twangster

In my experience a man enjoying a "told you so" moment is short lived.  Recommend generous drink package utilization in hopes it purges her memory.  

In my experience a man enjoying a "told you so" moment is short lived.  Recommend generous drink package utilization in hopes it purges her memory.  

In my experience a man enjoying a "told you so" moment is short lived.  Recommend generous drink package utilization in hopes it purges her memory.  

Scientific proof the weather is absolutely perfect today in Tampa

Ok you guys, I'm really laughing. Since I couldn't decide on what to do about this fall 2020 cruise, I went through and made a list of all of the Sept/Oct cruises that I thought he  might be interested in, as well as the Radiance Alaskan cruises in Aug, and put them in front of my husband, and asked him to give an opinion. They consisted of the 3 Alaskan cruises, several Caribbean cruises, and a Canada/New England cruise.  He surprised me and picked the Canada/New England cruise.  When I mentioned that one of the dates is a RoyalCaribbeanBlog Group Cruise, he said "well, that sounds like fun!" (he doesn't really follow the site much unless I send him a link).
So there ya go - we're going on the GROUP CRUISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C&A tells me you can cancel a cruise planner DX once on board and buy it again on board.  That was their advice when sailing with my Gold son so he wouldn't have to pay full on board price but I could get my D+ discount on board.

In my experience a man enjoying a "told you so" moment is short lived.  Recommend generous drink package utilization in hopes it purges her memory.  

In my experience a man enjoying a "told you so" moment is short lived.  Recommend generous drink package utilization in hopes it purges her memory.  

Once we got onboard we booked our specialty dining. We have the ultimate dining package, and got reservations for everything we wanted at the time we wanted.  There were a few specialty dining waiters waiting right as we boarded, so they took our reservations nice and easy. 
Our first stop was the Solarium Bar to enjoy some embarkation day drinks!


Always book your drink packages before the cruise.  We paid $49 versus the $70 

Valentine’s Day decorations in the Centrum.  At least they tried, right?

Alaska is a destination to look beyond brand.  I get you are trying to be loyal but consider expanding your search criteria if September is it.  

Woohoo!
 

Your mother, if Elite+ will be recognized and have Diamond benefits when sailing on Royal.  However those do not extend to the whole cabin. 
She will be treated as if she is Diamond, you will not be unless you are also Elite or higher on Celebrity, or you are already Diamond on your own merit in C&A.

Did they finish that wall barrier early?

Not on Royal.  Carnival was strict about it when I used to sail them, but never on Royal.  

Cruise day is here!

These are real concerns and it would be irresponsible of me to put our vacation in jeopardy due to gators

Welcome to the message boards!
I sailed from Barcelona on Symphony (sister to Oasis) this past October.  I documented my arrival into the port and the cruise ship terminal in this blog post:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9684-symphony-ots-live-transatlantic-oct-28-2018-coming-to-america/&do=findComment&comment=89238
In the 3rd picture you can see the luggage drop area which is the blue carts near the building in the distance.  With my Royal Caribbean luggage tags affixed to my bag I simply hand the luggage to a porter with a small tip and enter the building to go through security and check in.  Here is that picture:

With many cruises under my belt I've never had a problem with luggage.  
The large ships like Oasis span two terminals.  You can actually check in at either terminal.  
I use reusable luggage tag holders from Amazon.  In the rain like on this day, they keep everything dry and safe and great simplify attaching luggage tags to your luggage.  For $7 they are great:
https://www.amazon.com/Cruise-Luggage-Holder-Seal-Steel/dp/B01E4SQNLS/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1550101443&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=royal+luggage+tags&psc=1

Love Key West.  Love Cozumel.  Both are better experienced over time, multiple visits.  It seems only smaller ships make it into Key West so if you are planning more cruises in the future factor that into your decision.  
You cant go wrong with either.  

Seriously?  With all the nuances we see across Royal IT you can't understand why this is occurring?  ? ? ? 

