I already published three blog posts from my first cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas—an overview of and thoughts from embarkation day, a review of the specialty restaurant Wonderland, and a review of the Chef’s Table. I have a bunch more photographs and impressions that I wanted to share beyond what was contained in those three pieces, so like I usually do, I decided to do a photo dump to wrap up everything else I haven’t posted yet.

As is typical for me now at this point, we shall start with a tangent.

I explained this more thoroughly on my embarkation day blog post, but in summary, I have been traveling full-time and living out of short-term housing solutions for a majority of the past several years. This means that I do not have a formal and official long-term lease or rental anywhere, and my “landlord” is basically Marriott. I have friends in various places with whom I stay in their homes when I’m not in hotel rooms, but otherwise, I am a nomad. (I used to ironically call myself homeless, but then I ran into too many people who got genuinely concerned because they thought I was actually literally homeless, so I’ve started avoiding saying I’m homeless lately…)

This lifestyle naturally means that I end up encountering a lot of different kinds of people. Even though I am checking into a hotel because that is literally where I will be living for the next couple weeks, most other people around me are there temporarily, be it for work or leisure. When I go for a walk outdoors within proximity of the hotel, I may be running into vacationers or businesspeople, but I might also be seeing locals.

This phenomenon has become an unremarkable part of my life at this point, but upon reflection, what I experience is probably a bit surreal for someone who just lives peacefully in a suburb where an overwhelming majority of people they encounter are fellow local neighbors.

However, this train of thought led me to a different, adjacent realization. Ever since moving out of my parents’ house in the Chicagoland suburbs, this moment—stepping foot onto a cruise ship—is probably the first time I have ever been around only one “type” of person. Unlike hotels where you don’t necessarily don’t know why someone is there, everyone on this cruise ship was on vacation. Nobody is booking a Royal Caribbean cruise to hold a business conference on the ship. Everyone is there for leisure.

I could’ve stopped there and it would’ve been an amusing thought, but if you take it to the next level, it’s interesting to consider what this actually means. Every customer on the cruise ship was there voluntarily for fun (or close enough to it).

The reason I even started pondering this concept is because, prior to analyzing it, I immediately noticed how happy everybody was. The overall mood of any other land destination that I’ve been to usually balances out to be fairly neutral—there are some people who are enjoying their time, some people who are diligently getting to their next work meeting, and some people who are having a bad day. However, this cruise ship was probably the highest density of happy people that I’ve ever seen in a single location. Everyone looked excited, and there were an unexpectedly high number of people just randomly singing and dancing in the hallways.

This might not have any productive meaning to normal people who might think “of course people will be happy when they’re on vacation,” but it was an insightful point of reflection to me. I have integrated “vacation time” so deeply into my regular lifestyle that I am just perpetually in a state of constant amusement—not too happy, not too upset. Thus, experiencing the joyful mood of thousands of vacationers packed around me on a ship was an eye-opening way for me to see the life of an average American and stay closer in touch with reality.

 
Anyway, the cruise was great.

In my embarkation day blog post, I pointed out how seasick I got, but fortunately, that passed. By the second day, I no longer felt unwell, even though I didn’t take any medication and I didn’t materially change anything about what I was doing. I would still occasionally notice the rocking of the ship, but my brain stopped registering it as threatening.

I’m a big fan of large, dense, clean, walkable cities. This is one of the reasons why Tokyo quickly became my second favorite city of all time (only ranking after my home city of Las Vegas). I want to be able to step outside my door and be able to do and see interesting things, be it either getting food or just walking around and sightseeing or people-watching.

I loved Quantum of the Seas because it felt like it was a densely packed town condensed onto a cruise ship. There was always a wide variety of things to do. If I wanted a change of scenery, I could just go up or down several flights of stairs and be in a completely new environment. If I wanted to eat, I had a ton of options within a few minutes’ walk. If I needed stimulation, I could walk into one of many entertainment venues for ongoing live music or performances. And most importantly, everything was clean.

