RCCL Fan

It was another January day in Texas, snow one day, sunshine the next, and our family was trudging through it like everyone else. In case you're new to my posts, I'm a longtime RCI cruiser and cruise critic poster. We sail regularly with my family, my loving wife and our two school aged daughters, who have sailed so much they're diamond plus on their own accord without my status match. Anyway two Saturday's ago my phone rang with a call from a Miami number I didn't recognize. I answered only, to be on the receiving end of a call from Michael Bayley's office, asking us if we were free to join them on a VIP sailing of Icon of the Seas. I stuttered several times, wha? what?? why? Basically they wanted to honor a family, who regularly sails them and has a multi generational connection to Royal, and we had been chosen to be that family. It meant being a part of the naming ceremony, and Mr. Bayley's guests on the voyage. I asked them if we could switch to a facetime call, so that they could deliver this news to my wife and kids. I ran downstairs where my youngest was unloading girl scout cookies to go sell. I held out the phone and let the team from Royal deliver the news. Right off the bat, I'll tell you I didn't ever think Icon was going to be the ship for us, she seemed "overly packed" with stuff. As much as I adore the Oasis class ships, as a whole, my family often prefers the intimacy of smaller ships, as many of you guys know from our repeat cruises on Vision and Voyager class ships. However, My youngest was fan-girling Rover big time, my oldest craving the beach during the winter, and my wife had recently been following all the ICON posts on social media and starting to talk her up to me. In this post we'll take you along on a photo heavy tour on our trip on Icon this past week, our thoughts on the ship, how they evolved once on board, and the connections we made, and some takeaways that will change how we cruise moving forward. I usually post once a day "as if it were live" hope you follow along.

Thanks for the tip!

everything I've read about the service experiences on them, has had me conclude MSC is not for us. Greg, I almost titled the review "The Return of the Ranch Steak" but figured I'd focus on the overall cruise and not just the MDR experience, because it truly was a great trip minus the food.

Thank you so much! @Sea Dog is a fantastic journalist as well. I'm really feeling torn if not converted, there's a lot to love about the small ships. I *think* i know the cabin you're talking about, my wife had her eye on that cabin. It's actually not near mine, but more midship, which would be great for a trans, but yes it's significantly smaller, without separate bedrooms but instead curtains, and bunkbeds rather than full ones. You'll have to make a video and show us!

Day 9 & 10 At Sea Well this day started off in the crapper! Hahaha I didn't mention this before now, but in my 25+ RCI cruises, I like to think I'm pretty familiar with their toilet system. Well, this ship/cabin was different. Instead of just pressing the rectangular button and the vacuum instantly sucking everything down, with these toilets you had to press, and hold. As you held they would fill with water and then a flush. It was odd, but it worked.... until it didn't this morning. It filled and filled but the vacuum never kicked in. I know people often complain of toilet issues on ships, but this was a first time for us. It took mechanic 1, then his supervisor, then another, the taking a part of the closet to get to one toilet, and going in the bridge to get to the other. It was too much to watch, I left them to it. lol, when I came back, the waste was gone, but the toilet still required holding down the button, but it did plush. oh well. Sea days on the small ships are low key. We enjoyed relaxing time on the deck, and it was still a little tough to find loungers as on all ships, but once we did it was just low key family time. The kids actually chose to read, between swimming and sipping on their drinks. My wife was gung ho and eager for the games... family scavenger hunts, family feud style competitions, trivia and sexiest man contests but after 7 days in a row of island hopping in the caribbean sun, she was outvoted, the girls and I just wanted to relax and do nothing. So we did, it was a very chill sea day. We did go to the centrum for one of our family favorites, the egg drop contest, and watched families compete to see who could design the best contraption to safely drop an egg from the top of the centrum to the bottom. There were designs with everything from an egg wrapped up in a kids underwear to sponges! It's always great fun to watch and we got a kick out of the show. I did partake in my second massage, of the cruise and this one, well, it was amazing. I don't know what's it is with the massages lately but they've drastically improved for me. I usually get one every cruise but lately I've had massages on the past few cruises that just have knocked it out of the park. I don't know if there's a new vendor or something but I've been so impressed. Today's massage was in the facial room because they were full, so it had a window and I had a great view from the aft of the ship, while I waited for my services to begin. We spent a lot of time in the concierge club again with the amazing Jamie, from magic tricks with the girls to talking shop with me on all thing RCI I just couldn't say enough about his service. On night 10, I made a big run to the ATM, withdrew a significant amount of money and stuffed several envelopes. We always tip extra but I tipped super extra. From the concierge, to the host at Chops, everyone just was working so darn hard that week, so darn eager to please, even when they were being worked to the bone. I have never spent that much money in tips but everyone deserved every bit of it. By the way, this huge medallion type thing in the Viking Crown declared it the Pinnacle Club Lounge. have no idea what that was about or what it means, since pinnacles can come in the concierge club and no one was ever sitting out there. Sorry Mr. lowly diamond plus here, loves the Viking