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Disembarkation was fast, just like my Indy sailing most of the numbers were called way earlier than anticipated. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30 with our luggage and Genie. Of course, the porter was there before Alexa; I forgot 2 Genies were doing the job of 3 and this was the one time we felt it. The process was smooth, to me, and we were in the car back to the hotel in no time. We hadn't eaten breakfast and I was able to check in and partake of Hampton Inns free breakfast. I would say that Ashley, her brother and mother are sweet, kind people who I enjoyed. While as a whole our adventure might not have been spicy enough to get picked up for a full season, Ashley's mom would get her own spin-off My final thoughts on the middle-leg star class sailing are........ It truly depends on the type of person you are. I could truly go either way. I felt some type of way asking the Genie to do things for me. At the same time, you HAVE to ask the Genie for what you want. I don't like attention and Star class is all attention. I feel uncomfortable when performers can make eye contact with me. Or when the restaurant staff apologize when they see the card. I would do it again with Star-class loving people but not something I would seek as my own. I can't get into the mind frame of asking someone to do something I could easily do for myself. With all the protocols, low capacity, restrictions and lack of shows, it felt overtly bougie. On Harmony Chops has the better filet, sorry @Lovetocruise2002. CK filet won on Allure, but it was way too salty on Harmony. We also had to make a few trips to the WJ while in star class. .... such sacrilege I know! Up next.......Mariner of the Seas I had a wonderful 11am check-in time for Mariner but received the dreaded "please arrive 90 min later" email and will catch the 11:15 hotel shuttle. Let's hope for smooth sailing....

This makes ALL the difference for me. I don't drink coffee, Diet Coke is it. I have a serious problem. The cruises I have done with NCL have all been fine, I feel like the nickel and dime more than Royal does though. I won a room on the Prima when she comes into service, but I don't know when that will be yet. Already worried about the Diet Coke issue.

I've cruised with Norwegian. The two lines are more similar than they are different. I feel Royal does a better job of dispersing passengers around the ship and doesn't feel as crowded. Norwegian uses Pepsi products while Royal uses Coke. For some people that makes a big difference. NCL's drink packages also don't include bottled water or specialty coffee while they are included in the Refreshment and Deluxe packages on Royal. I have sailed on Royal way more and their loyalty program gives me more incentive to keep coming back.

We recently went on the Maho Beach Plane Spotting excursion and it was a lot of fun. I thought I would post a review along with some videos that I didn’t upload on my live blog. We were there on December 23rd so SXM was busy. There were at least 30 take offs and landings during our 2+ hours at Maho Beach. This.was a highlight for our 16 year old son who has been watching videos of Maho Beach jet blasts for years. The excursion was reasonably priced at around $50pp. Upon arrival we rented 3 beach loungers for $10pp The amenities are basic but if this is on your bucket list, it didn’t disappoint. Video of Takeoff https://youtu.be/ewiSWOsB7ug Video of Landings https://youtu.be/YNYvNtbZm4Q https://youtu.be/a9DyvsW9_QE

Well it was a spectacle boarding mariner...... So boarding time was pushed until 12:30. Those who were pinnacles, in a suite D+ or with a boarding time before noon were allowed to wait in terminal. I took the 11:15 shuttle which was 15min late due to ttraffic. Got there at 11:30 with my test from harmony from Alexa in an envelope, saw my name and negative results and was like cool. As I exited the shuttle I heard cursing. Made my way up to first check point and sounds increased. Guy said " your a day early" and I was like nope mariner leaves on the 24th. He said " you tested a day too early, you're going to have to get out of line and test again. " I said I tested the 22nd on Saturday. Dumb letter says I tested the 21st at 8:30. I was pulled out of line and that's when I heard more. One man was getting quite loud with a port supervisor. ..... to be continued.

