PRebecca

Oh thank goodness. That's actually kinda cool then. Run straight to the buffet before it gets completely nuts. 
That is another thing, we don't go to the buffet that first day at all. It's too bad because it's a great place to start your cruise but it's too insane. It's just too crowded and too many rude people in there. In fact I think going forward I am going up try to book a specialty restaurant lunch for embarkation day. Can you even do that? I'd like to do that. 

No, no real perks to speak of.
Well... except for the schadenfreude you'll feel while watching all the other poor sods with their sad faces as they leave, knowing you're re-boarding in just a few minutes. ?
 

Well back from our Anthem cruise that Bermuda was shortened to just 8-9 his instead of 36 hours it was supposed to be. 
We had a freaking blast. What a great and beautiful ship. This was our second time on her and I like it, getting to know the ship and it kinda becomes like home. 
We learned a few things here or really agreed upon a few things here. My wife and I agree that 5 day cruises are not worth it. It's just too short in our opinion. We also agreed not to sail in hurricane season anymore. We have almost exclusively sailed in hurricane season but I think we are done with it. 
We are already booked for Oasis May 10th from NJ so we are very excited. It's just about the first time we are sailing outside of official hurricane season. Could it happen, if course but at least it really shouldn't. 
Oh and diving to Cape Liberty and the process was insanely easy and stress free. We always get dropped off but decided to drive this time. Beyond way and Matt's and everyone here had great advice. It was pretty much exactly as people described and that gave us advice. So thank you to everyone that gave us advice!

Ohhh thanks for the heads up on this! I had purchased at $38 for my May 2020 Harmony sailing but with the full intentions of cancelling it if it never dropped. I saved $168 and got the lower $30 price which is the high end of what I'm willing to pay. I also hope it goes down more but I can rationalize $30. $38 is just absurd though. 

Mine went from $37.99 yesterday to $29 today for our sailing on Allure November 2020; hoping it gets to $25 (wow $19.99!!) to purchase; mine planner also says ONLINE ONLY

I need to amend my above figures as I consulted with the CEO (Wifey) and we booked in March of 2019. Our booking includes  our 2 sons in an Ocean View Cabin and my wife and I in an Ocean View Balcony Cabin. The combined price drop has been a tad over $2600.oo! We are newbies and didn't book ASAP because we didn't know that strategy at the time. This site has been AWESOME! We are also cruising over New Years, potentially the most expensive time to cruise, another newbie mistake. I guess my point is that the seasoned cruisers know all the tricks and won't see big discounts on their cruise fare. Most of us first timers though really benefit from that weekly call to check rates. We don't bother to look at the promotions because the fine print is just about infinite. Just call and ask if the rate is lower.  To all you regular contributors the extra green is very much appreciated! THANK YOU  

Hi Everyone
We are booked on Mediterranean Venice August next year on Vision of the Seas. 
This will be our first cruise and it is for a couple of special family occasions. 
we are looking for suggestions for shore excursions as we can’t seem to find much info online yet. 
mid there anyone who has done this cruise that could give us an idea of what to expect perhaps? 

simple.  maybe 2' deep and you're only about 10' from dry sand.  
Drinks are (as i recall) $5.  First one included
 
 
 
 

The wfiey and I are going on our first ever cruise on the LOS in May of '20.  Everyone that we have talked to that have been on cruises tell us we will love it and become hooked from the get go.  Wifey is sure of this, I am... well... optimistically hopeful ?.
So we decided to go "big" ish for our first (which will also be on our 25th anniversary) and booked a Grand Suite, will probably do the UDP and DBP... cause we will never know if we don't try, right?
All that being said we have a couple questions:
Our LOS itinerary includes Falmouth.  We probably aren't going to do any excursions there but just kind of freestyle it.  We have read that it is really unsafe to leave the port on your own and we have read that it is fine.  Thoughts?  
Being that we are virgins, what do you wish you would have done or knew before going on your first?  Any absolutely must or must not do items?  
Being that we're giving this whole cruising thing a whirl we have decided to book an Alaska cruise for '21.  So... What time of the season would you go to Alaska?  I know this is a super subjective question but are there any significant pros/cons of going early (May-June) vs. later (August-September)... mid June through early August isn't a possibility.  Royal or Celebrity?  We are leaning towards Royal but... Thanks in advance for any helpful thoughts and insight you might be able to give us desert dwelling cruise virgins.
 

Anthem Thanksgiving sailing is down to 48.

