Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

Onward with the trip report

++++++++++

We walked all the way forward on deck 5 to the photo gallery (visiting the uncle in prison) but since they were not open yet (the ship hadn’t sailed), we just looked at the pricing for a few miscellaneous items.

 

 

Somehow this is interesting to me as we have a “stowaway” wheelchair from the Symphony of the Seas aboard the Odyssey…

 

 

[harryfat1]

Bionic Bar – this area deserves its own space.  We are not drinkers so you will never find us in any bars, but we like to sit around the bionic bar area and just watch the robots shake their butts (do robots have butts?).

 

 

 

 

You order from the tablet and can see from the mirror wall displays when your drink will be made.

 

 

More of the entertainment part of the cruising we enjoy.

 

[harryfat1]

By then it was 3 something so we headed back to the cabin since they had promised the suitcases would be delivered.  Of course, they were not delivered.

 

OK, never mind.  Not going to wait for these to be delivered.  Just DIY as I know where the luggage is – just down the hallway less than 30 feet away.  So we went down the hallway and just grabbed our luggage from the group and brought it in to unpack.

 

In not watching Mark’s YouTube video on the speedy unpacking hacks, we were just going about it the old school way in slowly unpacking the shirt-by-shirt method into the closet.

 

Edited January 26 by harryfat1

[Coralc]

20 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

 (visiting the uncle in prison)

This always so much cracks me up Harry. 😄 My mom had some relatives down in Bakersfield. I was about 25 when we stayed down there and had a family dinner. This kind, elderly gentleman arrived and introduced himself as my Uncle Glenn, and of course went on to say that he hadn't seen me since I was about 3 years old. It seems to be that standard thing that distant relatives always say. 😄

 

After he left, I asked a different aunt where Glenn had been all these years?

She said, "Oh, he was in San Quentin, honey." 

I said, "You mean like the death row prison, up near where we live? Why?"

Aunt said, "He killed a BAD man." 

I am looking at my mom this whole time. <She shrugged> Because, of course, no one in our family would ever kill a good, regular person. LOL. 🙄 And apparently, he was a trustee at the farm/garden. I never knew. And we did not ever visit. 

 

I don't know. It was something that happened after the war. (WWII) Some military beef that carried over. He was mom's BIL's brother. It always makes me laugh when you say that.  ☺️☺️

[harryfat1]

One advantage of having a port-side balcony at Port Everglades is that you get to see and hear the other ships sail out. At the starboard side, you will be overlooking the cruise terminal/cargo containers.

 

I especially enjoyed the Princess ship sailing off by playing the Love Boat Theme Song. 

As a child of the TV media growing up, I watched more episodes of Love Boat than I care to admit.  That theme song is forever embedded in my brain so whenever I hear that song via the ship horn, it stirs up old memories that tuck at the heart.

 

The Disney ship sailed later than us or else they would play the Wish Upon a Star theme song when they cast off.

 

Anyway, we actually missed the first ship out of the harbor of the Celebrity Apex sailing away.  This is the only picture I had of them already out of the channel at 4:22.  In checking the sail time, they must have been in a hurry to make it to their first port as the 2 Celebrity ships had a 3:30 sail away time.  That’s the earliest sailing time I have ever seen. 

 

 

I hope nobody flies in on the day of the cruise for Celebrity with such an early sailing time.  They would need to be at the terminal no later than 2 PM as the ship must turn in the passenger manifest 90 minutes before sailing.  

 

[luvtoride]

14 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

 

In not watching Mark’s YouTube video on the speedy unpacking hacks, we were just going about it the old school way in slowly unpacking the shirt-by-shirt method into the closet.

 

@harryfat1no photos of the slow method unpacking/ hanging shirts?  No link to Marks YouTube speedy unpacking hacks??

Any advice on avoiding listening to Wooden Hangers clank against each other as the ships movement causes to happen if you don’t have enough shirts to take up every hanger? 🤷‍♂️😂

[harryfat1]

2 minutes ago, Coralc said:

This always so much cracks me up Harry. 😄 My mom had some relatives down in Bakersfield. I was about 25 when we stayed down there and had a family dinner. This kind, elderly gentleman arrived and introduced himself as my Uncle Glenn, and of course went on to say that he hadn't seen me since I was about 3 years old. It seems to be that standard thing that distant relatives always say. 😄

 

After he left, I asked a different aunt where Glenn had been all these years?

