Bob_KY

I'm sorry you're having troubles.  This is a prime example of why a travel agent is so very valuable.

Okay..  51 more times shaving my head.  ....oh, that is the same as the number of days before set sail.

I found this group about a year ago when we booked our cruise.  Tomorrow morning we leave for San Juan and then we'll be on Freedom of the Seas for the 11/17 sailing.  Everyone has been so helpful with all of my questions & concerns and I really appreciate it. I'm not looking forward to the flight (I do not enjoy flying at all) but I'm so excited to go on this cruise!
THANK YOU!!! 🚢

Okay..  51 more times shaving my head.  ....oh, that is the same as the number of days before set sail.

Okay..  51 more times shaving my head.  ....oh, that is the same as the number of days before set sail.

DARN someone beat me to this.  I am actually on this exact same cruise you are in also in Star Class.  I have already, offline, prepping some of the early post and what not.  This will be the first time anyone in my party will have been in Star Class or a suite for that matter.  I am taking my parents and my future wife on this cruise in the 2 bedroom aquatheather suite on deck 9.  From the time I have booked this my mother has told me if I couldn't afford it they would not be sad if they cancelled, she was worried about the cost.  But I have told her and my father many times that the cost is nothing for me as I wanted to thank them for everything they have done for my sister and I throughout our lives.  So I am hoping to really give them a special experience.  Plus I will be celebrating my birthday while on the cruise.

Because we have already had 33.5 inches of snow here in the Mitten State and I am not a big fan of that nonsense, I spend a lot of time thinking about upcoming cruises.  I love reading about people's experiences and living vicariously through them to pass the time.
I'm sure a lot of us have countdown to cruise apps on our phones and I've read in numerous posts "Only 623 or 17 more sleeps until we board!"  
I am currently sitting in my 6 x 8 jail cell (oops, I mean cubicle) at work looking out the window at a dull monochromatic landscape and since I am a numbers person,  I have been thinking of other milestones to use for our countdown to cruise.
Only 3 more hair appointments!

Does anyone else have a fun way for countdown or do you stick to days and/or sleeps?

Hi Nick, sounds like you had a rough experience. I'd like to point out a few things that may be helpful to you moving forward;
-- Pricing on choosing a room, and letting the cruise line do it for you differs depending on demand. Usually, but not always, letting the cruise line choose your room for you is a little cheaper. Once you have chosen a room, you should be able to change to any room in that same category and not see a price change. 
-- If you have a US based booking, you can reprice at any time before final payment date. If the booking is already past final payment, you are stuck with your pricing.
-- I would recommend in the future that you choose and book through a reputable travel agent, because they take care of everything, including the hassle of calling Royal Caribbean in the event you want anything changed. Also, using a travel agent doesn't cost anything since they are paid by the cruise line.
-- If you want to use a travel agent, you still may be able to, generally bookings have a time period 30-60 days after they are made, where you can transfer the booking from Royal Caribbean to a travel agent.
 
Hope these help, and that you aren't too discouraged, cruising is a lot of fun!

Make sure you are comparing apples to apples. What I mean, is do both quotes include taxes, fees, gratuities, insurance? MEI tends to include that by default, whereas others do not.

This pretty much says it all.  You don’t NEED a TA until you need one.

72 days to go on Oasis and it just opened up.  

72 days to go on Oasis and it just opened up.  

Talking about Freedom, pre AMP...
View wise the more favorable one will be the Diamond Lounge. This lounge was part of the Viking Crown, so one side is nothing but windows. Not knowing the number of Diamonds and above will be the factor for crowding. However, the crowds can overflow to the bar/lounge just outside the Diamond Lounge.
Now the Concierge Lounge might be more convenient location wise. However, the Concierge Lounge has no outside views. Other factor would be the number Diamond Plus and above that might opt to use the Concierge Lounge.
Service wise, might be best to give both a shot and judge yourself.

I recently took an RC cruise on an Oasis class ship.  I thought with the new design that the smoking problem would be fixed, but it was not.  Every day when entering or exiting the dining room, we had to breathe the smoke that poured out of the casino.  It entered the surrounding stairways and elevator areas as well.  It was prevalent all the way into the first section of the dining room. 
The casino functions as the indoor smoking area on the ship and is wide open to many public areas.  The smoke does not know it is supposed to stay in the casino.  On other cruise lines (Holland American) they do not allow smoking in casinos that are wide open to public areas.  It is only allowed on ships were the casino is separated from public areas.  Princess only allows smoking in the casino on some nights and then only to active players.  On RC it is a 24 hour ever day indoor smoking area that ventilates the smoke to surrounding public areas.

