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Having not edited any of these photos, here we go. Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side. There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side. Both hibachi tables were full. Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night. Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show. We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show. When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks. Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show. One let down was not getting soft pretzels. Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub. We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room. We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer. As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front. The 8:30 show was very good. They took a couple of elements out due to the wind. Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement. Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight. It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis. Random thoughts from the day: AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up. Izumi was fantastic, as usual. While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock. After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling. Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice. The Aqua Theater show is amazing. Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams. Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do. Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things. I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad. I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload. Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.

Heard at lunch: "This ship, including the Eatin' Package is ruining me for other cruises." - Mr SpeedNoodles

Everything was covered at Playmakers for SC. probably not staying up for the balloon drop. after Muster Drill we grabbed a drink at Schooner Bar. We were delayed out of Miami due to an Alpha call and an ambulance needed. Now we’re going and beat the Norwegian Encore out of port since it had to turn around. Heading to Izumi for Sushi tonight and we can’t wait. Then watching the Aqua80s show from our balcony at 10:45.

Voyager class (Explorer) is a real sweet spot for me. Not so big, easy to get around yet big enough to have a lot to offer. Other Voyager class include Voyager, Navigator, Mariner and Adventure. Freedom class is basically Voyager Plus. They are literally a stretched version of Voyager class. This includes Freedom, Independence and Liberty. The extra length allows a few more venues and more cabins so more guests. The Radiance class is notably smaller by a large margin. Radiance, Brilliance, Serenade and Jewel. Fine ships but no promenade. They were built to be smaller so they could go through the original Panama Canal (the ships above couldn't fit the original canal). No promenade means several venues are not present. No ice skating rink, no adult water slides. Indoor solarium for adults so good ships for all cruise seasons. Looking bigger than Freedom class also gets you into newer ships. Newer ships come with more recent innovations. Oasis class is something that everyone should experience at least once. They are unique and much larger than previous classes. All that extra space allows them to add more venues, activities and entertainment options. The production shows are very good on these ships, much better than previous classes. There is so much going on it helps to disperse the crowds so you don't feel all the additional guests. With so much going on it's hard to try or do everything with just one cruise. Some people feel these ships are too big and they prefer smaller ships. That's fine, to each their own but you have to try one to see for yourself.

I've taken a look at the dates on the other blogs so that I am not too early to start mine. I figure there is at least one blog already for the same week I am going, I have already got my set sail pass, and luggage tags (allegedly) will be up for print some time today, I am well within my window to begin blogging? Part of the early start is so that as I prepare and pack, I can pick up last minute tips, hints, advice, and guidance from folks out here. You all are a wealth of information and even though I don't post often, I do read daily and feel like I have gotten to know so many of you ? Itinerary: Baltimore to King's Wharf, Bermuda back to Baltimore. Prologue: I had always wanted to go on a cruise but my former spouse (key word being FORMER) would pitch a fit if I suggested it. I won't list his complaints, I have seen you all are familiar with all of them. FINALLY during our 12th year of marriage, my parents offered to take the family on a cruise. Our daughter was 5 at the time and I was so looking forward to it. Without going into detail, the cruise was awful. Wait. No. My x was awful which made the entire trip one that I remember with just sadness. We went for the Thanksgiving week that year and on the 6th of December (a few weeks after) I was escaping in the middle of the night with two packed suitcases and my baby girl. I share this so everyone knows that "cruise" has held such unpleasant memories and feelings for a very long time for me and there was a time that I swore I'd never go on one again. (I thought I had gone on RC but I found my old card in a box of papers a few months back and turns out we'd taken a line that must not be named...) Fast forward ten years. Yup. Ten years. December 2019 was my 10 year anniversary of sneaking those packed suitcases out of the house in the dead of night. I celebrated last year with my daughter (we are both doing amazingly well, are incredibly happy, and have not once regretted the decision to evacuate) and by deciding that I would like to try another cruise because it's not fair to let that one bad experience taint an entire vacation option. To be fair, the cruise was miserable because I was stuck with a falling down drunk x who was being a jerk face and refused to do anything other than drink endless Grey Goose martinis and sleep in the dark room. There were a few highlights like taking my daughter to swim with dolphins but overall.... ? The universe sent me a sign last year in the form of a Fraternal organization that I am a member of decided to take a group cruise. It was so spur of the moment and the price was so good and there is another single lady that has a similar background to me as it pertains to the x so I had a room mate to share the cost and I just decided to, as they say here, "YOLO Book It!" I am really excited for this cruise. We will be going to Bermuda, which I have never been to. (The previous one was to the Bahamas). Sailing out of Baltimore MD which is right near where I live in Washington DC (NOVA) area. Last weekend, I had breakfast with the group who is going. There are 32 of us! Our travel agent is the wife of one of our members (it's an International organization) as well as a member herself. The "core group" that is going from my Chapter is myself and my single gal pal and two other married couples we are quite chummy with. I have been slowly preparing since we booked so have been buying a few cute outfits and other goodies. For Xmas, Santa gave me a huge box of those Chlorox with Hydrogen Peroxide wipes and the special luggage tags and a charger thing that I have seen recommended out here by many so my gal pal (GP) and I can charge our stuff up. Side note: we are all a bit on the older side (40s, GP is in her 60s, etc) and no kids coming with. Many of us work long hard jobs so we are looking forward to relaxing and decompressing versus "party all the time". I hear the Neil Diamond Cruise Director guy has left this ship so I am a bit sad about that. Things I am looking forward to: Not working. Although I will stress a little about leaving my assistant in charge without me there for a full week. Prepping her now. She can do this. It will all be fine. (Right?) We are going to be touring the Crystal Caves on a special tour our TA set up for us. We are docked in Bermuda for three days so there is no worry about missing the ship if it runs late. I hear we are going on a pub crawl. I don't drink but I adore a nice pub (there were some gorgeous ones in London when I went). Karaoke and Trivia. Mocktails by the pool. Sunshine. This will be my first real vacation in over ten years. (I think y'all know what I mean when I say that I have gone on holiday but have ALWAYS had either my daughter or parents with me so that's not always a "vacation"....) I plan to live blog as the internet allows. I am going to plan my packing here as that kind of helps me focus and make sure I am not forgetting things. I am taking my fancy camera as the wife of one of the couples we will be with does photography so hoping she helps me learn more how to use the camera. And with all respect to those who like bigger ships, I am so looking forward to sailing the Grandeur before she leaves Baltimore because I feel like I prefer the smaller, quieter, less "Mall of America" ships. (Even though I have never been on any RC ships so a research project is probably called for ?) I've also found very little in reference to what Grandeur has with menus and food etc so I'll share that for those like me who are trying to find things and can't. My GP also booked this as a YOLO and both of us are kind of apprehensive about our first solo vacations in YEARS. We have spent so many years taking care of others that going on a cruise by ourselves and not having to tend to children or elderly parents is like...... what do I do? My ultimate goal is to erase that prior "incident" and make happy new memories with friends. I am calling this the "DO OVER CRUISE!" On that note.... 60 Days to Go!!!!!!

