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Day 2 - Nassau Been there, done that and it's raining so I'm staying on the ship today. Besides I'll be back twice in as many weeks. Navigator joined us shortly after our arrival. Galley Tour at 11:30am. Despite it being in the middle of a port day there were a dozen or so participants. Here they are getting cheese plates and appetizers ready for dinner. Formal night tonight. Bacon. Yum. Beef Tenderloin and Duck getting readied for dinner. Making whipped butter for dinner. The bakery. Always the best smelling spot in the galley. Pastry chefs hard at work. Chocolate covered strawberries anyone? First noted on Empress so I inquired some more here on Majesty. Powdered or "bulk" scrambled eggs are a thing of the past. They were having trouble with the product turning black upon cooking so the fleet has standardized on fresh eggs being used for scrambled eggs, in fact for all egg purposes, only fresh eggs are used.

Hello everyone, I was a very long time member of another cruise forum, and I'm so glad I found this one. The members are VERY helpful and respectful - thank you all so much, and the vibe is completely different, very easygoing without the sarcasm and drama ? I also love that you can message members here, and edit your posts outside of the 30 minute mark. For new members, you will see your status as pre-gold, just a fun and cute feature of these message boards. I'm not sure how it works, but it will change very quickly! Our moderator @Lovetocruise2002 has been so warm and welcoming! and thank you @Matt, our administrator for an amazing place to share information ? This time around, I'm having a lot more fun planning my cruise!!!

I thought I'd start the day with a morning snorkel. I asked about the submerged plane at the Snorkel Shack. It's "Permanently cordoned off, for now." The water was a little rough and the currents had stirred up more stuff to reduce visibility so it wasn't the best conditions today. More jellies on this visit.

I'm always amazed how the countdown moves fine when you're months and months away, but that last 30 days takes forever

Once we sail Empress next summer, we will have done the same. Majesty was our first ship - sailed her in 1992, when she was brandy-new! Edited to add, now that I think about it, once we sail on Empress, we will have sailed every class of ship RCCL has ever had! We also sailed Song of America back in 1997.

The best thing about pre cruise is the building of excitement. You book and you are super excited, you are going back on a cruise, but usually you are still months away or a year away. It's the building ever day to the cruise that's incredible. Usually 30 days out it's bonkers time with excitement. We are 32 days from Anthem and it's really building here. We are all talking about it everyday. God cruises really are the best vacation and Royal Caribbean is the best cruise line.

