DDaley

It’s been busy here the last 45 minutes with ships leaving.   It’s more than I thought for a Monday but I guess these are all Christmas cruises.  Another Carnival Conquest sighting followed by Indy and then Carnival Sunrise. I think we may be next.  
Those Carnival ships sure look old and worn.  You all know by now what I am grateful for. 

So blog it... problem solved! 😁

RUBs
Weirdly enough the RUBs for Symphony really never existed. Or they are glitching. Because the link never popped up and I could enter the reservation number to get it to pop up on certain occasions. 
At like 50 days RUBs came out for Oasis and I thought they were high considering what someone might have paid for a JS. 
This is the minimum bid for some star class suites


This is the minimum bid for Sky class


But there are no suites available if you search the cruise. 
I do have the option to RUB on Indy, but I am happy with the rooms I selected and there is no need because we each have a room to ourselves, right next to each other. 
 
 

Important bits I guess......
Ship: Symphony Jan 12-19
Ports: PDCC, San Juan PR, Philipsburg, St. Maarten
In all honesty I am unsure if we will be calling to these ports since the pier in PR cannot handle larger ships. I have yet to get an itinerary change, but I didn't book anything on the off chance that we would have to cancel and rebook. The plan was to try Hideaway, but it never went below $53pp on either sailing and I don't think it is worth it at that price. 
Ship: Oasis Jan 19-25
Ports: PDCC, Falmouth Jamaica, Labadee Haiti
For this sailing I didn't care what ports we were visiting, so I made no plans whatsoever. I loathe Labadee and have no plans to get off.
Ship: Indy Jan 25-30
Ports: Cozumel Mexico and George Town Grand Cayman
I have never been to the Grand Cayman, so I am excited to see what is offered and we booked a Lucha Libre, Tacos & Margaritas tour for Cozumel. 
Rooms:
On Symphony we were assigned interior room #9509 which is a forward-facing interior. I actually thought this was a pretty decent room, while I am not a fan of being forward on a ship and prefer aft. I found the location to be pretty good all things considered. I am not far from an elevator, and I am on a decent enough floor that I could walk in either way. 
On Oasis we were assigned JS #7244 which is mid-ship and in a desired location. This is my brother's first JS. He stayed in the 2br GS with a lot of people and didn't have access to the tub. So, he is most excited for the tub 🤣.
On Indy we are in interior rooms #8357 and 8355. I chose these rooms because I feel like deck 8 aft is my sweet spot on smaller classes. I am usually less than 5 flights between all the important places. This is my brother first time having his own room on any cruise. 
Dinning/Shows:
I booked MTD for Symphony, we have a standing 7:45pm reservation across the board. We have Jamie's booked for embarkation lunch. Then Hooked and Chop's as lunches on sea days 6 and 3 respectfully. I booked Izumi for dinner the first night because I really dislike the "Welcome Aboard" menu. I plan to do a Playmaker/JR a la carte lunch or dinner and/or maybe use our D+ BOGO on night two.
I have Hiro booked day 2 at 10:30, Hairspray day 3 at 6:45, 1977 day 4 at 7pm, adult comedy day 5 at 10, and Flight......dare to dream day 6 at 10:30.
I have MTD for Oasis, but I did not book any dinners. I plan to use my brother to get all our CK ressies. I booked GT for embarkation lunch and Izumi's for lunch on sea day 3. Oasis has Portside BBQ and we plan to do a lunch there......or dinner if we cannot get CK all nights. 
I did not book cats. I have One Sky for day 2 at 10:45, Frozen in time for day at 7:30, Aqua80 day 4 at 10:30, and adult comedy day 6 at 10:45. 
I booked Chop's for embarkation lunch and GT for sea day 2 lunch on Indy. We booked traditional dining because this sailing had the 3 times of 5:30, 7:30, and 8:30. We have 7:30 and I am planning to send an email requestion a table for two since my mother is no longer on the reservation. 
Indy has no shows that require booking and plus I believe the shows they have are Grease, which imho is garbage. 
 

Backtracking a bit to yesterday’s shore excursion. Haffnar let me know yesterday they would be issuing a FCC as a goodwill gesture for the screw up. The most annoying part was that the guys didn’t get back to the Cabana until 11:50am essentially missing out on the entire morning and leaving me solo. Haffnar was not at all happy about it. This was not something we asked for or even hinted at. But having said that had this new policy of not allowing genies to escort their guests to their destinations been in place this mess probably would have been avoided.  Haffnar would have dropped me off at the cabana and accompanied the guys to the excursion area. And I am very confident that they would not have been turned away with a genie there.  

Thoughts on hideout cabana. We had #84.  It’s interesting because both Lindsay and Reyd went into this with low expectations. They loved the over water cabana from a few years ago and were carrying those comparisons with them. They were worried about crowds, noise/party vibe and lack of privacy in the pool area in front of our cabana. To be honest I shared some of those worries.  Although the free spaces on the island were very full today with 2 Oasis class ships, the feeling of overcrowding never materialized at hideaway beach.  There were plenty of available loungers. We absolutely loved our cabana. Noise was never an issue. People stuck to the pool in front of their cabanas. The heated pool really took it up a notch. Service was excellent. Food met expectations.  The design is very good; they use pathways and landscaping to prevent guests from other cabanas from walking in front of yours. All in all we would definitely go back. Possibly do the hideout cabana instead of the overwater cabana. We will have to see if our thoughts change after we do the overwater cabana in a few days. 
 

