Bish

Odds and sods.....
Will mention that friends who saw "the beautiful dream" said it sucked.  So did a couple of other folks, including a genie, so we told Luciano we didn't really care to see it either.  
This cruise has been so wonderful, and this star class experience really is something else.  You literally have to deal with nothing....you want something, you need something.....it's a phone call or email away.  We feel like we got what we paid for.....
oh, and if you are lucky enough to get Marion as your "bar cart guy" he's super!  Love Marion! He's on our doorstep ATLEAST twice between 3:30-5:30.....
our suite was immaculate; Tristan is our chief steward, and Ari is the assistant (yes, you have two people taking care of your room!) and they were very good at their jobs.  And each evening, there was a new towel animal waiting for the kids.  
I was surprised that we rarely used the balcony.....it's large and beautiful, but somehow, we didn't get out on it much.  Hubby says it makes his case stronger for an inside cabin next cruise.  Ugh, I don't think so......
the pools are generally very busy, and I found them to be on the smaller side.  Lots of deck chairs.  The adults only pool area is very lovely. there's a pool bar, comfy loungers, lots of space to sprawl out and read aa good book.
staff on this boat are very friendly.....probably the friendliest boat we've been on.  
Ovation is doing Alaska this spring and summer, and she will be a fantastic boat for that.....so many balconies to view all that gorgeous scenery!  She will not disappoint, no matter what class or room you have.  
My kids never got to kids club once.  Lots for them to do onboard.  They've loved this cruise and taken full advantage of having Luciano to help with things.....It was my son who asked Luciano if we could iFly every day and we very nearly have!
end of random thoughts post.......

Greetings from the balcony......kids and hubby are doing iFly for about the fifth time.....it's nice and quiet now!
Oliver, we have only gone to CK for breakfast and lunch.....this evening will be our first dinner there, so deferring to Sabrina on this one!
ifly was fun....found out that iFly is also available in Australia on land.....$100 a MINUTE! Yes, I said "minute".  People apparently pay thousands to learn to iFly.  Perhaps I lead a very sheltered life, but I was shocked to learn this.
Later,  before the cocktail party, we "pre-gamed" in an Owner's Loft suite, which was very beautiful.....Much larger closet area, no bath tub, and I'd say slightly smaller living room area, and the master bath is a bit further away from the bedroom than it is in the Grand Loft.
cocktail party in royal loft suite......Genie Hannah was there greeting guests and getting them drinks; she politely excused herself about 15 minutes in.  I hate hate hate saying this, but as of yesterday, the appies were starting to get a bit old.  Always the same cheeses, presented the same way, the same nachoes, some not very fresh I might add, same fruit plates......I suppose if I had one complaint on this cruise, it would be that.  But I digress......we met fellow cruisers from a variety of classes and suites, everyone dressed up quite formally, which made me grateful I had put a dress on for the party! We excused ourselves just before 6, as Luciano was waiting for us on "dick 3 aft" for dinner in the MDR (Grande, I believe).  He told us that he had told "them" that we were star class and so I think we got the VIP treatment.  The dining room manager came by several times, the young lady who was our server was at our table every five minutes.....it felt a bit silly but it also felt pretty special to be given such care and concern for our experience.  I thought the menu was excellent, and I was grateful for the variety......eating at the specialty restaurants was fantastic for the most part, but when you've memorized the menus, you know it's time for a change! I had shrimp cocktail, coq au vin, and a gin martini!  My definition of a great meal!  We were told the shipment of lobsters from Maine didn't make it to Australia for our sailing and so they had no surf and turf, and there will be no lobsters on board for the next sailing either. Overall, I'd say there is zero reason to not visit the MDR, especially if your genie lets them know "who you are". 
From there, we strolled thru the music hall......there were a bunch of kids in there running feral on the dance floor.....one kid was doing cartwheels.  There are a lot of kids on this ship and some of them are really out of control.  I have kids who are ten, and if I ever saw them behaving the way some of the kids on this boat are behaving, they'd be in big trouble.  And I was told yesterday that a group of twenty-somethings were kicked off the ship in Noumea.....they had apparently been sitting by the pool area, drunk and saying insulting things to passengers as they walked by (you fat b______h, as an example).  Then in the evening one of them shit in the pool.  Yup.  You can't make this stuff up.  It is is second hand info, but thought I'd share the good, the bad and the ugly on this blog.
forced myself to stay up til 11 to see the ac/DC show.....it was pretty awesome......mostly songs from the Bon Scott era, but some of their Brian Johnson stuff too.  
This morning, we had a galley tour and champagne brunch afterward (so much food, so many drinks....note to self, must go on a diet when I get home). Came back to the suite to find (sob) our luggage tags.  God, is it over already?  All that anticipation, and you blink and it's over.  How the hell does that happen?
so we stated packing and received a phone call from a friend we made onboard......his genie, Lisa, has booked Flow Rider for 6 pm, did we want to do a private session with them?  Uh, hell yes! So our "group" (us, the family in the owners loft, and the family from the royal loft) will be doing that and then going to CK for dinner afterwards.  How fun is that?
ive always told my kids that strangers are just friends we haven't met yet.....we have been lucky to meet some really wonderful friends on this cruise.
Before I throw out this paperwork, I'm taking photos to attach here, which includes Luciano's planner for is, which he gave us day 1 and which we have amended numerous times:

