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My wife and I are on symphony right now and got our deluxe beverage package for 46 per day on just some random unadvertised sale in the cruise planner. You need to watch it all the time is the moral of the story. 

Coconut water is gross. Gimme any other part of that coconut but blehhhh about the water.

Day 4: Cozumel
After blogging last night, we ditched our plan for Love and Marriage and decided to have Sabor delivered to our cabin and be lazy.  Our plan to sleep in didn't work out either since our 9 year old decided to wake us up.  We reluctantly got out of bed and started our day with breakfast in the Windjammer since we wanted to grab something fast.  It was ok, but it's no Coastal Kitchen.  After breakfast, we dropped the kids off at Adventure Ocean and the babies at Royal Babies and Tots, and Steven and I went to the flowrider.  For some reason, we never find time to do the flowrider, so this trip we were determined to.  We got there about 15 minutes before they closed, and to our surprise there wasn't anybody in line for the boogie board side.  After embarrassing ourselves a few times, we grabbed Starbucks and a smoothie from vitality spa and headed to the suite deck.  After lounging around for about 15 minutes, we went to park cafe.  We kept tossing around the idea of getting off the ship in Cozumel but decided that we'd just stay on since almost every itinerary we have goes to Cozumel.  Christian and Sophia wanted to stay in Adventure Ocean, so we just picked up the babies and let them play for a little bit before nap time.  During nap time, we finished The Hustle movie with Rebel Wilson.  Despite it's bad reviews, we thought it was funny and enjoyed it.  We went to get Christian and Sophia from Adventure Ocean, and they still did not want to leave but we made them this time.  I will definitely give props to the Adventure Ocean staff.  They do a great job of keeping the kids entertained.  Despite being full from our daily snack delivery, we went to Giovanni's.  Before we arrived, Alan spoke with the Giovanni's staff and told them to have macaroni and cheese waiting for the kids when we arrived.  He also told them to have our meals to us in a quick manner, and our waiter was very polite and fast.  Within seconds of sitting down, the kids all had mac and cheese and our orders were being taken.  I really liked the grilled octopus and the filet, but I think the filet from Coastal Kitchen yesterday was better.  Alan stopped in and gave the kids light up rings which was a nice surprise (especially since he had already stopped in the cabin earlier and gave them inky the octopus stuffed animals).  After dinner, we caught a few minutes of OceanAria on our balcony and then went to the comedy show.  It was Carl Long and Steve Wilson, and they were very funny.  We much preferred them over the comedians that were onboard Allure on our last sailing.  After picking up the kids, we grabbed Cups and Scoops and Johnny Rockets and called it a night.  We emailed Alan and once again told him we want to sleep in tomorrow.   Hopefully, our kids get the memo this time.

Day 2: Perfect Day at CocoCay
Allure was finally able to dock in CocoCay, and we celebrated by having a lazy day.  We had breakfast delivered at 9am, and we were still asleep.  I thought I was dreaming of a doorbell ringing, but nope they hit it about 10 times within 5 seconds.  Unfortunately,  it was too windy for breakfast on the balcony, so we ate inside and finally finish Rocketman (started it last time we were on Allure).  Alan escorted us off the ship at 11:15am bypassing all the lines to the gangway.  We went shopping, had lunch at Skipper's Grill, and took the kids to Splashaway Bay and Captain Jill's Galleon.  The food was not as good as the last time we were on CocoCay (before Perfect Day), or maybe we've just been spoiled by Star Class.  After a few bites, we decided to just wait and have lunch on the ship.  When we got back on the ship, we had Starbucks (totally abusing that privilege with Starbuck's holiday drinks) and then ordered room service without knowing that Alan coordinated almost the same meal delivery plus chocolate covered strawberries and shrimp.  Needless to say, my clothes aren't exactly fitting anymore and this is only Day 2.  I tried to order a virgin mango colada at Mama Mia yesterday, but they told me they only had strawberry.  Alan must have been listening,  because he had two delivered to our room today.  After pigging out, I took about a two hour nap and woke up to news of the Caribbean itineraries opening up for Fall 2021.  Alan had Next Cruise in our suite within a few minutes of release, and we scored 8730 for November 2021 on Oasis.  Have I mentioned how amazing "Genie Alan" is?!?!  As we were leaving CocoCay, he was playing games with the kids on the balcony.  About that time, our 9 year old Christian, showed Alan his Pichu stuffed animal.  That stuffed animal is his best buddy,  and boy has it seen better days.  It's head is half way torn off with stuffing coming out, but he loves that thing.  When Alan saw it, he took Pichu with him and 15 minutes later brought it back stitched back together.  #bestgenieever.  It was formal night tonight, but we were feeling lazy and opted for 150 Central Park delivery.  The two older kids just wanted to go to Adventure Ocean, so we grabbed them a quick bite at the Windjammer.  We dropped them off and then had 150 on the balcony.  Alan also surprised us with 6 "the world" desserts after I had briefly mentioned yesterday that that was the only part of Chef's Table that I wanted to try.  Then, off to the second half of Mama Mia.  We preferred the first half, but still enjoyed the second half and are glad we attended.  Now, we are off to bed and ready for tomorrow's adventure.

