perfect match

Walk on to the North Star worked for us when we sailed on Odyssey Thank you for your review. I’m enjoying following along with you.

You look more like Floridians than Canadians in that picture! 😂

Thanks for taking us along with you on Indy, Andrew. We’re currently a bit landlocked with no cruises currently booked so I’m enjoying every chance I get to jump on board a ship virtually. Hoping to be able to remedy our landlocked situation sooner rather than later. Meanwhile, I’m here for anything you’re willing to take the time to share about your stay at Margaritaville.

Mmmmmm…. Apex coming to Port Canaveral sounds interesting. I really want to do one more 7 day Royal Caribbean cruise in at least a JS because that will move us up to D+. I haven’t been able to find a cruise I wanted at a price I’m willing to pay yet though. I’ll keep looking. We have had issues with both of our cars recently too. Some of the many things in my life diverting my attention away from Cruise Critic! All is well now with both cars, but the one I thought would be cheap turned out to de expensive and the one I thought would be expensive wasn’t too bad at all. Hope you get your car fixed without you needing to get a second job to pay for it. Very glad you were able to drive it safely to the port and back. Also made my day, but gained at least 5 Lee from just looking at the picture! 🤣 I’ve been enjoying looking for the planets. My success rate has been low unfortunately due to clouds blocking my view. My DH uses that expression all of the time. Drives me crazy with it! I have an app on my tablet I’ve been trying to use to see the planets. Unfortunately it has been cloudy here a lot lately so I’ve missed more planets than I’ve seen, but I did manage to spot some of them. They’re comfortable for short people like me. My cats like the similar style chair that we have too. We really enjoyed Wonder. Hope you do too. I may have gotten here really, really late but I’m completely caught up now. I also made a mental note to look for you around April 4 🛳️

You both did a whole lot better than me at getting here on time! These 3 day cruises are way too short - even when I’m not the one who is cruising!

I’ve always wanted to go there too. We had a land trip booked in May 2020. Obviously that didn’t happen.Unfortunately I haven’t been able to reschedule that trip yet.

Well apparently I’m late. As in very late since your cruise is already over and you’re at least most of your way home if not already there. It has been a very busy week this past week and with us not having any cruises on the books I haven’t hardly been here on CC at all. I’m here now though and I’ve found you so I’ll catch up as quickly as I can. Right now I’m at the eye doctor with DH. We’re waiting for him to go in for what we’re hoping is his final check up after hs recent eye surgery to remove a scar on his cornea. This place is crowded so we may have a bit of a wait. I’ll catch up as much as I can while we’re here. Going to start reading now.

We aren’t fans of the short sailings on the Oasis class ships either. That is why we currently have any cruises booked. We will either do other types of vacations or other cruise lines that are not part of the RCI group.

We sailed Freedom 6 months after I had both knees replaced. I called it my “Freedom Of The Knees” cruise. 😀 I was very pleased with the gym on Freedom and the staff who were there at the time. That was back in 2016 though, so I doubt that any of the same staff is still there. I hope your DH is able to improve his mobility through the PT exercises he is doing. I love Freedom and wouldn’t mind booking another sailing on her. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying seeing her again through your photos.

Congratulations on your win! I was very skeptical about those elevators at the start of our Utopia cruise. However by the end of our four days on Utopia I had become a huge fan! Even on debarkation morning when so many people were dragging suitcases with them we had no problem getting an elevator. I am now a believer!

I thought I was doing well on our last cruise when I found two ducks! I bow to your duck hunting skills! I like seeing the Stowaway Piano player in places like the Boardwalk where there is plenty of space to enjoy him. The elevator, not so much. I wish he would leave the elevators free for those who really need to use them. These pictures are making me sad that we didn’t book Beach Club on our most recent sailing.The price was sky high and my always cold DH was concerned about the weather. One of these days I’m going to have to drag myself out of the ocean long enough to go for a swim in that beautiful pool. Hopefully it will be that empty. I have enjoyed following along with all of you on Bella 2.0 🐾 🐾 so I think I’ll stick around for Bella 2.5 🐾 🐾 on Utopia!

Me too!

