Jump to content

Symphony of the Seas - an island is an island is an island? (Feb 22 - 29, 2020)


SpeedNoodles

Recommended Posts

@SpeedNoodles, if you are referring to my list of ship facts, full disclosure, they gave us a fact sheet on Liberty at the end of the tour with all those details. I had started taking notes  during the tour, but gave up part way through. I was thrilled they handed those out. I take it you didn’t get one of those at the end of yours?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:35_thinking:For some reason I assumed you were D+ already.  I think those balls are Arancini, we had like 3 variations of them when we went to Italy and I always found them to be bland regardless of the ingredients. I think I am never going to do more than a 3 or 4 night dining plan because it seems like everyone who does the UDP stuffs themselves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, HAK1906 said:

Are you planning on hitting Hooked on this trip. It appears if it has mixed reviews?

 

Is there a lot going on around Playmakers. It appears to be a social gathering spot. 


March 7th, here I come,???

We've been to Hooked twice (lunch and dinner).  I loved everything. (See pics from Day 2 for lunch). We had dinner last night (I haven't gotten ahold to posting yesterday yet). Playmakers is busy at night, but we've never had to wait for service. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 4 - St. Maarten

Our first port day has arrived  Neither of us have ever been to St. Maarten, or anywhere in the actual Caribbean.  We had a quick breakfast in the Windjammer, Mr. SpeedNoodles grabbed a coffee, and soon the ship was cleared for people to begin their day!

We had a full-island ATV tour booked with Splash in the Sun Tours (3rd party), a tour that was recommended by Sharon and Jamie over at the "Sharon At Sea" YouTube channel.  Having never been there, we thought it would be a great way to see a large portion of the island.

We were supposed to meet the tour guides at 9:00 outside the main port gates, but the ship wasn't cleared until 9:15.  I'd emailed the tour the night before to warn them. When we got there we were greeted by Taz.  He told us that the rest of the group had already left, but we'd be going off with him.  Hey!!! Private tour! Sounded good to us!
Mr Speednoodles has driven all sorts of off-road vehicles, but I've never driven anything more than a golf cart while working at the zoo.  So when Taz explained how the machines worked, he pretty much just said to me "It's you I'm worried about."  Fair enough, Taz.

20200225_082751.thumb.jpg.256a1c1cee79d11c58ddfda2b659dd73.jpg
Backpack strapped onto the front of the machine, helmet in place on top of the head, we headed out - right onto the streets of Philipsburg.  And I do mean right out onto the streets.  Cars EVERYWHERE.  Full-speed traffic, roundabouts, you name it.  We went high into the hills, through tiny neighborhoods, on busy streets - everywhere.  Our first stop was Maho Beach.

We parked the ATVs and were told we'd have 20 minutes on the beach.  We headed out to the beach, found a little sliver of wall to sit on, and Mr SpeedNoodles jumped in the water.  And was nearly pulled into the ocean from the strong undertow.  He came back up to  inform me that I would not be getting into the water there.  Some may find this overprotective, but I was once nearly drown in a wave pool in the Wisconsin Dells, so I pretty much trust his judgement #itwasntpretty.  Two small planes came in while we were there, and both times I was too slow to catch any photographs.  Meh, I can always go onto YouTube and watch others videos if I want.  20 minutes went fast, and we headed back to board our ATVs to move on. 

20200225_090103.thumb.jpg.9ce8827456d8b71c267821b289797125.jpg

20200225_090153.thumb.jpg.59249b53e45a1148d254b665449581e1.jpg


We then eventually ended up at a nice, quiet place on a cliff overlooking a very pretty, quietish cove.  Taz again said we had 20 minutes.  We walked down what I can only describe as the stairs to hell - they were wildly dangerous.  We survived though, and it was quite pretty down there, despite the few nude sunbathers who I'm sure were wondering what the hell we were doing there.  The waves were again really strong - too strong for either of us to venture in too deep.  We were still on the Atlantic side of the island.

