Cruising Day 4 (and Day 5)

 Thursday June 5

Day at Sea

The day began ----yes early again (6:45 ish) and with some Starbucks coffee.  We decided to go down to breakfast in the dining room and were lucky enough to get a great table right next to a window.  

Most of the day was spent walking around or reading on the balcony.  We made our way up to the taco bar for lunch, but it was so loud on the pool deck that we brought the food back to our room to eat. 

The Boardwalk area of the ship:

 While we ate we watched a good documentary on the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union.  

For our last dinner we both had lentil soup, crusted salmon, and apple crisp for dessert.  

We did some more quiet reading out on the balcony.

In summary, I am glad we had the experience and the time together was great for us, but I do not foresee any more cruises in our future. 

Friday June 6

    We were awake bright and early (6:15) because again the beds were shaking as we docked at Cape Canaveral.  

Disembarking was just as easy as embarking and I was home by 10:00 am! 

Cruising Day 3

 June 4

        Today was probably the day my sister and I realized that we were not really cruise type people😳.   

      The day began just like the past two - early (7:15)!!! And with a trip down to the Starbucks for morning coffee and a little reading out on the balcony.  We were already docked at Coco Cay - which is what really woke us up because the beds were shaking.

        We got off the ship but the only thing to really do here was swim and we were not wearing our swimwear, so we just walked around and looked through a few souvenir huts. We both bought a bracelet and my sister also bought a Cuban cigar for her friend. I was curious about where the people who were working lived so I asked a lady and she said they all lived at a nearby island and come over by boat - about a 15 minute boat ride. 

        There was another Royal Caribbean ship docked across from us (Grandeur of the Seas) and I was shocked to see how much larger the Utopia was!!! 

        Again, the day was cloudy, hazy, and rain was coming so we made our way back to the ship.  We were really excited to check out the solarium.  It was an over 18 area and I had visions of peace, quiet, sipping a fruity drink, reading, and maybe taking a little dip in the hot tub.  That was far from the reality! 

Photo Credit: Gangwaze.com

Photo Credit: Business Insider

        It was packed with people. One guy in the hot tub was talking so LOUD AND PICKING HIS TEETH WITH A FLOSS PICK!!!! Right there in the hot tub!  It was so disgusting, I was NOT getting in the hot tub after seeing that.  We found some lovely deck chairs (We sat on the green chairs in the background) but it was so loud it was hard to concentrate enough to read. So after only about 20 minutes, we decided it would be more peaceful to read on our deck. We also bought things from the taco bar back to the room.  The pulled pork was amazing. 

        Dinner that evening was tomato soup (this prompted my sister and me to remember an old babysitter of ours forcing us to eat tomato soup and how much we hated it when we were younger), shrimp scampi, and blueberry cobbler for dessert. We also both had a fancy red alcoholic drink this night. 

    After dinner we walked around and ended up in the Central Park part of the ship sipping a kalua and cream and talking about mom and dad - especially how much they enjoyed cruises.  

    Before bed we read a little more on our balcony and watched September 5 again since we both enjoyed it so much.  

Cruising Day 2

 June 3

The day began at the crack of dawn - thanks to my sister who cannot sleep in. I went down to get some Starbucks and ran into the other early risers (old people).  I brought the coffee to our room and went out to the balcony to read and watched as we pulled into port in Nassau.  One interesting touch in the elevators was a little gold plate which they changed daily to match the day of the week. 

 We were lucky enough to be on the side of the ship facing Atlantis. Unfortunately, it was hazy and cloudy so the pictures aren't great. 

We docked at the empty dock space in front of the light blue ship on  the far left.

Later in the morning, we got off the ship to walk around.  We passed many other cruise ships that were also docked.  It was a busy day in Nassau. 

We walked through a couple stores, but spent most of our time in this skin care store, where they conned my sister out of quite a bit of money (which she is attempting to get back).

 

Dinner that evening was french onion soup, salmon, and apple crisp for dessert.  We walked around the ship after dinner - mostly on the 16th floor which we didn't get to last night. It was hazy and cloudy and sprinkling just it was all day long.  We ended the day by reading on the balcony and renting the movie September 5 which we thought was very good.  

                                     Mouth of the Abyss slide 

Photo Credit: Me and the Mouse Travel

                                       The Flow Rider

Photo Credit: Flow Rider

                                         Miniature Golf

 Photo Credit: Business Insider

 

Cruising Day 1

 After losing our parents, my sister and I decided we needed to get away together.  After considering several options, we decided a short cruise would be the best option.  After some research I settled on a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean.  

Day One

Monday June 2

    We arrived in Port Canaveral about 12:30 and were not scheduled for check-in until 2:00 so we walked to a nearby restaurant called Grills Tiki Bar. We ordered an appetizer and couple drinks. 

