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Just booked the Odyssey for November 9th, 2020. My first B2B.
I'd like to blame you all but it's alllllll me.

@nigel p
To be clear - solo cabins are 1 point per night.
Double points for non- solo cabins if you are sailing solo.
and that

haha, to be fair I didn't actually dine at any respectable NY pizza spot. Just wanted to take a dig at NY since my wife is from Jersey. I had one of those cheap slices off the tourist area. But to be fair when most people talk about having a NY pizza who are not from the area they are generally talking about from the times square area or at least the dozen+ people I've spoken to were.

??????
Sorry, your pizza opinion is NULL AND VOID!

Headed to the port of Galveston within the next few hours to board Enchantment of the Seas!  Today is finally here, can’t wait to get this vacation started!!

I am sorry to hear about your experience.  Our experience was the complete opposite.  
As an example, I ordered a drink and made the remark that I am just running to the bathroom.  My thought was this way she knew she could leave it in the cabana.  I went to the bathroom and as soon as I exited, I hear her say Mrs. Pima.  I look around and there she was with the drink on the tray.  I want to say she checked in on us every 20-30 mins.,  usually less because a couple of us would order drinks and by the time she delivered them, someone else ordered, plus the delivery of food (fruit platter, than delivering the menu, delivering the food, cleaning up the food delivery and than bringing the fruit kebabs in the pm).  On top of that if we were all out in the water, she would fold up the towels laying on the chairs.  Check our water bottle stock.   
We all remarked that the noisiest thing there when you were in the water were the attendants screaming by the edge of the water their cabana guests name with their drink in hand.  At one point we even remarked that there were 4 attendants standing at the edge with drinks in hand.
I would contact RCL.
The one thing I did find out through our attendant, is that the attendant contract is not like the cruise contract for their staff.  It is a 4 week contract.  I state this because it might be that due to the hurricane, maybe their more experienced staff did not come back yet if their family home was destroyed.    She told us that every night they actually have boats to ferry staff back home due to how their contracts work. They leave @ 6:30 p.m.  and the ferry will bring the staff back at 6:30 a.m.   

thank you for supporting MEI Travel and Matt's Blog

Here's a benefit from MEI. I canceled my June 2020 cruise for the inaugural November 2020 and all I had to do is email @michelle from MEI. She did all of the fun canceling and re booking. I would not have had the patience for all of that.

My room attendant I tip at the end 10-15 a day depending on service. 
I tip at the bars and the coffee shops maybe $2. If I notice I’m getting better service (they make sure my drink isn’t empty, the remember my name) I will continue to tip. If not I’ll stop going beyond the 18%. 
If I dine in the MDR at the end we’ll give an envelope for the whole table. If I do specialty restaurants I’ll tack on a few bucks for good service.
i factor this all for the cash i bring. I tend not to buy anything on a cruise do this is my only extra expense. 
 

I don't want to judge a book by its cover but he looks like a very very materialistic man.
Why do I get a feeling he would buy a ring but never give it to you?
He might have commitment issues lol

Except the label he gives me "My Precious".

It's nice to see that you two can make the long-distance thing work out.  It can add such a strain to relationships. ?

"love has no labels"

According to my profile pic, that’s my boyfriend 

So, a miracle occurred.  Our food tour was supposed to start at 10AM.  By 9:50, everyone was accounted for and we started early instead of standing around baking in the sun waiting for stragglers.  Good job, shipmates!  Off to an excellent start.
Our driver would be Serge (funny and informative guy), and our tour guide would be Ankie — a self-professed 55 year old hippie who sold her bar in the Netherlands 11 years ago and moved to Dutch St. Maarten.  Even more funny and informative than Serge.  Both were great.
Our first stop this morning was the Amsterdam Cheese Store.  Cool.  I do cheese.  We turned left out of the port, drove like 100 yards, and pulled into the parking lot of the Amsterdam Cheese & Liquor Store after an arduous 30 second trek.  Hrm.  Eyebrow goes up.  I’m game though.

