PRebecca

I have to share my experience from July 2019 that's similar to@SpeedNoodles . I placed a Royal up bid and was notified we won but the card was declined. I was able to immediately resolve it and provide a new card to secure the bid we'd won. 
 
I don't remember all the details but I know that I was immediately able to resolve it with the information provided to me from Royal or the the Royalup folks. 
 
Congrats to all who won and happy cruising!

Tonight’s sunset.  

Good morning from….take a guess. I’m planning on grabbing one of the loungers and try to catch up. I know it’s a slogan but it really is a perfect day. My Bloody Mary is in transit to the cabana. 

Amazing.  I'm at home ironing and you have already finished eating at Sabor.

Maybe Star Class is better than Twangster Class.  

My name is SuperStarian (aka Ashley Joy) and I have worn shorts to the MDR.
In my defense, they were knee-length, linen-type shorts. It was a last minute dinner decision. It was not formal night.

I was hoping that group would charter the 1/6/23 sailing but that is a short 4 night cruise and I can't imagine anyone in that group wants to get the short stick.  

I really have no info BUT I would suspect that it has been chartered.  A certain lifestyle group charters an O class ship every year in January.  In 2022 it is Oasis.  I know b/c the 1-16-22 sailing was the middle sailing of a B3B Star Class trio that I had booked.  It totally dicked-up my plans (see what I did there ?).   So it could be something else but my money is on this explanation.

In 5 1/2 hours we’ll rise and shine and head to the airport. This party is about to finally get started! We spoke on the phone with the Amazing Romina yesterday morning and again this morning. Can’t wait to meet her.
Everyone did the Binax proctored at home tests. Taylor was first at around 530 this morning and the rest of us followed throughout the day. 10 negative tests later, the group is good to go. The four of us who took the tests at our house all had the same experience. Log on and we were taking the test within two minutes. Fifteen minutes later we had results. In my opinion, it’s a convenient, easy way to do it. 
I’ll begin to post daily now. If you have questions I’ll do my best to find answers. I’m looking forward to taking you all with us as we begin what I know will be an amazing week!  I can already taste the mushroom soup!
 

Thanks, you guys!   This community is THE BEST!!!!!!!!

Best I can recall I got an email that I responded to via phone. I distinctly remember having the ability to easily correct the situation but the exact details are fuzzy.  
Sorry for the missing  details (or brain cells) I just know they made it easy to resolve.  
 

Best I can recall I got an email that I responded to via phone. I distinctly remember having the ability to easily correct the situation but the exact details are fuzzy.  
Sorry for the missing  details (or brain cells) I just know they made it easy to resolve.  
 

I have to share my experience from July 2019 that's similar to@SpeedNoodles . I placed a Royal up bid and was notified we won but the card was declined. I was able to immediately resolve it and provide a new card to secure the bid we'd won. 
 
I don't remember all the details but I know that I was immediately able to resolve it with the information provided to me from Royal or the the Royalup folks. 
 
Congrats to all who won and happy cruising!

Just want to reach out to Matt and Mods for this wonderful informative entertaining blog.
It has been awesome and very active with most of us back sailing. That is all.

I have to share my experience from July 2019 that's similar to@SpeedNoodles . I placed a Royal up bid and was notified we won but the card was declined. I was able to immediately resolve it and provide a new card to secure the bid we'd won. 
 
I don't remember all the details but I know that I was immediately able to resolve it with the information provided to me from Royal or the the Royalup folks. 
 
Congrats to all who won and happy cruising!

I have to share my experience from July 2019 that's similar to@SpeedNoodles . I placed a Royal up bid and was notified we won but the card was declined. I was able to immediately resolve it and provide a new card to secure the bid we'd won. 
 
I don't remember all the details but I know that I was immediately able to resolve it with the information provided to me from Royal or the the Royalup folks. 
 
Congrats to all who won and happy cruising!

On a positive related note, I had a SW flight this weekend that was a casualty of this. Fortunately I was already on the getting home leg of my travel.  I was able to self-book on a flight 12 hours later through the SW app and made it home. I have an annual travel insurance policy which covered the extra rental car charges and meals. SW just sent me an unsolicited voucher for $100 as an apology. My original flight was only $59. 
One of my traveling companions had rebooked on a different airline and received an unsolicited $250 voucher.  And one had actually contacted SW to compliment how easy it was to rebook and that the flight attendants and gate agents we dealt with were still pleasant despite the circumstances and she got a $150 voucher. So it looks like they're trying to at least make it right and be more in line with the customer service levels that they used to be associated with.

