Review-daily style Liberty of the Seas

[stompy]

We just got home from Liberty of the Seas and I have submitted my full review to Cruise Critic. Until that gets published here's a daily blow by blow account of the trip. I'll post in sections as I get pics uploaded to the web and I'll try to add pics to the reviews as I go along...

 

2011 Transatlantic Cruise

 

4/2/2011

 

 

We had planned to wake up at 320am but like that kid in the Disney commercial “we were too excited to sleep.” Around 1230 we called it quits and got up. I folded the laundry and we got ready for the day. We had some time to kill so we thought we’d do breakfast at Waffle House. Apparently 3 in the morning isn’t “getting up early for breakfast”-time but rather “dragging your butt home to bed after eating a waffle-beer sponge”-time…

 

We ended up going to Denny’s [shudder]. I have never seen so many drunk guys and pant-less women in all my life… We ate in a hurry and got the heck outta Dodge. Next we visited The Parking Spot and took their shuttle to our gate.

 

We were hoping for an upgrade on American but no luck. I squeezed into a window seat and Robin got crunched in the middle. We landed without a hitch in MIA (so hitchless in fact that I didn’t even realize the plane had landed…). All of our bags made it and we hopped on the bus for the Port of Miami.

 

Boarding took awhile but we were in the Suite Priority line so we actually made it onboard faster than lots of folks who had been in front of us at the airport. We couldn’t go to our cabins yet so we made our way to the Windjammer and ate in Chops. Most of the buffet line was pretty standard first day fare but we did find one station that had honey stung chicken in whole form rather than the normal bite-sized cubes. Liberty also has Strawberry Kiwi sugar free “juice”. It tasted like Kool Aid but I drank it anyway.

 

Muster Drill was at 4 o’clock. We had gone to the cabin after lunch and taken a nap so I was grateful for the cruise director’s announcement of muster. No life jackets required, just seapass cards that they scan. We had to walk down 6 flights since you can’t use the elevator but it was over in about 20 minutes.

All of our luggage came while we were napping earlier so we unpacked and met Sonia, our cabin steward. We told her the plants needed watering and she almost believed me (they were plastic). She said the last guest broke the soap holder in the bathroom but that they were planning on buying one when we got into port. We unpacked our luggage and changed into clean clothes and headed out for free booze. Later in the evening after dinner she had replaced the empty hole with some kind of saucer that sort of fit the soap dish-hey it was better than the box I used originally..

 

Next came the Concierge Lounge, followed by the Diamond Lounge, followed by the Diamond Event. The bar didn’t have any Triple Sec nor Sprite Zero for Robin’s Lynchburg Lemonade but Mario, the Concierge, said he’d get some for tomorrow. The CL was pretty crowded even though it was only for D+, Elite, and Suiters. Because there are so many Diamonds on this cruise the DL nightly event was moved to the Sphinx Lounge for the free booze. We tried to get served but couldn’t since there were so many people there.

 

Dinner was at 6PM-early seating. We were at an 8-top next to the Captain’s table. Four of the folks were no shows but we met Reah and her mom Nancy. We had a lovely conversation with them and it turns out that Reah works at the Canadian Consulate in Dallas. Lyndon was our waiter, assisted by Victor. My wife Robin had the Vidalia Onion Tart which is now more like a small quiche instead of a tartlet, and the alternate boring grilled chicken for her entrée. I did a simple Caesar salad and and I had the pork medallions for dinner. Both our dishes were good but certainly nothing to write home about and we left before dessert, leaving our tablemates to fend for themselves. We went back to the DL and managed to get a way-too-strong LL. We sat with a lovely German couple who only wanted a couple of glasses of wine and had the worst luck getting served.

 

I’m on vacation so I didn’t pay much attention to the days of the week but apparently we’re in Nassau tomorrow so that means ATLANTIS! We had planned to go to the welcome aboard show to meet the CD Gordon but putzed out and just got our stuff ready for Sunday since we had a full morning planned.

[Tamerella]

We just got home from Liberty of the Seas and I have submitted my full review to Cruise Critic. Until that gets published here's a daily blow by blow account of the trip. I'll post in sections as I get pics uploaded to the web and I'll try to add pics to the reviews as I go along...

 

2011 Transatlantic Cruise

 

4/2/2011

 

 

We had planned to wake up at 320am but like that kid in the Disney commercial “we were too excited to sleep.” Around 1230 we called it quits and got up. I folded the laundry and we got ready for the day. We had some time to kill so we thought we’d do breakfast at Waffle House. Apparently 3 in the morning isn’t “getting up early for breakfast”-time but rather “dragging your butt home to bed after eating a waffle-beer sponge”-time…

 

We ended up going to Denny’s [shudder]. I have never seen so many drunk guys and pant-less women in all my life… We ate in a hurry and got the heck outta Dodge. Next we visited The Parking Spot and took their shuttle to our gate.

 

We were hoping for an upgrade on American but no luck. I squeezed into a window seat and Robin got crunched in the middle. We landed without a hitch in MIA (so hitchless in fact that I didn’t even realize the plane had landed…). All of our bags made it and we hopped on the bus for the Port of Miami.

