Spain To Miami Transatlantic Cruise – 2009

This morning was a early wake up time morning, we had to be at the Atoche Renfe train station at about 7:00 am for our 7:35 am train to Malaga. Our wake up call was set for  5:30 am so that we could get ready and pack the few remaining items we left out from last night. Check out was very quick, and we were on our way walking to the Sol metro stop at 6:30 am. There were a few more people on the street this morning, most looked like they were still out from last night. Today is a holiday in Madrid, so there were probably quite a few late night celebrators on the street. It was an uneventful walk to the metro station, and thankfully, there were not too many stairs to roll the luggage down to our platform.

The metro ride took about 15 minutes, and then up a few stairs into the train station. Unfortunately, none of the vendors were open yet for us to get breakfast. We proceeded through security with our luggage, and only had to wait about 5 minutes before they started boarding our train. Today’s train ride is on one of the highest speed trains in the Renfe AVE system.

Stephanie got us coffee and Coke on the train while we were waiting for it to depart. Today’s train coach was situated with all of the seats facing in the direction of travel. I guess for the longer rides (this is a 2 hr., 20 min trip) all of the seats face forward, unlike yesterday’s slower “high speed” train, which had half of the seats facing in each direction.

The train departed right on time, and was about 3/4ths full. It was a beautiful and sunny day in Spain, and the sunrise on the train was very nice. The train’s highest speed that was posted on the information screen in the coach was 297 kilometers per hour. This particular train was non-stop to Malaga, some of the later trains make a few stops on the way, and take a little longer. The seats were spacious, with power plugs for the computer, and headphone jacks for music. There was also a movie being shown on a small TV screen at the front of the coach. Of course, it was is Spanish, with Spanish subtitles. We wondered if there was anything shown here with English sub titles.

Our plan for today, once we arrive in Malaga, is to try and store the luggage in lockers in the train station, and then try and see a little of the town before we head over to the port. We arrived on time at the Malaga train station, and unloaded our luggage. We went into the station and found the lockers for storing our bags so we could spend a few hours touring the city. The “large size” lockers for rent were huge, so we were able to get all three of our checked bags into one locker. When that was done, we went to the information booth, got a map of the city, and some directions to the Cathedral de Malaga. We walked for about 20 minutes and arrived at the Cathedral. With entry tickets purchased, we went inside.

It is a very large cathedral, but somewhat smaller then the one in Toledo,  and also not quite as decorative. However, it was of the same style. Apparently, it only took about 150 years to construct, not the 250 years it took  to build the Toledo Cathedral. It was also nice because we could take non-flash photos inside, and got some nice pictures.

After we finished with the Cathedral, we asked the ticket attendant where the taxis were so we could take one to the Castillo (Castle) Gibralfaro. We went over to the taxi stand and hired a cab for the ride there. It was a little comical, we thought our destination was another building that we could see  was not far from the cathedral. However, the Castle was much farther away than we had thought. Our first impression was that the driver was “taking us for a ride” so to speak, which can be a common occurrence in some cities. However, later we learned that he had indeed taken us the preferred route, and was not trying to make an extra fare. We found this out by being forced to ride the bus back into town after we learned from the taxi driver that there were no taxis back into town from the Castle. They would come if called, but were not there normally waiting there for passengers. This concerned us at first, wondering how we would get back. However, we learned from the ticket attendant  at the Castle that there was a bus back into the city every hour.

We spent about 30 minutes walking around the top of the walls of the castle. There were some really good opportunities for photographing Malaga from these walls, the castle was on one of the highest mountains in Malaga.

We did not want to miss our bus, since they only depart every hour, so we went back out into the parking area and waited for the next bus. It showed up right on time and after purchasing our tickets, we rode back into the center of town, and then walked the rest of the way back to the Malaga train station to claim our luggage from the storage locker. There was a shopping mall inside the train station, along with several restaurants. We picked out one of the resturants and finally ate lunch about 2:45 pm in the afternoon.

Next we went outside of the station to take a taxi from the train station to the pier to board our cruise  ship (finally). That all went without a hitch, and we were even able to bring one bottle of wine on with us in Stephanie’s backpack. The security and bag screening was all done through the port security, I guess they don’t care about bringing on alcohol until you actually board the ship using the ship’s security personnel. We were going to try and bring some wine on in the first port, just to check  out how it operates on Royal Caribbean, which was not our normal cruise line.

