RestingBird

Yeah, I rarely get the drink package even when I'm solo and just need to buy one. 
Even before making diamond and getting diamond happy hour drinks, 8 nights or longer and the drink package was too much for me.  Drink fatigue kicks in around day 5-6.  That isn't so bad on a 7 night cruise but 8 or longer and no way, the drink package is just too much to justify.
I have some 13-16 night cruises next year coming up.  I'm not even going to do the math.  Just no.
Bring two bottles of wine.  Buy some drinks in port.  Use the BOGO beer/wine C&A coupon.  Go to the Captain's address.  Go to the top tier event if platinum or higher.  Buy an occasional drink.  Hope for the drink card.

And this would be a great idea....if my other obsession (disney) didn't require having a Disney Visa that I put my cruises on so I can rack up disney trips at the same time!!  So many choices ? Jane

I know there has been discussion before about the use of the Royal Caribbean Visa card and that there are better cards for money back, credits, etc. We have been using our RC Visa cards for any and all Royal purchases and accumulate quite a few points. Of course, we book our cruises as far out as possible and typically redeem points for a minimum of $200-$300 on board credit which we use for drink purchases. Next year, 5 day Bermuda trip has us in Bermuda for 2 days. No need for a drink package, just OBC!

that even a 20% drink package will still cost over 1400 for the 2 of you on a 12 day cruise.  Yikes....  Royal has the drink pkg on vision next summer on sale for $52 a day, but even if it drops another 10, it will still cost over 1000 for the 2 of us.  Did I say yikes before???   Oh for the days of 1 person drink pkgs....I can justify it almost because I pretty much do nothing on sea days but sun and drink, but on this port intensive day, even with 2 glasses of wine at dinner and a post dinner cocktail, my husband wouldn't come close.  I guess we will have to hope for drink cards and just bite the "post cruise bar tab" bullet.  Another interesting point (which has come up on a bunch of other threads) is that the combo drink/voom pkg is $25 percent off...they are only charging 11/day for 1 device.  Which I'd love to get but I can't justify paying 17.99 without the drink pkg.   
   Wait....if we dont get the pkg, is the vat charged on every drink?  I know this came up before too....maybe 1400 would be a deal lol!  Jane

Omg....I was trying so hard to be polite and wait for someone to make a comment about this before I jumped in. I laughed so hard at this comment because hubby and I have always said Disney must be the worse for this!!  Really?!  Your kids are just on the other side of the curtain. I hardly call that privacy lol! At least RC price point is affordable enough that you could get 2 connecting rooms and hope for some privacy.  In fact, I've paid less for 2 connecting rooms on RC than 1 on Disney!  It's entertaining reading for sure! ?

For the record, I'm still home ?

As far as number of pinnacle guests, we can make an educated guess thank to @twangster's tallies on his live blogs:
Indy had 9 reported Liberty had 37 Freedom had about 20 Anthem B2B had 30 on the first leg, 22 on the second Assuming Harmony has a number consistent with Anthem, since they're pretty similar capacity, you could argue 20-25 Pinnacle passengers on average. That's versus 101 non-JS suites on the ship (remember, JS doesn't get access to the suite lounge; number per Cruise Deck Plans). Assuming standard double occupancy, that's 202 suite passengers; it will really be a smidge higher due to 2BR ATS and other large suites, so let's call it 210.
25 / 210 = ~11.9% of suite passengers are "duplicated" and competing for space in the Suite Lounge by Pinnacle on average.
Or if you prefer, looking at the total you have Pinnacle making up 25 / (210 + 25) = 10.6%.
Either way, you're looking at about 1 in 10 people in the Suite Lounge not actually being a suite guest, assuming every passenger who can use the room does use it daily.

@monctonguy, there are getting to be more and more Pinnacle's, as well as Diamond and Diamond+, I remember in one of @twangster live blog's. I believe on Anthem that he said there were over a 1000 diamonds on the cruise and that the diamond lounge could not hold them all and it spilled out over to an adjoining room, I agree, there probably shouldn't be an issue, but depending on the cruise it could get crowded.
I just figured it out, I will reach Diamond+ next year on a 9 night Anthem cruise, it will then just take me 37.5 more 7 night cruises in a suite to reach Pinnacle, 2 cruises per year=18.75 years, I'm 56 now so I will reach Pinnacle when I turn 75 approximately!!! Hope I stay healthy.

To add even more fuel to this fire...I wonder (I know that no one knows the answer to this, yet) if the new "suites area" of the Spectrum will be for Suites only or if P's will be invited.  I'm predicting that P's will be included but I certainly do not know.
Since it appears that Royal is mimicking Norwegian for this "ship within a ship" concept, I guess a good question to ask is whether or not the NCL top level (I don't even know what they are called on NCL...the P equivalent on NCL) cruisers are invited to the Haven area.  That might give us a hint about how Royal is going to manage this.  Does anyone know ?

