MicDay

Oh, I do say that too!

....and you don't have to get it. If it makes people happy and they can afford it, that's awesome. You can say that about cruising as well for people who book Star Class instead of regular rooms and going on more cruises or just about anything. 

If you want to go under deeper then the surface, take the snorkel mouth piece out of your mouth hold your breath and dive. 
Snorkleling is all about just breathing, it weird to believe you can have your head/most of your body submerged and still breath.  Once you master that your in awe of what your seeing, it so peaceful and awesome!  
 

One thing to remember....Royal Caribbean does not permit ANY travel agent/agency to offer a discount from a publicly published cruise fare rate other than a group booking which that agency may have independently negotiated.  So if an agent is telling you that they are giving you some kind of "special" rate not offered to the public, there is a slight of hand there, somewhere.  As I said, the group booking is the exception to that rule.  As @wordell1said, any kind of promotional bonus (gift baskets, OBC, free specialty dining, etc.) is coming directly out of the Agent's commission.  Now, a TA will have access to all of the current promos which may not be immediately apparent to someone looking at the website and that is absolutely a good thing....but the published rate will not change...only available promos (or a group rate).
I absolutely concur with @smokeybandit's post about the true value of a good agent being their personal service and NOT necessarily the small trinket that they throw to you on embarkation day.  Nothing could be more true this past 2.5 years when things were so dicey for cruisers.  I cannot imagine how much more I would have struggled with this tough situation had it not been for my awesome MEI agent (Michelle Cunningham @michelle).  There is a special place in heaven for these patient and thoughtful MEI agents for all they have been through these past 2.5 years.  
I used to be a "I will do it all myself" gal until I started using @michellewhen I was organizing a big group cruise.  BOY did I find out how much easier it was to have a strong advocate and I never looked back.  Yes, I love doing the "research" and there is nothing to keep you/me from doing that even if you have an agent working with you.  But when things go south - like they did in 2020, you will thank your lucky stars that you have someone on the other end pushing, while you are pulling.
 

Wednesday morning came way too quickly. Based on news reports and advice from @Lovetocruise2002 we chose to get to Heathrow 4hrs early for our flights.
We left the hotel at 5 to give us plenty of time to make the short walk to Paddington and get to the airport in case there were issues. This proved to be fortuitous because all of the elevators were not operating, so I got to play Sherpa at the two stair cases to lug the have suitcases down. (It really wasn’t that bad)
This is the walk we did. With everything new, the sidewalks are nice and smooth, and it takes you right to where you need to be.

The first trains 5:15 and 5:30 to Heathrow ended up being canceled, so we ended up on the 5:45 and we’re off. So far, stress level low…
We stepped off the train a few minutes after 6 and headed to terminal 2 to get fully checked in and turn over the luggage. 
 When we got there, there were lines out the door. That was for check in area B, we needed C which thankfully was still inside. Here is what it looked like inside….stress level rising, but not much we knew we still had time, and the line seemed to me moving okay…

What must have been a Heathrow record, we made it all the way through check in and security to the departure lounge by 7:20!! So 1hr 20min from stepping off the train to sitting on my butt sipping coffee, stress level waaaaay down!
While waiting for our gate announcement, I wandered a bit and looked at some really fancy watches. The guy at the counter barely acknowledged my presence because me in my jeans and t-shirt definitely didn’t look the type🤣🤣🤣

The second one from the left, bottom row was 30000£!!!
I almost had to buy this scotch. I live in the village of Scotia, which was founded by Alexander Glen, who was from Scotland, but at 400£ I thought I better not….

Throughout the day, all of our flights were fine, no big delays or issues.
We flew back via Dublin, so we got to do US Customs there which was pretty easy, and made our arrival at Philadelphia as if we were domestic travelers.
By the time we departed for Albany we had been up for many….many…….. hours. This one fell asleep while waiting to taxi, and didn’t wake up until after we landed.

With weary bodies, but heads and hearts full of wonderful memories we arrived home and crashed in our beds….
It was a wonderful trip that I will look back at so fondly. It was an absolute pleasure sailing with @Lovetocruise2002 and her family, they are some of the nicest people out there….except for that one kid while driving bumper cars🤣
Thank you everyone for reading and following along to our adventures! Now I wish I had a genie to take care of the mountain of laundry I have to do…..
Oh….I almost forgot….this happened too!!

