Wilson

Just noted that Sip & Stream promo is being offered on our May Harmony sailing.
 
You receive both the Deluxe alcohol package and Voom Surf & Stream package for a total $392 for 7 nights.
 
Appears to only be on certain sailings.

Just noted that Sip & Stream promo is being offered on our May Harmony sailing.
 
You receive both the Deluxe alcohol package and Voom Surf & Stream package for a total $392 for 7 nights.
 
Appears to only be on certain sailings.

Giovanni's meal just "meh" on Liberty in Nov, but the service was fabulous. Gave it another try on Indy in January and the meal was "good", but the service was "meh". We love Chops and Sabor, but will not return to Giovanni's at full price. For $21 we would give it serious consideration if we did not like the MDR menu option for the same evening.

Agree with Doc. We have done Mr. Sanchos three times and always enjoyed our visit. $55 for all you can eat and drink is a great deal. Others like Nachi Cocum, but we tried it last April and were very disappointed. The service was terrible. Maybe we caught them on a bad day...
 
We love Little French Key in Roatan, but it's not inexpensive.

Agree with Doc. We have done Mr. Sanchos three times and always enjoyed our visit. $55 for all you can eat and drink is a great deal. Others like Nachi Cocum, but we tried it last April and were very disappointed. The service was terrible. Maybe we caught them on a bad day...
 
We love Little French Key in Roatan, but it's not inexpensive.

Cozumel has a lot of beach clubs. I particularly liked Mr. Sancho's at $55 all inclusive.

Not sure if it's fleetwide, but the Deluxe drink package decal was printed on our SeaPass card ("DX" in right corner) for our Jan 5th Indy sailing. No more trips to guest services to have it replaced when it wears off.
 
Please delete if this is a duplicate post.
 

 
 

I don't recall seeing it in Sorrentos on Liberty in November, but I wasn't looking since Izumi was available in the evenings at the Windjammier. Complimentary I might add!
 
I can confirm that it was being sold last month in Sorrentos.

Day three:
 
 
Date we started off early as we arrived at Georgetown, Grand Cayman first thing in the morning. I've been the Grand Cayman in 2005 but don't remember it at all. I was not drinking then so I don't remember why but I just don't remember Grand Cayman. My wife collect shot glasses from Hard Rock Cafes from all over the world. She's been in the Navy Reserve for 28 years and has been able to experience many different places in the world. Having a liking for Hard Rock she, goes to Hard Rock Cafes, and gets a simple shot glass.
We had no real plans to do anything any excursions while in Grand Cayman for we have one booked tomorrow in Cozumel. We just went to a bunch of the different shops along the front Road by the port. She did go into Diamonds International, of course,and bought something... earrings I think. By about 12:30-1:00 o'clock we were back on the boat and having lunch at the Windjammier with Margaritas from Rita's Cantina....an everyday tradition so far.
 
Concert lineup for today I feel was a little thin. At 4:30 we had meet and greet with bands Black and Blue Danger Danger, Slaughter (up all night sleep all day, fly to the angels) and Y&T (summertime girls).
 
We did see Stryper a second time at the Pool Stage on Deck 11. After dinner we wanted to go see Tom Keifer - lead singer Cinderella. A common theme on Rock cruises is being late. They call it rock and roll time. Well it pisses me off... whatever. We waited for 45 minutes in line for the Tom Keifer show in the VIP line and doors still had not opened. We decided for leave, for we have seen Tom Keifer and or Cinderella many times. We opted to go see the band D-A-D also known as Disneyland After Dark. We've seen them two years ago in Miami just before the Monsters of Rock Cruise and found them to be interesting. So we went to the pool deck and watch them play. After this, once again, the night gets fuzzy I don't remember seeing any other bands on the list that I have. So I'm guessing you went to sleep early after hitting the Windjammier one more time.

