When we got back to the ship, I realized I’d forgotten to take the elevator picture. In the elevator, they have these panels in the carpet to let you know what day it is. I think it’s easy to lose track while you are at sea, and that the floor of the elevator is the best place to let people know.
Here’s a shot I took at dinner. I noticed that we were passing by a “desert island” and only had the camera phone, so you have to squint hard to see it. Other people began passing me their cameras, and some of them got better shots than this. There’s a dock and a little tiki hut type place there too.
After dinner, we went to see a show. I was feeling sort of sick. The boat was REALLY moving. I remember sitting outside of Vintages with a group of the Lodge Ladies and watching the menorah on display in the promenade sway…. At some point we went to the Dungeon, but I could not take noise AND feeling sick, so I told them I’d be outside on the deck. I was almost asleep when Deb came to fetch me for the comedy show. I definitely fell asleep during the show; sleep is the only way to escape feeling sea sick. This was the ONLY time I felt sick on the Navigator. I’m grateful for that! Anyhow, after the comedy show was over, I went to sit on the deck again for a while, and then I went to bed. I felt better in the morning.
There was a deck party and buffet this night. I went to meet everyone in the Dungeon, and there was NO ONE in there but our crowd. They sort of got booted out of there by the DJ, who probably just didn’t want to have to work too hard that night, and kept encouraging them to go up on the pool deck for the party. This was the night one of our bartenders – let’s call him Not Viktor – performed his amazing feats of juggling for the crowd. I’m sure someone else has more photos. My camera phone does poorly in the dark, as we have seen, and my Canon was upstairs charging. So all I got was shots of three ice sculptures. I had a horrible headache this night, and Mitzi gave me the best head, neck and shoulder rub! Glo and I had some pina coladas inside of actual pineapples. The pina coladas were premixed and scooped directly out of a cooler into the waiting pineapples. After eating, I felt a little better, but decided to head back and get some sleep shortly after midnight.
I’m not one much for gambling. On my first (and only other) cruise, back in the mid 80s, I won $500 playing the slots after about 5 minutes of pumping quarters… and walked out with it, much to the chagrin of my then-husband. That is the extent of my previous exposure to a casino. Below, we have shots of some of the characters that inhabit the Casino Royale on the Navigator of the Seas.
After dinner, I went to Susan and Sharon’s room for a very special purpose. While I was there, I saw their towel animal du jour, above in the snazzy shades. But this was not my purpose….
I was there to collect MR. MOOSE! Yes, it is finally my turn to take custody of the famous travelling Mr. Moose. I’m so excited! I’m going to take him to Belize with me tomorrow. I’m going to take him to Sanibel Island next weekend when I am back home. But most importantly, I’m taking Mr. Moose to New York over the holidays, and he’s coming with me and my nieces to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway in NYC – yipppeeeee!
After I took custody of Mr. Moose, I went back to the cabin to put him away, and found a stingray, again with chocolate eyes.
Every time I came out of the cabin, I came face to face with this poster from the Rogers & Hammerstein classic, Carousel. I finally had to take a photo of it. Julie Jordan in Carousel was my first non-belting role on stage. I was 21 when I got the part, and turned 22 sometime during the production. I was very proud, for I had worked very hard on my “legit” sound, and it was exciting to play the ingenue for a change. Ah, the memories! Someday I will scan photos of all the shows and operas I’ve performed and post them. Someday.
There were a couple of these cool “living statues” standing around, each with a large coffee can for money to be tossed in.
While I was gone, another ship pulled in alongside the Navigator; it was a Celebrity ship, but I forget the name. I was following behind this very drunk woman who kept hollering, “Ah need a WHEELCHAIR!” as she stumbled along. I met up with Lesia as I made my way between the ships and we went through security together. The wheelchair woman said there was no liquor in her bag to delcare, but plenty inside her – we were cracking up! Lesia and I parted in the elevator, both heading back to our cabins to get cleaned up for dinner.
This would have been absolutely PERFECT if it was a longer excursion. As the tour guides were leading a water balloon toss game on the beach, I kept having visions of Mooses crawling all over that island for some future Moose Meet….
It’s formal night! Yes, the Lodge Ladies turned out in full stylin’ regalia, even me. I actually wore makeup, and *gasp* A DRESS!
Above we find Mary and Debbie
Another charming self portrait (Debbie tells me her teenaged daughter does this all the time… so whaddaya tryin’ ta say, Deb? LOL )
Seated: Ellen, Mary
Standing: Glo, Dee, and moi
When I emerged from the spa (which was fabulous, by the way), Cuba was a LOT closer! I had the thought that maybe I would see one of those boats full of escapees that lands on the shores of Sanibel periodically, but didn’t see anything smaller than a couple of other cruise ships now and then.
