TheRick

We cruised twice last year on Royal after not cruising for many many years. We recently booked a cruise out of New Orleans for May of next year. Unfortunately Royal is limited on New Orleans departure and not offering when we can go. We booked on another cruise line. I went to an unnamed message board to ask a question and received nothing other than rude or smart ass comments. I miss this message board where I have always received polite, informative responses to my questions. I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate how helpful everyone here has been to me, even when I asked stupid questions. 

27 minutes ago, FireFishII said:

@TheRick- I noticed in your live blog that you had attended the sushi making class.  Did your granddaughter attend?  If so, did she like it?  Was it appropriate for her age? Thank you.

@FireFishII she loved it. It was so appropriate for all ages and she was better at it than me. There was so much sushi she took some back to the room for her step dad.

55 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Also was there a correlation between the cake pop and poopy diaper?

Hard to tell. The 9 month old’s favorite thing on the ship was eating. Royal lost money with the kids sail free with the 9 month eating so much.

the 7 year old loved the waterslides and ice skating best. 

The two year old and the stowaway piano player were best friends but that wasn’t his favorite, that goes to the hand sanitizer stations. He never passed up a chance to sanitize them. 
 

photo of 9 month old seeing her first cake pop.

Day 4: Ensenada

Day four started with breakfast in the main dining room. I finally got my classic Benedicts. So good. After breakfast we got ready and my daughter took our grandkids on a short time on the balcony and you can probably guess why it was cut short.

We initially didn’t plan our taking the grandkids into Mexico, but changed our minds to take the off in the port so they could say they left the country. Somehow we remembered from previous cruises there being shops at the port, but there wasn’t so I guess it’s the Mandela effect. We took a shuttle to downtown. It was $4 a person round trip. They didn’t charge us for the 3 kids.

I was shocked with how many “pharmacies” selling “Pharmaceuticals”. Everything from Amoxicillin to muscle relaxer to Super Viagra. I am a little frightened what Super Viagra might due. I imagine the penis might explode.

I really wanted a street taco and it didn’t disappoint. Even though the vendor had a little cart on the street with no way to wash his hands it didn’t stop me.

My son in law was buying shoes for the baby. The vendor gave a price and I mentioned out loud that was high priced and the vendor went down a bunch. Unfortunately my son in law didn’t learn from me because he paid full price for my granddaughter’s guitar and my grandson’s cowboy hat.

Off the beaten path we found a bakery. We bought sweet bread and epanadas. We mistakingly thought we could take them on the boat. We were wrong so outside of customs we stuffed our faces with the baked goods. So if you are keeping track you can’t bring baked goods on board, but you can bring an aggressive amount of weed onboard.

We returned to the ship early. When everyone else was watersliding, hot tubing, and swimming I took the baby to the buffet and to Starbucks for her first ever cake pop. We had to return to the room so I could change a poopy diaper and put her down for a nap. She wasn’t asleep long when the others returned.

We went to the escape room. My daughter and son in law had a blast, my wife and I not so much. I’m not very aggressive and there was too many bosses and not enough workers so my wife and I stood around a lot. When we did add our two cents the rest of the group ignored us.

My daughter and son in law had dinner at Chops so we took our grandkids to dinner in the MDR. I ordered the coconut shrimp, prime rib, and dark chocolate brownie. My grandson fell asleep in my wife’s arms before his food came. Talk about classy service. Our assistant waiter cut up our granddaughter’s steak for us and our waiter cut up my grandson’s spaghetti, but he slept through dinner. Our waiter arranged food to go back to our stateroom so when he woke up. Best service ever.

More animals made from towels. In the four days in between two rooms we had a monkey, dog, gorilla, frog, turkey, and mouse. The kids loved it.

We also got our bill. Remember, we had a $200 on board credit and a Starbucks gift card. My wife did spend almost $40 getting our clothes pressed. We each got on cocktail, and my wife got two charm bracelets and the charms among other things. After the onboard credit our four day bill came out to…$12.18

It was a great trip.

After Debarkation my wife and I decided to drive the 13.5 hours home in one day. It was an exhausting but fun week.

