Skigoofy

Happy Dan kindly took some pictures of the dock area when the sun passed behind some clouds while I was in the shower.  He’s a good egg

 

They still dance at Johnny Rockets.

And if you want to eat at the Windjammer at noon on a 1pm port arrival time..don't.  ??  Line is out the door waiting to get in.
Good thing we have the UDP...

Bonus because I have NO drink package and can get my fizzy fix included.

Casino update:  I came out + $25 tonite so I was able to repay Lootenant Dayan for his generosity last night.  Now sitting at even Steven after night #2. Winner, winner, chicken dinner !
I have figured out the mystery of using two devices interchangeably.  It seems that logging out (log off.com) is not enough. I must turn off the WiFi on whichever device I do NOT want to use before trying to log on to the second device.  This is a bit of a pain as I choose to take photographs with my iPhone but want to blog with the iPad so I am constantly changing between the devices. But since I broke the code I have had no problems at all and I have not bounced Dan off of his device once since figuring it all out.  I feel so smaaaat.
Night night.  Sea day tomorrow. #sleepingin

The steak I got tonite at Giovannis was orders of magnitude better than the cold crap I got yesterday at Chops. Everything was better...the food, the service, the ambiance. Everything.  To be completely fair, yesterday’s epic fail at Chops was the embarkation lunch so I will withhold final judgement until tomorrow night when we will go to Chops for dinner. I’m not going to hold my breath though. It will be hard to top that extraordinary steak at Giovannis. 
For those who are counting, this makes 2 filets in 2 days. That’s a lot for me.  I’m not normally a big steak eater. 

Dan has the prawns. Really just shrimp, but prawns sounds fancier. He said his was very good.  
 

 
Reh-Roh. It’s 7:03 and I don’t see how I can drag my feet long enough to miss the start of the cattle call.  Looks like we’ll be going there before heading to the casino.  ??

2 points to report on the bread, olive and garlic warm-up
The olives do not have pits !  My already cracked molars thank you !
They did not make us dig the garlic out of the husks !  Much more elegant than making us dig and launch the cloves across the room.
Win, win
No cold soup tonite, by God !  It was steamin’.  Dan had some tuna tartare from Chops, I had minestrone and pork belly.  Our main courses should be coming shortly 

Giovannis for dinner. We have a 6:00 reservation and the cattle call-I mean, Top Tier event is at 7:15. Maybe we will make it.  We regularly skip that illustrious event but for reasons unexplained, Dan has requested to go.  I will eat slow. 
 


 

Day 4 - COCO CAY DAAAAAAY! 

After a yummy breakfast in the Windjammer, it was time to get ready to go to Coco Cay. The delay in Port Canaveral slightly pushed back our Coco Cay time from 9-5 to 10-6. We wanted to be some of the first off the ship since we had a Chill Island cabana and I wanted to spend as much time as possible there. We were super super lucky and Grandeur was the only ship docked there that day so only like 2,100 people on the whole island. There were TONS of free chairs and umbrellas all over. I’m super glad we had the cabana (especially for the price we paid) but if we didn’t, it wouldn’t have been an issue at all. The weather was GORGEOUS, calm seas, clear skies, and a high of low 70s. 


People dressed up in junkanoo costumes were hanging around for pictures and a live band was playing “Perfect Day” as we walked down the pier. 


We made a bee line for Chill Island to drop off our stuff at the cabana and get settled. We could have taken the tram, but decided to walk since I wanted to take in the sights on our way. I’m really glad we did because we got to see some stuff a tram ride would have missed. 
 





Hammock grove 

Both sand wheelchairs and strollers (I had heard of the wheelchairs but not the strollers) 

And we finally got to the cabana concierge! They had fruit flavored water and cold eucalyptus scented towels waiting for us when we checked in. Heaven. 

We had cabana number 2 in the front row of cabanas which I was super happy about. Even though there were cabanas on either side, it felt very private the whole time. I also noticed a wheelchair ramp up to all of the cabanas that I hadn’t heard people talk about. Not sure if these are new or just not mentioned as much. 






And the drink and food menus: 


Our cabana attendant was Silver and she was amazing. Super attentive and nice and had suggestions if you were waffling between things. I also lucked out because at one point I ordered a watermelon margarita and the bartender accidentally made a watermelon mojito first. Well both made their way back to me but I was only charged for the one I ordered. BONUS DRINK! 


