(Slightly less so) Cheapo dad's trip report on Independence of the Seas

[AdamKnows]

Another thing you can request info from Royal as to learn who will be performers for your cruise. Email them at this email:

 

web_reservations@rccl.com

 

This can be asked couple weeks prior to sailing so you can Google/YouTube the performers to see if their entertainment venue is what you like to hear. This is what I received from the Royal:

+++++++++++++++++

 

We would be happy to provide more information on the planned entertainment for your upcoming sailing. Here is a list of our Headliner acts sorted by the night of the cruise they take place for.

 

1) Heath Harmison, Comedian

2) Production Show

3) Revoiced, Acapella Group

4) Derek Marshall, Comedy Hypnotist

5) Act Not Specified

6) Production Show

7) Elisa Furr, Female Vocalist

8) Production Show

9) Louis Johnson, Comedian

 

Our Production Shows are as follows:

 

Grease: The Musical

Under The Big Top

Center Stage

Invitation To Dance

Once Upon A Time

 

This is an estimate of our entertainment schedule and is subject to change. The most up-to-date information regarding entertainment can be found in your Cruise Compass once onboard, and at the Box Office.

 

 

Thank you for this information! I'll shoot them an email to find out who the guest entertainers will be on my upcoming cruise.

[MrsPhoenix91]

Harry, I am enjoying your review and the beautiful pictures! My husband & I are cruise newbies (only 3 under our belt) and after sailing on the Carnival Ecstasy & Sensation and the Norwegian Sky, we are thinking about trying one of RC's Voyager-class ships the week after Thanksgiving: Mariner of the Seas.

[Reader0108598]

Hi, Bob,

 

Nice to talk to you again. Unlike an actual holiday party,being one or few days late here is not an issue as I will still be on day 0 for next few days.

 

Have been busy since coming home. The house looked like disaster encampment with 4 suit cases full of laundry to be done and I had to go into work for part day on New Year’s Day as well as trying to buy grocery to restock the refrigerator.

 

I will try to finds some time to make headway on the trip report as the week goes on and we all get settled back to the daily routine.

 

But I think I am coming down with a post cruise cold as I am getting a stuffy nose and the throat is not feeling great. We'll see how that works itself out the rest of the week.

 

 

Harry love your writing style and wit :) Nasty Respiratory virus going around I picked up on my cruise in early December two rounds of predisone, four different cough meds chest xrays ,blood work. and I am still sick.

Good luck!

Edited January 3, 2018 by Reader0108598

[SherriZ366]

One reason I didn’t update my anal spreadsheet is on the Freedom class ship, you don’t need to pre plan for shows or dinner as with other ships. The Indy follows the more traditional 2 seating setting and typically has shows pre or post dinner, depending on when you have dinner.

 

For some, that is great as they don’t have to worry about uber planning and being super anal to know where they will eat 4 months later. But for the Disney planner in me, this is too boring as I have nothing to do pre cruise to “d o something”.

I have been conditioned by Disney to start sweating months before to gear up for the reservation system like in pouncing on the computer and phone to reserve dining at the 180 day mark to book all the days of the Disneyworld trip. The Freedom and Indy style is “too tame” for the 9.8 anal scale people like myself.

 

About the pre-planning I did was to email Royal 49 days out and requested a table. Don’t laugh, someone else from my roll call beat me to making the request so it goes to show you that just because you rank 9.8 on the anal scale of 1 to 10, there will always be 9.81 and 9.82+ level people out there.

 

For those who don’t know, you can email Royal to make a specific request. RCLDining@rccl.com

 

My request was for table for 8 on deck 4 next to the balcony railing. Simple, no?

 

Then they emailed back to confirm you have the table. We were assigned table 468. The map below is the MDR for deck 4. The number on the top is table number, the number below is size of table. Do note this changes by seating by sailing such that sometimes they can change the table to make changes between 4 to 6 to 8 on an as needed basis.

 

At least I thought that was all settled. Will explain more on why this thing fell apart by time I get to day 1:

 

 

 

468 on Freedom was one of our Favorite Tables. We met the couple that we have been cruising with since 2010.

