DAY 7: At Sea
Saturday, Jan 19
Saturday, Jan 19
Happy 4th Birthday Thomas!
As I write this we are sitting in one of the lounges overlooking the Boardwalk. I didn't upload the blog last night, it was late when we got back and I put it off until morning. Our "free minutes" that we have in our Diamond Crown & Anchor Coupon books are almost used up so I think this will be the last update for the blog.
Not much planned for today but maybe some trivia, the flash mob, a show called Blue Planet that is supposed to be sort of Circe de Soile (sp?) style with lots of acrobatics and dance. I'm really looking forward to it! We still have to select our two free photos. We haven't done that many photo sittings this time. Kind of over it I guess! But we did a few as we debarked in the various ports and we have two coupons for free pictures so we'll pick out a couple today.
The weather today is a little better than yesterday, the sun is breaking through and it's a little warmer but the swimming pools are not very busy.
I guess I promised I would critique the room, so now seems like a good time. Like I said, it's a typical inside room but there are a few things that are new. Probably the best improvement is the TV - not only is it large but it is interactive so you can make reservations, check your reservations, check your account balance and all that good stuff. Storage in my opinion is worse. I did have enough room to store everything but some of the drawers have been replaced with open shelves (like bedside) and that is not as good in my opinion. I also miss that big triangular shaped shelving that we usually had which was a great catch all for hats, sun screen, etc. The closet is quite small - perhaps the smallest I have seen, but they were pretty generous with the hangers. But the worst thing is instead of hinged closet doors, they are sliders and they don't always want to slide. Bathroom storage I like better with open shelves rather than that hinged mirror door that was always in the way. So pros and cons, as far as the room design goes. Still dreaming of a balcony room one day, but that sentiment is not echoed by you-know-who.
We had no choice but to book on a 11:30 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale tomorrow. I don't usually like to go that early, but there was no other option, short of staying another day and flying out Monday morning. But the truth is that the ships seem to be released by immigration so much quicker than in the old days and I have figured out why. In the old days we didn't get our cards scanned when we got on and off the ship. All we did was show our card, there was no electronic monitoring of who was on and who was off. When we arrived in port the final morning, there were always multiple announcements while they tried to account for every non-US citizen. Repeated pages, over and over. Sometimes departure would be delayed by more than an hour as we were at the mercy of those people that were not reporting to the necessary station. I now realize that with the bar code system they know exactly who is on board and that whole scene is avoided. Also, there is now a program where you carry off your own luggage and you can be first off. So we figured we would do that and I have a car arranged to pick us up a 8:30. HOWEVER - we are going one better than that now! They offer a program where you can check your luggage through to your flight from the ship! It's $20 per person but we have shipboard credit we haven't used yet, so it is so worth it! They have already delivered our boarding passes and Delta luggage tags to our room! We will put our bags out tonight and the next time we see them will be in MSP! The real advantage is that we don't have to get in a luggage drop off line at the airport, we go straight to security. Maybe the line wouldn't be bad, but with six cruise ships in town and one of them having almost 6,000 passengers, it seems like it might be nice to skip that line! We shall see!!!
So this is my last blog upload! We have had a great time and the ship has lived up to all expectations!
As I write this we are sitting in one of the lounges overlooking the Boardwalk. I didn't upload the blog last night, it was late when we got back and I put it off until morning. Our "free minutes" that we have in our Diamond Crown & Anchor Coupon books are almost used up so I think this will be the last update for the blog.
Not much planned for today but maybe some trivia, the flash mob, a show called Blue Planet that is supposed to be sort of Circe de Soile (sp?) style with lots of acrobatics and dance. I'm really looking forward to it! We still have to select our two free photos. We haven't done that many photo sittings this time. Kind of over it I guess! But we did a few as we debarked in the various ports and we have two coupons for free pictures so we'll pick out a couple today.
The weather today is a little better than yesterday, the sun is breaking through and it's a little warmer but the swimming pools are not very busy.
I guess I promised I would critique the room, so now seems like a good time. Like I said, it's a typical inside room but there are a few things that are new. Probably the best improvement is the TV - not only is it large but it is interactive so you can make reservations, check your reservations, check your account balance and all that good stuff. Storage in my opinion is worse. I did have enough room to store everything but some of the drawers have been replaced with open shelves (like bedside) and that is not as good in my opinion. I also miss that big triangular shaped shelving that we usually had which was a great catch all for hats, sun screen, etc. The closet is quite small - perhaps the smallest I have seen, but they were pretty generous with the hangers. But the worst thing is instead of hinged closet doors, they are sliders and they don't always want to slide. Bathroom storage I like better with open shelves rather than that hinged mirror door that was always in the way. So pros and cons, as far as the room design goes. Still dreaming of a balcony room one day, but that sentiment is not echoed by you-know-who.
We had no choice but to book on a 11:30 am flight out of Fort Lauderdale tomorrow. I don't usually like to go that early, but there was no other option, short of staying another day and flying out Monday morning. But the truth is that the ships seem to be released by immigration so much quicker than in the old days and I have figured out why. In the old days we didn't get our cards scanned when we got on and off the ship. All we did was show our card, there was no electronic monitoring of who was on and who was off. When we arrived in port the final morning, there were always multiple announcements while they tried to account for every non-US citizen. Repeated pages, over and over. Sometimes departure would be delayed by more than an hour as we were at the mercy of those people that were not reporting to the necessary station. I now realize that with the bar code system they know exactly who is on board and that whole scene is avoided. Also, there is now a program where you carry off your own luggage and you can be first off. So we figured we would do that and I have a car arranged to pick us up a 8:30. HOWEVER - we are going one better than that now! They offer a program where you can check your luggage through to your flight from the ship! It's $20 per person but we have shipboard credit we haven't used yet, so it is so worth it! They have already delivered our boarding passes and Delta luggage tags to our room! We will put our bags out tonight and the next time we see them will be in MSP! The real advantage is that we don't have to get in a luggage drop off line at the airport, we go straight to security. Maybe the line wouldn't be bad, but with six cruise ships in town and one of them having almost 6,000 passengers, it seems like it might be nice to skip that line! We shall see!!!
So this is my last blog upload! We have had a great time and the ship has lived up to all expectations!