mom2mybugs

We are in fort Lauderdale!!!!   Yeah!  It's chilly for me (75) but way better than Chicago!  We were through security in an 30 mins and took our check-in pics while eating breakfast at Chili's.  Flight was packed but on time and everything ran smoothly.  We are now ensconced by the pool with drinks and a book!  

Last thoughts on fort Lauderdale...
I'm not sure I would stay at the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina again unless I upgraded big-time to a higher room in the main tower.  This building felt old.  There are limited food choices, no hot tub and overalli just think I'm done after 3 stays here.  We will look for a new place next time.
 Water taxi was positive and very negative. They need to post signs for directional lines to stand in, and figure out why the lines were so bad.  When you pay for all day you shouldn't wait close to 2 hours for a boat.  I think we were at the most crowded stop (4) to board, so another reason not to stay at Hilton Marina. Jane

Can't sleep so I will catch everyone up...if I can remember what I've done! 
  Yesterday was very low key.  We got to the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina and check in took forever.  We were unfortunately not thrilled with the room.  It's fine, but in the old wing, first floor (so Patio is below the walkway and thus feels like a concrete box), and the door has a huge gap at the bottom.  There is no soundproofing at all and we are people not bothered by noise. 

 

The weather wasn't terrific, butt we spent some time by the pool and then ate dinner at the pool bar.  It is truly highly overpriced, but other than the fish tacos (which were horrible) it was good.  The wine... Well, I'm looking forward to vintages lol!  
   Today was sunny and much happier!  We didn't get to the pool until around 11 and there were no chairs at all.  Maybe 10 mins later, 2 showed up in the shade so we took them.  I decided to sit in the sun on the edge of the pool and read, and when someone left, I grabbed their chair.  Eventually my husband  abandoned the shade and joined me.  We ended up ordering chips and guac and hummus and they were all very good.  

  We finally dragged ourselves to shower and head to the water taxi.  It took us one hour, forty mins to get on.  It was a mess :(. Literally a boat would come every half hour and load like 2-4 people.  Once on though, it's such a nice ride. We decided to head to stop 10 to see the mansions all decorated for Xmas.  



We got to bokampers at around 7 and we seated by 710.  Great we thought... And then 30 mins later we still hadn't seen a server even though we had gone and spoken to someone several times.  It was a mess.  Jeff finally went to the hostess who seated us...we actually think she was the manager doing a million things.  She literally took our order, got our drinks, apologized a million times and then ended up comping us our drinks and giving us half price on the food.  It was unexpected and kind for sure!  I recommend the atmosphere and the food was great... Hopefully staffing and big groups dont kill you.  



We did get to see the bridge go up a couple times too!

We literally managed to walk right on the water taxi... Big change from before!  It was a quiet boat till the very drunk people got on, but that's ok.  That will be me soon on the drink pkg!!!   
  So now I'm too wound up to sleep and can't wait for 10 1/2 hrs when I walk onto Harmony!!   My aim is to church in once a day but keep in mind the title of this blog lol!  @Lovetocruise2002 will be blogging symphony and will be much more interesting lol!!!!     I have the Muppet Christmas carol singing going through my head, but instead of "there's only one more night til Christmas" I have "there's only one more night night til Harmony"!!!!! Jane

Thank you for all your thermal spa info... I'm planning on touring and buying tomorrow!  Jane

Last thoughts on fort Lauderdale...
I'm not sure I would stay at the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina again unless I upgraded big-time to a higher room in the main tower.  This building felt old.  There are limited food choices, no hot tub and overalli just think I'm done after 3 stays here.  We will look for a new place next time.
 Water taxi was positive and very negative. They need to post signs for directional lines to stand in, and figure out why the lines were so bad.  When you pay for all day you shouldn't wait close to 2 hours for a boat.  I think we were at the most crowded stop (4) to board, so another reason not to stay at Hilton Marina. Jane

Can't sleep so I will catch everyone up...if I can remember what I've done! 
  Yesterday was very low key.  We got to the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina and check in took forever.  We were unfortunately not thrilled with the room.  It's fine, but in the old wing, first floor (so Patio is below the walkway and thus feels like a concrete box), and the door has a huge gap at the bottom.  There is no soundproofing at all and we are people not bothered by noise. 

 

The weather wasn't terrific, butt we spent some time by the pool and then ate dinner at the pool bar.  It is truly highly overpriced, but other than the fish tacos (which were horrible) it was good.  The wine... Well, I'm looking forward to vintages lol!  
   Today was sunny and much happier!  We didn't get to the pool until around 11 and there were no chairs at all.  Maybe 10 mins later, 2 showed up in the shade so we took them.  I decided to sit in the sun on the edge of the pool and read, and when someone left, I grabbed their chair.  Eventually my husband  abandoned the shade and joined me.  We ended up ordering chips and guac and hummus and they were all very good.  

