Baked Alaska

I would never tell any of you that the next sale is the Explore More Sale with up to $200 to spend at sea
5nights or less: Inside/oceanview: $25, Balcony: $50, Suites: $75
6 nights or longer: Inside/oceanview: $50, Balcony $75, Suite: $100
Combinable with non-refundable OBC (which is how you get up to $200).

Does your little birdie know when the next 30% off everyone (or BOGO60) sale will be?  

For our Alaska sailing, we have the 5 night dining package. Regardless of where we eat, save Windjammer, we will be wearing jeans or Khakis. We will be doing a lot of fishing and as such, would rather pack for fishing excursion weather and not formal night. Weather boots and layered clothing will take a lot of room in our suit cases, already. I agree with @MikeK, "don't worry what the others are wearing." As long as your comfortable. Heck, you will probably not see these people the following week ever again, and really, will you remember what your fellow cruise passengers wore at lunch, let alone the day before? Don't worry, be happy. ?
 

Along those lines, twenty years ago we were on our second cruise-11 night Hawaii- and the ship was teeming with passengers much older than we were (50). Many had walkers or scooters or canes or assistants. On one of the formal nights   I was mortified I had forgotten my matching shoes and my husband made everything all right when he said, “ Don’t worry about it. Most of these people will be impressed you can walk unassisted.”  LOL

I was on the Oasis for the June 17th sailing in a loft suite so we ate in the coastal kitchen every evening.  On formal night a couple in their 30s with young children were dressed in shorts and flip flops, they must have been star class because a genie was talking to them the whole meal.    I dont dress up anymore for formal night so i had on slacks and a button up shirt.  About 25% were in coats and ties, 50% in slacks and shirts and 25% in shorts.  Last year on the Oasis we ate in the MDR and formal night about 50% in coats and ties,  25% in slacks and 25% in shorts.  Basically dress how you feel the most comfortable and dont worry what the others are wearing.

On Oasis class ships it will be a limited selection of beer, wine, soda, and bottled water.
As far as I'm aware on other classes nothing beverage wise is offered outside of the cocktail hour.
Coffee/espresso machine is available all the time on any ship.

The length of the line varied. We did the whale watching and Mendenhall glacier excursion early. When we got back to the pier we walked aroudn town for a little while and then caught up with  my in-laws and then went to Tracy's. The place is not real big but we had not problem getting our own table outside. The turnover is pretty quick since people want to walk around Juneau . While they have a beer, it is not a "bar" so people tend to "eat and run". The tram "terminal" is about a block away so there are people coming and going all over the pier. I guess it will also depend on how many ships are docked that day. We were there with twangster/Explorer and another smaller ship that was using water taxis. If the line is a little long, maybe walk around town and come back.....

I'm not sure about the specialty restaurants. We didn't have a lot of time between the time we boarded and muster. We went to our rooms and unpacked our bags by which time the horn blew for muster. We "mustered" and then went directly to the MDR. There was a pretty long line but we were seated pretty quickly. I don't think they were verifying times at that point - just looking to see if you had a reservation at or before the current time. For a specialty restaurant I think you made the right move....

@KJ1231 will likely have a better perspective having just sailed her.  I can weigh in after my cruise at the end of August.  Izumi straight after muster may be a good strategy but getting there with the typical post-muster everyone-in-the-elevator at once thing going on might be a struggle.
Depending where you are coming from and how long you will be in Alaska before day one, your stomach may be still in a different time zone.  Consider that in making reservations.

I am definitely looking forward to this as getting to Texas from Missouri is a breeze! And! An Oasis class ship, no less! Woot!

I went to grad school at U of Miami and lived in South Beach for all my adult life until coming back home to NJ recently, so ask any questions. What types of activities do you enjoy? Miami has a great opera and you can wear one of your outfits from formal night. In that same complex, they have the ballet, symphony and shows. There are some great restaurants and bars, can do happy hour in Brickell. South Beach is full of things to do and see. Walk down Ocean Dr, just to see it, but do not shop or dine there. The prices are even more astronomical than regular South Beach high prices. Do Lincoln Rd which is a pedestrian mall full of boutiques stores and restaurants, art galleries, hooka bars, symphony, lounges, theater and more. Plenty of clubs. Please note that attire does matter for most venues. Have some authentic Cuban cuisine, go to Little Havana, Versailles (in Miami, it is pronounced in Spanish, Ver-sign-yes), the Gables. Visiting the Everglades is cool. You can take a tour bus to Key West for the day or stray overnight. 

Sounds like a reason to book a cruise today!

Good point. I guess cruise prices will start going up even more at this point especially since fuel/oil prices are rising.

