Mandymouse's Fabulous Fantasy B2B ~ Sept 2015

Tuesday 15th September

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I was awake early this morning, around 6am,and I watched the Bridge View on the TV as we pulled into St. Maarten


I got up, showered and ready around 7. Once Paul got up, I went to get my skinny latte from the Cove Cafe and we went to get some breakfast from Cabanas. I just had fruit and a yoghurt and Paul had fruit and a croissant


After brekkie we disembarked onto St. Maarten. The taxi ranks are right at the dock, so we took a taxi to Maho Beach, which is abut 20 minutes away and cost $8 each

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It was a cloudy morning and you could tell that rain was on its way. The main plane, a KLM was due to land around 11, so we had 45 minutes to kill, and as we sat at the Sunset Bar, the heavens opened



Paul had a couple of Carib lagers and I had a Bacardi & diet coke, which only came to $13 (bargain)

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Around 10.45am we moved closer to the end of the runway to see the planes come in. Unfortunately the KLM plane was running late and arrived 40 minutes later

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After watching a few planes take off, we caught a taxi back to Philipsburg. First stop was the Hard Rock Cafe, where we enjoyed a couple of Hurricanes and shared some chicken tenders and onion rings, it was all very nice

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After feeding our faces we walked round the jewellery shops where I treated myself to a Pandora ring


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We took the water taxi at the pier back to the ship, $5 one way and chilled back at our room for a little while

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We were starting to get a bit peckish, so went up to Deck 11 where I had a couple of slices of pizza and Paul had some wraps and ice cream. We were feeling really tired so decided to have a little nap before the Pirate Night festivities


A couple of hours later we watched from the top deck as we departed St. Maarten, then we had a couple of drinks from the Cove Bar, where I had found out the previous day that they had bottles of Recorderlig, so I started with a pear one then moved onto a strawberry one


We got ready or Pirate Night and joined our tablemates at the Enchanted Garden. When we arrived, our server Simon brought over a couple of plates of cheese, biscuits and fruit, mmm, I was in cheese heaven lol. Paul had potstickers to start and I had jerk chicken salad, then we both had steak for our main and finished off with a fruit cobbler each

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Once again we had a lovely meal and were heading back to our room to pick up our cameras for the fireworks by 9.30


We had time for a quick drink at the Cove Bar from Katy again, then found our spot on the upper deck to take some photos

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After the fireworks Paul returned the cameras etc to the room then we joined the party, it was lots of fun, the DJ for this cruise had been great. We then headed back to our room around 11.30 and called it a night

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Tomorrow ~ St. Thomas
 
I agree, love the ring! Good timing on avoiding the rain by having another drink. :goodvibes At least you weren't stuck out in it. Looking forward to hearing all about St. Thomas, it's one of our favorite ports.
 


Wednesday 16th September

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I woke around 6.30am and watched on the Bridge Channel as we approached St. Thomas


Around 8 I grabbed a latte from the Cove Cafe, then we went to Cabanas for breakfast where we both had an omelette freshly made from the omelette station. I had cheese & mushroom and Paul had ham & mushroom, both were lovely


We had a DCL excursion booked for this morning. We met at the Walt Disney Theatre at 9.15am, and were given a Simba sticker for our group. Around 15 minutes later we were led down the stairs to disembark to deck 1


It was a cloudy day, and very muggy, and it looked like we were the only ship docked at St. Thomas today


A Castmember led us down to 'The Legendary Kon Tiki' boat which was docked next to the Fantasy. Once everyone was onboard we pulled away from the dock. The tour was basically a sail pass the Charlotte Amalie harbour, where our host would point out things of interest and tell us the history of the place ...

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... next we came to a stop and they dropped the glass bottom of the boat to look at the coral, though to be honest, there wasn't much to see, and the only fish we saw was when fish food was thrown over one side of the boat ...