[lbjen]

Another cheapo dad report! I'm looking forward to this one, especially since we had to cancel our upcoming spring break cruise and I don't know when we'll be able to rebook :(

[harryfat1]

I think the new email address is working as I have had several people emailing for the info and I have replied. Check your spam folder if you haven’t seen a reply yet. Maybe your service provider thinks I sell time shares on the side and dropped me into the spam bucket. But as of 9 PM on 1/3/18, I have replied to all that have requested info.

 

I can’t associate the email names to the screen names here so I am going to assume whoever here wants the info will just email me as I don’t know who is who from the email name unless you specifically want me to know who you are on CC, then ID your screen name in the email. If not, that’s fine as well.

[harryfat1]

So happy to read another “trip report” from you. Cheryl from Sydney who has no connection with the Caribbean.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Going to Hawaii though....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for following. I always admire people that can read trip reports even though they are not going on that class of ship or itinerary. The ADHD in me can’t stay focus long enough to read trip reports if I am not using the info for my future cruise. The most I would do is look at other people pictures and steal (err, I meant, be artistically inspired by) their photo ideas.

 

What Royal ship goes to Hawaii?

 

My wife’s other brother just came back from a 15 day round trip Princess cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii and back. I can’t do 15 days, especially all those long sea days. I get motion sickness easily with the rocky seas between SF and Hawaii as well as being bored to death.

 

One thing you won’t find in my trip report is me sitting in the solarium reading a book. That’s not part of the 3 E’s on why I cruise. Besides, I’m illiterate…

 

I would rather spend the time going to an art auction (not that cheapo dad would bid on anything) but at least they give you free booze for attending and they inform you on the act history/background. At least I would have learned something. Or go around the ship taking these useless pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Yes....Symphony March break 2019. I know...like you talk about too, that is the worst time but we're at the point that we are not comfortable taking our kids our of school so it's March break, summer or xmas. And yes...I'm with you in the big ships. As you said, after Allure, it's hard to compare with others. However having said that, so far this cruise looks amazing too. Plus 9 days is perfect. The 7 days always goes so fast and 9 is not too many.

 

Yes, the bigger ships have much more in terms of entertainment choices. Especially if you have multi generation family groups, there is something for everyone.

 

As I mentioned, my wife is a CPA also so that she is super busy during Spring break so we can never cruise during the Spring break as that is tax season. Summer time is our typical long road trip sessions so our window to cruise is pretty narrow in the winter months.

 

I like this itinerary in day 2 is sea day to start getting into the vacation mode, then days 3 to 7 are 5 ports in a row to see new places and the last 2 days are sea days to recover and get ready to come back to real world.

[harryfat1]

Those same old Arizona photos?! ;p That's fine, it's cold and snowy here so I'm happy to look at photos of anywhere warm! (And I can't believe you remembered I commented on them in your previous report. Wow, I'm flattered). :D

Heather

 

Sounds like someone needs to send an email to CC to get a one month credit for having to put up with seeing these rehashed Arizona pictures…

 

I just remember your comment after I came back from my summer road trip and posted the rocks pictures. Especially that you said you have been on numerous cruises so you know what a cruise vacation looks like but you may not have seen other road trip pictures. To be honest, if you had commented this on post 614 or wherever, I wouldn’t have remembered.

 

Fair enough, I will drop in some Oregon pictures from the 2016 road trip now, just to be different as it’s on the other end of the coast from you. Pays to keep the subscription, no?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Harry,

 

Thanks for providing this e-mail address. I'd heard of others doing this and knowing who the scheduled entertainment was likely to be in advance of boarding, but I could never manage to find the contact information to try it myself. I've got a message drafted and will send it later this month in advance of our 1 February departure on Grandeur of the Seas out of Baltimore. Given the weather we've been having in the area lately and the forecast for Charleston, SC today, this may be the one cruise where I'm looking to be entertained on the ship rather than venture out into the open decks and simply watch the waves go by. Cross your fingers that our forecast is more favorable than for those that left on our same 9-day South East Coast and Bahamas itinerary yesterday!

