melmar02

Day four started with Coastal Kitchen and then Smitha walking us off the ship and up to the terminal gate. Once your exit the secure port area, 3rd party vendors line the street looking for the guests who have booked their tours. a couple representatives from Daniel Johnson's were right there with a sign and after a little bit of a wait for another vendor to move their car, we were off to the Monkey and Sloth Hangout. It was a 20-30 minute car ride, and we were the first visitors that morning. We all held the sloth, let the monkeys jump on us, and then became perches for the birds. We each held a sloth for a couple minutes which is a lot longer than we got to hold the puppies in Alaska last summer. We were in with the monkeys for about 5 minutes or so. DD and I took off our glasses, but DH left his on. He was also wearing a pouch around his neck, and the monkeys were really interested in both of those items. They kept trying to get down his shirt at the pouch. We saw a few other animals at the hangout, and then we geared up for snorkeling. Daniel Johnson came by and introduced himself. He mentioned that they are moving to a new location soon just a couple miles away, and that he recently started scuba diving. He's contemplating also opening a dive shop. DD and DH brought their prescription masks, and DS and I used all their equipment. Everything seemed in good repair and life vests were available on the boat if we wanted to use them. The kids started without, but went back for one after just a couple minutes. They take you to a spot about 5 minutes right behind the animal sanctuary for snorkeling close to Little French Key. Another couple joined us on the snorkel portion of the excursion, and they were more interested in getting pictures with their go pro than paying attention to their surroundings - they were constantly kicking up sand and cutting us off to get a picture of something. After a couple minutes in the water, they ventured away from us and the guide. She wound up getting a pretty good cut on some coral because she wasn't paying attention. I have no fish/coral pictures unfortunately - I have a waterproof pouch for my phone, but once I'm in the water, I guess my fingers are too cold to make the touch screen work very well. We were in the water about 30 minutes, and our guide was great. He found a couple potential creature hiding spots and with a wave of his fin was able to get a nurse shark, lion fish, and a giant lobster to make appearances. We also saw several conch, parrot fish, barracuda, etc. At the end of our snorkeling time, the same driver took us back to the port and was able to drive us inside the security gate. It was lunch time when we got back onboard, so we changed and decided to hit up the Windjammer. It was packed! By the time we left though it was pretty empty. After lunch the kids and I went back to the flow rider and DH took a nap. There were afternoon snacks and drinks delivered, but again I failed to get pictures. I put on our initial genie survey that DH liked gin & tonic, and a couple shots of gin were delivered with the snacks each day in addition to a variety of drinks for me and virgin drinks for the kids. Limes were never delivered so we asked Smitha if some could also be sent to the room. We received lemons instead, so we stopped by the Trellis Bar a couple of times, and they would fill a glass with slices for us to take back to the room. Dinner was at Chops - again...no pictures. I feel like I failed the foodies today! DS had fruit from the kids menu, DH had the cesar salad, DD had carpaccio, and I had the lobster bisque for appetizers. We all had the petite filet, and we were so stuffed, I messaged Smitha to see if dessert could be delivered to the room after the night's shows. We only ordered three - cheesecake, apple pie, and red velvet cake, but we wound up with an extra apple pie. I guess she felt like one of us was going to be left out.

We stay in Webster at the Homewood suites because we can get a 2 br suite and finish the drive the morning of the cruise. We have not stayed on the island, but I'm pushing for it next year. There is an "All about Galveston" thread that may be able to help more than I can.

Every time my kids say, "Can I ask a question?" I respond with, "42".

We did for a bit, but I failed to get pictures. Basically the walls are lined with machines, there are 4 or 5 tables in the center of the room and 8 or so machines floating on both sides of the tables. It felt very roomy compared to the main casino. DH's theory is that they may eventually swap the two casinos to transition the big one into non smoking. You could definitely smell the smoke on the non-smoking side, but it wasn't too bad.