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... around 10.45 we arrived at a beach, where we could chill and get a drink or food for an hour or so

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We walked to the far end of the beach, as most of the families stayed closer to the boat. We had a couple of drinks each, vodka & diet coke for me and bottles of lager for Paul

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We watched as two other boats arrived at the island, then at 12 the boat sounded 3 horn blasts to signal us to return to the boat, and we headed back to the Fantasy

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We sat upstairs on the way back, which was nice, as down below the steel band were getting everyone up for the Macerana and the Conga party:


We got back to the ship around 12.30, got changed and went up to Cabanas for some lunch. We both had a lamb curry dish and I had mine with some vegetable biryani, it was ok


Next we disembarked again to go up the Skyride. It cost $21 each. We didn't have long here, but the views are nice and they make a lovely Bushwacker, which is a Bailey's based frozen cocktail, plus the free wifi is good too

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We stayed up there for about an hour and chatted to our girls who had checked in to their hotel at Birmingham Airport before flying out to Orlando the following morning, then we took the cable car back down the mountain and had a brief look is the shops at the dock before getting back onboard


We all had to be back onboard for 4pm, and once onboard we headed up to deck 11 for a drink at the Cove Bar and the ship left St. Thomas about 1/2 an hour later. Once the ship had pulled away we grabbed a quick snack, my favourite BBQ chicken pizza and some spicy chicken and fries for Paul

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When we got back to our room, we found that our Castaway Club gift had arrived, a bottle of Prosecco (Mmm, thanks DCL). We chilled for a while and watched Pirates of the Caribbean on the TV, then got ready for dinner, which tonight was back in the Royal Court with the rotational menu

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We had a drink at Bon Voyage, a Zonin wine for me, and a Capt. Mai Tai for Paul, then we went into dinner. Paul started with the salmon, and I had the lentil soup. I couldn't decide what to have for my main as both the turkey and vegetable lasagne sounded nice, so Simeon said to get the turkey and he'd bring me a small portion of the lasagne to try, both dishes were delicious. To finish off I had a tiramisu and Paul had cheesecake. It was all lovely


We both fancied a Cosmopolitan, so went to visit Julian in the Skyline, where for some mad reason, we ended up being signed up for his Mixology Class the following afternoon, this could get messy :rotfl:, so we will have to make sure we eat well and have a nap before our Palo Dinner reservation the next evening

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We finished the night off in The Tube and rolled back to our room about 12.30

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Tomorrow ~ Day at Sea
 
Another good day Mandy. :thumbsup2 I've often wondered what the Kon Tiki excursion consisted of as you can hear them coming back and it sounds like quite a party party: Glad that you managed to squeeze in a Bushwackers but it's a shame the weather wasn't nice and sunny as that photo just always looks stunning when there's a blue sky. I like how you make sure to spread the wealth on drinks through several different bars :goodvibes it's a fun way to spend the evening - is that why the towel animal photo is a bit fuzzy? :rotfl:
 


Another good day Mandy. :thumbsup2 I've often wondered what the Kon Tiki excursion consisted of as you can hear them coming back and it sounds like quite a party party: Glad that you managed to squeeze in a Bushwackers but it's a shame the weather wasn't nice and sunny as that photo just always looks stunning when there's a blue sky. I like how you make sure to spread the wealth on drinks through several different bars :goodvibes it's a fun way to spend the evening - is that why the towel animal photo is a bit fuzzy? :rotfl:

The photo didn't look fuzzy when I took it :rotfl2::rotfl2:

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This made me laugh - great photo. ::yes::

He did this quite a lot :rotfl::rotfl:

Enjoying following along

Thanks hun :)
 
Thursday 17th September

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What? How can it be Thursday already? Where has this week gone? Time please slow down!!!


I woke around 7.30am and just chilled in bed for a while


We got up around 8.30am And got ready for a walk around Deck 4. After our usual 2 miles, we got showered and went to get some breakfast at Cabanas, calling into the Cove Cafe for my skinny latte on the way. I had another delicious freshly made cheese and mushroom omelette and some fruit and Paul had a couple of croissants and fruit


After brekkie we spent an hour or so sunbathing on Deck 13, though today it was hot, hot, hot!!


