Day 18
This morning we had not set an alarm. On the itinerary that day this was listed as the beginning of the Suez canal crossing, but that was not supposed to happen until
11:00 PM so we were in no rush that day. So we enjoyed a lie in and woke up of our own accord around 9:30. We got up and ready and headed to the Windjammer to get some breakfast. Graham started healthy again with a selection of fruit and yoghurt, but I gravitated towards the pancakes again. This time round I had strawberry pancakes with whipped cream, strawberry compote and white chocolate drops. We then both had some hot food. Graham went with a full cooked breakfast and I had the lovely vegetable fried rice with poached eggs and sausage links. I was in heaven that I could get made to order poached eggs. The only slight letdown was the coffee.
After breakfast we headed back to the cabin to pick up our stuff. Graham headed back to the little outside deck off to one side of the solarium and I found myself in shady spot towards the back and relaxed with my book. It was such a treat to be able to just read without having to worry about a thousand different things I should be doing. Out of all my cruises, this was probably the one where I achieved the least as I am normally very active, but I think this contributed to this cruise being so magical. Sometimes even I have to be lazy and just think of number one.
Shortly before noon, I went to find Graham and we headed up to deck 15. As we were coming up the stairs, the captain was making his noon announcement. That was where we find out that there had been a delay with our Suez Canal crossing. Rather than starting the crossing
at 11:00 that evening, we were now due to start
at 5:00 the following morning. That was very welcome news indeed. We had kind of planned camping out on the balcony over night, but I have to say, I much preferred the idea of spending the night in my comfortable bed. We have had 5:00 AM starts on our Panama Canal cruises so I did not mind this at all.
We got to the photo studio a couple of minutes late. He asked us to sit down on a sofa and then showed us our photos as a slide show. I have to say they took my breath away. They had come out really well and some of them were truly spectacular. After looking at all of them first, he then asked us to narrow our selection down. He grouped them together in selections of 4 similar shots and asked us to pick our favourites. Usually we picked 2, sometimes only 1 and there were a couple where we wanted to keep all 4. He regrouped a few of our choices and we eliminated some more and then he showed us a slideshow again with just our selections. At that stage we eliminated a couple more photos and then he asked us if we were happy, which we were. At that stage, the moment of truth came. He told us the prices. The cheapest package consisted of 5 digital photos and was $550. The package with all the photos that we had chosen was more expensive than what we had paid for our cruise. Graham was quite prepared to let me have the basic package as he had sensed that I had totally fallen in love with one of the photos. This was a solo shot of me and was hands down the best photo of me that I had ever seen. I did love it, but not enough that I would spend that amount of money on this. So I made an adult decision and walked away. I explained that for that amount of money, we could book another cruise.
When we headed back to the lift, Graham said that maybe we should do just that. I honestly had no idea what he was talking about. I asked what he meant and he told me that maybe we should go and book our next cruise. I did not need to be told twice. We headed down to deck 5 and the Next Cruise desks. All the desks that had a Next Cruise consultant present were busy. They have some comfortable seats in the vicinity so we sat down. When we had waited for a while, I spotted an appointment book and put our names down for an appointment later in the afternoon. Of course just as soon as I had done this, a Next Cruise consultant became available. So we went to see him. While we were waiting, I had been flicking through the various brochures and flyers that they had on display and I had come across my ultimate bucket list cruise. It was a transpacific cruise from Sydney to Seattle taking in various South Pacific islands as well as Hawaii. Graham was quite taken with this, too. So we decided to ask about this.
I had planned to nominate my
Dreams Unlimited travel agent if I ended up making a booking on board as she has now branched out into
Royal Caribbean as well. I did mention this at the beginning of the conversation and he offered to price up the itinerary both in Dollars and in Pounds. It actually turned out to be quite a bit cheaper in Pounds. So we had to bite the bullet and go with this and I now have to deal with Royal Caribbean direct. I am actually surprised that there was even a price in Pound as this particular cruise is not available on the UK website or through any UK agent. Anyway, with what happened just over a month later, I was glad that he talked us into booking in Pounds as otherwise this would have ended up being a very expensive cruise indeed.
We chose our cabin. We have gone for an inside cabin and on deck 7 forward. I am pretty happy with this. He then started to talk about extras. We agreed to pre-paying gratuities, as we need to pay those at some stage anyway.