20200225_101604.thumb.jpg.a2617f0f53d31c0957db44582d37c636.jpg

20200225_100033.thumb.jpg.098ed4825a01915cd5518e90badb35e4.jpg

We wandered our way into the French side of the island and made a stop at a large, open air craft-type market. I wish I could tell you where we were, but I had no idea of what direction we were headed at any particular time, and Taz had a fairly strong accent, so even when he told us we didn't really understand.
We headed out to Friars' Bay, and had another 20 minutes to dip our toes in the water.  The water was much calmer.  As is typical me, I was overly obsessed with the wildlife, and spent the entire time watching a clan of pelicans on a rock who would take off, circle in the air, and then dive straight down into the water after fish.  That was my highlight of the beach.  The beach was nice too #butpelicans.

20200225_111045.thumb.jpg.97a70be13da6b4ddd60d8d5de45a9a8c.jpg

20200225_111028.thumb.jpg.5bd70b840e1a380330d64496b64260f3.jpg

20200225_111108.thumb.jpg.bad9f03ec7c378b384b4d1f5bc4b2f53.jpg


We stopped for lunch at an out-of-the-way place (again, I didn't get the name of it - it was on the French side, I may have to dig through Sharon's videos to get it).  There was nobody there except the owners, who I assume, possibly incorrectly, were husband and wife.  There was no menu.  He just read off what proteins he thought she had back in the kitchen.  I picked the snapper and Mr SpeedNoodles picked ribs.  What showed up was nothing short of fantastic.  I'm not sure I had better food anywhere in Miami or on the ship. 

 20200225_114432.thumb.jpg.708a229096916ff73d9d5f584f0575b5.jpg

20200225_120233.thumb.jpg.0fec54fddb2adcb880171e2f3ce83afb.jpg

20200225_120236.thumb.jpg.515ecfa2916d27e220d42d2855cb6f86.jpg

After lunch, we rode off to Orient Beach (no photography allowed).  We walked around a little bit, but the water was far too full of sea grass to bother going in.  We were getting pretty tired from riding, and from the 8 kilos of sand in our water shoes, so we didn't spend the entire 20 minutes there.

We had to skip going to the highest point on the island, where you can look at both the Dutch and French side at once, due to roads being closed off for Mardis Gras.  It happens, we were fine with it.

With that, we boogied on back to the ATV shop (nearly running over a little herd of little goats half on the road/half on the hill in a little residential neighborhood).  From what we can tell there are zero traffic laws anywhere on the island.  Anything can be driven on the roads, and whatever speed, while looking at any sort of device you like, and everyone's ok with it.

We got back to the ship in plenty of time, showered up and spent some time (read: probably too long) at the Copper & Kettle Pub with Malcom mixing up a variety of special concoctions for us.

We had dinner at Hooked, and then were just too exhausted to wait up until our 1977 reservations at 10:45 (who the hell made those? Oh yeah, me.)

Tomorrow.....Puerto Rico!!

20200225_195951.thumb.jpg.2e97c2ad2537e58e61e927f4acb12a78.jpg

(Typical dude, won't release his death grip on the fracking remote!!)

 

 

20200225_090138.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 5 - Puerto Rico

Despite the advice that I've heard forever, near and far, aIbout not booking an excursion in PR and just enjoying the fort and Old San Juan, I bucked the system.  Mr. SpeedNoodles wasn't particularly interested in even getting off the ship when we first started planning, UNTIL....

One day while while going through the excursions in the cruise planner for the 100th time I ran across an ATV tour. I know, I know, we did one in St. Maarten.  But this one....this one was a little more special.  Why was it special?  Well, let me tell you.

The ATV tour was at a place called Campo Rico.  At Campo Rico they do ATV tours, zip lining, archery lessons (huh?) and horseback riding. The camp is a small part of a very large ranch that has belonged to one family for at least 3 generations.  And they breed a very special type of horse.  The Paso Fino horse.  The Paso Fino is a very beautiful, sweet-tempered, gaited horse (meaning that they have a very comfortable way of moving - no jarring movements or trotting).  Some consider (including yours truly) consider them the Cadillac of horses. I bought my Paso Fino mare in 2004, when she was 3 years old.  For those who are too lazy to do the math, she will be 29 years old this May, and she's still going strong.  Her dam and maternal grandmother thrived to over 40 years old.  And I had an opportunity to go to "the homeland"!  My mare's maternal great grand dam and grand sire were directly imported from Puerto Rico in the 1970s. (Enough boring horse trivia for ya yet?  Zzzzzzzzz #notcruiserelated).

