tropiclvrs

Love your pics of Labadee....so jealous and wish I was there! Looks like you're having a great time.

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Looking forward to this!! Are you cruising solo this time around?

Really enjoying the live review. Keep it coming:D I have two questions:

1. There are 3 sea days; can you tell me which sea days are formal nights?
   
2. I am trying to plan my MTD schedule, can you tell me about the show times or better still can you post or upload the cruise compass. I don't want to miss anything:)
   

Gladys

The Formal nights I believe depend on which route you take.

Check out Andrew's other thread where he has been posing the compasses. :D

Actually, Boleros on Harmony for sure did not use coconut water- I checked the ingredient list AND watched them make it. It made me very sad :(. Tropiclvrs- which ship were you on?

 

 

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I know sure that Allure used coconut water in Bolero's....of course, that was back in August so who knows what they've changed in 7 whole months?!? I also recall some of the other venues used coconut water too as I always watched how they made them. Other than Bolero's, I mainly got them from the bar up by the FlowRiders, but Bolero's were the best by far.

You can have them make them less sweet and ask them to use the coconut water.

Boleros makes the best and they do use coconut water.

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Go with Dec 7 aft.

We don't trust the chairs or table. Does not look sturdy enough. We do use the rail. Last cruise we were right at beginning of hump and the angle allowed us to see the first few feet of a lot of balconies. If we can see them, they can see us. So we just tell ourselves, no one is looking and don't worry about it. I don't know anyone in those cabins!

 

 

 

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OMG....I sure hope there is no lifting of any kind against those rails!!!:o For those that are not quite as familiar with the ships balcony terminology, you may want to clarify your statement of being "at the beginning of hump...." :'):'):')

:loudcry: I love this thread! I've never laughed so hard on these boards. Huge kudos to the OP for having the guts to start it. Trust me, you aren't the only one wondering the exact same things, so I think there are a lot out there that appreciate it.

Looking forward to cruising with you...virtually! I love your sense of humor and am already laughing. I have followed you on your last couple of cruises via Periscope (my username is 'JulieinCA'....CA standing for California of course, not Canada:cool:). Hopefully you can get your Nespresso machine to work properly in your suite this cruise and won't have to make too many jaunts down to Starbucks in the wee hours;p.

The winds have been AWFUL for about a month now....it can really cause havoc with the seas!

Is it typically windy this time of year?

Well geez, for years I've apparently had the wrong impression as to why they call certain balconies "hump" balconies. I guess if Royal's going to name them, you might as well use them for their intended purpose.

:'):'):') Exactly!!

I say go for it and cross that item off your list! Most people will NOT peek around their neighbors divider especially if they hear anyone out there anyway. Who would want to be caught looking in on someone else's balcony...even if nothing was going on??? As mentioned, there won't be a lounger, just 2 small chairs and a table. You might have to get creative;p

To expand on the crowding issue a bit....there are other locations and times where it does feel crowded. The Royal Promenande in the evening during their watch, jewelry, junk sales" get crowded but I don't mind it. We usually are just strolling through and not in a hurry so it's kinda nice in a strange way. The parades will also be very crowded.

The Windjammer (buffet) will be crowded on boarding day and for breakfast n sea days. Otherwise, I never found it to be that bad. We usually enjoy our breakfast in the Solarium as it's smaller and has some healthier options.

I think I'd go with Harmony as well just from an age standpoint. If you like to be active and have things to do this would definitely be the way to go. Many people say that the Oasis class doesn't feel crowded to them. Although I agree to some degree, sea days on the pool deck are NUTS! The Solarium is nice, but it does get hot in that area. If you go up one deck from the pools it's a lot less crowded so if you don't have to be right next to the pool and can withstand some wind, that's the way to go.

I wouldn't worry too much about booking the show reservations late. If you can't get the times you prefer now, you can make changes when you board and it shouldn't be a problem to get what you want. We booked late for our last Allure cruise and we went almost immediately to make changes after we boarded. I think it was outside the ice rink (deck 3 or 4?).

If food is a big thing for you, I would definitely book the specialty restaurants. The food would definitely be higher quality and from what I hear Wonderland is an amazing experience.

The title of the tread made me giggle a bit but I knew what you were going to ask.

Anyway, to avoid issues both at check in and bringing on 4 bottles of wine I would simply call and make an adjustment to the reservation so that you have 1 adult and 1 child booked in each of the cabins and then just put the 2 kids in their own cabin. As long as 1 name from the original booking in each cabin remains the same it won't be an issue to update this.

Tip:

After you board, you can go to Guest Relations and have them print you up a dummy key card so that you can have one to both your cabin and the kids cabin.

