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Not sure anyone will find this amusing except @ScottD but currently in the CL wearing a Philly sports t-shirt listening to “Burning Heart” from Rocky IV. I’m ready to take on Ivan Drago (or at least some more coffee). Wife seemed pretty tired when I snuck out, don’t think she crashed like I did even though we didn’t go to bed early. I’m not gonna rush back to make sure we disembark right at 8am; would rather her sleep. We’re here with Freedom today so should be a little less crowded than the 1st leg anyway. We ended up going to All In after the aqua show (one is still great, one not so much, you can do the math). Then we got Playmakers to go pretty much b/c we could though I was a little hungry. More on Hooked later. The short version is we didn’t hate it but it’s at the bottom of the specialty list for us.

First time posting here, but long time reader. Love the blogs and have gained so much useful info. Concerning the red dots. We were on a European b2b 2 weeks ago on Voyager; hence no show reservations required. We also had a red dot on our card that signified we were b2b cruisers. That was the explanation we received. I finally contributed to the forum. Wow, I feel important

So life has been crazy the last few months. Youngest son in travel ball, a couple cruises with just me and a couple of the kids, a few trips to Austin to check on the restaurant, and wife taking Master's classes, we are ready for a vacation together!! Writing this from the plane as I didn't have time to get this started before we left. We did Alaska back in 2019 and loved it. This trip was booked to celebrate my 45th birthday and our travel buddies (aunt and uncle) 40th wedding anniversary. So we are trying to do this trip right. Itinerary: July 12 - ORD to ANC Alaska Airlines. Couldn't afford business class, but upgraded to premium to get some extra leg room for the flight. July 13 - Glass Dome Railroad to Denali National Park. Midnight sun ATV tour. Staying in Denali Cabins. Originally wanted to stay in the back country lodges, but the road is still closed this year to get back there and flying back to them was not cost effective July 14 - TBD...will be at Denali all day so probably do some hiking and figure out what else while there. July 15 - Motorcoach to Talkeetna. Top of the World Tour to Denali with a glacier landing. Staying at Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge July 16 - Motorcoach to Seward. Staying at Seward Windsong Lodge. July 17 - Northwestern Fjord Tour July 18 - Hiking in Kenai National Park then board Radiance later afternoon July 19 - Hubbard Glacier viewing July 20 - Junaeu. Still determing what we are going to do here. might just go to Mendenhall Glacier Park and do some hiking, sight seeing, July 21 - Skagway. White Pass Railroad and Yukon Suspension Bridge July 22 - Icy Straight Point. Whale Watching and Marine Mammals Cruise July 23 - Ketchikan. Hovercraft Eco Adventure & Wildlife Quest July 24 - Inside Passage July 25 - YVR to ORD American Airlines.....had points so going First Class here!! We did a 3nt dining package for the cruise and rest will either eat at the ports or do MDR. plan is to just take a ton of pictures and try to capture the beauty that is Alaska.

Took a nice walk to South Beach. Saw some chickens. It’s warm but the breeze is helping & some clouds have appeared. Still gonna need the pool to cool off.

Forgot another random story. Cabin attendant Mike stopped us in the hall earlier & asked if it was OK if he changed out my wife’s mattress. It wasn’t b/c she found it too hard, of course, but kind of an odd coincidence. He said even though Utopia is pretty new, some of the mattresses are “bad”, whatever that means. Anyway, she now has a new mattress.

I’m honored by your presence. You can admit I was the reason you finally posted, it’s OK, the other bloggers won’t be too jealous.

Backing up… We went to use our free plays before dinner. My wife quickly lost her $8.00. Then she played mine… If we understood the game correctly, she was one pepper away from winning $11K. The bonus round she activated lasted forever. We took the $80 and ran. First free play win since last summer.

Got off around 8:20am, still empty of course. We moved down the row a bit for the heck of it. Very nice breeze right now that I hope stays b/c it looks like a sunny day with no cloud cover. The moon is still out. We might go take a walk towards the Beach Club. Hooked/Playmakers thoughts/pics coming eventually.

