Do you love it

Agreed! Fun to do and very helpful late night…

Absolutely!  It’s fun to do and helps you find your room after a few drinks!  🤪  On our last cruise our friends hung up a magnetic board with an outline of the US States.  There were very tiny sticky dots in a baggie next to it and people stuck the dots on the state they came from.  By the end of the cruise there were over 75 dots which filled at least 60% of the 50 states!  
Of course, it helped that our rooms were near the top of the hallway so there was lots of traffic to stop by!

When crème brulee is available in the MDR, I always ask our waiter for some sliced strawberries and blueberries on the side.

My favorite hack -
If you enjoy the frosted coffee at Chick-Fil-A, it's fairly simple to recreate on board.
I head up to the Diamond lounge and get 2 shots of espresso. (I assume that those with a beverage/refreshment package would be able to get espresso from the bars with coffee or at the Promenade cafe.)
Ask for an empty beverage cup at the Windjammer and pour in the espresso. Then head to the soft serve machine and fill the cup with vanilla soft serve. Mix together and you'll have a delicious frosted coffee!! 😋

OMG ringer cookie icecream sandwhiches! I thought that was our hidden secret lol I was just telling the kids cruising with us in Sept about this trick. 

Does anyone have a favorite lesser know free food item while cruising or Food Hacks.  
Pre covid I would make Ranger cookie ice-cream sandwiches. 

Being gluten free the only option for dessert in the MDR so far has been Ice Cream.  On one of the ships they wouldn't even let me have that since it wasn't gluten free.  Before dinner I would get packaged Udi's cookies from the Cafe Promenade, which are kept frozen, and carry it to dinner.  That way when everyone is enjoying their dessert I could still have a sweet but safe treat.  BTW, they always offer the Snickerdoodle  first and you have to ask for the Chocolate Chip cookies.  But, on Liberty of the Seas in April the cookies had an expiration date of May 2023 and they were rock hard.  I couldn't even break it apart with my hands so there was no way I was eating them and they went into the trash.

I make kind of a poor man's charcuterie tray. I go to the Windjammer early and make a plate of sliced meats, cheeses, crackers, sliced veggies with dressing for dip and what-not and take that back to the room for "Happy Hour".  Mrs Fan and I nosh while getting ready for the evening. She drinks wine and I get a whiskey. Sit out on the balcony and chill with the snacks.

If i have the option. I'm leaning to towards the night time cleaning.  I don't want my afternoon nap to mess the nicely made bed.  

If i have the option. I'm leaning to towards the night time cleaning.  I don't want my afternoon nap to mess the nicely made bed.  

Does anyone have a favorite lesser know free food item while cruising or Food Hacks.  
Pre covid I would make Ranger cookie ice-cream sandwiches. 

If i have the option. I'm leaning to towards the night time cleaning.  I don't want my afternoon nap to mess the nicely made bed.  

Does anyone have a favorite lesser know free food item while cruising or Food Hacks.  
Pre covid I would make Ranger cookie ice-cream sandwiches. 

I was on Odyssey in March. Do not recall getting any "good ice" anywhere. Was mostly in Schooner bar and pub.

Just got off the Harmony in April of this year - they had a ton of Blanton's for sale at the Port Merchant's shop. We picked up 2 bottles, $110 each, which is about halfway between retail and what you can find on the secondary market.  No complaints from us!  🙂

On Harmony this week and the suite deck bar had a nice selection

Oops. I thought this was going to be about proposed new ship names.

I like to schedule big things: specialty dining (dinner), shows like Hair spray, must do excursions.  Most of my trip I wing it.  Personally I wouldn't lock myself into a lunch.  
 

20 per venue per day.

Our approach is to generally know what we'd like to do each day and I get immense satisfaction from reading my cruise compass before going to bed each night thinking about the next day.   Something along these lines for a general daily plan with lots of hours to fill in on the spontaneous side: 
Day 1 = get familiar with ship, dinner main dining room, show
Day 2 = X excursion, dinner main dining room, Schooner bar, show (if up for it)
Day 3 sea day = would be nice to hit the pool at some point, bingo at 3pm, dinner at chops, show
A general outline of the day, but aside from paid excursions and dining reservations, we easily adjust as wanted/needed.  

I schedule a few things but like to leave open times.  I do not think you can schedule yet for a cruise next summer.  But main things I do schedule ahead, like excursions.  Even if there are excursions I want to do in every port, I do not schedule them everyday.  I do not like to feel rushed and committed all the time.  I may stay up late, like 1-2am and then regret I have an excursion at 7am.  You cannot see everything, or even do everything on the ship that is offered.  I pick the few things I really want to do, and just go with the flow for the rest of it.  But everyone is different.   
I also go on cruises for different reasons.  Sometimes to just relax and do things as they come.  The main theater I do not not think even requires reservations anymore.  I have been on several cruises this year, and is open seating.  Smaller venues may require reservations but you can almost always get in without them.
Other cruises, like the one I just took for 2 weeks in Europe, I did schedule many excursions.  It was a busier vacation but loved it.  Just not too relaxing and always a bit tired.
You will get it figured out, and get better at planning once you have been on a few cruises.  Just enjoy!

Pretty sure I only saw the Angel's Envy in suite area but I was able to get the Elijah Craig at the Trellis bar in Central Park.

on a slightly (un)related topic, I have never been able to get a decent old fashioned on a RC cruise. Last couple cruises they all either had soda, muddled fruit, were shaken or some other similar crime against humanity.
Last month I was in the viking lounge and no one else was there. The waiter seemed to want to chat (and I didn't see a bartender) so I asked him if he could put some buffalo trace, angostura bitters, and simple syrup in a rocks glass and stir it.  He looked puzzled and said sure.
He came back with a nice cocktail. I slipped him some cash and told him I had more guys on the way who would want same. My son and son in law came and we drank several of them. Idk how much we tipped him but he didn't get 10 feet away from us the rest of the afternoon.

Thank you for the info.  I guess I will have to try all the bars on the ship (for research purposes).  Its a tough job but someone has to do it. 

I like Buffalo Trace a lot, but I drink Dickel 12 on a regular basis.  On the ship it will be BT.