A&L_Ont

Glad you had an awesome day. This was our home last Friday. Other than a small hike to the bathroom is is an amazing spot.

Our attendant delivered them this August and October the Thrill Island and Chill Island.

wasn’t yet working at Chill Island but the button is there, but yes. we paid $400 and it was as high as $1,300 when we were there. It varies. Book early and watch for price drops is the key. We took advantage of two price drops.

Hopefully you get Henry at Chill Island. We just had him on Friday. Very personable and good at his job. Not all the cabanas were sold out, but he was ready and near by when we needed something.

Did you have Byron as your attendant?

food is included.

OK, thought the review was done, but there is one more thing to add. Look at Owen run the 2.5 km. 3rd place in the regionals today from at least 100, and now city finals in 2 weeks. We are eating dinner now followed by a hockey game at 7pm.

Lisa and I were chatting this afternoon and two other stories we forgot to share have come to mind. The first was at CoCo Cay. When we got to Chill Island we went to the Cabana area check-in. The nice lady gave us wrist bands and she proceeded to lead us to our cabana. We came to the from of it, and on the caulk board sign it had our family name written on it. However, for some reason it didn't register to the two Asian Ladies who were sitting on our lounger, which wasn't their "home" for the day. Our guide quickly escorted them out of the cabana and they didn't even apologize. The second story is about our taxi driver on the way to the airport for our flight home. He was sharing how he had once been in Toronto back in the 80s. We asked him why, and he said it was to pick up his green card for the US as he was originally from Haiti. We asked how was it that he ended up in Miami. He then shared with us that he had actually worked for Royal Caribbean back in 1975, in the days of Nordic Prince, the Song of Norway and the Sun Viking. The three ships just rolled off his tongue. He had been on two of them but we don't remember which ones they were. Pretty cool that our taxi driver had worked for RC back in the day. He asked us about guest capacity, dining venues, bars, clubs on Symphony with the same type of curiosity that anyone interested in cruising would. The world just seemed a little smaller in that taxi. Now, I think that's it. Owen's team tied their hockey game yesterday, he has his cross country run of 2.5 km (1.5 miles) tomorrow afternoon followed by and a hockey game at 7:30pm. It's going to be a busy one again tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to catch up. I always keep my eyes open for music along my journeys and if I find something good along the way I mark it for later. I never made it over to the 1754 area of Deck 17, but I am sure your steward will be amazing. Enjoy deck 17, but remember to close the glass door behind you... it will make sense in a few weeks. We went there in late January and there was a cold spell reaching as far south as Florid and it made it mid 70s in Mexico. By the end of the week it was back to the mid 80s but Lisa wanted warmer. So by that rate we have to head further South from then on. We have also looked at other Sandals resorts but Lisa doesn't want to do extended buss rides to get to them. As for your hubby, that says he loves you. It is unfortunate that they did nothing to quell the other guests actions. The weather man, I am not. There were storms around us but thankfully they did not amount too much. We actually sailed on Allure a few years ago right after her Med dry dock. If we sail the Med again I think Lisa wants to do the Greek Isles. There have been many great reviews of them here. Who knows, if we swap we might just see you there. You are with me in "spirit". And you should trademark that name. I like it... Sandals of the Seas. What's the sister ship named.... "Banana Hammock of the Seas", followed by "Thong of the Seas". Yah, maybe don't do that. You are most welcome.

We might try Celebrity one day. They run an all inclusive out of our hometown including flights, parking, drink package etc at a very reasonable price. If the ports are different it does seem appealing. I have read that too, but we have to add a few more years to our ages.😉 We haven't been for a few years now, and it would be nice to return. I hope you enjoy the CK. As for meal repetition, we do the same here at home. I was missing veggies like green beans, and having milk with my meal. I actually had one glass at the last dinner on the ship, while Lisa had sangria. LOL

I don't know if anyone has said it yet, but welcome to Canada.

We have stayed at the Royal Bahamian, Grande Antigua (Mediterranean Side) and will be going to Royal Barbados. We do stay in the Butler level suites as they help to arrange things such as restaurant reservations and will actually reserve loungers for you either by the pool or beach. One of the bigger complaints we have read in general is making dinner reservations once you arrive. It can be a pain and not the most fun way of starting your holiday. I guess it would be no different than the dining package reservations process. I will say chair hogs at the resorts we have stayed at were out at 6am and no towels were pulled. In this case having someone do it for us was amazing. We also tried Paradisus Playa del Carmen La Perla, which is the adults only side of that resort. We selected a room with Royal Service which has it’s own butler, pool, private restaurant, and other amenities which were not as important. I was always able to get a pool front chair even at 10am. It does share some restaurants with the family side and we did venture over there for some dinners. Some kids were well behaved and others had poor parents 😉 It is about 40 minutes from the Cancun Airport with a private transfer where as the group bus one took much longer. I’d return as the service was great and the cost was half of Sandals for a very similar service, but Lisa wants to always try somewhere new for land destinations. We started doing a land trip in late January every other year a few years ago. I have commented every time how nice it is not to have to muster and get right to the fun. I do find it a bit boring compared to the ship, but there is life other than at sea. Hope this helps out.

To further these two comments Harmony and Symphony had these downloads on a consistent basis. The best upload I ever had while testing was shy of 3, and that included early in the morning and late night like 2am late. I have read that the ship can throttle the speeds, but who knows if it is true. Last week I was responding to emails while in the flowrider line. Sometimes the “electronic leash” is needed to keep things at home in order.

We don’t have a cruise for a while, being March of 2020. We are headed to Sandals this January in Barbados, but since this is Cruise Critic there will be no reviews. I’m sure that I will be looking at Marine Traffic though, to see what ships have come into port while we are there. So I think that’s about it unless there are any further questions. It’s been fun bringing you along this journey, and meeting some of you on the ship in person this sailing. Hope you all made it home safe and sound. So that’s about it unless there are a few questions. We are off to a hockey arena tomorrow until March of next year. Take care and see you all later.

That’s your call but.... we boarded at 11:30 with a 12:06 flight time. We personally would not change it, but that’s an us thing. He have flown as early as 11:30 out of MIA.