Our Royal Caribbean Experience
So, just to preface, this was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean Cruise lines. Paul and I have collectively been on over a dozen cruises, all with Carnival Cruise lines, so we wanted a change. This was the longest cruise we've even been on, and the first cruise as a "family", our Baby Man included! I want to use this as a record about the pros and cons of Royal Caribbean versus Carnival.
We planned this cruise with one of my best friends, Kristen (Storey) and her husband Steven. It was their honeymoon cruise, and our first cruise as a family. There were a hand full of priorities we were looking for in this cruise...
- Longer cruise - we've only really done max 5 night cruises, and this one was 7 nights
- Destination - we've been to Cozumel and Nassau more times that we'd ever want, so we wanted to go somewhere we've never been before.
- Baby friendly - I did a good bit of research before we planned the cruise, and wanted to be sure there was plenty of options for Liam from activities to babysitting, to family friendly dining.
- Party Atmosphere - Paul, as many of your know is all about the night life, so we wanted to be able to cut loose when possible.
- Awesome Food - We wanted to experience a variety of options relative to dining! That's what cruising is about right?
So to start, when we booked the cruise, Royal Caribbean was offering a promotion in which the 3rd and 4th stateroom guest get to stay free, so we only paid for Liam's taxes, fees and gratuity. That was a huge perk! We had heard so many great things about Royal Caribbean, so we were ready to book!
From sailing day, we could tell immediately this ship was pretty grand! Freedom of the Seas can hold 3600 guests plus another 1300 crew members. It's pretty amazing. We had a nice array of dining options, from the buffet style in WindJammer, Fine Dining in the various dining rooms, a 24 hour café, not to mention the Pizzeria and room service of course! This was all included, but there were additional dining options like a Steak House, Italian Restaurant, and more! On top of this, there was a very cool shopping mall area and awesome pools on deck 11.
We booked an interior room, cause we figured we wouldn't be in the room, and for some reason the room felt a LOT smaller than what we've experience on Carnival. It might have been that we also had a pack and play in the room, but we have decided in the future we would definitely want to do an outer room, whether it's an ocean view or a balcony. And now that we are on the rooms, let's address the stateroom service. Our attendant was very cool, and would open our door for us on many occasions when he was nearby and we were juggling the baby. We only wished he had a little more practice and creativity with the towel animals, definitely room for improvement there! ;)
Now onto excursions! First stop was COCO CAY! This island is owned by Royal Caribbean, and it was a great option to be able to get off the boat and relax on the a gorgeous Caribbean beach. They had a food area where you could get burgers, hot dogs, fruit and other easy options. They also had waiters walking around the island with drinks, and you just handed them the sail and sign card and you're golden! They had plenty of activities, but we took this time to chill on the beach. The water was shallow and there were barely any waves, so it was great for letting Liam roam without worry!
We had to take a water taxi from the boat to the island, so that was my only complaint. When we were headed back to the ship there was a ridiculous line for people waiting to catch the boat back to the ship (we estimated waiting over an hour)! Liam was not a happy camper for sure! But we survived and were happy to get back for more play!
Next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. This was a detour to our original plan which was St. Thomas. Unfortunately there was a crew member that was ill and they had to get them medical assistance right away - ironically the fastest option was to stop in Nassau, which didn't leave us the time to get to St. Thomas. So, San Juan it was! We didn't dock until late afternoon, so it was a short trip. We decided to just wander the city a bit, hit up some shops - Specifically Pandora! Happy Birthday to me! ;) and then we just walked around some more before we headed back to the boat. There was some beautiful architecture. Definitely a cool place to visit. Obviously we would have liked to have more time here, but that was an uncontrollable, and we made the best of the time we had.
Next stop St. Maarten! I've heard mixed reviews about this island by people that have stayed at resorts here - specifically how safe it was, so we decided to leave Liam on the ship in the nursery for this day. Paul wanted to use this stop to get some beautiful shots of the island and get a taste of local food. We decided once we got off the boat, to see if we couldn't get a cab to some random spots and ended up doing a tour around the entire island! St. Maarten is divided into the Dutch side and the French side, and we checked out both sides! Our tour guide did an awesome job with two 20-30 minute stops in which we could grab lunch and walk around. We stopped by the airport and there were planes taking off right over the beach where people were in the water...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PywSDOYJS2c
...Marigot Market for lunch, and back around the island to our starting point... we learned a lot about the island. Of course Paul saw a couple that was riding around on ATVs and said "next time that's what we're getting!" We shall see... haha
We ended this island day with some more shopping! Paul has been on a kick about getting a new watch - thank you Matthew Levine. No really, THANK YOU, cause I made out even better than Paul! We both walked away with some awesome watches, but I got the better end of the deal there! Another Happy Birthday to me! And of course it's duty-free, so you can't beat that!