Branching off the point about entertainment, something I really appreciated was being able to pop in to an entertainment spot on the ship, check it out for several minutes to see if I liked it, and leave to go somewhere else if I didn’t.

Being a resident of Las Vegas, I thought about how neat it would be if a major resort brand on the Las Vegas Strip, like MGM Resorts International, made some kind of “unlimited entertainment pass,” potentially just for locals, where entitlement holders would be able to show up at any MGM property’s show or performance that isn’t sold out and be able to watch for a monthly membership fee. I think that kind of structure would make going to shows much lower-stakes and low-commitment, thus encouraging locals to engage with the Strip more. I am aware that there are seat-filling programs already out there, but it would be nice to have something run officially by MGM or Caesars.

Sort of going back to the idea of “everyone is on vacation here,” another thing that was notable to me was how shocked the stateroom attendant and housekeeping was when they heard that I did not want service throughout my entire stay. Other cruisers love being taken care of so they don’t have to worry about making their bed or cleaning their bathroom while on vacation; on the contrary, I’m there literally to live my normal life, but just on a ship.

I was already supplied with plenty of towels to last me the entire one-week cruise if I use a towel for two days each. I always hang up used towels so they dry out properly, and I always have either the balcony door open or the HVAC system circulating air to control the humidity. If I have garbage, I neatly bag and tie it up and leave it outside my door in the morning. I am generally a clean person, so it’s not like I’m dribbling urine around the toilet or anything. I’m also a pretty peaceful sleeper, up to the point where the sheets and blanket don’t really get moved around much and literally stay tucked at the bottom of the mattress across multiple nights of sleep.

Just like how a lot of people don’t like others intruding in their personal homes, my stateroom was literally the equivalent of my home during my cruise, so I preferred to just have privacy. I did still have to interact with the housekeeping staff once every couple days so they could make sure I hadn’t died in my room, and I had no issue with them looking in my room so they could confirm that I wasn’t secretly cooking methamphetamine in there or something. But otherwise, I mostly just took care of myself, which hopefully also meant that my housekeeper was able to get an extra 15 minutes of rest per day in lieu of tending to my room.

 
With all those rambling thoughts out of the way, here are some more photographs I took during my cruise.

Our first stop was at Cabo San Lucas. Apparently Royal Caribbean doesn’t have a dock at Cabo, so they had to anchor the ship in the middle of the water, which I did not realize was actually a thing. Then, for people to get to shore, they would offer what is called tender service—a system where people get on small boats and are taken back and forth from ship to land.

By this point, I had just overcome a severe bout of seasickness, so I didn’t want to risk it again by getting on a small boat, which I have previously confirmed definitely gives me seasickness. This cruise had an overnight stay at Cabo, so while everyone was out exploring Mexico, I decided to stay on board and enjoy the ship while there were not too many people around.

While doing rounds on the walking track, I noticed a set of stairs leading down to the 14th floor. Out of curiosity, I made my way down there to find that this was the outdoor section of the buffet. Because the buffet was closed at that time for their midday break, this section was empty, so I was able to take in the views in great peace.

Later that evening, I headed back to my stateroom and went out onto my balcony to watch the sunset.

The next morning, I returned to the private 14th floor lookout spot I found the previous day to watch sail-away from Cabo.

The entertainment schedule is usually packed with a lot of shows on sailing days to ensure that cruisers have plenty to do and don’t get bored. One of the shows was Sonic Odyssey, a percussion and dance performance. Most people entered the Royal Theatre through its main floor, but I noticed that there was an upper floor entrance too that wasn’t as busy; for Sonic Odyssey, I found a nice spot near some of the tech equipment up there which offered an unobstructed head-on view of the stage.

Prior to sailing, I purchased the unlimited premium dining package. The benefit of this is that you can dine in specialty restaurants (which come with an upcharge) for free.