 

Boarding took awhile but we were in the Suite Priority line so we actually made it onboard faster than lots of folks who had been in front of us at the airport. We couldn’t go to our cabins yet so we made our way to the Windjammer and ate in Chops. Most of the buffet line was pretty standard first day fare but we did find one station that had honey stung chicken in whole form rather than the normal bite-sized cubes. Liberty also has Strawberry Kiwi sugar free “juice”. It tasted like Kool Aid but I drank it anyway.

 

Muster Drill was at 4 o’clock. We had gone to the cabin after lunch and taken a nap so I was grateful for the cruise director’s announcement of muster. No life jackets required, just seapass cards that they scan. We had to walk down 6 flights since you can’t use the elevator but it was over in about 20 minutes.

All of our luggage came while we were napping earlier so we unpacked and met Sonia, our cabin steward. We told her the plants needed watering and she almost believed me (they were plastic). She said the last guest broke the soap holder in the bathroom but that they were planning on buying one when we got into port. We unpacked our luggage and changed into clean clothes and headed out for free booze. Later in the evening after dinner she had replaced the empty hole with some kind of saucer that sort of fit the soap dish-hey it was better than the box I used originally..

 

Next came the Concierge Lounge, followed by the Diamond Lounge, followed by the Diamond Event. The bar didn’t have any Triple Sec nor Sprite Zero for Robin’s Lynchburg Lemonade but Mario, the Concierge, said he’d get some for tomorrow. The CL was pretty crowded even though it was only for D+, Elite, and Suiters. Because there are so many Diamonds on this cruise the DL nightly event was moved to the Sphinx Lounge for the free booze. We tried to get served but couldn’t since there were so many people there.

 

Dinner was at 6PM-early seating. We were at an 8-top next to the Captain’s table. Four of the folks were no shows but we met Reah and her mom Nancy. We had a lovely conversation with them and it turns out that Reah works at the Canadian Consulate in Dallas. Lyndon was our waiter, assisted by Victor. My wife Robin had the Vidalia Onion Tart which is now more like a small quiche instead of a tartlet, and the alternate boring grilled chicken for her entrée. I did a simple Caesar salad and and I had the pork medallions for dinner. Both our dishes were good but certainly nothing to write home about and we left before dessert, leaving our tablemates to fend for themselves. We went back to the DL and managed to get a way-too-strong LL. We sat with a lovely German couple who only wanted a couple of glasses of wine and had the worst luck getting served.

 

I’m on vacation so I didn’t pay much attention to the days of the week but apparently we’re in Nassau tomorrow so that means ATLANTIS! We had planned to go to the welcome aboard show to meet the CD Gordon but putzed out and just got our stuff ready for Sunday since we had a full morning planned.

 

Is that all we get????

[LBumb]

great start.

[basebare]

can't wait to keep reading. only 80 more days until we leave for our adventure! so excited!

[12marshall]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=81643

[stompy]

04/03/2011

Nassau, The Bahamas.

We went to bed sometime around 9-930 range, having been up since 2AM the day before. We slept with the balcony open (and before all you haters start flaming me, we adjusted the thermostat so we weren’t air conditioning the entire Atlantic.

Robin had said that she wanted to get up at 6AM everyday to go walking. I managed to convince her to hold off till 7… and then I woke up at 330 anyway. I puttered around the cabin for a bit then went out on the balcony to blog a bit more around 5 o’clock while watching the stars, listening to the waves, and feeling the ocean breezes blow away all the cares in the world.

We went walking up on deck to see the sunrise. I did a bit over a mile in 31 minutes. Jessie Owens ran that far in 4 minutes-yikes!

We had breakfast in the Windjammer (ate in Chops). They do the egg station by # so it was a bit weird. I opted for scrambled eggs with bacon, toast, and spuds (with HP of course).

At 10 we headed out for The Blue Lagoon which for some reason I thought was supposed to be Atlantis. We walked along the pier and boarded a two-level party boat which took us to the Blue Lagoon. After a brief instructional chat we donned life vests and headed to a platform. We saw our dolphins swimming under our feet. The trainers came by and introduced themselves to us and had us hop in the water. We spun around waving our hands above the water while the dolphins did the same. The trainers joked that they just did that to amuse themselves. The rest of the interaction proceeded in much the same way with the dolphins doing fun things and the trainers cracking corny jokes. I was a lovely afternoon. The grand finale of the tour was the dolphin push. You are face down in the water, lock your knees, and the dolphins come up from behind and propel you through the water. Robin had a great run and I did just fine too. Unbeknowst to me, one of the dolphins scraped Robin with his dorsal fin at the end of her run and cut her pretty badly. She was bleeding after the swim and we went for medical help. They taped her up and took a report and then we went off to struggle with the photo people. Considering they do this every day it seems pretty odd to me that in the three times we’ve been to this place something screwy has happened with pictures each time. We got everything straightened out and headed back for the boat with pics and DVD in hand. The boat took us back to the ship where we cleaned up, rebandaged Robin’s cut, and headed to the lounge.

