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Day -4 A year or so ago I had been thinking about Symphony and when I might be able to sail her. Prices, as expected for her first year were elevated over her sisters. That is until I came across the transatlantic sailing which at the time was priced close to many seven night Caribbean sailings on her. Twelve nights on what would become the largest cruise ship in the world for the price of seven? I was on Anthem when the light bulb went on and I booked it in a YOLO moment that only the drink package can induce. Itinerary is pretty light as ports go: Day 1 - Embark in Barcelona, Spain Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Malaga, Spain Days 4 - 11 - Sea Day Day 12 - Port Canaveral Day 13 - Debark, Miami No excursions booked or planned. The ship is the destination. I'll be sailing in a Boardwalk balcony cabin almost as far aft as you can go on deck 8 right above Playmakers. My step count for this cruise should indeed also be elevated. I'm sailing solo as I often do since friends and family just can't keep up. I won't be alone exactly as there will be a decent contingency from the RCPeriscopers.live community sailing with me. Voom and satellite coverage permitting, there should be ample scopes from this sailing. A business commitment is keeping me stateside until Friday when I'll fly overnight to Barcelona arriving Saturday morning for a Sunday embarkation. Not ideal but I've got to pay for this cruising addiction somehow. Since I'll be in the cruise capital of the world when we disembark in Miami I couldn't let that opportunity go without jumping on another ship so I'll be sliding up the coast to Fort Lauderdale to board Serenade the day we arrive in Miami. That is a factor in my packing strategy since I'm not flying home between cruises. Speaking of packing, I should probably start, later today, ...or maybe tomorrow.

As little as I can... And I volunteer at RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com ?

Managed to get a few shots in. Didn't have a whole lot of time to take pictures on my tour and have a very hard time not being in the moment - so I forget to take pictures most of the time. The first is The Port Royal Golf Club. The middle is up top from the road looking down Horseshoe Bay.The last two are Horseshoe Bay. As you can tell I need more practice with the camera.

Hi all! I'm planning to try my hand at live(ish) blogging my upcoming cruise. As of right now, I'm just 3 short work days (including today) away from setting sail! Who's cruising Myself (Phill), wife (K), Sister-in-law (C) and her husband (G). We all caught the cruising bug back in 2014 when we enjoyed our first cruise on Explorer of the Seas - a 9 nighter out of Cape Liberty. Since we had such a wonderful time, we pretty much decided that cruising should be an annual event! This will be our 4th cruise (The wife and I didn't cruise in 2017 since we went to Disney & also St. Martin). It's now just over 2 years since we've set sail, so needless to say, I am ready! Cabin Both couples are booked in balcony rooms right next to each other on deck 12 near the mid-ship elevators (12654 and 12656) Itinerary We live in Southern New Jersey across the bridge from Philadelphia, so Cape Liberty is about an hour and 45-minute drive for us. G works in Newark so we will be able to park at his workplace and hail an Uber or Lyft to the port. We embark Saturday the 27th, (just in time for the huge Nor'easter to roll in!) and will be at Port Canaveral on Monday the 29th, Coco Cay on the 30th, and Nassau on Halloween! Cruise Planner Bookings G and I both have the drink package (look out!) and my wife and her sister have the refreshment package. We also booked the 3-night dining package starting on night 2. We are thinking Chops, Jamie's Italian for sure, and the other night is up in the air! I may get brave enough to try Wonderland... we'll see. We are booked on NorthStar for day 2. As far as the shows go, we booked The Gift on night 2, Spectra's Cabaret on night 3, and We Will Rock You on night 6. Whether or not we go to all of these shows remains to be seen, but at least we have the option! We purchased the 2 device plan for Voom Surf and Stream to share between the four of us. Excursions/Plans In Port Canaveral, we are planning on hailing an Uber/Lyft and heading to Kennedy Space Center - we also have a friend that lives in the Orlando area who will meet us there. For Coco Cay, I was able to get a great deal on a bungalow, so we booked that for the four of us - hopefully, we will be able to tender as this will be my first time at Coco Cay! In Nassau, we will most likely walk around the port area and I will most definitely be hitting up Pirate Republic Brewing Company https://www.piraterepublicbahamas.com/ We visited when we were on our Oasis cruise in 2016 - they had some great brews! Blogging Most of my blogging will probably be done in the morning while my wife sleeps in and I'm sipping coffee on my balcony ? Let me know if you have any Anthem questions and I'll try to answer them. Thanks for following along!