Day 7 continued..... Freedom was docked next to us, and we spent time on the balcony waiting for them to allow us to disembark. Several people on Freedom were mesmerized by the room. We made jokes of doing stuff like getting a 'rona from our wet bar to show how vast our deck was. We didn't but we should have to blow their minds. It was extremely funny because our deck was pretty much at the level of Freedom' pool deck. Oasis class is a beast! We were quite confused about PDCC. Both the app and planner said we wouldn't be able to get off until 11am and all aboard was at 4:30. That would have been a very short day. At 150 we confirmed with Alexa that we would be able to get off at 10:30am, so the rest of the cabana party would meet us in the room and be escorted off. Side note: I took my test at 7:30 and by 9am I still didn't have results. Me and Michael joked it would ding when I tried to get off at PDCC if something was wrong. Since we docked sort of late for a PDCC day, it was a mad house. Thank God for a Genie. Alexa has the elevator privileges. She had to go down priority in a full one so she could come back in an empty one and get us. But it beats the cluster that was happening. Here is where all the advice of star class comes into play. Nobody ever asked for an escort to the trams. I walk everywhere, mostly, so I had no intentions of taking the tram at all and figured if anyone wanted to, they would have told the Genie. If we wanted to use the tram, we would have to wait in line with the "poors." I had no desire to do that, but I understand that others don't want to walk like me. Different strokes, different folks. Two out of the eight of us were already waiting in the Beach club so Ashley and I walked to the cabanas. We checked in and walked past the day pass holders into our beautiful private oasis. You have seen the pictures posted and justice cannot be done in mere photos. Reddy was out attendant, and he assured that anything we needed, he would get. Bill and Eva requested a champagne toast, I got a Coco Loco. Plus, the cooler was stocked with basic bare necessities like: "rona, bud light, trulies, coke products and mini bottles of sparkling wine. The selection for the included cooler leaves a lot to be desired. We did the toast and Eva went down the slide. Took videos and photos of the cabana to post. Then she did a bit of snorkeling. Like me, Bill and Eva were from Chicago, very nice people. My only slight gripe is she took photos with people in them without asking if it would be okay to include them in her advertisement......oh yeah, she is a travel agent. I try to avoid that as not everyone wants to be immortalized on the internet, myself included. Reddy brought us all the apps. The pita bread was amazing, I love a good bread. I don't understand the obsession with truffle but mostly everything came with truffle fries. Since I don't eat any seafood but shrimp, I was limited on entree options. I had heard good things about the steak, so a medium one it is! Now this is just me, but it was the worst steak of the bunch, and the roasted potatoes didn't have any flavor. Most got the steak and a lobster roll. I asked for a side of plain fries and received extra crispy fries doused in truffles. Our attendant had brought one extra of everything and it sat there going to waste as it was just too much food, even for 8 people. I ate fries until I was semi-full, and the birds had the rest. A very nice lady in our party started feeding the seagulls because she loves birds. Well, we had an entire flock sitting on our cabana screaming for food. The extra funny part is Eva is afraid of birds; it was her worst nightmare. Two tiny baby birds came and while I shouldn't have, I gave them fries. At this point the seagulls were like "you get what you deserve for feeding us" and started dive bombing the food. They got away with quite a few potato wedges. The lifeguard told us NOT to feed the seagulls. Ashley's mom was like he didn't say don't feed the fish and proceeded to do so for almost the remainder of the stay. it was adorable! I should mention that while the day started out cloudy and cool. It got sunny and warmer as the day progressed. Also don't judge the bathroom trailers too harshly. The trailer has 5 individual bathrooms, air conditioning and is just as clean as the rest. Reddy got us all of the dessert besides the sorbet. The funnel cake was ruined by tons of caramel and some fudge......but the small parts without it were soft and delicious. The dessert was again way too much for us and the birds tried to get in on that as well. After lunch, which was close to around 2pm, I received an email saying my results were ready. I tried to click the PDF and it didn't work so I went to the app. The app wouldn't load. I waited another half an hour and the app told me "A representative from the testing center would contact me shortly." Since no one had shown up in hazmat suits I wasn't too worried about being positive......what I was worried about is not having the results to board my next cruise. I sent Alexa a message. She informed me I was negative, but the test site was down fleet wide. She would deliver my results when it came back up. We stayed in the cabana until a little after 4 and then went back to the suite to pack. I hate packing! But I was done fairly quick. I did a walk around the ship to get pictures of a few areas and enjoy watching Freedom sail away and Jewel pull in to transfer crew. I counted about 13 crew getting off of Harmony and lost count at 41 crew transferring to Harmony. It wasn't a long transition, and nobody had on hazmat suits, so it was fairly smooth. Me and Ashley hit the casino for the last time to play the points we earned. I ended the night up $20. We ordered room service and I have to say that the rigatoni Bolognese wasn't too bad. However, they made the quesadilla with American cheese and the Pico de Gaio cooked inside. So, at 9pm I still couldn't get a printout of my test results. Alexa informed me that since it was fleet wide, she would inform Mariner's guest services and port authority of my negative guest results so I could sail. We all had a good laugh, not only at the absurdity of the situation but my luck at testing so far. We went over multiple scenarios but luckily, I had a Genie and when we departed, she had my results in hand.

