WAAAYTOOO

At least we didn’t start talking about pizza! Lol

Glad you're feeling better! Good to hear you're off pain meds quickly. 
That's what happens when you leave us unattended. LOL

With the kicker being (as I understand it) "that the cruise lines can access" it. 

Such a database would violate so many pieces of the HIPAA regulations.

Thanks for tip. We always add a few days at the port. With all of this Barbados talk, I’m looking into a 14-day trip.

I did the same !!  On the Honolulu-Vancouver leg of our Australia/NZ/HI/CAN cruise-about (Quantum), we are doing SC for the last leg.  I originally booked deck 8 but then remembered the noise from 270...so I changed to deck 10.  We are now in 10724.  The only SC left on that sailing is a corner GLS.  Glad we got ours in time before the good ones were gone !

Great topic.  I just signed into the Blog, but have been reading for the past week.  I booked my first cruise on Royal Caribbean and booked the GLS on Anthem.  Thanks to @WAAAYTOOO, we changed from a corner to middle GLS on deck 10.  I have lots of time to anticipate and learn from everyone…we don’t sail until Oct 2023.  We have 4 other cruises booked before then on other lines, 3 on NCL in the Haven and one on Celebrity.
 
Thanks again to everyone for sharing info.  The planning and anticipation of our first Star Class cruise will be fun but excruciating!  

I went back and forth on this a while back and am now at the point where I would certainly consider going on a test cruise for the following reasons:

1. We've learned a lot about COVID
2. Royal has been sailing overseas without any major issues
3. I have both of my vaccine doses
4. I need to get out of the house ?

we were comfortable cruising even during the early days, because we know how we cruise and we felt that with masks, social distancing, and sanitation measures, that we could do it safely without issue.  Our bigger issue was getting to the port and spending the night, but we think that is now able to be done fairly easily.  

The concern that many people may still have is that you can be a "carrier" of COVID and we certainly do not want to bring it back to our loved ones, so as as more people get access to the vaccine that will help as well.
 
Thanks and stay safe!
 

Waiting for the CDC to allow these test cruises while other portions of the tourism/travel industry progresses like.....

Where's my invitation?

I guess I'm just a party girl.  I loved having parties in my suite.  I will admit that it may not be as cool of an idea in the COVID age, but it still sounds like fun.
One of the best suite parties I've ever attended was in @Matt's CLS during one of the previous Cruise Blog cruises.  @AnnetteJacksonand her team set that up....wow, what a great party !  BTW, they DID have hard liquor at theirs and if I recall, they had a bartender.  No expense too great for @Matt!
That was also the group cruise with the disastrous excursion to Bamboo Beach.  Don't get @AnnetteJacksonstarted on that one....

