eel

We had such a fun time on the Silhouette of the Seas, we're so hoping it's on the Symphony!👍🏻

I believe it is on Harmony so I would be surprised if it is not on Symphony.

Are the photos from Anthem?

 

 

 

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No, from Allure. Don’t know if Anthem has it.

Anthem would be ideal with the indoor sports court. Contact customer service at Royal and ask them if they do.

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:DWill be on Allure March 10 --so excited to know they have Pickleball!!

Here are a few pictures to whet his appetite!

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I would like to encourage anyone sailing soon that is wondering if their ship has Pickleball to ask Royal Caribbean customer service. The best way to reach them is via email. They also have a Facebook page and Twitter account where they tend to answer these kinds of question fairly quickly. As they see the demand, they are more likely to deploy it across the fleet!

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I was on Allure last week and can report that the Pickleball was very good!

They had excellent nets, paddles and decent balls. There were three courts set up on the basketball court. The first day they had a tournament and around 16 teams played. They had open play on St. Martin day but it was too early for me to make it. They had open play again on Labadee day and I was able to play. Conditions were a little windy but very playable.

I am hoping this becomes standard on Royal ships that have an adequate sports court. The sports activities guy said it has been very popular and is slowly spreading throughout the fleet.

Celebrity Eclipse is doing some Hawaii cruises in April 2019. The first one is a one-way from Vancouver to Hawaii and the other is a one-way back to Vancouver. There is also the Solstice repositioning cruise from Hawaii to Vancouver later in the same month.

By sailing Celebrity you get a C&A level match up to Elite.

Great review! We were also on the cruise and are also from Arizona (Tucson). We ran into a few other people from Arizona over the course of the week. We enjoyed everything but agree that the long travel time is kind of a drag.

We have two Freedom blocks and we would love to trade one for a block from any of the following ships (* for most desired)

Rhapsody of the Seas

Enchantment of the Seas

Explorer of the Seas

Radiance of the Seas *

Adventure of the Seas

Navigator of the Seas

Brilliance of the Seas *

Serenade of the Seas

Mariner of the Seas *

Liberty of the Seas

Oasis of the Seas

Allure of the Seas

Quantum of the Seas

Anthem of the Seas

Ovation of the Seas *

Please email me if you are interested in a trade. eelcruiser at gmail dot com

Thanks!

Does anyone know if you can use the Cruise planner BOGO or the Diamond + BOGO for Izumi Hibachi? I think not but maybe someone has some experience with this.

Hi Lee And Petra!

 

I'm getting caught up on this live blog my good friend Nancy told me about while we were on the Allure! So sorry we missed you and Petra by 2 weeks! Our weather was perfect after we got on board! We never got a chance to meet Meg. We had 28 people on our Aqua theater suite for sailaway! I'm so sorry we missed them! Wish all you guys and Meg were up there too! The deck is certainly ginormous! Still can't believe the price over a holiday week! Too good to be true for sure! Loved Barefoot Beach Club, Suite Lounge, Coastal Kitchen and reserved seating at shows on my all time favorite ship! This was our 3rd time with the third cast of Mama Mia and had a new phenomenal experience all over again! You guys will love it!

 

We booked another Anthem cruise for May 23rd for 9 days in case the huge rumor is true about the Anthem repositioning to Southhampton in the nearer future. Wanted to go to Bermuda again on a larger ship and definitely wanted to see Will Will Rock You Again Also!

 

I know you will enjoy the Allure! Bill really loved all the doughnuts on Boardwalk! He brought me back the key lime one! It was too die for!

 

A big Hello!

 

Michelle and Bill

Hi Michelle and Bill,

Great to hear from you! Glad you had a nice time on Allure. We almost booked that week but I had a business trip the week before which would have made it stressful so we booked two weeks later. Now instead the hurricanes are making it stressful. :eek:

We are also on a Halloween cruise that leaves on Oct. 28th but it is the Symphony TA!

Enjoy your travels. I am sure we will run into each other again.