From the time the taxi dropped us off at the pier until we were in our room took about 40 minutes, not too bad. Some of that time was spent looking at the duty free stores in the terminal. There was one small liquor shop selling items, mostly wines, and a few bottles of liquor. It was not what we expected, especially after hearing about the duty free “stores” in information posted by previous cruisers. All of the stores were more like small kiosks than real stores, and they had very limited selections. It did appear that you could take these items onto the ship, so that was good, but since these shops did not have anything we normally drink, we bypassed the whole idea. We were able to use the rum runners bags, already stored in our checked baggage, and successfully take on our supply of “spirits”.

We found our cabin and went in to freshen up before exploring the ship. Our cabin steward, Anna came by and we all met. She seems really nice, so I am sure we will all get along fine.  We started our exploration of the ship, a new experience for us since our last few cruises had been on Princess Cruise Lines ships we were already familiar with.  The inside Promenade Deck was pretty spectacular, it was a large open space designed to replicate a New Orleans street.  There were interior cabins with windows that have a view of this area, and the main “street” consisted of some different types of bars, several stores, and a coffee shop.

It took about an hour and a half for our luggage to show up, and then we spent about an hour unpacking. Then it was time for the Lifeboat Drills. Once that was concluded, the ship was ready to sail. We pulled away from the dock at 5:00 pm and headed out to sea.  It was a calm and clear evening, so we had a great sunset over the mountains of Spain

Although we were tired, and thought about just going to the buffet for dinner, the menu looked inviting for the regular dining room so we just headed in, glad that it was casual night. Dinner was just fair, we had a odd waiter we did not like, and the food was just not that good. We went to the buffet to see what they had for dessert, and learned that the buffet has the sane food as the main dining room, just served on a buffet.

After dinner, we went out on the deck to watch as we passes through the Strait of Gibraltar.  This was our second time doing this, and both happened about 9:00 pm, so once again, all we could see was the outline of the “Rock”.

Then our plan was to see the parade down the center of the ship on the promenade deck, a replica street from New Orleans. By this time, it was almost ready for their parade so we found a spot to watch from. It was a lavish affair, with very colorful costumes, and starred actual staff from the ship, who at times seemed ready to go, or be somewhere else. I guess they do this every week, or so, and I am sure it gets tiring. Overall, the parade was just OK, there were too many people crowding onto the limited space, making it difficult to see.

After the parade concluded, we were both tired, and so we headed up to the room for a good nights rest.  Tomorrow is a sea day, so we will be able to sleep in and relax.

Today’s port stop was our first since leaving Malaga on Monday. We tied up to the dock in Funchal, Madeira at about 7:00 am. After having our breakfast in the buffet, we went back to the cabin and loaded up our backpacks for the day ashore. We had a little difficulty finding the deck and location to depart the ship, something else to “learn” when taking a voyage on an unfamiliar cruise ship. Once we found our way to the gangway, we left the ship about 8:00 am and hailed a taxi for the ride into town. We had not wanted to take the shuttle bus offered by the cruise line at $10 per person, round trip, mainly because it did not start running until 8:30 am, and we did not want to waste any time waiting for it to start operating.

We took the next taxi in line and started into the city. First thing we noticed was the the meter was not running, a clear sign of trouble. We took the mile and a half ride into the central city area, and when we asked about the fare, we were told it was a flat rate of 10 euros. We questioned this amount, and were again told it was that rate for all taxis from the ship. Guess we should have asked first, although I doubt any of the taxi drivers would have asked for less, they all work together. The driver was nice, and did speak very good English, and had actually lived in Ocala, Florida for two years. He had told us he liked living in Funchal, and that the crime rate was very low, less than 2%. Stephanie and I believe that the taxi drivers must be responsible for some of the 2% crime rate, we sure felt taken for the 10 euro ride. However, we were in the City, and it was time to go on with the plan for the day.

