Thursday, December 15, 2016

Independence of the Seas - Day 2

December 4 2016
At Sea
Enroute to Cozumel, Mexico

Didn't have a great nights sleep for some reason, and woke up about 7:20.  Which is late for me for a sea day!!  I lept out of bed and jumped into my bathing suit (I always get my things ready the night before) and grabbed my beach bag and was out the door.  Laurie was going for a walk on the track and said she would be up soon.  I thought I was late, but apparently this group of passengers aren't early birds.  So I got us great seats right next to the pool and it was glorious!

Spent the whole day at the pool, soaking up the sun, in and put of the pool, sipping frosty beverages and having afternoon siestas! They have a big screen at the pool so they put on the games, although it wasn't The Giants or Jets game, but still cool. Nothing like watching football while sitting in the sun at the pool.

Headed back to the cabin sometime after 4 (when I realized the 4pm game was also not going to be a NY game) to relax and shower.  It is exhausting doing nothing all day! The night before, Laurie had noticed that they had a "free gift" for appts made by Day 2 at the Next Cruise desk.  So we had an appt for 7pm; leaving plenty of time for our nightly pre-dinner drinks at Boleros.  Since we had already looked through the book, we knew what we wanted to book, so why not? We booked an 11 night Southern Caribbean cruise for Feb 5 2018.  And it includes St Lucia, which is only 1 of 3 islands I haven't been to!  (Artemis missed St Lucia on a delayed crossing once) We were very excited

Headed to Boleros and they still didn't have Moscato!  Olga tried her best to mix and match some things to try to get a drink close, and she did a great job!  We ended up with St Germain and Champagne - which was pretty yummy.  

Off to dinner, which normally is uneventful but enjoyable.  However, I found a piece of plastic (like a plastic steamer bag the veggies might be cooked in) in my stuffing.  I let our waiter Agnelo know and he immediately got the Head Waiter.  They apologized profusely, making sure I was ok.  I told them I was ok, had not eaten it and was not wanting to make a big deal, just to make them aware.  He asked for my cabin # and said he would let the Head Chef know.  Well not more than 10 minutes later, one of the Head Chef's came out to personally apologize.  He also asked for my cabin #.  Laurie and I laughed and said we know there will be something in the cabin tomorrow!  They really fawned over me.  It was nice to see, but not necessary in my opinion.  However, thinking about it now, I am SURE some passengers just go freaking ape-shit and cry wolf over nothing.  So I get it

After dinner we headed to the show.  It was called An Invitation to Dance and was choreographed by one of the pro's from Dancing With The Stars.  It started off good, but slowly got boring.  Again, it was making us sleepy so we were outta there and off to bed!

Independence of the Seas - Dec 2016 - Day 1

December 3 2016
Fort Lauderdale, FL

We made it!  The flight was early but easy.  During the flight, every time the pilot turned off the seat belt sign, it got bumpy.  Every time he turned it back on, it smoothed out.  This went on for most of the flight LOL Laurie and I did some 'future cruise planning' as I had the current cruise book in my carry-on.  Here is the current "Wish List"

2017 - Back to Back (Check!)
2018 - Southern Caribbean 
2019 - Mediterranean
2020 - Re-positioning/Transatlantic

Once we landed it was off to collect our bags and head to the port.  We were at Pier 25 and was glad to see its now covered more than it had been in 2015 (when the luggage carts were out in the rain and a lot of our stuff got wet!) From getting in the cab at the airport, to sitting in the Windjammer, it was 56 mins!  Not bad at all!  Once we finished lunch, the cabins were open and luggage was already being delivered!  Our stuff was outside the cabin so we brought it in and just relaxed.  

After we got settled it was time to head down to the muster drill.  We figured we would go early to get a seat. Sadly, this one is still held outside! (I got spoiled on Oasis class, sitting in the Champagne Bar!) We made friends though and chatted to pass the time. When it was over, we headed up to the Pool Bar to meet up with the Cruise Critic group for sailaway.  We met Debra (who organized the group) Wendy and Shelley along with several others.  As we started to depart, everyone started to scatter to the rails to watch us sail out of the harbor.  I had sent Mom, Ash and Mark the link to the Port Everglades Webs cam and we waved as we left.  Once we were on our way, we headed back to the cabin to unpack.  Our cabin attendant, Moula, came by to say hello - we gave him our requests (separated beds, ice each night, more towels, etc) 

We showered and relaxed a bit before we headed out to Boleros for pre-dinner drinks!  I couldn't wait to have a glass of Moscato! Unfortunately, they didn't have any that night but the bartenders, Olga and Charie, said they expected to have some the next night.  Music was on in the hour before dinner (unlike Oasis class that has nothing at that time!) and the band was great.  

We headed to dinner and were seated at a table of 8 .. 4 ladies from Chile, 2 from Chicago.  There was a bit of a language barrier with the ladies from Chile, but we managed ok.  The youngest women spoke fairly good English so she worked as translator.  The other 2 ladies, Sandy and Marsha, were from Chicago and were sisters.  All seemed nice.

After dinner, they were holding the Love & Marriage show.  We were a little late, but that was ok.  We got seats and watched a bit, but it was not one of the best we've seen and therefore Laurie and I were falling asleep!  Decided to bail and just head to bed.  Tomorrow was going to be an early day since we were at sea.  (and we both had been up since around 4am)  So off to sleep we went!