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Vision of the Seas March 31-April 10, 2023: Quantum Vision of a Christmas Gift Part 1


Luly

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For Christmas we prefer to give our kids experiences instead of random gifts. Either we're on a cruise on Christmas or we give them a trip as their gift. This year they got a Quantum Vision of a Christmas gift: TWO cruises, Southern Caribbean on Vision and Alaska on Quantum May 31-June 5, hence this is Part 1. I'll start to post Part 2 in May as we get closer to Alaska. We're staying in adjoining OV rooms on Vision on deck 3. This will be our first time not in balconies, but with the limited balconies on Vision they were way too expensive. This sailing was a shocking $4k for all 6 of us for 10 nights. I could not pass up that price. It's over Spring Break locally, so my kids wont miss much school, just 3 days. Flights to Florida from SLC are in the $550, or 60,000 skymiles range so I watched them like a hawk for months and was able to get them for I think 34,000 miles. I booked refundable deposits for the cruise; if we hadn't found reasonable flights I would have cancelled this trip as flights would have cost as much as the cruise. This is my first time booking through a TA, and of course I used MEI (thanks Kelley!).

Who's sailing:

Hubby and I and our 4 kids: D16, S12, S7, D4. D16 has minimal time to enjoy Diamond benefits as she'll be relegated to Emerald when she turns 18 next summer, as I understand it. 

This is our first Diamond sailing. We never buy drink nor dining packages. This time around we will be eating in every specialty restaurant (Chops, Izumi, Giovannis), mostly for lunch, due to Black Friday deals and the fact that I really enjoy the MDR. However, maybe someone can help me with a dilemma. Kids 5 and under eat free, but the site made me pay for D4 when I booked. Do I go to customer service once on board and ask for a refund/OBC for her meals? If so, do I need to bring the email to show I paid for her? I had read the other option was to book the 5 of us and let them know it would be a 6 top when we arrive, but I already booked it and can't cancel just her reservation. I also read it'll be auto refunded once on board, but definitely don't trust that.

Excited for 4 free drinks a day! In all of my sailings I've only bought 1 virgin daiquiri, 1 blueberry nojito, and 1 Johnny Rockets shake. I'm a bit of a cheapo when it comes to these things and stick with water and tea. We don't drink alcohol but I have a list on my phone of every mocktail and virgin daquiri/concoction I've read about on the blog and on other forums. 

Minor Concerns:

D16 and S12 are concerned about the lack of activities. The teen lounge is only open 8pm-12am which I find quite bizarre for sea days. As far as I can tell from reading Cruise Compasses the only organized teen activity is teen only rock climbing. D16 is incredibly shy and introverted and has never set foot in the teen area on any ship. S12 is extroverted and makes a bunch of friends to run around with and play card games in the Library. Hopefully now that S12 can join D16 in the teen area he'll help her make friends, though he is sad to not be able to play gaga ball in AO. Overall though, I realize this is a small ship and we have minimal sea days so I'm not too worried about the lack of activities since we'll have plenty to do in port and can look forward to all the activities on Quantum in a couple months.

D4's favorite meal on board is spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese, though I've heard one anecdote that with the new menus the MDR staff aren't as willing to do "custom" orders like this. Anyone had experience getting a custom meal like this with the new menu? Seems like it shouldn't be all that complicated.

Itinerary:

Day 1 At Sea

Day 2 Labadee

Day 3 San Juan

Day 4 St. Maarten

Day 5 St. Kitts

Day 6 St. Lucia

Day 7 Antigua.

Day 8 At Sea 

Day 9 At Sea

We have been to Labadee on Anthem Christmas 2019 and Hubby and I have been to St. Maarten. We have third party excursions reserved everywhere except San Juan where I have Old Town walking tour maps on my phone for us to do on our own. Labadee I've reserved a Bungalow (shhh don't tell the kids, it's a surprise). I'll go into the details of each excursion when I post about them on the trip. In St. Maarten S12's best friend will also be docking on Harmony so his family will be joining us on our excursion. The boys are nearly inseparable so we were thrilled to make this discovery a couple of weeks ago. 

We fly out in 16 days and on board in 18! My kids have a light up countdown board that D7 updates before he goes to bed and D4 is already trying to give me some of her favorite clothing items to pack.

This is my first live blog and I've never put a picture in a post so I'm a little nervous but going to give it a whirl! Any questions/advice/critique is welcome.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We’re on board! Boarding was a breeze. Kids are content with the quality of pizza in Park Cafe and have already consumed an ice cream cone each and their very first free Diamond drinks ever and really their first drinks onboard. I never buy them. D16 is shockingly planning her evening around the teen club activities. She has never in all our cruises been inside the teen club. Having extroverted S12 in there with her helps. S7 and D4 are enjoying some pool time until the rooms open up. The first night’s menu didn’t seem to change much with the menu changes and has never been one I particularly enjoy. So we have reservations at Izumi for dinner, again a first time experience for all of us. With how cheap the cruise fare was I made up for it splurging on a few things we don’t usually do.

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32 minutes ago, Sweety said:

I will be on Vision in August 2023 and December 2023. Please talk about the food. We have one specialty lunch so far. Have a great time.

Will do! We’re eating at all specialty restaurants. Izumi for dinner because lunch and dinner were the same cost but the others will be for lunch.

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Day 1

In my first post of the live blog I asked questions about what to do about getting refunded for dining reservations for D4 that should’ve been free since she’s under 5. I never did find a good answer online after months of searching. So first I went to guest services who directed me to the my time dining desk who directed me to Chops. At Chops they struggled a little and just asked to comp me with some wine instead. I said no thank you I don’t drink alcohol. I told them I don’t need a refund, OBC will do and they were able to figure it out. What’s strange is that I was only charged for her at Izumi and Chops, but not for Giovanni’s. 

I’ve been trying lots of mocktails today (we don’t drink alcohol). I’ve had the strawberry limeade (which I’m pretty sure he made wrong) a watermelon mint lemonade (also made wrong, I’m pretty sure he used blueberry syrup like a blueberry nojito but with lemonade instead of club soda). My kids have all enjoyed daiquiris, my favorite being the mango strawberry. We couldn’t get through all of our drinks so I went to the bar and got water bottles for the remaining vouchers. 

The kids room had no complimentary Diamond water bottles, but hubby and I got ours. I asked the stateroom attendant about it and he wasn’t helpful so I’ll go to the Diamond concierge tomorrow. Also no Diamond pins in our rooms. I know there’s lots of discussion about who and why anyone would wear the pins but my kids were sure disappointed. 

For dinner we went to Izumi. I reserved on a Black Friday deal. My total for 6 of us (after the above mentioned refund) was $109. As mentioned before this was the kids first time dining in a specialty restaurant.

I ordered the She’s a Geisha drink (virgin) and really enjoyed it. Everyone else ordered Japanese Strawberry (also virgin). Hubby got 2 of those and S7 got 3! The waitress brought him the third and whispered to him “this one’s on me.” Super sweet and I checked later that she did in fact provide that one for free. 

For small plates the kids gobbled up the edamame, we probably should’ve asked for more because I got one single pod. Mom sacrifices. Nobody particularly enjoyed the Miso soup, it just tastes like liquid seaweed which is just not our thing. D16 ordered the crispy chicken. Everyone liked it, especially the kids because it’s basically just chicken nuggets. Very yummy with the sauce, which the kids wouldn’t try. S12 ordered the shrimp and veggie tempura. I wasn’t sitting by him or else I would’ve warned him it was just a big plate of fried food. He didn’t enjoy it. Hubby ordered the crispy rice spicy tuna and I ordered the dumplings. Both were absolutely delicious. 

On to the main dishes. All the kids had ramen and enjoyed it. Between Hubby and I we ordered lots of stuff so we could share. We got the baked snow crab and salmon dynamite roll, champagne lobster roll, seared tuna tataki roll, and the udon noodles. The dynamite roll was dynamite. I’d go back and order that to go. The udon was good, but the steak on top of it was especially delicious. 

