CruzOnBye

Lol funnel cake????? I love this description🤣.

So things really did pick up at Hideaway after my last post. By the time we left the place was packed.  The music finally got to me….and I tagged out.
Will I go back ?  Probably not.  There is very little at Hideaway that I could not get elsewhere on the island for -0- $$.
1. Hideaway pool is heated.  I liked that…but I was still chilly when I got out of the water.
2.  Dan said the choice of alcohol was better at Hideaway.  E.g, he likes Grey Goose for his Bloody Mary and he said he couldn’t get that on the “regular” side.  I have no idea since I’ve never had a [alcohol] drink at PDCC
3.  Padded chairs and couches.  I don’t recall seeing that outside of the Beach Club.  Maybe they are somewhere that I haven’t seen.
4.  No kids
Other than these few things, the “regular “ side and Hideaway are the same (to me).
We each had a crispy chicken/mozz sticks sandwich and I had 1/2 of a fried dough ball with powdered sugar on it (can’t think of what it’s called).  Pretty tasty.

I've been debating on whether to do a live blog for this cruise.  I started one for Harmony a couple years ago, but we had a family emergency and didn't end up going.
But, since I haven't seen anyone do a live Star blog on Icon yet, and we are now just 2 weeks out and fairly certain no emergencies are on the horizon, I figured I'd give it a whirl.
Who's going: my Wife (Kelli) and I (Tim)
Room: Icon Loft 17020
We are flying into Miami from Houston the day before and staying at the JW Marriott Marquis.  We've stayed there before and I have a ton of Marriott points so its free! 🙂 
We got our survey way early on February 1st almost 90 days out!  However, we didn't hear from our Genie (Marla Rivera) until just under 3 weeks out. (More on that in a minute.). Ironically we got another survey exactly 3 weeks out, which I thought was weird, but it turns out a tone of people got the survey that day.   Even folks with sailings in July lol. Royal IT strikes again!
Now back to the Genie e-mail; I kind of panicked when we didn't get contacted by the 21 day mark.  (This is our 4th star class sailing and we've always gotten an email from the genie by at least day 28.). So, me having FOMO like you wouldn't believe, sent a message to Royal Caribbean International through Facebook messenger and asked them to please look into it the next morning.    Imagine my surprise when I had an email from Marla Rivera by that afternoon.  🙂  Apparently Sunil just left and the genie's have had to double up a bit which resulted in the delay.
I've read nothing but great things about Marla as an OG Genie and so far she has lived up to the billing.  I responded with our canned word document that includes our dining, snack, coffee, show, and beverage preferences.  She had our entire schedule sent to us the next day with all of our requests!  Since then, we have been back and forth a few times  as we finalize our arrival in 2 weeks.
Royal Up: So, the Royal loft suite had been available since we booked.  It started out at 110K and has worked its way down to 60K this week and as of last night was still available, but it was gone this morning.  (This has happened before as it would disappear from inventory as someone held it and then show back up a day later.)   Of course I put a minimum bid on it just in case.  We shall see what happens lol.
The only place we are likely to get off the ship is Cozumel as we love Paradise Beach, so we have a reservation there with a day bed.  
We have a Casita reserved while we are in port in Roatan and we do have a reservation at the Empire Supper club which Marla confirmed we will be refunded and only charged $130 pp plus gratuities.
Other Star Class up charges I will confirm if there have been any changes since Icon launch once we get on board (Chops Iconic cuts, Izumi in the park, basecamp, deserted)
We are really excited and can't wait to get this started!  More to come as we get closer 🙂 
 

Same! We make a B line to the pub first for a couple Boston Iced Teas, and because the bartenders are always determined to sugar up the kid right out the gate 🤪 he usually ends up with a Shirley Temple or something, and then we go do our muster drill station check-in lol. 

Whoo hoo! 10:30… Hopefully we’ll be onboard by 10:15.. You’ll find us at the pub having our customary boarding day Stone IPA…

May 26, 2024 on Wonder of the Seas!! 43 days and 22.5 hours but I'm not counting or anything.

Happy 45 day check-in day!! 🥳

May 26, 2024 on Wonder of the Seas!! 43 days and 22.5 hours but I'm not counting or anything.

