CruisingKat(Kathy)

@CruisingKat(Kathy)...I have no recommendations since we usually just wander, but 21 years?!  Amazing!  Congrats!!  Here's to many more!

I know there will already be great live blogs from Matt and Twangster but I thought I would add my daily 2 cents since I am doing some different excursions at the ports.  I am arriving in Seattle the day before the cruise and flying out the day after so I got a City Pass to check out some of what Seattle has to offer.  Tomorrow I plan on going to the aquarium and doing the harbor cruise.  I am traveling with my 19 year old niece and figure those things will be far more interesting to her before we get on a big ship and possibly see some of the wildlife during the cruise.  I will be writing from my phone so please excuse all the typos that are sure to take place and be missed.  I can't wait to share my experience with you.

Can't wait to follow along with you again!! Have an amazing trip! 

T minus 2 days.
Bags packed.  Boarding pass printed.  SetSail pass printed.  Luggage tags ready.  Check, check, check and check.  I think I'm ready. 
Amazingly I don't feel like I forgotten anything, which means in about 10 hours at 35,000' I will remember exactly what I forgot.  Such is cruising.
For the flight to Seattle tomorrow I have a 6am departure.  I had plenty of choices of flight times all day but I chose 6am so I could visit something in Seattle I've always wanted but haven't been able to yet.  The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the base of the Space Needle.  I'm a sucker for blown glass so I'm looking forward to this as a pre-cruise excursion.
I'm flying with Delta, my favorite airline since I am heavily vested in it's frequent flier program.  At 13,500 Skymiles this may be the cheapest round trip flight I've booked using frequent flier miles.  A direct flight was available departing later and arriving at nearly the same time but at several thousand more miles so I chose a connection in Salt Lake City given the early time of day plus day before cruise booking.  Connections don't bother me since I've flown a bunch.  Loyalty pays - I've been upgraded to first class on both segments.  Not bad for an 'award' ticket.
My son is joining me on this cruise flying in from the East coast.  With a Friday to Friday cruise itinerary it meant an extra day of vacation for him so another day on top of that to fly in the day before was a problem.  He doesn't get that much time off at this point in his career.  He elected to fly in the day off the cruise, something I tend to avoid.  Flying from the East coast the time change is working in his favor.  Fingers crossed.
I booked my cruise through MEI Travel and added the official hotel for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise when it was offered oh so long ago.  Time flies, it's almost cruise day!   Shout out to Jacki York at MEI Travel for proactively checking each and every sale over several months to verify I had the best price.
Our cabin on this cruise is an interior with virtual balcony.  A full balcony cabin was nearly twice the price, per person of course.  I did an Alaskan cruise last year on Celebrity with a balcony.  One Alaska lesson I learned last year was that good excursions can be pricey.  Alaska excursions are well worth the price in my opinion to experience Alaska however adding up the total cost of a vacation experience on my second Alaska cruise I chose to spend money favoring excursions that were my second choice from last year over the cabin so interior virtual balcony it is.  Basically by booking an interior cabin we got our excursions 'included' compared to the cost of booking a balcony.  
Excursions this time around:
Juneau

Skagway
(The description read much better when I booked it!)

Victoria

Booked during various sales it definitely pays to book excursions early and watch sales.  Most of them have increased in price over the months since booking.  I booked our excursions with enough time for us to self explore before or after as weather permits.  Alaska here we come!
With that it's time to close my laptop and pack it, else I might forget it in the morning at oh-dark-early when my ride arrives to carry me to the airport.

@twangster @JLMoran @CGTLH ?
For periscope help @CruisingKat(Kathy) And have you joined the RC Periscopers FB group? That is run by @CruisingKat(Kathy) and you can also post your periscope questions there. Or PM Kathy. She's great with helping! Also get yourself added to the July Periscopers list so people will know you are scoping ?

Day 2 - St. Maarten
No official excursion today although I did get a letter in my cabin with a 20% offer if I took it to the Shore Excursion desk to book one.  


