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The Live Blog was *slightly* delayed due to a small child that had no interest in falling asleep Love and Marriage was pretty good. As always, you need both good contestants and a good cruise director. I thought we had a phenomenal host, but just decent contestants. Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but not an all-timer. It ran a little long, so we didn’t have much time for activities before we needed to get ready for Formal night. In recent years my wife has let me dress down on Formal night, but it was time to get the suit back out now that our daughter is aboard. Dinner was a “special” 4th of July menu, which turned out just to be the Taste of USA menu, but with less offerings. My meal (Shrimp cocktail, salmon, ice cream) was actually pretty good. Everyone else’s was disappointing (some much more than others). I posted pictures in the Royal Caribbean Dining Facebook page that Matt runs, which you can view here - https://m.facebook.com/groups/royalcaribbeandining/permalink/3451117285151807/ Lots of commentary about people’s opinions, which you may or may not find interesting. FWIW, we provided feedback on the negative aspects of the meal to the Head Waiter when he visited our table and also to the Windjammer manager this morning when he stopped by our table and asked if we would like to take a survey. Also, my brother and his fiancée began getting sea sick yesterday afternoon, so that added to the experience. So after dinner we took some time taking pictures. Lines were long, as it was Formal Night. As an aside - long story short, my father never formally proposed to my mother, so he was hoping to take this cruise as an opportunity to do so. He asked me how he should do so, I suggest formal night pictures would be a good opportunity. So we waited in line for photos on the stairs, everyone around us cheered, good times were had. As ANOTHER aside, we woke up this morning to $50 off coupons to the Spa to “celebrate our special day”. They were addressed to us, I presume, because we gave them our stateroom cabin number for the photos. We quickly changed into casual clothing and made it just a bit late to Voices. This actually worked out perfectly, as we were able to stumble upon a fairly private seating area on the very far edge of the upper level. A private box, of sorts, with 4 seats that let our daughter sit right up against the glass. Turned out to be perfect, as she could freely move around and make a little bit of noise without disturbing anyone else. We didn’t get to stay for the whole show once she become too rambunctious; so to get out some energy we decided to stop by the indoor play place in AO. She really enjoyed that, especially since there was only one other family there with another girl around her same age. We ended the night walking around Central Park - our daughter especially liked looking down into the Promenade - and we took some great selfies at the Trellis Bar. Her putting her arms around both my wife and me will be something I hope I ever forget As I alluded to earlier, my daughter had no interest in going to bed, so when she was still awake when it was time for the 4th of July Balloon drop, we figured what the heck. The director said it was the most people they have ever had on the promenade, not sure that’s the truth or not but it sure felt like it. We had already signed her up for a 9am session in AO Babies, so that was a quick turnaround. We enjoyed the Windjammer for breakfast (not crowded yet at 8am) - I had firsts and secones of avacado toast with salmon, eggs Benedict, and pancakes. After dropping off at AO we went to the Schooner Bar for more trivia, but the host was MIA and never arrived. So instead we went shopping and bought 5 (!!!) shirts from the logo store (they were having a sale, and we are suckers). We’re relaxing in the shade on the pool deck and plan to pick our daughter up a little early so that we can take her to the Anchors Away Parade, which I think she will enjoy. Wonderland (our first time) and the 365 Ice Show tonight. Very excited! Photo Dump:

I have been told by those closest to me to “watch my face” from time to time.

Thanks all for your input. I have certainly learned something for any future bookings. In the mean time for this cruise I shall stick to my original ocean view staterooms and be happy to do so

Congratulations on your recovery ! It's a long, hard road but so worth it. Non-alcoholic beer is, unfortunately, not included in the Refreshments Package. It is still considered "alcohol" so it's not covered. I truly do not know if there are any non-alcoholic wines. I don't know of any. Even if there were, I'm sure they would not be included in the Refreshments Package, either. The availability of certain beverage choices is very random. I think it's fair to say that you would NOT be able to find O'Doul's just anywhere. As a non-beer-drinker, I don't have first hand knowledge of the potential whereabouts of any particular brand, but I know enough to say that you would have to hunt and peck to find what you're looking for, most of the time. Again, Congratulations !!