For dessert hubby and I got molten lava cake. I really need to stop ordering that on cruises. It’s never molten lava and my homemade recipe is a thousand times better. The kids all got mochi and completely consumed all of it.

I’m not sure I would book this again for the whole family. It’s just a little too authentic for my kids and just so much food ended up wasted because they just don’t eat that much. I think I would book for hubby and I again. 

After dinner D16 and S12 went to the teen club then quickly went back to the room. They didn’t end up going to any of the activities because they wanted to go to the comedian at 9:30 and then were too tired. The comedian was Nate Weatherup. His show was so family friendly, S7 was just cackling and I never felt uncomfortable with my kids being there. No bad language or inappropriate jokes, highly recommend. 

A couple stray observations:

Of all 24 drinks ordered today we never received a receipt stating our Diamond drink balance. However, the app does show each drink, which I had never read about happening anywhere on the blog so that will be helpful.

My TA originally booked us 4572/4574. After seeing how close to the centrum they were I asked her to move us elsewhere. I am SO glad we did!! The centrum is not a quiet place. At 10:30 it was still hoping with live very loud music. I don’t know how anyone in those rooms could sleep or put young kids to bed. There is a small door to mute the noise from the centrum down the hallway but then you’re also dealing with a constantly slamming door and constant steam of people loudly walking by in addition to the music. 

Tomorrow is a sea day. I’m most excited about signing up for the egg drop challenge. I always tell myself I’ll go to various activities like jogging around the track with the cruise director and water aerobics but I’m so introverted that I never end up going. I’m challenging myself this cruise to attend/do something that might make me uncomfortable but that I know I’ll enjoy. 

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Day 2: Sea Day.
Things I forgot to mention yesterday. S7 and D4 needed a snack before dinner so we went to the windjammer yesterday. S7’s roll was hard as a rock. I thought he was exaggerating when he tried to bite it but then I hit it against the plate. D4’s slice of bread was the same. What reminded me of this is that the kids informed me that the pancakes this morning were more of the same, rock hard. We usually eat breakfast in the MDR but it didn’t open for brunch until 9:30 and my kids thought they’d starve to death by 8.

I convinced the littles to go to AO for 75 minutes this morning so I could go to the fitness center. Along the way they found two hidden ducks, one of which was Jasmine so D4 was just thrilled. They had fun at AO but were ready to leave when I picked them up.

Lunch took us to Chops. Again, first time here. I shouldn’t have read people’s reviews because I had grand things in my head. They couldn’t find the kids menu and it wasn’t on the app so littles ordered from the regular menu. As I was ordering the food I had to ask if we could get something to drink which I found odd. I got the blueberry nojito which was delicious. I got the mushroom soup and everyone got the beef carpaccio (me too). Both were delicious. I already knew I loved Royal’s beef carpaccio so I wasn’t surprised I enjoyed it. Everyone except S7 got the 8oz filet which were all over cooked but by the time we got them we had been waiting so long, I was wet from S7 knocking his Shirley temple into my lap, and it just wasn’t worth saying anything. They were still tender and delicious. S7 got the steak burger. It was huge and while tasty, not anything special.  For dessert between all of us we tried all of the desserts. None of them were all that great.  Overall the meal was good, and with the Black Friday deal I got the price couldn’t be beat for just the 8oz filet. However we were there for 2 full hours which was way too long for young kids.

By this time S7 was getting very hard to get along with so we made him go to the room for a nap. Letting him stay up for last nights comedy show was coming back to bite me in the butt. He snuggled between hubby and I and zonked (as did we) while the other kids watched TV or shows downloaded on our iPads in the other room. D4 had been dying to go to the hot tub but I just couldn’t stay awake. I woke up an hour later and guiltily went to get her to go to the pool and found her and D16 asleep. No wonder she stopped bugging me. She woke up later and we headed to the pool deck for 45 minutes before we had to get ready for our first formal night. At the pool hubby ordered the tropical crush which we found super tasty but not quite with the caffeine count we hoped for since they only use a portion of a Red Bull can and supplement it with sugary juice to try to make Red Bull taste good. He later tried the Red Delight, also Red Bull based. They didn’t cover the Red Bull taste that time. Yuck. 

Side story: S12 had his first “Karen” encounter. I warned him that when he gets pizza in the Solarium this might happen and what to say. Sure enough a woman said “you can’t be in here, you’re just a young boy!” He told her he was just getting pizza then would leave. She told him he still wasn’t allowed and needed to leave. An employee stepped over and informed “Karen” he could indeed get pizza as long as he left after. She gave him a final glare and walked away.

Dinner the rest of the cruise will be in the MDR. The menu tonight was “a taste of France.” It was a lot of meat options and since I ate my entire steak at lunch none of the options were appetizing. My family really got a laugh when I ordered the grilled cheese. I also got the calamari and dark chocolate chip cookie which was just a regular chocolate chip cookie. I thought the dough would be chocolate. All of the kids got spaghetti, two with sauce and two without. My littles were thrilled they could order pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. I had read on a forum that the MDR staff wouldn’t entertain custom requests like this anymore but since spaghetti is always on the kids menu I simply asked for pasta with no sauce and Parmesan cheese on the side. Hubby got the warm apple cobbler but said it wasn’t as good as the old apple blossom before the menu change. D16 got the almond cream puffs and said they were good. 

The show tonight was your typical song and dance from royal. The singers and dancers were some of the best I’ve seen on a cruise ship and the kids were entertained. Then D16 and I went to Finish the Lyric in the Centrum. I’ve really enjoyed all of the entertainment/activities we’ve seen in the Centrum. It’s been so kid friendly. We also watched a salsa dance class earlier today and at 10:15 they’re having a dance party (SO glad we didn’t get those rooms by the Centrum). 
Tomorrow we’re in Labadee. I’ve reserved a beach bungalow for the day and D16 can’t wait to get her hair braided. 

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Learned last night that I have zero issues uploading images if I go to the centrum. I tested the wifi speed in the room and it was 8mbps download and .86 upload. Screen shot included when I’m in the centrum. 

We had a beach bungalow on Columbus Beach in Labadee today. I didn’t check the price on Black Friday so don’t know what could’ve been but a few weeks before the cruise I got it for $350, then a few days later it went down to $328 so I cancelled and rebooked. Next day it was $447 and never went down. 

I had read it’s best to get bungalows 3, 4, or 5 so I headed off the ship as soon as the gangway opened at 8 and everyone else went to the windjammer. I’m not a breakfast person so this was fine by me and I got an hour alone at the beach in bungalow 4. 

The bungalows are so close to each other I don’t think it really matters which you choose. It was nice to have cold water bottles, towels, and floating mats already in the bungalow and to have a shady place to veg. The bungalows are very close to the lunch buffet. There are a ton of chairs for this private part of the beach and only those with wrist bands can use them. I haven’t decided yet if it was worth the cost. With just one small ship in port there are so many chairs available. I did like this area for the young kids because the ocean was so calm. A bungalow would definitely would be nice if there was more than one ship in port or if you’re on a larger ship. Our all aboard time was changed from 5 to 3:30 so we didn’t have as long to use it as I’d planned.

After everyone arrived D16 and I went on the hunt for hair braiding. We made the mistake of going through the market. I had read about it but it is so bad. I hated walking through there being hounded rudely by everyone, many even just yelling “HELLOOOOO?!?!l” as I continued to pay them no attention. We found the hair braiding and I’m sure I overpaid despite the signage but I know D16 will leave it in her hair for at least the rest of the trip if not longer and it’ll make her life easier. She has incredibly thick frizzy hair. S7 and D4 snorkeled for about 5 hours straight. There weren’t many fish but since they’ve never snorkeled they were thrilled and came to tell me every time they found a fish. “Mom we saw a big fish!” As they held out their hands about 3 inches. 😂 We loved the virgin Labadoozie drink. This was our second time in Labadee and some side by side pictures between Christmas 2019 on Anthem and now are included below. 

Once we got back on the ship the kids showered and decompressed in the room and hubby and I went to the fitness center. 