It's fly to Miami day! ?
We are enjoying the hotel's included breakfast before walking over to the airport. It is a very good breakfast for a hotel of this category. There are hot items too and an espresso machine in addition to the filter coffee. 
 


 

We are on our way! ?
Our local airport is very quiet at this time of year. It mostly serves summer holidaymakers coming to enjoy our beautiful beaches.

The day a bot realizes he's been replaced by a younger, smarter, prettier, funnier bot while at Diamond happy hour...

Challenge met... friends, HE is not a bot

DAY 6: Sea Day
Bottomless Galley Brunch
Note: Only the drinks, champagne and fruit punch, are bottomless.  The brunch is pick one option per course - appetizer, main course, dessert.  The guy at the table next to mine asked for a second main course, he was told he would be charged for it. This package should be renamed, “Bottomless Drinks Galley Brunch”

 
Sorry, I was too hungry to take a picture of the Filet Mignon ? 

+2 Ick

Coconut water is gross. Gimme any other part of that coconut but blehhhh about the water.

Coconut water is gross. Gimme any other part of that coconut but blehhhh about the water.

Coconut water is gross. Gimme any other part of that coconut but blehhhh about the water.

^^ +1 ^^

In the words of the old John Denver song – “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go”! I’m not quite standing outside the door yet though since we don’t set off until tomorrow afternoon.
We (myself and DH Fernando) will be flying from our local airport – Faro, in the Algarve, which is mainland Portugal’s southernmost province – to Lisbon, where we will overnight at the Star Inn Lisbon Airport Hotel. We have stayed here twice before. It is less than a five-minute walk from the terminal and offers a very decent included breakfast. I would definitely recommend it as a good option if you just need a room for the night in Lisbon before an early flight.
While this overnight is not strictly essential, it does mean we avoid the dreaded 3 am start to catch the 6 am feeder flight, which would then be followed by a 4-hour layover in Lisbon. Not a great start to a holiday and guaranteed to have us arriving in Miami utterly exhausted.
On this particular occasion it will also give us the chance to go and see the Portuguese version of the musical Chicago, which is showing in Lisbon at the moment.
Our flight to Miami International departs from Lisbon at 10.35 on Thursday morning, arriving stateside at 2.55 pm. We are flying on TAP, the Portuguese flag-carrier, who are operating the flight with one of their very new Airbus Neo aircraft, so that will be an interesting change from the much older and very tired airbuses they previously used for this route.
On arrival we will try to Uber or Lyft to the Best Western Plus Oceanside Inn in Fort Lauderdale for a two-night pre-cruise stay. We have stayed here before too and find it to be a pleasant and reasonably-priced option within walking distance of just about everything you could need, as well as offering a very decent included breakfast. Yes, there’s a pattern here. We do prefer included breakfasts!
We are hoping that the weather will cooperate and we will be able to spend the day on Friday riding the water taxi.
Saturday the 23rd is Cruise Day. We are aiming to board at about 1 pm, just as the cabins open up. The morning will probably be spent relaxing by the hotel pool. For us, the hotel stay is part of our overall holiday and we prefer the comfort and convenience of boarding later, so we don’t feel that we are missing out by not getting to the port earlier.
Our ports of call on the 8-night cruise are Labadee, San Juan Puerto Rico, St Thomas and St Maarten. We have booked one excursion through the ship – the 5-star island tour in St Thomas – and will be doing our own thing in the other three ports. We have also booked the 3-night speciality dining package so will be looking to eat twice in Giovanni’s and once in Chops. No Izumi for us as we don’t like sushi and Adventure does not have the hot rocks option.
At the end of the cruise we will book an excursion with airport drop-off; we just haven’t decided which one yet. Again, the convenience is the deal-breaker for us.
I will try and post at least once a day, including pics of the daily compass and menus, and I will be very happy to try and find the answer to any questions while we are on board, so feel free to ask.
Oh, and one last very important note to close on for this evening… This will be our very first cruise as Diamond C&A members. Uber-excited would be an understatement.

Does anyone else love picking out your families Christmas Jammie’s?  These are for my hubby and son this year.  Christmas Vacation movie is a family favourite in our house. As this is our first holiday cruise, we are not sure whether Christmas movies will be playing on board but I will definitely download and take this with us, just in case.  I think I will ask our Genie about access to Christmas movies ?. 

