Tree_skier

We are far from the 1% but we are completely debt free and have a fully funded pension. However, we prioritize travel as our one luxury vice. That being said we don't stay in $20,000k suites but I understand the attraction. The last couple of cruises have been in suites and I have to admit it changes the experience quite substantially. We will cruise a minimum of three times a year. I would cruise more if time allowed. I'm three years from retirement and when I'm not working anymore I hope to be able to cruise much more. The next few cruises on the docket are in our usual balcony cabins but having experienced suite life for the last couple of cruises, I intend to bid more aggressively on the RoyalUp program.

I hang my CPAP mask from it.

Sorry, I don't remember exactly when I booked the Laser tag... I think it was on the first day since it was the only thing I needed to book. I had missed on Nav last time I was on it and was determined to get to do it this time.

Sorry, I'm a day late. 🙂 Day 8: Debarkation and flight home The morning debarkation was quite unstressed. Breakfast in CK was followed by an escorted debarkation. We bonged off the ship without incident, passed through immigration scanner with ease and were standing on curb at 915 am. I ordered the Uber and the app matched me a driver who was right there on the spot having just dropped off some early embarking passengers. @Seadog was that you? 🙂 A 30 yard walk down the sidewalk we slipped into a Ford Expedition and made a quick trip to Miami international and we were on our way home. Security was backed up beyond recognition so I finally signed up for Clear. I had been meaning to but just hadn’t gotten around to it. This was my motivation. I have some sort of credit with Amex for Clear. I’m not sure how much they cover but they cover some of it I think. Either way we were through security quickly and without incident and seated at the gate with lots of time to spare. I booked business class/first class on the way home. I had some Delta credit to burn so when I booked this ticket it seemed like the best use of the funds. The second leg of the flight was on a brand new A350. According to the pilot we were the first paying customers. The little pods in first class are amazing… this definitely takes the sting out of cross country travel. And finally back home in California. It was an amazing trip and probably the best cruise ever. It’s a tough call… Our Odyssey of the Seas Southern Caribbean last year was on the top of the list for best ever but this one tops it a little, I think. It might just be the glow that comes with being the most recent but this one was truly memorable. We’ll see how I feel in a few months when I reflect on this one and compare to other cruises. Thanks to all who followed along as I reviewed this great trip. It has been fun to review.

I can hear your Canadian accent 🙂

Congratulations... I'm so happy for you.

If you have to convince somebody to come on a cruise you are all probably going to end up miserable. Leave him behind.

Yes I did arrange it in advance. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs Yes that is the only plug I could find. I pulled the bed away from the wall to take a look but saw nothing. It really wasn't that big of a deal though. I don't recall tripping on it even once. Normally, in the morning I unplugged and wound it up and set it on the desk but the morning I took the video I forgot. I was worried it was going to be a pain traveling too when I first got it but I have gotten quite used to it now. Besides being a little extra to carry while boarding a plane and the varying requirements at the TSA check point it is pretty painless Another thing I just noticed in the video was the drawer that was open beside the bed. That is evidence of how much the ship was moving ...

I send my stuff out for pressing prior to packing. When I get them back I keep them in the plastic when I pack them. For some mysterious reason they come out of the suitcase unwrinkled. For the odd little bit of wrinkling showering with them the restroom hanging takes care of that.

