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Will there be Harmony before an Odyssey? Nov 7th-12th, Nov 13th-19th


Ampurp85

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I went to the top tier event because everyone had various ideas of how they wanted to spend their morning. The vintages order room service for breakfast and my brother and BFF went to the gym......ahem fitness center, let's keep it classy. I met the captain and a few officers; it is important to know that the captain is single. The CD mentioned and several other staff members were asking for single ladies, I let the vintages know so we could get his sailing perks. 

I saw the expensive screens in action. There were four new pinnacles, none are single, and pair that was reaching their 2800-night milestone on this cruise. The capacity for this sailing was a little over 4300, which capacity at the double occupancy range, staffing is only 1720. I can feel the lack of staff and I feel bad for them. I had an appointment for Next Cruise to book out sailing out of Galveston. I scheduled an appointment for 2:30 and they skipped right to 3pm for some reason. I think the staff is too overworked. We found out only Oct 15th, 2023, worked for everyone but all the suites were sold out. We were able to get 2 rooms in a row and then another 2 in a row like 4 rooms down on deck 12 aft. I am happy with that as we might just do the Key, DX, and UDP. .

Appointment took a while so most of my family ended up scattered. I went to the casino and had a good run. So I have won back $175 of the malfunction money back. I think I could possibly make up half to two-thirds of it back. I believe I am owed some casino Karma.

Tonight, is dinner at Giovanni's and my family is a hot mess express. Giovanni is Italian and we all knew first day what we reserved. Now people are brand new. They ate at Sorrento's like four times yesterday, I kept saying I am saving my pizza for the Italian food we will eat tomorrow. Well around 4pm as we left the casino they asked about dinner and started complaining that we were eating pasta and pizza. I offered to see if I can change the reservation to Izumi's, but they said Giovanni's was fine. I feel like it will be something. It is also formal night.......wish me luck!

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Oooh, so how cute is the Captain?? Ha, I can imagine the vintages trying to get the two of you together…if they don’t want him for themselves, of course! Good luck!

     Very cool about the new cruise! Sweet tradition you guys have going on. Stressful, but sweet. Good luck with dinner! I hope everyone finds something they enjoy. Good luck at the casino, too. I still can’t believe they took $400 of your money. 
 

Have a great night! Love the posts! 

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I'm literally in a food coma from Giovanni's so I will update the escapades tomorrow. 

@AdrianaI wasn't interested in the captain,  the vintages are. I don't know how to say cuteness. I guess he looks like an in-between Russell Crowe......like when he played Gladiator but also let himself go a little by having a few too many beers and some ribs. He is from Norway and has a pretty good sense of humor.

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Hahaha! I figured about the Captain, I was teasing, more laughing at the thought of the vintages trying to get the two of you together in some sort of undercover sitcom manner! Russel Crowe who had too many bees and ribs. I can totally see that, great description!

     If you are in a food coma, I hope that means the food was good!

Have a great day!

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I do have a whole bunch of odds and ends but I may update those when we are at the airport.

Okay so day 3 on Odyssey....

So two-thirds of the vintages really went all out for formal night.....makeup, falsh lashes,  wigs and other razzmatazz. BFF put his tuxedo on and he looked like he was going to a classy strip club. My brother is a mechanical engineer so he always dresses business casual. My mother looked like a Wakanda reject. I wore my floral bellbottoms I bring for 70s night. My brother and I were the only one's comfortable.  They took some pre-show photos.  Then we went to see The Book. 

So Odyssey was like we have the technology let's build a bionic.....naw let's do some tv robots.  What do we want them to do?????.........just assist with a hodgepodge of thrown together tomfoolery.  That's exactly what The Book is.......a hodgepodge of straight up tomfoolery. I got each vignette but they didn't go together whatsoever.  Don't get me wrong the vocals and choreography was giving all the life. But it was just..........

My mother is one of those people who doesn't care about depth. So all the shows have been the best. People were flying on contraptions and twisting in air so she thought nothing compares and I was happy for her. Everyone else was like " umm.......what did I just watch?" We all thought there was cool parts but Odyssey vibe apparently is confusion. 

