Traveling Mike

2 hours ago, Kdwilly said:

We’re going to be doing a back to back coming up and we’ll be needing our laundry done. I was checking the prices and wondering if I’m looking at it correctly. Is it actually $1.99 per underwear

I just got off of a B2B and they had a special as much as you can put into a small bag for $29.   I took some tide pods and washed some items to get me through the second week in the sink.  I washed them in the sink and then rinsed them in the shower.  When I did my blue jeans I had to use the blow dryer to finish drying them.  The other cloths dried overnight.

I went on the Symphony of the Seas two weeks ago and loved it.  I want to take my son on the ship but I am afraid that everything I loved will be completely different when the ship is full.  We only had 2800 cruisers on the ship.  Can the people that have been on the ship when it was full give me their opinion of the ship?  Are you still able to do everything you want or will it be like moving through Times Square at New Years Eve?

I often get lunch or midnight snack and take back to my room from the buffet.  I get two plates.  one on the bottom for the food and one on top to cover the food while I am carrying it back to the room.  I also have asked for my desert to go when I am full.  They will give it to you with the cover on it.

Just a warning.  You might want to try the food at lunch before you give up your dinner at the main dining room.  I just got off the Symphony of the Seas and the Windjammer food was terrible.  I tried it three times and was sorry each time.

On 2/27/2022 at 7:43 AM, Ernesto said:

I do not agree with Royal Caribbean in canceling the part of call the St Petersburg, that is a problem between governments (political) why we have to pay for a situation that we did not cause...

I understand you do not agree but I am upset with companies that continue to do business with anything owned or dealing with Russia.  I am very upset that the United States government is continuing to purchase oil from Russia.  We each have our opinions and mine and your are different but that is OK.

53 minutes ago, Prkr11701 said:

Looking to watch for shareholder OBC but not sure where to look for it. 

You request it at Shareholder Benefit | RCCL Investors (rclinvestor.com)

As soon as they apply it you will see it on the Cruise Planner for your cruise.  Royal Caribbean Account

I just got off last week:

Symphony of the Seas:  Feb 12th was 2,800 and it holds 6,680.

Celebrity Reflection:  Feb 19th was 1,200 and it holds 3,046

Coming Tomorrow... how did my counting calories and weight loss go on both ships.

Before I do my overview, I wanted to let you know how dumb I am.  On the last day I found two things.  The first one is I found the trash can in the bathroom.  I spent the week wondering why there was not a trash can in the bathroom.  Yesterday I noticed that there were three drawers, and one was very long.  I opened it and found.... it was a trash can.  The second thing I figured out... the on-demand movies are all FREE.  I was looking around the tv and figured out the cost of all the on demand movies was $0.

Overview of the Celebrity Reflection

I would like to start out with I had a good cruise and had lots of fun; I would do it again.  Now with that said...

Cabins:  The cabin was nice, clean and comfortable but very dated.  The first thing that caused me issues is power.  It had no clue what USB was.  Then the only power was at the table and the table is not close to the bed or couch.  I can say my room Stuwart brought me 2 short extension cords and we ran them from the desk, behind the couch and over to the bed.  The TV was new and played pretty well.  There was a safe and it was big enough to hold my laptop.  On port days I felt better locking my laptop up.  The closet was as big as the one I have at home.  

Shows:  The shows were very good.  They had three different Bradway type shows, a Diva Singer, a Violinist, a 50's-60's Rock piano singer and a comedian.  The 50's-60's Rock piano singer was so good they added a third show the following afternoon.  The comedian was only scheduled for one show, and they ended up doing 3 packed shows.  Hopefully in the future they do more comedy.

Food:  Save your money and do not purchase the specialty restaurants.  The food in the buffet and main dining room was so good save your money.  The specialty restaurants were good but not great.  The buffet also was open all day except for 30 minutes between meals.  It was also open until 1 am so we could get out late night fix.  The food and ability to get it made it really had for me to maintain my diet.  From the scale in the gym, I held my weight and did not lose any.  I will know for sure when I get home.

