KathyC

Happily, restrictions are loosening every week.  We are on Celebrity in January and received this in an email: 
"While visiting the Caribbean, on-your-own tours will be permitted in Costa Maya, Belize City, Cozumel, and Nassau. Please note, families touring with unvaccinated children may only go ashore on excursions provided by Celebrity Cruises."  
We are not bringing any unvaccinated children, so we are good to go on our own in every port.

It was a pretty packed, beautiful day at sea.  It’s also Halloween!

A good morning starts with a latte and what better place to pick one up but the Diamond lounge 

This morning I was able to meet with the Autism of the Seas staff at breakfast.  They have reserved seating in the Windjammer buffet.  The staff is there to assist during certain times for breakfast and lunch.  If families choose to dine at a different time, this space is always reserved for them throughout the day.


On most mornings of the cruise they have staff assisted pool time which usually lasts about an hour and a half.  The staff is there to be with your child or adult with special needs in the pool, hot tub, and the splash pad area on the ship.  Parents can join in on the fun or relax in a lounger with a morning mimosa during this time.  They only ask that an adult from your party is somewhere on the pool deck in case of an emergency.  The kids and staff enjoy this time so much and you can see it in their interactions!
 

 


Parents enjoying time with their neurotypical child while staff enjoys time with his brother.

We met up with some of the Symphony squad for a little Johnny Rockets for lunch.  The milkshakes are pretty good and we took the apple pie to go!

I enjoyed my first diamond drink of the day around 1:00....Lava flow with Kraken Rum.  You aren't a true INSIDER if you don't have at least one (a day) on your cruise 😂

I haven't found out what the final numbers are on our sailing yet but our friend Paul did find out the Crown and Anchor passangers onboard.  

It certainly is not dead around the pool deck or the Promenade and does seem a bit busier that Oasis was a couple weeks ago.  We are back to waiting for elevators and in lines for certain things.  No complaints here, just observations.  There are capacity limits in the elevators and in the pools and hot tubs but those numbers are a little higher than what we experienced on Oasis.  


Here are your first few photos of some art around this beautiful ship!  My daughter will LOVE the lollipop when we take her onboard!



Not only was tonight formal night but also Halloween and we saw some pretty great costumes on kids and adults alike.  They had a lot of activities throughout the day that were Halloween themed.  We saw families doing a scavenger hunt throughout the ship where they received bags of candy at each stop.  
 



We ate at my personal favorite restaurant onboard any Oasis Class ship and that is 150 Central Park.  The beef tenderloin and fried cheesecake are absolutely fantastic. It was phenomenal as always and was nice to enjoy with friends.




Our night activities included enjoying a drink at the Trellis bar in Central Park, watching the Houston Astros win to head to game 6 back in Houston (GO ASTROS!!!), and meeting back up with the Wilsons at the Schooner bar for some late night piano bar fun and some Lemon Drops on the rocks.





And if anyone was wondering….my kids had a great Halloween trick or treating with Dusty and our babysitter back home ❤️❤️

Tomorrow we have a pretty full day planned with Autism on the Seas for our second sea day!
 
 
 
 

Ok finally got a chance to post a direct link to the video. Hopefully everyone enjoys,  I know I had a lot of fun making it. 
 
 
 

So currently on Liberty and getting ready to do a second leg of the B2B. 
 
Anyway wanted to let a few people know some changes that I have noticed on board. 
 
1.  Liberty Dunes (mini golf) has been redone. All new turf all new layout. Very fun and low nice too. Still located on deck 13 above the bridge. 
2.  Interior staterooms have been refreshed a bit. New carpet, new cabinets, and I think the bathroom is slightly different but could be wrong. My first cruise was a few months after my wife passed away so some memories are cloudy. 
3.  The doors on deck 11 that used to be the rotating style are now sliding doors. 
4.  I do not remember next cruise being on the promenade but it is there now. There is also a nice little area for the internet sales and help desk as well as a new port shopping desk by Vintages. 
5.  The deck 4 sliding glass doors are now automatic instead of needing to tap the button on the wall to go out or on the door to go in.   This literally changed in the middle of this week. 
 
