Midnight Buffets and 24/7 Lounges

Saturday, May 9th 

Your favorite twins are back at it again with another vacation! Woop woop! And another attempt to avoid traveling by plane, this time via ship! For this year’s Spring Trip Jess and I took a lovely 7 day, 6 night cruise! I say ‘took’ because, unlike past vacations, I did not blog about this trip as it was happening. I didn’t bring my computer or even my writing tablet because we didn’t pay for the internet package so there would be no way to post anything I wrote on a daily or even every-other daily bases like I usually do. Instead, I took daily notes in my journal to type up and post when we got back. I could post all of that now, but in the spirit of keeping my timeline of days straight and not making one totally enormous, totally insane single blog post, I’ve instead decided to make my usual daily blog posts except instead of being posted the day of (or day after), the posts will made exactly one week from when each post actually happened. Everyone got that? Even the little ones? Ok, here we go!

Jess and I were packed up and basically ready to go the night before, having spent all of Friday picking out our outfits, which was quite the ordeal as we planned on at least 2 outfit changes every day, and deciding what DVD’s we were bringing to watch in our portable DVD player. Of course, Barbie My Scene Jammin’ in Jamaica had to come with us, as we were only going on this cruise because of that movie and we needed to have it available to remind us of how much fun we were planning on having in Jamaica, the star port of our journey! We also packed Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, PollyWorld, Jungle Cruise, and Scooby Doo as comfort move rewatches, and then some other boat-related movies one or both of us hadn’t seen in case we wanted to see something new, including The Cat’s Meow, and Sinbad. 

We were ready by 12pm, but we always lag a little when leaving the house because we want to double check things so we were out the door at 12:20pm instead of exactly noon as planned. While heading out I had a brief panic that our port was actually in Miami, 3 hours away, so we were never going to make it on time, but I was just being silly and spooking myself for no reason as our port was indeed Port Canaveral only an hour or so away and we had plenty of time. The drive was pretty good and we only had to ask one person for help getting to the right parking garage for Terminal 5. We ended up parking on the top floor, the 4th, because the place was pretty full and also every compact spot was taken by Jeeps and Trucks because those are the most entitled losers of drivers on the planet. But, we didn’t mine, our car can take the heat! We put up a little sun protector thing in the windshield, did a double check of our two suitcases and one messenger bag, then headed off! 

The line for the elevator was, of course, crazy, so we didn’t bother and just took the stairs down. One of the beauties of only taking 2 carry-on suitcases and personal bag: Don’t need to wait for elevators! We arrived at the outside of our terminal, but it was pretty packed at the top of the escalator and we were early to our time window anyway, so we waited down there and called our mother to say farewell and once again make sure we had everything. Our time window was 2-2:30pm, but at 1:50pm it looked pretty empty up at the top of the escalator so we headed up and got in line for security! It was only maybe a 20 minute wait but there was a whole kerfuffle about some spilled rice and chicken that someone made a fuss about and then the security person there made such a production out of keeping everyone away from it and hollering at someone to bring her paper towels to clean it up. Like, yeah it’s a mess, but it’s just some spilled food. Maybe take it down a notch, chief. 

Security and boarding was nice and smooth as we had all our stuff ready to go, but boy the make you show your boarding pass so many times in a row before you get onto the boat! Must’ve been 4 times total, and they needed to do face scans and passport scans and we had everything ready so we were good but it was quite a lot of that I’ll say! At last though, we made it onto the cruise! Ya! And we went immediately across deck 4, where we boarded, to our emergency station B9 to go over the emergency protocols. On past cruises they summoned everyone to their station at a certain time so everyone can get shown the procedures, but on this ship they just have everyone watch some safety videos on their phone at their leisure and get a short safety spiel from someone who scans their pass to confirm they did it. The safety spiel was super short and honestly you could barely hear it cause it was so noisy on the deck, but we did that and paid as best attention as we could because we’d like to know what to do in an emergency, but it was all over in about 3 minutes and then we were headed into the ship!

First person Jess saw she asked “Which way to the buffet!?” and we were told it’s on 11 but it closes between 3pm and 5pm so we only had a half-hour left to get food. We decided to hotfoot it down the stairs to our room, 2244, which was conveniently right by the forward of the ship near the stairs and elevators, to drop off our stuff and then hit the buffet! Our room was cute, just a little thing with a bed, counter, TV, bathroom, couch, but just perfect for us! We dropped our stuff, did a quick refresh, then hit the elevators to get to 11! The Windjammer, the buffet, was in the aft of the ship, so we had to cross through the pool decks to get there, which was so fun! We saw the Solarium, the 18+ pool and bar area, and then the main pool deck, and then we were there, at the Windjammer! It was AMAZING in there! Food everywhere! 

The buffet was basically a giant oval that covered two rooms, but most of the food from the first half repeated on the second half, which most people didn’t know so they were all lined up for the first half not knowing there was the same food on the other half with no line. Jess and I don’t do lines, because why would you line up for a buffet? You just jump in and grab what you want and jump out? So we did that and got a pulled pork burger, tiki masala, mac & cheese, baked pasta, cookies, a brownie, apple fritter, a lemonade and water. It was all delicious and just what we needed! After filling out stomachs, and taking some motion sickness meds now there was food in us, it was time to get changed into our bathing suits and hit the pool deck! 

