Royal Caribbean Cruisers -- How Are Things Where You Are? (was "Routine" ​ 😁 ​day in lockdown... how was yours?)

[Tree_skier]

27 minutes ago, singinalot said:

granted it was a holiday weekend, but I paid $300 a night to have blood stains on the carpet, crumbs on the carpet, shades that didn’t go up, and a digital key that only worked on our room door and no where else in the hotel…which eliminates the need for having a digital key since I had to go to the front desk a couple of times 

Ugh, nightmare!!

[davekathy]

29 minutes ago, singinalot said:

granted it was a holiday weekend, but I paid $300 a night to have blood stains on the carpet, crumbs on the carpet, shades that didn’t go up, and a digital key that only worked on our room door and no where else in the hotel…which eliminates the need for having a digital key since I had to go to the front desk a couple of times 

Holiday weekend or not, your experiences are unacceptable no matter where or the hotel chain. I would be speaking with the hotel manger and also with Hilton concerning your unacceptable experiences. 

[island lady]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

Yesterday was a day that I dread...clothes shopping day.  I have almost no sense of fashion and very quickly develop a feeling of confusion/frustration when trying to pick out clothes that will look good on me AND will match.  Being red/green colorblind doesn't help.  I typically buy clothes about once a year, when I buy many new things and get rid of some older things.  It's a chore that I prefer to do once rather than repeatedly.

 

"We" decided that we need some new clothes for our upcoming Allure cruise (less than 2 weeks away!).  About 99% of the time, we can get everything that we need either on our island, just across the causeway, or via online ordering.  While I could get away with online ordering (if it's a large sized shirt or 36 inch pants, it will fit), Micheline must try everything on first.  She hasn't yet adopted the idea of ordering online and just returning what doesn't work.  Her "hit rate" of things that look good hanging on the rack AND fit her well is only about 10%.  We therefore drove about 45 minutes to a large shopping area called St. Johns Town Center.  It has stores for all of the big name brands and has both a Dillards and a Nordstrom.  The other Jacksonville area people here will certainly know where I'm talking about.

 

We started at Dillards.  Micheline headed upstairs to the Women's Department while I went, by myself, to the Men's Department.  I walked around for about 30 minutes picking our some "candidates" for purchase.  I tried to stretch this time out so that Micheline would have more time to wander through the large selection of women's clothes.  After finding Micheline in the Women's Department and giving her more time to finalize her purchases, I dragged her down to the Men's Department to review my candidates.  She helpfully corrected me by telling me where I was wrong about what I thought I liked, and even found a few more things that should look good.  I nearly choked though when I saw the total at the cash register.  If there's one thing that I like less than the process of clothes shopping, it's seeing how expensive some of those clothes can be.  Good thing that Tommy Bahama has a clearance rack.

 

After a few more stops at other stores, and a break for lunch, we made it home in time for happy hour.  If you happen to also be on the Allure Sept 19 cruise, look for me.  I'll be the guy wearing the snazzy new clothes.

 

 

 

You are not alone.  I detest clothes shopping, and am thrilled when I find something I like and can repeat it via online purchase...over and over again, changing them out a bit by picking different colors of the same brand and size.  Then the things I like get discontinued.  😣

 

Oh well, have not had to buy business clothes now for 12 years...and lately...no cruise clothes for the last two years.  😮  Just happy to wear the "retiree comfy clothes".   😄 

[island lady]

3 hours ago, helen haywood said:

When Menise wakes up I’ll show her Lucy’s pictures.

 

 

Awww...sweet baby needs a belly snuzzle!!  😉 

[jagsfan]

16 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Big storms rolled through this afternoon and are currently are again right now. There was actually a tornado about an 1.5 away from here. Rotation was actually just detected in the same area again just now. 
 

Just an example of what the sky showed us here. 
 

 

 

A few photos from closer to the lake. Found on Twitter. 
 

 

Yikes!

[FromSea2ShiningSea]

30 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

Great stuff, I’m looking forward to reading about trip.  We loved our week on Serenade and seeing yours will bring back fond memories.  Will you be posting updates here or will you have a separate thread?

 

I'm not sure yet.  Depends on how reliable the internet service will be.  It will be sort of semi-live.  I'm comfortable with Dani's thread and the people on here so I may just stick around here as long as Dani doesn't mind.  I think another cruiser on this cruise, Ryano, is going to do a live review on the main board.  

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, Sunshine3601 said:

GROSS!     $300 a night for a Hampton Inn -- Ugghhh!     

Well other than problems with hotel which hopefully you didn't spend much time in and kept your shoes/slippers when in the room sounds like you had an amazing weekend with Mom.    Looks like you had great weather too!

$300.00 a night for Hampton Inn (or most chain hotels) considering post covid pricing, this location and this time of the year isn't bad. Our experiences this year with hotel prices is they have at least doubled compared to last year. But all our hotel rates have been locked in for this year from booking a year out. So we didn't get hit with the pandemic pricing.  We've got another Homewood Suites booked for this year for two nights at the end of September I made last September. The price for this September is 2x's what I locked it in for last September. Ridiculous!!  Again locked in with 2020 rates. The rooms haven't been serviced daily like in the past. We requested fresh towels daily with no issues. But we did notice the check in times are an hour later compared to previous years.

