LMort98

Yeah I probably should have added more details ☺️
General cruising backstory: Feb ‘19 was our first cruise ever, which was a 4 day inside with Carnival. It was just DH and myself. Kids stayed home and it was our first trip leaving them. One of our kids had never even stayed the night away from us. But the trip was amazing and getting out of “mommy mode” was really amazing. I was hooked. Nov ‘19 was our first with the kids and with Royal. Still an inside, but going from Carnival Elation to Indy was quite a shock. We should have been on one April ‘20 with the kids for spring break and then another this week for a milestone birthday. Missing this one had me feeling sad. 
Backstory to this booking: I’ve been debating when we should schedule the next just so I can have something to look forward to.  I’ve been switching from Thanksgiving to Christmas and then back to Thanksgiving again. Until a few days ago when I saw a post on here about a good deal for Oct ‘21 on Allure. I looked and saw 2 star class cabins available so I went to a different site to get some quotes.
I spent a day or so researching, and happened to read a post about the difference between booking with MEI so I sent a request through the website. Michelle emailed me back with quotes and   during our emails back and forth, I knew I only wanted to work with her. I didn’t care about the “so called perks” of using a different company. She has been so friendly and has answered every question so quickly. So today I checked the Royal website again and I wasn’t seeing the rooms available. I just knew I waited too long. I immediately emailed Michelle to see if they were still available and when she said yes, I asked about the 2brATS (please forgive my abbreviations/acronyms as I’m still trying to learn how everyone writes on here ?)  because that was what I really wanted. When she said yes, all of my sadness immediately went away. I didn’t even know that she could see rooms available that I couldn’t. 
 
So in a little over 500 days, I’ll be on a 7 nighter on Allure going to Cococay, Labadee, Nassau and (I think) Jamaica. I doubt I can wait that long so I’m sure I’ll have one or 2 between now and then but they definitely won’t be star class. I may spring for an ocean view or obstructed balcony.....maybe even a junior suite ?
 

I really do believe that the club passes are limited to the 200-250 range.  If you add in the cabanas, you are at the 450 range.  As someone that has done cabanas, there is really no need to leave your cabana, unless you want to just go and explore.  Your attendants bring you your food and drinks.   Just saying that as for finding loungers, or food lines, the cabana passengers are not a factor in that kind of way.
Think of the Club like the Key.  They want to  keep that exclusive and to achieve that goal they limit the numbers. 

We just booked a one bedroom Grand Suite on the Liberty of the Seas for May 2021. This will be our first time in a suite! We've never had the concierge service before. Can anyone tell us what he/she does? Any other good tips about suite benefits? We are (newly) diamond level if that makes any difference. Thanks!

Okay, I'm just relieved that this is direction this thread is headed in...

Congratulations!!! (read:  omg, men are so annoying).

Happy late birthday!  We will be Star class (2 bedroom aquatheater suite) on this cruise as well.  How old is your daughter?  Our son is 10 and our daughters will be 8, 2, and 1.

Single digit dance update: 
9 days out and this is the most unsettling single digit dance we have ever done. Today we find ourselves very uncertain of what next week will hold.  Never fear though when you are a Type A planner like me. ?
 
In the past hour, I have put 5 cruises on hold as a Plan B, C, D, E, and F.  Thank goodness for fantastic travel agents who work tirelessly at all hours. So hopefully this blog continues on, or it may be on hold for a while....stay tuned. 

@Lovetocruise2002 We hid a little note for you in the room.  I think I put it somewhere easy for you to find with clues, but not somewhere that it will be taken by someone else or found by the cabin attendant.  ?

Some updates from this past week: 
Izzy has confirmed that the Thermal Spa is indeed complimentary for Star Class guest.  Each adult receives a one day pass.  Too bad for the kids.  We asked Izzy if we needed to pick a day and make reservations ahead of time.  He told us no, we could just show up whenever and he would let the spa receptionist know and they will handle the charges.
The other thing that I found interesting, which I did not know before this, is that they reserve specific blocks of time in the Escape Room for SC guests.  He originally had us in for Day 7 and we wanted another time and date.  He told us that if we went to a time slot that wasn't blocked for SC, we would have to pay the normal fee.  Again, there may or may not be inconsistencies with this between ships in the fleet.  In the end, we moved to another SC time block.
We are just about a month away and everything is pretty much good to go.  All schedules and reservations are taken care of already.  Izzy has already given us information on what to do when we arrive at Terminal A.  I am really pleased with how smooth this has been.  I also think that it has to do with the fact that I know more of what to expect this time. 
I asked Izzy if he could make time go faster?  That is pretty much the only "No" that I have received so far. ?