We managed to find a seat and tried to get a drink but Mario failed to come through-no triple sec tonight. We schlepped back to the Diamond Event and tried to get a drink from the bartender. He said “no” too so we grabbed an officer and explained the situation to her. One of her Juniors overheard our discussion and took care of it for us and got Robin a drink. We sat with a lovely Belgian lady and her husband who now live in Spain.

Dinner was a so-so menu. The other folks were still no shows. Robin didn’t like anything on the menu so she got pasta with butter and garlic. I had beef stroganoff which doesn’t actually taste anything like it was supposed to. We had sugar free ice cream for dessert and came up to the cabin to get gambling money. Robin had found a $10 when we were in line to come aboard. She parlayed that into $25 and then played on another machine where she bumped it up to over $50. I did badly at roulette and quit when I was $5 ahead.

We skipped the singer and played shuffle board instead. It was a bit windy and a guy was smoking a cigar nearby so we took off once Robin beat me by 8 points.

The Meet & Mingle was supposed to be tomorrow but we haven’t received any tags yet. Sonia is looking into it but can’t get confirmation from anyone.

 

 

 

Pics for the first part are up at

 

http://www.chaseclub.com/cruise/2011/Day1

[jill5172]

Hey there Stompy,

 

Thanks for the review - I read as much of it as I could on the reviews page (I think the rest was cut off? Maybe for length? Certainly not for content, because it was interesting and funny to read.) :)

 

Question for you: your cabin was 1268 and you mentioned that the whirlpool was above you. How much of it was above you? We are booked in 1556 for our upcoming cruise and I am trying to figure out if the whirlpool will affect us at all. (i.e., did it block the sun/your view/was it noisy/could you hear people in it/etc.?)

 

Thanks!

[stompy]

Hey there Stompy,

 

Thanks for the review - I read as much of it as I could on the reviews page (I think the rest was cut off? Maybe for length? Certainly not for content, because it was interesting and funny to read.) :)

 

Question for you: your cabin was 1268 and you mentioned that the whirlpool was above you. How much of it was above you? We are booked in 1556 for our upcoming cruise and I am trying to figure out if the whirlpool will affect us at all. (i.e., did it block the sun/your view/was it noisy/could you hear people in it/etc.?)

 

Thanks!

 

The whole right half of it was above our cabin. we kept joking that we wanted to climb out the window washer hatch and jump down onto our balcony

 

Robin said I should steal the rock wall equipment to climb up from the balcony to get into the whirlpool.

 

It didn't really block our view, but rather gave us a bit more shade than other balconies would get

 

You can see it sticking out here:

[stompy]

04/04/2011

Day at Sea

We set a wake-up call for 7AM but were both awake by 6, having gone to bed relatively early. We got our walkin’ clothes on and headed up for deck 12. It was pretty windy as we walked Eastward but when we rounded the bow and headed back the other direction, the wind really made itself known. I knew this would never do so I cut through a short cut behind the movie screen to catch up with Robin. We headed down to the gym one deck below. I haven’t been in a modern gym for years so it took me a few minutes to figure everything out. We walked on a treadmill, ironically watching “Flushed” which is a story about a mouse stuck in a cage with a treadmill who desires to get out into the real world and learn what it’s all about. I walked a mile and did a few reps with a weight machine. There were a lot of old people in the gym. Old people who looked like they could snap me like a twig without giving it a second thought…

We decided to do breakfast in the main dinning room this morning which happened to also be the Dreamworks Breakfast. We arrived to a big line of people since the dining room opened late. We managed to get seated at a 2-top but they no longer have the private area for diamond members. There seems to be a lot of trainees aboard this go-‘round and we certainly got stuck with one. It took us over a hour to get served! One of the station heads came over and apologized for the wait and then said it was because we did a special order.

We headed down to sickbay to see Dr. McCoy for Robin’s dolphin injury. Then raced up to deck 8 for the internet café, then back to the room for wireless which didn’t work due to the lack of IP Addresses. Robin did discover that the M&M was at 10AM in The Sphinx and that our names weren’t on the list. They let us in but they had cancelled the gift exchange. We got the little writey kits but didn’t win any of the door prizes. Afterwards we checked email on the RC machines and that worked fine, although we spent $9 for just a couple of minutes. I stopped off for coffee in the CL and ran into Maria from Mississauga. She and her husband live in Malaga and have another home in Nassau. She was trying to get logged on her IBM Thinkpad and wasn’t having any luck either. She chastised me for not letting Robin buy shoes in Barcelonia.

We had planned on doing trivia at 2PM but took a nap instead. Room service came by in the afternoon with cheese and crackers – a good thing too since we had really fallen asleep. We got dressed for dinner since it was the first formal night. Robin looked gorgeous in her purple gown and I was in my suit with one of the new ties Robin purchased for the trip. We went to the CL expecting the worst but Mario finally was able to get some triple sec for Robin’s LL so she was happy. It was pretty crowded but we chatted with a couple from Houston and another couple from Scotland.

