Cruzinfun

Quick update.  
Uber to port had me there just before 10am.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures of terminal G, I’ll post those soon.  
Boarding started at 10:45am.  First on board.  I ran into the Pinnacle doing a B4B who was with me on my B2B.  Julie our Hotel Director saw me and came over to chat greeting me by name.  There will be 12 pinnacles on this sailing.  It’s also the last cruise of her current contract.  Jorge the Guest Services Manager saw me and welcomed me back.  
Right now I’m sitting at the Schooner Bar where Wayan and Roland recognized me and welcomed me back.   
Just like that I feel like I’m home.   

This is my first ever attempt at a trip report and i wanted to share some of the highlights of our trip.  I have learned so much from Matt and others here that i attribute such a great cruise to you all and wish to say thank you.  This was our 4th cruise with Royal and a special one as it was our 20th Anniversary.   
It was Friday night and we are all packed and ready to leave for the airport first thing in the morning when the email comes in that our flights to San Juan are cancelled.  After hours on the phone with the airline we have another flight and we are on our way.  Another vote for always flying in the day before.



 
After getting our luggage we got a taxi and headed off to Sheraton Old San Juan.  This hotel was beautiful and check in was fast and simple.
 

View from the balcony room.

 
After getting settled we decided to explore a little and hopefully find the forts and get dinner after a long travel day.



After the forts we found Punto de Vista Rooftop Restaurant at the Hotel Milano and decided to give it a try.  We tried Mofongo for the first time.  I liked it very much but since it was my first time i can not compare it to anywhere else.  After dinner it was back to the hotel.  The plan was to cool off in the rooftop pool but we were both too tired and decided to turn in for the night.
Next up.....Embarkation Day!!
 
 

The room in the hotel is perfect.  I just finished testing out the bed by taking an after dinner nap which I never do.  I am NOT a napped.  I tend to wake up feeling worse instead of better so I try to avoid them.
The bathroom is HUGE!!!!
 

Watching Empress sail out...
 
 

Alert!!!! Alert!!!!
We should’ve had an interior room and were upgraded to a bay view just in time to watch departures!  I’m in love!!!!??
I already know why @Love2cruise2002 loves this place!
 

Here we go.....

I almost forgot...on Navigator we will be in a Panoramic Suite (first time suite guests here). ?
On Allure we have an Ocean View Balcony on deck 8. This will be our lil guys first balcony experience.
Soooooo....I don’t want you guys to be shocked by this, but I spent this evening doing 3 loads of laundry, cleaning the guinea pig cage,  running errands and finishing packing.  DH spent the evening playing a game on his phone, watching a show on demand and packed the garment bag (because I asked him to). We’ll let him slide though...he’s been through a lot this year. 
The luggage is mostly packed except our few things we can’t throw in until tomorrow morning.
 

Interesting story from the previous 8 night Eastern Caribbean Empress cruise.  
A guest on my Empress B2B last week had been on for a month and she told me this story.  Empress has a 2pm departure from CocoCay in order to make San Juan a day after a sea day.  On the last run of this route, several guests missed the ship in CocoCay.  Apparently they didn't note the 2pm departure.
In one case a couple were enjoying CocoCay.  Oblivious to the ship's whistle the woman went to get something to eat while the man went to a bar for a drink.  When he presented his Empress SeaPass card they informed he was about to miss the ship and whisked him away in a golf cart.  Unsure where the woman had gone he got back on board, she missed the ship and it left (late now) towards San Juan.  
Once she figured out she missed the ship, they put her on Mariner and she was taken to Port Canaveral.  She then had to make her own arrangements to get to San Juan which she did at her expense.  The problem is San Juan had some civil unrest and Empress skipped San Juan as a result.  So she missed the ship again.  This time, since Royal cancelled the call on San Juan they paid for her hotel and airfare to Tortola.  Tortola doesn't have an airport so she flew to a neighboring island and had to take a water taxi over to Tortola where she finally re-joined the cruise. 
From what was explained to me they stated the excursion they booked said it ended at 3pm so they thought they were good until 3pm.  
A total of five guests missed the ship at CocoCay.  Unsure what happened to the rest other than being put on Mariner for the ride over to Port Canaveral.  
Lesson learned.  Even at CocoCay, don't miss the ship!
Side note - when Empress skipped San Juan they had already taken on the San Juan pilot when Miami decided they should skip San Juan.  Because the pilot had already boarded they were on the hook for the ~$10k pilot fee.
Hoping we don't skip San Juan but an overnight in Tortola does sound very tempting.
 