I think any Suite level above JS should enjoy exclusive perks that are separate from what the Pinnacle folks receive. One is based on Ststus and the other is based on spending more money to have a more exclusive experience. It’s great that you have achieved Pinnacle but if you didn’t book a suite for a particular cruise then you shouldn’t have business in the Suite Lounge. Just my opinion. 

I’m certain this will not be a popular opinion on this forum but I’m gonna say it. I think the Suite Lounge should be reserved for suite guests who pay a premium for something special. I think people with RC Pinnacle Status should stick to the Diamond Lounge. It would be less crowded and offer a more special experience for those of us who pay. You could make the case that they got to Pinnacle by spending money, however, it’s not difficult for a person of means & time to cruise in inside cabins to obtain status. If I’m going to pay larger sums of money for a suite then I want an experience. Sorry Pinnacle folks. 

If they create a Galaxy Class and don't name one Enterprise, I'm rioting.

There's a thread on here somewhere about some names RC has copyrighted and whatnot somewhat recently.  I think Joy OTS is one...can't remember the others.

This is going to be another rather photo-heavy post. Not as big as last night's St. Maarten blowout, but a close second.
Day 6 – Old San Juan, PR
Today was going to be tough. We were only in port from 7 AM until 2 PM, with our all-aboard time at 1:30. Even allowing for getting up as early as possible so we could be in the MDR right when it opened for breakfast, we were only going to have a few hours to see what we could of Old San Juan. Luckily, D17 met a girl who lives here through a vocal training camp they both attended last summer, and she had agreed to meet up with us and be our local guide.
I actually set an alarm for this morning, and even with the early time I'd set we were already docked. The sun was only barely over the horizon off to starboard, bathing OSJ in a warm early morning glow.

Standing on my balcony, I could already feel how humid it was. We got down to the MDR right as it opened for breakfast and managed to get a table for the four of us without any delay. We had agreed the previous night that we would just use the available "cereal bar" buffet and skip ordering off the menu. It's really the best of both worlds for breakfast – the far smaller crowd of the MDR and potential for a shared table and shared conversation, plus the speed and enough of the variety of food selections that the Windjammer offers to make for a very satisfactory breakfast. While my wife and the girls had taken advantage of this on prior days in the MDR, this was my first time and I was pleasantly surprised. There was a variety of breakfast deli meats and cheeses (including several, like salami and blue cheese, that I'd really only consider for lunch), sausage, bacon (both crisp and not so much), scrambled eggs (DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!!! DANGER!! DANGER!!), pancakes, French toast, and a nice selection of freshly sliced fruits. And you could still order fresh-squeezed orange juice, get your morning coffee, etc.
After a hasty breakfast, we shot back up to our cabins and slathered on sunscreen for the hot and sunny day ahead. We got off the ship around 8:45, a bit later than we'd wanted, and texted D17's friend Estefania that we were on our way to the CVS that we had been told the previous day by another passenger was across the street from the pier...
Except it wasn't...
That's a Walgreens. What the...?
Looking to our left, we saw the CVS about a block and a half down the street. We shrugged and went there, and waited for Estefania and her mom.
While we were waiting, we saw a homeless man panhandling right outside the CVS, sitting in what little shade there was and trying to get some money. I gave him a couple of dollars, and D14 asked if she could buy him one of the fruit popsicles she had seen for sale inside the CVS. I said absolutely, and she gave him one of the strawberry ones; he was happy to get that on what was already becoming a really hot day, and from the corner of our eyes we saw him enjoying it while we continued to wait for Estefania and her mom to arrive.
As it turned out, they also went to the Walgreens; after some chuckles and a bit of texting back and forth, we finally got together. And, it wasn't Estefania and her mom; it was Estefania and her older sister, Nicole. Their mom was busy and unable to get out, so Nicole went instead.
They asked us what we were interested in doing, and we let them know our main goals for the day were to see El Morro and have lunch at an authentic restaurant, not a touristy place. So they pointed us in the direction of the old fort, and off we went.
Now, @Matt has advised many times that if you want to see El Morro, it's better to get a cab there or take the trolley since it's a pretty steep uphill climb and it can kind of wear you out. But that's not what we did; Estefania and Nicole knew a fairly direct way there that would take us by some parts of town you don't get to necessarily see by taxi, certainly not by the trolley. While I was nervous about how I'd do with this, given my mobility limits, I decided the day was short enough and I'd pumped enough Advil after breakfast that I could make a go of it. And I'm really glad that I did.
The first major building we passed was a small local university; Nicole explained that it wasn't the main college on the island, but a smaller place (I think akin to a community college on the mainland) where people could go who wanted to get some classes out of the way before going for their main degree.

 
From there, we made our way through a number of colorful side streets. Estefania told us that most of the town isn't that colorful, it's really more the commercial districts and the neighboring nearby homes. Places more on the fringes of OSJ or in areas not so visible to tourists were a lot more low-key.

