MO & LO on the go!

Here is the discover scuba in St Maarten

Here is the Zipline in Antigua

When I get the zipline in St Kitts ready Ill post that.  St Kitts zipline was much shorter in terms of lines but much easier.

50 minutes ago, Srp431 said:

San Juan has a really big and interesting fort you can visit in Old San Juan that you can walk to, very interesting and you get some great views as well

Agreed!  Very cool place to check out!

7 minutes ago, ARS said:

Thank you so much for your reply. Is it worth buying the package though? Currently the deal is for $20 per person , how much is it usually? 

For our Feb 2020 cruise the sale price is $22.  $20 is a great price!  In regards to "is it worth it".....that's kind of up to you.  Depends how much you drink off of it.  In my opinion the bottle water alone is worth it enough for us because we slam the water as much as we can everywhere we go.  And of the course the fresh squeezed OJ!!!

2 minutes ago, mworkman said:

@MO & LO on the go! Each are different in there own and both were great, so i can't say one was better that the other.

So let me ask this then....What did you like (or what was your favorite) about each one individually?

The main advantage of buying Royal is the guarantee to get back to the ship.  This is great for unexpected problems because royal guarantees they get you back on board.  Non royal excursions you would be on your own if you miss the boat.  This happened to a friend of mine but thankfully they had a royal excursion so they got to the ship as it was leaving.  They were put on a boat and caught up to the ship as it was leaving port.  You will pay a little more for that piece of mind though.

What kind of things do you like?  How adventurous are you guys?  How much do you want to spend?  We have done several excursions at these ports and some we have videos so you can actually see it

20 hours ago, Matt said:

If you've never been, Waffle House is a cultural experience.

Make sure you aren't too far from a bathroom after this...........

We ate at a hibachi place on Las Olas Blvd (can't remember the name) where you can sit basically outside and it was AWESOME!!!!  We loved it!  Especially nice for us in January coming from MN 

On 11/6/2019 at 5:12 AM, mworkman said:

Curacao - Fascinating Curacao http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=CU44&DestinationCode=

                 Caves and City Center http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=CU85&DestinationCode=

 

Both of these seem very interesting...enjoyed one more than the other?

I bring my own yeti and hydroflask mugs/cups.  I just take what they give me and pour it in those.  If it's the freestyle i use their cup and transfer.  My wife uses the cup they provide so we have it with to use the freestyle.  I even pour my coffee from their cups to mine to keep it hot.  Never had any issues and Ive seen many others do the same.  I also take water bottles and empty them in to the mugs so I can have lots of cold water in one container!  Works great for taking water to shore excursions!

In regards to excursions...

We did zipline in st kitts.  That was nice.  Working on our video of the experience now and hope to have it up this weekend so you could check that out to see if its for you.  Also did the dolphins there on a different cruise which was nice.  

In St lucia we did an island tour which was also really cool.  Great island.

Barbados we have done several snorkel type excursions.  My biggest complaint with those is ALL THE PEOPLE.  I can't tell you how many times i was kicked because the people are PACKED in the area trying to see the sunken items.  VERY CROWDED but still mostly enjoyable if you can make some space.

In regards to "virgin islands" Im not sure which one you are going to since there are several there.  And for "St Martinique" do you mean "St Maarten" or "Martinique".  2 different locations.  We have been to both.  If you mean St maarten we did a discover scuba which was awesome if you want to try scuba!  Wee have a video of that excursion

That is a great cruise itinerary and we love it...Im sure you will too!!!

1 hour ago, GrandmaAirplane said:

Don’t the Chill Island cabanas have a maximum of 6 - as do the Thrill Island and Oasis pool cabanas?

From what I can see in my Cruise Planner, the only cabanas that can accommodate 8 are in the Coco Beach Club restricted section (landside & overwater). For those, in a landside cabana for sure, all you’d need would be two extra child-priced Day passes to the Beach Club.

Book the landside cabana in the name of one adult, and add the two kids’ Day passes from the same room to the booking at the same time. That should fly without a hitch, as there’s no restricted access to those cabanas once in the Beach Club. However, expect some difficulty with doing that with the overwater cabanas though, since those are “off” the beach.