Once again we got up late, and we made our way to the Windjammier before it closed. They omlete station was closed so we settled for whatever was left. The wife had a mimosa and I had a mediocre Bloody Mary. 
 
 
First thing up for today was the meet and greet with Night Ranger, Queensryche( Jet City Woman), Tom Keifer( the lead singer from Cinderella), and a band called Disneyland after Dark from England. The meet and greets are basically photo opportunities where each group poses with you and a professional photographer takes pictures. These pictures are available on a website within a couple weeks. You can either order prints or you can download the image onto your computer and do as you please. This is one of the pluses of having VIP status where we get to be first in line. This saves hours sometimes. 
 
 
After the photo experience we probably had lunch and hung by the pool, had drinks with friends, and then headed to the Pacifica Theater for Stryper ( calling to you, honestly, always there for you, to hell with the Devil). VIP also offers you head of the line privileges. Sometimes you want to be right up front sometimes you want to sit in the last row. Today we sent the last row right by the bar.
 
 
At 4:30 it was back to the Viking Crown Lounge for meet and greet number 2 for the day. This  consisted of be still Beasto Blanco (which is the same band as the bulletboys back in the day), Faster Pussycat( poison ivy, shut up, bathroom wall), John corabi band (John is the other lead singer for Motley Crue back in 1992 to 1997) (Hooligan's Holiday, Man in the Moon, Misunderstood), and Paradise Kitty a female tribute band for Guns and Roses. Once again VIP goddess of the front of the line
 
 
We caught part of Kip Winger's set, and saw part of the Paradise Kitty set, which was very crowded and hard to see for my five foot three wife. We went ahead had dinner in the main dining room and got ready for what I feel was important, the Vince Neil show. Drink count for the day.... I have no idea we were ahead of curve on drink tickets and dipping into the next day's tickets each day, but I figured with the excursion we had tomorrow we would not be using our drink tickets for there was free open bar at the Dolphin Excursion. Just what you want drunk people messing with dolphins.
 
 
The Vince Neil set was a little disappointing. Basically the same said he did at the pre-cruise two days earlier. He switched up two songs and played for about an hour. Then, of course as what most self-centered rockstars do, he got off the boat the next day and didn't stay for the rest of the cruise... which I feel like all performers were expected to do. Beats me :( It'll probably be the last time I ever see him live. He also did not participate in the meet and greets.
 
 
Set:
 
Red hot 
 
Same Old Situation
 
 don't go away mad just go away
 
 home sweet home 
 
Wild Side 
 
Girls Girls Girls
 
 Kickstart My Heart
 
The guitar player Blando did two songs from Led Zeppelin as a guitar solo thing
 
 
If you ever want to see a incredible drummer look up Zoltan Chaney. He is real  good &  the drummer for Vince Neil and for the band Slaughter. Look him up on YouTube he's crazy, and good
 
 
Every night after last performance I always go to the Windjammer and do a midnight snack. Usually consists of pizza and whatever is left over in the Windjammer. I was hoping for Honey Stung Chicken as  we hear so much about it RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com. A funny note here, I think they took all the room service menus out of the cabins. I didn't see one anywhere. I'm guessing a lot of thse performers ordered room service a lot and room service was busier than usual because of that. I always saw servers running up and down the deck 10 with room service carts. Funny thing is  last day as we were leaving our room I saw a bunch of room service menus stacked against the wall at the end of the hall. So I guess my thought process was correct.. .maybe

http://monstersofrockcruise.com/pricing/
 
This has all the levels of pricing for general and VIP for 2017. 2018 should be inline with these.  Maybe even less with more people onboard.?

Surprisingly the sound was excellent. Clean, crisp, no buzzing or popping. The bass drum at the Y&T show shook my insides from 30 feet away....at age 50 i have resided that ear plugs are necessary:(

Day 4 Sunday February 5th 2017.
 
