Curt From Canada

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

Pretty lazy day today.  Sea day.  Spent a fair amount of time in the casino and happy to say that my upward trend ($$) is continuing.  Nothing to crow about, just slightly “up” each time I go in there.  Up is better than down !
Dan hit his goal of 3000 points so he made Prime and will get an instant comp reward.  Whatever points I have (currently at a little over 1000), I will use to upgrade his comp offer with my otherwise useless $$ off reward.
It was Royal night in the MDR.  We both ordered the lobster as an appetizer since that portion is pretty small.  I ordered the chicken Marsala as my main course and Dan ordered some curry shrimp dish (can’t remember the name).  Both were very good.
I will give my little Promenade view room some kudos (8311, 2T).    I truly believe that this room is the quietest room we’ve ever had.  It’s far enough aft to avoid the Promenade noise and there is absolutely no noise at all associated with the elevators.  It’s very, very quiet and I love being so close to the aft elevators.  We’ve been very comfortable in this room, which is a good thing since we will be here again on the next leg (5 nights, 4-14).  For leg #3 (4-19), we have to move. 😪😪

Omg...some of these tangents from live blogs lol...first Batman and underwear math, now lucky red undies 🤣

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

There is breaking news this morning that Dillard’s is reporting significant shortages of red undergarments. They believe they are not the only store experiencing supply chain issues and are extremely concerned that the shortages could last for years. 

😉
Govern yourselves accordingly …
Curt from Canada
 

Yuck. I like my 5 "any bar, just about any drink" perks a lot better than this
 

Quick response, as I have an early morning tomorrow.
I have a gluten intolerance (probably not Celiac … long story). Still, since 2013, I have eaten gluten free on Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Briefly:
There are only two places in the world I feel safe eating. At home, my soulmate cooks with the utmost care. There is never a concern. The other place is on a cruise ship. They have multiple food allergy issues every single week. They are experts at handling them. A few critical things to do: 
1).  The Main Dining Room [MDR] wait staff is excellent. Tell (remind) them on night 1 that you are Celiac. They will help you each night to choose the next night’s meal (they will make sure night 1 is OK as well).
2). Ask them about breakfast and lunch for the next day … they can help with that as well. 
3).  The WindJammer should be a nightmare (but it is not). Tell any of the food servers that you are Celiac (you may have to say gluten free … not wheat) and they will have someone walk you through each station indicating what you can have or not have. The MDR is still safer, but I have used the WindJammer from time to time. It takes more time, but they are very knowledgeable and detailed. 
4). Specialty Dining: Same as MDR. Just let the waitstaff know and they will make sure the meals are adapted as required. 
5). There is a way to get this on your file. Someone else can help with that special service request. I used to do it, but found I had to do points 1) to 4) above anyway, so I stopped with this detail. In this case, I think you should “do as I say and not as I do”. Get it in your file for each cruise. 

I hope that made sense and was helpful  
Curt from Canada  
 

Actually, I give the credit for my good-ish casino luck to my red underwear.  I have a friend who told me that if you wear red underwear you will win.  Go figure…but the chants and prayers are appreciated !  They can’t hurt, right ?
❤️❤️❤️

We’re pulling into St Thomas 2.5 hours early (Crown Bay).  It’s 9:30 and we aren’t scheduled to arrive until noon.  The Cap made an announcement that we pushed to get here early due to a medical emergency so I’m assuming it’s related to the AAA we heard last night, but that’s pure speculation. We are scheduled to leave at 8 PM.  Strange schedule.
We’re not getting off today in St Thomas but this remains one of my favorite ports as far as the view is concerned.  It’s truly lovely here.  Now that my expensive jewelry-buying days are behind me (thank goodness) I have little reason to disembark.  …but for those of you who are still IN their expensive jewelry-buying days, St Thomas is an excellent choice.
Today is my first W&F laundry day for this cruise.  You’ll all be happy to hear that I have achieved a new “personal best” by stuffing 24 pieces into that W&F bag.  I just keep getting better and better !  😂. I have begun using the “rolling” technique and it’s proving to be a game-changer !
So, today is doomsday for those who care.  Apparently we will be treated to the partial solar eclipse at approximately 2:44 PM.  Since NASA will be firing 2 rockets into the atmosphere, willy nilly and CERN has decided that it would be a great time to push the world’s most powerful particle accelerator to its maximum power for the first time in history, it should be interesting.  I’m fully expecting the black hole to materialize whereupon the demons of hell will be transiting to our dimension.  That should be fun. Put on the Armor of God and all should be fine. (I’m only partially kidding)
Sitting in the CL as we dock in St Thomas.  I’m very surprised at how few people are here in the mornings.  We avoid all lounges in the evenings so I have no idea how things are in them during the happy hours.  I guess I should pop in an evening or 2 just to report out.  

