OCSC Mike

That was my guess. Remember you can use the app to grab an arrival time for all of you and do the rest later (and you don't have to check-in everyone at the same time, so if you know you're gonna see him sometime between check-in and the cruise you can wait to do his in person, snap a pic, scan his passport, etc. even if you and Batman are already all done).
Wallowing in my impending dry dock sadness, which is exacerbated by this last summer cruise only being 4N. I'm gonna stuff myself and use those vouchers no matter how I feel, lol. Only 4N and then way too many months to recover to care.

I have no problem with anyone who doesn't like spicy but then don't order something meant to be spicy, lol.
This past cruise was the first time I saw boarding begin AFTER 10am... which isn't late but we were onboard by 10am last summer. If you're goal is to board ASAP, like right after suites/Pinns, a little before 10am. If you just want to board early and quickly but not be one of those ASAP people like me, maybe a little after 10am?
If any of that doesn't apply for any reason, any time after that will be perfectly fine and you'll likely walk right on b/c the crowd who was there before boarding began and had to sit there waiting for a little bit will have already boarded. This is what it was like in March since we were with family and waited for my SIL to meet us in the parking lot.
Probably more than you asked for but you know how I post. I could have easily said 10-10:15am (or later) and you'd likely be happy.

That's why they're terrible, lol, pretty sure they use bell pepper and no actual jalapeno. 🙃

Looking forward to what you get (although I may get sad again, lol) and the blog in general. I read pretty much every blog but I especially like ones from "our current ship" and your timing during our one short dry dock is perfect! The similarities and differences in how others cruise on the same ship is always fun to see.

Please do! I didn't make it happen and it wouldn't have even cost anything extra. 😢
I'm still not happy about not feeling up my usual UDP eating standards those first 4 days if you couldn't tell, lol.

That was my guess. Remember you can use the app to grab an arrival time for all of you and do the rest later (and you don't have to check-in everyone at the same time, so if you know you're gonna see him sometime between check-in and the cruise you can wait to do his in person, snap a pic, scan his passport, etc. even if you and Batman are already all done).
Wallowing in my impending dry dock sadness, which is exacerbated by this last summer cruise only being 4N. I'm gonna stuff myself and use those vouchers no matter how I feel, lol. Only 4N and then way too many months to recover to care.

Sorry to interrupt the graduation tangents...
Very happy accident with that Next Cruise re-booking of Star. Aside from the significant base savings, NC giving me an extra $50 off the website price, $50 OBC, and the smaller deposit, that flash sale must have ended yesterday b/c the price went back up by about $200.
It could easily go back down during the next good sale of course but that's not a bad thing. I had fun checking and re-pricing cabins for the family cruise multiple times since they didn't have group rates so now I get to do that for next 9 months for myself while obsessively checking for our GTY assignment using @jdeath's program.

I'm sorry i'm just catching up when you are already home, but WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE???

I'm a white girl from the Midwest... I can't handle spicy, so this is right up my alley! 
 
Back to the cruise... our check in time is 11:30 - I know I've seen they don't' really hold you to it, but what time should we plan to arrive?  (lol, me here asking facebook cruise questions)🫣

My wife had a different reason (she wanted to stay longer & do more on land pre-cruise) but she cancelled our Royal land portion and used a company we loved if you ever want to look at another option. Other than a business type hotel in Anchorage, we stayed in a ski resort in a town Royal doesn’t visit, and the rest were cabins & lodges which is what we wanted but I thought they were all pretty nice and gave us a very unique experience.
One is actually owned by the company at the very back of Denali… which most people can’t access so even though it was rustic, it made for an amazing experience (and those cabins were definitely not cheap). FWIW, a National Geographic tour group stayed there when we did (which was very cool b/c their guide invited us to listen in on her presentations after dinner but that was dumb luck).
I’m sure there were other options but not sure how many “nice hotels” can be found in some of the mainland towns.

We're gonna hold you to it!
 
 

That was my guess. Remember you can use the app to grab an arrival time for all of you and do the rest later (and you don't have to check-in everyone at the same time, so if you know you're gonna see him sometime between check-in and the cruise you can wait to do his in person, snap a pic, scan his passport, etc. even if you and Batman are already all done).
Wallowing in my impending dry dock sadness, which is exacerbated by this last summer cruise only being 4N. I'm gonna stuff myself and use those vouchers no matter how I feel, lol. Only 4N and then way too many months to recover to care.

That was my guess. Remember you can use the app to grab an arrival time for all of you and do the rest later (and you don't have to check-in everyone at the same time, so if you know you're gonna see him sometime between check-in and the cruise you can wait to do his in person, snap a pic, scan his passport, etc. even if you and Batman are already all done).
Wallowing in my impending dry dock sadness, which is exacerbated by this last summer cruise only being 4N. I'm gonna stuff myself and use those vouchers no matter how I feel, lol. Only 4N and then way too many months to recover to care.

That's why they're terrible, lol, pretty sure they use bell pepper and no actual jalapeno. 🙃

All the excursions where you know you’ll see wildlife are great but just seeing critters pop up randomly is cool in a different way. I remember walking along the water on a sidewalk in Seward & finding a sea otter just offshore. We just hung out watching him for 10-15 mins.
Having a moose & her baby literally run across the street in front of our shuttle van (fortunately they were fine) was less fun but yeah, the wildlife really is everywhere.

