mk-ultra

Lunch at CCBC was all it is cracked up to be. There's a "list" of appetizers -- but you don't order from that (I guess you could); they just bring you a massive two tray sampler of everything. It could feed two men and a boy. Winners were the shrimp cocktail, babaganoush (spell check just had a stroke) and the veggie crudites to gobble up said baba. Ceviche was the only "meh" thing. I love ceviche and this had sat in the citrus juice just way too long. Equivalent to overcooking fish. Taste was nice, texture was "thanks, I'm done with that." Main was surf-and-turf grilled lobster and filet, with fingerling potatoes and a smattering of roasted bell peppers. Excellent. It's so easy to screw up grilling a lobster. They didn't Sorry I didn't take any more food photos. I always forget -- only to remember after I've made a disaster of my plate. I spent the rest of my 4.5 hours on the island in a lounger, in the ocean and in the comfortably heated freshwater CCBC pool. Loungers have a little flag like a mailbox you raise to ensure you don't sober up. Dinner was at the hibachi side of Izumi. I had the Gyu (beef tenderloin). Beef was good, but I was beefed out from lunch. Finished with chocolate lava cake and killed a little time in the casino. Took a beating last night -- but variance in blackjack is kinda that way. You have to look at your yearly P&Ls to figure out just how much of an idiot you are (or aren't). [Arnold Voice] I'll be back. Last thing of the night for me was the "Aqua 80" Aquatheater show. Thoroughly enjoyed that. It's (surprise) based around a melange of '80s music and pop-culture themes. I was a little bit skeptical because my musical tastes almost never veer into the mainstream (especially when I was an '80s angst-y little s*t). Worth seeing though. Was very surprised to hear stuff like NWA, Soft Cell, Joy Division, etc. mixed in. Today is a lazy sea day. Massage. Shane says the Escape Room is running again and looks like I have a slot at 2PM. Dinner is Chef's Table.

From Day 2, yesterday. Main event was Cococay. This is my first time on the island. I've enjoyed other private islands like Labadee though. For my beachside digs, I chose the Coco Beach Club. I think it was a good choice. Upgraded food was well worth it, and it wasn't anything near crowded. As mia081081 mentioned, we had the island to ourselves instead of it being a two ship day. Shane said ship is running ~4000 pax or so on 3/4 crew (should be around 1600 at that level).

Yesterday, Day 1, went great. Took an Uber from the hotel to Terminal A at the port. ~10 minutes. As instructed by everyone including my Genie, bypassed all of the blue check-in areas and went alllllll the way to the purple Star Class banner. At Miami, you'll go far enough that you begin to wonder if you missed it. Nope -- press on, sailor. Whisked through security with an escort. Genie (Shane) picked it up from there. By 11:30, in the cabin with Shane explaining all the bells and whistles. Man, I can play with those shades for like an hour (so many buttons -- my dad would yell at me). Ate lunch at the new-ish Portside BBQ. Yum. It'll be on my rotation for the rest of the cruise. Dinner was at CK. I had the smoked tomato soup, seared branzino and the chef brought out a couple of surprise Indian appetizer-sized tastes (Shane had told them I really enjoy Indian and Filipino food). Missed the ice show. I showed up and got seated, but wow I was tired from having my body clock messed with. I just went back to the cabin and zonked out. No casino for me last night I'm not a quitter -- will try again tonight. Anywho, at Cococay now and about to disembark. Some cabin photos:

14528. No real reason for choosing starboard over port. I think I habitually take the starboard side to reduce that day one "what direction am I going in?" thing.

So, last thing to do was checking "no" on 15 things on the RCL app at T-24 hours indicating I'm not a plague rat. It's failed multiple times trying to submit. Mucho non-caring. They can deal with me tomorrow. Hats off to Royal IT again.

I haven't seen one here. Instead, they have a hosted evening wine hour between 5-6PM. I've got zero status with IHG hotels, so I could be missing something, but I think wine hour is it. Haven't checked it out.

