MO & LO on the go!

duration broken down to travel time and actual excursion time

duration broken down to travel time and actual excursion time

We have Starlink at home and experience a lot of this on a daily basis, just not quite as severe.  We sometimes get buffering on our youtubeTV because it slowed down so much.  We see speeds fluctuate from 30-300MB and we aren't moving.  Also depends on the weather.  Starlink is also mostly geared to the northern area so far so I imagine the satellites are not as plentiful near the equator (as mentioned it's still being built).  Starlink is not amazing but when it is all you can have......it's AWESOME compared to other options.  I imagine as they continue to build the service it will get much better.  I live in an area where lots of people have it and they are throttling heavier users and charging more than other less heavy use areas.  With the newer satelittes (when they do it) going up it will get much faster, more reliable, and handle more capacity and I am sure that will help sailing starlink!  On our cruise on Oasis in January 2023 I found it way better than Voom but did have some times it just flat out SUCKED!

It was a good place to start!  Anything bigger would probably have been very intimidating!  Can’t start with 10 foot surf 😉

I brought my own gear and went to chill island also.  No cost from Royal!  It is some of the best snorkeling for sea life I have done and Ive done a lot!  Keep an eye out for jelly fish, the ones I saw were very small but numerous.  If it is really windy it obviously gets very wavy and requires quite a bit of work to get around, just FYI.  Make sure you check out all the area of Chill Island!

This should answer all your questions.  We did this in May and recorded the entire thing!  The only thing we did not record was the safety briefing on land.  Let me know if you have any more questions about it!
 
 

We did these two in February 2020.  We enjoyed them both.  The trikes in Aruba were not RCCL but the cave and beach in Curacao were RCCL.  The walking around at the shops in Curacao was a short walk from the pier.  Hope this helps
 
 
And
 
 

We did these two in February 2020.  We enjoyed them both.  The trikes in Aruba were not RCCL but the cave and beach in Curacao were RCCL.  The walking around at the shops in Curacao was a short walk from the pier.  Hope this helps
 
 
And
 
 

They are still in business but LeeAnn Chin sold it years ago and passed away not too long ago.  Depending how long its been since you have been there you might see some "changes".  They started a thing years ago where they weigh your food, which drives me nuts when they scoop food off your plate!!!  Food still tastes delicious though!!!

Sorry I have neglected this blog since getting home.......LIFE!!!
So I mentioned a few posts ago, we had lots of "firsts" on this cruise that we kept noticing and commenting on together.  Here are some of the firsts that we experienced:
-larger waves (we have been lucky i think so far on this)
-me getting sick
-our main waiter in the dining room getting sick and out 5 days
-eating in the windjammer for dinner vs the main dinning room
-vlogging our cruise
-head waiter being SUPER involved in our dinner service (like taking our order)
-booking a non-Royal Caribbean excursion
-cruise director got sick and missed events
-dinning room did not have the usual singing and dancing night, and where they have the presentation
-having Johnny Rockets
-not being in a suite since our honeymoon 23 years ago ? 
-did not go straight from cruise ship to airport and go home
-getting off the ship was not smooth and was a nightmare (did not get off until approximately 1030)
There might be more that I can't remember right now...I will keep thinking of things and add in future posts.  Still want to get my recap of stuff but it might just be recaps as I post other stuff
...And for the record I am STILL sick even after going to the doctor.....UGH!

Sorry I have neglected this blog since getting home.......LIFE!!!
So I mentioned a few posts ago, we had lots of "firsts" on this cruise that we kept noticing and commenting on together.  Here are some of the firsts that we experienced:
-larger waves (we have been lucky i think so far on this)
-me getting sick
-our main waiter in the dining room getting sick and out 5 days
-eating in the windjammer for dinner vs the main dinning room
-vlogging our cruise
-head waiter being SUPER involved in our dinner service (like taking our order)
-booking a non-Royal Caribbean excursion
-cruise director got sick and missed events
-dinning room did not have the usual singing and dancing night, and where they have the presentation
-having Johnny Rockets
-not being in a suite since our honeymoon 23 years ago ? 
-did not go straight from cruise ship to airport and go home
-getting off the ship was not smooth and was a nightmare (did not get off until approximately 1030)
There might be more that I can't remember right now...I will keep thinking of things and add in future posts.  Still want to get my recap of stuff but it might just be recaps as I post other stuff
...And for the record I am STILL sick even after going to the doctor.....UGH!

Sorry had to take a picture of the picture but here is formal night!
 
