30 days until we sail

Well it is 30 days until we sail. Bought the last item on the list - sunscreen. There is lots of sun in the Caribbean and I sure do not want to get burned and ruin the adventure.

Made another call to customer service yesterday. The customer service reps are great people. They assure me there will be an extension cord in the room for my CPAP machine. Sure hope so - if not it could turn into a nightmare for both of us.

Navigator of the Sea deck plans
 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?deckCode=02&shipCode=NV&shipProfile=1597&sailDate=1140831&hasNavigation=false

We will be on Deck 8 toward the front of the ship. It is an interior room, but that is OK for the first cruise experience. If we love cruising, maybe next time we will upgrade to something different

Starting to gather things we will need

Starting to gather things we will need on the cruise. So much I want to take. Will get it all together and then only pack half. Can't take everything, Getting more and more excited. Will get our flu shots before we go. Went to the Library and got books on Mexico, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. I like to know some background history and info of the places I am going to visit before I get there.

Sail Pass

We printed out our sail pass. So easy. Takingthat and passports we will have an eesier time boarding at the post. Also printed out our Guest Ticket Book which includes the itinerary, luggage tags and lots to read before we go.

Spoke again with RCI customer service. Once again a wonderful experience. Decided on the 5:30 dinning time and to sit with our friends at a table for 4. They are also very accommodating in helping me with my special needs - food allergy (mangoes) and my CPAP machine. They listed my food allergy.. Mangoes they often used in sauces and they are in fruit salad.  They also advised me to make the matradee and waiter aware so that I do not encounter any surprises

As far as the CPAP RCI will provide me complimentary distilled water and an extension cord. I am very pleased to hear I do not have to bring my own. The list of things to bring is already growing.

SOON we will be sailing!

We're going cruising!

Well we finally decided to go cruising. I am so excited! Our friends have cruised on Royal Caribbean International many times, as well as other lines. So we decided for the first experience to sign up with RCI. We did not go through a travel agent, we went direct to the RCI site, found the cruise we wanted and signed up. They hold the stateroom for 24 hours, which was nice. Soon after the 24 hour hold period starts they send you a reminder e-mail, which is also nice.

We finished the registration and paid for the cruise. We are cruising on the Navigator of the Sea which was just refurbished early in 2014.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do?dest=&shipClassCode=VY&shipCode=NV&br=R

Navigator of the Sea

It was a really good deal - 7 nights Western Caribbean - which sails out of Galveston. And we got $100.00 on board credit which was great. Here are the port we will visit:

Cozumel, Mexico - George Town, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica

 Doing the final checking was easy. Just had to make sure we had all the info needed prior to starting.

The only negative I have at this time is there website is not extremely easy to use and caused us some problem. But on the other hand their phone customer service reps I have spoken too are wonderful. Yesterday I spoke with Michael and he is so helpful, patient and personable. Greta experience.

We are traveling with our friends, and look forward to them "teaching us the ropes" of cruising. Starting to gather all the things we need to take with us. I really hope we love this as I would love to cruise to Europe and then travel around Europe on train and either cruise or fly home. So I hope they WOW me!

For this first cruise we decided to go with the interior stateroom. We will see how we like it. The website shows this is what it will look like.

More soon.