keystonemama

In the buffet area go to the back doors and there are tables on either side on the aft of the ship, this by far was our favorite place to eat, especially late at night, its almost empty and the water is beautiful at night. Oh I almost forgot, from 11:30 - 1:00 a.m., buffet offered is hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, mushrooms, onion rings and toppings. In the morning from 8 - 12 you can get $4 bloody mary's or bellini drinks.

Sushi Bar is open on Deck 9 everyday 5:30 - 8:15.

Lido, pool changes colors at night, stays open till 10:00 p.m. Hot tubs, 11:00 p.m. See behind the swirly stairs to the left, glass enclosure, those stairs lead you to deck 9 at the Casino Bar. Serenity tubs are open till midnight.

Grill is on the left, hamburgers, hot dogs, best chicken tenders, yummy! Mongolian grill is on the right, never got it, line was always too long here.

Across from here is also a beverage/coffee/cocoa bar and ice cream.

Now the buffet area.

We ate here alot, usually pretty good, only thing I didn't really care for was meatloaf and the crabcakes.

People always ask what sugars do they offer, well here is a pic. The grill in the buffet area makes an awesome reuben, there is salad bar, pizza, soups and dessert and sushi. Chocolate Extravaganza is on the last sea day. There is a bar in the back open until 3 a.m., the other Lido bar closes at 11:00 p.m. There are tv to watch games. The late bar you can order the Red Frog beer by the pitcher, its dark, my DH loved it, you get 4 nice glass size beers for $18.11 total. If you order other beer in the bucket it was $25. The will put the pitcher in the fridge for you to keep it cold if you are hanging out watching tv. You can order this beer on Lido also.

This pretty much sums it up folks!

Serenity Deck, we used this deck some. Hot tub is nice and if it sprinkles rain you don't get wet. I will say this though, there is not much of a breeze back here during the day, get an umbrella if possible. We layed on the chairs first in the middle of the deck, hot does not describe how they felt, even our towels were scorching. There are 2 ways in which to get here. One is to go to the back of the Punchliner Comedy Club, there are 2 doors which access it. The other is to go to the back of the Lido buffet on either side, thru the automatic doors and up the stairs.

Deck 11

And the roof at night...

The Punchliner Club, we attended the adult show about 3 times, word of caution, if you are easily offended, attend the family show, because it gets R rated. Oh, that's my son and a couple of friends he hung out with.

Library, the woodwork in here was nice, I tried to get pics of the games they carry.

It was Memorial Day, so they hung a huge American flag in the Atrium. As I am an egg collector of sorts, I absolutely loved the egg theme.

The specialty coffee/dessert bar. We did get an expresso here one night, it was good.

Wall art

Rex, the disco lounge. We did some late nights in here tearing up the dance floor, you can also smoke in here. There seems to be alot of security in here too, one night we did witness a guy leaving the bar rather quickly and his lady friend caught up with him and slapped him right in front of security.:eek:

Casino, we played a few slots and blackjack, between all of us we came out $15 on top, but we are not huge gamblers. Yes, you can smoke in most places in here, blackjack and roulette, had a $6 min. bet. :eek: One of our tablemates won $125 off that game that cost a quarter to and it scrapes stuff down into the slot? Not sure what it called. FYI, if you order any classic drink, you can save your receipt and turn it in at the cashiers desk for a $5 card, you can match it with another $5 and play blackjack/roulette.

Our lucky machine

Normandy Lounge, we stopped in one night to see a few minutes of Shout, but we did not stay, we had plans to meet others elsewhere. It seemed pretty good though. We did have our Past Guest Party in here consisting of drinks and a couple different kinds of h'orderves.

Leonardo, here most nights is where the karaoke is held.

I'm back, had to take a pizza rolls break.:p All this work is making me hungry.

So on to the ship areas. Piano Bar. We did frequent one night, the guy was ok, little corny, but funny, he has his song selection book on top of the bar, people were requesting slow, country songs, I was bored so I skipped to the back of the book to read his questions and and answer pages, quite humorous. I then yelled, "Proud Mary" and that got the place hopin'.:D

I had to read this aloud to my DH and show him the pic... that way he won't think I'm crazy when I decorate our door.

 

 

 

I was watching that sail away from the live cam. I kept zooming in to watch people on deck. I saw the crowds during muster drill... maybe I saw you... lol

Does this look familiar?.....

 

LOL, we were standing on the top deck directly facing the whale tail, looking down over the pool area.

Double post.

Next we headed off to do a little exploring of the ship. I must say it's nice to have a smaller ship on a shorter cruise, it was very easy to learn the layout of this ship very quickly. I also found that using the glass elevators in most cases was quicker than the regular ones.

Duty free shops

The black/white bottle on the right is Sheridan from Dublin, you can't buy it in the states, we went to the free liquor tasting the first night and bought 2 bottles, it was way smoother than Baileys! Yum!

Notice the colors on the bottom, that was the main theme in the Atrium areas and hallway decks.

I ended up buying a nice big bag for Cozumel and beautiful black purse for Elegant night for $20!

Next up, libations! I had ordered beer/cooler from Bon Voyage for the room, so we took those 4 beers to the Casino bar and traded for cool ones. BTW, if you drink beer, you can order a bucket at the casino bar, they will give you one and keep the others cold, they draw a small bucket on your receipt and you just bring it back when you are ready for another cold one, DH had this downpat!:D

Vera was our favorite bartender here, she's from Russia, I talked to her a little about her language since my younger son will be taking that language this term at UF, she told me she's writes in English to her friends back home because Russian is so hard!:eek: She sent a good luck to DS. She made me a long island ice tea, this is one of the strongest drinks you can get on the ship and she made it well! She also makes a Toyko Long Island that is sweeter, she uses berry. More on Vera later.....

