IRMO12HD

Ship: Navigator of the Seas
Dates: 9.7.22-9.12.22 and 9.12.22-9.15.22
Who: Solo female and newly Prime
Itinerary: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico & Ensenda, Mexico x2
 
I was going to wait and start this blog in the middle of Aug. But since there is no longer testing required for sailing shorter than six nights, I decided to start this one. I don't ever "worry" about testing positive, but it is always in the back of my mind. This is an added bonus cruise for me, I normally only get to sail twice a year. Oct/Nov and Jan/Feb only because that is what my vacation time allows. Well with me being WFH until......who knows at this point, I was able to squeeze in an extra cruise. As luck would have it, I made Prime on my last cruise. I did well enough to earn a bunch of offers. One was a free interior on limited 5n or less sailings in Aug and Sept. I originally thought none of the sailings worked in conjunction with a good flying schedule. Then I got an offer with $100 off and $25 in free play. Since I don't live close to a port, it doesn't make sense to fly out for a cruise that isn't at least 6-7 days.
The free interior was a 5N Navigator sailing out of LA in September. This sailing started on a Wed, so there was a 3n sailing right behind it. I booked both, I was originally going to upgrade to a suite, but they didn't have the same room available for each sailing, no aft balconies either.  I don't know if I have mentioned it before in any of my live blogs, but my goal is to sail as many RCG ships in as many types of rooms as possible. I do suites, balconies and interiors; Oceanview is not my cup of tea. I did sail in a spacious panoramic Oceanview on Mariner, and it just confirmed why I don't care for Oceanview. It was also in the front of the ship, and I hate front of the ship cabins. I booked aft cabin 9383 for both sailings to make it a true B2B by not having to pack and move. A couple of days before final payment was due for the 3night sailing, all the interiors dropped dramatically in price. With taxes, port fees and gratuity I paid less than $500 for 8N of cruising. 
The day after I checked in for the first cruise a bunch of rooms opened up. Still no matching aft suites/balconies but interiors with virtual balconies opened up. On the Sept 12th sailing, all the interiors were going for the same price, on the Sept 7th sailing it was $34 to upgrade.  I switched my rooms to deck 10 #1643 and I am excited to try this type of room. Ultimately this cruise is just a relaxing cruise to help me make my Prime status last longer. I had tours planed for Cabo and Ensenada on the second leg but changed my mind as I have done resorts in Mexico and its all the same. At Day 40/45 I received RoyalUp offers for both cruises. Since it is a third-party who won't know I am B2B I didn't bother bidding.
The CP has been weird for both sailings: I was hoping for the 3N dining package, but it has yet to show up. Also, there was no UDP, so I got the Chops+1 and then around the 4th of July the UDP became available. It is roughly $200 for this 5N sailing and I didn't think it was worth it as I was only wanting to do maybe 3 sit down dinners. No dining package of any kind has shown up for the 3N sailing, in fact I can't even book MTD for that one in the CP. I am Diamond and Prime, so I have no drink package, I only brought VOOM in CP for the first sailing. I will use my free day or get the D discount if I really need the internet on the second sailing. 
Thanks for reading and if you want to know anything feel free to ask. 

