Live: Back to Back Big Ones: Oasis and Ascent, Jan 14-21 & Jan 21-28

[Ampurp85]

I love the duck, living his best life. I love the octopus.

[She Sails Away]

People who hung out at a bar last night and chatted with the bartenders have posted in our Facebook group that the two medical evacuations are as follows: one was a crewmember and then later one was a passenger, both were taken to Fort Lauderdale, both are expected to recover.
 

So although I could've sworn I saw a body bag thankfully I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

 

today we are in Jamaica. There's lots of griping in the Facebook group that we're there for such a short time. Gangway goes down at 10 and we need to be back on board by 330.

 

Not a chance I'm getting off the ship, nothing I want to do in Port, and Jamaica is under a travel advisory for violent crimes. I've heard rumors that you can be approached in Port by drug dealers and just generally be harassed so I'm not gonna skip off the ship to go buy a T-shirt and risk anything like that. I am 100% fine staying on the ship from here on out. 
 

Celebrity keeps sending me emails to prepare for my cruise and so forth and so on and it's continually a surprise to me that I have a cruise coming up with them on Sunday. I am really looking forward to seeing my solo cabin and that infinite veranda.

 

I have a beef with them though, hopefully I can get it straightened out at some point, it's a minor beef but still.

i've been using my Celebrity Visa and acquired enough points to turn that into $125 worth of onboard credit. I did all the transfer things and everything went through but it never did show up on my account. I called Celebrity directly and they said yes, I can see that you did that, let me adjust that and fix that for you. Never happened. Called again and got the same response, a promise that it would be fixed, it has never happened.

 

so we will see if I can ever get that $125 back in some way. It would be great to have it for onboard credit this coming week. I do have a $100 onboard credit that came as a promotional credit and I'm sure I will smoke through that very quickly.

 

I was up at seven this morning and in the hot tub by myself by 730. I had the choice of hot tubs and it was great. We're having one of those really pale mostly white sunrises and the sea is super flat. The ship is super quiet this morning.

 

They have two towel stations here, one on each side of the pool deck, but all week long, only one towel station is open at a time. Something you need to take into account when you plan where you're going to spread out for the day, you just need to factor in time to walk all the way back to your towel station to drop off your towels if you're in a hurry to get somewhere by a specific time. 
 

And while I totally understand the reason and the necessity of having a towel station, I really appreciate it when I sail a different line that does not require towels checking in and out. It's kind of nice.
 

tonight is "dress to impress" so guess who will not be dining in the MDR?

 

I have decided I'm done in the casino, the slots seem really stingy and I don't do table games. I mean I would love to do table games if someone wanted to fund my losing streak. Those are fun games but I'm not good at them. Somehow my son is a whiz at roulette, on our cruise on Symphony he walked away with a good chunk of money.

 

Meanwhile, I have spent a fortune in the spa but it's been great.

 

We have a stand-up comedian who has been performing all week and I have been unable to get a reservation to save my life. We were not able to pre-book the comedian and I guess I just missed the window when I boarded and didn't get over to reservations.

 

So that leaves Cats as the only show I haven't seen yet and I'm not even 100% sure I'm going to go. I have most definitely gotten my mileage out of the Aqua show and I'm glad I saw the ice-skating show even though it wasn't very exciting.

 

Now that Sunday is approaching, I'm starting to second guess about how I'm going to get from Miami to Fort Lauderdale. I had planned on an Uber. Do you guys think that's the best bet? Or should I go with a taxi?

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Definitely Uber or Lyft!  Personally I stay away from taxis especially for 30-45 minute drives!

[asquared17]

we uber’d from the miami port back to the FLL airport (which is essentially the same thing, given how close they are) — and of course, from our FLL hotel TO the port of miami — no issues. 

i’d recommend getting off earlier than later though. but that’s the insane planner in me. 

i’m sure royal will do transfers though. you may want to check in on that. 

 

like @Ampurp85, i love the duck also.

and pray that you do not have to turn back in jamaica.  