Now for our Days at Sea! I decided to leave those to last cause we did have three and a half days at sea. The pools were great, but one HUGE disappointment was the fact that Liam was confined to a lousy baby pool with a non-functioning fountain. It was a huge bummer when you see the awesome H20 Zone they have. I know it's regulation, but I guess some cruises are a little more strict than others, and in this case very strict! If we wanted to enjoy the pools, Liam was in daycare. Don't get me wrong, Liam had fun in the baby pool.. for about 15-20 minutes and then he wanted more... Below is the cool H20 zone that Liam wasn't allowed in.
Two of our 3.5 days at sea, we used the daycare for 4-5 hours so we could get some baby free pool time, and I will say the daycare was AMAZING! I was very concerned going on a cruise/vacation with the baby feeling like I wouldn't get any relaxation time, but we did and it was wonderful! The daycare staff was great and while Liam wasn't always very happy when he realized we were leaving him, he quickly started playing and calmed down!
That is one thing I have been very torn about going back to Carnival with the baby, is that they seem to have limited daycare hours, the Camp Carnival is only for ages 2+, and they don't offer any in-room baby sitting. We didn't use that option with Carnival but, it's nice to know we would have that option!
Next on our list of wants was a party atmosphere, and I have say that was lacking on Royal Caribbean. It was obviously a family style cruise, but the clubs were very dispersed and almost seemed hard to find. On Carnival they were all grouped together. We did see a comedy show which was very good, but even that ended earlier than we expected! The daycare closed at 12PM (Midnight), and it seemed like a lot of other things closed not long after that! But we did get out and have a good time. They did have a casino, which also adds to the cruise experience, but on this ship it felt oddly placed.
We did however enjoy the wide variety of dining options! Liam was welcome in all the dining areas, even though there were times we decided daycare was a better option. Liam loved the pizzeria, and we were in the Windjammer for several breakfast, lunches and dinners! But the highlight was definitely the fine dining, and we were especially pleased with the second formal dinner! We had some lobster tail, filet mignon, rich cheese ravioli and some decadent deserts. We also checked out some of the paid options, including Johnny Rockets, for a traditional burger and sundaes, and our last evening we splurged on Chops steak restaurant. That was definitely the premium dining experience!
In comparison between the Royal Caribbean and Carnival dining experiences, we think that the food is on par with each other. I feel like you get a little more "American" style dining with Carnival, and a more European dining experience with Royal Caribbean. They were both delicious. I will say the room service options on Carnival definitely hit the spot more. Carnival seemed to have more options, but both are pretty wonderful.
I did like with Royal Caribbean we could order room service through our TV, but I think because of that system, room service took longer and they had horrible phone operation services. I don't know how many times I tried to call room service, or one of the dining rooms or even the guest services and it would just ring and ring and ring. But it wasn't the end of the world, and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience!!
Check out some of more photos from our last night!
You can see the rest of the photos here!
NYC…Better Late than Never
Following our trip to Philly, we headed to NYC to visit with our good friends Derrick and Jesus, and celebrate my birthday in the city! We got to check out their new place and have fun running around the city!
Day One:
First stop, Derrick and Jesus' place! It's a nice spot in Jersey, a short drive from the city! They fell in love with the colorful living and dining rooms.
Next stop, Katz Deli! Paul had to get the notorious pastrami and swiss, as seen on Adam Richman's Man v. Food, and of course the orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally! Everything was delish!
From Katz, we headed around town for some more pics, but ended our evening with some of Paul's best work yet. NYC photos from Brooklyn! They turned out amazing! It was funny because this was the photo spot, and there were so many people with cameras out there.
It was a fun-filled day, and we felt pretty good about everything we did.
Day Two:
My birthday, YEAH! All I really wanted, was some birthday cake, so we decided to head to Greenwich Village for a little window shopping and to go to The Magnolia Bakery (as seen in Sex and the City), and we got some amazing cupcakes! The peanut butter and jelly cupcake was my favorite! We decided to enjoy our deserts in the park right by Bleecker playground, it was definitely the spot to be.
From there we decided to head to China Town for a little more shopping if you know what I mean! ;) I definitely have to say, my birthday was pretty wonderful!