After more than a year of lurking in the forum, vacation time has finally arrived! With all the help I got from this board and all the live blogs I read to live vicariously through, I decided to return the favor. This will not rival Twangster’s quality live blog, but we’ll try our best and offer a new-to-Royal perspective. I’ll do the typing and hubby will provide the pictures. If you’ve got any questions, I’ll do my best to find the answer. So without further ado... Who are we and why this cruise? Kerstin and Michael, in our mid-thirties, from Germany (Bavaria to be exact) and on our first TA, first Royal cruise – and first time out of Europe. We’ve cruised before – 3 times with TUI Cruises (German cruise line, joint venture with RCI), once with AIDA. We usually cruise for the itinerary, but made an exception for this cruise. After a brilliant video of Harmony from our favourite German Youtuber – the Schiffstester – we knew we wanted to try Oasis class – and that really experiencing it would take more than 7 days. We’d originally planned to book a Med B2B and not leave the ship, but the price on the TA was just too good – YOLO! I hate flying so to make it worthwhile, we added a 14 night Caribbean cruise on Caribbean Princess (RCI itineraries just weren’t to our liking). Cruise preview – Barcelona to Miami Ports of call: Malaga (Day 2) – not sure if we’ll get off the ship, maybe just for a stroll; Port Canaveral (Day 12) – Kennedy Space Center Guided Tour with Royal to avoid the long lines for immigration Food & Beverage: we both got the deluxe drinking package and 5 night dining package. Additionally reserved Izumi Hibachi and Jamie’s as we plan to check out all the options. Entertainment: all shows reserved, we’ll participate in a few CC events (Meet & Mingle, mini golf tournament, pub crawl, scavenger hunt). We’re also planning to book the all access tour. Cabin: 8411 - inside stateroom at the fore Pre-cruise & post-cruise We’ve already prepared everything we want to pack and will pack tomorrow. Friday morning, we’ll drop off the boys (our five coonies) at the cat hotel, rush home, throw the luggage in the car and drive to my parents. They’ll drop us off at the airport Duesseldorf for our evening check-in, we’ll stay at the airport hotel as our flight is at 6.45am on Saturday. We’ll stay at Hotel Catedral in Barcelona and have booked a walking tour of Barri Gótic for the afternoon. Post-cruise we’ll stay at Sense Beach House in South Beach until we board Caribbean Princess on 11th. It’s our first time in Miami, so we rented a car to get a good overview and do the essential shopping – I might pillage the Disney store as my sister is expecting her first child on November 23rd.

Yet another post cruise live blog. Similar to @BermudaDice, I didn't want to attempt to keep an actual live blog with only my phone. And since my photo skills (only carry an IPhone) pale in comparison to @twangster @JLMoran, @Rimmit, and others, I don't have any pictures to share, but I'll do my best. Our itinerary was: Sunday: Excitement day Monday/Tuesday: At Sea Wednesday: St Maarten (ATV Excursion via the cruise planner - more on that later) Thursday: San Juan (only in port from 7:00-1:30) Friday: Labadee Saturday: At Sea Sunday: Sad Day This was a 25th anniversary celebration so we had three specialty dinners with a deluxe drink package (me) and refreshment package (wife). We stayed in cabin 10590, starboard side, slightly forward of mid ship. It was an ocean-view balcony at the beginning of a "hump".

When a pinnacle fences with anyone lower, the pinnacle gets the foil and head gear, the opponent gets a 12" wooden ruler.

