MuttMutt

https://improveworkspace.com/why-surge-protectors-banned-cruise-ships/
Lets you understand the issues.  Knowing what I do I know that in general it shouldn't really matter for extension cords and such but I can see where a transient voltage spike could cause a surge protector to overload and that will potentially cause a fire.  A lot of the cheapest surge protectors are just a Metal Oxide Varistor and they are damaged every time a surge is dealt with.  Over time this can cause them to physically explode when a high enough surge is found... Explode as in burst into flames similar to how a capacitor can burst.  
 
 
Fire and ships together are BAD NEWS... Just the smoke from a single room caught on fire could kill people because burning polymers and such give off noxious compounds.  Simply put, get a charger that can deal with multiple devices.  I use one this one Quick Charge 3.0 Wall Charger, 60W 6-Port USB Fast Charger and it works GREAT.  Had it since July 2019 and use it everywhere I go including 4 cruises, traveling to Jamaica, as well as traveling around the US, and at home.
If you have so many devices that you HAVE to have more outlets in the room then the only option is something like the no cord outlet expander linked above.  Anything with a cord that splits outlets will be confiscated if it's seen.  Sneaking it past in your carry on is a bad idea as well because if there is a fire you will be charged for ALL damages.  Maybe you will get lucky every single time but it only takes one time to cost you everything you have, it's not worth it.  I don't want to be that person and I quit working at a place because the kids there were likely going to kill someone and I wanted nothing to do with it.

Makes me want to get ahold of a cup to see if they are using NFC and if the tag is changing somehow.  I know it's easy enough to clone NFC tags with a phone but if there is some sort of change in data on the tag similar to how some of the subway systems change the magnetic stripes on the passes they sell to show the value left on them.  There was a big writeup a few years back that talked about how it worked and they figured out how they could change the magnetic stripes to show they had 1000's on them using a simple mag stripe writer.  Would I try and steal from the machines, no.  But sometimes it's interesting to see how things function and work, for those who don't know you can actually get a tool for android phones called NFC Tools and read data from your US passport.  

Most of the time it's pretty tough to get a refund especially after getting FCC's.  And remember that if you do get a refund and had FCC's they will be dropped down to the original amount paid, so basically if you paid 500 and got a FCC for 625 you will only get 500 back.  
With that said going forward for the foreseeable future everyone 11 and older will have to be vaccinated on cruises unless you find a line that didn't sign up for the highly vaccinated plan.  I also doubt they are going to extend anything other than the "if you catch COVID" section for refunds and FCC's.  I haven't read it all but I get the idea and that is if you make a choice to not be vaccinated you are eventually risking deposits unless you chose a refundable version.  Hopefully you have a travel agent to deal with things though, if you have to deal with it all yourself prepare to pull your hair out now.  
And I wish you the best of luck but have to warn you that you probably will not like the results if you put in a non refundable deposit.

Yeah. It's no big deal yet. Check it in a couple days and I'd should be there. Also if you didn't select a room and just let royal select one the room numbers won't show up till about a week before departure or so. 

It's not about theft.  People take towels off the ship and they get left wherever.  Eventually Royal has supplied brand new towels to the residents of every port because people haven't brought that many back to the fleet of ships.  They could easily just rent the towels out or not provide them at all.  I am sure there are a ton of other ways it could be handled as well which would all be called stupid.  But I can bet that if someone came into your bathroom and took 4 or 5 towels every couple days and forgot them somewhere you wouldn't be happy about it either.  Royal is dealing with potentially thousands of towels being left places.
With that said I have no clue what happened but I tend to get my towels on the ship and make sure to scan in and out every single time.  If they are writing stuff down I don't want the towel in the first place nor will I drop off with them because who knows if it will be correctly handled or not.  Hopefully things are straightened out over the charges.

Nope and who knows if they ever will to be honest.  Plus I can see a bunch of 30 to 40 year old's with a drink package and a bad attitude when they lose end up throwing a controller through a screen or starting a brawl... Yep, I think I will stick with my Raspberry Pi 4 in my room for my gaming fix while on the ship.  And I am sure some people pack their consoles to take on the ship as well.

