IRMO12HD

They took $14 off the price.
The vouchers, not the 50% off. You can always ask. Our waiter had to ask a supervisor and got the ok.

Sergeant Says to his men in the field,  "I have good news and bad news."
First the good news:  "Today after months in the field we get to change our Underwear!"
The Bad news: "Fred, You change with robert." "Karl, You change with Dan....." 

Personal experience is that this fear is mythical.  I’m sure someone somewhere had a bad experience but we use this perk a LOT and have almost universal positive results.  Do I send out my formalwear to be laundered ?  No….but almost everything else is handled without issue….maybe I’m just lucky.

They do a surprisingly great job of keeping track of your things.  In all the years of using the laundry service we have had exactly 1 issue….and it was when we were Star Class !  Dan mysteriously gained a pair of gym shorts while I lost a pair of yoga pants.  Even trade !  Dan absolutely loves those gym shorts - they are his favorite Jammie’s now.  I just hope whoever got the yoga pants enjoys them as much !  Lol  we never even checked our clothes when they came back from the laundry so we didn’t notice the switch until after we were home.
We’ve never had any other issues with the laundry.  I think the w&f laundry perk is the most underrated D+ perk.

Nothing to do with MDR dinners, but I will acknowledge an absolutely awesome dish that I had on OA today.  We went to the MDR for brunch (9-12 on sea days) and I got a bowl of the cream of broccoli soup.  It’s the best thing I’ve eaten in a MDR ever !  Of course, I am partial to creamy soups to begin with (connoisseur of the mushroom soup, as most already know) but truly, the cream of broccoli was really good.  I wish I had ordered 2 bowls and skipped the seafood sandwich, which was “meh”.

HOW COULD I FORGET -- DESSERT???
Here are my favorite desserts -- on longer cruises, I limited myself to one dessert every three days (especially on the Transatlantic!).  However, since this is a 5-night cruise, I'll probably do more stairs and less elevator, and make a concerted effort to go to the Fitness Center at least twice, so all bets are off.  What desserts am I most looking forward to?
1.  Creme Brulee
2. Soft serve ice cream
3.  Adult milkshake at Johnny Rockets (yeah, that will be a dessert 🙂 )
4.  Ranger cookies

Day 3 MDR Dinner - “A Taste of the Caribbean”
We used our BOGOs on day 1 and day 2, so no review of Welcome Aboard or French Night. Sorry!
Appetizers: Crispy Coconut Jumbo Shrimp - while the shrimp were in no way jumbo, they were very tasty. Green Lentil Soup - quite tasty, even though someone forgot to stir the vat of soup and my bowl ended up with about six actual lentils in it!
Mains: Garlic-Herb Buttered Tiger Shrimp - just ok. Needed more garlic, herb, and butter. Pesto Tagliatelle - MomMe declared the dish “weird” and only ate about half of it. Rustic Chicken Korma - excellent, with just a little kick. 
 
Desserts: Carrot Cake - frosting was good but not cream cheese, cake was moist but just a spice cake. Fudge Brownie (vegan) - very very very very sweet. Also weirdly sticky. Caramel sauce was good. 
 
Portion sizes were smaller, which we really appreciate. Servers are still pushing extra items, so if you need or want more you definitely won’t feel bad about it!
 
Coconut Shrimp:

Garlic Shrimp:

Chicken Korma:

Carrot cake:

Brownie:

 

HOW COULD I FORGET -- DESSERT???
Here are my favorite desserts -- on longer cruises, I limited myself to one dessert every three days (especially on the Transatlantic!).  However, since this is a 5-night cruise, I'll probably do more stairs and less elevator, and make a concerted effort to go to the Fitness Center at least twice, so all bets are off.  What desserts am I most looking forward to?
1.  Creme Brulee
2. Soft serve ice cream
3.  Adult milkshake at Johnny Rockets (yeah, that will be a dessert 🙂 )
4.  Ranger cookies

HOW COULD I FORGET -- DESSERT???
Here are my favorite desserts -- on longer cruises, I limited myself to one dessert every three days (especially on the Transatlantic!).  However, since this is a 5-night cruise, I'll probably do more stairs and less elevator, and make a concerted effort to go to the Fitness Center at least twice, so all bets are off.  What desserts am I most looking forward to?
1.  Creme Brulee
2. Soft serve ice cream
3.  Adult milkshake at Johnny Rockets (yeah, that will be a dessert 🙂 )
4.  Ranger cookies

Symphony let us use the Diamond vouchers on a pitcher in Playmakers. The only disappointment is that the draft selection on that ship is abysmal.

