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Radiant Cruise on Radiance: Three

Here I am almost three months after we sailed attempting to wrap this up so I can move on to other topics!

Today we'll be in Costa Maya, a port that I know very little about and one that it appears isn't terribly interesting, at least judging from the reviews I read on Trip Advisor. As such, we elected to NOT do any of Royal Caribbean's excursions but will likely get off the ship, wander around the little fake town and then get back onto the ship and hang out in the Solarium.

I'm sitting here eating breakfast out on our balcony. Once again, it's a lovely, warm, sunny morning. Breakfast is the same as yesterday's except I did order some fresh fruit of which I ate most of it since it contained melon and strawberries.

We're supposed to get cell phone signal but we're not, which means we really should get off the ship, if only to check to see if Uncle Chuck calls to let us know how Lucy is doing. She's probably in surgery as I write this. We're sending lots of positive vibes and love back home to our Goose. Damn MCTs! Today's a good a day as any for her procedure, though, as it's Nigel's 20th birthday. "Hey, Nige, keep an eye over our Goose, ok? And, say hi to Clyde for me".

Later

Today turned out to be QUITE warm, maybe 85 or so. We got off the ship for a little bit. No cell phone signal! Boo! We were able to get in touch with the vet right before dinner, though, and Lucy "sailed" through her procedure with flying colors. Yey!

Back to Costa Maya. They had an area set up right off the dock just for the cruise ships. Another liner, Oceania, I believe, was docked right next to us. Although Oceania cruises are supposed to be the height of luxury, the ship was a little pee pee compared to ours.

Our stateroom is right below where the people are standing

The B's in front of Radiance. Well, actually we're standing in front of the BACK of Radiance!

The B's in Costa Maya with Radiance and Pee Pee Oceania in the background

Anyway, this area had shops, restaurants bars (of course) and a pool. We each had a Dos Equis and watched the people playing/swimming with the dolphins. We were back on board in less than an hour as we didn't find this overly titillating! We hung out in the Solarium for 4 1/2 hours and then, later, sat out on our balcony playing cards and smoking cigars. I took one of my absolute favorite pictures of Mark from the cruise during this time. Doesn't he just look like "Da man"?

We were out there when the ship sailed and for the sunset. Roughly 10 minutes after we pulled away, the ship stopped. The Captain came on and said not to worry, they were just making some adjustments. Good thing he did as before we pulled away, we'd noted some scary looking dudes armed with assault weapons down below on the dock (although I think they were there hoping to earn some money posing for photos with dumb-ass tourists).

Scary Commando looking dudes. Tourist walking by looks as though he's doing a double take!

As it turned out, we discovered later that what had really happened was a few of those dumb-ass tourists missed the ship when she sailed so the Captain (nicely) stopped so they could be motored out. This despite the fact they'd told us over and over we were on ship's time (an hour ahead of local time). Duh.

Pretty sunset. That's Oceania out there, back there, whatever!

We had dinner tonight in one of the specialty restaurants; Portofino. Northern Italian. It was GREAT. It is definitely worth it, we think, to pay the extra money for these places at least one night during the cruise. The food and service is certainly a notch (or two) up from that in the main dining room (which isn't bad to begin with).

We had a fantastic bottle of wine but Mr. B's attempt to take a picture of it so we'd remember what it was didn't work out all that great. Oh well!

I don't like this picture but Mr. B says I never post pictures of me so here is one

We discovered a nice surprise when we returned to our stateroom; Cruise.com gave us a complimentary $50 OBC (on board credit)! Also, our pre-paid gratuity vouchers turned up (which seems a bit early since we still have two more days). I think this is our stateroom attendant's doing. In general, we've not been as pleased with him as we were with Esther on Enchantment. He's ok, but, MEB says, and I agree, that he'll not be getting any extra gratuity, and neither will our waiters. And we've definitely not found a special go-to bar person like we did with Placid. Oh well, maybe being in a Junior Suite DOES count for something. Next time, we'll spend the extra money and book another of those.

Best hit it. We're taking an excursion tomorrow in Cozumel and will have room service wake us up at 7:30 am.

Heading Home

Lucy and Mrs. B out on the lanai yesterday. What a wonderful, sunny day spent with my delightful in-laws!

On our way home to Durham now!

Mrs. B

Radiant Cruise on Radiance: One

We left Weeki Wachee the morning of Sail Away Day in a torrent of rain. The drive to the pier in Tampa was nothing short of harrowing and I'm not being dramatic here! We took one of the toll roads which meant it wasn't as crowded as the interstate would have been but there were still plenty of idiots going way too fast given the poor visibility and very slick roads. Not to mention, I had to use the facilities 1/2 hour into the trip. Why does this ALWAYS happen? Mr. B finally pulled off a few exits before we got to the pier; I didn't want to get dropped off at the terminal building and stand there with my legs pressed tightly together lugging our bags, waiting for a porter, etc.

