Cruzinfun

Leaving on Oasis today and just wanted to say thank you to all for the great advice, suggestions and patience from all my questions.  
Thanks again and everyone have a great week.
 
Dan

And you confirmed with your friends that they did not submit (and subsequently win) a Royal Up bid?
While I can’t say for sure, outside of the Royal Up program, why you were snubbed but your initial post certainly does not exhibit happiness for your friends. You were/are clearly upset that you were ‘passed over’ for a cabin you feel you are entitled to. To answer your question... I joined C&A because I think a number was assigned to me when I booked my first cruise. 

To answer your question I haven’t encountered any disloyalty from Royal Caribbean.  
As a D+ I’ve encountered many times the concierge lounge becoming over subscribed and the need for them to accommodate D+ in an expanded Diamond area.  That’s always worked very well.  The result is no loss of benefits.  
As far as upgrades go, those are not promised to anyone.  No D+ should ever get upset over a missed upgrade.  If they did give out upgrades by CAS status a Pinnacle would have received the upgrade so either way you lost out on nothing.
Instead be happy for your friends.  

Keep checking my flight info for no reason Keep checking my hotel info for no reason (Always fly in the day before!) Keep looking at transportation options for Airport>Hotel and Hotel>Port Check out all my destinations on Google maps and Street View Sign into the RC website to look at the countdown and check for any new discounts on beverages, dining, excursions, and spa treatments Sign in to the app to see if any more of the schedules have populated (A little tired of seeing "We're getting in ship shape") Check the www.royalcaribbeanblog.com website several times a day Comment on posts on the www.royalcaribbeanblog.com website!

I wouldn't bother looking for such a service.  What you should be doing instead is finding the best hotel you want, at the best rate you can afford.  Then opt for Lyft or Uber to get you to/from the ship.

Royal Math example ....
"Cruise the Caribbean for a week, Kids sail free!. ONLY $629 based on double occupancy!"
The family of five (Mom, Dad, 3 kids 12 and under) get excited. "All of us can go on a cruise for  about $1258!!!"
Then you find out no room other than some suite will hold five people or it takes two rooms. Then each person including "free" kids have to pay gratuities. Oops ... there is another $500+. Then each person including "free" kids have to pay taxes, fees, port expenses .... Oops ... there is another $1,000+ (paying taxes on 'free'?).
Now the required room upgrade and every thing else amounts to $3,042.12+ with numerous said discounts. Well over twice the "hook" price.
Then of course there is travel expenses etc to consider.
Just doesn't seem fair for young families on a budget to get them excited only to have them find out they can't afford it.
 
 
 

Happy New Year!  They raised the prices at the port to $25 a day ?
http://www.cruiseliberty.com/directions_parking.html
I don't know if that helps to drive you to a park/stay and cruise or fly/stay and cruise more OP but here's the info.

Final Thoughts
Now that we've been back a few days, I have just a couple of random thoughts to add, in no particular order:
 - We have always enjoyed the smaller ships and have been afraid the bigger ships would be too crowded. We were wrong! Spectrum is well designed and absorbed the crowds easily. Of course, if you want to get to the sale tables in the middle of the esplanade, it will be crowded, but that happens on any ship. Going forward we won't shy away from the larger ships!
 - I was surprised how much better the same recipe was when it was prepared in the Gold dining area. Makes me think there might be something to the whole #TeamCK thing ? 
 - I loved the Asian flavor of the ship! Granted, I've lived in the region for nearly 6 years, but please please don't let the fear of the "culturally enriching" cruise stop you from exploring the area. And all signs point to Royal investing more and more in the region
 - I found it odd there was no drink of the day
 - There were lots of people from lots of different countries on both our sailings, particularly large family groups. Talking with some of the crew, it seems that people are using this ship for family reunion trips more than in other areas. One Indian extended family of 35, some of them hadn't seen each other in 10 or more years. It was fun to see 
 - This was our first back-to-back. LOVED it, all except the drill ? It's a small price to pay, though, and at least we got a terrific lunch out of the deal!
I think that's it. Please let me know if you have questions -- I'm happy to answer!

Happy New Year!  They raised the prices at the port to $25 a day ?
http://www.cruiseliberty.com/directions_parking.html
I don't know if that helps to drive you to a park/stay and cruise or fly/stay and cruise more OP but here's the info.

Uber was much better then Lyft. No issues going to ship. We had a very nice driver.

Thank you for this lovely telling of your cruises.  Makes me really want to go on one of these too now. 

Just got out of work. I’m officially on vacation. We are just driving 2 1/2 hours tonight. When we booked we weren’t sure how weather would be to get out of upstate NY. Hubby has bad back so breaking trip up is better for him. 