Edited September 8, 2021 by davekathy

[jagsfan]

15 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I can’t beat that but I may tie it.  While waiting for the food to be brought out at a slow moving college banquet, I was wondering why no one was eating the plate of cheese.  So hungry and while everyone else was talking I grab the "cheese" and tossed it in my mouth. After biting into it I realized it was butter!  The napkin came in handy. 

Bad feeling, wasn’t it! And I love butter!

I was trying to look like (I think) that I meant to eat it and wasn’t just unobservant. 

I did use a napkin in Tokyo, though. 

It was a private dinner in the Ana Hotel, and the buffet was loaded with huge silver serving pieces. Very ornate, like they burglarized Buckingham Palace. 
The food was over the top, too. Chateaubriand, Truffles in a sauce, white asparagus, all the good stuff. 
Everybody flocked  around the table, loading their plates. 
Against the wall on the other side was some Japanese food. Nobody was even looking at it. I was embarrassed that we were all ignoring our host’s culture.
I was talking to a member of the hotel staff, and we wound up by that lonely table. While he was talking, I reached down, picked something up, and put it in my mouth without looking. 
I bit down on it, and discovered it was a tentacle, and I swear I could feel little suckers on it. 
I grabbed a napkin and tried to be discreet spitting that thing out. 
This was after the Queenstown incident, and you’d have thought I learned something. 
Nowadays I look things over very carefully before I pick them up. 
 

[Sea Dog]

Hey question to all my friends here. Just got a email to RoyalUP.  I've never bid on one before. We are currently in a junior suite for three people. The Grand Suite two bedroom would be a great upgrade. When you click on the slider it goes from 0 to 800. When I move to a number say $600 is says USD per guest (2). What does the 2 mean? Would I pay just for the first two guests or would I pay per guest as in 3 which is how many are in our cabin. Also what would be a good bid. Do low bids even win? Curious what experiences you all have had with this?

[jagsfan]

8 hours ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

Finally I can share with you- I'm going on a cruise!  Boarding Ovation Friday 9/10, Seattle to Alaska. I wanted to wait for the Covid test results first before saying anything.

 

Took the PCR test at Kaiser yesterday 9/7.  The test itself was not bad at all.  It was not a brain tickler like I feared.  Results- Negatory!  We also had the Rapid Antigen test scheduled at CVS today just in case the PCR results didn't come back in time.  We went ahead and cancelled those appointments. We would've had to travel quite a distance for the CVS test anyway.  No local CVS offer the Rapid test.  

 

This will be our second cruise to Alaska.  Our first to Alaska was a family cruise on Radiance in 2004 for my in-law's 50th Anniversary.  That was our first cruise ever (not for my in-laws but us).  It was a super WOW experience.

 

Our last cruise before the lockdown was Adventure October 2019 Snowbird Migration.  Loved visiting Montreal and Quebec before the cruise.  I would do that again.

 

We will fly out to Seattle Thursday morning.  Plan to visit Pike Place Market and Space Needle.  And then board Ovation Friday at noon. 

 

I will try to share as much of Ovation and Alaska as I can with you all.  🛳️ 🎶 🍹 Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise 🎶 🎵 🛳️.  Song stuck in my head now.

Please let us enjoy it vicariously. I love Alaska cruising. 

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

What does the 2 mean? Would I pay just for the first two guests or would I pay per guest as in 3 which is how many are in our cabin. Also what would be a good bid. Do low bids even win? Curious what experiences you all have had with this?

You pay for two people, regardless of how many in the cabin. Low bids do win. Follow the main Royal Up thread.

[Sea Dog]

Just now, Biker19 said:

You pay for two people, regardless of how many in the cabin. Low bids do win. Follow the main Royal Up thread.

Thanks I will. 

[jagsfan]

1 hour ago, singinalot said:

granted it was a holiday weekend, but I paid $300 a night to have blood stains on the carpet, crumbs on the carpet, shades that didn’t go up, and a digital key that only worked on our room door and no where else in the hotel…which eliminates the need for having a digital key since I had to go to the front desk a couple of times 

Well, yuk!

[Sunshine3601]

6 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Hey question to all my friends here. Just got a email to RoyalUP.  I've never bid on one before. We are currently in a junior suite for three people. The Grand Suite two bedroom would be a great upgrade. When you click on the slider it goes from 0 to 800. When I move to a number say $600 is says USD per guest (2). What does the 2 mean? Would I pay just for the first two guests or would I pay per guest as in 3 which is how many are in our cabin. Also what would be a good bid. Do low bids even win? Curious what experiences you all have had with this?

Usually the bid price is $xxx amount per person I don't recall seeing a 2 in parenthesis before.     

There have been several people on various threads that have said they bid close to the lowest and won but it all depends on how booked your sailing is.   

If this your retirement cruise, I say go for it, do it, enjoy it!!!