So, why not go there and ride Paso Finos, you may ask (and I have been asked).  Well, while Mr. SpeedNoodles would have done that with me to make me happy, he doesn't like riding horses (basically he can't turn it off with a key, and that doesn't please him). This seemed like an awesome compromise.  ATVs for him, and horses for me.  Win win.

They'd had a lot of rain that week and it was quite a mudding event.  I'll share some pics with captions below, but there's not a whole lot to say about it, really.  The weather was great (high 70s, overcast so not sweaty hot, and just windy enough to keep away bugs without being annoying).  I got it at a great deal of $104pp - one of those deals that I snagged totally randomly in between Cruise Planner sales and a price that never went below $140 after (I checked. Daily.).

I couldn't really take pics while driving the ATV - the mud in some places was at least a foot deep and stopping meant getting stuck #embarrassing 

20200226_105426.thumb.jpg.3f285004091a65aacbae6ca121b67a61.jpg

20200226_105429.thumb.jpg.7a4c25bda062e23ed43f362910975b53.jpg

20200226_110840.thumb.jpg.d4c5cd5baea3be2dda3e305e54e8d4a4.jpg

20200226_110906.thumb.jpg.146ed5134c66a3dcd365a557f4a52100.jpg

20200226_112419.thumb.jpg.097ed50e9d18dc11967d3d85fb5e0e0f.jpg

20200226_114835.thumb.jpg.2ba571a4e2953dcc4f51fd0af4dca501.jpg

Visiting the horse barn:

20200226_115857.thumb.jpg.e11ca30b2d1a61d60509cd08d08c5221.jpg

20200226_120158.thumb.jpg.b074ecd80e576ee329f6d7dd89ae24c2.jpg

Mare with foal in the pasture:

20200226_114750.thumb.jpg.9c8106a2504a3d0bd435914f2a81cfc5.jpg

They had a small aviary and I made an absolute fool of myself dancing with this gorgeous Salmon Crested Cockatoo.  

20200226_111525.thumb.jpg.ec3b7fc8486884aacd3e40f48561602c.jpg

We were almost ready to get on the bus when I spotted this adorable Puerto Rican Crested Anole

20200226_123334.thumb.jpg.13fabd68b126bf1ea3debca6fed6877f.jpg

20200226_123345.thumb.jpg.d383adf637025e4ad9b075cd667bec64.jpg<b

 

Obligatory pretty pigeon pic from Old San Juan:

20200226_084636.thumb.jpg.179ae657b810017f08de54973c684fd9.jpg

After we got back to the ship and washed a metric ton of mud off of us we headed down to Playmakers for some snacks. Holy crap, those nachos are big! We really liked the wings, too.  Oh, and Newcastle on tap is a win.

20200226_143614.thumb.jpg.38b6f3d66bb30c12604423c35a2c6a81.jpg

20200226_143832.thumb.jpg.5e9d49342c117f7987f88533af012806.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malcom at the Copper and Kettle made a beautiful Chocolate Martini for me:

20200226_162729.thumb.jpg.4bc4c693749d552284ab9a79bed93453.jpg

20200226_162725.thumb.jpg.94e25e087ed28cc12fad9bce6bf24ceb.jpg

Various desserts from the Windjammer (none of which we ate - for your entertainment only):

20200226_192046.thumb.jpg.ff365937add870eeea32432d8cc15cf1.jpg

20200226_192055.thumb.jpg.3b1f5fedc0f44ab6d1bfbcc527419e70.jpg

20200226_192114.thumb.jpg.107edba9a08b7db4986c114d1fd97beb.jpg

20200226_192121.thumb.jpg.f3df974914596f6e7e9ce87a70885e8b.jpg

20200226_192128.thumb.jpg.a9647ee368afcf082dbe63388f8ae9d3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How exciting !  I'm so happy that you found an excursion that suited you both.  I guess it will come as no surprise to you (since we are obviously twins, separated at birth - but maybe 20+ years apart !!) that I come from a horse background, too.  My parents raised and raced thoroughbreds.  Love me some ponies....but I had not heard of a Paso Fino before.  Thanks for teaching me something new !!  I haven't ridden a 5-gaiter since my Tennessee Walker dies many, many, many years ago.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

How exciting !  I'm so happy that you found an excursion that suited you both.  I guess it will come as no surprise to you (since we are obviously twins, separated at birth - but maybe 20+ years apart !!) that I come from a horse background, too.  My parents raised and raced thoroughbreds.  Love me some ponies....but I had not heard of a Paso Fino before.  Thanks for teaching me something new !!  I haven't ridden a 5-gaiter since my Tennessee Walker dies many, many, many years ago.

