Tiffeven

Thanks for sharing your trip!  Sounded wonderful

She has already told me she wants to ride the carousel when we go back.
Have a safe trip home.  It was so nice meeting y'all. 

Day 7:
In the first few days of the cruise, we received a letter that we need to register for the kid's rapid antigen test for day 7.  We registered all of the kid's for the 8:30am appointment and were planning on having breakfast in our room at 9am before getting off the ship in Coco Cay.  What we didn't realize was how long the line would be.  We assumed 8:30am meant an 8:30am appointment, but the line was the longest one I have seen the entire trip.  I'm not sure about other times, but it seemed like 8am-9am was very busy.  One reason for this is we were supposed to get to Coco Cay at 10am, and kids are not allowed off the ship until they get their negative result.  It was only supposed to take about an hour for results, but we didn't get our email until almost three hours later.  It worked out ok for us though, because Steven and I were planning on getting off the ship in Coco Cay without the kids first so that we could ride the big waterslides, and then going back to get them and taking them to the waterpark.  I feel bad for anyone who was planning on taking their kids off the ship first thing though.  Keep this in mind when planning your testing.  If you are going into port and want to get off the ship early on day 7, I recommend planning your testing earlier than 8am.

Day 7 continued:
After sampling the food, we set out to ride the waterslides.  We were successfully able to ride every waterslide in the park, spend some time in the wave pool, and do the pool obstacle course thing in less than two hours.  The reduced capacity definitely came in handy today.  Several of the slides had no line, and the longest line, which was for The Slingshot, took about 10 minutes.  Even Daredevil's Peak was almost no wait (maybe 3 people in front of us).  We had so much fun at the waterpark and wish the ship was in port longer.  Daredevil's peak was very fast and a lot of fun.  Screeching serpent or should we call it the wedgie maker (the blue slide that is open and pretty much straight down) was Steven's favorite.  All of the slides were so much fun, and we really enjoyed our time there. 
It was time to go get the kids so they could enjoy Perfect Day as well.  When we got back on the ship, Sunil had pizza delivered to the room, so the kids could snack while they switched to swim clothes.  He also had a very long and fun conversation with us.  It was nice being able to joke and get to know him a little bit better.
We only had a little time left at Coco Cay, so we asked Christian what he wanted to do, and he rode two of the smaller waterslides before him and I headed to Daredevil's Peak.  He also rode Steven's favorite waterslide, and of the four, he agreed with Dad and said his favorite was the Screeching Serpent.  We also took the kids to the wave pool.  The wave pool was very nice.  A nice touch was it had water sprayers that kids could turn and play with but if they turned them away from the wave pool they lost pressure and turned off, so kids couldn't spray people walking by.  Christian, Nyssa, and Kat played on the obstacle course in the pool for a bit.  Then, we headed to Splashaway Bay, so the babies  and Sophia could play and slide on the smaller slides.  They were just shutting down the waterslides at Splashaway Bay when we got there, but they were nice enough to let the babies and another toddler each slide once before shutting down.  We started to head back to the ship, and when we were walking through Captain Jack's, the entertainer started singing Baby Shark.  It was really cute and he also joked with us about having five more kids, which was quickly shot down by Steven and me.  Then, we passed belly dancers who Nyssa decided to try to dance with.  They all played along and danced with her.  It really was a Perfect Day, and out of our three trips to Coco Cay, this was the best one yet.
Truly a Perfect Day at Coco Cay:

Thank you for taking us on your journey!

Day 7 continued:
After walking down the pier, you go left to go to Coco Beach Club or straight for Thrill Waterpark.  As we were walking down the pier, we realized we had forgot our cabana tickets, but figured we'd keep going anyway.  We walked up to the entrance, they scanned our seapasses, and voila we were inside no tickets required.  We walked up to the cabana concierge, gave them our room number, and then they escorted us to our cabana and gave us a bracelet.  Sunil had reserved cabana 45, and told us this is the one they recommended when he asked for the best one.  It was in a perfect location in the waterpark.  It was right at the bottom of daredevil peak (the tallest slide) and convenient to everything in the waterpark.  It had two loungers outside, a couch and chair inside, a cooler area for water, six water bottles, a place to charge your phone, a Bluetooth speaker, a safe, and six towels.  You also have a cabana attendant who brings you drinks and food from Snack Shack.  Snack Shack is complimentary.  If you have a drink package, it is covered here.  If not, you pay for any alcohol like you would on the ship.  We decided we'd order mozzarella sticks, a cabana burger, a cabana chicken sandwich, a funnel cake, a coco loco, a tropical mango water, and a diet coke.  There were birds and a family of chickens that kept walking through the cabana and landing on the table, and the cabana attendant told us to let her know when we were done with the food, so she could take it without the wildlife getting to it.  There was a button on the table that we would press anytime we needed the cabana attendant.
Headed to Thrill Waterpark:

