Teeara

Today is a sea day. Hard to believe we’re getting close to the end of this cruise. Here’s our current position: This morning was another enrichment lecture. Today’s topic was on the Aztecs and how Hernan Cortes conquered them in 2 years with only 300 men. We had lunch in the WJ again and then camped out in the Centrum for a couple of hours. We like it there since there are chairs next to our cabin. I left a couple of times to take some pictures and videos for a future vlog on door decorating. Here’s a few of my favorites: We had dinner at Izumi. If you are planning on doing Izumi on Radiance, bring a sweater! It was freaking freezing in there. I had to go back to our cabin for our sweaters. We had the salad as our starter, then the teriyaki chicken with the vegetable rice ( too many peppers). We finished our meal off with the assorted mochi ice cream. We didn’t like the green tea one. Wish we had the chocolate one instead. Pam liked the strawberry the best and I liked the mango. We’re now in the Colony Club listening to karaoke and then there’s a game show before the orchestra comes in for Earth, Wind & Fire and Tower of Power (what we’re here for). Glad we came when we did. Seats are going fast. Here’s today’s Cruise Compass: Lastly, here’s tonight’s MDR menu. We went to the podium to let them know we aren’t going to be dining inside for the rest of the cruise. It had to do with the people they seated us next to and not our waiter or assistant waiter (Jun and Paul) who were fantastic. That’s it for tonight. Have a great day everyone.

I heard it was a 2 hour drive to get to Antigua and 2 hours back. That doesn’t leave much time for a tour and some shopping time. The Jade Museum at the port was very informative and the selection was extensive. I would go back in a heartbeat. Sorry to hear you were pickpocketed! But better the $12 than your passport!

Here are the daily maps:

Well today was our stop in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. The Norwegian Encore beat us there so they got the pier next to the port area. We got stuck at a different section outside of the area and had to take a Blue Bird bus to get us to the cute port area. Since we didn’t have any shore excursion planned for today we had decided to wait for everyone else to get off the ship. This worked out since I had a hot rock massage at 8 a.m. and Pam woke up with a migraine. We finally left the ship around 11:30. So if you’re wondering where Puerto Quetzal is located, they have a great map on the floor of the visitor center. There were very helpful signs inside to let you know where things were located. There’s also a fun Guatemala sign next to the entrance. Since our main interest was shopping, we hit the Jade Museum first. They had some fantastic samples of items found with explanations of what they were. They had all kinds of jewelry (earrings, bracelets, necklaces) at very reasonable prices under $100, not to mention plenty above $100 😉😁 We saw a couple of women weaving as well. One of the things you should bring home with you is a worry doll. The textiles here were so vibrantly colored and decorated. It was hard to choose. I really wanted this piece, but it was really tall. I was offered it for $75, but it was still too tall. Pam bought a pillow case with this design. These bags were beautiful. There was so much to see in each booth. We got all the way to Guatemala and still found a bit of home 😉😁😂 Found a bit of Texas here, too. These were interesting. We found a nice place to sit in front of a stage with music piped over some speakers. This is very close to the visitor’s center. A nice couple took our picture since I took theirs for them. Love my hairdo? That was courtesy of the spa this morning during my massage. 😉😁. It was 91 today but felt like 104. As you go to leave, you have to go to the right of the visitor center and show your ID and they want to look inside your bags before going through a metal detector. You will also have to get off the bus at the Guatemala checkpoint, go in the building and show your ID again and go through another metal detector before reboarding the bus past the checkpoint. It was a PITA. Then the bus takes you to the ship. We had dinner in the WJ tonight. I didn’t make it downstairs in time to get the regular MDR menu so you’ll have to settle for this one: And today’s Cruise Compass: I’ll post the daily ship location after this post. We’re in the Centrum tonight. They just had karaoke and are about to start country nightt. I don’t want to lose my seat. 😉😁

