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We just completed an 8-day cruise on the Odyssey and we had 4 sea days. As you can imagine, the chair hogs were out in full force but Odyssey’s staff were ready. Each pool area had at least two attendants that worked all day long…They were tagging all unoccupied chairs and removing the items if the person didn’t return in time. They were using little yellow stickies to mark the time they placed the tag, the number of chairs and they placed the tag on the chair in a location the person would not notice. The staff got lots of thanks and I only witness one upset lady…She came back three hours later and was upset her stuff was removed. Way to go Royal!!!

Ok. I’m gonna try and upload these Ocean World photos. Wish me luck. I know this is hard to read but it will give you an idea of the content of the Park. It’s much bigger than I would have thought before I saw it for myself. Again, maybe not so easy to read, but some idea of the show schedules This is the only photo I got of an actual dolphin since the dolphin encounter wasn’t included in our excursion. I will say though, they make it very easy for you to watch all of the interactions/encounters, even if you haven’t paid to participate. The shows are all readily visible from a distance. You just don’t get to interact with the animals if you haven’t paid for the excursion. Lots of opportunities to observe. We (at least, I did not. Dan watched a bit) did not watch the dolphin show but this is a photo of the dolphin show area. As you can see, it’s pretty easy to watch a show from this vantage point even if you’re not directly involved. Fresh water pool Dan actin’ the fool. This is by the kiddie area of the fresh water pool. OBTW, the fresh water pool was COLD They have 2 bird houses. This is the macaw area. Beautiful birds. The second bird house was for the smaller birds, primarily love birds. No explanation needed for this one… …or this one… The snorkeling area had a couple of plexiglass viewing areas. Lots of fish and coral to see. I really enjoyed snorkeling in this area but we were fortunate enough to have done this early. Later in the day it was crowded and chaotic as there were kids in there who had no idea how to snorkel and were thrashing about maniacally. I’m sure it was very disruptive to the fish. Glad I missed that… Bizarre photo of Dan in the snorkeling area. Actual arms and reflections of arms. Yikes ! This is a rather crappy photo of the shark encounter area. It’s actually quite large. The sharks in this interaction are nurse sharks and the are extremely wimpy as sharks go. They ran and hid in the rocks once the snorkelers entered the water. When this photo was taken (before the snorkelers got in) the sharks were just looking for a free meal. They know when the chow is coming out ! Moving on to the sea lions. Here is Dan about to get a kiss. While I was taking this picture, I had an employee telling me, “Sorry, no photographs allowed”. I just ignored him and took this one but put my phone away after that. I had no interest in seeing the inside of a Dominican jail. After the encounter was over, photography wasn’t a problem. This was during an actual sea lions show which was open to the public Obligatory balancing-the-ball-on-the-snout photo. Heres the sea lion (I can’t remember his name) giving mouth-to-mouth (or boca-a-boca, depending upon which narration you were listening to) to an unfortunate member of the staff who nearly drowned when this SAME sea lion pushed him off the rocks, moments earlier ! Scene of the crime… Welp, that’s all of the exciting things we saw and experienced at Ocean World. If you get the chance to go when in Puerto Plata, I do recommend it.

Tonite dinner was Izumi. There is no hibachi on EX so it’s always sushi only….which is fine with me. I’m not a fan of the hibachi menu (or the “show”) anyway. This was night #2 of our 3 night dining package. Chops on night #9, the last night. Insider tip: if you see chopsticks nearby, this is probably NOT guacamole. We went to the casino after dinner (who’s surprised) and it was a mixed bag. Dan and I played some Dancing Drums (b/c the pigs were all occupied) and we lost a little bit. Dan went and played some video poker and won while I played some UTH and lost. Ugh. Back in the room now. Tomorrow is St Kitts (again) and we have no plans to get off. Today was another visit to Grenada and we just got off for a little while and browsed the terminal shops. I bought Dan a couple of new Caribbean shirts which he DESPERATELY needed. He’s been wearing the same sad ones we bought in Aruba probably 12 years ago ! Most of them are missing buttons and I’m a terrible wife who has never fixed them for him. It’s easier just to buy some new shirts ! He now has 2 new ones…

Today was Puerto Plata and we did the Ocean World Sea Lion Encounter & Snorkeling with sharks and Lunch. This is one of the best excursions we have ever taken. I have lots of pix but of course, they are not yet on my iPad so I will have to post them later. We had soooo much fun and saw so many awesome critters. Ocean World is a Dominican Sea World -an Aqua park with shows and exhibitions. I was very surprised to find it was very well maintained and well organized. I have been to aqua parks before in other countries that were…well….sad. But this one is not. It was thoroughly enjoyable. There were dolphin and sea lion shows as well as the shark encounter and multiple snorkeling/swimming aquariums. There were aviary enclosures (small but fun). There was a beachfront swimming area as well as fresh water pools. Some of the interactions were additional $$ (dolphins, in our case since we paid for the sea lions and shark interactions) but we did not pay for anything more than our original excursion included and we had a blast ! Lunch was a pretty typical Caribbean buffet….nothing to write home about, but it wasn’t bad….but was very busy ! Transportation from the port was in a big, comfortable, air conditioned bus….may 15 minutes from the port, fast, efficient and well organized. I will definitely recommend this excursion or the one like it that included the dolphin interaction. This excursion wasn’t cheap. It was nearly $200 PP but you got a lot for your money and I think it was worth the cost. We go on VERY few excursions. We were exhausted by the time we got back to the ship. The bus left the port area at 8:30 and we got back at 2:00 so it’s a very full day and there’s lots to do.

My phone and iPad finally synched, so I have some photos from Antigua and Grenada. Let’s see how this goes. I’ve had some trouble spacing them and inserting text. I’m terrible at this stuff. This is the floating platform in Antigua for the stingray swim. It made the entire experience so much better than in Grand Cayman. It was much easier to get into and out of the water These mysterious blobs are obviously stingrays. They are so docile and sweet. You can almost see the tail ! This is St George, Grenada with Explorer in the background. I really liked Grenada. Nice people, beautiful island, shitty roads. Obviously, I’m having a bad hair day. The town of St George really reminds me of Curaçao, which is one of my very favorite places. This town just looks so quaint. Shamefully, I got very few photos of Ft Frederick. These monkeys are native to the island and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know their proper species name. We caught a fleeting glance at one in the rain forest. …and finally, the waterfall at Annandale. Very beautiful place. Kinda like a cenote in Mexico.

Dan and I hit a Royal Flush on video poker tonite ! Woohoo. Too bad we were only playing a quarter. …but it made us much healthier than we were ! He will definitely make Prime on this cruise as he’s more than halfway there and this is only night 3 of 9. Yikes. Sorry this picture is so big ! About 5 minutes ago we had an Alpha, Alpha, Alpha call come over the stateroom speakers. I don’t recall them usually making that announce inside the rooms. It is for a passenger cabin on deck 12. I hope whoever it is will be ok.

