spiralqueen

21 hours ago, OrlandoC said:

I'm sorry this is wrong. Not calling you out in particular since this is a huge misconception across the country. 

McDonald's was absolutely negligent in how they served their coffee. 

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/16/13971482/mcdonalds-coffee-lawsuit-stella-liebeck

The 79 year-old victim suffered third degree burns on her legs and genitals which required extensive surgery to repair because McDonald's served coffee at over 190 degrees. They also knew that this was a problem because before this case they had already received over 700 reports of burns due to hot coffee. They didn't even deny they knew this was dangerous in the case! Yet they continued to serve it at near boiling temperatures. 

In addition the victim didn't want to file a lawsuit. She only wanted her medical expenses paid. McDonalds refused and only offered her $800. Her lawsuit was for those expenses only but the jury thought McDonald's was so negligent that they awarded her even more. 

So how did it end up that everyone in America thinks she was greedy because she got some lukewarm coffee on her? McDonald's funded a misinformation campaign that the media bought into and spread to everyone. Corporations have used this fake story to keep people with real injuries from pursuing damages for fear they might be considered in the same way this woman was. Don't fall for McDonald's lies.  

Thank you! I'm so glad someone said something about this because citing the McDonald's coffee case as an example of frivolous lawsuits is such a pet peeve of mine. McDonald's propaganda campaign sure did a number on public perception. 

5 minutes ago, Baked Alaska said:

I agree 100%. Here's how it goes: check message boards on this blog, check cruise planner, check cruise prices, play with a new booking. Rinse and repeat! Always in this order (this is how I found about and booked with Ultra Deluxe Drink Package, AKA $18 Price Glitch)!

That’s my order too! It’s funny, my dad was just saying that he doesn’t know how I manage to find all the deals that I do for cruising items. He doesn’t know how much I crowd-source! 

17 hours ago, Vanessa77 said:

That's crazy! I'm located in Aus, and taking just a week off seems like such a cop out. If you only take a week off you can't even get anywhere. Takes 24 hours to get to Europe, 14 to get to the US; and that's only 1 way! Only place you could conceivable go with just 1 week off is South East Asia, and I am not one keen on repeating holiday destinations.

Taking your full 4 weeks over here is pretty normal.

I think part of it is cultural since there are so many places to go so easily from where we are. We could easily drive a couple of hours and spend time in another major US city like New York City, Baltimore, Washington DC, etc. And that’s not even counting how quick it is to fly to various places from here. Now mind you, they will LET you take more than a week off at a  time if you request it. I just don’t like dealing with the passive aggressive, half joking comments. So part of that is self imposed. 

......that being said I feel no guilt at going on a 11 day sailing over my birthday in Jan 2021 (EEE SO EXCITED!) 

Just now, F1guynz said:

I am surprised by the number of days most people get.

I had always heard people in the U.S didn't get much time off which is why a lot of the cruises are seven days or less.

Now I wonder why they don't offer the odd 14 day itinerary on an Oasis ship as I am sure you could fit in more port visits if you only had to return to a home port once.

 

I know for me, personally, even though I get close to a month worth of vacation time I get some serious side eye from coworkers and my superiors if I use more than 6 or 7 days in a row. My coworker went to Italy for 2 weeks and had some comments when he came back from the owners about how long he was away. It goes over better if it’s spaced out. 

It’s funny, in my mind I get 2 weeks vacation time. However I just did the math and I get 19 days per year (so just shy of 4 weeks) plus major federal holidays. However my PTO doubles as both vacation time and sick days so I don’t like to plan on using every single day for vacations as it wouldn’t allow me the flexibility to call out if I’m not feeling well. We don’t get off for things like Presidents’ Day or Columbus Day (not NYSE or court house rules) but I honestly can’t complain. My work is very flexible as far as allowing me to take time off which is nice. It means I can plan 2 and a half years in advance and not worry about not being able to get the time off (.....knock on wood. Don’t want to jinx myself!) 

