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I needed to share my joy with someone so here seems like the place. We leave Sunday on the Allure just hubby and I to celebrate 25 years of marriage then on the 27th we board the Empress with our three children for a family cruise. I'm so freaking excited even though we just cruised in December. I cannot wait to be without the kids for a vacation and I'm also excited for Cuba.

So for dinner tonight we had 6:30 reservations at Giovanni’s Table and that was going to be followed by a 9:00 showing of the ice skating show (Ice Games). We were seated quite promptly at Giovanni’s and overall had a wonderful dinner, though there were some culinary duds in the mix and some pacing issues which we later found out were due to some large tables slowing down the kitchen. That’s fine, but I would have preferred a bit more communication from our server on the delay and cause of it. A shot of the mostly completely attacked bread basket which was full of very good crusty Italian bread. I’m such a snob about Italian bread and this was very very good and fresh. The right contrast of crusty but pliable exterior and a light, fluffy interior. They give you olive oil with balsamic vinaigrette sprinkled with Parmesan cheese for dipping. For my appetizer I got the pancetta (slow cooked pork belly). It was good but not great. A tad dry and not as flavorful as I was expecting. My mom and I got an order of the bolognese pasta to split as our pasta dish. It was just....ok. I would definitely get another pasta if we went back. My dad loved his wild mushroom risotto but I’m not a mushroom person. You can see his pasta in the background of the next picture. My new love. Giovanni’s filet. Hands down, as a filet this beats Chop’s filet. The sauce is better, the mashed potatoes are better, and the steak is either a better cut or prepared better. It’s very juicy and tender with a lot of good flavors. As an overall steak, it’s the second best on the ship of what I’ve tasted. Number 1 is still Coastal Kitchen rib eye. To get back around to the pacing issue I noted earlier. We got there at 6:30. At 7:30 our appetizers had been cleared and we were still waiting for our main dishes. She asked if we wanted desert around 8:10 when I told her that we did, but as a note we had a 9pm show. She then apologized for all the delays and explained what caused them. She picked up the pace on clearing everything and taking our dessert orders. But before she took our dessert orders she brought out......a cake with a candle in it for my mom’s birthday! I had come by the night before and spoken to the host about getting a candle put in a dessert for her and brought to the table but *without any singing* because my family can’t stand that. I had asked if at all possible to have it be carrot cake because it’s her favorite dessert but said I totally understood if they couldn’t make it happen. Well, turns out they weren’t able to swing that BUT they did bring her over a dessert from 150 Central Park instead! It was very nice how she did it and very much appreciated. By the way, it was excellent and very refreshing. I got the hazelnut chocolate cake for dessert. Ok so I take back anything I said about not having had a phenomenal cake on Royal. Here it is. This cake. This very cake. Was so f***ing good. That I paused between bites to just savor it. So rich. So moist. Such a great crumb. The frosting. So decadent. I just. Y U M. Also my dad was obsessed with the tiramisu but since I don’t like coffee I was trying to clear my tastebuds after trying it. Overall, we finished with Giovanni’s around 8:30 so it took a good, full 2 hours to eat there. Time accordingly. We stopped by the room to change shoes and somehow lost my dad to the siren call of the bed. My mom was a trooper though and joined me for seeing the Ice Show. We got there around 8:40 and used Key seats. Excellent seats there: overall the ice show was super fun and cheesy in the best way. I was surprised by how much they must have spent on song licensing because they had stuff from some pretty famous and varied musicians. From Michael Jackson to Barbra Streisand to Elvis to Christina Aguilera. It was also fairly interactive so if you have no desire for them to interact and play with you, don’t sit in the front row. It was a great end to the night and now it’s BED.

It always seems to be something...... Being in the software business I wonder if RCL has the QA phase before they roll stuff into production. Cruise departs in 1 day, 79 days from now.

At the gate waiting for our 3PM boarding for flight to Miami. We are TSA precheck, but for the 2nd consecutive time my wife was stopped for a random check. The agent, however. was soooo nice. She asked DW "Do you have a cell phone in your bag?" With the affirmative reply, she said "show it to me and have a great trip". Personally, I think she was great with us because she was looking at my t-shirt and smiling.

