Cruising to Retirement!

Welcome Home! Your blog made us all feel like we (sorta) went on your journey with you and your family! A HUGE thanks!!!!! If it's not too much trouble I'm still intrigued with your indepth Rome tour that your family enjoyed. When you have a free moment, if you could find the name of the tour, I would appreciate it! No hurry! P.S. Seeing the looks on your daughter, husband's and your faces in all your pictures will mean just as much to you (or more) as the scenery/landscapes/experiences of your awesome trip! Jane I'm so happy you shared! Michelle

You have had such amazing experiences at these "special dinners" and learned an abundance of interesting RC knowledge! I'm so happy for you! A huge thanks for sharing "all" of this with us! As my Grandma would say that you, Twangster, have a kind heart for taking so much of your time to share with us! And your pics are definitely one of a kind, too! Michelle

I'm happy to read another awesome Twangster blog also. I'm intrigued/interested to get some updates on BVI/Tortola. I hope you have time to get pics of the port/town and your overview of the island. Your excursion sounds great too. We haven't been to BVI in over 5 years. It would be interesting to get your perspective always on the changes and hopefully void of lingering hurricane damage since you were last there. Happy cruising! Michelle

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading your blog, Jane!!! Your pics, your information, your comments make me feel a little part of your journey! We hope to someday soon go on a cruise that covers this exact same itinerary!!! I was hoping to get the name of your awesome Royal ship/shore excursion that your family did in Rome! It sure seemed very in depth and covered so very much in just one day. Could you please let me know the name and # of that shore excursion for future reference! I'm so glad that a Pope/showing did not slow you down with such a limited about of time including the travel back and forth to the port. Thanks again for the awesome "blog journey" sort of.... Michelle

I most certainly did very much!!! You have the unique gift to give us exactly what we want to see that we didn't even know that we wanted to see or ever knew existed! You make me want to take cruises at least once on all these smaller ships that my husband and I haven't cruised on before! You most certainly gave the Perfect Wow also to Coco Cay! We are really excited even more to visit on our upcoming Harmony on Sept. 1st! One quick question I remember I believe WAYTOO mentioned a place by Snack shack I believe that made paninis that my husband would love to try. Did you happen to see paninis on any menu possibly? Would love to find that venue before we go. Also thank you so much for taking pictures in so many areas that showed so many complimentary first come first get umbrellas around the entire island including around the pool areas since my husband must limit his sun time! Last but not least your sunset photos...... Like in Jerry McGuire "You had Me At Sunset"..... Michelle

Sabrina I loved following your blog! It was so exciting all your experiences on and off the ship! Did your sailing have a Suite sailaway in one of your ports or were you invited to a backstage or galley tour on Symphony? I'm so glad you and your husband had such a fabulous getaway to celebrate your 17th Anniversary! (I'm sure your girls are envious) We have 2 daughters so I'm sure they have been trying to follow along too! I recently got a Glitch/YOLO together literally and moved from balcony straight up to Crown Loft Suite on Deck 17 on the Harmony for September 1st! If you have any must dos or recommendations, I would really appreciate your input! I remember how much you loved your experience on Harmony! We were actually on the Harmony in May 2017 as first time Diamond/Jr Suite from Ft. Lauderdale so looking forward to getting back on this amazing ship! We loved, loved the Harmony Aqua show and of course we are huge Grease Fans! Takes me back to being 16....driving my 1966 Mustang with factory air conditioning to the Drive IN in Calif 3 times after getting my Driver's License to see Grease when it first came out in 1978! Yep I just turned 57....You and your husband really know how to celebrate! Celebrate everything because life definitely goes by far too fast!!! Thanks to you or anyone else about must dos or about Deck 17, Harmony, or Sky Class! Welcome back home! Michelle

Your blog is awesome as always! Also thanks for all the gorgeous pictures (especially) loved the up close flamingo pictures! Are you taking your camera scuba diving that you mentioned? The Empress sure is a beautiful (little) ship! I would love to sail on her someday! I LOVE that there is lots and lots of large windows everywhere! I'm a huge window lover! Michelle

Ditto!!! Celebrate! Following! I love all the 17's!!! Very clever indeed! 17 x 17 more toasts to go!!!! Can't wait to hear more! It's cruise day! Nothing better! Enjoy! Michelle

Thanks again for the great blog! We are getting even more excited for our Sept. 1st sailing! Thanks for providing your Western itinerary compass from July 7th. We are on the Eastern itinerary like you were the week before! We would really appreciate if you would provide that Eastern itinerary compass as well since there is not a single one for this itinerary in the compass section! Get some rest for a bit before starting to plan your next cruise adventure!!! Michelle

Thanks everyone very much one and all! I thought I had read a while back here on this blog somewhere that the suite area at Cococay was gone. We just upgraded (with unbelievable good luck) our room to Crown Loft for first time and have never been to Cococay in a suite either so wanted to check with who I believe are the "true" experts! I find all the opinions on this Blog to be very helpful and of course exciting to hear the experiences from people that definitely have the cruise bug! Ha! Happy Summer Friday! Michelle Ps. I definitely want to get the Panini you had on Cococay too WAAAYTOO! Yum!

Thank you so much! Just trying to find spots with a bit of shade or a place that has chairs with a few umbrellas. Hopefully getting off early will help! Talking about this gets me even more excited to see the "new" island! We love love the ice shows too! How could I forget them! Most of the time we go see the main ice show twice and the additional ice show not requiring the reservations, too! The ice skating is my personal favorite on the winter olympics too! Thanks! Michelle

Great to hear about Coco Cay. We will be there in September on Harmony as well. We are hoping that by getting off the ship early we can get chairs and an umbrella. Husband must be in shade more than I do with skin cancer issues of the past. Did you or anyone else who has been to Cococay have some advice. It would be much appreciated. We always could find chairs over where the floating bar used to be and we could move our chairs under the trees with no problems since we would get off the ship early enough. This is going to be quite the different (but great) experience than in the past! I've asked you your favorite ports but what has been your favorite shows? We loved Grease and I remember Harmony's aqua shows as either my fav or second fav to Allure. Can't decide since I've been on Allure 3 times and 2 times were after the Harmony. I think I'm just a tad more partial to Mama Mia but I'm just going to give them both first! Ha! Michelle

I definitely second that! Please don't overdo it. Pace yourself a bit. What has been your favorite port experience so far, Joe? Happy Thursday! Michelle

Thanks for both comments with current info. on the island. For some reason I was still thinking it was a slight possibility of a suite area but I knew there were some people here that had been to Coco cay recently. We are looking for an area to get in a shady area with a few trees or poolside with possible umbrella areas for part of the day. If you have any other ideas for some shady areas, we would appreciate it very much! We had always enjoyed the island pre Perfect Day on the side at the floating bar area. We could pull some chairs up under some trees after getting out of the water. We are looking forward to seeing all the changes in person! Thanks for the guidance! Happy cruising! Michelle