Staff:  90% of the staff was great.  The one exception was the bar tenders.  I talked to a couple of people, and everyone felt the bartenders did not like their job or helping us.  The other staff that did not seem helpful is the people in the next cruise office.  I went in there two times, and they were not helpful and acted like they did not want to help me.

Walk Eat Pack Play

I got off the port in Nassau and it was not too busy considering there were 5 ships in port.  To me it looked like most the other ports; jewelry and $5 t-shirts.  I looked for a nicer shirt or hat for my son, but the Nassau logo is bad, and they did not have anything that looked cool for a 25-year-old.  It is still amazing to me how there can be hundreds of stores and every one of them carry the same thing.  I walked the entire port area and got 2.5 miles of walking.

I wanted to eat in Nassau but did not see any place that looked like real Caribbean food.  The food was the same thing i could get on the ship.  I went back to the ship and got a hamburger and fries from the pool mast grill.  I heard about how good it was and it did not disappoint me.  I can say the fries were very good.  It amazed me how a grill on the Celebrity Reflection could produce good fries but a specialty restaurant on the RCL Symphony could not.

I took the food back to my cabin and ate while watching Jungle cruise.  After eating I finished packing my cloths.  It was not too hard because I followed something I heard on a different post, and it works.  I have packing cubes.  As I get dirty cloths, I pack them in one of the packing cubes.  When that packing cube gets full I put it in the suitcase and start a new packing cube.  On the last day of the cruise there is not much to pack.  I fished packing everything except for what I needed for the last night and my trip home.  I made a point in wearing my blue jeans and tennis shoes the last night, so I did not have extra cloths to leave out.  

I went to dinner with a friend I meet on the cruise.  We went to the Lawn Grill and this time the food was not as good as the second night of the cruise.  The waiting staff was not as good either.  I just wonder if they were slacking because it was the last night.  After dinner I went and made my last $10 donation to the casino, then attended the Broadway type show in the theater and then went and seen the comedian for the third time. 

Now I am setting in the airport waiting for 5 hours for my overbooked flights (3 of them) to go home.

Ready Set Go

After a lazy afternoon I left the cabin and went non-stop.  At first, I hit the Main Dining Room at 6 pm for dinner.  I have not said much about the Celebrity Main Dining room but in my opinion, it is very good and the service is great.  I ended up having the Baked Alaska for desert and I almost licked the plate it was so good.  I did notice that being solo at dinner I get done in about 1/2 the time of everyone else.  The table just by me was on their appetizer when I showed up and they were on their main course when I left.

I left dinner and made it to the show at 7 pm.  Katerina Rossa was performing on the violin.  You would think "Violin" boring, but it was not.  She started out with Classical and ended up with Queen.  She did it in a way that was entertaining.  After the 7 pm show I went and took part in battle of the sexes.  Earlier in the week the men destroyed the women so last night it was rigged.  After that activity I had time to go give $30 to the casino.  After my donation I went back to watch Katerina Rossa a second time.  I enjoyed it just as much the second time.

Silent Disco

If you have not done a Silent Disco, GO and do it hole heartily.  Everyone has headphones that play the music.  There are three channels that have three different types of music.  Each channel has a different color on the headset. The headsets are designed where you can only hear the music and nothing else.  You end up dancing and singing to the music.  If you take your headset off, it seems strange because these people are singing and no music.  And yes, the singing is normally bad, but no one cares because no one can hear each other.  It's kind of like singing in the shower.  The other strange thing is people will be dancing to different songs than you with a different tempo and actions.  Imagine someone dancing the macarena and you are dancing and listening to Queen, We will rock you.

Busy Port

Right now, we are in Nassau.  There are 4 ships in port, MSC. Celebrity, Holland and Celebrity.  I am leaving now and going to get my miles walking the port.

