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Disembarkation was fast, just like my Indy sailing most of the numbers were called way earlier than anticipated. We were scheduled to leave at 8:30 with our luggage and Genie. Of course, the porter was there before Alexa; I forgot 2 Genies were doing the job of 3 and this was the one time we felt it. The process was smooth, to me, and we were in the car back to the hotel in no time. We hadn't eaten breakfast and I was able to check in and partake of Hampton Inns free breakfast. I would say that Ashley, her brother and mother are sweet, kind people who I enjoyed. While as a whole our adventure might not have been spicy enough to get picked up for a full season, Ashley's mom would get her own spin-off My final thoughts on the middle-leg star class sailing are........ It truly depends on the type of person you are. I could truly go either way. I felt some type of way asking the Genie to do things for me. At the same time, you HAVE to ask the Genie for what you want. I don't like attention and Star class is all attention. I feel uncomfortable when performers can make eye contact with me. Or when the restaurant staff apologize when they see the card. I would do it again with Star-class loving people but not something I would seek as my own. I can't get into the mind frame of asking someone to do something I could easily do for myself. With all the protocols, low capacity, restrictions and lack of shows, it felt overtly bougie. On Harmony Chops has the better filet, sorry @Lovetocruise2002. CK filet won on Allure, but it was way too salty on Harmony. We also had to make a few trips to the WJ while in star class. .... such sacrilege I know! Up next.......Mariner of the Seas I had a wonderful 11am check-in time for Mariner but received the dreaded "please arrive 90 min later" email and will catch the 11:15 hotel shuttle. Let's hope for smooth sailing....

We recently went on the Maho Beach Plane Spotting excursion and it was a lot of fun. I thought I would post a review along with some videos that I didn’t upload on my live blog. We were there on December 23rd so SXM was busy. There were at least 30 take offs and landings during our 2+ hours at Maho Beach. This.was a highlight for our 16 year old son who has been watching videos of Maho Beach jet blasts for years. The excursion was reasonably priced at around $50pp. Upon arrival we rented 3 beach loungers for $10pp The amenities are basic but if this is on your bucket list, it didn’t disappoint. Video of Takeoff https://youtu.be/ewiSWOsB7ug Video of Landings https://youtu.be/YNYvNtbZm4Q https://youtu.be/a9DyvsW9_QE

Hi all, on the last day, Covid testing was provided on the ship. As a surprise, my wife tested positive for Covid. We think she was exposed on the Royal Caribbean excursion to the Panama Canal. The Panama excursion was a large group on a tour bus with no roll down windows. My wife & I were always careful to follow the rules and preferred staying in open air spaces. The Panama excursion was the only time we think our guard was compromised. My wife and others that tested positive had to leave the ship after all passengers had disembarked. She counted 8 of them total. We were never informed during the cruise that people had tested positive. The crew kept things very hush-hush. Royal Caribbean is flying the passengers who tested positive back to the States. The spouses are not able to fly back on the private plane. My wife was only able to travel with a carry-on bag. I had 3 suitcases to carry on American Airlines. The 3rd suitcase was going to cost $200. To avoid paying $200, the 3rd suitcase quickly became another carry-on. We are from Birmingham, AL another passenger had flown from Nashville, TN. Each of them were not flown to their home city. The plane is landing in Huntsville, AL to split the difference. They each have to rent a car to make 2 hour drives home. We are still glad we came. Our 30th anniversary has been memorable!

That's almost as bad as raisins in apple pie!! Someone really needs to talk with the people that come up with these recipes!! I'm waiting to see what sacrilegious thing they do to ruin one of the dishes in the new Mason Jar