Tuesday was our final day in London, and arguably the day that The Boss was looking forward to the most. Today was the day we had rented the car for our trip to Highclere Castle. If that name isn’t familiar, it’s the castle that Downton Abbey and many other films, shows etc were filmed at. This was a big adventure day too because I got to get a crash course(thankfully only figuratively) on driving on the other side of the road.
Planning for this day was quite some work. Getting the tickets to the castle was the easy part. We also chose with our admission, a picnic lunch to go with our tour. What became fun was trying to figure out the rental car. All of the places close to the hotel did not have any available cars for the day we wanted. We also wanted the car for as much as possible for the day. I had set times of 9am-9pm. This also limited choices, because other close places did not have after hours drop offs. Renting from Heathrow became our only option at this point.
One added bonus was this gave us the opportunity to have a low stress dry run by using the Heathrow Express to get there and back without the additional stress of first time use, bags etc etc.
I can say that using the Heathrow Express is the way to go! For those not familiar, it’s an express train ride from Paddington Station to Heathrow airport. It takes 15 minutes to get to the central station between terminals 2 and 3, and continues on to Terminal 5. The train runs appropriately every 15 minutes. If you know you want to use it, you can pre-book online and if you do it far enough in advance, tickets are as low as 15£ and kids are free. Far cheaper and faster than an Uber.
Once at Paddington Station it’s very easy to find the right train. Just follow the purple dots!
Don’t forget to….

The train was fast and comfortable. Once at the central station, we followed the signs to terminal two. As you head up the escalators, you pass all the bus stops adjacent to the main terminal entrance. We needed stop 7 which was the shuttle to the Enterprise lot on the perimeter road.
I had reserved a premium automatic car since it was only 20£ more than their standard automatic. Which gave me the choice of a Mercedes C class or similar.
Waiting for me was this fun car. An Alfa Romeo Giulia. Sadly it was only the Q2 and not the Q4, which has a really fun engine in it.  A 2.9L twin turbo V6 with 505HP. Oh well, this one still had some pep in it, and handled very nicely. 
 
 
I quickly got used to driving on the opposite side of the road, and after one GPS good we were off!
After about an hour we arrived at the castle and despite the heat, The Boss was thrilled.
The Castle is just amazing!


We got to wander all around the grounds and gardens.










After exploring outside, we grabbed our picnic box. I came beautifully presented 

Inside

Menu

Following lunch we toured inside the Castle. Photography is not allowed as the Castle is still the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon. If that name is any familiar, this is the same family that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. There is an exhibit in the castle dedicated to this. 
 
Since I can’t show you pictures here, just go watch Downton Abbey. Nearly all of the interior scenes are filmed in the castle and you can see how amazing it is.
We could have easily spent all day here, but it was approaching 106 degrees so we needed to cool off. We piled back in the car in search of some frosty beverages and more adventures.
 

Lunch brought us to a pub seen earlier this trip, and we just had to make a stop!

The location doesn’t have anything to do with the history of the stories, it is just themed around them, and there is a collection of items and memorabilia.
It helped that the food was good because they were out of some of the beer I wanted…..I made do with a second choice though.
The Boss has a chicken salad

I had a beef pie….probably not the best choice on such a hot day…but oh well.

The kids ended up with Mac and Cheese

 
We were fully sapped from the heat today so we headed back to the hotel for showers and some AC.

Dinner that night brought us back to St Charles Place, this time for Italian. 
 
Some melon wrapped in prosciutto and some pizza really hit the spot on this hot night!

After some recharging and procrastination Lydia had chosen to try a ramen place for dinner. We chose Bone daddies Ramen Bar in St Christopher’s Place. This was a fun and lively street with lots of restaurants, anchored by a shopping center. It was right of the Bond St Tube stop, so very easy to get to.
We forgot to let the camera get its first bites, but we did get one of Johnny shoving his face full of Ramen.

The kids both got a chicken Ramen. The Boss got what’s called the T22, which is Pulled chicken, cock scratchings™, onion, beansprouts, nori, spring onion, shiitake mushrooms + Clarence Court egg
I got the classic Tonkotsu which is Chashu pork belly, spring onion, bamboo, beansprouts, burnt garlic + Clarence Court egg.
It was a nice night out, so we took our time enjoying it before the impending heatwave came through.

Yes, our joke  when the weather reports call for snow is that the grocery stores must be overstocked on bread and milk.