Beyond Wonderland and the Chef’s Table that I discussed previously, I also went to Chops Grille, which is a steakhouse. I thought this was very worth it because I had top-tier sit-down restaurant service in an elegant environment, and I was able to avoid the congestion of the main dining areas where everyone else was eating.

For this meal, I got tuna and avocado tartare as my first appetizer, shrimp as my second appetizer, lamb chops as my main entrée, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. The apple pie had a strange coagulated texture that I wasn’t a fan of, but everything else in the meal was delicious.

Here is another sunset photo, this one from a sailing evening. The sunsets from the ocean looked particularly orange and vibrant.

Here is a stillframe from another show I stumbled across and watched; this one again is from the Royal Theatre, and this one was a musical performance.

Time for an interesting story.

There was a man named Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, more commonly referred to by his alias “El Mencho.” He was the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, an organized crime group in Mexico known for drug trafficking, among other criminal operations. He was one of the most wanted men in both the United States and Mexico, and there were bounties of US$15 million and MX$300 million by each country’s government for information leading to his arrest.

Did you notice how I am describing El Mencho in past tense? That’s because he was captured and subsequently died in Mexican Army custody. In response to his death, cartels carjacked large vehicles and set them ablaze on key roadways to serve as narcoblockades. This happened on February 22, 2026. Do you know where I was on February 22, 2026? Atop Mexican waters, headed towards Ensenada.

Yes, I was literally in Mexico when Mexico’s most important drug lord was killed.

Because the Army couldn’t graciously wait two days for me to return to the United States first, I had a bit of a predicament. The local news was reporting that even Baja California was suffering from unrest even though it was fairly far away from Jalisco, so I figured that Ensenada was also affected. If the captain of the ship decided to just skip Ensenada entirely and dock at either San Diego or Catalina Island instead, then that would solve the problem for me. However, if we were still going to dock at Ensenada, it was up to me to make the decision.

I ultimately concluded that I would not disembark the ship onto Mexican land. Having formerly worked in law enforcement, I am aware of the strength of organized crime groups and how much more dangerous they are than random people committing crimes alone on the street. I have also personally seen the fragility of life and how easily an innocent bystander can accidentally die.

Furthermore, Mexican drug trafficking organizations hold a complex role in Mexican society. The cartel employs a substantial number of Mexican people and directly contributes to the health of their economy. The cartel is known to provide infrastructure and public services to local communities where the government responsibility falls short. Although a lot of people surely would like to live a life free of the cartel’s intimidation, it is a far more intricate matter than just dismissing the cartel as a bunch of random criminals.

Because of all these factors combined, I decided to just sit this one out. I plan on going back to Mexico again, and because of how much I enjoyed this cruise, I will be going on another cruise soon on a different Royal Caribbean ship that will also go to Mexico.

The following morning, I woke up and opened my curtains to see us docked at Ensenada. According to the captain’s judgment, there was not enough of a risk to skip this port and head straight back to the Untied States. However, I stuck with my decision and took this as another day to enjoy the ship amenities in peace.

We were only docked at Ensenada for several hours before we needed to head back to San Pedro for the conclusion of our cruise. During sail-away from Ensenada, I noticed that the stairway down to the 14th floor was blocked off for some reason. Now extra curious, I stepped over the rope and headed down there anyway.

I immediately saw why that area was closed. The seagulls were extremely aggressive, and the entire deck and overlook area had a ton of seagulls flapping around. I guess they really liked the shaded and sheltered overhang from which they could smell food coming from the buffet. The floor and glass was absolutely drenched in bird droppings. After snapping a photo, I quickly made my way back upstairs to safety.

The timing of El Mencho’s death was unfortunate because the ship was actually docked at Ensenada instead of having tender service, so I actually would’ve been fine with going outside. It was fun watching what the logistics look like of docking a cruise ship as large as Quantum of the Seas. There were a lot of workers overseeing the operations, including these ones in this photograph who were responsible for managing the ropes that tied the ship to land.