Those of us with RBF even make "the look" unintentionally! #ProudSupporterofCruiseEtiquetteClassInitiative

4th of July on WOS is no joke! Lots going on, and lots of people celebrating, with it being a Sea Day. The way the schedule worked it also is Formal Night, so I am interested to see what people choose to wear this evening. Started our morning at 8:00am - met the rest of our crew at Cafe Promenade for speciality coffee and then headed to breakfast in the MDR. Two of the ladies in my party were wearing tank tops, so I wasn’t 100% sure what the policy was for breakfast and was a little nervous that we may be turned away (others on this board had mentioned that previously). It was no problem, and several other groups were dressed similarly. I ordered Eggs Benedict and Bagels & Lox. Next time I would ask for more cream cheese but besides that everything was great. They took our food order before our drink order - not sure if that is the normal. Everything was good, and we were out of there in time to take my daughter to AO for her 9:00-noon session. After dropping her off (she did great, this time!) we got drinks from the Pub and headed to the Schooner Bar for Crossword and then Trivia. The crossword was particularly challenging (ie obscure) but the trivia was good as always. While we played we figured out of excursion situation - there was nothing left in St Thomas, so we decided that the portion of group that really wanted snorkel would book an excursion in St. Martin while the rest of use kept our plans for the beach day. So now St. Thomas has turned into a day on the ship, which I’m honestly not mad about. While we played trivia my brother and his fiancée enjoyed the pool. So now to the 4th of July festivities. We walked around the ship (mind you, this was peak time in the late afternoon, so we mostly observed various activities while drinking, because lines were obviously long) until it was time to pick my daughter up at noon. Around this time the 4th of July Celebration was starting on the Boardwalk. Generally, I don’t spend much time on the Boardwalk, but I thought this was a pretty good use. There were lots of decorations and several booths set up with food stations representing different parts of the country. There were also ballon animals, face painting, various games and photo opportunities. Later on there was a celebration and live music at the AquaTheater, but we had left to get my daughter down for a nap by then. To say it was crowded would be an understatement! Especially after an announcement was made over the speakers that the event was starting, it was shoulder to shoulder across the entire boardwalk. I think that would be expected for the type of event, but still was a holy cow type moment. We are back at the room now and will head out to Love and Marriage at 2:00, drinks after and then Formal Night at 5:00. Nothing reserved for the evening, but I think we are going to go to Voices since we missed it yesterday. Random aside - the entire port aft hallway on Deck 7 smelled like weed when we walked back, so that’s an oof for me. Photo Dump of mostly decorations and the celebration on the boardwalk:

I figured out how to put my pictures throughout the text, I'm rather impressed with myself Day one: Sea Day I set my alarm for 5:30 and ran down to the promenade for coffee before getting a sweaty 3 miles in on the track. It's funny how no matter which side of the ship I was on, the wind was never at my back Matt had a few final things to do for work before he could fully sign off so he finished that while I showered. We headed to the solarium for breakfast which was almost empty it seemed. We kept it pretty light knowing we had our sushi class at 10. We walked a bit and hid a few ducks before going to the sushi class. We really enjoyed the class. Those leading the class were both informative and entertaining. The pacing felt perfect. I was shocked by the amount of people who barely touched the sushi they made. Some people clearly didn't eat any at all. Not us, we polished off most of our plates but we felt like pigs because tons of people seriously barely touched theirs. I'm glad we were able to snag a spot because it had been sold out and I just happened to grab a reservation a few weeks ago when someone canceled. We found this fun post it picture in one of the cabin halls. I think a guest put it up but I'm not 100 certain if it was that or staff. There were no names. We walked a few laps on deck 5 and Matt went for a nap while I grabbed a coffee frappuccino and coconut Ranger cookie (I saw someone say they only found them on embarkation day but they had them in cafe promenade) and went to the "secret" 9th floor central park balcony and that's where I wrote my boarding day post. We had 5:30 ice skating reservations and then it was time to get ready for formal night. We had the aqua show at 9 so we were glad they had the dinner doors open at 7:30 so we'd have plenty of time to eat before the show. We had calamari and French onion soup, beef tenderloin and Matt had the apple dessert and I had the cappuccino cake. When they brought out my cake they had a candle and sang happy anniversary to us. It was both nice and embarrassing We went straight from dinner to get seats at the aqua theater. The show was impressive! I can definitely understand why they have to cancel in rough seas. You could tell how important it is for them to hit their marks. The amount of coordination in the production including the behind the scenes stuff is crazy. Followed the show by a walk through central park before calling it a night around 10:30. Party animals I know! But we are definitely morning people. We are both children and old people trapped in mid to late 30 year old bodies lol

Keep in mind that while this appears to work for now, you are using a loophole to get around the rules of the dining package. You are supposed to be trading a lower price for the inability to book your reservations in advance. If too many people keep doing this, Royal will close the loophole because it directly costs them money.

