Denversail

We are on Harmony of the seas. We got to the port about 9:45. Wolf guided me to luggage drop off and where to get in line. I was basically useless this morning. We were on the ship by 10:30. For those worried about checkin times they didn’t even check and we were within the first 20 onboard after key and suites. Once they let us in the building about 10:20 we basically walked right on. A few negatives so far for Harmony in comparison to Odyssey. The dining reservations were a pain even though we were some of the first on the ship. Some restaurants were sold out. We were first told just to go to Sabor for lunch with no reservation. We had no other option for lunch today as everything else was booked. We were also told the only place we can make Hibachi reservations was at Hibachi. I hiked over to Hibachi only to be greeted with a long line. Most folks are booking an entire week so it doesn’t move fast. We decided we didn’t care enough. We had just done it twice last week with ease so we would just skip it. We then went back to another reservation desk to fill our hole we had left for Hibachi with 150. This person told us we needed a Sabor reservation for lunch today which we were still able to secure. Seems overall complicated to me. Wolf and I then headed to Boleros for our first drink. My first drink had about a drop of liquor in it. I quickly downed that in about 2 minutes. The bartender asked if I needed anything else and I asked for another. Just wanted a drink to carry as we were heading to our muster station. He informed me he couldn’t serve me back to back drinks on my package but he could give me one if I wanted to use my voucher. WHAT? I’ve never had this happen before on Royal. If I wanted to deal with drink restrictions I’d cruise on carnival. I of course passed on the voucher simply out of principle and let him know I’d just hop over to another bar. I walked across to On Air and got another drink no problem. I’m not sure what these two things are about. It was just inconvenient to me. Two points for Odyssey as I didn’t have these hassles on that ship. Anyways we just let that all roll off our back. Having a good time about to have lunch in Sabor. Sitting in my favorite spot in Aquatheater. Let’s get this party started! It is our long cruise, big ship week!

We are going to rub in as many things as possible. Dupable was kicking herself at the airport that she wasn’t joining us. She almost cried. In my opinion things are always more enjoyable when others are jealous. Well at least when Dupable is. So let’s get started. We got to stop at Buc-ee’s.

We are now packed into a van like sardines for an hour drive. I assumed it would be more spacious. I questioned my ability to even squeeze my fat ass into the backseat. We will book a nicer accommodation in the future. I’m too old to be shoved in with a bunch of people like this.

I made a little mistake this morning. I thought our shuttle was at 9 am. Well that is our shuttle time next Sunday. The kind driver called me about 7:40 to let me know my shuttle was ready. I am Dupable’s daughter so I of course argued that my shuttle is at 9. He said if I wanted to change it I’d have to call the main office. I asked if I could have 20 minutes to get there and he agreed. I wasn’t even in our room at this point. So I ran. Came in the room shouting at Wolf that we had to go now. That boy can move. We shoved everything in our bags and ran out of the room. We checked out of the hotel and hopped on the tram back to the airport terminal. We made it at exactly 8 am. That wouldn’t have been possible if Dupable was with us.

Wolf and I made it to Houston with no delays. We checked into the Marriott at the airport and will catch a shuttle in the morning. The hotel is okay. A little outdated. The restaurant is very expensive with no very good food. The placing of the toilet seems odd to me. It was under the sink. I thought I had a picture but I guess I missed it. I think it was about $260 for the night. It is very cold in Houston. Dupable and Good Sport got delayed 3 hours I think. They were boarding after we had already landed in Houston.

They wrap all that up with a gator show. I will say I did enjoy the 20 minute show. It was done by the gator boys and it was good. We did have to wait another 45 minutes for that. We were then immediately loaded back on the bus to the airport. It was 5 1/2 hours for about 35 minutes of actual entertainment if you want to call it that. I agree with Wolf, it was one of the worst travel experiences I’ve ever had. I would have preferred sitting in the airport for 8 hours next to a screaming baby. The entire experience was torture. If my ear doesn’t recover I’m at risk of having to cancel an excursion Wolf and I have later this week.

I haven’t seen much discussion about the Everglades excursion. This was something Dupable wanted to do. Wolf and I decided to accommodate her. Actually I made Wolf accommodate her. Wolf described it as the worst vacation experience of his life. We vacation a lot but I normally do all the planning. This started with almost 1 1/2 to get everyone gathered and on the buses. I think it is about a 30 minute drive to the Everglades. This is on a piece of crap bus that 90% of the time had an extremely loud buzzing sound. I think it was the guides speaker system. The guide was a flustered mess. Just watching her attempt her job caused me anxiety. We then got to the Everglades and stood another 45 minutes waiting to get on an airboat. This ride lasted about 15 minutes and caused me some ear pain that 12 hours later isn’t as bad but I can tell it isn’t right still. We saw a bird. Yep all that for a bird folks.

I know I’ve fallen behind. Am I the only one who feels super busy on vacation? It’s like I just can’t find the time. I’m even neglecting Mr. IT even though I don’t mean to. I’m just always running to the next thing. I hope to get caught up this evening.

