LIVE. Symphony of the Seas. April 20-28 2024. Sail away with me.

[Sunshine3601]

2 hours ago, Lionesss said:

Oh. I know everyone has followed my close family ties.  
So with the comped money I was able to get my daughter a gift she wanted but family funds said it would never happen.  
So I called her 😳 and we face timed and she picked out a pair of Fendi glasses. 
 

It will make her happy. 
 

With the rest——- gifts. 
 

More to come. 

Very nice gift for your Daughter.   I am sure she will cherish them,😊

[Lionesss]

First of all. 
 

Thanks for following along on our endeavors. 
 

The time has come to pack and put our luggage filled with memories in the hallway for pickup. 
 

We have luggage valet so we will see our bags at the final destination. 
 

Now. 
Some topics not discussed yet but will be addressed once we are home. 
 

Namely:  

1.  What happened to Sue that almost jeopardized the possibility of canceling our cruise. 

2. Misbehaving teens. 
3.  Very active cruise thread. 
4.  Yes sir ree guys more cutbacks on RCI. 
5.  Generosity of drinks. And abundant bartenders. 
6.  Food ratings. 
7.  Ducks duck goose. 
 

Right now starting to face reality. 
 

💕
 

 

[NHProud]

8 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

First of all. 
 

Thanks for following along on our endeavors. 
 

The time has come to pack and put our luggage filled with memories in the hallway for pickup. 
 

We have luggage valet so we will see our bags at the final destination. 
 

Now. 
Some topics not discussed yet but will be addressed once we are home. 
 

Namely:  

1.  What happened to Sue that almost jeopardized the possibility of canceling our cruise. 

2. Misbehaving teens. 
3.  Very active cruise thread. 
4.  Yes sir ree guys more cutbacks on RCI. 
5.  Generosity of drinks. And abundant bartenders. 
6.  Food ratings. 
7.  Ducks duck goose. 
 

Right now starting to face reality. 
 

💕
 

 

Always an interesting read.  Awaiting final chapter and safe travels home.

[Ocean Boy]

20 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

First of all. 
 

Thanks for following along on our endeavors. 
 

The time has come to pack and put our luggage filled with memories in the hallway for pickup. 
 

We have luggage valet so we will see our bags at the final destination. 
 

Now. 
Some topics not discussed yet but will be addressed once we are home. 
 

Namely:  

1.  What happened to Sue that almost jeopardized the possibility of canceling our cruise. 

2. Misbehaving teens. 
3.  Very active cruise thread. 
4.  Yes sir ree guys more cutbacks on RCI. 
5.  Generosity of drinks. And abundant bartenders. 
6.  Food ratings. 
7.  Ducks duck goose. 
 

Right now starting to face reality. 
 

💕
 

 

Looking forward to your final thoughts.

[sisocialworker]

thanks for sharing your journey

[cruisingpeople]

Thanks for the ride.

Safe travels home.

[perfect match]

Sue, thank you very much for sharing your cruise with us. I have enjoyed following along with you through the winning, the losing, the teenagers, and all of the other adventures along the way. 
 

Safe travels going home.

[jmh2006]

As always a fun time reading your reviews.  Appreciate the time you take to keep us informed.  Hope your travels home go smoothly.

[h20skibum]

Safe travels home, Sue and Rick. The weather will be a little nicer when you get back. A few 80° days in store this week.

 

 

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law will board when you get off. Will be interesting to hear their tales of their first trip to the Caribbean. 

[FionaMG]

Thanks for sharing. I've enjoyed following along. Safe travels home. 😊

[Lionesss]

Good morning. 
 

Breakfast in CK. 
 

Very windy. 
 

Guarded by harbor pilot. 
 

[Lionesss]

Waiting at the airport for a couple hours. 
 

SO. 
 

SUMMARY.  

 

1.  What happened to Sue pre cruise. 
 

To begin with I did my traditional Sunday drive to Miami university Oxford Ohio. Weather was great and made it in record time.  No blue light specials. 
 

Upon arrival the kids said can we just go out to dinner.  Your treat.  They knew I would say yes.  So we went to one of the specialty restaurants and had shaved beef sandwiches. They told me the good news of Brandon’s new job and this would probably be my last time driving down. Bowling green so much closer. 
 

Afterwards we bummed around bought some groceries. And went back to the house. 
 

