harryfat1

After dinner, back to the cabin to put last-minute stuff in the suitcases, and then it was time to haul them outside. On paper, everyone was supposed to have all the suitcases outside by 10 PM but when we came back after the show at 11, they were still out there and they didn’t get picked up until close to midnight as I heard the workers outside at the hallways taking them away before I went to sleep. What’s the latest time people have left luggage outside and still be picked up? Speaking of suitcases, is there a more important travel gear than your suitcases but yet we take them for granted. We never miss our suitcases until they are gone. When not on vacation, we shove our suitcases in the garage/back of the closet at home and when we go on vacation, we throw all the dirty clothes/socks inside the suitcase coming home. Not to mention the cruise lines/airports stack the suitcases about 7 deep so that if you are at the bottom of the pile, you are being crushed. How often do you show appreciation for your suitcase unless it’s gone missing? (Hint: we will soon find out…)

We said goodbye to our waiters. They were good. Not spectacular but not bad either. Pretty standard for cruise ship wai staff. Before leaving, we had to listen to their spiel on their requesting the highest rating on the post-cruise survey. Seems like that’s the standard spiel for all wait staff everywhere. We heard the same speech on Princess Cruise as well so it’s not just an RCI phenomenon. I assume their promotion/continued employment is partly based on the customer satisfaction of their job, which is why all wait staff on various cruise lines are pushing hard for a good number.

Goodbye from the MDR staff 20231230_202859.mp4 Singing waiter 20231230_203135.mp4 Grandma recording on her iPad

Dinner at MDR is Mediterranean food. I missed the lamb from the short 4-night cruise. Only get this on the longer 7+ night cruise

Done with bumper cars. Back to the cabin and shower. How many people actually have an electric razor that still uses this plug? The modern-day electric razors use USB cables for recharging.

As there’s not much to do, we saw there was a bumper car session starting in 15 minutes at 6 PM, we made our way to Seaplex at 5:45 to stand in line to wait for them to open. There's already a long line of people waiting at 5:45 for the 6 PM opening

Thanks for reading along and providing positive feedback on the Navigator and this trip report. Oh, very nice to see a Cirque show. I think I have seen 7 of their shows including the old one at Disneyworld before they changed out and 3 shows in Vegas and various traveling shows including Corteo last August in San Francisco. Still need to see the big "O" in Bellagio next time we are in Vegas. Enjoy the show and let me know what you think of it after you come back.

It's a good thing you could sort out the photo package. It gets complicated with younger relatives in other cabins in adding them to your package. Yeah, we got the printed package as it was just our family but if it were a bigger group, then the digital version would work better to share amongst everyone to print on their own.

Hi, Thanks for continuing to read along. No shoes restrictions on bumper cars. You will need socks for rock climbing. Probably need shoes for iFly as I assume they wouldn't want your sandals to be flying around inside the tube. Have a great cruise if we don't talk again before you leave.

I like these connecting cabins. I know the obstructed view sucks but if you get the connecting cabin and have a view facing forward as well to the side and having a wider balcony is a good trade-off

Back to the cabin. As I mentioned previously, we hardly ever see anyone walking on the Promenade deck. I sometimes see mechanics walking by. The area is very quiet We had already discussed this topic previously but here is when I took the pictures of the USB hub and different types of cables This picture of the pool deck at 5 PM pretty much tells all about what the weather is like outside

In case you ever wondered how thick is 100 photos, here it is as we went to pick up our photo package. They shrink-wrap it for you to take home. My wife also bought the Odyssey photo albums from the ship so she can store them after coming home.

Anyway, since it’s rainy, no photos from outside on the top deck. Time to go back to the Esplanade/Promenade The Bionic Bar area is pretty quiet.

