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I've made myself important at work and it's ruining my life.....so it's time for an Adventure (of the seas)!! 4/3/26-4/11/26

GregD

By GregD
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GregD
GregD

Hello everyone, I am happy to report that I am finally getting back on a ship. It will have been 455 days since our last cruise, which is entirely too long. As the title of the blog suggests, I have a

GregD
GregD

Well this post if going to be hard to write. Last night didn’t exactly go as planned. First off, I’m going to be okay, so don’t worry there, but my dry dock is going to be extended quite a bit. We cau

GregD
GregD

After dinner, The Boss, Kristine and the freeloaders were all in for 70’s night and other things. Dan and I found a seat in the pub for a while and polished off a few more espresso martinis and old fa

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GregD Pinnacle

GregD

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48 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Now I'm trying to figure out what your dirty name is ..... 🤣

 

Hahahaha, good catch, my phone is playing tricks on me😂

49 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

I can't believe your cruise is over! Too quick! I hope your flights get sorted and you get the seats you paid for! 

Even at 8 days it was too quick! We talked with the agent at the lounge. She said supposedly we will be seated together on the plane, but all our boarding passes do say main cabin. She said that when the flights are over we are supposed to be reimbursed for the fare difference. We shall see. We will check again at the gate.

GregD Pinnacle

GregD

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Just got seat assignments. We are in main, all right next to each other. We were supposed to be in comfort plus, so for sure down graded. I went to "book" our next leg to see what seats are available and there are some in comfort plus still open, so hopefully they put us there.

I would have preferred to be comfort on this leg because it's a three hour flight to LGA. LGA to ALB is about 50 minutes..

Ampurp85 Pinnacle

Ampurp85

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Hopefully the airline/travel shenanigans are minimal and you guys make it home safe and jolly.

Air France and Delta are in cahoots. They downgraded my premium economy flights on one leg of a flight to Egypt to economy. I had to send an email and after a few weeks got a check. Don't think the compensation was fair, my seat was 3rd in a row of 4 people on a 3/4/3 row plane. I didn't even get meal on this hot @$$ 4hr flight because they ran out of anything that wasn't a fish entrees. I never flew air France or Delta again. Which isn't to say other airlines are much better but the experience left a bad taste.

 

Pooch Pinnacle

Pooch

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20 hours ago, GregD said:

Royal night in the MDR. 
Lots of steaks and Lobster tails. Turns out I was mistaken on Dans family and their thoughts on sea bugs. They did eat all their own, so I only had 4 tails. Oh well. We also had more escargot, French onion soup, and the melon salad. IMG_1512.thumb.jpeg.1e5f6f413b31fd508203055eec0e920c.jpeg
 

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For dessert, we had a baked Alaska, red velvet cake and the warm chocolate cake with ice cream.

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Yeah sorry but those are the saddest excuse for lobster tails I’ve ever seen.  You gotta come to New England and have a REAL lobster!!

GregD Pinnacle

GregD

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On 4/11/2026 at 10:58 AM, SweetPea said:

Hmmm, or does the "D" in GregD mean GregDirty??? 🤔 

😁

Ok, thanks for pulling a @Lovetocruise2002 so the airport shenanigans can continue. Keep us posted!

The D isn't that exciting, just the start of my last name.

We ultimately got down graded for both flights....At least the second leg was a 37 minute flight. We actually sat on the tarmac in LGA boarding, "waiting for paperwork" and taxiing longer than the actual flight time.

 

So we have made it home, and I am a glutton for punishment and I am already back at work today......Trust me, I am yelling at earlier me, for making current me be here.......

On 4/11/2026 at 12:54 PM, SweetPea said:

You've died and gone to hell but just don't know it yet ....

Yeah, this flight was rough. All I can say is I was super thankful for my noise canceling headphones. As we were descending, the amount of screaming tiny humans was crazy. While I am empathetic, because I know they don't understand why their ears are in so much pain, it was a bit much.....At one point the flight attendant came over the air "I know how difficult it is, but all passengers over 2y/o must be strapped into their own seats now for landing"

 

On 4/11/2026 at 2:05 PM, Ampurp85 said:

Don't think the compensation was fair,

 

23 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Make sure they reimburse you. 