Hi everyone! We're off on another family adventure, this time on Oasis. It's me (mid-30s M), Dear Wife (mid-30s F), and our three kids (6F, 4F, and 2M). This is a sequel to our December 2021 trip on Anthem, and something i've been looking forward to since that trip (being honest - i've been looking forward to this trip before we even embarked on Anthem!)
There are some things that will be the same from that trip:
same family same departure port (Bayonne, NJ) same itinerary (Sea Day, Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay, 2 Sea Days). But there's a lot more that will be different:
Better wrangle of COVID: COVID was a burden for us last December - getting tests, testing in the terminal, everyone wearing masks, etc. They were all necessary steps, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. However, with vaccines now being available for kids under 5, everyone will be fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. We can't be more excited to have them "in the bubble" with us and be considered part of the fully vaccinated members on the ship. Also, we're definitely taking @Matt's advice and bringing a handful of COVID tests with us!
Oasis-class (from Quantum-class): On Anthem, I felt like we disembarked having done everything we could have done on that ship. COVID knocked out a lot of family activities, which came back throughout this spring based on the Cruise Compasses that have come out from Anthem. Every time I think about kids activies on Oasis, I lose track! I'm really excited for there to always be something to do (Ultimate Abyss, Splashaway Bay, Adventure Ocean, Merry-Go-Round, more pools)
Dining: On Anthem, our goal was to fully embrace the Windjammer and MDR for meals. We also really liked the consistency and structure of both venues when it came to routine with the kids. Our serving staff in MDR on Anthem were, without a doubt, the best part of the entire cruise. As parents, they made our lives as painless as possible. From a food perspective, Windjammer and MDR were good, but not great or mind-blowing. At the time, UDP on Anthem was $220/person, and specialty dining wasn't in the cards. Once we booked Oasis and I got into the Cruise Planner, I saw UDP for $167/day. With 150CP and Chops going for $60+, convincing DW that $24/day for specialty dining was easy, especially with the increased variety on Oasis.
Stateroom: On Anthem, we also had our nanny (20F), so we did two connecting interior staterooms. They were gorgeous and gave us room to spread out. By the time we cruise on Oasis, our nanny will have moved on, so it's just the 5 of us. When I browsed the Oasis deckplans, I saw some 5+ rooms, including Central Park Balcony rooms. It was break-even in cost to switch from 2x interior to 1x CP balcony, so we made the switch. We're very curious to see 1) how the 5 of us cope being in one room, and 2) how the balcony changes the dynamic of the room.
Price: Our price for 2 interior staterooms on Anthem (after taxes, before grats) for 3 adults and 3 kids was $3,228. On Oasis, our 5-person CP Balcony started at $4,471, but with several price drops, promos, and Kids Sail Free, our total on Final Payment Date was $2,332. Unbelievable. Endless thanks and praise to @Sharlaat MEI Travel for making this happen, and for putting up with my incessant requests to re-check pricing 🙂 Thank you, Sharla!
 
Our Goals on Oasis:
Truly embrace specialty dining: having our fill of WJ and MDR, we're going the polar opposite direction and going HAM on specialty dining thanks to UDP. Probably not the smartest idea, but we're doing it for SCIENCE!
Escape room: I'm a huge space nerd, and can't wait to check out the Apollo 18 escape room
Stress less about activities, especially for the kids: on Anthem, I felt like I had to always be planning the "next thing" for the kids. I don't feel I need to do that on Oasis, there's always some place to go or something new to check out.
See Aqua80s: I'm an 80s/90s kid, i've heard this show is fantastic.
Avoid Cats (maybe): Not sure if this will be possible, our kids loved all the mainstage shows on Anthem. Who knows, maybe i'll like it...
Embrace the uniqueness of Oasis: Splashaway Bay, water slides, Ultimate Abyss, super-tall rock wall (20% taller than Anthem), Central Park & the Boardwalk, etc

