She Sails Away

Not a stupid question at all! So the way a slot pull works is, you get a group together ahead of time, like 20 people. Everybody meets in the casino at an appointed time and we all contribute $20. Then you take all of that money and you put it into one slot machine at one time. So if you have $400 from your group, you just shove that whole $400 into the slot machine at one time. Then you all take turns pressing the button and watching the slots turn. You go through the whole roster so that everybody gets a turn. Once you've gone through the whole roster you look and see where your money is. If it's all gone then you're done. If there's a ton of money sitting there you take a vote as to whether to cash out and distribute the money among each other or keep going. So you might cash out and distribute the money or you might go through the roster all over again but generally you keep playing until the money is all gone, or you have won enough to make it worthwhile to cash out and distribute among your 20 people does that make sense? Generally these things end up taking about an hour because of course you win and lose and you win and lose you go up and down just enough to stretch things out for a long time. Most of the time everybody walks away with nothing, but we've had a really fun hour and gotten to know each other. Sometimes we go home with a few dollars. Sometimes you go home with more than you started with! You just never know. But it's mostly about having fun. There's a lot of cheering and clapping involved and we get to know each other's names and we get to spend about an hour socializing.

Two Crown and anchor loyalty events today… One just for platinum and up and one just for diamond and up. I'm an emerald and ever since I've been gold I've always been invited to these things so this is a first.

They were different, I'm not entirely sure what the difference was because I lost the description but they were different

Whoops, posted a personal blog update here on your thread! Deleted. Sorry!

Whew! hoping your next cruise is stress-free and lots of fun

PS, cookie report : have to say, the cookies are just not up to snuff on this cruise. I've tried different kinds from both Café Promenade and Windjammer. They are super dry and crumbly and hard and crunchy and nothing at all like the soft chewy coconut cookies and chocolate chip cookies and lemon cookies that I love. They all taste like an ingredient is missing or they've been left out on a shelf for a few days. We shall see if this changes during the week.

OK. The slot pull had 35 participants at $20 each. It lasted an entire hour and we ended up with $255. Somehow, the general consensus was suddenly that we would rush over to the roulette table and take our $255 and bet it all on black. It was a huge group and I was on the very outer fringe and couldn't hear a thing and I was looking down at my phone and all of a sudden the entire mass was charging away with great enthusiasm to the roulette table. I trailed along and low and behold, we won! And we all went home with our original $20. Much better than nothing and we had an hour of good fun. after that I came up to the Promenade and got snagged in a huge crush watching a parade that took up the whole entire promenade. Big fun, really sweet production, the kids were just entranced. If I had brought my little ones when they were little, this would've been the highlight of the whole week. I watched the very tail end of it and after it was over I got coffee and cookies for lunch and came back to my room. My room attendant is having so much fun with my little Donald Duck. And honestly I think Donald is having a blast making friends whenever I leave the room. although yesterday at Coco Cay, Donald was with me and our little straw market doll got to hang with her new friend. Super hot and humid today, and being that it's a day at sea, of course there are bodies upon bodies filling the lounge chairs on the pool deck and the pools are pretty much knee to elbow with very little room for actual water. I have seen some really happy cutie kids running around in their pajamas and I've also seen some shreikiing meltdown exhausted babies. You know how it is mid-cruise. I'm washing my hands so much I'm going to have to go to that expensive shop on the promenade and buy some skin oil. My little bath and body lotion isn't cutting it. I'm also coming up to my room to use the restroom and wash my hands whenever possible as opposed to a public restroom. The paranoia is high. It's late afternoon now and I've just come back to my room and it is so nice in here, I think I'm just going to lay around for a while. I don't want to go anywhere near the pool deck for a little bit because they're doing the world's sexiest man competition and you know what a zoo that can be. I have reservations to see big sky tonight. I think that's what it's called? Maybe one sky? I'm really looking forward to it. Their stage shows are always amazing. Lots of chatter today among my Facebook group about how great the aqua show is, people are just blown away. I feel bad for the ice-skating show, it is equally wonderful but it's not getting much love. I do have to say this is the weakest ice-skating show I've seen on any of the ships and it's because of the choice of music and choreography. It's really tame compared to the last couple of shows I've seen on Odyssey and Symphony. But so adorable and such talented athletes. They have this one amazing moment in the show where a couple of skaters dressed as fairies come out with these beautiful little swan sleds and they invite a couple of small kids from each side of the audience to jump in and then they push them around the ice while the rest of the skaters do this dazzling ballet number with all these beautiful costumes and lights. The kids in the Swan Sleds are just thrilled to pieces. You're not allowed to do any video or photography in the show so I haven't tried to take any pictures of course. Wish I could though. I do plan on going again and seeing it a second time.

