cdixon22

That's a great question, and the answer is helping you when you want to have things re-priced, change rooms or when there is a problem.  
Anyone can book a cruise these days.  The true value in a good travel agent is the time they save you when things need be changed, fixed or altered.  

Here is a good comparison chart:
https://dlxffu6hwewxp.cloudfront.net/cas/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CAS_Member_Benefits_Grid_APRIL-2019.pdf
 

Live blog and pictures would be interesting.

When I saw his post I was SMH.  Must be a slow case week for him.  Clearly it's the cruise line's fault for placing itself in the jets path.  

We have sailed twice on Independence of the Seas for Spring Break and it was fine.  There are a "few" more college kids and a lot of drinking but they were well behaved. LOL.  You will have a good time.

We sailed on a spring break cruise once. It was fine, but we like to tell people there were so many kids in the pool that when one jumped in, two were squirted out!

Wow, I can see why they are your ex!

+1

I was affected by Dorian for my most recent cruise on Allure of the Seas.  We were originally scheduled to leave on Sunday, September 1, 2019.
On Thursday, August 29, 2019 was when Royal made the announcement that they were going to extend the current cruise and that my cruise was going to be shortened to 4 days.  My departure date was now going to be Wednesday, September 4, 2019. 
They offered those who were willing to still sail a FCC (Future Cruise Credit) equal to 3 days worth of what was paid for the cruise.  We would also get that same amount in the form of a refundable OBC if we chose to still sail.  If we chose to cancel we would get a FCC equal to what was paid for the cruise less port taxes and fees.  Port taxes and fees would be refunded to the form of payment.
We were fortunate that the airlines and the hotels were waiving cancellation and change fees, so we ultimately didn't incur any additional expenses due to the delay.  We live in Florida and while we chose to fly for this cruise, it's only a 7 or so hour drive for us to Ft. Lauderdale if we had needed to do that.  We didn't make the final decision to go until Tuesday morning before the cruise was rescheduled to leave.
In our case Royal made the right decision and stuck to that decision.  It may have seemed premature to delay the sailing but in these situations the cruise lines are at the mercy of the port.  Royal made the right call as the port did end up being closed on our original departure date and time.  
The ship sailed with about 3,000 guests which is a very, very empty ship for an Oasis-class.  Nothing was crowded, no reservations needed for shows.  I'm glad that we made the decision to go even though there was a lot of nail-biting going into it and waiting to see what was going to happen.  For us it was the right decision and with the OBC and the FCC, the net effect was that we enjoyed 4 days in a Central Park balcony for about $400 for 2 people.

If given only the choice of forward or aft, I would likely choose aft. We had an aft balcony and loved it. I won't lie, there is definitely more motion than mid-ship...

AFT  Any vibration that may happen is a free massage.  Also the humming sound is great for lulling you to sleep.  Sure better than sleeping under the pools and solarium.  Made that mistake once.  Lesson learned.

My wife & I used to live on a 36’ boat.  In 2017 we sailed on Jewel OTS & booked the forward most cabin on Deck 9 specifically for the motion to ‘rock us to sleep.’  Big disappointment; didn’t feel a thing!  However, eating in the MDR, towards the aft of the boat, with the motion we felt there, we had to fight to keep awake during our dinners!!!  Go figure!
We will be sailing on Celebrity Reflection next April, and I booked the aft most cabin on Deck 10.  Will see how that compares.  This cabin is on the starboard side and we’ve always been high up on the port side in all our previous cruises.  So, other than the height, quite a departure from our norm.

I prefer being in the aft myself.  We hung out in the forward section for a few hours with some friends this last cruise and must have hit some rougher seas.  By the time we left to go back to our room I felt drunk.  I even had a hard time walking at first.  I felt way better when I got back to the cabin which was all the way aft.  Ill take some vibration over that motion any day.

That’s great!  I’ve booked an aft cabin in deck 9 😀

Just wanted to post an update in case it helps someone else out in the future.  I did have to contact RCCL and cancel our cruise.  RCCL will refund our Taxes, fees and port expenses as well as any add-ons that we purchased for the cruise.  (Excursions, drink packages, etc.)  I then contacted the Royal Rewards Department to see if I could save the credit card points.  They said that in a case like mine, they would hold the points and I would have 6 months from the date of cancellation to move the points to a new booking.  I then contacted the insurance company that RCCL uses for their Vacation Protection Plan.  I went to their website travelclaim.com and printed off the Attending Physician Statement which we will have completed by my husbands doctor at his upcoming appointment.  I then need to start a claim on their website and send in the completed Physician statement.  They said it would take 4 weeks to process the claim after they received the Physician Statement.  I then needed to contact Delta concerning our non-refundable plane tickets.  I explained everything to them and they said that if I provided them with either the doctor's information or the hospital's information (name, address and phone) that they would hold the value of the tickets and that I would have 1 year from the date that I purchased the tickets, to use that value to book other airfare.  
Thank you for the well wishes and @Ladyxsuebee, we will be thinking of you during your cruise.  We hope you have a great time.   

