I am following closely-my first Sky Class sailing is on Harmony in 18 days in a Grand Suite-not 17th deck, but I'm still thrilled. I am curious about the answer to your query on MDR room service. Is it still an option?
I am feeling like a curse. I booked a cruise to Cuba for August. It got canceled. Oh well. I found a fabulous alternative ( grand suite on harmony for 500 more per person). Great!!! Ports include coco cay, San Juan and st marteen. Now San Juan may be canceled. I know I’ll have a great time-second Royal cruise and first oasis class But.... still feel like a jinx. I’m seriously worried that no cruise line will ever let me book another cruise. ?
Here is something that will give everyone a chuckle. It seems that Royal Caribbean isn’t the only one with IT issues, or perhaps their recently released beverage package intern got hired by Amazon just in time for prime day.
Amazon Prime Day pricing glitch meant people bought thousands of dollars' worth of camera gear for $94.50
https://bit.ly/2Gj9QsV
I am kind of confused by @Lovetocruise2002 We all want to go to Canada for the summer and here you are going to Miami and the Caribbean during the summer months for the heat. I''ll give you my southern response - well bless your heart.
Thank you! I promised my oncologist that I'd send him a post card from my cruise for his big bulletin board in the chemo room (past patients send him post cards for others to look at while they do chemo).
I try to watch my sugar but I figure if I spent a few hours doing a triathlon, I can have a little cheat afterwards. Plus, it gives me something to look forward to!
1. Thanks ? I will say that if you have a way to pack that works for you, I think you can make the cubes adjust to it so don't automatically dismiss the notion of using them if the videos you see have folks packing differently. (Not to you in particular, just for those reading who are still on the fence about cubes).
2. I have not yet done an Iron Man. I'd like to try some day but I have to work up to it (I went through chemo and a double mastectomy for breast cancer a few years back so had to start back at zero). Currently, I do sprints (800-1,000 yard swim, 15-20k bike, 5k run) and if someone needs a third for a relay I will volunteer to grab that leg. I "compete" as in I enter and get a shirt and medal and do not feel any guilt over eating a nice juicy burger with a fried egg on it or indulging in a Starbucks frappacino as I drive home. I have placed twice, once I got a third place for my division and another time the relay team I was with won second place. I'm never going to be Olympic caliber but it keeps me active and gives me something to do. I have recently started to look into what it would entail to train others from a coaching perspective. I do some gratis coaching for some friends who are trying to be more active (walking, yoga, weightlifting) but nothing professional. I am considering when I am forced to retire from my current job, that I will be bored out of my mind in about a month so I'd like to get my certification(s) and become a personal trainer then. They have a nice program with US Masters Swimming that I have looked at getting certified through them (I am a member of US Masters Swimming and USA Triathlon). Who knows? I figure it would be fun to work with folks and train them to make a little side cash and give me something to do when I am retired!
What I do takes longer but is the same thing. I pull up the excursion, see the price, them go back to my calendar on the planet and see the price I bought at... If it's higher, I cancel and immediately rebook. The spreadsheet with all the amounts would save me an extra trip with each excursion. Jane
I am so excited for you!!! I can't wait to go on the trip vicariously through you! By the way, where was your son in Germany? Mine just returned in May from a year abroad there. He did an internship in Braunschweig last summer and then spent the school year in Bremen. We were lucky enough to visit him twice: first we took the entire family on a cruise (the first one on Royal and third one overall) and loved it. We sailed out of Southhampton and went to Hamburg, Oslo and Bruges. We went back and did a land trip in March. After that, I told my husband that we will do something warm next March, and gave him a choice: an all-inclusive or a cruise. The all-inclusive would have been his choice but for our great experience on RC.
Have a great trip!!!
I am so excited for you!!! I can't wait to go on the trip vicariously through you! By the way, where was your son in Germany? Mine just returned in May from a year abroad there. He did an internship in Braunschweig last summer and then spent the school year in Bremen. We were lucky enough to visit him twice: first we took the entire family on a cruise (the first one on Royal and third one overall) and loved it. We sailed out of Southhampton and went to Hamburg, Oslo and Bruges. We went back and did a land trip in March. After that, I told my husband that we will do something warm next March, and gave him a choice: an all-inclusive or a cruise. The all-inclusive would have been his choice but for our great experience on RC.
Have a great trip!!!
When I took my first cruise on Vision in March 2015, I could not have predicted that I would be sailing her again so quickly as my 7th cruise and my 3rd one this year!!! While I think this is the last hurrah for a while (we have rhapsody scheduled for next spring break, but the family wants some land trips to disney and london and my credit cards are screaming in agony lol), it is going to be an amazing trip.