Have to agree with this.  Make sure you check the box below that says not a spammer and complete the ten anti spam checks available so you don't have your access removed.
 

It can be done and it's time it should be.  That also means that if it happens people need to be prepared to put their money where their mouth is.  Maybe it's not much but I would be much more willing to gamble 50 bucks if smoking was abolished than if they leave it in place.  On my last cruise I didn't even use the free play because it stunk so bad.
But honestly if we don't want smoking in the casino's we have to step up and say something.  Maybe it won't do any good but sitting there saying you want something done and not step up to make it well known things will never change.  I can only do so much starting the petition, people have to push others to sign the thing so it can go to the cruise lines.  If a few hundred thousand people who cruise sign and get their friends to sign as well it will be at a million within a month, it took a year to sail a million people on Royal Caribbean and I am sure some of those are duplicates.  They will take notice if that many people sign.

I wish they would as well, even a mask doesn't help me so I usually just walk outside on deck 4 rather than go through it.  Even just walking past the stairs in the Promenade that go down to the casino while wearing a mask I could smell it come up.  
But who knows if enough people tell them what they want maybe something can be changed.  I don't lose a dime by making a petition online and it's all the rage now so I figured why not.  At the very least we could get them to pave over the stairs and install sliding glass doors on either end so the ones who want to be in there can marinate in it.  https://chng.it/2pTZpRfN6Y

I wish they would as well, even a mask doesn't help me so I usually just walk outside on deck 4 rather than go through it.  Even just walking past the stairs in the Promenade that go down to the casino while wearing a mask I could smell it come up.  
But who knows if enough people tell them what they want maybe something can be changed.  I don't lose a dime by making a petition online and it's all the rage now so I figured why not.  At the very least we could get them to pave over the stairs and install sliding glass doors on either end so the ones who want to be in there can marinate in it.  https://chng.it/2pTZpRfN6Y

I am sure there are a few smokers on here but in the US only around 14% of people smoke.  I have seen many posts with people who have suggested RCCL ban smoking in the casino's as they did for a few weeks when the Omicron variant was very high and has since been rolled back.  The CDC (yeah, I know they have been derps on the COVID stuff) has the information that I am using and they show that the majority of people who smoke are probably also the people who can't afford to go on a cruise as well.  So lets figure less than 10% of people on a ship smoke right?  Yet they are willing to allow that 10% to effectively stop people who do not smoke from wanting to even be near the casino.
 
So I have started a petition directed to a bunch of the cruise lines to ban smoking on US sailings.  Please sign it and share it to as many people as possible.  
 
Change.org petition to all the cruise lines to ban smoking in the casino's
 

This is EXACTLY what I do when I sail.  The big 32 ounce ones are good if you have some wine as well.  We walked around in the terminal while switching from the first cruise to the second on our B2B and enjoyed it thoroughly, lol.  Usually at breakfast I will fill it up in the Windjammer (32 ounce one will take just over 3 glasses) and then will fill up again around dinner most of the time.  
I think all restaurants have the complementary drinks available but the selection will sometimes vary from day to day and venue to venue.  I personally like the lemonade, lemon-lime, and fruit punch but the strawberry-kiwi can be ok.  The thing I have noticed is they are all sour like they have no sweetener in them so I generally add about a packet of the pink stuff per cup but the strawberry-kiwi seems to take two.  With the covid protocols being relaxed they may be able to just fill it up for you but I that may not always be possible.  I know with the protocols I just filled up with the cups that were available and no one seemed to mind a bit.

Oddly enough I have seen the cruise ship step it up to drop someone off on 3 of my 4 sailings which one of the 4 was a B2B.  My very first one in October 2019 after leaving Falmouth we made an overnight stop at Grand Cayman to drop someone off.  That route was a 7 night from Galveston with Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and then Falmouth.  The second was the 2nd leg of our B2B while headed to Cozumel and they dropped off when we got there a few hours early.  And while on Adventure of the Seas last week we went up to full speed around 6:30 in the evening and made it in to Progresso around midnight due to a crew member's injury.  While on the water the last sea day on the same cruise we had a woman choking in the Windjammer at lunch and one of the other passengers ended up giving her the Heimlich Maneuver then after a bit a person from medical came up to check her out.  For a moment I actually thought there was a fight or something because I head glasses and plates being knocked off the table.  

