Escaping Insanity: A Cruising Trip Report from the NCL Escape June 17-24 2017

[cemushr]

Inside a studio...they're small, but, for many, it is a no-brainer decision to book one of these since it beats having to pay a 100% supplemental fee for a stateroom to cruise by yourself!

 

 

These staterooms are DEFINITELY cool for a single cruiser. The Studio Lounge was definitely neat, and that, coupled with the rest of the ship surrounding you, will definitely keep you from being bored (unless you’re trying to be bored).

Stateroom de la Mush was up next, and I went ahead to open things up while the rest of them made their way aft and up to Deck 12. Joseph was around, so we talked for a quick moment while waiting for the group. When they arrived, most initially just popped their heads in, thinking it was a standard balcony. When I opened up the door to the balcony, they saw the angle and all went out to check it out. Sunshine155 and her husband were curious about the price of the stateroom as they were comparing it to their mini-suite (their cabin seemed a bit bigger, but our balcony had a lot more room). Speaking of which…

…we went to the mini-suite next, and they had their room decorated really nicely, with chocolates for visitors. I made a mental note to do more for the stateroom for the next cabin crawl!

[cemushr]

Sorry for the delay - internet was down for quite a bit of the day today.

After that, we all made our way up to Deck 15 aft for a penthouse suite.

 

Oh….

My…..

I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

Some of the veteran Cruise Critic folks surprised one of the ones doing the cabin crawl who was celebrating a birthday with a delivered cake, decorations, etc. (you can see some in the pictures). For the life of me, I cannot remember whose birthday it was, though – I forgot to write it in my journal...sorry! Needless to say, they pulled off a good surprise!

The slot pull and the cabin crawl took about an hour, and the rest of the Mushfam was probably getting a little antsy. I said my goodbyes to all (declining multiple offers to take a piece of cake for the road) and thanked them for helping put on all the events!

I’m VERY glad that we signed up for the various events that was set up on the Roll Call. I think we had a good mix of people that seemed to get along well, and, as I mentioned earlier, we found ourselves in the same place as those we met on a number of occasions. Thanks to all who volunteered to put everything together!

[cemushr]

Back to the task at hand…linking back up with the rest of the Mushfam. The boys were apparently dying of hunger (on a cruise ship with free food 24/7). I was in the mood for a drink, so, after wandering around Deck 17 and hearing a few minutes of the Mr. Sexy Legs Contest going on poolside on Deck 16, we met up and decided to head to Margaritaville for snacks and a drink. As we walked up, one of the performers had started singing the theme song for the restaurant. As he got to the refrain (“Wasted away again in Margaritaville”), I cleared my throat to do my duty as a true Parrothead after the next line.

“Searching for myyyyyyyyy…..lost shaker of saallltt”

That’s my cue.

 

“SALT! SALT! SALT!”

 

I think I was the only one in the entire restaurant that did that.

At least the performer acknowledged my efforts with a nod and a smile. “He knows it!”, he said.

By the third refrain, we had about 6 tables shouting it out. I’ll take that as a victory.

I ordered a bottle of Landshark Lager, and Sheri got something...a zombie, perhaps? (regular & spiced rum, apricot brandy, orange & pineapple juice, and sour mix):

 

Even looking at the picture, I couldn’t remember what it was she ordered. It was good, though!

We also ordered the most-popular appetizer on the menu: the volcano nachos.

Landshark photobomb #finstotheleft #finstotheright

Messy…but good!

The food was good and the beer was cold, but that wasn’t the best part of the experience. The guy playing the guitar and singing was REALLY good.

He was doing mostly music that you would normally hear on RadioMargaritaville (Van Morrison, Bob Marley, etc.). He did an awesome calypso rendition of Hotel California by the Eagles, too! Orly Penate is his name, and I struck up a conversation with him between sets. He mentioned that he’d be doing a different set of music at Tobacco Road that evening, and I told him I’d try to make it for a little bit.

For those who may have missed it, that is called foreshadowing.

The boys asked about the arcade, and we set them free with the warning that we knew exactly how much they spent in there. After they left, we talked with a family from Michigan at a nearby table for a few minutes. Despite their rhetoric about staying in there for the rest of the cruise, the boys did return from the acrade after about 15 minutes, and we bid Margaritaville adieu, giving Orly, who had started a new set, a friendly nod as we left.