To add the to the "just about any drink can be made virgin" this is true and the bartenders can also tell you if making the drink virgin is pointless. On my last cruise I forget what I tried to order virgin, but the bartender said "I mean I can make that for you, but it's basically going to be grapefruit juice" so I went with something else. Though I would encourage you to have some direction when ordering since my attempt to tell the bartender at R Bar to "give me an interesting but fruity nonalcoholic drink" resulted in literal fruit punch that you would serve at a kid's party. 

5 hours ago, Curt From Canada said:

The places on Anthem to sign up seem to move around.  When we signed up on Anthem, it was in the Theater.  It was clear in the first Compass we got (on boarding) where to go.  If not clear, ask any crew member.

The Escape Room on Anthem is basic.  However, the challenge of "escaping' transcends the bells and whistles that other rooms may have.  Although no one is in danger , there still is the rush of wanting to win.  This is not like sitting in the bar with a drink playing trivia, this is break neck speed puzzle solving.

... Just kidding ... slightly.

Awesome, thank you! And yes, I’m looking forward to it! Escape room games are my favorite genre of iPhone/iPad games but I’ve never had a chance to do one in person. 

1 hour ago, Curt From Canada said:

Escape Room bookings are the RC equivalent of a "Booking Roulette".  Sometimes you see in advance (on the Planner) and others times they book up very quickly so they do not show up on the Planner.  We went once on Anthem and it was a blast.  We were unable to book in advance and went to book as soon as we got on the ship.  We were on a waiting list and were lucky enough to get in towards the end of the cruise.  The more popular it gets the more expensive it gets (I think we paid $9.99pp 2 years ago).  I had heard recently it was $20pp.

We were fortunate enough to get teamed with a number of teachers from NH.  Although I want to, I will not brag about our record setting time.

I forgot to ask this before. Where on board do you go to book it/get on a waiting list? Is there a kiosk for it like there is for specialty dining and show reservations?

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Definitely there but you have to know to book it as soon as possible upon boarding.  

So it’s not bookable in the cruise planner for Anthem then? Is the one for Harmony bookable ahead of time?

So I have seen multiple people rave about the convenience of parking at the port as opposed to off site parking when you are driving there. And I have also seen mention of the fact that porters will bring your luggage directly to your car at debarkation. I have a couple of questions on this. 

1. Am I understanding this correctly and the porters will go actually up to your car to bring you your luggage the full way? 

2. If so, is this them going into the parking area or would someone have to run out ahead of time and pull the car around to the pickup curb area? 

If it makes a difference, I’m asking about both Baltimore and Bayonne in particular. Thanks in advance! 

I have to say that my mom and I are not very adventurous eaters and eclectic "fusion" type food is the bane of my existence. We all LOVED Coastal Kitchen and there is quite a decent amount of "standard" items, but elevated in there. For example, a shrimp cocktail is always on the menu as an appetizer but the cocktail sauce is markedly better than the sauce in the WJ. The sample menu on the Royal Caribbean website for CK isn't what is normally around. Also it's not overly formal in there. Just much MUCH better service and a kitchen that serves a smaller number of people so they can spend more time preparing each dish. 

@Lovetocruise2002 posted PDF versions all of the Coastal Kitchen menus here  from when she was in Star Class and the genie sent them. Much easier than combing through a live-blog! (Though you would miss out on food pictures this way) 

On 7/4/2019 at 11:33 AM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am now in my happy place...on a cruise ships, all CK reservations made for the week. No problems getting the times we wanted 

Still catching up, but did you have any trouble finding someone at the podium or was there someone readily available there? That's great to hear that you got reservations for the week all lined up! 

On 7/1/2019 at 3:33 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Current situation:

Toiletries packed

The struggle was real.

 

I have a ton to catch up on, but I couldn't NOT comment on this pic and totally derail your liveblog. Is that The Ordinary I spy in the background? I love that stuff so much! Which of their products do you use? It's so effective and dirt cheap by skin care standards. 

7 hours ago, L454S said:

Great for hanging a multi shelf organizer.