I just told my wife to have the camera ready on our next cruise, cause I'm gonna do it.  🙂 

Made it home late last night and literally just crashed.  Still feeling a little lag and such.  Being extremely sensitive to motion I am actually still surprised that I can sleep on a ship because I have rode trains for multiple days and been awake nearly the entire time (Amtrak from Omaha NE to Oakland, CA around 1994) The only time I have slept in a vehicle is when I am completely wore out and while on the train I caught about an hours sleep around Salt Lake City but was awake the rest of the time.
Anyway I was able to do my dive and it was very nice.  Only had 8 people out of about 2K along for the ride which makes it a lot of fun IMHO rather than having 20 people trying to squeeze in and get a look at the wildlife.  For the first time ever I chose not to take a camera with me and just enjoyed the dive.  I lost the mount I normally use on my wrist and I thought I had a good alternative but it ended up being a flop.  So I just enjoyed the drift and relaxed as much as I could.  One of the divers had an issue with his ear clogging up after the first dive so opted to just sit out the second one.  We had buddied up on the first but I was perfectly fine just running solo since there was a decent number of people in the group and I have done solo dives in the past anyway.  Had a little issue with my left ear and equalization on the way down but was able to get it sorted and enjoy things.  
Headed back to the ship caught a shower and then went up to the Windjammer for lunch which was as good as ever.  Then grabbed Max and headed down into the port area to look around a little bit.  Back had a little bit of a spasm every now and then but it's just something I am used to and it wasn't bad to walk around and stretch it out a bit anyway.  I sampled a little bit of the honey agave tequila which I may have to pick a bottle of up at some point as I think it will complement my selection of vanilla tequila and my jamaica tequila (they pronounce it Hu-Mi-Ka but is hibiscus flower and something I got because of my wife)  But Max didn't see anything that caught his eye so we headed back to the ship and I ended up taking a bit of a nap and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day.  
We had a sea day to look forward to before getting back to port and I took the time to hop on the Flowrider again a couple times and then headed to the hot tub.  While in the Solarium hot tub I found a jet that was working AWESOME and was able to work out a few kinks which I am extremely thankful for and just chilled and chit chatted with a few other people who were there.  I sent Max back to the room so he could catch a shower and I could enjoy a few more minutes in the hot tub and then head down and catch one myself.  
We went for dinner around 6:30 in the Windjammer and while there I dropped off a little thank you letter to the waitstaff supervisor with a package of mini kitkat bars to express my thanks for the service and while eating I had a chance to catch Chef Kenedy who while on this sailing is the head chef for the Windjammer and I also gave him a package of mini kitkat bars and a letter for the staff to express my thanks.  I figured it would be a fitting way to express to everyone in the Windjammer how much we enjoyed the food and service while taking as little time away from their duties as possible and I am pretty sure it was a bit unique because they thanked me multiple times for my gesture.  I thought it was well worth it after eating every meal while on the trip there and I think it is something I am going to try to continue doing.  
After dinner we stopped in the room for a bit and just hung out till our show was getting close to starting.  While on the way down I had a couple other thank you letters that I had left over because I know sometimes you will see that one person multiple times throughout your day while on the ship.  In fact when I was on my B2B on Liberty of the Seas there was a nice young lady we saw quite often in Sorento's nearly every evening.  But on this cruise that did not happen so with my last 12 pack of kitkat bars and a few letters I headed down to guest services and gave everything to them and told them that I wished I could personally thank every single person who worked on the ship for our time there but knew that was not possible and asked that they get the letters around to as many people as possible on the ship so they would know how much we enjoyed our time there.  The young lady was dumbfounded by the gesture and thanked us multiple times so hopefully the staff onboard do get to see them.  I have no idea where the candy bars will end up but as long as they are enjoyed I am happy to bring them along.
The last days show was Aaron Bonk and he did a bunch of juggling and whip cracking while there.  It was very interesting to see some of it for sure and with his jokes and wisecracks thrown in we both enjoyed the show.  Afterwards we headed back to the room to place our luggage outside and make sure everything was ready for us to go in the morning.
When we left the room the next morning we had everything packed in our backpacks so that our room attendant was able to get in and get things ready for the next run without worrying about how long it was going to take to get us out of there.  Breakfast was enjoyable and afterwards we headed down to deck 4 and wait till our number was available.  Things were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and after the people who were carrying their own things off and those people who needed extra assistance or had the key were off the ship we were out and ready to go.  I would say we were some of the first people to grab our bags and get out the doors and onto our bus to head to the parking lot.

