Lovetocruise2002

I am not shocked by the pricing. What surprises me is the date of the inaugural. This whole time, I was thinking July. Guess @tonyfsu21 called it lol

I am not shocked by the pricing. What surprises me is the date of the inaugural. This whole time, I was thinking July. Guess @tonyfsu21 called it lol

I am not shocked by the pricing. What surprises me is the date of the inaugural. This whole time, I was thinking July. Guess @tonyfsu21 called it lol

so something possessed me today to see if i had access to the safety video in the app — and lo and behold!! i did!!
no idea if it will still count at time for the muster station, but i watched the full video, the kid video, and the horn noise. 
…still waiting breathlessly for royal up news. 
y’all know how i am about unpacking. if we don’t hear until we board…. it’s going to kill me softly. 
in other news: prices dropped a bit today; now 10k for 2 pax in a GS. so maybe someone will grab it?? 😅😂
lastly, i also made reservations at our favorite shrimp taco place for saturday — it’s no la bamba (sorry @Lovetocruise2002!!) but we love it. i asked J if she wanted to go and she was ALL in. so we will have a nice dinner to look forward to. 😎

Sounds like a plan! I didn't really want to blog this one on my own.

We can do a combined moderators' blog!!

December 2023
3 - Melkaps (Wonder)
3 - KJ777 (Wonder)
3 - Vee2525 (Anthem)
6 - ScottishRobbie (Quantum)
8 - Snotarni (Voyager)
8 - CruzOnBye (Allure)
14 - MarcD (Radiance)
27 - CowboyMedic (Grandeur)
27 - Keanoknick (Voyager)
31 - Lovetocruise2002 (Odyssey)
31 - WannaCruise (Odyssey)
31 - AlphabetMafia (Odyssey)
If you would like to be included in this list in the future, please add your information to the following thread. 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/17-when-is-your-next-cruise/
PSA: If you do not include all your info (ship, sail date, year), it will not be added.

Oh yeah…that…I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do one. 
Maybe @AshleyDillo @CGTLH @SpeedNoodles and whoever else is going will all want to do a combined live blog 😉

Oh yeah…that…I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do one. 
Maybe @AshleyDillo @CGTLH @SpeedNoodles and whoever else is going will all want to do a combined live blog 😉

Getting off the ship this morning was pretty painless. Luggage was ready at pick up, got a porter right away, he loaded us up and the in laws and wife and I grabbed a cab to FLL. Started to walk off the ship around 8am and at 9:15 was sitting at the gate. Flight is 10:55 so plenty of time. While I didn’t ever get my blue wristband, I did have a good final night in the casino and walked off the ship up money while also getting a free cruise!!  Guess it’s time to book and plan another trip. 

Finger crossed for that RU!!! 

One Day Makes a Difference:
I finished my first cruise that was a 9-day cruise to the ABC Islands.   We unloaded the passengers and reloaded the passengers for the 10-day Southern Caribbean cruise.  Moving around the ship I have not seen so many walkers, wheelchairs and scoters on a ship.  I also looked around for the hundreds of Single Travelers that I knew were coming on the ship.  The previous cruise had a good mixture of people in their 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70.  There was enough kids on the ship where you knew they were there.  This cruise was making me feel young and I am 63 years old.  I also found out as the day went on that all the singles, I was expecting were singles in their 70s and 80s.  Now you understand the difference between the two cruises the question is, why?  With the help of a nice 25-year-old girl I meet that was a seasoned cruiser she pointed out my last cruise was Thanksgiving break, and this cruise was older people coming to stay away from the young people.
Now that I understand the same ship, the same kind of destination and have completely different environments.  I realize I need to think about that while I am booking going forward.  One is not better than the other, but they are different.

