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emfagan

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  1. Like
    emfagan got a reaction from Lovetocruise2002 in From Canada…to Canada: Discovering Liberty, Eh? – LB 08/24/23 – 09/02/23   
    Have you listened to the Schooner bar musician?  Clay Musick was on Liberty in May and we really enjoyed him
  2. Love
    emfagan reacted to twangster in Through My Lens - A Live Blog with a Twist   
    The Milky Way from the Sea of Cortez after departing Mazatlan on the way to Puerto Vallarta on board Navigator of the Seas.

  3. Like
    emfagan got a reaction from birdie1410 in RC Excursions review site   
    I think this is a gap that needs to be filled and would use it
  4. Thanks
    emfagan got a reaction from rjac in Thrill Waterpark Cabanas at Coco Cay????   
    In May, our cabana was assigned by the time we boarded the ship (the first day we received our assignment in room documents).  I have heard that you can go and request at the Shore Excursions but probably up to availability
  5. Like
    emfagan reacted to ChrisE in xSAILEDx Liberty of the Seas - May 4, 2023 - May 13, 2023 (9 Night Eastern Caribbean & Bermuda Cruise)   
    We booked this one as soon as it was released. First time getting a JS, which will get us to Diamond Status! Nice to see new ports from Cape Liberty. 
  6. Like
  7. Thanks
    emfagan got a reaction from ihaoan in Private table in the main dining room   
    I agree, have not had any problems once I started emailing before sailing!
  8. Like
    emfagan reacted to KLA in Royal Up offers   
    I was kind of hoping that we'd have better luck with Royal Up going from an Ocean View cabin to a balcony of some type, but starting to lose hope that could be the case. Either way, very happy with our cabin location on deck 8 nearby Central Park. 
    That said - considering printing my luggage tags just so that my cabin might change shortly after 😅
  9. Love
    emfagan got a reaction from Ferramc in Symphony of the Seas - 5/14/22. First time star class UPDATE - 14 days to go! 🚢🚢🚢 be   
    Concussions and the recovery from them is so tricky...wishing your daughter the best.  It is so hard to know how the cruise might impact her.
  10. Like
    emfagan got a reaction from KLA in A Symphony Cruise April 23, 2022   
    we will also be on the cruise right after yours...it will be great to follow along as we anticipate our turn
  11. Haha
    emfagan got a reaction from USCG Teacher in Selecting boarding time?   
    I found out that later, would have been good to know beforehand
  12. Like
    emfagan reacted to Matt in Royal giving away cruises   
    I can tell you with 100% certainty after speaking to Royal about it, that T&L is the one that did wrong here, not Royal.
    T&L was told about the info in advance (known as embargoed news), but they posted it early without authorization.
    Royal decided to pull the plug before the embargo date, and T&L didn't care.
    No other media outlets posted it, including this site.
    The unethical party is T&L for being lazy and ignoring the instructions Royal gave them to avoid any kind of situation like this.
  13. Like
    emfagan reacted to Matt in Rumors about new travel restrictions- Freedom of the seas   
    Welcome to the message boards.
    No one knows what, if any, impact omicron or any variant will have on cruises. 
    In order to avoid the kind of discussions that go outside the purview of what's allowed here (i.e. debating Covid), I'm going to lock this thread and just let you know no one knows of any changes yet.
    If/when there are changes in policy, I will post about it on RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com.
  14. Like
    emfagan reacted to egd207 in Cabana server tip recommendation   
    We rented a cabana at chill island @ coco cay.  We are a party of 8 people who will come and go through day.  Can you recommend an average tip that people give the
    server at the end of the day.
  15. Like
    emfagan reacted to Karahvacatimes in Last minute Symphony is music to my ears   
    It's EMBARKATION day!!
    Our check in time wasn't until 2:30 (downside of booking 9 days before you set sail).  We were able to take our time which if you know me, is not easy!  
    Its always exciting to wake up and see your ship welcoming you to CRUISE DAY!!

    We stayed at the Hilton Miami Downtown.  It is about a 15min uber to the port with very nice views of both downtown and Dodge Island where the cruise terminals are.

    The Symphony Squad headed out a couple hours before us as their check in time was noon.  (It pays to be Pinnacle, or with one LOL) 
    My friend Kathy has never been to Miami so I took her down to Bayside Marketplace (about a 5 minute uber ride).  Its an open mall with shops and restaurants along the waterfront.  We ended up at the Bacon Bitch for some breakfast.  If you are looking for some Miami Vibes, head on over!  I wouldn't recommend for children as its loud and vulgarities are thrown around quite often during your visit.  




