SuperStarian

Pre-Cruise Planning
Travel: We are flying from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, November 14.
Drinks: Kiesha has the Refreshment Package. I have the Soda Package. We are allocating for a few cocktails during the cruise.
Dining: No package, because I NEED to be able to fit into my pants! We are going to utilize all of the pre-paid options with maybe one specialty dining adventure. Kiesha eats almost everything. I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years. I am excited to try out the vegan offerings in the MDR.
Internet: We both have Surf & Stream.
Excursions & Activities: With my surgery recovery, I will not be able to do really strenuous activities. At port, we are going to do beach/pool days. On the ship, I will assess things daily.
In June, I did the Pearl Harbor VR experience in Hawaii. It was amazing! Since then, I have been searching for more virtual opportunities, especially those in a non-somber environment. Zone Zero is a MUST DO!
Overall, I am excited to have this great location to continue my recovery and have some QT with Kiesha!

After reading many wonderful cruise blogs on this site, I decided to be a follower and write my own. With me being too excited about this vacation, I need more people to talk about it. So, let’s go!
Parties Involved: My best friend, Kiesha & I (Ashley Joy)
Ship: Odyssey of the Seas
Cabin: Virtual Balcony
Dates: Monday, November 15 - Saturday, November 20
Ports: CocoCay & Labadee (at least, it is still on the itinerary)
Reason: Celebrating 25 years of friendship, but do you really need a reason to cruise?!
Cruise History: Kiesha did a Royal Caribbean cruise about a decade ago in a Balcony I went on a Symphony in April 2019 in a Virtual Balcony, which works with my irrational fear of heights and losing objects overboard. It was my only cruise to date, but I left addicted!!!!!
Backstory: This trip has been a long time coming. I would always say, “Kiesha, we hardly ever vacation together.” When we met our freshman year of college, we used to take trips all the time. As real adults, we have gone on a couple of long weekend adventures.
This past June, I had just returned from vacation and was needing another vacation (why is it always like that?!) so, I was researching the Royal Caribbean website. Luck would have it, I found a:
✅ great cruise itinerary
✅ set of dates that would work
✅ decent price
✅ new ship
✅ my favorite type of cabin
I asked Kiesha to join me. She only had one question, “is it Royal Caribbean?” I said, “is there any other cruise line?” The next day I reached out to Caroline at MEI.
Now, we only have 50 days to go! I told you I am too excited to not have anyone to regularly talk about this trip. 🙂
To keep things interesting, my doctor and I decided this a great time to have surgery. In about ten days, it will be operation day. The cruise will be six weeks into a seven week recovery plan. I am thankful that my doctor believes my only underlying issue will be tiredness.

It’s a world cruise!
 
 

World Cruise because you are always chasing the horizon

It’s a world cruise!
 
 

It’s a world cruise!
 
 

It’s a world cruise!
 
 

ABSURD. Just plain RUDE. 😂

ABSURD. Just plain RUDE. 😂

They announced Lelepa two years ago! How is this news of a lifetime?!
 
Unless because of COVID, we are in an alternate lifetime. 😱

They announced Lelepa two years ago! How is this news of a lifetime?!
 
Unless because of COVID, we are in an alternate lifetime. 😱

World Cruise because you are always chasing the horizon

-No more masking or pre cruise testing.
-You're now able to (and encouraged to) push chair hogs into the pool
-Lobster night will now have actual lobsters served instead of oversized crawfish
-Bridge tours will allow passengers to drive the ship
-They're introducing new technology where a day on a cruise ship lasts 48 hours instead of 24.

ABSURD. Just plain RUDE. 😂

ABSURD. Just plain RUDE. 😂

It is a nice poster. We heard about it as they were a sponsor  for the RCB podcast. Ended up getting one to keep and one to scratch off for the office wall. Quick shipping although to Australia ended up more for the freight than the actual posters, but that is just part of the deal living down under.  

Well, I’m sad to say two things:
1. We are off the ship and in the car headed home.
2. I failed miserably at live blogging 🤦🏽‍♀️
 
This week has been INCREDIBLE! If you’re booked in Star Class (or even just on the Oasis) and you’re reading this because you’re excited about your upcoming sailing, I am here to tell you, you’re going to have the TIME  OF YOUR LIFE! If my excited ramblings are too long to read, please let that be your takeaway from reading our experience. 
*****
Alright, so I left off on embarkation day where the amazing Genie Shane escorted us onto the ship and directly to our suite (two hours before the cabins were supposed to open! ⭐️)
We entered the Loft Suites section on deck 17 and walked down the widest cruise hallway I’ve ever seen. At the end of the hall, right in the corner… there was our door! 1720!!! Shane and his team had decorated our door for us!

We walked inside to embarkation day surprises! Anniversary decorations and a custom cake! Plus flowers in a vase and a beautiful card from Shane to celebrate the 6th wedding anniversary we missed during quarantine. 





I will give you fair warning that I have read from other fabulous star class experts on this forum that 1718’s upstairs is bigger, but there is no comparison for how amazing 1720’s living room and balcony are!

 


 

This view of the ship from the bedroom is amazing! I didn’t realize there was another window right next to the bed. At sea, you get a gorgeous view of the wake 😍

And now, for this balcony! It was cloudy and drizzling when we arrived in Cape Liberty, so I’m mixing in some debarkation photos as well so you can see the gorgeous view from all sides.