 
As we got close to the fort, we came across this small, one-lane street with a building painted with the Puerto Rican flag on one side. This was apparently a rather popular spot for tourists to take photos, so we agreed to follow tradition; Nicole offered to take our picture while standing in front of the building, which was nice since we didn't really have much in the way of family shots yet on this trip.

 
From here, it was a very short walk and were on the outskirts of the fortified wall that surrounds much of this part of the island and city. Looking out over the wall, you could see some building that were still wrecked after Hurricane Maria slammed the island last year.

 
We followed the wall down the street; as I paused to get another photograph, another homeless man asked if I could spare any money. I gave him a couple of dollars as well; when there's no way to know who's truly impacted by the disaster that hit the island and who's a hustler taking advantage of the tourists and the situation, I'd rather err on the side of assuming the former. Even if they're hustling me, it's still money that they'll spend on stuff locally and ultimately help the local businesses and other people there.

 
We now came into sight of El Morro. I don't know what the "normal" way to get there is when you take a taxi or the trolley, but the way we came brought us in by way of a large field that looked down on the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery, with the entrance to the fort still rather far off. Nicole told us that this cemetery had so little available space that only the most important and prominent individuals could be buried there now.

 
The wall in this area had one of the old watch towers (which I have since learned are called "garitas") that you could still go inside of. I've clearly played the Myst series of games far too much, because looking at this little watch tower on the wall, I felt like I was about to step into one of those games' "Ages" as soon as I walked through the entrance, no linking book required. In a way, I did; the view out of the narrow windows gave me a clear view down into the cemetery and the chapel at the far end. I really wish we had been allowed more time in port, as I'd have loved to explore this area as well as the fort. The sculptures and carvings that I could see on many of the graves looked amazing from this distance, and I'd have loved a chance to see them more closely (and maybe learn about some of the prominent individuals buried there in the process).

 
While I was taking in the view here, the others had moved on along the wall. I caught up with them at the section you can see in the last photo above, behind the chapel. You can see how the the wall curved out there and had several openings, most likely for cannons or other weaponry to fire on the ground below back when the fort was an active military installation and the cemetery wasn't yet built. On my way there, I passed a trio that included a woman who was in a rather fancy-looking dress. She was noticeably "out of place" compared to the two men walking with her, or the dozens of tourists and students who were there to explore the fort and its surroundings, or just relaxing and playing games or flying kites.

Once I reached the part of the wall where the others had stopped to wait for me, I looked around and was totally taken by the view here. Once you climbed up the small ramp to where the wall's openings where, you had clear vantages into the chapel side of the cemetery, as well as the ocean and the city center. And we were still only about halfway to the fort's entrance.

 
We crossed the field to the path that leads to the entrance into El Morro. Just before we got to the entrance, we were given another amazing view across the bay on that side.

 
Finally, we had arrived at the entrance to the old fort. I've seen pictures of it myself, but it's another thing to be standing there and taking it all in yourself.

 
Estefania and Nicole can be seen in the photo above; Estefania is wearing the sleeveless red blouse and talking to D17, while Nicole is standing to the left of her. My wife and I wanted to go inside the fort for a bit and at least see a little of the interior, but the girls wanted to stay outside and walk along the walls, so we split up and agreed to meet back at the entrance in half an hour. As my wife and I paid the admission fee, the person working there saw my Deadpool cap and laughed as he said that Deadpool was taking the tour as well.
Once inside, we went into the five connecting vestibule-like rooms that lined the right side of the fort, facing the entrance to the bay and the open ocean. Each of these rooms had an informational display that recounted the history of the fort, starting with its initial construction in the early 16th century through to the end of World War II. We learned a lot about how the fort changed hands over the centuries, and the role it played in Spanish trade and then as a defensive post and sometimes blockade point during the world wars. In each room, there was an open window in the wall looking out onto the lower courtyard and walls.

 
After we finished learning about the fort's history, we went out to the main courtyard, where the restored lighthouse now stands. I didn't try to navigate the really steep ramp leading up to it; from what I could see, it was a dead end and you couldn't go inside, at least based on the number of other visitors I saw go up, stay at the base of the lighthouse for a bit, and then come back down.

 
At the far end of the courtyard was another garita, from which you could see the bunker added on by the US Army during World War II, as well as the lower levels of the fort and the walking path along the coastline. Looking back into the courtyard from here also gave another nice view of the lighthouse.

 
At this point, it was time to meet back up with the girls. There was a gift shop that also sold water and other beverages right by the entrance, so we grabbed some bottles for everyone before leaving. We found everyone waiting for us, but they hadn't been waiting long. We all rehydrated, then moved on to the city center and towards where Nicole had thought we'd be able to get a nice early lunch.

