kpersons09

Ok...I can take the blame for that one ?
Thanks! I wanted them to do the actual RC logo but they couldn't. 
If you like Mexican or Spanish dishes, this restaurant really is a must try. Their portions are also very generous. 

Smart women know never to weigh themselves AFTER dinner! ?

I am so glad that I looked at the latest update after eating dinner. Those La Bamba pictures have me drooling on a full stomach ?

One more day. 

Woohoo. I cruised June, July and now August. I feel a repeat next year.

Sitting at the gate waiting for our flight. Pretty non-eventful trip to DTW other than the airport was completely packed through baggage check and security. It is never like that here!  But then again, we usually don't fly out Sunday morning either so who knows.  
My kids informed us that they did not sleep at all last night. Lights were on at 3am when I woke up earlier. Pretty sure D9 is crashing. Should make for an interesting rest of the day. Currently debating what we should eat for breakfast before boarding...exciting times ?

Periscope is wonderful in that you can live it through others but terrible in that the more you watch, the more you wish you were going somewhere too ?
Thank you for following along and don't hesitate to ask anything along the way. That's how we roll here ?
@Matt...look...another one sailing Mariner before you lol
I am honoured ? Too bad it's not tomorrow. I know...it's the dog's fault 

I wasn’t entirely truthful…. or that’s what Hubby told me when I first presented the idea of this cruise to him.  The last time I blogged in March, while on board Anthem, I said the next live blog would be on Harmony in March 2019.  At the moment, it’s only August… 
Here’s the backstory:
It all started around April (@Skid, it was not as spontaneous as you thought), when Hubby let me in on an innocent fact.  He said, “I took a week off in August while you and girls are still off.”  My response, “What do you want to do during that week?”, but really, the gears already started turning and I’m thinking, “What cruise can I book that won’t break the bank (since we’ve already taken double the amount we usually take in one year)?” 
We tossed around the idea of doing a land vacation to New York or Chicago.  I even went as far as to price it out and research things we could do with the kids there.  All the while, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, a cruise is still better value.  I consulted the kids in the land vacation planning and I was met with two responses, “Is there going to be a lot of walking?” and, “Why can’t we just go on another cruise?”  Yes!  I have raised cruise addicts…scary thought.
With all the hype surrounding Mariner’s revitalization, my curiosity was piqued.  I priced it out and the price was not as bad as I thought it would be.  With that, I pitched the idea to Hubby.  I was met with a firm, “NO!”  Not because he doesn’t like cruising, but because this would be our 5th cruise (6th if you count the one that we treated my parents to) within a one-year period (we don’t live the @twangster or @Matt life), we are 211 days away from a Star Class sailing ???, and we just got off the Seaside two weeks ago.  However, fittingly, as my title by @Matt would have it, I’m not called a “Stubborn Canadian Scorpio” for nothing.  I continued to monitor pricing and air fare, and as luck would have it, somewhere near the end of May, both went down to a decent rate.   Hubby, as I suspected, did not have any other ideas for a land vacation so he finally agreed, and I said, “YOLO, I’m Booking It!”  The reality of it is that I am, “Blessed by God and Spoiled by my Husband”.
Who is going?  Hubby and I, and our two girls (D12, D9 about to be 10)
Flight:
Once again, we are flying out of DTW to FLL.  Mariner leaves from Miami, but flights were cheaper to FLL and we prefer to stay there anyway.
Our plan is to use Lyft Plus to get us to the Port of Miami in the morning.
Pre-cruise Stay:
Normally, we like to stay at the Renaissance (on 17th Street) but this time we have our kids with us and HYATT PLACE FORT LAUDERDALE 17TH STREET CONVENTION CENTER is better suited for our family.  The hotel provides a free airport shuttle from FLL, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a complimentary hot breakfast in the morning.  Anyone travelling with kids knows what a relief it is not to have to find food for the kids in the morning.  In addition, the best part about this hotel, is that it is right next door to our favourite restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, La Bamba!  The call of margaritas and fried ice cream is strong!