Day 2 Shore Excursion - Scarborough, Tobago
We chose “Windward Coast & Little Tobago” as our excursion this day. It was 5 hours, departed at 10:30am, and was listed as moderate activity level.
It was a standard driving tour for the first bit (about an hour and 15 minutes) in a 25 passenger bus. Lots of nice coastal views, passing through lots of small villages. Next was a glass bottom boat ride over to a wildlife sanctuary and nesting site for seabirds. We got the boat at a resort located at the closest point to Little Tobago from regular Tobago. The short ride (15 minutes) was fairly smooth and we could see clearly down to the reefs below. There was a hike on the sanctuary island, with clearly marked trails and a naturalist to answer questions (about 45 minutes). Then back in the glass bottom boat and returning to our bus. On the drive back we stopped at Fort King George for a quick photo. This was not listed on the tour, but was added because we were a bit ahead of schedule (no traffic). Honestly the fort was underwhelming. 
 
I will say, DO NOT choose this trip if you are prone to motion sickness! The road is very, very twisty! This was a rather rigorous “moderate activity” tour. The hike on the little island was steep and pretty hot, and getting in and out of the boat was a little tense. Also, there was no food or snack (even though it was over lunchtime) so plan accordingly. All in all, I was happy with the tour, though. 
 
A few photos:



 
House supposedly built by Ian Fleming:

 
Scruffy Banana Finch:

Red-Footed Boobie, white tail morph:

Red-Billed Tropic Bird, tail feathers missing due to harassment by Frigate Birds:


Caribbean Mockingbird:

Have a great time!

Ready to navigate (see what I did there??) to Diamond +!  This will be my sixth solo cruise, and my last cruise as Diamond.  I've learned a lot from my previous solo cruises (including two different classes of ship (Freedom, Voyager)  three different cabin classes (Promenade View, Virtual Balcony, and Oceanview Balcony), and three different ports of departure (Miami, Los Angeles-San Pedro, and Copenhagen, Denmark).  Oh, and three weeks until departure!  I guess this will be a voyage of threes then.
So I'll divide my blog into three parts:  pre-cruise, embarkation and cruise, debarkation and post cruise.  It fits, right?
Pre-Cruise:
Initially booked:  November 2022.  Always intended this to be a solo cruise with the principal objective of achieving D+.  My other half doesn't particularly enjoy cruising, so I book at least two cruises per year, one of which involves an itinerary that we both will enjoy, and (at least) one that supports my love of cruising and a specific goal or objective.  This is #1 for 2023.
Cabin type: Virtual balcony.  I really like this category of cabin for solo cruising.  A balcony is nice, but on a 5-night itinerary, the view from the screen will suffice.  And the price was right, allowing me to reserve a balcony for our "together" cruise later on this year.
Preparation: coming from the PNW (Pacific North West), I arranged my flights somewhat early on to procure my desired seats.  Reserved a hotel room through the Hopper app, and then kept tabs on rates through different hotel sites and AirBnB.  I'm more than happy with my choices.  Having traveled via Lyft/Uber from LAX to San Pedro, and via public transportation from San Pedro - LAX, I'm open to either means of travel, and will decide once I land and get my bags.  Who knows -- I may even go Carry-on only this time!!!
If you have any questions about my preparation (or any other "phases") of my journey, feel free to post them and I'll strive to answer/reply.

