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​​​​​​​Empress 8 Night Eastern Caribbean ?​​​​​​​ Oops, I Booked it Again ?​​​​​​​


twangster

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On 8/9/2019 at 4:06 PM, twangster said:

Plans for this Cruise

Only one excursion booked so far.  A day trip to Jost Van Dyke in the BVI from Tortola.

I'm happy to read another awesome Twangster blog also.  I'm intrigued/interested to get some updates on BVI/Tortola.  I hope you have time to get pics of the port/town and your overview of the island.  Your excursion sounds great too.  We haven't been to BVI in over 5 years.  It would be interesting to get your perspective always on the changes and hopefully void of lingering hurricane damage since you were last there.  Happy cruising!  Michelle

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Day 1 Embarkation

A first glimpse of Empress at Terminal G from my Uber.

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Terminal G

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The entrance to the building normally has some signage but in this early hour you had to know where to go.

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Terminal G check in area.

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Suites and Pinnacles have a small waiting lounge.

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Boarding started at 10:45am.  

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Woohoo!  I am officially on a cruise!

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Welcome aboard cake.

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Up on deck 11 I noted they were working on the satellite antennas.

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The nature of the internet interruptions I experienced on the last cruise had the feeling of maybe an amplifier or LNB overheating and failing before coming back into service.  I'm hoping this new component might help.

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Who knew two full grown men could fit into the dome?  They were contractors on the ship for the day.

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In this Miami heat it's got to be hot in there.

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Cabin Tour!

As we waited for cabins to become available at 1:30pm I was waiting in the elevator lobby near my cabin.  As the hall door was opened by crew moving luggage, James my new cabin attendant spotted me.  He was servicing the block of cabins right beside my last cabin so he recognized me.  He waved me through telling me my cabin was ready.  Nice touch.

Junior Suite 9600 Starboard.

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This JS is the reverse layout from my last JS.

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Pretty much identical with the same "efficient" bathroom and shower.

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Walk in closet.

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I waited until we had left the port to take balcony pictures.  This cabin is the most forward JS on deck 9 so the balcony doesn't have a divider on the forward side.  You do lose a small corner and the elevator lobby can see this balcony but the forward view is better.

The better sea views can also be enjoyed when sitting on the sofa inside the cabin.

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The pool deck above narrows so the overhang is slightly smaller.  The view aft.

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The view down.

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Something I forgot to mention in my last Empress thread are the USB outlets.  They are found on the bottom of the lights on each side of the bed.  It's a great hidden feature.

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It's really nice having USB outlets on both sides of the bed.

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Crown and Anchor sail away party deck 6 aft, Diamond and higher.

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I ran into the IT Manager and asked him if his O3b upgrade came through.  Nope.  The contractors I saw working are doing some routine maintenance replacing some components with a goal to improve reception when one set of antennas is blocked.  That's an issue at CocoCay with other larger ships beside us - they block one set of satellite antennas.  

We talked about Voom and I learned a few new things.  Empress shares transponders with a few other ships.  Navigator and Mariner use the same transponder.  Other groups of ships share different transponders.  For this legacy satellite system a different satellite covers the Western Caribbean compared to the Eastern Caribbean.  We'll use the same satellite for the entirety of this cruise.  On the last cruise in the Western Caribbean we switched satellites during the cruise.  

In terms of rain fade he pointed out something I should have thought of.  What goes up must come down.  Speedcast and O3b have their primary earth station in Miami.  Our data traffic comes down in Miami as a gateway to reach the internet.  If Miami is encountering bad weather like a line of strong thunderstorms that can impact every ships Voom even if the ships are in sunny skies a thousand miles away.  It was obvious when he said it but I had never thought about it.

The bridge has some data feeds that use a different satellite platform but if the Captain wants to stream Netflix in his cabin that uses the same Voom the rest of us use.

With the darkening skies over Miami as we pulled out I wonder if some ship somewhere is experiencing a Voom slow down.

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Rain moving in.  Time to move to the Schooner Bar.

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On 8/9/2019 at 4:18 PM, twangster said:

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 

 

I will be flying into FLL and was planning on using Brightline as I am staying in DT Miami.  Not sure what the difference is but I will certainly check out Tri-Rail.  I know you are a seasoned RCCL traveler so I'm sure it is a better option.  Thanks for sharing

 

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1 hour ago, DanielB said:

I will be flying into FLL and was planning on using Brightline as I am staying in DT Miami.  Not sure what the difference is but I will certainly check out Tri-Rail.  I know you are a seasoned RCCL traveler so I'm sure it is a better option.  Thanks for sharing

 

Brightline goes right into downtown Miami.  Tri-Rail stops at MIA airport.  In many places they use different tracks, very different operation.  Brightline is the new Virgin Trains that will run to Orlando on a high speed basis eventually.  It costs more but it's a different service.

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From my last stop I posted a bunch of CocoCay pictures in that thread so I'm not going to repeat those here, but I did pop into the Thrill Water Park to check it out.  If you want to see my other CocoCay pictures check out the thread URL I posted in the first post.

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Royal has done a really nice job with this area as well as the rest of CocoCay.  Plenty of loungers, picnic tables and space to spread out.

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Lots of complimentary lockers are available.

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Even the restrooms are done up nice.

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The wave pool has lots of loungers available

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Thrill Water Park Cabanas are found in a couple of areas.  Here are some on the sides of the wave pool.

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Thrill Water Park has its own Snack Shack.

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Some of these slides require you carry a mat or tube up with you.  The Sling Shot uses a conveyor system to lift the raft to the top for you.

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More Cabanas near the slide pool.

