MarvinS

I just got off Wonder last Sunday, and am one of those geeky kind of guys that measures everything.  I was curious as to the dimensions of all sorts of things in the room (looking to calculate the actual square footage, etc.).  We had a typical ocean view balcony room.  I believe the bathroom is fairly standard in size among the interior / oceanview / balcony cabins.
I actually measured the bathroom interior (and particularly the shower), and the inside shower height floor to ceiling was 6'8" high and was 2'8" wide by 3'1" long with a curved arch of the door taking a portion of that area.  The shower controls and shower head are then on an angled wall portion, with the show head being adjustable from mid-height clear to the top of the shower stall.  Hope this helps!

I just got off Wonder last Sunday, and am one of those geeky kind of guys that measures everything.  I was curious as to the dimensions of all sorts of things in the room (looking to calculate the actual square footage, etc.).  We had a typical ocean view balcony room.  I believe the bathroom is fairly standard in size among the interior / oceanview / balcony cabins.
I actually measured the bathroom interior (and particularly the shower), and the inside shower height floor to ceiling was 6'8" high and was 2'8" wide by 3'1" long with a curved arch of the door taking a portion of that area.  The shower controls and shower head are then on an angled wall portion, with the show head being adjustable from mid-height clear to the top of the shower stall.  Hope this helps!

I just got off Wonder last Sunday, and am one of those geeky kind of guys that measures everything.  I was curious as to the dimensions of all sorts of things in the room (looking to calculate the actual square footage, etc.).  We had a typical ocean view balcony room.  I believe the bathroom is fairly standard in size among the interior / oceanview / balcony cabins.
I actually measured the bathroom interior (and particularly the shower), and the inside shower height floor to ceiling was 6'8" high and was 2'8" wide by 3'1" long with a curved arch of the door taking a portion of that area.  The shower controls and shower head are then on an angled wall portion, with the show head being adjustable from mid-height clear to the top of the shower stall.  Hope this helps!

We were in Costa Maya yesterday, and was talking to one of the locals there.  He said they were working on getting the Mayan Lost Kingdom water park up and running soon, and was planning on offering free entry for the locals ONLY as a test to make sure everything worked properly, and then plan on allowing paying customers in.  He wasn't sure of the official opening date, but it appears to be sooner than later if others are seeing it available in the cruise planner!

Woohoo for Michelle !!

Michelle for the win.  In addition to everything everyone has said about her (all over this forum), she’s very patient with our us and our questions.  

I have been using Michelle Cunnigham with MEI for a number of years now. I don't expect and perks nor discounts. I research the ship we want pick the room we want and when we want to go. I e-mail this info and the next day I get a confirmation email from her if not the same day. Never had a problem. The perks i get is from my Royal Caribbean credit card. It gets 2 points for every dollar spent on Royal Caribbean which we convert to on board credit. When we first started cruising with Royal I called in for a booking, what a pain in the a** that was. Then I joined this fantastic message board, learned about MEI and viola. No more Phone calls! Michelle has my RC credit card on file which she uses to charge my deposit when I send her a booking request. Michelle is really great, her email is [email protected]. Why not join the 21st Century and send her an email? She'll answer any questions you may have with the exception of "what is the winning lottery number for this weekend"? Oh, the hold time is a week.😎

Thank you for the well wishes!  What helps is that I have a conference I attend for work the week prior in Orlando, so at least my employer pays my way to Florida and back!  Bonus is being able to tag on a couple of weeks of vacation after the conference!
This will be our first time on Wonder.  Most of my group have already been on Oasis (pre-amplification) & Harmony, so am familiar with the Oasis class.  Looking forward to see the new bells and whistles on Wonder.
My wife and I will also be on Ovation this October 2023 (Vancouver to Hawaii) and also a S2S in Europe in late May 2024 (Anthem & Oasis), along with Icon (booked the day it became available) for Oct 2024, so am also looking forward to these cruises, too!