Not surprised at all....but still so so sad that nothing seems to be out of Los Angeles for Mexican Riviera. :loudcry:

I would definitely try out the Oasis class. The kids pool play area is great for young kids as well as the entire Boardwalk area.

This is a top-down problem caused by corporate greed and cost-cutting which is now proven to affect SOLAS with Royal Caribbean. I'd bet a weeks pay that this is not an isolated situation with only this one ship in the fleet. Would you really sail with a cruise line that chooses profits over your life?

While I agree to some extent, the Captain has to take responsibility for this. It's his/her ship and has to elevate quickly to corporate if he sees anything that is unsafe. If he didn't see the lifejackets being a problem....well then I'd have concerns about how the captains are running their ships.

Following along...thanks for taking us with you! Your photos look great. :)

Thanks for the high praise.

 

Glad I am able to share our vacation with everyone here. When you share your cruise vacation with family and friends who are not into cruises, you can tell they are only half way paying attention out of politeness. When you share the info with CC folks, everyone is much more interested in what you have to say so it’s a different experience.

 

We are scheduled to cruise again in December this year – sailing either December 16 or 17, depending on which cruise we end up choosing. That would mean I should be back home around Christmas and the next trip report, hopefully there will be one, should be sometime between Christmas and New Year. But my joke writing team (of one) will need to think of new jokes between now and then…

Since you are high on the anal scale (as am I), I am sure you have already checked your kids school holiday schedule for next year. I am only mentioning it because my kids have always had the week before xmas and the week after. However, this next year they are getting the week of xmas (the 25th is on a Monday) and the week of New Years. There are quite a few school districts that did that already this year, and it was strange as some kids were in school again while others still had a week to go.

Hopefully that isn't the case with your district and you can still go the cheapo route with the before xmas sailing!

Thanks again for your awesome trip review. Loved every post:-)

Hi,

 

I read your posting quickly on my phone at work when I got a notification that someone had posted to this thread. I just read it real fast and put down the phone and went back to work. When you said you have 2 roosters, I thought you meant you had 2 chickens in your farm/yard. Only later on it dawned on me that you meant you have 2 family members that were born in the year of the rooster and not real chickens in the backyard…

 

DUH, I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m dumber than I look…:p

 

I live in the East Bay and the in-laws and all my wife’s relatives are in SF so they picked the restaurant in Daly City so we had to drive across the bridge to go there.

 

Here’s Yelp’s link to the restaurant:

 

 

https://www.yelp.com/biz/king-wah-restaurant-daly-city-3

Haha...yeah I guess I should have clarified my comment about roosters in my household. Your second assumption was correct, in that I was referring to my husband and son as being born in the year of the Rooster. My daughter is the year of the pig and she's not too thrilled about that!

Happy New Year to you as well. The Chinese celebrate the New Year for multiple days. In SF, they celebrate it for 2 weeks until February 11 where they block of couple miles of SF city streets for the Chinese parade that lasts for couple hours and is on TV.

 

This station estimated around a million people went to the event couple years ago. Don’t know about if it’s actually that high but lots of people for sure:

 

 

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/About-One-Million-People--245722071.html

 

 

Yes, the tea house experience is very different and that’s where the pictures were taken. You don’t order food form the menu. The ladies push the carts around and you just point to whatever and they drop the food on the table for you

Happy New Year! I have 2 Roosters in my household, so they are quite thrilled it's the year of the Rooster:-) Do you mind sharing the name of the Dim Sum restaurant you were at on Saturday? When I was a kid growing up in the East Bay, we would frequently go have Dim Sun on the weekend in China Town. So delish!

If you're really trying to make the teens happy, I also vote for Oasis class. So much to do and it would be really hard for them to not have a good time. As a huge fan of that class myself (my kids are 9 & 11), I think the parents will be really happy with that option as well.

Plus, a trip down to Florida for a day or two prior is always a great way to start off a cruise vacation.

Sounds and looks like it was an amazing trip. This type of itinerary is definitely one on my bucket list, but it'll have to wait for some time....

Thanks for sharing with all of us!

While these 4 day cruises do tend to have more of a party type crowd it depends on whether it's 4 days over the weekend, or 4 days during the week. You will find much less partying on the short weekday cruises. With that said, I think you'll be find either way. The kids will have a great time!

One tip for detergent is to pour some at home in a travel shampoo bottle. Works perfect, takes very little space and cheaper than buying the Tide packets (which will be messy because you will only use a little bit at a time in the sink).

We regularly wash undies and a few other garments (typically the dri-fit type shirts) in the sink and hang them on our balcony chairs to dry. It's best to use a beach towel type clip (can buy at dollar store).