Odds and sods.....
Will mention that friends who saw "the beautiful dream" said it sucked.  So did a couple of other folks, including a genie, so we told Luciano we didn't really care to see it either.  
This cruise has been so wonderful, and this star class experience really is something else.  You literally have to deal with nothing....you want something, you need something.....it's a phone call or email away.  We feel like we got what we paid for.....
oh, and if you are lucky enough to get Marion as your "bar cart guy" he's super!  Love Marion! He's on our doorstep ATLEAST twice between 3:30-5:30.....
our suite was immaculate; Tristan is our chief steward, and Ari is the assistant (yes, you have two people taking care of your room!) and they were very good at their jobs.  And each evening, there was a new towel animal waiting for the kids.  
I was surprised that we rarely used the balcony.....it's large and beautiful, but somehow, we didn't get out on it much.  Hubby says it makes his case stronger for an inside cabin next cruise.  Ugh, I don't think so......
the pools are generally very busy, and I found them to be on the smaller side.  Lots of deck chairs.  The adults only pool area is very lovely. there's a pool bar, comfy loungers, lots of space to sprawl out and read aa good book.
staff on this boat are very friendly.....probably the friendliest boat we've been on.  
Ovation is doing Alaska this spring and summer, and she will be a fantastic boat for that.....so many balconies to view all that gorgeous scenery!  She will not disappoint, no matter what class or room you have.  
My kids never got to kids club once.  Lots for them to do onboard.  They've loved this cruise and taken full advantage of having Luciano to help with things.....It was my son who asked Luciano if we could iFly every day and we very nearly have!
end of random thoughts post.......

