DDaley

Interesting thoughts. The ship usually pulls in right next to where the USS Iowa is, so I understand what you're saying about not being able to turn around.
HOWEVER! When I was on Allure out of Galveston, the ship literally went backwards for the first 30 minutes after we left the terminal, got out in open water, and THEN did a 180 to face the correct direction. I thought it was super weird but it worked.
@DDaley, so now that we've figured out where to turn the ship around, how shall we upgrade the San Pedro warehouse and camping tents? 🤣

Royal would have no reason to focus marketing on its older, less-attractive ships. Companies don't spend money to market old and outdated products. 
Royal's new marketing heavily towards families is both smart and extremely logical. I don't mean to be insensitive to the senior citizen cruisers out there, but old people are seldom marketed to for good reason. Even if they have Super Uber Platinum Plus C&A status, they often cruise in small groups at off-peak times and, most importantly, they have a limited number of years left in them. By focusing on families, Royal gets larger parties in bigger rooms on more expensive ships with the added bonus of indoctrinating a new generation of kids into cruising, hoping they'll grow up and continue to spend money with the cruise line with their kids, etc.
All that said, the lessons above are totally valid. Smaller ships are great for people who don't need the flash of a brand new ship, who simply want to relax, and those who care more about ports and destinations vs. the ship itself.   

I would say a year or two ago no problem but now, unless you are star class, I really can't see them honoring the request.

This was me...until March 2022....lol
My whole family, except me, are not morning people. However, ever since that March 2022 fiasco (still traumatized from that), I told them that we are no longer going by what is "convenient for all". We are taking the first flight possible out of DTW on the day of travel. If that means we have to roll off our driveway at 4:30am then so be it. They are all grumbling but at least it gives us more time to drive or make other arrangements if you know what hits the fan.
I am kicking myself because for our cruise in 3 weeks, it was considerably cheaper to take the afternoon flight to MIA from DTW. I booked it thinking I would move it to the early 8:30am flight before final payment. Then, things got crazy in December (when it was final payment time) with my Dad and I forgot to move it. Anyhow, now I am praying that doesn't come back to bite me in 3 weeks. The freeloaders and Hubby are happy though.

Aside from shoreside, I don’t think an Oasis class ship could turn around once it got up the main channel to San Pedro.
In San Pedro, the turning basin for a ship of OA size looks on the other side of the Vincent Thomas Bridge which only has a clearance of 184 feet. Verrazano Bridge, which we know Oasis just barely squeaks under is 228’. Maaaaybe OA could pull in bow first towards the cruise center and do a 3-point turn to pull alongside the pier (NAV docks next to the USS Iowa) but I have a feeling part of the aft would still need to tuck under the bridge. 

It might be her testimonial - Lauren/Lauriskov

Hello all, thought I would do a trip report/live blog for our cruise on Icon of the Seas - which is in only 3 days (eek!)
 
This is the February 17-24, 2024 sailing and is doing the Western Caribbean itinerary:
Day 1 - Leave Miami
Day 2 - Sea Day
Day 3 - Sea Day
Day 4 - Puerto Costa Maya, Mexico
Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico
Day 6 - Sea Day
Day 7 - Perfect Day at CocoCay
Day 8 - Return to Miami (sad face)
 
Who we are - we are a family of 5 from New York that are looking forward to escaping the cold and snow we currently have on the ground. It is me (Phil), my wife (Judi), daughter Olivia (14), son Peter (12), and daughter Emma (9). Here is a photo of us from our cruise the same time last year (on Symphony of the Seas) having completed a Pirate Scavenger Hunt we did on St. Thomas (which was tons of fun)

 
(we look basically the same, just a year older)
 
 
As the title implies, we are staying in one of the new classes of rooms, a Family Infinite Oceanview Balcony. I was excited to try out this room mostly due to the space for fitting all 5 of us - we shall see if we like the Infinite Balcony (a.k.a. window) or not.
 
We have a few fun things planned - including celebrating both my birthday and Olivia's - she is turning 15 and I am, well, more than 15. For her birthday we have booked Izumi Hibachi for lunch (first time doing that) and for my birthday Judi and I are doing the Empire Supper Club (very excited for that).
 
We also have booked lunches at Giovanni's Italian Kitchen and Hooked - last cruise my kids had a combined 42 oyesters at Hooked so figure we will get our money's worth there, especially as we got these 40% off during Black Friday sale.
 