We're on the ship and enjoying our lunch courtesy of Chops Steak house.  We've done a little bit of exploring and I am totally in love with this ship!
 
I want to thank everyone (especially Matt) for answering all of my silly questions and helping us prepare to make this the best vacation ever!  
 
The only sad part is that next week it will be over....but I'm going to enjoy every second while I can!  Talk to you all in a week!

Nobody knows which ship you made it to and which you are in love with?

It doesn't matter who these guys work for, they should adhere to their customer's, (Royal Caribbean)  customer service standards. I would report this rude behavior so Royal Caribbean  can address it with their vendor.

Day 4 - Last Evening Filled with Lots of Fun Stuff
It was our last evening, but at least there was still lots to do.
DS and DH left dinner to catch the Star Wars trivia.  After that, I think they caught the Millionaire Game Show.
DD and I went to see Royal's other production show "Showgirl: Past, Present Future".  Guess where we sat?  Yep...front row again.  So much easier to get great seats on Navigator compared with Symphony. Again, the show was ok...at least they had some modern music such as from Greatest Showman.  I do miss the Broadway type shows that they have on the larger ships.  
After that, DD and I went to the Hush party.  It was hilarious.  Everyone gets headphones that are not necessarily playing the same music as the person standing next to you (you can change the color...which changes the music). My daughter was really getting into it and was quite cute with her dancing.  She loved it!
We stayed for a bit and then met DH and DS at the Schooner Bar for our favorite improv music guy.  Tonight he was playing early enough that we could bring our kids.  Our son really enjoyed it (I love it when he laughs outloud).  There seemed to be less people walking by tonight, which is where his improv mostly comes in, so the show wasn't quite as good as the other nights, but they still got to see him and get the idea.
He played until 10pm and our kids went back to the room for bed.  DH and I went out to The Promenade for a bit to see the 80s show, and then there was another comedy show by the same guy as the first night, but the adult version.
Well....a pretty good full evening....but all fun must come to an end.  We returned to our stateroom setting DH's alarm to early the next morning.  
(Forgot to mention but sometime before dinner we did the dreaded packing - which is always sad....and a challenge figuring out what to keep out for the next morning).

Day 3 - Dinner 
We met our kids at the MDR for our 6pm time.  More savory bits waiting for us.  (Warning....if you ask for something, you'll get it every night 😉)
DH and I ordered the garlic shrimp (one of my favorites), DD ordered the burger (first time ordering off of the kids menu) and DS ordered the chicken fingers.
 



For dessert, we all ordered the warm donuts.  

We were surprised that the menu didn't offer the 50th birthday cake that you see around and I thought I had remembered it being offered on night 3.  
The staff did start singing happy birthday, but I had left for the washroom so thought that was just for some table.  When they brought out our dessert, DH did ask about the birthday cake and our waiter said that it was a surprise.  Then brought out one for the table to share.
 

I will say that it looks better than it tastes, but it sure is colourful and pretty.  Our kids shared the lollipop on top (split in half...not lick by lick..lol).  They don't love cake so DH an I had most of it.  He didn't love it.  I thought the icing was good, but cake was a bit hard or something.  Anyways, I still think it's a nice gesture and cool to do for the year.
P.S. - Although we only got one per table, was glad that we got the lollipop as that's probably what makes the cake.

Day 3 - Afternoon
We left Nassau at about 1pm.  I'm pretty sure it doesn't take a day and a half to return to Miami from there and so we were going soooo slow.  A few times I'd look out and question if we were even moving.
Today was a big trivia day for us.  After lunch we hit the TriBond trivia.  We didn't even know what it was (and thought it would be funny if it ended up being some tv show or movie none of us had seen), but it ended up being fun.  The person listed 3 words and you had to figure out the connection.  It was one of those things that was difficult at the time, and yet seemed so obvious once you heard the answer.
After that one, we wandered outside and our kids went on the rock wall. We were surprised that there was barely a line up on a 'sea' day, but it was quite hot out.

Later in the afternoon there was Guess the Logo trivia, and a Cartoon triva.  We also played some more foozball, and let our kids wander a bit on their own until dinner.  They said they played poker in the library with another family. The new game for kids....lol.
Laser tag was again from 4:30pm - 8:30pm.  It conflicted with the triva, and our son tried again after dinner, but no luck with the long line ups.  

Day 3 - Exploring some more
After swimming we played some mini golf and then explored some more.  We headed to the back of the ship to see the Flowrider (which wasn't running until we left Nassau)

And I think this is the teen hang out (our kids don't join the clubs but it looked like a nice area)

And we saw our good old friend Mariner.  We have her booked for same time next summer (hopefully no hurricanes) so we tried to view our stateroom at the front corner.

