Dlove707

oooh lawd, I know what a bless their heart means

oooh lawd, I know what a bless their heart means

I am beyond happy. I hit a $761 jackpot at the casino so now I am only at $150 spent for the entire cruise. We are on the deck watching the sexy contest. People are really trying......bless their heart. 

🙂
The system is up and working, but wonky! But I'm so appreciative that they did a whole week of this sale instead of having to take time away from family on Friday to check all reservations! 

Honestly though- not much in the way of savings!

I guess when it comes to looseness, you have to be willing to miss some sleep.  
Lots of people said the zipline and beach area was amazing. I'm sad I didn't get to see and enjoy. Our experience made Labadee feel like a one and done. Especially considering how bad the food was. We all got back on and took showers. Half of us hit El Loco Fresh because we were starving and dinner was at 8pm in the solarium bistro. We were able to get a table, facing the splashpad and pool. Ewww it was a little kid just standing there drinking the water. I'm sure there is something in there to keep it clean. 
While we were eating this very plastic, mature woman came over and asked if my brother was my husband.  I told her no and she proceeded to "bend and grin" to the best of her ability. We all had a good laugh as she shot her shot. We sat on deck and watched people dance,swim and be merry. They kept dropping food and glasses so every time it happened someone yelled "Merry Christmas" and the staff joked they would get the presents.
We went around taking pictures everywhere and just looking at people have the time of their life. Dinner at the solarium bistro wasn't great. I didn't understand the need for reservations. Literally there was 2 other tables in there minus the crew. They don't do anything but bring you water or drinks. You get up to the buffet and chose what you want. The selection is minimal and nobody got full, so we went to after dinner at the WJ. We all got what we wanted and chatted for a while. We popped into Boleros and saw people dancing, hard. Some were sweating up a storm. 
We then went to casino for a bit and headed back to our rooms. We sat on the balcony for an hour laughing about the day and then retired pretty early. 
Today is the last day. We have yet to get to do bumper cars,  since it's first come and such, we have yet to get in. 
We got breakfast at the WJ. Dinner is at Chops and we have Showgirls before that. My family is officially sold on the UDP and I plan to get it during black Friday sale. My casino certificate is either/or not included. So it's  $250off or a free sailing on selected ships from Nov to February. I thought it was both, oh well I will apply to cruise I just booked.

Cruise planner completely "down for maintenance" now. You guys broke it!

Okay let's hope this works. We haven't been able to connect to the internet at all since around 1am. 
Last night my brother and BFF went to the club, they were actually there until they closed. I was there for a little bit. Since it was 18 and up people were loose. I haven't gone to a nightclub on any ship before. I thought people were scandalous in the early hours......I wasn't prepared. First a lady we met on boarding day saw my brother and refused to leave his side. She was somehow able to smuggle coke on. Or it was homemade but she kept leaving her stuff and going onto the bathroom to snort it. Then she would come out and flash people, the crew had to tell her several times to put her clothes on. Crew members were constantly telling people to get dress. Thankfully nobody showed their actual neither regions.
Prior to the night club the singer at Crown and Compass was singing R.Kelly.....ignition parts 1 and 2 with all the curse words. It was weird to see people sitting at a table when certain songs are sung. BFF was still drunk and dancing on a plant by the pub. There was an even more drunk lady egging him on, she was dancing, very aggressively, on the column next to the bar.
On our way to the Music Hall we met the Brazilian couple. They were still trying it and BFF was so drunk he almost went. I stayed around the party because it was too many people and I kept getting fondled. I don't like large gatherings for that main reason......people using it as an excuse to get fresh with others. My brother said a couple of "vintage " women offered them money to spend some quality time. How quickly a family affair can turn spicy. I went to bed around 1am. My brother and BFF stayed until the music hall closed and went to Sorrento's. They got pizza and went to bed. BFF was tore up in the morning. He couldn't function and did not do well in Labadee.
I had 2 crazy bathroom incidents. The first was after dinner last night before we went to the Crown and Compass. I used the bathroom in the casino because it's the closest. What looked like a 10yo boy was standing there staring at the women. I thought he was too old to be in there. He was there because his mom had stuffed herself in a dress and needed him to zip her. The second one was right as I was leaving the club. The line was long and there was a group of drunk ladies in front......so drunk that we were waiting in line for no reason because every stall but one was empty!!! That's not the worst part. The one person came out and one girl pulled down her underwear and squatted, she assumed she was in the bathroom because she heard the stall closes. Her friends were going to let her pee, I told her this wasn't the stall. I definitely didn't want the crew cleaning unnecessary messes.
I slept well and woke up after 8am to internet issues. With no internet connection and it being a port day I knew WJ was going to be a mess. So I headed to the DL for some bread and OJ, I was the only person there around 9am. The casino was open at 8am and I played until I was $100 richer. I made 1000pts so far on this cruise. I should get a certificate for money off and a free interior I may or may not upgrade. 
My family is hot mess express I told them we should get off around noon to explore before our sip and paint excursion.  They said no. That's because my mother told them it was on the ship. We got off at 1:30 and it took us awhile to walk to the island, some time to stand on line for food and then time to eat. We just barely made it to the excursion and when it ended at 4pm, everyone wanted to go back to the ship. 
The food was straight garbage.  It was 3 salads, a brownie, fruit, a giant macaroon, hotdogs, hamburger, jerk chicken, corn and rice. That was it. The chicken was raw and the burgers full of greases. So much that as I took a bite it ruined my dress with oils. Nobody enjoyed their food. The worst part is they had some red juice that looked cold and delicious. But was actually just water with food coloring. At this point I am now starving because I've just had a little bread.
We go to the sip and paint. It's in a nice cool area, lots of colors. The vase and boat are good quality and I do start out having fun. However it's 1 drink for the 90mins and it became tedious. The pot was too heavy and the boat too weak so they won't be very travel friendly. Not much interaction. BFF is hurting.  Nobody really had any fun, hence the swift return to ship. We saw nothing of Labadee past the information desk.
I hope this post goes through I will finish day 5 tomorrow. 

