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My idea of a Perfect Day…

Hello PDCC! This is how I like to visit…from a distance

First observations about Hideaway Beach 1. The shoreline around the horseshoe shaped bay looks like it would be perfect to walk on. Don't be fooled! That is some tough sand to walk through and there are even rocks. 2. There are no physical tickets that you need for this location. They have scanners at the entrance for your Seapass card. 3. I can confirm that the PDCC song is not coming from the Hideaway Beach pool area. I can definitely hear a little bit of music but it's not annoying at all on the far side of the bay. 4. The swings in the water are really fun! 5. 8:30 in the morning, the sun is perfect for sunbathing on that far side of the bay. As a day progresses, the sun will be more direct for the people that are closest to the entrance. 6. Regarding the walkover- I think I read something about 3 to 5 minutes to walk it. I'm a pretty average speed walking person, and it took me a solid 5 minutes. Another 5 minutes to the other side of the bay. Definitely take the tram if you have any issues walking, as the sand path has not been compacted enough yet to be easy to walk on.

After dinner we were excited to see Aqua80. As I mentioned lately in other blogs, I have yet to see a full showing of this show. I told Shane that I am beginning to think that I am jinxed for Aqua80. We saw a whole 10mins of it before they shut it down. The ship picked up quite a bit of motion and you could see a lot of water sloshing out even before the show started. They tried to work with the bridge to stabilize the ship but no luck. So again, no Aqua80 for us. However, I did manage to take a pic of the “traffic light” system that the divers use. I remember we were talking about it on someone’s blog recently and I posted that I watched an Aqua Theatre documentary about how the divers look for the lights to turn green before going into a dive. There are two sets of these, one at each top corner. That’s it for tonight. The ship is rocking and I have been up since 6:30am. Calling it a night.

I wandered over to Chill Island to shop and then South Beach. Successfully procured a Coco Cay shirt, something I forgot to do when I was here in September. Best conversation overheard: Drunk College Girl: *stands up* College Girl 1: You're out! You're out! What are you doing???? Drunk College Girl: What? College Girl 2: Oh my gosh, [name], your nipple is totally hanging out! Drunk College Girl: Where? College Girl 1: Do something about it! You're totally out! College Girl 2: Fix it! Drunk College Girl: *laughing* what? She's lucky her friends were able to help her out. Or in, whatever. She's covered now, folks, we're all good.

Today’s lunch. This was really good! And super filling!

Dinner was at 150CP tonight. We are not huge fans of the this place, but D17 likes the Lobster Thermidor, so we did one night for her. Dinner itself was fine and so was the service, but I still don’t love this place.

Shane loaded Hubby and the freeloaders into a “cab” (Shane’s words ) and off they went. Then Shane and I headed to Starbucks to have a coffee. Now back on the balcony chilling. I might head to CK later for lunch because sadly, El Loco doesn’t open until 2pm. And there is lasagna on the CK lunch menu today, which I have never tried. That is about as exciting as my day is getting

1st lunch. Island guava pizza and beef empanada. The pizza really is the same quality as Sorrento's on board, but it has a really nice flavor with a bit of some spice/kick. The empanada was good, it just wasn't what I really wanted. I actually went back and got more pizza because it was that nice. The last photo is the inside of my beef empanada.

MDR Welcome Aboard menu/night. I was a bit apprehensive about doing the MDR as a solo cruiser, but it went brilliantly. I was in and out in 45 minutes. I went with the tomato soup (scalding but delicious), southern fried chicken (omg good and thoroughly cooked!), and key lime pie (good). It seems very appropriate that "food porn" seems to actually be exhibited here with what appears to be a censored bar across the key lime pie (chocolate). And, of course, my first Shirley Ginger on board. All around me were tables of college students. There is a group of 8 college guys at the table in front of me, and I was a bit worried how that was going to go. However, I could hear them being extremely polite and really excited about the menu. They did prove they were college students though when they cheered for the waiter who showed up with alcohol and toasted to him.

Palapa update: 75% of the little tables that are underneath the palapas are now underwater. It's comical to me cuz all the videos I have seen of this location show them stranded out of the water by a lot. Hammock update: I have seen so many people try to climb into the hammocks over the water and then promptly fall into the water. Not surprisingly, this has been one of my favorite things to watch thus far.

OMG, 150CP was like my fave. I'm already planning my next meal there: short ribs 1st course, short ribs 2nd course, short ribs for dessert ... yum!

...my kinda day...

I'm a morning person, and I also like to be early for things. It's a benefit on vacation because then it means I get to choose exactly where I want to be before crowds descend.

