VoidoftheSeas Posted June 11, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2022 3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said: Unfortunately, I think they went overboard on the food weirdness at Wonderland and it is my least favorite specialty restaurants. One of my favorite things about the specialty restaurants is the variety and how there really is something for everyone. We LOVE Wonderland, but I didn't like Hooked and I wasn't really impressed with Samba. So it totally makes sense to me that some people like other restaurants and I love that. WAAAYTOOO and KristiZ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She Sails Away Posted June 13, 2022 Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 Amazing pictures! They raise so many questions. Great information here about the tours, too. You’ve packed so much into this trip, from even before the cruise began. It’s been so fun hearing all of the touring. Wow! I’ve really enjoyed your blog. Thank you for bringing us along! WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yesiamthere6 Posted June 13, 2022 Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 Your blog is one of my all time favorites to read! Thank you for sharing your adventures. You rock! VoidoftheSeas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidoftheSeas Posted June 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 12 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said: Your blog is one of my all time favorites to read! Thank you for sharing your adventures. You rock! Thank you so much! It has been so much fun to write, and I really appreciate all the support and feedback from everyone. KristiZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidoftheSeas Posted June 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 12 hours ago, She Sails Away said: Amazing pictures! They raise so many questions. Great information here about the tours, too. You’ve packed so much into this trip, from even before the cruise began. It’s been so fun hearing all of the touring. Wow! I’ve really enjoyed your blog. Thank you for bringing us along! Thank you for reading! This has been such a fun trip, and I'm so glad you've enjoyed the blog! She Sails Away and KristiZ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidoftheSeas Posted June 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 The Day at Sea and The Day of Sadness I cannot express how glad I am that we ended the trip with a sea day. My feet have been aching from all the walking. I have no regrets about any of that, but I am so incredibly glad that we got a day off our feet to wrap things up. We began the day with breakfast in our room from the Mason Jar. Since the very first day, I had an idea that I wanted to try out: Spicy Chicken and Waffles. While we were in the restaurant on the first day, I noticed that the chicken used with the waffles was the same chicken used in the chicken sandwiches (including the Nashville Hot), so I stored that away for later. It was pretty good, but it was actually a bit less spicy than I expected it to be. I'd love to hear from other people how they feel about the Nashville Hot chicken and if it lives up to your expectations regarding heat level. On other sailings, we've really tried to take advantage of everything on the ship during sea days, but this trip was a lot less about the ship for us and more about the ports. We were tired and just ready to relax. So we spent most of the morning sitting on the balcony (one of the best parts of an Aquatheater suite after all!) In addition to our food, we asked Marla to arrange a mimosa bar for us, which is just basically a bottle of champagne with pitchers of various juices - peach, orange and cranberry. We sipped on our mimosas and watched the scenery go by. I couldn't have asked for a better morning. Different from most Caribbean cruises, you actually sail pretty close to land in the Mediterranean so there was a lot to see as we sailed by. That kept our attention longer than I would have expected. After a few hours of relaxation, we got dressed and headed down to Izumi for some sushi. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, different people like different kinds of food. I love sushi, but neither Ashley nor I are really big fans of fried, crunchy sushi. Fortunately, the menu at Izumi is pretty expansive, so we were both able to get food that we really enjoyed. As Star Class, technically you can order as much sushi as you want, but I was pretty worn out from eating at this point, so we kept it light. One small word of caution about Izumi is that it is on deck 4 and there are tables right next to the window. I do not recommend sitting in those tables if you have any kind of vertigo or motion sickness, because the waves+wake do some interesting gymnastics around that part of the ship. It only bothers me a tiny bit, but vertigo is a concern for you, I'd find somewhere else to sit. After Izumi, we headed back up to the suite sun deck one last time. I will reiterate what I've said before - Royal knocked it out of the park with this space. It's easily accessible, has plenty of seating, and it has a great bar. If you are in a suite on Wonder, you owe it to yourself to spend a bit of time here at least. Later in the afternoon, we went down to Giovanni's Wine Bar for some drinks and charcuterie. Despite rebranding from Vintages, and a few updates to the food menu, I have to say that it doesn't feel all that different from Vintages. It's a nice spot for sure, but I think the changes are almost all entirely surface level. We enjoyed our wine, cheese and meats a lot. The wine bar, like Vintages, has a wine flight option, which is a great choice if you do not have a drink package. If you do have a drink package, you are better off ordering the wine by the glass, and just having them one at a time. The bartender should make sure to tell you this, but I know some people are caught off guard. We headed back up to our room to change for dinner: Wonderland! I really enjoy the Wonderland concept, but I am a food and science nerd, so molecular gastronomy really appeals to me. One of the servers was dressed up as the Mad Hatter, which was a lot of fun. He was entertaining, at least! We've been to Wonderland before, so we tried to choose options we hadn't had the first time around. It was a very different experience than previously, since we didn't have our kids this time, so we weren't trying to work around their limited food