cmdrfrag

Not even close 😜
But I'm playing the long game, you see I'm luring the Casino in to a false sense of security by deliberately losing and once I have them where I want them..... I'll strike!
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it

Hi everyone! Just posted my first video of 2020!
 
In today's vlog, I answer a question I get asked a lot - where am I from?
 
 

From a similar cabin on the independence of the seas 

I got so much great advice and information from these message boards that I wanted to make sure I came back and posted a recap/review of our cruise. I'm hoping this might help some other first-timers in the future. 
Sorry if I jump around to different topics! It's been tough getting my brain going again since the cruise! 
Cruise: 12/22 to 12/29 Allure of the Seas Eastern Caribbean 

Staterooms: We had 5 of us in 2 staterooms. I can't imagine trying to get more than 3 people in a stateroom. The magnet hooks and shoe-organizers were awesome for keeping things organized. I think I'm going to take an over-the-door shoe organizer on every vacation from now on!

Dining: 
We chose My Time Dining when we booked. As a first-timer, one thing I didn't realize about cruising was how much you get to know the crew members, and that the same crew members will be working at the same place at the same time (usually) every day. With my-time dining, though, we sat at a different table each night (even if we requested the same waiter), sometimes on a different floor, etc.  So my advice for first-timers: Choose set-time dining, not My Time There are lots of threads on here about dress for formal and casual nights. On the first few nights we tried to stick to these pretty closely. By the last night though, "casual" in the MDR meant shorts and a shirt without writing on it. Yes, there are white tablecloths and fancy menus, but when the tables are crammed together and the dining room is so noisy you can't even have a conversation, the "nice restaurant" vibe goes out the porthole.  We did Izumi Hibachi for dinner one night. We've been to other hibachi restaurants on land, and so I know my family would enjoy it, but the chefs on Allure were really great, some of the funniest I've ever encountered, and they didn't rush us through the meal, either. The food itself was great, too. My steak was cooked perfectly and my kids wouldn't stop talking about the garlic-butter flavor of the fried rice. The only downside was that we did Izumi on lobster tail night, but I didn't realize we had missed it until the end of the cruise. Oh, well.  Entertainment:  Wow! I expected "pretty good" (like the shows you might see at an amusement park) but the entertainment on Allure was top-notch. The aqua theater and ice shows were well done, but Mamma Mia was simply awesome. They did such a good job with it and we enjoyed it so much more than expected. It was as good as any Broadway cast I've seen. Don't miss it! 

We also enjoyed the live music more than expected, particularly Hugh Little and the High-C's Horns. We caught their big band show, the Earth/Wind/Fire & Stevie Wonder show and part of the Dixieland Jazz show (which was just the horns). The other bands were good, too, but I often found myself thinking "turn it down!" during the Promenade shows. Guess I'm getting too old! 

#1 hit with my kids: Vitality Cafe + Refreshment Plan = unlimited smoothies. I really enjoyed the juices there myself. 

Casino: I promised to provide a poker report. 

Poker cash game: The host in the casino said they had 2/5 cash games that started up around 9:30ish every night. $100-$500 buy-in.  I never ended up playing. 

On the 3 sea days they held a "poker tournament" at 3pm. I wasn't able to play this until the last sea day. The entry fee is $100 (1000 chips) + $50 add-on (1000 chips). You can "re-buy" for $75 (750 chips) during the first 4 levels. You could get several re-buys at a time and it wasn't clear if you had to bust out before re-buying. The blinds start at 25/50 and go up (usually doubling) every 10 minutes. This makes for a ridiculous tournament with very little skill involved. Between the slow, uninterested dealer/floorperson and the slow players (the guy next to me had to think about every starting hand for at least 10 seconds, and another guy never knew when it was his turn) it made this game agonizing. Some levels we only got 4 hands played. 
There were 11 people signed up, so they started two tables with 6 and 5 players. But when players got knocked out they didn't combine the tables, they just played to a winner on each table. The "final tournament" was at 5:30 on the last sea-day. You would bring whatever chips you had from the first round, so the winner from that 5-person table would be at a disadvantage compared to someone who might have played at a full table. The prize was a free cruise for 2 on Oasis in late November to play in the Royal Something-or-other championship tournament, where you would again take whatever chips you had won in the satellite. No cash prizes for poker tournaments (until the grand championship) on Royal I guess. 
They said we could take a break after level 4 but then they were in a hurry to start up play again. With blinds being high already, they nearly folded a guy on the big-blind for most of his stack... luckily they saw him coming and waited... ended up he had QQ to win.
When it was time to chip-up they didn't have enough black chips to get rid of all the 25s on the table. So after losing an all-in I ended up with a single 25 chip when blinds were like 800/1600.
Anyways, I don't think I'll play poker on RCCL again unless they change things up a bit. 

