MaryS

14 days to go......
The luggage tag and my setsail pass updated at 17 days to display the cabin numbers on my first GTY. Since I used the barcode trick at check-in, I already knew the cabins. 
I have a Chase sapphire reserve card. Usually I spend on cruises: paying them off, gambling, etc. then I use the points earned to book my hotels and flights. Some airlines are now only allowing you to earn status if you book directly through them, cough, cough AA. Which sucks because if you book through Chase travel they give you 50% extra. I booked the flights for this cruise through the portal. For my mom, I booked her a nonstop flight home from MIA that left at 6:30. Last week I got an email that, that flight was cancelled, and they rebooked her on a connecting 7:30 flight from FLL that got in after midnight. I was pretty upset because my mother is not the well-traveled woman, she tells her friends she is. Her "brand newness" comes out hard when she has connecting flights and/or have to travel after midnight. Usually with SWA and well most airlines, if they change your flight, you have the option to select another without any fees or cost online. I had to call the travel department of Chase instead. She lucked up, sort of, there was a direct flight from Mia at 8:30pm. She doesn't care about waiting at the airport because she has audiobooks and tablet games to farm. As a nice gesture the rep gave her SWA "business select, " which will give her a nice seat selection and alcoholic drinks. 
I am sorry if the pictures are too big🤣.
So here are a couple of the offerings I made to Bezos:
Amazon.com | riemot Luggage Travel Cup Holder Free Hand Drink Carrier - Hold Two Coffee Mugs - Fits Roll on Suitcase Handles - Gifts for Flight Attendants Travelers Accessories Grey | Travel Accessories
 

I always have preflight drinks and struggle with finding somewhere to put them, some airports don't have the cup holders. This was recommended to me by a coworker who must have their kombucha and coffee. Plus, it keeps me from having to constantly remove my backpack to access my water bottle. 
Amazon.com: Portable fan Battery Operated Fan USB Desk fan Camping Fan for Tents,Battery Operated portable Fan Personal Fan battery powered fan camping portable fan Outdoor fan Rechargeable Fan with Hanging : Home & Kitchen
 

Every couple of years I update my travel fan. We did a glamping trip last year and a mutual vintage had this fan. It has an adjustable night light and blows out amazing air. Since I am staying in interiors, that light comes in handy. It is also small enough to fit in a backpack or purse without being cumbersome. 
Amazon.com: Greatever G2 Full Face Snorkel Mask with Latest Dry Top System,Foldable 180 Degree Panoramic View Snorkeling Mask with Camera Mount,Safe Breathing,Anti-Leak&Anti-Fog : Sports & Outdoors
 

That is the snorkel mask my brother brought. We hit PDCC 3x on this cruise, so it will have paid for itself. 
Amazon.com: Poesie Laundry Detergent Sheets Fresh Scent 160 Sheets Clear Plastic-Free Hypoallergenic Liquid Less Sheets for Home Dorm Travel Camping & Hand Washing Clean No Waste : Health & Household
 

 
 
Since these cruises are shorties, there won't be any D+ laundry perks, so I am bringing a couple of the laundry detergent sheets. They take up no space and I can wash a few things out and hang them in the shower if need be. 
I don't think I have mentioned this before, but not only do I cut my brother's hair, I do mine as well. So, I will be packing sometime later this week, as next week will be too busy for me. There are fur babies to be dropped off, Mother's Days to be celebrated and of course work. Although these cruises can't come fast enough 🤣. 
 

Snacks delivered to our cabin

Saturdays night sunset

We are losing another hour to day.
 
Todays lunch was A taste of Royal




 

Pictures of Azores  during medical evacuation 




 

So with wifi issues and no hot water yesterday on 17 it was a long day. Hot water did not get corrected until after7 pm last night. Last nights headliner show was a juggler. It turned out to be very good. 

Today we are in Roatan, we have a casita by swim and tonic.







