John&LaLa Live B2B from Symphony 10/26 and 11/2, Great Expectations 🎂

[John&LaLa]

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

 

And just like that, it's the last day. So much to do, so much to see. 

Of course the day begins with the slightly irritating theme song. 

Luckily I only heard it once. 

 

Our mission was lunch at the Snack Shack, then hang out at Oasis pool.

We ended up only doing the Snack Shack, we were hot, Laura wanted a nap.

We did have a nice walk, I ended the day with 14,488 steps. 

 

Off we go

 

Our first stop, the sand art

 

Pretty good job, and it was finished. Last year they were still working on it

 

We took the long way to Snack Shack

Found out later they would do hoverboard show here

 

Our objective. We just split one, it was very good.  We did, however, have to fight off some very aggressive chickens.🐔

One actually jumped on the table and stole some fries right out of the basket.🍟

 

Like I said, we were hot, so headed back to Symphony

 

It was a pretty day

 

I95 and air conditioning

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by John&LaLa

[bobmacliberty]

I just got back from the cruise after the President's cruise on Symphony and it STILL took me a while to catch up on this thread.  Still going strong.  Thanks John for such a great review.  Symphony had the best entertainment yet on a Royal ship.  We really enjoyed Hiro.  1977 was easily the best ice show that we've seen (drones, ice projections, a real storyline that made sense, and great performers).  Flight was awesome.  Hairspray was a little slow at parts (it's no CATS 😁) but the cast was VERY talented.  

[jagsfan]

Two places I’ve always wanted to explore. I95 on a cruise ship and underground at Disney World. 

[John&LaLa]

Let's get wet

 

With Laura napping, I decided to go visit every pool, hot tub, and slide I could over the next two hours.

I made one mistake though, I should have done Abyss first.

But it wasn't open, so that was pretty much the one thing I forgot to do this trip.

 

Pretty much everywhere I plan to go

 

First up, Sports Pool.

On Harmony, this is adults only since she does not have a solarium pool.

This pool is actually to deep for me to get a good rhythm when I walk laps

 

Main Pool with slides in the background.

This pool is not as deep as the other two. 

2 inches makes a big difference in pool depth, as well as other things. 😉

I ended up doing blue first, green second, and yellow last.

They were all fun. Luckily there were no lines

 

Rules, we don't need no stinking rules.

Apparently no pets are allowed. Sorry Bella

 

I finally got to do the toilet bowl slide.

I liked it, made it around the bowl twice, but still had to scoot into the hole

 

Solarium pool is actually down a bit from 15

It's really not as big as the cantilevered hot tubs

 

It does have a nice view.

I never got a chance to check out the view from below. 

The acrylic wall is kinda creepy

 

Beach pool. The guy reading a book is one of the Suite peeps from Gold Night

No need for umbrellas today

 

Cantilevered hot tub. This sculpture changes shapes as you look at it from different angles. Pretty cool

 

These are the easiest to operate pool deck windows you will ever see.

Just squeeze handle and slide

 

The view from the Abyss

 

So, I did all the water slides, the 4 pools and one of the big hot tubs. It was a good afternoon.

 

 

[RFerrington]

On 11/14/2019 at 10:41 PM, John&LaLa said:

Phoenix - Straight from Las Vegas

http://phoenixclassicrockband.com/

They were really good

Glad to hear that they are good.  Just heard from my Genie that they will be playing on our Dec 1 Oasis cruise.

 

Cant wait to have a good band play in the new Music Hall.

 

[John&LaLa]

22 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

I just got back from the cruise after the President's cruise on Symphony and it STILL took me a while to catch up on this thread.  Still going strong.  Thanks John for such a great review.  Symphony had the best entertainment yet on a Royal ship.  We really enjoyed Hiro.  1977 was easily the best ice show that we've seen (drones, ice projections, a real storyline that made sense, and great performers).  Flight was awesome.  Hairspray was a little slow at parts (it's no CATS 😁) but the cast was VERY talented.  

