WAAAYTOOO

I am super late to this party. The freeloaders have been keeping me so busy I have not been on the blogs for weeks now. This is the perfect time for me to read this blog. @TheBoss518 and I just booked Indy for August. We actually got a casino comp for the cruise. This is our first "free" cruise (we of course paid to upgrade to a suite gty) I feel pretty lucky because the last time we were in the casino was two years ago. I ran the Facebook page for that sailing and ran a slot pull. depite not spending any more money there, we still get offers and this was the first one we have been able to do. 
We are excited because we are leaving the freeloaders home with the grand parents for this one. 
I do have a question for all you  casino pros. When you book a casino comp, do you get the opportunity for royal up bids? We did a suite gty rate because we would be perfectly fine in a jr suite since there aren't big differences in suite benefits moving to a GS. I don't feel like paying an extra 1k per person to book into a GS directly. There are so many rooms open still so fingers crossed we get a magical room assignment by default. I just found out that this cruise is also a Gaming and Anime convention cruise so I cant wait to see all the kids in their cosplay🤣 This should make for a fun blog when we go!

Morning #5....last day of leg #2.  Sea day.
Our SL Concierge (Gigi) disembarked yesterday in Jamaica for vacation and Vanessa, who was in the CL has moved down to the SL on deck 9.  The other CL Concierge (I'm ashamed to say that I have not yet learned her name) is now in charge of the CL.
I was able to give the new CL Concierge (I promise I will get her name and remember it before I disembark in 10 days !) a list of the specialty dining for next cruise.  We have 2 BOGO (which I will use on nights 1 and 2 just to make things easier) and then a 3 night package to cover the nights that we do not care for, in the MDR - namely, USA, French and Caribbean.  Then we will have 4 nights in the MDR.  It's nice to have this taken care of before TAD and now I won't have to mess with it when we get back onboard, tomorrow.  Since there is a complimentary B2B lunch on TAD, I had no need to purchase a specialty lunch for either of our TAD's.  I only purchased a specialty lunch on our very first embarkation day.
We met Mrs. @JustMeJoe yesterday.  SOOO glad to have them on board next week.  We will definitely make some plans to spend some quality time together.
Not much (anything ?) planned for today.  Dan is going to the sauna and I am pecking away on the computer in the computer lounge.  Dinner tonite is the MDR.  No idea what the menu is.  It will be surprise !
Of course, we have to change cabins for the last leg (BOOOOOO) which means we have to pack tonite or first thing in the AM. Dan has already put the new luggage tags on the luggage.  We will be able to leave whatever is hanging in the closet and only pack the "loose" items.  Our current cabin attendant (Rozel....who has been wonderful for 2 weeks !!!) will move everything to our new home waaay up on deck 12 all the way forward.  We have a Panoramic Ocean View for leg #3.  We've had this category of cabin before and we like it.  Yes, there is more motion all the way forward, but it really doesn't bother us.  It will be nice to see the sun and the ocean again from our room !  Being in the Promenade View interior for the past 2 weeks, we never know what time it is or whether or not we have docked, etc.
Our itinerary for next cruise is exactly the same as the 9 day cruise that we just completed.  We have 1 excursion, which will be in Puerto Plata, DR.  We are swimming and snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks !  YIKES !
The passenger dynamic is undoubtedly going to change again on leg #3 as we already know (from being kicked out of the SL) that there will be many more upper tiers on this next leg and presumably, fewer children.  Just for the record, we had 32 Pinns onboard on Leg #1 and 16 onboard for this leg (#2).  I will let you know how many are on #3 once I find out.

YIPPEE !!!  I got a $$ off offer but that's basically useless unless we have a real comp offer to put with it, but we don't as Dan has barely been in the casino on this leg.  We know better than to chase an offer on a short cruise.  I'm really glad to hear that M got a good one !
I saw you at breakfast but didn't want to interrupt !

I had to check out Fish & Ships again for quality control. This room is handy for running up/down one flight and grabbing some..or some soft serve..or hitting up WJ for a to-go plate.
The chicken fingers were different this time. The fish they were frying fresh in small batches. It tasted less bland this time too..maybe because it was fresh.

Of course I had dinner 3 hours later. I'm at a 2-top in a row of other 2-tops so I have neighbors to pretend to ignore.  No great people watching to share. 
Now I'm in WJ for second dinner 😂 I needed vegetables because the MDR doesn't know what those are.
They are frying donuts up fresh tonight...