I also discovered a really nice surprise when booking this hotel.  There is a website, valuetrips.com, that discounts the rate at this hotel considerably.  They act as a third party.  They reserve and secure a great rate for you, you pay for it upon arrival and you will still receive loyalty points if you collect them.  Their communication is horrible, but I knew this from reading online reviews.  Upon securing the reservation with the hotel, Valuetrips should send you a confirmation through email.  As per the reviews I had read, the email never came.  About ten days after submitting my request online, I called the Hyatt directly, and my reservation was on file with them.  They confirmed the rate that I secured through Valuetrips and everything worked out.  I finally received an email from Valuetrips about a month after submitting my request.  For anyone thinking of using valuetrips.com, be prepared to confirm the booking on your own but you’ll save a bit of money in the process.  We saved almost $100 by going through Valuetrips.
Itinerary:
This 4-night Mariner sailing brings us to Nassau and Coco Cay.  As usual, the ship is the destination for us.  Last time, on Anthem, we missed Coco Cay and we asked the girls if they wanted us to re-purchase the excursions that we had planned.  They declined.  I also thought it would be fun to take them to explore the aquarium at Atlantis in Nassau, but they declined that too.  If you ask my kids what they are looking forward to this week, the answer is simple (and cheap).  They want to eat ice cream and pizza, have free reign over food in the WJ, ride the waterslides, and swim.  So, we have no excursions booked and we will be roaming around with no set plans for this cruise.
Cabin:
We are booked in a JS up on Deck 11.  There were no plans to upgrade this because of two reasons.  One being that this is one of the new Junior Suites installed during the recent dry dock, so I know this room is new, fresh, and in good condition.  Recent reviews and scopes have indicated that existing staterooms have not been refurbished with the rest of the ship, so I am happy with our choice here.  The second reason is that this cruise is an extra for us.  I wanted at least a JS to get the double C&A points (we are currently 5 points out from Diamond, so this will do it for us), and because Voyager class ships don’t have the same suite benefits as Oasis and Quantum class for GS and above, there is no real incentive to go higher for a 4-night sailing.
Pre-cruise thoughts:
-          The most special thing this sailing will be my daughter’s 10th birthday.  She has big plans.  She wants to sleep in, check out the ship, swim a bit, go on the water slides, and spend time together as a family.  She is the sweetest!  I also think she is what finally convinced Hubby.  Those of you who have children know that you cannot take one daughter on a cruise three years ago to celebrate her birthday and not have the other daughter want the same eventually.
-          Really looking forward to this sailing since it will be a return to the beginning for us.  We have not sailed a Voyager class ship since our first cruise back in 2002.
-          We are booked for MTD.  This will also be a return to the MDR since 2016.  I have mixed feelings about this.  More on that later.  But again, keeping this cruise as low cost as possible, we will not be doing any specialty dining.
-          I am excited to be literally steps away from the Solarium.
-          It will be interesting to see what my kids think of this ship.  They have now sailed DCL (which is similar in size to Mariner) three times and Anthem.  This will be the first time that they can skate on a ship.
-          I cannot wait to check out the late night WJ offerings.
-          We purchased VOOM for 2 Devices again.
-          Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you.
-          When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.
-          Lastly, I will do my best to bring the cruise to you LIVE through Periscope – you can follow me @LoveToCruise2002.

First of all Congratualtions on breaking the Diamond barrier and also Happy Birthday ? to your girl! Her birthday plans soumd alot like mine usually are actually.
Secondly your trip sounds eerily similar to mine except I didn't need to convince my hubby granted this is only the second cruise of the year.  We were much more spur of the moment but the mariner is really sucking us all in at this point. I'll be following along to see if I can gleen anymore info for our spur of the moment trip on her at the end of Sept. But mostly I'll be living vicariously through you since waiting is just so hard! Looks like I really need to get on Pericope now ?