Dinner tonight was taste of Mexico. Hubby and D16 got the tortilla soup and said it’s good. I got the shrimp cocktail. Very tiny but the cocktail sauce was delicious. Hubby and I got butter chicken (not Mexican, but I’m so happy they put their amazing Indian dishes on the menu) and shared the pork enchilada. We really enjoyed the chicken. The enchilada was good but incredibly spicy with the sauce. D16 got the carne asada and said it needed more seasoning. S12 got chicken tenders and S7 and D4 stuck with the spaghetti with cheese again. I’m not sure they’ll eat anything else for dinner the entire cruise. I would never allow that at home but we’re not at home so enjoy your carbs kiddos! For dessert everyone ordered the warm chocolate cookie which is a new favorite. It was fresh and gooey. I also got the sugar free coconut cake and it was superb. I love royals sugar free desserts. Hubby also got the tres leches and said it was “pretty good.”

S12 has made friends with the employees in the Park Cafe. When they see him walk up they get him his pepperoni pizza and chocolate bar and off he goes quickly so as to not disturb any more Karens offended at his presence. 

As of last night at 11:11pm he’s had 9 pieces of pizza, 5 chocolate bars, and 4 ice cream cones. He’s keep tracking in his notes app. I haven’t received tonight’s update; he’s in the teen club  while I stay up writing this trying to stay awake waiting for him. I’m sure he’ll show up with some pizza some time before midnight. 

Tonight’s show was “Oh What a Night” by Jersey. I had read this was a show not to be missed and they were indeed fantastic. S7 said if he falls asleep to wake him up to go to the later show also. They said they’ve finished their contract on Vision and are getting off the ship tomorrow in San Juan. They are heading to Australia to tour.  

Then we went to the Guess My Lips game show in the Centrum. Once again family friendly. It took a while to get to the point but ended up being quite entertaining.  

D16 and I sat and enjoyed some live music until the Hush! Silent Party. S12 joined us when he heard about it and while they didn’t go on the dance floor they really enjoyed it from a distance (pictures below). If you’re not familiar, everyone gets some headphones and can choose to be on the blue or green channel to listen to music. They turn off all other music in the area and it’s fun to watch everyone sing and dance in silence, especially when they all break into song and dance like with YMCA or the Macarena. 

Side notes: we’ve been using the free chat feature to keep in contact with the kids. I read varying reports of some getting notifications and some not. In our experience whoever is signed into the single device Voom we paid for does get notifications. Nobody else gets notifications.  

Speaking of the Voom. I had a hard time uploading pictures on Day 1. I learned last night if I go to the centrum I have no problem. I went from 8mbps download in the room to 90mbps in the centrum and .86 upload in the room to 6.6 in the centrum.

Tomorrow we’ll be in San Juan. We’re planning to do a walking tour on our own from some maps and other links I’ve saved. 

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Day 4

This morning hubby and I took S7 and D4 to the MDR for breakfast while the older two slept in. Of course the kids still got cereal but I always order the vegetable breakfast bowl with a side of bacon. Then we took the littles to AO and off to the fitness center. I was going to walk on the jogging track but deck 10 was closed due to wind. Then I watched a hip hop dance lesson. I had watched two of the dancers creating choreography in the fitness center yesterday afternoon and was curious to see if this was what it was for. Indeed it was. I enjoyed listening to them choreograph it while I did my workout yesterday. At one point the girl spoke up that she felt one of the moves was too sexy and adjusted the dance. Re-emphasizes the family friendliness of this ship’s activities. She did a wonderful job teaching the choreography. I tried to convince D4 to come with me. If she had come I would’ve learned the dance with her but alas my introversion got the best of me and I just watched. For lunch S12 went and saw his buddies at park cafe and got us a whole pizza to share for a snack in our room. Afterward D16 and I went to deck 5 to watch us pull into Old San Juan.

The ship arrived 20 minutes early but with a late afternoon arrival the line to get off the ship went up about 5 decks in every stair case on both ends of the ship. Once we finally got off the ship we started our walking tour on our own (https://www.thejellybeans.net/docs/WalkingTour_PuertoRico_SanJuan_OldSanJuan.pdf we only walked to number 13 then did our own thing) but very quickly got distracted by some food and drink carts. I had read to try Mavi/Mabi/Mauby (depends on the country). In Puerto Rico it’s mavi. Mavi is made by boiling the bark of the mavi tree with spices. When I ordered it the guy looked at my very pale skin and insisted I try it first because most Americans don’t like it. I thought that was very nice of him to not just take my money. I thought it was delicious. He insisted it was ok if I don’t like it, I don’t have to buy it. I insisted it was quite tasty. He muttered under his breath and shook his head “she likes it, I can’t believe it” many times as he poured it and as I walked away. Hubby and S7 also liked it. 

At another cart we bought empanadas, arepas, and sorullitos. Hubby spent two years living in Venezuela and loves empanadas and arepas. Sorullitos were new to us. The empanadas were the best I’ve ever had. The dough and the chicken inside were just amazing. I don’t love arepas but hubby thoroughly enjoyed that as well. Hubby and S7 liked the sorullitos. It basically tasted like a very sweet honey corn dog but with cheese instead of a hot dog. We were too enthralled to take any pictures. Oops. After much whining “it’s hot” “I’m sweaty” “Carry me” we finally made it to our main destination, Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The grass was quite dead as opposed to the crisp green in pictures I’d seen. Quite a few people were flying kites. The cool wind felt very nice after a very hot and humid walk uphill. We paid to go inside and explored for almost an hour. We then walked to look at Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzi Cemetery. The gates appeared to be locked so we couldn’t explore as I’d hoped. Then we walked to Castillo San Cristobal. I knew it closed at 5 so we couldn’t go inside but it was on the way back to the ship. Since we already enjoyed some local food we decided to get back on the ship for dinner. 

I wish that we had more normal port hours today. I really wanted to go to El Yunque Rainforest but the logistics of getting there and back with plenty of time to explore before dark were just not working out. I don’t like the hop on hop off type Royal Caribbean excursions so that wasn’t an option. I like to have plenty of time to hike and explore and I’d read the ship’s excursion really required staying close to the bus and minimal exploration. I also really tried to find a way to do a bioluminescence tour but they all got back at 9 or later and are 30-60 minutes away from San Juan. All aboard is 9:30. Guess I’ll have to come back to San Juan some time. 

Dinner tonight was taste of USA. The baked potato soup was good. I didn’t enjoy the zucchini fries and the Buffalo chicken dip would’ve been better without blue cheese, but that’s definitely a personal preference because I hate blue cheese. Littles stuck with plain pasta but S7 did get shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad this time. D4 wishes they had berries as an appetizer. I got the lobster Mac and cheese and wasn’t a fan. Hubby had to work and showed up late so I ordered him maple and bourbon glazed salmon. He said the sauce was tasty. D16 ordered the royal burger and loved it. S12 ordered the steak; I think the garlic butter is new with the steak on this menu? It was so good that I sent back my Mac and cheese and got the steak. For dessert kids and hubby got royal chocolate cake and ice cream. S12 was sad royal chocolate cake isn’t on the menu permanently anymore so he was most excited about it. I got no sugar key lime shortcake and vegan brownie. The shortcake was disappointing since I usually like the sugar free desserts. The vegan brownie was fine, just like a regular brownie. So overall today’s menu was just meh. 

The theme was white night and we all looked so cute in our white shirts and dresses but dinner took longer than past evenings and kids were not cooperative for a picture. So I will be requiring our very own white night again in a few days to attempt that family picture. Yes I’m that mom  

No show in the theatre tonight, just Top Gun: Maverick showing twice, but actually in the theater and not on the pool deck. Speaking of the theatre, I LOVE the Masquerade Theatre. The only downside is it’s not as big as the theatre on other ships so it’s harder to find a seat last minute, but we’ve found one every night and we’re usually 5-10 minutes late. The seats are SO much more comfy than newer ships! 

