Wonderful B2B on the Wonder from Galveston - 11/6/15 & 11/13/15 - COMPLETED

[ukintheus]

Welcome to anyone that might follow along as we set sail on the high seas again from Galveston, TX. We were very happy to learn that DCL decided to come back to our home port and give us another opportunity to sail without the hassle of flights and other travel arrangements. This cruise started as a Southern Caribbean onboard booking, migrated to a 10 night Baltic and then finally a settled in as our first back-to-back. We couldn't wait!! We never even gave it a second thought that we might be bored, and we knew that it would be nothing but awesome....we weren't wrong. Spoiler alert up front if you ever wonder about a B2B, we STILL didn't want it to end and it still is a sad day when they kick you off!

For those that haven't followed along before, we are kid-free cruisers, Jenny & Scott. We tend to have a lot of food and drink photos because, well, we tend to drink and eat a lot on vacation. This isn't the greatest photo of us (it's a bit fuzzy) but it made me smile because those are genuine smiles and not the kind we usually have plastered on our faces because we've tried 10 times to get a good photo and we tend to have a lot of those!



Also joining us for the first week are our friends who sailed with us before on the Magic out of Galveston and who we just have the best time with.



We've never done a B2B before because it is really difficult for us to both get 2 weeks off but we hung on to the idea and managed to force it to happen. Not too much planning went into this trip, the first week we booked some excursions but the second week was going to be free and easy with lots of napping, drinks and food.

So, intros are all done and we are ready to get this cruise started!

 

[ukintheus]

Thursday – November 5th - Pre trip stay in Galveston

We both had to work today so we were both up early as usual and I dropped Scott off at his work by 6:15 am and I was in work by 6:30 am. Of course it was a busy day but I left at 3 pm, picked Scott up and we were soon on our way down to Galveston. There wasn’t too much traffic but on I-45 heading down to the coast we started to see lots of motorcycles and motorhomes/RVs. The annual Galveston Lone Star bike rally was happening this weekend, starting today. It’s a huge motorcycle rally with a reported 400,000 motorcycles in attendance.

We checked in to the Doubletree on the seawall, which is a new franchise for that hotel. It used to be the Holiday Inn Sunspree but has been taken over by Hilton and was updated. We thought the rooms were nice.




It was really nice that each room has a balcony and the weather was beautiful. Galveston water can look decent on a nice day and our view was of swaying palm trees and the ocean.



The pool looked really nice, but too chilly at this time of year for us.



It definitely has a retro feel to it – lots of orange colors.



This super cute refrigerator was very cool, I'd love one for the house.



So, because we weren't flying and because we were doing a B2B my packing got a little crazier than usual and we ended up with a fair amount of bags. One carry on had our 4 bottles of wine, which would have been at least 6 or 8 if not for the new DCL policy.



The Lone Star rally had a lot of the strand and the seawall area shut down, so we decided to eat at the open air bar in front of, and attached to, the hotel called Longboards. We got a seat right on the seawall and so it was perfect for people and bike watching.



We had our first drink, beer for both of us and ordered chips and salsa. The beer wasn’t going down well for me, I have to be in a beer kind of mood, so I switched to margaritas which hit the spot nicely.



There were a ton of really cool bikes to look at and interesting folks to go along with it. These are torches that were all along the front of the property and were lit once it got to dusk. I tried taking photos of them lit but none of them came out. I also tried taking a photo of all the ships lined up in the distance with their lights on, but those didn't come out either...hmmmmm....margarita lens maybe?




We ordered some hot wings and fries and were going to call it a night when we saw the fire pit that was in front of the hotel with rocking chairs around it.



We sat there for a while and then went in and checked out the gym as it was only about 10 feet away. It looked very nice but of course we weren’t about to think about using it! After sitting for a while we were getting a bit damp from the ocean air, so we headed back to the room to get a good night sleep before the excitement of tomorrow.

 

[cruisehopeful]

Nice pics. I am looking forward to seeing more.