I think I speak for everyone when I say "Yes!".  We have all encountered the frustration you are experiencing.  
Even as an incognito user myself, it still has done this to me as recent as this week when attempting to check in for a future cruise.  In my case I walked away for an hour and poof it worked.  

Or better yet at dawn this morning:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/02/13/navigator-of-the-seas-first-sailing-cancelled-due-upgrade-delays
 

Day 2 (Sea Day)
We woke up around 8:30 and decided on Johnny Rockets for breakfast. How cool is it waking up in the morning and deciding between several different breakfast spots and none of them cost anything? I managed to remember to snap a picture of the menu but once again forgot to get a picture of the food. It was a really good breakfast option and it was nice to have a sit down type breakfast that didn't take a long time. I had an omelette and my wife had the two eggs "her way" which was scrambled.
While eating breakfast the Ultimate Abyss caught my eye so I went to give it a try. It was a lot of fun. It isn't as fast as it looks but still fast enough to be a thrill. After that we took a walk around the jogging track. A lot of people talk about trying to find that connection with the sea on Oasis class ships and this is definitely the place to find it. The chairs on the track along the back and sides of the ship are great spots to read or just relax. I love that peaceful sound of waves crashing against the ship.

I was still feeling a little bit groggy from exercising my drink package rights the night before so I decided to exercise them again, only this time on a juice from Vitality Cafe in the spa. I suck at eating vegetables so I decided to just have them put all of the vegetables they had in there with some ginger and lemon. The orange color comes from the carrots, and while it doesn't look all that appealing I really enjoyed it. They also have smoothies as well there and I think these options are an underrated aspect of the drink package. I swear they cure hangovers, but it may just be that fresh salty air.

Then it was time for the World's Sexiest Man competition. If you have seen one of these then you have pretty much seen them all, but it is one of those fun things that remind you that you are on a cruise and we enjoy watching it. After the competition we stayed on the pool deck and enjoyed some music from the pool band for a while. We thought they were a really good pool band.

After that we walked around in the Solarium and talked to a nice couple we met out on the bridge wing for a little while. Here are a few short videos of the Solarium and the bridge wing on Harmony for anyone who has never seen it before. Now it was time to head back to the room and get ready for dinner. We are going to 150 Central Park tonight.

Solarium-Bridge Wing.mp4 Solarium-Above Scan.mp4 Solarium-Lower Level.mp4

Day 3 (Sea Night)
Before dinner we stopped by Dazzles because we heard the house band music and it drew us in. I definitely agree that Dazzles is an underrated venue on Oasis class ships. I loved the energy of the live band and the venue itself is incredibly nice. We listened for a while and when they stopped playing they were setting up for the Finish That Lyric Gameshow so we stuck around and watched that for a while as well. It was really fun to watch and I'm glad we happened upon it but we had to leave early for our dinner reservation at 150 Central Park.

150 Central Park was probably the venue that my wife and I were the most excited about and it didn't disappoint. Not only were there a ton of options for my wife, but I also had trouble narrowing it down to just one item, so I didn't. For appetizers I had the Seared Honey Glazed Scallops and my wife had the Roasted Spiced Pumpkin Bisque and we both really enjoyed them. For entrees my wife had the Cauliflower Steak and I had the Roasted Beef Tenderloin and also the Lobster Thermidor. They were both incredibly good and I honestly couldn't pick a favorite. If I went back I would order both again. We finished off the meal with the fried cheesecake which was also great. Our waiter, Andre, was probably the best waiter we have ever had anywhere.




