chalkdawg4

We used cash, but in the actual stores credit cards were also accepted.

Day 6 - Curaçao Sorry for taking so long to post. The WiFi got so bad, that it wouldn’t even load this website. I’m back on dry land now, though so I can catch up. We had already planned to get off the ship after the initial horde of people, so I slept in until 10:00 and didn’t meet my mom at the Windjammer until 10:30. We were done with breakfast and in Curaçao by 11:30. It was a pretty long walk from the ship, so we waited for a golf cart to to help the elderly ladies in our group. Then we walked through Rif Fort and walked through a couple of the shops. They were pretty expensive, but that’s what I would’ve expected with how nice the area was. While my parents kept shopping, I took the opportunity to take some pictures from the top walls of the fort. After shoppping in the Rif Fort area, we went out to some of the vendors right outside. The prices got significantly better and they had a better variety of items in my opinion. All it was missing that Rif Fort had was fine jewelery. While we were looking through the vendors, my grandmother started to not feel very well, so my parents sent me across the floating bridge with her friend while they tended to my grandmother. Before crossing, I took a few more pictures. When we got to the other side I was surprised at how many shops there were. And they weren’t just your run of the mill souvenir shops - they were actual clothing stores that I’m sure the locals shopped at. They had great prices and great items. My grandmother’s friend and I had more than enough stores to all around in and waste an hour (that was with half of the stores being closed for Boxing Day). My grandmother started to feel better, so my mom, my dad, and her met us over the bridge at about 1:30. They wanted to look around the stores too, so I went with my parents while my grandmother and her friend went off together. My parents and I ended up buying for pairs of really nice shoes for an awesome price. After shopping, my grandmother and her friend decided they were tired and wanted to go back to the ship, so we walked them back. By the time we got back it was 3:00, so we decided to try to find a tour. Long story short, we never found a tour. The taxi drivers were expensive and seemed uninterested and all the tour buses had already left. When we couldn’t find a tour we decided to just head back to the ship. Before going back, though, I grabbed a quick ice cream and my mom grabbed a frozen drink. Both were good. When we got back on the ship, we all took a quick nap then got ready for dinner. We were glad to be back with our normal waiters tonight. I could’ve sworn I took a picture of the menu, but I can’t seem to find it. None of us can remember what we ate either. When you’re eating that much food, all of the meals seem to run together lol. So no dinner details from night 7. Sorry about that. I know one of the best parts of live blogs is hearing about the food. I’ll have the menus from the other nights, though. After dinner, we were off to the top tier party at 7:15 in Studio B. The captain was unable to attend (I’m guessing he couldn’t come because we were leaving Curaçao at 7:30), so the hotel director, Steven ran things. My parents had met him before the top tier party and said he was incredibly nice. He started off by telling everyone that he would have a surprise for everyone at the end. It was pretty easy to guess what that surprise was considering where we were. They passed out free champagne and mimosas while all the officers were introduced. Then the crown and anchor society head recognized the top 3 cruisers. All three of them had more than 5 years of nights accumulated. I told my parents to forget about law school; my new goal in life was to be recognized as a top cruiser. Then came the surprise we had all been waiting for; a special ice show. I almost liked this show better than the actual one. It seemed as if the ice cast had choreographed it themselves, chose their favorite songs, and tried to do as many stunts as possible. After the top tier party, it was pretty much time for the 8:30 show, so we just headed to the theater. Bill Cook, a magician, was performing and he was spectacular. He was super funny and his tricks still have me confused. He also had an awesome story. He said that his dream of becoming a magician started when he was 16 and watched a magician perform while he was on a cruise ship. He told his dad that’s what he wanted to do one day and his dad told him that if he works hard enough he could make that dream come true, and so he did. After the show I just spent the rest of the night with my friends in the teen club.

Thank you! Happy new year.

Just from that picture, that version of it seems quite a bit better than ours. It wasn’t that ours was bad, but it definitely didn’t have sets as elaborate as that.

