KWong

Oh I definitely have. Better to be honest about food than lie. Otherwise you might have to eat it again.

I think I just heard the hearts of my Texan friends/relatives break with that comment.

I would probably get some Australian money if I'm down there, or Euros if I'm on the Mediterranean. You should be able to use your credit card for most things in Canada. If you use cash you'll get a bunch of loonies and toonies back (but no pennies) that you'll have no idea what to do with.

I'll have to do that... but I think I might need to rescan them into a pdf...

Quick note: I'm working on scanning the Cruise Compasses and assorted sheets they gave us. Should I include it here or somewhere else?

As he should be. But that's $10 you don't have to spend on food, so there's that. Please thank him for his service for me. I guess this doesn't surprise me as much as it does you. I think it's a little too deep into the start of the school semester for people to justify taking time off, unless they've got real little ones. Then again, I went on a Disney Cruise one October and that was overrun with kids. Go figure.

Day 3 - George Town, Grand Cayman We’d only been to Grand Cayman once, on a Disney cruise, and we used that time to have a beach day. This time around, we decided to do something we’d never tried before - swimming with Stingrays. After a lot of research, I signed up with Stingray Sailing and their sister company, Cayman Eco Adventures. They have a very good reputation and do excursions with small groups, so I was willing to go with them despite their tour not being the least expensive. Unfortunately, fate had other things in mind for us. Because of the diversion back to Key West we arrived to Georgetown around 8:00. At this point we’d already eaten breakfast in the MDR but were unable to finagle our way onto one of the first tenders (which went out around 8:30) out to the terminal. Which if things proceeded apace would not have been a huge issue, but after the first two tenders winds and waves caused a temporary stop to the boats. And since it was looking like we wouldn’t be off before 10, I emailed Stingray Sailing (I’d been in contact with them throughout the morning) notifying them that we would have to cancel our tour. To the credit of the company, they refunded our deposit even though they did not have to based on the contract language. So while I cannot comment on the tour itself, I have to commend the customer service and will more than likely give them another go if and when we come back. So with the tour cancelled, we went with our backup plan – Calico Jack’s and Public Beach. Public Beach is one of the well known locations along the Seven Mile Beach, and Calico Jack’s has been an institution there… but apparently they’re leaving. Don’t know what this means for the area, but I’m sure they’ll be missed. Seven Mile is also where my brother once went into the water with a cellphone in his pocket. Oops. But thanks to that incident, I now bring those airtight cellphone pouches (several variations can be found on Amazon) with me, just in case. Cab/Minibus fare over to Public Beach was $6 per person, and once there, we rented chairs and an umbrella for $20. And with that, we hit the water. What I love about Grand Cayman is that the beaches have some incredibly clear water, and it’s beautiful. We also had some lunch. Kept it simple and had chicken tenders and pan-fried grouper. I’m fairly certain the grouper was previously frozen, but whatever spices they use on it make up for that – very tasty! After a few hours at the beach we headed back to the ship. An interesting note was that on the way back our minibus had members of the Grease cast. Interesting because it seemed like they were mostly from the British Isles or Australia – I have to say that their onstage accents really fooled me, so kudos to them! Once back on the ship we headed to Sorrento’s to grab a couple of slices. Didn’t feel right to overeat at Windjammer when a slice or two would do the trick. And after the snack it we had just enough time to see the Texans win, shower, change and head down for dinner. Dinner on this day was probably the slowest that I’ve seen on a ship. Ryan had mentioned that this was a new menu combination so it’s possible that the kitchen staff were working the kinks out. It does make me wonder if this was why the dinner was my least favourite of the cruise. I had the sole and everyone else, the short rib, and both seemed heavily reliant on underwhelming sauces to carry them. So I’ll say that if you were on Independence and saw this menu, I’d recommend taking this day to do a specialty restaurant. The show tonight was the ice show, Freeze Frame. Based on our experience with Grease, Hannah and I got there early, and managed to nab some decent seats. As always, the performers worked hard and generally did a good job with a few tumbles here and there. The highlight was when one of the women did a spin that featured something similar to this: This is what I call a crazy trick. The plot of the show was a trip through the various dance and music styles from the 40’s to the 70’s. I don’t know that it entirely worked for me. There were some fun moments (for example skating around with handlebars during “Bicycle Race”) but I wasn’t really feeling it. After the show Hannah went off to sleep while I went down to Playmakers to catch the end of the Patriots-Titans football game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the crowd was firmly anti-Patriots (I’m sure there were some Titans fans, but people REALLY wanted the Patriots to lose). Not having a horse in this race (I’m a Texans fan, and while I expected us to get smushed, last weekend was a step beyond smushed.), it was fun to watch. Overall, we didn’t get to do what we’d planned, but the pivot to the beach still made for a nice day.