She said, "Oh, he was in San Quentin, honey." 

I said, "You mean like the death row prison, up near where we live? Why?"

Aunt said, "He killed a BAD man." 

I am looking at my mom this whole time. <She shrugged> Because, of course, no one in our family would ever kill a good, regular person. LOL. 🙄 And apparently, he was a trustee at the farm/garden. I never knew. And we did not ever visit. 

 

I don't know. It was something that happened after the war. (WWII) Some military beef that carried over. He was mom's BIL's brother. It always makes me laugh when you say that.  ☺️☺️

So if he never showed up at the family dinner that night, you wouldn't have ever known you had this relative all these years?

 

Your mom's generation all knew he existed but not like they talked about him in front of you even when you were at the age of 25.

 

That pretty much fits my description of people knowing he exists but doesn't want to tell the kids about him. If you were a tad closer to a relative like your mom's sibling or cousin, there might be some visits.

 

So going forward you will look at the RCI photo area with a different set of eyes...

 

[harryfat1]

2 minutes ago, luvtoride said:

@harryfat1no photos of the slow method unpacking/ hanging shirts?  No link to Marks YouTube speedy unpacking hacks??

Any advice on avoiding listening to Wooden Hangers clank against each other as the ships movement causes to happen if you don’t have enough shirts to take up every hanger? 🤷‍♂️😂

You need to ask Mark @h20skibum about the video link to his yet-to-be-established YouTube channel.

 

He is much more of a DIY person than me in having a hack for all travel-related ideas so you will have to ask him on the hangers solution as well.

[harryfat1]

As we missed the Celebrity ships sail out, the first real one we saw was the HAL ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

9 minutes ago, luvtoride said:

@harryfat1no photos of the slow method unpacking/ hanging shirts?  No link to Marks YouTube speedy unpacking hacks??

Any advice on avoiding listening to Wooden Hangers clank against each other as the ships movement causes to happen if you don’t have enough shirts to take up every hanger? 🤷‍♂️😂

Yes. Our room steward showed us how to put a bath towel through the empty hangers, so they don't clack together. We have used their tip ever since. It is especially bad on the last night with all the empty hangers. 

[harryfat1]

So besides not having the luggage delivered to the cabin, they also haven't opened the balcony dividers between our 2 cabins as you can still see the partition with  my wife on the other side taking a panoramic picture of the area

 

 

Here's her picture showing a very obstructed balcony view

 

[Coralc]

12 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

So if he never showed up at the family dinner that night, you wouldn't have ever known you had this relative all these years?

 

Your mom's generation all knew he existed but not like they talked about him in front of you even when you were at the age of 25.

 

That pretty much fits my description of people knowing he exists but doesn't want to tell the kids about him. If you were a tad closer to a relative like your mom's sibling or cousin, there might be some visits.

 

So going forward you will look at the RCI photo area with a different set of eyes...

 

This is true Harry. I had never met the gentleman; Uncle Glenn before, did not know he was residing across the Bay for all those years. And never saw him again. The Bakersfield relatives are now like third cousins. So, we don't see them either.  ☺️

[harryfat1]

Princess ship is next to sail off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Bonus coverage for the night before I log off.

 

Saw the full moon tonight from the parking lot leaving work tonight. Just had to take a picture of the moon.

 

 

Crazy zoom from the Samsung cell phone. I will have more moon shots from the cruise later on

 

[luvtoride]

Thanks @harryfat1 It is pouring here at the Jersey shore and we haven’t seen the sun (or the moon) for 3 days.  Glad to know they are still up there 👍 Good night 😴 

[EllieinNJ]

5 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

So if you don’t like the seats, do you just tell the wait staff you will wait until the next table that fits your criteria and go back in front of the line and wait?  What is your average wait time?

 

I think this strategy will be easier to implement with a table for 2.  Once the party size gets to be 10+ like Brian's clan or other big groups, they may have a long wait if they keep on passing on the next table's availability. 

