abbydancer2003

Symphony/Apex Day 9 - San Juan - Monday 2 We started the day with breakfast in Luminae. On the way, up we ran into our head butler. I asked how we could get morning coffee, something we’d always received from our butler after calling. He said we could call room service, or he could arrange for it at the the same time every day. I decided to try that for 8:00 am every day. We’ll see how it goes. We were quickly seated in one of our regular tables (we have a few)Today I had the new peach cobbler French toast. It was pretty good. Glen however, tried the new potato waffle. He thought it was a miss. The cheese on it wasn’t melted, just a slice between two waffles. On the side were little bits of bacon with maple syrup. Looked like grease to him. They really need to bring regular waffles back. Hopefully by our next Edge class cruise in August. I then tried to reach the couple on the ship that we’re touring with in St. Maartin. They said they were having a late breakfast in the buffet, so we went there. We wandered around, but it was a little hard, since we’ve never met them in person. We did, however, run into Cindy and Bob, and agreed to have dinner with them on St. Thomas night. I then got a text from Lori that they were at the pool bar. So we headed there, found them and had a nice chat for a while. After the chat we thought about getting a drink on the Magic carpet, but no real seating, so we just walked through. We went back to the room for a bit after that, as I’m still trying to stay up with blogging and email. Next was lunch. We both started with the Bibb lettuce salad and I had the ravioli . For dessert, we both had the new pear poached in red wine sauce. It was very good. After that, we put on shorts, and went to the retreat sundeck to read. While we were there, a server came by offering mango sorbet. We then went back to the room to watch the sail in from both the bridge cam and the balcony. It turns out that from deck 10 the forward view is somewhat blocked by the bridge. Once we docked, we headed up to the lounge to get escorted down. That was amusing - we were able to get to deck 5 on the forward elevators with Eliya, but getting into an aft one was impossible, because they were all full. So we decided we could walk, and the stairs were jammed. Somehow she kept us all together, and led us around the (honestly not very long line) and walked us to the front. We were soon off the ship. Once on shore, first stop was Walgreens for some essentials. It’s right across the street from the pier. Next we walked around for a bit, and then tried to find a store to buy coffee in. We saw a Xmas display in a park that was very pretty. At the edge of the park we found a cute sign. We eventually found a store and were able to purchase some coffee. After that, we headed back to the ship. Once on board, we had some time until our reservation at the Rooftop Garden Grill, so we went to the lounge and chatted with Yulia for a bit. At 8, we headed to the restaurant. It wasn’t full, but there were several others there, including a large group that split up. We were next to the adults, and the kids were at a table a little bit far. It was fine. Before I get to the dinner, we tried to order wine. They had only two reds, both of which are now over the premium package. Elegance at 19.00 a glass, and one other cabernet. I ended up with a rose, since I don't really like cabernet that much. I thought, honestly, that since they couldn't provide a wine within package costs, they shouldn't charge for a wine that should never have been an upcharge in the first place. We started with the Vegetable Crudite. It was pretty good. Next course was salad - Glen had a caesar. Looks pretty standard, and the picture came out blurry (not sure why that’s happening with my new phone. I’ll work on it before my next cruise. I had the watermelon & Feta, which would have been very good, except their watermelons have lots of seeds. As you can see, I don’t like raw onions. About this time I got an ambiguous text from my sister about my nieces college graduation date “next year”. Did she mean next year as of today, or in two weeks. I was pretty sure she meant 25, as if it were 24, we would have plane and hotel reservations by now. We cleared it up to 2025. Fortunately , we will not be on a cruise at that time. For mains, Glen had the NY steak and I had the grilled filet mignon. It comes with roast potatoes, but I asked for baked instead. I also had the baked beans, and creamed corn. My steak was very good, Glen thought his was slightly under seasoned. For dessert, Glen had the Cookie (capitalization theirs) and I had cherry apple pie. Both were good. After dinner, we wandered around the upper decks for a bit, and saw San Juan at night. And we found this interesting piece of art. I think it looks better at night. After that, we called it a night as they say. Tomorrow, Sent Maartin and a tour.

