DDaley

I am back from my pre-cruise summer vacation to the Grand Canyon and got to use my new cruisin' cubes in a trial run! I recommend them, pretty cheap ($36 for this set that also included a laundry bag I used for shoes) and seem well made. 
Gonex Compression Packing Cubes - Amazon
They worked better than anticipated and once all my clothing was packed, left quite a bit of room in the suitcase for other things (on the cruise it's for floats, towels, plastic bottles, beach sheet and tent!) including my big a** hiking boots! 
I found them somewhat tricky to compress at first but once you know perfect finger placement to keep it from zipping up the interior fabric into the zipper, they are so convenient.
This is a standard 22" carryon from Samsonite and as you can see once they were all in the suitcase, I still had plenty of extra room at one end and an extra 2 inches all over for putting things on top like my toiletry bag, cooler purse and stupid brimmed hiking hat. 
The small one I am holding in the last image contains 4 tank tops! Crazy! Overall in these cubes I packed: 2 long sleeves, 5 tank tops, 6 shorts, 1 pair of leggings, 5 dresses/rompers and 8 pairs of hiking and regular socks. Seems like plenty of items comparable to 7 days of cruise wear. The dresses I rolled into the largest of the cubes and I found I didn't have that many wrinkles to iron out upon arrival. 
I will get some more use out of these on a quick trip to Detroit for a wedding before my August Freedom sailing so I will update if they start showing any signs of wear and tear. ?

Any app will do, mine had ads unless paid for.  Joe mentioned it above.  I use a size of 900 pixels along the long edge (vertical or horizontal).  
This makes them much faster to upload over Voom.  

The rothys were great everywhere. Nice for dining, not slippery on wet decks. They dry easy and stay looking nice no matter what. Best pair of shoes I've ever bought. 

Yes! Planning on bringing my black Rothy's and a pair of sandals and that's it for footwear! Thanks for this insight. I gotta have the flips for beach days but if my Rothy's can get me by on formal night I am all for it. 

I love that the whole crew gets to come cruising!! 

That sounds amazing! I just put ordering it on my To Do Once Onboard list. 

You must keep that last picture of Henry to show all his future love interests! 
 

Day 4 - La Spezia.
What a wonderful day , finally the weather was much better and finally it was a full day without any conference calls. As I shared at the beginning of this blog my main plane was to rent a car , drive to Milan and retrieve my cell phone from the airport lost and found, but since I already got a new cell phone and my numbers were duplicated I decided it can wait. We did not had any plans because of my cellphone so we decided to take it easy and just visit the city , let our legs take us wherever it feels like. We started to walk on the boardwalk of this nice city and we were stoped by some girl offering us to buyt tickets to Portovenere which is a nice town near the bay , we said thank you but skipped it as we already visit it last time. 200 m after another one offered us a private bought tour to the same place,  we refused that also until finally we came to something which looked crowded , apparently it was the ticket booth for the HOHO boat to Cinque terre , you pay 35 Euro for a full day boat services which allows you to get off in each of the villages and get on the boat again later for the next village. Just to compare, same excursion with RCL will cost around 120 $. As we saw its almost the time for the boat to leave, we had a short discussion between us if to take it or not as it's a full day activity and decided to go for it , my spouse told me "you want to take it so you will have many pictures for the blog right ?" Well I can not argue with her ?.

 
On the boat we took the time table we got and tried to calculate the best route and strategy to maximize the number of ports we visit (without drinking package) , we found out the best route for us.
 
We past Portovenere but decided not to go off there so we continued all the way to Manarola , a very lovely village with great views. We spent half an hour there.






we took the boat to Verenazza where we proamed around and ate quick lunch. 








Next we stopped at Riomaggiore as it was already in our way back...





 continued...
 

This is my guess also.

Can you provide the exact cruise that you were going to book (Or booked)? Ship and date, room category you were looking at?
I've booked upwards of 12 cruises on Royals web site (and 100 if not thousands of mock bookings) and I have never seen this issue, when it says click here to pick you room it always redirects me to a floor plan where I select my room. I now use a travel agent mainly for simplicity reason, I don't have time to do the research that I used to, so I let them do the research and present me with options. I currently have 7 future cruises booked through 2021 and have not had any of the issues you describe.
I have seen issues where 1 browser verses another browser will receive different feedback from Royals web page, but most of the time this is a security or pop up blocker. I have found the best results using Chrome and opening an incognito session. 