DH and I aren’t bar people but with @Sea Dog as bartender and @Ocean Boy on piano we would definitely go to the Schooner Bar! I only made it through page 30 today. I don’t think tomorrow will be much better either. At least now I’m making some progress reading this thread!

So far I’ve read through the first 25 pages of this awesome thread. My tired eyes are telling me it’s time for a break tonight but I’ll be back tomorrow. I really wish we had been able to fit either Bella 2.0 or Bella 2.5 into our schedule, especially after seeing what a great time everyone seems to be having! Unfortunately it was not meant to be this time for us. I’ll have to look into Bella 3.0, and I think I recall seeing that there’s a Bella 3.5 as well. @brillohead, congratulations on achieving Pinnacle status! You really moved up in style with all of the Bella cruisers cheering you on! I’m wondering what the attendees who knew nothing about the Bella group thought when they saw how many people were there cheering you on. 🤔 That must have been one very special ceremony! I want to take the time to thank @Sea Dog for getting this thread going and to everyone else here who have been contributing their words, their pictures, or their presence as part of this group for allowing those of us who are currently landlocked to feel that we too are a part of this group. I’m happy to be following along from my living room! I’ll be back tomorrow!

I’m finally starting to read this thread while waiting for DH who is having eye surgery today. I was shocked to hear about Laura! I knew about Bella’s passing because I read about it on another thread but not Laura. I’d been planning to follow this thread when it first started, but we were on Utopia then and I only had two days of internet to work with, then things just got busy when we got home. I finally have a time today when I can spend some time here, so I’ll catch up as much as I can while I can. I wasn’t expecting to be posting yet but I couldn’t let this news go unacknowledged. John, if you happen to see this I’m so sorry for your losses. Now, I’ll head back to the start of this thread and get reading!

Thank you for taking the time out of your birthday trip to share it with us. I’m glad to hear that you had such a good time celebrating your 40th! I enjoyed following along with you.

We were on Utopia Jan 27 th cruise and had those seed rolls every night. Hope you get them too.

Yep, Bill is going to be in trouble for that one! 😂😂😂😂😂 That’s even though he is a bit behind in seniority!

Smart AND well trained grandkids! I would never have dreamed of asking for a cruise on my 10th birthday. @jam19872016, thank you very much for another wonderful review! As usual I enjoyed following along with you. I’ll be looking for you on Celebrity on Feb 28 and on Wonder in July.

I’m looking forward to following along on your birthday celebration! 🎂

Thank you @DandDM for a very enjoyable and informative review. I started reading with great intentions of keeping up with you live, but that didn’t go so well. We were on Utopia while you were live and we decided to use our free 💎 Diamond days for internet. I’m finally all caught up now. I have wanted to try a smaller ship for a while now, and to sail out of Tampa. I’ve been over that beautiful Sunshine Skyway bridge a number of theme but never under it. I’m wondering if we would be disappointed by the entertainment. We enjoy the shows on the big ships and I’m not sure the smaller ship shows would have the same “wow” factor. I’m glad you and your son had a great cruise and spent some quality time together.

I found 2 ducks on Utopia. Gave one away and found the second disembarkation morning so it came home with me. Ate a lot by my standards but my activity level was up enough so thank goodness I didn’t gain weight! If your mom was too young during the height of the Beatles era then I must be older than your mom! 😱😂 DH definitely is! I normally like to plan our cruises well in advance. As we get older we’ve decided that we’re going to wait until we get closer to the sail date to book because you never know what might come up. We almost had to miss Utopia because our senior cat got pretty sick about a week before we sailed. Fortunately, 2 vet appointments and a lot of antibiotics later he was well enough for us to feel ok about going. We also had a car sitter lined up who was comfortable giving him his meds. He’s doing much better now, but it was really hard to leave home knowing that he wasn’t feeling well. On your next trip remind your mom to bring the scooter instructions along with the charger!

A tee shirt that’s made to look like a tuxedo?

At this point no cruises on our schedule. 🥺 We do have a land trip to see some friends who moved from our area to Port St Lucie a year ago. We’ve seen them since then, but not their new house.

To stick with your salt and pepper shaker theme the pair above are from our table in the MDR. The ones below were from the Windjammer. all tables seemed to have matching sets. No pictures from Giovanni’s but they were the same as the ones from the MDR.