Craps: On day 3 I went looking around 8pm to see if the poker game was running. It wasn't, but they had opened the craps table on the non-smoking side ($5 min), and nobody was playing. I ended up playing for a while and others joined in, too. Down a little, then up a lot, then ended up about $20 ahead in the end. The dealers were pretty good and they got into it more when we started placing dealer bets. 

I never saw the craps tables go over $5 mins. Yeah, it's single-odds (2x for $25 bet, morex for $50 bet). It was a pleasant surprise and I was sorry I didn't have a chance to play craps more when the non-smoking table was open. 

Machines:  My wife loves the quarter-pushers, but the machine was broken (permanently?) on the non-smoking side and she doesn't handle smoke well, so no play there. Hopefully they fix that machine during the "amplification". 

To be continued... (this is taking longer than I expected to write!) 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS GUYS!
 
Christmas vlog is live!
 
 

Have a wee look here, see if you can spot what you're looking for
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass?ship=283

My thoughts are this: I count auto-gratuity as tips (and always gladly pay them), because I have been on cruises where persons have optioned to complain and not pay these, knowing full well it came out of the crew's pockets.  Most of the crew on the ships make less than minimum wage (US or UK minimum wages) without tips. While you may be uncomfortable, imagine how you would feel knowing someone who gave you service on a ship wasn't able to make a living wage because you were "uncomfortable". Just remember you are on holiday, they are not. Most of the crew will go out of there way to make sure your holiday is a great experience, and most deserve your tip.

So I got the chance to meet the Cruise Director, and film a small segment for Royal Caribbean TV!
 
 

Yes, the Oasis Lagoon pool is indeed heated......by the sun!

Not even close 😜
But I'm playing the long game, you see I'm luring the Casino in to a false sense of security by deliberately losing and once I have them where I want them..... I'll strike!
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it

I just liked having the favourites page, I had 6 cruises in there that I could keep an eye on at a glance to see if the price was dropping

A video explaining my entire career at sea!
 
 

Alright I think thats enough hijacking of the thread, the topic was dropped so lets move on
@CHRIS WONG what are you most looking forward to checking out on Oasis after her Amplification?

Alright I think thats enough hijacking of the thread, the topic was dropped so lets move on
@CHRIS WONG what are you most looking forward to checking out on Oasis after her Amplification?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OASIS OF THE SEAS!
 
 

I assume that the Perks you are referring to are ones that come as part of staying in the Central Park Balcony room rather than perks that would have offered as part of the booking in general.
These Perks are associated with the room type, its to give a bit more of an intensive to purchase in "internal balcony" on the Oasis class of ships
As you are no longer staying in this type of room these perks would then be given to the person(s) that would now be booked into the Central Park Balcony room you vacated.

Aww why did you have to tell me that.
Well, I know what I'm about to start collecting

Aww why did you have to tell me that.
Well, I know what I'm about to start collecting

Doesn't matter what sort of holiday I'm packing for I always walk out of the house without my Sunglasses, too stubborn to go back for something so minor when I realise, tell myself "You'll just have to deal with it", can't deal with it 2 days in, buy a new pair of Sunglasses.
I have a drawer FULL of cheapy sunglasses

COUNTERPOINT: I am extremely ready to see these vlogs!  😉 . Looking forward to the tour, and hope your transition is a smooth one!

I've been vlogging around the ship today. You's guys are going to love my Oasis ship tour video. Almost finished editing.

Alright I think thats enough hijacking of the thread, the topic was dropped so lets move on
@CHRIS WONG what are you most looking forward to checking out on Oasis after her Amplification?

Alright I think thats enough hijacking of the thread, the topic was dropped so lets move on
@CHRIS WONG what are you most looking forward to checking out on Oasis after her Amplification?

Please let this go and allow Chris to continue his thread...

Alright I think thats enough hijacking of the thread, the topic was dropped so lets move on
@CHRIS WONG what are you most looking forward to checking out on Oasis after her Amplification?