Lovetocruise2002

Funny timing.  Hubby just tossed out the idea of a Baltic cruise yesterday.  I may have been looking at itineraries already 

Definitely following along!

6 hours ago, Andrew3232 said:

You should contact RCI and one of their supervisors can reach out directly to the head of the royal genies on land and submit the request for you. I’m sure if she’s still working and on the ship you are going they can definitely help you. 

I have heard of a few people who have tried that route.  They get the standard response of, "You need to wait until your Genie contacts you." or, "You cannot request a specific Genie." YMMV

10 hours ago, Skid said:

I know that if I had no paper copies I'd be deathly afraid of losing my phone.

Most virtual files you can access through any device 

20 minutes ago, Andrew72681 said:

Using one note is the documentation equivalent of the Discord chat comment from the periscope the other day. I keep all my travel confirmations in Kayak Trips and Tripit as a backup which automatically uploads it all into my calendar. I can’t imagine trying to keep up with old school paper copies of confirmations on 100k miles a year in the air and 125 or so hotel nights a year. 

I still have no clue what discord is! 

37 minutes ago, RazorbackIslandGirl said:

That's who I'm talking about. I guess what I read was outdated. Well that answers that. Roll the dice it is! We will miss her this time. She was so sweet! We had her Feb 2017. The past several cruises have been on smaller ships. OC is my favorite by far! I'm glad to see them putting them in other places than just the Caribbean.

To be honest with you, all the current genies rotating on HOS are really good.  We had Araceli in March and she is amazing.  I have heard equally good things from those who have had Sebastian, Lety, and Allan.  The only question mark is Lisa (who I am not 100% sure if she is back on Harmony this July or not, rumour has it that she is).  Reviews on her are just so so.  Araceli will be off near the end of July so she will likely be back on by the time you sail.  Lety is off any day now and she will be back at the beginning of July and into the fall.  Sebastian left in April and if he comes back to Harmony, it will near the end of June.  Allan just got back on board in April so he will likely be on until mid-September (so you will likely not have him).  Genie contracts are typically 5 months.  Hope that helps.

39 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

If you're talking about a tall, slender, dark haired lady from Transylvania (Alexandra) she is no longer with Royal Caribbean.  When we had Reyno as our Genie the first time, we had friends who had Alexandra as their Genie.  I really liked her but she left Royal shortly after that.  If there is another Alexandra I have not heard of her.

That's the one I was referring to as well. She left shortly after March 2017.

6 minutes ago, RazorbackIslandGirl said:

Last I heard she still was. Her name is Alexandra & we will be on HOS. Does anyone know if she is still onboard? We are still pretty far out so, I'm not even sure if she will still be there or even on vacation. We sail 9/29/19.

There was an Alexandra on HOS back in 2017 but she has left Royal.  They have a few new Genies lately but there has not been an Alexandra on board HOS over the last year.  The current ones are Lety, Araceli, Allan F., Sebastian (on vacation), and Lisa (rumoured to come back soon to HOS).

9 minutes ago, RazorbackIslandGirl said:

Thank you for your help! I will try starting with the suite concierge & if that doesn't work will try the survey as you suggested. I have read of others being underwhelmed with their genie & would be so disappointed if we were in that position! Part of me wants to roll the dice & try someone new (possibly even better) but, my fear of disappointment is overwhelming.

Before you do all that...do you know for sure that the Genie you want is on the sailing that you are on?

I love packing cubes for the following reasons:

- It organizes all the clothes into sections for the family.  Each person gets an allotted amount of cubes and it's whatever you can fit in there and that is what you bring.  Great when it's 3 girls and Hubby and that keeps the over packing from getting out of control.

- Packing cubes allow us to sort our clothes into "pre-cruise hotel clothes", "embarkation day clothes", "going home clothes".  This ensures that we do not have to open all our luggage at the night before or rummage through things to find an outfit.  We get to the hotel and the "Hotel cube" comes and and we are on our way.  This also ensures that we don't forget to leave an outfit for going home.  When we get to our cabin, the "going home cube" goes into a drawer or closet and we don't touch it until the morning we leave.

- We save tons of time unpacking once on the cruise.  We can unpack and get settled in under an hour.  Like @karl_nj, each person's cube comes out of the suitcase and placed into a drawer, unzip and were are done.  We also live out our own cubes for the week so that no one's clothes get mixed up with anyone else.

We just use the standard ones from Amazon.  I never even knew that there were compression ones.  These are the ones we have.  I think the brand is Hynes.

Just now, RazorbackIslandGirl said:

Thank you Andrew! Do you by any chance know who we would address for this request? I really have no idea where to start. I would rather not wait until one is assigned & then say, "We don't want you". I thought about contacting our first genie directly but have no idea if the email would reach her or if she would respond. I know they are crazy busy & don't want to be a bother!