OOOHHHHH.....one of my favorite things !!
Let me first say that, as @Lovetocruise2002often mentions, all Genies are not equal...or at least, they each have different gifts and strengths.  Much of the success of your Cabin Crawl will be dependent upon your Genie's party skills.
Having said that, I will also make one more disclosure and it is tied in with the one above.  I have read accounts, over the past couple of years, where the Genie has balked at organizing a large Cabin Crawl and has suggested to their SC pax that in order to arrange such a soiree, there would be a per-person charge.  Hmmmm....so I think you may need to be very strategic in your approach to this.  I would suggest that perhaps it would be best NOT to give a lot of advance warning to your Genie about your plans for a CC get-together.  That is completely contrary to my original approach to doing a CC get-together.  In the "early days" I always told my Genie up front about the event so that he/she would be prepared...but in more recent years, I have sprung it on them at the last moment and downplayed the event to keep it from sounding like a gala.  Some Genies really seem to enjoy doing party events, and some others really seem to resent it.  A lot will depend on who you get as your Genie.  I have never had a Genie try and charge me, but I have heard of others whose Genie DID indicate that there would be a charge.  That totally sucks. I hope it doesn't happen to you.  Avoid using the words "Cabin Crawl" with your Genie. Call it something else.
So....my first piece of advice is - keep it to yourself until you are onboard.
My second piece of advice is, try and keep your event to 25 people or less.  That is often hard to do when you have an open forum like a FB group.  If you have a good indication that your group is likely to be larger than 25, I would reconsider being the host of the event.  I have found that my most successful CC get-togethers have been when someone ELSE is the host and I just tag along as an interim stop.
My third piece of advice is....if you are just an interim stop, and not the host, do NOT try and participate in the extended CC.  IOW, don't try and go to all of the cabins along with the mob.  You will have enough to do to keep you at "home" and organizing for your own event.  The first 2 of these that I did, I tagged along with the group and went to everyone else's room and by the time we got to our suite, I was exhausted and found that I would have been better served to have stayed in the suite and made preparations for the others to arrive.  This is particularly important for CC for GLS (and really...any SC suite on a Q class ship) and ATS.  Those suites are SOOO far away from everyone else...it's such a trek.
For the event itself, assuming you are allowed to cater without charge, the Genie can order food from any specialty restaurant (assuming your event is during normal operating hours of that restaurant), provide unlimited amounts of beer, water and soft drinks (there is a charge for wine and champagne, but it's very nominal in the greater scheme of things), get plates, napkins, silverware, table cloths, ice...literally everything you need for your party.  It is very difficult and very expensive to get hard liquor brought to your cabin but it can be done....with persistence.  We never bothered with liquor.  It's just too much trouble.  I strongly recommend that you approach your Suite Attendants to get an ice chest for beer.  Room service will bring you those useless champagne buckets that hold nothing.  You WILL need an ice chest and I have found that the room Suite Attendants are your best source for that.  They will also be the ones to get your ice for you.  Give THEM plenty of head's up.
Timing the event is kinda critical.  As I mentioned before, you can only order specialty food during restaurant operating hours and you will want to do this on a sea day so that means you will need to do this in the afternoon (between noon-2).  Historically, cabin crawls are held on the first sea day immediately following the Top Tier event, which usually means around 11:00 AM.  That's too early if you want specialty food - and you do.  There is danger in waiting until the afternoon, but it really can't be avoided.  People will get busy with something else and forget or just blow it off b/c they get sidetracked.  Jamie's/Giovanni's food seems to lend itself well to CC get-togethers. The meat planks they serve at Jamie's are ideal.  Just make sure that they deliver the food on the PLANKS and not in plates.  This happened to me once and it doesn't have nearly the presentation on plates as it does on the planks.  Finger food is great.  Food that needs knives and forks is less desirable just due to logistics.  Everyone will not be able to sit down at the same time.
The Genie does NOT attend the event nor do they "help" other than ordering everything and coming to make sure that everything is on target.  Room service will bring all of your tableware and then come and collect everything at the end of the event.  You are responsible for serving and hosting your event.  It is possible to get a server (for a fee...don't ask me how much $$.  I've forgotten) but this might trigger the whole "fee" conversation.  I would probably avoid that altogether.
There will be lots of tipping involved.  Make sure you have adequate bills for room service, suite attendants and folks I'm sure I'm forgetting.  You will likely see each of these people only once...so please remember to tip when they provide the service.  You will likely not see them again (except for the Suite Attendant and the Genie, of course).
As for being the organizer, if that's still what you decide to do.  I found it easiest just to keep a spreadsheet, which I updated periodically and published on my Roll Call site (I don't do FB so I have no idea how you would publish it there) with the names and cabin numbers for those who were interested in showing and another column for those who only wanted to "crawl" but not "show".  Another hint is....you might think about limiting the number of cabin types to 1 cabin.  IOW, you don't need to show 4 different inside rooms, or even 2 different Owner's Suites.  They are similar enough that there's no need.  Just limit the "showing" to the first person who signs up to show their cabin type.  It's great if you can get lots of different cabin types...but not lots of the same type.  Too much running around....and another reason to NOT be a crawler, yourself.  Another reason to have someone ELSE be the organizer is....there is definitely a skill to organizing the flow of the crawl.  You will most likely want to be at the END of the crawl....so whoever organizes it, just make sure that they know that you want your suite to be last.  First of all, being last gives you the most time to get prepared and being last allows people to stop and enjoy themselves.  If there are cabins left after they visit you, they will not feel as comfortable lingering.  I guess that can be a good motivator NOT to be last but I always enjoyed having everyone hang around, enjoy their drinks and chat.
Sorry, I did not intend for this to be so long !

