Leaderboard

Day 9 - Part 2 After a long day, we decided to take advantage of the complimentary room service, as well as being able to order from the MDR menu. Food was ok. Part of it was due to coming from room service, the other was a little lack of flavor. I didn't get butter or sour cream with my potato. I guess that's my fault for not ordering it. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful, as we are all starting to get a little vacay'd out... 2 weeks seemed like a good idea before hand...

Day 2 Dinner at Reflections

Day 10 - CocoCay The seas are completely flat right now, so we were able to dock at CocoCay with no issue. We did breakfast in the Windjammer since it is right above us. Tendering went easy, then it was a short walk to our cabana, #12. Overall, the cabana is quite nice, but I preferred the bungalow we had on Labadee. The layout was nicer, and the amount of beach and water per capita was more. The cabana on CocoCay was nice at lunch however, as there is a special lunch area for suites and cabana rentees. It was very easy to get food, without the huge crush of people like there was at Labadee. Overall, I think we prefer Labadee. The music was quite loud at the cabanas, so it was tough to relax some. I think part of it was to cover the noise of construction. While in no way did that ruin our experience, it definitely could be heard, and I would assume it will get worse. Here are some photos of the construction, pier, and from our cabana. I'm hard pressed to believe that the will be completed with the pier by January... Dinner tonight was in Chops, the lone specialty restaurant on-board. We booked during embarkation day for a 20% discount from one of the waiters. We wanted to compare Chops here vs. Oasis. Chops on Enchantment is much better. Food was seasoned better, and overall was more enjoyable. We did dine with Virginia, and she loved the shrimp and caesar salad. Our waitress, Teresa, was amazing with her, and kept asking to come home with us for Christmas. I had the same menu I had on Oasis, and each course was better on Enchantment. The restaurant is also much bigger on Enchantment, but was not very busy. For dessert, Abby had the red velvet cake, but liked the one on Oasis better. I had warm chocolate cake with ice cream. Virginia had ice cream. She was trying to get every last drip of melted ice cream that Teresa noticed and asked her if she was trying to put a hole in the bottom of the bowl. 2 minutes later, another bowl of ice cream showed up. "Don't you even think about it Mom!" We then took V to Adventure Ocean, and we headed to an empty VCL to relax and enjoy the view. This cruise seems very empty, even through there is almost a full load. The captain's speech mentioned there were over 700 children on the cruise, but I feel like a lot of them are teens. AO drop-off on night 1 was a very long process, but that's due to how the AO is set-up, and it is quite small. Especially compared to Oasis. Top cruiser this cruise has 1749 nights. After a little while in the VCL, in came the Honeymooner reception, so we decided to leave. Young love, gross... We picked up V and came back to the room to go to sleep. The next day we will be docked in Nassau. I forgot to mention on Day 9, but we did go to the casino for a little while, and ran into my favorite dealer from Majesty, Deborah from Italy. Her and Brendan from Zimbabwe are both on Enchantment now. They were so much fun on Majesty, and we still talk about them from time to time. It's one of those things that you wonder if you'll ever see someone again, and it was great to run across them. Also, the Activities Director is Mo, who was the AD on Majesty last year as well. Random thoughts - Abby and I decided that we do still like small ships, but it's more for a cruise that would be just the two of us, and not V. Ginny is having fun, but Oasis class is a lot more for her to do. - There is a lot of cosmetic upgrades going on. A lot of the things @twangster pointed out in his live blog are still existent, but seem to be slowly getting remedied. Nothing major, but she needs a lot of paint. Theres definite signs of salt wear and rust. - The GS is right beneath the Windjammer, so there is a lot of foot traffic noise. Kind of weird, since this is the only location of suites. - We can also hear a lot of noise from our neighbors, and people walking down the hall. We knew when our neighbors had their breakfast delivered this morning, and that one of them stirs cream and sugar in their coffee cup. - The crew have been amazing, again. And, the small ship vibe is a change from Oasis, but one we enjoy. - The centrum is nice and open, but the layout of the shops is very weird. Almost a maze to get through, and the salespeople feel a little more like used car salespeople...

