DJsMrs

I apologize for the lack of updates, it’s been a busy cruise and my computer is acting up. I will try to catch up this evening 

I started a thread a few months ago about thoughts of cruising with a plant based diet. At that time RC had just posted that they were making vegan  menu options available in the main dining room.  Now I can report back from my Majesty of the Seas experience. 
Good news for those thinking vegan choices would crowd out other choices on the menu.  A separate vegan menu, really a four course meal with some choice is given upon request.  It does not impact the main dining room menu at all. 
The food was delicious and different every night. It included a choice of appetizer and main course with a soup and dessert for you. Of course you can also order off of the regular menu if you find something there. 
On Majesty, there is a chef that is responsible for most of the choices and service was just about at the same speed with the rest of the patrons. 
Pictures are worth a thousand words so below are the menus and some food shots...

I think it’s awesome. You don’t have to be a vegan to appreciate these choices. Great that these menus can include different types of cuisines.  Personally my diet has gone more fish based and I only eat meat 1-2x a week unless I’m craving it, options are nice. 

Here A Great Video OF Him. 
 

Went on the all access tour today. Propulsion is still the same with the starboard azipod at reduced speed. As we head to Nassau the waves are at 1 to 2 meters according to the quarter master. While touring the engine control the guy working there said all 4 engines were online but one was overheating so speed may be reduced. We were at 17.9 kts. Definitely interesting walking around and standing today. 

We did a beach bungalow in Columbus when we were on Anthem in July - and it was the best money I've ever spent for a beach day.   We had 4 kids (ages 8, 9, 10, 11), four parents and two grandparents.  We were technically over the # of people allowed - but the kids were always out in the water or on the beach and for the most part it was the grandparents chilling in the bungalow (and the attendants didn't mind after we slid them an extra tip).   The beach is amazing.  There is a tonne of sun and shade, depending on your preference.  My son was snorkeling along the boulders at the far end of the beach and was loving watching the fish (few, but he was happy to see anything).  The bungalows are close to bathrooms and the buffet.  Attendants were awesome.   I didn't think the floating mats would really be used - but they were amazing and the kids had a blast inventing various games with them.  Many sandcastles were also built.  
It was literally the perfect beach day of doing nothing but chilling out and hanging together.  Keeping the grandparents out of the sun is a huge priority and they were thrilled with the bungalow - and the kids couldn't have been happier with the easy access to the water and the beach.
I can't speak to the cabanas - but we never once wished we had booked somewhere else at Labadee.

We got contacted by our Royal Genie Sunil today. I am going to reach out to him about us possibly participating in a cabin crawl. Any advice for a cabin crawl party in a star class suite? 
 
I am attaching a photo of his initial correspondence. 

We did a beach bungalow in Columbus when we were on Anthem in July - and it was the best money I've ever spent for a beach day.   We had 4 kids (ages 8, 9, 10, 11), four parents and two grandparents.  We were technically over the # of people allowed - but the kids were always out in the water or on the beach and for the most part it was the grandparents chilling in the bungalow (and the attendants didn't mind after we slid them an extra tip).   The beach is amazing.  There is a tonne of sun and shade, depending on your preference.  My son was snorkeling along the boulders at the far end of the beach and was loving watching the fish (few, but he was happy to see anything).  The bungalows are close to bathrooms and the buffet.  Attendants were awesome.   I didn't think the floating mats would really be used - but they were amazing and the kids had a blast inventing various games with them.  Many sandcastles were also built.  
It was literally the perfect beach day of doing nothing but chilling out and hanging together.  Keeping the grandparents out of the sun is a huge priority and they were thrilled with the bungalow - and the kids couldn't have been happier with the easy access to the water and the beach.
I can't speak to the cabanas - but we never once wished we had booked somewhere else at Labadee.

So unfortunately our cruise suffered the same fate as that of @RatedPG's - there was too much fog on the approach to the Dawes glacier, so the Captain turned us around in search of whales instead.  Now that today's more of an extra sea day, I'm sitting on my balcony looking for whales and catching up on my blog.

Let's rewind all the way back to":
Day 2: Sea Day
We woke up early to catch the first sunrise of the cruise and it did not disappoint - I didn't have my phone at the time, so there are unfortunately no pictures.
Much of the morning was spent viewing the Canadian coastline from different vantage points.


