CFL

January 2019 Mariner, first RCCI cruise. I am not a huge photo taker, so most are of food? I do have a couple of videos at CocoCay

Some of my favorites from my most recent Royal cruise. 
Freedom waiting for us in San Juan, August 2019

 
Freedom docked in St. Thomas 

 
Lovely Magens Bay

 
Breakfast Beers in St. Lucia

 
George F.L. Charles Airport in St. Lucia

 
Lush El Yunque in Puerto Rico

 
Folkstone Marine Park Barbados

You never forget your first cruise...








 
@Matt... OK, yeah. I guess I do take a lot of ultra-wide shots. ?

In the words of the great Don McLean...
Long, long time ago, I can still remember... (Explorer of the Seas, January 2007)

We loved Magens Bay & Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas. We have also successfully snuck in Paradise Point on our visits. Going to miss that most of all on a cruise we are rescheduling. A bushwacker at Bushwackers and the greatest views! However, I did try my hand at a bushwacker...
 

Great idea! ?
Some of my fave beaches:
Eagle Beach, Aruba (Navigator of the Seas, Nov. 2018)
 
Magens Bay, St. Thomas (Adventure of the Seas, Nov. 2019)

 
Our local beach, Praia da Falésia ("Cliff Beach"), Algarve, Portugal (May 2020, first time out after lockdown measures began to be lifted)

 

How about a little throwback to our first Royal Caribbean cruise in 2007 to Bermuda. It was our second cruise (first was a carnival 3-day themed a few months prior) and we fell in love with Royal Caribbean and Bermuda. We did the shipwreck tour and Horseshoe Bay.

Largest and smallest in the fleet side by side in Cozumel March 2020
 

It’s time for some late night mini-golf. 

Miss Cruising all together. Selfie and view from North Star on Anthem of The Seas September 2019.

I miss the Friday photos on the blog, anyone else? Posting one of my favorite photos from Ovation in Alaska last May

I work at an airport, hard side for sure, I can’t tell you how many times a bag falls off a tug and sits in the rain until it’s picked up. They are lighter than they look and lighter than you would think. We cruise and fly a lot and my wife crams them full, we only use the hard side. The cloth ones get wet and get dirty much quicker. 

Well seemed easy enough....moved from Aug 2 2020 to Aug 15th 2021 easily enough.
Two reservations moved in 10 minutes...and they cancelled the 'room hold' reservation I had done a few weeks ago without blinking an eye.  We are sailing in a Royal and a Grand...and since there is only 1 royal....I had reserved it thinking it might  become hard to get the room category if we were force to do a lift and shift.
 
Still waiting on those cruise planner refunds from two weeks ago though ?

Thank you for your replies/suggestions!  We have decided to cancel.
.By cancelling now, our United nonrefundable flight tickets do not have any cancellation fees. United has no fees ( for any flights cancelled by May 31st). Also our $100 per person nonrefundable cruise deposits will be given back for a future cruise credit (We booked on board for the lower $200 deposit rate.)
    I thought this information may help others decide what to do.  
   But if the Empress sailing on Aug. 24th is really going to happen, we will book again!!! What a wonderful itinerary it has!!!

I had a feeling Tuesday night  my freedom of the seas trip this July was going to be canceled. So my wife and I started to look for replacements in 2021. It turns out no ships are sailing out of San Juan next summer. So we made a list of wish list of trips of cruises we would like to go on and if we could get any of them we move the trip to next year otherwise we would just get our money back. The #1 trip on our list was symphony of the seas July 10th but the thing that worried us was the same cabin we have on symphony goes for 2200 per person per week compared to the 800 per person we paid for the freedom of the seas. Our thought was lets ask they can say no and we can move on to the cruises lower on our list.
So I call at 7am CST prepared to wait a long time to get someone. I work my way through the phone system and finally get into the que for the next available agent and within 30 seconds I am talking to someone.  I explain that I want to lift and shift to her and she says great and she pulls up my reservations and she says let me see what we can do for you. At that point I ask how about the symphony of the seas July 10th she thinks a second and says I am not sure I can do that for you let me talk to my supervisor. She then puts me on Hold. i was on hold for 45 minutes as she was waiting to get in touch with the appropriate people. she was nice and about every 5 minutes come back and give me a status. finally she comes back and says we can do it the only problem is that the room types do not match up nicely so instead of a spacious cabin I would be getting a large balcony cabin. I was all over that since we only have 3 people per room and I love to sit on the balcony. So then she started to change the cruise for me. The change went slowly as there was issues with some corrupt reservations so that took about another hour of being on and off hold. the entire call took 90 minutes
As sad I was  that we will not go this year as planned I am very excited to take my family on the symphony of the seas next year as that cruise would have been out of our budget.
Long and short of it is ask you may be surprised at what you get.

