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Day 4 St.Maarten I don't make plans for Caribbean ports. Something about paying to do beaches or cooking/ drinking classes rub me the wrong way. I usually just get off and do my own thing, if something calls to me, good. I like the views you get with the virtual balcony. I forgot to post dessert photos. One note it says complementary limoncello but we weren't offered any at dessert. I was offered on Odyssey and freedom. I realized that day six is Mason Jar dinner, so if we change it to brunch it would be double Mason Jar ......my brother said he's okay with that.

We got off around 11. Wait before we got off, my brother went to the gym and I went to the Crown Lounge to have my UDP reservations changed. There was a chatty Charles, the concierge kept telling him she had people to help and he kept extending the conversation. The hours were only 8-9:30, and I got in just under the wire. I played in the casino until my brother was ready to get off. I had a good run. I earned a casino comp, which I'm going to combine with one of the online offers to make a B2B. I find I have good luck in the morning, when there are less people in there. But I'm a primer, I played two machines off and on, I couldn't get the bonuses to explode but as soon as I switched to one, someone would hit. It happened three times in a row. But on to shenanigans. When we departed the ship, there was a couple behind us, trying to cut in front of everyone. There was two women in rascals, trying to leave. They had to be assisted off and it slowed things down about 2min. The couple behind us were saying people like that shouldn't be allowed to board or disembark with regular people. Then almost knocked me over going down the ramp. Then port staff had to physically get a couple who were trying to do something in the "do not go" area of the pier. I believe they almost fell overboard, considering the wind and swells, it wouldn't have been good. Its nice and warm but clouds are dropping pockets of rain. So people are taking cover wherever they can. In a shop a lady wanted to buy a wooden bowl, they were marked $20. But every one she wanted the salesperson kept upping the price. When she picked up the first bowl again the lady said it was special and $40. The lady said when I first asked it was $27, now it's $40. The salesperson laughed and said it was a joke, to see if she was paying attention. The lady was mad, so she didn't buy anything despite the salesperson agreeing to $20. We brought key chains, postcards and magnets from another vendor. It got sunny and so I walked around about an hour, then came back onboard. It is a port day so no specialty dining until JR and Playmakers open at 3pm. I had to go to the WJ, I got nothing and came back to my room, to get chips and the last of my SmartPop. Dinner is at Hooked, I should be fine until then. I am probably going to play until laser tag at 5pm. My brother is going to walk the ship, it's still raining.

It’s not really a unicorn. After final payment, a lot of suites came back into inventory. When the RU email came out on December 12, there were still just as many suites left in inventory. The prices were absurd, there was no way I was upgrading. However, I was tracking the suites and the number of them. Because there were so many left (in all different categories of Sky and one Icon loft), I decided to try my luck and bid. Shortly after Christmas, all the suites disappeared all at once. I was not the only one to notice that. They never came back. I knew there was no way they were booked all at once so my guess was that they were pulled for RU or GTY suites, or both. As with all things RU related, I cannot confirm, however, the VP that I won the bid on, was the one and only VP that was leftover after final payment. Same room number. So I know for a fact that one I got, was the one that was pulled. I am super grateful though, because I know that I was not the only one to bid on the VP.

We need to talk about this photo. Nachos with unmelted cheese?! Did they serve them that way or did you ask for them that way?