Day 7 continued..... Freedom was docked next to us, and we spent time on the balcony waiting for them to allow us to disembark. Several people on Freedom were mesmerized by the room. We made jokes of doing stuff like getting a 'rona from our wet bar to show how vast our deck was. We didn't but we should have to blow their minds. It was extremely funny because our deck was pretty much at the level of Freedom' pool deck. Oasis class is a beast! We were quite confused about PDCC. Both the app and planner said we wouldn't be able to get off until 11am and all aboard was at 4:30. That would have been a very short day. At 150 we confirmed with Alexa that we would be able to get off at 10:30am, so the rest of the cabana party would meet us in the room and be escorted off. Side note: I took my test at 7:30 and by 9am I still didn't have results. Me and Michael joked it would ding when I tried to get off at PDCC if something was wrong. Since we docked sort of late for a PDCC day, it was a mad house. Thank God for a Genie. Alexa has the elevator privileges. She had to go down priority in a full one so she could come back in an empty one and get us. But it beats the cluster that was happening. Here is where all the advice of star class comes into play. Nobody ever asked for an escort to the trams. I walk everywhere, mostly, so I had no intentions of taking the tram at all and figured if anyone wanted to, they would have told the Genie. If we wanted to use the tram, we would have to wait in line with the "poors." I had no desire to do that, but I understand that others don't want to walk like me. Different strokes, different folks. Two out of the eight of us were already waiting in the Beach club so Ashley and I walked to the cabanas. We checked in and walked past the day pass holders into our beautiful private oasis. You have seen the pictures posted and justice cannot be done in mere photos. Reddy was out attendant, and he assured that anything we needed, he would get. Bill and Eva requested a champagne toast, I got a Coco Loco. Plus, the cooler was stocked with basic bare necessities like: "rona, bud light, trulies, coke products and mini bottles of sparkling wine. The selection for the included cooler leaves a lot to be desired. We did the toast and Eva went down the slide. Took videos and photos of the cabana to post. Then she did a bit of snorkeling. Like me, Bill and Eva were from Chicago, very nice people. My only slight gripe is she took photos with people in them without asking if it would be okay to include them in her advertisement......oh yeah, she is a travel agent. I try to avoid that as not everyone wants to be immortalized on the internet, myself included. Reddy brought us all the apps. The pita bread was amazing, I love a good bread. I don't understand the obsession with truffle but mostly everything came with truffle fries. Since I don't eat any seafood but shrimp, I was limited on entree options. I had heard good things about the steak, so a medium one it is! Now this is just me, but it was the worst steak of the bunch, and the roasted potatoes didn't have any flavor. Most got the steak and a lobster roll. I asked for a side of plain fries and received extra crispy fries doused in truffles. Our attendant had brought one extra of everything and it sat there going to waste as it was just too much food, even for 8 people. I ate fries until I was semi-full, and the birds had the rest. A very nice lady in our party started feeding the seagulls because she loves birds. Well, we had an entire flock sitting on our cabana screaming for food. The extra funny part is Eva is afraid of birds; it was her worst nightmare. Two tiny baby birds came and while I shouldn't have, I gave them fries. At this point the seagulls were like "you get what you deserve for feeding us" and started dive bombing the food. They got away with quite a few potato wedges. The lifeguard told us NOT to feed the seagulls. Ashley's mom was like he didn't say don't feed the fish and proceeded to do so for almost the remainder of the stay. it was adorable! I should mention that while the day started out cloudy and cool. It got sunny and warmer as the day progressed. Also don't judge the bathroom trailers too harshly. The trailer has 5 individual bathrooms, air conditioning and is just as clean as the rest. Reddy got us all of the dessert besides the sorbet. The funnel cake was ruined by tons of caramel and some fudge......but the small parts without it were soft and delicious. The dessert was again way too much for us and the birds tried to get in on that as well. After lunch, which was close to around 2pm, I received an email saying my results were ready. I tried to click the PDF and it didn't work so I went to the app. The app wouldn't load. I waited another half an hour and the app told me "A representative from the testing center would contact me shortly." Since no one had shown up in hazmat suits I wasn't too worried about being positive......what I was worried about is not having the results to board my next cruise. I sent Alexa a message. She informed me I was negative, but the test site was down fleet wide. She would deliver my results when it came back up. We stayed in the cabana until a little after 4 and then went back to the suite to pack. I hate packing! But I was done fairly quick. I did a walk around the ship to get pictures of a few areas and enjoy watching Freedom sail away and Jewel pull in to transfer crew. I counted about 13 crew getting off of Harmony and lost count at 41 crew transferring to Harmony. It wasn't a long transition, and nobody had on hazmat suits, so it was fairly smooth. Me and Ashley hit the casino for the last time to play the points we earned. I ended the night up $20. We ordered room service and I have to say that the rigatoni Bolognese wasn't too bad. However, they made the quesadilla with American cheese and the Pico de Gaio cooked inside. So, at 9pm I still couldn't get a printout of my test results. Alexa informed me that since it was fleet wide, she would inform Mariner's guest services and port authority of my negative guest results so I could sail. We all had a good laugh, not only at the absurdity of the situation but my luck at testing so far. We went over multiple scenarios but luckily, I had a Genie and when we departed, she had my results in hand.

