Sigyn

What is Wonderland like? It looks interesting. I read a little about it. My son can be picky about food - he's 15 - but he's getting to where he tries more things than he used to. Do teenagers tend to like Wonderland?

Is it at something like 12:01 am on the first day of the month?

This is the first time I'm sailing with Royal Caribbean. I booked a neighborhood balcony guarantee stateroom two days ago. Just received an email with RoyalUP offers. Not familiar with it, but have bid on room upgrades on other cruise lines. I've now read some of this thread, and read other articles on the process. Trying to keep this bonus cruise inexpensive since it's a mother-son extra vacation we're squeezing in between the holiday cruise we just did and our Alaskan cruise in July. I'm willing to make a small offer on a balcony that fronts the ocean, but not much, so I don't know if there's really a purpose. There are only 13 ocean-front regular balconies left for this sailing that leaves on April 1.

I can understand that. I was in a savings mode at that moment. I had just changed our AQ veranda to a non-AQ without a drink or wi-fi package and saved $3,000, so to change it to a family balcony and add $1,400 back to the cost didn't make sense. And now it's all worked out, for just $360 more I was able to get a sunset veranda. And even better, I used some of the savings to buy an unplanned $2,900 bonus cruise to do a mother-son cruise for spring break with my son in five weeks. 🙂

Yes, that's it. One of those popped open a week or so ago and it was quite a bit more. Way more than I was willing to spend. It was about $600 or $700 more pp. We're on deck 8.

That is a very important tip!!! Thank you!

How much are they without a package?

yes, my mistake. I thought I was posting in east coast. ack.

we are on deck 8, cabin 8170. looks like we got lucky! thanks for your input. that's my husband's favorite saying - go big or go home. love it! I've never stayed in an aft balcony. I'm looking forward to experiencing my first. Why are they better on M-class than other ships?

I'd love to hear what you thought of your room after your February cruise - you might still be on it given that you said it was 2023 with three legs and it's currently Feb. 24. I just booked an SV on the Millennium that's one deck up, Cabin 8170, for our cruise this July to Alaska. Would love to find out about the furniture on the veranda, etc. Hope your cruise is amazing!

I just had the opportunity to switch my regular veranda cabin on the Millennium to a Sunset Veranda when I noticed one come open, so I grabbed it. Good decision or not? No idea. We're doing an Alaskan cruise in July and it cost me an extra $176 pp to do the switch. Seemed worth it to me for the bigger balcony and gorgeous views we'll see from the aft of the ship. I looked and it appears there are only nine Sunset Verandas on the Millennium. There are a few other aft balconies but they are bigger and hold five passengers and have a sliding partition. Has anyone here stayed in a Sunset Veranda on an M-class ship? I watched videos and they look pretty awesome.

Where did I copy the cruise prices, or the airline prices? They were from the cruise websites, and the airline websites. And yes, clear on the locations. We sailed out of Port Canaveral in December. Thanks for the reminder, tho, because I'm sure some people don't realize that Port Canaveral is an hour away from Orlando. I miswrote things in my initial post, starting in Miami, ending in Orlando, etc., etc., but too late to change it now. All is good. 🙂 LOL. I work from home, get tired of working all day and don't feel like cooking at home, too (I'm a marketing executive) love to just click, click, click and order food sometimes. And I love clothes. And purses. And shoes. So I will put my expenditures on hold for a few months to pay for this extra cruise without causing us to resort to credit cards. hate those!

Curious what everyone's favorite restaurants are on RCCL ships, particularly Harmony of the Seas. Trying to figure out all the details I need to know since I just booked my first Royal Caribbean cruise and it's in 37 days.

That's funny!!!! It really is a great steakhouse with amazing bourbon cocktails, and costs less than the big chains that still have great steak like Ruth's Chris or Morton's. (I say it like that because I'm not a fan of chain restaurants in general. But those two are delicious despite being chain restaurants.) If you make it back out here, Steak & Bourbon is another wonderful place to visit in Louisville.

Absolutely! My husband is the budget-minded one in our household. Before I booked, he asked me how I was going to redistribute funds to pay for this trip since it's above and beyond the $1,000 a month we save for travel. I decided to eliminate my $400-a-month GrubHub/DoorDash orders and my $300-a-month clothing-for-me budget for a few months. And a fancy wine dinner we were doing in early March for $250. Disposable income redistributed. Fiscally responsible husband happy. And it didn't affect his golf club membership or new golf clubs or garage remodeling plans. 🙂

I'm blown away by the fact that she put a video with her daughter on the toilet on YouTube.

It's rather ironic that I fussed and worried about a few hundred bucks here and there on a cruise fare, and in the end, despite looking at airfares as well prior to booking, I ended up spending $2,000 on two flights to Miami. Two-thirds the cost of the cruise! The fare jumped by $200 a person in literally two hours this morning as I was booking. Ack. Crazy airfares these days. I had hoped to use my frequent flyer miles on Delta for one of the tickets, but everything except first class was booked on the return for all but 6 am flights, so I had to switch to American Airlines. Again, there were plenty of return tickets when I last checked three days earlier. Things move so fast with airline tickets. I'm happy it's all booked, however, despite not intending to pay $5K for a bonus vacation with my son. I did recently change the room on my upcoming Celebrity cruise to Alaska with my husband from an Aqua Class cabin to a regular balcony cabin when it suddenly came open, saving us $3,000. Now I'm extra glad I did - it literally bought me an extra cruise with our son. (Not counting airfare!)

Exciting! One of my all-time favorite movies.

Duh. I posted this on WEST coast departures. Not EAST. Sigh. It's early.

Thank you! I did a search but obviously wasn't thorough enough.

Would it be possible to easily make a 11:50 am flight out of the Miami airport after debarkation, or should I choose a 1:40 pm flight?

My son and I will be on the Harmony on April 1. What is the current Broadway show? Is it still Grease?

Thanks for the info. The ship is Harmony of the Seas.

It's called Malone's. They have one location in Louisville and a couple in Lexington. Amazing steak and great bourbon selection.

Um, that's not enough bourbon. I live in Kentucky. This is our local steakhouse's selection of bourbon.