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LIVE LIVE LIVE from the Sovereign of the Seas

Merion_Mom

By Merion_Mom,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

Posted
Posted

Apologies to rick...........I am taking time out from my vacation to post.

 

Do you want my personal tsuris, or just the cruise facts? Ok, the personal stuff first.

 

I am now a major Southwest Air fan. Great flight, great experience. HOWEVER............that having been said, for the first time EVER, we had luggage damage. BIG damage. One suitcase's zipper was damaged; SW baggage guy was able to fix. Other suitcase............entire zip pulls, both of them, plus lock that used to hold them together? GONE GONE GONE. Not broken, not damaged. GONE. No repair possible. Rolling duffel just open to the elements.

 

SW says "no responsibility for damage to zippers." I am hopeful that CSA travel insurance will reimburse after I get home.

 

Meanwhile, picked up at Orlando airport by WONDERFUL private driver, Ed Korgan. Love this guy. He waits while I spend 45 minutes with SW baggage guys. Drives us to Cocoa Beach. Takes us to liquor store. I didn't buy anything to smuggle, of course. My Uncle Jack, two bottles of champagne, one California, the other French, plus two California reds and one California white just found their own way into my bags. Still can't figure out how the little devils got in there.

 

Then this great Ed Korgan took us to Walgreen's, and we bought a cheap suitcase. Went to the Holday Inn Cocoa Beach (NOT express) and spent the night. Adequate. Got for about $85 plus very high taxes through Priceline in high season. Got a second floor room at first. No elevators. Nine suitcases. Asked for first floor. No problem - place half empty. Walked about two block to Gregory's - recommended to me by "ruttie" on these board. GREAT dinner. NOT cheap. YUMMY. No questions about sharing a bottle of wine with my (still slightly underaged) daughter.

 

Called in the morning for a cab and asked him to come with a minivan at 11 a.m. He was right on time. Got to the port quickly.

 

OMG - we were on board so fast that I didn't even have time to look at my watch. It was almost "negative" time to get on board. ZIP ZIP ZIP.

 

Quick pix, quick security pic, in the centrum, to deck 10 - oops, someone forgot to close/lock the door! We went down the corridor, into our cabin, left our carry-ons, even UNPACKED our carryons. No one in sight.

 

Went to WJ, had lunch. What the HELL is everyone complaining about?? I had six or seven sampler portions of different things. All excellent. Asian beef salad - yum. Salad Nicoise - yum, but no tuna. (odd, but good ) FAB miso soup with extra tofu. I forget what else.

 

YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE HIT THE BACKSPACE BAR to correct this post.

 

You know what everyone says about 3 and 4 days cruises? OMG!!!! So true. I am NOT a drinker. I am, um, PWD. Look it up. :)

 

Went to welcome aboard show. I never understood people who said that a show wasn't good. All of our shows: Explorer, Voyager, Enchantment.........delightful. Tonight. HHHHMMM....to quote my son, "Well, THAT sucked." I have to agree. So far, I am NOT impressed by our CD, Johnny O. Opening comic/magician, Bart Rocket = not bad. He's performing again tomorrow. An update will come then. Headliner = Jim McCue = NOT FUNNY. I like to laugh. This guy did NOT make my laugh. That pisses me off.

 

Dueling pianos = saved the evening for me. Loved them. They played SEVERAL of MY requests. And I'm OLD. hee hee. My daughter and I seriously grooved to some of the same tunes. I went up to Steve (Green) afterwards and told him we were staying on for a full week. He told me some stuff he LOVES to do that no one asks for, so we'll "request" that later.

 

My daughter turned 20 today. I had our waiter put a candle in her dessert. We sang. We = our table. The rest of the surrounding diners gleefully joined in. It was a LARGE chorus.

 

Nice menorah lighting in Mariner conference room. Very small turnout.

 

JS - hhhmmmm...small.............when fold out bed is folded out, no floor space left. Thanks to you guys on CC, I asked for an egg crate topper. I'll let you know tomorrow how that worked out. Yes, *I* am sleeping on the pull-out, 'cause I'm five foot nothing, and my kids are six and 12 inches taller than I am.

 

More later. Post short questions. I'm using my "platinum" minutes for this, but don't begrudge you wonderful guys a moment of them.

 

Boozingly yours at 2:30 a.m.,

 

Carol

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Lou_70

Lou_70

Posted
Posted

Great review..

 

Yea a couple bottles of Captain Morgan's might accidently fall into my suitcase also.. let me ask you..

 

Did they fall into your checked in luggage or your carry on?

 

Thanks and have a great time..

 

Lou

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wastin' away

wastin' away

Posted
Posted

Glad you are having such a fantastic time!! I am impressed if you truly were "posting while drunk" then you are a better woman than I thought before!

I would also like to know if your bottles fell into your checked or carry-on luggage!

Oh... also hope your T.I. covers your luggage, were your unmentionables all over the airport? I hate it when that happens!! ;)

 

Enjoy the rest of your B2B!~!

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wrp96

wrp96

Posted
Posted

Carol, glad you are having a great time. I know you don't drink;) , but we discovered last week that champagne is a great seasickness remedy. You might try that as a preventative measure, you know, just in case.

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Lou - They fell into BOTH my carryon AND my checked bags. Distributed themselves nicely. All are intact. Well, they were, until I opened them. :D

 

Day 2: fun in Nassau. Ok, so Nassau is nothing special any more. Oh well. It was nice. My daughter had a VERY good time scuba diving.

