This morning, we woke up early, the by product of going to bed early, and of also gaining an hour of time as we head westward. We had hoped to see a nice sunrise, but it was a little cloudy, and the sunrise was hidden behind those clouds. After getting ready, we ventured to the breakfast buffet. Boy, I never knew it was so hard to get a cup of coffee. For some reason, the coffee serving area we sat by was having issues with the multiple coffee brewers. After waiting for about 5 minutes for coffee, and still not getting anywhere with actually getting some, it was back to the table to eat breakfast before it got cold. There were also others in the area commenting about the problem. It should be easy to overcome, but for some reason, no one is monitoring the situation. You can walk up and get water, orange juice, apple juice, already poured sitting on a tray full of glasses. However, at the buffet, you can’t get your own coffee. Someone has to actually pour it in a cup for you from the super large brewers. Sometimes, they run out of coffee cups, and have to use Styrofoam cups. Sometimes, you have to wait for a server to fill an entire carafe, and at other times, you have to wait on a server to fill individual cups themselves, with those being filled to take to someone’s table. It surely does not make sense that this can not all be done in a kitchen, it seems ridiculous to have customers waiting on a server to fill their carafe. It was just not a pleasant experience. Sometimes, I wonder if the size of this ship has exceeded the ability of the services to work adequately. We did find out earlier in the week that there are just over 1,000 seats in the buffet, and there are about 3,000 people on the ship, and it is not even full. Maybe tomorrow, we will try the sit down breakfast, at least we should get hot food, and coffee on demand.
After breakfast, it was off to sit in the sunshine by the pool and relax. We went to the buffet lunch, and then visited the dining room to look at the menu for dinner. Once again, there was not anything on the menu that we felt was worthy of getting dressed up for, and coupled with the issues we faced of getting a table for two last time in the dining room, we will go to the buffet once again. There was just not anything on the menu that was special. OK, we like fried chicken, but not as a main entree on the dinner menu on a cruise. Neither is sirloin steak. Where is the NY Strip??
Not trying to complain, but we are becoming more dis-enchanted with Royal Caribbean. We like the ship, and the room, but the total experience is just not what we have come to expect. Even by the pool today, we were told (on the first day of the cruise, by one of the bartenders) that we could get a bucket of beer (Budweiser Products), where we get 5 for the price of 4, but for some reason, on this cruise, it is not available. We were told it would be offered for the Caribbean cruises, just not this itinerary. We never had this on a Princess cruise, and it included beers other than Budweiser products. We were told today that it was because Budweiser was not “sponsoring” this special until the ship was doing Caribbean cruises. What a bunch of &%$^$* Never happened to us on Princess. And, with beers running $5.50 apiece, anything would help. With tip, 5 beers cost over $30.00. No wonder people want to smuggle alcohol onto the ship, it has become the single item that supplements the cost of cruising. It is almost enough to make you want to stop drinking.
Oh well, off of the soap box. We went to the hot tub in the late afternoon, before going in to get ready for dinner. Again, with nothing spectacular on the dinner menu in the dining room, we opted for a casual evening in the buffet. We did not want to go too early, and then have to wait until after 10:30 pm for the late entertainment to begin, so we wondered around the Promenade deck, looked at some of the amber jewelry that was on special, and finally got to dinner about 8:00 pm.
After dinner, we took some pictures with the fun characters in the casino, and some other photos in other areas of the ship.
Stephanie and a New Friend
Another New Friend in the Casino
Our plan was to be in the Schooner Bar for piano music by the Elton John impersonator, who was slated to be out of costume, just playing and singing requests. He started at 10:30 pm, but only played for about 15 minutes before the “big party” taking place nearby on the inside Promenade area started. It was a 70’s dance theme. Unfortunately, the party was too close and too loud for the piano player to overcome, so he stopped, to resume after the loud music one floor above ceased. We decided to go and see the 70’s party, it was just some singers performing songs form the 70’s. We thought they had concluded, and went back to Schooners Bar, only to find that the 70’s event was not yet finished. About 20 minutes later, the performer we wanted to see came back, but he was not feeling well, saying it was something he ate. He promised another performance tomorrow night.
We then decided to go to the Miami Party on the pool deck, only to find out it had started raining outside, and the party was canceled. By then it was time for the special Asian Buffet, so we went to the Windjammer Cafeteria, and had a little (more) food. Once that was finished, we headed back to the room for the night.
It had been a fun evening, but not as many things took place as we had wanted to see.