A compliment on my blog from the infamous twangster? I’ve never felt so honored before. I like the longer port days too. Bonaire seemed a bit short today, but other than that it’s been great.

Day 5 - Aruba The WiFi still isn’t great, so no pictures until I get back home. After sleeping awfully last night, I slept in a bit late and didn’t wake up until 9:15. For some reason, my allergies always get bad in desert climates, so as soon as we docked in Aruba, I started getting stuffy. I grudgingly made my way down to the Windjammer and grabbed some breakfast. Then my mom and I got off the ship to meet my dad at 10:30 at diamonds international since he had already gotten off the ship before us. After some shopping (most of the stores were closed because of Christmas), we went back to the ship to grab some lunch for our 1:30 trikes tour. We booked the tour through Aruba trikes and had a blast. It was a fun way to see the island, and we loved our tour guide Ramses. He was originally from the Netherlands and he spoke SEVEN different languages. We didn’t finish the tour until 6:30 so we were stuck with my time dining. We were happy they could fit us in, but we still missed our normal wait staff. Our assistant waiter during my time dining was pretty good, but none of us were a huge fan of the head waiter. We understand how much harder being a my time dining waiter is, so we didn’t hold it against her that much. I stuck with the kids vegetables for my appetizer (they were forgotten at first), my mom got her French onion soup again, my grandmother and her friend got ceaser salad, and my dad got the bay scallops. He was the only one to try something new and he said they were delicious. The portion size was a bit small, though. Then for the main dish I got another kids grilled cheese which was fine. My parents got the coq au vin which they thought was pretty good and my grandmother and her friend got the prime rib which they also enjoyed. For desert, my grandmother and I tried the brownie. We both enjoyed it. My dad got the citrus berries cheesecake which he liked more than yesterday’s cheesecake, and my mom and grandmother’s friend got their favorite again - the apple pie. After dinner we ran to the 9:00 show and barely made it in time(dinner took forever). The show tonight was called, Now and Forever, which just showcased the singers and dancers doing broadway songs. The show was pretty good. I especially liked the part at the end where they did a compiliation of ABBA songs. When the show ended we went back out to Aruba and caught a taxi to ride around and look at Christmas lights. Since we only had an hour before we needed to be back on the ship, we couldn’t go to black mountain which is where they said had the best lights because it’s an hour round trip to get there. Instead we just rode around the downtown area. The lights were pretty nice, but nothing spectacular. We really liked our taxi driver, though. We got back at 11:15 and got back on the ship. Then I just met up with friends and hung out with them until 1.

Day 4 - At Sea The WiFi has become absolutely terrible, so I’m unable to upload any pictures. I’ll add them when we get back to the US. Because of the time change last night, I slept in once again. I wasn’t up until 10:15 and since my family had already eaten, I went to the Windjammer by myself. Breakfast was good again. After breakfast, I headed down to the arcade to meet some friends and we played air hockey for about an hour. Air hockey was fun, but I think it’s safe to say that I’ll never become a professional air hockey player lol. After air hockey, since I had been having good experiences at the Windjammer, I headed back down there for lunch. It wasn’t bad, but I definitely still prefer the MDR. It was nice they had veggie burgers, though. Then when I finished eating, I headed down to Studio B to meet back up with my family for the ice skating show, Ice Dancin’. It was spectacular as always. Finding a seat was a bit hard though since it was first come first serve, but I was lucky enough to find a great seat on the second row by myself. When the show was finished, I met back up with my friends and we hung out around the ship until 5 when I headed back to my room to get ready for dinner. We were running a bit late and didn’t get to dinner until 5:40. Since it was Christmas Eve, they had the special holiday menu. I got the same appetizer as last night - just kids vegetables. My mom got the French onion soup again (she really likes it lol), my grandmother’s friend got the ceaser salad again, and my grandmother got the shrimp cocktail again. My dad was the only one to change it up and got the fried brie which he thought was good. For our main dish, I got the Tagliatelle which I thought was awesome. It was a huge portion, though so I wasn’t able to finish it. My dad got the turkey and my mom, grandmother, and her friend got the beef Wellington. They all enjoyed their meals. For desert I went back to the royal chocolate cake from the first night, and it was just okay. I’m never a huge fan of deserts on cruise ships, though. I love desert normally, but for some reason the ones on cruise ships have never been great to me. My mom got the spice cake which she wasn’t a huge fan of, but she’s picky about deserts. My dad got the cheesecake and thought it was pretty good and my grandmother’s friend got the buche de Noel which she also liked. My grandmother got the apple pie again. We also got to see the dancing waiters tonight. It’s always so much fun and it’s nice to have the opportunity to thank the chefs and wait staff for the great job they do. Since we had the dancing waiters, dinner went a little longer than usual and we missed the 7:00 show. We still went to the 9:00 show to see Aaron Bonk who’s a juggler. I thought he was pretty good. His show was definitely made for children, but he had little bits of adult humor thrown in that were pretty funny. It was also pretty cool to watch. He juggled clubs, knives, and whips. After the show I met my friends at the hot tub, and stayed there until it was time to head back to the room.