Crown. Guess what? We're done with specialty dining, we back to the main dining room these two nights. First night was lobster night, it was fine, the usual menu, things were similar to normal. But honestly. the whole extra charge thing is just nuts in my opinion. Those tiny red lobster style caribbean tails don't really do much to feed big boys like myself, I need two. But it's just not good enough to justify paying for it. Even though I was significantly under budget on this cruise. I just wouldn't pay for that. The food was better, not good or great but better the final two nights. After dinner night 9 we did the theater, and thats when we realized, there were no theater shows all week. Like none that we recall seeing in the compass. Like what did the royal caribbean singers and dancers do for the first 8 days of the cruise? help clean cabins or wash dishes? Anyway we finally saw them and they were great, they put on a wonderful show, I just couldn't understand why there weren't more shows with them, like their usually are. Boogie Nights, which we've seen them do before, seemed to be their one offering this cruise. Is this a cutback too? Day 10 there was a magician/comedian for the Farewell Show who was just blah in my opinion. but the kids were pseudo into them. My wife always seems to crash before the shows, I don't think she made a single one this trip. lol Post show Day 9 they had the 70's dance party, our cruise director Mey was great and rocked it, lots of energy, lots of fun. I think anyone who wanted a colorful ring got one, and the energy in the centrum was wonderful as usual, that great little ship energy. Can I give another shot out to my cabin steward and his amazing towel creations? Every night we'd come back to a wow at the work he did. We talked tonight as I came back while he was still doing turn down service, and he had someone with him. He was getting off the ship with us and training his replacement, who I think got on board in St. Kitts before we left. He told me he was supposed to leave the ship the day we got on, but they had no one to replace him, so they asked him to please give him another week and he did. You would have never known, as he gave us great service, but he was eager to get home to his sons, and I was so happy for him. That night, I went out on the balcony and just reflected on the week, the family time, the islands visited, and yes the cruise itself. Back to Port Everglades and the Celeb terminal once again. SIMPLE getting off the ship, easiest departure ever. Literally got up, had breakfast in chops, hit the potty, and off the ship we went. We literally paused walking to grab our bags and were through customs in 30 seconds. Major small ship win. Quick taxi to FLL, rented a car for the day, and a brief delay before takeoff, but otherwise an uneventful flight home. So in honor of Jerry Springer's death this week.... here's my final thoughts.... Do I like the new menu? nope, not at all. Dare I say it's like "ranch steak" all over again. It's a bad move Royal, and you guys really need to dial it back. We'll pay more, I know I will, but if the food offered in windjammer/and the main dining room were my only options I would have HATED this cruise. Room service and the specialty dining made it worth it for me. My wife had sailed Adventure the week earlier and said the food was better on Adventure, still not good but better, so perhaps it's somewhat ship specific, but I couldn't do it. Right now it's the only reason I haven't booked my next cruise. I'm thinking of celeb, or maybe even heaven forbid NCL for the first time. I just know if I'm not in a suite or eating elsewhere I won't be happy. Royal Service Post pandemic I've sailed quite a bit, and my experiences with service on Allure, Navigator, Odyssey, and Wonder were a real mixed bag on the service front. Even Allure, my favorite and most traveled ship, really let me down. I missed the days where everyone cared how you felt, and worked hard to make sure you were happy. That was back on this ship 1000+ percent. This was the Royal I know and love. I was so happy to get that kind of service and attention back and it made me so pleased and so grateful. Knowing on top of that how short staffed they are, made me appreciate this crew more than ever. The islands How could you go wrong? "I've never had such amazing islands Dad, this was my favorite cruise hands down," said my oldest. There was so much happening so much going on, and so many places to explore. Oh how long it had been since I did Antigua and a first for St. Lucia. but just six islands in a row, man oh man, it's double what you get on an Oasis class ship, and it was the gift that kept on giving. The ship I love Vision, I truly love her. She's a great little ship. Yes, she's showing her age, and honestly I'm like what happened to her, She had not a speck of rust when we sailed on her in 2019 and she had a ton of it now just 4 years later. I hated to not see her get the love she deserves. Still, she's small but mighty with an amazing crew. Never once got bored in 10 days, never once heard the kids say they were bored (and they did get bored day 2 on navigator!) I am a fan of small ships. My wife is on to something. Our last Oasis class ship was Wonder, and she was crowded, too crowded, it degraded the experience there were just too many people on board. I still love all the innovations of the big ships and I still know I will sail them, but I think I'm more relaxed, more spoiled, more at peace with the older ships. I know the vision class ships are nearing the end of their time, and I think our next cruises will be onboard them while we still can. I also think we'll have to do a suite, because that extra level of service matters, and makes all the difference. But what's next? who knows. I wanna do Icon, but I'm kinda boycotting it for not having a viking crown. I wanna do vision again, but it has to be a suite. or do we see if celeb is the way is in better shape staffing and food wise.... who knows? but all in all I still rate this ship well, and encourage you all to sail her. Just budget cash to eat someplace other than the MDR and windjammer.

