Pookie

Day three happenings: After stuffing in enough breakfast to satisfy a medium sized whale, we heard the Alpha, Alpha, Alpha call and shortly after a helicopter came. Hopefully that person is ok. A second helicopter came and took the family. Prayers for them.disembarkation was closed at that time as the helicopter lands on the pier. Once the first helicopter left, we waddled down the half mile of hall to meet Allen at the elevator where he used his magic card to whisk us straight down. The timing was off when they reopened disembarkation. We were standing off to the side and they started up the escalator from the floor above. They were not letting people off yet and a whole crush of people came streaming down with nowhere to go. We were amazed no one got hurt or mutilated. I believe they said it was 94 degrees. The trio of us sweaty Bettys traipsed about the island, taking gratuitous pics of ourselves and the scenery, then ended up Oceanside by the landing for the zip line watching people pretend to be birds. Had some lunch which was ok at best. Then we hopped on a boat excursion that took us along the coast and came back. Jumped back on our ship, watched sail away from our balcony, snuck in a small nap, spruced ourselves up and went to Chefs table. Eight people did not show for this dinner. At first they thought it was the family that had the medical emergency but it was not them. That would be understandable. It was really awful of the no shows to do that after listening to how much time and effort was put into that meal, the timing involved in serving the food perfectly and holding up the rest of us at the table for over a half hour. The meal was lovely, the mucho wino even lovelier, conversation was witty and the event took about three hours. We rushed back to catch the Journey cover band from the balcony. Journey is one of my favorite bands. This band made my ears bleed. They must have thought having the bass and the instruments cranked to the max helped deliver a stellar performance. It did not. You could barely hear the singer. Pics of highlights in next post.

We have a standing order for mimosas and bellinis every morning at 6:30 and before dinner cocktails. Hubs likes the tropical old fashions and I like Reisling. Delaney likes Shirley temples. I have them bring them with no ice in them. But they keep us stocked with ice so we add it when we were ready. Today returning from Labadee, we stopped at the Schooner bar for those items, they weren’t quite open yet but they made us jack and diet, captain and diet and Miss D’s Shirley. Got back to the suite and our regular drinks were waiting, sans ice, with a bucket of ice next to them! So incredibly spoiled! Allan is absolutely a dream! We already had gifts and he brought more! They correspond to the things we said we liked ON THE SURVEY! At the start of our cruise we gave him a bag of Michigan made and Michigan items. Also quite a bit of candy. Future Allan families note that he has a sweet tooth!

Amazon!

Incredibly yes!

My thoughts were caught by the mountain of food entering the suite while I was blogging and also distracted by the fact that I was ravenous and wondering How Could That Possibly Be, which caused me to forget to add some visual bling to the last post. My focus is now back to its laser sharpness having had breakfast and a couple of bellinis. I did ask they they ease up on the amount of food. I hate to see waste. Here are some shots from yesterday and a few from this morning:

Recap of day two: Pure unadulterated FUN. Breakfast and Starbucks brought to suite. Went walkabout, shopped, inspected several bars for alcohol content throughout the day, swimming, lounging on the afterdeck ( suite sun deck, which has been changed to only include sky, star and pinnacle members, had a Super Mario sighting, Playmakers lunch, hot dog for second lunch, lounged on our balcony with cocktails brought to the suite, and dinner at Giovannis where Allan came to chat, then another cake showed up for Delaney. The waitstaff all greeted us by name. WHAT A GREAT DAY!

It is all fixed! And it looks more pleasing to the eye than the knife and fork?

Never underestimate the power of redneck ingenuity. The divider to the next suite squeaks at incredible decimals. Waiting until a decent hour to let Allan know and see if something can be done. It sounds like a nest of about 27 baby pterodactyls chirping in hungry angst..