Paper Plane Making Contest at the Centrum Got a keychain

Day 3 Breakfast at Reflections

Day 4: Athens Overnight, the Rhapsody had made the long haul around the corner of Greece, and was headed towards Pireaus and Athens. I got up early to enjoy a cup of coffee up on deck and watch the sun rise. We weren't scheduled to make port until noon, so we decided to take the girls swimming as soon as the pool was open. My wife stayed in the hot tub, and I got in and out of it as the middle girls decided to move between the hot tub and pool. Too late, we decided that we should have taken a picture of my daughter in the pool and the lifeguard wearing a coat and beanie hat. We let them swim for about an hour, and they had a great time, and turns out the pool water wasn't as cold as I was expecting- not bath water by any means, but definitely not frigid. After the pool we went back to our cabin, got ready for the day, and headed up to Windjammer for lunch. While we were eating, we watched the ship dock and saw Athens in the distance. I could even see the Acropolis faintly. Later, while talking with our tour guide, she told us that the weather could not have been more perfect, and the visibility is just about as good as she'd ever seen in Athens...no smog or humidity, bright sun, and just enough breeze to blow anything out of the way. As we were leaving WJ, Captain Tobias informed us that we had been cleared to go ashore, so we quickly went to our cabin to grab our day bags and continued down to the gangway on deck 1. I had scheduled an independent, private tour of the Acropolis and Ancient Agora, including transfers for today, and we were met by our driver immediately upon leaving the terminal. It took about 30 minutes to drive from the port to the Acropolis, with our driver pointing out things of interest along the way, mostly sights from the 2000 Olympics. He even pulled over at an overlook to let us take a picture of the harbor. We were delivered right to the bus parking lot at the Acropolis and promptly met by our guide. After purchasing our tickets (half-price because it was off-season, and kids under 18 free, by the way), we started the hike up the hill. Our guide, Marialena from Greeking.me, was fantastic and great with the girls. She took us all around the Acropolis, and stopped at various places to tell us the myths about this most important of places in Athens. Another benefit of being off season was that the sight was not crowded at all and the weather was perfect: sunny but not hot. After we descended from the Acropolis, we walked past Mars Hill where the Apostle Paul gave his famous speech to the Athenians and on to the Agora. Our girls were enthralled by the stories of Greek myths and walking around the ancient marketplace, looking up at the Parthenon, I could put myself back in that time. All in all, it was a great tour and well worth booking a private tour (I feel like I may be becoming a private tour snob!). We then had some free time to wander for about an hour before our transfer back to the ship. Arriving back at port, we headed to WJ for dinner and watched as the Rhapsody pulled away and out of Piraeus. The girls went up on the pool deck to watch Incredibles 2, while my wife and I enjoyed some time alone and went to the Love and Marriage gameshow, which was hilarious. It was by then time to turn in and get some sleep, with a lazy morning ahead of us again the next day.

Pictionary Telephone at Schooner Bar This relay game involves alternately drawing and describing a word/phrase down the line. I was 4th in line and I got it—“Silence of the Lambs”. But you know how these games go... the lambs were mistaken as horses and our final team answer was “Race Track, Pick a Winner”

Disney Trivia at Schooner Bar Got 12 out of 20 questions... lost to winner who got 18.

Sushi Making Class at Izumi Glad to have met @bcarney at the class.

Workout at the Fitness Center (I’m doing this for only one reason... to be able to eat more without guilt)

No, I actually meant June 21st. This is the result of sleeping less than 4 hours several days in a row. I think I need a cruise. :)

Day 2 Lunch at Izumi

Day 2 Breakfast at Reflections

They may not be advertising it but my Deluxe drink package dropped this morning for our sailing on Liberty of the Seas in May. I just got it for $47 PP/PN. It had been sitting at $50 PP/PN since we booked. I also pulled the trigger on getting The Key for the trip. We are newbies and are not in a suite so this might be a good option. They also dropped the Deluxe Drink Package with Voom Surf and Stream down to $55 PP/PN from %59 PP/PN. Just an FYI to all.

Day 3 Dinner at Reflections

“Who in the World Am I? at Schooner Bar

Harmony dec 2-9 refreshment package is $15/day deluxe $45/day

I just got the Refreshment Package for 5/12/19 sailing on Allure for $17/day ?

