WAAAYTOOO

Royal Caribbean will not refund any money to you after final payment date but it is sometimes possible to upgrade to a higher category room. Since doing this is essentially a cancellation and rebooking, sometimes you will have to pay a $$ difference. That may be what is happening in your case

People often ask what the Genie can do for you and the answers are usually pretty much the same - reservations and personal seating being the norm. I thought of something while Dan and I were having dinner at Giovannis tonite. We out outside. The weather was so amazing. We were marveling at how mature and lush the Central Park garden has become. We then began to recall a special event that we had on our second SC cruise and I thought I would mention it to everyone. Those of you who have been reading my blogs for a while will probably be hearing this for a second time. If so, I apologize. A couple of years ago we were in an ATS on Harmony. We somehow managed to sail in between hurricanes. There had been cancellations and rerouting everywhere the weeks prior but we managed to get ours in just before another one popped up. As a result of all of the standing water from the storms there was a horrific mosquito problem on board. We could not even go out on our balcony without being attacked. It was really bad. Of course, we called our Genie (Reyno) and he had the pest control guy come up to help us out. We laughed when he showed up at the door with a spray can. There were literally millions of mosquitoes everywhere. To paraphrase the famous line from Jaws “Dude, you’re going to need a bigger can”. He immediately saw that his can was not up to the task and later we got a technician with a pump sprayer which took care of the problem easily. Well, it turned out that the guy who had shown up with the spray can in the beginning was Laszlo ( I used to remember his last name but it has escaped me for the moment), the head Botanist for Royal Caribbean and the creator and godfather of the Central Park gardens. He has personally designed and implemented every Central Park garden since Oasis. It seems that the “side job” of the ship’s botanist is that of pest control which is how we got him up at our suite in the first place ! Later in the day, Reyno asked us if we would like to have a personal tour of the CP garden with Laszlo. To be completely honest, at first I thought that might be a little lame but boy was I wrong. It was one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve ever taken. Laszlo LOVES his job and he loves to share his passion. He spent a very long time with us and told us so many little secrets about the plants, the challenges of having a live garden on board a cruise ship, how the plants are watered, why certain plants are chosen, etc. It was fascinating. So, the point of this whole story is to let you know that with Star Class, such personalized tours are extremely possible. I’m sure Laszlo is probably on Symphony since that’s the latest O class deployment but there is certainly someone of Laszlo’s equivalent on every O class ship. I know that they offer garden tours from time-to-time on the different O class ships but they generally will not be to the level that you will get with a private tour and your Genie can make that happen

Working perfectly (for now, anyway)

I agree that the chances of storm interference in TX is greater than in NJ but the options for alternative routes from TX are greater than those from NJ. If a storm is coming up the coast of the eastern US, there is nowhere to go from NJ. At least in TX you can go East, west or south. Other than the obvious (brutal summer heat), I don’t think there are any show stoppers with Galveston. The logistics are a BIT more complicated as you have to get from the airport to the port and back but it’s not a big deal.

We just love her. She is so “in charge” !

We have enjoyed our sailings out of Galveston. The ships are pretty much the same so not much of a choice to make there. Given the facts that the LIB is 2 days longer and it’s overall cheaper, it would be a no-brainer for me. The time of year could be a factor. Knowing that with summer storms, Galveston offers far more alternative routes for outmaneuvering storms than NJ would could be a factor. Of course, it is going to be blazing hot in south Texas in August ! I would choose LIB just for the extra days and price difference.

It’s just waaaytooo sweet for my taste

Thank you !

Whatever it takes ! ?

We decided to check out Park Cafe for a kummelweck. When Dan spotted the gravy (vs au jus) he opted for an egg salad sammie. I was brave and went for the kummelweck anyway, just sans the gravy. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had but it certainly wasn’t the worst. It was passable. The beef was not tough which is the worst situation. Afterwards I decided to look for a bit of ice cream. Dan got a scoop of tiramisu ice cream from the ice cream side of Sugar Beach. No charge. I went over to Johnny Rockets and got a vanilla shake. Also no charge. I collapsed 2 of those damned paper straws in the process. Remember the pack of plastic straws I brought with me ? Yep..,.still unused. Good idea but completely impractical. While sitting at JR Dan looked down and saw that his white shorts were riddled with black spots. We quickly realized that it was engine soot. Looking around, you could see it everywhere. I remember ruining clothes from the soot on a couple of our ATS stays. It’s a definite problem in the aft areas of the ship

Thank you, Lorraine. It is our one and only time per cruise to get dressed up. One and done !

