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Empress B2B 14 nights On The Biggest Little Ship July 2019


twangster

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5 minutes ago, monctonguy said:

ohh..don't tell me that......that's driving distance which saves us $1000 or more in flights from here...I will be watching for those cruise deals/options!!

They are up now on the website.  Definitely some nicer and different ports of call on some itineraries.

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55 minutes ago, twangster said:

They are up now on the website.  Definitely some nicer and different ports of call on some itineraries.

Those are nice! If the timing of some of those Canada or Canada/NE runs worked better with the school year, and I wasn't already booked on Celebrity, those would be really tempting. We can take the Amtrak from New York to Montreal, no flight required.

And she's also sailing out of Cape Liberty all summer of 2020, doing a regular 7-night "Best of Bermuda" run that has a day and a half in Hamilton and a day and a half in St. George's. Pinging @coneyraven!!

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4 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Those are nice! If the timing of some of those Canada or Canada/NE runs worked better with the school year, and I wasn't already booked on Celebrity, those would be really tempting. We can take the Amtrak from New York to Montreal, no flight required.

And she's also sailing out of Cape Liberty all summer of 2020, doing a regular 7-night "Best of Bermuda" run that has a day and a half in Hamilton and a day and a half in St. George's. Pinging @coneyraven!!

Wait? What?  Empress?  Do you have a link to this?  I'm a little late to the party.

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4 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

Wait? What?  Empress?  Do you have a link to this?  I'm a little late to the party.

Search for cruises leaving Cape Liberty, any departure date, going to anywhere. When you get the results page, click the "Ships" drop-down and select Empress, then click the Apply button.

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47 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Those are nice! If the timing of some of those Canada or Canada/NE runs worked better with the school year, and I wasn't already booked on Celebrity, those would be really tempting. We can take the Amtrak from New York to Montreal, no flight required.

And she's also sailing out of Cape Liberty all summer of 2020, doing a regular 7-night "Best of Bermuda" run that has a day and a half in Hamilton and a day and a half in St. George's. Pinging @coneyraven!!

I love the thought of docking in Hamilton & St. Georges again.  We did it in 1997 on the little Song of America.  Unfortunately 2020 is already booked up for us.  I hope she comes back and does it in 2021!

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Day 10, Cruise 2 Day 4 - Costa Maya

I stayed on the ship and took advantage of the much better Voom today compared to yesterday.

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The Celebrity Equinox would join us again today.  She was with us in Key West and I caught her sailing into the sunset later that day.

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There is definitely a lot of sargassum (seaweed) floating in the ocean this time.  Like many things in nature it varies day to day and it appeared there was more of it this time.

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I stayed on the ship and got some work done.  Soon enough it was sail away time for both ships.   We arrived first and we departed first with the Equinox's helipad a popular spot for sail away.  The company ships did a "horn-off" each blowing their whistle following each others pattern.  Empress needs to step up it's whistle, Equinox put her to shame.

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Dinner back in Chops for the second half of my BOGO.

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I often forget to take pictures of the bread, I usually jump right in when it arrives.

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The 16 oz bone-in ribeye tonight

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Mushrooms and tater tots as sides.

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Apple pie for dessert (with raisons).

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Tonight's Headliner Show with Finis Henderson, former Motown artist, comedian, dancer, impressionist.

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He did impressions of a number of different musicians and actors.

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After dark I thought I'd walk off some of my dinner.  There were a number of low clouds passing above us and it didn't look like a great night for the Milky Way again.  Our direction towards Belize puts the Milky Way at the front of the ship but after Belize we'll start heading back North so this would be the last chance to take advantage of the dark bow to capture it.

A passing storm in the distance caught my eye from deck 6 aft behind Boleros.

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It didn't look good for star gazing but I thought I'd try anyways so back to deck 6 forward.  I settled in to let my eyes adjust and it seemed like it was opening up at times.  In between passing clouds I managed to get some more Milky Way shots.  Using lessons learned from the previous night I think they came out pretty good. 

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48 minutes ago, twangster said:

After dark I thought I'd walk off some of my dinner.  There were a number of low clouds passing above us and it didn't look like a great night for the Milky Way again.  Our direction towards Belize puts the Milky Way at the front of the ship but after Belize we'll start heading back North so this would be the last chance to take advantage of the dark bow to capture it.