You won't regret cruising to Alaska.  If you are like me you'll only ask yourself why you didn't go sooner.
Here are my Alaska trip reports:
Explorer - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/6634-explorer-alaska-62218-7-nights-rclblog-group-cruise/
Radiance - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9160-not-so-live-blog-radiance-of-the-seas-alaska-southbound-83118/
Ovation - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/12630-ovation-goes-north-way-north-to-alaska-11-nights-may-13-2019/
Celebrity Millennium - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5211-alaska-recap-celebrity-millennium-june-2017/
 
On this day one year ago today I was on Ovation visiting Dawes Glacier.  
As far as time of year, for me that is influenced by cost.  I have flexibility so I like to sail during the shoulder season May and September which are off peak (kids are in school).
You do see different things at different times.  Salmon run in mid to late August so if you want to see pink Salmon in the rivers that's your time.  The longest day of the year is June 21 so to get long days of sunlight you'll want to look earlier in the Alaska cruise season.  
I did a comparison of daylight hours in this post:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9160-not-so-live-blog-radiance-of-the-seas-alaska-southbound-83118/&do=findComment&comment=83956
 For me since I like to take pictures I gravitate to May cruises which offer long days and cheaper rates, the best of both worlds for my needs.
As you look through my pictures note what other guests are wearing.  That will give some ideas what you need to bring.  
The other consideration is balcony or not.  All things being equal balconies are great but they often carry a premium in Alaska.  I've sailed twice in interior cabins and still had a great experience simply by not staying in my cabin often.  I've saved thousands by doing so which I put into awesome excursions.  Alaska excursions are expensive but can provide over the top experiences so plan a healthy excursion budget if you can afford it.   

Hello all! I have always cruised the Caribbean (ie. East, West, South) Now, I am looking for something different. I am looking into a Alaska cruise for the near future. I have some questions though that I'm hoping you Alaska cruise veterans can answer for me:
1. I see that the Alaska cruises are only a few months during the year. What is the best month to cruise Alaska?
2. While these cruises tend to be during the Spring/Summer months, how cool/warm does it get? Just have no clue what to pack? Shorts/bathing suit or jackets/gloves and warmer clothing.
3. Is there a preferred ship to cruise Alaska? If so? Which one?
4. What are the must see/must do things in Alaska? (Excursions??)
5. Wife and I LOVE seafood. What is the best place/port for crab, seafood, etc...
Those are just a few for right now. I'm sure I will have more though. Thanks all!
Carlos

Check out this blog post for a month by month breakdown
I think this What should I pack for a cruise to Alaska post should answer this sort of question
Here is a post comparing the Royal Caribbean ships sailing in Alaska

We are in the same boat as you.. pun intended. ?
Been to the Caribbean multiple times, and wanted a change. We are supposed to be on the Ovation of the Seas tomorrow 5/22 for our Alaska cruise... but alas; THE RONA's!!! 
This site was invaluable to our research over the past year leading up to what should of been our cruise. 
Personally, we like the newer more modern ships, hence our choice of the Ovation. With lots of help from this site and also youtube, we were going to rent a car at both ports of call, Juneau and Skagway. This would allow us see and do a couple of the main attractions (Glacier, salmon bake, Klondike Hwy, breweries, etc.) on our own time and allow us to explore some more on our own.
From everything I have heard and read... asking when is the best time and what is the best ship is like asking, would you like a free $100 bill, or 2 x $50 bills? There is no wrong answer and you will have a great time either way. But I completely understand where you are coming from.... I obsessed over finding the best way to maximize our first time there. We ended up shifting our cruise to next year... so now I have a whole new year to review and obsess again. 
If I remember correctly... I think @twangster has done some fairly recent trip reports on here. (great reads, highly recommend)
Good luck on your research 

As I'm sure @Matt will report (so this will be outdated soon haha), Royal mentioned on their earnings call during the Q&A that they will be making an announcement soon about canceling sailings through end of July. 

There is a way to get a confirmation email for direct bookings.
Call the general number 866-562-7625 and after waiting through the temporary dialogue for COVID-19 related stuff you will eventually be back at the normal voice prompts from before COVID-19.
Select option 4 (already booked) then 2 then 1 which will and you in the automated system where you can do things like make a payment over the phone or get a confirmation without speaking to a human.  Choose the option, "Get a Confirmation".  Enter your booking number and it will email you an invoice.  
However it may only email what it currently sees as your invoice, not the original or initial booking.  I always capture this as soon as I book so that I always have the initial booking before any other changes are made.  

This will be me and my towel observing RCCL's Social Distancing Rule at Perfect Day at Cococay !!    

Not concerned about a vaccine, my deciding factor will be what the "new" onboard experience is.