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A Cheapskates Guide To Cruising-Harmony of the Seas-August 21-28 2022-Live Blog


TheRick

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Sorry I missed posting this last night.


Day 5: St. Kitts, the dolphin experience

We started with breakfast in the main dining room, we set an alarm and everything. I loved the classic Benedict, I’m a sucker for hollandaise sauce, a hash brown, and the corned beef hash. The hash brown was small, and I could’ve eaten 13 dishes of the corned beef hash, it was that good.

Next was St. Kitts. My wife brought cash and her iPhone. I figured since we didn’t have service in St. Kitts, there was no use in bringing my phone. Remember the last part because it is on the test later.

We split from our group and went on our dolphin excursion. As we were waiting, we went shopping at the shops. The workers in the shops were a little pushy, but not overly aggressive. We got souvenirs for the grandkids and some of our kids, but only the ones we like.  I’m just kidding, we love all three of our children, but one son wants something from the Kennedy Space Center, so we are holding off on getting his gift until Sunday. My other son, wants an island girl. 

After shopping we got into line for our excursion. We were early, we just didn’t know how early we were. While in line we figured we were in the 10:30 am excursion line and ours was at 11:15. The excursion person said he could get us on the earlier excursion and put a green wrist band on both my wife and myself. This too is important to remember for later. On the bus I noticed some people were wearing different colored wristbands, but being the introvert, I didn’t ask, which I should’ve.

When we arrived, we put our stuff in a complimentary locker, which was an ease on my mind and it was then time to get fitted for life jackets. The man brought me a large one, how cute is that. He soon realized I needed an extra large one. After instructions, we were in the water with the dolphins. One of the most exciting things in my life. We did commands, petted, gave belly rubs, shook fins, and touched the dolphins, and it was fantastic, my wife loved it too, but was a little disappointed because we were supposed to be pushed and pulled by the dolphins. I grappled with removing my life jacket, and for a split second, I thought I might win, but winning was not in the cards for me, but luckily, one of the workers tapped in like a WWE tag team partner and we were victorious. My wife was already off to inquire about the pushing and pulling. When I caught up with my wife the employee said the person at the dock put the wrong wristbands on us, if only someone spoke up on the bus, stupid introverted me.

They accommodated us by allowing me to struggle back into a life jacket and took us back into the water just my wife and I. They kind of separated my wife and myself, which is a little problem because I have severe hearing loss and couldn’t take my hearing aids in the water with me and I rely on her a lot to communicate with me. If you are following along with my live blog you have found out I’m super sized, have hearing loss, and sleep with a CPap machine, you are probably wondering how my wife snagged such a catch, she probably wonders too.

We had a quick push and pull by the dolphins and then it was shower off, get dressed, and off to the gift shop to buy photos.

We realized we forgot our debit card, we didn’t have enough cash for photos at $40 a piece, but they did take PayPal. I have PayPal but my wife doesn’t. My wife had her phone, I didn’t. They were pushy when it came to selling the photosand I asked if it were possible to get a link and buy them when we get back to the ship. Their response was now or never. I tried for about forty minutes to log into my email on my wife’s phone to buy the photo package which was 2 for $80 or all forty-five photos for 100. Because my iPhone uses Face ID to log in and I’m not very smart ( my wife is so lucky to have me), I finally gave up and lo and behold, they suddenly came up with a link to buy the photos when we got back to the ship, but they were quite rude to us about it. I know I seem to complain from time to time, but really we are having the time of our lives and will never forget what a great time we are having.  Back on the ship I ordered our photos and after several emails back and forth, we got the link to the photos a few hours later. The photos are great, but we are only able to get 42% of the photos to download on our phones before we get an error message. The link is only good for a month so we will need to figure it out.

Back on the ship was dinner at the main dinning room. Our waiters are the best on the ship. Unlike me, my brother is a big personality and both our waiters are drawn to him for most of our meals. I ordered the ahi tuna, but since I don’t like my fish seared, our waiter had it made well done. I know the chef probably cried himself to sleep last night because he had to cook it well done, but it tasted wonderful.

After dinner was the headliner show, a singer, comedian, and impressionist. His voices of other people were spot on, but the show was mostly geared toward gen X and baby boomers. My nephew and niece knew almost none of the people he was impersonating.

Then it was off to sabor for margaritas and off to bed.

Stray observation:

Our room steward is amazing.

I have a bartender who not only remembers my drink order, but also my name which is cool because I’m pretty forgettable.

In the public men’s rooms, I like the comic strip panels over the urinals even though they are lacking in plot, character development, and a character arc.

Next up is sea day two. We have three sea days this week.

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Day 6: A sea day

Sorry, I’m a day late again.

We set an alarm again for breakfast in the main dining room where I had the same breakfast as the day before with the exception of adding cheese grits to my order. I’ve never had grits before so I had to try them. I probably will never order them again.

After breakfast was cold brew coffee at cafe promenade followed by morning trivia. My wife and I answered seven out of 15 correctly, which is respectable considering how tough the questions were. I question the person that answered all 15 correctly. I suspect that Ken Jennings would’ve had a hard time getting a perfect score.

About 11 am, 8 am back home, I had a coconut and pineapple smoothie. It was delicious, especially with Malibu Coconut Rum in it, okay, I had a pina colada. I had another Pina colada while watching my nephew on the stand up flow rider. I would’ve done it but I prefer my bones intact.

