wannabecruiseexpert

So getting on the ship was horrible! 

We arrive at 11:30 and didn’t get on the ship until about 1:20. It took forever to get the test result for the little one. Finally get the negative  email and finish checking in and we had no clue if we were supposed to wait for Smitha or not. I ask someone if we’re supposed to be with our genie and they went and asked a different person who told them that Smitha had been there waiting for us. 
 
Once we got with her, she took us to our room which was full of snacks and drinks. 
 

Tomorrow’s the big day! I can’t contain my excitement. This trip has been such a long time coming. 
1 CVS test and 6 at home tests done and all negative. Our flight to MCO was Friday at 6. I saw on our FB group that cancellations were starting due to MCO halting flights in and out due to some bad storms. I saw 4 flights heading to MCO and 3 were either delayed or canceled. Ours said on time. We boarded and started moving, only for the pilot to say they were told we couldn’t land so we’re going to wait a while and they would update us in 30 minutes. Then another 30. After about an hour and half they had us get off and said they were trying to figure it out. 
I had no clue what I was going to do. The drive would have been about 8 hours and by this time it’s after 8 pm so I figured I better go ahead and start the drive. Decided to check one last time and by some miracle, they said we were allowed to land and we’d board again in about 15 minutes. We ended up landing about 11:30 pm. So many people are still having issues trying to get here!
 Now off to TRY and get some sleep and dream of an easy embarkation  😴 💤 
 

This post will be all about communications with our Genie.
Being that this is our first time, I had no clue what to expect other than what I've read on here. I did, however, know to expect a questionnaire. It came via email August 25, or 46 days before sailing. Honestly, I didn't fill it out. Seems to me that they don't give the genies useful information so we didn't take them time to complete it.
On September 4 (36 days before sailing) I received the first emailing from our Genie. We will have Smitha. It was a welcome email with a few attachments of all of the star class benefits and some regulations (such as not being able to enter stateroom if we are there). I replied to this email with a few generic requests and questions. Nothing worth noting.
A few days later I received a very detailed email. A few things that surprised me to note -
1. At this point, our official check in time was 1:00. I knew we could arrive 1 hour earlier. Smitha's email said:
Arrival:
When arriving to Terminal 1 at Port Canaveral please find the purple Star Class flag where two Terminal Genies will be greeting Star Class guests outside the entrance of the terminal.  They will escort you through security ensuring that a porter follows with your suitcases (please do not hand over your suitcases at the regular drop off area as we won't be able to expedite it). I will be at the second level of the terminal,  by the check-in area where you will be escorted to.  I will then escort you to your suite and will be delighted to assist you in any way desired, making sure your arrival experience is the best of what Royal Caribbean has to offer.
 Thank you for advising your arrival time confirmation to ensure a seamless boarding process and avoid any unnecessary wait. Boarding usually starts as from 11:30am so you may arrive at 11:00am and start check-in so you may board early.       I wasn't expecting to be able to arrive 2 hours early. I wonder if that's because we have a little one who needs to be tested at check-in. Not sure.
2. In the prior email I sent, I mentioned some candy the kids like - m&m's, etc. She replied merchandise sweets are not included unfortunately.      I was a little surprised by that one because I’ve seen countless photos and posts of bowls of m&m’s and candies.
3. She included a list of options for the mini bar.  As your mini bar is included, please let me know your beverage preferences in advance from the following options: Evian Water | Tonic Water | San Pelegrino sparkling water | Club Soda | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke | Coke Zero | Sprite | Sprite Zero | Fanta | Ginger Ale | Minute Maid Juice orange & apple |  Beer: Amstel Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Corona, Guinness, Heineken, Miller Lite, Stella.

