Rose City Cruiser

Yes.  
 

We used our CDN gift card balance on the Starbucks app on Allure & Oasis.  The Starbucks on the ship will not honour free drink redemption/promos.  
If you missed out on certain promos (birthday drink) or lost stars while on a sailing, just send a quick e-mail to Starbucks CS.
 

In general I think that any cruise is going to be a cultural experience that reflects where the majority of the guest population comes from. 
Sometimes Europeans dislike cruising in North America on American cruise lines for this exact reason.  That was a major reason why MSC first brought ships here so that their customer base could have the same experience they get on MSC cruises in Europe.  In that case they marketed the ship to Europeans who would fly over and cruise the Caribbean.  The guest population had few Americans on board, only those that found the ship somehow and booked it.
With 4,500 Chinese guests and a handful of other nationalities on Quantum out of Shanghai I would expect it to be anything but an American experience.
One cultural difference is the personal sense of space.  I think it is more of a cultural norm in China, at least in the large cities, to find crowded elevators and transit systems.  I don't think it is a matter of them not letting you on the elevator so much as it is normal for them to jam pack an elevator to the point where Americans wouldn't feel comfortable getting on but it just how they live their lives at home everyday.  They are more aggressive in crowds because they have to be at home. 
Royal isn't trying to provide an American experience rather they are trying to provide a cultural experience that Chinese guests will feel comfortable with in their own country.  That is how they will create return guests who want to cruise more.  Spectrum for example was built for the Chinese market.  It was designed to suit this culture and reflect Chinese consumers with the goal of creating a loyal, local customer base. 
With this awareness I booked Spectrum and Quantum out of Singapore.  I'm not expecting a normal American experience but looking forward to more of an Asian experience without the full Chinese experience if I sailed out of Shanghai.

?  Reppin' Dubz in the air ? lol
Will have 12 people in my party with a few first-time cruisers.  Going to try to turn them into Royalists.

?  Reppin' Dubz in the air ? lol
Will have 12 people in my party with a few first-time cruisers.  Going to try to turn them into Royalists.

A well deserved trip!
Beautiful family!

My Dad retire after 60+ years of working. This was his retirement cruise. He had a blast.

In June, Empress docked at Terminal J in Port Miami.  Self-assist was not available.  Everyone had to bring out their luggage on the last night.  With that being said, it was the smoothest disembarkation experience I have ever had.  15 mins tops from the time our number was called to ordering an Uber to the airport. 

In June, Empress docked at Terminal J in Port Miami.  Self-assist was not available.  Everyone had to bring out their luggage on the last night.  With that being said, it was the smoothest disembarkation experience I have ever had.  15 mins tops from the time our number was called to ordering an Uber to the airport. 

Got em! Two next to each other in the Windjammer, two next to each other in the Promenade, and I think I saw one someplace else also. I wish they had one out by the pool; granted that it's on the same floor as the Windjammer, but it's so far to walk!

I can find out for you the week before you sail ?

With the latest July 4th sale underway naturally I was curious if any of my previously made purchases had dropped in price.  Sure enough, one of my excursion is now on sale. 
You have the option to call Royal Caribbean to obtain the lower price or you can do it yourself online. 
Here is a guide showing how I just saved myself $29 using the online approach. 
While this is an example for a shore excursion, it works the same way for other Cruise Planner purchases such as Voom or Beverage Packages. 
For my cruise I visited the Cruise Planner and found my previous purchases.    They are pretty obvious, it tells you that you purchased this item before:

In order to see how much I previously paid, I went to the top of the page and found the "Order History" link.

Clicking on this provides a complete list of any previous Cruise Planner orders (including free one such as My Time Dining).  To see the details for an individual purchase click the "View Order Details" link:

Look at that, I paid $289.  Now it is on sale for $260!
To cancel my purchase so I could re-purchase it at the lower sale price, I clicked on the "Cancel" link

This brings up the next part of the cancellation process.  Since I do want to save $29 I clicked "Yes".

To make sure I really want to cancel it, it presents a review screen giving me the option to not cancel or to proceed.  I clicked the "Confirm Changes" button.

It then confirmed my original order was cancelled and how my refund would be made.  (If I had used on-board credit for this purchase the refund would be returned in the form of on-board credit. )

Now I am free to re-purchase the excursion at the sale price.  From here you purchase it again as if you had never purchased it before.

Clicking the Next button steps you through the normal Cruise Planner purchase process.