    Finally we were off to the terminal.  We arrived around 2;15.  Royal was directing you to lines based on your check in time.  It was 25min from the time we stepped into our line to being onboard.  This process includes checking vaccination cards and negative test results at the entrance to the terminal, checking in with your set sail pass, ID, and vaccination card, and finally going through security.  Tip--if you are bringing water onboard, the porters are not accepting it with a luggage tag as checked luggage and you will need to carry it onboard with you.  

    Symphony is such a beautiful ship, currently the largest cruise ship on the high sea and we will be showing some areas and artwork that are specific to her as she is one of four Oasis Class ships (about to be one in five when Wonder of the Seas is complete and sailing in March, 2022). 
    Muster Drill is almost all electronic at this point where you watch the videos on your Royal app and then just check in to your station onboard.  They show you how to use your lifejacket at that point but in reality, they just want you to know where to go in case of an emergency.
    We do have Ultimate dining on this sailing and our first dinner was with the Symphony Squad at Izumi Hibachi. 

    It was one of our friends anniversary as well.  Such a great time with old and new cruise friends? 

    Food was amazing and I realized part way through the meal that we had the same chef on my last sailing on Symphony back in 2019.  It is so fun to see crew you have sailed with in the past!

    Sailaway was after dinner.  I personally love a night sailaway!  We stood on the port side bridge wing to enjoy the beauty of Miami at night. 
     


    We wrapped up our night at the showing of Hairspray!  I was quite impressed with the production and actors of this play!

    Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to St Marteen!  
     
     
  16. Like
    emfagan reacted to twangster in Odyssey of the Seas in Pictures - Sept. 2021   
    Playmakers is all new to this class.  Perched high in the Sportsplex it offers great views of the game and of the sea.

















  17. Like
    emfagan reacted to twangster in Odyssey of the Seas in Pictures - Sept. 2021   
    The multi-level nature of the MDR is better illustrated in this 360° photo.
    I can't embed 360° photos on this blog but here is a link that will open in a new window:
    Odyssey Main Dining Room in 360°
  18. Like
    emfagan reacted to pkcruiser in All treats and no tricks! A Symphony Star Class Halloween Live-ish Blog!   
    601 days!  That's how long it will have been since we last set foot on a cruise ship.  It has been WAY TOO LONG!  I can finally say it's cruise month!  The cast for this adventure includes myself (Amy), husband (Dan), son (Robert), daughter (Laura), son-in-law (Austin), grandbabies (Kylie-2 and Brantley-1).  We will be in 2 BR ATS #9334.  We love to have fun in the sun and can't wait to take the babies on their first cruise 🙂  I've never done a blog so I'm calling this a live-ish blog as I'm not sure how much time I will have on the cruise to post.  I typically come home from vacations needing a vacation to rest from all the running!

    We found out who our genie is yesterday.  Luciano will be doing our preplanning and we will have Reyno on board!  I'm super excited!  I've met Reyno, but have never had him as a genie.  Has anyone had a situation like this?  It will be interesting to see how the preplanning and hand off are done.
    It will be an interesting adventure to get through all of the testing before the cruise.  Kylie is too young to be tested at any place other than her primary clinic.  Luckily we are at the Mayo Clinic and results are back in less than a day typically.  Interestingly, Brantley had Covid when he was 4 months old.  He had a fever and slight lung congestion.  It didn't seem to slow him down for very long.  I was part of a study that tested for antibodies, I tested negative in October, but positive in November.  I evidently was one of the asymptomatic cases.  We went to Hawaii a month after he tested positive.  That was incredibly stressful testing and waiting for our negative results!  I'm hoping since we are all vaccinated that it will be less mentally stressful this time!
    I have not seen any reviews of people sailing with an under two year old.  I'm hoping to give insight as to what it's like with two young unvaccinated children, one requiring a mask and one not.  We are planning on playing with the kids in the mornings and then using Royal Babies/Tots in the afternoon and for some evening shows if we are able to book the hours.  Our stops are at St. Maarten, St. Thomas and CocoCay.  Since we have unvaccinated children we have to be on a ship excursion to take them ashore.  At St. Maarten we are doing the Great Bay Beach Experience and hope to eat at our favorite restaurant, Blue Bitch Bar.  If it's possible we'll send mom and dad and the babies back on the boat shuttle and Dan & I will walk back so we can stop and buy cheese at the cheese shop.  St. Thomas we'll leave the babies on board and go do a little shopping before Laura and I have a massage 🙂  At Cococay we have a Floating Cabana at the Coco Beach Club (our splurge for the trip).
    Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them.  Looking forward to sailing away soon!!!
  19. Like
    emfagan reacted to Rags1 in The Old Man and the Sea - Allured back to Star Class   
    Today I sent some photos of the room to a friend who hasn’t seen it. In case there’s anyone here who hasn’t seen it (which I doubt) here is Suite 1740. No pictures of the downstairs bedroom as Taylor was sleeping off a little motion of ocean feeling. 