Overall we both had a really good time and for Max it was a major eye opener after living a pretty sheltered life in western PA.  I am pretty sure he would like to go again so now we all are going to have to figure out who gets to stay home from now on to watch the dogs, LOL.  The drive home was right about 10 hours by the time we stopped for fuel a few times and a bite to eat when we were past downtown Dallas. 
Still a little wore out today and dealing with a few things personally.  My wife passed away on Feb 28th 2019 and with everything happening I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it so today it is coming to the surface a little bit, going on a cruise ship with her was something I always wanted to do but never had the chance.  All I can say is that if you have a loved one sit down and record a video of you guys just having a conversation sometime, I sorely miss hearing her voice many days.  Other than that grab every opportunity you can to travel with your loved ones and make as many memories as you can while letting the things that are frustrating float away on the seas.
 
Thanks everyone on Adventure of the Seas for the time we spent there and hopefully we can do it again.  Next stop is Vision of the Seas on Black Friday 2022...

Made it home late last night and literally just crashed.  Still feeling a little lag and such.  Being extremely sensitive to motion I am actually still surprised that I can sleep on a ship because I have rode trains for multiple days and been awake nearly the entire time (Amtrak from Omaha NE to Oakland, CA around 1994) The only time I have slept in a vehicle is when I am completely wore out and while on the train I caught about an hours sleep around Salt Lake City but was awake the rest of the time.
Anyway I was able to do my dive and it was very nice.  Only had 8 people out of about 2K along for the ride which makes it a lot of fun IMHO rather than having 20 people trying to squeeze in and get a look at the wildlife.  For the first time ever I chose not to take a camera with me and just enjoyed the dive.  I lost the mount I normally use on my wrist and I thought I had a good alternative but it ended up being a flop.  So I just enjoyed the drift and relaxed as much as I could.  One of the divers had an issue with his ear clogging up after the first dive so opted to just sit out the second one.  We had buddied up on the first but I was perfectly fine just running solo since there was a decent number of people in the group and I have done solo dives in the past anyway.  Had a little issue with my left ear and equalization on the way down but was able to get it sorted and enjoy things.  
Headed back to the ship caught a shower and then went up to the Windjammer for lunch which was as good as ever.  Then grabbed Max and headed down into the port area to look around a little bit.  Back had a little bit of a spasm every now and then but it's just something I am used to and it wasn't bad to walk around and stretch it out a bit anyway.  I sampled a little bit of the honey agave tequila which I may have to pick a bottle of up at some point as I think it will complement my selection of vanilla tequila and my jamaica tequila (they pronounce it Hu-Mi-Ka but is hibiscus flower and something I got because of my wife)  But Max didn't see anything that caught his eye so we headed back to the ship and I ended up taking a bit of a nap and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day.  
We had a sea day to look forward to before getting back to port and I took the time to hop on the Flowrider again a couple times and then headed to the hot tub.  While in the Solarium hot tub I found a jet that was working AWESOME and was able to work out a few kinks which I am extremely thankful for and just chilled and chit chatted with a few other people who were there.  I sent Max back to the room so he could catch a shower and I could enjoy a few more minutes in the hot tub and then head down and catch one myself.  
We went for dinner around 6:30 in the Windjammer and while there I dropped off a little thank you letter to the waitstaff supervisor with a package of mini kitkat bars to express my thanks for the service and while eating I had a chance to catch Chef Kenedy who while on this sailing is the head chef for the Windjammer and I also gave him a package of mini kitkat bars and a letter for the staff to express my thanks.  I figured it would be a fitting way to express to everyone in the Windjammer how much we enjoyed the food and service while taking as little time away from their duties as possible and I am pretty sure it was a bit unique because they thanked me multiple times for my gesture.  I thought it was well worth it after eating every meal while on the trip there and I think it is something I am going to try to continue doing.  
After dinner we stopped in the room for a bit and just hung out till our show was getting close to starting.  While on the way down I had a couple other thank you letters that I had left over because I know sometimes you will see that one person multiple times throughout your day while on the ship.  In fact when I was on my B2B on Liberty of the Seas there was a nice young lady we saw quite often in Sorento's nearly every evening.  But on this cruise that did not happen so with my last 12 pack of kitkat bars and a few letters I headed down to guest services and gave everything to them and told them that I wished I could personally thank every single person who worked on the ship for our time there but knew that was not possible and asked that they get the letters around to as many people as possible on the ship so they would know how much we enjoyed our time there.  The young lady was dumbfounded by the gesture and thanked us multiple times so hopefully the staff onboard do get to see them.  I have no idea where the candy bars will end up but as long as they are enjoyed I am happy to bring them along.
The last days show was Aaron Bonk and he did a bunch of juggling and whip cracking while there.  It was very interesting to see some of it for sure and with his jokes and wisecracks thrown in we both enjoyed the show.  Afterwards we headed back to the room to place our luggage outside and make sure everything was ready for us to go in the morning.
When we left the room the next morning we had everything packed in our backpacks so that our room attendant was able to get in and get things ready for the next run without worrying about how long it was going to take to get us out of there.  Breakfast was enjoyable and afterwards we headed down to deck 4 and wait till our number was available.  Things were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and after the people who were carrying their own things off and those people who needed extra assistance or had the key were off the ship we were out and ready to go.  I would say we were some of the first people to grab our bags and get out the doors and onto our bus to head to the parking lot.

