Rags1

Day 26
The planning for this trip just keeps getting better and better. 😡🤬
As I stated the luggage tags originally open up early, then closed, and wasn't available again until after 5pm on day 30. As the rooms are linked to my email, I have received a total of 11 emails in regard to RU. I really wish I wasn't sailing with such a large group, not just for RUB 😂🤣, but because I feel like I would win if I placed a bid.
But back to the planning tomfoolery. I asked in Jan and then again in March if people wanted to do any excursions. Nobody replied. In July I asked once again about excursions and nothing. Well Sunday I was sent an email from the new Vintage, Robin, she has primarily sailed Carnival and therefore she knows cruising 🙄. She asked if the crew on Royal is as friendly as Carnival because she would often eat, drink, and dance with the crew on Carnival. 
She was planning her outfits, which include a total of three choices a day, and was wondering about the excursions I planned. I was like huh? Every email and phone call from me states I will be in the casino, that is my excursion. But Robin was like I read it and your mother confirmed that you had booked excursions for us in each port. I was like where is not only the critical thinking, but the reading comprehension??????
I sent out invoices for everything and no excursion were listed. I told her that, and she said because she heard last time I paid for dinners and goody bags, she assumed I booked excursions in all 3 ports as a gift. I asked her repeatedly why she would assume that I would book everyone's excursions and not tell anyone anything. I spent an hour explaining why this was inaccurate and now I am frustrated. I am a softie and did buy everyone a water package, but I don't know what people like to do.  
Robin also told me she needed a wheelchair for embarkation/disembarkation. She has a bad hip and cannot walk the ramp........I had to explain that I will assist but she is also grown. Like none of you are paying me for services. I was cruising and you decided to come along, I am not your concierge or genie. I keep hearing demands and such but no "thank You's." It gets better, she has 3 suitcases. Since we can only check two, she wanted me to ask everyone else how many they are bringing so she can use someone else's allotment. I wasn't bringing any so I told her she can use mine. She has also assumed that despite me mentioning to be mindful of how much you bring, that my brother, myself and my bff would help her with all her bags. I had to remind her there are FIVE vintages on this trip, they might need help too. 
 

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

@SweetPea, Bombing?  I need more about that story!  I learned my lesson early in my career.  One of the first protective details I worked was a formal dinner at a Washington, D.C. hotel.  All of us on the team wore a small identification pin on our lapel. While securing a large ballroom I noticed an attractive female, dressed in a beautiful evening gown, hanging out where guests shouldn’t have been.  I casually walked up to her and politely informed her that she needed to leave the area.  I don’t remember her exact words because it’s been about 50 years ago but it was something like “Had you looked looked a little higher on my dress, instead of at my breasts, you would have seen the same pin you’re wearing.  Move along Junior.”  A humbling experience to say the least. Life lesson learned that night😂. 

I’m still planning to wrap this up but it didn’t happen today!  We spent the day at the restaurant planning the how and when to open. But I promise I’ll do it soon because I really do have more to say😂

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

@SweetPea, Bombing?  I need more about that story!  I learned my lesson early in my career.  One of the first protective details I worked was a formal dinner at a Washington, D.C. hotel.  All of us on the team wore a small identification pin on our lapel. While securing a large ballroom I noticed an attractive female, dressed in a beautiful evening gown, hanging out where guests shouldn’t have been.  I casually walked up to her and politely informed her that she needed to leave the area.  I don’t remember her exact words because it’s been about 50 years ago but it was something like “Had you looked looked a little higher on my dress, instead of at my breasts, you would have seen the same pin you’re wearing.  Move along Junior.”  A humbling experience to say the least. Life lesson learned that night😂. 

The sailing crew has made it safely home. Our Vegas to Palm Springs flight was delayed about 30 minutes because our aircraft was late arriving. Then once we boarded we were delayed about another 25 minutes waiting on 8 passengers on a late arriving SWA flight from Cleveland. The direct flights from Vegas to Palm Springs are listed as one hour. When you actually board one they usually announce a flight time of around 45 minutes.  Tonight once everyone was onboard they announced a flight time of 36 minutes. We made it in 27.  We dropped Katie at her house, stopped to get young Melissa some vegetables for her dinner, dropped her at her house and then Stacy, Taylor and I arrived home to be greeted by some happy pets!
The highlight of my day happened in Las Vegas. It might have been the highlight of my week. I was sure nothing could top that Aintzumi Chinese food in the Houston airport but I was wrong.  While standing in line to board our aircraft this happened:  I saw a female pilot come out of the jetway to talk to the agent at the gate.  After their discussion the gate agent, another female, resumed calling out the boarding instructions.  The female pilot took a step away from the podium and leaned against the wall reading something.  Shortly after that a guy, maybe in his 50’s, bypassed the boarding line and kinda just thrust his boarding pass at the pilot.  She looked up and said “I’m sorry, you have to show that to her” as she pointed to the gate agent. When I boarded I glanced in the cockpit and that pilot was in the left seat. She looked to be in her early 30’s. I’m sure a little older but didn’t look it. After a 27 minute flight we landed in Palm Springs and as I left the aircraft the Captain was in the jetway talking to other Southwest people. I told the family I’d catch up and I waited for her to finish her conversation. Then I told her I just had another day when  I’m embarrassed to be a man. She looked bewildered and asked why. When I told her I saw the guy try to give her his boarding pass she laughed like crazy. She told me it happens all the time.  And then, this is my favorite part, she said, “I just use it to my advantage.  When we have problem passengers I look at them, and in my sweetest voice  I say oh honey, you’re gonna have to talk the Captain about that.  He’s right over there!”  We both laughed and I told her “You just made my day Captain.”  And she responded “No Sir, you made mine” and gave me a hug. I mean it wasn’t Chops or Mama Mia or anything, but it was a moment for sure!
I’ll have more tomorrow to wrap this up

