Day One ~ Embarkation Day!

Yay! It's finally Cruise Day!!

We were up about 5:30. We finished getting things together, and I decided to leave more things behind (which I later regretted). And then we went down to breakfast.

We left the hotel about 8, stopped at Starbucks for coffee and were on our way to Cruise Maryland.

We arrived about 9:15 and waited at the gate until they allowed people through. It was about 9:50 when they moved the cones and let us in. We drove to the luggage drop off, then paid for parking, parked and grabbed the bags we were carrying on and went inside.

This was the fastest we've been checked in and boarded ever. We were inside and filled out the medical form, then went right over to get checked in and have our sea pass card pictures taken, then over to the suite waiting area to wait for boarding. It was about 10:30 am now. Doug sat down, I went to the bathroom, and when I came back it was time to get on the ship.  We were on board at 10:35 am!! It was incredibly smooth, and fast, from pulling through the gate to walking on the ship. Gotta love that!!

This year, instead of walking up the long walkway to deck 4, we boarded on deck 1. It's such much easier for Doug with his knees to not take that long walk.

So once on board, Doug went to talk to the my time dining host about our dinner reservations and then we went to the Schooner Bar to wait until 1 for the rooms to open. So much less crowded than the Windjammer! We had our first drinks by 11. Mojito for me, and a mango lava flow for Doug (his favorite). We are officially on vacation now!!

My friend, Dana, was on this ship a couple of cruises before ours, and told us we had to meet Ullston in the Schooner Bar, so we made sure to do that first thing, too. He was AWESOME! as was Dane. They both remembered Dana and Marc, and I showed them a picture of their family. It was fun to have that little connection.

We met the nicest couple while we were waiting for the rooms to open. Paula and Brian. They sat and talked with us and we ended up talking with them a lot over the next 10 days. Really fun people!

At 1:00 we went up to the room. We had Junior Suite 7150. It's a corner aft balcony room. It was AMAZING!! The walk in closet was awesome and the balcony was enormous! It was so comfy and a great location. I'm thrilled that we will be in this same cabin next year. Some of these pictures were taken with the phone and aren't the best quality, but they give you the idea of how awesome this cabin is!!

Check out this walk in closet!!

So we dropped our luggage and headed out for lunch.  We ate in the Park Cafe on deck 9 at the back of the Solarium. It's so much less crowded and crazy than the Windjammer is on embarkation day.  We had fabulous roast beef sandwiches. Once we finished our sandwiches, we grabbed mudslides and went back to the room to unpack. I saw our bags sitting in the hallway on our way back and asked a crew member if I could just bring them with me, but instead he loaded them onto the luggage cart and delivered them. Awesome!!

So we got all unpacked and settled in for the next 10 days...just in time for the muster drill. There was SO much storage and closet space in this cabin. We had empty spaces even.

Something different with the muster this year, too, since it is hard for Doug to stand that long. He stayed inside in the seating area while I went out to stand in our muster station (Muster Station 10 btw). It was MUCH easier for him that way.

After muster we sat and talked with some ladies for a while and waited for the crowds to disburse and then went to our room for sail away.

The weather was gray and rainy and pretty cool, so we didn't want to be up on deck. I had ordered a bottle of moscato to have on our great balcony while we sailed. So we put on our coats, opened the wine, and went out on the balcony to wait for the ship to sail. And we waited, and waited, and waited. It was almost 45 minutes later before we set sail. There was a medical issue and somebody was taken off  on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance before we sailed. Their vacation was over before it even started. I hope they are OK.

So at 4:45 we finally set sail. It was getting dark, and cold, so we came in and finished our wine. I had also ordered chocolate covered strawberries and a cheese and fruit plate. Those weren't there yet. They did come that night...a little late, but it was still tasty.

So we got ready for dinner and headed down to the Photo Gallery to purchase the picture package. And then waited until it was time for dinner. We stopped in the Schooner Bar for a drink before dinner and sat overlooking the Centrum, and then we ran into Joan :)

We met Joan and David on the cruise last year, and were pleasantly surprised to find out they would be on our trip this year, too. We wondered when we'd see them, and before dinner on the first night was a great time!! She was waiting for David to come down for dinner with their friends that they were also cruising with.

So we chatted with Joan for a while, and then with David and met their friends.  And then we were all off to dinner.

Our waitstaff was awesome this trip! We had a table for 2 in the same section every night. Kicki was our waiter and Boniface was his assistant. Saby was the bar server (he was awesome! They all were!) and Peter was our fabulous host!

Doug had a Caesar salad, grilled chicken with a baked potato and broccoli and creme brulee for dessert. I had an eggplant and artichoke something on puff pastry. It was OK. And also the horseradish crusted salmon with mashed potatoes...which was AMAZING! The moist chocolate almond cake for dessert was OK. The coffee...not so OK. The bread was awesome though. This night I had a pumpkin roll and of course...savory bites!