Others have already posted tibs and tabs about this but I don't think there's a thread devoted to it...at least, not that I know of. There has been a CP "sale" going on for a couple of days. It is "on again/off again" but it's back on today. BUT - BE CAREFUL. Some of the dining packages include gratuities in the "list price" and some do not so be careful cancelling something that you already have until you know for SURE that it's going to be a savings. 1. It appears as though MOST of the packages - UDP and 3 night, already include the grats. If the grats are included, it will say so below the advertised price. If it says "Gratuities Included" then the final price will simply be the number of packages that you are purchasing, multiplied by the price of the package(s) you are purchasing. If it says "pre-cruise savings", the grats are NOT included in that price so you will have to calculate the total price to see what the final $$ will be. 2. It APPEARS as though the requirement to eat at least one meal on nights #1 or #2 is gone. The CP no longer required me to choose a "first" meal time. That's a good thing, IMO. Hopefully you can now use your packages on any days/nights that you choose. 3. It appears as though all of the individual restaurants still require you to calculate gratuities....IOW, the grats are not included in the posted price for individual restaurants. Some of the individual restaurants that I checked were less $$ than when I first purchased and some were not. Just be sure that you know what you'll be paying BEFORE you cancel anything and/or purchase at the "reduced" price. It seems like the package prices include grats. 4. I was not able to use any of my available OBC when I purchased/repurchased my specialty dining. It gave me the option of using the OBC but the final price was never reduced by the amount of the OBC so I am HOPING that the OBC is still there. This is uncertain to me at the moment. Hopefully the OBC will reappear in a day or so. 5. As far as I can tell, the ability to make pre-purchased dining reservations ahead of time has still not been implemented. I was never prompted to make any specific reservations. 6. Other items in the CP may also be on sale. I have only looked at dining so I am unaware if other areas of the CP are similarly affected. The prices are pretty good (considering the upward trend for specialty pricing) and I saved quite a bit of $$ by cancelling and repurchasing but it took me a while to figure out the secret code.

I realize that this topic is about the Game Show but I just can not resist saying: "When did Love & Marriage become so unpopular?" For some it was right after they said "I do"

So, I will continue with this thread for the fifth and final leg of this saga. We boarded Wonder today (5-5). This is our Pinnacle cruise. Drove up from Port St Lucie. It’s about an hour and fifteen minutes’ drive. Got to the terminal right at 9:00, which is precisely our target for terminal arrival. Getting into the parking garage was the same madhouse that it always is. After about 10 minutes of inching along we finally got to the luggage drop area and then circled around to the parking lane. There, our luck got better as we immediately found a handicapped parking space right by the elevators on level 2. We were the first in line for the Suites/Pinn line and entrance into the terminal area began at 9:45 sharp. We waited a bit in the Suites/Pinnacle lounge area and boarding began at 10:15. We did our muster drill as soon as we boarded and then went straight to deck 8 to retrieve our Seapass cards from the door. They were there ! We had a heck of a time getting to deck 17 ! The elevators wouldn’t go up to 17. There must be a secret of which I am not yet aware. We finally went to 16 and switched elevators which finally took us to 17. Then we had to trek around to find the entrance to the SL/CK. It’s 180 degrees backwards from the design of the other SL/CK ! Finally….seated in the SL, we waited for the CK maitre’d to show up so we could make dining rezzies. SO glad we did that first thing b/c by 11:00 the maitre’d kiosk at the SL was a madhouse ! We got all of our rezzies the way we wanted them so all is well. We are going to Mason Jar for lunch in 5 minutes ! Woohoo !

Rover!

I used the Facebook group's slot pull as an excuse to take a break from my work and leave my room. But I got there too late and they had already started so I played a little video poker instead and I'm up $25 for the cruise and have 28 casino points despite not wearing red undergarments Since it was 2:30 and I have 5:30 early seating in MDR, of course I went to the WJ before it closes at 3:00. They had shrimp pad thai...burger bun for reference.

27 days to go....... Since I made my brother prime, he gets a nice number of monthlies. Usually, they match with mine but of lesser value. Most of my offers are OVs and my brothers are interiors or "1 complimentary guest." It works out the same for us moneywise, but gets us double point, so we booked 2 sperate rooms for the first two sailings as the upgrade option is just OV when you combine. I hate OV so I will often just take the interiors, in this case the first two sailings are GTY. I normally prefer an aft cabin and to pick my own, but I also like a cheap sailing. I really spend minimal time in my room, so location takes a backseat to savings. My brother was excited about his first B2B and then he decided it would be nice to bring our mother along. She of course is sharing a room with him . But she didn't have enough vacation time to do all three, so she will just join us for the first two. We are gifting this as her Mother's Day present. For the first cruise, check-in opened on the 28th of March I believe. The earliest slot was 11am, which wasn't a big deal because we are flying in the day of......first flight out as usual. I never recommend this, but I have insurance and live in hub city, meaning there are usually 3-4 flights after mine that will get me there. Which brings me to a side rant: there used to be more flights. I remember when there were flights between 8pm-10pm that went to Mia, MCO and FLL. Now the last flight is often around 6:45 to 7pm, which is not ideal when flying with my mother who has church until at least 3pm and requires another couple of hours to be ready. So 5am flights are what I have to deal with, and the sucky part is my preferred airline makes those the most expensive flights. So even though I complain and say I hope to never fly them again, I am often stuck with SWA...... and their crappy boarding procedure . I don't know if 10/10:30 opened up, I didn't bother to check. We will be on the ship for 11 days so I can care less about getting an earlier time. Plus, there are no reservations required for Freedom class entertainment. My brother brought his own snorkeling gear, the price for snorkeling all day at PDCC is like $50 on sale now . No ecursions are planned. I used the barcode trick as soon as I checked in and I was able to see our room assignments. For the first leg we are on deck 3 in rooms #3253 and 3251. On the second leg we are on Deck 2 in rooms #2567 and 2569. I chose my own room for the last leg with deck 9 and room #9391. I was happy that the rooms were assigned so close to each other. We have traditional dining for all three legs at 8:30.........which will probably be 8 in most cases. Since the reservations are linked, they should sit us together at a smaller table, if we are assigned to an 8-top I will request a different table. My brother doesn't want people judging him as he eats all his meals. I will not be pre-purchasing anything. I get 2 free days as D+ and then can use my prime discount on the remainder. I will also be using my BOGO. There will be the B2B'rs lunch so I will take advantage of that to avoid the WJ. Plus, we will do embarkation day lunch at Playmakers. I plan to prepack each leg in its own packing cube. I am also bringing a ton of casino-friendly snacks as I have a 2025 S2S2S or B2B2B to plan. I am following @AshleyDillo advice and bring specific clothes for the casino, so the rest don't get smoky.

Sushi at Izumi tonite. For some reason, they brought Dan 2 full portions (8 pieces X 2 = 16 pieces !) of sushi when they normally only bring half that amount….OMG we are stuffed ! …and we are both dying of thirst now after all that soy sauce ! I got 2 rolls that were the normal size but I still had too much. I don’t know how he ate everything he did…God bless ‘im. We hit another $1000 jackpot on video poker….this time we hit 4 deuces on Deuces wild but luckily this time we were playing for $1 so it paid $1000. I totally forgot to take a picture this time. We were both so stunned ! Believe it or not, we are both still slightly “down” since we both had abysmal casino sessions on day 2….but it’s not horrible now with the 2 big (for us) wins last night and tonite. Tomorrow is Antigua. We’re swimming with the stingrays somewhere. We don’t have to meet our excursion until noon so we don’t have to worry about an early wake-up. Good !