Today we're in Cozumel Mexico. We were docked at the international Pier which is the northernmost dock / Pier. We opted for a dolphin Excursion booked through Royal Caribbean the day we embarked. The Excursion provider offered many different packages with dolphins. We opted for the dolphin experience which was $60 cheaper than the dolphin swim. The swim was the same as Encounter except a dolphin got to drag you through the water for about 30 feet ...not my idea of excitement for an extra 60 bucks. Probably not fun for the dolphin either ...to drag my 240-pound ass across the pond. It was fun we thought we'd have more time there but we truly didn't. I think they kind of dragged out the eating portion of it so that you didn't use their other facilities, swimming pool, stingrays encounter, kayaks or snorkeling equipment. Transportation to and from the dock was provided by the Excursion company via a taxi. We did opt for a small photo package. I figured once-in-a-lifetime deal.
 
We did run by the Hard Rock Cafe in Cozumel looking for a shirt for me but did not get one nor a shot glass because we got a shot glass on our last Cozumel trip on Brilliance of the Seas on our honeymoon in 2015. One stack on board we did run to the Windjammer for a late lunch and margaritas at Rita's Cantina.
 
Band lineup for the day also slim consisted of the rock and roll residency, Faster Pussycat, John corabi, and Y&T
 
This was also Super Bowl Sunday and the band Rock and Roll Residency played the halftime show on the pool deck. This band consists of members of other bands and they basically play cover tunes.
 
After the last band, we went for a couple drinks, a trip to the Windjammier, and then off to bed.

We made the dinner reservations for day 6, but do not intend to keep it. Once onboard we are going to request that it be transferred to lunch. If they will not do that we will just cancel the reservation and get a refund.

DAY 1

 
 

 
We slept in longer than expected after a crowded Pre-party at Ferg’s and a long awaited favorite dinner at Tijuana Flat in downtown Tampa last night.  8:54 to be exact and with free breakfast on the line we beat it to the lobby for fresh waffles and watery OJ.

 
Using Lyft we arrived at the Port of Tampa roughly 10:30. Being that we Opted for the VIP option the Agent offered  we were offered VIP check-in. This was basically  C&A check-in and the boarding ticket we given actually said Crown and Anchor with the #5 on it. We were third in line. From there we got on another line inside the terminal to pick up our drink package. Consisting of 60 business card size coupons allowing one $12.00 drink per coupon and we started using them right away. As we approached the end of that line our number was called so we boarded right after receiving our drink package coupons. A twenty minute process in total. Previous years in Miami on MSC and NCL it to 45 minutes to two plus hours for the same process. Three cheers for RCCL!!!!

 
I want to back up just a minute here.  In regards to bringing your allotted 2 bottles of wine. We brought our two and could have brought 20 as long as they were group in two’s. NO ONE asked which two belonged to who.

 
Once onboard we were greeted with complimentary champagne and hit the R BAR (Something Pacific was my drink (included)).  While sitting there we booked and “dolphin experience†excursion and looked for lunch. We ended up at the Windjammier and ordered two Premium Patron Margaritas from Rita’s Cantina. $12.00 EACH and we used the drink Package.

 
We headed to the room Just to get rid of the carry-ons and check out what a Jr. Suite has to offer. On the way we made some new friends and checked out their larger suite Cabin 1562 .  Our cabin is what I call an accessible size cabin.  1 ½ the size of a traditional cabin given to folks who need the extra room, but in our case a suite accompanied with a doorbell and all. Marble bathroom floors and a full size tub which is set higher than any tub I’ve seen. My poor little wife had to take a running start just to get in the thing!!!  Me, being 6’3’’, had not even a millimeter of room. My head was right at the ceiling.  Not complaining just a little odd.

 
Time for the sail-away party. Tonight’s was different from any you have been to in the past. The theme for today was "Black out at Seas" so many black shirt....well, except me. I had no clue and I was wearing RED...lol

 

  Kip Winger was on the pool stage. I was in Periscope mode for this. Find me at Motleybrue on periscope for my scopes. Winger is famous for song like She's Only Seventeen, Madeline, Heading for a Heartache.