Day 1 – Sept 16 – Embarkation Day After a solid amount of sleep, we awoke around 6am. Since I knew that with the jet lag and the early night we would wake early, my plan was to get up and go for a swim in the hotel pool. However it was still very dark outside. Scotland be a cloudy, gloomy place so it is easy to forget that even though in Summer Scotland is light very early and until very late, lower latitudes are not so – even though they have more sunshine in general. So we lazed about for a bit until it lightened up and then headed down to the pool once the sun had decided to show up. The pool was pretty basic but crucially it was empty (people-wise, not water-wise) while I was there which was nice. At that point, I was fairly sure that I wouldn’t have an empty pool on the cruise at any point. Spoiler alert – I was wrong! We took some dry clothes to the pool so that we could go straight to breakfast. Again pretty basic but, as a Scotsman would say, ye cannae beat free! The highlight was definitely the waffle maker allowing you to make fresh waffles which were superb. Back up to room to shower and pack up before heading to port. Again we got an Uber from the hotel and arrived at port around 11.15am – this was contrary to our set-sail pass instructing us to arrive from 2pm. Check-in was quiet however one small issue was that US immigration in the airport had not stamped our passports which they had done on previous trips to the US and that the cruise staff feel like they should have done. Luckily I had a copy of the ESTA printed which smoothed feathers. However, I feel like therein lies a tip! Even though it is meant to be wholly electronic, print a copy of your ESTA confirmation. My father will be proud! The holding area unfortunately was quite busy so we had to wait a while before boarding. We did get boarded at about 12.30pm which is long before we would have been boarded if we had arrived at the port at 2pm. Since this was our first time on a RCL ship, let alone an Oasis class ship, I can attest that it is very disorientating when you first get on. You emerge on the Promenade and, with no directions on where to go next, stop dead. All while the RCL veterans behind you file on with their tried and tested battle plans. Contrary to some aforementioned veterans’ advice (and perfectly in line with others’) we headed straight to the Windjammer for some lunch. There was a short queue but really not that bad seeing as it had been open a while and was peak lunchtime. It was not the doomsday that some say will befall you if you dare enter the WJ on embarkation day. Glibness aside, I will however take this opportunity to point out that when I state that something was quiet, in truth I never found out how full the ship was compared with capacity. Being a September cruise outside of any school holidays of which I’m aware, it is entirely possible that the ship was generally much quieter that it could have been. Getting back to the food, we both had a small plate each plus our first of many sweet items. More importantly, I got my first beer of the cruise. Upon exiting the WJ we were also able to sort our dinner times for the rest of the week. I had booked My Time Dining times for some key dates (namely embarkation and two days we had shows) but the available times online for the other days were not very convenient – Either 5.30pm or after 8.30pm. Arranging the other days on the ship however allowed us to secure 7.30pm for all other days which seemed much more reasonable. Conveniently the rooms were open by the time we had finished all of that so went down to dump our backpacks and have a read of our first cruise compass. First stop was the theatre for a welcome presentation with a raffle. We both got a Mai Tai on the way – as you do. No prizes at raffle even though we managed to sneak double tickets by arriving at the theatre and then leaving again to go and get the aforementioned Mai Tais. We then took a wander through Central Park. I attempted to get another cocktail on the way however I was not allowed since it was close to the time for the muster drill. The fact that this was the only lack of freedom for the whole week did not make the knock-back any less irking. After said muster drill we headed to spa for another raffle but no luck again – this would be a theme. We both grabbed a peach margarita on the way. I promise not to mention every single drink we had for the whole week however for some reason it seems obligatory on embarkation day! While at the spa, they of course use the raffle to drum up interest for their various health offerings during the week. As a gym staff member announced that since we were there we must have some interest in staying healthy, I slowly lowered my peach margarita from my lips. We headed back to the room for a bit and I watched some NFL while I unpacked. R opted for a nap over unpacking and, much to my chagrin, managed to avoid at least fully unpacking for the entire trip! After we showered and dressed casually (and casually dressed), we headed down for our dinner in the main dining room. We were given a nice table for two in a corner of the MDR. Spoiler alert again – without asking, the host sat us in the same area each night we went to the MDR and in hindsight, I’m glad they did. Before the trip, I was not bothered about having the same servers each night but the ones we were randomly allocated on Day 1 were very nice and it was good to go back to the same ones each night. The ability to get a table for two however still certainly makes MTD the better option in my opinion though. In my opinion, strangers do not make for a relaxing dining experience! Back to the food, I had antipasti and a pork chop. Both were very tasty although the pork chop had a lot of bone which made it tricky to cut. R had crab cake and a fried fish platter (white fish, prawns and scallops) which she enjoyed but was not blown away. We shared a slice of key lime pie which I have to say was fantastic. Other note was that I had a kind of wholemeal bread roll which had some seeds and cheese on top. This too was very good, and it got me thinking; you can tell a lot of a dining establishment by their bread. If they don’t care about the quality of their bread, they probably won’t care about the quality of much else. After dinner we headed up to the deck 14 sun deck to have a look outside while at sea. Although we didn’t make it there for sail away, I was keen to check out this as it was one of Matt’s hidden tips for Allure. After grabbing a couple of bottles of water (thanks free drinks package), it was back to the room for a relatively early night. Photo 1 - R enjoying the balcony Photo 2 - Antipasti and the top quality bread rolls Photo 3 - The tremendous key lime pie