Our family has always sailed in suites. DH and I in Jr Suites before we starting letting the kids tag along, and then the 2 bedroom grand every time the kids have been with us. We really love, and need, the extra space of the separate living room. DH is up without an alarm by 4:30 every morning, and he needs a place to go while the rest of us sleep until a more decent hour. DD is on the spectrum and needs a place to really move around to process the activities of the day before heading out to dinner. Being spoiled in the suite lounge has been a big perk for us too. We're budgeting to replace a car and living room furniture soon though, so we decided to try out connecting balconies for the next few cruises. We're almost diamond plus, so the drink vouchers help take care of what we are missing in the suite lounge, but we sure will miss the service and breakfast in Chops or Coastal Kitchen! Along for the ride: Myself, DH, DD (15), and DS (12) Rooms: 12150 and 12152 - pretty far forward for us aft facing dwellers. Itinerary: 7 day Western Caribbean - Galveston, Sea Day x2, Roatan, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Sea Day, back in Galveston. Pre cruise purchases: soda packages for the kids, 50 photo package (pared down from our usual 100), 24 bottle water package, 3 device internet. We have MTD with reservations at 6:45 each night. I would do 150 Central Park, Jamie's, or Sabor, but we were in a star class room a year ago on Allure, and didn't eat in the MDR. Since we have only had the new menus on our Liberty cruise this past fall, we will most likely stick with the MDR this time. Who knows, maybe DH and I will have a date night and just send the kids to the WJ. I'm sure we will do Johnny Rockets once for lunch - it's kind of a tradition, and the kids have already been asking about it. What else... I booked all our entertainment. I want to say it opened up about 45 days out. I meant to make a note, but forgot. I also was able to book Escape the Rubicon about a month ago. It's still showing on my calendar, and they haven't refunded my money yet, so hopefully it is opened back up. We have a little bit of OBC that will find its way to the casino from the RC card - we redeemed the points on the Bank of America site about 30 days out and they posted to the cruise planner just a couple days later. That's all I can think of for now - let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them along the way.

Just got back from dinner at the CK. The apps were really good. I had the smoky tomato soup and pork belly. Dan got a Caesar salad with a lobster tail on top. He said his filet was good but mine was only ok. I had a gristly end piece and that ruins the entire piece of meat for me. But I was so full from the apps that I didn’t care about the filet anyway. We shared a peanut butter crispy bar and a piece of cheesecake. I am now miserably full. We went up to the SL for a drink around 5:00 and I have to say - I am impressed (in a good way) with the SL/CK on Wonder. The view is so different from the othe O class ships. We really enjoyed sitting there and having a drink. That’s not something that we normally do (HH at the SL). After that we strolled down Central Park and recounted how our previous cruise on Wonder had been so different from this one. On our last Wonder cruise we were in a CP balcony and did not have access to the SL so never went there. I must say, when you can enjoy the SL/ CK it is a completely different experience. We then went to deck 4 and popped into the smoke-free casino where we both came away winners on the Dancing Drums. Then, back up to the CK for dinner and now back to the room. I had intended to go back to the casino but now I’m full, sleepy and tired so maybe an early night ?

I know everyone keeps asking about the gym so I just wanted to fill you in. I stuck my head in and it’s beautiful, huge, tons of machines. It was pretty busy in there. Then I promptly turned around and went to get some soft serve.

Multiple (bordering on endless) Facebook posts week after week, that at least one pool on Icon has been closed every single day of every cruise. This is due to parents allowing children who are not potty trained to go in the pools. Apparently many times it's the main large pool. Once it happens it's closed for the entire day to clean. People please don't be selfish. If your child is not potty trained, stick to splash pads. It literally takes a pool for 7000 people out of commission for the entire day. Selfish and ridiculous.

I’m not gonna start a new live blog for this FR shorty…I will just post a few nuggets here. The good news - we are in the top 10 Pinns on this sailing ! The bad news - there are only 9 Pinns onboard It’s raining big time today. I hear thunder out there ! We’re on our way [back] to Puerto Plata, DR. It’s our only port of call on this sailing. We are seeing more of this port than we are of Nassau, which I didn’t think humanly possible. We like PP so that’s fine with us. Lunch yesterday at Giovanni’s Kitchen and I’m happy to say that it was a great lunch. I have had few awesome meals at GK but this was really good. I got the Chicken Parmesan even though I knew it would fill me up and I would not be hungry for Chops (which was an entirely accurate prediction). Since I judge all meals relative to my non-ethic love for Chicken Parmesan, I can say, this was the BEST chicken parm yet ! It was super thin and extra crispy. It’s the new “bestest” standard. Dan had the seafood linguini and man, it was overflowing with clams and shrimp. Both meals were really excellent. Since we both really hate the “Welcome Aboard” menu, we went to Chops on our first BOGO voucher and it was very good. If I hadn’t still been stuffed from lunch, I think I could have rated it as “excellent “. I guess I should do that anyway. I can’t blame them for the fact that I stuffed my face at lunch. . We both got a filet and the steaks were very flavorful and tender. I felt a little bad for our next door neighbor. He ordered a T-bone and while I didn’t examine it closely, it looked “wrong”. He said it was underdone and gristly. IMO, when a customer is completely dissatisfied with his/her steak (which he clearly was), they should be offered something to replace it. He was not given such an offer. They were a young couple, probably inexperienced cruisers, and I think the poor service (in their case) left a sour taste in their mouths. I know it would have, for me. They never uttered a word of complaint. The second of our BOGO vouchers got kinda FUBAR but we got everything straightened out, eventually. When I made our rezzies (when we first boarded, yesterday) I told the gent helping us that I wanted Giovanni’s on the last day (day 4, which is Caribbean night -my very LEAST favorite menu) but it turns out he made the rezzie for night #2 and I didn’t catch it until later in the afternoon. When we went to Chops for dinner, I asked how we could go about fixing this and the Host (at Chops) said he would take care of it but that we must pay for the meal before the end of night #2. I thanked him but said that we would go over to Gios and do it rather than bugging him with doing it….since we have to pay, anyway. So we did just that. After dinner we walked over to Gios and got our rezzie changed and pre-paid our night 4 BOGO. So we got what we wanted in the end but with a little extra work that could been avoided (IMO). We’re going to the ice show today at 1:00 even though we have seen this show MANY times. There is a production show at 9:30 called Once Upon A Time, which I’m sure we’ve seen but I can’t recall it….so we will hop over there, most likely. I look for the ice show to be VERY crowded today with the crap weather…but hopefully we will be ok since we should have a reserved section. I say “should” b/c we seem to have randomly bad luck with reserved seating on some of the ships -particularly during afternoon performances. Sometimes there just isn’t any enforcement of the reserved areas so basically there IS no reserved area.

Oscar has been killing it with the mini menagerie.. Matches the theme of the little choking hazard I found yesterday..remote for scale. And got my B2B letter!

Dinner was very good. I had the garlicky shrimp and Dan had the seafood linguine. I was surprised that he chose the pasta dish as we had both eaten pasta for lunch at the B2B luncheon and Dan is not much of a pasta guy. But he did, and he said it was very good. I absolutely love their olive bread and you could tell that it had just come out of the oven. Oh, Lordy ! We both won a bit in the casino. We broke even on Dancing Drums and then played a bit of UTH and both cashed out ahead. I suppose my purple drawers we “red enough” to bring me a little luck ! Sea day tomorrow. We’re on our way to Puerto Plata, DR where we will be snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks !

To the room... There are so few rooms in this little loop and it's behind a door so likely to be pretty quiet. The wifi is fast in the room too From the decor it appears this is a bunch of newer rooms perhaps? It definitely looks different from my last room here: Got my C&A amenity.. Even the bathroom is a different tone from the last one..

