DJsMrs

Day 7 - the one where they tried to squeeze it all in!
So there was quite a bit that we had not yet done on the ship, and today was our day to get it all in. The carousel, Ben & Jerry's, mini golf, zip line, and a few others made the short list that we made during breakfast (CK again). This was also the day Smitha had listed as DH's birthday on her schedule. 
DH also wanted to get in a nap, so everyone spent the morning on their own with instructions to meet back at the room in time for our Chops lunch - kids went to AO and I went to pick out our 100 photos. With our paparazzi spree on the promenade last night, we were at 114 photos, so it was easy to cull a few out. It's always a mad house at the photo area on the last day, and bumping up the $30ish from the 50 photo package is a no brainer for me. All I do is weed out the obvious bad pictures on the ship and sort through them all in detail at home. Definitely worth the price difference in saved time to me. I get the code at the end of the process and download them to my phone while I'm on the ship so I can take care of any issues while still onboard. The email to download the photos came at 11:00am the day we disembarked.
Next I headed to the casino to cash in DH's winnings. I played for a bit while I downloaded our 100 photos to my phone. I stayed about even for an hour or so. We are no where near prime, and we really only spent a couple of hours in the casino this trip. We were too busy eating all week! 
I headed back to the cabin and the kids were not back yet. DH and I left a post-it on the door telling them we already left. They have been really great all week about adhering to our meet up times; this was the only time they were late. They walked into Chops together about 5 minutes after we did. Apps - fruit for DS, carpaccio for DD, and a wedge salad for DH and me.


We all got the steak burger. Not my favorite, but it was ok.

 
The kids and I all ordered key lime pie for dessert. I thought it was odd that it had a layer of cake in the middle. DH didn't order dessert, but Smitha strikes again!


 
As we left the restaurant to start checking things off our to-do list, he said, "I really hope she doesn't send another cake to the room". Time would tell.
We decided to start at the top of the ship and work our way down. The wind was crazy, but we got in a game of mini golf. We thought the course was better maintained than some of the other ships - minimal wear and tear.
Then we headed over to the zip line which was supposed to open at 2pm. It was 1:45, and the crew was hovering in the area. I asked if they were going to open or if it was too windy, and they said they were waiting to hear from the bridge if they could or not. A few minutes later, they started getting out the gear. Once of the crew went to the catching side and got his harness on, so it looked hopeful, but at the last minute they called it off. They said they would make an announcement over the sports court if the wind died down enough to start, but we had a long list of other things to do. We'll just have to wait for Harmony, and remember to go on a port day!
Next we headed down to the Boardwalk. Carnival games were listed on the Cruise Compass for the time we were there, so lots of families and little kids were out there. We were on a mission to ride the carousel so I didn't pay too much attention to what all was offered, but they did have oversized bowling set up next to the carousel. DS and I rode, but DD was too cool, so she hung with DH.


When we got off the carousel, we walked into Cups & Scoops to get our Ben & Jerry's. The cupcake class was going on. Since it was included with star class, we probably would have gone before now, and more than once, if we did not have so much food in the cabin all week. I promised the kids we would get ice cream on the ship for finishing school early, so we had to squeeze it in!
Next was a ride on the Rising Tide. Including beverages of course. I ordered the Cool as a Cucumber and thought it was very similar to the Urban Garden at 150 CP. Maybe because my drink earlier in the week was so watered down? We noticed the line at Next Cruise was way out into the promenade, and we were thankful that they were able to take us as a walk in a couple days ago.


Besides the zip line, we didn't make it to the PADI shop. DH wanted to ask a couple of questions about completing a certification onboard for the kids, but they were closed. DH and I need refresher courses, so I think our best bet is going to be getting the kids certified at home instead of onboard. 
We headed back to the room and walked into...

The kids grabbed a macaron and a cake pop and left us for kids clubs. We had a 5pm Izumi reservation so they had instruction to not be late. They were on time this go round. DH and I spent some time packing.
At Izumi, we were seated at a table with a solo traveler and two other couples. The show part of dinner was better than I expected. I guess they make up for the lack of giant flame entertainment with jokes - I had not heard / seen some of their quips and tricks before. 

We all ordered sushi rolls on top of hibachi because we hadn't eaten in at least an hour. 😆 Drinks from the bar and sushi were slow to come out. I had the Spicy Okinawa, and it was very tasty. DH asked the waiter to suggest a sake and the first was too sweet, so he ordered a second drier one - neither went to waste. We could mix and match proteins so if you wanted a combination not on the menu, you could get it. DS realized he didn't get lobster night in the MDR, so I told him to order it now as he was only going to get the chicken. I had the lobster and scallops, and the lobster was over cooked, but the scallops were perfect.
For dessert, DD and I ordered green tea ice cream, DS ordered chocolate lava cake, and DH declined, but...Smitha.