 

Enjoying your trip reports immensely, as it's a way to see other ships in the fleet. Living just 45 minutes from the port in Baltimore, we've only ever been on Grandeur and Enchantment. Would like to see some of the bigger ships in person someday, but it's just too easy to get in the car and park it at the cruise terminal in our own back yard without having to worry about making flight connections, etc.

 

I eagerly await the next installment of this trip report, and the associated photos. Amazing!

 

 

Hi,

 

Glad to have provided the info. I had to get that from previous cruisers myself. Not as if I invented this info. That’s the beauty of these boards; you get tribal knowledge in people passing down info. But I am sure if you post a new question in the forum, Bob will reply with 0.1 second to give that to you as well.

 

I hear you on the convenience to departing port. I lose feelings to my flat butt after 2 plus hours into the 6 hour cross country flight. We live one bridge away from San Francisco and it would have been super easy to take the long Princess cruises to Mexico and Alaska and Hawaii but we have never done it. Both of my wife’s brothers have done those. I am wary of long sea days and rocky motions leaving SF.

 

If you do make it down to FL, the bigger ships have a much higher WOW factor. Something different.

 

Have a great cruise next month and hope the weather is favorable.

[harryfat1]

Dang. You do take lots of photos. I took 290 on our cruise. My husband took none. I had shutterfly pick out the best ones and make a book for me- then I added the captions. Where do you store all your photos?

 

Just keep in mind the 5,000 is total count per Windows explorer as I uploaded everyone’s pictures and it gives me a count of how many pictures we have. Many of those are duplicates – you know when you take family pictures at any given scenery, there is always the “one more picture” in case someone blinks. I think my brother in law typically takes 10 pictures of us when we hand him our camera so there may be 1 or 2 good ones in there somewhere.

 

Storage is cheap on computers at home nowadays. You can buy a 4 TB drive for $100 and that will store a lot of photos. I have a back up hard drive that stores the digital pictures since we first bought a 2 MP Nikon camera after my first son was born. That reminds me, I should buy one more hard drive to backup the backup hard drive and put that into the bank vault safe in case something bad happens to our house, we would still have some memories of the past.

 

You always see heart breaking news footage of people’s houses after hurricane/fire where they have nothing left but a photo or two from the rubble. They can rebuild the house with insurance money but they can’t replace lost photos from years of accumulation.

 

One of the best excursion we have taken was to Stone Island in Mazatlan and the tour guide was funny and he kept saying in his Mexican accent “How about that? TEEK a picture!” That has been the family joke forever since.

 

Now that the cruise is over, all the clothes have been washed and all the food eaten from the ship have been pooped and pee out, the only thing you have left from the cruise are your pictures and videos. Whenever I have vacation withdrawal, I look at these pictures.

 

Remember, I cruise to see things, not to relax. So picture taking is part of remembering what I saw and experienced.

 

Fortunately, I have this platform in CC to share my pictures with people such that I an relive my cruise the second time. Buy one get one free cruise, if you will. And the second cruise, I don’t even have to sit in the plane for hours.

 

I use Shutterfly as well for my main online storage. I then create a free web share site from their engine (look at the top right). I do a daily summary on that web page and share that with friends and family only as those have lots more personal family related pictures.

 

For the pictures so far in the trip report and the previous two trip reports, I had been using Flickr to host those pictures as they seem to do a better job in rendering when reposted in the boards. I find they look better than the original pictures when I compare the original from my computer and Flickr. They must have some photo enhancement filter to make things just slightly better.

 

So when people compliment me on the pictures, I just smile and thank them knowing that I had software enhancement help on the back end.

 

But it is a royal pain in the butt to cut and paste the Flickr picture link. When CC switched over to the new format months ago, I can now just copy and paste a picture from Shutterfly and drop them in the trip report. Much faster but I can’t control the size as I can on Flickr and I find Shutterfly pictures to be less pleasant when compared to Flickr pictures but it’s so much easier. I will try that route for the first time when I get to day 0 chronological ordering of the photos and see if people notices or care. If it’s problematic, I will switch back to Flickr.

