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Last night dinner was in Chops and we were extremely fortunate to have @JustMeJoe and Mrs JustMe join us. Our favorite waiter, Andriy was his usual enchanting self and we had a great time. Consumed 2 bottles of "champagne" and a bottle of red wine. Fun, fun Then we were off to the casino where I first lost and then ended up walking away a bit ahead. I have all but given up on the slots so I'm spending most of my casino time at UTH which is where I usually was before I tried slots. The machines just do not like me. I will be sitting at a machine and all of the ones around me are ding, ding, ding-ing away and mine just sits there and frowns. Today we are in Antigua with the Emerald Princess. Since we did the stingray excursion here 2 weeks ago, we are staying on the ship today. It looks like a beautiful day so I'm hoping that those who are going out will have a great time.

21 days to go....... Work has been stressful all around and the weather in Chicago has been bipolar. Sat and Sunday were like 30 degrees and today on Monday it was 65 and sunny. My documents were right on time for the first cruise but a full day late for the 3n and a day early for the last cruise. Royal IT strikes again. The luggage tags for the first two cruises are still GTY. Last time they updated around 10 days before I cruised to say the actual room number. So, I will wait until later and print them out. I believe I saw in another post that a few blog members and Matt will be on the May 20th-24th Freedom cruise. When I booked the cruises, it was just my brother and I going, each with or own room. But my mother turned Emerald after our Mariner cruise and now she is obsessed with making it to Diamond so she can relax in the lounge. Yes, not the drink vouchers or internet discount......but lounge access is her goal . She was upset that she couldn't go on Wonder, I had booked her, but she allowed her bf to talk her out of going. During that Mariner cruise I offered to help make her prime to get offers, she said she was going to be land traveling with her bf and don't bother. In March when she found out we would be doing these cruises she was sad, her bf had cancelled 2/2 of their land vacations. So, my brother was like, we can add her to my room, and she can come with us. She was so happy to be going. As usual she is brand new. I feel like she gets amnesia every time we travel, and I have to hear the same questions. This is her sixth RCG cruise and she texted me about luggage limits. Somehow her logic was that shorter cruises only allowed weekender bags and/or carry-ons . I just told her to pack as she would normally. Last week she fell at work and thankfully she is okay, but her front left tooth got chipped slightly. The dentist rounded it out and it is barely noticeable, but she was afraid she might have been toothless for the cruise, she is so dramatic. I did my pre-cruise shopping: which involves going to Kohl's, Marshall's, TJ Maxx and Walmart for any essentials, and giving Bezos his offering. After reading about wearing red (I hardly ever wear it) to ensure some casino luck, one of my casino outfits is a newly acquired red shorts and a red shirt. I am currently making my packing list and the plan is to pack a separate cube, with special casino outfit to contain the smoke, in each cube. I figured I will need about four cubes since I always carry an extra not in my checked bag.