The Vegas Tenors

@JLMoran And @RCVoyager I will say the native Hawaiians have a low level of trust regarding outsiders and a percentage are still fairly angry over how HI became a state and the horrible treatment levied against their last queen (justified, but I think it’s time to move on and let history be history IMHO). All that said, they are fun loving people (just quite poor as so many indigenous people have ended up and not entirely of their own doing). Not making a political statement, just adding context since most or all of the areas considered unsafe are those with large percentages of native Hawaiians. But, I am very European looking (no one will mistake me for Hawaiian LOL) and I have never felt frightened in those areas because I know Hawaiians are fun-loving, non-critical, easy-going people. They have their own ways, but they are genuinely loving people; plus, I have never been treated with more respect by nieces and nephews than when I am there and I was raised in the South US where respect for elders is highly valued. They have very little, but what they gave they will share with you I hope that you will go back some day. And hey, if you need to experience some real Aloha, just me know and I can set you up with the real deal! Just avoid the poi ????? P.S. for me Pearl Harbor was a must see..12+ uncles, my father-in-law and father served in WWII. My father was on Omaha Beach on DDay and the Battle of the Bulge. I could not help but cry some for all those young people, all that was lost, all that was saved, and all those lives effected.

Zumba Class at Vortex

I wouldn't expect Royal to get anything with the word "cyber" in it correct anyways ?

LOL at the Carnival officer sneaking on our ship for a bite to eat.

DAY 2 Waking up to this view is awesome!

Day 3: Corfu We didn't have big plans for this day, just to wander the town at our own pace. We did set an alarm for 8:30, just in case, thinking that there was no way the girls would sleep that long (they never do at home). Apparently, though, the long days had already caught up with them, and we ended up sleeping until the alarm went off. Shortly after that, the captain made an announcement that it was 9:45 and the ship had been cleared by the local authorities...I'd forgotten to change clocks the night before- oops! But since we didn't have anywhere to be, we still were able to get ready at a leisurely pace and head up to breakfast. While eating, we gave the younger three girls the choice to stay on the ship at AO or go into town with us, and they unanimously chose to stay at the kids club. So we dropped them off and headed off the ship with our oldest with us. We decided to walk into town, about 15-20 minutes from the port along the waterfront. The weather was gorgeous and the walk wasn't too bad. With nothing much in mind to do, we just wandered around the streets of Corfu town, going down side streets that looked interesting to us. We found a shop where the owner carved olive wood, talked to him a little bit, and bought a Christmas ornament. Next we saw a fish spa, the kind of place where you stick your feet in a fish tank and let them nibble at your dead skin. My wife was very tempted to try it, but ended up not, afraid of getting some kind of exotic fish-borne skin-eating disease, only half joking. From there we stopped at a Starbucks to add a mug to our collection (yes I know, cheesy and touristy, but it is our thing). My oldest daughter found wifi there, so she was happy, having starting to get withdrawal from the internet while on the ship. Finally, we reached our destination- the Old Fortress at the very end of the town. You buy your tickets and then cross the moat into the fortress. There is a very small museum with some well-preserved mosaics from Byzantine times and a brief history of the fort. The fortress was built as early as the town was settled, the moat was dug and the fortifications built up by the Venetians, and most recently (relatively speaking) was a British stronghold in the late 1800s. It was a bit of hike to the lighthouse atop the hill, but the pay off was well worth it. After our hike up the hill and back, we started back to the ship. We arrived back at the terminal just as two busloads of shore excursions were returning, which gave us confidence that we wouldn't miss all aboard, but made for a long ling processing back through the security checkpoint. We then grabbed a quick snack and watched as the ship cast off from the pier and sailed away from Corfu. Tonight was formal night, which the girls always enjoy dressing up for. Service was excellent again in the MDR, although I made a bad choice for dinner (seafood pasta), I should have gone with a steak or the duck my daughter tried for the first time. Afterwards, we dropped the 7 and 3 year olds off at Adventure Ocean, the oldest went to watch Avengers Infinity War on the pool deck, and my wife, 5 year old and I went to the magic show in the theater. The magician was very good and we really enjoyed the show, even my wife who isn't big into magic. A bit more snacking and picking the girls up from AO, and it was time for bed. Tomorrow was the planned highlight of the trip: Athens and a tour of the Acropolis.