Dad's have to plan and get it right! It's pressure! The Dramamine thing really bothered me and, yes, I reported it Horses were NOT booked through Royal, I almost always book tours myself. Smaller ships are a different mindset, but as long as you welcome that, I think you'll have a wonderful time. Which ship? where are you headed?

Thanks for the advice MJ I'm a big user of trip advisor reviews. I can assure you that this particular company ranked 5 stars on trip advisor, and had very positive review. pretty sure it's where I found them. I don't know why but our experience just doesn't match the other reviews I found on there. Anyone's entitled to an off day, I guess. Also very familiar with the resort experience. We usually do that in places we've visited several times. This cruise was all about exploring and trying new things!

Day 8 St.Kitts Woke up this morning for our last day on the endless island tour!. There was so much interest my the food experience, figured I'd share a bit about breakfast. As suite guests we were allowed breakfast in Chops, but we never made it. Windjammer wasn't a fan favorite this trip either. We took advantage of room service breakfast each morning. Food was as expected. Not bad, not good just the standard breakfast fare. One really weird thing that happened to us this week that never happened on another ship with room service. Stuck plates. The brown food covers would be put on the plate and no matter what we did we couldn't get it off. Yes I'm holding the stop of the cover in that photo and the plate wont fall out the bottom. It happened like every morning. You could see your food through the hole, but you couldn't remove the cover to eat it. I tried prying it off with a butter knife it was the weirdest thing. We started ordering a bit extra each day to account for the fact that we probably wouldn't be able to get into some of the plates! Again never seen this anywhere else... including on Vision last time we sailed her. We love our room service. So weird. Anyway we put on our green for St. Paddy's day and headed ashore. Today we had a tour through Royal Caribbean. Last time we were in St. Kitts my wife and I had no plans, hopped off the ship and wandered the street and wound up jumping on the back of this weird converted open air truck for a tour. Well, my wife thought it was the best tour ever, and she loved the experience. She kept talking about wanting to do it again with the kids. But that was 10 years ago and I couldn't remember the name of the random truck we hopped on for the life of me. I searched with no luck online but saw on the Royal Caribbean website that they had a tour that sounded exactly like it, and the photo used on the RCI website looked similar too. So I signed up. We all lined up in the terminal and were led to about four of those converted open air busses. I was a little concerned that because we were at the end of the line we'd be split up but while they kinda crammed everyone in the first three busses which looked like they were from the same company, their was a 4th bus, parked off to the side, looked like backup/overflow not form the same company. One of the handlers allowed us to board that one which was empty and then the few stragglers. Well the guide driving that overflow bus seemed upset that he had so few people and plenty of room on his bus and the others were packed. He and the other drivers argued voices were raised and eventually our driver stormed off from the driver huddle, hopped on our bus and kinda peeled out of there. Well, I was like great just great, we got the guy with anger management issues who is all annoyed. Well after a few slightly too fast turns to get out of the parking lot, he came on the loudspeaker, with like the happiest coolest voice ever. hahaha It was all sunshine from there, He got in his groove, and was an amazing guide maybe even better than the one we had last time. We took us around downtown, through "real st.kitts" and even on his street where we met his parents. And of course a small monkey that my youngest was in love with. Funny side note, we stopped at one spot and the guides from the other bus asked if we would take more guests. One complained how crammed in they were, and another had a bad leg and needed more space. We had plenty. We made our way up to Romney Manor, the botanical gardens type spot in St. Kitts, My wife is a garden lover, and this was her happy place, she was loving it. While we toured the gardens our guide disappeared. We were done and couldn't find him or the bus and were a little concerned. He pulled back up finally and his absence was explained. He ran to the supermarket and bought soda, beer, snacks, cookies, (not included with the tour) but just bought them for us to have a snack for the ride back. How cool?? We made our way to the other side of the island, snacks in tow and got some pictures at the high points of the island overlooking where the Caribbean and Atlantic meet. Here I saw the tour guide from the first time! I made a mental note.We headed back to the ship a little after noon. Stopped off for some shopping, I again handed over the credit card and let the girls do their thing. We had to get a stuffed monkey to go with the memory of the real one. My other daughter has an "old school" name, she's named after my mom. So her name is never on the trinkets in souvenir shops. My name "Wayne" was often hard to find too, so I related to her pain. She was thrilled to find a shot glass with her name on it. I was like seriously, could it have been on anything but a shot glass. We didn't want to buy it,but I said oh please, she's a straight "A" kid, and a huge rule follower. I bought her the shot glass. lol It had been raining off and on most of the morning, our first rainy day all week and a decent shower was hitting so even though it was just 1pm and our last port day, we got back on the ship. We decided to head up to windjammer for lunch. It was my first time in here for a while, and man as soon as I passed the salad, because well I'm not healthy enough to eat a salad in windjammer normally I got to the main food section. There were very few dishes on the main food area after the salad bar. Rice, some stew, fish, mashed potatoes and gravy. That's it. I was like this is insane. Everything looked very unappetizing. Now around the corner were the burgers and dogs and fries but you know how I feel about them. I was two seconds from complaining to someone. Then I spotted the holy grail, big fresh juicy looking chicken fingers, the same chicken fingers you get in room service. Not the crappy dried up ones I had spotted here earlier. Oh it was on. So I made a plate of chicken fingers and fries, and went back and actually got a salad and put some of that fish on top of it. It was filling and good. The chicken fingers made all the difference. After lunch I went to the schooner bar, and a fellow guest from the social media page pulled me aside for help and advice. Her parents had been on board all week with no clothing. Their suitcase didn't show up. So I was giving her suggestions on what to do, once she got home (spoiler alert she left it in her car mistakenly, the cruise line hadn't lost it ) We went to some more games in the centrum and had some drinks and just hung out the four of us. The captain warned us that the weather was going to be bad as we left tonight, and that there were be moderate to rough seas and there would be sea sickness medicine available at guest services. As we sailed away and got further away from the island yes some big waves were present and we were rocking and rolling quite a bit. The girls wanted some time together to spend their arcade credits and hang out, so they left us and we went for a solo visit to the concierge club to talk and hang out just the two of us. We actually got a new table this night. One of the awesome things of having a kid start to get older is that you can actually get some time together as adults, which is new for us, as we usually never let our kids wander a cruise ship alone. But our oldest is at a point where some leeway is given. So We had the three night dining package, and used our diamond plus bogo coupon, so we still had one night left of the dining package to use. We always like the dining room on the last night, for all the goodbye songs and what not. The night before that is lobster night, which I always enjoy, so this was our last night to use that dining package. I didn't want to do Giovannis again, the oldest and the oldest and I had done Chops last night, so I voted for Izumi again. Little one agreed. But the other two wanted a return to chops. I thought we had a 50/50 split but then the little one says, "I'll go to chops, I like it in there, I just wanted edamame from Izumi" So...... We returned to Chops, three nights in a row now. lol and I stopped at Izumi and got an order of edamame to go for the little princess. I mixed up my appetizers and desert each night, but kept with the salmon and filet for my mains. We sat tonight at Chops as if we were in the main dining room. It had kinda become home this cruise. We laughed and told jokes like we would around the kitchen table. Little one got the trivia, and we enjoyed the evening together. As the night went on though.... the waves got rough, really rough. We all went back to the room.... check out the nightly towel animal. The cabin steward is so talented. My wife and youngest went to bed, but my oldest and I weren't sure we could sleep in the waves. Just writing this I'm feeling the motion again. Shows you how much of it is in your head. I never count how many cruises I've been on. But it's fair to say 25+ and it's pretty fair to say minus one cruise on the whale tail line, where an entire bar full of booze crashed to the floor, this was the worst motion I've ever experienced. Oldest and I hung out for a bit before she said she was going to try to sleep.It didn't help that our room, cabin 8000, was at the very front of the ship. right behind the bridge. My wife didn't realize the pack of children's Dramamine she brought was empty. I went to guest services and asked for some children's Dramamine. I was given individual packs of meclizine and as I was about to give it to my daughter I see on the packet it says. "Not safe for children under 12 years of age". I went back to Guest Services and clarified I needed meds for kids, the agent said, "That's safe for kids, we give that to kids" I pointed out the warning on the package and the agent said, "our doc says it's for everyone, I dunno, I'm not a doctor" You guys commend me for never losing my cool. I kinda lost it here. You don't casually dismiss giving my kid some pills she shouldn't have. I went to the medical facility, and was immediately told I would have to pay for children's motion sickness medicine. I said that's fine, I just need it. I did question why adult meds were free but not kids. I was told, "kids have to be under doctor's care to get this" I said, no that's children's Dramamine, I can walk into any drug store and get it, just like tylenol. It's no biggie, charge me, but I'm just trying to understand the logic. Still a little testy from guest services, I also pointed out the experience upstairs, and the nurse just kept typing in silence, like she heard me,but didn't want to address it. I said, "I really think you need to have a conversation with guest services, so they're not instructing parents that this drug is safe to give their kids" silence. She gave me the pills for free, she kinda just wanted me gone. I wasn't the nicest. bottomline if the cruise line is going to provide free motion sickness meds to passengers, that should include children. At the very least, staff need to know not to tell parents it is safe to give kids medication, when the package says it's not. I got back to the room and everyone was sleeping, so I just held on to the meds, but the waves were so bad, I took meds for the first time ever on a ship, and was convinced they would wake up and need them. But they never did. I took a video of the curtains moving but you really can't tell much. I pulled one of the chairs and faced forward and tried to focus my brain to not get sick, before finally about 2-3am feeling like I could sleep. Ginger ale and GIn helps? right? Next Up --- our Two Sea Days home

