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Our trip begins in FIVE DAYS! We are mostly packed, which is a huge deal for me, because I almost never pack until the day before I leave for a trip. We packed much lighter for this trip than other recent trips because it's so much easier to just not have to deal with large luggage while traveling across Europe. A carry-on and a backpack each is all we have for 2 weeks. I spent a good chunk of this weekend finalizing ticket purchases to most of the places we're visiting in Europe (some we purchased months back), so I thought this would be a good time for a preview of the activities! Pre-Cruise Amsterdam The first leg of our journey begins in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Home of Anne Frank, Vincent Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. The Amsterdam Dungeon - 1 hour interactive performance showcasing the 'dark history' of Amsterdam. Apparently there are several of these sprinkled across a few different cities in Europe. It's supposed to be a little bit scary and a little bit creepy, but with great acting and fun. Van Gogh Museum - It wouldn't be much of a trip to Amsterdam, if we didn't visit the gallery of one of the greatest European artists even to live. Canal Cruise - I probably knew at some point that Amsterdam was a canal city, but I had completely forgotten. We're doing this in the evening to try to catch the sunset while we're on the boat. Senses Restaurant - I love food, so we're going to try a lot of restaurants on this trip! This restaurant is in our hotel, but also highly rated and recommended. We only have about 24 hours in Amsterdam, so we're going to be walking around and seeing only the outside of: The Royal Palace The Oude Church The Rembrandt House The Skinny Bridge (there's no inside here, I guess) Brussels We are taking a train from Amsterdam to Paris, with a brief stop for a few hours in Brussels along the way. There are a couple of things we wanted to catch here, but there was just no way for us to fit a full day or two into our travel plans, because we wanted more time in Paris and Barcelona. The Grand-Place - gorgeous town square, pavilion and surrounding architecture with a somewhat grisly history dating back to the Inquisition. The square itself dates back more than half a millennium and the surrounding buildings date from the 17th century showcasing the transition from Gothic to Baroque architecture. Mannekin Pis - self explanatory, I think. Iconic sculpture and just something you have to see once. Paris Obviously, we are very excited about Wonder of the Seas, but Paris is the highlight of this trip for me. We are spending 3 days and 4 nights here, and it won't be enough, but I'm so, so pumped about this. My wife has been to Paris a couple of times, but this will be my first time, so there's a lot to look forward to! The Panthéon - Our hotel room also has a view of this 18th century mausoleum. Perhaps the iconic neoclassical building in Western Europe. Notre Dame - I've been fascinated by this church since I was a child - thanks to Victor Hugo. Monumental, iconic and majestic. If you're interested in some compelling philosophy about the reconstruction and refurbishment of old buildings, Notre Dame is great place to start. It has been damaged by fire, time and weather, and undergone a number of renovations since its completion in 1260. Arc de Triomphe - Inspired by the 1st century Arch of Titus in Rome, it's the crown of Champs-Élysées. Eiffel Tower - I think you all know what this is. Versailles - You can probably spend a few days exploring Versailles, but we will only get one. This massive residence served as the living quarters and seat of government of the French monarchy for hundreds of years. The Louvre - the most popular museum in the world (sorry British Museum fans), and home to the Mona Lisa, among other incredible works of art and history. This facility is enormous and would take about a week to really see everything, but again, we get only a day. We will make the best of it! Paris Catacombs - the remains of more than 6 million people are buried beneath the city in Paris. Almost certainly not suitable for small children, but a fascinating bit of history. Le Jules Verne - the restaurant inside the Eiffel Tower. I have never spent this much on a meal, so I have high expectations, but French cooking in a restaurant operated by a chef with 3 Michelin stars, 400 feet above the ground? What's not to love? Barcelona The final leg of our continental journey and our embarkation point for Wonder of the Seas, Barcelona has a rich history and again, incredible architecture and artistic influence. Famous for the architect, Antoni Gaudi, whose work features prominently throughout the city. We are taking the train from Paris to Barcelona. It's about a 6 hour ride through the best of the French and Spanish countryside. Hopefully, it will be relatively easy to get some pictures as we ride. Casa Battlo - Commissioned redesign of an older home, this house and its façade is some of Gaudi's most iconic work. Casa Milo - Gaudi's final commission of a private residence, this home resembles a stone quarry. Fabulously unique and just really, really interesting. Basilica de la Sagrada Familia - the largest unfinished cathedral in the world, Sagrada Familia was developed by multiple architects, including Gaudi at one point. Estimated to be finally completed over the next decade. Picasso Museum - at this point, I think you would be completely forgiven for believing this trip is just an excuse to see old artwork. You might be right. This is the largest collection of work by Pablo Picasso, who began his art career in the city before he eventually relocated to France. Many of his earliest artwork is contained in the collection, which boasts nearly 5000 pieces. Park Guell - Once again a curiosity of Gaudi's invention. Park Guell just looks so darn cool. We are also taking in a Flamenco show. The location isn't special in any way, but it should still be a lot of fun. Wonder of the Seas We booked all of our excursions with Royal Caribbean this time around, for two primary reasons. First, I've never been to any of these ports, and I don't have the confidence that we would be able to make it back to the ship without issue if something occurred during an excursion. Second, we spent a lot of time planning our continental stops - the back half of this trip is meant to be as effortless as possible. Marla will handle everything for us on the ship, and the excursions are booked without needing to spend too much time thinking about them, coordinating with private guides or trying to drum up business to make sure a tour happens. Palma de Mallorca Mysterious Drach Caves of Palma - Underground lakes, caves and fun. We considered a beach day, but we did our beach/cruise vacation this year already. Caves it is. Marseilles Culinary Flavors of Provence - Because a Star Class food coma just isn't enough. There is a big difference between Parisian cuisine and the fare of southern France. This is basically 4 hours of walking around and eating food, with another few hours of on-your-own exploration. If there is any shopping to be had during our trip, this is probably when it will take place,. La Spezia (Florence/Pisa) Tuscan Farmhouse Experience - The thing about Pisa is that it's really something you only want to do once. It's an interesting novelty, but it's also kind of out of the way and there's not much else around it. So we're going to wait until we have a trip where we bring our kids. We both love wine and the idea of rustic living (we would never do it - we're city mice to the core), so this should be a pleasant afternoon. Rome Best of Rome - Good luck trying to figure out which excursion in Rome goes where. It took me days of trying to work out the details, and I finally found a blog online that covered the details of each one, and now I can no longer find it. That said, this excursion focuses on the Vatican sites, St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, etc. But it also stops around the Colosseum/Forum and Trevi Fountain. I'm not super into crowds, so I'm happy to pass on the interior of the Colosseum this time. Naples The Ruins of Pompeii - Our final excursion is a visit to the incredibly well preserved ruins of the city of Pompeii, destroyed by Mount Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago. We looked at some of the other options in Naples as well, as a visit to the Amalfi coast, Sorrento, and the like would be a lot of fun. In the end, though, we decided choose one, focus on having a great experience and then prepare to relax for the last day and half of the cruise. I think we'll be glad, in the end, to have given ourselves a bit of respite before heading back home. ---------------------- And that's... everything. We have a lot planned over the next few weeks, and I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time thinking about anything else right now!

