TomBryant

Still down but feel strangely comforted by other people looking for pitchforks, too!

Still down but feel strangely comforted by other people looking for pitchforks, too!

Shark attacks can happen on land too. Those who disagree need only watch Sharknado. 

We're much much more dangerous to sharks than vice versa.

Enjoy yourself. Great writing!

Three days and counting
I’m a negative person, my wife could attest to that, but just to be certain, I got a medical professional to confirm it. I performed the proctored e-med test this morning and it was negative and I’m positive about that. Even better news, my wife is negative too. It would’ve been horrible if she tested positive because I would miss her while I sunned on the pool deck with a lava flow in my hand while she would be home coughing up a lung. I probably would feel a little guilty leaving her behind, but another cocktail would help me forget (and yes I know if she tested positive, I wouldn’t be able to go, it was just a joke).
The test was pretty easy, although since I’m hard of hearing and still don’t hear well even with my hearing aids, I had to ask her to repeat herself a few time. Like my wife always says, not every sentence begins with, huh.
I think secretly my dog was rooting for a positive test. He’s not very happy about us leaving, I can tell because he chewed holes into all our masks. Never ever has my dog wished for us to get the ‘Rona. The cats on the other hand, don’t give a crap about us, as long as someone feeds them and leaves them alone, they will ignore anyone just as easily as they ignore us. They are equal opportunity jerks. They probably figure they can poop in the houseplants and puke on the couch whether we are there or not.
As I mentioned before, I want to leave today and my wife wants to leave tomorrow. After my passionate plea, she listened to me and agreed that I didn’t really want to leave today, so alas we are leaving tomorrow morning and by morning, I mean I’ll be ready by eight and we’ll leave by noon, hopefully.
I’ll report back tomorrow for the first of our two travel days. 

Ive always found the crew really like money

We have no desire to go all out with formal nights anymore. Our primary purpose for cruising is relaxation, secondary purpose is ports of call. We do dressy casual as a general rule for any night in the MDR. If we don't feel like doing that, we'll head to the Windjammer or order room service. We don't need more pictures with the captain or in fancy clothes with a backdrop of the Titanic staircase. Lol. Comfort is the goal for us.

Used to wear a suit and tie, but now, my formal wear is to wear socks with nice jeans.

