Vacation day 4? Lost count... Already so I'll let Royal count for me. Day 2 Aka at sea.

The rain that plagued us in port Canaveral apparently had friends. Who suck and notwithstanding Captain To's best efforts to get me some sunshine... At about 3pm...it was pouring cats. & dogs!

But we'll get to that.

On vacay I am an early riser. For instance on Allure, I legit wasnupnbetween 4 & 5 am even if I partied till 2 at twenty because I wanted a prime location at the beach pool & I wanted to see the ship with out interruption. Since I've been on the freedom before, 7 works & well I am on my honeymoon...:o/

Anyway, I had our pool chairs & sat & read my kindle till Hobbs came up for bfast. Typical WJ buffet. But always delish..

Off to the pool deck to get acquainted wi the sun & sea breeze. We registered for the cruise critic meet & mingle. Free gift in hand we scoped out the landscape. Ah ha, jackpot! Young people. (Read yesterday's entry about our dinner table). We asked a lovely young couple Lindsay & Russell if we could share their table. They said "of course". Or new friends hail from rural Georgia they honeymooned on Monarch (god rest her soul, hopefully Azamara treats her right.) We hit it off immediately.

Back at the pool deck, we discovered, there is a serious lack of courtesy by some cruisers. I won't go into details, but I will say, unless your shirt says 'pool patrol' do not touch another persons belongings.

Next up pool side activities. Belly flop competition, ice carving, line dancing oh my! Right around corner the heavens opened. This provided us the opportunity to get back to our room, clean up & go to our next social event.

We received a card yesterday, inviting us to vintages. Very little deets. We went, it was lame.

We went along to change our dinner table. To share our table with our new peeps & we met a wicked handsome father son duo, also from Georgia. Single ladies of the Atlanta area, there is a gentleman in Buford, who is general manager of a ginorm chain, who has a heart of gold, an adorable 21 year old son who loves to cook & take care of his lady. He's handsome, kind, warm, generous, of course I've only known him for 3.

Following dinner, we went off to the Honeymooners gathering. 67 honeymoon couples on this love boat. 67! We've had calm seas but the ships still rockin'.

We broke free of the honeymoon crowd & met up for show time in the Acadia theaters or "Marquee". It was good. Do not sit in the front row if you have problems with strangers sweat because it will get on you and potentially in your drink. I wish I was kidding.

Late night comedy followed & was amaze balls.

Off to bed. Labadee in the morning. We have a cabana.

I'm really sorry I can't get pictures o post but in my end of week 1 wrap up I promise to highlight & post them.

Smooches.

Stephanie & Sean

The number of cruise passengers that arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico increased 84% over the same month last year according to the executive director of the Tourism Company Puerto Rico (PRTC), Ingrid Rivera.

During the month of August 2013, 65,101 cruise passengers arrived in San Juan thanks mostly to Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas.  That number compares to just 35,291 in August 2012.

The cruise industry has an economic impact of about $185 million annually to Puerto Rico, according to the PRTC.

"We are very pleased with this trend and are working for it to hold as Puerto Rico regains its standing as the largest port in the Eastern Caribbean," said Rivera.

As part of Royal Caribbean welcoming its 50 millionth guest this year, the cruise line is introducing, "Travel Agents Make the WOW Go Round", which is a month-long campaign to recognize how important travel agents are to the cruise line and its guests.

During the campain, Royal Caribbean business development managers will visit and call travel agents across the United States and Canada to personally thank them for supporting Royal Caribbean and sharing the Travel Agent Make the WOW Go Round message.

Royal Caribbean senior vice president of Sales & Trade Support and Services, Vicki Freed, commented on the new campaign, "The unwavering support and trusted business partnership with travel agents are things we value immensely and reciprocate daily through our personalized sales support and our Loyal to You commitment."

The new campaign also will have Royal Caribbean giving away 50 staterooms on the brand new Quantum of the Seas cruise ship's pre-inaugural sailing.  Travel partners in the U.S. and Canada who make a booking between now and September 30, 2013, on any 2013 and 2104 sailing will be automatically entered for a chance to win.  Those travel partners who make bookings on Oasis of the Seas or Allure of the Seas for 2013-2014 sailings will earn two entries per booking.

Hi everyone, I'm really excited to announce our next live-blog experience as we get ready for a cruise aboard Jewel of the Seas for a 7-night Southern Caribbean adventure.