I have also been planning a bar crawl with members of a Facebook Group for this cruise and ~60 people have expressed interest, so we will see how that goes. I made up lanyards with required drinks based on suggestions from JJ Cruising. 

 
 
Our travel day down to Florida is in 2 days - due to this being a school holiday week in New York the flight prices to Miami and Fort Lauderdale were just crazy so we are actually flying from Westchester (our local airport) to West Palm Beach and then getting a rental car to drive down to Miami to stay over for one night.
 
I have watched tons of videos on the ship and have my spreadsheet ready! ... just hope we are. 🙂 

You are right @Sweety, normally I cannot because I am stuck teaching during those times, and my own kids have school during those times. However, every few years, I take a year off teaching, and Icon inaugural happened to fall into this year that I am off teaching. I started doing this when I went back to work and the kids were little. It gave me a chance every few years to slow down and spend more time with them. Those who teach know that your days are a blur and sadly, you sometimes spend more time with the kids in your classroom, more than your own. Anyway, with the freeloaders now almost 16/18, this is my last "year off". The next time I am off, I will be sailing my "hell to the bell" cruise! Looking like 2030 at this point. Cannot wait. No more sailing during high season at that point.
@WAAAYTOOO apologies for the hijack

We had quite a shipwide quest for lunch munch.  As I’ve said before, we rarely eat lunch at all….especially since we eat an early dinner, but b/c we CAN, I guess, we HAVE been eating lunch on this cruise.
Dan wanted to go to the Suites sun deck for a bit - but failed to find it so ended up lounging with the poors somewhere.  Who knows where.  When he came back to the room I told him that I would go with him to FIND the SSD since I haven’t been on one in a very long time.  So we trekked to the front of the ship, entered the forbidden zone, did a perimeter check and realized that the bar up there isn’t open (in port today) so decided that since we are on a ship we MUST eat ( @OCSC Mike Must be subliminally messaging me) so we began plotting where this meal would transpire.  I am one of a handful of adults in the world who really enjoys the dogs at the Doghouse so my vote was for a dog.  Dan is shunning nitrite-infused junk food so he turned up his nose at the notion of a dog.  He wanted ELF (as if that is any healthier ??) (I await @asquared17 reaction) but I vetoed that one.  We were at an impasse.  He finally blinked and said he would go with me for a dog, a miscommunication b/c I thought he had changed his mind about eating there…but instead, he meant that he would go with me but NOT eat so I ended up eating a dog (sans the bun).  That left him hangry.  Hmmm.  I decided to return his generosity by going with him to ELF. BUT the line at ELF was endless and it wasn’t moving.  Ok. Plan C.  We decided to see if the CK was open for lunch on port days.  We didn’t know.  Up to 17 we went.  By now it’s 1:15.  They were open but closing at 1:30.  Dan finally got a Caesar salad and I looked on with love and support.  Waaay more work for lunch than was necessary.  Somewhere in this long tale Dan acquired a margarita which was pretty tasty. Now it’s nap time.

Thanks for your blog, @asquared17! And 🤦 to the Bezos Club - my cup clippie came last night. I put one of the cups from the freestyle machine in it for size reference. 👍

The CK menu is the main reason why suites aren't a draw for me. I am such a basic woman when it comes to food, even the Chop's server said so on Wonder (I like my medium steak plain, no sauce). But it is great when I hear stories like this, I just don't want to always be a bother. It is super funny because I only eat steak and drink when I cruise.

So far, so good.  We had mimosas with breakfast !  BIG splurge for me.  I almost never drink alcohol and certainly NEVER in the morning...but it seemed appropriate.
We're in Nassau today (blah) so we will not be getting off the ship.  Kinda coolish and windy here anyway.
Dinner tonite in the CK.  Dan will be happy.  I think tonite is lamb shank.  I'll find something.  Which brings up an interesting thing from last night's dinner.  Last night's menu was really bad (for me).  There wasn't a darn thing I wanted.  Dan got braised veal which he thoroughly enjoyed.  So I asked for the children's menu.  LOL.  I got plain spaghetti with marinara and chicken fingers.  I also asked if they had a small tossed salad.  I didn't want anything fancy...just some lettuce, tomatoes and olives with some ranch dressing.  Anelyn, our server (AWESOME lady) asked the chef to prepare me a special salad, which came out exactly as I had asked for it.  SOOO nice.  I chopped up the chicken tenders and mixed them in with the spaghetti for a kinda low-budget chicken parm (without the parm 😜).  It was a thoroughly delicious meal, and all a la carte.  Could I have gotten this in the MDR ?  I don't know.  Maybe.  ...but I was impressed that both Anelyn and the chef were so quick to make a special meal for me.  I wanted to tip the chef and I asked Anelyn to please give the money to him.  She said "no" that she would bring the chef out to meet me.  He was such a sweet, young and gracious guy.  It was an honor to meet him and give him his tip in person.  IMO, THIS is what tipping is all about.  Both of them had gone waaay out of their way to make my evening memorable and I appreciated it.
An interesting side note regarding the picky eater story above....both @OCSC Mike (wife) and @Ampurp85 kept passing across my mind...with the tales of their pickiness.  I knew they would be proud !