This has happened to me before! I just switched browsers and it worked fine and the deck plan screen came up. Probably using Internet Explorer! 

Cruises booked through the North American process, either by phone or the website can be repriced regardless of booking direct or having booked through a travel agent.
I once had a travel agent warn me to hold back a small amount such as $100 until final payment is due to aid in repricing but I haven't tested that theory.

YES.  We don't use a TA.  I just call RC if anything needs re-priced.

I booked a Loft Suite about a month ago for a Jan 2020 cruise. I keep checking the prices to see if there is a better deal. The selection is already a lot more limited on the rooms.
 
Booking early and checking often for price adjustments is the way to go.
 
I'll be looking at Forth of July sales and Black Friday sales for Drink / Dinning packages.

Update day -1 of trip!!!!
For the first time in my cruise history I have not packed a single item yet!  Ugh.  Usually i stay up super late the night before charging things, clearing pics off my phone etc, but life has totally gotten away from me this week with work and my silly ankle.  I'm working today until 4 and then I am on vacation for 10 days!!!!!
My ankle is still not great.  Maybe the silver invisible lining if no Cuba is that this cruise will have less walking.  9 days post sprain the ankle is still swollen.  Oh well...pool deck and adult beverage here I come.  We will just Uber everywhere in fort Lauderdale.
My girls are packed and ready to go.  I haven't told them I've ordered matching tshirts, water bottles and totes for the treppagirlsvacay!  I also have bought a ton of pamper items (face masks, lotions, chocolate) that I will pack in the tote bags.  Good thing kids only graduate every 4 years because I'm spending a ton of money... Though not as much as I spent on college lol!
So that is where we are at!  We leave tomorrow and I will start taking pics soon I promise!  Jane

Right!  I’ll even take empress!  Dare to dream to be able to drive to a port and hop on a 3/4 day mini trip. 

This is exactly my hope! Just gimme one season to take a bunch of 3 or 4 night weekend trips out of SD or LA so I can drive! The "new" ship would get my money time and time again without having to factor in flight pricing. I go to Puerto Vallarta yearly as it is so the repetition of that + Cabo wouldn't bother me.
I am dying to go on a ship with The Perfect Storm and HAL is never gonna satisfy my deep love of watersliding. I don't think I can stoop to Carnival after things I've heard here! haha 

This usually what is discounted the most on Black Friday, not cruises themselves.
I re-price non-refundable multiple times a year, as long as you are not changing the ship or sale date there is never an issues, it's like @Skid says, it's just a reprice.
I buy up to 2 years in advance if I can, that way I get the best possible cabin selection, even then some of the higher categories are sold out already.

That is certainly something to think about. I cannot swear to it, but I think I was once able to get a price adjustment even though it was a nonrefundable booking. I think it was just that....a reprice, not a cancel and rebook. @DDaley , you may want to call and check that if you are thinking of booking nonrefundable.

Thanks so much! This was my main concern, looks like I'm booking asap! 
 

Maybe others have had better luck than I, but Black Friday never had any better pricing on the actual cruises we had previously booked. 

My experience has been to book as early as you can. Usually, the longer you wait, the higher the price. We booked a May 2020 cruise last December and the price now, even with a "sale", is over $500 per person more. 
If you do see a price reduction after you book, the price can be adjusted without losing the cabin you originally chose. Obviously, the earlier you book, the better the cabin selection.
Black Friday pricing did provide a lot of savings on drinks, excursions, etc. For example, the refreshment package that was regularly $26pp/pd and $20 on sale, was $17 on Black Friday. The bungalow on Cococay was $214. Our cruise was on sale, but still wasn't lower than we paid originally.
Good luck and happy sailing!
 

The BBC!!!  Delicious!!!!
It is Baileys, Banana liquor, Rum, and Pina colada mix.  Pool side will put in a fresh banana too sometimes.

Not sure these prices apply to cruises from the Netherlands but here is a 2019 drink menu for beer pricing.
 

So sad..... Again...I wouldn't ever have sailed majesty but heck... Maybe they will upgrade is for free lol!  I haven't gotten any official documentation for June 15 but we will go no matter what...we have airfare and hotels booked and I'm not going to try and argue with Allianz over this one.  I hear the service on majesty is amazing.  So close...10 days away.....  Jane