We had a chill island cabana and we had 8.   That was the maximum allowed 

On 10/31/2019 at 6:11 AM, FionaMG said:

In Aruba, you could look at the trikes tour https://trikes-aruba.com/ or one of the ATV tours https://actiontoursaruba.com/

We booked the trikes!  Cant wait to get some great video from that experience!  Thanks for the info!  Now still checking on Curacao options...

15 hours ago, twangster said:

When you purchase anything in the cruise planner you will be charged immediately.  It’s part of the checkout process.  
 

If the price drops or you simply change your mind you can cancel your purchase for a refund.  

Just remember that it will take a few days for the money to get credited back to card used.  Never understand how it takes 4-5 days to get my money back but they take it immediately 

We usually only get alcohol drinks during the Diamond happy hour.  If we find a good bartender during that we will tip well after a day or two ($20 or more).  Then the service was OUTSTANDING, had drinks waiting for us when they got low for the rest of the cruise.  Oh and made them stronger for us too  This might apply for people using the drink package at their favorite spot also.

2 hours ago, CGTLH said:

Plus 9 time out 10 all they'll ask for is room number.

This is what we have experienced too.  The rooms are almost always ready by 1pm so it won't be too long of a wait once on board for your key cards.  For added piece of mind I always print a copy of the set sail pass along with having it on the RCCL phone app

1 hour ago, Steve Condron said:

I am traveling to Coco Cay on June 9th on Mariner of the Seas and am looking at a Cabana for my family of 10.  We'll have six adult and four children ages 3, 4, 6, and 10.  The material says the cabana is for 8 people, leaving me short two.   Do the smaller children count or do I need to buy another cabana?  Or can I add two extra?  

My understanding is those age kids would all count.  I am not familiar with a way to "add" people to a single cabana beyond the 8.

50 minutes ago, Srp431 said:

Is there a map showing the cabana numbers?

There was when we picked it on the ship, but sounds like you are not able to pick anymore.

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Wow...what a great itinerary.  I haven't been on Explorer in many years but I love that class of ship so I know you will have a great time.

Say hello to Curacao for me.  It's my favorite Caribbean island (not that I have been to every one of them !!!).  It's so quaint and inviting.  You will learn what "My Dushi" means (a good thing !).

We are very excited for this itinerary!  We have been wanting to do this for awhile and it finally worked out!  So far our favorite island has been St Lucia so we will have to compare that to these new islands.  We will refrain from using google to see what "My Dushi" means  

51 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Sounds like a fantastic trip, and even better for being able to do the ABC islands without having to leave out of OSJ. Looking forward to the coming updates!

Oh, and @Matt / @Lovetocruise2002 -- please don't feel obligated to now start your next live blogs at 100 days out. You really don't need to maintain your titles of King and Queen of the Early Live Blog Start. 

Going out of Florida was such a bonus for us!  So does that mean it's too early to start our live blog for our January 2021 cruise on Harmony????  

4 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I hearby hand in my crown (if there ever was one)...This is an early start to a live blog!

Have fun with your double digit dance!

We were just so excited to start this!  We have a few things left to plan and hope to get some input.  I guess at least we waited for double digits and didn't start in triple digits 

Hello everyone!  We are Matt and Lisa (or MO and LO)!  Matt is the main typer and poster with input from Lisa.

We are now down to double digits for this cruise after booking it with more than 400+ days until we boarded.  We don't remember the exact number of days because it was so painful to see such a high number so we did not pay attention until recently .  We booked it at Next Cruise on a previous cruise and got a $100 OBC!  Next Cruise is our preferred booking location for obvious reasons!  

Only 98 days until we board, 97 until we fly out!  We are flying from Minneapolis to Miami so you can imagine how excited we are to leave Minnesota in February from the cold and snow!  We initially had this booked on the itinerary right before this one but changed it after we figured out that the Super Bowl was in Miami in 2020.  We would have been flying in to Miami on the Saturday before the big game so we decided that it would have been EXTREMELY expensive, busy, and not relaxing or enjoyable for us so changed it to the week later.  Very glad we did this.