[She Sails Away]

I was so exhausted last night and completely drained this morning. I get this when I cruise and I know what it is… It's a lack of normal amounts of caffeine. Back home, I start my day with a Rockstar… 180 mg of caffeine. Then after lunch I usually have about 80 mg more. Of course they don't carry rockstar here on the ship (and I had zero room in my suitcase to bring any) so I've been making do with one latte a day and it's caught up to me. I gave in and bought a Red Bull this morning which tastes like hairspray but, splitting hairs here. Rockstar is also a chemical bomb. But.... I already feel like myself again. 

I got breakfast at Windjammer and brought it back to my room and there was a note in my door. The first one is inviting me to an art auction tonight, no thank you. The second is a laughable note from Royal Caribbean. It says, "we know you're anxious to begin your culinary exploration of all the dining options this ship has to offer, and we can't wait to share them with you. To that end, we would like to warmly welcome to dine with us in Solarium Bistro." 
 

And it says they went ahead and booked me a table for tonight at 6:30 for dinner.

 

Do you think they'll be serving raw chicken again? Yikes. Thank you but no thank you by any means. I have not set a toe inside of solarium bistro since day one.
 

Every day I have plans to go to playmakers and every day I'm just not quite hungry enough. Hoping to have dinner there tonight though.

 

I know I sound like I'm obsessed with this for continually bringing it up but I just want to clarify. Our cruise Director, Elvis, has put an announcement on our State room televisions explaining that the helicopter evacuation yesterday was a guest who needed medical attention, they are in Florida at a hospital and expected to recover. He must've recorded this before the 3 PM helicopter so I'm assuming that was the crewmember one.

 

Tomorrow is that sad, loose ends day where you pack your bag throughout the day, and half of you is participating in the final day of your vacation aboard, and half of you is already off the ship. But I have a whole other cruise to look forward to on a sparkling brand new ship with a brand new cruise line to me. Excited.

 

there are 800 people aboard doing a dice tower board game cruise. Yesterday they had the aqua theater reserved for a private event. There were four panelists sitting at a table on the aqua theater stage talking about games. A lot of their events have taken place on the deck two library, which doesn't seem to be available to the public under normal circumstances this week.

 

Thank you for weighing in on the taxi versus Uber. I'll go ahead and lock in my Uber today. But I will go to guest services first and looking into transfers.

 

[GregD]

1 hour ago, She Sails Away said:

People who hung out at a bar last night and chatted with the bartenders have posted in our Facebook group that the two medical evacuations are as follows: one was a crewmember and then later one was a passenger, both were taken to Fort Lauderdale, both are expected to recover.
 

So although I could've sworn I saw a body bag thankfully I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

 

What an exciting trip you have been on. 

While I am purely speculating here, but since I work in EMS and helicopter transports, I can provide a little insight.

It's very unlikely they evacuated a body via helicopter. Those transports are super expensive, and a medical helicopter wouldn't take themselves out of service to transport a body, when they could be utilized for someone they could actually benefit. 

As far as the "bag." The stretchers that many helicopter services use, actually have a bag like sheet/blanket system that pretty much encloses the patient like a cocoon, and from a distance will look like a bag. 

Here you can sorta see an example

 

Keep up the excitement!!

[She Sails Away]

That's exactly what I saw! Thank you so much for clarifying. I feel silly for jumping to conclusions.

[GregD]

No problem! Dead bodies do make for a more entertaining story though.... I did witness this on a previous cruise years ago. A vintage dropped dead in the middle of Boleros one night while we were on Anthem. It was horrible because he was dancing with his granddaughter at the time. IIRC it was early on in the cruise too, kinda made the rest of the trip a little subdued on the ship.

[DDaley]

For what it’s worth, my absolute favorite port and vacation country is Jamaica! I have never been or seen anyone else harassed in Falmouth, Ocho Rios or Montego in the 25 years I’ve been visiting. Yes, people may hand signal to you offering you weed but literally all you have to do is say no (or in my case, how much?! ) 

[asquared17]

this blog has taken so many turns i have whiplash

[She Sails Away]

It is BLAZING out there. But very pretty. 
 