I handed Mr SpeedNoodles the NextCruise flyer that our stateroom attendant left on our bed today. He said "let's do it, but only if it's an Oasis Class ship". I'm just dying, lol.

We have a new pilot....they let anyone pilot a cruise ship, plane, you name it these days!

So currently still sitting in the airport in Houston waiting for our flights. The shuttle ride was uneventful. We got here around 11am and through security quickly and settled in for our long wait. Our flights were scheduled to depart at 4:30. Heather and I are diligent about monitoring flights etc to be aware and proactive about delays. We are flying United and have their smartphone app. All morning our flight has been stating "on time." A neat feature of the United app is that we can see where our plane is coming from. Clicking on that link, we have been following that the plane that is arriving in Houston is starting to get delays. We soon discovered that the plane was going to be departing for Houston over 3hrs later than scheduled. At this rate, we would absolutely miss our connection to Albany. (Our flights still showed on time) Heather quickly went to the United counter to inquire about our flight status. The agent confirmed our suspicions and was able to schedule us on different flights. We will arrive in Albany 20 minutes later than originally planed, but that sure beats the next day. United was nice enough to give us $50 in food vouchers as well. I feel lucky since we now beat out all the other passengers who may be looking for new flights. The departure boards only just updated that our original flights are delayed. We got our flights changed at noon Houston time.

Post cruise thoughts, observations, etc etc. We had a great time on this cruise. Liberty is a great ship there is plenty to do, and the crew that we dealt with are outstanding. My earlier observations about how quickly hallways are cleared continued throughout the week. I don't know if the crew was better, or the passengers were more conscientious than on Navigator, but unlike navigator, I never saw piles of dishes, and glasses everywhere, room service trays did not linger etc. I even saw a couple crew members wet vacuuming and squeegeeing the deck in the splash away bay area. I'm not sure what supervisor they pissed off to get assigned that task, talk about an effort in futility! Comparing Liberty to Anthem and Navigator, I do say we really liked the Music Hall on Anthem so we are happy that came to Oasis for our next few cruises coming up. I really liked El Loco Fresh on Navigator, so I hope for future guests Liberty get that venue. Funny story about paying attention to your bills. Heather purchased some lanyards for herself and the kids, and somehow the cashier charged Heather an 88K tip! Yup, you read that right 88 thousand dollar tip. When looking at the receipt, it looks like there was some sort of glitch, and the system took Heather's account number and placed it in the tip area. We thankfully saw that quickly and guest services quickly took care of that. Lets talk about food. The food on Liberty was better than that on Navigator, but not quite as good as Anthem IMO. I find this interesting since with menus being standardized across the fleet there should be little variation. Speaking of little variation. I witnessed a family discussing the food with a waiter just outside the MDR. They apparently were on a B2B. The waiter asked them why they had not come to the MDR for the second week, and was very concerned that they weren't there, and that somehow his service was the cause of their absence. They assured him that his service wasn't the case, and that they chose to eat elsewhere due to the lack of variety in the MDR. He advised them to talk about this in the post cruise survey, which I also did. While I like the food, I would like to see a better rotation in the menu choices. (I know this is a huge undertaking, but one could hope) I would do this same itinerary again if given the opportunity. In all of the ports, I saw multiple different excursions that I would like to do, so I guess I do have to come back. I would also not hesitate to use the Air2Sea program again. Everything has worked out well. Could I have done transfers to the airport cheaper and maybe not have had this long of down time here waiting for our flights, probably, but again this has had a semblance of So that is appealing. Well those are my thoughts for now. We should be boarding in about 20 minutes, so time to do all the last minute potty breaks etc. Thank you everyone for reading and following along. All of your comments and reactions were truly appreciated. Now my 256 day long dry dock starts, so time to live vicariously through all of you guys!