We made a point of having some lunch as we had a Mixology Class at 2pm, and boy, were we glad we did, though I'll get to that later. I had a couple is slices of my fave pizza everrrrr (BBQ chicken) and Paul had a cheeseburger and fries


After a little chill on Deck 4 we headed to the Skyline Lounge for the Mixology Class with Julian. It was lots of fun, and we quickly decided it was much more fun to have others make the cocktails for us and drink them than us make them :rotfl:

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We probably should have chilled back at our room for an hour or two before Palo tonight, but when do we ever do what we should ? :rotfl2: We then popped down to Bon Voyage for a couple of Capt. Mai Tai's then we changed into our swimwear for a sunbathe on Deck 13


Our girls messaged us to say they landed at Sanford and when they had arrived at the All Stars Sports (phew! relief!)


Around 6pm we went back to our room to get ready for dinner at Palo at 7pm. We had a Cosmo each at the Meridian Lounge, then the manager showed us to our table

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What a lovely few hours we had here. We ordered a bottle is Asti Martini, and again Marie was our server. She brought us some breads and we chose some meat and cheese from the Anti-pasti trolley

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For our starters I had soup and Paul had the beef ravioli

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Then we had a palate cleanser

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Next I ordered the Beef Palo, with both the red and cheese sauces, it was delicious. Paul had theSea Bass dish and really enjoyed it too



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For dessert I had chocolate ice-cream covered in nuts which was divine and Paul had Panna Cotta

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And we rounded it all off with the vodka based lemoncillo drink

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It was the best meal ever!!!! We really enjoyed it and can't wait to come back next week


Marie brought us the check, but we only had to pay for the wine as this was our complimentary Platinum Castaway meal


It was also lovely to eat that bit earlier too


We went back to the room to change into something less tight ;) then we grabbed a Mai Tai at Bon Voyage before heading to the Tube


I'm not going to lie, the drinks went straight to my head, and I don't really remember heading back to our room, which Paul informed me the next morning was about 10.30pm ... what a lightweight !! :lmao:

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Tomorrow ~ Castaway Cay
 
lol which drinks went to your head Mandy - the ones before dinner, during or after ;) What a great day! Our Palo meal on the PC cruise was the best ever, we enjoyed it immensely and it was certainly a far cry from our first one which was good but not great.
 
Friday 18th September

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I didn't feel too well this morning, and I had a bit of a headache too (surprise surprise lol), so a skinny latte was desperately needed. We sat on top deck as the Captain manoeuvred us on Castaway Cay. We had a quick brekkie at Cabanas. I just a yoghurt and fruit and Paul had a croissant and fruit

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It was a beautiful morning, and Darren, our Cruise Director informed us it would be 27c today, perfect


We wandered down to the family beach via the shops, then caught the tram to Serenity Bay. The beach was already quite busy, but we found some loungers with a parasol, and got comfy for the next few hours

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Despite vowing never to drink again earlier that morning, by 10.30am we had our first Konk Kooler, and fabulous it was too

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We rotated from sunbathing and cooling off in the sea, and at one stage Capt. Jack Sparrow wandered along

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The smell of the BBQ wafted by, so we headed over to get some lunch. The line was quite long, so we decided to have a couple of Stingrays, the drink of the day. The decking around the Castaway Air Bar had been extended with more seating and an area for live music, a young man, David Kenny was singing there, he was really good, and it was a nice addition to Serenity Bay


The line for the BBQ had gone, so we had some burgers and steak, which was very nice


We didn't last much longer at Serenity Beach as it suddenly got very hot, so we caught the tram back to the family beach, where we had a couple more Stingrays at the Conched Out Bar, we then sauntered back to the ship

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After a quick shower and watching the end of the England v Fiji Rugby World Cup game on the TV, we then watched from deck 4 as we sailed away from Castaway Cay


For the rest of the day we had the odd cocktail and ate some paninis for a snack


Dinner tonight was at the Enchanted Garden. We had really lucked out this week with two lovely couples as tablemates, we'll miss them, they were really friendly and it was always nice to hear what they'd been up to that day while having dinner, I hope next weeks cruise mates will be just as nice


Anyway for dinner we both started with tomato & mozzarella, then I had tandoori lamb and Paul had steak, then to finish off we had apple pie, we then said goodbye to our new friends and gave our wait staff their tip envelopes

