Day 3, A Very Relaxing Day at Sea.

The phone rang about 9:30 am on the third day of our cruise. It was room service saying that they would be delivering my breakfast soon. I then started getting ready to go to the meet and mingle.

Let me explain a little about what a meet and mingle is. I belong to a forum called Cruise Critic. I found it while researching my very first cruise. I instantly fell in love with the site. It answered so many of my questions and taught me things that I didn't even realize I needed to ask. Royal Caribbean sets aside a time on cruises seven days or longer for members of that site to....well.... meet and mingle. You do have to preregister on the cruise critic site and a note will be in your stateroom letting you know the time and place of the meeting.

Breakfast arrived around 9:45. 

I ate for about 15 minutes then headed out the door for the Olive or Twist lounge where the event was being held. That was when I discovered that the elevators on my side of the ship only went to deck 12 and not all the way to 14 where the lounge was. No big deal I just walked the last two flights but I did look funny trying to find 14 on a elevator panel that only went to 12.

Royal Caribbean had juice, water and some pastries set out for us CCer's.  

 As we came in they collected our raffle tickets and gave us each a gift. It was this neat little notebook, card holder thing.

  

They started by having us talk to someone we had not talked to before then went into giving away the raffle ticket prizes. I am sorry to say that I walked away a loser. I stuck around for just a few minutes and talked to a couple of people. That was about it for the meet and mingle.

I left there and collected Tony so that we could get something to eat and also give Supri time to clean the room. Tony complained a little about this saying he was super comfortable on our balcony so why did  we need to leave. I understood where he was coming from and told him on the last two sea days that I would just tell Supri that we didn't need anything if we decide not to leave the room early.

From our room we headed to the windjammer. It was right at 11 so they had breakfast still available on one side as they were preparing the other side for lunch. I really only nibbled since I did have a little bit of breakfast before I went to the meet and mingle. I did try a English banger for the first time. I don't know how true to tasted Royal Caribbean’s version is but it was just a larger piece of sausage to me. Although it was good, it didn't seem to be anything all that different to me.

From there we headed out to explore the ship some. One of Tony's most favorite spots on a ship is all the forward. He loves all the wind. When we headed out of the windjammer we just walked out into the pool area, then up one deck. We stopped to take a photo with one of the Royal Caribbean's staff, then proceeded as far forward as we good go on that deck. We took this time to take our first windy, front of the ship selfie.

We then headed up one deck to the Tropez deck area. They had some bright blue carpet in that area I tell ya. But it is a good place to grab a lounger to enjoy the sun and the wind.

From there we decided we wanted to hang out on the helipad. To get to the helipad you must go to deck 4, head towards the forward part of the ship. You will come across a set of steps that will take you up to the helipad. And man was it windy up there! Tony was in heaven.

  After we decided we were wind lblown enough we headed inside to the Promenade cafe for some coffee. And since it had been over an hour I decided I needed a sandwich also. I grabbed one of the prosciutto parma's with red peppers on an olive bun.

 It was very good, and decided that more of these little sandwiches needed to be in my current cruise future. We sat at the Promenade Cafe and people watched for a while. It was a nice way to spend some time on a sea day.

Our Starbucks barista behind the sandwich counter.

After our little sandwich snack, we decided we wanted to hang out in the cabin for awhile before Tony's massage. I had prebooked his massage before we left because I wanted it to be on our first sea day a little later in the afternoon.

While Tony was gone I recieved some chocolate covered strawberries from room service as a gift because they had messed up something I had ordered pre-cruise.

I took them with a book out to our balcony and spent some quality time with the sea.

That's where Tony found me when he returned from his massage. We then starting discussing dinner. We both decided we just weren't in the mood for the MDR. We decided we wanted to do the windjammer and see what it was like for dinner. So it was another cruise first for us tonight! I actually at that point jumped in the shower with total plans being at the windjammer at 6 when they started serving dinner and then be at the Drew Thomas magic show at 7.

We actually ended up eating at Jade. Jade is an area right before you walk into the Windjammer that serves Asian food. We love Asian food and it looked really good so we stayed here.

Tony went for the Sushi.

 I went for the sweet and sour chicken with noodles and prawn crisps.

It was 5 til 7 when we finished eating, so we decided to b-line it to the magic show to see if we could make it in time. Considering the Arcadia was on the opposite end of the ship and 7 floors down, we did pretty good. It had started so obviously we didn't get the best seats in the house. Looking back we should have just waited. The show was just OK in our books. I think Tony actually like the magic show on the Enchantment back in August better than this one. Mr Thomas had incorporated a lot of dancing and singing into this show, which was good but it only really left time for just a couple of tricks.

See how crappy our seats were.