Good evening folks. It was a pretty busy day for me today. I was awake at 4:57 this morning so thought I would go shoot some Deck 5 video. But first, here’s our location today: Cafe Latte-Tudes is on Deck 5 and here are the current prices: I also noticed that the conference center was open. Here’s a view inside. I went for a stroll outside the ship as the sun was rising. The temps were great. Not too hot or muggy. I also hadn’t been to the back of the ship on deck 5. This would’ve made a good place to be for the Panama Canal. Today was the FB cabin crawl. We had 2 junior suites, several balconies, an interior and a porthole ocean view. One of the balconies was dubbed “quirky” (7652): They also had a dinosaur! 🦕 Dinner in the MDR was Asian night: But we had Samba Grill tonight. There was a salad/appetizer bar to choose from first. The cup on the left had prosciutto and cantaloupe; the center bowl was a slaw with a light vinaigrette; and the cup on the right was shrimp cocktail. Then they start bringing loads of food out. Here’s my plate. 1:00 - Yucca fry 3:00 - Plain rice 5:00 - Filet Mignon 6:00 - Picanha (prime cut of top sirloin) 7:00 - Parmesan crusted pork loin 8:00 - Strip loin 9:00 - Linguica 10:00 - Chicken breast wrapped in bacon 11:00 - Polenta 12:00 - Deep fried Plaintain Everything was very delicious, but my favorites were the strip loin, Picanha and the polenta. We did have the cinnamon pineapple, but I forgot to take a picture of it. We waddled out. 😉😁😂 Tonight is the 70 s night. Not sure if I’ll make it. I feel like I’m coming down a cold. Ugh. Anyway, here is today’s Cruise Compass: Tomorrow we’re in Puerto Quetzal and I start my day with a hot stone massage. See you then.

Thanks so much!

BTW, loved your video! Watched the entire thing whilst waiting for my Starbucks this morning 😉😁☕️

Lucky you!

Yay!!!! I’m so proud of you! Welcome to YouTube!

Just an FYI that we heard NO commentary on the Helipad. It was also garbled and echoey on our balcony. The only place that it came through loud and clear was inside the ship.

No, I don’t think the chicken was cooked. Not sure if they offer beef at other times. This was at lunch today. I think they prefer to control the portion sizes with the chef handling the food. I will say it was very salty. Probably due to the soy sauce.

IMG_5006.mov Here’s the full experience for you. Let me know if it posts okay. Otherwise, to answer your questions, there was only chicken. You point at what you want - carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, peppers, onions, mushrooms and garlic. He puts it in his pan. You don’t touch the food. You can choose between thick and thin noodles. He puts soy sauce and another sauce in the pan and then he asks if you want it in a bowl or on a plate.

Today is our 3rd sea day. Here are the maps. Looks like we’ve spent most of the day off the coast of Panama. We slept in this morning until 8:00. Had breakfast in the WJ then went to the top tier event in the Aurora Theater. We gained 2 new Pinnacles on our sailing. Then they had the top 3 Pinnies: Afterwards we went to the Colony Club for some quiet time. Then back to the WJ for a light lunch before Pam went to the movie theater and I went back to the cabin to do a cabin tour video. Pam came back right after I started saying the movie theater was already packed and no seat were available. There’s only 30 seats in there so not surprising. It was for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”. I finished my video then did some reading on our balcony before taking a nap outside. Tonight was formal night. We each started with the Scallop Gratin and I then had the Mediterranean Spinach Pie. Pam had an alien baby bread tonight. I had the Vegetable Fried Rice for dinner and it was incredibly filling (I didn’t finish it). We both had the Pecan Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert. We returned to the cabin in time for the sunset. We’re back to the Centrum for the rest of the evening. We might take a walk later. Nothing is really tripping our trigger tonight. Here is today’s Cruise Compass: That’s it for today. We gain an hour tonight. Another sea day tomorrow. We’re supposed to have our FB cabin crawl tomorrow.

Did they roll you onto the ship? 😉😁 If that had been me, I’d just be waking up now. 😉😁

Thanks!!! That’s very interesting. I like that kind of information.