I don't think this has much to do with Royal Caribbean's operations. The largest single day stock market dip in history happened in February. The January 29th date you mentioned was about a week before the dip so it's not the best point of reference. I can confirm because my 401k has taken a beating so far this year. I'm also no expert when it comes to the stock market, so this should not be construed as investment advice. haha
 
Also, as @twangster referenced it appears that the industry as a whole is not doing well in terms of stock value. This article cites rising fuel prices, travel demand, and flat prices as concerns.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/cruise-ship-stocks-are-the-worst-performers-in-sp-500.html
 

Day 3 - Juneau. Arrived in port on time. Weather weas overcast and a bit chilly. We dressed in layers for our excursion for got whale watching and Mendenhall glacier (see initial post for exact excursion). We boarded the bus at the pier for a short ride (15-20 mins) to the dock where the whale watching boat was. Driver provided lots of info about Juneau and had to throw in the Sarah Palin line when we went past the the governor's mansion. (Must have heard that one a dozen times). Many bald eagles in the area and seen from the bus. Once on the boat it was a bit chilly as we stayed outside on the deck. We saw 3 different whales as well as sea lions, a sea otter, the Herbert glacier (my father-in-law's name!). Over all the boat ride was good although we only saw 1 whale "tale" and none jumping. From the pier dock we took the same bus over to Mendenhall glacier. it's about a 10-15 minute walk from the bus to the the viewing point for the glacier. Got some nice pictures and then my wife went to the visitor center while I walked the trail over to a beautiful waterfall. We got back to downtown Juneau around 2:30 and met up with my sister-in-law and her husband for crab legs at Tracy's. I also had the chowder and the root beer on tap, all of which was delicious. After lunch my brother-in-law were going to take the tram up to the top but it wasn't running :-(. Se we walked around Juneau before heading back to the ship and watched all the planes coming in and out between the cruise ships. One in particular looked like he was playing "chicken" with the Explorer of the Seas as it was headed right for it at take off and banked right before reaching the ship. We had dinner at the Windjammer this night - not bad - and then went to the show with the Radiance of the Seas dancers which was good.
 Whale watching boat from back of upper deck enclosed. There was a 3rd completely open deck. That's not me in the picture
 Whale fins. I missed the tale. Should have videoed!
 
 Herbert Glacier
  Seal Lions on the bouy that wouldn't let the pup up.  Mendhenhall glacier and waterfall
   Biggest crab legs we've ever seen at Tracy's
 
 Explorer of the Seas next to us in Juneau!

Day 5 - Icy Strait Point/Hoonah. There were a lot of mixed reviews of this stop. We really liked it because (a) our excursions were good and (b) it's a relatively new port and still pretty underdeveloped as far as towns go. No hospital, small population (K-12 school has 110 kids), quite a few Tlingit people there as they "own" the area (or something like that). I went birdwatching for 2 hours. Kassie took us off the beaten path to the only farm on the island where they have about 20 head of cattle. We saw lots of bald eagles and I ticked off a few birds that would never make it to the east coast. But birding in Alaska is hard with all the spruce/pine trees - they are really thick and small bird just get lost in them. Learned from Kassie that pregnant women usually leave for Juneau 3 weeks before their due date so they can deliver in a hospital. One reason why she and her husband have not started a family yet. My wife did the Wild Alaska Kitchne where she learned how to cook salmon and halibut and got a good deal on a case of canned sockeye salmon that happened to arrive today. She can't wait to make salmon burgers, dip, etc! It was an early departure for Ketchikan so we had dinner in the Cascades Dining Room which was delicious. We missed the Piano Man show......
   Belted Kingisher and a pair of bald eagles on/near a nest
 Timber Tiger aka red squirrel
 3 sitka deer runnign ahead of the car....
 
 

Just walked around downtown Anchorage today. Our last stop was the Anchorage Museum. We could have spent a couple days there. Great exhibits, especially the one from the Smithsonian on the native people of Alaska! If you are in Anchorage I think this is a must see. 
We took an uber from the hotel to the visitor center at F and 4th. Took the Trolley Tour ($20 pp) that was 50 minutes. Stryker, our guide, was great. One fact we learned is that 25% of all small aircraft in the USA is in Anchorage! We went up to the airport where they can takeoff and land on land or sea. It was pretty busy!
My wife got in 8,800 steps around town and we visited many shops and the museum. We got a picture with Balto, the sled dog and I added two "life" birds to my lifelist - the black-billed magpie and the mew gull which are pretty common around here but never make it to the east coast.
We finished the day with dinner at Sea Galley at the recommendation of our morning uber driver. Plenty of food with the meal but not worth the $$. Would not go back! 
Getting ready for our train ride to Seward tomorrow and excited to get our first cruise started!
Here are some pictures from today......
Oomingmak - The Qiviut Shop - the visitor center told us this was a must see. It was definitely the softest wool I've ever felt and I really wanted to help the natives that make the hats & scarves but nothing under $100!

