MuttMutt

I'm not going to be done with this one for a few months. It's wreaking havoc on my back shoulder and knees doing the roof and honestly i shouldn't be doing it. But I also don't have the money to pay someone else. The last section that I did took a week from tear-off to tarp. I have 2 more sections to go on this side and then I get to do the other side. BTW, never done a roof before so believe me anyone can do the work. Just takes time to learn.

1 https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/driving-directions-port-galveston-texas 2702 Harborside drive. At least till the new terminal is built which is scheduled for completion around November 2022 if I remember correctly 2 I would show up around 1:00 or so. They are pretty efficient so expect to be in early. Plus it gives you time to drop luggage and get your required papers and such ready. 3 formal nights depend on the length of cruise. They are now dress you best but still there. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/formal-dress-code-guideline 4 get the app get the app get the app... if you are doing Main Dining room and have my time dining book every night as soon as you hit the ship. For shows you usually want to book 2 days before to make sure you have a space reserved. Only one person in the party needs to do the reservations but you will have to show the screen and your wristband before they let you in.

Currently in the middle of replacing the roof on our house pretty much by myself. I have one ground support person but they are afraid of ladders and heights so everything on the roof is done by my hand. Also replacing the electrical system, installing datacomm, and already replaced the water supply lines. Eventually going to split the upstairs in half and turn one half into a master bedroom with master bathroom. Then it's remodeling the current bathroom, kitchen, and other parts of the house. On top of all that doing dives and cleaning up trash under water when I can, trying to get my youtube channel going, editing video, dealing with life, trolling through here or reddit, among other things. Thankfully this is a slow week since there is rain and high winds forecasted. For those wondering the old roof has 2 layers of cedar shake and 2 layers of asphalt. I removed two old rotten chimneys that were already falling apart and in one of the pictures you can see all the rotten wood I replaced that was below a chimney. It's all getting sheathed, ice and water barrier on the edges and synthetic underlayment elsewhere and the shingles will be lifetime warrantied. Materials cost is around 6k but the cost for someone else to do it is around 30k.

Technically they can either sign in with yours or create their own while on the ship as reservations and such can be made by one person for all of the people in the party. You can also do the Muster from one account. However it may be best to each have your own for points and for tracking onboard purchases.

On out B2B it was purple on the first leg and white on the second. Only thing we did was step off into the terminal and back on.

Covid is the new flu at this point. We will be doing yearly boosters for the rest of our life and in a few years the media will drop the circus parade amd move on to something else. Even if we had 100% worldwide vaccination this would still stick around unless extreme measures were put into place like a multi month quarantine on top of vaccination and a few other things. Could I be wrong. Sure. If so I have an old shoe to eat. But at this point these topics are beating a horse that had been dead for 6 months. Let's just bury it here and now...

I believe the state over ruled the city and basically ended the law before it could even truly go into effect. So basically the city was told to kick rocks and there will be cruise ships per usual. https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2021/06/30/florida-governor-signs-bill-overrule-key-west-cruise-ship-ban

Sadly I have seen better prices over the last year than I have in the last couple months Black Friday included. It sucks they can't get the changes made sooner but I actually ended up doing an excursion booked through my travel agency vs through RCCL because it was cheaper when I was on my cruise earlier this month. And I bought internet for 3 devices at around 15.00 per day and now the cheapest is around 35 per day for the same plan on my next two cruises. For that I will do without.

While on Liberty of the seas a couple weeks ago they had fruit punch, lemonade, and cold tea available most everywhere. Hot water age tea bags are also available most places along with coffee. For breakfast orange juice and apple juice were an option. A lot of people seem to have a dislike for the free drinks but I honestly enjoy them. The lemonade, cold tea, and fruit punch are made from concentrate and to me are basically unsweetened but if you add a little sweetener it makes them a lot better. I also bring a 32 ounce insulated drink container and would just fill it a few times a day. The first time in 2019 I often just had it filled instead of making more dishes to deal with. I didn't really ask this time but it seemed like it would be better to just use cups and in Sorrento's they didn't make a fuss about it. The water onboard is probably better than what you get out of the average city tap but to me it has a bit of a metallic taste to it so unless it's ice cold I don't care for it most of the time. But you can also pick up some of the flavor squeeze things from the store. I take at least one with me just in case.

