Vangrizz

Background cont'd:
The B2B cruise my hubby and I went on my GF was there with her mom Vivianne- her mom had stage 4 breast cancer and was palliative. She lived the cruise to the fullest and we had so much fun! We lost her in March last year right before our respective spring breaks so this cruise will be in memory of her!! This is not the best shot of us all as it's 4 am in Venice at the airport waiting to start our 20 hour journey home but it's us ?

Quick morning post on this First of two sea days.  We went to the windjammer for breakfast and saw this happened sometime last night!

i looked at it and can’t tell what caused it to shatter.  We have never seen that before on a ship!  Good thing dry dock is coming very soon!
 
EDIT: so apparently we haven’t been very observant!  The broken window happened a few months ago!  We just noticed it this morning for some reason even though we are here everyday!  Hahaha oooppss!

Well we finally got time to walk around the ship and take pictures!
Starting with the diamond lounge

This is an outside seating area for the diamond lounge overlooking the basketball court.  It’s awesome they have a special area outside on this ship!
This is what area above over looks and at this moment there was a Zumba class going on there!

Here are some pool deck pictures.  Notice the one side is closed...out suspicion is because we are doing some rocking today.




The arcade

This is a mesmerizing machine that has moving golf balls and just constantly keeps doing stuff.  So much fun to watch

Of course Johnny Rockets

This is the computer area with an opening in the middle looking down to the library

 

The community board in the library where you can post any meeting or meetup you are looking for.  Looks like a few people were looking for game players

 
Here where we are going after lunch!  NEXT CRUISE!  Never miss that on a cruise! ?

And here are several promenade pictures.  Notice the one area has Valentine decorations!









And lastly the casino

This is the floor entering the casino.  Pretty cool 3D

 
and a quick shot of the rougher seas

Ok that’s it for now but we will have some more a bit later!  Tonight is formal night (as expected on Valentines Day) and lobster ? night!  My favorite night of the entire cruise for dinner!!!
We are going to go walk around and film some of the ship now.  See y’all soon!

Love following along with everything you write and every picture you take. Thanks so much for taking the time to post everything here....and please don't keep us waiting too long for your next voyage.

Yes, there IS Old Bay Beer

I should be packing, but somebody has other ideas.

I always bring my own dryer, I have curly hair and need to diffuse it in the appropriate amount of time. I feel like no dryer but my own works. I needs to stay looking good.

Lots of technical problems, with both equipment and sound systems.  The show is EXTREMELY loud inside the room.  It actually woke me up and I was wearing earplugs...

ANOTHER CAKE

150 Central Park. Excellent food and service!

This is one problem I don't see us having in the ATS.  Glad that we are all night owls (or at least we go to bed after 12am so the show should be done by then).
And I can see that Allan really likes to send cakes...?

Not gonna lie...a little disappointed that the sushi making class is at a table. I had visions of myself standing behind a sushi bar, rolling things and shouting out random Japanese phrases (mostly Styx lyrics from the early 80's).
On the other hand, the hats completely save everything. LOVE that look.
Also, how many people do they take in the escape room at a time?

Magic Kingdom Day! Woke up earlier than I like to on vacation at 6:45am ate breakfast of French toast casserole and fruit then off to magic kingdom. Arrived at 8:30am and through the craziness of security then the monorail then entrance that is magic kingdom. 
 
finally time for our first view of the legendary castle. It was amazing! 
 
our first fast pass ride was up and that aS the Mad Tea Party! I love the spinning tea cups and it was tons of fun to me my mother on the other hand was feeling a little sick by the end of the ride. Then off to Mickey’s Philamagic orchestra this was super cute and I loved the 4D aspects. Then was Aladin’s magic carpets then another fast pass for Pirates of the Caribbean. Then we wandered to Main Street for the parade this was great! 
 
 
 
 
then off to Be Our Guest for lunch! This was not quite what I was expecting but was still enjoyable. I had the French onion soup ( no where as good as Royal Caribbean’s) and the grey stuff cupcake - I trusted them and it was delicious  
 
 
 
then it was time for our final fast pass the little mermaid while in line I booked another fast pass for buzz lighter. After both those off to the space orbitz then the carousel of progress, another fast pass monsters ink laugh floor, then the people mover. 
 
got my magic kingdom Starbucks mug!!! And an iced coffee as the humidity was killing me then off to TGI Friday’s! Had my normal the sampler platter then back to magic kingdom for the fireworks then home to bed! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As a whole magic kingdom was amazing!! So cool! I never felt too old or that we were judged for being a family of adults. I would definitely go back!

Not gonna lie...a little disappointed that the sushi making class is at a table. I had visions of myself standing behind a sushi bar, rolling things and shouting out random Japanese phrases (mostly Styx lyrics from the early 80's).
On the other hand, the hats completely save everything. LOVE that look.
Also, how many people do they take in the escape room at a time?

The minimum for this particular escape room is 8. Not sure what the max is.

Sushi class!  You will notice hubs put eyes on his shrimp...?