Greetings from the balcony......kids and hubby are doing iFly for about the fifth time.....it's nice and quiet now!
Oliver, we have only gone to CK for breakfast and lunch.....this evening will be our first dinner there, so deferring to Sabrina on this one!
ifly was fun....found out that iFly is also available in Australia on land.....$100 a MINUTE! Yes, I said "minute".  People apparently pay thousands to learn to iFly.  Perhaps I lead a very sheltered life, but I was shocked to learn this.
Later,  before the cocktail party, we "pre-gamed" in an Owner's Loft suite, which was very beautiful.....Much larger closet area, no bath tub, and I'd say slightly smaller living room area, and the master bath is a bit further away from the bedroom than it is in the Grand Loft.
cocktail party in royal loft suite......Genie Hannah was there greeting guests and getting them drinks; she politely excused herself about 15 minutes in.  I hate hate hate saying this, but as of yesterday, the appies were starting to get a bit old.  Always the same cheeses, presented the same way, the same nachoes, some not very fresh I might add, same fruit plates......I suppose if I had one complaint on this cruise, it would be that.  But I digress......we met fellow cruisers from a variety of classes and suites, everyone dressed up quite formally, which made me grateful I had put a dress on for the party! We excused ourselves just before 6, as Luciano was waiting for us on "dick 3 aft" for dinner in the MDR (Grande, I believe).  He told us that he had told "them" that we were star class and so I think we got the VIP treatment.  The dining room manager came by several times, the young lady who was our server was at our table every five minutes.....it felt a bit silly but it also felt pretty special to be given such care and concern for our experience.  I thought the menu was excellent, and I was grateful for the variety......eating at the specialty restaurants was fantastic for the most part, but when you've memorized the menus, you know it's time for a change! I had shrimp cocktail, coq au vin, and a gin martini!  My definition of a great meal!  We were told the shipment of lobsters from Maine didn't make it to Australia for our sailing and so they had no surf and turf, and there will be no lobsters on board for the next sailing either. Overall, I'd say there is zero reason to not visit the MDR, especially if your genie lets them know "who you are". 
From there, we strolled thru the music hall......there were a bunch of kids in there running feral on the dance floor.....one kid was doing cartwheels.  There are a lot of kids on this ship and some of them are really out of control.  I have kids who are ten, and if I ever saw them behaving the way some of the kids on this boat are behaving, they'd be in big trouble.  And I was told yesterday that a group of twenty-somethings were kicked off the ship in Noumea.....they had apparently been sitting by the pool area, drunk and saying insulting things to passengers as they walked by (you fat b______h, as an example).  Then in the evening one of them shit in the pool.  Yup.  You can't make this stuff up.  It is is second hand info, but thought I'd share the good, the bad and the ugly on this blog.
forced myself to stay up til 11 to see the ac/DC show.....it was pretty awesome......mostly songs from the Bon Scott era, but some of their Brian Johnson stuff too.  
This morning, we had a galley tour and champagne brunch afterward (so much food, so many drinks....note to self, must go on a diet when I get home). Came back to the suite to find (sob) our luggage tags.  God, is it over already?  All that anticipation, and you blink and it's over.  How the hell does that happen?
so we stated packing and received a phone call from a friend we made onboard......his genie, Lisa, has booked Flow Rider for 6 pm, did we want to do a private session with them?  Uh, hell yes! So our "group" (us, the family in the owners loft, and the family from the royal loft) will be doing that and then going to CK for dinner afterwards.  How fun is that?
ive always told my kids that strangers are just friends we haven't met yet.....we have been lucky to meet some really wonderful friends on this cruise.
Before I throw out this paperwork, I'm taking photos to attach here, which includes Luciano's planner for is, which he gave us day 1 and which we have amended numerous times:

Oh man.....id typed out a lengthy post yesterday but for some reason, it's not here.  Gggrrrrr...
ok.....the short strokes......Noumea was not our best port of call.  We got off the boat with the intent of taxi'ing to the aquarium.  Taxis hard to come by, it's hot, kids are whining to go back to the ship, so back we go, after spending money to exchange currency twice (from and then back to Australian dollars).  Returned to find happy anniversary decorations and chocolate cake and a couple of small gifts from Luciano.  Not our anniversary, but hubby thought it would be fun to celebrate a few months early.
sailing out of Harbour was gorgeous.
chefs table with a group of fellow star class cruisers, then to the Freddie Mercury impersonator show which was pretty decent. Children from another family joined up with ours for a pizza party in suite.  Silly amounts of food provided by Luciano and their genie, Lisa (pronounced leeza).
this am, we did the Escape Room, and solved the puzzle with a whopping 46 seconds left!  This was celebrated with a round of bumper cars (sore neck now) and we have our fourth skydive this afternoon at 2.  4:30 is a cocktail party which we received a printed invitation for, in the royal loft suite.....think we are scheduled for the mdr for dinner tonight, tho we probably won't be hungry for it after the party.
sitting in Jamie's right now, enjoyed the red pepper soup......the restaurant also has patio dining out on the deck (see photo).