See ya later Liberty! We are headed to the airport. Our wallets a little lighter, waistbands a little tighter, and our hearts full of wonderful memories of a great time with family and new friends we met on board.

Hotel was great for the night, and the free breakfast this morning was good. They had an omelette bar, waffles, scrambled eggs, etc. having been up since 7 am, we are restlessly waiting to go to the port. If Virginia had her way we would have left the hotel at 7:30. She was going around to all four of us saying “come on and get going. We need to get our taxi to the ship.” We will probably leave here around 10 am and get to the port around 10:30 ish. Already planning what we will eat for lunch and what my first drink will be. We are leaning Playmakers for lunch and I’ll probably get my Kraken Lava Flow so that I’ll really feel like I’m on vacation. Virginia is currently in her “pillow car” driving us to the port.

Today has been a sea day and it’s been pretty lazy so far. We learned a valuable lesson about communication. We emailed our breakfast order to Smitha last night, ordering 6 scrambled eggs and 6 fried eggs to split among 4 of us. This morning, 12 plates of food arrived... we had 6 full orders of scrambled eggs with bacon, sausage, and hash browns. Plus 6 of the same with fried eggs. Whoops. After breakfast we went to the pool. Virginia was bummed she couldn’t go on the big water slides since she’s not tall enough, but she did the smaller one. Lunch was at E Loco Fresh and it was very good. The line was long but moved quickly. Everything was very tasty. We can back to the room, hoping there wouldn’t be any more food, and there wasn’t thankfully. That was until the doorbell rang at 2:45 and in came two trays of food plus kraken lava flow, captain morgan, anejo tequila, milkshake, and two unknown alcohols... Food coma here we come. Now it’s time to get cleaned up for dinner. Tonight is formal night and dinner in 150CP, then off to One Sky at 10:15 Top Tier event was today and I watched the replay to get numbers 157 emerald 316 diamond 187 diamond plus 41 pinnacle Top Cruiser: 8551 points (Super Mario)

Long shot of memories from Symphony in May... Recall Chops at lunch having pretzel sticks/bread in the bread basket. Same with Mariner at lunch. Can't find any dinner bread offering photos. No clue if Oasis might do the same. Worth a shot. Ones on the left and right were the pretzel offerings at Chops on Mariner

What?! You know what Night 1 is right??!

Don't you secretly hate those people who are going the opposite direction to you ? I know it's wrong....

It sounds like you guys are having the time of your lives! I'm so happy for you both! P.S. Now is the time to book that next cruise onboard. Hint! Hint!

Just was at Coco beach club on 2/21 at the ~$80 price/pp. I gotta say.. I wouldn't do it again unless it was ~$50 or less... I may make a separate review thread, but here's at least my reasoning based purely on our experience that day.. The Good: 1) The availability of loungers was decent for only Symphony docked even at ~10:30. We were on the far left side but still had an umbrella in one of the last rows, so our view was of other people and the floating cabanas primarily. 2) The provided towels are pretty nice, especially as a chair topper! 3) Bar service was extremely quick (AT the bar) 4) (Specifically for our desires), minimal children. There was a few that came over from the cabanas and were yelling/screaming for a while, but otherwise it was a pretty quiet area and great to relax & nap a bit! The Bad: 1) The sand beach itself was flat out painful.. it was riddled with broken seashells everywhere from about the first row of chairs down to the water itself.. It'd be nice if they groomed it just a little even.. 2) When we arrived about 10:30, we were told we should immediately make lunch reservations as walk-up dining was not an option.. that seemed strange as it was the first time hearing that. Unfortunately the options were right then (10:30.. we just had breakfast an hour earlier!), or 2pm - bumping against our 5:30 MDR but we took it. They did manage to seat us at 1:45 though as most of the proper lunch crowed was gone 3) We must have had a lousy area as we didn't have a bartender come by to the loungers for drinks until nearly 1pm (they were walking the other areas even when we first arrived) 4) We actually noticed it was emptier and quieter just north west of Oasis outside the club at about 12-1pm.. TONS of chairs empty, barely anyone in the water, and only blocked by the beach club boulders so you're essentially on the same beach! 5) The overall feel of the area didn't seem that different in terms of occupancy than most other areas we walked around with the exclusion of oasis lagoon itself which was packed like sardines. Even given the food was good and the area , it definitely doesn't make strides towards our original booking fee at $80, so for $200/pp I'd kick myself every day for months paying that price. I'd be OK at $50, and happy at ~$40.

You will absolutely love Bermuda. My wife and I have been there 3 times, on Grandeur (love that ship) --- wee too live within driving distance from the port so it's real easy to get to. You mentioned Crystal Caves. Here are a few photos to get you excited. If you have specific questions regarding Grandeur, I'm here for you. If you have questions regarding Bermuda, @JLMoran and I have both been there more than once and will be more than happy to share our experiences. Mark

@Balsam I am sure there are people who like to live on the edge.