 

FUNNY THING: a couple on her dive boat were the very people I was trying to hook up with from Cruise Critic! They were chatting, and asked her if this was her first cruise, and she said, no, we cruise every year at New Year's. Well, we TRY to cruise every year at New Year's, but last year USAir kept us from cruising. This guy just STARES at her with BUG EYES and says, "Are YOU Merion Mom's daughter???" I wish that I could have been a fly on the gunwales to hear that conversation!

 

We took a taxi over to Atlantis partly to satisfy my curiosity and partly because a friend of my son's is staying there for vacation with her family. We couldn't find her - Verizon had no reception or signal in Nassau, but we walked around the inside of Atlantis with impunity. Went into the casino; I came out ahead. Almost covered the cost of the taxis to and from! Take THAT, you snotty Atlantis so-and-sos!

 

Dinner tonight was FABULOUSLY delicious. Too bad my son had to miss it. He refused to put on his tux, and I refused to let him dine in the dining room in just a shirt and pants. Too bad, so sad.

 

I took one of my bottles of wine that had jumped into my suitcase in Cocoa Beach. I had selected it specially for my daughter's taste. She LOVED it. (I am SUCH an oenophile! look it up :D) My waiter did NOT NOT NOT charge me the corkage fee. We were also 45 minutes late because of the lateness of Beth's scuba diving excursion, but I had alerted them ahead of time, and they said that as long as we got there before 7, it would be ok, and we did.

 

Between our lateness, and not charging us the corkage fee, I slipped Raymund a nice big bill. We're both happy now.

 

The slots were alternately kind and cruel tonight. Not sure of the ultimate outcome - I lost track. Something about a glass of ice tea....ok, a little bit paler than ice tea, but it COULD HAVE BEEN ice tea...............

 

I am DEFINITELY not impressed with "Johnny O" as CD. He has hosted two evening shows and one Love & Marriage Game so far. I think that I have given him a fair chance. Haven't seen him anywhere else. He's not funny, he's not clever, he's not a personality.

 

Love & Marriage was cute, but not overwhelmingly so, thanks to Johnny's lack of wit.

 

Dueling pianos FANTASTIC again.

 

All food so far is good to excellent. All fruit soups, dining room and WJ, fabulous. Lobster bisque in DR, excellent. Duck, yummy.

 

Cheese plates in room - as usual. They don't serve "good" cheese, but it serves its purpose.

 

Oh, my cabin steward is wonderful. They came and put the egg crate topper on the sofa bed, and I slept on it last night. There's a curtain that pulls wall to wall, and I had my own little draped, cushioned, almost sound-proof cubby. (my kids CLAIM that I snore - no complaints last night) Comfortable enough. Balcony is nice size - I would like a lounger, but it only has two chairs. I think that I'll ask her tomorrow if we can get a lounger.

 

Tomorrow (ok, today - it's after 3 a.m.), CoCo Cay. Beth dives again, David refuses to try snorkeling - I may do it alone.

 

Carol

 

Try to keep me on page one, buddies!

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Oh, here's a rider to the "dress" thought.

 

The crowd here in general is rather casual, BUT BUT BUT almost everyone was VERY VERY VERY dressed up tonight for formal night. A very nice looking crowd when it puts its mind to it.

 

Something that I hadn't seen anywhere before:

 

Cruise compass said (not quoting exactly) that "tonight is formal night, cocktail dresses for the ladies and tux or suit for the gentlement. Our guests are welcome to change into casual or Caribbean wear after dinner."

 

Interesting, eh?

 

Damn, it's December 29th. STOP PLAYING GRANDMA GOT RUN OVER BY A REINDEER!!!!!!!!!!

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Mabers

Mabers

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I was on the Sovereign over Xmas and we had a fab time ( a 3 gen. fam. of 13) due in large part to the dozen or so litre and a half bottles of wine that miraculously found their way into our bags.....mostly carry-on. We (willingly)paid corkage on all but one. We also had a good supply of liquor.....nobody noticed any of it, but we enjoyed every drop!

We had several issues with the ship, not the least of which was the totally closed (for the 5 days of the trip) basketball court, due to resurfacing the floor. I understand it was in bad shape, but for heaven's sake, get someone in there who can do a speedy job. We paid big bucks for the privilege and it wasn't there. On a Xmas cruise full of kids anxious to do what had been promised, this was inexcusable. On top of that, they didn't seem to care, and offered nothing in it's place....like maybe $10 or so for the arcade.

On another thread I posted about the absolutely atrocious clone version of Rosario Strings. Why would RCI put their worst clones on a Xmas cruise? I was embarrassed for them, and for RCI, especially having seen maybe the best clones on the Sovereign in March. Bad, bad.....

The crew was less than happy and downright glum a good part of the time. One couple never clapped eyes on their room steward and food was left on their balcony the entire 5 days. They also asked to have the pull-out bed closed during the day....it was never done.

I found the food in the Windjammer to be excellent.....there was something for every taste. There were 2 veggie heads among us and they were satisfied. Food in the dining room ranged from fair to very good and seemed to improve as the cruise went on.

I agree that Johhny O was short of spectacular, but generally the shows were watchable. Johhny Thunder put on a great show....we all loved it.

As I say, we all enjoyed the whole cruise in spite of some shortcomings....it was our first time all together for the holidays in over 15 years.....what's not to love about that???

 

M.

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