Leaderboard

We have about 4 hours left of our flight. We all passed out for a bit but now awake and probably not going back to sleep because I don’t want to throw off my schedule too much tonight. Now seems like a good time to sum of some of my final thoughts. To echo what many of you have already said, from beginning to end, this trip has been nothing short of amazing. It is hard to put into words how incredibly grateful we are to have had this opportunity with the girls. Something we will all cherish for the rest of our lives. I was just going through all our photos earlier and Barcelona was only two weeks ago, but yet seems like ages ago. So this trip has felt long, but yet also whizzed by if that makes sense. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, despite the heat, and the messed up shore excursion, it’s just all part of the memories now. And we cherish them all. As a family, we have come to several conclusions. We will be very careful when picking where to go in the future during the summer months. The last few days in Rome were pretty rough with the heat and I think if we were going to head to the hotter ports of Europe, we would wait a few years and do it in the cooler months. The heat and the massive crowds do make it less enjoyable. If we were to head back to Europe in the next few years before I retire, then we would do Northern Europe itineraries instead. We loved our experiences with LivTours. I am now convinced that for “must see” destinations, private tours is the way to go. The flexibility and the speed at which you can move is worth it. And it really is like having your own local person taking you around, they know all the tricks and things to avoid, right down to which water fountains to avoid (because of lines) and how to move through the crowds, and which restaurants have AC lol. And LivTours is a fantastic company to work with in pre-planning as well. I think that is all for now. Thank you all for coming along with us. The more the merrier. I am sorry that in the last few days I was only able to update at the end of the day. It was just the nature of the day long tours and the exhaustion that followed. I am happy though that I managed to keep this blog “Live” and not fall off. I have never done that before and wasn’t about to start now I will admit it was challenging though this time. We are exhausted, but we are so thankful, and Hubby and I are off again in one week from today!

About last night…

So this just happened: Almost paid for my parking at the Miami cruise port.

IT’S CRUISE DAY! Our ship is waiting! And we’re ready!!!

From town hall we walked to the famous Santa Maria del Fiore. I fell in love with the facade of this cathedral 19 years ago. Something about it is just so stunning and different from all the other cathedrals out there. It made me so happy to be able to bring the girls back here. And the Gates of Paradise, just beautiful depictions of the Old Testament.

Good news with the VOOM difference. I got it back, plus a few dollars extra. All good now.

Funny story…So as we headed off to dinner, D17 was running a few steps behind us. D15 and I left first. As we were on our way out, we passed by Hubby practically running back to the room. D17 had her AirPods in while getting ready and did not hear him come in. She leaves, and puts the sign out for our room attendant. I love our room attendant. She is hilarious, loud, and brash, very much like us, I think that is why I like her so much. Anyhow, you can probably guess where this story is going. D17 puts the sign out and heads to the MDR. Room attendant, thinking everyone is gone, comes in. Hubby, thinking D17 heard him, and assuming he was going to put the sign out, walks out of the shower (dressed thank goodness) and both he and room attendant start screaming. I wish I could describe this better cause if you all knew our room attendant, this would be even funnier. We later had a good laugh about this when we ran into her again after dinner.

Success!

By the time this was done, we were wiped out! Truly. We all told Hubby we were done. He was the only one with energy still. Our guide recommended good authentic paella place to us and this is where we said goodbye to her. Dinner was house salad, cannelloni, and chicken & vegetable paella. All yummy after a long day. Last pic is us calling it quits and catching a cab back to the hotel. Off to bed now for another busy day tomorrow!

Meanwhile in the Crown Lounge, a seat finally opened up.

Our tour got off to a very interesting start. The tender was actually the RC lifeboats. It was cozy. Upon leaving the platform of the ship, we heard the crew driving the lifeboat say something about his engine not working. Not a great sign. After some floating in the water, he managed to get it going towards the dock of Portofino. As we approached, the lifeboat stalls again and we hear him call for help because he can’t dock or he will hit the fancy yachts. Someone on the ship end tells him to return to the ship platform. Everyone shouts out, “No!” Then he tells the ship that he can try to dock if they send him a rescue boat. After some aimless floating in the water, a rescue boat comes along and he tries to dock. I am not @twangster so I don’t know all the terms, but basically he did not have as much maneuverability to dock. As we get close to the dock, the lifeboat had to push us into it to get the lifeboat tied up.

After lunch we headed to the Accademia Gallery to see David and other works of art. We have a ton of photos here but I will not post since it’s a family blog Hubby said to leave you all with one.

