Cruise Log Part 3: Sailing, Sailing Over the Ocean Blue!

Sunday the 7th was a whole day at sea.  I woke up and hadn't slept well at all.  On our last cruise, I had slept like a rock.  We opened the balcony door and listened to the sound of the water and got the breeze off the ocean and the rocking of the ship, instead of making me sick, lulled me to sleep.  However, this ship is equipped with electrical shut offs.  First, you had to have your key card in a slot to have any electricity at all.  As soon as you take it out, the lights and power all go out.  Second, if your balcony door is open, the air conditioning shut off.  It was a little too warm to go without any air conditioning so we didn't get to sleep with the balcony door open.

I went down to the spa to get my mani-pedi and then my conditioning treatment.  The manicurist talked me into an upgrade on one of the services, which apparently threw off the pricing.  Again, it was a commercial, with them trying to sell me expensive oils and such.  "It's affordable because since you only use a couple of drops, the bottle lasts a long time.  You can use it on your whole body and your hair too!"  At least the deep conditioning wasn't a commercial.  She didn't try to sell me anything.  Though, I don't see that it made a bit of difference on my hair.  I figured out that they were double charging me.  They had charged our room account when we initially made the appointments, then I found that the individual employees were charging me again at the end of every service.  So, I had the front desk at the spa trying to figure all that out and subtract charges.

We had lunch at O'Sheehan's, which is sort of like a sports pub that has burgers and stuff.  We went to Teppanyaki for dinner.  Teppanyaki was our favorite on the last cruise.  It was still good, but not as good as we remembered.  One of the chefs came out and was getting started when another chef came over and said he had the wrong table, so they switched around.  We had "THAT" guy at our table.  The eternally single guy that talks way too much that you fear will either try to sell you insurance or get you involved in a pyramid scheme or try to talk to you about his cult.  We had another couple at our table that we ran into often on the ship and were friendly with.

After dinner, we had our pictures taken by the photographers stationed around the ship.  Then we went back to our room and watched a video.

Cruise Log Part 2: Come Sail Away!

The next day was Saturday the 6th and time for the cruise!  We checked out of the hotel and set up some reservations for our return and then took the rental car back.  From the rental car area, we took the tram back into the airport and caught a taxi to the port of Miami.  I was trying to get there early because I wanted to book spa time ASAP because I was afraid the days at sea would fill up quick.  They tell you not to arrive more than an hour prior to boarding time, but by the time we got there, we were in loading group 10.  I was getting antsy, but it turned out that I didn't have to worry.

When they called our group number, we found that the rooms weren't ready yet, so we didn't really have a place to go.  So, I went to the spa and we got a tour and started booking services.  They had a deal for getting increasing percentages off with each subsequent service, so Scott talked me into a second massage and he booked one too.

Then we went to the Garden Cafe, which is a buffet-style restaurant, to eat and wait.  It was really packed because there wasn't much open and available.  We finally got into our room and were a little disappointed because it was smaller than our last cruise.  The balcony was smaller and so was the room.  They had a mandatory drill so everyone knows where to meet in case of emergency--ours was in one of the dining rooms.  As soon as the drill was over, I needed to book it back to the spa because I had booked my massage then.  I wish I hadn't made it right then because I ended up missing setting sail and the crowds leaving the drill were nearly impossible to get through and the elevators were packed.  The spa was up eight decks--16 flights of stairs and I did not want to do that.  Elevators would open and they would be full and the people on board would push the close door button and keep going.  Once when this happened, I ducked in quickly and squished myself in.

The massage was okay, but not near as good as my usual masseuse at my chiropractor and about four times the price.  And it turned out to be a big commercial.  I'd booked 75 minutes, but they were giving 15 minutes free on the first day, so it ended up being 90 minutes.  However, they spend part of that time trying to sell you products.  Seaweed apparently will relieve the knots in my back and apparently seaweed is quite expensive!  Later in the evening I was stiff and sore and Scott said my shoulders were actually bruised, so I was not thrilled with my first spa experience.

I ordered a bit of room service, but then we got ready and went to the "Illusionarium."  They have a steam punk magic show and dinner.  I was glad I had eaten some because dinner was not exactly my favorite.  We had some pictures taken there that I thought were really good.  The show was good, but I think I expected more.  Some of the tricks were difficult to figure out how they did it, but most of it was pretty tame.  At one point, there were some birds and we got splattered with what we believe must have been bird poop.  However, I wasn't sure how because we were in the back of the room, nowhere near the stage and no one between us and the stage seemed to react to a spray of poop.  We were a little put off, trying to brush off white stuff from our clothes.  When we got back to the room, Scott ordered some room service too because dinner had been pretty small.