SPS

I'd personally like to see RC develop another private island/getaway somewhere on the Western Caribbean (maybe in the Costa Maya/Belize area?).  I'm jealous of yall on the east coast that get to experience Coco Cay frequently!

One thing I wish Royal did is add more options for the three-night weekend cruises out of FL to other ports in the Bahamas such as Bimini or Freeport, so it is not always Nassau every cruise. 

I wish Cuba was an option again.

Probably some welding accident.

Hello,
In August, since we arrived too late in the evening to see any Seattle sights, we stayed at The Aloft Seattle Sea-Tac Airport hotel near the airport.
It was clean, comfortable, and fairly reasonable in price. The next morning we used Seattle Express shuttle service to take us from the Hotel to the port for $25 each. ($45 each if you also want transportation to the airport post-cruise.) They provided us with great service and our driver "Elvis" was great! (https://seattleexpress.com/cruise-ship-transfers/)
TIP: Use the FREE Port Valet service to get your luggage back to the airport post-cruise. https://www.portseattle.org/page/port-valet-enjoy-seattle-luggage-free
(The only fee for this service is the standard luggage fees for whichever airline you are using)

I've recently booked my family's first cruise ever for this summer. We've wanted to do this for a couple of years now, and after much research, we decided to pull the metaphorical trigger.

I absolutely love planning our family vacations, and I tend to do deep dives on everything, especially if it's a totally new experience. I just wanted to thank everyone here. I've been reading, lurking, searching, watching the YouTube videos, and doing all the things to make sure we have a good experience. Thanks to everyone who has posted tips and tricks for newbies like me to search and learn. Thanks for sharing your packing tips. I never would have known that my magnetic clips on my fridge will be useful on my cruise if not for things I've learned through this community. I didn't understand how genius it is to pre-pay gratuities. That's one less thing I have to worry about now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for being straightforward with pros and cons. It's helped so much, having people be real with things instead of being all positive or all negative. 

 

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

I just booked our next cruise on Tuesday evening. The alert came up while my phone was on "Driving Focus" so I didn't get it until "25 minutes too late"!
No matter, since Harmony was docked in Labadee, there was no way I was gonna get there in 30 minutes anyway! 😆
(BTW, our countdown is 359 days! 😄)

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

This conversation reminds me of the wine glass lovingly known as "Big Joe" on Cougar Town! 😄 Capable of holding MORE THAN a whole bottle of wine!

 

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

I just booked our next cruise on Tuesday evening. The alert came up while my phone was on "Driving Focus" so I didn't get it until "25 minutes too late"!
No matter, since Harmony was docked in Labadee, there was no way I was gonna get there in 30 minutes anyway! 😆
(BTW, our countdown is 359 days! 😄)

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

WE'VE GOT ANOTHER ONE HOOKED, EVERYBODY!!! 😆
Welcome to your new obsession! Now you are one of us!

I just booked our next cruise on Tuesday evening. The alert came up while my phone was on "Driving Focus" so I didn't get it until "25 minutes too late"!
No matter, since Harmony was docked in Labadee, there was no way I was gonna get there in 30 minutes anyway! 😆
(BTW, our countdown is 359 days! 😄)

That's because Labadee is in such a remote part of Haiti it's realistically not the same place as the intention of that travel warning. Plus the entre area is literally walled off.

So my wife and I just got home from our 1st cruise, it was on Oasis of the Seas last week. Thought I'd share a few observations that might help other newbies.
First thanks to Matt for all the great videos and info, I can't tell you how much they helped!
 
So we have just reached that point in life where our kids are old enough to leave home alone and we don't have to plan vacations for them, but now for us. So we decided to cruise.  I'll just say, overall about the experience...wow. I've never had a more relaxing and fun vacation. The staff and amenities of the Oasis were just incredible.  They were eager to help, and went out of their way to answer any need we had.  There is so much to do on the ship, I don't think we even saw it all.  We had a great time, and we are already planning next years cruise. If you've never cruised before and are on the fence, I'd say jump in and give it a go! (A caveat to this - we enjoy relaxing and having a drink, sitting on the beach, etc - we don't need to go hiking, biking, be busy all the time, we are happy to sit, chat, and watch the world go by.  A cruise seems like the perfect place for this.)
 
Some standout stuff:
Portside BBQ - wow great bbq, such a surprise! Recommend the chicken wings or brisket, so tender!
Izumi sushi - we did both the hibachi and sushi sides, the hibachi was great, but the sushi dinner was a highlight!
CoCo Beach Club restaurant - one of the best meals we had, and easily the best steak (Chops was decent but this place killed it)
Globe and Atlas Pub - Our bar of choice, relaxing , great staff, and entertainment. Spent a lot of time here! (although for comfort - Schooner Bar had the most comfortable chairs heh)
 
Things that could improve:
The mattresses, uhg, not great.  We found out too late that you could get a mattress topper and they were all out.
The AC (in stateroom) is not quite cool enough, and hot water was not quite hot enough.  Not enough to be a real annoyance, but noticeable. (I understand that the ship has to make all its own power for these things so it is forgivable)  Our cabin steward was able to bring us a fan for the room which made sleeping just fine.
 
Other thoughts:
Unlimited Drink package...we were going to get it, then decided not too as the wife didn't think she would drink enough to make it worthwhile.  Boy were we wrong hah. Luckily we were able to upgrade to it a couple days in.  So if your teetering on the fence whether to get it or not, I'd have to say go for it.
Main dining room was great, never had a meal that we didn't really enjoy, and the staff was outstanding.  Windjammer buffet was average, about what you'd expect from a buffet.
Shore excursions - seemed so short, like there was never enough time.  We did splurge on a cabana at Labadee and it was sooo worth it, the privacy, comfort, and service were well worth the price of admission.  I was surprised by the number of people that just came up and sat down in our lounge chairs and stuff, wierd, then you have to feel like kinda a dick shooing them out, and of course they all got mad when we said anything.
Speaking of other people, wow people like to complain.  We had a hard time meeting others, seems all people want to talk about was the bad things...its too crowded...there's kids on board...I waited 7 minutes to be seated....etc etc.  All things that we hadn't noticed or didn't bother us at all. People need to learn to relax and enjoy.  (We did meet some nice people, it wasn't all bad hah)
 
Anyway, overall we had a great time and can't wait to get back! Our only question now is do we stick with what we now know will be good (RC) or try out some other cruise lines? Either way it will be fun to figure out!
 

It worked! Thanks for the fix info!

It's an ongoing issue. There's a fix:
Log into your account, click on your initials top right and choose profile. Then click on "My Loyalty" towards top right. Now delete your C&A number, retype it back in and save. That should put your status and points back on the screen.

Just Booked! 361 Days to go!
Harmony of the Seas - January 28, 2024

Seeing the account page read "You have 0 upcoming cruises" was making us sad. We had to do something about it.

Royal created eMuster before they knew a pandemic was coming.  
There is no need to go back, they only ever planned to go forward.  

Royal Caribbean isn't planning to go back to the old drill
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/01/26/royal-caribbean-we-have-no-intention-of-moving-back-old-muster-drill