From here our guide took us to Sagrada Familia. This church was so breathtaking. Hubby and the girls were fascinated by the inside, but I loved the outside facades. One side shows the nativity (the life of Christ) the other side was called the passion (the crucifixion and ascension of Christ). The detail from scriptures in the art and sculptures were just amazing! Apologies for the photo dump.

We met our guide near Barcelona Cathedral and from there we toured the Gothic Quarter and the cathedral. Some really great views from up top!

A RoyalCaribbeanBlog group cruise is always a great time. I came in at a slight disadvantage having never sailed Icon before. I wanted to participate in everything Icon I could . There is so much going on Icon class that meant sometimes skipping group cruise gatherings. That’s one of the great things about a group cruise, you can join in as much or as little as you desire. I also wanted to capture Icon with my good camera. Everything I’ve posted here has been cell phone or 360 camera. Capturing Icon trying to avoid 7,230 other guests in my pics meant staying up late or getting up early further limiting my free time. I’ve got over 3,000 pics from my good camera to go through. It’s been good to see old friends again and meet a few new ones. I really enjoyed this cruise and if you haven’t done a group cruise I encourage you to join one in the future. Until next time, twangster out.

Well, Batman surprised me and DID book the 10-night Joy for our anniversary as a surprise after our bad news. To be clear, i was proud of him for taking care of our 20th anniversary so i didn't have to do it. When i expressed my excitement and gratitude, he quickly took the opportunity to remind me that it was only our 19th ... Maybe when the time comes, I'll pop on here for a brief live to explain differences, but only if there is interest, which i COMPLETELY understand if there is not or it's against decorum. It is this August 18 out of NYC on a Breakaway Plus class ship (my fave) to the Eastern Caribbean (San Juan, St Maarten, St Thomas, Tortola, Puerto Plata with 2 sea days at the beginning and end). We're staying in a 2BR suite on Deck 17 in Haven proper. It's not Star Class by any means (to me, Haven is certainly below Star but well above Sky Class IMHO), but I'm sure that's just me. Maybe this a bad idea and I'm just too philosophical right now. But i did want to say that I'm grateful for this safe space. I was hurting so badly when i posted our bad news. I'm still hurting. But your kind messages meant so much comfort for me. So thank you.

Pretty gross menus for a new ship.. JK..my espresso laced drink got a bit fiesty..I am responsible for this art project.

I am on my way to the port. I see why you shouldn’t fly in the day if your cruise. There was an IT glitch all flights were grounded. We only had to wait 30 minutes. I was praying hard for a miracle.

Well the mall trip was perfectly timed because somehow i busted the zipper on my favorite shorts...so a trip to Gap and nice new pair of khaki shorts later,I'm back in business. We ended up just doing Ruby Tuesday across the street from the mall... we sit down, and someone walks up to our table and says "is your name Scott?" My wife is like umm...who the hell do you know in Elizabeth NJ,lol. Turns out it was a couple from the FB group of our sailing and her wife recognized me from my profile pic. My son now thinks I'm Facebook famous and my wife just thinks I'm crazy. Watched a great lightning show from our room over the city to end the night-bed time! I'll probably check back in from Sorrentos after we board tomorrow!

Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. We got a huge history lesson here but it truly made it more enjoyable. We even caught a lull in the massive crowd and took a pic with Marco

After McDonald’s, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Before we entered the “blender” (as Marco calls it), he pulled us aside and said he had one goal…get to the water. Then he said, “Follow me.” He was an all star. He weaved us through the blender in about a minute or two tops. And it was packed!

Rooftop breakfast at Marriott Grand Flora.

We also told Monica we wanted gelato, so she took us to another local authentic gelato place. And from here we walked to meet our driver again to head to Pisa.

Yes!! Probably my favourite dessert in the MDR. Hubby ordered it. He said it was good. He said it was just, “Something to eat if you want to feel good about yourself but no one wakes up in the morning wishing to eat that thing.” his words

On the happy news front…one step closer to

2 Bedroom Grand Suite on Voyager Entryway Once you walk in, to the left is the second bedroom that sleeps up to 4. To the right are 3 doors. One door is the closet for the second room, one door is door into the master, and the last door is the second bathroom. Second Bedroom Closet for second bedroom Bathroom for second bedroom Master bedroom The master has two entries. One is the door right off the entryway, the other is the sliding door from the living area. Master Bathroom Living area Balcony Being a ship that is almost 25 years old, there is considerable wear and tear in the room. But that is to be expected. Overall, we like this cabin better than the one on Liberty last year. The balcony is in better shape for one, and the updated furniture seems a bit more clean. We have not found underwear in any drawers yet, and D15 said that because of the slightly different layout, this room seems a bit larger and spacious. Perfectly fine to transport us from one port to another.

