CravingaCruise

The photos are taking too long and I am sleep - more photos in the morning.

Embarkation Day (Day 1) Breakfast and coffee were just what we expected and then we finished getting all packed back up. It's crazy how much gets unpacked for one night in a hotel!! We all sat in the room for the last hour just tapping our toes waiting to leave. Cindy asked every five minutes if it was time to go yet. We were all so excited! I had confirmed 10:30am with Jay though, so I didn't want to get there too early. We took two XL Lyfts that showed up at the hotel just a minute apart. The two lifts ended up at ~$12 each plus tip, and for one person to use the shuttle from the hotel it would have been $15. Had we used the shuttle, I guarantee we would have lost our luggage to the over zealous porters as soon as the driver opened the door. Instead, Lyft was an excellent choice! I highly recommend it!! The two vehicles went through the security gate at the same time - which was good because I had already collected everyone's documents and Tim had them in his bag in car #1. Since they wanted to see everyone's ID, we sent our person over to his car and they checked everyone off. Loved passing everyone at the port to get to star class. Everyone knew not to even get out of the vehicle until we had a star class porter. He showed up with a cart, loaded it up, and we were on our way with an escort passed the incredibly long check-in line!!! We walked by them all and weaved in and out of groups as we made our way directly to the counter where it took about 5 minutes for us all to be on our way up to the suite waiting area. As we made it by the last group into the building, Tim threw his hands up with the rock and roll signals celebrating our front of the line pass. If there was ever a reason to book star class, this is it people!!! Jay was busy when we arrived so we found some comfy seats and the conversation that started Friday night at the hotel in Portland continued. Man, we can talk!! Okay - mostly Cindy, Kenzie, and Kayla, but we keep it going. We didn't pay attention to how long it took for Jay to arrive (because we were talking), but it wasn't long - maybe 10 minutes? He came over and we were instantly family. He got hugs from everyone and we chatted for a few minutes. He needed another 10 minutes before he would be ready for us, so we chatted a bit longer and he came back over and got us. We made our way onto the ship and Jay used the magic card to get us up to the 17th floor where he dropped us off in the Suite Lounge to await our room readiness. The girls went nuts over the magic card. So easily amused! We met Dr Booze (aka Sachin) in the Suite Lounge and when Cindy asked for Pims, he said he didn't have it there, but he knew it was at Blaze because he had served it last night there. We figured we'd go there later and get a drink. Nope! 10 minutes later, he arrived with Pims in hand and Cindy got her drink. Great way to start the trip! Jay arrived shortly after and took us to our suite that was all decorated for our different celebrations. We had a few snacks and cake number 1. Jay made sure we had macarons because Kenzie has a bakery that specializes in them. Nice touch! Our luggage (minus one bag) arrived shortly after we did and once we got a chance to ooh and aah over the suite, we started unpacking our 11 bags. Lunch arrived and all but Kayla had Caesar salads and shrimp cocktails from Chops. We also had a couple of sides of mac & cheese and tater tots. It was great! The girls and Cindy went back up to the suite lounge after they unpacked and got Cindy's Pims drink, and they stopped by and got pizza for Kayla. It was almost 2pm and we decided to go up to the Schooner bar for the 9/25 bday meet & greet. We met some great people and hung out until we realized at 3pm that we needed to go get checked in at our muster station by 3pm. We headed out and did that, then I went back to the room to finish unpacking while everyone explored a bit - hoping my bag was there. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Jay had to go track my bag down and found out it was in the naughty room. It was tagged with "Kettle" but there wasn't anything in the bag that was not allowed. We did bring our own hand soap pumps onboard because the bar soaps dry out our hands, so maybe that popped up on their scanner? They waited for Jay to arrive before they opened the bag and he said they were amazed by how organized it was. Nothing was "naughty", so he gathered the bag and brought it to me. We met Iman, our cabin attendant, and he is awesome! We walked through a few things we needed and when we came back from dinner, they were all handled. I finished the unpacking - after having to get more hangers (yes, with 12 bags, we used a ton of hangers), and made sure things were picked up for our turn-down while we were at dinner. While at dinner, Jay collected our drink order for our show tonight. Dinner: 150 Central Park - The bread!!!! The bread is a loaf of 6 chunks (seemingly) soaked in truffle butter - YUM!! I ate waaaay too much bread! Kenzie and Kayla didn't want any, so I helped them out. We had a mix of things - halibut, braised short rib (again, yum!), and the Lobster Thermidor, pumpkin bisque, and scallops. Kayla has a tough time with most food, so she asked to order off-menu and got the steak salad from Chops' lunch menu. For dessert we had a couple of the fried cheesecake (yum again), Kenzie got the peanut butter chocolate thing, and Kayla got strawberry ice cream. Ritikesh was our server, and a few of us had cappuccino with dessert. When Kenzie asked for vanilla for hers, he said he had some because he got it by accident earlier that day when he got the lemon liquor for the garden martini. So we all had vanilla cappuccinos. They were great. Oh - we had one of the famous garden martinis too! That is now Cindy's new favorite drink! It was cool that he made it tableside! Aqua Show: We watched it from our suite deck and that was a really cool thing! This is our first aqua-theater suite and watching the show from our balcony was the reason Tim wanted it! Bucket list item - check! After the show, everyone pooped out and migrated to their own spaces. The first day was a huge success! Side note about the room so I don't forget to tell you later: There are outlets behind each nightstand in the master bedroom!!!! I probably watched every video on the internet about our room and not one of them said anything about outlets behind the nightstands! Let me tell you that this made me VERY happy!! Okay - going to bed! Photo dump coming next...

