My View: Navigator Spring Break and Cabin 7388

[APDMOM]

Afternoon view from the balcony:

 

 

Oasis sailed away ahead of us:

 

The Main Dining room experience tonight was the Shiitake menu. Following DH’s example, I decided tot ry something new…Harera soup (with Morrocan Spices). It was a GREAT choice!

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

This was the night of our first top tier event as Emerald, so we had to bail out on dessert to make it to the show lounge on time. The event looked a lot like the "welcome back" type party with sparkling wine, rum punch and a non-alcoholic fruit punch. The pianist from the main dining room, Henry, played at the event and he was the highlight. He is a very talented musician!

 

The top tier event was not that well organized, as the theater was a bit too large to create a fun atmosphere. We clapped heartily for the pinnacle members (Including Super Mario), even while being secretly just a little envious. LOL!

 

Captain Frank Martinsen: I really enjoyed his daily updates and wit. My favorite line was…

“The closest land is the ocean floor, about 2,000 feet away.”

 

Hindsight, I should have skipped the top tier event and rather attended the ABBA trivia. We showed up there just in time to hear all the answers revealed, and I would have had 100% correct. I grew up from cradle to high school graduation with ABBA in the house, so I even know the some of the “non-hits”.

 

After having fun reliving my ABBA upbringing, we got dessert in the Windjammer. They had the crêpe station up and running, which is my favorite dessert on Royal.

 

…and with that day 5, Wednesday, concluded.

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Day 6 is almost ready... I will be back shortly. [emoji846]

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 6 - St. Maarten

 

Up early, as usual, I sat on the balcony to relax and catch up on some reading. At first, it was dark, and you could see the moon on one side of the ship through the obstruction…

 

Not much reading got done, as the sunrise was just becoming visible from my lounger. I love sunrise from our balcony!

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

After sunrise, I made a quick trip to the Promenade Cafe for my morning tea. Here is Vintages, on the way to the cafe:

 

 

We had an incredible view of St. Maarten from our balcony. It is one of our favorite ports as far as the views are concerned. Freedom of the Seas and a few more were already there, awaiting us. I think there were 5 ships, if I remember right.

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Views as we were sailing in:

 

 

 

 

You can take a water taxi to Philipsburg and enjoy a beautiful beach and shopping right close to the ships. This picture shows you still have to walk through the port area to the water taxi. It was $7 to ride the taxi all day the last time we were there. I am not sure what the current price is.

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Since we have been here numerous times, we stayed on the ship and enjoyed the cool wind from our balcony. We had mini golf to ourselves and got record scores (highest over par ever, even while trying... LOL!). But who can object to this kind of backdrop during mini golf?

 

 

 

While at the mini golf, a couple of the flowrider staff members were working on their skills.

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Lunch in the windjammer had the Kümmelweck bread buns, but filled with pork this time. It was just not the same. Royal does make the best minestrone soup though, so I enjoyed that.

 

Back on the balcony, we had fun watching and laughing while people on the dock lost hat after hat in the wind. I can laugh, because that happened to me a few years ago. I still wear my St Maarten hat that replaced the one at the bottom of the sea. Someone lost what looked like a brand new Quicksilver hat:

 

I did not notice how close the Schooner got to the rocks and plants until I uploaded this picture at home:

 

The closer workings of the Schooner:

 

Who can beat this view?

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Too soon, it was time to leave the beautiful port of St Maarten behind. Leaving Celebrity Summit and our island in our wake:

 

 

Menu @ Dinner tonight was Portabello, and called for an after dinner stroll to enjoy the sunset from the helipad:

 

The crêpe station was open again in the Windjammer, but the line was too long for me to wait. Just be sure to check what the Windjammer has to offer… I find their desserts much better than the MDR. They even have ‘made to order’ waffles (add your own toppings) for dinner some nights.

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Well, that is all I have for tonight. I hope to finish the two sea days tomorrow, then on to many ship pics, the Compass, and the Kids' programs. Until tomorrow, then!

 

 

APDMOM

[Mom.to.2]

Amazing photos, thank you for sharing!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jes Scott]

The toiletries you have are not the "top tier" shampoos, conditioner, etc. They are the new ones given to anyone not D+ or Pinnacle, or in a suite. ....K.O.