 

I feel like such a fool that this never occurred to me. I brought one of these things on a sailing when we had an interior cabin and while it was nice, the amount of space it took up in the closet was annoying so we decided to give up on it. I’ll have to give this another try in Nov when we have another interior cabin. It will help that this one is a driving port so no checked bags with airlines space wise. 

I love this forum so very much. I just went and snagged that for my whole family for my May 2020 cruise even though me and my mom don't drink since $18 is cheaper than the Refreshment sale price lately. And if this means that my dad can freely order wine and beer, then all the better! 

55 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

They actually mentioned that the published closing time was “late” which is fairly useless in terms of planning.  I guess they just wait until 11:00 and if no one is ordering food, they shut it all down.

That’s only slightly more helpful for a closing time than this sign I saw at a bar during a road trip 

My very first cruise was sometime in the mid 90s on the Celebrity Meridian. However, I was very young and just remember flashes from it. It’s so funny the things you remember as a kid. I do remember I had oxtail soup in the MDR and that I ended up enjoying it.  I also remember one of the counselors at their kids program taught me that little “this is the church, this is the steeple, open it up and see all the people” hand game. 

On 6/24/2019 at 4:24 PM, 12thman said:

Thank you @spiralqueen!

 

No problem! The cart also had some drinks in it to buy as well. If you are going to something in Studio B I highly recommend grabbing something from the cart rather than the Studio B bar. That bar was MOBBED and it took me 10-15 minutes to get a bottle of water. They almost gave away my seat but my mom managed to protect it. 

4 minutes ago, 12thman said:

Anyone know where the popcorn is on the Allure?

When I was on it they had a little cart set up at night on the 4th floor in the mini lobby outside of Blaze/Jazz on 4/Comedy Live/Studio B

It depends on which ship you are sailing on. If it is a ship that uses the new Royal app, in theory at some point around I think 60 days your sailing will show up in the app and you can play around with what you can see. However the app is notoriously inaccurate with information. Your best bet is to look at the Cruise Compass section of this website and look at a compass for a sailing that is most similar to yours in length and itinerary on that ship since they tend to copy and paste past schedules from one sailing to another. 

My attitude is anything over $50 I have no shame in asking for a reprice. Less than that and I will start to feel slightly guilty about it but it wouldn't stop me. I have MEI and I just shoot my agent an email. I have never gotten the impression that I annoy her with these requests like I did with my prior agent (pre-MEI). 

This past May it cost just over $17 for an Uber XL (SUV) from port Everglades to FLL and I didn’t see any mention of surge pricing. While talking to the driver, he said that the day wasn’t that busy though and that fall and winter are busier for them. 

6 hours ago, Lovelysmile29 said:

 I am worried about wasting money because I am particular about my drinks

If you are very particular about your drinks I’d imagine the deluxe package could be really good for you as it would let you not feel guilty about not finishing a new drink you try if you don’t like it. As for fruity drinks that was my poison back when I drank and I was always partial to tequila sunrises (tequila, OJ & grenadine), daiquiris, margaritas, and there also lots of delicious and fruity martinis. I’d really recommend looking at the menus at the various bars. They have some interesting and yummy looking drink options outside of the staples. 

There is a reason that many of us use travel agents to book with Royal. They then have to deal with the website and customer service phone nonsense and all the stress and headaches that come with it. I think it was less a bait and switch scam and more just a website glitch and a customer service agent who just couldn’t comprehend that and/or didn’t believe you for some reason (but still very annoying and I understand your frustration!) If you are willing to give Royal another try, I would try having a travel agent rebook it so that they can navigate that for you. The nice thing is that they come with lots of knowledge and experience and it costs you nothing extra. They get paid by Royal so it’s a win/win. 

6 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

What is the overall boarding order? e.g. For us, we are just Platinum and have booked a JS.  Are JS bookings called before Platinum C&A level?

Yes they are. It typically goes back to back cruisers (not announced but you can see them come off and on), then Star Class (if OA/QN), Suites/Pinnacles, and then some differing order of Diamond Plus/Diamond and Key. I've heard mixed reviews of when post suite things are called. Also you will have a nicer waiting area depending on the terminal if you wait with the suites.