I am going to see about running a live stream on YouTube tomorrow after going through the B2B process https://www.youtube.com/c/MuttMuttOutdoors is my channel and I will start by Liberty Dunes and see if I can walk around the ship a little bit as I do so. I will be scheduling for around 30 to 45 minutes with about 10 minutes for questions anyone may have.
 
As of the current sailing the Windjammer is still closed in the evenings,  reservations are required for most shows and is being enforced, staff dishes all food served in all venues and hands out all drinks,  napkins, condiments, etc. unless it is in a single serve dish or container. Tables have a tag that shows if it needs cleaned or is ready for use, when you sit down you flip it over or a staff member will come by and turn it. All venues with food ask you sanitize your hands before entering.  Plus some other stuff im probably forgetting to mention. 

It's EMBARKATION day!!
Our check in time wasn't until 2:30 (downside of booking 9 days before you set sail).  We were able to take our time which if you know me, is not easy!  
Its always exciting to wake up and see your ship welcoming you to CRUISE DAY!!

We stayed at the Hilton Miami Downtown.  It is about a 15min uber to the port with very nice views of both downtown and Dodge Island where the cruise terminals are.

The Symphony Squad headed out a couple hours before us as their check in time was noon.  (It pays to be Pinnacle, or with one LOL) 
My friend Kathy has never been to Miami so I took her down to Bayside Marketplace (about a 5 minute uber ride).  Its an open mall with shops and restaurants along the waterfront.  We ended up at the Bacon Bitch for some breakfast.  If you are looking for some Miami Vibes, head on over!  I wouldn't recommend for children as its loud and vulgarities are thrown around quite often during your visit.  




Finally we were off to the terminal.  We arrived around 2;15.  Royal was directing you to lines based on your check in time.  It was 25min from the time we stepped into our line to being onboard.  This process includes checking vaccination cards and negative test results at the entrance to the terminal, checking in with your set sail pass, ID, and vaccination card, and finally going through security.  Tip--if you are bringing water onboard, the porters are not accepting it with a luggage tag as checked luggage and you will need to carry it onboard with you.  

Symphony is such a beautiful ship, currently the largest cruise ship on the high sea and we will be showing some areas and artwork that are specific to her as she is one of four Oasis Class ships (about to be one in five when Wonder of the Seas is complete and sailing in March, 2022). 
Muster Drill is almost all electronic at this point where you watch the videos on your Royal app and then just check in to your station onboard.  They show you how to use your lifejacket at that point but in reality, they just want you to know where to go in case of an emergency.
We do have Ultimate dining on this sailing and our first dinner was with the Symphony Squad at Izumi Hibachi. 

It was one of our friends anniversary as well.  Such a great time with old and new cruise friends? 

Food was amazing and I realized part way through the meal that we had the same chef on my last sailing on Symphony back in 2019.  It is so fun to see crew you have sailed with in the past!

Sailaway was after dinner.  I personally love a night sailaway!  We stood on the port side bridge wing to enjoy the beauty of Miami at night. 
 


We wrapped up our night at the showing of Hairspray!  I was quite impressed with the production and actors of this play!

Tomorrow is a sea day on our way to St Marteen!  
 
 

I know you're all having an amazing time - can't wait to read along! 

The “Symphony squad” kept asking me to join them on this sailing as we had last years canceled on us.  I kept saying I couldn’t as my oldest sons favorite holiday is Halloween.  There is no way I could leave the kiddos over Halloween!

We had also just gotten off Oasis on Oct 17th which was an epic family trip!!

We sailed on a staff assisted cruise with Autism on the Seas as all three of our children are on the autism spectrum.   It was beyond fantastic in so many ways! 

A wonderful opportunity came my way after that cruise.  My husband was onboard with the opportunity, and there I was, 9 days out, booking Symphony!   

The fun part was being able to tell the Symphony Squad I would in fact be sailing with them!  I asked a good friend (who also sailed with us on Oasis) to join me as well.  

So this live blog will be about my second sailing on Symphony, reuniting with cruise friends, and Autism on the Seas as this is another staff assisted cruise for them.  I will be documenting their week onboard.  Here on the live blog there will be snippets of the program but feel free to contact me on here if you have any questions.  I’m more than happy to help! 
https://autismontheseas.com/
And if you don’t know who is part of the Symphony squad, you’ll find out soon enough…. 