If I wasn’t supposed to eat it all, I blame the live blog community for not prepping me, lol. If it’s not a bone or shell I assume it’s edible. Think I forgot to comment earlier. Mine wasn’t all fat, just one side, so I cut off those two inches & ate the rest. I guess the more well done part on the other end was the “rind.” Probably why the middle was the best part. Anyway, back in the cabin with more coffee & danish. Wife is up although I think she’s forcing it to get off early so I should probably eat & get ready.

Chops dinner We really enjoyed Chops. Nothing against the steak which was very good but I think I liked some of the other items more just for the uniqueness. We both loved the pretzel bread. Caesar salad Fried goat cheese salad (really enjoyed this and I almost never order salad in restaurants unless it comes with the meal) Pepper bacon (interesting and unique to me; I liked it except for the part that was all fat) Filet Bone-in ribeye Gruyere tots (really liked these, filling was like mashed potatoes) Mashed potatoes (we both loved them & my wife is a mashed potato expert, lol) Truffle fries (wife wanted to try them; I’d eat them with the burger if we ever had lunch but not worth it for dinner over the other potatoes IMO) Mac n cheese (only thing we didn’t like) The Truffle (I don’t generally order anything like an espresso martini even though I’m a coffee drinker but we had vouchers to burn and this was very good) Warm chocolate cake (wife liked it but didn’t think it was special) Red velvet cake (this was good but pretty heavy with the thick cream cheese icing. I wanted to try the key lime pie too but there was no way I was eating two desserts after seeing how large the slices were as others ordered dessert around us) We’re going to recommend a 2nd dinner at Chops for the family cruise in March since we need a couple repeats due to skipping certain restaurants for one reason or another.

Mason Jar brunch… 1st Moonlight Deviled eggs Johnny cakes with pulled pork Chicken n waffles Fried chicken breast n tots Moonlight #2 (no more mason jars) Bread pudding Gone bananas Chocolate shake to go

Indian/Seafood night in WJ. Most crowded WJ dinner I’ve seen yet. I was here for the Indian but the shrimps called out to me. Thanks again to @dougalsgirl & @AshleyDillo for teaching me about jalebi; it’s one of my favorite WJ desserts now. Off to the MDR for my wife’s dinner at 6:45, lol. Not sure I’ll order much but we’ll see. Compromise is the key to a good marriage, right? Sometimes that means two dinners.

We got off the ship as soon as the gangway opened. It was barely raining and had stopped by the time we got to our usual spot where it’s empty aside from a few other early risers.

I lied. I finally beat the sunrise (cloudy anyway) but got a nice view of the moon & the NCL Gem (according to cruisemapper). My photo skills are lacking but you get the idea. Having coffee alone in the CL, besides the now 4 crew members setting up the food & replenishing the coffee supplies. Never seen this many crew members take care of a CL before. I’m not very hungry so just going to chill here with coffee & hopefully let my wife sleep some more. I’m sure something will look good once they’re done & the food is out.

After lunch we went up to GK Wine Bar. The Pesky Parrot bartender we met yesterday who was super nice mentioned it was her birthday today and at some point was telling us how bad the crew mess was and how their pizza is so bad she really liked Sorrento’s. She said she liked veggie so we wanted to get her one from the wine bar but they said then could only do the 4 pizzas specifically on the wine bar menu (I’m sure someone could have made it happen but we didn’t want to make a big deal about it, we were just trying to do something nice). So my wife went to Sorrento’s to get her a veggie pizza there (she said the woman was really touched even though we told her we’d bring her a pizza). I figured I might as well use a credit at the wine bar at least once since I was already there (again, like I really needed more food). We split the dessert & I didn’t finish the stromboli. Stromboli (good snack IMO, not as heavy as getting a whole pizza, and I think they should call it something else b/c that’s not what most people picture when they see “stromboli” on a menu) Go bananas

Izumi lunch She’s a Geisha Ginger salad from hibachi side after wife asked for basically lettuce & ginger dressing Gyoza dumplings (was going to get the firecracker spring rolls but I love dumplings) Udon noodles with chicken Chicken teriyaki (wife will ask for white meat next time, all she’ll eat) Chef’s selection (basically the nigiri I’ve been getting everyday from the window but it’s my go-to sushi) Tempura lobster roll (I prefer nigiri but had to try something interesting & this was very good; lots of different flavors & a little spicy) Chocolate lava cake (wife liked this one better than the Chops version; it had more cake) Green tea ice cream

hot take but we actually enjoyed hooked however i got lobster and this was a beast of a lobster before they started enforcing size limits. like it was so large compared to my hand that i couldn’t finish AND the claw took a chunk out of me

Forgot to share this non-IT shenanigan that was in our cabin yesterday.

