WAAAYTOOO

Your suite is lovely. I am so relieved. I was concerned that you would have the tiny room like we had (10720) but yours is great !! It must just be the corners that are so small. So am I understanding it correctly....that you flew all the way to Sydney to arrive on cruise day ? WOW ! That took some guts ! Glad it all worked out. I would have been a nervous wreck not having at least 1 day to spare.

This has never happened to me but I am always in constant fear that I will go to the wrong airport. Living in northern Virginia, I am about equidistant between Dulles and National airports. National is my airport of choice and we will always choose to leave from there if it works (itin choices and price) but I always have this sick feeling in my stomach on the way to the airport and have to stop and look at my paperwork to be SURE that I'm going to the right one. Every once in a while Dulles is the better choice for one reason or another...so I have anxiety about showing up at the wrong airport and not having time to get to the right one !

No kidding !

Is Pixels the Ovation equivalent to Spectra's Cabaret ?

I think it's entirely ship-dependent at this point. When we were on the Anthem a few weeks back on a B2B, one week the Key only went to Chops but on the second leg of the B2B they had the option to eat at either Chops or Jamie's. So....there is really no way to know at this point. According to some accounts that I have read, some ships were offering to let Key people go to Jamie's after the line got super long to get into Chops. Now, whether or not they were always planning on offering Jamie's as an option, who knows. I suspect....but it only speculation....that they will be offering either restaurant. The Key seems to be a pretty popular option and I think Royal will take full advantage of it, so I'm thinking that they will expand this program to include both restaurants. Nothing but pure speculation on my part. The official rules say that everyone in the room who is 6 years of age or more must purchase the Key....so, both of you would be required to purchase it. If you want the boys to be with you through check-in and be able to eat lunch with you in the specialty restaurant, then they would both have to purchase it as well.

This is also true of the dining packages, if you are interested in that. Once they hit the max number (however many that is....no idea) they take the dining packages off the cruise planner. So if you really, really want a dining package, I recommend buying it at whatever price you are comfortable with, knowing that you can reprice it if the price goes down but knowing that you have it in case they sell out.

If I had purchased the UDP and had not been able to get into a specialty for lunch on embark day I would have been very unhappy. Sounds like you handled it better than I would have... That is a good reminder that I need to have the Concierge makes rezzies for us on Freedom next month.

Hey, Emma. Welcome to the boards and to cruising ! Both are GREAT ! Whether or not you need identification (in addition to your seapass card) is a function of the port. Some require personal ID and some do not. We always take our driver's licenses with us off the ship just in case. Whether or not to take your passport off the ship with you is an area of great discussion and disagreement...although it is always FRIENDLY disagreement. We never EVER take our passports off the ship...but many take them EVERY time. It's a personal preference. Security of your items (on the beach or wherever you are going) is always a serious concern. We never go into the ocean or pool at the same time for this reason, when we are off the ship. I will stay and be "gear watch" while Dan swims and he does the same for me. It's just an unfortunate fact of trying to secure personal items in an unsecured environment. Some places will have lockers that you can rent but we rarely do that - only a few times like when we go on an ATV excursion or something like that.

Welcome aboard ! The only REAL mistake you can make is to not have the proper travel documents (I recommend always having a current passport). That is really the only thing that could keep you from boarding the ship. The rest of the details are far less important than you think they will be. Trust me, I've made plenty of packing omissions and somehow I have managed to have a great cruise every single time ! Probably the worst packing mistake is not having comfortable shoes. It's easy for me to say as I'm an old, fat woman BUT trying to be too cutesy can really cause great anxiety. FORGET about what looks good and bring what FEELS good. You will never see any of those people on the ship again...dress comfortably ! - especially the shoes ! You'll be fine !!! Enjoy your first cruise. You only get one <first>.

The official rule is 60 days however Michelle has managed to switch reservations for us that were WELL over 60 days old. You just have to get a TA who knows all the tricks !!

Last year when we got to the night-before hotel in Baltimore, the reception desk attendant could not find our reservation. I pulled out our confirmation and I had booked for Saturday night (the date that the cruise actually departed) vs Friday night, which was the night before. Luckily they had room so it turned out to be a benign mistake but it's easy to do !!

Yes, Harmony has poker. The Oasis ships generally have 2 tables but almost never have both of them going at the same time. Generally, 1 is for playing tournaments and the other will be for cash games which seem to happen only at night, generally after 9PM. Whether or not they play a cash poker game depends largely on the poker crowd of the individual cruise. I have been on cruises where we could never get a game started and I have been on cruises when there was a huge waiting list every night to get onto the table. It just "depends". Most Royal cash poker games have gone to a $2/$5 game so be prepared for some rather large pots, especially if you get bullies in the game. The house takes a 10% rake of all called pots up to a $15 max per hand. The rake can be brutal. They also run the "Royal Poker Tournament" satellite games on every cruise. The winner of this satellite tournament is invited (free stateroom and entry) into the Royal Poker Tournament Finals which is held annually in early December on one of the big ships (not sure which one it's on this year). Buy-in for the satellite tournaments is usually $100 but I have seen the buy-in go down to $75 on some ships. If they do not get enough participants (meaning, if the buy-in purse is not big enough to cover their costs) they will give away a cash prize versus the free room and final tournament entry AFTER taking their "rake" out of the buy-in purse. Dan won one of the satellites a number of years ago and we went to 1 of the finals....but rarely even enter the tournaments these days. We do play in the cash games though.

Wow...I had no idea about this one. Thanks for mentioning this.

Correcto !

Not dining - at least for the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if they start adding an automatic gratuity on pre-purchased dining packages but as of right now....you can still purchase dining packages without paying the gratuity.

Yes. All drink packages will charge you an automatic 18% "gratuity". You cannot get out of paying this charge. If you wait and purchase drinks individually onboard, you will be charged a mandatory 18% gratuity at that time. No getting around it. Not so with dining packages. As of now, they still are not adding a mandatory gratuity but you WILL pay a gratuity on specialty dining if you wait until you get onboard to purchase your specialty dining meals.

I feel sure that they will be able to accommodate any request you make for food for the little one....but if you want to ask ahead of time, you can write to [email protected] and ask them directly.

My April 28 Freedom (7 nights) cruise has been selling the DBP for $44 PP for the past couple of weeks. That is the price that I purchased at during the Black Friday sale last November. That's the lowest price I've seen for any 2019 cruise.

You’ve been very quiet. I know the signs. What a great cruise you had though !

Welcome to the blog, fox runner ! No reason not to bring folding chairs if you’re willing to haul them around. They are not prohibited. Some people bring hammocks and string them up on their balconies.

Dan’ll take that gig !

You are welcome

Unfortunately, no. These neighborhood comps are not upgradeable

We put luggage tags on our carry-ones b/c half the time Dan has no idea what our cabin number is !

Hip, hip, hooray !!!