melmar02

We have had a version of the ray before, but not with the curled edges. I think it was one of the kids' first cruises and we got something crazy like 14 animals on a 7 night cruise. DS wanted to see In the Air. To be honest we all did - don't miss it if you are on Liberty. DH went with him and I crawled into bed and watched the end of Mrs. Doubtfire. When the movie ended, I was flipping through the channels and hit the schedule channel at just the right time. The photo gallery hours were at the top of the page. I almost forgot! I ran back downstairs and picked our 10 for this leg. If the Fitbit can be trusted, I've hit 7 miles today. After walking up stairs all day yesterday at the waterpark, my ankles are toast. I'm kind of looking forward to sitting around the airport all day tomorrow. We are all checked in for the flight and are boarding group B26-29.

DD wanted to eat in the MDR one last time, but DD wanted to go to bed early. DH went with our son, and I stayed I and ordered room service. Cobb salad, cheese steak with fries, and the fruit plate. They brought me bonus fries.

Man did I get my steps in today! I was up earlier than usual, and DH usually drinks all the coffee in the room. I wait until we go to breakfast and get a cup from the suite lounge then. Instead I went once by myself, and a second time with DS right at 7 when they were setting out the continental breakfast. Here he is, sadly getting ready to gobble down his last pre-breakfast donut of the cruise. It was gone before we reached the elevator. I brought the second round of coffee back to the room just in time for DD to be ready to go to breakfast. I'm case you were wondering, here is the menu for the suite breakfast at Chops. We could get the same thing at the MDR or WJ, but it is cooked fresh and the service can't be beat. After breakfast we wandered off the ship for our self guided tour. I had Google ready to guide me to the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle which is really small, but right next to the stairs. We felt fine as a group, but Google took us through a neighborhood that felt a little off the beaten path - not sure I would have walked it by myself. According to the the Bahamas tourism website, the fort admission is free with donations appreciated. That info is out of date as it cost is $3 each plus VAT for a total of $14. Kids 5 and under were $2 plus tax. A warning about the additional VAT tax on 12% was listed on the front page of the Cruise Compass. This fort is small the round exterior with three canons, access to 2 small rooms that were maybe 10' x 14' and a small platform at the top. This was plenty for my kids though. Next we walked back through the neighborhood and on to our next stop thr Pirates of Nassau museum. Admission was $14 for adults and $7 for kids 17 and younger. They had a display of a shanty town and the interior of a ship. Several mannequins along the way to display the various parts of the ship. The mannequins made it a little hokey, but it was a decent 45 minute field trio. DD had quite a bit of reading and writing assignments relating to pirates at the beginning of our school year, and she enjoyed the museum. There are only a few actual artifacts and several replicas. From there we visited the straw market to get a couple souvenirs and then went back to the ship. Google said our trip should have been 1.8 miles from the port entrance and back. We had lunch in the WJ, and spent the afternoon packing. We were able to catch a nice sunset from the suite lounge. Jayson said he is getting some time off in November and December, but will be back on. Liberty starting in January. DD left a small crochet jellyfish for our cabin attendant, and the kids received two towel animals tonight.

I guess everything is not only bigger, but sweeter in Texas?

@Ampurp85 the funnel cake was OK. I think their batter could have used more sugar - it relied heavily on the powdered sugar on top.

Suite lounge and then DH and I weren't hungry so we took the kids to the WJ. Then we headed to the theater for the juggler, Adam Kario. We enjoyed his show. After the show, the kids ran off and DH and I grabbed a snack from Sorrento's and Cafe Promenade. We returned to the room to find another towel animal and the saddest delivery of all - departure tags.

780 kids onboard according to the cruise director!

The kids spent time in the wave pool while DH and I spent time under our umbrella. We decided to call it a day around 1:30 or 2pm. DH and DS went back to the ship, and DD and I headed to the shops in search of a Christmas ornament. On our way out this morning we saw our cabin attendant and asked for a champagne bucket with ice for the bottle we got at Next Cruise. He found the bottle in our cooler and had it chilling for us when we returned. Juggler tonight, not sure of the dinner plans.

Lunch was at the Snack Shack. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, and mozzarella sticks. We got a funnel cake to share, but we were so full we each only had a couple bites.

We had breakfast at Chops, and then went back to the cabin to change into our swim suits. We had tickets to Thrill Waterpark, and we decided to make the wave pool home base. We chose loungers somewhere in the middle of the pack, next to a tree so we would have a little more shade than the umbrella provided. We headed to Splash Summit and went on the racer mat ride 4 times so we could try each color. Then we did the tube slides. Next we headed over to Daredevil's Tower for a bit. DD and I both went to the Peak and we all did most of the other slides. I finally talked DS into the Slingshot, and I wish I had a picture of his face when we started the big descent! They are making progress on the new green slide - it looks like it may be another multi person slide like the sling shot. Daredevil's Peak had the worst wait time at about 25 minutes. All the other slides were 10 minutes or less with some, like the racer mats, that had no wait. Our legs are beat!

Round 2!

We're still running pretty slow, but CocoCay is close, so we shouldn't have a delay. We were boring the rest of the day. Nap, casino, suite lounge, WJ for dinner. DS is in the kid's club, DD is watching TV, and DH is reading. I'm going to bed early for a long day tomorrow.

We are headed back out now. It didn't seem like we were running full speed back to port, but we didn't check the tv channel that shows our speed. Hopefully it is nothing too serious and the person recovers quickly.

Yes, we backed into port and saw the ambulance and fire truck waiting for us. They just pulled away.

We are headed back to Ft Lauderdale. I couldn't hear the reason, but I did hear it won't affect the schedule.

Is this new in the app, or have I just not paid attention? I found. Countdown clock in the manage your booking section.