Overall we both had a really good time and for Max it was a major eye opener after living a pretty sheltered life in western PA.  I am pretty sure he would like to go again so now we all are going to have to figure out who gets to stay home from now on to watch the dogs, LOL.  The drive home was right about 10 hours by the time we stopped for fuel a few times and a bite to eat when we were past downtown Dallas. 
Still a little wore out today and dealing with a few things personally.  My wife passed away on Feb 28th 2019 and with everything happening I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it so today it is coming to the surface a little bit, going on a cruise ship with her was something I always wanted to do but never had the chance.  All I can say is that if you have a loved one sit down and record a video of you guys just having a conversation sometime, I sorely miss hearing her voice many days.  Other than that grab every opportunity you can to travel with your loved ones and make as many memories as you can while letting the things that are frustrating float away on the seas.
 
Thanks everyone on Adventure of the Seas for the time we spent there and hopefully we can do it again.  Next stop is Vision of the Seas on Black Friday 2022...

Ok drove past this morning and I will be honest it looks closed up to me.  There is some stuff inside that looks like it was just dropped and left.  Took a picture so you can decide for yourself though.

Sounds good. If someone else happens to be down that way before me by all means feel free to beat me to it lol. 

Not sure but if you wait a couple days and let me know where it's at I can drive past on Monday and let you know by Tuesday.

I was in a similar mindset with getting on there but I just said, "You know what I have been climbing on a roof among other things and doing OK so why not."  Now I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner.  Will I ever advance to standing up, nope.  But it's kinda fun to use the boogie board and mess around.  They want you to get up on your knees and do a few things so everyone else gets a turn when you wipe out and I understand that but you could easily say, "Hey I don't want to get on my knees I just want to slide back and forth a bit and get a feel for it.  How about a minute and a half and I will give way to the next person."  Then just keep your rides in that time range if there is someone in line waiting, simple enough right?
Plus you don't have to dive in from up above, you can easily just lie down and slide over into the water stream if that is what you are comfortable with.  I will say that it's a little on the rough side when you wipe out but not so bad that I wouldn't gladly do it again the next time I get a chance.