  20. Like
    emfagan reacted to twangster in The Old Man and the Sea - Allured back to Star Class   
    Tonight’s sunset.  

  21. Like
    emfagan reacted to Booscruize in Star Class Wedding! Oasis Of The Seas November 7, 2021   
    I am both excited and terrified to begin my first live Blog here of my first ever Star Class sailing and also….our wedding! I can only hope it is HALF as good as the amazing bloggers I read religiously here! 48 DAYS! Here we go!    The Story- My husband and I (I will explain!) booked this cruise for our wedding 2 YEARS ago during a Black Friday sale at an amazing price! We both LOVE cruising…so much so that we have a YouTube channel called BoosCruize so it seemed natural that we would choose to tie the knot in a small ceremony on the high seas! So after much research we decided on the Star Loft Suite 1720 on Oasis Of The Seas! This suite had a HUGE rectangular balcony that could fit guests and also give us the ocean view we wanted….and a Genie to help us pull it all off! What could go wrong?!? Enter…COVID 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️ As you can imagine we basically needed a new pair of britches every other day for the last two years as things changed. It’s a good thing I buzz cut my head or I’d probably be bald and NOT by choice LOL     A year later we weren’t even sure if this cruise would happen but we also KNEW we wanted to be married. So when a company came to us and asked to throw us a huge West Coast “David Tutera” style wedding in Hollywood that will be published for magazines we obviously said YES! We now have two bi-coastal weddings Lol It was amazingly gorgeous but nothing was our choice. It was all chosen for us….right down to our tuxes. We feel BEYOND blessed but it also wasn’t what we had in our head two years ago. So now here we are….our guest list of 50 has gone down to 12 due to covid complications. Are we upset? HECK NO! We completely understand and are going to have the time of our LIVES on a gorgeous ship surrounded by people who love us! We can’t wait!    Who: We are an LA couple. Jarell is an international Flight attendant (yaasss benefits!) and I am an actor who just moved from NYC in time for a pandemic to close Hollywood 😂😂   Where: We are sailing on the Oasis Of The Seas out of Miami in the Star Loft Suite 1720 with stops at Coco Cay, St.Thomas, and St. Maarten    When: We sail November 7th-14th, 2021   I think that covers most of the back story and introductions! So happy to meet you all and take you along with us on this very special journey that is over 2 years in the making! Can’t wait to see who our Genie will be!    For good measure I have included a photo of the happy grooms from our West Coast Wedding!     