 

Hairspray had it's moments, but we sat up front, and the music overpowered the lyrics. I meant to go back the 2nd week, but could never fit it in. 

 

Here's a random thought. Mama Mia is a great story, musical, and just songs in general, but when we saw it on Allure, the cast was awful. We saw it last June, I'm hoping it's better in March

[John&LaLa]

20 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

Two places I’ve always wanted to explore. I95 on a cruise ship and underground at Disney World. 

 

The All Access tour should go down there. You should try and book it onboard at a discount.

[Domino D]

13 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Meal with an Officer - Day 6 at sea

This looks interesting and fun (but that could just be your pictures making seem that way), but honestly I'm not sure I wouldn't rather a meal with Super Mario.  I have to believe there are stories to be heard.

[Domino D]

2 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Speaking of Crystal Blocks.

I mentioned this on the Crystal block thread, but I'll share it here as well.

 

The image in the Symphony block is way different than the other three.

I've noticed it before, but thought it might be the way the JPEG is rendered.

It's not. The proportions are way off. It's like someone squeezed it Bow to Stern

 

Harmony block looks pretty much the same as Oasis and Allure except for the added slides

 

Symphony is very cartoonish.  It does have a lot of detail, though.

 

Oasis in real life, looks very similar to the Harmony block

 

I have to say, it looks like wen they did Harmony, they just said "Eh, just Oasis, it's close enough.  Symphony block certain makes it seem bigger, no? Or in Canadian "Seems bigger, eh?"

 

Edit:  I take it back, you can see the Abyss if you zoom it.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Domino D

[Domino D]

15 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

This was definitely the day I drank the most🍺🍹

Well, as far as you know.  Sometimes the day a person drinks the most is not the day they remember the clearest.  Or did Laura tell you "Oh no it this day".  Then I remove my comment.

[bobmacliberty]

8 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

It does have a nice view.

I never got a chance to check out the view from below. 

The acrylic wall is kinda creepy

 

That acrylic wall acts a little like a magnifying glass when looking at it from below.  As we walked by, there was a woman wearing a very high cut bikini bottom right against the wall and facing away from us.  I wonder if she knew what she looked like from the lower Solarium deck? 🌕

[jagsfan]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

The All Access tour should go down there. You should try and book it onboard at a discount.

Good idea! Thanks.

[John&LaLa]

Well that pretty well covers the cruise since I already went over Hall & Oates and the fireworks.

 

We did get one final gift. A gold pin and a commemorative certificate.

 

I did have to go down to Deck 6 to pick up our photos from gold night and the embarcation picture that we took on day 6.

The line was awful, and to top it off our embarcation photo wasn't done yet. They said they would deliver it before midnight.

We got lucky and it did, others reported less success.

 

Our gold pin. We got two, so I think I know who I will give this to. 

 

I'm thinking it should have said Congratulations on Surviving😉

 

The picture line around 9pm

 

Not exactly boarding attire, but hey, it was free

 

Gold Party

 

Central Park on the way to Dinner with Molly

 

What 250+ Pinnacle members look like. Lots of fun people for the most part

[John&LaLa]

Day 8 - All good things must come to an end

 

We were supposed to meet in Bolero's around 7:30 to be escorted off.

Went to SL for one last Espresso

Turns out we left from there around 7:15

One of the easiest departures ever.

The only thing that could have made it easier is an escalator like T1 in PC has

 

My number finally hit in rental car roulette. Infinity Q70

 

She has a real trunk

 

And tons of bells and whistles

Traffic was good for the most part, but it rained almost the entire way

 

And our first food post cruise. Glad it was a Saturday😉

 

Somehow Laura managed to drink all 6 bottles of Beringers. Probably because we only did lunch in CK once and rarely went to SL. They didn't want us up there, and I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, I'm sure tips suffered because of that.

[Cruise a holic]

17 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

VISA Tropical Neon Night - Solarium Bar

 

Only one VISA event this year. Last year there were 4. 😥

 

Started at 5:30 and it was crowded. 

