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Hey all! I thought it would be fun to do a live blog for a short trip on the Oasis this coming week. Quick summary and intros are in order: About us and pre-cruise: It will be myself and best friend Mel, just 2 girls in our early 30s. This was a fairly “last minute” trip as far as cruises go; we booked it a little more than a month ago (mid March) after a quick convo about how we both wanted a short getaway. (^ that’s us in Alaska last summer - fun tidbit, that’s where we are from) I live in central NC now so I will be doing a direct flight from Charlotte to Miami; and Mel will be coming from Atlanta so will be doing a direct from ATL to Miami. We coordinated our flights where we both land around 9-930am Sunday morning to meet at the Miami airport— yeeeep, the morning of. I know all the seasoned cruisers are gasping in anxiousness for us but yes, fingers crossed everything goes as planned. We got the earliest ship boarding at 11:30. This is my 4th cruise ever, my most recent was actually also Oasis in Feb 2019. Mel has been on 7+ but this is her first ever Royal Caribbean (mostly Carnival previously) so I’m really excited for her to experience this ship! I know it has had a revamp since I was on it last. I should also note that this is our first time cruising together. Stateroom, extras, etc: We are average Joes’ and will be staying in an ocean balcony room (deck 7, forward). As far as “add ons;” all we did were internet packages. Went back and forth on the drink package as we both do drink some [alcohol] but the math didn’t really make sense for us (we don’t drink soda or anything other than water really either) so we were okay just paying as we go. FOOD, glorious food: We both LOVE food. I should mention that I am a vegetarian incase that interests anyone else following along. We opted for the late traditional dining (8:00). We chose that over the early 5:30 seating (too early for us) or the My Time Dining because we agreed we like the traditional with same waiter each night and eating late allows us to get in more snacks throughout the day (haha). No major plans for specialty dining ahead of time but we may end up doing something once we are on board if it looks/sounds good and of course based on availability for reservations. Plans, excursions, fun, etc: Neither of us are huge scheduled people while traveling so we are very much along for the ride. In this case, the trip is more about the ship for us. We’ve both been to Costa Maya and it wasnt anything super exciting to us, but we do plan to get off the ship. USUALLY when I’ve cruised I’m with my boyfriend or a smaller group and we go explore on our own or book private tours (outside the cruise company); but being somewhere we aren’t as excited about and being just two girls in our 30s we aren’t feeling as brave so we decided on just paying the $55ish to do a trip to the beach thru Royal as we felt it was simpler and safe that way. We didn’t do a ton of research (again, wignin’ it) and it just sounded simple. Give us sand and beautiful water! As far as fun/entertainment we are interested in catching the Aqua 80s show and then we will see when we’re onboard what other things we may want to check out like comedy shows, etc. We plan to get lots of relaxing time (and hopefully sun) on the pool deck. I hope you all enjoy following along. We are pretty easy going and I plan to share info along the way about packing, the embarkation process, capacity, food, fun, service etc (including pictures of course).

