melmar02

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.

We're on the bus waiting for the last of the luggage for our turnaround day excursion. It looks like photos are going tontake forever to upload, so I'll come back and do a photo dump when I'm back on ship wifi. PDCC day. We went to Chops for breakfast and then went back to the cabin to change. Since we didn't have a planned excursion, we took a little time getting off the ship so we weren't with the crush of people who wanted to be first off the ship. We left the cabin around 8:30. We headed to Oasis Lagoon and found 4 loungers together after a little searching. The water was cold. We tried to take our time getting in and getting used to the water, but it wasn't happening. We went to Splashaway Bay for a few minutes and decided we would move home base to Harbor Beach. The water here was a little warmer than the pool, but still pretty cool. DH and I read and the kids played in the water and sand. There may have been a Coco Loco or two. Lunch buffet was open about 11am. We all had the taco bar which was pretty good for buffet fare. DH and I also split a Cuban. After lunch DH and DD headed back to the ship - she was overwhelmed from the week and was ready for a reset day. DS and I stayed on the island until about 1pm. AO was calling him. DH and I went back to the casino and then we all met back up at the room around 5pm for suite lounge and dinner.

Thanks @smokeybandit. We'll leave it on the short list for tomorrow's NC visit.

We sail mostly Caribbean and are looking for a change. Before we head to the Next Cruise office, is there a bad time to sail from the west coast? Like are seas really rough a particular time of year? Water too cold? Something weird like Galveston fog season? Any anything else we should consider?

The fallen skaters definitely got the most cheers.

Last night's towel animal and a few photos of the ice show. There were a couple of falls, but overall a good show. We have seen it 3 times over the years, and I think the Elvis finale has been our favorite every time.

Some treats were delivered to the suite yesterday afternoon. I didn't get any lounge food photos. Dinner - Italian night. Aranchi, minestrone, and carpaccio appetizers. We all got the chicken parm and DH and I split the mushroom risotto too. Tirimisu and lemon tarts for dessert. It was all good. photos are slow to load here on CocoCay. We're parked at Harbor Beach and have great weather. Water is a little chilly, but so far all is good. We are here with Allure. Here's the day's view.

We did wind up back in the casino yesterday afternoon, but luck did not follow us in. I had about 10-15 pictures left in our 100 package so we headed to a photographer to finish the job. I'm not looking for 100 stellar photos when I but the big package, I'm looking for convenience. I take several good photos from the package add them to pictures we took and make books from them. I but the package on Black Friday so it's cheap and then the photographer takes about 110 pictures so onboard. I can weed out the obvious 10 bad ones and sort through the rest at home. Suite lounge, dinner, ice show...pictures to follow.

@ScottD on Liberty they still use the old age group structure. Explorers are 6-8 year olds and Voyagers are 9-11. Teen club is 12 and up.

I think it probably was the same. The activities person running the game asked if anyone had done the game on a ship before then asked them not to play because the game was the same. Of course they played anyway. That was the only team who won. We needed about 2 more minutes and we would have had it.

This sea day has been pretty chill for us. Kids wanted WJ for breakfast. Then they headed to the kids' clubs and DH and I headed to the casino for the first time this trip. We found a $6 blackjack table and I hung in there for a good 30 minutes before giving up. I left DH and had better luck at the slots but still down a little. We had lunch on the Promenade - a combination of Sorrento's, Cafe Promenade, Ben & Jerry's, and a Mai Tai from Vintages. We're going to try A Royal Mystery this afternoon which sounds like an escape room in an envelope. It is being held in the Star Lounge. DS may head back to AO at that time. It really is his happy place, and I think he has mixed feelings about aging up to the teen club on our next cruise. Me too, Buddy. Me too. DD plans to go back to the teen club this afternoon after the mystery thing so DH and I may wind up back in the casino. The dealer said it had been dead in there all week. Tonight we are planning on the ice show and some dancing after dinner. Hopefully it won't be too rocky. The captain said it's more windy than they expected. Our weather app shows 30 mph winds out there.

Here's the rest of dinner. DS got the grilled chicken and DH and DD ordered the strip steak, all that I had pictures of previously. DH said his steak was grisly, but DD said hera was fine. I ordered the roasted caribbean chicken and DH and I also shared the chicken korma. Both were very good, and they brought our extra entra out at the same time as the rest of the meals. Sorry the pictures is of a half eaten meal, I almost forgot pictures. Dinners have been running about 70-80 minutes. Dessert- girls ordered carrot cake and the boys ordered blueberry cobbler. I had a bite of DS'S and it was a little tart for me. After dinner we were greeted by a another towel animal. DH and I were going to go out dancing, but it was really rocky again so we called it an early night.

Last night suite lounge offerings. It was Caribbean night in the MDR last night. Appetizers- coconut shrimp for the kids, French onion soup for DH and I had the Asian tacos.