I got my brother looking at cruise blogs and he is obsessed with Oasis class. He believes the more people the merrier so he is excited about the two Oasis sailings we have booked. On another note I would be barfing like crazy if I had to wear that 3D harness.

Indeed, thanks so much for taking the time to keep us entertained. It's been a really fun read. And since Royal deducted the $88K tip, I think we know where the budget for the next cruise is coming from. Royal Suite anyone?

I think this world needs more big game fishing boat captains!

I'd be king of the world if I did get it... Big game fishing boat captain for occupation is indeed interesting but does not make me a "man of means". Fiancee and her kids deserve more than I can often provide... Couldn't swing booking a suite flat out but the upgrade even maxed bid was within reach... I had to try...

Left the hotel at around 10 and we were in our room by 10:35. We barely had time to snag a glance at the propellers in Terminal A. Smitha was waiting for us at the suite lounge, so we didn’t even have a chance to stop there. Sandwiches and desserts were brought to the room, as well as a birthday cake for Abby. we also celebrated with champagne on the room. Then it was off to explore the ship with my in-laws. Lunch at playmakers. The buffalo chicken crunch rolls were the best thing we had. The rest of the food was good, but those were the favorites. Had a Michelob Ultra. Then off to the New Adventure Ocean. We ran into a teacher that Virginia had on the Anthem GC last year. The teacher is in the 6-12 year old class and told Virginia if she wants to move up from 3-5 she can. We are going to play it by ear and see what she wants. after registering for AO we walked the pool deck then grabbed the first Kraken Lava Flow before a trip down the Ultimate Abyss. Much slower than expected, but was fun. I’ll come back and add pictures later. Now back to get more to drink before Muster Drill.

After dinner we dropped the kids off at adventure ocean, and we started the arduous chore of packing. Since we have the transfer, we have luggage tags #1. Conveniently our departure time lines up with the suite departure time, so in the morning we will meet Francis to be escorted off the ship. The gangways are still down, so it will be deck 1 for departure. with most of the packing done we headed off to the farewell show. In the cruise compass, it was described as a comedy show. Turns out it was a variety show, with a comedy act stuck in the middle. The comic was Dean Austin and he was very funny. After the show we hit the silent dance party. If you have not done this, you should, it’s a great time. They hand out radio headphones with two channels. Each channel has different music playing on them, so you get groups of people singing along and dancing to different songs which results in fun people watching. This is one of Lydia’s favorite events. Johnny gave it the college try, but soon realized all the cool kids were sitting and watching, so he came and sat on my lap. Of course I wasn’t about to let an opportunity to make him do something slip by, so when the YMCA came on, he of course was made to do the motions. These two kept at it, and weren’t impressed by us cool kids. Shortly later, Johnny had no more room in his fun bucket, and that he was tired and ready for bed. We let the ladies continue with their fun, and we headed back to the stateroom. About two minutes after his head hit the pillow, he was out.

Our last meal in the MDR and I finally got a halfway decent sunset. This evenings menu. Appetizers that we chose were the Asian Style pork tacos, and an iceberg wedge salad. Entreés were the lamb Chops, Steak Diane and the Garlic Tiger Shrimps ( which of course, I didn’t get pictures of??) For dessert, we got the Tres Leches and the Cherries Jubilee Sadly our dinner came to a close, and we said our parting words to our Waiter Bryan from the Philippines and his assistant Raju from India. Raju will be departing with us for a return trip home before continuing on with RC on Oasis. Both received well deserved extra tips from us and we wish them well.

And now folks, we are now caught up! Its now Saturday afternoon. We have received the dreaded luggage tags and departure information. The seas are much calmer now and we are moving at about 20kts towards Galveston. We should be tied up around 6:30am. Earlier in the cruise Johnny mentioned that he wanted to see the bridge. We had talked to Francis about this, and apparently due to "security reasons" this is no longer a suite perk (we got a tour on Anthem) so he signed us up for the all access tour that cost $. Oh well, its something that the geek side of me enjoys so why not. We met this morning in the MDR for the first part of the tour, where one of the managers discussed how many meals are prepared etc. On average 125, 000 meals are prepared weekly. We toured the galley, and saw all the different areas where food is prepared. Shrimp Cocktail anyone? Jonny was impressed at the stacks of covers Bakery operations where 50,000 rolls are baked a day This is the main hot line. Each dining room has its own dedicated line. All food for the windjammer is made in the deck 3 galley. The specialty restaurants have their own galleys. Meals and portions are tracked as they go out so they know what is moving. Following the galley, we headed below to tour the provisioning area. We met with the manager who spoke about how the provisioning happens. Since about 2007, RC has been keeping track of their provisions and what meals are ordered. The provision manager orders the supplies 3 weeks ahead of time. He knows based on historical trends what to order more of and when. All of the loading of the 496,000lbs of provisions happens in 5 hours on turn around day. Currently since we are at the end of the cruise, the ship is nearly empty. You can see some of the remaining fruit being gathered up by crew members. Normally, these stacked metal pallets are full of supplies All of the galleys and food storage areas are completely encased in stainless steel. These are washed down completely every day. The provision manager is actually looking forward to Sunday because he hopes he gets inspected by the health department. Apparently enchantment just was. He feels that with the inspection and the anticipated good marks, he uses that as a tool to show the crew why they go through all the trouble of the extensive cleaning that they do. Next up was the laundry area. We couldn't see all of it for some reason, I couldn't hear what he said very well. I did catch that their main washers have a 9 ton capacity. I should get one of those for my house, that will make laundry much easier. Here is a folding machine Pressing shop All along "I95" the main passageway down the middle of the ship. You can see the weeks recycling all bundled up ready to be offloaded. Crew mess We hit the engine control room where the mechanical parts of the ship is controlled. More elaborate deck plans Close up shots of the propulsion systems and stabilizers Next stop the bridge. The crew gets some more detailed maps of the ship, obviously Emergency plans Finally the bridge. Here are the controls on the port side wing. These mirror those on the center, and starboard side. These guys have a great view Someone was a little excited to drive the ship. We apologize to our shipmates who suddenly felt the ship turn hard...... After the tour we got a sheet of fun facts about the ship that I will post later. I'm off for some more advantures!