Day 3: Catalina Island

We started the day at the Windjammer for breakfast. I was starting to think I would find Jimmy Hoffa, D.B. Cooper, and Bigfoot before we would find a table, but after quite awhile, we found one even if I had to arm wrestle an eighty year old woman for the table. I lost, but as she was gloating, we all sat down. Breakfast was good, nothing special, but good.

They made an announcement that due to swells and wind, it wasn’t safe to run the tender boats, so they were delayed.

After breakfast we got ready and the tender boats began running. About 10:45 we headed down to catch our tender boat, but my wife couldn’t find her phone so she sent me back to the stateroom to find it. I guess I’m no Sherlock Holmes because I couldn’t find it anywhere. When I headed to deck two to tell her, she amazingly found it…in her purse…which was with her the entire time.

We didn’t need tender tickets because we had an excursion which was good because they were well behind in tendering. We got right on and headed for shore. Of course I got a little seasick but I didn’t chunder.

We shopped and tried to eat before our excursion but couldn’t get a table. We decided to go to a liquor store to get something for the grandkids to tide them over. Just so you know a 7 year old, a two year old, and a 9 month old can’t hold their liquor. Just kidding, they got chips and water.

Next was the semi submerged submarine (glass bottom boat). It was so cool but not the best choice for me, my daughter, and my grandson who are all prone to seasickness. No one Ralphed thankfully and it was cool.

We looked for a place to eat when my 2 year old grandson needed a restroom. We decided to eat at the restaurant where he tinkled and it was a good choice. The place was called the blue water grill. One of the best clam chowder in a bread bowl I ever had.

We made it back to the ship just in time for dinner in the MDR. Since we had a late lunch we didn’t eat much, but I had the Asian style pork tacos for starters and the garlic Tiger shrimp. Our waiter decided the portion of shrimp wasn’t big enough for me so he brought me more shrimp, I love shrimp. For dessert I had the tiramisu. Delicious.

I put the littles to bed. Granddaughter went to adventure ocean and daughter, son in law, and wife went out.

When my wife returned, we went to bed with our balcony door open. It was nice to hear the ocean as I was falling asleep. Just as I was beginning to drool on my pillow, my wife shouted oh shit and jumped out of the bed. This woke me up and I heard our neighbor coughing and our room filled with the odor of marijuana before my wife could shut the door.

I do guess if you are a stoner, a cruise ship with unlimited food is the place to be.

It’s getting late and my phone is dying so I will update on Ensenada and the trip home tomorrow.

Good night.

Day 2: Sea Day

We started our day at the MDR for breakfast, I switched things up and got the breakfast burrito instead of my usual classic Benedicts.

After breakfast and a rest in the rooms, the red headed wonder kid and I headed to Izumi’s because we signed up and paid for the sushi making class before the cruise and when we showed up at 10:00 am the staff at Izumi’s was pretty shocked to find out they had a class scheduled, they looked more surprised than that woman at work who shaved off her eyebrows and then drew them back in too high.

After a half an hour of scrambling around they set up the class and it was fun…and delicious. Well worth it. They tried charging me for the class again, but when I told them I prepaid, they reversed the charges no problem. Well worth it, but I noticed the onboard price was about $20 more for two people than when you prepay.

During the sea day we practically stood still off shore of San Diego. We were traveling at 7.8 knots which is about 8.976 miles per hour. As slow as that seems it is over twice as fast as we were driving on the 405 freeway on the way to the port.

It was still raining so we spent time indoors. My eldest granddaughter ice skated, my grandson was too young.

Dinner in the MDR was excellent. Normally I order the seafood options, but I ordered the beef tenderloin. Good choice. Our waiter asked if I wanted a second entree of the beef tenderloin and I declined, but when he asked the second time I decided, why not. I’m not known for my great decision making skills, but the second beef tenderloin was one of the good ones.

After dinner it was out to our balcony for a glass of wine that we brought. I was interrupted by hefty coughing and the pungent odor of marijuana from my neighbor who I would found out later brought an ambitious amount of ganja with him. The smell bothered me so much and my grandson was with me so we had to cut our time on the balcony short.