Ugh, that doesn't sound pleasant. I waved hi to you!

NOW I made it censored. It's a cheeky pie.

According to someone on the FB roll call group, there is a leak in the engine pipe.

OMG I laughed so hard at this ! This is DEFINITELY a @Ampurp85-level shenanigans story !

Hey, look, in the sky!

2nd lunch: crispy island fish sandwich, fries, and caramel brownie. The fish was good, the fries were fries, but the brownie was amazing.

I just booked a carnival offer. I’ve only cruised with them a couple of times, so surprised to get a casino offer from them. It was too good to past up. It’s tied to some famous casino guy. I got a free balcony, free drinks in casino for two people, and a $1,000 free play in casino. We own carnival stock, so $100 to spend onboard. It’s on the Carnival Celebration ship. I’m not a fan of carnival or their food.

6:55am and @Lovetocruise2002 had already beaten us to PDCC.

Current situation

Lollll I too bring binoculars on every vacation I’ve been on since childhood. The only time I didn’t need them was when I stayed with my 2 college friends in a presidential suite at the Fairmont San Francisco.... because the room comes equipped with its own telescope! hahaha We played Eye Spy for houuuurs. I’d be using them to keep an eye on the aggressive seagulls near that Snack Shack! The amount of people I saw preyed upon when they left food to go back for seconds was hilarious. I saw a seagull take off with an entire soft taco/burrito half-lodged in its throat!

I'll give you a hint what I'm doing right now. This is awesome, because I have a beautiful view of Chill Beach. Here's something I've noticing too: If you would like to sunbathe and have no desire to have access to a beach, this is the place to be. I took this photo at about 2:30 p.m., which is about the busiest that PDCC gets. Those chairs I circled are empty. Super easy to get to - exit the ship, turn left when the path splits at the end of the pier, go over the bridge, and then turn left again. I'm going to continue to be a spy from my balcony. I can even see the NCL passengers from here on *their* island!

even in port days it was usually a 1pm opening time. a weird part of my brain thinks this is daylight savings time related but like mike said, i miss the days when ELF was open for breakfast. that’s why we loved oasis so much, initially. a way to avoid the zoo of the jammer and solarium and grab a quick bite to eat in the mornings!

What?! You should have ignored them and come to say hi. Please say hello if we see us again. My family heckles me constantly. I just ignore them lol Haha! That is what Lisa said to me last night as we were leaving the show. She said perhaps we should not attempt to see the show together again this sailing

We noticed! TBF, I will stop there most days myself, it's just one of multiple mainstays for me.

This is the description from the app. It was good, that’s all I care about.

My wife's dessert hack there (from Chill Grill) is to get soft serve in a plastic drink cup and then mix in chopped up chocolate chip cookies but she's also done it with a brownie. You can do this onboard with cookies and soft serve too of course; it just became a thing at CocoCay for whatever reason.

great updates so far, tough work but somebody has to do it!

See? Swings are fun (but creaky). They really got them going high.

I tried Carnival 20 years ago and hated it, vowed to never sail it again. But I keep hearing the food is so much better and the casino is very forgiving so a 4n at under a $1k for three people with $50obc seemed okay........especially if all my plans work out on my Freedom sailing in the casino I noticed the to-go shakes are in a smaller cup at JR. But too much milkshake is also not good imho. I am madder that the cost to eat at Jr is almost $20 now. Also, the hair thing, ewwwww . But I tend to notice that the college-aged youths seem to be far more manner-able than the pre/teen youths. Thankfully I avoid sailing during spring break and the summer, I hate to hear them when they play their drinking games.

I always say night 1 is the best night for specialty dining because the welcome abord menu is boring and usually it is chaotic. Think about it, most of the staff has spent the day preparing the ship for new guest, they are tired and learning the new pax preferences. So mistakes and long wait times can happen. Specialty restaurants don't deal in volume, so it is a much more relaxing experience.

My view in the MDR. I'm at a two-person table by myself, but every. table. around. me. is filled with college students. THEY LOOK SO YOUNG OMG WHEN DID I GET OLD.

Is it a Sunday morning? And not the NYC marathon? You have a possibility but: The ship must dock on time You would have to be one of the first to walk off your luggage Have transportation lined up Its about 45 minutes to the airport assuming all things align. Personally I’d book a flight that’s later.

