My very long Navigator of the Seas (12/5/09) chapter 2-5

[happyteacher1214]

Hi everyone! I realized that it was much easier for everyone to read all the installments of my review in one continous thread so from this point on I will keep posting the remainder 3 installments of my review right here.... so without any further ado...

 

Day 2: Day at Sea…a day to live and learn….

So here we were on our first sea day. We woke up around 8AM not feeling tired at all. We usually wake up very late at home on the weekends…don’t know if it was the excitement or we just got some good and solid hours of sleep. We had ordered room service the night before, just coffee since we are not breakfast eaters, however unknowing that we were going to be up so early we placed it for 9:30. So I called room service and asked them if they could bring it up now, they said NO too busy..oh well. Went upstairs to windjammer and got some coffe and OJ. When we looked out the window we saw the outline of an island, we overheard someone saying that it was cuba. Of course at this point BF was beyond himself. He came from Cuba when he was nine years old and hasn’t been back since (and will not,,,but that’s another issue). So needless to say it became a mission to find out if it really was Cuba or not. After asking a few people around, we thought about going to the peek a boo window where there is a screen and it shows exactly where the ship is at. Sure enough, we were passing by his native island. I could tell BF was chocked up and I urged him to go get the camera and sit at our balcony looking at his homeland. We took some pictures and finally got tired of only seeing the outline.

At this point we decided that we wanted to do it all….and boy is that a BIG mistake (well at least for us) We played ping pong, mini golf, jumped in the salt water pools, into the hot tubs, back in the pools, back in the hot tubs, discovered the spa pool and actually swam around it, and back and forth, only stopping once to lunch. Again lunch very unmemorable, nothing called out my name…nooooothing. Oh well I found something to nourish me I think maybe some greek salad and split pea soup and that was about it.

Needless to say by the time dinner time rolled around, we were beyond exhausted. We barely made it to dinner, did not even take formal pictures. I don’t think my hair even looked that good that night, maybe too much chlorine or my tiredness that I didn’t take the time to really make it look nice. BF wore his suit without a tie, just a very nice shirt under his jacket and he blended right in. We heard a little bit of the captain’s speech and he turned on the xmas tree light. BTW, I remember that back in the days they had a xmas tree next to every elevator, WJ and at every floor in the MDR, now its just one BIG xmas tree. Definetly a cut back, but not too bad. IMO, too many trees is overkill anyway.

That night dinner was absolutely delicious, tender filet of beef mine medium rare, his well done. Both delish with real mashed potatoes (there were chunks of potato in mine yum yum) and it came with a green peppercorn sauce that was a little bit spicy but I love spicy. For starters I had the snails in lots of butter, don’t forget if you order the snails (escargots) save some bread to dip it into the leftover butter. My honey ordered two shrimp coctails (yes two) and Valentin had no problem bringing them to him at the same time. For desserts I had the grand manier soufflé and he had ice cream Well my grand manier soufflé was soooo delish that he ordered one as well. He loved it!

Now the real treat that night was actually meeting Valentin’s girlfriend. She also worked at the MDR as a waiter and she was also Peruvian. Her name is Liz and she is sooo sweet. She came by and introduced herself, Valentin looked like a little boy in love…it was so sweet. We took pictures of them. My BF being the clown he is gave him his condolences after she left. Told him he had no idea what he had gotten himself into (because of me of course) and that started the very comical relationship between Valentin and BF that lasted till the very end of the cruise. And believe me it was funny….Oh by the way, just to let you know how awesome Valentin was, he brought us out some duck for us to try. While we were waiting for the duck every time Valentin would pass by BF would say “quack, quack” We were all in tears laughing. BTW the duck was delish and tender and the sauce was outstanding, I thought it would taste gammy but it didn’t.

That night, we were so exhausted that BF and I did not even make it anywhere. Went straight to the room and passed out.

Lesson learned: DO NOT OVERDO IT!!!! You will be too exhausted to do anything else at night, and the nightlife is a real treat, especially on formal night and still get sad when we remember that we couldn’t do anything. But we learned, and from then on we took it easy including a nap at the solarium every afternoon for an hour.

