CannukCruiser

Welcome to the message boards!
Have you listened to Episode 464 of the Royal Caribbean Blog Podcast which is about how AJ cruises while blind? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-464-cruising-while-blind

She didn't buy it for a minute!

Already told my wife we HAVE to go support Chris by spending a lot of time in the casino 😄

Happy to share with you all that I will be joining Icon Of The Seas later this year, and I will be a part of the start-up team.
 
I look forward to seeing all of you who have booked a cruise for 2024!
 
I'm excited to make video on the newest, biggest, and best ship in the world!
 
 

June 17, 2023
On board the RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com Group Cruise on Navigator of the Seas Matt and Marissa become members of the Pinnacle Club!
 
 

Anyone want to bring up the wind ja mair? 

They don't deploy local firefighters to ships during a helicopter evacuation.  The ship has fire fighting equipment and the full fire fighting suits with air supply for battling fires on board.   
It's standard procedure to deploy the ship fire team when a helicopter evacuation is occurring.  That is in case the helicopter crashes or static discharge from the whirling blades causes a fire. 
Fire on a ship is the worst possible emergency.   They have everything on board staged in strategic areas to be ready for the worst possible outcome.  They always suit up for helicopter evacs.  
 

I got to meet and talk with Michael Bayley last week. The President of our company is so nice!
 
As you can imagine he is a very busy man, so I couldn't speak to him for too long, but thankful he wanted to be in my vlog.
 
 

Funny you ask this. We had an awful experience at March break. We flew out a day early with what we thought was plenty of time to spare. Our flight got cancelled at the gate. Then the flight Delta rebooked us on also got cancelled later that afternoon. Now in a total panic, Delta told us there are no flights which would get us to Miami in time to catch our cruise the next day. We did not book through Air2Sea and this was group cruise that we did not want to miss.
 
My TA saved the day. Literally. We had to rent a car from Detroit, drive to Pittsburgh, and catch a 6am flight next day to Miami. We almost missed our ship! Luggage never made it though but that was a small price to pay.
Anyway, that experience a few months ago left me fearing for the worst now with the disaster that air travel is at the moment.  
 
I did something today that I never would have done. We have a sailing on Freedom 7/25 and booked to fly from DTW-MIA on 7/24 through Air2Sea this time. I have been tracking this flight and it has been cancelled 6 times in the last 14 days. Today, I double booked us for 7/24. If the original Air2Sea flight gets cancelled, I now have a back up fully refundable flight to Florida later that same day. Never would I have thought that air travel would be so unreliable that I would have to do this.

Aqua80 is the new show they added during her AMPlification in 2019, so it isn't the same show they had when she first sailed.

Lovetocruise2002  glad that you guys were able to overcome the lost luggage and have a great time , we were on Oasis just prior to covid .  Aqua 80 was fantastic we thought , everytime i hear a song that they use i think of that show .  The escape room is a must to work together .. I had a coworker plan on flying out of buffalo the same wknd you left only to have their flight delayed then cancelled  , they ended up driving to Florida but not for a cruise .. We can't wait to go again .

Lovetocruise2002  glad that you guys were able to overcome the lost luggage and have a great time , we were on Oasis just prior to covid .  Aqua 80 was fantastic we thought , everytime i hear a song that they use i think of that show .  The escape room is a must to work together .. I had a coworker plan on flying out of buffalo the same wknd you left only to have their flight delayed then cancelled  , they ended up driving to Florida but not for a cruise .. We can't wait to go again .

Lovetocruise2002  glad that you guys were able to overcome the lost luggage and have a great time , we were on Oasis just prior to covid .  Aqua 80 was fantastic we thought , everytime i hear a song that they use i think of that show .  The escape room is a must to work together .. I had a coworker plan on flying out of buffalo the same wknd you left only to have their flight delayed then cancelled  , they ended up driving to Florida but not for a cruise .. We can't wait to go again .

I'm struck by two facts from this live blog....
1. @Lovetocruise2002 didn't start the live blog six weeks early, as is her custom.
2. How well she handled the lost luggage fiasco. Not much you can do, but geez, I'm not sure how I would have handled that problem.
Great live blog, it was fun reading about all the fun.

We made it out with 2 mins to spare! 😂 I cannot take credit. I was ready to call Allan to get us out. 

 

I was standing in CVS yesterday, and Power of Love came on over their speakers and I immediately had Aqua80 and back to the future FOMO!!

All week the debate among the SC peeps was watch Aqua 80 from the balcony or main seats. All week we were adamant that we wanted to watch from the main seats. Our 13 year old is short, so we usually request the first row of seats held (just behind the first 3 rows of benches). We followed tradition tonight and that where we sat.
 
Turns out Aqua 80 was pretty good, but the SC gang in the Aqua Theatre suites got a second good show watching @bellemicheand us get completely soaked! @ShakeDownCruisewas in the same row as us but closer to the left aisle and managed to stay dry. The rest of us, and no joke, where fully soaked! I pretty much looked, and felt like I fell into the pool!! And @Neesawho we ran into on the way back to the room can vouch for that! Lol
Not sure if that was supposed to happen or not, but basically near the end when the fountains where going off, one shot up sky high and rained/showered/hosed down on us.  Our friends who are the the Deck 8 ATS are wondering if it was an accident because she could see the tech team from her balcony and she said they were at first horrified and then had a good laugh 😂 so an eventful end of the evening for us. Now waiting for my hair to dry, and as luck would have it, it is past midnight and we have an early start in San Juan tomorrow. 
Side note: no divers at all in tonight’s show. Somewhat disappointing, but it is what it is. Loved the Back to the Future references.

Anyone who can do those live feeds and  has the patience to answer the same questions over and over again like Matt does is a better man than I am!

I would totally agree. Matt, awesome job! You do a great job of all your ship tours. They are informative and professional. Your information over the years have made all of my vacations so much more enjoyable. I tend to do research before my vacations because once I'm there I want to know the layout and not waste time trying to figure things out. All of your tips have been great. Keep up all the great work.

Luggage update: it ended up in Orlando 😩now it has to find its own way back to Detroit before we get back next Sunday. As for us, it will be a super casual cruise for us this time. Just beyond grateful that we are here. 
 
Off to CK soon for my filet. Then we have Aqua80 scheduled. It’s pretty windy right now, the ship is swaying a lot. Hopefully it does not get cancelled. Hubby is a major 80s fan so he has been looking forward to this for a while.

So, it has been a whirlwind of a day so far. But again, this whole experience is more proof of why you should never fly in on boarding day. Can you imagine if today was yesterday. We would have been toast for sure, even with an all star TA. 
 
Our #majorstarclasstakeover group had decided we would all get together at Playmakers for lunch today. I finally got to meet @Neesa and @ShakeDownCruise. Happy reunion with @bellemiche, @tiny260, and a few others. Such a nice time to sit and laugh and thank God that we made it! 
 
We were wiped out so the 4 of us just ordered a bunch of appetizers to share:




And @Ray, first drink was a margarita! 😉 but I needed it so bad we forgot to take a pic lol

Just landed! Hallelujah! 
Now in search of lost luggage…

I LOL'ed at this