My wife and I put the two youngest grandkids to bed while the oldest grandkid went to adventure ocean and my daughter and son in law enjoyed an evening out.

BTW we came back from dinner to find a dog towel animal in one room and a monkey towel animal hanging from a hanger from the light. Nice touch Royal Caribbean.

It’s been a busy four days cruising with 3 young grandkids. I’ll give a belated, not so live blog update tomorrow chronicling the cruise tomorrow night

We are on the ship. It’s a bit rainy but that will not stop the fun.

We started by going to our muster station and completing the drill. It was difficult because I was hangry and my temper was a little short. My wife wasn’t happy with me, but was not as mad at me as she was during the murder bathroom scenario in June 2022. For someone who loves murder podcasts as much as she she does, I thought she would enjoy the murder bathroom much more than she did, which was almost as she enjoyed the plunger incident of 1991, not at all.

After lunch at the windjammer, we checked out our rooms. My wife, my eldest granddaughter, and I have a balcony room, while my daughter, son in law, our grandson, and the baby are in a connecting room. Our balcony room is in the front of the ship and we can see into the bridge from our balcony.

We were in the room long enough for the grandkids to get into their swimsuits so they could swim in the rain. There was a significant number of kids swimming in the rain.

On the way back to the room, we cut through the solarium. The poor pool lifeguard was as lonely as the Maytag repairman. Apparently adults don’t like swimming in the rain as much as the kids. What happened to us as we grew up?

Since my son in law has never cruised and my daughter hasn’t since she was a teenager, I doled out sage advice like I was the Dalai Lama. My good advice was never flush the toilet while still sitting on it. With the super suction it will suck you in like Augustus Gloop at the chocolate factory, but this will suck you  into the bowels of the ship and that brown stuff is not chocolate.

We brought in two bottles of wine per stateroom and our room steward brought us two wine glasses and a corkscrew. I enjoyed a glass of Merlot while we sailed away. My wife played “Come Sail Away” on her phone, we passed the battleship Iowa, someone from shore blasted the national anthem, officer from the bridge waved at the grandkids, and we saw a couple of sea lions frolicking in the water (probably the only frolicking I’ll see the entire trip.)

At dinner I order like a seasoned cruiser two appetizers, two entrees, and one dessert. The grandkids got a kick out of me eating snails (escargot), but refused to try it. My partner in crime (almost 3) tried the crabby patties (crab cakes), tried my polenta, and ate most of my dessert, which was disappointing because it was the best dessert I’ve ever had on a cruise ship. The baby (9 months old) ate off our plates or more like threw the food on the floor. Our waiter and assistant waiter will be getting a good bonus at the end of our trip.

The red headed wonder kid (7) went to Adventure Ocean after dinner and the wife and I took the littles back to the room to bathe and put to bed.

An exciting first day. Everyone had fun but nobody more than my partner in crime (almost 3,) who is living his best life.

35 minutes ago, ScooterScott22 said:

 

Have they started them back up?  We did not see them on our sailing about a month ago.  The behind the scenes tours were still just getting rolling across the fleet.  

It shows available for our sailing in 3 days.

14 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

As long as she likes sushi, it will be appropriate. 

Thanks, she loves sushi

Would the sushi making class be appropriate for a 7 almost eight year old. My granddaughter has been asking about sushi on the ship and I thought she would enjoy it I just don’t know if her age will be a problem.

13 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Bring you a mug with hot water to sit the bottle in.

Smart thanks. My daughter might already have this figured out but I thought I would ask here. I’m a few years removed from raising babies.

How would someone heat up a baby bottle on a cruise ship?

We are traveling with my daughters family and I was wondering if we get the photo package can my daughters family give our room number so their photos go to our room (we have connecting rooms) or is that frowned upon?

We are back at it:

It was well over 10 years ago that we cruised and now we have a second cruise scheduled since August of this year, I guess we are making up for lost time.

Last cruise on Harmony of the Seas was our dream cruise and it was everything we could’ve wished for except maybe the Covid. The one thing not mentioned in the Covid brochures is the amount of snot, oh so much snot, the humanity.

