gotta cruise again

Snacks at the Diamond party, happening now. The green drink I’m having is just apple juice.

Ahhhh, that’s more like it!! (still not as full as last night but better than a few minutes ago)

Well, rats!! It is “refilled” but NOT like it showed up last night, which was about twice as much! I suppose I’ll have to keep trying LOL

Here is a different YC dining room table decoration: The 2 photos of table decor I’ve posted have both been facing the wrong way. For example, this one had the background greenery facing me while the front side shown in the photo was facing DH. I have now straightened 2 table’s décor!! Lol

It’s gray and cloudy this afternoon; no rain…yet. There are small whitecaps and we’re heading into the wind. I am quite sensitive to ship movement but it really is pretty smooth. Here’s hoping it stays this smooth!! This is the view from the YC lounge:

I’m aboard Seashore right now and have passed through the arcade several times. I wasn’t paying particular attention to what games were in there but it sure seemed like a LOT. Deck 18 starboard heading aft. Here’s a screenshot from the ship map on the app;

For us, very positive!!

YC restaurant tables now have Christmas decor:

Our first night, there was air whistling from the balcony door. DH went and closed it again; I figured it had to do with some neighbor sleeping with their balcony door open. Wrong!! We looked more closely the next day and realized a forgotten latch on the door, pictured below. I’m thinking we need to cruise more often so we’ll quit making rookie mistakes!!

They are fun & a little crazy!! They stick on & if I’m careful, last about 2 weeks. Look up Mani Me (no, I don’t work for them & don’t get a commission-lol)

On our trek around the ship this morning, we finally found the MSC Foundation shop and the bottom of their special sculpture. There is seating there along with tiny, individual video screens where you can see/hear about the foundation. It was too noisy to hear it though. It was a stretch but I reached up and put my phone camera kinda into the sculpture and this is the view I got:

Was sitting in the YC lounge with my back to the windows closer to the port side door to the outside. I’m looking toward the snack end of the bar when some workers exited a secret door!! I wasn’t able to grab that pic and shortly after the cart was moved back into its home in front of the secret door. But if you look at the photo, you’ll detect the vertical line between the door panels. There is no apparent handle though I didn’t do an in-depth inspection or investigation!!

We just went wandering around a bit to see more of the ship. A sea day tomorrow so we (likely) won’t venture out then. Went down to deck 6 forward, where the entrance is to the lower level of the Madison theatre. Now, there was a dance lesson happening near the entrance but not in the theatre: that’s the music & instruction you’ll hear in the background of the video. I believe this is the port side entrance and I did the video to show that there are relatively quiet places to be found if one explores enough to find them! I did walk rather quickly when making the video so it would be short. At the end, after the sofa, is the long hallway to the theater but I didn’t film there, as not anything to see in the hall. PS: 32.1 mb for the 18 second video did take a good bit of time to load (minutes!!) so I could attach to this post. Typing this while it loads; if it’s not attached, it’s because it took too long and I’ll add it later. IMG_8537.mov

I (finally!) looked at the ship map on the app and also double checked with the concierge about a library. The map said “Sorry this location cannot be found” and the concierge said “not any more”. Alas, no library. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

ABSOLUTELY!! (but not until this evening…can you wait?!?)

Going through my photos and thoughts this AM, which is why so many posts in a row. Last night, went to the Madison theatre (large one on decks 6&7 forward) to see the magician. It was good but between my mono-vision + astigmatism + distance from the stage in YC section, it was probably much better for others than for me. There were a few tricks when he wrote things down or the audience was to see particular things and from the back (or just my eyes!!) those things couldn’t be seen. If you like magic shows, you might want sit closer (or bring your opera glasses!!) After the show, we went back to the YC lounge. (The other night, I had enjoyed a Disaronno, no ice, which was served in a highball glass. This is how I figured it would be served; I had no particular glass preference.) Ordered another Disaronno and it arrived this way—love it as it felt like I was getting a big glass full!! You do realize that I thought to take the photo of the cute little glass AFTER I had sipped it all—LOL. It was filled almost to the top too.