  We finally dragged ourselves to shower and head to the water taxi.  It took us one hour, forty mins to get on.  It was a mess :(. Literally a boat would come every half hour and load like 2-4 people.  Once on though, it's such a nice ride. We decided to head to stop 10 to see the mansions all decorated for Xmas.  



We got to bokampers at around 7 and we seated by 710.  Great we thought... And then 30 mins later we still hadn't seen a server even though we had gone and spoken to someone several times.  It was a mess.  Jeff finally went to the hostess who seated us...we actually think she was the manager doing a million things.  She literally took our order, got our drinks, apologized a million times and then ended up comping us our drinks and giving us half price on the food.  It was unexpected and kind for sure!  I recommend the atmosphere and the food was great... Hopefully staffing and big groups dont kill you.  



We did get to see the bridge go up a couple times too!

We literally managed to walk right on the water taxi... Big change from before!  It was a quiet boat till the very drunk people got on, but that's ok.  That will be me soon on the drink pkg!!!   
  So now I'm too wound up to sleep and can't wait for 10 1/2 hrs when I walk onto Harmony!!   My aim is to church in once a day but keep in mind the title of this blog lol!  @Lovetocruise2002 will be blogging symphony and will be much more interesting lol!!!!     I have the Muppet Christmas carol singing going through my head, but instead of "there's only one more night til Christmas" I have "there's only one more night night til Harmony"!!!!! Jane

We are in a non accessible room right near the elevator (11560) on harmony tomorrow and can let you know.  I’m not at all worried…people noise down the narrow halls and tripping over room service trays is way worse than noise by the elevators.  Jane

Can't sleep so I will catch everyone up...if I can remember what I've done! 
  Yesterday was very low key.  We got to the Hilton fort Lauderdale marina and check in took forever.  We were unfortunately not thrilled with the room.  It's fine, but in the old wing, first floor (so Patio is below the walkway and thus feels like a concrete box), and the door has a huge gap at the bottom.  There is no soundproofing at all and we are people not bothered by noise. 

 

The weather wasn't terrific, butt we spent some time by the pool and then ate dinner at the pool bar.  It is truly highly overpriced, but other than the fish tacos (which were horrible) it was good.  The wine... Well, I'm looking forward to vintages lol!  
   Today was sunny and much happier!  We didn't get to the pool until around 11 and there were no chairs at all.  Maybe 10 mins later, 2 showed up in the shade so we took them.  I decided to sit in the sun on the edge of the pool and read, and when someone left, I grabbed their chair.  Eventually my husband  abandoned the shade and joined me.  We ended up ordering chips and guac and hummus and they were all very good.  

  We finally dragged ourselves to shower and head to the water taxi.  It took us one hour, forty mins to get on.  It was a mess :(. Literally a boat would come every half hour and load like 2-4 people.  Once on though, it's such a nice ride. We decided to head to stop 10 to see the mansions all decorated for Xmas.  



We got to bokampers at around 7 and we seated by 710.  Great we thought... And then 30 mins later we still hadn't seen a server even though we had gone and spoken to someone several times.  It was a mess.  Jeff finally went to the hostess who seated us...we actually think she was the manager doing a million things.  She literally took our order, got our drinks, apologized a million times and then ended up comping us our drinks and giving us half price on the food.  It was unexpected and kind for sure!  I recommend the atmosphere and the food was great... Hopefully staffing and big groups dont kill you.  



We did get to see the bridge go up a couple times too!

We literally managed to walk right on the water taxi... Big change from before!  It was a quiet boat till the very drunk people got on, but that's ok.  That will be me soon on the drink pkg!!!   
  So now I'm too wound up to sleep and can't wait for 10 1/2 hrs when I walk onto Harmony!!   My aim is to church in once a day but keep in mind the title of this blog lol!  @Lovetocruise2002 will be blogging symphony and will be much more interesting lol!!!!     I have the Muppet Christmas carol singing going through my head, but instead of "there's only one more night til Christmas" I have "there's only one more night night til Harmony"!!!!! Jane