Congrats @ginway1010. One day at a time. I' don't have much to add beyond what @WAAAYTOOO has said about the non-alcoholic beers being out of the refreshment package. I'll hit 30 years without a drink this November but I never got into the non-alcoholic beers, I just moved to soft drinks. I drink the hell out of soda and I enjoy specialty coffees. Mocktails are fun here and there. Those you should be able to get in just about any bar as long as they have the equipment (if it's frozen). Enjoy your cruise!

Rubbish. This time, don't let them off the phone until they send you a new confirmation showing a -0- balance. I thought this nonsense was over. They had this problem several months ago but I thought they had fixed it. So unfortunate....I would be very firm with them this time !!

I've become a proponent of insurance for trips and not just cruises. We will probably look for an annual plan. We bought insurance for a land based trip to Whistler Canada. Low and behold, an ice storm in DFW canceled the first day of our trip out of Nashville. Called the TA and got a refund for the first day from the hotel in the package. We live about an hour from the airport, so we checked into the Gaylord Opryland Resort and the insurance paid for that night, plus meals and other incidentals.

This cruise is not my usual fare. Since I am starting my 34th teaching in the fall, I deserve starting it off with a bang.

Have a blast, I’m sure you will! Had my TA place a hold as soon as it was released but was just too frugal to pay THAT much extra for an inaugural even though I was excited to try one. Please help Neesa keep the suite neighborhood doors locked.

We are currently sitting at the aft on deck 5 and just ran a speed test for you. We are sailing along Mexico currently on our way to Roatan if that matters. Maybe only 1 or 2 other people running today when we started at 5:20 but by the end there were more. Not so many that it posed any issues though.

Day 3: Sea Day We woke up at 5 to run, only 2 miles today. Don't worry we won't wake up every morning to run We run 3 to 5 miles 4 or 5 times a week at home so it's enjoyable to us. I think we will run on our Costa Maya day and then our last Sea Day, but not tomorrow at Roatan or Cozumel. Climbed the stairs to the 16th deck thinking we'd find coffee in the windjammer and watch the dark turn to day only to realize the windjammer opens at 7 not at 6. You'd think they would at least place a few carafes of coffee up there for those watching the sunrise. We survived without the coffee though. Ran down to shower before getting breakfast (and coffee!) At the windjammer and now just enjoying watching the sea. No real plans for today, so we shall see where the day leads us.

I forgot to post last night so I'll post what i wrote up from yesterday Also I can't seem to figure out how to insert pictures in the middle of the post, only at the end. So pictures will be at the bottom of the post It's boarding day! We have an 11:00 check in. We checked it right at midnight but 11 was the earliest instead of the 10:30 I was expecting. Others on our sailing said the same thing so I'm unsure if it's a Galveston thing or Allure thing. Or maybe just our sailing. Our Airbnb was just okay. It was fine for a budget friendly place on the island. The host actually said we will be one of her last guests because of some new ordinances. We stopped for a quick walk on the beach and then we are headed to breakfast including some much needed coffee from Whataburger and then we are headed to return the rental car and then lyft to the Allure ----- Boarding was fast. We arrived at the terminal at 9:50 and were greated by porters and let inside right at 10am. From there security was fast and we sat only for a minute before boarding at 10:27. We walked around a bit on our way to our muster before stopping in the windjammer around 11:30. I was surprised at how uncrowded windjammer was. We had no issues finding a seat. The food was fine. I didn't see any kind of boarding day cake or cupcakes like we have had before. Plenty of desserts though so we didn't go without We mostly wandered indoors while waiting for the rooms to open. It was HOT. Thankfully, rooms were ready promptly at 1:00. We dropped our bags and headed to the hot tub for a bit. Again, not crowded at all. I figured everyone was settling into their rooms. We eventually went back to our room to cool down and rest before sailaway but ended up back in the hot tub for sailaway. While back at the room we discovered our MEI agent had some chocolate covered strawberries delivered to us. While in the hot tub for sailaway we enjoyed watching the Port of Galveston police ride along side us. It was fun seeing them seemingly act like a sheep dog when other boats got close to us. I'll break Day 1 evening into a separate post.