One of my new favorite cruise ship activities was watching people sprinting to make it back onto the ship before sail-away. Apparently, I was not the only one who enjoyed this, because there was a very large group of people standing on the edge of the ship watching to see if anyone would miss their ride back to the United States.

We had three parties nearly miss the cut-off to re-embark the ship (i.e., they were late, and they made it back to the ship during the unofficial grace period before the ship left). In each situation, the people on the ship would yell at the stragglers to run, cheer when they started running, boo when they slowed down, and cheer again when they made it to the ship in time. It was actually quite fun and felt like we were all watching a live sports game together or something.

Here is a photo from sailing away from Ensenada.

For the last night on board, there was a farewell show at the Royal Theatre. I decided to mix things up this time and take a seat on the side to see if there was anything I was missing from this vantage point. The show consisted of a comedian, so I found out that the angle didn’t really matter, though I did get a chance to take a fresh photo from a different perspective.

After the first half of the farewell show was over, there was an intermission for the balloon drop. Everyone gathered at the Royal Esplanade, the cruise director came out to give credits to all the crew on board, there was a quick dance party, and then the balloons were released onto the crowd.

I didn’t want to be down there shoulder-to-shoulder with other cruisers, so I went up on the balcony instead. I gently pushed my way to a spot directly opposite of the makeshift stage so that I could have a clear and unobstructed view of all the action and enjoy the balloon drop.

After the balloon drop, I dined at Jamie’s Italian, another premium dining venue. I personally much preferred the other specialty restaurants; the food at Jamie’s was overwhelmingly salty.

After going back to the Royal Theatre and enjoying the second, late-night portion of the farewell show (which was the same comedian, but with a second set that was not limited to being family-friendly), I returned to my room and looked out my balcony for a nice view of the moon. The photo turned out blurry because it was so dark, but the reflection on the ocean was quite stunning in-person.

After getting a little bit of sleep overnight, I was woken up by the early-morning disembarkation announcements the next day. I opened my blinds to find us facing the World Cruise Center at the Port of Los Angeles and a seagull perched atop the ledge of my balcony.

As part of my VIP perks for purchasing an upgrade to The Key, I was allowed to be one of the final people to disembark the ship. While everyone else was standing in line and scrambling to leave, I was able to enjoy a leisurely sit-down breakfast at an on-ship restaurant.

For my final meal of the cruise, I had a “Royal VIP Signature,” which was a crab cake and poached egg atop a crispy sourdough muffin garnished with crushed avocado, shaved black truffle, and hollandaise sauce.

And that concludes my overview of my first ever cruise. As I mentioned before, this was definitely positive enough of an experience that I will go on another cruise again soon.

Royal Caribbean’s port in San Pedro has two ships that regularly have round-trip sailings from it—Quantum of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas. Although both are relatively new, I heard that each ship has its own unique vibe and identity, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for a well-timed and well-priced cruise on Navigator so I can check that out as well.

For those who are not aware, I have spent a majority of the past four and a half years being voluntarily homeless and living out of hotel rooms while traveling full-time. There was a period of one year in the middle of that where I rented a condo in Las Vegas again, but apart from that, I have been living a fully nomadic lifestyle. It is probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself, and constantly exposing myself to new places and environments has been a very good learning experience.

The fact that I fully committed to living in temporary lodging means that I don’t have rent to pay on an apartment, which makes the financials of non-stop, back-to-back travel a lot more manageable. However, this does mean that I don’t have a home where I “go back to” in between trips, so I usually look for places where I can stay for more than a week at a time so that I don’t have to move around as frequently. One option I had previously looked into as an extended stay solution was a cruise ship.

