Fall Break Cruise with Ruthie & Milton

Our 7th level interior stateroom on Independence of the Seas.  We slept very well.  With no window, it was always interesting to look at the clock to see what time of the day or night it was.  One night Randy woke up and didn't want to reach across me to the clock, so since he had been awake awhile, he went out for a walk to see what time it was.  It was about 2:45 a.m. and lots of folks were out, some in their PJ's like him!  I woke up when he came back into the room and wondered what was going on.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday, Oct. 18

We got to eat dinner with this very nice couple all 7 nights!  What fun we had.

Formal night (one of the two we had to dress up for)

Milton's delicious lemon meringue pie - cute, eh? 

The Dining Room was so exquisite.  We ate in Macbeth on the 4th level.  The level below us was called Romeo and Juliet, and above us was King Lear Dining Room.  We were seated close to windows so loved the view.

in Labadee, Haiti, our first port

Randy's least favorite part of the cruise I think was going with me through this shopping area where the merchants were very much "in your face."  I was glad to get out of there too, but wanted to look a little at least.  My souvenir was a hand painted magnet - we are BIG spenders. . .

Relaxing/people watching at the Columbus Cove Beach in Labadee with hundreds of others from our ship.  This is a Royal Caribbean-owned port and has a tall barbed wire fence around it to keep Haitians out.  The ship brought lunch out to us at this stop - how nice!  We enjoyed a veggie burger and fries with some yummy fruit and cookies.

We took a shore excursion in Jamaica since we'd never been there before.  This is typical housing we saw along the water.  Beach front real estate looks a little different here. In town, we noticed a lot of garbage in the streets and sidewalks.

Lots of pedestrian traffic in Falmouth

One of many homes we saw that were finished only on the lower level.  The tour guide told us that when they run out of money, they just stop and wait till they have enough to finish it since interest is so high and unaffordable.  They live on the lower level in the meantime.

We stopped at Pier 1 on Montego Bay.

They provided us with "the world's most expensive and scrumptious banana bread" which was good, but Randy said he likes mine better.  We don't know what you'd have to pay for it since it was part of our excursion.

at Montego Bay, Jamaica

Feeding the fish - raisins?

at Pier 1, Montego Bay

getting back to the ship after our Jamaica excursion

A tender taking people to Georgetown, Grand Cayman from our beautiful ship that was 1100 ft. long.  Other fun facts about it - it was built in 2007/08, took 18 months to build, cost US $900 million!  Has 1827 total guest staterooms, 1400 crewmembers from 65 countries, total capacity of 5,728.  It was the most beautiful ship inside we've been on and definitely the biggest, though Royal Caribbean has larger ones now.  Maximum speed is 26 mph.  They serve 133,000 bread rolls/week (I think we pushed that number up last week).  

I think this was in Georgetown, Grand Cayman  ;)

Let's see here. . . yes, it was. . . it's always good to have pictures of signs in ports to help us remember later where we were.

Tendering back to the ship - past ready to cool down in the AC.  Though it was cooler than when we've been there in the summer, it was still very humid and mid 80's.  We were thankful for overcast skies as we wandered around town and in and out of shops.  We picked up our free bamboo necklaces at Cariloha by belting out the name of their store.

Where we enjoyed cooling off with water or a smoothie and wi-fi in Cozumel, the only Internet time all week. On the ship they wanted $20/day for wi-fi access.

Cozumel's threatening skies produced buckets of rain after we got back on board.

Sunset from our dinner table when leaving Cozumel

In the 14th level Olive or Twist Lounge that we didn't even find till Thursday.  Ruthie gets credit for scouting it out, along with a card playing room next to it.  What fabulous views we enjoyed up there with windows all the way around the lounge on this level.  We played cards one evening down in a lounge on the 4th level.

The ship's Norwegian Captain Henrik answered our questions for 45 minutes - which was very interesting.

The beautiful carvings at the entrance to the Windjammer on Deck 11 where we ate all but our evening meal.

Randy's favorite was the fresh fruit that we tanked up at every meal in the Windjammer.  And at dinner, we ended each meal with fresh berries.

Total relaxation outside on deck 4 Sabbath afternoon, our "at sea" day at the end of the cruise.

Only one of us was one not having a bad hair day picture - you go, Milton!

The wall behind us was decorated like this at both ends of the 4th level lounge where we hung out a lot.  I wouldn't want to be the one to have to dust it and never saw anybody doing it, but neither was it dusty at all.

Katarina was our head waiter, from Portugal.  She was excellent!

The first evening Ruthie asked for lemonade, so from then on each night we all had it waiting for us when we arrived. Randy asked for guacamole on about the 3rd night, and so after that each night we had a little cup at each place.  It was the best I've EVER had.  And one night we noticed a couple across from us had mixed fresh berries for dessert so Randy asked for some, and from then on each night all four of us had some to end our meal, before the dessert menu was presented.

Rong (from China)  was our assistant server and so sweet!  She learned to give Randy two rolls to start with very soon. They had some pumpkin seed rolls that were our favorite.

All good things must end. . . sad day. Loading up for the 750 mile drive home on Sunday.  We left about 8 a.m. and were home by 9 with just one meal stop.  We ate enough on the cruise for awhile anyhow.

Do you sense a forced smile?

I would cruise with these two ANY time!  What fun.  One last "windblown hair" picture for you  ;)

 Now for some of Ruthie's pictures - she was better at carrying her camera around with her than we were.  Thanks, Ruthie!

Ruthie's picture of the Solarium adult only pool, taken the day we got on board.

The bow of the ship where the helicopter landing pad is.  I was out there the morning we came into Haiti. 

We played put put golf the first day on the ship 

The LONG halls 

Such clever towel creations - this was the first one we found in our bed, holding our "Cruise Compass" which had all the info about activities and shows and hours of arrival and departure from ports, etc. We got one each evening for the next day. 

Shopping in Grand Cayman - I loved this hat! 

Randy talked to the juggler after his entertaining show.

This was the main pool area on deck 11 which also had the big screen where movies were shown - none of interest to us. 

Going to dinner after the day in Cozumel I think. 

The Strings Ice Show.  A lady played the violin to accompany the skaters.  It was excellent!

The kids splash and pool area, taken from the 14th level lounge.  I would have loved playing there with Claire and Easton but Randy wouldn't go play with me.

The variety show on Sat. night ended with having a lot of the ship's crew come up on stage for us to thank.