A Little Bit Of What You Fancy Does You Good

Day 6

After another night with not a great deal of sleep, I was glad once morning arrived. We had to be up quite early as Graham had an 8:00 AM spa appointment. I was considering if I should stay in the cabin to get a bit more sleep or get up and go with Graham. In the end I decided on the getting up option. They have a huge indoor hot tub in the gym and this was calling my name. I could not think of a nicer way to start my birthday than some hot tub time. So we got up and ready and headed to the spa. We got there quite early and they had not opened up yet. I waited until they let Graham in and then I headed one deck down. Unfortunately where there should have been a hot tub was just a hole in the ground. They had drained it as the ship was still bouncing around.

So I had to regroup. In the end I decided to just sit on the comfortable chairs just outside the spa and wait for Graham to come out. Then we headed to the Windjammer for breakfast. Graham had melon, pineapple and bread followed by bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato, fried bread and scrambled eggs. He finished off with some oatmeal. I had bacon, sausage muffin, roti, Provençal tomatoes, baked beans and hash brown and then finished off with a pear. We both had some apple juice.

After breakfast, we headed back to the cabin. I still had a bit of time until I had to go to progressive trivia so I read for a bit. Graham headed out and we arranged to meet by the dining room on deck 4 for the redo of Walk A Mile. I headed up to the Star Lounge around 15 minutes before the start. Most of the others were already there. We were chatting about various things before the quiz started. Unfortunately that day, we had our weakest performance of the cruise with only 11 points.

Two other members of our team also wanted to go to Walk A Mile so we left pretty promptly once our sheets had been scored. Unfortunately that morning they had a designer bag sale on the Royal Promenade and it got very congested. I suddenly could understand what rush hour traffic must feel like. I lost sight of the other two and by the time I made it to the meeting place, the group had gone. I decided to head off in the same direction that we had gone the day before to see if I could find the group. I did bump into them soon enough, but there was no sign of Graham. I found him when we walked around the stern. He had set up his telescope there. Walk A Mile was a little strange. You can get all the way around the ship on this level, but you have to go up some stairs to the helipad and then down again the other side. I assume for health and safety reasons and considering that the group was a little more mature, this was adapted that you walked up one side of the ship, around the stern, down the other and then walked around the Royal Caribbean logo which was just before the stairs on both sides. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had done it on the top deck along the walking track.

Once this was over, I went to join Graham. When I was looking at photos of the ship before we sailed, there were loungers in that area and I had established this as a nice potential hang out spot. Unfortunately all we found in the area were empty luggage cages. Hopefully this had something to do with the fact that our cruise and the ones before were essentially cold weather cruises and they did not expect people to be outside much. I joined Graham for a bit and then decided to head back to our cabin to get my iPad. I noticed that there were no more slamming noises and the ship did not bounce around so much anymore.

When I came back up, I noticed that there was an empty lounger in a nice sheltered spot. I decided that this was too good to pass up so I headed back to Graham to let him know where I was going. He decided to come and join me. He found a spare lounger as well. It was lovely to spend some time just sitting with the sun shining on me reading my book. I really had not expected this in the North Atlantic in November.

Around 13:00, we decided it was time for some lunch. I suggested that we try the dining room. There were quite a few people waiting, but it turned out that they wanted a table to themselves. We were happy to share and were seated almost straightaway. We got a powerful reminder why we loved My Time Dining so much. The people we were seated with seemed nice enough, but everybody seemed to feel a little uncomfortable. There were a few half-hearted attempts at conversation, but for the most part, there was silence. It also seemed to take forever for our order to be taken and the food to arrive. The food however was lovely. Graham had chicken tenders with potato salad and I had an open steak sandwich on garlic rye bread, fried egg and crispy onions. For dessert, I had food envy. Graham had an apple parcel with calvados cream, which looked and smelled delicious. I had the white chocolate and orange flan, which was nothing to write home about.