The first 5 photos are from room 547 at the Hampton Inn Port Canaveral, which is where I stayed while waiting to board Harmony. The remaining 6 are from my current stay at the Hampton Inn Port Canaveral, while I wait to board Mariner. Room 347 has a couch instead of a chair and a queen bed instead of a king, so it looks bigger. Both had/has a refrigerator, that doesn't work, and a microwave. Housekeeping is by request.

Day 8 Sunset I spotted a cruise ship on the horizon near the sun. I imagine it's a lot hotter over on that ship. That Captain better be careful, it's heading straight for them. The clouds save the day. Added bonus: Balcony sunset 360 photo featuring a guest appearance from the North Star

Negative test results received by email. I'm clear to carry on the next cruise.

We were overtaking another ship in the early hours. Captain's Corner this morning. Crown and Anchor: Up Close and Personal With Your Entertainment Family A one hour presentation and Q&A session with the cast and backstage crew. At these events you always learn some tidbit of information and get insight what's it like for the cast and crew right now. Normally the cast spend a month or more at the Royal Caribbean Studios in Miami rehearsing a show. Right now they are sent to a ship, go into quarantine and learn the show over video. Once out of quarantine they meet for the first time and put all the pieces together into the production we see. Amazing. Simply georgeous sea day! Talk about calm seas...

I may not be on the sunrise side of the ship but that means I am on the sunset side of the ship. The clouds stole the show. Despite the low numbers the Windjammer remains open for dinner. Italian night.

Dinner in Teppanyaki: Love the view... Nearly a full moon rising from the sea. What these photos don't capture is the show that comes with the dinner experience. So much fun! Right from dinner I headed down to see Showgirls! in the main theater. It's really a great production. For a much more thorough post on Odyssey's entertainment line up see this post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/26522-odyssey-of-the-seas-entertainment-in-pictures/#comment-288089

Any body going or been on enchantment of the seas February 5th b

Awesome. Added to bucket list. Thanks for sharing.

Wow! Your pictures are wonderful!!

I wasn't planning to live blog this one but with all the FUD about cruising right now I thought I better clear the cruising record. FUD is Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt and there is plenty of FUD being tossed around social media with respect to cruising. Consequently this not live blog is from the ship as we return on the final sea days on our way back to Port Everglades. I didn't start out taking pictures and documenting everything with the intent to present it here so bear with me as I hobble together something to represent this cruise and to set the record straight. It's still a great time to cruise. The "enhanced" mask policy has had zero impact to me as a universal mask hater but I know the rules and I am following them. This is an eight night Southern Caribbean itinerary with a great blend of sea days and awesome ports. Day 1 - Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale embarkation Day 2 - Nassau Day 3 - Sea Day Day 4 - Sea Day Day 5 - Aruba Day 6 - Curaçao Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Sea Day Day 9 - Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale debarkation Let's start with a cabin tour of an obstructed balcony cabin on deck 7. Obstructed balconies are a great way to enjoy a balcony while benefiting from a discount for living with an obstruction. On Quantum class ship the most common form of obstruction in the balcony category comes from the lifeboats and the towers that support the lifeboats (davits). Many (but not all) deck 6 and deck 7 balcony cabins are of the obstructed form but they are not all equally obstructed. By carefully picking the cabin location including choosing deck 7 the obstruction is not as significant. And now the moment you've all been waiting for... I present... the obstruction: Yep, that's it. That's several hundred dollars off the price of the cruise but YMMV. The rest of the cabin is the same as any other balcony cabin on the ship. And for the icing on the cake this is a connecting balcony cabin. However the connecting door on this class, at least in this cabin, is near the main entrance door and it seals very well. I've not heard a peep from the young college aged kids next door. By placing the connecting door here it doesn't impact the sofa or desk or any other aspect of the cabin.

Another update: A car service with driver was provided from Huntsville to Birmingham. Royal Caribbean had everything handled. My wife is pulling up to the house and I am waiting for the connecting flight in Miami. She will be home 4 hours ahead of me.

