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Live from the Liberty of the Seas - 8/18/07

Daghis

By Daghis,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Daghis

Daghis

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At this time it won't be necessary. It has been 100% confirmed that Julian is back on board the Enchantment of the Seas and the rumors that he is on Liberty are over. One day he may be somewhere else, but for now it's EOS.

I did find out that the Concierge in the Diamond Lounge is Kirstin or Christina... something like that. I hadn't yet checked the Suite Lounge. Thanks for letting me know!

 

Thx for the Internet info...That .50 a minute is posted on their web site...but it also mentions a package plan...hope you find it & it may be a better deal. And it is not in the cabin?

I found out how this works. I got locked into the $0.50/minute rate because I had used one of the Crown & Anchor coupons which gives a $5 credit. Since that had been applied, I was at the $0.50/minute rate until it was used up (and then some). The next time I logged in, I was presented with the opportunity to prepay for blocks of minutes including 150 for $50 which is what I'm using now.

 

When you're connected to the Internet via wireless, the browser window you use to log in (which conveniently provides a "Logout" link) shows a clock of how many minutes you've used and how much they've cost! :eek: :)

 

We had a very pleasant dinner in Portofino's last night. Barry had the "Fruitti di Mare" (skewered seafood) and loved it! He ended up going to bed early because he was so stuffed. I had the chicken breast and it combined with the vegetables was quite nice. Being the apparent glutton I am, a couple hours later, I browsed up at Jade/Windjammer out of curiosity. I tried a few pieces of sushi, mostly kappa maki (cut cucumber rolls) and ebi maki (cut shrimp/cucumber rolls). The sushi was pleasant enough, but the lack of a wider selection of different sushi choices was disappointing.

 

Nonetheless, having had breakfast at the Windjammer yesterday plus my browsing last night shows me that there are lots of choices available there, and that really impressed me. Plus, the service there was quite good with servers ready to assist.

 

I saw Somewhere in Time last night. It was a decent enough show and I suppose it entertained me, but it's nothing exceptional.

 

I'm going to look for some time today before we hit San Juan to just find a quiet corner, have something to drink (probably Diet Coke, purchased at the "General Store" for $2 for a 20 oz. bottle, versus paying $2.01 at a bar for a 12 oz. can) and do some reading or knitting. I've been so busy over the past couple days that some simple, relaxing time would be nice.

 

Oh, and we've found it very handy that they replace floor panels that say that current day of the week in the elevators each night so that when you go into the elevator, you can see what day it is! We've lost track of time in here, not even remembering how many days ago we boarded! :D

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FunCruiser56

FunCruiser56

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Glad to hear your having a good time, interesting that they are selling soda in the general store, have not seen that before. What other sodas are offered there? This will save us a trip to the grocery before the cruise since we usually only want about 1 soda a day.

 

Hope you get all that quiet time you want!

 

Bev

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GATOR MOM

GATOR MOM

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Daghis

Thx again for the internet info...but could you tell me if you can use your lap top in your cabin? Thx a lot.

 

Re coke in the general store...I hope they still have the coke packages...you pay a fee, get a cup, refill all day long...I drink way too much soda & that deal makes RCCL lose $ with all I drink:eek:

 

Continue to enjoy & smooth sailing...really enjoy your posts:D

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emmy

emmy

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Thanks for the reports...have a great sail, will be reading posts eagerly.

 

who is the cruise director?

 

Barbara

 

 

Yes I also would like to know who the Cruise Director is?

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chynnabow

chynnabow

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Daghis

Thx again for the internet info...but could you tell me if you can use your lap top in your cabin? Thx a lot.

 

Re coke in the general store...I hope they still have the coke packages...you pay a fee, get a cup, refill all day long...I drink way too much soda & that deal makes RCCL lose $ with all I drink:eek:

 

Continue to enjoy & smooth sailing...really enjoy your posts:D

Yes, you can use your laptop in your cabin. The speed seemed much faster at night than the daytime.

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rosebud1g

rosebud1g

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Daghis

yes.. I was one of those UNHAPPY people getting OFF the ship

AUG 18th...It was awesome the entire week. Great ship. Great

food, Great crew.. I would do it again and again..

I was a bit worried about this weeks sailing with the Hurricanes

brewing down there. Stay safe and have a great time!

 

Rose

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hawkfish

hawkfish

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I thought if you have a laptop with a wireless card, you can pick up

the signal for free.