Hi all, on the last day, Covid testing was provided on the ship. As a surprise, my wife tested positive for Covid. We think she was exposed on the Royal Caribbean excursion to the Panama Canal. The Panama excursion was a large group on a tour bus with no roll down windows. My wife & I were always careful to follow the rules and preferred staying in open air spaces. The Panama excursion was the only time we think our guard was compromised. My wife and others that tested positive had to leave the ship after all passengers had disembarked. She counted 8 of them total. We were never informed during the cruise that people had tested positive. The crew kept things very hush-hush. Royal Caribbean is flying the passengers who tested positive back to the States. The spouses are not able to fly back on the private plane. My wife was only able to travel with a carry-on bag. I had 3 suitcases to carry on American Airlines. The 3rd suitcase was going to cost $200. To avoid paying $200, the 3rd suitcase quickly became another carry-on. We are from Birmingham, AL another passenger had flown from Nashville, TN. Each of them were not flown to their home city. The plane is landing in Huntsville, AL to split the difference. They each have to rent a car to make 2 hour drives home. We are still glad we came. Our 30th anniversary has been memorable!

The first 5 photos are from room 547 at the Hampton Inn Port Canaveral, which is where I stayed while waiting to board Harmony. The remaining 6 are from my current stay at the Hampton Inn Port Canaveral, while I wait to board Mariner. Room 347 has a couch instead of a chair and a queen bed instead of a king, so it looks bigger. Both had/has a refrigerator, that doesn't work, and a microwave. Housekeeping is by request.

This is mostly a picture dump/ The first few are of the cabana at PDCC There are some of the bento boxed food delivery. Our attendant brought us funnel cakes just for the heck of it! Harmony was docked near Freedom Lastly this is the room service quesadilla and rigatoni Bolognese

Food picture dump..... Being super fancy star class, we got shelled edamame One of our party asked for nothing as her dessert and got nothing. There was also a weird yellow/orange moon last night. We were in cabana 10 for PDCC

I was just in checking the pricing of my cruises and noticed they now have View virtual tour on all of the cabins. I think this is something new and I really like it. Now you can see what the cabin should look like. To see them just go in like you are booking a cruise on the RCL site and when you get to the cabin types you will see the link for the virtual tour.

My Freedom cruise was doing hot breakfast for no room service charge for everyone. I believe implemented this on some ships that don't have as many breakfast dining options for social distancing reasons -- i.e. to avoid everyone cramming into the Windjammer at the same time. I haven't seen the offer on the Oasis class ships since the restart. It was listed in the Cruise Compass on my Freedom cruise.

American cheese on a quesadilla ? Ugh

This is the 4bedroom villa. It took all these pictures to get a full view of the room. It is really hard to imagine until you actually get in it. IMHO 14 people would be way too cramped if it was adults and teenagers only.......someone might have to use the hot tub to bath. I think it was too big for the 4 of us but a sweet spot would be 8-10. Maybe 4 couples or 2 couples with 3 or less children. The master bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms that have their own thermostat to control the temperature. There are two "fridges/coolers," one in the living room and one in the wet bar on deck, and TVs in each room. Somehow there was 2 remotes for the living room TV. Lots of closet space but be prepared for weird smells as well. Location isn't bad especially since the elevator will put you at the entrance to most hot spots. I think it's a great way, if you can get the room, to try star class at a decent price.