Just 1 more work day.?

That’s the truth right there!  Just need a Timmy’s and a Caesar for the trifecta!  ?? ? 

Another 1st for me trying to blog. This won’t be live because I understand internet isn’t great on adventure of sea.
Going on this cruise, Hubby, Daughter, 5 year old granddaughter and myself. This was originally going to be Disney Cruise. I started planning it as a way to get through Chemo in August 2017. It was originally planned for October 2019. Because of staffing issues it was moved to January 2020. When researching I discovered that we could book 2 bedroom grande suite on Royal for same price as family room in Fantasy.

Ilocos pt. 2
As promised, real photos!
Laoag Cathedral (St William’s Cathedral), built 1612:


Sinking Bell Tower, built 1612, sinks 1” per year:

Ilocos Norte Capital building, dressed for Christmas:

Moto-taxis, hold 2 passengers in the side car and one sitting side-saddle behind the driver:

Paoay Church, built 1694:


The only shot we got of the inside:

Because wedding!

 

@Sweety, this one is for you! No red velvet cake so far, but this red velvet cheesecake sure was good! Dining room night 6

 

Just an FYI we had reservations for the NorthStar but that first day when we boarded they were letting people on, we had maybe a 10 minute wait at the most and got right on.  So PLEASE check to see if they will let you get on when you get onboard.  We got on and had lunch and then started exploring, when we saw that they were letting people ride NorthStar without reservations we got in line and were on in no time! 

Thanks for the review! 

Breakfast Update - ”I Told You So Moment“ 
I have been telling Lindsay and Reyd that Coastal Kitchen is a great breakfast choice for us. They have not fully embraced the benefits of star class and keep talking about Windjammer ?‍♀️ Well this morning off they went to Windjammer (I did not go) to grab breaky. According to them the experience was awful, it was jammed with people, lines everywhere, no where to sit. A total gong show.  They walked out and into Coastal Kitchen ?  They said Coastal Kitchen from now on.  I told them they need to embrace the benefits of star class. ?‍♀️
Sadly they didn’t capture the gong show with a picture.  

We are a family of 5 (me, my wife, 2 sons (9,6) and daughter (3). We have been on multiple cruises to include Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival at different points in our life. For our makeup as we are now this was an amazing cruise. While the food and decor was not quite up to the Disney standard (it was not far off, and definitely much more return on investment for the price).  

Embarkation:

We arrived the night before and stayed near Houston Hobby airport at the Springhill Suites (we had Marriott points so it was free). The hotel itself was fine, but the area around left to be desired. Our flight home the following week was late at night so we rented a car for the week so that we would be able to explore after debarkation.  

We drove to Galveston (approximately 45 minutes). This is where I made a mistake: I decided to try to drop the rest of my family off and the baggage then park the car. The line to drive up took a long time with the kiddos being able to see the ship. In hindsight I would have parked and walked with them because we parked at Galveston Park and Cruise which was directly across the street from the terminal (closer to the Carnival ship, but still very close). This would have saved me a lot of "are we there yets". We had prebooked parking and it was extremely easy.

We stayed in a Grand Suite so we had expedited boarding and check-in. This was a nice feature. We checked in and punched holes in our Gold Cards (different color due to being in a suite) and attached them to our lanyards that we brought from home. Lanyards were key for our family and we liked that we brought different ones for each of us, but don't fret if you don't bring them they are for sale in the terminal and on the ship. I would recommend them and punching a whole in it to attach it.  

Note: There was a cold front when we were in Galveston so there was light rain and a high of 59, so we did not do outdoor activities on the first day. I imagine this would have been a good plan as discussed in many other reviews, but not an option for us.

Once on we explored the ship a little, and then went with the rest of the masses to the Windjammer Buffet. The food here was definitely tasty. I have read lots of complaints about bland food, but we did not find this to be the case at all. We thoroughly enjoyed the food here and ate multiple lunches, most breakfasts (got room service on two days we had excursions, but more on that later) and one dinner (they had sushi that night). Finding tables in Windjammer especially on the first day was difficult. Luckily since we had our Gold Cards we could eat in either Giovanni's or Chops (depended on the meal and the day) with our plates from the buffet or order of a menu. This was a great and underrated perk of being in a suite. We could always find a table that was quieter, but still enjoy the choices from the buffet.  

Next we went to sign the kids up at Adventure Ocean (kids club). There are three different levels: Aquanauts (3-5), Explorers (6-8) and Voyagers (9-11). Due to age ranges all my kids were in different groups. This was not an issue for our kids, and they each made friends that they would chat with and hang out in the pool or outside of the kids club as well.  