You blew everyone else out of the water with your first post!  Actually laughing out loud😂. This will make my cruise withdrawals a bit easier!  Can’t wait for more

I feel like i have very big shoes to fill! 🤗

I’m loving this!!

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

@SweetPea, Bombing?  I need more about that story!  I learned my lesson early in my career.  One of the first protective details I worked was a formal dinner at a Washington, D.C. hotel.  All of us on the team wore a small identification pin on our lapel. While securing a large ballroom I noticed an attractive female, dressed in a beautiful evening gown, hanging out where guests shouldn’t have been.  I casually walked up to her and politely informed her that she needed to leave the area.  I don’t remember her exact words because it’s been about 50 years ago but it was something like “Had you looked looked a little higher on my dress, instead of at my breasts, you would have seen the same pin you’re wearing.  Move along Junior.”  A humbling experience to say the least. Life lesson learned that night😂. 

Not where i thought that story was going! I thought the attractive female was going to be Mrs Rags, aka Nurse Ratchet 😆
Oh and the 💣 ... it made national news and it occurred on a major holiday. I feel like a celebrity gossip column writing a blind item 😃

Is our White Whale of Moby Dick proportions? IDK .. are you counting our financial well-being? Who cares! YOLO!!   Who: SweetPea and Batman, two crazy mutual enablers who found ❤️ about 23 (24, 25?) years ago. Married for most of those. Don't ask me our anniversary. I once proudly told Batman my new ATM PIN, proclaiming, "Get it?!  It's our anniversary backwards!"   Spoiler: it wasn't.    I've not heard the end of it since.    What: Our White Whale. Why, you ask? We had 3,462.7 cruises in the Owner's Panoramic canceled during the Covid. Seriously. By March 578th, 2020, I'd had enough, just like the rest of the world. This was bound to happen sooner or later. I made sure of it.    When: September 24-October 1, 2023. Too short and will be over too quick, but the ship is our destination so who cares?! (Our itinerary is mundane and boring. We'll only be getting off the ship for PDCC.)   Where: Oasis of the Seas (C'mon now. There are only 2 OPs in the entire fleet, so there's a very good chance you'd win that coin toss.)   Why: Why not?!! Besides, flying sucks and we can drive to the port! And by drive, i mean be driven. Because who drives on vacation? Is that even a thing?!   How: Selling one pickled middle-aged kidney on the dark web. Let's face it, there's a difference between a kidney from a 20-year old athlete and one from a 50-something whose kidney is going to be (a-hem) grape-flavored. Clearly what I'm trying to say is that you could probably book two Star Class rooms with the 20-year-old kidney. Our cost wasn't *that* bad, but should still leave you questioning whether you'd consider us sound financial advisors.    Crown&Anchor Level: Brown.    I briefly considered making a parody pin that said "Not Pinnacle" with the "not" in very, very small font. I think it'd have been an excellent conversation starter.    Pre-cruise Diet: Poor. I planned to lose 30 pounds. I only have 33 to go. Forget that noise.   So here we go on our 3.5-year-in-the-making adventure. If you know us, I'm taking a very liberal definition of the term "adventure" here. As in, you shouldn't expect FlowRider reviews from us. That would only happen if they privacy-tented the entire wave pool and literally no one else could see us. I've seen this new TikTok thing all the cool kids are talking about, and going viral for all the wrong reasons would send me into a Brendan Fraser Whale-spin without the need of a fat suit.    (Perhaps i should tell you about the time i managed to ATV my way into the middle of a sugar cane field in St. Kitts where the excursion leader pulled me aside and quietly asked if I'd consider a private lesson before allowing the group to continue. That was 20 years and 30 pounds ago and my grace and agility has not aged like the fine wine I enjoy so much. --- That was for the kids in the back who didn't get my grape- flavored kidney joke earlier.)   This is our first cruise post-shutdown. We wanted to feel like we were going on vacation, not checking in for a clinical procedure. So we sat out all mandates. We both found them too stressful and opted to wait until the craziness was well on its way to over before we even remotely considered cruising again. This is one of the reasons we're going to the poorhouse post-cruise. I booked this pretty late and didn't partake in opening day prices. However, i got worried this was Oasis's last season in NJ so i bit the bullet and made several payments Batman wouldn't notice so our final bill was more in line with what I thought he could stomach. I can't be the only benevolently devious spouse to do so. If you've done something like this yourself, blink twice.   (And, Mindy, if you're reading: You're a SAINT!)   For the record, i caught Batman in a good mood one night and asked him the max he'd pay for a week-long cruise in Star Class. Unsurprisingly, it was a *bit* less than the cost of this one. So this is just between us RC Blog family, right? Good thing he thinks this website is Royal.blog.Carribean.me.live.com/reports which he always forgets to find later ....    And to any dudes reading, please remember: there is no such idiom as "Bros before blogs." That does not and will never exist.... if i can help it.    So, as long as Batman never does find this blog ... Continue to follow along to learn the riveting answers to such burning questions as: how will Anthem Star Class compare to Oasis Star Class? Will we prefer O Class to Q Class in general? Is this Deck 17 we keep reading about an actual Nirvana? What else has the pandemic stolen from us in pre v post shutdown changes? Will we ever want to return to Norwegian Haven? And ultimately, will selling a functioning kidney be worth the experience?   Come with us! We'll find out together!