Before we headed back to Derrick's we decided to stop by Time Square for a couple more pictures. Paul outdid himself for sure.
And of course we couldn't leave the city without getting a pic of the Challenger in the city...
Next time - the plan will be to stay in the city… maybe the Waldorf Astoria! hehehe
Our Mustache Bash Baby Shower!
I can't believe it's been an entire month since I've posted a blog, but I guess that is par for the course when you are preparing for a baby on the way! And we couldn't be more grateful as we had an awesome baby shower! It was a mustache bash for our little man Liam!
We had such a great turn-out I was super overwhelmed with everything our little man will have to make life that much easier! We couldn't be more excited and thankful for everything everyone gave us! We had some fun games like word scramble, baby bingo, guess the m&m's in the bottle and my favorite "Guess that Stash". Paul designed the invitations as well as the games, and it was a lot of fun! Then it was onto opening gifts! It was mostly the ladies for the event, but the men came back toward the end and Paul got to help me open a couple of the last presents.
I want to thank everyone that came out (from near and far ;)) and were so gracious to give all these wonderful gifts and I of course want to thank my mother-in-law (Marty) and sister-in-law (Elizabeth) who did an awesome job hosting and pulling things together, my friends Kristin (Storey) and Yarden for helping to set-up, clean-up, and MC... not to mention paint mustaches on mugs with me! And of course I also want to thank Elaine for taking all these awesome pictures!
If you'd like to seem more fun pics from the shower, click here! It won't be long before Liam will be here so stay tuned!
Christmas Breakfast 2012 | CRAZY FUN!!!
Well, we are catching up as usual! But I definitely wanted to be sure to post about our 2012 Christmas Breakfast because it seems to get better and better every year! So last year we ran out of Mimosa's, so we made sure to stock up on the beverages, but this time around we ran out of food (this was a first)! We did a Breakfast Burrito Bar - sorry no pictures, the food went fast! But it's not surprising when we had such an awesome turnout with probably 15 more friends than last year! We had to have had 45 people or so at our house for this awesome holiday gathering!
The food was delicious, but the company was even better! We had a blast visiting with everyone and of course the White Elephant game was an even bigger hit! Lots of great gifts to choose from and people were stealing left and right!
Check out the fun pics Paul caught! Santa even came out!
It was such a fun event we are already scheming for plans next year! We may even have to move locations!
Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Holiday! :)
Bagel Bash 2012 | A "Legendary" Event!
With the exception of 2010 (when Paul and I were married), we have done the Annual Bagel Bash Cruise every year. Our good friend Matt has put this together for years as a celebration around his birthday and in several occasions others birthday's as well! This one was Matt's big 35th birthday and I could only dream about having a gathering of this magnitude!
The Cruise set sail on December 6th, 2012 on the Carnival Paradise with over 20 friends on board for Bagel Bash! Matt was not only surprised by the turn-out this year, going from an intimate gathering of 6 to 8 people to over doubling in size, but he also came to find a lot more planning went into this as we all had our Bagel Bash shirts on board as a surprise and there was even a tribute video! Gloria, Kristy and Paul did a lot of work putting together these special pieces to make Matt's 35th Birthday one he will never forget!
We were on the boat for 4 nights with 2 full days at sea and one day in Cozumel Mexico! It was a blast! Check out some of this great adventure!
The ship left port and we had our first sit down dinner! It was absolutely delicious and so much fun to embark on this awesome trip with so many friends!
Being that I am pregnant (no alcohol for me :( ) for this trip, I was off to bed earlier than others and excited to relax for our first day at sea. Paul on the other hand was ready to party and that he did! He partied so much that we got a very late start on our first full day at sea - honestly we didn't get many picture other than formal night because of that! Paul really enjoyed his black suit with black tie for formal night though! He thought he was a "secret agent!" Hahaha
Everyone looked great for formal night and we were ready for a day in Cozumel! The boat docked at 8AM, and we were off the ship by 9 or so. This was definitely the best time of the entire cruise (at least I thought so)! Matt, Gloria and a hand full of others went on a sailing excursion while Paul and I decided to roam the island! We rented a Chevy convertible and had a blast! First we drove all the way to the end of the island (where the road turned to dirt) and stopped off to visit with some local wildlife. Raccoons! I think... Then we were off to Senor Frog's to meet with Matt and the crew for lunch. We got there early and actually didn't catch them until we were on our way out - Next Stop Paradise Beach to meet up with Curtis and Natacha! The beach was beautiful and the water was clear and refreshing! It was such a great day! After leaving Paradise Beach, Paul decided he wanted some authentic Mexican food... we stopped at this place and they said they'd make us food... it actually turned out to be a whore house! We didn't stay long enough to get the food! From there we worked our way back to the port where we did some shopping (Paul and I got a little sombrero and maracas for our little one on the way! ;)). Then it was back to the ship for Matt's official Birthday and festivities!
One last day at sea! We took this time to relax and enjoy what was left of our vacation! What a great time! And a Happy Happy Birthday to Matt (and Erick)!
Next vacation I'll definitely be planning to have some adult beverages!
Wild Bill's Spooktacular!
My motto these days seems to be "better late than never!" So here is the Wild Bill's Spooktacular! I'm not one to frequent Wild Bill's often, but I have to say that for Halloween it's pretty awesome! It's amazing the creativity that comes out around Halloween, and this is one people watching experience you can't miss out on!
Paul used to be big on throwing Halloween parties, but this is the 2nd year we've gone to Wild Bill's and it does not disappoint! I'd say my only complaint is they didn't get to the Costume Contests soon enough!
Check out some of these awesome customs and at the bottom we have pictures of the winners for the Scariest and Most Original!
We've got our friend Matt dress as the guy from Beastie Boys Sabotage, and with him Gloria as a gangster, me and Paul (can you guess what I am??), "Storey" (Kristin) as a Gothic flapper, and our Robert as a bath salt zombie... There was so many more though!!!
We had a couple of devils, Curtis is a Transformer guy and his girlfriend Natacha is a french maid! There was a zombie alien dad and baby and a zombie version of the Mad Hatter and Alice!
Now for the winners... We stuck around for the Scariest Contest and the Most Original.
For the most original, it was between Kiss' Gene Simmons and the Ghostbusters' Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! And the winner was Marshmallow Man!!! And for Scariest, it was between the evil puppet master and this crazy barbarian skull man (I don't remember what he was calling himself) and the winner was the Barbarian Skull Man! He was definitely scary! Of course I kind of thought the Puppet Master one was cooler!
Hope you enjoyed! To see more awesome pictures and costumes check out the full gallery here! Oh and by the way... if you're still wondering - I was FireFox the web browser! ;)
Atlanta Greek Festival!
A few weeks back we went to the Atlanta Greek Festival with our friends, Elaine and John, and their family. This is an Annual Tradition for Elaine's family as she is very much Greek! The Festival is held at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Atlanta. It was pretty wild as they have to shuttle people over due to the large and growing turn-out every year!
We parked just off Clairmont road and caught the bus over to the festivities! We were able to get some awesome Greek food (Paul and I LOVE Gyro's), check out the shops, listen to some live Greek music, watch the traditional Greek Dancing and of course (my favorite) check out the bake sale!
I was hoping to embed the video Paul took of the Greek Dancing, but I couldn't get it to work. SO click here to see the dancing!
And I'm ending the post with my favorite part! The bake sale! I got Baklava of course, Kourabiedes, and I think Finikia. It was all super delicious and Paul also got a Baklava sundae! Oh My!!!
An Unconditional Love! Derrick and Jesus are Married!
Our close friends Derrick and Jesus were married a couple weekends ago! Paul met Derrick in college and they have been best of friends ever since. And when we met Jesus several years ago we knew our good friend Derrick had found his soul mate!
I love their love as it's so clearly meant to be. I recall years before Derrick ever met Jesus, he told me he could never imagine meeting someone he could spend the rest of his life with. At the time and even now, I couldn't comprehend his way of thinking! I honestly feel like there is someone out there for all of us and we are bound to unite with someone in our lifetime and hopefully that love would continue for a lifetime!
Well Derrick and Jesus definitely found that lifetime love in one another and the ceremony was one of the most emotional I have had the experience of being a part of! Paul was the photographer of course and there are so many wonderful pictures it was so hard to narrow down!
Derrick rented out a beautiful house on Lake Norman (part of our long weekend), and it was a great place for such a fun and loving occasion!
Derrick and Jesus' closest family and friends gathered for the occasion and it was definitely a memorable day and evening! We couldn't have asked for better weather either.
I can't say enough about how sweet and thoughtful the vows were. It was absolutely impossible to hold back the tears! But even through all the emotion they are all smiles. Following the ceremony we jumped right into the party. It was more like a family gathering where everyone could mix, mingle and just have a good time.
Congratulation Derrick and Jesus! Here's to a lifetime of laughter, love and snuggles! We love you guys!
