emfagan

Day 11 - Sea Day
This morning I took in the sunrise from deck 15.











Our progress...

Final Thoughts
Two things I haven't commented on yet are crowds and crew.  
We've been on the largest ships including Symphony and Allure and my smallest was Grandeur (but that was awhile ago, so don't have fresh memories of it), and recently, the mid size ships of Voyager class including Adventure.  During our Adventure cruise, DH kept commenting "the ship must not be full" as nothing ever felt crowded.  At one of his comments, the crew member overheard and said "it's a fully booked ship".  Adventure isn't huge, and there isn't a ton going on at once compared with Symphony, but we had no crowd issues which was great.  The first night, even though there was only one showing of the welcome show, the theater was half empty.  I think that's because it was an awkward time of 7:15pm so people were probably still at dinner or unpacking.  But even going forward, we never had an issue getting a good seat.  
On our Grand Cayman day, you could just go to the tender if you were within the first hour, or after that you had to get a ticket that would assign you a time to get off.  We managed to make the first hour so can't comment on how the ticket system worked.
Now having said all that, I never found it that crowded on Symphony as there was just so much to do, that it spread the people around at different events and venues.  But DH isn't a crowd person so he noticed the difference.
As for the crew, they were great. Our room steward was very friendly, always saying hello when she saw us in the hallways.  I'm impressed that she make the effort to remember our names as I imagine the she has many cabins that they look after.  
We really liked our waiters at dinner.  They were a bit quiet and no magic tricks for us without our kids (ha ha), but they always had a smile and were attentive.  One night DH asked for "a" roll without seeds, and from then on, every night, our main waiter left him an additional basket of about 6 super fresh plain rolls.  And he's always smiled and said hello when we saw him in the MDR at breakfast. It's those simple things that mean a lot.
We found our CD Drew Devine pretty good.  He was funny and introduced the shows well.  DH managed to chat with him briefly after one of the shows and the top tier and he was pretty personable.  And he is from Toronto so he automatically gets a point from us!  But one thing I find different these days, is that aside from the evening shows or the Top Tier event, you don't see the CD around.  I'm pretty sure you used to see them around the ship during the day too (or maybe I'm thinking of Love Boat episodes...lol)
Rating
I will start by saying that every cruise I have been on, has been amazing.  I really love them all and really have no bad comments.  Also, when we select a ship, the criteria is different if it's just DH and I going vs our kids.  For example, Dh and I both want to try Brilliance some day, but we'd never take our kids on that one.  We stick to the newer ships or the amped ones with lots of amenities when it's the four of us.
DH comments that "Voyager class is his sweet spot".  It's not too big, not to small (and thus, he loved the lack of crowds).  His favorite ship is Mariner, but I think Adventure is way up there too.
I really enjoyed Adventure too.  If you are in the dining room, and want to go to say the theater or Imperial Lounge or Starbucks (did I mention that you can get cappacino with Baileys?  ...lol), it took no time at all.  One of my favorite activities is to walk around deck 4...up to 5 to the front....and then back down to 4 to complete the lap.  I love that feeling just watching the water, or even looking at all sides of the port we are in.  A lap on Adventure only take a few minutes.
But for me...my very favorites are still the mega ships with Symphony being my favorite.  You can't beat the amenities, the shows are amazing, and the decor of the newer ships is spectacular with the most beautiful and creative and fun art work all around.  
So my current rating so far is:
Symphony Allure Independence Navigator Mariner Adventure Voyager Grandeur Can't wait to try Anthem in March.  Will see where it rates.
We also have Harmony and Oasis booked so looking forward to trying to too!  And another Freedom class as well.  I really love the variety of ships that Royal offers.

So excited for an Adventure blog as we are going on a 9 night in May!  Have a fantastic time!

We love Columbus Cove as it is more low-key and relaxed!

So, a miracle occurred.  Our food tour was supposed to start at 10AM.  By 9:50, everyone was accounted for and we started early instead of standing around baking in the sun waiting for stragglers.  Good job, shipmates!  Off to an excellent start.
Our driver would be Serge (funny and informative guy), and our tour guide would be Ankie — a self-professed 55 year old hippie who sold her bar in the Netherlands 11 years ago and moved to Dutch St. Maarten.  Even more funny and informative than Serge.  Both were great.
Our first stop this morning was the Amsterdam Cheese Store.  Cool.  I do cheese.  We turned left out of the port, drove like 100 yards, and pulled into the parking lot of the Amsterdam Cheese & Liquor Store after an arduous 30 second trek.  Hrm.  Eyebrow goes up.  I’m game though.