 
 

Oh no!  Last nachos on board until January 2021!  ?
 

and if anyone has the chance for this pizza it’s called “carnivore”....it is delicious!  They only had it a few days of the 9 nights but when they did you would want to grab a piece!  YUM!
 

Explorer just left a couple hours ago for a chartered cruise.  It was some Ohio Buckeye cancer benefit event.  While we were waiting for the disaster that was disembarkation, they were posting the stuff for this ALL over the place.  5 night cruise with only 1 stop....and that is Cococay.  After this cruise it goes back to normal cruising.  Sounds like a lot of the cruise staff doesn't really have to do much during this charter, especially the singers and dancers.  They were just hanging out for the next few days I guess.
We are now just hanging out in Miami until Tuesday morning......early morning!  We went and checked out downtown Miami and the Bayside Market area.  Pretty neat area!  Tomorrow we are going to try and get to South Beach and check that out.  We are doing some vlogging while we are here to showcase what we see here, as a side note.
I plan to have a recap down the road when I can put all my thoughts together.  One thing both of us have commented on a lot was all the "firsts" that we experienced on this cruise, which is odd since this was our 10th cruise together!!!  So again, tomorrow is hopefully South Beach!  
Sure is nice not being in the MN cold yet but it sure is nice to go home after the cruise.  There's just something about ending a cruise and going home.  That last night aboard kinda just puts you in that "go home" mode.  We much prefer to extend the trip BEFORE we board and then go straight to airport from the ship.  Maybe that's just us but just feels like it should be that way.  This is the first time we have not gone straight home and it all just feels "weird".  
 

Here is just a picture from the pool deck last night.  It was dead there and it was only 9pm!!!  Everyone must have been packing or eating.

Last night we went to Johnny Rockets for the first time ever on a cruise ship!  We got the milkshakes.  I had caramel and Lisa had Oreo.  Apparently they are included on the refreshment and liquor drink packages!!!  This will be dangerous now that we know that!!!  The server even offered us fries for free but we already should not have been eating the milkshakes so we passed...  I would highly recommend getting a milkshake as a treat at night!  SOOOOO good!

Sorry had to take a picture of the picture but here is formal night!
 
 
 

Sorry had to take a picture of the picture but here is formal night!
 
 
 

Here is just a picture from the pool deck last night.  It was dead there and it was only 9pm!!!  Everyone must have been packing or eating.

Last night we went to Johnny Rockets for the first time ever on a cruise ship!  We got the milkshakes.  I had caramel and Lisa had Oreo.  Apparently they are included on the refreshment and liquor drink packages!!!  This will be dangerous now that we know that!!!  The server even offered us fries for free but we already should not have been eating the milkshakes so we passed...  I would highly recommend getting a milkshake as a treat at night!  SOOOOO good!

Sorry had to take a picture of the picture but here is formal night!
 
 
 

Here is just a picture from the pool deck last night.  It was dead there and it was only 9pm!!!  Everyone must have been packing or eating.

Oh no!  Last nachos on board until January 2021!  ?
 

and if anyone has the chance for this pizza it’s called “carnivore”....it is delicious!  They only had it a few days of the 9 nights but when they did you would want to grab a piece!  YUM!
 

Just wanted to post a funny story.  We were getting the drinks In the diamond lounge pictured a couple posts up and a couple sat down with us and started chatting.  They asked us “if we cruise often” and we all got a chuckle out of that! She realized what she asked and said “oh wait you are in the diamond lounge so you must”!  

Well we finally got time to walk around the ship and take pictures!
Starting with the diamond lounge

This is an outside seating area for the diamond lounge overlooking the basketball court.  It’s awesome they have a special area outside on this ship!
This is what area above over looks and at this moment there was a Zumba class going on there!

Here are some pool deck pictures.  Notice the one side is closed...out suspicion is because we are doing some rocking today.




The arcade

This is a mesmerizing machine that has moving golf balls and just constantly keeps doing stuff.  So much fun to watch

Of course Johnny Rockets

This is the computer area with an opening in the middle looking down to the library

 

The community board in the library where you can post any meeting or meetup you are looking for.  Looks like a few people were looking for game players

 
Here where we are going after lunch!  NEXT CRUISE!  Never miss that on a cruise! ?

And here are several promenade pictures.  Notice the one area has Valentine decorations!









And lastly the casino

This is the floor entering the casino.  Pretty cool 3D

 
and a quick shot of the rougher seas

Ok that’s it for now but we will have some more a bit later!  Tonight is formal night (as expected on Valentines Day) and lobster ? night!  My favorite night of the entire cruise for dinner!!!
We are going to go walk around and film some of the ship now.  See y’all soon!