Ok. I’m gonna try and upload these Ocean World photos. Wish me luck. I know this is hard to read but it will give you an idea of the content of the Park. It’s much bigger than I would have thought before I saw it for myself. Again, maybe not so easy to read, but some idea of the show schedules This is the only photo I got of an actual dolphin since the dolphin encounter wasn’t included in our excursion. I will say though, they make it very easy for you to watch all of the interactions/encounters, even if you haven’t paid to participate. The shows are all readily visible from a distance. You just don’t get to interact with the animals if you haven’t paid for the excursion. Lots of opportunities to observe. We (at least, I did not. Dan watched a bit) did not watch the dolphin show but this is a photo of the dolphin show area. As you can see, it’s pretty easy to watch a show from this vantage point even if you’re not directly involved. Fresh water pool Dan actin’ the fool. This is by the kiddie area of the fresh water pool. OBTW, the fresh water pool was COLD They have 2 bird houses. This is the macaw area. Beautiful birds. The second bird house was for the smaller birds, primarily love birds. No explanation needed for this one… …or this one… The snorkeling area had a couple of plexiglass viewing areas. Lots of fish and coral to see. I really enjoyed snorkeling in this area but we were fortunate enough to have done this early. Later in the day it was crowded and chaotic as there were kids in there who had no idea how to snorkel and were thrashing about maniacally. I’m sure it was very disruptive to the fish. Glad I missed that… Bizarre photo of Dan in the snorkeling area. Actual arms and reflections of arms. Yikes ! This is a rather crappy photo of the shark encounter area. It’s actually quite large. The sharks in this interaction are nurse sharks and the are extremely wimpy as sharks go. They ran and hid in the rocks once the snorkelers entered the water. When this photo was taken (before the snorkelers got in) the sharks were just looking for a free meal. They know when the chow is coming out ! Moving on to the sea lions. Here is Dan about to get a kiss. While I was taking this picture, I had an employee telling me, “Sorry, no photographs allowed”. I just ignored him and took this one but put my phone away after that. I had no interest in seeing the inside of a Dominican jail. After the encounter was over, photography wasn’t a problem. This was during an actual sea lions show which was open to the public Obligatory balancing-the-ball-on-the-snout photo. Heres the sea lion (I can’t remember his name) giving mouth-to-mouth (or boca-a-boca, depending upon which narration you were listening to) to an unfortunate member of the staff who nearly drowned when this SAME sea lion pushed him off the rocks, moments earlier ! Scene of the crime… Welp, that’s all of the exciting things we saw and experienced at Ocean World. If you get the chance to go when in Puerto Plata, I do recommend it.

I realize that this topic is about the Game Show but I just can not resist saying: "When did Love & Marriage become so unpopular?" For some it was right after they said "I do"

It was actually three carrot slices, thank you very much! I felt like I won the lottery.

Our love birds

I have not forgotten about the photos from Ocean World. For cosmic reasons that I simply do not understand, the photos never synched with my iPad so I have to figure out how to upload them. I will try that later today. Wish me luck

I wasn't quite as done with pre-cruise purchases as I thought. I bought two new formal night shirts and a polo for DS. One day, he'll stop growing, right? DD got a new pair of athletic shorts that she will use as a swim suit cover up. She's been using a pair of shorts from a soccer team she was on when she was 10 for almost 5 years... it was time for an upgrade. My trusty black Travelon mini travel purse has been used everyday for the last 6 years, and the strap finally came unstitched from the body of the purse. I'm not sure how to fix it and it look right because of the anti-theft cable that runs through the strap. So I bought a new, slightly bigger version and deviated from my usual black with a paisley pattern. I really hope the pattern placement is the same at the picture - I see a dragon looking back at me. Amazon should deliver it today. I've been silently stalking the current live blogs, and thanks to the tip from @WAAAYTOOO I guess I need to run out an grab some red undies as well. I'm also contemplating purchasing some new dance shoes, but I'm on the fence. I don't know if I mentioned in previous blogs that DH and I met 20 years ago as competitive dancers. We competed pro/am, both being the am (amateur) with our respective instructors. When we got married and had kids, we stopped dancing. Last year for Christmas we started dancing again. We decided to start competing again, and our first competition actually dancing together is next month. After buying practice shoes, ballroom shoes, latin shoes, plus costumes...do I really need another pair of dance shoes? Um, probably! I'll make that decision later today, but the little devil on my shoulder is pretty loud on this one. We're also going to have to find a space to run through our routines on the ship - I'm thinking Dazzles early in the mornings or maybe the gym has an open aerobics floor? We'll scope that out day one. DH is checking his clothes tonight, but is pretty sure he won't need anything. Paradise Beach sent me a confirmation email this morning. I don't remember getting one in the past, but we haven't been there in a couple years. I haven't heard anything from Roatan Getaway Tours beyond our initial communications, but I did not expect to. No headliners have been posted in app yet, and night 5 MDR is still not showing. Pre-pack is in full force now. All the miscellaneous cruise essential type stuff (towel clips, hooks, etc.) gets unpacked from the cruise box and packed today along with our travel pharmacy. Pre-cruise laundry has started, and the ironing board is about to make it's semi annual appearance in my living room. 5 days to go!

Lunch was Izumi

This morning we enjoyed a dirty duck swap. Renee was the big winner.