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

I’m still planning to wrap this up but it didn’t happen today!  We spent the day at the restaurant planning the how and when to open. But I promise I’ll do it soon because I really do have more to say😂

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

@SweetPea, Bombing?  I need more about that story!  I learned my lesson early in my career.  One of the first protective details I worked was a formal dinner at a Washington, D.C. hotel.  All of us on the team wore a small identification pin on our lapel. While securing a large ballroom I noticed an attractive female, dressed in a beautiful evening gown, hanging out where guests shouldn’t have been.  I casually walked up to her and politely informed her that she needed to leave the area.  I don’t remember her exact words because it’s been about 50 years ago but it was something like “Had you looked looked a little higher on my dress, instead of at my breasts, you would have seen the same pin you’re wearing.  Move along Junior.”  A humbling experience to say the least. Life lesson learned that night😂. 

Time to catch up a bit.  Melissa and I got off the ship at Cozumel and just spent time in the port area. Did the tourist thing and had some tacos and guacamole at Margaritaville.  Weather was nice enough so we spent some time on the balcony.
Dinner at chops.  Had the filet and whole lobster.  Both very good but the Sabrina Special in CK is still the best.  Show last night was in the aqua Theater.  Always amazed with the athletic skills of those men and women.
After the show we headed up to the suite to once again spend some time with our friends, MO5AIC.  Happened to be Heath’s birthday so we celebrated with a cake, some snacks and of course some drinks. Jay knows them well so he popped in also.  Just like last year it was two hours of laughter!  Just before 11 the guys and girls decided to go to Quest.  Stacy and I said we’d stay in the suite and let the younger ones party.  Shortly after they left I found a cell phone belonging to one of the guys. I texted Taylor and she asked if we could bring it down.  We went and found the group and went back to the room.  NOT.  I Think I was set up. Sometime around 3 am we said ourgoodnight and headed back to the suite.

Dinner last night at Izumi Hibachi was very tasty as usual.  We were booked to see Blue Planet but decided to skip it since none of us have enough class to appreciate it!  Had late night snacks and called it a night.  Breakfast on the balcony this morning overlooking the port in Cozumel. I think this is the first time here that the weather is pleasant enough to really enjoy the balcony. No plans for today but will go ashore for a bit. 
Our block was waiting in the room last night.  I’m happy that we received it on our favorite ship!

@WAAAYTOOO Mauricio was happy to hear you love his place and said to hurry back!  Free margarita if you show him a screenshot of this post😂

Received word today that an email I sent to the Hotel Director resulted in both Lusi and Jay being recognized for exceptional service.  Haven’t found out yet what exactly that means for Jay but evidently Lusi received a copy of my email with hand written comments from the boss, extra time off and dinner in the specialty restaurant of her choice!  That makes me happy!  More tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay!

Goodbye Honduras!  No pier runners that we saw😂. 

Random observation. This is my first time in this port. With Jay leading the way we found our car and driver with no issue. But it was a madhouse getting out of the port area! Our ride was in the small circular area. The lot on the right was for busses. It's a tiny area for 5k or more people arriving!  Reminded me of one of my dad's old sayings "Like trying to put ten pounds of sxxx in a five pound bag."