mom2mybugs

Today's office view!! It's our 2nd sea day! So yesterday the sea day was wonderful. Spent the day in the solarium being annoyed by the group of 10 who kept those chairs all day even though they had maybe 3 or 4 there at a time. Sigh... Anyway decided to do the sky deck today... Less stress! And I think a little more breeze, though they opened the roof and that made a huge difference at 1130am. I did do the first thriller class. I really like Steve Davis and I'm not really a cruise director person who notices. But Steve is everywhere (he was the main singer at the centrum rock and roll party last night) and he just really seems friendly. So anyway I will be back at 1 for class number 2. Here was the party from 1 deck above... We didn't get seats on the main floor because we went to the theater show first. We had izumi at 630. They have Madison several options and she went with the vegetable tempura and the veggie roll, and loved both. Jeff and I ate the firecracker spring roll, champagne lobster and California rolls and the hot rocks with tenderloin and seafood. It was really good. I found the service to be just ok... It wasn't bad but he didn't really explain anything, and we had to ask for more water and drinks. The $35 per person worked because Madison didn't eat much... Otherwise we'd have gone over. As was I think we spent 5. I needed Jeff to go make a pizza run at 1am lol...I was hungry... But the food really was excellent. Forgot to take pics of the rolls (as usual) but here are other pics After izumi, as I said, we went to the theater for the Lomax brothers...4 hands, 2 brothers, 1 piano. It was a fun show and we enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure I have seen them before but not sure when or which ship! After that we raced to centrum for the rock and roll party and then called it a night... Til I sent Jeff to grab me park Cafe pizza! Jane

I really haven't found the crowds to be horrible. There wasn't a line outside the uffizi... Well the line outside the duomo was bad but still overall we haven't felt like sardines yet. Jane

We actually had no time to eat in Rome... Except at the "group"restaurant. I didn't even get pizza lol. But the Florence meal will go down as the best lasagna ever! We now are on sea days heading for Greece! Jane

Lol... Thank you!! I'm not a shorts person so I wear all Target, lands end and now Zulily dresses! The weather has been absolutely wonderful... Way less hot than the last couple weeks!! Really hoping we don't broil in Athens! I took an art history class my sophomore year of college and it was amazing... It made me dream of seeing all of this! You are right... He built the dinner with the bricks angled a different way that was revolutionary and could support weight differently than the old Gothic Churchs. Ahhh...I need to go back already! Jane

I totally agree... No impact on me at all! We are having a great cruise!!! Trip of a lifetime though I miss my puppies at home (not so much the other 2 kids lol). Jane

The guy said they didn't have lavender syrup so they made me a rose one. I am going to reask just to see if they were clueless. The one waitress was a little confused for example when I asked for at. Germaine and champagne...my drink ended up red and had a cherry in it! Jane

We didn't see it on night 1 at mdr but haven't been back since...chops and izumi both offered Madison (vegetarian) several options orally but no menu. Jane

I've never seen a Miami vice work kracken melt so fast lol! Gotta drink faster! We are sailing in btw sicily and Italy I believe right now. If I were a good blogger like @twangster I would get pics from the front of the boat, but that involves moving from my very carefully guarded solarium chair lol! Random thoughts... @Joe01 I do like Steve as a cruise director and I think the thriller dance thing is unique! Fun! Vision has not really felt crowded. Solarium has chair hogs...I will check the pool and Sun deck tomorrow. There are big table/sitting couches in schooner so a little trickier to sit as a couple but we have managed. We haven't spent a ton of time there... Pacing it til the end. It's nice to realize this is day 5 and I have a whole 7 day cruise ahead lol. Gonna be devastated in dry dock till March (and maybe later if we go for GB next summer). Main dining room was excellent day 1 but to be honest the selections day 3 and 4 were kinda meh and we decided to windjammer. I think for us the balance of 4 night PKG, one night chefs table, and 7 nights combo of mdr/windjammer will be a really good one for us. UDP can work on a bigger ship but if we do that, we will build in the lost cost of simply not doing a big restaurant every night. It would be totally wasted on vision class for sure. @Lovetocruise2002 @Matt the key port boarding thing is way wasted on the little ships. We've never waited in line and really we've never had an issue on the bigger ships either. I think they are adding things trying to justify the 19.99 a day and for myself as a cruiser I could never justify it. ESPECIALLY on the smaller ships!!! Ok... My sun has left my solarium so I'm heading to sky deck!!! Jane

Florence is one we knew we'd need to go back to on a land cruise but I should have totally found a private tour. We missed way too much :(. But Rome the tour did everything right! These are my B team pics lol...I keep remembering at the last second to grab the phone so glad you are enjoying them! Jane

DAY 5 sea day...we got up at 8 (see above on chairs lol), I blogged for a couple hours and now I'm headed to learn the Michael Jackson thriller dance! We will see how it goes and if I perform night 11 lol!!! Jane

