twangster

@CruiseLifeRick just scoped after a day on Labadee and reports Labadee is fine. No signs of earthquake damage.

How about the terms and conditions for Voom that suggest streaming isn't allowed despite the plan name Surf and Stream?

I did a live blog in July from Empress https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/8865-empress-73018-5-nights-inc-cuba/ Deck 6 for sure including an aft seating area behind Boleros that's really nice. Deck 6 forward provides access to small public decks that few people find. No helipad on Empress but these forward decks overlook the bow area. Decks 10/11 are the pool decks and open the public.

I didn't have an excursion booked so I just started walking in the light rain. I'm glad I brought my rain coat. I had spotted a church from the ship and it looked like a natural destination so I headed in that direction. I can only imagine the sounds once this huge pipe organ gets cranking. Charlottetown is the birthplace of Canada in the sense that the founding Fathers from the original five colonies (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec) gathered here in 1864 to write the document that would lead to formation of the British North American Act that Queen Victoria signed into law in 1867. That is how Canada was granted it's independence from England. Here are two of them. This is set in front of The Great George Hotel which in that day would have been the premiere hotel to stay at. Apparently some of the rooms still have the original furnishings from that period. Nearby is the Province House where the Colonial Government was located in the day. A memorial to the PEI Soldiers who lost their lives in the two World Wars, in Korean and Afghanistan. The building is being restored at the moment and was closed on this day. Continuing my walk I found the store for The Anne of Green Gables (it's a Canadian thing). Time for lunch. PEI Halibut and Chips and a local IPA. With that I headed back to the ship. First I had to get past the guard who wanted to see ship card and photo ID.

Day 4 - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island The Captain was right on with his weather forecast for the day and it was cold and wet upon our arrival. Our first look from the ship. The terminal building has a variety of shops and food available as well as free wifi. I guess the AARP cell plans don't include roaming in Canada as the free wifi area was very popular. The opportunity for real lobster presented itself quickly off the ship. Real lobster meaning not that Caribbean lobster stuff they serve on the ship on formal nights. A short walk down the shore led me to another seafood store and restaurant. The menu was bilingual - English and Japanese. The store side of the building had a pretty good supply of live lobsters sorted by weight. Lobster was also available cooked, ready to go. Other types of seafood also available.

Late Night Snacks Working on maximizing my waterslide velocity, I'm pretty sure I've got a few pounds of buffer before I'm over the slide weight restriction so this should increase my speed by at least 1-2%. The BBQ Chicken pizza is really good late at night. In other news, a Kraken and Diet is $8.26 including gratuity.

I had the same problem with noise on Enchantment in an aft JS. The deck 6 aft lounge is right below you. Thump Thump Thump.

Day 3 - Dinner MDR Menu I ate in the Windjammer - Italian Night. We've entered a dead satellite coverage zone. Some channels continued to work such as BBC News and The Weather Channel that is temporarily available while Hurricane Michael is in play. Royal worked out a deal with it's TV provider Global Eagle and The Weather Channel to allow this channel, not normally part of the TV channel lineup, to be available on some ships (according to James Van Fleet, Royal's in-house Chief Meteorologist). Our progress and location where satellite coverage is absent. I checked out the Las Vegas Tenors in the main theater, pub singer, Schooner Bar piano player and the silent disco in the Viking Crown Lounge which was surprisingly well attended. After that it was time for bed.

I'm on a cruise, not on land. Rain happens. Still enjoyable, just won't experience wonderful PEI to it's full potential.

It just dawned on me... Mariner, Adventure and Explorer had similar new cabins added, same area. Panoramic ocean view suites, a couple of Junior Suites, some spacious ocean view cabins with floor to ceiling windows. I think @Lovetocruise2002 stayed in one on Mariner. These Voyager class ships are smaller than Freedom class ships and the total passenger count is lower, so adding the same cabins represents a greater total increase in passengers on a percentage basis. Yet all received rave reviews post-dry dock. Not a word about over crowding. I've sailed all three recently and didn't find any crowding. (I'm on Adventure now as I write this) Mariner knocked it out the park with it's AMPED upgrades. Everyone loves it. I think this proves the rumors of over crowding on Indy are false, just some glass-half-empty people looking to complain about something.

Drink package prices vary by sailing, dramatically. More so region to region. Where are you from and what ship?

I recall the pre-revitalization naysayers all claiming doom and gloom before she went in for her dry dock. With those seeds planted, glass-half-empty minded folks will find everything they were determined to find before they boarded. In reality, it represents somewhere around a 5% difference. All ships seem crowded during the muster drill, yet the naysayers will claim it was never like that before. All ships have crowded elevators when the main theater lets out, yet the naysayers will claim it's only that way now. All ships have lines at times, all bars (even on land) have a small wait at times, yet the naysayers... In a recent 'Captain's Corner' where guests can ask questions one cruiser voiced his dismay they shrunk the cabins to fit more in. He was convinced they moved all the walls and made existing cabins smaller. You could not convince him otherwise. They never did that. In a few places that used to be open space they have added some new cabins and in so doing they raised the total cabin count. Yet this man was convinced all cabins had shrunk. They have welded metal walls, it would be impossible to do what he claimed, moving all the walls, electrical and plumbing would require gutting the whole ship. It would be cheaper to build a new ship. Years ago ships didn't sail full. Years ago airplanes didn't fly full either. That's all changed in this day and age. There are a lot of unhappy cruisers who are convinced their negative review will cause the cruise lines to re-think everything they don't like, right or wrong. Not long ago the internet and cruise ship reviews didn't exist. Like watching the evening news it's easy to find the bad in things while there is plenty of good as well, but we have to look harder to find it despite it being right in front of us. I have sailed all the Freedom class ships including including Indy just before her upgrades and very soon after Libery after she received new cabins (I stayed in one). I didn't notice any difference despite "all those extra people on board" (including me). Seek and you will find, but that works both ways.