Port is hopping and the ship is a ghost town. Very limited activities this morning. Right now the main option is a Selfies scavenger hunt which sounds kind of fun but I'm not really up to walking all over the ship again right this moment. I'm hanging out at Vista Café while my room steward  does his thing. 
 

I went to guest services to ask about the shuttle. I was looked at with great pity, as though I'm too stupid to travel by myself. They explained there is no shuttle taking me all the way to Fort Lauderdale cruise port, only the airport.

 

I'm finalizing my Uber right now. Is there a way to check and make sure they understand they need to have ID with them? I mean I would certainly hope they have their drivers license with them at least, but who knows. I know they'll need to see it at the port for him/her to get through the gates.

 

The big focal point outside Café Promenade on this ship is a stretch car with two giant teddy bears in it. There is an employee there polishing it to the hilt right now. I always wonder about employees when I see them doing things like that. Like, what is the rest of his day like? Stair railings and banisters? What an incredibly long day to spend every day wiping things down eight or nine or 10 hours a day, day after day. That's got to be one of the most tedious and hardest jobs on the ship.

 

I saw a family walking off the ship in port, a mom and dad and two little boys, maybe seven years old and barely 4 years old. No stroller. It is so hot and that little youngest boys leg were churning to keep up with his family and I thought, oh, Poor little guy. Between the heat and the really fast walking and walking and walking, he's going to be fried within an hour and mom and dad better be prepared and not have unrealistic expectations and yell at him. I mean I think it's great families are here exploring and doing things together, but when my kids were that age they would just as soon be in the pool. They would gladly go along with me whatever we wanted to do and we've had some great fun exploring different things at that age, but at the end of the day, they were so happy in the water. 
 

There was an arts and crafts thing in Boleros, that turned out to be coloring pages with a bucket of markers available. There was a group of teenage girls crowding and snatching up fistfuls of markers like their life depended on it.

 

I sat down next to a family where one of those girls belonged, and as they sat there coloring, the teenage girl sneezed hugely without covering. Her family absentmindedly said, "bless you", and no one seem to think to tell her to cover her mouth. I had to get up and leave. I thought if I moved to a different table it would look like I was making a statement and I'm not trying to do that, I'm just trying to make it through one more day without picking up some communicable virus. 
 

pictures from the deck

[WAAAYTOOO]

15 minutes ago, She Sails Away said:

I went to guest services to ask about the shuttle. I was looked at with great pity, as though I'm too stupid to travel by myself. They explained there is no shuttle taking me all the way to Fort Lauderdale cruise port, only the airport.

This surprises me.  In the past there was always a shuttle from PoM to PE even if you were changing cruise lines.

[asquared17]

i thought they always facilitated a transfer service??? there was a fee, yes, but.... this was not uncommon.

MAYBE THINGS HAVE CHANGED.

i am hella jealous of that blazing sun.

it is snow storming here and has been zero or below temps all week. UGH.

SOAK IT UP!!

[Ampurp85]

Any rideshare personal should have proper identification,  so no worries. But the bistro doesn't have good enough food to be serving raw chicken and asking people back.

[AshleyDillo]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

This surprises me.  In the past there was always a shuttle from PoM to PE even if you were changing cruise lines.

I thought the same thing...if you were a S2S they would give you the shuttle between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale for free. It's probably the same airport shuttle and you would just stay on until after it did the airport drop and filled up with folks that flew in same day for the cruise.

I would ask again, stressing you are going on Celebrity and ask about the complimentary shuttle for this sort of situation. If they are new they may have to ask someone.  If they don't offer it, see how much the shuttle costs to the Ft. Laud airport. If it's only $20, that plus an Uber/Lyft from the airport to the port will probably be more cost effective than Uber or taxi the entire way..plus it would kill some more time.