Welcome Aboard Show

Day 9 - Embarkation Day #2 We were able to get into our hotel room yesterday pretty early, and get started on laundry. After V took a nap, we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. I would skip this if I were to stay there again. Then we spent a little time in the pool, then back to pack and go to bed. This morning, we got up and went back to Southern Charm Cafe for breakfast. This quickly became a family favorite. It is very tasty food, and the servers are all great. We got a "late" start to the port, arriving at the rental car return around 10:15. We were at the port around 10:30, and there was no line for security. Much different from Oasis, and more similar to Majesty last year. The port staff were a little rude, maybe they had a case of the Mondays. They were already boarding when we checked in, so we went straight onto the ship. We were playing ping-pong by 10:45. Part of the pool deck was being refinished, so they had it partially closed. We went to Windjammer for lunch, and it was pretty tasty. The rest of the day has been relatively uneventful. We love the grand suite. Lots of room. Overall, Enchantment definitely seems tired, and not as well taken care of as Majesty even was. We did head to NextCruise after Muster drill. We now have a 2BR ATS booked on Oasis in Feb 2020. We're also looking to upgrade Anthem to a Grand Loft suite, as we found out we're having to cancel the Mariner GC due to scheduling with our new business opening. While we were at NextCruise, V passed out on Abby. She had been getting cranky. She napped in the Centrum for about 1.5 hours. Then we headed back up to the room, and are currently taking advantage of the free room service, and room service from the MDR. A reminder that this is not, in fact, Oasis of the Seas, but a great view of the Ocean from the bar.

Dinner for Night 1:

Day 2: Kotor, Montenegro Today was a day to sleep in a little bit after staying up so late last night. Everyone got ready and we headed to breakfast at WJ. All week we were impressed with the selection and quality of the breakfast, and we never left hungry. Last night the Cruise Compass said that tender tickets were going to be distributed starting at 9:30, but the cruise director announced 9:45 at the show. So I planned to get to the ticket distro early to try to get off the ship as soon as we could. I had arranged a private driver/guide for a tour of the local area, and wanted to get there as soon as possible. BUT, while eating breakfast, my wife asked me when the tickets were being handed out, and when I looked at my watch and saw 9:43, I immediately sprinted out of WJ for deck 6. Too late, as I got tender 14 tickets. I must admit I knew nothing of Kotor, except for the pictures in @Traveler's blog. So at least we knew to be on deck to see the approach through the "Southern-most fjord in Europe." And it was worth it. Scheduled first tender was 1:30, but it seemed like they started calling later than that. About the time they called the first tender, I turned on my phone, and already had a message from the driver asking where we were. Tenders tickets were sloooowly called, and I got more and more upset about not getting earlier tickets. At one point, I had to go for a cooling walk around the Promenade deck to gather myself. At 2:45, ticket 14 was finally called and we made our way ashore. After walking a little bit from the terminal, we met our driver and went out of our tour. The first stop was Perast, home of the Our Lady of the Rocks church, in the middle of the bay. We opted not to go to the church, hoping to save a little time since the sun was going to set soon, and we wanted to see all that we could after losing an hour of time. Instead, we did a quick walk through the old town, which was so picturesque and cute. My wife found a little vender of pomegranate wine along the way, so we stopped to try it and buy a bottle. From there, we drove back through Kotor and up the Serpentine Road above the city. The views from up there were absolutely breathtaking, and we stopped at two elevations for pictures and to admire the view. Our driver was very personable and talkative. He gave us a history of the former Yugoslav republics and an overview of Montenegro, which I knew little about. He also was more than willing to take all the pictures of us that we wanted, a bonus since we never seem to have pics of our whole family while we travel. Rhapsody of the Seas and Riviera Princess in Kotor Bay After taking several, several family pictures and various combinations of selfies and daughters, we headed back down the mountain to Kotor town. The sun had set by this time, and our driver dropped us off at the main gate into the Old Town. From there we were on our own. Kotor is a walled city, and is just a maze of small streets and alleyways. It was pretty all lit up at night, and the city walls extended up the hillside to a castle high about the town, which also was lit and looked a lot like torch light above us. We probably spent about an hour wandering the town, stopping into shops and churches, and just enjoying the evening. With that, our stomachs told us it was time to head back to the ship and get dinner. We timed the return tender just right, and didn't have to wait at all to return. I'm too honest and surrendered our wine as we reboarded. We dropped our stuff at the room and went up to dinner. Our 7 year old wasn't feeling good, so my wife and I took turns staying in the room with her, while we dropped the younger two off at the kids club and my wife and oldest went to the Ballroom Fever show in the theater. When the girls got back from Adventure Ocean, they were so excited to show us their crafts and art work from the evening, and we started our collection of "treasures" that took up about 1/4 of a suitcase on the way home. All in all, it was a low key night, and we turned in around 10 or so. Our impression of Kotor was pretty good. It was so pretty, and had so much natural beauty. I was (and still am) upset about my tender ticket miscue, so we missed out on about an hour of our tour due to that. Also, with the ship arriving in the afternoon, our touring time was shortened by the early sunset, too. I would have loved to walk the walls, but there was no way we were getting our girls up without complaining/leaving one up there. Tonight was a time change +1 hour for Greek time, and tomorrow was Corfu.