Slept so great. Damn I felt great when I woke up. Zoey slept in. And kids off to work. 
 

Zoey got up at 8am.  Made her breakfast.
Put Disney Moana on her breakfast activity.   And I just started feeling a tad cold. Chillin. 
 

All of a sudden I flew into bathroom sat on the thrown and trashcan in hand.  Yup. Both ways.  Not pretty. 
 

Zoey brought me a doll and a binky. 
I told her to watch her show and eat and she left and checked on me every 10-15 min. 
 

Now I’m hot, stopped throwing up. But the other half said no way. Your on a special place sitting for awhile. 
 

So I asked Zoey to get my phone. She obliged. And gave it to me.  
 

So I read as I sit. And lo and behold the friends we were together with on Friday, yes you got it they had the virus posted on FB. They were sick for 3 days. 
 

But wait.  I have a cruise coming up. I can’t be sick. 
But wait. I’m 4 1/2 hours from home I have to get home. 
But wait. I’m with Zoey. I don’t want her to get sick. Should I call one of the kids home. No. They have only a few days of work left. 

So eventually I felt safe to lay on the couch. Nauseated but not throwing up. 
 

Zoey was great all day. Kept bringing me toys.  
When the kids got off work and  came home. I went to bed. Ginger ale and Diet Coke.  I was sweating like crazy. Slowly when I turned over would drink some. 
 

Fell asleep. Woke up 4 hours later. Soaked. Took a shower and said. I want to go home. The kids thought I should stay and rest.  But I told them I was rested out and would probably be awake anyway. They said Brandon could do his paperwork at home. 
 

So. Into the car I drove and drove and made it to the last pit stop on 71north. Wobbly  out of car, I bet people thought I was drunk. Yes I now know I’m dehydrated. So I drank another can of ginger ale. 
 

Made it home with my gas tank sensor showing low tank. 
 

Said hi to cat took my shoes and pants off and crawled in bed in guest room. 
 

Slept. 
Rick checked on me. 
 

Rested and slept all day. 
 

Not hungry. Just a little queezy. And when I would drink anything I had to go and sit on the throne……….. yup. You got it. 
 

The couch and cat was my best friend. 
 

But I have  a cruise.  I cannot be sick. 
 

We’re leaving Thursday.  Today’s Tuesday. I WILL get better.  
 

I did. 
 

Now to keep Rick from getting it. 
 

Made it to FLL.   
No fever. No GI issues.  
Nap time. 
 

Now. The question at hand. Did Rick get the virus and try to get our cruise canceled????????????

 

Some things not worth talking about 😉

Edited April 28 by Lionesss

[sisocialworker]

44 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

Waiting at the airport for a couple hours. 
 

SO. 
 

SUMMARY.  

 

1.  What happened to Sue pre cruise. 
 

To begin with I did my traditional Sunday drive to Miami university Oxford Ohio. Weather was great and made it in record time.  No blue light specials. 
 

Upon arrival the kids said can we just go out to dinner.  Your treat.  They knew I would say yes.  So we went to one of the specialty restaurants and had shaved beef sandwiches. They told me the good news of Brandon’s new job and this would probably be my last time driving down. Bowling green so much closer. 
 

Afterwards we bummed around bought some groceries. And went back to the house. 
 

Slept so great. Damn I felt great when I woke up. Zoey slept in. And kids off to work. 
 

Zoey got up at 8am.  Made her breakfast.
Put Disney Moana on her breakfast activity.   And I just started feeling a tad cold. Chillin. 
 

All of a sudden I flew into bathroom sat on the thrown and trashcan in hand.  Yup. Both ways.  Not pretty. 
 

Zoey brought me a doll and a binky. 
I told her to watch her show and eat and she left and checked on me every 10-15 min. 
 

Now I’m hot, stopped throwing up. But the other half said no way. Your on a special place sitting for awhile. 
 

So I asked Zoey to get my phone. She obliged. And gave it to me.  
 

So I read as I sit. And lo and behold the friends we were together with on Friday, yes you got it they had the virus posted on FB. They were sick for 3 days. 
 

But wait.  I have a cruise coming up. I can’t be sick. 
But wait. I’m 4 1/2 hours from home I have to get home. 
But wait. I’m with Zoey. I don’t want her to get sick. Should I call one of the kids home. No. They have only a few days of work left. 

So eventually I felt safe to lay on the couch. Nauseated but not throwing up. 
 