Update from the field: Mr SpeedNoodles has already declared the Oasis Class his "favorite class of ships". We've only seen the pool deck and Deck 4 so far.

Friday - Miami Day!!! Today was a long day. We booked a full 3-part tour that included a double-deck bus tour of Miami, a boat tour of the Miami harbor (with an emphasis on the islands between Miami and Miami Beach, where many celebrities live), and a short air-boat ride in the Everglades. We booked it through Trip Advisor, and figured it'd be a convenient way to see a variety of things with little effort. One of our traditions is to take some sort of harbor tour in each port we sail from at least once. It was touristy to a cliche, but we were ok with that. (https://www.tripadvisor.com/AttractionProductReview-g34439-d11451472-Miami_Combo_Tour_City_Sightseeing_Biscayne_Bay_Cruise_and_Everglades_Airboat_Ride-M.html) We caught a Lyft around 7:50 am, as there was a lot of traffic/construction/road closures around the Kimpton and ride shares were taking a little longer to find us. We arrived VERY early to the Miami Beach area from where the tour departed, and did a little walking and people watching. We went to CVS (since I lost my hair tie in the hotel in a matter of about an hour, and I forgot to bring makeup remover wipes. There was a pigeon in CVS. I seriously just wanted to catch it and rehome it outside with its pigeon friends, but I managed to quell the desire. I'll be frank here. I didn't take a lot of photos. While we sat on the top level of the bus, and we could see a lot of things, to get good photos I would have had to stand up, which would have put me at risk of (quite literally) losing my head to low branches. We were taken through the lovely Art Deco regions of South Beach, then headed over to Little Havana, were we debussed and were told we could get some "free Cuban Coffee" at store right where the bus was parked. I don't drink coffee, but Mr. SpeedNoodles does, and he was told by his Cuban coworker that he MUST get some Cuban Coffee. We peeked into the store where people were getting their free coffee, and it was a paper cup about the size of a ketchup container at McDonalds, so we wandered across the street in search of a shop that he'd see on one of his many, obsessive, Google Street View "walks". We just couldn't find it. Until...... some very kind local recognized what we were looking for and pointed us to a coffee shop that opened at 10am (it was 10:15, and he simply shrugged and said "Island Time"). He wasn't wrong. Within minutes they opened the door. And Mr SpeedNoodles was in heaven. Communication was somewhat tricky since we don't speak Spanish, but with some pointing and back and forth he managed to get two very strong coffees before we had to get back on the bus. It was a beautiful little shop and almost made me wish I drank coffee. After only 35 minutes (too short!) in Little Havana, we headed back to the Biscayne Marketplace for lunch. While they led us into a specific restaurant (with a promise of free appetizers), we chose to go a more economical route and we just hit Five Guys. The menu at the other place was not only overpriced, but the just didn't have any items on the menu that interested us. After lunch we boarded the harbor tour boat, and had a lovely 90 minute tour into the "islands" area. On the way we slipped right past Explorer of the Seas, who was in port exchanging passengers. We had a fantastic, high-energy, tour guide for this part, and we really enjoyed him (great job, Ricky!). I've never heard anyone so seamlessly go back and forth from English to Spanish. His jokes worked in both languages, judging by the laughter on the boat. I got several pics, but really nothing worth sharing. Little islands hosting extremely expensive houses owned by people I'll never meet. I'm not much of a celebrity person. Frankly I was just as thrilled sailing past the big MSC cargo ship while it was offloading containers - I thought that was pretty cool. PLUS we saw an actual, live, swimming, wild sea turtle come up twice on that side of the bay. I'm all about the wildlife. As anyone who's followed any of my previous blogs knows, I will be just as thrilled sitting around talking to local pigeons and sky rats (i.e. seagulls, for those not previously indoctrinated), as anything else that I do. #formerzookeeper #completenerd We were told to meet a "double-decker, non-open-top bus" at 2:15 to go to the Everglades right there at the Biscayne Marketplace. We did so. We got on the bus, with about 15 other people (not many, but who are we to judge?). Off we went! We were really looking forward to this part, having never been there. The bus took off....east ... across the bridge (full view of Navigator, Explorer, MSC Divina, Carnival Legend, Regent Seven Seas, and a Viking ship) .... but .... Ok, I'm no geography genius. But aren't the Everglades BACK THATA WAY??????? We're on the top deck, so we have no communication with the driver. The driver isn't communicating with us. Other passengers are looking likewise baffled. Others, not so much. We are all wearing the green "I'm on the 2:15 Everglades tour" sticker. Traffic was nothing less than awful. An hour after boarding, we arrive back at the tour company main office, where we are asked to debus and get on yet another bus. Ummmm, sure! It seems it would have been more efficient to bring THEM