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So, here we sit at the Admirals Club.  First Uber ride I’ve ever taken where the driver never uttered a single word.  Wasn’t creepy b/c Dan was there but would have been very bizarre if I had been alone.
Nothing particularly striking about the Club.  Pretty standard stuff. For those familiar with AA Clubs, there is the obligatory avocado kiosk. Not quite sure why AA has put all its chips (pun intended) on avocados, but I have yet to enter an Admiral’s Club anywhere around the world where they don’t have someone serving avocados in some form.
Dan, intently pecking away on HIS iPad

Approximately 30 minutes before we have to board. According to the AA app, our plane is at the gate so no reason to believe we won’t depart on time.  Tampa, here we come !

I promised Sabrina that I would do this, so here goes.
First:  I am the worst live blogger EVER since I hate to take pix.  I DO realize that long, text review/live blogs are less effective b/c nobody wants to sit and read line after line of text.  I hate it myself !  So I am going to TRY and be brief-er than usual and TRY and incorporate photos, which are 2 things I am not very good at (brevity and photography).
Who:  Dan and I (Raye)
What:  S2S cruises on Brilliance and Oasis.
Where:  Tampa then Miami
When:  24 - 30 Nov (Brilliance out of Tampa) then 1 - 8 December (Oasis out of Miami)
Why:  Because we can...and this will be our first S2S
At home, writing this but leaving for the airport (DCA) at 2PM.  Uber, cost $81.56.  We have to have an XL due to luggage. Honestly, it's not that far to the airport.  We live about 20 miles south of DC so it's not more than 15-17 miles to the airport.  Kinda high, IMO but still cheaper than parking the car in Long Term Parking for 15 days. 
We will pass some time at the American Airlines Admiral's Club prior to boarding and then fly First Class to Tampa. Flight is at 5:00, arriving TPA at ~7:30PM.  Will Uber from airport to the hotel (Tampa Marriott Water Street); used rewards points for the hotel.  We could have used airline miles for the air but we're saving those reward points for a yet-to-be scheduled Alaska trip !!

One piece of luggage still missing as it is awaiting inevitable forgotten, last-minute items.
So looking forward to Brilliance.  #1, we have never sailed on Brilliance before and #2, it has been many years since we sailed on a Radiance class ship.
PS.  I am already having fits with just 1 pic.  I don't know how the rest of you do it !!  
More, later from the Admiral's Club !!

