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This is Cruise Radio.

Hey, how's it going?

My name is Doug Parker.

Thank you so much for checking out this episode of Cruise Radio. Happy to have you here. Staff writer Richard Sims is standing by in San Juan, Puerto Rico, just chilling on his balcony, waiting for us to connect to him to talk to us about his initial thoughts of Carnivals, Marty Grau up there in that Excel suite. So we'll punch him up in just a couple of moments.

Our listener question comes from Jamie this week and Matt Hodgeberg from the Royal Caribbean

blog is here to answer Jaby's question about testing her young one because Royal Caribbean

is about to start requiring kids 2 to 11 to get that PCR test and no longer an antigen test.

And Walter stops by. He's going to give us his review of Norwegian jade. He did a seven-night cruise in the Mediterranean in the Haven Suite. He's also bawling like Richard in the Excel suite, but the Haven's probably a little more elevated. So we look forward to talking to Walter in just a little bit as well. Cruise Radio News, you know where to find it. Five days a week, just opposite of this channel, or check out the Cruise Radio YouTube channel. Jumping now to staff writer Richard Sims using that Blazing Fast Carnival Premium Wi-Fi. Hey, buddy. Hey, Doug. Thank God for Wi-Fi. What would we do if we had to disconnect? It's a blessing and a curse with a blessing right now because we can connect with you a thousand miles away from us here at the studio. This is your very first cruise. In about two years, you're on Carnival-Mardi Gras. You're on a seven-night cruise out of Port Canaveral. Give us a lowdown, man. How was it stepping across that gangway for the first time in two years i'm not gonna lie

there were tears and i was a little embarrassed at first but i looked around and saw i wasn't the only

person there were a lot of people who were feeling the same kind of emotional rush of just realizing

that you know this is my happy place and i have really wasn't quite i, I knew, I knew I was, I knew I was missing it.

And I knew I was sort of suffering because of it. But I don't think I was aware quite how it would hit me when I walked into the atrium and realized, yeah, I'm here. I'm going on a cruise.

You know what got me was that over the past 18 months or so, we've been writing just all this negative, and not because we wanted to, but because it was all negative cruise news between yourself, Sarah, and me.

And I think walking across the bridge for the, or not the bridge, the gangway for the first time it was like wow there's actually

light at the end of the tunnel that we've been talking about forever and it sounds like you went through

the same thing yeah exactly and and it's not just walking on the ship you keep having those moments

like when we arrived in san juan and i got to watch the sail in or when i you know you know, went to Guysburgers for the first time, or I got to try big chicken, you know, there's so many things that just trigger that response.

And it's been happening over and over again all week long.

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