A YT vid that I saw today said that Princess has announced that they will begin taking unvaccinated pax without any exemption required....but I have heard that exactly one place (that vid) and nowhere else. According to this Vlogger, Princess will allow unvaxxed up to 10% (the new CDC threshold) and it will be on first come, first served as to who can sail. I will not believe this until I see something in writing from Princess BUT if they do it and they also eliminate testing, I will be making a jump to Princess ASAP.

They should have left a few out of service for awhile longer and increased staffing on the rest to match with passenger loads

I use the “notes” app on my iPhone. It lets me to “scan” each page and then I can email them at the end of the cruise and it puts it in PDF form.

Forgive me father for i have sinned! It's been 4 yrs since my last cruise! It's hard to believe not only how quickly the past 4 yrs have past but also that its 4 yrs since i first stepped onto a cruiseship (Freedom of the Seas) Back then while driving to the cruiseport in San Juan i was logged on to a hotel booking site as i had no idea if my wife would actually board given her fear of water, so i may have needed a room on dry land for 7 nights. Fast forward 2 yrs and a week sailing the Caribbean with stops in the ABC islands ( Bucket List) was all booked and we were counting down the days! Then the world went into lockdown so no 50th birthday cruise for my better half. Rebooked for March this year and included NYC for St Patricks day ( Bucket list) due to excessive testing requirements that got cancelled also! So another bucket list item was booked..Baltic Cruise that visits St Petersburg.....( yes my middle name is lucky pmsl ) We could have cancelled this cruise but as the title of this thread states there is no putin us off! So we travel from Aberdeen to Copenhagen tomorrow, overnight stay in Copenhagen then board ship on Sunday. Have added 3 nights in Copenhagen at the end of cruise for some well earned retail therapy. Flights Booked flights with British Airways and included hotels for before and after cruise. Far better deal doing this than doing it separately. Testing No tests required for flying to Denmark only needed to board ship. We used boots for our tests today. 1 point to be aware of if using them you need to register with a 2nd party then go back onto boots website to put card details in, its only after you do this that you get to see available times. When i done it only 2 time slots were available 2 hrs apart. Test results back in less than an hour. Cabin After last cruise she who must be obeyed mentioned that she would like a balcony on our next cruise so thats what i booked. However....................Royal Up email 4 days ago offering upgrades for x amount! Now im Scottish and parting with money can be difficult if its not seen as being worthwhile! So i weighed up the Pro's and Cons then decided to put in a cheeky bid for Jr and Grand suites. Cabin now a Jr suite and my wife has no idea! The tight Scotsman in me vanished when i thought about the smile on my wife's face after what has been a very difficult 2 yrs for her. Ports of Call Stockholm with overnight stay, Tallinn and Helsinki. Would have liked another port instead of an overnight in Stockholm to replace St Petersburg but its a cruise and thats whats important. Excursions Just going to use shanks pony and see what happens. Only thing my wife has said is that WE WILL be visiting the Abba Museum in Stockholm. I did say to her " if you change your mind " im ok with that! But no shes determined to go and has informed me that i have to dress up in Abba Gear if its available! Not sure that short blue dress Agnetha wore will look as good on me but hey will give anything a try once. Wasn't going to do a blog but thought it may be helpfull for those cruising from Copenhagen in the coming months if they want to know anything Anyway best go get some shut eye taxi booked arriving in 6hrs

Everyone now!!! Sweet Caroline...bom bom bom! Good times never felt so good..so good, so good, so good!

Check in was a breeze Had to show vaccine status and covid test. Not sure how many guests are onboard but its not busy which is actually good as its more relaxing. Didn't have to wait long for first drink or the 2nd

I cut them apart and run them through my multi-sheet, double-sided scanner at work (shh!). Takes 90 seconds and puts them all in a single PDF.

Yes, at high or low tide.

