Srp431

Forgot to bring my dress shoes, had to wear tennis shoes during formal nights.  My wife is still upset after all these years . 

Flights to San Juan are expensive. Coming from the midwest they can be excess of $1000 per person, even during off peak times.

This is why I don’t do dining packages and just fork over the $$ for stand alone speciality dining reservations. I’m just wayyyyyy too much of an OCD planning freak to not have dining nailed down prior to sailing. The discount isn’t worth my anxiety! 😂

We prefer to book the occasional meal in cruise planner to avoid what you described.

I live an hour and half from my nearest airport and pay the same amount there per day. Seems average to me. Taxi, car service etc not an option. 

We had to cancel our cruise . Our flight was cancelled today and none available from MSP to any Florida cities for the next two days. We would have been better off flying in the day of the cruise on Sunday. No flights available that came into Fl on Sunday before the cruise left, only evening arrivals. The latest snowstorm did us in. 

We had to cancel our cruise . Our flight was cancelled today and none available from MSP to any Florida cities for the next two days. We would have been better off flying in the day of the cruise on Sunday. No flights available that came into Fl on Sunday before the cruise left, only evening arrivals. The latest snowstorm did us in. 

We had to cancel our cruise . Our flight was cancelled today and none available from MSP to any Florida cities for the next two days. We would have been better off flying in the day of the cruise on Sunday. No flights available that came into Fl on Sunday before the cruise left, only evening arrivals. The latest snowstorm did us in. 

Disembarkation was a breeze. Tampa does not have the facial scanners but the attendants checking passports barely glance at them and you get through pretty quickly. We enjoyed breakfast in the WJ and were out of our cabin by 8:30.
Back where we started. 


Got bird photo bombed by this guy! 


We snagged one of the $10 pp shuttles to the airport because Lyft and Uber were both around $40 but I’m not sure I recommend this mode of travel. They’ll be standing right outside the port doors when you exit. We had a while to wait until our 2pm flight out so we didn’t want to fully commit to going through security when we got there at 9am so we decided instead to hang at the Marriott that’s located at the airport. They have a cafe, great seating indoors and outdoors and an awesome view of the tarmac for entertainment. We sat here enjoying the beautiful day and played gin rummy for awhile before actually entering the airport. I definitely recommend this mode of time wasting! 


 
Final thoughts! 
We absolutely loved this class of ship which I never thought would happen after having loved our (albeit mid pandemic and way under capacity) cruise on Oasis. All of the bar spaces seem so much bigger than the interior spaces for these same venues on Voyager class and above. The Schooner bar took like 3 minutes to walk all the way through! I so love seeing the sea in all public spaces. Our favorite new venue on this class of ship was the Colony Club with the aft-facing view. This gets me super excited to experience the 270 in Alaska this September! 
We were only able to try 2 nights of the new MDR menus, but I enjoyed both of these meals. Royal continues to have a dessert problem wherein everything we try tastes like nothing! Why?! I see allll this chocolate and whipped cream layers and the bite is literally just like eating texture. WHERE IS THE FLAVOR!!! Main courses are usually corrected with some pepper application but desserts cannot be saved table side hahaha. I do highly recommend the ice creams available in Giovanni’s (vanilla, choc, strawberry) which I failed to mention above. This ice cream was decadent! 
As for the age of this ship, you can definitely see shabbiness if you’re running around looking for things to get upset by. When I stand back and look at overall venues, they are clean and aside from some outdated carpet and fabric patterns, look great! A real Negative Nancy could see this aging example (carpet edges pulling up in Starquest) and tell you the ship is trash but I would say you have to be looking pretty hard to find it. 

The junior suite had these bathroom amenities, I am not sure if they’re the same for all cabins but I assume so? The shampoo smells like peppermint, the conditioner like coconut and the soap smells like an AXE-laden teenage boys underarm. While I brought my own shampoo I really wish I had brought along my own body soap too so I didn’t smell like a high schooler after every shower! 

Because I have seen people ask this, the Brilliance JS has the combo glass/curtain where the curtain doesn’t stretch the whole way and leaves one end of the tub spraying water out onto the floor. 

Once again out here advocating the procurement of European travel adapters which greatly extend your charging capabilities. We went from having 2 outlets to being able to charge 8 items! Please excuse the untidy cable management. 

Goodbye JS 1078! You’ve been good to us. The furnishings in this room are more modern than the JS we had on Freedom. Aside from the ceiling crackling noises which happened every morning without fail, and the large overhang above our balcony from being under the wider 11th deck, I really liked this cabin. 

Only 167 short days to go until Quantum! 🥳

I second ebay, they even have crystal blocks from some of the ships, anywhere from $50 to $150. 

Forgot to bring my dress shoes, had to wear tennis shoes during formal nights.  My wife is still upset after all these years . 

Looking forward to our second holiday cruise, we have 2 boardwalk balconies for us and our teenagers. First time on Wonder

I remember doing the customs firm ages ago and declaring the 6 bottles of rum we purchased.  The agent looked and me and said “I think you made a mistake and meant 2”….yes sir!!

After being SC a few times I felt the need to try and mimic the SC amenities when we were not SC.  For YEARS I purchased the DBP, the internet package and the UDP.  All I was missing were the Genie and the extra large suite.  I was sure that this was the way to go !  Then, we began to realize that the UDP was just too much food.  Not just that it was too much food, but that we were forcing ourselves to eat at specialty dining venues when we really weren't hungry AND going back to the same restaurants again and again.  It finally occurred to me that if I only had a 3 night package I would have the freedom to eat just a snack at lunch time or even better, just skip lunch altogether !  No more guilt about passing up a specialty restaurant at lunchtime when I had already paid for it.  Then, when the 5 vouchers for D+ started, I KNEW that we no longer needed the DBP since I rarely drink any alcohol to begin with.  I still purchase the 2 person internet package b/c Dan and I don't share well LOL.  But I no longer purchase the UDP or the DBP and I haven't missed either of them.
SC is a wonderful treat.  I am going to return to using it as a [rare] treat.  Hopefully that will bring back some of the WOW that has gotten somewhat tarnished - at least, for us.

I think your issue is that the decision will ultimately be made at the port and you have no idea whether or not they're going to let you, even if you were to call RC ahead of time. It seems like one of those things where you are going to show up with it and the person at the port is ultimately going to be the one to make the decision regardless of anything anyone will tell you before that moment. And there doesn't seem to be precedent for it so it could go either way. So unless you're prepared to show up and not be able to bring it, I wouldn't.  

This screams a very pushy sales consultation (I'm thinking time share).

This screams a very pushy sales consultation (I'm thinking time share).

This screams a very pushy sales consultation (I'm thinking time share).

This screams a very pushy sales consultation (I'm thinking time share).

This screams a very pushy sales consultation (I'm thinking time share).

One alcoholic drink and one diet code each day is enough for me. The rest of the day is tap water for me.

Dinner was back at Chops tonight. Food was great again. Our waiter seemed a bit scattered and overwhelmed. A few items were forgotten from our order but he did some cool magic tricks for the kids. It all worked out. 

One alcoholic drink and one diet code each day is enough for me. The rest of the day is tap water for me.

One alcoholic drink and one diet code each day is enough for me. The rest of the day is tap water for me.

usually $5 for the bus driver and $20 for tour guide is our standard practice.