IRMO12HD

64 Days!!!

The saga continued -- and soon to be concluded! Back to Day 2 (remember, I was going to tell you how I watched "the Game" -- Sweet 16 game between UCLA and Gonzaga). I wore my Gonzaga BB tee shirt under my Dress Your Best blouse and jacket because I didn't want to jinx the Zags, and I didn't know if I'd have time after dinner in the MDR to run up and change before watching the game in Playmakers. As it happened, I did have time to change, and rapidly found out that when there's a family reunion group (from California, as it happened) in front of the big screen TV in Playmakers, it's not the best venue for game watching. I managed to put up with people standing up in front of me for selfies, little kids running around, and loud conversation for the first half, and then decided to watch in my cabin where I could relax, put my feet up on the bed, and change the trajectory of the game (well, maybe not the last one, but figured it was worth a try, as the Zags were down at the half). So I grabbed two glasses of wine from the Star Lounge, and headed up to watch the second half. Good thing . . . it worked! After that, it was time for bed! And then, on to Day 3, and Cabo. I slept in, got some coffee, and realized that I'd have to wait for breakfast as the MDR was serving brunch because it was a port day. We weren't due in to Cabo until noon, and I didn't feel like joining the lines for tender tickets, so took my time, and ended up with Tender Ticket #39. I realized that I probably wouldn't be off the ship until 2 or 2:30, so had a leisurely brunch, and tried to figure out the afternoon's schedule with my daughter. Since she was staying at a resort about halfway to San Jose del Cabo, we resolved to just meet at The Office about 3:00. I convinced myself that I could figure out the water taxis (I couldn't, as it turned out), and leapt off the tender -- welp, just going to hoof it. My map on my phone showed it was about 1/2 mile away. Obviously that distance was as the fish (or water taxi) swam, because I walked all the way around the marina, and then realized my map wasn't updating my position (new phone SIM card, setting changes not made so not enough data). After about a 1.3 mile walk, I was there. Sucked down a margarita, had some nachos with my daughter and her friends, and decided it was time to catch a water taxi back to the pier. Umm -- guess what?? The water taxis stop running at 5:00 p.m., and it was 5:02. Despite the best efforts of the maitre d' and our waiter, we were unable to get any of the water taxis to come back and pick me up -- so we called an Uber. A grand total of $2.00 (plus a $1.00) tip to get me back to the tender dock, and I was on my way. So, lessons learned from Days 2 and 3: 1. If you want to watch a game and be able to hear and enjoy it, probably avoid Playmakers. If you're there for the party and the excitement, by all means find a chair and grab a beer and some onion rings. 1.a. If the game is on the TV in Playmakers, you'll probably be able to watch it in your cabin. 2. Port days have brunch in the MDR, not breakfast, so plan your meal consumption accordingly 3. If you want to get on an early tender in Cabo (BTW, we were the only ship in port!), get in line early! 4. If you have AT&T and you don't see data like you should, check your cellular settings. Oh, and you need data in order for the Uber app to work 5. Water taxis from the Office and its surrounding beaches stop at 5 p.m. And traffic at that time of day is pretty gnarly for getting back to the Tender pier. My Sweet Sixteen viewing venue:

My Beach Blast spiked milkshake:

I'm baaackk! Just to try and finish up my 2-week late live blog! Continuing to reverse engineer, we turn to Day #6 - Disembarkation. I woke up early because I wanted to see us come in through the harbor. Missed the first part of it, but rapidly figured out two things by watching the Bridge cam view and the "On The Map;": 1. We were BACKING in! OK, I should have figured that, but it was kind of amusing that I came to the realization by watching the Bridge Cam, my VB screen, and the map. The joys of an Interior VB. 2. We were pretty much right on time; ended up docking at about 6:45 a.m.. I know this because that was the time on my photo. The time/date stamp is proving to be an invaluable tool for me in terms of reconstructing my (not-so) Live Blog Since I'd have to lug my suitcase off the ship (even though it was just a little carryon), I had put it out in the hall the night before, but had signed up for Self Assist too! I had booked the RCL Airport Transfer ($35) because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get to LAX in time for my 12:50 flight (having NO idea whether or not roads, bus/Uber traffic, crowds at LAX, etc. would impact me). As it turned out, I was glad I did. I still had a nice breakfast in the MDR, got back up to my cabin and grabbed my backpack, purse, and "personal bag," and headed to the Royal Theater at my appointed time (8:00). This was definitely the way to go, as I was able to walk out the exit doors onto the Promenade, hang a right, and walk right off the ship. Found my bag right away (thanks to its beautiful Dusty Rose color), walked through the line, smiled (well, no, just looked at) the camera, and was on my way out the door. Total time: probably about 8 minutes. One thing that I did note on my survey was that there were NO signs to let people know where to go to get to the RCL Transfer bus. After about 30 seconds of scanning around me, I asked a Security Guard, who pointed to the right, down near the end of the "tent," and asked me to make sure I walked in the walkway and use the crosswalk close to the buses. So this (below) is what this area looks like with no one around; it's a little more obscured and confusing when there are about 100 bodies milling around. But, I found the bus, and the RCL rep, who checked me in, directed me to the attention of the bus driver, who asked me my airline and stowed my (little!) suitcase in the appropriate luggage compartment of the bus. I climbed aboard, sat on the left side JUST IN CASE (ha-ha!) I could see the ocean on the way up to LAX, and relaxed. We pulled out at 8:25 (remember those date/time stamps??!!), and pulled into Terminal 6 (Alaska Airlines) at about 9:20. Here's a picture of the check-in area: After about a 3 minute wait in the TSA Pre-check line, I breezed through Security and was on my way to the Alaska Lounge. Aaah, the life. Some notes on debarkation: 1. Putting my bag out the night before didn't really slow me down, but I can see how if there were multiple people with multiple bags, it might. 2. If you don't see something you need (like a bus stop sign) make sure you ask right away. 3. As a single traveler, the RCL Transfer to LAX made a lot of sense. An Uber was going to be a minimum of $45 (I checked), a Lyft was going to be about the same, and it was just me to shoulder the cost. If I had been with a couple of other people, obviously Ride Share would have been more economical. Lyfts and Ubers CAN take you directly to your terminal; they just can't pick you up from there (you have to go to the LAX-it lot). 4. The MDR was a great choice for my disembarkation breakfast -- oh, and I did get a latte + Bailey's on my Diamond voucher at about 6:45 that morning -- no line,either

@JNichols, I found that later in the day, and at sunset, other people had found and were using "my" private balcony. Invariably, though, it was vacant and ready for me to use first thing in the morning. There's one on each side of the ship. On your VB screen, I would recommend getting your steward to demonstrate the use of the remote (and the fact that it actually works -- as I indicated, I really think my remote's issue was batteries and that they were replaced). IT kept on insisting that the camera feed was working, even though I told them repeatedly (on the phone) that it couldn't be, because if the Bridge Cam had enough light to show its feed, then the VB camera also had to have enough light. I was not happy with their insistence that "the problem is on the other end."

@Ampurp85Were you able to see the (computer-generated) image of the railing on the screen, or was it completely blank? I wasn't able to shut off the VB until (I'm convinced it was the batteries, but . . .) Analiz, my cabin steward, showed me where to aim the remote (on mine it was the bottom right corner)

@FireFishIII've used Duolingo so far to learn or review Danish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Latin. I've used it for just under a year, and really enjoy it. My language choices are kind of eclectic; some I''ve had some formal schooling in, some I've learned "on the job" so to speak, and some are brand new to me. I wanted to: (1) learn Danish for my September 2022 Transatlantic (Copenhagen-Boston) It helped quite a bit in terms of understanding signs and instructions; I did also try to speak it and the Danes were (to their credit!) very kind and understanding and even appreciative of my efforts. (2) review and reinforce my familiarity with and use of German and French (French especially as I'm in the process of planning a joint Mother-Daughter trip to France in the fall with my daughter and her best friend/best friend's mom -- I'll be the only one on the trip with knowledge of the French language (3) learn Spanish in time for this cruise -- again helpful in terms of signs, but I didn't try to speak it except in very limited situations)

More details in my (not so-) Live Blog, but here are some quick observations on my questions posed in my March 8 post: Do all of the Virtual Balconies have the same feed camera(s) and where are they/is it? There are two cameras per Captain James: one on either side of the Bridge. The Bridge camera that’s on the TV is smack dab in the middle. 2. Which adult milkshake at Johnny Rockets will be my favorite? I only had the Beach Blast (Captain Morgan, strawberry and banana, and soft ice cream). It was really good. Next cruise I’ll try the Orange Dreamsicle! 3. What are my top two favorite places for people watching on (or above!) the Royal Promenade? Oh, and can I actually eat an Onion Ring tower at Playmakers in one sitting, or do I need to bring a ziploc bag so I can have the remainder for a midnight snack (and yes, I'll eat them cold :-)) Although I often sit by the stairway to the Casino, I really don’t like it because of the smoke. I guess at this point it would be in front of the pub. The tall chairs in front of Playmakers aren’t very comfortable.

