Back at it today with another sea day but that didn't mean I slept in. I set my alarm bright and early (bright and early for me is anything before 8am) so I could get on the North Star.
I got in line for North Star at 7:50, knowing it would open at 8am and I was the last person for the first group on. The key to pretty much anything popular on Quantum of the Seas is to arrive before it opens to avoid the longer lines. I would say when my ride ended, the end of the line probably already had a 15-20 minute wait or so.
I had been on North Star back in November but this was my first time doing North Star at sea, which meant we got to go over the side of the ship. There's no doubt North Star is an amazing experience and the photos never disappoint.
After getting my North Star fix, I was off to breakfast and then I did something I've never done on this sailing yet. I went to the pool and relaxed.
I found a nice lounge chair in the indoor pool area, put my headphones on and zoned out for much of the morning. I mentioned this earlier, but when it's warm enough, Royal Caribbean will open the roof of the indoor pool and it really makes it quite lovely in there.
Pretty much everyone else decided to do a pool day too because it was packed on the pool deck. It was really hot too (around 86 degrees) and everyone had the idea to go to the pool.
For lunch today, I went to American Icon Grill. I hadn't been there at all yet on this cruise, so I decided to check it out for lunch.
American Icon Grill is a lot like the main dining room on other Royal Caribbean ships. It offers a little of something and today it was generally American food. The menu was actually surprisingly short (just 3 entrees). I went with the minestrone soup and reuben.
Both were good but I was reminded by a fact of pretty much any Royal Caribbean ship, that it is nearly impossible to get hot food. What I mean is, food that is hot enough in termperature that you need to let it cool down. Everything comes at either warm or luke-warm and I'm not sure why or if that's even a bad thing.
After lunch I had just enough time to catch the Roboshow in Two70. Roboshow is essentially a spectacle of the robototic screens that demonstrate just how amazing these robots are. I would definitely call this a wow moment.
In the afternoon, some of the people on the group cruise with me had a cabin crawl, where we showed off each other's stateroom categories.
It's always neat to see what other categories of staterooms offer and I think we all found different aspects of each room we really liked.
Category D something balcony
Category L large interior stateroom with virtual balcony (my room)
Studio inside stateroom
All of us inside a Category SJS Spa Junior Suite
Then I spent much of the afternoon at the NextCruise office to take advantage of the last day of the WOW sale. Unfortunately, a lot of other guests did too.
I think we waited in line for about an hour and a half. Appointments for the rest of the cruise were booked solid so it was standby only. I know lots of guests were getting frustrated with the long waits and it seems like the process was easier on other ships. If you just wanted an open cruise booking, you still had to speak to someone because there were no forms readily available to grab and drop off like on other ships.
As the afternoon turned to dusk, I knew I had to run up to see if I could get photos of the sunset. As I got up to the pool deck, I noticed the ship was at a dead stop. Right in front of the ship was a beautiful sunset about to unfold and the Captain decided to make sure the ship did not miss it.
Dinner tonight was at a favorite of mine, Chops Grill. What I love about Chops is it is consistantly quite good and tonight was no exception.
The food was wonderful during the entire meal. The service was on the slow side, but the restaurant was busy tonight and we still managed to get in and out in just 90 minutes, so that's not bad for a dinner on a Royal Caribbean ship.
Following dinner we headed back to Two70 to see Starwater. Starwater is a mash up of music, dance and roboscreens. It's hard to describe in words or even in the photos you see but it's a wonderful spectacle that I think you have to see to appreciate.
Tomorrow, we're in paradise, better known as Labadee!
Stray observations
- My stateroom attendant (or at least I assume it's him) has brought me a plate of cheese and a plate of fruit and left it in my room. It's a lovely gesture but I'm not going to eat it. I feel like a terrible person for not enjoying this gift.
- For what it's worth, a crew member in the Windjammer mentioned about 60 guests have gotten Norovirus this cruise.
- I booked the zip line for tomorrow in a moment of craziness. I'm excited and a little frightened at the same time.
- The bartenders at Two70 make a mean bloody mary