 

We'll have to have a toast to all of the beautiful horses we've known in October!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 6 - At Sea

Dagnabit, the cruise is getting too close to being over!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

We took this day to sleep in - it was the first time that we actually closed the drapes and didn't just let the sun wake us up.  This was pretty much Mr. SpeedNoodle's request. We really had nothing to do until 11:30, so we slept until about 9:00 and then hit the tail end of breakfast at the Solarium Bistro.

This morning we had the Escape the Rubicon escape room activity. While we waited for our group I had to take a few pics of the area - Adventure Ocean had such cute paintings (as far as we could see in), and it was just a very pretty area to wait. Who am I kidding, the entire ship is beautiful.

20200227_111640.thumb.jpg.c70561759063f36eac9bbeca2cc480cf.jpg

20200227_111734.thumb.jpg.fbd568232f1dea06bd7540c1a688d5b9.jpg

20200227_111805.thumb.jpg.eca9f36de3809fbd13a718cec90ea4ad.jpg

We were then ready for the Escape Room. We had about 9 people (one no-show).  I can honestly say that, while it was interesting, I've never spent that long being so confused and utterly useless in my life.  My mind just doesn't operate in such a manner to solve puzzles such as these (other kinds, yes, maybe - maybe not, feeling super dumb now).  Most of the rest of the team seemed to have their stuff (not my chosen term, but it's a family blog) together. But we did not solve it and escape. Not escaping didn't bother me as much as just feeling stupid and totally demoralized.

20200227_111655.thumb.jpg.1e165e6a4ed2b57ad037411f68797e3a.jpg

I had a solution for that, though:

20200227_125641.thumb.jpg.3da5737c0d36499701c5dfd3d76891c8.jpg

We grabbed a drink (we were skipping lunch because we'd decided to go to Chops for dinner instead of Wonderland, but the only reservation I could snag last minute was at 5pm) and headed over to watch the International Belly Flop competition. During the competition, Brian (cruise director) announced that they were going to hold an impromptu "HIRO" show in the AquaTheatre at 3pm, because they'd  had to cancel so many in the first few days of the cruise.  We already had our reservations from last Saturday rescheduled to Friday, but we decided to see if we could get in, just in case THAT one ended up being canceled as well.

We had no trouble getting in and grabbing a comfortable seat, and we loved the show.  While I thought the story line was pretty loose (ok, REALLY loose), I really enjoyed the entire show.  The performers were truly amazing (and brave).  Pics from the daytime show just aren't that spectacular so I'm only posting one of the woman who was constantly harnessed up and walking up above the audience. We were especially impressed with her.  We watched the crew put the 360 harness on her during the top tier event - that thing is TIGHT and the faces she made when they seemed to screw it into her hips really told it all.  The fact that she can smile through the entire performance might impress me the most.

20200227_150615.thumb.jpg.d3eb358ecc26542bb4a9e58d656ee10b.jpg

I also had to get my one ride on the carousel.  I've been obsessed with them my entire life, and I have no issues being the weird adult chick on the kids ride. I refused to let Mr. SpeedNoodles take any photos (which was easily accomplished since he never took his phone out of the safe all week and I wouldn't give him mine!)

By the time that was over it was time to get ready for dinner at Chops.  We found it to be really not good on Ovation in June, but decided to give it a shot, since we'd eaten everywhere else by then.

I started with the Carpacchio and the lobster bisque.  

20200227_171815.thumb.jpg.5aecc67b1e11f141f09a1e777e688c4d.jpg

20200227_172512.thumb.jpg.6829b4a22be31d7f17398fa30096b98e.jpg

My entree was the ribeye and Mr SpeedNoodles had the strip.  He really liked his. Mine was fine. But he grills steaks for us all of the time at home, buys really good cuts, and seasons them and cooks them just the way I like them, so I'm very difficult to impress when we go out for steak.  I should have tried the lamb, since we don't do that at home. By no means was it bad, it just wasn't as good as he makes it.