We have happily ridden the Halifax Hop-On Hop-Off bus. The beauty of any HOHO bus is that it gives you an overview, or "lay of the land". Depending on time available, our normal approach to any HOHO bus is to ride around a complete loop while watching and listening to the commentary. On a second time around, we are able to get off at stops of our choice, and able to judge our time. Plus, we are able to take photos throughout the city. As mentioned above by RCIfan1912, Halifax is full of great sights and attractions!

I've ordered canned water twice post covid and both times it ended up being plastic bottles

Never been tested and never will (voluntarily). Not something to discuss here. Just a general distrust…

Day 5 - Kusadasi, Turkey Today, we went on a full day excursion to Ephesus, Didyma and Miletus with lunch. In other words, lots and lots of ruins. We were supposed to do the tour precisely in that order, but it got changed around and this turned out for the better. Instead of being at Ephesus at its busiest time and not having lunch until around 3 pm, as scheduled, we actually did Didyma and Miletus first, followed by lunch, and then Ephesus, which made for a much more balanced and enjoyable day. We spoke to some peeps who had done it the "right" way round and they said they found it very long and tiring. Really, the pictures say it all. It was all very impressive (if you're into that sort of thing. DH isn't really and he was all ruined out by the end of the day). I, on the other hand, despite not really being a history buff, quite enjoyed it. To me, it was a way better way to spend the day than wandering around shops. We went first to Miletus, which included some time at the ancient theatre and at the museum. There were bathrooms available at both of these sites. We then continued to Didyma where we spent some time at the temple: There were no bathrooms here but the restaurants across the street will let you use theirs even without a purchase. From here we went for lunch at a 5-star hotel called Pine Bay. It was a very impressive place and the lunch was fine. It was served buffet style with salads, main courses - chicken and donner kebab with rice, vegetables and pastries - and a dessert buffet with various traditional Turkish sweets, including baklava, which is one of my favourites: I did feel lunch was a bit rushed; we only had 45 minutes, but it was still better than going to Ephesus on empty tummies and not getting fed until afterwards. So, Ephesus, the main attraction of the day. There are simply no words... The goddess Nike: View from the top of the hill down towards the library. (Note that the entrance to the site is at the top of the hill and you walk downhill to the exit. You don't have to traipse back up the hill again.) A closer view: And a bit of detail: The amphitheatre: And the (former) public bathrooms! Apparently there would be musicians playing here to disguise the sound of the you-know-what plopping into the toilets. This was the last stop of the tour except for the carpet place just outside the port. These are pretty much included in every tour at this port, from what I have read, but never having been to one before we found it quite interesting and thought the carpets were beautiful even though we had no intention of buying anything. Now that we have seen it, on any future visit, we would just slip away back to the ship. Walking back to the ship, we were surprised at how many shops there were, all selling what looked like pretty decent stuff. The guide told us that this area had suffered terribly with the loss of cruise passengers due to the Syrian war and then Covid, so they are hoping and praying for a good summer season this year. All in all I really liked this tour and thought it was reasonable value for money as cruise ship excursions go, but I purchased it during a sale (a real sale, for once) and it was selling at about 30 dollars more by the time the cruise planner closed. Tonight's MDR menu: Roasted pumpkin soup: Achari gosht. I really liked this. Taking advantage of the new curry additions to the menu for the first time. I'm afraid there is no pic of tonight's dessert. It was the warm cookie and by the time I remembered I was supposed to be taking a pic there were only a few crumbs left. I did briefly consider ordering a second one purely for the sake of the blog but I really was too stuffed. Tonight's entertainment in the theatre was the Love & Marriage show which we always enjoy. It did not fail us and was as hilarious as ever. I was just a bit surprised at how many couples rushed to put their hands up to say how long they'd been married and then backed down from actually going on stage. In the end there were two Irish couples and one from Scotland, so it was the battle of the Celts.

