iamjohnbamber

Cabin 11198 Pictures!

Trip Day 3: Cruise Day 1: To the ship!

Trip Day 2: Just hung around - cruise tomorrow!

I'm 35 almost 36 with no kids and I'm loyal to royal!

That, and when your phone auto corrects Windjammer to Windjamere, and offers "of the Seas" (which it just auto capitalized lol) and "book it" after yolo, as a suggested word. My phone is now officially an honorary cruise nerd!

Trip Day 1: Cruise in T-minus 36ish hours

That's up to you, good sir! If you want to hop a flight and crash the party you totally could! Anyone is welcome to join, whether or not you live in TX - I just figured we'd set this up so it wasn't just the Orlando people having all the fun!

@klaconqueso Wow I just realized you were on the sailing right before mine on Majesty this past February!

I used Mears Global for transport to and from MCO airport, was a phenomenal experience. They've become my "Go To" for transfers... actually using them in Newark to get to Anthem on Thursday.

Just wondering if anyone's heard anything about who the headliner act is going to be on the Oasis eclipse cruise?

I was able to use my United miles to get the WiFi on here, less than 2k miles for 2 hours of connection time... so not bad. I also just did a 15-minute FB Live from my seat, 35,000 feet up. I have no idea how well it worked on the ground but the fact that I could do it is beyond impressive!

Anthem 6/22/2017 Oasis 8/20/2017

Morgan from the Very Unofficial Travel Guides did a video showing his experience on the zipline - it looks like the very end is a really nasty abrupt stop, so I wouldn't risk it. There are a lot of other things you could do - I'd try the alpine coaster instead.

You purposely pay for In-Flight WiFi just to peruse these message boards... greetings from 35,000 feet up in the air.

Flowriders are one of the staples of Royal Caribbean ships, so it's not surprising they're crowded. I agree with @Matt get there early or go on port days... Also, aren't they open at weird hours? I remember on Majesty the rock wall only had certain hours when it was open... like, 2 hours here and 2 hours there, is this the same with the Flowrider? If so I can see how that would exacerbate the long lines and people missing out.

Anything to get me on the ship sooner is fine with me. One minute more on the ship is one minute more on my vacation, and one less minute on land :-)

It seems like the dress code enforcement in the MDR is really hit or miss. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like the only place dress code really matters these days is in the specialty restaurants.

The Royal Caribbean Visa card isn't a great rewards earner unless it was your only card. If you have more than one travel card don't bother with the RC card. I got the RC card thinking I'd use it for just onboard purchases but I don't cruise often enough for it to be worthwhile. Depending on whom you bank with: If you bank with Bank of America and/or have an account with Merrill Lynch, you can get up to 2.62 points per dollar with the BoA travel rewards card since they have perks for your business relationship with them. Second best would be the BarclayCard Arrival or Discover It Miles (since they match any points you earn in the first year) -- Not a fan of anything Capital One. If you don't bank with Bank of America, I'd look at the Barclaycard Arrival or Discover It Miles card and go from there.

Formal night only applies to the Main Dining Room, so everywhere else on the ship would be open business as usual. I'd think the pool would probably be less crowded on formal night...

So far I've got: @iamjohnbamber - Austin @Cristina_WNOP - San Antonio (Austin) @Christie - College Station (Austin) @Michael Vitale - DFW @Wilson - DFW @blueyes1961 - DFW So right now it's looking pretty even location-wise. Are there more folks in Texas who we should get involved in this? Hey @Matt can you bring this up on your next few scopes/FB Lives to help raise awareness, and so we can get as many Texas folk involved? If it turns out a majority of the people are in DFW, I'd be okay with going up to DFW for a meetup, what about you folks @Cristina_WNOP and @Christie? I'd want to have a better idea of how many more folks there are in TX before we pick an actual location.

Cool - sound good! Best of luck!

I'm assuming you're referring to the MyCruise points you earn through the Royal Caribbean credit card? Those points are valid for 5 years, I believe, so you'd want to hold on to the points until you're ready to take a cruise, then redeem them for the voucher for OBC. I think that voucher is what expires in 180 days. Once you have the OBC tied to your account, you can use it as you see fit and your charges will just deduct from that credit before hitting your actual credit card. Once you've used your credit it's gone, so it wouldn't matter what you used it on.

You too, Chris! I'll be live blogging my cruise both here and on my website feel free to check it out.

nice - I'm on Anthem 6/22 going on the 4-night to Bermuda

Well said, and couldn't agree more. In the captain's welcome ceremony, the captain said it may be the second-smallest ship in the fleet but it has the biggest heart of them all.