Some Final Thoughts

Just wanted to share a few rambling thoughts.

This vacation is more than I could have ever imagined.  I'm so blessed and grateful that we were able to make this happen.  Thanks Babe.  I know it was expensive and way more than we'd ever spend on vacation.  But I can't think of a better way to celebrate being married to my best friend for 20 years....even if it was 2 years late ;)  It was worth waiting for.

I was very impressed with the crew.  Everybody we talked to was happy and friendly and we really enjoyed getting to know a few of them.  So many people told us how very much they love their job.  I didn't hear one complaint.  We did speak with a new crew member...a month with the company.  She expressed how much she loved her job, but how the transition to being gone so much from her family was difficult.  I can only imagine.  Especially for the ones that are married with families.  It really makes me appreciate that I see my husband every week.

So I talked a lot about food and weight so thought I'd update with that.  I was a little stressed about that part of the trip.  When we planned the trip I didn't care.  What happened happened and I'd lose it again eventually, ya know?  But in October I hired on with Weight Watchers and am in the middle of training to be a leader.  It was important to me to be at goal after this trip.  And I worked very hard to have a nice cushion.  I had 5.8 lbs. of wiggle room.  I also made a plan.  I mostly followed that plan.

I planned to only have 1 heavy egg breakfast, but ended up having 3.  I planned to have pastries for breakfast once, but that didn't last.  I planned to have oatmeal for breakfast most days, and I did.  I didn't overdo the pastries, but I did often have 1/2 a croissant and a small danish or 1/2 a danish.

I planned to always take the stairs.  It took the stairs 85% of the time.  I almost always went down the stairs no matter how many flights it was.  I generally went up the stairs but with this exception....if it was more than 4 decks AND I was wearing heels AND/OR the ship was really rocking....I took the elevators then.  I was more concerned with not touching the railings than taking the stairs.

I was only going to finish things that were excellent.  The majority of the time I ate 1/2 of something or even less and called it done.  I didn't eat until I was all the way stuffed.  I left over half of the desserts half finished...it had to be excellent to be worthwhile eating it all.  I did eat a LOT of cookies and drank as much as I wanted.  I tried to eat things I don't normally have and really enjoy the food and not just eat mindlessly.  I did pay attention to the WW good health guidelines and worked to meet those most days and was successful. I know I purposefully met the healthy oil guideline on the days we had salad in the main dining room.  I'm not sure about the other days not knowing how they prepare things.  I think the healthy oil is the hardest one to fulfill while traveling.  But I did great with the other things.  It is easy to find power foods on the ship!  And they have a vitality menu if I wanted to only eat health conscious things.

So how did I do?  Well, I gained 6 lbs. in the 12 days we were gone, although only 11 of those days was I off program.  I consider .2 lbs. over really being at goal.  And since my official WW weigh in on Tuesday, I've lost an additional 1.4 lbs. according to my scale.  I thought it would be more difficult getting back on plan.  But really it's been relatively easy.  I spent the first 3 days ONLY eating my 29 daily points.  I NEVER do that!  I almost always use weekly points daily.  Yesterday was the first day I ate more than 29.  I was having quite a hungry day.

So I'm confident these 4-6 lbs. will be gone in a few weeks, and then I can continue on to my goal, which is 4-9 more pounds to my happy goal.

What else.  Oh I was very concerned about wearing a swim suit and being uncomfortable.  I may have lost a lot of weight (94 lbs. before the trip), but I also realized that ideal body weight is not the same as ideal body image!!  But the first warm day on the pool deck I was observing people.  There were very few hot bod type ladies (or men for that matter) walking around in swim suits.  Mostly there were middle age and older ladies that had middle age or older bodies wearing tasteful suits and looking comfortable with their body.  That was very helpful to me, and I quickly let go of the self-consciousness of what I looked like in a swim suit.  I even donned the bikini on Orient Beach...my thinking was a bikini was really overdressed there ;)  I even have pictures and am not afraid to show them to people....even if I have a muffin top without clothes that are too tight.  Let me tell ya...hanging skin is not so pretty...but it sure beats 94 lbs. of fat!!  So it is what it is.

What else....I am hooked.  I'd love to do this again for our 25th anniversary in 3 years.  Heck, I'd love to do this twice a year LOL.  I really, really enjoyed being spoiled and pampered.  There were so many first; first time swimming in the ocean, snorkeling, leaving the country other than Canada which is 4 hours away, being on a ship.  I was in awe for most of the trip.  I walked around for 3 days saying, "I can't believe we're on this trip", over and over and over.  I think Doug had the most fun watching me.  For 22 years we've tent camped and spent weeks at the lake in Dad's lake house, which were great vacations, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.  It was what we could afford since we chose for me to stay home with the boys and to home school them, and I am very blessed that I was able to do that and would do it all over again.  But wow is it so different going on vacation and not taking my work with me.  I'll quickly be able to be used to that lol.