Tonight we’re requiring an early bed time. We have 4 straight days of needing to be first off the boat for excursions. While this is vacation, my kids are not functional without 8-11 hours of good sleep. Littles were in bed by 8 and the other two have been asked to go to sleep at 10. D16 headed to the solarium hot tub after dinner and S12 to the teen club. He made a friend last night and didn’t get back until 12:30am! Park cafe is open until 1am so they were hanging out eating pizza together. I was so tired but moms can’t go to sleep without knowing their babies are safe in their beds.  

Tomorrow we’re in St. Maarten. S12’s BFF is on Harmony of the Seas which just so happens to be in port the same day as us. His family is joining us on our excursion. The two boys couldn’t be more thrilled! I’m excited to be able to start sharing about specific excursions. I do extensive research planning these things so I have high expectations. BC70F910-2D00-494F-BF0C-9887F6C5759E.thumb.jpeg.598ede1acd179059a75d0801cebb3a64.jpeg6BA0DEA7-D314-45BF-A459-CEAD7A717AB2.thumb.jpeg.daceca8c4b61f8c13406a0297613c41d.jpeg58454A2B-C765-4B43-8386-9D183A0C4695.thumb.jpeg.3d40936b5fb95c120e4bf4229657637d.jpeg56176E4D-19BD-4FB8-ACA1-03ECEC4FFF0C.thumb.jpeg.b56aed7acb4cbb2ae237586d223e8a9e.jpegC37224B3-FBF8-4CB6-BC28-1BCF92EABCC6.thumb.jpeg.23f26fc19d1c5c8197c5437a5a3b4c35.jpegD993265B-CB7E-4373-AD15-8DDD8737E7FB.thumb.jpeg.87df24555e4404844786b0f1b0132ae9.jpeg48C5BA7E-516D-4FF3-AD7D-42DDD79B6472.thumb.jpeg.bb68b2a8dc47de11c7310259d67213ca.jpeg423B4418-F131-4BF9-91D5-174837DA0FAB.thumb.jpeg.dac90faeb170f73cb64e040b8d6ed63b.jpeg4ED4A940-402F-44BA-AFBA-389FD433A538.thumb.jpeg.0af7d34b360b81a189ed6ad151ecc2ce.jpeg

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Day 5

Today we had a tour with Bernard Tours in St. Maarten. It’s the one called Adventure Tour 2 on their website. This was the special day when S12’s BFF was in the same port on Harmony.  His family is mom, dad, and three kids. Despite the detailed instructions to find the meeting area we had to ask two people for directions. We were supposed to meet at 9:30 but our gangway didn’t go down until 9:20, which was actually ahead of schedule. I had emailed the tour company to let them know we may be late. 

This was mostly a driving tour with a few brief stops and one longer beach stop. We had a few stops to take pictures and we crossed between both the French and Dutch sides. 

We stopped for the kids to feed some wild iguanas. It was free with a requested tip afterward. 

For the beach we were given a choice between Orient and Grand Case beach. We chose the more family friendly Grand Case beach. Our tour leader dropped us off at Captain Frenchy’s and gave us 90 minutes. There were still some topless women but better than full on nudity. We paid $16 for two chairs and an umbrella on the beach. Had we known lunch would take so long to come out we would’ve ordered as soon as we arrived. Between our two families it took nearly 45 minutes for all of our food. Lunch cost $103 for my family. Their burgers were delicious as was the Captain Frenchy’s salad. Because we waited so long for our food we ended up being there for two hours and you could tell it was stressing out the driver. Anyway, the kids loved playing in the waves and D4 snorkeled in the crystal clear water. Hubby stayed right by her but she did amazing snorkeling without a life vest.

The next stops had to be cut short due to our long stay at Grand Case. The next was 15 minutes at a shopping area in Marigot. Hubby and I went to a French pastry shop. We are real suckers for good local food. The kids bought some bracelets and a sculpture thingy crafted from a local tagua nut that resembles ivory once cut. 

Our final stop was Maho beach for 35 minutes where you can see the airplanes land and take off. We barely missed some big planes landing by 10 minutes. We saw a tiny plane land. We saw two big jets take off. One took off facing away from us so we could feel the jet blast and the other took off coming toward us so essentially as close and loud as landing. The kids LOVED this and if we come back again would like to come back to that beach for a couple hours. It really was an incredible experience. 

We were ready to go back to the ship when we got back to Philipsburg at 3 but this was our friends’ first cruise and they wanted to go to the shopping area. I hate the shopping aspect of cruise ports but went with them anyway because I wanted to get a picture of the boys in front of their respective ships afterward. 

We got back on the ship with enough time to shower before dinner. I think we may have left two people behind. They called for them a few times but they never came running to the ship and the gangway went up. 

Tonight was Caribbean night. The coconut shrimp was delicious and the buttery tiger shrimp were pretty good. The sugar free blueberry cobbler was meh. Hubby got the jerk chicken, he ate it but didn’t rave about it or anything. The pineapple cake was also meh. Dinner was over all good. 

The show was ventriloquist Mark Merchant. He had some funny moments but a lot of the jokes went over the younger kids heads. They were really looking forward to him so that was a little disappointing. He also had some minorly inappropriate jokes that also luckily went over the kids heads. 

We went to Dance with the Stripes game in the Centrum which was entertaining and had a huge audience (pictures below).

S12 has been loving the teen club. Despite my plea to the kids last night to go to bed early and setting a 10pm bedtime we finally had to go on the hunt for him at midnight. His phone had died so he hadn’t received any messages I’d sent and who needs to be on time when your parents can’t reach you? Tonight I made it clear he has a 10:30 curfew. My initial blog post I had voiced concerns about the teen club. The app indicated it was only open 8pm-midnight. They have had day time activities randomly throughout the day along with night time games and a Nintendo switch. S12 is extremely extroverted and always finds friends on our cruises so I’m glad he’s enjoying his independence, just wish he wanted to go to bed. 

Tomorrow we’re in St. Kitts and this is the port I am most excited about. I have loved monkeys since I was little and this tour always has Peaches the monkey on it. I can hardly contain my excitement to spend a few hours with a monkey. The monkey population is higher than the human population so monkeys are often killed for eating crops so Peaches was an orphan. 

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Day 6

Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 

It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 

Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.

Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.

It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 

For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 

The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 

D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 

Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.

Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 03C5DAC4-CFE7-4106-8851-FCAD68E6A6C4.thumb.jpeg.e51a8fff724e1811dce097bffc6cc897.jpeg7324B722-2593-416A-89D6-78D2359A0875.thumb.jpeg.1e6ed8b15eee2e2aa18b24d57a35ad71.jpegEF1D853C-3123-437B-96B9-C73C8A457A28.thumb.jpeg.a70ef77d0da2b24b99cff6fdc1222abc.jpeg4A246FA7-C29F-4A22-9DA8-C85EB6C015FC.thumb.jpeg.a40d1658bf18260e8d4b5e55b0adfb6b.jpegC4F76538-83BD-4F2E-8AE0-43DD56BD745B.thumb.jpeg.4ae3d6557d985cf6fbb6e72c5f855995.jpegE290B04B-3C42-441D-B9CB-29814B960212.thumb.jpeg.647dba4701d17dbbb01b8f889eeac029.jpegDC902A37-24EB-4A98-BFD6-16659671825C.thumb.jpeg.590205f800349aa890b01efa03e67096.jpeg00FD2FB8-C446-4DC0-BD59-88EE6D7037A2.thumb.jpeg.57c10c159f8ae532a14e519c30cd1ca9.jpegDDE16496-DD16-41D1-A1F8-FE496BAEA4C3.thumb.jpeg.1797792dcdc5e511947637641ab4f224.jpeg1A726A84-1C4B-4EFA-958F-A15C8D66614B.thumb.jpeg.16a7d21bcc06046d7b95909e0b385a2b.jpeg1A619B81-AE70-47B8-BA6A-5EE5F2290142.thumb.jpeg.7d3db4fcd1722db27f852ed938236dac.jpegF3719037-C07D-4F8F-A7FE-09B032F28868.thumb.jpeg.1cd29f618f2308d5c9fd2c22d02ad1c8.jpeg

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Love the blog and the pics.  Especially your daughter swinging on the vines.