[harryfat1]

Checking in to say I love your reports Harry! Been hooked since the Blah, Blah, Blah report on Allure! Thanks for all the time and effort you put into all your reports! They are appreciated.

 

Thanks for the compliment and following along since the beginning of the cheapo dad series. I debated to use the “blah blah” format from Allure instead of the Freedom format. Since the Indy is the sister ship to Freedom, it made sense to copy over that format for this trip report. Whenever I go on another Oasis class mega ship, expect the “blah blah blah” format to make a comeback.

 

The Allure trip report was my best trip report. It was new and exciting and I was full of energy to add in miniature effects and different period shades at the swim suit show in that report. Don’t think I will ever top it. I didn’t even take one miniature photo on this cruise. On top of that, I didn’t even write down the exact number of cruisers when they made the announcement for this cruise.

 

I think the cheapo dad franchise is slipping. For the next cruise, we need to do something new & exciting to bring back the WOW feel like going on the Harmony or Symphony or Ovation in Alaska just to reboot and rejuvenate the whole series.

 

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. There is still a vacation story of 10 plus days to tell. Onward and forward…

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry! Happy to see your review. I looked before I sailed on my cruise (week before you on Freedom).

 

Now if I can get some aft pictures, I'll be set. ;p

 

Hi,

 

Just curious – would you be shocked if I said I didn’t take that wake picture?

 

Not saying I didn’t be just wondering what would you say if I forgot?

 

Anyway, here is the wake shot you requested.

 

 

 

One thing of note is nowadays when I carry mostly just my cell phone around the ship to take pictures instead of the regular camera, there is no “strap” for the cell phone. Such that when you lean over the railing to take these unobstructed shows, your palm start to sweat and hand start to shake as if anyone bumps you hard or hits your hand, you will likely drop your expensive phone into the water or shatter at the pier.

 

That feeling was especially bad when hundreds of were looking over the railings when the ship had to return to port 1 plus hours after sailing due to medical emergency and picking up stranded passengers. Scary to be sticking your cell phones out there among all the hands and arms that could just knock it out of your hand. Time for that “death grip”…

 

A whole of lot people crowding the railings to see why the ship came back. That elbow to elbow row of people is scary to hold onto the cell phone:

 

 

[harryfat1]

I just did the same thing for "Blue Collar Diamond" Maybe we should be Copyrighting these names?

 

I like it. Now is there a way to monetize this? Cheapo dad needs money to pay off the credit card bills. Sure beats trying to sell $1 key chains that says "cheapo dad" on it

 

In that 27 page of legal agreement we all signed (but NOBODY read it) when we were granted access to post here at CC, is there some little “Got cha” condition whereby CC claims whatever money we made from being here at CC belongs to them? Similar to whatever brilliant creations you invented from work belongs to your employer and not you?

[harryfat1]

Harry, I am enjoying your review and the beautiful pictures! My husband & I are cruise newbies (only 3 under our belt) and after sailing on the Carnival Ecstasy & Sensation and the Norwegian Sky, we are thinking about trying one of RC's Voyager-class ships the week after Thanksgiving: Mariner of the Seas.

 

Hi,

 

If you look at my signature below you will see I have cruised with many lines myself. All have good and bad things about them. Just depends on what you want.

 

We were on the Mariner many years sailing to Mexico when Royal used to be in CA. Maybe reading the Freedom or this trip report might show you what Royal offers and you can decide for yourself if this is the right cruise line for yourself and your husband.

 

Feel free to ask questions during my trip report. If I don't know the answer, I will just lie and make up something...Just kidding, I'm sure others will chime in as well.

[harryfat1]

Harry love your writing style and wit :) Nasty Respiratory virus going around I picked up on my cruise in early December two rounds of predisone, four different cough meds chest xrays ,blood work. and I am still sick.

Good luck!

 

Ewwww, sorry to hear about all the post cruise issues you had to endure. So far, knock on wood, it’s just a cold. Took antihistamine last night for the running nose but that tires me out. Coughing has been sporadic but under controlled for now.

