Now that I've blurbed out all my frustrations on our travel day, with a good dose of exaggeration for effect, I will now wax poetic on our lovely vacation.
We had a lovely time and enjoyed the ship very much. Our big discovery this time was the pool. Bobbing around in the sloshing water was a wonderful way to spend the morning. The big movie screen was fun - it played a few concerts, some Cirque du Soleil performances, and the odd movie. I caught some of Beauty and the Beast while in the pool (we watched the rest in our room the next day), and a bit of Grease which was fun. Maybe there were more but I do have a bit of blurring of the mind.
We usually ran into Lana and Peter in the pool and met lots of other people as well. There were all shapes and sizes (actually not that many skinny ones) so I didn't feel out of place in my bathing suit. It was easy to not be self conscious when so many others obviously had no image problems - it seemed pointless to bother about things like that.
We also had our first beach time... we liked! I think our next hot weather cruise will include some beach excursions (with plenty of sunscreen of course).
Food was a highlight: most lunches we ate at the buffet except for the one pub lunch and once in the dining room. We tried to keep things light, but honestly it was impossible.
We ate supper in the dining room every night. After the second night Peter reserved our table by the window for the remaining nights. We ate early (5pm!), but that got us better service and gave us time to catch the earlier show. Our servers, Vanilson and Milica, were fantastic and made us feel very pampered. The meals themselves were outstanding. Beautiful presentation and freshly made food were several steps in quality above the buffet. Taking the time was easy because our excursions were only 1/2 day but I'm not sure how it would work with a more demanding schedule - I might not have the energy for the dining room then.
We used the stairs extensively, even taking them to get to the 16th floor Lido deck (pool & buffet). Despite all the eating I only gained a pound - actually today I am right where I was before the trip. I think it took several days to get rid of the extra weight from all the salt.
We met Lana and Peter on the first night while waiting to get into the dining room. It was serendipity as we got along great and spent much of our boat time together. They are charming and funny and from a nearby city so hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch.
Our room was the same as the other cruises. Our room steward, Robert, was very attentive. Our room was taken care of twice a day and I don't think I had to use a facecloth more than once. Our room had a little sofa which was nice for chilling on during our little breaks from the hub bub.
Excursions were good but paled in comparison to Europe. We toured each island and saw the highlights. Volcanic rainforests to coral deserts enchanted us. Our tour on Martinique was wonderful and terrible at the same time. We were in a big, air-conditioned bus that could barely make the turns on the snakey road. It felt at times that we might fall into the gorge below us. I wished I had gum as the trip around the volcano lasted 1 1/2 hours. It seemed like forever. One lady called out for a plastic bag...
We visited a rum factory at the end of the ordeal which was interesting and in beautiful grounds. A few other stops and we were back to the boat.
But I'm repeating myself... I wish I had been less tired when I wrote each day's blog, as it was I could barely string a few words together and didn't convey the essence of the excursion. I needed more coffee!
I can see doing the same trip again as the weather was fantastic and honestly the time by the pool was a highlight. Next visits we will probably choose a few beaches instead of land tours.
I did have a problem with exhaustion though... by mid trip I was tired and homesick. I didn't enjoy myself for a few days as I just didn't have the energy for all of our activities. I guess I got a second wind though as by the end of the trip I was feeling a bit better. (even though I was coming down with a cold). I knew the pets were in good hands, but I couldn't help but worry about Spike. He has some separation anxiety from me, even crying sometimes when I leave the house and Carm is home. He associates Pat with us leaving and gets really upset when she shows up. It broke my heart to leave him like that, but I guess I can't let a little dog tie me down to the house... I might look into some anti-anxiety drugs for him (and maybe for me!) for next time.
"Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”
~Roman Payne
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