Day 4 - At Sea The WiFi has become absolutely terrible, so I’m unable to upload any pictures. I’ll add them when we get back to the US. Because of the time change last night, I slept in once again. I wasn’t up until 10:15 and since my family had already eaten, I went to the Windjammer by myself. Breakfast was good again. After breakfast, I headed down to the arcade to meet some friends and we played air hockey for about an hour. Air hockey was fun, but I think it’s safe to say that I’ll never become a professional air hockey player lol. After air hockey, since I had been having good experiences at the Windjammer, I headed back down there for lunch. It wasn’t bad, but I definitely still prefer the MDR. It was nice they had veggie burgers, though. Then when I finished eating, I headed down to Studio B to meet back up with my family for the ice skating show, Ice Dancin’. It was spectacular as always. Finding a seat was a bit hard though since it was first come first serve, but I was lucky enough to find a great seat on the second row by myself. When the show was finished, I met back up with my friends and we hung out around the ship until 5 when I headed back to my room to get ready for dinner. We were running a bit late and didn’t get to dinner until 5:40. Since it was Christmas Eve, they had the special holiday menu. I got the same appetizer as last night - just kids vegetables. My mom got the French onion soup again (she really likes it lol), my grandmother’s friend got the ceaser salad again, and my grandmother got the shrimp cocktail again. My dad was the only one to change it up and got the fried brie which he thought was good. For our main dish, I got the Tagliatelle which I thought was awesome. It was a huge portion, though so I wasn’t able to finish it. My dad got the turkey and my mom, grandmother, and her friend got the beef Wellington. They all enjoyed their meals. For desert I went back to the royal chocolate cake from the first night, and it was just okay. I’m never a huge fan of deserts on cruise ships, though. I love desert normally, but for some reason the ones on cruise ships have never been great to me. My mom got the spice cake which she wasn’t a huge fan of, but she’s picky about deserts. My dad got the cheesecake and thought it was pretty good and my grandmother’s friend got the buche de Noel which she also liked. My grandmother got the apple pie again. We also got to see the dancing waiters tonight. It’s always so much fun and it’s nice to have the opportunity to thank the chefs and wait staff for the great job they do. Since we had the dancing waiters, dinner went a little longer than usual and we missed the 7:00 show. We still went to the 9:00 show to see Aaron Bonk who’s a juggler. I thought he was pretty good. His show was definitely made for children, but he had little bits of adult humor thrown in that were pretty funny. It was also pretty cool to watch. He juggled clubs, knives, and whips. After the show I met my friends at the hot tub, and stayed there until it was time to head back to the room.

I’m still angry we’re not playing in the playoffs?? Thank you, though!!

I’m honestly not a huge fan of the flow rider so I don’t know if I’ll make it over for that. I’ll try to, though!