I don’t want to butcher the CL concierge’s name. He’s from China, like Jen, but doesn’t use an Americanized name. Very nice guy. Told us the CL is so quiet & boring. We brought him some chocolate bars (he did give us the magic dots after all but my wife brought extra just to give to whomever). It wasn’t a bribe & not sure we’ll use them this leg but we’re special again, lol.

We enjoyed meeting you guys on Saturday and hope you have a wonderful time on this second leg! Pretty sad.. just getting around to responding. You have no worry of me hijacking your blog and always enjoy following along.(even on the same ship). You do a good job of capturing lots of good stuff! We had a great time. Spent a lot of early morning (and evening) time just enjoying the balcony and the beautiful weather. Few random pics below. The Atlantic was like a lake on Sunday. It made for a nice ride home. We were some of those early risers. No real line…Off in the first group, headed home, stopped by Publix, and working by 7:50.. have to help pay for that next cruise and save vacation days (for more cruises) Safe travels! Jim&Sher

Chops pics & thoughts still to come as well as some other pics. Not a whole lot else to share about last night. We went to 5pm trivia (general knowledge) for the heck of it & failed (I need a theme), took photos, talked with the CL concierge for a bit after my wife checked for krispie treats, then got pretty full from dinner & wound up crashing early instead of going to Perfect Couple (which was much funnier on Wonder anyway). We also briefly considered watching some of Back to the Future in the aqua theater (subliminal advertisement for Star I think). My wife was stuffed from Chops & sadly I lacked the motivation to go all the way to Playmakers alone just b/c I had my credit so I feel like we’re already failing at the UDP, lol. I did get sushi at Izumi in the Park so there’s that. If we had watched Back to the Future I’m sure I would have gotten something since we would have already been on the Boardwalk. Oh well, current plan is 8:30 aqua show tonight so hopefully after that.

Tiny neck brontosaurus?

Snack Shack lunch I haven’t seen a cloud in hours. Sounds nice but it’s pretty hot out here. We just spent a while in the pool around the other side where it’s shady. Definitely a little crowded with two Oasis class ships here but it’s nothing like the human soup by the swim up bar where we sit. BTW, DJ iPod is going in the survey. No more 90’s music. We ate a little early so my wife just made her dessert. Not sure what to call it. Brownies topped with ice cream and broken up cookies in what’s usually a salad container. I can see us leaving a bit earlier than usual today due to the heat. I‘ll probably get a funnel cake but between the heat, dinner plans, and upcoming UDP, no need for a huge lunch.

The sun is out and chairs are filling up. About to hop in the pool for the 2nd time. Not much breeze either; the balloon is out. Bring back the clouds! The pool is warmer than last month but still cool enough to feel good.

Well this is about to take a take a turn in another direction… I never go up for food or bother the crew until the food is fully out (even though I see many people sneak in to grab something quickly & get out of their way, which is fine too, IMO, and the crew usually don’t seem to mind stepping aside for a second). There was only one guy up there & he was doing something with the coffee machine so I went to peek at the food. Another crew member came out & I got an oddly stern “we don’t open until 7am.” Yeesh. 1000 pardons for looking at the danish. Weird routine here. All 4 were back including a chef (based on the hat) & what seemed like a higher ranking crew member who took pics of the setup. I dunno if it’s serious quality control or what. I’m used to seeing one guy, maybe two, quickly & quietly take care of this stuff. Oh, bonus, I got a “we’re open now” at 6:52, lol. In case it’s not clear, nothing this trivial would ever bother me, I just find it interesting. Wife’s awake. Gonna grab more coffee & something to go. Hope that wasn’t too much early AM rambling.

