Lexster

Wondering if anyone else is going on this cruise who might be interested in doing a casita. We're not currently planning on going anywhere for Roatan. Thought it might be fun to do a casita since port days are cheaper. There are three of us, so it'd be a lot of wasted space with just us.

That's not what he was saying, but yes I let myself get upset over something stupid. Shouldn't have said that. I'm not going to comment further.

Hopefully you'll have an early check-in then. Not hard to get!

Yep, I always get an early check-in time since I check-in at midnight the night it opens. It's not that hard. If you want to show up early, get an early time. Otherwise, follow the damn check-in times.

They already have masses of people standing around. And the "last minute emails" don't work because they DON'T have strict adherence to the boarding times and everyone knows it. It would only take a month of them turning away people until it's their boarding time for people to get the message. Otherwise, don't bother having check-in times because it just means people who actually show up at the right time get pissed off because certain people think they're more important than everyone else.

I've gotten those emails the past two cruises and showed up at the normal time and got on just fine. The second time I didn't even see the email until I was on the ship. I would just go by your original check-in time.

The mindset that causes the back-ups to begin with

It wasn't until we got through the porters and I went to park in the garage that I realized I could have just turned left to go up there instead of doing the U around to the porter area. I was sooo mad, but will probably do that next time.

So, back in May of last year, we went on Harmony of the Seas. The Miami terminal was utter chaos. We had a check-in of 10:30, but there were a ton of people there. We drove and waited for probably 30 minutes to even get to the porter and then we had to wait in a long line to get to check-in. Once actually in the terminal, we were on the ship within like ten minutes. I recently saw a video of some vloggers going on the Icon in Miami and they took an Uber, drove right to the porter and got checked-in within ten minutes for the entire process. Were we just unlucky the one time we went or were these vloggers lucky? I think they had a later check-in, but still, it was like no one was outside whatsoever.

Interesting. Like I said, doesn't really matter either way, but good to know! Were there themed events like costume parties or anything outside the decorations?

Hey all, booked on Icon during Halloween week. I'm just curious, not that it matters either way, but anyone know how generally busy is that week as far as being kid-heavy? Is that a holiday lots of people cruise on like other holidays such as Christmas or Labor Day? Just wondering since it's not a federal holiday or anything so no one generally gets it off by default from work or school.

WTF. It's 54.99 on sale for mine! It's normally 80 freaking dollars. Utter rip-off.

It's definitely subjective. I generally enjoy the food all over the ship. I think there have only been a couple of times where I had to complain about how bad something was and they replaced it no problem in the MDR. My last cruise was last year May. I'm going on Icon in October, so I suppose I'll see if it's true that the quality has gone down since then. I will say I HATE the new menus in the MDR, but that doesn't really have to do with the quality, more so there's usually only one or two things on the menu I am interested in now.

The Icon has an entire Suite Neighborhood. There's the Grove and also mention of a Suite Lounge on the RC page about it. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-activities/suite-neighborhood-icon

Well, that's good. Personally, I don't think I could handle 9 months on a cruise ship, let alone one of the smaller ones like Serenade, but nothing I've seen complaints about are, like...novel. It's just people who don't know that's how things are.

So...I am not sure if this has been discussed, but I am absolutely floored by the discourse I'm seeing about the World Cruise. I know a lot of people aren't into cruising so much that they look things up or watch videos about it, but man....I've seen people complain about classism because Pinnacle members get exclusive parties and things. I've seen someone complain about excursions being cancelled because they really wanted to see penguins. Like...yeah, that happens. And it's Antarctica. If it's too dangerous to tender, they can't go. I think the main problem is...there are a ton of young influencers on this cruise (I really didn't expect that, honestly) and they are constantly going on TikTok about it. It makes it seem like the World Cruise is out of control bad or something. I mean, I saw like a week of headlines when the ship flooded due to stormy weather, but they were all worded like "World Cruise Floods" without any caveat in the headline that there was a logical reason for it. They all seemed to imply there was an issue which caused the flooding by omitting that. I've actually not seen much coverage of positive experiences on the ship. I know, this is pretty common for most media to be anti-cruise, but still...

I keep seeing conflicting information about this, but most answers are from a couple years ago. I'm going on the Icon in October, so I know the answer to my question can't be known for sure yet for that particular ship, but I'd imagine it'll be similar to Oasis Class ships. I'm considering doing the Izumi Hibachi lunch. Some have said there is no hibachi for lunch, but I can book it on sea days for lunch times. I'm not interested in getting the sushi, so can anyone confirm that there is indeed hibachi available for lunch and it's not just sushi?

Just booked this cruise with my husband and a friend of ours. That friend's never been on a cruise, so figured we'd book the brand new Icon! We're also very excited since we've never done a cruise over a holiday before. Hopefully there's some fun Halloween stuff going on.

PRE-CRUISE TRAVEL Well, yesterday was the first leg of our 16 hour journey. It was relatively uneventful. We made a couple stops. We did get a really nice vehicle, so it's been fun driving that. We stayed at the Red Roof Inn in Perry Georgia and it was...yeah, it was bad. I've never stayed in a hotel quite so bad before. There were large puncture holes in the wall, the bed was a super bouncy spring mattress, and our traveling partners said they had bugs in their room. Would not recommend. The drive today was also relatively uneventful, though once we hit Florida there was a ton of traffic pretty much all the way down the Turnpike. I'm guessing it's normal, but I have no idea how there is traffic on a road with barely any exits. Once we hit Miami and got off the highway, it took a half hour to go 10 miles. It was pretty ridiculous. We were considering going out to see a movie or something, but nah we're all just staying in. We did get food from the Flatbread House and it was pretty good! Radisson RED here in Miami is a nice hotel. I really like the asthetic. It has bare concrete ceilings and brick walls in the hallway. It's fun! Not too much else to go one about, but tomorrow we get on the ship! So exciting!

Anyone still going to show up to at least get a parking spot? I'm more concerned at the number who won't see this email and show up anyway.

Freaking Coast Guard! Now all check-in times have been shifted forward an hour.

6 DAYS LEFT!! I am so happy! Yes, because the cruise is close, but also I FINALLY got my license in the mail. It's been an issue since March and they had to resend it once. I was so worried because since we're driving, we're renting a car and I wasn't sure if they would accept what the DMV had given me. I'd already experienced another business not accepting the "issuance" I got, but either way, I have it, so I'm good to go! I have a feeling this week is going to go by so slowly, but on the plus side, my vacation starts on Thursday since that's when we're driving so I only need to survive three days of work. We're all so ready for this vacation. Also, since I'm not getting internet, my live blog will likely be everything posted at once after we get home.

Well, not sure if the app will be working. Apparently Royal disabled it recently because some kids managed to hack into the system and spam offensive stuff to anyone they wanted.

Only one week left and we'll be on the ship!!

You know what, I even picked the week after and still have the same issue, so it must be something with my account or app.