Most important thing to remember once you have the plastic holders is to REMOVE your printed cruise tags when you get home, if you store your plastic holders with the printed sheets still in them for months or a year, the ink gets stuck to the plastic and makes removing the old ones impossible! Aside from the fact that sections get stuck as you’re yanking it out and then partial colored patches will always remain inside the holder. Ask me how I know!! haha
I too have a set for Royal and a set for everyone else because I bought my RC sized ones first and then took a HAL cruise where they are jumbo sized. 

Most important thing to remember once you have the plastic holders is to REMOVE your printed cruise tags when you get home, if you store your plastic holders with the printed sheets still in them for months or a year, the ink gets stuck to the plastic and makes removing the old ones impossible! Aside from the fact that sections get stuck as you’re yanking it out and then partial colored patches will always remain inside the holder. Ask me how I know!! haha
I too have a set for Royal and a set for everyone else because I bought my RC sized ones first and then took a HAL cruise where they are jumbo sized. 

now i’m choking 💀😆😂😂😂

You'll love this story......
 
The b@#ch stole my job!!!!! (don't worry, she allows me to use that term. She also loves to tell this story)
So back story...this will take a bit...you will laugh, cry, and laugh at me some more.....
Years ago while I was in Paramedic School in Syracuse NY at the SUNY Upstate Medical University. I was living in Oswego NY (about 45 min north of Syracuse) where I had originally started college for biology and had hoped to get a job as a firefighter/paramedic. I was having a hard time finding a decent job locally while in school, so I had the following schedule.
Monday night I would go to Paramedic Class in Syracuse 6-9pm. I would crash on the sofa at my friends dorm at SU for the night. Tuesday I would do clinical time in the hospital then crash in the dorm again. Wednesday I would do ride time on an ambulance during the day, followed by class from 6-9pm. Following that class, I would drive back home to my parents house in Albany NY about 2hrs away. I was able to get a job in one of the ER's there as a tech. I had worked there previously during college breaks, so they were glad to have me back. I'd do a bunch of 16hr shifts Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Monday I would head back to Syracuse for class and repeat the process over and over again. On the days that I didn't have clinical time, I'd head back to Oswego to study, get caught up on sleep etc etc. 
As you can imagine, this was an exhausting schedule. I was continuously looking for something job wise locally that would allow me the flexibility to keep up with school and paid enough to cover tuition. 
Eventually the hospital in Oswego posted that they were looking for techs.....perfect, that's what I know how to do etc. I applied for the job, interviewed and got the position. My first day, I show up to work in my scrubs and with my stethoscope and they look at me funny...."what do you need that for??" Well, they pulled a bait and switch....my clinical position turned into you are just a transporter....fine, whatever, it was a job and I didn't have to do all that driving. 
After about a month in this job, I now see that an actual tech position, assisting in patient care which is what I had originally thought I was being hired for, is now open in the ED. Perfect. I do all the paperwork, and I'm told "you should be all set, and you will start in a week or two in the new position." 
Shortly after....I'm told, hang on, you will be starting in your new role in the fall. We hired someone who was in nursing school for the summer.....greeeaaaaaatttt........WTF.......
So a few days later, I'm working, so I head down to the ED, to see who this "nursing student" is that they hired......So I'm sitting down there chatting with other staff members that I am friends with, and around the corner comes Heather.....and I think to myself......damnit....she's really cute. I can't be mean to her and giver her a hard time.......
So we start chatting and becoming friendly with each other and getting to know each other. After a few days, I had to head to Albany for about a week. I had some time off from classes, and I was working on the medical team at a music festival. When I got back to Oswego and was at the hospital for work, we ran into each other, and she gave me a big hug exclaiming "where have you been" etc etc. I thought to myself.....wow, that was not the reaction I was expecting, so I asked her out on a date. Stupidly she said yes. 
Having had some conversations previously, I knew that lasagna was her favorite, so I made that for dinner before our date. That went over well. Then, at the end of our date, honest truth the battery in my car died, so she had to drive me to Walmart to get a new battery for my car.....the whole time, I'm thinking......"wow, did I make a great first impression🤦‍♂️"
For some silly reason, she agrees to a second date, and now almost 20 years later....here we are!
So, now any time someone asks how we met, its always "the b@&ch stole my job"

