Of course it's a great idea, and Steven has such compromised immune system that I had sanitizing wipes in every pocket in every pair of capris and pants and shorts that I had with me. The Norwalk Virus is such a fear to the ships that they actually ask you to not shake hands when meeting people, but to fist bump instead.
But the buffet....it was like every buffet you've ever been to, except better. Certain nights were theme nights with food to go along, which I will get into more detail as those nights arrive. My only complaint was the coffee. Considering we were in coffee capitals of the world; Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Jamaica, you'd think the coffee would be primo, but it was Nescafé, I'm sure. (Nescafé as in instant). I'm kind of a coffee snob, and I'd bet $$$ that it was Nescafé. Made me sad. However there was a Patisserie that served espresso and cappuccino, as well as the "sit-down" restaurant, but not for free.
When I was in Africa and Peru, also coffee capitals, they also served Nescafé. Very odd.
But to continue, the buffet had rows and rows of breads and rolls and cheeses and coldcuts, dozens of salads and starters, plenty of fresh fruit, tons of veggie, and potatoes of all sorts, a huge selection of main dishes, pastas, meats, soups, more than you can imagine. And desserts? Oh my god, no wonder I'm dieting this first week at home. Can't do my pants up. Pies and cakes and cookies and delectable things that I don't know what they were. I ate them all.
Breakfasts were all manner of eggs, from eggs Benny (yes please), omelette, fried, scrambled and hard boiled. Bacon, sausage, ham. Pancakes, waffles, bagels, muffins, pastries galore, cereal, yogurts, granolas, smoothies....and more. Lots of foreign fare as well...blood sausage, and yes...spotted dick.
Orange juice was free at breakfast, but not during the rest of the day. Coffee, tea, iced tea and lemonade were free all the time, as of course was all the food you could eat. Liquor was not free, but was reasonably priced, as were soft drinks.
The buffet was a huge horseshoe shape at the front of the ship (the bow, I guess?) so you could sit at the very front and eat your way into new places.
Lots of seafood all the time. We ate our fill of that.
Reasonably healthy desserts
The desserts that I ate! It's no secret that I have a terrible sweet tooth.
We were originally told that the rooms would be ready by 4, but an announcement came somewhere around 1-ish that we could proceed to our little home for the next 10 days.
The ship had 15 stories, and we were on 12, the Aloha deck. The elevator announced each floor by name, as elevators do, it's not that I was surprised by that, but it felt so personal because all the other floors were announced in a bland manner: "Dolphin" and "Emerald" etc, but when we came to ours it was a hearty "Aloha!" It struck me as humorous every time and I'd answer back with an "aloha to you too!". I'm sure it got old to everyone else on the elevator very quickly, but I'm nothing if not polite. Plus, I don't really worry about what people think of me.
So we headed down the long, long, long, hallway to our room. It was LONG! We started at the 300 series of rooms and ours was 717 at the very other end. The halls were narrow and there were odd little jogs so you'd see a dead end and get excited, thinking it was actually the end, but the hall would jog to the left or right and another loooong hall would appear. it was like those deceiving lines in Disneyland. I was exhausted when we arrived, partly because we were hauling our little carry-ons and they didn't roll so well on the carpet. Gave my arms a good work-out for ease of lifting all that food to my mouth later on though, so there's that! When we got there, I realized we were across from the Kids Resort, the babysitting area and beside that was the Teen Room, and I was a little concerned when I saw that (for noise and screaming kids) but we never did hear a sound, they must have used super-potent soundproofing.
And speaking of the babysitting services, I always wondered how reliable they were, but holy cow, it was impressive. The doors were locked, with a keypad, and as you dropped off your kid you were given a code so that you could leap through the door at any moment to check on your kid. The door had a eyehole (what are those things called? My mind has gone blank) so that if you just knocked, the door wouldn't open until you had proof (passport) of who you were. Very secure. Inside the kids had tons of crafts, games, movies, snacks, their own little nap area, it was amazing. There was a list outside of how many kids, and their ages and whether they were boys or girls, who were inside at any given time. The most I saw listed was 10. There were virtually no kids on the boat, which was glorious. I saw 5 in person. It was like spotting elusive jungle animals....you'd be surprised, and point and exclaim "Look! A kid!" It was $5 per kid, per hour. Maybe there were more in the teen area, but I don't think I saw a single teen. Must have been the time of year, too early to take time off school or something. All I know is, being able to sit on a deck chair by a pool with no screaming and crying was spectacular. The adults were well behaved too, I never saw any drunks or fools.