We went down to dinner-the other folks didn’t show again. Nancy had made a little bag at arts and crafts and made one for Robin. She’s always needing little pouches for her watch or phone or glasses so it’ll come in handy. Victor took our pictures as did the ships photographer. Robin had chicken again and I had the duck. I always get the duck-not because I like duck but rather the potato croquettes that are served with it. I got a double order and did ok right till the last bite when I dropped marinated red cabbage on my white shirt-that stuff doesn’t come out. We headed back up to the CL and sat with a morose German guy who didn’t want anyone to know he was from Germany and another Scottish couple who were at late seating. He has a friend who works for IBM Scotland so I said I’d look him up when I got home.

We skipped “In the Air” and changed into bathing suits instead. The cantilevered whirpool is just above our cabin so we went up there and were surprised that the solarium and whirlpool were deserted. I floated around on my back and Robin squirted me with water. It was a heavenly way to end the evening.

[jill5172]

Perfect, thank you!

[nyonefivetwo]

Great review! Can't wait to hear more!

[stompy]

04/05/2011

 

Day at Sea

 

Robin booked an acupuncture treatment at the spa (eww) but I managed to convince her to opt for a hot stone massage instead. We got up at 6 to go walking. We headed straight for the gym rather than the deck. I did my mile at a slightly faster pace and then did some weights. Robin did about a mile more than me. We got ready for the day.

 

Robin headed for the spa and I to the dining room. Not wanting to repeat yesterday’s hour-long wait for breakfast I opted for the buffet. I had intended to sit by myself but they put me at a big table. Two other couples were there from Romania and they thought it was funny when I told them my grandmother was from Bucharest that we all ended up sitting together. One of the older ladies had been a ping pong champ in her younger years but somehow had never received the entry to the finals. She suspected her first husband of tossing her letter of entry thereby sabotaging her chances. Who says breakfast isn’t filled with intrigue and international mystery? She was going to give the sports deck a try-I told her they only had one ping pong ball up there and that if she shot it over the side she’d have to dive in after it.

 

Gordon’s coffee chat was next. I got there a bit early and read up on the NEXT CRUISE options while I waited for Robin to finish her massage. Apparently she got a bit more of a sales pitch than a massage and wasn’t too happy, especially since it was almost $200. Gordon came by and told some funny stories about the various ports he’s been to over the years. Two seasoned cruisers with Ship Shape gear dominated a lot of the conversation but they were nice folks so it wasn’t too bad. We took off a few minutes early to make it to the next venue on time. I walked us in the wrong direction but eventually found the napkin folding class in the Schooner Bar. I was messing around while they were getting ready so the instructor made me get up and teach everyone how to fold “the candle.” Nine cruises and it is the only fold I can remember… We made “the rose,” “the pyramid,” and some weird trapezoid thing that ended up looking a bit like a crown. Coffee in the DL was next, followed by lunch in Chops.

 

Robin checked in with our pet sitter and the cats are all doing fine. I decided to forgo the baggo tournament and do the ice show at 3 instead. Because we’re in a suite we didn’t have to stand in line for tickets. On Voyager they handed out tickets in the CL but apparently on Liberty CL folks can just show up to any of the four ice shows and get in the reserved seats. Robin is on a bit of a winning streak so she went down to gamble while I stayed in the cabin to blog about staying in the cabin…

 

I headed down to pick up my wife who was busy separating the casino from their money. We went down to the ice show early to get a good seat and there was already a huge line. We waited till they opened the doors and we headed for our reserved seats. They turned out to be way on the sides so we opted for front row center. The show was called “Encore” and had a Broadway Revue type style to it. All the skaters were great, particularly the men.

 

We got out of the show and waited for the crowds to thin a bit before heading up to get changed for dinner. The shirt I was originally planning on wearing was missing a button so I sewed on a new one but we only had the emergency sewing kit so the button didn’t really match. I wore the white shirt I spilled indelible red cabbage on and the stain was miraculously gone. Some folks who were in the same boat as us at dinner joined us (their table-mates were no shows too). Robin opted for plain pasta with butter and garlic while I chose ravioli in a seafood sauce. Robin wasn’t feeling too well after her third LL of the evening so she went back to the cabin. I went down to the theater to save us seats in the hopes she’d wake up and decide to join me. Gordon opened the show with a rousing rendition of “Tonight” from West Side Story. Elliot Finkel was the evening’s entertainer. He is a passionate piano player from Brooklyn, NY. It turns out his dad is Fivish Finkel who was on Boston Public with Jeri Ryan. Mr. Finkel was a bit older than his picture and no stranger to cruise ship entertaining but he could certainly tickle the ivories and got a standing ovation at the end of his show.

 

I came back to the cabin after the show and Robin was sound asleep. I got changed for bed and snuck out onto the balcony to finish the day’s blog. All-in-all a fun day. Robin was a bit down all day-I think from the lackluster massage therapist who seemed to cast a pall over her whole mood. Well tomorrow is another day!

 

[jerseygirl3]

I'm reading your review with great interest since we'll be doing the opposite TA on LOTS in October.

 

I do have one question. You mention each morning that you headed down to Windjammer for breakfast, but ate in Chops. Can you explain that? Aren't they two different venues? Do you get your food in the buffet and then head to Chops to eat it?