You can see the NCL Island from the cabanas

Around 1 I decided to take a little stroll around the island and check things out. 







Directional signs are already up for South Beach and Coco Beach Club

Some of the construction that I could see. Pretty sure this is the beach club


And I think this is the portion of South beach that is still open through construction. There was a sign that there was no WiFi there. 

 
Around 1:20 I got a message in our family Whatsapp chat that lunch had arrived. I was almost back anyway so I was only 5 mins or so late to the food. We got crispy chicken sandwiches (we could specify if we wanted things like tomato or lettuce omitted), fries and mozzarella sticks. No pictures of the fries because they were demolished too quickly. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the food traveled. 



At one point a seagull came to visit, but he didn’t come closer than this so the food was safe. About an hour after lunch came, Silver brought over some fruit skewers and a bunch of cookies. Again, no pictures of cookies because they died an honorable death before I could snap one. 

There was WiFi on the island and it was amazing compared to Grandeur’s. My mom took the opportunity to download a bunch of shows to her iPad and I watched the latest episode of His Dark Materials on HBO (armored bears!) The WiFi acted like you needed a login, but if you tapped on “use without internet” from the login screen, you still had access to the internet. No clue how long this will last. Middle test is Coco Cay. Others are from our room on deck 2 on board and the Solarium. In general, I’ve noticed the WiFi is best early in the morning in public places. It was like 2.5 down on the deck 5 chairs around 7am. 

Anyway, all aboard was 5:30 and we started packing up around 4:50. We were one of the last cabanas to leave so we got to chat with Silver a bit before we left after tipping her thank you. She said she’s been with the company for 2 months and came from working at Atlantis. She lives in the housing they have on the island and she said she works something like 6 weeks on, 1 week off. If people live farther away like her coworker from Kenya, they work longer but have longer off. It was funny hearing how they have different impressions of the various ships. They were really happy today was just Grandeur because first of all fewer people, but also apparently Grandeur guests tend to be more laid back and not as demanding. I complimented her in how she was tactful in keeping people out of the cabana area since I had seen her greeting a man without a wristband with a huge smile and a “hello sir! Are you staying in a cabana with us today?” Knowing full well he wasn’t. She said that really meant a lot to her because that’s one of the toughest parts of the job. Apparently some people very very confrontational and aggressive about it which is a shame. 
 
We were able to catch a tram back to the ship and I saw that the sun was setting. It was so pretty that I had to stop like 10 times to get pictures. I’m sure I annoyed those around me lol 





When onboard and back to our room I went to go check the MDR menu for the night to see if we wanted to go there or WJ. Guess who I happened to see when I was there? CRUISING DUCK! I left it there for someone else to find after taking pictures


I recognize those names and I think they might be in the FB group for this sailing. So fun. We ended up settling on WJ for dinner and it was nice and quick but filling. We returned to a cute elephant in the room and then it was some more reading and passing out. 

 
 

Today I noticed these cute little overlooks at Central Park.

They are accessible from the aft elevator banks on 9.

Today's drink of the day..woooo x2 (+18%)

It's almost weird being on a long cruise again.  My last cruise on Allure was shortened to 4 days because of Hurricane Dorian.  My Harmomy cruise was a 3-nighter special sailing that they do when there's a charter for the other 4 days. Before that was Mariner..so it's been a while!
 

So last night was windy.  Yes, the Solarium sun deck is windy when the ship is sailing..very windy.  The clamshell covers are flapping in the breeze.
I meandered and eventually went to bed at a respectable hour.  Noticed a special delivery in my cabin from the cavity fairy:

3 course meals are too long and exhausting for me.  I want access to the food without having the dining experience.  That would sell me on the Ultimate Dining Package every time.
Giovannis filet was great and they have so much more on the menu I want to try.  I can't eat much in one sitting, so it is trying.
Waiting for One Sky to start but they are having technical difficulties.  This is why you always try to front load the week on Oasis class ships..in case of rescheduled shows.
Womp, womp.  Show canceled.
 

? Only Four More Days Until We Go On Brilliance!!  Only Four Short Days 'til We Cruise!!! ?
 