Final thoughts:  This cruise exceeded all of our expectations. 
After our last Star Class cruise, we were hooked and this just cemented it even more.  While our last genie was great, Alan was a much better fit for our family.  Because of his past experience as an Adventure Ocean staff member, his boundless energy, and his knack for going above and beyond, our family couldn't have asked for a better genie.  Our kids grew very attached to him over the week, and Steven and I have the utmost admiration for him.  I hope he is on Oasis for our B2B next year as we would request him again in a heartbeat.
The next person who made our cruise extraordinary was our room attendant, Karen.  She was always smiling and happy to do anything we asked.  Her personality never ceased to brightened up our day.  She had a great repertoire with our family, and always took time to give the kids attention.  If you are lucky enough to get her as a room attendant, you are in for a real treat.
One of the Star Class perks that we used a lot yet have not addressed in the blog is the free laundry.  We probably did enough laundry to pay the difference between a balcony and a Star Class cabin.  We sent our laundry off every morning and sometimes at night.  Karen always had our laundry returned washed and pressed within a few hours.  Our last room attendant was relatively quick getting our laundry back, but Karen's turn around time was astounding.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the food since the vast majority of our cruise was spent eating.  We went to all of the specialty restaurants (with the exception of Chef's Table and Samba) atleast once.  We chose to skip Chef's Table because it is too long for us to be away from the babies and we skipped Samba because we were very disappointed with it last time we were on Allure.  Chops, 150 Central Park, and Giovanni's Table were all amazing.  Sabor is not our favorite, but their guacamole and chicken-stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon are very good.  I think Johnny Rockets burgers are overrated, but their hotdogs are delicious.  We tried the Vintages cake pops, and they are good as long as you like really sweet foods.  We visited Cups and Scoops atleast once every day but usually more.  None of us really cared for the cupcakes, but we ate tons of ice cream.  At home, I visit Starbucks every day, but on the cruise, I went atleast three times a day.  The drinks are free for Star Class, but the pastries are an additional charge, so if you are Star Class, and want to try a bunch of new Starbuck's drink, this is the perfect time.  Cruising while Starbucks is doing their holiday drinks allows you to try even more drinks.  During this trip, I discovered I really like their chestnut praline lattes.  We only had Coastal Kitchen in the mornings and once for dinner.  I have to agree with @Lovetocruise2002, their filet is amazing.  We popped in to the Windjammer a few times, and overall, is was just ok but a good option if you are in a hurry.  The main dining room called almost everyday to inform us of our reserved table, but when specialty is included, we opt to skip the main dining room.
Mama Mia was phenomenal, and we would definitely recommend it to anyone.  We were on the fence about going to see it, but really enjoyed it and would go see it again (especially the first half).  The comedians on our sailing were hilarious, and much better than the ones on our last sailing.
Overall, this was a very relaxing cruise.  One of the best things about Star Class is you can accomplish way more during the week than most people and still have time to relax.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Day 6: At Sea
We were supposed to do the sushi class, but we opted to sleep in instead.  We took the morning kind of slow and had breakfast delivered at 10am.  There was a nice breeze without being too windy, so we enjoyed breakfast on the balcony.  We took the kids to the pool and picked up ice cream on the way to the room.  By the time we arrived to the room, we had the Johnny Rockets that we had requested waiting for us.  We spent a little time enjoying the balcony trying to relish the time we had left in 10730.  While I prefer the deck 8 aquatheater suites for the extra space, the proximity to the aquatheater, and being on the same deck as Central Park, I actually think the ocean view is better from Deck 10.  We took the kids to Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots and headed to the Star Class Bridge Tour.  It was short and sweet and allowed us to take a few picture of the bridge and with all three genies.  Because it was shorter than we expected, we had time to zipline again before picking up the kids.  We played a few games in the arcade, and our daily snacks were waiting for us when we arrived back to the room.  After naptime, Christian and Sophia informed us that they wanted to ditch us for Adventure Ocean again, so they had dinner with Adventure Ocean while we planned to have dinner at Chops.  Nyssa, of course, had other plans and decided she didn't want to sit through a long dinner.  After Alan stopped in, we took our order to go.  In Nyssa's defense, we had been there 45 minutes and still didn't have our entrees even though Alan had once again asked for our meal to be delivered quickly.  Nyssa and Kat had mac and cheese waiting when we arrived which was great, but also was a problem since they finished before we even had our food arrive.  Having their food waiting at all the other restaurants was wonderful because our food was also delivered quickly and it allowed us to get in and out before the babies got fussy.  At Chops, they were a little slower taking our order when we arrived, so it took longer to receive our food.  I did have time to eat Lobster Bisque and Mushroom Soup before leaving, and they were very tasty.  Steven had the Wedge Salad and Black Pepper Bacon, and he agreed that it was appetizing. We skipped the seafood tower this time, and had filet, lobster, warm chocolate cake, and red velvet cake delivered to our room.  It was absolutely delicious, so much so, that we canceled our Day 7 Izumi dinner plans and opted for Chops delivery.  We were hoping to spend some time with the kids before going to the the Quest, but when we went to pick them up, Christian wanted to stay.  We took Sophia, Nyssa, and Kat to Cups and Scoops and to ride the Carousel.  After hanging out on the Boardwalk for awhile, Sophia was ready to go back to Adventure Ocean, but we made a pit stop in the room first.  When we arrived, Alan had gifts waiting for us.  It was a very kind gesture, and we were very happy to see it.  Steven and I collect magnets, souvenir spoons, and shot glasses from the place we visit, and recently we had been throwing around the idea of collecting the ship models.  Alan must have read our mind, because that was the gift we received.  It was perfect for us and we are very appreciative of that and everything else he has done to make our week so unforgettable.  He also left gifts for the kids which they were happy to see.  After dropping the kids off, we headed to the Quest which was hilarious like always.  We picked up the kids and called it a night.  

Enjoy!!!

36 days till Dec 29 and our New Years cruise on Harmony. 
We are GTY with a balcony over central park. Pretty sure we are on deck ten but room is not yet assigned.
I had thought about Voom so I could present some live updates here. I'm just not sure I really want to be connected. I kinda see this as a time to disconnect.
Any way we are excited as time draws near and are looking forward too our 3rd visit to Coco Cay. The first time it was pretty much just an isolated beach. It's grown a bit since then.
 

