In case you haven't noticed, Asa and I are starting to make the transition into the "just the two of us" phase of our lives. Perhaps this is turning into a less of a kids blog and more of a Corinne and Asa blog. Many (most?) people seem to get this phase in their 20s. But you know, we were raising a bunch of kids then. So, now that our youngest is 16 and in his own college classes, with everyone off doing their own thing a lot of the time (sometimes they're not even in the country), it's just me and Asa hanging out. Occassionally a kid pops in to do something with us, but that's fewer and farther between these days. Good thing Asa is my favorite person on the planet, and spending time with him is among my absolute favorite things to do.
For awhile now, We've been asking the kids what you do in your 20s... because, well, whatever it is we never got to do it. And 2/3 of them are in their 20s. But a lot of what they suggested involved staying out late which I had zero interest in. So, we decided on travel. Travel with just the two of us is significantly easier and cheaper than all five of us going, after all. Not that we haven't had some awesome family vacations over the years. But Asa and Corinne trips have been few and far between in our 18 years together. Sure, we went on our homeymoon to Chicago (which sadly, predates the blog, so I can't link to it), and we've been to Vegas a couple of times without kids. But, we just this summer took our first road trip together! So when I found an awesome deal, we figured it was time to take our first cruise just the two of us. We've been on a few previously, but all with at least 4 other people (sometimes as many as 10 other people!) We went to Alaska and Hawaii with my whole family, and we once took a cruise to Mexico with my mom.
But, just the two of us is a whole different experience. Less "what do you want to do" questions and less lining up schedules for sure. Asa loves cruising (I see the merits in it, but I also tend to get seasick), and so when he got a little extra bonus for getting promoted, and I had found this awesome deal (it was something like $179 a person), we decided to go for it. We booked it before we went to Ohio, so we did still have concerns of catching covid on the cruise. Turns out, we caught covid in Ohio, so our odds of getting it that soon were so small, we didn't really have to worry about it. Yay! (There were some silver linings to getting covid when we did).
The cruise was a four day Bahamas one, sailing out of Port Canaveral on Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. I found us a good parking situation, with a shuttle to port- and we left early Monday morning to get over to the east coast of Florida by lunch time. It's just over a two hour drive (assuming you head north to take the turnpike and avoid i-4), so not too shabby. Everything went smoothly from the parking (shout out to Port Canaveral Parking for an excellent reduce price experience) to the cruise check in (online check in for the win!). We'd always stayed in a suite, so I was little concerned about how our experience as "peasants" would go, but the line wasn't too bad. In no time at all we were through security with our carry on bags and heading onto the ship!
Immediately upon our arrival we got into the elevator and headed up to the buffet. We were reminded of our cruise ship in Alaska, the only other Royal Carribbean ship we've been on, with the days of the week in the elevators, and the buffet called "Windjammer"
The Windjammer is a buffet- and it is huge! There's anything and everything you could want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are a couple of "complimentary" dining options on the trip, and since we were only there for four nights, we stuck to those. Anymore and we might have diversified a bit. While this ship did have awesome variety, nothing was particularily amazing. It was all decent, good food. But nothing that stood out. My favorite thing was being able to get just get a little bit of everything. One bite of four different kinds of potatoes? Yes please! I will say on embarkation day and peak times the Windjammer got awfully busy, and I wouldn't say finding a table was impossible- but it could be a little tricky at times. I did miss the outdoor seating for the Windjammer we had in Alaska too, but all in all, we enjoyed our trips there.
Besides all the food choices, there was lots of dessert choices too! One whole side of the buffet was dessert exclusive! I ended up trying a whopping 40 different kinds of desserts. Because, well, I am the only one in the family that really likes desserts, so we usually skip them. Admittidly, most of the time I just had a bite or two. But, luckily, I wasn't too wasteful because the portions for the most part are only a few bites. Good portioning, Royal Caribbean.
After our tummies were sufficently full, we headed down deck 11 past the pool area. In all there are three pools on the Independence of the Seas, plus slides, a surfing simulator and a water play area complete with a giant bucket for little kids (it looked so fun, I don't know why they never make areas like that for adults). Two of the pools are for everyone, but one is adults only (that's the bar pool!) I was most excited to try out the hot tubs in the adults only area, because they hang off the side of the ship, giving you a great view.
