Dan Curtis

# 1 Find a chair or rail on the stern and watch the wake.  I find it very calming and relaxing.
# 2 A coco-loco from the pool bar before sail away
# 3 Read the Cruise Compass each night before bedtime and honestly think I will have time to do EVERYTHING I am interested in the next day. 
 
 
 

Hiya! What are some of your Must Do things on your cruise? Besides having to unpack and get everything right away, I have to get on deck and have a drink in hand to toast and give thanks to God as we sail away. I also must go running along the jogging deck at night, sit alone and take in the evening sky, go to at least one art auction and watch as we leave each port. I also must have creme brûlée, fruit smoothies, different teas and chillax with wine on the balcony or neat spot somewhere.  Oooh, and the thermal suite!! … What must you do? 

10/4/22 
our morning wake view
From our balcony 2nd sea day.

@CravingaCruisethank you so much for your extremely helpful information and an awesome live blog !!!  I love me a Star Class blog and yours was truly exceptional.
I agree with EVERYthing you said about the pros and cons of the ATS.  The only thing that I do not have experience with is the potential crunch of several people in that suite.  It's always just been Dan and me so we always had more than enough room but I can totally see where 6 peeps in that space would be a challenge (can you even imagine having 8 people in there !!??).  ESPECIALLY the bathroom situation.  The horrible bathrooms in the 2BR ATS are its biggest disappointment (followed closely by the hike to and from).  Why they put all of that thought and space into these suites just to skimp on the bathrooms is totally beyond my understanding. 
We, too, thought of the ATS as a must-try and we gave it 3 tries !!!  We always had great cruises every single time but after 3 times, and after discovering the joys of Deck 17, we will not be back in an ATS unless there is a price point that we cannot pass up.
The Deck 8 ATS on Allure and Oasis are significantly larger, both the living space and the master BR, so for those who are considering the ATS, I would definitely choose Deck 8 if you have a choice.  For Harmony and after, I think they redesigned the ATS to some degree and I'm not sure that the extra space of Deck 8 is as pronounced.
I also agree with you on many of your restaurant reviews...particularly Samba.  In the beginning, they made a real effort to make Samba special.  They covered the tables and chairs every night for dinner and they had live entertainment.  The food was always a bit sketchy but at least they tried.  Now, it's just like dining in the WJ.  It seems that they have also done away with the little "stream" that used to run through the restaurant, which is a damn shame.  It used to be so cute with that water running throughout the restaurant.  Perhaps there was a weight distribution or fluid dynamics problem with the water running to and fro at that elevation...who knows.  It's just a dried up old stream bed now.  😔

Day 6 Pics (Final Day at Sea):

Day 5 Pics (Cozumel):

The crew are mask free as of today!!!🎉🎉

We are board and in our suite.

My in-laws are very into status. They constantly brag about being D+ and are super impressed when they meet Pinnacle members. So I like to wear my Platinum pin when we go to the MDR with them so that I can wow them. 😂😂😂

I like having them. They're fun, small round shiny things. Just made Diamond (but should be getting the pins on the next cruise).
The mom and I wore our Platinum and Emerald pins on our lanyards with our sea pass. More to mark it as our Royal Caribbean Lanyard than anything else I think.
TBH if I ever make pinnacle not sure I'd wear the bar just cuz it's bulky unlike the small round pins that can be easily placed anywhere.
But in response to OP...it has nothing to do with "ooh I'm special look at me." I like things I have and I like to wear them regardless if anyone else notices them or not.

This is me exactly I have them stuck on my lanyard and they really are not noticeable at all. My wife has never opened or used hers I believe she left them on the ship. Definitely to each their own. We got to chatting with a Pinnacle guest in the pub last cruise and they can share some of the best stories of cruising back in the day.

My wife has them attached to the lanyard she uses for her SeaPass. Mine are in a drawer or three somewhere at home.

Live and let live... If somebody has earned something let them show it if they want.  How many drive fancy cars or live in big houses or wear custom tailored suits? I doubt that those opposed to pins in the higher ranks ranks here would be open to non d or d+ using their lounges? So maybe you don't wear pins but you're still proud of the status you've achieved?
 

We wore our Diamond pins one time, we had just received them, wore them on formal night, as of now, I have no clue where they are at. 

We call the big tee shirt sales…Walmart at Sea !

Sadly they're too focussed on big ticket items that probably rarely get bought but have a huge profit on them.
 

I will agree the logo ship feels a bit stale but maybe because I cruise so infrequently, there's always a couple of new things that pop out to me. They definitely had the most new/different stuff on Odyssey and I continue to be BEARY sad I didn't get a captain bear while on board. I kept telling myself I didn't need it but then I saw some cruise friends with it on the shuttle after and it was even cuter outside of the display and now I can't stop thinking about it. ...(anyone gonna be on Odyssey wanna ship me a bear? only half joking. I will totally pay)
 
Don't they have this usually in some tiny corner? My mom forgot her toothbrush once on Liberty and was able to get it on board in a little convenience store nook in the general shop (on Allure it was attached to the logo shop and most of the items were behind the registers). It was OUTRAGEOUS in cost but they did have it. Same with some medicines (the travel size tylenols for like...triple the price of a whole bottle on land). And I think one can get band aids from the medical area, I'd assume for free.....I mean..they're bandaids....