I can't quite remember what the circumstances of this were, but after lunch, we ended up by the gym and noticed that the hot tub had been refilled and there were people in it. I decided that I still fancied some hot tub time. So we headed back to the cabin and got changed into our swim stuff. The hot tub was a bit unusual. When we went in, I was surprised that there was nowhere to sit down. This was the first ever hot tub that I have encountered where you are supposed to stand. After a while, I noticed that there was a short ledge on the opposite side where you could sit down. So we moved there. It was also incredibly hot. I was joking that the ship has an inbuilt lobster pot. Once I got too hot, we moved to one of the solarium hot tubs. The temperature there was a lot more pleasant and this was actually designed to sit down in. We stayed there for about half an hour and then we both started to feel waterlogged. We came out and tried off as much as we could and then headed to the cabin. We both got showered and changed before heading out again.

We decided to head up to the Viking Crown Lounge. The Drink of the Day was a Blue Margarita and I wanted one of those. I took my iPad and Graham brought his telescope. We managed to get some seats on a sofa by the windows. We settled in and relaxed. Graham’s telescope caused some interest again. One gentleman came by to ask if Graham was hoping to see the super moon with this. We chatted with him for a while. We had a really nice relaxing afternoon and were treated to a nice sunset. Shortly after the sun had gone down, the man we had talked to earlier came back and reported that there was a fantastic view of the super moon on the sports deck. We followed him and a couple of other people did as well. The moon looked huge and at that point was bright orange. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me. It was also very windy. Graham suggested that we could head down to deck 4 aft as it was a bit more sheltered there. I went and got our cameras on the way before re-joining Graham. He had made some more friends. We stayed out there for quite a while and admired the moon. It was very kind of mother nature to provide me with such a stunning birthday present.









 
Lovely moon pics! How nice to have a birthday on a cruise!
 


Around 19:00, we headed back to the cabin to get ready for my birthday dinner. We quickly got changed and then headed out again and did the rounds of the photo opportunities. They had photographers on to different levels by the hanging sculpture again as well as the poppy field backdrop and the white backdrop. There was another backdrop set up, but this was rolled up when we got there and by the time we got back from dinner, it had gone completely. The white backdrop was actually pretty busy that day so we decided to come back after dinner and headed up to Chops.













Chops on the Navigator is in a separate room just by the entrance of the Windjammer. We were welcomed and seated when we arrived. We were then presented with the menus. Our server then came around for our drink order and left some bread. We both had White Zinfandel. We ended up with the whole four course experience. I really wanted to try the three cheese roasted onion soup, which was absolutely delicious. Graham had the forest mushroom soup, which he also enjoyed. I then had the peppered bacon, which was full of flavour. Graham went with the jumbo shrimp cocktail. Then it was time for the main event. The idea is that you have a steak or other meat dish each and then a range of sides to share. Graham had a New York Strip Steak and I had the Fillet Mignon. They were both cooked to perfection and full of flavour. For our sides we chose asparagus, truffled fries and gruyere tater tots. Our server had recommended that we choose three sides between the two of us, but that was way too much food. Everything was delicious though. Graham was going to pass on dessert and I just had some orange sorbet. However, when my sorbet came out, they also brought a birthday dessert for me, which was cheesecake. I have to admit that I did not even try this, but Graham had most of this and really enjoyed it.





















Once we finished dinner, we headed back to deck 3 for the white backdrop. There was one family ahead of us. This time they had all kinds of silly props and this was a lot of fun. Once we finished with the photos, we headed back to the cabin. We were welcomed by another towel animal. I quickly checked out the Daily Compass and then we got ready for bed. This time I slept like a baby.













 
Sorry sleep diecided to hide from you this night. Nice the you got up to join Graham for his hsircut. What a blow the hottub was empty.

It's the taking part that counts re the trivia!

The walk a mile sounds strange with the steps! I would have been shocked by that...

I am glad you evtually got in a hot tub or two. The first one sounds very odd. To date the best one I ever trued was on The Jade NCL. Only thing it did have going for it..

Lunch sounded nice but ackward with the other guests!

Wow love the photos of the super moon amazing.