It was definitely too windy for the Ropes course, and we didn’t have our swim gear on – our plan was to let people get the water slides out of their system on the first sea day so we could have smaller crowds on the second sea day. We looked at the lines of the slides, but they didn’t look too bad at all. Still, we stayed on course and squelched the idea of changing into swimming suits/trunks. After a little bit of searching around, we figured out which deck we wanted...we headed down to try a cruise ship favorite...

Yes, folks, it’s that age-old game found on every promenade deck of every ship…it’s Shuffleboard! Now, if we’re going to play it, we’re playing by the rules! We studied the posted rules for a couple of minutes while another family finished up their game.

It was around 4:00, and the next shot at trivia was at 4:30. We headed to the atrium and grabbed a seat. This round’s theme was “Where in the World is Norwegian?”. This could go really well or, if I mixed up the ports from other cruise lines, it could go really badly for me.

I prefer not to say how we did.

[cemushr]

This is going to be another one of those posts with a lot of pictures in them. Instead of breaking up the post into several "sub-posts", I'm going to refer you to the blog entry with all the pictures. Here is the link for that.

Once the trivia was done, we all made our way back to our stateroom to prepare for our first specialty restaurant – Moderno Churrascaria. The boys were REALLY looking forward to experiencing meat sweats. We had 5:30 reservations…right when it opened. We got there around 5:28 and only had one party ahead of us, though it was a large party. It sounded like there was an issue with trying to seat them, but it took about 5-7 minutes to take care of them. No worries at all, though! We ended up being seated in a perfect location…far aft to see the wake and next to the windows looking down into the Manhattan Room. It was the unofficial formal night (“Dress Up…or Not!”), and there were a few parties dressed to the nines in the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is on Deck 8 aft, situated next to Cagney’s Steakhouse. The Prime Meridian bar lies in between the two restaurants. If seated near the aft-facing windows, the light from the outside definitely brightens the interior. With the sun down, though, I think the restaurant would be warm and very inviting for a meal.

 

The awesome servers took our drink orders, and we were released to head to the large salad bar. I warned the boys that they did NOT want to fill up here and to save room for the meat.

I would have had better luck speaking Portuguese to the fern in the corner and having it understand me.

They came back from the salad bar with loaded plates. I told them that I didn’t want to hear anything about them hurting after this meal. Meanwhile, I sat down and started working on my loaded plate…

The sides came out next…mushrooms, mashed potatoes, rice, fried yucca, and the ever-popular cheese bread. I took a bite of the bread and was immediately transported to Epcot from the previous fall when I sampled cheese bread at the International Food and Wine Festival. I’d say that both Moderno and Disney nailed it…this version was just as good as the Epcot version, and I attempted some modicum of self-control to not go all cookie-monster on the bread and eating them all in a frenzy. Our server then asked if we were okay with the meat being served at a medium-rare to medium temperature, and we all said yes. This is important here, because wifey often orders her steaks at “shoe leather” temperature, and I was wondering if she going to be able to handle a little rarer temp. FYI: they will have servers (gauchos) with more well-done meats walking around if you prefer meat a little more cooked.

 

 

I noticed something at both the previous meal at the Manhattan Room and here at Moderno: with no internet service, the boys were talking to us! Yes, they had apps on their phones that did not require internet service; however, our evil plan of this being a FAMILY vacation was working (muahahahahaha).

We only had to wait a couple more minutes before the meat started coming. The way that Moderno works is by using a cardboard “button” with red and green on it. If the green side is facing up, then it signals the servers with the meat skewers to come on over and offer some to you. Red mean “no mas”. Oh…the meat skewers…it’s exactly as you would expect! The meats were sliced off at the table, and each person had a small set of tongs to grab the meat as it was being sliced. With only around 4-5 tables in our area seated, the meat came out at a rapid pace. We all grabbed a little of everything they had to offer: 5 types of beef, at least two pork offerings, two types of lamb, and a couple chicken servings. We had so much on our plate that we forgot which was which after a while. I remember being surprised at how much I liked the picanha (top sirloin). As a lover of lamb, I was loving those offerings, too! The boys’ eyes were rolling back into their heads with each bite.

 

Then…came…the grilled…pineapple.

After the first bite, I could have died happy right then and there.

We recently bought a new grill just a couple of weeks before the cruise (pellet grill…Anniversary/Father’s Day gift from Sheri), and I was in full-on planning mode to see if I could replicate the pineapple…the beef…the pork…heck…I wanted to replicate ALL of it!!!

