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!!

Day Eight ~ Labadee!

Ahhhh.....Labadee!  We put in a breakfast delivery for 7am and a wake up call for 6.  Well, we woke at 6:30 and room service called at 6:40.....oops.  Doug waited for the room service guy to come while I ran up to the fitness center to weigh myself.  I weighed myself every morning.  I was totally not tracking points while I was gone, but I had a certain amount I could gain and still be at my goal, which is important since I'll be going to WW leader training on Dec. 9th, and being at goal is preferred ;)  

Anyway, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous sunrise!!

Some of the cruise critic people on their balcony....they were a few doors down from us.

I love watching the sail boats in port.

Hanging on the balcony waiting to watch the ship dock.

Our first sight of Labadee.

Because we were a suite guest, we were able to visit Barefoot Beach on Labadee; it's reserved for suite guests.  We also had the opportunity to rent a beach cabana, so we did, B2.  We were also able to invite guests, and so we did.  Kathy and Mark joined us in our cabana.  We had a fabulous time.  This is the view of the ship from our cabana.....it's hard to take, but we suffered through ;)

Kathy, Mark and me lounging in our cabana.

Caprice was the beach attendant for Barefoot Beach.  Ronald was our cabana attendant, but we didn't get a picture of him.  He was great.  He swept out of cabana while we were swimming or wandering.  He kept us supplied with drinks and ice water and took away our dirty dishes.  He was very awesome.  He brought us floating mats and would have brought us snorkel equipment if we wanted it.

We floated around in this gorgeous cove most of the day.  It was calm and gentle and clear and gorgeous.

There are several beaches on Labadee.  There are a lot of loungers and hammocks and trees. It is truly a gorgeous paradise!  Royal Caribbean has done a great job making this place feel like paradise.

For those that want more than a relaxing beach day, there is a zipline, jet skies, para-sailing and other things.  Isn't this a beautiful place to be adventurous?

I couldn't resist the hammock.

We walked to Dragon's Breath Point, which is a rocky place with breaking waves.  It is gorgeous!  Doug and Mark stood there about 20 minutes to get great pictures, and it paid off, because they got some gorgeous ones!

The view of the ship from the point.  Beautiful!

All the places to go on Labadee.

There were several food and drink stations set up around the island.  This is the one for Barefoot Beach.

Lots of shady spots to relax, too.

Ahhh....first drinks of the day.

Such a pretty shot from our Cabana.

There was a fabulous lunch buffet, one in the Barefoot Beach area and 3 other ones.  All of them had burgers and dogs and bbq chicken and fruit and sweets.  The one for suite guests also had steak, prime rib, grilled chicken breasts, grilled shrimp, baked potatoes, red beans and rice, corn on the cob, cookies.  I don't know what the sides on the other buffets were, but probably similar.  It was delicious!

There is a local Haitian market, so we browsed there and bought a few little things.

Kathy and I relaxed and read for a while on the loungers.

Our cabana from the pier.

Sadly the day had to end and we headed back to the ship about 3, sail away at 4.  We arrived to this yummy plate of sweets waiting for us on our bar.  We took them out to the balcony with the drinks we'd picked up and watched our last sail away.  The next time we docked...it would be in NJ and we'd be heading home :(

We relaxed for a while and then got ready for dinner.  We had pictures taken and then headed to the Champagne Bar to hang out until dinner time.

Dinner was delicious.  I had jalapeno potato soup which was delicious! and asparagus brie tart for the main course and a chocolate trio for dessert.  It had white chocolate mousse, coffee chocolate something or other, and a rice, rich chocolate cake.  They were all delicious, but I only finished the cake.  I wish we had the camera because it was also gorgeous!!  Doug had some kind of beef filled pasta for an appetizer, turkey tenderloin with mashed potatoes and veggies and coconut pineapple cake.  It was also yummy.

After dinner we wander around and then went down to The Chamber for the ballroom dancing thinking maybe we would be able to dance some.  But mostly it was slow stuff, and I was sleepy from dinner and being in the sun all day, so we took our drinks to our room and sat on the balcony.  My favorite part of the night...it's so peaceful and romantic and wonderful.

Tonight's towel animal was the monkey.  Isn't he a cutie?!?  And you can tell we're getting to the end of our trip that had gorgeous weather the whole time.....I'm now tan!  I never tan!  Look fast, because this will be the ONLY time EVER that I am darker than my sisters, and that is only because they weren't there ha ha.  They tan and I do not.

Anyway....we had a truly fabulous, beautiful and relaxing day.  We headed to bed with plans to sleep in and not have room service.  I am glad for 2 more sea days to relax before they kick me off the ship!