 

[ukintheus]

Friday – November 6th - Embarkation day #1

The day started off with a jolt when my alarm went off at the usual 5 am! I had completely forgotten to turn it off I dozed on and off and also checked on my phone to see the progress of the Wonder on Marine Tracker.



I saw that someone had posted that they could see her on the Galveston cruise cam, and sure enough there she was! We both watched her maneuver into place and dock.



Seeing as we had all morning to get ourselves ready we laid in bed until about 7:30 and then showered, packed and went down to eat breakfast in the hotel. We met a family who were also going on the cruise with their young daughter. They turned out to be what we call "our cruise family". Does anyone else ever see a family right at the beginning and then you constantly run into them the entire trip?? We often seem to, and true enough we ran into them almost every day!

Today was also the day my DCL app finally showed me this.



We left the hotel at about 10 am and got to Lighthouse parking easily. They loaded our bags and we made the quick trip to the port and arrived before 10:30 am.



People were still disembarking from the Panama Canal cruise and so they didn't have the terminal open for us to go into. It opened at just gone 10:30 pm and there was a little bit of a line for security but it seemed we were through quickly and checked in. They had some more DCL "stuff" at the check in desks this time. Cute Mickey heads at every station, although this isn't the best pic in the world.



We got boarding group 1 as we are Platinum, and we took a seat and waited for the boarding to begin.



It was fairly empty to begin with.


The kids club sign up location had changed and it seemed to make the area even busier.


It soon began to fill up and it was really packed by the time they announced the family of the day.



We started boarding at about 12:15 pm and were glad to be leaving the packed terminal and chaos behind us. We stopped to take an embarkation photo for the first time, although we never purchased it, and we went straight to Wavebands to sign up for breakfast and meet and greets.





We then went to Tritons to change our Palo reservation and saw Susana, our friend who is a cast member and works in Palo. We had a good chat with her until I felt like her boss was looking a bit peeved that we were taking so much time - LOL. We walked back to Parrot Cay, but then decided to go to Beach blanket instead.






After a nice bite to eat we wandered around a bit.



Amazingly we found ourselves at Cove pool and so, of course, got a drink from the bar.





So the first drink on board was a bit of an anticlimactic moment. They had a very limited selection, nothing on draft, and they didn't have all the ingredients to make a Bahama Mama, so the one I got really wasn't good. There are weird alcohol laws in Texas that make things more complicated, but we've done quite a few cruises before and never had such a problem getting a drink! So the drink was so bad, I ended up throwing it away. For the record, this is only the second time ever on a DCL vacation and I more than made up for it later on.

 

[ukintheus]

Our friends texted to say they were on their way in the parking shuttle bus. We had already decided to let them get onto the ship and enjoy the moment as a family, as it was all pretty chaotic last time when we tried to meet them. It was about 1:30 pm so we went to our cabin and unpacked our carry on bags.



I loved the new CC bag and we also got a nice photo album.



The view isn't the best in the Galveston port, and due to the decline in oil prices there were even more rigs stacked up.



As Scott's job is oil related, the downturn and seeing all these rigs was a little sobering. But! We are on a cruise, and work is behind us and drinks are ahead of us!! Here's the rest of the ship channel.




They were refueling the ship right underneath us. We had to laugh as there is no smoking allowed on the open decks of the Wonder as they are refueling, but the captain is smoking down there AND they have a BBQ on the back!!




Our friends had made it onboard and had dropped stuff off at their cabins and gone to get lunch. I ran up to deck 7 and put the FE and white board on their door. By then, two of our suitcases had arrived so we quickly unpacked. Right as we got finished we were about to head to meet our friends, but the last suitcase showed up so we decided to unpack that too. Unpacking - DONE!!

We walked up to BBB to see if we could find them but had just missed them, so after a quick pit stop for a turkey and cranberry sandwich for Scott from Goofy's we made our way to the kids club and met them outside. They couldn't check the kids in yet, so we all went back to our rooms and they started their unpacking. We all got our electronic devices hooked up to the DCL app to be able to message. Muster was at 4 pm and we went down 10 mins early and it was over fairly quickly. After a stop at the kids club at 4:30 pm to register and get arm bands we headed up to deck 9 for the Adventures Away party.