Two days before we leave for Tampa -- well, make that 1 good night's sleep, 1 day, and then a very short night's sleep before we catch our O'dark 30 flight.  I've been watching the weather reports pretty closely, but think we'll be all right getting from Eastern Washington to Western Washington, and then down to Western Florida . . .  Had a bunch of stuff to get done around the house today, and so my suitcase is still sitting on the bed waiting to be filled.  Another thing that needs to be filled . . . In looking at other Live Blogs, I realized that I haven't filled in too many details about our itinerary, so here goes!
Sailing:  November 30 – December 7, 2019, Brilliance of the Seas, 7 Night Western Caribbean cruise Sailing with:   Me, my husband, and about 1780 of our new biker friends-to-be! Flying from:  Pasco, Washington (yes, the state of Washington; 120 miles away from that city and university that Jimmy Kimmel doesn’t believe exists)!   Pre-cruise hotel:  Marriott Waterside in Tampa (with about 1,000 of our new biker friends-to-be) Itinerary:
Day 1 – Tampa
Day 2 – At Sea
Day 3 – Georgetown, Grand Cayman
Day 4 – Cozumel 
Day 5 – At Sea
Day 6 - - Key West, Florida
Day 7 – At Sea
Day 8 -- Tampa
Cabin:  Junior Suite – our first one!
Pre-purchases: We got a decent price on an internet package at $12/day and my husband and I will both have the Deluxe Beverage package.  We loved the Segway excursion in Grand Cayman so are repeating it.  In Cozumel, I’ll be exploring the Amazing River.  In Key West, we’ll just kind of party with everyone else; plus, we will participate in a gigantic T-shirt swap!  Oh, and I booked the Ship All-Access Tour for myself -- one of my cruise bucket list items, believe it or not!
First departure from an "ordinary" cruise -- we'll be greeted in line by raffle ticket sales for both cruises and 50/50 drawings.  These are the first examples of the fundraising that goes on during the High Seas Rally.  It's not unusual for the the first 50/50 drawing to involve thousands (yes, $x000.00s) of dollars to the winner (and therefore a like # of thousands to the dialysis fund).
 

I thought towel animals were extinct, but I stand corrected. Had the first towel animal  show up last night. Here are a few photos showing my towel animal, sunset from the ship and panoramic of Smith Cove’s in Grand Cayman. 
 
 

I am writing to you from the Rhapsody of the Seas and we are currently on our 4th day. Sorry for the delay. 
  I am currently traveling with three people and two of us are in one stateroom and two of us are traveling with The Key.    Embarkation Day:  Embarkation was a bit of a mess. The Key members were given a priority boarding and our group decided to split up between Key and non-Key. There were not many agents helping Key members and we were waiting so long that the non-Key member of our group was through the check-in process about the same time. The check-in process took forever and I got onboard with a headache and took the longest nap once in my stateroom.    The Ship:  I’ve read a lot of negative reviews about people’s gripes with Rhapsody. I think I had to change my mindset prior to boarding and I reminded myself that this is not an Oasis Class ship. Once I was in the right frame of mind, I was pleasantly surprised by what I’ve found. The ship has an intimate feeling to it and I regularly run into the same people. The ship is clean and the staff have been great. It may be a little dated in some areas, but this hasn’t interfered with my ability to enjoy all she has to offer. As Matt once said, there are no bad Royal Caribbean ships.    The Food:  The food is okay. There has been one dinner in the MDR that I couldn’t finish because it was so bland, but everything else has been adequate. The buffet food is plentiful and there is decent variety to please most palettes. Nothing has really blown us away, but I’m satisfied with what the majority of food we’ve had thus far.    The Activities:  Rhapsody doesn’t have as many activities as the bigger ships, but we’ve managed to keep ourselves busy. We’ve been to one show, we’ve taken advantage of the trivia nights and I personally have caught up on my sleep. It’s been 9 years since our last Caribbean cruise and I was surprised that Royal charges for their galley tour, which used to be free. I can’t comment on activities for children, but imagine that there isn’t a lot for teenagers to do.    Tendering:  Key members are supposed to get priority boarding on the tenders, but honestly we didn’t need it. We got to Grand Cayman early in the morning and there was no difficulty getting off the ship. The staff offered to let Key members cut the line at a non-tender port, but we didn’t feel the need to do it.    Staterooms:  The staterooms are satisfactory and clean.  I’ve taken everybody’s advice and have brought my magnets and am using a multi-USB hub to charge multiple devices.    The Shows:  Saw Piano Man and thought it felt like a high school production. The magician last night was more entertaining. Overall, both were okay.    The Internet:  The Surf & Stream is generally good so far. There have been a few moments when it has been a little slow, but it’s not terrible. I have been able to stream Netflix and shows from my ITunes account.    Coffee Card: The regular coffee onboard isn’t much to write home about. I pre-purchased the coffee card and I am satisfied with the overall value. The staff on Rhapsody have been generous with their “punches.” I ordered a double shot of espresso this afternoon and it was only one punch.    We are having a great time here on Rhapsody and have no big complaints so far. Please let me know if there are any questions out there. 