It’s 8 Days until we set sail, but we are leaving in 6 days. This trip will be my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, granddaughter (7), my partner in crime (grandson almost 3), and the baby (10 months), and of course me. We invited our two adult-ish sons, but they declined when they found out they would have to pay their own way. What did they expect? They grew up being raised by a cheapskate.

We are going full cheapskate mode this cruise, no deluxe drink packages for the wife and I. The daughter and son-in-law will get the drink package because they have us to look after the kids. Now that I think about it, we should’ve called dibs and got the drink package first, hindsight is 20/20 I guess. We have $200 on board credit and I have a $50 Starbucks gift card I earned through another reward program. I told my wife there will be no diamond rings this time and I mean it, I only wish I was in charge because on the scrotum pole, I’m on the bottom. Just in case you are wondering, here is the pecking order:

My wife

My daughter

My granddaughter (7) (red headed wonder kid)

My son in law/my partner in crime (almost 3): tie

The baby (10 months)

And then there is me.

We did get a balcony room again, but that was because my daughter booked a spacious ocean view room and the connecting room was a balcony room. Plus where else can you get a balcony room in the $300s and kids sail free? The red headed wonder kid will be in our cabin.

We’ve been hyping up the cruise to the grandkids. The red headed wonder kid is looking forward to making a bunch of new best friends and my partner in crime is excited about the unlimited food. He’s most excited about the desserts and fruits, the vegetables not so much. I did tell him there were no leeks on the “big boat.” (Dad joke, I know. Ugh)

We are looking forward to a fun and exhausting 4 days.

I’ll check back when we leave town.

I believe it is midnight at the time zone of the departing port.

34 days until our next cruise. I’m thinking about live blogging again. Should I tack it onto this blog or start a new topic? 
 

cruise info: Navigator of the seas. November 7-11, 2022. Traveling with wife, daughter, son in law, and three grandkids ages 7, 2, and 10 months.

We really enjoyed the Stowaway Piano Player on Harmony, is there a Stowaway piano player on Navigator?

Post cruise roundup:

After we disembarked, we headed to the Kennedy Space Center. Five hours was not nearly enough.

We flew from Orlando to Salt Lake City and then onto Sacramento arriving at 11:30 California time. By the time we arrived at my parents house we were up for 22 hours.

The next day we drove home. About halfway home I started feeling sick. Turns out five of the 10 of our party have Covid, including me and my wife.

As we pulled in our driveway, I had a feeling like I might have Schrodinger’s dog. Because at that moment, our dog was ecstatic to see us while simultaneously pissed off that we abandoned him for 12 days.

There is only 69 days until our next cruise on the Navigator of the Seas. This will only be four days, but we are going to cruise with my daughter, son in law, our 7 year old granddaughter, our almost 3 year old grandson, and in November, our youngest granddaughter who will 10 months old.

If we end up being allowed to cruise, I’ll be back in November for another live blog. This cruise will truly be a cheapskate cruise, no drink package because we will be taking care of the grandkids most of the time, no 30 year anniversary jewelry, and hopefully no expensive laundry service on the ship.

Thank you for following along and for those who left me encouraging replies.

Day 7: Our last day is a day at sea

We slept in today, okay I slept in today, my wife woke up early to sunbathe on our balcony. Once I woke up, we hung out together in the room. We were on the balcony, but it started to rain. This was the first rain I noticed since we embarked on this ship. We hung out in the room together for awhile and then headed to park cafe for breakfast before they closed. Ran into our family in Central Park.

My brother and I wore our drunk 1 and drunk 2 shirts today (picture below). It’s not fair being the little brother because no matter how old I am, I’ll always be drunk 2 and when playing Super Mario Brothers, I’ll always be Luigi. We received a lot of positive reactions on our shirts, especially from our bartenders.

My wife, brother, and sister in law rode the Ultimate Abyss and I was the holder of the phones and sunglasses. I beat them to the bottom and the elevator wasn’t too scary and was faster. The rest of our family just happened to be at Johnny Rockets where the Ultimate Abyss let out.

We had more drinks because it would be false advertising if we we’re to wear drunk 1 and drunk 2 shirts and not drink.

