EDiamond22

5 minutes ago, ger_77 said:

I agree with you; we also live in a city where formal wear rarely makes an appearance.  We attended a "Gala" fundraiser at a very nice hotel about a year ago, hubby in his tux, me in my long gown and sparklies . . . the MC for the evening wore jeans, an untucked shirt and a sport coat.  We were completely overdressed, and certainly stood out among the crowd.  Even though we weren't dressed as the rest for that evening,  my motto has always been and still remains: "better overdressed than underdressed."

 

We will continue to bring our formal wear on cruises and dress to the nines on Gala nights, no matter what others wear.

 

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

agreed and thats my moto 🙂 
great pic, happy sailing and dressing 😄 

18 minutes ago, pacruise804 said:

Very nice.  I think this actually fits evening dress/elegant/chic (obviously not technically formal or black tie/white tie) better than many full suits do.

i agreed, i figured since its not strict its a good chance to add my own flare/style rather than the tradition black tie tux. appreciate the feedback 🙂 

You are seriously making me want to book on Oasis again now, super jealous! 
Great pics great review so far:)
playmakers and portside right up my ally, ill have to go UDP on the next big girl i sail !

 

2 hours ago, bilyclub said:

 

 

Did they actually rope off his spot?

he works on his laptop daily from 9-3 just more of a courtesy thing so he can get his work done with out people constantly going up to him

2 hours ago, cementhands said:

We’ve been on the adventure a few times and the Explorer also. Very nice size ships. Quest adult scavenger hunt was excellent in skating rink and football playoff games there also with hot dogs. Very cool. Rubber mats over ice.
Promenade dancing activities were excellent.
Raisin bread and ranger cookies are great.

Tutti salad in MDR lunch was delicious. We bought very good snorkeling gear about 25 years ago and still use it.
So if you’re into that here is some info on snorkeling from shore. Aruba take the public bus right across from cruise ship to Arrachi beach at end of bus ride. Excellent snorkeling reef to the left. Saves money from excursions of boat $$$$. Catch bus back to eagle or other beaches.

Bonaire pay $25 for boat ride to Klein Bonaire for drifting snorkeling from shore. Excellent.

Curaçao cab to Maho beach by aquarium and beach is like a paradise of tiki huts. Great snorkeling over the break water. Polar beer is great.

awesome info, we do typically snorkel at at least one port per cruise! that being said this will actually be my girlfriends first time snorkeling ever so doing it right off the shore would probably be a great idea thanks 😄 

we need a good Billy Mays "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE" 😄
looking forward to the recap hope you enjoyed it all, 32 days till im on her 🙂 !!

On 5/31/2019 at 11:46 AM, c-boy said:

I'm glad to see someone get excited about dressing up on formal night. There's a handful of relentless posters of the princess thread that would like to see other.

its one of me and the girlfriends favorite parts of the cruise as well, were from upstate NY where formal wear is rarely to never required, you would be the out of place one with a jacket/ gown at a nice dinner. its unfortunate, but at least we got cruising too justify the formal wear shopping lol 🙂

my January sailing drink package did not move on black Friday or cyber Monday. also be aware the royal "sale" banners i.e. " 50% off" "30% off" are just words rarely do that actually translate to real savings. keep an eye on the number "xx per person per day" typical from what i see on the boards as well as my own experience the package ranges around 50-80 per person per day. yes that is a huge range but id say if you see it on the lower end of that range i would book it. if it drops again you can always re-book it at the new price and cancel/get refunded the original one you booked. 

Do you only get your D or D+ discount if you wait until the cruise to book it? or if i prebook via the planner can i get the difference back as a refund or OBC?  

Well i probably started this whole thing a little early but its coming up now, at 32 days out it actually seems in reach!
Black friday/cyber monday came and went and with no deal on anything i was watching in my cruise planner i will just go ahead and book the Deluxe drinks and a Vroom package for the lady, i am typically up later so my plan as of now is too do a daily or every other day addition to this thread at the night or with the morning coffee. key word being "plan" lol 
 
Well where i didn't save at royal, Kohl's made it up to me for having a killer deal on a luggage set i've been eyeing for the lovely lady's Christmas gift. 