May I also ask if you prefer to be greeted with one of the following bottles: Champagne Moet Chandon Brut 750ml | Wine Chardonnay Cakebread Napa 750ml | Wine Pinot Noir Belle Glos Las Alturas Monterey 750ml | Wine Sauvignon Blanc Cloudy Bay New Zealand 750ml | Wine Cabernet Sauvignon Sequoia Grove Rutherford 750ml | Wine Merlot Duckhorn Vineyards Napa 750ml
 The rest of the email was basically describing all of the specialty restaurants and she did give us a preliminary dining and show schedule.
Countdown: 14 days until flight ; 16 days until boarding 

Since we are still new to cruising (previously sailed another line Feb '19, Independence Nov '19 and Adventure's first Nassau sailing), I'm not comfortable booking private excursions yet. Since DD6 is unvaccinated, we would have to choose through the ship anyways for her. These are our current plans:
Cozumel - I am taking DD14 and her friend swimming with dolphins. We did the dolphin encounter in June and thought the swimming looked fun as well. DD22 and her friend will either do a tequila tasting through the ship or will just get off and stay around the port area. DH and DD6 are planning on doing the reef semi-sub. This one is kind of "iffy" as we aren't sure about the tight close space everyone will be in.
Costa Maya - This has been our trouble one. I have been working with private journeys and have chosen a ruins tour combined with lagoon swimming. In the beginning, working with private journeys was great but ever since we chose what we wanted to do, I feel like I'm being given the run around. It's been spotty email communication and computer broken and telephone not working type emails. It's on my to-do list for this week to actually call and try and see if we can finally get something finalized. 
Nassau - The 4 older girls are going snorkeling while we take DD6 on the pirate ship.
CocoCay -  We have a floating cabana at the beach club. Kids are excited for the slide. We had an over the water cabana at Labadee and loved it - it was my favorite day so far and I'm hoping this is just as good. 
Since we are arriving Friday before the Sunday sailing, that means we have all day Saturday free, other than picking up the older kids from the airport. We may go to Kennedy Space Center and may do Magic Kingdom. Or we may be lazy and stay at the rental.
Countdown: 18 days until flight ; 20 days until boarding 

Thank you to all of the fabulous bloggers on here that have helped feed my newly found addiction this past year. I am going to try and give back and hopefully give you something to read while waiting on your next cruise!
 
The who – Myself, DH, 3 daughters (22, 14, 6), and then DD22 and DD14 are both bringing a friend
The what – Our week full of firsts. This will be our first time: in a suite, sailing star class, trying a specialty restaurant, letting the older kids bring a friend (what were we thinking 🤪), trying out the Beach Club, sailing on an Oasis class ship, visiting Costa Maya, sailing out of Port Canaveral and my first ever blog! Those are just the easy ones I can think of off the top of my head.
The when: Sailing October 10 - October 17. DH will drive down Oct 8 by himself (he doesn’t like to fly). Myself, DD14, her friend and DD6 will fly down the evening of Oct 8. DD22 and her friend are flying down Oct 9.
The where: Our itinerary is ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL ; COZUMEL, MEXICO ; PUERTO COSTA MAYA, MEXICO ; NASSAU, BAHAMAS ; PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY
The why: Do we seriously need a reason??? We booked this one sometime mid last year and it has since evolved into a college graduation cruise for the oldest.
The how: As I said above, this sailing was booked sometime last year. I was upset a huge milestone birthday cruise for myself was cancelled. I was reading all of the live blogs about star class and I thought it would be something I could only dream about. Then one day one of the fabulous posters here mentioned a great price on this sailing. I looked it up, price was doable, it just so happened to be fall break according to our school district’s future draft calendar so kids wouldn’t miss school. It's like it was meant to be! I emailed the fabulous @michelleand the rest is history.
 
