spiralqueen

I know you can definitely use OBC to pay for spa services and I don’t see why it would be any different for tipping there. Just as a heads up though, I am almost positive that they automatically add 18% gratuity to the service, so make sure to double check on that to ensure you don’t end up double tipping. And yes, the “from” price typically refers to prices for slots either at very inconvenient times or for times during port days.

No headliner or comedian reservations? Thank you for this list by the way!

I used the Downy Wrinkle Release spray on my mom's very wrinkly shirt on this last cruise. Since I knew that she treasures her iron and perfection and that there's only so much the Downy can do, I made sure to take before and after pictures for her. She begrudgingly admitted it was better but you could tell she still wanted her iron. ?

Oh man that sounds super annoying at the port! I assumed because of all the signage that they would know what they were talking about. I’m realizing now that our seamless security and checkin process was likely due more to the JS than the Key. But I’m so happy that once you got on board everything considerably smoothed out!

Yaaaay! I’m so happy you are live-blogging this! Hopefully this will help soften my post cruise withdrawal symptoms.

It was my pleasure! I really enjoyed using the liveblog to reflect on my day and it encouraged me to take more photos that I normally would. By the way, were you ever able to join that FB group? Omfg omfg ummmmm @Matt I would like to formally petition for a new drooling post reaction option.

Again, not sure about Nassau, but to give an example that isn’t a US territory, I saw a sign in St Kitt’s that specifically named US (and I would assume other countries’) licenses and state IDs as valid forms of photo ID to get through security and back onto the ship.

Lol thank you! And I’ve heard that is a very serious medical condition and the only prescription is more cowbell to YOLO book it!

Thank you so much! I’m glad my obsessive picture taking paid off. My parents were poking fun at me but humored me lol Yes, the end of the cruise was very bittersweet. Of course I was bummed the cruise was ending because that also means back to work soon, but I was also very excited for my own bed and also to see my cats again. Yay! I’m glad that it did as it served its purpose! You will have a great time. Thank you! And yes, the debarkation was a dream. We got some weird looks cutting the line getting off the ship but having her there to accompany us made it look more legitimate and less like we were jerks. I was very happy to see that it was immediate because I had heard reports about some ships making you wait until a designated time (which seems to defeat part of the purpose of the perk if you ask me) Oh my goodness, thank you so much!! This is so genuinely flattering and I’m glad that people enjoyed this and found it helpful. I can definitely see me doing this in the future as it wasn’t as hard to keep up with as I feared. Especially if I was able to do 2 posts a day to break it up a bit. Well thank YOU because I definitely took your and other’s feedback on CK and kept it in mind when ordering. My parents were especially happy that I said “I heard the tomato soup is very good” and my dad declared it the best soup he has ever had on a ship. Also, you definitely need to try that rib eye the next time you are on a sailing! I was going to say “the next time you are in a suite” but then I realized that, knowing you, the statements are the same ?

I distinctly remember that this past year (could have been the case in prior years too but I wasn’t looking), the Black Friday sales started on Thanksgiving the same way most big box stores have it. I remember bc I was super happy since I had a cruise starting Black Friday where I didn’t have the internet package, but I was able to get all the cruise planner sales on our travel day.

Out of curiosity....do you mean the bar staff as a whole pools their tips? Or more like all the Solarium bartenders share and all the pool bartenders share and all the boleros bartenders share, etc? And are the roaming drink people included in that pool?

Allure had Seattle’s Best at Cafe Promenade & Vitality Cafe. Didn’t pay attention to the WJ. The nicer tea was Tazos.

If you are talking about the porters you hand your checked luggage off to when you arrive at the terminal, it is not required but highly suggested that you tip them $1-2 per bag when they take your luggage. I don’t believe they work for the cruise line (pretty sure it’s the port) and they definitely don’t get any of the prepaid gratuities. The same would apply if you use the porter service when you are debarking. Using them at debarkation isn’t as required as on embarking, but I highly recommend it since they whisk you past long customs lines and IMO it’s the best $8 I spent the whole vacation.