After the magic show we hit the Starbucks again. I am so happy they have this on the ship to take care of coffee needs..lol.

I decided to check out the Cupcake Cubbard.

It was pretty late at night so a lot of the selections were sold out. But I decided on this beauty.

 The "Manly Breakfast". It was a spice cupcake with maple frosting and bacon on top. It was very yummy!!

Here I am enjoying sitting in the promenade while eating my cupcake.

And that ends day 3, our first true day at sea. When I come back I will tell you about our day in San Juan!

                                                                                                                         The Boss Lady

A Dedication to Easter; Past and Present

I have always loved Easter. From the time I was very little I loved Easter. I remember waking up and going on the Easter basket hunt. My parents would hide our Easter baskets and tell us the Easter bunny had hid them somewhere for us to find. They were usually behind the couch but it took me several years to catch on to this.

Here I am at a very young age with my Aunt Bea and my younger brother, Roger.

This woman was incredibly special to me, and I loved her so much. After she passed away I actually found the bunny I am holding in this picture in her bedroom. She had kept it all these years!


As I got older and started going to church, Easter became even more special to me. Learning the reason behind the holiday and what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross was enormous. So a typical Easter Sunday when I was younger was starting the day at Church celebrating the Resurrection of our Christ followed by an egg hunt at the Church.

Here I am with my brothers all ready for Sunday service.

Don't you love my dress..lol?

After Church the family would congregate at my grandmother's for dinner and our own Easter egg hunt. Family could range from any number of Aunts, Uncles and cousins. I have a large family and each year would see different ones coming "home" to spend Easter in Kentucky.

This picture is a snapshot from one of those family egg hunts at my grandmothers.

I am the one with the white heels and short blue dress. A little better than the last dress...huh?


I love Easter. But what a lot of people don't know about me is that I DO NOT like the Easter Bunny. I was actually terrified of him for a long time. But hang with me, I do have a legitimate excuse!

One year my Mom took my brothers and I to have breakfast with the Easter Bunny. It was at KMart in the restaurant in the back of the store. Anybody remember that? All was going well until the Easter Bunny decided to come to each table and visit all of us personally.  My Mom had just got me a hot chocolate and had just sat it down in front of me with the instructions to wait for it to cool down some because it was really hot. Unfortunately Mr Easter Bunny decided to pick that exact moment to visit me with his big ole bulky basket and proceeded to knock my scalding hot chocolate into my lap. I was traumatized! And could never trust the Easter Bunny ever again.


I'll be honest it stayed with me. And I am sad to say I never took my son to go visit the Easter Bunny. Sorry Tabor. But I did try to make sure Easter was just as special for him as it was for me. We always colored eggs and had our own egg hunts.

This is Tabor in 2009 with our cat Nadia and our dog Buddy behind him. We lost both of these pets a little over a year ago. So this picture makes me smile and a little sad at the same time.

Tabor has had the same Easter basket ever since he was four years old. And even tho he turns 21 on Monday, that same Easter basket is sitting here full waiting for him to get here tomorrow!

But sadly Mr Chocolate Easter Bunny didn't make it. I forgot him in the car today.

Maybe it was just my subconscious getting back at him after all these years!

Thanks for going back in time with me and sharing some of my fondest memories of Easters past. I have no doubt that this Easter will be any different. We will start with a wonderful church service, then come home to pig out on ham and biscuits. I hope everyone has a blessed Easter!


                                                                                                         The Boss Lady

Dinner and a Show at Sea. Night Two of Our Caribbean Cruise.

When I last left everyone the Mullins Duo had just laid down for a nap after replenishing their Vitamin D and resting up while anchored in the Bahamas. Now it was time for dinner.

I had made reservations prior to sailing for Portofino's that night. I wanted to do Portofino's because 1) I had never ate there, 2) Someone had told me that they were all going to be replaced with Giovanni's table in the future, 3) The reviews I had read were all positive and the food looked really good. We chose this night after looking at the menus for each night in the MDR at home. So the first time on a cruise we were going to skip the first formal night in the MDR and do a specialty restaurant.

Portofino's is located on the Port side right before you enter the Windjammer, with Chops being on the Starboard side. We were seated right away at a table for two kinda by a window. This really is a down side to it just being the two of us. The tables for two just seem to be stuck places that are inconvenient for anything bigger. Our waiter brought us some bread and explained the sauces they serve with it. I don’t usually have a problem understanding people with accents different than my own, but me and our waiter tonight had major communication problems. I don't know if it was because he was Filipino trying to discuss Italian dishes or because two different tables beside of us were loud talkers. But I do feel like my experience overall was affected because I was really unable to discuss dishes, wines or even the bottle water with him. I couldn't tell if he was trying to up sale me something or give me something included.

