It’s Sea Day... we decided we were going to do breakfast in The Dining Room. The group met on level 3 to start the meal. The breakfast has hot meals that can be ordered from the wait staff and a buffet for all the cold and continental items. The wait staff was great and the food came out just right. Nice and relaxing compared to the Windjammer. After breakfast K and a friend went to Jaime’s for a pre-reserved Cupcake decorating class. K says: "It was so much fun! We worked with pre-made cupcakes from the chef. He showed us how to ice them with special designs. He showed us how to make a rose out of fondant. It was so cool. We decorated four cupcakes each." 8 cupcakes for the whole gang to eat later! While the decorating was going on, the rest of the group walked around the ship and everyone met up at our cozy Starbucks corner. Drinks and snacks just like on land with a great view outside the big ocean view and promenad...
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Today’s title should be really called "Ship Day in Port"! As is customary for our group we like to utilize the ship facilities and explore when we are in a standard port. In this case Nassau. The ship was docked really early at about 8 am and left at 11:59 pm. We woke up late at about 9 am. We got dressed and went to a packed Windjammer buffet. Nothing really good to write about. The place was jam packed and no room anywhere. We were there late enough to get a seat in Chops after they stopped its use for real suite guests. Junior Suites don’t rate this special perk. I found the food to be cold and very blah. Oh well. Maybe it was late, but it seemed half the ship was there. Another part of our party went to the dining room and said it was good. We shall try there tomorrow. We then all met for mini golf at the Mariner Dunes. Very nice refurbished golf course. It used to be in the back of the ship where the new ...
The Mariner of the Seas arrived at Coco Cay at 7 am today. We all knew this would be hard to do, so we aimed to be on the tender at 8:30 am. As mentioned, we had a bungalow reserved, so there was no need to rush. We headed down to the gangway and got right on the tender. Waited for some people to fill it up and then headed over. Nice and sunny outside. When we arrived at the island of Coco Cay the skies opened up to a rain shower. Oh no! We waited less than 5 minutes for it to pass and headed for the private tram to the South Beach Bungalows and beds. Upon arrival, we all got our VIP wristbands and headed to our bungalow! It was an open air covered area with a couch, 2 loungers, 2 mats, water, and beverage service if needed for the usual fees. We all settled in fast and some of us went to explore and walk on the beach while others got right down to relaxing! We met an Iguana .... and then encountered two more 5 min rain showers. ...
We woke up about 7:30. Got ready and headed to the free breakfast. It was good and enough to fill us up. The usual continental breakfast with some hot items as well. Like eggs and such. We all got the bags together after 9 and packed up the car. We were on the road by 9:30. Coming from the west side of the airport we hit some morning traffic. Nothing awful, it kept moving, but it was just under 30 minutes. We saw first sighting of our home for the next week at 9:55! Still very early. We unloaded the car, parked it and got into the terminal. Check in was very easy and we went to the emerald area to sit. It was not a long wait at all. We were boarding the ship at 11am. Took the welcome aboard picture and headed on to the ship. First thing we needed to do was to head the shore excursion desk. We had read that if you booked a bungalow on Coco Cay, as we did, you could head there upon arrival and pick your bungalow. We pre-ordered a bungalow. These...
The day started nice and early. We all got restful sleep and got up and finished packing. Our daughter K was so excited when she got up... She could hardly contain herself. Lol We hit the road at 12:00... picked up the friends in our rental Chevy Suburban and headed for Miami. The Suburban was great for the 7 of us. We had the perfect amount of room for all of our luggage. Would we have enough luggage room for 7 days? Not 100% sure... 😀 The drive was good. We took the Turnpike straight down to Miami. We stopped for some time at the rest stop for gas and sandwiches at the Earl of Sandwich. We sang, danced, and slept of course along the way... as well as watched a video of one of our past cruises on the entertainment system! We saw construction on the new Hard Rock Casino expansion on the drive near Ft. Lauderdale. The tower will be shaped like a guitar! We arrived at our stop for the night. A Hyatt Place. A nic...