Ready to navigate (see what I did there??) to Diamond +!  This will be my sixth solo cruise, and my last cruise as Diamond.  I've learned a lot from my previous solo cruises (including two different classes of ship (Freedom, Voyager)  three different cabin classes (Promenade View, Virtual Balcony, and Oceanview Balcony), and three different ports of departure (Miami, Los Angeles-San Pedro, and Copenhagen, Denmark).  Oh, and three weeks until departure!  I guess this will be a voyage of threes then.
So I'll divide my blog into three parts:  pre-cruise, embarkation and cruise, debarkation and post cruise.  It fits, right?
Pre-Cruise:
Initially booked:  November 2022.  Always intended this to be a solo cruise with the principal objective of achieving D+.  My other half doesn't particularly enjoy cruising, so I book at least two cruises per year, one of which involves an itinerary that we both will enjoy, and (at least) one that supports my love of cruising and a specific goal or objective.  This is #1 for 2023.
Cabin type: Virtual balcony.  I really like this category of cabin for solo cruising.  A balcony is nice, but on a 5-night itinerary, the view from the screen will suffice.  And the price was right, allowing me to reserve a balcony for our "together" cruise later on this year.
Preparation: coming from the PNW (Pacific North West), I arranged my flights somewhat early on to procure my desired seats.  Reserved a hotel room through the Hopper app, and then kept tabs on rates through different hotel sites and AirBnB.  I'm more than happy with my choices.  Having traveled via Lyft/Uber from LAX to San Pedro, and via public transportation from San Pedro - LAX, I'm open to either means of travel, and will decide once I land and get my bags.  Who knows -- I may even go Carry-on only this time!!!
If you have any questions about my preparation (or any other "phases") of my journey, feel free to post them and I'll strive to answer/reply.

On to food -- with just over two weeks before I board Navigator, I am looking forward to . . .
Salads, salads, salads!  Yum!  My go-to lunch in Windjammer.  Load up with the dark green leafy veggies, add in some protein and some fiber (AKA chicken and chickpeas), a few carbs and then top it off with oil and vinegar.  AND . . . I don’t have to clean, chop, or wash anything.  Life is good. Food, glorious food! 
I purchased one Specialty Dining (Izumi) and have a plan for what I know I will want to sample in the MDR.  Izumi is going to be the first night, but I also love the Maryland Crab Cakes (yes, I know it's not real crabmeat in there!), so I'll plan on visiting my MDR table just long enough to order JUST the appetizer :-).  Then I'll head on up (over?) to Izumi for my main meal.  
That’s it – that’s my meal planning!  After Night 1, the world is my escargot – or something like that.  I’m looking forward to sampling more of the Indian dishes, which is a cuisine that I don’t have much experience with.  I may – just may – have to find someone to share a stack of Playmakers onion rings with, and I’m seriously considering trying an adult milkshake from Johnny Rockets. Any suggestions?
 
 

I think you know this, but you can go to the same URL every day and get a PDF copy of the Cruise Compass digitally that you can save. Just gotta remember to visit the link each day and save it.
https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf (link only works once onboard the ship on the wifi)

I liked the adult orange dreamsicle shake from JR. I believe I used one of my D vouchers for one every day. 

On to food -- with just over two weeks before I board Navigator, I am looking forward to . . .
Salads, salads, salads!  Yum!  My go-to lunch in Windjammer.  Load up with the dark green leafy veggies, add in some protein and some fiber (AKA chicken and chickpeas), a few carbs and then top it off with oil and vinegar.  AND . . . I don’t have to clean, chop, or wash anything.  Life is good. Food, glorious food! 
I purchased one Specialty Dining (Izumi) and have a plan for what I know I will want to sample in the MDR.  Izumi is going to be the first night, but I also love the Maryland Crab Cakes (yes, I know it's not real crabmeat in there!), so I'll plan on visiting my MDR table just long enough to order JUST the appetizer :-).  Then I'll head on up (over?) to Izumi for my main meal.  
That’s it – that’s my meal planning!  After Night 1, the world is my escargot – or something like that.  I’m looking forward to sampling more of the Indian dishes, which is a cuisine that I don’t have much experience with.  I may – just may – have to find someone to share a stack of Playmakers onion rings with, and I’m seriously considering trying an adult milkshake from Johnny Rockets. Any suggestions?
 