I've been in a cabin with a no show 3 times. Each time I received the extra points. However, I had to call on 2 of the cruises

well worth the hike, after short bus ride. give your self time to enjoy it, we had blue bird weather this trip. heading back to rainy Seattle now. on QTS.

Definitely agree. This is a helpful way to maximize drink package investment

Yes, in order to get double C&A points it has to be booked as a solo. Also, for the OP question, if you cancel the one person, they will reprice the cabin at prevailing rates. So, it might be good to do a mock booking and see the current cost. That way you will know if it is worth it to change the booking to solo or allow the other person to just be a no-show.

Only when purchasing the deluxe (alcohol) beverage package do they require any other adult in the same cabin to purchase as well. Refreshment and cola packages can be purchased individually

People always ask what to bring on a cruise. Obviously, this will depend on the cruise (where) and your personal needs, but the attached has served me well for many years as a reminder of things to bring. I typically do tropical, so some will not apply to colder regions. I know this does not include everything and maybe you have ideas to add based on your experience. Happy cruising! Cruise_Check List-dlt.docx

I wasn't crazy about most of the baked goods on Harmony last week. By baked goods I mean the donuts, croissants and other pastries. That's just my unasked for opinion.

Thanks for the info. I'm jumping right behind you!

They will not charge you for the water. We haven't had any trouble with getting what we need delivered to the room. While it may not be there immediately (turn around time is short and stateroom attendants have much to do), it always was before bedtime. If it's not there, and you see your stateroom attendant (which is highly likely), kindly ask about it. They will have it to you asap! Enjoy your sailing!

While I generally love the baked goods from Royal, I can't say that their actual donuts (Glazed, Chocolate covered, whatever) are very good. Don't know how they can do so well with the rolls, buns, cakes, etc.

I love rising tide

I've sailed on Enchantment from Baltimore twice so far this year. 1. Currently Bermuda is requiring a BTA (Bermuda Travel Authorization) that costs $40 per person. You must provide basically the same information that Royal requires (proof of vaccine, passport info, negative test before arriving) 2. No outbreaks on Enchantment that I've heard about or seen 3. You will test up to 2 days before embarkation. You should know if you are negative or positive before arriving at the port of Baltimore. No other testing is required for vaccinated guests unless you have symptoms or close contact with someone who has symptoms or tests positive 4. There have been many reports of various venues and entertainment being shut down across the fleet because they can't be staffed because of Covid quarantine by crew. It didn't seem to affect much on my March and May cruises on Enchantment 5. There is not a lot of action on Enchantment late in the evening. You should check the "cruise compasses" from itineraries that are similar to yours. (available on this site) 6. Like everything on land, nothing is working quite as well since pre-Covid, even on the ships. But, I enjoyed the cruises and adjusted my expectations accordingly. 7. Parking is $15/day. They only charge you for each night on the ship, not partial days. (e.g. 9 night cruise was $135, 12 night cruise was $180)

