Freedom from the Polar Vortex... The GDF family sails RCCL

[Beckers 1,136]

Thank you for no teeth pictures! Poor Z but it looks like he wasn't bothered much. And poor you and Jason, I can't imagine how you guys were feeling after that.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

 

I already see that RCCL does a better job with the embarkation.  I remember long waits to board on our RCCL cruises.  Also, they didn't feed you lunch on the boarding day.  You were on your own for that.

 

 

I've been cruising RCCL for 20 years.  Have never had a long wait.  And the Windjammer has always been open for lunch.  Seems that you and I have had very different RCCL expepriences.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Trust me no one wants to see the picture.

 

Yeah, sorry for sending that to you. Ha ha ha! I was in so much shock that I didn't think about how gross it was.

 

Poor Z!  Happy to hear that it wasn't worse.  Hope the accident didn't ruin his trip. 

 

Walking that "gangplank" to board the ship ... the anticipation and the happiness of being there ... there is no better feeling (other than walking into MK and seeing the castle for the first time on that trip).  I dunno.  It's a toss-up.  I guess the best scenario is a week-long cruise followed by two weeks or more at the fort and then another week-long cruise.

 

The castle wins for me, but boarding the cruise was a great feeling!

 

Poor Z!

 

What a bad way to start a trip.  I'm sorry that y'all had to go to the ER on vacation.  It looks like he recovered quickly, though.

 

I already see that RCCL does a better job with the embarkation.  I remember long waits to board on our RCCL cruises.  Also, they didn't feed you lunch on the boarding day.  You were on your own for that.

 

TCD

 

He bounced back pretty quickly. They did a great job with embarkation. We would have been on the ship at 11:00 without the short delay, and 11:15 wasn't bad at all. We were eating lunch shortly afterward.

 

Thank you for no teeth pictures! Poor Z but it looks like he wasn't bothered much. And poor you and Jason, I can't imagine how you guys were feeling after that.

 

I'm not going to lie.... Jason totally flipped. He doesn't deal with that kind of stuff well. I was also freaked but more under control. The doctor calmed me down a lot.

 

I've been cruising RCCL for 20 years.  Have never had a long wait.  And the Windjammer has always been open for lunch.  Seems that you and I have had very different RCCL expepriences.

 

Maybe because of different ports? I know they always serve lunch now.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I've been cruising RCCL for 20 years.  Have never had a long wait.  And the Windjammer has always been open for lunch.  Seems that you and I have had very different RCCL expepriences.

 

My first RCCL cruise was on the Sovereign of the Seas in 1989.  And, we cruised on the brand new RCCL ship the Nordic Empress the next year, 1990.  So, I have you beat-that's 24 1/2 years ago.  There was no lunch served on the day of boarding.  Boarding didn't start until after 1 pm.  Our first cruise departed from Miami, and the second from Port Canaveral.  There was a good 1-2 hour wait from time of check in until boarding, in a not very attractive terminal.  Our cabin was half the size of a DCL cabin.  There was no free room service.  And disembarkation was the worst. Cruising has come a long way since then.  I credit Disney for making the other lines up their game.

 

TCD

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Yeah, sorry for sending that to you. Ha ha ha! I was in so much shock that I didn't think about how gross it was.

 

 

It's all good. Sad to say I have seen much much worse. It didnt even phase me. I just no others arent going to want to see that. Glad I could be there for you to vent too. 

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

My first RCCL cruise was on the Sovereign of the Seas in 1988.  And, we cruised on the brand new RCCL ship the Nordic Empress the next year, 1989.  So, I have you beat-that's 26 years ago.  There was no lunch served on the day of boarding.  Boarding didn't start until after 1 pm.  Our first cruise departed from Miami, and the second from Port Canaveral.  There was a good 1-2 hour wait from time of check in until boarding, in a not very attractive terminal.  Our cabin was half the size of a DCL cabin.  There was no free room service.  And disembarkation was the worst. Cruising has come a long way since then.  I credit Disney for making the other lines up their game.

 

TCD

 

We cruised on the Nordic Empress too!  That was our first cruise.  Flat-bottomed boat designed to cruise the Caribbean seas ... only problem was we were skirting a hurricane.  The first night I was so seasick that I couldn't eat dinner.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We cruised on the Nordic Empress too!  That was our first cruise.  Flat-bottomed boat designed to cruise the Caribbean seas ... only problem was we were skirting a hurricane.  The first night I was so seasick that I couldn't eat dinner.  

 

A hurricane and crossing the Gulf Stream that first night will get most people. 

 

I didn't learn until after our cruise that RCCL didn't design the Nordic Empress- they inherited it after it was already under construction.  It was brand new when we sailed, and I thought it was very nice.  But we did not get lunch on embarkation day.  If you did, then that was a new amenity added after 1989.

 

TCD

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

Poor Z! Happy to hear that it wasn't worse. Hope the accident didn't ruin his trip.

Walking that "gangplank" to board the ship ... the anticipation and the happiness of being there ... there is no better feeling (other than walking into MK and seeing the castle for the first time on that trip). I dunno. It's a toss-up. I guess the best scenario is a week-long cruise followed by two weeks or more at the fort and then another week-long cruise.

