Wrapping up the Familiarization Cruise

Today we need to get back to talking about the short travel agent familiarization cruise I went on with Royal Caribbean last week. In my last post concerning this trip, I told you all about the ship.  After all, that was the point of the trip to check out Vision of the Seas and see all the things they did during the revitalization. Again, it was beautiful and as I've said before, I like these smaller Vision Class ships so it was ideal for me.

Bay Scallops Au Gratin

So we actually got on the ship on Sunday. However, only travel agents and their guests were allowed on board Sunday and as I mentioned previously, Sunday as part of the travel agent schmoozing thing, drinks were free. On Sunday evening, we were not assigned a table for dinner. We all just went to the dining room and they seated us.  Our table consisted of 4 travel agents and 4 guests and dinner was at 5:30 which I'm not crazy about.  But it turns out there was a method to RCI's madness.

Not sure what my entree was, looks like some sort of fish.

At dinner we had fun, made some new friends (Thank God! - This will come into play later on) and then followed the crowd out to the Centrum after dinner for a presentation.  In the Centrum, we were treated to the first performance of the aerial acrobat crew.  They were good. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I really hate these performances. They scare me. I can't stop thinking the entire time about one of them possibly falling and so I can't enjoy it.  But I played along and watched with not much more than a cringe on my face.

While we waited for whatever was going to take place there was a little bit of dancing, champagne was passed around and everybody just generally had fun.  I was thinking that the ships Captain would come out and say a few words, since that is usually what happens when they pass champagne around on a ship.  But to my surprise, when people started being paraded out onto the staircase in the Centrum the people who were to speak were Adam Goldstein and Richard Fain!  If you are not a travel agent, your probably thinking, WHO?  But if you are a travel agent or a travel geek, your thinking WOW!!!  Adam Goldstein is the President and CEO of RCCL and Richard Fain is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  They both spoke briefly about the ship, RCCL, and their relationship with travel agents as well as expressing support for crew members throughout the company from the Philippines following the typhoon.

Then there was a toast, the aerial people did there thing and the party moved out to the pool deck. While all of this was taking place the ship had set sail but with no real location to go to.  I mean, I'm sure that they had a plan for where we would go since the Coast Guard probably requires that.  But we were only leaving port so that the casino and shops could open.  We were to be back in Miami the following morning to let some of the travel agents who weren't staying for the entire 3 nights off and to bring on a big group of paying passengers for a 2 night cruise to the Bahamas.

At dinner our new friends Margaret and Nikki had told us that they had gotten a letter in there cabin telling them that if they were staying on the ship for the entire trip, they needed to be in the theater the following morning between 7 and 8 a.m. to check back in. We were to bring our passports and Sea Pass cards with us. We had not gotten a similar letter in our cabin.  But we decided that we should do this anyway.  Thank goodness we had met them at dinner and they had gotten that information.

So we got up the next morning bright and early and went to the theater.  After a few minutes in line, we got new Sea Pass cards.  This time our Sea Pass cards had an 8:30 PM dinner time and a dining table number which we hadn't had previously.  Things were starting to feel a little more normal.  Following the trip to the theater, Jenny and I went to the Windjammer for breakfast and then made our way out to the pool.  Nikki from dinner the previous night was sitting behind us at the pool and we had prime chairs.  I had personally never gotten seating like this at the pool on a ship.  I had just gotten myself lathered down with some SPF 30 and posted a comment on Facebook meant to make my friends green with envy when Margaret came rushing up and informed us all that she had just been told by another passenger that there was a mandatory travel agent seminar taking place somewhere on the ship and she and I were supposed to be in it!!!!!

This was my view when I was informed that I was supposed to be in a class....

Here's proof that I was in the class.

So Margaret and I rushed to our cabins to shower and change and then found the class and sat in the back trying to act like we were there all along. The parts of the class that I didn't miss were very informative and will help me going forward.  There was probably even more helpful information that I missed.  Margaret and I were both really upset that we were unaware that the class was taking place.  I must say that if a schedule of all the things travel agents were supposed to do during the cruise had been handed out when we checked in on Sunday, I would have been much happier with the entire event.  I'm not sure how all the other agents found out about this class.  But I'm at least glad that I didn't miss all of it!  They gave us a lunch break around noon and we found Jenny and Nikki and all ate together before going back to class until 3 PM.

Then at 3 we had our 2nd muster in 2 days because all the new passengers were on board.  As we left the class, we were given beach towels, baseball caps and coupons for excursions the next day in the Bahamas that I carried to muster with me. Jenny and I had already booked an excursion for the Bahamas so following muster we went to the Shore Excursions desk and changed our excursion to the one that the coupon was for.  It was an all day water park thing at Atlantis. Then as we left port again, we stayed outside and took pictures of the sunset before going to get dressed for dinner.  When we entered our cabin to dress for dinner, we had gotten the letter that Margaret and Nikki had gotten the day before telling us that 11 hours earlier we were supposed to be downstairs to re-check in.  Better late than never, I guess....

As we stood outside taking pictures, I began to feel a little queasy.  I don't get seasick so I wasn't concerned about that.  But my stomach was not happy about something.  After sunset, we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and I still wasn't feeling any better. At dinner, we were at a table with 5 travel agents, 4 guests and a Business Development Manager from Royal Caribbean.  One of the travel agents was pretty young and well into her cups and intent on garnering all of the BDM's attention.  So I mostly talked to the other travel agents and their guests.  But I still wasn't feeling well.  Without even realizing it, I ordered the same appetizer from the night before and ate most of it.  But by the time the entree came out, my stomach was in full protest mode.  There was no way I was going to be able to eat that meal and keep it down.  So after a few bites, I stopped eating and I had no dessert which is totally bizarre for me on a ship.

I told Jenny that I wasn't feeling well and we went back to the room after dinner.  I got ready for bed and Jenny went out for a while.  For about the next 15 hours, I was in bed the entire time except when I was making a dash to the bathroom.  Jenny got up the next morning and went on our excursion alone.  She ran into some people from dinner the night before and spent some time with them during the excursion.  Around 1, I got out of bed and decided to get some hot tea and went up on deck for it.  From there I was able to see Atlantis as I passed by a window.  Then I went back to the cabin and made another dash to the bathroom.  Jenny got back on the ship around 3 and around 6 I decided that I wanted some soup.  We wound up having dinner in the Windjammer.  My dinner that night consisted of clear beef broth, bread and water.  But I felt much better!

The next morning we disembarked but our flight wasn't scheduled to leave Miami until 6:30.  We had booked an excursion prior to the cruise for Wednesday in Miami.  It was supposed to take us on an airboat ride in the Everglades.  During the airboat ride, they were supposed to store our luggage and then they would take us to the airport getting us there around 4 which would be perfect. We found out on Sunday, that this excursion had been canceled because they didn't get enough people on it.  So, we arrived at the airport around 10:30 Wednesday morning and changed our flight to an earlier one and came on home.  We still spent several hours in the airport, but at least it wasn't all day.

I will say that even though I got sick and totally missed seeing the Bahamas, a sick day on a ship is still better than a work day in any corporate office.  So, I can't complain.  I will look forward to doing another familiarization trip in the future.  But I think next time, I'm going to annoy the hell out of everyone I can find asking questions about where I should be and when.  It's really my only complaint about the entire trip, that I felt so uninformed the entire time. I hope you get a chance to get on board one of Royal Caribbean's newly revitalized ships going forward. If I can help you get there, let me know.  I have 8 cabins reserved on Navigator out of Galveston this June if you want one of them all you have to do is let me know.  I don't even need a deposit until after Christmas.  Have a great Tuesday!