[She Sails Away]

Agreed, now that we have started talking about this I'm positive I have heard other people say the same thing, that you can catch a ride to the airport and they'll run you over to the port afterwards if you're getting on another royal Caribbean or celebrity ship. I'm gonna try to talk to someone else to see.

[She Sails Away]

I found a "house" that looks like a face

[She Sails Away]

I came back to the room and they're acting all innocent like they weren't just having a giant party right before I walked in.
 

Latest: had to work for a long time but I'm done now. Have about a gallon of iced coffee and just discovered the crew of aqua 80 having a diving practice. Lots of us are gathered around staring. I took a photo but it ended up looking overly gratuitous so I deleted it. None of the women are here, just the guys, these are Olympic level diving bodies in teeny tiny speedos so I'll hold off photographing. 

[She Sails Away]

8 hours ago, GregD said:

No problem! Dead bodies do make for a more entertaining story though.... I did witness this on a previous cruise years ago. A vintage dropped dead in the middle of Boleros one night while we were on Anthem. It was horrible because he was dancing with his granddaughter at the time. IIRC it was early on in the cruise too, kinda made the rest of the trip a little subdued on the ship.

That is horrifying!

 

My cousin was on an Alaskan cruise and a high ranking judge was on board and passed away. She said they missed port because since he was a high-ranking judge (I don't know really in what realm? Washington? State level?) there had to be a certain amount of investigation into the circumstances of his death to make sure they could prove that there was nothing shady involved. So nobody could leave the ship till they were good and done.

[She Sails Away]

UPDATE: I went back to guest services and got somebody different than the person I spoke to before. I asked my question about a transfer to the Ascent and he said certainly ma'am, let me go make a phone call. He disappeared and came back two minutes later and said it's all taken care of, Miss Kelly. I said thank you so much, what do I do now? he said you don't do anything, you will get some information on your door tomorrow evening telling you what time to leave the ship and where to go. 
 

so… THANK YOU to everyone for helping me out with that, I have a free transfer and it's going to be so much less stressful than booking an Uber and hoping they show up on time and hoping they're not a psychopathic murderer, plus he didn't say anything about paying for it--and as of yet there's no charge on my account, so there's that as well. Thank you guys! Really appreciate it.

[Ampurp85]

The transfer is a great idea. I will be doing this next year, so I will make sure to take advantage.

I'm also glad no one is dead. We had an echo.....call. I also forget what that means but it's better than Oscar's and alphas.

I can't wait to read your Ascent blog.

[She Sails Away]

Some quick pics

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Yikes!

More commonly used to alert crew to hull damage on board some lines as well. Echo, Echo, Echo is the code for a possible collision with another ship or the shore aboard Royal Caribbean ships, or if the ship is starting to drift.

[WAAAYTOOO]

11 minutes ago, She Sails Away said:

UPDATE: I went back to guest services and got somebody different than the person I spoke to before. I asked my question about a transfer to the Ascent and he said certainly ma'am, let me go make a phone call. He disappeared and came back two minutes later and said it's all taken care of, Miss Kelly. I said thank you so much, what do I do now? he said you don't do anything, you will get some information on your door tomorrow evening telling you what time to leave the ship and where to go. 

Yippee !  This is great news !  Soooo much less stressful than trying to do this on your own.  …and cheaper, too.  Now all you’ll need to do is tip your shuttle driver !

[She Sails Away]

The ship had so many moods today. The first part of the day, the ship was so peaceful and empty and quiet. No music blaring poolside. Lots of empty space. Just a really quiet sunrise, quiet couples soaking in the hot tub or shuffling around for walks, just mellow tranquil vibes. 
 

And then at 2:30 it was just like BAM, everybody was back on the ship, the pool was jammed, the music was blasting, all the chairs were taken, there were wet towels everywhere and chaos and noise and overflowing hot tubs, and people were three-deep at the lime and coconut.