20200227_173858.thumb.jpg.3ee08f999a6b5bec1cd6ae732ebb32fb.jpg

We shared a slice of Key Lime Pie.  We dug into it before I remembered to take a picture.  It was ok. It wasn't as amazing as it was at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami (although they're kind of famous for it, so that's probably not a fair comparison).

We then wandered through the Promenade on the way to the Royal Theatre to see "Flight" and saw discovered this band playing above the Royal Shop - they were pretty good, but we had to keep moving....

20200227_193732.thumb.jpg.ff2b80ed3035fb9eb14de7f3402acb2e.jpg

Then we ran into the Stowaway Piano Player, and took a few minutes to ride the elevator with her.  She was good, but the music she played wasn't nearly as much fun as the guy on Navigator played.  But she was sweet and we liked her:

20200227_194155.thumb.jpg.e9210e4af783378e368c37d2690ee11a.jpg

We had some time before Flight and I remembered that they were performing iSkate in Studio B, so we ducked in there to catch that - we'd missed 1977 because I was dumb and scheduled that the night before St Maarten at some ridiculous hour like 10:30pm. 

We dodged over to see Flight next (not bad, not great - glad we saw it, wouldn't go see it again).

20200227_212320.thumb.jpg.5708239c52f972ea5fab8d2160a8f7bc.jpg

And then, although we'd been pretty much going from activity to activity all day, I insisted that we go to the Quest.  Mr SpeedNoodles had never been to one, and it's one of those things that simply can NOT be explained and must be experienced.  I didn't get any pics (my phone was effectively out of battery life by then), but it was one of the highlight activities of the week.  Mr SpeedNoodles plans to be prepared to participate on the October Group Cruise (he says he'll prepare with appropriate clothing choices and a few shots of tequila). 

We came back to these creatures in our stateroom.  I LOVED this little puppy.  I'd never had anyone leave anything like it.

20200227_234125.jpg

20200227_234135.jpg

And that was enough for a sea day.  Tomorrow is Coco Cay!!!!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 7 - Coco Cay!!!

If anyone's wondering (and you probably didn't know that you were until now), Captain Rick pronounced it "Cay" and not "Key". He's Canadian - take that for what it's worth.

We had nothing special on the island - no cabanas or day beds.  Since Mr SpeedNoodles had never been there I figured we'd spend some time exploring and then find a place to settle so that we could snorkel.

The weather was in the high 60s or low 70s and overcast.  I'm pretty much a big baby when it comes to water temp, so I never even broke out my snorkel gear.  I waded into the little lagoon where people snorkel and made it about waist deep, saw some pretty fish and watched Mr SpeedNoodles snorkel a little bit before I just gave up.  He snorkeled a bit until he scared up a few stingrays, which he did NOT like.  I looked up and saw him coming in hot to the beach and wondered what was up. He really wasn't too interested in going back after he saw those.  He had some fun playing with the GoPro in the water until then (I have yet to figure out how to get those videos onto my laptop and I'm sure they aren't worth sharing).

I had my rash guard on when I went into the water because I'd burned my back so badly on St. Maarten - so now I had a wet shirt on and I was cold.  He was cold.  Then the wind picked up. We headed over to the Snack Shack to get a crispy chicken sandwich and hope that the sun came out or the wind would die down.

He grabbed a table and I headed over to the restrooms when a staff member came SPRINTING by me, saying "aye aye aye!!!!!!!!!!!".  I turned around to see the Up, Up, and Away balloon in a VERY awkward position.  The basket was listing quite a bit, and it was clear that they were having a very difficult time bringing it back down to the ground. I'd left my phone back at the table, so I wasn't able to get any photos, but it looked scary as hell.  They must have gotten enough staff out there to bring it down before I got out of the restroom, but it never went back up the rest of the day. Apparently either the wind came up suddenly, or they pushed their luck with one last ride.

We just couldn't get warmed up, so we headed back to the ship around 1pm.  I really got very few photos on the island, but I have to keep my reputation going, so:

20200228_094612.thumb.jpg.81354ab4d65d3568d7690dd528d96044.jpg

We showered up and then hit some trivia in the pub and grabbed a few drinks.  We had Izumi Hibachi at 5:30, so we got a little packing done (boooooo). We got the rest of our packing done between dinner and the 8:30 showing of HIRO (which we really wanted to see at night - even better at night!).

