Deedeelynn

I think RCCL are on too many funny little pills!!

Since it seems to come up a lot, and although Twangster's detailed blog is far superior, I thought there may be one or two who might be curious about a recent experience.  I purchased it for my 4-night Mariner of the Seas cruise to Nassau/Coco Cay.  I was a solo traveler and I had a $25 onboard credit, so the price came to $55.  Between Voom and lunch on embarkation day, I'd already gotten my value, so it was really a no-brainer purchase for me.
Embarkation:  They called The Key people with the Pinnacle/Diamond/Diamond Plus members when they opened up the doors.  I suspect they just threw us in with them because it was so early and there were very few people in the terminal yet.
Delivery  of carry on luggage to stateroom:  A few of us wandered around trying to figure out where to drop off our carry on luggage when we first boarded - they were a little behind and didn't have a sign on the theatre door, or anyone in the theatre to take the bags yet.  In about 10 minutes we all figured it out (all 5 of us at that point) and someone did show up to start the process.  Unfortunately that person hadn't been provided with any luggage tags, so anyone who hadn't tagged their luggage had to wait a little while - I had my luggage tag on my one rolling carry on.  They also had business cards with Voom codes on it - but none of them matched the names of anyone who was there, so staff was confused. In the end they just gave us a card for whoever (sorry Adam Davis, or whoever's I had), and we were on our way.  I assume they managed to work it out in the end, but it was never an issue for me.
Lunch at Chops - was a nice treat!
Reserved seating section at shows - I only went to the comedy show really late on Embarkation day and on the last night.  There was a section roped off for The Key next to either higher C&A or suite folks - it really didn't matter at this show because there was really hardly anyone in the theatre.  The first night I sat in The Key section, the last night I sat somewhere else - it didn't matter.  But this is Mariner, not a Quantum or Oasis class ship, so I imagine it would make a difference on one of those ships.
Reserved times for Flow Rider/Rock Climbing Wall/Sky Pad/Perfect Storm - they had at least 2 hours set aside during the week for each activity. They weren't at the most convenient hours, but, at least on my sailing,  it wasn't necessary for a separate time - there was never a line at any of those activities - I never saw more than a few people in line for any of them and most of the time nobody was using them. Apparently this was a "sit by the pool and drink" cruise for folks.
On the 2nd day, I happened to stop by my cabin to pick something up and someone knocked on my door and delivered a fruit plate that was complimentary for The Key people. That was unexpected.
Priority tender - We only tendered at CoCo Cay - I went down to get on the tender about an hour after we anchored and there was a line (not a ridiculous line, but a line as you'd expect there to be).  There was no staff along the line at all to ask about The Key benefit, and I'm just not the type to walk past a bunch of people who are waiting to also get on the tender to get in front of them, so I just got on with everyone else.  I was able to get on the tender right away anyway, probably because I wasn't trying to get on the first tender of the day, so it was just fine with me. I could have been more assertive, but that's just not me. And the ending result would have been exactly the same in this case.
Disembarkation Day - it was nice to have a quiet, unrushed breakfast in the MDR.  It was the only time I'd sat with other people during a meal - almost the only time I'd spoken to any other people all week (I did talk to the iguana and the chickens on CoCo Cay earlier, that's a whole different story #retiredzookeeper) and I did enjoy that.  After breakfast, I ran back up to my room, grabbed my carry on, and went down to Deck 4, where there happened to be a staff member manning the line.  I asked him about The Key disembarkation, and he personally escorted me to the gangway past a long line, which was REALLY nice.
I liked the program, and it was defnintely worth it on a short sailing.  I was getting Voom anyway, and there were just enough things that I was going to enjoy along the way that it made it worth it to me.  I very much doubt that I'll get it on my Ovation sailing to Alaska in June - I will be going with my husband, who has no interest in Voom, and we will be meeting up with old friends, who will not have The Key, so we won't be taking advantage of reserved seating with shows and special times for activities since they won't be able to partake with us during those times. We'll evaluate it again on our Symphony sailing in Feb 2020 - things may have changed with the program, or the hubs may decide he wants internet access, so we'll see then.
Hope this helps someone out there!

