A&L_Ont

You don’t like the port fees?

I’ve never really mentioned it before, but we had to make a tough decision of going to the hospital or to stay at home during the final days of her life. We decided that we wanted Allie’s last days to be at home over a hospital. She passed away in our living room with Lisa, Owen and I beside, her along with the help of her nursing team.

That’s a very well laid out plan, and it sounds to be making the world of difference to the good. We have a few different levels of care in our province. Home care is similar but less complex. Palliative home care is comparable to your mother’s care plan, with the last of one’s life be finished at home. This is what we did with our daughter. Hospice palliative care here, is the same as you described above, only living in a centre/care home.

Wow, it’s been a while since we have been on Oasis. Missed 5 years.

A few Thanksgiving photos from Sharon’s. The table was set. Sharon loves all the holidays. For a feast. We were also celebrating our oldest nephew’s 17 birthday, with pumpkin pie and ice cream birthday cake. A great sunset… makes for a great moonrise.

Yah, Lisa and I were wondering what replaced the Crab Shack or Fish House on the boardwalk.

BBQ on Oasis and Playmakers on Symphony. 😋 One wave. Booo.😉 I'm curious to what she will have happen this go around.

Lucas, you and your mom have quite the journey to this point. From what I have read, she is in the right spot for the best care possible and that also gives you some ability to recharge yourself between visits. I am sorry that all of this is happening to her and wish there was someway to undo all that is occurring. This page is much like a family: there might be the odd moments of disagreement but when it is down to the wire, we are here to support each other. If you need a distraction or a break we will be here to help as best we can.

That would be Houston.😉

I don’t like Houston for their cheating but they do have a better time zone.

We didn’t talk about their living situation at Labadee, we talked more about the experience there during Covid. They had dogs in in the crew compound and when the dog food ran out their rations then helped to feed the dogs. At the beginning the ships still dropped food for them but as the ships stopped their food stopped coming. They then had a $17,000 food delivery coming in by freighter to Port-au-Prince, and the truck that was bringing it to them was hijacked as it was being delivered. It took 6 weeks to arrange the first load and be delivered. They then did another shipment which took another 6 weeks. The second load made it, and I commented probably with armed guards. After the ships stopped coming and between those loads is when they did dealings with locals for veggies, fruits and chicken. My cynicism tends to think that the driver of the first load might have been on it’s hijacking but that’s a me thing. Sherrie worked at Labadee starting in 2018, for a few contracts, and always got there and back by cruise ship. She left in October 2020 by plane out of Cap Hatian. Most of the staff are local, with a few from further away living on site, as well as crew from the ship. We didn’t talk about normal daily life there pre-Covid. When it hit they packed everything away and fuel was used very sparingly. Basically only for necessities. All said and done, when she was offered a position at Coco Cay she was more than happy to return to RC. I can share what I know about Coco Cay. She said that there is pretty much a ship there everyday, if not two. At the end of the day she has 1.5 hours of work to prepare for the next day. She also said there was back of the house work as well that all crew do. The chiefs work on rotation from the guest areas to the crew kitchens. It gives them a mix. It sounds like nights are for rest. In the summer of 2019 the crew from Bahamas would work 3 weeks on, then 3 weeks off. I’m not sure if that has changed since Covid. I can’t say if it is that way for the locals now because of Covid, but one might think new people coming and going could open the door for greater risk of sickness. Because of how far Sherrie travelled to be there, she has a 6 month contract. For her it is longer because of work Visas etc…. but it could be longer for all now. Staff live on the island as well as come from the ship. Some local guides who run excursions do boat over from their homes. I’m curious enough to ask and she was polite enough to answer. It helps to give me, a guest, a greater appreciation of daily life through her experiences. Hope this helps answer any questions. As for living Coco Cay here are the staff living quarters at Coco Cay. A Google search didn’t bring up anything about living quarters for staff at Labadee.

It should be interesting and a lot of fun. We know local contractors that would travel with their church to help a children’s mission up the the mountains. They stopped going around 20 years ago when they said it became unsafe. Previously they said the could hear the guns shooting as they left Port-au-Prince in the back of pick-ups as they left the town with the goods that they brought with them. Hard to fathom what it would be like now.

Thanks for the Canadian Thanksgiving wishes. Food porn later this afternoon/tonight.

I always swore that we would never sail of the Christmas and NYE holidays, mainly because of the cost and how it fell around school for Owen. Also throw in Christmas with the families. Well, last year I had the milestone birthday of my 50th. That happens to be December 31st. I would have liked to have done it last year but it was not in the cards. However, this year it works between work, school break and Owen’s hockey. We are flying down a few days early, the 28th I think. We will wave to you as you sail back into port.

So what is next for us? It can certainly say that it will be the opposite of this sailing. Have you ever cruised over the holidays? We have not, that is until this year. We will be packing our bags for Harmony of the Seas, departing December 31, 2022. We hope to see you in a few months for the next adventure, and until then take care.

So that is the end of our review. If you have any questions, ask away and I might be able to answer them. Mariner was the perfect ship for what we were looking for this cruise. We had a limited amount of days, and time. She fit the bill perfectly, and with her last refit it gave us the amenities that we learned to love from the Oasis Class of ship. Two sea days, and two private port stops gave us what we needed being time to chill and relax. I’d sail on her again, and it could be a 7 day or more sailing. Thank-you for following along for another one of our adventures. Even though it has been years in the making, it seemed like it was just yesterday at moments while onboard.