This is the best advice you will get.  Star Class, by its very definition, is designed to be a personalized experience.  While the overall "rules" are fairly consistent, the specific amenities do tend to vary by ship and even among Genies on the same ship.  A very good example of this is that some ships allowed Starbucks to be delivered to the suites and some do not. Whether this is a Genie-thing or a ship-thing isn't readily apparent to me. I've never asked for this service so I don't know the particulars.
On the other hand, it never hurts to learn from others what THEIR experience was and then you at least have some idea of what to expect.  But as @Lovetocruise2002said, don't let your expectations turn into disappointments if you find that something you have heard about from the past does not come to fruition for you.
What the Genie absolutely will do is help you with planning your days and nights (if you want help !!) with things like specialty dining reservations (or even MDR reservations if that is your choice), entertainment venue seating, help with onshore excursions (this will be dependent upon how shore excursions are organized when cruising returns) and personal escorts onto and off of the ship, as needed.  One of the most important (but hopefully infrequently used !) services that a Genie can offer is related to onboard charges.  If you have a charge on your account that you have a question about, your Genie can help sort it out without you having to go to Guest Services.  My last Genie (Jan 2020, Oasis) told us that she would be personally insulted if she caught us in the GS line.  It was a joke, of course, but she was making sure that we realized that there was nothing related to GS that she could not address for us.  It CAN be a huge help.  We had an issue with our credit card on one cruise a number of years ago and the Genie took the issue all the way to the Chief Financial Officer onboard before it got fixed.  The ship's CFO came to our suite personally to apologize for the problem and make sure we knew it had been solved.  Interestingly enough, that last story actually involved 2 different Genies onboard that ship.  Our Genie had originally addressed the issue and thought it had been solved and then we found out later that day that the issue had NOT been solved so we marched down to GS (hoppin' mad, BTW) and one of the other Genies recognized us as SC guests and asked if he could help.  It was actually that second Genie (Sebastian) who escalated the issue up to the top and finally got it solved.  So you don't JUST have 1 Genie....all of the Genies onboard are there to help if you need it.  What a great feeling !
I've never had a bad Genie.  Going along the lines of what @Lovetocruise2002mentioned, each has their own strengths. For instance, the best, BY FAR, party-planning Genie that we have ever had is Reyno.  He LOVES a party and he is really good at it.  We've had him twice as a Genie.  Yen Lee has been our Genie twice and she is excellent.  I believe Yen is now on Quantum, but I am not 100% certain of that.  Our last Genie was Joyce and she is a HOOT !  She is by far the most fun Genie we ever had...she is a ball of energy and very very personal...in a good way.  She's a chatterbox and you will get a lot of juicy ship scuttlebutt from her.  LOL  Sebastian is all business (as is Yen) but also a very good Genie.  We did not have Sebastian plan a party for us but my guess is that he would have been great at it.  Probably our favorite Genie was Charlie, who no longer works for Royal, unfortunately.  He had the most attention to detail (which I find to be a strong Genie trait) of all of the Genies we've had.  Any time we had room service he would make sure that the table was properly prepared with table cloth and cute little personalized place cards and left small little personal gifts everywhere...even the seats that he reserved for us in the theater.  Indirectly we had Alexandra (I think that was her name).  She was the Genie for friends that we were cruising with on one of our cruises where Reyno was our Genie.  They worked together to plan some dynamite parties.  OMG, that was a party cruise !  Unfortunately, Alex is no longer with Royal either.
Anticipating a Star Class cruise is easily as exciting as actually being on a SC cruise.  You will have an entire month of direct comm with your Genie before you board.  That is the time to let them know your wishes (exception being the Cabin Crawl party that we discussed in another thread).  The Genie will give you a good indication of which wishes they can accommodate and which they cannot.  Keep in mind that there may well be changes to the Genie program when cruising resumes.  While I do not have any knowledge of how things might change, it is my impression (gut feeling) that having a Genie in the future is going to be an even bigger advantage than it has in the past...but that's just a guess.

How exciting her dreams are coming to fruition.... I hope she can get vaccinated prior to going as the Olympics are on at this time and I imagine there will be a great influx of people from all over the world ...My son is being recruited by a video game developer in Germany so he may be off on his adventure soon too..... unfortunately we in Australia have not had a vaccine roll out yet  so I have got my fingers crossed he can get one before he has to go....It is very hard for the young ones to plan and get ahead in these times it is nice (for a change) to hear a good story

I forgot something in that last update. Our younger daughter (aka the artist, whose work I’ve shown in earlier live blogs) got her acceptance notice for the summer Japanese Language and Cultural Immersion program that she applied for nearly a year ago!
Assuming she’s able to get vaccinated in time and nothing else comes along to muck things up, she’ll be spending 4 weeks with a host family in Kyoto from mid-July through mid-August.
This is a huge deal for her. She’s been self-studying Japanese for almost a year now, and has been saving money from her part-time job to help pay for it (until her job was let go due to COVID-19 anyway). She hopes to live and work in Japan after college; she wants to get into character design for one of the smaller video game firms there. We’re really happy for her!

