🚢 SYMPHONY LIVE -12/16-12/24 🚢 She’s sort of like a song. 🚢

[Ocean Boy]

6 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

I've often thought that.  🙄

 

I have severe to profound hearing loss.  I've been in some of the lounges, turned off my hearing aids, and the music was still too loud at times.  ☹️

This is one of the reasons why I always liked the Champagne Lounge. There was no loud music and you could have a conversation without having to yell or strain to hear. I can also remember some ice shows when it was painful to be in Studio B.

[h20skibum]

A daily position report for @harryfat1   
 

Only sailing at 17.7 knots this morning. 
 

[h20skibum]

Maybe the slow speed is because Daryl is driving

 

 

 

[Dan83]

24 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Maybe the slow speed is because Daryl is driving

 

 

 

I’ll have to push through a bad hangover, but my main goal is to find Daryl today. 
 

[#55worktoplay]

10 hours ago, h20skibum said:

We went to Private Stock Headliner Showtime in the theatre.  They were a good band, but way, way too loud.  We were all the way in the back of the balcony, and I was still getting noise level notifications. 

 

When it hit 101 db, we were already on our way out the door.  A lot of others left too, and I think it was because of the noise level.  Don’t know why Royal doesn’t keep the volume levels lower.  Maybe they have stock in hearing aid companies. 

 

I had to leave a water show on one of the ships once it was very loud and bumping and thumping music. I couldn’t stand it more than 5 minutes. 

[Dan83]

10 hours ago, h20skibum said:
When it hit 101 db, we were already on our way out the door.  A lot of others left too, and I think it was because of the noise level.  Don’t know why Royal doesn’t keep the volume levels lower.  Maybe they have stock in hearing aid companies. 

 

I had to leave also. They were very good. But not worth hearing loss. 

Since I’d already burned through my 4 vouchers, I was just going to catch an elevator and go back to the cabin for the night. 

I picked the right elevator. This guy is good. Crazy talented. I stayed on another 10 minutes until a supervisor came and moved him to the boardwalk. 

So we had to follow him there. 

And then the alcohol started making the decisions for the rest of the night. 

[harryfat1]

17 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

A daily position report for @harryfat1   
 

Only sailing at 17.7 knots this morning. 
 

Looks like you guys are consistently sailing at 18 knots.

 

We just landed at FLL on a miserable red eye flight so we are on the same time zone now.

 

[Dan83]

It started with a holiday pour at the main dining room. 

I had enchilada.  It was not bad to nearly delicious. 

Salmon for the wife. 

Caramel Flan and apple cobbler were very tasty. 

[Dan83]

After we followed the piano player to the boardwalk, there was a carousel ride and somehow we got into the Hiro show. My memory is fuzzy after this and the pictures on my phone start to get increasingly inappropriate. 

[h20skibum]

52 minutes ago, Dan83 said:

I’ll have to push through a bad hangover, but my main goal is to find Daryl today. 
 

 

52 minutes ago, Dan83 said:

I’ll have to push through a bad hangover, but my main goal is to find Daryl today. 
 

There is something wrong with his driving, because the sun was on the wrong side this morning 

 

[LATTELOVE]

13 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

The luggage service is not new to RCI.

On our last cruise on Oasis June 2023, I did not see this

offered.  Thank you.

 

[Dan83]

Adding some pics from yesterday in Curaçao. 

Playa PortoMari has a nice lookout tower. It’s a beautiful beach. Diving was good here too. It’s just a bit of a swim out past the sandy area to get onto the reef. I should have some diving photos to add soon. 
On the way back we stopped to see the flamingos. This is where our trouble on the way back began. My wife got out of the car and realized she only had one croc. It must have fallen out of the car door when we left the beach. I don’t know how you can get into a vehicle and leave one shoe on the ground. But we cruise with a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of crocs. So this is a problem for her. I do the math and decide to go back for the shoe. Hardly worth missing the ship but I felt confident we could make it. Found the shoe and made good time back to the ship. Parked the car, walked back into the port area for ice cream. Boarded the ship with 8 minutes to spare. 

Favorite ship, favorite port. 
 

 

If you feel comfortable driving in Curaçao. I recommend these guys. 

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Looks like you guys are consistently sailing at 18 knots.

 

We just landed at FLL on a miserable red eye flight so we are on the same time zone now.

 

oh, the dreaded red eye from SFO.  My son and his family have a red eye from SFO, so we will pick them up at the airport after we are off the cruise. 
 

we always try to avoid red eye flights. 

[harryfat1]

8 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

oh, the dreaded red eye from SFO.  My son and his family have a red eye from SFO, so we will pick them up at the airport after we are off the cruise. 
 

we always try to avoid red eye flights. 

