WAAAYTOOO

Yes there is construction at South Beach and yes, the floating bar was open yesterday.

Agree about the bionic bar. Complete waste of space.

We are on NAV and a couple of nights ago our friends went down to Playmakers at around 11:15 to get a snack after leaving the casino. When they got there, they were told that they quit serving food at 11:00. They were very disappointed. The server told her that if nobody is ordering food, they just shut down the kitchen. Lame.

We just witnessed this less than 5 minutes ago. We are in Nassau. A lady was eating plate of French fries. The seagulls swooped down, ,sent her running and snatched every one of those French fries right off of her plate. This was on the ship !

Have a great time !

Yippee ! Enjoy yourselves. It will be next Oct before we are on another GC. Have a great time. I am envious.

Are they still doing the promo chips ?

OMG you couldn’t have shown a worse photo to me ! I miss my golden so much. Yours are beautiful. I love that picture. They’re hugging !

We were just at Coco Cay yesterday and I would concur that the water park did not appear to be worth the money. If you have children who would really enjoy the smaller water slides then maybe....but I will tell you that those smaller water slides yesterday were PACKED. The line was solid all the way from the ground to the landing. I could not really see how crowded the tall water slides were but the shorter one was really, really crowded. Due to winds the helium ballon was grounded and my opinion is that this balloon will be grounded more often than it will be operational. Great idea but completely impractical, I think. I don’t look for it to be duplicated at other sites. I agree that the free pool is the place to be unless you want the beach. We ate lunch at the Chill Grill and the food was very good. They had a portobello mushroom flat bread sandwich that was delicious ! There are so many loungers, umbrellas and places to sit. Very nice. We didn’t spend a dime and enjoyed the day very much. I felt bad for the Norwegian ship pax that were on their island. They had to tender in and I could just hear the sounds of little voices saying, “ mommy, I want to go over THERE” pointing towards Coco Cay.

I would have been appalled if the first thing I encountered was a filthy room ! Once we found a few pieces of clothing in a drawer (Grandeur) but the room itself was clean. I can’t say that I blame you for your reaction. It sounds like there were many disappointments on your cruise. Sorry to hear it.

We are on NAV right now on a B2B 3,4 night combo. We were not allowed to eat at Chops on embarkation day (Key only) but we were allowed to eat at Jamie’s. I’m not much of a Jamie’s fan but at least we got a nice sit-down lunch. There was no specialty restaurant open on our day at Coco Cay (yesterday) for lunch but we were told that Izumi would be open for lunch today (Nassau). We’ll know a bit later if it’s true. We LOVED Hooked. The amount of food that is included is truly amazing. It even includes the whole Maine lobster. Truthfully, I look for this restaurant to go a la carte soon...just my opinion. It’s an incredible value for the UDP. I don’t think it will last as an all-inclusive. Tomorrow is turnaround day so I suspect we will be stuck with Jamie’s again for lunch. Ugh. Chops has been on par with what we expect. Have not tried Playmakers or El Loco Fresh (or whatever it’s called). Stephanie and Canoe are on this trip with us and they went to Hooked last night for oysters and soup and then came to Chops later for a full meal and had no problem so it looks like the multiple dining venues option is working. That’s great news ! BTW, the New England clam chowder at Hooked is ALMOST as good as mine...and they give you a gallon. Lol. The oysters were only “ok”. I like them really salty and these were a bit bland and the crackers they gave us were more like Communion wafers than crackers. The oysters are very popular though !

I love everything about Curacao. It is so cute, to start with. When you pull into port you will see the lovely colors of the homes and other buildings. So welcoming. I love walking around downtown. When you get off the ship, head “right” out through the gates and walk along the waterfront. It will take you to a lovely area where they have renovated some fortress areas into businesses, restaurants and even a casino. America would never do that ! I love that they took an area of historical significance (I assume) and created a bustling business area. After you have seen that area, continue walking through and it will take you to the pedestrian floating bridge. It’s an amazing engineering creation. Walk across the bridge and on the other side, hire a tuc-tuc to drive you around. The city is amazing and has such an interesting history. There is a floating market where boats sail in from Venezuela to sell their goods. The island has a rich Jewish heritage which is very interesting. Of course there is a lot of Dutch influence since it was once a Dutch colony. A number of years ago we did a dolphin swim in Curaçao and really enjoyed it. Interestingly enough, we have never been to the beach in Curaçao but we aren’t beach people anyway. Someone else may have more information on beaches. Everyone always raves about Aruba but I really prefer Curaçao.