 

I think I was the first to flip my card over to red. One of the gauchos walked by as I turned it over, and he smiled and said, “I win!”. Not being competitive at all, I jokingly turned it back over to green. Soon after, though we all flipped our cards over to red. That’s when we noticed the pictures on the cards, and we started having a bit of fun with them. Of course, as we were doing that, the restaurant manager stopped by our table (probably wondering just what was wrong with this family) and asked how everything went. We all raved about how we all loved it…especially the pineapple. Of course, he immediately tracked down the pineapple gaucho and asked him to visit our table one more time.

They win.

 

But Wait…There’s MORE!!!

 

Our server then handed us the dessert menu.

 

Not sure if I would be able to fit through the aisles and door to get out, I looked at the window that overlooked the Manhattan Room (complete with couples dancing to the band that recently started playing) and contemplated just jumping through the window to make it out instead of being rolled out by the gauchos with their skewers. If I jumped at the right angle, I thought I might have been able to land on the piano, which might have slowed my fall enough to survive.

We all agreed to get one of each kind; however, that plan was foiled when Aaron ended up ordering the same thing as Sheri. Our server, not missing a beat, brought out the last dessert for us to try, too.

 

 

The coconut flan that I ordered was good, but nothing to write home about. Tasting what the others had, I would also give a similar review for those. The extra dessert that we got, however, was simply amazing! I honestly wish I could remember the name of it, but I can’t, and I didn’t get a picture of the dessert menu, either. The flavor of the fruit was great, and the texture, while hard to describe, was very refreshing!

The entire meal took about an hour and a half, which is what we were expecting. While food is always subjective, I would have no reservations at all in recommending this restaurant to clients – even without a specialty dining plan. I definitely think that there is value here. Excellent food, service, and atmosphere combine to make this a great place to eat.

All of us were hurting tremendously, but we found the energy to get out of the chairs and eventually leave the restaurant. I dropped a hint that we should head to the spa to check it out so Sheri could see what it was like. Besides, we needed to walk off some of the food. We worked our way to Deck 16 forward and walked through the fitness center. I could see Aaron sizing up some of the lifting machines they had there (he had been lifting for football over the summer and knew how to safely use the machines); however, being only 14, he technically was not supposed to use the center (the policy states that guests had to be 16+). Luckily, he didn’t ask us to go to the center to work out during the cruise.

The spa entrance was just past the fitness center. We asked if we could look around the thermal suite for a brief minute. The boys weren’t allowed in, so they grabbed a seat and pulled out their phones (which I couldn’t argue with at all). We tried to keep the pictures to a minimum to avoid disturbing anyone, and we made sure we didn’t get any pictures of anyone in there.

After our quick tour, I could tell Sheri was interested, but I also got the vibe that she wasn’t going to take the plunge and spend some of our Nassau day in there.

We collected our belongings (they didn’t whine too much) and made our way back out. The boys wanted to explore the arcade a little more. It was good timing, because we didn’t want the boys around at that moment (just kidding…mostly). We threatened them with their lives if they overdid it with the money, and they left, talking about dropping a couple thousand at the casino.

We then headed up to O’Sheehan’s bar to see if we could grab a seat for the upcoming “Newlywed Not-So-Newlywed Game”, which was set to start in about 30 minutes. We only had to wait about ten minutes before a couple of chairs overlooking the atrium opened up. We enjoyed listening to Groove Addiction doing their “Romance and Love” set. As they broke down their set and prepared for the show, the boys returned. The Newlywed Game show was listed as PG-13, but they were mature (immature?) enough to handle it (to my delight/horror, they’re starting to nail “that’s what she said” jokes), so they stood behind us to see if they were going to like it. They egged us on to try being on the show, and, having researched it a little, I knew that there was no way in Hell that we’d try with the boys watching. The therapy bills alone would bankrupt us.

 

Tyler started the show by finding the couple married the longest and the finding the couple married the shortest. Then he called anyone else who wanted to be in the game onstage for a contest to pick the third couple. All I can say is, “watch the video!”. We saw our neighbors try to make it, but they ultimately weren’t selected; they were having fun, though!