Thank you so much for explaining that to me, I really sincerely appreciate it. I've definitely did wonder what the point was and what you say makes a lot of sense. I can see how this would be the right treatment over a period of time in the right conditions. One blind dose on a cruise ship, maybe not so much. There is a lot to think about and what you said has me asking so many questions.

Gorgeous! I will be there next week on Ascent and I can't wait, your photos have me excited to go. Remind me… When you get on wonder, will you be sharing a cabin with only your brother?

Well, that sounds....stressful. I hope you find some sunshine and a quiet nap and your congestion goes away.

Well, exactly. And that's what I meant… That getting a couple of these done on a cruise ship isn't going to change anyone's health for the better....would it? Definitely something to be done at a medical facility like you described.

PS, the vitality spa is really pushing this thing called IV therapy. I don't remember seeing this on Symphony or Enchantment, which are the last two times I sailed with Royal. Is this new or did I just miss the trend? Honestly, I thought IVs were for people that had hangovers and couldn't stop throwing up so they needed a B vitamin boost. They are really pushing this as some sort of life-changing therapy though. I hate it that they have one called "b-skinny." Who in the world believes that an IV treatment is going to make you "skinny?" And do we want to strive to be "skinny," exactly? Maybe healthy would be better? They do have one called b-lean, which at least sounds better. I don't know. Feels pretty sketchy to me but to each his own.

Woke up at 6:45 AM to the family on the balcony next-door talking to each other as loud as they possibly could. I mean they were so loud. And they were just having an ordinary conversation. That's OK though, that's cruise cabin life. I stayed in bed a long time and then came to the gym. At 8 AM, the gym is 70% hardbodies and 30% everyone else. (I am one of the everyone else category.) Oasis has a lovely gym, very big and lots of natural light. Tons of machines for everybody. Crowding in all the usual spots such as the dumbbell rack, the pulldown machine, and there's a stretching class going on in the common area where you would normally put down yoga mats and do things. Looks like a really great class though. Protein shake at the juice bar for breakfast. It tastes great which is nice because it cost eight dollars. It's 75° here and the Flow Rider and rock climbing walls are already up and hopping. 14° back home. My husband works in construction and they are shut down today due to the temperatures. Someone in our Facebook cruise group posted that they got sick off of steak from Windjammer last night. That's entirely possible, it's also possible he has picked up Norovirus or general food poisoning or a stomach flu or anything at all. I am so hopeful I won't get sick over the next two weeks. I have always been extremely obsessive about washing my hands on a cruise ship and believe me I'm washing them constantly. Of course, riding in a crowded elevator for 30 minutes to listen to the piano guy (Francesco) is probably not the smartest move on that end. But… Choices. Going to walk the walking trail for a while, my athletic shoes are still soaking wet and they are now drying on the balcony so we will see how walking goes in my floppy little canvas shoes. Then: caffeine. And then it's the slot pull at 10:30. Wish us luck!