I am both excited and terrified to begin my first live Blog here of my first ever Star Class sailing and also….our wedding! I can only hope it is HALF as good as the amazing bloggers I read religiously here! 48 DAYS! Here we go! The Story- My husband and I (I will explain!) booked this cruise for our wedding 2 YEARS ago during a Black Friday sale at an amazing price! We both LOVE cruising…so much so that we have a YouTube channel called BoosCruize so it seemed natural that we would choose to tie the knot in a small ceremony on the high seas! So after much research we decided on the Star Loft Suite 1720 on Oasis Of The Seas! This suite had a HUGE rectangular balcony that could fit guests and also give us the ocean view we wanted….and a Genie to help us pull it all off! What could go wrong?!? Enter…COVID As you can imagine we basically needed a new pair of britches every other day for the last two years as things changed. It’s a good thing I buzz cut my head or I’d probably be bald and NOT by choice LOL A year later we weren’t even sure if this cruise would happen but we also KNEW we wanted to be married. So when a company came to us and asked to throw us a huge West Coast “David Tutera” style wedding in Hollywood that will be published for magazines we obviously said YES! We now have two bi-coastal weddings Lol It was amazingly gorgeous but nothing was our choice. It was all chosen for us….right down to our tuxes. We feel BEYOND blessed but it also wasn’t what we had in our head two years ago. So now here we are….our guest list of 50 has gone down to 12 due to covid complications. Are we upset? HECK NO! We completely understand and are going to have the time of our LIVES on a gorgeous ship surrounded by people who love us! We can’t wait! Who: We are an LA couple. Jarell is an international Flight attendant (yaasss benefits!) and I am an actor who just moved from NYC in time for a pandemic to close Hollywood Where: We are sailing on the Oasis Of The Seas out of Miami in the Star Loft Suite 1720 with stops at Coco Cay, St.Thomas, and St. Maarten When: We sail November 7th-14th, 2021 I think that covers most of the back story and introductions! So happy to meet you all and take you along with us on this very special journey that is over 2 years in the making! Can’t wait to see who our Genie will be! For good measure I have included a photo of the happy grooms from our West Coast Wedding!

I literally can't take it... 45 days out and I can barely wait to have our first Star Class experience. I know, I know, 45 days - why blog now? Why so early? I have to vent some of this energy, and I've seen some other blogs start a smidge early which has assuaged my angst about jumping the gun! I'm inspired by some great writers on this blog (fellow Canadians included!), so thank you for some great reviews providing inspiration. A little about our crew. Hailing from beautiful (albeit very wet lately) Vancouver, BC it'll be me (Alison), my DH and 2 boys (ages 9 and 11). We've been on 7 cruises to date, most recently in a 2BR Grand Suite on a 9 night Anthem Bermuda/Caribbean out of NJ, a 1BR Grand suite on Oasis 7 night Eastern Caribbean, and a Boardwalk Balcony also on Oasis 7 night Eastern Caribbean. We booked this cruise December 2018 wile on Oasis... but it wasn't in a star class - that came about 7 months later. We are sailing with one of my best friends and her two boys (ages 6 and 12). They've never been on a cruise and I cannot wait to "sea" and Oasis-class ship for the first time again through their eyes. Plus they get star class on their first experience - it's doing to be a doozie! We initially booked this cruise in a CLS last December when we were on Oasis for our family. We then convinced our friends to come along and they booked an ocean view balcony about a month later. We had a bit of trepidation about travelling with peeps who weren't in a suite as the suite lounge and CK are both a big part of our cruises when we're in a suite. Afternoon reading and drinks in the suite lounge is a real treat for us and we love it. Fast forward to July of 2019 and DH noticed a 2BR Aquatheatre suite is available on the website. It was right after the itinerary change was announced (lost St. Kitts to San Juan - mega bummer) - so we inquired with our travel agent. There was a definite price increase, but when weighed against all the Star benefits we decided to bite the bullet and we merged everyone into one room. None of the kids know - and it's been the hardest secret to keep. I have said to my boys a few times "wouldn't it be fun if we were all in the same room - maybe we can have the other boys over for a sleepover one night... too bad they're not on the same deck as us... etc." I can't wait to board and all go to the same room - hopefully they're half as excited as I am. We've also had angst about travelling Dec 8 rather than waiting for the Christmas school break. Not because we are worried about them missing a week of school (I know - we're terrible parents!), but because both boys play hockey and my youngest son is the sole goalie on his team. Ugh. We obviously didn't know he'd be the lone "tender" on his team when we booked or we may not have, but c'est la vie. Luckily I'm co-managing the team and will attempt to reschedule any games for before we go or after we get back. My husband also plays on a senior men's team as their lone goaltender - so hopefully we can find backups or reschedule games for him too. Having said that, I will be ready for a break come December, it's been a literal gong show this season managing three players and getting everyone to games, practices, and development sessions, and we're only a month in! Feeling like I've let some energy go ... will update as the nerves and excitement to build.