PS - Sorry to hijack the thread for personal communication...

eel, they were playing pickle ball last week on Allure. I had never seen it before. They had three courts set up.

Thanks for the heads up.

I am packing my paddle! Where there a lot of people playing?

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Last November on Brilliance of the Seas' westbound Transatlantic crossing we had Pickleball Open Play from 9 AM to 11 AM every sea day... and we had about 20 players most days. First couple days we did some quick 'Learn To Play' Clinics and it took off from there.

Wow that is awesome! We were on the eastbound Brilliance TA in April this year and there was no Pickleball. [emoji53]

We will be on Allure next week and they do have Pickleball.

We will be on the Symphony TA in October and I checked with Royal and they do not have Pickleball on that ship.

I wish they would just make it standard on all ships. It is a good fit for their primary demographic.

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They also work great for keeping cabin curtains shut.

We have a Central Park balcony on our upcoming cruise so this piece of wisdom is kind of important for us! We usually bring along clothespins to hang up our wet swimsuits so that should work for the curtain as well.

Enjoy your last day Meg. Your live review has been great!

BTW - tonight - night #6 - is formal night #2. For anyone wondering/classy enough to partake. #notme

 

 

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Wondering how formal was formal night? I usually wear a sports jacket, shirt and tie (and pants too!). I am thinking about ditching the sports jacket for this cruise. Does that seem reasonable based on the way people dressed on your cruise?

Not the same. Airlines/Hotels point are liabilities because these point can be converted in the future towards free airfare, upgrades, etc. Whereas, the tier points/nights earned on cruises cannot be exchanged for anything. It is simply a recognition of benefits to a Pax when he/she cruises. Therefore, any add'l expenses associated to the benefits, eg; free drinks, balcony discounts, free internet, etc. are current to match the dates of a cruise taken. No future liability.

Yes, my point exactly! Airline/Hotel programs are very different than cruise loyalty programs.

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You do not think the fact that most high tier members seem not to spend too many dollars onboard is a concern to Royal?

That would be a concern if they think high tier members are squeezing out high paying guests. But I suspect the loyalty program helps them fill the ships. If it ever was to the point that demand was so great that they didn't need brand loyal frequent cruisers, then I guess your point is well taken. I don't think we are there yet! And as the inventory of cabins continues to expand, I don't know if we will ever get there.

Seeing all this good food and drink is making me more excited for our cruise on Allure in 10 days. I am going to have to be fasting until then so I won't feel too guilty about indulging! Thanks for posting.

Airlines are required to account for outstanding frequent flyer miles on their balance sheets. They usually report the liability based on the marginal cost of free travel that those points can purchase.

I wonder if Royal reports the liability associated with C&A points on their balance sheet? Somehow I doubt it because in order to take advantage of the C&A program you need to book a cruise which means revenue to the cruise line, not a liability. That is why Royal will never make your C&A level expire. They may reduce the value of benefits but the program itself brings in much more revenue than it costs them.

Depends on various factors such as the weather, if we are in the middle of a string of ports, if we can snorkel (that never gets old) and if there is something specific we want to do in a port that is new to us. The only time we tend to stay on board for the entire port stop is turn around day of a B2B. Otherwise we usually get off even if it is for a very short time.

Since we travel a lot we get an annual policy through GeoBlue that covers medical and evacuation. We rely on our credit card (Costco Visa) for trip interruption and cancellation. It usually does not cover 100% of what we paid for the trip but it is sufficient to take the sting out if we had to use it.

This spring we were away from home for 73 days and found out that GeoBlue only covers you for up to 70 days maximum. I called GeoBlue before we left and found out it was a simple matter to buy a second policy for the extra days. I thought about skipping it but it was better safe than sorry!

Tomorrow is Puerto Ricoooo, and I’m super stoked other than the fact that I have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to fully capitalize on our 7 hours allotted in port. Not sure what the day will hold, but fingers crossed my future includes some really bomb a** authentic Puerto Rican food. Suggestions, anyone? My body is ready. [emoji1316]

If you want some authentic Puerto Rican food, try Mofongo. It is deep-fried green plantains mashed together with meat or seafood. You should find a restaurant that serves it in San Juan without much difficulty. If you want a Pina Colada from the place it was invented (supposedly) check out Barrachina.