Currently rocking back and forth gently. Awesome for sleeping. The divider between us and the next cabin was squeaking extremely loudly so we went out there and stuffed a towel between the handrail and the divider. Problem temporarily solved until they can either weld or replace? Royal has gone above and beyond our expectations at this point! i had asked that the room filters be changed and they assured us 3 times, different people each time, that they were down. Daughter has severe asthma. Pre cruise I had asked for two feather body pillows, granted. They are awesome! Asked for binoculars, 3 were waiting! i did bring a hammock, we asked if we could put it up and were told no. No big deal to us.. I’m sure it’s for safety reasons but also they probably don’t want their ship looking like the Clampets have moved in. We already look like Jed, Granny and Ellie May....? Being as there are three of us, we asked for a third lounger and they brought one of the ones from the pool area. Allan asked if we wanted snacks for the Aqua 80s show and they brought an entire tray of SunChips, Lays and Doritos? Everyone was all seated in the Aqua theatre and then they cancelled the show. If we would have been in the crowd, I probably would have been irritated by that. breakfast will be here within the half hour. I’m STARVING???

We’ll bring you a sampling of desserts they said...good grief..!

Because I am already in a self induced food coma (still good for more alcohol though), my last post today will be a highlight reel of sail away . I can tell you currently we are rocking and rolling with strong winds and high seas. Pretty confident there will be no Aqua 80s show tonight. Got him to do a selfie with me middle of magnified circle is my hubster waving at the Port of Miami camera..? lots of money sitting idle miami beach Miami is just a memory now, see you right back here in a week? more blogging tomorrow. I swear I will!

I will drop the hint about the tumblers. The book was for Delaney from Allen. She did note on the survey she likes to travel...

We were set up for Uber this morning. Two drivers cancelled because the cops wouldn’t let them through to the hotel. One persevered and made it through. Had to loop around and come through the tunnel. Made it to the terminal at 10:03, hubster fought off any and all porters trying to make off with our luggage, stating he was under strict orders from me. ?Made the guy who ended up as our porter show identification and swear on a bible under penalty of some slight mutilation that he was indeed a star porter. We turned down Joyce taking us aboard wanting to wait for Allen and to also absorb some of the ambience of the lovely suite lounge in the terminal. Two minutes later Allen was there and he just awesome! Guess what was waiting in our room! Pretzel M & Ms! Check it out all the other bounty:

We will try very hard to live up to that expectation?

Currently trying to keep my child-like glee under control and be patient until everyone awakens. This is a nice outlet for extra energy? The Intercontinental is beautiful with a gorgeous view of cruise ship row. The Miami marathon this weekend, so it was difficult for our taxi to get to the hotel. (I do not understand running marathons. I did a 5k once, just to say I did it. You will not see me doing that again unless a wild animal or a clown with a knife is chasing me) He dropped us about a half block away and a manager saw us unloading and sprinted over to help and called a trolley for our luggage. All of the staff have been most helpful without even asking. After settling in, we walked a couple blocks to the Bayfront Market, shopped (Hubster is happy, he purchased a couple of psycho bunny shirts), we nibbled food at a couple of restaurants, people watched and drank many mojitos. Came back and hung out, napped and then went downstairs to Toro Toro for dinner. The food was fantastic! Had a touch of the food coma already...but we will soldier on! I’m gazing out the window, watching the sun rise on Ms. Oasis’ splendid beauty??

SHE’S HERE! SHE’S HERE!!

I’m glad you mentioned this. I was planning on getting up in the middle of the night and watching for her...?

Oh boy...is he going to be wearing a suit of armor?

Some Miami sights. Have already drank our weight in Mojitos? ? my hubster attempt at a pic, which is why I’m the official picture taker in the relationship view from our suite

Gray days left behind!

After waking up at a time when we used to just be getting home from a night out, we left the house like a herd of geriatric turtles and have arrived safely at the airport. Flights appear to be on time. Luggage has been entrusted to the suitcase shepherds with the hope we will see it again.

Two full revolutions around the sun and we have arrived to the eve of departure. Celebrating with a few shots of rumchata in front of the fire

In the two years since booking and counting down the hair and hooves appointments since then, yesterday marked the 24th and final one. I’m in the early senior citizenhood years and vanity has me continuing to have my hair colored to avoid resembling a Qtip. “Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.”?

To understand fully just how excited we are about our upcoming cruise, one of the biggest reasons besides not having to work is the fact we live in a place where We suffer through copious amounts of snow and stuff like this grows:

Lol! I thought I more incoherent than usual ?