hayley_bopp

Well, I'm pretty much all packed. Everything's all printed off. I've painted my toenails (twice! ). I've just got a manicure and a facial tomorrow morning to ease me in to the holiday relaxation before we head down to Southampton.As it's not an RC cruise, I won't blog it here. However, I enjoyed blogging my cruise on Independence so much last year I've decided that I will blog this cruise on my own (until now largely defunct) blog which you can find at https://fat-fighting-foodie.com/
I'll be visiting:
Cadiz, Spain Barcelona, Spain Livorno, Italy Civitavecchia, Italy Cartagena, Spain Gibraltar, UK I'll also be Periscoping. My user name is hayley_bopp . Both blog posts and scopes will be intermittent as I'm probably not going to get an internet package (but never say never...).
If you've got any questions feel free to ask on here or on the comments section on my blog.
After the cruise, I'll post a review of the cruise on here comparing it to RC. Who will win...? ?
Fingers crossed the gales that are forecast to hit the south coast all day on Saturday (50-60mph gusts of wind!) don't delay our sail away for too long ?

Cruise day is here!
We've been out for a walk this morning to see the ships in port - Saphire Princess (which I forgot to take a picture of)
P&O's Britannia (the largest in their fleet) ,Azura (at the back) and Oriana which finished her final P&O cruise on Friday and is now in port having all of the P&O branding removed as she's been sold. 
And finally, RC's Independence. 
FYI, Indy & Azura are both facing the 'wrong' way today. I assume the captains didn't want to turn them around in last night's high winds. It's worse today though. Fingers crossed we manage to get underway today and aren't stuck in port until tomorrow...

Cruise day is here!
We've been out for a walk this morning to see the ships in port - Saphire Princess (which I forgot to take a picture of)
P&O's Britannia (the largest in their fleet) ,Azura (at the back) and Oriana which finished her final P&O cruise on Friday and is now in port having all of the P&O branding removed as she's been sold. 
And finally, RC's Independence. 
FYI, Indy & Azura are both facing the 'wrong' way today. I assume the captains didn't want to turn them around in last night's high winds. It's worse today though. Fingers crossed we manage to get underway today and aren't stuck in port until tomorrow...

Well thank you m'lady. It is there. Looking forward to following your adventures.

Cruise day is here!
We've been out for a walk this morning to see the ships in port - Saphire Princess (which I forgot to take a picture of)
P&O's Britannia (the largest in their fleet) ,Azura (at the back) and Oriana which finished her final P&O cruise on Friday and is now in port having all of the P&O branding removed as she's been sold. 
And finally, RC's Independence. 
FYI, Indy & Azura are both facing the 'wrong' way today. I assume the captains didn't want to turn them around in last night's high winds. It's worse today though. Fingers crossed we manage to get underway today and aren't stuck in port until tomorrow...

I've just approved it so hopefully it will show up...

@hayley_bopp, I left a comment on you blog site. First it said awaiting moderation, then I got an email verifying subscription and now my comment is gone. I guess I'll just speak to you here. Have fun!

Hope your sailaway goes as planned. Although certainly there are worse things than being stuck on a cruise ship that happens to be in port ?

Cruise day is here!
We've been out for a walk this morning to see the ships in port - Saphire Princess (which I forgot to take a picture of)
P&O's Britannia (the largest in their fleet) ,Azura (at the back) and Oriana which finished her final P&O cruise on Friday and is now in port having all of the P&O branding removed as she's been sold. 
And finally, RC's Independence. 
FYI, Indy & Azura are both facing the 'wrong' way today. I assume the captains didn't want to turn them around in last night's high winds. It's worse today though. Fingers crossed we manage to get underway today and aren't stuck in port until tomorrow...

Cruise day is here!
We've been out for a walk this morning to see the ships in port - Saphire Princess (which I forgot to take a picture of)
P&O's Britannia (the largest in their fleet) ,Azura (at the back) and Oriana which finished her final P&O cruise on Friday and is now in port having all of the P&O branding removed as she's been sold. 
And finally, RC's Independence. 
FYI, Indy & Azura are both facing the 'wrong' way today. I assume the captains didn't want to turn them around in last night's high winds. It's worse today though. Fingers crossed we manage to get underway today and aren't stuck in port until tomorrow...

I can't believe how beautiful Santorini was.  We truly enjoyed it... Even with 5 cruise ships.  But I would love to go back in October or sometime off season to experience it with no people!  Jane

Well, I'm pretty much all packed. Everything's all printed off. I've painted my toenails (twice! ). I've just got a manicure and a facial tomorrow morning to ease me in to the holiday relaxation before we head down to Southampton.As it's not an RC cruise, I won't blog it here. However, I enjoyed blogging my cruise on Independence so much last year I've decided that I will blog this cruise on my own (until now largely defunct) blog which you can find at https://fat-fighting-foodie.com/
I'll be visiting:
Cadiz, Spain Barcelona, Spain Livorno, Italy Civitavecchia, Italy Cartagena, Spain Gibraltar, UK I'll also be Periscoping. My user name is hayley_bopp . Both blog posts and scopes will be intermittent as I'm probably not going to get an internet package (but never say never...).
If you've got any questions feel free to ask on here or on the comments section on my blog.
After the cruise, I'll post a review of the cruise on here comparing it to RC. Who will win...? ?
Fingers crossed the gales that are forecast to hit the south coast all day on Saturday (50-60mph gusts of wind!) don't delay our sail away for too long ?