How fun that you're going to be on a cruise with some other RCB people and Matt! Hope you get to hang out (if that's your thing). Your brother is a much kinder person than me. Good on him. My guarantee rooms were literally assigned immediately after my TA booked them. It was kind of mind boggling because I see so many situations like yours where the room isn't assigned yet. Here's hoping you find out sooner rather than later.

It's working now! Shop, shop, shop til ya drop!!

Amazing pictures! Looks like you had a great time! I love the "I'll ignore the rules but then make sure I don't goto jail" photo op moment I feel like I would have done the same thing. You needed that picture!! Thanks for sharing.

chefs table last night Scallops tomato soup lobster filet the world

Don't forget to add purple. I will be doing the same three cruises next June. Have fun. Can't wait to hear all about your cruises.

Caesar salad Chicken...this was super salty but it was actually very, very flavorful too! Would order it again and hope it was less salty. I heard griping around the interwebs that this was taken off whatever menu it usually shows up on, so I ordered it. The cookie part was good but the ice cream was overly sweet.

Mine is instead of Labadee is going to Puerto Plata, DR.

We all have passports, but the kids' will expire in a few months. Just in case, I'm bringing birth certificates for them too. I don't think we are visiting a country that requires expiration to be 6 month beyond the trip, but I would rather be prepared. Anyway, I went to add them to the case we use to carry our passports, and I was very excited to find our C&A cards from 15 uears ago! Do they still mail physical cards out anymore? I guess we can use them as the card to keep the lights on in the cabin.

I was just coming to say I can't wait for my firecracker shrimp. Also ventriloquist shows are creepy.