Countdown: 20 days until flight ; 22 days until boarding 

Tomorrow’s the big day! I can’t contain my excitement. This trip has been such a long time coming. 
1 CVS test and 6 at home tests done and all negative. Our flight to MCO was Friday at 6. I saw on our FB group that cancellations were starting due to MCO halting flights in and out due to some bad storms. I saw 4 flights heading to MCO and 3 were either delayed or canceled. Ours said on time. We boarded and started moving, only for the pilot to say they were told we couldn’t land so we’re going to wait a while and they would update us in 30 minutes. Then another 30. After about an hour and half they had us get off and said they were trying to figure it out. 
I had no clue what I was going to do. The drive would have been about 8 hours and by this time it’s after 8 pm so I figured I better go ahead and start the drive. Decided to check one last time and by some miracle, they said we were allowed to land and we’d board again in about 15 minutes. We ended up landing about 11:30 pm. So many people are still having issues trying to get here!
 Now off to TRY and get some sleep and dream of an easy embarkation  😴 💤 
 

Tomorrow’s the big day! I can’t contain my excitement. This trip has been such a long time coming. 
1 CVS test and 6 at home tests done and all negative. Our flight to MCO was Friday at 6. I saw on our FB group that cancellations were starting due to MCO halting flights in and out due to some bad storms. I saw 4 flights heading to MCO and 3 were either delayed or canceled. Ours said on time. We boarded and started moving, only for the pilot to say they were told we couldn’t land so we’re going to wait a while and they would update us in 30 minutes. Then another 30. After about an hour and half they had us get off and said they were trying to figure it out. 
I had no clue what I was going to do. The drive would have been about 8 hours and by this time it’s after 8 pm so I figured I better go ahead and start the drive. Decided to check one last time and by some miracle, they said we were allowed to land and we’d board again in about 15 minutes. We ended up landing about 11:30 pm. So many people are still having issues trying to get here!
 Now off to TRY and get some sleep and dream of an easy embarkation  😴 💤 
 

Tomorrow’s the big day! I can’t contain my excitement. This trip has been such a long time coming. 
1 CVS test and 6 at home tests done and all negative. Our flight to MCO was Friday at 6. I saw on our FB group that cancellations were starting due to MCO halting flights in and out due to some bad storms. I saw 4 flights heading to MCO and 3 were either delayed or canceled. Ours said on time. We boarded and started moving, only for the pilot to say they were told we couldn’t land so we’re going to wait a while and they would update us in 30 minutes. Then another 30. After about an hour and half they had us get off and said they were trying to figure it out. 
I had no clue what I was going to do. The drive would have been about 8 hours and by this time it’s after 8 pm so I figured I better go ahead and start the drive. Decided to check one last time and by some miracle, they said we were allowed to land and we’d board again in about 15 minutes. We ended up landing about 11:30 pm. So many people are still having issues trying to get here!
 Now off to TRY and get some sleep and dream of an easy embarkation  😴 💤 
 

Thank you for following along! I'm currently in the....need to get 2 weeks worth of work done in 1 week....phase so being super busy at work is helping some.
Did you hear anything about your royalup? I saw on the FB group that a lot of people got upgrades!  I'm embarrassed to say that I know know ship lingo yet but we are in 10330.
Thank you! I hope we have as much fun as you just did 😜

This post will be all about communications with our Genie.
Being that this is our first time, I had no clue what to expect other than what I've read on here. I did, however, know to expect a questionnaire. It came via email August 25, or 46 days before sailing. Honestly, I didn't fill it out. Seems to me that they don't give the genies useful information so we didn't take them time to complete it.
On September 4 (36 days before sailing) I received the first emailing from our Genie. We will have Smitha. It was a welcome email with a few attachments of all of the star class benefits and some regulations (such as not being able to enter stateroom if we are there). I replied to this email with a few generic requests and questions. Nothing worth noting.
A few days later I received a very detailed email. A few things that surprised me to note -
1. At this point, our official check in time was 1:00. I knew we could arrive 1 hour earlier. Smitha's email said:
Arrival:
When arriving to Terminal 1 at Port Canaveral please find the purple Star Class flag where two Terminal Genies will be greeting Star Class guests outside the entrance of the terminal.  They will escort you through security ensuring that a porter follows with your suitcases (please do not hand over your suitcases at the regular drop off area as we won't be able to expedite it). I will be at the second level of the terminal,  by the check-in area where you will be escorted to.  I will then escort you to your suite and will be delighted to assist you in any way desired, making sure your arrival experience is the best of what Royal Caribbean has to offer.
 Thank you for advising your arrival time confirmation to ensure a seamless boarding process and avoid any unnecessary wait. Boarding usually starts as from 11:30am so you may arrive at 11:00am and start check-in so you may board early.       I wasn't expecting to be able to arrive 2 hours early. I wonder if that's because we have a little one who needs to be tested at check-in. Not sure.
2. In the prior email I sent, I mentioned some candy the kids like - m&m's, etc. She replied merchandise sweets are not included unfortunately.      I was a little surprised by that one because I’ve seen countless photos and posts of bowls of m&m’s and candies.
3. She included a list of options for the mini bar.  As your mini bar is included, please let me know your beverage preferences in advance from the following options: Evian Water | Tonic Water | San Pelegrino sparkling water | Club Soda | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke | Coke Zero | Sprite | Sprite Zero | Fanta | Ginger Ale | Minute Maid Juice orange & apple |  Beer: Amstel Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Corona, Guinness, Heineken, Miller Lite, Stella.