Quick response, as I have an early morning tomorrow.
I have a gluten intolerance (probably not Celiac … long story). Still, since 2013, I have eaten gluten free on Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Briefly:
There are only two places in the world I feel safe eating. At home, my soulmate cooks with the utmost care. There is never a concern. The other place is on a cruise ship. They have multiple food allergy issues every single week. They are experts at handling them. A few critical things to do: 
1).  The Main Dining Room [MDR] wait staff is excellent. Tell (remind) them on night 1 that you are Celiac. They will help you each night to choose the next night’s meal (they will make sure night 1 is OK as well).
2). Ask them about breakfast and lunch for the next day … they can help with that as well. 
3).  The WindJammer should be a nightmare (but it is not). Tell any of the food servers that you are Celiac (you may have to say gluten free … not wheat) and they will have someone walk you through each station indicating what you can have or not have. The MDR is still safer, but I have used the WindJammer from time to time. It takes more time, but they are very knowledgeable and detailed. 
4). Specialty Dining: Same as MDR. Just let the waitstaff know and they will make sure the meals are adapted as required. 
5). There is a way to get this on your file. Someone else can help with that special service request. I used to do it, but found I had to do points 1) to 4) above anyway, so I stopped with this detail. In this case, I think you should “do as I say and not as I do”. Get it in your file for each cruise. 

I hope that made sense and was helpful  
Curt from Canada  
 

Looks like all that’s available and listed are cruises in 2024. Any idea when 2025 and beyond will be released? Thanks 

The exact same thing happened in the CL versus the SL on Serenade World Cruise. All the Pinns were in the CL and the SL was empty. 
We find the CL attached to the “Viking Crown Lounge” to be the best combination for the CL. 
Thanks for all the pictures …
Curt from Canada 

So, where are we going ?  Not that it matters, of course….
5 ports of call:  Puerto Plata, DR (day #3), St Thomas (day #4), Antigua (day #5), Grenada (day #6) and St Kitts (day #7).  We will be doing 2 excursions on this sailing (very unusual for us).  We will be swimming with the stingrays in Antigua and taking a familiarization tour in Grenada since we’ve never been there.  
 
Dan is strutting about in his underwear with the curtains open, violating the #1 rule of interior view rooms, “thou shalt not expose thyself”.  I did quickly pulled the curtains together but I’m sure it would have been too late for anyone looking up.  He truly does NOT give a flying fu##.  😜🥰. Hopefully being up on 8 will protect everyone !  This is gonna be a fun cruise.
I LOVE our Cap !  I couldn’t make out his first name but his last name is Mortensen (from northern Norway).  He offered an unambiguous threat to all of the pool lounge chair hogs !  He said, “These chairs do not belong to you.  They ALL belong to ME”.  I love it !  He sounds like a fun guy.  

I struggled with whether to do a live blog for these 3 rather mundane EX cruises but I decided to give it a go.  I even have some photos !  Shock, I know….these might be the only photos you get but at least there will be some !
Absolutely nothing interesting to report about our drive in.  Left Port St Lucie at 5:30AM and arrived at the parking garage (finally….more about that in a minute) at 8:00.  Since we had an 8:00 reservation, right on time.  We normally do not plan to arrive quite THAT early, but since we have a couple of “firsts” on this trifecta, plus, it being a weekday, we decided to leave a bit early.  In the end, it was a very good thing we did.

Finding an alternate port on short notice is like playing a game of musical chairs but coming to the game late after many other cruise lines are already seated.
In a perfect world they would find a berth open somewhere close to Labadee so they wouldn't have to completely redo the entire itinerary.  Cruise ships are slow.  They can't cover great distances quickly.  An available port that is too distant doesn't help them at all.  
Nassau has many berths and it's relatively close to Florida making it the best choice for some itineraries impacted by the situation in Haiti. 
In other cases Jamaica is relatively close to Labadee so if a ship was already passing by this area and Falmouth has space then it's a best choice for this situation. 
Grand Turk was developed with an investment from Carnival so they likely have priority there.  On days when it's available and if it fits due to proximity it is the best choice for some itineraries.   
The DR may work best in some cases.
Once you start looking at more distant alternate ports they would have to completely change the itinerary but given how many ships from all cruise lines are competing for ports completely re-doing an itinerary is a tall order and very disruptive to guests.  In some cases an extra sea day is the only choice. 

My soulmate and I were on the Antarctic leg of this cruise in January. It was definitely a Royal Caribbean style cruise, but with quite a few differences that made for an even better experience. First your questions:
1). Laundry:  Only World Cruisers have access and it was a special (very small) area that was created just for them. It did not cause any confrontations 😉, but the scheduling of time in there was an ongoing “process” each week. I do not know the details, but the World Cruisers (and Royal Caribbean) needed to be totally organized to make the scheduling work. 
2). Crew Contracts: They seemed to be just like regular cruises. Crew rotates in and out on normal schedules. Our favourite bartender was going to rotate out and then get back on to Serenade for the last few legs of the World Cruise.  One of the senior Food & Beverage Mgrs rotated out just after our leg and should be back on the ship soon. Staggered rotations for everyone (as usual). 
3). Provisioning & Port Issues: This is a great question. I did not sense any issues at all, but I did sense a big advantage … variety. The food varied noticeably as we moved from one region to the next.  I had the best Filet Mignon at sea while docked (for two days) in Buenos Aires AND I was in the MDR.  The entertainment was much more varied and plentiful.  More variety of enrichment lecturers and topics.  More variety of climates (93+ deg down to 30ish)
We seriously looked at another leg, but could not make the timing work. We could never be away for the entire cruise, but would look at other interesting legs if they ever do again. 

Curt from Canada