OOOHHHHH.....one of my favorite things !!
Let me first say that, as @Lovetocruise2002often mentions, all Genies are not equal...or at least, they each have different gifts and strengths.  Much of the success of your Cabin Crawl will be dependent upon your Genie's party skills.
Having said that, I will also make one more disclosure and it is tied in with the one above.  I have read accounts, over the past couple of years, where the Genie has balked at organizing a large Cabin Crawl and has suggested to their SC pax that in order to arrange such a soiree, there would be a per-person charge.  Hmmmm....so I think you may need to be very strategic in your approach to this.  I would suggest that perhaps it would be best NOT to give a lot of advance warning to your Genie about your plans for a CC get-together.  That is completely contrary to my original approach to doing a CC get-together.  In the "early days" I always told my Genie up front about the event so that he/she would be prepared...but in more recent years, I have sprung it on them at the last moment and downplayed the event to keep it from sounding like a gala.  Some Genies really seem to enjoy doing party events, and some others really seem to resent it.  A lot will depend on who you get as your Genie.  I have never had a Genie try and charge me, but I have heard of others whose Genie DID indicate that there would be a charge.  That totally sucks. I hope it doesn't happen to you.  Avoid using the words "Cabin Crawl" with your Genie. Call it something else.
So....my first piece of advice is - keep it to yourself until you are onboard.
My second piece of advice is, try and keep your event to 25 people or less.  That is often hard to do when you have an open forum like a FB group.  If you have a good indication that your group is likely to be larger than 25, I would reconsider being the host of the event.  I have found that my most successful CC get-togethers have been when someone ELSE is the host and I just tag along as an interim stop.
My third piece of advice is....if you are just an interim stop, and not the host, do NOT try and participate in the extended CC.  IOW, don't try and go to all of the cabins along with the mob.  You will have enough to do to keep you at "home" and organizing for your own event.  The first 2 of these that I did, I tagged along with the group and went to everyone else's room and by the time we got to our suite, I was exhausted and found that I would have been better served to have stayed in the suite and made preparations for the others to arrive.  This is particularly important for CC for GLS (and really...any SC suite on a Q class ship) and ATS.  Those suites are SOOO far away from everyone else...it's such a trek.
For the event itself, assuming you are allowed to cater without charge, the Genie can order food from any specialty restaurant (assuming your event is during normal operating hours of that restaurant), provide unlimited amounts of beer, water and soft drinks (there is a charge for wine and champagne, but it's very nominal in the greater scheme of things), get plates, napkins, silverware, table cloths, ice...literally everything you need for your party.  It is very difficult and very expensive to get hard liquor brought to your cabin but it can be done....with persistence.  We never bothered with liquor.  It's just too much trouble.  I strongly recommend that you approach your Suite Attendants to get an ice chest for beer.  Room service will bring you those useless champagne buckets that hold nothing.  You WILL need an ice chest and I have found that the room Suite Attendants are your best source for that.  They will also be the ones to get your ice for you.  Give THEM plenty of head's up.
Timing the event is kinda critical.  As I mentioned before, you can only order specialty food during restaurant operating hours and you will want to do this on a sea day so that means you will need to do this in the afternoon (between noon-2).  Historically, cabin crawls are held on the first sea day immediately following the Top Tier event, which usually means around 11:00 AM.  That's too early if you want specialty food - and you do.  There is danger in waiting until the afternoon, but it really can't be avoided.  People will get busy with something else and forget or just blow it off b/c they get sidetracked.  Jamie's/Giovanni's food seems to lend itself well to CC get-togethers. The meat planks they serve at Jamie's are ideal.  Just make sure that they deliver the food on the PLANKS and not in plates.  This happened to me once and it doesn't have nearly the presentation on plates as it does on the planks.  Finger food is great.  Food that needs knives and forks is less desirable just due to logistics.  Everyone will not be able to sit down at the same time.
The Genie does NOT attend the event nor do they "help" other than ordering everything and coming to make sure that everything is on target.  Room service will bring all of your tableware and then come and collect everything at the end of the event.  You are responsible for serving and hosting your event.  It is possible to get a server (for a fee...don't ask me how much $$.  I've forgotten) but this might trigger the whole "fee" conversation.  I would probably avoid that altogether.
There will be lots of tipping involved.  Make sure you have adequate bills for room service, suite attendants and folks I'm sure I'm forgetting.  You will likely see each of these people only once...so please remember to tip when they provide the service.  You will likely not see them again (except for the Suite Attendant and the Genie, of course).
As for being the organizer, if that's still what you decide to do.  I found it easiest just to keep a spreadsheet, which I updated periodically and published on my Roll Call site (I don't do FB so I have no idea how you would publish it there) with the names and cabin numbers for those who were interested in showing and another column for those who only wanted to "crawl" but not "show".  Another hint is....you might think about limiting the number of cabin types to 1 cabin.  IOW, you don't need to show 4 different inside rooms, or even 2 different Owner's Suites.  They are similar enough that there's no need.  Just limit the "showing" to the first person who signs up to show their cabin type.  It's great if you can get lots of different cabin types...but not lots of the same type.  Too much running around....and another reason to NOT be a crawler, yourself.  Another reason to have someone ELSE be the organizer is....there is definitely a skill to organizing the flow of the crawl.  You will most likely want to be at the END of the crawl....so whoever organizes it, just make sure that they know that you want your suite to be last.  First of all, being last gives you the most time to get prepared and being last allows people to stop and enjoy themselves.  If there are cabins left after they visit you, they will not feel as comfortable lingering.  I guess that can be a good motivator NOT to be last but I always enjoyed having everyone hang around, enjoy their drinks and chat.
Sorry, I did not intend for this to be so long !