not me, wanting to go make popcorn in anticipation of what’s to come 😂

For some reason the internet has been really bad around and at Labadee. We are just about sailing away, and I am able to post a little something......lots of weirdness to come.

Get this all the time also lol

I know there was questions asked about the Spanx, well it turns out two of the vintages had it on. In the morning both of them spent about 40min trying to get out. Apparently, they had to take breaks in-between because the struggle was real. They had left over bread/pastries from room service and was snacking.......obviously making things worse. One got her arm/shoulder caught trying get out and now she is sore, the other ripped hers. Apparently, it was like a female Three Stooges so much they almost all had elderly ladies' accidents......you know what I mean.

I want to travel with you. 🤣

I do have a whole bunch of odds and ends but I may update those when we are at the airport.
Okay so day 3 on Odyssey....
So two-thirds of the vintages really went all out for formal night.....makeup, falsh lashes,  wigs and other razzmatazz. BFF put his tuxedo on and he looked like he was going to a classy strip club. My brother is a mechanical engineer so he always dresses business casual. My mother looked like a Wakanda reject. I wore my floral bellbottoms I bring for 70s night. My brother and I were the only one's comfortable.  They took some pre-show photos.  Then we went to see The Book. 
So Odyssey was like we have the technology let's build a bionic.....naw let's do some tv robots.  What do we want them to do?????.........just assist with a hodgepodge of thrown together tomfoolery.  That's exactly what The Book is.......a hodgepodge of straight up tomfoolery. I got each vignette but they didn't go together whatsoever.  Don't get me wrong the vocals and choreography was giving all the life. But it was just..........
My mother is one of those people who doesn't care about depth. So all the shows have been the best. People were flying on contraptions and twisting in air so she thought nothing compares and I was happy for her. Everyone else was like " umm.......what did I just watch?" We all thought there was cool parts but Odyssey vibe apparently is confusion. 
After the show we took the very long walk to dinner,  so long we were late. J/k. Giovanni's is steps from 270. They did have our table ready and it was for 7 people. The host recognized me right away and had a really good disposition. Our server was wonderful and friendly. I tried their signature strawberry peach Spitzer.  We ordered all the apps for the table plus 2 pizzas and an entree each. It was so much food. The cheese and meat platter overall taste better than Jamie's but Jamie's has better breads. The meatball Gigante was crazy, I wasn't a fan but everyone loved it. Nobody liked the spicy sausage Stromboli. My brother and I were the only one's that tried and liked the calamari and polenta. 
We got the meat lovers and mushrooms pizza for the table. The pizza was horrible, about on par with Sorrento's.  I expected it to be more airy and better tasting. They ate most of it because it tasted like Sorrento's. Between the 7 if us we got everything but the puttanesca and the steak muffuletta. The lasagna and chicken parm were rated the highest after the steak. I got a small portion of the carbonara to go with my chicken parm. The carbonara was horrible. I like my pasta al dente but that one was barely cooked.  It was dry and flavorless.  The pomodoro pasta that came with the parm was soft and wet. The pomodoro sauce was very sweet. So basically most of us enjoyed everything but the pasta. Dessert was a limoncello and all the desserts. The Panna cotta was the best. 
My mother's not a drinker, neither is my BFFs mom. They both ended up drunk after the two shots of limoncello my brother insisted we have. We took more photos and wrangled to two tipsy ladies back to their room. My mother fell asleep on the balcony and BFF mom's got stuck in her Spanx. It was wonderful times, laughs had all around. 
Day 4 is Falmouth Jamaica 
We got up and some went to breakfast. Some of us had work meetings.  We got off and did some in port shopping.  They were pushy but not aggressive.  However as we are "black folks," they kept trying to use the brother/sister line on us. That is " help a brother/sister out, come on we family brother/sister, and since you are my brother/sister I will give you a discount. " We split a pattie and coconut water plus had some of the different red stripe beer. We did buy some rum and engraved wood pieces but BFF mom is great at haggling, so we paid good prices. 
We got back on the ship around 1pm and headed to WJ.  They had 4 special burgers/sandwiches named things like the Odyssey,  the Royal, etc. Also they had sweet potato fries which were the bomb dot com. Desserts were again a very horrible selection.  Things like hard chocolate bar cake and carrot poundcake. My brother and me had a little work, so we are currently in our rooms doing that while the rest are on deck. I'm on teams multitasking.  We have our 2nd dinner, probably last, in the MDR tonight.  Everyone is sad we only have 2 days left. Oh we stood in line for a bit but no luck on bumper cars.