This is our last full day, and we decided to go to breakfast. Once again I had French toast and bacon. This time, there were no hash browns with it. Which is fine. After breakfast, I decided that I did want to try the zip line, so we went back to the room for me to remove my jewelry and put my hair back. When we got there, I noticed we still didn’t have the new luggage tags, so I went back to the lounge to talk to the concierge. She said she’d contact the stewards to have them delivered. After that - it was time to do the zipline. When I got there,there was no line, but there were a couple of people ahead of me to try it. I did it. It was fun but only about 6-7 seconds, so not worth doing a second time. We thought we’d then try the climbing wall, but it was closed. So we headed to the Park Cafe in Central Park for a cup of coffee. It got rather muggy, so we finished our coffee and left. Also took a picture of the entire bubble installation at the elevator bank. I dropped Glen off and found Christina (online friend) at her rented Castita, and chatted with her and her daughter for a while. She got it at great price on the Good Friday sale. She likes it because she can leave her stuff during lunch. After chatting for a while, I went back and we went to lunch. I asked for the kids menu (this was the first repeating menu and it wasn’t too appealing the second time). Sivu gave to me and asked if I also wanted the crayons to color the picture in. I declined. I started with a wedge salad with tomato dressing. The blue cheese yesterday was better, but this was fine. Then I had the kids spaghetti and meat sauce and finished with another slice of key lime pie. After lunch, I filled out our luggage tags, and then went to the smoke free casino to cash out part of my OBC. I put in 40, and won 5.00 so I cashed out. I was able to get cash for it, even though the app said you couldn’t cash out OBC on slots. At around 3:50, we decided to go to Harry Potter trivia. We got there 5 minutes early and it was standing room only and not a lot of that. That’s kind of a failure on RC’s part, the venue was clearly not big enough for it. So instead, we went to the rock climbing wall. Only one was open, and there was a bit of a wait. It wasn’t too bad. Glen got about 1/2 up, and, let’s just leave it at I didn’t get very far. To reward ourselves for trying, we got finally stopped for soft serve ice cream. It was meh. So we wandered around the upper decks for a while. I then went back to the casino to use up the rest of my OBC, but I was apparently locked out. I have no idea how long the lock out would be, so I decided I’d buy something after the show. (I have since, on X learned that you have to spend 50% before you cash out or get locked out). We had reservations for Flight: Dare to Dream (production show) at 7. So we dressed for dinner and went to the lounge for a bit and then to the show. I didn’t love the storyline, but the effects were amazing. They actually flew the plane around the audience (yes, on wires, but pretty impressive). After the show, I went to the shop on the Boardwalk and bought flip flops and then to the candy store for some caramels. The shop has the self serve candy around, like a Jelly Belly display or any candy store that sells by weight, but I couldn’t figure out how to get the candy out. I asked for help and it turns out he just opens it from the top. Went back to the room to pack, and our room stewards left us a thank you note. After we finished the major part of our packing we went to our reservation at Wonderland. They seated us in a table in a corner, but it was quiet, and that was fine. The menu is presented in a picture frame with invisible ink. You paint it to see it. And a shot of the restaurant. Our waiter came over, and really all we ordered was mains and drinks. While waiting for our drinks he brought us the crab cones. It was crab in the middle with an avocado puree on top and a dab of wasabi on the bottom. Good, but the flavors aren’t really mixed. Glen said he’d pull ribbons of both wasabi and avocado along the sides of the cone before putting the crab in. Next our pre dinner drinks arrived. I got the Cheshire Cosmo, which is very sweet, as they pour it through cotton candy. Glen got the smoke rings. I have no idea what’s in it. Smoke is dissipating by this time. Next up was a deconstructed caprese salad and birds nests which is a wheat nest with deviled eggs. There was also potted shrimp and a lobster bite. Next time I’ll tell them only fish is the cone. They finished the appetizer course with wonton soup. Glen decided he doesn’t love pour over soup, because it doesn’t give the flavors a chance to meld. Our waiter recommended short rib, but I’m getting tired of it, so I had the “chicken and the egg”. The egg was cauliflower puree with butternut squash. The chicken was very good. Glen did have the short rib. We weren’t given a choice on dessert. The big mushroom was meringue and white chocolate mouse. The little ones, I’m not sure of but they had pepper in them and it was a mango sorbet. We were also given the world chocolate bomb, which Glen ate. Final shot of the restaurant entrance. It was fun and I’d go back, but I’d probably get more specific on shellfish next time (like only one). After that we finished packing and went to bed. Up early tomorrow to vacate the room. Next post will go on both RC and Celebrity.

Nope, Coastal Kitchen. Sorry.

Finally had a chance to read through this. On the Summit, I swap the desk chair for a balcony chair. That fits under the desk. Noce review. Were the mozzarella sticks from main dining? I don't recall seeing them on the Luminae menu.

I can now say, with some certainty, that Celebrity's Starlink is NOT good enough to watch this video. I gave up until the weekend (either Saturday with my 8ish hours at the airport, or Sunday at home) because after 30 minutes, all I knew about was living in St. Lucia.

After dinner tonight, I'll see if I can watch it on the Apex. Dinner's in 8 minutes. I got the email while watching the show. All they now need to offer is rought 1450 more in the next week for me to be Zenith on my next cruise.

Apex Sunday December 17 This is our first full day on the Apex, and it’s a sea day as we head to San Juan. The ride as been rather rough, and our room is just behind the bridge and one deck down, so we fell all of it. In spite of the fact that we moved the clocks forward, we decided to go to Luminae for breakfast this morning. We made it with time to spare, and were seated at the same table we were at last night. The breakfast menu has changed a little bit. Glen and I both had new items. I tried the baked oatmeal. It was good, but it’s pretty dense. Baked oatmeal is one of my sister’s go to dishes, and she wins. Her’s is lighter, and less cakey. It tasted OK, but I don’t know if I’ll order it again. Glen ordered Iberico Ham EVOO, with tomato over sourdough toast. He didn’t love it either. After breakfast, we decided go to Al Baccio for a while. We were able to find a table by the window and enjoyed lattes while listening to the captain telling us that we won’t be arriving in San Juan until 5:00pm (supposed to be 3:00pm). Apparently we left an hour late (Sky Princess left at least 8 hours late), and there’s been a lot of weather. Alt least they didn’t cancel it. After a while we headed back to the room to set up our router and Roku. We were able to connect everything. On the way, I noticed our room is on the sign for the hallway. We were able to set everything up, except we could not get our remote for the TV (needed it to switch the source) to do anything but change the channel and volume. I couldn’t find the thread that had it, so we called the head butler to get IT there. (He did say we could call him). While I was explaining the issue, he arrived at the door, and told us how to do it on their remote. After he left, we put it on the network, and watched a Chicago Fire episode before lunch, mostly because we could. At this point, I was sipping ginger ale pretty constantly, as in high seas sometimes I get a bit queasy. After the show we went to Lumenae for lunch. We both started with the broiled feta salad. I still have no idea what’s broiled in it. For my main I had my modified Luminae burger (halved horizontally, to make a 1/4 pound burger. They did it it right, but it had bacon on it, which I don’t recall before. And I finished with my favorite white chocolate mousse. Looking out the window, the waves look like cotton candy. After lunch, we thought it might be fun to go to Eden to read. Got there and it was mostly closed for a rehearsal of some sort. So since there were no good seats, we went to the martini bar and read for a while. I took a brief trip to the casino, and played 40.00. I was up 3.00 after the fourth spin, so I cashed out. I tried to add money, but appeared to be locked out. I took my ticket to the cashier and she explained that if I cashed it, I’d be locked out for the rest of the cruise. As been reported, you have to spend 50% of what you put in to continue. I thanked her, and left with my ticket. I’ll go back later tonight or tomorrow to play to 20.00. Eventually we went back to the room- I do enjoy watching the water and working on my posts. The balcony is a good thing for us. Tonight was the retreat lounge officers Meet and Greet. We talked to some new friends from online, and some nice people at the same seating area once the officers left, and then Carollyn, one of the concierges about her experience working at Costa during the Concordia incident until we eventually ended up at dinner. Tonight’s amuse bouche was a burrata and tomato treat that was quite good. For my started, I tried the Jerusalem artichoke (aka sunchoke), soup, leaving the prosciutto off. It was actually pretty good. (It was no recommendation on a previous cruise). Glen had the beef tartare. Also looked good. For my entree, I asked for the ribeye dinner, but with the 4oz felt mignon instead. Glen had the actually ribeye and it was much closer to a ribeye than previously. It was cut like a ribeye, just thicker. For dessert, I decided to try the “carrot celebration”. What we are looking at is pureed carrot on the bottom, some cream cheese and then a carrot foam. There were also dried carrots, and dots of chocolate. The foam and cream cheese were decent, but the rest was a miss. I don’t know what they were thinking. We went back to the room, watched a bit of TV and called it a night. We didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.