Update: I realized today that the need to take a PCR test (assuming we'd just be following unvaccinated child protocols) 3 days in advance would mean that the test date would interfere with my son's summer camp. I can move the camp, but he had some friends who would be going at the same time so I really didn't want to if I didn't have to. I called RC to try and push the cruise a couple of weeks but they told me that since final payment had passed they were not able to do it. They did also tell me that if the religious exemption is denied then we will be receiving FULL refunds of all money AND FCCs applied toward the booking. This was a HUGE relief, I can't even express that enough. He said it does take 10-15 days to get either accepted or denied the exemption, so we probably won't know for another couple of weeks, but just knowing I can get that refund is a load off. I'm so tired of dealing with all of this, it's been an enormous amount of stress added to an already incredibly stressful couple of years.

Runninng a day or 2 behind with this.. Copenhagen for anyone who hasn't been here, what a great place it is! Its also very strange. We booked the Andersen Hotel in the city centre for 1 night prior to cruise, its roughly a 2 minute walk from the train station. While sitting outside our hotel my wife nipped inside to get a wine glass, in the 60 seconds she was gone i was propositioned for sex!!! Would you like sex darling? I didn't get the price she charges as she walked away when i told her how much i was charging her!!! You want sex darling ok but im charging you for the privilege lol couldn't resist telling my wife when she came back out!! Her reply was ...what i was only gone less than a minute! Not sure rules on prostitution in Copenhagen but woke up at 5am, it was daylight and lets just say things were happening in between parked cars while people just strolled bye! Area has a number of sex clubs and shops, While this didnt bother us it may offend others

Hello Jax, this was an awesome and detailed live blog! Nice to see a fellow Calgarian on RCL blog!

You've never done an Alaskan cruise until you see whale pimple hair.

The bar will rise on the hour and half hour. From Schooners you can see it and I can say without a doubt they will not force you off, but its a pretty boring bar. First day or so people are packing it, but by the end of the week its pretty empty. I compare it to the Bionic bar which is next to it. Its the check it off my checklist experience. We did go on it a couple of times....for example if you have a reservation at a specialty on Central Park at 6:30 you can have your pre dinner cocktail arou d 6:00 and ride it up to the restaurant for your 6:30 reservation The fun bar impo is Schooner or Dazzles. Schooner overlooks the Promenade and you can people watch. It also has the piano player. When they do tribute nights you need to be there at least 15 mins to get a night. Our cruise they did Billy Joel, Elton John and Neil Diamond. People on the promenade would scream the song from below....sweet Caroline had everyone sing.... Got you singing it now I never saw someone with a scooter on it, but there is enough room around the tables to fit it.

New Cruise Compasses are contingent upon a blog member keeping a copy of each day's compass during their cruise and then scanning them in and sending them to @Matt for posting after returning from the cruise. I'm one of the members that likes to do this each time I cruise. Just a little way to help out my fellow cruisers here! I now request from our stateroom attendant to deliver TWO copies each evening. I keep one clean, fresh copy in an envelope to bring home while my wife scribbles all over the other with a pen and a highlighter to note what she wants to do the next day!

I think they use the date not the time; however, I am not 100% on that. We will be having to take our eMed tests the day before we fly home to US in August so I will have to double check the time so that I make sure it is the correct date. This testing is such a stressful thing for me worrying about the exact timing and everything else. I understand that the pre-cruise testing will stay for a while but I hope they drop the one to fly back home to US.

My son does this all the time sailing solo, the other person is classed as no show, you will get double points and a refund for the other person which differs every time he once got a full refund and other times tax and port fess, but it’s still cheaper to book double occupancy than single..

Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy (you will need to call the pharmacy direct to ensure they can do the test), Dam health, and The Regenerative Clinic are all in Southampton to do the supervised test.

Just a few of my favorite photos:

Yes—solo cruisers pay almost the same as a double occupancy. It’s not great, but standard. If the fare is $500 a person, if you’re traveling alone you’ll see that when you go to choose your room, (after indicating that you’re one passenger,) it’s suddenly $950-1000 for that same room. There really is no solo fare.

We use the first formal night as our dressier one. By the second one on day 6, we don't feel like putting as much effort into it.

The wifi on serenade last week worked perfectly except coming through one ocean pass with high mountains. We streamed lots, facetimed, did it all. we regretted not bringing our apple tv.

So if you book a cabin for two. Pay for two. Then have to cancel one person two things happen: 1. You get a refund for the port charges for the one person- good 2. The other person does not get double C&A points unless you rebook at the current rate? This seems very unfair.