Yup, we paid for a mobile testing lab to meet us at the Marriott in terminal hotel at YYC airport early Friday morning for our Sunday cruise before the airport testing centre opened. This was Christmas 2021.

Can't wait to see the 'cuffs!

The LAMP test does seem to be the best option. Order and bring across with us and test before leaving the ship. With that and fully vaxxed lets hope they remove the fine should anyone test positive and just allow us to implement our quarantine plan.

That's exactly what we did for our Dec 24th Anthem cruise from Cape Liberty. We took the antigen test at Shoppers on Wednesday (Dec 22nd) morning and received the results in 30 mins...went home, made copies of it. We packed up our luggage and drove to the land border, showed our vaccination records, crossed, stayed at a hotel for 2 nights in Jersey city. Woke up in the morning of Dec 24th, drove to Cape Liberty for our 11:30am check in. Unfortunately, they were not checking for check in times and people who were in front of us in the line had 12:30pm check in. In the end, it wasn't as long as it looked even though we had to wait outside for awhile. They checked our Antigen test results for date and name (and of course that it was negative). No issue at all with the the Shoppers results.

We're going on a March 7 - March 11 trip on the Navigator. We were on the same trip in early December and felt completely safe - actually safer than doing a lot of things at home/office/shopping locally, et cetera. Looking forward to the trip!

Very difficult to predict here in Spain when we thought new normality was back, Omicron arrived and all mask restrictions came back, but hopefully soon all will drop, but who knows

American cheese on a quesadilla ? Ugh

Yeah, our Visa and work coverage covers some of that other stuff too. I do like the idea though of the all inclusive instead of piecing a bit here and there. The other reason I took a look at the all inclusive as well is because I am considering buying a multi-trip plan for the rest of our travel this year. One of those trips is Anthem to Norway....I cannot decide what to do.

I meant to correct this as Indy as I was in a JS. Which is a baby suite, but I wasn't charged at all for hot breakfast. Even though my app mentioned the service charge.

IMHO it was perfect. We were the only cabana on our side to have fish and stingray's it seems. I passed by the others and their swimming and water areas were completely clear. We were at the end, a short walk to the trailer of rest rooms, we could cut across to the Snack Shack if we dared, and our food/drinks were arriving closed to the temperature it should be.

This is mostly a picture dump/ The first few are of the cabana at PDCC There are some of the bento boxed food delivery. Our attendant brought us funnel cakes just for the heck of it! Harmony was docked near Freedom Lastly this is the room service quesadilla and rigatoni Bolognese

Solarium is my go-to for lunch on first day. Not very crowded and good. If I have UDP I go to Chops.

Food picture dump..... Being super fancy star class, we got shelled edamame One of our party asked for nothing as her dessert and got nothing. There was also a weird yellow/orange moon last night. We were in cabana 10 for PDCC

Moving cabins between cruises so I have to pack up tonight. I'm moving up in the world! I chose a deck 13 balcony for my next cruise as it was cheaper than the obstructed balconies I'm in now. My current cabin is occupied next cruise so if I have to move I'm taking the opportunity to check out something higher, see if there is pool deck noise and if I like the location. It's only a 6 night and was pretty reasonable so I'll survive no matter what.

Well got rebooked today for a May 14th sailing in the Allure to the Southern Caribbean. After 4 no-gos crossing my fingers we can finally pull off a good cruise.

Flight in info. Landed at SJU, flight was good all conections made (hate concting flights, I'm normally a direct flight guy, but with the lack of crew I was moved. Saw one cancelled flight on the board to SJU, but luckily it was a couple of hours after ours). As you start to just see the baggage keep LEFT, there are NG soliders, some in tyvec coveralls assisting with checking that QR code. Collect your LUGGAGE FIRST, then procede to one of the check out line there a many. Have your QR code and a Photo ID ready, they will read your QR code and then take a picture of your ID for their software to record. We then proceded like usual to get a taxi to our hotel and the first thing we did after check in was our eMed proctored test for boarding. Negative again Yea! Just a quick note on eMed access. On my android devices, both phone and tablet I have been forced to use the Samsung Internet Browser. I have the newest version of Crome on them but it does not work. iPhone of wife no problems (just more ammunition for her in our which is better debate) Will add boarding info tomorrow, we have an earlist boarding time, which is 1 to 1:30 in San Juan. No Suite, No key.