Going on a quick tangent… I get motion sick very easily. It is difficult for me to ride in friends’ vehicles because I get very easily carsick if I’m not in a larger truck or SUV and deeply reclined back. When I fly, I book domestic first class and long-haul lie-flat business class seats not because I am uncontrollably drowning in money, but because I get airsick if I’m not in a seat that can recline far back, and sitting upright in a standard economy seat causes me to feel unwell and lose a day or two of my trip to recovering from travel. As for watercraft, I cannot ride small boats at all, or else I will get severely seasick within the first five minutes.

However, similar to how I can be mostly okay in large trucks and SUVs, I’ve noticed that I am somewhat okay on large ships as well. I’ve ridden the ferry across Puget Sound a handful of times before in Washington, and I felt generally fine during that. I figured that, considering the very large size of cruise ships and the latest stabilization technology, there is a decent chance I will be fine on a cruise ship as well.

The nice thing about cruise ships is that they act not only as an entertainment experience, but also as a hotel room for the duration of the itinerary. I figured that this would be a relatively cost-effective lodging option, so I added a cruise to the list of things I wanted to eventually try out. Afterwards, if I was able to confirm that I did not get severe seasickness on a cruise ship, I could consider doing a multi-week cruise (or back-to-back shorter cruises) and call a ship my home for a little bit as part of my nomadic adventure.

 
A few days ago, I was in Los Angeles County visiting some friends when I noticed that Royal Caribbean had a cruise to Mexico departing from the World Cruise Center at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, California, on sale for a decently discounted rate. The timing of this cruise lined up pretty well with my schedule and slotted in during a free week I had, so I decided to buy myself an impromptu ticket and figure out once and for all whether I will get seasick, or if living on a cruise ship is a viable strategy for my future.

The day before the cruise was scheduled to depart, I relocated from northern Los Angeles County to southern Los Angeles County. I spent a night at the Marriott Long Beach Downtown so I could be a quick 15-minute ride away from the terminal and wouldn’t have to sit in an hour and a half of traffic the morning of my cruise. My company Tempo’s former office was in Long Beach, so it was a little bit nostalgic being back in town and seeing the city again.

I wanted something simple, straightforward, and reliable for my hotel before my cruise, so I opted for a regular Marriott instead of a resort or anything fancier. I also wanted a property that had an M Club executive lounge so I could get free snacks and soft drinks throughout the day, and regular Marriotts have the most consistency in having lounges available.

Unfortunately, I found out after arrival that this is a property with a mandatory US$34.80 destination fee. Out of that destination fee, US$25.00 of it is returned back to you as a food and beverage credit at their on-site restaurant, Local Current. Along with the additive US$10.00 food and beverage credit from my Ambassador Elite welcome gift, I managed to grab an almost-free dinner entrée to go along with my free hors d’oeuvres, snacks, and beverages from the lounge.

The following morning, I woke up much earlier than usual because I needed to make it to the cruise terminal no later than 11:30 AM PST. (Lately, I’ve been functioning on an Asian time zone schedule even while in the United States, so I end up going to sleep very late and waking up after noon.) After a quick shower, I drove west on Interstate 710, also known as the Seaside Freeway, across the very scenic Port of Long Beach and Terminal Island. Upon arrival, I discovered that the Los Angeles World Cruise Center was temporarily suffering from a power outage.

Nobody was able to board because Royal Caribbean’s systems were down, so we had to wait until power was restored. Fortunately, because I upgraded myself to The Key program, I was eligible to wait in the sheltered VIP line with other priority members. Once the power was working again, the line moved very quickly, and we were the first ones on board.

The first thing I did was get my safety briefing out of the way. I had to read some safety information and watch a few quick videos, then check in with a staff member at my muster so I would know where to go in case of emergency. Once that was all sorted, I headed down into the VIP dining area for my special welcome lunch that came as part of The Key upgrade.

I was one of the first people in the VIP restaurant, presumably because I went straight to the restaurant after the safety briefing without first exploring the rest of the ship. This meant that I got a prime windowside table with a nice view of the port.

