Ampurp85

21 days to go....... Work has been stressful all around and the weather in Chicago has been bipolar. Sat and Sunday were like 30 degrees and today on Monday it was 65 and sunny. My documents were right on time for the first cruise but a full day late for the 3n and a day early for the last cruise. Royal IT strikes again. The luggage tags for the first two cruises are still GTY. Last time they updated around 10 days before I cruised to say the actual room number. So, I will wait until later and print them out. I believe I saw in another post that a few blog members and Matt will be on the May 20th-24th Freedom cruise. When I booked the cruises, it was just my brother and I going, each with or own room. But my mother turned Emerald after our Mariner cruise and now she is obsessed with making it to Diamond so she can relax in the lounge. Yes, not the drink vouchers or internet discount......but lounge access is her goal . She was upset that she couldn't go on Wonder, I had booked her, but she allowed her bf to talk her out of going. During that Mariner cruise I offered to help make her prime to get offers, she said she was going to be land traveling with her bf and don't bother. In March when she found out we would be doing these cruises she was sad, her bf had cancelled 2/2 of their land vacations. So, my brother was like, we can add her to my room, and she can come with us. She was so happy to be going. As usual she is brand new. I feel like she gets amnesia every time we travel, and I have to hear the same questions. This is her sixth RCG cruise and she texted me about luggage limits. Somehow her logic was that shorter cruises only allowed weekender bags and/or carry-ons . I just told her to pack as she would normally. Last week she fell at work and thankfully she is okay, but her front left tooth got chipped slightly. The dentist rounded it out and it is barely noticeable, but she was afraid she might have been toothless for the cruise, she is so dramatic. I did my pre-cruise shopping: which involves going to Kohl's, Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Walmart for any essentials, and giving Bezos his offering. After reading about wearing red (I hardly ever wear it) to ensure some casino luck, one of my casino outfits is a newly acquired red shorts and a red shirt. I am currently making my packing list and the plan is to pack a separate cube, with special casino outfit to contain the smoke, in each cube. I figured I will need about four cubes since I always carry an extra not in my checked bag.

I love how it is always one broccoli and one carrot.

Unfortunately, they were not. I think it is one of those YMMV things were for one reason or another some keep the status, and some revert to their earned status. I have met two former linked children whose status was reverted to the point total. One had D+ parents but they were reverted to Emerald and another had Diamond parents and was reverted to Emerald.

Did you get to feed and/or play with the sea lions? I love sea lions, they are so ugly cute ..........dolphins seem sweet, but I read they are sea sexual predators, so no thank you.

How will you hide the big ones?

This has been known for a while(since the release of itineraries in Feb), they posted about it in the "rumors and news" thread.

I'm on this sailing.

OMG, I hate the dancing and singing. And it's always the macarena, where they insist on crowd participation and my service begins to suffer.

I was over the bow and right under the captain's bridge on Mariner, it was very hard to take naps during the day. I believe it was room number 1821 or 1812. It was a view of the antenna and other hardware. But the sun from the floor-to-ceiling windows were breathtaking. I just found it odd at the time that it slept 4. Hopefully dinner is/was great tonight.

I wonder what the account issues were. Does the panoramic room say it fits 4? I think I stayed in one on Mariner and I found it small and noisy. I hope you continue to have good luck in the casino.

I prefer to fly into FLL over MIA even when sailing out of MIA. The longest it has taken has been about an hour on a Sun/Mon. I take Lyft and an XL should fit all of you and luggage with ease.

@GregD Yes RUB are a casino comp thing, they (the powers that be for RU) don't see what you paid as far as casino comps go. They just know they can possibly earn money on your room.

The option may require some price changes. An important note is unless you have permission to handle both reservations, the lead on the second room will have to call and make changes. It also depends on where you are in time in regard to the booking. If final payment has been made, your options are limited.........the same way if you did nonrefundable deposits. You could swap names for the two rooms, leaving the no-show in your room. They would get taxes and fees back if you are past final payment. Or you can call and move to a 2 person and have to pay the new prices. The person on the second reservation would have to swap out names.

I think OP meant FLL is very close to PE, making an 11am flight doable. Also, that they did not realize the POM was so close to MIA. Not that they were going from POM to FLL....at least that was my interpretation.

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

@WAAAYTOOO When you change rooms on a b2B you put luggage tags on the bags? I was only going to print the first set but if this is the case TIA for the info.

Odds are it will be missing the steak and I believe the veal option, otherwise it is pretty similar to dinner at a reduced price.

I believe you should be fine. I have known Royal's IT to strike and remove who restaurants every now and again. Sometimes because they are sold out and other times because their IT sucks . If your sailing was in 2025, I would be worried. I think Allure is getting amped in 2025 and the odds of Sabor being turned into a Playmakers is very high.

Mine showed up 1pm today. I am waiting on my brother to show up so I can book a S2S, I was looking at a Sy sailing and an Indy, with plans to upgrade them both, so thanks for that.