Kinda like a mystery movie. "By the end of this sailing, at least one of you will be dead." Cue Vincent Price.

Day 8 - Sea Day This morning at 7:30am was my test for B2B cruisers. With that done I headed to Cafe270 for breakfast. Some of the breakfast options in Cafe270: Not on Odyssey. I asked today just to be sure.

Tonight The Effectors is in the main theater so I went early to be near the front of the line. First come, first seated. The drone scene in The Effectors is pretty awesome as the drones fly out over the audience. Great as always! Our progress:

Day 7 - Sea Day On our way back across the Caribbean Sea and I'm no longer on the sunrise side of the ship so no morning photos. I went to Playmakers for lunch. They Sportsplex has been closed while we were in port as they finished the floor and fixed some other things here and there. The shiny new floor of the Sportsplex: Love the sea views from Playmakers. Games of the week: The Playmakers Classic Burger: One more look at the shiny new floor.

We have really enjoyed Megan's Bay Beach on the north side of the island (opposite of where the cruise ship docks on the south side). It is easy to get a taxi (or open air buss) to the beach from the port. The ride offers some great views. Megan's Bay is not a resort, but it is an awesome beach and has a nice beach bar with lunch items.

Giovanni's then while there, I have them book all my dinner reservations for the week on the UDP

Coffee and continental breakfast is available and has no charge. Your stateroom attendant will leave a card you can put out at night, or you can just call when you wake up.

Back on the ship it was time for my complimentary North Star reservation.

Day 6 - Curaçao More self exploring in the capital Willemstad. This port is very walkable if you don't have mobility issues so it's a great way to get your steps in while exploring a UNESCO world heritage site.

Sunset video:

I was worried the clouds on the horizon would steal the show but in the end it worked out pretty good.

After an afternoon nap I headed back out to see if my sun position estimates were right. This is Governor's Beach. While waiting I grabbed a few drinks and dinner at The West Deck Beach Bar. Looks like this is going to work out perfectly. Time for another round.

We have a late stay in Aruba with an all aboard time of 10:30pm. On occasions like I always try to find a beach to enjoy the sunset. Another ship inbound to join us. This has a lot of potential for a sunset and checking an app I have it confirmed the sun should set in this general direction. The little boat anchored just off shore caught my eye as a potential subject to include in my sunset photos. After a 4 mile morning stroll I was back on board grabbing some lunch sandwiches from cafe270. Another view of the Discovery behind us. Oops! I did it again! Another NextCruise booking. Fun fact I didn't know - NextCruise has a 3 booking limit. To book a 4th they'll need to get permission from HQ.

Day 3 - Sea Day Good morning world! A sunrise at sea. On a sea day, at 8:30am and hardly another guest to be found. It did rain briefly which brought with it some rainbows. Then a winter storm hit us and the roads were covered in snow and it was miserable. Then I woke up from my balcony nap under sunny skies. Crown and Anchor Top Tier event this morning. The house band played some tunes while we waited for the event to start. Captain stated we have 1,634 guests with 1,597 crew so almost a 1:1 ratio. That's luxury cruise ships numbers! In terms of CAS onboard, here is the breakdown: One sequence created for the Vistarama screens has the Royal Caribbean fleet sailing behind us. This was originally created for a Board of Directors meeting that occured on Quantum soon after it first launched but the video has since become a staple in C&A top tier events on Quantum class ships. Our progress: Checking out the new Flowrider surface. Looks pretty good. Later on this day they were testing out the new Flowrider:

Zone Zero was a lot of fun and a level of virtual reality I've never experienced before. It is $18 per person. Since I am solo I was paired up with 3 teenage girls to make our team of four as we Swashbuckled our way to defeat the Kraken. Picture is free to download or at a cost if you want it printed.

We often hear claims of a lack of transparency but with this letter presented to us at check in it seems pretty transparent to me. While unpacking my luggage I spotted a familiar shape coming into the port. It's Vision of the Seas! Here is a time lapse I quickly grabbed as I finished unpacking. After lunch and a few diamond beverages it was time for our departure which I also captured from my balcony. On the way out I noted some Royal fans here to see us off! A time lapse of course:

My take on this situation: I feel safer on a cruise than I do in my own city. On a cruise everyone is vaccinated and wears a mask. At the local grocery store I have no idea if someone is vaccinated (likely not here) and no one except employees is wearing a mask.