 

On to food -- with just over two weeks before I board Navigator, I am looking forward to . . .
Salads, salads, salads!  Yum!  My go-to lunch in Windjammer.  Load up with the dark green leafy veggies, add in some protein and some fiber (AKA chicken and chickpeas), a few carbs and then top it off with oil and vinegar.  AND . . . I don’t have to clean, chop, or wash anything.  Life is good. Food, glorious food! 
I purchased one Specialty Dining (Izumi) and have a plan for what I know I will want to sample in the MDR.  Izumi is going to be the first night, but I also love the Maryland Crab Cakes (yes, I know it's not real crabmeat in there!), so I'll plan on visiting my MDR table just long enough to order JUST the appetizer :-).  Then I'll head on up (over?) to Izumi for my main meal.  
That’s it – that’s my meal planning!  After Night 1, the world is my escargot – or something like that.  I’m looking forward to sampling more of the Indian dishes, which is a cuisine that I don’t have much experience with.  I may – just may – have to find someone to share a stack of Playmakers onion rings with, and I’m seriously considering trying an adult milkshake from Johnny Rockets. Any suggestions?
 
 

On to food -- with just over two weeks before I board Navigator, I am looking forward to . . .
Salads, salads, salads!  Yum!  My go-to lunch in Windjammer.  Load up with the dark green leafy veggies, add in some protein and some fiber (AKA chicken and chickpeas), a few carbs and then top it off with oil and vinegar.  AND . . . I don’t have to clean, chop, or wash anything.  Life is good. Food, glorious food! 
I purchased one Specialty Dining (Izumi) and have a plan for what I know I will want to sample in the MDR.  Izumi is going to be the first night, but I also love the Maryland Crab Cakes (yes, I know it's not real crabmeat in there!), so I'll plan on visiting my MDR table just long enough to order JUST the appetizer :-).  Then I'll head on up (over?) to Izumi for my main meal.  
That’s it – that’s my meal planning!  After Night 1, the world is my escargot – or something like that.  I’m looking forward to sampling more of the Indian dishes, which is a cuisine that I don’t have much experience with.  I may – just may – have to find someone to share a stack of Playmakers onion rings with, and I’m seriously considering trying an adult milkshake from Johnny Rockets. Any suggestions?
 
 

