s a free app called Bedtime Fan and it’s great for white noise. 

Thanks everyone. I did manage to get it for $40 last night for this weekend’s Mariner. I’ll probably skip it though on Symphony in May unless it gets significantly lower. $79 is the lowest I’ve seen so far. 

On 10/15/2019 at 12:12 PM, Marc Van Niekerk said:

This is our first ever back to back cruise, our first as diamond, our first cruise on Mariner and out first visit to the newly renovated Coco Cay.  We chose this cruise for the ship and the chance to visit Coco Cay since it seems EVERYONE has already had the opportunity.

We managed to get the same aft corner balcony for both legs of the cruise so that is a definite bonus.

I will try to keep this up as we cruise but I am also trying to focus on relaxation.  

I will begin at Day 0 in my next post.

We leave this Friday on Mariner, also in an Aft Balcony #8390

Its also our first Diamond cruise too! 

I thought I read somewhere that if you wait until after 11am to purchase thrill water park on CocoCay the price is 1/2. 

Was I dreaming? 

Ok a bit of trivia.....who remembers that before it was CocoCay it was Little Stirrup Cay (pronounced key)? I first visited Little Stirrup Cay when I was in college in 1987 aboard The Emerald Seas. Several cruise lines visited there. It was literally a beach with chairs and the sunken airplane. 

I returned in 1990 or 91 on my first RC cruise aboard Song of America. It was still Little Stirrup back then too and basically a beach with chairs and sunken plane. Lol 

I will return next weekend on Mariner as a primer for our Symphony cruise in May. 

Quite a transformation of that little cay. Can’t wait! 

We use WhatsApp if we have a group of mixed brands: Apple/android. On our Freedom cruise last March we had a group of 4 iPhones and 4 androids so it worked great. 

We live on a farm and I use WhatsApp to keep in contact with my farm sitters too. 

I think it’s a great app. Everything is encrypted. 

I’ll be on Mariner next weekend! I’ll try to stop by the Casino to say Hi! 

It’s about an hour. Straight over 528 (toll road) dumps you almost at the port. 

We booked our Symphony cruise 14 months out and I’ve watched and watched. The price has only gone up. 

Our Mariner cruise next Friday, we booked 3 weeks ago. In the 24 hours it was on hold, it dropped another $200. Added bonus (that I’m now told is like hitting the lottery) is that our GTY balcony ended up being a corner aft balcony. 

We made out pretty well on this cruise. 

Just now, SteveinSC said:

Good question! Seems like the strategy is to build juast big, and bigger ships.  Cant continue to service ports that require smaller ships, AND build bigger ships....something has to give, eventually. I know, personally, Id rather have more ports than more big ships. Part of the reason I love cruising is seeing places I couldnt, otherwise.   

We are slooowly aging out of the party scene and now that we are empty nesters, we’re looking to grow up and experience more than just the Caribbean

We are bright and shiny new Diamond members and looking forward to exploring Europe with RC. Our very first cruise with RC was when we were 23 and 26 years old on Song of America back in 1990. We’ve only sailed RC. I feel like I’ve grown old with them! Lol 

Personally I think we Americans fall for all these stupid “sales.” Maybe y’all in the UK aren’t as gullible to the sales pitches!  

Haven’t they offered free deluxe drink packages? That’s quite a perk! 

Well today the news is that Grandeur is leaving the fleet and headed to Spain to join Sovereign and Monarch at Pullmantur Cruises. RC own 49% of Pullmantur. 

I would imagine as these ships age with their dated systems, RC might bring in new, smaller ships? With the newest ICON technology being built it would make sense to me to begin replacing the older, smaller ships with the same technology in a smaller package. 

At some point these smaller ships will need to be replaced in order to keep most of the European itineraries that simply cannot handle the mega ships.

I’d love to see some new smaller ships. 

On 1/26/2019 at 10:33 AM, Gears said:

18 cruises over 14 years. Some of which were in JS to get the double. We actually booked a 5 night in a JS to get us to exactly 175 in preparation for our B2B two months later.

 

But...I also think we made out quite well when they switched the points system from one point per cruise to one point per night. We ended up with more C&A points than nights we had cruised when the switch was done.

Us too. We just reached Diamond. We got more nights from 4 cruises prior to the switch. Now on to Diamond Plus! 

For the air or the noise? You can ask your steward for a box fan. If you need it for white noise, download bedtime fan from the App Store and play white noise off your phone