Welcome, Jax !  I don’t think you will be disappointed with Royal, particularly starting out with Star Class.  
 
We have been SC on both the Oasis class ships and the Quantum class (Anthem is a Q class) and while I will always be an O class gal, I do believe that with the Q class ships, SC is a bigger discriminator that with the O class.  There are simply more activities and venues for which the Genie is critical on the Q class.  I think this is especially true if there are children involved.  If I were a kid and knew that I could go down and ride the bumper cars as many times as I wanted to with minimal waiting, that is where I would be all day !  Many times I have even seen the Genie ride along with the kids and I think that’s a hoot !  Ride the North Star as often as you want.  That’s huge, really.   Go to a Tribute Band concert in the Music Hall and have reserved seats.  True, no ice skating or Aqua Theater but I think the other, unique activities of Q compensate more than enough and having a Genie makes those activities so much easier and more fun.
If you get Yen Lee, tell her Dan and Raye say “hello”.
Each ship is different but we are on Oasis in SC in 2 weeks.  We got our questionnaire 2 months ahead and got our first comm from the Genie 1 month ahead of sailing.  Also remember that the Oasis has been in dry dock so the Genies have no current passengers to care for,  so that may explain why we heard from Joyce so early.
Enjoy your cruise. I think you will soon find the difference between DCL and Royal despite the lackluster pre-cruise communication from Royal.

It is not only possible, it is very likely that's what I'm doing lol. I always like to have a contingency plan for every situation.

Is it possible he won't do it and you're just running through scenarios? No judgment, I do the same, I like to be aware of all possible outcomes.

Good morning everyone!  As the title says, we will be doing a side by side sailing coming up a week from Monday out of Miami.  As long as data/wi-fi/VOOM cooperates I will try to post as live as I can.  I'll put some of the background and details below, and will also be commenting on our before/after plans as well so feel free to skip past all that if it's not your thing.  Forewarning this first post will be a long one.  I was back and forth on doing a blog, but I know I really appreciate reading them to get me by until my next sailing.  As we go throughout the trip, feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to answer as I can.  
 
Who: 
Myself (Cody) and my wife (Ainslie).  I'm active duty AF currently stationed in Colorado Springs.  Just got back to the area in April after living 30 minutes south of Port Canaveral for almost five years, so this will be our first cruise in years where we have to fly to the port which was a big driver in the longer trip.  No kids, so aside from getting the vacation time we have the flexibility to cruise any time of the year.  We love this time of year as the weather is perfect, it's typically cheaper, and longer sailings (Explorer) often have a much more laid-back feel to them which we like.  We are Emerald C&A members coming just short of Diamond after these sailings and won't be in suites so I won't be much help in regards to those aspects/questions.
Why these sailings?: 
We did 14 nights b2b on Navigator a couple years ago over the exact same timeframe and loved it.  We got off that sailing and immediately knew we had to get back to the ABCs, which this time is on Explorer.  We considered doing the 5 night over Thanksgiving and making it a true b2b again, but this one went to Labadee & Jamaica and we're already doing Labadee the second sailing.  We really enjoyed Navigator and were excited to see the amplified ship so got a great rate a year ago on the 4 night Thanksgiving sailing and we get to go to Coco Cay.  I went in September but my wife has never been as we missed it the previous two attempts before the pier was installed.  We'll get to sail on one new ship to us and one revamped ship coupled with getting back to our favorite ports in the ABCs so it was a no-brainer!  Escaping the Colorado cold doesn't hurt either.
Staterooms:
Navigator we'll be in a deck 7 Promenade Room.  Originally had the exact same room # on Explorer, but after final payment date the rates on Oceanview Balconies dropped to the point where we upgraded for less than $100, so we'll have a deck 7 Oceanview Balcony on the Starboard side which we prefer.
Onboard Extras:
We purchased the Deluxe beverage package + VOOM for myself and the Refreshment for my wife on both sailings.  I waffled a bit on this but in the end got a rate we were happy with and I love not having to worry about a bill at the end for drinks.  Coupled with the fact that due to work we may not get to cruise next year and it was a fairly easy decision.  On Navigator I booked the UDP for us as there are some new venues I wanted to try and the price was $99pp so not bad.  VOOM came with my DX package but we would've purchased anyways.  No specialty dining on Explorer as we have some longish port days so a couple nights MDR but a lot of casual WJ meals for us.
Travel:
More in the itinerary to come but we're flying on the red-eye from Denver next Saturday morning at 12:45!  Flying into Orlando to spend time with friends.  We're flying Frontier (I know), but the ticket price was a few hundred cheaper than other airlines which allowed us to spend some time both before and after the cruise in Florida.  After disembarking on the 8th we'll head back up to Orlando to get a couple days at WDW before flying out late on the 9th back to Denver.  Got some great pricing on one way rentals both Orlando to Miami and in reverse with Avis.  Dropping of the rental the night before the cruise so will use Uber/Lyft to get to the ship.
Itinerary:
23 Nov- Fly to Orlando, spend day/night in Melbourne with friends
24 Nov- Drive to Miami, one night at the Gabriel downtown
25 Nov- Board Navigator
26 Nov- Nassau (8:00am-6:00pm)
27 Nov- Coco Cay (7:00am-5:00pm)
28 Nov- Sea Day (Thanksgiving)
29 Nov- Turnaround day, board Explorer
30 Nov- Sea Day
1 Dec- Labadee (8:00am-5:00pm)
2 Dec- Sea Day
3 Dec- Willemstad, Curacao (9:00am-8:00pm)
4 Dec- Kralendijk, Bonaire (8:00am-8:00pm)
5 Dec- Oranjestad, Aruba (8:00am-7:00pm)
6-7 Dec- Sea Days
8 Dec- Disembark, head to Orlando/Disney
9 Dec- Fly home late
Excursions:
Nassau- My wife is doing some sort of dolphin thing (I believe) and I'm going to just walk around, get a bite to eat, and spend some time at Pirate Republic Brewing (I'm a big beer guy)
Coco Cay- I've got the all-day waterpark pass, but aside from that a leisurely day
Labadee- Nothing planned, just relax
Curacao- Rented a car through Advance and plan to drive up to some of the more remote beaches.  Afternoon/evening will be spent walking downtown and getting a bite to eat at our favorite place
Bonaire- Snorkeling again with Woodwind and then relaxing in town
Aruba- Local bus to our favorite dutch pancake restaurant, then plan to spend the rest of the day at Reflexions Beach Bar while my wife shops in town
 