We made our way down to Deck 5, to the Royal Promenade. I'd never been on a ship like this before, but the middle of the ship has a shopping/dining/bar area that gives off a bit of an upscale mall vibe. In the evenings there is a DJ and dance parties. A lot of the bars have live music. And there's plenty of tables sitting out on the promenade. At one point we saw old couples playing cards listening to music and I thought 'that's totally couples goals'. Quite a few of Royal Carribbean ships a Royal Promenade and some have this AND a Central Park area in the middle of the ship. Asa and I liked to wander through here, grab some coffee, and head back to our room.
Our room was on Deck 3. We actually had paid for the cheap as you can get inside stateroom, and were going to be on deck 10. But, we got upgraded! Royal Caribbean allows you to bid on different upgrades in the last few weeks leading up to your trip. I bid on all kinds of them- but we ended up getting an "ocean view" for just a little bit more than our inside stateroom! Anyway, the bad side is you don't get to pick your room when you get upgraded, and you just get wherever they put you. But, I was excited at the deck 3 prospect, because the lower you are, the less you tend to feel the boat moving, and as we've discussed, I do in fact get motion sick. Deck 3 is a little weird on our ship, because you can't walk all the way forward to aft there, instead there's an ice skating rink (!!!) in the middle, and so you have to take the correct elevators (in our case it was the forward ones) to get to the correct end of the ship. Instead of having to worry about that, we usually just took the elevator to deck 5 and walked the promenade back to our room. Because there was even a fancy stairway going down to deck 3 from the promenade! (I loved this staircase, it leads right down to the theater, so it was very grand).
But all we had to do was walk down this stairway and instead of heading straight into the theater, we headed down an unassuming hallway just to the left of the theater, and walk a few doors down... and bam! We were at our room. I actually really loved this location. If we went to a show, we never had to wait for an elevator after the show when they were packed. It was also easy to get outside for some fresh air. Just walk down a couple doors and up on flight of stairs and we were outside on deck four. A quick one minute walk from there and you were at the very front of the ship on the helipad (stay tuned for our night on the helipad- it was AMAZING). Of course back up the stairs on the fourth floor was the Schooner Bar (where we made trivia friends- so stay tuned for that too), and all the way up the fancy staircase and you were at the specialty coffee bar. Perfect location. I'd get this room every single time I cruise if given the option. And shout out to our neighbors who had a little welcome sign on their door, it made it real easy to find our room (also a shout out to whoever came so prepared to bring a command hook to hang the sign on! I was impressed!)
For the record, our room was 3560, an Oceanview Stateroom on Independence of the Seas.
Like I said, I've only ever cruised in suites (I know, how bougie of me!) But this time it was us bankrolling the operation, and not the bank of mom. Plus, with just the two of us, we don't really need much space. Still, I was excited to have the big window in our room! (There are a couple of rooms with a much smaller port window so I wasn't trying to get my hopes up that we'd get a big one- I was so happy when we did!) All in all, it was your basic cruise ship room. We had a king bed, a couple of night stands, a little sitting area and really, pleany of storage with a big closet and plenty of drawers and shelves. Our room technically could sleep four, because there were two pullman beds that can come down from the ceiling. Now that would be tight quarters.
And the bathrooms are tiny. But, I'm not the kind of girl that spends a lot of time in the bathroom getting ready anyway. There was enough space to move around, and enough space for our stuff. The shower, however, is very small. Like, I had no problem showering in it, but I was lucky it was only a four day cruise and I shaved my legs right before I left. I'm not entirely sure how I would have pulled that off. The doors closed inwards like you were in some futuristic pod, or one of those little bank tubes.
I did bring some things from home to be extra prepared in our state room. I had post its to leave notes for our stateroom attendent, and hooks to hang our seapass cards on (I also brought the lanyards!) Although, I also brought a highlighter to highlight activities we might want to do in the Cruise Compass, the little newsletter you get each day to tell you the happenings on the ship. That should tell you how long ago I last cruised- because I didn't need the highlighter at all, turns out all of that is an app now. Also fun fact: you don't have to do the muster drill all at once. You do it on the app, in your own time, and then show up to your muster location in your first couple hours on the ship, when it's convenient for you, and someone will check you in. Easy peasy!