Back in the room we also got suncreened up because we had a specific rule about absolutely NO sunburns before Jamaica! Ideally none at all, but we were NOT going to have ANY during our Jammin’ in Jamaica day! With that handled and some of the Peach Bellini we brought in one of our travel cups, we hit the Solarium to vibe in the pool and enjoy the start of our awesome vacation! We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves in the pool for a while, chatting and drinking, then we moved it over to the hot tub for more vibing and chatting. After about two hours in the Solarium, Jess decided to head back to the room to get showered while I tried to figure out when our dinner time was. I’d selected 8:30pm when I booked the trip, but our SeaPass cards said MyTime – Deck 3 on them, so I hit the Guest Services desk right outside our room to see what that meant. The person there explained it meant we could get dinner anytime between 6:45pm and 9pm in the Main Dining Room on Deck 3, but that we could set up a specific time reservation while we were there if we wanted. Not sure why it didn’t keep my 8:30pm time, but who cares really!

I got showered and then it was time to select our second outfits for the day for exploring the ship! We went more casual for our exploration time, shorts and tops, then set out to see what we could see, especially to locate the shuffleboard court! On 12 and 13 we found the FlowRider surf machine and the Rock Climbing Wall, both closed until tomorrow but still good to find for the day at sea awaiting us the following day! We also found the minigolf and played a little but it was WAY too windy so we putzed around for only a little while before cutting the game short and exploring the rest of the decks while we fought the wind. We, naturally, hit the Windjammer again to see what they were having for dinner and I had some pasta while Jess had a salad and we basked in the view of the ship sailing the seas! Then we found an outdoor games area with giant chess and cornhole outside the arcade and Kid’s Club areas, but no shuffleboard was there. The search would remain on! 

It was around 7:30pm so we decided to head back to the room to get changed but discovered we can’t get from the aft to the fore from the 2nd or 3rd floor so we went up to 4 and crossed from the outside deck and what do you think we found there? Shuffleboard! We didn’t have time to play, but we’d found it! Back at our room we got changed into some dresses to be ready for dinner around 8:15pm. Our dining room was on 3, but of course we couldn’t get to the aft from 3 so we went back up to 4 but crossed through the interior this time to see Schooner’s Bar and the casino, which was already packed with people! Crazy! We arrived at dinner and were seated in the center of the room by the host at the table of Assistant Waiter Michael and Waiter Nazario, whose names are on a little placard at the table for some reason? Both of them were very nice though and we had a lovely time! We got one order of chilled shrimp to share, then Jess got and entre of chicken saag and desert of the cheese platter while I got the spaghetti bolognese and strawberry ice cream. The people seated beside us were a man and his son and boy did they not have anything to say to each other. Maybe there were just tired from the day, but the guy was on his phone the whole time and I think the kid actually fell asleep between his entre and desert, aha!  

We finished eating around 8:50pm and headed to the 5th floor to check out the Royal Promenade! That’s the part of the ship with all the shops but also the cafe that’s open until 3am with pizza, wraps, sandwiches, cookies, coffee, and tea! We got some coffee and tea and took a turn about, seeing the shops and what nonsense they were hawking at absurd prices. As we drank we wandered some more of the ship, locating some theaters, the card room, and the library, which was quite poorly stocked so I was glad I’d brought my own books to enjoy! We ended up turned around and discovered when we got to 2 that we were actually at the aft of the ship and, of course, couldn’t get to the fore from that floor, so we checked out some of the door decorations people had put up then headed back to 5 to go through the Promenade to the fore and back to our room. There Jess called to get the Cruise Compass delivered to our room so we could plan for the next day and we did that for about 45 minutes until 10:20pm when we headed up to the Blue Moon Lounge on 12 for the Silent Disco at 10:30pm! 

I’d never been to a silent disco before, but Jess had so she explained there are two DJ’s and you can flip a switch on your headphones to switch between the two or to turn the headphones off. When you switched between the DJ’s the lights on the headphone went from blue to green to indicate how many people were listening to which DJ! We had a total blast dancing and switching back and forth between songs, deciding what caught our fancy, it was just a great time and everyone was having a lot of fun! Some people had a little too much fun though, and one over enthusiastic party-goer started challenging people to dance-off stuff and one opponent ended up dropping it low so much he dropped his drink and shattered glass all over the dance floor. Party foul man! They had to shut the party down for about 5 minutes to clear the dance floor and clean up the glass, which hurt the vibe a little, but then we were all back on the floor having fun for the last 20 minutes or so of the party, with the green DJ’s final song of the macarena! Perfect send-off I think! 

The lounge was still open, but Jess and I headed back too our room when the party was over because we were ready to chill, but right as we got back we remembered we’d wanted to hit the cafe again to get some snacks for the room because we were determined to live by Shaggy’s words from ‘Scooby-Doo Pirates Ahoy’: “Midnight buffet’s and 24/7 lounges, that’s what I call living large!” And the ‘midnight buffet’ in question was to be our room, which we would keep stocked with plenty of food to enjoy! So, we hit the cafe again, got 4 cookies, some cheese pizza, more coffee, and 2 waters to bring back to the room! Then it was time for pajamas, snacking, and watching Hotel Transylvania 3! As we snacked and watched and chatted, Jess did a little of the word search she’d brought and I wrote my notes of the day in my journal, both of us totally satisfied with a day well spent! And prepared for plenty more fun tomorrow when we woke up!