The reason to use Hertz is not for the price.  I never EVER use Hertz any other time (we are both Executive with National).  The reason to use Hertz for this trip is b/c the Hertz office and the Residence Inn share a parking lot.  You can rent the car at the airport (no one-way penalty), drive the rental car all day long and as much into the night as you want to, drop off the car at the Hertz office and drop the keys in the night drop, and walk a few steps to the hotel for the night.  The hotel offers a shuttle to the terminal the next day.  It is a very easy way to do the drive/commute from Orlando airport to the cruise terminal and enjoy a day and an evening at Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, theme parks or whatever you want to do.

Galveston could use some variety of ports, but if they got an Oasis class I might YOLO book it just to hang on the ship all week.

I receive comp cruise offers once a month from the casino revenue/marketing folks and I have been noticing that Liberty seems to be very prominent in the comp cruise category.  Matter of fact, we have a comp cruise coming up on Liberty in August.  Additionally, the OS on Liberty are significantly cheaper than any of the other OS that I have priced lately including an OS on Freedom out of San Juan (traditionally, cruises out of SJ are cheaper b/c the airfare is so expensive to get there).
All of these bread crumbs have me wondering if Galveston can really support an O class ship.  It seem (to me, at least) that they are heavily discounting the rooms out of Galveston now.  What would happen if they increase capacity even more.  Just an observation...

Lol!  I am more of a @Matt rather than @CruiseLifeRick ?

That is the plan!  I will provide photo evidence. ?
 

Try all the margaritas.  All of them.

Update:
So...either we have a really awesome and organized Genie (which I think is likely the case) or things get done unusually fast on Harmony.  We are 32 days out and we have our schedule pretty much finalized already. For those trying to calculate value, here is an example of some things we have on our schedule that is included with Star Class:
- Bridge and Galley tour
- Backstage tour 
- private Escape the Rubicon session 
- Cupcake making classes
Not much else to do at this point. It’s going to be a long wait... 

Pan Seared Halibut

Go for it! Lol!
Truthfully, I started this now because I had some time this past weekend to write it up and the week before we leave is going to be a really busy one.  Since it was written up and ready to go, I thought why not?
And I figured if @Matt can start his Brilliance blog 6 weeks early, then I am good with 5 weeks early. ?

Who’s Going?
The usual crew:  Hubby, our 2 girls, D10, D12, and myself.
 
Flight
Our plan is to fly from DTW to FLL the day before.  I knew I was taking this cruise long before flight prices were released.  I tracked air from the start.  Regretfully, I did not pull the trigger 11 months out.  The price of air did not follow the traditional up/down until the 90-day mark on this one.  At around 90 days, when I did purchase, it was still about $20pp higher than at 11 months out.  Lesson here?  If we are sure of the cruise, I will purchase it at release for Spring Break.
 
Pre-Cruise Stay
By now you likely know that we are creatures of habit.  Not much new to report here.  Valuetrips blacked out Hyatt Place for March 9th (and I was not about to pay $325/night for that property), so we are back at the Holiday Inn Express on 17th Street.  This time their suites are ready, and we got a good deal on one over Black Friday.  Pre-cruise dinner?  You already know it!
 
Itinerary
This 7-night sailing brings us to Labadee, Falmouth, and Cozumel.  No set plans for Falmouth and Cozumel.  May very well stay on the ship again.  The exciting thing is that we are renting a cabana for the first time in Labadee!
 
Cabin
Star Loft suite!!!  That’s all!
 
Pre-Cruise thoughts

-    This cruise marks the first time our girls are sailing OA class.  I am so thrilled to introduce them to my favourite class of ship!

-    It’s Star Class…No pre-cruise purchases, no reservations, no planning!  It was odd not having to check my cruise planner on this one.  I barely looked at it.

