cdixon22

It really was a try hard atmosphere; they need to serve that bread and fried cheesecake other places, so I don't have to feel so frou frou😉

Thank you for following through and reporting it when you got back on the ship.  

😮  First, this is about the vendor beach representative, not Royal, not the off-ship staff, nor the transportation provider.  It is about the RUDE, INSULTING, and MENACING on site operator at Smith Bay.  Yesterday our party of four went on this excursion and upon arrival at the beach a man identifying himself as Kareem gave an orientation highlighted with pointing out the large tip jar.  The experience went downhill from there.  We waited  20 minutes for Kareem to bring lounges, yelling at one of the ladies who went to asked for promised chairs.  This was followed by him throwing three chairs down and again yelling that we had asked for three when there were four of us.  Finally he returned with a fourth chair, again throwing it down with more yelling.
After stewing about how bad the experience was, we decided to get a taxi (at our expense) back to the ship.  On learning that we wanted to leave, Kareem approached us yelling and swearing.  Yelling and becoming physically menacing, I told him twice to back off and that I wasn’t going to argue with him.  All we wanted was for them to call us a taxi.  Instead, Kareem , still yelling, said he was not going call a taxi and called his boss instead.  Continuing to yell, calling us crazy, I walked away from him and asked that the three ladies in our group to start videoing him.  At that point a taxi appeared by coincidence and we climbed in, leaving Kareem still yelling at us.
Arriving back at the Oasis, we immediately sought out the ship Excursion Manager and reported our experience.  Aiya, the Excursion Manager, took down our complaint and explained that she  would initiate an incident report through their contracting process, but didn’t know the outcome.  However, she provided us with a full refund for the excursion.
Bottom line, I recommend that cruisers going to St. Thomas avoid the Secret Sands/ Smith Bay beach excursion and the possibility of encountering this out of control employee.
 

I had the UDP.  They prepared a "birthday plate" for me at each venue.  
  
  

Friends of mine got me this package
 
 

Interesting- In November 2021 I asked but did not go out because it was far and water was choppy but there was a lifeguard and platform out where the guy pointed.  Maybe he knew it was impossible to get out there that day. LOL

Ask the lifeguards where the sunken plane is. There was lots of fish and a stingray when we did it. 

Ask the lifeguards where the sunken plane is. There was lots of fish and a stingray when we did it. 

Interesting- In November 2021 I asked but did not go out because it was far and water was choppy but there was a lifeguard and platform out where the guy pointed.  Maybe he knew it was impossible to get out there that day. LOL

I’m on Anthem right now we they accepted our  Royal Up bid taking us from a balcony to a grand suite then once we got on board (and I’ve never done this before) my husband and I went down to guest services right after the sail away after we cleared the Verrazano Bridge to see if they had any empty suite higher than a grand we got an onboard upgrade to an owners suite for only $900 additional dollars total not per person. We started out with the balcony guarantee got the Royal UP decided to roll the dice when we got onboard scored an upgrade to the owners suite all for $7,100 dollars TOTAL!!!!!  That is a far cry from the near $17,000 dollars Royal wanted for this 11 night cruise if we would have booked the Owners Suite out right when we book this cruise last minute.  
To top things off we went to the casino last night played one hand Wheel of Fortune and won $500 dollars.  
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I have never had this much luck in all my life and I’m 41 years old.

Just notified my bid for an Owner’s Suite was accepted for the Anthem leaving in nine days…Feb 11.

Must not have got back results in time. Think they will get FCC 🤣 from Royal?

Guess I’m one of the lucky ones, no discerning palate.  I can always find something I like and if I don’t like what I’ve ordered, they bring me something else!  Not looking for Michelin stars.

No but they did take advantage of the Launch with Confidence program

What’s the big deal. There is a helipad on board Harmony if they needed to land. Just saying. 🚀

Tiny, invisible (no see um), biting gnats.

Just to follow-up I received the refunds today for both the cancellation of the drink packages and the port fees, taxes and prepaid gratuities.  Took 3 weeks.

Our March Allure trip has breakfast listed on the app.  Hopefully they update it for Harmony. 

You should have a Captains club # with Celebrity.  One shows in my Royal app profile.  Make sure that celebrity # is on your Celebrity booking.  You’ll get your elite status automatically 

This is two of my words colliding (spaceflight and cruising), so this is gonna be fun: 
The launch customer (the company that hires SpaceX to put the payload into orbit) dictates the launch time, which typically aligns with some other entity (for instance, an ISS cargo re-supply MUST launch at a precise time to most efficiently catch up with ISS). These launch windows are typically instantaneous, meaning you can't hold and wait for even a few minutes, because the object you want to catch up to has already flown by. Additionally, it's very difficult to "hold" a countdown, mainly due to fuel constraints. Rocket fuel is stored at incredibly low temperatures, and as it's pouring through the ambient fill lines and fuel tanks, begins to boil off. This is why a Falcon 9 has so much fog around it immediately preceding the launch. SpaceX practically "overfills" the tanks, because they account for a certain amount of boil-off during fuel loading. They also load fuel right up to 90 seconds before launch. When T-0 hits, SpaceX knows how much fuel is on-board, how much has boiled off, etc. If there's any kind of hold, the fuel continues to boil off, which affects launch weight (it gets lighter) and, more importantly, could impact how long the rocket fires. Less fuel = lower velocity = lower target orbit. Some Space Shuttle launches could hold because the External Tank was INCREDIBLY well insulated and kept fuel colder for longer, but also because some Shuttle missions were self-contained (not rendezvousing with another orbital object) and the launch window could flex. 
 
The other component that the launch customer can dictate is "azimuth", or basically the direction of the launch. When NASA/SpaceX launches to ISS, they basically launch up the east coast to intercept the orbit of ISS. More recently, SpaceX has been launching in a more easterly manner, and even directly south into polar orbits (polar orbits used to be exclusively the domain of the west coast launch facility, Vandenberg AFB). SpaceX has proven that they can safely launch the first stage over the ocean, then "dog-leg" the second stage over land where, if a failure were to occur, the ballistic trajectory would put it into the Caribbean. 
Here's a Google Maps overlay showing launch trajectory/azimuth. They really thread the needle here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&mid=1Kl-SydwGM7KVkBIl_-88qIZeYPy1t7HV&ll=26.11030793705532%2C-79.11965267822265&z=7
 

What’s the big deal. There is a helipad on board Harmony if they needed to land. Just saying. 🚀

What’s the big deal. There is a helipad on board Harmony if they needed to land. Just saying. 🚀

What’s the big deal. There is a helipad on board Harmony if they needed to land. Just saying. 🚀