vacationlover_mn

Lol! Maybe 🙂

Lol 🙂. I think you will be fine with the shirts. Lots of non-swingers wear them, and no one will think you are weird for wearing them.

One thing we always do is if there is an excursion we want to do, we book ASAP... I love that nowadays you can book in advance online. I remember the olden days, on our first cruise in ‘98 on carnival, when you had to book onboard for everything. We didn’t book what we wanted to do immediately, and ended up with our 2nd choices in most ports 😞. It was still super fun, but there are things I’m sad that we missed...

While I can’t comment on Empress, I do have an interesting related story. DH and I were on Adventure a few years ago, and there was always a strong sewage smell by the elevators. I made a comment about it to fellow CC cruisers who were in our elevator (they had CC lanyards), and they got mad at me??!! Apparently, it was their favorite ship, and my comment completely offended them? It was so odd. And they were so mean and snooty! At least one was wearing a little pinnacle pin.

Your timing sounds good... but it would also work if you parked at 10:30... you might be onboard just after 11 🙂. DH and I love to board early, however some people don’t. My friend boarded his 2nd cruise early, and he said his family hated it- they hated dragging their carry-one around. Personally, I don’t want to miss a moment on the ship!

On a related note, I always remind my DH to double check he has packed his spare glasses every time we travel. He is legally blind without them, so if his only pair broke, it would be tragic 😞

DH was diagnosed with high bp just before our last cruise. Dr told him to hold off starting his meds until after the trip. Glad it worked out for him!

Following

We love the Embassy Suites. We historically have left there at 10/10:30, and board around 11

Yes, yes, do this! My in-laws ignored my advice and flew out of MSP day of. Yes, they had travel insurance and booked air via the cruise line. However, when their flight was massively delayed due to weather, they missed the ship and had to spend 3 days in Mexico waiting to board the ship. It was very stressful for them!

Butterfish has been joked about on here. It is another name for escolar, also known as “white tuna”. It is full of a fat that doesn’t digest well. It can cause people to have tummy issues, especially if you eat more than 6 oz. it is actually illegal to serve in some countries! But, alas, escolar sashimi is my FAVORITE sushi 🙂 Maybe this link will work: https://www.thekitchn.com/use-caution-when-eating-escola-66602

Btw, I actually love the Harmony Solarium way more than Symphony’s. Yes, S has a pool, but the Solarium was just too hot!! My husband went with me once, but never came back, since it was so hot.

15 minutes is completely no problem :). I’ve been gone that long to get a drink at the bar 🙂

We are paranoid about one of us getting sick on vacation (probably because one of us usually does), so we always pack a small supply of cold meds, tummy meds, etc.

We have only gotten compensation for 2 things... DH got sick with noro the morning of our excursion, and they gave us full credit back. On another excursion, we were supposed to have a free meal. It ended up being not free (and way overpriced). I had the printout that showed food was supposed to be provided. We ended up getting a partial credit back. Both credits were done by guest services.