Why this cruise?:

• We have never been to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) and REALLY wanted to get there.  We really enjoy longer cruises since we feel like we really get to experience it and settle in.  For us, anything under 7 nights seems too short.  We also like the Voyager Class of ships so it was perfect.  From that class we have been on Adventure (March 2017) and Mariner (May 2019) in the past.  We recently did our first 9 night cruise which was on Serenade (Jan 2019) and learned that the boat was a bit small for us for such a long cruise.  This will be our 10th cruise together and give us a total of 100 points!  Our first together was our honeymoon in 1997 on Monarch out of Puerto Rico.  All our cruises together have been on RCCL.  I (Matt) have been on 1 extra cruise that I took as a kid with my parents on the Big Red Boat (if anyone remembers that one).  

Flights: 

• We are flying on Delta from MSP to MIA on February 6th.  We always go atleast one day early because the weather is unpredictable in Minnesota that time of year and also because the stress of flying and boarding is just miserable......especially if something doesn't go quite right and we get delayed.  We will not land until late at night so that day is purely a travel day.  Unfortunately we learned something about companion fares........they only have so many allowed per flight so you need to book very early.  We did not realize they only allow so many per flight and got burned on this.  Normally we fly out a day or two ahead and hang out but they did not have that option available with the companion fares.  So with the companion fare issues in mind, we had to stay TWO extra days after the cruise to get the first flight available home.  We normally fly out as soon as we can on disembarkation day but now we will have 2 extra days in Miami.  We have never stayed more than a few extra hours after the cruise is over so this will be interesting to try.  We fly back on February 18th.

Room:

• 9th floor balcony 

Excursions: 

• So far we haven't booked anything but will update on that as we continue the planning

Dining & Drink Package: 

• We will be having every meal in the dining room because we love main dining.  We enjoy the personal connection and attention we get from getting to know the dining staff.  By the end of the cruise they have "learned" us  and our needs/wants and we love that!  We will be doing early dining (6pm on this cruise) so that we aren't eating so late at night!  That is always our preferred choice.
• We will be getting the Refreshment Package since we aren't heavy alcohol drinkers.  We WILL be taking part in the Diamond Lounge drinks every night though!  

Full Itinerary:

• Travel Day from MSP to MIA
• Day 1 - Miami 
• Day 2 - Sea Day
• Day 3 - Labadee, Haiti (8am-5pm)
• Day 4 - Sea Day
• Day 5 - Kralendijk, Bonaire (9am-6pm)
• Day 6 - Oranjestad, Aruba (8am-9pm)
• Day 7 - Willemstad, Curacao (8am-5pm)
• Day 8 & 9 - Sea Days
• Day 10 - Miami
• Post cruise day - Miami
• Travel day from MIA to MSP

Hotels:

• We are staying at the airport and downtown Holiday Inns.  Holiday Inn is our preferred chain because of quality and price along with consistency.

This Live (or mostly) Blog:

• We will be doing our best to give live updates as we are doing them but obviously not everything can be live so some things will get posted when we have a chance.

Vlog/Recording/Youtube/Twitter:

• We will be recording/vlogging as much as we can.  We have recorded numerous excursions for our personal collection and friends.  We recently thought that people, like us, would be interested in seeing some of these excursions so they know what they are like and what to expect.  It has helped us in our research of traveling/cruising.  This turned out to be very popular on our YouTube channel so we wanted to expand on that.  This will be our first attempt at that.  Our YouTube channel can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-JW4jgv_suiK-NCHyhQIVA/ .  We will be posting these after they are edited and ready, which will probably be after we are home, but will try to get smaller/shorter things here.  Please subscribe to our channel so you will know when they are posted.  The videos will not just be excursions.  They will include lots of other stuff and we hope to have fun with them.  We will also post to our Twitter account with updates (https://twitter.com/MOLOonthego1).  We just bought the brand new GoPro Hero 8 Black to upgrade from our Hero 4 Silver to get some better quality videos (and not have them shake and bounce all over).

Final Thoughts On First Post:

• We are excited to bring everyone along and showcase how we travel and what we do!!!  We look forward to everyone's comments and reactions to our first trip to the ABC islands!  If you have any questions, suggestions, thoughts please feel free to post on here or reach out to us privately.

On 10/31/2019 at 6:11 AM, FionaMG said:

We did the ABC islands last year so although we are not adventurous ourselves we did uncover quite a lot of stuff that might be of interest to you during our research. 