Celebrating my birthday  ... somewhere between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean

Happy 50th Royal Caribbean!!!

So true! Need to lose 8-10 pounds before the cruise! 

The internet is not very good so far so I will just keep trying to add information as and when I can.

That about wraps up pre-cruise (read: I've finally become bored enough with my own drivel to sleep).  Tomorrow will be a day of decisions...do we take the extra Hilton Honors points or free breakfast? do we Uber or Lyft to the port? what is going to be the first food item I put in my face onboard Oasis?  I almost can't stand the suspense.
As everyone else that tries to do LIVE blogs, I will try to keep up and post random nonsense of what's going on.  I don't usually experience things behind a camera lens, I often come back from trips with tons of memories but very little photos captured.  Hoping this blog will force me to do a little bit more of that so I can relive the memories in the future.

Now my mom is "not sleeping" with her eyes closed and her Kindle dangerously close to meeting its fate on a tile floor and I'm still pumped and excited.  And I finally got my Coke Zero (thanks Publix).
So what else is in store this week?  
We bought the ultimate dining package.  I want to push its visit multiple venues every day limits.  I'm not much of a fan of the multi course meals.  I love the idea of popping in and eating one dish and leaving..or asking for it to go if possible.  We will see how all that shakes out.  If anything, there's always Izumi sushi and the new Portside BBQ or even Johnny Rockets to meet my needs.  
No drink package this time around.  This is not a social cruise, so I do not expect to consume beverages at the same level as I would on any cruise @Matt is on.  Oh wait...he's not #teamDX this cruise either though.  This will, however, be my first official cruise at Diamond status.  I will have access to unlimited Coke Zero in the Diamond Lounge for a few hours every evening.  That's a lie..they will run out.  They always run out.
I am going to try the Escape Room.  It was $19.99/person and just showed up in the Cruise Planner.  So I booked it and I am going to hope that we can manage to get out in time without the help of that trusty pink Swiss Army knife.

My mother chose to stay at the Doubletree Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay because she had points to use.  We took an Uber ($18.97) from the airport to the hotel because I wasn't going to make my mother traipse through public transit with luggage.  Well, there's a wedding going on here at the hotel that pretty much was beginning at the same time we got here.  Our 15 minute Uber ride spent 30 minutes in sight of the hotel backed up in that clusterF.  Note that this hotel shares a building with a condo complex where from the looks of it you must own a Maserati to be allowed into the parking garage.  Or you have to own a little yappy dog as there were lots of them in the lobby that I noticed throughout the evening.
My mother was informed via email she got downgraded to Silver status (whatever that means).  But HAH HILTON! Jokes on you..she still has whatever status is above that.  Apparently that was important to note since she told me and made a big deal out of it.  I guess I will take our two loyalty bottles of water onboard with me tomorrow to add to my C&A collection of loyalty bottles of water.  
 

Thanksgiving is an awesome time to cruise for me since it only requires taking off 3 days from work to fit in a 7 day cruise.  I'm already fortunate enough to live in Florida so all of the ports are drivable.  So it was all set..I had done Symphony and I was going to get to see how it all began on Oasis.  The newest and the oldest...but then in May I YOLO'd a 3 day Harmony sailing.  I mean, I'm only a 5 hour drive to Port Canaveral, so why not..easy to take a single day off work, blah, blah, blah.  But man..that meant the only Oasis class ship I was missing was Allure.  I looked at the schedule and prices and ended up at NextCruise booking Allure over Labor Day..so I was doing ALL FOUR OASIS CLASS SHIPS IN A YEAR (kinda...Thanksgiving to Thanksgiving).  So now I feel I can rightfully own the OASIS CLASS SHIRT.  Of course I didn't buy one before @Matt updated the design to include Wonder, foiling my plans.
 