The very best part of the trip was being able to spend 12 entire days with my very best friend.  We really valued that time together.  It takes us 6 weeks to see each other than many days usually.  After talking with crew members whose wives, husbands and children are at home and they only see them every 7 months...I sure appreciate those 8 or 9 days a month we do see each other.  But I really, really loved being with Doug every day all day.  It was a precious precious trip and I'll cherish the memories forever.

We met some fabulous people!  I really appreciate the Cruise Critic forums.  I learned a lot that made this trip not as overwhelming as it would have been if I had no clue what I was doing.  And we made great friends.  Ya'll know who you are :)  And I have to say it is really fun to answer questions on the forum now instead of asking them.

So, I had a fabulous time and am hooked!  I'm also very appreciative and thankful of the fact that we were able to take this trip and will not take it for granted.  It was so very good for us.  It came at just the right time when we really, really needed to get away and reconnect.  And the weather was gorgeous!!  I did a lot of praying for good weather. I didn't want to spend lots of money for rain....we live with rain on a regular basis...and snow...and don't see a lot of the sun.  I soaked it all up and am thankful it was gorgeous weather.

And now I'll quit rambling and leave ya with a picture.  We took a lot of pictures (1200+) and had a lot taken (140) so we're all about pictures lol.  Wally from the CC forums was joking on the last day that if he went into the photo gallery, shut his eyes and threw a dart, he had a 1-3 chance of hitting our picture lol.  But we had great fun!  We had a great fabulous wonderful time and I'm so thankful.

Disembarkation Day

We woke up about 6am on our final morning.  No breakfast delivery is available on the last day.  So the plan was to go to the WJ and get breakfast and bring it up to the balcony.  But after opening the balcony door we changed the plan.  Gosh was it COLD!!  We're definitely home in November now baby.  Although the sun was shining brightly.  Amazingly we don't have any pictures from this morning.

So we headed to the WJ for breakfast.  My plan when we left was I would be right back to WW and tracking points on Sunday morning.  So I had oatmeal and fruit with fat free milk.  Doug had one last big breakfast.  We sat by the window and watched NYC come into view.  We watched while we went under the bridge, which is much more exciting when you're leaving port!

We went back to our room abut 7 and finished up our packing.  We sat on the balcony for a while and then left the room for good.

We went to the Aquarium Bar and  called home and checked FB.  Then we went down to the Chamber where the suite guests were to meet.  We were the first to disembark after the self-walk off people, which there is no way we could have done with our luggage LOL.

About 9 am we were in line to get on the elevator and head down to deck 1 and onto the shuttle and then to customs.  It was a breeze walking through there, and not at all crowded.  We found a porter to help with our luggage and went to dock 119 to meet up with Rita and Gary and wait for our car.  It went by so fast!  It was quick and easy.

We were back at the hotel picking up our car by 10:45. First stop after loading up the luggage was STARBUCKS!!  Finally a fantastic cup of coffee.  We hit Starbucks again when we got back to town because I needed beans.  The next day I had my morning pressed coffee and was buzzing on caffeine....I overdid the reentry to real coffee I think lol.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day for driving.  We stopped at Wa Wa's for gas and lunch and then in State College to pick up my girlie.  She is happy to be home.

We only had about 2 1/2 hours left after getting Chevy.  I drove until it was dark and raining.  Yep....getting close to NE Ohio...rain rain rain. Although it stopped before we got home.  But it was COLD!!

It was great to get home and see the boys.  We did miss them.  And the house was fantastic!  And they had ripped up the living room carpet for us :)

We had a truly amazing time and hope to be able to do it again for our 25th anniversary.  I jokingly told Doug when these people we feed move out and we get a raise from the drastic drop in our grocery budget....maybe we can go more frequently.  I am definitely hooked!

Day Zero
Day One
Day One Cont
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven
Day Eight
Day Nine
Day Ten

Day Ten ~ Last Sea Day

Our last day :(  We slept in until about 8 and had requested breakfast be delivered at 8:30.  We were hopeful we'd be able to eat breakfast on the balcony, and we did....bundled up of course.  We had eggs Benedict and omelets and fruit and pastries and hasbrowns and bacon.  Delicious!!  I loved that we were able to order off of the main dining room menu for breakfast.  The regular room service breakfast menu was not this extensive.  I did my morning weigh in before breakfast, and I notice I keep inching up, but not more than I had room to gain, so that is good.  I was anxious to get home and see what I did weigh.