Thursday (Cruise Day Minus 3 Days): We were scheduled to fly from BWI to MCO at 8:50PM. My wife worked a full day and I worked in the morning and did some last minute errands in the afternoon . We had a car scheduled to take us to BWI at 5:30, so my wife had an hour after school before leaving. That was the day that Hurricane Michael was going through the Carolinas so we were monitoring the weather pretty closely, debating on trying to change to a Friday AM flight. But we just kept our original plans. Luckily, our plane arrived at BWI a few minutes early so I was hopeful. I happened to glance out the window in time to see our luggage going into the plane so that was a good sign. Southwest did a great job of getting everyone on board and the doors were closed by 8:40 and we were wheels up before 9:00. I would have lost money that we would get out of the airport that night, much less on time. It was bumpy for about 35 minutes but then was smooth after that. We landed in Orlando a little early (around 11:00 PM) and only had to wait about 20 minutes for the luggage to start coming out. Ours were among the first 10 bags to come off the carrousel so we the travel luck was still good. We had booked a night at the Hyatt Regency in the airport so we were in our room by 11:30 PM. If you're flying into Orlando on a late flight and need a hotel for the night, this is a great option. It's not the cheapest ($250) but the convenience is great, the hotel is very nice, and the sound proofing is very good. We've had a outside facing room before and you can hear some muffled plane activity but it doesn't wake you up. This time we were overlooking the security checkpoint inside the airport.

I totally agree with you about the Spanish steps, the nearby church and Trevi Fountain. When we finally found the fountain I was like, "What ? Really ? THIS is it ?"

If i remember correctly Oasis Class won't fit under the bridge, hence why i said it would probable be Quantum to replace Anthem.

Hi Mike

Hi, Mike !

Welcome to the message boards! I have cruised a few times with a step daughter every year through ages 17 to 21. She was supposed to come with me on Millie but couldn't make it at the last minute. She would have been 20 last year. I say that to let you know I understand what cruising with a teenage girl is like... We've been on a couple Carnival cruises together and Allure of the Seas. We both loved Allure and vowed not to return to Carnival after that. In 2017 I faced the same decision you face... Radiance or Millennium. I hadn't sailed on a Radiance class ship and I had never sailed Celebrity. Neither ship jumps out as being perfect for her age group and since I was the one paying for it, I decided I would pick based on my needs. She was just thrilled to be going when I booked it. I had a very enjoyable cruise on Radiance but Celebrity is a little more upscale. When I looked at the two I was looking at a Junior Suite on Radiance versus a Sky Suite on Millie. A JS on Radiance gets you double points and priority boarding on day one. A Sky Suite on Celebrity gets you some more points in their system, priority boarding, lounge access, a dedicated suite restaurant and the 4 in package offered at the time netted me free gratuity, internet, drink package and $200 OBC. Stepping up a suite class on Radiance to a GS would get me concierge lounge access. Big deal. That would be much more money than a Sky Suite on Celebrity. I had always wanted to try Celebrity so it was pretty hard not to end up on Millie. Millie is supposed to be 'Edge-ified' by next summer. That alone would likely make me think long and hard about going on her. Taking suites out of the equation, I still think Celebrity is a nicer experience for two ships that are very close in size and features. Both have an indoor solarium with pool. Neither has flowriders or ice skating. Both have specialty restaurants. I enjoyed entertainment on Celebrity more but that's personal. Food in the suite restaurant was better on Millie but that isn't fair comparing it to MDR on Radiance. Buffet was better on Millie. The Celebrity experience is just a little nicer. Champagne upon boarding, towels placed all over the pool deck (no need to scan your seapass card to 'borrow' one), and so on. Small things that I notice. Fellow guests nice on both ships but if I wasn't a Diamond Plus with Concierge Lounge access Radiance would have been just a bit less enjoyable for me. I met some nice folks in their, but those same type of folks were all over the ship on Millie to meet. On Royal's newer ships, or newly AMPED ships there is a lot more to do and that keeps me young. That's why I'm still sailing Royal but when you look at Radiance class they don't have all that. The casinos are smoke free on Celebrity if that's important to you. It was so nice to walk in them and not be killed by cigarette smoke. I'm currently booked on Ovation to Alaska in 2019 with her. She's never been on Quantum class. However when I wake each morning I hear Millie calling out to me, tempting me to switch not only for the itinerary but a freshly refurbished ship is pretty attractive as well. Ovation might be more suited to her for activities but she has developed expensive tastes so Millie may be more suited to her style.

That’s because I’m the worst! I hate being in pictures. This was the only selfie I posted!

@Neaxan...all this time and I did not know that this was going to be your first Royal cruise! How exciting to start off with the newest and brightest of them all! Looking forward to following along...the more blogs the merrier!

Following.

Your coons are beautiful! Looking forward to following along.

Wow ! That’s quite an itinerary ! Thanks for bring us along with you. Have a great time !

Psst, buddy. Wanna buy a new excursion? It fell off a truck. Ten cents on the dollar. Now do those above a certain class of accommodations get both foils and sets of protective gear?

