Well friends, it is day 5 already, these shorter cruises just go by so fast.

Today I planned to enjoy Empress of the Seas, but try to do something different activities. I woke up and saw that the Oasis of the Seas was actually sailing beside us, so I ran up to the top deck to check her out. We both traveled back home together for most of the day. 

At 10AM they were doing Royal Caribbean trivia in the Schooner Bar, they had some pretty hard questions, I was surprised. I learned that Empress has the largest Schooner bar in the fleet, which I always thought it was Majesty.

After the trivia game I had been invited to the Galley tour for being Diamond Plus.

This was my first Galley tour on a cruise, so I was very excited. The Galley was actually quite smaller than I thought it would be, but everything was so clean.

Royal Caribbean spent $20 million building this new galley during the Empress dry dock. In the tour I was able to see the Chops section and they were working on the shrimp cocktail for the evening so that was pretty neat to see. They did prepare a special lunch for those on the tour, but I decided to skip it and head to the pool deck. 

Afternoon on board 

The pool deck had really come to life today; I haven’t seen it like this all cruise. Everyone was just enjoying themselves and their wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

I watched the belly flop contest and it was quite entertaining. The assistant Cruise Director hosted the party and she did a nice job, she tried to create a dance party after the game.

However, the ship had to turn around due to a floating man-made raft out in the ocean. This caused everyone to run over to the side of the ship to look over; thankfully no one was in the raft.

Great job by Royal Caribbean for turning the ship around to make sure it was clear. 

After we received the all clear from the raft, I decided to grab some lunch in the Windjammer. Today I went with chicken wings and ribs, almost like being in Coco Cay. I have never seen chicken wings on board before, so this was new for me.

Once lunch was over I thought it was time to start packing up the cabin. This is never as much fun as packing up, but I like to do it early so I can enjoy my evening. 

Evening on board 

Tonight, I decided to go see the show, I know that’s two shows this cruise! The show was outstanding! The theme was past, present, future and a Las Vegas themed show.

The show only last 35 minutes so it was a nice short activity before dinner. I’m very happy I went and highly recommend the shows on Empress.

For dinner, it was back to the Windjammer for a quick meal. Again the place was pretty empty but almost 8:30pm, so perhaps most people eat earlier. The options for dinner were a little different tonight; I went with pasta and fish.

They had a large cake for desert that said, thank you for sailing with us, I passed on the cake. 

After dinner, I went to the Viking crown lounge and it was pretty full, everyone taking full advantage of their last evening. I just enjoyed one last drink before wrapping up my last day. 

Wrap up 

The Empress of the Seas is a great value for those looking for a quick getaway. The ship on the inside feels very new in parts and older in others. She is a very relaxing ship, so if you enjoy a slow paced cruise this is for you. All the crewmembers get to know you, I think just about every one of them knew my name when they saw me. The cabins are small, so just be ready for that but not a deal breaker for me.

I was able to peek into an Owners Suite to take pictures. 

The Voom high speed Internet worked great, I never had any issues with it. From in my cabin to the pool deck it was fast Internet. The staff was very friendly; they are trying so hard to create a good experience for the guest. 

Thank you so much for following along this week, it was a really fun cruise! 

Until next time, I’ll see you at sea!

If you are following directions from the blog, you are probably planning to fly in to the port city a day or so prior to your Royal Caribbean cruise…

… OR, maybe you flew in as a surprise to see your friends off on a cruise and you need a place to pout and cry in to your beverage of choice as your friends sail off without you on the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise on the Freedom of the Seas…

Whatever the case may be, you may be interested in what there is to do and where to eat the day before your cruise is set to leave. I recently had the chance to spend some time near Port Canaveral and spent a couple days watching the ships. Here are a few ideas for things to do near the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal in Cape Canaveral.

Restaurants

Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar

Located closest to the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal, Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar boasts great food and drinks at an affordable price. Additionally, Grills serves as a fantastic breakfast location if you have some time to kill once you have disembarked your cruise.

Grills also has a wonderful outdoor Tiki Bar which frequently features live music and a fantastic view of the Royal Caribbean ships sailing away.

Fishlips Waterfront Bar and Grill

A short walk away from Grills is another great restaurant called Fishlips… another great location with an outdoor patio offering a great view of the ships sailing away from port.

Similar to Grills, Fishlips offers a variety of food and beverages to enjoy while relaxing along the water.

Fun fact – the most recent Royal Caribbean Blog meetup took place here prior to the Freedom of the Seas Group Cruise!

Seafood Atlantic

Nestled in between Grills and Fishlips is a fantastic seafood shop and restaurant called Seafood Atlantic. While the interior of the building is a shop that features locally caught fresh seafood, the outside is a fantastic restaurant serving up some of the local fare.