May I also ask if you prefer to be greeted with one of the following bottles: Champagne Moet Chandon Brut 750ml | Wine Chardonnay Cakebread Napa 750ml | Wine Pinot Noir Belle Glos Las Alturas Monterey 750ml | Wine Sauvignon Blanc Cloudy Bay New Zealand 750ml | Wine Cabernet Sauvignon Sequoia Grove Rutherford 750ml | Wine Merlot Duckhorn Vineyards Napa 750ml
 The rest of the email was basically describing all of the specialty restaurants and she did give us a preliminary dining and show schedule.
Countdown: 14 days until flight ; 16 days until boarding 

Thank you to all of the fabulous bloggers on here that have helped feed my newly found addiction this past year. I am going to try and give back and hopefully give you something to read while waiting on your next cruise!
 
The who – Myself, DH, 3 daughters (22, 14, 6), and then DD22 and DD14 are both bringing a friend
The what – Our week full of firsts. This will be our first time: in a suite, sailing star class, trying a specialty restaurant, letting the older kids bring a friend (what were we thinking 🤪), trying out the Beach Club, sailing on an Oasis class ship, visiting Costa Maya, sailing out of Port Canaveral and my first ever blog! Those are just the easy ones I can think of off the top of my head.
The when: Sailing October 10 - October 17. DH will drive down Oct 8 by himself (he doesn’t like to fly). Myself, DD14, her friend and DD6 will fly down the evening of Oct 8. DD22 and her friend are flying down Oct 9.
The where: Our itinerary is ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL ; COZUMEL, MEXICO ; PUERTO COSTA MAYA, MEXICO ; NASSAU, BAHAMAS ; PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY
The why: Do we seriously need a reason??? We booked this one sometime mid last year and it has since evolved into a college graduation cruise for the oldest.
The how: As I said above, this sailing was booked sometime last year. I was upset a huge milestone birthday cruise for myself was cancelled. I was reading all of the live blogs about star class and I thought it would be something I could only dream about. Then one day one of the fabulous posters here mentioned a great price on this sailing. I looked it up, price was doable, it just so happened to be fall break according to our school district’s future draft calendar so kids wouldn’t miss school. It's like it was meant to be! I emailed the fabulous @michelleand the rest is history.
 