Symphony/Apex Day 5, Sea Day We decided again to get up for breakfast, forgetting that on a sea day we have until 9:30. I tried a cheese omelette this morning. It was big. Their sides of bacon, however are quite good. We’d received our luggage tags last night, and we had Suites/Pinnacles (looks just like Suites/Zenith on X). However I was told that we should be able to get a transfer to terminal 25. So I went back and asked Jennie about it. She called someone and said that we could go on an airport shuttle, and asked to be dropped off. She gave us group 25. I asked what time it was, and she said 8:00. I asked if there was a later shuttle, because I want to arrive as late as possible, since I’m sure checkin won’t be open when we get there, and I’d rather wait on this ship than outside terminal 25. She moved us to 48 at 9:00. Next we decided to play mini golf. On our way down, we saw the gingerbread display on the landing of deck 16. We watched them put it up last night. The mini golf course was amusing and we had a lot of bad shots. The wind din’t usually help, although once it moved my ball closer to the hole. We ended up tied. Next up, I decided to try the zip line. I got in line, but they told me I’d need to remove watch, Fitbit, necklace earrings, so I decided to skip it today. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll remove everything and try it. Following that we headed to the lounge for a coffee, and soon after we got there, there was announcement from the captain. You know when he starts with apologizing for going into the cabins, it’s not good news. And sure enough, tomorrow will be another sea day, as we’re skipping Nassau due to weather. Oh well. At about 12:40 we decided to go to lunch. I had a chilled strawberry soup, and then we both had the truffled grill cheese sandwich with fries and salad. This is what we got. Apparently the salad is in the cheese sandwich. We’ve noticed that sometimes their food is a bit of a creative departure from the menu descriptions. For dessert, we split a rum soaked banana cake. It was good, although some bites were a little too rum soaked. There was an almond brittle with it that was quite good. We wanted to take a walk on the outside promenade after lunch. To get there, we decided to take the Ultimate Abyss slide down to 6 as it was faster than waiting for the elevator. There was no line, so it actually worked well. After a complete circle of the ship, we headed back to the room, and got ready for the second formal night (called dress your best - I guess they can’t repeat a dress code except the first and last night). At 5pm we were planning to meet with friends we met online. We decided meet each other at Vintages at 5. We found each other easily and had a nice time talking for about 45 minutes. During that time it rained. Yes it rained in the middle of the ship. The bar is in the Central Park neighborhood, which is open to the sky. They do have umbrellas at either end of the neighborhood to use to walk across while it’s raining. During our meeting we did use our free drink vouchers, We waked a little after that and then headed to the room. Our laundry was back! Our new luggage tags were not there yet. I’ll ask if they’re not there after room servicing tomorrow morning. And a not good picture of the ticket, as promised. About 8:20 we headed to the restaurant. It’s going to be our last dinner in Coastal Kitchen, since we have specialty tomorrow. It was very busy. I think because it’s the last formal and it has lobster. While waiting, we took a peak at the dining room menu. It was really more for curiosity, because we’d missed our set dining time by about 1/2 hour. They did have lobster, but not rack of lamb. Interestingly the lobster that was a main entree was the same lobster as the upcharge lobster every day (including today). The wait wasn’t all that long, and we were seated at one of our regular tables. In a rare event, Glen and I had exactly the same meal - a wedge salad and rack of lamb. Best meal of the cruise so far. While they did have Baked Alaska on the menu, I don’t eat chocolate, so we both finished with creme brûlée. The wedge: And the lamb: After dessert we headed back to the room for the night. Tomorrow is the last full day of this cruise.

I usually don't get dining packages, as on a 7-10 day cruise, I prefer to do one specialty only. However, with my sister on the Beyond we have a 3 night, because Luminae on the E class has limited off menu options. I'm modifying a lot of things.

oops! Glad you enjoyed it.