Instead of booking something through Royal I jumped in a shared cab to Maho Beach for $16 roundtrip.




This is the beach at the end of the runway for the airport on the Dutch side of the island.  I had looked up incoming flights and scheduled my day to arrive when a couple of larger jets would be arriving.  First WestJet from Toronto:



A few minutes a Delta jet from Atlanta arrived:
 



A JetBlue plane took off between the two arrivals.  I had been sitting on a beach towel lined up with center of the runway.  When I saw the JetBlue plane getting to takeoff I moved over closer to the Sunset bar.  I've been here before and didn't want to discover sand in crevices I didn't my body had for the next week.   
A short time later that group of friends in the water when WestJet arrived broke into cheers and I looked over to see a guy had hit the sand on his knees and opened a ring box that he was presenting to a girl standing there in shock.  Before I could react and try to save him, she accepted.  Another man down. 

With that it was time for a beverage so I jumped in a taxi and headed back to the cruise ship pier.  I decided to contribute to the local economy before getting back on board.  $3 plus tip or 2 for $5.

Main Dining Room:

Day 1 dinner menu:

With a 6pm dinner but an 8:30pm sail away it left some time after dinner to explore the ship.  It did feel odd after the muster drill at 4:30pm not immediately having sail way but it allowed me to have a few diamond happy hour drinks and take some pictures around the ship.







The peak-a-boo bridge.  More on that later.

I won!  Woohoo!  At the CC Meet & Mingle they had a raffle for "stuff you'd never buy" and I won an RC backpack.  Our ship representative warned us several times they tend to fall apart but knew exactly how they could be fixed by sewing them up with dental floss.  Things you make you go "hmmm".  I should have brought my dental floss needle, but heck it's free and I won it (I never win anything).

Enjoying my balcony today... how else?

I thought I'd test out wifi calling given that this is a non-O3b ship.  I called my agent to save $400 on a December cruise.  Not bad, the call broke up a few times but in the end I saved $400 so I'll take it!
As I sat there I spotted a celebrity approaching.


Using my bot-like vision I discovered it's the Celebrity Silhouette.

Soon after some birds came along.  At first I wasn't sure what they were doing out here but then it became obvious. 



Success!  Flying fish being taught a lesson by a flying bird - better to stay in the water.

Early start to the day after getting a solid sleep.  




Walking through the solarium and around the pool deck before sunrise I observed the pool attendants at work




Here is the solarium on Serenade

Finally a post-dinner sunset:




Deck 5 Hyperlapse
 

Here is a hyperlapse of the pool deck.  I'm hoping to capture more of the ship in this way as it's a quick way to get a feel for a ship.  
 
 

Cabin Tour!
Deck 7 Standard Balcony 7028







On the Radiance class the deck 7 balconies are extended with the extension open to the sides and above.  I don't plan to be on my balcony in my underwear so this isn't an issue for me but if you are seeking a more private balcony experience you may want to accept a smaller balcony on a higher deck.

Terminal 19 Photos:

Small waiting area after check in:

Yes, that would be great!!! I will be staying in my Very First Suite, when I go on Enchantment 2-2-18, a GS. I am sure the Shower should be pretty decent in that Cabin. ?