Day 7 St. Lucia We had an early wakeup in St. Lucia. Another tour booked today. My wife's choice for the day was to go to the mud baths and have the minerals take 10 years off her life. The drive from the port to the baths was more than an hour, and I previously mentioned I don't do well on car trips. A fellow cruise critic member suggested a tour which took you there by speedboat. Sounds right up my alley They were set to pick us up from the pier where the ship docks, and take us from Castries where the ship docks down to Soufriere where the mudbaths are and the Pitons which I was excited to see. We met shipside, it was much easier than the day before, this time someone was waiting with a sign as soon as we stepped into the terminal. She sat us off to the side, and as the group gathered brought us to the boat. At first I was a bit nervous that we had too many people, for the two boats they had available.... That was probably my fault, as many in our group were from the social media group for our sailing. I had mentioned this was what I was doing and some other families signed up as well. I also think due to our last two tours being just us, we had gotten spoiled. (yeah the horses were just us and one other couple) Anyway we got on the boat, and the process was a little slow getting on and settled, but we made it and were off. The ride was wonderful, windy, and FAST, We sped by a lot of sights at full speed, but I understood why. The big benefit of this tour was the "beat the crowd" aspect that we would arrive before the other tours from the ship. Although lets face it, vision didn't have a ton of people and we were the only ship in port that day. But nonetheless, we sped past the Pitons and arrived in Soufriere. From there we boarded two minibus taxi's that took our group up the mountain to the mud baths. The drive was great and scenic. My wife loves trees and mountains so I knew she was having a ball. Once we arrived at the baths the smell of sulfur was there and strong. Be mindful if you're sensitive to that. We got into our swimsuits and made our way to the baths which were essentially empty, we had first billing rights, and hopped in. Man on man was that water warm to hot , and let me tell you I take hot showers and I still felt it. But eventually your body adjusts and you slide right in. In feels like a big ole bathtub. Now I'm not exactly excited about bathing with 50 strangers and what I loved was that the bath was divided into 3 or four separate pool areas. So I walked to the pool furthest back, which was actually closest to the source. The water poured fresh into this pool, filled it, then cascaded down to fill the other two. I felt like I got the purest minerals and less human "backwash" lol By now the folks who drove were starting to show and things got more crowded, so we hopped out and there were buckets of goo from the springs that you could use to smear the mud all over you, everyone was having fun making art, and handprints and what not. Of course the kids loved this, and the tour guides helped, while making sure dad gave permission and supervised. hahaha We had a really good time here and enjoyed our early morning mud bath. Even the youngest who wanted to part of it before we got there, was happy to get in, enjoy, and make some body art with the mud. After this we headed off to swim in a waterfall. Well we got there, and it was beautiful, however, it's in a clearing in the mountains with lush vegetation and there was a large stalk of bamboo that had fallen in the rains early that morning. It was kind of dangling off the side of the mountain and the operators were concerned that if it fell it would harm someone. So they cleared the pool at the bottom of the waterfall and sent crews up to cut it so it would fall, and they could fish it out. Well after about 15 - 20 minutes of waiting they couldn't get this thing to fall. The group agreed to move on. Next was back downtown for lunch, a buffet lunch was included in our tour price. I'm sorry I didn't get photos. But it was this small restaurant with these older grandmother type women who had been cooking all morning, and were beaming with pride at the lunch they prepared. I will admit there was little to nothing I would eat, and lots of unnamed items, I didn't recognize, and as a picky eater I was disappointed in the selection. But it was one of those things, you couldn't help be soak up the pride they had in the meal and you smiled and thanked them profusely. There were chicken legs as a main, and I don't eat those, so I had some salad and rice, and made do with that. My kids struggled too, and I understood, but my wife was in heaven at the authenticity of it all and pressed them to eat. After lunch we headed back to the speedboat which took us to "jealousy beach" . It was located smack between the two pitons. It was an amazingly beautiful spot. As we pulled in, they showed us a cool bat cave and told us how the bat dung was harvested to go into makeup and doritos. A quick google search revealed not to be true. haha There was a beach club hotel here. It was beautiful with chairs/loungers and a restaurant. Well, they told us we couldn't use them as they belong to the hotel and are very expensive but could lay a towel down on a beach. They said while basically everyone here was from the hotel, the law is that all beaches are public and so they couldn't stop us from being there. Now, I still felt like a freeloader! Now, I like the nicer things in life, and I didn't want to lay on any royal caribbean towel on the sand. So after we docked, I was like I'm going to get us beach chairs. It's vacation, and we have the money, like it's been a great day and I'll pay more. Well, I get to the clerks and they tell me the cost of the chairs is $90 per chair! I was like *****. That's insane. The crew was like I know. I was debating in my head, it wouldn't kill us, and I didn't want to lay on the sand. I told the chair clerk well it is a great view, so I guess..... she interrupted me, "non hotel guests have to stay in the last row, all the way back" So $90 a chair and the chair is 5 rows back from the water. Yeah nope, not doing that. I was kinda annoyed. We were going to be here for two hours or so and I needed someplace to sit. But, I wasn't going to pay that much for the last row. We laid down some towels and made a spot and then all of us made a run for the water. My wife and oldest went to the snorkel area and went snorkeling and I got in the water to swim, while the little one played in the sand, she was afraid of the fish and what not. I eventually coaxed her in and we had a ball, She played with me for a while and dove for rocks while I chatted with some others from the group. Before long our guides brought over rum punch and beer and what not which I guess they had on the boat. Swimming between the beautiful pitons, enjoying the cool water and drinking my rum punch, I forgot all about a deck chair, before long it was time to go. We hopped back in the boat, and headed back toward Castries, now with a bar open on the boat. I was like where was all this earlier!! We had beer and drinks, the music was playing, and we leisurely made our way back with our guides stopping this time to show us all sorts of sights along the way. This season of Below Deck was shot in St. Lucia so they were showing us the spots they shot the show. We saw beautiful homes. The pink one is Oprah's and the beige one Mick Jagger's. They even stopped for folks to hop in for a brief swim or potty break! It was a lively, fun trip back, There was an awesome family sitting with my wife and the girls (we were separated for weight distribution) I had been hanging out with the dad and his son who were really lively and fun, the mom was more reserved and quiet. My wife said after a few of those rum punches she was the life of the party. Made us all happy to see everyone having such a good time. Just as our boat was pulling back up next to Vision with the music pumping, our youngest had a "EMERGENCY RIGHT NOW" bathroom call. So we jumped out of our boat and were making a rush to the bathroom in the terminal. Just as we were rounding the corner to go, the owner was coming back on the other boat and yelling for my attention. I think he was appreciative that I had brought folks from my group and wanted to shake my hand, I gave him the biggest wave I could muster, yelled thanks for a great tour and ushered the little one off to the potty. After that and with a few bottles of piton beer in me (and I don't even like beer) the girls wanted to go shopping and I just handed over the credit card, while they did their thing and enjoyed my last beer sitting in the St. Lucian sun. We got back on Vision and my wife's rum punches had set in and the little one wanted to nap. But my oldest LOVES a good steak and she wasn't about to let our free night at Chops go unused. So she and I got dressed up and had a date night in Chops. Our food was WONDERFUL and the service was just as good. I got a text that the other two went to the dining room and actually enjoyed their dinner. my wife's words, "it wasn't amazing or anything but it was good, I enjoyed it" After dinner we changed into our swimsuits and went up to the pool deck to enjoy some time in the hot tub. We sat and talked and caught up on the drama with her biology teacher she can't stand, and her school responsibilities. The movie The Fabelmans was on, and we thought it was weird and bizarre, but like any good crash you stop and stare. We sat and watched, even got some popcorn, and drinks from the bar to cap off a great night. Tomorrow, our final stop. St. Kitts.

Whew! That's good to hear. We actually do enjoy our time together, and yes, my daughters truly are well behaved good kids, I always say just give them a chance! Thanks for the compliment and by all means chime in on anything you agree or disagree with! They are so not uniform and you never know what you're going to get, sometimes I love them, sometimes they're crap! lol graphic? I don't know that I would say all that. The fried chicken plate was rough, and yes there's a clear change and lesser quality food in the MDR but honestly those windjammer burgers were the biggest offender to me. lol