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The Adventure pool has these floating rope courses.  Based on what I saw they are harder than they look, but fun.

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Daredevil's Tower is amazing.

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Just Wow!

I can't wait to check these out on my next visit on Navigator in a few weeks.  I've already bought a zip line and Thrill Water Park combo pass.

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I went back to the ship to drop off my camera stuff and grab my snorkel gear.  It's so nice having a pier now at CocoCay.

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They were handing out cards to remind people of our 2:30pm all aboard time.

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While going up the stairs to my cabin I found the wireless link that ties the ship network to CocoCay.

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It wasn't hard to find a 2nd row lounger for my stuff while I snorkelled.

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The Sergeant Majors were pretty friendly today.

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This part of CocoCay still resembles the CocoCay of old for folks who just want a chill beach day.

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All aboard for Empress was 2:30pm so we could make San Juan by 3pm after a sea day. 

Around 2:45pm as I wandered up to deck 11 to take in sail away I heard the announcement -   "Would the following guest make their way to guest services...".  Not one, or two or five or eight but ten guests were about to become Mariner passengers.  Then came the ship's whistle several times.

Looking down from deck 11 I could see Julie our Hotel Director and Jorge our Guest Services Manager on the pier.

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Pier runners!  At 2:47pm five guests came running up the pier.  

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At 2:53pm a golf cart delivered the remaining guests.  Finally we could leave.  With a brief horn exchange with Mariner we were off.

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A last look back at Mariner and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

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I needed to ensure they still had ample Guinness on board so I headed to the Schooner Bar. 

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They have the Heineken draught beer machine out for this sailing.  It's a self contained countertop beer cooler and dispenser since Empress doesn't have permanent taps.

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4 hours ago, DDaley said:

The clouds look so amazing in all of these! That is one of the many things I am looking forward to seeing. Gorgeous cloud pics are my weakness! 

Did you ride anything at Thrill or just go in for the early morning photos?

Here you go...

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I was going to call these Cloud Porn but that didn't sound very good so we'll just call them cloud pictures

I didn't ride anything this time.  I talked to the Thrill Water Park Manager and obtained special permission to take some pictures.  I've got a Water Park pass for my next visit on Navigator already purchased so now I can just go on that and enjoy the rides without the need to take pictures.

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Voom is doing okay today.

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Speaking of Voom, "royal-wifi" is no more, at least on ships that are Perfect Day enabled.  Ships now are using a guest wireless network unique to each ship.  This is how two ships can share CocoCay and guests from both ships can use their own ship's wifi account while on CocoCay.  

This is from my last visit to CocoCay when Empress and Navigator were there together.  Since I was on Empress I chose "WiFi-Guest-Empress" just like it is on the ship. 

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8 hours ago, twangster said:

While going up the stairs to my cabin I found the wireless link that ties the ship network to CocoCay.

That's definitely interesting... so it's the ships that are broadcasting the signal and then it's being picked up by repeaters throughout the island?  Pretty neat solution to handle auth with more than one ship.

Thanks for sharing these techy tidbits, @twangster

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3 minutes ago, ashonthesea said:

What kind of snorkel gear do you have? Would love to invest in some for my trip.

Because I am a certified scuba diver I have more expensive gear I use to snorkel.  

The biggest thing with any snorkel equipment is finding a mask that fits the face.  Nothing is more aggravating than having water trickling in constantly while snorkelling.  Each face is different so there is no one answer to what is best.

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Just now, twangster said:

Because I am a certified scuba diver I have more expensive gear I use to snorkel.  

The biggest thing with any snorkel equipment is finding a mask that fits the face.  Nothing is more aggravating than having water trickling in constantly while snorkelling.  Each face is different so there is no one answer to what is best.

Oh, I see. Well, definitely not certified here so I guess I’ll just do some trial and error to find some basic stuff. I foresee myself sticking my head in a bucket, apple bobbing style. ? Thanks!

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14 minutes ago, firebuck said:

That's definitely interesting... so it's the ships that are broadcasting the signal and then it's being picked up by repeaters throughout the island?  Pretty neat solution to handle auth with more than one ship.

Thanks for sharing these techy tidbits, @twangster

Not knowing the exact platform they use I can't safely state how they are extending the ship wifi onto CocoCay.

I know how I would do it using wireless controllers and passing just authentication to the ship's RADIUS server but there are different ways to implement this.  Either way I suspect it's more than just repeating the signal.

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2 minutes ago, ashonthesea said:

Oh, I see. Well, definitely not certified here so I guess I’ll just do some trial and error to find some basic stuff. I foresee myself sticking my head in a bucket, apple bobbing style. ? Thanks!

One way is to place a mask on your face and breath in through your nose slightly so the mask is drawn onto your face.  Then hold your breath.  If the mask is leaking it will fill with air and fall off your face.  If it stays in place on it's own you have a good seal.

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Day 3 - Midday

Pool deck is popular.

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Carving demonstration in the Centrum.

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Trivia in the Schooner Bar.  That's Brittney our Sports Deck Manager.  Her parents were on for the 2nd leg of my B2B last cruise. 

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Beer sale!  

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It's views like this I really appreciate on Empress.  The deck 6 Centrum doors to the outdoor deck that wraps around the ship.  The sea feels like it's right there.

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4 hours ago, twangster said:

Because I am a certified scuba diver I have more expensive gear I use to snorkel.  

The biggest thing with any snorkel equipment is finding a mask that fits the face.  Nothing is more aggravating than having water trickling in constantly while snorkelling.  Each face is different so there is no one answer to what is best.

I would also add that facial hair, especially mustaches below the nose will be troublesome if you want a good seal.  

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