The Cabana:

Cabana menu from Snack Shack and our food:

 

Day 7 continued:
Sunil told us to meet him in the suite lounge at 10:20am.  The genies had all of their guests do this, and then we priority elevatored down and pretty much got off the ship immediately.  There was one genie at the top elevator, one at bottom elevator,  and one right outside.  It was very quick and worked well since they could priority the elevator back and forth to get Star Class families without having to worry about it stopping on any other floor between.  Sunil said this is the first time they've done it this way, and because it worked so well, they would probably stick with it.
Coco Cay:

 

Day 6 continued:
We picked up the kids and asked both of the older two if they wanted to go ride the waterslides, but they opted for pizza and video games instead, so Sunil had pizza, fries, and fruit delivered to the room for them.  I really don't know what they are going to do when they get home and can't have pizza for every meal.  
Steven and I had 150 Central Park reservations for the evening.  We always try to do 150 as our date night restaurant, so we brought the kids back to Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots after a few hours.  They were excited to be back.  We met Sunil at 150 Central Park where we had a nice conversation.   Our server was very nice, but it was  much different than the other restaurants.  At the other restaurants, we had our main server taking care of us, plus other servers, and the restaurant managers would come by numerous times asking if everything was to our liking during the meals.  We even had the Mad Hatter at Wonderland serving us food and continually bringing the kids cotton candy.  At 150, our server took care of us but we really didn't have any one else stopping by the table.  We did enjoy having everyone fawn all over us at the other restaurants especially since they kept the kids occupied, but it was kind of nice having a quiet meal since the kids weren't there.  
For our meal, I had ceasar salad, seared honey glazed scallops, roasted spiced pumpkin bisque, and lobster thermidor.  Steven had ceasar salad, crispy Berkshire pork belly, and pan-seared veal medallions.  We have always really enjoyed the food at 150, and this trip was no different.  It was delicious, and we ate so much that we didn't have room for dessert.  The presentation of the food was beautiful as well.  We even pulled up a picture to compare the presentation from when we were on Allure; and while it was delicious at both, Symphony definitely wins on presentation.
On the way to get the kids, I realized we hadn't had Baked Alaska on this trip, so I messaged Sunil and asked for some to be delivered after we picked up the kids.
After picking up the kids, we returned to our room to find a towel animal surprise.  We always keep all of the towel animals, so that we have a towel animal menagerie at the end of the trip.  After the first towel animal, I put it on the desk in the master bedroom, but the next day, the room attendant took it even though it was set to the side.  I was going to ask him not to take any more, but our paths didn't cross.  We had one towel animal (our 2nd towel animal) and were getting off in port.  I was still unable to find him, so I called Sunil and asked him if he could let him know not to take the towel animal that we like to have a zoo at the end of the trip.  Sunil made sure we had our zoo, because we returned to the room to find...

Sunil also called soon after we arrived to the room and asked if we were ready for our baked Alaska, which was yummy as always and a good end to the day.
150 Central Park:

Baked Alaska:

Tell her about the next B2B just around the corner ... 🙂

Day 6 continued:
After decorating cupcakes, the kids went to Adventure Ocean and Royal Babies and Tots to burn out some energy while Steven and I rode the flowrider and all of the waterslide onboard.  The flowrider was a lot busier than it had been.  There were probably 20 people in line and another 15 or so watching when we got there. We asked the guy on one side of the flowrider where he wants us to stand or sit for Star Class priority, and he said we have to get in line with everyone else.  Of course, we knew this wasn't true, so we found a different employee who we knew was familiar with Star Class.  He said the other guy doesn't usually work there and is only there for Covid protocols.  He then went and spoke to the guy running the flowrider.  Before, they were doing 3 guests, 1 star class, 3 guests, 1 star class, etc.  This time they did 4 guests and then both Steven and me.  I guess they switch it up based on who is running the flowrider and how busy they are.  We also rode each of the waterslides.  The two enclosed waterslides called The Perfect Storm were ok.  They were pretty hot and muggy inside and not very fast.  The Supercell waterslide was our favorite on the ship, so we rode it twice.  The lines for the waterslides were way shorter than we expected especially for a sea day.  On some of the slides, there was no line at all and the longest waterslide line had maybe 3 people in it.  It seemed like the majority of people on the pool deck, were either lounging or in the pool.  Again, we didn't notice any limits for the amount of people in the pool.  We finally had a chance to try El Loco Fresh.  It was pretty standard.  If we didn't have all the specialty restaurants included, we would have probably spent more time there, but it really didn't compare to specialty dining or even the room service steak quesadillas.   It was good just not great.
El Loco Fresh:

 

I'm really feeling Nyssa's pain.  When I told her we were getting off the ship to go home today, she very sadly said, "But why? I want to stay here!" 
Unfortunately,  all good things must come to an end.
 

I love that Sunil coordinated the cupcake decorating. That is amazing and the kids look like they had so much fun!

Day 7 continued:
After walking down the pier, you go left to go to Coco Beach Club or straight for Thrill Waterpark.  As we were walking down the pier, we realized we had forgot our cabana tickets, but figured we'd keep going anyway.  We walked up to the entrance, they scanned our seapasses, and voila we were inside no tickets required.  We walked up to the cabana concierge, gave them our room number, and then they escorted us to our cabana and gave us a bracelet.  Sunil had reserved cabana 45, and told us this is the one they recommended when he asked for the best one.  It was in a perfect location in the waterpark.  It was right at the bottom of daredevil peak (the tallest slide) and convenient to everything in the waterpark.  It had two loungers outside, a couch and chair inside, a cooler area for water, six water bottles, a place to charge your phone, a Bluetooth speaker, a safe, and six towels.  You also have a cabana attendant who brings you drinks and food from Snack Shack.  Snack Shack is complimentary.  If you have a drink package, it is covered here.  If not, you pay for any alcohol like you would on the ship.  We decided we'd order mozzarella sticks, a cabana burger, a cabana chicken sandwich, a funnel cake, a coco loco, a tropical mango water, and a diet coke.  There were birds and a family of chickens that kept walking through the cabana and landing on the table, and the cabana attendant told us to let her know when we were done with the food, so she could take it without the wildlife getting to it.  There was a button on the table that we would press anytime we needed the cabana attendant.
Headed to Thrill Waterpark:

The Cabana:

Cabana menu from Snack Shack and our food:

 

Sorry for all the noise.  We had plates flying everywhere, but I saved my Starbucks, so it's ok.

Sorry for all the noise.  We had plates flying everywhere, but I saved my Starbucks, so it's ok.

Day 7 😞
Today , CocoCay , I do love this place but prefer to have a sea day as the last day of the cruise , ohh well "You can't always have what you want , but if you will try sometime you'll see you get what you need". We started with late breakfast at the balcony at 9 am and got ready for the island.

I grabbed few month ago tickets to the beach club for 65$  pp which comparing to the price I see now it's a pretty good and. We wanted to get there early , Sunil with the other genies organized all the star class to meet and escorted  to the Island so it went really fast. We were one of the firsts to arrive the club so we could have chosen were we wanted to seat. We took one of the large beds near the pool and the bar. I went to sweem in the infinity pool and it was very refreshing , I will spare from you pictures of me in the pool. 




Later we started to enjoy the club drinks 

When you enter the club they ask you to go to the host and reserve time for lunch , we asked for 12:30. When the time arrived we went to the resturants were the host escorting you to the washi washi station and stay until you wash your hands properly. It brought me back to the pre school time , but I was happy to see they followinge the  procedures. For lunch you get  the appetizer box which includes several salads and ceviche. For main course my spouse went with the filet mignon and I also wanted to try it per @Matt recommendion but had also request  from @Tiffevento test the lobster and compare it the ship 🙂 so I took one for the team and order a surf and turf. I thought they will bring me a smaller portions but it was full one. 