It is my hope to provide to our readers a daily look at what this cruise will be like and share our experiences with you.  This means I will try to post photos every day along with a written report of how things are going (internet permitting).

If you're new to our live blogs, check out the live blog we did for Freedom of the Seas back in February for an idea of what you're in store for. I'm hoping to give you all a daily look into what we did that day, what was good/not good and what we have planned for the next day.  

For this cruise, we're flying from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Friday, September 20 to start our adventure.  We're flying in a day early because we want to be good little cruises and make sure we get to our port in plenty of time and we also want to explore San Juan a little bit.  We're travelling with another couple and their kid, so it will be quite the family adventure this time.  

Our flight leaves New York at 8:00am, so we will be arriving in San Juan with plenty of time to explore everything before staying a night at the Sheraton Old San Juan.  The next day, we will board Jewel of the Seas as early as humanly possible and start the real fun on September 21!

This is our first time on Jewel of the Seas and first time trying out the Southern Caribbean itinerary.  Our friends that are cruising with us are new to Royal Caribbean, so I'm hoping to get them hooked and Loyal to Royal as well.  We booked this cruise 18 months ago, so we are really excited that this vacation is finally here.

Another first for this cruise will be AT&T invited us to try out their new smartphone cell service package that is exclusively for Royal Caribbean.  Because staying connected while on vacation is so important these days, we thought it would be fun to give it a go.  We will be using the "AT&T Cruise Ship Calling, Messaging and Data" plan, which includes 50 minutes of talk time, 100 text messages and 100MB of data.  Essentially, it's a cell phone package for use only onboard the ship and it will be interesting to see how well it works.  More on this later!

What really drew us to this cruise is the port intensive nature of this itinerary and the fact it's a number of islands that are new to us.  We feel like we've done the eastern and western Caribbean routes enough and want to try something new.  Five out of six islands we are visiting will be new, so there should be a lot of first times for us.  

Who is going

Matt (me), Marissa (wife) & Gabriella (2 year old daughter).  Tim (husband), Sarah (wife) & Logan (1 year old son)

Our itinerary

Our Ship

Next update should be on our San Juan day, Friday, September 20.  Stay tuned for all of our live blog updates right here.

Allllllllll aboard!!! Vacay day 2

Wake up early. Yup. B-fast. Delish. Return rental car & grab free shuttle. Uh huh. Arrive at Port Canaveral promptly at 11a, only to find Freedom arrived late & now we wait. Ugh. Or maybe not? Nope. We (Read: I) are fortunate enough to be a part if Royal's loyalty program so we hop into the priority line, go through security, get waived over to station 39. A few pieces of paperwork in exchange for the key to the beginning of the best cruise

After a short hurried walk, cliche boarding picture & a squirt of hand sanitizer later & WE'RE ON BOARD! Even with the delay...30 minutes including waiting.

Up to the pool deck we go & head to the windjammer, and the Florida heavens opened up! Yikes. We'll just wait it out here looking out at the Disney Dream & a itty bitty carnival ship.

Compass in hand we're off to explore our home away from home for the next two weeks.

As it turns out it poured right up until sailaway. Which is annoying sure, but it Florida. The have us a reason to head to our cabin, deck 10 balcony. We arrived to find our door decorated in love! Open the door & the decor continued! Free champs & snacks too! How romantic! Our bags arrived soon after, and I'm a nut about unpacking so with football in the background we unpacked.

A couple of things I've done different takin into account of the length of this vacay. When I cruise, by day 3 my cabin can look like a clothing bomb went off. So I've brought a popup hamper this time! For all my toiletries we bought a over the door pocket organizer, that totally keeps everything in place and in WAY easier than trying to remember what cabinet it was in that in my case it rarely makes it back to. So far I'm really pumped about my 'innovations' we'll see how they work out in he long run.

Unpacked & it's time to muster. Then the Dreamworks sailaway party, a quick bite at Sorrento's & the welcome aboard show.

The CD is Richard Spacey. He is by far my favorite CD. Had him 4 years ago & that to this day has been my most favorite cruise vacation.

Next up second seating in the MDR. sooooooooooooooooooooo in all my sailings when I've selected a large table, I've struck gold with table mates. Similar interests & age groups. Great people who I've gone to have lasting friendships with. This cruise, Royal has failed me. We're at a table if B2B-ers. You know who does back to back cruises on a regular basis? Not youngish honeymooners! Sure they seem great, but , c'mon, they're children are our age! We've decided to stick it out, because now we can use this as encouragement to go to other dining venues. We will be speaking to the red jacket MDR guy to see what I can do about week two, there have got to be more people like us right? Right?

