Jax

I always forget a beach bag, so it will come in handy on our beach excursions. The hats are another story. lol

Yup, pre cruise Lindsay “our private session will be enough, I don’t care about the star class session”. Post flowrider Lindsay “I think I will be there early tomorrow”

Private Flowrider Session This ended up being a great gift/surprise for the guys on Christmas morning. They loved it and would definitely do it again. I got it on sale for $445 and when split 4 ways it isn’t too bad. They start them off on their stomachs, then knees and then standing. 3 out of the 4 guys all played lots of hockey and ski’d so they were standing up quickly. Lindsay prefers to boogie board on his knees and try to master the tricks. He did a 360 his first try. Videos posted over on my IG stories. Tomorrow morning is the star class session from 8:30-10am.

Merry Christmas from somewhere in the Gulf We woke to a beautiful morning. Sunny and no wind. I’ll post more about our private flower session in a bit. Just sharing our morning view.

I agree. Don’t get me wrong, our SRA is a nice man, eager to please. I sense he is new to servicing star class suites. I am routing all stateroom attendant type requests through Berty. Although I am sympathetic to their cabin load I am not willing to let it diminish our star class perks. If not for Berty our pressed items and laundry situation would have ended much differently. SRA reported no pressed items at 4. After a text to Berty pressed items arrived within 15 minutes. It’s the genie magic

Grease was scheduled for tonight but I cancelled. I never cancel but it wasn’t until 9:30pm and we are tired. Plus the open spaces, restaurants and elevators are really hot and we couldn’t handle the possibility of 2 hours in a hot theatre. Berty had popcorn delivered and we may catch a movie. We have an early morning tomorrow with the private flow rider session at 7:45am I think I am glad we are not on deck 17. I know how that sounds because I love deck 17 lol but elevators getting to and from CK tonight were awful. We will definitely get in our steps and take the stairs when we can. Night all, Merry Christmas

The guys are very happy with their beer options; Strongbow, Coors Lite, Shinerbock and Corona with limes. The only thing they don’t have onboard is Coors Banquet. The rate at which the beers are replenished certainly has changed as Reyd gets older.

We came back from supper to find Santa had visited. No idea if this is a ship wide gift but we usually get something on each holiday cruise. It includes 2 beach towels, 2 hats, beach bag and zippered pouch

Supper at CK It was filet night and the service and food was outstanding. One thing I really like about CK is their portion sizes. You leave feeling comfortable, not stuffed. Everyone had the filet and we all loved it.

No, sorry I will clarify. Berty used his genie powers and had our stateroom attendant do it. I was getting some pushback from the attendant on getting more star class laundry bags and having a few items pressed for tonight. Berty took care of it without me even knowing. I came back from lunch to a clean floor.

Sailaway/Graduation Celebration The sun came out and it turned into one of our best sailaways. We celebrated Reyd and Michael’s upcoming graduation. The in room appies were perfect and the best part, I didnt have to do any planning. Great way to start our cruise.

It’s a Christmas Miracle , the Captain just announced everyone has completed their muster drill. Call me shocked.

This is my first look at the Entertainment schedule for the week. When sailing out of Galveston, they do not run Fine Line Aqua Show night 1 due to cooler and windy conditions. Tonight we are scheduled for Grease followed by the balloon drop.

In my defense there were truffles in the fries.All this talk of truffles on your blog has inspired me …..what are the must have truffle dishes.

You are too easy! lol In my alternate universe I would have a live in genie.

Forgot to mention Berty said there are 6697 guests onboard this week.

Lunch Jaime’s Because the weather was overcast we opted to dine in at Jaime’s. We tried a sampling of appetizers, Caesar salad, the chicken sandwich and penne pancetta Alfredo pasta. It was nice to see some familiar crew faces from last year. Food was good as always.

Laundry Before After mentioning this mess to Berty, we come back from lunch to this. The items to be pressed were taken along with all the dirty laundry. I told him he has no idea how much I appreciate his genie magic.

Suite Decorations Berty decorated the suite with a variety of pictures of us. It took us a moment to ask him “how did you find these”. Well, he was resourceful and pulled them from Facebook.

Room Arrival Snacks Apparently there is a new F&B director who felt the embarkation snacks were underwhelming so they have been replaced with these. Lindsay enjoyed.

ATS #9730 We were in #8730 last year so the set up of the room is essentially the same. A slightly smaller eating area, different closet configuration in the master bedroom and access to the deck via 1 door instead of 2. The large deck is definitely a highlight of the room.

We are onboard! We woke to a partly overcast day but no rain! Lindsay dropped us off at 9:15 and was back by about 9:45am after dropping off the car rental. The terminal could not be accessed until 10am but thankfully it wasn’t raining. The terminal genie met us just before 10am and we were through security and in the terminal lounge in minutes. Berty met us around 10:15am, took us to the suite lounge for about 5-10 minutes before he brought us to our suite. More on the suite later. Luggage arrived by 11am. This is the first time we have had a repeat genie and we feel so lucky we get to spend the week with him. Pano from our deck. It’s a flurry of activity below us as truck after truck unloads supplies.

Happening now

We are in for the night. We had a pretty quiet day; walked through the shops downtown, drove to NASA and went for a drive along the coast. We’ve packed what we can. Berty will see us in the terminal at 10:15am. Lindsay will drop Reyd and I and the luggage at the terminal early, drop the rental and meet us back at the terminal. Berty confirmed Reyd and I can get ourselves and the luggage checked in and they will have Lindsay join us in the suite lounge. Weather has remained good in Galveston but the forecast calls for rain throughout the night, morning and afternoon. So we will see what happens. Berty said it has been raining today. I’ll checkin with you all tomorrow!!

IYKYK