IRMO12HD

@She Sails AwayEnjoy!  I completed my first solo cruise last August -- just a four-night on Freedom -- I truly loved it!  I followed that up with a 7-Night on Oasis with my daughter.  It was fun to introduce her to cruising, but it did feel a bit odd to shift from solo mode!  My husband doesn't really care to cruise (unless there is a theme or planned activities), so I embarked (literally!) on my own and found it really suits me.  I love having the freedom to do exactly what I want to do, be as sociable (or un-) as I choose, and explore on my owns.  I'm probably more extrovert than introvert, but do cherish the choice.
 
 

My favorite game to play while solo traveling as woman is how many times I hear "YOU'RE SO BRAVE TO TRAVEL ALONE".
 
sigh.

Hi, everyone! First time blogging here but long time Royal Caribbean traveler. So excited to be back to cruising. My husband and I went on Freedom of the Seas in November after he spent a very long year recovering from Covid. I was on the Odyssey in March and had a wonderful time on my first solo cruise. Headed to the Allure on Saturday for an eight night trip to Aruba, Curaçao, and Labadee. First time visiting all of those ports. Third time on the Allure, although it’s been over 10 years since I was last there. My kids were little back then and we loved every minute of that cruise! They especially loved the rock climbing wall and Flowrider.
 
My husband doesn’t want to take time off from work right now and he’s not an avid cruiser like I am, so I am embarking on some solo cruises this year.
 
Let me just say this solo cruising thing is a weird paradox for me. I’m very introverted and can get a little uncomfortable in certain situations by myself, such as staying in a hotel room by myself or riding in a taxi cab alone. I mean it’s not that big of a deal, I would just rather not do those things by myself. I’m fine with solo cruising though, and I just love everything about being on these beautiful cruise ships and experiencing all they have to offer. Not to mention lying by the pool and looking out at the beautiful water and all of the lovely locations we visit. On my first solo cruise on the Odyssey a few months ago, we went to Cozumel and Costa Maya. I did not get off the ship. There was nothing there I really particularly wanted to see, and I spent both of those days by the pool watching movies and looking out at the people snorkeling on a beach nearby. It was lovely.  I spent that cruise disconnecting and relaxing and really just enjoying the moment.
 
Some solo cruisers are interested in meet and greets and making friends and connections. I wouldn’t call myself anti-social, but I’m not looking to find friends on this cruise or advertise that I’m traveling alone. I am just not that outgoing. I intend to go and enjoy the entertainment in the venues and my first time ever boardwalk balcony. I’m looking forward to being able to see the aqua theater from my balcony as well as people zip-lining overhead, and people walking around down below and riding the carousel and things like that. 

I consider myself an active person and I will be rock climbing, swimming, hitting the gym and the walking/running track, tracking down all of the small wonders, doing the scavenger hunts, things like that. I’m planning to get off the ship in all of the ports and explore. I have a paid excursion in Curacao to go see the caves and the historic district. I also have an all-day pass on the Alpine coaster on Labadee! I debated long and hard about doing the dragons fire zip lining experience, but decided I didn’t want to spend that much time tied up with that one event. But who knows, if there are spots still left at the last minute, I may change my mind!
 
I took my Covid test this morning live on the phone with EMed and passed. Packing my bags now and full of excitement! Looking forward to great food, hopefully beautiful weather, new adventures, lots of photos and video (I’m breaking in a new GoPro!) relaxation, shows, and beautiful Allure of the Seas! 

I have also read, that most extracts that use a vodka base, the higher the proof of the vodka the more flavor is extracted.

Hmmm...  how about Everclear?  Or Stroh Rum?

It is so simple to make it homemade!!!  Just buy a few vanilla beans, at least 2 but I use 4 to 6 per 8 oz.  Split them open and scrap out the seeds. Put the pods and the seeds into a small bottle.  Add vodka (I am told that some use rum).  Sit back and wait. The longer you wait, the darker and more flavorful the vanilla will be .  Anywhere from 3 moths to 1 year.  There is a difference between the vanilla beans: Madagascar, Mexican, and Tahitian.

Nope, not at all. You just purchase vanilla beans and vodka. Score or chop the beans and drop them into the vodka. Shake up about once a week, and in 3 months you have tons of vanilla. It's super easy, I give it away as Christmas gifts.