to US since we were already farther west, but again, I'm no geography/traffic genius. We get everyone on the bus. It's the first non-bilingual driver/guide we've had (it didn't bother US, but we the English speakers were definitely a minority on this one). Harry was our driver and guide. Harry was different. Harry made up a lot of ecological "facts" (Harry, they are Turkey Vultures, not "American Vultures", and they didn't come to the Miami area to breed in the winter. I've raised TV babies in Minnesota in June. They're just here to stay warm and eat. And don't even get me started on his opinions on the South Florida "Indian Tribes" -lawd man, you don't know who your audience might be). We arrived at the Sawgrass Recreation Area shortly after 4pm.. The cold front had moved in, and it was 65 degrees and windy. Most people were not dressed for the weather. This was very good news for the gift shop, as probably half of the bus passengers went in and purchased sweatshirts. or jackets. I had brought a zip up hoodie with me (#becauseMinnesota), and MrSpeednoodles will go out and grill at 11pm in January at 10 degrees in shorts and flip flops, so he didn't care. The problem? Gators don't like wind. The crawl back up into the grass and hide so that they don't drift all over the place. Frankly, I didn't care. I'm all for Gators. They're super tasty. And fascinating, ancient, creatures. And I would have been trilled to see one. But I was happy to see the Cormorants drying their feathers as well. I would have loved to see some egrets, or otters, but the weather just wasn't right. That's ok. The airboat was pretty hecking cool, and I know I want to come back during warmer weather and maybe book a smaller, more private boat and ask to focus on birds and mammals. Someday. I had some time to have a short conversation with this female Boat-tailed Grackle (we have regular Grackles in Minnesota. The females aren't nearly this pretty). Unfortunately the camera didn't really correctly portray her beautiful brown color. (I know - average birds. I appreciate sh** like that). The tour people seemed really super disorganized. It was easily an hour between when we got to the Sawgrass Visitor's Center and when we actually got onto an airboat. The airboat tour was 30 minutes, and we didn't see any alligators (and not much of anything else). Nobody can control the weather, or the animals' behaviour in the weather, so we really didn't care. The trip back took another 90 minutes in awful traffic. The driver ended up just going back on city roads, through Hialeah (Big Havana). Nothing he could do about the traffic either. We'd been planning to go to Ceviche 105 for dinner, but by the time we got back to the Miami Tour Bus Company in Miami Beach and hailed another Lyft it was after 8pm. We'd been going all day, and hadn't had any food since 1pm. We were tired and blood sugars were low. By the time we'd get back to our hotel, shower, change, and get to the restaurant it would have been at least 9:30. Which is apparently when people in Miami leave their hotels and head out on the town. But be real here. We're middle-aged-plus Minnesotans. We arranged for the Lyft driver (a fascinating man from Nigeria! Thanks, Daniel!) to drop us off a block away from the Kimpton at Whole Foods. We picked up some pizza and sushi (not to be mixed, we each wanted different things), and a bottle of wine (O. M G. Wine at a grocery store??? This is UNHEARD OF in the land of 10,000 lakes! How incredibly convenient!). We ate, drank some wine, and watched half of "Guardians of the Galaxy" (I challenge anyone to guess who my favorite character is.) and Mr Speednoodles is already asleep. I'll be there right after I fix all of the typos in this blog (no guarantees, I will offer no compensation for emotional trauma caused by grammatical/typographical errors). !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOMORROW IS CRUISE DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is there a thread or other location for the RCBlog cruises? Just signed up for my first one (finally found one that looks like i can make it work with my schedule, which wouldnt seem like a hard thing but has been) and was wondering if there was anywhere to see who else is going, what plans have been made, etc. Admittedly the cruise is still like 21 months away so it might be a bit soon to plan too much but what can i say ... im excited to finally meet some people besides BCarney (ran into each other on Adventure a couple of years ago).

Waiting is almost always a mistake. Booking as early as possible will generally net the best price PLUS you will have time to reprice if a better price comes along.

Recently it seems to me that the bookings that I have, that are more than 90 days in the future, are seeing very few price reductions on Cruise Planner items. Only when my cruises get within 90-100 days do the "sales" seem to benefit me. I think it will just be a waiting game if your cruise is 300 days away. You can certainly abide by the rule that we all use here - go ahead and purchase now and reprice when the price drops. The only downside to doing that is that it allows Royal to keep your money for a long time.

If you find the soft pretzels, please let us know where. My 11 year old loves them! It will be his snack of choice when we are on in a few weeks. In the ATS 9th floor-super excited!