Our first visit was to the Mercado (market) to see all of the fresh flowers, fresh fruit and fresh fish vendors. There are a lot of tropical flowers grown here for export, and there were several vendors with some beautiful birds of paradise. There were also several fruit merchants, and one lady had us taste a local fruit that tastes like it is both banana and pineapple. It had a strange texture, sort of soft and seedy. It was different, that was all we could say. There was also one section of the market just for selling fish. People here in Madeira eat a lot of fish, and there were several varieties that were different from any fish we had ever seen. One of the local favorites is a long, black, skinny fish with very large teeth called“Espada Preta”, which is a Black Scabbard fish. It had the look of a long eel. Apparently it is caught in very deep water, at least 3,000 ft. It is supposed to be very good, but it did not look that way raw in the market. they also had two different types of dried, salted fish. One was darker, and may have also been smoked. One was lighter in color. Both were very fishy smelling.

We proceeded to walk over to the cable car that goes up the mountain to an area called Monte. The cable cars were just starting to run, so there were no lines. We almost got to ride in a car all by ourselves, but a tour bus full of Germans got there right after us, and by the time our car came around to load, they were in line with us. As we got into the car, three of the German tourists got on with us, much to our disappointment. We rode up with a German couple, and their local German speaking tour guide. Of course, they were a little loud, and we were disappointed that we did not get to ride quietly up by ourselves. However, the scenery was beautiful. We could see our ship in the harbor, and the houses we went over while ascending were very nice. It was interesting to see that almost all of the houses had solar water heaters on their roofs.

We got out at the top, and took a few more pictures before heading over to an old pilgrimage church, the Nossa Senhora do Monte .

The church was an old building made out of a white material, and the wooden ceiling inside was painted with decorative scenes. There were a lot of people there with us, there were also two other small cruise ships in port with ours.

There were several trails going around the garden areas at the top by the cathedral and there were many pretty flowers growing on the various bushes. One was sort of a soft orange color, and the very large blossoms looked like trumpets, and hung straight down.

After we wandered around the gardens, we decided to take the famous Monte toboggan down the mountain road. It is a large wicker basket, and two men sort of steer it from the back by braking with their shoes. It was about a 2.5 km. ride down, and was pretty interesting. A lot of the time, you are sideways as the drivers are trying to steer you around bends in the road. It lasted about 10 minutes or so, not a bad experience, a little touristy, but not bad.

We then needed to take a city bus to the bottom of the mountain, near to the center of town. It was still a long way to the bottom after riding the toboggan, and down some pretty steep roads. We waited at a city bus stop with several others for at least 25 minutes, and when the bus finally came down the street, it passed right by the stop, without even braking. We were all left standing there with puzzled looks on our faces. We happened to be standing by another couple for some time before this happened, and they overheard us talking about now having to take a taxi down. They asked us if we wanted to split the fare, and we agreed. Then we got our second dose of taxi theft when a taxi driver informed us it would be 18 euros for the four of us to ride to the market area at the bottom of the mountain. Although we knew it was another “special fare”, we really had no choice, we did not want to risk waiting another 30 minutes for a city bus and have him go by again. We rode down with the couple, they were from Sweden, and could talk very good English. They had been visiting Funchal for a week and were heading home to Sweden the next day. They were very nice. We gave the driver his money, but certainly no tip, and parted ways.

We then walked around looking for a grocery store to try and purchase some local wines, or at least some inexpensive P0rtugese wines. We walked into a small mall area, and Stephanie asked a vendor that was set up by a rail overlooking the lower lever, if she knew where a grocery store was. She could not speak any English, and we could not speak Portuguese, so it was no help. We saw someone with what looked like a grocery bag walk by, so we headed in the direction that he came from. We just walked about 20 feet from the vendor we had just asked, and saw an escalator going down to the second level, where there was a large grocery store. It was funny because it was right below where the vendor was set up, but the language barrier was too much to overcome, even something that obvious.

We shopped and actually found some canned Ginger Ale (f0r refreshment mixer), and also bought some Diet Coke. We purchased three bottles of wine, one of them being Madeira Wine, and the others being “expensive” reds at about 1.95 euros each. We loaded down our backpacks, and then headed to the deli area in the supermarket for lunch. There was a nice cafeteria where you could purchase hot food, but we opted for some good sandwiches, and a desert, all for about 3 euro. There were a lot of locals eating there, so we knew it must have been good, and inexpensive.