The internet cafe charged .25cents per minute. yikes...

I did not go online....I never had time!

 

You still have to pay for access to the internet, you just don't have to pay for the equipment to connect.

 

I will say, it is difficult online, or least it was on the AOS. It moves verrrrrry slooowwwwly - so much so that many applications will error out before you can get anywhere. However, I was also using it at what must have been the busiest times.

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Daghis

Daghis

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Glad to hear your having a good time, interesting that they are selling soda in the general store, have not seen that before. What other sodas are offered there? This will save us a trip to the grocery before the cruise since we usually only want about 1 soda a day.

I seem to recall that I saw Coke, Diet Coke, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, Sprite, and Sprite Zero. There may have been others, but those are the ones I remember.

 

Yesterday, while in San Juan, we passed a grocery store. I picked up a few two liter bottles of Diet Pepsi and Fanta Zero (orange) for about $1 apiece and brought them back to the ship. Now I don't need to worry about buyin the ship's more expensive offerings.

 

Daghis - can you get Cafeine free diet coke in the General Store? and who is your master? Is it still Capt Teige?

Yes, to both of your questions. I'm also a caffeine-free diet cola drinkers. :)

 

It sounds so far like no change in itinerary, correct?

That's correct. Everything's been going according to schedule, and the weather has been mostly cooperative. The winds on the upper decks were quite strong on the first couple of days (~50 knot relative winds), but we were told by the Captain that things should be calmer for the rest of the trip. Right now, the relative wind is only 8-10 knots.

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FireguyCanada

FireguyCanada

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Daghis, what did you do in San Juan? Our concern is that the ship only gets in at 3:00 and most of the attractions close by 5:00. Was there enough time to do some sightseeing?

 

Glad to hear that the seas have calmed down for you.:)

 

Thanks for live posting. I know ship-life can be busy and we really appreciate you taking the time for us.

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Daghis

Daghis

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i checked a set of compasses and saw no horseraces. with 3 sea days that hardly seems likely. please tell me they had horseraces at the pool????:confused:

Yup... sorry. I haven't seen any mention of a horse race.

 

I thought if you have a laptop with a wireless card, you can pick up

the signal for free.

The internet cafe charged .25cents per minute. yikes...

I did not go online....I never had time!

As was mentioned, you can connected to the wireless network if you already have the hardware, but you do have to pay per-minute. The Freedom class vessels have ship-wide WiFi (the local WiFi access point is right outside our cabin), but other ships have limited areas of access. The rate for Internet access, whether using the Internet cafe or WiFi ranges from $0.50/minute down to $0.33/minute, depending on whether a bundle of minutes is prepaid.

 

how rough is the ocean?? are you getting tossed around?

any itenerary changes for you this week even though you

are the eastern route?

stay safe

No, the seas have been quite calm, just the gentle rocking that lulls one to slumber... especially after a delightfully satisfying dining room meal! The only effect that I can discern from Hurricane Dean are the stronger than usual winds.

 

By the way, tonight's dinner was the "Crown & Anchor" menu featuring the Chef's selection of a pork chop with scalloped potatoes and cranberry relish. It was quite nice. I wish my own chops were as juicy as the one I had was! Included with the dinner was a wonderful salad with baby greens, mozzarella, and focaccia croutons that was served family style... kind of like if Olive Garden were a restaurant of the caliber of this one. It was quite delicious!

 

Tomorrow's formal night dinner is the "Venetian Feast", whatever that is. My older son and I will be doing Chops instead.

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Daghis

Daghis

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Daghis, what did you do in San Juan? Our concern is that the ship only gets in at 3:00 and most of the attractions close by 5:00. Was there enough time to do some sightseeing?

We got off the ship at 3:30 and just walked around the town to browse the various shops for souvenirs and trinkets. DH and I really prefer to just walk around random parts of towns when we go traveling, but our two boys don't have the patience for that, so we compromise by doing shorter walks. We did stop in Wendy's to snack on some fries and drink some large sodas to help cool us down!

 

We went back to the ship for dinner, so we really didn't do much at San Juan. What was interesting was how deserted the ship was that evening. The dining room (main seating) was about half-full, so I imagine many people were busy doing activities ashore. If we hadn't been visiting the island with our kids, DH and I probably would have chosen one of the fascinating fusion restaurants that we saw (like Indo-Japanese or another one I can't recall right now), but the kids just don't yet have the palate for more adventurous dining.