My Back-to-Back process:
On the morning of my last full day, they had a meeting with all the B2B people.  On my cruise there were between 40 and 50 people.  They let us know the process and answered any questions.  The meeting was nice and short and to the point.  Because I was staying in my same cabin there was nothing for me to do except to make sure my cabin steward knew I was staying.  The people that were changing cabins just needed to pack their personal belongings and the cabin steward would take care of everything else and making sure it got moved.  Most of the people I talked to were packing up their bathroom and drawers and leaving their hanging cloths.  
On the morning of disembarkation, we meet in one of the bars at 9:00 am.  About 9:30 am they walked us all off the ship and just before we left the ship, they scanned our old room key and gave us a new one.  We then walked off the gangway and into the terminal.  We walked up to a Customs scanning camera, got cleared and made a U-turn back onto the ship.  We scanned our new cards and were back on the ship.  We really did not slow down much from the time we left the Club until I was back at the Martini Bar getting me a drink.
Here are a couple of questions people have asked me:
Q:  Did they give you a special breakfast or lunch?
A:  No, we were on our own with the same as everyone else.
Q:  Did you get a discount or anything special on the second cruise?
A:  No, the price was a price, and they did not give us anything special.
Q:  Does the staff treat you differently because you are a B2B?
A:  Yes, just because they remember you from the previous cruise.  It is not because you are special just because they know you.
 
 

I am on the Celebrity Beyond running the premium package.  I have been doing most of my work in the Buffet area because they have nice, padded bench setting and there are people to bring me drinks all day.  When I run a speed test it looks slow, but I have not seen any delay and I can stream movies without any lag time.  Below are the results of my speed tests.
 

Symphony 12/30 sailing we have bids in on CLS, GS, OS and hoping for a long shot win for yet another holiday sailing. At some point our Royal up luck has to turn around because it’s been rough lately. 

Might be the worst day of my entire life 🥲

Oh yeah…that…I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do one. 
Maybe @AshleyDillo @CGTLH @SpeedNoodles and whoever else is going will all want to do a combined live blog 😉

I would say inaugural star class or not on Icon is going to be simply amazing! We are booked on Icon for the kids spring break in March as well as our epic annual family Thanksgiving cruise. I am anticipating your live blog and review so I know what to expect in March!

Oooh...that is looking promising! Fingers crossed!

Oooh...that is looking promising! Fingers crossed!

Notice my "haha" reaction!
There is no way I can swing that. Maybe if prices come down in a few years. 
TBH, I didn't even know if we could swing this inaugural. I was a maybe for the longest time. It's sandwiched between two big "YOLO Book It", go big or go home sailings (OY this month, and OA in March). But in the end, Hubby said we have to go because we can usually never do inaugurals (inflexible timing due to teaching), and this isn't just any inaugural, it's the dawn of a new class. We've only done one other inaugural, it was Oasis, also at the time the dawn of a new class. So here we are, stuck in kid zone, but happy to be going! lol
The Star inaugural is a different story. I am not sold on going, but Hubby wants to see what the prices are like. Either way, I told my TA, I cannot be stuck in kid zone again 😁

Notice my "haha" reaction!
There is no way I can swing that. Maybe if prices come down in a few years. 
TBH, I didn't even know if we could swing this inaugural. I was a maybe for the longest time. It's sandwiched between two big "YOLO Book It", go big or go home sailings (OY this month, and OA in March). But in the end, Hubby said we have to go because we can usually never do inaugurals (inflexible timing due to teaching), and this isn't just any inaugural, it's the dawn of a new class. We've only done one other inaugural, it was Oasis, also at the time the dawn of a new class. So here we are, stuck in kid zone, but happy to be going! lol
The Star inaugural is a different story. I am not sold on going, but Hubby wants to see what the prices are like. Either way, I told my TA, I cannot be stuck in kid zone again 😁

Oh and we did the Northstar after breakfast as well. 

Went to WJ for breakfast. Then at 10am was another chance to learn to standp up on flow rider for my blue wrist band. The first try I was able to get up did pretty well. But couldn’t do it twice in a row so didn’t get my wrist band 😢. Then headed off ship to walk around and show those traveling with us the island since they haven’t been here. Just came back to ship and deciding if going to pool or casino. 

there are STILL four grand suites left.
we're almost a week out from sailing.
they want almost 13k for that cabin for double occupancy.
the suspense is KILLING ME.