Virtual Cruise, Day 3; Sunday, December 4

8:00 am

Slept through my alarm!! I have a seminar at 9 am and I slept through my alarm!! Grab a quick shower and head to the breakfast buffet. We are on deck #9 forward and the breakfast buffet, Windjammer Cafe, is on deck #11 aft (back of the ship) so not real far to go.

8:30 am
Oohhh! Sausage gravy and biscuits!! Yes, please. Add some bacon and scrambled eggs and I am all set! There is a lot to select from but not a lot of time so a small breakfast today.

Check out some of the watermelon carvings that pop up in the buffet room every now and again.

Watermelon carvings in buffet restaurant

9:00 am - 12:00 noon
Seminar at Sea. I won’t bore you with our class work but let’s just say it was informative and fun.
Not sure what all Horse did while I was in the seminar but my guess is that he had a few of the hash browns! I think he played a game to see when he ate a whole pan of them if the cooks would bring another pan full.

12:15 pm
Meeting is over so it is now time for (what else) lunch! Back to the Windjammer Cafe for the buffet. Actually we visit the Island Grill which is part of the Windjammer Cafe. The Windjammer Cafe occupies the back portion of the ship on deck #11 and is U shaped. The sides of the U are the Windjammer Cafe and the very back is the Island Grill. Island Grill serves more burgers, hot dogs, ribs, and the salad bar. The Windjammer has more pastas, cold cut sandwiches and soups. Today, I try a cheeseburger, onion rings (very crispy and delicious) and some pasta.

2:00 pm
Let’s just kick back and relax on deck. Listen to some music by the pool (deck #11 & 12) and try not to get blown off the deck. Winds are about 40+ mph making it difficult to walk around the front of the ship. Waves are about 6-8 feet so we feel some movement every now and again. Most of the movement felt is an occasional shutter which feels like we just ran over a small sailboat. Not too many people seem to mind as the pool deck is pretty populated today. Temps are reaching mid-70’s today.

2:45 pm
Yahoo! I find the strawberry ice cream machine. So smooth and creamy and gone in about 60 seconds!!

3:00 pm
We move down to deck #4 and decide to play a little shuffleboard. I have a big lead before Horse comes back and wins. Guessing he must have cheated somehow. He actually tried to knock me down with the little puck thingy. I was walking and he shoots one across the deck, just as I step, it stops right under my foot so I step on it and slide a bit. Was he trying to knock me overboard?! Don’t worry, I will beat him the next time we play.

3:45 pm
I have mercy on Horse and let him win at shuffleboard so we head in side to one of my favorite places on the ship. The portrait gallery!! From the time you start boarding the ship to the last day on the ship, the ship photographers are everywhere snapping pictures. They sell these gems for $10-$30 each or a CD with all of your pics for $200. I love to go look at the pictures because they display every one's pictures on the walls and you pick yours and purchase them. I don’t buy too many but I do love to look and laugh at the goofy expressions, colorful outfits or just weird things people do during pictures. I wonder if half of the people realize their picture is being taken. Good times.

4:30 pm
Want to go outside and walk but it is raining a bit. Sugar melts when it gets wet so we stay inside.

4:45 pm
We make our way up the stairs to the 14th deck and the Royal Caribbean signature area called The Viking Crown Lounge. This is the Star Trek spaceship looking feature on the top of all the Royal Caribbean ships. This area consists of 4 entertainment venues; Seven Hearts - a game room full of board games and decks of cards, Cloud Nine - a lounge with a piano for guests to play, High Notes - a lounge with various musical entertainment nightly, the 19th Hole - a golf themed sports bar.

Viking Crown Lounge (overlooking pool deck)

 

We decided that we would wait out the rain in the Seven Hearts game room. We get up there and it is closed for a private function for past guest Royal Caribbean members. Bummer. I don’t have many complaints from this cruise but this is one of them. Royal Caribbean is having private functions to honor their most loyal past guest members. This is a nice gesture but when you close down 4 lounges every day you are not allowing your “other” guests a chance to enjoy all parts of the ship. Some newer ships have lounges purpose built for their past guest receptions but something else needs done for the ships without such lounges.


5:00 pm
We decide to go watch football but the main sports bar is called Scoreboard and is located in the main Promenade on deck #5. This bar is one of the few indoor smoking venues on the whole ship and thus it is packed with all of the smokers even if they don’t give two cents about the football games on tv. (Make this my 2nd complaint of the day). You can see a gray cloud as you approach so we just keep walking. We decide to go back to our cabin to watch the games and finally order our shore excursions. We order our excursions right through our tv in the cabin. We decide on a bicycle island tour in Grand Cayman and a Segway island tour in Cozumel Mexico. (Guess you will have to wait and see how those turned out)!

7:30 pm
Tonight is a formal night for dinner. Formal attire is suggested but not required. Most men do not bother with tuxedos although a few do have them on. We select jackets and ties and call it formal enough. The photographers have set up multiple stations around the dining rooms to get your pictures taken.
We decide to play along and get in line. Apparently this photographer did not get the memo when I told him we are father and son and just need simple poses. If he considers hands on each others shoulders and getting real close as appropriate poses for father and son, I wonder how he would have posed us had we told him we were a couple! More on the picture results tomorrow!

8:00 pm
Our travel agent group is seated together at 2 tables. What a fun bunch we had. Tonight is the first night we all dined together in the main dining room. The first night some were at the main dining room and some were at the specialty restaurant. Tonight I will stuff myself on lobster bisque as a starter, filet of beef for the entree and finish it with strawberry cheesecake. Wonderful dinner and ready for a nap now.

10:15 pm
Each night they have some entertainment in the main theater and tonight is the first of 2 shows this week by the ship’s dancers and singers. Broadway style musical and very entertaining.

11:15 pm
Since I lived in Mississippi for a handful of years as a kid, I grew up watching the New Orleans Saints football team. The Saints game was on tv tonight and we got to watch the last 10 minutes with a room full of other Saints fans on board. The Saints beat the Detroit Lions tonight so we all had a celebratory “Who Dat” chant afterwards.

12:00 pm
All day long we saw nothing but water as far as we could see. When you are out to sea at night everything is pitch black.  Tonight we see another cruise ship off in the distance but cannot tell which ship as we just see the lights making an outline..


12:15 pm
We stop by the 24-hour cafe in the Promenade and grab some fresh baked cookies before we head back to the cabin for bed.

For those of you keeping track, only 1 more ice cream cone today!!! That is a total of 2 for a day and a half on board. I need to pick up the pace if I am going to have more than 25 cones!

Good night all!