Epilogue and Review

In summary we are glad we took this trip. It was nice to experience a large cruise ship and how another cruise line operates. We were especially impressed by how easy embarkation and disembarkation went. It was considerably faster than pretty much any Holland America Line (HAL) cruise we have taken and we taken a number of them.  

The ship was like a floating and moving hotel lobby. It is truly a destination in itself and would be a wonderful repositioning ship for us, but I don't that's in RCI's plans. The entertainment options were excellent but would be done in a week. There were no enrichment lectures. There were lots of food options including a number with an up charge. Even with 6,123 passengers it didn't feel crowded.

The ports of Labadee, Falmouth, and Cozumel were okay, but we're not big fans of the Caribbean. We would like to revisit Cozumel and spend time on the island.

Our inside balcony cabin facing the Boardwalk was excellent and we'd like to have that room again. Raj, our steward, was friendly and a delight to converse with.

Again, in summary, it's a fine ship as a destination. But for us to sail on it again, both the price and Port destinations would rank high in our decision process.

Look for our next trip at http://www.timmer2017riverempress.blogspot.com. We're about to depart!

Day 7 - FRI- 11/03/2017 - Final Day - At Sea to Ft. Lauderdale

Taking the title from a Les Mis 'One More Day' song, today was our last full day of the week long cruise. After a quick Windjammer breakfast, we made our way down to deck 5 for another type of feeding frenzy. Today was $10 tshirt day and the shirt tables were a madhouse. I found a shirt with a saying and picture that I really like: A Wake View is the Best View. It has a picture of the ship wake and certainly captures how I feel about cruising.  

The captain's talk in the Aqua Theatre was really interesting. We also watched a really cool puppet show in the kids adventure theatre upon deck 14. We learned that there is full day care when we are in port. Later on we watched an ice skating show that was quite good and that was followed by a final dinner in the Main Dining Room. Once again we had really prompt service and we able to eat in around an hour's time with a couple from Nova Scotia. We did our final packing and this was followed by watching a reprise of the first night's grand parade in the Royal Promenade.  

A really funny comedian, AJ Jamal, was the 9pm Royal Theatre entertainment. Among other jokes, he made some excellent and funny jokes about his experiences sailing on a Holland America ship in Alaska. I went to bed while Angela stayed up to watch some very loud kareoke.

And so ended our final day of the cruise. Disembarkation the next morning was prompt and super smooth. We were off by 8:15am. There was no customs inspection. Because it went so smooth, there was once again a wait for our bus transfer to the nearby Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood airport. Our group was subdivided into smaller groups by colored bus tickets, but it was difficult to ascertain which bus one was to use.  

I'll do a separate final post summarizing my and our observations about sailing on the largest cruise ship in the world and on a new cruise line. In summary it was very enjoyable and we would do it again under the right circumstances.

Day 6 - THU - 11/02/2017 - Cozumel

Last night definitely took a toll on us as we slept through our 6:15am alarm; and we woke up with a start at 7:15am. We needed to be in the Royal Theatre for our all day planned excursion to visit a Mayan temple. We grabbed a snack to eat from the Promenade and waited for our departure call. When it came, we made our way off the ship, walked a few hundred feet, got screened by drug and food sniffing dogs, and boarded a high speed cataram which would whisk us to the mainland. Moored in the harbor with us at the International pier were 3 Carnival ships including the Fantasy which we sailed our first cruise on some 15 years ago.

It was a comfortable 45 minute trip where we met our guide who led us to the bus which was about 3 blocks away. Along the way we saw the world's second largest rodent. It was adorable! The bus ride to the Mayan Tulum ruins was an hour's ride away. At the ruins Angela and I got separated from the group and it took about 20 minutes to find them. Once inside the walled complex, the ruins of the palace and temple were reasonably well preserved and interestingly the complex only was walled on 3 sides as the 4th side was a cliff rising up from the sea. We also spotted an iguana on the grounds.

It was a hustle to get back to the bus as the parking area is close to a mile walk from the entrance to the archeological site. Back in the bus we learned the wife of the couple seated behind us had been bitten by a mother iguana after the lady got too close to the iguana's baby. The lady was facing a trip to the hospital for an injection to combat the highly infectious bite. The tour operator arranged for a taxi to take them to the hospital when we reached our beach club destination.  

