Birthday at Sea and Ocho Rios

Tuesday morning as we were ready to head out to meet Mom and Renate for breakfast, we found this on our stateroom door:

 

It was a greeting from our cabin attendants, Yaya and Andi, and the concierges in the Neptune Lounge. A very nice start to the day. After breakfast everyone split up for a while. Monica had a spa appointment for a manicure, Larry and Renate went strolling around the Promenade Deck – they managed to finish a mile – and Mom took the opportunity to rest a bit in their stateroom as we had been doing quite a bit of walking in the last few days.

Renate, being a Four-Star Mariner, was invited to a ‘meet the Captain’ cocktail party, and took Mom along. This was just ahead of the Mariner Society lunch in the main dining room. After that, we just happened to be passing by the Culinary Arts Centre a few minutes before the cooking demonstration was to start. So we picked up the recipes – Lobster Salad and Crème Brulee – and sat down to enjoy the presentation.

Still later in the afternoon some of us went to a wine tasting run by the ship’s Cellarmaster that was not only very informative but delicious as well!

Dinner had been reserved for the Pinnacle Grill, and Monica had heard some really good things about the menu from the girl who did her manicure, so we had taken it easy, as much as we could, on the food at lunch, and NO snacking! We went down for pre-dinner cocktails at the Pinnacle Bar, conveniently  located directly across from the restaurant. The meal was every bit as great as what we had heard, and the service staff were great, too. Renate had insisted she was buying the wine for Monica’s birthday dinner. Never one to turn down such an offer, Monica carefully scrutinized the wine list, but since there was no Opus One ($750/bottle) and we didn’t recognize the fancy ($2,200/bottle) French wine, she settled on a nice Oregon Pinot Noir. Times two!! Yes, it was that kind of dinner!!! Here are some photos of the evening:

 

 

After dinner we headed for the late show,  but didn’t hang around afterward. We had an early morning in Ocho Rios and wanted to make sure we would all be up early enough for breakfast.

We had all ordered room service breakfast since we figured the Lido Buffet would be busy and it would take too long to eat in the Dining Room. It was OK, but not spectacular. A far cry from the table setting service we got on the luxury cruise lines, but it did the job and we were out on the pier to meet for our tour in plenty of time. And to show you just how early we did get up, here’s the sunrise we saw from our verandah:

 

The tour we chose visited the Coyaba Gardens, where we went for a walk around the garden and waterfall area. This was the most strenuous exercise of the day.

 

The rest of the time was spent in the bus, on a short souvenir shopping stop and a trip to a local pottery shop where we could also watch the potters make their creations.

Renate and Mom noticed that Ocho Rios had changed quite a bit since the last time they were here – not surprising since we think that might have been back in the 80’s!!. It is much more built up and the crackdown on hawkers and drug dealers seems to be working for the most part. Everything still seems to be a bit disorganized, as it always seems to be in Jamaica,  but once we got going our tour guide and driver did a great job of getting us around.

We were back at the ship before noon, and were starting to get quite hungry after our 6:30 a.m. breakfasts. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch at the grill and split up, to meet on our verandah at 4:00 for the sailaway. And to put a further dent in the wine supply we “smuggled” onboard in Ft Lauderdale.

As we had no dinner reservations, we wandered down to the Dining Room about 6:00. We are on “As You Wish Dining”, which is kind of like going to The Keg, You show up and ask to be seated. But unlike The Keg, you do have the option to share a table, which the Maitre D’ asked us to do. We were shown to a table for six where another couple had just been seated. Now, there are 2100 people on this ship, so what do you figure the odds of meeting another couple from Germany might be?? This couple was from Frankfurt! Needless to say there was much animated conversation all through dinner, and since they also spoke English, Larry wasn’t totally confused!! At least not any more than he normally is!! And to put the ‘icing on the cake’ so to speak, one of the featured desserts was Rote Gruetze, one of Mom’s favourites. Not quite the way we would make it, but it got an approval from the four of us who had it.

After dinner we headed to the show, the first production show. Unlike Crystal, there are no elaborate sets, just the orchestra, the singers and four highly energetic dancers. While it was upbeat and very good, the last four very busy days started to take their toll and e called it an early night.