It was day three and for the first time, I started to feel a little self-conscious walking around in my shorts and sweatshirt all evening, while everybody else was dressed to the nines. Obviously, I skipped the main dining room and just did a Buffet dinner, which is why I felt completely comfortable staying in my normal clothes. But I think people in casual clothes at dinner time is maybe about 20%, with the other 80% opting to dress up every night. I looked around in the shops tonight and got a high pressure pitch to buy a $300 wristwatch I really don’t want. The shop was having sales on those port of call T-shirts, the same ones they carry on Oasis and were selling last week. On Oasis last week, the shirts were two for $40. Here, the same shirts are two for 50. For me, this ship has a country club feel. It feels upscale. It feels like the clientele expect it to be upscale and there are high expectations just in general and those expectations are being met. I feel a little bit like Oasis was good old Disneyworld, and the Ascent is a trip to Martha’s Vineyard in your best khakis and summer resort wear. Very different vibes, very different energy and focus on the ship. Also, there seem to be so much larger groups traveling together here. There are plenty of couples and small families, but there are so many big groups doing everything all together. Like hanging out at the bar together and doing the dance floor together and showing up at trivia all in a big group. Dinner is such a huge event here. As I said, people get dressed up, if you try to schedule any appointment, they ask you right away what time is your dinner reservation, the masses really disappear at dinner time and re-emerge in mass all at the same time to go to the theater or whatever. The ship does not have quite the same amount of spread out, ‘everybody doing something different’ feeling that Oasis has. This ship is just beautiful. And it is definitely designed to be a warm weather ship. The pool deck is very inviting. Yes they only have one pool, but so far it’s been plenty big enough for the few people willing to get in. The pool chairs surrounding the pool are filled every day, but not many people actually swimming. There are many many lounge spots in the ship, and they are beautiful, plenty of specialty dining, but if this was a cold weather cruise, or it rained all week, that pool deck being taken out of commission would put a cramp on spreading out and really maximizing the enjoyment of the ship. Not only is the pool deck something worth spending time on, but the rooftop garden and Sunset bar area are very valuable real estate areas here, and not be able to spend time in them would be a real shame. They are really really wonderful. Ideal cruise deck spots that aren’t pool-related. I would say the number one activity the ship is designed for (aside from eating and gambling and drinking,) is lounging around, drink in hand. That might be indoors or outdoors, but it feels like this is most definitely a ship designed for just hanging out.

In case anyone is wondering, these were my opening bids when the offer first came through on 12/12/2023. This is coming from an original booking in the Surfside Family Suite. I know from the FB roll call group that opening bids were nuts for others. I think even @SpeedNoodles can comment on that. My highest option was the Icon Loft. I only placed bids on the Sky Junior, VP, and Grand Suite. I had to stick to somewhat of a bidding budget because like I said before, this sailing is sandwiched between two really big ones for us. My sole objective was to get the heck out Tot Town and back into the suite’s neighbourhood. I knew from tracking the suites after final payment that there was not much hope for a Sky Junior or GS because those never came back into inventory. Infinite Grands, Sunset Suites, and Corner Sunsets came back into inventory but I was not interested in those because they are not on Deck 16/17. And while Owners and one Loft came back into inventory, the opening bid for Owners and Loft were more than I wanted/could spend. That left me with hope in the single VP that I was tracking before they pulled it. PTL I got it and we are back in the suite snob comfort zone

The view from my infinite veranda this morning. (I opened the window!) We are docked right up next to Apex. There's a Norwegian ship on the other side of Apex, I'm not sure which one it is. Cozumel today! The room rocked last night but it was gentle. You can close the blinds on the infinite veranda if you want complete darkness and don't want to be woken up by the sunlight. That's a nice option to have. And also....privacy for port days. There is a control panel on the wall next to the bathroom. You can just hit "close blind" if you want or you can close it with a button on the veranda itself. Also, the control panel has a morning, evening, and sleep button to control lighting. If you don't want to walk around adjusting the few lights in the room you can hit one of those and it will give you lights off, soft lighting, full lighting. You can set the air-conditioning as low as 65, but there is not a chance it's getting down to 65 in there. Pretty comfortable though, especially at night. it was a gray drizzly rainy day all day yesterday but today looks to be beautiful. Breakfast in MDR, finally. Of the four dining rooms, Cosmopolitan is the one open for all three meals per day. At dinner you can choose from any of the four, but breakfast and lunch are only in Cosmo. The menu is pretty basic MDR, variations on eggs and omelettes, pancakes and toast and waffles and pastries, cold cereal and hot cereal. The food was delicious and the service was terrific. They did not ask me if I minded sitting with other people, they just sat me at a table by myself. Which was fine.

i believe the popcorn is $4 (with tax etc) and i didn’t care, i paid the $4, because the popcorn smell was taunting me. (note to self: get popcorn at publix before sailing next sunday ) omg. motoring collision AT SEA!!!!!! good grief.

