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My first blog or live cruise report for our Navigator of the Seas cruise to the ABC islands

Psycho and Barb
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Psycho and Barb

Psycho and Barb

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I’m going to attempt to do my first blog or live cruise report for our Navigator of the Seas cruise to the ABC islands…Leaving the port of Miami on the 30 March 2018…Please be easy on me[emoji23] I guess this is where I’m supposed to introduce ourselves.

 

 

 

I’m a 60 year old young man! I served 28 years in the US Military…Did some time as a Contractor in the sandbox and now work for Uncle Sam. My nickname Psycho was given to me early in my Military career and has followed me every since. My best friend Barb has been my wife for over 40 years and is a RN at our local hospital…She is the rock and glue that held our family together because I was gone way to much! We love to cruise and try to get in a couple a year depending on our hectic schedules. We have done 11 cruise on Royal and have two other cruise booked after this one. We have three sons who all are married and too many kids that call me “Grandpa” [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

 

 

28 Mar 2018

 

 

 

I only worked a half a day and was ready to hit the road. But unfortunately my best friend Barb had to put in a full days work. We drove from our home in Destin Florida to Valdosta Georgia…I know, it’s further north then we need to go but it’s also home to our oldest son and family. I was stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta and oldest decided to stay when we moved to Florida. Not sure if many of you know where Destin is but we in the panhandle of Florida…Between Pensacola and Panama City Beach. We live in a big tourist area and the Spring Breakers have arrived. So this cruise is at the perfect time. Here is short drone video of some of our beautiful waters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our four hour drive was uneventful…Not much traffic and the State Troopers we hitting the big semi’s and not bothering anyone drive ten MPH over the speed limit. After we spend some time with our son, we will drive to our best friends and cruising buddies house…Bob and Deb. They also live in Valdosta and we will ride with them to our hotel tomorrow the 29th of March. I’ll post more tomorrow.

 

 

 

29 Mar 2018

 

 

 

We left Valdosta this morning about 0700 heading to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. We were in no hurry and stopped for coffee and breakfast and few restroom breaks. We had booked our hotel many months ago…The price of a room in Miami was way to high at the time...Fort Lauderdale is close enough to allow us about an hour drive to the cruise terminal and we got a great deal at the Hampton Inn on

Commercial Blvd. We arrived just before 1500 Hrs (3 PM) and our rooms were ready and available. As for most Hampton Inns we’ve stayed In, the hotel was very nice and the rooms clean…Breakfast included so we can eat before we leave to get on the ship. Went to a local chicken wing place and had some wings and few beers for dinner. The wings were good but not the best I’ve ever had. Back at the hotel sitting by the pool and having a few more drinks…Remember, we are on vacation! We can’t wait to get on the Navigator tomorrow!

 

 

 

I have the internet package so if anyone has questions…I will do my best to answer them. Until tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Deck_Diva

Deck_Diva

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We’re sailing with you, Psycho, our first time on to see the ABCs and will stay on for 14 nights TA as well. Looking forward to this Southern Caribbean itinerary since I’m celebrating my birthday big O on this sailing. My daughter & friends are joining us on our Transatlantic crossing.

Kinda cool I think to read your blog same time we’re sailing on the same cruise.

 

Looking forward to meeting you,

 

Sonia & Rafael

Bay Area SF

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Psycho and Barb

Psycho and Barb

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We just did this one on March 2nd for the 9-nighter!! Loved it!!:hearteyes: Thanks for sharing your vacation with us, enjoy your cruise, and a big THANK YOU for your service!!:cool::*

 

 

 

Awesome itinerary isn’t it? We did the ABC Islands back on 29 Jan 2015 on the Explore of the Seas with Capt James Macdonald. Can’t wait to get back!

 

 

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Psycho and Barb

Psycho and Barb

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Loved the video. Hoping to visit the Panhandle in the next year!

 

 

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Our beaches are some of the best we’ve ever seen...They have a sand quality here! Your sand gets taken out from a hurricane you can’t just replace it with any sand...Oh no...It’s got to meet our White Sugarcane standards! My niece from Cali saw it and said “Look at all that snow over there[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

 

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GTO-Girl

GTO-Girl

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We love, love, love Destin!! We will be back there again this summer!!

 

Looking forward to your review as we have booked our first trip on the Navigator for November of this year. We have been to Aruba before, but never Bonair or Curacao so we need lots of help.

 

Thank you so much for your service!!!

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Psycho and Barb

Psycho and Barb

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30 Mar 2018

 

 

 

Day 1

 

 

 

Well the big day has finally arrived! I’m an early riser so I was up about 0400 and downstairs in the hotel lobby. I was the only person up except for the desk clerk and she just made a fresh pot of coffee. I caught up on what happened during Baseball’s opening day while I waited for everyone to get up moving. Our other friends Dennis and Patty joined at the hotel and it was good to catch up on everything with them…Well not everything but we’ve got 9 more days to do that.

 

 

 

We left the hotel just about 0915 and was at the port just a little past 1000…The express lane on Hwy 95 allowed us to miss the traffic. Well at least till we got to the cruise port…Lots of People getting off the Navigator were waiting for taxis. We dropped our luggage off at the porters and parked in the parking garage on the third floor. We have a tradition where the ladies in our group drink Formosa’s and the men have a cold beer to celebrate the start of our cruise.

 

 

 

Boarding was one of the smoothest we’ve had! They had lots of security lines and of course metal detectors…Walked up and right through. Checkin was also very fast and efficient…We were on the boat by 1100…Well ok, we had more than one beer in the parking garage🤪

 

 

 

The first thing we always do once we got on board is to find our MD table but we discovered that Dennis and Patty were not seated at our table. We let the ladies fix that while went to the Schooner bar on Deck 4. They got it straightened out but nothing could be done for tonight which was no big deal since we had panned on trying the Mongolian in the windjammer…Its was awesome and I highly recommend it. We made two Specialty Dinning reservations….Chops and Giovanni’s

 

 

 

The rooms weren’t supposed to be ready till 1330 but Bob and I snuck into ours to drop off our heavy backpacks a little after 1300. They had the hallway doors closed but not locked and we didn’t see anybody in the hallways. I almost forgot…When I introduced our cruising buddy’s Bob and Deb. I forgot to mention he goes by the screen name on here of “Thegreatoz”. We already had one suitcase outside our room but I had to go and rescue our second one from the bad boys area. I have the Booze package and don’t try sneak any on so I was surprised they were holding my bag hostage. A quick trip down to Deck one to free my bag. I opened it up for the Security Guy and had to take everything out to find the offensive item…My C-Clamp I use to hang my hammock on my balcony [emoji23].

 

 

 

We decided to check out the Diamond club on Deck 14 since it was happy hour. Not sure how many Diamonds and above are on this ship but they also had the Cosmopolitan club outside the Diamond lounge closed and reserved for Diamonds and above but neither was packed. While we sitting there looking down on the pool deck we heard the dreaded Alpha, Alpha call. Not sure what happened but we noticed someone was down on the pool deck and medical personnel were tending to them…Pray they are ok. This was shortly after we left the dock but we never turned around…I took that as a good sign.

 

 

 

I crashed and burned early but Barb made the show and of course the Casino! Tomorrow we’ve got the Meet and Mingle[emoji106] I’ve brought two Air Force hats and Tee shirts to give away…Not sure if I’ll just give them up for the raffle or just find two children at the Meet and Mingle and give it to them. I’ll let you in tomorrow’s post [emoji482][emoji482][emoji482]

 

 

 

 

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