Next chapter: Labadee and the wonderful hammock…stayed tuned!

[dolfandude]

Ha! I found you! Seems by posting a new thread it got a little lost. This should bump it up again! Great day two! I asked on the first thread if you got around to "experiencing" the piano bar or English pub. Did you? Thanks!

[happyteacher1214]

Thank you for liking my review! I am sorry I did not get to the pub or the piano bar. We did pass by the piano bar a few times and it was rather small, I think its called the Schooner bar..?? Nonetheless it was full of smokers :( while BF smokes a nice cuban once in a while outside, we dont really enjoy sitting in a room full of smokers...sorry I am a little smoke sensitive...

 

I am currently working on the last part of my review so please stay tuned!

[happyteacher1214]

Ok everyone,,,,I know that you guys are probably tired of my rambling on and on about my days...but for me its a way of reliving my cruising experience....for those of you who are following my review...thank you!

 

Day 3 Labadee and the magical hammock.

 

BEfore I start, I would like to give a Shout OUT! to our wonderful Cabin stewart, Ludwig Wilson from Nicaragua. He was absolutely wonderful! He kept our room spotless, kept our ice bucket full and refilled our glasses (we would take them at night full of our sneeked in "grape juice" hehe)

Wilson, we love you!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still not used to making my own bed and when I got home from work on friday, I could not beleive I did not have a towel animal!

 

So we woke up today ready for Labadee. There are not enough words to describe the beauty that my eyes saw as soon as I pulled the curtains. WOW! Green lush mountains, clear blue water and off the far distance the beat of Haitians drums. Wonderful!

My honey and I changed into our beach outfits quickly and went to WJ for a light breakfast. BTW, we found breakfast at the WJ much, much better than lunch. They have these broiled tomatos that I fell in love with and I would have them with my whole wheat nutty toast (another thing I loved) along with two slices of crispy bacon. Delish! The coffe on board..boy is it STRONG! and we are regular cuban coffee drinkers....wheeh it would definetly clean your insides seriously!

 

So we went down to the first floor after a leisurly breakfast. We promised ourselves that we would take it EASY today. So we were not rushing to say the least. I thought that I would miss the tender boats, but really i much prefer just walking right out to the new bridge. It was sooo breezy, just beautiful. As we walked out onto the new gangway we were amazed, amazed at the size of our ship. There are just no way to describe the beauty of these ships. We took plenty of pictures with the ship behind us..just wonderful. We also saw Valentin and Liz like two love birds holding hands. Guess they must have had the day off..good for them! It was cute.

 

First we went to the dragon breath beach to see some people zip lining. It was fun to hear people screaming gliding through the air. Nice! BTW my friends the beach all the way along the coast of Dragons breath is extremely extremely rocky. Not good for swimming at all. We found a nice little spot at the Columbus beach which did not have any rocks. We were not really impressed with the beach, I really dont think that these are beaches but rather more like inlets, or bays. We have both been to the caribbean islands and although Labadee is nice, it doesnt compare to say the beaches at Punta Cana (BF), or Roatan(ME), Grand Cayman (ME) etc etc. We layed out, were hasseled a few times by the locals which as you guys know BF is a clown so he would just joke along with them. We ended up buying quite a few maracas (for my students, I know I love my babies) and a local CD. We promised ourselves that next year we would have an empty suitcase and buy lots more stuff so that we can decorate our new home....

 

Around 1:00Pm we proceeded to the bar b que. The BBQ was very very good. BF had the ribs which he thought they were quite good. I had a burger, rice and beans, corn and marinated tomatos. Everything was very very tasty. The fruits were devine too. We sat at this new bar that they have by Colombus beach that had a blue roof and they were playing good reggea music, nice!