30 days out:
the point i'm typically pulling out outfits and making sure everything still fits or deciding if we want something new and getting those things taken care of. This will be out first time going away since getting a cat so now a new step too the pre cruise planing has been added. i bought one of the pet cams with 360 view, and we have my GFs mother coming over too feed a play with her. I have heard good things about being about to watch the video feed with the Vroom S&S package so hopefully that works well.


Pre cruise plan: 
We board in fort lauderdale on Jan 4th, most of us are flying in to FLL from upstate NY on the 3rd. a few others will be driving from orlando on the 3rd, and two making the drive from Georgia. We have rented a big Air BnB less than 10 minutes from the port that 10 of the 16 in our party will be staying at the night before. 
side note.. a few years ago we tried ABNB and would seriously never go back to a hotel if at all possible.. seriously worth checking out if you haven't before. Especially traveling with a big party like this if we were in a hotel we would have to either cram into one of the rooms and sit on the beds to hang out and talk or try and find somewhere to go; with this we have a big house we can all just hangout in the living room shoot the sh## and do some practice for the DDP 😄 

It was 22 degrees and snowed all day today...Curacao it was 89 and the sun was roaring...
Not much else as of now, luckily holiday season seems to fly by so these last 30 days should go quick and we will finally be trading the snow for the sand and the cold for the rum 🙂 

Until next time my friendly stalkers happy tuesday 

Ended up getting a really good deal on this set so we will see how it holds up on our trip in January. but for what i payed if it ends up being a one time use i will still have gotten my money's worth 😄

sadly most of our travel includes flying which is really what does damage to the suitcases 

4 hours ago, JennyB1977 said:

https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-3101537/american-tourister-moonlight-hardside-spinner-luggage.jsp?skuid=61701223&ci_mcc=ci&utm_campaign=LUGGAGE&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=google&utm_product=61701223&CID=shopping15&utm_campaignid=196835732&pid=googleadwords_int&af_channel=CSE&gclid=Cj0KCQiAiZPvBRDZARIsAORkq7eaZOclvwUs9OwdwS2-qGwka8H-OIfOTp2Kxz2Ok2G6GPnuONA47X8aAtpxEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

funny story, just this morning i was on kohls website and scored they had a nice 3 pc set on sale for like 95, then got my 20% off, plus used my kohls cash i earned on black friday so scored the set for like 50 bucks, free site to store same day pick up; it was ready in like 3 hours went and grabbed it! 🙂 
appreciate you still on the hunt for me!

7 hours ago, bboop51 said:

I'm happy it went down but still disappointed.  I'm thinking this almost a quarter of what the cost of cruise is (with the 18% gratuity) and that is with only one booze package.

i paid $1400 for two people on a 9 day coming up in january.. drink package cost me $1100 for the two of us lol 
 

a few years ago i lost 100 lbs, a huge reason i was able to make this happen was from fasting. i didn't do the traditional IF with a window  i just went to eating only once a day. I wanted to constantly keep my body in caloric deficit, therefore everything i was doing was burning calories. here is a break down of my day;

Wake up 3-4pm (i work overnights)
eat dinner around 5-6pm (typically consuming ~800 calories in this meal)
go to work, 10pm-7am (labor intensive job) 
8-10am Hit the gym hard, HIIT cardio training and weights everyday. i knew i had to strength train as well because i didnt want to end up with excess skin, so building muscle at the same time and burning fat keeps everything much tighter. 
after the gym i would sleep until i did it again the next day.
Extra info, 
-i never consumed calories through drinks, Coffee, water and diet coke all zero calorie ( i know diet coke has a little sodium but really not enough to even care about)
-just starting this one day out of the blue would nearly be impossible, try cutting to two meals then one at first i snacked alot on zero cal veggies that help break old habits.
-with any diet/workout plan you must must must be super strict with your self at first. i make no exceptions at first, once it was my daily life if i had a day off my a buddy wanted to go to lunch or what ever then no big deal i would go not even worried, no point of doing all this if it means giving up for good the things you enjoy. but since i was already in that routine i could just go back to it the next day, it was my new normal. 