Love your Santorini photos 

It's the first time I've heard a pilot's fee being mentioned but consider this is one guest telling another guest what she heard.  
Pilots do all sorts of ships of various sizes.  Cargo, tankers, cruise ships, etc.  I imagine that fees vary by some factors like length, registered tonnage, draft, width and who knows what else.  Piloting a 100' cargo ship versus a 1,100 foot tanker ship has got to involve different fees but that is purely speculation on my part.  

Ok... So excited!  My first cruise was on vision with Steve the cruise director and now I have a pic with him... Thriller here I come!  

Thanks so much.. Yes... Last year was tough and we are so thankful to be having this time.  She even put herself on the centrum stage lol! She is the one in the middle blue shirt!  Dancing during 70s party in the centrum!  

DAY 10...another sea day.  Sea days are just therapeutic for me, but boring for you to read about.  I had practice 3 for thriller and sat in my deck chair. Jeff and Madison went to the sushi class and LOVED it!  They said it was super fun and that they are going to make sushi when we get home.  Makes me happy!!   We made great use of our drink pkg again and basically had a wonderful day.
  It was formal night so we got dressed up and went to mdr.  They actually called us to see if we were coming and we're very concerned we hadn't been happy on night one.  We definitely enjoyed the main dining room the couple times we went but when you add in specialty dining and all the port eating and the drink pkg it is just too much for big long dinners.  We were really surprised when they brought us a piece of cake and sang "happy anniversary" to us!  The 50 year royal cakes are still being offered as well! 



We did go to the production show.  We have made most of the shows (we missed the Motown one on Malta day) and most have been pretty good.  The production shows by the royal singers and dancers have been weak.  I've seen boogie wonderland before and the songs aren't great..they did the "cake in the rain song" that is not really boogie or disco...just bad lol.  It does not help this is a very young cast (most are first tours) and they just aren't developed enough.  Watching a fresh faced 19 year old sing "I will survive" just doesn't quite work lol.  Anyway I always drag Jeff to them anyway!

Ok...that brings us up to day 11and Malta but I have to head to class 5 Of thriller!  More later!  Jane

SANTORINI continued...
On to Thira.   On the outskirts it is just a regular city with lots of yrafgic, drug stores and not pretty.  I was not impressed until we walked out of the congested area and we found the amazing area (I still think Mykenos prob has this as well and we just didn't find it).  Thira isn't as charming as Oia but has its share of great views.  Everywhere  in the two villages there were amazing doorways that were unique and pretty.  I love this picture with vision in the back!!



As is our habit we found a little cafe and tried the local drinks and food.  Madison tried fava beans and liked them,while I tried the very good Santorini beer!  We could look at Vision while we ate and I didn't get a pic on my phone, but Jewel showed up to join her sister vision!


 



We shopped, found more quaint and incredible views! I love this old church and then the view of the grafitti under it...old and new...




 
I think this last one is from Oia but so cool and I forgot to add it before. 

It was getting around 1 and we'd heard horror stories about 2 hour lines to ride the cable car from Thira to the port.  You can walk down but it's very slippery and hot.  I figured we could wait in line.  It turned out to be only 45 mins!  It would have been even shorter if people weren't people and letting 8 friends jump into their group and just deciding they didn't need to wait and cutting into line.  I loved the people who tried to just walk in front of us 5 mins away from the ticket booth!  Yeah...NO!!    The cable car ride was very cool!!




On the tender ride back we found out their walk took 53 mins down so I was happy we cable carred it!   Santorini is very rocky...the cliffs were numerous and it amazes me how they can build these buildings into them.  



And a last picture of mads on the top of the tender!

We really loved our day in Santorini!  Dinner as usual was relaxed in the windjammer for us, while Madison joined one of her friend's  family in the MDR.  Jane