I almost forgot…this is our total luggage for 2 weeks. The red 29” is basically empty. A few freeloader flip flops and empty backpacks for excursions.

So when Hubby and the girls got me the glossy red Beis roller, I totally fell in love with it. However, I also grew concerned because Delta keeps gate checking bags these days. I am especially concerned because our flight from DTW-JFK tomorrow is on a tiny little CRJ900. I don’t even know if they will let anyone roll a roller on. So what does a girl who loves to cruise do when trying to protect her glossy luggage? I got one for Hubby too! It was “Buy 2 get 15% off” Then these got lost in the mail, and when Hubby found out they got lost, he said he hoped they would never be found. As you can see, he did not get his wish. Here’s the back:

I was holding off on starting this because we have quite a busy next few weeks here on the 'ole live blog, with the group sailing now, @Lovetocruise2002, @CravingaCruiseAND @OCSC Mike all sailing currently, before or during my cruise. BUT I'm bored at work on a Sunday and figured I'll at least get the thread started, so here's a little rundown on the family and the plans: It'll be the 3 of us, Me (46), Wife (45) and Son (12). We sailed Oasis twice last year and dropped the deposit for this one at NC on the last night of our October cruise. Went home and picked this one out about a week later. We really wanted to do another one from NJ since it's SO much easier for us coming from Philly. We decided on Bermuda because we hadn't done that yet, and even though the kid thinks we are going on a small ship (all he knows is Oasis), we wanted to try another class ship again and don't think this is TOO much of a step down, and certainly not "Small". We originally planned on this being a budget cruise because we had the MSC cruise in September and that requires getting to Miami, etc...so this was gonna be a quick little cruise just to squeeze in, BUT we ended up pushing MSC back to December. We had booked Interior gty, but quickly upgraded one step up to OV gty..then added lunch on day 2 at Giovannis...then added a refreshment pkg...then a soda pkg...then a cooler with the water bottles....then 1 wifi device....just threw in a $40 arcade credit.... so much for the low budget cruise, lol. BUT we did just get the RC credit card and used that to pay off the msc cruise, then turned around and cashed in the points for the $300 OBC (which I already used some for that arcade credit). We got another $50 coming from the TA and $50 more AND a 2nd, free-wifi device courtesy of the online RC Travel advisor courses I took a few months back. So that should hold us over for the wife's occasional margarita or glass of wine in the evening and whatever the kid ends up buying in the shop. We did get RU offers of the Panoramic OV and a few others, plus an OV balcony. I threw a few minimum bids in, but once we got our room number last week, I'm oddly excited about the location. YES- it's deck 2 way FWD but I THINK (most plans show this, but the app does not), we are right between an entrance to the theater and the studio B\Ice rink. So that will make going from dinner to the shows and from the gangway each day in Bermuda to our room really convenient. Our kid hated Ocean adventure both times on Oasis, he signed himself out after about 10 minutes both times and refused to go back because they grouped the kids 6-12 together and he felt like he was in day care. REALLLLLY hoping he at least tries the teen club on Liberty since he gets to hang with the older kids now. If not, that room will once again come in handy when going from the family friendly show at the theater right to the Crazy quest in Studio B- drop him off and keep walking, lol. I'll keep this updated if the RU come through or anything else interesting happens pre-cruise. Sorry about the rambling, like I said- bored at work!

