mom2mybugs

So, where are we going ?  Not that it matters, of course….
5 ports of call:  Puerto Plata, DR (day #3), St Thomas (day #4), Antigua (day #5), Grenada (day #6) and St Kitts (day #7).  We will be doing 2 excursions on this sailing (very unusual for us).  We will be swimming with the stingrays in Antigua and taking a familiarization tour in Grenada since we’ve never been there.  
 
Dan is strutting about in his underwear with the curtains open, violating the #1 rule of interior view rooms, “thou shalt not expose thyself”.  I did quickly pulled the curtains together but I’m sure it would have been too late for anyone looking up.  He truly does NOT give a flying fu##.  😜🥰. Hopefully being up on 8 will protect everyone !  This is gonna be a fun cruise.
I LOVE our Cap !  I couldn’t make out his first name but his last name is Mortensen (from northern Norway).  He offered an unambiguous threat to all of the pool lounge chair hogs !  He said, “These chairs do not belong to you.  They ALL belong to ME”.  I love it !  He sounds like a fun guy.  

As if I need to be tagged to find live blog food pics? 😁 Thanks for trying though.
Sounds like you'll be fine, lounge-wise, either way but hope you continue to have your choice of the two.

As I’ve already mentioned, boarding was very timely and efficient.  We stopped by our mustard (sic) station on the way in and got that out of the way.  Then straight over to the specialty dining kiosk near the dining room to make our specialty rezzies.  No one else in line…easy peasy.  Woohoo !
 
On our way up to our room to sneak the keys off the stateroom door, we ran into Gigi, the Suites Concierge.  I asked her if there were any Pinnacle exclusions to the Suite Lounge.  Very sheepishly, she said, “Yes.  Only the top 30 allowed in the Concierge Lounge” (EX STILL has not converted their Concierge Lounge to a Suites Lounge despite the fact that they underwent a dry dock fairly recently.  Why ??).  She continued, “If your key works, you’re allowed in”.  My heart sank as I’m certain that we would be excluded.  I’ve been waiting for this to happen.  It was just a matter of time.  “oh well” I tell myself.  It’s not the end of the world.  Truly, the Crown Lounge is actually nicer than the Suites/Concierge Lounge on this ship since the Concierge Lounge is still, inexplicably, located in an uninspired inside room on deck 9 while the Crown Lounge is up in the Viking Crown are with an ocean view.  “We’ll be fine”, I said, as I choked back the tears of disappointment. 😜😜
So I went and snatched the keys from the door (we’re right by the elevators on deck 8 so I was and out like a special forces recon team.  Nobody saw me come or go (except for security, of course)).  Even though I knew it was a waste of time, I told Dan that we had to try the key to see if it would open the Concierge Lounge door.  I held my breath.  I slipped the key in.  I heard the “click” that the lock makes when it magically unlocks the door.  The light blinked.  I couldn’t believe our luck !  Our successful record for Suites Lounge access was still intact !  Yippee !  Now…are we in the top 30 Pinnacles ?  That’s a big “no” unless there are only 29 Pinnacles on board !  So either it’s a one-time lock glitch OR Gigi was hedging her bet.  I guess we’ll find out the next time I try to get in !
I got my cappuccino, and a stale lemon cookie and we waited in the [absolutely deserted] Concierge Lounge until it was time for lunch.  For those who need to know (Mike ?  …the tag-thing isn’t working !) here are some pix of the unimpressive treats in the Lounge for embarkation.
Poor Dan.  He’s all alone in the Lounge !
 
 

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

Thanks !
Very nice.  They let us in the terminal at almost exactly 10:00 and we started boarding before 11:00.  It was a very quick and efficient embarkation.

So what “firsts” are we doing on this cruise ?
1.  First time ever parking offsite.  The second “first” (how confusing is that ???) is really just a subset of the #1.  This is the first time we have used Premier Parking in Miami.
2.  The only other “first” has nothing to do with boarding day - we will be calling on Grenada for the first time ever.  Rare for us to have a new Caribbean port, but we do.  As a matter of fact, we will be calling twice b/c our third cruise in this trilogy is identical to the first so we will be visiting twice.