Riding a Pink Bus in Bermuda is an adventure in and of itself ..... it's a simple ride on Bus #7 to Horseshoe Bay ..... make sure you don't accidentally board a #8 bus. They both serve the Dockyard area but #8 doesn't go to Horseshoe.

Our last night in Rome we went to what in NYC/NJ would call a deli/butcher. We purchased meats/cheeses, breads and pastries to take back to our hotel room bc we had a long day of doing touristy things, including a large lunch on the patio at the Museum in Rome (Ocean 12 Movie). We just wanted to decompress and get ready to take the early train to Milan the next day (packing). Kids were happy bc we let them get gelato while we walked back to the hotel. My Hubby is Italian, and trust me even in NYC Prosciutto is nothing like you will get in Italy. Coliseum, Pantheon, Vatican should be on your list, but also go to a deli. We went to one near the Spanish steps. OBTW I was not a fan of this site. It was just a bunch of stairs. Nothing in the OMG look at that view realm. More of OKAY, seen it, checked the box, can we move on now? I felt the same with Trevi fountain. I was more impressed with the church around the corner (see earlier posts regarding placards). I also didn't like these places bc every time I turned around someone was trying to sell me a rose pushing it in my face.. I agree Europe has a much better transit system than the US. That being said, if you have a TA or use the concierge with your credit card to see if they offer deals. Many people think doing it on their own is the best option, not realizing you do not pay for a travel agent and they can hook you up for better deals. Which brings us back on topic regarding cruising. I got an amazing deal on Adventure using a TA. This will be our 3rd cruise within 2 yrs. 1st time we used a TA. The deal was outside Balcony deck 7. 2 specialty dinners and 100 OBC for 2800 (2 people) for 8 nights out of Cape Liberty. I keep looking (fake booking) to see if I could get it cheaper...NOPE! They beat the price of Costco or the RCCL website. I am not paying them to book the cruise/vacation. RCCL is! Just like if you use your credit card concierge. FWIW, we planned that Italian vacations a yr out, and used AMEX concierge. I paid everything on our AMEX to get points. Gas, groceries. food, cell phone, etc.. I just thought of AMEX like a debit card and deducted it from my checking account. We had so many points that my entire family flew 1st class (5 of us) to Italy from NYC and back at the cost of economy. We were also allowed to use their private lounges while we waited for our flights,, aka Delta Crown Room as AMEX card holders. I don't know about Visa or MC, but I would strongly suggest looking into the benefits your credit card offers when it comes to traveling, including early or late check out

I'm on 3 Royal and 3 Celebrity so I'm keeping it in the family, although I find Celebrity Suite offering much better than Royal's with their Go Best Program.

Originally the Oasis funnels were retractable because needed to get under the Storebaelt Bridge in Denmark when she was first built. Since then they have installed permanent equipment to scrub the smoke to meet emission standards and they are no longer retractable. https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/video/35/clearing-a-landmark-lowering-the-funnels-for-storebaelt-bridge/ The Storebaelt Bridge is very close in height to the Verrazano-Narrows bridge but they pulled a lot of tricks to clear it and that isn't feasible in NY Harbor even if they could lower the funnel (which they can't). Doing so for every sailing would be a nightmare.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. I HAVE sailed on Carnival and NCL but no other cruise lines besides RCCL.

Dreams do come true....I've had my eye on Star Class since the program started in 2016. I wasn't doable, either because of timing or finances. We finally stumbled upon a good deal and we'll be trying it in 137 days.

Awesome! Looking forward to following along Phil! You better go try that poutine and let me know what you think! ?

Is it because Janus faces in 2 directions ? Both forward and backward ?

Hello everyone! My name is Shawn! I'm from Miami but live just outside of Orlando. I love taking cruises whenever I can which is usually every 1-2 years. So far I have been able to sail out of Miami and Port Canaveral. So far I think Canaveral is my favorite because I like to go out there to watch the rocket launches.

Non suite staterooms are usually ready for occupancy after 1:00 pm. So, you can wait to board the ship until that time, or later.