Here’s my overview
We arrived at the terminal around 10:30 and a Star porter immediately grabbed us!  We went thru the Star line and was on the second floor within a few minutes.  No line at all.  Our genie, Nicoli, met us and escorted us into the suite section to wait for boarding to begin.  About 15 minutes later when boarding began we had to wait in line with all of the other suite people.  I did find that a bit surprising that we were not ahead of that crowd to board.  Since it was so early our Mexican restaurant was not ready so we headed to our room.  Luggage was not there.  After doing some hooting and hollering it was time to eat.  Our food at the Mexican restaurant was o.k.  
Headed back to room to unpack then headed for ice cream and milkshakes at the ice cream place.  The milkshakes there were better than Johnny Rockets.  We did eat at Johnny Rockets for lunch one day and had a “new” employee.  She was completely at lost on how to take an order for five people.  Our French fries came out way before our hamburgers, which were totally all wrong.  Hubby stayed to eat his while the rest of us got out of there.  Hubby had a nice chat with the manager and explained the employee was not ready to be on her own.  She needed to still follow someone.  
We did hit the casino each night only to be disappointed each night.  I don’t expect to overall win each night but I do expect some give, instead of all take!  It was the worse loosing casino I had ever been to.  Maybe, the machines are tight due to covid.
We ate at most of the speciality restaurants and all were good, except Chef’s table, which was a disappointment. Everyone at the table got their steaks cooked way wrong and didn’t eat them. Even if the steaks were cooked correctly the meat was a cheap piece of meat.  I felt for the people that had actually paid for that privilege.  Service was good!  
150 had the best service and really good food.  The server there was top notch!!  Kids had steaks at all places we ate at dinner and each voted the “suite lounge” as having the best steak….ever.  
The Garden Martini at 150 was awesome.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed a vegetable martini!  On the other hand, I did not like the lavender martini at chops.  Odd taste  
One thing you need to take into account is the amount of “tips” you will need to give.  From our first porter, guy who sat up our breakfast each morning on the balcony (he was awesome), lunch in speciality restaurants or suite lounge, dinner in speciality restaurants, bartenders, cabin steward, Genie, and two porter guys to get to our cab.  Since there were five of us we tipped $10.00 for breakfast, $20 for lunch and $50.00 for dinner.  Porter guys got $10.00 each.  It added up fast.  
We saw shows:  Comedy and the Ice show.  Comedy was fine.  We had seats reserved on the front side. Ice show was good and was made even better due to our middle front row seats.  Loved it there! Also, we watched the aqua show from our balcony which was fun.  We did not go to the headliner show because the singer was not our type.  Our Genie would meet us at each show and make sure we had our preferred drink.  Nicoli also met us each night at dinner.  He would then get our nightly snacks order and breakfast order for the next morning.
Our Genie showed up for our first balcony breakfast and sat a few moments with us on our balcony.  We would then see him again at dinner.  Most days it was just at dinner unless we went to a show after dinner, but we texted several times a day.  I think Nicoli figured out fast that we preferred our space and did not need constant cuddling.  I liked using the what’s up app for contact with him.  It was easy just to text him, instead of having to call him.   He always responded immediately and completed what I wanted.  One night I decided during the dinner that I wanted my daughter’s birthday cake to be delivered there. Nicoli made it happen. Both cakes were unbelievable. The taste was really good but the art work was the best I had ever seen!!  
Our Genie was a good fit for us.  He is personal, easy going and professional, when needed.  He had “four” rooms our week….five in our room, four in another, two in the other two bedroom aqua suite and I think three in the last room.  Because of lack of replacement, he was on his second tour and due to go home in April for a break.  On some ships, due to lack of Genies, some genies have had to service more than seven rooms.
Our room steward had 15 rooms to clean, one two bedroom aqua suite and the rest were a mixture of inside and balcony rooms.  Our suite was like cleaning three rooms, so he had 18 rooms to clean.  The cruise after us were increasing their passenger count but not staff.  He will have to clean three to five rooms more starting after our cruise.  Every day we would leave two bags full of stuff to be cleaned and pressed.  Two dry cleaning bags are in your room.  You fill out a paper on what you have in the bag.  I have heard horrible dry cleaning stories but all of our stuff came back better than what we get from our dry cleaners at home.  
Our passenger account was just over 50 percent.  Definitely didn’t feel as crowed as pre covid.  The casino was crowded.  There’s a good distance between the smoking and non smoking sections.  Non smoking section is bigger too.  
We only did one tour and that was in Honduras - Sloth and Monkey tour.  It was so much fun!  If you do this tour  hang back from the crowd.  Let them all run into the monkey cage.  By doing so you will get more personal attention at the end.  In Costa Maya, we walked into town.  The walk there and back was around 4.4 miles.  When you get to the end of the street there’s no signage of which way to go to town.  Go left!  In Cozumel we just walked straight out of port for a bit and walked back.  The weather was perfect in all the places for walking.  We did have rain a couple of times but we were already back on the ship.  
The last sea day our Genie had us and two other ladies for a personal hour on the flow rider.  Hubby and son took advantage of that hour.  It was fun watching them!  Son did the rock climbing and climbed right past our room.   Almost close enough for us to reach out and knock him down!
This was our first “diamond” cruise.  We already had unlimited drinks and the suite lounge so really didn’t need the use of the diamond lounge.  We did each get a “free” picture so that was a nice bonus.  
A repeat:  I hosted our slot pull on the first sea day at 11 am.  It took about an hour with 79 people participating.  We each put in 15 dollars.  At the end we had each lost $5.00.  People thanked us the whole cruise for hosting!  Our Genie gave us shirts, hats, water bottle and two sets of towel clips that said VIP and reserved to give as gifts for those who won the most money on their pulls.  
Our cruise was the first cruise having masks as optional.  Around ten percent (maybe even lower) chose to wear them.  I don’t think we had many cases, if any.  Except for staff wearing a mask the cruise was just like the old days……well, less crowded.  
Maybe because we were away from the suite floor….we just never got any unannounced visitors.  Guy came with our preplanned breakfast order, afternoon snacks then nightly snacks.  The Aqua suites are a good distance from any civilization but we ended up loving that.  We are walkers and always enjoyed the long walk down the hallway to our room.  
Nicoli left us each a royal hat as a gift.  We gave him cash as we were leaving the ship.  We gave the room steward cash the last night, incase we didn’t see him the next morning.  
Our Genie met us the last morning at seven with a porter.  He was thankful that we were leaving that early.  Most star class passengers try to stay until the last moment leaving genies trying to get them “all” off and rooms set up for the next passengers.  Our luggage was put on the cart and we all entered an elevator that was going “up” and Nicoli with a special card made the elevator go down.  He walked us to just before customs and handed us over to another porter.  Customs was just a facial recognition moment then off the ship we were.  The porter was awesome.  He brought us over to the taxi service on the side and had someone take us to the airport.  I’m thinking going to the side for a cab is normally not allowed.  I think you have to wait until they line up at the front entrance.  
I started this cruise at 137 pounds. First day off the ship I weighed 140.  Three days later I’m at 138.  Thinking tomorrow I’ll be back to the 137.  At this point, I’m sick of food.  Nothing sounds good.  I’m still stuffed.  By the last night on the cruise I just couldn’t eat, even the fish I was so looking forward to having.  
Hubby and I started the cruise thinking “star class” wouldn’t be a good fit for us.  I still tried to keep the rooms clean, but it was hard to keep up with our kids (grown-ass adults), so we did get our monies worth from the cabin steward!  Everything was done so smoothly.  First class service and attention.  I know some of you “hate” to show your special card but I recommend you keep that sucker around your neck to be seen.  You are paying for first class service!  
The vacation was one of the best ever, and I attribute that to being star class.  It’s expensive and I would not recommend using monies that should be going to your retirement account to take a star class cruise. You could do several  cruises instead of one star cruise for the same price.  Think hard before you spend that much for one week.  
That said, I’m older. More life is behind me than ahead of me.  I’ve spent my time in an interior/balcony room.   I’m getting close to the time that it’s good to spend some of my kid’s inheritance money, so I booked another two bedroom aqua suite - January 2024 on the Harmony.  
Thanks for following!
 