Countdown: 20 days until flight ; 22 days until boarding 

This post will be all about communications with our Genie.
Being that this is our first time, I had no clue what to expect other than what I've read on here. I did, however, know to expect a questionnaire. It came via email August 25, or 46 days before sailing. Honestly, I didn't fill it out. Seems to me that they don't give the genies useful information so we didn't take them time to complete it.
On September 4 (36 days before sailing) I received the first emailing from our Genie. We will have Smitha. It was a welcome email with a few attachments of all of the star class benefits and some regulations (such as not being able to enter stateroom if we are there). I replied to this email with a few generic requests and questions. Nothing worth noting.
A few days later I received a very detailed email. A few things that surprised me to note -
1. At this point, our official check in time was 1:00. I knew we could arrive 1 hour earlier. Smitha's email said:
Arrival:
When arriving to Terminal 1 at Port Canaveral please find the purple Star Class flag where two Terminal Genies will be greeting Star Class guests outside the entrance of the terminal.  They will escort you through security ensuring that a porter follows with your suitcases (please do not hand over your suitcases at the regular drop off area as we won't be able to expedite it). I will be at the second level of the terminal,  by the check-in area where you will be escorted to.  I will then escort you to your suite and will be delighted to assist you in any way desired, making sure your arrival experience is the best of what Royal Caribbean has to offer.
 Thank you for advising your arrival time confirmation to ensure a seamless boarding process and avoid any unnecessary wait. Boarding usually starts as from 11:30am so you may arrive at 11:00am and start check-in so you may board early.       I wasn't expecting to be able to arrive 2 hours early. I wonder if that's because we have a little one who needs to be tested at check-in. Not sure.
2. In the prior email I sent, I mentioned some candy the kids like - m&m's, etc. She replied merchandise sweets are not included unfortunately.      I was a little surprised by that one because I’ve seen countless photos and posts of bowls of m&m’s and candies.
3. She included a list of options for the mini bar.  As your mini bar is included, please let me know your beverage preferences in advance from the following options: Evian Water | Tonic Water | San Pelegrino sparkling water | Club Soda | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke | Coke Zero | Sprite | Sprite Zero | Fanta | Ginger Ale | Minute Maid Juice orange & apple |  Beer: Amstel Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Corona, Guinness, Heineken, Miller Lite, Stella.

May I also ask if you prefer to be greeted with one of the following bottles: Champagne Moet Chandon Brut 750ml | Wine Chardonnay Cakebread Napa 750ml | Wine Pinot Noir Belle Glos Las Alturas Monterey 750ml | Wine Sauvignon Blanc Cloudy Bay New Zealand 750ml | Wine Cabernet Sauvignon Sequoia Grove Rutherford 750ml | Wine Merlot Duckhorn Vineyards Napa 750ml
 The rest of the email was basically describing all of the specialty restaurants and she did give us a preliminary dining and show schedule.
Countdown: 14 days until flight ; 16 days until boarding 

Since we are still new to cruising (previously sailed another line Feb '19, Independence Nov '19 and Adventure's first Nassau sailing), I'm not comfortable booking private excursions yet. Since DD6 is unvaccinated, we would have to choose through the ship anyways for her. These are our current plans:
Cozumel - I am taking DD14 and her friend swimming with dolphins. We did the dolphin encounter in June and thought the swimming looked fun as well. DD22 and her friend will either do a tequila tasting through the ship or will just get off and stay around the port area. DH and DD6 are planning on doing the reef semi-sub. This one is kind of "iffy" as we aren't sure about the tight close space everyone will be in.
Costa Maya - This has been our trouble one. I have been working with private journeys and have chosen a ruins tour combined with lagoon swimming. In the beginning, working with private journeys was great but ever since we chose what we wanted to do, I feel like I'm being given the run around. It's been spotty email communication and computer broken and telephone not working type emails. It's on my to-do list for this week to actually call and try and see if we can finally get something finalized. 
Nassau - The 4 older girls are going snorkeling while we take DD6 on the pirate ship.
CocoCay -  We have a floating cabana at the beach club. Kids are excited for the slide. We had an over the water cabana at Labadee and loved it - it was my favorite day so far and I'm hoping this is just as good. 
Since we are arriving Friday before the Sunday sailing, that means we have all day Saturday free, other than picking up the older kids from the airport. We may go to Kennedy Space Center and may do Magic Kingdom. Or we may be lazy and stay at the rental.
Countdown: 18 days until flight ; 20 days until boarding 

