Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: Two

It's been a month and a half since we took this cruise! Best get a move on, Mrs. B!

Our first full day at sea was a good day! We ordered room service (as we usually do) so that we could enjoy breakfast out on our balcony. Unlike last cruise where there wasn't any place on the order form to indicate what time we wanted it delivered, we were happy to see that the ones on this cruise had several time slots to chose from. Since it was our first morning, we elected to sleep in; having it delivered around 9:00 am. Before it arrived, I stepped out onto the balcony to determine if it was warm enough to eat out there. What a pleasant surprise, it was quite balmy and most likely in the low 80s. Pure delight! On top of it, the sea was relatively calm, enabling me to get this picture, one of my favorites of this trip.


Anyway, room service called with the heads up that they were on their way (a very nice touch as it can work something like an alarm clock) while I was out on the balcony writing in my travel journal about the day prior.


Breakfast was fine; we always order the eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and grilled tomatoes (actually, the tomatoes just come with it, must be a British thing) and a basket of pastries. Oh, and LOTS of coffee! Nothing terribly exotic but it works for us and keeps us out of the buffet. And, of course, we'd much rather be enjoying breakfast with our private view of the ocean.


We spent the majority of the day hanging out in The Solarium, the adult-only pool area. It took awhile to get loungers as there were a lot of people in there, but, we finally did. There was a definite jungle-theme going on in there, complete with a soundtrack of chirping birds and, if you listened carefully, a bellowing elephant on occasion. Sorta silly, but, it was actually calming. We had a light lunch at The Solarium Cafe (wraps and salad) so that we didn't have to abandon our loungers. We did enjoy ourselves there but found the pool side drink service nowhere near as attentive as it was on our cruise in May. No Placid from India. Boo hoo. Also, later in the afternoon, a rowdy group of Brazilians took up residence in the pool drinking, shouting, and carrying on. Not very calming at that point!


We left around 3:00 to attend a martini class in The Champagne Bar. Alas, there was a requirement for 10 and only 4 of us showed up. Can you believe that? We couldn't! We had a glass of Champagne and sat in there looking out at the ocean through some pretty amazing huge windows; after, we went back up to our balcony for a few hands of cards and a cigar.

Oh, because this was our 2nd cruise on Royal Caribbean and we'd signed up for their loyalty club, we each received a booklet of coupons (waiting for us in our stateroom when we first arrived). Nothing huge; a few drinks here and there and 25% off of logo merchandise, but, hey, free is free and a discount is a discount.

Dinner that evening, the only formal night of this cruise, was fine if a bit noisy. Mr. B repeatedly said, "What?" to me throughout our conversation; he could hardly hear me at all. We'll definitely have to address this issue before we book our next cruise. Anyway, one of the options for dinner was a very tender beef fillet; quite yummy.


I made Mr. B wait with me in The Centrum to watch some show people dancing to the tunes of the 70s, which turned out to be quite lame. By way of apology, I agreed to go up to Star Quest (off The Viking Crown Lounge on Deck 13) for scotch and cigars.

Our evening rounded out with us having fun posing with Mr. Pig back in our stateroom!


Mrs. B

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