Vangrizz

I had posted this elsewhere, but it’s relevant again. I may be giving too much away about my sense of humor, and I know it will never happen with Royal in the market for “family cruises” but I would love to see Book of Mormon as the show? (lord, I apologize for laughing as hard as I did the three times I’ve seen the show)

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

Thanks so much for doing this live blog. It's always so much fun following along with fun and colorful families. Looking forward to January 2021 (or before if you go into "genie" withdrawal before that cruise comes around).

We clean up pretty nicely when we want to

there’s always one in every crowd.

 

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

Writing this from Central Park after a perfect day at coco cat. Wow life can’t get much better! So yesterday the start of the cruise. We left our villa at 9am and arrived in port Canaveral at 10am after a 10 minute wait in line to drop off the car on the shuttle we went and off to the port. The porters grabbed our luggage (we over pack 5 people 6 large suitcases, 2 small carry on roller bags and a small duffel bag) and off to the terminal we went. Literally 2 people ahead of us for security then off to check in that took less than 5 minutes no line but I needed a new photo then right onto the ship. We were on-board by 10:45! Next we went to bolaros to reprogram our old wow bands and to get the first drink. I have the deluxe drink package so at the recommendation of this blog the first drink I grabbed was a kracken lava flow. Then off to the solarium my favourite place on any ship. I do notice the lack of pool in harmony’s and do miss it. Ate lunch at the solarium bistro this was an amazing idea as we did not wait found a table no problem and the food was good. Then the rooms were ready! Rest of day 1 later I’m going to go enjoy sail away from my balcony with some sangria! 

Some picture from throughout the day. Tonight is the first formal night so we plan on getting all fancy later.
 

I'm officially ON VACATION!!!!   I worked my last overnight (dog) shift last night and my last night as a 911 dispatcher .... it crawled along for the most part.  Now I have 2 1/2 days to get house and hounds ready for our pet sitter, and to get us packed.  The weather away from here is looking like it's going to be pretty good, except when we leave.  5 degrees? REALLY?  I do NOT want to drag a winter coat with me to Miami, to the ship, and back.  This is BS.  I'm going to FREEZE  in the Uber.  I want to talk to the weather manager.
Speaking of wanting to file a grievance, the first hound to be bathed has some issues with this entire process.  (i.e. the princess is NOT happy).  I'm sure the boys will feel the same way.

They do reveal who the killer was at the end of the show. My guess was wrong though.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

Representing today?

I assume that you are sleeping on the couch, because your daughter is definitely wondering why you are taking pictures in HER room.

Getting on the ship as late as we did, the rooms were already open, so we headed there to drop off our carry on bags, and went and stuffed our faces.
Stateroom Tour: So we are in the GS2BR on the aft of the ship. We have been in three 2br grand suites now, and I have to say this is my least favorite. 
 
You open the stateroom door into this hallway

there is the second bedroom on your right with it’s own bathroom.


there is also a large closet in the hallway on the left.

main living area

Master bedroom 

Overall, the suite seems cramped with that hallway. We were in the same room on Navigator, and the layout of that room was much better. Our first foray into suite snobbery was on Anthem and that suite was great. 
Like many have noticed on other ships Liberty doesn’t disappoint with its lack of outlets. In the second bedroom there are no outlets near the beds, so if you like to sleep with your phone near you for any reason, plan accordingly. I bring adapters for the European style plugs so that helps.

Current mood....

There will be more in the morning, it’s very late and the rail car quantity of wine I have consumed is catching up to me. Plenty of down time with two sea days here to rest and recuperate.

I’m not seeing the LA sailings in the app anymore. 

Entertainment:  The entire group enjoyed everything we saw.  (Almost). The singers, dancers, skaters, divers and other performers displayed amazing talent!  The athletic ability of some of them will blow you away. Aqua 80’s was the best water show I have seen. I think the music and me being old helped make it that way?. The headliners were good. I think I’ve already mentioned that Kaitlyn, Taylor and I returned  for Stephanie Parker’s 2nd show the night she performed. Jeff Tracta has been around for awhile but we enjoyed his talent again. Jack Daniels and I returned for his 2nd show as well. ??. Interesting story on that. JD and I sent an email to Allan after the first show asking if he could reserve the front row seats for us at the 2nd show.  I usually send the emails myself but that evening I let Jack assist in sending it - and he sent it to the Genie on the Allure instead of to Allan. Allan later told me the the Allure Genie immediately contacted him to see if he had some crazy elderly dude who wanted to see the headliner again! It all ended well.  I’m known across the fleet. Jack is no longer allowed to send emails. 
We loved the ice skating as usual. So entertaining and such incredible talent. The comedians were ok, one much better than the other. The Escape Room was an amazing afternoon of entertainment. Having actually watched a Space Shuttle launch from the real Mission Control, I enjoyed the creativity and realistic “ Mission.”
CATS:  None of us really wanted to see it.  We skipped it the first time on the Oasis.  But this year our merry little group decided it was a “must see” just to see what all the fuss is about.  I will say that the performers are extremely talented.  We learned during our backstage tour that the kitties each do their own makeup!  The singing and dancing is top notch.  But that sucker seemed like 8 hours long with 15 minute stretches of complete silence thrown in!  And speaking of stretches, those cats can, and do, stretch and  slither right up to the edge of the stage - where they look right into the eyes of the unrefined Star Class folks who obviously do not appreciate theater. Your eyes lock with those of the felines as they are laying on the stage at eye level and only about three feet in front of you!  I kept whispering to Stacy, “ Don’t yawn....”. It was the longest 90 minutes of my life since I used to watch Dora the Explorer with toddler Taylor?

Here is just a picture from the pool deck last night.  It was dead there and it was only 9pm!!!  Everyone must have been packing or eating.

Last night we went to Johnny Rockets for the first time ever on a cruise ship!  We got the milkshakes.  I had caramel and Lisa had Oreo.  Apparently they are included on the refreshment and liquor drink packages!!!  This will be dangerous now that we know that!!!  The server even offered us fries for free but we already should not have been eating the milkshakes so we passed...  I would highly recommend getting a milkshake as a treat at night!  SOOOOO good!

Today was shopping day! Time to visit all those places we do not have in Winnipeg or even in Canada. Woke up had homemade eggs Benedict and mimosas for breakfast! My favourite can’t wait to eat more of that on the ship! Off to the outlet mall! We drove to the Orlando premium outlet mall and shopped for 3 hours. I bought way more than I thought I would but got some amazing deals! Then off to Ulta to stock up on makeup. This is way cheaper than in Canada! Then back to our place for some time by the pool in our yard with frozen cocktails. Then off to the clubhouse for some swimming or floating I guess in the lazy river. Then time to pack up - wow that’s always stressful. Then time to bbq in the back yard and drink sangria. Then off to bed and get ready for a cruise tomorrow!