I was “shopping” a 2 bedroom GS on Anthem for Norwegian fjords 2024 last night. $8448 for 4 people. Today it’s $8228. Not a super sale. We’re waiting another year for that cruise anyways but wanted to get a ballpark at what to expect price wise. 
 
Highly doubt my Wonder or Icon have gone down. Both were booked early. I’m sure @Sharlawill run the price checker program thingy so maybe I’ll get a nice little surprise 😁

No reductions (a few increases) in any of my cruises with one exception.  The price on my Icon Star Class (Dec 7 2024) went down $36 !  Woohoo !  I was surprised that this was the one that had a decrease.  No changes whatsoever in the Cruise Planner options.

On board Royal ships the WiFi home page has a link for free sites that don't require a paid Voom plan to access.  One of the sites is called "Royal Magazine". 

Being the inquisitive type I followed the link.
https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publication/ec22caf8#/ec22caf8/1
It's a marketing publication that also contains ship class cutout images and an itinerary summary with maps that you won't find on Royal's website for the 2022-2023 season.  It also has a link for CocoCay's own mini-guide. 
The link above is somewhat interactive/dynamic so it's the preferred viewing method or you can download the static version as a PDF file.
Royal Magazine.pdf
PS - See if you can find the mistakes made on the Quantum and Voyager class cutouts.

eMuster was first tested in January 2020 on Symphony before the pandemic shutdown the industry in March of 2020.  To trial it in January they had to be working on it for sometime including getting SOLAS and agencies such as the USCG on board. 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/07/24/royal-caribbean-announces-electronic-muster-drill-its-cruise-ships
The patent for eMuster was filed in September of 2019.
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2020/07/27/6-really-interesting-facts-about-royal-caribbeans-new-cruise-safety-drill
Since the governing bodies approved before the pandemic there is no reason to suspect they will withdraw their approval now that the pandemic is a routine part of daily life.

Passports are highly recommended for many reasons, but not required on Caribbean sailings.
The bottom line is that 99 percent of people would probably be fine without one on a cruise.  Unfortunately, there is always a chance that unforseen circumstances would require that you have one.
It's not hard to get a passport so I would get one if you have time. If the cruise is last minute, I wouldn't hesitate to go with just my license and birth certificate.

Sorry, but I don’t buy their “efficiency” explanation.  IMO this is cost savings move and nothing more.  The MDR continues its downhill slide.  I’m shocked that they haven’t yet declared that this “upgrade” to the menu is intended to “enhance your cruise experience”.  I’m sure that’s coming….  After some period of time, once people stop going to the MDR altogether, they will enhance our cruise experience again by ending the complimentary MDR option altogether because passengers were “choosing other options”.  Penny-pinching at it’s finest.

I had the same experience with the NY Strip. The texture was like the sole of a shoe.  (It didn't help that it looked like one).

I've been known to book a cruise to try to get some tail but I've never canceled a cruise for lack of succeeding.  

Let's compare this to how many covid cases there were from the flights coming in and out of Australia.
Oh right, they don't care to track that. It's just about anti-cruise bias.

Hope your wife is ok !!  I hate that kind of fall.  You hurt your pride but it really hurts your body, too !!

Day one was very busy. I'll now do a little catching up.😴.
We met with TessOr and her husband  from this forum in the Diamond Lounge and had a delightful introduction and visit. Coffee and water were the only drinks available until just before we left, when other drinks became also available. And by then the lounge was packed with guests.
MDR... 5:30 dinner was   wonderful. We had prime rib.  The wait staff and/or cook  staff was spread thin, and it took a long time to be served all our courses.  I finally excused myself at 7:20, before the rest of our table mates, as the ship was putting on a Veterans tribute in the Promenade I didn't want to miss.
The maestro of the small orchestra at the Vet's ceremony is a Marine, so between him and the cruise director, the presentation was done right.  Thanks for that. 
Luggage to our room was later than I've ever experienced, so I had to wear my traveling clothes until bed time.
 
It was the cabin attendants doing all the luggage delivery. I didn't unpack my suitcase til after midnight.
The casino... Let's just say I paid for my next cruise. The slots were tight.  The entire casino is a smoking zone. A yuck for me personally.   
This boat seems a bit aged, but the housekeeping is mostly top notch. 
It's now after noon on the next day while I'm writing.  A task for me on a cell phone.  Oh... And the VOOM works perfectly on my android phone, but not so  well on my wife's i-phone.
Excuse me now while I get  dressed and find some breakfast.  Sleeping in was a blessing.
Our Royal Up was not successful, so our most wonderful Junior Suite will remain our home for a week.🤩