We did not have lobster on our recent 5-night on Independence. Formal night was on Day 2 Judging from my cruise, you won't be the only "that guy" on formal night. Lots of guys don't want to get all dressed up for one night, and I completely get it.

First of all, great name Kevin! I've seen the punch card on nearly all of my August cruises (I wasn't looking the first time I went on Allure), but I think that might be because of the time of year.

Thought Sorrento's in Indy wasn't bad. Not the best ever, but than your average Large Chain pizza (or as I call it, "replacement level" pizza).

Yeah I can't do a "day of" blog either. No idea how Matt manages it. So I jot down notes and revisit when I do the actual writing. One time we had a piece of luggage like Maui so much that it stayed a couple of extra days.

You should have kept it. What autocorrect comes up with at times is just... let's go with amazing.

I think it might be just via download at this point. The way I see it, if you've got a scanner and time to spare, you can get the prints and do your thing. Just remember that you will need to collect the physical prints and put them away for the trip home. One print may not weigh that much, but get 100 prints and it starts adding up. With digital, you can print whichever pictures you want, at whatever size you want, at minimal extra cost. No additional scanning required, and you can download at your leisure. Weight, obviously, is negligible.

It's a bit old school, but you could get a magnetic whiteboard and stick that on the inside of your stateroom door. Yes, it does create a bit of hassle since you have to go back to the stateroom to read/write updates, but it also costs a lot less than a 4-device VOOM.

I'm not sure how your autocorrect came up with Stuart instead of (I assume) steward but this was pretty hilarious. We do this as well. Sort of. We have a mesh beach bag for the beach and for the pool, and I've got one of those backpacks that fold up into a small pouch for excursions

About the photo - I chose a pic where I look the least fat. Ha! I should also note that formal night dress (for those that are curious) ran the gauntlet for guys. I think "worst" was jeans and a polo, while "best" was full tux. My look here was basically my work clothes plus a jacket. Nothing too fancy, I think. I've always been curious as to how loud those Promenade rooms get with all the activity you can see.

Yes, yes it is.

Actually I think they used udon noodles. This was a stock picture that looks surprisingly similar to what we got.

After lunch the kids went back to the room for a nap, while my wife went back up to the pool deck to… nap. I went to the promenade to grab a coffee and a latte (for my wife – we got a coffee card) and relaxed on the balcony. A little before 3pm, we headed down for our skate session. Seeing as we flew in from Toronto, we wore our “travel” clothing on the ice. I hadn’t done any proper skating in about 4 years, so despite the skates not being a great fit (as to be expected with rentals) it was a lot of fun – like riding a bike. Other folks were not having as much of a good time – as you can see in the photos some were having issues just trying to skate, which if it was one of your first times, is not unexpected. Tonight’s dinner was formal night, and as such we took a little extra time to get ready so we could get some photos taken. The show tonight was Grease. Olivia and my wife were a little tired so Hannah and I went to watch. We figured getting to the theatre 15 minutes early would be sufficient for us to get some decent seats. We were wrong. Check out the crowd! And that pillar right in front of me! Believe it or not, this was the first time I’d seen a production of Grease from start to finish, and I thought the cast did a pretty good job with it. And I know that the musical has some themes that might be considered too mature for kids, but I wasn’t much older than Hannah when I started watching Degrassi Junior High, so I didn’t think this had anything that she couldn’t handle. After the musical, Hannah went back to the room and I decided to try my luck at some blackjack. And to say that I had no luck would be understating things. I don’t play with a huge buy-in, but I lost my stake in about 30 minutes thanks to a combination of dealer blackjacks and players that consistently stayed on 14/15 against a 10. I can usually grind myself back to even, but on this night I had no shot. With my wallet a slight bit lighter, I went up to grab a couple of slices from Sorrento’s. And was actually surprised as the pizza was better than I’ve had on other Royal ships. Not sure I’d have more than a couple of slices at any one time, but I’d definitely eat it over Big Chain pizza. After the pizza and some water, it was time for bed. The next day would be our first port – Grand Cayman.

