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My grand kids love finding ducks!  It is one of their great cruise joys and just makes them happy.  

Take something benign and fun and people will find a way to Duck it up.

Day 3. We had our flowrider lesson at 7:45 this morning, so we decided to order room service to tide the kids over until after the lesson. We brought the desk chair in from the second room and made a table out of the vanity. Flowrider photos are on DH'S phone. I'll get them soon. I got my seated 360 on the boogie board and both the kids were able to self load standing. 
We changed and went to the WJ for brunch which is where they made the announcement we were headed to Cozumel to drop off the captain. We docked next to Apex about 11:30 or 12 and we're passing the tip of the island around 2pm. I took a nap during this time so I am not sure if they closed the shops and casino.
DD and I tried the Abyss and I went on the zip line. She was going to, and got to the edge of the platform 3 times, but just couldn't. Proud of her for even considering it and gearing up!

9pm sunset 

Not sure if it has to do with at Hideaway Beach they have a couple fake flying birds around. My wife told me that was to scare the seagulls away. 

Our cruising friends always bring ducks…no tags.  Whenever they leave their room they take a few with them and if they see a small child…sometimes crying, sometimes not…they get permission from the parent to make sure it’s ok to give the child/ren the duck/s.  So awesome to see the faces light up!

Our cruising friends always bring ducks…no tags.  Whenever they leave their room they take a few with them and if they see a small child…sometimes crying, sometimes not…they get permission from the parent to make sure it’s ok to give the child/ren the duck/s.  So awesome to see the faces light up!

Our cruising friends always bring ducks…no tags.  Whenever they leave their room they take a few with them and if they see a small child…sometimes crying, sometimes not…they get permission from the parent to make sure it’s ok to give the child/ren the duck/s.  So awesome to see the faces light up!

Staying our first night at the Embassy Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Doing a hot air balloon ride over the Sonoran Desert early the next morning and then taking our time while heading all the way to Flagstaff.  I figure we’ll stop in Sedona along the way and possibly Arcosanti.  I visited there many years ago when my best friend lived in Phoenix.  Since then she moved to Nevada and is now in Tucson!  My granddaughter is a few months shy of 14 and super excited for this trip!  We’ve got a full day tour booked for the Grand Canyon too!
Thanks for any recommendations!  

Our cruising friends always bring ducks…no tags.  Whenever they leave their room they take a few with them and if they see a small child…sometimes crying, sometimes not…they get permission from the parent to make sure it’s ok to give the child/ren the duck/s.  So awesome to see the faces light up!

We went to see Freedom Ice and truly enjoyed it.  When they came to the finale and they began “In Your Eyes”, I thought immediately of @Ampurp85.  Not a particularly stellar version of the song, but it is what it is, and I know it is one of @Ampurp85’s favorites.
On to the MDR tonite for Italian night (I think).  Chicken parm again ???  Hmmmm….

Staying our first night at the Embassy Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Doing a hot air balloon ride over the Sonoran Desert early the next morning and then taking our time while heading all the way to Flagstaff.  I figure we’ll stop in Sedona along the way and possibly Arcosanti.  I visited there many years ago when my best friend lived in Phoenix.  Since then she moved to Nevada and is now in Tucson!  My granddaughter is a few months shy of 14 and super excited for this trip!  We’ve got a full day tour booked for the Grand Canyon too!
Thanks for any recommendations!  

I hid 10 the last time I was on Harmony in super easy areas and on the edge of the sidewalk in CP.  It was fun to try and hide it when no one was there.  I have yet to find one of these "hundreds" of ducks though.  I have heard people say they've seen crew throw them out, but that's not anything I've witnessed.  I will keep looking until they are banned but will continue to hide only a few. Jane

So many medical emergencies lately!  What is going on?  Hoping all the emergencies recover quickly!

About 2 years ago, I found a duck. I took it to see the tag, then put it back because I thought "I'm a grown man, I really don't want this duck".
A few days later my kid found another one and was incredibly happy about it. I should've given him my duck. I'm stupid.

We hide (and find) ducks on every cruise.  I'm sorry some folks are hiding them irresponsibly, and I'm sorry some fun-haters are put off by the whole concept.
We will continue to hide them, and if folks are not interested, just leave us alone.  We are on the cruise to have fun.🤩

 
 
 
 
 
 
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At first look, this is just a picture of the artwork on Odyssey, but a quick zoom in shows a creative way to hide a duck
 

Thank you! Great recommendations!

We did the Crystal Caves excursion and loved it!  On our second day…we took the city bus to Horseshoe Beach…another great time!  

Thanks for this post @Leroyr55.  I am doing an 8 night on her as soon as she arrives in Bayonne…in just 16 days and 12hours.  Getting pretty excited as the days go by.  