Chair hog update!!! For the first time ever, a royal Caribbean person is marking chairs!!!! These chairs have been vacant for almost 2 hours! Ack.... Just lost 30 mins of blogging. Argh......... Hit read next instead of enter. Ok... My beautiful Rome blog is gone... Argh.... You will be happy to know they gave those chairs away!! Ok ..no to redo Rome right now. Ugh so sad. Anyway I will give the condensed version. We met at 7am with our first guide and then added a tour guide to give history in Rome. Both were excellent! Our first stop was the ancient Roman area It was really not very crowded and I felt really pretty safe from pickpockets. I'd love to spend days walking around this area! Next we went to St Peter's in chains to see the st Peter relics and most amazingly, Michelangelo's Moses! So incredible! After that we went to lunch. The cafe had 2 other tour groups but the food was pretty good and the service was efficient. The wine... Not so great lol! Madison was able to get a vegetarian salad and enjoyed the lasagna. Then it was on to the Vatican and the Sistine chapel. I'm not sure I can express it again (I did so well in the deleted one) but it was one of the most treasured memories of my life to look up at Michelangelo's ceiling. You could spend a whole day in the Vatican museum, but like Versailles and the Louvre, it is hard to absorb all the ceiling art, tapestries sculpture etc. We kind of raced through that but then were able to spend 5-10 minutes I think ( I lost track of time) in the Sistine chapel. They don't allow photos or videos there but I will remember it forever. The art is amazing. Next we went to St Peter's basilica to see Michaelangelo's pieta and Bernini's alter. So beautiful in that church and outside in St. Peter's square We got back to citiavechia around 545. It is interesting in the industrial port to find old Roman ruins! We decided while we could find stuff in mdr, we would windjammer it again for dinner American night. I ended up eating fajitas lol! I found red velvet cake for @Sweety All the cakes were yummy! We finished the night with drinking blue drinks in the schooner bar... They have a pianist and violinist playing until the main piano guy comes at 945, watching the orchestra show and just relaxing. It amazes me the people that come to shows late, flounce right up to the front row, stay for 5 mins and then leave. Argh! Jane

Chair hog update!!! For the first time ever, a royal Caribbean person is marking chairs!!!! These chairs have been vacant for almost 2 hours!

DAY 3 FLORENCE Florence was both amazing and frustrating. I would have liked to find a tour that got us into the duomo, the duomo museum and the uffizi and ended up with a general tour of all the outside areas. We probably should have done more research and gone private. It was all a bit overwhelming. Anyway, Florence was amazing and beautiful and a port I want to go back to on my own with more time. The guide was very good, the bus was comfortable and we did enjoy our day. We started with wandering... I was amazed at the colors on the duomo. Unfortunately my really good pics are on my camera and I can't believe I didn't take at least one pic for everyone of the gates of paradise...ghiberti's amazing gold doors on the baptistry next to the duomo. There have been many moments of tears of joy on this trip and seeing those doors and bruneleschi's (so not spelled rightdome were two of them. We then had 3 hours of free time. It wasn't super crowded and we probably could have gotten into the uffizi but we knew the wait for the duomo was at least 1.5 hours and here is where we dithered and it kinda broke down. But we walked around outside for a while longer, saw the Victoria's secret and Disney store less than 2 football fields away from the duomo (weird contrast of old and new) and then found an amazing cafe with wonderful Chianti classico and lasagna that melted in your mouth. Madison had a vegetable rigatoni. We ended that trip with gelato. Yum.... We got back to the ship and were tired. Nothing looked good in the main dining room so we went to the windjammer for dinner. We relaxed and missed the first production show so we went to the second at 1015. It was truly pretty not great. I love the shows usually and the talent on the ship is very very young and energetic but the choice of music and staging was kind of baffling! Oh well! Jane

Just FYI...6 seats on solarium by pool by 8am available...by 830 none. These chairs have been empty since 8 The roof has been closed at least since yesterday... Not sure why ? Wow.. and that's my thumb. Pics take too long to upload so my thumb is staying! Jane

Look...I'm back and didn't drown! voom has been slow and sprint free data in Europe is really slow. That's partly why I haven't scoped muchI have to add my exciting, exciting news! Our pins came!!!! Platinum here we are lol! We got invited to our first to tier event lol, but I don't think we can go. We will see ..we have izumi at 630 and the event is at 745. If we are done, we will go! CANNES day 2. We have spent a fortune on excursions so decided to be cheap and low key in Cannes. We slept in and caught the tender boat after all the numbers were called. If you want to get a tender do a royal excursion or get there early because they were still calling tender numbers after 11! When you have a 16 year old fashionista, you shop. I bought some soap and we went to a million little clothing boutiques... Mads had a blast! We walked around for a while and then hit the public beach just to the left of the port when you really by. Madison has now experienced 2 public beaches without flinching too much. There were only a few topless today. It was warm but not horrible and we enjoyed it. We were back on the ship by 430 to relax and get ready for chops. Chops service was very good. When we mentioned Madison's vegetarianism, he offered a couple options and she chose the eggplant parmesan from Giovanni's, which she enjoyed. Our food was very good...my steak was a bit overdone but if that's all I'm complaining about, I'm happy!! The steak pics liked kinda gross, lol, but here are some other pics! I apologize for all the Jane, Jeff and Madison pics but I'm trying to use this as a memory as well!!! After dinner we headed to the show... The barrade boys are 4 theater singers who all performed at some point in Les Mis. They did a wide selection and we enjoyed it. Red velvet cake martini and off to bed!

