The train ride itself was pretty relaxing. I played a lot of music, including "When in Rome" by Nickel Creek. Getting to the boat from the train station, well, that was a tremendous pain. There were no working elevators to go downstairs and then upstairs. So I had to lug 70 pounds of suitcases downstairs, then through a 15 foot long tunnel, and then finally upstairs. My mom kept telling me not to run over the woman in front of me. Like it was my intention to take her down. Anyway we tried to get Euros for the bus to get to the shuttle bus, and no, that's not a misprint. After a little pleading and reasoning, we got the ride. Then we were the last two to board the shuttle bus, and I had to hold on because there were no seats to be found.
Check in was pretty simple. We did give in and we got the deluxe drink package, which includes the alcohol. I hesitated to do it because I didn't know if I'd drink enough to justify the price. But after a Mai Tai, and sampling a mojito, and seeing the ridiculous prices, it wasn't a hard choice.
The Symphony of the Seas is just about the largest boat on the Royal Caribbean cruise line, not the longest, but the biggest in terms of gross tonnage. I'm particularly looking forward to the zip line. I've never had a balcony room on a cruise ship before. But I'm glad mom upgraded from an interior balcony, where we'd have a view of another room to an exterior balcony where we could view the ocean. The Central Park feature on the eighth floor is a nice addition with fine restaurants and shops. In other words, more opportunities to spend a lot of money.
Mom and I triumphed in a disco trivia contest, as we correctly identified 14 of 15 songs. Thankfully, three of them were Bee Gees tracks, so that made me useful. I also hung around for Motown night and spent a few minutes in the jazz club before calling it a night.
No comments:
Post a Comment