I'm so glad Z wasn't any worse...!

I agree with Gwen....my 2 favorite sights are the Fort Wilderness sign and the ship...any ship towering above the cruise terminal. Both in the same trip would be awesome!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The first night we sailed to Port Canaveral to avoid the hurricane ... but it was rough!  I remember waking up with the bathroom door slamming all way to the right and then to the left.  I was so sick ... the only relief was watching the lights on the shoreline.  We did have lunch on embarkation day, thankfully, but I was too sick to eat dinner.  I tried to focus on my food, but it was swimming around.

[Grumpy and Grandma 739]

The tooth story reminds me of when our youngest (Rick) fell on the steps at church and knocked a tooth out. Our eldest (Steph)who was 7 was really P----d since we were on our way to her Christmas pagent, so mom and dad missed it. Grandma and Grandpa stayed to watch. Got the same story from the Dentist, "he was going to lose it anyway".

And as we all know what goes around comes around, Rick's son knocked one out last year...

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

In on page 2.  Glad Z bounced back.   I will need that doctors name...   Ice Cream for meals....  yup... I found my new personal physician.  

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Dadgumit Z. Stop scaring your dad like that!

I am glad he is doing okay after the fall and ER trip.

Ice cream makes everything better.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Dadgumit Z. Stop scaring your dad like that!

I am glad he is doing okay after the fall and ER trip.

Ice cream makes everything better.

[dvccamper 32]

Although you had a scare with Z I'm glad to hear it wasn't anything more serious. Now on to the fun!

[sherryberry 35]

Glad Z's okay. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the cruise!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

My first RCCL cruise was on the Sovereign of the Seas in 1988.  And, we cruised on the brand new RCCL ship the Nordic Empress the next year, 1989.  So, I have you beat-that's 26 years ago.  There was no lunch served on the day of boarding.  Boarding didn't start until after 1 pm.  Our first cruise departed from Miami, and the second from Port Canaveral.  There was a good 1-2 hour wait from time of check in until boarding, in a not very attractive terminal.  Our cabin was half the size of a DCL cabin.  There was no free room service.  And disembarkation was the worst. Cruising has come a long way since then.  I credit Disney for making the other lines up their game.

 

TCD

 

Hmmm... I'm glad our experience was much more pleasant. I do think Disney has influenced the industry. One example would be Royal partnering with DreamWorks and having characters and character breakfasts on the ships.

 

It's all good. Sad to say I have seen much much worse. It didnt even phase me. I just no others arent going to want to see that. Glad I could be there for you to vent too. 

 

Glad I didn't make you puke.

 

We cruised on the Nordic Empress too!  That was our first cruise.  Flat-bottomed boat designed to cruise the Caribbean seas ... only problem was we were skirting a hurricane.  The first night I was so seasick that I couldn't eat dinner.  

 

That doesn't sound fun at all.

 

I'm so glad Z wasn't any worse...!

I agree with Gwen....my 2 favorite sights are the Fort Wilderness sign and the ship...any ship towering above the cruise terminal. Both in the same trip would be awesome!

 

I would take the Fort over a cruise any day. Too bad Jason doesn't feel the same way.

 

The first night we sailed to Port Canaveral to avoid the hurricane ... but it was rough!  I remember waking up with the bathroom door slamming all way to the right and then to the left.  I was so sick ... the only relief was watching the lights on the shoreline.  We did have lunch on embarkation day, thankfully, but I was too sick to eat dinner.  I tried to focus on my food, but it was swimming around.

 

OK, that sounds REALLY bad.

 

The tooth story reminds me of when our youngest (Rick) fell on the steps at church and knocked a tooth out. Our eldest (Steph)who was 7 was really P----d since we were on our way to her Christmas pagent, so mom and dad missed it. Grandma and Grandpa stayed to watch. Got the same story from the Dentist, "he was going to lose it anyway".

And as we all know what goes around comes around, Rick's son knocked one out last year...

 

That's funny! I also find it funny that Jason freaked so much since he did it himself at 3.

 

In on page 2.  Glad Z bounced back.   I will need that doctors name...   Ice Cream for meals....  yup... I found my new personal physician.  

 

Welcome! Now I love ice cream, but I wouldn't know teeth out for it.

 

Dadgumit Z. Stop scaring your dad like that!

I am glad he is doing okay after the fall and ER trip.

Ice cream makes everything better.

 

Ice cream did make it better. Over and over. PS- KFK's ghost got you!

 

Although you had a scare with Z I'm glad to hear it wasn't anything more serious. Now on to the fun!

 

Yes, it's all up from here!

 

Glad Z's okay. Can't wait to hear about the rest of the cruise!

 

The bad part is over!

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

Poor Z...glad it turned out well.  I can't wait to hear what happened on the rest of the cruise!

[Seals 111]

I don't need a picture because I've seen it in person with one of my sons and a slide when he was about the same age. I know that heart stopping feeling made especially worse when you are at the start of a much anticipated vacation. Glad it turned out ok. Looking forward to more pictures of the ship.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

So happy Z is OK. When you have little boys, trips to the ER are inevitable.

