Harmony LIVE, March 11th - 18th. Come Sail Away!!!

In a few days it's time for us to escape the winter. Sure, we've had less snow than last winter but I've had enough. At this point in my life any more than snow on Christmas Day is too much.

This coming Saturday, yes March 11th, we board Harmony of the Seas for 7 days of sun and fun. We will be doing a Western Caribbean Sailing with stops in Labadee, Falmouth and Cozumel. Join us and Come Sail Away!!!

Our home for the week.

Is that us waving?

Our Itinerary.

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Safe travels down Andrew, see you in 5 days.:)

I will be following in envy.

This March break we are changing up our plans from the past years. We aren't doing a B2B because of Owen's hockey. We are however leaving Tuesday to go to Sarasota, specifically St Armand's and Lido Beach. We are going to join my mom for a few days pre-cruise and see a snowbird in its natural environment. I guess she is “living the dream”, mine at least.

This winter it has been bad enough that there are moose in Western Canada, specifically in Banff National Park area, that are busy licking the salt off of cars to get the minerals and nutrients to survive over the winter. If I'm licking salt to survive, it better be from a margarita or tequila and not from a car bumper.

I wasn't joking, the moose are actually licking cars. I can tell you one thing - I will never lick a moose or a car and I sure won't share my salted drink with them.

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As for winter, I can't wait for the day that I can retire to Florida for up to half the year, or at least a couple of months. Then I can spend my day complaining about bad drivers, traffic, the poor choice of early bird specials and not getting to experience the change of seasons. As I have gotten older my foolish love of winter has passed, but this would have been me when I was younger.

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Love your past reviews! Following along. The Harmony looks like an amazing ship.

We can't wait for this cruise. See you onboard!

Thank you thank you thank you... we are doing this same itenary in November as the first leg of our b2b we are looking forward but not in a way it will be our family trip to spread the ashes of our 18 yo son who passed of heart disease 2 months ago today

Following.

So exciting!!

Following for sure

Since your mom told you (I sure hope she did) never to talk to strangers or get into a car with one, I better introduce us to you. You will be travelling with my DW Lisa (41), DS Owen (9) and me, being Andrew (45). We live in SW Ontario, north of London. For those geographically challenged, that is in Canada. For those really challenged, we are right above the United States. If you don't know where that is just continue reading, it's not like you are going to fall off the edge of your screen and Harmony sure isn't going to sail off the edge of the earth.

If you have followed any of my live reviews you already know what to expect. If not, let these first few posts give you an idea of what to expect. There might be hourly posts, possibly posts within minutes of each other, and at minimum a few times a day. They will be off the cuff, contain pictures and whatever else I feel like adding. I will do my best to answer questions, and like an excursion guide, I might make up the answers if I don't know them.

I will post the Compass but that obviously won't happen until we are on the ship and if you want them sooner, I will post old ones from a cruise years ago.

I will however post the actual Compasses nightly and on a separate thread so they will be easy to find and read. There will be periscopes at sea, thanks to Harmony's wonderful Wi-Fi and from ports thanks to data plans and free Wi-Fi locations. Expect a Sabor guac scope, action from around the ship and ports, and maybe a day time beach scope to make you less productive at work. I have a few other things planned, so hopefully I can make it happen. You can follow me at Andrew_1720 for periscope fun.

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Safe travels down Andrew, see you in 5 days.:)

I can't wait.

I will be following in envy.

Now you are making me blush.

Love your past reviews! Following along. The Harmony looks like an amazing ship.

It should be a ship load of fun.

We can't wait for this cruise. See you onboard!

For sure, I have no plan on not being there.

Following.

Thank-you.

So exciting!!

I agree.

Following for sure

Thank-you as well.

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Waiting for this cruise has been a bit tougher than normal and not because we feel like we have taken up tenancy in hockey arenas throughout south western Ontario due to Owen's hockey season. Could it be because I have been watching the newest season of Might Cruise Ships, or staring at my cruise countdown clock, marking each day off of the calendar, watching Fort Lauderdale sail aways, following the RC Periscopers at sea, seeing RC ads on TV, and reading reviews here on CC. Maybe, just maybe.

Then there is April, no not the month. The giraffe with her live feed on FaceBook waiting to give birth. I think our cruise will be over before her water even breaks. And don’t get me started on the daily emails RC sends, announcing another one of their sad excuses of a sale that display wonderful pics of beaches and cold drinks. Just like April, it's a tall tale of better things to come but just never seem to arrive.

Sure all of those things didn’t help, but on top of that we assisted my MIL and SIL plan their cruise that happened in February. Between looking at their ports of call, checking out deck plans, reading about their dining venues and watching videos of the Celebrity Silhouette, our cruise couldn't come soon enough.

My SIL Missy had never cruised let alone been anywhere warm in the winter. My MIL Sharon has had the pleasure of cruising to warmer climates in the past but unfortunately this cruise is her first without her husband who passed away last fall. You might remember I mentioned in my August review that my FIL Art was having secondary issues from a pace maker implant surgery. As it turned out, those issues were much more serious than first realized and had a cascading effect on his health. After a tough battle, congestive heart failure got the better of him. If you had the chance to know Art you knew he was a man of many words (more than me if you could believe it), an anxious traveller, and an even worse side seat driver, but still one heck of a good guy. I lost my dad in 2003 and now I've lost my second dad. We all know death is part of life but it sure doesn't make it any easier.