Apex arrived in Fort Lauderdale this morning and I'm back home. Couple of post cruise observations:
Celebrity introduced a new cast and a new show called Crystalize on our last day before Fort Lauderdale. I had mentioned that I didn't like the "in the round " stage in the main theater. Well, that was stupidly wrong. Saw two current (Tree of Life and Rockumentary) and one brand new (Crystalize) shows that optimize the stage and take full advantage of the lighting and backgrounds that are very high tech. The visual presentation is very high quality and engaging.
Also regarding Apex entertainment, it took a step up from the unpopular Edge entertainment in Eden (production cast members dressed up and floating around you while you ate in the Eden restaurant or sat at the adjoining bar. They are now doing a series of 30 minute short shows with specific dancers and vocalists that do these productions in Eden and The Club. The theme of the show in Eden was an Alice in Wonderland short called Night of Dreams. If you sit at the edge of the performance area you are right on top of the show and have a close-up clear view of the dancers, acrobats and aerialists that are performing it. Stunning costumes, dance, aerial routines and vocals. The short in The Club is called Caravan and features more acrobatics and aerialists. Very cool.
Debarking somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300 guests should be easy. It was. The crew also had to pass through immigration. This was done starting at 5am and finished up by 7am with everyone returning to the ship. Guests could debark at 7:30 if they carried their own luggage off. After that, it was by luggage tag number. We were off the ship by 8:20 and at home by 9:05. We live in Coconut Creek just a shade north of Fort Lauderdale and Port Everglades. It's a 20 minute Uber ride. The terminal at the port uses facial recognition technology to clear you through immigration. You show your passport, get a photo and you're done. Remember long lines to clear C&I? Gone. Of course there was one ship - us - with few guests. I suspect it may be a little harder as cruising ramps back up. Cruising now is the best!
Overall, the crossing on Apex was most excellent. We like the shows and food so our cruising days are filled with these. We don't gamble so no casinos for us although they are busy in the evenings. We eat breakfast and lunch in the Ocean View Cafe (buffet style). The food choices there are astonishingly varied and too numerous to go through them but you will find something new that you like, every day. Presentation is very appealing and the chefs take a lot of pride in that. No specialty dining this cruise. We think the main dining room and Ocean View food is so good and it's good enough for us. We dined in the evenings after cocktails at the Eden bar in the Cosmopolitan. We sought out our waiter from a previous Apex cruise and found him (Joel from Peru). He's an eight year veteran and knows his way around a formal dining table. New menu each night of signature dishes specific to each of the four main dining rooms. The rest are called classics and these are the same in each restaurant.
We ate in Normandy, one of the complimentary main restaurants, once. The waiter offered us a dish that was not on the menu - a bone in filet of beef. I have no doubt the kitchen had extra cuts of this high quality beef that would normally be offered and served at Fine Cuts on Five - a specialty steakhouse restaurant. Fabulous.
The ship grew on me as time passed. Not an Edge fan after our intial sailing on that new ship a year or so ago. I carried that attitude to Apex. It was undeserved. I grumbled in a post above on day 6 of this 14n sailing. Over the following 8d, there were just too many things that we fell into a routine with - exercise in the morning, alternating a light breakfast and heavier late lunch with a full breakfast and a light lunch, cocktails at Eden, a show, then dinner. Never worrying about keeping your house clean, making beds, doing laundry, preparing meals. I napped when I felt like it. Watched a lot of good movies in our cabin. It's a great life! I could have easily kept going on Apex with this routine. 

It may be good for him, but it's not good for us.  We live and breathe live blogs and photos by @twangster 😄 

It may be good for him, but it's not good for us.  We live and breathe live blogs and photos by @twangster 😄 

Now that we’re less than a month away, I can start laying out plans for my first Celebrity LiveBlog. 
Some Basics
 
- This will be my first Celebrity sailing, should have had two before but those got cancelled last year. 
- We depart the Saturday before thanksgiving, 11/20/21 out of Port Everglades
-Sailing with me will be my Wife and Daughter (11)
- We’re booked into an Infinite Verandah room on Deck 9
- This will be the family’s first sailing since moving to Florida, so first time we didn’t have to hassle with flights. 
 

