DDaley

Yep, same ol' thing formatted in a new way.. Didn’t actually do anything or link anywhere cool aside from the normal CP detail pages. And with no sale currently going on the DBP price was a shocker!

Ahaha, I have seen those Royal-branded teen dramas like at least 15 times each while getting ready. One where the guy and girl go to the two different “front doors” of the theatre and think the other one stood them up, and the one with the two cousins on a med cruise who like the same guy and do a Cyrano de Bergerac number on him. Amazing. 5 stars. No notes.

Thank you so much! I was going to spend $100 for a 1 month Verizon international travel pass for my river cruise next month but a "Europe Holiday" SIM from Orange is only 19.99€ for 12GB of data which seems like plenty when offset by free ship wifi. Wow!

Not true. The channel is dug out for huuuge container ships that dock even farther into the bay. I think the largest ship to dock in SD was Norwegian Bliss and it’s way bigger than Nav at 168,000 GT. A Royal ship in SD would be so nice!

Wow, is it crazy to add a ship to my to-sail list specifically to try this restaurant?! Everything looks amazing! No wonder you blog peeps are all such MJ aficionados. Paradise Beach also looks great! I’ve only seen the exteriors of the beach clubs when we were driving down to Punta Sur but I specifically remember the entrance of Paradise looking the nicest of them all, haha. If and when we get back to Cozumel, I’m sold!

You’ve seen so many things I had to memorize for Art History courses in college! PS. Going back to the David, I had to get a magnet of my favorite piece of art I ever memorized - Snake Goddess from Knossos in Crete! She’s also a little NSFW so I censored her. hahaha

Omg as a huge James Bond fan I immediately recognized this facade! GoldenEye is my favorite and Monaco/Monte Carlo are featured prominently.

Yep, this was my thought. San Diego is my home airport and I am constantly researching options from LAX just in case the savings outweigh the absolute horror or having to get up there. It has never once been worth it! Usually a savings of around $500 on the flight but you’ll need a $500+ private transfer or $800+ in parking fees for 14 days, it’s never worked out. (All this pricing aside from the fact that after a long trip, you land and still have to drive 2.5 hours to get home!)

I must know!! We’ll be in Zürich next month! I have written down a restaurant I found at some point and it notates - "full page of sausages" next to the restaurant name hahaha. You know where my priorities lie.

I was just wondering if your cabin attendant was going to remove them after you guys depart or if you’ve corrected this error for everyone in that room moving forward!

Samaria! That’s the water we had all over Greece. Samaria Gorge is in Crete and they bottle it there! I remember thinking it was pretty good. We warned our cabin attendant that we drink a lot of water but they were not ready to face the absolute STOCKPILE of empty bottles, usually 15-20 all lined up on the vanity every day.

Love to hear this as my husband and I both use Away. My purchasing experience with them was the best ever - I bought two, they shipped one. I contacted customer service and they SHIPPED TWO MORE. So now we just have a brand new backup sitting fully boxed up in the garage!!

I am so impressed you guys take care of your pool yourself! I need a crash course so I can drop my $95/month pool service. Do you have to over-chlorinate when leaving for long periods?

I have a Lo & Sons, but their Catalina Deluxe bag is the same style/orientation and I looove hiding away 2-3 pairs of shoes in the bottom compartment. I am crazy impressed you fit 7 pairs in there! My chunky poolside and walking sandals take up almost the entire space so usually I cram the binoculars down there too. When we went to Alaska it was perfect hiking boot storage. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wear them on the plane!

I use my Google account at flights.google.com. You can set trackers for specific flights on specific airlines or set up a general one for dates to a location if you just want a deal.

This is exactly what we did, the Uber to the airport from the port was super cheap and we had our rental car by 8am. Here is a map of the drivable locations, La Coca Falls and the view from Yokahu Tower was lovely.

Oh thanks, will do! You’re right, I just checked, and upgrading to FC on the international leg to AMS has come down to $3k pp from $5! So it may still come down more. Although even if it was a steal at 1,000, that’d put the flights higher than the (notoriously expensive) river cruise!

We're doing a multi-city trip this summer, flying San Diego > Amsterdam and then Zürich > San Diego and the flights have only gone up and up and up since I booked in November. We have to fly there in PE but after seeing a reasonable upgrade price, we get to come back in pods in Polaris which sounds like the better choice to me. On the way there I will be so excited I can handle the 9 hours of sitting in PE, but on the way back, its 12 hours and boy will that personal space and full recline feel amazing. I paid around $6k in flights for the two of us (including the upgrade on the FC leg) and my price tracker is currently sitting at nearly $11k for just PE both ways!! WHAT!! Can’t wait to read about your trip, Italy is in my future cruise list! Enjoy your last big hurrah with both girls!