I was so jealous of all of this months cruisers and staring at my sadly 150+ days out countdown clock when I turned to my husnamd and asked if he wanted to go to the Bahamas for a weekend. One call to the travel agent and I now find myself checking out the mariner at the end of Sept instead of waiting until Jan for anthem. Yea for cruising! Sounds like I need to figure out this periscope thing to pass the time until them ?

I was so jealous of all of this months cruisers and staring at my sadly 150+ days out countdown clock when I turned to my husnamd and asked if he wanted to go to the Bahamas for a weekend. One call to the travel agent and I now find myself checking out the mariner at the end of Sept instead of waiting until Jan for anthem. Yea for cruising! Sounds like I need to figure out this periscope thing to pass the time until them ?

I'd love to see options in Colorado but sadly will have to wait for a major rise of ocean levels before a cruise ship will be home porting anywhere near me.  

LOL Drink package is very helpful!  But not necessary.  We won't be getting it on the Anthem group cruise next year.

Group Cruises are the best. a majority of the cruise I have gone on are group cruises.  Went on TWO cruises for our honeymoon....BOTH group cruise (see my list below). Radio station cruises (RealRadio 104.1 Orlando), Friend (200+) group cruises, Tom & Dan cruise 450 ppl, Monsters of Rock Group Cruise (40+ band playing), Real Estate Investor GC, and coming up the RCLBlog GC in 2019

The Freedom New Years GC is going to be EPIC.  A lot of our cruising friends are booked.  I think half of the aft is RCBlog folks already.  It should be one hell of a party on an awesome ship with a great itinerary.  As others have said you can do as much or as little official group activities as you want. You will find out a lot of unofficial events pop up, and some times we even close down a bar... or three.  For example, pub crawling is fun with your friends... Pub crawling with 60 friends can be down right silly. I have done Onboard Broadway shows, cabin tours, game shows, pod cast, slot pulls, sail away parties, private events in some really awesome cabins, photography talks, cake and beverages, private lunches, welcome events, good bye events and much more all while group cruising.

The best part is you will see some people on group cruise after group cruise and friendships blossom.  You will soon see that on non group cruises that a lot of time people you sailed with are on different cruises and sailing the same time as you.  It's always nice having someone on a ship you know.
  Trust me, there will be tons of ship talk.  Give it a try.  Come hang out with the cool kids!

Unfortunately, no.  None booked right now but hoping to book something in 2020.

I love the group cruises.  They are so much fun.  Matt and Annette are great hosts.

Group cruises are Royal Caribbean cruises where we invite you to cruise with us.  The idea is we have one to two events per day.  Regardless of the event, it's up to you to come to as few or as many events as you like.
Most of the events are social gatherings of one kind or another.  Basically, excuses to hang out.  The more you come to the events, the more you really get to know other people in the group and then you get to be part of the fun together.  Inevitably, there are other impromptu events.
I suggest listening to the Group Cruise review podcast, like this one: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-217-harmony-of-the-seas-group-cruise-review

WOW! That actually sounds really fun ? We love cruising, but the one thing we miss when cruising without the kids is having friends to meet up with for drinks, dinner or whatever sometimes. So a group cruise sounds like we would have the opportunity everyday to join in with some fun people for all sorts of things. Thanks for the event link it gave me a great idea of the different types of events that we might see. Although now I've found an addiction to podcasts that never existed before since you mentioned it and every time I think I'm done I see a different episode that has new information that i just need to know ? After 4 cruises I thought I might have figured all this out, but now I'm positive that I can cruise for the rest of my life and still learn something new with each one. Congratulations on getting your first solo cruise under your belt sounds like you're not letting that empty nest get you down ? 
I actually booked our next family via Next Cruise on our solo Allure sailing this last Jan (thanks @Matt) and  took the  suggestion  to transfer the booking to an MEI agent and I couldn't be happier with her help so far. She had repriced our family cruise with Kids Sail Free before I even knew the sail was going on which is a load off my mind since I no longer wonder if I missed an amazing sale because I was too busy. This blog and subsequent message boards are a lifesaver and make cruising easy and fun.

