WAAAYTOOO

I concur. There have been small “hints” that Royal will eventually make Cruise Planner purchases, nonrefundable and I think this is their “system” getting ready to implement that policy. Total speculation, but based on some unfortunate “hints”.

You all know how I feel about the app anyway….but I do have to say that it seems to be working ok (ok as it ever is…) onboard. Rezzies seem to be correct but I haven’t tried to use it for anything like checking in or health questionnaire, etc. I will be checking in for an upcoming cruise in a few days and I will have to do the health questionnaire for party II of the B3B in a couple of days. Hopefully everything will be fixed by then…

We’re just gonna miss you ! We’re on Utopia on 9-16.

Actually, I give the credit for my good-ish casino luck to my red underwear. I have a friend who told me that if you wear red underwear you will win. Go figure…but the chants and prayers are appreciated ! They can’t hurt, right ?

We had a super awesome day with the rays. They are really so sweet. They had a much nicer setup for the ray encounter in Antigua than they have at Cayman. In Antigua they have some floating platforms that really make getting into and out of the water much easier. Aside from that, the encounters with the rays were the same. We had such a nice time. We snorkeled with them, fed them, held them, petted them. Of course, they were there for the free meal. That was plain, but we didn’t care. We had a great time with them. We were in the “hot rod” of boats that were shuttling folks out to the platforms. All of the other boats had 115 hp outboards on them but our boat had twin 250’s. Woot ! We kicked a$$. We had the cutest bus driver -Romeo. When we first got onto the bus Dan asked Romeo if they drive on the left side of the road in Antigua (since the steering wheel was on the right side of the bus). Romeo said - “Yes. The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide”. We got a good laugh out of that. I got a little sun but nothing extreme. It was overcast and actually rained a little bit while we were getting ready to board the shuttle boats. But when we got out in the water, it was perfect. Not hot, not cold, not windy. I took some photos but they are on my phone so I will post them once (if ?) my devices synch. Dinner tonite was in the MDR - a taste of Asia. It was really quite good. They should put this one in the regular menu lineup, IMO. They could definitely replace French night. Ugh. Good luck tonite in the casino. We had abysmal luck at the slots/video poker but I got lucky and hit a straight flush playing Ultimate Texas Hold’Em so I actually won a little bit in the end. Still a little down, overall, but very little. I think I read somewhere that the casino had FINALLY managed to synch the table games with the slots so now, the points that you see on the screen (slots) reflect a total of table plus slot points. Dan confirmed that, tonite….so it will make it much easier to know where you stand -points-wise, if you play both tables and machines, like us. Tomorrow is Grenada. It’s our first time to call at this port and we’re looking forward to it. We have an island bus tour scheduled. Should be fun.

We love swimming with turtles. We would have chosen that one over the rays (if they had offered that….which they didn’t) but I have to say -we swam with the rays in The Caymans a number of years ago and really enjoyed it. I hope the Antigua rays are as docile as the Cayman rays ! I sometimes have a struggle getting back onto the boat, especially if the seas are rough-ish so I hope that’s not the case today. Fingers crossed. Being waaaytooo fat and having 2 questionable knees doesn’t help !

Wow, Teddy…what an awesome opportunity. Sounds like you guys are really in the boonies. Will be a good place to hide out from the demons who came/come through the vortex.

We’ve been browsing the 2,000-3,000 lists and it’s very clear that they are holding all of the big ships for 3,000+…at least, for FL departures. It’s not clear to us quite yet whether or not Dan will push through to the 3,000 level or not. The offers are definitely much better at 3,000.

She giveth and she taketh away. It’s been a mixed bag but at least she gave a little back….which rarely happens.

How would they even know ? I’m not disputing you, I just don’t know how they could differentiate suite levels since the Set Sail Pass just says “Suite” on it (or Star Class).

Sushi at Izumi tonite. For some reason, they brought Dan 2 full portions (8 pieces X 2 = 16 pieces !) of sushi when they normally only bring half that amount….OMG we are stuffed ! …and we are both dying of thirst now after all that soy sauce ! I got 2 rolls that were the normal size but I still had too much. I don’t know how he ate everything he did…God bless ‘im. We hit another $1000 jackpot on video poker….this time we hit 4 deuces on Deuces wild but luckily this time we were playing for $1 so it paid $1000. I totally forgot to take a picture this time. We were both so stunned ! Believe it or not, we are both still slightly “down” since we both had abysmal casino sessions on day 2….but it’s not horrible now with the 2 big (for us) wins last night and tonite. Tomorrow is Antigua. We’re swimming with the stingrays somewhere. We don’t have to meet our excursion until noon so we don’t have to worry about an early wake-up. Good !