It was VERY cold and VERY windy.  We wandered and got pictures.  Most people were not outside, so it was like we had the ship to ourselves.  

The first thing we did after breakfast was head down to the photo gallery on deck 3 to make sure all of our pictures were on the disc.  We had to collect them all....and what a sight that was!  We had 140 pictures....a record LOL...and they were all on the disc :)  We talked with Camila and Chavonne for a while and then left to do other stuff.  

This is the 4th deck promenade.  It was usually a quiet place to stroll or sit and relax if you didn't want the business of the pool decks.  We liked to walk out here at night after dinner.

The Solarium....notice the sweatshirts.  It's a sad site. And the lack of sunshine!  I thought we'd spent more time here, but we liked the energy on the pool deck.

We wandered to the kids' and teens' portion of the ship.  The entrance to the arcade.

Deck 14, the sports deck.  This is the only time we were up there. They had putt putt and basketball and roller blading.

And a rock climbing wall.

It is cold and windy and no sun...the pool deck was empty!!

As was deck 12.  It was windy enough that they stacked the lounge chairs so they wouldn't blow around. Not even the die hard walkers were out in this wind.

Dee, our room steward, knew how much I enjoyed the towel animals, so he made the ones I couldn't keep and refreshed the ones I did, and set them on the bed as a surprise for me while making up our room in the morning,.  Aren't they cute?!?

Sadly we had to think about packing.  So we got things organized....I wore almost all of my shoes...all but 1 pair!  This is almost all of them.

Stacking of the clothes out of the drawers and closets.  I triple checked to make sure I got everything, about 5 times lol.  I can safely say we left nothing behind!

Yay!  The sun did come out and visit in the later part of the day.  It was still cold and windy, but the seas were surprisingly calm and the sun was gorgeous!

The monkey and penguin lounging in bed.

The right half of our balcony, taken from the sitting area of our room.  Gorgeous!!  I wish I were there right now.

The only sunset we saw.

Adventure Ocean looks like a fun place for the kids to hang out.

The wake on a surprisingly calm last night at sea.

Passengers hitting up Johnny Rockets one last time.

I have no idea where this is taken from, but it feels so peaceful to me.

We finished packing and went for lunch in the WJ.  I still don't like that place lol.  We napped and then I took a long soak in the tub with one last glass of wine.  We got ready for dinner and put our luggage in the hallway.  It was too sad of a sight to take a picture of.  Then we got ready for dinner and headed to the Champagne Lounge to meet Kathy and Mark for one last pre-dinner drink.

In the dining room the waitstaff and chefs did a parade and sang.

Captain Olav said a few words.

Steve and Connie had dinner in Portofino's, so it was just us with Ken and MaryLou.  We enjoyed a leisurely 2 hour dinner just talking and laughing.  They are truly a wonderful couple.

We had yet another wonderful dinner.  I had spinach dip with tortilla chips, the sirloin with mashed potatoes and asparagus, and a brownie mousse sandwich for dessert, which was DIVINE!!  I just couldn't eat it all though.  Doug had shrimp cocktail, the sirloin and I cannot remember what he had for dessert.

We headed to the theater for the farewell show, and got there about 1/2 way through and sat in the back.  We were hoping to talk with Dwayne and Berry, and we did see Dwayne at the end of the show, but Berry wasn't there.  We never did get to see him to say good-bye.  These two guys made our cruise most enjoyable.

We went to the Chamber for Motown hour and danced a little.  The hotel director came down and was talking to us.  Doug made friends with him at the beach it seems.  He bought us a drink. The DJs bought us a drink.  We were pretty much drinking for free this night.  We sat down there for a good hour and a half.

At 11:30 we had to go to the photo gallery and pick up our CD.  So we did that.

Then we decided to wander the ship. We stopped on deck 8 and took a picture from one of the balconies beside the elevator.  I love this angle of the Royal Promenade.

We rode up further and were in one of the glass elevators.  Earlier in the cruise we happened to be in the elevator after somebody had pushed every single button.  So we stopped on every single floor. And we were alone in the elevator, so I told Doug he had to kiss me at each stop.  So this night I told him he had to kiss me at each floor, even though we didn't stop.  We got to the deck we wanted, and there were Mark and Kathy...they told us to get a room LOL.  We really were acting like newlyweds on this trip. In fact one of the DJs was shocked to find out we've been married 22 years....he guessed 5.  I love that people think that!