Despite the adrenaline rush of the magic dot, we managed to sleep OK. My wife has a comforter under the sheets on her side since she found the mattress too hard last month & I think that’s helping. I’m up early but that’s nothing new. I mentioned before the cruise that I just needed to stay up a bit later & hopefully not wake up crazy early (by my standards) and that’s what we did last night. I fell asleep watching last night’s Orlando City match on my phone (the OC in my screen name for anyone new or who didn’t know) and finished it this morning but no one wants to hear about that. Off to the CL shortly. Not sure if we’ll have a sit down breakfast or not. The plan is to get off at 8am when the gangway opens since we’re at PDCC with Oasis today. Looks like a small chance of rain depending on which app/website I look at but that’s July. The always helpful cruise compass says “chance of rain”… gee thanks. Next post from the Oasis Lagoon.

Trellis Bar for @GatorCruiser Another Peach Tea What day is it?

I encourage more people to give up precheck. Less wait for me

Salmon & onion omelet from Solarium Bistro which starting to fill up. They put cheese in my wife’s “plain” omelet but quickly made her a new one when she took it back. I do like how Royal is usually good about rectifying small mistakes whenever possible. I’ll start saying “no cheese” after “plain” like I’m used to doing for my wife’s burgers that often wind up with cheese. After that we popped into the CL to ask for aqua show reservations. He said come back after 7pm for a special pass. No biggie, we could go standby, but might as well get reservations. No idea what a special pass is. Then we stopped in WJ for my fruit bread & some pastries from the kids section. Updated set up with food & my wife’s telescopic travel fan.

Going to attempt to Live Blog this trip Since we only have 1 cruise under our belts which was Liberty 2 years ago to Canada I wanted to show things through the eyes of newbs. I Really liked Mike's format so thats what I'm going to use to start and then find my own way lol Intro So who's going on this grand 7 Night adventure? Myself, Grumpy 55yr old Marine Vet that has to try and plan everything. Wife, 48yr old School Teacher who just wants a cold drink and a good book and sit on the balcony. and Almost 18yr old Daughter who just graduated High school who would rather just watch TikTok and YouTube videos of Hozier who we actually just saw last night in Canandaigua NY 20 mins from home. and the reason this was booked in the first place...20th Wedding Anniversary which was July 9th and Daughters High School Graduation. Plan is Girls will be taking our Fur babies to my Mother-in-law's on Thursday and we will drive to Newark NJ on Saturday morning and stay at a Fairfield (We dont need anything fancy) then drive to the port Sunday morning as we have a boarding time of 10:30. Cabin We had book a GTY Oceanview Balcony through our travel agent, on Liberty I was able to actually pick our room but since we are only 3 Symphony wouldn't let us which I still find odd, 16 Days out we finally got our room on Deck 10 near the rear of the ship Wife and daughter were super nervous but Thanks to the awesome folks in here I knew around 16 days we should have our room and it happened. Day 1 - Port Bayonne NJ (Embarkation) Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Orlando Port Canaveral Day 4 - CocoCay Day 5 - Nassau Day 6 -Sea Day Day 7 - Sea Day Day 8 - Port Bayonne (Debarkation) Every stop will be new for us. Girls wanted to do Ron Jon Store on Day 3 so got the transfer vouchers on Black Friday super cheap and they haven't gone down in price since. other than that no excursions stood out to them to try so we will be winging it . Entertainment I was able to get everything booked they wanted to see, we are seeing HairSpray on night 1 which for some reason is the only time it is listed, Both are major Broadway show aficionados so they are really looking forward to seeing it, We just saw Back To The Future the Musical here in Rochester NY a couple of weeks ago and that was outstanding. Dining 5pm Dining time as we are early eaters, and I booked Jamie's Italian for a lunch on day 6 and Wonderland for Dinner on Night 7 (Daughter's request). Drinks All 3 of us have a Refreshment package as we rarely drink, but we all drink Coffee drinks like they are going out of style lol and I tend to enjoy the Freestyle Sugar Free mixtures when they are in stock. Extras We have the Chair Clips that everyone raves about lol, got them on an Amazon sale so can't wait to try them out, and we are bringing our own Snorkels to swim at CocoCay. Thats it for now, we start initial packing tonight so that's always an adventure in itself for our family.

