DragonOfTheSeas

We are pulling into Port Canaveral now woo hoo! there is a campground right at the entrance to Port Canaveral, and a beach nearby.

We actually have been fairly pleased. People have not been rude and we have been able to get on and off the elevator. Our tactic is to push the button in the direction we want to go, but if the first elevator comes and I can’t get on because many times, the elevators are so full that one person cannot even get on let alone walker. Then we take the very next elevator that comes with space going up or down and we ride it until we can get to our floor. Before we started doing that. We sometimes have three or four elevators pass a spot before we can get on. That was a little frustrating. DD and I find that the elevators are very slow anywa, even if we’re just trying to ride it as a single rider. Fo the last three days—at least one and sometimes two elevators have been out of service of the group near us.

I am standing in our junior suite cabin, looking into the hallway, and the door to the deck eight is directly in front of me. You can see the lock door to the right, and our daughter’s door to the left. This is working perfectly for us plenty of privacy, but also plenty of space for both of us. We keep the door propped open like this whenever we’re all in the cabin and closed when we are gone or sleeping. It is a narrow hallway, DH walker just fits through.

Sorry, I guess I wasn’t clear. I did say here are the lunch items that were on the brunch menu. There were ample breakfast items, French toast, eggs, Benedict, pancakes, eggs, etc. I didn’t post those because we were going to use it as our lunch

We will give it a try one day. Thanks

Yes, the time is fine--it was just a surprise.

In the summer of 2022 the airline flights to Europe were in a turmoil. There were strikes for SAS [months long] and Lufthansa [just our flight day]. Many passengers had flights cancelled. Ours United flight was, too about a month before our Baltic cruise leaving Stockholm. We booked it through Air2Sea. They told us be patient and we would get a flight. . . . and we did. They gave us the United business class with the lay flat seats. Like you, I can't sleep on planes and I didn't then either. The seats were OK. But DH and I agreed it would not have been worth the money to purchase the upgrade.

We always select My Time Dining for our cruises. I made reservations for dinner each night at 7pm when it opened. We can always change individual days if we need to. My reservations appear in my calendar on the app. However, when we got to the dining room at 7pm last night they told us we actually had a fixed dining seating at 6:30pm. Sure enough, that was listed at the bottom of the sea pass. I had checked the sea pass when I got it to see the muster station # and to make sure the name and cabin were correct--but I ignored the rest. Oops! I have no problem with the time or having a fixed seating, It is a little less flexible, but it will not make or break our cruise. I double checked my cruise invoice, and it says My Time Dining. [a first world problem] HaHaHa However, they make such a big deal about their app. Everything is accessed from the app and we are told to check the app every time I turn around. Well, I did! But it was not correct. I felt badly for our wait staff that we were 30 minutes late for dinner. The waiter seemed very nice. We had very quick service. He told us that today [1st sea day] would be a brunch in the American Icon restaurant beginning at 8:30am. He said the lines will be long and the service will be slow due to the large numbers. He recommended we go to the Solarium Bistro for breakfast. We took his suggestion. The solarium bistro was a small version of the windjammer. It had all of the typical American items--even an omelet station. Around noon we decided to catch the end of the brunch hours [8:30am-12:30pm] for lunch. We prefer to be seated and served for our meals. It just makes it easier. Here are the lunch items on the brunch menu:

Our happy place today was the solarium. There were plenty of seats when we first arrived but it’s getting kind of busy now. Nice and warm and we’re sitting on the sunny side. Compare those pictures to this picture of the indoor family pool.

It’s a little rough today. But the captain announced that it would be improving during the afternoon. In his noon briefing, he said we were off the coast of Cape, Lookout, North Carolina. There are lots of whitecaps and a definite, rolling motion. But is not enough to cause us a problem.

One of the busiest places on the pool deck was this drink stand. but the most popular place hands-down was the soft, serve ice cream I counted 47 people in line. 🙄

Speaking of cabins. Here are our cabins. We hoped to open our JS door and create a small apartment for the three of us. that is working very well. The cabin attendant let us use his door stop. We close all the doors when we leave and at night. However, all of the other time our door is open. This would work well for a family. There is another door that opens onto the hall. There is a key slot on that door. It can connect to make the "family suite larger." but the attendant needs to unlock this door with his key. So, they can not open the door to our hall on this cruise. Here is our cabin Here is the studio. It is very "cozy." 😉 It has a virtual balcony--which is a nice feature.