The theater was packed. People removed the star class banners on deck 4 to sit. I don't know if shenanigans occurred. We moved to deck 5 because it was too much. Imho voices was not good. It's definitely a show I wouldn't recommend or return to. It's about 6 singers and as many dancers. No bands or instruments are used, only voices. I can't deny the talent. But it wasn't a well put together show. The song choices were wrong. You have to sing Ozzy right, not as a slow ballad. I thought the "voices of the world" segment was the best. They ruined Kansas, journey, the list goes on. It was hard to even sing along and enjoy because all the keys were wrong. This had nothing to do with using the voices as instruments either. Just how they had the singers perform. I think the show is maybe 35min......and that's too long. There was an ice show scheduled for 7:45 and it made for the worse backlog. We were trying to get to the casino to get drinks for dinner. A lady in a rascal, those motorized scooters, was upset because they wouldn't honor her reservation. She has it for day 1, an assumed she could go anytime, she tried to hit the crew member with her rascal. It was quite slow in the casino. I got the pineapple guava sangria. We made it Giovanni's at 7:50. Sat down outside within 3 min. It was heavily populated, in fact all the specialty restaurants were. Our server was slow. Like really slow. Six tables came in after us and they all got drinks and apps before us......including two in our servers section.

It turns out his snacks is 2 plates of breads, cheeses, potatoes and other assorted items for after dinner. Plus cookies for the show.

Limited choices on dinner tonight. Didn't like anything on the menu for the main dining rooms, and for some reason, the buffet was half the size as usual. Baked potatoes and pasta and bread and some grilled meats. Played a game in "the club" which is kind of their spotlight lounge. Really fun, too hard to describe here but lots of fun and lots of group participation. N'Kenge did a one woman show today and she was fantastic. Lots of Broadway tunes. The massage was nice. Overall the spa feels somewhat deserted so far this cruise. I noticed they added a spa special into the app for tomorrow. That wasn't there this morning. There's a solo performer this evening, Andrew Derbyshire. Getting ready for the show to start. Remember I mentioned the lack of reservations, as in reservations are not required. I'm not seeing rows of front row prime seats reserved for concierge or suite people either, I wonder if they are supposed to claw their way to a seat like everybody else? That can't be the case, that feels offbrand for this ship. Interesting.

So this “Mod” is completely packed and ready to go, expect for the last minute morning stuff. Hubby, as you can probably guess is 0% packed. In fact, he has hit an all time low. Last night (Tuesday), my sister asked us over family dinner how early we plan to drive to DTW tomorrow (Thursday). Hubby looked at us and said, “Wait, you mean Friday morning right?” I kid you all not, I cannot make this stuff up! Needless to say, he had to do some rearranging at work today. In my defence, travel arrangements were given to him verbally, and in writing, many times. It is also marked clearly on the fridge family calendar. Everyone also seems to be aware that tomorrow is travel day. In Hubby’s defence…he said he never looks at the fridge calendar! And apparently tunes out my voice too. In the words of @asquared17 GOODBYE , and in the words of @Ampurp85, “Reading is fundamental”

All right, I made the rounds in Cozumel. Vendors are very friendly and approach you quite a bit but nobody is rude or hassling people or anything like that. Lots of friendly smiles and lots of warm welcomes. My husband likes to get a hat or a T-shirt from Ports I visit so I grabbed him a nice one. I did the ultimate tacky tourist thing and got myself a hat from Margaritaville and I'm thrilled with it. It was so fun to walk around and look at Apex and Ascent side-by-side. What magnificent ships. So large! So much glass. There are so many ships in Port today. Ascent, Apex, Norwegian, Carnival, and then two ships in the distance I can't make out. I spent two hours on the top deck this morning, I walked the walking path quite a while which is really fun, this walking path snakes around in the sort of figure 8 and it has a couple of hills up and down built-in. (I can see a similar situation over on Apex.) I spent the rest of the time lounging at the sunset bar and let me tell you that is a great place to hang out. Really really nice. Sunset bar and Rooftop Garden are quickly becoming my favorite place in the ship. Rooftop garden was closed the entire two hours I was up there because the film crew was trying to film a couple playing pickle ball. I watched for a while. They kept doing shot after shot of the husband character swinging the pickle ball paddle at the camera. Then they would stop and talk a while and do it again. The husband character was in his 40s, wearing a t-shirt and shorts. The wife character looked to be about 25 and was wearing a tiny white tennis dress. They also had a drone they were flying all around. They were still at it when I left. None of this bothers me in the least, it annoyed me when the thermal suite was closed for three hours the other night but overall, I think it's kind of interesting. But I have no doubt Celebrity is going to hear a slew of complaints, and people expecting compensation for prime areas being closed off to passengers during prime hours. Back on the ship for iced coffee and recharging my phone battery. One more thought on the older crowd here. Even though there are people well into their 80s on board, these folks know how to party. Nobody is wandering around here confused and dazed because it's their first cruise. This is a seasoned cruising crowd. And those that are able really get out on that dance floor late late at night and they go at it hard to those 70s disco tunes. The ones that can't dance fill the chairs circling the atrium on all three levels and really enjoy.

