Day 7 was an 'at sea' day. The ship was rocking pretty good when we went to bed the night before so I put motion sickness patches on again and slept solid all night. I thought we were awake early when Richard asked if I realized it was after 8am.
We met Hillcrest/Graceful friends of ours in the main dining room at 9am. We like to dine in style for breakfast at least once on every cruise. Richard & I ordered omelets; the kitchen was backed up with orders. When my came it was not what I ordered- ham instead of salmon, but I ate it anyway. The waiters work so hard, so we try not to 'be a Karen'.
Something we're curious about is the food waste on cruise ships. I observed steps being taken to curb waste, but there are different numbers floating around how much food still goes to waste on a cruise. What we're wondering specifically is if that number goes up or down when there so many Amish & Mennonites on board? We're taught to clean our plates (to the detriment of our waistlines). So initially I expected there is less waste. But someone else suggested there might be more. Think about it- do Mennonites know how to say no to anything free? 🤷
After breakfast, we went up to the sports deck, where the pickleball tournament was just getting started. It was so windy that some sections of the upper decks were closed. Those playing had quite a challenge, but the Miller brothers won 1st place.
We soaked up some sun on the pool deck for an hour, grabbed a bite of pizza for lunch, then went to a workshop by Dan & Amanda "The Stories Behind the Songs We Sing & Write" which we enjoyed.
There was a shuffleboard tournament that day as well, but wind was also a factor in that. We've shuffled on a cruise before and found the court is affected by exposure to the elements -how the pucks slide- so it's not the greatest onboard activity, in our opinion. We went up to the fitness center and walked on the treadmills. It took us until day 7 to get into the fitness center this time! We're slacking! Don't judge- these stats are not great, but it was a comfortable, didn't-even-break-a-sweat pace for me.
It was a formal night -Royal Night- in the main dining room. I had a hard time deciding between chicken marsala and lobster tail, but Richard thought I should do the lobster- I don't get that as often.
The first one is complimentary but there is a charge for additional lobster tails (and other premium dishes). I kid you not, on our last cruise -when they were still all-you-can-eat, a man at a table next to us had 6! Our waiter offered me a 2nd lobster tail Richard's share, since he can't have it. I commented that I didn't know it works that way. Truth is, it doesn't- he was bending the rule for me. Shh! I think what actually happened was an extra plate came up from the kitchen and the servers offered it to someone rather than having to throw it away.
There was the traditional Royal chef's parade that evening. These are the fine folks who spoil us at mealtimes and make us gain weight.
While Richard was distracted with applauded for the chefs & wait staff, his name tag was dangling in the chocolate sauce of his dessert and smearing on his khaki pants. I have not been able to get the stains removed. If you have any secret tips for removing chocolate stains, hit me up.
This was the best Baked Alaska I ever had!
We popped in at the Hymn Sing with Graceful, but it was so packed that it was standing room only and people spilling out of the conference room into the hall. We went to one of Royal Caribbean's shows, but I didn't care for it so I left before it was over.
We went to the 2nd round of Hymn Sing with Graceful. That one was not full so we stayed to support our friends.
Immediately after that was over, we went up to Deck 12 to watch the Courageous movie, a Sail & Sing activity that was open to anyone on the ship. It was packed out- we had trouble finding a chair with an unobstructed view of the screen.
It was so incredibly windy! And a little chilly. We were definitely sailing back north. After awhile I started asking myself why I was enduring misery for a movie I've already seen. I went back to our room at 11pm and went to bed.
Richard stayed a bit longer but when he started to nod off, he went to the pizza shop and hung out with some friends for awhile before calling it a night.
Day 8 was our last 'at sea' day. Richard finally managed to be out on deck for a magnificent sunrise, while I slept in.
Windjammer breakfast, with your teeny desserts, I'm going to miss you!
Richard is way more social like this than I am...
We walked on treadmills in the fitness center again.
(In spite of all our walking & exercising, I had gained a pound or two anyway.) 😬
There was a farewell concert in the theater. We got good seats in the center section this time. Because I included a bunch of concert photos already, just some highlights of this round were...
Aaron having his family yodel with him. I know how to sing 4 part harmony, but I can't even. How do you teach yodeling?
The Gospel Espressos were back with another classic... again I'm borrowing a
Facebook link because Blogger isn't letting me add my own videos.
This picture captures the fact that there was just about every denomination in the house...
We ended with some all-artists singing.
Ryan shared a piece of his testimony that I did not know...
So good! Glad we came on Sail & Sing.
We did not get towel art every day this cruise. After we mentioned to our room attendant that we liked the one he put in our room, he left us a new one every day. It's so quintessential of cruising. He never failed to greet us by name every time he saw us; being terrible with names myself, I was impressed.
The Last Supper. Or Bon Voyage night.
Caesar salad & a seafood cake.
Autumn Turkey Dinner
Chef's Recommendation of the day- Braised Lamb, delivered by our waiter with a "baa".
Black Forest Tart
Dark Chocolate Brownie
After dinner, we hung out in the Viking Lounge with the Graceful folks. We got chased out of there at 8 on account of a youth-only activity, so we went to the Windjammer and stayed there until past closing time. That evening was a highlight -such fun people to hang with! But all good things come to an end, and eventually we had to face the reality of packing to go home.