We just caught the last bit of it but it was plenty and we had some fun.







We went up to deck 10 to watch us sail out of the port. Streamers were necessary.



By now a patchy sea mist had rolled in. My Mum and sister were watching the Galveston webcam and Mum said you could barely see the ship because of the fog/mist.





We were a bit late leaving and we watched the officers as they wandered around.



The fog horn blew almost the entire way out of the ship channel.



We got an escort from the coast guard. At least I think it was the coast guard, maybe not.




We checked out the gym and the spa, Scott and I decided we wanted to do the rainforest room next week when we had more time. After all that excitement we decided we all wanted a bite to eat. Scott and I got a sandwich from Plutos and we sat close to the beverage station on deck 9 to get out of the fog.



We watched the pilot leave the ship although it was still extremely foggy.



Scott and June decided to go and check out the arcade and they ended up being gone so long that we all ended up in there for a little while.



OK, so we are all onboard and we are all heading to the Caribbean and life is good! Plus, there is food and drink ahead of us!! LOL After a busy afternoon, we all headed back to our rooms to get ourselves ready for dinner.

Coming up....dinner in Animator's Palate.

 

[ukintheus]

When we got back to our room our Castaway Club platinum gift of Prosecco had arrived. Hoorray!! Tonight dinner was in Animator's Palate and we had late seating at 8:15 pm. We got to our table and met our severs for the week, Alvito and Nenad.





We knew right from the moment we met him that we had a great server with Nenad. He was funny and animated and someone that we looked forward to seeing every night. Alvito was great too, but Nenad was one of those people you would always remember. He also had a magic hand that could cause anything he touched to squeek. Funny story (side track) but a couple of nights later, June asked him why nothing was squeaking any more. He looked sheepish and mouthed to me that he'd forgotten it! <- End of funny story.

Here he is cutting up Jacob's food.


I wasn't really very hungry so I had the serano ham and then the lighter fare shrimp salad.



Scott had salmon tartare, salad and beef tenderloin.




I had sweet temptations for dessert and a mojito.


Our head server Mehmet came over and did a magic trick. Nenad's face in the background is hilarious... you'd think he was seeing it for the first time.


We stopped to look at photos on the way out and I saw Elaine from our online group so stopped to say hello to her.

June had photos taken with Pluto and we ran into Mickey and Minnie who were on their way to see everyone in the atrium.




June needed her wrist band adjusted so we went to kids club quickly to get that done. Everyone seemed to be having a good time in there, and the kids looked somewhat tempted to join in....but that's a whole other story to be continued....

When we got back into our cabin, we had a gift of Prosecco and chocolates awaiting us that Ashli had bought us.



She was hoping they would be there when we got into our room but because of the (mysterious) Texas alcohol laws, they couldn't deliver stateroom gifts of alcohol until we were so many miles out. It didn't make a bit of difference and we happily each had a glass and went to bed.

This cutie was waiting for us.


I got caught up with my trip report and it was gone 11 pm when I finished. The gentle rocking of the ship was the perfect end to the day.

 

[mandymouse]

Yay !! Great start Jenny. I'm looking forward to reading your trippy. Great photos already, though I'm not over keen on those Texas alcohol laws

I look forward to your next instalment

 

[bcwife76]

Joining in! We are taking our second cruise in January 2017 out of Galveston so I'm going to soak up all your knowledge
And I must be filled in on these weird Alcohol laws Texas has - in Canada we drink and we like it bwahaha!

 

[ukintheus]

Nice pics. I am looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks for following along.

Yay !! Great start Jenny. I'm looking forward to reading your trippy. Great photos already, though I'm not over keen on those Texas alcohol laws

I look forward to your next instalment

I got more done than I thought I would today, the alcohol issue is a real issue!

Joining in! We are taking our second cruise in January 2017 out of Galveston so I'm going to soak up all your knowledge
And I must be filled in on these weird Alcohol laws Texas has - in Canada we drink and we like it bwahaha!