I've been watching our sailing every day for months now. All July SY sailings out of Bayonne have disappeared off the website almost two months ago. The 7/4 sailing popped back up a few days before it departed (while we were on FR), then the same thing happened to the 7/13 sailing. A few days ago, as I mentioned in @Robert M's blog, the 7/20 sailing came back. Our sailing, 7/27, has yet to make a reappearance on Royal's website. Hubby however is breathing a sigh of relief this morning. Yesterday, despite the 7/27 sailing appearing "sold out", there was a flurry of activity on our sailing's FB page because a few people won their Royal Ups at 10 days out, proving that yes, you can still win a bid if the sailing is "sold out". Most were going from Boardwalk Balcony to ocean view Balcony but I am going to take that as a sign that my bid might be a lost cause this sailing. Nevertheless, I am still super excited for our trip in a week from today!

Last full day… We didn’t get up crazy early. Wife decided to walk 5 miles so I grabbed our spot in the Solarium, went to CL for coffee to go & grabbed a few small items in WJ. Always liked the fruit bread (toasted) & I really like these kids section mini muffins. The muffins are a good cabin snack too since they’re small & not messy, kinda like cookies. Currently watching the rest of the OC match since I crashed during the 1st half after Playmakers last night. Pleasantly cool in the Solarium again. People trickling in but still mostly empty. Would like one more salmon omelet but not sure I should eatanything else before lunch. We’ll see. Wife feels stuffed & is skipping breakfast. She knows she shouldn’t order something like garlic parm fries at 10:30pm just b/c I’m being stubborn & getting food. I told her to just try the cookie but it’s hard to accept that you just need to “waste” some credits & only eat when you’re truly hungry.

The UDP is ridiculous. That is all. Chocolate bubble cone (last one, double sushi for me going forward) Late night Playmakers Like we really needed this at 11pm. I debated new stuff then realized if I’m going to overeat late at night, I might as well get the burger I know I love. I’ll try other stuff or go back to crunch rolls tomorrow and/or in March. One more day then back to reality (and a lengthy dry dock unless we add something unexpected). Looking forward to Izumi lunch and MJ dinner… assuming I’m hungry again in 12 hours.

Went to use our credits at Playmakers after All In (at least we’ve seen the ending now after the stage malfunctioned last time & we missed the last 10-15 mins). My wife wasn’t really hungry but got a burger anyway (garlic sauce & parm were on the side since we got it to go). I told her to try the cookie. I got the buffalo crunch wraps & poppers. Crunch wraps were nice & crispy. I expected more flavor inside but since they come with buffalo & ranch for dipping, not important. Poppers were pretty basic poppers. I ended up eating most of the burger too even though it was naked (the toppings were sorely missed). There’s more stuff to try but so far I still think the burger (fully dressed) with garlic parm fries is the standout (onion rings are good too but that’s a pretty huge tower if no one is sharing). We have GK & MJ dinners left so dunno how hungry I’ll be even at 10:30 or whatever but will try to use credits even if it means wasting some food (I’m a bad person, I know). Besides the cookie, not sure what I’ll get. People don’t seem to like the wings & I'm not a big wing guy anyway. We’ll see what sounds good at the time.

Hooked My wife liked her filet and not much else. I was going to get surf n turf knowing people like the filet but decided I’d just stick with seafood to keep it lighter since I knew I wanted to get Playmakers later. My crab cake was pretty good, not amazing but it did have actual crab. Lobster mac n cheese wasn’t too bad either (especially considering the fleet-wide mac n cheese issue). Twin lobster tails were also fine, just not very big. The mini cherry pie was probably the best thing I ate. Nice flaky crust & the presentation beats a slice. Also got the lemon tart which had a nice crispy shell but the filling was just OK. So like I said, nothing I had was actually terrible but nothing besides the pie was good enough to bother having again, IMO, given how much we have enjoyed every other specialty venue.

Afternoon snack. Big fan of the $10 Izumi in the Park credit since I don’t get much sushi at home & it’s not exactly a heavy snack. Wife might try a bubble cone later tonight with hers.

