PeloAl

Royal Caribbean has some playlists on Spotify with different themes based on various cities around the world. My favorite is the CocoCay playlist!

I've never considered making a playlist, but that's also "not my thing".  I do have songs that remind me of cruises though and if I hear them on the radio-YEAH!

To me the best playlist is one you play for yourself and not for anyone sitting around you or for your neighbor through the walls.  It's tiring to be sitting at CoCoCay and having to listen to music from 4 rows behind you.  One time a  family left their speaker playing while they went in the water or elsewhere......about 30 minutes in I realized they were nowhere to be found and got up and turned it off.
I've seen people with their speakers playing music on the ship too.  Imagine if we all did this?!  UGH

Here is my playlist for our cruise in 16 day on Oasis. 
 

There is no rule preventing you from leaving kids on the ship while you visit port.

Do you believe your teen is mature enough to be left to their own devices? If the answer is "yes" (as I suspect it is), then there's no issue. No different than the same teen disappearing for the day after rising, joining you for dinner, then off on their own again for the evening.

With their post season performances the last few decades, they are actually America’s Shame! 😂🤣 

Holding seat for a spouse is ok... holding a row of 7-8 seats 30 min prior is not acceptable. I will sit where I please. If you have a problem call a crew member.

Previously, we've always used a one-way rental car from Orlando to our hotel in Cocoa Beach.  That's always worked easy.  We have a cruise upcoming from there also March 24th, and this time we booked a shuttle.
 
Either way, to me it's easier to get a hotel and spend the night near the port, and create one less stress factor.
The Cocoa Beach area, and the beach itself is quite wonderful for decompressing.

Terminal 1 PC is very user friendly and stress free. It’s not the most populated area in FL so maybe that’s why. I think you’ll have a good experience. And Wonder was so enjoyable my wife and I immediately booked another cruise for the same ship. We had a 10:30 boarding time and were onboard at 10:25, that’s how efficient it was. 

Obviously this is something easily searchable on google, no?

Obviously this is something easily searchable on google, no?

The cruise ship pools are kept to higher sanitation standards than pools on land, so they confine swim diapers to the smaller baby pool area.

Welcome to the message boards.
That is correct, a child still in diapers cannot go in any pool other than the baby splash zone. You're obviously free to hang out elsewhere, but the kid can only go in the baby splash zone.

It's strange that your TA put you on a wait list for My Time Dining.   I thought that was always a default if you could not get a main dining time (early or late).  If you keep checking with your TA, you might get it changed officially and then you can book your dining times through the cruise planner.  Good luck.

Yes, For my Odyssey sailing in January we wanted the 5:30pm dining which was full.  I had my time dining reserved.  My travel agent put us on the wait list for 5PM and I was skeptical that it would get switched, along with surprised that it was "sold out".  About a month later I noticed there was no more options to reserve my time slots.  This is because we were switched to the early dining time.   We had booked the January cruise in October and the opening came sometime in November.

The app will allow you to choose an arrival time slot first before the rest of the check-in process meaning that you can select an arrival time on one Day & then on another day you can upload your photo & travel information

A good TA not only gets you as good if not better deals and extra OBC, but take care of any snafus that come up between the time of original booking and the actual sailing.
I cannot imagine NOT working with our TA when going on a  cruise.

Yep. I just booked 2 rooms on Wonder for June 2024 with a TA and it was about $2000 less than booking direct with Royal 

So let’s call that 10 instances in 18 months versus the millions and millions that that sailed in that time with zero issues. That’s still well within the definition of isolated incidents. If people ranted and raved every time their embarkation went off without a hitch, none of us would know about those incidents. you have a much higher odd of getting into a bad accident traveling to the ship than being turned away. Raise your hand if that fear of an accident deterred you from sailing in the last 18 months. Me neither! 

I'm more confused by the concept that RCL is apologizing for a "last minute change" which is made 10 months in advance.  Not to minimize OP's concerns but I do not think of something almost a year away as last minute.

You mean that one isolated incident?
The email says that they will contact your Travel Agent. My suggestion would be to wait for them to contact you, see what stateroom they assign you, and if it's not one you are cool with, ask them to find you another one. You can change rooms without a fee.
Also, given the incident where they overbooked, you can try to negotiate a higher OBC for the troubles. Who knows, you might get a bit more.

Who knew there was so much to say about RCCL mattresses! I guess opinions are like some other body parts, everybody has one.

I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, just pointing out that you can probably find people that will say the mattress is comfortable and others that say it is uncomfortable. Quite frankly, not sure what that really proves, or helps you.
My concern is I've seen too often people that read negative things and start to become overly concerned that their cruise is "ruined" before it even begins.  
I can understand your point here, and I think that's a good question.

From this reply, I could see that mattresses will not be your only problem when you sail.

I don’t believe Matt was trying to be sarcastic. He was trying to point out that people’s taste in mattresses are indeed subjective. And I would be careful about being rude to him because he is the creator and maintainer of this entire site and blog. He may not get offended but others trying to offer you advice might. I myself am already upset at your response to him.