K. Super fun night and now I'm climbing into bed at 11 like I'm on vacation or something. (at home I'm falling asleep by nine) There was only one aqua show tonight and apparently the entire ship wanted to go and a huge amount of people had reservations for it. It started at eight, so I went down there at 7:30. The elevator piano guy was at the entrance to boardwalk, pretty much smashed up against the wall next to the boardwalk hotdog place. He was playing his heart out while clumps of people walked past him without even looking his way. Even though he's my new favorite performer, I scurried past him as well so I could get to the show. There was a massive snaky line all the way from the aqua theater to the carousel. Those were the people without reservations hoping to see it anyway. I got in at the back of the line. We had to wait for the reservation people to go in and then I had to wait for the huge huge line of people in front of me to go in and by the time I got into the theater there were exactly three seats left and they were all in the front row. The staff leaves one towel out per seat in the first three rows which is really handy, so you can be sure there's a towel available next to you when you sit down. Except....most of the people that got there before us in the second row snatched up two or three towels apiece for themselves, leaving most of us in the front row with zero towels. And that includes a few elderly people who I'm sure had no idea what to expect even though it's clearly labeled splash zone. And that was really greedy and selfish. One towel would've been really wonderful to have. In case you're wondering if the splash zone is that big of a deal, yes it is. Let me just say I did the research for us aIl; I sat 3 inches away from the pool and it is most definitely a saturation zone. Like taste the chlorine in your mouth kind of zone because you get hit that hard with the water. It was totally worth it. I mean I could've got up and left of course but I just sat there for the whole thing because it was worth it. But I had no idea when I left my room I would sit in the front and I didn't know I would be so soaked, either. If I had, I would've worn sandals and brought a towel. This wasn't a cute kind of soaking where you air dry in about 30 minutes, this was I fell in the swimming pool and decided to swim a few laps kind of wet. Like I could wring out my shirt. Hair dripping. Clothes clinging to my body. Shoes and socks squelching. I had a tote bag with me that had some casino vouchers in there and they got wrinkled and soaking wet. The show was fantastic and it was quite an experience to have a front row seat despite walking away in sodden clothes and shoes. afterwards I was freezing cold since I was so soaking wet and I squelched back to my room, leaving a trail of wet footprints like a swamp monster. I remembered to close the curtains before changing clothes, then I ran down to the casino to make sure they would still cash my wrinkly wet disintegrating voucher. I am on the 14th floor and the casino is on the fourth floor so I hit the elevator button and wouldn't you know it, up comes the piano playing elevator guy again, and this time he's got the party elevator going with a whole family in there riding around with him and singing at the top of their lungs. Of course I joined in and we had a good 20 minutes of riding around singing Billy Joel songs. Then his handler firmly put a stop to the party and said it was time for him to come out now. So we all trickled off our separate ways while they unlocked the piano and rolled it away. The piano player asked us to all follow him on Facebook. His page is: "Francesco Pepe official." So once that was over, I went to the casino and they cashed my disintegrated wet vouchers with no comment. I went to the rising Tide bar and rode it up to Central Park and back down again while I caught up on texts and email and stuff and had a ginger ale. Then it was off to bed! I went to Park Café a couple of times this week, and left without eating. This particular park café feels like extremely slim pickings. I mean they have their little salad guy with his tiny little salad area and it just looks like an afterthought, not a full-blown salad bar. The sandwich section is pretty much all about that roast beef and not much else. Tonight around 10 o'clock, I was at Café Promenade grabbing a mug of tea. People were flocking all around me grabbing water or coffee or hot chocolate. There were three elderly ladies standing beside me staring and saying, "people are just coming up and helping themselves? Is that legal? I mean, is that OK?" They seemed really disturbed, like they were witnessing looting. I told them that everything at the drink station was free, and they seemed shocked. But they were really happy to hear that and they started grabbing coffee. I pointed over to the snack area and said all of that food is free as well, you just ask for it. They were blown away. They went straight over and asked for some cake. I bet they didn't know Sorrento's was free as well, I wish I had thought to mention it. Tomorrow my Facebook cruise group is having a slot pull. I hope I make it in, they're capping it at 50 and there's way more than 50 of us that plan to go. I'm not going to go down there and stand in line super early to make sure I get in, but I do hope I get in. It's a sea day, so it's going to be one of those days where everything is crowded. I will take a good look at the organized activities tomorrow and maybe do some trivia or something like that. It won't be a good day for swimming or hot tubs but it will still be a good day. And I could definitely use some rest in my cabin if nothing else. some night ambience for you in the photos!

Guys, quick question. If your shoes got soaking wet, like "someone threw them in a swimming pool for a joke and forgot about it for a few weeks" wet, would they dry faster if you put them on your humid balcony or if you just left them in the room? Asking for a friend

PS, I found the card room today and found it pretty depressing. It's tucked away in a weird corner although it has an amazing view of boardwalk. It was clammy and hot in there at the same time, very small and super silent, and there were two separate parties working two separate jigsaw puzzles on tables on opposite sides of the room. Which was about 10 feet apart. I don't know, it felt like a neglected closet with a million dollar view. and it's two stories, both similarly depressing and reminiscent of a 1970s motel laundromat. Someday they'll take that little space and turn it into a bazillion dollar suite with a terrific view.