Oh, FWIW... did my proctored eMed test last night right after getting to the hotel. Totally painless. Went to eMed.com, hit the "test" button and was on a video call in under a minute. Show unopened box, show QR code on outside with expiration date, unbox & take the test. I used my laptop camera which was handy (I could partially close the lid to focus on the test card during the 15 minute wait time for the test to finish). You don't have to sit for 15 minutes, just keep it on camera and be back before the timer runs out. They want to know you aren't doing the old swaparoo. You'll hold the test card up for another proctor to see when your 15 minutes are up. Honestly, I think my 15 minutes were up a couple of decades ago. Negative results show up in the Navica app in a few minutes. Just to be safe, I emailed them to a couple of my personal addresses, but I'm not going to bother printing them out; I'll just show the app & know I've got a couple of backups.

That's the one. Only real tip I have for the property is to know their given address is 270 Biscanyne Blvd Way. While perhaps technically correct, the entrance for drop-off/pickup/valet is at the intersection of SE 3rd Avenue at SE 4th Street. I saw more than a few folks on Tripadvisor who had a WTF moment trying to get to the hotel. Food has been very good. Had both breakfast and lunch at Area 31, their restaurant adjacent to the pool. I used this morning to do some scouting around the hotel. Again it's not South Beach, but within 3-4 blocks: Boulud Sud: https://www.bouludsud.com/miami/ Capital Grille: https://www.thecapitalgrille.com/locations/fl/miami/miami/8006 In the same area: Whole Foods, CVS, Starbucks, Subway sandwiches, Metromover stop (Miami's elevated public transport doohickey), Bayfront Park (kinda like a less inviting SF Pier 39). Best stuff I found was a block of restaurants at SE 1st Street and 3rd Avenue. Al fresco nibbles and all of the places seemed pretty popular and non-chain. Bayfront Park has their own rotate-y vertical thing... like the London Eye or Singapore Flyer:

On the road! Flight out from SFO yesterday started out great. Quick stop into the Centurion lounge for the mandatory, "I'm officially on vacation" bloody mary. Wheels up on time just before 0900 and we had a really spectacular tail wind which shaved 40 minutes off of the trip. Landed in Miami and that's where the fun began. No gates available. OK, that happens. Continue reading book. 30 minutes... 1 hour... 90 minutes... 2 hours. I think the flight crew was at least if not more miffed than the pax. Door opened to applause at the 2:15 delay mark. Miami airport was having some kind of meltdown. People sleeping on the floors; lady with a kid said they'd been waiting almost 3 hours for their luggage to get to the carousel. Anyway, our flight's luggage came out in about 45 minutes and the ~15 minute taxi ride to the hotel was uneventful. The hotel is nice. It's a little away from the "dynamic" Miami stuff but still in a good location with an estuary and decent view of a slice of Biscayne Bay. AMEX FH&R scored again. Went from a floor 16 "city view" to a floor 30 water view. I'd take some room photos, but meh? It's a hotel. Nice big tub, which I will poor-man's Jacuzzi. It's a bit windy for the pool on 16. You can see the ships in port from the balcony. Plan for today is to just pedestriate myself around and check out the area. 1130 show time for Boaty McBoatface tomorrow.

Yay! Shane is my Genie as well. Excursion wise: Coco Beach Club on day 2, catamaran snorkel on day 4, Torquise Bay (drunk with a book) on day 5, and ATV Jungle and Beach Adventure on day 6. Can't speak about Chichen Itza (haven't done it), but I did do the Mayan ruins (Xunantunich) on a Belize trip. It was ~2 hours each way to get to and from the site from the port. I was a little bit sketchy about that travel time but it was great. Guide made the travel time fun and educational. No regrets. Had an amazing lunch on the way back and got introduced to Marie Sharp's hot sauces. New addiction. Bottle sits next to my Nando's piri-piri.