[A&L_Ont]

Just now, jagsfan said:

Well, yuk!

Agreed. 

[jagsfan]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Yesterday was a day that I dread...clothes shopping day.  I have almost no sense of fashion and very quickly develop a feeling of confusion/frustration when trying to pick out clothes that will look good on me AND will match.  Being red/green colorblind doesn't help.  I typically buy clothes about once a year, when I buy many new things and get rid of some older things.  It's a chore that I prefer to do once rather than repeatedly.

 

"We" decided that we need some new clothes for our upcoming Allure cruise (less than 2 weeks away!).  About 99% of the time, we can get everything that we need either on our island, just across the causeway, or via online ordering.  While I could get away with online ordering (if it's a large sized shirt or 36 inch pants, it will fit), Micheline must try everything on first.  She hasn't yet adopted the idea of ordering online and just returning what doesn't work.  Her "hit rate" of things that look good hanging on the rack AND fit her well is only about 10%.  We therefore drove about 45 minutes to a large shopping area called St. Johns Town Center.  It has stores for all of the big name brands and has both a Dillards and a Nordstrom.  The other Jacksonville area people here will certainly know where I'm talking about.

 

We started at Dillards.  Micheline headed upstairs to the Women's Department while I went, by myself, to the Men's Department.  I walked around for about 30 minutes picking our some "candidates" for purchase.  I tried to stretch this time out so that Micheline would have more time to wander through the large selection of women's clothes.  After finding Micheline in the Women's Department and giving her more time to finalize her purchases, I dragged her down to the Men's Department to review my candidates.  She helpfully corrected me by telling me where I was wrong about what I thought I liked, and even found a few more things that should look good.  I nearly choked though when I saw the total at the cash register.  If there's one thing that I like less than the process of clothes shopping, it's seeing how expensive some of those clothes can be.  Good thing that Tommy Bahama has a clearance rack.

 

After a few more stops at other stores, and a break for lunch, we made it home in time for happy hour.  If you happen to also be on the Allure Sept 19 cruise, look for me.  I'll be the guy wearing the snazzy new clothes.

 

 

Where did you have lunch?

Coopers Hawk and Capital Grille are two good places. By the time you go clothes shopping again, there might be 30 new choices!

[A&L_Ont]

I saw my lovely dentist today. I had two cavities filled, an upper and bottom both on my right hand side.  I’m frozen from my eye to my chin. Can’t wait for it to wear off, so I can feel a my sore jaw. 

[Tree_skier]

28 minutes ago, FromSea2ShiningSea said:

 

I'm not sure yet.  Depends on how reliable the internet service will be.  It will be sort of semi-live.  I'm comfortable with Dani's thread and the people on here so I may just stick around here as long as Dani doesn't mind.  I think another cruiser on this cruise, Ryano, is going to do a live review on the main board.  

I’llbe looking forward to your updates… Please greet your husband from me.

[bobmacliberty]

15 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Do low bids even win?

 

I usually bid $20-30 dollars over the min bid, assuming that others may just make the min bid and my additional $$ will be the difference.  I've never won, so I have no idea how good this strategy is.  Don't tell anyone else. 😁

[Tree_skier]

2 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I saw my lovely dentist today. I had two cavities filled, an upper and bottom both on my right hand side.  I’m frozen from my eye to my chin. Can’t wait for it to wear off, so I can feel a my sore jaw. 

😩

[bobmacliberty]

4 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

Where did you have lunch?

Coopers Hawk and Capital Grille are two good places. By the time you go clothes shopping again, there might be 30 new choices!

 

Cheesecake Factory.  Parked between there and Dillard's so a short walk.  I also occasionally go to the PGA Tour Superstore near there, and Micheline saw yesterday what looks like a large JoAnn Fabrics.  She'll be back there when she isn't dragging me around with her.

[George C]

Although I paid with points price for our Hampton inns in Buffalo area were about same as past years about 150 a night  ( this was in July) and last weekend Hilton garden inn was slightly under 150 a night same as previous. We had to specify we wanted our room to be cleaned every day and all three hotels. 

[davekathy]

3 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

I saw my lovely dentist today. I had two cavities filled, an upper and bottom both on my right hand side.  I’m frozen from my eye to my chin. Can’t wait for it to wear off, so I can feel a my sore jaw. 

By then HH should be starting and after a few drinks your sore jaw will no longer be an issue. 🍻

[davekathy]

14 minutes ago, George C said:

Although I paid with points price for our Hampton inns in Buffalo area were about same as past years about 150 a night  ( this was in July) and last weekend Hilton garden inn was slightly under 150 a night same as previous. We had to specify we wanted our room to be cleaned every day and all three hotels. 

Man your lucky. IMO, a lot depends on location and time of year. I also pay with HH points and all our 2021 (July, September and October) stays would have increased compared to last year if I hadn't booked a year out. Currently 2022 is not looking that great, price/point wise so we haven't booked yet. We're in a holding pattern and waiting to see what happens in January. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by davekathy

[jagsfan]

Just now, singinalot said:

 

 

Gorgeous photos. I love how strong the colors are.