On Friday, G and I (and our friend Tommy) set sail on Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas for a quick weekend cruise. We left out of Port Canaveral, stopped in Nassau on Saturday, hit up RCCL's private island (Coco Cay) on Sunday and were back in Port Canaveral, bright and early Monday morning.
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| cruise ship selfie |
Friday, we got on board, ate our favorite lunch (which is only ever offered on the first day of cruises) - Honey Stung Chicken and then took naps. We woke up in time to go on the Jump zone trampoline. We were told before we got on it that we had to hold the ropes and could only go up and down. I thought tht was lame and after watching kids on it for like a solid 10 minutes I was like wow it must be fun. I got on and my fear of heights kicked in every time I bounced up. I made it maybe 3 minutes before asking to get off and was glad to not be trying any flips lol. After jumping we headed to the Diamond Lounge. Since G and I are Diamond Members (RCCL's loyalty program), we are allowed to go into the Diamond Lounge, each night from 5-8:30 and drink for free (Yes, you read that correctly, FREE DRINKS!). We took advantage of this perk and drank probably a good $100 worth of beer (for me) and Jameson and Cokes (for G). They also have special hors d'oeuvres that they don't have anywhere else on the ship. (sometimes we can't take advantage of the lounge because not all of our friends can get into the lounge so we don’t spend as much time in the lounge when we sail with others, but always pop in for at least a few drinks). We also meet interesting people in the Diamond Lounge. Being a short weekend cruise, there are a ton of Central Florida locals on board and especially in the lounge and this time was no exception. Every person we talked to was from Central Florida and were all very nice. Even met a race car driver! After our free drinks ended, we went to dinner in the formal dining room and got sat with two other couples. We were both very tipsy and I'm pretty sure our table-mates probably thought we were annoying alcoholics lol., oh well, we were enjoying ourselves. After dinner, G and I lost some money in the casino (way too quickly). I don't mind losing (well don't mind AS MUCH - I'd obviously prefer to win!) as long as it lasts a good amount of fun playing time, but losing our budgeted "casino" money in like 30 minutes, no bueno! After the loss at the casino, we finally met up with our buddy Tommy and hung out in the club until about midnight when this old lady was ready for bed!
Saturday we slept in, went and had breakfast and then they were doing a "Top Tier" loyalty event for all Platinum + members. It was once again free drinks (I had a few mimosas) and they acknowledged the top 3 people on board. The top couple had over 1400 nights sailed on RCCL! That's insane! (granted you can get double "nights" for booking suites and other promotions, but regardless that's a TON of cruising) Although, G and I may not be that far behind them once we are their age (they were probably in their 60's). After that event, we went back to the room to relax and waited for Tommy to meet up to go off into Nassau. We walked to the fish fry district, didn't have any fish fry and ended up at a beach bar for the afternoon. We drank a bunch of Bahamian beer, used their free wi-fi (kept up to date on the UF game and celebrated their loss to a Division 1AA school -- love seeing the cocky Gators lose) and just hung out. It was absolutely gorgeous out! Around 5, we made a stop into Senor Frogs (dropped Tommy off there so he could continue partying) - G and I went back to the ship since we wanted to indulge in some free (and way better) drinks in the Diamond Lounge. We went and showered, and then whoops, fell asleep and didn't wake up until 9ish. So we missed out on our free drinks (not that we actually needed them) and formal dinner so I went up and got some food from the snack bar and we called it a night (yes, I slept A LOT on this cruise).
Sunday, we slept in again (don't ask me how we slept so much, but sometimes those pitch black interior staterooms help encourage it). Since we've been to Coco Cay a bunch of times, we decided to not get off the ship on Sunday. After breakfast, I headed up to the pool and laid out reading a book on my kindle for a few hours. I'm about half way through, In the Company of Heroes but Michael Durant (if you remember, he came to my company and spoke to us on Veteran's Day and it really made me want to read his book). It's a really good book and very interesting to read about what he endured while captive. I highly recommend it. It's insane to think that he actually went through all of that. And to think he was only held captive for 11 days, some POW get held for YEARS. Anyways, after some reading, I went to the gym for an hour, I did mostly walking since I wanted to be able to read as well, but ended up with 4.32 miles so I did do about 20ish minutes of actual running. After a shower, we watched whatever football game was on with Tommy and then headed to the Diamond Lounge for our free drinks. After our free drinks ended, we met up with Tommy for dinner since he had room at his table and hung out for a little while. I think we crashed pretty early though because I can’t for the life of me think of what we did after dinner which was around 9 pm. I'm an old lady at heart and like to sleep. Sunday we got up and headed home... and I ended my mini vacation with an amazing 90 minute massage (not on the cruise, but at Massage Envy)! It was a fun and very relaxing cruise and I can't wait until our next one in 11 days on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas and this one EM will get to go on too. This ship looks more amazing than any ship I've ever been on and can't wait to do it all!
**Oh yea, Friday Night right before I was out of cell phone range, I got a call from my brother and he was saying one of his employees couldn't go on his company cruise that he takes them on each December and it's too late for a refund so he offered it to us for just the cost of the name change, so obviously I couldn't pass that up! Since it is on Carnival, G won't go on it, but EM and I will be going on another weekend cruise right before Christmas! My parents are going on it as well (they also are taking a "non-refundable room" from someone else in my brother's company that couldn't go) and so Is my sister and her husband (she works for him), so it'll be just like the cruise we went on in September (obviously my Sister in law and my nieces and nephew are going to be there as well). It's even the same ship and port, just over a weekend vs during the week. I'm very excited to be able to go since that last one was so much fun! This one makes 3 in a 5 week period and a total of 5 for the year! (and we're already booked for one in February... aah, the perks of living in Florida and super close to the ports!) I have a cruising addiction, yes I'm aware!
I didnt even know they did weekend cruises like that. Sounds like you had a great time!
ReplyDeleteYep, they do them every weekend out of Port Canaveral and they are usually super cheap!
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