I'd probably go ahead and put in your initial requests in response to the introduction email. So far both Genie's I've had really like the "chatty" ones. They might be great at what they do, but they aren't mind readers. More information and requests you can give up front the better.
For luggage, at the terminal you'll see a Star class purple banner/flag. Best thing to do is find terminal personnel near that banner/flag and have them summon a porter. Under no circumstance should you give your bags to a random porter.
For Symphony you'll want to be dropped off by the front doors of Terminal A. Otherwise haul your bags to that point. Personnel will try and divert you to the drop off zone prior to the entrance. Best bet is to have the driver tell them you're Star class and was told to be dropped off at the front entrance.

Yes @BB1to laundry. Didnt' have anything ruined or lost. Will do it again.

I found this on Facebook from Rob Stone Photography. He brought a drone to Coco Cay (he was initially told he could use it before someone else told him no).  You can see a tiny bit of what is going on behind the construction walls. Unfortunately is is not very much. But hey, something is better than nothing. 
 
Edit: new link as the last one was private. 
 

Thank you everyone for the comments and ideas.  We were 'choose your own room' so we did pay the higher price to pick specific rooms. We did that because of the large group of us travelling together and we wanted to be all on same floor/next to each other plus the adjoining rooms was the big push why we chose our own.
 
I plan to try all avenues listed in all the above posts this afternoon after work.  I welcome any addt'l suggestions people have as well just in case I don't get anywhere this evening.
Thank you for all the tips!

Are you using a TA?  If so, this is a great time for the TA to advocate on your behalf.
Is your upcoming sailing on Oasis?  There have been reports that this is happening due to the re-configuring of cabin capacity to accommodate the addition of the new cabins during the AMP.

While I guess it CAN be done, we have never asked for it to be done.  I am too picky about my stuff and I would not be comfortable with anyone else unpacking for me....that's just me.
If you are in a loft suite you need to make SURE that the Genie knows you want your bags taken upstairs.  If you don't say anything to them your bags will be left downstairs.  No bueno.

Just found this here: https://www.uspassporthelpguide.com/six-months-validity-rule/
Caribbean
Most countries in the Caribbean require you to have a passport with at least six months validity. The ones that do not are US Territories like US Virgin Island and Puerto Rico or The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. The ones that do require are Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Barthelemy, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
 
For a fee you can expedite your passport renewals.
 

thank you for supporting MEI Travel and Matt's Blog

I am sorry to hear about your experience.  Our experience was the complete opposite.  
As an example, I ordered a drink and made the remark that I am just running to the bathroom.  My thought was this way she knew she could leave it in the cabana.  I went to the bathroom and as soon as I exited, I hear her say Mrs. Pima.  I look around and there she was with the drink on the tray.  I want to say she checked in on us every 20-30 mins.,  usually less because a couple of us would order drinks and by the time she delivered them, someone else ordered, plus the delivery of food (fruit platter, than delivering the menu, delivering the food, cleaning up the food delivery and than bringing the fruit kebabs in the pm).  On top of that if we were all out in the water, she would fold up the towels laying on the chairs.  Check our water bottle stock.   
We all remarked that the noisiest thing there when you were in the water were the attendants screaming by the edge of the water their cabana guests name with their drink in hand.  At one point we even remarked that there were 4 attendants standing at the edge with drinks in hand.
I would contact RCL.
The one thing I did find out through our attendant, is that the attendant contract is not like the cruise contract for their staff.  It is a 4 week contract.  I state this because it might be that due to the hurricane, maybe their more experienced staff did not come back yet if their family home was destroyed.    She told us that every night they actually have boats to ferry staff back home due to how their contracts work. They leave @ 6:30 p.m.  and the ferry will bring the staff back at 6:30 a.m.   

Inventory does not matter when it comes to RoyalUp.  If someone bails on a room, that opens up the inventory and Royal can turn to the bids that have been placed and accept those over putting that room back on the open market if they feel it will be best to their bottom line.  
Remember if you are in an OS and you bid on something and get moved, that frees up that OS.  For example, if you bid $500 to upgrade but someone bid $2000 for an OS...by accepting your bid and moving you, they can accept that OS bid now and effectively gain $2500 really easily!  Then can then accept a bid for the room that whoever took your OS..it will be a snowball effect down the line. 
They don't have to try to sell these rooms at the last minute at a discount and instead they get to keep what they originally received from whoever canceled since it's past the final payment mark and then they get all this extra money from the snowball effect of all the RoyalUp bids.  That could end up being more than what they could have resold the room for.  It's a very complicated proprietary algorithm I am sure and I think it's a genius business idea.