Well, I am back. I have a couple of things from yesterday to post. The Anthem of the Seas is a large ship. DD and I explored the various public decks to orient ourselves. A sign says just under 3 laps of the track on deck 15 is a mile. I am sure we did the equivalent of that in our travels. My favorite spaces were the solarium and Two 70. One of the most crowded areas and the spot I will stay away from way the family indoor pool. Another popular spot was the Seaplex with the bumper cars. The line wrapped around each side and down the hallway. Before dinner DH and I went to Two70 for drinks and to listen to Caribbean Vibes. They are a pretty good group—but way too loud. When they began my Apple watch alerted me that the sound level was above 90 decibels and can lead to temporary hearing loss. HaHaHa 🤣 After a few songs we took our drinks back to the cabin and watched March Madness.

This is all good we’re on board. I’ve already had my first adult beverage. The sun is shining.

Our family has always thought. We were a little crazy to cruise a couple times a year, which is all we really do. But sometimes those have been back to back. Our son and his family cruised for the first time last October and they loved it. So I’m sure they’re going to do it again probably not for another year or so because they have young children that are involved in a lot of activities. But DD has gotten into the empty nest stage. So we hope she gets the cruising bug.

There was all sorts of craziness in the roadway, trying to get in. People who were trying to get out we’re walking down the road to try to meet their ride. And others were getting out of rideshare and walking to the terminal for a pretty good distance. Once we got on the ship it was good. DH had wheelchair assistance to get on the ship. Our staff member took us right to our muster station. we got a board at 12:05 PM. Our check-in time was 1130 and we have gotten our Uber and we should’ve been here by 11 o’clock. not complaining just giving you an idea of what timeframe

That’s good to hear. Thank you.

We are stuck in traffic about 1/2 mile from the terminal. Someone has posted on Facebook that the garage is not open yet. But we are seeing a few cars leaving so that’s good. our check in time is 11:30 and we were going to get here plenty early. But we might be right on time.

We have an unusual combination of cabins. DD is in a solo cabin and we are in a large balcony JS. We think the solo has a virtual balcony--but, not sure about that. The two cabins open onto a small hallway that opens onto the main deck. So, that seems kind of private. We hope to open the doors and make it like a small apartment during the day. [8630 and 8632] However, we will see if this works out. I have watched the YouTube videos and it does not look like 8628 opens onto the same hallway. That would mess up our plans. 😉

Yowza! DH and I took a cruise from Baltimore once that came back to snow in March. We were lucky. Our DD dropped us off and picked us up. The port there is just off the interstates and the roads were clear. However, those that parked had to clear the car.

That is great! There is always room for two perspectives.

This is the actual itinerary. 😊 We have been to each of these ports, so we know what to expect. At Port Canaveral we have booked the Ron Jon shuttle. This takes us to Cocoa Beach. I was able to book this on Black Friday for ~$15/pp. Even with 3 people it is not that much more than RT Uber. YMMV This is a picture of Shepard Park. the bus drops off a parking lot just across the street from the park--which is really just a small square with a nice bath house. The small gray tent at the beach entrance is where you rent chairs/umbrellas. There is a restaurant beside the park and a 7-Eleven beside the bus parking. We have found this to be a very convenient location and not much parking. At Cocoa Cay we have day passes to Hideaway Beach. I originally bought the for $75 each on the day the opened. However, the priced dropped twice since then and we got them for ~$29. That seemed like a good price for an adults only area with a heated pool. Woo Hoo! perfect-day-map-marketing-reveal.pdf I will likely just get off and walk around the new port area in Nassau. It is not one of my favorite port. However, I want to see the improvements.

We were going to try to get a reservation for today in port. That us a great view!

Time for breakfast

I noticed this on the Bayonne cruise terminal site. It is clearly copied from the RCL site, and I have seen a similar mistake for other cruises. One thing about royal Caribbean their IT department needs some work. I bet you did not realize just how far this cruise travels. 😀🤣