Those mugs are labeled as sugar donut with chocolate milk..because everyone likes their milk to sit under a heat lamp.
 

My wife, Nina, and I will be joining the Serenade OTS for the Venice (Ravenna) to Rome segment. Look forward to running into you on the Serenade soon.

We got $231 one way and $260 the other.  Too cheap not to go!

I love the little tucked away rooms, they are often quiet. 

We do but I’m not sure you have to.  The room attendant knows what your new room number is so it’s probably not truly necessary…but yes, we do.

So here I go...."telling" on myself.  Sheesh...
I made the rookiest of rookie mistakes.  I double-booked (overlap) cruises !  I still can't believe I made such a stupid, rookie mistake but I sure did !
When I booked our annual tier casino cruises yesterday, I booked the 9th and the 16th of March B2B on SY.  All was well until I realized that we had JUST booked a 10 night EX cruise (an instant casino comp from leg #1 of this trio) for 3-20-25.  That means that I would still be ON SY when it was time to board EX.  OMG, the panic !  I felt like I was going to be sick.  I had JUST spent HOURS on the phone with Club Royale to get these 2 bookings (plus fix another comp that had gotten totally FUBAR, but that's another story....) made and now I had to go BACK and move the March 16th to March 2nd.  I was fully prepared to have to pay a $200 fee to move this cruise but it had to be done....moving the EX cruise was not an option since there was no other 10 night cruise in the casino offer to choose from.
I got BACK on the phone with Club Royale and honestly, it could not have gone more smoothly.  No change fee, she simply changed the sail date and that was that. I didn't deserve such an easy fix to a TOTALLY avoidable blunder on my part. The only problem was that there was a very small upharge for upgrading from the interior offer to the XB, Ocean View Guarantee for this sailing. For this particular cruise, the XB was slightly more than the 4V (which is the way it usually is.....I just got super lucky with my original bookings) but I gladly paid it to have my mistake behind me.  In retrospect (this is not an excuse....just an explanation) this pricing upcharge is the reason that I originally chose the 9th and 16th instead of the 2nd and the 9th.  The fact that I was already booked on EX never entered my pea brain.  Anyway....crisis rectified.  We are still on B2B on SY but slightly earlier than we were, originally.
UGH

I didn't expect our certs to show up until this afternoon (according to the release schedule) but they both showed up early this morning.
I spent ALL morning on the phone (we are in Falmouth and I used the ship's phone to call) BUT we ended up with some great results.  I was able to book both Dan's and my Prime comp cruises for B2B SY sailings (Miami) and we were able to get XB (ocean view balcony guarantee) for -0- upgrade as the XB category for our cruises was lower than the 4V interior room on both of our cruises !!!  We are on 3-9-25 and 3-16-25.
I am not a huge fan of ANY kind of GTY but in this case, it will be worth it, no matter where our OV balcony is. Yes, we will have to change rooms but we saved probably $1000 by opting for the XB over a chance to choose our cabin.  ANY balcony will beat ANY interior !
So be sure to check and see if the cost of an upgraded category is actually less than the interior fare, which is most likely what your offer is based on, if you are Prime.

So here I go...."telling" on myself.  Sheesh...
I made the rookiest of rookie mistakes.  I double-booked (overlap) cruises !  I still can't believe I made such a stupid, rookie mistake but I sure did !
When I booked our annual tier casino cruises yesterday, I booked the 9th and the 16th of March B2B on SY.  All was well until I realized that we had JUST booked a 10 night EX cruise (an instant casino comp from leg #1 of this trio) for 3-20-25.  That means that I would still be ON SY when it was time to board EX.  OMG, the panic !  I felt like I was going to be sick.  I had JUST spent HOURS on the phone with Club Royale to get these 2 bookings (plus fix another comp that had gotten totally FUBAR, but that's another story....) made and now I had to go BACK and move the March 16th to March 2nd.  I was fully prepared to have to pay a $200 fee to move this cruise but it had to be done....moving the EX cruise was not an option since there was no other 10 night cruise in the casino offer to choose from.
I got BACK on the phone with Club Royale and honestly, it could not have gone more smoothly.  No change fee, she simply changed the sail date and that was that. I didn't deserve such an easy fix to a TOTALLY avoidable blunder on my part. The only problem was that there was a very small upharge for upgrading from the interior offer to the XB, Ocean View Guarantee for this sailing. For this particular cruise, the XB was slightly more than the 4V (which is the way it usually is.....I just got super lucky with my original bookings) but I gladly paid it to have my mistake behind me.  In retrospect (this is not an excuse....just an explanation) this pricing upcharge is the reason that I originally chose the 9th and 16th instead of the 2nd and the 9th.  The fact that I was already booked on EX never entered my pea brain.  Anyway....crisis rectified.  We are still on B2B on SY but slightly earlier than we were, originally.
UGH