My waitress brought over some onion bread and pretzel bread for me to munch on while I was reviewing the menu and picking out my courses.

For my appetizer, I went with some jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce.

For my main entrée, I ordered some salmon. This picture makes it look very sad and disappointing and colorless, but believe it or not, it was actually unexpectedly quite delicious. I also particularly liked the texture of the salmon skin—it was a great combination of crispy and chewy such that I was able to cut through it with my knife, but it maintained its form enough while I was chewing it to add a deeper textural element to each bite.

To conclude my meal, I got two scoops of strawberry ice cream. There wasn’t anything particularly special about this; it was just simple and decently good ice cream.

I finished lunch just in time for all the staterooms to be ready. I headed out of the restaurant and up to Deck 6 to check out my ocean-view balcony room in which I’d be spending the next week.

It was both larger and smaller than I expected. I understand that cruise ships have limited space and the rooms tend to be small, but I found the “living room” area to be fairly spacious. On the other hand, I found the bathroom to be microscopically and borderline unusably small.

It would be nice if they took several square feet out of the living area and put it into the bathroom instead. To put things into perspective, the bathroom was so small that taking three steps means you already walk straight out of the bathroom. Every time I showered, I left the door open because the space was so small that I assumed the accumulating steam from the hot water would make it so humid that I would suffocate and drown from breathing in too much water if I closed the door.

After unpacking, setting up my laptop, and getting a little bit of time-sensitive work done, I left my stateroom and started walking around the ship to get a better idea of what the layout was and where I would need to be to see the most interesting things. I eventually made it to what I personally thought was the most interesting part of the ship, which is the open deck on Deck 15. This floor had a running track, so I did a few laps around and took some photographs while walking.

At 4 PM PST, we left the berth for an on-time departure. I watched and enjoyed the music from the sail-away party for a little bit, but from the upper open deck so I wouldn’t have to be so close to the smelly pools and partially-naked people.

One of the big perks of having a balcony room is that you have a view of the ocean, so as we were getting further away from San Pedro, I returned to my stateroom to have my own private, quiet, peaceful, solo sail-away party. I watched the waves as the land slowly shrank into the horizon.

It wasn’t long until I started getting a mild headache. The seasickness wasn’t anywhere near as bad as what it is on smaller boats, because I usually feel like vomiting within about five minutes of riding on smaller watercraft. However, I could definitely feel seasickness slowly setting in, and I was progressively feeling worse and worse.

As I mentioned before, my solution to motion sickness on cars and planes is usually either reclining back or laying down. Lucky for me, my room has an entire bed in it, so in order to combat the seasickness, I changed into my pajamas and laid down in bed with my laptop to get some more work done. It helped a little bit, but as we sailed deeper into the Pacific Ocean and the waters got rougher, nothing seemed to help. I got extremely dizzy and felt very unwell.

I put away my laptop and started watching YouTube on my phone before getting even more sick. Wondering if looking at screens was causing this, I put away my phone too and took a nap. I woke up after a few hours and felt just as bad as I did when I had first fallen asleep. It was late at night and the specialty dining restaurants were about to close soon, so I forced myself out of bed and went to Izumi Sushi for dinner, in case getting some calories in my body would help make me feel better.

It didn’t.

Izumi’s sushi was pretty bad. I don’t know if I just have unrealistically high standards for sushi, or if it tasted worse because I was feeling sick, but the food quality was pretty bad, especially considering that this was a specialty dining venue where you have to pay an upcharge if you didn’t pre-order a special premium dining package like I did.

