PPPJJ-GCVAB

We plan to hide ducks on this cruise to pay it  forward for the ones my boys have found over the years. Also of note , our SL concierge said re-activating our WOW bands from our harmony cruise last year was no problem.  

I can't believe i didn't see your blog until page 2! 
Driving to the port is the BEST, and that doesn't make a blog boring! I mean it certainly adds drama, but reading about travel to the port gives ME stress. 🤣
And i loved Capt Bob's! Have so much fun!
We used to cruise with the Mouse the same time every year, and we got close with several other families who also cruised the same week we did. One trip there was about 30 of us or so and one of my friends got Capt Bob to dedicate two of his boats, just for us. And she negotiated both boats have rum punch as well as beer, soda, and water. It was one of my favorite cruise memories! I miss those friends (we pretty much all abandoned the Mouse since, though we did manage one more cruise on Norwegian together a couple of years later). 
Looking forward to you getting aboard Sunday!

I’m doing the connecting balcony rooms in May.  My daughter with one of her sons in one room…me and the other son in the other room.  It ended up being much more costly than my original plan of the 4 of us (KSF) in one balcony room…but…in my eyes so worth it for the extra bathroom and space!  

Oh boy…just 9 weeks to go!  63 DAYS
curious minds want to know what will happen to our Labadee Day? 😔?  Only time will tell!
 

I don’t normally take pics at all so I’ll try my best but don’t expect much as far as pics of the ship, sorry.
You’re more likely to see food & drink pics.

Last day of work before the drive down to Canaveral.  Plan to get on road early and roll in in the early afternoon. I’ll post some grub pics from lunch and dinner for @OCSC Mike

kinda bummed we're not going to Labadee from the Oasis, love hanging out there so were just sailing tomorrow, we have definitely slowed down since the news, but it will be alright, hopefully things will get better for Haiti. 

I'm on Symphony in a week and a half - also the 8 day with Labadee, Aruba & Curacao.  Totally agree with this:
I haven't gotten anything official from Royal yet (except Jet Ski cancellation). We board on 3/23 and were supposed to be at Labadee on 3/25. I'm hoping they are trying to replace it with another island and that is why I haven't gotten an email.

I have been there the past 2 Octobers. Honestly, I don't go in the water much unless it's the summer to cool off. We did go in the Oasis Pool (briefly) and it was pretty cold to me. Part of it was that the weather was beautiful but by no means hot like it is in June/July. So I wasn't dying to cool off or anything. Didn't go in the ocean.

Whoa! Those look nothing like the crepes on Icon…that is not what I imagined when we were on Icon and people kept saying WJ does crepes too 

Yeah, the white piece pushes down do accommodate whatever size glass you put in.  Very convenient for packing

Hey! I admire the resourcefulness of the 2 guys, stalking unneeded Star seats! Super smart!
Nice bottle. Lovely! The other day i dreamed of having Shane as our Genie and showing up with a bottle of Opus One. I love red wine. Now, do i drink that myself? Hello, no. At the rate i drink grapes, I'd be destitute. Would i buy that for my Genie, however? In a heartbeat. 🤣

We used to get this insurance policy before we moved over to Chase Sapphire. It covers shorex reimbursement for missed port stops so this letter would be helpful to make claims. 
 
Universal Cruise
Nationwide SVG Logo
 
ITINERARY CHANGE – PRE-PAID EXCURSION
 
In the event a cruise line makes a Change in Your Trip itinerary, after Your actual departure date that prevents You from participating in an event/activity that was pre-paid prior to departure and scheduled on Your Trip itinerary, Your nonrefundable pre-paid event/activity expenses will be reimbursed up to the Maximum Benefit shown on the Schedule of Benefits, subject to any applicable sub-limits.
 
Benefits will not be paid if the event/activity is rescheduled during the course of the Trip.
 
Verification by the cruise line of the change in the scheduled Trip itinerary will be necessary for claim payment.
 

This text was a nice way to end off the night. We don’t always do genie gifts. But when you and your genie go back to 2019, you cannot show up empty handed. We gave this to Shane on the first night we arrived. He sent us this tonight.
📸 Shane 

(Note: that genie lamp is not from us. Neither is that mouse lol)

After dinner we went to see Frozen in Time. I got a good laugh at myself here because I now know that I spoke too soon when I said we don’t encounter shenanigans.
Shane had reserve two seats beside D17 and whoever it was for did not end up showing. Towards show start time, Shane removes the SC banners. Like hawks, two guys swoop in and ask Shane if they can have the seats. Shane tells them go ahead. D17 later pointed out that these are the same guys who did this at Aqua 80 try #1 a few nights ago.
Anyhow, this is where it got crazy. So the two guys sit down and another guy behind them starts yelling at them. The two guys start yelling back saying they have every right to sit there because they asked (which they did). Then all sorts of swearing and name calling begin. We told D17 to get ready to duck down lol.
These 3 guys caused such a commotion and neither would back down. Everyone was now watching. They basically did not stop swearing and name calling until the show began. So extra and such an overreaction on both parts.