Since I rarely sleep before sailaway day, it's off to bed and a piece if Sunday night football for us.

Tomorrow, Monday , we're at sea.

My apologies for they delay in my post, Royal wifi has been down all day.

Royal Caribbean Vice President of Commercial and New Business Development John Tercek says the world wants to come to Australia when he spoke at the Cruise Down Under conference in Cairns last week.

Tercek said Australia has a great international reputation and image and is going to see a lot more cruise traffic.

Royal Caribbean already has five ships operating in Australia between sister company Celebrity Cruises and itself.  

Tercek says the big challenege for the Australian cruise market is the expensive air fare to Australia along with the long distances the ships must travel.  Because of these distances, Australian cruises are unique in that most cruises are longer than seven nights.

Other challenges Tercek idenitifed are the odd comibination of days due to the fact the Sydney only has one cruise terminal to handle the larger cruise ships due to the Harbour Bridge being too low for Royal Caribbean's ships.

"We are growing here, we"ve been growing here, we hope to go on growing here, but the issues are there," he said.
 
However, Tercek described on-going discussions about improved infrastructure are "promising."
 
He said Royal Caribbean has two Voyager-class ships sailing in China and hopes to add more ships as that market grows.
 
"As it does grow, it is not that far to come down here," Tercek told Cruise Down Under delegates.

Happy Sunday and I hope you had a great week (and weekend)!  This week's biggest news was centered around Royal Caribbean's newest cruise ship that is still under construction, Quantum of the Seas.

Royal Caribbean announced a new program called, "Quantum Experience Advisors" that will bring industry professionals in to help design the ship and ensure "every aspect of the guest experience has been maximized to the fullest extent."

The first member of the Quantum Experince Advisors is HGTV star Genevieve Gorder. Gorder is being tasked with interior design, key amenities and activities on the Quantum-class.  Thus far, Gorder has reviewed plans, fabrics, carpets and furnishings for the ship’s luxurious accommodations.

Royal Caribbean has indicated we will meet more members of the Quantum Experience Advisors as time goes forward.

Royal Caribbean News

• Royal Caribbean announced Lisa Bauer is leaving the company along with 100 layoffs.
• Should you take a cruise close to home or fly to your cruise? We share the pros and cons of both.
• Royal Caribbean is investing in their onboard internet for guest satisfaction and for bigger profits.
• Royal Caribbean's board of directors named a new lead director.
• Royal Caribbean UK launched a new game for the iPad and promises an iPhone version is coming soon.
• Considering Royal Caribbean's wine package?  Here's everything you need to know.
• We launched a new live blog series on Freedom of the Seas.  Check out the first post.

Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast

The sixth episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast is available that is all about booking shore excursions.

It seems like everyone books shore excursions on their cruise vacation, so this week Matt looks at the benefits and drawbacks of booking your shore excursions through Royal Caribbean or on your own.  There isn't a wrong answer, but Matt thinks depending on your comfort level, there's some good choices to consider.

Please feel free to subscribe via iTunes or RSS, and head over to rate and review the podcast on iTunes if you can! We’d appreciate it.

Royal Caribbean Around the Internet

Royal Caribbean posted some design tips that Genevieve Gorder shared for the home.

Cruise Maven has her list of the best 5 specialty restaurants on Allure of the Seas.

Travel Weekly has a group of travel agents assess the pros and cons of Royal Caribbean's recent restructure in the UK.

Travel Weekly also has a report that Royal Caribbean is reporting some of the Australia itineraries are not ideal because of port issues.

We're continuing our guest live blog of Stephanie's back-to-back Freedom of the Seas honeymoon cruise.

Well it's official...we're on vacation.

We made it to the airport in record time, the new JetBlue terminal in Boston is nothing short of incredible.

Gate 34. Check. The Jets official JetBlue plane. I totes thought they were kidding. So did the other 235 Boston based passengers. Some even decided to not make the trip at all. Weird. Estimated flight time, 3hrs & 12 mins. We made it under 3!!! Arriving in Orlando 85 degrees at 10:45! Yikes.

We made a ressie in advance with Hertz & we're a part of their free loyalty program so we were able to walk right to our rental for $35 one way (returning early Sunday morning in port Canaveral area). Ginorm tip...incognito windows. They keep sites from knowing you're trying to find a bargain. Our rental went from $119 to $35.

