twangster

DON'T YOU DARE. Sammy Hagar is calling your name!!  #FaceDownInCabo

Southwest for me on my upcoming Panama Canal eastbound.  
$97 home to Long Beach pre-cruise
$82 from Ft Lauderdale home post-cruise
I wanted a full transit experience, that is after all what the canal was built for.  
Currently reading "The Path Between the Seas" as a primer.  
Countdown: 26 days
EDIT: Staying on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  That itself is a bucket list item.  I've stayed on her before.  The sense of history is incredible.  Not all Royal Panama cruises use San Diego on the West coast.  

Now I really want to be a "Twangster Jr"

Southwest for me on my upcoming Panama Canal eastbound.  
$97 home to Long Beach pre-cruise
$82 from Ft Lauderdale home post-cruise
I wanted a full transit experience, that is after all what the canal was built for.  
Currently reading "The Path Between the Seas" as a primer.  
Countdown: 26 days
EDIT: Staying on the Queen Mary in Long Beach.  That itself is a bucket list item.  I've stayed on her before.  The sense of history is incredible.  Not all Royal Panama cruises use San Diego on the West coast.  

Thanks again for taking the time out of your cruise/vacation to take us along.  I always learn something new and truly enjoy following your blogs.

Cruise Compass from this sailing has been posted:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compasses/ovation-of-the-seas/fri-2019-09-20-0000
 

Cruise Compass from this sailing has been posted:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compasses/ovation-of-the-seas/fri-2019-09-20-0000
 

Here Are Some Night Time Photos On Harmony Of The Seas. Hope You Enjoy!!

More To Come!!

I am frequently amazed that passports are not a requirement for travel by cruise ship for any cruise.  
It wasn't that long ago that you could drive to Canada and back without a passport.  Those days are gone.  It's just a matter of time before all international travel, including travel by cruise ship, requires a passport.

Thank you for all the gorgeous photos and awesome blog. This is a bucket list cruise for me and I can't wait to book it.

Love that the excursion gave you jackets for Haleakala, I have been up there before in shorts and a tank top like an idiot and shivered till about halfway back down. 
Also! You captured a shot of my all-time favorite catamaran. I love Na Hoku II in Waikiki but the Trilogy is the best around. I have made it a point to sail with them every time I have been to Maui - I was even on board for my 21st birthday! They take you over to Lana'i so I count it as one of the Hawaiian chain visited. Now I need just need Molokai! A Kalaupapa hike is on my ultimate bucket list. (I don't think non-locals are able to see Ni'ihau) 
Thanks so much for all the sexy cloud pics! You are the best at those. 

Thank you for another wonderful blog.

Thanks for taking us along on your adventure!!!  Enjoyed.

Yes , you are right , also from our previous experience we always wait at the meeting point for at least 15 minutes. I guess due to the fact it's the first point of entrance to Japan and the fact that everyone need to do it (until everyone is not processed no one allow back to the ship) they want to rush everyone out ASAP. 
Anyway the tour is in smiling English , they start in English and when they forget a word they just smile, worked for us. 

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.

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.

Our progress back to Oahu somewhat in the middle of the Hawaiian island chain.

Debarking was super easy.  Just walk off.  They scan your SeaPass card one last time and from there you follow the flow and exit the terminal.  We pre-cleared US customs and immigration in Vancouver so none of that was needed here since all of our stops after that were in the US.
The port is a quick ride share away from HNL airport.  Almost as convenient as Port Everglades.  

Signs direct you to the ride share pickup area a short walk past the taxi stand area. 

Another view , it's a very large balcony 6x 36 

Here she is during the night from Osaka port 
 

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

Day 2 Sea day, 
After a rough night thing became better as we run away from the typhoon, still we had hard time to woke up so we gave up breakfast and jump to a late breakfast at the Silver dining room , food was good , drinking service less ( took them 15 minutes to bring a soda , oh well lesson learn they do not have any bar around at noon time.


 
We had reservation for Ifly but when we can they have told is it's closed due to the movement and we should come back tommorow to reschedule. Ok well that can happen. We did some ship tour





The ship have not heard about the no smoking roles

and one hour later we came near by the Ifly again just to see that it's open and people are already there so we asked regarding our reservation , they told us to come back in 15 minutes and they will let us in , as always it's good thing to verify. We had our session and I loved it felt like I got an adrenaline rush. One word of advise , if you try it and you have a lot by hair you better tie it up before if you do not want to deal with messing it up and brush it for an hour, Ask my spouse.  After the Ifly we went to the Casino , if you like slot machine this ship is not for you as it as very limited slot verity. As it was official night we went back to take a shower and put our "official" night outfits. For dinner we chose the MDR , it was a nice choice , they had the regular menu   plus the special one , but that also contains many western option. 





