Rewind

The Miss Behave show was great fun. Make sure you make show reservations as soon as you get on board. Miss Behave will open doors 15 minutes before showtime.

Dinner tonight was at Razzle Dazzle. We ordered and split the Fried Chicken, Short Rib Pastrami, and the Carrots. All of which were excellent.

Hi all! We have just boarded Valiant Lady and are wandering around exploring this great ship. This is our first Virgin cruise so there will probably be quite a bit of comparison to RCL. The ship is decorated for Christmas and I will try to get more pics, but for now we must muster.

I know it was mentioned by the cruise director at least one night - I can't remember which night but I think it might have been the only time.

I'm not sure on drink packages, but diamond vouchers work as soon as you get on the ship. I would assume drink packages are similar. I did see in one of our pieces of paper we got that the diamond drink vouchers reset at 5am each day.

I actually have the Speedtest app on my phone. Just about the same as the website but easier to find. Best reception - I never noticed an area on the ship where I did not have reception. Windjammer, MDR (only when we were leaving), Studio B, Aqua Theater, Main Theater, our cabin, random chair at the back of deck 5 behind the aqua theater stage on the walking track - I had a good signal everywhere we went. There was one time on a rainy night that we lost connection to the internet but I'm not too surprised by that.

Hard scoop ice cream was available every night in the Windjammer in the back section to the sides. They have dedicated freezers there for it. Yes, they close at 9pm. There was no dedicated ice cream shop onboard and we didn't try the MDR. There was soft serve on deck 15 (pool deck) near the aft elevators (but outside) on both sides of the ship.

We made it back without too much issue. The one thing (totally our fault) is we got into a waiting Uber instead of calling our own (got charged Uber Black rates). We picked up a rental car in Houston to use for a few hours and went over to Nasa's Spaceport. We have a ASTC membership with our local science museum so we got into Nasa for free. We were there 9 year ago, before they had the Space Shuttle Independence and that was a cool area to walk through. After getting through that section, it did start to get a bit crowded but it was still a good way to kill a couple hours. From there we went to Rudy's for some BBQ that our expensive Uber driver recommended. It was very tasty and the portions are decent for the sandwiches. Then to kill a little bit more time, we checked out a Marshalls and Nordstrom Rack (we find decent deals at the ones near home so thought we would look). It was then back to the rental place to drop off the car, a shuttle ride to the airport, and then waiting for a while for our flight. We fly Southwest and had pretty much middle boarding position (B33,34). It was going to be a full flight and by the time we got into the plane, the only two seats together were at the back. We picked the very last row on the port side and waited until boarding finished... only to find out that nobody took the last seat on our side of the isle. WIN! We spread out with the only empty seat between us and were not crammed in for the 2.5 hour flight home. That is where our trip ends. Feel free to ask questions - I think I have to find a thread about hard scoop ice cream now as there was a question there.

Morning. We are doing self carry so after breakfast, we grabbed our luggage and are now waiting in the MDR on deck 5 (first time in the MDR this week). Don't think it will be much longer until we head out.

We sailed on Oasis out of Bayonne in 2021. I don't know if she is still there, but I think plans were to keep an Oasis ship in that area. Our week is coming to a close. We did eat at Chops tonight (part of a deal from our TA) and it was very good and extremely filling. I didn't talk about the second diving show. It was more humorous / playful and had a lot more dives. The first show was more dancing and performing. Two completely different styles of show and both worth seeing. Some more comments on our stateroom: It is of the more modern design, doesn't have the combo closet / desk / TV / fridge unit and by not having that, it does feel - sparse but in a good way. We still have all those elements but just better organized and is much easier to walk around. We do have the bed by the balcony which is nice that you don't have to dodge the bed when changing clothes and using the bathroom. The bathroom has a good sized shower with a swing out curved door. Lots of space in the shower. I also noticed an improvement in the venting - older ships have a space at both the top and bottom of the bathroom door. When it would steam up, the exhaust would pull in air from the gap at the top of the door and steam would not escape. On Harmony the gap is only at the bottom of the door. This pulls in cooler air and vents better. Plus with the almost sealed shower, it keeps the steam inside the shower area better leaving the rest of the bathroom less steamy. Would we ever do a boardwalk balcony again? Probably not. It is a bit louder than we would like and it really is a hike down the hallway to get here. IF we could get the last room back, I might consider it as I do like watching the aqua shows, but it would have to be the last cabin. That being said, we are booked on Icon in 2025 in a boardwalk cabin (it was a good deal at the time). But without the aqua theater shows or big screens, I am hoping it will be quieter. And we will be right around the corner from the elevators so not as much walking. I'm sure I'll think of more later, but it's time for bed so we can get up early and off the ship