It probably is easier for two people.  Both times when we were on the Anthem and the Oasis we didn't like the first table for two the first night so they just showed us to another open square table for four that was cati-cornered to a wall so neither of us were facing it and there we ate at the same table every night at the same time, around 7-7:30pm.  We were always out early enough to catch the late shows.

 

Now that I'm thinking about it, this was just after the pandemic when they weren't sailing full.  I might have to eat my words when we sail.😄

 

[h20skibum]

 

Harry, I know you mentioned about not getting the cruise compass on some of the days of your cruise.  For those who don’t know, the Compass was a paper schedule of events for the day.  In some ways, it was much easier to look at it, instead of the app.  But Royal Caribbean went digital with it to save paper. (Hmm, wonder if there is a way to make digital luggage tags and save my paper?)

 

Something many people overlook is the little card they leave in your cabin with a QR code on it.   All you have to do is scan the QR code while you are logged on to the ship WiFi while onboard (this can be the free WiFi).  It will open up a browser window with the compass for the day in digital format.  If you can’t find that card, you can enter this (once again, this only works onboard).

 

https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf

 

That should give you the daily Cruise Compass in PDF form.  If you keep this browser window open, all you have to do is refresh it each day to get the new compass.  Of course, you could scan the card again or enter the above address again each day.

 

Once I had the compass in the browser, I would save it each day to my iPhone. Some may ask, How do you do that.  As someone who uses an iPhone and iPad, this is how to save it. (Note, since I am no longer on a ship, I am using a pdf from our PA tax website and my iPad to demonstrate)

 

Click the square box at the top of the browser with the arrow pointing up, and choose Save to Files.

 

 

In the next screen, I would just append the day number to the file name (here I just added Save1), and choose Save at the top of this screen.  

 

 

That’s all there is to it to save it to your device (if using an Apple product). Maybe you have something similar on your Samsung.

 

I always found it handy to have the compass on my phone, and these are much clearer than taking photos of the cruise compass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I tried to Google the MDR capacities of RCI ships but I don’t think they publish that

They don't because that is dynamic number - they can change based on number of tables and arrangements of those tables, but figure just over 1/3 of 100% capacity - they can seat everyone turning over the tables 3x. In some articles on the "regular" Q class dining venues are listed at about 430 seats (x4 venues) or about 1700 in the whole MDR.

[luvtoride]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Bonus coverage for the night before I log off.

 

Saw the full moon tonight from the parking lot leaving work tonight. Just had to take a picture of the moon.

 

 

Crazy zoom from the Samsung cell phone. I will have more moon shots from the cruise later on

 

An interesting article about this January Full “Wolf” moon (which we could not see here in the East).

 

https://patch.com/new-jersey/fairlawn-saddlebrook/s/iuglq/how-to-see-full-wolf-moon-in-nj-and-why-its-namesake-howls?utm_term=article-slot-4&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&user_email=0ef2f8e48df15e41f8ce797a59759fa12b057c5850f594885e815022ef893277&user_email_md5=6b9b18b282d4cb58c67887c4dbc5bc0b&lctg=4daea851111cc9bda2055d20

 

 

 

[karebare22]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

That should give you the daily Cruise Compass in PDF form.  If you keep this browser window open, all you have to do is refresh it each day to get the new compass.  Of course, you could scan the card again or enter the above address again each day.

 

Once I had the compass in the browser, I would save it each day to my iPhone.

This is exactly what I do. The QR code with the link is usually also posted on a wall at guest services (often where the old paper copies used to be). 

My only problem was that for a couple of days I forgot to refresh and save the PDF copy. You can’t go back and get previous days, you only have access to the compass for the current day.

[T-2]

I'm guessing you can't see it until the day of... as the current day would stay displayed until probably midnight? It was always nice to be able to plan the next day with the family the night before, back in the days when they left the cruise compass in your cabin while you were at dinner. But I love this idea where everyone can see the activities on their phones. Thanks so much for sharing!

[hucifer]

11 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I especially enjoyed the Princess ship sailing off by playing the Love Boat Theme Song. 

As a child of the TV media growing up, I watched more episodes of Love Boat than I care to admit.  That theme song is forever embedded in my brain so whenever I hear that song via the ship horn, it stirs up old memories that tuck at the heart.

 

Love love LOVE that show. It's what made me obsessed with cruising when i was a wee lass. I couldn't wait to board a ship and play shuffleboard (which seemed to be the only activity they ever talked about).