We came home with mostly clean clothes, thanks to Star Class, and I’m ready to give an overview of our trip.
We got to the pier around 10:04 and entered at the suite entrance.  There was no star banner.  Check in took about two minutes.  It was freezing where we all had to sit to wait for boarding.  I found that odd!  Our genie arrived within the first five minutes and boarding started just before 10:30.  Our genie, Gandhi, dropped us of at 270 to eat a salad. He returned at 11:10 to escort us to our room 8324.  
The room is really pretty!  Loved the location on deck eight vs deck ten.  The bed was really comfortable. There was a shower downstairs and one upstairs.  We never used the one downstairs to help out our room stewards.  We did ask for a fan, and it was delivered within a couple of hours.  We had a cheese plate and sushi waiting for us.  All our requested drinks were in place.  The view from the room is just unbeatable with total privacy.  I would book the room just for that view!  The room temperature always seem to be ideal, but you could easily change it.  There’s plenty of closets for your stuff.  Hair dryer was a cheaper model, so you may want to bring your own.  Shampoo, body wash, and crème rinse were all in the shower and were very doable.  
The negatives of the room:  Hubby could hear music from the music hall, during the day and at early evening.  He said it wasn’t loud, did not bother him, but it might you.  The second night at sea was rough.  Everything was banging and the vibration felt under our bed kept sleep was happening.  It lasted most of the night.  The rest of the nights it was peaceful and quiet.  The lights from the stairs could be a game changer for you if you like to sleep in total darkness.  Hubby thought since no heat comes from the lights that you could put electrical tape over them.  The lights did bother me, but soon adjusted to them.  
The room is all the way back at the end and some may find it too many steps to take to get there.  You have to go around a lot of curves.  We found the step just perfect as we are walkers, and loved getting those extra steps!  
Our room stewards, Dmitry and his assistant, Sujit were awesome.  Dmitry is Ukrainian and his demeanor made me think of Russia at first.  By day three he was all smiles and truly delightful.  He made us 19 towel animals throughout the trip and has unbelievable artistic talent.  He was always friendly!  He told me, after the first day, that we kept the room so clean that he felt he was doing very little for us, so I think he upped the towel animals.  He was the best room steward, ever!  Sujit was truly a delight, always smiling, always willing to help.  He is ready to be a head steward.  
Hubby and I everyday, did a special treat for them.  They enjoyed it so much that they requested we stay for another month!  We also gave them a whole day off, and a half a day.  We gave our genie off from dinner one night to dinner the next night.  I know money is king, we still tipped, but thought not having to worry about a room would be a nice break.  
Our genie, Gandhi, was our best genie ever too!  He started the morning telling us our schedule for the day.  He would meet us for our dinner reservation making sure we bypassed lines and was seated at the best table.  One line at Jamie’s was really long, and we might of gotten a few stares as we jumped the line.  Gandhi, also had wonderful seats at all shows.  I changed a few things last minute and there was never a problem doing that.  We rode the northstar twice, once in port and once on a sea day.  Never charged.  Hubby did Ifly with another star passenger and they both got to do it two times.  We were offered the flow rider but said no.  We didn’t do the bumper cars either due to a neck problem.  We could of just shown up, once a session, and skipped the whole line.  I’m sure our genie could of gotten more rides than just one.  
Hubby did puzzle break with the other Star passengers.  He said you have to complete 12 puzzles.  He used his math skills to do a few.  They were able to escape.  Genie said the puzzles were really hard, harder than most escape rooms.  
We did the galley, theater and bridge tour with the others star families.  It was fine.  They now have the main area of the bridge roped off, so you cannot get close to any of the officers.  Still a neat thing to see!  
We saw spectra and we will rock you.  Spectra was o.k., and we will rock you was way too long.  I actually left hubby there and played in the casino for over 30 minutes.  Came back to see the last twenty minutes, which I really enjoyed.  The show should be a 30 minute show!  
We saw the farewell show and left before it ended.  Yawn.
Food was really good, overall.  I never did eat in our room.  Service was excellent, especially in Coastal.  Hubby and I were surprised that we liked the food in Wonderland.  He brought us everything, even all the desserts.  Once again, the service was so good that I was amazed.  I’m not sure if service was awesome because we were star class, or we had the reputation of tipping well.  
Bionic bar worked the whole cruise.  We got  couple of drinks there and were well made.  
The wrist bans are back and our’s identified us as star class.  I noticed ALL the star class passengers were wearing them.  We wore ours for the first couple of days then got tired of it, and off it went!  But I always keep my room card on a lanyard around my neck.  Easy access.  
There were a lot of Canadians on this cruise.  Lots of French being spoken.  A family said school was off that week in Canada, so they decided to do a cruise.  
Our weather was really cold boarding.  Chilly the next day but people still got in the pools.  By the second night it was getting nice.  The third day we were in Florida and went to the Kennedy Space Center.  The weather was awesome.  Next day in Nassau we walked just a little around the port enjoying the warm weather.  Cocoa Bay had nice weather too.  The second sea day was warm.  The last sea day was back to chilly.  Definitely bring a sweater!  
The casino is small, to me.  Non smoking had more machines than the smoking section.  Overall, I thought the machines were tight even though I did win $1200 on the oriental game.  That same type game, a few cruises ago, paid someone $22,000 on an .88 bet.  That had to be a shocker  
We decided to leave our luggage out the night before, so we wouldn’t have to carry it all to Coastal the next morning.  We left the room at 8:00, had breakfast then met our genie in the diamond lounge at 8:40.  He escorted us to our luggage area.  Easy find, then facial recognition machine.  Our ride arrived shortly after we got outside to chilly, but doable weather.  
Would I do star class again?  Yes.  The whole experience was amazing!  That said, I would do sky class too, where it’s a lot cheaper but you still get a lot of benefits.  If it just hubby and I, I would most likely sky class it, add our kids then it’s definitely star class….then again, no promises that hubby and I would not do star class again next time.  
It was a wonderful week, but keep in mind, it’s an expensive week.  The game is not over after you pay your final bill for the cruise.  There’s a heck of lot of tipping.  You eat - you tip.  You drink - you feel the need to tip, mainly because you are star class!  Room service brings your star bucks - you tip.  They take your luggage- you tip.  Keep that in mind and plan accordingly.  
Thanks for following!  See you next year on the Harmony, with our kids in star class!
 