Had a great lounging around the room this afternoon after Coco cay, a massage at the spa, and then I wandered a while and got iced coffee. I just happened to end up in the elevator with the piano guy again! This time I just settled in for a free concert and rode the elevator for 30 minutes. It was fun to see people come in and out. Most people were appropriately surprised and happy to see him. The guy is playing his heart out and he’s fantabulous. He played a huge long Queen medley, and some Elton John and Billy Joel and he’s just so incredible. But what he has to put up with. Some people walked in with trays of half eaten food and just plopped them down on top of his piano so they could fish around in their tote bags for their phone or whatever. A couple of people walked in and looked irritated that he was taking up so much space, sighed, and put their elbows on his piano and faced the other way. One guy was too drunk to have any kind of reaction. Others came in, not drunk at all, but had zero reaction as well. As though every day you walk into an elevator, with a piano playing merrily for your entertainment. What is the matter with people. Dinner at Windjammer. Tonight is dress-up night and I’m not having any of it. I had planned to go to playmakers tonight, but I just wasn’t hungry enough. Windjammer is definitely not the ideal place to eat, though, so many kids walking around, coughing around the food without covering. That reminds me, when we were in the elevator with the piano guy, a lady got in, and was pressed up against his piano, due to the crowd, and was facing him, so she was basically a foot away from this piano guys face, and she just kept coughing and coughing without covering. And he just kept playing with no reaction. I mean, how do you do that. That was actually the deciding factor on what drove me out of the elevator, even though the concert was still going on. Yikes. What a workplace hazard. A quick rest in the room and then I’m headed out for casino and yes, I’m going to watch the Aqua show a third time so don’t judge. Why wouldn’t I? There are no other headliner shows this evening and it sounds like a load of fun. Also, we don’t get any good channels on TV here. I’m hoping I can make myself go to bed right after, I could use an early night. also, I legitimately thought this was a real seagull.

I couldn’t tolerate the open door and lack of air conditioning! No way.

While I was headed to chill beach on Coco Cay, I got behind a large family of one mom and five or six adult kids. Mom was in a rage because part of the group had separated and she was absolutely convinced they would never find each other and it was going to be a terrible horrible day. She was snapping and pretty much shouting repeatedly at her kids who as I said, are adults. She was really spreading that bad mood around to everybody else and everybody seemed upset that she was so angry, her oldest son was trying to placate her, but she wasn't having any of that. She wanted to be angry. I thought, here it is 9 AM, they all have these huge beach bags for a big long day on the beach, and everybody was expecting to have fun, and now that's not going to happen because mom is angry and is NOT going to get over it. I mean I know I'm preaching to the choir here. But when you're on family vacation you can make bad memories for your kids just as easily as good ones. I've been that uptight person who tries to micromanage everybody and make sure the day goes like I picture it in my head. It never does. Just don't be that person. Let it all go. Especially if you're dealing with adult kids. If they are a bunch of scattered cats let them be. Tag along and settle into a lounge chair and enjoy your family while you have them and let them figure out the solution to whatever the problem is. Let them text each other all day long trying to sort out who's where, and you just be the positive happy person in the cruise memories they look back on years and years from now. Don't spoil the day being a grump over nothing. i've had such wonderful vacations with my sons and I would give anything to have those years back where they would go with me everywhere. Of course they're all adults now with jobs, their own lives, and nobody has the time to do anything. I did get to cruise with my son last spring in the Mediterranean and it was just priceless. I had a couple of days where I was tired and fatigued but you better be sure I never snapped at him, I didn't want that one memory to go home with him. Anyway, that kind of stuff always bothers me more than it should. it would've been so easy for her to keep her thoughts to herself until she cooled off and not set the tone for the whole day by being in a boiling rage. I know sometimes that's easier said than done but… You're on vacation at a beach. Maybe just take a breath.

Apparently I'm losing my mind. Today I came back from Cocoa Cay super hot and sweaty and couldn't wait to get in the shower. Stood in the middle of my room and peeled off all the clothes from the waist up and started to peel off the clothes from the waist down and a voice in my head said, "Hey, you have a balcony and the curtains are OPEN." Fortunately, this was a sliver of time when the balconies across from me weren't crammed with people just sitting and staring, so I lucked out. Anyway, it's been a great first half of the day. We have picture perfect weather for Coco Cay. We are here with Freedom of the seas. Everything is packed, as to be expected, but there are still plenty of pool chairs and lounge chairs to go around. I was chatting with a staff member at Spotlight lounge bar, and he commented that last week or a few days ago maybe, Icon of the seas and Wonder of the seas docked at Coco Cay on the same day. Can you imagine? Today I took all of the classic photos which I will share here. I had a wonderful morning on the beach, got super hot, and scurried back to the ship to rest up. I have to get ready for my massage this afternoon. Quick question for you guys. How do you find out where and when the pop-up piano player is going to be around? Or is that the whole point, you just never know? Last night I was thrilled to end up in the elevator with him. I have been looking for him on every oasis-class cruise I've taken and never run into him before. That guy can play! In all honesty I just wanted to ride the elevator around with him listening until he was done playing, but I felt self-conscious about it. Such fun music though. He had a tip jar but of course I had zero cash with me.

