Marc

When you request your NextCruise certificate, make sure that you mark on the form not to use your existing TA for the new booking. The default is that your NextCruise booking will be affiliated with the same TA for your current cruise. The nice thing about a NextCruise booking that's not affiliated with a TA is that if you change your mind and want to move it to a TA, you have 60 days after you convert it to an actual booking (with a particular ship and date) to transfer it to a TA.

Good point... I did forget to mention the other cruise-related programs I have on my TiVo. Thanks to a TiVo "WishList" set up to record cruise-related programming, I've accumulated many programs about Royal Caribbean ships over the years thanks to the Travel Channel, National Geographic, Destination America, and others. <Embarrassing Moment> Before my Allure cruise last August, I watched the two programs about Oasis of the Seas including her maiden voyage and also about turnaround day. I got very familiar with some of the personnel that were featured in those shows. Just before we boarded, I saw Eunice Hernandez come through our area (one of the people working in the terminal who was in the program about Oasis's turnaround day) and I geeked out a bit, commenting to her, "I saw you on TV!" She smiled and said, "I get that a lot!" </Embarrassing Moment>

bcarney's post about "83 day countdown" made me wonder. My own countdown is 61 days, and my mind keeps looking for something cruise-related to do. The cruise is paid in full. We've got hotel and air reservations done. We're set for My Time Dining, but don't need reservations since we go early. The only thing left to plan is shore excursions, and we've talked a bit about that. So what does one do to keep one occupied as the countdown decreases ever so slowly? I know one thing I'm doing — watching Love Boat episodes! I'm thrilled that my local MeTV channel started airing Love Boat a few months ago, so I've got my TiVo recording (and saving) all the episodes. So far, I've got 19 episodes recorded. Otherwise, I'm watching Allure of the Seas' Royal Promenade web cam as my computer's desktop (wishing I were there, of course), spending lots of time reading cruise-related forums, and listening to cruise-related podcasts. You'd think I'd be all cruised out from all this, but it's like an insatiable craving until I get onboard! At least among friends here, others will probably know what I mean.

It's unlikely that Adventure of the Seas will have them either. It seems that Royal Caribbean is only putting the Freestyle machines on ships that stay in the U.S.

My friend and I will generally review the next day's Compass in the evening and make mental notes about those things that are interesting to us. After that, I just go with the flow and tend to forget about what was in the Cruise Compass. Fortunately, though, my friend carries the list of activities with him so he can review it during the day and let us know what options we have coming up.

I just checked my photo of one of the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine on Allure of the Seas from back in August. They offered Pibb Xtra (I think — my photo's a bit blurry) instead of Dr. Pepper.

I've got three cruises booked for 2014, which makes for a very happy cruiser! March 15, 2014 - Independence of the Seas October 5, 2014 - Allure of the Seas (...followed by a drive up to Port Canaveral for...) October 12, 2014 - Freedom of the Seas ($369/person Promenade cabin pricing mistake)

Hi there! This seems to be a good thread for a first post here. I'm Marc from a bit south of Pittsburgh, PA. I've cruised a bunch of times including a few cruises on Carnival, Celebrity, and Princess, but we've come to fall in love with Royal Caribbean ever since our cruise on Liberty of the Seas back in 2007. We had actually sailed Royal Caribbean once before on Viking Serenade, but that was not a good example of Royal Caribbean cruising. I've been on twelve Royal Caribbean cruises so far and look forward to sailing with them many times in the future!