Dorhead1230

I can’t figure out why that happens with the photos sometimes! Once, I even tried turning the original upside-down and uploading it, thinking it would then post right-side up. Nope! Foiled! Once a few years ago, we got the rainbow, or maybe it was red, white, and blue…great fun either way, though!

Thanks for this! You’re always the best for keeping those of us onboard informed about weather and sea conditions 😊

A somewhat gloomy sailaway, but so happy to be onboard nonetheless! A fun farewell from NY’s Bravest!

I’m posting fast and furious right now because I may hold off until tomorrow to post anymore once I lose Verizon service now. This is today’s Daily and photos of the screen that shows the current officers. Of course the officer pics are doing the upside down loading. I guess you could save them and rotate or portrait lock your phone to look if you’re interested in them…sorry! Can’t figure out why it does that sometimes!

I’ve been sitting out on our balcony for a while because the cell service has been ok here for posting, and there have been two brief downpours…I could swear the first one was hail 😮. Either way, I was glad to be on my balcony with the overhang over me!

Ok…going a bit backwards now. We only waited about 10 minutes in the priority check in line. As we approached the boarding exit to get on the ship, my jaw fell to the floor when I saw the regular check in line from the rear part of the terminal. It was through all the stanchions and then extended most of the way toward the front check in desks. I really felt sorry for everyone who was going to wait that long to board, but I was so grateful we weren’t waiting on those lines. Upon boarding, we immediately went to our muster station in front of the Cagney’s and Le Bistro entrance and got our cards scanned. We then proceeded to The Local, as the MDRs were closed by then and I cannot handle the chaos of the buffet upon embarkation. We had a very tasty lunch, that was served fairly promptly (a little wait between apps and entrees, which the waiter came to apologize for, but it wasn’t nescessary—it wasn’t THAT long). Our food included: nachos for me, a Caesar salad for DH, and pretzel bites shared by DM and LM. Then fish sandwiches for DM and me, a wrangler burger for DH and a plain cheeseburger for LM. I am surprised by how much I like their chili (they put it on the nachos)—no heat at all, but it is tasty. I’ve always thought the battered fish there is pretty decent, and it does make a good fish sandwich—it was nice and crispy and the slaw adds a nice flavor and texture. I didn’t bother with the bun because it would be too filling, but DH did say it was coming apart on his burger way too easily and LM said it was “too soft” (he meant it was crumbling), so I ended up just cutting his burger patty for him to eat with a fork. We skipped dessert there and had a couple treats afterward in the OL. Not pictured are the burger and sandwich because the files keep failing to upload. I’ll try again at another time. We also stopped by CruiseNext to book DH’s and my very first Platinum ship tour, which will be bright and early tomorrow at 8:35 AM. Wines around the world is Tuesday (can’t remember the time), and I may or may not go depending on what we’re doing then. As it has been reported on here that Latitudes parties are just CruiseNext sales pitches now, I doubt I’ll attend. I have the drink package and a casino drink card, so I don’t need the cocktails, and I don’t need to hear about Prima or Viva haha. We realized when we arrived at the cabins that our steward must have inadvertently left DH the wrong Latitudes welcome card, because his Platinum card wasn’t here. We were going to head to CruiseNext because we assumed Joel (our steward) would be busy, but then we ran into him in the hallway and he took the incorrect card to fix it. Hopefully he’ll return with the correct vouchers later or in the morning!

Little photo dump from OL. I originally took a video, but it’s too large to load on here and I don’t do YouTube. Also, even though it wasn’t crowded, there were enough people there that there are people in the video, and I don’t really like to post video of random unsuspecting people if I can avoid it. So, these are all screenshots from the video I took. Doesn’t really do it justice in terms of what a lovely space it is! Not pictured here are the bar and the Starbucks, which are also great features of the area!

I’m still out of chronological order right now and I’ll have to go back to fill in more later, but they just called a code alpha in Garden Cafe. I hope the person is okay…not a way to start a vacation 😐 We were able to come to the cabins by maybe around 4-4:30 (they had announced a couple decks much earlier, but not all cabins until then). I would like to take this moment to reiterate that the Joy deck plans are incorrect regarding angled balconies. They are indeed one off. I am so glad I found that on a previous thread on here. 10342 is the angled balcony cabin, not 10346 as is shown on the deck plan. If you like to look for angled balconies when booking, keep this in mind!

I will go backwards shortly to the rest of embarkation and lunch. Right now, we’re sitting in the Observation Lounge. Often things I’m excited for don’t live up to expectations, but this OL is INCREDIBLE. Beautiful, comfortable, quiet, great views out the windows, drinks and snacks right here. You could seriously spend a good chunk of your cruise in here, especially if you’re not pool deck people.