In Aruba, you could look at the trikes tour https://trikes-aruba.com/ or one of the ATV tours https://actiontoursaruba.com/

In Curação, you could look at Irie Tours all west beach hopping tour https://irietours.com/all-west-beach-hopping

And in Bonaire, if you enjoy snorkeling you don't need to book a tour; you can just get the water taxi over to Klein Bonaire https://www.watertaxikleinbonaire.com/ where the snorkeling is supposed to be fantastic. Our table mates raved about it. Alternatively, another very popular option for Bonaire is to rent a golf cart and drive around the island at your own pace http://www.bonairecruisers.com/

Hope this helps. It's a great itinerary so you're going to have an amazing time. 

Thanks for the suggestions!  We have been to most Caribbean ports EXCEPT these 3 so we are very excited!  Everywhere I research aruba the trikes are mentioned......must be very fun and popular.  We will check out all these suggestions!

21 hours ago, NJCruisers said:

Our cruise to the ABC island's is in 2 weeks and I've booked the following for my husband & I:

Aruba:  Trikes Aruba  https://trikes-aruba.com/ for the morning, and we plan to just relax and hang on the beach afterwards. https://www.surfsidearuba.com/

Curacao:  We booked the Beach Day through RC that brings us to Blue Bay Resort.  We'll have lunch back on the ship then just venture out on our own afterwards.

Bonaire:  We booked with Woodwind https://www.woodwindbonaire.com/  to snorkel in the afternoon.

St. Thomas:  We booked an All Day Beach/Jeep Excursion through Sunfari http://sunfarivi.com/ 

I'll be sure to post our thoughts on each once we are back.  

Thanks!  We are thinking a beach day also at one port to just chill and enjoy the sun!  Checking these suggestions out also!  Looking forward to hearing what you thought of these!

Whatever we pick we are going to make sure we record/vlog so everyone can "experience" it and have a better idea of what its like!

We are open for anything.  We are adventurous.  We have swam with dolphins several times, swam with turtles/stingrays, snorkeled many times, swam in caves, 4 wheeled, zip lined several times, beach days,  wave jets, tubing, helicopter tours, submarine tour, discover scuba, etc..     so we have done numerous things ranging in interests!  We are up for most anything and have no limitations!

We are going to the ABC Islands in February 2020.  This is our first time to these islands.  Wondering what are some really good excursions on these 3 islands.  We are adventurous people so that's not an issue for choices.  We would like something that maybe can only be done at these islands (saw something about feeding sharks which we have never seen before).  Any thoughts or suggestions?  

As a side note, we will record/vlog whatever stuff we do on these excursions on our youtube channel for those that want to see!  

1 hour ago, Pima1988 said:

We had cabana number 10.  It is the last cabana on the front row.  

 

That must have been the one we had.  We really enjoyed it.  Did it have the side deck yet?

45 minutes ago, parothead said:

can anyone recommend a good Chill Island cabanna? farthest out? closest to water? what # cabanna did you have and did you like it?

We got the furthest one out.  Little more of a walk but no one walking in front of it and less people around!  We really liked it!  Sorry don't remember the number but when you go to the shore excursion desk its the one furthest  out on the point and closet to the water.

38 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Ditto.  We got to keep our OBC that was part of booking while on board.

Any OBC that was part of the specific booking sale, you lose.

I should have clarified also, this is correct.  If the OBC is part of the "sale" then you lose it if you price match and the new promo does not offer OBC.  You only keep the Next Cruise OBC benefit, which is separate from the sale OBC

As long as you booked the cruise on the ship at the Next Cruise desk you ALWAYS keep your OBC unless you cancel (changing price is not a cancel) regardless of "sale".  We price match all the time and always keep our OBC.  Next cruise can verify this for you and the royal vacation planners can verify it also!

If you booked on board the ship at Next Cruise you get to get the OBC.  One of the perks of booking while on the ship!

We watch ours and check it periodically, we have routinely found cheaper prices and call to get them.  Sometimes its only $25 and others its over $100.  A couple minutes of our time every once in awhile is worth a possibly savings.  To be fair we usually see the exact same price like mentioned but you never know