After dinner we went to the Schooner Bar to check out the piano player, Grahame Sinclair. We really liked him and spent many nights in the Schooner Bar.

We had after dinner drinks. Doug had a mudslide and I had a chocolate martini. Dave and Joan wandered in and we talked with them until Grahame started playing. He was loud. They left for the next thing.

We listened to Grahame for a while, and after we finished our drinks we headed back to the cabin for the night. It had been a long, full, amazing first day, but we were tired! We found our strawberries, fruit & cheese, and also a bottle of champagne from our awesome travel agent, Stacey, waiting for us in the room. A little late for sail away, but hey, at least they arrived.

I went to sleep hoping to wake up to sunshine and warmth in the morning :)

Day Two ~ At Sea

We slept great and woke up about 7:30. We opened the drapes hoping to see sunshine, but it was still gray and drizzly. But that's OK. We're on a CRUISE!! And Doug captured some really cool pictures of the raindrops on the balcony railing.

 Being in a Junior Suite (JS) means we have a tea kettle. Knowing that I do not enjoy the ship's coffee, for the most part, I brought a pour-over mug from Starbucks, ground coffee, sandwich baggies to put my used grounds in when I'm finished, and mini moo  creamer cups. So I made a cup of coffee while Doug ran up to the Park Cafe for 2 raspberry pastries for me to have with coffee. Pre-breakfast pastries I like to call them. YUM! Such an indulgence.

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 had about 25 minutes before dinner, so we went to the Schooner Bar for a pre-dinner drink (we really, really got our money's worth out of our drink packages. Drinks, plus bottled water, plus coffee for mine). I had a peach Bellini, yum! Doug doesn't branch out much, so he had a mango lava flow.

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.

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).

Day Three ~ At Sea

So we woke up about 7. I had a bit of a rough night last night. I had too much variety of alcohol and not enough water. I was feeling it during the night. I was quite queasy and just wanted to lie on the bathroom floor, but the bathroom floor is too tiny. So I laid down out side of the bathroom, and really just wanted a cold cloth. But we had NO washcloths OR hand towels. So that didn't work. Doug helped me up and into bed, and come morning I was fine. And I decided I should stick with the same types of alcohol AND drink plenty of water. It was much better the rest of the cruise.

It was a little cloudy this morning still, but warming up.

I had coffee on the balcony! YAY!

I did skip pre-breakfast pastries this morning. Sad, but true. But, we decided to go to the MDR for breakfast, and I knew I'd have a pastry then.  So we got dressed and ready and headed down for that.

We had breakfast with 2 other couples who were very pleasant company, which is important since I'm not a morning person and really would rather not talk until after coffee and food in the morning.

I LOVE eggs Benedict, and look forward to it every year. I allowed myself to enjoy it twice on this cruise, and today was the first day. And also a raspberry pastry and mimosa. I tried to enjoy the coffee, but notsomuch. It was more like hot water.

After breakfast we stopped at the photo gallery to collect pictures from the night before. We were very happy with them. Doug sat out in the Centrum and I browsed the shops. I did a lot of browsing, but not much buying until the very end of the trip.

Then out to the pool. We sat in the shade for now, but I was watching for chairs in the sun to become available. The clouds have cleared and the sky was blue and I was loving life! The breeze was warm, too, and the pool deck was hopping! Everybody was happy to be in the sun and warm and on vacation!! I was looking forward to a lovely, lazy, relaxing day!

And it was very relaxing! I enjoyed a little nap.

We listened to the Caribbean band, Heatwave. We really enjoyed their music!

About 12 or so we took turns going into the WJ to grab lunch and bring it out to eat by the pool.

We headed back to the cabin about 2:15 and took another nap. About 4 we ordered a snack from room service. They answered this time, yay!  We weren't having dinner in Chops until 8 tonight, and I needed something.

So we got ready for dinner and had pictures taken, then stopped at the Schooner bar for drinks, and wait until it's time to go to dinner. There were only 2 picture stations tonight, and NO lines, which is always awesome!  And it was SO hot in the Schooner bar, so we went to the Centrum on the 4th deck where it was much cooler for our drink.

One of the photo stations was on the floor poses with props tonight. While we were posing, we were thinking...these aren't going to turn out so well. But we loved them!

We had regular poses made, too.

About 7:45 we decided to see if Chops could seat us early. I had made dinner reservations months ago online. Well, we weren't in the Chops schedule. But we were scheduled at Giovanni's Table. Oops, I mixed up the dates. No problem...we walked over to Giovanni's Table and enjoyed a LOVELY meal with our favorite waiter in there, Marko.

Giovanni's Table was PACKED! And it was SO HOT. But as the people started leaving, the temperature cooled down, which was nice. If I'm hot, it's really, really hot.  Before long, we were one of the few tables left, so we were able to talk to Marko quite a bit. I love getting to know the crew and ask about their families and where they are from, etc.