 
Unfortunately, the place Nicole took us to wasn't open yet and didn't look like it would be any time soon. They took us along some other roads that started heading us back toward the port, figuring we'd likely find another option along the way. I noticed an unusual building as we worked our way through the central plaza, and Estefania explained it's a museum, but hardly anyone visits it. Since I had asked about it, they led us there so we could have a closer look.

I looked it up after I got home and learned that It's the Museum of the Americas, and originally was the Ballajá Military Barracks. We didn't explore the museum, only the interior courtyard where I imagine the troops who used to be garrisoned here would come out for practice drills or other activities. It's quite an impressive building, and the one doorway that leads down a stairway into another part of the city looks from the center of the courtyard like it just opens straight onto the ocean.

 
We resumed our journey back toward the pier and our search for a good lunch spot. We passed by the island's School of the Arts, which Estefania indicated was really popular with the local students looking to get an art degree.

 
We continued onward, and after another few minutes Estefania noticed a gift shop with a sign indicating there was a restaurant in the back, and we decided to take a look. It was a good decision, as it was just 11:30 and we were able to have an excellent and relaxing meal.

The rest of the family had one of the chicken or shrimp offerings, prepared as mofongo or one of the salads. I was feeling more adventuresome and tried the conch with the spicy criolla sauce; both Nicole and Estefania said that if I liked octopus or squid (I do), then I'd probably be happy with it. I found it very good, and the sauce was a nice complement. The conch was served with rice and beans plus mashed yucca, which I had never had before and found similar in texture to mashed potatoes, but with far better flavor. D14 tried some of mine and agreed that it was really good. I paired my meal with a mojito, which was incredibly tasty and, while a little strong after being in the heat so long, was also very refreshing. I actually ordered a second one to go so I could have one to enjoy on our way back to the pier. Trust me, the next time you're in Old San Juan, be sure to look this place up.
Before we left, D14 went into the gift shop and used the money her grandparents had given her to get a pretty hand fan that was much nicer than ones she'd previously bought online, with actual cloth for the material instead of paper, and good solid spokes mounted to it. Unfortunately, the pin holding it all together lost its cap on one side, and we need to figure out a fix for it; but it's still a nice souvenir and we're definitely hanging on to it. She also bought a tiny mortar and pestle, as Estefania explained most households had one for grinding their spices freshly as part of daily meal preparation. D17 didn't find anything appealing here, so we agreed to try and find another store where she could get something else for herself and maybe her boyfriend. We passed some interesting courtyards and side streets in our search, so I took some more pics while they shopped.

We didn't really have any luck on the shopping front, but we made one last stop just a few doors down from the pigeon park, located very close to the pier. Everyone wanted to take one last try at finding something in a little shop we found there, so while they shopped I drank the last of my second mojito. As I did, I heard a busker playing a guitar and singing. I tried to take a picture, figuring I'd hand him a tip immediately after; as soon as he saw me holding my phone with the big tele lens on it, he stopped playing and shook his head no. I put my phone down, he resumed playing, and I tried again, and this time he said out loud, "Don't take my picture, man."
At first I was miffed, but then I realized maybe I was doing things in the wrong order. Sure enough, as soon as I walked over and put five dollars into his hat, he chuckled and said, "Now we're talking!" At that point he looked up at me and apologized for being gruff earlier, and told me that while he didn't like having to be an a**hole he also had to make a living. He'd found his image on YouTube and even on TV commercials, where he hadn't been paid a dime for having his picture taken or video recorded, so he was really hard-nosed about no cameras without a tip first. I told him no problem and that I'd guessed as much, and he resumed singing while I now went back across the street and took a picture plus a short bit of video.


 
By this point, we had to get back to the ship. But we passed the pigeon park on our way and D14 asked if she could just buy one bag of corn for the pigeons and quickly feed it to them. I figured we had just enough time for that, and let her do it. Words can't describe what happened next. This really has to be seen to be appreciated, and I was really glad I had a tele lens in place to properly capture it all, especially with the burst mode photos I took.

It got even better when the guy handing out the bags of corn decided to pour another one into their hands free of charge (most likely because he knew the ship was leaving shortly).
 
At this point, we had to really hustle to get back to the ship on time. As we got back onto the main roads, we got some of that "typical port market" hustle, but we just told everyone we passed that we were about to miss our ship and they let it go. Except for one guy -- this fellow came up to my wife, urging her to try this cream he thought would be great for her skin. Even after she told him we didn't have time, he was sure she could just try a free sample really quick; he followed us for almost half a block before giving up! We all were laughing about it, and imagining if my wife had in fact tried this skin cream how the guy might have quickly run into the store and then sprinted after us all the way to the port entrance to try and close a sale.
Just before the port, D17 stopped briefly to give a couple of dollars to another busker playing a sax on the street we were rushing down. After that, we reached the port entrance. We said a hurried good bye and thanks to Estefania and Nicole, and then hurried through the security check (where we needed to show both our Sea Pass cards and passports). We made it to the ship just in time, as the security staff at the gangway were starting to take down the canopies and clearly getting ready to close everything up.
We went back to our room, where I skipped the sailaway beverage to have a few minutes to set up for another time-lapse, this time of our sail-away. No table stacking this time! I wasn't about to risk my phone or the table getting knocked over by a random vibration from the ship. It took some doing to get a decent view through the balcony's plexiglass, especially since I decided to try this time-lapse with the wide-angle lens, but I got it set up just in time. I have to say, I'm not as happy with this one; it seems like time-lapses are best done with no lens if you want a moderately wide shot, or ideally the tele lens. Tele would definitely have been better here, especially as we passed El Morro on our way to the open ocean.
 