Never did an inaugural before so looking forward to this special sailing. Only 4 nights so nothing extra. We will enjoy the newness of the ship. No excursions and no UDP. First time ever in a grand suite!

June 17, 2023 On board the RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com Group Cruise on Navigator of the Seas Matt and Marissa become members of the Pinnacle Club!

Resurrecting this! For those who have been around this community for a while, you will remember I use to post this once a month. Then it went by the wayside with Covid, and then the last two years have been so busy at work that I only managed to keep the "When is your next cruise?" thread afloat. Anyway, happy to bring back the "Happy Sailing" thread as well. July 2023 8 - Melkaps (Liberty) 14 - Snotarni (Independence) 23 - lovetocruise2002 (Wonder) 23 - CowboyMedic (Allure) 29 - Hutcherl (Harmony) 30 - ckruetze (Symphony) 30 - Fuzzywuzzy (Brilliance)

When we were on Allure 3 weeks ago, earliest time was 11:00, we showed up to drop off our luggage at 10:15 expecting a wait, we went right through security and were on the ship before 10:30. Smoothest embarkation of any cruise we've been on. Also, we were not in a suite, and did not have The Key.

I really don’t care if Allure gets all the slides. I’d rather she not but please put In Playmakers and Hooked BUT keep the Champagne Bar! Market Allure to adults.

I’m not the original poster but I did go on this excursion early June. It actually ended up being about 8-9 hours! The boat lost an engine so we had to go quite slow and we were two+ hours late getting to Juneau. We spent quite a long time at the glacier and there was some calving, so I would’ve happily stayed longer. We saw seals and a few pups, but no whales even on our lengthy boat ride into Juneau. One big thing to know is there are ONLY snacks for sale, like goldfish and fruit snacks. No actual lunch items like sandwiches and no free water so bring water bottles. Imagine how famished we felt upon arriving to Juneau at 4pm. At some point I really thought maybe they’d start handing out free food and drinks due to the significant delay but nope. A few people missed out on helicopter and whale excursions in Juneau due to the boat arriving late. So if your trip is soon just make sure they’ve fixed the boat! It’s through allen marine tours. Despite the few issues, being that close to the glacier was incredible and I do highly recommend it.

Yep! We have magnets and put up a white board! We do get the occasional lewd message, but we just erase them when we get back to the room. If my teenagers see the message first, all bets are off, they might reply.

For anyone following along on this….after the last update, gratuities had been removed. THEN today I received another email that gratuities are due and they have been readded to our account. Currently holding with customer service again

If you're in the same room just show up together and you'll be fine.

Yes, yes you do! TBF, my wife (teacher of 22 years as discussed in Neesa's blog) was willing to do the 4-night inaugural instead of 7-nights on Wonder (the cost was similar) even though she cared a lot less about being on an inaugural. My frugality wouldn't let me.

In Galveston for Allure they have been painting on the ship's exterior on the dock side on our last two sailings. They have a motorized lift that the crew were using to get to the high places. It has looked really good lately. They were also varnishing some of the railings during the trip. Standard ongoing maintenance.

I don't believe so, however, you can purchase the plan for one device and sign-in/out as needed to use another device. You just can't be signed-in to more than one device at a time.

The $25-$28/day is a bargain when you consider the convenience factor. The bar has been set pretty low for the shuttle companies and it’s anything but convenient when you deal with lines (especially when you disembark) and a shuttle bus schedule. There will be plenty of people who will tell you how great the park & rides or shuttle services are but they do not compare to the simplicity of the parking garage at Port of Miami.

Or if the occupant demanded OBC because they were "promised" an obstructed view.

I like the Suite reserved seating at the pool. The ability to order room service is also nice. Free drinks in the suite lounge at happy hour. Plus a really nice room.

My foggy memory tells me they are always cleaning rust and painting some ware on the ship.

Wow that looks insane, but at least the donuts look like actual donuts.

We like to walk the various cabin decks looking at the art displays, and I’ll erase any vulgar graffiti I see on peoples boards.

