I love Christmas activities, Christmas music, Christmas cheer. All of it. More than anyone else in this house. Asa especially is not a big Christmas fan (he didn't have the best of Christmas's growing up), but I'm starting to get him to come around, between the neighborhood community lights and my idea of a "Holidaycation" this year, he now calls himself "Mr. Christmas".
Holidaycation first came about because we got our hands on a FREE Decemeber cruise. Ok, not totally free, you do have to pay port taxes and fees plus gratuities. So, about $300 all together. But for two people on a three day cruise, that's not bad! We got it by playing this stupid slot game, where we literally have never spent a single dime of real cash (very occassionally I'll use some of my Google Play money from taking surveys to "buy" some chips, but that's it).
Anyway, so here we were cashing in 1 million coins from MyVegas and going on a cruise! Asa had some hours to burn at work too, so we decided to go away for the whole week. First the holiday cruise, then some time in Orlando to hit up the theme parks to take in the holidays there too.
We started Monday by driving on over to Port Canaveral. We parked in the same place we did for our September cruise (Port Canaveral Parking is quick, convenient and easy to use), and took the shuttle over to our old stomping grounds of Independence of the Seas (hey, when it's free you don't complain you just took this cruise a couple months ago).
This go around on Indpendence of the Seas, we added on "the key". It was on sale as a black friday thing for $20 a person/per day, but it came with lunch in the main dining room on embarkation day (which we had for $17 per person), and internet for both people (we had it for one person for $15 a day). Basically, we decided if we cancelled our lunch and internet, and added the key instead, it would be worth the money. Not only would we get lunch and internet (and now for both of us instead one of us), but we had exclusive times for certain activities, reserved seating at shows, and breakfast in the main dining room on disembarkcation day. Seemed worth trying it out for our three day cruise.
Our first stop after being able to use a "priority key" line to get on the ship, was the main dining room. I like the buffet on a cruise ship, but it gets a little crazy the day you set sail. So, I was excited to have a more laid back feel when we first boarded. We checked into the desk outside the main dining room, handed over our carry on luggage (another nice perk that we didn't have to drag that around until our room opened up), and were given some drinks and ushered to our table.
I was pretty hungry, so I was happy they brought some bread to our table right away. I love pretzle bread sticks on cruise ships!
After we placed our order, we decided to open our Key envelope they handed to us when they checked us in at the main dining room.
It listed all of our benefits, and the exclusive times for things like ice skating, rock climbing, the airpard and the flo-rider.
Lunch in the main dining room is served by Chops, the specialty dining venue. You get an appetizer, an entree and a side, and a dessert. Asa got the cesar salad, and I got the shrimp cocktail. Both were good, but as we like to say, "unimaginitive".
My main dish was a filet mignon and mashed potatoes. Both were delicious, and among the best things I had on the cruise ship.
Asa opted for some burger, bison I think, maybe? And some mac and cheese. The burger was delicious, the mac and cheese wasn't super impressive, but it got the job done.
And for dessert we had cheesecake and molton lava cake. Again, delicious. Probably some of the best deserts on the cruise ship.
After lunch, we were told that our room was ready. It was weird not to have to explore the ship, since we knew where everything was, so we just headed down the Royal Promenade to our stateroom.
This time, though, the promenade was all decorated for Christmas! It was a holiday cruise, after all!
Since this was a free cruise, we were just given a luck of the draw inside stateroom. We did bid the minimum for an upgrade through Royal Up, but were unsuccessful (we thought that would likely be the case bidding the minimum). I was actually excited to try out an inside room, though. They're always by far the cheapest- and for only three days, I figured if I hated not having a window, at least I would know. However, we found our room super comfortable. It was cooler than our window room, and so dark at night we both slept really well. It was a little disorienting waking up in the morning and having no idea if it was light outside, but it wasn't terrible.
We were up on Deck 6 this time, which tended to be a little quieter than our room on Deck 3, though sometimes you could hear the base from the Starlight Lounge. Still, we were just two floors away from the Schooner Bar for trivia, and one floor away from Sorrentos, so not a bad spot.
Thanks to the key, when we arrived in our room, our carry on luggage was waiting for us, and we were gifted a bowl of fruit.
This go around we were going to try and forgo the coffee card, but the regular free coffee on the ship is just... not that great. Like, it's servicable. But, eh. So, we decided to get the coffee card again. Can Corinne and Asa drink 15 coffees on a three night cruise? Yes, yes, they can.
We also so happened to be on the cruise ship for Monday night football, when the Bucs were playing the Saints (Sadly, thanks to the timing of this we missed T'Ola being back in Tampa-boo!). Anyway, the Bucs made the daily planner!
And it wasn't just the Bucs playing- it was also World Cup time! And they played all the games not only in Playmakers, but also on the big screen on the pool deck.
Now, I know it hadn't been that long since lunch, but we did swing by Windjammer to split a couple desserts and some cheese fries, because, why not?
After hitting up Windjammer, we made our way over for a little putt putt.
The weather this go around was also nicer. Perfect, in fact. A nice non-humid 75 degrees made sitting on the deck comfortable.
Since we didn't have a window this time, we decided to watch us sail away from Deck 13.
There were four ships in Port that day, and we got to be the third to leave, so we watched the others depart first.
And since the time had changed since the last time we were on the boat, sunset was much earlier. We left as the sun was setting, making for some gorgeous pictures.
After we sailed away we headed down for some Sorrentos pizza, and then to 5:30 pm trivia at the Schooner bar.
But we made the mistake of sitting at the bar, and looking out the windows- which started in on my motion sickness. Even a nice tall glass of water couldn't help me. Sadly, that kind of put a damper on the rest of the night. Asa, ever the best husband, sat with me in our room in the dark and got me whatever I needed. We did put the Bucs game on too, so I could listen to it- but we turned it off at halftime and missed the big comeback.
Lame that after not getting motion sick at all on our last cruise, I was missing one whole night of just a three day cruise due to feeling crappy. But, this was pretty much it for me- I felt ok the rest of the time. I think the waters were just choppier this go around.
Next up: Holidaycation, Day 2
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