Doug took a picture of us from the elevator.

We really didn't want this evening to end.  We knew waking up in the morning we'd be back to reality.  So we got one more drink and sat on the balcony one more time.  It was 1am, the sea was glass, and it was comfortable with a hoodie.  We just sat and talked about this amazing trip.  It was more than I could ever imagine.

We finally went to bed knowing in the morning we'd have to leave.  I was sad about that, but I was counting down to GOOD COFFEE!!!

Day Nine ~ At Sea

It's our second to last day on this most excellent cruise!  We figured it would probably be the last one for being outside by the pool, and we were right.

We slept in.  Doug until 7:30 and me until 7:45.  See why we got most of the sunrises?  The sky was colorful this morning.  And gorgeous as usual.

We went to Portofino's for the 2nd time for breakfast.  If you are in a grand suite or above, I highly encourage you to take advantage of this perk!  I had eggs Benedict and Doug an omelet.  We did have fruit and pastries off the buffet while waiting.  I once again tried for coffee.  I drank it.  It's not good, but caffeine in any form was necessary lol.  I almost caved and got a Coke.

Tony and Virginia walked in while we were ordering, as did Chris and Jane.  Loved these two couples. They sat on either side of us.  We were talking and Tony asked if we'd be going on the bridge tour, which is for suite guests.  We hadn't heard anything about it; neither had Chris and Jane.

This is the one complaint I have with the crew.  It didn't spoil my cruise...heck I was on vacation and being pampered like mad. I just expected more of this person.  Our concierge ..... I was not impressed.  Many, many people love him.  I've only read nothing but high praises for him on the cruise critic, so I was expecting different than what my experience was.  But mostly we had to pester him repeatedly for things.  Two weeks out we booked our cabana through him, and while I got confirmation that he reserved one for us, I didn't know which one or how much it cost.  We asked him five times and finally the night before we were in Labadee, Doug went back to the concierge lounge and asked him yet again, and that is when we found out which one we had and the cost.  We also had problems in the beginning with MTD reservations, and requested his help.  He never called us to let us know if he talked with them or if he was able to get the reservations.  We asked him one other thing, and did not get a reply.  He did not let us know of any special events, such as the bridge tour.  Like I said, it didn't ruin our cruise, but I was surprised.  We also didn't take advantage of the concierge lounge.  We went in the first night, and it was quite crowded.  I know the bar servers in there work their hinies off each evening during cocktail hour, and they have a nice breakfast buffet, but we never used it.  The lounge is tiny and has no windows, and mostly we wanted to be outside.

Anyway, Doug, Chris and Jane made plans to meet Tony for the bridge tour.  I went to the pool to read while they did that.

Our table in Portofinos for breakfast!  GORGEOUS view!

This is the ladies restroom right outside Portofinos.  It was my favorite public restroom.  Look at that fantastic view!!

Just some random shots of the ship.  This is the elevator bank on our deck.

These are at every elevator.  It's quite helpful since the ship is huge and it's hard to remember where things are.

A picture of the centrum.  Doug was standing at one of the balconies on an upper deck and looked down.  It was a gorgeous site.

OK, so pictures from Doug's bridge tour.  It was about 30 minutes and he learned so much and was thrilled to be able to take it.  There was a group of 15 of them.  He took tons of pictures.  These are a few, and I have no idea what they are, but I'm going to include some :)

Doug joined me on the pool deck for the afternoon after the tour.  I went to the WJ for lunch, which I was bringing back to the pool.  We took turns so that we didn't appear to be chair hogs, although we were sitting in the priority suite seating anyway lol.  While I was gone there was an ice sculpture demonstration.  He broke his record and did the sculpture in 9ish minutes.  It was an indian bust.  Doug was gone for his lunch when he finished, and I did not get a picture of the final product.

Frozen lemonade, yum!  It was sunny and warm and very, very windy.  The upper deck had 30 mph winds.  We were protected from most of that, although it was still quite windy.  And the longer into the day it got, the further north we were, and the chillier it became.  We gave up the pool deck about 3pm, sadly :(  It was so windy by that time that the bar servers were walking backwards to deliver drinks or the wind would have blown them off the tray.  I had to hold my food onto my plate while walking across the deck to my seat.

See the difference between day 3 and day 9!  I miss the sun already!!

Doug got an awful sunburn this day.  We were in the Caribbean for days and days, lying by the beach, and no burn.  Sitting on the pool deck making our way up the east coast in the chilly wind....burn all over his chest and belly.  We were home a few days before it didn't sting.  Thankfully I brought aloe with me.