A super busy evening and here I am going to bed at 1 AM like I’m in my 40s or something. I ended up skipping dinner this evening. I had a nice lunch from Windjammer and brought it back to my balcony again like I did for breakfast, but what can I say, having a balcony is pretty cool. I spent the afternoon on the pool deck, had my nap, and then got so caught up in the football game party that I ran out of time to eat dinner. Right after the football game was the ice-skating show, and that was followed by the aqua show. Both were terrific! because I have The Key this time, I had reserved seating in the third row of the ice show. Which was nice. I sat near the end of the row. A really big guy and his wife sat beside me on the very end. I mention that detail because it’s important to know that this guy was tall enough to where his knees went all the way to the chair in front of him, and there was no room to walk past him if you needed to squeeze out of the aisle. A family of eight people came and filed passed me and took up the entire center of the row, which was perfectly fine, except that each family member decided to get up and go to the restroom and then come back, one at a time, throughout the entire show. I mean every five minutes one of them was climbing over all of the legs between them and the exit of the aisle. It was constant. I would always stand up, rather than have them climb over me, and the guy next to me definitely had to stand up and his wife did too so we were constantly popping up and down. The people behind us were getting pretty aggravated. At one point both the father and one of the kids got up because the kid could not possibly wait to get popcorn until after the show. Mom scrolled her phone at full brightness the entire time they were gone while the ice skaters were doing amazing acrobatics right in front of her and she didn’t even see it. Then the kid with his popcorn came back without his dad. Eventually, dad came back. Exactly 2 minutes later the entire family got up and all left in mass while the show was still going in its final minutes. It was unbelievably ridiculous. If they knew they had somewhere to be and they couldn’t sit still why didn’t they sit in the back? The second the ice-skating show was over people were just crushing and running to get to the aqua show and grab a seat. And I mean, I get being excited to see it, but we’re here all week, no need to stampede. I enjoyed the ice-skating show and the aqua show a lot. After the aqua show, I went to the casino for a while and by the time I finished up there it was time for the second aqua show of the evening so I went a second time. Now I here I am coming to bed at 1 AM and I’m so tired. Tomorrow is perfect day at Coco cay, so no need to rush off the ship. All in all, it was a really nice day and having such a nice weather helped!

Yes, I boarded at 11 and I hurried to take photos and video of the normally crowded areas such as the solarium and the pool deck and gym and stuff. I also got up at 6:30 this morning and was able to get lots of pool deck photos without anybody in them. I would say that after we boarded it took about two hours before all of the corners of the ship began to fill up. Within three hours of them opening boarding at 11, everything was packed.

And a few more!

This is supposedly Steven Spielberg's yacht.

Our day in Nassau was wonderful. I explored the port in the morning, had breakfast on my balcony, and spent the whole afternoon on the pool deck soaking in the hot tub and laying in the sun and repeating. I enjoyed myself so much I didn't want to bother getting dressed and having lunch so I didn't. I did get a virgin piña colada though. Took a long nap in the afternoon and then back to the pool deck to watch people using the Flow Rider, watch the sunset, watch the other ships sail away, watch people riding the roller coaster right next to us on the deck of the Mardi Gras, and then watch sail away. I actually rode the abyss slide down to Boardwalk as a shortcut, and then searched for a seat at the giant football watch party at playmakers. Not a seat to be had so I'm over in spotlight lounge watching it on the big screen. Lots of enthusiasm and the place is full. The little shopping area at the cruise port in Nassau is very nice. And it's really not that little either. Reservations for the ice show tonight, and my Aqua show reservations from last night got bumped to tonight, so there's going to be only a few minutes between the two. But I can always see it another night of needed. And I would like to revisit the casino. Photos from today