Zoey was great all day. Kept bringing me toys.  
When the kids got off work and  came home. I went to bed. Ginger ale and Diet Coke.  I was sweating like crazy. Slowly when I turned over would drink some. 
 

Fell asleep. Woke up 4 hours later. Soaked. Took a shower and said. I want to go home. The kids thought I should stay and rest.  But I told them I was rested out and would probably be awake anyway. They said Brandon could do his paperwork at home. 
 

So. Into the car I drove and drove and made it to the last pit stop on 71north. Wobbly  out of car, I bet people thought I was drunk. Yes I now know I’m dehydrated. So I drank another can of ginger ale. 
 

Made it home with my gas tank sensor showing low tank. 
 

Said hi to cat took my shoes and pants off and crawled in bed in guest room. 
 

Slept. 
Rick checked on me. 
 

Rested and slept all day. 
 

Not hungry. Just a little queezy. And when I would drink anything I had to go and sit on the throne……….. yup. You got it. 
 

The couch and cat was my best friend. 
 

But I have  a cruise.  I cannot be sick. 
 

We’re leaving Thursday.  Today’s Tuesday. I WILL get better.  
 

I did. 
 

Now to keep Rick from getting it. 
 

Made it to FLL.   
No fever. No GI issues.  
Nap time. 
 

Now. The question at hand. Did Rick get the virus and try to get our cruise canceled????????????

 

Some things not worth talking about 😉

My DW is from Dayton and went to Miami… thanks for taking us on your cruise

[cruisingpeople]

45 minutes ago, Lionesss said:

 But I have  a cruise.  I cannot be sick. 

 

We’re leaving Thursday.  Today’s Tuesday. I WILL get better.  
 

I did.

 

Thank goodness. It would have really sucked if you had to cancel at the very last minute.

[Lionesss]

SUMMARY 

 

2. Teens, kids in general. 
 

You may wonder how I am able to obtain some of the details being shared on this cruise.  
To begin with the information was obtained from another social media site not permitted to be mentioned here. 
There have been coordinated activities. Meets, slot pulls, games drinking events……….

What I did not read I personally witnessed. 
 

Now. There were not many kids on this cruise. We were surprised. 
 

So besides the girls trashing door signs, and also taking them. 
It seems a group of boys (guessing 13-16) had the lack of manners to bully girls. Mock them. Tell them they were ugly. 
In addition to to that they were busy on the pool deck near the soft serve ice cream. Getting in everyone’s way.  Leaving excessive amounts of wasted food in WJ. 
Running near cabins. Getting on and off elevator after pushing all the buttons. 
I guess the usual. 
But what amazed us was one of the mini terrorist verbally abused a girls in an elevator in front of his parents.  They just stared and looked. I guess it does not fall far from the tree. 

Some would probably say the usual. But for so few kids.  Their activities were known. 
 

Be safe. 

[TeeRick]

@Lionesss thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us!

[Ocean Boy]

Reading your summary... I don't even know what to say! Safe travels home and thanks for the ride.

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, Lionesss said:

But I have  a cruise.  I cannot be sick. 
 

We’re leaving Thursday.  Today’s Tuesday. I WILL get better.  

 

Wow that was a close call. So happy you got to cruise.

 

I can't believe the parents would allow their kid to say that. What a shame. Some people are just so pathetic.

[HBE4]

20 hours ago, Lionesss said:

Uh no. 
25,000

 

😁

 

20 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

No matter how much you won, no matter how much you lost, thanks for taking us along to share your adventures.  Have safe travels back home.

 

I'm sure most people know this already but just to clarify for non-gamblers, 25,000 points does not equate to $25,000 dollars lost/spent or even $2,500.00 dollars. At least not directly. 

 

I've put $20 into a slot machine and win $30, lose $15, win $10, lose $20, etc until the machine is empty some 15 or 30 or even  60 minutes later.

 

I've lost my initial $20. But during that time frame I might have gambled $500, $750  maybe even a $1,000 if I'm really lucky meaning I've accumulated up to 1,000 points on my $20. Then there are other times my $20 is going in 2 minutes & I've earned 20 points.

 

So while it's still cheaper to buy a cruise outright, the "free" comp cruise might not be as expensive as  people think when factoring in the many hours of entertainment provided.

Edited April 28 by HBE4

[Lionesss]

SIDE NOTE. 
 