A passing storm in the distance caught my eye from deck 6 aft behind Boleros.

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It didn't look good for star gazing but I thought I'd try anyways so back to deck 6 forward.  I settled in to let my eyes adjust and it seemed like it was opening up at times.  In between passing clouds I managed to get some more Milky Way shots.  Using lessons learned from the previous night I think they came out pretty good. 

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Oh dear!!! Even better than the night before and that lighting shot was amazing also. Such a treat for us, thanks @twangster 

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I've been getting a number of questions about how I shot the Milky Way photos.

I shot this using a full frame Sony A7III with a Sony 12-24mm lens.   A crop sensor body that most people shoot wouldn't be able to get this wide.  The A7III also has really good low light performance, night and day from my last full frame body, a Nikon D750.

Also keep in mind I have a pretty good investment in gear.  Body and lens for this shot are ~ $3,700.  Not trying to brag but let's keep expectations real.  A <$1k kit can shoot the Milky Way and produce some nice results but maybe not achieve the same results.

Camera settings shown at the top, Lightroom adjustments below that.

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Using Adobe Lightroom I added a lot of clarity and adjusted other light levels and white balance.  This is why I shoot in RAW.  There is a lot of data captured in a RAW file that can be manipulated using software such as Lightroom.  Shooting in JPEG would lose all this extra data and you would never be able to achieve these results.  This is how JPEG produces a lower file size, it throws away all the extra sensor data it doesn't need for a JPEG picture.  A RAW file is much bigger because it contains all the raw sensor data that was captured.

Original picture as it was captured on the left, final picture on the right after adjustments in Lightroom.

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The one on the left is closer to what you see with the human eye.  Between the two brightest stars you can sort of see a cloud like area with the human eye that is the center or heart of the Milky Way.

Keep in mind I've been shooting the Milky Way for several years now so I've got some previous experience on land with a firm tripod.  On land you have more control and can take longer exposures, up to around 25 seconds for this focal length.  That allows you to lower ISO or make other adjustments for better results.  I wanted to keep the exposure shorter because of the ship's movement.

I use an app called PlanIt Pro.  It has an AR feature where you can hold up your phone, adjust the time or date and it will show you where the Milky Way will be at that moment in the future.

After we left Belize heading North to Cozumel I used this app to see when and where the Milky Way would be on Night 11.

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This tells me the MWC (Milky Way Center) will be visible between 8:43pm and 3:07am.  At 12:16am the MWC will be as shown for the location we are at this moment in time.  On land that works well, on a moving ship you don't always know where your position will be in six hours or the heading of the ship hours later so there is some guess work and extrapolation involved, but at least you know what direction to find it. 

With a full moon the results would have suffered a lot.  I don't try to shoot the night sky on land most of the moon phase, it works best without moon light.  New moon was perfectly timed for me, that's just luck.   For Costa Maya it was July 31st. 

The MWC in the Northern Hemisphere is visible at night in summer months only, you can't shoot the Milky Way in the winter up here but you can down under.

There is also a lot of luck involved.  Based on the cloud cover after leaving Belize pictured above the Milky Way would not be visible.  I got pretty lucky two nights in a row with the ship heading South towards the Milky Way, on the right phase of the moon, without major cloud cover.  Costa Maya and Belize are close so the ship was only moving at ~8 knots.  

I don't always bring my A7 with me, that's why I have the RX100VI - for travel.  I threw the A7 in my backpack at the last minute.

I was in the right place at the right time with cloud cover that was in my favor on a slow moving ship with the right gear.  It's pretty rare to get all that working in your favor on a cruise, on a ship with a public area that is dark.  I may never get another opportunity like this. 

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Day 11, Cruise 2 Day 5 - Belize

I awoke late after staying up late for the Milky Way and discovered we were at anchor in Belize.  Due to the great barrier reef system here and the lack of a pier or deep water harbor ships must anchor well away from shore (and the reefs) .  Guests use tenders to make it anywhere.

The tenders were queuing up getting ready to take guest ashore.

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One of the many tenders in use today.

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Today I booked Scuba Diving through Royal Caribbean in the Cruise Planner before sailing.  Catching a sale event and given the tender operations it's just easier booking through Royal especially in Belize since it's a tender port. 