Hello. A little over a week ago, I pointed you to my Royal Liver from. Yesterday, we moved over to the Apex, and here's the live. I'm posting all of yesterday, including the early morning on the Symphony. So today we move from our first Royal Caribbean and Symphony of the Seas cruises to our first cruise on the Celebrity Apex. We woke up around 7. Breakfast closed at 8 and that would give us enough time to get ready to go, and do one last check of the room. Last night I had a bit of a worry as it said my air tag was in Fort Lauderdale. I don’t see how I could have left it in the hotel though, so we’ll see. After double-checking everything, we headed to breakfast. The restaurant was busy and the lounge was packed. I wasn’t quite sure how we’d know when to leave, but soon we heard an announcement for self assist and early luggage tags. I had Rice Krispies and bacon. I asked for banana with my cereal, and Rowella (the server) wasn’t sure they still had any. When it arrived, she said I did get the last one. After we were done, we stayed at the table drinking coffee, since there was nowhere in the lounge area to sit and breakfast was over. At one point, Glen went to the restroom, and I went to say goodbye to some people we’d met, and when we got back to the table, the coffee was gone. At about 9:10, our late luggage tag group was called. We headed down and joined the line to leave. It moved fast and we were soon in the terminal collecting our luggage and heading through customs. It was facial recognition, so very fast. Next stop, the transfer area. There were two.lines, one for Fort Lauderdale and one for Miami. I asked someone official and they had no idea what I was talking about. They couldn’t find our names, partly because I think they were looking at the end of the alphabet. No matter, they said they’d take us last, and told us to wait with the Miami people. (Note: When we used a transfer on Celebrity to get from Miami to Fort Lauderdale airport, we had the same issue that all buses went to the local airport). Eventually, I asked someone else, and he told me to wait by the buses. Then he asked a driver if they’d take us, and he said yes, so he had us drop our bags in front of the bus (to make sure they were at the front when we got dropped), He told us to board the bus in the front seat. So we waited. After about 20 minutes, the driver came on and said we were waiting for 10 people, two groups of 5. One had cleared customs and the other was still in. After another 10 minutes or so six people got on. Then the other guy said that we were waiting for 19 people. One of the official people said that the terminal was cleared, yet we still waited. One guy got off and talked to them, apparently we were waiting for the rest of their group. A few minutes later the driver asked him to call the other people. The person did, and reported the rest would take an Uber, so we were able to leave. I think all told it was 30-40 minutes. A Lfyt, if we were willing to wait 15 minutes, would have been around $8.00. If we ever do this again, we’ll get ourselves there. Fortunately terminal 25 was our first stop. We did notice a walkway along the route but it would have been a very uncomfortable walk. At the terminal, they directed the bus to the end of the drive, and they dropped us, and our luggage with a porter. Things went very smoothly from there, we entered the terminal, turned left for retreat, our boarding passes were checked, and we were escorted to an elevator. In the checkin area, we were checked in and boarded right away. First stop was our room, to drop our backpacks. Our “off the ship” overnight bag was checked). Before we got out of the room to go to the lounge, the head butler, Dharma came and introduced himself. We talked about what the service would be and he said we could always call him. I told him I wanted the minibar emptied (turned out all that was there was one coke) and we wanted to put water, coke and ginger ale in it. He said that the host would provide and refresh the water. Next stop was up to deck 15 for the retreat lounge. I wanted to try to get a reservation for Rooftop Garden Grill on San Juan night, and had been completely unsuccessful with the shoreside concierge. I had to wait a few minutes as the person there was helping three people ahead of me with the internet, but once I got there she was able to get us 8:00pm. Perfect, and no big deal. At 12:20, the moderator of the Facebook group, and my new friend texted about the Facebook lunch meet up. We headed down and joined 4 other people. I started with the kale salad with romaine instead of kale. IT was good. For my main, I had the steak frites, and it didn’t disappoint. There are new desserts. Glen had the Dark Chocolate and Dulce de leche mousse-like thing. I had the new Apple Berry cobbler. It was good and better than the thing they used to have. After lunch there was supposed to be 2:30 Facebook meetup, but by then, it had started raining, Cindy and I went there to see if it would be feasible (it wasn’t). We then wandered around the upper deck trying to figure out if we could do it. We couldn’t. The next challenge was to figure out how to get back in. Fortunately, Glen came out from the retreat area, and we could get back in that way. We agreed to meet for dinner at 8:30, and headed back to the room. I took my phone down to deck 4 (I think) and spoke to my sister for a while. On the way there, I met Shaun or room steward. I guess, since all the rooms in this area are sky suites, he’s actually a retreat host. When I got back, our luggage had arrived. By the way, my air tag was there. Soon after we started our grand ship tour. First some room pictures of the room. The bed. The balcony. Notice the lack of Kelly Hoppen tchacis. (There’s one. It’s an odd shaped vase like thing. I’m using it to store things. The really nice bathtub. Not too high to climb into. Here’s the entrance to some of the dining rooms. Ramdom hallway art. I think this piece is backwards. The funhouse mirrors leading to Blue and Eden. After our tour, we headed back to the lounge. They had their evening bites, which are exactly the same as on the S and M class - basically charcuterie plus glasses of nuts and potato chips. I decided to show them what Royal offers, and when I went to the desk, I realized that concierge Yulia was in fact the same Yulia who was there on the Equinox with us in 2021. We chatted for a bit about things. It was nice to see her. Next up getting ready for the evening. We decided to go to the 7:00 pm show. We got there around 15 minutes early per head butler recommendation. There were lots of seats so, since the stage is round, we went to the second row on the side. We moved in a couple of seats, because there was a family with.a small child behind us. However just before showtime, a couple sat down. I mentioned that there was a tiny little girl behind them (still lots of seats) and all they said was “OK”, and stayed. Then a group sat right in front of me, block my view, so I went the first row. The show was called “Tree of life, and it was a standard production show with a theme of seasons around a tree (only stage prop). The screens behind it displayed the changing seasons. Kind of cool, but no story. Some pictures. After that we went back to the lounge to wait for our 8:30 dinner. At 8:20 Cindy texted they were at the table. We headed down and joined them at a table in an alcove behind the entry. Our waiter came and told us the main dining every day was available. I started with main dining onion soup. For may main I had the New York steak with Cabernet sauce: Doesn’t exactly look like a NY steak. For dessert, I tried the citrus orange sponge. The picture didn’t come out, but it was a spongy bit of orange and some citrus slices. Not bad, actually. We enjoyed some talk after dinner and then back to the room for the night. The ship was rocking a lot, so taking a shower was fun. Glen took the first one and explained how all the pieces worked. He did say to wait for it to get warm. Once I did it was nice. I finished the night with a Facebook chat with someone down the hall. We’ll have drinks tomorrow night.