 

Thanks for live posting. I know ship-life can be busy and we really appreciate you taking the time for us.

I'm enjoying doing this. I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted due to the quite poor Internet service. Performance most of the time is quite dreadful, and to think that it takes even longer to load pages, which means more per-minute charges being rung up in the process bothers me a bit. When I can find a time that the Internet isn't being a sluggish pig, I try to check on this thread and see what information I can provide.

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Daghis

Daghis

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Today in St. Maarten, we were really quite busy doing some exploring on our own. We started off by taking a taxi over to Marigot so DH could speak to some people in French. He's a French teacher, but doesn't get much occasion to speak it to native speakers. He enjoyed that, but we were disappointed by the more minimal aspect of Marigot compared with Philipsburg. It's pretty clear which side the cruise ships dock on because the local economy in that city seems to reflect that.

 

As an aside, my older son failed French 1 last year and as a result, hates the language and all things associated with it. To show why I was sure he had learned some French whether he believed it or not, I asked him what the building labeled "Bibliotheque Municpale" was. He correctly identified that as the library. Good for him! :D

 

After Marigot, we took another taxi over to Orient beach. We rented a couple lounges and the matching parasol (although most of the time we were there it was overcast and even rained for a few minutes), and spent about two hours there at the beach. The kids had a nice time just playing in the water. It was our younger son's first exposure to accidentally getting salt water up your nose. He didn't like that at all. :)

 

After a nice "Asian Noodle" dish for lunch at the local snack bar (served by a very friendly woman who gave DH a bit more of an opportunity to speak French), we took yet another taxi to downtown Philipsburg.

 

I'll note here that we were intrigued by the Savvy Discover Shopping Guide which had a number of offers for free trinkets from many vendors. It cost $25, but included a notable coupon for a free large black bag from Del Sol (that, ironically, doesn't change colors in the sun). That alone had some value for us, so we decided to spend the money on this coupon book.

 

We walked down Front Street and everytime we passed one of the stores that would give away free tanzanite earrings or a charm bracelet, we'd stop in, show them the page in the book, and they'd happily mark off the page and give us our free trinket. I was afraid we'd be hounded into purchasing stuff in order to get these free items, but we didn't, and it was actually kind of fun, almost a sort of scavenger hunt on the way back to the cruise ship. We did get the bag from Del Sol, plus about four or five other free things because we did buy a couple T-shirts from there. While I don't believe that the 5 carat "sapphire gemstone" we picked up from one shop really has a value of $100 (as determined by an "independent appraiser"), I do think that we probably did get our $25 worth out of it. Since these values are good at several other Caribbean islands, and since they expire in November, I'll probably sell the book cheaply after we get back to someone who might be interested in using one of the other island's deals.

 

We walked all the way back to the ship and had a pleasant time. We saw some possibly wild roosters scavenging through a garbage can and even some goats climbing down the hillside.

 

Next to the ever beautiful Liberty of the Seas was the Explorer of the Seas. It was sad, but even though she is only slightly smaller than her big sister, she was clearly dwarfed. :D

 

All in all, it was a busy, but very enjoyable day ashore in St. Maarten. Tomorrow we get to have a relaxing "at sea" day, and I may even get up the courage to try Flowrider!

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Daghis

Daghis

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Oh, I'll mention one other little anomaly with the on-board Internet service.

 

I have my own mail server at home. (I'm an email server software developer for Sun Microsystems, so I run that software at home to help test it.) I can use the WiFi Internet service to connect to my mail server at home just fine (both IMAP on port 143 and SUBMIT, which is like SMTP, on port 587). Both are encrypted using STARTTLS.

 

However, I cannot connect to my work's email server. I get a "Connection refused" message. I did some testing from my home system (I could connect home via SSH to do remote testing) and saw that everything was working okay, so it's Royal Caribbean's gateway that's blocking my connection to work.

 

I stopped by the Purser's Desk to let them know, and unfortunately this is a highly technical problem description, so I had to explain that "clearing my cookies" wouldn't do anything to help my mail client and that I had specific host names and ports to give them. I wrote them down so they could pass the information on to their IT person.

 

They called me back a couple hours later, which in itself impressed me for thei promptness, and told me that for some reason their firewall was intentionally blocking connections to my work's mail server and that they wouldn't be fixing that. I have no idea why they'd do that, especially since I can get to my home mail server (so they aren't blocking all but larger, known ISPs).

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