 

Next up, Ted Poley and Danger Danger in the Pacifica Theater.  It was filled to capacity, But with out VIP Credentials we were right against the stage.  Danger Danger is know for songs Naughty Naughty and Bang Bang. Sounds silly but look em up on YouTube they are good and from NJ!!! always a plus :/

 

Tonight, we skipped the MDR and snacked along the way. I tried the roast beef sandwiches at Park Café In the Solarium and the were my 'go-to' the rest of the cruise. We lost count of the drink count and were already dipping into tomorrow's allotment of drink tickets.  I broke out one of our bottles of cheap red wine and carried it to the next show and swigged out of it as needed.

 

Next show we caught the tail end of the Lynch Mob show. George Lynch is the guitarist from the band Dokken.

 

Somewhere around this time my beautiful wife lost steam, or got mad at me for talking to everybody around us except her and headed to the stateroom.   She missed an excellent live performance of Night Ranger...(Don't' Tell Me you Love me, Sister Christian, Still Rocking America).  Lead singer, Jack Blade, is also the Lead singer of the Dam Yankees and they performed two DY songs....Coming of Age and High Enough.  Love me some Night Ranger.  Seen and met these guys several times over the years.

 

The night is not over yet!!!

 

I made my way to the casino solo.  I allot myself $100.00 to gamble each time we cruise & once it is gone...IT'S GONE. sometimes I luck out sometimes not.  Tonight it went quick.  $100.00 on BLACK  and it was gone in 15 seconds BOOO RED!! (In my defense this strategy, last cruise, worked twice in a row and I walked with $400.00 in 2 minutes.

 

Now back to the Pool Deck to see the last band of the night Black N Blue at 12:45 AM. I was exhausted as the show started, & I made it though half the set and had to call it a night.  Black N Blue made it late to the 80's scene and I know them for the song Hold on to Eighteen.

 

Next up day two Theme: Wild West on the High Seas

Many have seen the new $15 Sabor sale in the cruise planner.
 
I see it too for our upcoming Harmony sailing, but it's still showing the ala carte menu??? I called Royal this evening to ask what we actually get for $15 since all Oasis class ships are ala carte at Sabor. They told me they are in the process of eliminating the the ala carte menu and it will be a cover charge only restaurant fleet wide. Remember...this is the "Rumor" thread and only time will tell if this is true.

Just got home at midnight. review coming real soon

Welcome home. Now post up some damn pics and give us a review! LoL

Brilliance of the Seas – Monsters of Rock Cruise Feb. 2-7

 

 

 

Most likely if you have  been hanging around Matt’s daily Periscopes lately you have heard me boasting about my wife’s and my annual pilgrimage to sunny Florida or Los Angles for the Monsters of Rock Cruise. This will be number 5 for us. For the first time ever, it will be held on a Royal Caribbean ship, Brilliance of the Seas, and I figured I’d share with everyone  for a couple of reason. First of all. it is a RCCL cruise. Second it is a 100%  buyout/charter so things are run a little different, and third and most importantly (to me) it is an 80’s rock n’ roll cruise.

 

 

 

Being a charter you will not find any dress code. It’s a sea of black concert t-shirts and hiked up mini shirts in the MDR. BINGO will not be played, port shopping seminars won’t happen and the sexiest man and Belly flop competition are the furthest things from anybody’s mind.  We came to rock out! Even the drink package is ‘worked differently’ (more on that later)!

 

 

 

My wife and I will be flying to Tampa from San Antonio the prior like all good and well behaved cruiser should.