Once we finished an amazing meal we were incredibly excited to go see Grease! We had reservations but we were running a little bit late and only managed to get there about 15 minutes early. Even though they hadn't started letting the standby group in it was already packed and we could not find a seat together anywhere. We spoke with a crew member and we were able to book Grease for the last night of the cruise. We learned our lesson on getting there only 15 minutes early. If you want to make sure that you get a good seat or if you have a larger group I would recommend getting there at least 20-30 minutes early.
It actually worked out because we were able to get into the comedy show that we probably wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. I didn't get any photos but the comedians were both funny. We went and had a few drinks after the show and then wound up back in The Attic for the silent disco. For anyone who has never been this is a night club event where everyone is given headphones and two choices of music to play. The color on the headphones indicates what music someone is listening to. It was a lot of fun to see everyone dancing and then take off the headphones and basically hear nothing but people singing. It was a blast and everybody seemed to really enjoy it. Here is a picture and a video of it. After that we headed to bed. Another sea day was coming tomorrow.


VIDEO Silent Disco B.MP4

Day 1 (Embarkation-Chops and Super Bowl Party)
For our first night we decided to go to Chops for dinner. We went as soon as they opened so that we could make sure to catch the majority of the game that night. I had the lobster bisque and 9 ounce filet and my wife got the wild mushroom soup and a caesar salad. We had sides of mashed potatoes and truffled fries. The waiter did offer my wife something different since she is a vegetarian but she wasn't all that hungry and was just in the mood for a ceasar salad. The highlights of the meal were definitely the wild mushroom soup and the filet. The filet was a perfect medium rare and my wife liked the soup so much she ordered another serving. The fries were incredibly good too. Although it wasn't our favorite restaurant I thought the steak was exceptional and that is what a steakhouse is all about, after all. For any vegetarians out there Chops probably isn't the best choice, not that it should come as a shock. We knew that going in but I really wanted to try the filet, so there was no disappointment there.
The service was a little bit poor to be honest. It took about 15 minutes to get greeted and there were only bout 5 or 6 tables in the whole restaurant. Once we ordered it got a little better but we still thought it took a little longer than it should have overall. It didn't bother us much though, nothing does on a cruise. No big deal.

We skipped dessert so that we could get over to the Super Bowl party. It was also a part of our strategy to avoid feeling stuffed and miserable throughout the cruise. We were only going to order dessert if we still had room or something was just too good to pass up. We failed at that the majority of time but stuck to it on night 1.
There were multiple places to watch the Super Bowl on the ship. It was on in the On Air Club, the Pub, and the Aquatheatre and all of them were decorated for the big game. The real action was on the Boardwalk at the Aquatheatre which is where they had a nice little Super Bowl party setup. Since we were late to the party we didn't get pictures of the food they had set up but they had the typical football food you would expect like nachos, wings, hot dogs, burgers, fries, and various other finger foods. The only catch was that you had to pay $6 in order to have access to it, which had a lot of people talking. I did think it was a little odd since, for the most part, it was the same food available in the Windjammer. It didn't bother us much since we were so stuffed from Chops! A lot of people were grabbing food from the Dog House or the Windjammer and bringing it down which is probably what we would have done.
They also had a few ice sculptures and cakes set up that represented each team. The atmosphere was great in the Aquatheatre and even though it was a relatively uneventful game overall there was a lot of energy with the majority of people rooting for the Rams. We couldn't get a seat at first and watched the majority of the first half in the pub but we were eventually able to find seats in the Aquatheatre after halftime. I thought it would be a good idea in the future to maybe charge the $6 for access to the food and also reserved seating. Since we got there late I guess it is possible they did and we just didn't know, but I don't think that was the case. I probably would have paid $6 just for reserved seating because it was an awesome place to watch the Super Bowl. I know @Matt already spoiled the ending, but the Patriots won! Overall I think Royal Caribbean did a good job with it and it was a lot of fun to watch with such a large group.

Following the Super Bowl we headed down to Entertainment Place to check out the night club in the Attic. It was really dead in there but they also had some music playing in Studio B and there were a few people in there but it was still a little slow. We decided to check out the Boot and Bonnet Pub and listen to some music to end the night. The guitarist for the week was named Kieron and he was from London. He was really good and became our favorite source of nighttime entertainment. We listened and sang along until he was done playing before grabbing some pizza from Sorrento's and heading to bed. Tomorrow is the first of two consecutive sea days.