GregD

Yup, we have seen that one, but have not done it. Maybe this time we will do it since Coco Cay is down

Can’t wait to follow along!!

Yup, with the Odyssey “sale price” of $82, that means 102.50 per day on boats prices.

Yup, I will post them in my live blog for you.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you as well!!

Crisis most likely avoided. I checked James Van Fleets twitter and other weather related computer models and it actually looks like this storm will actually track east of the Bahamas. Now I can go back to procrastinating about packing, and more importantly, the two islands hit hard by the previous hurricane get a reprieve again.

@spiralqueen, this one

Here we go again. I'll be watching this one closely........Hopefully our Monday embarkation happens!

That's really funny. We are looking forward to the Halloween Party.

We are getting closer. We got our Suite Concierge email today

4 days 5 hours 52 minutes until wheels up!

That’s about how it’s going to go!

At this point, I usually verify that I have everything purchased in the cruise planner I could possibly want. Then I start setting aside travel documents in a set place, passports etc, you know moving them from the “I won’t lose them if I put them here spot” to another “I won’t lose them if I put them here” I make sure I am checked in online and have set sail passes/luggage tags done too. I start thinking about a packing list and taking stock of little things you may need. Sunscreen, small bottles of Tylenol/Advil other OTC meds etc etc I usually don’t start actually packing until a few days prior. For instance we are leaving Friday afternoon this week for our cruise that starts next Monday and I have not packed a thing. You have time still. Relax and get excited. Set sail date will be here before you know it!

@AshleyDillo, as much as I would love to fill those gaps.....sadly my bank account will be keeping my in dry dock for those periods?

I am taking YOLO up a notch

Great blog so far. I cant wait to do an Alskan cruise.

Like @JLMoran mentioned look for outside areas too. The windjammer can also get very crowed on embarkation day so make sure you bring a lot of patience that day. On our Anthem cruise I know I got a lot of inappropriate things yelled at me as I went ahead of the enormous line to go into Coastal Kitchen, which has its entrance just outside the entrance to the Windjammer. Other prime times it can get a little crowded. We used the strategy of sending one person to secure a table while the other got some food, then swapped.

My thoughts exactly!

Yes Coco Cay is open. No all activites are fully operatonal yet. We will be there nexr week and were advised by Royal that our booked Up Up and Away Helium ride will not happen. I am not sure about everything else though.

Perfect Day at Coco Cay changes Got an email from Royal Dear Guest, We’re happy to have you onboard Royal Caribbean International and wanted to let you know that Perfect Day at CocoCay officially re-opened last week. While CocoCay was somewhat spared from Hurricane Dorian's destruction and we did not have any major damage, the storm left behind debris, washed away some of our sand and bricks, and took down many of our trees. As a result, your pre-booked Helium Balloon unfortunately needs to be cancelled. You can except to receive a refund to your credit card used to pay for your tour in about 3 - 5 business days. If you are interested in booking a different tour, here are some of our recommendations. Thrill Waterpark Zipline Thank you for understanding. Sincerely, Royal Caribbean International I can completely understand this. They had to empty the ballon to keep it safe. I believe I remember reading that it takes a long time to refill the baloon, and costs a lot of money for the helium. Hopefully they built in a recapture system to store the helium so they dont have to purchase a new supply each time.

Me too. I don’t know what I am more excited for, the vacation itself, or the look on the kids faces when they find out what’s going on each time!

I'll be on Navigator next week. I will report back on my mattress!