 

 

 

The cruise happenings will actually start the night we arrive at a club in downtown Tampa a stone’s throw from the Port. Vince Neil, the front man of the 100 million record selling band Motley Crue will perform this  Pre-Cruise Party. He will also perform on the ship. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our itinerary will be:

 

 

 

Wednesday - February 1, 2017 - Optional Pre-Cruise Party

 

 

 

Thursday - February 2, 2017  -  Depart – Tampa, Florida  4 pm

 

 

 

Friday - February 3, 2017 - Day at Sea

 

 

 

Saturday- February 4, 2017 - George Town, Grand Cayman - 7 am - 3 pm

 

 

 

Sunday - February 5, 2017  - Cozumel, Mexico - 11 am - 6 pm

 

 

 

Monday - February 6, 2017 - Day at Sea

 

 

 

Tuesday  - February 7, 2017  -Arrive – Tampa, Florida -7 am

 

 

 

Who doesn’t love 80’s rock? From the cheesiness of teased hair to the heart pound sound coming from their interments, it’s always ‘nothing but a good time’.  

 

 

 

 

 

The listing of bands to perform (each at least twice) are… as of todayâ€

 

 

 

Vince Neil

 

Cinderella’s Tom Keifer

 

QUEENSRYCHE

 

NIGHT RANGER

 

STYPER

 

TNT

 

KIX

 

SLAUGHTER

 

DANGER DANGER

 

D*A*D

 

SOTO (JEFF SCOTT SOTO ~ TSO, MOVIE ROCK STAR, YNGWIE, BRIAN MAY BAND)

 

Y&T

 

LYNCHE MOB (GEORGE LYNCHE of DOKKEN)

 

KILLER DWARFS

 

SAIGON KICKS

 

ELECTRIC BOYS

 

THE ANSWER

 

BEASTO BLANCO

 

INGLORIOUS

 

BLACK N’ BLUE

 

FASTER PUSSYCAT

 

TORA TORA

 

GIRLSCHOOL

 

JOHN CORABI (MOTLEY CRUE, THE SCREAM, UNION)

 

KIP WINGER (WINGER)

 

JOEL HOEKSTRA (FOREIGNER, WHITESNAKE, NIGHT RANGER, TSO, MOVIE ROCK OF AGES)

 

HEAVEN’S EDGE

 

PARADISE KITTY (ALL FEMALE GnR TRIBUTE BAND)

 

 

 

Hosted by            EDDIE TRUNK (NY DJ AND EX RECORD COMPANY A&R GUYS

 

                                COMEDIAN DON JAMISON

 

                                COMEDIAN JIM FLORENTINE

 

                                & LUC CARL XM RADIO DJ, FITNESS BUFF, AND LADY GA GA’S EX

 

 

 

As usual, we will barely sleep!! Some days the shenanigans start at 10 AM and goes well past midnight…..for 5 days !!

 

 

 

In a way, this is a Super Bowl Cruise! Being that the SB will be played in Houston while we are sailing around the waterways of the Western Hemisphere. We had custom made football jerseys with our name on the back that replicate the logo Monsters of Rock is using this trip.

 

 

 

 The MORC folks have set up theme night which we tend to ignore. Themes in the past have been Prom Night, Pajama Night,  Pimps and Hoe’s…. Yeah I know…what are we 10 yrs old!!!  A few people get into it, but it is not our thing. We are busy watching the musical acts!!

 

 

 

Our stateroom is going to be a junior suite. This category and above are considered VIP staterooms and come with several perks a standard stateroom will not afford you. With VIP you get special check in that is considered different than the Crown & Anchor check in on traditional cruises, but essentially the same thing. You always get a balcony stateroom even with the lower category VIP staterooms. You get Early Access to all theatre shows so you can have first choice of being against the stage or any seat in the theater.

 

 

 

 On the Monsters of Rock cruises, there are meet and greets for every band where you can rub elbows with each band member and take pictures and an occasional autograph. VIP lets you get to the head of the line which is great because you can be standing in line for hours to meet your favorite rock star on board without it. We go for the VIP just to make life a little easier.

 

 

 

Many band members will also be very laid-back and hang out in the Windjammei’r, on the pool deck, in the Centrum, or even Casino. Most of them have had their Hay Day and have checked the ego at the door.