An added bonus was being right by our massive ship (this was the back of it). 

Boarding was very easy because I had all the documents I needed...actually finding the necessary documents was NOT easy and more than once we wondered whether we'd even be able to go on the cruise.  Thankfully, everything worked out and we sailed right through the boarding process (pun intended).  

Finding our room was pretty easy also.  We were on the 7th floor in room 128.  

Having a balcony was a must for us and, as it turns out, was the place we were the happiest and most content. We spent a LOT of time out there reading. 

Right after we left port, it was time to get ready for dinner.  We chose the earlier dining option (5:00) and felt very awkward sitting at a six person table all by ourselves and wished we had a smaller table.  But the service was great and the food was amazing!  On this day, I had soup for an appetizer, whitefish for the main course, and chocolate pudding for dessert.  

After dinner we walked around several decks on the ship just looking around.  

We ended up back in our room at about 8:00.  I took a shower and then we sat outside and read and then rented the movie Companion before turning the lights out. 

An Epic Saturday

 Sometimes living in Orlando can be so frustrating, but when an amazing theme park opens up just a short 10 minutes from your apartment, it is so worth it. 

Yesterday, my son was able to grab preview tickets for him, me, and my sister and we had the most wonderful day.  One thing I was worried about before the day began was that the temperature was supposed to be in the high 90's, but most of the cue's are indoors so it ended up being not a big deal at all.  In fact, there were times I was so cold while in line that I couldn't wait to get outside to warm up.

CJ and I took full advantage of the day and arrived about 10:00.  

We immediately headed over to How to Train Your Dragon. 

One of the creative aspects of the part is that you walk through a portal to enter each of the four lands.  

The land itself had stunning details and I could have just walked around all morning and just looked at stuff. 

The first ride we did was Fyre Drill which is a water ride, but not your typical water ride. On this one, you board a boat and shoot water from water cannons at flame-like targets.  Very fun!

After that, we jumped right in line to see the show Untrainable Dragon, and then headed over to do Hiccups Wing Glider.

Picture from Google (Orlando Informer Credit)

This was a disappointment for me.  This is exactly the kind of roller coaster I love - it had no big drops, just lots of twists and turns.  But the lap bar was designed in such a way so that it pushed into the tender points at the top of my leg (fibromyalgia fun) and I spent the entire ride saying, "ouch, ouch, ouch".  It really hurt!!!  If I was to do it again I  might try not closing the lap bar so tight, but it was so painful that I don't know if I want to put myself through that again.  

In a stroke of perfect timing, as soon as the ride was over my sister arrived so we met her at the front of the park and then headed over to Monsters. 

 

 The ride had the same ride system as Forbidden Journey.  Oh my gosh!  Did I love this ride. And an added bonus was the wait time was low to none!  We rode it more than once.  

After that, CJ and my sister rode Stardust Racers.  I know my limits and waited at a nearby table in the shade.  

As it turns out, it was a little to intense for my sister who ended up regretting her choice as soon as they reached the top of the first incline.  haha

We had a great lunch at the Oak and Star Tavern.  It was quiet, peaceful, no stress, and the food was awesome.  We all shared two portions of pulled pork with fries and bread.  There are four choices of BBQ sauces on the table.  I used the sweet, but it really wasn't sweet at all which was fine with me.  

This was the point that we hit the only frustrating snag of the day while waiting for the Harry Potter ride. 

 The cue was stunning.  

Unfortunately, the wait was l-o-n-g and was only made longer by the ride experiencing stops that required maintenance twice which added about 30 minutes to the already long wait time.  

The ride itself was good - I would say the ride system is like a combination of Gringotts and Spiderman. 

We couldn't resist a second go at Monsters and then went to sit inside Das Stakehouse and had some yummy snacks.

At this point, we had only one land left - Nintendo Land.  

The portal was the best one.  You step on an elevator and you are surrounded by visual and audio that makes it seem as if you are in a warp pipe.

Then you enter and....

It was visual overload but so very cool!  There was an incredible attention to detail and brought back strong memories of playing Mario, Mario Kart, and Mario Party!  

We went on Yoshi and then my sister left because she had about 1.5 hour drive home.  

CJ and I could not resist  going on Monsters one more time.  We hit the single riders line so we could skip the preshow and walked ride on the ride.  

Then we returned to ride the Mario Kart ride.  It was at least a 90 minute wait, but we got so incredible lucky when a women gave us her express passes, so the wait only ended up being about 20 minutes.  

We ended the perfect day with another ride on Yoshi.

I got home about 8:20 and was not exhausted at all!   It was so much fun.