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It had now been 10 days since I had last done any clothes washing (eek!), that really was a record for me, and as we were running out of clean clothes, we decided that we'd best get it done, so we grabbed the two bags of washing, set them washing, and popped down to Bon Voyage for a quick cocktail to keep us busy while the 25 minute wash was done


We went back to put most of it in the drier, hung other stuff back in the room to dry, then went to see Sammy in The Tube to kill the 45 minutes till the washing was dry


Once the washing was dry, we called it a night as it was about 11.30

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Tomorrow ~ Disembark, then Re-Embark the Disney Fantasy




Thoughts


Well what a great first week, I don't know where it went


Palo - Loved it, we had two wonderful meals here and can't wait to do them both again next week. Our server Marie was lovely too, so friendly, but not in your face


Dining - Simoun was our server, and he was great, he's very much Disney old school. He knew our names straight after meeting us for the first time, and would always ask how we were when we ran into him around the ship. Gabi, our assistant server, was nice enough, but was rather slow, though to be fair she was poorly for 3 or 4 nights. Melwin, I think he was training, and he was great. So friendly, though a little slow, but hey he was in training. He entertained us most nights with card or crayon tricks. It's a shame he'll have his own station next week, we'll miss him


Bars - As you can imagine by the cocktail photos, that we went to the odd bar or two lol. The Cove Bar was one of our favourites where Katy from England worked, we had some fun chats with her and she had even remembered that we'd done B2B cruises last year. We also enjoyed The Tube in the evenings. Sammy who we had met on previous cruises was working here this week, and he always greeted us with a smile and a handshake. We caught up with Julian in the Skyline a couple of times, and his Mixology Class had been fun. Andrae who we had met last year was working in Preludes by the theatre, so we didn't see much of him, maybe he'll be somewhere different the following week. My other fave place was the Cove Cafe for my morning skinny latte. Leach worked there, and he was friendly too


Room - We don't do fuss, so it was great that our room host Valentino always tended to our room when we were out. When we did run into him in the corridor he would always stop for a chat and ask what we were up to

Now bring on week two ....
 
Saturday 19th September

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I didn't sleep well, and ended up getting up around 6.30am. The procedure for this morning was to disembark by 9.00am, clear customs, then head right back up the escalator into a virtually empty terminal


There was a huge line to get off the ship, and we were held back for a good 20 minutes on the gangway as it was very busy where people were picking up their luggage

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Once back in the terminal, we checked in, took some photos, then chilled in the Concierge Lounge, till we were allowed back onboard

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We were allowed back onboard at 10.40am. You don't get an embarkation photo done (not that we ever do this), and there is no announcement back on, but it is great to be one of the first back on


Our dining rotation for this week was RAERAAE (R=Royal Court, A=Animator's Palate, E=Enchanted Garden)


First we went back to our room to drop the few things we had taken off, thankfully Valentino had already serviced our room. Guests aren't allowed in their rooms till 1.30, but we brought a letter that had been delivered to our room a few days ago explaining we were doing a B2B just in case we were stopped, though we weren't

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We chilled near the Cove Cafe till we noticed general boarding had begun (around 11.30), then we went to get some lunch at Cabanas. We both had turkey dinner, and it was very nice

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We had a quick look around the kids clubs, then got changed to sit out on top deck. It was a lovely warm day, and we sat out for about an hour and enjoyed a couple of Bahama Mamas

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Throughout the afternoon we attended the Drill, wandered the ship, watched sailaway from the back of the ship and enjoyed a couple of drinks at La Piazza where Julian had moved to this week

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Around 6pm we went back to the room to get ready for dinner

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We were the first to arrive at a table for 6 and shortly after a party of 4 joined us. They didn't look too overly impressed to be sat with others, and after a brief chat with the woman who sat next to me, they pretty much just kept to themselves. What a contrast to the week before, where we would all chat, and we'd wait for everyone's food to arrive before we started to eat. This party would start eating as soon as their own arrived, and in between one guy would spend time looking at his phone and later on Paul told me that the woman sat next to him was playing a card game on her phone on her lap and I noticed she rarely thanked anyone for the food or drink given to her