Ok. Since it is confession time, I will join you. We always get the DBP too and I am a Coke snob so wouldn’t be caught dead drinking a fountain Coke. Dan doesn’t drink any soda at all. Not very time but SOME times, if I meet a worthy candidate, we will give our cups away to someone who will use it. I also recognize that this is not legal. Confession complete. Oooh. I feel so much better ! ??

So update on the cruise planning. I booked Jamies for the last evening. I have never done specialty dining as my wife and I are big fans of the main dining room but since it will be a couple of years before I will be able to cruise again, why not. Also finally, the Escape Room has appeared in the cruise planner! We are booked for after dinner while in Nassau. I love escape rooms and the ones on Royal's ships look more elaborate than any I have been to. I am not sure how the larger groups will work but I have only heard good things. We are still not sure what we want to do in Nassau. We are back and forth between beach day or staying on the ship. Any thoughts? I'll leave you with some photos from 2015 of my students performing in Nassau in the Centrum on Enchantment of the Seas and the tired old lady herself

1 travel day story Well, we’re finally here, travel day. After the cancelation I spoke of earlier it meant sitting in traffic before heading to the airport. Once there though everything went smoothly and we took off right on time. During the flight though a group of six girls in their twenties loudly talked through the whole flight. At one point we had to remind them that a child was in front of them as the language was out of control. We tossed back and forth the idea of renting a car, but in the end just decided to Uber down to Miami and over to the cruise port. For this stay we decided on a property we hadn’t tried before, the JW Marriott Marquis Miami. It was the nicest of the properties closest to the port that also can ne paid for with a Marriott Annual Free night certificate. There was a 25 dollar per night “Destination fee” but it included the entire game area downstairs with Virtual Bowling, football, golf school lessons, and more. We checked out the concierge lounge in the evening but it was already past the evening hors d'oeuvres time frame so I can’t comment on the quality of those. From our room we could even catch a glimpse of the aft of empress of the seas Overall, the common areas are very well taken care of, but it still pales in comparison to the room we were given. When we arrived they let us know that we had been upgraded to a Bay view corner suite, which featured 1.5 bathrooms, separate bedroom area, and even an office area. The bathroom is gorgeous and well appointed with a separate water closet, bathtub, and huge steam shower. Amenities were nearly full size from Apothecary. Tomorrow’s the day, can’t wait to board navigator. Don’t imagine I’ll be up early to watch the ships come in.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention, when we came back before my mom went up to the pool deck we made a nice little trip down to Next Cruise and....YOLO booked the Junior Suite for the Anthem 2021 11 night sailing! Worth it for the room, the balcony and the Coastal Kitchen access. Also we don’t have to pay for flights since it’s out of NJ. This is my logic and I’m sticking to it. Those 22 points aren’t too shabby either. The thing I was surprised by was that it’s still only a $100 per person deposit even for the longer sailing and now you have 2 months to make changes to your booking without penalty instead of 30 days. Very good surprises. Booking confirmation!