Inside, the 15 of us were ushered to a corner of the store with a display table made from a Dutch merchant’s bike, where TJ (with the assistance of a volunteer passenger) would be taking us on a little Dutch Gouda tour.
We started off with with introductions, a glass of champagne, and passed around some toothpick cheeses as TJ described them to us.  First was a young cow’s milk Gouda (~6mo) followed by young sheep’s milk Gouda, a pesto Gouda, and finished with a ~2 year aged Gouda).  All were tasty.  The pesto Gouda also got an eyebrow raise from me, but it was a nice surprise with a balanced amount of basil to it.  It was dark green, which 6 year old me loved.
The 2nd half of this 30 minute stop would be the passenger-assisted preparation of a pasta dish using 3 of the cheeses we’d tried.  TJ brought out a couple of casserole dishes with cooked bow tie pasta in them.  That was seasoned with a little Italian seasoning, black pepper, and then each of the cheeses was laid out in a stripe across the top so we could taste the pasta with each individually.

Into the oven the casseroles went.  While they were getting all melty, TJ gave us a little more background on the cheeses we had tasted.  The casseroles came back 10 minutes later (someone has a combi oven back there), had fresh cherry tomatoes added on top, and we each got about a 1/2 cup serving of each.  Not gonna lie.  It was good.  After that we got a few minutes to look around the shop (oddly enough, great selection of Dutch cheeses, treats, and booze).  Then back to air-conditioned bus bliss.
Our next stop, Zafiro Beach Bar & Restaurant, was also on the Dutch side of the island, about 20 minutes distant and maybe 200’ off of the south side of the runway at Princess Julianna Airport.  To get to and from it, we’d cross the famous stretch of Maho “Beach” that people adore getting a sandblast facial from jets on.  Having been tempted to visit this spot myself, I can now tell you I am thrilled to have seen it from a bus on the way/from a good meal.  It was packed.  The “beach” portion is a tiny slip of a thing, while the rest of the shoreline is made up of the artificial locking blocks folks use to protect harbors from pounding waves and invading Germans.  The rest is just less-invasion-proofing boulders.

This would be our main meal on the tour.  Creole chicken with plantains and a rum punch.  The pic doesn’t make it look very pretty, but it was excellent.

Nice view of the beach from the restaurant.

And, for those who may regret not getting the direct jet BJ along the Maho Beach fence, the restaurant has an observation deck nearby where you can watch airplanes approach and land without mussing up your hair or being blown out to sea.

Next stop: The aptly named Carousel for a gelato making demonstration (by the owner), a tasting of said made gelato, then two scoops of whatever you wanted from the regular counter outside of the “lab.”  Then, well, get on the damn carousel at Carousel, you cad.



Escorted off the property by an iguana.

10 minute ride back to the port with a little more narrated history.  Tour ran like clockwork.  Out of the coach at exactly 2PM.

I can see why this tour is 5-starred to death on TripAdvisor.  Fun & tasty with a nice side dish of history.

Cruise Summary
This was a bucket list cruise for me and I am so glad I did it.  Like my first time to Alaska I suspect this may be repeated in the future.  
The newer O3b internet platform worked great over the length of the cruise.  
Ovation of the Seas once again did not disappoint.  
The sea days flew past and the three port days in a row including an overnight stop made the rest of cruise very enjoyable.  Debarking in Honolulu was a breeze.  I'm glad we had a day in Seattle to visit as a port of call and not simply as an embarkation/debarkation city.
Cruising to Hawaii is very different compared to cruising in the Caribbean, in a very good way.  The ports are very interesting with a lot to choose from.
I picked my excursions carefully and watched some of them fill up and become unavailable so I'm glad I booked them when I did and saved quite a bit of money by watching for sales as the months went by.  
The tendering process was mostly a pretty good experience other than that one night coming back late when there was a wait.  Still it was quite impressive to see them perform such a large tendering operation as efficiently as they did.
I'm torn between picking a smaller ship next time to Hawaii to gain a few more ports that only smaller ships can visit or repeat on Ovation.     
I wish I could have stayed on for the next cruise to Sydney but that will have to wait for another year.  
I hope you enjoyed following along and I thank you for viewing.

Nor for our roughly four hours at the Na Pali Coast.
Approaching Kauai and the first land we've seen in almost 6 days.












As noted above the Captain spun the ship in a 360° turn so that both sides we able to see the coast.



It's hard to capture in pictures or words so I'll just dump a bunch of photos in here and try through pictures.




















With that it was time to sail on and away toward Maui.

Top tier event after we left the Na Pali coast.
Platinum 477, Emerald 315, Diamond 700, Diamond Plus 415, 40 Pinnacle.
 