Inside, the 15 of us were ushered to a corner of the store with a display table made from a Dutch merchant’s bike, where TJ (with the assistance of a volunteer passenger) would be taking us on a little Dutch Gouda tour.
We started off with with introductions, a glass of champagne, and passed around some toothpick cheeses as TJ described them to us.  First was a young cow’s milk Gouda (~6mo) followed by young sheep’s milk Gouda, a pesto Gouda, and finished with a ~2 year aged Gouda).  All were tasty.  The pesto Gouda also got an eyebrow raise from me, but it was a nice surprise with a balanced amount of basil to it.  It was dark green, which 6 year old me loved.
The 2nd half of this 30 minute stop would be the passenger-assisted preparation of a pasta dish using 3 of the cheeses we’d tried.  TJ brought out a couple of casserole dishes with cooked bow tie pasta in them.  That was seasoned with a little Italian seasoning, black pepper, and then each of the cheeses was laid out in a stripe across the top so we could taste the pasta with each individually.

Into the oven the casseroles went.  While they were getting all melty, TJ gave us a little more background on the cheeses we had tasted.  The casseroles came back 10 minutes later (someone has a combi oven back there), had fresh cherry tomatoes added on top, and we each got about a 1/2 cup serving of each.  Not gonna lie.  It was good.  After that we got a few minutes to look around the shop (oddly enough, great selection of Dutch cheeses, treats, and booze).  Then back to air-conditioned bus bliss.
Our next stop, Zafiro Beach Bar & Restaurant, was also on the Dutch side of the island, about 20 minutes distant and maybe 200’ off of the south side of the runway at Princess Julianna Airport.  To get to and from it, we’d cross the famous stretch of Maho “Beach” that people adore getting a sandblast facial from jets on.  Having been tempted to visit this spot myself, I can now tell you I am thrilled to have seen it from a bus on the way/from a good meal.  It was packed.  The “beach” portion is a tiny slip of a thing, while the rest of the shoreline is made up of the artificial locking blocks folks use to protect harbors from pounding waves and invading Germans.  The rest is just less-invasion-proofing boulders.

This would be our main meal on the tour.  Creole chicken with plantains and a rum punch.  The pic doesn’t make it look very pretty, but it was excellent.

Nice view of the beach from the restaurant.

And, for those who may regret not getting the direct jet BJ along the Maho Beach fence, the restaurant has an observation deck nearby where you can watch airplanes approach and land without mussing up your hair or being blown out to sea.

Next stop: The aptly named Carousel for a gelato making demonstration (by the owner), a tasting of said made gelato, then two scoops of whatever you wanted from the regular counter outside of the “lab.”  Then, well, get on the damn carousel at Carousel, you cad.



Escorted off the property by an iguana.

10 minute ride back to the port with a little more narrated history.  Tour ran like clockwork.  Out of the coach at exactly 2PM.

I can see why this tour is 5-starred to death on TripAdvisor.  Fun & tasty with a nice side dish of history.

First let me conclude day 2, here is our dinner  pictures :

...well, the good news is, if you have a change of heart (or come to your senses...whichever comes first) you can cancel without penalty !
??

Just booked the Odyssey for November 9th, 2020. My first B2B.
I'd like to blame you all but it's alllllll me.

According to my profile pic, that’s my boyfriend 

Here she is during the night from Osaka port 
 

Day 1 - Continue while I have connection .
After checking the silver dining room  we went to check the other side of the ship  to see if we were missing anything in the WJ  . 
We passed the Solarium , in this ship you have two , one for the suites/diamonds , it can be access  by using the sea pass card and one for everyone , its a big cover pool and lounge chairs around it , well like a solarium..



The "pool"


 

The second covered pool area :


The open pool : 



 
 
After the second cover pool area you have an open pool area and finally the most hectic place in the ship the WJ, it was packed as expected but RC trying to control it by adding assigned lane for each busy station , for example you have a lane to form a queue for the carving station , I did not notice a real issues , everyone were queuing , the only issue was that although the WJ is huge I did not saw too many empty seats , well first day after all. could not take too many picture but here is a very nice cake for the 70 China celebrations :

Sorento pizza is located adjust to the WJ , its the only place open later (until 3 am everyday) , believe me I check it (Only fro the research) , the Pizza are from the new better kind (the one that use cheese) 

We went to enjoy our new UDP at the pool bar , we were the only people there beside the bartender that was happy to talk to someone , so we started with the first lava flow.

The rooms were ready by now so we went back and collect our suitcases from the corridor , they arrived very fast , the muster drill was in the 270 which I love , it was quick and contained the "James Bond" movie , please RC , even airline companies update their safety movie from time to time ...