-    It’s mainly specialty dining for us this time.  Although it pains me to leave CK, we figured we must do specialty to make it worth our while.  In addition, although @Matt cannot wrap his head around this, we (Hubby) are frugal and we cannot usually bring ourselves to spend the extra money when there are so many complimentary options available.  In the past, we have only ever tried Jamie’s, Wonderland, and Giovanni’s.

-    The suite snob is at peace on this one.

-    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.
 

“I Dream of Genie” – Star Class - Harmony of the Seas – 03/10/19-03/17/19

Dreams…that is how many things begin; that is how this adventure began.  But with every dream that comes true, there is always a journey. 
Here is our journey, almost 3 years in the making.  Note: Pulling a @JLMoran here, it’s long winded lol.
Back in May 2016, I read with keen interest, a blog post by @Matt that Royal was rolling out a new suite class program.  The concept of Star Class intrigued me, but at the time, I knew that it was beyond our reach.  However, dreams have no limits, and one can look but not touch.  You all know that I am a shopaholic right? ?

As the program rolled out, I read reviews, followed blogs, looked on in wonder and envy as I watched the Genies do their thing on Allure in 2016 and later on Harmony in 2017.  This was pretty much me on those sailings...

In February 2017, I came across a blog by @WAAAYTOOO.  I believe it was her first time in Star Class and she had Reyno as her Genie.  After that, I knew, without a doubt that this was something that I needed to try.  The big question was how?
The answer is that I really don’t know how I would have this opportunity without the help of some dear friends along the way, right here in the message boards.  Somewhere between February 2017 and January 2018, I read a post by @tiny260 that really was the first glimmer of hope that Star Class could be a reality for us.  @tiny260 basically posted that he had recently booked a good deal in Star Class by scouring the calendar week by week.  There were only two problems with that idea:  I did not have much time to go through each sailing, week by week and ship by ship, and there are only several times in the year that I can sail due to work.  So, I set aside Tiny’s idea but made a point to remember his tip.
In January 2018, call it God’s will, or good things come to those who wait, or fate, @WAAAYTOOO started a thread in the “Rumours and News” section here about a special STAR savings discount of $1000.  I was also off work last year which meant I had all day to look.  So, taking @tiny260's tip I went about an all-day effort to find something that would fit our schedule.  Trouble was that my schedule was only flexible until September 2018 and I already had bookings for 2018 that I did not want to cancel.
This is the point in the journey where sometimes intercession occurs, and you cannot logically explain what follows.  During my search that day, I stumbled upon a sailing on Harmony (which I expected to be the highest price second to Symphony) for March 10, 2019.  This worked out perfectly since this would be our March break, I would be off work, and Harmony is my favourite ship.  For reasons that I cannot explain, this was also one of the lower priced sailings for a Star class cabin (compared to OA/AL/SY).  How did I know that?  Because up until this point, I had been tracking the prices on Star Class cabins and reading posts on the price that others were paying.  Another example of how it pays to do your research.  This low price, combined with the additional $1000 STAR discount, made it a no-brainer.  I put a hold on it even before I had a chance to run it by Hubby.
There are many that I have heard say, “Why would someone want to spend so much on a cabin?” or, “I would take more cruises over such an expensive one any day.”  Here are my thoughts on that.  We have taken enough cruises to know what we like.  We are cabin and balcony people.  We do spend time in our cabin, so to us, a nice cabin is important and worth it.  My work schedule limits us to certain times of the year that we can cruise.  Instead of taking our money and spreading it over a bunch of cruises (which we can’t do any way), we are putting it all into one.  It all works out the same.
Our original booking was for a Guarantee Star Class cabin.  The code on the booking was A2-GTY.  This was new to me and I did not even know such a category existed.  I ran it by @WAAAYTOOO and a few others and figured that we had nothing to lose as the bare minimum would be an A2 on Deck 10.  Hubby got home that evening and, after some persuasion and promises to curb the Lulu shopping, he suggested that if we were going to splurge on Star Class then we might as well go big and go to Deck 17, the “gated community” as some call it, and really live out that “WOW factor”.  Ever since our inaugural sailing on Oasis, Deck 17 was always a wish of ours.  I warned him that Star Class on Deck 17 could be quite a jump in price.  Still curious, we called late that evening and inquired about what it would cost to upgrade.  It was $100 extra (total).  Done.  No brainer.  Again, an anomaly that I cannot explain.
Since our original booking in January, I have re-priced our sold-out cabin 3 times for a total savings of almost $3000 less than what we originally booked for.  The cost was many hours of tracking, but it paid off.  We already had a great deal to begin with and it just got sweeter along the way.
As we get ready for this grand adventure into Star Class, I must take the time to thank @WAAAYTOOO, @Mindybrite, @tiny260, @CGTLH, and @constable145.  Your insight, advice, and blogs have been more valuable than you know.  Words cannot express my appreciation.  Finally, @Matt, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, thank you for creating this amazing community of people (enablers) who helped in making this a true possibility. 
I often say to my own girls, and my students, that we should never be afraid or give up in the pursuit of our dreams.  Dreams can come true, this being the perfect example. 
So, without further delay, come take this journey with us, I would want it no other way.