The Moet doesn’t come with these casitas, it’s the bottle we got on boarding day 😉

Ok, big fail on my part as I got the tomahawk ribeye and didn’t snap a single pic while at chops.  Rookie blogging mistake, but I will blame it on the amount of wine consumed up till that point.
As for the tomahawk ribeye, it was delicious, and even though it says 32oz, that is with the bone so really not that huge of a portion when compared to the bone in ribeye.
Going back further yesterday, after the wizard of Oz, I sat down at the 3 card poker table and on the first hand hit a 6 card straight flush.  I only had $10 on the six card bet, but that was still a quick 2K. 😎I ended up giving $400 of that back before the end of the night, but in all it was good!

Nope she still hasn't picked yet.  I love Grandma Mazur too and Lula just makes me laugh🤣 

Wizard of Oz was Amazing!
oh and Rover left us a friend in our room.

😎
Tonight we have chops at 7:15 and then we are going to see a journey tribute band called DSB in the music hall.

Century Class, was different than Millennium Class that was different than Solstice, Edge Class is different from Solstice Class. Celebrity makes a big deal when marketing a new class of ships stating that their new ship designs are driven by advanced technology more than size or amenities for cruisers. There is usually a specific design feature, e.g., Eden in Edge class ships, that sets it apart from previous design features. Millennium and Solstice class ships are still sailing itineraries along with Edge class ships and the 4 Edge Class ships (Edge, Apex, Beyond and Assent) are evolutionary in design. Celebrity does a very good job of learning from issues and correcting them on each new ship in the Edge Class. So, there are differences between all four ships in Celebrity's Edge Class fleet. 
As noted above, you're going to enjoy sailing on any of Celebrity's ships. My experience sailing each of Celebrity's ships that are in service at least once is the continuity of the onboard character that the front office wants to create and service delivery. It is the same friendliness of the crew, from officers to staff, on all the ships I've sailed on. Service is very high in quality because of the rigorous training Celebrity conducts. There might be a few hick-ups when large numbers of crew or officers transfer from one ship to another or their contracts end.  I've been impressed with how Corporate manages this to keep the chaos from routine transfers, on to and off the ships that can occur, keeping it to a minimum or hardly noticeable. 
As I walk up the boarding platform and enter the ship, my usual exclamation is that, "I'm home."

@Ampurp85We were fortunate and didn't have any bad weather on the drive yesterday. We messaged our neighbor and he said we had rain  but no hail or high winds. When I looked this morning the forecast showed no rain in Galveston until about 7ish. Captain said it was going to be rough with 25-30 knot winds. We all just took Dramamine. This is the farthest forward we have been before, so hopefully it won't be a problem. The crew door to the bridge is maybe 6 rooms down the hall.
Recap of the day and photos coming soon.

Our first view of her.

We left the hotel shortly after 9 and ran by Walmart. My ear buds died. We are on the shuttle and the driver says they had a medical emergency and had to wait on an ambulance this morning. They are still unloading the ship.

Whew! OK, packing is pretty close to done. Just 2 new dresses arriving from Amazon tomorrow, a pair of shoes I need to finish breaking in, pajamas and t-shirts to go. Oh, and some of it needs moving to my carry on bag, for the 2 nights in Barcelona. 
Perks of living at home - my mum helped me and is going to buy some missing toiletries when she goes to the supermarket tomorrow. She is good at packing so things don't crease. I on the other hand, am not. No pictures of my packing chaos just yet, will grab some when it's completed. 
I do need to reach out to Jamie and confirm the logistics of getting to the airport - airport hotel is booked for the 9th so we just have to get ourselves there (around a 45 minute drive). Normally his family give us a ride so he doesn't have to leave his car in parking. 
Tomorrow is my last Monday at work before the cruise - next week is a Bank Holiday (public holiday) here so my workplace is closed. 