Day of Do Nothing

Today after I did my walk and had lunch I decided to go back to my room.  I had all intentions to go to a very good show at 2:30 pm with a new friend.  When I got to the room, I decided I did not want to do anything.  After 12 days on cruise ships, I was tired and did not want to do anything.  I ended up washing some cloths and watching a movie.  This is the one thing I love about cruising, if you want to do nothing you can do nothing.

Ship Impression Changing

When I got on the Celebrity Reflection, I was worried because this was a dated ship.  After 5 full days I feel a lot better about the ship.  It is still a dated ship but the staff and people on the ship make the difference.  The staff has gone out of their way to do everything possible to make our cruise better.  The ship entertainment has been very good.   The casino is good, not great, but you do get teased, and I hear some people that have made money.  We only have 1200 people on the ship, but they have added extra shows just to make sure we have entertainment.  You see ships officers every ware checking on things and they will jump in and get you a drink or clear your table.  The ships officers are not above anything.

Comedy or Not

I got myself in a little debate about comedy on the ship.  last week on the Symphony they had a comedy club and two comedians performing every night.  When I got on the Reflection there was only one comedian, and she was only performing one show in a small club.  Going in I talked to the cruise director and asked him about that, and he said Celebrity does not do much comedy, maybe one per week and some weeks none.  He said RCL does the comedy clubs.  Before the show started there was no room including standing room and they turned people away.  They decided to add a second night.  I sent an email to the main Celebrity Office suggesting they review this policy and on Monday they sent a notice back to me (through the cruise director) that they have talked to the booking agent, and they are going to try.  The second show last night was also a packed-out event and they had to turn people away again.  I put my two cents where it might not belong and wonder if I did the correct thing;  do people really want to see comedy on a ship?

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Our 3rd day was a stop in the Dominican Republic.  This is a new port and has only been open a couple of months.  I did not book a shore excursion and just got off the ship to walk.  The port area had shops and restaurants like most ports.  They were there to greet you but not pressure you.  Oce out of the port area there were police everywhere.  I found out that they were there to help the people from the cruise ship.  As soon as you got to a crossing they were out there and stop the traffic for you.  The walk to the town center was only a 10-minute walk.  There were lots of different kind of shops and services along the way.  In the center of town, they had a large town square that was very relaxing to set and enjoy the day.  Two blocks from the town square is a street they call "Umbrella Street".   They have umbrellas hung over the street the entire way.  At the corner there was a cigar shop that had to men making the cigars from hand.  I would have purchased one to take home to my son but I would not be able to stand the smell.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

When we got to St. Thomas I found out there are two different ports, and they are not close to each other.  The Royal Caribbean and Celebrity port is on the East side and not close to town and many of the attractions.  The other ships dock close to downtown.  I (again) did not book a shore excursion.  I got a shared taxi ($7) to the Sky Tram.  For $24 I rode the tram to the top of the hill.  Once there they had drink and food to purchase.  The only bad thing is the food was not what I would consider Caribbean food.  As soon as I got to the top, I started getting phone calls and spend the next 1 1/2 hours on the phone dealing with work.  I did not mind because I was relaxing at a great location and getting paid overtime to deal with it.  When I was ready to leave, we could not get a taxi to come to get me to take me to the ship.  I ended up going to the street and trying to catch a taxi.  after being turned down by 3 or 4 of them when they found out I wanted to go to the RCL Port I got on one that would take me to the town center.  I did a little shopping, and they shared a taxi with friends I ran into to the ship.

Note:  I just found out I lost all my photos from St. Thomas.  I guess I was only there in my mind...

Ketchup

The momma, papa and baby tomato were walking down the street and the baby tomato was having trouble staying with his parents.  The papa turned around and smacked him on the head and said "Ketchup".  Seriously, I am going to try to catch up my trip.  This trip I seem to be busy all the time.   I am currently on day 5 and it seems like I just got on.  I have lost track of day of the week.