...and OBTW, what kind of absurdity is it to run your plumbing lines UP and over through the crawl space ABOVE your suite ? They deserve this mess ! ??

That’s so nice. I love that you get to visit family sometimes on your cruises. ????

Great strategy. It seems to be working, too !

Just in case any of you thought I might be embellishing my story, I provide photographic evidence of the seriousness of the plumbing debacle. They are working both inside and, out in the hallway and overhead in the crawl space Sorry for the quality of the hallway photo I was trying to be unobtrusive and take a quick shot. Didn’t want the worker(s) to think I was spying on them ! Our water is on but we didn’t dare try and use the other toilet. Dan dashed gown to 15 to find an available public toilet. It was funny for a while. Now it’s becoming a real nuisance

I agree. We know “the rules”. I feel like it’s something in the “main line” but since we are the top of the stem, we are the logical place to start “pushing” whatever it is <down> through the system. Sounds good. I’m goin’ with that...

Thanks, Dan. We plan on staying right on the ship. I know it will be a great day. I see an lovely nap coming my way ! ??

It seems we are having maintenance issues AGAIN. When we returned after b’fast at JR we found our suite attendant (Cami (Camelia)) overseeing a delicate plumbing procedure in the “guest” bathroom. I haven’t yet expounded on the virtues of our excellent cabin attendant. She is, hands down, the best we’ve ever had. But this topic deserves its own post, so I will get back to the issue-at-hand. It seems the toilet(s) is clogged again. <hands up and backpedaling> I DIDN’T DO IT ! I have been red-faced guilty of said crime many, many times (Dan claims I am a world class toilet paper abuser and I admit that I am) but not this time ! Whatever happened, it is serious. They had the whole freakin’ toilet bowl removed and untold lengths of plumbing snakes deployed. I’m sure they think I’m guilty of some unspeakable toilet violation. I could tell by the look on their face when we walked in. How do you defend yourself against this kind of bias ? Perhaps it’s just deflection on my part b/c I know I have been guilty of similar sins in the past. Oh well....Best to just let them work their magic and carry on as if nothing happened. If I get a scolding from Cami I will know that we were unmasked by the workers. Such an injustice ! Dan has gone to investigate. I’m waiting out on the balcony to minimize the chance of being confronted directly. He’s braver than I am.

We have arrived in Falmouth. This is among my least favorite ports of call but I will say that it is among my favorites in regards to the ease of disembarking and proximity to the port compound. It is RIGHT there as soon as you get off the ship. No pier to walk down at all. BOOM- you’re right there at the compound. Ugh. You got the finger (on the lens). Sorry about that. Twangbot would never let that happen ! Mere moments later, something happened that I don’t recall Seeing at Falmouth before... We were joined by another ship ! And even more unusual, it was the NCL Dawn. I didn't think NCL used the port at Falmouth. The Dawn is often our companion when docked in Bermuda. We sailed on the Dawn many years ago. It was our one and only casino comp through NCL

Just to prove that we DO leave our fortress from time-to-time, I managed to get some shots of the newly decorated Promenade.

Breakfast this morning at Johnny Rockets. We had missed doing this on our last few Oasis class ships and decided NOT to miss it this time. It was unremarkable but we did it ! Dan had some kind of breakfast sandwich and I had <cold> pancakes. As Dan’s grandfather used to say, “it’ll make a turd”. Beautiful morning to eat outside at JR though. No sun and no wind. Glad we did it.

Wow. That was a very direct letter. I’m surprised that Royal made something like this public. I’m not saying I disagree. I’m just surprised

Thanks so much. I will help in any way I can

Congratulations !

Yep. Happens a lot