It was hilarious to watch, and I just hope they request a table to themselves tomorrow. Thankfully we had Simoun as our server and we were thrilled to see that Melwin had been made our assistant server this week so it was nice to see a couple of friendly faces


Tonight we both had soup to start, leek & potato for Paul, and French onion for me. I had Duck for my main and Paul had lamb. For dessert I had apple tart and Paul had strawberry sundae, it was all very nice


Well after the hard work of that meal, we headed to bed, it was only 10.30, but with the clocks going back an our overnight it was really 9.30 (lame-o's lol)

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Tomorrow ~ Day at Sea
 
Sunday 20th September

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We both slept really well, and woke around 7.30am. We got up half an hour later and did our 2 mile fast walk around Deck 4


We got ready for a couple of hours in the sun, but first I grabbed my morning skinny latte while Paul went to get some fruit from Cabanas


We lay out till just before 11am, then returned to our room to get ready for Palo Brunch. As I stepped in the shower I heard the Captain's daily announcement, but didn't think anything of it. When Paul stepped out of the shower, he answered a phone call from Palo. They asked about our reservation and I heard Paul say ' yes, at 11 o'clock'


Then something twigged in Paul's head, the early Captain's announcement and the call from Palo, so he checked the Navigator only to find that the clocks were going back tonight not last night!!!! (d'oh !!) :blush:


Thankfully I was just about ready, Paul dried and got changed in record time, then we legged it to the other end of the ship, even the elevators seemed to be against us. But finally 35 or so minutes late we arrived for Brunch


We apologised profusely and the manager of Palo escorted us to our table, and Marie came to take our drinks order. Two glasses of water with lemon and the all important Mimosas. It took us a few minutes to gather ourselves, though the Mimosas helped

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Marie asked us if we'd like to be shown around the different tables again, we said we were happy to go up by ourselves, so she took our first food orders, spicy sausage pizza for Paul, then Eggs Florentine for me and Eggs Julia for Paul. We then went up to the buffet to get some fruit, meats, cheeses and bread

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Next came the pizza

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Then the egg dishes

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For our main, we both had the Lasagne and another Mimosa each

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Once again the food was delicious


We had a couple of desserts and a pot of English tea each

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The Manager sat with us for a while. We apologised again for being late, and he said how weird that it was for us to be late, and that was why he'd got someone to phone us


We chatted for a few minutes, then we left feeling full to burst


My stomach was hurting, so I suggested going for a walk, we put something comfortable on and walked down to the shops and bought a few souvenirs, we put some money on the room account, and after returning the shopping to the room, we walked twice around the deck


We stopped off at the atrium where a golf putting game was on, so we watched for a while, then as it was a little cooler out, we lay in the sun for a while


Dinner tonight was at Animator's Palate. We got ready and as it was the Captain's Gala, we grabbed a free rum cocktail and lined up to enter the restaurant. We sat down, and straight away one of the other party arrived. He was quite chatty and he and Paul talked about work as the company he worked for made equipment similar to what Paul had recently bought for Jaguar Land Rover. Next the couple arrived, but we weren't joined by the 'card playing on her phone lady'

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We had a nice meal, though to be honest both myself and Paul weren't remotely hungry. Paul had the salmon starter and I had the butternut squash soup. For our mains we both had the lemon chicken, and we both had the cookies & ice-cream sundae to finish off, all washed down with a couple of Golden Reef cocktails


We really were full to bursting now, so we had a walk around the deck, changed into something less tight, had another walk, then joined Damion in the Skyline Loung for a super-de-dooper strong Cosmopolitan (phew! that could put hairs on your chest)

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We couldn't handle more than one, so moved to La Piazza as the Tube was full for the comedian show. Thankfully the 'comedian' wasn't on for too long and the show was shown on some screens in La Piazza. The American audience seemed to love him, but I thought he was quite lame lol


Once he had finished we moved back to the Tube and enjoyed the DJ from last week, though his music has changed a lot, gone were all the Latino/Zumba music and it was more American based


We lasted till 1.30, though it was 12.30 on our 2nd attempt at putting the clocks back :rotfl2::rotfl2:

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Tomorrow ~ Cozumel
 
I just got all caught up Mandy. That first week did fly by, and now you are already steaming into week 2! Sorry that the week 2 table mates weren't quite as much fun, but at least "card shark" was a no-show on night 2, can't figure people out sometimes. :rolleyes: Great cocktail count for the first week, especially when you lose count! :thumbsup2 Looking forward to hearing more. We just got home yesterday - loved, loved, loved doing a B2B, I can see how they would be addicting. :goodvibes
 
brilliant trip report , i am so thirsty reading this its like cocktail heaven.
 