Day 7: Coco cay Breakfast room service again. I could get quite used to this. Next week I’m back on my Atkins bar and coffee for breakfast. We walked off the ship to an incredible wind. It was absolutely howling. This is our first time back to Cococay since the perfect day renovation. We were actually there on Mariner on the last sailing before they opened up the Perfect Day concept. So we saw a lot of it we just couldn’t access any of it. For this time I booked the Chill Island beach bed. We had bed #3 way off in the corner on the front row. It was a very pleasant spot for spending the day. DW went off to her kayaking excursion that we were both sure was going to be cancelled but she had to go over to at least check on. It was time to order my first drink of the day. This was my first and only negative interaction with staff all week long. The server came by and I placed my order and when she took my card she said “Oh, they will charge you for this”. I replied “No just use my diamond voucher.” She then told me you can’t use your Diamond voucher here on the island I started to argue with her but stopped and just smiled and said that’ll be fine charge me. I was just going to get the concierge to fix it once I got back on board. Shortly after DW returned as expected having had her kayaking excursion cancelled. She wanted a drink so I told her to just walk across to the bar down the way and get it herself. I said the server has been gone with my order and card for over 20 minutes and didn’t know what she was doing anyways. DW returned with drink in hand dutifully charged to Diamond Voucher. At the 30 minute mark I’m getting annoyed. I still have no drink, I can’t go get one because I have no card and I’m already a little annoyed that the server was so ill informed. I find another server in another area and send him on a mission to recover my wayward card and either my server or my drink. Ten minutes later they both arrive back. She hands me my drink with a slip to sign for the charge on the drink. I take the drink set it down to sign the slip and before doing so let her know that my wife has just returned from that bar over yonder with a drink charged to her diamond voucher. She then starts this big story about how she works on Freedom and she can’t charge Oasis until she swaps receipts with a server from Oasis or some variation of this. Again I start to argue but stop realizing I’m on vacation. I’m not ruining my day fussing with this server. I sign the slip, say thank you and go to put my AirPods back in. However, this server is not done with the discussion. She keeps trying to explain why she can’t charge my Diamond voucher. I keep telling her “that’s fine” but the more I say that the worse she gets until finally, exasperated, I say “I’m done, I’m not talking about this anymore.” Yet she still wants to keep expanding on this story about not being able to charge Oasis guests only Freedom guests and she has to swap receipts. I can’t take any more. I put in my AirPods back in, lie down on my bed and close my eyes until she stops talking and walks away. Finally, it was all done… I thought. 15 minutes later she comes back with some sort of manager asking me if there was a problem. He had been told by the server that I wanted a free drink but that she was unable provide that and that I was upset about it. At that point I really did get upset. I explained all I asked for was she charge my drink to my diamond voucher. She was completely incapable of doing so. I explained, she told me you couldn’t do that on the island and then tried to explain to me, 40 minutes later after finally returning with my drink, she could only do so by swapping receipts with other servers who worked on the other ship. I said I don’t want to talk about this anymore, I’m on vacation and really am not interested in this kind of aggravation. Upon hearing this, the manager immediately changed tacks. Apologized for the confusion started explaining they have to manually write out slips for Diamond drinks on the Island. I stopped him and said “I don’t care about your internal processes I’ll get this fixed on board.” Again, he apologized and said that won’t be necessary he was going reverse the charge and comp the drink. The ill trained server is now standing a few feet behind the manager and is in tears. I feel bad. They all leave. She returns 10 minutes later with a slip showing the charge reversed but still wiping tears from her eyes. She doesn’t want to leave until she knows that it is all good between her and I. I tell her it is all good. She says I don’t believe you. I reassure her… “It’s all good”. Still with tears in her eyes she says she wants me to prove that we’re good by giving her a hug. Yes you read that right, she wants me to get up and give her a hug. I don’t hug adult women who are not my wife or daughter, we’re old fashioned that way. I look over at DW and she gave me the signal… Go ahead and give her a hug. The server embraced me like I was returning from war. I absolutely hate that Royal puts so much pressure on staff that they are living in fear of even one complaint. It just isn’t reasonable to expect a 10 every time. Sometimes things go wrong. At the end of the day, this was a management problem. Ill-trained staff isn’t the staffs fault but managements fault. However, if I complain or mention this on my survey an already chastised employee suffers more consequences, more than she should otherwise deserve. Otherwise it was a “Perfect Day at Cococay” and in all honestly after it was all said and done, it makes for a pretty good story LOL. We ate at the chill grill. The roast beef sandwich was good and the salads were fresh. I highly recommend the chill island beach beds if you are just a couple and don’t need the space of a cabana for a larger group. They are off to the side on their own. They are substantially cheaper than a cabana and for two people they are more than adequate space. You get the bed as well two lounge chairs placed in front of them as well as two floating mats and a cooler with waters in them. Ours was on the front row very close to the water’s edge. Here’s a little video summary of the day. DW wanted to stay until the bitter end floating on her beach mat but I got back on the ship around 3 pm and I went straight to Playmakers for some Nachos and a Strongbow. I really recommend Playmakers over Johnny Rockets. The food is so much better it is almost indescribable. Unless, somehow, JR’s manages to up there game I can’t see it being anything but a ghost town. They are right across from each other on this ship and the difference is stark. That evening dinner was back to Giovanni’s. This evening both of choose the Chicken Picata. This is the one and only meal that was a little less than stellar. It was Ok but just Ok isn’t what I want when I’m in specialty dining. The carbonara we shared, that was so good the first time, just wasn’t as tastily and the chicken seemed a little rubbery. The taste was fine but the texture was just off. I was planning an early evening since debarkation and a flight home always takes a bit out of me and I had to be sharp and ready to go on Monday morning. After dinner we went back to the cabin and packed up but alas, after that, I foolishly decided to go to the casino to see if I could recover some of my losses from the previous day but all I succeeded in doing was losing more. Easy come easy go. At least I wasn’t the guy I sat next to at the blackjack table. He kept going on and on about how much he lost. He claimed he’d lost $4000 on the last shoe alone just before I sat down. He said he’d lost $20000 that cruise. He was down to his last $500 in chips and they wouldn’t extend him more on his seapass card. Apparently they a $5000 limit per day per person that you can charge to your seapass account. I certainly felt bad for the guy but he just kept going on and on about it. It was really annoying. Everyone at the table breathed a sigh of relief when he finally lost his last $500 and left to try and get the Casino host to lift the $5000 limit. After that it was time for bed. The worst day of a cruise, debarkation day, is tomorrow morning.

