JLMoran

Hi, @blueeyes1961, welcome aboard!
These articles should help with what to expect and things to plan ahead.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/23/20-royal-caribbean-tips-better-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/09/17/5-travel-agent-tips-first-time-royal-caribbean-cruisers
Probably the biggest one I see over and over is to arrive at least a day before departure, just in case something goes wrong. Long-time member @monorailmedic just got reminded of the value of that when driving to the hotel by the port for his Cuba cruise, when he realized he forgot their passports! ? http://www.cruisehabit.com/always-use-checklist-when-preparing-your-cruise-dont-be-billy
Ask away with whatever else you need / want to know. It's a great community here with a ton of people who probably have a collective couple hundred years of cruising experience under their belts.
Oh, and be sure to check out the podcast that Matt (the site owner / producer) put some out every week. If you click the "Podcast" link on the site's main menu and dig back through the archives, you'll find episodes about what to expect on embarkation day, more tips for a great cruise, discussions about specific ports or ships, and more.

Hi, @blueeyes1961, welcome aboard!
These articles should help with what to expect and things to plan ahead.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/23/20-royal-caribbean-tips-better-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/09/17/5-travel-agent-tips-first-time-royal-caribbean-cruisers
Probably the biggest one I see over and over is to arrive at least a day before departure, just in case something goes wrong. Long-time member @monorailmedic just got reminded of the value of that when driving to the hotel by the port for his Cuba cruise, when he realized he forgot their passports! ? http://www.cruisehabit.com/always-use-checklist-when-preparing-your-cruise-dont-be-billy
Ask away with whatever else you need / want to know. It's a great community here with a ton of people who probably have a collective couple hundred years of cruising experience under their belts.
Oh, and be sure to check out the podcast that Matt (the site owner / producer) put some out every week. If you click the "Podcast" link on the site's main menu and dig back through the archives, you'll find episodes about what to expect on embarkation day, more tips for a great cruise, discussions about specific ports or ships, and more.

Hi, @blueeyes1961, welcome aboard!
These articles should help with what to expect and things to plan ahead.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/23/20-royal-caribbean-tips-better-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/09/17/5-travel-agent-tips-first-time-royal-caribbean-cruisers
Probably the biggest one I see over and over is to arrive at least a day before departure, just in case something goes wrong. Long-time member @monorailmedic just got reminded of the value of that when driving to the hotel by the port for his Cuba cruise, when he realized he forgot their passports! ? http://www.cruisehabit.com/always-use-checklist-when-preparing-your-cruise-dont-be-billy
Ask away with whatever else you need / want to know. It's a great community here with a ton of people who probably have a collective couple hundred years of cruising experience under their belts.
Oh, and be sure to check out the podcast that Matt (the site owner / producer) put some out every week. If you click the "Podcast" link on the site's main menu and dig back through the archives, you'll find episodes about what to expect on embarkation day, more tips for a great cruise, discussions about specific ports or ships, and more.

Hi, @blueeyes1961, welcome aboard!
These articles should help with what to expect and things to plan ahead.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/07/23/20-royal-caribbean-tips-better-cruise
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2015/09/17/5-travel-agent-tips-first-time-royal-caribbean-cruisers
Probably the biggest one I see over and over is to arrive at least a day before departure, just in case something goes wrong. Long-time member @monorailmedic just got reminded of the value of that when driving to the hotel by the port for his Cuba cruise, when he realized he forgot their passports! ? http://www.cruisehabit.com/always-use-checklist-when-preparing-your-cruise-dont-be-billy
Ask away with whatever else you need / want to know. It's a great community here with a ton of people who probably have a collective couple hundred years of cruising experience under their belts.
Oh, and be sure to check out the podcast that Matt (the site owner / producer) put some out every week. If you click the "Podcast" link on the site's main menu and dig back through the archives, you'll find episodes about what to expect on embarkation day, more tips for a great cruise, discussions about specific ports or ships, and more.

Freedom definitely does not have the teen spa. I had asked about that a couple of months ago and had it confirmed by Matt. Can't say for Allure.