After eating, we walked around and looked into a few shops. Some were closing for the “siesta”, normally everyday from about 1:30 to 4:30. After shopping, we headed down to the harbor to take some pictures of the ship. There were many outdoor restaurants along the harbor and in the marina area. We decided to sit at one and have a beer, well, maybe two beers.

The restaurant we picked was pretty crowded, most likely because of the band of Ecuadorian pipe instrument players that was performing outside. Their music was very relaxing, and we stayed for two beers. Apparently, they had a deal with the restaurant, they apparently played for some food, possibly more, but we did see them eat food that was brought from the resturant during one of their breaks. They were also selling CD’s of their music, but at 10 euros, this seemed a little steep. After the beers, we started the long walk back to the ship.

We stopped in one area along the way, an elevated walking park, and took some more pictures of the ship, and a few of us and the ship in the background. Then we completed the walk back to the ship.

Upon boarding, they did identify that we had some alcohol in our backpack, and told us to check it in with the attendant. We had hoped they would let us on with it, since this was a transatlantic cruise, but they would not. Stephanie was quick enough to realize that the person reading the security x-ray did not indicate how many bottles we had, so she only gave them two, and kept one. Just not quick enough to only think to give them one bottle, and keep two. However, that gave us an idea on how to do it next time, have a “sacrificial” bottle of the cheapest wine we can find (we saw some today for as low as euro 0.98, and yes, that is less than 1 euro, and not a typo). When they flag us for alcohol next time, we will just check that “cheap” bottle in, and never claim it at the end of the cruise. They are really particular on this cruise line, they actually make you get your alcohol from them on the last day before you arrive home, and you have to go and pick it up. Normal practice is that they deliver it to your cabin on the last night so you can at least pack it in your luggage. That is the reason we do not care about picking any of the confiscated wine up, too much hassle.

After sitting in the hot tub to relax, we went back to the cabin and got ready for dinner. We decided to opt for the buffet, we just were too tired to sit through the long dinner in the dining room, plus, they serve the same items in the buffet as is served in the dining room, with a lot less hassle.

We spent a little time in the ship’s shops, and then headed off to retire. We have another early and long port day tomorrow in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.

We awoke to a beautiful clear day as the ship was approaching the harbor in the city of Santa Cruz de La Palma. The sunrise was spectacular, and the winds and seas were calm.

We ate breakfast, and then loaded up the backpacks for our tour of the volcanoes. Since this was a hiking tour, we were not sure exactly what the weather would be. It was supposed to be warmer today in the city, but we were concerned it might be cooler at the volcanoes. In addition, this was a rain or shine tour, so we had to be prepared and take our rain jackets.

We could not get a definitive answer from the tour desk on what the provision was for eating lunch, so we took some extra croissants from the breakfast bar, along with some ham and some cheese. We used this to make a few sandwiches to take for the hike, and we also grabbed a few bananas for energy. Then we filled our water bottles, put on sunscreen, and were ready to go. We met in the ship’s lounge, and waited for our tour group to be called. We found out that there were only 19 people on the tour, a good small number.

We departed the ship at about 8:45 am, and headed to our tour bus. Our driver was Pepe, and our tour director was David. David was German, and he made his living doing various hikes on the island. La Palma is well known for its vast array of hiking trails, so the hiking guide business must be pretty good. David was not his real German name, but it was his middle name (or the English equivalent) and he used it because he said we would not be able to pronounce his real first name.

We took a 50 minute bus ride from the port to the southern part of the island. Santa Cruz was on the northern side, and that side of the island gets a fair amount of rain. The volcanoes were on the south end of the island, where it is drier. We saw a lot of banana plants,  and bananas are the number one export of La Palma. As we headed south, the terrain became more rocky, and drier, and the main crop grown in this region is grapes for making wine. The grape vines grow right on top of the volcanic soil, they are not held up on wires or rope supports like a normal vineyard. We also went through some of the forest that had recently been burned in a forest fire. There were many acres of burned trees. Fortunately, the trees are similar to the giant redwoods in California, they both have very thick bark, which protects them from the heat of the fires. These pines were about the diameter of a normal southern pine, but a lot shorter, and more bushy. We could already see the new growth sprouting on the trees, but David indicated it would take 10 years for the forest to completely recover. It was theorized that the fire started form some fireworks shot off for a party in one of the small towns, but no one was able to confirm that as the cause. There was a lot of damage, and it was sad to see. Apparently, the pines are a vital part of the ecosystem, they actually condense the cloud moisture as the clouds pass over the tall mountains, and that moisture drips off of the needles and onto the ground. This is the primary way moisture falls, there is typically not a lot of normal rainfall, and this is why the pines were so valuable to the ecosystem.