Nobody wanted to join me in the main dining room for lunch, so I went by myself. The shrimp risotto was to die for and I had one of the best seafood sandwiches ever. I have eaten seafood every day on this cruise. So much seafood, I probably have more mercury in me than a 1970’s thermometer. Following lunch I met the rest of my family at the Windjammer, passing the stowaway piano player on the way.

After the windjammer, it was down to deck 6 for the boardwalk and tequila drinks at Sabor. My wife, mother, sister, and sister in law rode the carousel. I would’ve rode it too, but my brother said if I did we’d exceed the international limit on jackasses for one carousel.

Dinner was lobster, I had two, along with two seafood appetizers. After dinner were drinks at the ice skating showcase. It was awesome. Instead of a story, it was just routines and they were good.

Following the ice skating showcase was the love and marriage show. It was hilarious and our cruise director was funny and had a quick wit. Then it was time for our late night pizza and bed.

Next is our final day which is another sea day.

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D755D1C9-383C-497B-9913-D5DC921F27E6.jpeg.72fdcb5f73c801800d44379fdb895e8d.jpegDay 7: Our last day is a day at sea

We slept in today, okay I slept in today, my wife woke up early to sunbathe on our balcony. Once I woke up, we hung out together in the room. We were on the balcony, but it started to rain. This was the first rain I noticed since we embarked on this ship. We hung out in the room together for awhile and then headed to park cafe for breakfast before they closed. Ran into our family in Central Park.

My brother and I wore our drunk 1 and drunk 2 shirts today (picture below). It’s not fair being the little brother because no matter how old I am, I’ll always be drunk 2 and when playing Super Mario Brothers, I’ll always be Luigi. We received a lot of positive reactions on our shirts, especially from our bartenders.

My wife, brother, and sister in law rode the Ultimate Abyss and I was the holder of the phones and sunglasses. I beat them to the bottom and the elevator wasn’t too scary and was faster. The rest of our family just happened to be at Johnny Rockets where the Ultimate Abyss let out.

We had more drinks because it would be false advertising if we we’re to wear drunk 1 and drunk 2 shirts and not drink.

Lunch was at the windjammer followed by a trip to the room to pack our bags. The suitcases feel a little heavy for the plane, but there is no way to weigh them, I guess worse case scenario, if we have to take anything out of our suitcases at the airport, my dirty knickers are staying behind in Florida.

It was our final dinner in the main dining room. Our waiter and assistant waiter have two large tables to serve. The other table was not there tonight so we received all the attention. Not that we don’t get most of the attention. Like I said before our waiter and assistant waiter really like my brother. I think our assistant waiter has a man crush on him.

We stopped by my sister and brother-in-law’s room to pick up their device that weighs suitcases when you pick them up. 49 pounds and 46 pounds, we made it under the weight limit, I guess my soiled skivvies are safe…for now.

I picked up a cold brew at cafe promenade and returned to my room where we watched a spectacular lightening show in the distance.

At 9:00 pm was miniature golf, then the adult comedy show, followed by standing on the outer deck on top of the ship to see if we could see the SpaceX satellite rocket launch. No such luck, I guess it was too cloudy.

Next is disembarking and a day at the Kennedy Space Center followed by a long flight back to Sacramento California.

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The grit situation........you need them made by someone from the south or black. Royal's grits are wrong, most places that mass produce them......and aren't based in the south, will have the consistency wrong. This leads to people never wanting to eat them again.

Also, your brother looks exactly how I would imagine Santa Claus looks after a few drinks. 

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Post cruise roundup:

After we disembarked, we headed to the Kennedy Space Center. Five hours was not nearly enough.

We flew from Orlando to Salt Lake City and then onto Sacramento arriving at 11:30 California time. By the time we arrived at my parents house we were up for 22 hours.

The next day we drove home. About halfway home I started feeling sick. Turns out five of the 10 of our party have Covid, including me and my wife.

As we pulled in our driveway, I had a feeling like I might have Schrodinger’s dog. Because at that moment, our dog was ecstatic to see us while simultaneously pissed off that we abandoned him for 12 days.

There is only 69 days until our next cruise on the Navigator of the Seas. This will only be four days, but we are going to cruise with my daughter, son in law, our 7 year old granddaughter, our almost 3 year old grandson, and in November, our youngest granddaughter who will 10 months old.

If we end up being allowed to cruise, I’ll be back in November for another live blog. This cruise will truly be a cheapskate cruise, no drink package because we will be taking care of the grandkids most of the time, no 30 year anniversary jewelry, and hopefully no expensive laundry service on the ship.

Thank you for following along and for those who left me encouraging replies.

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  • 4 weeks later...
52 minutes ago, TheRick said:

34 days until our next cruise. I’m thinking about live blogging again. Should I tack it onto this blog or start a new topic? 
 

cruise info: Navigator of the seas. November 7-11, 2022. Traveling with wife, daughter, son in law, and three grandkids ages 7, 2, and 10 months.

If you post it, they will come!

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14 hours ago, TheRick said:

34 days until our next cruise. I’m thinking about live blogging again. Should I tack it onto this blog or start a new topic? 
 

cruise info: Navigator of the seas. November 7-11, 2022. Traveling with wife, daughter, son in law, and three grandkids ages 7, 2, and 10 months.

Start a new topic 😌 please.  Looking forward to this new one!

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On 10/4/2022 at 2:45 PM, TheRick said:

34 days until our next cruise. I’m thinking about live blogging again. Should I tack it onto this blog or start a new topic? 

New topic please.  I really enjoyed this one and I'm looking forward to the next one.  We're on Navigator in February and would love to know as much as you can share.  🙂 

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