Day 3 was pretty slow. Woke up at 9:27 so missed our breakfast for the first time on this trip. Had to go to you-know-where and was NOT happy about it. On EX, they use Chops as overflow seating for the WJ so that’s where we sat. I just got some fruit and a bowl of grits. Happy to get in and out quickly. it was a zoo. I did my usual morning routine - up to the CL for a cappuccino, then down to the computer lounge, which is right around the corner from our room on Deck 8. Rozel always cleans our room while we are on our morning walk-about but she got a late start today since we totally dicked up her schedule by sleeping in. I’m sure she was cursing us but still all smiles when we saw her in the hallway. I don’t deserve such good service. Today is a sea day; on our way to Falmouth. Since it’s the first (of 2) sea day, it is the traditional day for the Top Tier event. For some completely unknown reason, EX has the TTE at 5:00 ! What a lame time to do it ! Early diners have dinner at 5:00. We totally missed the TTE on the first leg but went today. I’m guessing there were maybe 20 people there ? It was embarrassing, TBH. They usually have the TTE on the first sea day at 10:30, followed immediately by the TT (Cheers with an officer) luncheon. That makes SO much more sense than doing it like they did it here. Of course, no luncheon on this shorty 5 night cruise so I really just DO NOT understand doing the TTE at 5:00. We visited both the CL and the SL during Happy Hour today - first time on this trip. The CL was D.E.D. The SL was much busier, which surprised me. I thought it would be reversed. Shows how much I know…. I took some pix but, as you all know by now, must wait for the pix to populate on my iPad. Gigi, the Suites Concierge, is leaving tomorrow in Jamaica for vacation. Not sure who will be taking her place. No casino today or tonite. I won a little at Ultimate last night but are being lazy today and staying in. Kinda nice, actually. We went to the ice show last night. We always enjoy the ice show no matter which ship it is. Sorry…nothing really interesting to report - oh wait ! I met @JustMeJoe last night ! That was very cool. Looking forward to chatting more since we also have the next cruise together.

So things really did pick up at Hideaway after my last post. By the time we left the place was packed. The music finally got to me….and I tagged out. Will I go back ? Probably not. There is very little at Hideaway that I could not get elsewhere on the island for -0- $$. 1. Hideaway pool is heated. I liked that…but I was still chilly when I got out of the water. 2. Dan said the choice of alcohol was better at Hideaway. E.g, he likes Grey Goose for his Bloody Mary and he said he couldn’t get that on the “regular” side. I have no idea since I’ve never had a [alcohol] drink at PDCC 3. Padded chairs and couches. I don’t recall seeing that outside of the Beach Club. Maybe they are somewhere that I haven’t seen. 4. No kids Other than these few things, the “regular “ side and Hideaway are the same (to me). We each had a crispy chicken/mozz sticks sandwich and I had 1/2 of a fried dough ball with powdered sugar on it (can’t think of what it’s called). Pretty tasty.

Lost $45 today but I won’t cry too much as I’m still “up” slightly for the first leg. I just have keep this momentum going for 2 more weeks ! I earned enough points for a comp cert myself although it’s the lowest level comp cert so the pickin’s are pretty slim. Most likely I will still use the cash value to upgrade Dans comp but I purchased a Next Cruise future cert so I will have the choice to book from the very short list of offered cruises if we choose to do that. We picked a 10 night EX in March 25 for Dans comp. I won’t be able to book it until tomorrow so I hope there are still some of the pano ocean views left by the time I get around to booking. I’ll take care of that while we’re in port on TAD. Dan enjoyed his lamb shank and I had the spaghetti in the MDR. I love that they put the Pinns at window tables (at least, whenever they can). It’s a nice perk. Also, on EX, Pinns have priority seating for MTD so the waiting is minimal. They told us to just go straight to the podium and that’s what we did. I will say, the MTD lines have been longer on EX than they had been on some of the other cruises we’ve taken recently. The priority seating was particularly nice on this cruise. We have the same room for leg #2 so we don’t have to pack - thank goodness ! So nice to be staying on when you see everyone else’s luggage outside and you are still snuggled in your stateroom ! It’s a great feeling. Stand by for Part II !

If you are trying to effect change for future builds, all you can really do is log the suggestion/complaint. There really are no next steps there. If you want to switch to a room that's guaranteed to have the bed setup you desire on your future sailing, you need to pay for the upgraded room.

Pretty lazy day today. Sea day. Spent a fair amount of time in the casino and happy to say that my upward trend ($$) is continuing. Nothing to crow about, just slightly “up” each time I go in there. Up is better than down ! Dan hit his goal of 3000 points so he made Prime and will get an instant comp reward. Whatever points I have (currently at a little over 1000), I will use to upgrade his comp offer with my otherwise useless $$ off reward. It was Royal night in the MDR. We both ordered the lobster as an appetizer since that portion is pretty small. I ordered the chicken Marsala as my main course and Dan ordered some curry shrimp dish (can’t remember the name). Both were very good. I will give my little Promenade view room some kudos (8311, 2T). I truly believe that this room is the quietest room we’ve ever had. It’s far enough aft to avoid the Promenade noise and there is absolutely no noise at all associated with the elevators. It’s very, very quiet and I love being so close to the aft elevators. We’ve been very comfortable in this room, which is a good thing since we will be here again on the next leg (5 nights, 4-14). For leg #3 (4-19), we have to move.

UGH. I had this witty and VERY lengthy post ALL done and was about to hit "submit" and LUCKILY I checked to be sure I was in the right thread and lo and behold I was NOT, so I lost the entire thing ! I blame @OCSC Mike. He told me to shut up with the negativity and get on with my blog for Grenada and SO I DID....but in the wrong thread. (Mike, you know I'm just teasing you. This was TOTALLY my fault). Anyway, I am in no mood to recreate that masterpiece so I will summarize Day 7/Grenada. Island - awesome. Tour (Grand Etang, Annandale falls and Fort Frederick....or some name similar to that) - excellent coverage of the island. WAAAYTOOO long. The roads are treacherous - narrow and bumpy. We hit every f'n bump on Grenada. Both Dan and I were never happier to get to the end of a tour. Enjoyed seeing the island though. I do have some photos but as with Antigua, they are on my phone and I have to get it to synch with my ipad (which may or may not happen)....so will post later. Dinner last night at Chops. Excellent as always. Casino - More good luck. Keep up the prayers - they are working ! We hit a "Major" (second to the highest) jackpot in Dancing Drums (close to, but not quite, $1000). Dan is still in the "hole" but I am now out of that damned hole ! YIPPEE ! Today - St Kitts but we are staying on the ship. Dinner tonite at Giovannis, which is our last specialty meal on this leg. We will be dining in the MDR on lobster and lamb shank nights. Thank goodness I finally remembered to verify that the ship knows that we are going to be staying on for 2 more sailings. Vanessa, the CL Concierge checked for us. They already knew we were staying on for next leg but they did not know that we were staying on for #3 (4-19). Now they do. WHEW. A new personal best for laundry-cramming. I got 29 pieces in this morning ! ECLIPSED (see what I did there ?) my previous best of 24. I am really getting good at this !