I have to say, this has been my personal favorite lunch spot in the port area… in my opinion, there is not much that beats raw oysters and local beer while watching the water on a sunny day.

Attractions

Port Canaveral Exploration Tower

Overlooking the Port Canaveral area is a tall structure known as the Exploration Tower.

Seeing this landmark when you are approaching the port area has personally become a sign that you are about to embark on an incredible adventure. However, if you are looking for an educational day at Port (or, an incredible place to watch a rocket launch), this is a fantastic and nearby option for you.

Kennedy Space Center

Located roughly 20 minutes from the Cruise Terminal in Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center is a long loved and well known attraction for all things NASA and outer space and a fantastic spot to visit for all ages. Daily admission to the Visitor’s Complex runs about $50.

Cocoa Beach

Interested in just relaxing along the beach? While many hotels are located beach side, there are also public beaches available to you to relax and swim while getting ready to board your cruise.

Your thoughts

While these are only a few examples, the area surrounding Port Canaveral is a fantastic location to relax and unwind prior to your Royal Caribbean cruise. Please comment with your favorite places and things to do from your past adventures to an embarkation port!  

Royal Caribbean has begun a 72-hour shore excursion sale with 20% off select tours in the Caribbean, Europe and Australia.

The excursions must be booked between September 16-18, 2016 and is valid on  on sailings that depart between September 21, 2016 and December 16, 2016.

Offer excludes sailings departing between November 18-24, 2016.

Offer applies to select standard shore excursions offered by Royal Caribbean International. Offer excludes Shuttles, Private Journeys℠, overnight tours, Multi-day Adventures and other special tours. Offer cannot be combined with any other shore excursion promotion, price program or discounted rate.

Good morning from beautiful Cozumel, Mexico!

It is always a great day when you are in Mexico and the weather could not have been better. Last night I was thinking about not having any plans in Mexico, so I booked Nachi Cocom on my phone. They do require you to bring the printed confirmation email, so I asked the Loyalty Ambassador to print it for me.

The cost for the all-inclusive Nachi Cocom is $55 per person. This covers all the drinks & food you want, but you still need to get transportation to and from. The cost for a taxi is $17 (up to 4 people) per way and you can usually just share a ride back to cut the cost in half. 

I knew the Oasis of the Seas was coming to Mexico today too, so I wanted to get up to make sure I could watch her dock. I guess I should add that the Empress of the Seas was docked beside the Oasis of the Seas today.

Let us just say we did not even come up halfway on the Oasis, but that is okay Empress is just perfect. I was able to take some pictures of the two of them together. 

There were five ships in port today, so the lines for a taxi were long. I also saw some competition going on with runners and bikers, not sure what it was but they had people from all over the world. My taxi ride was a van with another family they were going to Mr. Sancho’s so we stopped there for a quick dropped off, then Nachi is right beside there.

I was greeted to take my photo and was showed to my seat. I got there around 9:30am, but they are on central time, so bar service did not start for an hour – I know the struggle is real. 

My afternoon at Nachi Cocom was very relaxing and they did not have very many people here today, which surprised me with the number of ships in port.

I had them bring me some guacamole down to my beach chair for my pre-lunch. I went up to sit in the hot tub for a while to enjoy the swim up bar and made some new friends.

For lunch I went with shrimp fajitas and well more guacamole. They can either bring it down to the beach or you can eat it up by the entrance with tables and chairs. When you look at their menu, you will see prices on everything, not sure why they are there but just order away it is all included. 

I decided to head back to the ship at 3pm just to avoid getting close to that all on board at 4:30 time.

Of course since we were in Mexico we had a family of 5 that was running late. The Captain made an announcement that we would wait 5 more minutes. Sure enough 2-3 minutes later they were running down the pier to get back on board, they were lucky we waited. 

Evening on board 

Tonight, I was feeling sleepy all ready from all that sun in Mexico. I went casual again for dinner in the Windjammer. It was not my favorite meal again, but fine for a quick dinner.

I have noticed at dinner they are only using about half of their set-up and it is always empty. I had grilled fish and french fries, got to love that combo.

After dinner I went out to the pool deck and they were showing a movie. At the bar they were selling popcorn for $2 a bag for the movie. The pool was empty and a man was cleaning down in there. I tried to take photos of this for the blog but a bartender rushed over and said no pictures or video, this was a first for me. 

By around 10PM I decided to call it a day, all those drinks in Mexico and sun had me beat for the day.

Tomorrow is our last day, we have another sea day and I have a few new things planned to share!

Earlier this summer, Royal Caribbean began rolling out or takeout sushi options across its fleet for guests that want to enjoy Izumi-quality sushi on Royal Caribbean ships that do not offer an Izumi restaurant.  Freedom of the Seas is one such ship that lacks Izumi, and we took it upon ourselves to try the Izumi Express sushi for "research" purposes.

