spiralqueen

We were dining at Giovannis on the night we were celebrating my mom’s birthday (it was a week before her actual birthday, but I wanted to celebrate her on the vacation so I went with the one week before). I swung by the Giovanni’s hostess station a couple of days before to mention to them that we had a reservation and wanted to celebrate a birthday but wanted it to be a surprise. I tried to get them to have carrot cake which is my mom’s favorite cake. They said they weren’t sure if they could make that happen, but they would try their best. It turns out it wasn’t available, but our waitress wanted my mom to have something special so got her personal favorite dessert on the ship and brought over the passion fruit cake from 150 Central Park with a candle.  It was really sweet of them to bring something over from a whole other specialty restaurant. They really will try to go out of their way to make things special for you if you give them advance notice. 

After our drive around the island, we headed to "Victors Monkey Business" which is their own animal sanctuary, complete with other activities including ziplines etc. We were quickly ushered in and waited our turn for as Julie said was "the best day of her life"
The first part of their sanctuary we got to interact with some Capuchin Monkeys. These guys were quite friendly if you had treats for them. They had no problem landing on our shoulders and heads. Julie tried, but he wasn't interested in a selfie.




We saw a few other monkeys, there were some howler monkeys, and spider monkeys, but they weren't interested in photo opportunities. We passed a Toucan who was more than willing to pose, 

before heading into a pen to see some Macaws. 


We got this guy to land on my head......

Now the question needs to be asked.......

Yes......yes the colorful chickens have very large talons.....

Creation of Thread * (Explanation of Booking + Cabin Selection Details + Itinerary Coverage) = Live Blog Started
You have the forum record for earliest Live Blog, whether desired or not. ?
@Matt, you are fully and completely on the hook for starting this horrible, awful, terrible, no good trend (that I will now shamelessly find some reason to follow).
@twangster, your crown is gone unless that other cruise you mentioned in what WAS the earliest live blog at the time is still within the window of victory.
@Lovetocruise2002, you are hereby in fourth place. No bronze for you!

 

Better than song stealing some women’s husband was singing and she’s cheering him on then other people start bad mouthing him then the wife and this guy start getting heated with words then the mans wife gets involved and next thing you know security shows up tells the 2 couples they need to be on the opposite side of the bar. Security stays for the rest of karaoke. 

We were dining at Giovannis on the night we were celebrating my mom’s birthday (it was a week before her actual birthday, but I wanted to celebrate her on the vacation so I went with the one week before). I swung by the Giovanni’s hostess station a couple of days before to mention to them that we had a reservation and wanted to celebrate a birthday but wanted it to be a surprise. I tried to get them to have carrot cake which is my mom’s favorite cake. They said they weren’t sure if they could make that happen, but they would try their best. It turns out it wasn’t available, but our waitress wanted my mom to have something special so got her personal favorite dessert on the ship and brought over the passion fruit cake from 150 Central Park with a candle.  It was really sweet of them to bring something over from a whole other specialty restaurant. They really will try to go out of their way to make things special for you if you give them advance notice. 

I'm officially ON VACATION!!!!   I worked my last overnight (dog) shift last night and my last night as a 911 dispatcher .... it crawled along for the most part.  Now I have 2 1/2 days to get house and hounds ready for our pet sitter, and to get us packed.  The weather away from here is looking like it's going to be pretty good, except when we leave.  5 degrees? REALLY?  I do NOT want to drag a winter coat with me to Miami, to the ship, and back.  This is BS.  I'm going to FREEZE  in the Uber.  I want to talk to the weather manager.
Speaking of wanting to file a grievance, the first hound to be bathed has some issues with this entire process.  (i.e. the princess is NOT happy).  I'm sure the boys will feel the same way.