@Cactus527I have never done deck 2, but it is only for 3 nights so I will hopefully not have too many problems. I did deck 3 on Harmony once and I enjoyed being so close to the casino but hated that the MTD line often stretched to my room. It is also not just SWA but UA and AA in Chicago. There used to be a lot of later flights and also, a lot of direct flights. I can find later flights, but they seem to want to connect only and even flying in a day or two before, I don't want to connect flights......that's a lot of hassle.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Also happy birthday @SweetPea. I am hopeful that the weather will be great, my mother is really looking forward to this because she and my brother have never been on Freedom.

Well, that's weird.... these are my prices. The pass for Hideaway beach club was $17.99 yesterday and its $22.99 today.

27 days to go....... Since I made my brother prime, he gets a nice number of monthlies. Usually, they match with mine but of lesser value. Most of my offers are OVs and my brothers are interiors or "1 complimentary guest." It works out the same for us moneywise, but gets us double point, so we booked 2 sperate rooms for the first two sailings as the upgrade option is just OV when you combine. I hate OV so I will often just take the interiors, in this case the first two sailings are GTY. I normally prefer an aft cabin and to pick my own, but I also like a cheap sailing. I really spend minimal time in my room, so location takes a backseat to savings. My brother was excited about his first B2B and then he decided it would be nice to bring our mother along. She of course is sharing a room with him . But she didn't have enough vacation time to do all three, so she will just join us for the first two. We are gifting this as her Mother's Day present. For the first cruise, check-in opened on the 28th of March I believe. The earliest slot was 11am, which wasn't a big deal because we are flying in the day of......first flight out as usual. I never recommend this, but I have insurance and live in hub city, meaning there are usually 3-4 flights after mine that will get me there. Which brings me to a side rant: there used to be more flights. I remember when there were flights between 8pm-10pm that went to Mia, MCO and FLL. Now the last flight is often around 6:45 to 7pm, which is not ideal when flying with my mother who has church until at least 3pm and requires another couple of hours to be ready. So 5am flights are what I have to deal with, and the sucky part is my preferred airline makes those the most expensive flights. So even though I complain and say I hope to never fly them again, I am often stuck with SWA...... and their crappy boarding procedure . I don't know if 10/10:30 opened up, I didn't bother to check. We will be on the ship for 11 days so I can care less about getting an earlier time. Plus, there are no reservations required for Freedom class entertainment. My brother brought his own snorkeling gear, the price for snorkeling all day at PDCC is like $50 on sale now . No ecursions are planned. I used the barcode trick as soon as I checked in and I was able to see our room assignments. For the first leg we are on deck 3 in rooms #3253 and 3251. On the second leg we are on Deck 2 in rooms #2567 and 2569. I chose my own room for the last leg with deck 9 and room #9391. I was happy that the rooms were assigned so close to each other. We have traditional dining for all three legs at 8:30.........which will probably be 8 in most cases. Since the reservations are linked, they should sit us together at a smaller table, if we are assigned to an 8-top I will request a different table. My brother doesn't want people judging him as he eats all his meals. I will not be pre-purchasing anything. I get 2 free days as D+ and then can use my prime discount on the remainder. I will also be using my BOGO. There will be the B2B'rs lunch so I will take advantage of that to avoid the WJ. Plus, we will do embarkation day lunch at Playmakers. I plan to prepack each leg in its own packing cube. I am also bringing a ton of casino-friendly snacks as I have a 2025 S2S2S or B2B2B to plan. I am following @AshleyDillo advice and bring specific clothes for the casino, so the rest don't get smoky.

It is time for the shenanigans!!!! It seems like I haven't been on a cruise in forever, but it's actually been like 90ish days . These 11 days of cruising are actually 3 shorties combined. It is a 4n, then a 3N, and then another 4N. They are all casino comps in some capacity. The first two are monthlies, which are random offers the casino sends out either through mail or email. The last one was earned on Wonder. I only paid taxes, fees and gratuities for them. Which amounted to a whopping total of $595.05 for all 3, making it only $54/N. I have OBC on some and Freeplay on all. Itinerary: Nassau and PDCC X3, I never get off in Nassau and PDCC is a casino day. People: myself, brother and mother x2, myself and my brother x1 Flights: SWA and AA Extras: Chocolate birthday cake $25.99 My brother's birthday is on April 27th and mine is May 21st. I ordered the cake for the 3n to split the difference. My 39th birthday, hence the title name , is on the second day of the last 4N cruise, and we will be in PDCC. This is the first time ever that I will be on a cruise for my birthday. Normally its work or Vegas. I mean truthfully, I don't really celebrate it, but I do acknowledge it. It is also the first time I will be sailing in May, my normal window is September through April, excluding March and Easter sailings. So, I am thankful it won't be too hot but warm enough from Chicago to not have bulky outerwear.

Sailings not doing the Caribbean itineraries and shorter than 7 nights won't have lobster tails......unless you are willing to pay for it. IMHO it won't be worth the upcharge.