I ordered the shrimp risotto for my appetizer. It was Fantastic. It was my favorite thing about the whole meal. The risotto was infused with saffron, then topped with shrimp and crispy onions. It was very creamy and all the things worked very well together.

Tony just ordered a Caesar salad for his appetizer. Nothing else was really grabbing his attention, plus he was really unable to ask our waiter anything about any of the dishes. Since he likes Caesar salads he just went with that.

I ordered the seafood skewer for my main course. The presentation was awesome. The seafood was just average. My lobster tail was very little. Much smaller than the other tables that ordered the same thing. I should have complained but I didn't. I was getting pretty full and probably didn’t need more anyway.

Tony ordered the lamb. This dish was huge. The lamb was cooked perfectly and tasted very good. So it was a win for the lamb.

(Sorry, my photography skills were very crappy during this dinner. I had been playing with my camera settings earlier and forgot to change them back.)

For our desserts I chose the tiramasu and Tony chose the sampler. He said he was ok. (I didn’t sneak any bites like I had originally planned.) I ended up not that crazy about my tiramasu, either. The flavor of the pudding was good, but it was ALL pudding in that little cup. I finally did get a small piece of lady finger and it was soaked in something that was not coffee flavored at all. I enjoyed desserts at Chops on a previous cruise than I did these by a long shot!

Something a little neat did happen during dinner. Just after we were seated the Captain and about 5 of his officers came in to eat. I jokingly said, “I hope they left someone to drive the ship.” Which my husband did not find funny at all and only looked at me like I was dumb..haha.

After dinner we ran to the cabin to change. I am proud to announce we did not pass out this time! Instead we headed down to the Arcadia theater to watch Marquee. It is Royal Caribbean's production show giving tribute to Broadway shows. Overall it was good and we were entertained. It was probably one of the best production shows we had seen on a ship so far.  

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Phantom of the Opera

I actually don't remember what this one was a scene from.

After the show we walked around the promenade some and decided to run up to the room and use the restroom while killing some time before the Adult Comedy show started at midnight. When we got back to the room our toilet would not flush. So I called Maintenance, in which they told me that they were working on them because of a clog. Come on people quit flushing things that don't belong down the toilet! While waiting for the toilets to “come back online”, we got interested in a movie on tv, and I eventually ran down and grabbed some pizza for a late night snack. Tonight I did manage to remember to fill out my room service breakfast menu for the next morning. The Cruise Critic meet and mingle was scheduled for 10:15 the next morning. I checked the 9:30 to 10:00 box, hoping that it would be closer to 9:30. BTW we did hear our toilet flush about 15 minutes after I called.

And that ends day two of our cruise. Next time we will join the cruisers as they enjoy a absolutely beautiful day at Sea!

                                                                                                           The Boss Lady

A day in the Bahamas..kinda

Today we are anchored in CoCo Cay, Bahamas. Tony and I were just here in August so we discussed not even going to the island. We had never stayed on the ship during a port and thought we would love to experience the ship when it was "empty".

I woke up that morning and ordered a little room service for breakfast. The night before I had booked a massage spa special  for that morning and after eating I headed there.

The room I had my massage.

The spa special I was taking advantage of was the Top to Toe. It was 75 minutes and included full body massage, back exfoliation, rejuvenating facial, foot and ankle massage, and scalp massage. Out of that I actually got the full body massage, rejuvenating facial, and foot and ankle massage. It was incredible. I was very relaxed when I left there. I LOVE having massages at sea. (Even tho technically we were anchored.) She did try to up sale me about $350 worth of products tho. I politely declined.  

After the massage I headed to the cabin to grab Tony to spend our first day ever staying on a ship during a port day.

Our first stop was the windjammer for lunch. They only had one side open. It was a little busy but noticeably slower than the day before. Finding a table was very easy. As a matter of fact, there were empty tables everywhere.

I had a view of Norwegian Cruise Line's private island, which is located right beside of CoCo Cay, while eating lunch. They were obviously not using it that day.

After lunch we headed to the Promenade and grabbed a Starbuck's. I love having Starbuck's at sea.

And so does Tony.

 The Promenade was definitely not busy at all. So we sat in the Promenade Cafe and discussed what to do next.

 Tony opted to chill on our balcony, I headed to the pool after a quick change back at the cabin.

 

This brings me to another first, swimming in the ships pool. I found me a lounger on one of those levels that remind you of theater seating and made myself a little home for the next little while.

  

I laid here until I got really hot and decided it was time to cool off in the pool.

 I'll not lie, the pool was cold. I stepped down onto the level that the only thing that really gets wet is your foot and was like, “WHOA” . But I kept going. It was March, it was 84 degrees and I had been in freezing weather for months now! I was swimming by golly! As I walked to the ladder a couple of women sitting in the pool told me to just go for it. They told me that they had tried step by step and it didn't work..lol. So I stepped on the first rung of the ladder than just jumped in. I admit it took my breath and I wasn't able to speak at first. But as I started swimming, I did get use to it.