Ok, so, when we did get to the pier (very easy to find), we were relieved to see the ship towering over the terminal building. As some of you know, there had been an outbreak of "something" on the ship several cruises before ours. Over 100 people were reported ill, they completely bleached and disinfected the ship before allowing it to sail again (which meant the people on the following cruise didn't get to board until 6:00 pm and the ship didn't sail until after 10:00 pm). There were reports from that cruise of no one being able to serve themselves (e.g., at buffets) or even hold their own menus in the dining rooms. Also, no salt and pepper shakers, no dishes of butter. Even though there had been zero reports about issues on the following cruise (the one just before ours), we were still a bit anxious about another outbreak. I had come prepared; tons and tons of antibacterial wipes and several bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer.

Anyway, the ship was there. Mr. B pulled up to the curb and a porter immediately materialized to whisk away our bags. Mr. B went to park the car across the street while I stood there watching a large crowd of seniors get off a bus and the chaotic process of them finding porters for their luggage.

Mr. B came back within 10 minutes and we went inside the terminal building. We were so pleased with the process at Tampa! So much more organized than in Norfolk. We breezed through security, filled out our health forms, and were immediately checked in by a friendly Royal Caribbean employee. A few minutes after, we were on the ship (after stopping to take the obligatory "Welcome Aboard" picture (which we didn't buy because I didn't like the way I looked)).

We come onto the ship on Deck 5. My general impression of Radiance was that she was a bit larger than Enchantment (several decks taller) and there seemed to be a lot more glass and chrome. Over the course of the cruise, we learned she had several more restaurants/bars than Enchantment and some really cool elevators that were designed to appear as if they were out over the ocean. I'd read quite a bit on the message boards prior to sailing about there being some issues with plumbing and that she was going into dry dock in May; after which, she'd come out an entirely different ship (different restaurants, updated carpet, new furnishings in the staterooms, flat screened TVs, some rooms made over to single traveler rooms (an interesting concept), etc.)) We'd been lucky enough to go on Enchantment a few weeks AFTER she'd come out of dry dock so I was a bit worried that Radiance would be on her last legs or something. Not true; we never saw anything that was not perfectly elegant.

So, we wandered around a bit, getting our bearings, but, it wasn't long before we were in The Schooner Bar ordering our first drink of the cruise; Mr. B was pleased that Radiance had draft beer (Enchantment did not) and I, of course, was overjoyed to be reunited with Royal Caribbeans famous frozen mojitos!

After checking out a few more public places, we headed to the main dining room, Cascades (yes, there was a cascading waterfall near the entrance) to find our table.

I'll say this upfront and get it out of the way. The dining room situation was the fly in the ointment on this cruise. Everything else, for the most part, was fine; but, this really irritated me. From the get-go, when I made the RSVP, I was clear that we needed a quiet table because Mr. B is hard of hearing in one ear. Seriously, if there is too much clatter and din, he really cannot hear. I noticed on our invoice/ticket it said "Request quiet table near window; one passenger deaf in one ear". Ok, not exactly true, but close enough.

We found our table; yes, it was a window table sure enough but it also was a table for 10. Seriously, what's the likelihood we'd be able to snag the two chairs by the window every night? And, frankly, neither one of us were thrilled with the prospect of sharing our meals with eight other people we didn't know. So, off to find the Maitre d' to see about getting the table changed. We'd had to do this on Enchantment, too, so were not overly surprised. However, we lucked out then and were moved to a lovely, quiet table for two by the window. Not so this time; we got the run-around about there being a waiting list for tables for two. Mr. B mentioned the deafness; after some shuffling, we did get a table for two except it was right by the entrance to the dining room and behind a waiter's station. On top of it, the table behind Mr. B was full of loud people who seemed to like to shout at one another and the tables next to us had several small children who didn't stay in their seats. Not quiet at all. We tried several more times to get a better table and our head waiter said he kept trying for us, but, suffice it to say, we were stuck there.

I found it extremely interesting that Royal Caribbean took the deafness seriously enough to put this weird vibrating/flashing light device in our stateroom (for emergencies, I guess) but yet we couldn't get a decent table. Of course, I'm thinking had Mr. B slipped the Maitre d' a $20, we may have had our table! This is something I'll have to figure out before we cruise again; how to get the table we want so we don't have to mess around with it/be dissatisfied. I know one way; get a few other people to go on a cruise with us and then we'd have our own table. Any takers?