Lots of changes on the construction site now. Most of the building is up as of yesterday when I got on Adventure of the Seas for my 5 night cruise. It was a cool dreary day and lots of people were looking at me odd while I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt taking these but I think it was worth it. 

 
But things are looking good so far. I just hope that we don't just swap Liberty for something else and end up with less routes to enjoy the new terminal with. 

Made it home late last night and literally just crashed.  Still feeling a little lag and such.  Being extremely sensitive to motion I am actually still surprised that I can sleep on a ship because I have rode trains for multiple days and been awake nearly the entire time (Amtrak from Omaha NE to Oakland, CA around 1994) The only time I have slept in a vehicle is when I am completely wore out and while on the train I caught about an hours sleep around Salt Lake City but was awake the rest of the time.
Anyway I was able to do my dive and it was very nice.  Only had 8 people out of about 2K along for the ride which makes it a lot of fun IMHO rather than having 20 people trying to squeeze in and get a look at the wildlife.  For the first time ever I chose not to take a camera with me and just enjoyed the dive.  I lost the mount I normally use on my wrist and I thought I had a good alternative but it ended up being a flop.  So I just enjoyed the drift and relaxed as much as I could.  One of the divers had an issue with his ear clogging up after the first dive so opted to just sit out the second one.  We had buddied up on the first but I was perfectly fine just running solo since there was a decent number of people in the group and I have done solo dives in the past anyway.  Had a little issue with my left ear and equalization on the way down but was able to get it sorted and enjoy things.  
Headed back to the ship caught a shower and then went up to the Windjammer for lunch which was as good as ever.  Then grabbed Max and headed down into the port area to look around a little bit.  Back had a little bit of a spasm every now and then but it's just something I am used to and it wasn't bad to walk around and stretch it out a bit anyway.  I sampled a little bit of the honey agave tequila which I may have to pick a bottle of up at some point as I think it will complement my selection of vanilla tequila and my jamaica tequila (they pronounce it Hu-Mi-Ka but is hibiscus flower and something I got because of my wife)  But Max didn't see anything that caught his eye so we headed back to the ship and I ended up taking a bit of a nap and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day.  
We had a sea day to look forward to before getting back to port and I took the time to hop on the Flowrider again a couple times and then headed to the hot tub.  While in the Solarium hot tub I found a jet that was working AWESOME and was able to work out a few kinks which I am extremely thankful for and just chilled and chit chatted with a few other people who were there.  I sent Max back to the room so he could catch a shower and I could enjoy a few more minutes in the hot tub and then head down and catch one myself.  
We went for dinner around 6:30 in the Windjammer and while there I dropped off a little thank you letter to the waitstaff supervisor with a package of mini kitkat bars to express my thanks for the service and while eating I had a chance to catch Chef Kenedy who while on this sailing is the head chef for the Windjammer and I also gave him a package of mini kitkat bars and a letter for the staff to express my thanks.  I figured it would be a fitting way to express to everyone in the Windjammer how much we enjoyed the food and service while taking as little time away from their duties as possible and I am pretty sure it was a bit unique because they thanked me multiple times for my gesture.  I thought it was well worth it after eating every meal while on the trip there and I think it is something I am going to try to continue doing.  
After dinner we stopped in the room for a bit and just hung out till our show was getting close to starting.  While on the way down I had a couple other thank you letters that I had left over because I know sometimes you will see that one person multiple times throughout your day while on the ship.  In fact when I was on my B2B on Liberty of the Seas there was a nice young lady we saw quite often in Sorento's nearly every evening.  But on this cruise that did not happen so with my last 12 pack of kitkat bars and a few letters I headed down to guest services and gave everything to them and told them that I wished I could personally thank every single person who worked on the ship for our time there but knew that was not possible and asked that they get the letters around to as many people as possible on the ship so they would know how much we enjoyed our time there.  The young lady was dumbfounded by the gesture and thanked us multiple times so hopefully the staff onboard do get to see them.  I have no idea where the candy bars will end up but as long as they are enjoyed I am happy to bring them along.
The last days show was Aaron Bonk and he did a bunch of juggling and whip cracking while there.  It was very interesting to see some of it for sure and with his jokes and wisecracks thrown in we both enjoyed the show.  Afterwards we headed back to the room to place our luggage outside and make sure everything was ready for us to go in the morning.
When we left the room the next morning we had everything packed in our backpacks so that our room attendant was able to get in and get things ready for the next run without worrying about how long it was going to take to get us out of there.  Breakfast was enjoyable and afterwards we headed down to deck 4 and wait till our number was available.  Things were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and after the people who were carrying their own things off and those people who needed extra assistance or had the key were off the ship we were out and ready to go.  I would say we were some of the first people to grab our bags and get out the doors and onto our bus to head to the parking lot.