It slowly filled up and was fairly busy by 1:00 or so. There were also quite a few crew members having lunch there. We decided to keep our plans as-is, btw. View from the outdoor terrace Rolls Caprese salad (figured I would stick with the salad theme since it worked last night & is lighter than meatballs or fried calamari or whatever & glad I did) Half truffle/egg, half plain pizza (it was different & I enjoyed it but will probably go back to the Giovanni pizza next time) Chicken parm (wife wanted to try it again b/c she didn’t love it last time she ordered it. she liked it, just too heavy for lunch but we knew that. they should really have lunch portions for some items.) Carbonara (still good, still heavy, I was good and didn’t even try to finish it) Chocolate ravioli (still my wife’s favorite dessert) Go bananas

Back onboard by 9:35am this time. Muster wasn’t set up yet so we’re relaxing in an empty Solarium with no music, just the sound of the hot tub bubbles, very peaceful. We also reclaimed the side with the hippos. Happily chilling & making some plans for this leg.

Pub singer & Sorrento’s for @dustfsu. We were only there for about 20 minutes while I had a snack & then he went on break but he definitely had guitar skills. Coco Cay with Oasis tomorrow. Hoping to be off the ship early.

Wife’s custom Sorrento’s order… burnt cheesy bread (yes, she wants it that way). I don’t need it that well done but it is pretty good. And she finally contributed to the voucher cause. For some reason they’re using large glasses for daiquiris this cruise. I grabbed a Polish sausage from Dog House while they made her pizza & had a Twisted Tea. Still trying to take it a bit easy after last night. No pics, it looked like a hot dog & a can. Also had some of her cheesy bread.

@Hoppy2BHere found me in the Solarium. I’m managing to meet quite a few posters lately.

That's better. I’m starving after lack of eating last night, lol. Random observation. My wife’s naked chocolate croissants are now called “pain au chocolat” which is really what they are. @dougalsgirl will appreciate that part.

Not much difference between the 6-6:30am CL walk & the 7:30am version. The sun is up & I saw maybe 3 dozen people instead of almost none. Having coffee with the hippos while wife went walking. Still deciding what small breakfast to have. Will probably just grab pastries from SB with my 2nd cup of coffee. Highly doubt my wife will eat anything except maybe fruit. She felt really full last night. Don’t think it’s as easy for her to go from eating healthy at home to a big lunch & dinner.

Standard Royal IT shenanigans… We showed up at Mason Jar for brunch & the manager we got friendly with said almost all of our UDP reservations disappeared… yet they were all still showing in the app. She went down the list and had to re-book them for us. Some are now 15 minutes off but whatever, no biggie. Unsurprisingly she said issues like that keep happening and it’s a pain in the (not her words of course).

Happy turnaround day. LET THE EATING BEGIN !!!

So we did end up leaving early and since 90’s Name That Tune is always at 1pm on CocoCay day, we decided to go while we had the chance. 1. It was mostly 90’s plus one Taylor Swift & one Justin Bieber song. (We got one of them at least.) 2. We tied for 1st with 3 other teams but I lost the tiebreaker. Oh well. Not much planned for the afternoon.

Back to the CL. Nice set up for a toasted bagel with all the fixins… too bad there were no bagels, just bread for toast. I ended up just having a fruit danish & donut. Wife didn’t want anything. More room for snack shack later and tonight is our one MDR night, mostly for her. I actually like the salmon from the Bon Voyage menu but I’m more interested in Indian night in WJ. We have MTD at 6:45 so I’ll probably have WJ before that. 9:15 ice show and 10:15 adult comedy after dinner. The comedians are both repeats from last month that we didn’t love but my wife wants to give them a chance anyway.

If not for the forums I wouldn’t have had the slightest clue what the heck the dot was, lol. When the crew member scanning for reservations saw it and lowered her scanner it was like the Red Sea parting.

i am seriously contemplating getting a bunch and just selling them on my next cruise from the sundeck

Some Nassau beach club pics. I haven’t followed too closely since I’m not paying those prices but looks like progress. Actual buildings and at least one pool. I’m too lazy to walk around to take pics of the rest.