I saw you said you were bumped to Aqua class but can you tell me your deck and or cabin number? Assuming this is deck 11? Not a huge fan of that overhang I am just realizing will be there for my sailing out of Japan on Millennium. Do you have any more pictures of your view from slightly farther back in the cabin? Also, great blog! Kotor is absolutely on my to-visit list now!!

So awesome! I thought the casino was big for this size of ship, it had plenty of empty machines around 9-10pm which felt like the hottest time.

I am just realizing I never posted about the shenanigans we saw ALL witnessed by Meredith and unseen by me. This is hilarious to me and is 100% why I never see any; it’s not that they’re not happening, it’s that I literally never look at the people around me unless I am sitting idly on the pool deck. First she saw a woman enter a bathroom, grab a paper towel and rub it inside her crotch area, then threw the towel away and left without washing her hands (and using the crotch hand to open the door). In the WJ, she saw a woman open a knife/fork/napkin set and use the fork to scratch at her foot, then used the napkin to wipe the same foot, then CONTINUED TO USE THE NAPKIN. We had a couple of swingers down the hall who had 3 whiteboards, a basket of candy, elaborate magnets, and several leis hanging on their door to entice people to stop by. They always had a question of the day and a drawing of an upside down pineapple proudly displayed. Took me until the second day to realize the swinging was happening in an INTERIOR room!! No fresh air?? Meredith saw them bringing home a young intoxicated guy who had been one of the first out in the Sexiest Man competition. This was the morning of disembarkation, magnets, leis and candies all stripped but the pineapple still flying high!

Thank you! I am happy your adventure is still ongoing!!

Pulled into LA around 6am Monday to another gloomy day. I happened to be out on the balcony when we passed by the Crowne Plaza again! We finished packing and headed up for one last WJ meal. All the jacarandas were blooming. We went into Jamie’s to sit with our WJ breakfast since it was a madhouse and the door was propped ajar. On Sunday morning in Ensenada even the Jamie’s was packed! Anyway, it was eerily silent in there and after like 10 minutes someone came by and closed the door fully on us. Were we in trouble??? Luckily before we finished another couple barged in through the closed door and after that it was all over, people were flooding in. We went back to the cabin to collect our luggage and filed out through the aft elevators/dining room. This line was crazy long! It started going into the second floor of the MDR, wrapped all the way around back by the door to the kitchens and out the other side onto the deck. While we were around back by the crew area I spotted a Crew Compass, never seen one of these before. We were barely looked at in security even though Meredith was using a birth certificate and made it to the car by 8:45am. Just about a 45 minute disembarkation experience from cabin to car. The crew was amazing on this sailing and we always got prompt service at the bars and on the pool deck. I already filled out my post-cruise survey and mentioned our amazing cabin attendant Bobby and our MDR waitstaff. Bobby was so personable he could easily be in a more guest-facing position! Overall, I still love Navigator and wouldn’t hesitate to book a cruise on her again of any length. There’s a 5-night to Cabo in 2026 that I am eyeing and although it’s available on both ships, I would definitely choose Nav over Quantum out of LA. Simply because of the Promenade and water slides! The two slides on Nav are so so fun. If it was warmer I would’ve gone even more times and I think we hit around 15-20x. When we stay at resorts with a lazy river we have a great method for keeping track of revolutions using sticks along the river's interior edge... but unfortunately we had no equivalent tracking method on the slides. Only 78 days to go until my first river cruise embarks (ALSO MY BIRTHDAY) so my dry dock won’t be so long this time. Schnitzel here I come! The one I had in the WJ left a pretty low bar to sail over, hahaha.

Did you experience this on your Freedom cruises? I love booking sushi but only hibachi is available. Do they still let you in to eat a la carte? Or do they not offer the sushi-only side at all?

After the show we walked up a flight to escape the horde and took a lap around the deck for a helipad view (and possibly a King of the World Moment). We decided to go to the WJ for dinner for ease since it was already 8pm! I had a big brown plate of questionable starches and curries and was satisfied. I did follow this up with a tiny bowl of salad for balance!! We headed back to the cabin for the all-too-soon, dreaded packing and called it a night. I allllmost went out again for dessert but talked myself out of it. Crazy mirror art above the promenade. It took me until the third day to get good at knowing which elevator bank I was coming from and how that corresponded to which side and end of the ship our cabin was on.. usually my husband is the cruise navigator! I also blame literally always booking forward port side and we were assigned aft/starboard! Hahaha