We just got off a very short cruise and wanted to share our experiences with both the ship and the port. We flew Southwest the night before (Thursday) and stayed at the Best Western about 10ish minutes from the airport (FLL). The room was about $120 after taxes and fees with an additional $25 deposit. The hotel offered a free shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the cruise port for $15 per person. We opted for rideshares instead of the shuttle because reviews had said that they waited a while for the airport shuttle at night. The rideshare was around $15. The room was pretty much what I expected for $120. It was clean. The decor is a little outdated and the lobby could use a bit of a makeover but that’s me being nitpicky. If you are sensitive to noise or light, this hotel would probably not be good for you. We could hear and feel every door open and close all night. The doors slam close every time. Our room faced the shopping center right next to the hotel which had a McDonalds in it. It would have been fine if the thick curtains closed all the way but they didn’t. Only the thin curtains closed all the way and they let a lot of light in. The hotel has a pool and a complimentary breakfast. We did not use the pool but my travel companion said it looked nice. We did eat the breakfast which was your standard hotel breakfast. A small selection of hot items, juices, coffee, pastries and bagels. It was good and kept us full until lunch. We took another rideshare around 10am to get to the port. We had an 11:30am check in time because that was the earliest I saw after checking the app a few times after the initial check in period. I was fine waiting in the port until 11:30 but I wanted to get there and be ready to board. A first for us was having to show our passports to simply get into the port area. At other ports, we’ve just driven right to the terminal. The signs for the ships were a bit confusing. Liberty was listed at both terminals 18 & 19 but was actually docked at 18. The porter at terminal 18 was very rude to the Lyft driver, yelling at him to pull all the way up and how they wished rideshares would be illegal. It was around 10:15am and there was only one other car in the area for drop offs. I’m not sure if this is normal or this porter was simply having a bad morning. We checked our bags and proceeded inside the terminal. No one asked us for a check in time. We breezed through check in and when we went upstairs, they were seating you in order of when you came in not by your check in time. Boarding started around 11am and was very orderly. They came to your row and told you when they were ready for you to go. They weren’t allowing anyone to skip ahead or go before their row. The terminal wasn’t very full when they started boarding. Maybe 10 rows of seating were full. We were on ship with drinks in hand by 11:15am. Our staterooms were ready by 1pm. We had an interior. We checked 3 bags. 1 showed up around 1pm but the other two didn’t show up til closer til 4pm. We did not see or interact with our stateroom attendant the entire time on ship. That was another first and very odd to me. We had requested one bed instead of separate beds. They did not put a single big mattress pad over the bed but instead used the twin ones so the bed had a big split in it where the two bed were pushed together. I was worried that the beds would be pushed apart or the seam would be a divot that would make sleeping uncomfortable. It did not so we chose not to say anything about it. The last night, instead of a fitted sheet over the mattress, there was only a flat sheet. So every time we moved, we pulled the sheet and mattress pads. I move a lot in my sleep so when I woke up, I was laying on the bare mattress pad tangled in the flat sheet that was acting as a fitted one. If it hadn’t have been the morning we disembarked, I would have said something to guest services about it. For meals, we ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer and dinner in the Main Dining Room. The Windjammer food was good for buffet food. And while it was crowded, it didn’t feel overcrowded. We always found seats. In the MDR we had My Time Dining with a 7pm reservation each night. On boarding day, I went and requested a table next to a window if possible. We ended up loving our table and were told if we wanted the same table to show up at 6:45pm each night instead of 7. We had Frank as our head waiter and Kudakwaishe as the assistant waiter. They were amazing. The first night, Frank heard us talking about how we wished we would have ordered the fried chicken to split and he brought us a plate with our meal. Whenever we ordered multiple of anything, they were always brought at the same time. Frank would also bring us something extra at each course. Our ports of call were Nassau and Perfect Day. We did the base dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon at Nassau. Before you board the ferry, which looked much newer than the last one we were on, you have to sign a sheet with your name and stateroom number in case anything happens. Once on board, the rows have numbers and someone comes around and notes which seat you’re in and you have to show your excursion ticket again. They do give the same talk about which celebrities are in each house. Upon arrival, they tell you what time your ferry is going to leave. I do wish that you were able to catch any ferry back instead of having to wait for your specific one. With the animal encounters booked through Royal Caribbean, lunch is not included. It’s $35 per person for the buffet lunch. Our ferry left around 9am and we boarded the return ferry at 1:30pm. We opted not to pay for anything extra and brought water and snacks for the lagoon. This was our first trip to Perfect Day and we had reserved Hideaway Bay because the tickets went down to $20/person which we thought was reasonable. Both Allure of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas were docked that day. Allure was there first and while we weren’t in a hurry to get off the ship, we did get off around 8:45ish to get good chairs at Hideaway. It was maybe about a 5 minute walk to Hideaway from the ship but we’re fast walkers. They did have trams running every 2-3 minutes. We did get front row chairs close to the bathrooms, bar and food and far enough away from the DJ to still hear the music but not be overwhelmed by it. The ocean water was a little cold. I think someone said around 60 degrees. The pool was heated and it felt like lukewarm bathwater to me so I did not spend a lot of time in it. Even in the pool, the music wasn’t super loud. The bars get overwhelmed very fast, especially the swim up bar, so be prepared to wait. The pizza looked similar to Sorrentos so we opted for a fish sandwich and chicken sandwich to split. Overall, I was happy we only paid $20/person and wouldn’t pay more than $25. Disembarking was easy. We did self-assist and were off in under 10 minutes around 8am. We were in line for airport security by 8:30am. I would definitely sail out of Fort Lauderdale again. TL;DR- Food was good. Ports were good. Stateroom was okay. Hideaway was okay. Disembarking was fast and smooth.

For the folks looking forward to Labadee, for the folks in Labadee, and for Royal, I am sorry this has been so tough. But to add a Port not routinely visited, is a win, for me.

somehow i feel like this is very on brand for her... OMG. imagine if this were true, though???? i could literally never go on a shortie cruise bezos really out here getting the most from us all!!!

No, that's the original one. Facebook mysteriously re-instated it today

I love how it is always one broccoli and one carrot.

I snuck off to my room after lunch... And Oscar made it happen..my luggage was waiting in my room. Other than a quick run to my muster station to check in, I just stayed holed up working in the cabin. I have the same dinner time and table as last week but it isn't the same waitstaff. I saw on the app I had been assigned the same table and just assumed they would be here and I could tip for both cruises at the end...oops.

Here's the Crown Lounge snacks since I was up here to grab a coffee..

Wonder if they realize they forgot to turn off the bridge cam...