I love your birthday outfit tonight what a stunning gown. Graham looks handsome love his dalmation tie. Nice backgrounds.

I can't wait to try chops. Looks wonderful. Perfect for a birthday meal. How nice they brought you a cheesecake.

Those props are fun!
 
Your gown is beautiful and such a lovely color for you! The pic of you guys gazing into each others eyes is darling! :lovestruc Also like the one with the signs.

You had a nice birthday indeed!
 


Lovely moon pics!

Thanks. This was a real treat.

How nice to have a birthday on a cruise!

It was nice to be able to do this.

Sorry sleep diecided to hide from you this night.

Things would get a lot better after this.

To date the best one I ever trued was on The Jade NCL. Only thing it did have going for it..

I am with you on this on both counts.

I love your birthday outfit tonight what a stunning gown.

Thanks.

I can't wait to try chops. Looks wonderful.

Chops was nice, but actually ended up being our least favourite of the specialty restaurants we tried. It was still really good though.

Corinna
 
It looks like you had a really nice and relaxing birthday! (Even though the first hot tub sounds kind of strange)

Food at Chops looks excellent.

Your pictures look really fun!
 
It looks like you had a really nice and relaxing birthday!

It was, especially compared to my birthday in 2015 when I was in Paris when the terrorist attacks happened.

(Even though the first hot tub sounds kind of strange)

This was really the weirdest hot tub I ever encountered.

Food at Chops looks excellent.

It was very nice.

Your pictures look really fun!

We had a lot of fun with those.

Corinna
 
Love the dress you wore to your birthday dinner and Graham's Dalmatian tie :)
 
You had a lot of sea days at the beginning! Love those! So relaxing!

That blue dress looks fabulous on you. Chops looks like the best meal so far! I'm sold on the specialty restaurants on this ship!
 
You had a lot of sea days at the beginning!

It took us 6 days to get across the Atlantic.

Love those! So relaxing!

Me, too. We will be even more spoiled in this respect on the next cruise and that will be a warm weather cruise.

That blue dress looks fabulous on you.

Thanks.

Chops looks like the best meal so far!

Chops was really nice, but actually turned out to be our least favourite specialty restaurant. The other two we tried were even better.

I'm sold on the specialty restaurants on this ship!

They are really great. I think you and Fran would love Wonderland on the Quantum class ships and Harmony of the Seas. I am not adventurous enough for this.

Corinna
 
Day 7

I actually managed to sleep the night through this time and felt much better for it. We were still awake at 8:30, as we had been gaining an extra hour every night from the 2nd sea day onwards. We got up slowly and then decided to try the dining room for breakfast. We ended up sharing again. This time round, everybody hit it off and we had a really nice breakfast talking about where people were coming from, what other cruises they have taken and which cruises they were planning on taking. So the fact that service was very slow again, did not matter too much.

The advantage with breakfast is that they have kind of a hybrid between table service and a buffet. Our assistant service took an order for drinks and offered pastries. We both had some coffee. Graham had an apple juice and I had an orange juice, which was better than the juice in the Windjammer. I had a raspberry Danish and Graham had a vanilla donut. Once we ordered our hot food, we then went to the buffet. Graham had some yoghurt followed by Granola with strawberry compote. I had Granola with pecans, whipped cream and strawberry compote, which may well have been my all time favourite breakfast. Then there was a bit of a lull until the cooked food arrived. Graham had fried eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown and tomato with white toast. I had been torn between an omelette and the Eggs Benedict. I still have nightmares about the Eggs Benedict that they served me on the Splendour of the Seas. In the end I decided to be brave and had the Eggs Benedict, which came with tomatoes. Those were a lot better and entirely edible, but still not great.

After breakfast, we went back to the cabin to pick up our stuff. We arranged to meet at the Cafe Promenade for some coffee after the trivia and then I headed off to progressive trivia. We had a better day that day scoring 14 points out of a possible 20. After the quiz was scored, I went to meet Graham. I was a little early that day and decided to check out the end of season merchandise sale. There was nothing that caught my eye. When I got back to near the Cafe Promenade, Graham was waiting for me. We spent some time there and had a couple of coffees. Then we decided to have a walk around deck 4. It was quite a bit cooler again that day and after a while, we relocated to the solarium where it was a nice and sheltered.