Overall we both had a really good time and for Max it was a major eye opener after living a pretty sheltered life in western PA.  I am pretty sure he would like to go again so now we all are going to have to figure out who gets to stay home from now on to watch the dogs, LOL.  The drive home was right about 10 hours by the time we stopped for fuel a few times and a bite to eat when we were past downtown Dallas. 
Still a little wore out today and dealing with a few things personally.  My wife passed away on Feb 28th 2019 and with everything happening I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it so today it is coming to the surface a little bit, going on a cruise ship with her was something I always wanted to do but never had the chance.  All I can say is that if you have a loved one sit down and record a video of you guys just having a conversation sometime, I sorely miss hearing her voice many days.  Other than that grab every opportunity you can to travel with your loved ones and make as many memories as you can while letting the things that are frustrating float away on the seas.
 
Thanks everyone on Adventure of the Seas for the time we spent there and hopefully we can do it again.  Next stop is Vision of the Seas on Black Friday 2022...

The bad thing I have seen is that when an Oasis class goes into Galveston we lose a lot of trips to Grand Cayman and Jamaica.  Hopefully they start adding those back in at some point but I would love to see something like some 10 nights being offered from time to time as well.  I don't see why it's not possible to have something like Adventure of the Seas sail out of Galveston and then go down to hit Cozumel, Roatan, then head over towards ABC and maybe stop at Falmouth or Grand Cayman on the way back for a 10 night.  I know there are a ton of retirees out in Florida that make that more profitable but to start adding one every other month and then do the 4 or 5 night runs the rest of the time would be an issue.  I also wish they would add the Oasis class and keep Liberty in Galveston as well doing something similar to what Adventure is doing right now.  Trading a Freedom class ship for an Oasis class and only having runs on the same route is a BIG step backwards for me.  3 ships homeporting in Galveston should be doable as it will entice more people with more routes, I have been on 4 cruises and been to Cozumel 4 times.  I am about to the point where I don't even want to walk into the port there unless I have a dive.

