Our Fabulous Liberty Cruise: Photo Review Part 3 (Cruise Day 2- At Sea)

So we woke up the following morning at around 10:30 AM. Because we were in an inside, I thought it was about 8:00 and was surprised when I looked at my phone (on airplane mode, no roaming charges) to see that it was so late!

















Crystal had some plans to do several activities, so she got dressed quickly and cheerily made her way to the Royal Promenade. She’s a total activities girl. Myself, I love the sunshine and sea breezes you experience while on a cruise, so I was anticipating some wonderful, relaxing time on the pool deck with my Kindle Fire.

Rae decided to join me as she had the same thing in mind. Before that, we went to breakfast, her favorite meal of the day. She reasons that you can only find bacon and eggs on the ship for breakfast, all the other foods are readily available the entire rest of the day. So breakfast is not to be missed on our trips. Fortunately, the Windjammer was open until 11:30 AM.

It took a couple minutes to find a seat, and once we did, we found one right by the window. Now, having had two cool, rainy days so far, I was getting concerned about the weather. Well my worries were totally unfounded. What an incredible view to go with breakfast!







 We put our things down and went to get some food. I tried the omelet station. They can make omelets, but people don't realize that they can fry or scramble plain eggs, fresh for you. Rae got eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese.

My omelet had ham, cheddar, mushrooms, and tomatoes. So yummy. Sorry, it was so good that I took a bite (or two or three) before taking the pic:



I have to say kudos to the omelet station attendant. She's in the pic above. I don't recall her name, but she was always so polite, patient, and friendly in the midst of the chaos that is the Windjammer. She always had a smile.


Next, we stopped at Royal Caribbean Online (walked down to Deck 8) for a couple minutes on the Internet. All I wanted to do was email Wesley and check to see if I had any business orders. I paid by the minute, no need for a package. I think my Gold Crown and Anchor Coupon paid for that 5 minutes that morning







I had always wanted to see the Art Auction, and it was in the On Air Club that day. I was an Art History and International Business (interesting mix) major in college. Plus they were serving free champagne. Checking it out couldn't hurt . We got our tickets and admired the great artwork. Once we found out that the painting I liked had a base price of $3900 …….it was time to go, lol.

I really enjoy Romero Britto's work. You'll find it on RCI ships often. I loved his painting of a dog. Reminded me of my beagle, Dewey (his pic is my avatar here on CC).

A beautiful, passionate piece:

Cheers!




 We made our way to the pool deck, and boy was it packed!

We were fortunate to quickly find two chairs up on the 12th deck, with a good view of the activities and the screen. The sun was strong and warm- love it! The staff was out in full force selling cold beverages. I had a bottle for cold water that I refilled in the Windjammer (poured the water into cups, then into my bottle) pretty often. I would also refill it with water from room service at night, and leave in the fridge to get really cool for the next day.

No need to buy anything- we just had some champagne, and actually brought it up to the pool deck with us!



 So the rest of our day was spent moving from pool to pool in the main area. We would read and nap in the sun, then cool off in one of the pools. We did stroll around a bit and got some photos of the cantilevered whirlpools in the Solarium. It’s funny; I didn’t spend much time in the solarium this time. There was so much to see in such a short time, I wanted to maximize our time on deck. I will note that the whirlpool in the Solarium, on the port side of the ship, had nice, hot water. I know a lot of people on CC have been complaining about the temp of the hot tubs, and that was one on the ship that was plenty hot.

If you want a place that's completely silent, there's a St. Tropez deck in the forward section of the ship. Take the steps on the pool deck to Deck 12. On the starboard side, you'll see a sign leading you up to the area. It's completely quiet and tranquil. A little too quiet for me. There were a lot of nappers and readers up there. A beautiful spot to take a nap.









Looking down from the St. Tropez Deck, into the Solarium:

In the Solarium:







The beautiful view from the Deck 12 pool area:


 Our plan was to head to Sorrento’s for lunch, then come back to the pool deck. We had a great lunch there. I love Italian food, especially antipasto, so this place was a favorite of mine. The grilled veggies and salami were excellent. The tiramisu was delicious too.

Once we returned to the pool area, we noticed it had emptied out quite a bit. It was formal night, and I’m pretty sure people had to go get ready for the early dinner seating. More room for us at the pool!

 
After about another hour, we returned to our room to find Crystal there with lots of bags from shopping and activities on the ship. She had a ball that day! She played Bingo (a hilarious story is to come about her Bingo adventures), went to Johnny Rocket’s, and participated in the cupcake decorating class (where she made a burger and fries cupcake).

She also did some shopping and socializing. She never ran out of things to do. She was tired and decided to take a nap, and so did Rae. While they were doing that, I figured I could steal away to do something I’ve been wanting to do: enjoy the steam room in the spa area, *sigh* That would also give me the chance to shower in a bigger stall, leaving time for Crystal and Rae to use the stateroom shower before dinner.