I loved that there were two doors to get out to the balcony as well. The standard sliding balcony doors were perfect for entertaining and moving in and out during the day. But I loved the single door directly under the bedroom behind the dining table for a quick shortcut onto the balcony in the morning. 
I also think you’ll get some cool photos if you’re having a party on the balcony by standing inside the bedroom and looking down from the window. 
 
I hope our few snapshots help you visualize the setup for 1720, since I mostly only found 1718 online. 
 
I’ll be back in a bit to up on the rest of the cruise shortly. It’s my turn to drive 😜

They did NOT have Coke Zero cans in the Coco Beach Club.  We brought our own from the ship just in case 😂

I call these "zombie threads". They're dormant for a year (or more) and then someone brings it back from the dead. 
Another post today brought back a zombie thread from DECEMBER 2017!!!
 

Day 7 (CocoCay) started really early. On day 4 or 5 we had a notice on our door that we needed to schedule DD6 for another covid test. We purposely picked 6:50-7:00 as our time because I thought I read on here that you had to have the results back before you could get off the ship. So I take her down to deck 3 and surprisingly there is no line. I scan her card and they handed me a piece of paper and then was directed to a different room where they had several nurses administering the test. It was, again, the short swab. Very simple and we were sent on our way.
I had previously told Smitha we wanted to get off at 9:00 (making sure to give plenty of time for the test to come back). At about 8:50 she messaged me to let her know when we were ready. I told her I didn’t have the results back yet and she said it doesn’t matter and that we should get an email by 6:00 that evening (I ended up getting it about 4). We met her at our elevators and she took us down (both this day and the day she took us to medical, we walked across I-95. I’ve never done a ship tour so found that interesting. She took us to the trams and we waited a few minutes to get on one going to the Beach Club. We booked an over the water cabana a while back and the price never dropped. 

When we first arrived at the Beach Club, we were given a tour and then taken to our cabana. Matt has a map here https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/perfect-day-cococay-map
From the maps I saw, it looked like there wasn’t a bathroom close, but there are 2 bathroom “trailers”, 1 on each side at the cabanas.

We had cabana #1 and I thought it was going to be perfect for us since I knew DD6 would want to play in the sand. I was wrong. More on that later.









We had 7 people and found there is plenty of room for everyone. I loved having the radio. We were able to use our phones to connect to it or you could choose from a few select “stations”. 
 
We had 2 very attentive attendants who made sure we always had a drink in our hand. And food. Lots and lots of food. We started with cold appetizers of hummus and tzatziki, ceviche, shrimp, veggies and pita bread


Not too long after, they brought hot appetizers consisting of chicken wings, cheese sticks, chicken fingers and fries

For lunch, they explained that with large groups they recommend bringing an assortment of all of the lunch foods instead of everyone ordering something specific. We could have ordered If we wanted to but we just took their recommendation. Please ignore all of the feet. I kept making everyone move so I could take pictures but apparently I wasn’t quick enough for this one. This was soooo much food! I tried a little of everything and other than the mac & cheese, everything was great (I’m a southern girl and we know how to make mac & cheese 😂)

 
Not too long after lunch, one of the many lifeguards told us that at high tide (around 1:00) we may see some stingrays and sharks but don’t be alarmed as they wouldn’t mess with us. We saw 3 different sharks and 2 stingrays. They were very close to us! If anyone was there that day, even on the ship, and heard screaming, that was my daughter 😱 

I could not believe how close they kept coming to us. They would stay in the Water between the cabanas and the beach and then it would occasionally swim under our cabana and then go back again. It was so neat watching them then watching other people on the beach see them and scatter. Speaking of other people, it got soooo crowded around our cabana. There were frequently people floating on mats right at our steps and at the slide. I got annoyed, but I mean the cabana was right in front of “their” beach. I just wish for the price we paid, we had a little more seclusion. We even had someone come up and ask us to slide down the slide. It just felt awkward.
One off my daughters was walking down the path on the way to get a funnel cake and apparently was asked by one of the attendants if she needed something. She told him where she was going and he said no, he’ll get it. I knew that we could ask them to get stuff from outside of the Beach Club but it was so close that we didn’t mind getting it ourselves. Regardless, a few minutes later we had dessert and 6 funnel cakes delivered.


All in all, we had an amazing time but I’m not sure I can justify spending what we did. The food was great, but I think all of the other food is really good too. Maybe if we had a different cabana I would have felt different. We never made it to the pool.

Lunch has arrived!  One could get used to this. Lobster and filet on a floating cabana in the Caribbean. Two ships here and doesn’t seem crowded with the low passenger loads. I walked the island taking pictures. It’s such a beautiful place. Plenty of room on the cabana for 10 1/2 of us. Actually 11 1/2 - Jack Daniels showed up a bit ago. 

The people kidnapped were all from Millersburg, Ohio. Only a hour from me.

I forgot all about “no shorts in the Main Dining Room” when we were on Adventure last month. 
 
A couple nights I wore shorts that I feel are dressier than jeans.  No one looked at me funny. 
 
To be fair, on both formal nights I wore appropriate attire. 

Today is officially 30 days to go!

Since my last update, I:
✅ ordered & received my proctored COVID tests
✅ used some OBC for Teppanyaki dinner reservation
✅ uploaded my vaccination card images to the app
✅ had a successful surgery
✅ spent my first week of recovery joining live streams of my favorite YouTube cruisers, unless it interferes with nap time 😴 
✅ had cruise document become available, including luggage tags
❓ still deciding if I want to order custom shirts and magnets for us to wear and decorate our door

Thank you! The cruise has been a nice distraction from the surgery and recovery.