He then offered a select beverage package, which we initially declined. He still priced this up and it turned out that this worked out cheaper for both of us on a 24 night cruise than what I alone was paying for the soda package on this cruise, which was only 16 nights. So that was a no brainier as I would have purchased a soda package anyway. With this we are getting carbonated soft drinks, wine and beer. I am not a beer drinker, but I can imagine having a glass of Prosecco before dinner and a couple of glasses of wine with dinner. I have seen since that Royal Caribbean has now removed the charge for this completely so I am glad we agreed to this.
The last element was the flights. Again, I was extremely reluctant, but he convinced me that we may as well lock the price in and that we could remove them without penalty right up to the final payment date if we find them cheaper elsewhere. That sounded fair enough. We have since had the flight details and if we were to book the identical flights direct, the flights alone would cost more than the whole package and Royal Caribbean also throw in the transfers and a hotel night in Sydney.
After we had this booked, I asked about the cruise we had really come for. I had my beady eye on a repositioning cruise on the Ovation from Hong Kong to Singapore in November. Before we left for this trip there had been some pretty good prizes available, but they had gone up and he advised us that there were no decent deal available for this. I appreciated his honesty. I was a little upset that I would not get to cruise on the Ovation again anytime soon as well as the fact that our Far East trip was now on ice, but Graham and I agreed that we would keep an eye out for a decent deal for November. We thanked our Next Cruise consultant and decided to do something about lunch.
By now it was gone 14:30 and neither of us fancied a proper lunch. However, as it was still a long time until dinner, we thought we should have something. So we headed down to Sorrento’s. I had a slice of Hawaiian pizza and Graham had a slice of pepperoni pizza. That hit the spot. I then went next door to get some dessert. I brought back a white chocolate and cranberry cookie for Graham and a flourless chocolate cake for me. Once we had finished, we headed back upstairs to the solarium. Graham staked out a spot near the front again and I stayed near the back, where I relaxed with a book.
Just before 5 we packed up and took our stuff to the cabin. I picked up my souvenir cup and then we headed up to the SeaPlex for bumper cars. They had a session that afternoon from 5 to 8. Initially there was a huge line going all the way around the SeaPlex. So we found a seat and just watched. I got myself some orange Fanta. After about 30 minutes the line started to go down as people were drifting away for early dinner so I got in line. Initially I managed to have a go on every fourth turn, but after about
18:30 the line had gone down sufficiently that I got a go every second turn. At that stage Graham joined me. Our special little friend was there again, but for the most part I managed to avoid him as he was either ahead of me or behind me. While I was in line, I noticed that he was up to his usual tricks again. When I saw him targeting an elderly woman who had not really had the hang on how to operated her bumper car, I had enough. I decided that maybe it was time to treat him to some of his own medicine. Shortly afterwards a nice little opportunity arose. He had just engineered another frontal collision at speed and as a result had spun around. I saw this and also saw that I had a clear track between where I was and where he was and decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. I accelerated and headed towards him. Just before I reached him, Graham approached at a right angle. We both reached him at the same time and he ended up sandwiched between us. Hence forward, we just referred to him as the sandwich filling. It is amazing that sometimes Graham and I seem to be able to communicate without speaking or even looking at each other. Anyway, our special young friend went off in a huff and the rest of the session was a lot more fun because of it.
Once the session was over, we went back to the cabin to get showered and changed. We did the round of the photo opportunities before heading to dinner. Dinner was at American Icon grill and there we did have a different menu. Graham told our server to just bring him any appetizer and ended up with calamari. For his main course, he chose the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I had the Idaho Homemade Potato Pancakes followed by the Traditional Wedge Salad. For my main course, I went with the Surf and Turf again. Graham passed on dessert, but I had the hot skillet cookie with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce.
When we had said goodbye to our tablemates, we headed back to our cabin where our stateroom host had left us a towel creation. I set the alarm for before the crack of dawn and then we got ready for bed as we had a long and excited day ahead of us.
... waiting for more ...
RELAXED. As others said, the nacklace in your photos is just gorgeous and it looks wonderful on you.
As I am about preparing our meal ... I loved your photos re the food, I so like while we are on vacation ... to have my meals ... READY for us ... without any effort/time from me !! 
Marco now wants me to cook beef and broccoli stir-fry !!!
...
You deserve it!
I have already booked our flight to Orlando for July 2017 !! I love to keep dreaming all year round about the next trip ... 
and it was SO RELAXING to read about your quiet and fun day !!!