This is only true if it’s additional OBC from something like a Wow Sale. The OBC that comes from booking a non-refundable sailing at Next Cruise will survive repricing. If it happens to drop, it is a mistake and something you should make sure your TA corrects. This is from an email with Michelle at MEI when she was repricing a sailing I had booked through Next Cruise “The price is lower so I adjusted it down for you but the $100 onboard credit fell off - I am going to call them because it should remain with the onboard bookings. -if not remind me - and I'll cover it myself” (NB: She was able to get them to reinstate it since it was their mistake) This is also a sailing that I completely changed the sail date and ship within the 30 day window (now 60) and the NextCruise OBC survived that change.

Ok I am now officially home and unpacked and unwound and ready to blog about this morning and the debarkation process, especially with the Key. We woke up around 7ish and were out of the room by like...7:30. We brought our bags down to the Key breakfast because we wanted to free up the room ASAP for our room attendant since I know that it’s a tight day for them to flip. Our Key letter said that breakfast would be held on deck 4 which was The Grande. When we approached it I knew we were in the right spot because we were greeted with this sign. At first we were planning on just piling our carry on bags by the table, but we noticed that others had just left them in the waiting area outside the dining room so we followed suit. As you have probably seen, Key breakfast is basically the normal MDR breakfast menu with 2 added dishes. I got the steak and eggs even though I knew I would only be able to sample it since it’s so heavy for that early. But I was on a steak mission! My dad got the crab Benedict so I got a shot of that too. But only after he attacked it first. Since it wasn’t my food I can’t complain that he actually....you know, ate it. My steak was very very good, but I was honestly so burnt out on steak that I can’t even begin to rank it in the various steaks I tried. I will say, it looks thin but that’s a good thing for such an early morning steak. And it wasn’t over cooked despite how thin it was compared to a normal filet. My mom got the French toast and was swearing it was a slightly elevated version over what she had had earlier in the cruise when we have breakfast in the MDR. I’m not sure if that’s because they used better ingredients or if it was just because the kitchen had to serve fewer people and was able to focus more on each dish. After we finished with breakfast, we made our way up the stairs to deck 5 near the Champagne bar as instructed. Again, ample signage. This time in the form of a nice woman holding up a key paddle. When we approached her and told her we had the Key, the blonde woman above asked if we were ready to leave then. We told her that we were and she immediately whisked us away. No waiting for a group to form or waiting until a certain time happened. She personally escorted us down the gangway and through a special line in the port toward the baggage claim. She led us past all the other luggage claim areas and over to the same area that suite and pinnacle (I think I saw them on the sign) luggage is. That line that you see behind the luggage is the customs line so that tells you how close it is to the exit. She then said goodbye to us and wished us safe travels. She was very nice and very efficient. Once we found our stuff we decided to take full advantage of the porter there which ended up being a wise decision as he shamelessly cut the customs line and we were outside before I even had a chance to think about ordering the Uber to the airport. I then did that after customs as we were walking outside. They must have been circling the area because a Suburban was greeting us in less than 3 minutes. Overall, we approached the Key paddle woman at 8:25 and were in the Uber on the way to the airport by 8:43. And that is including delays due to being stuck behind slower moving people with walking assistive devices going down the gangway and it taking some time to hunt down our various bags among the Key section. Looking at the lines that had formed I could have seen it taking close to an hour otherwise. This includes getting off the ship and also through customs. I could definitely see us getting the Key in the future depending on the ship and price. I don’t think it’s worth it for a smaller ship like Grandeur so definitely not for that sailing. I will keep an eye out on pricing for our Harmony sailing. At the new full price I think it wouldn’t be worth it. But at $20-25 I can see the value. But that’s coming from a place where we would be getting the Internet anyway and we place real value on saving time and skipping lines. And I really, REALLY liked the reserved seats because it let us have a bit more freedom with our schedule and timing. The only other feature I can think that would be nice to add (and is pragmatic as a wish list item) would be a special line at guest services like AMC has for their Alist and Premier members. It wouldn’t cost them anything extra and it would make sense to also open that special line up to suites/pinnacles to avoid a revolt.

That is correct. If the travel agent you want to use for that cruise is the one you used for the cruise you will be on then you don’t have to do anything. If you used a different travel agent or no travel agent, you need to bring your agent’s information to Next Cruise and I recommend telling them at the start that you want to assign it to a different agent. If that’s the case, I’d recommend asking your agent what information of theirs you need to give Next Cruise in order for them to get credit for the booking. That serves 2 purposes. 1. You get the correct info 2. It gives them a heads up to keep an eye out for that booking on their end.