Looking forward to live Blogging my first RC cruise on Harmony next week. Countdown has now reached 7 days. Now if this week of work would just fly by.

Far too early in the morning on July 4th of this year, I was checking prices on cruises. Prices tend to drop when kids go back to school, so I searched for cruises out of Florida between the Friday after Labor Day and the end of September. One of the best rates that came up was a 4-night cruise on Mariner of the Seas out of Port Miami. I’ve followed the news on Mariner’s renovation and the other ships receiving upgrades as part of the Royal Amplified initiative. Seeing what Royal Caribbean had planned, I thought this could be a ship for me. My other requirement was getting a real bargain on the fare. It looked like I would be sailing solo, and I resigned myself to paying a 200% single supplement — that is, covering the price of double occupancy even if only one person sailed. In the case only one person sails, Royal Caribbean collects taxes and fees for only one person. To make sure I was seeing this rate, I would select 1 passenger when pricing out a sailing. Usually, I’d see the base fare for one person at the same as when priced for two people, but one time… I didn’t. The price was much lower. I found a rare solo cruiser cabin and there was no single supplement at all. I’m a big proponent of travel agents, but 4am on July 4th is not quite the time to get someone on the phone. I decided I needed to book this cruise directly through the Royal Caribbean site or else someone else would. My Crown & Anchor account already had my contact information, so all I had to enter was my credit card. Well, that didn’t work for some reason. After a couple of other hiccups, I decided to call a Royal Caribbean agent. This turned out to be the right move. A really friendly guy saw that the cabin I wanted had a reservation lock from a purchase in progress. I chuckled and told him that was probably me. I gave him the email address on my Crown & Anchor membership and he was able to confirm my contact information. He put me on hold for a little under a minute to talk to someone who could release the reservation lock and allow him to complete the booking over the phone. Before this time when I needed to book at 4am on July 4th, I had worked with the same travel agent on all but my first cruise. When you find a travel agent who is a good match for you, there are benefits. Over time, your agent will get to know your cruising preferences. At the same time, I’m glad to know that when I needed them at an odd hour, there was a Royal Caribbean agent there to help me make the booking I wanted. In my case, I was after final payment date, but if I hadn’t been, and I had not yet paid for the cruise in full, I would have been able to transfer the booking to my usual travel agent. I’ve noticed my Crown & Anchor membership already saved me time twice making this reservation. It occurs to me that even though we affectionately tease the Pre-Gold membership, in my case, even being Pre-Gold would have saved me time when I was on the phone with the Royal Caribbean agent. If you’ve taken a Royal Caribbean cruise and you haven’t signed up for a Crown & Anchor membership, it’s an easy recommendation. I can’t think of any downside. You might get a gift in the room. You’ll get some onboard offers loaded onto your Sea Pass card the next time you sail. I guess I’m also saying if you’re reading this blog because you think you might take a Royal Caribbean cruise, but you haven’t booked yet, go ahead and sign up for a Pre-Gold membership. (All of this is free.) You might find the emails to be another source of Royal Caribbean news. Celebrity Constellation and Disney Magic, both medium-size ships, have been my favorite experiences so far. When I cruised solo this past December, I was on the mega-ship Norwegian Epic. I’m curious to see how those two experiences come together cruising solo on the medium-size Mariner of the Seas. If you’d like, you can read my liveblog from the Norwegian Epic sailing. Follow along as I liveblog here this week. That drink package was paired with streaming internet access, so I’ll also be on Periscope. If staying connected is important t you I recommend checking out the below posts: Keeping in Touch on Ship and Shore & How to Stay in Touch with Someone on Your Royal Caribbean Cruise You can follow me @cruisehabitric and while you’re at it, follow the main account @cruisehabit where Billy covers sail-aways from Port Everglades and Port Miami. Leave your questions in the comments and I’ll see what I can do to track down some answers. I’ll be on Mariner of the Seas to Nassau and Coco Cay with one sea day starting Monday, September 17th.