 
I was even able to catch a bit of a rainbow

If you sail on Ovation or any other Royal Caribbean ship for that matter, make sure to take time to look at the amazing art all around.  There are plenty of paintings, sculptures and other forms of media around pretty much everywhere you look. 
This is one of my favorite pieces in the Via on the way to Two70

And of course, the pandas are not to be missed!

Today was a mix of watching the scenery go by on the starboard side and exploring different venues around the ship including my favorite, The Schooner Bar

 
Jamie's Italian 
 
One thing I noticed on this ship that I didn't realize, or maybe it wasn't offered on my Anthem sailing last year, but Vintages onboard the Ovation offers Coffee


Since Vintages is next door to Jamie's Italian, they offer  some small appetizers from Jamie's around dinner time.  These appetizers range anywhere from 3 to 5 dollars and include a miniature version of their meat plank, garlic bread, music bread, Italian bread basket, squid and bruschetta.  
I had reservations for the North Star at noon, but we were in an intense game of bingo and I lost all track of time.  Luckily, since it was a sea day I found a time slot that didn't require reservations so I arrived early and stood in line.



The day was drawing to a close which meant that it was time to experience another sunset.  I don't think I'll ever get tired of these types of views.

We had reservations tonight in Jamie's Italian and it did not disappoint - they bring out so much food.
Meat Plank:

 
Dessert plank:

After dinner we went to the headliner show in the Royal Theatre.  The performer, Nate Thompson did a tribute to some old school rock 'n roll classics.  He was very energetic and really got the crowd into it.
After the headliner show, I went to the other end of the ship to Two70 for the 70's disco party.

 
As it was getting late, I didn't stay very long - had to be up early tomorrow to catch our approach into our first stop, Juneau!
 

At the moment, the Genie cannot get a cabana for you if it is already sold out.  They have no priority for Star Class in Coco Cay at the moment.  What you should do is purchase the cabana on your cruise planner and then when your Genie contacts you, ask for a specific number (ie. Cabana 1 or 2, etc.).  The Genies have had luck grabbing a specific cabana for you but only if they are not sold out.  So make sure you purchase on your own first.