Edit for Day 5 — ultra sob reason — got back up to the cabin after posting and started to get my kayaking excursion stuff together (go pro + harness, change of clothes, zip lock bags — oh the phone message light is blinking? Maybe IT has new revelations about the VBscreen?). Sooo I press the message button and learn that as of 8:30, my excursion is canceled (huge sobbing face emoji here)! I guess the only bright side was that I didn’t walk into town right after breakfast as I had planned — because I wouldn’t have found out until I tried to join the non-existent line on the pier. (I encountered a couple of folks on the pier at about 11:40 who apparently hadn’t seen the message light on their phones). Given the small ( like maybe 20?) size of this excursion, I think the Shore Excursion staff could have exercised more effort in reaching out to the affected passengers besides just leaving a message on the phone. The couple I encountered didn’t even notice they had a phone in their cabin! I walked over to the Riviera del Pacifico and wandered around for a bit, dodging the various tour groups, and then came back to the ship. Upon seeing the hot tubs and pool in the Solarium packed with bodies, I retreated to the 13th deck sun deck, found a vacant covered bed, and read and practiced Duolingo. At least I got some exercise — I had to, because I treated myself to one of those “adult” spiked milkshakes! The Beach Blast, with Captain Morgan, banana and strawberry mix, and ice cream - it was very good, but it tasted like some more, so I had to leave the ship before temptation overtook willpower;-)

Day 4 First move this morning was to the Solarium hot tub at about where I again encountered my “tubmates” from Alaska, who were discussing the -20 temperatures they had left behind. Made the hot tub temperature seem even higher, and my sore leg muscles from yesterday’s treks were delighted! Then back to the cabin for a shower and get ready for the day. VB screen is still blank (except for the simulated balcony railing) so called Maintenance who said thy would check it. Off to breakfast in the MDR, where I’m welcomed with smiles and a window side 2 top - so nice! Sea day today, and it’s lived up to its name — lots of sea, and running high! A fair amount of wind, too, and not very warm, so most people are staying inside. Went to the Captain’s Corner with Captain James and CD Thiago. Really well done, although kind of sparsely attended. Got a nice fact sheet on Navigator which was very informative. Captain James is a great communicator and is very engaging. So, on to Sob reason #2: I decided to watch the GU-UConn elite 8 game in my cabin; listened to some of the radio broadcast during dinner (my AirPods were hidden by my hair, and I was careful not to outwardly react to what I was hearing.). Dinner was Mixed salad and arancini for appetizers, and New York Strip with baked potato and roast vegetables (broccoli and carrot slices). I asked for Medium — and I got Medium! The baked potato was perfect, and the broccoli, although I didn’t get any “roasted” impression, was nicely done without being soggy. BTW, I don’t eat cooked carrots if I can avoid it, and this time was no exception. So, I made a happy plate with just two carrot slices and a little strip of fat from the steak left on it. No dessert, as I had plans. On the way back up to the cabin, I grabbed a little slice of cake and two coconut cookies from Cafe Promenade, and two glasses of wine (to last the rest of the evening, I thought). OK, ready for the rest of the game! Well, no, I wasn’t ready for THAT outcome. At its conclusion, I turned off the TV and just kind of vegged for a while. Figured I would go to the Production show, and JUST as I reach deck 5, there’s an announcement that due to technical difficulties on the stage, the show will be postponed until Day 5. So there are hundreds of sad people around me now. Time for a Kraken and Coke, and a retreat to my cabin to work on language skills with Duolingo and vocabulary skills with Wordscapes. Oh, and did I mention that my VB screen is frozen once again? Tomorrow, Ensenada, where I can kayak my cares away! One piece of good news is that it should reach high tide right around the time we’ll be near La Bufadora (2 pm), so the water “geyser” should reach pretty good heights!