Food

The food has been good but not outstanding.  On the Symphony the Chops, 150 and Wonderland was great food.  The other specialty restaurants were good, and the buffet was terrible.  On the Celebrity Reflection the buffet is good to very good, but the specialty restaurants are just good.  I did find the AquaSpa Cafe is very good.  They service healthy food.  I have been getting their Chicken Salad and fruit plate.  Yesterday I went to the Mast Grill (hamburgers by the pool) and got a hamburger patty and took it to the AquaSpa Cafe and supplemented it with Chicken Salad and fruit.  That was a very good and healthy meal.  Here are the specialty restaurants I have been to:

Lawn Club Grill:  This is on the top deck next to the lawn (real grass).  If there was not covid you could help prepare you flat bread and steak.  Now you order what you want, and they bring it to you.  It is great environment, and the food was good down to earth. 

Tuscan Grille:  This is an Italian restaurant that wants to be a steakhouse.  The view was great, and the service was great.  The steak was so-so and I ended up only eating 1/2 of it.  I got a small portion of lasagna, and it was good.  A little too much meat and not enough pasta and sauce.  I have a drink package but none of their drinks were under the basic drink package price.

Le Petit Chef at Qsine:  This is more of a show than food, but the food is good.  They do a show on your table of a little chef making your meal.  Then they bring you what the little chef made.  On our night a lady had a little too much to drink before she came, and everyone could hear everything she thought about the show.  Drunk cometary is never good.

Murano:  tomorrow night 

Married vs Single

I know some of you are following this because I am a solo (single) cruiser, and you want to see what it is like or if it compares to you.  Something happened to me tonight that made me evaluate my life choice.  First before I get into that I want to let you know a little about me that will help you.  I have been married two times; in my 20's and in my 30's.  I still like (maybe love) my ex-wives.  I have been single and a single father for the last 24 years.  My son's mom has not been in the scene, so it has been the two of us for the 24 years.  I have been single by choice, and I can say I like my life the way it is.  

Now for what I am talking about.  Traveling on cruise ships you are confronted with married couples all the time.  Cruise ships do things for couples all the time including pricing and formal nights.  Every time I book a cruise, I am reminded that I am single and have to pay extra for that choice.  Every formal night I want to hide not come out.  All the couples dressed up in their best blocking the stairs to take their pictures.  On those nights you can see all the solo cruisers spread out in the buffet.  Some of the time they do not realize what they are doing.  last night I had dinner and went to a show with a couple from Canada.  They were so friendly and made me feel so welcomed with them.  But some of the time that is the problem.  I wish I had what they have, a loving caring relationship.

But then there are times like tonight that help me realize I like my life and being single.  I was at a nice Italian Steak House eating dinner.  I was all dressed up because I wanted to be that way.  Setting next to me was a couple.  When I sat down, she was complaining about the way they brought the wine.  Then it was complaining about the appetizer, how they did it.  Then it was the way her husband should have ordered his meal.  It went on and on for the entire meal.  Her husband just sat there not saying two words.  I could not see him (his back was to me) but I am sure he was "Just shoot me". 

I know this is not normal, but it reminds me that we are all different.  Some of the time we are happy with our lives and some of the time we are not.  I can honestly say I am happy with my life and would not trade it with anyone. (Maybe Elon Musk but that is another story)

First Day (sea day)

Time has changed... I am running late .  I got up this morning and dressed to go walking and get my base weight for the cruise.  Brought up the cruise app to see where I was going and found out it was an hour later than I thought, and our slot pull (that I was running) was starting in 40 minutes.  I decided to just make a quick trip to the gym and check my weight.  When I got on the scale it was 20 lbs lighter than I expected.  There was a fellow cruiser next to me and he checked his weight, and it was what he expected.  The short of this story... I do not know what I weigh until I get home.