The women went off first, and the guys answered the questions as best they could. The hilarity hit a new level when the girls came back to answer the questions. Again, I refer you to the video. If you don’t want anything spoiled (my assumption is that they use similar questions for all the cruises), then I’d skip that part; otherwise, go ahead and watch a couple of minutes from the game show that will help explain why nearly everyone in the audience had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

I have to tip my hat to the couples on there. They put it all out there, (hopefully) knowing that they were going to have to deal with the results of the show for the rest of the cruise. While all three couples were awesome, the newlywed couple, hands-down, provided the most laughs.

After the show, Sheri was tired and decided to head up to the room. It was around 11:15, but the Mushmen weren’t quite ready to turn in, yet. I decided to head us up to Tobacco Road to catch a little bit of Orly’s set. As we walked up and grabbed a seat, Orly, in the middle of a song, smiled and said he was glad to see us again. The boys got another caffeinated beverage, while I grabbed a Jamison on the rocks to sip while listening. While listening, Aaron divulged that he wanted to take his guitar playing to the next level. Though I know a few chords and played just a bit while in college, Aaron is pretty much self-taught. He can read tabs really well. He wants to know more about it, though – especially after watching Orly’s playing on some latin music (which, by the way, was absolutely amazing!). After about 20 minutes, the boys were starting to falter, and they headed back to the room. I decided to watch the end of his last set, and, after he finished, I gave him a big thumbs-up mouthed an “awesome job…thanks!” to him as I left. He came over and said that he was going to be in the District the next evening, and I said that we’d definitely be there if we could shed the kids away from us for a while.

Sheri was not quite asleep, but close, and the boys had finished getting ready for bed – that’s what I was hoping for by lagging back for about 10 minutes. This was an EXCELLENT first sea day for us, and I think we were all looking forward to the next day, which, as luck would have it, was another sea day.

[johnrich]

Sorry for the delay - internet was down for quite a bit of the day today.

 

 

 

After that, we all made our way up to Deck 15 aft for a penthouse suite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh….

 

 

 

 

 

My…..

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the veteran Cruise Critic folks surprised one of the ones doing the cabin crawl who was celebrating a birthday with a delivered cake, decorations, etc. (you can see some in the pictures). For the life of me, I cannot remember whose birthday it was, though – I forgot to write it in my journal...sorry! Needless to say, they pulled off a good surprise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slot pull and the cabin crawl took about an hour, and the rest of the Mushfam was probably getting a little antsy. I said my goodbyes to all (declining multiple offers to take a piece of cake for the road) and thanked them for helping put on all the events!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m VERY glad that we signed up for the various events that was set up on the Roll Call. I think we had a good mix of people that seemed to get along well, and, as I mentioned earlier, we found ourselves in the same place as those we met on a number of occasions. Thanks to all who volunteered to put everything together!

 

 

 

Great review!! Love your humor! Quick question as I am organizing the slot pull and Cabin Crawl for our upcoming cruise and it’s my first time organizing them. Did they take a total of an hour or an hour each? Thanks!

 

 

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[cemushr]

Great review!! Love your humor! Quick question as I am organizing the slot pull and Cabin Crawl for our upcoming cruise and it’s my first time organizing them. Did they take a total of an hour or an hour each? Thanks!

 

 

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Thanks, John! I'd say that the slot pull was around 15 minutes, with the cabin crawl taking around 35-45 minutes...though there are a number of variables, too, like how many are taking part in the slot pull and/or how many different cabins there are to see (not to mention the size of the ship and how far apart the staterooms are).

[johnrich]

Thanks, John! I'd say that the slot pull was around 15 minutes, with the cabin crawl taking around 35-45 minutes...though there are a number of variables, too, like how many are taking part in the slot pull and/or how many different cabins there are to see (not to mention the size of the ship and how far apart the staterooms are).

 

 

 

Thanks for the quick reply. We’re on the Escape as well.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[cemushr]

I just added all of the Dailies along with the Entourage/Splash schedules over on this link.

[kirkleyv]

Sorry for the delay - internet was down for quite a bit of the day today.

 

 

 

After that, we all made our way up to Deck 15 aft for a penthouse suite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh….

 

 

 

 

 

My…..