And here’s a lesson learned the hard way; reporting to y’all in hopes it keeps your feet out of trouble!!! When unpacking the first day (though this could occur at any point in a cruise!) I had my sandals on, which have a bit of height (platform) under the toes…maybe 3/4-1”. Well, the closet doors don’t have much clearance under them when opened and when your back is closest to the bathroom and you open the closet door while holding a bunch of clothes-laden hangers that are pinching your fingers… I was in a hurry to hang them and didn’t take care to notice where the metal corner of the door was in relation to the top of my foot… OUCH!! I’ve had to keep a bandaid on the scrape as it is just enough of a scratch that other shoes could make it worse. Take it from me: be careful and don’t emulate my haste!!

To update one of my previous posts regarding the WiFi: we have the package that comes with YC, no upgraded version. I’m still having no problems loading photos to this thread. After DH tries to use the laptop to join a monthly work meeting this afternoon, I’ll report if that was successful or not.

I like coffee! But I rarely drink what I call “foo-foo” coffee. So getting to have expresso, latte, cappuccino, etc. is a real treat for me. And having my coffee in a martini glass with extra special flavoring is really fun!! So this AM in the lounge I asked for a vanilla caramel latte, extra hot, and it could be large—meaning the taller glass mug with a handle they've used before vs. a little coffee cup. It arrived and was beautiful; not as hot as I would have liked…but the container was quite unexpected!! It did work though, LOL I put the water bottle in the pic just so you could see the size of my “coffee cup” today!!

@KennyFla I did read the recent comments regarding YC service and was hoping our experience would be different…that any “new crew, new port, new everything” adjustments would be made. However, we both decided to simply enjoy our vacation and not have sky-high expectations. So it may be difficult to say for sure if things in YC have actually changed or if my/our attitude about this sailing is what has influenced my comments in this thread. Any particular concern you’d like my perspective on? If I have experienced it, then I’m happy to comment!

@Todd320 I haven’t gone back to look at the dailies to find the best answer to your show time question. It seems to me that the show times have varied a bit (though honestly, I really haven’t analyzed it). What we have done is to look at the various shows & activities for the evening and then plan our dinner time accordingly. They haven’t been taking reservations for specific dining times so we have been planning early or late supper based on our f we want a show or not. There is another live-from thread posted by @Essiesmom that is including the dailies; maybe there you can find me re specifics. Thank you for reading this one too as I’m trying to find the “oddball” things to report!!

Other threads have noted that it costs $17 to climb the lighthouse. What I didn’t remember is the give you a time when you can then climb. That’ll it does make sense to limit the numbers of wills in the tower at a time but after having wandered on foot (at a brisk pace too!) all the way fro Ocean House (with some detours when I got turned around) I was not only not willing to pay to climb stairs (which I can do for “free” on the ship) but I really wasn’t willing to wait 45 minutes. Again, YMMV as might your willingness to wait (there is a bar there too).

Oops!! I had no idea as I don’t play either!! There are pickleball folks on the 12/10-17 sailing & I wanted to let them know. I appreciate your equipment correction as I obviously needed it!

For the pickle ball people, I think these are paddles that you can get on Ocean Cay. $14.50 for the set. The photos will show the set and the name of the shop that has them. The shop is the building immediately after the Visitor Center.

Well, we made a rookie mistake last night. We know that before you eat at a restaurant, even at home, take a look at the menu to make sure you will find something to your liking. We don’t have a good seafood restaurant at home so decided on Ocean Cay for our Diamond tasting-menu dinner. Unfortunately, not really anything on the entire menu that would have been to our liking. We got enough to eat so we didn’t leave hungry but we didn’t really enjoy the meal. This thread isn’t a food review as food preference is subjective but I mention this as a reminder to all to take a gander at the restaurant menus prior to making a reservation. BTW: there was another couple there who were raving about everything they were served and couldn’t get enough!!