**HINT: There were two different areas to check in (Aquanaut and Explorer Rooms). The Explorer room had a ridiculously long line, but the Aquanaut room had no line. There is no real introduction or anything at either room just a form that must be filled out. For Voyagers you can sign for them to sign themselves in and out. We told my oldest that he could not sign himself out, but we signed that authorization so that he could sign himself in. This was a time saver and a few times the other kids didn't want to go to the kids club and he did so he could go by himself to sign himself in.  

After that we explored the Royal Promenade and made our way to our room. The room was great for us. The balcony had two lounge chairs with a little table, and then two chairs and a large patio table where we ate a few times and enjoyed coffee daily before the kids woke up. Inside the room was a pullout couch where the boys slept and our room steward (Edwin) brought in a rollaway bed that we put beside it for our daughter. Then we had a bed to ourselves on the other side of the room that could be separated by a curtain. We had LOTS of drawers (so many we even had empty drawers even with 5 of us)! We had two sinks in the bathroom and a bathtub which was great for the little ones.

We changed for dinner. I put on jeans (like every night except formal night) because it said no short pants and I am a rule follower, but as stated in other reviews outfits ran the gambit and anything goes. We went to our table which was by the window as I had requested and met our waiter Michael and his assistant waiter Joenel. They were both awesome! Great service. Joenel had our drinks waiting for us the next night so we could have our martinis while we read the menu. The food at the dining room was good. Was it the most highend dinner...no, but it was good and if you take into account the number of people that are being cooked for during each sitting it was pretty darn good. Some of the presentation left some to be desired (shrimp cocktail is a bed of lettuce with 3 shrimp laid on it), but the flavors were good. We enjoyed all the meals we had there.  

My Family Time Dining: We selected the 5:30 seating so that we could utilize the My Family Time dining. I have not seen a good description of this in any of the other reviews so I wanted to explain this process. Starting the second night, you could tell your waiter that your kids were going to the kids club and they would ensure that they got their entire meal including dessert before they had to leave. Pickup was at 6:40 on the 4th deck (middle deck of the 3 levels of the dining room) outside the dining room. At 6:40 you take your kid(s) down to the counselor that was there and they check you in using a tablet then the parent can go back to their meal. We figured out that if we got to dinner around 5:40 this was about the perfect timing to ensure they got all their food, but not too much downtime after their meal before pickup. We also asked Michael to wait on our (DW and my) entrees until we dropped the kids off. This worked really well for us and gave us time to actually enjoy our meal too. If you don't use this pickup option, Adventure opens at 7PM.

Adventure Ocean: All three of our kids loved their different areas. For the oldest group they seemed to play a lot of Gaga Ball (dodgeball, but you hit the ball instead of throwing it) and some other games. They were some more structured activities as well including facepainting and other activities. Having all kids enjoy themselves was a key part of us enjoying our vacation as parents. The boys did not enjoy their time at Disney in the kids club as much as they did here. Truth in advertising they were younger, but they all loved this so that is good enough for me.

Pools: The pools were well maintained. My kids loved Splashaway Bay the best. It is a jungle gym with lots of spray and buckets and slides. This is right near the ice cream machine as well (my kids frequented this machine A LOT). There was a kid pool that was 2 feet deep, and it was great for my daughter to splash around and play in without a lifevest. There was a bar by all the pools so we frequented the Squeeze (the bar by Splashaway Bay) a lot. We had the drink package and for us we found it extremely beneficial. We definitely got our money worth. The two pools in the main pool area were too deep for my kids to touch, but we had them wear lifejackets that were readily available from Royal Caribbean by the towel stand. The screen here played the Final Four and a few movies, but most of the time it has videos from Chive TV (like youtube). The adult only area was good with two jacuzzis and a pool. This was a little crowded, but it was good overall. As previously stated by people: There is no food available on the pool deck besides ice cream so this was annoying, but not a major issue for us as we understood this limitation.  

Royal Promenade: There were lots of food choices at the Promenade Cafe (sandwiches, salads and baked goods) and Sorrentos (pizza, antipasto, desserts). The lines were long at Sorrentos, but they went much faster than they looked. There were different drinks at the different bars on the Royal Promenade. Note: Vintages has little to no choices that are covered by the drink package [you only have to pay the difference, but there are lots of other choices elsewhere that are covered]. My wife's favorite drink was at the Hoof and Claw Pub which was a mixed drink including strawberry, liquor and beer. It sounds odd, but it was delicious.  