Our meeting point is common on many Royal ships for ship excursions, the main theater.  Here all guests received a different sticker based on their excursion and we waited to be called.

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When they were ready for us or excursion was called.  Our dive boat picked us up right at the ship.  We would never visit the Belize mainland today, we went straight to our dive boat and back.  A couple of Carnival guests were already on the dive boat since we shared anchorage with the Carnival Conquest today.

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in the past sometimes these dive boats will take you their dive shop to get fitted.  In our case they came prepared with all of our gear and some extra stuff for size mismatches.  From here it was roughly a 45 minute ride to the reef we would dive today.

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i had bought a new underwater housing for my RX100.  Yesterday as I was getting my stuff ready the inner gasket popped out of the track on the new housing.  I spent some time trying to get it back in but there was no way I could get it to stay.  Not willing to risk my favorite travel camera I went back to my old GoPro for underwater shots.

The reef is very beautiful here and the pictures don't do it justice.

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A Green Moray eel wasn't very pleased with our presence.

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Our dive master pointed out a resting stingray in the sand below.

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Two Spotted Eagle Rays swam past at a safe distance to check us out.  Very majestic with their movement.

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We enjoyed two dives with a surface interval in between.  This is all done with a plan to respect dive tables and how your body absorbs gases under pressure at depth.

Both were enjoyable dives but I was disappointed I couldn't use a better camera compared to my aging GoPro.

After the dive was over they served a box lunch and we headed back for the 45 minute ride to the ships.

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We stopped first to drop off the Carnival guests at the Conquest.  The Conquest class was my first introduction to Carnival when I used to sail with them a number of years ago before switching to Royal.  It really struck me how badly the Conquest needed a paint job.

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Finally we were off to our home around the corner.

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Big difference that some routine maintenance can make.

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Windjammer had American Night tonight.

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Main theater tonight had the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers performing Jazz Cabaret with music by the Empress of the Seas Orchestra.

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Some acts were solo, some duets.

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Music was quite good.  Royal did a great job casting these performers.

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Some older stuff, some newer stuff.  All very well done.

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Later in the Schooner Bar was Name that Tune 70's music.  One group got them all correct, quite amazing given one very challenging song.

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Voom check in.

Morning in Belize before diving:


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Also noted way out where the ships anchor was fringe for cell phone coverage.  Sometimes great, sometimes not so much.  This might vary based on who your cell phone plan is with.  The dive site had no coverage but as we got closer to where the ships anchor we had coverage on the dive boat.

After leaving Belize as we moved up the coast towards Cozumel much later that night after enjoying the evening activities:

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Generally speaking Voom has been stable and not doing the complete but brief outages today.

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Sorry @twangster, I am coming to this Live Blog Party a little late.  My Soulmate and I are seriously considering cruising on Empress out of Montreal in the fall of 2020.  Montreal is just a short dog sled ride from our house. ?

We love to dance, and find that all RC ships have wonderful live music all over their ships.  Three questions:

1) Are you finding a variety of live music being played?  Boleros looks like a great venue, and the Viking Crown Lounge always has potential.

2) We are not great dancers, but we always look for any place to take advantage of the most basic dance floor (we are not shy).  Is there anywhere in the Schooner Bar that could be used as a dance floor?  The two best Schooner Bar dance floors are Harmony (I think most people call this dance floor the "Entrance") and Anthem (it has a dance floor just for two beside the piano).

3) Any other opportunities for dancing that you have come across?

Any input would be great.

Curt From Canada

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47 minutes ago, Curt From Canada said:

Sorry @twangster, I am coming to this Live Blog Party a little late.  My Soulmate and I are seriously considering cruising on Empress out of Montreal in the fall of 2020.  Montreal is just a short dog sled ride from our house. ?

We love to dance, and find that all RC ships have wonderful live music all over their ships.  Three questions:

1) Are you finding a variety of live music being played?  Boleros looks like a great venue, and the Viking Crown Lounge always has potential.

2) We are not great dancers, but we always look for any place to take advantage of the most basic dance floor (we are not shy).  Is there anywhere in the Schooner Bar that could be used as a dance floor?  The two best Schooner Bar dance floors are Harmony (I think most people call this dance floor the "Entrance") and Anthem (it has a dance floor just for two beside the piano).

3) Any other opportunities for dancing that you have come across?

Any input would be great.