I left a little note for Jeff, our cabin steward, about the great towel animal he left:

20200228_132034.thumb.jpg.10e099c2a057e2046c8bf52128863563.jpg

He in turn left me a little note back:

20200228_132042.thumb.jpg.2f4fe2c15364c1551446cd0049211e4a.jpg

And I did.

We caught him in the hall before the show to give him his tip personally (I don't like leaving them in the envelopes, I prefer to take the opportunity to say thank you in person). We've never had a bad cabin attendant, but some are definitely more fun than others.

20200228_172346.thumb.jpg.5ffdcd6ef9d6aa193ad24706ac0dae2c.jpg

After Hiro we made a few stops at our favorite bars to have some drinks and say goodbye to some of our favorite waiters, and with that, the cruise was pretty much over ?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know what I love about that little puppy towel ?  I love how his little legs are just slightly bent in the same direction.  It's like he's doin' that dance where you swing your arms and your legs in opposition.  I'm sure there's a name for it...but I'm too old and uninterested to find out what it is.  But I love that he's doing it !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You know what I love about that little puppy towel ?  I love how his little legs are just slightly bent in the same direction.  It's like he's doin' that dance where you swing your arms and your legs in opposition.  I'm sure there's a name for it...but I'm too old and uninterested to find out what it is.  But I love that he's doing it !!

He's doing The Floss!!!  You're right! I hadn't noticed that, LOL!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Day 6 - At Sea

Dagnabit, the cruise is getting too close to being over!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

We took this day to sleep in - it was the first time that we actually closed the drapes and didn't just let the sun wake us up.  This was pretty much Mr. SpeedNoodle's request. We really had nothing to do until 11:30, so we slept until about 9:00 and then hit the tail end of breakfast at the Solarium Bistro.

This morning we had the Escape the Rubicon escape room activity. While we waited for our group I had to take a few pics of the area - Adventure Ocean had such cute paintings (as far as we could see in), and it was just a very pretty area to wait. Who am I kidding, the entire ship is beautiful.

20200227_111640.thumb.jpg.c70561759063f36eac9bbeca2cc480cf.jpg

20200227_111734.thumb.jpg.fbd568232f1dea06bd7540c1a688d5b9.jpg

20200227_111805.thumb.jpg.eca9f36de3809fbd13a718cec90ea4ad.jpg

We were then ready for the Escape Room. We had about 9 people (one no-show).  I can honestly say that, while it was interesting, I've never spent that long being so confused and utterly useless in my life.  My mind just doesn't operate in such a manner to solve puzzles such as these (other kinds, yes, maybe - maybe not, feeling super dumb now).  Most of the rest of the team seemed to have their stuff (not my chosen term, but it's a family blog) together. But we did not solve it and escape. Not escaping didn't bother me as much as just feeling stupid and totally demoralized.

20200227_111655.thumb.jpg.1e165e6a4ed2b57ad037411f68797e3a.jpg

I had a solution for that, though:

20200227_125641.thumb.jpg.3da5737c0d36499701c5dfd3d76891c8.jpg

We grabbed a drink (we were skipping lunch because we'd decided to go to Chops for dinner instead of Wonderland, but the only reservation I could snag last minute was at 5pm) and headed over to watch the International Belly Flop competition. During the competition, Brian (cruise director) announced that they were going to hold an impromptu "HIRO" show in the AquaTheatre at 3pm, because they'd  had to cancel so many in the first few days of the cruise.  We already had our reservations from last Saturday rescheduled to Friday, but we decided to see if we could get in, just in case THAT one ended up being canceled as well.

We had no trouble getting in and grabbing a comfortable seat, and we loved the show.  While I thought the story line was pretty loose (ok, REALLY loose), I really enjoyed the entire show.  The performers were truly amazing (and brave).  Pics from the daytime show just aren't that spectacular so I'm only posting one of the woman who was constantly harnessed up and walking up above the audience. We were especially impressed with her.  We watched the crew put the 360 harness on her during the top tier event - that thing is TIGHT and the faces she made when they seemed to screw it into her hips really told it all.  The fact that she can smile through the entire performance might impress me the most.