YIPPEE !!!  I got a $$ off offer but that's basically useless unless we have a real comp offer to put with it, but we don't as Dan has barely been in the casino on this leg.  We know better than to chase an offer on a short cruise.  I'm really glad to hear that M got a good one !
I saw you at breakfast but didn't want to interrupt !

Morning #5....last day of leg #2.  Sea day.
Our SL Concierge (Gigi) disembarked yesterday in Jamaica for vacation and Vanessa, who was in the CL has moved down to the SL on deck 9.  The other CL Concierge (I'm ashamed to say that I have not yet learned her name) is now in charge of the CL.
I was able to give the new CL Concierge (I promise I will get her name and remember it before I disembark in 10 days !) a list of the specialty dining for next cruise.  We have 2 BOGO (which I will use on nights 1 and 2 just to make things easier) and then a 3 night package to cover the nights that we do not care for, in the MDR - namely, USA, French and Caribbean.  Then we will have 4 nights in the MDR.  It's nice to have this taken care of before TAD and now I won't have to mess with it when we get back onboard, tomorrow.  Since there is a complimentary B2B lunch on TAD, I had no need to purchase a specialty lunch for either of our TAD's.  I only purchased a specialty lunch on our very first embarkation day.
We met Mrs. @JustMeJoe yesterday.  SOOO glad to have them on board next week.  We will definitely make some plans to spend some quality time together.
Not much (anything ?) planned for today.  Dan is going to the sauna and I am pecking away on the computer in the computer lounge.  Dinner tonite is the MDR.  No idea what the menu is.  It will be surprise !
Of course, we have to change cabins for the last leg (BOOOOOO) which means we have to pack tonite or first thing in the AM. Dan has already put the new luggage tags on the luggage.  We will be able to leave whatever is hanging in the closet and only pack the "loose" items.  Our current cabin attendant (Rozel....who has been wonderful for 2 weeks !!!) will move everything to our new home waaay up on deck 12 all the way forward.  We have a Panoramic Ocean View for leg #3.  We've had this category of cabin before and we like it.  Yes, there is more motion all the way forward, but it really doesn't bother us.  It will be nice to see the sun and the ocean again from our room !  Being in the Promenade View interior for the past 2 weeks, we never know what time it is or whether or not we have docked, etc.
Our itinerary for next cruise is exactly the same as the 9 day cruise that we just completed.  We have 1 excursion, which will be in Puerto Plata, DR.  We are swimming and snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks !  YIKES !
The passenger dynamic is undoubtedly going to change again on leg #3 as we already know (from being kicked out of the SL) that there will be many more upper tiers on this next leg and presumably, fewer children.  Just for the record, we had 32 Pinns onboard on Leg #1 and 16 onboard for this leg (#2).  I will let you know how many are on #3 once I find out.

Well, it’s finally happened.  We are disinvited to the Concierge/Suites Lounge on leg #3.
SUITE AMENITIES ACCESS http://www.creative.rccl.com/e-lite/RCI/2014/Masters/email_temp/html/images/spacer.gif Dear Valued Member,

As you prepare for your upcoming adventure, we have some updates to share on your Crown & Anchor® Society benefits.

Due to the high number of guests with access to Suite amenities on this cruise, the Suite/Concierge Lounge will be reserved exclusively for guests booked in eligible Suite accommodations and select Top Pinnacle Club members. Rest assured, you'll still have full access to the exclusive Crown Lounge, its services, and other well-deserved onboard benefits.

Please note that these restrictions are specific to this ship and sailing and are not indicative of any permanent changes to your Pinnacle Club benefits. We appreciate your understanding and can't wait to welcome you onboard!