Since we’re officially 4 weeks away from our cruise I thought it was an appropriate time to start the blog? (No? Meh, I’m going with it anyway).
I never expected to book a cruise like this with Mr SpeedNoodles.  He’s more into the “culturally enriching and/or scenic” sort of cruises.  He wasn’t really thrilled about booking a cruise to the Caribbean because “they’re just islands - what is there to see that’s different from the next island?”.  Plus, he’s a small-ship guy.  He likes being able to walk around that outside Promenade level and visiting the helipad.  He likes that connection to the sea.
Honestly, since I’ve never been to the Caribbean myself so I couldn’t really negate his impressions. I have no idea myself.  My two, short, warm-weather cruises were to Nassau/Coco Cay.  
So how did we end up booking this? Well, a year and a half ago, we had our Alaskan cruise booked on Ovation for June 2019. We hadn’t taken a cruise, or any vacation that didn’t involve showing dogs, in ten years (pet sitters are hard to come by). But we finally secured one, and we had quite the trip planned.  We were going to drive to Seattle, spending 2-3 days in Yellowstone (we had the historic Yellowstone Inn booked), and then we were going to spend about 4-5 days exploring the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, where we plan to retire, before we boarded Ovation for our 7-night Alaskan cruise.
But things happen, and in September of 2018 my husband slipped on a wet floor at a business and tore his quadricep.  He was out of work for 4 months after his surgery, which ate up a significant portion of his PTO that he had saved for the trip.  We decided that we couldn’t pull off the 3-week trip, and would have to fly to Seattle if we wanted to still go (note: Mr SpeedNoodles is terrified of flying - serious druggage is necessary to accomplish a flight).  So MY thought process was that we could use the money we were saving by shortening our trip to Seattle to book a winter Caribbean cruise! #speednoodleslogic.  I threw the idea out there at him, expecting him to poo poo it, and to my great surprise he just said yes! HOLY CRAP!  I emailed @michelle at MEI and quickly booked Symphony before he could change his mind. 
During the 13+ month span of time since I booked the cruise I’ve been exposing him here and there with Royal Caribbean Blog podcasts (as well as the Cruise Tips TV Unplugged podcast), live YouTube and Facebook chats, etc etc.  After the Ovation cruise, he was even more excited about Symphony.  Planning. Could. Begin.
Itinerary
Miami - Sea Day - Sea Day - St. Maarten  -  San Juan, PR - Sea Day - Coco Cay - Miami
Pre-cruise hotel: Kimpton Epic
What have we booked onboard? We went all out on our first Oasis-class ship.
Unlimited Beverage Package ($18 intern special, TYVM)
Unlimited Dining Package
All Access Ship Tour
Escape Room
The Key
Excursions? You betcha!!! (#OfficialMinnesotaTerminology)
St. Maarten - 3rd party ATV tour
San Juan - ATV tour booked through Royal Caribbean (this one should be very special to me and later I’ll tell you why!)
Nothing special on Coco Key - Mr. Speednoodles’ plan is to snorkel, eat crispy chicken sandwich, snorkel, eat crispy chicken sandwich, repeat. I'll do some of the same with breaks to find the chickens and iguanas (I believe we are now on a first-name basis).
This cruise is actually ending up being a sort of celebration.  Immediately upon our return I’ll be starting my new job - I’ve been promoted to supervisor!  I’m very excited (for many reasons, not least of which it is much easier to get PTO approved at that level!!)
Ugh, the waiting is the hardest part (or so said Mr. Petty).  I want to pack and go NOW!!!!!
(Shameless Fezzik photo, just because).

 