Oh man.....id typed out a lengthy post yesterday but for some reason, it's not here.  Gggrrrrr...
ok.....the short strokes......Noumea was not our best port of call.  We got off the boat with the intent of taxi'ing to the aquarium.  Taxis hard to come by, it's hot, kids are whining to go back to the ship, so back we go, after spending money to exchange currency twice (from and then back to Australian dollars).  Returned to find happy anniversary decorations and chocolate cake and a couple of small gifts from Luciano.  Not our anniversary, but hubby thought it would be fun to celebrate a few months early.
sailing out of Harbour was gorgeous.
chefs table with a group of fellow star class cruisers, then to the Freddie Mercury impersonator show which was pretty decent. Children from another family joined up with ours for a pizza party in suite.  Silly amounts of food provided by Luciano and their genie, Lisa (pronounced leeza).
this am, we did the Escape Room, and solved the puzzle with a whopping 46 seconds left!  This was celebrated with a round of bumper cars (sore neck now) and we have our fourth skydive this afternoon at 2.  4:30 is a cocktail party which we received a printed invitation for, in the royal loft suite.....think we are scheduled for the mdr for dinner tonight, tho we probably won't be hungry for it after the party.
sitting in Jamie's right now, enjoyed the red pepper soup......the restaurant also has patio dining out on the deck (see photo).

Oh man.....id typed out a lengthy post yesterday but for some reason, it's not here.  Gggrrrrr...
ok.....the short strokes......Noumea was not our best port of call.  We got off the boat with the intent of taxi'ing to the aquarium.  Taxis hard to come by, it's hot, kids are whining to go back to the ship, so back we go, after spending money to exchange currency twice (from and then back to Australian dollars).  Returned to find happy anniversary decorations and chocolate cake and a couple of small gifts from Luciano.  Not our anniversary, but hubby thought it would be fun to celebrate a few months early.
sailing out of Harbour was gorgeous.
chefs table with a group of fellow star class cruisers, then to the Freddie Mercury impersonator show which was pretty decent. Children from another family joined up with ours for a pizza party in suite.  Silly amounts of food provided by Luciano and their genie, Lisa (pronounced leeza).
this am, we did the Escape Room, and solved the puzzle with a whopping 46 seconds left!  This was celebrated with a round of bumper cars (sore neck now) and we have our fourth skydive this afternoon at 2.  4:30 is a cocktail party which we received a printed invitation for, in the royal loft suite.....think we are scheduled for the mdr for dinner tonight, tho we probably won't be hungry for it after the party.
sitting in Jamie's right now, enjoyed the red pepper soup......the restaurant also has patio dining out on the deck (see photo).

Speednoodles, this lunch is for you......

Kümmelweck?  What the heck is that?  Food I presume.  I will confirm the availability of this for the ou AND learn something new in the doing.....
saw pixels and a hypnotist last evening and both were great!  In room dining however, was not.  Luciano said he would pick up from izumis for us, and the rest of the food had to come from one other restaurant only. Everything was cold.  Not sure we would do that again.
cocktails and appies seem to be a fairly regular event in the royal loft suite with three super cool, super fun fellow star classers.  Another family have also joined in, so we are more like a posse.  A lovely man by the name of Marion comes at 3:30 to take drink orders and keeps coming back to replenish the depleted. The  posse is trying to sign up again for the chefs table, with the kids left in a suite for pizza and a movie.  
Loved the reserved seating at the shows.......Luciano meets us outside about ten minutes before to seat us and take our drink order.
we are in noumea, New Caledonia today with no plans. Will likely get off and taxi in to the city for a look around.....we are having a lazy day. 

Kümmelweck?  What the heck is that?  Food I presume.  I will confirm the availability of this for the ou AND learn something new in the doing.....
saw pixels and a hypnotist last evening and both were great!  In room dining however, was not.  Luciano said he would pick up from izumis for us, and the rest of the food had to come from one other restaurant only. Everything was cold.  Not sure we would do that again.
cocktails and appies seem to be a fairly regular event in the royal loft suite with three super cool, super fun fellow star classers.  Another family have also joined in, so we are more like a posse.  A lovely man by the name of Marion comes at 3:30 to take drink orders and keeps coming back to replenish the depleted. The  posse is trying to sign up again for the chefs table, with the kids left in a suite for pizza and a movie.  
Loved the reserved seating at the shows.......Luciano meets us outside about ten minutes before to seat us and take our drink order.
we are in noumea, New Caledonia today with no plans. Will likely get off and taxi in to the city for a look around.....we are having a lazy day. 

Speednoodles, this lunch is for you......

Speednoodles, this lunch is for you......

Speednoodles, this lunch is for you......