Right now it shouldn't. Haven't heard a lot in the news but it was all happening on the French side of the island and you will be going into the Dutch side. After that it's a matter of taking stuff with the cruise line or just avoiding the French side right now, if your tour stays on the Dutch side then it's a non-issue. The only thing I would worry about is regular traffic for delays though. My best guess is the tour operator will be avoiding any major problem areas either way. As best as I can tell it was mainly just some roadblocks and demonstrations so unless something changes between now and then I wouldn't have too many worry's about it.

I think it has more to do with covid and tracking. But if they kept it around it could be useful for tables and such as well.

So true, also need some way of keeping track of the number of people/parties allowed into the area. It was a pain to get something then have to hunt for a table, I hated doing it but we resorted to dropping an item on a table or sitting down to hold it while one of us got something to eat.

For sure read the boards and watch the video's available. If you want a quick walk around with a few flaws since there were a few things I couldn't remember I posted a video while I was on a B2B on Liberty. I did notice that the average age on the ship was a little older. That doesn't mean much for the most part but while on the ship you would often see people trying to figure out the reservations for shows and such. It's also a little more laid back and less of a party atmosphere, this is partly due to the average age being older but also due to distancing protocols so the belly flop competition isn't running among other things. The biggest thing I always try to do is explore and look for interesting things. I am a geek of all trades and understand a lot about the electrical, mechanical, and other systems on the ship but love to look around and find other things. (Big geek thing here so skip if you don't understand or want to know) I was knocking around and found one of the electrical substations on the ship that allows the power to be distributed to the floors. But it was interesting to me they had the door listed at 11KV as that would mean they generate power at a high voltage for transmission to the "substations" and then drop it down to the required voltage. I would have expected something like that but at a range closer to around 2KV. And it was interesting to explain it to my girlfriend as well. Other things you may notice is the way the lifeboats steer without a true rudder which means they can only steer effectively while moving under power, or the cooling system for the lifeboat engines which is just a copper loop that sits in the water. If this is your kind of thing and stay on the ship during a port day you will see crew doing multiple tests around the ship, I saw the flood/fire doors on the promenade being opened and closed, lifeboats being started and checked, and they even had a backup power test done at one point so the elevators were shut down. But enough of that, like I said I am a geek. But you are sure to find a ton of stuff to do and the food is great. The only thing I can say is if you picked my time dining make your reservations the first chance you get as later on it will be tough to get anything before 8:00pm. We ended up just having pizza at Sorento's most nights and then going to watch a show, don't try and drop in after a show though as everyone else at the show has that idea... And I am sure many others will also say that if you have a question about something specific all you have to do is ask. There is a ton of knowledge out there but sometimes it helps to have someone break it down a bit.

Best advice you can get. Test a few days to a week before leaving out, this way if someone does have a positive you can cancel rooms and inform Royal that you will be unable to go and get the room transferred or whatever they are doing. Once tested avoid outside interaction with others unless you and they have a mask on. This includes family and friends who swear they are fine and are vaccinated. Test again 2 days before ship departure so you have the clean test and can board. We did exactly this and had a great time with minimal fuss. It does however require a few tests to be on hand but for the first one the cheapo's at the local store will work. Plus for me it was a test run on how long it would all take and what I was up for on the B2B testing.

Supposed to be in St Maarten next year after Thanksgiving so hoping that things will be settled down by then or escalated to the point where the ship will just shift to a different port instead. Not that I really intend to go to many places on the island but wondering what could happen while I am there is a pain.

Not super worried either way to be honest. When they are really busy it's a bit of a pain with one or two people dishing food but I also figure they will add another person or two to each area when the capacity is higher as well. The not allowing you to grab a cup is a bit of BS though, while on the ship the people handing out cups have gloves on but I don't know how many times as they passed it over their glove touched my hand. Unless they are going to change out gloves every few minutes it actually defeats the purpose IMHO. Have a table with drinks spread out and no picking and choosing/touching multiple cups and it would be better. Serving the food isn't a big deal until you get one of the picky people in front of you wanting a particular item and ONLY that one... like, "hey the 3rd donut from the back is the only one I will eat" or the "that's not enough, no wait that's too much." Then they grumble and complain under their breath. I was able to go through and get most everything with a minimal wait. In fact it was harder to find a table which was partly because instead of pulling the excess tables and leaving more space they were blocked off so walking around and finding a table still included cramped spaces and little signs sometimes hidden behind a chair or just out of sight as you walk around the corner. Pulling 1/3 of the tables out would have left space and ended confusion on tables being available or not.