I am on this cruise. I can’t wait.

Absolutely! It’s fun to do and helps you find your room after a few drinks! On our last cruise our friends hung up a magnetic board with an outline of the US States. There were very tiny sticky dots in a baggie next to it and people stuck the dots on the state they came from. By the end of the cruise there were over 75 dots which filled at least 60% of the 50 states! Of course, it helped that our rooms were near the top of the hallway so there was lots of traffic to stop by!

Luggage valet is long gone. I think there is a version of it still in Seattle, but nothing in the Caribbean.

The Boardwalk set-up looks pretty impressive!

Haha! I know her too...but there is another name for her...I have perfected the look when necessary

Now that we are halfway through our itinerary and have gotten to know the ship a bit better, it’s time for Likes and Dislikes. These observations are OUR OPINIONS and based in what we think as we experience the world. Thanks for not engaging in rudeness, but I happy to have a dialogue if you have other opinions based on how you see the world. DISLIKES Deck 3 layout. I know this has been remedied on Oasis class ships with a Studio B. The lack of ways around it on deck 3 was poor design. If you are in the theatre at the bow and would like to get to the ice show or something at the stern (or vice versus) you have to go up to deck 4 and walk through the smoky casino, or up another to deck 5 and get through the crowd on the Promenade and get back down to deck 3. Casino. We aren’t gambling people but we do enjoy Vegas and spending about 45 minutes (and $100) at the Black Jack table but we just couldn’t stay in there. Too much smoking (you have a right to smoke, sure, but you don’t get to blow it in my face when I ask you to please direct you exhale away from me) and the dealer we had was either new or having a rough evening. Room service. So sad to put this here! We’ve ordered room service twice and while the delivery time and service has been fantastic, the food has been very sub par. The SK’s ordered most of the menu for dinner last night (their consolation prize for being left out of Chops) and they both said the food was cold or tasted bad. Luckily, this had been the only disappointing food experience so far, but sad because we’ve had great food from room service on every other cruise in the past. LIKES! Food (except room service) has been excellent all week from the Windjammer to Cafe Promenade. Crew are by and large fabulous, friendly, efficient, and responsive when we’ve needed something. Entertainment cast! So energetic, super talented, and really gets us into the spirit of having fun at sea. Full review will come at the end of our trip, of course, but for now these are the highlights and lowlights over the last three days. We just docked at Labadee, so after a quick Windjammie stop we are off to our Bungalow for the day.