I'm born/raised FL moved to NC for college and never left.  First year in college it was calling for snowed I happen to be grocery shopping and the casher asked me were was my bread/milk, didn't I hear snow was coming. 💭  We got sleet for an hour then it was sunny.

Most of the Carolinas will shut down if a weather forecaster says a word that rhymes with snow.  Milk?  Gone.  Bread? Gone.  Beer?   Still some left.  

I can relate to this too.  Most of NC shuts down with a quarter inch of snow.  Several reasons:
1. We get very little snow and none of us know how to drive safely in it
2. We get so little snow that it makes more economic sense to shut down on the rare occasions than to invest in snow plows 
3. Most of our “snow” is really ice. 

More on that to come too😜

Sorry, this will be a long one!!!
We woke Saturday ready for a long day. We are all Harry Potter fans so we had a Harry Potter walking tour scheduled. While not as impressive as the tour to the studios that @Lovetocruise2002 and her family did, this was still a lot of fun. It was also a good way to see more of London. The idea of the tour was to see some of the sites that inspired J.K. Rowling when she was writing the books as well as areas that the movie was filmed in. @Lovetocruise2002 check with D13 and see if can recognize some of these places.
 
We met our guide along the Thames River in Minerva Square. Fans should get the reference there. 

We all got together in front of this statue…..look familiar?

Our guide was fun. He asked everyone if they were fans, and what house we were in. Of course we all knew our houses. Johnny and I are Gryffindors while The Boss and Lydia are Hufflepuffs. Our guide sorted us all into houses because during the tour there would be questions and challenges and points would be awarded. Thankfully we had a Harry Potter ringer during trivia on the cruise because we had lots of banked knowledge.
Once sorted we were off. First stop was Borough Market. This area was used in the movie, and was also really great to walk through. We had made plans to try to get back here for some food grazing, but unfortunately it never panned out.
Here are some Of the amazing stalls.





In this area, was the filming location for The Leaky Cauldon. In book three when Harry rode the Knight Bus and it stopped outside The Leaky Cauldron, this is the location that was used. Obviously the Taco Restaurant was removed digitally🤣

 
This building on the third floor was used for all of the filming of the interior scenes.

As we continued our walk, we got to take a boat ride on the Thames, which was fun, to get to some other locations.
Some fun trivia. J.K. Rowling had requirements for the studio before they could buy the rights to make the movie. The first one was that all of the actors had to be British, and all of the filming had to be in the UK. That brings us to this location. Does this remind them of anything?

How about here?

For those who aren’t up on their trivia like a certain D13. This is where the scenes where Harry, Hermione and Ron had to break into the ministry of magic, as well as where Harry used the phone booth to enter in movie 3. They digitally moved that overpass to try to “confuse” and disguise the filming locations, but people are smart and easily figured these out. Just like Borough Market, and a few more.
Interesting thing to note. In the books, the first time Harry goes to the Ministry of Magic (Government building/politicians work here etc for the world of magic) Harry gets to use the visitor entrance which is via the iconic red phone box. When he has to break in at a later time disguised as a ministry worker, he has to use the “employee entrance” which if you read the books/saw the movie was by “flushing himself” down a toilet. This gives you some insight to how J.K. Rowling viewed the world…visitors get a phone booth, politicians flush themselves down the toilet……
The next location was across from Trafalgar Square.

This should scream Gringotts Bank to you! Interesting story. Remember back when J.K. Rowling demanded that everything be filmed in the UK? Well the original scenes in Gringotts were actually filmed just down the street, in a building that houses the Australian Embassy. The producers had to get special permission, not only from the Embassy, but from J.K Rowling to film there. They were only able to film there for the first movie because the Embassy did not give them permission for later films. The producers ended up taking thousands of photographs and rebuilt Gringotts on the studio lot.
Our next location was this little street.

J.K.Rowling worked in a building here and walked this alley daily. This became the inspiration for Knockturn Alley. They attempted to film here, but it was too narrow, so again thousands of photographs were taken, and this area was built on the studio lot for the movies.
Next up, this street was the inspiration for Diagon Alley

 
This street is lined with small local shops and bookstores. Local rules will prevent any changes to this, so you won’t see a national chain type store on this street. Some more trivia for those not in the know. J.K. Rowling had sent the first book to many publishers and was turned down by all of them. When the publisher who actually did publish the book received the manuscript, the publisher didn’t actually want to read it, so he gave it to his daughter. 3 hours later she came back to him clamoring that she loved it and wanted to know where the second book was!
 