We had lunch our first day in the Windjammer up on Deck 11; this is the buffet for those of you not familiar with Royal Caribbean. This was the first and only time we ate there for the entire cruise. Nothing was wrong with it, but, I was just sorta paranoid about another outbreak and by the time we cruised, they'd stopped serving everyone. I saw enough that afternoon of people pawing at the food that grossed me out sufficiently to steer clear. I know there are a lot of people who cruise in order to stuff themselves silly at the buffets and all the other free food stations, but, the B's are not included in that crowd.

Around 1:00 pm, we were able to get into our stateroom and start the unpacking process. As others had mentioned, it was quite a haul to our stateroom at the very back of the ship from the nearest bank of elevators/stairs. Heck, at least we'd be ensured some exercise (this and climbing up and down the stairs; something we did almost all the time unless I was wearing high heels). In general, we were pleased with #1104 on Deck 10 (do not ask me why it wasn't #1004!) especially the huge balcony. The room itself was somewhat smaller than the one we had on Enchantment and the bathroom, well, it was downright dinky and I don't think a large person would be very comfy in the tiny little stall shower (with the butt-crack attacking shower curtain) but since it was a five night cruise, we had figured we could make do with the smaller quarters. Plus, we wanted to try an aft balcony. Having said all of this, we've decided we'll always go for a junior suite or larger, mostly because the bathroom is fairly sizable and the attention from the stateroom attendant is much more personal. Our stateroom attendant this cruise was just okay. He kept the room clean; that's about it.

The bed was very comfy and right by the door leading out to the balcony. Nice to wake up every morning to a lovely view of the ocean.

Our luggage hadn't arrived yet but our Champagne had! Despite it being rainy and icky outside, we ventured out to enjoy a flute of Champagne out on the balcony, toast, and wish ourselves a Merry (belated) Christmas (the cruise was our Christmas present to each other). After the bags arrived, Mr. B unpacked (he's much better at finding the perfect spot for everything than I am) while I took pictures and shot the video of the stateroom. This I do to post on-line; you'd be amazed how many people are looking for pictures/videos of "the" stateroom they'll be staying in.

Mr. B checking out the view.

The large balcony.

Final picture with the cell phone before turning it off!

Relaxing after unpacking. Note the weird vibrating/flashing device on the night stand underneath the phone.

Around 3:30 pm, we headed down to Deck 5 for the mandatory muster. Nothing exciting to report about that.

Finally, sail away at 4:30 pm. Another drink in hand, we stood on top of Deck 12 and watched Tampa slip away. Well, not really; the way it's situated in amongst all the channels, it took over three hours to actually get out of there onto the open sea. By that time, we'd of course gone inside to find some place warmer to watch the lovely sunset. We choose the Viking Crown Lounge up on Deck 13, just about the highest vantage point on the ship.

Sailing away with a frozen mojito and hoping the weather improves (it did).

The terminal building in Tampa.

Dinner that evening was fine (although we were both still a bit miffed about the table situation). One very nice thing about the food in the main dinning room is that the portions are just right and there is plenty of variety. As on Enchantment, we'd prepaid for the wine package and there was a fairly decent selection.

The evening ended relatively early for us; by the time we'd finished dinner it was after 10:00 pm and we were both exhausted and ready for sweet dreams on the high seas!

Mrs. B

Mark's Birthday Weekend

We decided to go back to the Yadkin Valley for one day/evening (this is where we went in January for a long weekend) to celebrate Mark's birthday.

We left home around 10 on Saturday and, after a pit stop over at brother Jon's to check up on their cat Raz (who came out for food, must have been because Mark was with me as she'd been ignoring me up to that point), we were on the road!

All told, it takes just about 2 hours to get to the start of the wineries (at least coming from that direction). We'd planned on stopping for a late breakfast/early lunch but didn't really see much that sounded good. We finally decided to eat at a Cracker Barrel. Hey, not my favorite but you can usually find something worth chowing on. Forget it! The place, at 11:15, was overflowing with people waiting for a table. 45 minute wait; no way! What IS it about this place, anyway?

So, instead, we went through a nearby Wendy's drive-thru (it seems we only eat fast food when on road trips) which meant we got to our first winery RagApple Lassie, a lot sooner than we'd thought we would.

We signed up for their wine club back in January. All told, they have really nice wines. We did a full tasting (over 15 wines; good thing they were not pouring huge tastes). Most of them we'd tried before but there were several new vintages and a new dessert-y wine called ZinSational Zen, which, although too sweet to drink a lot of, would be an excellent choice to serve with either a rich chocolate torte or a off-sweet hazelnut cake. After chatting with the folks who were also tasting (a trio of youngish women), we bought six bottles of wine and headed over to Raffaldini, about 30 minutes away.

We'd signed up for a tour with the wine maker at 2:45 (really, the impetus for our trip). We experienced a pleasant enough 45 minutes listening to him talk (no free wine samples, boo!) I always learn something. This time, it was that grapes produce better wine if they are cold when they are pressed. Apparently, the same goes for olives, hence why you typically will see "Cold Pressed" on nice bottles of olive oil.