We’re pulling into St Thomas 2.5 hours early (Crown Bay). It’s 9:30 and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until noon. The Cap made an announcement that we pushed to get here early due to a medical emergency so I’m assuming it’s related to the AAA we heard last night, but that’s pure speculation. We are scheduled to leave at 8 PM. Strange schedule. We’re not getting off today in St Thomas but this remains one of my favorite ports as far as the view is concerned. It’s truly lovely here. Now that my expensive jewelry-buying days are behind me (thank goodness) I have little reason to disembark. …but for those of you who are still IN their expensive jewelry-buying days, St Thomas is an excellent choice. Today is my first W&F laundry day for this cruise. You’ll all be happy to hear that I have achieved a new “personal best” by stuffing 24 pieces into that W&F bag. I just keep getting better and better ! . I have begun using the “rolling” technique and it’s proving to be a game-changer ! So, today is doomsday for those who care. Apparently we will be treated to the partial solar eclipse at approximately 2:44 PM. Since NASA will be firing 2 rockets into the atmosphere, willy nilly and CERN has decided that it would be a great time to push the world’s most powerful particle accelerator to its maximum power for the first time in history, it should be interesting. I’m fully expecting the black hole to materialize whereupon the demons of hell will be transiting to our dimension. That should be fun. Put on the Armor of God and all should be fine. (I’m only partially kidding) Sitting in the CL as we dock in St Thomas. I’m very surprised at how few people are here in the mornings. We avoid all lounges in the evenings so I have no idea how things are in them during the happy hours. I guess I should pop in an evening or 2 just to report out.

Hi All! A little about myself since I haven't posted on here before, I am Ashley, a 30 year old from Arizona who has been cruising mostly with my parents (and grandparents before they passed) but sometimes solo, with friends, and with groups since I was 9 months old. I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each). Anyways, all that to say I am very loyal to Royal with nearly 80 Royal Caribbean cruises under my belt. When I am not cruising, I am a full time software engineer to pay for my cruising habit. And now for some history on this cruise.... my parents and I first booked this itinerary for October of 2021 in the summer of 2020. Heck, we also booked cruises in June of 2020 when our May cruise was canceled, August when June was cancelled, November when August was cancelled, so on so forth, you get the idea. Fast forward to summer of 2021 and well over 40 FCCs later, the restart was finally happening and the final payment due date for this cruise was quickly approaching. There we still a lot of unknowns about Israel and what the covid requirements would be to go there and as that was the main reason we booked that cruise (more on that later...), after a family meeting we cancelled it and I spent 2 weeks in October on the Symphony of the Seas with a friend (and my parents ultimately joining for the second cruise after some convincing) instead where I finally earned pinnacle after waiting the entire restart only a little more than 1 cruise away (I promise, I am not a snotty pinnacle, I refuse to wear the pin and prefer to go with the flow instead). With that I had finally made it back on a ship for the first time since January 2020 but I still hadn't made it to holy lands. Fast forward again to February 2023 when my parents were on the Celebrity Beyond celebrating their 40th anniversary without me (to quote Stephanie Tanner: how rude... not, they deserved the vacation without me and they had their neighbors with them to take my place, also I am pretty sure my work would have killed me if I took another cruise at that point). Before they headed out on their cruise, I looked at the itineraries released just a couple months before for Europe in 2024 and found this one, and made the mistake of emailing my parents with the details. It didn't take much convincing that we had to book this cruise. A week later, after a lot of back and forth with them and the future cruises agent on Celebrity Beyond, we finally got this booked and everything confirmed. Note to my future self and really everyone reading this: never book Royal on Celebrity, while we have successfully booked Celebrity on Royal before with no issues, this was a nightmare to say the least, the on-board agent had no clue what the different cabin categories were and after pleading with her that Odyssey had J1s, J3s, and J4s and they were all Junior Suites, she was finally able to find more than just the J1s available. With the cruise finally booked, let's talk about why we wanted to do it: Israel. My mom and I are Jewish and my mom has always wanted to go to the holy land but has said she would never do it by land, she just didn't feel comfortable due to some experiences her parents/my grandparents had when they went. And similar to me, she loves cruising. So this seemed like the perfect solution. I had also unfortunately aged out of birthright during Covid as a result of them changing the age policy during that time so this would give me a taste of Israel to see if I wanted to join a volunteer trip or something else in the future. When June 2023 arrived and the flights opened up to book, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that we were going on this cruise. Before booking the flights we had a family meeting and I made one important note to my parents: If this cruise doesn't go to Israel, are you still ok with going for the other ports? They both said yes. My mom has always wanted to go to Santorini since watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so while it was not Israel, there would still be something on her bucket list to cross off. Even though the itinerary at the time didn't have Ephesus, Turkey on it, we knew it was likely this would appear if Israel was removed and my dad wanted to see the House of the Virgin Mary after missing the opportunity to see it while on the Splendour of the Seas in 2000. After that discussion, our flights were booked and we started making hotels and other plans for the trip including booking excursions for every port except Israel since conveniently none were open for Israel and also I knew if we did make it there, we would want to do a private tour so we could cover both the Christian and Jewish heritage there adequately. Once again, let's fast forward this time to November 2023. Unfortunately, we all know what happened on October 7th. The days that followed made it very obvious that this was sadly not like other times Israel had been attacked. They were not getting out of this quickly. We received the not at all surprising email that this itinerary was changing. Out was Israel and in was Turkey, as I unfortunately predicted, along with Mykonos. After yet another family meeting (I think this is at least the 3rd one in this story, sensing a theme here...) we unanimously decided we were still going, barring any crazy world event. It was full steam ahead and I finally decided to start planning the tours for our pre-cruise stay in Rome. We also booked an excursion for Mykonos through the ship and I left my dad to figure out Ephesus himself. I still don't think he has that planned, you can tell who is the planner and who isn't in this family. Now let's fast forward to February 2024. It was Super Bowl Sunday and I had plans to go to the Phoenix Open with my dad in the corporate tents on the 17th hole. Instead, I got woken up by a call at 6am with news that my mom had passed out just before midnight the night before and they were in the ER room at Mayo Hospital. This cruise was far from the first thing on my mind, I wanted to know how my mom was doing, what had happened, if there was anything they needed as the hospital is less than a mile from my house, I can literally see it from my backyard. In the weeks that followed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors appointments, a couple dental appointments, and a surgery later, we finally brought up this cruise again. Her doctor's gave her the all clear to go, they just warned that we had to be careful, she couldn't over exert herself. Another family meeting and the swapping of tours later to some less strenuous ones, we were once again on track for this cruise to happen. Now finally we have made it to today. We fly out in a little more than 2 weeks on the evening of 4/30. We finally settled on a hotel for our one night post cruise in Rome before flying home so the last thing is planned. As many hurdles as this cruise had and the amount of times we thought this wouldn't happen, we are looking forward to it finally happening, even if it is a little different than originally planned. I am just grateful that we are all still here to enjoy this as a family. I have never done a live blog of a cruise before. Not here and also not on that other cruise board that shall not be named. Something about this cruise feels different, while I hope this isn't my last big European adventure with my parents, I know there is a chance that will be the case so I really want to remember this and document it. Not only are my parents getting older, I am also getting older and who knows what will come for my future as well. While we have plenty more cruises planned as a family out of the US to the Caribbean as well as the Mexican riviera on the west coast, I don't know that I will have a trip like this as a family once again. I promise my future posts won't be as much of a novel. There was a lot of backstory to cover and I hope I at least made it interesting to read. In the coming days I will start to talk about our plans for both pre-cruise and on the cruise but figured it made sense to start with the back story first. Since I have never done this before, not sure how to end these, I am sure I will figure that out better as I go. So for this one I guess I should say TTYL!