Sincerely,

Royal Caribbean International
Ship Sail Date Booking ID Explorer of the Seas 19-Apr-2024 5957721 http://www.creative.rccl.com/e-lite/RCI/2014/Masters/email_temp/html/images/spacer.gifA
 
As it turns out, the SL on EX isn’t the most desirable place to spend time anyway (we’ve only been in there twice in 13 days) but it has finally happened.  It was just a matter of time.  I feel sure that there are lots of Pinns who are on this next cruise and will then be staying on for the TA.  At least we know ahead of time and didn’t have to wait until we boarded for the “bad” news.

So here I go...."telling" on myself.  Sheesh...
I made the rookiest of rookie mistakes.  I double-booked (overlap) cruises !  I still can't believe I made such a stupid, rookie mistake but I sure did !
When I booked our annual tier casino cruises yesterday, I booked the 9th and the 16th of March B2B on SY.  All was well until I realized that we had JUST booked a 10 night EX cruise (an instant casino comp from leg #1 of this trio) for 3-20-25.  That means that I would still be ON SY when it was time to board EX.  OMG, the panic !  I felt like I was going to be sick.  I had JUST spent HOURS on the phone with Club Royale to get these 2 bookings (plus fix another comp that had gotten totally FUBAR, but that's another story....) made and now I had to go BACK and move the March 16th to March 2nd.  I was fully prepared to have to pay a $200 fee to move this cruise but it had to be done....moving the EX cruise was not an option since there was no other 10 night cruise in the casino offer to choose from.
I got BACK on the phone with Club Royale and honestly, it could not have gone more smoothly.  No change fee, she simply changed the sail date and that was that. I didn't deserve such an easy fix to a TOTALLY avoidable blunder on my part. The only problem was that there was a very small upharge for upgrading from the interior offer to the XB, Ocean View Guarantee for this sailing. For this particular cruise, the XB was slightly more than the 4V (which is the way it usually is.....I just got super lucky with my original bookings) but I gladly paid it to have my mistake behind me.  In retrospect (this is not an excuse....just an explanation) this pricing upcharge is the reason that I originally chose the 9th and 16th instead of the 2nd and the 9th.  The fact that I was already booked on EX never entered my pea brain.  Anyway....crisis rectified.  We are still on B2B on SY but slightly earlier than we were, originally.
UGH

My phone and iPad finally synched, so I have some photos from Antigua and Grenada.  Let’s see how this goes.  I’ve had some trouble spacing them and inserting text.  I’m terrible at this stuff.
This is the floating platform in Antigua for the stingray swim.  It made the entire experience so much better than in Grand Cayman. It was much easier to get into and out of the water

  These mysterious blobs are obviously stingrays.  They are so docile and sweet.  
 

You can almost see the tail !
 

This is St George, Grenada with Explorer in the background.  I really liked Grenada.  Nice people, beautiful island, shitty roads.
 

Obviously, I’m having a bad hair day.  
 

The town of St George really reminds me of Curaçao, which is one of my very favorite places.  This town just looks so quaint.


Shamefully, I got very few photos of Ft Frederick.  
 

These monkeys are native to the island and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know their proper species name.  We caught a fleeting glance at one in the rain forest.

…and finally, the waterfall at Annandale.  Very beautiful place. Kinda like a cenote in Mexico.

Morning #5....last day of leg #2.  Sea day.
Our SL Concierge (Gigi) disembarked yesterday in Jamaica for vacation and Vanessa, who was in the CL has moved down to the SL on deck 9.  The other CL Concierge (I'm ashamed to say that I have not yet learned her name) is now in charge of the CL.
I was able to give the new CL Concierge (I promise I will get her name and remember it before I disembark in 10 days !) a list of the specialty dining for next cruise.  We have 2 BOGO (which I will use on nights 1 and 2 just to make things easier) and then a 3 night package to cover the nights that we do not care for, in the MDR - namely, USA, French and Caribbean.  Then we will have 4 nights in the MDR.  It's nice to have this taken care of before TAD and now I won't have to mess with it when we get back onboard, tomorrow.  Since there is a complimentary B2B lunch on TAD, I had no need to purchase a specialty lunch for either of our TAD's.  I only purchased a specialty lunch on our very first embarkation day.
We met Mrs. @JustMeJoe yesterday.  SOOO glad to have them on board next week.  We will definitely make some plans to spend some quality time together.
Not much (anything ?) planned for today.  Dan is going to the sauna and I am pecking away on the computer in the computer lounge.  Dinner tonite is the MDR.  No idea what the menu is.  It will be surprise !
Of course, we have to change cabins for the last leg (BOOOOOO) which means we have to pack tonite or first thing in the AM. Dan has already put the new luggage tags on the luggage.  We will be able to leave whatever is hanging in the closet and only pack the "loose" items.  Our current cabin attendant (Rozel....who has been wonderful for 2 weeks !!!) will move everything to our new home waaay up on deck 12 all the way forward.  We have a Panoramic Ocean View for leg #3.  We've had this category of cabin before and we like it.  Yes, there is more motion all the way forward, but it really doesn't bother us.  It will be nice to see the sun and the ocean again from our room !  Being in the Promenade View interior for the past 2 weeks, we never know what time it is or whether or not we have docked, etc.
Our itinerary for next cruise is exactly the same as the 9 day cruise that we just completed.  We have 1 excursion, which will be in Puerto Plata, DR.  We are swimming and snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks !  YIKES !
The passenger dynamic is undoubtedly going to change again on leg #3 as we already know (from being kicked out of the SL) that there will be many more upper tiers on this next leg and presumably, fewer children.  Just for the record, we had 32 Pinns onboard on Leg #1 and 16 onboard for this leg (#2).  I will let you know how many are on #3 once I find out.