Day 2 (continued — and on to) Day 3: Yeah, no (now there’s an oxymoron for you!). I will try to right this sinking blog by reverse blogging - to bring me back to where I was two days ago;-) TODAY is Day 5 (sob reason #1). We are now heading through the Ensenada harbor towards our berth which will be catty-corner (as usual) to the Carnival ship which is already there. Personally I prefer our berth as the VB camera points out towards sea and the upper decks have a great view of Ensenada. My long-awaited kayak excursion to La Bufadora doesn’t leave until noon (it’s now 8:09 a.m.) so I’m having a leisurely breakfast in the MDR. I woke up about 6 am to see that my VB screen stil had no live image. I checked the Bridge cam on the TV, and sure enough, it was morning outside! Since this is the second morning this has happened (I called “Maintenance” yesterday morning about it, and by the time I got back from breakfast, it was “fixed,” so I assumed they had been by), I checked in at Guest Services, who said they would contact IT. Of course, by the time I got back from watching the sunrise, it was working again. That is just the way things work! Then IT called me; I tried to describe the recurring “outages” and they insisted it was because it was too dark for the camera feed to work. To make a longer story shorter, I will note what time it goes “off” tonight, and what time it comes back on tomorrow morning, and note it on my survey. I really like the Virtual Balcony cabins, and that live view is an integral part of the experience. Breakfast pix!

Day 2 (continued — and on to) Day 3: After breakfast ( I tried to be good; oatmeal and fresh fruit plate; the pineapple was especially delicious), I went to Next Cruise to gather ideas for, well, a next next cruise, and then to the top tier event. Over 3900 passengers, about 25% of whom have C&A status: Gold 643 Platinum 117 Emerald 67 Diamond 111 Diamond+ 39 Pinnacle 13 After a pretty speedy lunch in the MDR of lamb pitas, I watched the Flow Rider for a while, figured out how to incorporate my Sweet 16 watching clothing into French Night/Dress Your Best, and went to dinner at my newly-assigned 2-top. More on “The Game” and how I watched it later!

By “ the front” I mean towards the bow. There are exit doors right beside the access doors to the elevators. Anyway, I then surveyed the pool area — no chair hogs yet! That could be related to the air temperature, I guess. went for a mile walk (8 laps of the track), and then headed to the Windjammer for a cup of coffee. Ok, now I’m awake enough to realize I’m hungry, so I head to quiet spot #2 — breakfast in thé MDR!

Day 2: I began the day looking at my virtual balcony and realizing it was morning! A quick look at my phone confirmed that I had scant minutes to dress and run up to Deck 11 to catch the sunrise — so I crawled back under the covers and started planning my next moves! I decided to seek out some quiet spots today. There are a LOT of kids on this sailing and the decks seem to be overrun (literally) with tiny running feet. the first spot was beside the front of the Solarium — like my own private balcony, minus the lounger.

My dinner plans worked perfectly, at least in terms of timing. I was first at my table and the wait staff brought my two crab cakes right away. Delightfully warm and crispy. I was just starting on the second one when two of my table mates came in and sat down. I explained that I would be eating and running due to the Izumi reservation and they declared they wanted to do the same(I had been at the entrance to the MDR when they opened the doors at 5:15, so had a head start). I still had about 20 minutes to kill, so did the little art gallery scavenger hunt and then headed up to Deck 14 for Izumi. Great window side 2-top and such great food! Started with the edamame and then had the tofu-ginger salad (it’s pretty large!), the spicy crispy shrimp roll, the champagne lobster roll and matcha ice cream for dessert. True, the rolls were only 4 pieces each, but I definitely had enough to eat! After Izumi, I headed down to Studio B and had an amazing view from the second row back on the short side of the rink, two seats in, so I had a great view of both the ice and the cast members’ entrance. Then bed!

Onboard and working on drink #1 — no cream available at Schooner Bar for a Mudslide so l “settled” for a Kraken and Coke! I walked my suitcase over at about 8:45; had to wait until about 9 to find a porter to take it off my hands, then walked back to the hotel for a shower, fresh Keurig coffee and a scone, and charging my phone. Walked back over at about 10:15 and hit my 10:30 checkin time on the nose;-). Queuing for the initial passage in to the Security tent was a little kluge-y, as there were actually three lines set up in the tent but nothing to indicate you could use any of the three. After crawling under the ropes two times -getting snagged once on my backpack! — I found one that was relatively clear and showed my boarding pass to get ito the queue leading into Security. THEN, of course, the X-ray machine in my line decided to give up the ghost just as I put my stuff on the loading counter; as I mentioned, flexibility is key — and an extra dose of patience helps as well. i made a beeline fore Shore Excursions to enter my request for a single kayak in Ensenada, and then went to the MDR to check on my table. I put in a request for a 2-top, but am not optimistic. My “assigned” table is a 6-top by a wall on the 4th deck, which sounds like a “fill-in-a-family” size scenario which I’m not too wild about. We’ll see. Lunch was a chicken burrito and a chicken taco at El Loco Fresh — no line, and the burrito was obviously freshly made. I was trying to find a 110 v outlet to charge my phone — no luck in the Star Lounge or Schooner Bar or R Bar — so it’s on my mini battery pack for now. BTW, I have found several UK 220 v outlets in Schooner and in the R Bar. Next up — my plans for dinner with appetizer in the MDR and then dinner in Izumi!