Sat and watched the aqua performers warm up for the 4pm show. Just as they were packing up, the rain came in. Luckily we got here really early were in seats undercover. We wanted to get closer but now think we will stay here.

Sea day today. They did go ahead with both aqua shows last night at 8pm and 10pm. We went to the 9:00pm Grease show and the second aqua show just ended as we got back to the cabin. Grease was a good show. It is a shortened version going from song to song with great set pieces. It has been a long time since I've seen any part of Grease and forgot how bad the overall tone is (would not work if it was a new show in today's society). But the performances were outstanding and well worth seeing. When we did get back to the room and heard the aqua show wrap up, they announced there is a second different aqua show today at both 4pm and 6pm. They were not on the calendar of events until just very recently (they are there now but we're not there before we went to breakfast). No reservations, just first come, first served. Relaxing in the Solarium now but will be going to Captain's Corner in 30 minutes.

Was able to connect after the rain passed:

Second formal night tonight, first performance of Grease, and the rescheduled aqua shows... But we are currently rocking a bit due to weather. I'm wondering if they will bump the aqua shows again until tomorrow. Also due to the weather, I've noticed the Internet is a bit slower. I was going to run another speed test but the app won't connect.

The tiny ship is Hamburg - I had to look it up. It is a luxury liner that has 420 passengers. Cozumel day today. We have been here a few times so we are going to take advantage of a less full cruise ship. Right now we are sitting at the rock climbing wall overlooking the aqua theater and they are sanding down some seats as well as about to do some life raft training.

8pm and 10pm tonight are another couple of Aqua Theater shows as well as tomorrow night. While it does get loud in our cabin for being so close, we are tired enough to dose off through the shows.

We went and saw the iSkate performance. It's billed as more of a skating showcase and being "freeform" but it is still completely scripted and staged. However, this is a much more fun show than 1887 and the skaters seemed to be having a good time. My wife and I both agreed that Royal is trying WAY too hard in producing their skating shows. If they just let the skaters skate, it would be much more entertaining. No pics of this show - we got there 20 minutes early and not really any good seats left.

Yes, scanned both mine and my wife's cards individually.

No idea about the concierge, but our stateroom attendant is Albertus and he is very friendly. Just got back from Costa Maya in Mahahual. We did a ship excursion for biking and kayaking. It's an easy bike ride for about 10 minutes to stop at the lighthouse for a break, then another 10 minutes past the resorts to get to the kayak area at Macho's Bar. A break there to get ready and then kayaking out to the coral reef. The water wasn't too choppy but there were a couple waves here and there. Once back at the bar, we rested for 40 minutes, had a quick snack and a drink (not included) and then biked back to the port. It was a great tour but the bikes could use a little oiling.

Back to the cabin after the Quest. Very similar to previous quests we have seen / participated / captained before. I had to look it up, but the last quest we were at was five years ago to the day (no Quest when we went to Cuba, we skipped the one when we sailed with my MIL, and then the shutdown). It's good to have it back and had a blast. If you don't want to participate, just sit a bit closer to the back - although participation makes it more fun.

They are scanning sea pass cards to get into the Crazy Quest.

Tonight is Caribbean night and a lot of people are wearing festive shirts. We are now sitting down for the headliner Jennifer Singer and later tonight is the Crazy Quest.

I don't know why it is listed this way, but here is what yesterday looked like:

No runners today - we pulled up the gangways right around 4:30 and we're sailing away just before 5:00.