Day 6 St. John's Antigua Happy Birthday To Me. This was a day a lot of the family was looking forward to. This was my wife's first time in Antigua, and my youngest's pick for excursion. Yes we let each family member have a port where they chose the excursion choice. We booked horseback riding including riding the horse into the ocean. I've done this previously in Jamaica and absolutely loved it. There are two horseback riding options I found in Antigua. One was nearly an hour's drive away, the other 15 - 20 minutes. Both were around the same price, so I went with the closer one. The email confirmation I had instructed us to walk straight off the pier, toward the red Levis store and wait there for pick up. Well, we got off the ship, walked straight and walked and there was no Levis store. There were 50 other folks trying to get me to book a tour with them instead, which did nothing but take a stressful situation and dial up the temperature a bit. We got someone to help us. Vision came into one pier, the Levis store was at the end of the other pier, so we had to go back to the ship then walk over to the other pier. We finally got to the Levis store, no sign of our guide. I called but couldn't get through. Dad rant: My adorable family has a tendency to expect me to be an unending source of knowledge of all things. Questions like, " So where do you think he is?" ; "What should we do?" ; "Could he have left already?" also tend to rise the temperature up a bit, especially when I reply, "Ladies, I don't know" lol There was another couple there also waiting for him so that calmed things down a bit, and eventually our guide showed and directed us to his minivan to take us to the horseback ride. The drive was quick, the van is quite old and I was a little fearful the bottom might fall out at any point, but we made it....... to...... the side of the road. Literally we parked on a side of a road where the horses were all waiting. tied to trees and what not. There wasn't a stable or anything that I saw. Little to no communication just kinda had us stand around while they got them saddled up. We asked where we should put our beach towels and what not. As our tour was supposed to include beach time. We were instructed by the second guide to put them in the van and she would lock them up. We did. Well off we went down the street, literally just down a city street for a good 15 mins or so. No explanation of where we were, what neighborhood we were in nothing. Just follow the leader on a horse. Now the one guide had taken an affinity to my oldest daughter and he was talking her ear off, leading the pack, but the rest of us were in the dark. I did feel good though that one guide was with both my kids. The youngest had a tiny horse and the other guide stayed with her, leading the horse by hand. I felt safety was important to our guide and that's really the most reassuring, but man I would have loved to know where we were and what we were looking at. I kept asking questions, trying to lead him that we were yearning for some information here, "What is that building?" "What's this area called?" "What's up ahead" I always got very short quick answers. What we lacked in information we did gain at the end of the road when we got to the beach at Dickenson Beach, it was simply perfect, crystal clear water, the kind that looks fake, it's so perfect, and amazing sand. I was like oh wow this is going to be amazing. Except of course we just walked onto the beach for a good 5 - 10 minutes and back on the road and made a U-turn. We went back the way we came through the quick section of beautiful beach, back down the road and then into a clearing in the trees that lead us to a beach area. This was our beach spot. Lets just say it wasn't appealing, old dirty lawn chairs, which had a fee of $20 a chair or something of the sort, no food, but drinks for sale cash only. It was a beautiful beach, but it looked like someone hobbled together old second hand chairs and attempted to make a beach area. It was not for us. Even worse, our towels, sunscreen, beach gear, everything was in a bag in the van. No one ever explained the game plan, and we were told to leave our stuff in the van. I explained the issue, and was told, no problem they would go get it. At this point one horse was led out to the ocean and you were allowed to ride him if you wanted for an additional fee. So the girls did that while I lay in the beach chairs angry and my failure to pick a good tour, in such a beautiful place. Well, My youngest made a beeline for the water and I went with her, and once in the water, in such amazing surroundings it's kinda impossible to be in a bad mood. I had a wonderful time playing on the beach with my little one, we swam and goofed off and enjoyed ourselves, while my wife and oldest soaked up the sun on the loungers. Well, like an hour passed since we got here and we never got any of our stuff, with no sign it was coming, All the people from the tour were gone and we were left with the beach guy. He called the tour guide again to find out what was up and we were assured our stuff was on the way. Well, we waited again, nothing. So I finally just said I was going to walk back to the van, fearful what may have happened to our stuff. As I was leaving the guides showed up, without our stuff and seemingly clueless that we were waiting for it. They walked with me back to the van, where I got everything, and then instructed the girls to walk straight down the beach to a restaurant by sandals resort. It was nicer, cleaner, populated, and more our speed. They met us and we got a table. Well..... that place was packed and the wait, well, was FOREVER. At this point my girls got hangry and my frustration was back. We got our meal, which was quite delicious, and then called a cab to take us back to the ship. Back at the pier my youngest and my wife wanted to do some pierside flea market shopping, the oldest and I were done and got back onboard. I decided to head to a bar for alcohol, to salvage this day a bit. lol Those of you who read my reviews regularly know I love frozen mojitos. I drink them so much that one year on Serenade I was known by all the bar staff as the man who drank all the mint! lol Post pandemic, Royal started using a new vendor for the mojito mix and oh man some of them were green and mouthwash like, my favorite drink ruined. But then they seemed to figure out that it didn't work and tinkered with it and it became drinkable again and often differed ship to ship whether my drink was deep green, or white with green flecks. It was so odd. Well on this sailing of Vision I got all three. When I ordered a frozen mojito I never knew what I would get, something I would love or compare to scope. So I decided to walk around the ship from bar to bar and keep ordering them and you can see just how different they are. It was really quite funny. My wife was back on board at this time and she knew where to find me, my favorite place on any Royal Caribbean ship, The Viking Crown Lounge (yeah i know... wonder.... quantum class.... i try not to talk about it, it brings me great sadness) So she joined me as I sipped mojito number 4 and took in the view from the wall of windows. We started talking and I said, "I really wish I had scheduled my massage for my birthday, I scheduled it for the sea day on the way back, but it would have been a nice birthday treat." She said, "go get it! we were going to buy you one for your birthday anyway and surprise you, why don't you go down there now and see if they can take you" She had just come up to sit with me, but she said I should go, so I said what the heck. Walked in, and they were able to immediately take me for a hot stone massage. Today was stressful and I needed it. I walked out of there all oiled up and felt great. The girls were already up in the concierge club, enjoying pre-dinner drinks and snacks, so I told them to just meet me in Chops, because our reservation was in like 20 minutes. They were insistent I come up there and I saw why. Jamie had Espresso martinis (my new favorite) and a slice of cheesecake waiting for me in the club. It was so funny he was sitting at our table with the girls when I walked up and was hiding the cake in his lap so I didn't see it when I first walked up! hahaha After the lap cake we headed down to Chops for my birthday meal. We had a great table. and like the best food. My wife's steak was under done, even after a refire, and so they butterflied it for her and insisted we come back tomorrow, on them. I was like that's super kind but totally not necessary. It was really no big deal. But they kept insisting we finally had to say yes just to get out of there! lol They too saw it was my birthday and had a second slice of cake waiting for me.... this one was something else, maybe red velvet, whatever it was it was something I didn't eat, so I'm guessing red velvet. lol But loved the fact they did it. There were a few other birthdays and we all gave cheers to each other. It was really a great night in Chops It was a long night and we had full bellies. We made a brief stop at the centrum for whatever shenanigans were going on. I believe this was the night I entered a contest, involuntarily again, where you listened to the first few seconds of a song and had to give all kinds of details about it, I failed miserably. After that we returned to the room where I had the most amazing towel creations waiting for me.... I haven't given our cabin attendant his recognition. The man was a towel making master! Every night was so elaborate, We had kissing swans on our anniversary, there were all sorts of cool creations and always 4, one for each of us, I was mega impressed by his work. We all turned in after another great day. Oh yeah, we added to our champagne collection today too. Actually opened on this time! Tomorrow was exciting, my first new island in YEARS, St. Lucia

We were booked on that radiance sailing to key west and bimini. It was sky high though. We cancelled it and switched this 10 day, and even losing deposit money, and buying airfare we still saved money and got to much better ports. Just luck of the draw sometimes. DFW takes us 7 to 10 minutes usually, so yes super easy, but hey richardson is awesome, it's an area we regret not considering when we moved to Texas a few years ago.

