Rags1

This obviously has no monetary impact to Star sailings. But I’ve seen a lot of Sky Class folks who don’t buy the beverage package because of that perk. For us it was just handy to pop in there being on 17. For some it will be an issue! And thanks for biting that bullet @CGTLH!

I really appreciate you giving us your view on the effects the protocols have on your experience. We sail on Allure in about 40 days and have been wondering how different it will be. I’m glad to hear of your interaction with Alan. For me personally the Genie made the last three trips memorable. By that I mean my personal interaction with them. The times we would chat about our life and our families. I spent a lot of time laughing with each of them and felt we were friends by the end of the trip. I was having a hard time imagining Star without that special time with the Genie. im enjoying your review! Can’t wait to read more. Good luck on that birthday dinner

Thanks for pointing that out! There are Dr. Pepper fans in my group

Yay! Have an awesome trip. I can’t wait to hear all about it!

Song of America. 98

Now I have both?

There are four in that room and I’m only moving two so we need to keep it

I’ll let you know. This one is especially confusing since it involves two different TA’s. And my apologies for not listing you in that chain of command. What was I thinking??

Thank you sir!

I’m curious to hear what the pros here tell me. We have 4 family members booked in a Crown Loft on the Allure October 17th. We also have 4 of us booked in the Royal Loft which holds 6. I want to move two from the crown loft into the Royal Loft with us. Each room is booked through different TA’s. The two people I want to move are # 1 and 2 on their reservation. One TA says I can’t move the first person listed on their reservation. The other TA says I can. I called Royal and the nice lady there said I could move anyone I want as long as one name remained on their reservation. Does my question make sense? What say you all? I need someone knowledgeable to tell me who’s right. Michael Bailey is a touch busy right now and when I can’t reach him I usually turn to @Lovetocruise2002or @Matt. (The order of the chain of command there was intentional: Michael, Sabrina then Matt?). I was also going to ask on that “other” site but they would just want to know if I’m vaccinated, wear shorts in the MDR and why we pay for such a big room! Your help is appreciated. ?

It’s not too early for a live blog!

Thanks for an awesome blog and for assisting me to spiral further into depression?. I appreciate you taking time to do this for all of us. Hopefully we will see more live blogs soon! I also admire your bravery in disagreeing with @Lovetocruise2002 on that filet. I live in Palm Springs and we have many tourists. When I’m asked where to get the best steak I always say the Coastal Kitchen - I’m too close to Canada, she may hear me. Glad you had a great cruise!

As my more learned friends have already said, it’s a process to determine the point when paying more for Star makes sense. During the period of no cruising I have spent some time and developed an App that helps. You enter cabins, people, cost and then rate 31 categories, from 1 to 5, on how important they are to each person in your party. On the last page you hit enter and the App sends the Star request to your travel agent?. Pretty easy...

Yay! We are there on the 17th and 24th. Looking forward to meeting you?

I never know what the daily gratuity is since we’ve been sailing Star Class. I think it’s included in the bazillion dollar cruise fare?

I would have gone along, but you’re in my room!

Exactly

Thanks for the great, entertaining trip! I’m so glad you had an amazing time.

Entertainment: The entire group enjoyed everything we saw. (Almost). The singers, dancers, skaters, divers and other performers displayed amazing talent! The athletic ability of some of them will blow you away. Aqua 80’s was the best water show I have seen. I think the music and me being old helped make it that way?. The headliners were good. I think I’ve already mentioned that Kaitlyn, Taylor and I returned for Stephanie Parker’s 2nd show the night she performed. Jeff Tracta has been around for awhile but we enjoyed his talent again. Jack Daniels and I returned for his 2nd show as well. ??. Interesting story on that. JD and I sent an email to Allan after the first show asking if he could reserve the front row seats for us at the 2nd show. I usually send the emails myself but that evening I let Jack assist in sending it - and he sent it to the Genie on the Allure instead of to Allan. Allan later told me the the Allure Genie immediately contacted him to see if he had some crazy elderly dude who wanted to see the headliner again! It all ended well. I’m known across the fleet. Jack is no longer allowed to send emails. We loved the ice skating as usual. So entertaining and such incredible talent. The comedians were ok, one much better than the other. The Escape Room was an amazing afternoon of entertainment. Having actually watched a Space Shuttle launch from the real Mission Control, I enjoyed the creativity and realistic “ Mission.” CATS: None of us really wanted to see it. We skipped it the first time on the Oasis. But this year our merry little group decided it was a “must see” just to see what all the fuss is about. I will say that the performers are extremely talented. We learned during our backstage tour that the kitties each do their own makeup! The singing and dancing is top notch. But that sucker seemed like 8 hours long with 15 minute stretches of complete silence thrown in! And speaking of stretches, those cats can, and do, stretch and slither right up to the edge of the stage - where they look right into the eyes of the unrefined Star Class folks who obviously do not appreciate theater. Your eyes lock with those of the felines as they are laying on the stage at eye level and only about three feet in front of you! I kept whispering to Stacy, “ Don’t yawn....”. It was the longest 90 minutes of my life since I used to watch Dora the Explorer with toddler Taylor?

This is the first time I’ve seen it.

Yay 28 days! I think we ate more this year in Coastal Kitchen than we did on Harmony. But we just found the food to be more to our liking this year. We haven’t been on the Anthem. Yet. I have no clue where those little apple pie flowers come from. I just found them in the suite. Everyday. Sometimes twice. When I had the apple pie in a dining venue it was a slice. Allan just made it happen?

The tortilla and egg things were Huevos Rancheros and the other is Crabcakes Benedict. Both ordered through the Genie for breakfast

I apologize for the delay in finishing this. Hardly belongs on the “live blog” page now! It’s been a very busy return to work. Food: The ladies are the food experts, but I didn’t hear many complaints. All, or some of us, ate at Coastal Kitchen, Chops, 150, Giovanni, Izumi, Playmakers, Portside, Loco Fresh, Solarium Bistro, Sorrentos and even the Windjammer. I found all of the food to be good. 150 was not the favorite for any of us. Ive already described some of the meals so I’ll just hit some random thoughts. I still think the best food item ever served on a Royal Ship, or any other ship, is the Mushroom Soup. I fell in love with it 4 years ago and enjoyed it many times. Kaitlyn doesn’t like mushrooms.. She tried it on the last night and was sorry she hadn’t discovered it earlier! Our Chops meal on our balcony was good. Temperature was fine. The seafood tower was missing the tower but still awesome. The filet in CK is the best on the ship I think. Playmakers has awesome food and it’s a great place to hang out and watch everything on the boardwalk. Portside BBQ was very good but almost always empty. I wonder how long that will last since it takes up so much space. We all like Loco Fresh. It’s great fun to make your own creation with all of the ingredients. The ladies loved the Sushi in Izumi. The Hibachi experience was really fun and the food very good – but it’s a lot of food! We all thought the food in the CK was better than the Harmony last year. I think we somehow managed to eat most offerings on the ship. But for the 4th cruise in a row I have missed the doghouse! It’s on my list for August!! The food delivered to the suite was always good, but the room service operation did manage to miss or forget some things. An afternoon snack of shrimp cocktails came with no cocktail sauce. The Chops dinner we had on the balcony was missing several things. No butter for the seafood tower, no topping fo the baked potato and other small things. It was all corrected when we asked. The overall food experience was more than good!

Please tell him that Stacy, Taylor, Kaitlyn, Shari and Jim send our best and we miss him!