This was my 34th cruise overall, 8th on Royal Caribbean. I traveled with my husband (his 34th cruise, too).

Here is the explanation for my title: We planned to fly from New York JFK to Miami on January 5 to board the cruise on the same day. However, because of the blizzard on January 4th, all flights were cancelled. In order to not be penalized for the airline tickets, we flew again on Monday the 8th to Miami, and then flew to Curacao (with a stop in Santo Domingo) to catch the ship in Curacao when it arrived in port on the 9th. We booked a hotel in Curacao overnight so that we would meet the ship in the morning.

When we got to Curacao, we went out to eat at the Iguana Cafe overlooking the floating bridge, and our waitress explained to us that the restaurant was understaffed because the Navigator of the Seas came in. We didn't expect to hear that, and then the people at the next table explained that they had just come off the Navigator, and that it had skipped Labadee because of bad weather ahd had arrived at Curacao to stay overnight. (If we had known that, we would probably have boarded the ship that night.) Read more