For us it's the ports. As my youngest says, "How many times do we have to go to cozumel and costa maya?" We're done with Galveston until they figure out a way to do routes further east. Our flight was a doozie this time, but usually it's 15 minutes to the airport and a 2.5 to 3 hour flight... We actually beat out friends to Miami who were driving to Galveston to catch a cruise, last year. Haha

Day 5 St. Maarten Got up this morning ready to tackle one of my favorite islands. I don't know if it's the years of french classes that I can put to use here, the amazing blue water, or the crazy cool airport but SXM has always been my jam. I never do a tour here but instead try to check out a new beach each time I'm here, and goodness knows I've had some amazing wins. This time I chose Grand Case on the north west side of the island. (number 12 above) This area is very french, quieter than the touristy areas and has some amazingly clear blue water. I've seen many photos but have never been, so I decided to give it a whirl. We hopped in a taxi and made the drive, which stopped at Orient Beach, to drop off literally an entire van load of people, and then just us to keep going to Grand Case. I picked a fun quaint little restaurant with beach chairs.... Les Temps Des Cerises or "Cherry Season" Well, I knew I had picked a great spot when our cab driver had never heard of it. That's my kinda place. He had to call his wife for directions and she immediately knew the place, and that reassured my wife who was looking at me like where the h*ll are you taking us. hahaha Well we arrived and the place was beautiful, bright, clean, fresh new. Gave the hostess my name and all the energy dropped from her face. "I tried to call you this morning," she said. "The beach is closed, the swells are just too big" Oh no!!! Here we were, secluded away from everything, and there's no beach, just a restaurant. She offered to call us a cab, and while I had other amazing beaches I would have liked to have gone, like Happy Bay, Mullet Bay, or Cupecoy, we were advised that all of them on that side of the island would likely be experiencing the same high swells and it would be hard to enjoy. So...... I went with the masses, take us to Orient Bay on the east side of the island. Everyone goes there, and I've never been a big fan, the water is murky and lately it's filled with sargassum. It's not what I consider a great St. Maarten beach. But it wasn't far, we wouldn't lose another 1/4 of our day in a cab, and I know there will be plenty of places to take us. We ordered drinks at les temps des cerises and looked at this amazing blue beautiful water that we couldn't get in. Back at Orient Beach we went to Coco Beach, known for being more upscale and having good food and drinks. We were welcomed, reservation-less, and given 4 chairs with a great view of the murky and sargassum filled water. It's just not my thing. But lots of folks were there, and my wife and kids seemed happy, so I lay back, ordered a drink and shut up to try to salvage the day. Never fun when the weather ruins a well laid out plan. hahaha Nonetheless, the girls enjoyed the heavy waves and were jumping through them like crazy. My wife was able to get some quiet time to read and drink and I loved being able to read the french menu with about 98% accuracy. My wife was panicking it was too rough for them, and so I had to keep acting as lifeguard, but she was happy resting, the girls were happy playing and we made the best of a lazy beach day. I did warn the girls that orient is a beach where nudity was allowed and it's so funny, my youngest who I expected to be weirded out was like, "whatever". My oldest would see it and stop frozen in her tracks and be like, "what is going on here?" hahaha Food was good, drinks were hit or miss, and clean & nice bathrooms. At the end of the day, we called a taxi back to the ship, it was a peaceful and easy ride back. We had that post beach, sun exhaustion when we arrived back. We all laid around and napped for a bit as Vision slipped out of port and continued our way south. We skipped a night in the concierge club and made our way to Giovanni's for dinner. We were originally booked for Chop's tonight, but I wanted to do that tomorrow for my birthday. Giovanni's has no reservations left, but when I called and asked about changing, the restaurant manager said, "just go whenever you wish, I will call over there and make sure they're expecting you and take care of you" WOW. ok So we strolled into Giovanni's with our non-timed reservation, and sure enough we were welcomed with open arms. The warned us right off the bat that service may be a bit slow since we were coming without a set reservation. We promised we understood. We walked in and well.... Giovanni's was empty, like only 5 tables with people. 90% of the restaurant had no one there. The host then explained, They only had two servers, and so they just couldn't take guests because of the lack of people to serve them. The host said if we would bare with him, he would serve us personally, so as not to overwhelm the other servers. He did a great job. It was disappointing to see the staff working so hard trying to keep things running at normalcy, with clearly not enough people to do it. A number floating around was 50% they were operating with 50% less staff than normal. Apparently, two of the servers in Giovanni's had left recently, one for a medical reason and another a death in the family and the cruise line didn't have anyone to replace them so the other staff was trying their best. I did see officers/managers coming in to check on them and observe, you kinda wished they had rolled up their sleeves and waited on some tables. Giovanni's is never really a favorite for me.... at least not the original version that's on Vision. The new menu on Wonder and Odyssey is like the best Italian food I've ever had. This was just "ok" overall, but my risotto was tasty and I have to say the food here was "quality" good portions, fresh ingredients, it was the usual Royal Caribbean I know and not this "revised" situation happening in the dining room. After dinner we wandered into the centrum and found perfection. It was "dancing with the crew" A crew member paired up with a passenger and there were competing to see who was the best couple.... dancing with the stars style. Well these energetic 20 something crew members and these passengers in their 60's were hilarious. There were doing all sorts of forms of dirty dancing meets break dancing meets swing dancing and it had the entire centrum in stitches. This again is what I love about small ships... yes there's little hard product, but there are amazing games and activities all the time that are just fun and silly and give the ship an energy and vibe you just don't get on the ships with all the stuff. I'll take this over an ice skating show any day. Another amazing win for the small ships. After staying through the final two couples, my wife and youngest called it a night. The oldest and I decided to go to the late show.... it was a hypnotist. My wife said, "we saw this exact same guy on Vision last time" she was done. I didn't remember and I was like well, I don't have anything else to do, I'm going. We got there and my daughter insisted we were sitting up front because she wanted me to be hypnotized. I was like yeah right, no way, no thanks. I'm not participating in that. So yeah, It was really cold on the stage, and dark in the theater, and the bright bright lights on you, and man on man. They had this weird spooky music playing and well you kinda felt like you were in a trance. Like the best way I can describe it was, I was aware of everything that happening. I knew what I was doing. However I could not tell you WHY I was doing it. Like he was say dance like a ballerina and I would be like, fat chance buddy, i'm not doing that, but then somehow I was out of my seat twirling around and I really don't know why. It was like something was compelling me to do these things. Now there was one point I kinda came out of it, and then I stopped all his requests, he tried to get me to go back, but I didn't quite get there. But after he told me "you name is now "e i e i o" for the rest of the cruise people were coming up to me calling me "e i e i o" Some of you know I'm a journalist so I'm used to strangers stopping me in the supermarket and what not, but this was a little much even for me hahaha. It was a lot of laughs, my daughter got what she wanted, and hey we're on vacation right. Next stop Antigua

I truly love them both. I don't know that much beats a day at the Coco Beach Club in Coco Cay, its Chops meets a private island! and Labadee is amazing for those mountains and the serenity. OK, OK, I get it. I revise my statement 95% of the time there's only one ship docked at Labadee. lol I think you're mistaken, Labadee is the only cruise ship port in Haiti that I am aware of and Royal Caribbean is the only line that stops there. They have a full lease on the property. No, there's not. I think there are too few suites on board to justify it.