Curt From Canada

Boleros has the best opportunity to dance with live music.  The bands rotate mostly between the pool deck and Boleros.  Schooner has a piano with some but limited dance floor space potential.  Pool deck and Boleros would be the top dance locations for live music.  The VCL doesn't seem to have live music but hosts events like the 70's and 80's themed parties and when those are on the dance floor is popular but it's not live music, rather music played over the speakers.

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Day 12, Cruise 2 Day 6 - Cozumel

We were docked in Cozumel when I woke.  No plans today but I'm going to take advantage of my cellular plan including Mexico in my "home" area to make some calls and get some work done.  I like Cozumel so don't get me wrong but I've been a number of times this year with more stops booked.  With some overcast and rain clouds in the distance I'm going stay on the ship today.

#boring

From my office (balcony) I spotted the Carnival Paradise arriving. 

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Carnival has modified some of these old ships to add balcony cabins.  Cool idea.

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Voom has been pretty stable most of the day but towards the end my VPN was flapping occasionally so the on again off again Voom struck again for an hour or so.  I think it's a sign I need to stop working, like someone flipping the house lights on and off.  Time to move on.

With the work day done it's time to switch into cruise mode.  Happy hour is calling... and the bartenders are taking care of me.

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A lot going on around the ship but I saw it last week and I'll be back the week after next so I took the time to enjoy a Crown & Anchor bottle of wine on my balcony.  Something about the sea air and sound of lapping water that recharges the soul.  The wine didn't hurt that effort either.

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Boleros

On this sea day I've got some time to kill so let's look at Boleros.  I can't say enough great things about Boleros on Empress.  it is the biggest and best Boleros across the whole fleet.

Located on deck 6 aft with entrances on port the port and starboard side.

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This Boleros has a distinct Cuba theme.

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Great bar with ample bar seating.

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Nightly there is always something going on in Boleros.  From Royal game shows to live music and dancing Boleros has it all.  

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Meal with an officer lunch in Chops today.  

Unfortunately I left my memory card in the cabin so no pictures.

Very enjoyable meal with the IT Manager on one side and the Inventory Manager on the other.  Another Chop's steak in my belly. 

Our IT manager has requested an upgrade to O3b Voom but so far it hasn't come through.  He has increased the bandwidth commit for the ship's Voom.  Currently it is 80Mbps down and 50 Mbps up.  That is shared between guests and the ship's needs.  Individual guests are capped so no single guest will ever see those kinds of speeds.

Our Inventory Manager has promised there shall be Guinness waiting for me the week after next when I return.   Really nice guy who has been with Royal for 24 years.  His last ship was Freedom.  He has a wife and two teenage daughters at home.  They do get to come on board and spend time when schedules permit.  As a 3 stripe officer he has his own cabin.  On larger ships his family can stay with him in his cabin when they visit.  His cabin on Empress only allows 2 so when his family visits they need to use a guest cabin.  He volunteered that he makes a lot more money with Royal than he ever could back in Nicaragua.  Providing a good quality education for his daughters is a priority so that why he is here, he could never do so trying to get by at home.  It's all about providing a better life for his family.  

Loading and unloading the ship has it's challenges.  On Empress there is one door that everything goes through.  He has to wait until after luggage and some other items have been moved before it's "his" turn.  On larger ships there are usually separate doors dedicated to luggage vs food vs. waste offloading and other supplies.  Bayonne will be interesting due to tidal changes.  At times all supplies and luggage have to be hoisted by crane using a basket vs. forklifts directly.  The crane slows things down a lot.  Using one door and a crane will be a challenge.  

Come to think of it in Vancouver when Ovation did its inaugural call in May they were using cranes and baskets.  That is likely why that turn around went so slowly.  It happens at some ports when the tides don't put the doors at the right level and tides change dramatically so using forklifts isn't an option.  The things you never think of.

In hurricane season we carry extra supplies on board.  We might run out of some perishables but there shall be food. 

Food is inspected by himself and members of the galley staff.  If they reject something that vendor is responsible to ensure replacement items are sent to the ship at the next port of call.  Vendors are therefore motivated to make sure that doesn't happen as it could be very costly to do so.