Final thoughts: The ship was nicer than I expected, I see a lot of "it's run down and outdated" comments, but I honestly didn't notice. There were a few things that could be updated-the public bathrooms were just odd, a lot of the men's rooms had one urinal and one stall, but the doors to the bathroom opened up to the hallway, so when the door was opened, it was a clear shot of the guys at the urinal. My Wife said some of the women's rooms only had a single stall,- so you had to go through the main door, then lock that unless you wanted someone trying to open the stall door while you were in there. A few of the auto sliding doors to get to the outside deck on four were a little slow or delayed and our bathroom light took a little trickery to open, but other than that- I thought the ship looked great, It's a really beautiful ship. The promenade is nice, the casino is a bit tight- especially since you have to cut through there to get to the other side of deck 4 unless you go along the outside. Oh yeah, we were on deck two forward. You can only access the FWD cabins of Deck 2 and 3 via the forward elevators, so that was a little hassle, nothing major, but kind of a pain to get to the room from places like Windjammer or the dining room, where we'd have to go down to 4 or 5, walk across then take the other elevator the rest of the way down. We found that out the hard way on day 1 when we wandered around deck two trying to figure out where the hell our room was, lol. The shows were all good, Saturday night fever was really fun, the juggler was way better than I expected and the comedian was hilarious once he was doing the 18+ show, he struggled during the PG show. The ice show started slow, but it started rocking at the end and turned out to be a fun show. Food was good, like really good. We enjoyed every meal this time around, and tried Giovannis lunch for the first time- which was an amazing meal. The Filet was perfect, the service was great. We will definitely do Lunch there again next time. The service in MDR was just ok, they took our order, dropped our food then that was it. Never really had any kind of conversation with them or any real connection. Our kid was a little let down, but that's because our last cruise MDR server was AMAZING, he still talks about Edgard and compares any server at any restaurant we eat at to him, ha. The only time we talked to the server more than a few words was, of course the last night when he reminded us FOUR times during the meal to make sure we give them good reviews. Service on the ship - it was good and most of them were friendly, we just weren't blown away. There was one bartender who we really liked, he remembered everything we drank even when we saw him at his secondary bar in the theater, and actually talked and conversated a bit. Most of the staff just seemed to be there to do the job, usually with a smile, so no real complaint-just not overwhelmed by it. I think if it was someone's first cruise or we did this ship before the Oasis cruises, we'd be blown away- but that last cruise on Oasis was just so good and everyone was so insanely friendly and went above and beyond, we just got spoiled. Bermuda was AMAZING and we already plan on going back- especially since they announced cruises would be sailing from Philly to Bermuda starting in just over a year... that's a $15 uber ride from my house, so we will definitely be trying that at least once!! We would absolutely do Liberty again (or try one of the other Freedom class ships). It had everything we needed and enjoyed the pools and bars. I liked the slightly smaller feel, but we all missed having the boardwalk area- that seemed to be the only thing all three of us mentioned at least once "this would be a great time to be hanging at Playmakers on the boardwalk". So our next two cruises will be our first Non- Royal cruises, Princess from NYC without the kid, then the MSC from Miami with him. This is the first time we left a cruise without laying a deposit down at NextCruise.... we are still trying to figure out whether we want to do Symphony from NJ, splurge a little and do a B2B on Utopia or go all in on MSC and try the ship they have out of NY. Thanks for coming along, logging in and out of wifi all week made it a little more of a job than I wanted it to be, but I think I hit on most of the important stuff.

In honour of bringing it back to where it all began, photo drop circa 2002, pardon the early 2000s fashion San Juan boarding, and proof that I was not always a suite snob

And this is exactly what we did! It was a pretty great day, got a lot squeezed in. We took the ferry to Hamilton, walked around a few shops on front st then walked over the the bus depot like 2 blocks off of the main stretch. We thought for sure we'd have to wait for a 2nd bus, it was jammed but right as she was about to close the doors, she said she rad room for three...and even though we were still about 20 deep in line, we were the only party of three...having just one kid comes in handy sometimes! So after a tight, windy ride..got off across the street from a gas station, walked a little through some paths and boom...there was the blue hole, beatiful blue water with a little viewing platform. Lots of people cliff diving off the side, we chose to climb down the pretty rough rocks and slide it...no one wants to see pasty old Scott diving. After all three of us waded around,and the boy snorkeled a bit, we walked around Tom Moores jungle a bit. My kid Found the cool little cave that I've seen on many YouTube vids, so that was pretty awesome. Definitely glad we decided to make this little trek. Got some ice cream at Bailey's right up the street, hit the Swizzle inn right across the street so wife could try the rum swizzle while me and the boy changed out of our wet shorts in the bathroom. We bought an all day pass for bus/ferry transport so we jumped another bus right across from the Swizzle back to Hamilton. Did some shops, grabbed a pretty expensive lunch at the Irish pub (Flanagans)..then decided to ferry back to the dock yard. We missed the ferry by minutes, so we could wait another 1.5 or grab the bus...so we took the hour long bus ride back. At least we got to see some more of the island that way. The locals on the bus have all been super friendly..definitely not like riding the bus back home,lol. Did Italian night dinner...never realized how many people participate in White night, the dining room looked like an asylum with all those white shirts and jackets! Wife and I ended the night with the adult comedy show, and like expecting..he was MUCH funnier without the censor. Heading out this morning for a glass bottom boat ride, the I guess we'll finally check out Horseshoe bay since that seems to be the "must check out" thing here. Assuming it will be a mad house since a second ship docked this morning,we were alone yesterday. I'll do a big photo dump when I log into wifi...I'm up on the top deck using regular cell service and the pics are taking forevvvver to load. For now, heres one of blue hole

The Pesky Parrot is getting WAAAY more business than that stupid robo thing. GOOD decision to get rid of it.