It does look to me as if you did the sandwich wrong which compounds the fact that Royal also does it wrong.  I live in VA now, but was raised in Buffalo, NY the home of the Beef on Weck.  Ideally you would start with a kummelweck bun and this is where Royal makes their first blunder.  Their bun hardly has any salt and caraway.  It's still ok, but only in the most technical sense a kummelweck bun. Next you would pile it with thinly sliced beef.  Royal likes to put on thicker slice on the sandwich.  Then you would dip the bun top in au jus, not gravy and if you wanted anything on top it would be horseradish root.  The better places will toast the bun and then also toast the sandwich briefly before presentation.

I have no idea what is on your sandwich but I promise you that it does not belong.

Beef on Weck should look like this.

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I eat and can enjoy Royal's for what it is, but I do my best to stick to the beef, bun and horseradish.  They offer gravy which I skip

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Day 6

Today we were in St. Lucia. We had a tour with Cosol Tours. Finding them just outside security was very simple. Luckily we arrived early and the gangway went down before the scheduled 8:30 time because Our meeting time was 8:20. When I woke up at 6:45 we were getting tied to the pier. We waited until 8:45 for two sets of no shows. We were split into two groups for two vehicles. Our group had 10 people. We had quite a few stops for overlooks of the ships, cities, and Pitons. 

We stopped at a banana plantation where we used a banana chip to try banana ketchup and banana bbq sauce. Both were delicious but the bbq sauce was especially yummy. We also each got a banana fresh from the tree. 

We ate brunch at 10am. It was lovely and had so many local things to try. A few of my favorites were the bbq chicken and the tamarind. We also tried the Cosol fruit which was the texture of…slime? But the flavor of a flowery watermelon. Hard to describe. Drinks were also provided with a choice of water, coke, or sprite. Later after snorkeling alcohol was offered. 

Then we continued to the next city and took a quick 5-6 minute water taxi ride to sugar beach resort where we only had an hour to snorkel and enjoy the beach. It wasn’t long enough because we didn’t know the order in which we were going place to place so we spent a good 15-20 minutes sunscreening everyone up. If we’d know approximately what time we’d arrive I would’ve prepared in the van. The water taxi wasn’t some calm ferry, it was a bouncing crazy speed boat so no chance we could apply sunscreen there. 

Sugar beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was great. We saw a variety of fish, a puffer fish, and several squid. A couple people on the blog commented on our snorkel masks. Let me prepare you for the good and bad. I hate putting the salty breathing piece in my mouth and with these I never have to taste salty water. That’s a huge plus for me. They do give me quite the headache though so be prepared for that. 

Next we went to the worlds only drive through volcano. We were given a choice between a volcano tour or doing a mud bath. This is where I reached my vacation goal of doing something outside my comfort zone and was the only one dropped off to do the mud bath and everyone else left to do the tour. Hubby said the tour was meh. After being to Yellowstone so many times it wasn’t especially informative. The mud bath was AMAZING. My skin felt like silk. 

Finally we went to a waterfall. Nothing all that impressive and required an entry fee. We have an awful lot of gorgeous and free waterfalls in Utah but D4 wanted to get in so in we went. S7 and S12 decided to join us. 

I should add that Cosol Tours covered all food and entry fees upon arrival so there was no additional cost above the cost of the tour. 

Next was the 90 minute drive back to the ship. What I haven’t mentioned are the roads. Every minute or two there’s a sign preparing you for a hairpin turn. It’s like doing a hike with constant switch backs but driving. S12, S7, and I are very prone to motion sickness. I wish there had been a warning on their website or email to bring Dramamine. The driving was the absolute worst part of this tour and why I wouldn’t do it again. I would recommend the tour to anyone but stomaching that drive back took a lot of self control while also coaching the boys through breathing and counting down the minutes.

If I were to come here again I’d love if there was a tour that took you to sugar beach in a boat and then a vehicle drove you to the volcano for a combined tour and mud bath then a boat back to the pier. I get severely sea sick even snorkeling so boat rides are rough too but if I take half a Dramamine every 2 hours I’m ok. I suspect the boat ride would be faster and less sickening than the car ride. 

Anyway, we got back to the port at 4 so it was a very long tour and so so much driving. Because we hadn’t eaten since 10 we needed pizza. I was not feeling great but two Tylenol and a Shirley Ginger helped. Ginger always helps calm my stomach. 

So far St. Kitts has been our favorite. Javin (from yesterday’s tour) pointed out they’re no longer a third world country and are now a developing country and you could see it all over. Now maybe we missed some of the poverty stricken areas but what we saw was well taken care of and beautiful. I can’t say the same for St. Maarten and St. Lucia. Next time we visit St. Kitts hubby and I would like to climb Mt. Liamuiga and if we come to St. Lucia again we’d like to hike to the top of the Pitons. Both hikes are too strenuous for our young kids. 

Dinner tonight was Taste of Asia. I got the spring rolls and hubby and D16 got the dumplings which ended up being what we’d call potstickers. I stole some of theirs and enjoyed both appetizers a lot. I got the Teriyaki Salmon, hubby got the shrimp pad Thai, and D16 got the veggie stir fry. The salmon tasted really good but was way over cooked. Hubby said the pad Thai smelled weird but tasted good. D16 envisioned finely diced veggies in rice similar to Benihana so was not thrilled with the giant chunks of veggies and didn’t eat much. Probably didn’t help that she already ate two pieces of pizza in park cafe. We got the matcha passion fruit cake, banh flan, and mango tapioca desserts. None of them were fully consumed. Tonight I also tried a virgin pretty n pink. It tasted like a very sour pink lemonade. I love sour drinks so thought it was good but tropical crush and blueberry nojito are still my favorite. Last night I got served a blueberry mojito. It’s much better alcohol free and I quickly sent that back for a replacement. 

I forgot to mention last night was my family’s replacement white night since they were not cooperative with my desire for pictures the first time. Pictures below. 

The show was comedy juggler Billy Prudhomme. He was pretty funny. A few sexual innuendos that quickly went over the kids heads.

We are so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open to write this but am waiting for S12 to come back from teen club. We gave him a 9:30 curfew tonight. He’s very hard to get along with when he’s so tired in the morning.  I think it’s harder for him to enjoy the tour for the first couple of hours so I’m hoping an extra hour or so of sleep will help because we have one more very early morning. Then we can have two days of sleeping in. Woohoo. It’s very hard to have such a port intensive cruise with no break in between port days, especially for the kids and especially after spending hours in the sun swimming etc. 

Tomorrow is our final port day in Antigua. 

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Today we were in Antigua. Royal Caribbean only offered an excursion to Stingray City, but we wanted to to the Stingray City and Laviscount Island combo tour. The stingray city only excursion was sold out anyway. Stingray city wouldn’t book me directly since I’m on a cruise ship and wanted me to book through the cruise even though they don’t offer that tour. Frustrating loop. So I found a third party tour agent called AskIba. Iba took a few weeks but was able to book what I wanted AND my transportation. He charged $5 more than booking directly and requested a tip when I made the deposit but it was worth it.

We were some of the first passengers off; they didn’t even have the towel table setup yet. Gangway was originally supposed to go down at 8:30 but we were supposed to meet the driver at 8:15 for a 9am reservation. Luckily we were early and we were able to meet him at exactly 8:15. It’s Good Friday so the roads were nearly empty and there were hardly any people begging me to use their services. 

Upon arrival to stingray city I had to show proof of deposit and ended up having to activate my cell service to do that. So be aware if you go this route to take a screen shot. Iba had told me they would have my name and my balance due so I didn’t think I’d need that info. 

We took a small boat about 8 minutes to the middle of the ocean. I generally do research and try to steer clear of anything where humans are using animals for profit. They explained there is a rope with buoys but it’s to keep the humans in. There is no fence going down from the ropes keeping the stingrays in, they come and go as they please. 

We took a picture with a stingray, fed them some squid and then were free to explore and ask questions. We had 45 minutes there. I loved being in the water with the stingrays and having them rub against my leg as they swam by and did not want to get out. 