Tonight is the 2nd formal night.  It's also lobster night in the dining room.  I've never had lobster, and didn't order it this night.  Doug never had, either, and also didn't order it.  But Maria, our fabulous waitress, thought we should taste it and brought one out for us.  It was....salty.  It tasted OK, but I really don't care for the texture of shellfish.  Doug liked it OK.

What I did have was a delicious mushroom puff pastry, pasta with baby scallops and a dessert trio, which was mostly chocolate stuff and was OK.  I only ate half of each of the courses.  Doug had roasted peach soup, and Maria brought him a mushroom puff pastry after she overheard him comment that it looked good, thai chicken with rice, which was surprising to me since he isn't very adventurous with food, and ice cream for dessert.  He did order the cherries jubilee so I could have some, and I ate part of that. It was divine!

It was Ken and MaryLou's 49th anniversary this day.  Maria and Ursulino brought out a piece of cheesecake with a candle in it and we all sang.  Everybody had a good luck bite of cheesecake, even Doug.  It's true friendship when Doug will eat cheesecake for you...he hates that stuff.  

There were 6 or 7 photo stations on the last formal night, and we hit them all.  By this time we were close to several of the photographers, and they took a lot of posses at each station.  A Lot!  And I'll only bore ya with some of my favorites.......

This is on of my very favorites!!  We clean up nicely I think.  I loved seeing Doug in a tux.  Really I enjoyed all of the formal dress, and most of the ship dressed...at least half of the men were in a tux, others a suit and only a few didn't dress.

Kathy and Mark were standing in line behind us, so we snuck a picture of the four of us.  Fun huh?

I Absolutely Love This Picture!!  So Sexy!

At dinner.....

At dinner......

It's not all that surprising that Doug was friends with the DJ's, Manny and Savio, and that he was visiting them in the DJ booth....

This is Roxy, the Schooner Lounge piano player.  He was excellent.  We enjoyed listening to him, and would have a lot more, but the chairs in this lounge lean back and I felt like I was falling backward after a while.  But the place was always crowded when we'd walk by around midnight, and he was still going strong.

 

The last production show Fast Forward.  It was fabulous!!  It was mostly songs from the 70s and 80s.  Their costumes were interesting and I loved the way they had the orchestra on risers in the back.  I really, really enjoyed this show.

We went to the 10:45 show, and got there early, and there were very few people there.  We were able to talk with Dwayne for a while.  We talked about his family (He's married with a 2 year old son and also has a 10 year old son) and what his schedule is like.  He works 7 months and then has 3 months off.  Seven months without seeing his family. I can't imagine.  We also talked about his birthday, which was the day before, and how he celebrated it.  He is a hardworking, genuinely kind man.

It was VERY ROUGH this night.  I was having a hard time walking, and I was wearing heels.  I was also feeling quite queasy.  Thankfully Vijay fixed me right up with ginger ale, fresh lime and aromatic bitters.  He told me to drink it fast, and I did, and within 15 minutes I felt much better.

We went to the Chamber, which is where Vijay fixed me up.  We are definitely back in the Atlantic!!  We got our drinks to take back to our room. But we wandered around a bit and took some random photos.

We loved hanging out at the Cafe Promenade in the evenings.  It was a nice place for a late snack.  The coconut ranger cookies are awesome, and they make a great oatmeal raisin, too.  They have this brie sandwich and also a fresh mozzarella and tomato one.  Very yummy.  I'd keep trying with the coffee......I'm a sucker lol.  It was fun people watching late at night, too.

Looking down the Royal Promenade.  It felt like you were at the mall.

The 5th deck entrance to the Casino in the Royal Promenade.  You entered and went down a stairway to the 4th deck, which is where the casino is...right in the middle of the deck.  I hated walking through it to get to the other end of the ship, mostly because it was visually overwhelming for me, and it is a smoking venue.

The old motorcycle in the Royal Promenade.

This is where Doug stood to take a picture looking down.  Isn't it gorgeous?!?

An interesting angle of the spiral in the centrum.

The entrance to one of the dining rooms.  I can't remember which deck this is.

It was a fabulous day and wonderful night.  We did take our drinks and sit on the balcony before bed.  It was gorgeous.  It was very foggy, and we watched the fog come by in clouds.  It was also very salty on our railing and balcony windows, which we'd not had before. The sea must have been rough to have spray all the way on the 10th deck.  We just relaxed and enjoyed being with each other.  That was the best part of this vacation.....all that time together!!

Then we went to bed.  Tomorrow is the last day, and we were feeling sad about that, but determined to enjoy it to the fullest!!