Probably not staying too much longer. We’re full & getting tired. I enjoyed everything I tried, both food & drink. I don’t feel like I ate a ton (for me) but I ate a decent amount. The heat gets to me. I can see pros and cons to most daybed locations. Beach is a bit quieter but pool means you don’t get all sandy & probably less ants & birds if that matters. One note on #22… it doesn’t get any shade in the front when the sun is blazing. It looked like the beach daybeds next to it at least had some from the palms. That said, if the sun is out in July, it will be hot wherever you are. Much like CocoCay, we needed several quick dips in the pool to cool off. Service was nearly perfect. Property is well maintained. The inflatables looked fun for kids. There are complimentary mats by the pool which is large & handles a crowd pretty well. I think most people would have a good time regardless of age & activity preference if you’re looking for any type of beach/pool day with food & drink.

After the Vatican, the tour wrapped up for the day. We will meet Marco tomorrow morning again to tackle all the hot spots (quite literally). I might need to follow D15 and bring my umbrella out tomorrow. The heat is bad here. Dinner was at a place our food tour guide recommended and he said it was not a tourist trap. No one left hungry here, but there was still room for gelato!

8:20am and it’s almost as empty as when here alone.

By 10:36am we had already made a BOGO reservation for Giovanni’s tonight & finished muster. Stopped at Mason Jar for my 1st Mississippi Moonlight (drank some before the pic, oops) now sitting in a pretty empty WJ.

From the port of Livorno, it was almost a 2 hour drive to Florence. We stopped at a lookout point just outside of Florence to take some pics. Those who are on IG might have seen a video clip of this on my story this morning. Stunning! I love Florence.

Hilton Ft Lauderdale Marina Review Beautiful hotel - This is what you expect when booking a hotel. Night and day difference from the last room. We got a King Water View Tower room. We’re on floor 14 in an even numbered room with a beautiful view of the cruise port! Tomorrow morning we’ll wake up to see our ship awaiting our arrival!!! Went to the restaurant for happy hour and prices were reasonable. I’m a red wine snob and loved their house red! We snacked a bit and drank a bit more. We had a seat at the bar with a view of the marina. Cool vibe, great service, very clean! Absolutely lovely! This will likely be our go-to for FLL cruises in the future. We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone!

Following lunch, we headed to Park Güell. It was pretty hot and crowded here by this point. The tour was supposed to end here but they flipped and ended with Sagrada Familia instead. We really enjoyed this park. Gaudi’s style is so unique.

After that, we took a break for lunch at a pintxos tapas bar that was recommended by our guide. You pick whatever you want and save the little sticks and at the end, they count them up when you are done.

Blogging while travelling Europe is also not for the tired and weary, which is pretty much a given whether you are recovering from jet lag, or wiped out from a full day excursion. That sums up me on both those fronts Anyhow, we all feel a bit more like humans (instead of walking zombies) today after we all went to bed early last night. Our day began with breakfast at the hotel. This can be included with your stay, or you can skip it. I don’t remember the exact cost, but it was not a big difference like the crazy cost some hotels choose so we chose to have it included. It was so worth it! This was no Holiday Inn Express breakfast. The food quality was excellent, everything was so fresh, even the juices, and they had Cava included if you wanted to make yourself a mimosa! All the continental items were buffet style, they had hot items like crepes, waffles, pancakes, omelettes, eggs, etc. that you can order (also included) and they cook and bring out. We were in a hurry to meet our LivTours guide so we did not order hot items today. D15 and I will try to go earlier tomorrow so we have time to try the hot items.

The rest of the afternoon was just wandering all the way up and down Las Ramblas until about 3pm when we were way too tired and call it quits. Some pics from our wandering.

We have landed in Barcelona. Smooth travels. Last step…locate luggage

Some seemingly good peeps on this board. Y’all really provide a valuable service with your cruising insights and experience. Mentors, like a cruising Boys and Girls clubs!

From here we made our way to Vatican City. Here we stopped for lunch before going into the Vatican.

Always enjoy the restroom art on Wonder so took a few pics as it was empty.

OK, I have an old school mathematical equation for y’all! What does a third hangover in five days, the age of 56, AND a newly vegan have in common??? BACON AND SAUSAGE BREAKFAST @CravingaCruise sorry, that’s why I snuck away

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, checked in at 7:30am this morning and they had one room ready. We took it, freshened up, and headed back out to wander Las Ramblas around 10:30am. Our main goal was to check out Mercat de la Boqueria. We have seen so many YouTube videos on this that we figured this would make a good place to grab a bite for lunch. We ended up trying a few different things but did not stay long, it was super crowded!