DAY 9 SANTORINI...
Santorini was totally a surprise at how much we loved it!  I had been freaking out about the 5-6 cruise ships we would see there and after mykenos, we just weren't sure what to expect.  
Because of the tender situation (they were still calling in numbers at 11 for Cannes) and because we were there and didn't quite understand all the transportation options, we chose to do the royal "Oia on your own" which gave us bus transportation, 45 mins to take pics and shop,and then transportation to Thira (or Fira....I saw both names).  
At this point I want to say something about tours and guides.  They vary widely!  Some trips we had a great guide who was interesting, informative, could speak perfect English and was amazing.  A couple times our guide was monotone, slightly disorganized and not nearly as interesting.  Apparently there is a difference (at least in Greece) btw a guide and an escort.  I found this out when I sat and watched a woman berate our little barely 20s timid "escort" on the way to Thira because she didn't share enough info on the way to Oia and the other bus got all sorts of information so why wasn't she more interesting?  OMG!  Whatever your view, why yell at the guide in your own language?  What is she suddenly going to do...become a fountain of knowledge and speak more clearly?  If you have an issue, let royal know when you are back or hire your own private tour.  It was so ugly tourist out of order.  Ok...rant over....back to beautiful Oia.  
Oia was absolutely amazing and I want to go back.  We did go very early...were one of the very first tenders and beat a lot of the crowds there.  This made it a lot better.  Even by the time we were leaving after only 45 mins it was getting more and more crowded and it was not as nice.  But we loved it...I wish they let you stay longer.  We would have really liked to sat in one of the cafes and drank a glass of ?!  
Every time we turned around there was another beautiful view and another amazingly interesting building.  I took hundreds of pictures.  There are gazillions of little paths and stairways that led to more little shops, more views and cool building.  I could have explored for hours.  The colors were incredible and the sea the most gorgeous blue!  I could post way too many pics but here are a few, including one of my beautiful daughter who was the happiest I've seen.  A year ago we were battling some pretty scary stuff with her and it made my heart sing to take these pics.  Santorini is one of my new happy places for sure!  

Majesty's schooner bar did this with the Oberon...I asked if they could get me a bottle to have by the glass (it was only in mdr) and they brought 2 bottles and told me to definitely just pay by the glass.  I was very happy!  Jane

On the plane now, live from 37,000' and 586 mph.  
Landing around 6pm in Ft Lauderdale.  I have lots of time tonight so I might do the Tri-Rail thing again to get down to my Miami hotel.  
South Florida rush hour traffic in a $50 ride-share or $3.75 on Tri-Rail?  I think I'll save the $45 and use it to pay for drinks on CocoCay.
Here is a bit on my last Tri-Rail experience:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/11517-south-florida-tri-rail-ft-lauderdale-miami 
 

Plans for this Cruise
Only one excursion booked so far.  A day trip to Jost Van Dyke in the BVI from Tortola.
My last visit to Jost Van Dyke occurred when I lived on St Thomas.  It's one of the smaller islands of the Virgin Island chain but she has a beautiful beach and is home to the Soggy Dollar Bar right on the beach.  Boats anchor off the beach and visitors swim to land hence they have soggy dollars. 
The hurricanes that impacted San Juan and the US Virgin Islands did a number on Jost Van Dyke but I understand they've rebuilt.  Time to contribute to the local economy again.  
I brought my snorkel gear this time and hope to snorkel at CocoCay if the weather is good.  Then I'll jump in Oasis Lagoon to enjoy the fresh water and swim up pool bar.  No CocoCay excursions purchased (so far).  Lunch at the Snack Shack for another Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich.   Yum.
With our late arrival in San Juan the plan is to wander around and take pictures during golden hour assuming there is no more civil unrest.
St Thomas will be a boring work day for me.  

Interesting story from the previous 8 night Eastern Caribbean Empress cruise.  
A guest on my Empress B2B last week had been on for a month and she told me this story.  Empress has a 2pm departure from CocoCay in order to make San Juan a day after a sea day.  On the last run of this route, several guests missed the ship in CocoCay.  Apparently they didn't note the 2pm departure.
In one case a couple were enjoying CocoCay.  Oblivious to the ship's whistle the woman went to get something to eat while the man went to a bar for a drink.  When he presented his Empress SeaPass card they informed he was about to miss the ship and whisked him away in a golf cart.  Unsure where the woman had gone he got back on board, she missed the ship and it left (late now) towards San Juan.  
Once she figured out she missed the ship, they put her on Mariner and she was taken to Port Canaveral.  She then had to make her own arrangements to get to San Juan which she did at her expense.  The problem is San Juan had some civil unrest and Empress skipped San Juan as a result.  So she missed the ship again.  This time, since Royal cancelled the call on San Juan they paid for her hotel and airfare to Tortola.  Tortola doesn't have an airport so she flew to a neighboring island and had to take a water taxi over to Tortola where she finally re-joined the cruise. 
From what was explained to me they stated the excursion they booked said it ended at 3pm so they thought they were good until 3pm.  
A total of five guests missed the ship at CocoCay.  Unsure what happened to the rest other than being put on Mariner for the ride over to Port Canaveral.  
Lesson learned.  Even at CocoCay, don't miss the ship!
Side note - when Empress skipped San Juan they had already taken on the San Juan pilot when Miami decided they should skip San Juan.  Because the pilot had already boarded they were on the hook for the ~$10k pilot fee.
Hoping we don't skip San Juan but an overnight in Tortola does sound very tempting.
 

@twangster doesn't sail Star Class..so this is a lie ???

@twangster, I'm starting to feel like I'm in The Matrix and it just glitched with a Deja Vu!
Have (yet another) great trip!