There is nothing better than cruising. Going to try to respond to everything without actually quoting them. Live blogging is a full-time job In the time it took to write my last post, maintenance fixed the drain situation, so that was great. I could hear them tinkering with the pipes from the outside; then they knocked and asked to test the shower to make sure. Turns out there was just a lot of hair in there. Another thing I forgot to mention was we got a voicemail on our phone and a card at our door that our excursion for St. Thomas was cancelled. Supposedly mechanical issues with the boat. They offered us 15% off a different excursion in the same port, but at this point all that’s left is beach days. My dad is pretty disappointed - he used to scuba dive so he was looking forward to doing some serious snorkeling. I’m going to search online to see if there are any 3rd party excursions that would work for us. So dinner in the MDR - obviously the talk of the town has been the change in policies and new menus and perceived diminished quality. So I was definitely both excited and anxious to try the new dining room for myself and hear what new cruisers had to think. As I mentioned, I had already scouted out our location. Turned out the location was great - in the auxiliary side room next to a window. I was particular I impressed they already had a high chair in place for my daughter. Was not impressed, however, that there were only 5 other chairs at the table. So we were one short for a few minutes until they could find another. Once they added the additional chair things were fairly cramped. Considered requesting a different table but I think things will be fine. Our server, Tomy, alluded early that we had no-showed yesterday (oops), but I explained that we enjoyed sail away and ate at specialty dining. Awkward moment when we said we ate at Giovanni’s and he immediately explained that tonight was Taste of Italy, but we all had a laugh about it. Per the standard for the staff, they were great with my daughter and gave her bread and a fruit plate. She didn’t particularly like the fruit they happened to offer, but they had no problem when we asked for a plate of just strawberries. Overall, I think the quality of the food was on par with what we have experienced on our previous sailings over the years. I was several libations deep at this point of the evening, but I remember mentioning to Tomy that Taste of Italy was just as good as Giovanni’s - he particularly appreciated this. The only negative was it took about 40 minutes to get our appetizers. Everything else was speedy, including drink service. The next adventure (pun intended) was taking my daughter to AO Babies. So far this trip she has been fairly clingy and hesitant around strangers, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we entered (right at 7:00), there was only one other child in there with the 2 teachers, and (thank god!) Cocomelon on the TV. After the typical check-in procedures, it was time to pass our daughter off to the incredible staff member Star. It took some extra convening, but eventually our daughter was all the way in to the play area and we were out the door. Long story short - she did absolutely great and was fast asleep when it was time to pick her up at 10:00. So now for probably the most enjoyable part of the cruise so far. We had some time to kill before Voices, so we made it up to the Mason Jar for drinks and to hopefully snag a table for the Country Crew Trio. I don’t exactly enjoy country, but I enjoy music enough to appreciate it and can sing along. Plus I really wanted to try some of their signature drinks. Fast forward - by the time it was time to go to the theater for Voices, no one wanted to leave and had already made plans to come back again. We were very much vibing, dancing, and had successfully got several of our requests played. Heres a funny aside - I am a “very online” person, and was aware of a Facebook post a few weeks ago about this particular user was disappointed in the Mason Jar band because they didn’t actually play country music. Tonight, before playing one of our requests, they preluded the song with something along the lines of, “Now obviously we primarily play country music, but when the money is right we sometimes play other styles, like just last week there was one big spender that only wanted to hear Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys.” Knew exactly what they were referring to and had to chuckle a bit; goes back to the old saying that things are never as bad as they seem and that you can never truly trust what you read online. Tomorrow is a sea day and is our first time on a cruise for a holiday. Since we missed Voices tonight I think we will try to see it tomorrow as stand by; can’t imagine the Theater will totally fill up. Also we’re planning on MDR breakfast, another thing I’ve somehow never done. This is already a novel, but time for some replies: @asquared17 All things considered, things could not be going any better! @OCSC Mike To celebrate the holiday I will be having a pre-made burrito in your honor. You can’t stop me! @Sweety You are too kind! I am *very* glad my wife splurged on the photo package. They have already captured some great ones. @Neesa Thanks for the advice! Effectors is a must-not miss for us; and I do want to report back about Voices tomorrow. @Ampurp85 Crowds haven’t been bad! I think I went into this with a game plan to actively avoid crowds, so I think that is part of it, but never have I felt overwhelmed or anything like that. In terms of speciality dining, we also missed out on Hooked (), which I was also really hoping for. My *guess* is this being a holiday sailing had something to do with it. And yes on the curtains! I will work on getting the link from my wife on those and share those with you. They have completely changed the dynamic of our room and let’s us have some freedom while she is napping. One final thing - @Matt’s live blog started in the middle of typing this, so took advantage of my very first SuperChat on the YT channel. Thought the occasion was appropriate. Happy 4th, everyone. Stay safe, and I’ll try to cover all of the unique festivities on the ship. Photo Dump (which includes a random photo of the late night lost and found at the towel station, just found that humorous. Also a ride on the carousel before dinner):

The hot tub was getting a bit too hot so as soon as we hit open waters we headed down for showers and rest a bit before dinner (late seating which is 7:45). It seems there might be a theme here with us taking cat naps Apparently without the kids we are quite the party animals. Honestly I think it just feels good to lay down for a moment without someone needing something lol For the most part though Matt napped while I was able to take my time getting ready for dinner. We had about an hour until dinner so we walked around the shops, grabbed a pre-dinner drink (delicious Blueberry Nojito) and sat on the chairs on deck 5 aft until dinner. I had high hopes of grabbing an ornament since they had just opened. She said they sold out last sailing. Seems odd that they had just sold out on our last sailing too. I don't understand why they can't seem to have them always available. They always have those big ship models. And while we are at it, why not an online store so that when they ARE in stock we can order them?? Dinner was fine. We had a table for 2 which we had hoped for/requested. The pro is no one is on either side of us which takes away from the whole table for 2 aspect. But we are right where everyone has to walk by to get to their table lol so it was a steady stream of people at first. Our server is Maria. It's funny because we had just talked about how we haven't really seen many females being head servers. She's sweet. Her assistant introduced himself but then we didn't see him again, but it didn't bother us. We both started with a crab cake and split the spinach and artichoke dip. The crab cakes were delicious. In fact we both agreed they were the best part of the meal. I had seen pictures of the spinach dip being very soupy, but ours was thick. It was fine, not much flavor. Matt got the fried chicken and enjoyed it, especially the honey sauce. I got the portobello dish and it was tasty I finished with the key lime pie but only had a few bites, it had a bit of an artificial taste to me. Matt had chocolate ice cream After dinner we walked around Central Park and the cadino until our 10:15 Blades show. We have almost no casino experience and so we are a bit clueless. Thankfully the host showed us how to use our accounts on the machine lol We each had $4 free play. We laughed at Matt's 30 cent payout, and then at my 6 cent payout haha! The Blades show was fantastic in our opinion. It was much better that the show we saw on Independence. We felt the talent was better and enjoyed the story line. Blades has replaced the Ice Games show.

