Bead Pirate

I agree with the $1,000 Euro suggestion above ...

You will be better off on the big ships with the music hall / dazzles as they tend to have better house bands (thinking 141 and CenterPoint for example). Royal has stopped bringing in the outside cover bands (AC/DC, Beatles, etc.) the last few months. Headliners are hit and miss so you kind of roll the dice in this area. Smaller ships tend to have a little less quality in terms of entertainment in my opinion.

Wave heights on Wednesday...

Confidence remains high in the track for Lee, with almost no changemade to the NHC track forecast. Lee should continue movingwest-northwestward along the southern edge of the subtropical ridgefor the next 5 days. The ridge is forecast to gradually weaken byearly next week, causing Lee to slow down. This track should keepthe core of Lee and its damaging winds north of the Leeward Islands.There is uncertainty in any northward turn of Lee beginning early next week, but it is too soon to speculate about specific potential impacts a week or more out.

First to act will get the coveted port spots. I read this afternoon that Disney is moving a cruise to Mexico ports (as i suspect several others will as well). Lee is a big storm with an extremely wide wind field. Would not be great to miss it by 150 miles and still have 80 MPH winds on your excursion.

I only book on the 8th deck on Lady G... Best chance for internet success... Getting on Saturday.

FYI, on Mariner now and will be doing a B2B including your cruise (love Bermuda). We have been cruising a lot lately and (by comparison) and a lot less kids on this one than were on the previous 4 cruises over the last 6 weeks. I have also noticed as this week has progressed more and more masks are coming out on the general population. The occasional crew members and performers are going "missing" as well. Might want to bring a extra mask or two...

Download the movies... RCL has a great channel that will teach you the "washy washy" song. Three sports channels will get you soccer, cricket and a general sports/red bull tv. A couple of BBC at sea channels (the mid-wife show is on about 7 times a day) FOX News, MSNBC News, CNN news Two re-run movie channels (hit or miss) An estimated 13 channels that will inform you about ship activities, shopping, shore excursions, dining venues, safety shipboard, and future cruises.

I'm in on paying for the pizza. $5 bucks and order what you want. Will stop all of the kids from ordering 8 slices, eating 3 and leaving 5 on the table...

Masters here... Just off of Harmony Saturday. The certificate for a Gran Suite did not include any ICON dates. It did have a UTOPIA offering, however.

We get to Coco Cay 2 or 3 times a month. There are trams to drive you around and the food is worth exploring (all covered from sun). The pool is beautiful, but it can be quite warm there... Some alternatives are to stay on the ship and enjoy your balcony or the shade on the pool deck and of course the casino is open the entire time we are in Coco Cay. A word of advice, if you choose to stay on the ship and have lunch on your balcony or on the pool deck the seagulls there are well adapted at high diving and stealing your sandwich, etc. at speeds you will not believe 🙂

I agree with the statements above. We cruise the Wonder about every three weeks and have gotten to know a bunch of the crew and entertainers. The one thing I will caution is that the Wonder has not had a Coast Guard Inspection since 11/22 (she got 100% by the way). The staff has been expecting a new one for a couple of months now... She is long overdue for another and if any of us are booked on her when that happens you can figure no one gets on until 11:30 or noon...

Christmas and New Years cruises have "special" dinners (read higher cost) and they tend to limit specialty dining locations. As a result, the unlimited dining package is posted later (closer to cruise) and will include restrictions noy allowing UDP on certain nights at certain venues.

Changes are indeed in the works for the program, we will see the details soon...

We got the notice on 6/28 that the Island would be closed, the various cruise changes (some cancelled, some extended) and how our cruise would be impacted (woohoo 4 more nights in yacht club). They asked us to confirm, which we did at once. Got confirmation e-mail with new dates (extended) today (6/29). Very happy with the change!!!

Barge is moving away from recovery area, looks like they have 5 pieces of the ship on deck...

How long to get the current passengers off, clean rooms/ship and begin boarding? I am thinking a 9:00 PM sail away?

Verified... MSC will be first of the cruise ships allowed in (pilot boarding at 15:00)

Looks like 2 pieces of hull are now recovered. Miami Port Authority is not providing any estimates of the cut reopening time.

First piece of salvaged boat is up...

The crane that will lift out the sunken ship is on standby until the divers are out of the water. A lot going on with Miami Beach police channels right now. There is even an auto accident (serious) on one of the draw bridges and it cannot be opened...

More is starting to come out, maybe a lack of boating experience...

Listening to VHF, sounds like Coast Guard and Marina are getting a little "feed up" with all of the private boats trying to find a way around the blockade...

Did this in Barcelona and it was expensive (and the best money we ever spent on an excursion). They limit it to 8 because there are also 4 chefs with you (one carries a bag of money, one who does nothing but fish mongering, one who does nothing but meat purchases and of course your head chef). The market (all though huge) has many booths close to each other and isles are small. I would think it would be hard to keep a larger party on track as this is a business trip for the chefs. They are actually buying food and provisions for the ship, so every booth has a sample plate available for the chefs (and you) to taste. Chef spent about $90K on the excursion and we were treated like royalty. When we got back to the ship and the parcels were delivered, the same four chefs prepared a lunch right in front of the eight of us with wine pairings (very intimate). The market in Barcelona is unbelievable in its size (I think it was St. Marks) and the offerings of meats and seafood is unequaled. We tasted some of the best Ibérica ham ever, and the oysters are quite different (in a yummy way) from the states. Also found a tasty little shellfish that is similar to a snail. It clings to the rocks on the cliffs where the waves splash up. To harvest they drop down a rope and pick them up between waves crashing in. Expensive little things, but the most delicious bite I have ever had!!! Spend the money if you have a chance to go... We are going to repeat the day in October (with Royal this time)...

Our 14 night package came in at $1,679.72 (2 people) ...