Day 7: I realized last night that I never tried Johnny Rockets for breakfast so that was definitely on my wishlist for today. I talked my mom into coming with me and my dad ended up joining us mid meal for some coffee. I got the breakfast sandwich with bacon and we split the “Works” potatoes. The potatoes are crispier than they appear but they were kind of heavy for breakfast with all the cheese. I did like the addition of the peppers though. The breakfast sandwich was pretty good, but I liked the Park Cafe one more. It was more toasted and the ham had more flavor than the bacon. When we docked in Nassau, we were next to the NCL Sky and the Disney Dream was on the other side of it. I noticed from our balcony that the NCL ship was having a crew safety drill. The view from the starboard side was pretty industrial but the view from the port side. Whew. Quite lovely. Today was another day of.....you guessed it! Reading in the Solarium! It was wonderfully peaceful with staying on board for the port day and I had my pick of chairs with nary a wait at the bar. We had 6pm dinner reservations at CK as usual and tonight was filet night! I was very excited and the menu looked great. however, forewarning....I think I was a bit burnt out on food by this point. The food was all good, but it was kind of overwhelming and I’m ready for lots of salads at home. So. Much. Meat. This trip (my fault). Crispy pork belly for appetizer. It had way more flavor than Giovanni’s and I liked the parsnip purée more than I thought I would. It also had a really nice texture to it. Overall, I’d say twice as good as the Giovanni’s pancetta. Of course the filet for my main. I have to say....it was excellent. Honestly, a very good cut and flavorful sides and sauce. But I’d say it’s the second best filet on the ship as I still liked the Giovanni’s filet more (the meat itself seemed to have more flavor. Idk how) and the CK rib eye is still my favorite overall steak on board. The thing with filet is that since it’s such a relatively low fat cut of meat, there’s only so much natural flavor it can have. The rib eye though. You can’t beat that natural marbling if it’s well cooked. And the Coastal Kitchen one I had was expertly cooked. I’d say this steak was still better than the Chops one though and the mashed potatoes are for sure much more flavorful than the Chops potatoes. I was kind of disappointed because our waiter (new person we hadn’t had) forgot to bring out the rigatoni for sharing that I had requested. We didn’t bother saying anything because there was absolutely no room in our stomachs for it and we didn’t need it...but it would have been nice to taste. I went with the honey pear because I needed something lighter in my life. It was good, but the puff pastry underneath seemed like filler. After dinner, my dad retired to the room and my mom and I went to waste some time in the casino. We only had 20 mins before our show so I didn’t want to go to a table because it would have been a waste. I did see this cool art work down there that I hadn’t noticed before. Then it was time for Blue Planet. We got to the 8:30 show at 8:22 because we MIGHT have lost track of time in the casino. However...Key seating to the rescue! I enjoyed the show more than I thought I would. I didn’t realize that it was a combination of live singing, dancing as well as acrobatics. I thought it was more like a pure Cirque du Solei type thing. After the show, it was me hunting around the shops to spend my OBC and then a panicked realization that we hadn’t packed and time was running out. We juuuuust made it. And were feeling quite proud of ourselves about our efficiency and timing. Then it was BED. Flight is boarding now so I’ll probably recap this morning when we land.

Thank you so much! It’s funny, when I was a teenager I wanted nothing to do with my parents because I was a hormonal brat but now as an adult it’s really great to get to spend the time with them. It’s such a great bonding time and I’m really looking forward to my Jan 2021 cruise which will just be a mother/daughter trip. I’m sure you must be looking forward to that June cruise! Your dad sounds like he is still very much young at heart.

Oh man I forgot how much 11pm sneaks up on you on the last night when you plan on putting out luggage. My mom and I managed to speed pack everything in about half an hour while my dad slept. ? I’m completely exhausted right now and I know tomm morning will be a bit hectic followed by sitting around waiting so I’ll do the proper day 7 recap at the airport, but I will leave you with this. I’ve always wondered why they have stores like Kate Spade, Michael Kors & Coach on cruise ships. Then I found myself needing to waste $50 in OBC on the last day and well. One thing led to another and the good news is I DID manage to spend the $50. .......and then some.