He likes Empress because of the smaller ship size.  On this ship the crew and guests become family because every one gets to know everyone.  On larger ships there are so many crew and guests you can go a contract and not meet everyone.  With the sense of family on board the time goes faster and before you know it the contract is over.  I have certainly experience that here on Empress where several offices and crew have recognized me and stopped to talk.  You don't get that as often on larger ships.

Forgot to mention, we changed time last night.  Back on Eastern time today.

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If you like a Main Dining Room with windows to the sea, the Empress dining room is waiting for you.

With generous windows on the sides and aft, this dining room is about seeing the sea.

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They were setup for a sea day Brunch when I took these photos.

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Located at the aft and down on deck 5 nearer the water there are fantastic wake views.

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The area where the chef is waiting to serve slices of meat on the black table is where the Hotel Directors Table was held earlier in the cruise. 

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It's one of the nicer MDR's in the fleet.

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2 hours ago, twangster said:

Our Inventory Manager has promised there shall be Guinness waiting for me the week after next when I return. 

So running out of Guinness is a normal thing for RCCL?  They always seem to run out on the ships we've been on recently.

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4 minutes ago, KathyC said:

So running out of Guinness is a normal thing for RCCL?  They always seem to run out on the ships we've been on recently.

Empress doesn't have a pub and lacks the craft beers or any beers beyond the large scale breweries.  Earlier when I asked for Guinness they had a limited stock and were saving some for a beer tasting event.  The inventory manager will ensure he picks up some more for my next cruise.

 

3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Not once in all those nights, just for research and to have fun with the waiters who all wonder why you're traveling solo? I'm shocked!

The Hotel Director's Table was in the MDR but I was so deep in conversation with the table I didn't notice.

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1 hour ago, twangster said:

Empress doesn't have a pub and lacks the craft beers or any beers beyond the large scale breweries.  Earlier when I asked for Guinness they had a limited stock and were saving some for a beer tasting event.  The inventory manager will ensure he picks up some more for my next cruise.

That's very good to know, should we end up on her in the future.  Unfortunately, the ships we have found the Guinness to be scarce are ships that DO have pubs...LOL  Serenade was out by day 3 of a 12 night.   Explains why Grandeur didn't have a lot, since she doesn't have a pub, but there always seemed to be one available when they went and looked for one for us.  In the beer carts up on the pool deck, there was always one, and they had to go find another when we ordered two.  One bartender actually left his cart unattended while searching for a second one.  He was gone about 10 minutes, and not a sole walked up to it and took a beer.  It was a pretty crowded pool deck, and there was no way the staff at the pool bar had any idea there was an unattended cart there, so I know they weren't watching. 

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Day 13 continued...

On our sea day towards a Perfect Day here are some pictures around the ship on a sea day.

Live music by Mass Effect on the pool deck.

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Lots of sun, various pool deck activities by the CD staff I have neglected to capture but here is the pool deck situation.

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I love ships with these outdoor covered decks.  A good book, a drink, good company, whatever...

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This is day 7 of an 8 day cruise and the 10 drink card has appeared for $79 plus 18% gratuity.

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What cruise is complete without a sale.  T-Shirts, jewelry, watches, booze - all the regular stuff on sale and equally popular as ever.  

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Ah... wake views.

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Plus forward views.  Smooth seas.

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Schooner Bar

One some ships the Promenade is the heart of the ship.  Here on Empress the Centrum and Schooner Bar assume that role.

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With views of the sea what's not to like.

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It also plays host to pub type music, piano music and various game shows and trivia type events.

What type of bees produce milk instead of honey?  Lessons learned while enjoying a drink at the Schooner Bar.

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Windjammer for dinner.  Tonight's theme: French. 

I ran into the Hotel Director Julie in the WJ again.  If the senior officers are eating in the WJ, I must be on to something.

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Tonight's Headliner:  Kenny James.  

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High energy and a lot of fun.  Kenny says he will be on numerous Royal ships over the coming months.

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Day 14, Cruise 2 Day 8 - CocoCay & Perfect Day

Early to rise, I spotted our destination in the distance.  Strong winds on our approach, I'm glad there is a pier waiting for us.

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This is where I am going to hit the pause button.  I'm writing this from my balcony after we left CocoCay and I haven't started packing yet.  Tomorrow is Miami and that dreaded debark day.  

More.  To.  Come.  

Stay tuned but give me a day ot two because I have a lot of pictures to go through.

Back soon.

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