Howdy Folks!! In six days we will be heading to the mediocre city of Galveston, Texas for an adventure of nominal proportion. This is cruise #26 for me and first out of the Port of Galveston. Who: Me, My beautiful wife Brenda, and our 20 month old son Zander or Z as he's been nicknamed....Oh and this is his 3rd cruise. Side note... I am the OCD planner in the family and use to plan vacations down to the foot step....almost. Now I/we have plans but nothing in concrete with a flexible timeline. Why this cruise? Research of course...We had Symphony booked for last month for a business conference (We flip houses in San Antonio as a side hustle) but weren't able to swing the massive final payment in time so we rebooked Enchantment for the five nighter, so not to lose all the deposit from Symphony, and sill make to Diamond (only needed 5 points) this year....everyone needs goals. Also...I feel Galveston has not been represented much and typically has been given a bad rap (I'm from Jersey and don't care 'that' much... but still). Galveston is going though a revitalization and I'll cover that further dawn and next week when we get to town. ...and even more so the cruise is going to the 'up and coming port' of Progreso, Mexico. It a little town up the coast from Cancun, on the north shore of the Yucatan. I hear the pier is 4 MILES LONG!!!! Itinerary! Day 1: Galveston, Texas Day 2: at Sea Day 3: Progreso, Mx Day 4: Cozumel, Mx Day 5: sea day Day 6: Galveston, Texas Cabin: We are slumming it and maybe a little over cautious. We have a bare bones Inside GTY stateroom on deck two (Never been on deck two). Inside because it is least expensive, balconies were twice the price, and with a 20 month, who is into everything, it scares me that he may find his way on to the balcony. Excursions: We ae not big excursion people. The Mrs. loves the shopping aspect of cruising and not a fan of the cattle call that sometimes happens with group activities. This time around with a new port to explore, Progreso, we are just going to explore the city and hit the beach. Z loves the water. It is my understanding it is a brisk one hour walk just to get off the 4 mile ship pier. a shuttle bus is provided free so we will be taking that with concern that we will not have a baby seat. Once in town, we will explore the shops along the beach and hit the Corona Beach Club...There is an excursion for this place BUT all the reviews I see say it is a waste of money. It consists of a shuttle ride and two chairs and an umbrella for $35 pp. The shuttle is free and you can go to the beach for free too. An umbrella and chairs are negotiable I'm sure. Something is fishy. I'll ask at the excursion desk...maybe. My understanding that the locals can be extremely pushy with their wares that are set up along the walkways at the port and beach areas. Bing map of the pier. This will be probably my 10th trip to Cozumel and we have done all there is to do there from buying to much jewelry to Senor Frogs and Carlos and Charlie's to swimming with the dolphins & Mayan ruins. With advice I received from y'all we are going to hit up Nachi Cocom at $55.00 per adult and Z will be free of charge. Unlimited drinks, 4 course meal... I am very excited to visit here especially knowing they limit the number of guests to 130 per day (I'll believe it when I see it) http://www.cozumelnachicocom.com/ Extras: In my older younger years I am not the big drinker as I use to be and have opted for the Soda Package. We will bring the allotted wine on board that we love from Lake Ridge Winery near @Matt place in Central Florida. As much as everybody LOVES the WindJammier on embarkation day is blows my anxiety off the charts. That whole part of the day where EVERYBODY is clustered in the Centrum/Royal Promenade/Esplanade & the WindJammier drives me a little nutty when I should be relaxing. Ok...focus...I went ahead and pre-booked Chops for lunch to hopefully avoid the whole waiting for 1 o'clock for the staterooms to be ready crowd dealio. Our little guy loves steak and since he's 20 months he can order for free of the kid's menu and help daddy with his ribeye or filet and maybe mommy's salmon. I also pre-ordered some branded RC toys for Z for a surprise for him. Pre Game: We will be taking the 3+ hours drive from San Antonio to the port area the day before and staying that a quirky looking hotel adjacent to the two cruise terminals aka terminal one and terminal two... The Harbor House at pier 21. https://www.harborhousepier21.com/. Granted this hotel is owned by Wyndam and the Mrs. likes to do 'local' things, yet this hotel appears to have a mom and pop charm to it. we will walk the two blocks the next day to the terminal. We are big 80's rock fans (8 Monster of Rock cruises under our belts) so we will be stopping at the Hard Rock Café in Houston (Right off the interstate) for lunch, on the way, to break up the ride for the little guy and hit a one off restaurant called Shark Shack (unless I get vetoed) for dinner. Side note...Landry's OWNS the food and Beverage industry in Galveston. (Landry's Rainforest Café, Cadillac Bar, Fish Tales, Kemah Pier, Bubba Gump even SaltGrass) we want to eat local fare and enjoy fresh local seafood, and we want to avoid that Landry's chain food...be aware. We will be parking overnight at the onsite parking for the one night fee and leaving the car at the Harbor House's sister hotel, the Galvez Hotel, for free parking during our cruise. I will take the car there day of and they have a free shuttle to take me back to the terminal. I will go solo to retrieve the car upon return. I have been studying the port and the surround area for months. I go to Google maps and tour the streets and read reviews (with a grain of salt) to lay out my plan of attack of Galveston. I will be Periscoping our trip the day before and up to sail away day of. I typically put the phone away and do not get the internet package...1. because I'm cheat and 2. I like the disconnect aspect of cruising. I an MOTELYBRUE on periscope. the link below is a PowerPoint of the master Plan for the harbor area. You will see the plans for the new terminal 3 at Pier 10. Notice the ship that is placed in the rendering is an OASIS CLASS SHIP!!!!! Looks like the Texas market is growing!! https://www.portofgalveston.com/DocumentCenter/View/2607/Strategic-Master-Plan-Preliminary-Draft-Presentation-Website Notice upper right Oasis Class!! This is how close the Harbor House is from the Whale Tail Cruise terminal... RCCL is one block behind. Strategic-Master-Plan-Preliminary-Draft-Presentation-Website.pdf The Landry's family of restaurants

I would have been sorely pressed not to just pick up that entire mega-tray and walk back to my cabin while saying, "OK, thanks for the great tour! Have a nice day!"