Day 3 - Labadee After only having 5 hours of sleep the day before I took the liberty of sleeping in, so I wasn’t up and moving until 10. I was out of the room and down to the Windjammer to eat breakfast by 10:15. My mom was the only one there because my grandmother and dad had already eaten and my grandmother’s friend doesn’t eat breakfast. I actually enjoyed breakfast in the Windjammer more than I thought I would. I tend to stay away from the Windjammer if at all possible, but my two experiences there so far on this cruise have been great. They had an awesome topping bar for the pancakes which I really enjoyed. Then after breakfast, at 11:30, we all met back up and got off the ship to go to Labadee. We took the tram straight to Adrenaline beach (the last stop) and got a table there right on the edge of the beach. It was 75 and windy so the weather was very pleasant. I took the liberty to catch up on some more sleep, and took a nap on one of the loungers out on the sand. I woke up at 1 and went to grab some food before the buffet closed. There wasn’t a ton of selection for a vegetarian, but the red beans and rice were good. When I got back to the table, only my parents were there and they told me that my grandmother and her friend had already gone back to the ship. We decided to do the same since it looked like it was about to rain. Before getting back on the ship I took a few last pictures. Once back on the ship, I took a quick shower and my parents took a nap. Then my dad and I went to the 3:00 trivia. We got there right at 3 and they were already 4 questions in, so it wasn’t worth participating. It was a bit frustrating that they started early, but we were fine to just sit and listen. We would’ve missed most of the questions anyways lol. After trivia I went to find my friends and hung out with them until 5. Then I went back to my room to get ready for dinner. Since we had a little time before dinner, we finally got around to putting our Christmas decorations up. Tonight at dinner we were finally able to find a dish that pleased my grandmother. I don’t know how our waiter managed to do it, but he convinced her to get the crab cakes for an appetizer and she loved them. Everyone else, except for my mom, also got the crab cakes and really liked them. They said they were different but very good. My mom got the burrata salad for her appetizer and said it was one of the best salads she had ever gotten. I stuck with my kids meal and just got carrots with ranch. For the main course, I finally ventured away from the kids menu and got the ravioli. It was delicious. My mom got the roasted beef loin, my dad got the jerk chicken, and my grandmother and her friend got the roasted pork loin. They all thought their meals were good also. Then for desert I went back to the kids menu and got the dark chocolate brownie again. It wasn’t as good as last night, but it was still fine. My mom, grandmother, and her friend all got the apple pie again which they enjoyed. My mom also got the soufflé, but she wasn’t a fan. My dad got the no sugar added desert again, so tonight, that was the strawberry trifle. He thought it was pretty good. Here’s the menu: After dinner we rushed to go see the show at 7. My dad was right; the Absolute Journey tribute band was spectacular. The lead singer looked just like Steve Perry (I know Gregg Rolie came first, but I still consider Steve the lead singer) and they sounded just like Journey. After the show, I stuck with my normal routine of just hanging out with friends until 1. Some other notes: •The WiFi was great the first two days, but it’s become awful today, so I apologize for the lack of pictures. I’ll edit the post when I get back home and add the rest of them. •I got to see the iconic I-95 today. •I finally got around to taking some pictures of the decorations on the ship tonight. Although the ship is a bit worn, the decorations are still beautiful. (I’ll post pictures of them when I get better WiFi) •The time is going one hour forward tonight. Little disappointed that that means one last hour of sleep lol. •Labadee has some really nice Christmas decorations. It was the most it’s felt like Christmas time since I’ve been on the ship.