Woke up on Tuesday morning and discovered that Cuba was tiny and vague on the horizon. Since this was a day at sea, I figured to make a massage appointment for around 3:00 PM, then come back to the cabin and wash the oil out of my hair and change for dinner. Well, the spa was pretty much booked up, so I returned my ass to the sofa and the coffee pot (btw, in the category of “Things I Love About Cruising”, I love that you can have room service delivered and it doesn’t cost any more than leaving the room would, except for the tip!). A few minutes later, the phone rang and they said there was a 9:30 am cancellation, and did I want the time? It was around 9:00 am. So I leapt up and dressed and off I went to the spa, only to discover that it is called “Shipshape”. This one’s for you, my hater-pirate comrades!
Ellen and Viktor (Edited: I had misidentified the lady as Cathy!)
Glo and Ellen: “He’s MY bartender!” “No, he’s MY bartender!”
I turned in earlier than everyone else, so I don’t know what happened after this. I think I got in at around 1:30 am, which is unheard of for me. I haven’t partied like this since I was in my twenties. When I got to the cabin, I immediately took two Advil and guzzled half a bottle of water, hoping to avert disaster in the morning.
Thus endeth the first day of the Lodge Ladies Cruise. Stay tuned for more!
Michelle and Ellen show their deep appreciation for the pole.
The Dungeon was the only bar where there were no less than 3 security guards at the door.
After the parade, I went off somewhere to try to get the internet thing going, but it was a bust. Deb had said they were all going dancing at the Dragon’s Lair, but that turned out to be a nightclub in the same spot on a different Royal Caribbean ship! Instead, I found The Dungeon, which became the scene of much hilarity and many good times, dancing and drinking the night away.
Everywhere you go on the ship, there is art work displayed on the walls – paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc. This is one of the weirder ones, found on a stair landing. There was a companion portrait of another girl with horns coming out of her head, but I apparently didn’t take a photo of that one.
At some point, Glo and I went to find out about internet access. You could connect to the ship’s wireless from your own computer, or else use the ship’s computers in the internet access area. Either way, it was unconscionably slow and expensive!
The Library is down on Deck 7 and the internet access is on Deck 8. Connecting the two levels is this sculpture in the middle. I thought it was pretty creative.
Dinner service was pretty slow the first night. Between courses, Ellen and I headed out to the deck to sneak a smoke. Well, we found out as we were trying to find a place to put out our cigarettes that we’d headed out the the door on the wrong side of the ship for that sort of thing. OOOOPS!
… why she is lovin’ on her laptop!
ABOVE: Pinkish sunset clouds on the horizon
BELOW: People on the rock jetty started waving at the ship; I waved back!
ABOVE: Our ship starts generating waves toward the shore….
ABOVE: Hotels and/or condos facing the port
BELOW: Waterfront homes; the one on the extreme right is under construction.
ABOVE: Stay tuned, something interesting is about to happen on that little beach…
ABOVE: A church by the sea
BELOW: Another ship, called SeaEscape, twinkles in the twilight.
ABOVE: Moving out to sea
ABOVE: Pretty little sail boat
BELOW: It’s a working port
Oh wow, it’s a DRAW bridge!
That’s the bridge you have to cross to get to the Sheraton Yankee Trader on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Sunset from the veranda. The ship has started to move at this point.
After the safety drill, I went back to the cabin to hang out on the veranda for set sail. These are from the camera phone.
No, not really. This was the safety drill. Unfortunately, our meeting place was on the side of the ship with the broiling hot setting sun. It seemed like we were trapped there in our sticky life jackets for freakin’ EVAH! I like how you can see my arm reflected in the sunglasses (I took this pic myself).
ABOVE: When you walk off the Viking Crown deck to find a place to smoke, you find yourself overlooking the basketball court and the miniature golf course.
BELOW: The front of the Viking Crown lounge overlooks the pool
Dee and Ellen, with Cathy
ABOVE: That’s about one quarter of Glo, followed by Kimball and Carol
BELOW: Michelle, Sandi, Cathy’s back, and a little bit of Susan’s face
ABOVE: Carol, Kelly, Wendy and Mary
The Mango Lava Flow was exceedingly sweet – too sweet even for me. But it sure did look pretty in the glass!
Someone is always trying to make out with Deb on these Moose trips….
Glo stands ready to digitally capture any misbehavior for posterity.
Cathy and Michelle of Starfish Travel arranged a “Meet Your Fellow Cruisers” cocktail reception for us. Many of us had already met at least once at the 2007 Lodgeboards Moose Meet in October, but an equal amount had never met. What a fun bunch of ladies!
