Jax

Us too! I have an over water cabana booked but thought my son and hubby may enjoy this. I will definitely check out the you tube videos.

? agree with @Lovetocruise2002on this. The food coma is real! It will come down to personal preference and how much time you spend in your stateroom. We stopped all food and beverage deliveries by day 3 of our cruise. We would return to a table full of watered down drinks and felt it was wasteful. We didn’t want to handcuff our genie’s creativity so we limited snack deliveries to those on our questionnaire and agreed to message drink requests when we knew we would be in our stateroom to receive them. Balancing the food overload is real! So pick your food choices wisely. LOL Do not call room service; call or message your genie. Be sure to include absolutely everything you want with your order including condiments and quantities. Do not assume they will include the basics such as condiments because in our experience they did not. I blogged on our first cruise with Royal and it was star class so definitely still new at this but agree with @Lovetocruise2002. As first time cruisers plus star class we wanted to do a lot of the ship board experiences and as a result were on the go a lot. If you blog my advice is to find a balance that works for you that still allows you to enjoy the SC experience.

Before switching our business from DCL, we explored several other cruise lines but Royal star class was the best fit for our family. We chose star class for several reasons; exclusive service, amenities, experiences, stateroom and the genie. Honestly, the included gratuities were not among them. There are lots of opinions on tipping; so I will not wade into that discussion but I will say, we tip where we are comfortable and it has nothing to do with the category of stateroom we are in.

We loved the specialty dining on the Anthem but Chops was a favourite of ours. We love our Alberta Beef and Chops didn’t disappoint! Hubby and son loved Izumi. We tried all the specialty restaurants except Wonderland as that just isn’t our thing. We did not try MDR as I am a bit of a suite snob as well. LOL Don’t forget about the Dog House as they have fantastic hotdogs. ? It’s easy to miss if you don’t spend much time at the Sea Plex. This will come down to personal preference and budget but we went with the OTW cabana. We like privacy and were fine with the up charge in price. The beachfront cabanas are less private but may be a great option if you have little ones that want to play in the sand. The hilltop cabanas were a hard no for fear of critters! ? ? Pretty sure our concierge attendant at Disney’s island still remembers my scream when a gecko wanted to share our cabana! LOL. The ship tour on cruise planner is not included in SC but I think the genie can arrange a galley tour. Cupcakes, sushi and guacamole classes on cruise planner are included in SC. You can arrange through your genie. And don’t forget about the bridge tour if this is something you are interested in. We loved the bridge tour.

So true....I never knew hubby to lose a food challenge but he met his match with the seafood tower. He couldn’t do it on the final night at Chops. LOL

We made this rookie mistake ? but quickly caught on and listed absolutely everything we wanted including quantities. Lol.

Welcome to the boards @CruisnMike35and congratulations on your first star class sailing! Our first star class was on Anthem so I know you will love it! You are already off to a great start by joining this community; so much knowledge and generosity from such a passionate group of cruisers! You may be interested in my Blog as it was from the perspective of a first time star class/royal cruiser. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/16651-first-time-star-class-8-night-holiday-bahamas-cruise-anthem-122019/ I received some excellent advice from a member of this forum; the star class program basics are consistent ship to ship and genie to genie but the experiences you read about from guests are unique to genies and/or ships. To avoid disappointment be sure to communicate well with your genie and make the experience the best it can be for you and your family irrespective of what others experience was.

I am a little late to the party but Congratulations ?? Florida is one of our favourite places to visit and we dream of someday owning a vacation property there. I can’t wait to follow along on all your cruise blogs.

So great; I love a good price drop! I think I should just copy your cruise itineraries. Lol I am still hoping to get one on our star class sailings Easter 2021 and Easter 2022. I got 2-3 price drops on our Christmas 2019 cruise so there may be hope yet for Easter. ?

We found the best Italian restaurant called Angelo’s in Manhattan when we got off our Anthem cruise. ?

I can’t remember why I have this one either. LOL (that’s so bad since I use to work at RBC ?)

I have a US $ bank account and credit card set up with RBC bank. When you set up online banking for RBC Bank in the US, you can access your Canadian online banking with RBC. It is simple to transfer US funds from your Canadian account to your US one with RBC Bank. No need to mail a cheque or go into a branch.

We have the RBC rewards US dollar credit card through RBC Bank. No annual fee and it meets our US travel needs. Another option is to auto transfer your points from the US credit card to your Canadian Avion or qualifying RBC Visa....they are discounted by 50% but it’s still a good option for people that may not collect a lot of rewards points on their US credit card.

Looking for feedback/advice on the Coco Cay Wave Jet Tour excursion. What did you like, not like? I have reviewed the overview and restrictions on cruise planner but am looking for any first hand reviews. Thanks in advance.

Don’t you know it! ?

Just another thing I owe you a huge thank you for. This community is such a great resource. ?

@WAAAYTOOO I am so happy for you! A great TA is priceless.

We did an 8 night Bahamas itinerary on Anthem over Christmas 2019. It is a great ship. My live blog may be useful. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/16651-first-time-star-class-8-night-holiday-bahamas-cruise-anthem-122019/

I can’t speak to the 1 BR GS but we did a grand loft suite on Anthem on deck 10 and found we didn’t use the suite lounge very much due to its location and our star class perks but I think you will love being on the same floor as the lounge. It will be much more accessible to you!

My in-laws are 80 and 82 years young and can outpace us! There is definitely no babysitting involved when we travel with them. We celebrated their 50th and 55th anniversary at Disneyland and I hope one day they can enjoy a Star class cruise with us. ?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I repriced a CP purchase but it was fast. Repriced July 14th and credit appeared July 23rd.

And I can’t wait to experience deck 17 ?

I booked direct with RC on our first cruise because I didn’t know any better. Since joining this community I have booked 2 more cruises with a TA thanks to a referral from someone from this group. ?? It was one of the best decisions I have made. When you get a great TA they are priceless! I will have to check out NextCruise as I didn’t on my first sailing.

Does a 14 day quarantine stay seem too much LOL

If only Ontario wasn’t soooo far away ?