Lunch was at the windjammer followed by a trip to the room to pack our bags. The suitcases feel a little heavy for the plane, but there is no way to weigh them, I guess worse case scenario, if we have to take anything out of our suitcases at the airport, my dirty knickers are staying behind in Florida.

It was our final dinner in the main dining room. Our waiter and assistant waiter have two large tables to serve. The other table was not there tonight so we received all the attention. Not that we don’t get most of the attention. Like I said before our waiter and assistant waiter really like my brother. I think our assistant waiter has a man crush on him.

We stopped by my sister and brother-in-law’s room to pick up their device that weighs suitcases when you pick them up. 49 pounds and 46 pounds, we made it under the weight limit, I guess my soiled skivvies are safe…for now.

I picked up a cold brew at cafe promenade and returned to my room where we watched a spectacular lightening show in the distance.

At 9:00 pm was miniature golf, then the adult comedy show, followed by standing on the outer deck on top of the ship to see if we could see the SpaceX satellite rocket launch. No such luck, I guess it was too cloudy.

Next is disembarking and a day at the Kennedy Space Center followed by a long flight back to Sacramento California.

Day 6: A sea day

Sorry, I’m a day late again.

We set an alarm again for breakfast in the main dining room where I had the same breakfast as the day before with the exception of adding cheese grits to my order. I’ve never had grits before so I had to try them. I probably will never order them again.

After breakfast was cold brew coffee at cafe promenade followed by morning trivia. My wife and I answered seven out of 15 correctly, which is respectable considering how tough the questions were. I question the person that answered all 15 correctly. I suspect that Ken Jennings would’ve had a hard time getting a perfect score.

About 11 am, 8 am back home, I had a coconut and pineapple smoothie. It was delicious, especially with Malibu Coconut Rum in it, okay, I had a pina colada. I had another Pina colada while watching my nephew on the stand up flow rider. I would’ve done it but I prefer my bones intact.

Nobody wanted to join me in the main dining room for lunch, so I went by myself. The shrimp risotto was to die for and I had one of the best seafood sandwiches ever. I have eaten seafood every day on this cruise. So much seafood, I probably have more mercury in me than a 1970’s thermometer. Following lunch I met the rest of my family at the Windjammer, passing the stowaway piano player on the way.

After the windjammer, it was down to deck 6 for the boardwalk and tequila drinks at Sabor. My wife, mother, sister, and sister in law rode the carousel. I would’ve rode it too, but my brother said if I did we’d exceed the international limit on jackasses for one carousel.

Dinner was lobster, I had two, along with two seafood appetizers. After dinner were drinks at the ice skating showcase. It was awesome. Instead of a story, it was just routines and they were good.

Following the ice skating showcase was the love and marriage show. It was hilarious and our cruise director was funny and had a quick wit. Then it was time for our late night pizza and bed.

Next is our final day which is another sea day.

Great blog. I can’t wait to hear about your vacation. Have fun.

Sorry I missed posting this last night.

Day 5: St. Kitts, the dolphin experience

We started with breakfast in the main dining room, we set an alarm and everything. I loved the classic Benedict, I’m a sucker for hollandaise sauce, a hash brown, and the corned beef hash. The hash brown was small, and I could’ve eaten 13 dishes of the corned beef hash, it was that good.

Next was St. Kitts. My wife brought cash and her iPhone. I figured since we didn’t have service in St. Kitts, there was no use in bringing my phone. Remember the last part because it is on the test later.

We split from our group and went on our dolphin excursion. As we were waiting, we went shopping at the shops. The workers in the shops were a little pushy, but not overly aggressive. We got souvenirs for the grandkids and some of our kids, but only the ones we like.  I’m just kidding, we love all three of our children, but one son wants something from the Kennedy Space Center, so we are holding off on getting his gift until Sunday. My other son, wants an island girl. 

After shopping we got into line for our excursion. We were early, we just didn’t know how early we were. While in line we figured we were in the 10:30 am excursion line and ours was at 11:15. The excursion person said he could get us on the earlier excursion and put a green wrist band on both my wife and myself. This too is important to remember for later. On the bus I noticed some people were wearing different colored wristbands, but being the introvert, I didn’t ask, which I should’ve.