We did have a little family spat at Hibachi last night. We have been kicking each other off devices all week. Good Sport was trying to get back on WiFi and a roaming message popped up. They handed me the phone and asked me what he should do. Now all I did was give an honest response. I suggested he put his phone back in airplane mode. This caused an uproar. Good Sport started scolding me telling me to stop teasing Dupable and trying to get her worked up. I’ve never seen Dupable move so fast. She heard the word roaming and snagged that phone right out of Good Sports hand. You can just guess who got the scolding then. Dupable was not happy.

Anything for a loyal follower ❤️

We made it to Fort Lauderdale. They started letting self assist off the sip at 6:25. The line didn’t look that long when I walked by. The wind jammer was a mess the minute it opened. I tried going to crown lounge but I guess they don’t put food out on the last day. Hopefully we can find some food by early afternoon. Thing I loved: 1. The elevator buttons. I don’t like to touch things so these were great! 2. Two-70. You can’t beat that view! 3. Cleanliness. Everyplace was clean. Even the bathrooms consistently. Never walked into a gross one and I use the bathroom a lot. 4. The WI-FI. This worked well everywhere on the ship. in my opinion this ship just doesn’t have enough crew. The bar service was slow 50% of the time. They didn’t have enough casino staff to open tables. I had never experienced that before. The food was fine but we ate 85% of our meals in specialty restaurants. Now we are off to the Everglades.

No. Dupable doesn’t do things like that. We will have to find another source of entertainment during week two. Maybe not though, I’m sure we will hear from her multiple times a day. Wolf has promised to send her a lot of pictures of the big ship. 🤣

They were in her backpack. 🤣🤣

I was a bit of a dud today. Just relaxed all day. We had Giovanni’s for lunch and then enjoyed Hibachi for dinner. I took a nap in between feedings. We just packed and set our bags out. It has been years since we have done anything but self assist. Dupable wanted to do the Everglades tour in the morning and they gave us group #1 tags and told us to put it out. Not sure if it is required or not so we just put them out. Wolf and I have a 3 pm flight to Texas on United. Dupable and Good Sport are flying back to Colorado on a 3:45 Walmart flight. We hear it is snowing at home with 2 - 3 inches expected. Dupable is now out still trying to hide her ducks. She struggled to hide them all week. It caused some arguments when Good Sport hid them in spots that were too easy. She said he might as well just be handing them out to people as they walk by. 🤣🤣 She was never able to find anyone else’s ducks. 😞

I was drunker than usual last night. Those Wonderland drinks did me in. I of course had to try all of them.

It is silent again but only after I broke a nail pounding on it.

The fridge in our room if that is what you want to call it has started making a loud buzzing sound. Ughh.. if you haven’t noticed I only like noise that comes from me.

We will be having dinner at Wonderland tonight. Wolf was unhappy about this. Dupable wants to try one of the drinks there. I decided to force Wolf. He might be an adult but I’m still his mamma. Some pics from our one dinner in the MDR. It was Caribbean night so I assume everyone is aware of what we thought.

I think the cruisers worry about this more than the crew. We have always ordered what we want and never been charged when we have unlimited dining.

I’m well rested and ready to party. This isn’t going to be good for anyone. I just got my voice back. I’m gonna try too exercise some self control. I doubt I’ll be successful. If you are on the ship just look for the loudest person in the room. That’d be me.

We made it to Jamaica. We went to Chukka (?) good hope estate. I loved loved loved it. I would have liked to have had more time there. A ton of activities. I think we paid somewhere between $40 and $60, none of us could recall the exact amount. You can add any activities you want after getting there. They have river tubing, zip lining, horseback riding, ebikes, and more. We just enjoyed the grounds. I have a few pics. I think Dupable has some more.

My body has had enough of my shenanigans. Since I don’t have any self control I’ll be skipping the casino tonight. This upset Dupable. Even though I’ve been in there every night this was the night she was going to play. I of course have ruined her plans. I dropped some beers off with the dealers. I will be back there tomorrow when my voice returns. I’ve agreed to one trivia and then it is bed for me. i don’t think I mentioned this previously, about a week before the cruise Royal changed up our schedule. They reduced both of our stops by several hours. This was a later arrival to Grand Cayman and an earlier departure from Jamaica. Well we already saw the results in Grand Cayman. The Jamaica change made our 10:30 excursion a 7:30 am excursion. We are all thrilled about that. Who doesn’t want to get up and go swimming at 8 am when on vacation?

My exhaustion caught up with me and I enjoyed a nap this afternoon. Dupable decided I was done sleeping right before we left Grand Cayman. We thought the day would be a little different and I hadn’t made us any reservations tonight. We had hoped to walk into sushi but when Wolf checked they were full until 8. I was hungry so we stopped into the crown lounge for a snack. This just made me hungrier. Our main dining was my time and we don’t have specific reservations. My time seating doesn’t start for another hour. We decided to go to the main dining room and see if they would take pity on us and let us eat. They did! They sat us right away at a nice window table.

11:45 and we are only here until 5:30 I think. I’m sure there is some confusion for those who made it ashore. They had to move our tendering to a different pier. The captain has already confirmed no one else will be getting off today. I know that some folks were on a tender half way to shore and they turned back and brought them back to the ship.

I think we will have a revolt soon if they don’t open up some bars. The natives are getting restless.