Rental on the road, we google mapped a Target on Merritt Island, and headed due east. We made the decision not to pack toiletries & sun care products.Traveling for 2 weeks, we needed more clothes than we're used to & travel toiletries prices are fixed between MA & FL. It just made sense for us plus we got some snacks. Everybody wins. Supplies procured, we found a dunkin donuts & drove to our hotel. The Residence Inn by Marriott on Astronaut Blvd. we chose this hotel due to the proximity to the port, but mostly because it shares a parking lot with our Hertz retail return location that offers a free shuttle as early as 10am!

A short bit at the pool. See picture. A much needed nap & a happy honeymoon glass of wine & we are off to dinner. We are planning on heading to the Island Waterfront Bar & Grill. According to trip advisor, it's a top rated locale. Looking forward to it. It seems to have a great selection of seafood & other food. Hubbs, who hails from the Ocean State doesn't eat seafood so while I love it, a seafood only place wouldn't be ideal for us. Other than the food, the view sounds incredible!

Looking forward to seeing Freedom in the morning and getting the meat & potatoes part of this honeymoon started.

Later.
Stephanie & Sean

Peter Compton, who changed the face of entertainment on Royal Caribbean ships for 24 years, has retired from the cruise line.  Compton was responsible for bringing ice skating shows, Broadway shows and water shows to Royal Caribbean's fleet.

Compton, the Vice President of Entertainment and Guest Services, has opted to leave Royal Caribbean to spend more time with his family. 

Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein had glowing remarks for Compton's departure, "Peter is simply the best entertainment professional the cruise industry has ever known.  He is responsible for Royal Caribbean's reputation for top-notch entertainment over the last 24 years. From professional ice skating to Broadway musicals to the AquaTheater, he constantly blazed new trails for us and the industry."

Joining Royal Caribbean in 1989 when the Sovereign class of ships were coming online and introduced large theaters with good sight lines and better facilities.  In 1990, Compton helped form Royal Caribbean Productions to enable the cruise line to customize shows.

Over the years, larger generations of ships were built and Compton was responsible for the entertainment onboard, such as suggesting the idea of ice skating shows to Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain.

Other highlights include partnerships with DreamWorks Animation and with Broadway producers that brought hits like 'Chicago,' 'Hair Spray' and 'Saturday Night Fever' to the ships.

Compton will be succeeded by Nick Weir on October 14. 

Welcome back to this week's edition of Friday Photos, our weekly showcase of beautiful Royal Caribbean photos our readers have sent to us to be featured.  If you have photos that you would like included in an upcoming Friday Photos blog post, then please send us your best Royal Caribbean photos!

Let's check out this week's batch of photos!

Christopher Pescatore sent us this photo from Oasis of the Seas on the May 18th sailing in 2013.  The Boardwalk neighborhood is so beautiful, it's hard to ever find a bad photo here.  

Speaking of the Boardwalk on Oasis of the Seas, Judy sent us this photo of her and some of her "friends".  If my daughter were writing this blog post, she would spend the rest of the post gushing over Alex the lion and King Julien.  Love those Dreamworks characters!

In the "serenity" category of photos this week, how about this photo from Maureen of Milford Sound in New Zealand, as seen from her aft balcony on Voyager of the Seas.  If you're looking for a quick mental escape, this is the photo to zone out to!

Tom & Diane Trudnowski sent in this photo from Freedom of the Seas in August.  It looks like the most epic belly flop competition jump ever.  If this guy didn't win, then there is no justice in the world.

Next we have Matt, who sent us this photo of Allure of the Seas docked in Nassau, Bahamas.  I never cease to be amazed by the Oasis-class of ships and their immense scale.

Want more Oasis-class photos?  Here's one from Gabriella, who sent in this photo of Oasis of the Seas docked in St. Thomas.  Perfect!

Victor Sacal continues the Oasis-class love fest this week with another Oasis of the Seas photo.  This is inside the ship in the theater.  I love the neon lights.

Lastly, we have this photo from John Paul of Rhapsody of the Seas.  The photo was taken in Broome, Western Australia on a 36 days circumnavigation of Australia and New Zealand. WOW! Just found something new to add to my "Things to do when I win the lottery" list.

Thank you to everyone who sent in their photos this week. Have a great weekend and be sure to send us your photos so we can post them next week by using this form.