 

 

We just cruised NOS and got nothing like this at all.

[flhartley]

Well, that is all I have for tonight. I hope to finish the two sea days tomorrow, then on to many ship pics, the Compass, and the Kids' programs. Until tomorrow, then!

 

 

APDMOM

 

 

Thanks for sharing. Great fun.

[dwhe]

Great review, thanks for taking the time.

[APDMOM]

We just cruised NOS and got nothing like this at all.

 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely pack shampoo... [emoji846] I am glad we gave Betty an extra tip at the end. She really was a great room attendant, and maybe she just gave us an extra treat.

[APDMOM]

I am ready to finish up the last two days! Thanks to everyone reading along, and for the compliments. Here we go on our last two sea days...

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 7 - At Sea

 

 

Sunrise on Day 7:

 

During breakfast in the MDR, we met some teens who are on a trip with their symphony. We had planned on attending their performance in the afternoon, and after meeting the young ladies, we were sold. They were very well mannered and a lot of fun to enjoy our breakfast with. We went to the casino to get our three free spins for Emerald membership. I decided to keep one of the coins as a souvenir, as I have never had much luck with these spins. Has anyone?

 

A picture of the tokens for anyone who is as ignorant about casinos as I am:

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Captain's corner was very informative, as they started with a short video with ship facts and some information about the inner workings on the bridge. It was almost like having a bridge tour, and the information shared during this Captain's Corner was unique and interesting. After the video, the captain, engineer, hotel director, and environment specialist joined us to answer questions. I always enjoy the Captain's Corner, and highly recommend it. I did miss one thing during this event, though. On other ships, we received a handout with ship facts, which was not done this time.

 

 

Are you getting tired of the aft view yet?

 

This afternoon, we enjoyed one of the best performances of the week. Ironically, it was not one of the headliners or RCI productions - it was the Pikes Peek Wind Symphony - including the girls we had met at breakfast. The performance was excellent. At times, it was hard to remember these are not professional musicians. They are high school students who are incredibly talented. My DH rightfully remarked that the performance was the kind you would normally probably pay $80 for to experience. We are glad they happened to share our cruise for their spring break tour.

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Second formal night (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone DS and DH wore the same outfit for both nights…LOL!):

 

Art on the stairwell while walking to dinner:

 

 

Dinner for this second formal night was Jasmine menu (including Fisherman's plate). We all ordered the lobster, and our waiter offered additional lobster, which we declined. You can definitely ask for more though, as they had the extras readily available at the serving station.

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

We decided to give the production show one more chance. We should have skipped it. Although some dances were good, there was only one good song during the whole production. The voices of these three girls blended well during this particular song, and they performed it with flair. The rest of the songs were really poor to below average. Once again, I had to cover my ‘hearing ear’ while the one male singer was at the mic.

 

The good song:

 

 

Just some pictures of the production. I really had more fun trying out my camera without a flash than watching the performance…

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Tapatalk is crashing again... I will try DH's iPad to see if it works. Maybe my iPad is too old. :D

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 8 - At Sea

 

It was another beautiful, sunny day:

 

But, we have to start with sunrise, as usual:

 

 

Since we were all up early, we had breakfast in the Windjammer, which was still fairly quiet. Our after breakfast tradition became coffee or tea at the Promenade Café. Fortunately, our sailing was filled with sunseekers, so we always had daytime seats in the Café.

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

We decided to see if the bridge overlook was open. In order to get there, you have to walk through the solarium, so if you have kids, I recommend you go all the way to the forward elevators to walk just that little bit through the Solarium.

 

The blinds were not open, so we were a bit disappointed not to see the ‘workings’ from the overlook. There was some live data feed with rpm’s and such, which fascinated DS and DH.

 

Closed blinds:

 

Live Data feed:

 

To our delight, they did open the blinds later during the day, and we got this view… it is not great for a picture, as the lighting was poor:

 

 

APDMOM

[APDMOM]

DS and I have a tradition to “walk the decks” to look at the art and discover different things we may miss otherwise. We found that each deck had a theme. Here is the theme for deck 10, and some art from one of the decks (8 or 9):

 

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

Edited April 1, 2016 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

It was on this walk that we finally discovered the ship models - forward on deck 9:

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM