JUST THE FACTS MA'AM: DINKS. First cruise as Diamond Plus. Age irrelevant as it does not match maturity level on cruises.

PRECRUISE: Flew in Saturday. Did Snooze & Cruise with Courtyard. Worked well - mostly. Explanation to come.* Waited about 10 minutes for Travelynx. Courtyard was fine, simple, easy, convenient. Met our buddies and spent dinner time at Fishlips. Very nice night. Fairly early to bed. We requested a 10:30 shuttle but it was delayed in traffic. So they put us on the 11 am bus. Shuttle showed but since we were on bus and luggage loaded we were trapped. *Hindsight, had the 10:30 shuttle worked, we probably would have been further up in the Evil Line. Arrived at port around 11:30 ish. Computers down - sea pass issues. two long hours later, we are boarded. As usual, port personnel not the greatest about communicating what the heck is going on.

CHECK IN/FIRST DAY: Quick and painless. But GLITCH. We had linked our reservations with our friends for dining. We met 4 cruises ago as tablemates and have linked ever since. Every single time, Royal manages to screw it up. This time was the WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER. We checked online pre-cruise that we were linked - both of us saw it with our very own eyes. So you can imagine the reaction when we see that we are at table 306 and they are at table 307! COME ON ROYAL - HOW HARD IS THIS? I truly understand boo boos but when you SEE IT and they still get it wrong for the third freaking time!! ACK! So we stomp to the maitre'd who fixes it. He was probably afraid of my red hair bursting into flame from the look I gave him. Lunch in the Windjammer - same old same old. Food was fine - no surprises. Honey stung chicken freshest I've had. This is usually the only Jammer meal we do. However, we had dinner in there on St Thomas night - more on that later. Rooms open at 1:30. SCORE! Luggage is already there. We unpack quickly - priorities people. We have pinacoladas to drink. Pool Bar - mustard drill - Pool Bar. We end up at a Solarium table by the time Sailaway comes since Pool Bar was packed. Read more