Thank you!  We're going next May, just starting to look at excursions.

Looking forward to Apex in January! 

We're sailing out of Ft Lauderdale in January, so just starting to look at my options.  Thanks @SPS for this graphic.  I'm sure the requirements will change 10 times between now and then, but I'm in the "always prepared" category of cruiser so I need to have a spreadsheet of every possible option months in advance.  😄 

Rent a car for the day from the FLL airport. Luggage has a place in the car and you can go do your own excursion. FLL is super close to Port Everglades so it would be easy to Uber/Lyft to pick up the car. There may also be a rental car shuttle to the airport too.

FYI for those that still need this info: A quick search on the Google map shows several places that offer testing near Port Everglades.
I was looking at this since we will be staying in this immediate area  of 17th Street for our January cruise on Odyssey. I'm sure that with the proximity to the port and the many hotels nearby that many other members stay in this area pre-cruise too. The red pins are places that offer testing.
I'm still weighing our options:
1. Getting tested with the at-home kit
2. Making an appointment for the testing center at FLL airport
3. Going to a test site near our hotel.
(4? Is getting a test at the port an option?)

 

You would have received a letter in your stateroom if the luggage valet service was being offered.  We've used it and well worth the extra fee not having to lug bags back.  Wish it existed for embarkation day.

I didn't notice any, but admittedly I didn't look hard for it.  I work for an airline so I was already planning to try and hop a different flight than I had booked.  I did book the transfer through Celebrity, and they did the normal luggage pick up in the evening and I picked it up in the cruise terminal like normal.  Then I wheeled it out to the bus for the drive to the airport.  

We're looking for something similar.  We have an evening flight and I don't want to lug my bags around all day.  I wish you could check them at baggage claim at 9am but come back for a 7pm flight, LOL.  Fort Lauderdale is the perfect place to go from ship to airport to beach in less than 30 minutes.  

Has anyone ever purchased a Day Pass for any of the resorts near Port Everglades for after a cruise? If so, I'm wondering if you have any recommendations.
We have a rather late flight after our Jan/Feb cruise and don't need to be at the airport until late afternoon. We don't really wanna spend an extra 6-7 hours at the airport.
(Right now, no post-cruise excursions are available on the cruise planner.)

I took a picture of my Cucumber Martini from the Champagne Bar on Allure in July...

Right after I spilled it on my shorts.  Darn martini glasses.  The Captain made the ship lurch.  
#awkward
#cutoff
#NoIDidn'tPeeMyPants

Huge standout to me: "a wide selection of wines and limoncellos".
????

Did you book direct with the railroad?
If so, you have to go to the train station downtown, not the airport.  The airport station is where the train picks up for the transfer charter booked through Royal.
I booked direct with the railroad in 2017.  My blog starts here:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/5211-alaska-recap-celebrity-millennium-june-2017/&do=findComment&comment=51827
I took my hotel shuttle to the train.  Early wasn't a problem because my body clock was 2 hours earlier than local time.  
Once at the station they had a tent like structure outside where they accepted bags for the ship.  At this point it was like arriving at a cruise terminal anywhere.  Ship luggage tags on, hand them my bags, give them a few bucks and walk into the train station to check in and get my tickets.  
Luggage is actually put on a truck and driven to the ship.  No sense wasting space on a train for luggage, they would rather add another passenger car.  I never saw my luggage again until it was outside the cabin door on the ship.  
It's a small train station and will become packed later so I'd advise getting there early.  There was a small store with train souvenirs.  Not much else and it became pretty packed so I waited outside and watched the train pull up.  
In this Google Earth screen shot you can see the train station and a white tent building beside it where they collected luggage.
 

Once you arrive in Seward you are approximately 1/2 mile from the ship and cruise terminal.   They have free buses or you can walk like I did.  Because you will never see your luggage until on board the ship, make sure all your cruise docs and passports are with you on the train, not in your checked bags, just like when arriving at a cruise terminal in Florida.  
Once at the Seward cruise terminal you check in and get your seapass card. 