Sail Date. 02/24/2025. Anniversary and Birthday... We are very excited.

They need to invent pool chairs that have a toaster feature. After a certain amount of time the chairs pop and push you out.

If anyone is local & flexible, pretty good price for an interior GTY on Wonder in 10 days…

Happy 45 day check-in day!! 🥳

My March 2025 Adventure, and Sept 2025 Star both have excursions, dining, etc. offered too 🙂 I don't have anything booked yet past that point. But these are new, I checked a week or so ago and both of them didn't have offerings except the DBP at original price with no sale. Now I see sales on them....not paying $95.99pp per day on the DBP though...Black Friday better be kind lol.

I've submitted my special request for a wheel chairand aide to push it  and the Royal Caribbean special eclipse edition glasses and souvenir cup. Package cost $400.  I can't get a cruise quote though...

Hey I may be Pinnacle by then

Hey All- This will be our first Royal cruise as well as our first cruise in 15 years.  It's also both my daughter's and son's first cruise.  My wife and I were married in St. Thomas 15 years ago, so we decided to go all-in to celebrate!  
My only concern is getting addicted...but I guess with Air Force retirement right around the corner, there are worse things I could spend all my free time doing!  

That would have been helpful for me to mention wouldn’t it 😝
He is going to auction it off and you can buy tickets world wide to win it and the monies goes to charity. 

Got my Royal Up bid anbd have it submitted.    My experience so far, post covid with the Royal Up is limited.  Once pre-royalup we got a cruiseday upgrade to a JS on Freedom.  We had a GS for Enchantment in 2022 so I don't think we got any Royal up bid.  On Mariner back in 2022  I did get a Royal Up bid, we were in a Balcony cabin and when the notice came I found the min bid for a JS was more than what the current difference was to go to suite guarantee, so we did that.  That gave us the double points and put us at Diamond +
 
Being at Diamond Plus, the not getting the double points doesn't bother me any more as we will likely never make Pinnacle.   This cruise is a retirement cruise so while we just booked a balcony guarantee, I did put in significant bids for all cabins above ours.  

Had one once and enjoyed the extra room and light from the window even though we're content with regular interiors and didn't actually use the bench and window a ton. Hope you like it!
Standard caveat: Keep your curtains closed when they should be, lol.

That is a good point...I figured we would lose the OBC with a price adjustment but to your point, if we spend it then that is a hassle right there. Although I won't be spending OBC for 2026 cruise till at least around Black Friday this year, so maybe I could get lucky but it's unlikely, and probably not worth it if it's a wash. I just wish they would just stay with one sale for at least a week lol. They are making me think way too hard for a vacation happening 2 years from now 😄 

Received the Royal Up offers today. We’re booked in a Central Park Interior View that we got a steal on a very long ago and we’ve never had a room like that so we are happy with it. But just sharing the offers from my category in case anyone is waiting to see theirs for the trip.
 

Received the Royal Up offers today. We’re booked in a Central Park Interior View that we got a steal on a very long ago and we’ve never had a room like that so we are happy with it. But just sharing the offers from my category in case anyone is waiting to see theirs for the trip.
 

Just saying a quick hello here, first time in about four years. I just booked the 12-night Odyssey sailing in Jan 2025, which is an itinerary I've been wanting to do kind of since I first started sailing with Royal in 2018 and learned about it. Seemed like a nice way to celebrate turning 55. 🙂
To everyone I haven't spoken with in all these years, hope you've been well!

Health is good. Had another foot surgery in '21 that took a while to heal, but that’s finally good and things are stable again.
My older daughter is doing great; she graduated college in '22 and has been figuring out what she wants to do for a living, and has been living on her own for the last several years.
My younger daughter is also doing great; she finished her freshman year in college last year, and is now living in Tokyo, Japan to pursue a career as a manga artist. She’s loving it there, and already has a job as a part-time assistant with a published manga author who told her that she’s already good enough to be published in a year or two. He’s helping her with getting her first full work created and submitted to one of the regular competitions, so she can start getting the notice of publishers.
Hope you’re also doing well!

Pulling into crown bay on st Thomas was fascinating. Wonder turns on a dime.