ellcee

Ha - yes, and good catch.    He was a club DJ here in town and I was working in a bar where he had a residency when we met.   He still gets some gigs here and there, but I’ll always be “the DJ’s Mrs. ” ??

I will have you know that I am 131 days out and I have no intention of starting my blog yet! ?

:: sidelong glance at @Matt and @Lovetocruise2002 ::

Oh, my heart!!!  During my zoo keeping time, I was privileged to care for half a dozen toucans, and they were, by far, the most enjoyable birds that I ever worked with (even though one of them had a habit of rapping me in the back of the head if I wasn't quick enough with his grapes), and anteaters were a dream of mine to care for, but we never acquired one.  I love all of those toothless wonders   ?

Our bus dropped us off at the other end of the cruise terminal.  The cruise terminal in Cartagena is kind of unique.  It includes an eco park.

This is free and you have to walk through it to reach the ship.



Giant anteater.

There are two aviaries within the park.












It's a very nice way to return to a ship.

At this point we were given some free time to explore on our own.






The Hard Rock Cafe.



This seemed like a good spot to sample a local beer.

We walked through the streets of the old city to reach our next stop.



Since Spain had conquered Colombia when Spain went through the period of the Inquisition so did Colombia.  Our next stop was at the Palace of the Inquisition.


Within these walls justice was served for various crimes including being accused of being a witch. 





Off with their heads!

It was quite a dark time in the history of Cartagena until residents had enough and stormed the Palace to end the inquisitions. 

I was impressed with how nice the old city is and how pleasant it was to walk around.

Colombia is open to many religions but the Catholic church played a distinct and primary role in the religious history of the nation.  

This is the Sanctuary of Saint Peter Claver that we saw from the fortress.


Admission is included in our tour.






Quite breathtaking inside.

Back on the bus we drive around the old city to reach our next stop.  The old city is very nice and I could easily see myself spending a day just here.

Aww, you guys look great!

Well folks... what can I say... what. a. day. 
 
We started off this morning with our PADI dive class which ended about an hour and a half short due to one our our classmates throwing up in the pool ? ? . Class ran from 06:30am-10:30am. (They had to clean out the whole pool!). You can read more about the PADI certification process over here https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/16546-all-about-our-padi-certification-on-board-harmony-ots/
DRINK COUNT
x5 frozen mojitos, x1 fresh squeezed juice, x2 shots of Bacardi (to spice up our frozen mojitos ?) = 9 total
DINNER AT CK
This was the first formal night and we actually had made reservations for 5:45pm. Due to the pool vomit, we had to reschedule part of the class in the pm. This meant we had to push CK dinner plans later till 8pm. I was super nervous they would be overbooked, but they were accommodating. And in the end they were practically empty. Dinner was really delicious! Personally though... if you pay for the UDP... I don’t know if I would pass up a meal in one of the specialty restaurants to eat in CK. 
While on the topic of food, we made a stop by the concierge desk and inquired about having to pay for food at Captain Jacks on Perfect Day Cocoa Cay. I couldn’t get over how cheap it is to charge someone $10 for wings, when the person has already paid $179-$200 for “unlimited” specialty food. ??‍♂️ They were really insistent it would not be covered.  Be forewarned. Anybody think I can call customer service and have it comped or is it not worth the effort???
PADI open water portion starts tomorrow in Costa Maya. I’ll let y’all know how it’s going!

We ran on the track on deck 5 - I GPS'd it for fun, I averaged 2:49/mile! The ship moved 10 miles across the ocean... Strava doesn't have to know it wasn't really me all that way!

Also forgot to mention, they held a Veteran’s Day event on board in the Promenade. They sang the national anthem, and had one of the casts from Grease sing ‘Hallelujah’ with lyrics changed to honor our servicemen and women. The moment of silence was deafening. Both my husband and I are veterans, and found it to be very touching and moving. (Also on board was a 92 yo WWII vet!). Thanks to RCI for taking the time to honor our vets!

i'm a smoker too and was very surprised to find that smoking is allowed in the casino's on most itineraries.
I am more than happy to go outside and smoke to be honest. it stinks when its inside.  As for banning it all together, i doubt that this will happen in the short term.

The current smoking rules save me a fortune.  I avoid the casino on all ships but Empress which is smoke free.  I lose money on Empress so it's kind of an inverted blessing they allow smokers in the casino.  

I do sympathize with smokers. It is an addiction, but maybe they could put a smoking area in close proximity to the casino. It is difficult to please everyone. The problem with smoking in particular is that it has such a big impact on everyone else around.