When we arrived, we put our stuff in a complimentary locker, which was an ease on my mind and it was then time to get fitted for life jackets. The man brought me a large one, how cute is that. He soon realized I needed an extra large one. After instructions, we were in the water with the dolphins. One of the most exciting things in my life. We did commands, petted, gave belly rubs, shook fins, and touched the dolphins, and it was fantastic, my wife loved it too, but was a little disappointed because we were supposed to be pushed and pulled by the dolphins. I grappled with removing my life jacket, and for a split second, I thought I might win, but winning was not in the cards for me, but luckily, one of the workers tapped in like a WWE tag team partner and we were victorious. My wife was already off to inquire about the pushing and pulling. When I caught up with my wife the employee said the person at the dock put the wrong wristbands on us, if only someone spoke up on the bus, stupid introverted me.

They accommodated us by allowing me to struggle back into a life jacket and took us back into the water just my wife and I. They kind of separated my wife and myself, which is a little problem because I have severe hearing loss and couldn’t take my hearing aids in the water with me and I rely on her a lot to communicate with me. If you are following along with my live blog you have found out I’m super sized, have hearing loss, and sleep with a CPap machine, you are probably wondering how my wife snagged such a catch, she probably wonders too.

We had a quick push and pull by the dolphins and then it was shower off, get dressed, and off to the gift shop to buy photos.

We realized we forgot our debit card, we didn’t have enough cash for photos at $40 a piece, but they did take PayPal. I have PayPal but my wife doesn’t. My wife had her phone, I didn’t. They were pushy when it came to selling the photosand I asked if it were possible to get a link and buy them when we get back to the ship. Their response was now or never. I tried for about forty minutes to log into my email on my wife’s phone to buy the photo package which was 2 for $80 or all forty-five photos for 100. Because my iPhone uses Face ID to log in and I’m not very smart ( my wife is so lucky to have me), I finally gave up and lo and behold, they suddenly came up with a link to buy the photos when we got back to the ship, but they were quite rude to us about it. I know I seem to complain from time to time, but really we are having the time of our lives and will never forget what a great time we are having.  Back on the ship I ordered our photos and after several emails back and forth, we got the link to the photos a few hours later. The photos are great, but we are only able to get 42% of the photos to download on our phones before we get an error message. The link is only good for a month so we will need to figure it out.

Back on the ship was dinner at the main dinning room. Our waiters are the best on the ship. Unlike me, my brother is a big personality and both our waiters are drawn to him for most of our meals. I ordered the ahi tuna, but since I don’t like my fish seared, our waiter had it made well done. I know the chef probably cried himself to sleep last night because he had to cook it well done, but it tasted wonderful.

After dinner was the headliner show, a singer, comedian, and impressionist. His voices of other people were spot on, but the show was mostly geared toward gen X and baby boomers. My nephew and niece knew almost none of the people he was impersonating.

Then it was off to sabor for margaritas and off to bed.

Stray observation:

Our room steward is amazing.

I have a bartender who not only remembers my drink order, but also my name which is cool because I’m pretty forgettable.

In the public men’s rooms, I like the comic strip panels over the urinals even though they are lacking in plot, character development, and a character arc.

Next up is sea day two. We have three sea days this week.

Day 4: St. Thomas

We started breakfast with the continental from room service, but my wife didn’t order coffee because supposedly the coffee tastes better when I go out to get it in the morning. The bagel, cream cheese, and orange juice was good, but the donut was the worst donut I have ever had. I never in my life thought I would say I had a bad donut.

After breakfast, my wife got ready and went shopping for a beach bag. I stayed back at the room, but I figured Valerio probably wanted to get our room picked up so he could go about his day. I didn’t find my wife in the shop with the beach bags, but instead in Regalia fine jewelry. To make a long story short, we need to downgrade our room in an inside room, maybe even the onboard brig for the rest of the cruise. Why couldn’t she find a dollar tree on the ship?

Lunch was at the Solarium Bistro, the food was good, nothing to write home about.