? After the last vacation with the whole family, my 15 year old daughter remarked to me (in regards to my mother) in a sotto voce aside: This is not a vacation. It's driving somewhere else to complain about things... My mom isn't a horrid person but she tends to always focus on the things that aren't perfect versus the stuff that is good. That can be exhausting after a few days in that she is always polite to staff but when it's just us she wants to replay every moment and offer her critique. At least she is nice to them and only complains to us. Still. Exhausting.

They are definitely in the splash zone, and it was quite windy and chilly last night.

Sorry about the time between posts I was busy enjoying the cruise. But it’s over I’m home again in the cold waiting for a bus to take me to the university. Day 3: cruising I will admit right now that I am not an entertaining sea day kind of person. I eat find a lounger, drink, swim and repeat. woke up and got a chai tea latte from cafe promenade they already know my order so that may be a problem. Then off to breakfast in the main dining room. I really enjoy a leisurely breakfast on sea days. I had eggs benedict and a mimosa it was good but not fantastic and I’ve seen better service I’m not sure if it’s because it was near the end of breakfast or what but just not as attentive as I’m used to. off to the pool deck now i found a lounger on deck 16 and a couple of frozen mojitos were drunken then I moved on to grey goose and pineapple. Every hour or so I had to get up to swim as it was really hot. Next it was off to lunch in the park cafe I loved the roast beef sandwich it was delicious! Then back to the pool deck for more swimming, lounging, reading and drinking. At 5pm I called it a day went to get a latte then up to the room to get ready for formal night! We are not a photo taking family always say we will get photos but never do. For dinner my white wine I’ve had the last 2 nights was perfectly chilled and waiting for me thanks Lobo! ? French onion soup, steak and cheesecake was consumed. Then off to watch the aqua show drink sangria, then to the casino where I gave Royal some money then off to karaoke where there was no drama just a drunk guy who loved show tunes but as I did as well this was not a problem for me!

I second @Lovetocruise2002, I peruse to my hearts content, but when I land on something I place the deposit. I have three future sailings booked and every one of them have been repriced at a better rate or an added OBC from when I placed my deposit. I love MEI and specifically my advocate Sharla Manglass. [email protected] I have more then once received emails stating she checked the on going sale for my sailings, when this newest virus hit I called her and asked if anything could be done as an incentive for my sailing in the very near future, maybe a good will gesture, glad your still sailing OBC? I received an email a few hours later from Sharla "I'll do you one better! $300.00 OBC plus a Florida resident adjustment of $840.00 savings woot, woot!! Sorry so long winded but book NOW, place your deposits and then re price along the way, maybe you have a desired deck? Repricing when using Sharla is painless (for me lol) and the worst that can happen is you have an amazing sailing with your family. I watch the RCCL stock and peruse the prices about once a week, if they go down either Sharla has emailed me or I send a quick "can you take a look at this or that?" I literally saved enough money to almost pay for a quick 4 night I have in August 2020. Good Luck my friend, enjoy your sailing! *reprice before final payment, I always wait to pay at the very last minute just for this reason

While I agree the CK Filet is the best filet, I'm not a huge beef fan, so we were totally in on Izumi.

Make sure that your device (hair dryer or whatever) is compatible with the voltage.

They may do Greece, Spain or France IF this continues to play out. Some people say the virus will die when hot weather hits, obviously this is a lie because Iran and Italy have warmer climates. I think when more transparency comes into play we will be able to get a handle on things. The hyperbolic media is definitely making things worse. I am young, just survived the flu so I ain't worried about no beer virus.

Bahamas Visa and Passport Requirements" To enter the Bahamas, you must have a passportvalid for at least six months from the date of departure. British and American passport holders can enter with less than sixmonths remaining on their passports if visiting for up to 21 days.

Thank you, I'm going to do some reading up on it. I'm so excited about getting some sunshine I ready don't care where my room is right now!!!haha!!

I am not worried at all and I work in a UK hospital. I am more worried about slipping on ice or catching the flu.

I can just TELL that Heather is a very generous lady. The fact that she tipped the lanyard guy $88K doesn’t surprise me AT ALL. She probably just did that so that you would insist on being the one to go and fetch lunch from now on. She’s smart, too !

yup.....

I’m experimenting with using a travel agent this time. It hasn’t been exactly life-changing, but it’s been helpful at times. I wanted a balcony, but not in close proximity to pool decks, galleys, and nightclubs. TA and I hit upon the aft junior suites, but they required a 3-person minimum occupancy. And then the lightbulb went off. We would invite my sister’s best friend to join us. With any luck, the two of them will keep each other so occupied, I can have moments of solitary bliss between the sea and the sky. By a fluke, I saw someone’s post about the $18.00 drink package just in time to sign the three of us up. We decided against the Chef’s Table because although sister and I had enjoyed it thoroughly last year, it does take up a chunk of time and this is a pretty short cruise. Ditto for the Bottomless Brunch. I’d heard that the Key wasn’t necessarily worth the expense, but when I got the Cruise Planner email, I clicked on it anyway, just to check it out. It actually seemed like a good deal for us. I liked the idea of a quiet MDR lunch on embarkation day, from the Chops menu, no less, but when they threw in carry-on drop off and delivery to the stateroom (no schlepping!), I was about half-sold. We wouldn’t make use of private hours on the rock-climbing wall (sadly), but VIP seating in the theatre is another story. The option to slip out ahead of the crowd in Cozumel sounded awesome, and then there was another seated breakfast on debarkation morning. I pulled the trigger and I have no regrets.