The food was delicious! I love this restaurant. The appetizers and pastas are served family style, so you get to sample more than one. We had caprese salad and Caesar salad for apps, and risotto and blue cheese gnocchi for the pasta. Oh My Heck! They are my favorites. I had ricotta stuffed chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto. So Good! Doug had veal. Oh, and I almost forgot, their amazing olive bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cheese for dipping. Dessert is amazing, also. They roll the cart out and you choose what you'd like. I had tiramisu and a chocolate cannoli.  Doug tried the ricotta canolli, but wasn't a fan. And coffee. It was so so tonight.

We met a really, really nice couple tonight. Joe and Sally. Come to find out it is MustangJoe from Cruise Critic! And they live in Akron. It's always nice to meet local people! We had SO much fun with them the rest of the trip.

After dinner we went to the cabin and changed, then off to the Schooner bar to listen to Grahame and have drinks. Then back to the room to rest on the balcony before sleep. It was about midnight when we turned in. It was an AWESOME day. 

Day Four ~ At Sea

I woke up about 8. Doug was already awake and just coming in from the balcony. He opened the curtains and I was greeted by the SUN! Glorious Sun!!

I tried having coffee and journaling on the balcony, but the sun was HOT and there was NO shade. Which is awesome, except for when I'm drinking hot coffee lol. I did have my Vitamin C out there.

I never get tired of this view!

I came in to finish my coffee, then we got dressed and headed out. It was 9 am. When we walked through the pool deck area on the way to the WJ for breakfast, most of the chairs were already taken. But, Doug was able to grab 2 on the end near the hot tub, which is an area we like to sit YAY!, and he sat there while I had breakfast, and then we switched.

I was supposed to be "real quick", but I ate with David and Dan and talked with them, and talked, and talked. It's not normally like that. Usually I am waiting on Doug to finish talking and talking LOL.

But when I realized how long I'd been inside, I went right out to the pool to relieve Doug (we don't want to be chair hogs lol) and he went in to get breakfast. It was after 10. He grabbed food and came back outside. Don't want to waste any of the sunshine!  Our plan was to lounge at the pool all day. They were cooking lunch on the pool deck, and it smelled awesome. Even though we don't like the seafood piaya they were making.

We talked with David & Joan for a while before they moved on to the next thing. I had 2 more mimosas. JD fixed me up most mornings.

 

I then went to collect pictures, as was my routine. I am loving the pictures this year! I bought a sweatshirt too, and went to drop it off in the room. I picked up a spa menu to see what things cost, thinking we'd use some OBC for that, but we never did. Then back to the pool and time to order drinks. 

It was a lovely day at the pool. Not too hot with a nice breeze. We took turns getting lunch in the WJ and bringing lunch out to the pool. We watched the World's Sexiest Man contest this afternoon, which is always a fun time.  3 margaritas and 1 mudslide and several bottles of water and plenty of carbs later! and I was very relaxed. We listened to Heatwave and were still really enjoying their music. It really was the most amazing, relaxing day. The perfect tropical vacation day!!

About 3:15 we went back to the cabin and grabbed a nap until about 4:30. Then we contemplated how to spend the rest of the day/evening. I grabbed coffee from Cafe Lattitudes :) then went to the balcony to relax. I just LOVE spending time on our balcony. I can't imagine cruising without one if I didn't have to. But if the choice were cruise without one or never cruise again, I'd cruise without one. I just don't want to :)

We decided to stay casual and eat dinner in the WJ tonight. It's not my favorite place for dinner, but we wanted to play Michael Jackson trivia in the Schooner bar at 7:30, and that wouldn't work for us if we went to dinner at 7. But we did still have pictures taken. What I do love about dinner in the WJ is I can have potatoes, potatoes, bread and dessert and nothing else lol.

Trivia was really fun, and when it was over we went to the South Pacific Lounge for the dance party. We watched the dancing,but didn't dance. We didn't dance at all on this trip. I really miss going dancing. Anyway...

We also walked around the ship and took pictures. It was SO pretty all decorated for Christmas.

One of my favorite cruise reviewers always posts pictures of her and her husband in the elevator, so I wanted to do that. Jane, if you are reading this, I need tips. We could NOT figure it out!

We then went back to the Schooner bar to listen to Grahame and have after dinner drinks.

And about 11 we headed back to the cabin, and Doug ran to the Park Cafe to get snacks. So we had snacks and drinks on the balcony that night. We adore having drinks and snacks on the balcony at night, and coffee and pre-breakfast in the morning, and whatever mid-day. And our next towel animal. I love those!I'd never seen the frog before!

It was another perfect day. Very relaxing, warm, sunny, wonderful! Tomorrow is an early port day in Cozumel. We are going to Nachi Cocom and doing some port shopping. I can't wait!!