I do not pay for excursions either…however…when we were in Bermuda we did choose a tour of the Crystal Caves and it was 100% worth it! The tour brought us from the dock (in a small shuttle bus with a driver native to Bermuda…he offered us so much interesting information!) to the Caves. Our tour of the caves was amazing and very insightful. Gorgeous pictures can be taken! After that we were back on the shuttle and our guide took us to the very end of the island…to a beautiful beach that had a bar (we indulged in super delicious rum swizzles!) and we were able to take a hike up into the forest where again just amazing sights and pictures to take! Well worth the money which I believe was about $70/pp.

Today is our only sea day. Really, it's just a barely-moving-going-in-circles day...just waiting for our final day which will be PDCC. I returned to Guest Services to ask for the list of ship managers - again. The fella that helped me yesterday (and said the paper would be delivered to my room) apologized and informed me that the list is currently being updated due to new Cap and Hotel Director...but that I WOULD get that paper before the end of the cruise. So hopefully that info will be forthcoming. Very confusing info regarding Luggage Valet. I THOUGHT I had read that LV was back at PE. Maybe I am confused (not hard to do). So I asked Jayson (Suites Concierge) if LV was still complimentary for suite guests. He said that LV was NOT back and that it had never been complimentary for suite guests. Of course, I know that is wrong...we used to use it (for free) all the time back before the plague. So I am more confused than ever....but my instinct is telling me that even if LV IS back it will not be complimentary for ANYone anymore. Stand by for clarification, if I can get any.

Your brother smile. He is having a love affair with the food.

Been busy working.....getting hours in before we go.... but had this happen so wanted to post it. We have noticed that on the first half the Coco Cay cabanas have been decreasing in price as it gets closer and the second half has stayed "full price" (Started at $1300). There are more available on the second half and they are more expensive ($1300). The first half has been $700 for the last few weeks. We are a bit neurotic and check prices everyday for deals and came across this for the first half..... We have never seen this before and been Diamond for several cruises. This was a GREAT deal and of course jumped on it. A bit confused on why the second half is soooooooo much more expensive even though there are many more available still than the first half. Down to 48 hours until we leave and 5 days until we get on the ship!!!!!

Sailing solo sounds really adventurous to me! I would love to try it someday! But right now it seems all my traveling is either with my husband and our friends (he keeps wondering when it will be just the 2 of us…lol!) or with our entire family (kids, their spouses, their kids) and adding in some of hubby’s family members! Note to self…definitely need to do a solo cruise soon!

You have the best luck! Seriously an Icon inaugural sailing RU win is a unicorn. I wish I had that kind of luck.

Spoiler alert: they named the ship Icon

Shows We went to the ice show last night. It was very good. I’ve never really been to a bad ice show. They are all pretty similar. We enjoyed it. BUT - I was very surprised that they were NOT monitoring the reserved seating area at all. We got there plenty early so it wasn’t a problem for us, but if you are eligible for reserved seating, I would recommend NOT waiting until the last minute to arrive. That section filled up very quickly and without any kind of monitoring I’m confident that late-comers would not have found a seat in their reserved area. It was very disappointing. I was surprised that LIB had the old Promenade parade. I assumed that on a 4 night cruise they would not be doing the parade, but I was wrong. Even more surprising, it was held on day 1 ! So, we missed it. If you are on LIB and want to see the Promenade parade, be sure you know when it will be held ! We are going to see Saturday Night Fever tonight and there is another show on the last day (forgotten what it’s called). We always skip the singers, comedians, jugglers, etc. I’ll let you know how the rest of the shows we attend, go.

This isn't going to be a thorough live blog....I just wanted to note a few things about Liberty since it has been many years since we sailed on this ship.