We're back! The wedding was amazing, and we had an absolutely incredible honeymoon. We both really enjoyed the Allure, and agreed that the two weeks were much needed. We didn't feel rushed to do everything on the ship, and the crew was absolutely amazing. If you're going to be boarding soon, visit Antony and Rex in the Schooner as well as Li and Marlon in the Pub! 
A few stray thoughts I had - 
I was really, really impressed with the Oasis class. With most other ships that I've sailed on, they always seemed smaller in person after seeing them on YouTube. That was not the case with this ship. However, as others have mentioned, I really missed being able to see the ocean. It's easy to forget you're on a cruise ship.  All of that said, unless I was cruising with family (particularly family that includes younger family members) or with a very large group, I don't know that I'd book the Oasis class again for just one week.  If you are planning a honeymoon and want to sail on the Oasis class, I very highly recommend either considering sailing a B2B or sailing in a suite.  Our first morning on board, we booked a spa appointment for a couples massage. 10/10 highly recommend - book early morning (8 AM appointment) to save a little bit of $$! It was the best possible way to start the cruise after a stressful day of (same day!) travel following our wedding!  We dined at every specialty restaurant except for Chops (we've done it before) and Samba Grill (not big meat eaters)... and I guess Chef's Table, too, if you count that - I don't think we ever had a bad meal on board, even in the MDR and Windjammer. Our favorite specialty was Izumi (both the hibachi and sushi experiences) as well as Giovanni's Table. They still have a filet on the menu, which my husband (!!) greatly enjoyed. 150 Central Park was also a really wonderful experience and worth doing at least once. We had fun trying all the salts, and the Cucumber Martini really is as good as people have described.  Don't forget the champagne bar! They have a lot of really fun and tasty martinis that are worth a try if you have the drink package!  Food and drink fatigue is so, so real.  Sabor guacamole also really is as good as people have mentioned, but we struggled to eat there for dinner - it's SO MUCH FOOD! We went more than once on Sea Days just to sit at the bar and have guac and margaritas, and that was our lunch!  Not ship related, but port related - If you're going to do anything in Costa Maya that isn't a ship/third party excursion and you want to leave the port, just plan on taking a taxi door to door if you know specifically where  you're going. We had a pretty negative experience on the shuttle. Taxis are $2/pp whereas the shuttle is $3/pp. Walk out of the port area, and immediately there is a taxi stand. Taxis are readily available to bring you back to port as well. I'm sure I'll think of more, but this is off the top of my head. If you have any questions, let me know! :D

Enchantment is going in nxt mth I believe from what a blogger here has said...

@CruisingKat(Kathy), here you go! http://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/767-cruise-ship-refurbishment-dry-dock-schedule

When I google out of curiosity I find that CC or cruisefever.net has a list.  They usually seem pretty up to date.  Most times I just google "royal caribbean dry dock schedule (year)" and it pops up.

Oh, I'll be doing my best starting the 15th from Oasis.
Had a very fun and interesting time doing it, on a different site, when I was on for 12 days last month.
 
Now, if I could only make it a habit of not doing the posts at two in the morning...
 
 
Side note: Expect to get a copy of the elusive Western run compasses when I'm back. I might post at a minimum the Daily Planner part "LIVEish".

Over the years, we have had people share their Royal Caribbean experiences during their cruise on these message boards and it has been a very helpful and fun way for everyone to follow along in the cruise experience.
 
I want to encourage others to do the same, so I have created a dedicated forum specifically for live blogs.  I believe live blogs are extremely helpful for those following along, and fun for the person on the cruise too.
 
My hope is that more people will share their cruise experiences while they are onboard, or shortly after returning home. I love reading live blogs, and I know many others do as well.
 
Some of you may be concerned about writing style and how interesting (or not interesting) your posts would be.  Let me be the first to say these live blogs need not be Shakespeare quality in the least bit.  It's really a summary of what you did, what you liked (and did not like) and photos always do a great job of telling the story too.
 
I cannot wait to read the next live blogs that I know many of you will be sharing!

I'm fine  with either Dallas or Austin. If the group chooses Dallas I'd just need a little bit more notice in order to make plans :) We can also ask @CruisingKat(Kathy) if we can post in the RC Periscopers Facebook page. I don't mind doing a scope to help get the word out. 

LOL
Good Guess, and
So Close Bill,
I am a former Navy Corspman, and a Army Wife. 😜

I will add the same....anything of the Quantum Class.  Still haven't been on a Q.

Concordia?

Definitely Anthem of the Seas!!!! ☺