SweetPea

Hi, how is everyone? I know, I've been a horrible friend, but i figured i would pop in and check on my peeps and what do i see but Sabrina with a Genie package on Freedom. Imagine that! Hope everyone is doing well!!

This is a drive by insomnia posting. When you said last night that MSC sucked, i had to come here for all the juicy deets. Their lounge did remind me of the Observation Lounge in the Haven (though the Haven Lounge appears to be bigger). I'm sorry about your dining experience. Did their menu change every night? Norwegian tends to tick me off with stupid policies so I'm always looking elsewhere, but this sounds like a hot mess! And so i will scratch MSC off the list. You did capture a pic of our next ship (Norwegian Escape), and i could even see our room. This will be our 3rd time on the Escape, same room all 3x. We're crazy and unpredictable that way. Well thanks again for the bedtime story!

Wow, you have a great memory! We boarded Symphony on May 31, and you became a BFF for telling me my clothes were too big.

That SUX royally, @Pooch! Not a fan at all of Royal's smaller ships!

Amen! We too managed extremely well with 100% WFH. We used to have flexibility on weekends and holidays at least, but no more. Batman worked nights and none of his team was in our bldg. Stupid. I don't know if i already mentioned this in the previous 15 pages, but during lockdown, Corp Real Estate downsized our building. We went from 40 seats pre-Covid to 10 seats post. It was tough playing the Seating Hunger Games with 3 days RTO. We weren't doing 5. Also, we worked on a national team. ATT ultimately wants all national teams at HQ in Dallas .... BUT, if they tag your team to move, you're on your own as far as moving. They offer no relo assistance, not a dime, no resources (unless you're a VP, lol.) You move at your own expense and on your own time or quit, end of. That is the way they treat people. The second we lost our employee discount on our mobility bill, we switched to T-Mobile. Oh, and our CEO would forever hold town halls where he'd complain he had "too many mouths to feed" and we "need a younger work force" (from the man who was born in 1962, and lost us billions in failed M&As). I could go on, but I'll spare you.

OMG! One of my faves! She was my first Breakaway Plus, and we've sailed her 2x with another this summer! We've only stayed in one room all 3x (17700). I really hope you get to meet Shah who is the usual Haven bartender for the Escape. IDK if you enjoy a good cocktail, but if you do, i think you'll be impressed with how much better the Haven bar is than the suite lounge on Royal (both in being stocked -- check out all their bitters -- and with creative drinks. The Haven bartenders are accomplished mixologists and pride themselves on coming up with special drinks to suit whatever you're in the mood for). If i can be of any help, please reach out, and definitely tell me your thoughts after you've sailed! Norwegian is not perfect by any means, and they can annoy me too, so be honest, because i get it! (Don't get me started on how bottled water isn't included in the drink package, which is why we tend to book OSs or DOSs where you get them unlimited in the room. Or how the Haven menu is static and they don't consistently offer specials). Be SURE to see Choir of Man!! And i will be around and catch up with your cruise blogs at some point! I just feel bad that Royal is not on our radar for the foreseeable future, and that's what brought us all together!

Do tell! Which ship? Which type of Haven room? Excited for you!

This made me laugh, but no. This was only the half of it: https://archive.ph/rs05J

Please know, i *will* catch up on all your great blogs, but maybe not as soon as I'd like as i feel i need to be fully invested and i can't give the full time (IMO) needed ATM. I feel horrible for not being on top of this board lately, with so many of you who welcomed me as not exactly a Royal cheerleader. There are many here i feel like family. That we'd happily sail together some time. But ... i think the Batman and I will be stagnant at 78 points indefinitely on Royal and never get to Diamond. We're not chasing those 2 points. Simply put, Star Class was literally the only thing that brought us back to Royal after a first disastrous cruise on Mariner in 2008 (AWFUL!!! Seriously. Still our worst in 40 cruises. I HATE Mariner to this day. Triggering, honestly. I also HATE that Royal doesn't have a consistent suite policy across the fleet. Arrogant that they feel they don't need to). Star Class was what made us try Royal a full 11 years after the Mariner epic fail. But now? Star Class is a shell of what it's been, despite escalating pricing. Royal will need to reverse course for us to consider them again. If they do, we will gladly book again. I hear many say that as an adult couple, Sky Class is their sweet/suite spot. Sky Class is not for us, at all. We just don't like Royal enough to compromise. Haven beats Sky Class by a mile and a half (for us). As someone with no Royal status, I can't imagine Royal being my cruise line of choice without Star (are you kidding? How do you seriously stalk the CP looking for drink and dinner packages sales?! Or their ridiculousness of PDCC excursion pricing? Ummm, no. Last cruise in the Haven we literally made fun of Royal's $5k OTW cabana pricing, and prior to lockdown i was Royal's biggest Star Class Ambassador in the Haven.). I've also been reading a lot about the Retreat (thanks to @asquared17 and @Lovetocruise2002 with their great blogs), but to those who've sailed both Haven and the Retreat, the complaint is consistent: the Retreat is not localized, but spread out, so i see this being an issue for us. The Haven is a community. The Retreat isn't necessarily, which is the jive i get from watching cruise videos as well. We don't go on cruises to make new friends. But we inevitably do in the Haven, organically. We've never met another Star Class couple onboard we've kept in touch with after-the-fact, ever. That's only a small part of it. If you're giving me the choice of Sky Class or Haven, it's a no brainer for us, and Star pricing icw scaled back bennies? Haven all day long. And now I'm commenting too long on a blog that was over well over 6 weeks ago and so I'll shut up now.

Thank you! I feel you get it, given your parental sitch.

Thank you for understanding! Well, he *IS* your nephew! Should i formally ask you to be his godmother? No? Ok. I get it. Jealous! We are 2 points away from Diamond and can't see getting there. Enjoy!!! Not selfish at all. Life on this Earth isn't easy. We need to enjoy the moments we can. As someone whose grandmother died while my parents were on a cruise (1998), i get it. Seriously.

Hey! What kind of fun job did you get?! I keep telling Batman that he needs to go work at the local liquor store for the discount. Retirement is great! No regrets! We've just been busy with all the admin stuff that comes with retirement... insurance changes, 401k rollovers, etc. And Emmet who is quite the ladies man in our neighborhood. He's a handful. But sadly, we've been mainly busy because my FIL had a stroke and he lives in TN alone (his choice. He moved away from Batman and his sister 35 years ago or so). So we've been back and forth from NJ to TN. We're actually on our way to TN again now. Thankfully, Emmet is great in the car! We left right at 10am and only have 2 hours, 45 minutes to go. My butt hurts. But i also haven't been around much since we don't have a single Royal cruise on the books! But i do need to catch up on everyone's adventures!

Hi! Oh my, even though we're retired, we're busier than ever and I've lost touch for a bit! But since you are staying in this same room, let me offer two pieces of what to bring along. 1) 90-degree outlet adapter for upstairs (because the upstairs outlets are ridic.). Seriously terrible. 2) Motion sensor light like this for the upstairs bath. This mirror is above the bed upstairs. It's the back half of the bathroom light and does light up when you put the bathroom light on. It has the ability to wake up your partner if you need the bath in the middle of the night, so i wound up using my cellphone light. However, we have the light linked above in our bath at home and i wish we'd have brought it.

We have always referred to it as Going Commando, but free balling sounds more refined. First, icy Newark. Second ..... Sea Of Farts ... You can run. But you can never hide. Welcome home!

I'm sorry. Are those Taylor Swift lyrics? I have no idea.