Thanks for following along. I'm not 100% sure of all the ins and outs, but basically they can only sell certain beers, liquors and wines until they are so many miles off the coast (I think 7). So it's a really limited menu to choose from until the ship gets that far out. I will give you a spoiler alert that we didn't have as many problems the second week. Just different from Port Canaveral and not in a good way - LOL

 

[dglilbit]

Yay! I'm loving your trip report!
We leave on the Wonder Bahamian cruise from Galveston on Friday!

 

[ukintheus]

Yay! I'm loving your trip report!
We leave on the Wonder Bahamian cruise from Galveston on Friday!

I know you will have a great time. Thanks for following along.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 2 - At sea day.

I woke up around 7 am after a fairly good night of sleep. The AC in the room was working really well and it was nice to have the comforter all the way up and be snug in bed. Scott was being lazy and didn't want to wake up. Finally at 8:30 I gave up and went out onto the balcony to read. It was overcast but warm and nice and breezy. I finally forced Scott get up at 9 (which I’m sure he really appreciated) and we got dressed and went to Cove Cafe for a coffee and croissant before our Palo brunch at 11 am...because, you know, that was almost an hour and a half away and we could have died of starvation before then!



It started pouring with rain while we were in there and the sky was looking very gloomy in general. It didn't look like we were going to have a good day weather-wise.



We were back to the room at just gone 10. Scott needed to iron a shirt but we sat on the verandah for a little while before we finally dragged ourselves into action and got ready for brunch. We met Ashli & Glen and got to Palo at 11 am. The kids had decided they wanted to watch a movie so Ashli had taken them to the Buena Vista Theater and they were under strict instructions to go straight back to their stateroom once the movie was over. This was a new privilege for the kids to have that freedom but it worked out really well and having the ability to message on the DCL app really came in handy.

Back to the food extravaganza that was about to begin! Here's the plate, you have to be quick to get a photo of it before they whisk it away....if you like taking photos of plates that is.



Susana was our server and we had a great time visiting with her while she worked! Yummy complimentary drinks were served, mimosas and kir royals.




Susana took us around to show us the available items, there were some new things on there that she wanted to point out, although for the life of me I can't remember what they were now!









This is typically how we look when we are in Palo...everyone else is having a lovely romantic time and we are having fun with Susana and causing all kinds of noise. This time was because she had an ice issue with the water and almost spilled the entire thing.



Pre-stuffyourface photo.


Then the food frenzy started. I had a plate of yummy goodies, the eggs benedict, we all shared the Gorgonzola and grape pizza (as you can see it's mostly gone) and Ashli and I split the chicken parmesan. Then onto the desserts and I sampled 3 of them.






Scott had a plate of very good looking stuff from the buffet and the veal, which Susana special orders for him with no cheese. There were also several orders of pancakes that he shared with Ashli and Glenn.





Ashli & I looking very happy that we have food.



Love being able to see our friend and get all caught up on the gossip.


Cute photo of Ashli & Glenn. Funny how we are all smiles when there is food and drink around.


We stuffed ourselves silly for 2 1/2 hours and finally waddled out at 1:30 pm. Ashli & Glenn were heading to go and get the kids and take them to eat lunch, and Scott and I went back to our room and got changed into something more comfy as we had a private mixology session scheduled at 2 pm with our online group. Hooray! More drinks!

 

[ukintheus]

We did a quick visit to the gift shop where Scott bought a couple of shirts. This was partly because they had nice shirts, but mostly because he was in charge of packing his shirts. I'll leave it at that. We took them back to the room and headed to Cadillac Lounge for our private mixology session.



The drinks were all made and were set out in front of us. It was a big crowd from the online group and we had fun. We had a Manhattan, a coconut rum green one that I can't remember the name of , Bahama Mama, Double Crown and a B52.


To be honest, they were too warm by the time we got around to drinking them, and I didn't drink the Bahama Mama (shocker, I know ) or the Double Crown. Scott didn't drink much except the Manhattans but he took several that were offered by others in the group who didn't like them.