Boarding was remarkable for how normal it was, provided you could overlook the fact that there were hardly any passengers.
MisterZ had to work in the morning, so we stayed in our hotel room until 11a checkout and then camped in the lobby, mooching off the wifi for another hour. Next, the hotel staff all made me feel very old with their “I think I remember there used to be a thing called a taxi…” and “what do you mean you don’t have an Uber account?” and “no, I don’t have a phone number for a taxi company”. (I am reluctant to Uber/Lyft/etc for Reasons Not Germaine to Cruising.) Fortunately, it turns out there’s a taxi stand about 10 yards outside the hotel door that the staff were completely oblivious to. A nice, polite older gentleman scooped us up and whisked us off to the World Cruise Ship Terminal, Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro. Took us about 25 minutes, some of that time driving 80 miles per hour. Oh, right, we’re back in the US! Ha! (There are no roads in Nicaragua you can drive 80 on. At all. Not just because it’s illegal but because it is physically impossible.)
Royal docks at Berth 91, 92, or 93, and you can see your ship from a ways out so the whole process is painless. The USS Iowa is also docked right there as a museum, if you need a google-able landmark.
Turns out there is a mobile Covid testing location right next to the Iowa, open every day but Sundays. For future reference, all you future Navigator folks!
As we pulled into the near-deserted docks, the porters were staging impromptu dance routines in the road. Very sorry I wasn’t able to photograph them! The taxi stopped, and by the time I paid the guy our bags were gone. The porters were very bored, it seemed. They pointed us toward the tent-covered prescreening area and off we went.
The first door into the tent was Suites/Pinnacle. Once inside, while waiting for the one couple in front of us, we could see the “regular” line, which looked like this:

This was the first person we showed all our paperwork (vax cards, tests, passports, setsail passes). Then we proceeded into the regular building through this door:

At this point, the (also very bored) CBP agent threatened MisterZ with vague but ominous penalties for photographing “in the building”. We apologized and hustled along before anything could stop us from GETTING ON THE SHIP.

All told, we showed 4 different people all our papers.
****I highly recommend you just print hard copies of your test results and setsail passes**** People who didn’t were constantly fumbling for the right spot in the various apps on their phones, with the sketchier-by-the-minute cell signal as your got further into the building. Also, when you print your setsail pass it ends up HUGE, making it very easy for the, um… optically challenged older folks working the check in 😉 
Finally, we were onboard! Amazing! We were greeted by lots of happy crew members, plus all these guys:


 

We are dressing up as Scooby Doo, Fred, Velma, Shaggy & Daphne!  The babies will be Elsa or Anna (depending on her mood) and Olaf!  I will make sure to post pictures!  This will be our 3rd Halloween cruise.  We usually eat in Wonderland that night to add to the fun!

Originally, we checked in on August 17 by submitting our pre-cruise documents. On September 7, the port check-in times opened. I got us a noon time slot. We were then “unchecked-in”. Yesterday was our second check-in date. We did not have to do anything. All of our information was still in the system. The check-in time is still noon. Woot!
Due to COVID restrictions, I have to do a pre-surgery quarantine on Monday and Tuesday. That means yesterday was also my last day in the office until after the cruise and US Thanksgiving.

I just received a complimentary cruise from the casino. My level is only Choice with barely 700 credits. I thought only Prime received comped cruises. I'm not complaining, just trying to understand why I got it. Any ideas?

I've been semi-following the FB threads as well since we are on Oct 10. Hoping everything returns to normal soon!

I've been semi-following the FB threads as well since we are on Oct 10. Hoping everything returns to normal soon!

On one of Matt's podcasts he mentioned that you can order food from snack shack in the beach club. He said something along the lines of...you can but I don't know why you would want to because the food is so great from the beach club. When we go next month I plan on getting funnel cakes at our cabana. I'm no help to the other questions.

I love the little note from the genie!

Playmakers is all new to this class.  Perched high in the Sportsplex it offers great views of the game and of the sea.

I was definitely surprised. That does make sense though to offer to others when bookings are down. The dates range from November through February. I may see if I can cancel one I have on another line in January and take one of these instead. This REALLY makes me want to move to FL though 🤣

I just received a complimentary cruise from the casino. My level is only Choice with barely 700 credits. I thought only Prime received comped cruises. I'm not complaining, just trying to understand why I got it. Any ideas?