IRMO12HD

I second the idea that if you are going to get internet anyway AND it’s a good price, then it’s worth it.
It wasn’t worth it for 39.99 pp/pd on our Aug 2020 Oasis Cruise when we first booked. But now, it is 21.99 so we booked the Key and canceled the internet packages. 
It is a bunch of little luxuries that might make for a smoother vacation.

I was gonna type "foreign and non-US mainland  port" but it was too long, so I went for "overseas" port.

If the cruise you're on was booked through your TA, that will show up when you go to NextCruise and request a new booking. Then it's automatically linked up to your TA, nothing for you or them to do beyond them triple-checking that the booking details are correct after they receive them.

If you decide to work with NextCruise on the ship go to their office on the first - third day of the cruise as they will not be busy. If you wait later in the cruise it will get more hectic as the week progresses. On my last cruise I went to NextCruise on the first day with a plan already of what I was looking for and I was the only one in the office. It worked out well and was carefree as can be.

You have all been amazing!
Thank you so much for providing me details in depth for my very first cruise.
I don't know how far I would have gotten without royal caribbean blog!
 
I have been using this site for everything and anything involving royal caribbean and it has never let me down!
We've already had a "crazy" idea of booking our next cruise and possibly many more while on our first one haha!

That Mega Food episode is fascinating. Kind of makes you wonder how they ever get everyone fed!

There's also a Science Channel "Impossible Engineering" episode about building Harmony: 
https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/impossible-engineering/full-episodes/worlds-biggest-cruise-ship?

 

Love @ sea is filmed on Harmony which is a RC ship.

Yes! It's Oasis - last episode of the (first) season. I love this show!

There is a UK show called " cruising with jane McDonald " 
It takes in most cruiselines, all sizes of ships and covers e every part of the world.
You can find them on youtube 

Netflix has an episode of Mega Food from a Royal ship - I think it's Oasis but my memory could be wrong. Def RC though.

Using the graphing feature of Google Flights you can go forward and backwards to look at pricing over time.  Cheapest rates for you right now are in January and February around 100-120 day mark.
 
 

 
Moving forward to summer 2020 and rates are higher.  That's because no one knows what the price of oil will be in six months time.  If oil goes up so will flight costs.  Airline nudge prices up in the far future to protect themselves.  As your dates come closer the airlines will have better vision with respect to the cost of fuel so they might lower prices.  On the other hand if oil does go up significantly, that rate you have today may look like a bargain come March.  
 

 
It's a crystal ball question.  How clear is your crystal ball?

Guys, I'm 5 subscribers away from 400!
 
If you haven't already, smash the subscribe button, and keep up to date with all my work on a cruise ship vlogs!
 
www.youtube.com/ChristopherWongVLOGS
 
Thank you again for all the love so far!
 
We're just about to leave Port Canaveral, ready for yet another busy cruise. I spent today in Publix buying lots of essentials. This is how I typically spend my turnaround day.

Welcome!

Dinner was included as part of the Haleakalā Summit Sunset excursion but we were all pretty tired by the time we reached the restaurant around 8pm.  We powered through dinner and reboarded the bus for a 35 minute drive back to the port.  
Arriving at 9:45pm there was quite a line for the tender back to the ship.  Other excursions were also returning.  This was approaching 10pm when service went to hourly so it was an undesirable delay getting back to the ship.  This is really my only complaint for the cruise.  Knowing several excursions come back at this time of night it was poor timing to reduce the frequency of tender boats at this small peak in demand. 
They were super focused on getting people to shore between 6am and 7am when we first arrived but perhaps they should have held some crew in reserve and had them work later when they knew excursions would be returning.  

I’m just jumping on when I feel like it.  No upcharge North Star on this sailing.  All rides are regular North Star rides.  

Day 7 Night
As we make our way along the chain of Hawaiian Islands towards Maui the North Star was empty and they were begging for participants to justify the ride.  Minimum 6-7 was being requested.  So... why not?





Later on my balcony I spotted an old friend... the Milky Way.  We've come far enough South that it's still visible.   It's hard when shooting off the side of the ship given the ship's forward motion so I had to crank up the ISO and shorten the exposure.