You are probably wondering ……..

 

Did I infect the spouse????????????

 

 

I invoke my 5th amendment rights. 
 

😉

[mets123]

2 hours ago, HBE4 said:

 

 

I'm sure most people know this already but just to clarify for non-gamblers, 25,000 points does not equate to $25,000 dollars lost/spent or even $2,500.00 dollars. At least not directly. 

 

I've put $20 into a slot machine and win $30, lose $15, win $10, lose $20, etc until the machine is empty some 15 or 30 or even  60 minutes later.

 

I've lost my initial $20. But during that time frame I might have gambled $500, $750  maybe even a $1,000 if I'm really lucky meaning I've accumulated up to 1,000 points on my $20. Then there are other times my $20 is going in 2 minutes & I've earned 20 points.

 

So while it's still cheaper to buy a cruise outright, the "free" comp cruise might not be as expensive as  people think when factoring in the many hours of entertainment provided.

Isn't it one point per $5 gambled,  so ,$1000 churn gets you 200 points, not 1000.

[HBE4]

19 minutes ago, mets123 said:

Isn't it one point per $5 gambled,  so ,$1000 churn gets you 200 points, not 1000.

 

You may be right. I'm probably confusing my ship casinos with  land-based casinos. 

 

Same principle but less extreme. Thank you for keeping me honest. 🙂

 

[cruisingpeople]

21 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

I can't believe the parents would allow their kid to say that. What a shame. Some people are just so pathetic.

 

Just remember the scariest thing.

 

These kids are the future of our country.

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

[Lionesss]

Where was I?????

 

Oh yea.  
 

3.  Very active cruise blog on another social media site. 
 

We could not believe that we had over

1000 active participants posting often. 
 

Some days we had over 500 posts/pictures and just plain old scoop. 

We had foodies updates. Free bottled  water.  Sharing of OTC meds for ailments. Group spontaneous meets. Hot slot machines. Seats available for shows.  Vacant loungers. card games board games. You name it.  
 

We even found  out about the misbehaving kids. Backup plumbing. 
Chair hogs. 
 

And the pictures of all the events was remarkable. 
 

The one thing everyone commented on was lack of presence by cruise director. 
 

At one of the pool games. A chant was started. 
“Elvis left the building”. 
people wondered where he was. 
 

We had heard rumor of an employee named Elvis who was cruise director. But only saw him at Crazy Quest. 
He must get paid to do nothing. 
 

We also were able to follow families activities and which excursion were great and which were bad.  
 

The usual negativity on Jamaica.  Wait wait wait. And many excursions arrived back to port 9 min before all aboard. 
 

One poster shared his excursion thru RCI was to be 3 hours.  From the time he got in the bus ( not counting time waiting on hot concrete ) till back in port was 5 1/2 hours.  
Yup everything runs on Jamaican time. 
 

We heard that 3 ambulances met our ship when we arrived back at FLL. One was for a guest request.  2 were not. 😔

 

Captain Angel was everywhere.  Eagerly talking and making his rounds. 
 

Many open times for paid dining.  
Hearing major disappointment with CHOPS. 
 

Very happy that the quality of desserts went downhill.  Saved my hips. However the ice cream dessert section in the WJ did my belly in ( or should I say out). 
 

The thread is still active and many are arriving home with respiratory ailments.  
 

But the worst thing do far is 10 family members posted that they are staying in FLL post cruise. When they arrived at they’re hotel there was a sign on door. 
 

“CLOSED”. 
Yup. Out of business. 
They were lucky to find another hotel. 
 

 

OK. 

EXTRA ADDED ATTRACTION. 

 

DUCK DUCK DUCK. 
 

On this cruise they were everywhere and everyday someone somewhere put more out. 
There were thousands of them. 
OMG WE WERE INFESTED. 
If you didn’t find a duck you were either blind, drunk or never left your cabin. 
 

3d ducks

blow up ducks

st Patrick ducks

Star Wars ducks

Outback ducks( cheap freebies with drinks)

mini ducks 

Disney ducks 

 

So many ducks you needed a container to put them in. 
 

Many happy collectors.  
 

 

 

 

Next up. 
 

MORE RCI CUTBACKS. 
 

Be safe. 

 

[Lionesss]

CROWN AND ANCHOR NUMBERS

 

 

 

Borrowed from fellow cruiser.