After dropping our carry on stuff in our room (our luggage wasn't too far behind), we decided to go explore the top of the ship. It's there that you'll find most of the attractions. Slides. The Flo-Rider. Rock Climbing Wall. Sports Courts. Mini Golf. Sky Pad. Just, SO much stuff.
Asa first decided to try out the Flo-Rider. This was the only thing that sometimes had a super long line, but we were able to get it in early on our first day. You have to sign a waiver, obviously, and wait in some kind of line, but they do give you quite a bit of instruction, and quite a bit of time on it. Apparently when it gets REALLY busy they divide it in two so they can have two boogie boarders at once- but Asa got the whole thing to himself on the first day. He did really well too, he even made it up onto his knees. I didn't want to try it, because I don't like getting water in my eyes, but I was happy to watch and cheer him on.
Of course, on our way around Deck 12, we also found some ping pong tables, so we played around on those. I don't know if they've improved their placement of the ping pong tables or added different railings, but on our ship in Alaska the walls didn't come up as high and it was real easy to lose ping pongs into the ocean. This ship had plexiglass from top to bottom by the ping pong tables so that wouldn't be an issue.
And while this is probably the hottest it's ever been when I've been on a cruise- at least there was a mister and plenty of water activities to help cool you down!
On the other side of the ship, on Deck 13 there was a nine hole mini golf course. We decided to play that later- when the sun wasn't beating down quite so much- and continued around the ship.
We found ourselves over by the pool area and decided to take a dip. While the pool got crowded at times, if you were willing to do it when the ship was in port, or even after about 6 pm, you had plenty of space to yourself.
Heading back from the pool, we took the promenade, and stopped by another complimentary dining option: Cafe Promenade. Here you'll find fruit, sandwiches and desserts.
But you can also get coffee there. The regular and decaf stuff is self serve, but if you want Starbucks stuff you'll have to pay extra. That is the thing about cruise ships- there is a lot of "extras" to get. We did spring for the wifi because I was just too worried about the kids not having a way to contact us. But we skipped all the soda and drink packages. You can get basic water, juice (at breakfast), lemonade, and coffee without paying any extra or ordering a package, but that's about it. Most packages are pricey- and priced per person per day (with you having to get them for every person in your stateroom). You have to have like 8 drinks a day to even break even. Thats bananas. But, there is one other option on Royal Caribbean: the Coffee card. This is a punch card that doesn't have to be purchased for everyone in your room, and can be used by anyone. Basically we got 15 punches for coffees of our choice for $30. So, we sprang for that. And, it was perfect for us and our four night cruise. We got iced coffees and hot coffees whenever the mood struck! Those Cafe Promenade guys were our buddies by the end of the cruise, for sure.
Lucky for us we were able to get on the ship before noon, so we had done all of this and headed back to our room before we even left port. We watched us pull out from our room
And as we got further away, we headed just one stairway up to deck 4 to watch us head out into the Atlantic Ocean. Oddly enough, it's my first Atlantic Ocean cruise! I had heard the Atlantic and the Gulf were a bit easier on the motion sickness than the Pacific. That added up for me, as I did much better sea-sickeness wise in Mexico than I did in Alaska or Hawaii. But, Mexico was also when I discovered the sea sickness wrist bands. I know they don't work for everyone, but they do seem to help me. I bought a two pack to bring with us, and put them on whenever we were moving at a good speed, and I did great with them this time. Eventually if you wear them a lot, the area around your thumbs will start to get sore. Luckily, there were a few times the water was so calm/we were going so slow, I got to take them off.
After we were out to sea and on our way, it was nearing time for dinner. There's a couple of options for meals in the main dining room. You can choose early dinner (at 5:30), late dinner (8:30) or my time dining, when you just show up. I'd not read good things about my time dining (long waits and iffy service) and 8:30 is much too late for dinner for me, so we went with 5:30. The main dining room is three decks tall, with our seating on Deck 4.
I had emailed Royal Caribbean about two weeks before our cruise asking for a table just for two (I was not all about being sat with strangers), and I just threw in there that it would be great if it was a window seat, if that was at all possible. We did get a window seat, and a table for two, so that was nice!