Ok so here comes the wierd part of our trip. (Please note that this is not an exaggerated account of our trip so please bear with me) All of a sudden BF felt this horrific pain to his neck, and I mean he never complains of pain but all of a sudden he turned white. I was a little alarmed so I urged him that we shoudl go back to the ship and go to the infirmirary. He said he wanted to take a few advils and lay down first. So we went back to the ship slowly he could barely move. My heart was pumping so hard and I was freaking out. But I tried to stay calm. He took a few advils and he sat on the balcony and closed his eyes. After a while he said lets go I want to lay on the hammocks that we saw by the water. I asked him numerous times are you sure honey?? (i mean I was really freaking out) he told me that if something happened to him, he wanted to be by the water and not stuck inside a medical center. I got really teary eyed so we went back to the beach (slowly) he said his head was POUNDING and he could hear like a hard thumping sound, his neck was like twisted to the right...omg I dont even want to recall this...he took his cuban cigar (again if something happened he better have his Romeo and Juliet..oh lord) I thought of everything from a stroke, to a heart attack, to a vein popping in his head (what is that called again??) So he layed on a hammock that was shaded overlooking dragons breath, he wanted to see people ziping and wanted to feel the strongest breeze. All of a sudden he said he felt this rush, cant even explain it, he said it was like a rush going through his shoulders, it was warm and quick and all of a sudden he felt like he was floating or something...like he was weightless...sort of an out of body experience. And all of his symptoms just poofed! gone! he called me to join him in the hammock where we both rocked for like three hours. It was wonderful..and romantic. he could not beleive how he felt...he said he just felt like another person like he was floating..he kept saying Im floating. It was just amazing. I was still a little nervous but he insisted that he felt like a new man like he couldnt explain it. Later on when we were sitting at the hot tub overlooking Labadee floating away, we came to the conclusion that this was his body just releasing all of his stress. See BF is a helicopter mechanic with company that contracts for the Gvmtn. The last two weeks he worked 7 days straight 12 hours a day...high stress it is..plus he had NEVER in 36 years, been on a real vacation like this one. Its alwasy been work trips, or just family get togethers at a beach hotel, but never like this. We honestly beleive that his body just got rid of years and years of stress and headaches. We also realized that we would never, ever stop cruising. We are both beleivers that cruising just does something wonderful to your body and your soul, that you simply cannot get at any land vacation. Wow!

We stayed by the pool until 7pm enjoying the band play and then got ready (rememeber no rushing allowed!) Tonight was Italian That night I really took my time to look extra nice for him and so did he. We both looked great and made a good looking couple. Me with a black little dress and him with his elegant black guayabera, and kakhi pants.

Dinner that night was devine! For starters I had the marinated veggies with prociutto, and the minestrone soup that was fantastic! BF does not like soups and he loved this one! He had two plates of the scallops with rissotto delish he said (I am allergic to shellfish) Then I had the Lamb shank...omg sooooo good! He had the tiger shrimp scampi. Valentin without even being asked brought him more shrimp. I told you he was the best. For dessert I had the warm chocolate tort with a scoop of vanilla ice cream It was so lucious. It reminds me of the chocolate lava cake with the warm fillng oh sooo good. BF had the tiramisu which he thought it was good as well. He also ordered an expresso.

That night we danced the night away with Latin express and all of our wonderful new friends. Latin express YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST BEST BEST!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So here is the funny part, there was a poster here that mentioned the animals that would come out at night. OMG were they funny and naughty.!! I danced with one of them, he just came right in between BF and I litterally pushed BF aside and danced merenge with me. It was just hillarious! One of the dogs jumped on the stage and played with the band. He was actually pretty good. The crowd went crazy! It was just so much fun!

 

We were all so sad around midnite when the band had to say goodbye. BF and I made it upstairs to the late night party...reminded us of a South beach chic club and the music was the modern hip hop stuff. Definetly not our cup of tea but everyone seemed like they were having a great time.

We left quickly...and we were wisked away into our room by the Ocean Love Gods....;)

 

What a day.....It was the perfect day...as long as we both live we will never forget....We love you Labadee!!!!!!!!!;)