We booked this cruise over two years ago while on another cruise. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been looking forward to this for TWO YEARS! Plus, it’s on a brand new ship (for us) and it’s 11 NIGHTS!!! Seven nights is never enough for me. I’m never ready to pack up and come home. So we’ve been really excited about this particular cruise. When we booked it we had never been to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. In between booking and sailing, however, we ended up cruising with RCCL and going to those very islands last year. Two ports we still haven’t been to though are Grand Cayman Islands and Cartagena Columbia. Still not too sure about Cartagena but we’ll see.
Our flight left at 9:20 so we needed to leave the house by about 7:15. Instead of leaving our car at the airport (to the tune of $9/day) we elected to try something new. Lyft – a taxi service by regular people in their own vehicles. It’s considerably cheaper than normal taxi services. We scheduled our Lyft Saturday afternoon and hoped for the best. As soon as our trip was picked up by a driver I was notified on my phone that she was on her way. We could even watch her en route with the app. Carolyn was right on time and we were at the airport by 8:00, luggage checked and through security at our gate by 8:20 or so. DE and Sarah were already there and we were all itching to get this party started. The flight to Orlando was on time and uneventful. We had a couple of hours to kill and that was just enough time to grab our first round together and have some lunch. My Funky Buddha from a brewery in Florida was really good! Our pork tacos were excellent as well! We had several delays and rescheduled times for the short flight to Fort Lauderdale but in the end we were only about 30 minutes late landing so all was good.
We stayed at the Embassy Suites just a few miles from the pier – a nice hotel but not worth the price without combining points. Location location location I guess. We were on the 11th floor and pretty nice room. While unpacking a few things a gorgeous green bird landed on the railing of our balcony (I use that word loosely – it was big enough for us to stand out there and look at the view but that’s it). By the time I could get my camera it was gone but I soon saw and heard several others flying around. I finally got a couple of shots I could send to Heidi (I knew she’d know what kind they were). She said they looked like Mitred Conures. I was hoping they’d come back in the morning but we didn’t see them again. We joined up with DE and Sarah to go downstairs for dinner and then back to our room. It had been a long day for all of us. We watched a little of the Olympics before turning out the light.
In the morning we went down to the restaurant for our made to order breakfast that didn’t disappoint. We all got custom omelets and fixins. Before going back up to the room we wandered outside to see the fish pond. Holy cow those were some BAF!! (Big Ass Fish).
We headed back up to the room to pack up, check out and grab a taxi to the pier. It looked like a madhouse with all the taxis coming and going. People were leaving the ship and people were trying to get on the ship. It was crazy. But as many people as there were and all the commotion it could’ve been it was pretty well organized and believe it or not we were boarding the ship before noon. We were all prepared to be impressed by this ship. It’s significantly bigger than the Summit and a lot newer. (Summit was built in 2000 and holds about 2000 passengers – Reflection was built in 2012 and holds about 3000 passengers.) We started making our way to the buffet for some lunch and squirreled at the pool bar for Round 2 of this vacation! Sitting there talking to others who had done the same it’s amazing how much you have in common with so many people. There’s a “hookers” group on board. Several of them were sitting at the bar so I had to go talk to one of them. It’s a closed group and event so I couldn’t have joined if I’d wanted to but it’s very cool seeing Crocheters all over the ship.
Drinks dry and stomachs hungry we finally made our way to the buffet. Holy Cannoli this buffet is AMAZING! There was food everywhere! It made the buffet on the Adventure of the Seas look like Kindergarten Pot Luck. No comparison. I asked one of the attendants in charge if Mazy was still on this ship and he isn’t. Kind of figured he would’ve been moved by the time we made it on here. Glad to see he still made his mark on it though. One day we’ll get to see him again hopefully.
While we were sitting there basking in the moment guys were all over the place trying to get people to upgrade their drink packages. We were just waiting for someone to come around with the half price deals on the specialty restaurants. Sure enough one finally did. So we booked dinner in Qsine for 6:30. We’ve all talked about that restaurant since we did it on the Summit two years ago. It was amazing and we were excited for a repeat!
After we filled out guts yet again we just wandered the ship seeing what we could see. And what we saw we liked. We’re really liking this ship. By about 2:00 we decided to see if we could get into our cabins (even though no announcement had been made) and were delighted to find we could. The cabin feels bigger. I don’t know if it actually is but the layout is different enough that it feels larger. And our deck is way larger. This cabin sits at an angle so our deck is considerably larger than most. Pretty cool! Still no luggage yet so went up a deck to check out the spa. Those heated curved chairs. MMMMMMM. Those eucalyptus spas. Mmmmm – can’t wait! (For some reason we really never used the spa this time – not sure why.)
We had to head to our muster station at 3:15. I do have to say that this was the most organized muster we’ve ever been to. It was pretty painless! It took about half an hour (seated in the theater) and by the time we got back to the cabin our bags were there! Woohoo! As we were unpacking the ship started moving. It was so smooth I didn’t even feel it at first.
By the time we finished unpacking it was time to start getting dressed for our 6:30 reservation. And believe it or not, we were hungry. LOL Qsine was looking pretty busy (I guess lots of others had the same half price idea we did). Andre was our main server. He was awesome! I don’t know how these people stay turned on and so animated day in and day out. They’re simply amazing. He asked who was the captain at the table, the one who would make all the decisions. We all pointed our fingers towards DE or Theodore as he’s been lovingly dubbed this cruise. So Andre kept calling him Captain Theodore. It was great. We picked out 5 courses (Lava Cakes, Disco Shrimp, Filet Mignon, Chiatini, Kebabs). We were all pretty much done after #4. Everything was wonderful – I’m not sure I could pick a favorite. Then came dessert. Sarah ordered a Silver Bullet (gelato) and I ordered the chocolate tombstone. I wasn’t sure how any of us were going to eat any of it but still we ordered. Before our desserts came Andre brought the grass stuff to our table. We had been wondering what the hell was the deal with the grass. It had chocolate covered strawberries in it! Yummmm. So good! Sarah wasn’t crazy about the gelato so gave that to Bob. I had no issues with my chocolate dessert. It was wonderful. THEN Andrea brought out this chocolate cake thing with candles and a ribbon that said “Happy Anniversary” on it for DE and Sarah. Awwwwwww. So sweet! The cake had a weird texture and none of us cared that much for it but it was still very sweet and kind. DE was done, can you tell? Isn’t that the same look he had last time we finished up at Qsine?
And before I go any further I have to tell the story of the PDW – Panty Dropping Watch. Hey, this is his story, not mine. I didn’t make this up, he did. I’m just the messenger. So they went shopping (I don’t even remember where – a port on the last cruise) and this guy tries to sell DE a $10,000 watch. DE immediately talks him down to $5,000 and then pretty much just walks away. I mean really. What makes a watch worth that much? DE comes back to the ship and wins a butt load in the casino so goes to a store on the ship and buys one he had been spying, for $400+ something. But he loves this watch. He said this watch is so special it’s a Panty Dropping Watch. All he has to do is tap the watch to get Sarah’s attention. (I know you see me rolling my eyes and shaking my head right now – laughing too but that’s besides the point.) So tapping the watch during this cruise is going to be a thing.
Already on Day 1 and we have tapping the PDW and Theodore & Alvin (Bob is Alvin). It only goes downhill from here y’all.
It’s been another long day and everyone is too stuffed to move so we went back to our cabins to recharge for our very busy sea day tomorrow. Hahahahaha.
I’m done and hitting the sack as well …. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz
It's a Wonderful Life! 