We came back to the room to find our departure tags and some gifts from Smitha. We got the kids all packed before they could run off to one last session at AO, and DH and got to about 90% done. We decided to hit the casino one last time. No luck, but we had fun.

Knowing that we still had one more day of vacation on land helped take the sting out of this being our last night onboard.

On our way back to the ship, we took an over/ under on how many plates of food would be waiting for us in the cabin. DH and I said 5, DD said 4, and DS said 6. DS was the first back in the room and was declared the winner!

 
Not only did we have 6 plates of food on the dining table, but there were several plates of desserts and a cake waiting on the coffee table too!

 
The room had a few new decorations as well. 

 
We just rested in the cabin for remainder of the afternoon and got ready for dinner at Giovanni's Table. 
I had the caprese, DH had minestrone, and the kids both had the chicken noodle soup off the kids menu. 



For entrees, DH and I both had the chicken piccata and shared a mushroom risotto, DS had the spaghetti, and DD got another steak. 




Dessert - cannoli, chocolate-hazlenut cake, and two tiramisus... they brought out a second chocolate-hazlenut cake and sang happy anniversary to us too.



We all enjoyed everything we had, but we agreed that if we were going to do one specialty restaurant, Giovanni's Table would not make the cut. It's a good Italian restaurant, but we can get that on land anytime.
The kids headed to AO again for the night, and DH and I headed to the comedy club where Smitha had reserved us seats in the second row. DH didn't want to chance being a target in the first.
 
The show was an hour long split between two comedians, Nora Lynch and Phil Palisoul. The show was definitely adult, but I do not recall it being overly vulgar. We laughed quite a bit at both sets.
We ended the evening by starting Wakanda Forever from the selection of streaming movies available to us in the room.

After ice skating, the kids went back to AO while DH and I just relaxed in the room and on the balcony. We set up Johnny Rockets to be delivered with Smitha so we could make sure the kids could eat. It was supposed to be delivered at 5pm...and it arrived 10 minutes early. I wonder if Smitha had a chat with someone after our late lunch delivery?
The kids showed up at 5 to eat, and DH and I got ready for Chef's Table. The plan was for the grown ups to wear our second formal night clothes tonight and then wear them again some other night for pictures so the kids wouldn't have to get dressed up tonight. They were headed back to AO once it opened back up and that's a lot of costume changes for an 11 year old boy. Spoiler alert - we never got the second set of formal photos. 🤦‍♀️ Oh well, I think that dress will still fit in the fall. 
We were at the Library as instructed at 6:15, and no one else was there. We decided to wait a few minutes and another couple showed up for Chef's Table too. Smitha then arrived and walked us all into the upstairs section of the Diamond Club where the dinner is held. Everyone else was there already. Conveniently, there are restrooms inside the Diamond Club on Allure so no one had to worry about getting back into the room.
Dinner started with a champagne cocktail which included St. Germain, cucumber, and mint. 
 


 
Scallops

 
Soup


Lobster

Fish

Filet

The World in its various stages







We thought all the dishes were pretty good; however, the scallops were a little thicker than we expected. I thought the vanilla dressing with the lobster dish would be off putting, but it was very tasty. We agreed the filet was the best we had all week. DH asked last night if I would do Chef's Table again, and we decided we would but I haven't booked it on any of our upcoming cruises yet. 
A quick shot of the Aqua Theater from the balcony at night with nothing going on. They did play movies on the screens in addition to have a couple games out there. The volume was really loud - like could discern the words in the movies while in the cabin kind of loud. We had a few "don't repeat that" moments with the kids when we were in the living room and a more grown up movie was on. I'm a little surprised they showed those movies in the afternoon - prime time for kids on the Boardwalk. In fact, the volume everywhere was really loud. We even heard people in their 20's coming out of various venues commenting on it so it wasn't that were just getting old.😆

Day three sunrise. It never gets old!

We just had room service delivered for breakfast since we had the SC flow rider session at 8:00am. Smitha seemed disappointed that we didn't want to wait for Coastal Kitchen to open for our room service, but if we had waited, the kids would not have eaten until at least 7:30. I had visions of sick kids on the upper deck after a wipeout. 

 
Good news - no one got sick! Better news - no one broke any bones! 