 

Yesterday we had breakfast on our outside balcony. Lunch at Park Cafe and dinner at Hibachi. Everyone should do breakfast on the balcony. Weather was perfect though it did rain a little later. Hit the casino. I lost again. Hubby won. I’ll write later about that. 
Have to get ready for another breakfast on our balcony. 

Before I share about hubby’s next trip to Royal’s medical, I’m going to share a funny story, that happened between hubby’s accidents.  
Hubby and I shared a table with two single women for dinner in the dining room.  They were a bit older than “Old White Woman.”  Our table was a nice four topper right by a window looking out at the ocean.  It was nice, but not really a great deal, because once it gets dark you are looking out into darkness.  But that’s a story for another time.  
The two women sharing our table were the type that waited for the dining doors to open  because they had a “thing” about being the first people seated.  So, hubby and I, did find it a bit “odd” that they were not already seated when we arrived to our table for dinner.  We were also stunned that the bread from the basket was warm.  Previous nights, the bread basket contained bread that was the temperature of its last home.  Hubby and I quickly ate our piece of warm bread and grabbed another. By this time, our waiter showed up to get our drink orders.  He looked a bit confused as we answered.  Hubby and I figured he must be filling in for our normal waiter and having a hard time adjusting to a new table in the middle of the cruise.  
Just when I finished buttering another piece of warm bread, my hubby out of nowhere said:  Old White Woman we are at the wrong table.  I told him he must of had too much bourbon because here’s the wall we sit against and there’s the ocean to our side.  
Hubby said we were at the right table but at the right table on the “wrong” floor.  
After a quick discussion about whether I should leave the buttered warm bread and whether we should attempt to “clean up” the table we decided to leave the “crime” scene fast - with the bread.  

Unfortunately I feel this issue is negatively impacting folks with a valid medical reason because we have doctors that are willing to write notes for a small fee waiving mask requirements due to their political beliefs and greed.
This is an issue in Florida with mask requirements in school systems.  There are doctors who for $50 will write a note without ever seeing a patient, declaring the student has a medical reason to not wear a mask.  
Given how ridiculously easy it is to obtain a doctor's handwritten note it places companies like cruise lines in a very difficult position and it impacts the small number of people with a valid medical reason due to the fakers. 
Much like bogus service animal certificates impact valid service animals, bogus mask exemptions are impacting valid mask exemptions.

We did it in August but there wasn't much to see. The storms had covered the airplane with sand. Visibility is good, but nothing much to see. They may have done some work since then, I hope. We're going there in May and would love to snorkel there.

Do you want to bet your cruise on it?
 
I would not.

So cargo shorts and a polo for the win 😁😁

I wore shorts on the 2nd formal night on my last cruise and didn't get struck by lightning on the way into the MDR.

Over the years have seen a bunch of weird things.  The German Shepherd security bomb sniffer who spent the cruise on the balcony next to ours after 9-11.  The teenagers jumping off the aft of Grandeur docked at Cozumel.  But the strangest (I guess most interesting) was the US Sub that made transit through the Gatun Locks beside us while in Panama on Brilliance.

Fully agreed with @Snotarni, well well worth it, already booked it for my next cruise ?  
It is a lot of food since it's 5 courses, but it's mostly smaller portions.  Except the Teppan Beef Fried Rice, that was a huge bowel of it, but absolutely fantastic.  Favorite sake was the perfect snow but the she's a geisha cocktail was incredible.

Go to the nearest Royal ship and show them the email at the gangway. They’ll have to let you on to finish the safety drill!?

That was ours too. The views from the chopper were amazing to this Floridian. Then drinking the melted ice. We almost booked it again for the afternoon.

Helicopter from Juneau and walking on the glacier. 

I loved the class! They easily accommodated my request for no shellfish and gave me substitutes. At the end I had delicious sushi to eat. It was totally worth it and I plan to go to the class every time I'm on a cruise with Izumi on board. 
And yeah, they provided all the ready ingredients and demonstrated how to assemble the sushi.
My own efforts on Jewel of the Seas in 2019:

It is a sushi rolling class, but it is fun. I did it on Allure and will do it on my next cruise. I did enjoy eating it afterwards.

I learned that Sake before and during makes the class more enjoyable.