Kümmelweck?  What the heck is that?  Food I presume.  I will confirm the availability of this for the ou AND learn something new in the doing.....
saw pixels and a hypnotist last evening and both were great!  In room dining however, was not.  Luciano said he would pick up from izumis for us, and the rest of the food had to come from one other restaurant only. Everything was cold.  Not sure we would do that again.
cocktails and appies seem to be a fairly regular event in the royal loft suite with three super cool, super fun fellow star classers.  Another family have also joined in, so we are more like a posse.  A lovely man by the name of Marion comes at 3:30 to take drink orders and keeps coming back to replenish the depleted. The  posse is trying to sign up again for the chefs table, with the kids left in a suite for pizza and a movie.  
Loved the reserved seating at the shows.......Luciano meets us outside about ten minutes before to seat us and take our drink order.
we are in noumea, New Caledonia today with no plans. Will likely get off and taxi in to the city for a look around.....we are having a lazy day. 

Kümmelweck?  What the heck is that?  Food I presume.  I will confirm the availability of this for the ou AND learn something new in the doing.....
saw pixels and a hypnotist last evening and both were great!  In room dining however, was not.  Luciano said he would pick up from izumis for us, and the rest of the food had to come from one other restaurant only. Everything was cold.  Not sure we would do that again.
cocktails and appies seem to be a fairly regular event in the royal loft suite with three super cool, super fun fellow star classers.  Another family have also joined in, so we are more like a posse.  A lovely man by the name of Marion comes at 3:30 to take drink orders and keeps coming back to replenish the depleted. The  posse is trying to sign up again for the chefs table, with the kids left in a suite for pizza and a movie.  
Loved the reserved seating at the shows.......Luciano meets us outside about ten minutes before to seat us and take our drink order.
we are in noumea, New Caledonia today with no plans. Will likely get off and taxi in to the city for a look around.....we are having a lazy day. 

Kümmelweck?  What the heck is that?  Food I presume.  I will confirm the availability of this for the ou AND learn something new in the doing.....
saw pixels and a hypnotist last evening and both were great!  In room dining however, was not.  Luciano said he would pick up from izumis for us, and the rest of the food had to come from one other restaurant only. Everything was cold.  Not sure we would do that again.
cocktails and appies seem to be a fairly regular event in the royal loft suite with three super cool, super fun fellow star classers.  Another family have also joined in, so we are more like a posse.  A lovely man by the name of Marion comes at 3:30 to take drink orders and keeps coming back to replenish the depleted. The  posse is trying to sign up again for the chefs table, with the kids left in a suite for pizza and a movie.  
Loved the reserved seating at the shows.......Luciano meets us outside about ten minutes before to seat us and take our drink order.
we are in noumea, New Caledonia today with no plans. Will likely get off and taxi in to the city for a look around.....we are having a lazy day. 

UPDATE:
Since receiving the Pre Cruise questionnaire we, as a family, have been talking about this cruise constantly.  It's become a running joke between the kids and I, bc every third or fourth convo we have, I start with "Do you wanna talk about the cruise?"  
We leave Sydney March 21; we sent our surveys back to our Genie within a week of receipt (four separate surveys, which I've no doubt makes the Genie's hair curl).  Can't you just send one???!!
We checked in tfor our cruise on February 18th.
On February 20th, we received our Introductory email from our Genie.  Seems we have hit the jackpot, with Mr. Luciano Santos as our grand Poobah.  I have read wonderful things about this gentleman, and am really looking forward to meeting him!
Aside from self-booking spa and shore excursions, it seems he wants to hear from us about our dining and entertainment preferences.
There are no menus or anything attached to this email.  From what I've readi here and on Facebook, this can be an inclusion, so perhaps that's still coming....
 

No problem with the questions.....happy to help.  Chefs table.....I am trying to raise a couple of great home chefs, so originally planned to take the kids, but a fellow star class cruiser said "they'll be bored silly......send them to CK".  We followed her advice and I'm glad I did.  The kids would have been bored by the length of the service, and as entertaining as Andrej was, it wouldn't have been enuf for my two.  Plus, I think their presence might (ok, likely) would detract from the experience for my fellow diners, some of whom paid some pretty big dineros to sit at that table.  
you know what would be fun?  A kids chefs table!  I don't mean the standard kids menu fare, but a great menu with very entertaining service and a kids-level introduction to each of their courses.......how awesome would that be for kids?  I think I'll make that suggestion to someone.....