As we approached the southern coast, we were able to see the volcanoes, and I must say we were not initially impressed. They appeared to be small, and were not at a very high elevation like the Mt. Teide volcano in Tenerife. It was not until we watched a movie at the visitor’s center that we realize why these volcanoes were on this end of the island, near to the coast. These were the youngest of the volcanoes on La Palma, and this part of the island has been subjected to quite a few volcanoes over the past 500 years. The last volcano to erupt was the Teneguia Volcano in 1971. This was one of the craters we were going to visit on the hike. The other was the San Antonio Volcano, which has not erupted in 3,200 years, and was the location of the visitor’s center.

We initially hiked up to the top of the crater for the San Antonio Volcano, and looked down into the crater, it was much larger than it had looked when we had initially seen it upon our arrival. There is just barren volcanic material, very few trees, so there is just no scale to see how big it really was.

From the viewing area at the rim of the crater, our guide David explained how we were going to hike to the next crater, which we could see, and then from there to the lighthouse at the coast to visit a salt producing facility. It was published to be a 6.5 km. hike, but everyone thought it looked farther.

We started down hill on a trail of volcanic pebbles and rock. The trail was fairly steep, and the loose volcanic gravel made it quite slippery at times. It took a little while to get used to the constant slipping, but it got easier as we went.

It had turned out to be a beautiful day, not too hot, with just a slight breeze. David commented on the fact that it was usually a lot windier, which would have made it a lot dustier. We had decided to leave the rain gear in the bus, there was not going to be any chance of rain today.

The overall hike was estimated to take about 3.5 hours, with a few stops to look at items, and to get an explanation of the various types of lava, and some information on the volcanoes. The total hiking distance was estimated to be about 7 to 8 kilometers.  We went by an area of the original mountain that had not been enveloped in the last eruption. On these original rock outcroppings were some pictographs made by the original inhabitants of the islands.

In addition to the pictographs, the rocks were inhabited by hundreds of small lizards, some reaching about eight or nine inches in length. Apparently they were not afraid of hikers, and are frequently treated to bananas and cookies. They were funny to watch, they would run right up to where we were standing and take off with a mouthful of food. Some of them would even eat from your hands.

We hiked a little farther to the Teneguia Volcano, which was the last volcano to erupt on La Palma in 1971. We went right up to the rim of the crater, and actually walked inside of the rime for a short distance. David showed us several small vent holes where heat continuously comes out. It was not extremely hot, but definitely hotter than the normal surrounding air.

The terrain around the rim of this volcano was very rocky, and the rocks were very sharp. We had to be extra careful not to stumble and fall. There were also a lot of large boulders that had been thrown out of the volcano during the eruption. David had informed us that this volcano had also erupted in 1949, but neither that eruption, nor the one in 1971 had been catastrophic or violent. People did not even really evacuate from the nearby towns.

We left that volcano and continued our hike down to the coast, and to the lighthouse. There were areas where it was reddish brown color, and rocky. Other areas were covered with a finer black material, and there were even some bushes and shrubs growing out of that material. Finally, we made it all the way down to the coast.

It had been a more difficult hike that we had expected, mainly due to the gravel consistency of the material, it was just slippery underfoot. You could not look and walk at the same time, the trails were full of protruding rocks that could easily catch your foot, and down you would go.

Once at the lighthouse, we went over to an area where the sea water is naturally evaporated to make salt for the island’s consumption, none of it is exported. There were several holding ponds that were used to evaporate the sea water, and the brine solution  flowed from one chamber to the next, by gravity, until they were at the smallest size ponds. Then the drying salt was manually pulled out of the highly concentrated solution, and formed into piles of salt crystals. It was collected, and put into bags for distribution, and no additives are introduced.