Day 2 - At Sea (pt. 2): Dinner was really good once again. For appetizers my dad got the calamari, my grandmother got fruit, my grandmother’s friend and my mom got French onion soup and a ceaser salad, and I got vegetables off the kids menu since none of the appetizers really appealed to me. My dad and grandmother both thought their appetizer was good enough to order a second helping and my grandmother’s friend loved the French onion soup as much as my mom. They also both thought the Ceaser salad was delicious. My vegetables off the kids menu were good, but you can’t really mess up cold cut vegetables lol. The ranch was really good, though. For the main course I stuck with the kids menu and just got a grilled cheese with fries. Once again it’s hard to mess that meal up, but either way, I enjoyed it. My grandmother and her friend both got the prime rib for their main course. My grandmother’s friend loved it, but my grandmother wasn’t a fan. We have all decided that it’s impossible to please my grandmother, though, so I’m not sure you can blame the food?? My dad got the pork chops which he thought were pretty good, and my mom got the chicken Marsala which she thought was spectacular. Both of my parents also got the salmon to share just so they could try it and they both agreed it was just average. Then finally, it was time for my favorite part - dessert. I kept the them of ordering off the kids meal going and got the dark chocolate brownie. It was honestly the best dessert I’ve ever had on a cruise ship. My grandmother’s friend, my mom, and my grandmother all got the apple pie and all thought was great (well as great as it can get for my grandmother lol). My dad always sticks with sugar free desserts since he’s diabetic, so he got the blueberry cobbler. He really enjoyed it. After dinner we stopped and got a couple formal pictures done, then I headed back to the room for a few minutes to change and unpack while everyone else made their way down to the theater for the “ballroom spectacular” show at 8:30 (forgive me if I got that name wrong. My memory is quite awful sometimes. I’m sure it had the name ballroom in it, though). While in the room I saw that our towel animal for the night was a cat. I met back up with everyone at the theater right at 8:30 and they had great seats in the balcony. We all kinda agreed that the show was just average. Don’t get me wrong, those singers and dancers are spectacular, and maybe it’s just a my family thing, but after an hour of a show solely with dancing and singing it becomes a little repetitive and boring. The main female dancer was absolutely spectacular though. She immediately captivated me every time she was centered on the stage. At the end of the show our cruise director announced that the absolute journey tribute band would be performing tomorrow, which my dad and I are both stoked about since we’re huge Journey fans. We had read before the cruise that they would be on the ship, but we hadn’t seen anything about them so we weren’t sure it was true. My daw saw them on a previous cruise and said they were mind blowing so I have very high expectations haha. After the show, I split up with my family and met back up with my friends. We hung out in the teen club for a bit before heading to the hot tub and spending the rest of the night there. On our way back to the rooms at 1, we stopped at cafe promenade to get a quick slice of pizza and headed our separate ways. Some other notes: •I like just Cafe Promenade rather than Sorrento’s and Cafe Promenade like it is on some ships. It’s nice just having all the food in one place. •We saw two other Royal Caribbean ships, I couldn’t make out the names of either and only was able to get a picture of one. It’s always cool to me to realize we’re not the only ones in the middle of the ocean. •My friends and I tried our hands at sports trivia today and actually ended up with 14 out of 18. The winning team had 16, but my friends still nominated me as the team MVP. I guess me being obsessed with all things sports does pay off?? •If y’all want to hear more about what I do with my friends just let me know and I’ll start including it. I’ve just been keeping it vague so I don’t bore you with information you have no interest in hearing lol. Next stop, Labadee!!

