Elzbeth

My best memory is taking my sister on her first Caribbean cruise. Now she is completely addicted - we've been on several together. and can't wait for our next!!

Feb 2020, Allure of the Seas, just love hanging out on the balcony listening to waves.. enjoying the fresh air. miss it.. 

My 6 year old son, who was 5 at the time, wears a little captain's hat around the ship - and him meeting the actual Captain. Man, it was like meeting the REAL Santa Claus.

Navigator four night in February earlier this year, just before everything started going haywire!  Booked a GTY balcony with DX bev on a whim and stayed on the SW side of Florida with some family for a couple nights on either side of the trip, was a very easy drive over to Miami.  As many others have mentioned, so impressed with the brand new upgrades on Navigator and at CocoCay - it was all just so great, especially enjoyed the escape room (set the best time on our cruise but who knows, maybe they say that to everybody) and the schooner bar, best memory probably the last sea day where patience paid off in getting a casita on the upper deck hanging there most of the afternoon and then won big in the casino that night.  Just perfect.  Reaffirmed my love for the voyager class, for me and what I like to do it's just the right size of ship, hope to try Freedom or Indy someday soon as well.....

The last cruise I took was a quick 4 night on Brilliance with my youngest son on January 30th. We homeschool and took the cruise to see the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio (I wasn’t comfortable heading to the mainland without my husband with us). We had the best field trip ever. The other highlight of the cruise was our assistant waiter, Mauro. He did magic tricks each night and took care of my son like his own. He was awesome! 
 
 

My fave memory from my last cruise was also from the Royal Caribbean Blog NYE cruise on Freedom -- the Sunset Catamaran excursion.  It was just our entire group on the short sailing but it was such a fun time!

That is hard for me.  It is a tie.
Coco Cay Cabana and Chef's table....oh maybe I should add the 70s party....oh, but was that better than Quest?  Okay, let's just go with my favorite memory of my last cruise was walking onto the ship so I could have all those memories!
What is easy for me to say, is my biggest negative memory, not because of RCL, but because of crazy passengers.  We loved doing the trivia in Schooners.  It was fun and let's be honest, what did you win... a key chain you never used or a highlighter?  On our last 2 cruises people were acting like they were going to win a million dollars and pulling out their phones to google/bing the question.  They lost site of the fact that is suppose to be fun and laugh at the crazy answers thrown out when they ask for people to scream out the answer before they gave the correct answer, instead it was I have to win!  We stopped going by day 3 of our 10 day cruise.
Back on topic.

Was our second annual birthday cruise in January and we decided to decorate for others. Unfortunately we were in an end cabin and almost no one saw it. We will be back and bring it and others to change it up daily for the amusement of others.

The memory that brings me to tears with joy is my daughter enjoying our balcony on the Harmony November 2019. No electronics, my mini me! (and yes we had the VOOM!!) Hair up, just sunscreen enjoying the sound of the ocean, pure joy!
My second picture is the "POLE" in the cabin @WAAAYTOOO warned me about, how I hated that darn pole. (yes face first into it late at night) While I have zero fond memories of that pole I sure miss it, I would love to visit her again, just saying ?
Loved the Harmony for Thanksgiving, the happiness was palatable. Our entire week was a true wonderful family event, we miss sailing together....sailing takes me away to where I want to be!!! LET. US. SAIL!!!

Have to include two because it's a complete toss up. Freedom Southern Caribbean June 2019 (SO long ago!)
1) Experiencing sunrise on deck every morning with our 1.5 year old grandson (his first cruise). I had done the same thing with his sister on her first cruise at 11 months and it's a really special time. Sunrises are beautiful but nothing compared to sharing the wonder with a young one.
2) Eagle Beach in Aruba with our 3.5 year old granddaughter. Expected a timid response to the crashing waves (as reported about a previous trip to Myrtle Beach with her parents and other grandparents). It took about 2 minutes before she wanted to "go out more, Gramps" - into water over my waist and waves cresting over my shoulders. The feeling of having one so vulnerable trust you so completely is priceless.

My favorite memory was shocking Mr. SpeedNoodles when we were on an ATV tour in Puerto Rico last February on our Symphony sailing - It was only the 2nd time I'd ever driven an ATV (the first time being the day before, mostly on paved roads), and the mud was up to a foot deep in places.  He didn't think I"d even try to go through some of the big puddles or mud, but I just dove into them the entire time and never got stuck - he was shocked!  It's not easy to shock your husband after 26 years of marriage!

April, 2019, visiting Nacional Beach Club in Mahahual, Mexico. We had the best time there. Great staff, great food and even greater drinks.