We are very near D+.  I've never wore a pin and likely never will, but if a person wants to wear theirs,   I wont worry about it. 

About cruise number 4 I noticed these gold bar pins some were wearing. I thought there was a convention aboard the ship and when I got on an elevator with a couple wearing 'the' pins I asked if they were part of a convention group...he stood up straighter and declared, no, we are pinnacle. 
Our status is diamond, a few cruises away from plus...I will never wear a pin nor do I mention my status when talking to the crew. There was a time when I looked forward to the discounts on balcony and suites as a part of our level but that really doesn't apply anymore. Now it's about some of the little perks, like not having to buy my wife the specialty drink package, and getting aboard the ship easier.
FWIW, I doubt we will ever hit pinnacle and once we have plus I expect we will begin to mix up our cruises between Royal and Celebrity. We cruise because we really enjoy it and already have 3 booked in 23 and looking at cruises for 24.

Lost luggage is not to bad anymore, I work at Cincinnati airport, bags are scanned now, they know how many bags are on the plane, tight connection are the biggest concern , we also use the porters , skip the lines inside and go straight to security. To us its hard to do carry in for a cruise.

If there's a better place for this review, feel free to pull it on over there. 
We sailed out of Galveston on the 18th for our first trip in almost three years (our last was November of 2019 on Explorer). We traveled with myself (45 YO Mom, two teen boys, 68 year old grandma, and 19 year old niece). We had room 8500 at the very front of the ship.
We're only about 45 minutes from the port so we met up at my place around 9:30 to hit an 11 a.m. check in time. We took our COVID tests the day before (four of us did not take the COVID shots) and just used the pictures on our phone. 
Parking was easy, we used the Express lot right next to the port so it was a 60 second walk for me once I dropped everyone off at the drop off point. We had The Key so we carried our own luggage aboard and did not use any luggage lumpers (that's what my kid's summer camp calls them, so it's just what I think of now). The line was smooth and fast, probably 20 minutes in line, but I was surprised that there was no differentiation between classes as far as getting in line. We're Diamond, and we had The Key, so I thought for sure we'd be able to bypass some of the line, but no.  It was only when we got to the top of the stairs after going through security that we saw any signage for Key guests. We didn't use it though since all of the lines were so short, there wasn't any point. 
My youngest realized he had his pocket knife in his pants right as we were going through security. I took it from him, let security know, and they said it was fine. It's not a large knife, probably a 2" blade or so, but he always carries it so he didn't think about it. Anyhow, it was no big deal, they handed it back to me and just told me not to take it off the ship into the ports, no problem.
We showed our test pictures once, our vaccinated group member was not asked for her card, and that process was less than a minute long for the whole group.
We got some great boarding pictures and then headed to the MDR for our lunch with other Key guests. It was delicious, just a fantastic meal all around, zero complaints. They took our luggage from us at the MDR, put wrist bands on our wrists, and tagged our bags, easy peasy. We left those tags on all week long so we had them this morning at 7:30 already ready to go when we walked off the ship the moment they announced self assist could go. We were given extra tags on Day 6, but we just left them in the room since we'd kept the first ones.
The room was ready before our lunch was finished so we headed there and scoped it out. It was a nice room, a section with a bunk bed, a living room with a pull out couch, a small seating area near the closet and bathroom, and then a master bedroom. Plenty of space for the five of us, we never felt cramped and only had to scramble a little bit when we were rotating bathroom schedules. 
Our room attendant was Iwayan, he was great! He told us that we'd probably see a lot of people with his name all over the ship because in their culture the first born male is named Iwayan. He was right, there were quite a few Iwayans and it was neat to have that little bit of information.
We ate dinner in the MDR every single night, but the kids only joined us once, which was fine for me. I did get a great picture of the three of us that night and they got the freedom of Fuel, Sorrentos, and the Windjammer the rest of the cruise. The MDR food was amazing. I only had two dishes in there that I thought were less that spectacular, the Chicken Parmesan (which was good, just not great) and the gnocchi at lunch one day. I would have sent the gnocchi back if I weren't me, but I am and I hate doing that, so I just pushed it around and then had some pizza later. Everything else though was awesome!
We played BINGO three times out of four, did not win anything, boo'd everyone who stood up and shook it when they were down to one number, and clapped for the winners, except on the last day when we were told that we could boo the winners as well since we'd never see them again. We always got to BINGO an hour early to save a table, we'd play cards or dominoes while waiting for the BINGO cards to go on sale. If you want the big package (the electronic tablet thing) get there early, they sell out every time.
We went to the folding towel class, that was so much fun. You didn't get to fold towels, but the guy running it (Michael) was so funny that it was basically like a comedy show. He also gave us a passcode to tell the BINGO people so we got an extra card at the next two games. 