After the show we took the very long walk to dinner,  so long we were late. J/k. Giovanni's is steps from 270. They did have our table ready and it was for 7 people. The host recognized me right away and had a really good disposition. Our server was wonderful and friendly. I tried their signature strawberry peach Spitzer.  We ordered all the apps for the table plus 2 pizzas and an entree each. It was so much food. The cheese and meat platter overall taste better than Jamie's but Jamie's has better breads. The meatball Gigante was crazy, I wasn't a fan but everyone loved it. Nobody liked the spicy sausage Stromboli. My brother and I were the only one's that tried and liked the calamari and polenta. 

We got the meat lovers and mushrooms pizza for the table. The pizza was horrible, about on par with Sorrento's.  I expected it to be more airy and better tasting. They ate most of it because it tasted like Sorrento's. Between the 7 if us we got everything but the puttanesca and the steak muffuletta. The lasagna and chicken parm were rated the highest after the steak. I got a small portion of the carbonara to go with my chicken parm. The carbonara was horrible. I like my pasta al dente but that one was barely cooked.  It was dry and flavorless.  The pomodoro pasta that came with the parm was soft and wet. The pomodoro sauce was very sweet. So basically most of us enjoyed everything but the pasta. Dessert was a limoncello and all the desserts. The Panna cotta was the best. 

My mother's not a drinker, neither is my BFFs mom. They both ended up drunk after the two shots of limoncello my brother insisted we have. We took more photos and wrangled to two tipsy ladies back to their room. My mother fell asleep on the balcony and BFF mom's got stuck in her Spanx. It was wonderful times, laughs had all around. 

Day 4 is Falmouth Jamaica 

We got up and some went to breakfast. Some of us had work meetings.  We got off and did some in port shopping.  They were pushy but not aggressive.  However as we are "black folks," they kept trying to use the brother/sister line on us. That is " help a brother/sister out, come on we family brother/sister, and since you are my brother/sister I will give you a discount. " We split a pattie and coconut water plus had some of the different red stripe beer. We did buy some rum and engraved wood pieces but BFF mom is great at haggling, so we paid good prices. 

We got back on the ship around 1pm and headed to WJ.  They had 4 special burgers/sandwiches named things like the Odyssey,  the Royal, etc. Also they had sweet potato fries which were the bomb dot com. Desserts were again a very horrible selection.  Things like hard chocolate bar cake and carrot poundcake. My brother and me had a little work, so we are currently in our rooms doing that while the rest are on deck. I'm on teams multitasking.  We have our 2nd dinner, probably last, in the MDR tonight.  Everyone is sad we only have 2 days left. Oh we stood in line for a bit but no luck on bumper cars.

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I wish there were more reactions. That post was great, OMG stuck in the Spanx. I laughed out loud, and I agree with you the Book was just strange. You are THE BEST at explaining your experiences. Patiently waiting your next post. 

PS this is exactly why I ditched the Spanx, they are dangerous.  I just embrace my fluffy! 

Oh I forgot to ask, did you find any ducks?

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O M G!! I can’t stop laughing at the vintages situation!! One asleep on the balcony and the other stuck in her Spanx!! You literally had me laughing out loud! How did she get out of it? Do we want to know? I keep trying to imagine a Wakanda reject! Hilarious!

     This cruise sounds so much better than the last. I do not know if you are included in the “everyone” is sad about the cruise ending, but I hope so since that means you are enjoying this one. 
     Did you but the weed? Haha, just kidding!! I can believe they tried to sell it to you guys! You have the most interesting moments!

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4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Oh we were totally accosted in Jamaica.  Several men and women but what took the cake is we were offered weed. Myself very discreetly but brother and BFF boldly. 

Ahahah I had googled and found that it was illegal before we got there on a land vacation so I was very surprised to find guys shouting up to my hotel room balcony offering it! Even in the ocean they would paddle up offering it and even sold us some directly in front of a hotel security guard who did not care at all. I had no idea it was so common!  

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Okay so BFF decided to get blackout drunk.  At dinner he kept asking "where $%$$ were we?" The staff was so patient with him and his drunken antics. He kept loosening his shirt saying his nonexistent boobs will get us better luck in the "casina." Wait let me start from the beginning. 

