jbrinkm

On 3/24/2024 at 3:02 PM, jbrinkm said:

 

After this situation, my husband thought my son needed some help finding the actual exit and sent him these "helpful" pictures:

Another super busy day. Summary here, then I'll try to come back with more detail tomorrow during a sea day. 

We did our two tank dive in Curacao. Saw four giant turtles, so many fish and I'm pretty sure I saw a small shark, swimming away from us thankfully. We'll again have pics from the Go Pro and the guide said he'd email some.

Got back a little later than expected and needed lunch so I had my first EVER El Loco Fresh! And yes, I mixed the Cholula Chipotle into the guac which gave it a nice kick &  better flavor BUT I still couldn't get past the texture (same reason I can't eat mushrooms). Best part- there was NO LINE. Every day, the line is back to/past the ice cream machines, but not today during a port day.

After we ate & showered, we still had an hour and a half until dinner (and two until all aboard) so we walked over the Queen Emma Bridge to Orobanda and tried to go to the Nena Sanchez gallery but it had closed already. The area is so cute and was worth the walk!

Then a quick dinner in the MDR. I found my lemon tart to be perfect. I've seen a few others comment that it wasn't lemony enough or was too lemony, but I felt they found the right balance with the one I had 

Then we went to our rescheduled pickleball lesson which was fantastic. I actually understand how to play the game now! However, my mom got a bad blister on her toe yesterday which is causing pain so she "audited" the class (she sat & watched). 

Then we had a little down time so popped up to the WJ and enjoyed the crepe station. This was a HIGH energy burning day with all of our activities. I went there looking for a ranger cookie but I haven't seen them since day 1, and I've been looking!

Then we had laser tag which was really fun. Surprisingly fun. Good vest devices, great set up, fun people.

Now we're on balcony, enjoying the cooler weather and looking at the moon.

10 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Wow those chickens are cute but that red and white one looks rough. 

I also like how your daughter was like I will wear a dress, but the compromise was sneakers. 

Yeah... I couldn't tell if that chicken was a rescue, if it was supposed to look like that, or if it was getting bullied in the yard

My daughter is not a girly girl at all. Although she does really enjoy traditional "feminine" hobbies - she bakes, crafts, plays music, does sewing projects, etc. She hardly ever wears makeup, rarely wears a dress, and is an introverted homebody and a really good student. My husband says she's an old soul. She goes to bed early and gets up early. I talk a lot about my son because he and I tend to gravitate to each other naturally and my husband and daughter gravitate to each other naturally more often (although obviously we all love each other equally!).

13 hours ago, asquared17 said:

(tell me your things are not drier!!!)

They are! Thank you!!

Matt recommended resorts for a day in a blog post. I think iberostar was our second choice but didn't look as fun for my teens. And, we had 6 in our party. But the reviews look good! Maybe someone else on the blog has done this & been there - it might be worth an ask in the shore excursions forum!

I'm on Symphony now and my dad said there was $5 min at craps (it's his game so he was happy). However, he said the dealers weren't the best & sometimes didn't know what they were doing. He plays in both AC and Vegas, almost exclusively craps.

Didn't snap a pic with 5 for day five, but already put out #6

Look @asquared17!

(Video with sound)

We didn't end up booking it. The spots went fast. Before we even had official word (just saw in daily planner in app), the Hilton was sold out and the second choice had only 5 spots. The others didn't end up looking great. Or they were adult only. We did a Viator tubing activity. I'm doing a live blog!

Wonderland for dinner

Back to the ship!

The Donkey Sanctuary 

The Butterfly Garden

Willem's Pancake House

Quick summary of the day since it is already late and we have another dive tomorrow morning. I'll try to expand later.

We took the public bus to the Hyatt where we picked up our rental car (Top Drive, very good experience with them). My parents decided to just stay there for the beach, the casino and the restaurant.

The bus and rental car took a little longer than expected (we couldn't find the bus stop right away) and also room service came 15 minutes later than the window. Since we met our dive guide 15 minutes late so just did a 1 tank dive instead of 2. Which was fine since we hadn't done anything since October so it was a good refresher for us. I've heard Curacao has better diving but Aruba was pretty nice! Warm, clear water, lots of colorful fish, a spiny lobster and a moray eel.

Pictures are all on the go pro so none yet.

8 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

I get stuck in my head that I prefer one to another

It took me forever to try a ranger cookie for this same reason, but eventually you all convinced me and now I love them! But I've only seen them the first night. I need to check Park Cafe. I have really spent no time in Central Park this sailing at all yet.

1 minute ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

BTW sadly our switch from Labadee ended up being what I thought it would be but prayed it wouldn’t be!  So not only is Royal sending us to Nassau…but they moved our CocoCay day!  We were going to be with Indy and now we will be with Wonder!  And our Port Canaveral day also got moved so now they have us there for an entire day!

14 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

What is the only room in the world with no doors?" (Let's see if any of you can get it!)

Yup….Mushroom!!  I’m gonna tell this one to my granddaughter for her to use in her daily announcements at school!  She always ends it with a riddle…lol!

Ugh. So sorry about your itinerary changes.

And YES!!!! You got it. I think we were all feeling a little too silly to really focus, but we got as far as guessing kitchen, the outdoors, a Roomba, and some other stuff that made no sense.

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

Sucks about brunch

The MDR has been all over the place. Today was separate breakfast & lunch but day 2 was brunch (both sea days). Then port days, of course, just breakfast.

14 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Will you be going to Flight?

Yes, also on night 7! I'll let you know.

Tomorrow night is Wonderland. Thursday, we have our rescheduled pickleball lesson, laser tag AND a Headliner show, Mark Preston, all after dinner. 

Dinner was good! Taste of UK, which we didn't have last year. The only thing my family didn't like was the vegan ice cream sundae which my husband & son didn't realize was vegan.

My kids started playing a game like 20 questions during dinner but broader and eventually everyone started guessing and some were ridiculous or we would keep guessing the same thing, forgetting we'd already said it, getting more and more out there with our guesses. It took us about 200 tries to get lasagne. I said lettuce 6 times, my husband kept saying salt. Then our waiter got involved and asked us "What is the only room in the world with no doors?" (Let's see if any of you can get it!)

3 hours ago, asquared17 said:

with magnetic hooks to hold them down

I'm feeling dumb for not realizing that the outside is also metal but I also have those awesome super strong clips you recommended and we've clipped a few things to the back of the chairs (which are SO much nicer than the deck chairs on Allure)

16 minutes ago, DoomSlayer said:

could do that! @PPPJJ-GCVAB is boarding on the 6th?  I wonder how long we could keep this game going?

No unfortunately not until May 16 so it is probably unrealistic but I don't know anyone getting on after you...

We went to 1977 tonight and I loved it. SO much better than the disjointed one on Allure. All the added tech was impressive, the songs were great and the skating was top notch. However, I'm starting to think that disco dancing fixes all of the problems on all of the shows on this ship.