Then we took the boat back 8 minutes to Laviscount Island. There they have rescued tortoises. One was a tripod, others had disfigured shells, another an injured leg. There were probably 50 tortoises. We got a quick drink of fruit punch and instructions then got to feed them carrots. Afterward we got to hold baby tortoises. If they find them when they’re babies they keep them safe here until they’re 5 and then release them. They also had some rescued birds that came to them sick or injured as well as nearly extinct breed of iguanas on Antigua. There are only 4 that they know of on the island and they’re trying to breed them but have been unsuccessful thus far. We were there another 45 minutes. 

Then we took a 30 second boat ride back to the main island to look at our stingray pictures. I thought the pricing was surprisingly reasonable. $15 for one and $5 for any additional ones and they just airdrop them. I paid for 2 and he sent me 4. Fine by me. 

Afterward we asked our taxi driver to take us to Devil’s Bridge. This has a sad history. Slaves used to go there to commit suicide. 

I had asked if we could stop for black pineapple, an amazingly sweet pineapple only available in Antigua but Iba found out there are none available on the island right now. I also asked to stop by a local street vendor for a local snack. When we were almost to the cruise ship we found one. Again, nobody was out for Good Friday. There were no snack options, just full meals.  A local was there and advised us what to get and ordered for us. I actually remembered to take a picture this time but not until we’d half way consumed the meal. We had ducana, fungee, chunk, lingin fish (maybe? I can’t remember what it was called), Cassie (the green pepper looking veggie), and pumpkin. I don’t know what chunk is but it was one of the better items. S7 and D4 likes the ducana. I thought it would be a tamale type thing but it was more like a sweet bread and tasted similar to an oatmeal cookie. The other kids didn’t taste any of the local food. 

We were back on board by 1. S12 learned today (or not because this is not the first cruise we’ve had this issue on) that he should eat actual food. He and D16 went off on their own and when we met up for dinner S12 was not feeling well. All he ate after we got on the ship was and large Ben & Jerry’s and a strawberry daiquiri.  The staff at Ben & Jerry’s didn’t believe the kids that a Diamond benefit is 50% off an ice cream and charged them full price. I went to the Diamond lounge later to get 50% back. It was a very small amount in the scheme of things but I was just hoping it might be a queue to make sure the staff are fully trained on the new benefits. 

The rest of us either had pizza or windjammer food. Then littles went to AO and off to the fitness center hubby and I went. As I was heading back to the room I heard my daughters name being announced in the Centrum. My not only introverted, but incredibly shy daughter, was participating in the corn hole tournament! I stayed to watch and apparently S12 was also competing. Neither won but I was so proud of her for going way beyond her comfort zone. 

Dinner tonight was Taste of UK. We all got the mozzarella sticks and enjoyed them. I wish they were warmer and fresher so they were gooey and stringy. D16 and S12 got fettuccine Alfredo. They enjoyed it and I took a taste and agreed it was pretty good. Neither of them ate much having recently consumed way too much Ben & Jerry’s. Hubby and I got chicken tikka masala. It was spicy but not so bad that I couldn’t finish it. For dessert S7 got the chocolate mousse and liked it. Most of us got the vegan berry sundae. Hubby and I liked it but D16 didn’t. The best thing was the sticky toffee pudding. 

We had two pier runners today but their running ended up being unnecessary because we left more than an hour late due to two medical evacuations. The woman on the stretcher waved and yelled “see you on the other side! I’d say break a leg but I already broke mine!”  It looked like the woman in the wheelchair also injured her leg. 

The show was Derek Floyd: the Lionel Richie Experience. Gotta be honest, I only knew one song and that’s because it’s in the Trolls movie. That being said, he was fantastic and the on board orchestra is just incredible. He got a standing ovation. 

D16 and I then went to the karaoke finals. Apparently there’s been some competition going on all week. It’s beyond me how these people made it this far but it was the final 4 and I left after 2 of them. See pictures of D16 in embarrassment of being there. I guess after I left the other two people were quite good. 

Kiddos got in bed, S12 went off to the teen area and then it was time for The Quest. This is the first sailing I’ve been on since they brought this back after the pandemic. It was fun as usual. I let D16 go and she found it very funny. While it was inappropriate as usual I didn’t feel uncomfortable with her there. 

A couple of random thoughts:

I’ve decided I’m actually quite happy in an ocean view room. After doing so many caribbean cruises and never seeing wildlife while spending hours on my balcony, I’m not missing the balcony and I’m sleeping way better not having nightmares of my kids falling overboard in their room. Plus I saved a ton of money. Hubby thinks we could even manage an inside room but I really like waking up and seeing some natural light. However I want to emphasize I could not go without a balcony on an Alaska cruise. Way too much wildlife to see there.  

I noticed today that decks 7 and 8 also open up onto the centrum and the doorway is open so there’s no sound barrier. I wouldn’t want rooms there either. 012C0F3B-9BB4-4EE1-86B5-8A88441E4164.thumb.jpeg.c7ae91bda2fd9a6cf4bac7d86b96f583.jpeg1D8305BE-4E81-4137-8D2B-1B75396A2B4C.thumb.jpeg.f4fa6ab230c933637f0dc875e266fc2a.jpegBEBDBD7F-FFB8-4967-A5BB-67DA10B91999.thumb.jpeg.85f77e79e53f21aebea7b907527a40a5.jpeg136A4B9F-3372-4AEB-A29C-55AD2B0F2B46.thumb.jpeg.460b1339f993e32585e8c8b4b484246e.jpeg4AA314ED-3749-4FE9-BD9B-F3BD7A93AD2E.thumb.jpeg.048223f1f602684a79929216caf6a4fd.jpeg2C0F873E-9CDC-4952-A4CF-C42767D00F3E.thumb.jpeg.23890cfe02b9ed9a01568c62313eebdd.jpeg337492AF-B2B6-4D5C-9605-FA0BD78377B3.thumb.jpeg.3f07d692c21f0225f325af4d2fa7aeb4.jpeg2CDE22EE-A698-44B3-9B73-48FBF4E34BB2.thumb.jpeg.78b7a398ca57a3ca894c9a9109eec458.jpeg6965F657-6FF0-427E-A8EB-E22950117CF4.thumb.jpeg.7a4e6b51f62444d2316f3609818e8efa.jpeg6B480732-B553-4840-B1E1-F0FF4A46A3CB.thumb.jpeg.9108f1853fc34818493f83402b5ad05e.jpegEEB64AF3-C746-4EA7-AFB1-6C43F50EE4A7.thumb.jpeg.ce35cd3a3bc6ade44d2f5a74a530bee7.jpeg4180F3E6-A31F-4D31-BB09-D6A710BA0531.thumb.jpeg.7c2dc4ef8d03775abcb5b3dee3e9425d.jpegAEAF11B2-FDE7-44B9-83E1-3A0F1C21899A.thumb.jpeg.f0426165480bdf97716923a4e719c9bf.jpeg

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Today was a sea day and we finally got to sleep in! But I woke up at 6:15 anyway. At 6:35 S7 was asking for food claiming to be starving. Nothing was open and after much huffing and sighing he finally went back to his bed and fell asleep for an hour. But then D4 came in also starving. I finally ran up to windjammer and grabbed them each a bowl of cereal to hold them over. Finally an hour later we filled their tummies and sent them to AO. 

We went to Harry Potter trivia then to Giovanni’s for lunch. I got a deal for it on National pizza day even though they don’t serve pizza. 

We got seated at 12:30 and didn’t get our drinks until 1:20. We were worried we were in for another 2+ hour meal but we ended up being done within 90 minutes. And I actually remembered to take pictures of some of the food today!

Beef carpaccio was way better in chops. D16 and S7 got the chicken noodle soup. D16 has been sad it’s no longer available on the kids menu in the dining room; she’s always ordered it every dinner in the MDR. She was so excited to get it and it was everything she remembered it to be. I got the mozzarella tomato salad. The mozzarella was more like burrata and I love burrata. S12 got the kids pizza appetizer. It was focaccia with some red sauce and cheese melted on top. He liked it but I wouldn’t call it pizza. 