The first thing that the publisher did was tell her that nobody will buy the book if she uses her full name and see that it was written by a woman. Sexist, I know, but that was the reality when the books came out. They were thinking along the lines of J.R.Tolkien and T.S.Lewis. J.K. didn’t actually have a middle name, so she used the initial for her Mothers name. Unfortunately her mother dies before the first book could come out. The publisher only did 1000 copies for the first edition, and we all know what happened next. As a “lesson” keep an eye out in local book stores for new first edition fantasy books from unknown authors. You may end up rich! A first edition Harry Potter book recently sold for over $300,000!!!
Our tour ended here

We have not seen the show yet……but we will. This show takes place 19 years after the events in the last book, and is in two parts totaling about 6 hours!
Sadly, we didn’t not make it to Kings Cross Station…..the crowds there get really busy, and it was getting hot, and we were hungry and the kids were getting restless.
Thanks for reading this long one…..more to come!!

So imho not only are the portions larger but the quality is better, so you end up fuller.... if that makes sense. 

We tried the UUP on our last cruise in September 2021, it was too much food for us but it was excellent.
I used the app as soon as we boarded to book our lunch/dinner times but it was just the two of us.  I had no issues getting where I wanted and the time I wanted.
This was on the Ovation it was a seven day Alaska Cruise so we had two sea days. 
By day 4 we were skipping breakfast so we'd be hungry for lunch or dinner.
Good Luck and I think you'll do fine, you have an excellent attitude going in.  
 

One phenomenon I've noticed since the restart is that specialty dining is more popular now compared to pre-shutdown.  A lot of people have experience from before and that's great but UDP and making reservations on board isn't like what it was before.  In these current times with specialty dining in high demand it can be harder to secure reservations with dining packages once on board.  It gets worse as your party size increases.  
I'm not sure why specialty dining has become so popular now.  Just another weird side effect of the pandemic.

We got it for two reasons:
1) We did MDR on Anthem last winter, and had so/so experiences. UDP was $220/person then.
2) Coming up Oasis, we saw it for $167/person, and felt it was too good to resist. 

We were probably one of the first 50 to board our cruise this past June.  First thing that I did was run to Chops and begin reserving our specialty dining with the host.  
I used my spreadsheet and began reserving.  Even though I was one of the first on board and overly prepared with my spreadsheet, I did not get the exact times for my family of 4 dining on each day.  They gave me times that were more than acceptable, but they were off by 30 minutes or so for most days.  
I highly suspect this was due to (1) limited seating in each venue, and (2) Key and Suite guest priority reservations.
My advice is to be flexible.  You will likely get your reservations, just might not be the exact times you were looking for.
Also, keep in mind that (at least on the Ovation) the Chops host could schedule all of our reservations, but only the Chops reservations showed up immediately on our daily planner app.  The other ones took 2 days or so to appear.  Write down the times on paper when the host makes the reservations.  
Oh...one last thing, many people told me that any host from any specialty dining restaurant could book all of your reservations.  That was not the case for us on the Ovation.  The Izumi host could only make Izumi reservations for us.  May be a specific computer glitch, may be fleet wide (I doubt it), but be aware that Chops was out go to host stand. 

We are linked! 

That is what I do.  If they have the openings it won't be a problem.  Idid have an issue a few months ago where the only reservation times I could get were around 9:00 pm. and I was at the kiosk at 11:30 am 😞

Here's a month-long megacruise that I constructed, for Brilliance of the Seas next October and November:
7 nights Rome to Athens on 10/30/23
7 nights Athens to Barcelona on 11/6/23
14 nights transatlantic on 11/13/23
5 nights out of Tampa
The whole month of November is spent on the ship!
 

Yes even though they canceled my vacation they only gave 3 options to sail.  If those didn’t work I don’t get any OBC 

When an agency offers an automatic onboard credit for booking a cruise, this is known as “rebating.” The amount of the onboard credit comes out of the agent’s side of the commission. (Not the agency’s side.) With large Online Travel Agencies or Warehouse Agencies such as Costco who do a huge volume of business, their agents make a salary plus small commission so this does not affect their paycheck much, if at all. But for self-employed agents like myself, that onboard credit comes directly out of my pocket.