 

Also, we're Diamond and were on the Enchantment of the Seas a couple of weeks ago. The Diamond Breakfast in the MDR was a joke. It took over 20 minutes before anybody even came over and acknowledged us after we were seated. I was thisclose to getting up and leaving when DH said something to a waiter (not ours) and finally someone came over to our table. But the rest of the meal was so poorly served we never went back.

[stompy]

I'm reading your review with great interest since we'll be doing the opposite TA on LOTS in October.

 

I do have one question. You mention each morning that you headed down to Windjammer for breakfast, but ate in Chops. Can you explain that? Aren't they two different venues? Do you get your food in the buffet and then head to Chops to eat it?

 

Also, we're Diamond and were on the Enchantment of the Seas a couple of weeks ago. The Diamond Breakfast in the MDR was a joke. It took over 20 minutes before anybody even came over and acknowledged us after we were seated. I was thisclose to getting up and leaving when DH said something to a waiter (not ours) and finally someone came over to our table. But the rest of the meal was so poorly served we never went back.

 

We were in a suite so we were able to eat in Chops. Liberty has eliminated the Diamond area for breakfast and the MDR has horrible breakfast service

[stompy]

04/05/2011

Day at Sea

Robin booked an acupuncture treatment at the spa (eww) but I managed to convince her to opt for a hot stone massage instead. We got up at 6 to go walking. We headed straight for the gym rather than the deck. I did my mile at a slightly faster pace and then did some weights. Robin did about a mile more than me. We got ready for the day.

Robin headed for the spa and I to the dining room. Not wanting to repeat yesterday’s hour-long wait for breakfast I opted for the buffet. I had intended to sit by myself but they put me at a big table. Two other couples were there from Romania and they thought it was funny when I told them my grandmother was from Bucharest that we all ended up sitting together. One of the older ladies had been a ping pong champ in her younger years but somehow had never received the entry to the finals. She suspected her first husband of tossing her letter of entry thereby sabotaging her chances. Who says breakfast isn’t filled with intrigue and international mystery? She was going to give the sports deck a try-I told her they only had one ping pong ball up there and that if she shot it over the side she’d have to dive in after it.

Gordon’s coffee chat was next. I got there a bit early and read up on the NEXT CRUISE options while I waited for Robin to finish her massage. Apparently she got a bit more of a sales pitch than a massage and wasn’t too happy, especially since it was almost $200. Gordon came by and told some funny stories about the various ports he’s been to over the years. Two seasoned cruisers with Ship Shape gear dominated a lot of the conversation but they were nice folks so it wasn’t too bad. We took off a few minutes early to make it to the next venue on time. I walked us in the wrong direction but eventually found the napkin folding class in the Schooner Bar. I was messing around while they were getting ready so the instructor made me get up and teach everyone how to fold “the candle.” Nine cruises and it is the only fold I can remember… We made “the rose,” “the pyramid,” and some weird trapezoid thing that ended up looking a bit like a crown. Coffee in the DL was next, followed by lunch in Chops.

Robin checked in with our pet sitter and the cats are all doing fine. I decided to forgo the baggo tournament and do the ice show at 3 instead. Because we’re in a suite we didn’t have to stand in line for tickets. On Voyager they handed out tickets in the CL but apparently on Liberty CL folks can just show up to any of the four ice shows and get in the reserved seats. Robin is on a bit of a winning streak so she went down to gamble while I stayed in the cabin to blog about staying in the cabin…

I headed down to pick up my wife who was busy separating the casino from their money. We went down to the ice show early to get a good seat and there was already a huge line. We waited till they opened the doors and we headed for our reserved seats. They turned out to be way on the sides so we opted for front row center. The show was called “Encore” and had a Broadway Revue type style to it. All the skaters were great, particularly the men.

We got out of the show and waited for the crowds to thin a bit before heading up to get changed for dinner. The shirt I was originally planning on wearing was missing a button so I sewed on a new one but we only had the emergency sewing kit so the button didn’t really match. I wore the white shirt I spilled indelible red cabbage on and the stain was miraculously gone. Some folks who were in the same boat as us at dinner joined us (their table-mates were no shows too). Robin opted for plain pasta with butter and garlic while I chose ravioli in a seafood sauce. Robin wasn’t feeling too well after her third LL of the evening so she went back to the cabin. I went down to the theater to save us seats in the hopes she’d wake up and decide to join me. Gordon opened the show with a rousing rendition of “Tonight” from West Side Story. Elliot Finkel was the evening’s entertainer. He is a passionate piano player from Brooklyn, NY. It turns out his dad is Fivish Finkel who was on Boston Public with Jeri Ryan. Mr. Finkel was a bit older than his picture and no stranger to cruise ship entertaining but he could certainly tickle the ivories and got a standing ovation at the end of his show.

I came back to the cabin after the show and Robin was sound asleep. I got changed for bed and snuck out onto the balcony to finish the day’s blog. All-in-all a fun day. Robin was a bit down all day-I think from the lackluster massage therapist who seemed to cast a pall over her whole mood. Well tomorrow is another day!

