Cactus527

I remember you specifically saying that you researched the type and amount of rooms left for particular categories before deciding what to bid on. You also had a budget. I applied the same to my RU bids and it worked. Thank you!

11 days until the cruise, 10 days until I travel. I decided to actually look at my flight information today since it's been ages since I bought the ticket. Southwest from Tucson to Houston Hobby to Miami. Since I don't leave Arizona until the afternoon, my Miami flight arrives really late. I specifically chose to connect in Hobby because weather is still iffy this time of year through Vegas, Denver, or Chicago. It also dawned on me that if I'm flying on a Sunday, the Chick-fil-A in Hobby will be closed. Bad travel planning on my part, apparently, LOL. Since it's a late arrival at MIA, and I have credit card points, I just booked a hotel by the airport. Easy peasy, free breakfast, and then Lyft to the port the next morning. Is the area around the airport decent? Are there any shuttle services anyone recommends beyond just Lyft or Uber? Definitely not trying the trolley with the amount of luggage I'm probably going to have. I think I've finally turned a corner on my cold too. Huzzah! I love Hobby. So much smaller and comfortable than Bush. This was one of my favorite parts of our Texas trip last year (Allure in July 2023) - TEXAS SIZE (and shape) WAFFLES Home. Or, rather, near home, when you're waiting for your kids to be done with sports practice and you wander off. No coyotes during this photo, thought I do remember counting about 15 lizards in various places...

Lucky! If I was closer to FL, I'd definitely do more Freedom-class ships. As it is, I'm thrilled that Quantum is coming to the west coast so I have *2* ships to regularly choose from. Booked Quantum for November 2025 already - that's going to be fun!

MEALS GONE WILD!!!! Well, there is a college group that has about 800 on this cruise, so they can do the College Kids Gone Wild while I'm over in the Windjammer making Meals Gone Wild. I did NOT think the RU was going to work, but I really paid attention to the details @Lovetocruise2002 mentioned about her Icon RU. It seems to have worked! Maybe she knows something everyone else doesn't - either way, I'm happy!

On the 12th day before cruising, my live blog did begin... It's almost cruise time! I'm starting this live blog to control my excitement and keep track of all related things. I'll try to update daily before the cruise, and then as things go once onboard. Being my first live blog, I have no idea what's going to happen here. I'm Cactus. I've been cruising sporadically since 2005, both solo and with family, mostly on Royal Caribbean. While I live in the desert, I love traveling and have gone as many places as I can throughout my life. This cruise is a 4-night Perfect Day at CocoCay and Bahamas cruise out of Miami. Port schedule shows Terminal A, so I'm super excited for my first trip out of Miami (how have I avoided this up until now??!?) and out of Icon's terminal. It's a bit of a wonky cruise for me because I have to pack for this trip AND a conference that starts on Saturday after I disembark on Friday. Thank goodness for Southwest's two-bags-fly-for-free policy. Day 1 Miami Day 2 PDCC Day 3 Nassau Day 4 At Sea Day 5 Miami My family calls me two things: The Ruler of Red Lights (when driving) and Overpacker Extraordinaire. I'm hoping the latter doesn't get me in trouble while packing for both cruising and conferencing. I booked a balcony guarantee for this solo cruise because my MEI travel agent had an awesome price for it. I was on Independence in a junior suite in September and absolutely loved the ship/room/location of room, so I had no hesitation in booking Indy's sister ship. The balcony I was assigned was okay, it would have worked, but I went ahead and did a Royal Up bid for both a junior suite and a spacious balcony. The JS failed, but the spacious balcony went through! And, lo and behold, the spacious balcony is in a similar location to where my JS on Indy was. Score! Counting down is killing me - 11 days until I fly, 12 days until the cruise. Of course there's a bazillion things to do in the mean time, including getting over this nasty cold I currently have. Healthy and happy cruising coming soon! ---Cactus

This "diet" you keep speaking of - your cruise is March 17th. Mine is March 11th. I'm packing it in to get to the point where I can eat everything. You shouldn't limit yourself, you should expand yourself, like I am!

I'm so glad I saw this this evening before going off to bed. Snagged three cruises on hold while I check with my TA on pricing.

I was thinking that too; however, understanding the luggage situation is now on my list of things to do.

I'm looking at potentially taking Brightline to get into Miami. I'm a bit confused by the luggage. If I have 2 large bags (have to be checked luggage on the flights), 1 carry-on bag, and my personal item, does this mean I only need to pay for 1 carry-on bag since 2 + personal item are included? Is the luggage free if I do the Premium versus cheapest ticket? Or, is it better to just show up there and try to figure it out at the terminal (with ticket in hand)? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

You can absolutely do the same thing in the Windjammer - in fact, it might be more appropriate there.

@Mrs. Thomas, when we were on Allure in July (and when I was solo on Navigator in January 2023), our stateroom attendant said morning service was 8-11am while evening was 5-7pm. The evening one they preferred to do it earlier versus later in that time slot. It worked fine for me in the evening because of going to dinner, so that's what we did both times. Hope this helps.

You and I are food twins! Own it and be proud! Jump on a table in the MDR and yell "WHERE IS THE FOOD?!?!???" (beating your chest is optional)

It's a sign from the obstructed room gods!!!!

Schedule is now up in the RC app! You can't add it to your calendar yet, but it gives you a good idea of when everything is happening (e.g. Flow Rider times, theme nights in the MDR, 80s night, art auction, etc.).

I LOVE curry. Spouse made it for me on my first birthday when we were dating. It will always be special to me (and delicious!). We too have a great Indian place with a lunch buffet near us. Love it. The irony is it's right beside a running store. Eat then run? Probably better the other way around... There's another one, just a few miles from my house that I haven't been to yet but I have heard that it is quite $$$$$$$$.

It seems to be a thing in the Caribbean countries to prefer cash payments. It seems weird to us Americans, I know, but it's totally legitimate. Our best tour ever in Cozumel was cash only, and I would do that again in a heartbeat.

That's not fair. @tonyfsu21 prefers being at the port early, even if it means waiting there longer to board. Nothing wrong with that. Each of us has our quirks, and that's okay.

I HAD THE SAME THOUGHT LMAO

Tamper. I love that you refer to Tampa that way, like it's something to be messed with. Do you typically do a room change for a B2B, or is this an upgrade?

I did not know I could rate something so highly. I'm going to start using this rating scale for things that I epically enjoy.

Happy belated birthday!

It's why I've downloaded the port schedule for LA just to appease my impatience. At least I know now when the sailings will be and can plan for what I want!

I've always been curious about The Quest...and now I realize it should probably just remain curiosity.

2025-la-schedule.pdf

We did the laundry service on our 2010 Alaska cruise , and for years afterwards, we would still find tags on random items. It amused us greatly. Glad to know we're not the only ones to forget to take off those tags!