Guests will find Izumi Express options at Sorrentos during select hours (check your Cruise Compass for exact times), but it is typically available every day from 11:30am - 1:30pm and again at 6:00pm - 8:00pm.

Menu

The selection of sushi may vary, but on our sailing we had eight rolls to choose from that were prepackaged and ready to be enjoyed.

On our cruise, the more popular rolls tended to go quickly, so be sure to order early.

Sushi

Historically, Freedom of the Seas has always offered sushi in the Jade section of the Windjammer, but in my opinion, the sushi was substandard because it was poorly made and lacked variety or sizable pieces of fish.  Of course, the sushi in the Windjammer was complimentary, but I tended to avoid it because of the poor quality.

Windjammer Sushi from a past Freedom of the Seas cruise

Of course, we are here for the sushi and the Izumi Express options on Freedom of the Seas has a variety of maki rolls that are pretty typical among sushi restaurants.  Before even tasting any of it, the quality of these rolls looked superior to what was offered in the Windjammer.

You can pick which roll appeals to you, and each package comes with eight rolls.

You are probably wondering, "how good does it taste?" and I can safely say it is much better to what the Windjammer ever had.  In fact, the Windjammer offered sushi on the last night of the cruise and that confirmed my thoughts.

Prepackaged sushi will never compare to freshly-made sushi, but, I really enjoyed the Izumi Express option because it offers a much better option than no sushi at all.

I found it to be a really good value and tasted great too.  It was certainly as good as any prepackaged sushi I have had on land, and as a self-described sushi fiend, I loved having this option every evening.

Are you a Sushi lover? Let us know if Izumi Express will be on your must-eat list!

Happy Friday and welcome to another round of Friday Photos, where we share our readers favorite Royal Caribbean photos on the blog!  If you want to share your photos, just use this form to send them in!

Our first photo is from Kayla (KLA) Gillman of Enchantment of the Seas docked near Empress of the Seas in Nassau. Two classy Royal Caribbean ships!

Alistair Allan shared this photo of he and his family and friends with their waiter, Emily, on board Navigator of the Seas.

Next up is this photo of Oasis of the Seas in San Juan by Robin Woske. Two of my favorite things in one photo, San Juan and Oasis of the Seas!

Kathy Pepperd sent this photo of her and her husband, Dirk, in Cozumel right next to Allure of the Seas.  You get a good sense of how large a ship Allure is with a photo like this.

Gordon Marron and his brother took this photo in front of Ovation of the Seas in Cherbourg and I would be excited if I was on her maiden voyage too!

This photo of Rhapsody of the Seas by Shawn Crossley uses a photography technique known as tilt-shift, and it makes the ship look almost like a toy.  Very cool!

Here is another photo of Empress of the Seas, this time in CocoCay and taken by Krisztina Benko.  Looks like another day in paradise!

Thank you to everyone that submitted their Royal Caribbean photos! If you want to include your photos in a future Friday Photos post, be sure to send them to us!

Many of us know that Sabor Modern Mexican on Royal Caribbean cruise ships is one of the best-dept dining secrets in all of cruising.  But these days, it is become less of a secret, and more of an established must-eat!

Frankly, if your list of specialty restaurant reservations does not include Sabor, then you are missing out.

Having had an opportunity to cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, we could not resist dining at Sabor Modern Mexican on a few different occasions.

Atmosphere

One goal Royal Caribbean had with Sabor was to create a restaurant experience that was not just another typical American-Mexican restaurant. When you walk into Sabor, there is very little that would remind you of a typical Mexican restaurant.

The decor of Sabor features lots of blues, reds and yellows and the restaurant evokes a very bright mood with its festive, yet not over-the-top, design.

Seating in Sabor is functional and comfortable.  Much of the seating are tables that have booth and chair options, with a few smaller tables that have just chairs.  

Unlike Chops Grille or Giovanni's Table on Freedom of the Seas, Sabor has no windows and is also considerably smaller in size. A view is always nice, but with the kind of food offered in Sabor, you will not want to look anywhere but what is on your plate.

The focal point of Sabor Modern Mexican on Freedom of the Seas are the colorful dahlia flowers that line the ceiling and wall of the restaurant.  It is quite pretty and a lovely backdrop.

Eats

After a busy day on Freedom of the Seas swimming, exploring and playing, lunch or dinner at Sabor is sure to please.

The Sabor menu on Freedom of the Seas retains many of the same options that are on other Royal Caribbean ships that offer a Sabor Modern Mexican restaurant, but there are some appetizers and entrees that are different on Freedom of the Seas.  Moreover, the drink menu of available cocktails has also been simplified, although the famous margaritas remain.  Nonetheless, there is a wide variety of Mexican classics, such as tacos, burritos and quesadillas.  There are also more sophisticated choices as well.  

