davelliott

I am on this cruise. Looking forward to exploring Anthem for the first time.

Thanks for the replies. I will delete and try to download it again. I use a tablet that does not connect to cell service. I download all my podcasts while on WiFi at home and then listen on the road. On another podcast, not Royal Caribbean Blog, I have had the podcast try to connect while playing. When it can't connect, it automatically stops playing. I guess the podcast owner has some form of advertising that forces the playback to look for an ad. But that has only happened on one other. But after listening to all the episodes of Matt's, this is the first time that a 2 or 3 minute segment actually repeated seamlessly 14 times. After reading some of your replies, I listened to this episode on this site, and it plays normally.

I just downloaded the most recent episode of the podcast, episode # 337: "What is a Group Cruise." I use Podcast Addict on my tablet so that I can listen while on my commute to work. I wasn't sure if the recording was the problem or if something happened with just Podcast Addict. I am posting here to see if anyone else had this issue. It not, maybe I need to use another app to download the podcast to listen on my commute. I noticed something weird on this episode and was wondering if everyone also had this same issue. Perhaps it was just something weird going on with Podcast Addict. As I was listening, I realized that it started to replay a part that I had already heard. I started listening carefully for a specific part to see how many times I had already heard it. For example, when Matt mentioned that about 50 percent of the people are on their first group cruise and Annette said that she thought many people are traveling with friends who are on their 2nd or 3rd group cruise. I listened to the whole podcast and this part was repeated 14 times. It appears that the episode that I downloaded must have been only about 2 or 3 minutes. I couldn't really tell exactly where the repeating started, but the parts that I heard were all there 14 times. And there was no usual ending where Matt answers questions. Could anyone comment to let me know if you had any issues with this episode?

I still have plenty of room in case anyone has still not reserved a place to stay. Let me know if you are interested in staying in a full condo with eat-in kitchen with granite counter tops and washer/dryer in the unit.

To anyone who is going on this cruise on Symphony on November 2, 2019 and is planning on going to the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area pre-cruise: I managed to find availability at the Wyndham Palm-Aire in Pompano Beach, Florida. They actually just had one-bedroom studios and one-bedroom condos available when I looked a few months ago. But yesterday, I found a 4 bedroom condo available, so I reserved it. If anyone is interested in sharing with me, there is plenty of room left (actually, I am only going to use one of the 4 bedrooms!). The condo is listed as 2,410 to 2,565 square feet. There are four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a full kitchen with dining area, living room, and washer/dryer. It has 2 King beds, and 4 double beds. If you don't have any plans yet, I would be willing to split some of the costs. Even though this condo is a bit to the North of where I would prefer to stay and it is NOT directly on the beach, it is a very nice place. I have stayed at this condo location at least twice in the past. I am flying from Raleigh, NC on Wednesday, 10/30 and have reserved it for 3 nights before the cruise. I have already reserved a rental car. If anyone is interested, I would be willing to pick you up at the airport if needed. There is a Walmart across the street. When I stayed here before, I bought some groceries there and just fixed my own meals. If anyone would like more information, let me know and I can see what I can find out for you.

I got my confirmation email immediately with the airline confirmation number. However, it took me about 4 months waiting for the airline to make the ticket classes available to be upgraded. Then I had to call them to pay the difference to change classes. But I used a paid service to monitor the ticket classes, so I wouldn't have to watch that myself.

I used the Air to Sea for a one way ticket from Raleigh/Durham to London for a transatlantic cruise. I picked the cheapest ticket that had the best connection. After Air to Sea sent me the Delta confirmation number, I contacted Delta and paid a little bit to change the class of ticket to one that was up-gradable. Then I used my miles to upgrade that class of ticket to first class. It was worth the extra charge and use of miles to fly in first class from New York to London. I think I ended up paying a total of $650 dollars plus the miles. At the time, that same first class ticket was selling on the Delta site for around $10,000.

Vision of the Seas on January 19, 2019

The beach was very crowded. Chairs were packed so close together. We walked down to the water so we could walk in it to cool off a bit, but never got in the water more than ankle-deep. It was so hot that we spent most of the time just walking up and down the paved area looking in the shops. There was a lot of sea grass but it was all just at the water line. Once we stepped over that and got in the ankle-deep water, we didn't see much of it.