We did St. Thomas on our own. We got into a taxi at the port and the driver told us what the fare would be. While he was driving, he must have received a memo from corporate headquarters informing him of a price increase because when we arrived at the sky ride ( or two blocks away where he dropped us off, the price increased $2 per person.

The sky ride was cool and the view amazing, but there wasn’t a lot to do at the top of paradise point. We took great photos and had a drink. My wife and I had a banana daiquiri it was delicious and our server was great. The people running the sky ride were friendly and helpful. Whenever my father got on or off the tram, they stopped it for him because of his mobility issues.

We rode a taxi back to the ship where all but myself, my wife, my brother, and my sister in law got off we continued on to Magen's Bay. The driver was so cool and drove us there for the quoted price. He even stopped by Drake’s Seat so my brother could get a geocache. One thing I learned is in St. Thomas, traffic safety is merely a suggestion.

Magen’s Bay was beautiful, but we didn’t have a lot of time there. Our ship arrived almost 2 hours late due to the medical evacuation the other day that took us off course.

Two taxi drivers got into an argument over us. I thought it might go to blows. The taxi business in St. Thomas is cutthroat. I could see a series on Bravo: The Real Taxi Drivers of St. Thomas.

Back at port, my brother and I returned to the ship while my wife and sister in law continued to shop. I will admit I did worry my wife and sister-in-law might miss the boat, but they didn’t.

When my wife returned to the ship, we went to the windjammer, but stopped first at the schooner bar to hide a duck. It was ten minutes until the LGBTQIA get together and we had a cute duck with rainbow hearts. At the windjammer we enjoyed the jerk chicken or as my wife called it, The Rick chicken.

After dinner another trip to the bionic bar and then the adult comedy show. I really enjoyed the show, but definitely one comedian more than the other.

After the comedy show we rode the Rising Tide bar and played the card game I launched on Kickstarter and had extra copies after I fulfilled all the orders. We finished the card game where all the “adults” laughed and had a good time, while the “kids” (early 20’s) just put up with us.

On the way back to the room, my wife stopped by Sorento's for pizza and made friends with two little kids (it was past midnight) because she misses our grandkids.

Stray observation:

now every time we return to our room, our room steward greets us while he unlocks and opens our door for us. The service is beyond what we expected.

Tomorrow is St. Kitts and swimming with the dolphins.

(I skipped yesterday so here is yesterday’s and today’s update.)

Day 2:  A perfect half day at Cococay

We spent most of our day at Cococay and half of it was a perfect day. The other half, not so much.

Let me start by saying none of the bad luck was Royal Caribbean’s fault, mostly just bad luck and some stupidity on my part.

We got of the the ship, no problem. My wife dipped me in a vat of 9,265 spf sunscreen. She held me by my heel so I had an Achilles sunburn.

After the sunscreen I got into the pool at the oasis lagoon, got a drink and floated around for about 15 minutes when I realized my iPhone was in the pocket of my swimsuit. Luckily it survived.

Following the lagoon and a few more drinks, we headed to chill island where we snorkeled. My wife bought two full face snorkeling masks on Amazon for under $19 each, which also came with dry bags for our phones and ear plugs. The masks worked perfectly, the pictures from our phones in the dry bag were less than average. But the masks I highly recommend.  We snorkeled by the giant rock and saw a lot of fish, but I’m not a strong swimmer, so the poor lifeguard almost had an anxiety attack watching over me so I gave him a break by giving up and sitting in a lounge chair. I absolutely hate the beach. We live near a beach and I loathe it. Our beach has year round freezing temperatures, a strong undercurrent, and sand. However, at Cococay, I didn’t mind it because I was resting in a lounger under an umbrella and a nice guy kept bringing me drinks.

When my wife and sister in law finished snorkeling, we headed to the snack shack on our way back to the lagoon. I got a chicken sandwich and a brownie, my wife got the funnel cake. Back at the lagoon, a bird promptly stole and ate my wife’s funnel cake and to show his appreciation, he pooped on our beach towel.

I headed back to the lagoon where I got a drink and then lost my seapass card. After retracing my steps in the pool for about 45 minutes, I gave up and reported my lost card to security.