The set-up: 2 years ago ish, we started looking at Europe Itineraries. We were getting ready to turn 50 and had wanted to do Europe forever, but Disney kept getting in the way ? As soon as the itineraries came out, we saw the 12 day on Vision. I truly wish that we were on a different ship in that I really wanted to try radiance class, but I enjoyed Vision as my first ship. We wanted to do something different though, and we looked at the ultra spacious family room. We only had 3 people traveling...more on that in a sec...and Sharla at MEI was able to grab 4032 for us. It has a separate little bunk room for our 16 year old and a large couch/seating area. There will be tons of storage and room to move around. I don't usually care about our space much, but this will be nice since the whole trip will be 16 days with our pre-cruise stay in barcelona. Those of you with teenagers know that some space will definitely be needed! We thought about a balcony, but because Vision is so small and older, the balcony rooms are a lot pricier than on some of the newer ships. In some ways I wish we'd tried jr suite...we'd have gotten 24 points!...but this trip is already a huge reach for us, so we will enjoy our different room with a big window and enjoy the ocean breezes on the outside decks!
The travelers: Jane (mom2mybugs), Jeff (the husband who doesn't love cruising as much as I do but is really looking forward to the ports) and Madison (16, who is very much excited for Europe). In retrospect, we should have also booked our 22 year old and 20 year old on the cruise as well. 2 years ago, we figured they'd both be working, but Morgan is still finding her perfect post-college job and John just got back from a study abroad in Germany and can't find a 6 week job. I'm not sure we could have afforded to bring them with air-fare, excursions, etc, but booking them at the beginning would have given us the flexibility if it wanted them to come. I looked at adding them a few months ago, and the muster stations were full and the cost to put them in another room (even interior) was insane. So they will be staying with the 2 members of the family that I will be missing dreadfully (the 2 schnauzer puppies!) and basically keeping the house hopefully standing! Madison is usually a huge teen center kid...we hardly see her at all on the cruises because she meets people and ditches us immediately. We aren't expecting nearly as many teens on this trip as we see in the Caribbean on spring break cruises. However, she is not as stressed because the port days are so long and she is planning on lots of family time. I am hopeful that she will find a couple girls to hang with in the evenings and on the sea days, because Jeff and I are pretty boring and we'd also like a little us time!
The itinerary: Amazing!
July 24--Fly out of Chicago O'Hare at 630pm, arrive Barcelona at 9:50
July 25-28 Barcelona. We have a barcelona city card, a barcelona day tours 1/2 day tour (they will pick us up from the airport) and a segrada familia ticket. We will just roam around and eat/drink! We are staying at an airbnb very close to the segrada familia. It has a tiny balcony, 2 bathrooms and bedrooms and is out of the tourist area. We thought about staying near the ramblas, but really wanted to not exhaust ourselves before the trip. We can easily metro it looks like and we should be able to see a fair amount. We are still trying to decide if we will go to Tarragona (Roman Ruins), Sitges (beach town) or both on a day trip (train out by ourselves, or do a 100 euro tour)...I still can't decide. I don't want to race around, but i will regret not seeing the aquaduct and other ruins. I'm very worried about the heat in europe though...my daughter tends to drag/mope/get herself sick in heat and my husband isn't in great shape. We may just do the tour because it is easy and the van will be air conditioned. Oh yeah, and Jeff and I will celebrate our 29th anniversary on the 28th!
July 29 Board Vision of the Seas early....yep...I'm one of the those people who are there before security opens! I am so excited!
July 30 Cannes No tour scheduled. Either we will do the public crowded beach or take a taxi out to a more quiet location. Didn't want to spend a ton here since the other excursions are crazy expensive.
July 31 Florence (well La Spezia). I know someday I will get back to Italy. After Paris it is a true bucket list trip. However, i am trying to tell myself that I will go back over and over. It is going to be hot, crowded and we are cruising into a port a fair distance from Florence, Rome and Athens. So we did all tours with Royal. We are skipping Pisa since time is limited, and just doing Florence. I really really wanted to buy an Uffizi ticket on my own but I can't quite figure out how much free time we have and I know that I wouldn't have more than a couple hours. I think we are better off just finding one of @Traveler's gelato places and relaxing. It will kill me...I'm a go/go/go hit every museum person but I'm trying to make my mantra "Pace/pace/pace!"
Aug 1 Rome (again...not actually rome but far out). We did a tour that will get us into the vatican museum and st. peters and I will see the Sistine chapel along with a gazillion of my close personal friends. It will be packed. I will be heartbroken if things are too crowded or the pope closes something, but again, I'm telling myself nothing is a have to...I will be back!!! We will drive past the coliseum, but i traded that entry for the religious art!
Aug 2 & 3 Sea days! Much needed relaxation in my happy place on my sky deck chair near the bar! I have my paperback books, my sunscreen and my chair clips! I am tempted to do the thriller dance class which i think would be fun, but might involve me getting off my deck chair or not getting one in time, so maybe not!
Aug 4 Athens! I heard they closed the acropolis for 6 hours because of the extreme heat. I am hoping this doesn't happen while we are there, but they will find something for us to do. This is the port I'm the most worried about heat and water consumption. Hoping nobody gets heatstroke.
Aug 5 Mykenos Jeff will celebrate his 51st birthday in Greece! Because he is a high school social studies teacher, one of my majors was history and Madison is looking at anthropology/archaeology as a potential college major, we are going to the ancient ruins in Delos. This will also be hot. Really Really hot. Hoping the fact that we are done by noon will help. This will be a very cool port stop though!
