The Laziest Day at Sea..Ever

Our last two days of the cruise were sea days. I LOVE sea days.  The fist day I dubbed the laziest day at sea ever because it consisted of two things.....sleeping and eating!

We woke up to room service. It was a special order breakfast that I had placed earlier in the week from a package I had bought prior to sailing. (The one they messed up earlier in the week.)

Breakfast was scrambled eggs with caviar.

And French Toast.

The rest of the day went as followed.

Nap after breakfast
Lunch
Nap after lunch
snack
Nap after snack
Dinner
Nap after dinner.

At one point I did try to read on the balcony.

But I fell asleep.

So I moved to the couch.

And fell asleep.

The weather was rainy and dreary so it was the perfect day to nap and just be incredibly lazy. I loved it!!!


The next morning we woke to beautiful skies and the promise of a beautiful last day at sea.  So we headed outside to the upper decks.

Look at those refreshed travelers!!!

We walked around outside, enjoyed the weather and checked out the ship some more.

The climbing wall.

The Flow Rider

We decided to have lunch at Johnny Rockets.

Ahhh...Root Beer at Sea is so much better.

After lunch we headed to the theater to watch Gravity in 3D.

Tonight after dinner I splurged on Ben & Jerry's ice cream

We sat in the Promenade while I ate my ice cream and Tony enjoyed a Starbuck's coffee. Here Tony is reflecting on our past week.

Doesn't he look sad that our vacation is over? WELL WE WERE!!!!!!!! The past seven days went by way too fast. We had a wonderful time and loved every minute of it.  At this point we headed back to our room to pack since they were kicking us off the ship at 8am the next morning.

I loved this ship and can not wait to sail on her again. 

This was one of the best vacations we have had. Not only did we get to see and do a lot of new things but we got tons of needed rest! Thanks for sailing with us!!!!

                                                                                                    The Boss Lady

St Maartin! And So Much More!

Ok Boys and Girls. I am WAYYYY behind on this cruise review. But I am going to finish it up over the next couple of days because in one week I am going to New York City! YEAHHHH!!

Where were we? Oh yeah.St Maartin Day! I was very excited to visit this island because I heard so many stories about how beautiful it is. Since we were already docked when I woke up, I jumped out of bed through the curtains open so that I could take in all the beauty of this island.

This was my view.

The MSC Divinia was parked next to us blocking most of my view from my balcony! That meant I had to get out of room and go visit this island. Oh Darn.

From the ship port we grabbed the water taxi to Phillipsburg. It was a blast. I loved the water and couldn't get enough of it.

Here is a video I shot while riding the taxi.

Once there we walked the beach.

Isn't that beautiful? Turquoise water, white beaches and green mountains, what else do ya need?

We decided to eat lunch at this cute little place.

Our view while eating lunch.

After shopping for a while we headed back to the ship. Here is a video shot while walking back.

Once back on the ship, I headed to the upper decks to take some more pics of St Maartin.

It would really be hard to get tired of that view!!

I decided to enjoy sail away on my balcony.

There is no way to not feel completely calm and relaxed while watching this scenery slowly go by.


After dinner, we finally got to see the Ice Show...YEAH! We got there early which was good because it got crowded fast. The show? At first I was like eh..it's alright. But as the show went on the harder the jumps and moves got. I was extremely impressed that these skaters were doing this stuff. On a moving ship, nonetheless!

This couple amazed me! She "changed" her outfit about 15 times in the 5 minute dance.

After the ice show we headed back to the Promenade where dancin in the streets...70's night was getting ready to happen. It's always fun when the village people show up.

After the party we headed outside and ended up catching the Hobbit on the big screen by the pool.

I actually left Tony watching the movie and wondered around the upper decks getting pics of everything at night.

The Kids Zone

The solarium.

After my picture taking I figured it was time for a snack. So I headed to Sorrentos for a late night pizza run. Tony found me here and joined in on the pizza snacking.


We finally headed back to our cabin to let the gentle seas rock us to sleep. It had been a perfect day on a gorgeous island! I knew I would sleep well that night. And I did!


Next up....Two super relaxing days at sea before they kick us off the ship.

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

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