No problem with the questions.....happy to help.  Chefs table.....I am trying to raise a couple of great home chefs, so originally planned to take the kids, but a fellow star class cruiser said "they'll be bored silly......send them to CK".  We followed her advice and I'm glad I did.  The kids would have been bored by the length of the service, and as entertaining as Andrej was, it wouldn't have been enuf for my two.  Plus, I think their presence might (ok, likely) would detract from the experience for my fellow diners, some of whom paid some pretty big dineros to sit at that table.  
you know what would be fun?  A kids chefs table!  I don't mean the standard kids menu fare, but a great menu with very entertaining service and a kids-level introduction to each of their courses.......how awesome would that be for kids?  I think I'll make that suggestion to someone.....

No problem with the questions.....happy to help.  Chefs table.....I am trying to raise a couple of great home chefs, so originally planned to take the kids, but a fellow star class cruiser said "they'll be bored silly......send them to CK".  We followed her advice and I'm glad I did.  The kids would have been bored by the length of the service, and as entertaining as Andrej was, it wouldn't have been enuf for my two.  Plus, I think their presence might (ok, likely) would detract from the experience for my fellow diners, some of whom paid some pretty big dineros to sit at that table.  
you know what would be fun?  A kids chefs table!  I don't mean the standard kids menu fare, but a great menu with very entertaining service and a kids-level introduction to each of their courses.......how awesome would that be for kids?  I think I'll make that suggestion to someone.....

No problem with the questions.....happy to help.  Chefs table.....I am trying to raise a couple of great home chefs, so originally planned to take the kids, but a fellow star class cruiser said "they'll be bored silly......send them to CK".  We followed her advice and I'm glad I did.  The kids would have been bored by the length of the service, and as entertaining as Andrej was, it wouldn't have been enuf for my two.  Plus, I think their presence might (ok, likely) would detract from the experience for my fellow diners, some of whom paid some pretty big dineros to sit at that table.  
you know what would be fun?  A kids chefs table!  I don't mean the standard kids menu fare, but a great menu with very entertaining service and a kids-level introduction to each of their courses.......how awesome would that be for kids?  I think I'll make that suggestion to someone.....

Well I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has never experienced "reservations" at breakfast.....
today started with a 15-minute late in room breakfast as we were dashing off the boat at 8 for a half day tour (booked by a wonderful trio staying in the royal loft suite).  In suite coffee maker, an Nespresso knockoff, just isn't cutting it, so I'm up in that Conceirge Lounge every morning, doing three espresso shots and then a cafe latte, all in the same cup. For those of u not counting, that's roughly 530 steps, and two flights of stairs, but I digress......
Wour friends genie took us right to the tender and away we went.  I was told later that it can take folks til as late as 1 pm to get OFF the ship, so I felt extra lucky today.  We went to a lagoon for swimming for an hour, and then a fresh water lake/waterfall.  Lots of cruise people there as well, so obviously, this was a book able cruise excursion. 
Didnt wait long to get on a tender and back to the boat.
had a humiliating go at the trapeze this evening before heading to Izumifor dinner.  Food was terrific, ambience  was similar to a 7-eleven.  It was nearly riotous in Atmosphere. Won't be rushing back there, tho the edamame was to die for!
I did not know this before today, but on port days, room service is limited to the regular room service menu.  Lunch was hard to find as we didn't get back onboard and cleaned up til 2ish, so I ended up grabbing a slice of pizza at Sorrentos, which was quite good.  They also serve a few varieties of salad here.
 