In that case I use Michelle at MEI, and she just sent me $400 price drop on a future cruise.
What I like is I send an email and it happens.
She did a great job with getting all the Covid FCC straightened out.
For me it's not All price, but impeccable service, which is what I get

I've lived in Alaska for over 40 years and completely understand your desire to NOT get certified up here!
My wife and I had plans to do like you are looking to do..  We had a B2B that was supposed to have left from Ft. Lauderdale in June 2020.  We were going to get certified on the first week, and enjoy additional SCUBA excursions the second week.  The pandemic hit, and we had to throw those plans out the window.
Fast forward to 2022, we decided to do things a little different, and just flew down to Florida a couple of extra days ahead.  We worked with a dive shop in the Key Largo area, and completed our open water certification in two days.  We did ALL of the PADI coursework ahead of time (all online on an iPad) at home before traveling, flew into south Florida, and drove down to Key Largo, overnighted down there, and arrived at the dive shop early the next day and started doing the pool work in the morning, and did our first two ocean dives that afternoon, finishing with two more ocean dives the next day.  This worked out great!  We then drive back to Ft. Lauderdale the next morning boarded the ship (for two weeks!) with three different planned SCUBA excursions, and had a great time!  We just told the SCUBA excursion operators we were newly certified, and they always very willing took that into consideration and always put us directly with a dive master that treated us extremely well, and never pushed us beyond what we could/should handle and feel comfortable with.  Very happy with this decision!

Oh wow! Guys, I still can‘t believe it but since the last app update on my iOS device I finally can choose my Rome Interport Cruise in the app! 😲
AFAIK this is the first time ever because so far only guest boarding in Barcelona have been able to use the app. If your Western Mediterranean Cruise starts in Rome you couldn‘t use the Royal app for your sailing at all - until now. 😄
I guess this is what they meant by „… enhanced functionality related to multiple port stops.„
I mean when I choose my cruise in the app there still shows up the known message saying my sailing isn‘t available in the app but my cruise gets loaded anyway and I can clearly see my booked excursions in the app! 🤩
I find this is a significant improvement and a long overdue step in the right direction. 👍
Check it out!
 

Welcome to DRY DOCK!
 
Over the last 3 weeks, Symphony Of The Seas has been located in the Navantia Shipyard located in the south of Spain, getting routine maintenance around the entire ship.
 
This is my exclusive look into what happens during a Dry Dock period, on one of the largest cruise ships in the world!
 
The first cruise of the Mediterranean season will begin tomorrow!
 
 

We are on Ovation from Vancouver to Hawaii this fall (October 6 - 15, 2023).  UDP is offered for $335.99.  It's been this price ever since cruise planner options opened up for this sailing, and I've never seen it drop any lower...

Yeah, I'll definitely be keeping tabs on how my performance goes this summer...and ANY improvement will beat my 10Mbps down/1Mbps up DSL service I had!

Confirmed that there was no additional cost for the premier combo dinner with the 28.99 pre-paid special dinner price.

There are two hotels that are nearby the Anchorage train depot.  Anchorage Hilton Downtown is about 1/4 mile to the south.  It is an easy downhill walk (literally downhill) from the hotel.  Another is the Comfort Inn Downtown Ship Creek.  This one is also about 1/4 mile away to the East and is a level path walk to the depot.

I was able to book Hibachi at the $28.99 rate for my group of 8 at 6PM on the last sea-day on Wonder, on the June 25, 2023 sailing!   I had this originally booked for all 8 of us on the second sea-day (day 3) at $45.99.  This just saved me a bunch!

Mine was accurate at 18 days...

Mine was accurate at 18 days...

Mine was accurate at 18 days...

While on St. Kitts, I highly recommend Thenford Grey Tours.
Our group of 6 we were traveling with all did their "Grand Tour", and had a fabulous time.  You get an excellent tour and overview of the island, along with some beach time.  Thenford Grey, himself, did our tour, and he was an absolute walking encyclopedia of information on the island.  He was the most polite tour guide I've ever had, and would describe him as the perfect gentleman.