After ice skating, the kids went back to AO while DH and I just relaxed in the room and on the balcony. We set up Johnny Rockets to be delivered with Smitha so we could make sure the kids could eat. It was supposed to be delivered at 5pm...and it arrived 10 minutes early. I wonder if Smitha had a chat with someone after our late lunch delivery? The kids showed up at 5 to eat, and DH and I got ready for Chef's Table. The plan was for the grown ups to wear our second formal night clothes tonight and then wear them again some other night for pictures so the kids wouldn't have to get dressed up tonight. They were headed back to AO once it opened back up and that's a lot of costume changes for an 11 year old boy. Spoiler alert - we never got the second set of formal photos. Oh well, I think that dress will still fit in the fall. We were at the Library as instructed at 6:15, and no one else was there. We decided to wait a few minutes and another couple showed up for Chef's Table too. Smitha then arrived and walked us all into the upstairs section of the Diamond Club where the dinner is held. Everyone else was there already. Conveniently, there are restrooms inside the Diamond Club on Allure so no one had to worry about getting back into the room. Dinner started with a champagne cocktail which included St. Germain, cucumber, and mint. Scallops Soup Lobster Fish Filet The World in its various stages We thought all the dishes were pretty good; however, the scallops were a little thicker than we expected. I thought the vanilla dressing with the lobster dish would be off putting, but it was very tasty. We agreed the filet was the best we had all week. DH asked last night if I would do Chef's Table again, and we decided we would but I haven't booked it on any of our upcoming cruises yet. A quick shot of the Aqua Theater from the balcony at night with nothing going on. They did play movies on the screens in addition to have a couple games out there. The volume was really loud - like could discern the words in the movies while in the cabin kind of loud. We had a few "don't repeat that" moments with the kids when we were in the living room and a more grown up movie was on. I'm a little surprised they showed those movies in the afternoon - prime time for kids on the Boardwalk. In fact, the volume everywhere was really loud. We even heard people in their 20's coming out of various venues commenting on it so it wasn't that were just getting old.

The sad thing is, there's really not a lot of butter in there, maybe 25-30 pounds? I was surprised at the lack and size of mixers in the bake shop. Don't get me wrong, I would take their 30 quart counter mixer pictured above over my 8qt any day, but that thing has to be running all the time. I don't recall any bigger floor mixers either. Maybe we just didn't get to see the part of the galley where they keep the bigger toys.

I didn't have time to go out for a pedicure before this cruise. I painted my tootsies in the hotel the night before! Sally Hansen Insta Dry did not hold up well. I just repainted the bare spots in the cabin though. I had blue from the foam transfer to my nails, and it was a little hard to get off. So even a gel pedicure might suffer a little.

After our hour of SC time on the flow rider, and a promise to come back later in the cruise, we went back to the room to clean up and get dressed for the SC galley tour. At 10:30am we gathered in front of the deck 5 dining room with the other SC families and genies. The brunch / tour was going on at the same time, so there were some late arrivers to the brunch who were confused on where to go when they saw a bunch of people waiting outside of the MDR. They were eventually guided into the dining room, and our tour began. Smitha had reserved ice skating sessions for 1pm for us that afternoon, and just before the galley tour she wanted to coordinate the time for our afternoon snack delivery. DS piped up and asked for California rolls. We told her just send the snacks at noon and we would call it lunch. We were full from two days of non-stop eating, so this sounded like a good lighter option. More about that in a minute. The galley tour was led by Chef Walo who runs CK, Windjammer, and Chef's Table on this ship, and it lasted about 30 minutes. 100 gallon drum of stock Cheese plates being assembled. Garlic butter being made for escargot. When the tour was over, the kids ran off to AO for an hour, DH went back to the cabin for a nap, and I went to the casino where I turned my $6 free play into a $60 win. I played on my free money for about an hour, and we all met back up at the room at noon to wait for our lunch delivery. Since we were on the clock for ice skating, I messaged Smitha around 12:15 that we had not received anything yet. She went to work trying to get us our snack lunch delivered. It finally showed up about 12:30. We were supposed to meet Smitha for ice skating in 20 minutes, so I messaged her that we would probably be late, and we devoured everything that was brought to us - I didn't even get pictures! I do remember that DS got his sushi though. We got to Studio B about 15 minutes late, and by the time we got our skates on there was only 5 minutes left in the session. Fortunately Smitha anticipated this with the delivery issue and she had booked us for the next session as well. The kids hugged the wall most of the time, but they had fun. I spent a lot of time roller skating when I was young, and the kids were impressed that I could skate forward and backward without even looking at the wall. I was by far NOT the best one on the ice; however, I didn't fall once. Win! Now they want skating lessons too. We're going to have to stop doing activities on the ship - cruising is getting expensive!