I'm not sure if anyone has looked at hotels yet but the Hilton Grand Vacations at the Crane is a BEAUTIFUL property and is a steal for around $270 a night IMO

Room 1718, Oasis of the Seas, June 18, 2021!

I'm not sure I should disclose my L&S experience with my Alaska cruise on Quantum.  Originally,  it was very straight forward and done quickly.  The price protection was done but taxes and fees increased by $150.  Best I could tell, it seemed correct. There was a FCC involved that tends to obscure the actual cruise price.
About a week later someone posted information that involved some glitch that resulted in the price protection to be incorrect.  When I looked at my remaining balance, it was approximately $300 more.   I had to call again to get the $300 removed.  The first response was there was no price protection because the cruise wasn't eligible for a L&S.  Clearly,  that wasn't true so I had to explain that Royal cancelled the Quantum cruises to Alaska in 2021 and my cruise was eligible for a L&S to 2022.   It involved a bit of hold time but the matter was resolved relatively quickly.  When everything was done the second time, the remaining balance came back $1,000 less.  Somehow I think I received an extra $700 in price protection.  I'm not one to complain so I just said it sounded correct.
Whoever posted the information about the glitch ... thank-you.  I think there is still a glitch but this one seemed to work in my favor.  I just hope the cruise happens in 2022.  I doubt the price will ever get any less.

Thanks so much for providing those documents.  This one really stands out :

You cannot have had COVID in the past 6 months !  That's incredibly restrictive.  Overkill, IMO.

And also my lunch break at work. Passes too fast before slowing down again. 

? agree! The excitement of receiving the genie questionnaire, the first genie email, finding out who your genie will be, and then live genie communications is one of the best experiences IMO. It was so fun to share my genie in this forum and get some early genie intel! It really is the best feeling. ?

Yes, the days will drag by until you get on the ship and then they mysteriously convert to the speed of light.
So envious !

Our robo vac is Hazel.  Actually we have 2.  I had one for upstairs and one for downstairs but now that we have only 1 level, we just let them loose together.  Hazel 1 and Hazel II or big Hazel and Little Hazel OR Dumb Hazel and Smart Hazel...actually Dumb Hazel is much less of a PITA than Smart Hazel.  "Smart" Hazel is constantly getting into trouble and Little Hazel just scoots along without a worry in the world, plus Little Hazel's battery lasts significantly longer than her big sister.  Such is our lives during the plague.
Glad to hear that you are healing, Joe.  No weight restrictions seems like a good sign.