Slot Pull of Fun

I got to the slot pull and the Casino Manager was there to help me with anything I needed.  He had setup a slot machine for us to use and saved the area.  He had compiled 4 prize packages that were very nice.  I got everyone's names and collected their money.  We ended up with 45 people putting in $20 each.  We had lots of fun, and everyone got 4 pulls for their money.  Some did good and some did not so good.  At the end we ended with everyone getting $15 back.  So, the slot pull cost them $5 and they had lots of fun.

Running I-95

For those of you that was wondering if the cruise lines will help you with Back-to-Back or Side-to-Side Sailing the answer is Yes (maybe).  If the ships are in the same family, they will help you.  For those of you that have never heard of Side-to-Side that is Back-to-Back but with different ships.  Yesterday the Symphony of the Seas gave me a free covid test.  Today they loaded me and my bags up and took us from Miami Port to Fort Lauderdale Port (Port Everglades) at no cost.  Now how did things go?  I don't want to really blame RCL or Celebrity.

1. I went to the Buffet on the Symphony of the Seas and got breakfast at 6:30 am.  I took it back to my room to find out the only thing worth eating was the bacon.  They seemed to find a way of messing up Tater Tots and Eggs.  Even the biscuit that looked good was really bad.  So, the sort of breakfast was RCL helped me with my diet.
2. After waiting in my room for my group to be called the checkout was really fast.  I did not stop walking the entire way through.  i left my room and did not stop moving until I was at my bus.  The immigration was look into the camera and smile.
3. The bus ride... do I really want to get into this?   To start they were not sure what they were doing loading the bus.  The bus driver did not speak English.  They had a bus driver and someone to handle bags.  The bus driver that did not speak English wanted to control all the bags, so the other gentleman just stood and watched.  The bus only had about 15 people on it (big bus).  When they stopped at the Fort Lauderdale airport, they had everyone stay on the bus while they just pulled out bags.  Everyone was so concerned that their bags would get left at the airport they all moved to the side windows to make sure their bags were not there.  Then they let the people off the bus that were trying to catch flights.  Needless to say, they were missing bags.  The people with the missing bags had to tell them were under the bus the bags were located.  Then off to the cruise port.  The first stop was right in front of a ship with the name clearly on its "Reflection" (my ship).  The person that did not speak English told everyone this was the Apex.  Then he left to pull out the bags for the Apex.  Then one of the nice ladies on the bus that spoke Spanish went out and explained that he was at the Reflection.  Then they closed up the bus and was getting ready to take off again without letting me off.  I quickly went out and told them I was staying and needed my bag.  Somehow from just loading my bag on the bus and pulling it back off they put a few scratches on it.  What fun.
4. There was a security guard and a Celebrity personnel watching this fun so once I got my bag, they walked me over to the porters to drop off my bag and put me in the line with all the people in suites to check in (no I had an ocean view room).  The Celebrity person told me when they asked if I was in the suite to tell them he put me there.  That line went really fast.  Then when I went to check in, I found out they had upgraded me from ocean view to Deluxe Balcony.  In a matter of minutes, I was on the ship.

First Impressions

Going from the Symphony of the Seas (5 years old) to the Celebrity Reflection (10 years old) was not a great first impression.  The Reflection looked and felt like an older ship.  The colors are dim and not bright and energizing.  The Cabin is nice but very old style.  There are only 3 power sockets in the cabin and no USB ports.  There is one in the celling in the bathroom.  There are two at the desk 10 foot from the bed.  After talking to my room steward, he brought me a couple of extension cords so I can have power at my bedstand.  I had dinner at the main dining room after waiting 40 minutes for a table to open up (my fault for coming at 7:00 pm).  The dinner was top notch service and very good prime rib of beef.