Yep, on leg 3 we have to move up to deck 14 forward to a pano OV room.  It’s one of our new fave cheapo cabin types.  I’ve actually grown quite fond of our little Promenade view room, which is fortunate since we will be here another 5 days !  Truly, my only complaint about the Promenade view room is the fact that there are no drawers in the vanity except for one tiny drawer right in front.  Otherwise, the room is fine.  I love the little window love seat.  That’s MY space.  I sit here and do my blogging and it’s very comfy.  I was able to watch the Promenade parade this afternoon  -at least, one “end” of it.  I expected the noise to finally reach us but nope.  It was still very quiet here.

FYI this definitely works. 
I booked my prime cruise yesterday by having the rep apply the prime cruise code to an existing comp sailing I had that I had been planning to cancel for a while.  The ship and sail dates were completely different and I upgraded the prime cruise stateroom type so that was different as well.  I was also going solo on the original booking and they were able to add someone to the new sailing.  The amount I already paid on the old sailing was credited to the new sailing and I just had to pay the difference.  The booking number is the same and the website now shows the new sailing instead of the old one.
So I covered just about every possible scenario in one shot (except per-purchased cruise planner items) and it was completed without any hassle or issue other than a brief hold by the rep to make the changes on their end.

No luck with RU once again, but….. We were on Indy by 10:55 am hanging out sans kids! 

You shouldn't have any worries there, since it's a full comp there isn't any change fees. You can't pay a penalty on a $0 rate since you have no money invested for them to withhold from and they have to return port fees and taxes (I think it's a law but don't quote me).  The only "penalty" for canceling or changing a full casino comp is you may not be able to use the code for a different sailing if it's expired.  But in this case since it's the prime cruise, that code doesn't expire until March next year.  You could technically change that sailing with that code many more times over the course of this year.  As long as the sailing you're moving to has available casino comp inventory you'll never have to pay any change fee.  Now upgrade payments are a different story, especially after final payment date...

I'm surprised this was even possible.  I almost did this one time when I told the rep the wrong date and he told me the system wouldn't let him book it because I was already booked on another sailing that date.  I wasn't meaning to try and book that date, I just misspoke.  But I remember thinking how I wasn't surprised the system wouldn't let him double book me as obviously no one can be 2 places at once.
It's been a while since then so maybe it was just my rep noticing the possible double booking and it wasn't actually the system preventing it?

YIPPEE !!!  I got a $$ off offer but that's basically useless unless we have a real comp offer to put with it, but we don't as Dan has barely been in the casino on this leg.  We know better than to chase an offer on a short cruise.  I'm really glad to hear that M got a good one !
I saw you at breakfast but didn't want to interrupt !

Pretty sure that was our chosen location on Indy a couple years ago when I was able to move whatever our GTY assignments were... deck 10 aft.
Purely coincidence... definitely not the reason why... OK, it was the exact reason why, lol.

To the room...


There are so few rooms in this little loop and it's behind a door so likely to be pretty quiet. The wifi is fast in the room too 👍

From the decor it appears this is a bunch of newer rooms perhaps? It definitely looks different from my last room here:

Got my C&A amenity..

Even the bathroom is a different tone from the last one..