That’s absolutely amazing !  We just tried it.  He is in absolute heaven over this.  Thank you….i think !  🥰😂

Dinner in the CK was very good.  The steak was as tender as any I have ever eaten BUT as I feared would happen, I was still waaaytooo full from lunch and couldn’t finish it.  In retrospect, I should have asked for a later dining time but I fell back on old habits and booked an early slot.  Now I am miserably full…even hours after we ate.  Luckily I brought along some of @asquared17’s charcoal pills.  Hopefully that will help.  If not, good old fashioned Rolaids will do the trick.  
The casino is a madhouse, which frankly, comes as no surprise to me. I’m sure there are lots of folks who, like us, are here on a casino comp.  I’m even for night #1 and Dan is up a little.  
Dan is feverishly using his newly-found skill of identifying every plant in Central Park with @DDaley’s iPhone trick.  I’m pretty sure I will soon learn to hate @DDaley for this.  JK   It isn’t flawless though.  It misidentified one of our schefflera (umbrella plant) as a grapefruit tree !  😂😵  Too funny.
We haven’t witnessed any shenanigans so far.  I think I must inadvertently repel shenanigan-ites as I never seem to witness anything of interest or amusement.  I will try and be more observant.  
Tomorrow is a “sea day” which is a hoot when you think about where we actually go on a 4 day cruise to Nassau/PDCC.  We’re really just putting around, wasting time. Oh well…I prefer sea days anyway so even a manufactured sea day beats a day in Nassau.
 
 

If you use an iPhone it has a nice plant lookup feature on any photo you take of plants/trees/flowers. You just swipe up from the bottom of the image to find this “Look up - plant” button. According to Siri, this pic I took is of a Bird Cherry, or Prunus padus! 😂

No. Two women were on a Carnival cruise that stopped at Freeport. They claimed they were drugged and raped on a resort beach and that authorities did nothing for them, so they just went back to the ship.

The resort says they have video evidence that shows that didn't happen and authorities claim they boarded the ship to offer rape kits.

oh no, the socks were not the issue at all!! the socked feet propped up on the chair in front like at the OB/GYN was my call out. 
i, too, wear socks on the plane 🥰 on longer haul flights. 
haha that would have been funny but alas. it was the night we FINALLY sailed away from cococay and the closet doors sounded like they were coming down on us. between the constant breaking noise and the howling from the balcony door (the weather stripping needed replacing), i was awake from 3am on. legit couldn’t sleep 😞  and also because i had to follow up three days later a few other issues that had been lodged that sleepless night morning. i think they felt bad.
coincidentally, that was the night i started feeling a twinge in my throat that later manifested in who knows what now 😬😂

Uh oh, that sock lady is me!! I always wear flip flops or Rothy’s flats on planes so then when I get on board I put on socks so my feet don't freeze off. Usually I just tuck one foot under my butt and one rests on top of the corresponding shoe. Sue me!! 
PS you really got FCC for that one night when people were loud on their balcony and stopped when you light-signaled them? I have never complained but that happens to us on literally every Royal cruise we’ve been on. How much do they offer you?? I should be complaining at GS more often!! 😂

Tiny smalls are the best things in life 

They've invested a ton into TV advertising, including during sporting events, over the past several months. They probably decided the repetition was better than a one-off. Super Bowl ads were going for $7 million for 30 seconds. Strategically, Super Bowl ads are more conducive to high-production, specialized, one-off ads vs. what Royal tends to do. 
Don't know about you, but their recent marketing seems to be doing a good job of creating awareness. A lot of non-cruisers have been mentioning Icon whereas I don't remember that ever being the case with a new Royal ship. 
 

Because he's still arguably the most popular athlete in the world and especially in Miami