Oh yum....just yum! Jane

I did what you call a Poloroid if it's layered last night and thought of you! It's just vodka, Curacao and Sprite... They shook it... Still tasted good!

I think you are right but ugh... the Kendall Jackson is still cheap lol!! Jane

Ok... While I wait the 20 mins for the teenager to make curfew I can update the day!! We didn't get our luggage until after muster drill and sailaway so we couldn't really unpack. Here are some pics: We did my time dining... The food was really pretty good... Best prime rib in a while! I forgot to take pics until Madison reminded me I was the worst blogger ever... So I took dessert pics! I even forgot to snap the menu! After dinner we came back and I unpacked. It is incredible how much for we have! We definitely could stay in this room with more kids. Then we headed to the headline show. It was a shadow show where they did hand s hadow shapes on the screen. I didn't take my camera out early enough... It was actually really good, hokey as it sounds! I missed pics of the animals but here are some singers! I can't remember all of them, but it was fun. The people who come in late, walk down the middle aisles talk during the show, and basically are rude as heck just kill me! Visions rows at least have tons of leg room so you can let all these people in and out several times!! Argh.. After the show we hit cafe latte-tudes and then schooner for the amaretto for the and then to bed. Update on the teenager... She made it back 1 minute late and apparently meet a group of 7 high school girls who all speak English. She is very happy and meeting everyone at 10 tomorrow after everyone's formal night! Huge load off my mind. Tomorrow is Cannes. The plan is to sleep in, eat, take the tender after the initial rush is all over, shop and then hit the public beach. Looking forward to a very laid back day because many of our other excursions start before 7am!! Oh... And I forgot to ask for my robe! Gotta do that tomorrow...I mean today! Jane

Nope... We didn't hang in the schooner bar tonight!! For @JLMoran and anyone keeping track, the drink count....hmmmm....I might have lost count. Miami vice (that should have been a lava flow), insanely strong Bahama Mama, blue Hawaiian, at Germaine and champagne, 2 glasses of wine and 2 shots of amaretto. Whoever (and I'm so sorry I can't remember) suggested white mocha coffee and adding amaretto... Amazing!!! So good. Anyway team drink pkg made out today for sure. In other news, on allure in March and majesty in June, a glass of Oberon Cabernet was 15. It is $18/glass on this ship. Crazy ridiculous :(. I will miss it!!! Jane

I love vodka tonics. I wonder since they have the lavender daiquiris at schooner if they could make that. No trellis bar on my baby ship ?Jane

So our room is very cool! I just scoped it but unlike @Lovetocruise2002 I have no idea how to link it here! We are in a spacious family oceanview or something like that ..4032! What I hear is that we were fortunate because we only have 3 people and they often make you have 4 or 5. We booked the week after the rooms opened up and it is going to be so nice to have all that room!! Here are a few pics! For sure the paintings have been refreshed since 2015. Everything seems very neat and clean so far on the ship. I may need to nap in my solarium chair ... Jane

We are on board! We waited almost longer for the cab then we did too board the ship. We used the cabify app... No Uber here in Barcelona. The driver was a bit crazy because traffic here is fast and busy! I was stressing because this was the latest Ive ever gotten to the port. Didn't need to worry though!! We pulled right up to terminal B with no wait. No porter needed as we walked 10 feet to the cart where the nice porter loaded our luggage. We had expedited arrival but it wouldn't have mattered because nobody was there at 1045. We literally walked through security and on to the ship.. LESS than ten minutes!!! By 1105 I was making our dining reservations... Got everything we wanted including chops night 2 formal night 630. By 1115 had lava flow with kraken (well training bartender so first drink turned out to be a Miami vice actually) and eating in the windjammer! The windjammer want crowded and the food was typical fare... Food Temp was warm and everything seemed fresh. We were offered there STRONGEST Bahama Mama welcome drinks I've ever had! It's now 1245 and be we are in the solarium waiting for the room to be available! Book in hand I am relaxing!! Oh, and so excited... The solarium roof is OPEN!!!!!! Happy happy happy! More later! I will see how the voom is (can't tell if I'm still on data or voom) for periscoping. A lot of those may end up replays for people with the time change! Jane

Hayley you have been such a wealth of knowledge! Thank you so much!! Jane

And that's how it should be! No time to blog. So glad you had a great time and can't wait to see all the pics!!!!! Good luck on the work thing... Not looking forward to that in 2 weeks either!!! Jane