melmar02

Day 5 Costa Maya. "So what if it's a port day," we thought. "It's reduced capacity," we thought. "Surely the Windjammer won't be a madhouse at breakfast," we thought. We thought wrong! My friends, if you have never been in the Windjammer for breakfast on a port day, don't. Doesn't matter if you go early or late, there is something in the air that puts the masses in a mood for chaos. There is some crazed mentality that takes hold of the passengers, and the Collective loses any manners they had to begin with. It's not the relaxing vacation you are looking for - trust me, just order room service. Anyway, after our breakfast in the Thunderdome, we started to get ready for our excursion. This is when the alarms started to sound. We got past all that, and stepped foot on Mexican soil a little early for our Salsa Experience. This tour was through Royal, and I think we paid about $65 per person. We took a 5-10 minute bus ride to an area behind Blue Kay eco hotel. Masks were to be worn the entire time unless eating, drinking, or on the beach. The room we were in was small for the 35 people in the excursion, and with a little rain, it was really hot and humid in there. We were in groups of 2 (me with DS, DH with DD) to make a guacamole and two kinds of salsa. We altered the recipes a little because of the kids - leaving out raw onion or peppers, etc. Surprisingly, the kids loved them all! They've gone out of their way to try new things this foods this trip, which is very exciting for DD as she is not comfortable with unfamiliar foods. We then did a little salsa dancing. After the short time dancing, we had 50 minutes at Blue Kay's beach. You can't visit Costa Maya without saying hello to the flamingos! We got back of the ship and headed to the pool. DS and I tried out the water slides. They're really fun if you push yourself the whole way! We got ready for dinner in the MDR, and DS had a 7pm reservation in Adventure Ocean. He only wanted to stay an hour as we were all pretty tired - I think mostly from being slow roasted in the hot room during the excursion. Our new zoo additions tonight were Boris, the new Bugs Bunny (the old bunny is now Puppy), and Tonsu (I think - I don't really know, but it may be a Pokémon name?) Tomorrow is Cozumel!

Day 4 Today we anchored 5 miles off the coast of Belize, and it didn't take long for the tender boats to start lining up. Since we had no real plans, we had a leisurely breakfast in Chops. We met Amit in the suite lounge just before 9:30am to get on a tender. It took 10-15 minutes to reach shore, and we just browsed the shops for about an hour. We came back on an almost empty tender. We went back to the pool deck when we got back on the ship. It was still a little chilly, but tolerable. The Lava Flow helped. Then we got ready for dinner and tonight's show. Puck the Magician from America's Got Talent was today's headliner. It was a good show, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go back. Three more new friends today Dino Dude, Trumpet, and Funky Monkey. Tomorrow is Costa Maya.

We backed into the pier at Costa Maya today, and I was pretty sure it was a drill when no one in the pier was looking up at the "fire" on the ship. When we heard the alarm minutes later though, we were not waiting for anyone else! However, I had my priority in line. I mafe sure to grab our shore excursion tickets!

Then kilo was called (crew to assembly stations). A few other announcements were made, staircase closures and the like. Then the alarm sounded - you know, the one you never want to hear after muster drill. Anyway, we grabbed our packed excursion bag and my travel purse that has our passports in it and headed down the hall. Crew were in their vests, but not noticeably guiding anyone to the staircase. I started to think this was a drill. We got to the stairway, and I asked a crew member who confirmed. We never heard the announcement that this was a drill!

Bravo was just called in Sabor's galley.

Day 3. This was another sea day. After breakfast in the Windjammer, DS went back to Adventure Ocean for a little bit. DH and I tried the casino again, and I'm still down. We had lunch and the kids and I decided to give the hot tubs a try as we knew the pools were still too cold. The hot tubs by the pools have all been hot, but those by Splashaway Bay are scorching this trip! We went back to the room and got ready for our evening. A little trivia, the ice show, dinner in the MDR, and a production show. The ice show is called Encore and is a tribute to music and theater through time. We saw this show last time we were on Liberty a couple years ago, but it was just as good. Only a couple falls by the performers, and you could feel the ship was rocking . The production show is called In the Air, and it reminded me of a Cirque de Soliel production. Lots of ariel acts. Sorry, not a lot of photos here. We have three new friends tonight. Bugs Bunny (which I think is a dog, but I'm not going to argue with a 9 year old on this one), Shelly the turtle, and Harry the hippo. Next up is Belize.