 

 

 

 

 

I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the veteran Cruise Critic folks surprised one of the ones doing the cabin crawl who was celebrating a birthday with a delivered cake, decorations, etc. (you can see some in the pictures). For the life of me, I cannot remember whose birthday it was, though – I forgot to write it in my journal...sorry! Needless to say, they pulled off a good surprise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The slot pull and the cabin crawl took about an hour, and the rest of the Mushfam was probably getting a little antsy. I said my goodbyes to all (declining multiple offers to take a piece of cake for the road) and thanked them for helping put on all the events!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m VERY glad that we signed up for the various events that was set up on the Roll Call. I think we had a good mix of people that seemed to get along well, and, as I mentioned earlier, we found ourselves in the same place as those we met on a number of occasions. Thanks to all who volunteered to put everything together!

 

 

 

It was Sunshine's husband's (Mike)'s 50th birthday!

 

 

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[cemushr]

It was Sunshine's husband's (Mike)'s 50th birthday!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Ahhh...that was it...thanks!

[cemushr]

Day 3 - Another Sea Day!

 

 

Freestyle Daily for Day 3

We all slept in until after 7 this morning…hey…that’s progress!

We had nowhere to really be this morning, so we took our time getting ready. We all took in the next installment of the Tyler and Jacky show before heading up to the Garden Café to see how its breakfast was. For a large buffet, it wasn’t too bad. There was definitely a wide variety of dishes to try. I opted for an omelet, and I noticed that the name tag of the crew member working the omelet station made mention of Teppanyaki, so I made a mental note of his face in case we had him as our chef later on in the cruise. There was a guest or two that was making his job a bit tougher than it needed to be, however; a guy first tried cutting in line to get his order, and, then when he put his order in, he vanished for a while…his order was ready for a good 4-5 minutes before he strolled up to get it. I would have paid money to see the Teppan chef, in the flash of a spatula blade, expertly toss the omelet in the garbage can, exclaiming, “Japanese cold breakfast!” as the guy watched.

We enjoyed the breakfast, but we could definitely feel the motion. The weather channel on the television warned of 11- to 14-foot swells with high winds from the ship’s 10 o’clock position. For the sake of Aaron and Sheri, who were not quite green but definitely not 100%, we decided to stay lower and opted for trivia in the atrium. As luck would have it, there was trivia as 9:30. We arrived a little after 9 am, and the “Guppies: Big and Little” program for toddlers was still going on

 

At 9:30, JoJo (another member of the Director’s staff) led trivia, and the Mushfam finished in a 4-way tie for first place with 16 of the 20 correct. All the team members won koozies.

The ropes course was set to open at 10:00, but, based on the winds, I was reasonably confident that it wouldn’t be open. I took the forward elevators up to Deck 17, hopped outside, and took stairs up to Deck 19. It was 10:05, and there was nobody on the Ropes Course; it was either that or everyone was holding on for dear life over the wake behind the ship. I headed back down to the atrium to deliver the news, and we all agreed to hang out there for a while. One of Aaron’s hobbies is origami, and there was an origami class at 10:15. It was a no-brainer to stay. JoJo again was our host, and he had us making basic tulips. The first three steps were easy; however, everyone was lost on step 4, and Aaron ended up helping about 10 people around him with the step. Then came step 5, and every looked to Aaron for guidance. While waiting for steps, he also made a crane and dropped it off next to JoJo, who exclaimed that it wasn’t one of those rocking ones. Aaron smiled and asked if he wanted one of those made, too.

In the end, we (kind of) had a set of tulips. We had an older couple next to us that we were talking to, and the gentleman took a piece of paper and turned it into a paper airplane. Of course, he launched it towards JoJo. It took a lot of effort on Aaron’s part to not make a better one and show him up. I think my glares helped him with his decision.

JoJo gave Aaron’s crane to one of the kids nearby, and she immediately fell in love with it. I joked with Aaron that he might finally have his first girlfriend, but that he might have wait about 8-9 years before her parents would allow her to date. She flew that crane around everywhere…landing on chairs…taking a drink from the paper tulips…I even saw her fly it into the elevator as they left the atrium.

The food carving demonstration was up at 11. What the heck…we were there…we decided to watch that too! The atrium started out fairly quiet but filled up quickly during the demonstration. Eric had to head out for a couple of minutes, and, having been standing since before the origami class, I grabbed his chair as others were also heading for it. One of them I recognized from the Cruise Critic meetup – it was danddgrandma! Had I known that Eric was going to be more than 3-4 minutes (which he ended up being), I would have offered the chair to her. When he got back, I stepped back and talked to her for a couple of minutes to see how the cruise was going for her and her family.