The lobster was very good.
THe food was good and since they get the meat from the ship I guess it may be better since they have a good grill chef. That's also was the only place until now they ask us to cut the stake and check if it is cooked the way we wanted. For dessert we took the rum cake as it was different from the regular dessert we got until now.

We stayed another hour in the club and since it started to get hot we went back to air conditioning at the ship. 

Day 5 St Thomas.
We arrived around 7 to the Island, not that we planned to be up so early but still. After breakfast on the balcony (from day 4 they started to enter and prepare the table by themselves) we went to walk around the ship (always enjoyable during port day) we did not had any special plans so we just went down to the port. There we met with the king of the pier , he was walking around dominating the area , taking photos with everyone that wanted . I thought he will ask soon for a tip 

He had many friends around  enjoying the sun

Later we just jumped on one of the taxi to downtown which cost 4 dollars per person per each way. We strolled around main street until we decided to head back to the ship. Near the port I spotted a supermarket and a pharmacy so we decided to split and I went to buy some razors and some of the counter medicine I needed. The pharmacy and the supermarket are around 5 to 10 minutes walking from the port. Coming back to the ship I got a  message from my spouse if I can go and grab some drinks for her. Coming back to the cabin I saw that 

Although a week or so delay but it was nice surprise. Sunil came to hang some decorations and did a good job , he also brought a cake. 

 

And no , it's jus a coincidence we are not copying from our upper deck neighbors 🙂 . 
Late lunch was in WJ which was good. Post lunch I had to work again but we still had time to rest and enjoy the rain and the cake. We had some more visitors that wanted to check our balcony.

We had dinner plans at  wonderland , it's our fourth time in wonderland (if you counting the one in Spectrum which was totally different) so no surprises but it still fun and the drinks are very good. 



Sunil came to say hello and brought a friend 

And how can we do without the famous dessert

The second cake was waiting for me back at the cabin , but with  only one plate , how can I share it like that ?

We than headed to the casino were we had a nice chat with the  @Tiffeven
Which we also saw in wonderland , I think Sunil is making his schedule easier by need to be in only one place at a time. We had plans to go to check out red the experience but at the end we both were too tired and called it for the day.

A good way to start the day 🙂

The corridor on the deck has some bad smell , they took care of it for few days but it came back . I suspect it their C19 detecting system , of you are not complaining about the smell they are sending you to be tested.
 
 

Day 4 - St Martin.
Today we got to our first port. The weather refuse to cooperate even when I waved our card at it , I guess it's color blind. We started with our breakfast outside but few moments after the rain and the wind started so I grabbed the tray and tried to run inside , results was my poor mimosa shattered on the balcony floor. 

Later we heard more noises of falling plates and other things , I thought we left something on the balcony but it was our neighbors from upstairs. Near us the old Grandeur of the seas was docking and there were doing some maintenance on it. She looked very rusty and sad, I think Royal should not dock a vision class side by side with Oasis class , make me think about our  Rhapsody cruise next year , is it really the right thing 🙂



We had a late shore excursion so my spouse organized with Sunil some spa treatment which she said that  was very good , I stayed a while in the cabin working and later went to check how is the Starbucks today. By the way , it seems RCL have some agreement with the island government and the Casino was opened during the full day. For lunch we asked Sunil if there is any Thai food and he said he will organize something so we got to our room a TomKha soup (which was some spicy soup but not a TomKah) a green curry dish which was good and some cooked vegetables . It was nice meal.

We then went to the peer to join our shore excursion which was the afternoon Oriental beach . Weather was still cloudy but at least the rain stopped. After 20 minutes ride we got to the beach , we got our beach chairs and the guide opened a rum pounce station , which had Rum , some juice , ice and lots of glasses , you could drink as much as you wanted. It was not a real good day for swarming so we stayed and rest  untill we decided to take a long stroll on the beach which was nice. The sand is very soft near the water and every step we took  we left a big foot print , I still do not know if it's the sand or it's the B2B endless food , I voted for the sand.


After few hours we got back to the port, guess what , at the minute the buss entered the port the sun came out and it became a lovely day.

We got back to our cabin to get organized for dinner. Today our dinner was in Hooked which I think is an hidden RCL gem hide ubder the shade of Chop's. We had a very good waiter name May and we started with some bred , shrimp cocktail and fresh oysters. That followed with some salads , captain plate and surf and turf.