You’ll see full-face masks for sale online that incorporate the snorkel into them.  These sound tempting.  Do.  Not.  Buy.  One.
I’m a diver (SCUBA) and have never seen so many people having issues.  4 couples on my boat had brand new full-face masks and every one of them had issues.
The snorkel itself can be connected with the ball valve vent facing front or rear.  All 4 couples had the snorkel on backward.  Meaning: you can be face down and not get air when you expect to.
The mask WILL fog up.  You’re exhaling into the mask instead of directly from your mouth through the snorkel.  This is also unnecessary work breathing-wise.  You have to move more air to get the same result.
Clearing a fogged traditional (eyes and nose) mask is a 1-2 second job.  Just get a little water in it and pop it right back on after tilting it to let the water out.  The full face mask folks were struggling the entire time, with most choosing to swap out for an operator-supplied mask and snorkel.
I'd ban these things if I could.  It's the closest to safety issues I've seen in the water in a long time.  If you do get one, make sure to try it out in a pool first.
Well-tracked data is still scant on these masks, but I wouldn't use one.

I think it depends on the airline. My experience with Air2Sea is that with Delta, you are able to pick seats right after you get off the phone with Air2Sea. Air Canada on the other hand would not allow me to because the "tickets" are not considered "ticketed" until after final payment. After I called AC myself, I was able to convince them to let me pick seats. So a bit more trouble than Delta. No clue about the other airlines because I usually only fly Delta.

When we made diamond we stopped getting the drink package. We don't drink pop. We fill our water bottles from the tap. Regular orange juice is fine. Don't drink foo-foo coffees, regular coffee is fine, iced tea makes up what else we drink. We bring two bottles of wine with us.   We've found that limiting our drinks to 4 a day, plus the wine is plenty.

I'm taking a points run cruise this May to get DW and I to Diamond. 100% unquestioned that I'll have the DBX for that.
For next year's 9-night cruise once we're Diamond, we won't be getting it (it's part of the justification to take the points run cruise this year -- spend under $500 on my solo fare to save over $1000 on our 2 drink packages next summer). We bring refillable water bottles that we fill using cups at the water station (bring on a 12-pack of waters to bring ashore at ports), our 2 bottles of wine. We may end up buying a drink each some days, but many days, our 4 drinks will be enough to cover us.
Would we get additional drinks (alcoholic or otherwise) if we had the DBX or Refreshment package? Probably. Do we need them? Not really. We'd end up with the fresh squeezed juice and specialty coffee drinks just to get our money's worth. DW drinks regular coffee every day at home (I don't drink coffee at all) and we drink whatever OJ is on sale at the grocery store.

If it makes you feel any better -- we in the West have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to make a 5:00 a.m Zoom meeting when it's held at 8:00 a.m. on the East Coast . . .

If you have an iPhone, go into your Settings -> WiFi -> (onboard WiFi network name) and DISABLE “Private Wi-Fi Address”. This made my connection much more reliable with the WiFi and app.

We are onboard! Smooth check in process but there have been some hiccups onboard. Connecting to Voom is not working great and I’m having issues with the app and ship wifi. Im sure we will get it sorted out! Rooms were ready around 1:30, we love our staterooms and looking forward to meeting our attendant. Currently enjoying some food in the Windjammie and sail away is in about 2 hours.
 

Looking forward to it! I agree, most blogging perspectives here seem to be suite class and above. From the first 10 blogs at the time of the comment, 7 are confirmed suites, 2 were not and one I couldn’t determine yet. A suite experience is nice to read every now and then, but I do like to read about experiences that will be similar to my own. 

Lessons Learned (continued)
 
6.  Be up front with your MDR servers -- if you're only there for the (CRAB CAKES!!) appetizers and have somewhere you need to be in 25 minutes (like a Casino Lesson), tell them, reassure them that you won't starve, enjoy your appetizers -- and go.  
7.  Have fun participating (not competing!) in the different activities onboard -- laugh!  smile! go for the improbable shot!
8. Don't trust Budget's Downtown Miami location to have the car you reserved -- there were SIX irate reservation holders there when we arrived; ended up  Ubering to the Airport Rental Center to pick up a vehicle.
9.  The Best Western North Bay Island is a distance away from the Cruise Port, but has pretty good transportation and dining options. Check out Sana's Cafe for friendly service and good coffee and breakfast options.
10.  I like solo cruising!  

OK, the long-promised Lessons Learned...
 
1. My COVID-19 testing plans worked out well.  It felt reassuring to know I had back-up and back-up to the back-ups which I didnt end up using.  I did receive an At-Home (proctored) test that I ended up not needing to use as I was able to make an appointment at one of (Northern) Miami's testing sites. A friend gave me a ride, but I could have reached it pretty easily using public transportation.  It was walk-up and not crowded at all - and very forgiving of my lateness due to traffic.  Received my test results in less than 3 hours.  Printed them out at the local Library branch.efits i
2.  The Key was really worth it for me as a Solo, not-yet-Diamond, Internet connectivity-seeking cruiser at the price I paid for it ($15.99/day).  The benefits included (early arrival, Chops lunch, carryon bag delivery to cabin, 25% discount on Specialty Dining, Departure breakfast and Disembarkation time choice) were all value-added to the price I would have paid anyway for Voom Surf and Stream.  Would I get it again?  Possibly, depending on the price and my cruising status.
3.  Interior Promenade cabins are pretty nice! I liked having the window -- but was also thankful for both the sheer and the blackout curtains.
4. my goal of using the elevator a maximum of two times per day worked really well; having a cabin on Deck 7 helped a lot.
5. Definitely make sure that if you loaded $ on your Miami transit card more than 30 days prior that it hasn't gone dormant!
 
