Mac Lou

Blessings to you as well @bcarney!  I’m glad to have met you and your family too.
I don’t have a family of my own so I sort of enjoy family life vicariously through families around me.  Seeing you with your lovely family, whether it was watching eggs drop from the upper decks or beating the competition at the Boat contest or just simply being together as a family, was always an awesome sight for me on the cruise.  

This day turned out to be “Contests Day” for me. Here is a recap of how I did:
Disney Trivia - 10/15
General Information Trivia - 6/15
Theme Music Trivia - 6/15
Telephone Pictionary - 2nd Place (Two Team Contest)
Bottom Line: I did not win any contest, but I had tons of fun. (Which is what counts, right?)

Back to San Juan
As mentioned, we had a 6pm flight so a day ago we booked the rain Forrest tour with airport transfer. But first, one final meal at the MDR. The food was as good as ever and it was clear how much better breakfast is at the MDR. The French toast was twice as thick, soft and sprinkled with powder sugar. The omelettes were twice as fluffy and the hash browns considably better. 
After a stroll through the promonade to the star lounge for our wait to disembark. Yes there were some lines but getting the luggage and customs went smoothly. 
On to the bus for a 5 hour tour of the rain forest. As always, the tour guide makes or breaks the tour and we got a good one! Hector was informative and funny. The rain forest has rebounded well in just two years since it was heavily deforested from the hurricane. 
Our bags were at the curb as we arrived at the airport. It was a good transition day but no matter how you slice it.... We are no longer on the ship.  
Once back home I will post some final thoughts. Thanks for following along. It's a pleasure posting and I also find it a nice way to keep a journal. 
 
 

Last sea day full of surprised!
Next  Cruise -  warm and windy today on deck so we eased into the day with a Windjammer breakfast and a mid morning visit to Next Cruise. We first booked our traditional January cruise on Allure to the Western Caribbean. It will be our second time on an Oasis class ship and our second back to the Western Caribbean. Then a wave of "that's a whole year away" came over us so we booked four nights to Cuba/Key West via Majesty. The ship and Cuba will both be new. Super excited!
The Art Auction - Say what? We have never stepped into that realm on the ship but with a newly Platinum award of extra raffle tickets in hand off we went. It was a learning experience but very enjoyable.  A glass of champagne, lots of action and also rather informative made it a fun two hours. Most importantly, we learned what art we liked and are coming home with two pieces.  Who knew!!
He last evening - A final MDR led to some time at Olive and Twist which took us to the last production show, Once Upon A Time.  This particular show maybe our favorite non Broadway production on the cruises we have been on. All this led to getting our luggage out with four minutes to spare before the 11pm deadline. 
We have a flight leaving at 6pm tomorrow so yesterday we booked a debarkation day excursion to the rain forest. It's a rather good deal considering we would have to pay for two Ubers and figure where to store our luggage for 10 hours!
Stay tuned for that bounus day recap. In the meantime here are some random thoughts. 
Leaving from San Juan is a weather treat! It's been between 80 and 82 for the entire 7 days. Lows around 75.  - The freestyle coke machines had no lines ever.  Maybe the cruisers were a different make up or the price increase to $10 a day has decreased demand. We stopped buying the soda package because of price. - talking soda machines, even without the chip mug, it was a great place to get water and ice fast. - This trip went fast, really fast. 

Day 3- Sea Day
Had to get up early today as had the all access ship tour at 8am.  Had a quick stop for breakfast in the windjammer.  Saw this cool picture of a watermelon carved with good morning.  

Tatiana was our tour guide and she was awesome. She joked around quite a bit, but was also very informative and answered lots of questions. The tour started in the kitchen galley where they make all the soups and appetizers. 
We then headed to the engine room. The chief engineer was pretty entertaining. Someone asked him what his biggest fear was and he said having to do all access tours lol. 
We then headed to the galley where all the food is stored. It was massive. They have 19 different coolers or freezers for items. I asked about how much their weekly food bill was and he said over $600K. Me being in the restaurant business this part of the tour was interesting. They took us into where they store all the alcohol as well. They said that wasn’t usually included but we were special. Who knows if that was true or not. 
Was interesting to know that Corona is the most popular beer. Guess everyone gets into that Caribbean mode. 
After that it was to the garbage area. It was neat to hear about how they separated everything and what they did with it, but boy did it smell bad. They truly waste nothing. All the food that isn’t eaten gets ground up really fine and dumped to feed the fish. Then it was on to laundry. Probably the coolest part here was seeing the massive machine that dries, irons, and folds everything. Everyone needs one of them at home. 
Then it was on to the bridge. While it was neat to be up there and see the view, I was a little disappointed the captain wasn’t there to talk to us. 
a video was playing of the ship being built. 
I’m not sure why but they wouldn’t let me drive the ship 
Captain Rob and Captain Rick. We had Captain Rick. 
all the plaques from the different ports symphony has been to 
the lookout is looking the wrong direction. Luckily we are in the Caribbean so no icebergs! 
 

Day 2 - Sea Day
since it was a late night we slept in a little. Went to the Windjammer for breakfast. Didn’t get any pictures as it was pretty busy. We then just toured the ship a little. Here is my favorite view and why I love to cruise 
We saw the Aqua show crew getting a workout in. It was amazing to watch how they prepare. They were climbing a rope probably at least 20 feet in a sitting position. 
The girls in our group then decided to do some rock climbing. My aunt at age 55 showed them how it’s done and made it all the way to the top
Great view from the boardwalk
And you can’t tour around the ship without stopping for a little soft serve ice cream!
Then decided to catch some of the Bears game on the big screen in the aqua theater while the wife got ready for dinner. 
Night 2 was formal night so we got dressed up for dinner in the MDR. We had my time dining and booked a 7:30 dinner time. My wife really thought she was something sitting in this big chair waiting for our table
Dinner menu for formal night 1

I decided on the Calamari and the French Onion soup for my appetizer. The Calamari was cold and I didn’t really care for it. The soup was good, but the cheese was a little darker than I like it. You will see a big difference from this picture and one from a dinner later on in the cheese on the soup
I had the beef tenderloin for my main course. However, again I totally forgot about the picture and just started digging in. While I wouldn’t say it was great, it was fine and nothing to really complain about. 
For dessert I went with the Royal Cheesecake again as it is my favorite, and also the peach shortcake. My wife had the carrot cake and the creme brûlée 
Everyone loved all of their desserts. 
After dinner we went and watched hairspray. I’m not really sure what I was expecting with this show, but I wasn’t sure how much I would like it. Well I was wrong. I absolutely loved it, and loved it so much other than this 1 photo at the beginning I never thought to take my phone out and get pictures. 
It was then time for this old guy to get to bed. This was waiting for me in my room

I had the optional surf & turf this evening in the Symphony MDR. It’s a $34.99 up charge. I have had this selection before and I remember a bigger filet & what amounted to a Maine lobster tail & claws stuffed into a 1/2ed lobster shell. What I received this evening was a very skimpy filet and a lobster tail butterflied the size of a shrimp. Not what I remember, especially for $34.99! Do yourself a favor (even if the thought of surf & turf is tempting) and don’t buy this because it’s a waste of $.