DH and I were a little worried DD would decide at the last minute not to participate, or worse, fall and never try again. I've mentioned she's on the spectrum in previous blogs; well she over experiences emotion. An embarrassing wipe out could have shut her down. Fortunately she's had a lot of growth in the last year or so, and she tried a few new things on this cruise that she absolutely would not even consider before (staying for more than just video games at the teen club, ice skating, getting back in the ocean). She was a natural and wanted to try to stand up surf as well. The current policy is that you have to have experience stand up surfing, wake boarding, snow boarding, etc. before they will let you do it on the ship so it was a no go for us this time. I mean, I surfed once in Hawaii... for 30 minutes... 27 years ago. I think the statute of limitations passed on that one, but I didn't ask. 😜 
I found a flowrider close to us that offers lessons for half of what the ship charges, so we'll take some lessons over the summer and be ready for our fall cruise. 
 
 

Whew. Open letters usually aren't complementary.

Yep- you can scan a barcode on your tv or down by guest services and it will prouduce a pdf, I downloaded and saved a pdf version every night. 

I miss the in-person, full lifejacket, sweat in places that should never see sweat muster drills.

Just to show someone in my family has fashion sense and, at 4’11”, can rock a jumpsuit!

Ok I am hesitant to post this but you are all so sweet, I feel safe.  My first jumpsuit.
Needs a little sweater or my Jean jacket but DD insists it’s ok.

I'm not talking about vacuum packing bags.  I'm talking about seal-a-meal kind of vacuum bags.

My mistake, I misread that the secondary briefing was on Day 2. I still stand by the idea of Sea Pass flagging and giving guests the Don Rickles treatment! 😆

The secondary briefing is 7:00pm Day 1, no?

I can commiserate with some of @tjcruisers experience.  When we boarded Vision earlier this week we went to the muster station and had our SeaPasses scanned.  The scanner beeped, he handed us our cards back and said, “you’re done”.  ONLY b/c I am a stickler for details, did I later notice that the “completed” box for the muster drill on our app was not highlighted.  We went back to the muster station and discovered that the wrong muster station attendant had scanned our SeaPasses, therefore, our visit was not properly documented.  This all happened in a matter of 30 minutes after boarding, so we certainly were not on anyone’s “bad boy” list but it was an unnecessary blunder and could easily have been overlooked by us if we hadn’t been checking.
Interesting that “passengers who have not completed the safety drill will not be allowed to sail with us today” doesn’t mean anything at all.  I wondered how they located and disembarked all of those “tardy” passengers.  They don’t, it seems !

We are having a great time. Deck 9.
 
We just pushed away and spotted dolphins! Our first time to see them in Galveston. 

DH went back to the cabin and I took the kids to register for Adventure Ocean and check out the teen club. He texted me that luggage and more food were waiting in the room.
We passed Wipeout Cafe on the waybto Fuel and looked at the El Loco Fresh items available there. After lunch, the kids were not impressed, but they did spot a soft serve machine, so they each got a cone. Yes, they were too full for dessert 10 minutes ago.😆
Here's the nee food and drinks in the room.




 
Smitha called to tell us Mamma Mia was canceled - some of the cast is sick. She asked if we wanted to see the ice show tonight instead, but the kids are going to AO and want to see that. We told her we'll just go dancing after dinner. Then she asked if we enjoyed everything and if Caleb liked his cake. I told her we didn't have one, and two minutes later there was one at our door.🤣 #officiallyspoiled

Now DH is taking a quick nap and the kids are playing on the Switch. I think we'll hang out in the room for sailaway as it's still raining. We have dinner in about 2 hours. I think someone is going to have to roll me to CK!

Food in thebroom when we arrived.


 
We went to lunch at Sabor and because it was raining, our muster station had been moved up under the covered portion of the Boardwalk. We took care of that on the way. Service was quite slow, but the food was good.
Queso fundido and bacon wrapped jalapeno chicken for appetizers.

I had the pan seared branzino (supposed to be snapper but they substituted), DH had the carne asada, DD had cheese quesadillas, and DS had spicy chicken tacos. We were too stuffed for dessert. But we did have our first drink of the cruise - jalapeno cucumber margaritas.