 

Hopefully t doesn’t escalate to be something serious or lingering. I hear people at work in other cubicles sneezing and coughing so maybe I got it from them yesterday.

 

Thanks for the compliment on my trip report.

[harryfat1]

468 on Freedom was one of our Favorite Tables. We met the couple that we have been cruising with since 2010.

 

We were at the next table 467 last year on the Freedom so I know that area well. It's very private last table at the balcony. Great for show watching.

 

But Royal screwed up and took away the table they promised us in the email.:mad::loudcry:

[harryfat1]

Another cheapo dad report! I'm looking forward to this one, especially since we had to cancel our upcoming spring break cruise and I don't know when we'll be able to rebook :(

 

Hi,

 

Good to hear from you again as I recognize your screen name from the past.

 

Sorry to hear about your cancelled cruise. Hopefully you will have one booked soon. I will do my best to try to take you along our cruise and you don't need to pack. ;p

[harryfat1]

(OK, I think I have replied to everyone that asked a question or posted a lengthy comment. If I missed someone, I apologize as it's hard to reply to everyone and try to write a trip report at the same time)

+++++++++++++++++

Not that I believe this year’s cruise planning is cursed or anything but it certainly was challenging.

 

First, we had to cancel and re-book a different cruise 5 months prior to sailing. That’s as close to “last minute” for the super 9.8 level people that like to have things planned out 12+ months prior.

 

Second, a whole series of major hurricanes hit Caribbean and Florida in September time period. As a result, hundreds of cruises for all the cruise lines were altered with different ports. Many people didn’t know what islands their cruise will entail if they aware going to eastern Caribbean. Royal was updating their cruise web site regularly with updates.

 

Some people from our roll call cancelled their cruise as they didn’t want to deal with uncertainty of not knowing what islands they will visit (see my previous post on how that created opportunities for people to book last minute at a deep discount price). There were numerous hotly debated threads on whether or not Royal was right to visit the islands “so soon” after the hurricanes.

 

So a lot of time and effort was spent on monitoring the news on what ports we will actually visit as many ships headed west. We were scheduled to visit two of the heavy damaged islands of Puerto Rico and St. Maarten. Couldn’t book any independent tours ahead of time until I was really certain Royal will be going there.

 

Then less than a week prior to our sailing, I woke up and saw this on my computer about the Indy. You KNOW it’s not a good thing when the ship that you will sail on makes it to the front pages of Yahoo news and CNN news and every other news outlet.

 

 

 

 

Oh, great, now I have to track CC for hourly reports of people on the sailing before us to see what Noro protocols they had to endure. Those guys sounded like they had it rough with super long lines and wait staff having to serve them at windjammer as the passengers were not allowed to touch any shared tongs. Not good. Crossing our fingers we didn’t have to endure those conditions for 9 whole days.

 

So we had to rushed off to Target two days before our flight to stock up on hand sanitizers and wipes. Then you hear other people say those are not really effective and so on. Maybe so, but for us, it’s somewhat peace of mind to have it. Whether or not it’s totally effective is not for me to say. False comfort is better than unnatural fear in our book.

 

More on washy washy and other germ avoidance discussion as the trip report goes on.

 

Another thing about making headline news with the Noro is that all other people who knows NOTHING about cruises also knows about it.

 

++++++++++++

So this was the actual conversation at work:

 

“How goes? I heard you are going on vacation this week”

“Yeah, we will be flying to Florida and then taking a 9 day cruise to the Caribbean and spending Christmas there”

 

You can see the envy and WOW on their face when they hear what you plan to do for the holidays. You feel a sense of “Ha, maybe it was good to pay extra for this cruise” vanity growing inside of you. Then things turn quickly when they say:

 

“I saw on CNN last night there was a big Noro virus outbreak on some cruise ship. Many people vomiting and had diarrhea all over the ship. You are NOT going on that ship, are you?”