So I debated starting this, but I'm sitting in my hotel room in Miami, it's 10:45pm and I can't sleep.  Why??  BECAUSE TOMORROW IS CRUISE DAY!!!!
And here we go...I will try to keep this going as I'm spending the next 7 nights on Oasis of the Seas for my 2nd Thanksgiving in a row at sea.  I managed to snag surf & stream VOOM for $11.99/day which I thought was reasonable enough, so I will be connected on the ship.  Sprint also has cell service at the ports (Labadee, San Juan, St. Thomas) which is included in my cell phone plan, so I won't be forced to disconnect at all. That means I can talk about, read about, and write about cruise stuff while I'm doing cruise stuff!!!
Last year I spent Thanksgiving on Symphony of the Seas (which also left from Miami) as part of the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise.  It was my first group cruise and I got to meet so many awesome folks from the different social media channels involved with the group.  I also spent that cruise in a category A1 room (Spacious 2-BR AquaTheater Suite with Large Balcony) which was absolutely my favorite cabin I've ever been in.  Symphony was also my first Oasis class ship.  It was Star Class and then combined with it also being the group cruise I felt like every single moment of that cruise was scheduled for me.
This time around I feel like I'm slumming it in an oceanview balcony room.  But I paid a pretty awesome price for it as a solo cruiser as they weren't charging the solo supplement.  I originally had a CP double balcony room (cabin numbers ending in 229 and 629) but the price dropped so much after final payment (we're talking as low as $650 all-in solo with Diamond discount and FL resident discount) that the oceanview balconies ended up being cheaper than I had paid.  My terrific MEI travel agent said they wouldn't give me any money back but she got me moved into an oceanview balcony at no extra cost, cabin 8594.
So that means I'm by myself in the room, I get double points, and I get to make my own schedule, right?  WRONG...my mother decided to invite herself along.  Of course she's also after the extra points, so she went and booked her own cabin so I will have a little bit of space and solo-ness still.
 

The Jameson Distillery tour is in my top 5 tours of a lifetime. I don’t even like Irish Whiskey 

Honestly, this blog is fantastic, I only wish I knew about it before my first 2 cruises.  Now going on our 3rd, I've learned so much from reading all these different posts.  I guess the only negative is the resentment my wife has towards it because I won't shut up about our trip or all the new things I've learned about cruising ?.
One question I have, as many people here have recommended the use of a TA, (I have never used one and always booked vacations, whether it's cruises or flights/hotels etc. myself), is does it matter where you live and where the TA is located?  I guess what I mean is that I live in Massachusetts, and many people have recommended MEI TA's, but I have no idea where they are located.  Do you just do everything over the phone or through email?  The idea of using a TA for future travel is tempting but having never used one, just unsure of how it works.

We made it! ?
I will update tomorrow. Our internal clocks are telling us it's 2.30 am and that's way past our bedtime even if the actual clock says 9.30 pm!

Day 5: Costa Maya
Today was another lazy day.  We slept until the kids woke us up.  It was raining and overcast, so we didn't want to take the kids into port.  We wanted to pick up a souvenir spoon to add to our collection, so we stopped by the nursery to reserve an hour.  They were full until 12:30pm, so we coordinated with Alan to meet up then.  We took the babies to the Windjammer and were sorely disappointed.  I was feeding our littlest one scrambled eggs when I found a big piece of egg shell.  I complained about it to the Windjammer staff, and his response was "I didn't know he was using real eggs.  I thought it came from a box."  I called Alan and had him deliver the little ones scrambled eggs to the room, but by then we were strapped for time and it didn't arrive until time to leave.  We got off the ship for about an hour, but it was still raining.  Costa Maya, in my opinion, is an overpriced port.  I searched around for awhile for a souvenir spoon, but refused to pay $35 for what you can get in Cozumel for $6.  I eventually found one for $10, and while it was not my favorite,  we were ready to get out of the rain.  We headed back onto the ship and picked up the kids.  Within a few minutes of being in the room, our daily snacks were delivered.  We, then, took advantage of the free pay per view movies that are included with Star Class.  This is a perk that isn't talked about much, but if you are like us and have little ones who take midday naps or you just like to lounge around, this is an awesome perk.  We took the two older kids to the arcade and the rock climbing wall.  They were about to close, but they let them each go twice since they were Star Class.  The kids wanted Giovanni's mac and cheese for dinner, so we had that delivered to the room.  Alan also had baked Alaska delivered since we mentioned liking it.  After dropping off the kids in Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots, Steven and I had dinner at 150 Central Park.  We got super fast service and had our whole meal in less than an hour.  Telling Alan we want a fast dining experience in our initial communication was definitely a good idea.  When we have the babies with us or have a set time that we need to pick up the little ones, dinner on a cruise can be stressful since it usually takes more time than we have to get all the courses served.  150 Central Park was delicious as usual.  Alan checked in on us while we were at dinner and then came to our cabin after dinner to take a few pictures on the balcony.  He played with the kids and surprised us with dessert delivery.  We watched the Aquatheater light show (or whatever it's called) from our balcony and now we are calling it a night.