Day 8 Sunset I spotted a cruise ship on the horizon near the sun. I imagine it's a lot hotter over on that ship. That Captain better be careful, it's heading straight for them. The clouds save the day. Added bonus: Balcony sunset 360 photo featuring a guest appearance from the North Star

Negative test results received by email. I'm clear to carry on the next cruise.

We were overtaking another ship in the early hours. Captain's Corner this morning. Crown and Anchor: Up Close and Personal With Your Entertainment Family A one hour presentation and Q&A session with the cast and backstage crew. At these events you always learn some tidbit of information and get insight what's it like for the cast and crew right now. Normally the cast spend a month or more at the Royal Caribbean Studios in Miami rehearsing a show. Right now they are sent to a ship, go into quarantine and learn the show over video. Once out of quarantine they meet for the first time and put all the pieces together into the production we see. Amazing. Simply georgeous sea day! Talk about calm seas...

Dinner in Teppanyaki: Love the view... Nearly a full moon rising from the sea. What these photos don't capture is the show that comes with the dinner experience. So much fun! Right from dinner I headed down to see Showgirls! in the main theater. It's really a great production. For a much more thorough post on Odyssey's entertainment line up see this post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/26522-odyssey-of-the-seas-entertainment-in-pictures/#comment-288089

I wasn't planning to live blog this one but with all the FUD about cruising right now I thought I better clear the cruising record. FUD is Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt and there is plenty of FUD being tossed around social media with respect to cruising. Consequently this not live blog is from the ship as we return on the final sea days on our way back to Port Everglades. I didn't start out taking pictures and documenting everything with the intent to present it here so bear with me as I hobble together something to represent this cruise and to set the record straight. It's still a great time to cruise. The "enhanced" mask policy has had zero impact to me as a universal mask hater but I know the rules and I am following them. This is an eight night Southern Caribbean itinerary with a great blend of sea days and awesome ports. Day 1 - Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale embarkation Day 2 - Nassau Day 3 - Sea Day Day 4 - Sea Day Day 5 - Aruba Day 6 - Curaçao Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Sea Day Day 9 - Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale debarkation Let's start with a cabin tour of an obstructed balcony cabin on deck 7. Obstructed balconies are a great way to enjoy a balcony while benefiting from a discount for living with an obstruction. On Quantum class ship the most common form of obstruction in the balcony category comes from the lifeboats and the towers that support the lifeboats (davits). Many (but not all) deck 6 and deck 7 balcony cabins are of the obstructed form but they are not all equally obstructed. By carefully picking the cabin location including choosing deck 7 the obstruction is not as significant. And now the moment you've all been waiting for... I present... the obstruction: Yep, that's it. That's several hundred dollars off the price of the cruise but YMMV. The rest of the cabin is the same as any other balcony cabin on the ship. And for the icing on the cake this is a connecting balcony cabin. However the connecting door on this class, at least in this cabin, is near the main entrance door and it seals very well. I've not heard a peep from the young college aged kids next door. By placing the connecting door here it doesn't impact the sofa or desk or any other aspect of the cabin.

SpeedNoodles!! You saved me from myself!! I booked the Taste of Royal Lunch and then later decided to book the UDP since it went on sale. All this was done back in September. Here I am thinking all this time: 'I'm all set!!' Then I just read this thread and you made me realize that I really would be paying twice for a Specialty Lunch. DUH!! I just cancelled the Taste of Royal. Thanks for waking me out of my stupor

Day 1 - - Arival at port and Boarding We had a 1 to 1:30 boarding which was the earliest you could pick in the early morning the day boarding opened. Arrived by Taxi at 12:10, dropped luggage and proceded dow terminal to serpenines set up. Suites, Pinnacle, Key to right bypassing the almost empty anyway sepintine. Someone? public health handed out a paper in either english or spanish that outline the entry requirements when you come back to Puerto Rico. Before entering the sepintine they looked at your covid test and vacine card. Walk the whole surpenine even though no one is there filling it. Very short wait if even that at the end of sepentine. Check Set Sail, Vax card and test results again. Through terminal doors and security 3 or 4 scanner's can't remeber for sure. Another 4 stations to check but this time you also had to present your Passport or Licence and Birth certificate. Then maybe 20 stations all with the iPad type device to acctualy check you in for the cruise. Scan one of your Set Sail passes, which bring up your record for that cabin, they then look at all documents that you listed on your checkin. Verified Passport names, Vaccined dates and Date and Negative results of your Covid test. from there you just proceded up the gangway and onto the ship. Maybe 10-15 minutes total from Taxi to Ship. 2nd easiest boarding we've ever done. We were told by other pasenger they opened the doors at Noon. So based on recent experiances if you should up just a little before your schedule time all seems to flow smooth with the new boarding system. So as you can see on the above paper, the one handed out prior to boarding, reading the yellow/orange print as long as you fly out the same day you leave your cruise and your Vaxed PR places no addtional requirements on you. I'm at day 2 when writing this we are in St Maarten and other than the normal boarding day mixups and rearanginging of eating scedule and normal adjustment its been like every other cruise. Top tier event is tonight and i will get their version of passenger count and report that tomorrow.