My favorite drink is  Miami Vice 

Cabin
Another story here….
After our Anthem of the Seas cruise in 2018, my wife, now unashamedly, is a suite snob. Frankly, I whole heartedly support this as well. So, when we booked this cruise, we booked a grand suite. The price was decent, done. The Owners suites were more than what we wanted to spend, and the 1 Royal Suite was WAY more. After the cruise was booked, I kept an eye on prices, made some adjustments here or there and the waiting game began. We thought, who knows, maybe we can try to see what could happen with a Royal Up bid
A few months ago, while doing a routine price check, I see a 2br grand suite is now available. A quick phone call to Royal, and we are now sailing in a 2br grand suite for about the same price as what we booked the cruise for originally.
A few weeks ago, we did get the Royal Up email. We had the option for an Owners Suite or the Royal Suite. We bid on the Royal Suite, but I’m not going to hold my breath since looking now, all the suites are sold out.
Pre-Cruise
Like I said, we are flying in a few days early. Friday 9/20 we are flying into FLL. Southwest flights were much cheaper and had more convenient times than flying to MIA. So, the plan is we will rent a car to use for the couple days prior to be able to explore around etc without a ton of Uber/Lyft charges. Embarkation day I will drop the family off at the port around 10, bring the car back to MIA and take the enterprise shuttle back to the port. I looked at dropping off at other locations near the port, but this was the most cost effective.
We are staying at the Gates Hotel South Beach. We picked this hotel due to its proximity to south beach and Heather wanted direct beach access without having to pay a super-premium price. She is a Hilton member through her job, so that also narrows the choices. This hotel also includes its own area for chairs and other activities too on the beach.
Post Cruise
This is where it also gets fun. After disembarkation, we will be taking the shuttle to MIA for another rental car which we will drive to Orlando with. Friday evening, we have tickets to Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s No So Spooky Halloween Party. Heather is a huge Disney fan and is really looking forward to this. Much to my dismay, she has us all wearing Hocus Pocus themed shirts for that night….yay…
Saturday, we have tickets to Universal Studios. Gotta check out the new Hagrid Ride…. And again, we have matching themed shirts. At least this time, they are Hogwarts/Harry Potter ones.
Sunday, we head home.
The Surprise
Like I said earlier, this whole trip will be a surprise for the kids. The plan to make this work is that we will be packing in secret. We will drop the kids off at school on Friday, then load up the car. We will pick the kids up at dismissal at school and go straight to the airport. At this point, We will let them in on a little bit of the surprise, which will be we are just going to Florida and will be on the beach. On cruise day, we will pack up the car and say we are headed to another hotel, but not tell them that the hotel is the cruise ship.
This is going to be so much fun. I plan on writing about our experiences at Disney and Universal as well so grab the popcorn and wine, its going to be a wild ride and thanks for following along!

So, a while ago, while roaming the internet, I stumbled across this awesome list of which activities were on which ships throughout the Royal Caribbean fleet. It was perfect! Maybe I lost it, maybe it was taken down, but I couldn't find it any longer. So I set out to make my own. After going through every deck of every Royal Caribbean ship's deck plans, I noted everything I could find onboard. Bars, dining, entertainment, I listed it all. Here is the result:

View in full screen
 
I find it incredibly useful and I thought that I'd put it here because you all might like to use it too. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. 
Disclaimers:
This is my own creation and all information used is from https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/deck-plans  (unless otherwise referenced) Therefore, there may be certain inaccuracies because of either certain things missing on the deck plans, or me missing something out If this is the case, please feel free to let me know and I will update it to reflect these. As said, I have not been on all these ships so do not have first hand experience for all these venues and activities, so please do let me know of any errors I may have made. It is quite large so it may take a moment to load, and you will need to zoom out. I intend to update it as new ships debut, or as ships get refurbished/amplified so it is hopefully always an up to date reference point. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

Understanding the cancellation decision, best of luck in braving the storm...prayers for all of those impacted!

Check out @twangster's live blog for great insights  https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/12630-ovation-goes-north-way-north-to-alaska-11-nights-may-13-2019/

There is a lot going on around the ship but I'll be back soon enough so I'm not doing the ship's entertainment staff justice.  I'll post the Cruise Compasses once I get home to scan them in properly.
Outside for a walk on the Promenade deck there were a lot of stars visible.  That made me pull out my night sky photography app and see where the Milky Way might be tonight. Sure enough...
Majesty has these shelves along the forward section of the Promenade deck that worked great for my little tripod.

While we were well past sunset the long exposure catches enough light coming over the horizon to make it look like a sunset.  The lights of a city were on the horizon to starboard.
The big dipper was very prominent tonight.  It stood out more with the naked eye compared to this 10 second exposure.