Who’s Going?
The usual crew:  Hubby, our 2 girls (D11, D13), and myself.
Flight
Our plan is to fly from DTW to FLL the day before.  Flying to Miami was $100 more per person.  With a $400 price difference, we decided we could take Lyft to Miami and still save.  We learned a huge lesson from last Spring Break in that the 60-90 day rule to airfare does not apply at this time of the year.  We took a gamble and grabbed these tickets upon release, 11 months out, and in tracking this flight over the months, I am happy to report that we made the right call.  The price never dropped below what I paid, and it has almost doubled since.
Pre-Cruise Stay
This one was heavily debated.  We are holding two hotel reservations and cannot decide.  Do we stay in Fort Lauderdale and visit our beloved La Bamba, or do we stay at the Intercontinental Miami and show our kids the hotel that we love and offers the most gorgeous Bay views?
Itinerary
This 7-night, Eastern Caribbean sailing, brings us to St. Thomas, San Juan, and Labadee.  Currently, the only port we have plans for is San Juan.  Taking our kids to visit El Morro this time as the weather should be more bearable than when we went on the Anthem GC last summer.
Cabin
Trying out the ATS on Deck 9.  The girls are excited for their own bedroom, I am withholding my opinion for now.  The suite snob is slightly out of her comfort zone once again as Deck 9 is a bit far from Deck 17.
Pre-Cruise thoughts
We are beyond excited to see the newly amped Oasis of the Seas.  We have not sailed her since her inaugural back in 2009! No pre-cruise purchases because it’s Star Class. In addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Star Wars, Hubby loves Back to the Future, so we’re pretty interested in the new Aqua 80 show, especially after seeing pictures by @twangster. Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you. When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.

I have been reading all of the live blogs others are doing of their Star Class cruise and thought about attempting one, however, I didn’t want to be constantly on my phone blogging about the day’s events or answering questions so mine is going to be an “after the fact” blog!  I am certainly not witty and it likely won’t be as funny or entertaining as others but hope to provide some information for anyone else looking for it.  I will space the posts out so if people have specific questions I can answer them along the way.  I am also currently going through all of my photos so future posts will hopefully have less content and more pictures!
Booking
We booked this cruise over a year ago.  We always try to book early to secure a location we wanted and my SIL asked if we wanted to try Star class this trip since we are celebrating big anniversaries.  The prices of the rooms weren’t that bad on Anthem compared to some of the other ships sailing in March.  We booked and then sometime over the summer, my BIL’s parents and nieces decided to join us and they snagged the last Star Class suite on Deck 10. My Husband, his cousin and myself stayed in GLS 10324, my SIL, BIL and niece were in GLS 10724 and my BIL’s parents and their 2 grand kids were in GLS 10720.
Prior to the Cruise
About a month out we received the generic questionnaire about any special requests, who we would be cruising with and some other random questions.  We were sailing with 10 of us in total in 3 Grand Loft Suites on Deck 10 and requested that we have the same Genie.  We also requested what we wanted stocked in our room for drinks and snacks.
A little over two weeks before the cruise, our Genie, Yen Lee reached out to us introducing herself.  From what I have read about Yen, she will make anything we want happen but we shouldn’t expect any real surprises.  That was completely fine with me because I am not one who likes surprises….I used to open my Christmas presents before Christmas and re-wrap them all again! 
We provided her a spreadsheet of where we wanted reservations for dinner for 4 of the nights and a list of what other things we wanted to do (iFly, Flow Rider, Cupcake Decorating, Rock Climbing, Galley/Bridge/Theater tours, North Star, etc.).  We also asked that the two cabanas we had booked at Chill Island on Cococay be next to one another in the front row (specifically Cabana #4 and #5).  After some back and forth emails between Yen, my SIL and myself, we got a final schedule around 5 days out with everything we wanted scheduled.  She indicated she appreciated the spreadsheet as it made it easier for her to make our final schedule for the week. 
This is what she sent to us:

One thing we had really wanted was to have a lunch set up in one of the suites on embarkation day to avoid all of the crowds.  We know we could have eaten at Coastal Kitchen or any of the specialty restaurants but wanted something in our room. Within 24 hours Yen replied with menus we could order off of (Jaime’s and Chops) along with letting us know we could also order pizza.  I have heard a lot of people were told they couldn’t set up lunch in the room on embarkation day but because we were her only suites, I think it made it easier for her to accommodate us. 

This! My husband and I went to Jamie's for the first time on Anthem. We decided to ask for half portions of our entrees because we knew we would overdo it on apps and dessert. We try not to waste food as much as possible so we figured that would be a good route to go. After ordering our apps (which the server decided to bring out 2 more on top of what we ordered) , he proceeded to bring out our half portions of our entrees with 6 other half portions to try as well lol. I'm waiting for Royal to add on an after dinner wheel-barrel service. But then again I guess I am always just looking for ways to spend extra money on our cruises. ?

Our favorite thing was that they assigned us the same waiter, no matter which table we sat at-- so he knew our preferences, and also went above and beyond for our disabled DD.  She always got shrimp cocktail, and after seeing that we had to take it out of the tall glass, and remove the tails for her, he made arrangements to bring it out on a flat plate, tail off.
Also, after watching us cut up her food for her each time, he took to doing that for her as well, so that our dinners didn't get cold, and we didn't have to shuffle plates around.  He was well tipped on our last night.
We went 7 times on our 12 night cruise (MDR 1st night @ MTD, which was a disaster)specialty dining for 3, and 1 night we couldn't get a reservation). Next time we are on Anthem, we are definitely reserving as early as possible.