It's funny - when my mom and I were debating our next cruise, St. Maarten was a stop at one of the itineraries we were looking at and the Next Cruise agent just kept talking about how you can watch the planes take off and land. And I just politely nodded like "okay lady, I've been to an airport before." I had no idea until I saw an unrelated video that they passed THIS crazy close. There is certainly a thrill to it though I think the noise would drive me away fairly quickly, it does seem like a cool thing experience at least once.

@smokeybandit we got ours right there at the train station that's connected to/in the airport at a ticketing machine. I felt like it was a simple process and skipped the shipping on the compass card by waiting to purchase when we got there.

No, N95 are not required. Here are the mask guidelines from their website: Your mask should be at least two layers of tight weave fabric with loops that fit over your ears in accordance with health guidelines. The mask should fit your face closely and cover your nose and mouth but allow you to breathe easily. Note that neck gaiters, open chin bandanas and scarves, and face masks with valves do not meet health authority guidelines and will not be permitted.

There is a light rail SeaTac stop. Follow the signs from the airport. The path goes through the parking garage if I remember correctly. Probably about a 10 minute walk to get to it. The closest stop for the train looks to be about 7 blocks from the Marriott.

Please have fun on this ship. This is ship is my first Royal ship. I will be on her again next April 2023.

Yes

Absolutely I will share any responses I receive form Switch Health and RCCL. With regards to the LAMP test that is good to know about the US address requirement. If the test is taken at the port on them morning of disembarkation, I'm thinking the address of the port would satisfy this requirement.

Thanks for the well wishes. My wife only has a cough and it is going away. @Bazza, have a great trip!

Another update: A car service with driver was provided from Huntsville to Birmingham. Royal Caribbean had everything handled. My wife is pulling up to the house and I am waiting for the connecting flight in Miami. She will be home 4 hours ahead of me.

We're going on a March 7 - March 11 trip on the Navigator. We were on the same trip in early December and felt completely safe - actually safer than doing a lot of things at home/office/shopping locally, et cetera. Looking forward to the trip!

That's almost as bad as raisins in apple pie!! Someone really needs to talk with the people that come up with these recipes!! I'm waiting to see what sacrilegious thing they do to ruin one of the dishes in the new Mason Jar

Black Friday, or any major holiday, is not what you want to aim for. Here's why:

IMHO it was perfect. We were the only cabana on our side to have fish and stingray's it seems. I passed by the others and their swimming and water areas were completely clear. We were at the end, a short walk to the trailer of rest rooms, we could cut across to the Snack Shack if we dared, and our food/drinks were arriving closed to the temperature it should be.

@Ampurp85 the plate with "Nothing" has me rolling

Flight in info. Landed at SJU, flight was good all conections made (hate concting flights, I'm normally a direct flight guy, but with the lack of crew I was moved. Saw one cancelled flight on the board to SJU, but luckily it was a couple of hours after ours). As you start to just see the baggage keep LEFT, there are NG soliders, some in tyvec coveralls assisting with checking that QR code. Collect your LUGGAGE FIRST, then procede to one of the check out line there a many. Have your QR code and a Photo ID ready, they will read your QR code and then take a picture of your ID for their software to record. We then proceded like usual to get a taxi to our hotel and the first thing we did after check in was our eMed proctored test for boarding. Negative again Yea! Just a quick note on eMed access. On my android devices, both phone and tablet I have been forced to use the Samsung Internet Browser. I have the newest version of Crome on them but it does not work. iPhone of wife no problems (just more ammunition for her in our which is better debate) Will add boarding info tomorrow, we have an earlist boarding time, which is 1 to 1:30 in San Juan. No Suite, No key.