Greetings, RC Blog friends! It's me, Mrs. Regular, back again for another blog. This year we are leaving the Regular kiddos at home and making it an extended family affair! Follow along for preparations, travel, and semi-live updates from the Brilliance of the Seas! Background Info Picture it... Sicily, 1929... Just kidding. I'm in my Golden Girls era so I often channel Sofia when I begin telling a story. Picture it... my living room, November 2022. Alaska 2024 deployment would be announced and bookings opened within a few days. We already had cruised in the Mediterranean, cruised from NYC down to the Bahamas, and were booked for summer 2023 on the Mariner of the Seas for my 40th birthday. Generally we are a "one cruise at a time" kind of family but something struck me about the 2024 Alaska deployment that just felt.... right. Like it was the exact right time for Mr. Regular and I do book something for ourselves. A treat. A reprieve. Alaska has been on our bucket list for a long time and at first glance when bookings became available, the price was pretty good. I knew I couldn't just book something without speaking with him first, so I laid out all the benefits and trade-offs (small ship! leaving from Vancouver! Aft balcony! I just got a pretty sizable raise so I will foot the bill! He saw no tradeoffs, lol), and got his ok to contact the travel agent. YES! It was so early in the deployment I got to hand pick our room and with over 600 days to go, we started planning and researching. Eventually, our other extended family (mainly our parents) caught wind of our plans. We scheduled a mid-May itinerary for a few reasons, one of the best being our kids wouldn't be able to go. I know, we are Regular mean parents. But also because the likelihood of the ship being overrun by school kids would be lower. We love kids, we have two, we have kids in our family and extended friends group. There's nothing wrong with kids. But, we loved our experience cruising during a non-break time. The last two cruises we've taken have been with our kids during school breaks and they have been vastly different experiences. Not bad, but different. We wanted to return to those non-break vibes. But this time in Alaska. Anyway, our parents wanted to tag along and we were ok with that. Getting my sister to come rounds out our merry group of 6! The Intergenerational Regular Family Tree Me, Mrs. Regular. 40 years old. Working at a university full time and full time PhD student. I am finishing up coursework and successfully defended my proposal last month. This itinerary falls over the one break I have between spring and summer terms. I have been on 3 RC cruises and will reach Emerald on this cruise. Husband, Mr. Regular. 45 years old. Working at the same university and teaches snow sports on the side. He is bummed there will be no skiing or snowboarding while visiting Vancouver or Alaska. Has been on the same cruises as me and will reach Emerald. Regular Mom. My mother! 70 years young. Doesn't travel much, retired 3rd grade teacher. Has always wanted to go to Alaska. Will be her first cruise. Regular Sister. My sis! My best friend. 38 years old, never cruised before. Just there to show up and have fun! Regular Father-in-Law. Mr. Regular's dad. 79 years old, has cruised once before from FL. Certified renaissance man, he is an acrobatic pilot, flight instructor, motorcycle racer, and welder. Ran a multi-million dollar business but never earned a bachelor's degree. He is just so cool. Regular Mother-in Law. Mr. Regular's mom. 84 years old, has cruised once before from FL. Recovering from a mild stroke in January, she is a remarkable person. She's improved so much in 4 months mobility and speech wise. She's still sharp as a tack but just a little slower than before. In her 80's but acts not a day over 60. Why are we "regular people"? My username and the name of my cruise blogs came out of an observation that post-COVID restart, most people in the RC Blogs were taking their "revenge" travel trips and there was a run for a while of suites only travel blogs. No shade to the "suite snobs" out there or to those who are blessed enough to cruise frequently at the premium of a suite. But, while I am still fairly new to cruising I wanted to read more from perspectives that didn't go for all the extras or bells and whistles. Thus, "regular people cruising" was born! Not only do we not tend to travel in suites with the amenities, we also don't splurge on other luxuries like drink packages, unlimited dining, spa treatments, a lot of excursions, etc. Now, this will change a little bit this trip because I think Alaska affords some special opportunities. Our Itinerary My in-laws are flying in on their own schedule, but mom, Husband, Sis, and I are all traveling together from NJ on a direct flight to Vancouver on the 11th. Crossing fingers for smooth travels! We are all staying at the Sheraton downtown and will get brunch on the 12th before heading to Canada place to board our ship! Day 1 - Vancouver Day 2 - Inside Passage/At Sea Day 3 - Sitka in the afternoon. No plans other than walking around port and maybe going to the totem poles Day 4 -Juneau. Mom, Sis, Husband and I have the dog musher's camp excursion in the morning. Regular in-laws may or may not get off the ship, much will depend on how MIL is doing. She can do activities in small bursts but then needs time to sleep and recover. We will be done at the camp by 1 but the ship is in port until 7 p.m. so I am sure some sub-group of us will explore Juneau a bit. This night Husband and I have date night at Chops. Day 5 - Haines. We all have the White Pass Railroad excursion booked through RC. Most looking forward to this one! Day 6 - Tracey Arm and glacier viewing/At Sea Day 7 - Inside Passage/At sea Day 8 - Vancouver. The Regular In-Laws are staying at a hotel on Vancouver Island to relax for a few days and traveling home later in the week. The rest of us have a red-eye back to NJ. We will look into storing luggage somewhere and taking a tour around Vancouver before heading to the airport. Next Update: Packing! Packing! Packing!

Express Pass made boarding Amazing! We NEVER stopped walking. No waiting at all. Passed thousands of people. You MUST upload a photo when you do online check in. We also scanned passports. Yesterday, after answering health question, we got confetti and and our set sail passes turned purple. Congratulations you have express pass to board. The days of wait till at dock to have them take your photo are over. It puts you in an entirely different category. We literally passed 1hr 30min of people and walked right on.

It is time for the shenanigans!!!! It seems like I haven't been on a cruise in forever, but it's actually been like 90ish days . These 11 days of cruising are actually 3 shorties combined. It is a 4n, then a 3N, and then another 4N. They are all casino comps in some capacity. The first two are monthlies, which are random offers the casino sends out either through mail or email. The last one was earned on Wonder. I only paid taxes, fees and gratuities for them. Which amounted to a whopping total of $595.05 for all 3, making it only $54/N. I have OBC on some and Freeplay on all. Itinerary: Nassau and PDCC X3, I never get off in Nassau and PDCC is a casino day. People: myself, brother and mother x2, myself and my brother x1 Flights: SWA and AA Extras: Chocolate birthday cake $25.99 My brother's birthday is on April 27th and mine is May 21st. I ordered the cake for the 3n to split the difference. My 39th birthday, hence the title name , is on the second day of the last 4N cruise, and we will be in PDCC. This is the first time ever that I will be on a cruise for my birthday. Normally its work or Vegas. I mean truthfully, I don't really celebrate it, but I do acknowledge it. It is also the first time I will be sailing in May, my normal window is September through April, excluding March and Easter sailings. So, I am thankful it won't be too hot but warm enough from Chicago to not have bulky outerwear.

May 2024 4 - CanHardlyWait (Icon) 5 - cedricmr (Odyssey) 9 - FJ28 (Liberty) 10 -Snotarni (Allure) 11 - JohnK6404 (Icon) 16 - PPPJJ-GCVAB (Symphony) 16 - SemperMom (Symphony) 17 - TimeRacer (Ovation) 18 - Zenra (Mariner) 26 - Hoppy2BHere (Wonder) 26 - CruzOnBye (Wonder)

I’m a little better at taking pictures so here are a ton from Paradise Beach if anyone is interested. It was pretty quiet there and I didn’t get the feeling of being in a pool with 30% water and 70%…umm..bodily fluid…like some of the pools on the ship. Speaking of that, bathrooms are very clean too.