I took the French onion soup the duck salad and the lamb. My spouse took the Chinese noodles all was good .
After dinner we went to see the show girls show , I think RC done a very good job here




 

Day 3 - Osaka (taking advantage that I have cellular internet that not blocking this site like Royal WIFI).
Today we arrived our first Japanese port , time of arrival 1:30 PM , yes late but we are at port until 3am the day after ! We slept late again but around 11 am we went to the C&A party. There were around 20-30 people in the 270 were it took place. The Captain gave some information and talk about the Typhoon we passed explaining that we had to go out from port as the Chinese would not let us stay extra time. No C&A numbers were shared but for the first time the top cruiser is from China , the captain by the way is , surprise, from Norway.


There was a nice 270 screen Robot , follow some classic guitar player.  
After this show we went to eat late breakfast at the Silver dining room . We had 1 PM shore excursion so we rushed to get ready , it's the first Japanese port day so there a long imigration process. Elevators were busy so we had to wait quite a while to got on one , our meeting place was on the other side of the ship in the music hall. We arrived at 1:03 PM got our stickers and looked around , no one else with the same number , Mmm something is wrong. Asked the excursion lady what happened she said they already went down but they are still waiting for 5 more people and some one will escort us out and do not worry they are waiting for us. Asked her if it's not better that we will do our way now to the gangway so we can catch them , oh no do not worry. Now at this point I would accept that we came 3 minutes late and or we missed it and we will catch them at immigration or it would cancel, pissed , yes but hey it's our responsibility. After 15 minutes asked her again , answer was the same . Only after 30 minutes we were escorted with another group of the ship. Again asked if they are waiting , got answered that yes , sound strange to me that the groups should wait so long , it's not making any sense. We went true with imigration and custom went out to see all the excursions numbers signs beside one number , ours. Asked the excursion officers what's going on , she checked and said they went a way and she will check if they can catch them , well no. She told us we can join another tour and she will refund us the difference. The tour she offered us was basically a transport to the main  shopping street with free time. Here i started to be annoyed as if they would not told us to wait we would catch time without any issue , hey they would not even had to wait. At this point I felt that from our issue (being 3 minutes late ) it became RCL issue as something went really wrong with the process and they gave us the wrong information. I explained the officer that we came to Japan to see Japan not for shopping and why we have told to wait and not to worry, she offered us 20% off which and told nothing can be done and she do not know who told us to wait. Ok here I lost it , you see if someone from my team is messed up I will not come to my customer and explain him that it's there problem, I will take responsibility for their actions as I am there manager , I was responsible for their training and I am responsible for their actions. I guess that here was the time were I raised my voice at the shore excursion officer ( if it was one of the workers I would avoid o guess). She tried to tell me that we were more than 3 minutes late , I told her that is not true and she want we can check the exact time I was signed in to the WIFI routers in the music all (I am sure RCL IT not really keeping the router  logs  , but was sure she did knew it , but really it was 3 minutes) At that point she did some calls and what do you know found a solution. We were escorted to the taxi stand  and drove to meet the group at the first point which was some temple. We have rushed with a private guide to the temple and catch up the bus. Lesson learn, come 15 minutes before the indicate  time, not to trust RC representative, never give up. Again please do not get me wrong , I do not think anyone should have waited for us but they should give the right information and not stuck us waiting at the meeting point saying "do not worry"
The temple was small but nice

, out next stop was the Osaka castle . It is a huge area of that contains gurdenes , park and the castle which also serve as a museum and a observation (at it's 8th floor). It was very rainy do we focused on the inside.

The old gate

The moat 

New times new signs 

The castle



The small museum

Osaka landscape from the tower





The visit was around two hours before we went back to the ship we were we first went to buy some shampoo in the adjust shopping mall to resolve the IFly hair incident from yesterday. Adjust to the docking place you also have a huge big wheel, will come to that later , as you know a big wheel that appears at the first act will return before the end ?

Yes it's the cruise director.
He is 20 years with Royal , he speak English and Mandarin. All messages are in English follow by Mandarin or the opposite. So everything the Captain said he translated as the captain only know to say thank you and hello in Mandarin. All the rest of activities are the same just takes longer. Waiting to see the Love and marriage and the quest , wonder how it will be (it appears in the weekly schedule)

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.