Anyway it seem the Spy lady learn to speak Mandarin. post the muster drill we went to drink some coffee and tea in the tea house just to wait few minutes until elevators will still be available. We went up again and enjoyed the Chinese parade which was showed on the big screen pool.

Our dinner was at the Silver dining room , they offer buffet style for the starters / dessert  and a fix menu for the main dish , this menu is not changing for the full week , remind you something ? yes , this is actually the solarium bistro on other ship ...

"Diamond Lounge" small plates.


I also found the menu of the Golden dinning room , this menu is changing every day and its without buffet , yap , this is the CK on other ships.

 

 
I think that what will happen when such ship will be outside Asia is very simple , the Silver dining room will become solarium  bistro , the silver lounge will become the diamond lounge (already now diamond are welcome to this lounge and happy hour is served there) and the Golden dining room will be the Coastal kitchen .
We went back to the room , at that time we already were very near Miatag , the mighty Typhoon -" it was very rough - The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli." , Finally I can use this quote ?
Lets said its the first cruise I actually took a sea sick pill just to be on the safe side. 
I went to check the balcony , got a free quick shower and we are on deck 13 ... 

It was quite hard to stand or to walk , but I can tell you that when we went down to deck 3 , it was much more stable.
Anyway we are after the storm . 
 
 
 
The most important bar

Cruise Summary
This was a bucket list cruise for me and I am so glad I did it.  Like my first time to Alaska I suspect this may be repeated in the future.  
The newer O3b internet platform worked great over the length of the cruise.  
Ovation of the Seas once again did not disappoint.  
The sea days flew past and the three port days in a row including an overnight stop made the rest of cruise very enjoyable.  Debarking in Honolulu was a breeze.  I'm glad we had a day in Seattle to visit as a port of call and not simply as an embarkation/debarkation city.
Cruising to Hawaii is very different compared to cruising in the Caribbean, in a very good way.  The ports are very interesting with a lot to choose from.
I picked my excursions carefully and watched some of them fill up and become unavailable so I'm glad I booked them when I did and saved quite a bit of money by watching for sales as the months went by.  
The tendering process was mostly a pretty good experience other than that one night coming back late when there was a wait.  Still it was quite impressive to see them perform such a large tendering operation as efficiently as they did.
I'm torn between picking a smaller ship next time to Hawaii to gain a few more ports that only smaller ships can visit or repeat on Ovation.     
I wish I could have stayed on for the next cruise to Sydney but that will have to wait for another year.  
I hope you enjoyed following along and I thank you for viewing.

This was pretty much a full day excursion arriving back in port 30 minutes prior to the last tender back to the ship.
Looking back it was very informative and I feel like I know so much more about the volcanoes of Hawaii but also how life has evolved here over time.  We covered a lot on this excursion covering the early religion introduced by the missionaries, a stop for some famous Kona coffee,  a lot of lava and volcano knowledge, a beautiful beach with unique black sand and the world famous Southernmost bakery.
The people of the big island were very friendly and thankful for our visit.  Even away from Kona the news of the biggest cruise ship to ever visit the state coming to call on Hawai'i was well known across the island.  I could definitely see myself coming back to Hawai'i (the big island, not meaning the state in general). 
Back in Kona at the harbor it was time to board a tender and head back to the ship.



After a shower and a few happy hour drinks it was time for yet another beautiful Hawaiian sunset as we began to sail away.


Yikes, time for that ugly word.  Packing.  
Next stop Honolulu.  

Our next stop was Punalu'u Beach or Black Sand Beach as it is sometimes called.

Molten lava reaching the ocean would explode hitting the cool water breaking into small pieces.  Wave action over time further broke the lava down into black sand. 

The beach is frequented by Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles which are protected.  Signs warn people to stay back at least 30' with stiff penalties for anyone who approaches or touches a turtle.  A recent visitor left a trail in the sand when they came up to bask in the sun on the black sand..





The stark contrast of blue sky and water against the black lava and sand made for breathtaking scenery that looks so much better in real life compared to these feeble pictures.



Lots of other wildlife is on hand as well resting in the branches.

It doesn't take very much imagination to picture molten flowing lava flows slowly creeping towards and into the ocean.




This would also be our lunch stop where they brought out sandwiches, chips and soft drinks for us.
We had one more stop on this tour.  A bakery used to be located here at the beach but it became so famous the small beach parking area and roads were overtaken with traffic to the bakery so they moved it closer to a nearby village.