11 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Any advice on avoiding listening to Wooden Hangers clank against each other as the ships movement causes to happen if you don’t have enough shirts to take up every hanger? 🤷‍♂️😂

Throw them overboard?

 

Edited to add: Any wagers on how many people are going to ask me if I'm being serious? 🙄

Edited January 26 by hucifer

[GimmeOcean]

1 hour ago, T-2 said:

I'm guessing you can't see it until the day of... as the current day would stay displayed until probably midnight? It was always nice to be able to plan the next day with the family the night before, back in the days when they left the cruise compass in your cabin while you were at dinner. But I love this idea where everyone can see the activities on their phones. Thanks so much for sharing!

The files for my recent cruise had 2 days per file.

[harryfat1]

16 hours ago, luvtoride said:

Thanks @harryfat1 It is pouring here at the Jersey shore and we haven’t seen the sun (or the moon) for 3 days.  Glad to know they are still up there 👍 Good night 😴 

 

10 hours ago, luvtoride said:

An interesting article about this January Full “Wolf” moon (which we could not see here in the East).

 

https://patch.com/new-jersey/fairlawn-saddlebrook/s/iuglq/how-to-see-full-wolf-moon-in-nj-and-why-its-namesake-howls?utm_term=article-slot-4&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&user_email=0ef2f8e48df15e41f8ce797a59759fa12b057c5850f594885e815022ef893277&user_email_md5=6b9b18b282d4cb58c67887c4dbc5bc0b&lctg=4daea851111cc9bda2055d20

 

 

 

Thanks for the info. 

 

Too bad you guys are experiencing a storm.  Other than last year when CA got drenched, we typically don't have long storms.  Most of our storms dump about 0.5 to 1 inch of rain at a time.  Any more than that we will get flooding as our drainage system isn't equipped to handle the east coast type of rain.

 

We typically more about drought and wild fires than too much rain.

[harryfat1]

12 hours ago, h20skibum said:

 

Harry, I know you mentioned about not getting the cruise compass on some of the days of your cruise.  For those who don’t know, the Compass was a paper schedule of events for the day.  In some ways, it was much easier to look at it, instead of the app.  But Royal Caribbean went digital with it to save paper. (Hmm, wonder if there is a way to make digital luggage tags and save my paper?)

 

Something many people overlook is the little card they leave in your cabin with a QR code on it.   All you have to do is scan the QR code while you are logged on to the ship WiFi while onboard (this can be the free WiFi).  It will open up a browser window with the compass for the day in digital format.  If you can’t find that card, you can enter this (once again, this only works onboard).

 

https://minio.rccl.com/compass/cruisecompass.pdf

 

That should give you the daily Cruise Compass in PDF form.  If you keep this browser window open, all you have to do is refresh it each day to get the new compass.  Of course, you could scan the card again or enter the above address again each day.

 

Once I had the compass in the browser, I would save it each day to my iPhone. Some may ask, How do you do that.  As someone who uses an iPhone and iPad, this is how to save it. (Note, since I am no longer on a ship, I am using a pdf from our PA tax website and my iPad to demonstrate)

 

Click the square box at the top of the browser with the arrow pointing up, and choose Save to Files.

 

 

In the next screen, I would just append the day number to the file name (here I just added Save1), and choose Save at the top of this screen.  

 

 

That’s all there is to it to save it to your device (if using an Apple product). Maybe you have something similar on your Samsung.

 

I always found it handy to have the compass on my phone, and these are much clearer than taking photos of the cruise compass.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark,

 

Thanks for the pointer on the PDF copy of the compass.  I’m sure many people will benefit from this.

 

I am a hard-copy kind of guy.  I print stuff out at work when my colleagues just read from the computer.  I am old school in that I need to highlight/write on a piece of paper before my fuzzy old-man memory can retain the info.

 

So I prefer hard copies to touch/feel it.  In the old days, we used to get multiple copies of the compass, we would mark up one copy with highlighter and pens the night before so we could have a game plan for the next day.  Then I take a clean copy home and scan those as a front page of my daily trip report.

 

But the younger generation, like my sons in college, they never print anything out.  They can just read from the monitor and tablet.  I can’t do that…