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Published: January 31st 2019
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Port of Miami
Lulu had to butt her cigarette out! Oh, my....what a fabulous “vacation in a vacation” we just experienced. Even though we had no communication with all of you, you were always right there with us. Just silently cruising in the background. So much to show & tell I don’t even know where or how to begin. You are going to have to be relaxed and patient as we sail along on this mega journey that the four (& 1/2: “Little Lulu) of us: Sam, Sandy, Cory and “moi” enjoyed. Hope you do, too.
We arrived at the Port of Miami @ 11:00 AM. We left early morning (very happy you all were prompt) and made a couple stops along the way. Traffic was nasty in Miami but our trusty driver, Bucky, managed to get us where we wanted to go safe and sound. Our GPS was beneficial, too.
Lulu was irritated that she had to butt her cigarette before boarding. She must quit smoking!! It’s killing all of us!
We were onboard the Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Sea at 11:50 AM. Discovered we were not seated together in the main dining room so Sandy went to guest services and the dining room boss and
got that straightened out. Not that Cory and I aren’t interested in meeting new people of different cultures but our seats for the two of us would have been at a large table of 8 Asians. We are not fluent (like nil) in their language and wouldn’t know what they might be saying about us even though they had happy smiles on their faces. How would they have accepted Lulu? We’ll never know. We zoomed to the Windjammer Buffet with everyone else who had boarded the ship. Crowded but scooped up lots of tasty food. We lucked out and were assigned to a chair in a bar for the muster station review. Whew! Before we left, I twisted my right knee and got it all stirred up. My arthritic left knee has always been a problem. It was like I was hobbled now. I got an elastic support brace for my right knee and borrowed Sam’s cane knowing we would be walking a thousand miles. OWWWWWW! Feel sorry for me? I hope so.
We checked out our balcony room. Very nice. Bruno was our room attendant. Very attentive and helpful. The mattress was nice but it was NOT the
Princess Luxury mattress that we slept on during our last cruise. Remember how we actually bought that mattress for our bed at home. It’s like we are cruising every night. Ahhhhhhh.
The ship left port at 5:15 PM. We wandered this big vessel and took in all its splendor. We went to the main dining room for dinner. Our waiters for the duration were Ruel and Marko. Again, very nice and attentive. Our favorite fellow was the Maitre D’, Francisco. He was a little guy from Brazil. He looked like a teenager but was actually 34 years old. So gracious and sweet. There was a strict Jewish family seated in our area. Because of their dining rituals, only Francisco could serve them. Each item with each meal was separately wrapped up in Saran Wrap or Aluminum foil before being served to them. It was fascinating to watch this process.
We tried out the ambiance of a couple of the bars. So relaxing. The comedy showman wasn’t as funny as he should have been. Ha, Ha..whoa!
At 9:30 PM, the Captain made an announcement over the loudspeaker. There was a medical emergency onboard so we were heading back
Me using Sam’s cane
What I anticipate happening..Cory carrying me to the Port of Miami. Really? Yes, really. Okay. When you are cruising the high seas, you don’t know where you are anyway.....unless you look at the map on the TV. Thus, you just go with the flow. We arrived in Miami at 10:30 PM so obviously, we were already mostly back to port when we got the announcement. We watched the sick person get loaded into the ambulance. She was waving to everyone! She didn’t have any oxygen or a monitor on so I doubt that she was on her deathbed. The ambulance took a long time before it even pulled away. By now, we headed back to our room. Now we were detoured because of another medical emergency on our floor but this one must have been resolved in their room or sick bay. Exhausted, we flopped on the bed. Zzzzzzzzzz.
DAY 2: Cruising. Obviously, we did the full eating regimen we are expected to do. That’s a go. We maneuvered ourselves around more of the ship. It’s a big one with much to see. Sandy and I went to a “Nutrition Training Seminar”. Cory tried out various exercise equipment in the gym. Sam rested
in their room.
After lunch, Cory signed up in the casino for a slot machine contest. He didn’t win but still remained on the qualifying list. Our future was to be determined by his fast fingers.
Cory and I signed up for ballroom dancing instructions. OMG! It was enough for me to hobble around just walking. Now we were supposed to look like the dancers on “Dancing with the Stars” swishing across the dance floor...in sneakers! Scuff, scuff, scuff! Ouch! Our first lesson was for the fox trot. We can do “the box”! And that’s it! We will need to use YouTube for more assistance. Malcom & Patty were our instructors. They were great. It was fun but challenging. Cory was much more graceful than me. I was like a hobbled horse trying to move around. Not pretty! He was dancing with a cripple.
This evening was one of the formal nights in the dining room. We gussied up and joined a mishmash of others in various garb. Sandy said they aren’t as strict as they used to be. I guess not! The dinner was delightful as expected. We lumbered from this copious bounty, feeling we couldn’t
Our dining room staff
Francisco, Marko, Ruel & Lulu eat another thing. Of course, that sensation didn’t linger long. Rats! Eventually, we made our way back to our rooms after checking out more entertainment on the ship. We are whipped! How are you holding up? We have MANY more days and nights to go. Rest up, folks! See you in the morning. Do you want to go up to the buffet or down to the dining room? Think on it.
Scroll and scroll and scroll some more. Need to see two pages. 33 photos for your perusal.
ALERT! I want to jump for joy....I really, really do. BUT I’m a little apprehensive that my Wish has really come true. Today I got an email from my Travel Blog site stating the problem “that all my followers were not getting notified when I had posted a new blog” had been fixed! Can this be true? Oh, how I hope so. If it doesn’t work as in the past, I’ll resend them via my own email site like I have been doing for months. Please let me know if you get this Blog with no problems. Thank you muchly.
This is the message I received plus another message
from their forum site:
......”31st January 2019 - notifications via email have been restored, emails for messaging and password resets will now work as expected.
Hi all,
Sorry for the delays, I managed to get the email / notification service working again this morning.
FYI - I use a service called sendgrid to send emails, there were some unacknowledged problems on their end which cancelled service - it took a while to track down the problem and convince them to reactivate service.
I still have a lot of work to do to rebuild my development environment -- which also didn't help with this problem.
I apologize for being unresponsive over the past few months, things are getting better, hope it continues in 2019. Best wishes, Ali”
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Karen Cooper McKean
non-member comment
Got it, love reading about your adventures!!