Best case scenario for requesting a Genie is if you actually know someone on board who can do it for you.  If not I would take the following steps: Name the Genie on your Pre-cruise survey that comes out about 8 weeks prior then contact the suite concierge via email and see if they can connect with the Genie for you.  The official response is, "No, a Genie cannot be requested."  That being said, there have been many who have tried and had success and those that have not.  It's not guaranteed.

1 minute ago, TheHobbys said:

ha - we have packing cubes, i mean zip top bags    I've thought about OneNote.  already use that for a lot of work related stuff.  might have to reconsider that.  I'll probably have to go back through this blog and pull stuff out to put into Word/ON for reference on our cruise next year.

I love OneNote for travel/cruise stuff.  Totally eliminated the need for paper and printing and I have access to it all the time.

@TheHobbys...two suggestions...Packing cubes (more room for the girls) and OneNote.  Imagine all those files of yours in the palm of your hand. 

22 minutes ago, Baked Alaska said:

LET'S GO BLUES!

I knew that was coming soon! 

I hope they win too even though I know nothing about that team.  I just can't stand Boston.

3 hours ago, Skid said:

It's just weird to us to go through all the flights and hotels for only a 4 night cruise. I used to say "why would anyone do that". Never say never. This cruise came up out of nowhere and I'm excited about it,

It's the bad influence of all these enablers! 

I thought the same thing last New Years, airfare was sky high and we went for a 5 night cruise.  Now I just booked Oasis for a 4 night sailing next year and couldn't be more excited about that too!  Although I completely blame @Andrew72681 for that booking!

Last time we sailed Anthem we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Elizabeth, NJ.  That hotel has a complimentary airport shuttle so we took that from EWR to the hotel.  The next day from Embassy to Cape Liberty we took Lyft XL.  The cost was around $37 (I made note of it in my Anthem blog) and it was about a 20 min ride.  Upon return, we also took Lyft XL from Cape Liberty to EWR.  Also about 20 min and the cost was $40.18.

I would say that you are like us in that you would have to get the XL option of whatever ride share company because you have 4 + luggage.  Also, I like to use https://ride.guru/.  It gives a good comparison of popular ride options.

28 minutes ago, Skid said:

Flying there the day before, so Sunday Oct 20, returning Friday Oct 25. It's been crazy, the discount airlines come out to more than the majors if we want to pick our seat or have a carry on. Our last 2 trips we were able to pay with miles, but not many left now.

Hmm...I think I would still watch it for a few weeks.

1 hour ago, Skid said:

Based on previous threads about airfare---Some flights would actually be deal breakers, but I see a couple of flights that are not all that horrible. Do I book those now or take a chance on waiting for the 90 mark? Thanks.

What dates? I think for October I would watch it for a bit....

30 minutes ago, twangster said:

Like that's ever going to happen. 

Not looking good in the foreseeable future...CK all the way! 

3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

I have the same reserved for my Oct 19 Anthem sailing. If no one else has replied, or you want another point of view, I'll be happy to update it then.

That said, I know @twangster and I think @Lovetocruise2002 have both had dinner in Solarium Bistro; if not on Anthem, then on another ship and the offerings are similar enough they should be comparable. I had asked on this board about Solarium Bistro dinner vs. Coastal Kitchen last year when I was booked on Anthem in a Jr. Suite; advice at that time was to save Solarium Bistro for a time when I was in a  "regular" cabin and didn't have access to Coastal Kitchen, as they and others considered it to be in between CK and the MDR in terms of the quality and ambiance.

I have never had dinner in the Solarium Bistro.  The menu never really stood out to me.  If it was complimentary and I did not have access to CK then I would not be opposed to trying it.

4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I'm also watching this to see how it's implemented.

4 hours ago, tiny260 said:

+1

+2

With kids - Hyatt Place 17th St. or Holiday Inn Express also on 17th St.

No kids - Renaissance 17th St.

All those properties are within walking distance to shops and restaurants and 5 min (by car) to Port Everglades.

28 minutes ago, karl_nj said:

 

Annoyingly this is how the bartenders were making Pina Colada's and Strawberry Daiquiri's on the pool deck of Anthem in April -- they blended virgin drinks, put in cups, and then poured a shot of rum on top.  I guess they were too lazy to wash the blenders.  You couldn't even mix it youself, because the paper straws that start to disintegrate immediately.  My wife and I were quite disappointed.   We gave up on frozen drinks by the pool after that fiasco.  

They were doing this on Harmony in March too. I was also annoyed. And you are so right about the straw!

5 minutes ago, Skid said:

Second honeymoon!

Thank goodness for suite benefits and the robes that were included

Pajamas...true story lol.

Or most ships have their own FB group.  Post this request to the ship's FB group and maybe someone will see it there.