insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Friday, March 10, 2006 Not Mexico...Not Yet I know Aud is drooling for the pictures of Mexico, but first, I wanted to share the pictures from the ship. Ian and I spent quite a bit of time wandering around on the boat. First, the captions, from top to bottom: the rock climbing wall (no, that's not Ian--he wanted to climb the wall with me, but to do so you need sneakers, and I didn't bring mine), view of the outdoor pool and deck, the sculpture in the ship's library, the rock wall, sculpture in the game room, looking up at the art in the centrium, the elevator in the centrium, the view from the lounge on the top deck, again looking up at the art in the centrium, the art auction onboard, looking down onto the art in the centrium, a fuzzy picture of the glass elevator, in the centrium, and more sculpture from the gameroom. The ship was huge. Gigantic. It didn't feel like a boat; there were 10 decks, plus a lounge above the top deck. The bottom three decks were staterooms, crew cabins, and the medical deck. Deck four (where we were) had staterooms, the bottom of the centrium (the big open center of the ship--you could see all the way to deck 10 of the ship), the Champage bar--complete with marble staircase and a jazz piano lounge, and the main level for the dining area. There were two options for going up in the ship--glass elevator or stairs. Ian and I took the stairs most of the time. From the bottom of the centrium, the view up was dizzying. There were polished brass rails on all of the balconies of the decks above that sparkled in the sun. A brass sculpture was suspended in the air of deck eight. The glass elevator reflected the sun shining in. And yes, I had my white-trash moment of laying on the landing of the marble staircase in the center, taking a picture of the art. Anyway, moving upward. Deck 5 was the main deck that you could exit and walk around the ship. Ian and I spent a lot of time outside on deck 5, watching the sun set and walking around and around people-watching before dinner. (The entrance to the balcony of the dining room was on deck 5.) Deck 5 was also home to the main seating level of the theatre, a pacific-themed bar and lounge, conference rooms, more staterooms (there were staterooms up to deck 8--the higher the deck, the bigger the room and the more $$ it cost for it) and the casino. Ian and I spent a little time in the casino each day; I lost $4 to the slot machines. Ian probably lost about $80 to blackjack and roulette. And that was after I won him $69 at the roulette table. When we would play roulette, he would pick a number and I would pick one to play. One day, on the last round of bets, he asked me what I wanted to play--I told him to play 9. It hit 9; he asked what next and I told him to bet on black. It hit black, and he won again. He asked what next, and I told him to cash out, because we were done--we had to quit while he was ahead at least once. :) And no, I still don't really understand roulette, but moving on in the virtual tour of the ship. Deck 6 housed the balcony seating in the theatre and on-board shopping--liquor stores, clothing stores, sunglass stores, a photo studio, and probably some other stuff that I didn't notice because we didn't spend much time there. There was also a Ben and Jerry's scoop shop, and a Seattle's Best coffeeshop on deck 6, as well as a comfy lounge area overlooking the ocean, and the Schooner lounge--another bar, this one more 30's rat-pack style (I don't know how else to describe it; it was the type of place that on land, you'd expect to go for the 3 martini power business lunch, where you'd discuss taking over as a partner in the firm or putting a horse head in Marlon Brando's sheets). Deck 7 was home to the library and the game room. We spent a lot of time in the library; it was a nice, quite spot on the ship with comfy carmel-colored leather chairs surrounded by built-in maple barrister bookcases. There was a beautiful view of the ocean from the library, plus a private balcony. And it was quiet. With so many people on board and milling around, the ship was loud. Raucous at times. It was nice to wander to the library, curl up and snuggle with Ian and read. Watch the ocean. Drool over the bookcases. We also spent some time in the gameroom as Ian tried to explain to me the finer points of blackjack and poker. I still don't have a clue about them, but I know damn well I can kick his ass at a game of checkers. :) Deck 8 had the sculpture suspended between its rails. Looking up or down, it was easy to think that the sculpture was just a delicate detail of the ship; on deck 8, you could see how massive it really was. Deck 8 also housed the internet cafe and the Crown and Anchor lounge--a lounge surrounded by information on all of Royal Caribbean's cruise offerings. Deck 9 housed the Windjammer Cafe--an informal, buffett-style cafe. It was the place to get food when the main dining area was closed, and the place to go if you wanted something other than pizza, burgers, hot dogs and fries. Deck 9 also housed the Solarium, an area with the indoor pool, hot tubs, the ship's spa, saunas, and exercise rooms. We spent some time in the indoor pool on windy nights. Deck 10 housed the outdoor pool, more hot tubs, the jogging track, the rock wall, and the poolside bar. Most afternoons, there was a band playing by the pool and there was always a crowd during the day. Mostly sunbathers and the "I'm on vacation and to me vacation means being at a bar with a cold drink in hand the entire time" drinkers. Ian and I didn't spend much time on deck 10 during the day, but we would swim up there at night. Above Deck 10 was another lounge, one with no internal access from the ship. This was the disco lounge, the nightclub of the ship. If Ian and I could have stayed up late, we might have enjoyed it. But alas, our days were packed with exploring the ship and the ports of call, we were in bed by midnight during our trip. Yeah, we're lame. So that was the ship. There was always something happening on board, always someplace to go and hang out. We had a lot of fun on board; there was always something to explore or check out. And the food--incredible. I mentioned the dining area and the cafe on board; I expected most of the cruise to be junk food (pizza, burgers, fries, etc.) and buffet. And there is quite a bit of that. However, the "formal" meals on the ship (by formal, I mean designated, sit-down breakfast, lunch, and dinner served at normal breakfast, lunch, and dinner times) were incredible. There were always many choices on the menu during those meals; lunch had a daily chef's special along with standard choices and the dinner menu changed daily. It wasn't knock your socks off gourmet haute cuisine, but it was a 4 course better than average and certainly better than the buffet meal. The buffet served things like tacos, barbeque ribs, fried chicken, sandwiches, cakes and cookies. Dinners were meals like strawberry mint bisque, cream of asparagus soup, mozzerella de caprese, escargot, french onion soup, etc followed by caesar salad or house specialty salads. Dinner entrees were things like lobster tail, filet minon, veal parmesan, mahi mahi tempura, smoked salmon in a Grey Goose vodka cream sauce over pasta. Deserts were decadent or light--rum-soaked cake with cream, fresh strawberry shortcake, vanilla coconut cake, chocolate creme brule, chocolate mint mousse. Much better than I had expected. What made meals on the ship so much fun was the service provided by the wait staff--we had three waiters; a headwaiter named Toumi from Tunisa, a waiter named Peter from somewhere unknown, and a waiter named Habib from Tunisa. These three guys kept our table laughing with their stories and jokes. They were incredible; they were right there when you needed them to be and out of sight when you didn't. They were always there if you wanted to try another dish, needed someone to take a picture, or if you wanted to just look at the desserts, just to drool over. I'll go into more details, along with pictures. But that's for another day. For now, Aud will just have to wait a little longer for Mexico. :) posted by jaime | 1:03 PM 0 comments |
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