Stange Things

I want to the Martini Bar and order a Limon Drop martini to find out martinis at the Martini are not in the basic drink package price.  How can a basic Martini not be in a basic drink package?   When I went to the show tonight int eh theater I found out they do not serve drinks in the theater.  If you want a drink you have to go, get your own in the bar outside the theater.  I ordered a whiskey and diet coke.  They asked what kind of whiskey and I told them their choice (bad move).  Normally they will give you the best they can but this time he gave me southern comfort.  Then he tried to give me Coke 0 as diet coke.  I tried to explain they were not the same thing, and he could not understand.  The last strange thing tonight is I want into the Cruise Next area to see about booking a cruise for 2024 and they did not care if I booked a cruise or not.  They did not offer much help or offer to get me information.  I hate pushy sales, but this was the complete opposite.

Now it is time to sleep and see what tomorrow brings

2 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Very interesting review, thanks for sharing.  And well done with your diet. That's willpower!

All the Oasis class ships have that running/walking track down on deck 5. I love them. So much better than dodging loungers and having to do a gazillion laps to the mile!

 

Thank you for letting me know about the track being on the Oasis ships.  I have never used a walking track and just walked the ship because of dodging loungers.  This is the first time I had something that was usable on a ship.

Wrap It Up

This is my summary of the week.  Just remember these are my impressions and I am very different than most people.  If you have questions, please ask.

1. Counting Calories:  It is very hard.  The one restaurant said the chiefs should know the calorie count, but I found out it is "Should".  They don't know and don't care.  I the app I use I was able to guess on things that were close to the same thing I was having and chose the ones with higher calories.  I weighed in the gym the first day and weighed today and ended up losing my 2 lbs.  At home I have an expensive scale that tells me everything and last Saturday when I weighed it showed me 8 lbs. heavier than at home.  I just used that as a baseline and my goal was to stay that same weight.  
2. The Shows:  I try to understand that this is covid times and the ship is under 50% full.  I felt the live music around the ship was very good.  I really liked the bands that were in the promenade on the center stage.  The comedians were just OK.  Nothing to write home about and their act did not change during the week.  The stage show last night was top notch.  I would go back to see it again and you could tell they spent a lot of effort on the show.  The Aqua Theater was great.  My room overlooked the theater so i was able to watch the show every night it played.  I just wished they did a little more from the high platforms. 
3. The walking/jogging track:  All ships should design their track the way it is on the Symphony.  I think one of the best things about the ship is the walking track.
4. FOOD ** in order of best to not best
   1. Chops:  I feel at home and the steaks are great.  Not fancy just good food.
   2. Playmakers:  The service is great.  The wings were very good and kept me on my diet.
   3. Wonderland:  Not an every night thing but what an experience.
   4. Johnny Rockets:  Even with them destroying my diet they had great service and really good burger (#12) and onion rings.  
   5. Jamies Italian:  Great service and good food.  My son is the big pasta eater, but I enjoyed my meal here.
   6. Hooked Sea Food:  Good Sea food but all I can remember is how bad the french fries were.
   7. 150 Central Park:  To fancy for me and not my cup of tea.
   8. El Loco Fresh:  Not bad for a quick bite
   9. Sorrento's Pizza:  OK pizza but not worth the calories 
   10. Windjammer Buffet:  Not a great buffet and hours of operation were terrible.  I like the buffet late at night and they are closed.
   11. Central Park Cafe:  The food was so bad I did not eat it and left to go find something else to eat.

Note:  Overall I love the ship.  I will be coming back and next time bring my son and part of my extended family.