Happy birthday, @AshleyDillo ! Also very happy to hear that they have finally figured out how to combine the points. That’s always been a drag to have to cipher that mess.

JS do not get complimentary internet so if the cost of the Key is pretty close to the cost of internet, then Key might be cost effective. If the cost of the Key is more than a few dollars more then it probably isn’t worth the extra cost.

I have always used the Suites check-in line when I had a JS. If the Set Sail pass says “Suite” (which it always has) then you can use the suites line. Nothing else though….

No Coastal Kitchen rezzies available in the Cruise Planner. The Concierge/Genie will book them for you once he/she contacts you before you sail or you can book them once you’re onboard.

Dan just downloaded the comp sheets from the casino (EX 4-5-24). Surprisingly, the 2500 level list has disappeared. It jumps from 2000 to 3000 points. Seems a bit shady since the 2500 point threshold for making Prime was previously a logical goal. The lower-level comps have always been weak but they’re really bad now. Nothing much at all until 2-3000. If anybody wants to see them let me know and I will try and upload them. I’m terrible at this stuff but I’ll give it a go…

Congratulations ! Yes, your tag should say Diamond but it truly has no impact if it doesn’t.

We’re pulling into St Thomas 2.5 hours early (Crown Bay). It’s 9:30 and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until noon. The Cap made an announcement that we pushed to get here early due to a medical emergency so I’m assuming it’s related to the AAA we heard last night, but that’s pure speculation. We are scheduled to leave at 8 PM. Strange schedule. We’re not getting off today in St Thomas but this remains one of my favorite ports as far as the view is concerned. It’s truly lovely here. Now that my expensive jewelry-buying days are behind me (thank goodness) I have little reason to disembark. …but for those of you who are still IN their expensive jewelry-buying days, St Thomas is an excellent choice. Today is my first W&F laundry day for this cruise. You’ll all be happy to hear that I have achieved a new “personal best” by stuffing 24 pieces into that W&F bag. I just keep getting better and better ! . I have begun using the “rolling” technique and it’s proving to be a game-changer ! So, today is doomsday for those who care. Apparently we will be treated to the partial solar eclipse at approximately 2:44 PM. Since NASA will be firing 2 rockets into the atmosphere, willy nilly and CERN has decided that it would be a great time to push the world’s most powerful particle accelerator to its maximum power for the first time in history, it should be interesting. I’m fully expecting the black hole to materialize whereupon the demons of hell will be transiting to our dimension. That should be fun. Put on the Armor of God and all should be fine. (I’m only partially kidding) Sitting in the CL as we dock in St Thomas. I’m very surprised at how few people are here in the mornings. We avoid all lounges in the evenings so I have no idea how things are in them during the happy hours. I guess I should pop in an evening or 2 just to report out.

Dan and I hit a Royal Flush on video poker tonite ! Woohoo. Too bad we were only playing a quarter. …but it made us much healthier than we were ! He will definitely make Prime on this cruise as he’s more than halfway there and this is only night 3 of 9. Yikes. Sorry this picture is so big ! About 5 minutes ago we had an Alpha, Alpha, Alpha call come over the stateroom speakers. I don’t recall them usually making that announce inside the rooms. It is for a passenger cabin on deck 12. I hope whoever it is will be ok.

Well done, Mom !

I know, right ? As soon as you hear that first drum you’re looking for the other 2. I’m usually disappointed…

The most miraculous part of this story is that he didn’t use all of the money you put on the account !

