A&L_Ont

Forget the planes. How about Vision of the Seas.

Safe travels.

Settled in our rooms. I’ll describe it later. After sleep. See you in the morning. View south east from the balcony. View north.

Greg just make sure you drink some water in between those drinks.

It was actually very decent. I hope you chose wisely, on your choose your own adventure.

Scheduled to now land at 11:15 not 11:45. Bye Bye Tampa. Now waving at my mom in Sarasota.

I got you covered. When you walk past the Schooner Bar there should be a small wood boat with a cushion and pillows on it. You could always sleep there and a shower in the gym or up on the pool deck. You and Mrs Tree Skier are good for the week. Show it to her and see what she thinks.

It’s amazing how Owen has become his own personality. When the ground crew were loading the luggage somehow Owen made a connection with the ground crew. He showed them some text on his phone, which I can’t post for the fear of playing monopoly, but it made them all laugh. From there they waved at each other, showed messages back and forth. Owen and the one crew member are now Snap Chat Friends. All from boarding to push back. Here is a bit of what I can show. They were hyping each other up in the last bit of the video. Have to say they made each other’s night, and I bet they both will be chatting about it for a while.

Obligatory take off photo. Dinner was a pasta dish for Owen. Lisa and I had “beef cheeks”. I’m liking to think cheeks is a cute for for short rib, and not the rear of the cow.

Looks like we are lucky we got out tonight VS tomorrow. Good bye red zone. Fingers crossed that Owen’s school is shut tomorrow, not just the buses canceled. More on that when the sun rises.

Turns out Delta sky members now have free wifi. Logan Lucky is on the screen and some sort of eatable item is coming around after the turbulence let’s up.

Door shut. Peace Out. We off.

We are on the plane. We will check in when we land. Owen decided that he would mimic each photo on the jet way.

By flight I think so. We originally had flights booked for Saturday at 3pm. Then a snow event started to show up on the weather app for Saturday, so we switched the flight to Friday at 2pm. Well the storm decided to come a day early. Friday morning, early in fact. So now we fly tonight, last direct flight today. We land at 11:45. Instead of MIA, we are now going into FLL. We are staying in Hollywood, with Mr Buffett. We fly home from MIA back to Detroit. Thank goodness we booked fully refundable.

Just down at the gate and Owen found this. Allie is with us in spirit. dinner at… Nothing says classy airport more than a fountain. @Sea Dogdoes Kansas City have one in the new terminal?

Just hide but one request, don’t delay our embarkation.

Follow all of us along as we share our journey, starting now. You need a break, some virtual distraction? It’s time for you to be like us, Saved by the Bell. Our household leaves shortly, like in minutes, and other posters are soon ready to depart. In fact they are already here posting. I’ll see you later to update you on our journey south. We fly from 8:45 tonight.

From Miami to Coco Cay, Roatan to Mexico, you should expect photos of sunrises and sunsets, of food and drink, of mooring lines and possibly tan lines. I hope we can keep it together daily and more so at the Quest. We are going right? Throw in some luck of the Irish on St Patty’s Day, and a post daylight savings time swap hangover to come this Sunday morning. I just hope we aren’t wheeled off the ship at the end of the sailing. That is more likely to happen as we head back to the ship, after the day in Cozumel.

Any of you who have followed my reviews over the years know I have the gift of blabber but there are many areas where I do not shine. One area is playing the steel drum. I got a steel pan for Christmas a couple years ago and envisioned myself joining in on the pier with the band of local kids. Let’s just mark that down as, not happening this cruise. I had to drop the volume at the end of the video, because I muttered something in the Key of “F” that rhymes with luck. One other skill I clearly do not have the gift of production. That’s where SeaDog shines, as a retired Emmy award winning photographer/editor at KMBC-TV. If you need production, hit him up. The video above and below is thanks to Greg and I know he has more to come. I do believe that he will be our personal bourbon steward and whiskey sommelier this cruise. Here’s Seadog surrounded by his friends. Lionesss will educate me on the finer points of winning large at the casino. She is experienced at bringing money home, where as I on the other hand just make donations. This is an example of her magic touch. Yes, my eyes bulged when I saw the number. Lastly we have John&LaLa. They are the caretakers of Bella, and without her we would not be here. I expect photos of their fur baby and some instructional tutorials of the finer art of Limoncello production. I should be able to close my eyes and my senses will take me back to the stairs of Positano. Limoncello and I have a love hate relationship when combined with car sickness. There might be a besmirched bathroom part way down the stairs as you make the descent to the beach at Positano. Interestingly enough, did you know that not all toilets in public bathrooms have a seat in Italy. However, that’s a story for another day.

Our four-legged friend Bella has brought us all together on a group cruise, with 30 plus CC members sailing together. Some of us are taking on a live review, and others are just here for the party. In fact Bella herself will be staying at home, as the potential debauchery is beyond her age, even in dog years. We’ve assembled a solid tag team of live reviewers to bring you along on the inaugural Friends of Bell cruise. We have @John&LaLa, @Sea Dog, and @Lionesss (she will fill in some gaps as she sees fit) and myself. The core group will be posting frequently and others will be chiming in along the way. Who are the others on the cruise? Many are familiar CC names and don’t need an introduction. Some will post as desired, some will appear front and centre in photos, and the smart ones will want to keep their anonymity for acts yet to happen on board. And just in case you were wondering, Lisa and Owen are coming along too.

It is time to gather around readers, as some of your favourite CC FOBs get ready to board Oasis this Sunday What is a FOB you ask? We surely not key FOBs. We are not Friends of Bob, but it’s good to acknowledge that Bob. We can’t get you Free On Board, Oasis that is. We don’t have musical talent, like Fall Out Boy. We definitely are not a Forward Operating Base, unless we are your recon team for your upcoming cruise. We certainly aren’t Fresh off the Boat, especially with embarkation this Sunday. FOB in our case, is Friends of Bell.

Sue might be in this area of the deck.

I wanted to say thank-you to all about the kind words about my cousin. He would have wanted us to go on the cruise. I told my Aunt that we would raise a glass in his honor, and she thought that would be a suiting way to pay tribute to him.

To confirm the room, do you have Derick helping you too?

Now Owen’s bus just drove past our house, 11 minutes before it is scheduled to be here. Now Lisa has to drive him to the group community stop a few minutes from here. Sssh. Edit, don’t they know we have a cruise to prepare for. LOL