After sail-away was done and we were on the ocean again, I showered and changed into fresh clothes after the hot and humid day in OSJ. While the others rested, I worked on editing photos and trying to catch up on my backlog, and nearly caught up with where I was at that point. I totally forgot about catching the sunset until it was too late, but my wife and I still went down to the Schooner Bar so she could get a virgin Lava Flow and people watch. I decided to try a spiced martini for something different; it was OK, but not something I'd order again. We sat and talked while watching a trivia game wrap up. After that, we went back to the cabin, where we all got dressed for formal night, and then headed down to Studio B to catch the early showing of the FreedomIce.com ice show.
I have to say, the show started a bit slowly for me. I was expecting a pretty "WOW" opening number, but I felt it was quite tame. However, as the show progressed the numbers performed by the skaters got more and more intricate. The theme was variations on what "Freedom" meant, in different time periods and different concepts. The songs played included some 70s oldies as well as numbers from the 80s and 90s. There were a few falls, but it wasn't surprising as we all could feel the ship shifting from time to time, as well as feeling the floor vibrating from the engines being pushed harder than the last couple of days. By the time it was done, we all agreed it was quite good and impressive for such a tiny rink on a moving vessel.
After the show ended, we went straight to Leonardo's MDR for our second formal night, which of course was lobster night. But before we got down to the business of enjoying our last fancy dinner, we asked our table-mate Debbi to take a couple pictures of us on the main stairwell.

I also took a picture of Debbi and her son Matt at her request, as her phone's camera wasn't great, and then I sent it over to her so she'd have a copy. After mentioning them so many times and how she knows @mpoole3 and Jason Poole, I figured I should show them once so they can put face to name.

Now for the dinner! I started off with the chilled strawberry bisque and a fresh caprese salad, followed by my requested two lobster tails. Then Jigger brought some extras our way, and I wound up having a third one that leaped from his plate over to mine while crying, "I volunteer as tribute!" In hindsight, I really should have said no thank you; I felt very full afterward, especially since I had the lava cake and baked Alaska for dessert and didn't compensate by just having a little of each. It was the first time I really felt like I'd overindulged.
My wife tried my lobster tail, which was a surprise to all of us since she isn't a seafood eater at all. She conceded it wasn't awful, but the texture really wasn't to her liking and she definitely wouldn't order one for with her meal. D14 chose not to have any lobster at all; she got spoiled after having a whole lobster on a trip to Newport, RI that we took last spring; she now will only eat whole lobster. 
After dinner, I made another stop at the casino and the craps table, while everyone else went to the cabins to study, relax, and go to bed. Luck had decided to be against me this time, and I walked away after slowly losing $25 over the course of several throws around the table. I came back after a little while and watched for a bit, but the table stayed cold and I didn't get back into the action.
Defeated, I went back to my cabin and called it a night. My wife was thrilled with this evening's towel animal -- a peacock!

Just one port day left. I really felt like the cruise was going by too quickly! But at the same time, I was kind of glad that this last port day was much more low-key, so I could have a chance to rest my feet and just take it easy.
 
 
Drink package tally and random notes:
Standard fresh-squeezed OJ at the MDR and cappuccino at Cafe Promenade Bottle of water for our time on OSJ Spiced martini at the Schooner Bar A glass of the Chianti Ruffina, "Castello di Nipozzano" that I'd had on night two (with $5 overage applied to my Sea Pass card) As with the prior night, the MDR had extra staff on hand to deliver bar orders so there was no long wait; my wine actually arrived while we were still taking our pictures on the stairway! Definitely a money-losing night as far as the drink package goes, but after two awesome mojitos in the early afternoon, I just didn't want to overdo it.
This was also the point where my Fitbit stopped charging for me. Most likely the contacts got too much sunscreen on them, and I just resolved to stow it for now and clean it up after I got home. I knew by this point that was averaging anywhere between 11,000 and 13,000 steps a day, so I wasn't overly concerned about losing my tracking for the last couple of days.
 

