Baked Alaska

And of course, what cruise would be complete without a pre-cruise weigh in ??

So if you've been following these boards for a while, you will already know how much I love La Bamba when sailing out of South Florida. You probably have already heard @JLMoran, @tonyfsu21, and @bellemiche make similar comments. Be sure to to give them a try the next time you are in the area pre/post cruise. Their food is delicious, portions are huge, their margaritas are perfect, and service is wonderful!  Here are a few photos to try to do them justice.

House Cheese Dip and House Nachos and Cheese:

El Patron Margarita:

Kids Chicken Taco (Hard Shell):

Chicken Quesadilla:

Chicken Fajitas:

Chicken Tostadas:

And to finish it all off (even though we were completely stuffed), Fried Ice Cream! (Minus the Whipped Cream).

Current situation: Food Coma 

One more day till Mariner. We always fly in a day ahead. About the sugar crash....this was our situation about an hour ago at baggage claim....

I have always found it extremely easy to make reservation for this offer or the dining package. when I board there are always staff members trying to book you into the restaurants so I just go to them and book all  at once, it takes 5 minutes then I head to the bar.
 
saying that I normally have a drink in my hand already.

So - when we were on the Allure, the only two options we had were Giovanni's or Samba Grill. If we wanted to swap to Giovanni's from Samba (which we had little to no interest in as I'm not really a meat eater), we could just call the specialty restaurant and ask to have it changed. 

We don't go back until the day after Labour Day here in Ontario. It's more like "one last hurrah" before we go back ?
Thank you for following along.

What a great way to start off the school year! Can't wait to see and hear all about your cruise on the Mariner! Have a great time!

I have historically felt this way, and it's why I have not bothered to look into the AmEx or Chase Sapphire cards.

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.

I like my Belize tenders with plum sauce, but my son prefers BBQ.

Keep checking.
Holiday menus from last year on Indy.  Price was higher but you got more.  For example Whole Maine Lobster was included.  Champagne included as well.
I'm surprised it's sold out already.  Maybe they are trying to create a demand market for it.


 


 

Occasionally Sitka appears on limited itineraries.  Sailing out of Seattle generally will call on Victoria which typically isn't offered on the one-way North/South cruises.
Don't discount the Seattle round trip Alaska cruises.  I've done both and enjoyed both very much.  My pattern is Southbound, Seattle round trip, Southbound, Seattle roundtrip.
2020 is unknown.  With more and bigger ships doing Alaska it is possible more ports or lesser used ports may become more common.  
 

And it worked, thank you!

Try using Chrome's incognito mode.

There will definitely be sales between now and your sailing next May.  Your best price may come during the Black Friday sale.  Keep in mind you can cancel and re-book as many times as you want, so even if you think you got a good price, keep checking each sale as you never know when it's going drop that one more dollar a day.  

Where's my money then?? ?

I certainly would not worry about it just because the chances are pretty low.

We were on the Oasis in July 2017 and then the Radiance July 2018.  We are 60 also and we loved both ships. 

In St Thomas you could take a ferry to St John. The beaches there are stunning. 
Here is some info http://www.vinow.com/stjohn/getting_there/

I seriously need to get one of those cabanas! And nice reading material..?

Why would Royal do this to existing guests this close to sail date?  Million dollar question.
My only wild guess is that an interim payment is due for Spectrum and they lack cash reserves to make that interim payment.  How do you come up several million on short notice? Charter a ship.  
I've joked before that there is a surprise cruise planner sale every time they need to make another payment for the ship that's being built at that moment.  Same effect.  Quick way to generate cash flow that's cheaper than borrowing the money.   
There are sale events every week now it seems.  Why?  If Royal can fill all their ships and booking are so strong, why the need for so many promos and sales?
Ships sail full but often some of those cabins are filled at basement rates at or below cost.  The cabin beside you may have paid twice what you paid or half what you paid.  Despite their policy they don't discount to fill the ship - they do.  Look at Alaska right now.  End of August Radiance $499 pp.  Less than half of the normal price for that cabin mid-season.  They can't fill the ship so discounts are happening.  Florida residents benefits from FL rates and specials that come and go.  Matt got a suite on Brilliance at balcony rates that isn't available out of state.  Michael Poole has bragged about single supplements being waived that weren't for out of state residents.  That's how they fill ships.  They don't market those specials, if you happen to be on the website and find them, winner!
With a charter all cabins are sold from Royal's perspective.  If the charter company can't fill the ship, the charter company takes the hit, not Royal.  If the charter company sets the price too high, they face the consequences and they absorb all risk.
This FAQ is very telling if you read between the lines:
How should the client price the staterooms in a Re-Sale Full Ship Charter?
The client is responsible for determining the pricing model for a Re-Sale Full Ship Charter program. Due to anti-trust regulations, Royal Caribbean International cannot legally advise the client how to price staterooms on a chartered sailing. Current retail pricing may be used as a guide but is a snapshot of the pricing on a particular day. This pricing would never apply to the entire ship nor would it remain constant throughout the booking life cycle for the sailing.
In other words part of Royal's secret sauce is knowing how and when to adjust pricing on a cabin by cabin basis, on a day to day basis, on a sailing by sailing basis.
 