#6-10 to follow

Way post facto, I know — I’ll get into my excuses in a separate post (some foreshadowing here — its title will include words like “Oasis Medical Center” and “cobblestones” and “right wrist”).
Debarkation Day — AKA Desolation Day — went super smoothly from ship to shore and was made really pleasant by The Key.  
Since I didn’t have a flight to catch, I was in no hurry to exit Freedom. M “The Key” tagged large suitcase had been picked up the night before, so I headed down to my special section of the MDR, enjoyed my breakfast (the Chops Grill Crabcake Eggs Benedict was superb, especially the crab cakes!), and headed off the Freedom about 8:15 (with The Key, you get to choose when you disembark).  Grabbed my suitcase from The Key area, and headed through the “Look into the Camera” Customs with no issues.  Although it’s probably my overthinking, the signs for which direction to head if you had a US Passport were confusing, as the sign pointing to the left was for US Birth Certificates and the one to the right was for “All Other Passports,” or words to that effect.
I went outside to track down my new-found friend and sister-in-arms and her son to see if we could Uber together downtown.  More details on THAT experience to follow in my “Lessons Learned” post, to follow.
Now, some D-Day pix:
 

@DublinFCThe Abbott test is at https://store.optum.com/royal-caribbean/

I appreciate the suggestion, but the nature of this site is people posting the same questions over and over.  It's just the way it is, because I think people want to ensure in their exact scenario, they're doing the right thing.
So reading the same question many times doesn't faze me. We're all here to learn and have a better cruise experience.
Certainly you can use the site and message board search feature to find answers to questions you may have. It's a good starting point.
If you can't find an answer that fits your scenario, post a thread asking about it! That's what this site is here for.

I have an entire thread about moving to FL as it relates to cruising. 
There are so many things to consider but after many visits and much analysis, we chose the Treasure Coast as it is equidistant between MIA/FLL and Port Canaveral.  It is only slightly further over to Tampa.  We chose this area strictly b/c of its location relative to the cruise ports.  
We built a house in Port St Lucie, which is 1 hr north of West Palm Beach.  This area is exploding with development which is both good and bad.  Prices are becoming completely unreasonable and we are fortunate to have made our move when we did (signed construction contract in Sept 2020 and moved down here in Nov 2020 while the house was being built).  FL is like anywhere else….different parts of FL have different vibes and different influences.  As a general rule (always exceptions), south FL is more expensive than northern FL and the west coast is less expensive than the east coast.  The interior of FL is rural.  These are all generalizations and there certainly are exceptions but that will give you a good rule-of-thumb.
I guess if I have any advice it would be -DON’T WAIT.  I mentioned prices.  It’s really getting insane.  The base price of the house we built has gone up $109K in 16 months….and you can’t build my house right now at ANY price b/c all of the lots are long gone. Of course, like anything else, it depends on what you’re looking for.  We wanted an over-55 gated community but there are plenty of other  options.  Since you are going to be snowbirds, I would definitely recommend some type of gated community just for the security since you will be living elsewhere for months at a time.
There are many others on this blog that have made that move somewhat recently, so, no doubt, you will get lots of other advice !

When you normalize Crown and Anchor versus other cruise lines they are all very similar.  Normalization is required since they use different points systems and the top levels vary in terms of the absolute number required.  Carnival for example tops out at 200, Celebrity at 3,000, NCL and Royal at 700.  
What the graph does show is the weird anomaly between Platinum and Emerald for Royal.  Platinum should probably be lowered slightly for a smoother transition compared to the other cruise lines.
As mentioned there are incremental perks within Diamond Plus between 175 and 700.  They are published so it's not a secret, just something that isn't discussed frequently.  

To make up for it the Icon class ship will be named Elon of the Seas.

I'll counter the above. Had household family members with Omicron. Applied simple measures like wearing a mask in common areas, washing hands regularly. Guess what? Didn't get it. Simple measures like this work..maybe not 100% of the time but they do help. 
Also, masks don't just stop someone spitting on you, they also prevent you from touching your nose and mouth (which we do more often than we realise) after touching an infected surface.
Anyways, back to cruising. 2 years this week since the ship ban. Life sucks in Australia.