Aug 6 Santorini This is the stop that originally i was really pumped about, and now I'm hoping we survive. There are 4 or 5 ships in port that day, so it will be crazy crazy crowded and hot. We are simply going to do a tour of Oia, walk around a bit, and then hit a cafe for some wine. I think this stop will be a take pictures and soak up atmosphere because I feel like it will be over-tourists. I don't think we will get back to Greece, and so I hope we can see what we want and enjoy whatever we are able to do.
Aug 7 Sea day! I loved this itinerary because it gave me sea days to relax on a port intensive cruise. Again, Vision is a bitty ship, so I think we will enjoy some trivia, my deck chair will call my name and I will spend my $20 on the quarter game in the casino.
Aug 8 Valetta, Malta We are doing the blue grotto and fishing village tour. It will be relaxing, we will see the beautiful caves and water, and I'm actually looking very forward to not having a lot of ships here. Apparently they filmed some of Game of Thrones here? Means nothing to me but since Jeff and my son have been binge watching the first few seasons this summer, he might recognize something!
Aug 9 Last Sea Day. And that dreaded day of having to get packing! Ugh. I have never done a cruise over 7 days and I think it will be amazing. However, I will not be looking forward to going back to work (in education, August is gear up for the year time lol!).
Aug 10 Back in Barcelona. We have a 355 flight so we had some options. We didn't want to hang at the airport all day so we considered the option to stay on the boat. I thought that would be pretty depressing...all these excited people just starting their trip and we would have to be going home. So we decided to do the montserrat trip and airport transfer. We had been trying to figure out montserrat earlier and decided it would be a fun last day activity and we wouldn't have to worry about the airport transfer or catching a cab. It says it is good for any flight after 3 and will get us to the airport by 1215. I will be stressed about getting through security but i know really we have plenty of time.
Dining and Extras: We bought a 4 day dining pkg. I would have considered the udp, but there are only 3 specialty restaurants on vision, and we don't want to do them that much. We will go to giovannis on Jeff's bday, chops, izumi and I think chops a 2nd time. I've never gotten fish at chops, so i'm tempted to try it one time. Chops is a trickier restaurant for my vegetarian girl, but she can live on the sides!!! And the dessert!!! Jeff and I also are doing Chef's table again. We have done it twice before, and I know this is a repeat menu but I enjoy it a lot, and I'm hoping I get the world again for dessert! We are going my time dining this time, and expect that we will hit the windjammer a couple nights (esp. Rome and Athens) because we will be tired. We booked middlish times...630ish...because if madison does want to meet people, she can, but we didn't want to do too early. We are kinda getting tired of the scheduling specialty at 530 or 6 for her, so we might schedule stuff a bit later and tell them she is leaving. Then we can have dessert and coffee together. I haven't really checked out show times, etc., since the compasses out there have been pretty old. However, again, we can either try to get an earlier table at my time, or skip the dining room if there is something we really want to see. We are going team drink pkg as usual...it is close for jeff in terms of price, and i totally benefit. I also think we will be drinking a ton of water, so that will totally make up the difference, plus sending jeff for my morning latte! We snagged it on a sale for $48 and then upgraded to $57 for the voom. Voom will be spotty...vision is not known for its good internet...but i want to be able to check email and facebook message the kids back home. Plus, if we get signal, I will try and periscope for sure (I think I'm mom2mybugs there). I will also try to blog. I have to try and find the email that had the info on the picture compresser thing.
So that is it....I'm doing a week long babysitting live-in job that pays for a lot of our plane tickets so i'm crazy busy until Sunday. Then its drs appointments, last minute pedicures and on our way wednesday!!!!! So can't wait to share my first experiences in these amazing ports. Jane
I’m a wimp and this is why I hadn’t been to Nassau before our June majesty got re-routed there. We usually cruise end of March and I’m heading as south as possible as fast as possible! Jane
That looks amazing!
Nope - you're in good company. I don't like it either (although I will eat it if it's the only option for dessert ?). I do like mascarpone though.
Well, I think the limited selection is one of the things that helps keep away the crowds. It's probably an expectations thing -- I've always thought of it as a "Cafe Promenade"++, instead of a mini-windjammer. But I do see your point.
I think your omelette might get cold on the way down to Two70. Maybe better to take your omelette and head back to the outdoor seating area in the rear of the Windjammer. On Royal that option is limited to Quantum and Radiance class ships, so it's fun to take advantage of that, at least when the weather is warm enough.
Maybe on my next Anthem sailing I'll get around to checking out Solarium Bistro for breakfast one day. MDR breakfast is fun too. Last trip we didn't make it there until disembarkation morning. I forgot how much I always enjoy the French Toast there.
In the end of the day they had to balance financial issues with Public Relations issues. Public Relations usually wins out, I'm one who got he drink package at the $18 price -- I'll be a very loyal Royal Caribbean cruiser in the future and will only book RC going forward. Furthermore, look who wrote the email, it came from the Guest Services Director, AKA Public Relations. They probably agonized over that email and decided to make it very cute and tongue-in-cheek. They played it very well in the end - kudos to the RCI team
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