I watched the end of the Smurfs while in the pool.

Then it was sunbathing time again. Once I got back to my lounger I put on some SPF/tanning oil then chilled. I laid there with the sun on my face, the ocean around me, and party music playing. I truly felt on vacation. I could also feeling the vitamin D just soaking into my body. My body has just been deprived of sun/vitamin D for too long. I just laid there for a while with my eyes closed thinking, “Life is Good”.

I laid there until I could tell I was getting a little red. I did not want to burn on my first day. I knew I would have 3 sea days to enjoy and I was not going to spend them in the shade nursing a sunburn. I grabbed my stuff and headed to the room to see what Tony was up to. He was pretty well in the same spot I left him; snoozing on the balcony.

 We left the room and headed down to the Schooner bar to see what was going on there. They were starting country music trivia when we got there. So we sat at the bar talking to Andre the bartender and playing but not really playing. But we should have because between the two of us we knew all the songs

This is Andre. He was from Scotland. Since we were from Kentucky, he wanted his picture taken with Jim Beam. He was so funny! 

We then decided to head up one level to Sorrento's because we were on a cruise and you can't go that long without eating! I tried the potato and chicken pizza. Another first!! I had never had potato on a pizza before so I had to give it a whirl. I admit, it was pretty good.

 I also tried the tiramasu. I didn't care for it. It had zero coffee taste and the cookie part was very watery.

  

From there Tony heads back to the cabin and I head to the shops to pick up some hairspray. Remember I told you that I would let you know what all I forgot?  First thing noticed that I forgot..hairspray. So I paid $4.99 for a $1 bottle of whiterain. I considered it punishment. 

We sailed around 4:00. So we sat on our balcony as we watched CoCo Cay fade away. 

Can you guess what we did before dinner? Yep we napped. The Captain had announced a little while earlier that once we got of the islands of the Bahama we would be experiencing 4 to 6 foot swells and there would be a little motion on the ship that night. So I had expected to wake up to some rocking, but I honestly did not feel anything. So I jumped in the shower and got ready for dinner.  

Tonight we had reservations at Portofino's. When I come back I will tell you all about that dining experience and the production show we watched.

Thanks again for sailing with me! 

                                                                                                         The Boss Lady

Sail Away with Me!

When I left you we were getting ready to go to the muster drill. For those of you new to cruising, the muster drill is a mandatory drill that takes place at your assigned lifeboat. It usually only takes about 15 minutes but everybody is usually pretty wedged into the area.

There was several people already at our station, but we were not the last ones by no means. This might have been the most crowded muster I have participated in. We were all snug against each other. I felt like I should have asked the guy in front of me to take a picture together because we were pretty personal with each other for a while. And of course there was that ONE COUPLE. They were last. They took pictures of each other. They laughed. They joked. They did not hear one word of what was said. I am only hoping that they did not speak English and it wouldn’t have mattered if they had listened to every word being spoke.

During muster the captain announced that our sailing would be delayed. They were performing some diving operation on the front of the ship that was very important and wouldnt be done until 5:30. So the plan was to sail at 6. So of course as soon as we were dismissed I had to look over the side to see what was going on. T

There wasn't much to see.

Since we weren't sailing anytime soon we headed inside to check out the ship. We ended up at Sorrento's pizza. This ended up being some of the best pizza I have had on a cruise ship.

Finally a litte after six we finally sailed. 

Woohoo! We were officially on vacation.

A pic of Cocoa Beach as we sailed away from Florida.

It was then time for dinner. So we headed down to the Main Dining Room for our first dinner at Sea. I got to try escargot for the first time. There has been a shortage of them and not available on my last two Royal Caribbean cruises. But tonight they were finally available again.

For my entree I got the steak salad. It was sooo yummy. I hate steak that is overcooked and this one was cooked just right.

For desert Tony and I both got the carrot cake. It was good carrot cake and I enjoyed the piece of peanut brittle on top. It gave it a twist.

After dinner we headed back to our cabin to change into something more comfortable. These signs were all along the hallways. Thank goodness there was one close to our room because not only did I keep forgetting which was forward (front) from aft (back), but I also kept getting starboard (right) mixed up with the port (left) side. Too many times I found myself wondering down the port side looking for my room when it was on the starboard side.

At this point I hate to admit that we crashed and never made it back out of the room. I guess the hours of work before we left along with the long trip to Florida finally caught up us. 

Join me next time as I spend a day sunning it up in the Bahamas. Well kinda.

                                                                                                                          The Boss Lady