 

Then this evening it got kind of quiet again because everybody dressed up in their best and went off to the main dining room for hours and it got relaxed for a little bit. Then everybody was out of the main dining room and milling around the promenade in ballgowns and what not and it wasn't chaotic, but it was a very party atmosphere, like a New Year's Eve party with everybody all glittery. I saw two women wearing Cinderella gowns. By that I mean, huge huge pillowy skirts with layers and layers of krenolin underneath, floor length skirts that are about 8 feet wide. One of those ladies was with her husband on the dance floor and he was having a time swinging her around while balling up that skirt in between them to smash it out of the way. 
 

Fun memory about Jamaica: (even though I did not get off the ship. )

We were the only ship in Port today. There was a DJ in port playing music all day today and we could hear him from the ship.  
 

Everyone was supposed to be back on board at 3:30 but one port excursion ran late and the group arrived at 4:15. We sailed very quickly after they boarded.
 

Even though the port was now empty, the DJ played us off. He didn't just pack it up and roll it all away while we were moving off, he stayed while the shops were closing up and we were rolling away from the port. The DJ addressed all of us at the ship's railing and thanked us for coming, asked us to cheer if we were from Canada, or if we were from England, or if we were from America. He said now that we have been to Jamaica we are family, we are part Jamaicans.      He said, "So if you are from Canada, you are a Jamac-ian. And if you are from England you are a Jamaic-lish. And if you're from America you are Jamerican." 
 

Then he played a snippet from a Harry Belafonte song:

 

Down the way
Where the nights are gay
And the sun shines daily on the mountaintop
I took a trip on a sailing ship
And when I reached Jamaica

I made a stop.

But I'm sad to say I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down
My head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

 

 

 

so that was pretty cool. And very memorable.

 

We flew out of Jamaica pretty fast and the ship has been bumping. The wind has been fierce all day, too windy to enjoy being up on the pool deck for me personally. It hasn't stopped people from zip lining and using the Flow Rider, there was also a huge organized volleyball game on the sports court this afternoon.

 

I rode the Abyss again and something unusual happened. Normally when you go down the abyss, the minute you start sliding all of these lights come on. The whole way down, colored lights are flashing and blinking and spiraling and that adds to the experience. Well, this time I went down and not one single light came on and I went down in complete pitch blackness. I mean-can't see your hand in front of your face blackness. It was terrifying, honestly. Much more fun with the lights flashing!

 

there was a wealth of live music this evening and I tried it all out and it was all amazing of course. I have to say the people at the Globe and Atlas on the promenade seem to have the most fun every single night. They have a guitar player in there and the people in the bar tend to sing along quite a bit, and he plays a lot of Jimmy Buffett and Billy Joel and the Beatles and things like that. I would put him around the same age as myself, mid 50s, and I would peg him from Berkley and possibly someone who calls himself a former hippie. He was awesome. His name is Trent Jeann. 

 

The High-C's Horn band played for a little while as well this afternoon and they are just amazing.

 

I went and sat through the ice show a second time. I liked it better the second time but still… Those are such talented athletic skaters and the material they have been given is under-challenging for their skill set. They don't get much opportunity to show us what they can do. But the occasional lift or triple flip is pretty cool.

 

For the ice show, I found a seat in the middle of the fourth row. The first three rows are reserved for all the people who pay extra for star class or sky class or whatever, and have genies and what not, plus the key had a small section of seats reserved in there somewhere. Two small families headed for the same chunk of seats in the third row and got into it. There was almost a fistfight. The family that won had a really lean, hard-edged kind of mom that looked like she was comfortable with a fistfight scenario. The second family had a bewildered, kindhearted-looking mom who couldn't believe what had just happened. She and her husband shoveled their kids into the second row, which was a better seat anyway, so I'm not sure why there was a fight over the third row in the first place. Then they stood there, realizing that they had only secured three seats together when in fact there were four of them. I heard the mom telling her husband, "she trampled me to get those seats, she SHOVED me out of the way!" Meanwhile, Dad had taken a seat for himself and so had both kids and there stood mom. So she asked her little girl if she would mind sitting in mom's lap for the show. I was sitting there thinking, you know what, that's not the way THAT  works. But fortunately the little girl scurried over to Dad's lap and mom got to sit down and join her own family.