Day 9 was Saturday, February 10. Our alarm went off at 5:30
am so we could be in line for breakfast at 6 when the buffet opened. We were not very hungry at that hour so we only picked up a few things, which we took back to our room to eat. By 6:30 we were lugging our suitcases down the stairs to Deck 4 and getting in the disembarking line. We visited with a nice retired couple from VA (not part of Sail & Sing) while we waited. At 7:30 the line started moving. We did not have to show our passport- it was facial recognition only- nor did we have to go through customs or declare anything. That was new. We were outside on the pier within minutes. Our shuttle was scheduled to pick us up at 8, and they emphasized that they will only wait 10 minutes for you, so I was anxious that we not get stuck at the back of a long line anywhere. In hindsight, I decided it might have been smarter to book a hotel in Orlando and wait till Sunday to fly home. Then we could've eaten a leisurely breakfast and taken our time getting off the ship. Nonetheless, disembarking went so smoothly that we were early for our shuttle. We people-watched the organized chaos as Sail & Sing tried to herd a couple hundred people onto 5 buses headed to Sarasota, and others headed to the airport.
On the drive to Orlando, we chatted with a gentleman on our shuttle who had been on the same ship as us- it was his 31st cruise. He said we can sail with him again any time. He & his friends loved that there was never a wait time at the bars, casino and specialty dining venues. What he didn't like was that we took his 5pm dining time. His group tried to pull strings as frequent cruisers/pinnacle members to procure a table in the main dining room at 5pm, but Royal Caribbean wouldn't budge. It was interesting to hear his perspective on various things, coming from a non-religious viewpoint. I hope there weren't any truly disgruntled passengers hassling Royal Caribbean because their vacation was "ruined" by so many Amish & Mennonites on board. Besides our group, which was only 1/4 of the passengers, there was a group of 300, a biker gang. We talked to several of them, nice people.
At the airport, we got in the Bag Drop Shortcut line. It was not a shortcut! The computer went down and within minutes there was a long line. Fortunately we had plenty of time, but some others around us were getting "up tight" till they got the computer printing bag tags again. The TSA was also backed up, but we still had time to wait at our gate until our 12:30pm flight from Orlando to Chicago.
We flew on a 777-200. That brought back memories of flying home from Europe! Its a large plane for a non-international flight. I was in the very last row again, but since they weren't serving hot meals it wasn't a big deal. (Richard & I didn't have seats together because we hadn't been able to check in until that morning when we were back in US territory.)
Did you know you are not allowed to carry United property -in the form of soft drinks- off United flights? They gave me a whole can of ginger ale which I really didn't want to drink the whole thing on the flight. I was planning to carry it off the plane with me and finish it over lunch in the airport. Good Mennonites don't waste food or drinks, you know. The flight attendant said 'no can do'. He only gave me 2 choices- finish it ASAP or throw it away, aka waste it. Whatever.
We had a long layover in Chicago so it wasn't a problem for us, but the ladies around me had a tight connection. O'Hare has a logistics issue, for sure. We taxied and taxied ...and taxied some more to get to our gate. The lady beside me quipped that we landed in KY and drove the rest of the way. 😂
United sent me a text that our next gate was in B concourse, so we walked over there and scoped out our food options. After we ate our lunch, we looked at our boarding passes- they said we were leaving out of C29- the very same gate we arrived at! You guessed it- we got extra walking in one more time. This time we had seats together, but we were in the last boarding group. When we got on the plane, only the center seat was unoccupied in our row. As a rule-follower, I do not understand why people park themselves in random seats on planes! After everyone is on board, if you want to check for a better seat assignment, that's your prerogative, but don't steal the seat I paid for!! The man in my seat got up without a word- he knew he wasn't where he belonged. We sat on the plane for an hour before we took off. First we were waiting on late luggage to be loaded, (the pilot had a sense of humor, announcing he wants to be sure we all arrive with our toothbrush and underwear) then we were at the end of a gridlock of flights waiting for a runway. Note to self- avoid O'Hare next time. There was no service on the flight because we flew through turbulence the entire time.
Jeremy was waiting to pick us up as soon as we collected our checked bags. He had a surprise for us- his pilot's license!!! He had finished his check ride while we were gone. Yay! We had heard on the cruise that the weather was nice back home so it had actually crossed my mind that he might be able to fly. But I dismissed it because I expected he would let us know if he passed. That was the best surprise!
We arrived home at 11:30pm. We were so tired we went straight to bed without showering or unpacking anything, and slept till 9:15 the next morning. After San Juan, I didn't have any episodes getting my "land legs" back, but Richard did. The medical term for it is mal de debarquement syndrome. That’s French for “sickness of disembarkment.” Fortunately it doesn't last long.
So we've had numerous people ask us how we liked the cruise. Loved cruising again! We liked Sail & Sing, would do it again. However, we would not go on every Sail & Sing like one of Richard's buddies. There are pros and cons-
PROS:
*we liked having the Christian activities
*we liked finding random connections with other Anabaptists
CONS:
*we did not care for the pressure of keeping to a schedule; didn't feel as relaxed of a vacation (of course we could've skipped more of the activities but we wanted to be supportive of friends who had to work on their vacation)
*not sure how to put it in words but we like the anonymity of cruising with [mostly] strangers
We are already looking at cruises for next year! 👀