Just realized we depart in 2 days and I hadn't started a live-blog about our upcoming sailing at all. All that darn work gets in the way of all of the fun. This will be our second time on Navigator this year, with the first being in May, so I'll keep it rather brief. Some pre-cruise thoughts - The public spaces on Navigator were so much fun back in May that when a good casino offer came in we had to jump on it. The rooms still left a lot to be desired, so we'll see how they do with water this time. - For the very first time, it'll just be me and my 9 year old daughter. She's very excited to have a daddy-daughter cruise, but we'll see how stressed out I am by Monday. That also meant for the first time I had to get a travel authorization notarized. From the sounds of it, no one ever asks a mom questions about traveling with a kid, but don't want to risk someone thinking I'm trafficking my daughter to CocoCay to become a full time water slide attendant. -Room- since this is a short cruise with just two of us, we had originally booked a Virtual Balcony Interior room because it was so cheap and we figured it was worth a try, just to say we did it one. However, later on the royalUp offers came in and we secured a balcony upgrade for only 200 more. We seem to have lucked out with the location as there's rooms both above and below us. This will be our first time in a standard balcony room as we've always done Junior Suites before, but without all my wife's stuff I don't think we'll have any issues with space. We will have large suitcases though as we're staying in Florida for the following week, which I'm sure will look odd as everyone else shows up with carry on bags. Excursions and Ports- CocoCay and Thrill water park are the reason this trip was booked, as my daughter loved it back in May. We've booked the full day pass, which was unfortunately more than three times the price of what we paid earlier this year. For the day in Nassau the plan is to just stay on-board and hope the slides are open most of the day. Dining- nothing planned as of yet outside of the main dining room, but I'm sure that will probably change as my daughter is a huge fan of Jamie's Italian (which I'm sure makes her a mortal enemy of @PRC)

I'm not a sports person at all, so I freely admit that I have no understanding of sports watching culture at all. But still... I really don't get why folks would want to spend a chunk of a gorgeous sunny day out on the ocean with all the other things to do on a ship, sitting inside and watching TV. . . . . . Oh, God, someone help me... I've become my mom!!!! ?

Day Three St. Kitts and Nevis! We had a shore excursion via Annie’s Caribbean Tours to Cockleshell Beach on the southern side of the island. We went with another couple in a nice van operated by Joe who was the best and taught us a lot about growing up on the island on our drive there. We stopped at Sir Timothy Hill along the way for the gorgeous two ocean view and some roadside rum punch and Caribs! The excursion came with chairs and cocktails once down on Cockleshell at Reggae Beach. We also rented a jet ski while we were here through St. Kitts Watersports. My first time, I loved it although I ended up with a** bruises the next day! haha. We rented a single jet ski and took turns driving while leaving the other floating in the calm open water. That way he could go faster and slightly crazier than when I was holding onto him. It was pretty exhilarating. After about 4 hours of beach time we got a ride back to the port and decided to call it a day with some Solarium swimming and drink package consumption. This was the only night we absconded from the MDR to dine in the Windjammer as we weren't prepared for another 2 hour meal. The Windjammer always seems to please just enough! Nothing terrible but nothing terribly delicious either. I would call it exactly adequate! Morning Carib in the port Leaving port area View from Timothy Hill looking North Looking South (this is the money shot from the "You left your cruise behind" RC email newsletters after pricing something (although those bastards flip the image in the email - you think we don't notice things like that?!? please) Edited to Add the offending email newsletter header.... sacrilege Cockleshell from the Reggae Beach side Sunset in the Windjammer

Back to the ship to change and get my good camera. I tested Voom on CocoCay and once again the speeds were very good for satellite internet. Always good to avoid scaring the mermaids away. Back to the Snack Shack for a Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich, a Greek salad and fries. The mango fruit drink is surprisingly additive. Yum. The floating bar remains popular. The pool was hopping again. Having been several times to the new CocoCay I couldn't imagine it now without the pool. One last trip back to the ship. Someone's not going to have a Perfect Day when they get charged for leaving a pool towel behind...

That's what makes this such a great community!

The nightly Diamond event is hosted in the front half of the Viking Crown Lounge where Vernon our Loyalty Ambassador is there to take great care of us from 4:30pm to 8pm. Other bars also accept the three Diamond happy hour drinks loaded on SeaPass cards. In the VCL cards are not swiped and the servers are quick to find you when you arrive. They even remembered my drink from the night before. Great service. This became a great place for our sail away from Nassau on this formal night. Can't visit Nassau without a lighthouse picture. Flag of Nations today in the Centrum. With confetti falling it was time for the U.S.A. to be represented. Captain Per addressed the crowd.