Meet Haffnar 🧞‍♂️💜

Reyd’s cruising goals. #RLS We are both enviously looking over at the RLS on oasis.  
#maybeoneday #cruisegoals #thoughtsbecomethings

I’m hanging out in the cabana and I got a notification from an app that tracks locations and speeds. It shows me the path of their excursion. Very cool but you know what that means.  Reyd took his phone with him. 😳

Omg I almost forgot about that one! Haha I guess he left his chicklets at home lol 

Over here just hoping it’s cold enough on Christmas Day that I don’t have to swap my flannel pjs for shorts! It’s happened the last 4 years in a row. Luckily the forecast only calls for a high of 68ºF so I’m thinking I can scrape by!! 
Without checking a deck plan, are you guys neighbours on the same side of the ship? Or will your ATSes be across the aqua theater from each other? 

^^^This^^^

@GregD ugh same!! Stupid snow on winter solstice.

The plan for the next few days will be hectic.
Let me backtrack on life lately since we last blogged in August...
I went back to teaching in September and it has been a complete whirlwind since then. This year's group is a busy one, we saw it coming years ago, but it doesn't really make it any easier. All I can say is thank goodness for the blessing of having a good team around to work with. That's what keeps me sane in teaching these days.
Hubby is working away as usual.
D18 is now in university, majoring in Pure Mathematics for now. She just wrapped up her first term with better grades than Hubby and I ever pulled off. Now she just has to figure out what she wants to do with that.
D16 is plugging away in Grade 11. She ended up with a really tough load of courses this semester (English, Bio, Chem, Accounting). To make her luck even worse, she has been in this constant cycle of tests in each of the subjects landing at the same time, every other week. She is exhausted. Everyone, is so looking forward to a few days away in warmth and sun.
Because life has been so busy for us, Christmas totally snuck up on us. This combined with the Canada Post strike, which then caused backups with Purolator, UPS, and FedEx, most of the Christmas gifts made it (thank goodness for Bezos Prime), except for a portion of Hubby's. I thought it would safe because it was coming from Kentucky through UPS. However, after shipping label was created and it showed no movement of UPS picking it up, I contacted the company and they told me because it's an international shipment and UPS will eventually hand it off to Canada Post, they have to hold the shipment until Canada Post is up and running again. Canada Post started running again a few days ago, but they will not accept international shipments until Monday (the 23rd), so Hubby is out of luck.
Today's plan is to print luggage tags and set sail passes. Haven't even looked at those yet. On the agenda is to put together my info list for when the ship genie reaches out. I decided to do things a bit differently with shoreside. Some people were sending shoreside a whole list of requests that they would normally send the genie. I decided to hold off and only have shoreside book my dining, and save the rest for when the ship genie reaches out. I am going to see how that works out for me.
Also on the "to do list" is laundry and start packing. We leave one week from today, but Tuesday and Wednesday will be a wash due to family Christmas get togethers. One week to La Bamba has me so excited! 

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 
PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 
PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 
PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 
PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 
PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Details from the @Lovetocruise2002 family portion of the blog....
Who’s Going?
Me, Hubby, D18, D16 (aka, the freeloaders)
Flight
Delta from DTW-FLL/MIA-DTW; booked through Air2Sea. It was cheaper to fly into FLL and return from MIA so that’s we ended up doing.
Pre-Cruise Stay
We debated staying in Miami for this trip. However, the last time we went to the Intercontinental Miami with the kids, it didn’t sit well with us. We decided after that trip that the Intercontinental Miami would be a stay for just Hubby and I, not the whole family.
Since we were flying into Fort Lauderdale anyway, there was no real question where we would stay. We totally fell in love with the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort last December and Hubby fell in love with Surf Style LOL, that combined with the fact that we would be able to visit La Bamba again, it was a no brainer. We were also excited to hear that @Jax would be there as well at the same time!
Itinerary
28 DEC Arrive Fort Lauderdale, FL
29 DEC Fort Lauderdale, FL
30 DEC Miami, FL (Cruise Day!)
31 DEC PDCC, Bahamas
01 JAN Nassau, Bahamas
02 JAN At Sea
03 JAN Miami, Florida (Go home)
Cabin
2 BD ATS this time.
Pre-Cruise thoughts
-        While the freeloaders have been on many ships, this is actually their first time sailing a non-amped OG Oasis class ship. This will be their first time seeing the AT without the Ultimate Abyss.
-        Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you. I will even go scope out the CL for @OCSC Mike. But will not do the WJ lol
-        When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.
-        Lastly, I will try to post videos and stories on Instagram.  You can follow me @lovetocruise2002

Day 5 - St Thomas. 
This was half day port day , very short but I guess enough for few hours on the beach. Breakfast  was at the park cafe which was OK. We did not had any special plans so we decided to go out early and catch a taxi to the beach . After we went out the rain started and we decided it better to do a U turn and back to the ship. We already had the wonderful experience riding the open side "taxis" in the rain.