I'm sorry I throw them out daily.  I can keep today's onward tho!
day 3 ended at Jamie's which was absolutely fantastic.  Once again, service is a little slow, but the menu was fantastic and the food marvelous.  Had bruschetta, calamari and garlic bread.....excellent.  Mains were very good also......kids had sliders, pumpkin had lamb which he thought was pretty good and I had ummm, gosh I can't remember right now what I had.  It will come to me. Kids and I were tired, but hubby cajoled the boy into going to Legs, Love, Live and The girl and I came to bed.
So day 4 was our third consecutive day at sea......we had breakfast at Coastal Kitchen, tho my son wanted to try the main dining room for breakfast so we tried there first.  There are four main dining rooms onboard; whichever one we went to we were turned away as we hadn't made reservations.  The second one we went to the people were lined up twenty deep.  So CK it was.....
After breakfast, I went swimming with the kids.  There is a cigarette smoke smell that drifts into the indoor (ish) pool area.  There is a small lazy river and water slides for smaller kids at the outdoor pool.  My two were too big for those. After that we received a private bridge tour, as we ran into the captain a couple of nights earlier and we recognized him from a previous cruise so he was good enough to arrange a private more close up tour.  Crazy small world, I met an Officer up there who grew up in the same part of the city as me (Winnipeg) so it was like old homecoming week there for about twenty minutes....."so did you know so and so?"......
from there it was lunch at of all places, windjammer.  Nothing there appealed to me, but hubby ate....said it was ok.  Then it was on to the skydiving simulator again, then kids tried rollerskating ( be prepared......go early enuf to put all the equipment on, get the skates, and be aware that the safety equipment is pretty gross......Velcro is old, elastics are stretched and it's sweaty! )
dinner was at the chefs table......I have never done one before. I'm a foodie and I love learning about food and cooking so I really enjoyed it.  The food was sublime and the server, Andrej, was hilarious.  He was doing tricks with water glasses and champagne corks and bottles.....and there was a really nice group of people around the table.  I felt very fortunate and rather tipsy.....there were some really lovely wines throughout the meal and by the end of the whole thing, with a full belly and a bit too much wine onboard, I just wanted to go home to sleep!
I'm still trying to hook Luciano up with Eva......stay tuned......

Well our room service arrived and with it a bottle of champagne......I guess six glasses is a bottle, so he said it's basically a wash.
ordered some veggies and dip and fresh berries.....I thought it would be a break from the heavier fare we seem to be inhaling at every turn on this ship!
 

I'm sorry I throw them out daily.  I can keep today's onward tho!
day 3 ended at Jamie's which was absolutely fantastic.  Once again, service is a little slow, but the menu was fantastic and the food marvelous.  Had bruschetta, calamari and garlic bread.....excellent.  Mains were very good also......kids had sliders, pumpkin had lamb which he thought was pretty good and I had ummm, gosh I can't remember right now what I had.  It will come to me. Kids and I were tired, but hubby cajoled the boy into going to Legs, Love, Live and The girl and I came to bed.
So day 4 was our third consecutive day at sea......we had breakfast at Coastal Kitchen, tho my son wanted to try the main dining room for breakfast so we tried there first.  There are four main dining rooms onboard; whichever one we went to we were turned away as we hadn't made reservations.  The second one we went to the people were lined up twenty deep.  So CK it was.....
After breakfast, I went swimming with the kids.  There is a cigarette smoke smell that drifts into the indoor (ish) pool area.  There is a small lazy river and water slides for smaller kids at the outdoor pool.  My two were too big for those. After that we received a private bridge tour, as we ran into the captain a couple of nights earlier and we recognized him from a previous cruise so he was good enough to arrange a private more close up tour.  Crazy small world, I met an Officer up there who grew up in the same part of the city as me (Winnipeg) so it was like old homecoming week there for about twenty minutes....."so did you know so and so?"......
from there it was lunch at of all places, windjammer.  Nothing there appealed to me, but hubby ate....said it was ok.  Then it was on to the skydiving simulator again, then kids tried rollerskating ( be prepared......go early enuf to put all the equipment on, get the skates, and be aware that the safety equipment is pretty gross......Velcro is old, elastics are stretched and it's sweaty! )
dinner was at the chefs table......I have never done one before. I'm a foodie and I love learning about food and cooking so I really enjoyed it.  The food was sublime and the server, Andrej, was hilarious.  He was doing tricks with water glasses and champagne corks and bottles.....and there was a really nice group of people around the table.  I felt very fortunate and rather tipsy.....there were some really lovely wines throughout the meal and by the end of the whole thing, with a full belly and a bit too much wine onboard, I just wanted to go home to sleep!
I'm still trying to hook Luciano up with Eva......stay tuned......