I took a last minute solo cruise on the Odyssey last year and I guess I gambled enough to get a comp inside cabin on the Grandeur. I discovered the option while researching for a friend of mine.  Luckily they had a date that worked for me.  I was in the middle of a project but it was expected to end in June.  I booked it and started making plans.   The next week the project end date moved to July 17 with the cruise leaving on the 27th.  Still within time frame but not much room for error.  Then the end date was pushed out to the 24th.  Now I am sweating a little bit but I went ahead with planning but not buying anything not refundable.   Well the important parts of the project is now done and what is scheduled for the 24th will not affect my vacation.  
I have now bought parking and have started scheduling my excursions.  Which is easy as I plan on diving at both stops.  Cozumel will be with my normal dive company that I use for my diving trips.  Costa Maya on the other hand will be brand new to me.  Found one with decent reviews and was able to answer all my questions so I should be set.
I never thought I would want to go on a smaller ship again but a comp cruise is a comp cruise.  I have a interior cabin but the location is perfect for me so I passed on trying to upgrade this time and location is much more important to me than a balcony.  I ended up buying the Key when it went on sale and was only $5 more than the internet package by itself.  I'm a bit fan of shows so I'm hoping the seating benefit will be worth at least that.  I did choose to pass on the drink package this time as I know I will not use much on the port days and I can bring 2 bottles of wine for myself.  Along with a small OBC I figure I will be set and not worry about a big bar bill.  I hope I'm not wrong.
With the Grandeur not having all the extra dining venues I decided I will give the MDR another shot.  My first 2 RCL cruises were a bit of a disappointment in the food department outside the pay venues.  I did however book one night at Chops which I really enjoyed in October.
After 4 overnight weekends in the last 5 I am really looking forward to getting away.  I got a new laptop so I'm hoping the internet is decent on the ship and I can keep this updated.
Thanks for reading.
 

All our bags are packed. Checked in for our flights and hotel. Practice COVID tests all negative. Surprise is still intact. 17th hrs until we board the plane!

The last part is where things got weird. After the cruise down the Thames, our guide said he would not be going with us. He asked for a volunteer to take a paper that had a bar code on it containing the 37 tickets for all who would he riding the London Eye. Hubby and I looked at each other and the Type A personalities took over, we did not hesitate to volunteer because at least we knew that we would make it on the flight lol. This was a 30 min flight and worth it for a one time experience. Hubby said it was a North Star on steroids lol. 
 

Kids were fading by this point but the second last activity was the Thames River cruise. This was a 30 min ride from Millennium Pier to Westminster Pier. We had an London Eye extension so they dropped us off right after the Westminster stop. 
 

Tomorrow we are headed off bright and early for a super long day. Hitting all the famous London stops tomorrow ending with a London Eye flight at the end of the day. We booked this “Best of London” tour with Viator. We have used Viator before in NYC and Bermuda and have enjoyed them so we thought this would be a easy, stress free way for the kids to see a bit of everything. Off to bed now. 😴

After settling in, but no napping, we decided to head out to explore the areas around our hotel. I posted some stories to IG (because I cannot post videos here). We ended up at Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Chinatown. It was a great afternoon! But by about 5pm, everyone was starting to feel the tiredness so we ate dinner early and are calling it day. 
 




 
 

Backtracking a bit….
We landed at LHR pretty much on time. LHR was busy, we had to deplane from some random area abs were bussed into T3 because they did not have a gate for us. Luckily, it did not take long to wait for the bus because we were one of the first ones off the plane.
 
Because we have Canadian passports and both kids are over 12, we were able to use the e-gates at UK customs. That sped things up considerably. After that was baggage reclaim and that area was a disaster! Bags were literally all over the place just like what is seen on the news lately. My daughter even commented if we were supposed to search for our bags among the sea of bags. When we arrive at carousel 5, someone had already loaded them off and we found them along the side. That was a Praise God moment. Off we went happily with our two checked bags and thankful I won’t have to deal with fizzy hair like back in March.
 
Blackberry Cars estimated that it would take us 60 mins from landing to meeting them and it took us just a little under that. They send you a text with a link to track the driver about 15mins out. We waited about 10mins for them instead of the other way around. Our driver was professional and helpful. Overall, really impressed with this service from pre-planning right through to the end. We plan to use them again for Friday as long as we stay covid free 🤞
We arrived at The Savoy just after 9:30am. Had breakfast in Thames Foyer (which is beautiful) while we waited for them to finish up the rooms. Because we racked up quite a few points last year with Fairmont (due to staycations in Canada) we qualified for 5 suite night upgrades this year. This is another reason why we are at the Savoy. Those SNU expire by 12/22 if I don’t use them. Anyway, you cannot book a suite for 4 here so we originally booked a junior suite with a connecting King for the kids. Upon checking in, they informed us that because of our Accor status, they upgraded both our rooms to deluxe junior suites (still connecting) with ours being slightly larger than then kids.
 