I haven't abandoned this. I tried to post last night, but something went wrong, so I'll try again in a day or two. Thanks

We boarded the Apex yesterday, and so far, it's good. The head butler came in and introduced himself as we were dropping our bags off. I mentioned that I wanted the minibar emptied, because I wanted to put bottled water (not Evian, I don't like it, coke and ginger ale in it. He said he'd have the room guy make sure we had water, and a couple hours later, he delivered two cans of coke and two of ginger ale. Turns out all that was in the refrig was a can of coke, but that was gone and there were 3 bottles of water in the room. Two more bottles were added this morning. Today, we had some issues attaching our Roku ie we couldn't get our remote to work, so I called him. While I was still trying to explain it, he was at the door and told us how to use the supplied remote. I have not yet tried any food delivery. And a friend had the pigs feet thing and thought it was delicious. I think I'm going to get a little tired of onion soup and NY steak by the end. I'm thinking maybe for future cruises we'll sometimes go to dinner elsewhere, and use Luminae for breakfast and lunch.

Good plan. BTW, there was a sign in the shuttle about charges, but they don't apply to airport pickup. We were there after a cruise ending in Miami, and decided to spend the night (sometimes when it's either a very late flight, or too early, we'll do that. We used a Celebrity transfer to FLL, and then grabbed the shuttle from there. Enjoy!

For that hotel, you probably need a car, since it's about 20 minutes from the airport. We did once stay at the Airport Marriott after a cruise. It's nice. It has an M club on the lobby level, and it's also across the street from an outdoor mall with lots of food choices, and (if memory serves) an ice cream kiosk. I'd stay there again.

Symphony/Apex Day 4 - Falmouth Jamaica We decided today to wake up in time for breakfast with time added to put out the laundry. We fill the 34.99 bag (I forgot to take a picture, but from memory it’s socks, pajamas, underwear, tee shirts and swimwear). We put everything but 3 polo shirts and two long sleeve shirts in. We put those in a separate bag, since we had some OBC we’re not using. We enjoyed breakfast - Glen tried the Eggs Baja and reported they were good, and I had French toast and bacon. They did serve a hash brown with it, which is a little strange, although their hash brown is very good. After breakfast we went to our room and got our stuff, backpack, wallet, photo id and sunscreen. Going back to the elevator bank Jennie was running an express elevator, and we disembarked quickly. Boom, I realized I left my phone in the room, so back I went. They didn’t make me go through security and I found it and went back down. We walked through the port area, and on the way stopped at a gift shop to buy a small bag of JBM coffee. Someone in the store said it was cheaper outside the port, but Glen was already paying for it. If we love it, we’ll start buying online from home. Walking towards the Port exit, there were various signs explaining Jamaica history. The last one was about their most famous person - Usain Bolt. Apparently he’s from nearby and shows up to visit occasionally. Once outside, I navigated us to something google maps said was a clothing store. It was about a 6 block walk from the port exit, but there was nothing there. Along the way, we’d noticed what appeared to to be a clothing store, so we went there, Nope, very small and current stuff. Oh well. I did ask about coffee and she pointed us to a supermarket down the street. Turned out no coffee there except instant. I’d noticed a store called Englishmans and navigation said it was just down the street. We went in and there were a bunch of ties behind the counter. Glen picked out a blue one, we paid the very nice owner 10.00 and tie problem solved! I asked him where to get JBM at a decent price, and he said just at the port exit, so we waked back. Right by the exit there was a little market area with little gift stalls. A woman who had one asked us to come in, and we did, but asked for coffee. She took us to a friend’s stall and we got another small bag, this one for less. Again, we’ll see when we get home if we like it enough to order it. (We do get 2 pounds every other month from Kona). We also went to the stall of our "guide" and bought a magnet, a shirt and a dress for Caribbean night tonight. She was very helpful and we were happy to help her out. Did we overpay? Maybe, but it wasn't a lot for what we got. After that we headed back to the ship, put our purchases in the room and headed to lunch. It wasn’t very busy so we sat in a different part of the restaurant. We both started with snap pea salad. Notice what’s not there? Looks like an arugula salad to us. We asked our server and she took them back. What came back was pretty much the same, but with julienned strips of peas, some with very tiny peas, in them, but still mostly arugula. The lemon dressing was good though. For my main, I ordered steak frites, which was steak with bearnaisse sauce and truffled fries. The fries had a lot of cheese on them, and there was roasted garlic on the steak. It was decent. For dessert, I ordered floating island, which is meringue served floating on a light custard sauce. I’m used to it on Princess, where it’s several little cookie size meringue pieces in a very flight sauce, and they do float. Here, it’s not that. Glen’s comment was it’s the Island of Montserrat. It was meringue and it was pretty good though. From lunch we headed to the aft on deck 15 and actually rode the Ultimate Abyss down to deck 6. There were only about 6 people ahead of us, and it was quick and fun. (It’s the 10 story slide - not a water slide, but a covered slide).. OK it was a lot of fun. After lunch we went back to the room, and I decided to try to find some real coffee, not the espresso machine at the lounge. I first went to the buffet, but it turns out they are completely closed, except for extended meal times (both X and Princess have some food offering all day). So I looked at my app and found that Park Cafe on deck 8 might be likely, so I went there. I found a line of people getting food, so I asked a worker about coffee, she pointed it out and told me that yes, it’s included. So I got a cup but couldn’t find to go cups. Another worker told me to just take the cup back with me. Yay. By this time it was getting on time to leave, so I went to the balcony and watched the Holland America ship (Koningsdam I think) head out. Then I met Deanna, our next door neighbor and we chatted as we watched a few people running right around all aboard, but they didn’t need to do that, as it turned out, as there were several buses caught behind a major accident on the main road back (we could see backed traffic and emergency lights from our balcony), so the ship waited. I figured at least 50 people. While watching, I noticed a stilt walker going by. Kind of cool. Once we departed, we got dressed for dinner, and headed to the lounge for a quick snack, and then to Hiro, the water show. It’s probably the most amazing show I’ve ever seen on a ship. Acrobats, dancers, divers, rope walkers. hHere are some pictures: preshow Aerialist - slightly. Blurry no flash Slightly less blurry aerialist It ended just before 8, so we wandered to the forward elevators, and then to Central Park for a bit. We headed to the room before dinner, and found a companion towel animal. We left for dinner around 8:20 and were seated quickly. Silvu, our Romanian waiter took care of us. We both started with a caprese salad, which they called Tomato Mozzarella. I asked Silvu if they had a thing for arugula. Without missing a beat he said “yes”. For my main, I had beef short ribs. Another thing they seem to like at this restaurant. It was good, and presented sort of like a bourguignon, but with polenta instead of potatoes. It was pretty good. For dessert, we both had ricotta cheesecake, which was also good. It was a slice of very light cheesecake. Tonight was supposed to be the best night of the current meteor shower. We went on the balcony after dinner to see it, but it wasn’t great so we walked to the suite sundeck but no good views their either. By this time, clouds were coming in, so we gave up. Back at the room, we opened the curtains, as it was getting late. I went onto the balcony and watched the sky for a while, and then went in and to bed when it started raining. Sea day tomorrow.