You have to cancel the entire cabin to take advantage of CWC. If one person can't go you just no show them and taxes and port fees get refunded for the missing party but no cruisefare will be refunded.

Not all ships have USB ability and there’s limited outlet. Consider packing a multi usb plug in base if multiple people need to charge phones or other USB item. Bring a portable battery pack.

Go to guest services and you can get extra door cards

You received very good advice. My wife has been to Cococay twice, and I've been there once. I don't do the water slides, but I truly love being on the island, watching folks have fun, and kicking back. I would love to be there watching my family have the time of their life. From mild to wild, taking advantage to as much or as little as you'd like, the place is marvelous.

Oasis has sustainable plastic straws! No more paper!

Day 4 - Santorini For our day in Santorini, we did a ship sponsored tour called Santorini and Village Oia but in Spanish as that happened to be the one showing in the cruise planner at the time I booked. The same tour in English did not show up until several months later and at almost twice the price, so if you have sufficient Spanish to do a tour in that language, it can definitely be worthwhile considering this an option. It was a really early start as we were on the first excursion tender but things ran smoothly to begin with. Then the hiccups began... First we had to wait for half a dozen people who somehow didn't make it on to the tender. Then there were two ladies who had tickets for the excursion in English but wanted it in Spanish because they didn't speak any English, so that had to be sorted with the provider. And then we were very very late leaving Oia because a man couldn't find his wife; we found out later that she had somehow mixed up the car parks and was waiting in completely the wrong place! Anyway, apart from that it was actually a very nice little excursion that included an hour of free time in Oia: Followed by a stop at a winery for Greek nibbles (cheese, olives, tomatoes and bread sticks) with wine (we had orange juice!) and an absolutely magnificent panoramic view from the terrace. We were about an hour late getting back to the ship because of all the delays but still in plenty of time for lunch and a snooze in the sun to recover from the early start. Out of all our fantastic port stops, this was the one DH liked the best. One thing that was a bit annoying, however, was that the excursion description did not make it clear that we would have to return via the cable car, the cost of which was not included in the ticket price. The description made it sound like it was an option and that anyone who didn't want to use to the cable car would return to the tender drop-off on the bus. That is NOT the case and nobody on our bus was aware, precisely because of the poorly-worded description, so there were some rather upset people at the end. It was not until afterwards that we learned that none of the excursions return to the same place they drop off in the morning, where the buses are waiting, and that some, but not all, include the cable car tickets. Incidentally, the current cost of these is €6 pp each way. Here are a couple more pics taken from our supposedly obstructed balcony: This is the Regent Seven Seas Explorer arriving into Santorini first thing in the morning. And then this one was taken in the afternoon after we got back from the excursion. This was the one time I actually sat on the balcony and the sole purpose of sitting was to take a pic of the view from a sitting position! Tonight's dinner menu in the MDR: I'm afraid it's in Spanish; I didn't realise that the server had given us a bilingual menu (the other side is in English) until it was way too late to do anything about it. My bad. It's the one with the garlic shrimp; you can see it in the app. Anyway, we didn't really fancy any of the day's appetizers either on the main menu or the vegan menu so we just went with the artisan cheese plate: Followed by the garlic shrimp. Love them: And the Royal cheesecake. Just occurred to me that means we had cheese to start and cheese to finish. Normally when it's this menu, we would actually forego the appetizers and have the garlic shrimp as an appetizer, which I would follow with the lamb and DH with Steak Diane, but on this particular evening we were in a hurry because we were going to see The Effectors (postponed from the evening before) and the performance was at 9.30 pm, so we didn't want to be mucking about. We had our usual standing reservation in the My Time dining room of 8 pm but we went a bit early because of the earlier show time and were able to be seated immediately. From this point on, we would always be seated at the same table we were allocated this evening, and we enjoyed having our servers Gede and Jener looking after us, as they were very helpful and attentive. So, with dinner done and dusted, we rushed off to see The Effectors. It was a very impressive show because of all the special effects, even though the story line was virtually non-existent. Just a couple of pics. If you want to get a better idea of the show, do a search for @twangster's fantastic photo report on it. And apart from DH's ritual loss of $20 in the casino, that rounded off day four.

Enjoy the scenery in Alaska. Even on the ships that are not as old as Serenade the internet is basically useless for most things after the first day unless docked at an American port and you just stream off your cell data.

Welcome! I’m new here, too!

Oh, and if you are nuts, then all of us on this site are nuts as well!!

Try counting down from over 300 days. What can I say, we really love to cruise!!!!