IT'S CRUISE DAY!!!!! We didn't make it long last night before our whole party was passed out from sheer exhaustion and the stress of getting to Florida. I think we were all asleep by 9pm, including the late-night party animals (Kenzie and Kayla). Shortly before heading to the hotel in Portland on Friday, we learned that Kayla is not vaccinated. I grabbed two at home tests and threw them in our bag to bring with us because she is required to take a test within three days of the cruise. Incidentally, we had $250 worth of the proctored tests that were beyond the two week return date when we learned fully vaccinated passengers no longer have to test for our cruise. That is in addition to the free tests received via the postal service when the government said we could get them for free. I think we're good for tests! Kayla did her test last night and she is negative - THANK GOD!! That would have been a major disaster! We're at the Holiday Inn Express on 17th and we're in a 2 Queen bed suite. Our room is great! The beds are comfortable and there was a great mix of pillows so we all got the one(s) we wanted! I'm not convinced the beds are queens - they feel a bit more like doubles to me, but we're used to sleeping on a King. The girls had the pull out sofa bed, and it's a typical sofa bed, so it wasn't comfortable like the beds, but they're young - they'll recover. Tim and I woke up at 5am, because we just couldn't sleep more than 8 hours, and decided to go down and get coffee. NEWS FLASH! The t-shirts all fit!!! I'm so glad the dryer didn't turn them into doll clothes!!

Thank you both! Yes, traveling with seniors definitely requires some extra moments of thought. We're happy that she is doing better, and hopeful that is the only hiccup in things health-wise.

Thank you! Same! She’s a tough one but that flight made us stop and think a bit. She’s a precious gem and we need to remember she’s perhaps not as tough as she used to be now that she’s climbing the senior ladder!

Thank you! Us too!!