Symphony/Apex Day 3. - Labadee We weren’t in any hurry to get to shore, so we decided not to set an alarm. We woke up around 8:30, and Glen decided to take a shower, so we missed breakfast. View of Labadee Our concierges said that up until 10:00 they would escort us to the gangway, and once on shore someone would be there to take us on a tram to the Suite area of the island. So at about 9:40 we went to the lounge for coffee and pastries. At about 9:55, Jennie took us down in a dedicated elevator, and we headed to the aft gangway. This ship is very long, so our walk off the pier was surprisingly long. Once on shore, we asked where we could get the tram to Barefoot Beach, the suite area. They directed us to further along the main area, and we found people we recognized from our tour yesterday who were also in a suite, so we hopped on the tram. After a short drive we were directed off. At the entrance to the beach there was a checking kiosk, and we got wristbands. We wandered in and found a couple of shaded beach chairs, and sat for a while. About 10:40 we decided to walk around the Island. We saw the coaster, the water park, and the zip lines. Apparently on the zip lines there’s a short “training line”, and then you get on a truck to take you to the top of the regular zip line. We opted not to do any of it. If you look, you can see people on the zip line. We then headed back to the suite area, where they had their own (unadvertised on the map) buffet line. We sat for a few and then got lunch. It was OK. I had a burger, a single shrimp with cocktail sauce (my mini shrimp cocktail) Following lunch, we headed back to the ship. I got a coke, and a couple of bottles of water for the room, and then settled down to study for my test. This involved reading a bunch of lectures, and accessing several short online lectures by various history professors. I’ve discovered that reviewing everything just before a test is the best way to do well. And on the multiple choice I got 24/25 so clearly it works. There are also two essays that will be graded later. This all took until roughly 5:15. The last view of Haiti. I actually took this to send to my professor, to show him where we were. In my last class from him, I took the final in Tierra del Fuego. So we dressed for white night dinner (I happened to have a white skirt that I take with me, so it worked, out, and Glen had a white shirt. We headed to the lounge for a snack, since lunch had been very early. On this one, I have to give a big edge (pardon the pun) to Royal. Here’s what their spread looks like. On every X ship I've been on there's the same stuff every night, cheese, meat and crackers and some nuts. At around 6:10 we left for for our next show, Hairspray. I’ve seen the musical professionally, so I thought it would be interesting on a ship. It was possibly the most well done show I’ve seen on a ship. The presentation wasn’t much different than what we saw, and the cast was great. (Maybe not quite as good as professionally, but still great. I only have two minor quibbles with it. First, it is cut a little bit from the stage play, but it’s still 90 minutes without an intermission, which is longish. Of course I’ve seen Six, which is also 90 minutes with no intermission, and that bothered me less. Maybe it’s because I liked Six more, and I’ve already seen this. That brings up the second quibble. I’m not sure this is entirely appropriate for small children, because 90 is a lot, and there are some inappropriate jokes. (Although most likely, the inappropriate ones will go right over their little heads). But overall we enjoyed it a lot, and were very impressed. After the show, we walked through the Royal Promenade to the forward elevators. There was a great band playing on the stage there, and that leads me to what I think for us is the biggest issue with booking Royal again, or at least the Oasis ships. Great dance band, no dance floor. On Celebrity, on the M class, Ensemble has a good floor, and on S class, you can dance in the Atrium. As far as I can tell, the only place to dance is Boleros, and their floor is a bit slippery for dancing. We have yet to make the occasional Recorded Ballroom music there. So we eventually made it upstairs, and to dinner. And I completely forgot to take pictures. But Glen started with what they called Beef Gnocchi. It was a slab of short rib with 4 little gnocchis on the side. I had a spinach salad, which had three large pieces of unadvertised roasted garlic on the side. (Glen put one on his bread). For entrees he tried fried tofu (good for him) and I had veal cannelloni. Dessert for both of us was what they called an ivory mousse with peppermint ice cream. Our waiter suggested that we switch the ice cream for raspberry sorbet. I did but Glen decided to brave the ice cream. Turns out waiter was spot on with this, as it did taste like toothpaste. Glen then got some raspberry sorbet. Tomorrow is Falmouth, and for us, a chance to pick up some stuff. We called it a night at that point. Tomorrow's cruise compass:

Oh yeah, it's been so long that I'd forgotten that the lounge was closed on weekends. (When my sister and I cruised in 17,18 and 19 I got a free night each year that was good at a Marriott in North Fort Lauderdale, so we'd stay there.

Osteria Acqua e Ferina. There used to be Goergios (something like that) in the shopping center across the street, but that closed )during the pandemic I think).