3 people went up and made each of the drinks. Scott made a Manhattan (of course).


I made a Bahama Mama, which was better than the one they made and I happily chugged back. I look very concerned here about the guy next to me and what he was making.


It was a fun group, but the drinks were "just OK". There was a second mixology set up with the online group later in the week and Elaine, who organized them both, had already talked to them about changing it up. We chatted with Elaine and her husband for a little while by the mid-ship elevators. While we were there Pluto came on by and so we got a quick photo with him.



We got back to our cabin at about 4 pm and had a voicemail on our phone from the excursion desk saying that our regatta sailing excursion in Cozumel had been cancelled due to lack of participation. We really weren't bothered as it wasn't anything we were just brimming with excitement to do anyway, it was just something we'd never done in Cozumel and it got good reviews. Our first choice had been to go to Nachi Cocum for the day but, like everything else I had looked into for us, it was going to be closed because we were there on a Sunday.

The weather was now much nicer.


The super sweet drinks weren't sitting great in my tummy so I ran up to Plutos and got us a sandwich of roast beef and horseradish each. We watched the movie "Up" and then got in touch with our friends and decided to go to see the Golden Mickeys except for Ashli who decided to stay and chill in the room. We got to the Walt Disney Theatre at 6 and watched the red carpet show, which was cute. We haven't seen the Golden Mickey's in a while. I asked the kids what they thought of it, June enjoyed it and Jacob thought it was just OK - a bit too childish for his 10 year old liking. We went back to the room and showered and changed for dinner. Tonight was formal night and we were in Parrot Cay.

 

[ukintheus]

Our friends came down to our room and they all looked great in their fancy duds. This is the only picture I got of Scott and I in our fancy duds. I'm sure Scott will love the fact I'm posting a picture on the web of him getting dressed.



Parrot Cay had the rotational menu tonight and so it was weird to be dressed up when the servers were all in their super casual Caribbean outfits. I usually request a dining rotation that has us in Tritons/Lumiers but didn't think about it this time. It didn't really matter, but it was strange, and of course we all had a lovely meal anyway.

Ashli and Glenn looked lovely.


Jacob looked very smart in his dress pant ensemble.


I had the asparagus soup, prime rib and the pineapple coconut cake for dessert. I'd skip the cake next time - it wasn't my favorite.





My camera started giving me trouble at some point today. It was new, and I must have done something where it wouldn't focus properly so my photos are all fuzzy until Scott finally figured out what was wrong with it. Note to self - practice with a new camera more before taking it on vacation!

Scott had the ahi tuna, Parrott Cay salad and pork chop. Alvito also brought him a mixed grill in case he didn't like the pork chop as Alvito thought it was dry. Scott ate both. The pork chop was good, I tried a bite of it and it was delicious.






Nenad made a napkin hat for June and did some tricks for the kids.


Then Mehmet came over and started to do a trick for the kids and it was the same trick! He got peeved with Nenad for stealing his tricks, it was completely funny to all of us though. I showed him a trick he didn't know that we'd learned on the Fantasy to make him feel better.



We got done with dinner right at 10 and stopped briefly at the promenade lounge and the kids wanted to dance to Dreem Duo.




It was a very quick dance because we were headed to the atrium for the Winter Wonderland show. They were handing out milk and cookies, and it could also have been hot chocolate, but having just eaten dinner we weren't tempted by any of it.



When we were boarding they were putting up the Christmas decorations to begin the Very Merry Time cruises and the gingerbread house smelled great.





The atrium was packed so we headed up to deck 5 to try and see.



The show was cute and lasted about 20 mins. We could just about see it from deck 5 but it wasn't the best view.



We were all tired and the clocks had to go forward 1 hour tonight so we all agreed to call it a night and head back to our cabins.



Scott and I each got a glass of Prosecco and went to sit on the verandah. We could see stars through the scattered clouds so things were starting to look promising for the weather tomorrow. After a few minutes someone a few cabins down came out and started smoking. It was very annoying as they were probably sitting there enjoying the night while we were subjected to the smell. We gave up and went back inside. Scott watched some TV for a while, but it was now 12:30 and I was very ready for sleep. Lights were out at about 12:45. It had been an exhausting day with all that eating and drinking!

