WAAAYTOOO

Well, if we actually GOT any monthlies I’m sure it would on ours, too. These have all come from instant rewards.

Yes and yes. I showed him your pic…he howled !

Thanks…but they are waaay overdue to be “done”. I had them done on 1-10 just before we boarded OA and haven’t been back to the nail salon since ! I just didn’t have time before we left on Wonder…and I only have 1 night between Wonder and UT so they’re probably going to have to wait until 2-14. We board EX on 2-16 so I will have to diddy it up to the salon as soon as we get home. This pace is really starting to get to me…

We are adding a 4th Jewel cruise to our lineup, so now our dates will be May 30, June 2, June 6 and June 9. It’s been a while since we’ve cruised on Jewel so I’m curious about her, too. I love the Radiance class ships so really looking forward to these little shorties.

For @SweetPea. On Wonder

@Cactus527, we feel the same way about the UDP….its just too much food. We, too, end up eating just to use the pkg. After a cruise where we have the UDP, it is such a great feeling to give yourself permission to actually SKIP a meal…or just graze. I did purchase the UDP for the 3 night sailing in the middle of our B3B on Jewel in June (4, 3, 4) but it will be over quickly and with no sea days, it will just be dinners.

I failed miserably. I still haven’t gotten into the WJ. I’m a terrible blog friend and a worse recon-er. Having a great time but that’s not helpful for those of you who wanted info on the WJ offerings. Shame, shame…

Luckily we haven’t had that (duplicate accounts) with Club Royale, but we did have it happen with our C&A points a few years back. They managed to straighten it out (at least, I hope they have !) and no trouble since

How cool is that ?!

I got 12-12:30 too and I checked in around 1:30 AM. There must not be any early arrival times for this one. The arrival times are largely meaningless these days so it’s no biggie…

+1

Are you guys on Wonder ? We just boarded about 30 minutes ago…

We’re boarding Wonder today. I don’t plan on eating in the WJ at all today but I will see if I can recon and get some info. I’ve heard that Wonder is doing a seafood station in the WJ but I don’t have any firsthand intel on that…yet !

Awesome itinerary. Nice to see a 7 night cruise on Jewel. All those 3, 4 nighters are no bueno.

I don't know what a numpty is, but I like the word ! ...and I'm sure if you ARE a numpty, you are a very sweet and loving numpty.

I got mine just fine about 20 minutes ago.

2 - Waaaytooo (Wonder) 10 - Waaaytooo (Utopia) 16 - Waaaytooo (Explorer)

I just realized…we will be boarding EX when you disembark. Our cruise will only be 7 nights though….

Obviously, I agree with you, @Frogfather. Having said that, we are headed back to UT on 2-10 (a S2S with Wonder on 2-2) so I guess it wasn’t bad enough for us to swear “never again”. We are in a CP balcony (again) so I’m hoping maybe it won’t be so bad this time. I guess that is looking unlikely with this very recent intel. Oh well….

….and ones that are 8 or more nights will be full of Pinnacles… Choose your poison.

We used much the same strategy as @JasonOasis on our recent Oasis cruise, when we were pushing Dan towards Signature. Beginning a number of cruises back, we realized that he was within striking distance of Signature. We calculated that he only needed ~500 points per cruise to achieve this goal so we began to work together to make it happen. On the Oasis cruise (a few cruises into this trek) we further realized that we could achieve our goal in 1 of 2 ways - either continue to accrue the relatively modest ~500 points per cruise for which there is very little return in the form of instant rewards OR push bigly in one big push for all of the remaining points on one sailing, achieving both the golden ring (Signature) AND a nice, big instant reward comp cruise. We chose option #2. It wasn’t cheap…we did NOT come out financially ahead BUT we did achieve our goal(s) and actually ended up with 1 very nice instant reward and a second lesser instant reward (mine) which combined together to create 1 very, very nice award. We are glad we chose option #2. Firstly, it’s over ! Mission accomplished, happy ending and all of that. Secondly, I believe that we ended up with MORE benefit by pushing harder and faster than we would have by going more slowly and controlled. The only possible benefit (that I can think of) to having gone with option #1 would be that we MIGHT have spent less money…but that’s just a guess. It’s gambling, so ANYthing could have happened.

I agree with you that Royal does a poor job of letting you know which terminal they’re using at PoM. Obviously if it’s one of the new, big ships it’s going to be TA but sometimes it’s a real guess when those tweener ships are sailing out Miami. The cruise docs used to specify which Terminal they’re using but lately I’ve noticed that information isn’t always in the cruise docs. Luckily TA and TG aren’t that far apart or difficult to access so if you guess wrong it’s not a huge deal to adjust….at least, it’s not for us since we drive…maybe that’s not true for someone coming in on “other” modes of transport. Another port where it’s always a guessing game is the Port of Tampa. Sometimes it’s Terminal 1, sometimes it’s Terminal 2. Sometimes you leave from 1 terminal and come back to the other…

I shorten it even further and just “I’m going to the store”. It’s up to the listener to determine which “store” I’m going to… Dan says “the market”.

Ali, I have really enjoyed this blog...not that I don't enjoy them all, but I share so many of your feelings re: length of cruises, play in the casino, S2S without an overnight stay and also the idea that the ships' shuttles aren't all that terrible ! Sorry that your drydock will be so long. Reason #1 to get your behind down to FLORIDA permanently !!....followed very closely behind the fact that your mother is here now... Thanks for taking the time to document everything for us. I know it's a lot of work...more than some realize. Those of you who are very good at it (and you know who you are....) make the rest of us who are too lazy, look really bad...