Mrs. RoyalMoyal

Flowrider. Then in my hammock "cruise napping" on my balcony, icing my knee... from the flowrider.

Flowrider. Then in my hammock "cruise napping" on my balcony, icing my knee... from the flowrider.

A common (and my) take on it is  IF you are low in Crown and Anchor Society, AND if you are not in a suite, AND if you are already going to buy the Voom internet package AND if you are on a Quantum, Oasis, or otherwise amped ship (Navigator, etc) AND if you can snag it for less than $22, then yes, it can be worth it. Otherwise, no.  I've used it 3 times because I've gotten pretty good deals on it and I met all of my qualifications.  But is it necessary? Absolutely not.  

Day 7 - Coco Cay!!!
If anyone's wondering (and you probably didn't know that you were until now), Captain Rick pronounced it "Cay" and not "Key". He's Canadian - take that for what it's worth.
We had nothing special on the island - no cabanas or day beds.  Since Mr SpeedNoodles had never been there I figured we'd spend some time exploring and then find a place to settle so that we could snorkel.
The weather was in the high 60s or low 70s and overcast.  I'm pretty much a big baby when it comes to water temp, so I never even broke out my snorkel gear.  I waded into the little lagoon where people snorkel and made it about waist deep, saw some pretty fish and watched Mr SpeedNoodles snorkel a little bit before I just gave up.  He snorkeled a bit until he scared up a few stingrays, which he did NOT like.  I looked up and saw him coming in hot to the beach and wondered what was up. He really wasn't too interested in going back after he saw those.  He had some fun playing with the GoPro in the water until then (I have yet to figure out how to get those videos onto my laptop and I'm sure they aren't worth sharing).
I had my rash guard on when I went into the water because I'd burned my back so badly on St. Maarten - so now I had a wet shirt on and I was cold.  He was cold.  Then the wind picked up. We headed over to the Snack Shack to get a crispy chicken sandwich and hope that the sun came out or the wind would die down.
He grabbed a table and I headed over to the restrooms when a staff member came SPRINTING by me, saying "aye aye aye!!!!!!!!!!!".  I turned around to see the Up, Up, and Away balloon in a VERY awkward position.  The basket was listing quite a bit, and it was clear that they were having a very difficult time bringing it back down to the ground. I'd left my phone back at the table, so I wasn't able to get any photos, but it looked scary as hell.  They must have gotten enough staff out there to bring it down before I got out of the restroom, but it never went back up the rest of the day. Apparently either the wind came up suddenly, or they pushed their luck with one last ride.
We just couldn't get warmed up, so we headed back to the ship around 1pm.  I really got very few photos on the island, but I have to keep my reputation going, so:

We showered up and then hit some trivia in the pub and grabbed a few drinks.  We had Izumi Hibachi at 5:30, so we got a little packing done (boooooo). We got the rest of our packing done between dinner and the 8:30 showing of HIRO (which we really wanted to see at night - even better at night!).
I left a little note for Jeff, our cabin steward, about the great towel animal he left:

He in turn left me a little note back:

And I did.
We caught him in the hall before the show to give him his tip personally (I don't like leaving them in the envelopes, I prefer to take the opportunity to say thank you in person). We've never had a bad cabin attendant, but some are definitely more fun than others.

After Hiro we made a few stops at our favorite bars to have some drinks and say goodbye to some of our favorite waiters, and with that, the cruise was pretty much over ?
 

I don't know if this is accurate, but this is the most detailed information I have seen about the actual virus.  Thanks.

Best we can do is to try and live a healthy lifestyle - which is hard to do for some. I can't tell you the amount of times I have seen people not wash their hands after using the restroom  or after sneezing or after changing the garbage or so on and so on. I had a student one time who sneezed straight up into the air and I unfortunately saw the plume of fluid just spreading everywhere.
Anyway - I think there should be a healthy level of "worry" about the Coronavirus, but there's not much we can do about it except to stay accurately informed and to practice good hygiene. 
 

With all the impending doom and gloom of the news today, when it comes to Covid-19 and such, let's look on the bright side.
What's your happy place?
What's the one spot on any ship, or specific spot on a specific ship that you look forward to when you cruise? 
Mine is on any ship, at the rail with a cup of coffee in hand at sunrise.
Happy cruising!

Make sure your stroller fits through your stateroom door with your sleeping child in it. My phil and ted's E3 sport DID NOT (it was BIG). This was not a good thing.... that was an inside cabin on Explorer. The suite doors are a bit wider. The halls are narrow too... So if you are stroller people, bring a narrow one, and use it for boarding and maybe for naps. y  If it's too chilly to walk her to sleep outside in the stroller, go to a suite deck to walk the halls, they are wider.  Cococay will be the easiest, it is a beach and/or pool day. Bring a small bucket and shovel, even if you just use it to rinse YOUR feet off.  I do not have a recommendation for Nassau for toddlers.  Port Canaveral, ... find something you want to do and take her!  Embrace naps... Anthem has a toddler pool area, it is very shallow. If you are not in a suite, bring a small blow up pool for baths in the bottom of your shower, or to use on your balcony. Toddler food is easy to come by, and the room fridges are empty so you have plenty of room to stash drinks and snacks. My boys are now very big (12 and 15), I never got to use a nursery on-board, they just were not on the ships we sailed when they were small. If you have a specific date night or afternoon that you want some time to yourself, go to the nursery boarding day to register your daughter, and request the babysitting times you want.