I'm still kinda wondering how I'll like it. I really like having a balcony and normally use it quite a bit (L1 loft cabin is my go-to on O class ships). I'm a short hop from being on the pool deck, so happy to give this a shot even without a balcony. I did put in 3 potential RoyalUp bids... which will be ridiculously stupid (solo) if one of them wins.

I normally wouldn't start posting before I'm actually on my trip, but with all the Covid fun and testing and whatnot, I'm going to start a few days early this time because it may be useful to others. Basics: Ultimate Panoramic Suite, Deck 14 Forward. Stupidly rare cabin (there are only two in Royal's fleet and I just lucked out when they were released for booking late November 2019). It's Star Class, so this should be fun. Itinerary: Miami Cococay At Sea Cozumel Roatan Costa Maya At Sea Miami Like most of you, I need a negative Covid test before boarding. Save yourself some heartache and just order a proctored rapid antigen test instead of trying to book a slot at a pharmacy. I'll do mine on a video call at my hotel using my laptop. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/the-healthy-sail-center/pre-cruise-testing. My test kits arrived 3 days after I ordered them, and both had December expiration dates.

Looks like an auto-correct fail. I believe they were referring to "SanDisk."

I was on the Radiance. My experience is a bit dated -- 2016.

On my cruise, the ship spent at least an hour making continuous slow 360s, with a couple of breaks keeping station.

1 liter. Above that, it will be dutiable at 3 percent, plus any Internal Revenue Tax (IRT) that is due.

If I did the math right and you'll be at Cococay on the 23rd, there are two ships scheduled for that day: Harmony and Independence. I'd just keep checking the cruise planner to see if someone frees up a slot by cancelling. https://www.cruisetimetables.com/visitingcococaybahamas-23apr2022.html

Somebody was definitely having a nap at the x-ray machine.

The front QR code (next to the text saying download the Navica app) just takes you to: https://www.globalpointofcare.abbott/en/product-details/navica.html#/ where you can download the app from either the Apple or Google Play app stores. You'll need the app. Once you download it, launch it and create an account using your phone number. When you're actually ready to do the test, you'll go to the eMed web site: https://www.emed.com and get going from there. Your proctor will guide you through the rest. The QR code on the white sticker is for use during testing. You are also correct about NOT opening the box until told to do so by the proctor.

Central Park at night is pretty amazing. Good place to meet up with friends / fellow-travelers and have a beer or glass of wine while listening to some really good acoustic music. Everything from jazz trios, 4-piece classical strings to solo guitar.

Had a 20-something woman cut in front of a bunch of us in line. The person she cut in front of gently said, "sorry... there's a line" (pointing at said obvious line). She drunkenly waved around her SeaPass card and said, indignantly, "I'm in a suite." It was so... I don't even know. We all just looked at each other and laughed and let her go about her suite-ness.

USVI is also now rejecting unvaccinated passengers. Even though I'm cancelled, received notification that's off the menu for the cruise.

Ugh. Just pulled the eject handle on this cruise. On the team I manage at work, just had 3 breakthrough cases for the fully-vaccinated. I've got employees with under 12 y/o kids and folks with immunocomprised people at home. That's tripped my limit. I seriously wanted to be on this sailing (pretty much like everyone else who has had to cancel/postpone stuff for 18+ months). FL is a train wreck. Again, the risk to me is small, but the risk of bringing it back impacts a lot of other people and their kids. So no-go. Trying again in December. Super bummed.

Booking a rental car out of MCO was (initially) problematic. My former hometown (Merritt Island) is close to the port, so if I cruise out of Canaveral I usually add a day to explore and get a one-way rental out of MCO to the port. Unlike most places, there isn't a price premium for doing this. Hertz was just zip, nada, nothing available for 3+ weeks, so I went with Avis.

That would be nice. I'm flying to OH 8/9 for a work trip. I do all the recommended stuff, but I'll be in a tube with ~150 other people for 6.5 hours. Flights are packed. Like 100% full. Hard to social distance on an aircraft, including my flight to MCO.