VACATION...STARTS...NOW!!! We are in Fort Lauderdale...and our luggage made it too! I'm so happy!! It was quite a journey getting here today... Kayla, coming from Jersey, didn't get her passport in time, and had sent her original birth certificate with her application, so she only had a copy. Friday at 4pm Est, she texts me and asks if she needed an original or if a copy was okay. I reached out to Royal to see if they make any exceptions, and the answer was a hard no without something original. There are combinations that they would take with a copy of the birth certificate, but none of them were things she had. Turns out that her mom had an original, but she lives three hours away from Kayla and Kayla was working a closing shift at work last night. She got off at 11pm and took the six-hour round trip to get the original birth certificate so she could come with us. Got back in time to finish packing, take an hour nap and head to the airport. Whew! Crisis 1 evaded! Crisis 2 came with picking up mom and her meds. When you get older, you end up needing to be on things for various reasons, and she is no exception. We got to her place and checked her meds. One of her meds ran out in the middle of the cruise (we had addressed the meds earlier in the week with the pharmacy, but the promise made to us did not pan out). We called the pharmacy and got her meds worked out - but that was a three hour delay. We FINALLY made it to the hotel last night and had to repack stuff to make it flight worthy. I was so afraid some or all of our luggage wasn't going to make it that I had myself tied up in knots over cross-packing. Turns out there was no issue with our luggage making it, so my extra efforts were not necessary, but we just didn't want to take a chance. I stayed up a little too late working on luggage stuff, and we finally climbed in bed at around 9pm Pst. We had to be on the 3am shuttle to the airport, so we were trying for about 5 hours of sleep. Well - I got maybe 3 hours - if I'm lucky; Kenzie and Tim slept like babies; but Mom and Cindy stayed up like little school girls chatting all night and they maybe got an hour or two. That turned out to be a bad thing on our second leg of flights. We all made it on time for the 3am shuttle with fresh lobby coffee in hand. We got to our gate with 90 minutes to spare and got to chill for a bit. Then Kenzie and I noticed that Starbucks right next to us was open, so we went and placed a mobile order. 20 minutes later, we asked about it and she went and pulled it off of her machine - really??? The entire line that wrapped around the store was done when we finally got ours. I swear we weren't mean to her! By the time we got our coffee, it was time to board and we made our way onto the plane - no drama there - just uncomfortable plane seats and faulty wifi. We got to watch the safety video like 10 times while they tried over and over to reset it. That was fun! Got to our layover spot to switch planes and made it with enough time to drink a bottle of water, down a protein bar, and make sure we all had our boarding passes ready. We got on the plane and it was like a sauna! We all instantly started sweating and wished we had more layers to shed. We shared some of the little Hershey Kisses gift bags with the flight attendants to show our appreciation for all they do, and started our flight. This time the wifi worked and we only watched the safety video once. About 30 minutes into the flight Mom started feeling off and within a minute, leaned forward with her head against the seat in front of her and passed out. I ran and got someone and they called for medical assistance. We got a physician, a raspatory therapist, and a nurse who responded. They took her blood pressure, checked her blood sugar, and her oxygen level. Blood sugar was fine, blood pressure was low, and her oxygen level was super low. They brought oxygen and put her on that for a bit until she started feeling a bit more normal. She ate a little, drank some orange juice, sipped on ginger ale, and then took a nap for a bit. When she woke up from her nap, she was still not all the way better, but the flight attendants brought her some food which brought her back to life. After eating, she felt waaaayyyy better and finally had her color and her big smile back. Dang! She gave us a scare! Made it to FLL late afternoon and Kayla was waiting for us at the gate because her flight landed before ours. It's so good to see her!! We got our luggage and hopped on the shuttle to our hotel. Kenzie and Kayla went to Publix to get some fried chicken for us (IMHO - the best fried chicken) and the rest of us jumped in the pool for a quick refresher. We learned that because of hurricane Ian we're losing our stop in Roatan Honduras. Kind of sad, but in the end, I don't mind an extra sea day. It gives us that much more time to relax in our suite. Tomorrow we sail! We're so excited!!!!

Thank you! We've been watching too. We're following James Van Fleet (Chief Meteorologist for RC) and yesterday he was still thinking we'd be okay on our original itinerary. We'll see.

Wait! They're not on the ship anymore??? I was so looking forward to their show! Tim LOVES acapella!! Do you know if they're coming back soon? Your blogs are definitely some of my favorites! You're very entertaining and keep your reader wanting more. Royal should give you bonuses based on your following!

Oh my!!! Really hoping to not end up in that line! Thank you! We'll take all the good luck you can muster with your crossed fingers and toes!! Others feel free to join in on this!