Pulling away from Puerto Plata, DR currently. At least, I think we are. I can feel some movement and all aboard was supposed to be at 3:00 (it’s now 4:17). Those 2 pieces of evidence together tell me we’re on the move since I can see NOTHing of the outside world from my little Promenade view interior. We did not leave the ship today as we have called here twice in the past couple of months and we will be back here during Part III on 4-22 (I think). On that visit, we will be swimming with sea lions and sharks. Yikes ! Dan is napping (again) so I’m sitting in the dark tapping away on my iPad. Dinner tonite is in the MDR. It will be our first visit to the MDR this cruise. Mexican night, as I recall. It’s not a fab menu but I can tolerate the controversially-named pork enchilada/burrito/chimichunga. Dan likes the carne asada (I think that’s what it’s called). We have MTD. Hopefully EX has “caught on” to the way other ships are handling MTD and there won’t be any lengthy lines. My recent experiences have been that they are simply seating MTD folks amidst the traditional folks at vacant tables as they become available. It seems to be working fine but I think it’s very labor-intensive and stressful for the dining staff as they are turning tables over (figuratively, of course) many multiples of times per meal. They’re damned good at it, too. I’m amazed at how quickly they can re-set a table and have new folks seated. Impressive. Then it will be off to the casiner (sic) to try and put ourselves back on our earlier “winning” track. We were derailed last night…we both had miserable gambling experiences. We actually ended up playing a little Dancing Drums (actually, a LOT of Dancing Drums), which is extremely unusual for us but as I’ve mentioned previously, this is Dan’s push for Prime so points are important and the tables just don’t cut it for us as we aren’t big wager-ers. Slot machines are mindlessly boring to me but we played together on 1 machine and it was kinda fun. I was THAT person last night. I was sitting next to Dan, playing with him (no smart-ass remarks) so obviously I was sitting on a stool, in front of another Dancing Drums machine. I heard someone make a loud [intentional, I’m sure] remark about all of the machines being “taken” so I was guilted into putting $20 into the machine in front of which I was sitting, and pressing the button every minute or 2 just for the pretense of playing. Since I was paying absolutely NO attention to what was going on, on that machine, I actually ended up breaking even ! Too funny. Of course we lost, eventually, on the machine we were jointly playing, but Dan got a good number of points, which was the goal.

TL;DR - I’m fairly confident that I will be able to use a BOGO on a night other than nights 1 and/or 2 on Explorer Man, that was waaay more complicated than it should have been…. I stopped by Chops this afternoon and asked the simple question - can I use my BOGO on a night other than nights 1 or 2 ? I got the deer-in-the-headlight look from the Junior-est-looking officer I have ever seen. He had a bare epaulet with no stripe or insignia of any kind. I’m betting he hadn’t had it a day ! He was clueless. Had to make a phone call…to someone similarly clueless. After an unbelievable long wait, I began hearing Junior saying, “Yes….ok…only nights 1 or 2…ok…thank you”. So I was prepared for a “no” answer to my question. No worries. I knew I had a 50-50 chance. Then, the Boss walked up to Junior and asked if he could help. I asked the Boss the same simple question I had asked Junior and got an immediate, no-hesitation response - “Of course !” So, I think the answer is - yes, you can use your BOGO on a different night, but I will suggest that (as is the case with most everything at Royal Caribbean) it may well depend on who you ask. I plan on asking the Suites Concierge to make my BOGO reservations for me on the last day of this sailing and see how it goes. This, in itself, might present a new problem, as I have heard from other Pinns that some of the Suites Concierges are hesitant to assist non-suite Pinns with such tasks, although this has not been my experience so far in my very young Pinn-life. I will report back on how all of that goes ! FYI, Chops, which is located adjacent to the WJ, is used as secret overflow seating for the WJ for both breakfast and lunch (on port days). I knew they used to do this in the “olden” times but I thought it had been completely discontinued. Apparently not. There were a few secret squirrels sitting in there munching on their WJ grub when we stumbled in. It is definitely NOT publicized. The Suites/Pinns breakfast location on this ship is Giovanni’s, which is located forward, port side, between the casino and the theater. I have seen Chops, Giovanni’s and Izumi located in this area on different ships. This space used to be a 2-story disco which they removed quite a few years ago and replaced with this specialty dining venue and, I think, some new cabins on the once-upper section of the old disco.

Yes, Genies can handle anything (and more) that a GS or Concierge can do. I was once scolded (nicely, of course ) by my Genie after being “caught” standing in the GS line for something I didn’t want to bother the Genie with. The only thing I can think of that the Genie wouldn’t be able to that you would go to GS for, is getting change $$. There’s nothing that I can think of that a Concierge can do that a Genie could not.