The kids with their Aunt Julie
Someone is living her best life

Cruise Day 2:  Coco Cay, Bahamas:  I woke up around 6:30 to find us about 30’ from the dock in Coco Cay, we were scheduled to be there at 8:00.  I thought maybe they would open the gangway earlier, but apparently they had to wait for the dock workers to arrive.
Empress joined us in port today,  with Harmony and Empress both at Coco Cay there was plenty of free  loungers both at Chill Island and Oasis Lagoon;  spent a couple of hours at both locations soaking up the warm sun.  We didn’t go into the water heard several people say the water was cold, a few were in the ocean but there were quite a few in Oasis Lagoon. Grabbed a crispy chicken sandwich and funnel cake from the Snak Shack it was less hectic there than our previous lunches at Labadee and Coco Cay.
Summary of Coco Cay:  I’d say they have it right for calling it Perfect Day, there is something for everyone.  The only food place that seemed busy was Chill Grill, Snak Shack and Captain Jacks were not crowded at all.  One observation is that there were plenty of empty day beds at Chill Island and most of the over water cabanas were empty also.  If that is a trend maybe prices will come down.  After lunch we headed back to the ship and found a fruit basket waiting for us (nice touch), partook of an embarrassing round of mini golf before getting ready for dinner.
We had our first specialty dinner tonight at Chops; DW had the Tuna Tartare, Spicy Jumbo Shrimp and Key Lime Pie, I had the Charred Beef Carpaccio, NY Strip and Warm Chocolate Cake.  I must say everything was delicious and the service was excellent.  It was a bit louder than I thought it would be but still quieter than the MDR.  I don’t normally eat steak out as I purchase a ¼ of a Black Angus cow each year and find most steak houses disappointing.  The fillet I had for the Key Lunch was good and tender but I wasn’t impressed with the flavor, but the NY Strip was seasoned just right and very tender.  Wrapped up the evening in Boleros dancing to the Latin Band.
 

And actually we are gonna pay it off today. Why wait till the last minute if we have the money. Now its party, once its paid off and in the double digits, its a party. We are just about there.

Wow, I don't know how you live bloggers manage to keep up.  Its been a hectic two days.  Let me try to catch up with Day 1.
Cruise Day 1:  Embarkation from Port Canaveral:  I woke up early and drove to the port to watch Harmony come in before daybreak.  It was amazing how effortlessly she came into port, turned and slipped into the dock. 
Had a bit of panic set in, somehow my trunk popped open after returning to the hotel and before breakfast.  The front desk called to let me know my trunk was open; with most of my bags in the trunk I flew down four flights of stairs worried that my bags were gone.  Was relieved to find all was safe. Once my heart returned to a normal beat, we were off to eat the complimentary breakfast.  It was pretty much standard free hotel breakfast.  They had fixings to make a breakfast burrito, waffles, cereal, bagels and such. 
I dropped the bags off at the porters around 9:45 and went to return the rental car.  Entered the terminal at 10:10 and seated in “The Key” area at 10:20, no sooner had we sat down they started boarding.  The Key boarded right after B2B, Suites, and Diamond +.
Once onboard we stopped to make our specialty dinner reservations, then off to Bolero’s for WOW bands while the DW ordered our cruise starting Kracken Lava Flows.  With drinks in hand, we dropped the carryon bag at the MDR to be delivered to the room and set about exploring the ship a bit.
Lunch was the Chops Lunch in the MDR which is part of “The Key”.  Started with the shrimp cocktail, 6 oz. fillet mignon and we shared a warm chocolate cake.  Steak was tender and cooked to order, although I would have seasoned the meat.  Tried the peppercorn sauce, wasn’t my cup of tea, I generally cook my steaks at home with a little salt and pepper and that’s it.  It was a larger lunch than we normally have but it was a nice relaxing way to start the cruise. 
The rooms opened up before we finished lunch so we checked out our room.  My carryon bag was in the room and I spotted one of my suitcases down the hall.  After unpacking the carryon and hanging clothes suitcase; went back down the hall and my other two bags were there. 
Tonight’s supper was in the MDR, a dance or two in the Promenade and then to the showing of “Grease”.  Seating for Key guests was on deck 4 in the balcony, better seats were available 30 minutes before the show on deck 3 center.  We enjoyed the show and it definitely is not for children, yet many were in attendance.  The gestures were very explicit, much more than I remember in the movie.
After “Grease” we went back to our room to change shoes around 10:15pm, only to find out the doors on all of deck 6 were malfunctioning no one could get into their rooms.  After waiting a bit and talking to several ships’ crew members, Security came with the key and lets us in.  Doors were working again around 11:45 pm but we had decided to call it a night.

