SoTweetie

Sharing my thoughts about the exclusive new Sanctuary Collection onboard the Sun and Star Princess cruise ships.

It's the second day of our cruise on Jewel of the Seas. We have lunch at Izumi, attend the Christmas Tree Lighting, have dinner at Giovanni's Table and then briefly attend the *worst* production show I have ever seen on any cruise ship - "City of Dreams". I got an injury and John was my nurse before we finished the night at the Vortex bar and nightclub, a truly awesome venue. There are so many wonderful and unique places to explore on this ship. See you next time for a day on the beach in Costa Maya! (It should go without saying but, this video is NOT advice on what to do if you have a medical incident onboard. It's simply *my* opinion and how I chose to handle a minor injury.)

t's embarkation day on the first of our three back-to-back cruises! I admit in this vlog that I'm probably the worst YouTuber of all time, which explains the video being 45 minutes long, but I hope you enjoy coming along with us for the conversations and experiences along the way. I have never, in 35 cruises, had my room key not work. This was a new experience for us both, repeated 6x throughout the day. Is this karma for us enjoying the promenade/customer service view rooms so much? By the time we went to bed, the inconvenience was truly irrelevant. What a wonderful embarkation day!

A look at what's to come over the coming three back-to-back-ish cruises!

Three weeks, three hotels, and three cruise ships! We're flying from Houston to Orlando today and spending the night at Hilton Garden Inn Cocoa Beach before boarding Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas in the morning. There will be fun in the sun, drinks on the beach, my first injury while cruising, and so much more....Let's get this show on the road!

Our day at Nachi Cocom beach club in Cozumel was one of the best I've ever spent in a port, entirely relaxing and full of wonderful pampering from the staff. I didn't want to get a stomach ache from sugary cocktails, so thought I made a smart decision to switch over to beer mid-day. Boy was I wrong!! Let me explain what happened, and give up an update from about a week later. I did not fully heal from this mistake for MONTHS. Once John's concern faded because he learned the cause, he found this situation hilarious. If you hear him making jokes about using lime juice as sunscreen in future videos, now you know why. You may also hear him referring to my "Hit Lip". Learn from my mistake!!

It's our final day on Adventure of the Seas, and we have a good time touring the ship (see that video here: https://youtu.be/pa-d5ZFTbFU) and then enjoying dinner in Chops Grille followed by shows and a disappointing night in the casino. Thanks for joining us, we will see you in a few weeks when we fly to Florida for three back-to-back cruises!

We wanted to explore some of the places we hadn't seen yet during our final day on Adventure of the Seas. A lot of these videos I see on YouTube are taken while areas are vacant, but we walked around during the late morning hours and got you a realistic look at what to expect during a busy sea day! This is not even close to a full ship tour, but I hope you find it helpful and informative! What an awesome ship.

We're in Cozumel on day 3 of our Adventure of the Seas cruise, and spending the day at Nachi Cocom beach club! It's a beautiful, calm beach area with wonderful staff and service. There were several groups of pier runners before sail away and a gorgeous sunset before our dinner at Izumi.

Can you guess what beach club we'll be spending the day at on our next Adventure of the Seas vlog? One hint: Cozumel. If you know, you know!

Izumi sushi on Royal Caribbean - our favorite!

'Taste of the Caribbean' is a mixology seminar that will be listed on the daily schedule during your Royal Caribbean cruise, but will only take place if at least 10 passengers show up to participate. During a sea day on Adventure of the Seas, we were lucky enough to join a large group for the event. The price was $26 each (plus gratuity). We learned how to make six cocktails, got a sample of each, and then had the opportunity to make (and shake!) one full-sized drink of our own included in the fee. I thought this event was well worth the price, even though I was too shy to go up and dance for a full-sized drink!

Day 2, a sea day, on our Adventure of the Seas cruise. We went to a napkin folding demonstration, had lunch in Johnny Rockets, spent the afternoon in the Solarium (my favorite place on the ship!) and then had our formal night dinner at Giovanni's Table. The singers and dancers put on a great production show to end the evening. Tomorrow we will be spending the day at an amazing beach club in Cozumel, see you there!

Here are the steps I go through when finding my cruise ship cabin on embarkation day. Can you relate?

Tour of my favorite cruise ship cabin category (other than suites) on Adventure of the Seas - a Promenade View Cabin! I love to people watch from the bench seat in this style of cabin. I think they are missing an opportunity to charge extra for views of customer service.

We arrived at the DoubleTree by Hilton's Galveston Beach property the day before Royal Caribbean's Pier 10 officially opened. We had dinner as we watched the Allure of the Seas sail away from Galveston for the first time ever. It was such a great start to this trip - can't wait to share our Adventure of the Seas embarkation day with you!

A tour of our room and a quick look at the DoubleTree by Hilton Galveston Beach property where we stayed the night before boarding the Adventure of the Seas. This was a beautiful hotel with lovely amenities and conveniently located near the pier. We were able to watch a cruise ship sail into the sunset as we ate dinner at the poolside restaurant.

We tried the Taste of Royal lunch during our final sea day on Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas. The meal cost $29 each (reserved through the cruise planner ahead of time), and we ordered the wine pairing for an additional $20 each. Royal Caribbean does a wonderful job with specialty dining and this affair was no exception!

A quick chat about the value of Royal Caribbean's Unlimited Dining Package, especially for cruisers who do not purchase the drinks package. We did not buy the dining or drink packages on this cruise, and by the end of the week we regretted not purchasing the dining. While I used some pre-cruise discounts to reserve most of our meals, we were not able to take advantage of the 40% off of wine bottles that passengers with the dining package enjoy. The Chef's table and Teppanyaki both have an extra fee even with the unlimited dining package, but in my opinion it is worth buying. Do you dine in specialty restaurants onboard, and if so do you purchase the unlimited dining package? I would like for Royal Caribbean to offer an option to make your dinner reservations on the app pre-embarkation so that you are not reliant on their auto-reservation system for the first night.

Happy Easter, let me tell you about one of my Easter cruising experiences...

The Grandeur of the Seas is in Cozumel today and unfortunately we cancelled our excursion due to a schedule change which would have had us drinking on the beach before 9AM. That's a bit extreme for us! Instead, we hung out at the Solarium and then had a really nice dinner in Izumi during sail-away. We have one more BUSY sea day before we get back to Galveston, see you there!