WAYNO

I ate my NY strip steak without taking a picture. But be assured it was full cut, cooked perfectly and was absolutely delicious. The half I ate of my Wife's was just as perfect.

I do love my shrimp cocktail. And because I am supposed to forego a traditional dessert, another shrimp cocktail will do me nicely.

Huge... And 10 minutes later, Voom is still struggling with these photos. Finally!

This is a tremendous, wonderful, beautiful, and modern boat!

We are onboard. The suite check in was incredibly easy and fast.

Our first view of Wonder of the Seas.

Okay, I know this is supposed to be about the cruise, but I'm gonna share my hotel experience in Cocoa Beach. LA Quinta on Hendry Avenue. The Ritz Carlton it may not be. But is it convenient and clean and with the best breakfast buffet anywhere? You betcha. This is our 4th time at this hotel and I will choose this place again next time I cruise from here.

From Port Canaveral, visiting CocoCay, Roatan, Cozumel, and Costa Maya. Photos will follow.

No it is not as good as a real coffee shop. It's a push-button automatic, where you'll see a shot of steam and hot water, a shot of something milky and a shot of something that is assumed to be coffee. Sometimes simultaneously. And I like it. It doesn't always work, but folks on this board say when it's not working, empty the grounds bin and it will start working again. There's not always somebody in the lounge to tend to these things. Historically, I've spent very little time in the Diamond Lounge. But specifically because of this latte machine, I find myself spending more time in this lounge. Coffee is always available, and what it lacks, is made up for with the froo-froo in the coffee. I absolutely prefer the darkest roast possible, and that's not available in the free venues. The coffee in the Diamond Lounge is also not dark roast, but the latte/mocha additions help a whole bunch. And I don't even know the difference between a latte, cappuccino and/or mocha. It is all good to me.

I have no connections in the State Department, nor with Royal Caribbean, so I wont pretend to know what will happen. And I do truly hope these folks can get their lives, their livelihoods, and their country in order. But, if Labadee was cancelled, I wouldn't be broken hearted to have it replaced with Turks and Caicos, or the DR, or many other places Royal seldom stops. And I sure wouldn't want an extra day in Perfect Day. One is plenty.

This is an excellent idea. Being from the often wet and cool upper West Coast, our weather is very similar to Alaska-Panhandle weather throughout much of the early or late travel season. What I wear getting on an airplane in the Pacific Northwest to almost anywhere, my travel clothes are much of what I would actually be wearing while on excursion during an Alaskan cruise. Below is very typical late-summer/fall attire for anywhere, Astoria to Juneau. If it's too warm, take your coat or sweatshirt off. You'll see too, we all have stout walking shoes, but no hunting-type boots. And speaking of sweatshirts, I like a zippered hooded sweatshirt. Unzip it if you're too warm, or take it off altogether. Being zippered it's much easier to do than a pull-over hoodie. There are no absolutes. My Wife is cold nearly year 'round, and dresses accordingly. I am warm nearly year 'round and dress accordingly.

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We've stayed here twice. It was nice, it was convenient, and they had a terrific breakfast.

Nice thread resurrection. And a thread such as this always remains timely. We understand, cigars are not for everybody. But for some of us, a nice cigar is a pastime other than just smoking the cigar. I have had some great visits with other cigar folks when the cigar lounges existed aboard Royal ships. That all said, even I don't smoke cigars often. Far less than my younger days. And that's partially because I seldom smoke a cigar alone, and we're running out of places to smoke a cigar and running out of folks to share the experience. I've said before, I no longer know if I am buying a genuine product when I am in the Caribbean. So many folks insist they are too often counterfeit. Sounds like an extreme generalization. But when I do smoke a Caribbean or Central American cigar, they have been mostly enjoyable. And if a feller thinks he can buy cigars in the islands for less than at home, think again. I have found cigars, abroad, to be very expensive. So I just buy one or a few cigars at a time, and enjoy them.

One more week...

Yes. we have used the Port to MIA shuttle twice recently, purchased directly from Guest Services while we were on the ship. Sometimes, not always, it is available on the app. Cost is 20-dollars each person. And yes, it was a large and modern bus. This works so well for us, this is how we get from any Royal ship back to the airport, every time, regardless of which port we are at. There is one issue I have learned to be pro-active about. For whatever reason, in spite of them asking our flight time, when we get our luggage tags and debark assignments, they never match the actual time we need, to get on the bus. For example, the bus may load at 0830, but our debark group may be such a time that by the time we get to the bus, it's already quite loaded and many of the buses have already left. That means we get leftover seats, and maybe not even sit together. To remedy this, I go to guest services and have them change our debark time to an earlier group. And on my very last cruise from Miami, I discovered it's just as easy to ask our cabin attendant for an earlier tag. He has them all and can change your debark time just for the asking.

"Oh," but they said. "This would never happen. " How dare you folks ask such a silly question?"

deleted... ...apparently, the answer was no.

Since opinions were asked... I don't much care what anybody else wears. On the first or last night, I have been seen dining in my travel clothes. I do also understand, many folks look forward to a truly dressy dining experience. I will continue to respect that, and I will dress accordingly when I am able.

My Wife stays at Moody Gardens when cruising from Galveston. . Apparently it's a destination in itself. https://www.moodygardens.com/

It's interesting, we tried the tourist thing from Newark. We found no shuttles. Although we were in a very nice hotel within the airport perimeter, the staff offered no help whatsoever when searching for commuting options. They told us to Google it ourselves. Wasn't their job. We ended up using Uber to get to the ship. That was the one and only Uber experience ever for us, and that part went extremely well. I don't even know the price, as my daughter, back home on the West coast, booked the ride and paid for it. We tried the train into downtown NYC the day before. Made it as far as Penn Station. Being hopelessly lost, unwelcome, and the NYC culture as it is, we tucked tail and went back to the hotel. NYC metro might be normal if that's all you knew, but for a West Coaster, it's a foreign planet. I would dearly like to try this NYC thing again, but only if I had a tour guide. Good luck in your endeavors.

However low the odds, we did get caught by Hurricane Dorian in August/September of 2019, aboard Anthem on a Northeast Coast and Maritime Canada cruise. We sailed from Cape Liberty, and watched the weather channel all week. The skipper kept us updated and shared possible contingencies if we were impacted. Ultimately, the storm was catching up to us the day before we were to return to Cape Liberty. He raced to get around and past the storm, and we arrived in port the evening prior to our scheduled arrival to hide out the storm. And to make it up to us, he gave us the tour of a lifetime up the Hudson River. My point is, these ships are huge, weather predicting and tracking is incredible, and they just do whatever it takes to let the cruise continue, even though the itinerary may change a little. In spite of this storm, this was a wonderful cruise.

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