Someone in the Oasis cruise Facebook group posted that one of the airport shuttles from Miami to the airport on Sunday morning was involved in an accident. Royal is giving full refunds. They did not clarify if they were traveling to the Miami airport or the Fort Lauderdale airport. We have been in port since 8 AM with several other ships. For some reason, little Voyager of the Seas just now slid into port with us at 4pm. The film crew used the casino for a huge crowd scene this afternoon for quite a while. There would be crazy cheering and sudden silence and then 10 minutes later they would do it again. Hanging out on the magic carpet watching Norwegian Epic sail away. It's like a hat-trick, little Carnival Valor was hiding behind it all day long and I didn't know.

The lowest price for me to RoyalUp to a Sky Junior Suite was $1775 per person. It was a big nope for me.

My granddaughter and new hubby were in the elevator coming back from the time in the hot tub when a middle age couple started a uncomfortable conversation. The woman and man told granddaughter’s hubby how good he looked without a shirt. Then told my granddaughter how pretty she was. Conversation was so uncomfortable that the two of them got the heck off the elevator. Granddaughter thinks the couple were swingers. She was all grossed out for a while!

Forgot to mention....last night in the main theater (Saturday Night Fever) they WERE monitoring the reserved section. Happy to see that. I would estimate that the theater was probably 1/2 to 3/4 full. They eventually released the reserved area seating (which is standard protocol) about 10 minutes before showtime and eventually it got pretty crowded.

Saturday Night Fever last night. I admit, I enjoy this show. Many do not. I guess it's an "age" thing. I will add, the male lead (for Tony Manero) was very weak...both singing and dancing. The female parts were WAAAY stronger. Still enjoyed it though.

I hear that... I think that's our plan going forward. For Bermuda I've been studying ferries and city busses that we just plan on taking around the island with no real plans. What is that dessert your brother is holding?

Just caught Wonder pulling into St Maarten! Beautiful colors in the water…hope the weather holds up!

It does on Coco Cay but not Labadee.

Also a couple tried hard to pick up my brother in the casino. They sat next to us in the theater. They told me to tell him they were in fact both women, if that makes a difference .

My boarding day JOY !!! YIPPEE !!!! I scored a Royal Flush on Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em on the first night ! This is only the second time I have ever had one. Dan has NEVER had one. According to the internet (must be true, then) the odds of getting a RF on UTH is 649,739-to-1. Here's the truly interesting part. The LAST time I had a RF in UTH was ALSO on LIB a few years back ! I guess this must be my lucky ship ! The payout on this baby was ~$5500. I was playing minimum bets. I have a photo which I will try and upload. I am having trouble toggling between browser windows so I will try later. Yippee !! Here it is.

So when I go to the webpage of royal caribbean it always ask if I want to be redirected to the Norwegian Page since I am located in Norway (when I was abroad last year it directed me to the Cypriotic Page and so on) but today it detected me as being on Bouvet Island and wanted to take me there... lol 1. I would be the only inhabitant of Bouvet Island if I lived there 2. Yes it is a Norwegian Island, but it is in the middle of nowhere and I have never been there 3. The fact that RC has their own Page for people living on Bouvet Island (population 0, unless you count Penguins) is so funny that I just had to make a post about it! Have a nice day everyone!

Thanks all.

There is a orchestra, they played yesterday on deck 5, and they were okay. The Temperature band plays in music hall, I popped in one night and they were meh.

We don't listen to a ton of live music but yes. Pretty sure I saw the orchestra listed in the app at some point. We went to Music Hall and saw the house band play for a little while (not good). The one act that everyone seems to love is the country trio that plays at Mason Jar and also around the ship occasionally (like under the big hat on the Promenade). I'm not even a country music fan but they were very good when we had brunch at MJ. They even take requests and took one from my 9-year-old nice (who knows infinitely more country music than I do, lol. Their set was done before we were and they came by our table to say hi to her after. Nice guys. I went to the MJ bar just to grab a drink at night while they were playing and it was packed!

#teammasonjar Hope you’re able to switch. We’ll still likely try Kitchen but that’s why our frugal selves are waiting to use a bogo. Agreed. I’ve mentioned I’m not a stage show guy anyway but that was definitely not for me. You didn’t get the chance to see Tap Factory as it recently ended its run on Wonder but I didn’t like that one either. I did love the ice show though. We plan to see that one again but the others were one & done unless my wife feels like seeing the aqua show again. I don’t mind watching an aqua show if the weather is nice. Something to do while having a drink outdoors. Random comment: My wife would order the chicken fettuccine & it looked kinda odd with the big breast off to the side.