WOW! That actually sounds really fun ? We love cruising, but the one thing we miss when cruising without the kids is having friends to meet up with for drinks, dinner or whatever sometimes. So a group cruise sounds like we would have the opportunity everyday to join in with some fun people for all sorts of things. Thanks for the event link it gave me a great idea of the different types of events that we might see. Although now I've found an addiction to podcasts that never existed before since you mentioned it and every time I think I'm done I see a different episode that has new information that i just need to know ? After 4 cruises I thought I might have figured all this out, but now I'm positive that I can cruise for the rest of my life and still learn something new with each one. Congratulations on getting your first solo cruise under your belt sounds like you're not letting that empty nest get you down ? 
I actually booked our next family via Next Cruise on our solo Allure sailing this last Jan (thanks @Matt) and  took the  suggestion  to transfer the booking to an MEI agent and I couldn't be happier with her help so far. She had repriced our family cruise with Kids Sail Free before I even knew the sail was going on which is a load off my mind since I no longer wonder if I missed an amazing sale because I was too busy. This blog and subsequent message boards are a lifesaver and make cruising easy and fun.

Let me just start by saying group cruises are amazing.  They are a totally different experience than cruising on your own, if you participate in the group activities.  You do as much or as little with the group as you want to.  You can join in on group excursions - if you want.  You can sit with everyone for dinner in the MDR each night - if you want.  You can join Matt for a live podcast recording - if you want.  You can come play a game with everyone - if you want.  You can dance in the Solarium until 2am - if you want.  LOL  Your participation level is totally up to you.  There will definitely be activities the group does that is not available to other cruisers, like the podcast recording or game. 
We went on the Harmony group cruise last September and probably did 1/3 of all the group stuff.  We originally were booked on a sailing the week before, but the hurricanes enabled us to change our plans to join the group cruise.  Since we got on only a few days before the sailing, we did not get to sign up for a lot of the group stuff nor were we seated in the group table in the MDR.  But we joined in the welcome meet-up, the bar crawl, sat with everyone at some of the shows (but not all), went to the live podcast recording, laughed at the Super Password game show, danced until 2am one night, went on a bar crawl, played trivia, and did eat with a small group one night in the MDR (most were at specialty restaurants that night).  Just to name a few of the things. 
One of the fun advantages of being with a group, is that you find a friend where ever you go.  MEI gave everyone a lanyard (us included) so it was easy to spot someone else in the group.  Our group was around 100 people, so it was easy to find someone to sit and chat with, have a drink with, when ever you were looking.  This was going to be our first cruise solo (meaning without the kids) in 20 years, and we were looking forward to finding some others to hang out with. Even though we enjoy each other's company, we enjoy the social aspect of cruising even more.  But there were plenty of times we wanted some quiet time, so we just did things together then.  We have an empty nest and spend a lot of time alone together.  HAHA!    
At least one group activity is scheduled every day; here is a list from the Harmony cruise: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/royal-caribbean-blog-harmony-of-the-seas-group-cruise-events 
I will say if you ARE going to join the group, book with MEI.  There will be activities they coordinate that you cannot join in if you booked yourself or with another TA.  

@kpersons09 I'll let you know if I go but I'd take @Lovetocruise2002 opinion as well.
 

When is your sailing? If I see the shows I can let you know. Part of my job is to give parental ratings for movies and tv shows.

The Gift is just weird...but totally family appropriate. We loved Spectra's Cabaret. It was a bit psychedelic but very entertaining. I thought it was fine for my kids who were 9,11 when we sailed. Younger kids will likely just be mesmerized by the dancing and all lights and special effects. We Will Rock You is PG I would say. To be totally honest, it is nothing that kids probably don't already hear on the playground. Being a teacher, I can vouch for that. However, depending on the age of your kids and your own comfort level, you might want to keep the kids out of this one. My kids did go, and we just had a quick discussion afterwards.  There is no actual swearing but there was some language. The costumes were a bit more risqué than say Mama Mia, and there was one scene on a couch where the lights dim and you draw your own conclusions. That's about all I can remember.