A day of nothing is exhausting

We didn’t see the entire movie last night.  We only made it until 12:30am before we called it quits.  Since it was a day at sea and there was nowhere we had to be, we decided to sleep in.  But we did lose an hour due to a time change.  Once we got going, we headed down to the Garden Cafe for breakfast.  We sat outside by the pool and enjoyed our breakfast in the sunshine.

We actually did have one thing planned for today, a Meet & Greet with other people from Cruise Critic.  The gathering was in the Indigo Main Restaurant and there were over fifty people there.  The reason why we went was to meet up with the other people that are going on a tour in Samana tomorrow.  The Meet & Greet started with many of the department managers from the ship giving a brief introduction of themselves and what area they were responsible for.  The second reason we were there was for the cabin crawl but more about that later.

We thought that today we would have lunch in the Summer Palace Main Restaurant.  The restaurant is very elegant.  It truly looks like a palace, and it’s all decorated for Christmas.  Karen had the farmhouse chicken noodle soup, chicken milanese with arugula salad with olive Oil and lemon dressing and milk chocolate mousse with lemon syrup. I had the roasted corn and potato chowder, grilled chicken sandwich and raspberry sherbet.  We’re eating like royalty on this cruise.

After lunch, we grabbed our books and suntan lotion and went to the sun deck.  We laid out for an hour before Karen went to the spa to enjoy her Frangipani hair & scalp treatment.  While she was there, I went to the Spinnaker Lounge and laid out on this big bed that they have, which is surrounded by huge floor to celing windows over-looking the ocean.  At 3:20pm, I headed to the spa to also enjoy the hair & scalp treatment.  It was heavenly.

I met up with Karen back at the room and we then headed out for the cabin crawl.  What the cabin crawl is is that you get to visit the different types of rooms that are on the ship.  This was organized by Shelly & Tom from Cruise Critic.  Our first stop was Shelly & Tom’s mini suite.  It’s about eighty square feet bigger than our room.  It has more closet space and a bigger lounge area.

Our second stop was Mary Pat’s owner’s suite.  This suite was about eight hundred square feet.  It had two balconies (one at the front, one at the side), a large bedroom, a walk in closet and the bathroom had a  flat screen TV over the bathtub (one of three in the suite).  Mary Pat had her butler lay out some snacks like chicken wings, cheese and crackers, sandwiches, squares, buckets of Coronas and champagne.  Yes, this suite comes with a butler and concierge!  The third stop was a romance suite (10164).  It’s quite a bit bigger than a mini-suite.  It had a dressing area off of the bathroom, and a great balcony on the back of the boat, with comfy loungers.

On our way to the next cabin, we stopped and had a peek at the courtyard that all of the villas have access to.  It has a very small pool and lots of loungers, and is completely private.  You would have no idea that these type of rooms even exist, since they’re totally hidden from the rest of the ship.

Next up was the courtyard villa (14012).  It had a cozy living/dining room, bedroom with a king size bed connected directly to the bathroom.  The bathtub had a great view.  There was a second bedroom and bathroom.  The second bedroom is  somewhat small but would be great for a couple of kids.  The couple were using it to store their luggage.

And the best was saved for last … the vista villa (14000).  Nigel, his wife and his father Arthur from England were the lucky occupants of this suite.  (Nigel kept it a surprise from Arthur, until they arrived!)  You walk into the entry way which is the size of our room.  We walked past the beautiful art on our way to the huge living/dining room.  The room is completed surrounded by windows and it has a white baby grand piano, huge circular couch, and a bar.  They have a sweeping view of the ship’s pool area, and the entire 12th deck.  Right outside is another dining area, a private hot tub, sauna and a couple of loungers.  Up a flight of stairs there is a private sun deck with more loungers and a hammock.  The villa has three bedrooms each with their own bathroom.  Nigel said the villa was approximately 5000 square feet.  All I can say is WOW. 

We went back to the room to change for dinner.  We decided tonight to eat at the Lotus Garden Asian Restaurant.  Karen started with the crispy crab wontons with spicy plum sauce, egg drop soup, shredded sesame chicken.  I had the steamed barbecue pork buns and the sweet and sour pork.  We also split the chicken lo mein.  Since we had so much to eat, we decided to split the warm banana pancake with carmelized banana sauce and coconut ice cream for dessert.

We had a little time before tonight’s shows so we went back to the room so that I could start on the blog, and watch the sunset.  There were two shows tonight.  The first one we went to was comedian David Naster, in the Spinnaker Lounge.  After his show, we went to the Stardust Theater to see “Encore!”.  It was a tribute to some of the best Broadway shows.  We headed back to the room.  I’m really tired today.  A day of doing nothing is exhausting.