As a cruise enthusiast, in starting to realize how much Royal had done to improve the industry as a whole. While they sometimes do things I disagree with, ultimately we would not have the industry like it is today without Royal. 
Not only do they have the most innovative and most spectacularly designed ships, they are pushing the industry to design more spectacular ships. For example, when I was looking at the MSC Meraviglia on YouTube I realized how much they had been influenced by Royal Caribbean's designs. Most striking is their rendition of the Royal Promenade and two story suites (e.g., Crown Loft). They even have a comedy club reminiscent to the one the Oasis class. 
I also think that the move to greater onboard technology is directly related to Wow Bands, although I wish Royal would roll this out to more ships. And if you look at the refurbishment of the Caribbean Princess, on of the biggest additions was too additional specialty restaurants. I also credit Total in general with kicking off the refurbishment tend of the older ships. 
Just my two cents. 
 
 

Convincing him to take more than one cruise a year can be a challenge sometimes. I need to come up with a power point template for this in the future... 

So I just booked a 4 night Brilliance cruise in January 2018.  I was able to use a $250 MyVegas OBC for my cruise.  There are almost no restrictions of any kind with applying the OBC and I booked with my travel agent.  The only issues I had are that your agent can't use a TA group booking and they have to call casino royale not the regular booking number to make it all work.  Basically you make the reservation then after that your agent, or you if you don't use and agent, calls with the redemption code and you are all set.
It took me about 2 months of average play to earn 100,000 points to buy the $250 OBC.  Really not that bad for that amount of OBC.

And the verdict is...
First off, fries were cold and soggy in general.
Nachos, not worth it.
Chicken fingers, could have been warmer. But they had a nice crunch. Think the use a sliced chicken breast.
Quesadilla, loved it! This was the chicken version. Was hot temperature wise and crispy. Not the least bit soggy. Plenty of cheese.
Chicken wings (hot buffalo), crispy. Sauce had some heat to it, not mouth burning, slight sweetness.
Burger, this was not your Windjammer burger! Very juicy and thick, was still warm. Might not have been Wagu, missing the caramelized onions. Still was delicious.
Cheese fries, odd. Sauce tasted like it had nutmeg in it.
Bonus picture of the burger.

Welcome aboard, Katie and mom! And thanks to your Mom for taking on the challenge of being a teacher for all those years!

On the subject of being at the pub, here are the menus.
 

It may not be "obstructed" in the sense of totally losing ocean view from that direction, but with the "hump" sticking out on that side you may find it's not the same as when you look the other way. You'll most likely just have the balconies on that side a little bit in your view instead of having a "full 180 degree" kind of view like you'd get from the center of the "hump"; maybe it'll be more like a 170 degree view.

Bill W was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. So, when you see "Friends of Bill W." on the community board, it's a way to announce AA Meetings in a somewhat 'discreet' manner, but also in a way that those in need are able to congregate in a location on the ship to help support one another and hold their meetings.

Hi everyone!
My name is Katie. I live near Allentown (about an hour north of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.
My mom and I will be cruising for the very first time August 20th on Liberty of the Seas! We'll be celebrating her retirement after 35 years of teaching of Spanish and other culture and language classes! As usual, I've been doing most of the planning for our trip and periodically forwarding Mom relevant royalcaribbbeanblog.com posts.   I decided early on in our planning that, as part of the celebration, we should look at cruises that would take us to Spanish speaking countries; Liberty of the Seas is scheduled to stop in Honduras and Mexico. We'll be cruising while Mom's soon-to-be former colleagues and students are beginning the school year. This is the first year Mom can travel in late August and we are taking advantage of it, lol.
Hopefully this will be the first of many cruises for us. But I have to be realistic. Since it is a celebration, it may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Mom and me. I want to savor the whole experience. One of my relatives told me recently that there will be so many activities that we probably won't get to do everything onboard. She was right. Over the next 99 days and even on the cruise itself, we will be choosing certain activities to suit us. I wouldn't want to do it all. I can't wait to find out what we'll get to do, though!

Wonderland continued

Pork Belly

Chicken

Branzino

Here are some Wonderland food shots.

Shrimp

Eggs

Crab Cones

Caprese

Tuna

So far the table mins have been $10 in the casino. In craps for 6/8 it has been $12 on each.
 
 

By the way, this thread topic will be the name of my punk cruise rock band's first album, "Power Strips and beverages".

Home for the next seven days

Time for the 5:30am ship coming in photo!

Also don't forget to tip the dealers!

If you want a quick intro to craps, keep on reading. Otherwise go ahead and skip to the next post. 
Side note before I start: Craps has some really funny myths when it comes to new players. "Craps virgins" are considered extra lucky and a lot of players will bet more when they know a brand-new player is at the table and making their first rolls. And they get treated a lot more nicely when it's known. So maybe advertise the fact. 
 