Another thing to remember here is the frequency of our cruising experiences.
I will give you an example.  
I used to work for NY/NY Hotel and Casino, the Palms Casino, Caesar's, Venetian, and MGM in Vegas.  As employees, we would have access to the EDR (employee dining room).  At first, man-oh-man, the EDR was GREAT!  Its was a buffet everyday for employees.  Every break I got, I would go down to EDR and eat something.  After about a year of eating at least one meal a day and multiple snacks a day while working, the food seemed to get old and poorer in quality.
For us, we thought the food on our first Carnival cruise was outstanding!  Then after our 3rd or so cruise on the same ship, it became meh.  
Our first RCCL cruise was this past June.  I thought the food was night-and-day different and worlds apart better than anything on Carnival.  
Recently, we took a short 3 nighter on our second RCCL cruise.  The food was good.
This is when I realized that eventually, our perceptions diminish based upon our first experience(s) and usually, secondary and tertiary experiences do not live up to the first time.  
Soooooo....maybe its just us and not the actual food?  Sometimes it is the food, the preparation, the quality of ingredients--no doubt.  But to generalize things and simply say that the food quality is going down is not a fair assessment.

We just got back from the Allure and our experience with the food quality was excellent.  The MDR crew knocked it out of the park.  The food in the MDR was absolutely top notch... with the exception of - get this - The Key welcome lunch and departure breakfast.  It was shocking to me that The Key meals were by far the worst meals on our trip, with the worst service.  The food came out lukewarm, and the staff seemed lost.  I'll post my review of The Key in another thread, but in short, I won't buy the Key again - it was a big disappointment.
Aside from The Key meals, most all of the food on the Allure in every venue was delicious. 
MDR - amazing, every night we went.  We had two excellent lunches in the MDR as well, and a very good breakfast. 
Windjammer - couldn't go wrong here with the quick food.  Breakfast always worked out fast with plenty of choices. Try the kanji!
Solarium Bistro - love the made to order omelets.
Sorrento's - better than I remember.  They've stepped up their pizza quality a bit.
Izumi Hibachi - stellar, delicious lobster, scallops, and beef - cooked perfectly.  Mochi and sesame balls were excellent desserts.  My 2nd favorite restaurant.
150 Central Park - easily the best food on the ship: amazing scallops, perfect soup, and the fried cheesecake is the best dessert of all.  After trying 150 for the first time, this is now a must book for us on every cruise.
Chef's Table - delicious courses, but surprisingly inconsistent quality with the main course fillet.  My lady's was cooked perfectly, but mine was chewy and dried out on the outside.  The bad main course, plus the poor communication over where to meet to begin the meal (we had to sneak in to the diamond lounge and ask the host where to go), has made me fall out of love with the Chef's Table.  I very much prefer 150 Central Park.
Hopefully most other guests had a similar experience.  I don't think I am that easy to please when it comes to food 😄

I got off cruise last week and no changes.  But not sure what might be in the future.  

Obligatory dinner food post 😉
Bubba Gump Shrimp
We actually have never been to Bubba Gump ever so we thought we would give it a try. It was mediocre, at best. D16 says halfway through dinner, “Don’t worry Mom, tomorrow you will be in CK.” 😂😂😂
 

Love it! Onboard odyssey and we’re told not to unpack as upgrades could be coming. . There may be people not making it onboard so let’s all count our blessings that we can board a ship. That being said, I’m trying to be super positive but Odyssey does not seem like the ship for us. Lol

Well, it’s definitely not my beloved Intercontinental Miami, but it will do for one night. We booked a two bedroom suite with a shared bathroom. At check in, they asked if we wanted two separate king rooms (next to each other), that gives us 2 bathrooms. We took the 2 separate rooms. Same cost. Kids are beyond excited. The rooms are pretty much identical so pics of just one here. 
 
Atwell Suites-Miami Brickell
 

Was this picture from last summer?  I don't see much snow so I'm guessing July?

Made really good time this morning. Not a single car at the border. Driveway to terminal in 45 minutes.
Now all checked in. Need a coffee asap! 

Day 1, Friday.
As is my habit (sigh) I woke up around 0430.  What can I say, I'm like a little kid when it comes to cruise day.  Overall, very pleased with the Hilton Maya.  All of the food and service there were exceptional.
I had an 1130 show time for check-in, so me and my luggage hit the Uber button at 1030 from the hotel.  Uber was not happening.  After not having a driver try to pick up my fare for 10+ minutes, I cancelled and tried Lyft.  Much success.  Had a driver pick me up in 5 minutes.
Drive from hotel to the ship was a little longer than expected (20 minutes).  Port of LB (nee, LA) is one of the world's busiest.  The delay wasn't cruiser traffic.. it was just general commercial trucking and whatnot.  Once near the 90's berths, it was (forgive me), smooth sailing.  After getting dropped off, it took about 10 minutes to clear security and board.
Not many photos.  Port of Los Angeles is possibly the least charming port I've sailed from.  Not complaining (yay, I'm on a ship), but it's about as industrial as ports get.  One thing I wish I'd researched a little better was what is just adjacent to the berth RCI uses.  Specifically, the USS Iowa museum.  With a teensy bit of additional planning, I could have done my bag drop then walked a hundred yards or so and toured the Iowa before boarding the Navigator.  Note to my future self.