i had alot of success doing this, 240lbs-142lbs. leaner and stronger i had ever been in my life. 

any questions feel free to ask 🙂

ps i am not a nutritionist nor dietitian so everything above is just my own opinions. 

about 3 weeks out start deciding what i want to wear for formal nights or if there is another special occasion during the sailing. try those outfits on, gives me time to have them altered if need be or if i decide i'd rather wear something different or different color i can go buy it.
try and get a hair cut as close as possible to leaving, meaning if i have time (i.e. afternoon flight) i would happily get it the day i leave. 
day before/ while packing decided what watches ill bring(hardest part of packing lol). i have a 3 slot travel case, keeps me from bringing the whole collection.
deciding on shoes to bring also is a struggle lol safe to say im just not a decisive person 

15lbs on an 8 night.. wasn't the food really mainly just beers 😂

1 minute ago, b_cruise said:

I booked it...ugh...lol....now we will drink more but surely have ALOT MORE FUN hahaha

haha thats for sure. happy sailing! 

3 hours ago, c-boy said:

Diamond even if you dress down you have an eye for fashion. The fit and material are spot on. 👍

thank you i do try, one of my hobbies 🙂

@crystalspin thank you 🙂

On 11/28/2019 at 2:08 PM, andlep said:

I follow Facebook groups that are dedicated to posting bargains.

 

 

any you would recommend, first im hearing of this. thanks!

5 minutes ago, b_cruise said:

What is premium coffee exactly? Are lattes/cappuccino included?  It is $51 Pp right now on my sailing for march

yes and fraps, ive even seen some coffee with alcohol in it if you enjoy that aswell. 
51 is a good price from what ive seen

1 minute ago, luvsvacations said:

So you cant sit on your balcony and have a couple.   Guess I don’t understand the reason for opening them.   Just trying to figure out the best route.  Thanks

you could bring the bucket back to your room but they will be open. I'm not sure if its a legal thing (i know bars on land cant serve anything unopened) or just a policy thing.
I've heard others say they would order the ones that come in the aluminum cans (bud, bud light, coors) and ask for the cap then re close them themselves and bring them to the room fridge but i've never tried this so i'm not sure if they will even do that.

I used to go full suit always, been it seems less and less are even dressing up at all; not complaining just saying.
this was last year, dressed it down a little will probably do something very similar on my RCCL next month.

10 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

Check out Burlington too, if there is one in your area.  My problem with them is they lock the cases so you can't check out the inside configuration, and I am particular.  EM

yes i have a Burlington right around the corner, totally forgot about that! thanks luckily they don't lock them up at mine 

2 hours ago, luvsvacations said:

Thank you all.  They are both about 28 and beer drinkers.  Can you buy a "bucket" of beer using this and take it to the cabin.  I know on another cruise line you could order beer ahead of time but have not found that option so not sure if buying the drink package or if they can buy 6 packs or buckets????

they will open every beer they serve you even the bucket all come open

as one mentioned above please check with your Currier being cruising if you plan on using your cell data especially if you are hot spotting, you could pile up a monster bill if you are not covered internationally, from my understanding you cant hotspot off of a wifi connection and it will revert too your cell data.. i.e. big money unless its included in your plan

1 minute ago, Relaxedfun said:

Cross your fingers and check back in a week!

thank you! i was going to buy a set at kohl s for her last night but the only one that met the criteria was all banged up already from being a display model so i didn't go for it. probably will grab on amazon but they have so many and that's what sparked the question in the first place haha