Dan83

1 minute ago, h20skibum said:

Great job on the weight loss.  I thought I did good with a 34 pound loss. I know I have put on a couple this cruise. 

For a one week cruise, I gain about 12 pounds. Most is water weight that I retain from eating carbs. It takes about 2 weeks to get back to pre-cruise weight. That’s just resuming the normal low carb lifestyle, I don’t try to lose the vacation weight quickly. It’s about long term. 

So 4 vouchers burned on Kentucky summers. I’ve started on the 6 pack of truly that we got with the cooler bag purchase. No Daryl sightings but I sent out a search party. 

2 minutes ago, LATTELOVE said:

Yeap, disappointed here too.

And every time we come home from a cruise and do the survey  

it's worthless. I don't think they are reading them.

Nothing changes.

 

Ever since Royal changed the menus, it has not been for the best.

Some of the things we miss:

Warm slice of apple pie and ice cream

French Onion soup every evening

Shrimp cocktail every evening

Real lobster tails  (not the baby tails) there's a charge now for 2nds.

Salad bar sea days at the main dining

Better selection of food at the Windjammer,

What happened, to the nice seafood Paella, they used to have 

boarding day at the Windjammer, it's gone too. 

Entrees at main dining need to be at a hotter temperature

than what they have been serving the food.

 

 

So I don’t mean to jump on the complaint bandwagon here. But dining on royal is nowhere near what it used to be. And we just started in 2018. We don’t go hungry though. It’s just not as upscale and delicious as it once was. Personally, I’ve lost a lot of weight in the past 2 years. I’ve started a low carb lifestyle and have maintained it for a long time now. 120 lbs lost total. I splurge a little on vacation. It’s part of my long term strategy. It works for me. I eat the things that I miss while on vacation only. But it’s not a binge. A week on Royal Caribbean leaves me a little unfulfilled and I’m more than happy to resume my normal low carb diet. I’m actually looking forward to it. 

6 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

By the way @Dan83 , if you had horrible internet yesterday like we did, stop by the internet desk and they will credit your account for a day. 
 

We did that. 

Yes. It was out most of the day. I’ll do that. 

Our lobsters were tiny as well. Still calling them Maine lobsters but they’re smaller than the old ones. However, ours were cooked perfectly this time and were delicious. Every cruise we have ever been on has overcooked lobster. These were perfect. But we would have needed 3 or 4 to make a meal. We ordered 2 servings of cheese tortellini and shared them. We left full and had a delicious meal. 

If you like bourbon then I recommend trying the Kentucky summer. 

Last sea day. Solarium has plenty of space available. It’s still early though. I’m still unable to report a Daryl sighting. Not for lack of effort. I think I know his morning routine but I keep missing him. Maybe he will show up in the solarium. 

Labadee stop has been cancelled for tomorrow. Replaced with Nassau on Saturday. My first thought is stay on the ship. Anyone have a suggestion for a day in Nassau with kids? 

Adding some pics from yesterday in Curaçao. 

Playa PortoMari has a nice lookout tower. It’s a beautiful beach. Diving was good here too. It’s just a bit of a swim out past the sandy area to get onto the reef. I should have some diving photos to add soon. 
On the way back we stopped to see the flamingos. This is where our trouble on the way back began. My wife got out of the car and realized she only had one croc. It must have fallen out of the car door when we left the beach. I don’t know how you can get into a vehicle and leave one shoe on the ground. But we cruise with a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of crocs. So this is a problem for her. I do the math and decide to go back for the shoe. Hardly worth missing the ship but I felt confident we could make it. Found the shoe and made good time back to the ship. Parked the car, walked back into the port area for ice cream. Boarded the ship with 8 minutes to spare. 

Favorite ship, favorite port. 
 

If you feel comfortable driving in Curaçao. I recommend these guys. 

After we followed the piano player to the boardwalk, there was a carousel ride and somehow we got into the Hiro show. My memory is fuzzy after this and the pictures on my phone start to get increasingly inappropriate. 

It started with a holiday pour at the main dining room. 

I had enchilada.  It was not bad to nearly delicious. 

Salmon for the wife. 

Caramel Flan and apple cobbler were very tasty. 

10 hours ago, h20skibum said:
When it hit 101 db, we were already on our way out the door.  A lot of others left too, and I think it was because of the noise level.  Don’t know why Royal doesn’t keep the volume levels lower.  Maybe they have stock in hearing aid companies. 

 

I had to leave also. They were very good. But not worth hearing loss. 

Since I’d already burned through my 4 vouchers, I was just going to catch an elevator and go back to the cabin for the night. 

I picked the right elevator. This guy is good. Crazy talented. I stayed on another 10 minutes until a supervisor came and moved him to the boardwalk. 

So we had to follow him there. 

And then the alcohol started making the decisions for the rest of the night. 

24 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Maybe the slow speed is because Daryl is driving

 

 

 

I’ll have to push through a bad hangover, but my main goal is to find Daryl today. 
 

We pulled right up to the ship to return our rental car. Highly recommend smart wheels car rental for Curaçao. We did have some trouble on the way back and pushed it a little closer than I would have liked to. We boarded with 8 minutes left before all aboard 

1 hour ago, Arzeena said:

Great choice! One of the best beaches I have ever been to! Just the ride is a bit long and expensive. Worth it.

Did you share a cab or take a private one outside the fort?

This was our ride for today. 83% less cool than yesterday’s ride. I was planning to explore more of the island today but we went straight to PortoMari and just stayed all day. Pickup and dropoff couldn’t have been easier. Local traffic was a bit messy though. 

Playa PortoMari today. We met one other family from the Symphony. The rest are locals and tourists from the Netherlands. We did one guided dive with the local dive shop. Kids took a private snorkel tour while we dove. Then I went back for a second tank. About to head back to the ship, local traffic is a mess and I don’t feel like chancing it today. 

Beach tradition. Kids bury their dad in sand. 

Partial refinery view. But hey, we had the place to ourselves. 

Stairway to the sea

Found a beach almost to ourselves 

More off road views 

Found some ocean views on the off road adventure 

Our ride for Aruba. 

Lighthouse view 

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Daryl :  Take my picture over there!  @Ocean Boy will be so jealous.  
 

Dang it!  Just missed him 

Our first block delivered today. Another attempt at Hiro in 20 minutes, then I’ll try to upload some pics from Aruba. 

6 hours ago, topanga49er said:

Wow, I would have lost that bet.  Which airlines do you fly?  I am local to PBI and always thought that FLL was much cheaper.  Will have to check more at PBI in future...

thx

We flew Delta. I’m a little biased toward them. For these particular dates, PBI was the cheapest by far. Although last cruise FLL had the best deal.