Their shrimp spring roll wasn’t a spring roll at all, but instead, was basically like one of those heavily-processed fried snacks that you would find in the frozen foods section of the grocery store (and to make things worse, it was also loaded with cream cheese that smelled like mold). The poke bowl had about ten small cubes of akami tuna, and was ~70% rice. The salmon and yellowtail nigiri that came as part of the chef’s sushi selection was cut very thin and had a unpleasantly fishy taste. The texture of the fish made me suspect that it was not flash frozen properly, because it was sort of mushy. I asked for assorted mochi ice cream for dessert, but instead was served a single scoop of regular green tea ice cream.

I love sushi, so prior to embarking on the ship, I had already put in a bunch of reservations for meals at Izumi Sushi. This dinner was so disappointing to me that, after getting back to my stateroom, I literally canceled every single future reservation at Izumi and replaced it with other specialty dining venues available on the ship. I heard that ginger was good for combating seasickness though, so before leaving, I finished eating all the ginger that came with the sushi.

I made it back to my stateroom without vomiting from seasickness. I changed back into my pajamas, climbed back into bed, and took another nap.

After another few hours, I woke up shortly after midnight. Miraculously, even though I still had a headache and still felt somewhat unwell, I was surprisingly feeling better than I did after dinner. I got up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, stretched for a bit, and replied to some emails and messages. After confirming that my condition had stabilized, I headed out into the cruise ship to do some exploring.

Going for a walk seems to have helped as well. When I’m just sitting inside my stateroom, it seems like my brain is incredibly confused as to why it senses motion, and then triggers an emergency alert to let me know that something is horribly wrong. However, if I’m walking around, it seems like my brain attributes the ship’s motion to assuming that my legs are just roleplaying as a crippled man who doesn’t know how to walk, and it doesn’t send panic signals anymore.

Because it was so late, almost everyone had gone to sleep already and the ship was nearly empty apart from the maintenance crew cleaning.

I started my walk on Deck 3 in the casino.

I then went up to Deck 4 into the two-story Music Hall and looked down on the stage.

Outside the Music Hall was the Royal Esplanade.

I ascended the stairs from the Royal Esplanade to Deck 5 and checked out some of the art installations.

I proceeded further to the aft of Deck 5 to check out the café and art gallery.

At the far end of Deck 5 was Two70, an entertainment venue.

Upstairs on Deck 6 above Two70 was the library.

Back down on Deck 5 near the stairs up to my stateroom was the Schooner Bar.

This ship also has the Bionic Bar, two robotic arms that take your drink order and prepare it for you using the vast collection of alcohol bottles hanging from the ceiling.

I guess even Royal Caribbean isn’t immune from those pesky Activate Windows alerts.

Many of the floors above this only had mostly staterooms, until I got to the upper-most floors. I tried taking the elevator, but that vertical motion mixed in with the side-to-side roll of the ship nearly sent my brain back into panic mode, so I stuck with the stairs for the rest of my walk.

From Deck 15, I peered down into the indoor pool and pool bar.

After getting the rest of my steps in for the day, I went back into my stateroom, transferred the photographs I took into my laptop, and started blogging.

… And now we’re here.

I’m honestly not sure how this cruise is going to go. Hopefully I continue to get better and the rest of the trip is fine, but I am also somewhat prepared to just be bedridden from seasickness for the rest of the week-long cruise and then never step foot on another ship ever again. After doing some brief research online, I found out that Guest Services will often supply passengers with complimentary motion sickness medication, so if things are still bad tomorrow, I will go claim some Meclizine and hope that I’m not already vomiting so much that I can’t keep it down.

I browsed through the Royal Caribbean app and it seems like there are a lot of things to do on the cruise ship, and along with the unlimited premium dining package I have that allows me to check out all the specialty restaurants, I will likely have a packed schedule for the next week (either packed with activities, or packed with laying in bed trying not to throw up).

Because of the limited time I have on the ship, I plan on finishing the rest of my cruise blog posts after-the-fact rather than in realtime, so I’ll be back to give another cruise update in about a week or so, after I’m back on solid land. Until then, you can go make a bet on your favorite new prediction market website to gamble on how many times I vomit or something, I guess.