[stompy]

04/06/2011

 

Day at Sea

 

I decided after the rough day Robin had yesterday that I wouldn’t schedule a wake up call and just see where the morning took us. Well apparently my dear wife was well rested because she got up at 4AM. She went to Café Promenade and oddly enough there was no one there at 4 o’clock in the freaking morning! She was nice enough to bring me coffee but I wasn’t nice enough to actually wake up for it. She went up to the gym around 6:15 and I languished for another half hour or so. I dragged my butt outta bed, had a banana for the potassium, and went up to join my wife who had already done a mile by the time I got there. Chicken run was playing on my treadmill and I watched it while wearing my iPod.

 

We went up to the DL just to see what was there and then down to breakfast in the main dining room. Shrek and Puss were already there entertaining the kiddoes. I decided on the buffet and made some well-done English muffins for us. Robin had ordered a simple cheese omelet and it took about ½ an hour for it to arrive. In my opinion, the breakfast service in the dining room has really gone downhill. It might make more sense for us to just order room service.

 

I tried and tried and tried to log on to the internet. No luck. I turned the computer around and Robin announced, “I’m on!” She has the magic touch I guess. That’s why I love her so! We were supposed to go to the lecture on Spain but didn’t really make it. Napkin folding was an hour later so we decided to go to the Advanced Class. We showed up a few minutes early and sat at our customary place at the piano. The snooty cruise staff guy running the whole thing showed up, chastised Andrea for only having a couple of books then wagged his finger at me and told me to move. WHATEVAH! He didn’t teach well and the napkin folds were a bit trickier. We decided to leave early and grabbed a couple of books on our way to Wii. Apparently on Wii is really popular. On Voyager they had about 2 or 3 people show up. There must have been 25 or 30 people in On the Air which is where they had Wii Bowling set up. We headed back up to the cabin and were going to nap before Bingo. 2:30 came and went but Bingo didn’t really start till 3. By 3:25 we didn’t have a prayer so we snoozed some more. I finally woke up around 4:50, just in time to make it to the CL for drinks. We didn’t snack tonight so we had room for dinner. We sat with a couple from Orlando who cruise all the time but I don’t think they’ve ever had a day of fun in their lives. We left early just to get away from them. I’m a generally grumpy person but this guy was making me look like a saint. “Oh you’ll get murdered by gypsies in Pisa, and pickpocketed in Spain, and all the stores in the Caribbean are garbage.” Dude-chill out, you’re on vacation!

 

Dinner was another “meh” night. Robin had Caesar salad and then chicken from the alternate menu again. I had a yummy creamy chicken soup and then lamp chops with ratatoullie. We headed for the casino and the non smoking table was open. I always seem to have better luck with Romanian dealers. She was fun and engaging and I won $50, including my match play certificate and one of the $20 bets I made. So far I’m only down $30 on roulette so tonight bolstered my spirits. Robin, of course, won her roulette match play and then won keychain on the free pull (I tried to be the keychain on 35 black but the dealer wouldn’t let me-she didn’t have enough keychains if we won…). And if all that wasn’t enough, she won another $15 on slots. She’s ahead around $30 or $40 dollars so far.

 

We went to the theater early to get a good seat. On the way I ran into Elliot Finkel from the night before. I told him Jeri had sent me the pic of her with his dad and that I did her website for her while she was on Star Trek. He apparently knew her well and we chatted about Jeri and Elliot’s dad and then about his show the night before. I gotta say, he was a very charming guy and I wish him all the success in the world. Bob Arno was the entertainment for the evening. He is a professional legal pickpocket. He just went through the audience and stole about 10 watches from the audience. He did a few more fun stunts then showed a film about real pickpockets and how to spot them. He does a lot of work with the Las Vegas police department and just filmed a show for National Geographic. He was very funny and engaging and frankly the hour was up before I realized it.

 

We went browsing in the jewelry shops and stopped in Sorrento’s but nothing looked great so we just went to the CL for coffee then to the cabin to plan for tomorrow. Robin decided she was going to give us a day off from walking (yeah!) and that we’d do room service. Normally they don’t bring the suite breakfast until after 8AM and we asked for it at 7:30 so weren’t not sure if we’re going to get it on time or not. I said we needed to get up early and be ready but she wants t be decadent and be in jammies and the comfy robe they gave us and eat on the balcony.

 

We put our order out on our door and watched my favorite episode of Castle on DVD. It’s the one where he shows up in the beginning in his Mal Reynolds costume from Firefly. “Dad, didn’t you where that like five years ago?” his daughter says. “It’s time to move on…” Classic!

 

 

[stompy]

04/07/2011

 

Hey we’re still at sea…

 

Room Service called at 7:30. Guess what? We were still sound asleep, having stayed up well-past midnight the night before. We tossed some water on our faces and made ourselves presentable. The RS guy showed up about 5 minutes later and set out our tray. Robin’s omelet was huge and my eggs were still hot. Very yummy.

 

Today we’re taking things easy. Hot Tubbing is in our plans I think…

 

10AM was the T-Shirt sale but there wasn’t anything too exciting so we didn’t get any of them. There was a $70 hoodie Robin liked at 50% off but they didn’t have her size. Having been treated badly at Napkin 301 we opted to skip the Advanced Class and played Shuffleboard instead. Robin beat me of course. We also went to the helipad and I did my best Leo DiCaprio “King of the World” pose at the apex of the bow.