Well, I'm pretty much all packed. Everything's all printed off. I've painted my toenails (twice! ). I've just got a manicure and a facial tomorrow morning to ease me in to the holiday relaxation before we head down to Southampton.As it's not an RC cruise, I won't blog it here. However, I enjoyed blogging my cruise on Independence so much last year I've decided that I will blog this cruise on my own (until now largely defunct) blog which you can find at https://fat-fighting-foodie.com/
I'll be visiting:
Cadiz, Spain Barcelona, Spain Livorno, Italy Civitavecchia, Italy Cartagena, Spain Gibraltar, UK I'll also be Periscoping. My user name is hayley_bopp . Both blog posts and scopes will be intermittent as I'm probably not going to get an internet package (but never say never...).
If you've got any questions feel free to ask on here or on the comments section on my blog.
After the cruise, I'll post a review of the cruise on here comparing it to RC. Who will win...? ?
Fingers crossed the gales that are forecast to hit the south coast all day on Saturday (50-60mph gusts of wind!) don't delay our sail away for too long ?

Yes..they don't have any age restrictions listed for the sushi class.  Children pay the same price as an adult.  

An empty pocketbook.  

Took this photo of the Empress docked in Miami just now. 
Thought I’d drop it in this liveblog. 

How can you and hubs-bot pass up your one and only chance this trip for a Labadoozie?!?

Only one. Labadee tomorrow.  Hubby and I are currently discussing if we should get off tomorrow for research purposes ?

Happy anniversary and what a lovely trip so far! 

Is it wrong that I now want to sail on Empress just to try the late night WJ offerings?

Empress is on the move!   Where are you guys?

Tried to be nice today and let Hubby sleep in.  Big mistake. Arrived at the terminal area around 10:50am and traffic for drop off is awful. Currently giving Hubby “the I told you so” look in the car as we wait to get dropped off. 
Note to future self...stick with routine. Arrive early.

Just booked a Brilliance cruise yesterday.  Thanksgiving 2019.  It was on the list of "free" cruises that I received yesterday from Club Royale...so why not ?  So now we will be doing our FIRST EVER Side to Side (S2S).  We will be on Brilliance 25-30 November, then drive down to Miami to catch Oasis (hopefully disease-free by then !) on 1 Dec - STAR CLASS <balloons drop, confetti falls from the sky !!> (also a [upgraded] free cruise from Club Royale !).  Dan isn't real excited about the 4 hour drive from Tampa to Miami but he'll get over it.  We will do some relocation recon while we're down there.  He has decided that he wants SOUTH Florida for retirement.  Come on, Oct 2020....

Happy anniversary to you guys and have a great cruise! Looking forward to hearing about symphony. 

Can't wait to get to Nachi in April .... it'll be our first time there.

Kids? What kids? I think we forgot to pack them. ?

D'oh!! Forgot it's just you and hubs-bot!

I don't know who is right and who is wrong.
If the windows couldn't open, it wouldn't have happened. If grandpa hadn't put the little girl on the railing, it wouldn't have happened. 
I one thing I do know is that no amount of money will bring that little girl back or fill the endless whole in the hearts of that family.
There are no winners in this. Not RC. Not the family. No one.
It was 10yrs ago yesterday that friends of ours lost their 18m old daughter, who died in her sleep. Not a day has gone by in all that time that they don't think about her and the what ifs. 
They, like this family will have to deal with what happened forever, what ever the outcome of this litigation. Again I say, In cases like this. There are no winners, only losers.

I found the El Loco Fresh offerings on Navigator to be pretty similar to the new offerings in the restaurants on CocoCay.  It was definitely worth skipping the WJ hassle.