Save a Sea Turtle Experience. We picked this excursion because DD wants to be a marine biologist specializing in sea turtle rehab. Also because it was something different than a beach day. Our meeting time was 12:15, and we got off the ship about 45 minutes early to walk around a bit. It was overcast with the sun peeking through the clouds every now and then. There were 27 people on the excursion. We boarded a bus that took us to the far side of the island and stopped along a stretch of beach that was almost back to the road that divides the island. The guide was very informative, giving us details about the types of turtles we might find and how how to dig the nests out. He was also very explicit about how to handle the turtles as they are endangered. Once at the beach, we met the biologists that were in charge of the operation. We were tasked with digging out nests that had hatched to look for remaining turtles and collect all the egg shells. There were 4 nests that were ready that day, so we divided into groups and started digging... and digging... and digging... The bottom of the nests can be 4-5 feet deep. So DH finished the job in our group. we found 5 turtles in our next and almost 130 shells which were paper-y, not hard like a chicken egg. The biologists and our guide were constantly walking around to supervise and make sure we were doing things correctly, and they had to tell the lady of the couple we were paired with to stop touching the turtles multiple times. They were nice about it, but she really wouldn't stop petting them and picking the up to baby talk at them. We were given wet towels and bottles of cold water when we got on back in the bus. We were all pretty cold at this point because there was a downpour during our dig. They took us to a nearby beach where we had about an hour and a half to eat (no included) and use their loungers. We got drinks chips, salsa, and guacamole. It was raining a bit more so we stayed under the cover of the open air restaurant. Then they took us back to the ship. Overall we enjoyed this excursion and would probably do it again if we wanted to do something different and non-beachy. Back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.

There was definitely no cheese either.

This morning we were followed in Cozumel with Carnival Glory, a Princess ship, and Harmony. Suite lounge offerings. DH and the kids had Chops while I just had coffee - I'm still stuffed from last night. Our Save a Sea Turtle excursion meets at 12:15, so DS went to AO, and the rest of us went back to the room. I packed two wash and fold bags of laundry and two ambulances showed up on the pier. Not sure if they are here for our ship or Harmony.

We were taken to a round table on the landing of the stairs at the back of the main dining room between decks 4 and 5. They brought us each a loaf of the 150 Central Park bread, but this was slightly different than what we had on Allure's Chef's table or at 150. Instead of truffle, this bread had more of a lemon garlic flavor. It was still really good, just not what we expected. First course scallop carpaccio second course smoked tomato soup third course lobster salad fourth course branzino fifth course tenderloin sixth course, The World

They had fruit, veg, and seeds out for the birds; they didn't give any to us to give the birds though. That's probably a good thing. When we did the aviary before the birds were really aggressive and we all got bit a couple times as they were trying to get food from us. This time they were much more docile. We lounged around the rest of the afternoon and took our time getting ready for Chef's Table. At 6 we parted ways with the kids at the elevators - they headed up to the WJ for dinner and we headed down to the R Bar which was our meeting point. We were greeted with a champagne cocktail ‐ St. Germaine, mojito mix, and champagne.

We're in Costa Maya. That's what we thought they were, but my family is going to forever call them the quidditch goals. We got off the ship about 12 and ate a snack in the port area then went to the aviary. I may have found a jalapeno that was too hot, even for me. They used to give cups of bird seed at the aviary, but we did not receive any this time. Still had a good time off the ship killing a couple hours.

DD and I decided to go on a walk. Still very overcast.

We went to Chops for the suite breakfast. The menu hasn't changed but DH was definitely missing the extra items that were available in Coastal Kitchen. Maybe there will be another star class sailing in our future. While at breakfast we docked next to MSC Seaside and Radiance of the Seas. It's around 80 degrees right now, and with the overcast morning, we are just taking it easy. It's too chilly for the flowrider right now for us, but it looks like the clouds should break soon. Currently DH is napping, DS is in AO, and DD and I are taking advantage of our internet package. The plan is fluid, but right now we are thinking maybe go into port for chips and queso at the wrestling bar and make the call on whether we do the aviary or not at that time. The kids and I have gone through it before, so I think we are all OK if it doesn't happen. Perhaps some mini golf this afternoon. The rainy sunrise About 7am about 9am With some breaks in the clouds.

We were boring last night. After the suite lounge, we went to dinner then back to the room to change out of our formal clothes so we could go out. The kids went to AO, we stayed in and napped on the couch until they got back. Dinner - escargot, French onion soup and calamari appetizers. DH had the beef bourguignon, and the rest of us had the tenderloin (DS had 2 orders). Cappuccino chocolate cake and apple cobbler for dessert. Our first towl animal and tonight's chef's table reminder were in the room last night too. This morning is a little foggy and rainy, but we should be at Costa Maya soon.