A lot of things could happen, that doesn't mean they are likely to happen. As James Bond said, Never Say Never, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

On ships that allow booking reservation for entertainment such as some Quantum class and Oasis class, officially they say between 60-90 days. Symphony is an anomaly over the next few months being a new ship entering a new region.

Corporate or large groups can, as they can many venues on a ship. No idea on pricing so don't ask ?

If I keep this up much longer I won't be allowed on the water slide.

Here are the pool, baby pool and splashaway slide rules General pool rules for all: Baby Splash Zone: Splashaway Bay Waterslide Rules

Times varied today. It was done in sessions so each has a distinct end and no one can just stay all day although on this cruise that was probably not enforced. Long pants and socks required.

Day 3 - Midday Here from near the center of the Gulf of St. Lawrence I wandered around and grabbed some more photos. Following seas from the 20 knot tail wind makes for very smooth sailing with little wind on the helipad. There was a request for some Sports Deck photos so here they are. Starting with mini-golf at Adventure Dunes. This is a two level mini-golf that starts on deck 13 and ends on deck 12. I talked to the sports deck crew and they don't operate the flowrider or slides below approximately 10°C or 50°F. Since we are right on that bubble they are currently closed. They call to the bridge who advises them on weather and they make a call go/no-go. Main pool deck. Time for lunch at Cafe Promenade. Noted a pulled pork BBQ special. Updated pizza selections. A couple of turkey sandwiches, a slice of BBQ chicken pizza and a pulled pork BBQ sandwich. All were quite tasty. I'm ready for a nap. Meanwhile, back in my cabin...

Mariner was the same as Adventure. I'm getting awfully close to that 220lbs and all this cruising isn't helping me increase that gap. I recall thinking on Mariner a few weeks ago they better up those limits soon or I am in trouble.

Captain's noon announcement - temps of 49° F with a high of 52° F today. Ocean temp. is 48° F. Winds are near 30 mph but from our port aft side so a following wind. Currently 5' swells which I can't feel at all in my cabin. He did address our future rendezvous with tropical storm Michael (what it will be when we come closest). Based on predictions we will be 150 nm from the storm and that will occur after our day in Halifax. Keep in mind that Michael will lose a lot of it's strength as it crosses land. It won't be a hurricane when it approaches nearest to Adventure. It will be a very different storm compared to what it is right now. Based on predictions and the wind-field that the NHC is forecasting, winds will be 5-10 miles per hour, possibly 10-20 miles per hour. That's not a concern, right now we have 30 mile per hour winds. I expect we will have some swell to deal with. I'm not overly concerned with that based on current predictions. The only question is forecast prediction. This far out and after a collision with land, the storm could track differently than predicted. Only time will tell but I trust in that they will keep us safe even if we have a bumpy ride for a short spell.

The cruise compass was dropped off last night. The app doesn't list them in the 'activities' category. The app does list an Adult Minigolf Competition which was underway when I was up there. I plan to go out with my coat next time now that the helipad is back open after strong winds last night closed it. I'll report back if they have opened them. I suspect not because the water plus wind-chill would be very cold. I don't think they can heat large volumes of flowing water unlike a pool or hot tub where the water isn't moving at high flow rates.

Elevator upgrades are underway. They are manufactured by Kone, a big name in the elevator industry. They have Kone employees on board doing the upgrades. I saw this on Mariner a few weeks ago as well. Old elevator signs are being replaced. New indicators are bigger and easier to read. My guess is that there is more to this upgrade than just signage. I'm betting old control systems are being modernized and newer controls will allow intelligent adaptations to respond to peak times and other such things. Spotted a ship in the distance. It's the Oceania Insignia out of New York. There is also some work being done on the ping pong tables. Slides and flowrider are closed despite the cruise compass times listing them as open. It is pretty cold out there. Despite the cool temperature it's a beautiful day.

Indeed. It could be they don't want to crowd the names on the screen or maybe they plan to drop it because of the storm. Time will tell.

The issue is that the ship might not cross the line of the time zone boundary at 2am exactly. In this case the Province of Quebec which extends East above parts of Newfoundland is in the Eastern time zone while Nova Scotia (somewhat South and partly West of our position) is in the Atlantic time zone. Time zones do not follow absolute North-South lines. If I let technology figure this out my phone would think Eastern time is appropriate based on cell signal from Quebec. Yet the ship is on Atlantic time. For this reason I manually put my phone onto the ship time.