 

It was pretty, though

 

This was definitely the day I drank the most🍺🍹

Several of the cocktails had Red Bull in them

 

I probably should have skipped this coconut water thing.

 

Lots of food and special cocktails.

 

Ice Sculptors, LED swag, etc.

 

I'm melting

 

We brought the glow sticks, the rings, and the wand.

 

I gave away some glow sticks to folks who got there late, and I gave some of the VISA LED's to kids on promenade later

 

We didn't stay that long, wanted to see Ice show again

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Visa Event?  We have a Visa card or is it necessary to have some status with Visa?  Our primary credit card is American express.

 

Thanks

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

Somehow Laura managed to drink all 6 bottles of Beringers.

At least it had a cork and not twist off. 
 

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

Probably because we only did lunch in CK once and rarely went to SL. They didn't want us up there,

I did a double quote, with no quoted pictures, watch out now. Please explain about the CK/SL setup for 50th Cruise. Why would they not want you up there?

Edited November 17, 2019 by Milwaukee Eight

[Domino D]

4 hours ago, jagsfan said:

Two places I’ve always wanted to explore. I95 on a cruise ship and underground at Disney World. 

Have never done the Ship Tour, but have been in the Disney Tunnels.

[Domino D]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

Day 8 - All good things must come to an end

 

My number finally hit in rental car roulette. Infinity Q70

 

And our first food post cruise. Glad it was a Saturday😉

 

So you took the Infinity Q70 to Chic Fil A.  Surprised the navigation program would even let you do that.  I would think it would re-direct you something to more upscale.  Especially if It knew you were Platinum.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Domino D

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

What is the Visa Event?  We have a Visa card or is it necessary to have some status with Visa?  Our primary credit card is American express.

 

Thanks

 

No status, just had to have one. There was a mark on your seapass designating you as having one.

I posted the picture earlier

FWIW, only US citizens can have one is my understanding. 

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

 Please explain about the CK/SL setup for 50th Cruise. Why would they not want you up there?

 

It is my understanding that the large amount of Pins impacted the suite experience last year.

I agree. 

 

FWIW, I never felt unwelcome in the SL. It's just that since there were other places to go, I didn't feel like going there very often

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Somehow Laura managed to drink all 6 bottles of Beringers. Probably because we only did lunch in CK once and rarely went to SL. They didn't want us up there, and I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, I'm sure tips suffered because of that.

 

Talked with Lucian and Sam at the SL bar last week.  They said that the SL was definitely MORE crowded last week.  Spreading the Pins to other happy hour locations during the President's cruise must have helped with the SL crowds (and impacted their tips 😁).

[Milwaukee Eight]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

 

It is my understanding that the large amount of Pins impacted the suite experience last year.

I agree. 

 

FWIW, I never felt unwelcome in the SL. It's just that since there were other places to go, I didn't feel like going there very often

Did they offer 11-11 Beer and Wine to Pins in other locations? 

[Domino D]

5 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

What 250+ Pinnacle members look like. Lots of fun people for the most part

Missed this earlier.  John, where was this taken?  And if i may, what do you call a group of Pinnacles?  Is it a Pride of Pinnacles?  A Gaggle?  A Coven?

[gagirl7143]

6 minutes ago, Domino D said:

Missed this earlier.  John, where was this taken?  And if i may, what do you call a group of Pinnacles?  Is it a Pride of Pinnacles?  A Gaggle?  A Coven?

A group of pinnacles over 50 in number is a nightmare!🤪🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[HBE4]

25 minutes ago, Domino D said:

Missed this earlier.  John, where was this taken?  And if i may, what do you call a group of Pinnacles?  Is it a Pride of Pinnacles?  A Gaggle?  A Coven?

 

Coven works. So does A Mob,  a Clan?  Maybe a Pack? 🤣

 

Bevy or Posse works as well. 😁

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by HBE4