D'oh! Just realized that I left out the daily drink tally again! Will post it here rather than editing the St. Maarten posting...
Fresh squeezed OJ in the MDR at breakfast Grande cappuccino from Cafe Promenade after breakfast Patron Silver margarita from the Bull & Bear Pub - Not mixed nearly as well by the bartender on duty this day as the one I got there previously 1800 Reposado margarita from the Schooner Bar Kendall-Jackson Reserve Chardonnay at MDR during dinner, to pair with my shrimp entree and seafood appetizer (based on pairing a Chardonnay with the lobster salad course at Chef's Table) Interestingly, this glass of wine was delivered much more quickly than the previous nights; we noticed they had additional staff helping the assistant waiters so that bar drinks, particularly wines, were being delivered before the appetizer course was set on the table The MDR must have received a ton of complaints about the slow service on the prior nights and decided to do this to improve the service The wine was OK but not great; I'm really not a white wine person, but thought I'd at least try to follow the example set for us Also, forgot to note that when we went through port security this time, we only needed our Sea Pass cards and no other form of ID to get through the village and back onto the pier.

If you do that, you must send me a pic of the liner notes! ?

I haven't finished reading your whole blog yet...just had to make a couple comments before I forget them...  The captain driving the boat "like a bat out of hell" made me laugh, lol, not sure why, it was just funny.  That yacht...omg I'll take one!  And finally, if I'm ever in another band, one of our albums will be titled " Cows on the Beach", and I'll add your name in the thank yous ?.
Now, back to reading the rest of the blog.

Day4
 
Today port was La Spezia.
We slept late today until 8:30 am as we have not booked any tour.From all our stops in Italy La Spezia is my  favorite one as it’s a nice small city which you can tour around without any issues.
To go to the port gate, you must take a shuttle bus as ship passengers are not allowed to walk inside the port.
Las Spezia is also the gate to Pisa (45 minutes ride) and Florence (90 minutes ride) .If you never been to Florence I would highly recommend to take a tour to this renascence city with many amazing sites to visit.Pisa on the other hand have only one attraction, and yes it is the leaning tower of Pisa , you come , you take the photo (with thousands of other people) you pose as if you support the tower and create a face book picture exactly like million people before you ?
So I would go to Pisa only on the way to Florence.
Another excellent option would be visiting Cinque Terre , its actually  villages that are built on the cliff , they are very colorful and best view from the sea side although visiting one of them over the land is very nice.You can always take the tour from the ship but if you want to save some money you can find some tours operator in the port (There are many vendors inside the port building).The train station is 15-20 minutes from the port.
The best way to save money (for sure if you have 4 people in your group) will be to rent a car and drive were ever you want, for example you can drive to one of the small towns near by, park outside (parking available on the road side using parking tickets machines, make sure you bring enough euro coins) , please note some of the villages/towns are not allow cars inside. or even travel to Pisa (many parking near by). If you choose to rent a car please note , most of the cars that are offered in Italy (and in many other Europe countries)  has manual transmission , the automatic one are the more luxurious cars. Car rental with insurance (automatic transmission) will cost around 100$ per day. There are several rental cars in the city , I think the nearest one is the Avis which is 15 minute walk from the shuttle dropped.
I used this option last time I visit this port (We were group of four), I rented the car few month ahead, took the shuttle , walked to the renting facilities  and picked the car (do not expect to see US car renting like facilities , its actually travel agency with cars parked on the street). Once I picked the car I returned to the port to pick the rest of the group, It was quite easy. For sure it will be helpful if you will have access to Waze or other navigating application. If you just want to stay around the town you can walk and enjoy the seaside some parks and local restaurants There are many shopping option around (usually small shops)  , remember shops  can be closed between 1:30 PM To 3 or 4 PM for siesta time.



. There is also a mall in walking distance (1 mile from the shuttle drop). We walked in the city for a while and at the end we went to the mall to complete some of the must things in Italy :
Eat a pizza, drink espresso, eat a pasta and eat authentic Italian ice cream.
 There were many shops which offered mid session discounts ,My spouse bought some shoes and some T-shirts while I went to the supermarket (the local Walmart) and bought some aged balsamic vinegar and wine.
We eat a wired combo of pizza which come with soft drink and  espresso then went back to the ship (walking).
I love to be on the ship during port day , excellent time to relax and use the different facilities, its also a good option to take some pictures.

For dinner, we choose this time the WJ.
They had a lovely chocolate fountain, but I should have complained to someone that they located it in front of the window which facing the sun, it is bad for taking pictures, how inconsiderateness of them.