Symphony/Apex Day 2 - Sea Day We had an early start today, so we had an alarm set for 7:45. We had the backstage ship tour at 9:00 and we wanted breakfast. It’s convenient having two bathrooms, although today is really the only day on this cruise where we need to get up early. By 8:15 we were ready to go. We went to Coastal Kitchen and were seated quickly. We both had eggs, bacon and hash browns. At about 8:50 we took the elevator down to main dining on floor 5, and found the shore Excursion people. We got checked in and waiting until 9:15. I found our assigned table, and was relieved that it was a table for 2, so by not being there, we inconvenienced nobody. At about 9:15, Mu, our guide introduced herself. She told us the tour would take about 2 hours, with several flights of stairs, but not from deck 3 to the bridge. Our first stop was the dining room on deck 4. A head waiter gave us an introduction to dining operations, and how to work your way up from entry level (dining attendant) to Head of food and beverage. He then introduced one of the chefs who took us to the galley. We saw dishwashing stations, the cooking area and the baking area. Of course this tour is when the bakers are working, but only a little prep going on. Here’s the line where the waiters collect the different courses. And the bakery is in full swing. Next stop was provisioning, where they store and distribute food and drink. We went in to the chilly fruit room, where there were actually grocery store size boxes of berries. Next we went into the chicken freezer, which was very cold. Apparently for a one week cruise they will load 12,000 pounds of chicken. And, yes, they occasionally run out of things.. They order a few months in advance, based on the make up of the guests and crew. (Apparently the percent of some nationalities will slightly change the order. Following the visit to provisioning we headed to the engine control room, which they called the brains of the operation. One of the officers there gave a fairly detailed talk on how it works - fortunately today there wasn’t a retired engineer who wanted to dig very deep (that seems to happen every time I do one of these). It was interesting and we learned there are 6 engines and 3 azipods. The gentleman in the picture below pretty much ignored us the whole time, doing his job. The provisioning and engine room were along the major crew corridor of I 95. She didn’t point out a whole lot except the corner of the crew Buffet. Apparently if, when the passenger one closes, unused (ie, still in tray) food is brought down there. Then it was down the stairs, below the water line, to the laundry. We saw the folding machines and the washing machines. They do crew laundry and guest laundry there as well as towels, sheets, tablecloths, etc. Apparently towels have to be hand folded, but the rest can be machine folded. Following that, we walked back up to the passenger elevators and headed to the bridge. Random art picture from the elevator. They decided to not do another security screening before the bridge, since they’d done one less than an hour before, and we headed to the bridge. Mu took us to one of the wing control areas, and in this case the bridge was mostly roped off (we do have a picture of Glen in the Captain’s chair, wearing his hat, from Princess), and she gave the informattion. On X and Princess, an officer does come over to explain it. The captain did stop by to talk to us and answer a few questions on rotations. Random bridge picture. After we left the bridge, we ended the tour in the elevator lobby. We did get two souvenirs of our visit. First a fact sheet about the ship (2759 staterooms, max 6,680 guests - I think she said we have about 6400). She also gave us: Inside is the little rope in the picture and instructions for knots, as well instructions to set a table. Not close to what Princess gives you, but Celebrity gives you nothing, except the lanyard. Celebrity takes the “All Acmes” badge back, but here we got to keep it as a luggage tag. We headed back to the room for a bit, and ran into our stateroom attendant and asked for a feather pillow for me, as the two they have are too bouncy for me. He deliver it soon after. After that, we headed to lunch in Coastal Kitchen. I started with tomato soup, which may have been the same soup as last night. It was served with two small Crouque Monsieur sandwiches, I removed the ham and they were yummy cheese sandwiches. I also had a penne pasta with mushroom sauce. For dessert I had a favorite, key lime pie. After lunch we hung in the room for a while, and I worked on the blog, and read cruise critic. Our first pre-reserved show as at 4:00pm, the ice show. We got there just after 3:30, which was a little earlier than we needed to. It was fun, and the skating was pretty good, but not a lot of content (the rink is pretty small though) and I’d say there were falls on about 1/2 of the double jump attempts. (On the other hand, I’ve never landed a double except on a harness). There was a story but it was hard to follow. My view is that if your show needs a narrative intro, it’s too complicated. All that said, we did enjoy it. There were a lot of people trying to get into the elevators, so we headed up to the boardwalk and rode the carousel. On the way to the elevators there’s the piece of art that looks like a wig. Apparently if you stand in it, you hear music. Glen tried it. We went back to the room after that to get ready for formal night. Glen then realized that he didn’t pack his ties. He went to the lounge to ask the concierges if there was somewhere he could buy one. Apparently not, so Jennie, went to find one for him to borrow (apparently one of the staff in the lounge offered to give him hers to use, but he didn’t want her to be out of uniform. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Jennie had come through! We will try to buy one in either Falmouth or Nassau. Once ready, we headed down to Central Park and the Royal Promenade to see if there was anywhere that might have a tie. There wasn’t. We did notice the Rising Tide Bar, that apparently movies between those two. It claims to be the moving bar at sea. I believe that the Symphony and X Edge came out the same year, and Edge had the Magic Carpet, but that’s only a bar on one deck, so I guess Royal is right. We went to the lounge for a drink and light snack before dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll take pictures of the spread, but it’s a lot more complete than the retreat lounge on X (at least on M & S class). It’s more like a hotel spread. For dinner I started with beef tartare, a little better than X, and RC’s version of a ribeye. As some know, the ribeye on Celebrity is a center eye cut (something like that) and not a ribeye as we know it. As you can see, this is a ribeye, and a good one. For dessert, I had rosewater panna cotta. It was pretty good. It’s advertised with an almond tulle, No sign of the almond. That was a piece of chocolate. Glen had the mascarpone cheesecake. It had ice cream with it. He liked it. In general, the food has been good. After dinner, I worked on the blog for a bit, and we called it a night. Nothing early tomorrow, so we can sleep in. However when we got back to the room, we had this: Towel animals are rare for me, but I’ve had a few on Princess. First time we did the room steward offered to let us take them home, but they’d eventually fall apart and we’d just have some extra towels that matched nothing. Finally, here’s the Cruise Compass daily planner. I can barely read it, but here you go:

So far, no charges against our whopping 150.00 OBC. We're doing laundry tomorrow, partly because we need enough clothing to get our first of 4 free loads on Celebrity back, and partly because we're mostly hanging out in the suite lounge and drinking wine and beer, so not racking up drink charges yet. And my final is finished! I spent most of the afternoon studying and it paid off. There are 2 essay questions and 25 multiple choice. The MC are instantly graded, and I got 24/25. The class by the way, is junior college American History 19th century. Anything you want to know about the civil war, reconstruction, the railroad barons, or our bad behavior towards Native Americans I can tell you. (I took the final for the 16-18 century class in Tierra del Fuego - I love starlink.) Updates will resume tomorrow.

35.00 or so and whatever you can fit, but it's a limited set of things. When I get ready to fill it out, I'll post a picture. And FYI - I'm exhausted, and hoped to finish todays tonight, but that's not gonna happen. I may not post tomorrow (Tuesday) because I have a final to take tomorrow night, but I'll be back after that! Thanks

Back after a few days of crazy. Saturday we flew to Ft. Lauderdale, and Sunday we boarded the Symphony OTS. So far it's nice, but we're in a suite (lower of the suite classes but a suite) and it's nice. It's busy and huge, with a lot of kids, but there's a lot of venues for everyone. On Saturday we get off and go to the Apex. Originally, we had the Edge booked for the New Zealand cruise followed by the Great Barrier reef cruise next moth. We moved it to March of 2025, which I'm now relieved about, since a lot can happen in a year. Looking forward to hearing about New Zealand.

Finishing boarding day ... On our way to our room after lunch, we met our two room stewards, both from Indonesia. They were very friendly and helpful. I also asked about doing some laundry, since we don’t have quite enough to get us onto the Apex and get a first load back. They’ll bring me a “load of laundry” bag. Next, Glen finished his unpacking, and suitcases are now under the bed. Of course once I put mine there, I realized I forgot to do one thing. I wanted to get the luggage tag switch done at the start of the cruise, so I don’t forget. My plan is to carry the tags in my purse or backpack on Saturday, and remove the RCI disembarkation tags once we’re waiting for the ride (I will of course detail that on Saturday), and put these on. I had to dig out the ones I didn’t use, because we’ll have an extra small bag for our overnight stuff. After I got that set, and Glen finished packing, we decided it was time to tour the ship. Since we were on Deck 17, we started with 16 and worked our way down. This took a good two hours, as compared to anything we’ve been on, this ship is huge. Along the way we decided we’d do the rock wall, the big slide, maybe the water slides, definitely not the flow riders, the carousel, and maybe mini golf. I think that’s it, but maybe I’ll remember something else. We did see a lot of people on pool decks, and a lot in the spa for a raffle, but here and there I we were in lobbies or venues alone or with few others. For example, walking through Dazzles, there were a couple of people reading or on electronics in there. Here are a few highlights, in no particular order: Ship view from Boardwalk View from an elevator lobby View of X Ascent from outside promenade. This is better than on X, as it goes all the way around outside. It is behind the lifeboats, but I could still get pictures. This is a view of the Royal Promenade. Balloons positioned for the balloon drop later on. More Art in lobbies. After the walking tour we went back to the room for a while. Glen napped, and I did some things on my laptop, including this. At about 7 we got dressed for dinner and headed to the lounge for a drink. It wasn’t terribly busy, I’ve seen nothing official about 60 drinks we get without a drink package. My understand is from 11-11 we get water, soda, beer and wine at no charge in the lounge (and espresso drinks from the machine), and from 5-8 a limited set of happy hour drinks. We also have 4 drinks a day from our status match. We’re not heavy drinkers, so I guess we’ll see what happens. At a little after 8 we decided to head to Bolero’s and see if there’s dance music. On the way, we stopped at one of the main dining rooms, since apparently we have late seating there at 8, but we’re eating in Coastal Kitchen. They told us everyone gets a dining room assignment, and the table was ours if we ever wanted it. Good to know I guess. After that we did check out Bolero’s but the band was finishing. They have an area for dancing, but not a dance floor. We did do a cha cha to some recorded music. Then we wandered for a bit and headed to dinner. We first were seated by the bar, but at our request they moved us to a window table. Our waiter is from Romania, and was very nice. At the beginning they bring out a plate with a small scoop of hummus, olive tapenade and butter, and a basket of various breads. We’ll see if they vary by day. I started with smoked tomato soup with focaccia croutons and Parmesan. It was good. Glen started with cured salmon, after asking the waiter what it was cured of. Waiter got the joke and came back and said loneliness, because there were two pieces. I also had burrata, but the picture was too blurry. Glen shared it with me. This medium blurry picture is my grilled filet mignon. You can also see the spread plate in the back. This was actually very good. Glen had the duck breast, and liked it. I had the warm honey pear with mascarpone and Glen had the chocolate Praline Tart. Service is good, but assistant waiter almost nonexistent. After dinner, we decided to go find the suite sun deck, which is forward on 17. To do that, we had to cross at 16, So we got our raincoats, changed our shoes to sneakers (it was raining) and visited. It looks nice, but it was windy, so of course we didn’t stay. After that we called it a night, because we have an early start tomorrow. One thing I noticed is that on both Celebrity and Prices, the bathrooms are a small step up. Here, they’re flush with the floor. I almost tripped twice. I guess I’ll get used to it.

Thanks, BTW, I've always wondered why you say "Cruise Compass" when showing the daily. Now I know where it comes from. Carry on.