Thanks for this post @Leroyr55.  I am doing an 8 night on her as soon as she arrives in Bayonne…in just 16 days and 12hours.  Getting pretty excited as the days go by.  

We ate at Jalapeño Inferno in super duper north Scottsdale 🙃 (my mom complains she lives in the boondocks 🤣). Anyways, where in Phoenix are you staying? I can definitely recommend something closer. I was born and raised in Phoenix so I have experience on this topic (and I still live in Phoenix unlike my parents who moved to Scottsdale lol 😂). And the last time I was in Flagstaff was for the 4th of July 2 years ago but I definitely have some recommendations, just need to find the list I have, give me a bit on that one but I will definitely get back to you!
- Ashley 

I’m not gonna start a new live blog for this FR shorty…I will just post a few nuggets here.
The good news - we are in the top 10 Pinns on this sailing !
The bad news - there are only 9 Pinns onboard 😂
It’s raining big time today. I hear thunder out there !    We’re on our way [back] to Puerto Plata, DR.  It’s our only port of call on this sailing.  We are seeing more of this port than we are of Nassau, which I didn’t think humanly possible. We like PP so that’s fine with us.
Lunch yesterday at Giovanni’s Kitchen and I’m happy to say that it was a great lunch.  I have had few awesome meals at GK but this was really good.  I got the Chicken Parmesan even though I knew it would fill me up and I would not be hungry for Chops (which was an entirely accurate prediction).  Since I judge all meals relative to my non-ethic love for Chicken Parmesan, I can say, this was the BEST chicken parm yet !  It was super thin and extra crispy.  It’s the new “bestest” standard.  Dan had the seafood linguini and man, it was overflowing with clams and shrimp.  Both meals were really excellent.
Since we both really hate the “Welcome Aboard” menu, we went to Chops on our first BOGO voucher and it was very good.  If I hadn’t still been stuffed from lunch, I think I could have rated it as “excellent “.  I guess I should do that anyway.  I can’t blame them for the fact that I stuffed my face at lunch.  😥😥. We both got a filet and the steaks were very flavorful and tender.  I felt a little bad for our next door neighbor.  He ordered a T-bone and while I didn’t examine it closely, it looked “wrong”.  He said it was underdone and gristly.  IMO, when a customer is completely dissatisfied with his/her steak (which he clearly was), they should be offered something to replace it.  He was not given such an offer.  They were a young couple, probably inexperienced cruisers, and I think the poor service (in their case) left a sour taste in their mouths.  I know it would have, for me. They never uttered a word of complaint.
The second of our BOGO vouchers got kinda FUBAR but we got everything straightened out, eventually.  When I made our rezzies (when we first boarded, yesterday) I told the gent helping us that I wanted Giovanni’s on the last day (day 4, which is Caribbean night -my very LEAST favorite menu) but it turns out he made the rezzie for night #2 and I didn’t catch it until later in the afternoon.  When we went to Chops for dinner, I asked how we could go about fixing this and the Host (at Chops) said he would take care of it but that we must pay for the meal before the end of night #2.  I thanked him but said that we would go over to Gios and do it rather than bugging him with doing it….since we have to pay, anyway.  So we did just that.  After dinner we walked over to Gios and got our rezzie changed and pre-paid our night 4 BOGO.  So we got what we wanted in the end but with a little extra work that could been avoided (IMO).
We’re going to the ice show today at 1:00 even though we have seen this show MANY times.  There is a production show at 9:30 called Once Upon A Time, which I’m sure we’ve seen but I can’t recall it….so we will hop over there, most likely.  I look for the ice show to be VERY crowded today with the crap weather…but hopefully we will be ok since we should have a reserved section.  I say “should” b/c we seem to have randomly bad luck with reserved seating on some of the ships -particularly during afternoon performances.  Sometimes there just isn’t any enforcement of the reserved areas so basically there IS no reserved area.  

This is problematic, lol. I call my wife picky for a reason but she loves chicken parm and only dislikes it if it's soggy. She often asks for it to be made extra crispy with the sauce on the side. But she also loves filet mignon. Her go to at GT has always been filet with a side of risotto. She's not going to skip the filet when we try GK and I figured she would get something like fettucine alfredo as a pasta side but now I'm thinking maybe she has to get chicken parm as her "side" based on your review. Normally I'd help her out but I usually get a filet as well and I love carbonara (although Dan's seafood is tempting too)... that doesn't leave much room, especially since I want to try a pizza too, even if that means taking it to go.
34 days til we board and have GK for dinner on night one and I'm already figuring out what to order. 🤣 I may have a problem.

I posted this somewhere before but the wildlife on CocoCay is pretty crazy between the angry chickens, the dive bombing seagulls, the sharks in the snorkeling areas, and the big iguana that lives on the island in the middle of the Oasis pool, lol. At least the iguana is pretty chill and doesn't come after people.