The nice thing about Puerto Rico is that since it is part of the US, your phone should work there just fine. You can use Google Maps to find your way around.

We are trying to decide if we want to keep or cancel the All Access Tour we currently have booked on Oasis. I've been seriously thinking of cancelling prior to reading part 1 of your experience. DH would probably be bored spending a hour in the kitchen listening to someone with an accent he couldn't understand. I have replacement knees and hips that allow me to do a lot of fun activities, but they really don't like standing for long periods of time or going down stairs. We have a full schedule of activities on our port days including ziplining, parasailing and I will be scuba diving, so I will need my surgically repaired legs to be in good working order.

 

After reading back what I just wrote, I think I've answered my own question. Most likely we will be cancelling this tour. It just doesn't seem like what we really want to spend our time doing. I still can't wait to hear about the rest of your tour, though!

I can tell you the $119.00 they charge isn't worth it! We did it this past May and was disappointed.All we got for a gift was a rope! Nothing like the past all access tours. Let's just say we will never spend that much money again for another tour!!

We did the All Access Tour on Brilliance in April and I would rate it a solid 8 out of 10. We toured the kitchen, stores (including the massive meat refrigerators), recycling, the laundry, the bridge, and the engineering control room. Seems like more variety than what they offer on the larger ships. We probably would never buy it for ourselves but it was a Christmas gift from our adult children and we are glad we did it.

......

To be honest, I knew going into this day that we would see a lot of devastation. We toured the entirety of the island - or at least, all around it - and the devastation is just... I don’t even have the appropriate words. These people lost everything. “Cowboy” lost his entire home, and all of his belongings inside of it. There are certainly some beautiful parts to the island, but the wreckage is everywhere. Which we knew! And we wanted to see it. We wanted to see and take in the island for what it is, and we did just that. I’m happy to have seen this island - and I certainly think it is beautiful - but I’m not sure I have a huge desire to go back. Like, I wouldn’t purposefully seek out a cruise because it has this stop. To be honest, it’s just another Nassau port to me. We had a great time - as we always do! - but I wanted to be honest and open about my thoughts. Lovely scenery at points, tons of (expected) devastation, and not much to do/see.

I was hoping that a year out the devastation would be less apparent but sadly it seems that is is not the case. We used to love St. Maarten. Hopefully over time it will get better there.

We booked a snorkel tour there so we will be spending all of our touring time on the water. It seems like that may have been a good decision!

Nice pictures and glad you had a good time despite the negatives.

I just don't get the attraction to this. :rolleyes: I love the beach for the sun and sound of the surf. The beautiful ocean view and the calming effect it has on me would be totally ruined by the noise of the aircraft screaming right over my head. It's just not appealing to me. That's just my personal opinion - to each, his own.:D

Definitely to each their own! The one comment I will make is the planes don't arrive constantly (even less since last years hurricane). The bar has a board that lists arrival times. If you spend a few hours there you might spend 10 minutes looking at planes and the rest enjoying the beach or the bar.

Went to the WJ for dinner. Watched FIL play roulette in casino (he doubled his money). Played Bingo for FIL who purchased card. Card lost. Watched Love & Marriage show. Laughed very hard. The oldest couple won (51 years married, holy cow!). Awesome night. Josh wasn’t feeling well - just a little queasy - so he went to bed early.

 

SAINT MARTEN TOMORROW! Woot. No plans other than to get a bus for all of us and just drive around wherever we feel like going. Also, Izumi for dinner!

 

Sorry I haven’t posted anything substantial - lots going on, and trying to soak it in! I’ll be more comprehensive tomorrow.

You should have volunteered as the Newlywed couple (under 1 year is OK)!

In St. Marten stop over at Maho Beach to see the planes land. I understand they rebuilt the bar at the beach.