Everything was very good including one vodka oyster shoot I ordered. So far I think it was our favorite. 
 
 

Day 3: 
This was another sea day with the regular breakfast in the balcony this time I swap my espresso with  latte as the espresso comes too  cold. The juice of the day was carrot with ginger. At the morning I had to work , I had to do some candidates interviews  using video call which mean I had to shave in my vacation morning. The video call went well the Voom supporting it nicely. Post the call I had to connect to some customer site but there was some issues with my two way authentication so had to spend another hour with the support. Thought maybe to ask Sunil to take care  of it (he is a genie after all) but just the thought of heaving RCL IT near my laptop gave me the chills. During the time I had to work , my spouse went to catch some sun and bring up the steps count (our excuse for eating so much and feel it's OK) finally the  issue got resolved  and I could continue enjoying the vacation for now. We went to watch the flow rider and visit the solarium as it was started to be cloudy. Although not so hungry (comma food alert) we went to  playmaker , our waiter suggested for us to seat outside which we kindly declined as we saw the clouds. Yap we had the same waiter @Tiffeven got , I asked for draft beer got a can , we asked for some silverware we got them 15 minutes later. Anyway we ordered the nachos which were very good , some chicken tenders and the onion rings as it looks good in the pictures 🙂 .


It started to rain outside very hard and after few minutes it's statrted to rain on our table ,let's just say I hope the people that built the playmaker roof did not design the ship haull


I did not ask to fill my cup, thank you.
We moved to another table while waiting for the campfire cookie which took 20 minutes to come , we should have asked for it at the beginning of the meal , the cookie was awesome. It continue to rain for a while so we went to contribute for you RCL revenue and catch some rest later. We later went to Harry Potter trivia , wow I did not know so many Harry Potter fans are on the ship most of them  are far from being childrens , the place was packed. Apparently it's not enough to visit Universal and ride the different attractions  in Harry Potter world to be able and answer most of the questions.  We did not want to go to any restaurant so we asked Sunil to bring us few salads and we got the sea weed salad from Izumi and some goat cheese salad. After the light dinner we went to see the ice show, it was great to be able and come at the last minute and enjoy the show from the best seats , the show as always was excellent, I just always worries the drones will decide one day that they had enough and will go into the crowd  (mmm , she'll I add any RCL IT joke here , naaa I think we had enough for one post). 

Post the ice show we went to check if  we are missing anything around the ship to pass some time before going to the silent party Hush !. It was packed but anyone who wanted could get inn and grab the headphones. It was funny to see how everyone sync to the same channel after a minute or so. It was also fun to take off the headphones from time to time just to hear how it's sounds without them. So we took some drinks ( must for me before dancing) and dance although most of the time I was busy to make sure my spouse is not taken a video of me so I will be another  family dinner main joke 🙂 and yes she tried.

A friend ask , can a genie organize a jackpot or a straight flush at the three card table ?

To summarize day one embarkation, the port stuff for the genie

As frustrating as it is, there are things that might be beyond Royal's control.  Some of that could be inefficiency on the port/terminal side.  They don't always sync up (even pre-covid).  I am sure that covid protocols throws them further off sync.

Day 5 continued:
Dinner tonight was at Wonderland.   It was our first time there, and it was a lot of fun.  We booked it for the experience not necessarily for the food.  The service was great, and the food wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.   It definitely was interesting and very different, but I did enjoy some of the food.  For the food alone, I doubt I'd book Wonderland; but between the food and the experience, I would go back.  I honestly couldn't tell you half of what we ate as we went with the server's recommendations.  At Wonderland, you choose an element or you let them pick and bring out the favorites or recommendations which ends up including foods from all of the elements.  They brought Steven's and my food out as they normally would and gave Steven extra sriracha when we told them the spicier the food the better for him.  For the kids, they left out any ingredients that would make it spicy.  We had the kids try a lot of the food, but they were not fans of Wonderland until they brought them cotton candy.  They also brought us an apple happy birthday cake and the kids got to blow out the candles.
We ran into @Traveler at dinner and then again at the casino after we dropped the kids off at Adventure Ocean.  After losing a little money, we were tired and decided to call it a night.
Wonderland:

Us with @Traveler: