Skigoofy

happy to report that we breezed through security and are now in the new united club at terminal A. 
 
my new shoes are like walking on a cloud!!! 

highly recommend these platform birkenstocks. they are supportive and easier to maneuver in than most of my other birks. 💚

Well I have checked out my cubby and for the first time ever in an interior cabin, I find it a cozy spot for just me. Two would not be bad as long as they were very friendly. 
 
wandered a bit and had some pizza for lunch. Maybe a steak in the MDR for dinner. Since I am solo i got shifted from early seating to My Time. Not a big deal but to my experience My Time has been a mess since restart. Guess Ill find out if it has improved! 
 
next stop though is the meet up for the Face Book group and Sail Away. Then later I am gonna go cook in the Solarium hot tubs!

On board !! 😸🙀😸
Check in was easy, scanned my set sail / sea pass from my phone, went through security and didn't have 5 minutes of sitting before walking on board. 
 
Found the muster station and got that put out of the way and now sitting on the Royal Promenade with a Blueberry Nojito.
I’ll have to explore what other non-alcoholic offerings are aboard and post them as I go. I am sure there are more I can find. The Bar Tender here at the R bar has already marked me as a non drinker so I may pick his brain a bit. 

I think at this point, you should just have one long continuous blog ....
You and @Lovetocruise2002. It can be 3k pages long with 24.2M views. 😅
 

Breakfast in Galveston ya’ll!

In Galveston! and checked into Moody Gardens Hotel. I snacked on the way down from DFW so no big adventure for dinner. Thinking of Sea Wall Coffee Company here for in Galveston for breakfast.
 

Wow so much has changed in my plan since I started this Live Blog.
Battleship Texas opened up more drydock tours but I had already scheduled other things for Sunday Morning. Oh well. 
Went from the State Park to Moody Garden Hotel. Managed to snap up a great online deal on a Sunday night room. Cancelled Parasailing as the DW wants us to try that as a team on a future cruise.
Jan 12 we Headed down with the Scouts for a weekend trip and stayed the night on USS Lexington in Corpus. That was a fun but long weekend especially with freezing weather moving in while we were in Tents on Friday night! Flipped around once I got home and headed up to Oklahoma and spent a-lot of heavy but good family time with my Step sister helping settle My Step Dad's estate. Then on my first day back to work after that emotional week Joint Commision walked into the Hospital I work in for our Survey! 
No rest for the wicked as I pivoted again  and hit the 11 YO's last Pinewood Derby before he moves up to Scout Troop. His last Cub Scout Pack meeting is Thursday night along with nearly every evening this week spoken for before I head to Galveston on Sunday, 
My RUB still says "submitted" I know on the FB group some have been accepted and some even have received a message saying they were rejected. But I will sit and wait and watch to see what mine does! 
Some time I really have to figure out what I am going to pack! Less than 7 days before I hit the road, Yikes! 
 
Oh and here's a Pic of the last PWD car just because it came out awesome! He came in 2nd in his age group and 3rd overall in a field of 28. He also won best design!
 

To Duck or not to Duck? For me that is a silly question. I honestly have as much fun hiding them as my 11 YO has finding them. He likes helping me hide them as well and he has made the executive decision that I should still hide them on this solo cruise. Of course I am directed to find one or two and bring home to him as well. 
I am going with keychain ducks this time to minimize space in my bags and well the darn things are kinda cool. 
If you don't know about ducks don't worry, it's just folks like me hiding ducks on cruise ships for others to find. I have heard a few different stories about how it all began and frankly I just don't worry about which one is the most accurate. The duck game has been around in many forms for a very long time, and I have my personal suspicions that this started with the inspiration of Jeep owners but that's just me.  The most common and sort of official story of Cruise ducks can be found here https://thepointsguy.com/guide/cruising-ducks/. 
However it actually started it is a genuine thing and just something fun to do. I found my first duck on Liberty of the Seas back in March of 2019. It has grown quite a bit since the restart. there is a facebook group for Ducks on royal Caribbean ships and you can usually find pics posted on the groups for individual cruises. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/368412343755019
There are some grinch's who don't like the ducks but most take it all in fun. I have talked to many crew members who have fun with it as well. On Radiance back in March I was talking to a couple of the stylist who were on break from the salon and they were very excited to learn they had in fact found one of our ducks hidden in the stairwell not far from their area of the ship. 
 

Goodnight all…it’s been a great voyage! Final thoughts coming tomorrow. 
 

Central Park

Of course we had to try the new food options..
They have one side with pizza and empanadas over by the cabanas.
Seafood on a pizza?  Why not...


This had flavor.

If I was a photographer..a ship money shot.

We (my brother and I) decided to keep our Hideaway Beach passes. My mother canceled hers since she didn't know how accessible it would be getting there. She can't walk long distances and can't step up high enough onto the trams (I barely can!). 
They did make this place accessible. There are wheelchair accessible trams with ramps and the pools have lifts. Sidewalks are wide, too.
I'm not one for sun and sand so I already knew this wasn't going to be my vibe. The pool is massive and heated but there's not a lot of space for poolside chairs. There are plenty of chairs down at the beach.  I've been wandering among all the shady seating areas by the food places and the bars.
The weather is absolutely gorgeous..super comfortable to this Floridian.
This is at the On the Rocks bar which has a live band. 

They also have shuffleboard and a pool table.

Chill Island area 
 

Actually going to get off the ship today! 😱
Pressing the gangway button takes you to the Promenade where you follow the signs.


They do have a towel station set up on the Promenade to check out towels before going down the escalator.
It is the same escalator you take to the casino but instead of hanging left they have the doors open on the right.




 
 

I ran up to the Suite sundeck to grab towels and they have a little breakfast spread going on up there, too.

CK night 6 menu had no significant changes other than the poached lobster being removed and moved over to Night 5. Hubby and I both got entrees that we’ve never tried. I got the Crab Crusted Flounder, and he got the Roasted Pork Loin. Both dishes were excellent! 
 

Today’s swag:
 

The Itinerary:
Sailing from Port Canaveral
Jan15th-20th: Mariner…...Ports: Cozumel and PDCC
Jan 21st to 28th: Wonder…. Ports: ST. Maarten, San Juan, and PDCC
Jan 29th to Feb 2nd: Allure……Ports: Nassau and PDCC
Post/Pre-cruise Hotel: Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Port Canaveral, FL Jan 20th and the 28th.
Flights: AA and SWA. I am only flying AA but my mother and brother had SWA vouchers to use. So they both will be flying SWA home. I booked them GoPort transfers on disembarkation day as rideshare is often $75+ from PC to MCO.
I did well from a financial point on these cruises. I do and don’t count my casino losses. Since I am going to gamble, as opposed to going on excursions, it is often factored in the cost of entertainment for me.
All of these cruises are casino in nature. I also did the math and what I paid for all three cruises combined, is less than the current cost of a balcony for 3 on Mariner for the dates I am sailing. Another reference: the cost of a 7N interior for two for September of 2024 on Icon is more than what I paid for all these cruises, the add-ons……and flights. My grand total for all three cruises was $2528 before flights and add-ons……and that is 16 days of cruising.
The Mariner cruise was booked with a $300 off certificate I earned on my Odyssey 2022 sailing. I booked a gty balcony that was about $1800 with taxes fees and gratuity. The “you pick” was almost $400 more, if the price was within $100, I would have preferred to pick my own. But I paid $1576 for three people, making it only $106/n pp. I checked in and did the barcode trick, my eMuster is B11 and it tentatively states I have been assigned room 6250. That is forward/border of middle. I prefer aft cabins but I will pretty much stay anywhere as long as I cruise.
The Wonder cruise is my annual free cruise for being prime and all I paid were taxes, fees, and gratuity. I love the VB interiors, so I think I paid like $32 to upgrade to one of those rooms. My total was only $561 for two people, making it only $40/n pp. I chose my room, and it is 10454, which is also forward. I have never been on this ship, but it seems like all the VB interiors are forward because I kept checking, hoping for an aft cabin to open and it never did. To be honest, if was my choice, I would only ever stay in VB interiors. They are my favorite room type: the decent price of an interior with that light feeling of a balcony, without losing out on precious AC.
The Allure cruise was an add-on that was won on my Freedom cruise in April to make prime for 2023/2024. I am in an OV balcony 14274, which is aft. My total for this one was $167, making it $42n/pp. The Allure cruise has $250 freeplay and $50 OBC for booking with Next Cruise. Both. the Mariner and Wonder cruise were part of the Premier pass fiasco, so I got $100 extra OBC for both.

If it’s not today’s swag, can your mom procure me one?? 😂

@Rags1 this is for you! 
I am really looking forward to this show. We first stumbled upon these guys in 2016 on Allure and have not been lucky enough to catch them since then. Can’t wait! 

Today’s swag:

Consider this your inspo. 💌💘 #fromyourenabler

We have decided Icon has gangs..tot town vs Hideaway turf wars.
By "we" I mean the Coffee Boulevardier decided this.