This guy was good! It was fun trying to predict what the food would ultimately end up being. It was so popular that everyone got up to take pictures/videos of the final products. You can see in the video that he was trying to start clean-up but always had another request for a picture of his art. As we have seen with most every other member of the crew, he was extremely professional and smiled as people continued taking pictures, even though he probably had to be somewhere else at that time.

[cemushr]

“How to Run a Floating Hotel” was next up at noon in the atrium, and I was interested in seeing this one; however, we had already been there for three hours, and we needed a change of scenery. We decide to grab lunch at Taste.

For appetizers, I actually skipped it (bikini body, remember?). Sheri got the pineapple/grapefruit, Aaron got the potato skins, and Eric got popcorn shrimp. I did order a Rebellious Fish to drink, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the entrée, I wanted to test out their burger. It was decent…not the best I’ve had, but nowhere near the worst I’ve had. I honestly cannot remember what the others had. No pics, either…Sorry!

Dessert: The boys, as expected, opted for the peanut butter cup cheesecake. I went for the Key Lime parfait, and Sheri ordered the Crème Caramel. All were good!

[tawaik]

Enjoying your review.

[kirkleyv]

Loving your review!!!

 

 

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[Suna]

You are making me hungry!

 

 

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[vegas7df]

Great review love your sense of humor. We'll be on this ship next March, you've highlighted many areas. You have a lovely family.

 

Donna

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

Was there lobster available in any of the venues aboard?

[LeesaB]

Loving your review as well!

[cemushr]

After lunch, we decided to head up to the Sports area to see how busy the mini golf was…with the ropes course closed, it was jammed! At the same time, we all glanced at the water slides and noticed that the lines weren’t too bad. It was unanimous – we were heading back to our room and putting on our swimming attire.

Up first was the Aqua Racer – an enclosed slide that you ride tubes in. We started up the stairs and grabbed tubes. As we ascended the flights of stairs, I realized two things:

• It was REALLY windy…holy cow…it nearly took your breath away; and
  
• The Ms. Norwegian Escape contest was going on, and, as we got higher and higher up, I could actually see some of the contest…holy cow…it nearly took your breath away.
  

(something tells me I’m going to pay for that last one when Sheri reads it)

The boys went first, and they chose to go separately (no surprise there). They will allow two tubes to ride down together, so Sheri and I opted for that. I got my GoPro started (there are already a million videos of the Aqua Racer online, but it’s something you just HAVE to do) and sat down on my tube to wait for Sheri to get situated.

Sheri started down first; however, as she pushed off, she rotated around so that she was heading down backwards. All I’m going to say about this is that you will want to see the outtakes video of this ride down so you can hear the audio of her predicament. I nearly had tears running down my face from her reactions/comments! One word of note, though – if you do find yourself going backwards, do everything you can to grab the wall at the bottom to spin back around, because there’s always the chance that the water at the end could flip you; if that happens, you could be going head-first into the side/end of the slide, which could be a lot of trouble.

Along with an attendant, there was a photographer grabbing pictures. I really liked the individual black-and-white pictures of the boys.

Up next were the free-fall slides! Sheri wanted no part in these, so she found a chair (yep, mid-afternoon, there were chairs to be had!) and started reading while the boys and I started back up the stairs. I was going to go first so I could see who won between the boys. As we got the top, the attendant noticed that I still had my wedding band on, and she said that it had to be removed to ride it.

I didn’t feel like heading down, giving Sheri the ring, and then heading back up, so I told the boys I’d meet them at the bottom. Now, in the attendant’s defense, there are posted signs stating that no jewelry was to be worn on the slides – I was thinking that they were talking about necklaces/bracelets/etc. She was following the posted policy, and I wasn’t going to argue at all with that, even though I know that there was no way that ring was coming off my finger LOL.

I headed back down to meet the boys. As I was working my way down the stairs, I heard the horn going off, which indicated that someone didn’t make it up the incline a little over half-way through the slide. My assumption was that it was Aaron who didn’t make it. When I got to Sheri, Aaron came walking up, which meant that it was Eric who got stuck. I headed back up the stairs to where the “Escape hatch” was (no pun intended…well…maybe it was a little bit intended…insert rim shot here), and Eric didn’t quite know what happened. When we made it back to Sheri, someone overheard Eric getting stuck and recommended going without the rash guard shirt that he was wearing. Aaron was up for riding it again, and Eric didn’t seem traumatized at the previous attempt, so I grabbed the GoPro, and we all headed back up. I talked to the attendant to see if I could hop in to film them, and she nodded, saying that it was a common request.