Departing from Jacksonville... ready for paperless boarding

HI all, I am in port Canaveral sitting in my hotel room this morning and excited to board Oasis of the the Seas today. This is my 27th cruise, but our first time on an Oasis class ship so I am super excited. I have had this cruise booked for a year now, after getting an unbelievable on cyber Monday last year so I have $400 OBC this cruise. This is also our first cruise as diamond, so our first time not getting the drink package in a while. The OBC will help. Because it is a holiday cruise, their were no specialty dining packages available in the cruise planner. We will be stopping in Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten this cruise. I am excited. I have not been to St. Thomas and St. Maarten in a while. I have 2 excursions booked outside of the cruise. For St. Thomas we are doing the "Taphus sips and bites tour" and for St. Maarten, we are doing the Bernard's island tour and then will likely come back to the boardwalk and get some drinks. In Nassau, I plan to just get off and have some drinks and appetizers. Starting at our favorite restaurant in Nassau, Athena cafe. My plan is to get conch fritters and their basil martini. :). We stayed last night at the holiday inn vacation club in port canaveral. I am an IHG credit card holder, so I used my annual certificate to redeem the room. The fee to maintain the card is $75, so I feel that I got a bargain on this room for $75. We arrived here early yesterday morning from Cincinnati. Lyft from MCO to the hotel was $61.72, and super easy! Our room was not ready yet so we checked our bags at the resort, and headed to Grills for lunch right next to where Navigator of the Seas was parked. I had the fish tacos which I was able to choose my fish for. ( I got fresh tuna, sushi style) and an IPA. The tacos were delicious. DL got the burger which also looked great! After lunch, we caught an uber to the taproom and Florida beer company which was a great atmosphere with lots of TV's. I enjoyed their southernmost wheat beer and DH got a flight and then purchased some IPA's for the hotel room. The weather is amazing in florda today, 60's and breezy so I wasn't as inspired to go into the amazing pool and lazy river at the hotel. Once they called and said our room/villa was ready, we headed back to the hotel. I sat out by the pool bar for a while and listened to the band, which was great. I also had a $3 mimosa, and they had a happy hour starting at 4. Our room was perfectly situated facing the channel so my favorite thing about the hotel was watching the cruise ships depart and come into the channel this morning. Yesterday, we watched Carnival breeze, the norwegian EPIC, the Disney fantasy, 2 other ships, and lastly Navigator of the Seas. This morning I woke up early, and saw Oasis come in about 5:30 am. Since then Carnival liberty and Carnival sunshine also sailed in. The lighting was perfect for the Sunshine. My plan is to head to the gym now and then possibly take a float in the lazy river prior or check out the beach prior to boarding oasis this morning. We are less than a mile from the port, so it will be an easy uber or lyft ride. The hotel also has a tram to the beach every 15 minutes, but I have not yet been. I don't have Wifi onboard, so i will update the blog, but it will be delayed. I am hoping to do Chef's table tonight or tomorrow night if I can get a special offer on board and since we have so much OBC. I am also tempted to take the Guacomole class at Sabor on one of the sea days. I did the sushi class on our grandeur of the seas cruise in march, and really enjoyed it!

This day turned out to be “Contests Day” for me. Here is a recap of how I did: Disney Trivia - 10/15 General Information Trivia - 6/15 Theme Music Trivia - 6/15 Telephone Pictionary - 2nd Place (Two Team Contest) Bottom Line: I did not win any contest, but I had tons of fun. (Which is what counts, right?)

General Info Trivia at Schooner Bar

When you get on board go straight to Chops to make all your reservations...then Park Café for lunch.