Day 13 - At Sea
Our last full day! How can this be??!?
The crew is looking forward to an extra day off between our arrival in Miami and the repositioning to Tampa. A number of them have talked about having a beer and laying by the pool for a day.
The interesting thing that happened today was that Captain Stig was displeased with how the Canal treated his lady. He found us a calm spot of ocean and we sat for about an hour while crews cleaned up and painted some scrapes. The captain said he didn’t want to go into Miami looking like we had been in a fight 🙂 

We stopped next to a haunted lighthouse in the Bahamas.

Our last towel art:

 

After following a few blogs, and benefiting from the tips and advice provided, I’m now inspired to share my first time experience cruising in a Grand Loft Suite on QoTS in early Nov.  QoTS will not be making any stops at nearby ports and it’s a cruise to nowhere i.e. everyday is sea day.  
We are staying in Suite 10324, instead of a corner loft, thanks to advice from @WAAAYTOOO.
We’ve done 4 cruises (last 3 ones on Royal Caribbean), always in a balcony or junior suite.  Cruisers include my hubby (we’re celebrating his birthday!) and my son.  Poor daughter was initially included but we had to remove her last week as she realised that she has some school activity that she cannot skip.  
We did the questionnaire in end Sep and our genie, Eli, got in touch with us on 3 Oct asking about our plans.  I’ve asked if we could get a picture taken at the helipad (hubby’s birthday wish), still waiting for Eli to get back to us on that.  
Quite excited as there is a couple of first times for us - rock climbing for my son, celebrating a birthday on a cruise, iFly and NorthStar for all of us, taking a pic at helipad for all of us, having the deluxe drinks package (we’re not big on alcoholic drinks so never took this package in the past) and perhaps FlowRider for me (yes I’ve never tried FlowRider!).
17 sleeps to embarkation day!  

Every time I see Waterpark prices I laugh at how clueless I was when booking for our February 2020 cruise.  “Is $24.99 a good price?” 😄😄😄

Congratulations!! How exciting!! I love these posts!

Congratulations!! How exciting!! I love these posts!

Congratulations!! How exciting!! I love these posts!

I had a “charge without card present” notification pop up on my phone from AMEX for $470 from Royal and at first I thought “what the hell is this”?  LOL ….. Then I noticed I had an email and saw we won our upgrade bid to go from a Grand Suite to a Crown Loft Suite.  I was a little worried it may be a crappy location, but no …… it’s # 1720 …… so happy!!!!  I really didn’t think we’d get it for only $470 total.  Can’t wait for Saturday even more now!!

 

@WAAAYTOOO asked for an update, and everything is (almost) complete. The decking around the firepit (where it was torn down and rebuilt) was fixed, and sod and sprinklers are in place. We have French drains between our house and the neighbor's which the landscapers covered with sod, so we're waiting on them to unbury the drain grates. The landscape company cut our internet line while digging for the sprinklers. Internet company came out to fix it the next day, but the internet guys cut the backwash pipe when they buried the cable. 🙈 They ran to Home Depot for pvc and fixed it right away. Otherwise everything is done. The pool company provided glass for the firepit - our choices were blue or black. I'm going to take about half of the dark blue out and mix it with a lighter blue and a gold. The pool company installed an alarm on our back door late last week. The final step is for the city to inspect that device is installed. 
MIL came to visit the kids and see the pool at the end of August. It's gotten too cold to swim in the pool, but we've enjoyed the hot tub now that the weather has turned. At this point, I'm calling the project done. Just in time to get serious about our cruise in February! 

Day 10 - Panama Canal
Wow. I love it when something you’ve built up in your head delivers in real life! The weather was a bit variable — thunderstorms, sun, on repeat, but it didn’t matter at all.
Panama City in the distance:

We approached the Miraflores locks at about 7am, after passing under the Bridge of the Americas.



One of 6 mules that guided us through each section:

Pretty sure this guy was some sort of supervisor 😉 :

The entrance to the new locks on the Miraflores side. Hard to show, but that giant ship is already about 35 feet above sea level.

Once past Miraflores, we had a stretch of more natural feeling waterway on our way to the last lock before Lake Gatun:

One of the many tugs that shepherded the various ships:

A closer look at workings of one of the locks:


We had a couple of rain showers while we were in Lake Gatun so the photos weren’t stellar.
Finally we came to the Gatun locks and the Atlantic Bridge:



We reached the Caribbean about 4pm, so the whole transit took approximately 9 hours. The captain said that was about as fast as it is ever done.
What an amazing day!