Later we went to sea the new ice show 1877, we came 10 minutes before and found some front seat , I must say they excel themselves , it was amazing , the effects is something out of the world although the level of skating was less than other shows over the different ships , maybe they need to run it for a while.
Here some pictures from the show , for better quality you will need to wait for @twangster  Trans Atlantic cruise in October 


\


\

 
Some observations: 
Internet is fast all around the ship, 
We have only 5100 people on board which can explain how there are always tables available in the WJ (tip , try to go to the middle of the WJ)
The break room is not available yet.
The CD is Michelle , BB is on the ship but he is not doing the morning show or most of the activities .
The ship looks really well maintained and not  showing her age at all 

Day 3
 
We waked up from the noises of the ship navigating to the Marseilles port.At this port you can take a shuttle to the city center (18 $ both ways kids ride for free).We eat a quick breakfast in the WJ , nothing really new here , same egg station, same lack of choices in breads and missing some fresh vegs but enough things to make almost everyone happy.
We booked a tour called Scenic Marseille , it’s a three hours long which start by driving between different interesting points in  Marseille with one stop in the old city water tower  and one stop at the city old port for one hour of do what you wand time. If anyone wanted to have some extra time at the city there was a shuttle station near by which allow you to catch a ride back to the ship.The tour was ok but I think it’s not really the best tour to take, I was missing some more stops and maybe some extra time , but hey I had to read better about what is offered..


After we stopped at the old port we went to find some macrons to eat , after all we are in France.We did find some nice bakery that had fresh Macrons and excellent almond croissants.The Macrons were good but I can actually get better back at home. As the bakery did not had coffee to go with the pastries we went to find us some good original French coffee , we found one next door , a small local French coffee shop called La Starbucks, so went outside to drink our fresh local coffee and eating the pastries. At that time the sun went out and it became another wonderful day.


After an hour or so we took our bus back to the ship.
We went to eat something in the park café , the park café here has the same exact menu as all the other ships have , the main change here is that RC organized more space to seat inside.
Next we went to play the mystery puzzle, we joined one of the groups and it was quite fun to try and solve it while knowing new people. We solved most of the puzzles but fail to find  the right criminal, apparently none of the other groups came to the right answer either.
It was SPA time ,so we went to the thermal suite to use the heated chairs, my partner was listening  to some music while I , to another podcast ?.I must say this time the room was quite full but we found two spots.We had to go catch some rest before dinner (actually catching some rest its an excuse for me to return to the room and write the blog updates).Dinner tonight was in the MDR , we were seated near a nice Italian couple which did not speak a word in English which was nice as it let my spouse practice her Italian , I on the other hand had to communicate with my Taxi/restaurant Spanish, it was very funny as many words are almost the same but pronounce differently and some have other meanings.
We saw the comedy show which was what I was expecting, glad I did not missed it this time.The night was ended at the Casino with some more Mojitos  from the Casino bar (thank you sticker) , I got three of a kind in 3 card poker so it was nice ending to this long day.

Too bad about "Flight" not showing.  I would have to say that out of all the RC original productions, this is the one I am looking forward to the most. 

Only if you're sitting in the heated seat in the thermal suite while listening to an episode about the thermal suite and how great the heated seats are. Then the meta might be a little overwhelming. 

Day 2 part 1
 
After a few hours of sleep (although I consider sleeping as waste of cruise time) we looked at the window and saw we already in Palma de Mallorca , second look  showed us that the forecast was not that accurate as instead of nice sunny day it looked quite gloomy, or so we thought
As we did not have special plans for Palma we decided to take it easy and postponed our travel to the city.We took the regular breakfast at the WJ , I order some eggs (sunny side up , hey at least I thought here I will have some signs of sun)    As the weather was not that nice yet and since we already visited last year the main attraction of the city we just turned it to a sea day and stayed on the ship.If it’s  your first visit to Palma , I will not skip it , after all it is a nice small city with some interesting building and a nice cathedral.First thing we done was to use our spa access (yes the one from the research) , we did a quick check in , got our scrub packages and of we went to the thermal suite.We used the wet sauna which felt very good, helped to ease some of the non-sleeping enough pains.We tried also the heated chairs which was very nice. We were the only one there.


As the spa team were kind enough to allow us to take the rube out  we decide to do another thing new. believe or not until this cruise (our sevens one) we still have not any of the Jacuzzi's  or the pools in any of ships. We do not feel that comfortable with the public Jacuzzi which are usually very crowded but as it is a very new ship and most of the people went to the city we thought it is a good opportunity to try it.
So quick shower in the spa and of we went to the pool deck, we choose one of the jacuzzies with a nice sea view that was empty (from people not from water, I am not that weirdo). By that time the sun came out and it became a very nice day. 
 
 
We spent some time in the water and went to enjoy some PinaColadas near by (10 $ each, not sure how they got to it but after gratitude it was 23 something for both).
We took  another quick shower, changed and went to try another activity we never done (and I am not talking about napkin folding class) , yes it was time to go down by the ultimate abyss. No lines at all (wired for a sea day no ?)  just two girls that went down screaming all the way which made us think if we are going to do the right thing but no way back.