Quite literally a PERFECT Day at CocoCay. Everyone ordered room service breakfast this morning - actually something we managed to never do on any of our previous so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. We placed our order for the 7:00-7:30 window, received a courtesy call right at 7:00 and the food arrived a few minutes later. We had a fairly large order that was mostly correct - it was missing doughnuts and included a pot of coffee that we didn’t order. We had enough that it wasn’t a big deal. As others have mentioned, the tables on the Oceanview balconies on Wonder are hilariously small - just large enough for one plate. So we left the trays on the end of the bed and kind of just took food a little a time. Our goal was to be ready when the gangway opened at 8:00. After eating breakfast, picking up specialty coffee, getting towels and getting ready it was 8:15 when we exited our cabin. We lucked out big time, as Wonder was the only ship in port today. That was our first experience being the only ship, and we felt like it made a BIG difference. We skipped the tram because we wanted to take advantage of some of the photo spots along the way. We set up camp near the zero-entry portion of the pool, and it ended up being perfect. Along the way we snagged a beach stroller, which was VERY clutch because my daughter is hit or miss if she is willing to walk - and when she does it obviously isn’t the fastest. The vast majority of our time was spent in the pool. We mainly stayed in the shallow water but would make frequent trips to the swim up bar. It was early enough in the day that the bar wasn’t crazy crowded and the music wasn’t too loud, so our daughter took some trips with us there as well. We knew there would life jackets provided on the island, but we weren’t sure if they would be small enough for our two-year-old. Luckily, there were a few puddle jumpers available at each station and those worked PERFECTLY for her. She is just now to the point where is comfortable floating on her own and is even learning how to kick her legs to propel herself forward. So definitely exciting times! We did make a trip to the beach just to the left of the Coco Beach Club. The water was virtually still, so we didn’t stay very long at all. As we left the Snack Shack was opening, and a worker brought my daughter French fries without us having to ask (top notch!). Spent more time in the pool before heading to Skipper’s Grill for lunch. I’m not sure if the buffet menu has changed over the years but I particularly enjoyed our meal there today. Anyone that frequents Chipotle knows that the Smoked Tabasco is the ultimate sauce, so I was VERY excited to see that as an offering for my chicken taco. All of the sides were fresh - my only suggestion would be to include tortilla chips alongside the salsa and guacamole. Random aside - there was hardly any wind today so the balloon was fully operational. Know that’s not always the case - we enjoyed seeing it come up and down throughout the day. Came back to the ship for nap time before dinner. Received a towel animal from our stateroom attendant Reynaldo - so far he has been tremendous. Additionally, he took some out extra magnetic hooks and hung up my daughters backpack and headphones - love those little details. Tomorrow we will be leaving him a note and a tip. One other cabin back I forgot to mention was the blackout curtains. My wife put them up to essentially separate the room between the bed and the pullout couch. Last night we had the curtains all the way across - today we have left them halfway. They really do work well and it seems to help my daughter sleep. We’ve also discovered one major-ish issue - the shower isn’t draining properly, which led to the bathroom flooding. Luckily we noticed before it spilled into the room. We contacted Reynaldo, and he said he would call maintenance for us. Fortunately we can use our families bathrooms for now, but obviously not the most ideal situation. Dinner in the MDR tonight. Italian night, which means our reservation last night in Giovanni’s somewhat became an oops, but I think there is enough in the menu that we should be okay. After that we have Voices reserved - not *particularly* fired up for it, but I still want to go just to experience it. Also, we signed up my daughter for a session at AO Babies tonight, so we’ll see how well she handles that. I have a feeling if there is a TV on she’ll be very content Photo dump (which will largely feature my daughter - it’s very obvious she has become the star of this show!):