Below you can see how they connect. There is a small entry way where you can see both rooms. Go one way and it’s our room, go the other way, it’s the kids. It is sort of the like JS/solo cabins on Quantum class ships how they connect family style but still gives you separate rooms if you choose to have it that way. 













Kids room. Also a Junior suite but slightly smaller and no extra powder room. Still way more space than they need. The Savoy also left them a small surprise on the table. It’s little things like this that I love about Fairmont. Hubby claims it’s like SC on land lol. 
 












 
Ending with a super funny story. While Hubby was trying to take pics for the kids room, they were in the way so we told them to get into the closet because the other room wasn’t ready yet. Well as that was happening, two guys rang the bell for our luggage. They brought it into the room for us and then proceeded to ask if we needed extra luggage racks. Then one opened the closet to check if there were any in there before we could warn him. Well, he did not find luggage racks but you can guess what he found. We all could not stop laughing! I tried to explain pictures for the blog thing but I think it was pointless. They were still laughing on their way out! 

Lol yeah the jet lag will be kicking in now 😴 
There's a 711 ( tesco express ) to your right on leaving The Savoy ( about 100 yards up the street ) also a sainsburys near McDonald's to your left if you need anything.
Don't worry about all the homeless people you see in area! There is a church on the strand where they meet outside everynight to get free meals and haircuts, we never had or witnessed any issues with them. 
Also the city of london Bicycles you see are FOC for about 40 mins. You insert card and as long as bicycle is in another location with time you are not charged. 
Great way to get about London for nothing ( yeah thats the tight scotsman in me coming out ) 🤣

If you want to stay incognito then watch out for the TV camera's! 😂
We have a show in UK simply called "The Savoy", it's a behind the scenes series on everything Savoy... it's because of this show i will never stay there lol please dont ask me 20 times how my food is when im trying to eat 🤣
Looks a fantastic hotel and im sure you will enjoy, great location for all sightseeing which are walkable. 
Make sure you go to Covent garden at night ( leave savoy cross street and go up side street into covent garden ) nice place to chill, grab a meal or drink and people watch. 

Great news! We, and the bags have landed! Lol

Phew! We might be ok! 
 

Home - DTW approx 90 mins today door to curb. This took longer than usual, the border was backed up slightly. We can usually make this trip in 45-50 mins. 
 
Baggage check and security a breeze. Zero wait. DTW is quiet today. So far everything looks good and on time. The plane is here. Another good sign. I just got a notification that both bags have been loaded onto the plane. Not sure if that is a good sign though since it seems a bit early to load bags on. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
Current situation:

Another step closer… 🙂🤞
I forgot to mention that I’ll be posting to my IG account as well. Same handle, @Lovetocruise2002.
Feel free to ask any questions along the way. Happy to try to answer anyway that I can. 

 

Just discovered this live blog. @Lovetocruise2002, I had no idea it was here already! Best wishes that your flight is on-time, your luggage arrives with you, and that the only thing you catch in London is a massive case of wonderful experiences before cruise day.

