Lionesss

We plan on staying there next March. Thanks for sharing.

@Sea Dog Greg. Thanks for sharing. Have a great time. Be safe.

Enjoy following your live threads. You definitely have an eye for descriptive details. Quantum has to be one of our favorite ships, sailing her last August. I hope your journey is safe and relaxing. Eagerly waiting for updates. Have fun.

My arm was sore for 2 weeks. Localized about the size of 2 inches round. I could not lay on that arm. The same thing happened with the RSV vaccine. The only side effects were pain for a couple weeks at injection site. Glad you got the vaccine for shingles. I had shingles in my 20’s after a miscarriage. It wasn’t pretty. Be safe.

EXPENSE ACCOUNT. PREVIOUS BALANCE. $1980.39 After Jamaica the only expense were our extra tips in additional envelopes. Taxi to airport. Tips to shuttle airport to car. So keeping it simple Additional $355 FINAL COST of COMP. Cruise $2335.39 Excluded cost of air. And gambling budget. As I end this cruise let me share my casino experience. First of all I found a welcome aboard social in the suite folder ( the only invite I received). Go to non smoking lounge drinks and enter a draw to win $100 free play. You did not have to stay. It would be added to your account. I did not get one of the 10 free play. 6 pm. Slots opened I had $2000 in free play. I figured what the hell Set the machine for $20 a pull. 5 pulls later DING DING DING. We have a winner. 6:06pm. $5000 ish The attendant said I was the first hand pay. Then what do I do next ??? Go eat. I still had $1900 in free play. Walked the ship. Back to casino at 8 pm. The machine was very kind. Winning enough to play with their money. Left with $1550. Free play. Tuesday Painful Lost the free play. Left casino. Put $3,500 in safe to take home of winnings. Put the rest to budget play. Won 2 more jackpots. Both $1609. ( around there ish). Over the next few days. Up and down. All the other machines would be generous. But would not go over a certain level. For example. . When playing Quarters and betting $1.25 a pull if you show 2100 quarters. QUIT!!!!!!! It will probably not go higher. quit while your ahead. Also sometimes I rotated how much my individual slot pull would be. starting at $1.25 $2.50 $3.75 $5.00 $10.00 (very rare) $20.00 ( only 5 pulls ) and I won. It seems to like the middle bet. I am not an expert can sit at a fun machine for let’s just say awhile. When the budget of the day is gone. so am I. So leaving with cash $550 comp Grand suite future cruise 1 cheap bottle of wine. ( this was sad) Thank you for following along. my next thread should be a Retro Cruise FREEDOM OF THE SEAS.

If there was free pressing our cabin attendant didn’t offer to take and get press😔 Yes to free drinks 11am to 8pm ? ( I think. Might have been 11). They gave out cans of soda, bottles of water. Never asked if you were on drink package like Allure. On Allure we got glass of soda during open hours.

Eagerly following. Booked in March 2025.

6. FOOD. Keeping this simple. WJ. Clean. Well stocked. Fresh pasta bar in back Desserts not impressed. Ice cream by desserts. Addictive. No real change. 😁

5. GENEROSITY OF DRINKS AND BARTENDERS. To begin with we are D+ and I am signature in casino and we traveled in a suite. We did purchase the basic soda package got the cups. Kept our room stocked with water and drank many a Diet Coke and a few maybe combined 4-5 alcoholic drinks total a day. We probably did not need that extra purchase. But we did. Now. Bartenders everywhere. And I mean 5 min does not go by and another one asks if you need a drink. Then something new. You could ask and receive a “heavy pour” or a double. These mixers were way to strong. It seems they added a little Diet Coke to your rum. If you asked for 2 beers at a time. So be it. Whether it was us on C &A loyalty or our friends on alcohol package. I could not believe how liberal it was. Cases upon cases delivered to the pool bars. I know this made many a cruiser very happy and drunk. First for this on all our cruises. Be safe.

MAJOR OOOOOOPS We booked the Wonder. Why oh why I had Harmony on the brain. I don’t know. But it is Wonder out of Port Canaveral. 😄

SIDE NOTE. We have always used our TA to book and do the busy work for us. So off I went free grand suite registration number from casino points in hand and list of 4 options to use. To get this process started you had to 1. Login at casino desk where those block codes are. ( dunno what their called). 2. Pay your $200 refundable deposit. 3. Get your confirmation number and all ships and dates available to you. ( I downloaded 14 pages. Over 1256 cruises) 4. Must book a cruise within 30 days. 5. Only good for cruises starting no later than March 30, 2025. So. To begin with most of my selections plus many more options sailing out of Florida had no grand suites available in March. We figured spring breaks already booked them out. But wow. Hmmmmmm So we persued this a little further. So looking at Harmony out of port Canaveral it had almost all of its CLS available. Having never sailed that ship. And the layout of 17 and 18th deck is a tad different. I asked how much would an upgrade be from my GS to CLS. Now mind you prices are really going up on cruising. So the difference between these two categories is not painful. Minus our deposit is VERY acceptable. We of course had to pay tax and port fees. later add on as gratuity and insurance. Nothing is FREE. So we booked. But had we not started off with the GS I paid for in gambling, we would never pay that price stated for a CLS. Be safe.