At the beach club we were served a a nice lunch including wonderful ceviche and nice tacos. Afterwards we had some swimming time at the clothing optional beach. Angela went snorkeling and saw some small fish. It was then a short drive back to the pier where we boarded our 45 minute jet boat back to Cozumel island. 

After departing the jet boat, we walked around the port area and did a bit of shopping until we re-boarded the Harmony at 6pm. Since we had a free dinner at Johnny Rockets, we ate there and enjoyed a delightful conversation with our Indonesian server. He was thrilled that we had visited Bali and was me were planning to return.

Our evening entertainment was a second watch of Columbus followed by the best rendition of the Marriage game show we ever seen. It was then well after midnight before we made it back to the stateroom. Along the walk back, a song from Les Mis came to mind: One More Day!

Day 5 - WED - 11/01/2017 - At Sea to Cozumel

It was another lovely day at sea. We didn't get up early, but we were up early enough to have a cooked breakfast in the Windjammer on Deck 16. We followed that by playing 9 holes of mini golf. There wasn't much motion of the ship that would influence the putting and it was a nice game to play while plying our way across the Caribbean.

We watched another performance of the Fine Line and it was once again spectacular. We also went to the cast interview. It was really interesting to learn the differences in recruiting for the major Broadway caliber shows compared to the production shows we are used to on HAL. Apart from that, it was a lazy day at sea. In the evening it was a formal night, so we dressed up and ate with two other couples from our Travel With ALAN group. It was quite enjoyable! Afterwards there was a cocktail reception for the TWA group.

There were two major evening entertainment shows. The first was the musical, Columbus, written by a former Seattleite especially for Royal Caribbean. It was really, really good and the main prop was a ship just 3 feet shorter than the original Columbus ship. Following that we watched 1887 which was an ice skating show (yes there is an ice skating rink onboard) set in Paris. The costuming was spectacular as was the skating. We crawled into bed well after midnight with the full knowledge that we had to get up early for our full day of activities in Cozumel.

Day 4 - TUE - 10/31/2017 - Falmouth, Jamaica

Our day started out with the ship being backed over a mile from the open sea into its berth at the company owned v-shaped dock. There's a central security checkpoint at the point of the V. Each of the wings of the V are filled with shops like Diamond International which we've seen all over the world at cruise ports. There was definitely another shopping frenzy.

We found our shore excursion van at the end of the pier and had some extra time to shop the craft market. We boarded our 22 person Toyota van and our guide, Tamara, and driver, Seymore drove us off on our tour which was billed as 'Go Native Jamaican'. Falmouth is a working port area and there was lots of litter and trash everywhere. Driving is on the left side of the street as this is a former British Colony.  

The major highway to Montego Bay was in good repair and there were goats and people who were trimming the grass. Montego Bay's Central business district is very crowded and with narrow streets and little regard to parking rules. A Carnival cruise ship was moored across Montego Bay.

We purchased some deep fried patties that we munched on while heading to our next destination: a visit to a primary school. The secondary roads to the Mount Olive School were narrow and twisty and full of potholes and lots of oncoming traffic! The kids at the primary school were adorable. They were learning reading and writing; and they were only 3, 4, & 5 year olds. It seemed to make a joke of the American school approach.

After the school visit we made our way to a plantation for a traditional Jamaican lunch which was quite good! This was followed by a ride down a different set of twisty, narrow, and potholed roads to a 'shopping' store that supposedly had the 'best' prices. Everyone was given a numbered sticker which probably gave the tour operator a kickback based on the volume of sales. Personally I am getting very cynical of these shopping opportunities. I just don't need more trinkets, don't smoke cigars or drink hard liquor.

Back at the port, we shopped in the port area where Angela found a few small items. We reboarded and went to dinner in the Main Dining Room where we ate with a couple from Florida that we ate with on day 1. Seared ahi was the main menu item and it was really good and the service was quick once again. Out in the Royal Promenade, many guests were dressed in really exotic Halloween costumes. We watched the World Series until 8:15 when we went to a reprise of the ventriloquist. He repeated much of his first show from the previous day which was a big disappointment. After the show, we resumed watching the Series game to its conclusion. We capped the night off strolling the Royal Promenade with all the reveillers and SUPER loud music. Per the cruise director, this was the largest Halloween party in the world.  It was amazing to see the quantity and quality of sone of the costumes.

And so ended day 4.