This isn't included in the cruise fare, but rather a tip for included with the refreshment or deluxe beverage packages that not everyone knows about. One of my favorite things about the Oasis class ships is that the fresh fruit smoothies and juices at the Vitality Spa Cafe are included in the (non-soda) beverage packages. The only thing not included is if you want to add a shot of protein powder. So yummy and with WAY less sugar than those daiquiri syrup mixes. 

Getting on the ship as late as we did, the rooms were already open, so we headed there to drop off our carry on bags, and went and stuffed our faces.
Stateroom Tour: So we are in the GS2BR on the aft of the ship. We have been in three 2br grand suites now, and I have to say this is my least favorite. 
 
You open the stateroom door into this hallway

there is the second bedroom on your right with it’s own bathroom.


there is also a large closet in the hallway on the left.

main living area

Master bedroom 

Overall, the suite seems cramped with that hallway. We were in the same room on Navigator, and the layout of that room was much better. Our first foray into suite snobbery was on Anthem and that suite was great. 
Like many have noticed on other ships Liberty doesn’t disappoint with its lack of outlets. In the second bedroom there are no outlets near the beds, so if you like to sleep with your phone near you for any reason, plan accordingly. I bring adapters for the European style plugs so that helps.

I’m up early this AM because well, it’s 7 in NY and my internal alarm AKA bladder started screaming at me. While everyone else is sleeping let’s get caught up. Oh did I also mention ITS CRUISE DAY!!!


Last night we headed out for some dinner. My father has traveled to Houston many times for business, and he recommended a place called Fajita Willies. 

We were happy we made this choice. The food was good. The portions are large, and priced well. All in with an App, drinks, tip, we were only out $65.
 
Early into the meal, we were starting to lose this guy. He’s a boy who likes his sleep, and getting up at 5 am for our flights was rough on him.


 
Here is a shot of the meals.

I got the mixed fajitas. Lydia got the kids taco that she loudly exclaimed that “this taco is even better than the ones you make dad!” Kid, I would certainly hope so????‍♂️ Johnny got a quesadilla, and Heather got a combo with an enchilada and a taco. Chips and salsa and deep fried jalapeños rounded out the food. The salsa is made fresh every day by a woman who comes in the AM. It’s flavor was rich and smoky, and what surprised us was that it came to the table warm, almost hot. We were discussing this with the waitress who looked at us like we had theee heads when we told her that in NY it’s served cold. 
 
With full bellies, we headed back to the hotel. Poor Johnny was unconscious three minutes into the ride. We all called it an early night since we were tired. That is all of us except for my sister Julie who was supposed to meet a friend for dinner. That turned into a late night for her, as her friend got out of work waaaay later than she had planned. She didn’t get to dinner till close to 9pm. Oh well, we can sleep when we are dead.

Entertainment:  The entire group enjoyed everything we saw.  (Almost). The singers, dancers, skaters, divers and other performers displayed amazing talent!  The athletic ability of some of them will blow you away. Aqua 80’s was the best water show I have seen. I think the music and me being old helped make it that way?. The headliners were good. I think I’ve already mentioned that Kaitlyn, Taylor and I returned  for Stephanie Parker’s 2nd show the night she performed. Jeff Tracta has been around for awhile but we enjoyed his talent again. Jack Daniels and I returned for his 2nd show as well. ??. Interesting story on that. JD and I sent an email to Allan after the first show asking if he could reserve the front row seats for us at the 2nd show.  I usually send the emails myself but that evening I let Jack assist in sending it - and he sent it to the Genie on the Allure instead of to Allan. Allan later told me the the Allure Genie immediately contacted him to see if he had some crazy elderly dude who wanted to see the headliner again! It all ended well.  I’m known across the fleet. Jack is no longer allowed to send emails. 
We loved the ice skating as usual. So entertaining and such incredible talent. The comedians were ok, one much better than the other. The Escape Room was an amazing afternoon of entertainment. Having actually watched a Space Shuttle launch from the real Mission Control, I enjoyed the creativity and realistic “ Mission.”
CATS:  None of us really wanted to see it.  We skipped it the first time on the Oasis.  But this year our merry little group decided it was a “must see” just to see what all the fuss is about.  I will say that the performers are extremely talented.  We learned during our backstage tour that the kitties each do their own makeup!  The singing and dancing is top notch.  But that sucker seemed like 8 hours long with 15 minute stretches of complete silence thrown in!  And speaking of stretches, those cats can, and do, stretch and  slither right up to the edge of the stage - where they look right into the eyes of the unrefined Star Class folks who obviously do not appreciate theater. Your eyes lock with those of the felines as they are laying on the stage at eye level and only about three feet in front of you!  I kept whispering to Stacy, “ Don’t yawn....”. It was the longest 90 minutes of my life since I used to watch Dora the Explorer with toddler Taylor?