Oh how I wish....

I am on NAV in a Grand Suite right now. Suites have an exclusive breakfast in Chops Grill which gives you a nice, quiet, full service breakfast but unfortunately no other exclusive meals for suites. The Suites Lounge is open 24/7 but as KristiZ mentioned, the Concierge is only there during published hours. One note about the Suites Lounge. We went there (to get a cappuccino) right after we boarded and b/c we did not have Sea Pass cards yet we could not get in. Luckily we knocked and there was someone inside to open the door and let us in but if they had not been there we would have been SOL. One very big down side to the “no Sea Pass cards upon boarding” process. The Suites Concierge on currently (Andrea) is very nice I think she is new to being a Concierge (#1 we have not met her before and #2 she seems to have to consult with the Diamond Concierge regularly to get help/answers). I like her though. Suites perks do not include internet service on NAV (it does on Oasis and Quantum Class ships). There are reserved seating areas for suites in the main theater and the ice skating rink but they only hold those seats until 10 minutes before showtime. After that, they release the reserved seating to anyone. Be at the show at least 15 minutes before showtime. One other shortfall about the newly amped NAV that I somehow missed in the blogs...when the moved the fitness center and added new cabins, they completely removed the sauna and steam rooms. Dan was more than slightly annoyed to find this out. So, no sauna and/or steam rooms anymore on NAV. Unfortunate We have the Unlimited Dining Package and on embarkation day we were not permitted to eat at Chops but they did let’s us eat at Jamie’s.

I would definitely do the itin with Curaçao but that’s b/c I have a love affair with Curaçao. You really can’t go wrong with either one. I know I am an outlier on this, but I would also prefer 1 less port. The cruises with lots of port days are exhausting to me but most people prefer to make more stops so it will depend on your personal preference. I vote for #1

Waaaytooo early. IMO

I think being on a big, empty ship would be creepy. I have about 4 friends (although, if I won a Mega lottery I’m sure I would have no trouble making new friends !) so we could each have a floor to ourselves. I would let the crew sleep in the Suites.

1. Retrieve your bags from the airport luggage carousel once you arrive 2. Remove the airline tags 3. Put on the cruise line luggage tags 4. Find the Royal Caribbean representative at the airport and coordinate your ride to the ship 5. Retrieve your luggage from the bus once you get to the ship 6. I always give the bus driver a small tip but that is optional 7. Make SURE that you have your identification documents and your Set Sail passes in your hand and not in your luggage ! 8. Give your large luggage to the luggage handlers outside of the terminal 9. Take your carryon luggage with you, walk into the Terminal through security and check in for the cruise

Done already ? Wow...that time just flew by !

Congratulations on your first cruise ! Have a great time.

On the O and Q Class the only amenity that they Key would give you would be dropping off your luggage on day 1 and perhaps a few flow rider sessions. I don’t see the value in the Key if you are in a full suite. I do understand your interest in the UDP if you enjoy the specialty restaurants but couldn’t see getting the a Key at all.

Glancing off topic a bit here...we used A2S for our airline reservations today from DCA to Miami. It seems that A2S did not put our AA frequent flyer info into our reservations ? so when we got to the airport we were not tagged for TSA PreCheck. It was not a horrible situation as we have Clear so we went str8 to the head of the line but we still had to remove shoes which was a PITA and the line was S.L.O.W. We had also lost our First Class seats together but that wasn’t A2S’s fault. The airline had a plane change and it f’ed up the seating chart. We eventually got seats together dues the generosity of the young lady who originally was in the seat next to me. She took Dan’s seat and all was well. We got the agent at the AA Admirals Club to add our FF info so hopefully the TSA PreCheck info will be evident for our return trip. On a high note, Florida Senator Marco Rubio was on our flight. He offered to switch seats so that Dan and I could sit together but his seat location wasn’t helpful to our plight so we gratefully declined his offer. We also spotted Senator Tom Cotton in the AA Admiral’s Club and when we got on board NAV one of the first people we ran into was Super Mario ! Quite a day for celebs. So our experience with A2S today was a bit mixed but we made our flight, got to the ship on time and all is well. Our departure has been delayed several minutes due to wind associated with thundershowers but we appear to be under way now so Coco Cay, here we come !

Thanks, Robert. Flying down same day. Wish us luck.

This is a huge disappointment given all of the hype that preceded it. Really ? NO new restaurants ?

WOW ! Who knew ? I never even look at the reaction stuff. Thanks ! I guess....?