I put my passport in a hidden pocket of my backpack that lays flat against my lower back. It’s the perfect size for it.

Day 6: Warning that today is a pretty boring today to blog about because it was mostly hanging out in the Solarium and on our balcony reading. It sounds boring, but I have read 2 books while I’ve been here and hope to finish the 3rd before I get home. I rarely have time to read properly at home so I treasure this kind of uninterrupted time to catch up on some good books. My mom and I decided to do a leisurely breakfast in the MDR which was nice but only ok food wise. Buuuuuut it DOES have the fresh OJ available which of course I took advantage of. Twice. Love that stuff. When I went up to the Solarium around 10 there were a decent amount of people already in there. However magically my favored padded chairs from the other day near the hot tub with the side table were still open so I immediately dumped my stuff and got settled in before someone else set their sights on the pair. Starting around 10:30 or 11 they had a couple of people wandering around the Solarium taking drink orders who were great and very friendly. They were good about being proactive about seeing if you wanted anything too. I didn’t even see the one woman approach, but she saw my empty drink and asked if she could get me anything else. Of course I said yes because you have to flex that refreshment package! I left around 1ish to meet up with my mom for lunch at Sorrentos. This time there was no line at all and they had a ton of pizza out and ready to serve. It was coming fast and hot. Since we both had a bit of a desire for something sweet, I let her talk me into some ice cream. She really had to twist my arm, let me tell you. I got a scoop of mint chocolate chip with mini M&Ms You could see where they were set up for a cupcake decorating class later. All the places were set up and the table was like....shrink wrapped with Saran Wrap to keep everything sanitary. I split from my mom so I could swing by the Vitality Cafe for another strawberry banana smoothie (bless real fruit!) to bring onto the balcony for my afternoon reading. I kind of wanted to nap too but since I have the sofa bed and it was during the day....I was out of luck since it was more sofa than bed at that point. So I might have been slightly crankier than normal before we went to dinner. Luckily we had Tanesha up at CK and she was all smiles and welcomed us back while remembering what we liked to drink. They must have access to your other dining plans because both her and Jose (CK host) asked how we liked Giovanni’s and wished my mom a happy birthday. I got the pizzette as my appetizer It just wasn’t to my taste. Which isn’t to say it was bad but.....I’m not the biggest pesto fan so this just wasn’t for me. For my main I asked for a recommendation between the linguine or the veal chop. Tanesha immediately recommended the veal chop and my goodness was that the correct choice. LOOK AT THAT BEAST. When she saw my face looking at it she told me that this isn’t even their biggest cut of this steak. I can’t imagine even bigger. As is, it’s about half the size of my head. It was incredibly, melt in your mouth tender and the sauce was very good and flavorful. Third best steak so far. Still 1. CK rib eye 2. Giovanni’s filet 3. CK veal chop. The real test should be tomorrow when CK is due to have their filet entry on the menu. Challenge accepted. Apple pie for dessert. I forgot about the raisin warnings and was surprised to see them pop out. Even with raisins this is definitely better than the apple pie from Enchantment’s MDR. I’m not sure if that’s a CK thing or an Oasis class thing. When we went back to our room we had some really sad items to greet us ? But we also had some more uplifting things. This last paper surprised me because we didn’t get one of these for St Kitt’s or San Juan. I’m not sure what’s different about Nassau that we got this paper, but it’s nice that the priority debarkation isn’t ALWAYS tied to a tender port. More consistency would be nice but this is Royal after all. And with that it’s a bit more reading and then hopefully an early bed time because I have been waking up way earlier than normal and it’s throwing me off.

Thank you so much!