I struggled with whether to do a live blog for these 3 rather mundane EX cruises but I decided to give it a go.  I even have some photos !  Shock, I know….these might be the only photos you get but at least there will be some !
Absolutely nothing interesting to report about our drive in.  Left Port St Lucie at 5:30AM and arrived at the parking garage (finally….more about that in a minute) at 8:00.  Since we had an 8:00 reservation, right on time.  We normally do not plan to arrive quite THAT early, but since we have a couple of “firsts” on this trifecta, plus, it being a weekday, we decided to leave a bit early.  In the end, it was a very good thing we did.

@OCSC Mikehas it right.  Retirement is the key.  Of course, our cruising style has taken a bit of a downgrade since retirement, but where the quality went down, the quantity went up !  Nothing truer than the old adage, “When you’re working you have the money but no time and when you’re retired you have the time but no money”.

I’m glad to hear all the opinions, as we have been considering a celebrity cruise.  I watched an Emma cruises video and she also mentioned the issue of light in the room…you can’t have an early riser be on the balcony (on a reg. Balcony cabin) but instead it causes a light issue if one person wants to be “outside” in the virtual balcony room.  That’s a game changer if we are spending money on a balcony room with the expectation my early waking husband won’t wake me up!  Jane

I haven't gotten much fitness on since HS, lol. I get plenty of exercise on the ship. Some of those food venues are kinda far apart and I hate taking the elevators.

i’m going to need a moment to recover that your wife — who is very particular about her food choices (which i fully understand) — eats a tuna poke bowl. 
WILD. 

Wow.  It’s been many years since I’ve heard Hootie Hoo.  I had a dear, dear friend who passed away several years ago who used to say that.  Sure brought back a lot of fun times with her.

Sisters nails this cruise.

What we have to hide for two weeks 

The Pan American pier doesn't have a lot nearby. If you take a taxi/Uber down to Old San Juan, Barrachina Restaurant (claims the Pina colada) stores luggage. 

I think retirement helps. Been trying to speed it up but Powerball doesn't want to cooperate.

80+ cruises ! Mercy, how does one go about such numbers ? Please mentor me!

I went from San Juan last March. We were on board by 11:00. I do not remember what my check in time was but I do recall lots of traffic in the port area. We left early and are glad we did. 

I was on at 11 for 12 ship time rhapsody out of San Juan in June.  12-123was the earliest I could get.  Now the ship sails at 8pm, so that really legit could be the first time.  It feels late though.  Jane

We did xl Ubers over spring break in France and here because 4-5 people and their luggage wasn’t gonna work.  It averaged about $20-30 more than the regular.  You can see cost on Ubers app by doing a mock viewing.  Jane

Speaking of magnets...
We are finding few available, and none that would fit our refrigerator motif. 
Recently on Wonder, magnets were unavailable, but key chains/key fobs were of a plethora. 
Simply gluing magnets on the back of a key chain fob gave us instant refrigerator magnets.😎
 

Hi Everyone! More questions as I get closer to my sail date on Liberty for my first ever Junior Suite. Gotta start somewhere right? Does anyone know what model of Lavassa espresso machine they have in the cabin? I saw a little coffee service area in some pictures of the suite online. I’m in 9234 if anyone happens to be there now. 😜 Thanks for the heads up. Some day I’ll get to an Oasis class ship and dine in CK. 😎 Liberty has no perks really beyond my double points from all my research.

For us, it depends who the cruise director is. That is how we decide if we are going to attend or not. If it's a high energy, funny, CD, we try our best to go.  Much like The Quest, IMO, the CD makes or breaks that show.
However, our last two sailings, we have skipped (even one with Ricky Matthews who we love), because of the times that others have mentioned above. They keep doing the show at 2:30pm now and that does not work as well for us.

For those of you who Facebook, the official Royal Caribbean Blog Facebook page was taken down by Meta. @Matt has had no luck getting the page restored, so a new Facebook page has been created. Please visit the new page and like and follow it.  Thanks!
https://www.facebook.com/royalcaribbeanblogcom

I wouldn't waste money on the Key as your time isn't bad and an hour or two on day 1 isn't worth the cost. There is far too much emphasis on being the first to board. I think vacations should be relaxing, so I hate to see anxiety about boarding times. Just a thought as I think of poolside music. .