Tomorrow is Cozumel, and hopefully better weather.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 3 - Cozumel.

I woke up just before 8 am and went to sit on the verandah. It was already warm and a beautiful sunny day. I got caught up on my trip report again as I was determined not to get too far behind and then feel like it was a chore to do. Here's a photo of me, taking a photo of me. The sun was really bright and I didn't have my sunglasses, hence the reason for sitting with my back to the ocean view.



Although all ashore was supposed to be 8:30 am Cozumel was nowhere in sight.



Using my (working OK again as of this morning) new camera with the super-duper 30x zoom, I could see the coastline in the distance. Note - I'm very happy with the zoom on this camera, it's awesome!



After a little while Scott joined me and we could see the coastline was still a way off in the distance so we obviously had tons of time before we docked. We decided to go and get some coffee from Cove Cafe.



AJohn from Falmouth was the CM that was working in Cove Cafe this week and we got talking to him about our day in Falmouth tomorrow. He gave us lots of tips on what to eat at Scotchies and was telling us that it was a place the locals love to eat at. I was looking forward to going to Jamaica as it was a new port for us and his tales of his home town made the anticipation even better.

It was almost 10 am when we finally docked in Cozumel, so we were already over 1 1/2 hours later than scheduled.






We decided to get a bite to eat and went to Tritons but it was already closed so we headed to Parrot Cay. Our friends were in the Promenade Lounge waiting to leave on their dolphin excursion and had been waiting there since early (I think 8 am) because of the anticipated 8:30 am arrival. Thankfully the kids got talking to some of the other kids around them so they weren't totally bored.

Scott started a (strange IMO) breakfast routine of cold cuts along with hot items.



I got a couple of hot things and muesli as I love theirs and I can't ever be bothered to make it myself. I think they make it the night before. I see that I managed to also capture the lovely wrist strap on my new camera at the bottom of the photo and the fact that I hold the camera with my pinky sticking out evidently. Nice one Jen.



We headed up to our room and went onto the veranda. It was going to be a beautiful day. The sun was out and the temperature was perfect. It was now 10:15 am and the excursions were only just leaving.



I took a picture of the dolphin tamers heading off the ship.



Scott and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. There wasn't really anything we wanted to do in Cozumel and neither of us were feeling particularly motivated to get off the ship so we decided to go to Cove Pool to hang out for a bit and mull it over.

It was completely empty.


The weather was so beautiful that we both agreed we'd rather just stay on board and enjoy the peace and quiet of a near empty ship. We swam and used the hot tub. A few people did wander in over the next couple of hours but it stayed fairly empty until about lunchtime.





As technically we had excursion money that we hadn't spent on the cancelled excursion, when the server asked us if we wanted a drink, we indulged in a bottle of Moët Ice which was so delicious. It was a totally blissful morning.



Unfortunately, the Moet Ice disappeared at a very alarming rate, I think mainly due to evaporation. So we had to order these.



At about 1:30 pm we went to Beach Blanket to grab a small bite, although we forgot to take photos! I got an ice cream cone on the way past (why not ) and we walked down to Diversions as Scott wanted to see if they had Stella on draft, which they didn't. Scott got a beer anyway seeing as we had made the trip down there, and we went back to the cabin. There were quite a few people starting to come back to the ship and the dolphin tamers extraordinaire made it back before 3 pm but we were already in nap mode by then. We watched some TV and managed to continue being totally lazy although, to my credit, I did get caught up with my trip report and I also took some photos.






Eventually we agreed to move and we all met up and went to watch the magician, Shawn Farquhar, at 6:15. He was very good and we all enjoyed the show.



We went back to the room and got ready for dinner early as the Frozen deck party started at 7:45 pm and we were going to see it and then go straight to dinner.

 

[ukintheus]

We got Frozen light up snowflake necklaces in our staterooms this morning to wear to the Frozen party. We all met up on the stairs with our necklaces on and headed up to deck 9. I don't remember what time we got there, but whatever time it was, it wasn't early enough to get a good spot. It was packed!!