The wi-fi came back up and great cries of rejoicing rang through the land. Then the security staff starting moving the line with the speed you would expect from an evacuation prior to a volcanic eruption. We cleared security within two minutes of the line beginning to move again. We’re waiting for check in now, but thanks to the Casinos at Sea booking and/or our Platinum status, the check in line is blissfully short. The regular check in lines…😬…may the odds be ever in your favor. There’s cold drinks and fun for us all right around the corner!

We were watching the man at the security podium flipping and flipping and flipping through a list. My mom and I were like aren’t they alphabetized? Organized by cabin number? Then I said they need to make an announcement for all available English teachers to come read through the manifests to find names. Actually, there’s probably enough teachers here overall that we could have this ship loaded in an hour or less…we’re pros at dealing with disasters on the fly and overcoming broken tech 🙃

Back when, DH and I would usually show up earlier and wait. Definitely not relaxing to wait with a 4-year-old, though lol, so now we try to push it closer to boarding time. The wi-fi is not in our favor today, alas. Otherwise we’d definitely have been on board already 😕. At least people aren’t being terrible in line! Everyone waiting patiently with minimal grumbling. I hope everyone is nice to the workers here when it’s finally their turn—not their fault that MCT is a crappy glorified warehouse lol.

Aaaaaand the wi-fi in the terminal is down. They’re literally attempting to sift through printed manifests on paper to get some people through security and checked in while the IT people work on the wi-fi. Oof.

Thinking embarkation MDR lunch is once again a distant dream…never waited in a security line quite like this before. It was within a couple lanes of the end of the stanchions when we entered the terminal, and now that we’ve made it about halfway through, it’s pretty much all the way to the doors. We have observed that it looks like they’re periodically stopping the line in order to let the check-in lines go down, and then they let another stream of people through security. LM is being patient and getting a little antsy, and DH just keeps saying I told you we should have gotten here at 2…I am closing my eyes and silently repeating to myself that I’ll have a cocktail in my hand soon enough.

Ha! We’re from Smithtown, too! So cute! And thank you!

I spy a Joy!

So close! Just a tunnel and an island to cross and we’re there! And it’s doing the upside-down picture thing…eh whatever you get the idea lol.

Major crisis averted! LM has a doll (which he named baby Sam) who he sleeps with every night. I casually remarked to DH that I hope LM doesn’t flip out when he finds out we decided not to take his stroller on this trip, and he suddenly looked at me with such horror in his eyes that I just gasped. He didn’t even have to say it—baby Sam was left at home. We decided it would be better to let the meltdown happen in the car rather than later on the ship. But we staved it off by telling him we’d stop at a store so he could pick a new friend to come on the cruise to sleep with. Luckily we were near Westbury (if you know the area, you know how many stores are there), so DH pulled into Walmart and LM and I ran in. He picked a stuffed Mickey Mouse and is very happy to take him on his adventures now. And thus we were pulled back from the brink of ruin 😅.

We actually left on time! This may not seem like much of an accomplishment for 3 grown adults, but for this family it is lol. We’re very punctual people for appointments, family functions, etc. but for trips and fun stuff we’re usually a disaster getting out of the house. Now, we’re on the Northern State Pkwy. around exit 36 already and it looks like smooth sailing to the terminal!

So I accidentally posted this in the wrong thread earlier…the stress of packing really must have gotten to me 😅. I’m pasting it here for posterity: Diligently avoided all distractions today, and everyone was completely packed with suitcases zipped up and locked at 9:42 PM! Huzzah! Aiming to head out in the morning around 10 AM (we’re only 50 miles from the terminal). Doesn’t look like the best weather for tomorrow, but the forecasts around here have not been very accurate lately where rain is concerned, so maybe it’ll turn out better than the forecast says! In addition, let it be known that I received no less than 4 safety video emails today…I think I’ll just walk around all day tomorrow (omg wait no! It’s today! I better go to sleep lol) wearing my life jacket to prove I was a good student.

@mshaines what a coincidence! And happy to be of service!

Totally just realized how loopy I am…thought I posted the post above on my semi-live thread 🤦🏻‍♀️…so sorry for the complete non sequitur lol.

Diligently avoided all distractions today, and everyone was completely packed with suitcases zipped up and locked at 9:42 PM! Huzzah! Aiming to head out in the morning around 10 AM (we’re only 50 miles from the terminal). Doesn’t look like the best weather for tomorrow, but the forecasts around here have not been very accurate lately where rain is concerned, so maybe it’ll turn out better than the forecast says!

Wow; that makes it even better! 😃

We had aft-facing balcony 13304 on Getaway in February and no problems at all. Enjoy your cruise!