While it will take a few days for the credit card refund to process, I just saved $29 in a matter of minutes.
One word of warning for excursions offered at multiple times.  It is possible when an excursion is offered more than once that your original time slot may no longer be available.  For example a snorkeling excursion might be offered at 10am, 11am and 12 noon.  If you currently hold a 10am booking and you see there 10am is not currently available, don't assume that cancelling your order will immediately make the same time slot available for re-purchase.  If you really desire to keep your original time slot you are best to call Royal Caribbean to have them re-price it.
 

I've been checking the availability of ship activity and CK reservations daily for my Anthem cruise in October, and also checking the price of 2-device VOOM to see if it's moving at all. Well, today it dropped from $28.98 per day to $26.58 per day. Oddly, the label in the corner of the picture still says "20% off on-board prices" just like yesterday.
Snagged it while it was there, so paid $132.90 instead of $144.90. That $12 saved is a reposado Margarita earned! ?

You barely lose your shoe if you get sued up here in Canada.  I always chuckle whenever I see school closures on TV after 1" of snow in Detroit.  
The best part about no A/C in the classrooms were the freezies they handed out.  

Happy Canada Day!

@jurrjurrI guess I will answer for @Lovetocruise2002 because she is from Canada?. It varies by area and grade levels. General rule would be first week in September.

All the marketing on the Mariner of the Seas worked... going to book for end of August. 

FIXED.  After calling back 3 more times, I finally got a nice representative named Carlo.  He put me on hold, worked some magic, and now i will have about 500 bucks coming back on my credit card.
Amazing how 3 different people can't do anything and just say "sorry".  apparently, they have the power to do anything...most of them just don't want to help.
whew.  now i really need a vacation trying to get my vacation sorted out.

update.
apparently, we were supposed to pay off the balance by the 25th of June (last monday), but, i did not get any email, no phone call, nothing!!!!!   now the 1600 dollar balcony room is going to cost us 2100 dollars, and our on board credits are gone.
 
NOT COOL ROYAL CARIBBEAN!!!!!!!  

Day 4 - Skagway Departure
All aboard at 8 pm which makes for 12 1/2 hours in port.  Not bad.  On board the usual activities like rock climbing, mini golf, ping pong and even flowriding was taking place.


We pulled out first leaving Radiance to follow us down the inlet towards our respective next ports of call.

It was very windy with the narrow inlet acting like a wind tunnel but that didn't stop several of us from enjoying the breath taking scenery.

It doesn't look like much in these pictures bit with the scenery slowly moving past and ever changing it's quite an experience you have to experience to understand.

From the aft where it was much less windy.

In other Mariner news..was looking a cruise compass from this Monday's sailing and on Day 2, formal night has been replaced by "Wear your Best" night. 
"Say goodbye to Formal night and hello to Wear Your Best.  Get glamorous, be chic.  It's time to shine - Your way." 
Looks like the are dropping formal night on these short cruises.
And....great news....2 days in a row now, the cruise compasses show Late Night Snacks in the WJ!!  10:30pm-12:30am!!

I've been waiting for a while. Sometimes, I wondered if I would ever get there. Watching everything about the Symphony launching while I was stuck doing a lot of work that I hate and working through the difficulties of life in miserable Scottish weather. Finally, it is nearly here. 10 days until I board the Symphony of the Seas!!!!!!

I am Joe. I have enjoyed following Royal Caribbean Blog for a while now and have been posting on the forum for around a year now. This is my first time doing a LIVE blog, having been inspired by CruiseLifeRick when he did his CC LIVE thread on Symphony's inaugural in April. I am also going LIVE on CC, but ultimately would love to share my adventures with the RC Blog as well, especially as many of you are US based and may wish to hear about either the Med or Symphony herself when she arrives to Miami in November.

I come to you from Glasgow, Scotland, a city well known for it's friendliness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpnUurJvGWs (disclaimer: Don't watch if you have no sense of humor, take things too literally or hate any use of strong language). 

This will be my 13th & 14th cruise; my 6th & 7th Oasis Class cruise and 2nd B2B. This will also be my 5th & 6th cruise around the Med and my 4th & 5th from Barcelona. There will be one first - my first time on Symphony! Having sailed all 3 sister ships, I am very excited to see everything new that Symphony will have to offer. I am hoping to try both Playmakers (wings!) and El Loco Fresh which are new dining venues on SY. Please give any other suggestions of things to try. All welcome.

I'll be back with more soon!

Very blessed and grateful for sure.  With only 2-5% even survive to get to the hospital.  We are high school sweethearts, married for 42 years and our plans are to grow old together!

Check past cruise compass for your upcoming cruise on Anthem.  They show movies in the Royal Theater during the daytime.  They played Dr Strange in 3D on Oasis April 2017.  
I always download a few movies/shows on Netflix from home on my mobile device in the event of flight/travel delays.