Parental Advisory: Explicit language Greetings from Mrs. Calvin, I’ve been informed that y’all are anxiously awaiting a guest post by yours truly and I apologize that I kept you waiting. As you know, I’m almost 50 and in the words of the late and great Toby Keith, “I ain’t as good as I once was”. I’ve managed to muster up a few brain cells after 5 days of drinking and I think I can coherently put a sentence together. Figured I’d do this before I have my first margarita of the day…morning. I’d like to add a little entertainment for the ladies reading this, I hope you appreciate. I can’t for the life of me get good “makeup lighting” in these cabins, is it me? I mean, I’ve been doing this female thing for almost 50 years now and I KNOW my eyebrows need to be tweezed (and at my age, probably my mustache) but I’m just not seeing it in these mirrors. Maybe eyebrows don’t grow on ships, I dunno, we’ll see when I get home. We went to The Empire Supper Club last night so I wanted to add a little eyeshadow to these saggy eyes, truth be told I probably looked like a damn clown because of the very forgiving lighting in the cabin. &$#% you mirror, I know the truth. I’m finally at the age that I just don’t care, but admittedly I do when it comes to swimwear in public. While I can finally not care and walk around awkwardly in a swimsuit, I gotta make sure these bottoms are where they’re supposed to be as I exit the pool. There are a lot of buttcheeks….err…umm…Europeans on this cruise and I have to admit that I admire their confidence and their “I don’t care” attitude. More power to you. Speaking of not caring, go see Grace at the piano bar. She’s a blast and I had a girl crush on her. Not one care given about anything she said, even with a kid front and center. Mr. CK got to hold her harmonica during Piano Man and she told him that he had strong hands and they needed a safe word. I love it. I got called up on the stage at the headliner show the first night. While I would’ve loved being the center of attention in my younger days, I was quite embarrassed. He was cute though…and sweaty. Very sweaty. Those damn lights are hotter than heck. He also doesn’t know the difference between parallel and perpendicular, but because of the reason previously mentioned, I’ll give him a pass. I’ve just been scolded by Mr. Live Blogger himself that this is “TLDR” so I must end it here. Besides, my margarita just arrived. Hope you all have a great time! Cheers!

Ok, first obviously Kelli's take over didn't happen. Maybe today? Marla twisted our arm and we did crowns edge. Then we wondered over to aquadome market and got a Crepe. After that we rested up for the Empire supper club and it did not disappoint. It really was 5 star, Royal knocked it out of the park. What a great experience. We’ve been to Michelin star restaurants before and this was every bit as good. After this, we were done and didn’t make aqua action. Marla moved it to day six for us . Kelli went to bed and I went to the casino, ended up winning about $75, so I’ll take it. Today is Cozumel and Paradise Beach!

We just returned from a 8 night cruise on this great ship. The big question is always food. Six nights we ate in the main dining room. Now we are not what you call foodies but we were happy with each meal. The wait staff we had were great and very accommodating to requests. Another night we ate in Chops need I say anymore more. Delicious meal and staff. We did the hibachi another night great time and great meal. For a relaxing breakfast some days try the main dining room it did not disappoint. Entertainment Hiro again tops the list as a must see. Hairspray although a little long was great. Also the 2.0 ice skating show is another not to miss. The adult comedy show was just that adult comedy. The crew once again was fantastic friendly and just fun. Overall a fantastic 8 nights on board.

Today we are in Nassau. There is Liberty to my left. And Anthem to my right. I feel like the inside of a Royal sandwich.

Last night dinner was in Chops and we were extremely fortunate to have @JustMeJoe and Mrs JustMe join us. Our favorite waiter, Andriy was his usual enchanting self and we had a great time. Consumed 2 bottles of "champagne" and a bottle of red wine. Fun, fun Then we were off to the casino where I first lost and then ended up walking away a bit ahead. I have all but given up on the slots so I'm spending most of my casino time at UTH which is where I usually was before I tried slots. The machines just do not like me. I will be sitting at a machine and all of the ones around me are ding, ding, ding-ing away and mine just sits there and frowns. Today we are in Antigua with the Emerald Princess. Since we did the stingray excursion here 2 weeks ago, we are staying on the ship today. It looks like a beautiful day so I'm hoping that those who are going out will have a great time.

21 days to go....... Work has been stressful all around and the weather in Chicago has been bipolar. Sat and Sunday were like 30 degrees and today on Monday it was 65 and sunny. My documents were right on time for the first cruise but a full day late for the 3n and a day early for the last cruise. Royal IT strikes again. The luggage tags for the first two cruises are still GTY. Last time they updated around 10 days before I cruised to say the actual room number. So, I will wait until later and print them out. I believe I saw in another post that a few blog members and Matt will be on the May 20th-24th Freedom cruise. When I booked the cruises, it was just my brother and I going, each with or own room. But my mother turned Emerald after our Mariner cruise and now she is obsessed with making it to Diamond so she can relax in the lounge. Yes, not the drink vouchers or internet discount......but lounge access is her goal . She was upset that she couldn't go on Wonder, I had booked her, but she allowed her bf to talk her out of going. During that Mariner cruise I offered to help make her prime to get offers, she said she was going to be land traveling with her bf and don't bother. In March when she found out we would be doing these cruises she was sad, her bf had cancelled 2/2 of their land vacations. So, my brother was like, we can add her to my room, and she can come with us. She was so happy to be going. As usual she is brand new. I feel like she gets amnesia every time we travel, and I have to hear the same questions. This is her sixth RCG cruise and she texted me about luggage limits. Somehow her logic was that shorter cruises only allowed weekender bags and/or carry-ons . I just told her to pack as she would normally. Last week she fell at work and thankfully she is okay, but her front left tooth got chipped slightly. The dentist rounded it out and it is barely noticeable, but she was afraid she might have been toothless for the cruise, she is so dramatic. I did my pre-cruise shopping: which involves going to Kohl's, Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Walmart for any essentials, and giving Bezos his offering. After reading about wearing red (I hardly ever wear it) to ensure some casino luck, one of my casino outfits is a newly acquired red shorts and a red shirt. I am currently making my packing list and the plan is to pack a separate cube, with special casino outfit to contain the smoke, in each cube. I figured I will need about four cubes since I always carry an extra not in my checked bag.

@OCSC Mikehas it right. Retirement is the key. Of course, our cruising style has taken a bit of a downgrade since retirement, but where the quality went down, the quantity went up ! Nothing truer than the old adage, “When you’re working you have the money but no time and when you’re retired you have the time but no money”.

I tried to pull a @WAAAYTOOO and grab my SeaPass card from my stateroom door, but it wasn't there. I didn't break any rules or go behind any signs that said rooms wouldn't be open until 1pm. But my room this time is tucked in a little hallway next to the stairs.