We both went down the slides on the same time , I can tell you it is much scary to watch the boardwalk from the top of the glass floor than to do the ride itself. It not felt too fast and was fun, will do it again for sure.As we already nearby we thought to walk for a while on the running truck to accumulate some steps and burn some of the calories before heading to the WJ for lunch.After resting a while in the room we visit the C&A event which was conducted at the aqua theater.So around 1500 CA , 900 gold , 18 Pinnacle , the person with most points had 2180 cruising points.
End of day2 part one  

Just returned from Hooked , too much food , but good one , will share more info later but the good news everything on the menu is without extra cost 
 

Day  1 – Part two.
 
After going back to the room we located our luggage , although it was not near our room I still recognize them, apparently they where  near a room number similar to us.So we started to organize our stuff  as quick as we could to be able and push the two suitcases under the bad.The muster drill was next , the same jokes , same spy movie and same can not wait for it to be over  , but it was over after 20  minutes which allow us 30 minutes to get organized for dinner.
For dinner we went to Wonderland , it was not the first time we were eating there , first was at Harmony OTC , we liked it then and we wanted to give it another try.The menu was the same , the food was still very good but the surprise effect was missing ?.Do not get me wrong I still liked the food , mainly the shrimp and the slow cooked short rib.


The desserts are better looking than taste , I call them Facebook desserts (oh well I know now days Facebook is not that poplar so I will call them Instagram desserts).

Still , I do recommend people to try Wonderland at least for one time.We did a quick visit at the Casino , saying hello  to the host and getting the free drink sticker , it was  time to go and enjoy hairspray.We successfully found a wonderful seats at row five just in front the stage, all the other rows in front of us was reserve to star class . There were many empty seat for this show, I guess this is the first day effect .the show was nice, good choreography and sound. The 90 minutes pass quite fast.After the show we re visit the Casino for a while , 



Later on we watched the welcome show which in the end they have tons of balloons drooping on everyone  
 

Some observation :
 
No CA letter in the room
No meet and mingle letter
Free style machines exist at Sorentos, WJ and El Loco.
The ping pong table are at deck 5 outside neat the running track.
More , later ?
 

Day 1 Barcelona  , part one
Wow that was a long day,
It started at 5 AM, hey who can sleep late during embarkation day, I started to browse the internet thanking someone that decided to wait with the fireworks until we arrived  Barcelona.
When my spouse finally waked up we organize our suitcases and the backpacks with the water and wine.
Quick breakfast ,some last minute shopping for some stuff  we found that we forgot and we did our way to the port.
The drive  took about 10 minutes and around 25 $ including the tip.
We arrive to the port around 10:30 AM , security and check in took about 10 minutes (just validating our CC) but the ship was not ready to board , they said it will be ready around 11:30AM but I knew better (I read this blog after all)  and waited in line. Funny thing about the terminal , once you pass security you arrive to a small mall with several shops , one of the shopssells wines and water, which mean you can bring to the ship  as much wine as you want unless they check the wine for you , I forgot to ask as I already had two bottles  (and 8 bottles  of water +4 Sodas)    , well will find out next time.
They open the gate to general boarding at 10:50 , so up we went.
On deck 5 they gave some free sparkling wine which was nice.

First thing we  done after we finished the first glass of wine was to go to the central park area to find an open restaurant so we can reserve the BOGO (again thank you RC blog).
CG was opened and I booked as planned Wonderland for first night and Hooked for the second one (you know , for the research)  , no issues and no extra cost was required for the BOGO deal.
Next thing we done was to eat something in the WJ , after all breakfast was a fade memory as it was two hours ago , one may call it second breakfast (Hobbits maybe)
WJ was quite empty, lots of open tables. Food was the regular WJ food, Hamburgers, some carving station, pasta station , vegs and even Indian food.




We went to take some pictures of the pool deck but since it was rainy we did not stayed there too much time and continue our tour inside.
At 1 PM we went to the room , I really wanted to get rid of our bags has for some reason carry 10 bottles  around the ship is not that comfortable.
 
The room is organized very nicely and feel bigger than the room we had few month ago on INDY.
It was time to try something new, so we went one floor up to studio B were they had the laser tag.
We had to wait few minutes until more people will arrive and started the session.
The way they set it up is using some inflatables dividers over the Studio B floor.
They divide us into two groups (aliens and robots) and a 10 minutes session started.
It was fun and full of energy but our team lost ☹ which made us decide we need to try it again ? .

I think it is a very nice addition to the ship. Like many other activities its better to try and do at the first day before everyone finds it.
To relax after running in the laser tag we went to the SPA to add our name to the raffle , they took us a to a tour in the thermal suite and it looked very nice so we decide to buy the pass for the week (200 $ for couple) you know , for the research …
We thought what to do next and it was time to check El Loco fresh , I took a beef Taco (the option are beef , chicken, pork , rice and beans) topped it with some guacamole and fresh cream.
I know we just were in WJ two hours ago but hey it was for the research …
It was quite ok , not Sabor level but still a nice free option.