Since our last cruise was our first the entire cruise was memorable. We were onboard the Allure with an ocean balcony. Pretty much the entire cruise exceeded our expectations. Just hoping things will be better for our May 2021 cruise on SOS. 

Last Cruise was last September on Anthem to Bermuda (5 day). The Bermuda 2 days was shortened to one due to Jerry, which is hysterical because my wife and a few of her friends have an inside joke and call each other Jerry.
A bunch of friends came along (invited themselves) and having them join us was the single best memory because the shenanigans that occurred all week long (even the stuff that annoyed me) wouldn't have happened without them. It just wouldn't have been as fun. I'd give anything to be annoyed at my friends right now. ?

Visiting Chichen Itza on our Harmony cruise in February
Always been on my bucket list and despite a long traveling day , it was just incredible!

We did Mariner back last October. It was a spontaneous/last minute “let’s cruise” decision. We’re 2 hours to PC so we did a GTY balcony and ended up with an aft balcony. 

It also was the first cruise we’d taken “alone” since 1998! It was our first Diamond cruise, first on Mariner, first time to the new Perfect Day, first time taking only a roll on bag and our first booked with @Sharla
It was a cruise of many firsts! ❤️ 

It was our 7th wedding anniversary and we decided to take the 2019 holiday cruise on Mariner since we never had a honeymoon. We had so much fun but one of our favorite things is the unlimited dining package! We are foodies so we tried every restaurant. We went to Izumi Hibachi twice because the food was soooo good! 

The card I got from the cast of Grease on the Independence.  I do production photography for the actors and this is the first time the cast did anything like this.  What a great bunch!

Took our grandson on his first cruise in February- 4 day Mariner out of PC.  Love the picture of him in a “Superman” pose on the flowrider!

Our last cruise was the Anthem cruise that was truncated due to suspected COVID cases (which proved to be completely false).  We were supposed to go to the Bahamas and ended up in Bermuda instead.  The nice part of the cruise was the reduced capacity - I think we sailed with around 60% capacity.  It was nice, even though shorter than it was supposed to be.  We had a great time.  We were supposed to receive OBC for 50% of the cruise fare and receive an FCC for the other 50%...essentially a free cruise...but somehow we came out ahead by about $650.  No idea how that happened.  We went out with a bang !!

My (then) 19 y/o son did the second leg of my back to back with me back in Jan-Feb.  I encouraged him to go Quest even though I was too tired to go.  He went and ended up being a team captain. 

The next day we kept running into people he knew from the night before....he was very chatty with everyone, high fives and fist bumps all around....and this is a kid who struggled with anxiety through his teen years.  Ever since that week on Adventure, he has been able to deal with his anxiety in a much more positive way.

@cruisellama thanks for this, you made my day! This should be it's own topic, great news! I was wondering why RCCL stock has been creeping up lately, with a unit cost of 36.00 and change the slow march is making Neesa very happy. Thanks again, I smiled reading the article you posted.

Here's some positive news: https://www.cruisemapper.com/news/7919-ncl-norwegian-cruise-line-restart-operations-select-sailings-november-2020
 
Remember RCL has partnered with NCL on  health panel and protocol development, so hoping for expanded good news.
 

NOT QUITE YET...
....is this going to be a Live Blog.  I am NOT looking to set the new World Land Speed Record for starting the earliest Live Blog.  It will turn into a live blog MUCH later when we get closer to sail date.
I just wanted to announce to the world that the long anticipated 8 night Symphony itinerary for 21 - 29 August 2021 has finally shown up on the website !!!! 
I've been stalking this cruise for months.  They announced the itinerary - Labadee, Aruba and Curacao - months ago, but never opened it for booking until today.
I quickly snagged one of the Deck 8 Aqua Theater Suites because I could not afford (or didn't want) any of the other Star Class rooms that were left.  Believe it or not, some of the SC rooms were already gone by the time I got there !!  The aft-facing Star Loft was there but I don't really want that one.  I have NO interest in that awful Ultimate Family thing and the Royal Loft is WAAAY out of my price range on this cruise (and so was the Ultimate Family thing, to be fair).
So let the fun begin.  I BELIEVE that this will be the first Oasis class ship to go to Aruba and Curacao.  I could be wrong about that.  For sure it will be the first time Symphony has been there.  This will also be my first cruise on Symphony and I'm very excited. 3 ports in 8 days is my idea of heaven.
Interest, anyone ?

I think I watched all but his German language videos on YouTube this weekend! He is very entertaining and quite informative! The vblog he just did on the Mein Schiff gives me great hope that we will be able to continue cruising safely! Yes, it will be different. 98% of our lives are changed as it is these days. I'll roll with the changes!