The picture of the new design is missing the coffee table, unless they decided to move it against a wall.  We only had the cabana last month so I know there is a coffee table (that is where the safe is located.
That cabana looks to be number 9.  I say that because we had #10 and the cabana behind in the picture is the farthest out.  Since we had 10 I know we were the closest to the rock area.  
Now if you also look at the old cabana vs the new, you will see that if you remove that 2nd tier deck, and look at the 4 loungers against both, they are the same size without the deck.
OBTW, RCL is assigning the cabanas now.  It is still 1st come 1st served.  It is tied to your reservation of the cabana, not when you booked the cruise.   We booked our cabana on the same day we booked the cruise.  10 months out.  We were cabana number 10.  
There is an enclosed beach/swim area for cabana only customers.  It is not big, nor is it small.  However you do get to meet a lot of them if you are like us...in the water non-stop. Think about it the most they will have in that area is 160 people (20 cabanas X  8 people)  From what I could tell by talking to many is that the 1st 10 all got their cabanas in the 400 range.  The back row ranged from 649-899 because they booked later.  
I will say we loved every second.  We had a phenomenal attendant.  10 a.m. she brought over slices of pineapple, cantelope and watermelon with our menus.  11 a.m she took our food orders. I would not suggest the Portobello sandwich, but the funnel cake was amazing, so was the greek salad.  My brother in law basically ordered 5 items (high metabolism and athletic).  He got the Portobello too, grilled chicken,, Caesar salad, can't remember the last item, and the salted caramel brownie.  The salads are huge.  We got our food around 11:30 -11:45.  @ 2:30 -3:00 she came carrying fruit kebabs.  In between during the entire day, we saw her every 15-20 mins.  They are extremely attentive.  I ordered my 1st drink and said to her, just leave it on the table bc I am going to bathroom.   Cabana 10 is the farthest out (90 second walk, 2 mins at tops).  I walk out of the bathroom and there she was drink on the tray waiting for me.  OMG?.  Later on I was on the float mat and she screams out to me...MS. Pima, do you or Mr. Pima need a drink?  I ordered one and said Mr. Pima was snorkeling, but I am sure when he comes back he will want his usual.  My drink arrived and on my float mat, I paddled to her.  At that time she saw him coming back in from snorkeling.  I thought nothing about it.  He took off his gear and came and floated with me.  30 seconds later she screamed...Mr. Pima, with his usual drink on her tray.  He looked at me, and said we can never go back to not having a cabana ever again...it is like what posters say about 1x you go to a balcony, it is hard to go to an oceanview or 1x you go to a suite it is hard to go back to a balcony.
Our attendant wasn't the only one that did this.  It was non-stop of attendants on the edge of the water.  
I will say I did have a pet peeve, but that had more to do with a certain cabana.  As I stated earlier in the post, the beach/swim area is not small, but not huge either.  There are fish in that area, and Coco Cay is known for the birds that steal food.  This one cabana decided to bring a bag of Veggie straws with them off the ship (if you don't know what they are, basically it is vegetable potato chip)   They walked in the water and started to feed the fish.  Of course the fish would jump up to get it.  They laughed...the rest of us are cringing and saying you don't know if fish can eat that.  Their response, it is vegetables! (BS if you ever read the ingredients).  Their tone was mind your own business.  The fish than began pooling around them and jumping up out of water as soon as their hand came close, so than they pulled their hand back, and guess what...the seagulls start grabbing them from his hand.  They thought this was hysterical.  Take a pic, take a pic. is all they kept saying.  Meanwhile,  anybody with common sense in their brain had to get out of the water because the gulls were swooping in from all over the place.  Their cabana attendant had to come to the edge and tell them to knock it off.  They argued with her.  She got back up from the staff.  They reluctantly came out and beaaccched the whole way back to the cabana...we were just having fun and feeding them, what was the problem?  We of course had the last laugh.  Seagulls know where the food is coming from.  As soon as they left the water. the gulls did too, only to follow them to their cabana.   Later on that night we were at Schooners, we had an amazing piano player.  They sat a table or two away from us, and were stating I would never do a cabana again.  the service was great, but later in the afternoon we were swarmed by seagulls non-stop....wonder why?

InsInstall WhatsApp on both phones and use data for a voice call.   Test it before you leave so both of you are clear on how it works - but this should suffice and will prevent international roaming issues/fees 

InsInstall WhatsApp on both phones and use data for a voice call.   Test it before you leave so both of you are clear on how it works - but this should suffice and will prevent international roaming issues/fees 

Hi all,
We are in the top 1% of the world's population that has a house, inside toilet, and enough disposible income to take a cruise. This is my mindset going on any holiday.
Any problems we have are very minor first world issues.
Firstly a bit of background. We were on a 2.5 week extended vacation visiting Boston, Cape Cod, Orlando then the cruise from Port Canaveral.
Travellers were myself, my darling wife, sis in law, niece (16) who thinks she's 21 and son (14) who would prefer being on the PC than on vacation.
We hired a car in Florida so got up late around 9am sunday went to IHop then drove the hour or so to the Port. 
Filled up with gas before hire car drop off. I dropped the car off first then arranged for my wife who has mobility issues to get a wheelchair then drove back to the car hire place.
Point of note, the supervisors at the drop of point do not have a lot of patience for those lingering after bag drop but once I explained the situation with my wife they were ok. 
We were escorted through the process by the person wheeling the chair and we were on the ship after 15 minutes of checks and photos.
Once we thanked the chair person we made a bee-line for the rising tide bar to sip our chocolate martini's until the cabins opened. (Time was around 12.30 so not long to wait.)
We hired an electric chair for the duration of our cruise from special needs at sea. The process was painless and we thought it was good value at $185 for the week. It certainly afforded my wife much more freedom during our cruise. We even took it off ship for excursions. 
Day one evening was chaotic, we had to do windjammer as MDR mytime was just too long a line (stretched past the elevators) and we were peckish having not had lunch that day.
We were enjoying the atmosphere and exploring the ship. We were going to turn in early as it was an 8am start in coco key. However due to a medical emergency we were back at Canaveral at 1am and so we didn't get to coco key until lunchtime which actually suited us as my wife isn't great in the morning. 
Coco Key was great, we hired the snorkels but at 47$ they were a lot more expensive than the 10$ we paid in Costa Maya and Cozumel. I wouldn't hire them again at the key as there isn't a whole lot to see but it was still fun. We ate the mozarella sticks and crispy chicken recommended by @Matt but didn't get the "secret sandwich"  ? There was no shortage  of chairs and my wife could easily take her chair to all places. There were even beach type chairs with big wheels available for free. Highly rate Coco Key for travellers with mobility problems 5* for RCI.  That evening we choose to reserve the Bistro. I really enjoyed the entrees but the choice was too limited for some members of our party so we decided the next night to try for MDR. There was no shortage of food options on the ship anyway. ? 
The next day was a sea day and so relaxing on our balcony, this was our first balcony cabin and I would recommend it 100% it will be hard to go back to an inside. 
My niece met some friends the first night but my son didn't so he spent a lot of time in the cabin and hanging around with me which I really enjoyed we had some checkers games in the games room (Deck 14) and did the perfect storm slides together. We didn't do rockclimbing or bogeyboarding due to the 4 days at port we were off the ship alot.
To be continued.....
First sight of ship after hire car drop off at Alamo.