Last thoughts about Hideaway Beach: 1. The music they have pumping throughout the area is all from the DJ. It's even pumping at the little bars that they have set up. I made the mistake of sitting at a picnic table for second lunch beside one of these bars, and I was almost deaf by the time I left. If you're away from those, the sound is much more manageable. If you're looking for quiet, though, I would say that the quietest it was was for the first 2 hours of the day, and then it got progressively louder. 2. It seems like a lot of people are setting up in the very center of the beach area so that way they can go back and forth from their stuff easily. The areas closest to On The Rocks (entrance) and the far side of the bay were the least populated. 3. The lifeguards will not allow you to be beyond the area of the furthest chairs on the other side of the bay. They will blow their whistle at you and tell you to come back. You also cannot get up on the rocks at all where they are standing. 4. Even though the Hideaway cabanas are set away from the pool area and on their own with their own infinity pool, I was surprised how noisy it was over there. The sound comes from the fact that each cabana has its own sound system that you can play music through. It felt like some of the cabanas next to each other were competing to see who could get their music louder, and then there was the pool DJ's tunes being pumped in to the area (or maybe somebody had selected that channel in their cabana, I'm not sure). If you decide to hang out on the far side of the bay, that's a consideration for when the cabanas begin to be filled. 5. I highly recommend the island guava BBQ chicken pizza. While the pizza itself is Sorrento's quality, the flavor is awesome. 6. The restrooms are cute! I don't think people give restrooms the credit they deserve when they are clean and nice looking. 7. It definitely started to fill up after about 10:30 a.m. Both Oasis and Freedom were in port today, but I imagine it would look similar for any ships being there together because of the cap on the amount of people that can be there. 8. The ocean water temperature was a touch cool but definitely comfortable. I wouldn't have wanted to go in first thing in the morning, but by afternoon it was fine. 9. You can enter and exit as much as you want, just take your Seapass card with you. 10. The age range I saw skewed young; however, I'm also on a cruise that has a large contingency of college students. They were all mostly over at oasis lagoon. I did not see a large amount of retiree-aged people, but I definitely saw more than 10 50+ couples/people. My favorite was the married couple who had the exact same pattern on swim trunks (male) and bikini (female).

I think I'm going to have to do that on board! It made me laugh a lot because it reminded me so much of college. All the weird things that happened, all the great stories you can tell later on, these girls were definitely getting that.

DEF an @Ampurp85 story

That’s like an open book quiz!.

You are NOT allowed to go on Oasis when I am on it! I don’t want to be missing Aqua 80’s.

I knew it was just Sorrento's pizza. So if Hideaway was like $15 or less I would go. Paying anything over that is a waste of money......I mean I don't get off at PDCC often either so paying anything is a waste of my money. @Yesiamthere6 Wow that is a great deal. I got offered something similar on Mardi gras but I didn't have the time. I was told they give back what you pay in Casino credits when you book a comped offer, so I will see how the sailing goes in Jan and make a decision.

I just realised between the 4 of us, we will have 16 freestyle cups at the end of the two weeks to add to our collection at home. And since it is star class we could try all genies on the ship

Agree 100% and we are too. I've mentioned this before but I love the ship pre-7am. Park Cafe at 6:30am is so peaceful and the WJ isn't crazy when it first opens. We usually get off the ship in port first thing (if we're getting off), even if we don't necessarily have a reason to like grabbing our spot on CocoCay.

Love how early you got there and the pics with no one there. We get off first thing to secure a spot in our favorite location by the Oasis pool. It's usually quiet for a little while since we are making a beeline for that spot and many others are wandering, going elsewhere, etc. But it's not THAT empty and it starts to fill up quickly.

I’m interested in your overall thoughts on this new section! I purchased a pass for my May cruise to check it out…all by my lonesome! It’s probably going to be my only “me time” for the entire 8 night cruise! I also have passes purchased for myself and my husband for our September cruise but since we are cruising with another couple on that one I’m not sure I’ll keep them. Unless, of course, this area is soooo intriguing I can talk the other couple into getting passes too!

Boarding soon!

We were so blessed on our Wonder cruise week before last - nary a drop of rain to be found! PDCC was so great, even the balloon was flying. That pic of the thruster-buster day makes me sad.

Freedom holds a special place for me. It was the first cruise after the epic re-opening of cruising, after the Covid shutdown. It was thrilling to be on board and I thought Freedom was the most beautiful thing ever. I brought my husband, he was six months post-hospitalization from original Covid and he was weak and tired. (Still dealing with some longterm Covid fallout even now). We spent hours lying in those colorful cabanas on deck and watching the ocean. So relaxing! loving your blog and photos. Solo cruising is awesome! And Miami is very fun to sail from.

I have often thought about doing Carnival, but Spouse badmouths it so much (without ever having been on board) that I don't want to try at this point. I'll be curious to find out what you think of it when you do it. Still think you're insane for traveling with your mother.