That's strong considering the reviews of Cats I see!! lol. @Ampurp85Hope you feel better and have good weather for your ports..looks like St Maarten today! I might have missed it, but do you have plans for the port stops?

Yes, they do have shuttle service between PoM and PE but as @She Sails Away will attested, it isn’t entirely reliable.

@Ampurp85 I completely agree with you about “Voices “. I thought it was garbage. All I could think of was they were trying to save money by having a show with no live music at all. Probably the worst show ever on an Oasis class ship. Is there even an orchestra on Wonder ? I don’t think we went to any other production show so I can’t recall if there was live music or not.

So after three nights of specialty dining, my opinion is that other than Mason Jar, they aren't up to snuff. I can see why Mariner is top rated, the staff in all the dining venues were amazing. Had our server let us know all the large groups were causing food delays we would have been a little less displeased with the service. At 8:40 we didn't have apps. They came 5min later and at 9:14 we got our entrees. By which the place cleared and our server finally informed us of the issue. The food was hot but disappointing. It was either lacking in flavor or just salty. The only thing that was remotely good was the canolis. I ordered the chicken fettuccine and a pepperoni pizza. My brother had three pastas and the 7 cheese pizza. We took the pizza to go. Somehow I got the meat lover's pizza, which was going to be breakfast before we got off for st.maarten. But it's salty garbage. It rained and children were playing in the rain and looking for ducks. I needed to use the bathroom and on deck 8 it was filthy. For some reason there was a lot of blood on the floor and in one of the sinks. The ship is rocking, so many people are falling. I am hoping I can switch my last sea day specialty to Mason Jar, I don't want to eat at the places I can go on most ships.

ready to cruise

Could we get a definition of "snacks"?

There was a parade on deck 5. We saw something similar on Oasis last year and it was cute. It was too congested and people had no manners. I mean truthfully manners are lacking all around: people are letting their children do whatever, they stop mid-walk, they film everywhere and they touch everything. There is a Kincaid Disney collaboration happening with the art collective. There were paintings of Avengers, captain America, I believe the little mermaid, etc. It says not to touch and adults and children alike were touching. There were also tiny humans running around touching the parade performers, staff and random people including me . I saw the stowaway piano aft, his elevator was always full, everyone was recording. We only had enough to get food with new pricing at Playmakers. So we headed to the WJ for dessert. My brother made out pretty good. I got some fresh chocolate chip cookies and sprinkle's soft serve. The tiny humans had no concept of a line and just got in and ordered multiple cones. The WJ was pretty packed, I'm glad we didn't need seats. I walked the pool deck to forward, it was crazy. Those pools/hot tubs you can see the people in were filled to the brim. Also there were tins of "brave" adults, some if those outfits were hanging on by a prayer . I went back to the room and had my first nap. Now I'm heading back to the casino. We have voices at 6:45 and Giovanni's is at 8pm.

I think it is almost sold out. There were at least 30 suites available (Sky, Aqua, and the bigger ones) and a few interior before the Move Ups were awarded. They awarded most of the Move Ups right before Christmas then nothing was available online.

We are at sea today. I got up early and did some filming and photos on the lower decks. By 9 o'clock, all of the breakfast seekers were out. So many older folks, I believe I've mentioned that a few times but it's just a bit of a wake up call for me as I've never sailed a non-family line that had this many elderly folks on it. You need to be careful where you walk because there are scooters and walkers and people shuffling along the best they can with canes and you just generally have to be careful. I guess that goes for life in general, don't go crashing into people, but just in general on the ship it feels like you really need to watch where you're going. And to also be patient. A lot of folks here that are hard of hearing who try to give a coffee order or a pastry order for example, and it just takes a little longer than maybe you might think it would. The film crew is out taking up half of the main pool and there's a lot of folks sitting around in swimsuits looking unhappy about it. I have no doubt that Celebrity is going to get a slew of angry surveys and emails demanding some sort of compensation for the film crew being here and taking out prime spots on the ship for 1 to 3 hours at a time. I skipped breakfast and I'm planning on making it to the main dining room finally. I'm going to have lunch there today. I was able to get photos of two of the main dining rooms this morning because they were empty. Tuscany and Normandie. Very classy. The focal point chandelier at the bottom of the atrium in the middle of the ship is kind of cool. It strobes throughout the day in different patterns.

