Live on Odyssey - January 29, 2022 - 8 Night Southern Caribbean 🚢

[John&LaLa]

It's been 9+ years since we've set foot on a new class of Royal Caribbean ship. Looking forward to it. So much to see I'm told.

 

Unfortunately I have to drive to Pt Everglades

 

But hey, it's a fun itinerary. ABC light

[John&LaLa]

We will be staying in one of the two Owners Suites, so that's a big plus

 

Great location near the aft elevators

 

541 sqft should be enough room for both of us. Nice balcony as well

Got an early check in as well. Early bird gets the worm

[Sunshine3601]

Nice itinerary.  Love Aruba and Curacoa.  Always seem to have perfect weather.  Should be a great cruise.

When we are in Aruba at night time we like dinner and drinks at West Deck.  Easy taxi ride from the port.  Beautiful spot to watch sunset.  

Another nice spot for dinner and drinks and beautiful sunsets is the italian restaurant near California Lighthouse.  

[Sunshine3601]

Sounds like a great cabin and perfect location🤩

[John&LaLa]

Full disclosure on this suite, though. Scored a sweet deal during the heady days of Lift and Shift back in the  summer of 2020. We booked Empress with the expectation of shifting it immediately. Blame the game, not the player. All in at just over 3 grand. Can't beat that.

 

BTW, we also did the same thing for our Symphony cruise in March. 

[John&LaLa]

I was also able to transfer my Visa OBC from our cancelled Harmony TA to this cruise. 

 

I doubt I'll see any of it, as Laura will likely enjoy it in the Casino.

 

I missed my chance to spend it in the planner though.

 

Looking forward to testing all the room controls from my app. Pretty sure it's not voice controlled like I'm used to with Alexa

 

And of course we get free WiFi as a suite perk. I'm hoping for two logins as our Pinnacle perk

 

[John&LaLa]

Got our negative test results from Walgreens in less than an hour.

 

Laura was on edge as our neighbors tested positive this morning for their cruise on Saturday.

 

I guess someone is smiling on us

[OACAggie]

7 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

Full disclosure on this suite, though. Scored a sweet deal during the heady days of Lift and Shift back in the  summer of 2020. We booked Empress with the expectation of shifting it immediately. Blame the game, not the player. All in at just over 3 grand. Can't beat that.

 

BTW, we also did the same thing for our Symphony cruise in March. 

Smart TA I guess😉
Which Symphony cruise in March? We are on March 12…L&S from Empress as well. I get to meet @Ourusualbeach, Will I get to meet you and LaLa?

[erinsmom03]

Looking forward to the trip report!

[John&LaLa]

Got our Concierge letter on Saturday and booked our times in CK. We really don't use it much for dinner, so I asked Mohamed to change our MTD reservation to First Seating. No problem.

 

He also got our reservations for NorthStar and IFly. Suite life is indeed sweet

 

BTW, I made a little chart using the app to figure out when we wanted CK, MDR, and then booked Izumi on a night we didn't like the std offerings. 

 

Obviously these are not full menus, but little reminders. We kinda know the overall menus, but the order varies

 

 

Izumi is day 3

 

Leaving day 5 open in case we're out late in Aruba

 

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, OACAggie said:

Smart TA I guess😉
Which Symphony cruise in March? We are on March 12…L&S from Empress as well. I get to meet @Ourusualbeach, Will I get to meet you and LaLa?

 

We're on the 5th, sorry we won't meet.

Ken is on B2B, so we both get to see him I guess.

[John&LaLa]

Thanks to this lovely map from @twangster looks like we are in MDR for muster

 

I'll try and scope out our dining table location when we show up. Kill two birds with one stone

[John&LaLa]

That's it for pre cruise. 

 

We drop Bell off at the beach tomorrow. Going to stay and have early dinner, hopefully watch a SpaceX launch, and then drive to Ft Lauderdale Saturday morning. Parking at the pier.

 

Thanks for coming along

[jonj]

Hope to meet you onboard. We are in a GS 

[John&LaLa]

29 minutes ago, jonj said:

Hope to meet you onboard. We are in a GS 

 

I'm looking forward to visiting the SL. See you there

[ticketsunlimited]

JOHN, we are right across the stairwell from you in the GS on 9.

We will say hi to you in the suite lounge Saturday night. Definitely a different feel in the lounge from Oasis class without CC attached but we love it. Almost like having your own 270 for drinks. Look forward to meeting you and Laura.  Dan

[TwinMamainMN]

We are doing the same cruise on Feb. 26th. I can't wait. I hope you have an amazing time!

[John&LaLa]

4 minutes ago, ticketsunlimited said:

JOHN, we are right across the stairwell from you in the GS on 9.

We will say hi to you in the suite lounge Saturday night. Definitely a different feel in the lounge from Oasis class without CC attached but we love it. Almost like having your own 270 for drinks. Look forward to meeting you and Laura.  Dan

 

I bid on a STAR Suite, probably aint happenin.

 

But that's fine, the OS looks awesome.

 

See you Saturday

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, TwinMamainMN said:

We are doing the same cruise on Feb. 26th. I can't wait. I hope you have an amazing time!

 

@twangster has definitely given us a great preview

[Flamingo33]

See you there! But we are only in a Jr. Suite...still excited to sail in 2 days!

 

[John&LaLa]

Oh, I forgot one thing. 32 C&A points puts us over the 1400 mark, so we should be getting a Milestone award at Top Tier party. 

 

Laura is excited because we got our Pinnacle recognition with Captain Per, so it will be nice to have him present this one.

 

This was us 5 years ago on Harmony

 

And I just may have that same shirt packed.🤣🤣

[Ourusualbeach]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

We will be staying in one of the two Owners Suites, so that's a big plus

 

Great location near the aft elevators

 

541 sqft should be enough room for both of us. Nice balcony as well

Got an early check in as well. Early bird gets the worm

Nice room.  Took a tour of 9234 when I was on her in November.  Enjoy!

[Ocean Boy]

I'll be interested in what you think of the ship.

[John&LaLa]

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

I'll be interested in what you think of the ship.

 

I'll likely be lost for a couple days. 

 

Hopefully will get my bearings when we stop in Nassau on Sunday

[BonTexasNY]

1 hour ago, John&LaLa said:

Full disclosure on this suite, though. Scored a sweet deal during the heady days of Lift and Shift back in the  summer of 2020. We booked Empress with the expectation of shifting it immediately. Blame the game, not the player. All in at just over 3 grand. Can't beat that.

 

BTW, we also did the same thing for our Symphony cruise in March. 

I'm looking forward to reading all about your adventures and, seeing some of your awesome photos.

You sure got a great deal on your cabin.  Well done,  👍