Scenes from the Harmony of the Seas

One of the things I soon realized was that technology was going to be important on the ship.  Everything was organized by your room number which was also connected to your status (Diamond or not), your credit card and all the activities you registered for.  I did not realize you could reserve space at all the shows up until 3 days before your cruise left, so we were at a disadvantage from the beginning.  But we bought the internet and downloaded the app and started reserving shows and dining times.  That was a relief to the type A half of my traveling personality.  The type B part wanted the sun, the water, and a massage.

The ship was so large, it was a challenge just to figure out where you were.  We managed to navigate by learning which floors contained the activities we were most interested in.  Like eating. That was on the 4th floor.  For dinner.  But there were lots of other options, including the giant buffet and the restaurants were spread around the ship.  So it was complicated. The first two days were at sea, so we did a lot of walking and exploring while trying to avoid the major crowds. There was a starbucks, a carrosel, a casino, an ice rink, a huge auditorium a spa and beauty parlor, and a whole bunch of bars.  Whew.

After an afternoon at the main pools on the 15th floor, listening to loud annoying techno music for two hours, dodging screaming kids and drunken adults, we spent some time going from bow to stern to try and locate a more relaxing spot.  And we found it.  The solarium was at the very front of the boat.  It had baffles to interrupt the wind that is usually a problem at the bow, and lots of sun, quiet, lounge chairs and two hot tubs.  There was also a small buffet with really good food and hardly any germy kids!  Yay!

We enjoyed getting dressed up and going to the Diamond club room before dinner where we had snacks and free drinks.  Dinner in the dining room was great and felt a lot safer than eating in the buffet.  Jeff tried the casino, but found the machines to be less than rewarding.  Jeff tried out the Abyss slide and we both enjoyed the water slides.  Even on our at sea days, there was plenty to do (or not do). 

By the end of our voyage, we had gotten into a good routine, met some people that were fun to hang out with and were able to make our way around the ship without getting lost too many times

Central Park in the middle of the ship

15th floor.  The zip line

Miniature golf

Surfing.  Some people were really good at it.

Toward the stern.  The purple tubes are the Abyss slide

The main adult pool

The Solarium

Peace at last

The weirdly sexual sculpture.

The chandelier in the main dining room

James Bond at Casino Royale

Diamond Member lounge

Enjoying free wine

A rare moment alone in an elevator

Hitting the nightclub

Jeff enters "The Abyss" which drops 9 stories!

Ahhhh, the Solarium

Headed Home

Mea Culpa and The Biggest Cruise Ship in the World

Hello everyone and welcome to the renewal of our blog.  This is Kathy, and I admit that ever since last spring, I have been neglectful of keeping up with our blog.  I know that many of you have expressed missing the concise and entertaining prose and National Geographic quality photos that characterized the blog in the past. (Ha-ha)  My only excuse is that it's hard to catch up once you get behind.  I'm going to do my best though.  I'll start with our most recent adventure.

I have really been enjoying my first months of retirement.  Jeff and I got our little property ready for cold weather and planned our winter getaways.  First on the agenda was a cruise of the Eastern Caribbean.  So after a lovely Thanksgiving celebration, we packed our bags and left for Ft. Lauderdale FL on Nov. 30.  The best part of the flight was coming into Newark airport when we could see all of New York City including the Statue of Liberty in the harbor.  We got to our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, got settled and enjoyed the view of sea and harbor. The next day we spent most of our time at the pool and the rest at the beach.  A Hispanic couple was getting married on the shore and it was fun to watch the ceremony and listen to the waves.  We walked to a great seafood restaurant and celebrated the start of our trip with a mouth puckeringly delicious slice of real key lime pie.  Yummm!

Views from our room

At the pool

vacation ready

Ft. Lauderdale Beach

The wedding

On December 2, we repacked and caught the shuttle to the cruise ship.  Due to Jeff's "Diamond" status with Royal Caribbean, we jumped through all the hoops in record time.  I had read about the ship, but actually seeing the worlds largest cruise ship, all 17 floors, and with rooms for 6500 people was amazing.  We had lunch in a giant buffet and put on our suits for a trip to the pool which was crowded and noisy. By the time we fought our way through the crowd to our stateroom and saw that the ship was beginning to leave port, I was in tears.  How could I survive a whole week in this giant floating hotel with all these people???  But Jeff was reassuring.  He convinced me that we would soon get used to where things were and find spots that were more quiet and restful.

Boarding the big ship

Leaving port and a view of the ship behind us

off to sea

After the meltdown.....feeling better

And enjoying the balcony

Through Wyoming and on to Mt Rushmore

The breakfast at the King's Inn was pretty weird what with all those dead animals staring down at us with their glassy eyes.  But we got the car loaded and headed east with the goal of making it to Mt. Rushmore by the evening.  But first we had to get through the rest of Wyoming.  We set the GPS in the car for Keystone South Dakota.....the gateway to the prezes, and hit the road following Rt 14.  Soon after we passed the town of Shell, WY, we were in a totally different environment.  We had unknowingly come to the Bighorn Scenic Highway which leads through the northern part of the Bighorn range.  Our mouths literally dropped open in amazement at the sights before us.  Rising before us were ancient rock formations that were the remnants of an inland sea.  Signage told us that the rocks were millions, even billions of years old and were raised to the heights of 8000-10000 feet by the forces that shaped the rockies.  The colors and shapes were beyond description.

After slowly zig-zagging through the gigantic blocks of ancient rock, we started to descend to the plains below.  Then mile after mile of prairie faced us and also the traffic of I-90.

By 4 pm we were approaching our destination.  Jeff was worried that there would be a long line of tourists such as he had experienced on another trip, but luckily he was wrong.  The traffic was light and we got through Keystone and all the tourist traps to find easy parking and a short walk through the pavilion to the presidents on Mt. Rushmore.

After visiting the presidents and talking to people from all over the states, we broke our diet for ice cream and again headed east with the goal of getting as far through South Dakota as we could.  We stopped at the famous Wall Drugstore for dinner and made it as far a Kadoka SD before we had to stop for the night at the Sundowner Motel.....a decidedly "budget" lodging.  The air conditioning and shower were fine, but the bed was the hardest ever.

The famous Wall Drugstore.  Tourist trap supreme!

Sundown at the Sundowner