I was boring today..got some work done. I took a break and checked out the Make A Wish auction on the pool deck. I heard it's only for April which is a shame because they were auctioning off some cruise planner items at a discount...like $100 for 2 for the full behind the scenes ship tour or a speciaty restaurant for 2 for $70. I would much rather pay that and have it go to Make A Wish.

It’s actually a great itinerary change. Grand Turk beaches are amazing. My wife & I were there a couple days ago and it’s perfection! There are public beaches adjacent to the ship and a stretch of white sand beaches (pictured) that rivals some of the nicest I’ve ever seen. This was our 4th or 5th time here and it never gets old.

After lunch we did escape room completed with 3 seconds left.

Looks like you and Dan are having a blast!

Here is a link with some more information: https://www.grandturkcc.com

@smokeybandit we were just notified as well on our Bermuda August sailing to this itinerary change. Nothing in the cruise planner as of yet. Is it possible to enjoy the immediate area without an excursion? Thanks so much! I am just so happy we are going somewhere we have never been before, I was worried Labadee would be replaced by Nassau, we've been there so many times......

Wow, impressive, you are married to a man with four arms!

Oh my gosh awesome pictures Raye! Gave me the best chuckle especially the pics of you and Dan hosting the “birdies”! Oh and that scuba reflective one is !

The shops/bars/beach will be open to you even though it's owned by Carnival. Just note that while there are free beach chairs, they're set back from the beach (you'll see them behind some ropes from your view from the ship when you dock). Beach access itself is free.

They are hoping to open a 35 foot channel this week, but that'll be for ships stuck in the harbor to get out. Then they'll close it again to get everything else cleared to go back to regular ops by the end of May.

Last nights show

afternoon snacks yesterday Firecracker shrimp

I was just trying to get into my reservation to buy amenities but it's not letting me get to the page with the options. I can get into my reservation, but when I click "plan my reservation" it goes back to the log in screen. I tried more than once and it kept doing the same thing. It's frustrating! They need to get this fixed.

You had me at "distillery"!

Absolutely!!

All checked in.

My dad probably felt the same way about my college graduation cruise in 2016 (for some reason we didn't do anything special for my high school graduation, I think we just did Caribbean that summer... checked the spreadsheet, yes we were on Allure in the Caribbean)... Anyways back to college graduation... It was on the Navigator of the Seas to the Baltic and he said the 8 days we spent in London before it were the national debt I am sure she will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed mine!

The Grand Turk port schedule has RC ships there through September. Though I could see those being placeholders, not an indication of RC canceling Labadee that deep into the year. https://www.grandturkcc.com/Port-Schedule.aspx

Day 2 at sea Today we got up early and took a walk on the walking track. Then had breakfast in the Coastal Kitchen. Forgot pictures at breakfast. Had our daily Starbucks. Sister and I hid some ducks. We have not found a hiding place for the big ones yet. Lunch was Playmakers. The food was outstanding . My favorite this time are the Jalapeño poppers. I’m getting bad at pictures forgot to take one of poppers.

Yesterday we had a mysterious bottle of “champagne” show up in our room. It had an apology note with it from C&A so we assumed it was due to the fact that they royally screwed up our loyalty gifts twice on both of our turnarounds. I bumped into @JustMeJoe this morning and he asked me if we had received our bottle and then explained that (apparently) everyone that was B2B on that last leg got a bottle. You may recall that our TAD was something of a Charlie Foxtrot due to the number of Guest Services “issues” on the 4-14 leg (those that were disembarking) and that disembarking and reboarding were delayed for over 2 hours that day. One thing that I failed to mention in that discussion was the weirdo fact that we actually checked in for our new muster station BEFORE we even left the ship on our turnaround ! First time that’s ever happened. It just so happened that our new muster station was in the Star Lounge which is also where we were assembled for rurnaround…so we scanned our new Seapass cards and completed the muster station requirement before we even departed the ship to go through CBP !

Consecutive cruiser lunch menu...only about 15 of us are here and they sat me solo

We do too. I’m not a soup eater but will eat this it is sooo good!

Not very unfrugal or YOLO of you!