Im a smoker and on FOTS last year there were times i had to leave the casino for fresh air! 
My clothes and what hair i have left smelt of smoke. 
You cannot smoke in bars or restaurants, even in casinos on land so why not stop it on cruiseships? 
In my opinion it would make it more enjoyable 

I for one would actually start gambling on cruise ships if the casinos were entirely smoke free.  So I wonder how many current gamblers would quit and how many new ones would start...

Moving this to the News and Rumors forum...

I would also like to add, when smoking was banned from all the bars and restaurants in my town, the businesses all went ballistic. There was all of this gloom and doom about losing the coveted smoker's business and loss of revenue that would result. What actually happened was basically nothing. 

It wasn’t the same Chops experience ?. It might have been the same cut of meat... but it was honestly a little dry. Same could be said for the burger. 
I’m not sure how the cooking goes behind the scene (I tore my ACL on our last cruise and was on crutches... so the Galley Brunch we booked was a no-go ??), but I would imagine it’s not the same group of people cooking it, and perhaps that explains the slight change in quality. 

Embarkation Day 1
EMBARKATION PROCESS
We’re told to arrive at 130pm, we showed up at about 10:15. I took a picture and set a timer when we walked through the port terminal doors. From door to door it was LESS THAN 20 minutes. 
It might have been even sooo we if we didn’t let one of the staff convince us we didn’t belong I. The suite class line. 
 
Drink Count with UBP
7
 
 
THE KEY
lunch was meh. Filet mignon Steak dry. Burger ok
Had dedicated check in during embarkation but only once past security. 
As of today, seems like moot point to book if you booked a suite or above. The Chops Key lunch served in the MDR was a miss for both my Colombian and me. Maybe not a bad idea if you wanted to try Chops. But those with the UDP... I personally think you’re better off just eating at Chops with their full menu
One major plus was the fact you could leave your carry-on at the MDR entrance, and they would deliver it do your door/room!’
 
UDP RESERVATIONS
CK Reservation went smoothly. Maître d’ promised to be at dining room waiting for us to let us in. We booked both formal nights even though only Junior Suite. 
Other reservations went really smoothly, plenty available, double booked just in case. Easy to cancel
 
RCI APP
Difficulty with app adding reservations for dinner and activities. Some reservations were wrong. Made it difficult to get an idea of what we were doing and when
Seemed almost more challenging to schedule and book through there since there were app bugs
If your plans don’t revolve around frantically trying to finish your scuba course that you weren’t able to finish before sailing... it seems like it would be pretty easy to make plans. 
 
PADI OPEN WATER DIVER CERTIFICATION
This literally consumed our whole day. Not because of the staff, but because we decided to book it relatively last minute and didn’t have a chance to complete ALL of the eLearning modules. 
Spent hours rushing trying to finish. In the end, they checked to see if we completed the training, but didn’t seem too bothered when they initially though we hadn’t. Just seemed like the general guidance was: just make sure you finish ASAP. 
I will make a separate post about this and link it here later. 
 
ENTERTAINMENT
Grease was good. Enjoyed the show. I’d say a solid 8/10 for what it was.

First day travel—
We booked a room on Cocoa Beach in the Courtyard by Marriott. Arriving a day earlier, I had the preference of staying in Orlando (more bang for your buck IMO)... but the Colombian side of my husband was wanting to stay closer to the port... and I’ve learned just to not argue with that side (sorta like disagreeing with Pablo Escobar...). 
 
No problems with our flight. I usually make fun of my little Colombian when he books travel because he loves to book our flights with a few hours layover so we can relax in the lounge and eat/drink... the analytical and practical side of me just wants to get to where I’m going ? If we have a layover it’s nice to use a lounge, but I won’t go out of my way to add time onto a travel day. With me booking, I gave us about a 50 minute layover (which in hindsight ALSO wasn’t the best). But we were still able to pop into the Delta lounge and grab some drinks and a hot meal. 


Arrived in Orlando airport and dang... I always forget how big and weird this airport is! We made our way to grab our bags and hopped into the USO for a bottle of water and to see if they had any recommendations for shuttles to Cocoa Beach. (My plan was just to book the Uber, but no harm in asking) For our vets out there... if you need a moment to relax at MCO... I DEFINITELY recommend stopping by! This is probably one of the nicest USO’s I have ever been in. 
 
All of the shuttles they recommended (Go Port was one) had already had their last shuttle out. (We arrived MCO at 7pm). Back to square one booking an Uber... but at least we were able to get some waters/soda/snacks for the road!
 
Here’s my first tidbit: don’t let the Uber driver convince you to cancel your ride. Booked the Uber, we were waiting outside the rideshare pickup area, and we get a message from the driver. He messaged that he was “unable” to pickup at the airport due to “not having a permit”, and we would need to cancel the ride. (He most likely just saw the distance and didn’t want to make the long drive). Knowing we would likely get hit with a charge if we did, and confirming with the airport security the no permit was necessary, I knew the guy was either just scamming, or at a minimum being dishonest. We simply told him he didn’t need the permit, and if he didn’t want to perform the ride, he needed to cancel. He eventually did. We got another one shortly after (within about 10 minutes). 
 