So for dinner tonight we had 6:30 reservations at Giovanni’s Table and that was going to be followed by a 9:00 showing of the ice skating show (Ice Games). We were seated quite promptly at Giovanni’s and overall had a wonderful dinner, though there were some culinary duds in the mix and some pacing issues which we later found out were due to some large tables slowing down the kitchen. That’s fine, but I would have preferred a bit more communication from our server on the delay and cause of it. A shot of the mostly completely attacked bread basket which was full of very good crusty Italian bread. I’m such a snob about Italian bread and this was very very good and fresh. The right contrast of crusty but pliable exterior and a light, fluffy interior. They give you olive oil with balsamic vinaigrette sprinkled with Parmesan cheese for dipping. For my appetizer I got the pancetta (slow cooked pork belly). It was good but not great. A tad dry and not as flavorful as I was expecting. My mom and I got an order of the bolognese pasta to split as our pasta dish. It was just....ok. I would definitely get another pasta if we went back. My dad loved his wild mushroom risotto but I’m not a mushroom person. You can see his pasta in the background of the next picture. My new love. Giovanni’s filet. Hands down, as a filet this beats Chop’s filet. The sauce is better, the mashed potatoes are better, and the steak is either a better cut or prepared better. It’s very juicy and tender with a lot of good flavors. As an overall steak, it’s the second best on the ship of what I’ve tasted. Number 1 is still Coastal Kitchen rib eye. To get back around to the pacing issue I noted earlier. We got there at 6:30. At 7:30 our appetizers had been cleared and we were still waiting for our main dishes. She asked if we wanted desert around 8:10 when I told her that we did, but as a note we had a 9pm show. She then apologized for all the delays and explained what caused them. She picked up the pace on clearing everything and taking our dessert orders. But before she took our dessert orders she brought out......a cake with a candle in it for my mom’s birthday! I had come by the night before and spoken to the host about getting a candle put in a dessert for her and brought to the table but *without any singing* because my family can’t stand that. I had asked if at all possible to have it be carrot cake because it’s her favorite dessert but said I totally understood if they couldn’t make it happen. Well, turns out they weren’t able to swing that BUT they did bring her over a dessert from 150 Central Park instead! It was very nice how she did it and very much appreciated. By the way, it was excellent and very refreshing. I got the hazelnut chocolate cake for dessert. Ok so I take back anything I said about not having had a phenomenal cake on Royal. Here it is. This cake. This very cake. Was so f***ing good. That I paused between bites to just savor it. So rich. So moist. Such a great crumb. The frosting. So decadent. I just. Y U M. Also my dad was obsessed with the tiramisu but since I don’t like coffee I was trying to clear my tastebuds after trying it. Overall, we finished with Giovanni’s around 8:30 so it took a good, full 2 hours to eat there. Time accordingly. We stopped by the room to change shoes and somehow lost my dad to the siren call of the bed. My mom was a trooper though and joined me for seeing the Ice Show. We got there around 8:40 and used Key seats. Excellent seats there: overall the ice show was super fun and cheesy in the best way. I was surprised by how much they must have spent on song licensing because they had stuff from some pretty famous and varied musicians. From Michael Jackson to Barbra Streisand to Elvis to Christina Aguilera. It was also fairly interactive so if you have no desire for them to interact and play with you, don’t sit in the front row. It was a great end to the night and now it’s BED.

I am probably the worst person to ask about this as I tend to avoid the pool deck a lot except for the Solarium, but I can tell you I have heard some people simply sit down on a chair that has a towel and see if someone says something to you. I imagine that’s not an appealing option if you aren’t a confrontational person but as long as you aren’t looking for chairs together for a huge number of people you should probably be fine. I do know that people also sometimes move chairs to create a larger group of chairs together. When I was camped out in the Solarium the other day, I asked my dad to watch over my kindle when I went up to the bar and when I came back, 2 of the padded chairs next to me had been kidnapped by a group of people on the other side of the hot tub. Other people just viewed that as more space to dump their stuff while they hopped in the pool. The newly empty space that turned into a hot tub staging area. Oh and I forgot I had this picture of the pool area at 10am on one of the sea days. As you can see, still plenty of chairs. That Solarium picture I took made it seem like the majority had been saved that early. It’s not the case, don’t worry!

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention, when we came back before my mom went up to the pool deck we made a nice little trip down to Next Cruise and....YOLO booked the Junior Suite for the Anthem 2021 11 night sailing! Worth it for the room, the balcony and the Coastal Kitchen access. Also we don’t have to pay for flights since it’s out of NJ. This is my logic and I’m sticking to it. Those 22 points aren’t too shabby either. The thing I was surprised by was that it’s still only a $100 per person deposit even for the longer sailing and now you have 2 months to make changes to your booking without penalty instead of 30 days. Very good surprises. Booking confirmation!