Perspective from the other neighbour (neighbor?) It seems so long ago when COVID wasn’t a thing, but our story started out on Empress. The Boss (Heather) and I were looking for an adults only cruise. There was an 8(9?) night Eastern Caribbean BVI cruise that we had booked. The week we booked happened to include Heathers birthday. I remember reading a @twangster blog that got me interested in that Itinerary. We had one of the aft owners suites booked I think. As time went on Heather was nervous about being on a little ship (she is prone to motion sickness) but we liked the idea of going to places that the bigger ships couldn’t get into
I remember when @Matt announced the 2021 group cruise in Norway, and I thought this sounds like a great experience. I brought it up to The Boss who much to my surprise thought the same thing. As she tells it, she never thought about going there, but now that the idea was in her head, why not. We decided that Empress was out and Norway was in, so we jumped ship and the group cruise was booked. That cruise was also our Anniversary, so why not celebrate with friends.
We booked one of the short lived spa balcony rooms, because suite prices were stupid money at the time. The Boss figured if she couldn’t get her suite, the spa bonus was a consolation prize and we didn’t need all that space since it was just us adults. At the time, we had a GS Odyssey Inaugural, a GS2BR on Liberty, plus an A2 on Oasis booked, so something had to give.
Boy did it give. COVID happened and things started getting cancelled. We were so excited to be on those group cruises so that we could finally meet some of these people that we interact with online. The Boss was fully ready to learn from the Suite Snob master herself. As things were going from bad to worse, I remember getting that message from Sabrina about shifting the Norway cruise to the following summer.  I told The Boss about it, and she demanded Star Class.  You all have seen how that conversation went. After messaging my TA, and what seemed like eternity later, the switch was made again, and we all became Star Class neighbors, and the chronicles began.
We couldn’t just stop there though. We also decided to make this an even bigger vacation. The plan was to do two days in Southampton pre cruise, then 5 days in London after the cruise. If you have read my previous Navigator blog, you saw how we like to surprise our kids. Well, we are at it again. The kids are now coming with us, and they have no idea. They think that they are staying at the grandparents while The Boss and I are on the cruise. They still think we are in a balcony room, so the star class room will also be a surprise to them. The plan of attack for letting them in on this is that my dad will drop us off at the airport. The kids will ride along, since they are going to his house after, and they will get the first surprise in the parking lot when we get there. We will still tell them we are in a standard balcony room until we get to the terminal and find the star class banner with an “oops…did we forget to mention we were star class too?"
As we have gotten closer we have been teasing the kids about the things that we are doing. One of the booked excursions ends at the top of a mountain with a snack of waffles. Johnny lamented “but I like waffles.” Lydia was also whining about not going. We told her that she wouldn’t have any fun. The cruise will be mostly scenery and mountains, to which she replied tearfully “I love mountains….” Will the kids end up in therapy from their parents lying to them all the time? Maybe. Is it worth it for the surprises? Definitely.

The Midnight Sun:

The sun did not get any lower than this. It just circled around until it was in the east and then rose again. Super interesting!

Bring your own... I do.  

Do i have to pay $35 for a snorkel excursion at Coco Cay, or can I just bring my own snorkel/mask/fins and go have fun on my own?

Its not the size they worry about its the colour!
Small blue icebergs can be more dangerous than large white ones as the blue colour represents that its strong enough not to break up if hit and that it can pierce metal easily. 
This is why they zig zag through channels avoiding blue icebergs of any size.

ask your doctor to call you in some Scopolamine patches. it's smaller than a dime and can be hidden behind your ear. change the patch out every 3 days. The 1st patch needs to be applied 12 hours before you sail for optimum effect. I swear by this medication. 
zofran is another prescription anti nausea medication- i swear by this one too! The only downside is that its a pill, so if you're nauseous you might have a hard time keeping it down. 
I am an ICU RN for 12 yrs. I use these for myself and for my  patients with great results!

Personally I would not pay $160/person for just the beach club.  But that’s just me (well my husband wouldn’t either).  We paid $79/person back in November.  It was a one and done deal for us…didn’t find it spectacular enough to pay extra to use it.  The food might be more high end but nothing to write home about either.  
In April we decided to book a South Beach cabana (paid $699 for up to 8 people) and I will say that was worth it!  There were 7 of us so basically $100/person plus we each tipped the attendant at end of day.   Being able to get out of the sun whenever I wanted to was really nice.  Having food and drinks brought to us all day long was very nice.  I found the beach area perfect and restrooms were right around the corner.
Everyone has their own opinions so only you can decide if the price is worth it…of course you would need to book it in order to find out if it is for you.  Good luck.🍀 

Thanks, @USCG Teacher.  Both of us can drive a stick shift, so here's hoping!

Thanks, @USCG Teacher.  Both of us can drive a stick shift, so here's hoping!