I have sailed on Royal over 13 times and currently have Diamond + status. I have been booking direct with Royal for more than half of the cruises and have managed them by myself. I just joined this group and saw the discussions regarding MEI. I have decided to give them a try to see how the experience goes. Michelle: Thanks for the discussion yesterday and I just sent you an email to transfer the bookings I have for December. I look forward to working with you and the experience ahead. D

Day One (Part II) Oops! Fallen a bit behind due to lack of Voom strength in the cabin. Magen’s Bay was beautiful and so relaxing. We snagged an open air taxi outside of the Pueblo after picking up some beach cocktail supplies and saved $2 pp over the Crown Bay price not a five minute walk back to the port. At the top of the hill our taxi driver did need to stop and add oil to his truck but this was a perfect beer opening and photo opportunity. After getting back to the ship around 4 we headed to the Solarium for some swimming and drink package usage. Leaving St. Thomas Also snagged one illegal pic of our RC pics. Shhhhhh!

For extra fun @JLMoran has created a fun little ditty you can sing to help you pass the time im currently at 34 days till we go on the cruise 34 days till we go Sun goes down and comes back around 33 days till we go on the cruise

Only three days before our second Greek cruise , Seating in Milan airport to go back home , do some laundry, last minutes arrangement and back to the airport to land, yes back to Milan . Yes , I know it require some explanation why I am doing that but I promise later to explain this. We are going again on the Rhapsody of the seas for 7 night cruise from Venice (until Venice will not allow any big ships anymore) , we thought last year that although we like big ships we can survive with the small once also as long it is interesting route. So were we are going : DUBROVNIK – Never been there but this is kings landing from game of thrones – we took a tour as it’s a tendering port , it will take us by the cable car to a nice view of the city and the bay post a tour in the old city CROATIA KOTOR – We will take our time and just take one of the tender boats after the rush hours, we will than do a tour in the old city which we thought we did not had enough time last year CRUISING SANTORINI, GREECE – We took a tour to AIO and some wine tasting KATAKOLON, GREECE – did not figure this one yet. CRUISING (and celebrating my birthday) VENICE, ITALY - Cry and catch our flight back. The plan is to land in Milan , stay for two nights and take the morning train from Milan to Venice , from the train station we will take the people mover to the port, plan B if train will have some issue will be to rent a car and drop it in Venice airport. My spouse never visit Milan before so she asked to stay there and not in Venice this time , After all the last supper it there and the Domo. Its should be a nice cruise , we both need to rest , it was a crazy month for me running from one end of the world to the other one. We did not order any special restaurant nor a drinking package but for sure we will try again the chef table and use our voucher for some evening drinks. As you can see , after I so RCL are not removing cats from Oasis post the dry dock I started to train my own cast , some already know how to give high five when they want food . well our own stray cats soup kitchen , which mean we need to find someone to keep feeding them when we are not there, maybe will try to convince our own cat to arrange it. Well , my flight is being called , so I will continue to update later.

Continuing my RC Cruise Ship Spotting Tour of the Mediterranean, today Explorer was with us in our last port of Gibraltar.

IMO, El Loco Fresh is tastier than Sabor.

Big sister, little sister, younger sister, older sister. Family ships at the pier in CocoCay. In case you haven't figured it out yet, these lights are new since my last visit. LED lighting on the pier paves the way for late night stays on CocoCay. They must be testing them. Down the pier there are cones where a few more will go so they are a work in progress.

Day 3 - Perfect Day at CocoCay Not much of a sunrise here early on the morning of day 3. We join Navigator again today after leaving her last night in Nassau. I spot a new addition to CocoCay. Can you see them? Definitely something new since my visit last week. This view never gets old.

HEY! We don't judge here. ?

I found the first day to be particularly hectic (compared to non-Star class) but after that, I did not notice too many interruptions other than room service delivery.

I have the Celebrity Select VISA; same exact card in terms of usage, you can use any of those cards with any of Royal's ship lines, it's just different branding and card image. Like @SpeedNoodles and @DMLM, I only use that card to pay for my cruise and any Cruise Planner purchases I happen to buy, so I can get the double rewards points and faster OBC redemption for on-board spending. I agree with @Matt that it's probably not the best rewards card out there, and for general usage I have my Amazon rewards card that works a lot better for me. But having an easy way to get some OBC for the cruise is nice, especially now that the drink package prices are getting astronomical. I actually got the card because of a promotion being done at the time, which I think is being offered again now -- 100,000 bonus points (effectively $100 OBC) for getting the card and making a modest amount of purchases in the first 90 days. Since I was doing initial booking at the time, it was a no-brainer as I qualified for the bonus instantly. I figure between that, the cost of the cruise, and any excursion I buy through the Cruise Planner, I should manage to get between $200 and $250 in OBC for that sailing, which will help pay for my bar tab. ?

Great news! Especially for @WAAAYTOOO!

That is until they get to know you better. And warning...they pick on Canadians ?? Kidding of course lol...But you do have to watch out for this guy called @mworkman ?

