GregD

Thank you for sharing your cruises with us. I really enjoyed reading this. I'm sorry you ended up not feeling great towards the end there. I totally get the feeling of I'm ready to be home. As much fun as a vacation can bring, being in your own space really can't be beat. Thank you for your perspective on sailing with Celebrity. I do think without the kids The Boss and I will be doing a Celebrity sailing at some point, we just have to figure out when. So many travel plans, so little time.

Getting caught up here. How is the finger doing? You should see quite a bit of improvement after 24hrs on the antibiotic. Hopefully that is your only adventure back down in the sick bay. Hopefully the person you saw needing oxygen was someone who has COPD that forgot their nebulizers, and just needs occasional treatments, and isn't very sick. Going back to the number of very vintage vintages, that's probably why the food seems bland. They know their audience and they are all on low fat, low sodium, low sugar diets for their hypertension, congestive heart failure, and diabetes and other comorbidities. To them the food is great, but to us healthier people we are stuck with bland food Maybe the large groups are from their senior housing communities booking blocks of rooms together too? Your mention of this made me thing of this scene from the movie The Croods. I would feel bad for the entertainers too, who are putting on a great show, only to have the crowd not recognize the music/performance. Though I suppose this goes back to knowing your demographic.

underwater sea bugs are a great buttah delivery device!! I Also happen to like how they taste sans the butter too.

Glad you are feeling better. I find some hydration, caffeination and some laps on the track helps with the brain fog. I'm sure the caffeine isn't really needed, and the hydration and exercise will suffice, but I am never one to turn down a good cup of coffee.

We actually like this idea. They had this on Oasis too last year. Derick had mentioned that there was quite a bit of food waste that they were trying to cut back on. I'm sure this also goes back to $$ saved for them as well. I do see us requesting lots of chocolate covered strawberries and meat planks from Jamies though!

Reviving an old thread here, but we just got our genie assignment, and we have Berty. I never did resend the survey or anything else, we chose to let the chips fall where they may. Time to read through this blog again!

This is one thing that I wish they could do better, but I understand how it ends up this way. Our last time out of Miami, we pre-booked an Uber, and it worked perfectly. We didn't have to rush off the ship, we managed to time it so that as we were walking out of terminal, our driver was calling me to say where he was, we hopped in the car, and were on our way. Way less hunger games like.

I wish!! We are going to Scotland for 2ish weeks that summer, so I'm not sure if we will have enough vacation time etc. I do owe the boss a freeloader free cruise at some point though. We will have to put our heads together on Allure.

Glad you made it. I really want to try an Edge class ship!

No problem! Dead bodies do make for a more entertaining story though.... I did witness this on a previous cruise years ago. A vintage dropped dead in the middle of Boleros one night while we were on Anthem. It was horrible because he was dancing with his granddaughter at the time. IIRC it was early on in the cruise too, kinda made the rest of the trip a little subdued on the ship.

What an exciting trip you have been on. While I am purely speculating here, but since I work in EMS and helicopter transports, I can provide a little insight. It's very unlikely they evacuated a body via helicopter. Those transports are super expensive, and a medical helicopter wouldn't take themselves out of service to transport a body, when they could be utilized for someone they could actually benefit. As far as the "bag." The stretchers that many helicopter services use, actually have a bag like sheet/blanket system that pretty much encloses the patient like a cocoon, and from a distance will look like a bag. Here you can sorta see an example Keep up the excitement!!

@Yesiamthere can you tell me who the suite concierges are? There are people in a FB group for my sailing who are asking. Glad you are having a good time so far!! 30 days 17hours 43 minutes till arriving at the terminal for me

We have also used Victor Bodden and have had great experiences. We have not don't the ATV's, but we are signed up to do them next month. Maybe we will skip them!

If you only want to do just that, then your best bet is probably through one of the private tour operators and do your excursion that way. I use Victor Bodden, there are multiple others that you can choose from, Danial Johnsons, AJ'S monkeys and sloths are other names i'v heard as well. I'm sure others will chime in with who they used. All of these operators have fully customizable experiences that you can tailor your day to what you want.

I may send an update to my survey. I did forget to say a few things......if those even matter.

I'm super jealous of you here. I love Oasis, and Aqua80 is the best show! I also would love to so a solo cruise too someday... there is just one thing stopping me.....The Boss would kill me and never allow it to happen

So what do I need to do to keep MJ as the genie for that room through Feb 18th

The Boss loves them. She will group like items in each cube to make packing/unpacking easier. She will also group certain things together so we can pull one cube at the hotel the night before etc. So far she is the only user of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they spread to the rest of us soon.

Have a great cruise. I'm excited to follow along!

Have a great cruise!!!! 5 more weeks until my turn!!

@Yesiamthere good luck today with your travel day. I hope all of your family, and luggage, make it safely and on time. I can't wait to read about your trip!

Close, it was my hard of hearing Father who thought my son said Waitress of the seas. He will really get confused when I do call this ship Popeye of the seas

Side note here, with most likely an unpopular opinion. I actually think the bow and Aquadome of the ship look silly to me. One day I was looking at a picture, and all I could see was that the bow area of Icon reminded me of Popeye The Sailer Man, with a giant forehead. I cannot get that image out of my head, so personally, to me, I will be renaming Icon Of the Seas to Popeye of the Seas. I submit for your viewing pleasure/disappointment the photo inspiration

Doesn't he know he is married to the YOLO Book it Queen? You may have to send him back to steerage. In all seriousness though, thank you for sharing your trip with all of us. It looks like you all had an amazing time even though we forced you into the WJ. I'm glad your trip home was somewhat uneventful. Can't wait to sail with you guys again in 357 days, even if Hubby is still being Scrooge. I like this idea!!

My twisted sense of humor read this and immediately thought this would be the perfect opportunity for “these people will never see me again” shenanigans……then I realized that Mass probably isn’t the appropriate place for “what is that crazy lady doing?” sort of thing… A crisp high five!!! Actually if I had that much I would tip $20-30 especially if everyone packs like The Boss does and flirts with the maximum allowed weights.