I went back up to Deck 12 to stroll the walkway leading to the spa area, in the forward section of the ship. Clouds were rolling in, I used the toy camera effect on my camera to take these.

And then the super vivid mode for this shot:

At the spa desk, I asked for a locker and got my key. They take your Seapass and give it back to you when you return the key.

I went back down to Deck 11 by the spiral staircase in the spa. You’ll find the door to the ladies’ locker room to the left of the boxing ring.


I opened the door and walked into such a tranquil space.

I enjoyed the steam room for about 5 minutes before a group of young women came in chattering away. I mean, they were loud, screaming with laughter once in a while and talking loudly the rest of the time. It kind of annoyed me, and I sighed pretty loud a couple times to let them know that someone else was in there, but to no avail. They were loud…and left a few seconds before I did. They went into the sauna, and I did have the steam room to myself, which was lovely. I tried to curb my irritation and relish my moments in the steam room.

Speaking of the steam room: the entire room is made of warm tiles, with a long bench for plenty of room for people. I was able to lay down in there by myself the whole time. The steam builds up to become pretty hot, and you can’t see all that much. It felt so nice to be in there, and then take a shower. I used an ultra-rich moisturizer I brought with me on the cruise for just this purpose. My skin was glowing by the time I left the spa. And all for free!

More locker room images:





 

After my time in the spa area, I returned, totally relaxed, to our stateroom. Rae and Crystal were awake and starting to get ready for formal night. I ordered some room service to hold us over until dinner. I tipped the delivery man $2.

Whenever I sail Royal, I have to order their cheese platter- several different types of cheese with crackers and a little fruit. My favorite is the brie, it spreads so nicely onto the crackers and has a rich, nutty flavor. I also got the spinach dip. There was enough for all of us to share. They loved the spinach dip. I got some iced tea for us as well. I also normally order two extra glasses of ice water, to put in the fridge to have later that night.

Crystal had a playlist on her laptop, so we had some fun music playing as we got ready. After primping for quite some time, Rae and I were ready but Crystal was running a little behind. She told us to go on ahead and she would meet us at the dining room. So off we went to take some photos:

As soon as I saw these couches on Deck 4, I HAD to take a photo:














We stopped at Bolero’s since I wanted to see the Latin Dance party before dinner. It was almost over by the time we arrived, but we did get a chance to shimmy for a quick minute. Loved our shoes!

We met with Crystal for dinner in the MDR, and had a really nice meal. My menu was missing the appetizer section but I remember what we had:

Crystal and Rae had the shrimp cocktail. I tried the papaya and pineapple soup because of everyone's raving about the cold soups...not a fan....it wasn't completely sweet, and wasn't totally savory...it was a kind of strange in-between that I got a little tired of eating. Alonso noticed that I wasn't happy with it, so he brought me a shrimp cocktail too

 We all had the Seafood Brochette- very good! The sauce went with everything perfectly and the seafood was seasoned well.

We took some more photos throughout the meal:

Alonso and the Head Waiter (I can't recall her name, but she was AMAZING!) came over with three different desserts with candles and wished us Happy Birthday. Very sweet.

Something else I forgot to note: the first night, our Head Waiter came over to greet us and ask if there was anything we wanted that they didn't have, or anything that her staff could improve upon. I heard here on CC that you could request a bowl of berries for dessert if you didn't like what was on the menu. The first night, they didn't have any, but guess what? Not only did they have a bowl for me, they had a bowl for Crystal and Rae too! I had mine with the chocolate souffle.

After dinner we wandered the ship a bit before the In the Air Show. We took photos on the Royal Promenade and in Bolero's. They were playing some salsa music and there was an adorable older lady who was dancing away. She actually put us to shame a bit, lol! You can see her next to Rae and Crystal in the photos below; Rae was reacting to how well she was dancing. Crystal was busting a move right with her





We really enjoyed In the Air. If you like Cirque du Soleil-type shows, you'll enjoy this one. I know a lot of people complained about the show, and I really don't understand why. I guess it's all dependent on your tastes. The athleticism alone needed to complete the stunts is incredibly impressive. Plus, they were done on a moving ship! Incredible! We really loved this one. Because of copyright issues I couldn't take photos of the actual show, but I have a couple of the actors in the vestibule of the Platinum Theatre, as well as the presenter of the show. It was kind of a Carnival theme, very cool. We arrived about 10 minutes before showtime and got pretty good seats with no problem. Most of the show was done 'In the Air,' so it would have been tough to have a bad seat.








Because we had such a busy day in Cozumel scheduled, we decided to go to bed after the show. After all that walking around, we had to take our shoes off to get to our room, lol!

We found this little guy in our room upon our return. Those are Crystal's sunglasses.

Thank you for following along with me so far! Next up, our AMAZING day in Cozumel! Please be sure to ask questions and leave comments. 

Continue to Part 4 here.