Real Meal at 150 Central Park

I saved the calories and went for a full meal at 150 Central Park.  150 Central Park is a fancy restaurant that I would classify it as an "Above my class" restaurant.  I got the same waiter as the night before and he brought me the bread with my menu.  I am not sure what was on top of the bread other than butter, but it was too good.  You could destroy your meal with just the hot bread.  I decided this meal was going to be "everything I have never had" meal.  I started out with seared scallops.  I figured out scallops do not have a taste to me.  Next came the main meal.  I got Venison Loin.  If you are not failure with it, it is a very lean meat from deer.  I was surprised I did like it.  I just had to not think of it as beef because it had a completely different texture; think and dense.  The last think was my desert.  The waiter said I had to get the fried cheesecake.  In my mind I was picturing like they do at the fair with everything you can imagine, put a slice of cheesecake in batter and deep fry it.  What I got was not that.  It was cheesecake filling deep fried with a very light thin shell.  It was paired with something between a cream and meringue.  This was what I call a "One Bite Desert".  You can take one bite close your eyes and enjoy.  I can stop with one bite because it is so good.  I did not want to waste so I ate both of them.  If you have this desert have some black coffee with it.  That made the perfect pairing.

Just what I expected

Yesterday I went on the excursion "East End Sites and Garifuna Culture".  Before I booked it, I did my research and knew it was not going to be a great excursion.   The reviews were not bad but not great.  It ended up being almost what I expected.  We got a medium sized bus and drove up the island to the northeast corner.  During the drive the tour guide tried to tell us everything about her island Roatan Honduras.  We stopped at a "Ship Reck" but they did not let us get off and it was just a bunch of metal left from a ship next to the shore.  It was so impressive no one took pictures.  When we got to the main location, they walked us over to this patio and put us in rows of seats.  They gave us water and some type of fish stew.  Most people did not take the stew and I did not blame them after I ate mine.  Then they played some drums, chanting and what they called dancing.  It was just like the other reviews and the people looked like they did not want to be doing this for us.  After they were done (15 minutes) they had tables setup with things to purchase.  Then we drove back to the ship.  I got what I wanted out of the excursion.  I got to see the island.  If I was going to do this over, I would have just rented a taxi at the port and let them show me the island.  Roatan is a tourist stop where I question if they are helping or hurting the people that live there.  They live in shacks and make very little money.  The price of everything is inflated from foreigners coming in.

American Mexican Food

Just really quick.  When I got back, I had a late lunch at El Loco Fresh.  I am from Central California where it is farm country and 1/2 of our population is from Mexico.  We know what Mexican food is and this was not it.  Don't get me wrong, it was not bad, it just was not asthenic Mexican food.  I would just call it good American Mexican food.

Flight... Dare to Dream

Last night I went to the first and only real show at the Royal Theater.  It was the full production Bradway type show.  The show was about the history of flight.  It started in the future and moved backward through time.  It was fast moving and had singing, dance and people flying through the air.  It was one of those shows where you wander "where do I watch".  There are so many things going on at once that you want to watch.  They ended the show with one of the Wright Brothers (Orville and Wilbur Wright) flying a real sized plane through the air above the audience.  

Fast Low-Calorie Dinner at 150

Just a quick review of my dinner tonight at 150 Central Park.  I used all my calories at Johnny Rockets and my lunch was at 2:00 pm so I had to make adjustments for dinner.  I moved my dinner from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.  I also had to figure out how to eat for 600 calories.  I showed up and was seated.  The waiter gave me the menu and disappeared.  He showed back up 5 minutes later with this bread that was covered with butter and looked like one of the best things I have seen in a long time.  I took a deep breath and asked him to take it away.      When he came back, I let him know that I had to limit my eating tonight and there was not going to be bread, an appetizer or desert.  I ordered the pan seared halibut and warm potato salad (don't look below).   I was also able to order one glass of wine.  Now if you want to know if it was any good... look below at the picture  

Note:  Tomorrow I am going back and have all the courses.  I will give you a better review.