Since I really enjoyed doing a liveblog this past May when I was on Allure, I thought I would give it another go on Grandeur. It will be as live as Grandeur's internet will allow so fingers crossed! 
Pre-cruise report:

Sailing:  November 23-30, 2019, Grandeur of the Seas, 7 Night Bahamas Perfect Day cruise
Sailing with:   Me (32), and my parents (not my age to tell)
Flying from:  NOWHERE! Baltimore means that we get to drive to the ship for once and don't have to worry about liquids or carry on sizes, or luggage weight. Happy day! 
Pre-cruise hotel:  NONE! Again, Baltimore means a 2 hour drive thus eliminating the need for a hotel. We plan to leave around 8:30 am so even if we run into traffic issues, we should be able to get there with plenty of time. (knock on wood)
 
The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Baltimore
Day 2  – At Sea
Day 3 – Port Canaveral, FL
Day 4 – Coco Cay 
Day 5 – Nassau
Day 6 and 7 – At Sea
Day 8 – Baltimore
Not the most exciting itinerary in the world, but we were just looking for a nice easy get away for not much money. 
 
Cabin:  Interior for this trip. Since it's the second one this year, it's our cheap quick and dirty cruise. No need to get fancy for this get away! 
Pre-purchases: We got a really great price on an internet package at around $8/day and my mom and I will have the refreshment package. I also managed to snag a Chill Island cabana before prices ballooned so I'm really looking forward to that since I am a ghost of a human being and burn just looking at a cartoon of the sun. Since Grandeur is a tiny ship and will be the only one docking at Coco Cay, tickets to the waterpark were only $32 so I figured it would be fiscally irresponsible to not at least check it out on this sailing.You know, for research. The last thing we pre-purchased are day passes to the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau so I am quite curious to see what it's like. I've heard mixed things, so we shall see. 
Random Pre-cruise thoughts:
Please let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to check out or take pictures of for you. I am open to requests. I'm very curious to see what the crew is like for this sailing since Grandeur has long been celebrated for the family like atmosphere. I have tempered my expectations though as I've heard that some of the crew are already leaving due to the pending sale.  Forewarning that my idea of cruise fun is lounging and reading when on board so you won't catch a review of the rockwall from me! I do fully expect to burn through 5-8 books on my kindle though. So excited to make a dent in my "to read" list.  I promise future posts will have more pictures! 

I am sitting here thinking this...
I just feel like I have so much to do!  We have finalized some plans though.  We decided that we are going to have Thanksgiving at our house, then we have Friday for shopping...you know last minute shopping.? Our plan for Saturday is to get some Dunkin when they open and be on the road by 6-6:30 am in the morning.  We have about a 4.5 hour drive or so.  My goal is to be at the port by 11am!!!  
 
Our Genie communication with Lisa has been good.  I feel like we are not needy cruisers, but I have become reliant on Lisa.  I spent so much time on that survey, I wanted to make sure she got it and actually read it.  She gave me a little more bad news when it came to my drink preferences saying there is no Corona Premier or Vanilla Crown Royal.  She assured me that I wouldn’t go thirsty!!!  So the good news is they do read those surveys.  I am patiently waiting for her next email because she was outlining our dining and show schedule.  I have some specific requests so I am excited to see it all play out. 
 
We are just so excited.  

A little late, but this is my hubby in his glory days.

My sweetie, Speedy.

There you go, great positive attitude! Please don't let that minor inconvenience of changing cabins on a B2B ruin your cruise. From what I have read from other B2B cruisers here on this forum, it's seamless, painless and happens quickly. So, look forward to a GREAT cruise experience and enjoy the hell out of it!

Thank You all for the advice.  Even though we couldn't get the same room looking forward to 14 glorious nights and our first B2B.