Thanks @SweetPea! @Ampurp85 and @asquared17 thanks. I tried it once way back on our second cruise in 2011, and it was a one and done for me. There may or may not have been a wardrobe issue... let's just say I knew in my soul that I had to have a one piece. Properly attired, it was really a lot of fun, and I am looking forward trying again. Also, the whole thing is covered in foam so it doesn't hurt when you fall - the only injury I got was a blister on the top of my foot and tenderness on my shins from where the water hit them. Oh, but it will mess up your pedicure!

Day three sunrise. It never gets old! We just had room service delivered for breakfast since we had the SC flow rider session at 8:00am. Smitha seemed disappointed that we didn't want to wait for Coastal Kitchen to open for our room service, but if we had waited, the kids would not have eaten until at least 7:30. I had visions of sick kids on the upper deck after a wipeout. Good news - no one got sick! Better news - no one broke any bones! DH and I were a little worried DD would decide at the last minute not to participate, or worse, fall and never try again. I've mentioned she's on the spectrum in previous blogs; well she over experiences emotion. An embarrassing wipe out could have shut her down. Fortunately she's had a lot of growth in the last year or so, and she tried a few new things on this cruise that she absolutely would not even consider before (staying for more than just video games at the teen club, ice skating, getting back in the ocean). She was a natural and wanted to try to stand up surf as well. The current policy is that you have to have experience stand up surfing, wake boarding, snow boarding, etc. before they will let you do it on the ship so it was a no go for us this time. I mean, I surfed once in Hawaii... for 30 minutes... 27 years ago. I think the statute of limitations passed on that one, but I didn't ask. I found a flowrider close to us that offers lessons for half of what the ship charges, so we'll take some lessons over the summer and be ready for our fall cruise.

I finally caught up! I hope the day after soreness is minimal and your sunscreen doesn't sting your rug burn! I too have never had McDonald's pancakes, but now I feel the need to try them. I grew up in the 80's and 90's so I imagine I missed out here. #pancakeinfluencer

I wanted to get some formal night pictures after dinner and DH wanted to change before the aqua show, so we were feeling quite rushed when we left 150 CP at 6:30. We were supposed to meet Smitha at 6:45. We went to one photographer who had a really long line and decided to go to the other side of Central Park to another photographer instead. She had one couple waiting in front of us...great. However, because she was positioned where the two paths cross, two lines started to form, one at each side. She had no idea who was next, and we took our turn after the couple before us to some dirty looks from people who arrived after us who thought we jumped the "line". I was not impressed with these pictures, there was quite a bit of sunlight still in CP, and the white Rising Tide structure was really overexposed. Also, the photographer was feeling rushed too I think because she only took a couple of pictures. Next time, I'll try to convince everyone to leave their fancy pants on for just a little bit longer in the evening, and hopefully they will come out better. Every photographer on this ship also wanted DD and DH to remove their glasses for pictures so there wouldn't be a glare. I guess no one ever told them you can tilt glasses down slightly, and voila! No glare. DD and DH wear theirs all the time, so they wanted to leave them on although DD did take hers off the in this photo. One of the promenade photographers was almost argumentative about it until DH used his dad voice and said we were fine with the glare in our pictures. We quickly ran back to the room to change and met Smitha right on time. Thank goodness our cabin was just one deck up from CP! She reserved us seats just outside of the splash zone for Oceanaria and had drinks waiting for us. We took up the entire row of the center section with another SC family. Here are some photos from the show. Sorry for the finger in the corner of the first shot. The show has a runtime of 45 minutes according to the app, and it went a little over. We ran to the other side of the ship to the theater to see Finis Henderson who has recorded his own music, but his show was mainly impersonating a broad range of other singers. Smitha had drinks waiting for us again and brought us surprise popcorn just a minute before the house lights went down. Some of his covers were better than others - I thought his Tears for Fears and Elvis were particularly good. After the show, we went back to the room and DS ran off to Adventure Ocean. DD had an hour to spare before the Teen Club activities, so we watched part of the second aqua show from the balcony. Same pose as above from a different perspective. Another sea day to come!

When I read this, I thought they weren't that small, but looking at the picture with the micro greens, they seem pretty tiny. The cheesecake was really good. I didn't expect to like the popcorn with it, but the texture worked!