20200227_150615.thumb.jpg.d3eb358ecc26542bb4a9e58d656ee10b.jpg

I also had to get my one ride on the carousel.  I've been obsessed with them my entire life, and I have no issues being the weird adult chick on the kids ride. I refused to let Mr. SpeedNoodles take any photos (which was easily accomplished since he never took his phone out of the safe all week and I wouldn't give him mine!)

By the time that was over it was time to get ready for dinner at Chops.  We found it to be really not good on Ovation in June, but decided to give it a shot, since we'd eaten everywhere else by then.

I started with the Carpacchio and the lobster bisque.  

20200227_171815.thumb.jpg.5aecc67b1e11f141f09a1e777e688c4d.jpg

20200227_172512.thumb.jpg.6829b4a22be31d7f17398fa30096b98e.jpg

My entree was the ribeye and Mr SpeedNoodles had the strip.  He really liked his. Mine was fine. But he grills steaks for us all of the time at home, buys really good cuts, and seasons them and cooks them just the way I like them, so I'm very difficult to impress when we go out for steak.  I should have tried the lamb, since we don't do that at home. By no means was it bad, it just wasn't as good as he makes it.

20200227_173858.thumb.jpg.3ee08f999a6b5bec1cd6ae732ebb32fb.jpg

We shared a slice of Key Lime Pie.  We dug into it before I remembered to take a picture.  It was ok. It wasn't as amazing as it was at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami (although they're kind of famous for it, so that's probably not a fair comparison).

We then wandered through the Promenade on the way to the Royal Theatre to see "Flight" and saw discovered this band playing above the Royal Shop - they were pretty good, but we had to keep moving....

20200227_193732.thumb.jpg.ff2b80ed3035fb9eb14de7f3402acb2e.jpg

Then we ran into the Stowaway Piano Player, and took a few minutes to ride the elevator with her.  She was good, but the music she played wasn't nearly as much fun as the guy on Navigator played.  But she was sweet and we liked her:

20200227_194155.thumb.jpg.e9210e4af783378e368c37d2690ee11a.jpg

We had some time before Flight and I remembered that they were performing iSkate in Studio B, so we ducked in there to catch that - we'd missed 1977 because I was dumb and scheduled that the night before St Maarten at some ridiculous hour like 10:30pm. 

We dodged over to see Flight next (not bad, not great - glad we saw it, wouldn't go see it again).

20200227_212320.thumb.jpg.5708239c52f972ea5fab8d2160a8f7bc.jpg

And then, although we'd been pretty much going from activity to activity all day, I insisted that we go to the Quest.  Mr SpeedNoodles had never been to one, and it's one of those things that simply can NOT be explained and must be experienced.  I didn't get any pics (my phone was effectively out of battery life by then), but it was one of the highlight activities of the week.  Mr SpeedNoodles plans to be prepared to participate on the October Group Cruise (he says he'll prepare with appropriate clothing choices and a few shots of tequila). 

We came back to these creatures in our stateroom.  I LOVED this little puppy.  I'd never had anyone leave anything like it.

20200227_234125.jpg

20200227_234135.jpg

And that was enough for a sea day.  Tomorrow is Coco Cay!!!!

 

 

 

I've never seen the puppy towel animal either, looks great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Final thoughts and things I learned:

  • Mr. SpeedNoodles has declared Symphony of the Seas as his favorite ship, and wants to book more Oasis-class cruises.  We don't have one booked until Allure in Jan 2022 and I don't know where we'll fit one in between now and then.  But I've been informed.  Also he wants an AquaTheatre suite.  So if anyone runs across a fantastic deal, please clue me in.
  • While we were able to do a lot on the ship, there was so much more that we weren't able to do.  We never even stepped into Jazz on 4 or The Attic. I had reservations for the comedy shows, but something always interfered. There's just SO much to do!
  • We made it to a hot tub once - we really never got to spend any time on the pool deck.  
  • As usual with me, no matter what I was doing I felt like I was missing out on something else.
  • The staff was exceptional.  There wasn't one place on the ship where we didn't encounter helpful, friendly crew members.  If we dined in a specialty restaurant once, and ran into our waiter somewhere else a day or two later somewhere else on the ship, they remembered our names (WHAT WITCHERY IS THIS?????).
  • I figured out a handy packing tip on this trip.  While I use packing cubes, and typically try to pack things together so they are easy to unpack on the ship (like items together that will be placed into the same drawer or closet), when I packed to come home I packed things in the cubes that would be washed together.  All I had to do was open up cubes that contained things washed together and dump them in the wash instead of sorting them at home.  It really didn't take much extra time at all but made laundry much easier.
  • 30 SPF sunscreen doesn't do a damn thing to protect skin that hasn't seen the sun for 5 years.
  • We got really good at using Lyft.  From the time we left the house to the time we returned home we used Lyft 11 times.
  • I learned at the Quest that I cannot twerk, but the 70+ year old woman in front of me could.
  • I saw my very first Booby.  As in Brown Booby - the bird.  A flock of them followed alongside the ship as we left St. Maarten, constantly diving after fish that must have been disturbed in our wake.  I took photos.  Not a Booby can be seen in any of them. You'll simply have to take my word. #birdlifelist

We're pretty bummed that we have to wait until October for our next cruise!!! (But it's going to be a SUPER FUN cruise!) 

Thanks for following along. (Now I need to go catch up on all of YOUR blogs that I've fallen behind on!)

20200222_221658.thumb.jpg.bc225c29f9b1088b15ab6f0623eb2f22.jpg

20200226_083855.thumb.jpg.d91db69825b1a5195732ea7308c47f78.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/1/2020 at 5:54 PM, SpeedNoodles said:
  • Mr. SpeedNoodles has declared Symphony of the Seas as his favorite ship, and wants to book more Oasis-class cruises.  We don't have one booked until Allure in Jan 2022 and I don't know where we'll fit one in between now and then.  

He gets extra points !!  I'm so glad he liked the O class.  How 'bout you ?  What did you think ?

We have B2B Star Class cruises booked on Oasis 9-23 Jan 2022.  Can't wait !!!!!  We won't be on Symphony until August 14, 2021.

 

On 3/1/2020 at 5:54 PM, SpeedNoodles said:
  • 30 SPF sunscreen doesn't do a damn thing to protect skin that hasn't seen the sun for 5 years.

I am also familiar with this phenomenon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

He gets extra points !!  I'm so glad he liked the O class.  How 'bout you ?  What did you think ?

 

I also really enjoyed it, but I figured that I would.  I did not anticipate how much he would (he kept saying he prefers the small ships, close to the ocean, promenade level, etc etc).  I'm pretty happy on any ship.  Next January we'll be on the Empress - now there's a difference!  I really can't wait to be forced to relax on that one.  But we've decided that going forward we will be booking Oasis class ships for most sailings unless there's a particular destination - the smaller ships obviously get into the smaller ports - so when the destination is the goal, we'll go smaller.  Probably much smaller.  I'd never take Ovation to Alaska again.  And for Norway we're excited about it being a group cruise, otherwise we wouldn't book Anthem on our own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Oh, I thought you were talking about Star Class - which I don't expect we'll ever do, lol.

I don’t find the 1 bedroom ATS worthwhile. I would much rather take the crown loft between the two. Both Sky class, but the loft has the Wow factor which the ATS lacks, especially the one bedrooms because the living room and balcony space really takes a dive as you move to Deck 11-14.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I don’t find the 1 bedroom ATS worthwhile. I would much rather take the crown loft between the two. Both Sky class, but the loft has the Wow factor which the ATS lacks, especially the one bedrooms because the living room and balcony space really takes a dive as you move to Deck 11-14.  

He really just wants to overlook the AquaTheatre. I really don't want a loft because I really just have enough stairs in my real life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completely understand the obsession with the Aqua Theater view.  It was my first Sirens Song for the “tippy top” suites.  In the end, I do agree with Sabrina that the Deck 17 suites are more glamorous, but you will never convince someone who has the ATS lust so it’s best to just get it out of your system.  The truth is, these days, they (ATS) are a bit more affordable anyway, so they are a good Segway drug.  Hmmm...that doesn’t sound good, does it ? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

so they are a good Segway drug

Not at all fond of those drugs that make me get on a motorized people-mover and start free-wheeling all around town. Before you know it I'm shouting "YEEEE-HAAAA!" and swinging an imaginary lasso over my head. ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...