LandstromCruise

I used the Facebook group's slot pull as an excuse to take a break from my work and leave my room. But I got there too late and they had already started so I played a little video poker instead and I'm up $25 for the cruise and have 28 casino points despite not wearing red undergarments 😂
Since it was 2:30 and I have 5:30 early seating in MDR, of course I went to the WJ before it closes at 3:00. 
They had shrimp pad thai...burger bun for reference.

I was onboard by 11:05..very little waiting.  You MUST spread yourself at least 3 escalator steps apart from the person ahead of you at Terminal G. They scream and berate people who do not follow this rule.

I think you’re being a little hard on yourself. Look at the bright side, the only reason this happened is because you are fortunate to be able to cruise so often. Now if someone like me who only gets to cruise like once or twice a year did this, that would be a rookie mistake. In your case, I could easily see that happening trying to keep track of all your cruises. I would definitely need a detailed spreadsheet for that 😂

I think you’re being a little hard on yourself. Look at the bright side, the only reason this happened is because you are fortunate to be able to cruise so often. Now if someone like me who only gets to cruise like once or twice a year did this, that would be a rookie mistake. In your case, I could easily see that happening trying to keep track of all your cruises. I would definitely need a detailed spreadsheet for that 😂

Doesn’t look like Utopia is excluded from the list. There are a few select ones, but guess since it’s doing 3/4 night they decided people could use certificate before the 1 year mark. I was hoping to get Wonder on Aug 4, but that is excluded 😥

Thanks at least I can plan accordingly now. Looks like Icon will be my prime 2026 cruise🤣

Yeah! My bday is in May also and I've been on a ship several times for it. I ❤️ ❤️❤️ cruising in May. I don't recall ever having any bad weather and it's not Africa Hot yet. Can't wait to follow along, and I'm so glad ... for me and the rest of your loyal readership ... that mom is coming again!  Yippee!!!!!

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

I like big ships and I cannot lie. 

Hi All!