Four of us got filet mignon. When you make a reservation online it says kids have to order from the kids menu but we’ve had no problem with them ordering from the adult menu. S12 and D4 got the spaghetti with butter and cheese. It was more like butter with a little spaghetti. So much butter. They didn’t seem to mind. S12 then tried S7’s filet and then kept it for himself when S7 decided he was full. The filet in Giovanni’s was much better than the one in Chop’s. It had more seasoning and they were all cooked perfectly. Nobody was a fan of the sauce but the steak didn’t need it at all. The sauce in Chops was better and the steak was better with it because it wasn’t seasoned well in the first place. The broccoli on the side was very good. The potatoes tasted like those powdery flakes you just add water to so nobody ate them. Next time I’d order the filet with extra broccoli and no potatoes. For dessert we got cannolis, panna cotta, and flourless chocolate cake. The cake was only on the kids menu for some reason. I mentioned before that the lava cakes are never lava. These were lava. I was jealous of all the kids cakes and ordered myself one. The cannolis were meh. You could tell they’d been cooked and stuffed this morning so they weren’t crispy. The panna cotta was surprisingly good. That chocolate cake was SO good. I would definitely eat here again especially with it being cheaper than Chops but with better filet. 

Then we all completely forgot about the egg drop challenge that I’ve been looking forward to all week and fell asleep! I was so mad at myself when I woke up but man that nap was nice and very much needed. 

After waking up it was already time for dinner! Tonight was formal night. Everyone split before I could get my pictures. Gr. So D4 and I got professional pictures. Since we get a free picture as a Diamond benefit I’ve really been wanting to get a family picture with the photographer but they’re never ready at 5:30 and everyone goes separate ways after dinner. 

Anyway, I was still so full but needed that lobster tail. Tonight was Welcome to Royal night. I got the shrimp cocktail again. Hubby got the Citrus avocado and melon salad. Seemed weird but he ate it and didn’t complain. D16 and hubby ordered the tortellini. I took a nibble of half of one and it was very good and very garlicky. Hubby, S7, and I got the lobster. It was delicious and not as rubbery as usual. For dessert we had the warm chocolate cake and the sugar free strawberry shortcake. The chocolate cake was strangely bitter. S7 took one bite, made a nasty face and had to gulp water. Hubby said it was fine with some ice cream to tame it. The strawberry shortcake was fine, nothing special. 

Then it was time for the show. It was Boogie Wonderland and was a disco show. Again, the singers and dancers on this ship, as well as the orchestra, are phenomenal. 

D16 and I went to family feud which was not family feud at all. I thought it would be funny between families like it’s supposed to be, but it was just anyone come to the microphone to answer so no winning or losing team or anything. 

No other plans tonight except to wait for S12 to come back from the teen club who knows when. 

Side notes:

I had read with the menu changes that the wait staff was reluctant to allow ordering more than one dish to minimize waste. That has not been the case for us. It’s never been an issue to order multiple items.

Pretty much every employee calls D4 a Princess. Admittedly they’re not wrong. I mean look at the picture of her. You can really tell our assistant waiter, Fortunate (what an amazing name!) really misses her daughter. She hugs my little girl and dotes on her. The littles look forward to telling her about their day. I have really loved the wait staff this cruise. Since the restart we’ve had very mediocre or less than mediocre wait staff with dinner taking upwards of 2 hours and no interaction or getting to know our names or chat. This is the first cruise I’ve finally felt like things are back to normal. Antonio does all sorts of fun tricks for the kids after dinner. We’re usually done with dinner in 60-75 minutes. 

Tomorrow is our final sea day and I am so sad. Hubby is antsy to get home but I could cruise forever as could the kids. He’s fully aware come retirement this is what we’ll be spending our time doing exploring the world. Hopefully they’re still doing world cruises in 25-30 years. We have two more cruises planned over the next 18 months but I’m trying to convince hubby to go on an 11 night southern Caribbean cruise to different islands than this one over Christmas 2024 on Explorer of the Seas. Wish me luck!D707CAF4-2DEA-4758-B343-1704D7DA7C1C.thumb.jpeg.afa726328430952e94b221722e9ad96f.jpeg952EDD79-61B4-46BF-83A0-5AB794333E61.thumb.jpeg.9969db0ef2f36a9829e027d36c04e947.jpeg2DA20296-FB29-4AFC-BE91-A56168575ED2.thumb.jpeg.ba4f944c8639e0a22a0fa1a68d258d70.jpegA51E67FD-7478-4554-A2F6-D557948C31B0.thumb.jpeg.13171163bbb7fcec850011ddb9d89e0b.jpeg249BF4E2-E4AE-4356-9469-1BD74B048F38.thumb.jpeg.83267c9ff2c6ab76d181606521e75dbf.jpeg417296A4-7877-4201-B45D-B40364845E7A.thumb.jpeg.a17beafac622f5b81c86a26fe72218c5.jpeg

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I don’t know how I missed this, but it seems that this is the same cruise we will be taking 4-21 !  So nice to be reading your review just before doing this ourselves !  It will be our first time on Vision although we have sailed on Grandeur many times so have a good sense of what it will be.  Sorry your cruise is coming to an end 😫.  I can sympathize.  We just disembarked EX today.  ☹️

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We’ve completed our final sea day and we’re all packed. Tonight D4 asked “mom, can we play a secret and find somewhere to hide on the ship?” Last night S7 cried that we have to get off. 

AO had an Easter craft to make a bunny ear crown to wear to the Easter egg hunt later today. Easter egg hunt was a loose term. Some kids showed up with baskets. It was a “treasure” hunt with clues to go to a few different locations until you found the Easter bunny. It was quite poorly executed. Every station ran out of candy so probably only half the kids got any. The only egg to be “hunted” was the one you got after taking a picture with the creepy Easter bunny. That was the extent of the Easter festivities on board. I was a little disappointed because Christmas is such an all out display and celebration on board. I get that Easter isn’t a whole holiday season like Christmas but there wasn’t a fun cake in the Windjammer or anything. 

S7 participated in the paper airplane contest. S12 went to the teen only climbing competition and got 4th or 5th place. D16 discovered she got a free Diamond WiFi day to herself and didn’t have to share so she did nothing. Hubby competed in the adult speed climbing contest and got a medal for getting 3rd.

Dinner was Bon Voyage. I got the seafood cake and it was good but I wish it came with more sauce. I got the spaghetti bolognese. I had ordered this before the menu change and didn’t like it but nothing else sounded good so I tried it again. This time around it was quite good. For dessert I got the Spanish custard dessert, which was like a creme brûlée but not as good. I also got the cherry chocolate tart. It was good but I really miss the cherry’s jubilee dessert and was hoping maybe it would have hints of that. It didn’t. Hubby got the Indian main dish and said it was good. 

We were sad to say goodbye to our waitstaff. I asked Fortunate for a picture with Josie and she also wanted one on her phone.  

The show was comedian Michelle Balan. She was funny and family friendly for the most part. 

Then it was back to the room to finish packing so we could get our luggage out by 10. I’m sad this cruise has come to an end but miss my puppies (pictures includes because they’re adorable). I also really miss my own bed, my own pillow, and my children having their own bedrooms. 

Stray notes:

S12 says his pizza count this cruise isn’t high because the park cafe is too far away. He hopes for a higher number on Quantum where there’s a centrally located Sorrento’s in the Promenade. 

I think I’ve said this before but forget. The teen club “fantaseas” was a pleasant surprise. The cruise planner listed it as being open only 8pm-12am. I don’t know about port days because we were never here to check, but on sea days they had activities throughout the day. 

I so wish royal would fix the chat function to always send notifications. S12 never checked them and going to find him at midnight (or later) was very frustrating. He was more the “have fun now ask for forgiveness later” type kid and never came back at our agreed upon time. My mom brain was always certain he’d gone overboard when he wasn’t back.