Around 12:00, we headed to the Windjammer for some lunch. Graham had some ice tea and some steak fries, chili beef, fried onions and salad. For his dessert, he had mixed fruit pie. I had Coke and a plate with rice, beef stew, couscous, chicken cacciatore, pork medallion, peppers and sweet corn. For dessert, I went with flourless almond cake, vanilla and chocolate swirl soft-serve ice cream and a lemon cookie.













After lunch we still had a bit of time until we needed to be at Studio B for our allocated ice show. So we decided to check out the artwork. We started from the top of the ship at the aft. We soon discovered a real gem. They have a beautiful chapel on the Navigator, which is above the Viking Crown Lounge. This is a really peaceful space and we spent a short while sitting there. As far as the artwork was concerned, this did not really inspire us. There were some pieces that I liked, but we never felt inspired to do the forward part of the ship.









































 
About 20 minutes before the beginning of the show, we headed to Studio B. We managed to get a seat in the second row. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to that trip. I have loved watching figure skating ever since I was at primary school and I was very excited that there would be an ice show on the ship. The way they organize this on the Navigator is that everybody gets an allocated show based on their muster station. They also did a different show for Platinum and above Crown and Anchor Society members. This was our last cruise as gold so we did not benefit from the second show. The show that we did get to see was absolutely stunning and I was thoroughly enjoying it. I am really hoping that they do the second show for Platinum and above on the Explorer. If they do, I will definitely attend both.



After the show, we got coffee from Cafe Promenade. All the seats were taken so we got our coffee in paper cups and went to sit on one of the sofas outside the Star Lounge. It was nice to watch the world go by. Around sunset time, we headed back to cabin to get our cameras and then went outside on deck 4. We caught the sunset, but the moon was in no hurry to rise. What a difference a day makes. At one stage or another, we were joined by various members of my trivia team, but they all had to give up before the moon rose as they had a reservation for the chef’s table. Eventually we gave up as well and headed to the cabin to get changed. As we were coming up to the end of the sea days and still only had one formal night and no semi-formal night, I decided to make my own formal night and wear a gown. I had brought 6 of them and was planning to wear them.













We headed out and got the photo opportunities taken care of for the evening. They had the white backdrop with fun props again. They also had an abstract red backdrop, a backdrop with pillars, a backdrop of an interior of a church and a backdrop with an intricate door. Then it was time to head for dinner.













We where sent to our usual table again. Graham had water and I had Coke. He went with Escargot for his appetizer followed by roasted pork loin, sprouts, carrots, broccoli and roast potatoes. I had split pea soup for my appetizer followed by Steak Diane, carrots and mashed potato. For dessert, he had berry crumble and I had the Chocolate Sensation with vanilla ice cream. We enjoyed everything again.













After dinner, we headed back to the cabin. We had the Daily Compass and also a flyer with the information for immigration in Boston. This was mainly organized by muster station and the slot for our muster station was 10:45, which was very late. Fortunately we had booked an excursion through Royal Caribbean and because of this, our meeting time was 7:45 at the theatre. That sounded a lot better. There was also another towel animal. This time we were spoiled for towel animals.



Graham decided to go up on deck 4 to check if the moon was visible. I decided to stay put as I figured it would be freezing up there. So I read my book until he came back. He was not gone very long and then we got ready for bed.
 
Love the different shots around the ship--you are tempting me to think outside the Disney bubble of cruising....

Also all shades of blue look so lovely on you-two beautiful blue dresses in a row!
 
Glad you were able to get a good sleep! That is so cool that they do ice shows on a ship! Those sunset pics are stunning!
 
Great trip report so far! I don't think my stomach could handle a cross over the Atlantic. Looking forward to hearing more!
 

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