 

 

After the ice show I thought I'd go up to my room for the night, hit the elevator button and… up came Francesco, the elevator piano player!

 

For a few minutes it was just us riding around and having a blast. But within about five minutes we had a full, completely crammed party elevator with everyone singing Queen songs as loud as we could. After 15 minutes though, we stopped on five and Francesco's handler put his arm in the elevator and said the fun was over and it was time for Francesco to come out now. 

 

Back in my room I sat out on my balcony a long time and listened to jazz in the park. They are phenomenal. The lead singer is a tiny woman, so beautiful, and she has a voice that belongs on the radio for sure. Just phenomenal.

more stuff to share, but that will come tomorrow.

[She Sails Away]

Being that this is a seven night cruise you know what that means. Right on cue for Day 6, a dramatic uptick in the amount of hacking, sickly coughing on board kicked in yesterday. This morning, even more prevalent among the masses--coughing and coughing. Oh well, this is generally how it goes on weeklong cruises.

 

It is our last day, a day at sea, and we have the most perfect beautiful weather. It's just classic sunshine and blue skies. At this point the ship is hopping. I had breakfast down in Central Park, and strolled boardwalk. The captain had a 30 minute Q and A at the Aqua theater. They're doing a family carnival on boardwalk soon and there will be face painting and music and all kinds of stuff. They are having another parade on the promenade soon as well.
 

On the promenade, they put out the last day flea market type sales, all of those port T-shirts, two for 30. I have been cruising long enough to remember when they were two for 20, ha. Even though I have bought many of these shirts before and they don't hold up worth a hoot in the wash, I bought one for my husband and one for myself.  People are swarming the tables like there's no tomorrow. Those huge watches are out, glittery costume jewelry, tiny handbags and shawls, lots of jewelry. 
 

A couple of days ago I came to my room and found that my cabin Steward had left me these amenities. I thought, aw, he left me a gift. Then I realized he was trying to rectify a situation in the shower. I forgot to mention it here. This is what happened:

 

You know how in these showers there's that container on the wall with shower gel? Correction… A shower gel that is somehow also shampoo and conditioner and soap? Well of course I don't bother using that, (it strips your hair and honestly I don't feel like it gets you clean at all), I bring my own soap, my own shampoo and conditioners, plus my own body wash and bath poof and everything else. 
 

however, a couple of days ago I did want a little bit of it so I pushed the button on top to get a squirt out of the bottom, and the entire apparatus ripped right off the wall and crashed to the bathroom floor and broke into pieces. Some of those pieces were little tiny black dials and buttons and what not. I mean it was demolished. It looked like a gorilla had come in here and just torn it off the wall and smashed it to pieces. I was kind of apalled because all I did was push the button and I didn't push all that hard.

 

I gathered up the pieces and put them in a pile on top of a dry washcloth and meant to ask my cabin steward about that the next time I saw him. But the next time he came to the room I was already gone and he took away the pieces and then a couple of days later these amenities showed up in my room. I think they realized it was pointless to come and try and fix it while I was still here. I have a feeling this thing has ripped off the wall before because it came off soooo easily. 

[She Sails Away]

A few random observations:
 

When we are docked, the air-conditioning struggles. I believe this is the situation with every cruise ship, not just oasis.

 

Random smells keep appearing here and there throughout the ship. Sometimes when we are docked, there is a rotten egg smell floating around especially on the pool deck. It tends to get heavier as the day goes on. It's not horrible but it's noticeable. It was quite bad the day we were in Nassau, and I don't know if that was floating over from the carnival ship park right beside us, if it was a combination of both of us, or what.
 

another random smell that comes and goes is the heavy smell of cigarette smoke. Now of course this is to be expected in the casino and maybe even the entire floor above the casino. But for example, yesterday on deck 14 all around the elevators, the stairwell, and the hallways there was a huge heavy smell of cigarettes smoke for a few hours. That has not happened all week so I'm not sure what happened there. Then it disappeared. That has happened in other pockets of the ship as well. And it's heavy, not as if just one person stood around and snuck a cigarette, it smells like the casino migrated from place to place. 
 