We saw every single show except the adult comedy on the last night, I was just too tired. 🙂 My niece went though and said it was hilarious! Alvin Wiliams was so funny! My boys went to the first show, which was family friendly, and while most of it went over the head of the youngest, the oldest laughed more than a few times. 
El Gaucho was the second show, a comedian, musician, etc. He was also hilarious. I highly recommend all of the shows if you can make it to them.
Encore was the ice show, you do need to make reservations for that so be sure to do it in your phone when you get on board. I wasn't able to make any reservations at all on my phone, but my mom was able to so she took care of it. If you don't have a reservation you have to wait in line until all of the reservation people go through, then they let you in ten at a time.
In the Air was also fantastic, I loved the way they made it look like the performers were under water, flying, etc. They all did a great job and I cannot say enough about the featured ballroom couple, just WOW! 
Saturday Night Fever had a glitch the first time we tried to see it, one of the props wasn't working and couldn't be moved off the stage so they rescheduled the show for the next day. It was great, well worth the 90 minutes, though I do see why some reviews mentioned that it could have been a little shorter. It felt a tad long after sitting through 50 minute shows all week, but still it was great.
The ship itself is in good shape, very clean. The places that need refurbishing are the textiles, room furniture, etc. The carpets are stained in much of the ship, the curtains in the rooms feel very outdated, the carpet in the room was literally threadbare on at least 10% of the entire floor, just shiny patches of weaving where the carpet used to be. All of the tile, stone, etc. is still in great shape and the staff do a fantastic job of keeping everything clean. 
My kids loved the kids club, we hardly saw the oldest at all, and the youngest would pop in and out all day on sea days and when it was open on port days. They had a lot of activities for the kids, rock wall climbing, flow rider, mini golf, dodge ball, just tons of stuff. At one point it got commandeered for a "boomer party" (this is what my 15 year old called it), so they were bummed that they couldn't use the foosball table for that time frame, but I think that only happened once. My kids told me that almost every kid in Fuel was homeschooled, that was kind of cool. We've homeschooled since the start of their education, but most of the cruises we've been on were not homeschooled kids, so it was neat to see homeschooling being so much more prominent. He told me that most were prior public school kids that started homeschooling when COVID closed the schools and they just never went back. I don't know how many were on board this time around, but probably in the area of 15-20 that were constantly hanging around with my kids and all but a few were homeschoolers.
The Windjammer food was great, very good selection and the tables weren't too hard to find. We'd walk around and find a table (people would flag you down if they were about to leave) and then one of us would sit while the others went and got food. The wait staff was excellent, always coming to refill drinks, clear your plates, etc. Sorrentos was also great and I ate second lunch in there many times. 🙂 I didn't realize they had cold food in addition to pizza. The watermelon was super tasty, as were the marinated olives. 
We didn't do any specialty dining.
We did visit Next Cruise to book a cruise out of Galveston for November of 2023 on board Harmony. We didn't make an appointment so it was about a ten minute wait, but that was no big deal.
The shops on board were great, we bought a few things here and there, sunglasses, hats, a light jacket, stuff like that. The prices didn't seem crazy and the staff were very helpful. 
On the last night I needed more envelopes for extra tipping, they keep them in little holders on the counter at Guest Services so they're very easy to get to without waiting in line. 
We didn't do any excursions, just in case you were wondering why I didn't mention any. We did get off the boat in Grand Cayman, but we just walked around for a few minutes before heading back to the boat.
We did ride the water slides! Tidal Wave was so much fun! The body slides were not for me, I don't know what the deal was but I could not lay down and make it down the slide. I had to sit up and push myself down, so I just rode the one time. 
Debarkation was also very easy. We carried our luggage down to four instead of trying to take an elevator and it was no more than five minutes from the time we left our room to the time we got off the ship, another five after that and we were in the car headed home. My mom had to stay back to pay $3 for some rum she'd purchased in Cozumel.
It was a fantastic cruise, we would definitely go on Liberty again, and I hope they refurbish her soon because she's certainly earned it. 🙂
The Bad: The internet was terrible, just awful. It was frustrating to have paid money for it. You could not stream, no way, they shouldn't even sell it for anything other than surfing.
Update: My oldest son started running a fever last night. I tested him for COVID this morning, but that's not it, so it's something else. He says it doesn't matter, he had a great time and he'd do it again. 🙂 It's like old times! 

My dog ate a bag of scrabble tiles so I took him to the vet.
 
No word yet.

Good suggestions here. 
The thing to remember is that most of us on this board over plan things and try to understand every detail.  For me, that's just how I am.  I have come to realize that most others are not like that but still manage to have a good time.  
Show him the basics and let him make his own discoveries.  

Here is a simple, cheap thing to try, works for my wife, an elderly Asian lady told my wife, don't laugh until you try it everyone, a band aid over the belly button. Works great for my wife.