Do you have Amex? When we went we used their concierge service to get a personal driver for 2 days. We had the driver basically all day, or about 9 hrs. each day. It was worth the cost because not only did he wait for us in the car at every stop, including when we would have lunch, but also took us to places that are off the beaten track and not typically touristy. Took us to some not famous churches and explained why they had multiple placards outside...basically it was to show the floods and how high the water rose. He also was kind of like a tourist guide, giving tidbits about the city as he was driving like why there are Bumblebees on top of certain buildings.. Some of our best photos we took was bc he knew where to go to get the best background shot for their iconic buildings. I want to say it was $85 a day per person, impo it was well worth it, especially since we didn't have to worry about finding a taxi or getting an Uber every time we went from 1 place to another, IE Catacombs to the Pantheon. We also used Amex concierge service to hire a private tour guide for the Vatican. These tour guides are licensed, can't remember by whom.. There are many perks using a private guide, and you will notice them starting the minute arrive. Private tours enter in through a different line than if you just showed up by yourself. I think we arrived at 9:30 a.m., and the public/group tour line had hundreds of people in line. Our driver dropped us off at the other entrance, and we were in the Vatican within a minute. The public tour groups go at their pace, but bc we used our own tour guide she went at our pace and was able to show us the little hidden areas. My DS is a huge history buff, and she kept trying to stump him with questions, but he usually won. Her questions were unique, IE why is January named after Janus? The only time on our tour we were with the group tours was entering the Sistine Chapel, bc they time it due to occupancy levels. You pay the same amount to enter with a regular ticket and then pay the private guide cost. IMPO, the Vatican is a bucket list aspect. We spent a solid 4 hrs there. OBTW, FYI, if you go, right next to the Vatican is their "store". You can ask them to have your items blessed by the Pope and have them deliver it to your hotel, or at least that was what we did, but I don't know if that was bc we had a private tour. You also need to buy a postcard bc the Vatican has it's own postal code/stamp, it is not Rome. You just drop it off there. Hope that helps. If you are going to Venice also, let me know. Venice is my favorite city in the world, we have been there several times. Be prepared in Italy the food in the North is much different than in the South. Think of it like getting pizza in NYC and getting pizza in Chicago. Lastly, people expect leather to be much cheaper in Italy, but that really isn't true. What is true is the quality is much higher, so expect to spend the same amount, but the leather to be like butter(soft/supple) and not like toast (hard/unpliable) Back on topic. Our 1st cruise was the med. Started in Venice, did the entire boot, plus Greece. Ended in Nice, France. Very port intensive, Yugoslavia, Greece, Sicily, Naples, Elba, and Portofino. Just like any cruise, you have to decide whether you want the bigger ship with all the bells and whistles, but can't fit into smaller ports, or the smaller ship with fewer bells and whistles, but can fit into the smaller ports. Obviously, for that cruise we opted for the smaller ship.

Yes, it was cute... basically had a crew member dressed as a turkey, and the head chef chased them around the promenade, while that 'benny hill music' was playing. But of course... the turkey got away. ?

It’s 12 17 oz bottles allowed so it won’t be too heavy

Hi. My name is Mike and I’m a Cruiseaholic

Thank you all for the feedback, I appreciate it. Between the leaves and the access we have to Adventure when she is "wintering" in Fort Lauderdale, the Anthem does seem like a better option. Now to work on the grandparents for baby sitting...

Sunday Fun Day: We woke up early, dropped the rental car off by 09:30 and made our way to the port by about 10:00, figured we'd be waiting at least an hour. We had Expedited Embarkation but at that hour it really wasn't needed. Curb to waiting area (with pictures) was about 10 minutes. Then we just waited, and waited, and waited. Apparently there was a customs issue on the previous voyage so it was taking a long time to clear the ship. We've all heard about not booking a flight before noon. Depending on when you left the ship, you would have had a problem that Sunday. They finally started boarding a little before 1200 and that's where the disorganization occurred. There was poor delineation with Diamond, Diamond Plus, Emerald, etc. So when they started with Diamond Plus "this row only", well that row actually extended into Platinum (our level) so people started boarding from that section. Then others starting filling in the spaces vacated by those people, and so on. People couldn't adapt to "this row only" They'd hear Emerald or Platinum and come from the other side of the terminal as they called Emerald. Not chaos, but annoying.... but we made it on-board and we were off to the races.

Agreed but I've seen the pictures you folks produce and it's way better than anything I've ever managed. You all have skills!

Friday: (Cruise Day Minus Two Days): since this was our 25th anniversary, we did a partial recreation of our honeymoon where we did the Big Red Boat on Premier Cruise Lines, with a cruise and some time at Disney. Friday we had booked tickets for their Halloween party at the Magic Kingdom so we stayed one night at the Contemporary Resort as that was where we stayed for our Honeymoon. I managed to keep the hotel a secret from my wife until we had driven past all the other resorts. We (particularly my wife) are big Disney Park fans but we've never done the Halloween party before and it was a lot of fun. We continued to luck out with great weather (low humidity) and we were at the park from 4:00 to Midnight. We just walked back to the room so that was really convenient.

