Pookie

1 hour ago, dodgestang said:

I hope you get a nice fat refund of some of your airfare cost for the trouble.  We've got FC seats to go to Alaska in August...I bought the ticket the day the plane was available....they changed the plane on us...and while I didn't lose FC....I did lose the whole "family of 4 sitting together" and they spread us around FC....so if I hadn't been paying attention and spent 2 days on the phone trying to get Air Canada to answer the phone.....I wouldn't have had to sit next to my kids

If we do not receive first class, they will refund.  However, what a pain in the keister.

I vow never to fly Delta again.  Maybe I’m expecting to much, but as expensive as it is to fly first class, I think they should have fixed the issue automatically.  It was only because of my detailed nature of checking to make sure all was in order that I discovered they had rescheduled flights and we actually didn’t have enough time to get from one flight to another...

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Is the change for the entire itinerary or only one leg ?

Flying to Miami on the way to cruise is first class. On the way home, we are in the second to last row to Detroit and then Two is have seat assignments on the last leg and one of us will be assigned at the gate. She put in a request for first class and told me to watch for openings.  If we do not get first class, we will receive a refund.

We are into single digit days!

I booked our flights quite some time ago.  Not sure why I bothered, because there have been two schedule changes made by the airline, which now prevents us from the first world problem of not having first class (booked because my hubster is 6’6” and is not fond of being folded accordion style).  
I am actually all packed already, except for last minute items!  This is unprecedented.  I don’t know what to do with myself now...

Packing cubes are awesome for the most part and you can squeeze a ton of stuff in them...the pic below with the cubes/ suitcase weighed in as is at 52.7 lbs.  Darn it, even bare bones wardrobe weighs a lot.  My husband is 6’ 6” with a size 14 foot.  His shoes alone could fill a small carry on

5 minutes ago, Rags1 said:

I’m downloading pictures now from my camera and then will post some of them.  I think I only took 275 or so since we boarded.  

We had lunch at Playmakers.  Maybe a star class tip here:  it was empty.  Pretty much had it to ourselves.  We sampled almost everything and it was all good.  

The suite is amazing, as always.  

We have met with Allan now several times.  I’m impressed!  Just the things waiting in our room showed creativity and humor.  I think this will be a very good week!

And for the M&M gang - we had M&M’s in the room

 

@Rags1 You have a bevy of beauties!

I so wanted to reserve 1740 for our cruise in two weeks, but some super lucky person already had it

we will still be happy bringing up the rear, but we are definitely Team 17...

@Sun and Fun Awesome!  I currently following @Rags1 live blog. They are boarding Oasis this morning.

Waiting for @Rags1 (insert Jeopardy do do do, do do do here) to post...

Details!  We want details!  Well, you can leave out the bathroom routine details...but all other details are welcome!

21 minutes ago, Rags1 said:

Well it is almost time to get this party started for real!  In 15 hours we will hopefully depart Palm Springs, Ca aboard the always wonderful American Airlines. I decided to take the day off today to wrap up last minute “stuff.”  Did some cleaning so our house sitter won’t know how we live.   Went to get hay for our two Tennessee Fainting goats. Yeah, really, two goats.  Then I sat down to check in all five us for our flights tomorrow.  Nothing tougher than getting M&M’s on the Oasis except maybe doing that 5 person check in!  I think it took longer than tomorrow’s flight to Dallas will.Then just to make sure that i am super impressed with the food on Oasis, I had a frozen Stouffer’s meat loaf for lunch!  I’m all packed and ready for an 0430 departure from the house in the morning.

Stacy and Kaitlyn are out getting their nails done.  Taylor is still at work for another couple hours.  We will meet the twin at the airport in the morning.  I’m going to relax now with a Jack/7 and let the 3 dogs, 3 cats and the two fainting boys know that were leaving them behind for a bit.  But they’ll be in good hands.

I will email Allan once more tonight for any final updates. I’m glad some of you are going to follow along on the trip, it’ll make it more fun to be able to share it.  Tomorrow I’ll begin posting much more often and with pictures.  I know you’re all on the edge of your seats waiting for someone to post a picture of another airport.  It’s almost time to ‘Slip on Down.....”

We will all be waiting with bated breath!  Very excited to see your pics and dialog.  No pressure that we will all be living vicariously through you...

Safe travels!

23 hours ago, Rags1 said:

Traded emails with Allan today inquiring if the entertainment schedule has been firmed up.  He sent a tentative line up for next week with the caveat that it was “being reviewed by the CD and staff and will change.”  I’ll share that schedule with you as soon as I know it’s really going to happen.  Seems strange to me that the entertainment schedule is still tentative this close to the cruise, but what do i know?  

We’re really counting down now to our departure for Miami Saturday morning.  My mind is already on the cruise.  I sat in a meeting today about a building project.  Others in the room thought I was using my IPad to research local fire codes when in reality i was looking at the weather forecasts for our ports.    Two more work days....

Did some last minute shopping on the way home.

I have literally been watching the weather forecast myself and our cruise is Two weeks away...and of course while I’m doing this one of the owners comes in person to ask me a question!. And I’m checking already because I had the bad judgement to book a cruise when it’s a full moon for the flight in...

do they not have Pretzel M&Ms where you live?  

8 hours ago, Rags1 said:

I’m almost packed...

!