Great name! I've added your cruise to the list. All have been added. I'm booked on the Anthem GC, too, but it's competing with a Celebrity European cruise I have booked. Decisions, decisions! Welcome back to cruising. The type of cabin doesn't matter. What matters is that you're back on a ship. Your cruise has been added to the master list. Your cruise has been added. You've picked a great ship. As for your questions, post them to the general message board and you'll get a ton of responses. Bring sunscreen, your swimwear in your carry-on so you can enjoy the pools while waiting for your luggage to arrive, other swear by magnetic hooks to place on the wall. I like your style of cruising. Four different classes of ships in one year. I'm also booked on the Freedom group cruise and I'm looking forward to it as I love San Juan and the Souther Caribbean.

The moment in which you caught that guy is perfection. He looks so guilty like he’ll get caught eating the good food. Lol

I'll be on the same itinerary on Allure sailing March 31st (but with older children), so I've been on the hunt for similar excursions. All your plans sound great and I don't see any major flaws there. Just be cautious walking around in Nassau if you venture out from the port area. We're booking a private cultural/historical excursion with a tour guide who I hope will keep us safe. Good pick for the monkeys/sloths in Roatan - we're doing the same thing but just with a different tour company that we're looking at for a few other activities. I'm the most excited about that excursion!

Day 2 highlights- few days late as Voom has been slow and I’m struggling to upload pictures Windy sea day. Slides are fun and had low lines throughout the day. Sky Pad Sky pad it was open from 9am-7 pm. The sky pad had long lines (60-90 minutes) almost all day. The kids waited once during the day for over 60 minutes and tried it again around 5 pm and only waited 30 minutes. There’s a staff member who weighs each person and you are given a wrist band saying the number of bands to be hooked up to. It’s about a 30 minute wait at this point. They say you can choose your adventure: candy, space or music. I’ll try to get a pic of the choices. My kids didn’t have the greatest luck choosing their game and the headset would slide down from Soccer’s and Cutie’s heads. College felt a bit sick after it and so did I. I think next time we’ll try without headsets. You are allowed to do flips if you don’t wear a headset. Overall it is a fun experience but I would suggest getting there first thing or around dinner time. Sushi making class. College, Football and I did this class and it was offered at 11:30 on day 2. Really fun class and a great lunch. Windjammer is crazy. During breakfast, there were announcements asking people to leave tables if they were finished eating. Some groups had set up card games! MTD crowds. Make a reservation! The line to check in without a reservation extended to Studio B on the first night. The second night wrapped around the side towards the ladies bathroom as the photographer was set up in the middle. Formal night was night 2. Food good but the beef is slightly over cooked. I usually like my beef cooked to medium but it’s more on the medium well side. Here is the menu for formal night. Speaking of the MDR, am I the only one who hates the production of the waiters singing? They sang some Italian song last night. While I love the wait staff, I think this completely interrupts the meal timing and conversation. I would never expect my wait staff on land to sing especially in a high end restaurant. There are 1140 children on board. Grease was shown on night 2 at 6 and 9 pm. This is the only showing of the cruise. I walked in at 8:55 and found decent seats with College Ski. Mr Ski hates Grease and saw it with me on Harmony but won’t see it again. That worked out well as Cutie had a rough night and needed to go to bed early.

Oh okay. Gotta love RC technology lol. I haven’t been on a ship that works with the app yet so I have no idea how it works. I’ve just read about it patiently waiting for the day it gets rolled out to the smaller ships.

TP-Link Hotspot Setup (Thank you, @twangster for the tutorial)

I would also agree with this. My wife and I went to HI for our honeymoon, spent 12 days there -- 2 on Oahu, 5 each on Kaua'i and Maui. Oahu was definitely a little rushed, only got to see the Polynesian Cultural Center -- a full-day activity all its own and totally worth it -- and go horseback riding around Turtle Bay. We had planned to see Pearl Harbor on the way to the airport for our transfer to Kaua'i; but as we were checking out of our hotel, the manager at the front desk told us no uncertain terms that if we did that, our rental car would have the trunk popped and our luggage would be stolen as soon as we went inside. ? The other islands all had a bunch of places we wanted to visit, even with everything we did and with 5 full days on each. A cruise to the islands would feel way too rushed, IMO.