RC is known for the vastness of their art on board. These two pieces of moving art work were in the hall by our cabin. The first one still works with the original handle. The second one does not, even with a secondary handle on it. I wonder, was it worn out by teenage boys and dirty old men? IMG_1719.MOV

Finally some things we noticed had changed since we last cruised in the fall of 2019. We enjoyed the new muster format. For our sailing, everyone had it completed and no one was called by name over the PA to complete it. There was no photographer at embarkation and only one at each port of call. They did not make the rounds at specialty dinning (it wasn’t our favourite anyway) but they were out every evening in the common areas and we saw them up by the pool deck on sea days.

As for ship entertainment, we only saw a few things. We went to the ice show, Love and Marriage show, we listened to the bands at the pool. We laughed along with everyone at the Worlds Sexiest Man and helped to score the Bellyflop Competition. Oh and we made a donation to the casino. I wish it was more generous to us, but she was tight with/too us.

For port days, we thoroughly enjoyed our beach days at Labadee and Coco Cay. The lunch buffet at Barefoot has lessened in items. We noted ribs, minute steaks, and shrimp skewers were missing but the quality was the same as before. They did have a watermelon and feta salad which was new to us and very tasty. Our cabana host Horby was the best we had experienced in all the times we had been there. Here’s Horby. Coco Cay and the Beach Club was over the top. Our host Sherie left us wanting for nothing more. She too was a ninja. The drink and food was never ending. She has 2 months left on her contract at Coco Cay. Pervious to this she was stationed at Labadee, as a staff member who lived on site. She was one of 15 there full time. She was there in March of 2020 when things came to a halt. She had 2 months left in her contact, but she didn’t leave Labadee until October of 2020. She described to us many of their dilemmas, the biggest being food shortages, to rationing food, to food deliveries being hijacked, to purchasing food from locals. Then there was fuel shortages, to no fuel. Even her departure off the island of Haiti, with 2 other South Africans, was an adventure that didn’t go as planned. During her numerous stops we talked about the operations of both islands and we fully appreciated her experience. We always say Labadee is the Disney version of Haiti, but things changed quickly for those there in the spring of 2020. Everyone experienced the beginning of the pandemic differently, but we got to hear a first hand experience of what it was like in Labadee. Sherie from South Africa. We would also note with only one ship in port, it was quiet there. Chairs were available everywhere across the island.

In mentioning the age of the ship, almost 20 years old, she looked to be in great condition. She is in great condition for age. While on board, we saw them painting and as mentioned in our review, they varnished our balcony rail as well. As for the pool deck, we enjoyed the suite terrace seating. We did notice that there were the typical chair hogs. Bar service was decent and there were many drink runners during sea days. We really wish that there was a kids splash pool area because of children having accidents in the pool. More responsible parents could help prevent this as well. That being said, newer ships do have a kids pool for those in swim diapers. The food was good where-ever we ate. Playmakers could use more staff in general, but staffing is an issue everywhere in “today’s” world. Frozen yogurt was manned by a crew member, and always had a line but it moved quickly. The pizza line was long most times as it was connected to cafe promenade but it moved well. We ate at the Dog House on sea day lunches and it was quick. We ate one night at the WJ. We probably picked the wrong night as it was Tex/Mex night. We found something to eat that was good, but our options were less because we didn’t go with Tex or Mex. We ate breakfast twice there as well on sea days. We ate at suite breakfast at Chops three times and it was delicious.

I’m not sure why they thought putting a phone beside the toilet was a good idea? If it rang while you were sitting on it, it could scare the crap out of you. Well, I guess you are on the toilet… Edit, that isn’t a cup holder over the bidet? Certainly, it can’t be? 🤷‍♂️

Now that we have been off the ship for a day, Lisa and I put together our final thoughts on our cruise. Embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly for us. We arrived at our mandated embarkation time which was 10:30 am. After passing through security and check-in we only had to wait until 11am when the ship was cleared and the new cruiser were allowed to board. For disembarking, we were fortunate enough to have a suite walk off. We met the concierge at the Schooner Bar at 7:40am, and he walked us to the gangway along with some of his other suite guests. From “binging” off the ship, to gathering our luggage, and clearing the facal recognition customs it took us approximately 15 minutes. All cabins were ready at 12:30pm. The sailing prior to ours was shortened because of Hurricane Ian and there were less guests on board. The cabin stewards had less cabins to prepare so the turn around was much quicker. Our cabin was an OS on deck 10. It was nice and centrally located. We were one deck below the pool and restaurants which took minutes to walk too. We only used the elevator to go to the lower decks. Some notes about the cabin. Our steward Lynn was a ninja. We rarely saw her and our cabin was always spotless. There was more than enough storage throughout the entire cabin. Once we figured out the light switches, it was all good. A few negative things we noted about the cabin are the following. The bed was hard, but that is a common theme on the ships. Mariner was built in the early 2000s and we think that some of our noted issues come with the fact that the ship is almost 20 years old. The safe was smaller than on the newer ships. There were only 3 outlets that we found in the cabin. Thankfully we brought our power block which allowed more items to be plugged in. In today’s electronic world, 3 outlets just is not enough. Being below the pool deck, we did occasionally hear people running on the deck above but that was a rare event. Our cabin was also located near the elevator bank but we never heard any noise from the hall.

That’s exactly what Lisa said. 😂

Owen and Sharon were excited to see us. Laundry and groceries were completed by 11:30 this morning and then it was some time for some yard work. It wasn’t until I was cleaning the pool that Lucy made an appearance. Do you see her? You think she got up for a rub? Nope, I had to go to her. You are here to serve, is the look I got. Either that, or leave me alone in the sun. 😂