Just a wake-up to go! Lesson #1: definitely keep a rain jacket easily accessible (even though it “never rains in California” - because it actually does! Had a really nice dinner at San Pedro Brewing Company; very reasonable and delicious.

My carryon is the Travelpro maxlite 5 International size. It’s soft side but has great internal support. I think they come in a light purple (violet) and have an awesome warranty

My “Lounge view” this morning. That’s the Olympic Mountains off in the distance!

The entertainment has been updated in the app. Ice Show on Days 1 and 3 at 7 and 9:15 pm. “Showgirl” production show is on Day 4 at 7 and 9:15

Almost there! Carryon only achieved! I have to say, joining Alaska’s Lounge last year has worked really well for me. I got the membership last year because we had a huge long layover in Seattle, and it has been so worth the $350 for the year. Its hours, its people, its facilities and its menus (both food and bar) are incredible. Flew into Seattle yesterday afternoon, took the train into downtown, met my daughter and spent last night with her. She brought me down to SeaTac about 6 am, made it through security and up here enjoying breakfast by 7 am! This will be my 6th time using it, and I have 8 months and three more trips to go! It does make it much easier (and comfortable) to travel with planned (or unplanned!) layovers.

With three (3) days to go (really 2 days and a wake-up!), I have finished: 1. packing (had to wait and see if my team (Go Zags!) made it to the Sweet 16 (they did, for the 8th straight year), so I could add all of my Gonzaga gear to my suitcase (didn't want to jinx them) 2. checking in for my first flight (it's never direct from Eastern Washington to anywhere -- except Seattle, Denver, SLC or Vegas) 3. eating up all of the leftovers in the refrigerator that I know my better half won't touch 4. finishing up the chores (well, most of them) that I wanted to get done before I left. On to planning my first day on the ship: 1. Figure out where my table is in the MDR 2. Checking with Shore Excursions about my preference for a single kayak in Ensenada 3. Signing up for reservations on the app for the Ice Show 4. Locating and consuming my first Diamond drink of the day :-). Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what it will be (or should be)?

Thanks for being a donor, @FireFishII! I, too, hope you never need my donations, but I'm honored to be able to donate. I find platelet donation to be much easier to tolerate than whole blood ever was; sitting in a reclining chair for 2 hours watching TV/Netflix, and getting almost all of my fluids back really helps. Is the Double Reds a one way (as in just blood out) donation?

You could try looking at the Cruise Compasses for Navigator to get an idea. I would imagine that the Ice Show will be at 7 and 9 pm. on Day 2. On my 4-Night in December 2021, the Ice Show was on the first night, but our first stop on that itinerary was Catalina Island on Day 3, so we were just tooling around for the night as opposed to actually going somewhere at speed. We had the production show on the second night, at 8 and 10:15 pm. I don't think we'll be able to pre-reserve; I think that's just on the Oasis class ships. Keep checking though!

It's the Ides of March today, and only 7 days left until we set sail! I'm finishing up a bunch of appointments this week, including one on Saint Paddy's Day for platelet donation. It's something I do about every two weeks, and it means a lot to me. I'll be bringing/wearing several of my ARC Platelet Donor shirts (and hats) on this cruise, hoping to raise awareness of it. I spent this morning helping with the annual spring cleaning of our local pride and joy - an antique carousel. Here's a picture of it, with my two tasks represented in the cleaning of the railing around the carousel, and the application of wood preservative/protectant applied to the "platter." I've decided to go the carry on route -- although I'll probably check my suitcase to go on the ship so I don't have to lug it around. Next step (probably tomorrow) -- clothing layout time so I know what goes where.