Step 12. Live on a cruise ship

It's definitely Oasis. We were debating a B2B on the Oasis to justify the drive. We are going with friends, and that's the only cruise dates that would work and the anthem dates in Feb. wouldn't work which killed me as we had a killer deal on the Feb. 3rd 12 night Anthem sailing. We hate driving to FL to catch a boat. In the end we are doing the Enchantment 4 night on Feb. 4, going to Disney for two days, and then hopping on the Oasis on Feb. 10. I was looking at Spring Break Airfare from you area, as we have some friends that tried to recruit us onto the Celebrity Silhouette Mar. 24 sailing out of FLL. It wouldn't work as we had a wedding on Apr 6th, and the rehearsal Apr. 5 when we disembark. The wedding was in DC, so I was looking at BWI, IAD, and DCA for possible flights. The flights weren't awful. For four of us, I got it down to 900 dollars on SWA. Not great, but not $2000 dollars expensive. Ultimately they decided to have the rehearsal dinner midday so logistically it won't work for us as we had to make 1015 direct flight that would land at 1230, but that left no margin for error. It was nice itinerary going to the really south caribbean and 4 ports we had never been to before and we've been pretty much every where in the Caribbean that isn't Cuba. We are instead doing the Mar. 22nd Grandeur, and possibly one of the Bermudas on the Anthem or Grandeur in April. It'd be nice to hit up Boston, as we have only been there once and only briefly. If you are tiring of the Caribbean I've been stalking some Prestige cruises deals. They quoted me $5600 for a 13 night Princess cruise starting in Singapore ending in Tokyo, with 3 nights hotel in Singapore WITH AIRFARE out of ORD. That is insane. We couldn't make the dates work, but it was sooo tempting. The 3400 is a great camera. All DSLR's take awesome pics these days. The higher end cameras just take marginally better pics, and only if you truly know how to use it to it's full extent and then process the pics correctly afterwards, otherwise, it's just as good as a 3400 or Rebel imo. Just keep practicing and I'm sure you'll move up the camera world over time.

Hey! I will have everyone know that I am sailing in an ocean view cabin on Indy in 67 days. All 4 of us! Whether I will survive it or not is the question! ?

An Alaskan cruise on Ovation of the Seas--Aug 23, 2019. Our first time to Alaska. We are having so much fun "researching" this cruise. 304 days to go!!

Day 0 – Sept 15 – Travel Day We awoke pretty early (4.45am) at our home in Scotland’s Central Belt. We packed as much as possible the night before but as always there were a few items to finish off in the morning. My parents were kind enough to take us to Edinburgh airport for the flight and the roads were not a problem at that time in the morning, especially not on a Sunday. Eggs Benedict at the Wetherspoon’s pub in the airport is becoming a bit of a tradition for us at the start of holidays. R departed slightly from tradition and went for Eggs Royale with smoked salmon (traitor!). Luckily we had no issues with our flights. Even traveling out the day before embarkation, with two flights between home and Florida I was conscious that it wouldn’t take much disruption to cause problems. We also did not have a long layover in London which added to the concern but ultimately worked well. On the main flight I partook in some in-flight entertainment. On a day time flight it always seems like a bit of a treat to sit down and watch three films in a row. When else do you have the time? Adding to the treat is the lower concern of the quality of the film because, well, what else are you going to do? Watch the clouds? Specifically I watched Tomb Raider, Paterno and Game Night. All of which I thought were perfectly watchable for airplane films. We took an Uber from Miami airport to where we were spending the night – Hampton Inn Downtown Ft. Lauderdale / Las Olas. Getting an Uber involved obtaining some roaming data on my phone as it was not possible to arrange this pre-trip. My mobile provider is somewhat unreliable but luckily experienced no issues with that. We were on the earlier flight out to Miami and arrived at the hotel for around 5.30pm. A novelty since we are used to spending all day traveling to the US, arriving at a hotel late in the evening and going straight to bed. So once we arrived, we showered and headed out to Las Olas. We both like Mexican, and I had already pre-researched what looked like a good option – Rocco’s Taqueria. Fortunately, while I was in the shower, R did some research on the fly and found the same place. “Let’s go here” she said as I exited the bathroom. I probably had a confused look on my face while I tried to determine if I had already mentioned the place or not. It was a walk of only just over a mile but it was pretty dang hot for a couple of Scottish milk bottles. When we arrived it was a bit of a wait for a table so we grabbed a couple of margaritas until one freed up. It was a good sign since on our walk there were not many places which were doing a roaring trade at that time in the evening. Funnily enough, I seem to remember the only other place that looked busy was another Mexican place (something Cantina from memory). We opted for some fresh guacamole made at the table and for main I had three different tacos (chicken, pork, steak). R had fish tacos and we shared some fried jalapeños. The tacos and guac were very good. R also enjoyed her tacos however not being a fish fan, I did not sample. The jalapenos we got on the side were good initially but a bit samey after a few. Only so much ‘fried-ness’ you can handle especially as you start to get a bit more full. On the walk back, we tried to get to a CVS to pick up some extra sunscreen but we came up the wrong street and overshot it. I didn’t have any more roaming left at that point for an en route GoogleMaps check. I ended up going back out to find it myself after we got back to the hotel and I checked the best route. I have to admit, after dark, alone, in downtown Ft. Lauderdale it did not seem like the safest of walks – even for someone used to wandering Glasgow. However when I arrived back to the hotel room, jubilant, with trophy sunscreen clutched in my hand, I was sure I would find my dutiful partner, her hand quivering over the 911 buttons of the telephone anxiously awaiting my retu… nope – she was asleep. I joined her for some zzz’s of my own at the back of 9pm. Understandably I was very tired after a long day. Officially we were up for about 21.5 hours after only 4 hours sleep night before and about half an hour, max, on the plane. However with some tacos, and a couple of miles walked (unmurdered!), it seemed like a successful travel day. Photo 1 - view from our hotel room Photo 2 - a tortillia-chip view of the fresh guac Photo 3 - trio of tacos Photo 4 - fried jalapenos with avocado ranch

