Kim&N8

Every time I go to cococay (or Labadee) I do the same thing.  I rent a cabana....spend 3 hours in the water....then sit in the cabana looking at the waves for a little while, eat lunch, and then spend another 3 hours in the water.
Then I waddle back to the ship with typical overweight American sand/salt water rash and get a shower saying "why did I spend so much time in the water?"
 
What an awesome time.....I can't wait for April now.
And on edit....probably doesn't answer your question ;).  There are lockers at cococay you can shove your stuff and storage if you rent a cabana

Yes I’ll be hitting up the cruise critic roll call soon too ? gosh it’s exciting! 

Hey Kim, Congrats on your booking! My high school friend and I are also doing a girl's cruise and will be sailing on Indy May 11-16, 2020. We are children of the 60's that enjoy cruising together. We are both flying out of Minnesota to FLL and staying at the Hilton FLL Marina one night pre-cruise. I have cruised with Royal on 8 sailings now with one more before this Independence cruise. If you have questions, let me know. You might want to join us on the Cruise Critic roll call. It's not too busy yet but I expect it will pick up as we get closer to our sailing. 

While I’m not a Diamond member yet, I feel I have some cruising experience.  Yesterday, however, I made a huge cruising mistake.  I thought I’d share my mistake so others can learn from it.  It would be fun to hear if anyone else has made other mistakes.  
 
We were in St. Marteen and booked Billy Bones Snorkeling charter.  I’ve been talking up this tour and my family is really excited for this excursion.  We walk off the ship, down the pier when I pull out my confirmation for where to go and notice the date.  It says March 27th!  What?  That’s next week!  I booked the correct day of the week but the wrong week.  That week is a week after our cruise. 
 
Quick phone one call and they are fully booked.   In fact all the snorkeling tours are fully booked since for the first time post hurricane there are 6 ships in port according to the several boating companies we asked.  
 
Now what? Too late to do any research on a Plan B but I do remember many people talking about the beach just off the pier.  We ended up walking to Great Bay beach and turned it into a fantastic beach day.  Beach chairs, lunch, trampoline, jet skis, beach massage, hair braids and a trip to the Yoda Guy.  I would have thought a beach day would cost less than a snorkeling tour but my family can spend money on food and Star Wars stuff!  
 
I only put a deposit down via PayPal and I already emailed the company.  I should be getting a refund of my deposit shortly.  
 
I still can’t believe I did this.  While I received a confirmation months ago I didn’t actually look at it.  I printed out all my cruise documents however once again didn’t actually look at it. All I can say is that things have been super stressed and crazy over the past few months. With everything on my plate, mixing up dates is one of my fears and I can’t tell you the number of times, I check school calendar against the cruise dates and triple check my airplane dates.  I guess if I’m going to mess up a date, booking a refundable shore excursion a week later is not too bad. 
 
Ok that’s my cruising mistake, anyone else have one? 

I'm going to cheat and use my Anthem pictures.  No one will know the difference.  
Did I just say that out loud?

I'm so glad you'll be on the ship before me so I can see what will be the best photos ever taken of and from that ship! 

Also, once Ovation has competed a few Alaska cruises we'll hopefully start to see some cruise compasses posted by past guests.  
I'm going on Ovation May 13 but that first cruise has a unique itinerary since it's 11 nights.  
Watch for cruise compasses here:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass?ship=1079

I think just about anyone technically savvy enough to navigate the web and manage online forums like these are Ravenclaws in spirit, if not officially via the Sorting Hat.
Side story -- A friend of mine suspected that all the Sorting Hat did was ask each prospective student a question that would require some work to solve. Where they got sorted to was based on their initial instinct:
Hufflepuff: Eh, I can work on that later! Gryffindor: Let me get right on that! Slytherin: How can I make someone else do this useless task for me? Ravenclaw: I bet I can build something to do that for me!

Send me your credit card info.  I'll call and book it for you.  While I have your card my commission is the drink package on my 16 night sailing coming up.  ? 

All I can afford is my C&A cookies heated up using the hair dryer that comes with my interior cabin.  Does that count?

I won't bother blogging this time! Yours will outdo mine since we're on the same cruise. ?
 

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.
 

As I recall we were on deck 3 for late seating on Symphony in November.  Your SeaPass card will indicate your assignment.

Slot points are based on money spent. Every $5 that cycles through the machine gives you one point. So if your winning you can rack up points easily. If you are not then its not so easy to rack up points. 

Good luck all of you traveling this weekend! I’m praying for no late season storms we head our from Buffalo NY on March 29th

Thanks for the tip @Matt. Was able to reprice our 2020 Oasis Sailing I had just booked last night. Pricing went down $132 and added 200 of onboard credit. I’ll always take 332 dollars for two minutes of work.

Totally agree that it's not necessary, but we usually tip $20 at the beginning, which usually means we get very good service and occasionally, we will also tip at the end. We also have it in a wee 'thank you' card as well.
We will always have a few thank you cards with smaller tips inside on us for when we come across exceptional service, but we're unsure if we will see that crew member again on the cruise.
One thing we ALWAYS do is to write plenty of the comment cards for the staff. They not only get to receive and read them, but it can also help with pay increases and perks and that doesn't cost you a thing :)
Just my two cents worth
Shelley

Not so sure about that. That's a great idea for tipping folks in the states. The majority of the folks working on a cruise ship are not from the US and a phone card/visa gift card may not work for them in port or at home. I think they would prefer cash. 

BYE @twangster
 
 

We haven't see a pin yet, not that it's a big deal to us.  It would be nice to get the beach towels though, maybe when we hit diamond...We're just 3 points shy of that, which we will take care of in a few days.

My wife and I made Platinum during the beginning of our last cruise.  When there was no recognition, I stopped by the C&A desk.  Later that day (or the next day), we returned to our stateroom to find a nice note with a couple pins and 2 C&A beach towels. 

The Wife and I where on board Independence back in October for a week away and had a great time.
Towards the end of the week it dawned on me that this was my first cruise as Platinum and I vaguely remembered reading about a Pin you get. So I enquired at GS to see how that worked, was I ment to get it on board or does it get sent out to me later. Girl on the desk mentioned that I should have gotten it in the Stateroom when I arrived but that they didn't have any Pins on board.
Bit of a shame but I was having a great cruise and it didn't really bother me so I went off and enjoyed the last couple of days.
Last week I got a strange text message saying they where FedEx and that my delivery would be made on the 15th, "if you would like to see the status of the order click this link". I hadn't ordered anything and wasn't expecting anything so I ignored it as a phishing attempt. I don't like clicking links I don't know from emails or messages. Yesterday I got another text to say that the delivery would be today (yesterday). At this point I'm thinking the messages are legit and start getting "The Fear". What the hell did I order and why cant I remember it?
 
Got home yesterday and opened up the envelope and inside was my Pin. Was really surprised. Girl at the desk must have noted something on my account and sent it off. That was pretty cool of her and I'm sorry that I don't remember her name now, it was a throwaway conversation and I didn't really expect anything to be done after I wasn't overly fussed about chasing it.

Yea. I hear a lot about June and July as ideal times, but I think August is great too. Should be a smidge cheaper too since some kids back in school by then.

Speaking of the distance between Port Everglades and Miami, here's an interesting photo of a ship at Everglades, but if you look in the background to the left, it would appear to be a ship that just left Miami.

I'm with Matt's wife its quiet cool in some places but very warm in others. I'm from Western NY and the evenings were much cooler than I expected in March I'll take a sweater and leggings this time for when I'm that cold. I didn't take a proper dress sweater the last time so plenty of pictures of me with a zip up fleece on with dresses.