Balto the sled dog for whom the Disney movies was made

A couple life-sized stuffed animals (not mounted by a taxidemtist). The moose can be had for just $7,999

And then there was this bear on the corner

Some of the biggest flowers we've ever seen - must be all the sun and rain!

And lastly, the magpie and mew gull

Thank you @princevaliantus.
It's.                   So.                              Long.                                      Away...........................                                    ugh........................

Following!  We board Explorer in Seattle on Friday for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise!
I did your itinerary on Celebrity last year.  It was an incredible experience. 
Flying to ANC I had a window seat on the right side and had great view of many glaciers as we got close to ANC.  Have your camera ready.
My recap blog from last year is here:
This year on Explorer we get into Juneau on June 24th at noon until 9pm, then Skagway on June 25th from 7am to 8:30pm.  Am I mistaken or do these ports overlap with Radiance?
If so you'll need to keep an eye for the Royal Caribbean Blog team of eighty plus led by none other than @Matt!

If you have time, since you indicated you like bird watching, I have heard that when in Skagway you can take the walkway from the pier into town and wend your way to an old fishery that is absolutely packed with bald eagles. Not sure if you'll be able to work this around your train ride; maybe before it departs?

Most of the times, I just wait to I get to the ports in Alaska and book on the pier. I met a teacher on one of the excursions many years ago and we still correspond. I wrote a recommendation to college for one his daughter. During the excursion, we met his family. He gave us more than Royal excursion would have.
 

This Royal excursion offered for Hubbard looks interesting so I've booked it. I assume they pick up from the ship like a tender boat does.  $269 so not cheap, but it is on sale this weekend for $242.
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=HG03&DestinationCode=ALCAN

I did this identical Radiance itinerary on Celebrity last year.  This excursion was NOT offered, I just looked at the excursion book I kept from last year.  Here is a timelapse of Hubbard from the Celebrity Millennium last year:
A cruise ship will be restricted from going closer than 1 nautical mile from the glacier.  The massive current a large ship can create would cause large sections of the glacier to calve so ships are kept at a safe distance. 
Excursion boats like the one above can approach much closer.  You'll also be much closer to the water and dodging the massive chunks of glacier floating by.  They must pick you up straight from the ship which makes this excursion really cool (literally, the water will be cold so I'll dress warmly).
I'm really excited about this excursion and hope it isn't foggy or we have to skip Hubbard for some other reason.
Plus it's a three hour tour on the Minnow.  What could go wrong?

Totally get that...knowing more about what you're looking for, I would mix it up with a back-to-back possibly on different ships and different ports since it is easy to transfer between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and even Port Canaveral if you drive.

Considering Anthem is bigger than Freedom, and Freedom is considered on the larger end of "mid-size", I'm not surprised it wasn't what you expected! ?
Add me to the list of those recommending Freedom class as the next to try. Even FotS herself, despite not being refurbished yet, as she is now sailing the port-intensive Southern Caribbean route; that should keep you busy enough that the lack of refurbs shouldn't be an issue. Plus we really liked our CD, and I know that's a factor for you (although he may well be on a new ship by the time you would sail her). Plenty of recent info and pics from her on the live blog I did back at the end of March through the first week of April.
If you did an Alaskan itinerary, I'd definitely take the Radiance or Vision Voyager class option as it will get you into the smaller channels and other areas that Ovation just won't be able to reach due to her size.

For my cruise last March/April on Freedom:
The over-the-water cabana rental on Labadee had the best price right around when they first became available, about a year before the cruise. I think I caught a sale right about the same time they came out, because I never saw them priced that low ever again (around $250 as I recall; once the cruise was done I deleted those notes so I can't say for absolutely certain). This seems to be how cabanas and bungalows go, since they're limited inventory and the price seems to only go up as inventory clears out.
For drink packages, internet, etc. -- all depends on when your particular sailing starts offering those things and whether that lines up with traditionally extra-good sales like Black Friday or not. I hit the absolute lowest prices for my excursions, drink packages, and VOOM around late October; about 5 months before sail date, and before the Black Friday sale. But I had bought all of those at least a month or two earlier and ended up canceling and re-purchasing almost everything during that sale. I got $42 per night for Deluxe Pkg and $18 per night for Refreshment, and 4-device VOOM was about $45 per night.
For my upcoming Bermuda cruise in October on Anthem:
Only things I've purchased were the drink package (also $42 per night for Deluxe, $18 per for Refreshment) and VOOM ($26.58 per night for 2 devices). Drink package prices didn't show that low until May (about 5 months before sail date); the Internet didn't get that low until the July 4 sale (about 3 months before sail date). So it definitely varies a lot by sailing and ship.
So definitely heed @Matt's and others' recommendation to just buy when it's a price you're comfortable, then cancel and repurchase later on if you find another sale improves things for you.