First photo on Deck 16 

Had to try the bridge glass walkway ? 

Isn't she a beut....

Courtesy Coco Cay photo lol 

I love this photo it's my fav. ?

Back on the balcony about to go for early dinner. 

One of many fun checkers games. Final score that day 2-2 ? 

These biscuits are my fav. 

We were scheduled for a September 2nd cruise on Navigator that was shortened by hurricane dorian.  RCI went above what would be expected in this situation, and made switching cruises fairly simple.  We are now heading out of Port Canaveral on the 9th. 
I can't imagine the stress the customer service reps have been under and everyone was very kind, patient, and helpful.  The only issue was the amount of time spent on hold, but that was to be expected under the circumstances.  I will absolutely be sailing and recommending RCI in the future.

Parent of the Year award. ?
Kidding of course. It is such a hard decision. We faced something like this with Irma. Not a cruise but we were scheduled to arrive at Disney two days before Irma was expected to arrive. I felt so much anxiety over decided to go or not.
Delta was already offering the waiver of change fees and so was Disney. We decided to go anyway and I was sick to my stomach. The plane from DTW to MCO was less than 1/3 full. My family thought that we were nuts.
In the end we lost 1 park day but would do it again. The parks were empty the week that we were there because there were so many cancellations.  
When you book any vacation during hurricane season, you have responsibility to expect that it is a real possibility. No one can control the weather. And Royal is being more than generous. People need to look at the bigger picture. Yes the situation is not good, but there are also people out in the Caribbean and Florida who have much bigger problems at the moment than their vacation plans being ruined. Let’s just pray that everyone gets out of this safely. Sorry about the blog hijack @Matt. Rant over. Back to regular programming. ?

Royal can't control the weather and a 25% FCC is very generous considering this isn't their fault and they are not obligated to provide any compensation when mother nature turns ugly.
I for one still plan on boarding on Friday and will enjoy whatever destination we end up sailing to.  I'll be on a cruise with like minded friends who all plan to cruise as long as they will let us get on the ship.    

Good for you. but  royal Caribbean knew way ahead of time we was not going to be able to go to coco cay and still allow the cruise to continue. I’m monitoring this storm way before we sail and I leave in miami I knew we were on the path of the hurricane with a lot anticipation so royal Caribbean knew too. And yes it’s not enough because I pay premium and a lot of money just to go to coco cay. I could get another cruise for half of what I pay if I want just be on the ship and do nothing.  But hope you enjoy your vacation. And if they cancel it and don’t give nothing back you should be ok and graceful to royal Caribbean for your amazing vacation. 