Morning #5....last day of leg #2. Sea day. Our SL Concierge (Gigi) disembarked yesterday in Jamaica for vacation and Vanessa, who was in the CL has moved down to the SL on deck 9. The other CL Concierge (I'm ashamed to say that I have not yet learned her name) is now in charge of the CL. I was able to give the new CL Concierge (I promise I will get her name and remember it before I disembark in 10 days !) a list of the specialty dining for next cruise. We have 2 BOGO (which I will use on nights 1 and 2 just to make things easier) and then a 3 night package to cover the nights that we do not care for, in the MDR - namely, USA, French and Caribbean. Then we will have 4 nights in the MDR. It's nice to have this taken care of before TAD and now I won't have to mess with it when we get back onboard, tomorrow. Since there is a complimentary B2B lunch on TAD, I had no need to purchase a specialty lunch for either of our TAD's. I only purchased a specialty lunch on our very first embarkation day. We met Mrs. @JustMeJoe yesterday. SOOO glad to have them on board next week. We will definitely make some plans to spend some quality time together. Not much (anything ?) planned for today. Dan is going to the sauna and I am pecking away on the computer in the computer lounge. Dinner tonite is the MDR. No idea what the menu is. It will be surprise ! Of course, we have to change cabins for the last leg (BOOOOOO) which means we have to pack tonite or first thing in the AM. Dan has already put the new luggage tags on the luggage. We will be able to leave whatever is hanging in the closet and only pack the "loose" items. Our current cabin attendant (Rozel....who has been wonderful for 2 weeks !!!) will move everything to our new home waaay up on deck 12 all the way forward. We have a Panoramic Ocean View for leg #3. We've had this category of cabin before and we like it. Yes, there is more motion all the way forward, but it really doesn't bother us. It will be nice to see the sun and the ocean again from our room ! Being in the Promenade View interior for the past 2 weeks, we never know what time it is or whether or not we have docked, etc. Our itinerary for next cruise is exactly the same as the 9 day cruise that we just completed. We have 1 excursion, which will be in Puerto Plata, DR. We are swimming and snorkeling with the sea lions and the sharks ! YIKES ! The passenger dynamic is undoubtedly going to change again on leg #3 as we already know (from being kicked out of the SL) that there will be many more upper tiers on this next leg and presumably, fewer children. Just for the record, we had 32 Pinns onboard on Leg #1 and 16 onboard for this leg (#2). I will let you know how many are on #3 once I find out.

Mods, please can we shut this one down ? Nothing useful here.

I disagree that there is no way to identify staterooms with a sofa bed. Deck plans show which rooms have a convertable sofa vs. Pullmans. Do your homework before booking. Is it quick and easy during the booking process? No. Is it impossible to get the information in advance? Also no. I would also note that the implications that Royal should not allow a room with Pullmans to be booked with children younger than "permitted" to use a Pullman or that Royal is not "accomodating a family with young children" because of the existence of Pullmans as the lower cost option are both invalid. If you want the cheaper stateroom, the children can use the regular beds and the parents can use the Pullmans. We did exactly this when our youngest child was seven but very small - regular beds were Mom and youngest, Pullmans were Dad and older child.

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. Govern yourselves accordingly … Curt from Canada

Packing list: Red bra and panties (double my odds)…. CHECK

We had a super awesome day with the rays. They are really so sweet. They had a much nicer setup for the ray encounter in Antigua than they have at Cayman. In Antigua they have some floating platforms that really make getting into and out of the water much easier. Aside from that, the encounters with the rays were the same. We had such a nice time. We snorkeled with them, fed them, held them, petted them. Of course, they were there for the free meal. That was plain, but we didn’t care. We had a great time with them. We were in the “hot rod” of boats that were shuttling folks out to the platforms. All of the other boats had 115 hp outboards on them but our boat had twin 250’s. Woot ! We kicked a$$. We had the cutest bus driver -Romeo. When we first got onto the bus Dan asked Romeo if they drive on the left side of the road in Antigua (since the steering wheel was on the right side of the bus). Romeo said - “Yes. The left side is the right side and the right side is suicide”. We got a good laugh out of that. I got a little sun but nothing extreme. It was overcast and actually rained a little bit while we were getting ready to board the shuttle boats. But when we got out in the water, it was perfect. Not hot, not cold, not windy. I took some photos but they are on my phone so I will post them once (if ?) my devices synch. Dinner tonite was in the MDR - a taste of Asia. It was really quite good. They should put this one in the regular menu lineup, IMO. They could definitely replace French night. Ugh. Good luck tonite in the casino. We had abysmal luck at the slots/video poker but I got lucky and hit a straight flush playing Ultimate Texas Hold’Em so I actually won a little bit in the end. Still a little down, overall, but very little. I think I read somewhere that the casino had FINALLY managed to synch the table games with the slots so now, the points that you see on the screen (slots) reflect a total of table plus slot points. Dan confirmed that, tonite….so it will make it much easier to know where you stand -points-wise, if you play both tables and machines, like us. Tomorrow is Grenada. It’s our first time to call at this port and we’re looking forward to it. We have an island bus tour scheduled. Should be fun.

Pulling away from Puerto Plata, DR currently. At least, I think we are. I can feel some movement and all aboard was supposed to be at 3:00 (it’s now 4:17). Those 2 pieces of evidence together tell me we’re on the move since I can see NOTHing of the outside world from my little Promenade view interior. We did not leave the ship today as we have called here twice in the past couple of months and we will be back here during Part III on 4-22 (I think). On that visit, we will be swimming with sea lions and sharks. Yikes ! Dan is napping (again) so I’m sitting in the dark tapping away on my iPad. Dinner tonite is in the MDR. It will be our first visit to the MDR this cruise. Mexican night, as I recall. It’s not a fab menu but I can tolerate the controversially-named pork enchilada/burrito/chimichunga. Dan likes the carne asada (I think that’s what it’s called). We have MTD. Hopefully EX has “caught on” to the way other ships are handling MTD and there won’t be any lengthy lines. My recent experiences have been that they are simply seating MTD folks amidst the traditional folks at vacant tables as they become available. It seems to be working fine but I think it’s very labor-intensive and stressful for the dining staff as they are turning tables over (figuratively, of course) many multiples of times per meal. They’re damned good at it, too. I’m amazed at how quickly they can re-set a table and have new folks seated. Impressive. Then it will be off to the casiner (sic) to try and put ourselves back on our earlier “winning” track. We were derailed last night…we both had miserable gambling experiences. We actually ended up playing a little Dancing Drums (actually, a LOT of Dancing Drums), which is extremely unusual for us but as I’ve mentioned previously, this is Dan’s push for Prime so points are important and the tables just don’t cut it for us as we aren’t big wager-ers. Slot machines are mindlessly boring to me but we played together on 1 machine and it was kinda fun. I was THAT person last night. I was sitting next to Dan, playing with him (no smart-ass remarks) so obviously I was sitting on a stool, in front of another Dancing Drums machine. I heard someone make a loud [intentional, I’m sure] remark about all of the machines being “taken” so I was guilted into putting $20 into the machine in front of which I was sitting, and pressing the button every minute or 2 just for the pretense of playing. Since I was paying absolutely NO attention to what was going on, on that machine, I actually ended up breaking even ! Too funny. Of course we lost, eventually, on the machine we were jointly playing, but Dan got a good number of points, which was the goal.

Ok, big fail on my part as I got the tomahawk ribeye and didn’t snap a single pic while at chops. Rookie blogging mistake, but I will blame it on the amount of wine consumed up till that point. As for the tomahawk ribeye, it was delicious, and even though it says 32oz, that is with the bone so really not that huge of a portion when compared to the bone in ribeye. Going back further yesterday, after the wizard of Oz, I sat down at the 3 card poker table and on the first hand hit a 6 card straight flush. I only had $10 on the six card bet, but that was still a quick 2K. I ended up giving $400 of that back before the end of the night, but in all it was good!