 
Since today was no longer a sea day, the MDR was opened for lunch so we headed there.  DH and I really love the tutti frutti salad bar.  DD got pasta from the buffet.  DS didn't see much he liked but ordered the burger.  DH and I also shared an amazing truffle grilled cheese.  We also decided we hadn't had enough sugar that day (lol...already hit our count), so treated ourselves to one dessert item.  I have to say that we all agreed that the brownie below is by far the best Royal dessert that we've ever had.  It's soft, moist (more like fudge than cake-like) and perfect icing.  

Best dessert ever!

 

Day 3 - More Challenges
Forgot to say that when we returned to our stateroom later, there was a letter stating again that we were not going to be stopping at CoCo Cay. It also explained that any excursions would be returned as OBC, and then to original payment for what we don't use (we had the waterpark booked...and for a really good price that we won't see again as prices have gone way up).  To our surprise, it also said that we would be getting 25% Future Cruise Credit so that we can return and visit CoCo Cay another time. Bonus.  Wasn't expecting that, and thought it was great of Royal for offering that for a weather related issue.  We would be receiving an email with the amounts, etc.  
This was one of the times where our son said "Well at least we have a story to tell".
So Wednesday morning we got up, still in Nassau as the ship hadn't moved since arriving first thing the day before.  (At least this cruise would be pretty calm...but I admit that I like walking laps on the ship and watching the waves go by so kind of missed that).  We put on our bathing suits and like yesterday, headed to the Windjammer. (Not a ton of breakfast options on Navigator, compared to Symphony).
Next plan of attach was to go swimming so over to the pools we went.  That was strange, the pools were supposed to open at 8am and it was close to 9am, but yet they were covered by nets (this is the first picture in my earlier post).  There was a lifeguard standing by the splash zone so we asked him.  He stated the splash zone was opening in a couple minutes but to check with the lifeguard by the towels about the other pools so we walked there.  This lifeguard stated that in one pool, someone had thrown up.  In the other pool, some kid went number two.  He went on to explain that they can't empty the pools to clean them when in port so they would be like this for most of the day until we started moving.  Lovely. He said that they were opening up the solarium pool for everyone.  So basically one (tiny) pool so the whole ship....and there would be a lot of adults that would not be happy campers (rightfully so).
We headed to the solarium.  It was hot, even at 9am in the morning, and so we wanted to cool off.  DD was scared and wouldn't go in the pool at first as she knows the solarium is for 16+.  So DS and I headed over.  I first double checked with the lifeguard and he knew the changed rule for today.  Eventually other kids came in and so then my DD joined us.  One group did ask the lifeguard about kids in the pool and he explained.  Our kids were really good, but there were a few younger ones that were just swimming across the pool, but they were splashing a bit so I felt bad. 
As my son said "Well at least we have a story to tell".
 

Day 2 - Evening Fun...and a Twist in our Schedule
DD and I love the theatre, and for seats. we really love front row.  There were no reserved seats on Navigator on the main level so we had no issue getting front row in the centre (and we were 40 minutes early...so were the first ones there...lol).   Tonight was Royal's production show called Ballroom Fever.  
As we were sitting there waiting for it to start, the Captain comes on the announcement for something not expected.....He was sorry to report but they need to evacuate CoCo Cay and we wouldn't be making the stop tomorrow.  What???  We knew of the Tropical Depression that started on the news the day before we left for Miami (i.e. first started hearing about it on Saturday), but it was over San Juan and St Maarten area.  Looks like it was taking a turn and they worried for CoCo Cay and more importantly, it's workers.  What a disappointment as this was the one stop we were looking forward to, but of course a missed port, is nothing compared to people's homes and safety.  (We have a few more cruises that hit CoCo Cay so next time...).
He repeated the announcement again about 15 minutes later, and said there would be a revised cruise compass in our stateroom as we'd be staying in Nassau until 1pm tomorrow.
Anyways....on with the show....Ballroom Fever....the singers and dancers were extremely talented, but to be honest, it's not really my style of music/dancing.  (It's kind of that cheezy vegas style show).  But was still glad we saw it and it's good to expose DD to different styles and eras as well, and I think she still enjoyed it.
After the show, we returned to the room.  Our kids got in their pjs and watched TV and DH and I went out to the Bamboo room for a drink.

DH got an Old Fashioned (his favorite) and I got a Banana Pina Colada.  Not sure I tasted the banana but it was still quite good (bit of a sugar rush though).


After our drinks, we returned to the Schooner Bar to hear the improv music guy again.  We caught the end of his act, and then went to the R Bar where a band was playing that was excellent.  There really is great talent on the ship.
At this point, we called it a night.

"Guest" is a strong word for that fella