Then after being told several times to stop doing backflips into the pool by lifeguards, a kid continued to doing backflips into the pool, but he finally stopped when he flipped head first into the side of my sister’s face causing bruising and swelling. After that my 76 year old father slipped and fell. The lead lifeguard treated his wounds well, he was very kind staying with my parents the entire time and even arranged transportation back to the ship for my parents and sister in law who was helping them.

I was done so my wife and I headed back to the ship where I waited in line with all the other careless people who lost their cards. I was given a temporary pass to get back on the ship. After a shower and a rest, I was issued a new card at guest services and then was dinner.

I was hungry so I ordered two appetizers: Asian style pork tacos and a shrimp cocktail, two entrees: the garlic tiger shrimp and the salmon. Because I didn’t want to be a pig, I only ordered one dessert.

Due to a medical emergency, we diverted to Nassau for an medical evacuation. A few people expressed their displeasure with the casino closing due to being in port.

Following dinner was the ice skating show: 1887 a journey in time. The skating was amazing, but I had a hard time following the plot (that is if it even had a plot).

Then another trip to the wonderland bar to try the rest of the cocktails on their menu. It was super close to closing time, but they stayed open later to accommodate our party of 9 (my dad stayed in their room.) the mad hatter was even super friendly to my 75 year old mother. She loved the wonderland bar and wants to go back.

After a late night pizza and a beer, it was back to our room for bed.

Day 3: a sea day

Today was a sea day so we slept in, I got us coffee to drink on the balcony. Next was a quick bite to eat at the mini bites breakfast. Some of it was delicious and other things were just okay. Then off for more coffee at cafe promenade. The cold brew was great.

My wife went to lay by the pool and I started drinking pina coladas taking them back to the room to drink on the balcony while watching the water go by.

Then it was up to the pool deck to find my wife and watch the sexiest man contest. I didn’t last long on the pool deck and headed back inside. I waited in the rising tide bar where the bartender said it would rise in about five minutes. Fifteen minutes later we never launched and I received a text from my wife they were headed to the windjammer, so I got off the rising tide bar and has an unremarkable lunch at the windjammer.

My nephew and sister in law boogie boarded and then my nephew headed over to the standup surfing flow rider. My brother was in line to zip line. We stood in between to see who would go first, but they both went at the same time.

Then it was off to get ready for dinner. For appetizers I ordered the wedge salad and shrimp cocktail. For an entrée I got the seafood fettuccini Alfredo, and the soufflé for dessert. Like always the food was excellent, but the service was even better. The only mishap was the drink waiter spilled a Jack and Coke in my brother’s lap. He had to eat the rest of the dinner with a soggy grundle, which just so happens to also be the name of a band I saw at the Fillmore two weeks ago.

On the way to the room to change my clothes, I found the stowaway piano player again. We saw him briefly at the wonderland bar last night. I messaged my family and they came down to see him. I tipped him and he asked me three times if I had a request. I declined the first two times and finally asked if he would play Let it be by the Beatles. He is by far the best entertainer on the ship.

Next up was Grease. We all loved it, although my wife politely had to shush the older couple in front of us who decided that the middle of a Broadway musical was the best time to hold a loud conversation about their lives. I was also very concerned for the girl who sat next to the loud conversationalists that she would be unsuccessful at Candy Crush, but to my surprise she was better than I expected because she kept that game going for almost the entire hour and a half performance.

There are nearly 6,000 passengers on the Harmony of the Seas this week and tonight it was obvious. The only other times that I noticed that we have that many people on the ship is every time I get on the elevator with all the other 5,999 passengers on the same elevator.

Stray observation:

We went to the bionic bar tonight. Although I love the concept, the cocktail wasn’t very good, but it could be I just picked out one of their cocktails. It’s amazing that someone probably graduated from MIT with a phd and then invented a robot bartender. It’s genius really. Although I didn’t like the cocktail, I really liked my bartender, R2-3PO. Nice guy, has a family back home, he showed me a photo. He married a lovely blender and they are raising 3 sweet, but rambunctious toasters.

Tomorrow (or today) is a stop at St. Thomas.