July 12, 2020 Serenade of the Seas to Alaska
July 16, 2021 Anthem of the Seas to Norway (Group Cruise)

So our day in Curacao is ending.  We are relaxing a bit before shower and getting ready for dinner.  Again, today was hato caves and mambo beach.  The caves were neat but it’s really a once and done thing.  I would say of all the things we did on this cruise we both rate it at the bottom (but we did some really great stuff).  
 

I do not know why it keeps uploading us upside down!!!  I tried reloading the image in several times with no luck so...sorry ...you will have to stand on your head to see it right! ?
After the caves we continued the island tour and ended at Mambo Beach!


This was very nice.  Small little area for swimming and hanging out.  We all got one of the lounge chairs you see!  Nice little 1.5 hour swim and chill out time!  When we were done here we got a continued tour back to the ship.  
 
Once at the ship we dropped our stuff off and walked to the city.  This was VERY nice!  One of the best ports so far in regards to walking distance stuff!


Of course we checked out the floating bridge and even watched it open and close.  Pretty neat to see

 

Again I don’t understand why all the pictures of us upload upside down!!!!  UGH!
So during our shopping we tried some blue Curacao liquor and chocolate Curacao liquor.  Chocolate wins HANDS DOWN!  We bought both though because the bottle are cool!  Along with a sampler pack of all of the bottles because they just look cool!  Probably won’t really drink all of it, except for the chocolate!  I forgot to take pictures before the ship took them from us.  I’ll take some either at home or when we are in Miami.  
 
So that’s a quick update for now.  Gotta get in the shower for dinner now!  It’s a Royal Caribbean singers and dancers show tonight and then “love and marriage”.  
 
 
 

I wasn't thrilled about the cost, but I know of someone who keeps going YOLO this and YOLO that, so I guess maybe that is rubbing off on me.

The hubster just shot Fresca out his nose after reading this???

Preamble
Some of you know that we have tried to sail with Royal twice before. First, we were booked on the Adventure of the Seas out of San Juan when our sailing was cancelled due to an unscheduled dry dock. We tried to rebook with RC, but we weren't able to work something out with them when we wanted to go. We sailed on NCL and while we had a decent time, NCL didn't win us over. So, when we found a good deal on a sailing on the Navigator of the Seas for February '19, we figured we'd give RC a shot. That was supposed to be her first sailing after her amplification and, if you remember, it was cancelled a week out because she wasn't ready. Scrambling at the last minute because we needed to get away last winter, we found a sailing on Carnival out of New Orleans at the last minute. I went in not expecting much, but surprisingly, we had a great time on Carnival. So much so that my wife and I agreed if we only sailed on Carnival again, we'd be happy. In fact, we had already booked this trip prior to the last cancellation and afterwards, I was tempted to cancel on Royal - you know, because I'm mean spirited like that.
We kept the sailing and on February 2nd we finally boarded a Royal ship - the Liberty of the Seas to be exact. Full Spoiler Alert - we had a great time! I share that because I want you to know where I am coming from if I mention something I didn't care for or would change (it isn't much). In fact, I won't go as far as to say we are Royal exclusive, but we are Royal preferred. I'd sail on other lines again (and we've now sailed on the four major ones in the US Market [Disney, NCL, Carival and Royal]) but we'll look to Royal first. So much so that we've already booked our next cruise on the Symphony of the Seas for next January (shhh, that's a secret from our boys). I know at times I've been critical of RC on these boards, but I have to say that once we finally got onboard, the crew and the ship absolutely blew me away!
Pertinent Information
Crew: Myself, my better half (Julie) and my boys (George and Lucas [and yes, that is because I love Star Wars!]). Also joining us were my father-in-law and his wife (we all get along great - dad remarried after mom passed a few years ago and I have no idea what the correct term for your father-in-law's second wife that doesn't sound stupid. Loved having them along!)
Ship: Liberty of the Seas
Dates: February 2nd to 9th
Itinerary: Galveston - Sea Day - Sea Day - Roatan - Costa Maya - Cozumel - Sea Day - Sad Day (aka get off the boat day).
Other Notes: We're eating in the MDR (more on that) and Julie and I scored the $18 UBP mistake. 
Day One - Driving to Galveston - Friday, January 31st
As a family of four, flights can be pricey. Thus, whenever possible, we'll drive to vacation. If we can get there in two days drive, then it's load up the family truckster and head out. We got the boys off to school and began the ritual pre-vacation cleaning. I love coming home to a clean house after vacation so we make sure and allocate time to do it just before we leave. Julie had been sick for a few days and I didn't want to get denied boarding, so I sent her to the doctor (yay antibiotics) and I had one last work obligation to go to (as a pastor, I had to make a quick hospital visit to pray with someone). Got back and loaded up the car, ate the last of the leftovers for lunch and went to get the boys from school.

The plan was to leave home from just south of Des Moines, IA, and drive to Muskogee, OK. Google says it is about 7 hours so we hoped to be there by 8-ish after picking the boys up from school at 1 pm. We actually arrived a little after 9 pm with a stop for dinner in a little town in Missouri where I had the most amazing burger I've had in some time.
       
Made it the Comfort Inn or Suites or something ... we usually stay at a Choice Hotel because it includes a decent breakfast and they aren't horribly expensive. After a fitful night of sleep, we were up and at it early ... but that will have to wait for my next post.