Kids area.
We found our room and unlocked the door...TA-daaah! I had a fear that the keycard wouldn't work and we have to trudge all the back to the front desk, which at this point I had no idea where it was, and start all over. I'm bot kidding, those hallways were a trek. But it opened without an issue.
They keycard, by the way, is your life on these cruises. The ships these days are cashless, and anything you want to buy goes on the card....anything from a $1 pack of gum to a $6,900 piece of art (which we saw someone buy), it's used to get on and off the boat at the different ports, as well as in the casino and for drinks in the bars and restaurants. It's literally cashless. You can check your account at various kiosks, and on the last night a detailed copy is delivered to your room. It all goes on your real credit card to be paid whenever you get your bill. It actually was a very simple procedure. But you guarded your key card with your life.
Our little room was awesome. Queen size bed, little desk and chair, another table and fridge and a TV on the wall. A perfect balcony with chairs and a table and a beautiful view.
A night stand on each side of the bed, and a large closet with loads of storage space on the other side of that picture. A small wall of shelves was there too, and of course the bathroom which was
surprisingly spacious with shelves as well.
We unpacked and organized ourselves and sat on the balcony and watched people arrive, boats come and go, we could see the ship being loaded with tons and tons and tons of supplies, and then we had to have the dreaded Muster Drill. It's maritime law, so I get that it had to be done, but the others I've done have been a crowded, hot, sweaty disaster, but this was very civilized. There were staff at every hallway and stairway (can't take elevators during a muster drill!). Besides, I genuinely want to know where to go if worst should come to worst.
So after that the ship set sail and we decided to go for dinner in the Bordeaux restaurant, which was the fancier sit-down one for our "anytime" dining. We didn't want the other option, which was same table/same time/same servers every night. Some people like having a set schedule, but not us. I think it would be good if you were meeting people for dinner every night, but we were never sure where or what we would be doing at any given time.
It was a pretty formal place, and sometimes you just want to be served and enjoy a bit of luxury. Each meal had 5 or 6 starters/appetizers to choose from (you could have as many as you wanted) and the same amount of main courses and desserts, so there was plenty to choose from and always at least one vegetarian option. This night I had a fruit trio in a port reduction, it was supposed to be a tiny bit of port, but I think the chef's elbow slipped because mine was swimming in it and it was yummy! Steven had shrimp sautéed in garlic. For our main, I had roast pork with potatoes lyonnaise and white beans and Steven had prime rib. Dessert for me was a mousse with vanilla saboyan, and he had creme brûlée. It was all delicious.
We had to wait a couple of hours until we were in international waters for the casino to open up, so we went back to our room to find that our steward had left all sorts of papers (explaining ship policies and what was going on and so forth), and a beach bag as well and two large beach towels, plus they do a turn-down service with your pillows fluffed and chocolates set on them, as well as fresh towels and soaps. I was mortified because we hadn't really finished unpacking and my underwear and bras were scattered all over the bed. 😳😱. Turn-down service isn't my thing, I can turn down my own bed, but that's what they do. The chocolates were nice, hahahahahaha, a different kind every night.
We headed to the Princess Theatre for the entertainment. They have two shows a night, an early and a late, the early was always super crowded as all the older folks wanted to be in bed at an early hour, but the late (10 PM) usually had a few empty seats. Tonight was a magician, he was actually pretty cheesy. He tried to be a comedian as well and it was pretty lame. The tricks were all ones I had seen before, but it was still sort of fun. The theatre was nice, seated about 800 people, maybe a bit more and you could get drinks as well. The couple that sat in front of us ended up sitting with us at every single show. They were from "Noo Yawk", with the proper mob-type accent. He sort of looked like Joe Pesci actually.
After that we went back to the buffet for a late night snack. Too. Much. Food. Must curb myself.....
Bed by 11:00. Asleep by 11:05. I could feel the vibrations of the engine and I dreamed I was on a train.
Good night.
The sunset the first night as we left Ft Lauderdale and headed towards Jamaica. 
1 comment:
Just love your style Shannon.
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