 

We had a late lunch in the WJ, missed Wii Bowling, the Black Light Show, and Shrek pics. Still, we had a lovely, restful day. We downloaded the flip videos as well as all of Robin’s pics so far, and I did screen caps from the dolphin video.

 

We changed for dinner and got to the CL early to get a seat. We met a couple of gals who were staying in the Presidental Family Suite-it sleeps 14 but there were only 4 of them-I asked if they’d adopt us for the week… They had only gotten up at 1PM that day “Did we miss breakfast,” one of the ladies asked… I wish my first cruise could have been a transatlantic in the PFS. We went to dinner and I had a lovely breaded turkey dish with extra potato croquettes. I was so stuffed that I had no room for dessert.

 

We went to the casino and I was up $20 and then lost that in the slots. I had broken even so I tried my hand at roulette again and lost $50. Robin didn’t do well either. Not our night for gambling… We got into our suits and went into the hot tub overlooking our cabin.

 

The disco dance party was going on so we couldn’t go for snacks so we just opted for coffee from the CL which was pitch black except for the light coming in the frosted windows from outside and the glow of the coffee machine.

[zooma]

Love reading your review...thank you for posting everyday. Did you happen to save a Cruise Compass that you can upload? I know our 7-nighter will be different, but I have a couple of young teens who are very anxious to read about all the Teen activities offered!

[stompy]

Love reading your review...thank you for posting everyday. Did you happen to save a Cruise Compass that you can upload? I know our 7-nighter will be different, but I have a couple of young teens who are very anxious to read about all the Teen activities offered!

 

I have all of the adult compasses (compai?) but not the kids compass.

 

It'll take me a few days but I'll get to posting them (as soon as I get the 8X10's scanned).

[stompy]

O4/08/2011

 

7 days at sea makes one week…

 

Totally planned to get up early and go walking… Yeah, that’s the story, that’s what I’m telling the cops… Okay so there are no cops in this story, just Sonia trying to get our room clean and us not getting up till 9. Robin went to shower and didn’t feel like going up for breakfast so I grabbed a quick bacon and egg breakfast and went down to the CL for an English muffin and coffee for Robin. When I got back to the cabin she was in her robe on the balcony blogging. I also brought some fruit back and she scowled at me but you need your vitamins right?

 

We missed the Malaga lecture (Are you sensing a pattern here? We really did intend to do all this wonderful stuff but sometimes you just have to take some time off for yourself and relax). We’re hoping to get to the 11:15 towel folding demonstration which is being held in the ice rink and hosted by the Cruise Director-are these magic towels I wonder? We watched the end of the ballroom dancing class-they were doing the Tango to “Goldfinger.” Gordon showed up with eight or so room attendants with big bags of towels. They folded elephants and dogs and monkeys. One lady even showed Gordon how to make road kill (just bunch it up and throw it on the floor).

 

We tried to do a coupon for the internet but the guest services person kept telling us different things and several computers were down. We gave up and went to lunch. After eating turkey and salad we headed around the ship with cameras in tow. We took tons of silly pics and video’d the flowrider show. We tried the internet again but gave up.

 

Dinner was really yummy for a change. I didn’t actually get the lamb shank because they were serving scallop risotto. I’m not really a creamy rice kind of guy but they do it right on RC. I had 3 orders and skipped dessert. We had a long day so we retired to the cabin early. Room Service came by with a chocolate tray for us on the house. Robin woke up around midnight and blogged for a couple of hours then it was my turn to be awake. I tried quietly tidying up since the cabin crawl is in a few hours.

[KarinaGW]

Okay. So you've stopped the review here on the boards and the review in the review section ends in the middle of Malaga. Is there anywhere I can go to read the full review. We're doing this cruise next April. Tanx.

 

PS I like your Capt. Hammer t-shirt.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the detailed review.

 

Kirk

[stompy]

I have the rest on my other computer and will add another day tonight. The link in my sig will take you to the pics and videos in the meantime

[stompy]

04/09/2011

 

Past the Halfway Mark

 

After a weird night of wakefulness and dogged tiredness we got up with the wake up call at 6:15. I straightened up some more of my junk, showered and got ready for the morning. We vacated early to let Sonia clean the room. She found a soap dish and swapped out the cream saucer we had been using.

 

We went up to the WJ for breakfast. The guy who did my eggs didn’t have a clue how to cook eggs and they were pretty bad. Robin didn’t have much luck with him either. The Chops staff wasn’t in yet so I had to get my own coffee (the horror!). Apparently the side I went up was closed and the section manager chased me down-she was trying to be polite but just came across snarky. We ate alone and a waiter finally showed up. He was nice and chatted with us for a bit. We went up to the computer room since neither one of us could get the cabin internet to work. Apparently we had a bunch of minutes left (even though it said $1.50 credit remaining yesterday). We then went down to the library to read Goodnight Moon in Spanish-there’s no way to make “mush” appealing in any language. We grabbed another coffee in the CL and headed back to the cabin. Mario and the room service guy showed up at 9:45 with some cookies, a cheese tray, and some canapés. The Crawlers showed up shortly after 10 and seemed to really like our room. This year they split the crawl into two groups so everything wasn’t so crowded. The second group showed up a few minutes later and everyone seemed to really like the room. Some folks asked if we could rent out the bathroom for $5 a bath…