Housekeeping items...
O3b internet is back!  While in Alaska Ovation used the old legacy satellites.  Now that we are staying within range we are using the newer O3b satellites.  Yay! I asked the hostess at Coastal Kitchen about Junior Suite access for dinner.  It's accommodated on a space available basis. NFL coverage.  Two stations added to the channel line up.  Channel 40 and 41 have East/West games.  Channel 40 is labeled Sunday/Monday/Thursday.  Channel 41 is Sunday only.  Early games Jets/Patriots and Ravens/Chiefs.  Late games Texans/Chargers and Saints/Seattle.   We changed time last night.  Current time is 4 hours off Eastern time.  We change time again tonight.   By the numbers (of guests):
Australian 367 Brazil 27 Canada 860 China 41 Germany 91  Great Britain 41 Ireland 18 Israel 15 Mexico 70 New Zealand 55 United States 2,588  Children on board 238

The end of day one turned into night.

North Star was running on a walk up basis so why not?
I didn't realize it until later but I caught the reflection of the monitor with the North Star logo in this shot.


Hard to see in this photo but the night sky was full of stars.


The North Star Bar remains a favorite with incredible views and it's lightly used at night.   
Earlier on my way to muster a crew member stopped me in the hall and said he recognized me. I had to do a double take but saw it was Monaj from the North Star bar. He remembered me from May as I was often at or near this bar taking in the majesty of Alaska.  So happy he is still on!  That's him facing the other way taking care of another guest.  Really nice guy and great bartender.

Unfortunately it's nearing the end of the Milky Way season in the Northern hemisphere but I did catch the dipper from my balcony.  

So, a while ago, while roaming the internet, I stumbled across this awesome list of which activities were on which ships throughout the Royal Caribbean fleet. It was perfect! Maybe I lost it, maybe it was taken down, but I couldn't find it any longer. So I set out to make my own. After going through every deck of every Royal Caribbean ship's deck plans, I noted everything I could find onboard. Bars, dining, entertainment, I listed it all. Here is the result:

View in full screen
 
I find it incredibly useful and I thought that I'd put it here because you all might like to use it too. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. 
Disclaimers:
This is my own creation and all information used is from https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/deck-plans  (unless otherwise referenced) Therefore, there may be certain inaccuracies because of either certain things missing on the deck plans, or me missing something out If this is the case, please feel free to let me know and I will update it to reflect these. As said, I have not been on all these ships so do not have first hand experience for all these venues and activities, so please do let me know of any errors I may have made. It is quite large so it may take a moment to load, and you will need to zoom out. I intend to update it as new ships debut, or as ships get refurbished/amplified so it is hopefully always an up to date reference point. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

Yes, you will be able to order these drinks from the wait staff.  They will usually take your card when you order.  There used to be dedicated drink waiters but now it's handled by the waitstaff, so it may take longer than one would expect to receive their drink.  I would suggest swinging by a bar on the way into the MDR and grabbing a drink.  Then go ahead and order another one when they take your order in case it takes awhile.

I BELIEVE that the virgin frozen drinks go for something in the realm of $7-8 each. All I remember is I asked the bartender how much my round would have been if I didn’t have the refreshment package and he said $10. I had gotten a frozen daiquiri (should be same price as piña colada) and a bottle of water. 
By the way, the aforementioned time limit in between drinks doesn’t apply to bottled water. Bar tenders won’t blink if you ask for a drink and a bottle of water at the same time if you have the drink package. One swipe of the sea pass card and you are on your way. I found the value and the convenience of  grabbing water bottles throughout the day to be an undersung benefit of the drink package for me. 

100% correct

I think all muster stations are outdoors on Enchantment (near the lifeboat you would use in an emergency).  I've heard on these forums that you're supposed to report to your station to get your name checked in, and then those that cannot stand at the muster station will be directed elsewhere where there is seating to hear the presentation.

It’s cruise day!!!
Zero days till we go on a cruise!
zero days till we go!
The sun has come up, let’s head to the port, zero days till we go on a cruise!!!
(thanks @JLMoran)