Vera

Muster over, sail away is next, so hurry up to the top to get a good view, let me just say if you go the front of the ship (where putt putt is) your ears will hurt because thats where the ship's horn blows.:eek:

Goodbye Tampa, hello paradise! Here are few pics...

A new bride running to get a good view! There were 15 honeymoon couples on the cruise!

And my favorite of DH and DS

Next on the agenda was decorating the door, now my son thought mom was crazy for doing this, but after a late night of drinking he informed me it was a great idea, made it very easy for him to find the room!:p He also later noticed people trying to open other people's door because they had forgotten their room number and of course all doors look alike!

We put up all our luggage and were ready to roll. Which brings me to another point. I have sailed the Freedom and hardly felt any movement. On the Paradise, we really did not have many rough waters but everyday there was noticeable swaying, I figure because its just a smaller ship. It did not bother us, we are not prone to seasickness, but if you are, I suggest you take or wear something. I did see several wearing patches.

After some pictures it was time for muster. We were called to one of the lounges for about 15 minutes and were shown how to put on a life jacket. Then we were escorted down a flight of stairs to the balcony where our lifeboats would be. Much better muster than last time.:)

We leave in 26 days and we are also in an interior room. We opted for the 2 upper and 2 lower set up to try to make the best use of the floor space, we will see how that works out. I wish that big bulky box wasn't there...what a waste of space.

 

Do you have any more pictures of the bathroom in regards to shelf space and sink area? Looks like I won't need my over the door shoe organizer. How many closets and drawers are there? I've got to cram 4 of us in this small room....I'm used to the larger ov rooms that are 220 sq ft. This will be the first time I'm doing my whole family of 4 in an int 185 sq ft room. I think I'll bring ALOT of hangers and hang most of our stuff. Any good tips on smoking areas or private/secret decks? Was the casino smoking still or have they changed that too? Thanks for all the help. We are cruising in 26 days and I have alot to do!! LOL

The shelf space pic is all the shelving in the bathroom, with 4 people you may need a roll up over the door hanging thing too. In the bathroom there are 2 wall hooks to hold things and on the back of the bathroom door there were 2 bars to hang things on. Also, there was another hook over my sons bed.The picture you see of the white robe is where we stored most of our luggage below and above was a shelf where I put my organizer bag and some clothes.

Closets, there were 2, one with 3 shelves/safe, the other closet was for hanging, no shelves, plenty of room for shoes.

In the desk there were 4 drawers to hold clothes and one slide out drawer for small things like batteries, phones, etc. There is one stool under the table to sit on. To be honest, I overpacked and we had plenty of room to store everthing.

Walking onto Lido, smoking is on the front left, also there is a set of stairs there, walk up and you have lounge chairs with ashtrays attached to the railings. On lido, beside the slide is a glass door, go down those stairs to deck 9, comes out right at the casino bar. You can smoke on the far left end of the bar, we hung out there ALOT. You can smoke in the casino where its designated, but only if you are playing.

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Hi Keystone ! I am finally unpacked with the majority of our laundry done. Always hate the Monday back to work after vacation.

 

We were also on the Main deck.....89 & 85 ! I recognize the pictures of your husband & son. As soon as I figure out how to load pix to photo bucket, I'll try a review too.

 

Glad you had fun !

Oh wow, my laundry is still waiting on me and unpacking is definitely not done yet! I did manage to find my co-worker's gifts to bring to them this morning. Can't wait to see your pics. We met so many nice people on board!:) I feel like I need another week just to rest from my vacay!

Great Review......

 

A Picture is worth a thousand words..Your great pic...air conditioning is the same as Fascination...in the ceiling. and ours worked well. Bathrooms are the same...bigger space in shower. The box...under the TV...?

 

the mirror on the closet door.....hoo ray. Fascination didn't have one.

 

Thank you lady for doing this review.

 

And your son."reminds me of ...my nephew. He is six foot five...his Dad is five foot five. His Dad always introduces my Nephew as a "chip off of the old block!'The Mutt and Jeff picture they present..and they are inseperable..and have been since he was born (only child at that) makes you smile.

HAPPY CRUISING DAYS .................try the Deli...grilled ham and cheese. Yum.

Yes, the box under the tv is where the life jackets are. That's too funny about your nephew, we don't seem to have any short people in our family! My husband has 5 brothers all 6'2 - 6'6 and my sis is 5'11. :eek:

Great start... I love reviews with lots of pics! It looks like there's plenty of room in the bathroom cabinet, which is good since I decided against a hanging door organizer (just myself, DH and DD) and just went with a small mesh shower organizer. I'm really looking forward to the rest of your review. Only 40 days left until we're on Paradise. :)

Well, I have lots of pics! I think I took somewhere in the vicinity of 350!

Plenty of shelf space, and I could put my shampoo/conditioner, razor on the right side of the sink and reach it from the shower. I took one makeup organizer bag that held everything else. :)

Great start to your review! I did not do a review from our Paradise cruise. Wanted to but life just got in the way.......but I'm going to re-live our trip though your review!

 

I love the pic of your and your DH in the shower, that is great!!

 

Looking forward to more!!

 

 

 

Kim

Thank you! My husband is 6'4, so I figured hey, let's show them how big this thing is!

Thanks for sharing! I love the pic's. This is the only fantasy class ship I have not sailed on so I'm looking forward to the rest of your review :D

Your very welcome.:)