Day 5 is San Juan, PR from 7a-2p. Because of the hours, I didn’t have any breakfast onboard since I planned to grab some food in Old San Juan. We docked at 7am and the gangway opened around 7:30. Since most of the places didn’t open until somewhere in the 8-10 range, we decided to wait until close to 8am to get off. My mom really wanted to get in some pool sun time today so I modified our plans to exclude a tour through the governor’s house and a trip to various plazas and to simply hit up Cuatro Sombras for coffee, Chobobar Cortes for breakfast/buying chocolate and Spicy Caribbee for spices and teas. Those were the items I had as “must dos” and we could play everything else by ear. A picture of us docked from our balcony. Note the blue pattern on the dock. I was able to use that to figure out exactly where we were on google maps. Which is here: Also as you can see from the google maps screencap, there is a Walgreens RIGHT across from the pier. It has a ton of stuff and is great for things you forgot or ran out of. I got more icy hot lotion for my back/neck. They also have lots of wine and liquor prominently displayed. It’s been awhile since I priced liquor, but some of the stuff seemed rather cheap. It was around $50 for the biggest bottle of Patron and somewhere around $30 for the normal sized bottle. I thought I remember it being more expensive than that when I was drinking. Here is a panorama to show the placement of the Walgreens and how close to the pier it is. As we were walking down the pier, I noticed that they were unloading trash which makes sense to do as you are in ports so you don’t have to unload it all at once. It’s interesting to see and think about cruise operations and logistics. Another debarking photo op that we successfully dodged. But it’s there if you are not like me and allergic to pictures. Our first stop was Cuatro Sombras (Four Shadows) Since it opened at 7am. My dad ordered the drip coffee and when I asked about if they sold bags of coffee to take home the cashier pointed to this sign: In case it’s hard to read, Hurricane Maria devastated 80% of the island’s coffee crop and so they have had to start using coffee from other countries instead of their normal bean. This also means that they aren’t selling any coffee to take home right now. This is very sad news for PR but completely understandable and unavoidable. According to my dad, the coffee they were using was “like water” and a very light blend. However he vastly prefers dark blends so take that with a grain of salt. My mom got a brownie there that was very good. We all sort of split that since we knew more food was coming. Our next stop was Chocobar Cortes which is known for their chocolate and opens at 8am. We saw some really cool buildings on our way over. I forgot to take pictures of the exterior or interior of the restaurant, but it was quite easy to find and when you first walk in there is a sign telling you to wait to be seated. I think if you just wanted bars of chocolate to go you can walk past that sign to the display counter. We wanted to eat and were quickly led to a table. The back of the menu with the fresh pastries and hot chocolates/coffee options. I ordered the traditional hot chocolate (puertorriqueño) and the mallorca breakfast sandwich with ham, sharp cheddar & egg, my dad got the mocha chocolate and my mom got the European hot chocolate. We also got the canasta of pastries which was basically an assortment with chocolate dipping sauce and some fruit marmalade. The breakfast sandwich was phenomenal and the mallorca was a great bun for it because it was nice and light so it didn’t weigh the sandwich down too much. The fruit was a great compliment to the hot chocolate for when I needed to refresh my palate. The traditional hot chocolate was great and incredibly rich and smooth. You can tell it’s made with actual chocolate bars and not from a powder which makes a difference. My mom’s European hot chocolate was very good and thick but I preferred mine. Hers was very very thick which is nice, but it seemed to be made with more milk chocolate than the semi sweet in mine. The pastries were all great and very fresh. I highly recommend this place for breakfast. The prices were also quite reasonable for the quality of the food. $3.25 for my hot chocolate was criminally cheap. I would have happily paid $7 for it. After we paid, we made our way up to the front. I bought 2 of each type of bar since I have plans for putting them in the freezer to make them last and they were quite cheap. Much less expensive than the chocolate on St Kitt’s. I think I paid about $28 for 6 huge bars of chocolate with tax. They had a normal bar, a bar with cinnamon (SUCH A GOOD COMBO) and a baking bar (I already have the brownies planned out). My mom grabbed the powdered version for easier hot chocolate The next stop was Spicy Caribee because I wanted to get some spices maybe and definitely some tea for my aunt who was checking in on my cats for me. Again, passed some wonderful buildings on our way. We also passed this green space with fun, whimsical statues and art. (This is a line of school kids all carrying kites I assume off to fly them outside El Morro) This shop was a bit tucked away so I’m including some pictures of what it looks like when you should turn. Then you turn into an archway and see this. Honestly, I could tell we were close because I could smell the store from the sidewalk through a closed door: Again, I forgot to take pictures inside because I was busy smelling everything, but they had a ton of jams and hot sauces (that you could sample!) along with interesting local loose teas and Puerto Rican coffee. I was talking to the owner and I mentioned how we stopped by Cuatro Sombras for coffee and they didn’t have any because of the hurricane. She said that yes it’s very difficult to get local coffee right now, but she has a great supplier and relationships with local farmers and is still able to get some in. There was also a lot of local art and bulk herbs for sale. And they had fresh vanilla beans! My purchases from there. After stopping by there, we slowly started to wander back to the ship since our (ok, my) “must do” stops were covered. Our walk back happened to bring us along Calle Fortaleza which is also...umbrella street! Stunning visual and such a happy accident that we stumbled across it. We also stopped into a souvenir shop that caught my parents’ eyes. I didn’t catch the name but it was located here: and it had a TON of locally made art and crafts which were very nice looking and unique. Of course there was mass produce touristy crap in there, but there was also some great stuff and it’s worth popping in there. Also featuring these frogs that cracked me up: After that we were successfully back on the ship! We made it back around 11:20ish so lots of time for mom sun time. Oh! I almost forgot.....I took this time lapse of us passing by Old San Juan on our way out and finally past El Morro. Very pretty sail away. 896AA39B-86E9-44A1-AEF9-A7D95B0798B3.MOV