It was back to the waiting bus for our one hour ride back to the ship. Along the way, David gave us some information and history of the island, which was very interesting. He also explained about how the grapes are grown, and what types of wines are made from them. I do not think he had a lot of attention, almost all of the hikers were dozing after the long day on the trails.

As we approached the northern end of the island, the cloud cover increased, which David said was typical of the weather there. It is cloudy in the afternoon on most days as the sea breeze is condensed by the tall mountains. Once off of the tour bus, we went into the town to look around. We were able to find a grocery store, and bought two bottles of the locally made red wine. We also bought another bottle of a Spanish red wine. We bought one bottle of the cheapest wine available, euro 1.04. This was going to be our sacrificial decoy for getting the other bottles through security. There were also some box wines for the whopping price of euro 0.74. Stephanie wanted to buy some, but we decided our backpacks were full, and we did not want to press our luck in trying the new security bypass technique for the other bottles.

We looked around in the stores, and then headed back to the ship on the free shuttle bus from town to the pier. Departure time for today was scheduled for 5:00 pm. Stephanie went through the security while I went to take pictures of the ship at the pier.

The plan for going through security involved being in the middle of a bus load of excursion returnees, adding pressure to the security to get everyone through and onto the ship. Usually, everyone is tired and wants to get on the ship with a minimum of effort and hassle, so being in the middle of the crowd usually helps when dealing with contraband! The plan worked like a charm, Stephanie was singled out, along with another bag on the screening at the same time. Off she went to declare the one bottle of sacrificial wine, and then to was off to the cabin with the others we really wanted.

We got back to the cabin and found we were covered in black dust from the hike. After cleaning up, we waited on the balcony for the ship to depart. There was apparently some issue with a computer, either on the ship, or in the port, having to do with paperwork needed for the ship to depart. It took about two hours for it to get straightened out, and we finally left port to start the transatlantic crossing. For the next 6 days, we will be at sea covering the 3,200 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Nassau, Bahamas.

We went to dinner, this time in the regular dining room. Afterward, we attended an Elton John impersonator performance in the ship’s main theater. He was really good, looked like Elton John, sounded a lot like him, and could play the piano very well. We both thoroughly enjoyed the show. We then called it a night,  both of us being tired from the volcano hike. We are both looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, the past three mornings have been early wake ups at 6:00 am getting ready for the port stops.

Tomorrow is a relaxing day at sea!

As forecast by the Captain yesterday, we woke up to gray skies, and windy conditions. The seas has been rougher for most of the night, but not bad when you are laying down and sleeping. Once you get up and try to walk around, you really start to notice how much the ship is moving. The seas look to be about 12-15 ft., and the wind is blowing out of the northeast. Hopefully, we will pass through the cold front today, and the skies will clear.

We got ready for Sunday Mass at 8:30 am. There is a Priest on board from Boston. There were probably over 200 people in attendance, and the service was good. We all had to sit the entire time, it was too rough to stand without fear of loosing your balance. It was a little tough to walk to communion in the crowded room, but everyone seemed to sway in the same direction.

After Mass, we went to the buffet for breakfast. It continued to get rougher as the morning passed.

The ship shudders every once and a while as we go through a larger wave. It appears that we have slowed down some, I am sure due to the seas. We spent some time this morning in the Crown Viking Lounge, all the way on the top of the ship, in the stern. It is the signature glassed window, round bar area found on most Royal Caribbean ships.

We wondered around the ship taking some pictures of the inside areas.

After lunch, we spent some time reading, attending an art auction, and just generally taking it easy. The sun tried to peek out a few times in the afternoon, but did not come out all the way. The weather forecast for tomorrow is about the same for the winds, but hopefully it will be sunnier.

After dinner in the buffet, we went to see a show given by a professional pick pocket. It was very funny and interesting. He used “victims” from the audience. He also does a lot of work with law enforcement agencies around the world, and will be giving a seminar in a couple of days on protecting yourself from pick pockets while traveling.

It was still rough when we decided to turn in for the night.

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.

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.