Winter Break. Part II - Day 5: She Doesn't Look Any Bigger Than the Mauretania.
Sunday morning we woke up mostly packed, so we just had to throw in the last few things.
We headed to breakfast at the quick-service spot to try to use up whatever was left of our dining plan meals. The dining plan is very interesting—they really give you a lot of food. I think financially it was worth it this time around because the kids were free, but truly, it’s an absurd amount of food.
After breakfast, we did our final shopping. I still had some dining plan snacks left, so I bought chocolate coins, lollipops, and a few other snacks. Our ride was scheduled for 11:00 a.m., and this time it took over an hour to get to Port Canaveral. I don’t remember it taking that long last year when we went on the Disney cruise—I feel like it was only about 45 minutes. Maybe I’m misremembering. Who knows.
Eventually, we pulled up to the port and saw the ship—and wow. It is huge. I know it’s not technically that much bigger than the Oasis-class ships we’ve been on, but it just looks massive. The check-in process was excellent. We didn’t get to the port until around 12:20, and maybe if you arrive earlier—like right at 11:00, when people with early check-in times are lining up—it’s more crowded. But when we arrived, we flew through security and check-in and were on the ship incredibly quickly. I was really impressed.
When you board, you don’t walk into some narrow hallway—you enter right onto the promenade, and it’s such a nice welcome. Upon entering you’re met by a massive “pearl” that spans two decks and has 3,000 moving tiles. It’s pretty cool.
We did our muster station drill, checked in with our assigned person, and then went to our room. We only had to wait about four minutes for it to be ready, and then our luggage showed up shortly after. Again, super impressed with how fast everything happened. The rooms are really nice, and the connecting setup is different than usual. Instead of just a door between the two rooms, there’s an outer door in the hallway, and both of our rooms open inside that space. So we can leave our individual room doors open and just keep the outer door closed, which is great. The rooms are nice and pretty spacious, especially the bathroom which has the biggest shower I’ve ever seen on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and even has a seat.
We went to the buffet for a quick lunch. It’s a huge buffet, but there was plenty of seating and nothing felt too crowded. After that, we checked in at the kids’ club—which the kids will probably never go to—and then walked around the ship a bit. We went back to the room, unpacked, and changed for dinner. We did some more exploring, but it was cold outside, so some of the outdoor areas were closed.
We had a 5:00 p.m. dinner time, and earlier I had told someone there was absolutely no way we were making it at five. I think we got there around 5:15ish. Our table is in a pretty decent spot. Our waiter, Roderick from the Philippines, mentioned that they had tried to seat everyone who requested kosher near each other, and we were very grateful to be on a different floor. Interestingly though we seem to have been put in an Asian section of the dining room. In our little corner there are six tables, and we are the only non-Asian family. Not sure what that’s about. Dinner was actually pretty good—well, good for dining room food, I’d say. I got the Indian vegetarian option. Tzvi and Hallie both got the halibut, although Hallie didn’t love it. Madeleine had grilled cheese and really enjoyed it. Dessert was some kind of cake that was just okay.
After dinner, we walked around a bit more and then headed to the theater for the 7:30 show. While we waited there was a trivia thing you did from your phone and I came in 8th. We were welcomed by the cruise director, whose name I forgot, but he’s Australian. The show featured a juggling comedian. It was… fine. Hallie absolutely loved it and laughed the entire time. It was very cute, especially for kids. He did some impressive juggling tricks, but it wasn’t the most amazing show I’ve ever seen. Still, it was entertaining. After the show, we walked around a little more, but Hallie was exhausted, so we came back to the room around 9:45. There was still stuff going on—a welcome party at 10:15 and a balloon drop at 11:00—but we weren’t going to make it to any of that.
Shir walked around a bit and met a guy who was Mormon and had apparently never heard of Jews, so she explained that to him. We’ll see if they ever meet again.
Now we’re back in the room. The ship is rocking, which I don’t love. Madeleine doesn’t want to go to sleep because she has been worried since we visited our muster station that the ship is going to sink. Also, I definitely hear movement on top of our room. And that’s pretty much it.
Good night.