[GOBA Mom Lynn 18]

Enjoying the report so far.  Even with the "not so good" parts.

 

 

So happy Z is OK. When you have little boys, trips to the ER are inevitable.

That's funny, cause it was our daughter who had a tooth knocked out, not our son.  I was worried she'd be embarrassed, but it turned out she was a celebrity of sorts in her preschool class--first one to loose a tooth. LOL

 

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.  My mom and I are booked on the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore at the beginning of June.  I've never sailed on RCL so I'm looking forward to your impressions.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Glad that Z is ok after the scare.

Looking forward to hearing about his first visit from the Tooth Fairy.

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Poor Z...glad it turned out well.  I can't wait to hear what happened on the rest of the cruise!

 

Yes, it was a rocky start, but here come some good parts!

 

I don't need a picture because I've seen it in person with one of my sons and a slide when he was about the same age. I know that heart stopping feeling made especially worse when you are at the start of a much anticipated vacation. Glad it turned out ok. Looking forward to more pictures of the ship.

 

I'm finding that it's VERY common. LOL! Here come some ship pictures. 

 

So happy Z is OK. When you have little boys, trips to the ER are inevitable.

 

This was our first trip, so we're doing good... right? 

 

Enjoying the report so far.  Even with the "not so good" parts.

 

 

That's funny, cause it was our daughter who had a tooth knocked out, not our son.  I was worried she'd be embarrassed, but it turned out she was a celebrity of sorts in her preschool class--first one to loose a tooth. LOL

 

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip.  My mom and I are booked on the Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore at the beginning of June.  I've never sailed on RCL so I'm looking forward to your impressions.

 

Yes, he's excited to show his friends his wiggly teeth and has already told me the names of all the kids in the kindergarten class who have lost teeth. 

 

Glad that Z is ok after the scare.

Looking forward to hearing about his first visit from the Tooth Fairy.

 

We go to the dentist tomorrow, so there's a small chance it might be soon. 

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Housekeeping

 

Well, before we see the ship, it’s occurred to me that I should give you some housekeeping details. First, we’re doing a Western Caribbean itinerary. That means we’ll be visiting Labadee (RCCL’s private peninsula in Haiti), Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

 

Dining…. Jason and I chose “My Time Dining” for this cruise. One of the reasons that he hasn’t wanted to cruise in a long time is that he hates a schedule. My Time lets you make reservations at different times each night or just walk up when you want to eat in the main dining room. We did both, so keep reading to see how that went.

 

Drink Plans… One way that Royal differs from Disney is that soda is not included (lemonade, iced tea, and flavored waters are). You can choose to buy by the drink or pay $4.50 for kids or $6.50 for adults to have unlimited soda. We chose to buy Z the soda package as a treat. I’ll give you my opinion of how that went later. We also chose to buy a drink package for ourselves. Royal offers 3 different levels, and we chose the one in the middle that was $55 per person per day. That’s a lot right? And it’s true, it is. That package included unlimited soda, bottled water, beer, wine to $12 per glass, and mixed drinks (including frozen drinks). It also includes gratuity. We thought it was a good value for us because we both drink soda, we could take the bottled waters off the ship on our excursions, and we like to have drinks at the pool, wine at dinner, etc. It also included drinks at Labadee since that’s owned by RCCL.

 

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s board the ship!

 

Sunday 3/30 Continued

 

We took the elevators up to Windjammer, the buffet at the back of the ship. From the elevator, this is the view of the Royal Promenade where you can eat, shop, etc. They also do parties and parades there.

 

 

As we entered Windjammer, I snapped a picture of some fruit carvings.

 

 

I don’t have buffet pictures because at this point, I was focused on getting Z some food he’d eat.

 

Jello, pudding, and mousse did the trick. And it is his birthday after all!

 

 

From there, we changed and hit the H2O Zone, also known as the splash park. We’re going to spend A LOT of time here.

 

 

They had hot tubs that weren’t as hot as the others there.

 

 

In the middle of the ship, they have 2 pools with a stage and 3 hot tubs. Here’s a shot of one of the pools in that area.

 

 

And here’s the Dream from the window.

 

 

And a Carnival ship, the Sunshine, I think (which is funny because that’s the only other ship Jason and I had cruised on back when it was the Destiny).

 

 

At 1:00, it was time to check out our room!

 

Many of you know that I’m a hyper-planner. This trip was no different, even though I tried to control myself. I had picked a corner aft balcony cabin because I knew it had a huge balcony. We were excited to see it!

We also had the room decorated for Z’s birthday.

 

 

And we had a little present delivered.

 

 

Here’s the room, which is a standard Deluxe balcony (the cheapest balconies on the ship).

 

 

 

 

 

Decorations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s 20, so I’ll have to show you why my aft is so special in the next update!

[Beckers 1,136]

The curved bed made me laugh. I don't know why but I found it amusing.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Great pictures, Kelly!  Glad Z recovered so quickly.