 Absolutely they could, but choose not to.  They sort of elude to that when they suggest they don't typically charter within 12 months of sail date.  That 'policy' wasn't followed in the cases of Enchantment and twice on Navigator for March 2019.
BTW - I found the charter for Enchantment.  https://happyvalleycruise.com/ - Just in case anyone is wondering... who would charter a ship?  
The other oddity for chartering a ship with only 8 months to sailing is that the charter company has only 8 months to market and fill the ship.  Royal needs two years to work their secret sauce.  Why on earth would a charter company take the risk and try to do this on such a compressed time schedule?  Seems risky to me. 

Lulu, flip flops and I'm good to go! ?
Actually super excited for Mariner next week since none of us will be packing formal clothes or dress shoes!

^^^This is exactly what we go by.  Sometimes, too much time is spent analyzing and nit picking over instant savings, OBCs, the lack of OBCs, etc. and RC gives and takes them away so often, who can keep track?  My thinking has always been, are we good with the price?  If so, book it, then monitor it for price drops.  This has always worked in our favour since we book way before 90 days.  If/when RC changes that, I will re-evaluate then.  But until then, I agree completely with the above line.

This sounds quite bizzare. Someone can get all the way to the credit card page, and only then is he told what he gets for the price???
So I'm trying it myself, as an experiment... Let's see, let's go from Miami to Bahamas in March 2019. It tells me that this will be on Mariner, stopping at CocoCay and Nassau, there are 5 dates available, and the *average* price is USD $399 per person. So I click on it...
And now it shows me five different dates (March 1, 8, 15, 22, 29) with five different prices for an Interior room. The average is not $399, the *lowest* is $399. Huh? Oh, now I see, the previous screen had said "from USD $399 Avg per person". Gotta watch those "from"s!!! Caveat emptor!
So the 5 prices range from $399 to $470. I'll pick the middle one, $420 on March 29 2019. I'd like one room for 2 adults. I'm now at a screen titled "Select your room type". That surprised me, because I thought I had already selected an Interior room. But this is actually a good thing, because this screen gives me some useful information about the price:
"INTERIOR / from $395 Per Person / $50 Stateroom Savings Included / + $25 Free Onboard Spending Credit"
I don't know what "Stateroom Savings Included" means; my guess is that they are advertising this room somewhere for $445. But where did the $420 figure comes from? It seems that the $420 that I saw a few screens earlier means that if I pay $420 up front (remember, we need to pay RCCL in full way before the vacation begins) then they will give us a room worth $395, and they'll also give us $25 to spend on board.
A real cynic (such as myself) would say, "So what's really happening is that I'm giving RCCL a $25 interest-free loan for a couple of months, which they will pay back via liquor and cappucino." But wait, that calculation works only if I will actually pay then $420, like the other screen said. But THIS screen says I'm paying only $395. Which is it? I don't know. We'll have to see...
But THIS PART is really important!!! Before we go to the next screen, please read the fine print at the bottom, which says:
"*Price is per person, cruise only, reflects any promotional savings, and is subject to change and availability until booked. Non-refundable deposit booking ("NRDB") cancelled prior to final payment due date will receive a future cruise credit in the amount of the deposit minus a $100 per person service fee. FCC is non-transferable and expires after 12-months from issue date. 100USD/100CAD per person service fee applies to changes to NRDB ship or sail date."
So I don't know how much I'm paying, but I DO know that it is NON-refundable.
Okay, let's press the yellow "SELECT" button...
Drum roll.. (it took a while for the next screen to appear)
I now have two options:
$395 USD Per Person ... includes $50 instant savings ... Non-refundable deposit [SELECT]
$445 USD Per Person ... includes $50 instant savings ... Refundable deposit [SELECT]
Regardless which option I choose, the next screen asks me to choose between a standard Interior Room (for $395 or $445), or a Promenade View Interior Room (for $40 more, i.e., $435 or $485).
I now consider this experiment over. I still haven't picked out exactly which room number I want, and quite a way until I have to enter my credit card number. But IF I READ THE SCREEN CAREFULLY, then I have already chosen whether or not to pay an extra $50 for the privilege of a Refundable ticket.
WAIT! It's a good thing I didn't press "Submit Reply" yet. Is $395 the actual non-refundable price, or is it $420. I am so confused. Now I understand some of the complaints that I've been reading on these messages boards.
Let's go with the $395 price, and pick a room. There are 3 rooms remaining on the forward section of Deck 10, and I'm picking 1531.
I am finally at the screen with the total price, which is:
"Subtotal $790 + Taxes&Fees $183.86 = $973.86"
That would make total sense if the price was $395 each, so that two is $790. I also see that it includes "$25.00 Free Onboard Spending Credit - FREE", meaning that the actual price (after they pay back this $25 loan) is only $370. (Pretty cheap for a three-night vacation that includes meals, if you ask me.)
But I am going to totally ignore the line that says "BOGO NO REF DEP - $414.00 discount". I didn't see anything like this on any previous screen, and I am too tired to look into it.

I sail with my husband. Sometimes I eat solo. My husband is ok with me doing this. He loves eating after 10pm with snacks. I go to the WJ, chops and MDR by myself.