Tonight The Effectors is in the main theater so I went early to be near the front of the line. First come, first seated. The drone scene in The Effectors is pretty awesome as the drones fly out over the audience. Great as always! Our progress:

I may not be on the sunrise side of the ship but that means I am on the sunset side of the ship. The clouds stole the show. Despite the low numbers the Windjammer remains open for dinner. Italian night.

Day 7 - Sea Day On our way back across the Caribbean Sea and I'm no longer on the sunrise side of the ship so no morning photos. I went to Playmakers for lunch. They Sportsplex has been closed while we were in port as they finished the floor and fixed some other things here and there. The shiny new floor of the Sportsplex: Love the sea views from Playmakers. Games of the week: The Playmakers Classic Burger: One more look at the shiny new floor.

Back on the ship it was time for my complimentary North Star reservation.

Day 6 - Curaçao More self exploring in the capital Willemstad. This port is very walkable if you don't have mobility issues so it's a great way to get your steps in while exploring a UNESCO world heritage site.

I was worried the clouds on the horizon would steal the show but in the end it worked out pretty good.

After an afternoon nap I headed back out to see if my sun position estimates were right. This is Governor's Beach. While waiting I grabbed a few drinks and dinner at The West Deck Beach Bar. Looks like this is going to work out perfectly. Time for another round.

We have a late stay in Aruba with an all aboard time of 10:30pm. On occasions like I always try to find a beach to enjoy the sunset. Another ship inbound to join us. This has a lot of potential for a sunset and checking an app I have it confirmed the sun should set in this general direction. The little boat anchored just off shore caught my eye as a potential subject to include in my sunset photos. After a 4 mile morning stroll I was back on board grabbing some lunch sandwiches from cafe270. Another view of the Discovery behind us. Oops! I did it again! Another NextCruise booking. Fun fact I didn't know - NextCruise has a 3 booking limit. To book a 4th they'll need to get permission from HQ.

Day 3 - Sea Day Good morning world! A sunrise at sea. On a sea day, at 8:30am and hardly another guest to be found. It did rain briefly which brought with it some rainbows. Then a winter storm hit us and the roads were covered in snow and it was miserable. Then I woke up from my balcony nap under sunny skies. Crown and Anchor Top Tier event this morning. The house band played some tunes while we waited for the event to start. Captain stated we have 1,634 guests with 1,597 crew so almost a 1:1 ratio. That's luxury cruise ships numbers! In terms of CAS onboard, here is the breakdown: One sequence created for the Vistarama screens has the Royal Caribbean fleet sailing behind us. This was originally created for a Board of Directors meeting that occured on Quantum soon after it first launched but the video has since become a staple in C&A top tier events on Quantum class ships. Our progress: Checking out the new Flowrider surface. Looks pretty good. Later on this day they were testing out the new Flowrider:

Zone Zero was a lot of fun and a level of virtual reality I've never experienced before. It is $18 per person. Since I am solo I was paired up with 3 teenage girls to make our team of four as we Swashbuckled our way to defeat the Kraken. Picture is free to download or at a cost if you want it printed.

We often hear claims of a lack of transparency but with this letter presented to us at check in it seems pretty transparent to me. While unpacking my luggage I spotted a familiar shape coming into the port. It's Vision of the Seas! Here is a time lapse I quickly grabbed as I finished unpacking. After lunch and a few diamond beverages it was time for our departure which I also captured from my balcony. On the way out I noted some Royal fans here to see us off! A time lapse of course:

I did some very rough math to see how much of a difference this even makes. Somewhere online I found an anecdotal number that the largest cruise ships in the world (of which Oasis is obviously one) have a displacement tonnage of around 100,000 tons. Displacement tonnage, I believe, is the actual weight of the ship, not to be confused with gross tonnage, which actually is a measure of volume. If you took 5,000 people weighing 200 pounds each, that's 1 million pounds, or 500 tons. Which means, on any given cruise, the guests represent less than 1/2 of a percent of the weight of the ship. More rough math.... It seems the Aquatheater takes up about the final 1/9th of the ship lengthwise. If the weight was equally distributed throughout the length of the ship (which it's not, but let's just say it is), then the final section would weigh ~11,000 tons. Which means, by putting 5,000 people on the back of the boat, you're only increasing the mass of that section of the boat by ~4%. None of this is reliable math, but it shows that, there's basically nothing the people on these boats can do to noticeably affect its balance. This differs from airplanes, where weight distribution even on larger jets is often very important.

