Cruisingcouple22

Morning everyone! We had a lovely start to the day with breakfast in the room. Room service were very friendly and set up a tablecloth for us. The food was delicious, the pancakes were so soft and fluffy. The blueberry compote was a bit too sweet but the pancakes themselves were great. Just sitting in the theatre now waiting for our excursion to be called. Gangway is supposed to open in about 20 minutes so shouldn’t be long now

IMG_5853.MOV Sail away from Barcelona

Too soon it was time for our ice show reservation, so we swung by Cafe Promenade to grab some coffee to keep us warm near the ice rink. We managed to get some good seats arriving 15 minutes for the show, but when the standby lines were let in there was not a seat free so make sure to arrive a little early. And this show was brilliant, you do not want to miss it! The skaters are so talented, doing flips and handstands on the ice and some amazingly coordinated spins. There was an arialist in there too and the projections on the ice added an extra dimension to the show. Definitely try to see this when you are onboard. I’m glad we saw it on the first night as we may try to catch it again later on in the cruise. And that is all for the first day of the cruise. It was time for bed as we had a 0800 meeting time for our excursion. Hope you are all having a good time and i’ll see you tomorrow!

Then it was off to dinner at Izumi. This is one of our favourite places to eat on a Royal ship and the food did not disappoint! With the dining package you each get to have one small plate, two large and a dessert. And that is way more food than anyone would be able to eat! We ended up passing on the deserts because we could not fit a single bit more in. We ate: Crispy rice spicy tuna Crispy philly and Champagne lobster roll Baked snow crab and salmon dynamite roll Izumi Ryu futomaki roll It was all delicious but very filling. I had a she’s a Geisha cocktail which was a lovely fruity complement to the salty and spicy sushi. After dinner we checked out one of the new bars (and restaurants) on wonder, Mason Jar. The bar was empty when we got there at about 2045 and we snagged two rocking chairs by the window to enjoy the sunset. There were some clouds that had something to say about the whole of the sunset, but it was still a blissfully relaxing place to sit. I had the PB&J old fashioned and it was very tasty, a change of pace from the sweeter i had earlier.

Wraparound balcony photos!

suite sun deck was very quiet With dinner not until half 7 we planned to make use of the warm weather, and what are normally quieter pool times, to go and relax in the suite hot tub. It was a bit disappointing initially. It looks a lot older than the few months that it actually is, with the paint on the seats coming off on your hands, and rust in various areas. It also took us a while to find it, but there is a hidden button which turns on the bubbles which greatly improved the situation. The style of the pool is very nice though, the curved seat looking out over the side of the ship will be a great place to catch sunsets and sailaways. After some very ncie relaxing on the mostly empty suite deck we headed back to the room to catch sailaway and get ready for dinner. spot to watch people enjoying their water slide The wraparound balcony is truly incredible on these Aquatheatre suites, and i feel so lucky than we have been able to stay in one. The suite itself is bigger than our first one bedroom flat we lived in for two years! We met our stateroom attendant, Christopher, and he was very friendly and helpful. Our balcony was a great place to watch sailaway, as we had to reverse a long way before turning around to head out to sea. It always amazes me the skill the captain and crew have at piloting such an enormous vessel. I’ve taken a timelapse video which i will try to upload, not sure if it will work though.

Wow, what a ship! I’m sure there are a number of “Wonder” based puns I could make right now but I can’t think of any good ones! Feel free to share yours though. We got to the port about 1210 and there was a substantial queue for check in, but fortunately the suites line was super quick and we were on the ship in 10 minutes. We headed straight to shore excursions to see if they had any spots open for the Caves of Drach and they did. The man helpfully pointed out that you could book it via the app (which I had completely missed when checking earlier) and it took seconds to do from there. Really quick and easy process. We then went to check that all our dining reservations were in place and headed to the boardwalk and Playmakers to enjoy the sun and have a well deserved first drink of the holiday. I don’t think i have mentioned before, but this is our first cruise as diamond members and we are going to make the most of the 4(!) free drinks we get each day. I’m going to try and keep a running total going to remind myself that it is worthwhile being loyal to Royal 🙂 After our first drink we took a bit of a tour around the ship, walking through the solarium and enjoying the grass statues, having a look around the pool deck and stopping in El Loco fresh for some delicious tortillas and nachos. backgammon in Central Park! cantilevered hot tub. Just the one now with the Vue bar replacing the one on the other side Giraffe! We headed to the rising tide bar for free frink number two (saving of $42 so far for those counting.) We had a brief stop off at the loyalty desk and then headed to the spa raffle. We didn’t win, but the team at the spa were really funny, especially the manager, Boris. We are planning on using the thermal suite on the sea day so we’ll let you know how that goes.

So we landed at about 7:40pm on Saturday. Didn’t have to upload anything for the flight, just showed vaccine certificate at check in then again just after landing in Barcelona. Really was a smooth process for us

Ahh, we missed heading to windjammer yesterday, those cakes look amazing!

I’ll see if we can find out 👍

We’ve had a couple of announcements from the captain so far so seems he is feeling better 👍

Here is day one for you

Hi fellow cruisers! Hope everyone is doing well. I’m here to introduce you to my semi-live blog from aboard the newest of the newness, Wonder of the Seas! We are so excited to be going on this cruise. Much like a lot of people, we were originally booked on Allure (an already great ship in our opinion) but when we were moved to Wonder we were over the moon. We love a new ship and exploring all the new features. We are lucky enough to be booked in a one bedroom aqua theatre suite, thanks to a number of future cruise certificates gained during lockdown. We have a bid in on a two bedroom aqua theatre, hoping for that Genie, but know it is likely not to happen. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. First off we have to pass the dreaded LFTs and get out to Barcelona. We are travelling from the UK, so flying out Saturday afternoon and staying overnight in Barcelona. Then it’s off bright and early Sunday morning to try and be among the first on the boat. We’ve booked the unlimited/ultimate dining package (can’t remember what its called now) and have a list of reservations we want to make! That and I want to make the most of every minute on the ship. We haven’t booked any excursions yet, but are planning the following: Palma de Mallorca – Caves of Drach through RCL as we have some on-board credit to do Marseille – Stay on ship as we’ve been there a number of times La Spezia – Cinque Terra via train Civitavecchia – Train to Rome and wander around Naples – underground tour and walk around the shops Plans may change so you’ll have to follow along and see what we end up doing 🙂 Please feel free to post any questions, comments and suggestions and I look forward to chatting with you all!