Somewhat LIVE - Indy T-Day weekend 11/24/16

For the past nine years my Thanksgiving weekend has been on an RC ship. I cannot miss Christmas at home in Boston, but I do not like dealing with T-Day travel craziness.

I'm cruising with about 10 friends. We all met on ships.

My only hiccup so far is that my cabin door handle mechanism is broken. Either someone tried to push the door open or ? The deadbolt was stuck open. I finally managed to retract it so I can at least close the door. Maintenance will not work on your cabin without you there and I just don't have time for that now :)

Check in was a breeze. Curb to cabin in under 15 mins. Much more to come.

Cabin -

Diamond Plus Stuff

The mini bar menu. (Personally I miss having a stocked mini bar).

Drink package explained:

No suite this trip. But a simple balcony works fine for me.

One thing I love about Freedom class (or Voyager) is that everyone goes to Windjammer, leaving the Royal Promenade blissfully quiet for a drink, sandwich (or pizza). Of course the bliss only lasts a couple of hours and then the masses discover the Promenade :)

Time for muster.

I have a hump balcony on 7. The balcony is slightly bigger due to the hump. I chose 7 to be a couple of stairs away from dining and the action on decks 4-5. (There was also a really great sale price on it in September when I downgraded from a JS).

This is my third time on Indy, so I don't have much new to explore.I'm just looking forward to a relaxing weekend with friends.

Oh. And my Periscope handle is the same as here @MattInFLL

Enjoy cruising with your friends!

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I don't see any discount off drink packages on your D+ coupon listing. Is it just specific sailings?

Thanks!

Great tradition! A super fun Thanksgiving [emoji884][emoji884]

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I don't see any discount off drink packages on your D+ coupon listing. Is it just specific sailings?

 

 

 

Thanks!

The D+ discount on packages was tested on certain sailings only. And I'm pretty sure that with the new Deluxe package all that testing has stopped. If you want a discount, you need to look for a sale in Cruise Planner.

I booked mine during a 20% off sale on a Premium that got upgraded to Deluxe when they made the change. So it was a good deal. :)

Thanks for posting the pics. Look forward to riding along on this trip through your live review and pics.

Enjoy your cruise.

Is there a designated area four suite guest anywhere near the pool? If so where is it? Thanks.

Following along. Great pictures so far.

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Tagging along wth you Matt.

Thanks for sharing.

Following along.:)

Thanks for posting the pics. Look forward to riding along on this trip through your live review and pics.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

Is there a designated area four suite guest anywhere near the pool? If so where is it? Thanks.

For GS and above, there are two cordoned off areas between deck 11 and the Sky Bar on deck 12, which is terraced. I will try to get a pic tomorrow.

The diamond lounge is closed while they install the scrubbers. So the DL has moved to the other side where the card rooms are. We always hang outside at Olive or Twist anyway, so it does not matter to us. But the snack offerings were a little limited due to lack of space.

I will take a pic tomorrow. I was exhausted today and it was catching up til I had a late post dinner nap.

Dinner was great. Pomodoro menu with the full Thanksgiving option. I've done this cruise a lot and the stuffing is much improved.

The saga of my door continues. They fixed the deadbolt part. But now I can't shut the door behind me when leaving the cabin without inserting my card to retract the handle. Ugh. Another call tomorrow.

When I confronted my cabin attendant on the original issue before dinner - that there was no way he could not have noticed the door was broken this morning - he suddenly lost the ability to speak and understand English. :)

Anyway. We are in the nightclub tonight with our classy brothers and sisters:

VOOM speeds are good (and D+ discount of $39.95 still applied to full cruise package). But it's been dropping way more than usual and reconnecting is taking multiple attempts. That's annoying.

Tagging along wth you Matt.

Following along.:)

Thanks guys. Always good to have you along.

My "crew" is still down in the dance club and I am up at Cafe Promenade. They don't have the Greek Salad sandwich anymore. Boo hiss. One of my faves.

And Christmas is in full swing

Forgot to say - this is the wifi message I keep getting:

OMG that message looks familiar Matt! Had it many, many times a day during our Indy TA

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OMG that message looks familiar Matt! Had it many, many times a day during our Indy TA

 

 

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Same for our Indy sailing last fall. I actually got it refunded, as well as others, because of its lack of connectivity.

Following along- we board on Monday!! I'm so thrilled that you took a picture of the Christmas tree. I've never done a holiday-time cruise and I'm looking forward to the decorations!

Time for my breakfast of champions.

Anyone who has sailed with me knows I'm not a morning person - you will not usually get a breakfast review from me - but having a long nap post dinner and being in the club all night means an extra late start today.

My cabin attendant promised to have someone give my door handle another fix.

I knew I would not have my lemon cookies waiting for me - the D+ welcome amenity has changed to "fresh baked" cookies during the cruise - but I also did not have my welcome water. So I had to reach for the pricey big bottle of Evian in the middle of the night. Abigail, the Loyalty Ambassador, apologized this morning and promised to correct it.

So far I'm not overly wow'ed this trip. None of this makes or breaks a cruise, but the overall mood of the crew has not been as cheerful as usual. Maybe they're still recovering from the TA and adjusting to their new port.

It just took 12 attempts to connect to wifi. I think I will be speaking to the internet person. Conversely, one of my friends is having no trouble at all and we have the same phone.

I just did a scope from the pool deck. I'm not sure my settings are correct since no one joined. Usually at least one person from the periscope universe joins. I will try again.

Here's a pic of the suite area on the pool deck between decks 11 and 12:

The topless deck awaits. (Not my speed :))

And from earlier - "Black Friday" on the ship. Or really just any other sea day.

They've redone and expanded the Next Cruise office to look like Anthem and other newer ships. I think there used to be a store here. The Britto Shop maybe?