 

We watched Toy Story 3 on TV and ate some of the leftover cookies and grapes. We headed down to Guest Relations to hand in our departure slips so we could get to the airport in time when we finally dock in Barcelona. Robin perused the Promenade for a gift for Brittany for watching the cats while we’re gone. They were having a $20 sale but nothing caught her eye (especially since they were all marked $99.99). I had some pizza and played roulette a bit and then we came back to the cabin to put away my losing’s from the casino. We didn’t have a time change today and the weather was lovely so I blogged on the balcony for a bit. We had decided not to go to the CL for pre-dinner drinks so that gave us plenty of time to relax and get dressed at a leisurely pace, so leisurely in fact that we were ready 40 minutes before dinner. We popped into the lounge and had a quick R&C for me and a Sprite Zero for Robin. Our tablemates were holding their own with the downer couple we’d been stuck with a few days earlier. They looked like they were doing very well but at dinner they revealed they had had as bad a time as we did. Dinner was lobster tail and shrimp and Lyndon brought me two so I was very happy.

 

I won back some of my money at the casino later on and then we headed down to the ice rink to watch The Quest. This adult scavenger hunt is always well attended so we got there early with coffee in hand. The Presidential Suite gals were there, all decked out in their blingy attire. One lady had a beautiful red dress on that had a golden snake holding her dress together in the back. During the later portion of the game they ask for a guy with two bras and it can’t be from a bag. They lady in my row who was in a form fitting dress already started to take hers off but our team captain already found a pair. It’s crazy the things some folks will do for a keychain… We headed back upstairs and marked up the compass and set out our room service request for breakfast.

and it can’t be from a bag. They lady in my row who was in a form fitting dress already started to take hers off but our team captain already found a pair. It’s crazy the things some folks will do for a keychain… We headed back upstairs and marked up the compass and set out our room service request for breakfast.

 

[stompy]

04/10/2011

 

Still at Sea

 

I rolled over in bed and saw a blinky light on the phone which meant that I had slept the whole night for a change. Mario leaves his “beautiful people” message between 7 and 7:25-sure enough it was 7:24 when I looked at my watch. Room Service would not be far behind. In the past when we’d ordered room service it’d take 45 minutes or so and always be late. We discovered however that suite guests tend to get served at the exact time they request. Even though our breakfast had a range of 7:30-8AM, the phone rang at 7:30 to say it was on the way. I pulled on my trunks (they were dry and handy) and Robin dashed into the bathroom. The guy showed up about 2 seconds later as I was pulling up my trunks (no one wants to see the moon in the daytime) and I let him in. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then Mario called again to let us know the Bridge Tour would be tomorrow in Tenerife. I went out onto the balcony to blog and there were some low-hanging clouds that looked as if I could reach over the balcony and touch them. At sea, everything looks different. Even though these were run of the mill nimbus clouds you could see over and around them with sunlight above since the ocean is so vast and you can see for miles.

 

We got ready for the day and browsed the shops and got a nice little necklace for Brittany. We went to the Sodoku Challenge and some guy did it in 8 minutes – he won a hat. Robin finished and got them all right. I did about two rows and threw in the towel. Robin played slots for a bit before lunch then it was off to Michelangelo for our Welcome Back lunch. We had potato soup in a teeny tiny little cup and some beef tenderloin. A couple of officers sat with us because we were all by ourselves. This was their first transatlantic cruise and they were looking forward to spending a couple of hours ashore after so many sea days. I went to the casino after lunch since the tables hadn’t been open earlier in the day. I won $35 and quit while I was ahead. I am only down $52 now and hope to bring that total up by day 14.

 

We opted out of the olive oil lecture and the guest talent show but did go up to the deck to see dodge ball. Folks were getting out pretty quickly so the games only lasted 2 or 3 minutes. Robin had left her RC Hoodie up on deck 14 so we went back (on deck 13) and had a guy toss it over the rail. He was worried it would blow away since it was pretty windy. Turns out he was right-it went blowing away and even though I was only a foot away from him I couldn’t catch the shirt. Robin however is much better at such things and caught her shirt. We went down to the Arts & Crafts and made paper mini wallets and completely useless flower thingies that were a prelude to Tuesday’s class. We decided to skip the ice show, trivia, Mamma Mia (outside), and fact or crap and opted for relaxing for an hour till booze-thirty. Mario needs waivers for us to tour the galley so we filled those out and brought them to the CL.

 

Dinner was lovely although all four of us were plowed from drinks in the CL. I had veal oso buco which fell off the bone. Tomorrow we’re doing a bridge tour at 6 so we won’t be at dinner. Robin decided to skip the magician but I really wanted to go see him so I went. His tagline was the “wit & wizardry” but he wasn’t very funny nor were his tricks very good. He did some card tricks and linking rings and cut & restored newspaper. I was pretty bored and decided not to stay for Love & Marriage. Robin was up when I returned so we watched Castle.

 

Dodgeball...