In this one I caught a passing airplane with it's strobe light flashing every second.

For this one I setup on the floor of the deck trying to get into the shade of those Windjammer lights.  In the darkness of the forward deck I got some strange looks as random guests walking past were wondering what I was doing crouched down low in the dark.  Oh well, all in the name of taking a picture.

All in all not bad.  Majesty like Empress is also a good ship for stargazing with it's dark forward Promenade deck.

We went up to the pool deck and got him some Johnny Rockets for a snack.  Then it was time for bed.  We were all excited for the next day because our lil guy would finally get to do his dolphin encounter. ?
 

Your son is adorable!

Walking back to the ship I just had to capture it with some water blur effect and the nearly full moon.

It was too early to go back on board so with several hours until all aboard time I wanted to go back to Paseo de la Princesa.




I always enjoy stops that include the ability to take pictures of the ship at night so I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste.


Time to head back on board.

I think Sheri is terrific because not only is she someone that enjoys cruising, but she is a great supporter of the cruise blogging/whatever Billy does/vlogging community. Hard to find friends like that, and I really appreciate what she's done to support my work here.
On top of that, I actually really enjoy watching her videos too!

Quick update.  
Uber to port had me there just before 10am.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures of terminal G, I’ll post those soon.  
Boarding started at 10:45am.  First on board.  I ran into the Pinnacle doing a B4B who was with me on my B2B.  Julie our Hotel Director saw me and came over to chat greeting me by name.  There will be 12 pinnacles on this sailing.  It’s also the last cruise of her current contract.  Jorge the Guest Services Manager saw me and welcomed me back.  
Right now I’m sitting at the Schooner Bar where Wayan and Roland recognized me and welcomed me back.   
Just like that I feel like I’m home.   

My flight was supposed to be early but with storms in the South Florida area they had us slow down and we landed on time.  Woohoo, my suitcase was the very first bag on the carousel.  
With ample time to spare I took the Tri-Rail from FLL airport down to MIA airport.  I was just going to sit in my hotel room anyways so I figured I'd take the slower but cheaper way to my hotel.  From MIA I picked up the free hotel shuttle to my hotel.
My Tri-Rail timing was pretty good.  A short wait for the bus to the train station.  The train pulled up as I bought my ticket at the station.  
Total cost $3.75.  Uber/Lyft were both just under $50.  
Safely in my hotel near MIA airport I used my savings to pay for a hotel dinner and drinks which make on board ship prices seem like a bargain.

Just returned from Liberty, the work on 08/04/2019 was work on the Hull which was supposed to be finished at 11:30 PM but didnt get wrapped up until 2:30 AM.  We made it to Roatan right on time even with the 10 hour delay.  Ship is operating at full speed (Was doing 22.7 yesterday coming back to Galveston).  
I prefer they fix things thoroughly before leaving port, I dont care how long it takes... :)
Excellent Cruise, will do a writeup in the Blog section soon.

Sights from our visit to South Beach today. Some beach time, a stroll on Ocean Dr., a visit to the Versace Mansion and some amazing food and drink at Taquiza on Collins Avenue.

Here we go.....

Hello!!!! Welcome to my semi-live blog! 
Background:  My hubby and I have saved up our vacation time at work since early 2018(despite unexpected and serious medical issues) to be able to take a consecutive two week + 1 day trip.  Yes...that extra day counts too!!! ?
This trip will be myself, DH and our 9yo son. This is our son’s first trip w/o any of his other siblings. He is a huge fan of cruising just like good ‘ol mom and dad.
The important stuff:  First week we are on Navigator, second week we are on Allure! We fly out of Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow morning, then head to Miami. I feel like we’ve waited forever for this trip. Since March of 2018 to be exact. Our itinerary will be:
8/10  Miami (Intercontinental)
8/11 Miam
8/12 Board Navigator 
8/13 Coco Cay
8/14 Nassau
8/15 Sea Day
8/16 Ft. Lauderdale (Renaissance)
8/17 Ft. Lauderdale
8/18  Board Allure
8/19  Sea Day
8/20  Sea Day
8/21  St. Maarten
8/22  Puerto Rico
8/23  Labadee
8/24  Sea Day
8/25  Hollywood (Margaritaville)
8/26  Fly home ?
We have two excursions booked. We are doing a dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon in the Bahamas and we are doing the Rain Forest Drive in Puerto Rico.  Both excursions are through the ship this go round. 
This will be semi-live because to be honest...I can’t wait to not have phone service for a while.  It’s been a rough year and we desperately need to disconnect. I’ll be live until I lose my phone service and will update on our land days and in Puerto Rico, etc.
 
 
 
 

May 21, 2020 Adventure of the Seas