Day 3 - Mon - 10/30/2017 - Labidee , Haiti

This morning we woke up at 7am as the Harmony of the Seas was in its final process of docking at the RCI 'Island' of Labidee. In reality, the RCI area is just a leased peninsula near the old fishing village of Labidee. It's about seven miles from the second largest town in Haiti. But there are no roads that connect the two!  

The really highly developed little development has a number of beaches and other activities to separate the passengers and their money. RCI also served a free BBQ during the lunch hour. Disembarkation occurred using 3 doors and went smoothly and quickly. It was actually quite impressive.  

Once on the island we had a short walk to our meet up point for our first event of the day which was a walking tour of the complex and historical commentary. Our guide, Remy, was local and appreciated the opportunity to have a job. He shared a bunch of history with us as we walked. At the conclusion of the tour we had to walk back to the main pier area to start our second activity, a snorkeling trip to a nearby reef.

We had a full boatload of snorklers and the reef was located just a short distance from the ship. Since we brought our own mask and snorkel, all we had to do was get fins and a life vest. The water was warm and there was lots of coral plus a number of small black and yellow striped fish. Angela followed the guide, while I independently snorkeled. I was among the last back on board for the short ride back to the pier. At the pier, we partook in a BBQ lunch before setting out to explore the flea market. Unfortunately the vendors were way too aggressive and wouldn't let us just look at their wares, so we quickly walked by them and made a loop back to the pier where we reboarded the ship. The reboarding process was as quick and smooth as the morning's disembarkation.  

After showers to rid ourselves of the salt, I watched the sail away from deck 16 at just a bit after 4pm. A rain cloud was rapidly enveloping the ship. I also enjoyed some nachos before heading for the Silk dining room. Dinner was excellent (escargot, shrimp cocktail, and baked haddock). Carlos was our waiter once again, and we ate dinner and dessert in less than an hour. RCI is certainly scoring points in my estimation with the Main Dining Room!

Afterwards we tried to watch Monday night football in the ON AIR lounge, but the ambient music noise from the mall area was SUPER loud so we went to the room for some peace and quiet. It seems there was some sort of Shrek event, but the music was double what we would consider to be loud.

A while later we returned to find the noise level had abated, so we watched football until a game show '60 seconds' started up. It was a fun show to watch. Participants had to do certain tasks within 60 seconds. There were cool prizes as well. Super Kareoke followed, but we couldn't stay as we had reservations for the headliner act, a ventriloquist named Ronn Lucas. He was really good. We hope to see him tomorrow. We ended our evening having tea with a couple from Sedro Woolley. Tomorrow we dock in Jamaica.

Day 2 - Sun - 10/29/2017 - At Sea to Haiti

It was a very lazy day today. We were both exhausted and didn't get up until 10am. Outside our balcony down on deck 6 was a major reward time for elite level RCI cruisers with lots of music and photo opportunities with the Captain and crew.

We ate a late breakfast in the Windjammer on Deck 16 before watching paddle boarders and surfers ride the wave. Several surfers were really good! Afterwards we spent the afternoon watching football in the OnAir venue. Our Seahawks pulled off a victory late in a tight game. While it was formal night, the Main Dining Room menu was not appealing plus it cost extra for surf and turf (which is free on HAL). So we ate back in the Windjammer and it was really good. The lamb riblets were really good. We were joined by Heidi from the Seattle area. She's a presenter at the travel agent conference going onboard this week. We had a good chat about differences in cruise ships and cruise lines. She had lots of years with HAL. We then watched a few innings of the World Series.

I should mention that for the first time in many cruises I purchased their UNLIMITED internet access for both of us for the rest of the cruise. It's fast and way cheaper than HAL's abysmally slow pay by the minute access. RCI certainly knows what their audience wants. If we were doing a longer cruise, I don't think I would purchase the package, but would probably only purchase it for the last week of a long cruise. Our portable internet device doesn't cover the Caribbean, but it does work for most of the rest of the world.

 Also RCI doesn't put a hold on one's credit card, but puts through a $50 charge to test the account and then a second charge for the balance of the purchase. It seems like an amateur hour approach to me. HAL puts a hold on for x dollars times the number of sailing days, and then charges the actual amount at the end of the trip.

At 10:30pm we watched a really good high wire and aqua show called Fine Line in the Aqua theatre. We could have watched it from our balcony. Coming back to the room we saw game 5 of the World Series was still on, so I watched the last 3 innings while writing this update. And so ended day two.