Make sure your stroller fits through your stateroom door with your sleeping child in it. My phil and ted's E3 sport DID NOT (it was BIG). This was not a good thing.... that was an inside cabin on Explorer. The suite doors are a bit wider. The halls are narrow too... So if you are stroller people, bring a narrow one, and use it for boarding and maybe for naps. y  If it's too chilly to walk her to sleep outside in the stroller, go to a suite deck to walk the halls, they are wider.  Cococay will be the easiest, it is a beach and/or pool day. Bring a small bucket and shovel, even if you just use it to rinse YOUR feet off.  I do not have a recommendation for Nassau for toddlers.  Port Canaveral, ... find something you want to do and take her!  Embrace naps... Anthem has a toddler pool area, it is very shallow. If you are not in a suite, bring a small blow up pool for baths in the bottom of your shower, or to use on your balcony. Toddler food is easy to come by, and the room fridges are empty so you have plenty of room to stash drinks and snacks. My boys are now very big (12 and 15), I never got to use a nursery on-board, they just were not on the ships we sailed when they were small. If you have a specific date night or afternoon that you want some time to yourself, go to the nursery boarding day to register your daughter, and request the babysitting times you want.

Make sure your stroller fits through your stateroom door with your sleeping child in it. My phil and ted's E3 sport DID NOT (it was BIG). This was not a good thing.... that was an inside cabin on Explorer. The suite doors are a bit wider. The halls are narrow too... So if you are stroller people, bring a narrow one, and use it for boarding and maybe for naps. y  If it's too chilly to walk her to sleep outside in the stroller, go to a suite deck to walk the halls, they are wider.  Cococay will be the easiest, it is a beach and/or pool day. Bring a small bucket and shovel, even if you just use it to rinse YOUR feet off.  I do not have a recommendation for Nassau for toddlers.  Port Canaveral, ... find something you want to do and take her!  Embrace naps... Anthem has a toddler pool area, it is very shallow. If you are not in a suite, bring a small blow up pool for baths in the bottom of your shower, or to use on your balcony. Toddler food is easy to come by, and the room fridges are empty so you have plenty of room to stash drinks and snacks. My boys are now very big (12 and 15), I never got to use a nursery on-board, they just were not on the ships we sailed when they were small. If you have a specific date night or afternoon that you want some time to yourself, go to the nursery boarding day to register your daughter, and request the babysitting times you want.

Well in the end we decided to forgo the beach bed and do the club instead. Reason being, far as I can tell, RCI seems to change things on a whim all the time and often unexpectedly. I've seen the beach beds moved around to many different places recently and different versions of the Coco cay map following the club opening that show them on different areas. Seems like they are just trying out different options. So between now and my Sept cruise, who knows if the beds will be moved yet again. At least they can't move the club as easily. Better to go with what is a certainty - the club - than take the risk of the very movable (therefore unpredictable) bed. 

My favorite embarkation day lunch on Oasis class is the kummelwich sandwich at park cafe! I’ll be enjoying it one week from today. 

Checking mine now! Intern is back!!!

One of our best Diamond Club experiences was on Oasis in Blaze (our 1st cruise as "Diamonds" ... in 2006).  We had a great time with our Bartender (Sheldon).  We talked Martinis all week and he made a perfect modification to a Deani Martini that still stands today.  Any Diamond Lounge with a bar is a great Diamond Lounge.
Curt from Canada

Thank you everyone I finally got logged in!

I usually type logout.com in the browser when this happens to me and it has a link to sign back in.

Noticed today that you only need to enter in the information for one guest now to price a cruise...lets you get to the refundable deposit option much quicker now!

I should try to find my platinum pin and wear it next cruise.  Get all the D and D+ in the DL spun up.  

Definitely in the “wait at the podium to be seated” camp. 

I have no problem in that area.  They are struggling to provide for their families.  
Yes they will invite you to visit their booth.  No one has ever touched me so it's just a matter of looking around to see if anything interests and if not moving on.  Yes sometimes there are two or three inviting you to visit their booth at the same time.  It's just words.  "Come look what I have for you", "I have something for you", etc.  It's hardly offensive or scary.  
When I took my adult son there he walked into several booths and bought a handful of small items.  Later I told him he could have negotiated the price down.  He acknowledged that but recognized they are dirt poor so he didn't try to beat them down. 
We don't appreciate how well we have it, the people of Haiti have very little and jobs are non existent.  It's not unsafe, just a different culture.

Not much to add here:  stay in right lane, get there by 10:30 am, tip the porters/longshoreman, park and walk back to terminal. 
We had a starboard side balcony and watched the huge traffic jam at 1:30 pm on embarkation day.   
I will ADD that post cruise, as we paid for our parking and were leaving the garage, a big, burly longshoreman said to us "yous guyz have a safe and pleasant journey home."    Very nice touch.

I normally call the RC customer support folks and get the phone number of the ship we will be on and give that number to my family in the event of an emergency. 

Boleros. And, you may be able to use your wow band from Harmony. I was able to use an Anthem wow band on Oasis, no charge.  

I was pleasantly surprised with my Central Park Balcony on deck 12 on Oasis -  I usually took stairs to get up on deck, and the evening music was lovely. It was not a loud room, one sea day afternoon I could hear the steel drum bands, but it was a SEA DAY! So that was OK with me. 
And unlike the ocean view balconies I have had, I did not experience any neighbors smoking. That alone was great... I think they would be caught by all the others watching them from across the way. 

I was pleasantly surprised with my Central Park Balcony on deck 12 on Oasis -  I usually took stairs to get up on deck, and the evening music was lovely. It was not a loud room, one sea day afternoon I could hear the steel drum bands, but it was a SEA DAY! So that was OK with me. 
And unlike the ocean view balconies I have had, I did not experience any neighbors smoking. That alone was great... I think they would be caught by all the others watching them from across the way.