I just got all caught up Mandy. That first week did fly by, and now you are already steaming into week 2! Sorry that the week 2 table mates weren't quite as much fun, but at least "card shark" was a no-show on night 2, can't figure people out sometimes. :rolleyes: Great cocktail count for the first week, especially when you lose count! :thumbsup2 Looking forward to hearing more. We just got home yesterday - loved, loved, loved doing a B2B, I can see how they would be addicting. :goodvibes

So pleased you enjoyed your B2B Jenny, will you be doing a trip report ? I hope so :)

brilliant trip report , i am so thirsty reading this its like cocktail heaven.

Thanks for joining along :)
 
Monday 21st September

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I'd been awake for a while, but got up around 8am, Paul got up 1/2 an hour or so later, due to me making too much noise :blush:


Today we were in Cozumel, and after seeing a friends photos on FB from earlier in the year (thank you Gaynor), we had booked Nachi Cocum privately. I think it was about $55 each and it included chairs, drinks, food and a very dodgy internet


We disembarked around 9.30 am, and caught a taxi to Nachi Cocum, which was $18 for the both of us before tip. It took about 20 minutes to get there, and after having our photo taken (which we knew we wouldn't buy), someone led us to some loungers under some palm umbrellas

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For the next few hours we enjoyed sunbathing, cocktails (would you believe I had my first ever Pina Colada, though to be fair, they're like Konk Koolers without as much rum), lunch (we both had club sandwiches, which were very nice) and Internet which came and went

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We were able to message our girls, who were currently in Freeport on a Carnival 4 night cruise


Around 2pm it began to rain, it wasn't pouring down, it was just a light drizzle but we moved up to closer the bar to stay dry

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We decided to leave around 3pm and got into a taxi with some women being dropped off at the Carnival terminal, then we got dropped off near our ship


We were going to check some shops out, but they are so pushy about coming in, that we gave up and came back onboard


For the next hour or so we chilled, I had some paninis, we had a drink at the Cove Bar, then sat on top deck till we pulled away from Cozumel


Dinner tonight was at the enchanted Garden. We got ready and headed down to Bon Voyage, but it was really busy, as there had been Halloween activities going on, so we popped up to La Piazza for a drink with Julian. An English couple, called Firelites were playing, so we sat listening to them for a while then headed to dinner


Tonight all four of our other tablemates arrived. They seemed to take ages to eat, and some of them hardly touched their food, and Simoun & Melwin seemed to pick up on this and would serve us quickly so we could escape (lol). They were a funny bunch and their phones still made an appearance during dinner


For our starters I had the mushroom tart and Paul had tomato soup, then for mains I had rib eye steak and Paul had sea bass, then to finish off I had apple shortbread sundae and Paul had sweet temptations, again it was very nice


We had finished our desserts as they started theirs, so we said our goodbyes and had a slow walk around the deck as once again we were full to bursting


We went back to La Piazza for a couple of delicious Cosmos and Firelites were still playing, they have been really good the last few weeks


We finished off in the Tube to watch the Halloween fancy dress party and we rolled back to our room about 12.30

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Tomorrow ~ Grand Cayman
 
So pleased you enjoyed your B2B Jenny, will you be doing a trip report ? I hope so :)

Yes, I am still trying to get all my photos sorted - that's the hardest part!

We haven't ever done Nachi Cocum either. We were going to do it this trip but it was closed because it was a Sunday. Pina Coladas look nice. I never usually order one because if I'm going to consume that many calories I want more booze in it! :rotfl: I see the saga continues with the table mates .popcorn:: Looking forward to the next installment.
 

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