The ride to Cocoa Beach wasn’t bad. We were both tired after a long day of traveling. The hotel is ok, but not worth the price tag IMO. (We had an AMEX travel credit of $200 which is the only reason I agreed to the $300 price tag of staying here vs. Orlando). Ultimately we thought my gut was right, hotel room is a little dingy. But they did have a beautiful pool area, the bar had good food, and I even caught a glimpse of a fire pit where people were enjoying drinks and community. 
 
If you have the time to just shuttle to the port the next morning, and cost is a factor, I would say just stay in Orlando. There were plenty of nice hotels right next to the Airport that were really affordable. 
 
That’s it for day 1 travel day! I’ll let y’all know how embarkation day was when it’s over!

Well... today is the day! We were prepared in the usual fashion of pre-cruise excitement. For us, that means I obsess over the minutia, while typically missing the bigger picture of intentionally needing to relax ?? Our nails freshly manicured, our tans freshly sprayed, and our nose hairs freshly waxed, I was starting to feel better prepared! (Too TMI with the nose hairs? ... I’ll rein in the descriptors... But man... getting old sucks sometimes). 
 
We are sailing out of Orlando today on Harmony of the Seas. Of COURSE I’m up at 5am eagerly anticipating embarkation on one of our favorite ways to vacation. 
 
I’ll try to keep this as ‘live’ as possible! (Hence the Ron Burgundy question mark at the end of the title). I just wanted to post some tidbits that we are learning along the way. We are doing a lot of firsts on this cruise! This is our first junior suite, our first time purchasing The Key, our first time booking UDP, first cruise ship escape room, first time maybe eating in CK, first sailing out of Port Canaveral, and first time in Harmony OTS. We originally booked a New Zealand cruise during our Cuban cruise on Empress last year. We saved and saved, but ended up canceling around June due to scheduling conflicts. This cruise was a spur of the moment purchase in our desperation to take a reprieve from work... so we just said “the heck with it” and went all in with the bells and whistles (well... all the bells and whistles as far as we can afford...I’m the cheap one in the marriage by the way). 
 
Thanks for joining!

A little bit about the Panama Canal.
In order to make it from one ocean to the other the ship needs to reach the man made Gatun Lake that lies in middle of Panama.  That involves three canal locks that are used to lift the ship a total of 85 feet (~26m) to reach the level of Gatun Lake.  Once across Gatun Lake another series of three steps in canal locks lower the ship back to sea level.
From West to East we will go through the Miraflores locks, across the small Miraflores Lake and then into the Pedro Miguel locks.  Once through those locks we will be at the level of Gatun Lake.  On the Atlantic side of Gatun Lake the Gatun Locks will lower us in three steps to the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. 
Miraflores Locks
There are two steps in these locks.


These tugs are an important part of the canal operation. Ships our size are assigned two tugs.

Two people in a row boat...

They bring "messenger" lines over to the ship that will be used to haul the steel cables from the locomotives over to the ship.  Ship lines are not used in the transit.

The crowds at the front of the ship do become somewhat thick.  An opportunity to meet new friends. 


The Miraflores locks will lift us two of the three steps required to reach the level of Gatun Lake.

The locomotives on each side will help guide the ship into the lock channel and keep the ship centered. These have been upgraded over the years but their function remains the same as it was in 1914 when the Panama Canal first opened.

The locomotives are nicknamed "mules" and operating under guidance from the control room,  the onboard seamen and the pilot they keep the ship moving centered in the lock chamber.  The ship uses it's own propulsion to move forward.

As the ship moves forward we approach the lock door that hold back massive volumes of water.  Behind us a set of lock doors will close creating a chamber for us to ride in.

Once the doors behind the ship close the lock is flooded with water.  The spray seen here is normal leakage, the chamber is actually filled from below. 

As the chamber fills we can sense we are gently rising.

It's a subtle rise that can be hard to notice.  The water line against the lock doors can be used to see how far the water has risen.  


With our first lift complete the lock doors in front of us open and we advance into the next lock chamber.

The ship before us is already moving into Miraflores Lake.

The orange ship in the new locks has already reach the level of Gatun Lake and is starting to move forward to continue the transit.  The Borinquen Dams separate the new Pacific access channel where this ship is from Miraflores Lake.


These Miraflores locks were originally completed in 1913. 

A visitors center allows people to view the locks (and us) in operation.

One more lift to go to reach the level of Miraflores Lake.