We weren't sure of our plans for the day. It is formal night tonight. There is a cooking demo in the Centrum that we could watch. I'd like to browse the shops and ship, and collect our on board picture from the day before.
So we went to the WJ for breakfast. It was crowded, as it is most mornings. But we saw David and Dan talking at a table, the girls had left for the next thing, and they invited us to join them. Whew....didn't have to find a table. I searched for my first dose of Vitamin C (mimosa ha) and we also saw Delroy, whom we had met last year. He didn't remember me, but once he saw Doug he knew exactly who we were. Not sure if that is good or bad, but there you go lol.
We had registered for the Cruise Critic meet and mingle. It was this morning at 10, but we were eating breakfast and didn't make it.
I left Doug at breakfast talking with the guys and was going to browse the shops. But being the first sea day, and yucky outside, they were crowded, so I changed my mind. So I grabbed coffee from Cafe Lattitudes (much better than ship coffee and included in my beverage package) and headed to the Centrum on deck 4 to read and wait for the cooking demo to begin. They were practicing for the Ariel show, so I watched that, too.
Doug came right in time for the cooking demo, so we watched the one for Giovanni's Table and Chops before leaving. Joan and David were there, too, and Susan and Dan (their friends who quickly became our friends too).
We decided to head out to the pool deck and check out the situation. It was about 11:30. I first ran to the room to get the journal, and our room still wasn't made up. The room steward in the next block of rooms, Colin (who was awesome) told me that our room steward had just finished training. This was his first cruise on his own. In our opinion, he needs more training, but more about that later.
Then up to the pool deck to relax and enjoy a couple drinks. The bar servers were out in full force and walking around with Miami Vice drinks on a tray in souvenir glasses and a bottle of rum to add if you want that. Doug got one of those and I tried the drink of the day (Caribbean Sunshine...not my favorite).
Then we went to the main dining room (MDR) for lunch. We love the Tutti salad there on sea days, although we only went there this one day. The Tutti salad bar is so delicious. You walk through the line, telling them what you would like in your salad, and they toss and mix it for you. There is SO much to choose from. My salad was delicious, as was the bread, but we didn't order from the menu, so we left before our table mates had even been served.
We stopped at the Solarium Bar and grabbed dessert, mudslides, and came back to the cabin. It's clearing up and getting warmer, so we enjoyed our drinks on our amazing balcony and then took a nap. Doug slept on the balcony lounger.
After napping I went to guest services to get a print out of our account to make sure all of our OBC showed up. We had some from booking the cruise on board last year, I redeemed some from our Bank of America RCL credit card points, and our travel agent gifted us some. $600 was there. We would receive 20% of what we paid for our 3 specialty restaurant reservations on the last day, too. I had no idea how we were going to spend all of that. Some of it went to our photo package, but otherwise, not so sure.
I did browse the shops a bit at this time and about 4 we tried to order a snack from room service. They must be overly busy because they didn't answer, so we hit up the Park Cafe for a snack and grabbed a drink from the Solarium Bar and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. I LOVE formal night!! I tried a new to me drink on the recommendation of Irenea (our favorite bar tender in the Solarium), an Italian Stallion. It is equal parts Kahlua, Baileys and Frangelico served over ice. It is yummy!
We were out the door, ready for pictures and dinner, a little after 6. We went to the Centrum and started the picture rounds. The Christmas tree in the Centrum was gorgeous! And there were hardly any lines for pictures, which thrilled Doug. The entire ship felt very uncrowded this trip, which was awesome! Only the WJ at breakfast felt crazy to me.
Doesn't he look so handsome? I love the black and white pictures!
We took our drinks and headed to dinner. Peter, the host, had our table ready and we're with Kicki and Boniface, yay! The whole trip, yay! Saby, the awesome bar server, brought me a glass of Moscato. He kept bringing them, too. Before my glass was empty even. Oh My Heck. He told me, "Less water, More wine!". I tried but did not drink 3 glasses of wine with dinner this night, or any night until the 9th one lol.
Dinner was delicious. Doug had shrimp cocktail, beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes and mile high lemon meringue pie, which is small, but still delicious lol. I had baby scallops au gratin, shrimp ravioli, and bitter chocolate souffle with butter almond ice cream. Equally delicious!
After dinner we walked out on the promenade deck for a little air. It was clearing up and getting warmer. Then we stopped at the Solarium bar for a buttery nipple shot (see...money's worth) and back to the cabin to change.
When we walked in the cabin, we saw our first towel animal. He's cute. I added the sunglasses. We see that the cabin steward took all of our hand towels and wash cloths and didn't leave any. So Doug called guest relations and told them we'd be out for a while, but please bring us some. Nobody ever did. I was sad about that later on when I needed a cool cloth!
So we changed and headed out for the evening. We had no plans and were winging it. First we stopped at the Schooner bar for drinks; mojito and mango lava flow. We watched the Browns game for a bit. Then went to the Park Cafe for a snack (because we need to eat all the time?!?!). Then to the pool deck so Doug could watch the Browns game on the big screen. They were playing Baltimore. Doug was the only Brown's fan. Somewhere in there we went to the Centrum and took our picture in the ceiling mirror, which I love to do lol.
I left Doug on the pool deck watching the game and went back to the cabin. But first, stopped at the Solarium bar for an Italian Stallion.
I sat on the balcony enjoying the night and sipping my drink and waiting on Doug to return from the game, sad, because the Browns lost. He was the only unhappy one on deck lol.
I sat on the balcony enjoying the night and sipping my drink and waiting on Doug to return from the game, sad, because the Browns lost. He was the only unhappy one on deck lol.
Other than the cabin steward not knowing how to do his job, we had a perfectly amazing day. I went to sleep feeling happy and blessed and hoping to sleep well. Not so much, but that's a story for a different day (tomorrow ha ha).
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