Currently on explorer of the seas and they’ve opened a gin bar in the tavern on Tuesday night!

Welcome, Nick! So when you're on board and someone complains about the Freestyle machines not working, you'll just crack your knuckles, roll up your sleeves, and calmly say, "I got this"? ?

Ssh! If RCI sees this we will all be paying to get our linen changed and fresh towels. Today's discounts are tomorrow's up charges. ?

I love spontaneity and this afternoon decided to start our vacation a day earlier. Not being a fan of driving in airports or paying $20+ a day for parking, I went on line to my old standby www.buyreservations.com (love this company) and booked a room at Wyndham Garden Inn. For a total of $149.60 including all taxes and fees we got a nice room for the night, up to 2 weeks parking and free shuttle to and from the airport. When we checked in and said we had a 3:30 flight tomorrow (late, but the best we were able to get using miles as payment) the lady at the front desk offered us late checkout at no extra charge. Very nice! So tomorrow (I guess technically today) is Miami...Hilton Blue Lagoon...and then sailing on Saturday. As is becoming very obvious, my blog will not compare to any of the recent or current ones, but I just wanted to be available to find out anything you may want to know about Symphony on this sailing and report back. Hope to talk to you from Miami this evening. May not be on the high seas yet but we're officially on vacation, Woohoo!

Daddy, is that you ?? I have been looking for you for sooo long ! I'm coming home now.... ?

Well, this rules out Disney cruises ever for me. The thought of allowing people to be around food in a swim suite or without a shirt/shoes makes me ill. ? Very unhygienic.

Yep, In the port of Galveston which is known for Fog in the winter months I sat in port after boarding for 2 days before the ship could leave. Missed a port completely and one other severely cut short. Go on the cruise take the cruise refund/credit and enjoy yourself. For those of us who travel for a living there is no such thing as everything going perfect, not even vacations.

I don't want to for another reason....I do this at home everyday of every week for the entire year. I want a vacation,.

Try a travel agent - seriously - they can make magic happen and can see inventory that they don't show on the web page. It doesn't cost you anything - they are paid a commission from the cruise line.

By all means, you should start it! Then they can all stop picking on me! ?

@StayFrostyWe love the planning and the countdown. Have a great cruise! Is it too soon for me to start this one??

I will throw myself out there on this topic. Whenever we cruise, my wife and I buy deluxe drink packages for each of us. They come with a souvenir cup for the soda machines. My wife and I drink zero soda, and honestly, we don't let our kids drink a ton of it either. We don't buy an additional package for the kids, we let them get some soda with the cups from our packages. Technically, this is wrong and against the rules. Shoot me I guess. I'm just not going to spend an additional $125 for my two kids to have some soda during the week, when I have already paid for it for myself and will not drink any of it. If the kids didn't use the cups, then they would sit in our stateroom all week. I am sure many others do this as well, but again, if you are going strictly by the rules, this isn't allowed.

Agree with this completely. We had a family cruise that celebrated our 25th, my parents' 50th, our youngest son's 21st birthday and a niece's 16th.