Thomas is Amazing

Today is Cozumel Day.  I ended up going on the tour "Island Roots, Honey and Chocolate Traditions" booked though RCL.  Our tour could have been "it's OK" but turned into a really good tour just because of the tour guide.  Our tour guide was Thomas, and he loves his island.  He spent the entire 3 1/2 hours telling us everything he knew about Cozumel.  I found out that there is only one main road around Cozumel that goes along the coastline around 3/4 of the island.  We first went south to the Mayan Cacao company.  We did an outside tour that showed a few things about the Mayan people and how they used cacao (chocolate).  Thomas did this part of the tour.  Then he dropped us off in a lecture hall where we got a demonstration on making chocolate.  The young man talked and showed us what it takes to process the coco bean and make the chocolate.  When he was done the chocolate was made.  Then we were moved into a tasting room where it was explained how Tequila is made and we were given a very small tasting of 5 different types of Tequila.  Tequila is not my thing, so I baled as soon as it was done.  Downstairs was a gift shop that had tasting of all the different flavors of chocolate they make.  I tasted a couple and ended up purchasing "Cranberry, Almonds and Grapes" chocolate bar.  After that we went drove south then back north along the east coast of Cozumel.  The beach was beautiful on the east coast.  As we headed back west through the middle of the island, we stopped at the Mayan Bee Sanctuary.  This tour was about these stingless bees that make this special honey.  At the end we had a tasting and had a chance to purchase honey products.  After that we were back to the ship.  Here are some interesting things I learned:

• The island of Cozumel depends on tourism for the majority of its income.
• The soil on the island is poor and will not grow anything except with the exception scrubby tropical jungle that covers most of the island.
• The majority of the island is protected by the government
• The people live on the west side and when hurricanes come in, they hit the east side and the scrubby jungle helps kill the hurricane.
• The Cacao beans do not come from Cozumel, they are imported from the mainland.
• The Mayan Bee is not native of Cozumel, they are imported from the mainland

Johnny killed my calories

When I got back on the ship places to eat was limited.  I have been wanting to eat at Johnny Rockets, so I went.  I took my computer and did some work and had a good meal.  Before I get into what I had; Johnny Rockets is a typical Johnny Rockets but with sit-down service that was great.  I had the Original #12 and onion rings topped off with a large diet coke.  Yes, I entered my calories before ordering the food and it almost killed me.  I had to keep telling myself "I am on vacation".  The positive thing is before the meal came; I was able to figure out how to order dinner at 150 Central Park and only go over my calories by 25 (I hit the walking track to burn those before dinner).  If you are interested my calorie split is Breakfast 175 (chocolate bar); Lunch 1280 (Johnny's); Dinner 597 (Filet and Lobster).

Now I need to shower and go see if I can do the dinner for 597 and a show in the Royal Theater.  

Chops Grille did it right

I wanted to put this on its own post because I liked it so much.  When I went to dinner it was pouring rain.  It seemed strange being in the middle of the ship on deck 8 and running to the restaurant to keep from getting soaked.  When I got into Chaps, they made me feel right at home from the start.  I knew this was a top fancy steakhouse, but it did not feel like it, it felt like friends.  Do not get me wrong, it looked like a fancy place, but I felt comfortable there in my blue jeans and polo shirt.  I started my meal with Grilled Black Pepper Bacon.  It was good but not what I expected, and I would not order it again.  They brought me bread and the one that looked like pretzel was very good and soft in the middle.  The other bread was very bad and hard, not my liking.  Then came my 16 oz Prime Bone-In Ribeye; It filled the plate.  This was easily the best steak I have had in a very long time.  I added on the mushroom to give me some vegies.  I took my time and really enjoyed the meal.  I finished the meal with the Key lime Meringue Pie.  I took the meringue off and at the key lime filing.

When I was done, I changed my day 6 reservation to Chops Grill.  I will end up eating here 3 times out of the 7 dinners.   If you get the chance come and let me know if it is as good as I think it was.

Note:  After my dinner, before I left, the main waiter of the "Main Dining Room" came over to talk to me.  He tracked me down to find out why I have not been to the main dining room for any of my meals.  Evidently if you do not eat any meals there it looks bad for them.  I tried to tell him when you are counting calories you are picky about where and what you eat.  Maybe they need to make it easier to keep track of a diet in the main dining room then I would eat there all the time.