 
Craps is both intimidating and at the same time (to me, at least) one of the easier games in the casino to learn (as far as basic play). The table looks like something vomited up by a guy with a dice fetish, but for beginner play the only part you care about is the line marked "PASS". Ignore everything else about the table. Honestly I'm not a novice and I still just play the pass line. It's the simplest bet and (combined with the secondary "odds" bet, which I'll explain below) actually has odds that are sometimes in your favor. So this intro will just focus on pass line play.
I won't bore with you probability analysis about dice throws or odds of any given bet working. Just know that 7 is the most likely number to come up on any given roll of two dice, and the game is basically built around that.
Everyone gets a turn rolling the dice, moving clockwise around the table. Before a person makes their first roll, you place your bet on the pass line.
Once all bets are down, the player rolls. If they roll a 7 or an 11, that's an instant win and everyone gets paid, then a new round of bets go down and the player rolls again. If they roll 2 ("snake eyes"), 3, or 12, that's an instant loss and the next player gets a turn to throw.
If the player rolled any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), that becomes their "point" and they start rolling the dice over and over until they roll the "point" again (win, payout) or they roll a 7 (lose, all bets lost, next player starts).
Thats really about it for the basics. The only additional part to be aware of is "taking your odds" after that first roll, when a "point" is set:
After a point is rolled, you have the option to put a second bet as a separate stack of chips behind the pass line. That second bet is usually allowed to be 2 or 3 times your original bet, but I read in another thread that RCI casinos limit you to just the original amount. It gets a little wonky when the point is a 6 or 8, because of how the payout is calculated, but just know that in this case you bet $6 for every $5 of the original bet.
Generally speaking, always take this secondary bet, as it improves your payout by more than the amount put in since a multiplier is applied to the bet based on the point that was rolled.
That covers all of the basics. Not as simple "just bet red" on roulette or "insert coin and pull handle" for slots, but roulette and slots have way crummier odds of winning than craps.

I save time by mixing my bourbon with water...

If you want a quick intro to craps, keep on reading. Otherwise go ahead and skip to the next post. 
Side note before I start: Craps has some really funny myths when it comes to new players. "Craps virgins" are considered extra lucky and a lot of players will bet more when they know a brand-new player is at the table and making their first rolls. And they get treated a lot more nicely when it's known. So maybe advertise the fact. 
 
 
Craps is both intimidating and at the same time (to me, at least) one of the easier games in the casino to learn (as far as basic play). The table looks like something vomited up by a guy with a dice fetish, but for beginner play the only part you care about is the line marked "PASS". Ignore everything else about the table. Honestly I'm not a novice and I still just play the pass line. It's the simplest bet and (combined with the secondary "odds" bet, which I'll explain below) actually has odds that are sometimes in your favor. So this intro will just focus on pass line play.
I won't bore with you probability analysis about dice throws or odds of any given bet working. Just know that 7 is the most likely number to come up on any given roll of two dice, and the game is basically built around that.
Everyone gets a turn rolling the dice, moving clockwise around the table. Before a person makes their first roll, you place your bet on the pass line.
Once all bets are down, the player rolls. If they roll a 7 or an 11, that's an instant win and everyone gets paid, then a new round of bets go down and the player rolls again. If they roll 2 ("snake eyes"), 3, or 12, that's an instant loss and the next player gets a turn to throw.
If the player rolled any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10), that becomes their "point" and they start rolling the dice over and over until they roll the "point" again (win, payout) or they roll a 7 (lose, all bets lost, next player starts).
Thats really about it for the basics. The only additional part to be aware of is "taking your odds" after that first roll, when a "point" is set:
After a point is rolled, you have the option to put a second bet as a separate stack of chips behind the pass line. That second bet is usually allowed to be 2 or 3 times your original bet, but I read in another thread that RCI casinos limit you to just the original amount. It gets a little wonky when the point is a 6 or 8, because of how the payout is calculated, but just know that in this case you bet $6 for every $5 of the original bet.
Generally speaking, always take this secondary bet, as it improves your payout by more than the amount put in since a multiplier is applied to the bet based on the point that was rolled.
That covers all of the basics. Not as simple "just bet red" on roulette or "insert coin and pull handle" for slots, but roulette and slots have way crummier odds of winning than craps.

What's really amusing is when you see someone's name and instead of "Newbie", "Advanced", etc. it says "The one who wants to be the next Michael Poole."