Windjammer is just an absolute zoo, I don't care when you go. It doesn't matter if you go right when they open or after people have supposedly left for short excursions, it is absolutely crammed all the time. This is not surprising, just something I'm sharing.

 

Probably a ridiculous thing to mention but… So many bare butts. Did the swimsuit style universally change? Every single person here is wearing a tiny competition style swimsuit where the majority of their butt hangs out either side. I have tried so many times to take quick photos of the beach on both of the private islands and I've had to delete everything because there's somebody in the foreground with their back to the camera and most of their butt exposed. Yikes. Walking the pool deck is an exercise in flesh. 
 

There are more kids hunting ducks on this cruise actively day-to-day than I've ever seen before. It's very cute and a lot of people in the Facebook group are sharing pictures of their kids super happy because they found one. I found one myself the other day and gave it to the Starbucks staff member who took my order and she was very happy with it. 
 

They have permanently closed the rock climbing wall on the port side because so much equipment needs to live there permanently for the aqua theater show. The starboard-side rock climbing wall seems to suffice just fine but in general, it seems to me like the rock climbing wall is open so much less than it used to be. That used to be something you could go do all day long and now it feels like it's only open a couple of hours here and there per day.

 

This is the first oasis-class cruise that I've ever seen this many experienced adults using the standup side of the flow rider. It's been a lot of fun watching them. It's almost all men but there is one white-haired older lady out there having a blast and showing them how it's done.

 

café Promenade has had really dismal snacks all week long. I've tried several things and they all basically disintegrate as soon as you bite into them. I'm talking powdery bread for example. So weird. Sabarro's has been pretty good… Traditional greasy pizza but if you're in the mood for that, it's been great. The line has been manageable.

 

more soon

[She Sails Away]

PS: Gnomes!

[jbrinkm]

14 hours ago, She Sails Away said:

They have a guitar player in there and the people in the bar tend to sing along quite a bit, and he plays a lot of Jimmy Buffett and Billy Joel and the Beatles and things like that. I would put him around the same age as myself, mid 50s, and I would peg him from Berkley and possibly someone who calls himself a former hippie. He was awesome. His name is Trent Jeann. 

Is this the guy? https://trentjean.com/

2 hours ago, She Sails Away said:

You know how in these showers there's that container on the wall with shower gel?

I pushed the button on top to get a squirt out of the bottom, and the entire apparatus ripped right off the wall and crashed to the bathroom floor and broke into pieces.

Wow, glad it didn't land on your foot!

[She Sails Away]

7 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

Is this the guy? https://trentjean.com/

Wow, glad it didn't land on your foot!

No. 

 

he has two n's on his last name. I will look for him

[She Sails Away]

Here we go

[jbrinkm]

I thought at first that the website pictures might have just been from his younger self at https://trentjean.com/ because if you scroll down the page, there are a few where he looks older. I also thought maybe he just stopped dyeing his hair to cover the gray. BUT, in a really bizarre twist, it appears that this Trent-Jean (who is Australian and, yes, it seems he is only 23 y.o.) was ALSO on Oasis as a performer. If you google him & RCI, his social media states that he was performing on Oasis and there's a video of him playing his guitar on Labadee. It looks like his contract was up at the end of last year/2023. I guess the Royal entertainment people were like - we had such good luck with Trent-Jean on Oasis, let's now hire Trent Jeann to take over his gigs. 

[asquared17]

THE GNOMES!!!!!