After my last post I called my grandmother to check in on her and my sweet baby, my cat. Of course she has been going to the front door meowing, she misses me. Then we decided to head up to the pool deck. We had a few mango daiquiris and BFF has been on long Island ice teas for the last two days. We people watched,  it was a good time,and this cruise has had some weird ones. I watched several familes give babies and toddlers soda.......why? It's always amazing at how on a ship of over 5000 people, you often see the same ones.

The first day I met a newly married Brazilian couple who spoke little English but whom I helped with the app. She always waved at me when we crosses paths. I saw her in line for softserve, we had a difficult conversation. Difficult because neither of us knew much of what each other was saying but we just smiled and nodded. She followed me back to where my brother and BFF were and just sat down. A few minutes later, BFFs mother said let's hit the casino. 

I went down and won all my money back that got void. Literally as I was hitting my jackpot, it was $383, another machine malfunctioned. The lady was pissed. Odyssey machines were have palpitations or something because I counted 9 machines that had to be reset and around 3 that had void issues. 

While we were winning and eventually losing it all in the casino. Said newlywed Brazilian was upstairs trying to get my brother and the rest to swing with her. Her husband spoke Spanish which my brother and BFF are fluent in. They brought up the rest of "party" and was buying them drinks. My brother was not taking the drinks but BFF was. He said they were rubbing all over my BFF and dancing on him. The husband was wearing a speedo and kept asking if thr guys liked it.

At this point my mother and her bff has joined us in the casino. They finally saw the captain and attempted to flirt. My mother is shy, I figured her bff put in all the work. They were coy, so who knows. We played until dinner.  It was past the time to be in line and the other three are running late. I had sent them a message on WhatsApp but got no reply. FYI internet service is really bad in the MDR. I decided to go up to the deck but I get up to the 4th floor and hear someone who sounds like me BFF say " when we got back to the room let's Grubhub some Little Ceasars!" Both my brother and his are holding him to keep him from wandering off.....because that is literally what keeps happening and the reason they are late.

Sort of lagging behind them is a girl who looks 17 at the most. She is trying to eat dinner with us because she likes my BFF brother,  he told her she was the same age as his daughter and to leave him alone. She wouldn't take the no and I had to threatened to tell her parents. I was shocked at how bold she was. We drag him to dinner and he is waving at folks and telling them that Beyonce is God. I get him into the chair and our waiter gives him bread and water. He is a mess the entire dinner.

I  got the lamb chops and they were amazing. Unfortunately BFF kept screaming " take these veal chops away, y'all trying to kill my best friend!" I kept correcting him, it was lamb. He ate a little but not nearly enough to simmer down.  He said he was going to change into his spicy outfit and "throw some thighs" which means dancing. 

The rest of us went to the casino were we all proceeded to lose everything we had won. I am okay with that as at least I lost it. I had fun chatting with people and drinking beer, which isn't something I normally do. As I was just making it to my room. My BFF and brother were heading to the Music Hall because it apparently turns into a night club around 11.

On day 2 I received a form asking if I wanted my block and to fill it out and they would deliver it by the end of the cruise. When I got in tonight it was in my bed. 

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I know there was questions asked about the Spanx, well it turns out two of the vintages had it on. In the morning both of them spent about 40min trying to get out. Apparently, they had to take breaks in-between because the struggle was real. They had left over bread/pastries from room service and was snacking.......obviously making things worse. One got her arm/shoulder caught trying get out and now she is sore, the other ripped hers. Apparently, it was like a female Three Stooges so much they almost all had elderly ladies' accidents......you know what I mean.

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With the food pics it a little hard because often they dig in before I can take the pics. Hence why half of the meatball Gigante was gone in that photo. 

Sadly, today is day 5, I am having a ball laughing at my family and their shenanigans. I would not do Quantum class again, I miss the neighborhoods, ice shows and aqua theater. We are currently getting ready for breakfast and today is my mother's bff birthday. 

This will be all of ours's first time at Labadee, we have the sip and paint schedule, plus dinner at Solarium Bistro. 