Made it home late last night and literally just crashed.  Still feeling a little lag and such.  Being extremely sensitive to motion I am actually still surprised that I can sleep on a ship because I have rode trains for multiple days and been awake nearly the entire time (Amtrak from Omaha NE to Oakland, CA around 1994) The only time I have slept in a vehicle is when I am completely wore out and while on the train I caught about an hours sleep around Salt Lake City but was awake the rest of the time.
Anyway I was able to do my dive and it was very nice.  Only had 8 people out of about 2K along for the ride which makes it a lot of fun IMHO rather than having 20 people trying to squeeze in and get a look at the wildlife.  For the first time ever I chose not to take a camera with me and just enjoyed the dive.  I lost the mount I normally use on my wrist and I thought I had a good alternative but it ended up being a flop.  So I just enjoyed the drift and relaxed as much as I could.  One of the divers had an issue with his ear clogging up after the first dive so opted to just sit out the second one.  We had buddied up on the first but I was perfectly fine just running solo since there was a decent number of people in the group and I have done solo dives in the past anyway.  Had a little issue with my left ear and equalization on the way down but was able to get it sorted and enjoy things.  
Headed back to the ship caught a shower and then went up to the Windjammer for lunch which was as good as ever.  Then grabbed Max and headed down into the port area to look around a little bit.  Back had a little bit of a spasm every now and then but it's just something I am used to and it wasn't bad to walk around and stretch it out a bit anyway.  I sampled a little bit of the honey agave tequila which I may have to pick a bottle of up at some point as I think it will complement my selection of vanilla tequila and my jamaica tequila (they pronounce it Hu-Mi-Ka but is hibiscus flower and something I got because of my wife)  But Max didn't see anything that caught his eye so we headed back to the ship and I ended up taking a bit of a nap and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day.  
We had a sea day to look forward to before getting back to port and I took the time to hop on the Flowrider again a couple times and then headed to the hot tub.  While in the Solarium hot tub I found a jet that was working AWESOME and was able to work out a few kinks which I am extremely thankful for and just chilled and chit chatted with a few other people who were there.  I sent Max back to the room so he could catch a shower and I could enjoy a few more minutes in the hot tub and then head down and catch one myself.  
We went for dinner around 6:30 in the Windjammer and while there I dropped off a little thank you letter to the waitstaff supervisor with a package of mini kitkat bars to express my thanks for the service and while eating I had a chance to catch Chef Kenedy who while on this sailing is the head chef for the Windjammer and I also gave him a package of mini kitkat bars and a letter for the staff to express my thanks.  I figured it would be a fitting way to express to everyone in the Windjammer how much we enjoyed the food and service while taking as little time away from their duties as possible and I am pretty sure it was a bit unique because they thanked me multiple times for my gesture.  I thought it was well worth it after eating every meal while on the trip there and I think it is something I am going to try to continue doing.  
After dinner we stopped in the room for a bit and just hung out till our show was getting close to starting.  While on the way down I had a couple other thank you letters that I had left over because I know sometimes you will see that one person multiple times throughout your day while on the ship.  In fact when I was on my B2B on Liberty of the Seas there was a nice young lady we saw quite often in Sorento's nearly every evening.  But on this cruise that did not happen so with my last 12 pack of kitkat bars and a few letters I headed down to guest services and gave everything to them and told them that I wished I could personally thank every single person who worked on the ship for our time there but knew that was not possible and asked that they get the letters around to as many people as possible on the ship so they would know how much we enjoyed our time there.  The young lady was dumbfounded by the gesture and thanked us multiple times so hopefully the staff onboard do get to see them.  I have no idea where the candy bars will end up but as long as they are enjoyed I am happy to bring them along.
The last days show was Aaron Bonk and he did a bunch of juggling and whip cracking while there.  It was very interesting to see some of it for sure and with his jokes and wisecracks thrown in we both enjoyed the show.  Afterwards we headed back to the room to place our luggage outside and make sure everything was ready for us to go in the morning.
When we left the room the next morning we had everything packed in our backpacks so that our room attendant was able to get in and get things ready for the next run without worrying about how long it was going to take to get us out of there.  Breakfast was enjoyable and afterwards we headed down to deck 4 and wait till our number was available.  Things were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and after the people who were carrying their own things off and those people who needed extra assistance or had the key were off the ship we were out and ready to go.  I would say we were some of the first people to grab our bags and get out the doors and onto our bus to head to the parking lot.

Overall we both had a really good time and for Max it was a major eye opener after living a pretty sheltered life in western PA.  I am pretty sure he would like to go again so now we all are going to have to figure out who gets to stay home from now on to watch the dogs, LOL.  The drive home was right about 10 hours by the time we stopped for fuel a few times and a bite to eat when we were past downtown Dallas. 
Still a little wore out today and dealing with a few things personally.  My wife passed away on Feb 28th 2019 and with everything happening I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it so today it is coming to the surface a little bit, going on a cruise ship with her was something I always wanted to do but never had the chance.  All I can say is that if you have a loved one sit down and record a video of you guys just having a conversation sometime, I sorely miss hearing her voice many days.  Other than that grab every opportunity you can to travel with your loved ones and make as many memories as you can while letting the things that are frustrating float away on the seas.
 
Thanks everyone on Adventure of the Seas for the time we spent there and hopefully we can do it again.  Next stop is Vision of the Seas on Black Friday 2022...

Have to agree with this.  Make sure you check the box below that says not a spammer and complete the ten anti spam checks available so you don't have your access removed.