The menu in the main dining room rotates. There's a few things that stay the same, but mostly you get a new menu each night. When we ordered, I asked if I could get my dessert first, and our waiters both thought this was just hilarious. They said it was a new one, nobody had ever asked for that before. But, it makes sense to me. I want to make sure I have the room for dessert. If I have an appetizer and a main dish the odds of that happening are not great. Our waiters were happy to oblige, though. And they brought me out the cheesecake I requested while Asa had his appetizer.
Asa got some truffle mushroom soup, that tasted better than it looked, for his appetizer. And for dinner he got some sort of shrimp and fish.
I went surf and turf with a crab cake and steak.
So, here is the thing about the food on this ship: I remembered cruise ship food being better. Don't get me wrong, it was good. But none of it was memorable. Now, I have had "Specility Dining" on a lot of cruises- the stuff you pay extra for, is included in your suite, or is thrown at you as an upgrade for free when you book. And those have always been stellar. To be fair, we didn't have any special dining on this trip. It was all the complimentary stuff. And also, I haven't been on a cruise in awhile. Our idea of amazing food is just different now. I mean, we eat at Disney, a lot. And Disney has some great stuff. Homecomin? Sannaa? California Grill? Even Polite Pig and Pepe. Delicious. Anyway, still a lovely dinner with Asa and a great view.
Asa also got a dessert: a pear and blueberry crumble. It was good, and it was one of the few desserts I would have a second time (the next night it was in the Windjammer). The blueberry took over though, which disappointed Asa a little as he was most excited about the 'pear' part. Good thing he had me to help him eat it.
Of course after dinner we walked back to our room by way of the Promenade to get ourselves some after dinner coffee. It would become our routine.
We went back to our room to change into some more comfy clothes before we set off to explore the ship in the evening. The top decks were realitively quiet around dinner time. They showed movies at the pool, but even then there wasn't too many people on the deck or swimming.
And the aft of the boat was basically abandoned. It was just me and Asa back there playing games.
Most of the stuff back there is closed at night time, like the Sky Pad and the Rock Climbing Wall. But, you can still access things like the Basketball/Soccer area.
There's also a little playground of leaves or whatever you want to call it- a climbing place for kids. I circled the whole thing and found no rules that said it was ONLY for kids, and nobody else was on it- or even around- literally you couldn't see anyone else back there- so I started to climb up. For a split second Asa was like 'what are you doing?' and I wasn't even through explaining there were no rules explicity telling adults not to climb, when he started following me up.
We climbed all the way to the top, which was pretty far (and I'm just now realizing I didn't take a picture of the play area as a whole), and enjoyed the view for awhile. I lamented the fact I didn't bring desserts to eat up there, and swore I'd do it another night, but spoiler alert, we were busy with other things and never went back.
After my talk of desserts, Asa decided we should at least go "check out" Windjammers to see what they had to eat, so we'd know if we wanted to skip formal night for the buffet the following night. (Of course, neither of us had brought- or even actually own- formal night wear, so I knew we were skipping that anyway). Still, "checking out" the buffet turned into an entire plate of food.
And, I am also guilty, as it turned into an entire plate of desserts for me. The beignet type stick with the chocolate drizzle turned out to the best. The pineapple upside down cake got biggest disappointment for the night, as it was less pinapple and more just like vanilla cake.
We wandered around the ship some more- I'm telling you after dinner those top decks became ghost towns. Asa and I just had a knack this trip for being an hour ahead or an hour behind the crowds.
And we did head down to Playmakers, the Sports Bar to catch some Monday night football. The food at Playmakers always looked good, but it was an upcharge, albeit a reasonable upcharge (something like $6 for nachos). If the cruise had been longer than 4 nights I would have eaten here to mix it up for sure.
Arriving back in our room we had seen that our room attendent, Ida (pronounced Eee-duh) had turned it all down for us.
So we got cozy and enjoyed the sway of the boat helping lull us to sleep. We made the most of our first day aboard the ship and looked forward to Tuesday morning, where we'd wake up at Royal Caribbean's private island, Coco Cay.
Next Up: Perfect Day at Coco Cay
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