Well I have been missing in action a bit this week,  but now catching up with the blog.  From Saturday through monday, I completely disconnected for the first 2 sea days and had my phone in airplane mode.  Yesterday, we were ported in Port canaveral so I had phone access even though we stayed on the ship.  Today, I am using my free day of diamond surf for 2 devices.  We will likely use my husband's credit tomorrow and purchase surf and stream for the duration of the cruse.  Today, we port in Nassau.  We will likely stay on the ship again today, but we will get off tomorrow in Cococay.
I will post some photos soon, but here are some thoughts thus far:
I really like anthem.  Our cabin is a balcony cabin on the 13th floor and we are right by the forward elevators.  The last 2 days have been gorgeous, and I enjoyed time both afternoon's at the north star bar! 
We love 270. We watched a movie there yesterday afternoon.  I had the Kummelwick on day 1.  From a flavor standpoint, I liked it better than on other shifts, we have just liked the roll it was served on better on other ships. 
We used our free dining certificate from the travel agent to eat at wonderland on night 2.  We very much enjoyed the experience, and let our waiter choose the apps for us.  For the main entree, we split the pork belly and the fish.  Both were great.  For all the other nights, we have eaten in my time dining.
Since this itinerary has so many sea days, and we have stayed on the ship for 2 of the port days, I am really glad I purchased the beverage package, despite being diamond.  It has given us more freedom, and I have also tried more drinks and shots and have been fine leaving them if I did not like them.  ( I don't really love overly sweet drinks).
I love the vintages on this ship.  They have my favorite Cava that is usually served at the beginning of the chefs table.
 Being thanksgiving week, there are lots of families on board this week so the seaplex is super crowded.  I have not felt crowds throughout the rest of the ship, but I think we are often doing things at different times than the crowds. 
The diamond lounge has extended into the music hall for happy hour.  Last night was a little annoying because there were many children that were allowed to roam free and were out of control at the pool tables or were throwing tantrums.  Since we have a drink package, we usually just visit the diamond lounge for a few snacks, but on sunday, It was the best place for my husband to watch the football game.  Tomorrow's game should be nice enough weather to watch poolside 
Our favorite things so far:
We will rock you ( we did the matinee show on day 2)
We will rock you singers performing in schooner bar last night ( It was Joyce from the piano bar's last night of her contract, so a special show)
Still to come:
Excited for Cococay tomorrow on Thanksgiving
Spectra show at 270 later this week
 
 

Update on pre cruise communication with our genie Andres
So far my interactions with Andres have exceeded the mediocre experience from Royals main customer service group. I heard from Andres on Sunday, I replied the same day and heard back from him again this morning. ??  Andres and I are off to a great start! 
What kind of things did Andres want to know? 
A list of our “must haves” Port arrival time and boarding procedure  Mini bar requests  Information on our preferred dining times, entertainment and activities  Any special celebrations ?  What has Andres done so far? 
For some reason the cruise planner would not allow me to reserve the thermal suite even though it shows as available. The main call centre couldn’t help.  When I told Andres this was a “must have” for us, he reassured me that he would take care of it once on-board! ✔️ for Andres. 
We expect to arrive at the cruise terminal around 10:30am and Andres said he will  try to have our suite ready early. ✔️ Andres (even though we are totally fine exploring the ship and eating lunch I appreciate the effort and it would be nice to get unpacking out of the way) 
Andres confirmed that you cannot go up in North Star until last bridge has been cleared but he will make arrangements for us to do this immediately following that! ✔️ Andres 
Pepsi is my drink of choice but I said I am totally fine with Coke. Andres said he would try to get Pepsi for me. ✔️ Andres 
Andres has already confirmed he will sign me up for cupcake decorating class (complimentary for star class) and Lindsay and Reyd for sushi class (also complimentary) and bridge tour for all 3 (complimentary for star class). ✔️ Andres
Holiday menus have not yet been finalized but I will receive a draft dining/entertainment schedule closer to sailing. All in all I am feeling pretty good about everything.   
 