Day 4 San Juan Happy Anniversary to us. Woke up this morning and we were still at sea, we had an afternoon arrival into San Juan. My wife worked out in the gym and was beaming about how much easier it was to work out on the smaller ships with less people jockeying for the equipment. We decided to do our first lunch together as a family and did that in the main dining room before heading off the ship. I didn't take photos of what I had, and honestly I don't remember what it was, but this I remember, I enjoyed it. It was a better quality food, and was well seasoned, and the portion was good for a lunch portion. The ship was rocking quite a bit as we neared san juan and it was very apparent in the main dining room where you could turn your head and see out of both sides of the ship. We arrived at the dock about 30 minutes early, but had to wait about 45 minutes for the ship to clear customs and to be allowed off. We were nervous as we had a tour booked, not through the cruise line but we made it. We got ashore and needed to take a taxi to a nearby marina for our tour. The girls waited while I approached about 30 cab drivers before I found one that took credit cards. I will remember enough cash next time. Oh well off to the marina we went for The San Juan Mini Boats. I stumbled across this tour and had to book it. You get a little zodiac type boat that can hold two people and you get to explore San Juan by boat, and learn about the history of the place while driving your own boat. I thought it was the perfect blend of knowledge and something fun. We arrived at the marina and learned our tour was private. No one else had signed up except for us. WOW! Score. So our guide gave us the rules of the road for operating the boat. I took the little one, and my wife took the older kid, and off we went. We sailed out of the marina past several motor yachts, and into the harbor. We have these tiny little boats, but each had a motor on the back that was capable of pushing a much larger vessel. These things had some power. Our guide took off, like just floored it and took off. I was like oh, wow ok, this is speedboat type stuff, ok. So I made sure "little bit" was secure and off we went too. We stopped at the first section and waited for my wife to catch up. I was expecting him to then tell us about the area we were in. But as soon as my wife pulled up, he sped off again. Earlier he had asked "did we want to stop and swim" " what did we want to see" and I said, we're open, We'll decide as we go based on where we are at the time. The only thing I know I would like to do is sail up next to our cruise ship. So we did that, pulled out little mini boats right up to the side of Vision, and Celebrity Beyond which had arrived after we left. It was really cook to see the ship from this perspective. Oh she definitely needs some cleaning and a paint job, it was not the pristine white that you're used to seeing from Royal, and not as pristine and pretty as she looked when we sailed her at the end of 2019. But nonetheless it was cool being here, taking her in, waving to folks on the pool deck and finding our room. We kept on the "tour" and did get a brief history lesson at a stop near Old SanJuan and the fort, but mostly our tour was just speeding through the water at stop speed in our boats. It wasn't what I expected or hand planned, but it was very fun just the same. After the "tour" ended we hopped an uber back to the dock, where we hit up walgreens for random things left behind and then went touring through Old San Juan. I'm a New Orleans native and old san juan reminds me so much of the french quarter, I always love being here. I couldn't believe the last time we were here was 10 years ago, on our honeymoon on celebrity reflection. We showed the kids the fort, and enjoyed the walk, and while we were making our way back down the mountain I yell out, Hey! It's Danny from H** Travel! During the pandemic when we couldn’t cruise we would sit home and watch videos about the cruises we had coming up. My oldest decided of all the videos on YouTube Danny from H*** Travel had the best videos of the ships. My wife would tease her that she just had a crush on Danny. Which wasn’t true but became the family teasing of her every time. So when I saw Danny and his family walking around after getting off Celebrity Beyond We had to take a picture! Danny’s been sailing Royal Caribbean since he was a kid, like me. Whenever my employer wises up and kicks me to the curb maybe I should be like Danny and make cruise videos. After that excitement, my wife and I got hit in the feels, we stumble upon the same restaurant we spent the day at during our San Juan stop on our honeymoon. We had to stop again! I had some amazing empandillas and mamposteao . It was a great memory recalled, shared with the kids. We headed back to the ship around 10pm and my wife was done, jumped in the bed and was knocked out in no time, the sun, and good food made her a happy camper. The girls and I stayed up and went to the top of the ship to watch us sail away. This was both girls first time leaving a port at night, and they thought it was the coolest thing ever! We finished things up with a few drinks by the bar as we hadn't used any f our free drink coupons that day, and that's just not allowed! lol After that we headed back to the room to jump into bed as we steamed toward St. Maarten!

That still counts, I haven't been on first generation Q class either. I still say I've done them all!

No my oldest has never been. She is too cool for the teen center. lol Even when we've had her invite her friends to travel with us they usually do their own thing. She LOVED Adventure Ocean as a kid but refuses to do the Teen club. My youngest has always had some interest in Adventure Ocean, and the first time we had her go in was during the restart after the pandemic and they had to sit in one spot and couldn't leave that spot. She had to go to the bathroom and misunderstood the rules and held it for a couple hours. She has refused to go back ever since then. Another thing the pandemic screwed up!

My understanding is Royal only docks one ship at a time in Labadee. So just us, and it was empty.

Yeah studio B was where it was on Allure when we first did it. It was in the Centrum here, the teen one was in the teen club! imagine that.

Oh gosh, I'm not one to watch movies by the pool. One night the oldest and I went up to the hot tub and we started watching whatever was on, and it's was "unusual" to say the least. yelling for my daughter now to see if she remembers the name.... standby "The Fabelmans" had Michelle Williams in it from Dawson's Creek.

Really Greg? We gotta fix that! It's an amazing spot.

I forgot to add this video from Labadee. Enjoy!