I did it on the Majesty. My sushi plate was judged the "best" that night. Won a bottle of wine for it. Yay!

Extra thoughts: Loved my room, it served it's purpose. Two weird things that were just annoyances , one was the TV - very awkwardly placed. In order to watch you needed to sit on the edge of the bed. It wasn't a big deal, I only really watched to get ready. The second thing, while the shower was a better set up that Harmony the shower head always aimed for the door no matter how you tried to fix it so water would run out. My attendant was KOKO - very nice. Every time he saw me he screamed and laughed, I wasn't sure what to do with that but he got a good tip for making me need nothing all week. Specialty dining; for me, worth it. I really love food and enjoyed the different restaurants. Chops and Chef's Table were my favorites with Izumi for honorable mention since I went 2x. Jamie's was good but I wasn't wowed. I visited Windjammer and Cafe 270 for breakfasts, lunches and second lunches. 270 for the win for views. I spent a lot of time there when it was too cold to go outside reading and just looking at the water. I skipped Wonderland because it seemed more of an experience I wouldn't want to do alone. Service everywhere was top notch, I was impressed. Again, I made a bunch of reservations for shows then went to NONE OF THEM. I love a good show so I'm not sure why I never seemed to want to go. We skipped all the shows on the big group cruise too. Voom Surf and Stream - great until last night and morning. I've read this before and expected this as well. I enjoyed watching Netflix before bed, waste of money or not. I was left alone which worked for me. I enjoy meeting new people but also enjoy being by myself. I spent the first day in Bermuda on a 5 hour tour with good people. The Chef's Table bunch - so much fun. Had drinks with @JLMoran and his wife. Sorry @Broons77 we didn't get to meet up!!! It was a good amount of people vs me time. People seemed to be shocked I was solo, I was prepared from what I had read here that people would ask, a lot, and they did. Most women had the same exact response - that they had wished they went solo once in their life. Bermuda was perfect. I'd definitely take this exact cruise again. I liked the ship. No complaints, it was easy to get around and the crowds were never too bad. Considering the sea days were colder that's a good thing. Not sure when I'll be cruising again, hoping the 2020 group cruise is doable. Next year I have my land trip for Italy so imma try and be responsible and book nothing else til 2020. Last thing - I sort of wish I got the drink package. I had the refreshment package which was great for coffee and water for me but I found myself thinking WAY too much about cost. I say I'm not a big drinker, and I'm not usually but on a cruise I like to drink more. One Old Fashioned with 18% grats came to $16.36. I think unless I'm going on more than 7 days a drink package would be the way to go. They did offer the 10 drink package but it was the day I had Chef's Table so I didn't think I'd get use out of it. (I still should have gotten that for peace of mind).

$2 mimosas in the casino. It’s raining. Guess what I’m doing.

Coffee has been very good, both the complimentary coffee and the $$ options.

Morning. Time change one hour ahead. My iPhone does not automatically change

Dropped pup off last night and passed out on the couch before 9. I haven’t been sleeping all week. This is my first time playing with the camera and Luna is my favorite subject. It only took a half hour to figure out how to get the picture from my camera to anywhere else.