Yes I did... He was amazing!

Yeah I forgot to mention that. The wind was really really blowing. I was surprised by how much movement I felt on the ship.

I'm going to have to book something on Allure. Like with Figure skating, I'm a closet Abba fan.

Ditto

There will be 1000's mariner sailings represented here on CC. You'll need to be more specific about what sort of observations you would like to get any kind of meaningful response.

On V and F class ships the junior suites on deck 10 are considered obstructed but the obstruction is really not bad and the aft views more than make up for it.

I'll take what I can get. 🙂 I am sure to do that.

We did an 8 night on Odyssey and that extra day is just so nice.

I loved both Odyssey and Ovation and I'd gladly sail either given the opportunity again. The only thing I miss when on Q class is the Ice show. It is always my favorite entertainment aboard Royal ships.

Thanks, I'm enjoying doing it. Getting to relive the experience is good therapy to cure my hunger while waiting for 150 days until I board Navigator.

It was a one off for us. Typically we are balcony people. Although the spoiling you receive is pretty special. Maybe for my 60th birthday or something special like that we'll try it again.

The weather finally dried out. 🙂 You should be returning to some sunshine finally. It's still a little cool but at least it's dry.

We have Adventure schedule for next Feb... I still love V and F class of ships. Having just done an Oasis class ship I was worried that it would ruin me for other classes but I find myself yearning for the familiar. Navigator in August as well as Adventure next year.

Day 6: Sea Day The next morning began with Coastal kitchen again and after wrapping up breakfast I had just enough time to get to the theatre for the Captains corner. The captain, the cruise director and the Hotel Manager were the speakers. I can’t remember the Hotel managers name but he was a Scottish fellow and stole the show. He was very funny. The Q&A that followed was typical. The usual questions about how much food is wasted. How much time off do crew get etc…. And the one question that always seems to be asked and never ceases to amaze me that people ask this is “What happens to all the poop”. Not once in my entire life have I ever considered the journey my excrement takes once I push that button or depress that lever. My morning constitutional is completed with slightest curiosity about what comes next. My mind is on other things. Perhaps I would concern myself with this if I was a more environmentally conscience individual but alas that is not one of my virtues. After that it was straight off to Rising Tide for the veterans tribute. I met a very nice young lady recently out of the army. Also, a fellow Canadian who served with the PPCLI who now lives in Brampton. We exchanged a few good Canadian Armed forces stories. The ceremony began, it was short but tasteful and then it was time for a walk about the boardwalk. IMG_0856.MOV I think it is time for a room tour. This was our first CLS and I have to say it was a really impressive room that’ll make it hard when I back in my usual balcony cabin Lunch was at DW’s favorite Giovanni’s. We sat outside this time the temp and humidity cooperated and it made for a comfortable afternoon. Back to the casino to give back all the money I had won and a little bit more. Easy come easy go. Dinner that night was Izumi Hibachi and we were seated with a really great family from Minnesota. . Actually two really nice families of 2 preteen kids each. Coincidentally, we had the same last name with the exact same spelling. They had been on a couple of cruises of Royal and a couple of Carnival but this was the their first Oasis class ship and they were just blown away by the experience and now claim to be Royal Loyalists. It was this evening we chose to celebrate our 30th. I'll forgo the pics of our dinner at Izumi Hibachi and just show you dessert. 🙂 That evening was the long awaited performance of Cats. I first saw Cats in 1986 in Vancouver on its first continent wide off broadway run. I remember loving it then and 37 years later it was still as fabulous as ever. Truly a show not to be missed. Cats seems to draw controversy on these boards which is completely inexplicable to me. It is an iconic Broadway production that is as timeless as can be. Royal’s production of it is shortened because of the anti-aesthete aboard the ship. I think this is tragic but none the less it is still an excellent performance. When Grizabella, with her haunting performance of “Memory” is chosen to go to the heaven side layer and be reborn into a new Jellicle life a tear welled up in my eye. During the curtain call many justly stood for their ovation of Grizabella. After that DW went back to the room and I went back to the Casino to double down on my previous losses. I should have gone to the room with her. Or karaoke or just about anywhere else on the ship… I’m doing well to assist Royal in its post pandemic financial recovery.

We've got one like that scheduled next December. 4 adults and 3 teenagers (14, 17, 19)