[She Sails Away]

1 hour ago, jbrinkm said:

I thought at first that the website pictures might have just been from his younger self at https://trentjean.com/ because if you scroll down the page, there are a few where he looks older. I also thought maybe he just stopped dyeing his hair to cover the gray. BUT, in a really bizarre twist, it appears that this Trent-Jean (who is Australian and, yes, it seems he is only 23 y.o.) was ALSO on Oasis as a performer. If you google him & RCI, his social media states that he was performing on Oasis and there's a video of him playing his guitar on Labadee. It looks like his contract was up at the end of last year/2023. I guess the Royal entertainment people were like - we had such good luck with Trent-Jean on Oasis, let's now hire Trent Jeann to take over his gigs. 

WOW. That's bizarre. What are the odds?

[She Sails Away]

Busy busy day and it's not over yet. I have started packing but mostly I have been rotating from trivia to football games to scavenger hunts and all of those fun things.
 

tonight is seafood night at Windjammer, they had a heavy emphasis on fish, crawfish, shrimp and scallops and so forth. I got a plate of things with a side of a baked potato and my baked potato was most definitely fishy.

 

There are zillions of kids on board, and you know what they really have been great. They just haven't been the overwhelming presence they can sometimes be. Having said that, I think all of the kids on board hit a wall today and there was a whole lot of screaming and crying and little bodies rolling around on the floor and flailing legs and siblings punching each other at every possible opportunity.

 

There was a family carnival on boardwalk, which sounded terrific, but it was a zoo. There were so many folks crowding, crowding, and crowding trying to be first to grab everything, the free cupcakes, the free cotton candy, you name it.

 

I saw something pretty incredible today. Francesco the piano player was back in front of adventure ocean, which is around the corner from my room. I came out to watch for a minute. He was playing amidst the chaos of parents picking up little ones from adventure Ocean and that's where a whole lot of the screaming and crying and rolling around on the floor was happening. Right in front of his piano. anyway, a family came up and requested 'puff the magic dragon'. He had never heard it before. Someone called it up on their phone and played it. He put the phone to his ear with one hand, noodled around on the piano keys with the other hand for a second, and literally within one minute he was able to put the phone down, and play the song perfectly.

 

someone wanted him to do the same thing with "yellow brick Road" by Elton John, which is much more involved and drawn out. He did the same thing, only he took maybe two minutes this time.

 

Really amazing!

 

There was a lot of live music to choose from today and it's just so much fun to listen to.
 

I have tried answering the health questions on my Celebrity app but for some reason I can't do it right now.
 

My Ascent cruise Facebook group is posting like crazy, people are arriving in Fort Lauderdale and posting happy pictures of their travel parties and their hotel room views and all of that fun stuff. I feel like I haven't given that cruise one thought even though I've been looking forward to it for a year now.  I'm just caught up in this cruise and it's like I can't think about the Ascent until we're all done here tomorrow. 
 

there was open ice-skating in studio B today, and now studio B is a football watch party for the remainder of the evening for two back-to-back games. They surprised us and added an aqua show this evening, no reservations required. We had been told the other day was the last performance of the week but now we've got this one if we want to go.

[She Sails Away]

Oh my stars, guys. The shuttle thing is 100% not going to work out. I've been outside the terminal for well over an hour and I'm ditching the shuttle to go wait in line for a taxi. More soon. Absolute chaos here and thousands and thousands of people

[WAAAYTOOO]

22 minutes ago, She Sails Away said:

Oh my stars, guys. The shuttle thing is 100% not going to work out. I've been outside the terminal for well over an hour and I'm ditching the shuttle to go wait in line for a taxi. More soon. Absolute chaos here and thousands and thousands of people

OH NO !  What a bummer.  So sorry to hear it.  Scold them when you get to Ascent !  

[jbrinkm]

Good luck!

[She Sails Away]

You guys. This SHIP.  

 

more soon

[She Sails Away]

A week is not going to be enough time to lounge in all of the varied lounge spaces that I want to lounge in. Plus I pretty much never want to leave my room. This infinite veranda is amazing.

 

Eden alone, plus entire top 2 decks, require many many hours of lounging and enjoying.