We are home now, but not without a bit of drama.
We got to the parking garage (remember...we parked offsite on this one due to the length of our B3B).
Dead battery.  UGH
Dan and I had already been talking about getting a new battery.  I guess we waited too long.
So, we tried to do a jump with the parking garage's jumper doo-hickie (apparently dead batteries are a frequent enough occurrence that they have a jumper doo-hickie on hand)....but the battery was too far gone.  D.E.D.
Had to call AAA.  Now, I have been a member of AAA for 31 years.  I probably haven't used any of their services for at least 10 years, maybe more. Today I thanked the heavens that I had kept my account current.
Less than 10 minutes after my call a REALLY nice (and truly helpful) guy was there with all the answers.  He checked our battery (confirmed that it was, indeed, D.E.D) and then replaced our battery with a sparkly new one.  All was well.  We were on our way by 10AM which was only about a 1.5 hour delay.  I can't say enough good things about AAA on this occasion.  They truly saved the day.
Backing up for a review of Premier Parking (offsite for PoM).  We saved a $hitpot of money so I will say that it was worth it in THIS case but I don't think I would do it again unless we were going to be gone a really long time, again. 
While they did, indeed, have transfer vans running fairly regularly between the Terminal and the parking garage, it was very disorderly and each time a van appeared, it was a shoving match to push your way to the front of the line to try and get on.  They absolutely SQUOZE (yes, I know that is not a real word) into the van but thankfully it was a short trip so it was over soon.  Cheaper ?  Yes.  Worth the hassle.  Probably not.

Rover looks so happy and well taken care of 🥰

Rover!

We did not sleep well, but I came out to the living room just before 6 and DH had a cup of coffee waiting for me. He just went back downstairs to get second cups for us. He's a saint.
The inside of the hotel is just as humid as it is outside which is a little odd because the ac is doing a good job at keeping the temperature comfortable. It was just sticky all night.
The plan is the included breakfast for the kids, everyone get ready, and we'll head out about 9:45. It's 30ish minutes to Lighthouse Parking. It will be around 10:30 when we make it to the cruise terminal for our 11am boarding time.

After a long drive and hitting lots of traffic in Houston, we made it to the hotel. We checked in dropped off our bags and headed to dinner. The Cheesecake Factory is just a mile or two from the hotel. 
The room is what we expected from the pictures. One bedroom and a separate living/kitchen combo. One bathroom. They only have decaf packets coffee in the room. We asked the front desk for regular, and they said they are out. DH said he doesn't mind running down to the lobby for coffee. He thinks it's better than what is in the room.
Tomorrow is cruise day!

Proof of the shenanigans at the juggler show that I forgot existed (I forgot he took my phone and snapped pictures) 😂


 
Oh and I forgot I took a picture at the 1400 bar!  😜

I might of been a little too under the influence to even BLUI (blog under the influence) 😵‍💫

Slight recap to last night.
My initial opinion of the ship is wow!  The hideaway area is a game changer in my opinion. We hung out there for about 4 hours yesterday, both in the pool and at the bar.  The vibe is unlike anything I’ve experienced on a cruise ship before.  We still have a LOT to explore, we walked around most places, but never even made it to Central Park.
The Aquadome and overlook are stunning!
We had the headliner show at 7:15 it was a juggler named Adam Kario.  Kelli got to go up on stage and be his assistant while I provided comic relief for him 😂.  There may be video 😎In the end it was a lot of fun!
We did make it to Coastal Kitchen for dinner at 8:30, but only managed one picture as I was feeling no pain by that point lol.

We got back to the room and had a surprise waiting for us telling us about a special event this morning.

We are beyond excited as we are dog lovers!
Now just relaxing waiting on Starbucks to arrive.

Should be a fun see day!

This is really nice!

Here’s a little bit of intel that I didn’t have 30 minutes ago…
If you forget to cash out a casino voucher (guess how I know this…) they can redeem it for you at Guest Services !   I almost left my voucher in the stateroom, certain that it was trash…but I told myself, “you have to at least TRY and get this money…”.   So I did…and nobody was more surprised than me that they could and did.  It wasn’t big money ($31.95) but it was worth the try.  I gave him a nice tip…
He did tell me though, that once you leave the ship there’s no way to redeem a voucher so even if you forget to cash it out at the casino, you must do it before you leave the ship.

Relaxing in the room after our wonderful dinner with @JustMeJoe and his wonderful wife.  We most definitely have made wonderful new friends with them.  What a great couple !
While enjoying our quiet and restful post- gluttony coma, I suddenly got a VERY strong whiff of skunk weed through the ventilation system !  At first I wasn’t sure where it was coming from but since we have NO balcony, there was only one possible source.  It went away quickly so I guess nothing to worry about.  For a while there, we were smelling it far too frequently on other ships but lately haven’t smelled it.  Was surprised when it happened tonite.  Hmph.