It was a quick ride, as the video shows. Aaron swore that he won, but the photo-finish shows a tie, in my opinion. At least Eric made it all the way down!

With the water rides done, we decided to take in a little of the lido deck atmosphere...plus, there was a clothing sale going on between the pools. Sheri and the boys looked at what they had to offer while I turned the GoPro on to capture some footage. “A Minor Trio” was performing poolside, and they provided some good background music for the sun worshippers.

About 6-7 minutes later, the other three had checked out, and we then had a quick pow-wow to decide our next move. Margaritaville was just a few steps (and a deck) away. The Unlimited Beverages Package was burning a proverbial hole through our proverbial pockets, so we went up and grabbed a couple of drinks from the bar. While there, we had fun talking to a couple also at the bar who were interested in the GoPro I was using to take pictures.

After we finished our drinks, the losers from the previous day’s shuffleboard event wanted to exact revenge on the winners, so we headed down to the shuffleboard areas. Both of them were being used, however, so we decided to head back to the stateroom for a bit to relax before supper. When we opened the door, we noticed another delivery for us:

I called the box office to cancel our reservations for After Midnight that night and then decided to grab some footage from the balcony; as I headed out to record, I saw something I had not expected: there was a bird flying alongside the ship! The closest land, if I had to guess, would have been the Dominican Republic, but I bet we were still a good 60-80 miles north of there. I opened the sliding door to tell the rest of the crew, and, when they came out, the bird had flown away. As expected, they didn’t believe me and made comments about senility making an early appearance in my life.

[cemushr]

Was there lobster available in any of the venues aboard?

 

I wish I could help you here, but I honestly wasn't looking for it, and I only grabbed menu photos of 1-2 places. Sorry!

[Jac199]

Thoroughly enjoying your review; great job! Now back to work while I wait for the next installment. :)

[POA1]

Great review, Chris! May I ask why you canceled "After Midnight"?

[cemushr]

Great review, Chris! May I ask why you canceled "After Midnight"?

 

After seeing the Welcome Show, where we saw a clip from the show, I had a feeling that the boys wouldn't appreciate the talent that you see on stage. As you'll read here in a few minutes when I get my next blog entry posted over here, we ended up with a couple of other plans, too. The boys wanted to try out something at the kids' areas, and we wanted to listen to Orly Penate in the District as well as Howl at the Moon that night. We have heard that Howl gets more crowded later in the cruise, so we opted to check it out that night.

[cemushr]

I'm going to split this one up into a number of posts to get as many pictures of the food in here as possible. To see the entire blog post without all the breaks, you can read it here.

 

 

 

On the agenda for dinner tonight was Food Republic. Aaron, who is a big sushi fan, was REALLY looking forward to this one. We started to make our way down around 5:15, and, at 5:30, when it opened for service, we were the second ones to be seated.

Food Republic is another one of those hidden gems onboard. Once word gets out, the place tends to get busy; however, if you go there on the first 2-3 days of the cruise, it tends to be quiet. The menu is crafted by the geniuses from the Pubbelly Restaurant group, including chefs Jose Mendin (a 5-time semifinalist of the James Beard award), Sergio Navarro, and Andreas Schreiner, who are very well-known in the Miami area. It is an Asian fusion restaurant with a little bit New England sprinkled in. Guests order from iPads located at each table, and, as a plate is made, it comes out to the table; there is no order of entrees, per se.

The first order of business was the drink selection. Sheri decided on a “Revolutionary Cure” (Mandarine Napoleon…orange liquor, apple juice, cinnamon syrup, ginger beer, and fresh lemon), while I ordered a Toro Toro (silver tequila, chipotle pineapple syrup, and lime juice…it was interesting!).

 

We let the boys have a little more free reign on what to order, and it was ALL amazing!

Tiger Roll

Chorizo Dates

Short Rib & Corn

[cemushr]

Philly Roll

Pork Belly & Scallions

 

Chicken Teriyaki w/ Ginger Miso

Dragon Roll (we think)

It was a la carte and not part of the specialty dining package that we had, but we would all agree that it was worth the price!!!! You pay as you order at Food Republic, so we didn’t have to wait for the final check. We were out of there around 6:30…less than an hour for our meal!