Day 2 - At Sea When I last posted, I talked about an adrenaline dump. Well, that must have left me more tired than normal, as this guy, who wakes up at 6am nearly every day, woke up closer to 8. And as everyone was waking up, we got news that the ship had actually turned around and was heading to Key West due to a medical emergency. Obviously disappointing, as it would delay our arrival into Grand Cayman, but clearly, not the biggest concern here. But apparently the coast guard or a medical boat was able to get out to the ship once we were close enough to transfer the patient, so we were able to turn around and resume course after a few hours. While we were heading back to Key West, we decided to eat breakfast in the Main Dining Room, since my wife wanted an omelette to order and we knew you could get one there. Setup was familiar – seating on deck 3 with a small buffet and waffle iron in the centre. Apart from Olivia (who I should mention had gotten braces just before Christmas and it was affecting her appetite) we ordered off the menu and it was atypically slow for what I’m accustomed to on Royal – maybe 20 minutes where a breakfast order normally takes 10. At the end of the day, it’s not that concerting, seeing as we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere, but still, strange. Today’s plan was to take Olivia to Adventure Ocean, and for Hannah to see if any tweens showed up at the Living Room. We went up to Adventure Ocean at 9 and… no kids yet. Seemed a bit strange, given the long-ish lineups to register for the program, but at the same time, this cruise was crossing over into the start of school after Christmas break. No matter – this gave us some time to scope out the pool deck and see where the best places to relax were. (spoiler alert: Unless you’re a smoker, it’s on the starboard side, along the glass.) After looking around, we went back up to Adventure Ocean and there were a few kids there, so Olivia happily went in. A quick peek into the Living Room showed that it was not open yet. So the rest of us headed over to Sky Pad. Hannah and I gave this a shot with the VR unit on and it was quite the experience. As one might expect, the VR unit blocks your vision from seeing anything but the animation, and it’s quite a trip doing the bouncing while travelling along this virtual path. It’s actually funny how, when you’re watching people, you wonder how they could possibly bounce off the trampolines, but once you’re strapped in you can feel when you’re getting close to the edges. Lots of fun, and on a longer cruise, I might have been inclined to try it a few more times. But for this trip, we were one and one, in part because we wanted to sign up for some ice skating. This was being done down in Studio B, and so Hannah and my wife went to soak in some more rays up top, I headed all the way down to Deck 3 to do the signup. On the way back down, we took another look into the Living Room, which was now opened. It was empty. Because I like to multitask, I also visited the adjoining Focus photo area to sign the photo waivers and ensure that our photo package was ready to go. It’s a pretty nice area despite being in the bowels of the ship, and a bit surprising to me as they appeared to be 100% digital with no stacks of photo binders in sight. Surprising, but nice to see. Sign up was pretty quick. Since I didn’t have the kids’ Sea Passes with me, I could only sign the waiver and have their cards punched later. Since I was signing up for the afternoon skate and not the one happening right after, this was fine. But for now, it was time for lunch. After a trip upstairs to grab Olivia we headed back downstairs to the MDR for lunch. We like the MDR because they have a menu, but also a limited buffet and the infamous tutti salad station. And while we did order from the menu, Hannah and I couldn’t resist the call of the tutti, which may or may not sound like this: https://youtu.be/1VDA_6MYSQ0 Ahem. Anyway, this lunch was a bit of a fail. The steak sandwich was tasty, but the pappardelle was way overcooked, the yakitori was bland, and the “Singapore noodles” did not look like this: A Instead they looked more like this: and tasted akin to a very ketchupy pad Thai. There was a waiter who was walking around asking about the food and service, so we did tell her about the noodles. She actually agreed, although being from Thailand she did not agree with my pad Thai comparison. Go figure

I was in Costa Maya in Aug 2018 - stench wasn't omnipresent, but there was a lot of seaweed. The places along the beach strip were doing the best they could with it, but it was overwhelming, and caused the water to look very murky. Lovely temperature, but not what you want to look at. We went to Tropicante and it was nice. Steve the owner is usually there and available for a chat. I've been to Nachi Cocom - great all-inclusive club if you're looking for a beach, a pool, and some quiet time. Was just at Paradise Beach. not a bad place but too windy to really stay on the beach for too long.

This. Easy peasy.

Stingray Boat Tours will probably get you 2 out of 3. I had signed up with Stingray Sailing (well reviewed) for a tour but due to some complications we couldn't get off the boat in time so missed the excursion. They refunded us our deposit even though they were well within their rights to not do so.

I've never found Downy release to work well for me. I also don't like the smell, but had I got it to work I'd have lived with that.

As we say in Canada, "Sorry". And if it makes you feel better, I learned of this tip after a couple of trips and numerous battles with the shelf.