3 Days Until We Leave!! The luggage tags have been printed!! My drama tonight was figuring out why my printer only wanted to print in grayscale! I ended up having to uninstall my printer and all the drivers and start over! Tim asked if we really needed them tonight - um, YES!! It's on the schedule! He offered to go to Office Depot to print them tomorrow for me, but I couldn't stop troubleshooting until it was done. It's fixed, but I spent way too much time on it. Yes, I have an obsessive side. We've been watching Invest 98L in the Atlantic because it's modeled to go right up the path of our itinerary next week. A little sad that we could be rerouted because we know Mom and Aunt Cindy were looking forward to the ruins and dolphin encounter. However, it's a cruise and I'm sure the captain will make sure we have some sunshine, so it's not a bad thing. It's got our Facebook roll-call group all a flutter! I think I'd be happiest if we got rerouted to CocoCay as that is one of my favorite places, and I know Kenzie and Kayla would have a blast at the water park. If we end up there and the wind is right, I think it would be fun to go up in the balloon. Look at me planning it out already! Tonight is about to the end and that leaves us one more full day/evening before we need to pack up our final things (charged electronics, etc), head over and pack Mom, and then we all head to the hotel. I, unfortunately, have a long way to go with the packing because I've had a busy week. I need Genie Jay!!!

We're checking bags this time just because there are so many of us and I have to be over-prepared! I just can't help myself. We're cross-packing though, just in case we lose a bag. Crossing our fingers this doesn't happen!

Right? Even when I rolled things, they came out pretty nice! It's surprising!

4 Days Until We Leave!! After reading about @Rags1's mic-drop experience, I couldn't even think about writing. It just didn't feel right! They must still be riding the high from that trip! Well done, Genie Jay! Okay, here we go...again...LOL! That saying is so useful! Cruise brain completely hit me today!!! I sat in front of spreadsheets and PowerPoints all day today and had such a hard time concentrating!! 3 more workdays for me and then I can check out for a week! The great thing is that my boss is out the same week as me so that should eliminate some of the emails I will return to. Cruise packing has fully commenced and we spent the weekend staging all of our stuff to throw into the bags after our final load of laundry has been completed. Speaking of laundry, I washed all of the group t-shirts yesterday and dried them on a cool setting, hoping not to make doll clothes out of them. It's hard to tell without the bodies in them to know if I succeeded! We'll find out this weekend! If you see pics of our group and someone is missing a matching t-shirt, you know I goofed! I have to say that if you're on the fence about using packing cubes, let me tell you how much I love them! I only started using these about a year ago and I'm obsessed with them now. At first it was because I was trying to maximize space in a carry on and personal bag for a five week trip - it worked! I start with the KonMari fold, then roll my items. I can get about 8 t-shirts into one classic slim e-bags cube with that method. I get about the same number of my hubby's polos into a classic small e-bags cube without any rolling. At first I wasn't sure what to do with the super large cubes (that came in a set), but this time I found a use!! I have about 75 little misc things that are on my list for the cruise (i.e., first aid kit, sewing kit, towel clips, etc), that would otherwise be loose in my bags. Not this time! I got all of them into one large and three medium cubes. Packing once everything is in the bags is so easy, and if TSA decides to open my luggage, they'll all go back in place pretty easily! I'm a happy camper today! I've printed all of our documents as back up copies, and I'm waiting on my color cartridge to arrive via Amazon to print my luggage tags. At some point this week, we'll make a trip to Kohl's to return the unwanted Amazon items obtained during my last phase. The last time we went, we took our little rolling cart because it was too much to carry! Hubby is our in-home chef and he's on the "eat all of the perishable foods" kick this week, which means no square meals but all kinds of mismatches of things. I've been dying for a good steak! Other than cruising, we maybe have red meat a couple of times a year. I'm so ready for the red meat marathon to begin! I caught up on my cruise vlogs last night after packing all weekend and found out that our very own @Matt is going to be on this cruise! Matt - You seem like a fun guy! If we happen to cross paths, we'd love to buy you a drink! 4 more sleeps!!

