You know what they say about the best laid plans? That's what happened this morning.
Yesterday evening my wife and I stopped by the Vitality Spa to schedule a massage for her. It is a cruising tradition for my wife to forget many months of woes by indulging in a massage.
With just two sea days left, there were not many spots available but they did have an early morning spot at 8am. We thought she should book that because it will be early enough for the kids to sleep through it and even I could get some extra shut eye.
What ended up happening was the spa called with a wake up call (that we did not schedule) and that woke up the baby and there went my sleep and her sleep.
Nonetheless, my wife went to get her massage while me and the baby sat in bed with the baby toys for a while.
Eventually my 4 year old daughter woke up and we got dressed up and went up the Windjammer for breakfast.
My wife met us up there and we dropped my 4 year old off at Adventure Ocean while the rest of us went back to our stateroom for the baby to sleep and my wife and I to take a nap too.
We got back up around 11:30am and went to get my daughter for lunch. We decided to try Giovanni's Table for lunch today based on some positive reviews from others onboard.
My ever picky daughter wanted to eat at the Windjammer so we got her a plate of food to eat there and then went to Giovanni's Table.
We showed up a few minutes after 12pm and were seated (no prior reservations). Giovanni's Table replaced Portofino's and there were probably three other tables of guests inside.
The menu at Giovanni's Table was similar to other Giovanni Table restaurants I have been to and we placed our orders.
What seemed odd is it took a good 20-30 minutes for our appetizers to show up. Luckily, the entrees did not take as long for them to arrive.
My favorite dishes at Giovanni's Table were the lasagna and Caprese salad. My wife seemed to like her food more than I did but for $15 per person at lunch, it's a good deal.
Following lunch, my wife and 4 year old daughter went to the theater to watch the Dreamworks film, "Home" while I took the baby around the ship for some photos and then back to the stateroom for her to play.
Interestingly, we received this certificate delivered to our stateroom today. I'm happy to get it but it was completely unexpected. Anyone else get these?
We all got dressed for dinner early as it was formal night and we wanted to get some family photos taken onboard. Royal Caribbean cruises are our defacto place to get good family photos.
Before it was time for photos or dinner, we were invited to the Top Tier Crown and Anchor Society welcome back party.
On my way, I met up with a fellow that enjoys eating on cruises as much as me!
This was the first of these parties on the cruise that I saw or was invited to. Usually there is one large event for everyone and then the top tier event later. Unless there is one for tomorrow, guess only one.
The reason to go to these events is for the free alcohol and recognition for being Loyal to Royal. I really enjoy them and on this one, the hotel director divulged that all the new build ships coming out will have water slides, including Ovation of the Seas.
There was also more food than I remember having at the event.
It was held in the Star Lounge and the loyalty ambassador, hotel director and Captain all spoke.
After the party we headed to take photos. We timed it well because we went on the tail end of first dining so the lines were quite small. We will go tomorrow to see how they all came out. I think we will order a few.
For dinner, half the Windjammer was closed for some odd reason so we brought my 4 year old daughter to Sorrento's for dinner. She has likely consumed 94% pizza on this cruise.
My wife went to our stateroom to grab something around this time and we were pleasantly surprised to have a voicemail indicating that there was an opening at the nursery for our 6 month old. Huzzah!
As you may recall, guests can only reserve time for one formal night and we picked the first formal night. Luckily there was availability tonight and we could enjoy our dinner kid free!
After consuming mass quantities of pizza, we brought the kids upstairs to be dropped off and the wife and I headed back to the Royal Promenade.
We picked to go to R-Bar for drinks and it was a great choice.
We sat at the bar and tried a few new drinks out. Between the great bar service and the people watching, we had a good time in our pre-dinner entertainment.
Dinner tonight in the main dining room was formal night and we had another good meal. Our waiters are quite nice and they have been very attentive.
Following dinner, we played a little bit at the casino and then took in some drinks at the pub. As per usual, 10pm hit and we started feeling tired so we got the kids back and headed to bed.
Stray Observations
The second most depressing thing to see on your cruise (tomorrow night is the worst):
The chapel and one of the card rooms are closed for the air scrubber upgrades
I do not recall this piece of art having lights and/or lighting up
Tomorrow is our last day and a sea day. It may be the last day but it is still better than not being on a cruise!