Writing this from Central Park after a perfect day at coco cat. Wow life can’t get much better! So yesterday the start of the cruise. We left our villa at 9am and arrived in port Canaveral at 10am after a 10 minute wait in line to drop off the car on the shuttle we went and off to the port. The porters grabbed our luggage (we over pack 5 people 6 large suitcases, 2 small carry on roller bags and a small duffel bag) and off to the terminal we went. Literally 2 people ahead of us for security then off to check in that took less than 5 minutes no line but I needed a new photo then right onto the ship. We were on-board by 10:45! Next we went to bolaros to reprogram our old wow bands and to get the first drink. I have the deluxe drink package so at the recommendation of this blog the first drink I grabbed was a kracken lava flow. Then off to the solarium my favourite place on any ship. I do notice the lack of pool in harmony’s and do miss it. Ate lunch at the solarium bistro this was an amazing idea as we did not wait found a table no problem and the food was good. Then the rooms were ready! Rest of day 1 later I’m going to go enjoy sail away from my balcony with some sangria! 

I didn't want to buy into all the Buc-ee's hype - but - man. my sandwich was amazing.  And, they had geocaches to find. And the dog park signs were the best. 
For dinner - we didn't get a photo of the Japchae! but it was great. Driving in this Houston suburb was a bit crazy. 

They are pre-assigned now. Did you book them at the same time? If so, chances are they will be together because, as I understand it, the cabanas are assigned in order based on time of booking. You can check with the shore excursion desk upon boarding to ask them what numbers you have just so you are prepared. But either way, you will find out the night before you dock in Coco Cay because your room steward will deliver the tickets and instructions on where to go to check in. 

To add the to the "just about any drink can be made virgin" this is true and the bartenders can also tell you if making the drink virgin is pointless. On my last cruise I forget what I tried to order virgin, but the bartender said "I mean I can make that for you, but it's basically going to be grapefruit juice" so I went with something else. Though I would encourage you to have some direction when ordering since my attempt to tell the bartender at R Bar to "give me an interesting but fruity nonalcoholic drink" resulted in literal fruit punch that you would serve at a kid's party. 

That's how we feel every time without them! ?
Save that gif for our Odyssey Inaugural joint monster blog. ?

If I wasn’t traveling with the kids, I would have been like...

So I just went back in my family Whatsapp chat from our last cruise when we did the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau. We had a 4:30 all aboard time and my mom and I left the hotel around 3:15. Now mind you, we did make a pit stop to pick up some alcohol for her coworker, but that was about  5 mins total as they didn’t have what she wanted. We made it through security and to the gangway by 4:04pm which was far too close for comfort for me. There was a bit of a bottleneck at security so I would definitely leave yourself at least an hour to get back and through security just to be safe. It didn’t help that there wasn’t the most organized line at security so if you weren’t assertive it was very easy for people to cut in front of you. 