It's very windy (the itinerary channel refers to 45 kts Apparent wind) tonight. The AquaTheature show was canceled, but we had reservations for Hairspray at 8:30pm, so that didn't bother us. At the assembly drill the captain informed us that he was adding about 60 extra miles onto our route to Saint Maarten to hopefully avoid some rougher seas. After watching all of the other ships depart from the port, we took off toward downtown Miami to turn around in the basin. We took in sailaway from our balcony since we had to get ready for dinner at 6:15. While sailaway was supposed to take place at 4:30, we didn't start moving until about 5:35. We enjoyed dinner at Wonderland. The staff was incredible, and the food was inventive and, we thought, pretty darned tasty. We booked it twice this week and I'm glad that we did - there were other things we wanted to try! I was useless with food photos. I suspect that most of my photos will be from port days. The ship itself has been covered well by people much better at it than I am. (Apologies to friends back home - I promise to spam Facebook later with ship photos for you later). The internet is, as the internet speed test showed, "very slow". Still, I am managing ok ?

Day 1 - Embarkation Day!!!!!! Yay! The best day of all! We woke up at 8:30 and took our time showering and packing up. My goal was to get to the port by 10:30. We rolled our bags out of the Kimpton around 10:20 - I was so annoyed that I was getting out of the hotel so late! I ordered a Lyft, and within about 50 seconds he rounded the corner to pick us up. Fastest. Ride Share. Ever. We got to the port within 20 minutes (7 minutes to get there, the rest just trying to maneuver through traffic to be dropped off. Our driver was exceedingly patient). A porter descended upon us before we were even out of the car and whisked our bags away. We checked in in the Expedited Check line (in in?). We could have checked in with The Key line. Neither one had more than one person in line, so it was simply a matter of where my eyes wandered first. A quick run through security with our carry ons, up the elevator, and we waited to be let onto the ship. We waited all of about 8 minutes. Shortly after we claimed our spot, they called the Diamond/Diamond Plus members (Pinnacles were screwed?), and then The Key. Boarding was seamless. Having cruised twice already out of Terminal A, this came as no surprise to me, but Mr SpeedNoodles had never experienced anything like it, and he was newly impressed. We boarded the ship right next to the MDR, where they happened to have someone waiting to make our specialty reservations. CHECK! Done. We went down one floor to drop our carry on bags off on Deck 3 of the MDR (another Key benefit). It was still only 10:50 am. We swang by Boleros to exchange (or purchase new) Wow bands, but there were at least 30 people in line, so we bailed on that idea. We instead decided to make a quick stop at the Bionic Bar. On Ovation the robots "names" are Mix and Mingle. On Symphony they are Rock em and Sock em. Sock em made a reasonable Long Island Iced Tea for Mr SpeedNoodles, and we then decided that an early lunch would not be a bad idea (we skipped attempting any breakfast in the morning before departing the hotel). Lunch was on deck 3 in the MDR for The Key - Chops menu. I took no photos of lunch as, really, most people have seen plenty of photos of shrimp, soup, a burger, etc. We enjoyed lunch, or server was quite nice, and we were ready for our day. We went up to Deck 15 (pool deck), grabbed a drink (they had no Kracken yet, I had to "settle" for a Tequila Sunrise with Patron Reposado (cuz Momma doesn't do Cap'n Morgan - it isn't a substitute for Kraken). We wandered until the rooms opened up at 1pm. We're quite pleased with our room. We have an oceanview balcony on deck 12 midship. It's a very similar layout to Ovation, except the balcony is much deeper! We unpacked, threw our swimsuits on, and headed to the extremely uncrowded Solarium to hang out in the hot tub (margarita in hand to celebrate National Margarita Day) before the assembly drill.

As mentioned previously, the South Beach Food and Wine Festival is in Miami this weekend, so prices for hotels nearer to the cruise port were CRAZY expensive. We flew into FLL via SWA and then Ubered to our hotel, the Hyatt House Miami Airport. UberXL for 5 passengers and all of our bags was $80. The Hyatt House is great. We got a 2 Bedroom suite, so Abby and I are in one room, the in-laws in another, and Virginia is on the couch. No pictures because we exploded our crap into the room, but you walk in and there's a full kitchen with a bar and 3 bar stools. Then there is an "L"-shaped couch and TV. On either side are the two bedrooms with en suite bathroom. For all 5 of us the room was about $300, which for us all to be in one room is great, and we have a common area to share to watch TV. The hotel does have basic snacks in the bar downstairs, and is walking distance from a Publix, as an option for dinner or supplies pre-cruise. There isn't a lot of restaurants nearby, but we used DoorDash for some Cuban sandwiches from Rincon Criollo, which were pretty tasty. Tomorrow we have full breakfast included, so we're looking forward to taking advantage of that before we Uber over to the port. Landing was a bit dicey in FLL as there as a big wind shear right as we reached the runway, pilot on got the left side wheel down, and felt a little like we were about to flip and roll. Luckily he saved it and we're alive to tell the story. I do have to remember to start taking pictures for the blog, and promise to do better once we start on our Voyage tomorrow!