We're going on our first cruise ever, too, on Brilliance, April 9, 2020. I've been making the most of the anticipation by reading this blog and so far I've bought (on amazon.com) lanyards, magnetic hooks, a pill organizer, and a power strip. And a guide book with a map of Cozumel. We probably don't really need all that, but it's fun to get ready. I'm thinking about clothes to pack, but since we live in Florida it will probably be just our usual clothes. I plan to do a lot of loafing and hanging very loose, just enjoying the sea and salt air.

One just has to look at comments posted on social media to see that many these days are very hard to please.  It seems like everyone is complaining about something.

Plan some time and effort to strike your deals, as last year Royal's web site was terribly slow/backed up.  With that in mind, well worth the effort as we saved over $900 on excursions for two.  And yes, per prior comment, Monday was included last year.

Thank-you everyone!  You answered my question and so much more!  I love these forums! ? 

Hello everyone. I've been lurking for the last 6 weeks or so. I found the YouTube channel shortly after booking our upcoming cruise which then led me here. The information I've found has been great, thank you all for sharing your experiences and thoughts. 
We're booked on Majesty out of NOLA in March of 2020 for 7 nights. I have cruised with RCCL before but that was forever ago, mid 90's, when Majesty would have been in her prime. I don't remember what ship I was on then unfortunately. My wife has never cruised. We were booked last spring on an Oasis class but life got in the way and we had to cancel. NOLA is within driving distance from where we're currently stationed, so when we saw that RC would be sailing from there, it made planning this trip much easier. We were married in 2016 and never took a honeymoon or even an extended vacation type trip like this so we're super excited. We look forward to learning more from everyone and sharing anything we may learn from our trip,175 days to go!

After dinner I caught a sunset over the Olympic Mountains.  

Always beautiful.

Following the Joy out towards the Pacific.

I seem to gravitate to the North Star bar.

Solarium at sunset.

Time to bring you all up to speed, or at least up to date.
It's Day 3 here on Ovation but now that we've entered into our sea day phase I have some time to play catch up.  Unlike some other users who post in this section of the forum, I chose not to start this thread one year before sailing.  
Ten nights Vancouver, BC, Canada to Honolulu, HI.
Day 1 - Vancouver
Day 2 - Seattle
Day 3 - 6 - Sea Day
Day 7 - Cruising Napali Coast
Day 8/9 - Overnight in Maui
Day 10 - Kona
Day 11 - Debark in Honolulu
I flew into Vancouver the day before on September 19 and stayed at the Hilton Vancouver Airport.  It's significantly cheaper staying out by the airport compared to downtown.  I thought about going over to the Lions Gate Bridge for Ovation's arrival into Vancouver but low tide was around 4am when it would pass under the bridge so I stayed in bed.  
I'm not going to post everything in real time for this cruise but will drop in from time to time to post or show some pictures if anything interesting comes up.    

No one from this blog was on that sailing that we are aware of...BUT...there are quite a few of us in the Netflix movie "Like Father" that was filmed during a Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise!!!  

My family to include two teenage kids (b/g) did the Dunns river + tubing last time we were there.  The family enjoyed all of it but were mixed on which part they liked best.  Either way all of us indicated we would do it again and it was awesome to experience the falls again with the kids since we did it pre kids.  The walk on the falls was not too bad and there were different routes so you can go with the route that is best suited for you.
 
A piece of advice.  You will be hounded to buy the CD, souvenirs, and beverages.  From the time you arrive at Dunns river until the bus departs.  We bought the CD and while it was nice it was really poor quality and not cheap.  Bring a go pro instead.  I wish I had done that.
D

I'm on board and have shown your post to guest services.  It's early here so only one GS person on shift right now.  They will engage the guest service manager and housekeeping manager later this morning when they come on duty.
The problem with cash is that it's an easy claim to make.  I'm not saying your story isn't true but with so many people trying to cash in on scams these days everyone including Royal needs to be extra diligent to validate such claims.  
I'm assuming they still have your contact information from the previous voyage.  If they need to contact you they will directly without me being involved any further.

Me at 110 days.

I'm sure I've read this post about nine times before but since my countdown is currently at 13 days I am reading it again. 

We have actually done a practice pack so we are finishing purchasing some last minute stuff (new flip flops for me, travel bottles for him, etc.). I just started a new job and its busy season so i knew it would be rough to do a practice pack with my SO before the trip. I am definitely relaxing and getting excited just trying to make sure I haven't forgotten anything major! 

It was their original plan, but the intern only typed in the information about the $50 OBC.