Lisa and I did as much as we could to make their cruise as planned as possible. Sharon and Missy both love to cook and they enjoy the spoils of their hard work. We discovered that Celebrity has culinary shore excursions in some ports of call and we surprised them with one of these excursions as a Christmas gift. After we read the description we knew this was the one for a multitude of reasons. They laughed just as hard as we did while they read it on Christmas Day. I think whoever wrote that description was laughing to themselves as well. We can’t believe Celebrity hasn’t rewritten it from complaints or maybe its just our dirty minds.

What type of techniques??? :o:') Needless to say they came back from their cruise well rested, maybe a few pounds heavier, and they are now self-proclaimed experts in jerk techniques... cooking that is. I'd be weary of signing up for that excursion during a swingers cruise, who knows what might happen. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Wish I was there with you, wait a minute, I WILL BE!!!!!:D

I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret. I have taken to doing some prep work on my live reviews. A few pics are cropped as well as the preamble above, for example. It takes a lot of work going Live on the ship, on top of standing in the flow rider line.

Vladi gave me a call at work last Friday and I let him know that I'd be gone for just over a week. I also let him know to keep his hands off the missile keys. Who else would he call on the red phone in the Oval Office? He sure isn't going to call the ship at $8 a minute.

Just like 2nd Rank Typhoon-Class Submarine Captain Vasily Borodin, I think the Pootmeister would like to have seen Montana. For some reason though I think a State visit is not in the future however, for some reason, it wouldn't surprise me to see him shirtless and riding a donkey in Cozumel. Only $10 a photo.

I also knew Lisa was getting excited to cruise as our house was looking even better than normal. I'm gonna pay for this one later, I know it.

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Looking forward to cruising with you...virtually! I love your sense of humor and am already laughing. I have followed you on your last couple of cruises via Periscope (my username is 'JulieinCA'....CA standing for California of course, not Canada:cool:). Hopefully you can get your Nespresso machine to work properly in your suite this cruise and won't have to make too many jaunts down to Starbucks in the wee hours;p.

Looking forward to cruising with you...virtually! I love your sense of humor and am already laughing. I have followed you on your last couple of cruises via Periscope (my username is 'JulieinCA'....CA standing for California of course, not Canada:cool:). Hopefully you can get your Nespresso machine to work properly in your suite this cruise and won't have to make too many jaunts down to Starbucks in the wee hours;p.

Thanks for following along at home. It would be nice if the coffee maker worked but a morning stroll never hurts. I suspect after the food consumption I am planning I will need more than a stroll. I might need to find the gym or the running track. :D

To help lessen the time until departure, let's do a little photo game for diversion and entertainment. Truthfully it will also help to pass some time here at work. Let's call it "How we do it here VS the warmer climates."

We use the snow fence to do this.

In Florida it gets used for this.

Here winter causes potholes and this is what we do with them when it warms up.

Some of them get large enough you can even do this.

But don't jump in them in Florida. Hey, is that a Gatorwop? Where's Captain Tax to save us?

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Now we are in the final round, that is if you are keeping track at home. Like Steve Harvey always says "We've got a good one". The winner gets a a free cruise on Harmony next week.... whoops I meant a free round of tap water.

With sand in warmer climates they can do this.

We on the other hand choose to use it for practical purposes.

And lastly we have some sunsets. This one was taken a few weeks ago just outside the hockey arena at 5pm. Nice, but cold.

And for the win we have this. Nice and hot!

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Have a great time! Following along....

I'm going to try to follow you posting/scopes while I'm on Anthem next week (can't believe that cruise is here - took my first advice about the "newer" RCCL and "genies" from you!). My Mom is sad that she'll miss listening to your scopes since I'll be away. LOL

Thank you thank you thank you... we are doing this same itinerary in November as the first leg of our b2b we are looking forward but not in a way it will be our family trip to spread the ashes of our 18 yo son who passed of heart disease 2 months ago today

live2cruise, I am sorry to read about your son and his passing.

It is physically the three of us going on this cruise but in reality there is a another one with us in spirit. We had a daughter, Allie, who was born with health challenges that she could not over come. She passed 2 days after her second birthday and as hard as it is to admit, we know she is in a better place. Owen was five when this happened and thankfully he was just old enough to remember her.

Within the year that she passed we took my mom and my in-laws on two different cruises as a way to say thank-you for their help. We also did it to make new family memories. I did a review of these two cruises combined into one. Please take the time to read it, I think you will appreciate it. Here is the link. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1873787

I know that you and your family will doing the exact same thing in November of this year, as we did a few years ago. It will be bitter-sweet. During that week you will look back and talk about moments and experiences that you all went through and experienced during his illness, both positive and negative. You will laugh and cry but it will be a trip to which you will all never forget. I believe and hope the day you spread his ashes will bring about a form of peace to you and your family.

We are sending you virtual hugs.

Andrew

Following. We will be on Harmony July 15th. Have a great trip and I can't wait for the updates. Your updates living up my day teaching and waiting for my cruise!!

Have a wonderful time! Looking forward to reading more!