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22 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Day 4 is Falmouth Jamaica 

We got up and some went to breakfast. Some of us had work meetings.  We got off and did some in port shopping.  They were pushy but not aggressive.  However as we are "black folks," they kept trying to use the brother/sister line on us. That is " help a brother/sister out, come on we family brother/sister, and since you are my brother/sister I will give you a discount. "

 

Get this all the time also lol

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Oh my gosh! I don’t know if I should laugh or cry!! How is your BFF feeling?? That sounds soo drunk and soo drunk is typically followed by soo sick! I hope he was able to get through the day. 
     Wow! Just wow that you had the Brazilian couple wanting to swing with you guys! And a child wanting your BFF’s brother! Ooh, the special adventures you do find!! 
     I actually do feel bad for the vintages and the spanx situation. Struggling makes the whole thing worse. I can only imagine that spectacle!! Did they have some fun flirting with Cpt Russell? 
 

   Thank you for taking us along on your cruises!! What has been some of your favorite highlights? 

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Okay let's hope this works. We haven't been able to connect to the internet at all since around 1am. 

Last night my brother and BFF went to the club, they were actually there until they closed. I was there for a little bit. Since it was 18 and up people were loose. I haven't gone to a nightclub on any ship before. I thought people were scandalous in the early hours......I wasn't prepared. First a lady we met on boarding day saw my brother and refused to leave his side. She was somehow able to smuggle coke on. Or it was homemade but she kept leaving her stuff and going onto the bathroom to snort it. Then she would come out and flash people, the crew had to tell her several times to put her clothes on. Crew members were constantly telling people to get dress. Thankfully nobody showed their actual neither regions.

Prior to the night club the singer at Crown and Compass was singing R.Kelly.....ignition parts 1 and 2 with all the curse words. It was weird to see people sitting at a table when certain songs are sung. BFF was still drunk and dancing on a plant by the pub. There was an even more drunk lady egging him on, she was dancing, very aggressively, on the column next to the bar.

On our way to the Music Hall we met the Brazilian couple. They were still trying it and BFF was so drunk he almost went. I stayed around the party because it was too many people and I kept getting fondled. I don't like large gatherings for that main reason......people using it as an excuse to get fresh with others. My brother said a couple of "vintage " women offered them money to spend some quality time. How quickly a family affair can turn spicy. I went to bed around 1am. My brother and BFF stayed until the music hall closed and went to Sorrento's. They got pizza and went to bed. BFF was tore up in the morning. He couldn't function and did not do well in Labadee.

I had 2 crazy bathroom incidents. The first was after dinner last night before we went to the Crown and Compass. I used the bathroom in the casino because it's the closest. What looked like a 10yo boy was standing there staring at the women. I thought he was too old to be in there. He was there because his mom had stuffed herself in a dress and needed him to zip her. The second one was right as I was leaving the club. The line was long and there was a group of drunk ladies in front......so drunk that we were waiting in line for no reason because every stall but one was empty!!! That's not the worst part. The one person came out and one girl pulled down her underwear and squatted, she assumed she was in the bathroom because she heard the stall closes. Her friends were going to let her pee, I told her this wasn't the stall. I definitely didn't want the crew cleaning unnecessary messes.

I slept well and woke up after 8am to internet issues. With no internet connection and it being a port day I knew WJ was going to be a mess. So I headed to the DL for some bread and OJ, I was the only person there around 9am. The casino was open at 8am and I played until I was $100 richer. I made 1000pts so far on this cruise. I should get a certificate for money off and a free interior I may or may not upgrade. 

My family is hot mess express I told them we should get off around noon to explore before our sip and paint excursion.  They said no. That's because my mother told them it was on the ship. We got off at 1:30 and it took us awhile to walk to the island, some time to stand on line for food and then time to eat. We just barely made it to the excursion and when it ended at 4pm, everyone wanted to go back to the ship. 

The food was straight garbage.  It was 3 salads, a brownie, fruit, a giant macaroon, hotdogs, hamburger, jerk chicken, corn and rice. That was it. The chicken was raw and the burgers full of greases. So much that as I took a bite it ruined my dress with oils. Nobody enjoyed their food. The worst part is they had some red juice that looked cold and delicious. But was actually just water with food coloring. At this point I am now starving because I've just had a little bread.