We're home, mostly unpacked, and cakes are in the oven, so I guess it's back to reality! I think I left off on day 2 getting ready for formal night. Smitha had reservations for us at 150 Central Park at 5pm because we had two shows this night. Here is the kids menu (sorry it's sideways). The kids surprisingly loved the truffle butter bread. I had the Urban Garden Martini, Honey Glazed Scallops, Lamb Wellington, and Fried Cheesecake. Everyone else had the Braised Short Rib appetizer, DD and DH had the Lobster Thermidor, and DS had the Duck Duo. DS and DH also had the fried cheesecake, but DD had the Peanut Butter Chocolate Tart which came with black currant sorbet. She loved the sorbet - scarfed it down, and only had a bite of the tart. Service was slow, which I kind of expected from a fine dining restaurant. But it took 15 minutes for the martini cart to arrive for them to make my drink tableside and the ice they used was mostly water. The flavor was still good though. The scallops were just ok - I kept eyeing everyone else's short ribs. There was nothing left on anyone's plate for me to try though. We all enjoyed our entrees and desserts. I would go back to 150. I could have eaten here a few nights, but we wanted to try all the restaurants, so I'll have to wait for Harmony next year.

We just got off Allure yesterday with these ports. Cozumel and Roatan were fine. We will not be doing another beach / snorkeling excursion at Costa Maya for a while.

We did!

I'm alive and well y'all! We're busy, constantly full, and having a lot of fun, but this live blog has definitely turned into a cruise review. I'll post all the details when we get home. Current situation...

We did. I'm behind and will post more later.

No, this is our first O class ship, but we have always stayed in the 2br suite on the other classes we have sailed with the kids, so we knew about the bathroom situation already. DH and I have only sailed in a JS without the kids, so we don't really know better.

DS met us at Schooner to get our search the nation's sheet. Smitha tracked us down and signed our sheet. She also told Caleb she would help get signatures at the end of the week if he needed them. #spoiledrotten We went to Park Cafe and each got a roast beef sandwich. DH had two and I also got the portobello pesto sandwich. The roast beef was just me. The portobello was delicious though. DS didn't care for his, so we did run down to Sorrento's so he could get a couple slices of cheese which is always a winner. Since we were there, we ran across the way to Cafe Promenade to get dessert to eat on the balcony. We got back to the room, and fortunately, no new food had been delivered. We also have our first towel animal. We enjoyed our desserts outside and the Sexiest Man Contest was about to start in the Aqua Theater. I ducked back into the cabin to get drinks for everyone and heard the doorbell ringing...yep, snacks and drinks. We all came inside too full to eat again, but we did anyway. We had a few minutes to relax before the bridge tour where DS got a few more signatures. He went back to AO for an hour, and the rest of us are resting and getting ready for formal night. Smitha has really had to shuffle some things around. When they cancelled Mamma Mia, they shifted a couple shows. Tonight is Oceanaria and Finis Henderson.

But I'll take their coffee over Starbucks anyday.

You are going to love it! We are currently on Allure in Star Class. Bring your stretchy pants...ask me how I know!

Partly cloudy and windy today. We definitely feel a bit of rocking. We had Starbucks delivered this morning, but they got DD's order wrong. She's a super taster and can easily pick out the bitter flavors in food. We ordered her a pistachio cream Frappuccino, which is not supposed to have any coffee in it. They brought her the version with espresso so she was done after a sip. I tried it, and thought it was delicious, but her taste buds disagreed. Breakfast at CK - sorry, no photos. I got the frittata, DH got the Baja eggs, kids got eggs and pancakes. DS has gone to Adventure Ocean, and DD is going to the teen club at 10am. The Search for the Nations kick off is at 10:40, and DS wants to participate after I told him about @jbrinkm's experience, so he's meeting us at the Schooner Bar then. I think we'll just do Park Cafe and Sorrento's for lunch. Bridge tour this afternoon.

That's probably more due to the skill of the photographer It was pretty tasty. We don't really have lunches scheduled anywhere. So we may go back again. With the UDP, I would at least give it a shot for lunch one day.

There's a perfectly good explanation! Cake has never been my favorite dessert. As a kid I would take ice cream over cake any day. When I first started my business, I tested about 15 different vanilla cake recipes to find "the one". Repeat for 14 flavors of cake, and you don't really eat cake anymore.