On Anthem an out of control kid ran into the Staff Captain, literally.  This brat had been punching random guests waiting near elevators while the parents did nothing.  Small kid like 5 or 6 so not a death punch but still, you don't do that.  He's running around and slams into the Staff Captain who walks into the area by coincidence.  
Staff Captain grabs kid and tells him to slow down, calm down, etc.  Father doesn't like a crew member admonishing his kid so he starts getting into it verbally with Staff Captain.  Along the way the father escalates it into "I know where you live and I'm coming for your family".  Boom - cabin arrest.  Next morning the whole family was put off in San Juan.  Around eight of them including grand parents who all got to fly home at their own expense.  
Big tough Jersey attitude didn't fly with the Staff Captain.  Threatening his family was the last straw.  I'm sure this guy went home and told his friends "I didn't do nothing, we were just kicked off" and maybe by New York or New Jersey standards that's just friendly banter but it didn't work on the ship.  That was our first stop on a 11 night cruise after one sea day coming down from Bayonne.  Nice way to lose what must have cost several thousand for the cruise plus then having to buy plane tickets same day to fly home. 

Today you departed San Juan at 2pm on the way to Nassau for a 10:15am arrival (guest walking off the ship at 11am).
The roughly 60nm extra for St Thomas may seem trivial but that is 3 to 4 hours for a ship especially for a ship that can't run at full speed.  
For a 10:15am arrival into Nassau you would need to leave St Thomas 3 to 4 hours earlier then you left San Juan, departing at 10am to 11am.  That would have created a port stop in St Thomas something like 7am to 11am.  That's not a very nice day in St Thomas.  
As an alternative you could have left St Thomas at 2pm and arrive into Nassau at something 2pm (with guest walking off the ship at 2:45pm) but you are leaving at 6:30pm so another short ugly day in port.
While 60nm may seem like nothing, it is for a ship.  Lobbing 3 to 4 hours off a port visit is a big deal.  

Let me start by saying I Love Royal Caribbean cruises. BUT dealing with Royal before the cruise is so frustrating. I don't normally do this but I just don't understand them sometimes. I need to book a reservation at Chops Grill of course I try to do it in the cruise planner online BUT I am linking other people from another reservation and the computer keeps saying error and doesn't want to let me. So I decide to just call. I pick the option to book specialty dining shore exertions etc etc.. After 20 min someone finally answers. I let them know that I want to book Chops and their response is oh I am sorry I am not the person who can book that.. Really? Then why did Royal route me to you in the first place when I picked the option for specialty dining. Its just so frustrating dealing with them!! I don't normally rant like this but for some reason this drove me crazy!! Lol.. Ok Rant over 

Lil guy has made several friends in the pool already! So cute! They are racing each other and having a ball.
Dad and mom are relaxing...

Shouldn't be a problem.  All the water park Cabanas are well away from the slide spray zones.  

Yup - we've already bought the cabana - I just don't want to be on the receiving end of a wall of water every time someone comes down a slide ?

The majority of guests boarding Mariner have never been on a cruise before.  
Perfect Day is proving to be immensely popular for good reason.
Combine the two and I can understand why they are trying this.
If the feedback is positive they'll likely continue, if not they likely won't.
The idea of two stops is appealing.  That's taking me two cruises, one last week and another next week.  
 
Let's examine this concept that the new Perfect Day is a money grab compared to the old CocoCay. 
Thrill water park is a small section of the island.  Beyond the water park the same excursions are available that always have been at CocoCay, except...
Remember the old Aqua Park?  $37 for one hour.  That's it in the distance. Yep, that's what you got for one hour and $37 back in 2017.


Remember the old slides from 2017?  $26 for a day pass.  Not included in the Aqua Park.

Now for roughly the same price of the old aqua park and old slide you get an entire water park with wave pool and multiple slides that are incredible.
Thrill water park is $62 in most of my upcoming stops at CocoCay.  To me that represents pretty great value compared to the CocoCay of yesterday.
BTW - see all those loungers in the top picture?  Notice anything missing?  The $20 umbrellas!
Here is a Perfect Day picture from last week.  Now, umbrellas all over the place and they are free!

If you just want a relaxing beach day without spending a dime that describes 90% of Perfect Day including a free fresh water pool and now Perfect Day is so much nicer than the old CocoCay.  If you want a water park, the price today has so much more value compared to the old Aqua park and inflatable slide of yesterday's CocoCay at the same price.
Plus no more tendering!  Come and go from the ship as much as you want.  
What's not to love about Perfect Day?