Very wet pool deck area from the rain with the NorthStar up and running Not a single person was in the pool. No need to hog chairs today. Pick a chair. Any chair – preferably one not in the rain… So if you pre-order a cabena at the deck above, does RCI refund you the money if it’s a rainy day? For the people who will be sailing on the Odyssey this year – what’s the going price for a cabana rental on the upper deck? I’d hate to pluck down hard cash on iffy weather unless I am pretty sure it will be a warm day out

Carnival ship heading the same direction as us as they are likely heading back to Florida as well Very empty Windjammer at 3:11 as they officially close the place at 3 so there’s no food being served

Alrighty. Done with the contest. Time for a late lunch at 2:20 at Windjammer In case anyone is wondering what condiments are available at the WIndjamer, well, wonder no more… Here’s the last lunch at Windjammer for this cruise

Similar to the Navigator of the Seas competition, the audience voted for the oldest man, not necessarily the sexiest man. Guess the notion is if Grandpa is willing to go up and make a fool of himself, at least he deserves to win something… So the winner is the last photo They had all the contestants do a dance at the end. I like how the staff was frantic in trying to cover Grandpa’s backside before he inched further down - Yeah, he was the winner... 20231230_135917.mp4 All you ladies (and gents) are welcome to drop in your favorite “baby got back” YouTube video here…

After that, it was the sexiest men's competition. The crew made the disclaimer that they can’t control what dances/gestures each contestant will perform. Thus if any parents who are sensitive to this type of material, it’s time to take their little ones and leave the 270 theater if they don’t want little Johnny or Debbie asking questions afterward that they don’t want to answer. So each contestant does their routine and the audience votes on whom they like.

You can see the robotic arms on the right that move the 6 TV monitors My younger son and my wife were able to replicate every towel-folding shape they showed.

At One o’clock they had the towel folding demonstration and after that, they had the “Sexist men” contest. They typically have that contest up on the pool deck but as it started to rain by then, they had to announce to say the contest had been moved to guess where – yeap, our favorite place, 270. But first thing first - is towel folding. We sat next to "The Book" as we got there few minutes early and they were wrapping up another rehearsal 20231230_125549.mp4

Now it’s back to the cabin to start the dreaded “pack all the stuff to go home” routine. In the previous post, I mentioned I had to get different tags. So my wife and I got tag 26 but the boys got 40 but I wanted 60. Since we couldn’t move down, I just took their extras and we became group 40. Here's the departing schedule (I'll post again in the morning of day 9)

Some people are visiting the crazy aunt in the basement. Since today is “family day”, there were A LOT of people visiting the Uncle in Prison (aka photo area) because everyone needed to make their picture selections from all the pictures taken from the cruise. Every monitor was taken and some people had to stand and wait for an open monitor after people had left. It’s similar to Windjammer being full on embarkation lunch. This is why I highly recommend that you visit the uncle in prison daily and select the pictures you like as you go along instead of waiting until the last day as the area is crowded. I was looking for Brian @luvtoride from our roll call as I was looking for a guy with a bandage on his head (insider joke) but never saw him as he was probably here earlier during the day in selecting his 50 pictures from his package. As you recall, I mentioned that we ordered the 100-picture package for $150 or $1.50 each. I ordered the biggest package as my inlaws were originally going to sail with us but they couldn’t make it by then the deal was too good to give up as it was a 50% off deal. We opted for hard copies as if we print them at Shutterfly or Walgreens, it’s more than $1.50 for an 8 X 10 photo. Even though we selected most of the pictures ahead of time, it was still time-consuming at the end on which ones to leave out. OK, we finally selected all the pictures. Sent them to be printed and we will need to return in a few hours after they finish printing them.

The other day when I was taking pictures of the Wonderland restaurant, the rest of the family wasn’t with me and since today is the last day of the cruise, they wanted to check out the restaurant. Maybe on the next cruise, we will try Wonderland if they have the Mad Hatter on that ship

One drawback of 270 is there is only ONE way in and out on deck 5 (deck 6 is the fire door that Jim referenced to be used in case of emergency) so after any big event, expect a big crowd exodus. Also, note the “next cruise” tables to the right. On my prior cruises, there were hardly any people around the next cruise tables to schedule for future cruises but for this sailing, there were always people at the tables every time I walked by so that tells me there’s a strong demand for future RCI cruises

The officers lining up to say goodbye Time to queue up the classic song with the Bellagio water fountain backdrop