Productivity has NEVER been more fun!
So this weekend was a busy weekend for both Paul and I! While we clearly made time for fun, and those are certainly the highlights of the weekend, for a weekend we spent so much time with friends it was probably the MOST productive weekend we've had in a while!
So Friday night I was with my friend Kristin (Storey) helping her pack up her apartment for a move to a newer and nicer place! I was out with her hanging out and packing things up until about almost 1AM! After leaving her place, I went home to meet up with Paul, Elaine and John!
I wasn't able to spend much time with Elaine and John, but it seemed as though Paul had a really good time with them, and it was nice to see them after they've been away for a vacation to the beach! Elaine had a very nice tan!
Then onto Saturday! On weekend's we're never really early risers, but when we did rise it was time for business! We spent the entire day doing a major cleaning on the house, top to bottom! It was actually quite nice to walk through the house looking so immaculate! We did laundry, vacuumed, steam mopped, cleaned counters, did dishes, and much more! It will be so nice to chill this week in such a clean space!
After knocking out ALL of that cleaning, we had Desi and Tristan over for dinner, drinks, and a whole lot of fun and games! Just a plain good time! It was nice to cut loose and not worry about anything! We talked about anything and everything, played a couple of games and just enjoyed each others company. Tristan was the first to drop off, Desi, Paul and I stayed up a little longer but it wasn't long before we were all off to bed! But it was still another late night ending around 1 or 2AM!
Sunday rolled around and we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Jimmy Johns (they are AWESOME!) on our way over to see my parents! We had to drop off my Dad's van (Paul calls it the race van!) We visited with the parents for a little while and caught up with them, then we were back off to Kristin's again! This time to help her get unpacked and settled in!
When we got there it was just chill, watching TV and chatting and then we got busy emptying boxes! Paul and I must have been on a roll cause we have to have emptied and broken down 20 boxes or more in NO time! Paul hung some stuff for Kristin, and we got some of her electronics set-up. We made some MAJOR headway prior to getting a call from our friend Curtis!
He was getting off work and was ready to party! He stopped over to Kristin's to say congrats on the new place and get us pumped to party with him! It was to be a Hooters' evening! Curtis had a friend/co-worker meeting him at Hooters' so that was the next move! And I have to say, it was the highlight of the weekend!
Paul, Kristin and I met Curtis and his friend John over at Hooters'. The evening started off slow with two pitchers of Stella and some ok food. But once we got through that third pitcher things were starting to get good! Unfortunately John left before Curtis "blew the weekend up!"
Now the ladies at Hooters' get some free time here and there to hoola hoop! I've not seen this before, maybe it's just the location we were at, but Curtis wanted to see some "Hoola Action!" He asked our waitress to show him some hoola action and she was a PRO! And then she told Curtis he had to try! And this is where the fun begins!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj7Fnsp3_rQ&w=750&h=563]
Curtis was HILARIOUS! And honestly a good learner! I don't think I could have picked up on it as fast as he did! This was truly the highlight of my weekend! The best end to an awesome weekend ALL around!
And I'm sure you're probably wondering what the frog is about... following Hooters' we dropped Curtis off at his place and hung out for a bit. When we got there we were greeted by Fred the Frog (he's apparently a neighbor of Curtis'). Paul got that awesome pic on his iPhone and then got this super cool video on his iPhone too! So, meet Fred the Frog!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEsb_hjD_k8&w=750&h=563]
Until next time... :)
Chunk's Day at The Georgia Dachshund Races!
We've had Chunk, our dachshund for almost 3 years, and have wanted to bring him to the races ever since we brought the little guy home! He was lucky enough to go to Halloweenie last year, but unfortunately Paul and I missed out on it as we were out-of-town. Our friend Robin was nice enough to take him last year.
Paul has designed the brochure for the Races for these past two years and we were finally about to make it out to let Chunk with run with his kind! We had high hopes for Chunk Master as he is quite the runner at home.
Our friend Gina and her mini doxie Ella came out to join in the festivities. It was a lot of fun and we were excited to see how Chunk would do!
Chunk was up for his heat and we were ready for him to show the world his skills! So check it out, we were in lane 3! I was the re-leaser and Paul was receiver
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZcFfBiqqR0&w=750&h=422]
Unfortunately, we have found that Chunk is more of a free-style runner! It was all in good fun, and I think he'll be ready next year with a bit of training... or maybe some toys or treats! Who knows, but I think it was a fun experience for all of us! Here's to an even more competitive 2013 races! :)