Day 2 - At Sea Much to my surprise I actually woke up to the alarm that I had set for 7:30. I left the room at 7:45 and headed up to the gym to meet a friend to work out. The treadmills were all full (3 were actually broken) so we went out to the jogging track. He was much faster than me so we kinda gave up trying to stay together. After running, we went to put our feet in the pool. The water was ridiculously cold. It was a little chilly in Miami yesterday when we left, but I still didn’t think it should’ve made the water that cold. Then at 8:45 I went to go meet my dad and grandmother for breakfast at the MDR. They had one side that was for a buffet and another side that was a la carte, which was difference than my last cruise. We sat on the buffet side and all enjoyed our food. I especially liked the biscuits. They were kinda sweet which was odd, but surprisingly good. After breakfast I went up to the sports court to meet my friends for teen only dodgeball. There was a huge group of teens that showed up for it. By the end, a huge group on onlookers had also gathered to watch. When dodgeball was over, I headed back down to the MDR for more food. I feel like all I do on a cruise ship is eat, but I guess that’s what you’re supposed to do?? I skipped the appetizer, but everyone else got a make your own salad that they chopped up for you. Everyone loved it. Then for the main meal my dad and grandmother skipped it, my mom got the Asian chicken over noodles, I got a corn cake, and my grandmother’s friend got catfish. Once again we all thought it was great. One thing that you’ll quickly realize about us is that we pretty much enjoy all the food we get. We’re definitely not foodies and we understand that when a kitchen makes all these meals, you’re bound to run into some items that aren’t spectacular. They also had a great dessert table set up in the MDR. They had a ton of choices and a really big topping bar for the ice cream. I meant to get a picture, but completely forgot about it. After lunch it was time for the sexiest man competition. It was a little risqué, but quite entertaining. An 80 year old named Joe ended up winning. I think when he dropped and did 5 push ups in a row is when he won everyone over??? Then I just hung around the ship with my friends until 5. At 5 I went to go get ready for dinner. Tonight was formal night so we all dressed up - well at least we tried to. When my mom and I went to put on our heels we realized they weren’t there and that we had forgotten the bag that had all of our dress shoes in Miami. So now we’re both currently wearing super dressy dresses with flip flops. It’s not our best look but it will have to do lol. As promised, here’s a picture of the menu from dinner tonight: I’m actually sitting at dinner waiting for the food right now while writing this. So I don’t know how good the food is yet. I’ll let y’all know what we think of it in my next post. Some other notes: •The Diet Coke tastes a lot better on this cruise than it has on others. •A lot of machinery on the ship is broken. They had three treadmills broken and most of the arcade were out of order. I guess they’re just letting them just stay broken since the ship is going dry dock in a couple weeks.

Yeah it was. Most of the people doing it were super good too.

Don’t worry haha. I think of dawg as being male too. I just chose the username because I’m a huge Georgia bulldogs fan lol

@FlowBro Ty Here you go.

Thank you so much! I love to write, and it makes me so happy to hear a teacher compliment my writing ?

I’m a girl, so for me it would be a guy?? I’ll be sure to keep that out of it though lol

That’s so cool to hear!! I still keep in touch with a few of friends and it would be awesome to organize something like that.

Thank you! I was scared nobody would want to read something written by a teenager lol.

Thank you!