Did the at home test myself for a couple reasons. First off we took one before even leaving the house since we were going to stay in a room and there was no point in even leaving the house if we were going to show positive. We then took a test at our room for the ability to get on the ship. And we had two tests left over that we carried on the ship that way if something goofed we had something to fall back on, this includes other tests failing or a possible false positive with the onboard testing for our B2B. I am actually hoping they will extend the test validity again so they will get me through on the February 23rd cruise I have as well. And was able to get 6 tests for the cost of one at CVS which is just icing on the cake IMHO.

Our recent B2B was really easy to handle. Did our onboard test first thing in the morning on Saturday after doing all the setup using a QR code. Got the results late that night showing we were good. On the final day we met worth a bunch of others in the Star lounge while one of the ship concierge made sure we were on the list and had our test results and documents with us. They had a copy of results on hand for anyone who forgot them on Liberty but not sure if they all will be doing that. We were given our new SeaPass then checked off the ship. After about 10 minutes of waiting in the terminal we went through the check in process and not long after that were back on the ship. One thing we did to enjoy it more was pour a bottle of wine into a drink container I use and once we started waiting we started having a little drink here and there. Not sure if it's against policy or not but it sure made things much more fun for us, lol. Just don't get drunk and stupid and you should be fine though. I actually did a little livestream after getting back on the ship. I think the process was pretty simple and easy to handle though so no big worries if you follow the directions given.

Thanks. Maximum depth was 82 feet and was my first Nitrox dive and normally my butt is dragging at the end but I felt great so any chance I get Nitrox weil be my go to gas. But I understand about your shoulder, I broke the end of my clavicle and tie up the ligaments in my right shoulder. Walked around for 15 years with a broken piece in there complaining about it all the time. It's a little better now but still have pain but I know eventually I will be unable to dive. Very cool. I Open Water certified around July 2019. January of 2020 I did Advanced Open Water in Jamaica and by July of 2020 I did the Rescue Diver certification. I actually do a lot of trash cleanup dives at some local lakes when I can and have about 60 dives since my original certification. And for anyone wondering:

I was there not long ago and where I was heading out for my dives (Bluekay) there was a good amount of seaweed on the shore and let's just say it didn't smell good. The water was pretty cloudy and I was surprised how much trash I saw on the reef. Couple that with the long walk to get through the port and let's just say it will be a place I will happily skip unless I'm going to do an on land excursion.

The only thing I really hope happens with the new terminal is more ports being added for sailings. Right now once Liberty leaves it seems like the only places to go to will be Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. If that's the case I'm going to have to plan to drive to Florida for anything and that kills my budget which means I will be doing a lot less cruising.

I will be trying to edit and add more over the next few months in between replacing the roof on the house among other things.

Interesting. The thing is it could be used for access to the ship, the big deal is that someone who is a medical professional has to administer the test and provide the results from my understanding. So if you have a doctor who will handle it and provide a letter with the results information as a part of a regular office visit this could be a cheap way to get test results and may be needed if the current tests expire without an extension or replacement available. I have 2 tests that expire before February 23rd that I hope will have another extension on the expiration date but if that doesn't happen I will be looking for alternatives that won't run 100 bucks plus per test.

Local cellular connection cuts of when you are out of range of a land based tower. Then you will switch to the ships cell tower if your carrier has an agreement with the ship to provide services but they are not cheap from my understanding. You could end up using the ships connection at any point though so if you don't have a plan that includes coverage i would hit airplane mode in the terminal. The Royal App is supposed to work fine without an internet plan while onboard the ship. Just connect to the wifi and you will get a page where you can then just use the app. The app also does most of the booking but the main dining room didn't seem to work very well on Liberty so if you are doing my time dining book the whole week ahead as soon as you hit the ship or talk to the staff for the dining room. Personally for traveling I love my Google Fi service. The only extra cost is phone calls while abroad, data and texting is included for free and while on the ship we used wifi calling and Signal for texting.

Honestly I can see so many issues with pets at sea. The biggest is you could never enter most foreign ports due to quarantine requirements for pets. But animals fighting and messes would be another few big ones. After a few months the ship would smell like a kernel. I love my Rascal and just found out he may have cancer right before leaving but I could never take him on a ship. He would be miserable in so many ways.