The show tonight was called Bridges. It was terrific. Really wonderful. The theater has this amazing stretched out movie screen behind it and they projected all kinds of famous bridges on the background while the singers sang and danced. It was a collection of pop songs with dance numbers which is exactly what I just said I don't like. But I like this. That cast was phenomenal, they all sounded like they belonged on Broadway. They had a ton of energy and the songs were familiar songs so they were catchy. Plus they threw in quite a bit of acrobatics which was really fun. I would say at the very least 50% of the crowd on this particular sailing are over 70. Lots and lots of older people. So sometimes they would finish a dazzling high energy amazing number and then stop for applause and the applause would be smattering and light. Hate that for them. I think the cruise demographic might change during the summer but it's definitely a much older crowd, like a Holland America crowd, right now. some of the numbers were aimed for a younger crowd. There was one number where the men were grabbing their crotch repeatedly. I saw a lot of shocked faces in the audience. The guy at the end the aisle a few seats down for me looked to be at least 92. He was filming the whole show on his phone and he was actually doing a darn good job with a steady hand. And I should mention that before the show they announced that we were encouraged to take video and photos and put it on social media. I went to the 730 show and every seat in the theater was taken. I sat in the front row and there were a handful of empty seats by me. As to be expected, a large group came in four minutes before Showtime and went straight to the front row and then stood there having a long conversation, trying to figure out how they could all sit together. (They couldn't.) That led to another conversation about how they were going to divide. And even though the show was only 45 minutes there were many many people who could not possibly sit through the whole thing, they had to get up and leave and then come back. I went back, toying with the idea of going to the 930 show and seeing it again, but I went back at the last minute and it was sold out audience. i'm back in my room for an early evening and I'm so thankful the room is not rocking very much. Tomorrow is sea day, and I will be waiting around for my doctors appointment and I hope I come away satisfied.

More photos from around the ship. I went to a complementary stretch class that turned into a sales pitch for some shoe inserts for $200. I did not buy them. I'm making it to the first show of the cruise tonight. I mean there was a show last night but I was up on deck watching the bills game and trying not to throw up. It's called Bridges, I will let you know what I think. The theater here is really nice. I went to the juice bar today and it was not nearly as good as the one on Oasis. Plus they were only open a couple of hours. buffet food is so so. The poolside grill is so so. They have pizza here available for long periods of the day. It is comparable to Sorrentos. they have tons of desserts and they look so pretty. I heard someone say "the desserts look so much better than they actually taste." That sums it up perfectly. All of the desserts are super bland. we are sailing and the ship is doing that big up-and-down thing again. Not as dramatically as last night but pretty noticeable. Since I was slack-jawed and doped up most of the day I took a nondrowsy Dramamine this evening. Let's hope that does the trick and doesn't leave me in a fog all day tomorrow. The wind was a presence all day today, nothing that ruined anything but most definitely an all day presenceand chilly. Tonight the wind is so fierce I honestly don't think it's safe to be out on deck.

Sort of. That's their deck 5. There is Eden at one end, the back end of the ship. That's the earthy large common area I mentioned. And then if you walked from Eden to the front of the ship you would walk what is the equivalent of their promenade. But it meanders. It's not so obviously a shopping area with everything condensed in one long stretch. but that's where the majority of the shops are, and then they have a three-story small round atrium reminiscent of princess ships. At the bottom of the atrium is that chandelier and a bar and then three levels of seating surrounding it. Lots of live music happens here. deck four has casino and specialty dining and main dining all kind of lumped in one area.

IME food is basically the same on all ships. Love it or hate it, the food is created from the same fleet standard recipes and fleet standard items. Nearly all ships are supplied from the same warehouses supplied by the same food distributors in bulk. If the food doesn't work for you on Royal that is perfectly acceptable. We all have different tastes. Someone else may love the food I dislike. Someone else may dislike the food I love. That is fine, we are unique individuals. However to be perfectly honest and blunt the food quality has declined considerably on Royal over the past 18 months, for my personal tastes and I do now struggle at times on Royal when I did not three years ago. As a result the number of my Royal cruises has declined and I am now sailing other lines on an increased basis. No one who loves Royal's current state of food should feel insulted by my personal views, we are different unique individuals.