WAAAYTOOO

I will try !

Final thoughts on Brilliance Our suite (1052) was very nice The fixtures in the bathroom seem a bit dated (lots of gold) but it was clean and everything worked ! Of course we are directly beneath the pool deck so there’s a bit of bumping and chair-moving overhead, but they aren’t super loud and it wasn’t objectionable. The room is close to the elevators without being noisy. The Suites lounge (Iliana) was very helpful. We did not go into any of the lounges during Happy Hour so I have no idea how crowded or uncrowned either of them got. IMO, the Diamond Lounge has a better view than the Suites Lounge. We never set foot in the MDR so I have no idea how good or bad it was. We went into the WJ once for lunch on day 2 and it was standard. Voom service was sluggish occasionally but once I learned how to successfully switch from one device to another, I had no problems with Voom. To my knowledge the signal never dropped entirely. I will say, however, that there seemed to be a lot of people out in the “common areas” with laptops so I feel that there may be some dead spots. No direct knowledge of that. Just an impression. I did not go to any shows. Dan went to 1 magic show which he said was ok. Sadly, we never made it to a showing at the Cinema. I hope others did. The kids’ water splash area is a small and uninspiring place at the aft of the ship, completely separated from the main pool area. While I’m sure the kids couldn’t have cared less (they seemed to be having a ball), I felt bad for the parents b/c they were totally isolated from the rest of the adult areas. We did go to the Solarium one afternoon. It’s lovely there but there is only one TINY hot tub. Even Grandeur has 2 ! It was day 4 before I realized there was a Park Cafe back there. The roast beast looked good we but didn’t try it. The main pool area seemed very busy. The casino is smallish and was hoppin’ the entire time it was open. That probably has a great deal to do with the fact that this sailing was on the “complimentary” list for a long time. It makes sense that there are a lot of gamblers on this cruise. BTW, the same is true for next weeks Oasis cruise, so I expect the casino to be very busy there, as well. No opinion on bar service as we never ordered a single drink other than our coke or pelligrino with meals. I’ve already talked about the specialty restaurants. Chops got progressively better all week. I think embarkation lunch is a logistical nightmare for Chops. The suites breakfast at Chops was always good. We will be walking off with the Suites Concierge tomorrow at 7:15. We will go directly to the Tampa airport via National Car Rental shuttle where we have a car reserved. We will be doing a little house hunting recon during the day, and then on to Miami where we will spend the night at the Miami Biscayne Bay. Then, boarding Oasis at 10:30 on Sunday. Looking forward to meeting Joyce, our Genie.

All of the booking promotions from your original booking (AoNC etc) will move over with your upgrade. What would NOT move with you are cabin-type promotions such as those that go along with Central Park and Boardwalk rooms.

Yes. If you are upgraded to a Star Class suite, you get all the SC amenities including the Genie ??

No worries from me. I don’t even so much as brush up against a slot machine. As long as they don’t dick around with the tables. I’ll be good-to-go. ???

I don’t think there are any negatives to the humor on Freedom. On the Oasis class ships if you are on the “forward hump” and you’re on Deck 8, it’s a very long walk to get to almost anywhere, as you have to walk behind restaurant row just to get out. But that’s the only negative I can think of. Hump balconies are generally sought after. Good job !

ISince we are docked at the downtown pier, we decided to go out into town for a while. Beside us is docked NCL Breakaway. Out in the bay, offshore, is the NCL Escape. She is tendering her peeps ashore with lifeboats. Glad I’m not on Escape ! We walked down to the Plaza and decided to have a couple of beers and some chips and pico de gallo. This was the first alcohol that either of us have had the entire cruise ! The cold Coronas tasted pretty good. More about this, later. At some point, Dan mentioned something about maybe getting a cheap massage. Oh yeah....that sounded like a GREAT idea. After finishing our beers and chips, we asked our waiter if there was anywhere close where we could get a massage. It seemed we were in luck ! No more than 20 paces down the side street was a spa. The decision was made. If the price was right, we were getting massages. Trust me, this is no foo foo spa. It’s a hole-in-the-wall place but the price seemed right. $70 each for a 90 minute massage. Done. They put us in a “room” for 2. I put “room” in quotations because it is really just 1 big room with curtains to separate the “private” areas. Good enough for us. I will just say up front that this was one of the best massages I have ever had. Most masseuses hurt me. I guess I’m just a wimp but the whole “deep tissue” thing is about as far from enjoyable as I can get. But this lovely lady’s touch was perfect. You start out on your belly, of course, and I was really settling in...enjoying every stroke. She did my back, neck and shoulders. Heaven. Then she moved to my legs....and trouble began to brew. Here’s where the forewarning from the beer and chips photo comes back into play. As if, by some awesome force of nature and gravity combined, the moment she started pushing “up” (towards my torso) on my legs, the beer bubbles began to be pushed up from my belly. Had I been standing, I would simply let out a diminutive “burp” and all would have been fine....but I was laying on my stomach and those beer bubbles were trapped between my stomach and my throat. I tried to maneuver in a way that would allow them to escape, but nopesville. They just kept accumulating in a most unpleasant location, soon to be joined by some chips and salsa (thank you, hiatal hyneria). It was both horrifying and hilarious at the same time. I thought the legwork would never end. Finally, after what seemed like hours, she whispered “turn over on your back, please”. As soon as I moved, the loudest, most manly, horrific belch came roaring out. It was so loud I’m sure they heard it across the street. Dan said “are you ok ?” I was so relieved. I just muttered “yes, I’m fine”. The moral of this story is NEVER drink a beer before having a massage !