As I've lived in Alaska for the last 40 years, I've been to Denali several times.  When trying to get there in conjunction with a cruise, you will usually need to plan to add a land tour of some sort to get there.  Denali is a several hour car/train/bus ride one way to get there.
Once at the Denali park entrance (at at the main visitor's center), they base several different park tour buses from that facility that travel varying distances into the park.  There is a road that goes 98 miles into the park and ends at "Wonder Lake" which is where most of the scenic pictures of Denali with a pretty lake in the foreground are taken from.  This is as close as you can get on a bus tour.  Getting to "Wonder Lake" involves a 12-hour round-trip bus ride (about 5+ hours in; a lunch/break time; 5+ hours back to the main entrance).  You make several stops along the road both ways (in/out) as the various smaller visitor centers, so it is not one 5 hour ride only.  They also stop the bus when there is wildlife easily seen along the side of the road (such as bears, moose, etc.)  There are shorter trips that only go part way into the park (to other small visitor centers along the 98 mile road; there are 3 or 4 of them) and then back out.
Being able to see the top of Denali is absolutely NOT guaranteed.  I've seen it a few times clearly from within the park, but the majority of the time (75%+), its usually got a layer of clouds hanging around it.  Irregardless, seeing the wildlife is phenomenal.  Seeing the top of the mountain is just bonus!
My profile picture is actually of Denali on a clear day from a plane as I was flying past from Anchorage to Fairbanks.
My recommendation:  Do a land-tour that includes Denali, and take the bus tour that goes all the way in!  You won't regret it.

I did this with several others in my party back in 2019, so my memory is a little fuzzy, but will relate what I remember.
The zip line does go over I believe three segments and does take about 45 minutes to an hour, with the first two over the waterpark area, and the last ending on the far side of the small lagoon.  There are two lines that run in parallel next to each other, so you generally travel in pairs.  Regarding shoes, they don't want any of your footwear to fall off, as you are travelling directly over people in the waterpark.  That is why they want athletic shoes, as sandals could fall off.  If they were fully strapped on, and couldn't "fall" off, they may accept them.  After you check-in, you go into a room to "gear-up" and watch a safety video.  You then go outside, and climb the steps at the first tower to begin your first segment.
They do weigh you on a scale at check-in, so be sure you are within their posted weight restrictions.  There are free lockable lockers available right at the check-in area for your use while doing the zip line.
Regarding going "through" the water, on the last segment, one of the two lines travels right through the fountain in the lagoon area, so one person of a pair stays fairly dry, and the other can get quite wet.  Yes, I got completely drenched, and my niece missed it all and was completely dry... 
Overall, I enjoyed it.  I don't think I would pay money do it again, but once was great.

I did this with several others in my party back in 2019, so my memory is a little fuzzy, but will relate what I remember.
The zip line does go over I believe three segments and does take about 45 minutes to an hour, with the first two over the waterpark area, and the last ending on the far side of the small lagoon.  There are two lines that run in parallel next to each other, so you generally travel in pairs.  Regarding shoes, they don't want any of your footwear to fall off, as you are travelling directly over people in the waterpark.  That is why they want athletic shoes, as sandals could fall off.  If they were fully strapped on, and couldn't "fall" off, they may accept them.  After you check-in, you go into a room to "gear-up" and watch a safety video.  You then go outside, and climb the steps at the first tower to begin your first segment.
They do weigh you on a scale at check-in, so be sure you are within their posted weight restrictions.  There are free lockable lockers available right at the check-in area for your use while doing the zip line.
Regarding going "through" the water, on the last segment, one of the two lines travels right through the fountain in the lagoon area, so one person of a pair stays fairly dry, and the other can get quite wet.  Yes, I got completely drenched, and my niece missed it all and was completely dry... 
Overall, I enjoyed it.  I don't think I would pay money do it again, but once was great.

Passengers that are nasty to crew members or other passengers... really want to throw them overboard!  😂