We shall see what they send me. It was a pretty quick phone call today for the request. 

23 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

Isn't it your pet's name + the street you grew up on?

For me, that would be......... Rusty Mohawk

GregD Pinnacle

GregD

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Final thoughts:

This cruise was a lot of fun. The freeloaders are at an age where they are off doing their own things more and more, while that is great, for both their own social growth and development, and us being able to enjoy parts of the cruise as a couple. It is also a reminder that they are getting older and that these family trips will soon come to an end. 

It was also fun to go on this sailing with our friends. We spent a lot of time together, and made some great memories. I think they also appreciated that their daughter would spend a lot of her time with my kids as well.

Like I mentioned before 25% of the passengers on this ship were freeloaders under 18. This was a spring break week. I also overheard that there were multiple "senior trips" as well. For the most part, these kids were pretty well behaved. There were times that they were not, but I don't let that ruin my vacation. The whole demographics of the ship seemed young. I saw very few vintages on the ship.

When I do the math, about 50% of the passengers were also first time cruisers as well, despite the few people that I saw that couldn't control their drinking for the most part people were decent. Our stateroom attendant also mentioned that this week was vastly different from the previous one. Last cruise was nothing but complaints, and this week everyone was very happy and grateful. 

The ship seemed super clean and pretty well maintained for a ship of this age. One passenger, during the Q/A session with the Captain asked about the refurbishments, to which the Captain replied "Ever hear of the term, lipstick on a pig?"

The food was very good, and I enjoyed the variety that I did have. ( even the windjammer) Portion sizes seemed to be much more appropriate. Even though they were smaller than other cruises I have been on, I did not go hungry at all. 

All of the crew that we interacted with were great, which should come as no surprise. I think our assistant waiter though must have been super new. He was getting a lot of instructions and guidance from our main waiter, and he was not very quick, or accurate when it came to getting our drinks etc. We were all new once at our own jobs, so while we noticed it, we didn't give it any more thought than that. 

The only complaint that I had were the headliner entertainers. They just didn't do anything for me. I just think a Vegas crooner style singer is the complete wrong choice for a crowd of young spring break families...

 

So what's next for us. We have Icon in July without the freeloaders for our 20th anniversary. Then next year we have Allure again. We are bringing one of Heathers friends, as well as her daughter with us. It will be their first cruise, so this should be fun!! That will also be the story of the lost CLS...again...

As always, thank you so much for reading along and for all the comments etc. This crazy community that we have built here is amazing and I am grateful to be a part of it. 

asquared17 Pinnacle

asquared17

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3 hours ago, GregD said:

Our stateroom attendant also mentioned that this week was vastly different from the previous one. Last cruise was nothing but complaints, and this week everyone was very happy and grateful. 

i am always fascinated by how this can be the case. i think we’ve all been on sailings where the vibes are…. not there. so i appreciate and never take for granted now when they are smooth sailing (no pun intended). 

3 hours ago, GregD said:

That will also be the story of the lost CLS...again...

CLS LETS GO!!!!!!!! gosh the two shower setup was the happiest i’ve ever been 😆

3 hours ago, GregD said:

This crazy community that we have built here is amazing and I am grateful to be a part of it. 

thank you for blogging!!!!  so happy to have this family!!

 

i was cackling about the plane pic 😆

GregD Pinnacle

GregD

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2 hours ago, asquared17 said:

i was cackling about the plane pic 😆

 

31 minutes ago, ScottD said:

that pic on the plane is hilarious!! 

The amount of joy that situation gave me almost made up for the canceled flights and downgraded seats. 

1 hour ago, Southern Dan said:

Going straight back to work the next day after getting home is always complete misery...I hate that so much

Yeah, mistakes were made, but I'm the boss on the shift today, so I get to tell everyone else to take care of the problems and I just supervise, so that helps. Now if we get a fire, then I have to actually do some work. 

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