Day 3 Labadee Today's the first of six days in a row of island hopping.... and the first day is the place you go to relax! I have always LOVED Labadee. It's much more perfect day for me as it's so quiet and naturally beautiful with the mountains and all the coves. It's one of my happy places. All that said I still slept in! hahaha Personality wise my wife and oldest are the fun seekers. They have always loved to go go go go. So they got up bright and early, ordered room service breakfast and got off the ship as soon as they opened the door to go ziplining. They had a ball and were so happy to do it. My wife had last done the zipline with her father, on our wedding cruise. He had to be helped up the stairs, and they may not haven't been truthful about his health conditions, but that marine loved a thrill and he and his little girl were going to do it together. Her father died not very long ago and she wanted to do it again. My daughter well she's 14 she wanted to do it for the instagram pictures. hahaha While that was going on the youngest and I were in bed. hahaha My wife being a stay at home mom likes to go go go on vacation and me working 12 hour days routinely loves to have some downtime. My youngest when allowed will lay and snuggle all day. When went to Disney and it was a fight every day to get her to leave the room. She wanted to not walk in DIsney World but lie in bed and watch all the Disney programming on TV. haha Anyway I finally got her dressed and out of the room by 10:15 or so, so not too bad. We had our beach bag, hopped off the ship and headed to Barefoot Beach. This is the beach for Suite Guests, and those who buy cabanas. I felt like I should clarify this because I guess it's changed recently. Barefoot Beach only allows Suite guests and Pinnacles to enter. However, they do put the cabanas inside for sale on the shore excursion page to anyone and so if you are not in a suite, you can get access here by purchasing a cabana here. You just can't wander in here on your own without a suite card. Jamie, the concierge, was at the entrance and greeted us with smile, vouched for us, and had someone get us settled before he came to check on us personally. Well this was heaven. Another small ship score. Think about this. Wonder holds 7,000 people and it docks here and there's space for everyone. Vision holds 2,000 people and it docks here and well it's like deserted. Especially in Barefoot Beach. There are only a handful of full suites on Vision, so Barefoot Beach was EMPTY. It was perfect. We pulled up front row beach chairs.... and there were empty ones all around us and we just soaked it up. The water has a slight chill but nothing crazy. Labadee has rocky beaches, and barefoot was no exception, so it kinda hurts your feet a bit as you're going in. Pro tip to go all the way to the right where the over the water cabanas are. Its more sandy there and much easier to wade into the water. We enjoyed out time out in the cove hanging out and soaking up the sea breeze and sun. We saw the fun seekers walk in, returning from the zip line and getting settled at our spot. They cracked me up, they could jump off a cliff, but navigating past the rocks and swimming out to us was sooooo difficult for them hahaha. Anyway they had a great time, told us all about, and we all just relaxed and enjoyed the ocean. I did notice service here was not great. There were two servers but they were rarely checking on anyone or getting anyone drinks. It was like this at coco beach club in cococay last time we were there too. I think it's the staffing thing, I dunno. Basically you had to call for them, no one just came to ask if you needed anything. They were far away from us too, so we just got our own drinks at the bar. Drinks were great. Bartender worked to keep us happy, made new and different things too. I'd walk up and say surprise me, and he'd do it. Soon it was time for lunch. Now last time I was here the buffet was awesome, steak, shrimp. Well the shrimp was still there, but no steak. I had chicken instead, both were great. The kids came back one with a hamburger and the other a hot dog. I immediately recognized that greyish grainy looking meat. It was the same hamburgers and hotdogs from Windjammer yesterday. I had not shared my opinion of them to anyone in the family. So I watched and yes, each took one tiny bite and each said it tasted "weird and gross" and ate nothing but fruit and fries. We truly LOVED out day here, the quiet peaceful cove was just amazing, and I took about 100 pictures of the same thing lol We all took turns hanging out one on one. I got lots of time with my wife and both daughters individually. The cabanas were empty a lot, there were just too many for the number of people on our ship, and since the attendants were no where to be found I ventured in a few to check them out. Kick the tires so to speak. They were very nice, a good home base on a crowded day I would imagine, or if you were with a big group. But I much rathered be in our front row beach chairs right there a stone's throw from the water. It was the perfect spot. I know RCI is thinking about toying with an all inclusive resort in Freeport and I can't wait to see how that goes, because honestly I would gladly spend 3-4 nights in Labadee. It was just a great setting. No one does private islands like Royal Caribbean. My youngest doesn't make new friends easily. She's very shy, it's one reason she hates Adventure Ocean but we were in such a small group here there were two other families with kids and a little girl her age. They started playing together and she left us entirely for her new friend. That's how my oldest is. So it warmed all of our hearts to watch her connect and have fun with someone her age. We wound up being the last two families there at the beach. It was a full and amazing day in Labadee and the trip was made right there.You can't have that kind of experience on the big ships, not at all, and man right then I proudly announced my wife was right about being team small ship. Having that island with so few people was just wonderful. We headed back to the ship, and my wife pointed out that the ship's beach towels were dirty. I looked at a few and she was right. Yikes. old stains. Not the Royal I know. I pointed it out to the staff when we returned them, hoping they would throw them away. Since we stayed at the beach so late, and we had early seating for dinner, if we were going to go to the dining room again, now was the time. My wife and oldest said no, they weren't hungry. My youngest was. I was eager to give this another whirl. I mean the fried chicken meal was bad, no question, but even under the old menu that wasn't my favorite dish. Anyone's entitled to a bad night, I really wanted to experience it again. So, off little one and I went for a date night in the dining room. We arrived to find new servers. Apparently, "due to guest feedback" the servers in the dining room all got rearranged. I'm guessing something from surveys from previous cruises I dunno. So new servers, and they were just lovely. So kind and helpful. It was Italian night, and when I say Odyssey of the Seas Giovanni's is like some of the best Italian food I ever had (well the ship was in Italy then lol) My hopes were high for a good meal. Arancini for the first course was perfectly prepared. It was an excellent start. I was so happy. I followed it up with chicken parm, and this was a total disappointment. Portion size was much better, but I truly felt like I was eating spaghetti with no salt, and crushed canned tomatoes with a fried chicken breast you'd get for lunch in windajmmer. It was very low taste, and cheap feeling food. I sent it back, and asked for lasagna instead. I'm a huge lasagna lover and this came out and I was much happier. Portion size again was better than the fried chicken, the meat had some flavor, and it worked. I will say it didn't taste like a traditional lasagna. It was almost as if the tomato sauce was very very watered down and poorly seasoned. But the meat was properly seasoned, so it made up for it. I think Vision needs some help in the flavor seasoning department. Now.... I will admit, I'm from New Orleans, so flavor is huge for me, I expect my food to be alive with spice. So my taste buds may be different. But in nearly 40 RCI cruises I have never found the food to be overly bland, and everything I've eaten in the dining room so far was, fried chicken, chicken parm, and now the lasagna. Oddly enough, all the first courses were good. And so was my tiramisu dessert. Dining room was definitely an improvement tonight. We went from an F to a C+; the great servers we had made a difference too. You can excuse poor food a bit more when you're taken care of very well, and we were. After dinner, we caught up with the other half of the family for drinks. It's always funny watching the little one grow up. She went to the bar on her own to get her drink and I watched her laughing and interacting with the staff and it just made me smile. Tonight was one of our new favorites Royal has introduced recently, SILENT DISCO. I don't know what it is, but there's something so fun about everyone jamming out to tunes... with headphones on. If you haven't done this, the headphones have two channels a green and a blue. You can switch between the two and rock out to one of the two channels of music. What's so funny is you'll be dancing to one song and having an absolute ball and then notice have the room is doing the YMCA, and you switch over to the other channel and catch up with them. We did this for the first time on Allure right after the pandemic and now we never miss it. We want to buy a set for home! I think one the the best things about it, it brings our youth back to us. My wife and I have declared ourselves too old to go to the adult "club" or disco on the ship, We're not staying up late and going drink and dance with all the 20 somethings. But this.... at 10pm in the lobby with everyone we can do. It brings me back to my college days of just being on the dance floor all night because the DJ keep the good music going. Our kids sat in the corner and laughed at us, but that just made us go faster. Doing this right in the main centrum of the ship is also just a fun small ship score. We saw so many people walking back to their cabins stopping and peering over the balcony watching. Because lets face it you have the headphones on so there's no music playing to bother others, but you head it in your head and so well.... you start singing, or let out a wooo! to Michael Jackson's thriller, so it's fun for all. Great multi generational fun. I did promise the little one a game of shuffleboard. Talk about a change in activity! But that's the beauty of cruising. I pride myself in being a shuffleboard king, but she shipped my butt and was so tickled with herself doing it. It was a perfect bonding night as we sailed on past the Dominican Republic, making our way to San Juan tomorrow afternoon! v

Funny thing about Cabin 8000 Was all week it seemed to confuse the crew. Your seapass only lists the last three numbers of your room number . So ours said 000 and everyone thought it was a mistake and would always make a face when they looked at it. When we would say our room is 8000 we got similar funny looks. I think it was the captains cabin, and got transitioned into a suite.