Yes, there IS Old Bay Beer

Some updates from this past week: 
Izzy has confirmed that the Thermal Spa is indeed complimentary for Star Class guest.  Each adult receives a one day pass.  Too bad for the kids.  We asked Izzy if we needed to pick a day and make reservations ahead of time.  He told us no, we could just show up whenever and he would let the spa receptionist know and they will handle the charges.
The other thing that I found interesting, which I did not know before this, is that they reserve specific blocks of time in the Escape Room for SC guests.  He originally had us in for Day 7 and we wanted another time and date.  He told us that if we went to a time slot that wasn't blocked for SC, we would have to pay the normal fee.  Again, there may or may not be inconsistencies with this between ships in the fleet.  In the end, we moved to another SC time block.
We are just about a month away and everything is pretty much good to go.  All schedules and reservations are taken care of already.  Izzy has already given us information on what to do when we arrive at Terminal A.  I am really pleased with how smooth this has been.  I also think that it has to do with the fact that I know more of what to expect this time. 
I asked Izzy if he could make time go faster?  That is pretty much the only "No" that I have received so far. ?

Preamble
Some of you know that we have tried to sail with Royal twice before. First, we were booked on the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan when our sailing was cancelled due to an unscheduled dry dock. We tried to rebook with RC, but we weren't able to work something out with them when we wanted to go. We sailed on NCL and while we had a decent time, NCL didn't win us over. So, when we found a good deal on a sailing on the Navigator of the Seas for February '19, we figured we'd give RC a shot. That was supposed to be her first sailing after her amplification and, if you remember, it was cancelled a week out because she wasn't ready. Scrambling at the last minute because we needed to get away last winter, we found a sailing on Carnival out of New Orleans at the last minute. I went in not expecting much, but surprisingly, we had a great time on Carnival. So much so that my wife and I agreed if we only sailed on Carnival again, we'd be happy. In fact, we had already booked this trip prior to the last cancellation and afterwards, I was tempted to cancel on Royal - you know, because I'm mean spirited like that.
We kept the sailing and on February 2nd we finally boarded a Royal ship - the Liberty of the Seas to be exact. Full Spoiler Alert - we had a great time! I share that because I want you to know where I am coming from if I mention something I didn't care for or would change (it isn't much). In fact, I won't go as far as to say we are Royal exclusive, but we are Royal preferred. I'd sail on other lines again (and we've now sailed on the four major ones in the US Market [Disney, NCL, Carival and Royal]) but we'll look to Royal first. So much so that we've already booked our next cruise on the Symphony of the Seas for next January (shhh, that's a secret from our boys). I know at times I've been critical of RC on these boards, but I have to say that once we finally got onboard, the crew and the ship absolutely blew me away!
Pertinent Information
Crew: Myself, my better half (Julie) and my boys (George and Lucas [and yes, that is because I love Star Wars!]). Also joining us were my father-in-law and his wife (we all get along great - dad remarried after mom passed a few years ago and I have no idea what the correct term for your father-in-law's second wife that doesn't sound stupid. Loved having them along!)
Ship: Liberty of the Seas
Dates: February 2nd to 9th
Itinerary: Galveston - Sea Day - Sea Day - Roatan - Costa Maya - Cozumel - Sea Day - Sad Day (aka get off the boat day).
Other Notes: We're eating in the MDR (more on that) and Julie and I scored the $18 UBP mistake. 
Day One - Driving to Galveston - Friday, January 31st
As a family of four, flights can be pricey. Thus, whenever possible, we'll drive to vacation. If we can get there in two days drive, then it's load up the family truckster and head out. We got the boys off to school and began the ritual pre-vacation cleaning. I love coming home to a clean house after vacation so we make sure and allocate time to do it just before we leave. Julie had been sick for a few days and I didn't want to get denied boarding, so I sent her to the doctor (yay antibiotics) and I had one last work obligation to go to (as a pastor, I had to make a quick hospital visit to pray with someone). Got back and loaded up the car, ate the last of the leftovers for lunch and went to get the boys from school.

The plan was to leave home from just south of Des Moines, IA, and drive to Muskogee, OK. Google says it is about 7 hours so we hoped to be there by 8-ish after picking the boys up from school at 1 pm. We actually arrived a little after 9 pm with a stop for dinner in a little town in Missouri where I had the most amazing burger I've had in some time.
       
Made it the Comfort Inn or Suites or something ... we usually stay at a Choice Hotel because it includes a decent breakfast and they aren't horribly expensive. After a fitful night of sleep, we were up and at it early ... but that will have to wait for my next post.