A little about myself since I haven't posted on here before, I am Ashley, a 30 year old from Arizona who has been cruising mostly with my parents (and grandparents before they passed) but sometimes solo, with friends, and with groups since I was 9 months old. I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each). Anyways, all that to say I am very loyal to Royal with nearly 80 Royal Caribbean cruises under my belt. When I am not cruising, I am a full time software engineer to pay for my cruising habit.
And now for some history on this cruise.... my parents and I first booked this itinerary for October of 2021 in the summer of 2020. Heck, we also booked cruises in June of 2020 when our May cruise was canceled, August when June was cancelled, November when August was cancelled, so on so forth, you get the idea. Fast forward to summer of 2021 and well over 40 FCCs later, the restart was finally happening and the final payment due date for this cruise was quickly approaching. There we still a lot of unknowns about Israel and what the covid requirements would be to go there and as that was the main reason we booked that cruise (more on that later...), after a family meeting we cancelled it and I spent 2 weeks in October on the Symphony of the Seas with a friend (and my parents ultimately joining for the second cruise after some convincing) instead where I finally earned pinnacle after waiting the entire restart only a little more than 1 cruise away (I promise, I am not a snotty pinnacle, I refuse to wear the pin and prefer to go with the flow instead). With that I had finally made it back on a ship for the first time since January 2020 but I still hadn't made it to holy lands.
Fast forward again to February 2023 when my parents were on the Celebrity Beyond celebrating their 40th anniversary without me (to quote Stephanie Tanner: how rude... not, they deserved the vacation without me and they had their neighbors with them to take my place, also I am pretty sure my work would have killed me if I took another cruise at that point). Before they headed out on their cruise, I looked at the itineraries released just a couple months before for Europe in 2024 and found this one, and made the mistake of emailing my parents with the details. It didn't take much convincing that we had to book this cruise. A week later, after a lot of back and forth with them and the future cruises agent on Celebrity Beyond, we finally got this booked and everything confirmed. Note to my future self and really everyone reading this: never book Royal on Celebrity, while we have successfully booked Celebrity on Royal before with no issues, this was a nightmare to say the least, the on-board agent had no clue what the different cabin categories were and after pleading with her that Odyssey had J1s, J3s, and J4s and they were all Junior Suites, she was finally able to find more than just the J1s available.
With the cruise finally booked, let's talk about why we wanted to do it: Israel. My mom and I are Jewish and my mom has always wanted to go to the holy land but has said she would never do it by land, she just didn't feel comfortable due to some experiences her parents/my grandparents had when they went. And similar to me, she loves cruising. So this seemed like the perfect solution. I had also unfortunately aged out of birthright during Covid as a result of them changing the age policy during that time so this would give me a taste of Israel to see if I wanted to join a volunteer trip or something else in the future. When June 2023 arrived and the flights opened up to book, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that we were going on this cruise. Before booking the flights we had a family meeting and I made one important note to my parents: If this cruise doesn't go to Israel, are you still ok with going for the other ports? They both said yes. My mom has always wanted to go to Santorini since watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so while it was not Israel, there would still be something on her bucket list to cross off. Even though the itinerary at the time didn't have Ephesus, Turkey on it, we knew it was likely this would appear if Israel was removed and my dad wanted to see the House of the Virgin Mary after missing the opportunity to see it while on the Splendour of the Seas in 2000. After that discussion, our flights were booked and we started making hotels and other plans for the trip including booking excursions for every port except Israel since conveniently none were open for Israel and also I knew if we did make it there, we would want to do a private tour so we could cover both the Christian and Jewish heritage there adequately.
Once again, let's fast forward this time to November 2023. Unfortunately, we all know what happened on October 7th. The days that followed made it very obvious that this was sadly not like other times Israel had been attacked. They were not getting out of this quickly. We received the not at all surprising email that this itinerary was changing. Out was Israel and in was Turkey, as I unfortunately predicted, along with Mykonos. After yet another family meeting (I think this is at least the 3rd one in this story, sensing a theme here...) we unanimously decided we were still going, barring any crazy world event. It was full steam ahead and I finally decided to start planning the tours for our pre-cruise stay in Rome. We also booked an excursion for Mykonos through the ship and I left my dad to figure out Ephesus himself. I still don't think he has that planned, you can tell who is the planner and who isn't in this family.
Now let's fast forward to February 2024. It was Super Bowl Sunday and I had plans to go to the Phoenix Open with my dad in the corporate tents on the 17th hole. Instead, I got woken up by a call at 6am with news that my mom had passed out just before midnight the night before and they were in the ER room at Mayo Hospital. This cruise was far from the first thing on my mind, I wanted to know how my mom was doing, what had happened, if there was anything they needed as the hospital is less than a mile from my house, I can literally see it from my backyard. In the weeks that followed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors appointments, a couple dental appointments, and a surgery later, we finally brought up this cruise again. Her doctor's gave her the all clear to go, they just warned that we had to be careful, she couldn't over exert herself. Another family meeting and the swapping of tours later to some less strenuous ones, we were once again on track for this cruise to happen.
Now finally we have made it to today. We fly out in a little more than 2 weeks on the evening of 4/30. We finally settled on a hotel for our one night post cruise in Rome before flying home so the last thing is planned. As many hurdles as this cruise had and the amount of times we thought this wouldn't happen, we are looking forward to it finally happening, even if it is a little different than originally planned. I am just grateful that we are all still here to enjoy this as a family. I have never done a live blog of a cruise before. Not here and also not on that other cruise board that shall not be named. Something about this cruise feels different, while I hope this isn't my last big European adventure with my parents, I know there is a chance that will be the case so I really want to remember this and document it. Not only are my parents getting older, I am also getting older and who knows what will come for my future as well. While we have plenty more cruises planned as a family out of the US to the Caribbean as well as the Mexican riviera on the west coast, I don't know that I will have a trip like this as a family once again.
I promise my future posts won't be as much of a novel. There was a lot of backstory to cover and I hope I at least made it interesting to read. In the coming days I will start to talk about our plans for both pre-cruise and on the cruise but figured it made sense to start with the back story first.
Since I have never done this before, not sure how to end these, I am sure I will figure that out better as I go. So for this one I guess I should say TTYL!
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

Packing list:
Red bra and panties (double my odds)….  CHECK 

I've always defended @Matt when someone claimed he was being a princess.
Now I'm not so sure.
🤣🤣🤣
 

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

What's this nonsense about NOT doing a blog....I didn't know that was an option 🤣

I think she was being petty because handcuffs and I became friends and would end up hanging out. Who knows..she would come and invite herself to sit with me in the Crown Lounge for the first half of the cruise but at some point she stopped. Maybe I offended her by asking if she was going to order the fish every night?
Or maybe she found this blog 😂😂
After all this is my lanyard...

Meet the soup chef who is getting schooled in the proper way to make butternut squash soup 😂😂

Would someone actually use those?  Love my wife, but not wanting to take a dump with her 😂

Had to make this borderline obnoxious post somewhere… woohoo!  🎉 💎+

Today has been uneventful. Had to work a little bit so spent most of the time in my cabin. Internet speeds have been amazing which is great for me as I have to use a VPN.
Handcuff lady is my dinner BFF. She's a casino cruiser as well and said she closed down the casino last night at 2am.
The other 2 solos at our big 8 person table have bonded. I don't think I remember names but one lady is from Alaska and the other is a guy that likes to scuba dive. Alaska is quite chatty. 
They went to the solos and singles meet up this afternoon and made friends that they want to invite to join our table. 
Handcuff lady is not the biggest fan of chatty Alaska. Alaska is one of those that has a story about everything. Handcuff lady told me she is going to try to come up with the most outrageous thing she has ever done to see if Alaska can one up it. I can not wait. 😆
Alaska also didn't like the butternut squash soup so that had the servers and head waiter and maitre'd hover at our table for the rest of the evening.

So wait, why was the solo traveler bring handcuffs on the cruise 🤷‍♂️😂