After the tour, we went to the tasting room to pick up our wine shipment and do a tasting. The place was CRAMMED full of other tasters. Also, a wedding was about to start at 5:00 so there was some spill over with that. One of the women tasting with us was a dead-ringer for the actress who played Prissy in Gone with the Wind. I didn't feel like I could tell her that, though. They'd just released their Pino Vino II; not the best of their wines (they have a reserve Sangiovese and a Montepulciano that are both fantastic) but they'd had a recent contest regarding the label. People submitted pictures of their dog. I had seriously considered submitting Lucy but the day the winner was announced was the day The Kid graduated from high school and I knew we couldn't be there (assuming she would have won, which, given her total cuteness, she probably had an excellent chance). The dog on the new label looked like an English sheepdog.

Raffaldini routinely has some pretty decent sounding events, including fancy dinners with local and seasonal ingredients used to prepare the meal, all paired with four different wines. However, they never have any of this going on when we are there. We noticed the next one is in early October; we may try to go to that one.

Anyway, after leaving Raffaldini with our wine shipment plus a few more bottles, we went in search of the B&B. I'd reserved the room about a month earlier; not the same B&B we stayed at in January (although that one was certainly nice); rather, one a bit closer to both Raffaldini and the restaurant we planned on going to for dinner.

First, for whatever reason, Yahoo's directions were wacky this time. They had us going through someone's field to get to the main road from the winery! So, it took us a while to find the B&B, even though it is not as though Elkin, NC is a huge place!

Home Coming B&B was touted as a "Christian B&B". Frankly, that did give me some pause at first. But, we decided to chance it. What do I mean by that? Mainly, we don't like religion, any religion, thrust in our faces. I was wondering if attending church might be required before they'd feed us Sunday morning (just kidding). In the end, we figured we'd give it a try and now I'm really glad that we did as it was a perfectly delightful place, even though there were bibles all over the place and gospel music playing in the background as we ate breakfast. Their only request was that no alcohol be consumed in any of the public areas. No problem. The room was large and clean; complete with a vanity area and a good sized bathroom with a nice sunken garden tub (which we took of advantage to consume a bottle of wine out of the public eye; wink-wink).

Anyway, after checking into the B&B, we decided to try and move our dinner RSVP up since we were about 2 hours ahead of schedule. This we were successful in doing and headed off to Twenty One and Main for a excellent dining experience. Read my review on TripAdvisor here.

Mr. B at Twenty One and Main

After a huge breakfast Sunday morning (which we were able to pre-order the night before), we were on the road home by 10 or so. On our way back to Durham, we stopped at The Kid's college (Guilford) and drove around so we could get a visual. Very, very quaint; a small campus with several brick buildings and beautiful crepe myrtle trees in full summer bloom. We didn't contact her, figuring she'd be busy bonding with her new dorm roommate (turns out she wished we had told her we were there; she would have liked to see us; oh well).

So, a pleasant weekend for the B's! But, I didn't take many pictures. Here are a few of the B&B.

Nice king-sized bed. That sign on the table contained the "no drinking in public" request. Also, there were TONS of "No Smoking" signs. No cigars on the porch here.

Goodly sized room. That's an excellent bottle of Sangiovese Riserva there on the chest!

Vanity area; site of one of the three bibles found in the room.

Mark checks out the evacuation plan; I'm in the mirror (somewhat!)

Mrs. B

Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: The End!

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Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: Part Four

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Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: Part Three

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Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: Part Two

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Our Cruise Vacation Pictures: Part One

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We're Home!

Arrived safely back in Durham around 1:30 this afternoon. All is fine here; cats sure happy to see us and Uncle Jon took good care of them as it seems there was minimal disruption!

We'll get Lucy on Tuesday. She ended up having a minor surgery the Friday after we sailed; our vet felt he needed to stitch the wound site back up fearing if he didn't, he would take forever to scab over/heal. Lucy's Grammy talked with the vet several times while we were gone and she's doing just fine. Hopefully the 12 days she was boarding there after the surgery will mean she's on the mend for good now. We certainly hope so; both for her sake and all of our sakes.

I do have many, many pictures (and videos) to get pulled together and post. In the meantime, here is one of us on the 2nd night on board; 5.21.10. It was the first of two formal nights. This was our table for the duration of the cruise; a nice quiet one in the back near a window. Not a lot of action going on back there, which was fine with us. We'd originally been seated at a table for TWELVE in the middle of the dining room. Mr. B talked to the head waiter and was able to get us reassigned to this one.

The B's at sea 5.21.10 First Formal Night

More soon. Race Day tomorrow/party at mom and dad's so no further postings until Monday or Tuesday!

Mrs. B