We decided to take advantage on the empty ship and went to the hideaway area.

It wad quite empty so we could enjoy some time in the huge Jacuzzi and try the pool. There something about Jacuzzi in the rain that feel special. I will spare you and not share my picture from the pool or Jacuzzi.

We went fie early lunch in the WJ after checking the Pel Cafe . the Perl had some new sandwiches and they offer different kind of Salads , for sure it's an upgrade comparing to promenade cafe.


Perl Cafe is also one of the only places to get special coffee so the coffee lines can be big (the other place is the WJ) at the WJ I found some nice corn fried balls which I liked and even took seconds 

We went to take a nap (finally) so I can not report any pier runners. We went to the promenade to watch the parade,  it's the same one as other ships without any adjustments to the bigger promenade,  I hope they will work on an Icon edition.




Today was the furst time we went to the main dining room. The service was very very good , everything arrived so fast and it was quite tasty. For starter I took the Ceaser sald and she got the escargot,  no kissing in the next hour or so 🙂 .


For main we both took the butter chicken that was good 

Dessert was the tress letche cake,  flan and the cheese plate. Both were good (cheese is just as expected).


During dinner my spouse had a discussion with the assistant waiter , tried to be part of it but I only know how to order food, curse and some relationship related  sentences in the language they talked. Apparently,  if 18 people give a 10 score in the survey and better even they mention the waiters name they can get the day off and even go to the port. Otherwise they are usually working in the WJ during the day while working tge evening at the MDR. I must admit he did not raise that or ask for a 10 but answered my spouse question. 
Post lunch we went to listen to some music and went to the casino to work on our next cruise certificates (my advice , never ever play for certificate,  play as you like , if you get out of it a certificate,  it's an added bonus). You so how it end. My spouse hit the bad and I went to watch the quest in the sub zero arena. The quest was fun and although my team was the smallest we won ! The team leads were doing a excellent job although for one of them it was the first time.
 


A good conclusion for another nice day.
 
 

I have to ask now...what is so good about Raising Cane's?

The Empire Supper club.
One of the main reason for this cruise was my spouse birthday and what is better birthday dinner than trying the new Supper club? (Dont answer,  I am sure there is :-)) 
So I decided to use it as an excuse to try this experience.  Experience as it's not just a regular meal. We used to love the Chef table (before they removed most of the red wines) so we had high expectations.
You get an exclusive invitation to the room which tell you to be there by 6:20 as they close the doors by 6:30.

We got there on time , not before we stopped for some photo ops , after all it was a long time since I brought my jacket to a cruise..
[  ] We got a front seat table , around 1 meter (3 feet for the people that leave in countries who insist to be unique and confuse the rest of us 🙂 ) from the stage .


We got glasses of champagne that were filled many times and the menues 


There was also a songs menue but there wasn't much connection to the menu and wha she was singing but no complaints here

We strated with a small bagel that toped with caviar and followed with some sweet bread. 



The first dish was an oyster fried with bread crumbs with some cold sauce on the side, it was wired and the less desirable from all that we tried. It was accomplished with some bitter sweet light drink



Next was the single ravioli which was filed with egg yolk and cheese,  it was very good.
Before cutting the center

After cutting it

the cocktail was stronger and I liked it
The band trio were very good and the singer added a joke here and there all in all the atmosphere was very nice

Next we got the langostin which was my favorite dish , it was very tender and melted in my mouth.


 
I thought the plates were also a good option to play the submarine game if we got board
The next course was the ceaser salad,  it was very good as a sald can be.

We got a very good sorbet to clean our taste buds before tge main course 

For main we splitted the wagyu steak and the sea bass,  the stake was not very big but just enough considering the all the other food we already got. Since my spouse ask about the rabbit dish she also got it and said that for her it was the best.



it was time for dessert,  we got the cheese cake and the chocolate beehive 

They brought another, "surprise" dessert : The central parak chocolate tree. It's a cotton candy that covers a chocolate pieces. We never say no to cotton candy. 


The singer acknowledge all the people that celebrate some occasion including my spouse birthday.
All in all we done decent work on the drink , we'll at least at my side. After all its 7 different drinks although not that strong 

The all meal took around two hours , after that we went to get a pizza in Sorentos,  no no we did not , it was more than enough.
 
I think they could have done better job on some of the plates as they want to serve everyone at tge sane time it, one of the items was colder than I expected. Tge place was full so I guess many people wanted to try it.
To conclude,  I think it was very nice experience for special occasions. We might try it again on other Icon ship.
Let me know if you have any questions.

 
 
 

No but this idea is genius bc I loveee me some breakfast pizza..... gravy instead of pizza sauce? FIRE

forgot lunch pics! i diverted and got the lobster sandwich instead of the boring caesar.