preferences. The individual items in the restaurant might seem small, but you actually end up with a seven-course meal, all things included, so the size isn't that much of an issue. The only thing we tried that I would probably not order again is the Tomato Water. It's an interesting novelty, but it's only about 1 oz of liquid, and it just goes so fast. For dessert, I ordered the World (again), and Ashley ordered the Mushroom Garden. They were both delicious, just as expected. Marla came to visit us during the meal and we also asked her to send some desserts up to our room too! Sort of a final send off for the trip. I ordered the Fried Cheesecake (I may have mentioned that this my favorite dessert on the ship), and Ashley ordered the Go Bananas! from Giovanni's. Honestly, it might have been a bit too much, but we loved it. We had thought about finding a nice spot after dinner for one last drink but we were honestly just so tired that we couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We did eat our desserts, and sit out on the balcony for a bit, but mostly we spent the evening packing and preparing for the worst day of the cruise: debarkation day. Our flight out of Barcelona was pretty early at 9:50 am. In hindsight, we should have probably picked a later flight, but it all worked out in the end, even though things were a bit tense at the airport. We had a light, early breakfast at 6am and put our bags outside at 6:30. Not having to set out your bags the night before is another really nice Star Class perk. We met Marla at the elevator at 7:00 and began the long walk of sadness to the terminal. It was super easy to grab a cab right there, and we headed to the airport. On Friday, the US government announced that negative Covid tests were no longer required for flights entering the US as of 12:01 on Sunday June 5th. This was awesome news as it reduced the likelihood of any last second disasters. We had read a post on Facebook from someone who left the ship in Rome on Thursday, tested positive, and had to quarantine for an extra 5 days before they could return home. That would have been worst case scenario for us, so not having to worry about an accidental positive test was really nice. Side note: we tested as soon as we got home to Seattle. Negative. So I feel pretty good about that. The downside to the announcement was that the airlines, who had all been clamoring for this change for months, were completely unprepared to actually handle the change when it happened. Online check-in basically broke for everyone, so we had no choice but to stand in line at the airport to get our boarding passes and check our luggage. The line was long. Long enough that we got pulled out of line finally to ensure that we could make our flight (that's pretty common on international flights), we were right up at the front so we ended up being next in line to check in from there. At that point we scrambled as quickly as possible to security and to the gate. I would have been super stressed if I'd been any further back in line, because we literally got to the gate the moment our zone started boarding. Since the first leg of our flight was just to Paris, the boarding times are really narrow. I'm sure they got everyone on board, but I'd have been screaming if I got there much later than we did. The situation was pretty similar in Paris. After a brief 2 hour flight, we had a 1.5 hour layover in Paris, but that's really not that much time. The international gates are pretty far from the 'domestic' gates in CDG, so there's a lot of walking involved, as well as a brief stop at passport control, even though we were catching a transfer. We managed to find a food kiosk to grab some salads, but we had to carry them on to the plane, because boarding started so quickly. From Paris to Seattle is about 10 hours, which isn't terrible, but is still a pretty long way. We had economy seats on the way back, which might have been a mistake, but we survived somehow . The airline food was decent, and they did an excellent job of coming by often with water (something that did not happen on the Delta flight on the way out). We needed to stay awake as much as possible to fight the coming jet lag, so we just watched a lot of movies. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, we arrived in Seattle! After a quick/eternal 45 minute ride on the train, we were back home to our kids, our puppies and our bed. Whew! What an absolute adventure! We had so much fun, and it was exactly the break we needed. Thanks everyone for coming along the ride with us. I loved reading your comments and seeing everyone's reactions. I hope you enjoyed it! AlmondFarmer, Yesiamthere6, Skigoofy and 11 others 11 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer Cruiser Posted June 13, 2022 Report Share Posted June 13, 2022 what an adventure, thanks for the great read VoidoftheSeas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
She Sails Away Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 The trip of a lifetime! You’ll need some time to recover, I bet! So many great experiences! And how fortunate to have a smooth trip home with no cancellations or anything. Loved reading about all the ports and sights, the ship, the food! So fun! Have really enjoyed your blog. Thank you for bringing us along! VoidoftheSeas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CravingaCruise Posted June 24, 2022 Report Share Posted June 24, 2022 It took me a minute to get through this blog because we had a lot going on, but I loved reading every bit of it! You have a way with words, and I nearly felt like I got a vacation. Thanks for sharing and spending the time to provide such great detail! I can't wait until you sail again! VoidoftheSeas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VoidoftheSeas Posted June 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2022 8 hours ago, CravingaCruise said: It took me a minute to get through this blog because we had a lot going on, but I loved reading every bit of it! You have a way with words, and I nearly felt like I got a vacation. Thanks for sharing and spending the time to provide such great detail! I can't wait until you sail again! Thank you so much for the kind words! I had such a great time writing and keeping everyone updated. I'm looking forward to doing it again for our next sailing in January. WAAAYTOOO and CravingaCruise 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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