Awesome! Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, we don't get to do Aruba this trip - it's in the future though! Bummer! That's one of the reasons we're not doing it this trip. Been there, done that. So many other things to do. We can't wait! Considering we have a room full of gals, Tim is excited to have another guy to interact with! Sounds like this would be a great gift for Jay!

I have to share that I am waiting with baited breath for the conclusion of your story! I think I check this sight at least 10 times each day just in case I missed a notification. I 100% have cruise brain right now and your blog is like crack for an addict. Sad, I know, but I'm not ashamed. Hello, I'm CraivingaCruise, and I'm a cruise addict.

Same!! Hubby has to practically drag me out of the home these days. WOW!!!!! What an amazing treat! I'm trying so hard not to expect anything at all on this trip because I know that whatever he does will be wonderful. We're so looking forward to some good R&R and family time. Anything beyond that will be a bonus and I know Mom, Aunt Cindy, and Kayla will be starry eyed over the new experience! Us too, but it's always fun to share with others!!

11 DAYS UNTIL OUR VACATION BEGINS!! I keep seeing a cute cartoon on FB that says "I'm sick of waking up and not being on a cruise!" That's so me right now!! I think my official diagnosis is "cruise brain". I have 8 work days left and some big deliverables before I can officially shut off the brain for our vacation. I might struggle a bit! Our craft project for this cruise was different than the thank you cards we made last time. Since Kenzie wasn't here, I talked Tim into helping me with the project (he's such a good sport). We got a bunch of Hershey Kisses and put little cruise stickers on the bottom, and then created little goodie bags. We're going to hang little thank you notes on each of them. We also stamped some mini tip envelopes with thank you messages. Some pics are below. Last weekend the girls all went shopping (minus Kayla since she's on the other side of the country - but we still got her something) and made sure we had everything we need for the cruise - plus a few extras. We swung by to pick up Mom and she tried on things from her closet. She has the cutest blue dress that we decided was going to be for our semi-formal night. We decided we all needed to have blue to match her, so that was our goal for the day. I haven't been shopping in person in years!! Honestly, I didn't really enjoy it that much. I have really crossed over to technology - the pandemic secured that, I'm sure. I came home from our girls' trip and ordered a bunch of things on Amazon. Next stage - PACKING! I got a jump start on the staging last weekend, but now I've kicked into full gear. My living room has piles all over it and the list is being checked off! Pray for me that I can hold off the cruise brain at least a few more days while I get some work done!!

We were in that cabin on Anthem last November - it was fabulous! Hope you have an awesome time!

Thank you so much! This helps a lot! I appreciate you finding one in the wrapper for me! I know we definitely need to cut back on plastic that ends up in the ocean but the straws last November just seemed to evaporate whenever they got near a drink. Happy to know they’ve changed!

Congrats on your winnings! That is awesome to see! Love the cake! Jay seems to really coordinate cakes well!! I've seen pics of what he's provided to others and they're all very well thought out. Congrats to Stacy on her retirement and journey (pun intended) to the next chapter in life! Wondering if you could share what kind of straws are being used onboard? I'm assuming they've switched to biodegradable, but I'm wondering if they're the type that feel like paper straws or if they're the newer kind that feel less like paper and don't disintegrate after sipping on a drink for 20 minutes. TIA!

That makes me so happy! His communication so far has been superb! I'm kind of a control freak and will usually organize the snot out of everything, but I'm trying really hard to control myself this time. I've given Jay some special requests and some great information about the family, but I'm totally leaving the magic to him. It's a level of trust to which I'm definitely learning to rise. In the end, I know everyone is going to have a fabulous time, so I really have nothing to worry about.

Thank you!! Much appreciated!

Excited to follow along on your journey! It will help pass the time while we wait for our cruise to start in a few weeks! Your humor keeps me in stitches and I continuously interrupt my hubby's peaceful reading to read aloud something funny you wrote! I hope you all have a fabulous time!