 
 

Nineteen days, 12 hours and 30+- minutes until I board Navigator.  Time for a little cruise planning, I think, now that I’ve figured out how I’m getting to California.  
As I mentioned, I’m in a Virtual Balcony, on an upper deck, near the bow of the ship.  Can’t wait to see the screen and find out if it’s the same camera feed as last time (starboard midships, kind of high up).  That’s Activity #2.  Activity #1 is seeing where I’m sitting in the MDR.  I honestly don’t mind sitting with others as a solo, so will do a recon more out of curiosity than out of planning.
Our itinerary for this 5-night cruise is:
Day 1: Embark from San Pedro World Cruise Terminal
Day 2:  “At Sea” on our way to Cabo San Lucas
Day 3:  Arrive at Cabo at about noon; I believe we’ll be the only ship in port (yippee!), so hopefully tenders won’t be much of an issue.  I’m actually rendezvousing (wow, I didn’t think that would be an actual word) with my daughter and several of her friends as they’ll be in Cabo on a land-based vacation.  She had wanted to go whale watching, but they won’t have a car so I haven’t quite figured that out yet, since our “all aboard” will probably be around 6:30 p.m. or so.  Maybe I’ll just go hang out at their resort.  When she and I were in Cabo previously on a Mother-Daughter trip, we took the “Luxury Sailing and Snorkeling Tour” through the resort, and really enjoyed it, so have seen the Arch, Pelican Rock, Chileno beach, etc.  Key word today: flexibility
Day 4: “At Sea” on our way to Ensenada
Day 5:  Ensenada.  Here I’ve booked the RCL tour “Kayak Tour at La Bufadora.”  I love kayaking (I have my own little 10’ kayak that I use on local rivers and lakes), but have never been on the ocean in one, so I’m really looking forward to this (as long as I can have a single kayak – gotta check in with the Shore Excursions folks as soon as I board, so make THAT Activity #1!)
Day 6:  Day of gloom and despair, AKA Disembarkation
As far as meals:  oh, that’s tomorrow’s topic!  Good night, all!
 

Nineteen days, 12 hours and 30+- minutes until I board Navigator.  Time for a little cruise planning, I think, now that I’ve figured out how I’m getting to California.  
As I mentioned, I’m in a Virtual Balcony, on an upper deck, near the bow of the ship.  Can’t wait to see the screen and find out if it’s the same camera feed as last time (starboard midships, kind of high up).  That’s Activity #2.  Activity #1 is seeing where I’m sitting in the MDR.  I honestly don’t mind sitting with others as a solo, so will do a recon more out of curiosity than out of planning.
Our itinerary for this 5-night cruise is:
Day 1: Embark from San Pedro World Cruise Terminal
Day 2:  “At Sea” on our way to Cabo San Lucas
Day 3:  Arrive at Cabo at about noon; I believe we’ll be the only ship in port (yippee!), so hopefully tenders won’t be much of an issue.  I’m actually rendezvousing (wow, I didn’t think that would be an actual word) with my daughter and several of her friends as they’ll be in Cabo on a land-based vacation.  She had wanted to go whale watching, but they won’t have a car so I haven’t quite figured that out yet, since our “all aboard” will probably be around 6:30 p.m. or so.  Maybe I’ll just go hang out at their resort.  When she and I were in Cabo previously on a Mother-Daughter trip, we took the “Luxury Sailing and Snorkeling Tour” through the resort, and really enjoyed it, so have seen the Arch, Pelican Rock, Chileno beach, etc.  Key word today: flexibility
Day 4: “At Sea” on our way to Ensenada
Day 5:  Ensenada.  Here I’ve booked the RCL tour “Kayak Tour at La Bufadora.”  I love kayaking (I have my own little 10’ kayak that I use on local rivers and lakes), but have never been on the ocean in one, so I’m really looking forward to this (as long as I can have a single kayak – gotta check in with the Shore Excursions folks as soon as I board, so make THAT Activity #1!)
Day 6:  Day of gloom and despair, AKA Disembarkation
As far as meals:  oh, that’s tomorrow’s topic!  Good night, all!
 

I stayed here in Jan for my cruise. It is a very nice and clean hotel but the cost was something like $230/n. We went to the Fresh Market for wine and I discovered they had bomb mac and cheese and roasted brussels sprouts. 

Nice, yep- my hotel was right next door to this one. We walked right over to McDonalds and grabbed some breakfast sandwiches to bring back to the room before we headed out to the port. The little gas station right next door also has a nice little store for snacks (and the bottles of wine for the ship if you choose  to do so)