Here’s Tricia + the mystery passenger, and KellyB
ABOVE: Wendy (aka, The Wendyrazzi), Mary, Lesia, and Cindy with her daughter.
BELOW: Cathy, Susan, and Sharon standing, with Linda sitting (Deb’s aunt).
Obligatory toilet shot, plus some pretty bathroom detailing for my shell-a-holic friends.
The tile on the shower floor (I don’t think I’ve ever been in a round shower before). Also, you can see me sitting on the sofa, taking a pic of the vanity/desk area.
The beds were pretty comfortable. If there had been a third person in the room, the sofa would have been opened flat each night by the stateroom attendant, and closed up the next morning when the room was made up. The main bed separates into two twins, which we had done while we were at dinner. There was a veranda for smoking and just sitting out with coffee each morning (had that delivered to the stateroom). Bath and shower cozy but not really a problem for me until it came to shaving my legs – there’s no room to do it in the shower bending over (oof, not good for the back, anyway), and there’s nothing to prop your foot upon. All in all, pretty comfy.
Just traversing the ship, checkin’ out the sights. I didn’t really anticipate doing Johnny Rockets here, as I have a Johnny Rockets right in Fort Myers that I can go to any time I wish. I think it was at this point that they called out for us to report to our cabins.
OK here’s where we pick up from when Blogger started rejecting the photos last Monday.
Behind the main pool area is the Solarium, which has a couple of hot tubs, a bar, and a “quiet pool”. This area is pretty much adults only, and the deck chairs are cloth-covered in this section. Loved the statue; will find pics from the other camera and post them
, too.
Horrible internet access on the ship. Each page would take several minutes to load. Other multiple problems + the cost of paying by the minute for slow load was the reason that this blog didn’t get done at all, never mind in real time, during the cruise.
We all had the best time!
Here’s my game plan. I will first go through and comment on the pics that already got loaded (it worked until about 1PM on set sail day, Dec 3rd). Then, I will start captioning the rest of the photos I took, and I’ll start sending them to the blog from Picasa. Be patient, I have 5 days worth of photos to get through.
Back in fort lauderdale
Started getting error messages while taking pics of the ship. Something about exceeding the number of posts without doing a captcha. A WHAT? Called Bro. No. 2 and gave him my credentials to log in and poke around. He found some discussion on a newsgroup indicating that there was a problem with picture posts today. Anyhow, the WI-FI on the ship is slow and expensive, so I’m going to have to develop a strategy for doing most of the work offline – maybe put them into Picasa on my laptop, with captions, and then hitting the blog button? I dunno. Just wanted to let y’all know I’m not slacking!
We’ll be leaving the port soon, and then it’s on with the Lodge Ladies Cruise!
Okay, let’s see if this works…… an uploaded image.
I must solve a “CAPTCHA” error before I can post any more pictures…..
…… I hope this works!
Across from Port Everglades
This is the last shot I was able to blog here before the Blogger photo issue described in a subsequent post.
I began to run all over the various levels of the pool deck taking photographs.
First drink of the cruise – not the last by any means!
This is the view out the “windshield” of the pool deck. Those windows open to let the breeze come through.
Drink Of The Day can happen here! You get them in a glass shaped like a wine glass, which you get to keep. There were, I believe, four colors – blue, amber, green, and red. I did not collect them; would be just more stuff to squeeze into my luggage.
Looks maybe Mayan or Aztec to me.
I guess this is the ship’s official logo – it overlooks the pool deck (Deck 11)
Up on the pool deck, waiting for the cabins to be ready.
Trying to get a better shot
Hidden mickey !!!
Several decks of inside cabins have windows that look down upon the Royal Processional down the center of the ship. There were some parades down this area, on Deck 5, throughout the course of the cruise.
I remember getting drinks at this bar on Deck 4 with Deb one night, and the guy singing was DREADFUL.
No one on duty yet!
Walked in to Deck 4, where this centerpiece rises several decks in the air.
Was not allowed to take pics between the first security check in and the ship. Here’s one of the lifeboats taken from the gang plank (which is sort a like a skyway between customs and the ship).
Got to Port Everglades and parked in the garage. Made sure I took a photo so I would remember where the car was upon returning!
Got this from Bubba Gump
Mary and I sat out by the pool for our morning coffee. Now it’s time to shower and evacuate the hotel room – CUL8R !
It’s still weird to me to see palm trees and a snowflake in the same place!
I still have not gotten over traditional Christmas decorations (cold, snowy) juxtaposed against Florida’s tropical backdrop.
Have Signal, Will Blog! Mobile/photo blogging the Florida lifestyle and vacations
