WAAAYTOOO

I meant to post this earlier and forgot. Yes, we got information earlier today that the ship is sailing at about 60% capacity. I haven’t noticed any lack of crowds or anything to make me feel like the ship is “empty”. The casino was bustling earlier tonite. Folks who ate in the MDR said they definitely could tell that there were people “missing”. They said their section of the dining room was completely empty except for them. I also wanted to comment on our cruise fare “rebate”. I was stunned when I saw our account this morning. The rebate was about 4X what I thought we would get, based on our rebate last month on Oasis. I’m now completely perplexed at how they calculate cruise fare rebates. There just doesn’t seem to be any commonality between what they gave us last month on Oasis and what they gave us yesterday on this cruise. I’m not complaining....just totally confused. Apparently they can rebate you anything they want to.

We decided to go to Spectra’s Cabaret tonite. We found our way to the upper deck of 270 and Dan sat down while I went to use restroom. On my way back to our seats I just happened to spot Yen waiting by the theater door. I said “hello” but kept on walking as I knew, from experience, that she was waiting for some Star Class pax to arrive. She stopped me and asked if we were here for the show; I said “yes, we’re sitting upstairs”. She asked me if we wanted to sit up front, downstairs, that she had some seats reserved that she was not going to use. I was very surprised and touched that she would invite us to sit in her SC reserved seats. I went up, got Dan and went back down to enjoy the show from the front row. She even offered to get us drinks but we declined. I would never, ever, ever ask her to do anything like that and was very flattered that she offered. She is a sweetie. We enjoyed the show very much, as we did twice last year.

Shoved off right on time at 3:00 on the dot. The Captain took us for a harbor tour around the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan. The weather completely sucked but it was still a really nice trip. I had heard that they did this from time-to-time, but had never been lucky enough to have it happen for us. Sorry....bad picture. I’m no a Twangster.

We always get the Refreshments Package and have never once used one of the plastic cups....so, yes. It’s easy to get a drink w/o hauling that cup around.

As a safety engineer, I can tell you the fastest way to get that taken care of is to throw the safety flag. They will have it taken care of ASAP. I do admire the redneck engineering fix though. Pretty impressive.

Your MIL looks like she is having a blast ! Such great fun.

This is entirely possible. Don’t know if moving would be worth the hassle, but maybe they will make somebody happy !

Lol. Goat cheese... ugh...sorry...but RVC, you betcha

We had a wonderful dinner at Chops. I was struck by how fresh everything tasted and it suddenly occurred to me that everything had to be fresh today....as it has been 3 days since the ship had had any “customers”. So EVERYTHING was freshly prepared. It really made a difference. The bread at Chops was really good as was the mushroom soup. Everything, really. We went to see The Royal Swedes in the Music Hall. Now we’re back in the suite, relaxing. Breakfast tomorrow at the CK. Yippee !

Interesting that you mention this. I mentioned something about this to Alex, the suites Concierge earlier and he said it was unlikely that any upgrades would be offered b/c they just don’t know which rooms are going to be vacant until we actually sail. It makes sense.

I don’t really know how they would do that at this point. When they announced that we were being delayed by 3 days, and offered complete refunds, they said that those who wanted to cancel didn’t have to do anything. If they no-show at the port, their entire cruise fare will be refunded, no questions asked. So, some have called and cancelled but some simply will not show up and will then, ultimately, be cancelled....so there’s really no way to estimate, I don’t think. I will say, the ship seems pretty quiet tonite. Maybe a bunch of folks will show up tomorrow. Either way, we’re gonna have a great time !

Thank you ! I got ‘em (the positive thoughts). We’re having a great night on the ship right here in port !

Both the 50% rebate (provided as OBC) and the 50% FCC is based solely on the cruise fare (top line in the cruise confirmation) of this cruise NOT some future cruise fare. There is some hokey math involved. They take the total cruise fare and reduce it by a “non-commissionable fee” and THEN calculate 50%. I don’t know if the non-commissionable fee is always the same or if it varies. In our case, on a recent cruise, that fee was $250 PP.

We were having dinner in Chops and lo and behold up sneaks Yen to say “hi”. She kind of startled me but it was great to see her. I have no idea how she managed to find us within hours of boarding but she did. Those Genie tracking skills are a bit on the creepy side. ?? She said all of her SC guests were either onboard or on their way so it doesn’t seem like there have been nearly as many cancellations as I thought there might be. When were in the Concierge lounge earlier, Alex (Concierge host) said that, to his knowledge, only 5 suites has cancelled. The truth is, though, they won’t really know how many cancellations they have until boarding ends tomorrow afternoon. BTW, they are still excluding D+ from the CL even with the modified itin. On our way to 270 for the tech presentation. ??

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard in downtown Newark. The hotel itself was excellent. Absolutely no hesitation or concerns. The room was comfortable and clean and the mattress was very, very comfortable. The neighborhood.....(or maybe I should say”the ‘hood).....however, was very sketchy. We ventured out a couple times to eat but frankly, I was not comfortable (for one thing it was effing freezing) so we mostly stayed in the hotel. We kept having people come up and beg for money. We picked this location b/c, as I said in an earlier post, we were under extreme duress to find a place in a hurry. Likely we could have made a better choice, but it was well within the $200/day allowance that a Royal was reimbursing so we are happy, looking back.

Probably not. The water that usually provide is in plastic bottles. I think there is a water package that provides Avian.

I would never buy any expensive jewelry on the ship.

No time limit between drinks. As long as you have 2 seapass cards (and both people have the UBP) you can get 2 drinks.

Exactly the same for us for Anthem.

Thanks, Ellecee. We are finally on Anthem ! Embarkation was a breeze. Slightly disappointed with our Grand Suite. Much smaller and feels closed-in compared with any GS we’ve ever had - even Grandeur ! We’ll survive. Better than a stank hotel in downtown Newark !

Yes, we are looking forward to ships food ! I’m certain the casino will be closed 7ntil later tomorrow afternoon but that’s ok. Just glad to get out of here !

Funny you mention Frances. We told him last year that he would make a great Genie. He said he was “too far along in his career”. I still think he would be a great Genie. Were you in the Royal Suite ? I know the RS often gets that kind of personal service.

I do not believe so.

Just a short musing on the Star Class bennies added to other ships. Back when SC was first implemented, it was my understanding that they intended to integrate this “all inclusive” concept to the [at least some of] the other ship classes....but that has never happened and I have not heard any further rumors of it happening. This actually surprises me, given the popularity of SC. There must be a good reason why this program has not developed beyond the O and Q class ships. My guess (and that’s all it is) is that they could not figure a way to introduce the a Genie ?. To me (laughable I’m sure) it seems like it would be fairly easy to do but I guess it isn’t. Granted, the other ship classes do not have the elaborate SC suites, but adding the all inclusive benefits and some sort of Genie lite doesn’t seem like it would be that hard !

No worries. That group was a mixed bag but we are all in the 50-60 age group and mostly average in mobility. I’m sure that if you are all even moderately fit you will be fine.