Entertainment: We went to In the Air and it was amazing. It was really well done and had you on the edge of your seat at points. This was family friendly and my kids loved it as well. We also went to Encore (the ice show). It was also very good. It was fun and enjoyable and the kids also liked it. We chose to skip Saturday Night Fever as it is not for our kids and there were other activities we wanted to do.

Other Activities: We did sports trivia at the Schooner Bar (where I got a great old fashioned and a brandy alexander), and Family Karaoke at On Air bar [where we had amazing service from Roger]. Roger always found us seats and ensured that my daughter had a martini glass full of maraschino cherries. We played mini-golf one day and it was fun.  

Cupcake Decorating Class: My wife and daughter did this class on one of the sea days. It was $30 per person, but since my wife was helping my daughter and not participating alone they only charge for one person. They had over an hour with the head pastry chef on how to decorate cupcakes and they made 6 cupcakes and were given two extras of different animals and colors. This was "the best $30 we have spent in a long time" according to my wife.  

Suite Lounge: This was a nice area to get away from the loud crowds. We went in there a few times during the day to play board games and relax with the view. Nightly there was a cocktail period with appetizers from 4:30-8. This was a great nightly routine to go get a drink and snacks (my kids loved the samosas so much they barely ate dinner on of the nights) and shirley temples for the kids.  

Excursions: We did excursions at Roatan and Cozumel. We chose to stay on the boat in Belize. We wanted to spend on day on the boat when it was in port to enjoy an empty boat. It was great. My kids were able to ride the slides continuously for roughly an hour without any lines. 

Roatan: We did Big French Key. This was a good excursion. It is a 20 minute bus ride to the boat that takes you to the island. Our tour guide was very knowledgable and we learned a lot about Roatan during the ride. Then it was a 4 minute ride out to the island. there are two different excursions out this way. Big French Key and Little French Key. Big French Key had signifcantly less activities than Little French Key, but seemed more mellow. They share a lagoon so you see the other group. I would recommend water shoes as there were a lot of rocks. Not required because we did not have them, but it would have been nice. The food was included, but drinks were extra. We wanted a relaxing beach day for the kids, and that is what we got with Big French Key but if you want more action Little French Key looked like a better option. Our kids just wanted to chase fish and ride the little zipline so this was great for our family.

Cozumel: We went to Nachi Cocom. I had read all the reviews about how great this place was, but it seemed like it was too good to be true. I was wrong. It lived up to all the hype and then some. We got a taxi ($23 each way since we had 5 people) and it took about 15 minutes to get to Nachi Cocom. Upon arrival we had our picture taken, checked in and then were escorted to our Palapa (palm tree that grows big enough to be like an umbrella) and our 3 beach chairs and met our waiter Carlos. We rented a float that could hold all 3 kids for $20. Then we started playing in the ocean. Then the kids wanted to shift to the pool which was fine with us as there was a swim up bar with all drinks included so the kids got to have virgin Pina Coladas and Daiquiris, and we had margaritas. Around 1030 the kitchen opens and you can order off the menu. The food was very tasty and delivered to us at the table we found at the pool by Carlos. It was great. Perfect and relaxing day. They only let in 130 people a day so it is a big spread out area and it felt like even less people than advertised because of this. We paid about $130 for all 5 of us since our daughter was free. This was extremely well worth it, and we will book there again on our next cruise.  

In conclusion: This was an amazing cruise for us. Where we are in life we could not have asked for a better time or ship. It was large, but small enough to navigate with many options of activities and our room was great for when we wanted to come and relax. We booked again for next spring break this time in an Owner’s Suite and we have another family joining us too!  I can’t wait.  I cannot recommend this highly enough. If you are on the fence YOLO BOOK IT!

Ooooh have fun! 

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! It’s FINALLY cruise time! 
We are headed to Hong Kong to board Spectrum for a back-to-back, 7 days to Japan and Philippines and then 4 days to Vietnam.
Our bags are packed:

We fly from Tokyo, where we currently live, to Hong Kong today on Cathay Pacific. The flight is about 5 hours with a one hour time change. Cathay Pacific is generally a solid choice for flying around the region and the weather forecast is decent, so we should have a smooth day <knocks on all the wooden things>

One 22” suitcase, one 24”, and a backpack. The only reason for the backpack is to hold MisterZ’s work laptop (boo!) and his Child (otherwise known as his camera — details on this later if I can cajole him into giving me some photos for this blog). 
 
And we’re off!