Well, this has been beyond a relaxing sea day. Breakfast delivered Top Tier event (wasn't paying attention to stats) Hooked for Lunch Exclusive Welcome Aboard Reception for cruisers book with MEI Starbucks Run Pub Crawl Group "Come as you are" formal night photo Dinner in Wonderland Hairspray Pub time Pizza time LIVEish post Before bed procrastination -No time to fit in a basic WJ recon

We've been cruising with our now college aged kids since they were 4 & 2. Once they were old enough to be able to sign themselves in and out of the kids programs, we started using white boards to leave notes for each other. We wrote where we were going to be, and tried very hard not to deviate from that. If we did, we came back and wrote our new destination. It worked pretty well. I also would bring 2 different colored highlighters, one for us and one for them. We'd highlight what activities we were doing that day, and they would also highlight what they wanted to do. They learn quicker than us to navigate the ship - they will be the ones telling you where things are and that you've turned the wrong direction, haha. We never had internet for all of us until our most recent cruise together - May 2018 - and they were 18 & 20. So if you're not interested in a multiple device plan - white boards and communication are the way to go.

Fun of no tab at Playmakers, note this was four people enjoying.

After a few beers Thats usually how every building looks to me in the early hours of the morning lol

Made it and waiting to board, Genie is chillin' with us.

Day 12: The last full day of this cruise and only our second port of call – Cape Canaveral. As we booked the Kennedy Space Center Guided Tour, we had an early breakfast at Park Cafe. Meeting for the excursion was in the Royal Theater at 8 am. As we’d arrived early, we were already in line to get off the ship at 7.50 am. Unfortunately, this didn’t help much. Immigration in Port Canaveral was mayhem for non-US citizens. We stood in line for 2.5 hours, shortening our 8h tour to 5.5 hours. This was our first major gripe with Royal. While they can’t speed up the immigration process, their organisation was truly disappointing. They sold way too many full day tours resulting in thousands of people trying to get through immigration at the same time. And instead of reserving the first hours for full day tours, they also let half day tours and passengers without any tours off the ship at the same time. Never seen such a bad organisation and we’ve already done immigration in Russia. On the bright side: our tour guide Doug did everything he could to show us as many things possible within the shortened time frame. I’m sure we’d have enjoyed KSC more hadn’t we been so tired from standing in line for hours – maybe we’ll just try another time. At least we saw some alligators on the way back to the ship We were finally back onboard at 4.22 pm (all aboard 4.30 pm), so our first stop was the pool bar for some much needed alcoholic drinks. We managed to get first row seats in the Solarium for sail away. Symphony’s arrival in the US generated quite some interest, we had 2 helicopters documenting sailaway and hundreds of people watching. Guess Carnival Liberty never had a bigger audience ? Before dinner we finished packing, then we went to Solarium Bistro. I have to agree with Twangster here, it’s a pity we only did this on the last day. Well, as we were able to share, we had a significant advantage: we managed to try everything we wanted! We tried Greek Salad, Ceviche, Tomato & Bocconcini, Tzatziki & Pita Bread, Seafood Soup, Stuffed Zucchini, Greek-style Roasted Potatoes, All-natural Grass-fed Skirt Steak with Horseradish, Chicken Kebab, Lemon Pepper Roasted Chicken, Kofta, Moussaka, Grilled Salmon, Fresh Mussels, Grilled Shrimp, Chocolate Nocciola, Loukoumades, Torta de Mele, Tarte Tropezienne, Panna Cotta à la Romana, Galaktoboureko. I wouldn’t recommend the Chicken Kebab but everything else was really good. Feeling completely full we changed clothes and headed to the pool for some laps and just relaxing in the hot tubs. We fled when it started raining – yes I know we were already wet, but our cover up clothes weren’t ? The evening ended with some final drinks at – you guessed it – Playmakers. Side notes: 15k steps Nearly forgot to pick up our pictures – fortunately it suddenly dawned on hubby before they closed the foto shop. We’re missing Symphony soooooo much ?

Day 1: Embarkation Day Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early! We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice. Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch. At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise. Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week. Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Here's a link to the full review (with tons of photos) that I wrote after doing this on Freedom last April: I did it solo, even though I was traveling with my family, and it was a fantastic time. @ellcee was traveling solo on Anthem at the same time as my wife and I were, and she also had a great experience. She didn't do a full review, but this short-yet-perfect summary also gives you an idea of the experience as a solo traveler: As for whether it's "worth it" if you don't drink, I would still wholeheartedly say yes. The food alone is worth the price of admission, and you combine that with the great experience of the chef coming out and explaining all the courses, the people (well, barring something like what @Broons77 had to go through with a couple of passengers who were too far into their drink packages...), and the camaraderie, and it's really something you just have to experience at least once. Doing it for a birthday sounds like a great idea to me!

November 30 mariner of the seas