Here are some photos of the cabin. There are 4 two bedroom grand suites on Liberty. All are aft - 2 on deck 8 and the other 2 are on deck 9. The balconies are slightly deeper on deck 9. Closet with the safe is in the entry hall. We use our over door shoe hanger here and magnetic hooks for masks as it's right by the door. The smaller bedroom is directly across from the entry closet and the 2nd bath, which is standard size, is inside this room. The master bedroom has a huge port hole and the master bath is the same size as in a junior suite. The living room has a third closet and lots of drawer space. There are 2 pullmans in the second bedroom a d the couch pulls out, so this room sleeps 8. I wouldn't want to squeeze that many in here though. Lots of room to spread out. I prefer the layout of the 2 bedrooms on Enchantment as the 2nd bathroom is in the hall, so anyone needing to access it doesn't disturb anyone who may be sleeping. There is also a window from the 2nd bedroom to the living room on Enchantment. On Liberty the 2nd bedroom feels a lot like what I imagine an interior old be like. The light that comes in from the living room on Enchantment helps quite a bit with that since you can get some "second hand" natural light.

Liberty still has water bottles, but I did see a can go past me at the theater last night.

Day 2 We had a leisurely sea day today. It was still only 65 degrees or so which was too cold for the pools or hot tubs, but others were braver than us. We explored the ship after breakfast at the Windjammer. This was Valentine's Day and Schooner Bar and the Star Lounge had balloons (maybe Bolero's too?) in addition to what I think was supposed to be a heart at the end of the Promenade. DD and DH wanted to relax in the cabin so I made a quick reservation for DS in Adventure Ocean and headed to the casino. At AO registration, they told me there were only 120 kids on-board. I assume that's everyone under 18. The casino was not kind to me, so I picked up DS, and after WJ for lunch, we explored the outside of the ship. It was still pretty cold, but we decided we would try a round of mini golf. I lost. Miserably. Since this was formal night, we headed back to the room to get ready. DS even ordered the duck, and loved it! We went to the suite lounge for a few minutes - Amit had called us while we were getting ready as we didn't go to happy hour on day 1. Then we decided to call it a night after having eaten so much at dinner. We arrived to 3 towel animals, and the Allen Zoo was started. Meet "Grumpy Winnie" "Blue" and "Mom and Dad". DH thinks Diasa, our suite attendant, was making a short joke. Tomorrow's another sea day.

Rooms were ready a little before 1:30. We dropped off our bags and took care of a few errands. First stop was the dining room. We were assigned to the everyone deck, I assume because of DS's age. We asked to change to the vaccinated deck and were pleased to find our new table was by a window. Then to Adventure Ocean to register DS and sign him up for tonight's session. Our next assignment was to get a drink. Mai Tais for the adults and a virgin strawberry daiquiri and Shirley Temple for the kids. We headed back to the room to unpack and before we knew it, sail away was upon us. We went back up to the top deck where it was pretty chilly, especially in the shade. We ordered another round of drinks and decided to go back to the room to continue sail away on the balcony, which was perfect as we were in the sun, and get ready for dinner. I'm terrible at getting food pictures, but we could see the sunset from our window. DS went to AO, but only wanted to stay for an hour, so I headed to the casino. I'm down a little, but it's early in the week. DD was planning on going to the teen meet up, but decided to just stay in the room and watch music videos instead. DH was ready for bed right after dinner. After the last couple of early mornings, I thinknit will be an early night for all of us. Tomorrow is a sea day.

All to ourselves.

They called us to board just after I clicked submit on my last post. To the Windjammer! We met Amit, the suite concierge in the elevator after we did our muster check-in and he told us we could wait in the suite lounge until rooms open.