The show consisted of snow flurries, music and dancing. I have to be totally honest and admit I've only seen Frozen once and I don't remember all the characters from it, so there's limited info here on what we were seeing.







Right at the end Elsa made her way onto the stage and the kids in the crowd went crazy....not just a little crazy... a LOT!!



And of course Let It Go was the final song.



Everyone seemed to enjoy the party. Even though it used to be June's favorite movie she's moved on and so although she enjoyed it, it wasn't a "wow" factor for her either. I have a feeling that sentiment is somewhat typical of most people who have just been Frozen to death <--and don't really care one way or the other any more.

We left the party right as it ended and we got to dinner right at 8:15 pm. Tonight we were in Parrot Cay again, but it was the Frozen menu which was new for us and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nenad took a quick photo of us after we sat down. Glenn still has his Frozen necklace on if you want to see what it looks like.



I'm posting pics of the menu because it was new for us. It was in the Parrot Cay orange menu holder though, so nothing great on the front.




And this is the dessert menu.


Nenad was goofing around behind Alvito and so we got this photo which is funny, but I feel bad that it's the first photo I've posted of him! Poor long-suffering Alvito, I think Nenad did drive him crazy with all of his joking around.



Dinner for me tonight was the Jarlsbert Tart, beet salad, herb roasted chicken and Norwegian pancakes for dessert. It was all really good. The pancakes were cold, which was different and not what I was expecting but they were still good.





Scott had scallops, mushroom consomme, honey mustard salmon and the apple pudding cake. The scallops looked wonderful and came out like a pot pie. He said it was all really good too.





Meanwhile, while we were all stuffing our faces with good food, Nenad gave us a performance of his rendition of Let it Go.



We were finished with dinner at about 9:45 pm and were in bed by 10:30 pm.



It's a hard life. Tomorrow is Grand Cayman and also Glenn's birthday so double the fun!

 

[bcwife76]

That's too bad about your excursion in Cozumel being cancelled and being late to dock. Some people probably felt very rushed! Nice having the ship to 'yourselves' for a while though! Good call on the Moet

 

[NOKA06]

Jenny, just found your new TR. Enjoying the photos and your report. We were on the next cruise and enjoyed meeting you and Scott.

 

[ukintheus]

Jenny, just found your new TR. Enjoying the photos and your report. We were on the next cruise and enjoyed meeting you and Scott.

I can't figure out who you are from your ID here, are you on the online group? If so, let me know on there who you are! Ha ha

 

[ukintheus]

Day 4 - Grand Cayman

Today was Glenn's birthday so we had made tentative plans to try and meet at 9 am for a birthday breakfast. I woke up at 7 and we got up at 8. I went up and got coffee from Cove cafe for both of us and then we sat and watched the ship info channel on TV for a while, and I caught up with my trip report. Apparently the birthday boy was not up and moving early and only Ashli was up by 9 am so Scott and I went to Tritons on our own. The service was super slow this morning and it was 45 mins before we got our food, which felt like forever.

I got eggs benedict and Scott got a veggie omelet.




We saw Ashli and June pass by at 9:35 on their way to Parrot Cay so we knew at least they were going to surface for the day.

We all packed and got our stuff ready as we were going to be going to Seven Mile Beach and I had reserved a cabana at Royal Palms. The ship was late getting into Grand Cayman, all ashore was supposed to be 10:30 am but it was about 10:30 when we dropped anchor.





We all went down to Buena Vista Theatre to get our tender tickets and get in line. After a little while we were led down to tender and made our way to Georgetown. Just outside the gates there were lots of taxi operators waiting and we got a lady driver to take us to Royal Palms for $4 per person.



It didn't take us long to get there at all and the taxi driver was very nice and showed us where we needed to check in.



Check in was not really a check in at all, more of a "hey, we are here", "OK, pick your cabana" type deal.