 



 

Living room


our "mini" bar

Getting yelled at for fishing off my balcony... 😄
 

Hi @twangster,
this is our first time cruising from the new passenger terminal is Brisbane. We stayed out near the airport at the Novotel as it only a 10 minute Uber ride to the port terminal and cost about $15AUD. There is no public transport to the port so a taxi or other ride share is the best option for getting there.
There is parking that locals can pre-book.
Because we had the Star class boarding experience it is a bit hard to judge what the actual boarding experience is like. There seemed to be a bit of a queue in customs and security but they don’t adhere to boarding times so all the people who were early had started boarding.
As the terminal is new the facilities are modern and fresh. The gangway to the ship is very long compared to Sydney as the ships are docked out further out in the bay where the water is deeper.
Leaving from Brisbane does not have the same spectacular scenery as Sydney and overlooks a working port but it is okay.
We are leaving from Brisbane next March when we are doing a cruise up the Queensland coast.
I don’t mind where we leave from as boarding any ship means it’s time for a holiday.

animals at AJs

Some more random stuff:
Question: Do you pronounce the speed of ships (knots) like nautical (naughts) or like tying something (nots)? I know the British pronunciation is the former, but is it the same in the USA?
Some things in the room that are working really well are our super strong magnets - we’ve been hanging things from the ceiling and walls and pinning our balcony curtain down to let less light in. We are also using the ice bucket in the fridge trick and it is amazing! Definitely keeping the fridge cooler than it would have been. And finally, we are really happy we brought pump soap with us - works so much better in the bathroom space than the bar in the dish.
First story: when we were boarding, my husband, who has never really spent significant time around people with Southern USA regional dialects, overheard a father saying to a son - “You should pay attention to the asses that trigger you. Once you figure out which asses are a problem, then we can work with that.” He thought, “HUH?!? This kid is like, 8 years old. What kind of conversation is this dad having???” Then the dad said, “I think it might be tomatoes.” And DH realized that he was talking about ACIDS, as in food, LOL.
Another funny story - the first night, the family next to us came in really late, like 5:40pm. Last night, when we were just a few minutes after 5, my husband apologized to the waiter about being a few minutes late, and he waved us off, it was no problem, we weren’t late, other tables were later - at which point, I said, “like them” and pointed to the (empty) table of the family next to us. He got really conspiratorially looking, lowered his voice, and said, “the lady was talking last night like blub blub blub (he said kind of garbled words that I can’t replicate by typing) and was falling asleep at the table - but kept drinking more wine with dinner!” We kind of giggled, figured she’s on vacation and enjoying herself! But also started referring to her as wine mom, and saw her two more times over the evening. She had a wine glass in her hand every single time we saw her! Good for her - she’s getting value out of her beverage package 
And more pics:

 

Compensation is absolutely reasonable.  A few years ago we had noise issues when OA first came back after amplification.  The noise on the pool deck was unbearable.  We were given a 20% FCC as compensation.  Do NOT wait until after you disembark. By then it’s too late.  If the Suites Concierge doesn’t help you, ask to speak to the Hotel Director.  Even if they give you a different room, the inconvenience has already occurred.

Our flight story:
Everything went smoothly until we were about to take off at 6pm Eastern, and just barely missed our departure window before the storms rolled in. We were on the runway, next to depart, and got called off. The storm rolled through - we were still on the plane on the runway, and it was bouncing up and down from the wind on the wings. Then emergency alerts start coming through on the phones - first a tornado warning, then a tornado watch (until 7:30pm). Meanwhile, we're watching the nonstop lightning out of the plane windows.
Around 7:20, the pilot (who was super funny, which helped) started making some announcements about almost ready to leave, storm almost past, just getting final clearance, etc etc, and the lady behind me starts screaming about something wrong with her husband and is there a doctor, and couldn't wake him up. A doctor comes and does vitals and pulled him out of his seat to lay him in the floor, when he comes to. Meanwhile his little daughter is sobbing hysterically and the wife/mom is trying to focus on both. So the guy is now alert and said he just fell asleep, but he hadn't been responsive, so back to the gate we go...
Paramedics came in, family gets off, we wait for their suitcase retrieval, back through safety routine again (by law), now we're at the end of the takeoff line, finally leave at 9pm, and 3.5 hours later, we are in Houston. 
By the time we got our luggage and waited for our $150 UberXL, it was almost midnight Central, which got us to our Galveston hotel at 1am Central which feels like 2am for us. We hadn't really had dinner since we ate a late lunch and were planning to grab something at the airport, but everything was closed. We just ate trail mix, apples and candy that we had brought for flight snacks. We didn't have our own car and we were exhausted, so just decided to go to bed and enjoy the hotel breakfast in the morning.
We met 2 ladies in the row in front of us who are also on our cruise - we got to talking during all of the delays.

I totally agree with your entire post Raye. Hubby and I actually discussed this a bit over the past week. For us, some of the value is in the cabins too because we are "those people" who do enjoy spending a lot of time in our room. Especially me. That is relaxing for me. We like the SC rooms. I know that Hubby (he won't admit it) missed Deck 17 a bit as well this past week. At the moment, we have 3 more SC in the books, all 3 with our girls. When our kids stop sailing with us (I am so sad about that), we will re-evaluate at that point. That is pretty much the decision we have come to.