Dinner was at Chops tonight. I love Chops. I think about the mushroom soup and lobster all the time. My soup was delicious! Something was slightly off with the lobster. I am not sure what? Almost tasted like it had sat out on a warmer? It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great either. Dessert was delicious as always, but my Bavarian coffee was odd too. This is a hot drink. It is always served in a glass mug with a spoon. Mine came in a plastic cup with a straw. Very odd. Freeloaders loved their plate of croutons though! 

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, just before dinner they made the announcement about Labadee being a no go. Then while Hubby was getting ready for dinner, we lose water again. I cannot remember if I told you guys that part already? I have no clue what is going on with the water system on this ship, but 2 days in a row now where the water is just gone at a time when all sorts of people are trying to get ready for dinner 😬

I have no idea, but I can tell you that was the exact line that caught my attention too! I am going to ask around and try to find out. 

Slightly better then! I don’t know what that white piece is. I took that photo in a hurry. I will go back tomorrow and see how they flatten. I have lots of time tomorrow lol

I paid $14.03 for 2 so my price is better.  But mine doesn’t flatten the way those appear to do!  Or is that white thing not a clip?

Reviewing my casita on board, 8 Seabreeze Circle. It was located on the starboard side by the railing very close to the Lime & Coconut. 

I bought this months ago when I was trying to decide what to do in Nassau, and I really thought I was going to cancel it. I ended up keeping it because I didn't really want to be wandering through the city when it was hot and humid like it was in September. That was my mistake, the weather was perfect today and I should have wandered through the city. I digress. I paid $125 to have this exclusively mine from 9:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.
Check in time at 9:00 a.m. was on deck 12 of the Lime & Coconut. There were a couple people ahead of me and nobody at the bar. We were all wondering what was going on, and finally the guy came out at 9:10. I initially chose one of the casitas furthest away from the bar area (#1), but then I realized it was going to be in the sun all day and switched.
It comes with four water bottles in the cooler/ table, four towels, the bed to lay in (comfy), and two side tables in the corner. Oddly enough, the outlet in that casita was a standard plug. The first casita I checked out (#1) appeared to have USB ports in it. Don't quote me, but it was set up slightly differently. I thought that the listing said that there was a safe inside the casita for securing belongings, but there definitely wasn't one in mine. I had to take my stuff with me each time just to be safe.
The casita stayed pretty shaded most of the day, and by the time the sun would have been on me again in the afternoon, it had popped behind a few clouds so it wasn't too bad. Some people might want to be in the casitas that are facing the sun, but I like to stay shady.
I think I spent somewhere between 6-7 hours out there to maximize the money I spent on it with the time I was given. In the morning, I was really doubting why I had reserved the casita because it was absolutely empty. In fact, a couple of the loungers beside me were in better shade than my casita was! However, after my attempted nap in the afternoon, I realized why having the casita was very helpful when everybody was everywhere on that deck area. People in the loungers around me had started using the side tables in the corner to place their drinks. No big deal to me, it was just the person that decided to leave a half eaten plate of ELF food on my bed during one of my bathroom breaks that really annoyed me.
My options for the bathroom were the one directly below me in the solarium, or I could just run a couple decks down to my room because the casita was roughly above where I was located. As the day progressed, using my cabin versus the public restroom became much nicer. 🤢
I loved watching the pier runners and sail away from the casita. Having the towels was very helpful. When the sun went behind the clouds and the wind picked up. I never had any issues with the call button for the waiter, and he was super helpful with bringing drinks and a plate of fruit around lunch time. I was actually shocked to see that most people didn't use those casitas that they had reserved until the afternoon. Maybe I'm just a penny pincher but I wanted to make sure that I maximized my purchase!
Would I book this again on a port day like I did? Possibly. I have one reserved on Navigator later this year that cost $89, which seems much more reasonable for what you get. I know that the sea day rental tomorrow for this ship is $450 and it's sold out. 😱 I definitely wouldn't do it for that much. Honestly, I think it would be much more fun if I had someone there with me. It's nice to be able to stretch out on your own and do your own thing, but it would have been fun to have been hanging out with someone to talk about the various shenanigans that were happening around me.
TL;Dr - My casita was nice. I might do it again for the right price.

There's no specific time.  I've seen it available more than a year out, and not until about 10 months out.  Just keep checking.

More details from Matt and his staff...
Royal Caribbean cancels visits to its private beach in Haiti | Royal Caribbean Blog

We got labadee replaced with grand turk on Sunday. 

We didn’t get that letter yet.  We figured the cancellation was coming.  We are with our 2 youngest who were too small for the zip line the last time when we were in Labadee. They are disappointed but we are happy RC is taking every precaution