We were the first cabana guests to arrive, so we chose the cabana to the far right and made ourselves comfortable for the day. The cabana was $100, which I had guaranteed with a credit card online, but we didn't have to pay the entrance fee, or pay for any chairs and there was no minimum order required. Overall it was definitely worth it.

This was our view from outside our cabana.




The cabana isn't big but it kept us, and all our stuff, dry in the rain showers that we had off and on.


To celebrate the birthday we decided we had better order drinks right away and got a bucket of Caybrew, Ashli got a rum punch cocktail of some kind, and the kids ordered Shirley Temples.



Royal Palms rented paddle boards and had this jet-ski-water-thingy that looked incredibly difficult to operate. Ashli contemplated renting a paddle board off and on all day, but in the end decided not to.



We spent a little while just swimming and snorkeling and enjoying the beach and relaxing in general. The water was a really pleasant temperature and it wasn't very crowded at all as we were the only ship in town that day.




Ashli took the water camera and went off in search of Nemo.







For lunch we ordered a couple of pizzas and an order of conch fritters and soon polished it all off, although I forgot to take photos.

Sun and sand...a lovely, relaxing day.





Glenn, Ashli and Jacob went for a walk along the beach. June stayed with us and chilled out to some music while making herself comfy on a lounger.



It rained on and off several times while we were there, but thankfully with the cabana we managed to keep dry all day. Everyone except me then went off and played beach volleyball. I used the excuse of watching our stuff to be lazy. To my credit, I did walk down to take them all a round of drinks.

Eventually they were kicked off the volleyball court by the women's national team for the Caymans, who apparently were very good and were kicking the butts of everyone they were training against. It must be tough to be on a beach volley ball team in the Caymans!

It was getting close to the time we needed to leave, so we got our stuff all packed up and showered off our feet etc. The facilities there are nice and it was a great place to spend the day.



We had arranged with the taxi driver that she would come back and pick us up at 4:30 and she was there by 4:20 which was perfect timing. The skies opened just as we drove away and the streets soon started flooding. They don't get enough rain to have a huge drainage system and it's warm enough that it all soon evaporates.



We were back at the port with a bit of time to spare, so we took a quick photo of us all together.



We decided split up at this point as we all wanted to do some shopping and agreed to meet back on the ship a little later. I bought a couple of rum cakes and we got on a tender to go back to the ship.







The process to get back on took a long time as they were only letting 2-3 people off at a time so that nobody was waiting on the gangway between the ship and the tender, so it took about 20 minutes just to get off the tender. Once on board we got showered and sat on the verandah to enjoy the end of the afternoon and watch us sail away.



We had a nice sunset today as we watched the island disappear from view.


Tonight we were in Tritons and it was the rotational menu. We all looked happy to be there.



Scott and I both ate the same thing, which was the escargot and the lamb, both were really delicious. Scott had a couple of portions of the escargot as he loves them so much. I really think it's the garlic butter we like, we couldn't care less if the snail is in there! The kids tried escargot for the first time and said they weren't too bad because they tasted like mushrooms.




June was in good form and was doing impressions of Wendy Williams from day time talk shows. Apparently she watches a lot of Wendy Williams when she's at her grandparent's house.



We all enjoyed a lovely dinner for Glenn's birthday. Ashli had ordered a cake and they delivered it to the table and sang happy birthday. Glenn doesn't look to sure of what they are about to do here...ha ha!



The cake was really good, but the ship doesn't have anywhere to store it after it is cut, so they ended up cutting it into chunks and taking it back to their stateroom. It got wasted really, which was a shame.


Nenad (never to miss an opportunity to sing) did his own version of happy birthday while playing a banjo made from the pepper grinder and a plate cover - so funny - and Alvito provided the ears.



We got done early, I think we were all tired, and we were in bed by 10:30 pm. This little guy was waiting for us and also a card from Anna and Elsa.



I had forgotten to mention that they did a scavenger hunt yesterday to celebrate Frozen. The clues were all in the navigator for the prior two nights. I think you got chocolates if you participated.

We had an early start ahead tomorrow in Falmouth, Jamaica which we were all looking forward to.