 

“Ehhh, hehe, actually we are. But we bought wipes and sanitizers and we will wash hands frequently so hopefully we will be fine”

 

“Oh, well, OK then. Good luck…”

 

You can see the envy and WOW evaporating and instead they look at you like “What a dork to spend thousands of dollars to be stuck on a diarrhea and vomiting ship for 9 days. Mental note to self not to shake Harry’s hands when he gets back as he could be Typhoid Mary/Noro Harry…”

[harryfat1]

(OK, so after couple days of blah blah pre cruise gibberish, we finally get to the actual trip report. You thought we never get to this point, eh? In theory, I can just start at this point of the trip report in post #1 but that’s not how I roll. My wife always complains that I don’t get to the point fast enough as she wants to cut to the chase right away and then work backwards to ask questions. I always insist on providing more than enough background that nobody cares about and then gradually build up the story line.

 

From this point onward, no more random pictures in this trip report. All pictures will fit the story line or vice versa as I depend on the pictures I see in the computer and then I write the story line based on the picture. Old man memory isn’t what it used to be. If I didn’t take a picture of an event, there’s no way in hell I will remember what we did on day 7 in the afternoon at this point.

But I reserve the right to digress with other vacation photos when my ADHD hits and I need to take a break from talking cruises nonstop.)

 

Day Minus 1

 

As always, I will use the cruise lexicon on naming the days of the trip based on sailing day. Only with cruises do you number your vacation days as 1, 2, 3 and so on. Royal is good enough to remind you on how the rest of the world is treating that day of the week with the sign on the elevator floor. I will reference that as we get on the ship.

 

Yes, of course, I took pictures of days of the week on the floor. How can you be a self proclaimed 9.8 anal person if you don’t do a simple anal task like that? Although I must admit that on days 8 and 9, I think I stopped taking the floor pictures as they are the same as days 1 and 2. Guess I am slipping in the anal scale as well as somebody will surely point out “but those days might not be the exact same Thursday and Friday from the week before…”

 

That reminds me of an old Dilbert comic strip where the dumb pointy hair boss insists on reviewing the 2 documents side by side for differences when Dilbert was trying to tell him they are photocopies…

 

As for the vacation packing itself, it will come as a surprise to NOONE that I have a packing list done in Excel (9.8 scale, remember?). No, I am not sharing that list. Make your own as many lists are personal preference items. I have one version for cruises and one for road trips as cruises requires packing formal clothes that you skip for road trips. On road trips, we pack food and various cooking related items for hotels that is not needed for cruises.

 

At any rate, I have learned through the years that regardless of how far ahead you take out the luggage to start packing or pre-planned for your trip, the day before the actual vacation is always a mad rush of “where did I pack that stuff?” or ask the spouse or kids “has anyone seen such and such?”

[harryfat1]

In the real world, this was Tuesday, December 19. As part of the compromise made between cheapo dad and good dad, we split the time we were taking the kids out of school. So we had them attend school on Monday and Tuesday and then flew out on a red eye on Tuesday night. That way they will only miss school on Wednesday and Thursday. With the thinking and hope that last day before winter break (Thursday), many classes will have holiday parties or do relaxing non academic related events.

 

So I had to work on Tuesday. As I have always said, if I can just bottle the happiness one feels when you walk out of work before vacation and knowing that you don’t have to be back for almost 2 weeks due to holiday break, that happiness can’t be duplicated by any drug or medication. If I can just add that to water and sell it for $2 a bottle and market it as vacation happiness, I would make a fortune. Totally organic with no additives, this drink will be a big seller.

 

Since we booked a Hilton hotel for the first night, their app allows you to choose a room the day before. Here is what the screen shot looks like. Really cool. Download it if you book with Hilton in your future reservations.

 

As I mentioned, my brother in law is sailing with us but they flew out to FLL the morning of and staying at the same hotel. He texted that he selected a room on the 6th floor so I did the same thing so we are all on the same floor.

 

 

 

 

As the cheapo dad franchise is losing steam, I am adding in a cheap gimmick to distract the readers from the lack of new comical content. At various points of the report, I will add in YouTube links to songs to reflect the proper mood. Kind of like my version of smell-a-vision.