Thank you both.  I was asking because i was going to try to check my nephew in without having his passport present.
You'll be home before we leave, so no cross-contamination risks! 😆

I don’t blame you. We only did Alaska once but took the train, all booked direct in classic, going all the way from Fairbanks to Seward & never even had a crowded car let alone sat with people. While there’s no clear dome (we visited new friends in gold star and it was nice looking), there was always a car with a 2nd level that had a similar view that they asked everyone to share but we could have just sat there the whole time on most of the legs. Maybe we got lucky, this was June 2018.

I think you already know I love the burger. I know it's just a bacon cheeseburger (of course wings are also just wings and onion rings are just onion rings) but it's made well, two small patties and comes with a healthy amount of bacon and cheese, an onion ring (I usually pull it off and just eat it alone), and I love the garlic parm they put on the fries. 
I do enjoy the crunch rolls as a snack. The rolls themselves aren't spicy, kind of like crispy chicken egg rolls, but they come with sides of buffalo sauce and ranch for dipping. The only negative is that one order has four rolls and they're pretty small, IMO. I know you said ignore frugality but for info's sake, I feel like the burger/fries for $12 is a lot of food, the onion ring tower is obviously huge, while the $8 crunch rolls are definitely not a lot of food  by comparison.
Those are my top two items if we're ignoring size/cost.
Picking a 3rd is tough. I liked the BBQ wings (I'm sure buffalo are good too since I've had the buffalo sauce with the crunch rolls, not sure what heat level it was). You've had the onion rings which I also like and the tower is huge. My SIL thought the poke nachos were amazing but I only had a bite and that's a fairly unique item that will either look good or you won't even consider them. Lastly, I thought the jalapeno poppers were terrible.
The cookie is good if you want a dessert. I've only tried it once or twice and that was when my wife got it without the marshmallow. I had planned to have my wife order the cookie to go with my snack since she isn't usually looking for a big 11pm snack, and I figured even if I'm stuffed I could have some of the cookie and she might have had some but that was part of the failure.
Hope that helps. As always, food is subjective.

Please do! I didn't make it happen and it wouldn't have even cost anything extra. 😢
I'm still not happy about not feeling up my usual UDP eating standards those first 4 days if you couldn't tell, lol.

I typically scan my passport and the info pops in.  I believe the expiration date and number are definite required info…not sure about DOB or date passport was assigned.

I love fried wontons too, but not a fan of poke. The hubs might love that though!!
I like this idea! Burger, wings, and I LOOOOOOOOOOVE nachos. I feel like we definitely gotta go now, even if we just share a few things

Sorry to interrupt the graduation tangents...
Very happy accident with that Next Cruise re-booking of Star. Aside from the significant base savings, NC giving me an extra $50 off the website price, $50 OBC, and the smaller deposit, that flash sale must have ended yesterday b/c the price went back up by about $200.
It could easily go back down during the next good sale of course but that's not a bad thing. I had fun checking and re-pricing cabins for the family cruise multiple times since they didn't have group rates so now I get to do that for next 9 months for myself while obsessively checking for our GTY assignment using @jdeath's program.

This once again seems to be the case but I have a few thoughts. Just to preface, anything that sounds negative doesn't overshadow the fact that we had a great time as always, I just come away with a couple regrets no matter how well a cruise goes.
- I know I said I was OK with it at the time but I can't help but be a little sad that I didn't have fun with the nighttime Playmakers snacks like I did in March. I was looking forward to a night of wings and more crunch rolls but it is what it is. Obviously I could just take some of the savings from cancelling the UDP for July and get something at Playmakers if the mood strikes but I'm frugal and OCD about planning. The sale is good enough that it's either the UDP plan or the non-UDP plan (with BOGO's and Playmakers dinners) and we're set on non-UDP for various reasons. Now if we turn our free play into something on night one maybe I'll get less frugal.
- Despite the above comments, I really am looking forward to the old non-UDP routine of pre-breakfast with coffee, an actual sit down breakfast, and more ELF and Dog House snacking in the afternoons like I did during the 3N leg. Sorrento's was also good (for Sorrento's) and I enjoy this one chicken salad sandwich at Cafe Promenade (don't think I posted a pic but I had one) so it's not like I won't have night time snacks, they're just obviously not as good as Playmakers. As much as I enjoy MJ brunch and GK lunch, I'm looking forward to less reservations and more freedom to have lunch or just snack whenever. 
- If you couldn't tell, we really enjoy meeting crew members and going back to spend time with them, which we did quite a bit of on this cruise. Jen will be sorely missed next cruise, we really did get close with her, but we still have some crew friends onboard (I already filled one small gift request when I went to Publix earlier b/c chips they asked for were BOGO). Snooky was also a great cabin attendant (not just for the towel animals) and we should have her again next month so add her to the list.
I feel like I'm already rambling and talking more about the next cruise than this one so I'll leave it there. Thanks, as always, to all who followed along. I don't plan to start my July blog as far in advance as this one but only time will tell. If any tangents come up and this one keeps going for a bit, that's cool too. 
I'm off to lose back my cruise weight (while finishing the Ziploc of ranger cookies in my pantry of course). July 4th is always tricky since I'm not skipping food that day so I'll just try to be pretty healthy until then and then we'll have a little over a week after that as well.

That's the only reason I never tried them when I was getting my nightly to go snacks in March. I was waiting for a night to sit outside on the boardwalk to eat them but it never really materialized.

That's the only reason I never tried them when I was getting my nightly to go snacks in March. I was waiting for a night to sit outside on the boardwalk to eat them but it never really materialized.