Yeah. Red eye sucks but many people from West coast uses it. Our flight was totally full with almost 200 people.

 

For us, flying out on Wedesday red eye versus Thursday morning meant savings of $150/pp. Airlines were charging $500/pp one way from SFO to FLL as this is the super crowded Holiday travel season. 

 

So the way Cheapo dad's math works is if I can save $150/pp X 4 people = $600. I can use that for the hotel room and meal as well. So I opted for the red eye although it's a tiring experience. 

 

Yeah, the red eye sucks especially we had a non stop crying baby in the back row all night. In addition, I sat next to a couple that didn't sleep most of the trip in talking to each other and turn on their spot lights to read their books.

 

Hope your son has a better red eye flight next week 

[Luckynana]

14 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Tonight was the first night where we didn’t really see anything we liked on the menu.  It was Mexican night.  
 

We ordered the chops filet

 

 

When we were on our B2B on Oasis, none of the 4 of us enjoyed the Mexican night offerings.  Needless to say, we didn't enjoy our meals.  We wound up making reservations at the Solarium restaurant for dinner on the following leg of our cruise to avoid the Mexican night in the MDR.

[Luckynana]

@harryfat1  Sorry your Red Eye was so awful for you all.  Nothing worse than a crying baby and add to that a couple who talks throughout the flight.  We took Amtrak from New Orleans to New Jersey, as an "Adventure".  It was comfortable and quiet until we pulled in to Washington DC and this couple got on.  We had all been sleeping at this point.  They kept talking, but I managed to nod off again, until this fool clapped his hand, which of course woke us all up.  I got used to his talking and nodded off again, until he clapped his hand again while talking.  We think he had been on drugs due to his actions and constantly getting up and down out of his seat.  When we booked the train, our TA told us we wouldn't need our own cabin(or whatever it's called on a train) and said the seats were very comfortable;  which they were, but who expected this noisy passenger?  Never again!

[Another_Critic]

4 hours ago, Dan83 said:

Since I’d already burned through my 4 vouchers, I was just going to catch an elevator and go back to the cabin for the night. 

I picked the right elevator. This guy is good. Crazy talented. I stayed on another 10 minutes until a supervisor came and moved him to the boardwalk. 
 

He looks like the piano player that was in the Schooner Bar on the October Anthem TA.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Another_Critic

[h20skibum]

Maybe time for some random things, since I am lounging around on this sea day. 
 

We have 1,470 kids onboard, under the age of 17.  I would have guessed there were more.  I don’t know if they counted Daryl in that total. 
 

 

They said to expect more on our Utopia sailing this summer.  If I wasn’t adding three to that total, I would avoid that summer sailing. 

[h20skibum]

Hot tub situation. 

 

Max capacity is 24.  I think they made it, then some. 

 

[FionaMG]

12 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Hot tub situation. 

 

Max capacity is 24.  I think they made it, then some. 

 

😱

[h20skibum]

Technology update. 
 

Starlink is good at times, and bad at times.  Had trouble connecting in the solarium for a while. 
 

Plugs in the cabin - better than some ships, but rapidly becoming old school. Two usb type A ports at the desk and three us plugs and one European. 

 

There is one us plug by the bed, and I haven’t bothered to look under it. 
 

 

It seems technology has moved mainly to usb Type C plugs now. I bought this little gem this summer to charge all our devices. 
 

 

Five usb Type C and two usb Type A plugs. Enough power to charge my iPad, two iPhones, two Apple Watches, and power banks. 
 

we have two Anker power banks we bring along to make sure we maintain power while ashore. 
 

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

Pro tip of the day

 

Don’t walk thru El Loco Fresh on a very windy day, unless you want to chance getting hit with a flying plate of beans. 

 

 

It looked like they just got done filming Animal House food fight scene.  I felt bad for the clean up crew. 
 

No self serve handling of utensils here today.  Something must be going on. 

 

[h20skibum]

Now, I have seen dogs chasing cars on land, but I think this is the first time I have seen one chasing and barking at a scooter on the jogging track. 
 

 

 

[LATTELOVE]

33 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Hot tub situation. 

 

Max capacity is 24.  I think they made it, then some. 

 

Humm, heck no. 

I would pass.  🙂

[RWMike]

17 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Tonight was the first night where we didn’t really see anything we liked on the menu.  It was Mexican night.  
 

We ordered the chops filet

 

 

Started with the poblano pepper soup 

 

 

and finished with the apple cobbler 

 

I'm curious how the Filet was when ordered in the MDR. We've done it in the past and found it not as good as when ordered at Chops.