Wednesday - Nov 20th - Curacao
Did I mention I’m a beach girl? I absolutely love the beach and it’s nearly impossible to make me leave.  Although I have quick access here at home in NJ, our beaches are obviously nothing like the Caribbean.  With that in mind, I booked a morning beach excursion thru RC from 9:15-1:15 which allowed my beach fix, then we were free to go explore Curacao on our own.   We went to the Blue Bay Resort and it was beautiful. It included chairs and a bottle of water.  (I purchased it at 27 pp) Since we had the drink package we already had water with us so we skipped it and scored an awesome spot.  There were some rain clouds, and it drizzled a little bit but it didn’t ruin our beach day at all.  We didn’t have snorkel gear but we were able to see some fish anyway.  Hubby drank the local beer and I had to have a blue drink - when in Curacao right? We also ordered a small appetizer which held us over a bit.  There were some iguanas around and they were cool to watch.
I noticed they had a donation box for a “cat cafe”. After inquiring about it, one of the staff members showed me they have an area where they feed the local cats (they are all vetted & fixed). I love cats, so I of course I donated and a few of them even came out for us.  It definitely passed the time because our tour bus was almost half an hour late picking us up.  If I had another tour scheduled I would have been a nervous wreck.  
I had decided that we would walk around Punda,. Can you tell Hubby has no interest in planning at all?  It was amazing to finally see the Queen Emma Bridge and that famous strip of buildings in person. I took a ton of pictures.  I was on a mission to go to a store called Cornerstone.  Google “Skadey Cat Curacao” and you will see it.  I mentioned I love cats right? The artist there Melissa paints them and we had been messaging each other back and forth on Instagram.  It was such a pleasure to meet her in person.  I picked out my own Skadey Cat and she wrapped it with so much care.  (I'm happy to say it survived our flight home.) We stayed a while chatting and it was really nice.  Hubby really enjoyed the air conditioning as well.  
It was really hot out that day and we walked all over Punda, with me snapping pictures on my Iphone all day long.  Eventually hubby said we both needed a break, so before heading back over the bridge we stopped at the Iguana Cafe where we enjoyed a drink and the nice cool breeze.  The only thing that was somewhat annoying is that I’m not used to people smoking at restaurants and the group that sat down after us had a few cigar smokers, hence only one drink. 
Once back over the bridge we walked up the steps to the fort and took in the views from there one last time.  We weren’t really interested in any of the shops or the bars there so we took a nice leisurely walk back to the ship and showered before dinner.
We had a MTD reservation in the MDR.  I had the Eggplant & Olive Tartare and hubby had the Seafood vol-au-vent. After tasting mine, hubby asked for his own eggplant appetizer.  He said it was much better than his.  He ordered Beef Stroganoff and I originally ordered the lasagne, but after I ordered it,I regretted it so I quickly changed it to the NY Strip.  It was delicious, cooked perfect for me (medium rare) and we both enjoyed it.  For dessert he had the Coconut Layer Cake which he said was just okay and I had the Creme Brulee which is a favorite of mine and did not disappoint. 
We ended up back in the Bull and Bear. We were having a great time but we were tired from the past 2 days and with an early morning planned we were in bed by 11ish. 
I think I've written enough for today, I'm not sure if anyone is actually reading this, but I'll add more after Thanksgiving.
**Note - I have no idea why some of my pictures are facing the wrong way.  They are fine on my computer but not on this blog.  
 

Day2 - At Sea
Sheesh! Am I ever going to catch up??!!  It's really Day 4, so I'll give a quick review of Days 2 and 3, In my defense, I'm typing with my thumbs on my Samsung Tab A.
Day 2- woke up at 8:11; remembered I had volunteered to sell raffle tickets from 9-11. No time for coffee, let alone breakfast so I hastened to my post in the Centrum. Sold about 180 raffle tickets (pretty good odds -- 1 in 200 chance of winning $2000 at $20/ticket (did i mention how generous bikers can be?). Brunch in the WJ, dinner in the MDR.  Still waiting for crab cakes to appear on the menu.  No dice but there was lobster (or mzy e crawfish on steroids).  I tried to be good, and had one lobster tail and herb crusted salmon (really good!). Early shore excursion the next day so went to bed early.
 
Day 3
Oooffff!  5:45 came way too Early! 0645 (that's military for 6:45 am) show up time in the Pacifica Theater for our Segway tour on Grand Cayman, It was great, just like last time, and we got to ride on the beach ( I didn't know the can go through (shallow) water, but they can!  Walked around Georgetown looking for a new smaller SD card for my camera -- it's an older DSLR that doesn't like the 16GB card in it now -- but no dice, do I'm stuck with my phone (or this tablet) for now.  Dinner in the Windjammer -- including some awesome Caribbean meat pies -- and then an early night.