Last day . We arrived back to Civitavecchia around 5 am. Our flight was scheduled to 10 am , the next flight was around 10 pm and cost almost twice so we decided take our chance as it was Sunday and not much traffic. We booked a private transfer at 6:45 am . 5:50 am the alarm went on and we start to get organized , we had some fruit from yesterday for breakfast but we also had time for a quick bite at WJ. At 6:30 am the ship was cleared and we took our luggage and went to the terminal. No queues at all (and no immigration or custom) RC people guided us to the private transfer area just on the right side if the terminal. The driver was already waiting for us and at 6:45 we started our way to the airport. We used Rome taxi service as we saw here some recommendations , they were not wrong. We arrived to the airport at 7:40 , check in was 5 minutes, security 7 minutes and passport control was 25 minutes for me and 5 minutes to my spouse that has biometric passport. By that time the flight had 30 minutes delay already and we got more than an hour to spent in the airline lounge. Flight back was OK (although delayed) and after several hours we were at home. Some thoughts We loved this itinerary as it had good ship time with port time. Ship is very nice and look and feel big and not crowded , only thing we were missing was the ice ring. The only venue which I think is over used is the 270 , it's just not big enough for some of the events. Now we need to start our diet for our next cruise.

Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Disembark day We kept things pretty chill for our last sea day. Everyone was exhausted. 16yo and I did the sushi making class which was a ton of fun. I made the mistake of eating breakfast right before. You end up with a good amount of sushi to eat. The raw materials: The finished product: The kids thought they had done pretty well with the scavenger hunt to get crew signatures from every country. They ended up with 23 but the winning team has 43! Our final dinner was at Giovanni’s Table. I forgot to take pictures (again) but my arugula salad and carbonara were very good. Overall I’ve been a little disappointed in the vegetarian options for 12yo. Izumi was fantastic with a vegetarian, and Windjammer of course has tons of veg options. Main dining room, Giovanni’s, and especially Chops though are really tough for a vegetarian. It would be nice to see every menu have at least one or two vegetarian mains. This morning we woke up, finished packing, and walked off the boat without much trouble. We’re in Vancouver for another 2 nights, and of course our hotel room wasn’t ready at 9:30am. We got some breakfast and then checked out the Vancouver Art Museum, which was pretty cool. After getting into the hotel and crashing for a few hours, we got dinner at Little Bird Dim Sum, which was fantastic. Definitely recommended if you like Chinese food and find yourself in Vancouver. One more day in Vancouver and then we fly out first thing on Tuesday. It’s been a great trip, but I think we’re all ready to get back home and sleep in our own beds.

Day 7 - Sea day. Today was our second sea day , it was suppose to be a port day but since we had the change in ports we enjoy it. I prefer to end the cruise with a sea day always. Breakfast was in the diamond club, following WJ after we spotted people eating cherrys, as you can see we found the the honeypot:-) , love cherrys I went to the captain corner to hear if any new news about one of the projects, nothing really new but still it was interesting at noon time they hosted the nightmare kitchen which was first time for us as they not doing this game on most of the ships. It a compilation between two teams to cook 3 course meal from products they have to collect in 1 minute. In between , the cruise director change the rules like changing products or switch stations. Each team also getting one real chef to work with thenIt was fun but results were already predicted by having one team with children only. For lunch we went to 270, salds and some melting cheese sandwiches. There was one special show with the ships vocals. Dinner was at the CK again we were happy to see day one menu appeared with the filet mignon, it was called @Lovetocruise2002 night. Once again service and food was not disappointing. Next was the Gold Art duo in a 45 minutes acrobatics/ circuses show. Silent party was organized on the promenade and it was very busy. We went to pack our luggage and prepare for early embarkation day.

Hi all, I'm going to be celebrating 11 months of recovery time while on The Wonder of the Seas on 7/20. I know the meetings are self-led but does anyone know if the ships provide chips for the meeting for those that are celebrating anniversaries?

But as long as they show up for dinner with their parents and keep in touch via text, it's fine...