Everybody ! Ignore my post completely! I thought the question was about RCCL Visa card points. Sorry #readthethreadtitlebeforeposting

We were on NAV in June and July and had the UDP. We found that Izumi was often open at lunchtime (on port days), unadvertised. Believe it or not, sometimes you just have to skulk around and check these venues individually.

Me, three

Nice gobbler !

It’s not that bad, really. I suspect that if you had a rowdy crew next door (that isn’t you, is it ? ?) it might be a problem but our neighbors are even older than we are so they’re ?. The rooms are very nice. The balconies are a bit narrow but that’s about the only side effect of the narrow ship.

Happy Dan kindly took some pictures of the dock area when the sun passed behind some clouds while I was in the shower. He’s a good egg

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone ! I can’t believe it’s already Thanksgiving. That means Christmas is dangerously close. Yippee ! We are already docked in Coz and it appears that we are at the downtown dock ! I believe this is my first time ever to dock downtown. I had not planned to get off the ship today but I may change my mind now. I didn’t even know that Royal COULD dock downtown. #firsttimer No picture right now b/c I would be shooting directly into the sun (boo) but I will try later. Heading off to <where else> Chops for breakfast.

My guess is a hard “no”.

Wow ! I’ve never seen anything as pathetic as that asparagus ! Besides being grossly unappetizing, I’ve never seen Chops serve it any way except “family style”.

I am so excited for you guys ! I know you’re going to have a blast. I have often, secretly, considered a “girl’s cruise” but I don’t think I would ever be able to ditch you-know-who. He has one of those sad dog faces when he is disappointed and I don’t know if I could enjoy myself (plus, I’d never hear the end of it !). Good for you that you are doing it !

...except the countdown to your NEXT Star Class Cruise ! 3 more days !

...another of those “good news, bad news” situations....

This reminds me of the ol’ sayin’....”I have goods news and I have bad news...”

So, not much to report today. We tried to have lunch at Izumi just to be turned away. They were having a sushi-making class today so we slunk back to Chops. Keep in mind that we had just come from breakfast at Chops a little while before (remember the Choo-choo nanner ?)....but we made appearance #2 shortly thereafter. I was not particularly hungry (go figure) so I just had my beloved mushroom soup and a shrimp cocktail. Dan had a rather bizarre shrimp-cocktail-Caesar-salad concoction devised by our (now bestie) waiter (I can’t pronounce his name but it starts with a V). We waddled out of Chops AGAIN and I went to the casino. Big mistake. I should have gone with Dan to the sauna. Sadly I must report that my casino fortunes have taken a decidedly negative turn. That particular session ended in a $600 loss and a subsequent follow-on disaster after dinner netted another $500 soaking. Ugh. Dan is still up over $600 so he’s obviously much better at this than I am but I have the luxury of not caring whether I win or lose so I’m sure I will continue to lose ! So guess where we had dinner ? Yep...the ol’ Chops hat trick ! Dan had steak, I had spicy shrimp. I now have indigestion due to waaaytooo much food today and lousy gambling skills. Time for bed. Peace, out. ??

Hmmm... Retirement bot ? Additional info required, please.... ???

wow ! You’re taking no chances, are you ? 1 vote for the Secret Clinical Strength....from one stank-pitter to another.

We have a wonderful cabin attendant on Brilliance (Ikade) but Jesus from Anthem, he is NOT. Nice guy but no towel animal licks to speak of.

Do I sense just a smidgeon of hollow humility ? ????