If you party is large enough (more than 4 guests usually), the server will offer to bring all the appetizers out and serve them family-style.  Most of them can be enjoyed in this manner, with the exception of the soup.

Every table is served with table side guacamole and frankly, no Sabor meal is complete without the guacamole.  

In short, the Sabor guacamole is amazing and will more than likely become the best guacamole you have ever eaten.  Even if you have had guacamole for years or swore it off, you must try the guacamole at Sabor Modern Mexican.

In addition, chips and fresh pico de gallo salsa are served.  As much as I wax poetically about Sabor's guacamole, I have an unspoken love with Sabor's salsa.  Salsa is not so much a garnishment as it is a topping when I eat chips, and the salsa here has this salsa fiend's seal of approval.

The chicken-stuffed Jalapeños are the most popular options and when you read the description you will know why.  Chicken wrapped in bacon on a stick with Mexican garnishments.  Sold!

The queso fundido is also a winner, and not your typical cup of melted cheese.  This gooey and super-tasty appetizer is a great choice for even the pickiest of eaters.

While dining at Sabor, one must also indulge in the margaritas available exclusively at Sabor.  

There are five margaritas on the menu (plus a few other cocktails, including sangria) and they are like children. You do not have a favorite, but you might like one more than the other at any given time.  I highly recommend getting at least one margarita during the meal to compliment the food.

The Avocado and Jalapeño-Cucumber martinis are at the top of my list, but you cannot go wrong with any of them.  

Avocado margarita

Jalapeño-Cucumber margarita

The staff might also be able to create a Mezcal margarita, which is not listed on the menu but has a very distinct taste (reminds me of Rome burning).

The Sweet and Spice Margarita has a very unique taste to it, but is a great choice if you enjoy a non-traditional and somewhat spicy cocktail.

In terms of entrees, there are a lot to choose from and it is no easy decision.

The tacos are popular and I absolutely love the Tuna Crudo tacos, which are essentially ahi tuna tacos.  Amazing flavor and great fish!

Yes, I did order double tuna tacos.

I wanted to try something else new and ordered the Pato Gordo slow-cooked duck burrito.  I know what you are thinking, and I was thinking the same thing.  Duck is not exactly a typical burrito meat and moreover, duck is not usually my favorite meat.  But I gave it a try and I was so happy I did!

The Pato Gordo had incredible flavor and was much smaller than I was expecting.  While the Tuna Crudo tacos may be my absolute favorite entree on the menu, these burritos are really, really good too.

If you prefer a simpler entree, the quesadillas are all really good choices. They are large, oozing with freshly melted cheese and will hit the spot.

The Chicken and Roasted Corn Empandas are also very filling, and I enjoy topping them with the salsa and/or guacamole from earlier in the meal.

Every table will also receive an assortment of side dishes to enjoy with your meal.  Try them all, because they each will work well with whatever you order.

Arguably the most difficult aspect of dining at Sabor is leaving room for dessert.  Bring your stretchy pants because it is totally worth it!

Dessert is served to all guests on a tray and feel free to ask for more.  Royal Caribbean describes them as "Caja de Dulces", which means "box of sweets" and it is an indulgent selection of Mexican-inspired mini desserts.

All the desserts are rich, delicious and will leave you questioning why you ever ate anything earlier in the meal (Oh yea, it was because that food was awesome too).  

My top picks are the chocolate crepe filled with cayenne chocolate & marscapone sauce, chocolate & banana empanadas, cafe con leche.  I would not fault you for loving any of the others, because they are all outstanding.

Overall

Sabor Modern Mexican's great reputation remains unchanged.  While it may be hidden on deck 4 in what used to be a night club, savvy Royal Caribbean guests know this is where you go on your Royal Caribbean cruise for some of the best food onboard.

If it sounds like just about everything I sampled was excellent, then it is because that is exactly what happened.  There is a wonderful fix of Mexican favorites and contemporary classics to satisfy all guests.  There is as much flavor as there are options to choose from on the menu.

If you were to run into another Royal Caribbean fan and start talking about the amazing food onboard, most of the time a restaurant like Chops Grille gets mentioned, but Sabor is quickly on its way to becoming the best restaurant on a Royal Caribbean ship because of the tantalizing dishes available and incredible flavor each item has.  The word "sabor" means "flavor" in Spanish and few restaurants offer as much flavor as Sabor Modern Mexican.

Sabor Modern Mexican is open for lunch on sea days between noon - 1:30 p.m. and dinner every night between 5:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m. for dinner. We reviewed Sabor Modern Mexican aboard Freedom of the Seas.

Cost: The price for Sabor Modern Mexican on Freedom of the Seas for lunch is $19 per guest and dinner is $29 per guest.