It is a lovely afternoon for a sail away and there are lots
of people out for it. It is so nice to
see so many people excited about their voyage.
This is a great place to people watch.
Most people are happy, excited, in love, hopeful and well just
nice. Give it a few hours, fast forward
to 8 pm as we sit outside Explorer’s Lounge.
We sit waiting until dinner and we people watch as the passengers wander
about the ship. Now is not a good time
for many people. Many are tired from long
day of travel. They are trying to find
something, the dining room, a lounge, the theater, even a washroom. We notice a lot of people are short tempered
and quite a few scream at their partners.
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
Hopefully a good night sleep will rejuvenate everyone.
Okay back to our evening and our regular scheduled
program.
We dance a bit, we enjoy a cocktail and we check out the
views. We are in a cabin that is aft
right on Riviera deck so we can walk thru Horizon Court, thru Café Caribe to
the aft pool and then down a flight of stairs right to our cabin. We are the first cabin – well actually it is
the last balcony cabin on starboard side.
So convenient to everything, but a long walk in the morning to the International
Café. But the exercise is doing us well.
The Cruise Critic gathering is happening at the aft bar and
I meet up with many of the people from the roll call. Didn’t get to make it to the roll call
gathering last voyage as it was after we left Rhode Island and we slept right
thru it. Today I make a point of
dropping in and meeting some really nice people.
We dress for dinner and head to the shops to stock up on
some cologne. We do this every so often
as the first two days you get a great deal from the coupon book. Spend $100 and get 10% off spend $250 and get
15% off, plus with our elite 10% discount we are saving 25% in total. Germanie from South Africa takes very good
care of us here and recommends colognes for both of us. We even are able to leave our purchases here
until after dinner so we don’t have to rush back to the cabin with them.
We drop into the Captain Circle desk and say hi and he gives
us the invite for the Most Travelled Passenger Cocktail Party. We qualify again and this time we are higher
up on the list. Although last week’s
number one couple are still on so I am guessing they are number one again.
Since we are a little early for dinner we take a seat
outside Explorer’s Lounge (well see above on how that went). At just after 8 we head to the Palm dining
room and many of the staff are surprised to see us again. We head back to our favorite waiter Remil at
table number 126. Seems strange to look
around and see so many different faces.
It is much busier second seating tonight, but the waiters shine as
usual.
I decide to switch it up a bit tonight, normally I have the
Basa fillet but I am going for the Fettucini Alfredo in the Parmesan bowl in
honour of Alice our friend aka Mimi who is just about to be getting on the
Royal. I do start out with the spring
roll though and a Caesar salad and for dessert well you guessed it, the cheese
plate. I am stuffed!
We are not really interested in going to the Welcome Aboard
Show again as the dancers only have one dance.
We make our way back to the shops to pick up our purchases. We head upstairs to Facets to say hi to
Delmarie and catch up on how she is doing.
The shops are busy but it looks like more looking and not as much
purchasing. If only people knew what a
great deal and guarantee you got from on board.
We are back in the cabin around 11 pm and we crash…. Nothing
like the rocking of the ship to put us right to sleep.
I am woken Sunday morning to the sound of the tenders being
dropped. Ahhhh Rhode Island again,
although today it is overcast and a light rain and I am not sure if it will
clear up. But we are okay with that, we
are on vacation and a little rain won’t hurt us. And like I always say “it could always be
worse”.
Bernie heads down to get some coffees and we sit out and
watch the beginning of the tender process.
A quick shower and we head down to the dining room as Bernie remembers
last week on this day they had blueberry pancakes on the menu and he can’t wait
to get them again. This time I enjoy
them to and I will concur they are amazing.
Things this week don’t seem as crazy for the tendering
process. I believe last week’s boat show
in town caused a lot more boat traffic and slowed down the tendering
process. So far today it seems there are
minimal waits for tender rides. But I
can’t verify that right now. Key is be
patient if you are going ashore. Make
sure everyone in your party is ready and proceed to the tender ticket location
(today it is Deck 5 Island Dining Room) and have your cruise card and ID with
you.
Since we went ashore last week and since we need some more
relaxing days we have decided to stay on board today. It isn’t that we don’t like this place but
for us there is nothing drawing us out.
Tomorrow will be a busy day in Boston so we are resting up. The great thing about cruising is you decide
how you want to spend your vacation.
I was still having trouble with the internet today. Since we are on a back to back we usually
have one voyage’s minutes end at 11 pm on the last day of the first
voyage. Then the first day of the new
voyage we need to set up a new account and get the Captain Circle Package
again. However this trip when I logged
on the first day of the second voyage it was still showing minutes from the last
cruise. I check with the Internet guru
and he said you just ask to get a new package.
So this morning I tried to do that and it wouldn’t offer me any
package. So I waited till his desk hours
and went down and showed him and he was surprised. He then had to override the system and
allocate the packages to us. Now I am set up so I can blog and post.
I do want to do a big shout out to some amazing crew on
board that have made the trip so far so special. Dana the CSD, Adam the HGM, Michael F&B,
Douw Head Waiter, Mario Maitre d’, Remill our waiter, Catalin Head Waiter,
Alberto and all the Princess Dancers and of course our lovely Delmarie. Yes the voyage would be great even if they
were not all here but boy have they all been so great and we truly appreciate
all they do.
Just sitting here waiting for our mini bar to get changed
up, again we are having trouble getting things switched. Bernie called about an hour ago to get it
changed and he dealt with the same woman as last week (for which we never did
get the change – and had to call back that evening). She said it would be 20 minutes so I just
called back and she said they are on their way. One area we have noticed some issues is with
room service and we have only used them two times and both times there have
been issues. And just as I type this
there is a knock at the door and they are here – yeah more vodka and soda.
Today some of the happenings are: Acupuncture seminar, Ping pong tournament,
Trivia, Mahjong, NFL Football on MUTS, Movie the Internship, Taboo game, Golf
Chipping, Afternoon Tea, Lighting Photography seminar, Basketball Best Out of
Ten, Pop Choir Rehersal, Horse Racing, Veterans Get Together, Book Club (this
week the book is different it is The Silver Star), Art Auction, Bingo, Solo
Travellers Get Together, Service Clulb Get Together, Dr. Bob & Bill W
Meeting, Zumba, GLBT Gathering, Wii@Sea, Captain’s Welcome Champagne Waterfall
Party, Karaoke, Multimedia Music Trivia, Waltz class, Majority Rules game, 50’s
and 60’s dance Music at Skywalkers, and so much more!