No traffic getting to the parking lot, and we could see the ship from the car. We were the first on the shuttle, and they had enough other passengers to fill the bus, so it took almost 30 minutes to get across the street. We had to wait a couple minutes until they opened the terminal doors, but we were through check in about 15 minutes. We're now sitting upstairs, waiting to get on the ship - it's almost 11:30, so I am not sure why they haven't started boarding yet.

I didn't take pictures of the hotel because it's the same one in my liberty and enchantment reviews. I think I linked them in one of the 1st posts. This morning we went down to the breakfast that was included included. It was nothing special. Scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, waffles. We're about to make the final short drive. Thankfully it's sunny today!

DH got up at 3:30 this morning, only an hour before his usual. He said DD came downstairs at 4:30 completely dressed and ready to go. I was up by 5 and DS came down, also completely dressed, at 5:30. I guess we were all too excited to sleep in! We took our time finishing up the packing, and when we opened the garage door at 10am, there were a few flurries in the air. We thought, "wow, I don't remember weather guy mentioning that," and put it out of our minds as they stopped before we were out of our neighborhood. We dropped the dogs at the kennel by 10:30. Time to hit the road! In 5-ish hours, we'll be at the hotel! ...or maybe not. We got a couple hours into the drive and made a quick stop. Noticed there was ice on the road signs. Hmm...I certainly don't remember any mention of ice or snow. But we sure found it! A few minutes after getting back in the car, we were hit with big, fat snowflakes! Traffic came to a stop a couple times and there were several wrecks. The weather finally changed to rain and then stopped. Our usual 5 hour drive took 7, and we were all ready to just be done with the car. We decided to just have something gourmet delivered because neither DH nor I was going anywhere. Here's what was left of our first night of vacation dinner. The important thing is we're here, the kids have showered, and they've been given a dose of Benadryl for good measure. Time to do our night before the cruise tradition - open a bottle of red and put the luggage tags on all the bags. Tomorrow's cruise day, y'all!

Only on Oasis and Anthem class ships which have the Royal Suite program. Suite guests on the Freedom class and older ships are slumming it with the original suite benefits.

It's still Amit.

We'll be taking advantage of it tomorrow, and I'll post if there are any changes to report.

I guess DH took his test at the beginning of an after work rush? Or maybe the proctor took a dinner break? Whatever the delay, we now have all our negative results printed, and we'll hit the road tomorrow between 10 and 11am. Time to celebrate with a glass or two of wine!

The kids and I rushed over to CVS once our co-op day was finished, and even though our appointments were 3:50, 4:10, and 4:20, they swabbed us all at once. DH went from work and had the 4:40 slot. The kids and I are good to go... just waiting on that last text...it would be a shame to have to leave him at home!

Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day is engagement season in the wedding industry, and my poor email has been overflowing for weeks. I'm happy to say, I'm all caught up and the out of the office message is turned on. I'm officially on vacation!

Lots of errands completed yesterday, and the clothes packing started today. Tomorrow the kids and I have our homeschool co-op all day and then we rush to CVS for our tests. We'll finish packing up after dinner tomorrow and hopefully have all our negative test results by then too. I have a really extensive packing list, but I feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh well, there's a Walmart close to the hotel if I remember what it is.

It's part of the check in process. If you are not able to check in yet, which opens about 30 days before sailing right now, you won't be able to upload the pictures yet.

Pre-packed with the kids this afternoon. Found out DS doesn't have enough socks that fit anymore. He's been mostly barefoot or in soccer cleats for the last two years, so regular socks didn't even cross my mind. Who knew kids grew between the ages of 7 and 9! #momfail Tomorrow I can schedule our backup tests at Walgreens for Saturday just in case we need it on the way out of town, and I have some car maintenance scheduled too. 3 days until our CVS test, 4 days 'til the drive to Houston, and 5 until we step aboard the ship!

Thanks for the recommendation. We considered Mia's Table last time we were there, but went with the Cheesecake Factory across the street instead. We'll check it out.