We go to the sip and paint. It's in a nice cool area, lots of colors. The vase and boat are good quality and I do start out having fun. However it's 1 drink for the 90mins and it became tedious. The pot was too heavy and the boat too weak so they won't be very travel friendly. Not much interaction. BFF is hurting.  Nobody really had any fun, hence the swift return to ship. We saw nothing of Labadee past the information desk.

I hope this post goes through I will finish day 5 tomorrow. 

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Holy Smoke!! You just introduced us, or well me, to a whole new world of cruising!  I suppose I am more naive than I thought because I never imagined being propositioned by swingers and that the nightclub became an aggressive meat market. The latest I have gone into a bar/lounge was around ten for a glass of cab for the balcony. Just wow! You poor thing, it does not sound like great fun. Sure didn’t think it became a hook up cruise or strip joint at night! Def learned something new! 
     I hope your BFF feels better.  … Nice job saving that girl from “missing” the stall! You def have been quite the great Samaritan between her, herding vintages and watching out for your BFF, taking care of the little girls! Nice job! 
     I hope tomorrow is a little better. Hope you have better food luck. Congrats on the casino! That is so cool that you can get cruises by playing in there. I need to give it a shot one day.

     I don’t know what we will do once you are off the ship! We all look forward to your daily adventures!! 
 

Have a peaceful night and a great time tomorrow!

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I guess when it comes to looseness, you have to be willing to miss some sleep.  

Lots of people said the zipline and beach area was amazing. I'm sad I didn't get to see and enjoy. Our experience made Labadee feel like a one and done. Especially considering how bad the food was. We all got back on and took showers. Half of us hit El Loco Fresh because we were starving and dinner was at 8pm in the solarium bistro. We were able to get a table, facing the splashpad and pool. Ewww it was a little kid just standing there drinking the water. I'm sure there is something in there to keep it clean. 

While we were eating this very plastic, mature woman came over and asked if my brother was my husband.  I told her no and she proceeded to "bend and grin" to the best of her ability. We all had a good laugh as she shot her shot. We sat on deck and watched people dance,swim and be merry. They kept dropping food and glasses so every time it happened someone yelled "Merry Christmas" and the staff joked they would get the presents.

We went around taking pictures everywhere and just looking at people have the time of their life. Dinner at the solarium bistro wasn't great. I didn't understand the need for reservations. Literally there was 2 other tables in there minus the crew. They don't do anything but bring you water or drinks. You get up to the buffet and chose what you want. The selection is minimal and nobody got full, so we went to after dinner at the WJ. We all got what we wanted and chatted for a while. We popped into Boleros and saw people dancing, hard. Some were sweating up a storm. 

We then went to casino for a bit and headed back to our rooms. We sat on the balcony for an hour laughing about the day and then retired pretty early. 

Today is the last day. We have yet to get to do bumper cars,  since it's first come and such, we have yet to get in. 

We got breakfast at the WJ. Dinner is at Chops and we have Showgirls before that. My family is officially sold on the UDP and I plan to get it during black Friday sale. My casino certificate is either/or not included. So it's  $250off or a free sailing on selected ships from Nov to February. I thought it was both, oh well I will apply to cruise I just booked.

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Yaaay on the jackpot!! Nice win!! Down $150 is great since you had fun and racked up some benefits. You have inspired me to check out the casino next time.

     You guys must be the hottest group! You have so many folks hitting on you! At least the plastic mature lady had the decency to ask if your brother was your husband. I am guessing her shot did not go far.

     How is your BFF feeling?

I really don’t know what we are going to do without living vicariously through your posts! My fave part , and it should not be because “bless their hearts”, I know they ended up sore, but it was the vintages getting stuck in their Spanx. 
 

Have a great day and have fun watching the sexy contest! 

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2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am beyond happy. I hit a $761 jackpot at the casino so now I am only at $150 spent for the entire cruise. We are on the deck watching the sexy contest. People are really trying......bless their heart. 

You are going to have to give us a class on how to pick out the best slot machine and how to play them. I am usually out of money after the first 5 minutes.  I don't really care about winning the big bucks but I would like to stretch out my fun. 

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