I have no idea what beach. The bus took us from the pier and it was about 10 or 15 minutes from the pier. I never saw any signs indicating a name.

The class was held under a covered area next to a hotel.

I found some photos of the excursion. We really had a good time. After we finished with the dance lesson, we had time to walk along the beach and do some shopping.

I did this excursion with my aunt when we were on the Liberty in April. We both enjoyed it. We had about 20 people in the class and made 3 kinds of salsa. They also provided drinks while we made them. After we finished the salsas, we had about 15 minutes of salsa lesson. I am 49 years old and was the youngest in the class! If I can locate my camera card, I will try to upload some of the photos from the class here.

I have had 100 shares of stock since my second cruise with Royal. Since I usually book inside staterooms, I have gotten the OBC many times as these cabins usually don't offer any OBC when booking. Up until a couple of years ago, when I submitted my request for stockholder OBC, I would get a response that since I already had some OBC, I would have to have that removed (either by calling Royal or contacting my travel agent) and then resubmit my stockholder OBC request. However, for the past two or three years, my stockholder request automatically applies the difference of the the two OBC amounts without me having to do anything. For example, if I already had $50 OBC for a 7 night sailing, I now get the $50 stockholder credit ADDED to the original $50. Previously, I had to remove the original $50 credit and then have the stockholder credit of $100 added. I have gotten the stockholder credit about 90% of the time since I usually only have travel agent credits. It has been well worth the investment for me.

I just recently booked Enchantment of the Seas for September 3, 2018. I am also booked on a B2B on Mariner of the Seas for November 12, 2018 and November 16, 2018

Liberty of the Seas, April 8, 2018

I found out that my issue occurs with Chrome only. I tried Firefox and could see the two missing ships. I also tried Internet Explorer and saw them but at about 5 times slower than with Chrome. I determined that when I had Chrome sat at 100% zoom, the Grandeur and Ovation were off the bottom and the slider wouldn't let me move the screen down to see them. However, if I changed my zoom to 90%, they "magically" appeared on the screen. I have never had this happen on other websites, so I never thought of adjusting the zoom level.

When I log in to try to look at cruises, I noticed that Grandeur and Ovation are not on the ship list. I clicked on "Plan a Cruise" on the top menu bar, then "Find a Cruise" on the menu that pops up under that. Then I clicked on "Ships" toward the middle of the screen. It shows 23 ships that are available to book now, without Grandeur or Ovation. Can anyone do the same steps I did and see these two? I was wondering why they don't even show up. If I select the drop-down for "Sailing From" and select Baltimore, then the Grandeur shows up. Likewise, I can select Sydney and see Ovation. Just odd that it is not on the main ship list. If people are not familiar with the drop down menus, these two ships would not be available. Seems odd since new-comers to the website would be missing out.

Matt just posted the details.

Royal Caribbean Press Center

I want to book Ovation from Sydney to Seattle. That would be a great Blog Group Cruise. Hint, Hint, Matt!

Harmony to Port Canaveral! and Oasis to Miami

I just saw a post about the 2019 itineraries.

Could it be related to their website? Before the earnings call, I could log in and view my future cruises. I just tried about 5 minutes ago and the log in was about 2 minutes, but then all of my booked cruises weren't showing. I could see my history and correct points, but no future cruises. I logged in to my sister's account and hers is the same: no future cruises are listed. Has anybody else tried to view theirs in the past 10 minutes?

I wouldn't want to fly from where I am, on the east coast, to San Juan for just three days. I would also be disappointed in this change. I just checked for some sample airfares and what I found was interesting. I checked for fares leaving on 9/26 and returning 9/30. Southwest shows nothing available, so I checked Delta. They do have a flight from Atlanta non-stop to San Juan for $440. But, from Raleigh through Atlanta (on the exact same flight) to San Juan is $201. I found it odd that I could book from Raleigh for less than half of what someone from Atlanta would pay and be on the same plane. When I went to San Juan a couple of years ago, I paid around the $300 - $400 price. I would have loved to have paid only $201 for that flight!