My advice is for simplicity sake, forget the sim card ideas and simply activate WiFi calling before your cruise and then once onboard put the plane into airplane mode, then enable WiFi and use WiFi calling on any island you visit where WiFi is available.
Here's the info on how to use WiFi calling with Consumer Cellular: https://www.consumercellular.com/blog/asked-answered-using-wi-fi-save-money/
I've tried the "swap out sim card" plan and it's a huge pain in the butt and not worth the effort (or cost).

If prices dropped they are trying to stimulate sales.  
I like to joke we see it when the next interim payment is due on current ship being built.  If they need an influx of cash, put it on sale!

As promised,  here are the photos that I took today of construction progress. I don't have a fancy camera and I didn't edit at all (sorry, guys) but you'll get the gist. 

Yeah.. I've only sailed Oasis class one other time and I was surprised to see it. We aren't even in a JS so it's super weird. 
... I may have also done a quick check to see if my husband had snuck us in to a suite, but it appears we are still regular old balcony people. 

The end of a cruise is just the start of a new countdown -- 101 Days till Brilliance.  See what I did there?

Wait....we're supposed to work while at work???

I'm not. I'm usually in the prep stages of the NEXT cruise already!

Over Halloween, we organized a Pub Crawl/Poker Run on Grandeur ..... it was pretty much those of us that were on the Facebook Group page, RCI had nothing to do with it, although we did try to give the bartenders a "heads-up" that we were doing it.  The folks up in the VCL were very accommodating because they let us use space up there to announce the winner (that was me .... yea) of the poker portion, get some group photos, etc

Pub crawls are typically associated with group events such as Royal Caribbean Blog group cruises or RCPeriscopers.live group cruises.  
They typically get scheduled and sent out to the group before boarding so everyone can plan around group event times.
There is nothing stopping anyone from putting a pub crawl together because they are independent of the ship.  The ship isn't involved with the planning or execution of a pub crawl which can lead to conflicts such as trivia in a bar when dozens of pub crawlers descend on it, or bar staff becoming overwhelmed when a sole bartender at a slow bar suddenly has several dozen guests to serve at once.  
They are usually a lot fun.  