I haven’t sailed NCL but I recently cruised MSC Yacht Club. It has a lot of European options. I wrote a lengthy post on another forum detailing my thoughts on they compare

We docked in St. Thomas; the reason is believed to be that they raised the positivity rate from 1% to 3% Since it was a port day, nothing was really happening around the ship besides trivia. I want to see all of the ship, so we did a walk around the track. The track has a ton of motivational signage as well as charts posting the goals. If you do 12 laps that is like doing 5 miles. We did one lap to get to the gym, but I definitely could do 3 miles easily . The gym was as expected, empty, and the machines were spaced for social distancing. The spa was also a ghost town, but I don't know if it is normally that way or because of being in port. Lunch was JR after we went for a stop at Park Cafe. Pretty much everything at Park Cafe is pre-package and because of that, the freshness suffers. I was craving some fruit, so I got a cup, and it tasted a bit rotten. I got a grilled cheese at JR because I wanted something sans meat. Like the room service grilled cheese, the cheese wasn't melted, and the toast was a bit soft. It is weird that this ship seems to lack traditional cheddar and keeps substituting American cheese for everything. Side note: the orange Fanta from JR isn't orange Fanta, it's a lime-lemon citrus something that is yellow and taste like a non-diet Fresca. After lunch we walked around a bit then went back to the room for naps. I woke up around the time that the Celebrity Constellation was leaving. It looked like a few people were running on the pier: but I think they were on Harmony, heard the horns and they probably thought we were leaving. All aboard was pretty early so we left shortly after. There was a huge flock of birds following the ship. I didn't see any fish, but the birds kept bombing the water. We had dinner at Jamie's and like our lunch, the service and food were outstanding. We had the same waiter, Kevin, and of course he remembered us. I tried the arancini and it was good.... but I have also had it in Italy, so it was hard to be 100% impressed. The one thing consistently across ships that RCG seems to fail at is desserts. Some are too sweet, some lack flavor, some the consistency is weird, etc. you get the gist. Well, I tried the epic brownie and nothing IMHO was epic about it. The popcorn taste stale and the brownie either has no girth or melted from all the chocolate sauce. So, there is no bite to anything, it tastes like partly melted fudge and ice cream. The sorbet on the other hand is perfectly flavored. After diner we went to the casino and played until it was time for the iSkate show. This is a free skating show, where the international ice-skating team "supposedly" skate to music on their playlist. I honestly doubt most of the music is on these young performer's playlist, nonetheless the show was entertaining. One weird thing was this 10:30 show was vaxxed only, but we saw several children who didn't have on a wristband in attendance. One of the skaters fell and a child yelled out "he fell," parents need to teach their children a little bit better. I have to say that Star class seats aren't my favorite. Maybe it is because of the reduced capacity but sitting that close really messes with how the sound is perceived. It was back to the casino, where I had a good run and am now completely even to where I was when I first started on Sunday. We went back to the room and as usual retired to bed after midnight. Some stray observations: No restaurant has been at capacity, even at 7pm the most sought-after dinner time. Even the pubs have been a ghost town, on the promenade you can see tumbleweed. Celebrity has a cooling and drink station set up for guest returning from ports...how fancy! Mask and elevator compliance has been about a good 90%. I keep asking for strawberry preserves from room service and they keep sending raspberry. Random hash browns appear on plates that didn't request them. I can't believe it is day 6......our last sea day. Today we have lunch at Izumi and dinner at 150, which is the restaurant I was most looking forward to. So far, no plans have been made as there aren't any shows. I have found two cruising duck, ones a rock but that's still pretty cool.