We're getting a group of people who have never cruised on their first trip. This was a great option to introduce them to the lifestyle.

I am probably the worst person to ask about this as I tend to avoid the pool deck a lot except for the Solarium, but I can tell you I have heard some people simply sit down on a chair that has a towel and see if someone says something to you. I imagine that’s not an appealing option if you aren’t a confrontational person but as long as you aren’t looking for chairs together for a huge number of people you should probably be fine. I do know that people also sometimes move chairs to create a larger group of chairs together. When I was camped out in the Solarium the other day, I asked my dad to watch over my kindle when I went up to the bar and when I came back, 2 of the padded chairs next to me had been kidnapped by a group of people on the other side of the hot tub. Other people just viewed that as more space to dump their stuff while they hopped in the pool. The newly empty space that turned into a hot tub staging area. Oh and I forgot I had this picture of the pool area at 10am on one of the sea days. As you can see, still plenty of chairs. That Solarium picture I took made it seem like the majority had been saved that early. It’s not the case, don’t worry!

We were fine in a balcony on Adventure. There was no worry about seats for any shows as most were half full. I like Jr Suites for the size but for that price what else could you get to make your cruise....drink package, unlimited dining, chef table, cabana or another nice excursion?

Am currently on-board Independence for the transatlantic and can confirm it reopened a few days ago.

You know my answer. For that price I would. Over $1000, no. I would think of it as $750 for double points, suite boarding, larger room, balcony, and living space (even for 2 I feel like the balcony can be a bit of a squeeze), escape from the phone booth shower. Hard to say though because what one person thinks is "worth it" to another, it's not. You have to know what you value when cruising and your "cruise personality". You do not get reserved seats for JS on any class.

Those aren't wild animals. They're part of the IPVCC....Island Public Vegetation Control Team.

I've started booking JS last year and this year for cruises 1 and 2 years out. Financially feasible that way.

The Case of the Disappearing and Reappearing Stacks In order to pass under the bridge in Vancouver they lowered the exhaust stacks at the top of the ship's funnels. This along with timing the transit to occur at low tide provided the necessary safety margin to sail under the bridge. May 13 - Vancouver harbor: May 15 - At sea.

I was up early on account of still being on my home time zone two hours different. At 4:30am it was getting light out so I was hoping for a sunrise. Temperature was 39° F according to the itinerary channel. Finally blue sky above us! To the East the sun was trying to rise but cloud cover obscured it and the mountain range that I know runs along the coast here. If you look closely you sort of see mountains along the water's edge. To clear under the bridge in Vancouver with the largest margin possible they lowered the stacks. The gray area with the piping is an assembly that lowers as a unit. It appears it rides on those chrome support columns or they might be the hydraulic rams that lift and lower it. The indoor pool area was a nice place to warm up. It's pretty massive and should work great for families on these sea days in Alaska.

Hello everyone, I have been enjoying these live blogs for over a year so I thought I would contribute. So let's start with some background. Who: Me and my wife (Teachers!) What: A cruise on the newly refurbished Navigator of the Seas When: June 24-28, 2019 + flying in the day before. Where: Nassau and Coco Cay Why: We just booked this trip (practically last minute!) as we decided we wanted to have a getaway before we think of expanding our family but didn't want to spend too much time away from our lovely toddler-aged daughter. Why not bring her, you ask? Well, even though people have shared wonderful experiences that they have had with their young children on board, it was not the type of vacation we were looking for. We have done short cruises on Enchantment and Majesty before and wanted something more modern but on a short cruise and Navigator fit the bill nicely. If they wouldn't have upgraded and larger ships on these itineraries, I don't think we would be doing a cruise (someday our child(ren) will be older and we will do a longer cruise)! Excursions: Nothing planned. Maybe the flight sim for me in Nassau and a massage for my wife. We were big fans of the "rustic" Coco Cay and were hesitant about all of the upgrades to the island. But after hearing such glowing reviews, I am excited to give it an honest try. I am excited to try all of the new amenities on Navigator: Bamboo Room, Lime and the Coconut, Playmakers (Team Drink Package), the waterslides, FlowRider, escape room, and ice skating. We might even try some specialty dining for the first time. Maybe Hooked for lunch and Jamie's for a dinner? 56 days to go! I'll leave you with a "historical" photo of Coco Cay.