Day 1 - Miami (pt. 2): At 3:00 I did a meet up when some of the teens I had set up a group chat with before the cruise. I posted on cruise critics for teens to text me and ended up with about 10 teens in the group. It was super nice to already know someone when I got on board. Then at 4:15 I headed back to the room for the 4:30 muster drill. It was quick and painless. We also had the Carnival Victory sailing away during our muster drill, so that made it much more interesting. After the muster drill we headed up to the pool deck for the sail away party where I caught some awesome pictures on the sunset. I tried to also take a time lapse video, but it was far too windy. We also caught a glimpse of the Norwegian Sky. At 5:30 we headed down to deck three for dinner. We were seated at a table for 9, but the other 4 never joined us. Our waiter was Seryeo and our assistant waiter was Shiv. So far they both seem awesome. For our appetizers, all of us got the arugula salad except for me mom. They all loved the arugula salad and although I didn’t think it was bad, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. My mom got the French onion soup which she loved. Then for the main course I got fettucini with marinara (I’m a picky vegetarian so you’ll rarely see exocric food choices from me?) and everyone else got the red snapper. My dad also got the fried chicken to try. Everyone except for my dad sent the red snapper back. They said it was thick, tough, and tasted very fishy. My mom and grandmother’s friend ordered the steak instead, and my grandmother got the shrimp cocktail. They were all happy with their second choice. My dad said the fried chicken was pretty good also. Then for the desert I got the royal chocolate cake, my dad espresso mouse, my grandmother’s friend got apple pie, and my mom and grandmother got something that had rum in it (I wasn’t there when they ordered so I have no idea what it was haha). Whatever is was, though, my mom loved it and my grandmother said she wasn’t a fan. My mom said it wasn’t very sweet which she liked. We all loved the rest of our desserts. After dinner we rushed to the 7:30 tree lighting. I still need to upload the pics from it so I’ll post them tomorrow. The tree lighting really wasn’t much though. Truly all they did was light the tree. Maybe I’m wrong, but last year on the Indy I seem to remember them singing Christmas carols and dancing up on the balcony after the tree was lit. Then after the tree lighting, we went back to the rooms and our bags were FINALLY there. At this point it was almost 8:00 which was the longest we’ve ever waited to get our bags. We unpacked for a bit then I headed to the teen club for the icebreakers. I met a couple new friends and we planned to meet back up at the hot tub after the welcome aboard show. The welcome aboard show was awesome. The band started off by playing a couple Christmas songs and we’re really great. They were followed by the singers and dancers who were also pretty good. Then came out our cruise director Rob McNalley from Liverpool, England. He came out singing Sweet Caroline and was honestly almost better than the actual singers. After singing he spouted off a few quick jokes which were very clever and witty. I can already tell it’s going to be a great cruise with him. He then introduced the officers and after their short introduction sent out the comedian, Landry. He was hilarious!! He had everyone laughing for thirty straight mintutes. When the show ended, I headed down to the hot tub to meet my friends and we just hung out around the ship the rest of the night. Some other notes: •The ship was really rocky for seemingly calm waters. One of my friends said he had heard they didn’t completely fix one of the stabilizers, though, so that could be why. •The teen club counselors are super lax on this cruise. They truly left the teen club at 11:30 and never came back. Security had to come kick us out. •Sorry for no pics of the food. I’ve always just kinda found it weird to take pics of food. •I’ll get a pic of the menu tomorrow. I had to run back to the room to put my phone on airplane mode during dinner, so my parents ordered for me and I never even saw the menu tonight.

Day 1-Miami It’s embarkation day!! We arrived at the Port of Miami at 11:30 and were sitting down and eating at the Windjammer by 12. This was by far the quickest we’ve ever made it on a ship, and I can definitely see why everyone says they love the Port of Miami so much. It was very organized which moved everyone through quickly. The tables at the Windjammer were full like they usually are on embarkation day, but we were lucky enough to grab one right as another family was leaving. About every 20 minutes during lunch, they played a message asking passengers to leave their table as soon as they were done eating, which although it was annoying to keep hearing, it was much appreciated because it’s always so frustrating to see people taking up tables when they’re not even eating. At 1:05 they told us over the intercom that our staterooms were ready so my parents went to ours and I went to go help my grandmother and her friend find their’s. They’re staying in stateroom 8614 which was just a run of the mill balcony room. It was good for them though because it was right by the elevator. Then I went down to our stateroom 7688. It’s considered an “obstructed” balcony room, but our balcony is about five times the size of my grandmother’s. And honestly I wouldn’t even consider it obstructed. There’s a panoramic picture of it, but it still doesn’t do it justice. Just to give you a better idea of the size, though there are 2 lounge chairs, 2 normals chairs with a table, another deck chair with a footrest, and even with all of that there’s still enough room for three people to lay on the ground. It’s 2:15 and we don’t have our luggage yet, so now we’re all just resting in the room. Some other notes: •I was pleasantly surprised to see on our sea pass that our dining time had been moved to 5:30. We decided kinda last minute to change to earlier dining, so we called Royal Caribbean and they said they would put us on the waitlist. We still thought it was a long shot, though. •Food at the Windjammer was a lot better than it was on our last cruise on the Indy. Not that it bad on our last cruise - it was just average. The food at the Navigator Windjammer was awesome, though. The pizza was much better too Some other pictures from today:

I could only wish lol. I am hitting emerald after this cruise, though so I’m getting closer

I’ve tended to be just a lurker too lol, but I’ve been reading all these live reports and become a bit envious, so I thought it was time I tried writing one myself. ?