My wife and I will be celebrating our 15 Anniversary on Brilliance of the Seas Feb 8 2020. This will be our first cruise.

I know it's just a typo, but now I can't help but to read this entire blog in the voice of Popeye ?

In terms of pre-cruise purchases, nothing terribly surprising for a short cruise, but this is what we've come up with so far.... Deluxe Beverage Package for me, Refreshment Package for my wife I think this is the first time I've called Royal Caribbean to get an exemption for the "two adults in a room" drink package rule. Usually my wife gets the DX package too, but as @mpoole3 can attest to, spouses breaking even on that ain't easy. I think with my Diamond Plus discount, it's probably a wash in terms of buying it onboard or online, but I prefer to buy it online and reduce that final cruise bill. Izumi Hibachi Thus far, we have decided to book Izumi Hibachi for one night (day one) and then figure out what to do the other two nights. Izumi Hibachi is one of my favorite dining venues on any Royal Caribbean ship. It's fun, filling and there's sake. Since we've been on Mariner extensively this year, I'm not hard pressed to hit up the other specialty restaurants. Plus, I enjoy the main dining room and I do not think we have eaten in the MDR on this ship this year.

The Main Theater The Casino Boleros. Still have to give Empress the nod for the best Boleros in the fleet. Generous elevator lobbies.

Kind of ironic. Cruise ships account for a very, very small number of ships sailing the seven seas compared to the tankers, container and cargo ships. "Fixing" a few dozens ships looks good, ignoring thousands of others is typical media and society in general. Go to marinetraffic.com. How many cruise ships do you see versus all the rest? Green = Cargo Red = Tankers Blue = Passenger (including cruise ships) But let's single out the cruise ships because they generate clicks for "news" outlets. Cargo ships? Not so much.

These guys don't know ANYthing. Mermaids aren't afraid of a little jumping. Hmph <eye roll>

You and DW can debate that after she's had El Loco. When you want some real Mexican food come to Oklahoma or South Texas, IMO. (Get some of the Texan's excited now)

hahaha the excitement is killing me - at least if I post here, I don't annoy the people who are going with me so much that they won't want to come lol

That's a lot of baby seal dinners!

Based of my personally drinking habit *especially on vacation* I think the drink package will definitely save me some money! I hypothetically planned out my day from morning with a few mimosas, afternoon in the sun with some fruit mixed drinks, dinner with a glass of wine or two, and late night with some hard liquor! Sprinkle in some water bottles, coffee, and juices here and there daily and you'll be ahead of the game.

This last week is taking a million years. Time goes by so slowly... i have 2 more work shifts til pack day (friday) and saturday we fly and cruise! Its taking foreverr

SHHHHHHHHH. ?

Freedom amp'd details announced: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/08/21/freedom-of-the-seas-get-116-million-amplification-spring-2020

I find myself re-thinking which clothes to pack just to have something to do -- in the end it won't matter once we are on the ship! In the meantime, I move the shirts and slacks around in my closet until I get the perfect combination....

Does anyone remember the infamous sugar-free coconut cake? OMG! It was amazing. I don't see it on the menus anymore ... ?

We sailed to Key West and the Bahamas several years ago, only it was on a big Carnival ship (the Magic, I believe) and we sailed from either New Orleans or Galveston. I enjoyed the change-of-pace from Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize, and since then, I have been rather hoping to set sail to visit Key West again, without having to fly to Florida. We will also get to see Coco Cay - I doubt that we will pay extra for the water park (we are 2 ole fogies, lol) but it will be fun to explore the island, having never been there before. So, yesterday I booked a cabin for myself and hubby on the Majesty of the Seas.Technically not a new ship, but definitely new to us, and we have enjoyed cruises on smaller, older ships. We are set to sail from New Orleans in December 2020.

Grandeur- April 4, 2020

My choices...Bellini, Lemon Drop Martini, Vodka tonic, and Cosmos. Also, thanks to @Michael Vitale and his lovely wife, I also learned that they can make chocolate martinis in the suite/D lounge. It’s too sweet for me, but that’s another idea.

On Liberty we asked for a whole pizza, we told them that we wanted a supreme but with less cheese....they made it and it was awesome. This pizzas at Sorrentos are so much better than before....mmmm It was not a busy time and I promised to eat every bite.

After a quick bite in the WJ for dinner I noticed a hint of sunset in the stormy clouds. The aft of Majesty has a series of public decks at various levels. You can see why this was a very popular class of ship in her day. Maybe not a full sunset but quite dramatic tonight with the clouds.

La Bamba was okay. We have better Mexican in Colorado. Can we still be friends?