@rtread  I lived in Anchorage for @4 yrs.  I am originally from NJ.  Believe it or not it is short weather in June.  My best advice is to dress like an onion.  I.E. wear shorts and a tee shirt with a sweater or sweatshirt.  It will be chilly in the a.m.,  but by 3 or 4 in the afternoon you will feel comfortable without the sweater.   There is little humidity in Anchorage, so it feels a lot warmer than you think, even in the high 70s/low 80s.
As for the Fjords, you will feel the coolness of the glaciers.  If you get  chilly easy than this is when you want to wear long pants.  If you are comfortable in shorts in 70 degrees, than you will be okay.  Remember though, that the Fjords or any place with glaciers will not be like Anchorage or Denali because it will be damp, in other words it will feel like it is down to the bone. 
In June you will be coming close to the solstice,  basically 2 a.m. in AK will look like 7 p..m. in NJ.  I would suggest that if you are like me, and need darkness to sleep, you might want to bring a sleeping eye mask.  Most Alaskans have what is called black out curtains because the sun just dips down and pops right back up.  
We camped all over AK from May to Sept.  Our tried and true items we took for every trip were:
 Anorak jacket with a hood, and removeable fleece lining, such as North Face.  Somedays it will be warmer, but "spitting"" aka almost a drizzle, so you want the outer shell, but not the fleece.  Some days it will be cool and sunny, so you want the fleece, but not the outer jacket.  A good pair of hiking boots if you are doing any excursions where it involves a trail.  They don't have to be expensive, you just need it to have a good sole to the shoe, and you want it to be more waterproof than a sneaker.  April is break up (you finally see your black top on the drive way).  May is rainy.  Thus,  early June can be sunny, but the ground still damp.  Good warm socks.  My husband flew fighters for the AF, and because he did winter survival in AK in Jan. this was droned into our heads.  If your feet are warm, you will feel much warmer.  Hence, the boots, not sneakers and good quality socks.  White cotton socks you wear to the gym were not a go!   If you are extending your trip in Anchorage, here are my see/do:
 Go to the Simon and Seaforts.  Make a reservation ahead of your trip.  It is pretty much booked solid.  It sits overlooking Cook Inlet with amazing views.  Order their crab dip. It is made with Dungeness crab and has sour dough bread to use for dipping.  Get their Prime Rib.  Best you will ever have. Beware it is pricey, but between the views, service and food you will not regret it..  Go to the Hilton for drinks.  They have a bar/restaurant on the top floor that overlooks Anchorage and Ft. Rich mountain.  I don't care for their restaurant as much as Simon & Seaforts.  We would always go to Simons, and than walk to the Hilton for after dinner drinks.  It is maybe a 10-15 min walk.  If they have an excursion to Mirror Lake, take it.  The lake is so still that it actually looks like it is a mirror.  Eagle River has a very easy white water rafting trip. I would not call it white water, but they do and if you have small ones it is a fun excursion.  Eagle River from downtown is maybe 25 mins.  Go to a local fish store.  They will ship to your home in dry ice king crab legs.  Unlike the ones you get in the lower 48, they don't have the salty taste to them.  They are naturally sweet, and more importantly they all will snap when you break the leg.   Curling is a thing in AK.  Right up the road from the Hilton you can do this, maybe a 2 min car ride.  Kind of like saying I swam with the pigs in the Caribbean, how many of your friends can say I learned how to do an Olympic sport, such as, curling.  Might sound geeky, but it is actually a lot of fun.  If Portage Glacier (Williwaw) in Anchorage is offered, it would be on the bottom of my excursion list. It is melting away fast.  We would camp there, but it really feels touristy, same with Alyeska.  
I see Ulu knives like the Russian nesting dolls and mini-totem poles.  Unless, you are really into them, don't buy one, they know that tourists are wanting these items, and you can find these things everywhere.  Heck, even at the airport the Ulu is 1 of their questions.  If jewelry is your thing, go to any small jewelry store.  I own a charm bracelet, I have a dog sled charm for my bracelet.  They also sell them as pins (to make an entire team) and pendants with a mushers basket.  
You will love this trip.  Hope this gives you some ideas.