  22. Like
    emfagan reacted to spellman in Anthem of the Seas - 1st August 2021 - trip report   
    Thought I'd drop some thoughts about this sailing for others looking to research UK cruises (as there doesn't seem to be many UK trip reports on here)
    Pre-cruise experience
    Messaging from RCI was inconsistent and the Covid rules changed twice (the second time only three days before departure, causing mass panic and confusion when RCI said that children had to be PCR-tested, but of course there was no time left to get tested!). I was disappointed that RCI changed the rules on shore excursions to only allow disembarkation if you had purchased your excursion via RCI, although I can understand the reasoning of trying to keep passengers in their vaccinated "bubbles" whilst on-shore.
    On-line check-in only partially worked on the app, and only one of our SailPasses was available on the app, we had to get the other two printed at the terminal. Nobody really understood why as they had been available in the app earlier in the week.
    Our PCR test results had still not come back from Eurofins by departure day, so we had to get re-tested at the terminal (Antigen tests) which were handled quickly and professionally. The organisation at Southampton was superb with loads of staff on-hand and a very personal service offered.
    Onboard-staff
    The service was a bit more hit-and-miss than our previous cruise on-board Independence two years ago. Perhaps it was new staff and lack of training, or 18 months of being off work, but the attentiveness of the bar staff was not as good as previous cruises, and a general lack of attention to detail seem to be prevalent (like having to ask for shower gel from our room attendant three days in a row, or guest services having to be chased several times for answers to some questions).
    Anthem of the Seas
    The ship was well maintained, and spotlessly clean as you'd expect. We enjoyed all the available activities like Ripcord, North Star and Dodgems.
    The physical distancing measures in place meant greatly reduced capacity onboard, so the ship felt very quiet. Bookings for shows still quickly filled up due to the greatly reduced seating capacity in 270 and the theatre, so I'm glad I booked everything the first few hours of being onboard via the app. 
    Because of the physical distancing measures, I did miss the "social" side of cruising..meeting new people and making new friends etc. There was no guest dancing or singing allowed in any of the music venues, and tables in bars and restaurants were all distanced appropriately making it almost impossible to talk to your neighbours and make new friends. There were a few queues to get into the pool, as numbers were very restricted and enforced by the lifeguards. 
    The ship felt more "intimate" than Independance with the main boulevard deck divided into two floors and no "interior balconies" and I missed being able to visit the very front (reserved for paid-for photo experiences on Anthem)
    Food and drink
    Windjammer was only open for breakfast and lunch for the first couple of days, then they added dinner service for the final four days. Food variety was normal, but seating capacity much less because of so many tables blocked to maintain social distancing.
    We had MyTime dining, so most meals were in Silk main dining on deck 4 and food variety and quality was good, with menus accessed via the app (paper menus were available for those without smartphones)
    After an issue with dinner in Silk one evening we we comped a meal in Chops Grill which was fantastic and definitely made up for the poor main dining room glitch. Catering management were keen to address any issues and put things right so received great customer service there.
    With the an ultimate drinks package, we didn't waste any time sampling the various cocktails on offer, although found may of them too sweet and syrupy, or very weak with too much ice. The best cocktails tended to be from the robotic bar where you could specify the exact amount of spirit and mixer!
    Shows and activities
    Any activity that "encouraged" or allowed mixing of parties were scrubbed to keep physical distancing, so no ice breaker activities and a greatly reduced teen program. 
    The headliner shows were all high quality and thoroughly enjoyed by all (particularly We Will Rock you and Spectra's Caberet, despite the audience being only 1/3 of the usual capacity.) I can imagine it must be hard for the performers performing to mostly empty venues as there are more empty seats than occupied seats in the theatre and 270.
    Our teenage daughter spent most of her time with us, given there was no real opportunity for her to meet similar aged friends, whereas on our previous cruise she spent almost all of her time in the kids club and exploring with new friends. This meant far less "couple time" for us than normal, if you know what I mean ?
    Room
    We originally booked a balcony room but I snagged a bargain upgrade to a junior suite via RoyalUp (figured with a half empty ship upgrades would be easy to get at minimum bid prices and this seemed to be the case). Room was spacious and clean, and loved having a bath tub! Downside, the other half is now going to want at least this sized room on all our future cruises, so my wallet is going to feel that pain! ?
    Shore excursions
    Can't comment on these as we didn't do any! We had planned to do our own thing in Belfast and visit the Giants Causeway, however after RCI changed their shore leave policy I didn't fancy paying the RCI prices so we opted to stay on board in both Belfast and Liverpool.
    Overall
    We had a great time on board, and despite a few minor glitches with food and service, would definitely go back on the Anthem again, although perhaps we'll wait until some of the social distancing restrictions have been lifted to allow more socialising.
    Hope you find this useful! Happy to answer questions etc.
     
    Warm regards
     
    Neila
  23. Like
    emfagan reacted to CHRIS WONG in Odyssey Of The Seas - Chris Wong   
    It's changed so many times, I not even sure at this moment. When I was quarantined it was every week. All crew was PCR tested a few days before the ship set sail.
  24. Like
    emfagan reacted to steverk in I'll never stay in a ________________ cabin again!   
    I'll stay in just about any cabin.  
    Even the worst cabin on a ship is better than being stuck on land!
  25. Like
    emfagan reacted to wordell1 in Royal Caribbean vs. Carnival   
    Rather than Coke vs Pepsi, I would say it's more like Target vs Walmart. They both have very similar products but attract noticeably different customers. 
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