OMG!  You just made me cry laugh!  BAHAHAHAHA

And all this talk of not getting our way with M & Ms, makes me want to ask for absurd stuff like this:

9 hours ago, Rags1 said:

Here is where we are at one week out:

Dinners:  In order it will be Coastal Kitchen to have a filet for @Lovetocruise2002, 150, Giovannis, Izumi Hibachi, Chops, 150, and Chops.  

Entertainment:  Allan sent us the schedule from this week and our week should be close to the same.  He also indicated that the schedule  was changed 3 times this week.  So at this point I’m not sure of that schedule each night.

Sail Away:  We requested some shrimp cocktails, chips and dip, etc which is not problem.

We have a reserved time on Thursday, I think, in the Escape Room.  I will do the bridge tour, alone, on the last day.  We have requested a backstage tour and Allan is looking into that.  Since Stacy and Kaitlyn are nurses they have also requested a tour of the medical facility.  No answer on that yet.  

And @Pookie, I did include in my last email that i was curious about the M&M thing since we had them the last two years.  The response was , “The M&M and other branded snacks were never included since the program started in May 2016.”  And there you have it.  

One week from tonight I will be posting from whatever hotel I’m booked into in Miami!! 

Hope you stay at the Intercontinental and requested bay side.  I’m one of those weirdos that can’t sleep the night before and love watching the ships come in and witness the sunrise.  In fact, that’s why I’m awake now, checking out the port cam.

On 1/13/2020 at 8:55 PM, Andrew72681 said:

Hopefully you don’t possess my irrational hatred of Raisins. Nothing ruins a piece of Apple pie faster than those. 

Raisins are disgusting. Waste of a perfectly good grape that could have been made into wine

14 hours ago, Rags1 said:

@Pookie I said earlier that I’m pretty laid back, and I really am.  If i asked for a Seafood Tower to be delivered to the Escape room while we were there and was told no i could roll with that answer.  But if I asked for a bag of M&M’s and was told to go the candy store...Me thinks I might not accept that answer.  I know that things differ from Genie to Genie and from ship to ship, but that’s an unacceptable response for your simple request. I’m hoping that changes for you!

I hope it changes too.  The hubster is not impressed so far.  

12 hours ago, melmar02 said:

Did you try telling them Fresca is made by the Coca Cola company?

Omg.  No. I didn’t know it was made by Coca Cola!  Lol. I will definitely mention it!

On 1/12/2020 at 6:56 PM, Rags1 said:

@Pookie, I’ll be sure and keep you posted on details.  We received his 1st email at about 33 days out. Since then we have traded several emails and he has been very prompt with reply’s. That’s a good sign,

Yes, same timing on the initial email for us.  We are pretty self sufficient and the two things out of the ordinary that I requested were pretzel m&ms (hubster)and Fresca (daughter).  The answer was there is a candy store on board and Royal only carries Coke products.  So it surprises me that other people are asking for unusual boozes, etc., and their requests are being granted.  Apparently there are a lot of variations between in Genies and ships.

Excited to read your live blog, not just for the star class info, but also the insider trading info on Allan.  He’s our wish grantor on Feb 9th...

Safe travels! Pace yourself!

On our last cruise, we had an owners suite and took our son and his girlfriend.  I had an almost fatal accident in not realizing that they are not neat and tidy with their belongings as my hubster and me.  They were situated in the “living room” which was between us and the balcony. One of the things I love to do is rise super early to see the sunrise/enjoy the balcony while it is quiet.  Just a me and the sea sort of thing.  The first morning I popped out of bed and went to the go out on the balcony and in the complete darkness, tripped over a pair of shoes, pirouetted and took out a side chair with a whole bunch of clothing that actually ended up cushioning my fall, got back up, snagged my foot in more clothing and went down again.  I think a somersault was involved, but was too shocked and laughing too hard to be fully sure.  Needless to say, I didn’t try to do that again for the rest of the trip.

While they are not cruising with us this time, I bought battery tea lights to help traverse nighttime wanderings anyway

From past experience, in addition to the food coma, we have also experienced the booze coma.  One thing we find distasteful is watered down drinks because the ice melts when we’re not swilling them fast enough.  In an effort to slow the process down, I requested of our Genie that any drinks brought/ordered to our stateroom have no ice and to also keep us stocked in ice.  AND I purchased these:

Good question on what to tip.  I’m sure one of the main considerations would be If you run them ragged, bigger tip, if you never see them, smaller tip?

So to keep the information flowing smoothly, I will mention again (since I apparently posted it in the other thread) that we received our Genie letter last night!  It arrived 34 days out.  I can now quit obsessively checking my email every 3 minutes

WE HAVE ALLAN!

Over the past month, since turning in our questionnaire, we have been compiling an outline of possibilities, wants and even a couple of leave off the lists.  For all that, it was not a very big list...Allan did thank us in this initial email for turning in our questionnaire.

We emailed the list we made tonight.  Hopefully it doesn’t make his eyes cross and will help make his job easier...

From what we’ve read about him, we have hit the Genie Jackpot.  I’d love to hear your favorite memories of Allan!

@Lovetocruise2002

Could you please move this to the Live Blog section?  I thought that was where I started this, but apparently I was wrong!

And somehow I started two threads...what a colossal newbie!

Thank  you!

Received our Genie letter this morning!!!

We sail February 9th and we have Allan!

can I hear everyone’s thoughts and experiences with him?  
 

it’s going to be hard to concentrate at work today!