Yesterday I experienced a trip delay returning on a cruise and I thought it would make an interesting "lessons learned" post.
My 4 night cruise on Brilliance of the Seas left Tampa on time and on schedule.  It was a great cruise with a group of friends and we all enjoyed it.  When we finished our day in Cozumel and re-boarded the ship none of us knew how mother nature had her own plans for our return to Tampa despite calm seas and smooth sailing.
Fog.  Heavy fog.  
To reach the pier in Tampa you need to pass under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  In 1980 during severe weather a freighter struct the original bridge sending a section of the bridge crashing into the bay killing 35 people.  As such, Tampa and it's pilots don't take chances when it comes to weather.
We arrived to the Tampa pilot station six hours ahead of schedule in an attempt to beat the fog but the fog beat us, arriving earlier than forecast.
Our attempt to beat the fog and arrive early didn't come without cost.  Running any boat, vessel, craft or ship at full speed consumes a massive amount of fuel compared to running at a nominal cruising speed.  Royal spent tens of thousands of dollars on fuel and it's an example how Royal does try to do the best thing for everyone involved even if it costs them significant sums of money.
Waking up early on debark day I noted our speed was zero but we were still outside of Tampa Bay. Oh boy, here we go.  Up on deck 12 I could see several cargo and tanker ships hanging around with us in the fog.  Beyond the lights of the other ships you couldn't see much of anything.  Fog.
The Captain informed us that the channel into the port was closed by the Coast Guard and we would need to wait until the channel opened and a pilot could come out to board the ship.  The initial estimate was a 2:30pm arrival at the pier.
Not long after the Captain informed us that he just got word that another cruise ship got stuck in port the day before and couldn't leave due to the fog.  The channel through Tampa Bay is narrow and only one cruise ship can occupy it at a time, two ships cannot pass each other in the channel.  It takes 2 to 3 hours for a ship to transit the channel.  We had no choice but to wait for that ship to depart and clear the bay before could begin our entrance to the bay.  Estimated arrival now 5:30pm.  
Lesson 1 - Don't book early flights.
While sitting around an airport for a day doesn't sound that attractive you need to understand the risk that comes with booking an early flight.  Delays happens for a number of reasons most of which are no one's fault and unavoidable.  Weather delays happen, some ports like Tampa or Galveston are more likely to experience delays at certain times of the year.  Do some research before booking that flight.  Delays can occur for many reasons beyond weather.  
In my case, I had booked a 6:30pm flight home because it was cheapest, like $175 cheaper than the 10:30am direct flight.  Over the weeks before the cruise I kept looking at that knowing I could pay the difference on Southwest and grab the earlier direct flight but if someone said to me "I'll give you $175 and all you need to do is stay at an airport for 8 hours" I'd take that deal every time.
I knew I could get some work done using the free airport wifi so my plan was to get off the ship early and spend the day working from the airport knowing if there was a delay, I could be relaxed and not stressed out.  Not only did I save money but the later flight also saved me a bunch of stress during this experience.
Lesson 2 - Travel Insurance.  This is a perfect example of how travel insurance needs to be high on anyone's list to consider. 
Our group of about 70 included folks with travel insurance and some "self insured" as they put it.  Some people were out $400 or $500 per person to rebook next day airfare and they had to pay for a hotel and meals on top of that.  For a couple that can be over $1,000.  For a family of four that could be over $2,000.  Those with insurance will get some, if not all of that back.  Those without just lost a whole lot of money.
However know your travel insurance coverage and limits.  My annual travel insurance policy was chosen primarily for medical coverage.  It has some trip interruption coverage but it doesn't have great reimbursement for delays of this nature.  
Lesson 3 - If you have travel insurance, know how to use it.
A lot of people in our group had insurance but had no idea what to do in the hour of need.  What is their phone number? What is the policy number?  What is covered and what isn't?  How much is covered?  Do you need pre-approval? What documentation is required?  The ship had letters pre-printed and available at guest services stating there was a weather delay and some insurance companies will need that documentation for a claim to proceed.  
If you buy insurance that's great, but know what to do when you need to use it.
Lesson 4 - They keep the food and beverages flowing.  
No need to worry about your extra time on board, they have ample food for such events and lined up more activities to keep us busy.  Most people took it all in stride and rolled with it.  It was quite enjoyable, much like any sea day.
Lesson 5 - Listen to announcements and pay attention. 
On the last night of the cruise many people put their luggage tags on their bag and place them in the hallway.  Bags are collected by the crew and prepared to be offloaded once the ship reaches the pier.  It takes time for the pier personnel to offload thousands of bags.  There is a reason why bag tags have numbers and bags are offloaded in order so that numbers can be called only when those bags will be ready and waiting in the terminal.  
During an event like this there a natural tendency to want to get off as soon as the ship arrives but cruise terminals cannot hold thousands of people waiting hours for luggage to be offloaded.  
Of course what occurred once we did finally reach the pier?  Hundreds of guests ignored the announcements, made a stampede to exit during the "self assist" time and found themselves having to stand outside the terminal waiting for up to 2 hours for their luggage, with no where to sit and no food or water.  If they had listened to the announcements they could have been sitting comfortably on the ship with access to restrooms, food and beverages. Instead they made the self-assist process more chaotic and accomplished nothing but misery for themselves in the process. 
Listen to the announcements, follow instructions.  
Lesson 6 - You can't fight mother nature. 
It's not the crew's fault, it's not the Captains fault, it's not the cruise line's fault. Don't be one of those people making an already difficult situation any worse.   Even if you are one of those people who choose to ignore the lessons above, at the end of the day becoming ugly or snarky with the crew or terminal employees accomplishes nothing.  Sit back, take a deep breathe and relax.  Life will go on and it will all work out in the end.  Put a smile on in the face of adversity.  Be kind to other's and don't get everyone else spun up.  Staying calm and friendly helps other's stay calm and friendly.  If you are stressed out, it will make your spouse and/or kids stressed out.  If you are calm and smiling through it, your loved ones will be more relaxed.  Do it for them.
Lesson 7 - If you don't buy insurance you've only got yourself to blame.
Accept the fact that you saved some money by not buying insurance.  You took a gamble and lost.  The money saved by not buying insurance may take a small bite out of your losses.  No cruise line can change factors beyond their control.  It's not their fault.  You took the chance and lost.  Accept responsibility and move on.  
Me?  I got lucky.  A lot of factors combined to work out in my favor.  I had booked a later flight.  I have travel insurance.  I always use self-assist.  Customs was fast.  Taxi's were waiting.   TSA Pre lines had no wait.  Southwest did an amazing job getting my luggage on the plane checking in at 38 minutes before departure.  The stars aligned for me perfectly and I didn't need to make a claim against my insurance policy.  I was fortunate but in a small group of lucky guests.