Really moody skies making our way out of the harbor, with what can barely be called occasional drizzle.  Tonight, ship's whistle (horn) has been doing the once a minute fog signal, which is possibly the most nautically romantic thing ever.  That feels like sailing.  🙂

W00t!  Something new (to me)!
Basics:
Navigator of the Seas, 7 nights
LA > Cabo > Mazatlan > Puerto Vallarta > LA
Grand Suite
Unique to this trip: NYE on a cruise
This is my first time on a Voyager class ship.  Launched in 2002, and with a 2019 Amplification and freshening-up, I’ve been looking forward to trying out Navigator.  I’ve sailed on RC’s “small” ships (Liberty and Radiance), but since 2018 it’s all been on Oasis class.
RC takes such good care of their ships, size and age hardly matter unless you want the bells and whistles only available on Oasis and Quantum class.
I’m also very happy that us granola-eating hippies in CA finally have a ship again — one that goes further into MX than Ensenada.  Nothing wrong with Ensenada (ask me about the wine country out in Valle de Guadalupe if you’re planning a stop there).
Pre-cruise, I’m camped out for a couple of nights at Hilton’s Maya: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/lgbmydt-hotel-maya/. Maya is about 12 minutes drive time to the cruise terminal.
To be honest, not much around hotel.  Food here is excellent.  Will do the walk across the bridge tomorrow to check out the city.  Probably 20 minutes to get into town.  Can see the Queen Mary from the "front lawn" of my patio room:

It's pretty at night.  Hardly anyone would describe the LA River as pretty, but it has its moments.  Queensway Bridge:


SFO was packed.  LAX was beyond that.  Flight time SFO > LAX was 53 minutes.  Time from de-boarding airplane to "Port of Los Angles" hotel, 2 hours.  Port of LA isn't in LA, it's in Long Beach, so fun times on the 405 and 710.

Starbucks is a great perk! Reyd went there so much that by day 2 they knew him, our room number and his drink order.  Kind of a funny story; Lindsay went to Starbucks yesterday with Reyd (Lindsay still has no idea what our stateroom number is 🤦‍♀️) and with the wow bands he doesn’t carry his sea pass card. When they saw he was with Reyd they said “oh don’t worry about it. We got it. Reyd is a legend here”  It is pretty amazing how quickly they recognize guests, stateroom numbers and drink preferences. Reyd will miss this perk. Lol 

We had a fantastic week with Berty! I have often said that it’s often the connection we make with a genie that rate them as a great vs good genie.  Berty was a great genie for us. One of the best things he did was offer to set up a call to review requests and get to know one another 4 weeks pre cruise.  I wish more genies did this.  I was telling Berty tonight how much it meant to relinquish my genie duties for the week. ❤️ We were in great hands.  
Once I get the link for onboard photos I will post some with Berty.  There is a funny one of him photo bombing Reyd and I. 
His contract is ending early February with an expected return date of early April (hopefully back to HM) and we hope to have him as our genie again next Christmas on Harmony out of Galveston.  Anyone would be lucky to have Berty as their genie.  

Last night
We ate at Jaime’s tonight. Berty surprised Reyd with a cake to celebrate him being in the RAP (registered apprenticeship program) for high school students. He attends high school and apprentices as a heavy diesel mechanic.  More on Berty later but he is a great genie. Those are mechanical gears on the cake.  
We watched the aqua show, had pizza, popcorn and dessert from Wonderland delivered.  Berty gave us a gift of his time and spent about 30 minutes with us as we watched the show. 

Yes! Sorry I forgot to post about this. It isn’t expected to be operational anytime soon. 😌

Ice Skating Show ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We really enjoyed this show, lots of talent and  great music.  Only 35 minutes. 

Final thoughts on Thermal Suite 
We used the thermal suite every day. More than we have on past cruises. In part due to the high number of sick passengers coughing etc, in the hopes of staying healthy.  It met expectations but no wow factor or exceptional service.  I am not a fan of the clear stairs. I don’t like heights + ship motion + looking down through clear step = me dizzy.  The space never felt crowded. We were the only ones there in the morning at around 8:30 am and at night around 9pm and it was slightly busier when I went at 3:30pm.  The steam shower is hot hot hot. I couldn’t last longer than 10-15 minutes. The dry sauna is not as hot. So having 2 options is nice.  Will definitely purchase on future cruises.  
 

Oh no, look what arrived. 🥲