 

Since I am happy to be walking out of the office with car keys in my hand heading for home and then airport, what better song to use then this?

 

[JamesEM]

Ewwww, sorry to hear about all the post cruise issues you had to endure. So far, knock on wood, it’s just a cold. Took antihistamine last night for the running nose but that tires me out. Coughing has been sporadic but under controlled for now.

 

Hopefully t doesn’t escalate to be something serious or lingering. I hear people at work in other cubicles sneezing and coughing so maybe I got it from them yesterday.

 

Thanks for the compliment on my trip report.

 

Harry, most likely you caught the crude on your flight back home. Jim,

[Newby58]

Hi,

 

 

 

Thanks for following. I always admire people that can read trip reports even though they are not going on that class of ship or itinerary. The ADHD in me can’t stay focus long enough to read trip reports if I am not using the info for my future cruise. The most I would do is look at other people pictures and steal (err, I meant, be artistically inspired by) their photo ideas.

 

 

 

What Royal ship goes to Hawaii?

 

 

 

My wife’s other brother just came back from a 15 day round trip Princess cruise from San Francisco to Hawaii and back. I can’t do 15 days, especially all those long sea days. I get motion sickness easily with the rocky seas between SF and Hawaii as well as being bored to death.

 

 

 

One thing you won’t find in my trip report is me sitting in the solarium reading a book. That’s not part of the 3 E’s on why I cruise. Besides, I’m illiterate…

 

 

 

I would rather spend the time going to an art auction (not that cheapo dad would bid on anything) but at least they give you free booze for attending and they inform you on the act history/background. At least I would have learned something. Or go around the ship taking these useless pictures…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be on the Celebrity Solstice. My first venture to the dark side after 5 RCI cruises. Hawaii to Sydney Oct 2018 18 nights. Or 19 technically. Oh, and I will definitely be found reading a book. That said, I am up for free booze. The art auctions you say?

 

 

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[Reader0108598]

Ewwww, sorry to hear about all the post cruise issues you had to endure. So far, knock on wood, it’s just a cold. Took antihistamine last night for the running nose but that tires me out. Coughing has been sporadic but under controlled for now.

 

Hopefully t doesn’t escalate to be something serious or lingering. I hear people at work in other cubicles sneezing and coughing so maybe I got it from them yesterday.

 

Thanks for the compliment on my trip report.

 

 

Glad it is just a cold hope it stays that way :) I should clarify not positvive I got it on the cruise could have picked it up on any where ! Started the second to the last day of the cruise , although quite a few from the cruise also got sick tis the season. Please keep your review going love it!

[Miryam1234]

Hi, Miryam,

 

So why did your TA get cancelled? I know Indy is due for refit in the spring but I am not really following the details as it’s after our cruise so it won’t impact me.

 

.

 

Thanks for the Pharrel Williams Happy song! It makes me smile even at work!

 

I don't know why Royal cancelled Independence TA. It has totally disappeared from the schedule - seems like the ship will sail over the pond empty and they do the rework (or whatever it's called) while sailing. Or maybe it was partly chartered.

Anyways, we were price protected and we had booked early to get nice price to begin with (even the gratuity remained the same), so the deal for 14 nights with Navigator was too sweet to give up. Although we were forced to swap from the much wanted, totally perfect corner aft cabin and go for hump instead. Which might turn out to be a good thing, as last year's TA with Freedom was so rocky and bumby ride with aft corner cabin that my daughter fell from her bed one night. Hoping for smoother seas this time, as Navigator is way smaller than Indy. Too small, says my husband. Therefore 2019 will be Oasis which is big enough for him. And built in Turku which is essential to him as he refuses to step on anything newer than Allure, meaning anything coming from anywhere else but Turku. Older than Navigator don't count because his career started with Voyager class. And all this even though he has not been working with ships after Allure was finished in 2009! I call him stubborn. He claims he just has high standards and consistency in his thinking. Always some anality (is that a word?) with men!

 

Carry on, please. Loving your story!