Be aware that just because they accept bids for a category of cabins does not mean one in each category is actually available.  
They accept bids in case a cabin opens up.  That could be someone else "won" an upgrade and now their cabin is available to award to someone else who bid on it, or could be last minute cancellations that do happen from time to time.  
Or it could be no one cancels and no upgrades are awarded in any category.  
In some cases they know a certain cabin type is easier to sell last minute so they might award an upgrade to make a cabin available in a category that is easier to sell on the open market.
It's all about them being ready to make more money should cabins be available.  Revenue management.  Otherwise a pinnacle in an interior cabin might get a free suite upgrade once they board.  This way they can sell that suite upgrade, sell a balcony upgrade and sail with an empty interior cabin without ever giving away a free upgrade to a pinnacle.  

Now that I've finally found the elusive email and am waiting on that first golden ticket to appear, it got me wondering a few things about how it works.
Is your bid a set amount, or function as a max?  Say I bid $1000, and the next highest bidder only bids $500, do I win at $1000 or, say, $505?
I got offers for both a junior and a grande suite.  What happens if i win both? Does it default to the higher of the two, or does it give me a choice?
Can a pending bid maybe interfere with printing my papers?  I've been trying to print my set sail pass and luggage tags for the last 4 days, and cant get in.  Didnt know if maybe it's because it might well change (though i can't imagine RC's IT to be that intelligent)
Lastly, anyone feel like waiting for that won/lost email is about the same as waiting for that imminent sail date that just wont hurry up and get here?