Cabin Another story here…. After our Anthem of the Seas cruise in 2018, my wife, now unashamedly, is a suite snob. Frankly, I whole heartedly support this as well. So, when we booked this cruise, we booked a grand suite. The price was decent, done. The Owners suites were more than what we wanted to spend, and the 1 Royal Suite was WAY more. After the cruise was booked, I kept an eye on prices, made some adjustments here or there and the waiting game began. We thought, who knows, maybe we can try to see what could happen with a Royal Up bid A few months ago, while doing a routine price check, I see a 2br grand suite is now available. A quick phone call to Royal, and we are now sailing in a 2br grand suite for about the same price as what we booked the cruise for originally. A few weeks ago, we did get the Royal Up email. We had the option for an Owners Suite or the Royal Suite. We bid on the Royal Suite, but I’m not going to hold my breath since looking now, all the suites are sold out. Pre-Cruise Like I said, we are flying in a few days early. Friday 9/20 we are flying into FLL. Southwest flights were much cheaper and had more convenient times than flying to MIA. So, the plan is we will rent a car to use for the couple days prior to be able to explore around etc without a ton of Uber/Lyft charges. Embarkation day I will drop the family off at the port around 10, bring the car back to MIA and take the enterprise shuttle back to the port. I looked at dropping off at other locations near the port, but this was the most cost effective. We are staying at the Gates Hotel South Beach. We picked this hotel due to its proximity to south beach and Heather wanted direct beach access without having to pay a super-premium price. She is a Hilton member through her job, so that also narrows the choices. This hotel also includes its own area for chairs and other activities too on the beach. Post Cruise This is where it also gets fun. After disembarkation, we will be taking the shuttle to MIA for another rental car which we will drive to Orlando with. Friday evening, we have tickets to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s No So Spooky Halloween Party. Heather is a huge Disney fan and is really looking forward to this. Much to my dismay, she has us all wearing Hocus Pocus themed shirts for that night….yay… Saturday, we have tickets to Universal Studios. Gotta check out the new Hagrid Ride…. And again, we have matching themed shirts. At least this time, they are Hogwarts/Harry Potter ones. Sunday, we head home. The Surprise Like I said earlier, this whole trip will be a surprise for the kids. The plan to make this work is that we will be packing in secret. We will drop the kids off at school on Friday, then load up the car. We will pick the kids up at dismissal at school and go straight to the airport. At this point, We will let them in on a little bit of the surprise, which will be we are just going to Florida and will be on the beach. On cruise day, we will pack up the car and say we are headed to another hotel, but not tell them that the hotel is the cruise ship. This is going to be so much fun. I plan on writing about our experiences at Disney and Universal as well so grab the popcorn and wine, its going to be a wild ride and thanks for following along!

Itinerary This is a long and convoluted story on how we ended up on this cruise. We were originally going on at trip to Costa Rica with some cousins who had to back out, so we decided to back out of that trip as well. Heather not wanting to miss out on a vacation during the fall put her “bad influencer” hat on, took me to lunch at my favorite watering hole, and after a few beverages, says to me, since we aren’t going to Costa Rica, what about a cruise this fall, and BOOM, out came my phone and I was in full planning mode. She often tells me I should become a travel agent! So, we quickly settled on a 4-night Navigator Cruise to Nassau and Coco Cay. We chose this one because we wanted to try out a relatively recently amped ship and wanted to check out the Coco Cay improvements. We also were at Coco Cay in 2018 with the kids, who LOVED it there. When our son saw @matt video about Perfect Day at Coco Cay, he was amazed and said we HAVE TO GO BACK!! Someday Johnny, someday……. Nassau will be Atlantis, because well, we love it there Coco Cay we have a Chill Island cabana. Here is a perfect example of where early booking is beneficial. When on Coco Cay in 2018, we had a Chill Island Cabana and really liked it. It was great having our own little section of the beach where it was easier to keep an eye on the kids, so we knew this was needed again. So back to alcohol lubricated cruise planning. As soon as the cruise was booked, and available to be found in our cruise planner we purchased the cabana for $325. A few days later they were $900. We had considered a Thrill Water park cabana, but we have slides on the ship, slides at Atlantis, and our son isn’t tall enough for all the slides. Our kids will be perfectly content with the free area slides and activities. Ten minutes later, internet and deluxe beverage packages were booked, Up Up And Away was reserved and we were set. This was a very productive day drinking lunch. We did not book specialty dining because frankly we are perfectly satisfied with the food in the MDR. This cruise vacation will also be extended both pre and post cruise. We are flying down a few days early and will be staying a few days after as well. More on that to come.

We are now just about one week out from the cruise, so it is about time to get this party started. This will be my first attempt at a live blog so we shall see how this goes. I think we can title this blog Navigating around the hurricanes. 4 night Navigator Cruise 9/23-9/27 Who’s Going? For this trip, it will be the whole family. I’m Greg, the primary planner, my wife Heather who is the “bad influence” on the planner, and our daughter Lydia (9) and son Johnny (6). This whole trip is a surprise to the kids. They have no idea that we are going.