Again, apologies for the long post and congrats to those who stuck with it!  I will start with the live portion next Saturday once we start traveling.  I will not be uploading the compasses daily but if you have specific questions on those I will try to answer.  Have a great weekend and thanks for following along!

Thanks for that, both of you! If nothing else, we are all huge fans of The Princess Bride, and it would be fantastic to actually see the location where they filmed
At the same time, we're also Game of Thrones fans, which is part of why the second tour also has some appeal. But as you say, it looks exhausting and I have a feeling that doing both would leave us too wiped out for anything else during our time there.

A tip @JLMoran no matter what time of year you go to the Cliffs- bring a windbreaker or a jacket and hats. I've been there a few times and I always get nasty rainy weather there...it didn't stop us each time but I just remember the weather being a thing both times.
 

I understand venting.  I do it too.
What do you want? 
Let's meet tomorrow on our sea day and talk it over.  

We have had a very good first day, but it has been super busy so we haven't had time to blog until now.  Alan has been amazing.  Embarkation was smooth, and we were on the ship before 11am.  We had plans to have Chops for lunch, but the cruise before ours had a norovirus outbreak and Chops was closed for lunch as they were doing extra sanitation there at lunch time.  We went to Giovanni's Table instead, and we enjoyed it very much; but I still prefer Chops for embarkation day lunch.  After leaving Giovanni's, we picked up Sabor guacamole and chips to take back to the room and then went to Cups and Scoops for ice cream and cupcakes.  After we registered the kids for Adventure Ocean, Alan met back up with us in our cabin, and again, wow, we are really impressed by him.  He has been extremely accommodating and very personable.  Although we know he is busy, he does not show it.  He takes the time to make you feel like you are his only guest.  He is also great with the kids and takes the time to interact with them as well.  For dinner, we went to Izumi, and it was wonderful like always.  We were wanting to see Mama Mia but did not want to be away from the babies for that long, so we were going to put them in the nursery long enough to see the first half.  We enjoyed it so much, that we decided to see the second half tomorrow.  The performers are fantastic, and we enjoyed Mama Mia much more than Blue Planet.  After the first half of Mama Mia, we picked up the babies.  We tried to pick up the older two as well, but they were having too much fun and wanted to stay longer.  We met Alan at Oceanaria, but ended up leaving early because it was very chilly.  We, then, proceeded to do what we do best and made pitstops at Johnny Rockets, Sabor, Cups and Scoops, and Vintages to get an assortment of snacks from each.  I really don't know how we were still eating at this point, but as @SweetPea said in her blog, looks like we are going to have to do a Star Class detox when we get home.  We are finally leaving port and will be in CocoCay tomorrow. 

@JLMoran My vote is the first one and save the next one for another trip. I've only had experience with the first option though. The Cliffs of Moher are an experience. I've been to Ireland a couple of times and it's beautiful! There is so much to see and do. The second option looks great but seems exhausting and better for another time.
 
Either way you will all enjoy yourselves. Ireland was one of my favorite places to visit.