This is my first cruise that AO didn’t require reserved times or limit entry so I was never worried that we’d be turned away. The littles are attached to me at the hip so getting them to go to AO was always a fight but they always ended up having a lot of fun and recognized new friends throughout the ship. 

I have really enjoyed this small ship. I felt like it was in really good shape and so well taken care of for its age. It seems like they have more activities, trivia, and fun competitions than any other ship I’ve been on. Since there’s not as much to entertain yourself with, like water slides or a Seaplex, they take the time to entertain you. I would happily do something similar; however, consecutive ports is really exhausting. 

Our flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday morning so we have one of the later departures off the ship. If I come up with any other thoughts I’ll post them here as well as a quick post about how disembarkation went. 

Otherwise consider this a wrap until part 2 of “A Quantum Vision of a Christmas Gift” when we get on Quantum of the Seas to Alaska on May 29 (S7’s bday). For that D4 will be D5 and S7 will be S8. We’ll have both sets of grandparents with us then so lots more opinions on the food, ship, ports, etc. 

Thanks to so many of you with your kind encouragement on my first live blog! I’ve really enjoyed doing this and hope someone finds it helpful. Detailed info about ships, food, and excursions is what I spend hours scouring and there just isn’t much about the smaller ships. 
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Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 

What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!

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On 4/3/2023 at 12:02 PM, FireFishII said:

Love your daughter's hair braiding.  And those snorkeling masks are the best!

 

On 4/2/2023 at 11:10 PM, Luly said:

Learned last night that I have zero issues uploading images if I go to the centrum. I tested the wifi speed in the room and it was 8mbps download and .86 upload. Screen shot included when I’m in the centrum. 

We had a beach bungalow on Columbus Beach in Labadee today. I didn’t check the price on Black Friday so don’t know what could’ve been but a few weeks before the cruise I got it for $350, then a few days later it went down to $328 so I cancelled and rebooked. Next day it was $447 and never went down. 

I had read it’s best to get bungalows 3, 4, or 5 so I headed off the ship as soon as the gangway opened at 8 and everyone else went to the windjammer. I’m not a breakfast person so this was fine by me and I got an hour alone at the beach in bungalow 4. 

The bungalows are so close to each other I don’t think it really matters which you choose. It was nice to have cold water bottles, towels, and floating mats already in the bungalow and to have a shady place to veg. The bungalows are very close to the lunch buffet. There are a ton of chairs for this private part of the beach and only those with wrist bands can use them. I haven’t decided yet if it was worth the cost. With just one small ship in port there are so many chairs available. I did like this area for the young kids because the ocean was so calm. A bungalow would definitely would be nice if there was more than one ship in port or if you’re on a larger ship. Our all aboard time was changed from 5 to 3:30 so we didn’t have as long to use it as I’d planned.

After everyone arrived D16 and I went on the hunt for hair braiding. We made the mistake of going through the market. I had read about it but it is so bad. I hated walking through there being hounded rudely by everyone, many even just yelling “HELLOOOOO?!?!l” as I continued to pay them no attention. We found the hair braiding and I’m sure I overpaid despite the signage but I know D16 will leave it in her hair for at least the rest of the trip if not longer and it’ll make her life easier. She has incredibly thick frizzy hair. S7 and D4 snorkeled for about 5 hours straight. There weren’t many fish but since they’ve never snorkeled they were thrilled and came to tell me every time they found a fish. “Mom we saw a big fish!” As they held out their hands about 3 inches. 😂 We loved the virgin Labadoozie drink. This was our second time in Labadee and some side by side pictures between Christmas 2019 on Anthem and now are included below. 

Once we got back on the ship the kids showered and decompressed in the room and hubby and I went to the fitness center. 

Dinner tonight was taste of Mexico. Hubby and D16 got the tortilla soup and said it’s good. I got the shrimp cocktail. Very tiny but the cocktail sauce was delicious. Hubby and I got butter chicken (not Mexican, but I’m so happy they put their amazing Indian dishes on the menu) and shared the pork enchilada. We really enjoyed the chicken. The enchilada was good but incredibly spicy with the sauce. D16 got the carne asada and said it needed more seasoning. S12 got chicken tenders and S7 and D4 stuck with the spaghetti with cheese again. I’m not sure they’ll eat anything else for dinner the entire cruise. I would never allow that at home but we’re not at home so enjoy your carbs kiddos! For dessert everyone ordered the warm chocolate cookie which is a new favorite. It was fresh and gooey. I also got the sugar free coconut cake and it was superb. I love royals sugar free desserts. Hubby also got the tres leches and said it was “pretty good.”

S12 has made friends with the employees in the Park Cafe. When they see him walk up they get him his pepperoni pizza and chocolate bar and off he goes quickly so as to not disturb any more Karens offended at his presence. 

As of last night at 11:11pm he’s had 9 pieces of pizza, 5 chocolate bars, and 4 ice cream cones. He’s keep tracking in his notes app. I haven’t received tonight’s update; he’s in the teen club  while I stay up writing this trying to stay awake waiting for him. I’m sure he’ll show up with some pizza some time before midnight. 

Tonight’s show was “Oh What a Night” by Jersey. I had read this was a show not to be missed and they were indeed fantastic. S7 said if he falls asleep to wake him up to go to the later show also. They said they’ve finished their contract on Vision and are getting off the ship tomorrow in San Juan. They are heading to Australia to tour.  

Then we went to the Guess My Lips game show in the Centrum. Once again family friendly. It took a while to get to the point but ended up being quite entertaining.  

D16 and I sat and enjoyed some live music until the Hush! Silent Party. S12 joined us when he heard about it and while they didn’t go on the dance floor they really enjoyed it from a distance (pictures below). If you’re not familiar, everyone gets some headphones and can choose to be on the blue or green channel to listen to music. They turn off all other music in the area and it’s fun to watch everyone sing and dance in silence, especially when they all break into song and dance like with YMCA or the Macarena. 

Side notes: we’ve been using the free chat feature to keep in contact with the kids. I read varying reports of some getting notifications and some not. In our experience whoever is signed into the single device Voom we paid for does get notifications. Nobody else gets notifications.  

Speaking of the Voom. I had a hard time uploading pictures on Day 1. I learned last night if I go to the centrum I have no problem. I went from 8mbps download in the room to 90mbps in the centrum and .86 upload in the room to 6.6 in the centrum.

Tomorrow we’ll be in San Juan. We’re planning to do a walking tour on our own from some maps and other links I’ve saved. 

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I think my hubby and I are standing up on deck 5 in your Hush YMCA picture (in front of the bright Guest Services screen)! We just happened to stop by right at that time to check it out. So fun to watch!

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1 hour ago, theatrebabe said:

 

I think my hubby and I are standing up on deck 5 in your Hush YMCA picture (in front of the bright Guest Services screen)! We just happened to stop by right at that time to check it out. So fun to watch!

Fun! I had someone else over on Facebook tell me she’s the one competing against S7 in the paper airplane contest picture. 

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  • 1 month later...

For the few followers on this live blog, the second half of the kids Christmas gift, the Quantum sailing is in just a week and I’ll be live blogging that as well. I’ll start a new post for it soon. Also, somewhere in this blog I mentioned I was trying to convince hubby to let me book the 11 night sailing on Explorer over Christmas 2024. I did it! TA Kelley booked it for us a few weeks ago along with both sets of grandparents and hubby’s siblings and their kids. Now I just need to find something between our quantum sailing this year and our quantum sailing September 2024. Hubby’s not worried I’ll find something, I always do. Kids are dying to go on Icon but I’m more of a let’s go on lots of cheap cruises instead of one super duper expensive cruise to places I’ve already been to too many times.

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Looking forward to sharing your next journey.  Thanks for taking us along.  This one was very helpful as I live in VA and Vision is now ported in Baltimore which is just a 4 hour drive.  I don't know why I have a worry that Vision won't be fun.  in my early 30's, back in 1999 my wife and I cruised on the SS Norway (which we loved loved loved) and would come upon the new Vision class ships in ports and I recall thinking "That's really big, what more can you need", yet now for some reason I worry about Vision.

You helped me with that.  Thanks!

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