Flowrider lesson part deux. DD is really close to earning her blue band to stand up surf, and we were all able to drop the practice rope this time. I think my 44 year old body prefers boogie boarding for now. There was no Key session after our lesson so they shut off the pumps at 9. We had different instructors this time, and one of our instructors from last week came up right at the end of our lesson. They all agreed DD was on the verge so they turned it back on to give her the two chances self load. It was a no go, but good practice. They told us to come back at 10 and try again as they were all sure she could get it. So it's hot tubs and pool time until then. DS is probably too big for Splashaway Bay but that's where we are. This is his happy place - Splashaway Bay on Liberty. He's between slides and the hot tub, and DD and I are resting up for the next flowrider session to start.

Breakfast on the balcony. This is actually a first for us. In all our cruises, we have never taken advantage of combining food and the sunrise. I woke up to the ship traveling at 2.6 knots, and DH said it had been like that since he got up at 5am. There was no wake. While we were out on the balcony the engines restarted, and now we're going about 10 knots which is what we were doing last night. DH said there were some mechanical sounds between 5am and 6 when I got up - like they were trying to restart and couldn't get the engines to turn over. The map now has us pointing back toward FLL. Is this part of the normal zig zag toward CocoCay? I am sure we are just headed south because last night we went north, and today's a sea day so I know the captain has time to kill, but way to make us nervous!

@Lovetocruise2002 this is the bottle they gave us. I searched Total Wine and Goody Good Liquor online and neither carry this. Google didn't give me much more - it looks like this is maybe a $15 bottle at the most? I wonder if we would have received a different kind if we booked a suite, like getting better OBC for longer sailings/suites?

It was in last week's Cruise Compass, and I was hoping it was in effect for this cruise too. We had it narrowed down to a cruise from LA or the New England and made the decision at the last second. I'm not 100%, but I think all bookings get it. We were also entered into some raffle for $100 obc for booking day one or two.

I have no drama of my own to report really. DH saw security walking the cabin halls with pictures of a couple people. According to the FB group a guy was yelling at his wife/girlfriend on the dock at Cozumel and he started to get physical. Security stepped in. There were pictures on FB this morning of cop cars at the dock and someone being taken off in cuffs. We did have an ambulance and fire truck pull up shortly after docking. DH and I finally made it dancing.

Lunch was typical Johnny Rockets stuff fries - plain, chili cheese, and bacon cheese. DH and I both had smokehouse burgers with jalapenos added. Milkshakes, a malt, and a root beer float were enjoyed during the meal so we skipped dessert. Then we did the typical first day stuff. We resigned our waivers for AO and got DD's card punched for the teen club. Next we headed up to the flowrider to renew our waivers...and sign up for more surf lessons. We dropped the kids at the room with their respective electronic devices, and DH and I wandered into the Next Cruise office. We'll be back on Libery over Labor Day weekend for a New England and Canada cruise which may have partly been inspired by @Lovetocruise2002's recent cruise. Connecting balconies that time. We took our free bottle of champagne for booking the first day back to the room and went up to the suite lounge to celebrate the new booking. No one was really hungry after the late lunch, so we took the kids to WJ for dinner. Now they are in the kid's clubs and we are waiting for ballroom dance music to start in Olive or Twist. There is a 30 minute overlap with three family silent disco. I'm sure they are still working out the kinks of the new schedule. We did get a towel animal tonight, and we asked our cabin attendant to let us keep our zoo. He obliged.

And he said he always picks the grumpy one to do the show. Like this one was hissing at him when he went into the enclosure.

Last night, Jayson. Gave us out new Sea Pass cards and transit cards. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was just a business card sized paper that said In Transit on it with some Royal branding. The suite breakfast didn't open until 7 this morning, and we were supposed to meet at 7:45 for our excursion. We decided that would be cutting it close and to just get the kids something quick from WJ. Not sure what we were thinking. What a madhouse! We were in the Star Lounge at 7:30am. There were two people at the front of the lounge checking in for the excursion. I asked what we needed to do to ensure we were brought back to the ship, and they both looked at me like I had three heads. I pulled up the excursion in the app and showed them where it said in the description that consecutive cruisers would be returned to the cruise terminal. The response was, "I guess we will let the tour guide know you are coming back" We were escorted off the ship around 8:30am. People got their luggage and went through customs where we were on our own to find the excursion bus as the RC guide was at the back of the herd for our group. The tour bus guide asked where our luggage was, and we told him we were on the next sailing. He said, great, we will get you back here so we felt better. We all waited on the bus until the RC guide showed up with the last couple families at 9:30. Apparently, RC left a cart of luggage dock side, and the bags were not unloaded in the terminal with the rest of the luggage. When we got to the Everglades Holiday Park, we asked the tour guide when he thought we would make it back to the terminal. He said after the tour, we were dropping off the people for FLL, then a family for MIA, then they would go back to the cruise terminal. Um no. We decided to get off at FLL and take a $12 Uber back to port. It was a fun excursion. A little alligator show followed by the airboat ride. If we were going to do it again, we would have scheduled it for the day we got off the ship instead of on turn around day. We were back on board by 1:30 and headed to Johnny Rockets.

The Bon Voyage menu last night was our least favorite. Appetizers- DH got the Mediterranean Tapas, I got the French onion soup, kids both got the shrimp cocktail. Entrees - DS and I got the lamb, DH and DD got the grilled chicken, and DH and I shared the chicken chettinad to share. Our second entree was delived with the first, but the guy at the table next to us got a second entree for himself and it came later. Dessert - apple cobblers and crema catalana. We went back to the room to stay with DD who had a headache, and were asleep on the couch by 9pm. When DS got back from AO at 10pm, we all went to bed.