And ended with some money shots.


Went back to the ship to scrub off the day.

The actual coaster was up a short path.  You are seated in a bobsled style car that operates with handbrakes.  Kids have to be older than 12 to ride solo and they can only be the passenger in a car.  It's pretty simple to operate, push forward on the brake levers to release the brake and accelerate and pull back to engage the brakes.
I had an absolute blast.  I ran through it once to get a feel for it and then ran through subsequent times to take photos.  Rules are you have to have everything tight enough not to fly off (hats ans sunglasses) and you can't take bags with you.  You leave them at the start platform.
The coaster takes you up a long hill that ends right next to where the zipline starts.

And then you're off!

It goes through twists and turns and gives you sneak peeks of a great view of the ship. I imagine that's the view the zipliners get.

Labadee is picturesque..lush and green which is in stark comparison to CocoCay.  Labadee makes CocoCay feel very, very manufactured while Labadee seems natural and rustic.


There were shaded paths and large trees at the back of the beach where you could lounge in the shade.  The end of November brought us excellent weather.  It was warm and pleasant in the shade with a nice breeze and devoid of the typical humidity.
There's a tram that takes you from the end of the pier to the different beaches.  We rode the tram all the way out to Columbus Cove just to check it out.  I would be too lazy to that, but one with more motivation than I could.
The Dragon's Coaster is located at Adrenaline Beach.  I found the signage that led me to the sign up line where I signed a waiver on a tablet and handed over my ticket for a wristband.

My only excursion I booked was the Dragon's Tail Coaster which was $25 back in April on the cruise planner.  Never saw it that low again and by the time sailing was close the single rides were selling $34.99/person.  I love coasters and thrill rides and this was a cheaper price point than ziplining.  So I decided it was worth it (Spoiler alert: It was).
My excursion ticket was delivered to my stateroom the night before.  It didn't have any instructions with it; just the ticket in the envelope.

We were docked in Labadee by 6:45am (earliest time I saw this morning..could have been in before that even.)  Our port time was 7am to 3pm.  I figured earlier way better and would avoid the 10-2 hottesr part of the day.  We ended up moseying off the ship at 9:45 or so.
Well that answers the question of do Haitians celebrate Thanksgiving?

I bet they are thankful for all of our tourism dollars.

"You kids get off my blog!" ??

First of all, we are docked at the Port at the Naval Air Station, Key West.  The last time I remember visiting KW, we docked right downtown.  

The super secret shuttle that was provided by the Concierge was a very nice trip down the elevator to the gangway and a trip to the front of the line to get off the ship.  Then we walked a short distance to where there were a series of shuttle vehicles waiting to drive everyone to town.  This service by the Concierge actually gave us quite an advantage as the line off the ship snaked waaay up the stairs to distances unknown.  We walked straight off the ship without any wait at all.  Our vehicles ended up being one of the conch trains. 


So, we rode the conch train into town along with a very nice guided tour by the driver.  The ride was perfect -  not too hot, not too windy,  just right.  To my utter shock, Lootenant Dayan (his other nickname) suggested that he had seen all of KW that interested him and perhaps we might consider simply remaining on the shuttle right back to the ship.  Imagine my surprise!  This is kind of suggestion that I would normally try and weasel into the conversation but it came out of HIS mouth.  I was delighted !
So we did not detrain when the shuttle stopped.  The “conductor” seemed not at all amused that we were hightailing it back to the ship without even getting off and his audible heavy sigh into the microphone (more like a groan) made us ?.  So....we rode back the same path we had just come as the only conch train passengers.  THIS is how the suites do it !  ??

Back on the ship in probably less than 30 minutes, we did what all good slugs do....eat.  We wandered into the WJ; I had a burger and Lootenant Dayan had some kind of stewish-looking thing with rice.  He had a chocolate ice cream cone and I had some Boston Cream Pie.   Ahhhh....life is good.  Could be we will try and see Spidee at 4:00.
But for now - nap time !