CUTBACKS. Now some of what I am sharing could be real RCI cutbacks or………. Just related to clueless cabin attendant. - no more free pressing in suites for one outfit each for first formal night. —no more ice unless you ask for container then only filled once during cruise —almost missed qualifying for free luggage valet. Cabin attendant forgot to leave form in room. I just remembered on a whim it filled it out as deadline approached. —waiter would not bring out broiled lobster. When asked head waiter we were served with 5 tails ( total for us). —only one lame fruit plate. One banana 9 red grapes and an apple. Nothing else presented. No strawberries. Not that I needed them. They could improve presentation. —2 bottles of water and one bottle of wine from casino. Last cruise. 6 water and 3 bubbly wine. ( same points) —speaking of same points. On quantum received $1000 comped and this cruise it was a tad under$600. But they could not adjust the free grand suite benefit. —only drinking glasses in bathroom. We just brought extra up from park cafe. — no invites for art show ( not that I care). Or any paperwork. when I questioned the above to guest services. They said refer to app when I referred to app. Nothing there. so I asked concierge about why I did not get any notification of any events he apologized and spoke to hotel manager. now we do not consider ourselves special in any way. the grand suite was a comped cabin. we were happy. but for those who pay for the perks, well they may not know they are not getting them because they do not know about them. oh. One funny one. I asked for one carton of milk one day and you thought I wanted the whole cow. The officer hummed and hawed and reluctantly got it for me. The area at breakfast that has them was empty. How hard is it to restock!!! It may seem trivial. but we did receive little pillow tokens on most nights. suite pool deck. EXCELLENT!!!!! loved it. later

Do not know. Only visited suite lounge.

CROWN AND ANCHOR NUMBERS Borrowed from fellow cruiser.

Where was I????? Oh yea. 3. Very active cruise blog on another social media site. We could not believe that we had over 1000 active participants posting often. Some days we had over 500 posts/pictures and just plain old scoop. We had foodies updates. Free bottled water. Sharing of OTC meds for ailments. Group spontaneous meets. Hot slot machines. Seats available for shows. Vacant loungers. card games board games. You name it. We even found out about the misbehaving kids. Backup plumbing. Chair hogs. And the pictures of all the events was remarkable. The one thing everyone commented on was lack of presence by cruise director. At one of the pool games. A chant was started. “Elvis left the building”. people wondered where he was. We had heard rumor of an employee named Elvis who was cruise director. But only saw him at Crazy Quest. He must get paid to do nothing. We also were able to follow families activities and which excursion were great and which were bad. The usual negativity on Jamaica. Wait wait wait. And many excursions arrived back to port 9 min before all aboard. One poster shared his excursion thru RCI was to be 3 hours. From the time he got in the bus ( not counting time waiting on hot concrete ) till back in port was 5 1/2 hours. Yup everything runs on Jamaican time. We heard that 3 ambulances met our ship when we arrived back at FLL. One was for a guest request. 2 were not. 😔 Captain Angel was everywhere. Eagerly talking and making his rounds. Many open times for paid dining. Hearing major disappointment with CHOPS. Very happy that the quality of desserts went downhill. Saved my hips. However the ice cream dessert section in the WJ did my belly in ( or should I say out). The thread is still active and many are arriving home with respiratory ailments. But the worst thing do far is 10 family members posted that they are staying in FLL post cruise. When they arrived at they’re hotel there was a sign on door. “CLOSED”. Yup. Out of business. They were lucky to find another hotel. OK. EXTRA ADDED ATTRACTION. DUCK DUCK DUCK. On this cruise they were everywhere and everyday someone somewhere put more out. There were thousands of them. OMG WE WERE INFESTED. If you didn’t find a duck you were either blind, drunk or never left your cabin. 3d ducks blow up ducks st Patrick ducks Star Wars ducks Outback ducks( cheap freebies with drinks) mini ducks Disney ducks So many ducks you needed a container to put them in. Many happy collectors. Next up. MORE RCI CUTBACKS. Be safe.