 

 

 

Last thing I will talk about in this post is the special drink package that MORC has arranged with Royal Caribbean. For $360 you get 60 drink tickets. These can be split like my wife and I do, or even given away to anyone you wish to buy a drink for. NOT everyone in the stateroom is required to purchase. Each ticket can get you a cocktail or adult beverage up the value of $12. If you go over $12 they will just ask for two drink tickets. I did the math on this one and there is no doubting that it is an excellent deal ...$360.oo/60 tickets is $6 each drink. It’s hard to find a deal like that on land. Almost makes me mad that the regular price a drink package on traditional cruisesare so much more.

 

 

 

Well, that is all for now.  I will update as my vision sees fit. I will post more posts and pictures during the trip thanks for reading. @Motleybrue AKA Mike Taylor

 

 

 

 

 

www.MonstersofRockCruise.com

 

 

 

 

While on phone with Royal making dinner and excursion reservations (cruise planner still not working) I asked and they confirmed JS guest reserve once onboard.

Current sale reduced it to $156. I booked it, but after watching the various videos Mrs Wilson told me to do two things. 1=cancel her reservation and get her a massage 2=increase my life insurance before going. LoL

Welcome to RCblog chilis! If you are not already doing so, make sure to catch the daily chats on Periscope. LOTS of great info.
Enjoy your cruise and make to come back and provide a review. :)

So for everyone who's started playing these games, I have some tips I've figured out after playing the mobile version of MyVegas Slots and MyVegas Blackjack for a few days:
 
Unlike the Facebook version of the game, it seems like the best / fastest way to earn loyalty and level up is not just from playing games for hours on end and making huge bets each time. The "Journeys" challenges (which unlock after I think level 4 in slots and level 6 in blackjack) are a much faster and easier way to earn loyalty points, especially at the lower levels where I'm at. When unlocked, you get a "path" to go down with several challenge stops along the way. The challenge at each stop has three levels (bronze, silver, and gold), and from what I've seen they all fall into just a few categories:
Find X number of some symbol on a specific slots game (just has to show up on the board, doesn't have to be part of a win) Get X number of wins of a specific type in a specific slots (e.g., get 35 3-Prince wins in Excalibur) Earn X chips in a specific slots game Earn X experience in a specific slots game Earn X loyalty in a specific slots game There are probably categories I haven't uncovered yet, but you get the idea. Now here's the trick with these:
 
For the "find X symbols" or "win X times with this specific win type" challenges, always bet the minimum. There's no advantage to betting higher, as the symbols / win types come out just as (in)frequently with a minimum bet as a max bet. So especially at lower levels, where chips are scarce, going with minimum bets lets you complete the challenges more quickly because you can get that many more spins.
 
For the other category types, bet as much as you can manage while still doing 25 or 50 auto-spin runs. Here, you want to get the goal as fast as possible with the fewest spins, and that means better bigger for larger payouts and better multiples. Where it can really pay off is in the bonus games each slot game offers (like Sir Froggy's Spin in Excalibur), as those have bigger chip values when you bet bigger, and hitting a lucky multiplier can give you a huge chip boost.
 
I haven't done enough yet on the blackjack side to see how much it parallels slots, but I imagine it's pretty similar as I've gotten challenges like "hit on an opening 13 X times" or "get X blackjacks", or "win X chips/loyalty in <specific game>".
 
Hope this helps everyone to get to that free cruise just a little bit faster!

Thanks everyone but I decided to book the 1:40 p.m. flight back to Boston.  I know we'll be at the airport early as we always are, but I guess I shouldn't chance it.

We spoke to another crew member this evening who confirmed that Liberty will reposition from Galveston to Bayonne, NJ (Cape Liberty) in 2018. Still no word on a replacement ship for Galveston. Remember you heard it on Royal Caribbean Blog first!