No one looks forward to their last day on a Royal Caribbean cruise, but the thing to remind yourself of is that you are still on a cruise. Everyone reading this post at home would love to be on a cruise for just one day, so the key is to enjoy it as much as you can.
Our enjoyment of our last day began with sleeping in. We set no alarms and managed to sleep until past 9am, which is like a teenager sleeping until 2pm. There was still a fair amount of “motion in the ocean” and no signs of the sun. Nonetheless, there was fun out there waiting.
I rolled out of bed and grabbed a bagel and coffee as a light breakfast from the Windjammer and enjoyed it in the outdoor area.
I had a light breakfast because I was heading up to Izumi to try the make your own sushi class. In all of these years, I had never tried it, but out waiter at Izumi last night convinced me to give it a go.
The course is taught by one of the chef’s from Izumi, and you learn to make two rolls, two pieces of nigiri, and a hand roll.
You get to eat everything you make, and it includes a tour of the ship’s galley. Not bad for $28 + 18% gratuity!
Having eaten so much at Izumi, I opted to skip lunch.
My wife and I headed up to the pool deck for to enjoy some relaxation. Sure there was no sun, but time spent relaxing by the pool is still time well spent.
Most of our afternoon was lounging in the Solarium. We had grandiose plans to hit up a few different activities on the Cruise Compass, but my wife decided reading her book was more important, and I felt taking a nap was a new top priority. Hash tag sea day, right?
Following my nap and a few espressos later, we started to get ready for our evening’s activities.
I did not actually eat here, just love the look of the main dining room.
While my wife got herself ready, I thought for certain this would be the right time to do the old, “double or nothing” play at Roulette. As it turns out, “nothing” won out yet again.
We took in some live music around the ship before heading to Giovanni’s Table for diner.
We pre-booked Giovanni’s Table prior to the cruise (saving $6 per person) and saved it for the last night because my wife particularly enjoys it.
I stopped by the restaurant earlier in the cruise to request to have the lasagna from the lunch menu available for dinner. Sure enough, they had it lined up for me.
The meal was great, and we had very good service too.
We rounded out our evening with some time in the King & Country Pub and then seeing the Quest.
Overall, we had a great cruise. The weather did not cooperate as much as we would have liked, but no one has control over that. Our time spent onboard and on shore was a lot of fun, and I’m glad I managed to convince my wife to let me book this.
Thanks for reading and following the live blog. Our next adventure will be in March on Rhapsody of the Seas!
Stray Observations
- Rita’s Cantina is still a place on the ship, but there is no longer any food offered here. Just drinks.
- The onboad WiFi worked just as well as it did on Independence of the Seas in November, and I was satisfied with the experience. While it may not be as quick as the internet on Oasis or Quantum Class ships, it is still fast enough to handle most tasks. My VPN service (Windscribe) did not work (in TCP or UDP mode), but everything else worked, including live video on Facebook or Periscope.
- If you take the elevators up to deck 13, there is a hidden "secret" there
- Last day sales include souvenir cups galore
- My decision to skip the drink package and rely on drink specials, Diamond drinks and the drink card worked out quite well. I feel like I did not encounter "drink fatigue", and the drink card especially allowed my wife and I to still enjoy some fruity cocktails.
- In retrospect, the motion from the ocean was nothing that we could not handle. While I would prefer calm seas to the point you forget you are on the move, you just get used to the movement.