Why cruise at all then? Eat at Golden Coral 7 days in a row, don't make your bed if you don't want to and put the trash on the curb once a week. Call it your vacation. Save even more money. I like the cruises I book and what comes with them.

This just triggers my natural instinct of one-upmanship... I'll start the pre-blog soon as I'm off work. ?

Also, in the MDR if your kids ask for a soda and aren't on a package but you are on a UDP package, the wait staff will *usually* not charge you. Only once (day one with a new Asst waiter), was I charged for a soda for one of my sons. I think he may have been chewed out by the waiter as I wasn't charged the rest of the week. I don't ask for a free soda and will pay for it without a fuss if given a bill. However, I find the wait staff to be very lenient for the kids especially if the parents have the UDP.

You are under a year. Sounds good to me!

No, everyone 21 or over in the cabin will have to purchase the UDP. Under 21 will not be required to purchase any drink package.

Actually nothing to do with cruising, but Wyndham has a VERY comfortable mattress and the most comfortable pillows EVER! Hope the ship's bedding (non-suite) is anywhere as close to this.

Maybe RC does things like this just to see who is really paying attention. ?

I'd do it for the points, but after Diamond + it is cheapest cabin wins for us. Only 60 more points to go. Only 46 after June's cruise.

Poor Phoenix Copley, I forgot my gif for day -1

We just booked our first RCL cruise on Enchantment this coming October. Have been on the Emerald Princess and the Disney Wonder, both smaller ships. I would assume Enchantment is roughly the size of these two?

Loved this, thank you!! I'm going to be embarking from SJ in August but the ship doesn't leave till 8:30p and I am so glad to have seen this side of El Morro in the light of day!

Try selecting your already booked one from your calendar, clicking on 'details' and it should pop up.

Too rich for my blood. Cut that price down by half and I'd jump on it.

It's usually a no for me, but if I can get a Jr. Suite for less than $100/day over a regular balcony then I'll think about it. They're usually close to double price though, but I've stumbled upon a great deal once or twice.

Ok, this is like “Where’s Waldo?” We dropped in on the Cruise Critic meet and greet, since my wife was following this cruise on there. One of the attendees took the mic asked if @twangster was in the room. Only response was - the sound of crickets. He made a few quite complementary remarks about your photos that you have shared and remarked he is looking to run into you. Based on the pics you shared of sailing under Lionsgate I think I have might have a photo of you, if you were wearing dark pants and a grey Hoodie.

Today we were in St Kitt’s from 8:30a-4:30p and we had booked the Grand Tour of St Kitt’s with Thenford Grey’s touring company. Before getting off the ship, we went to Park Cafe to grab some breakfast. They had a make your own bagel station where the lunch salad station is and some breakfast sandwiches and breakfast burritos. I got an English muffin sandwich which had a fried egg, a slice of Canadian bacon & some cheese on it. It was pretty good. The banana muffin was nowhere and I make a far superior one so it lay abandoned after one bite. After debarking, we saw that we were docked next to the Carnival Magic. (the tiniest little roller on the end of the longest pole to allow them to paint the side of the Magic. She definitely needed more paint than they were able to apply that day) We were supposed to meet the tour at the Welcome center at 9am. We go off around 8:40 to allow time to find the tour group. We didn’t have to worry since it was beyond easy to find them. The yellow building is the Welcome Center we were supposed to find and the woman in the last picture had a sign for Grey’s excursions and checked us off a list of booked people. We then waited as instructed in front of a big mural until it was the start of the tour. We ended up having Thenford himself as our tour guide and he led us behind some buildings to a parking lot that had all the tour busses parked there. The bus we had was small and fit about 20 people in it. Most importantly, it had excellent, adjustable air conditioning. To be continued in another post which will be very picture heavy.

I was wearing my invisibility cloak that day. Several bikers nearly ran me over.