The Grumpus

Wow, all the way through September. I haven't been keeping up with recent Haitian events since the takeover but clearly Royal must believe Labadee is a lost stop for the foreseeable future.

Well, toxic waste to some is another's treasure. LOL No, I didn't know that. That would be pretty gross, not to mention unhealthily and it probably wouldn't run well in the news for RCCL to be debarking passengers in a toxic waste site.

It's possible they could tender passengers off the ship and have busses waiting at a pier at Sparrows Point, which is outside of the bridge. From there it's about a 20-minute bus ride to Seagirt Cruise Terminal. I don't know what condition the piers at Sparrows Point currently are for this to happen and if there's a possibility they could just dock the ship there to unload. I seriously doubt Sparrows would be a viable alternative to Seagirt to continue sailings from, only a one time emergency off-load of the passengers. I would take that over debarking from Bayonne.

It’s possible they could use Sparrows Point to offload the passengers but that’s pretty close to the scene and I don’t know if authorities will want any ships near that area for the foreseeable future.

We're used to our pool being 87+ so the wave pool is pretty cold in April to us, probably around 75 degrees. Feels even colder if it's a cloudy & windy day. It didn't appear to stop many kids because they packed the wave pool. The Oasis pool is pretty cold too but we can usually find a return pumping out warm water and stay close to that.

Morning - Orange Juice Poolside - Frozen Mojito Evening - Captain and Diet Coke

I was looking at Freedom for next August and a JS totals $3800+/- for the three of us. I thought, well that's not bad, I just want to choose the refundable option and bam... an additional $2,200+/- for refundable. Well they can keep the cabin, if someone else wants to pay that much for it, more power to them.

I don't get it. I want to go to Bermuda out of Baltimore next year. Carnival Pride does a 7-night cruise to Bermuda with 2.5 days in port, meanwhile Vision does 5-night cruises to Bermuda with only 24-hours in port, but for substantially more cost. I've previously sailed both ships and it's a no brainer - I chose the Pride.

It has that luxurious price tag.

Since you mention it, I was just checking out the MSC America. It cracks me up how many different concepts they rip-off from RC ships - boardwalk like area, royal promenade, Two70, bumper cars, to name a few.

I think that's more of their sales MO to get people to think they better purchase quickly or lose the chance. It will be just like the Thrill Park in which they pack in as many people as they possibility can, regardless of the seating capacity.

Reads like it will be a similar atmosphere to being around the oasis lagoon swim-up bar - a loud, partying raucous.

Or in this case, deflation.

Wow, that's a pretty long time for some "TLC". It doesn't take them that long to amp-up their ships.

Just got word that the balloon will be closed for maintenance on August 15. Not sure if this is a long term thing or just the day I’m there. After the 15th I’ll now be 0 for 5 with getting to ride that balloon.

Not sure about the waterpark but definitely the balloon. I am 0 for 4 for going up in that balloon - it is ALWAYS windy when I'm there.

I only bid on JS/suites, so on Oasis Class there aren't any bad suite locations, which makes bidding on an Oasis Class ship pretty safe. I don't really care what deck I'm on if I'm getting an upgrade for little costs compared to booking it outright. I would be way more apprehensive to bid on JS's on Freedom Class given there's a good chance of getting one of the four aft JS's with no view on deck 6.

It’s tough vacationing with a 6-month old. We took our 6-month to Atlantis over Christmas for 8-days and it was a fight of wills. The baby eventually won out and after 4 days we did everything on HER schedule. best of luck!

OMG!

Looks like they’re planning to weld a metal plate over that hole. Pretty big storms are rolling in too.

The "day of sailing" IS day 1 of your cruise, so your five drinks for day 1 begins when you board the ship.

On Wonder the bridge wings are on deck 14. This ship is showing suites there, which leads me to believe there are no wings to go out on to view the bow of the ship. Which is fine if that’s your cabin but sucks for everyone else.

So above the bridge wings are now suites?

We got 20% off these. Between the cooler bags and 5 drinks from D+, it will come out to about a $1 a day for the first six beers. That would also make it unlikely the deluxe package would be worth it, for us anyway. We would have to each have about 15 drinks a day.

Looks like the tide is up some since I posted so much of the sargassum is currently in the surf. This is live from higher up and looking straight out. Yeah - the beach looks pretty quiet; everyone is down in Miami Beach! 😄