After a night of slight tossing and turning, no thanks to my stomach pain, I woke up early. Although not too early because it was already looking lighter outside. I sat out on the balcony to bring in the morning. It was so humid already and it was only 6AM but the sound of the ocean was so calming I didn’t mind.

I sat out there until Mom woke up and we got ready to walk around the track on Deck 12. That would be my exercise for the day.

There were a few people already out and running, walking, or lounging as the sun rose. More people were up and out than I expected. It was 7AM when we started our walk so I figured people would be sleeping in. As we walked along the track, people would go around us and I’m not gonna lie it felt like a competition.

The track said 4 laps would equal a mile but compared to my Fitbit, we weren’t quite at a mile yet so I did two more laps. Mom begrudgingly joined as well, and kept saying, “This is more than a mile”.

After we finished our walk, we separated for a couple of hours. I wanted to take a shower since walking in the humidity and the sun made me feel all sticky and sweaty. Mom was planning on doing a dance class at 9AM so she decided to go ahead and get breakfast in the Windjammer.

After my shower, I headed up to get breakfast as well. It was pretty busy which mean there weren’t many tables available. No problem though, I took my food back down to the room.

Mid-Morning in the Middle of the Ocean

I’m pretty sure my Mom came back down at some point but she went back up for her dance/exercise class. I didn’t go up until a few minutes later, walking around the ship, exploring.

Mom’s dance class was in the Skypad which I was under the impression was a bungee cord type of attraction. When I walked past while Mom was in class, there were no cords in site. I didn’t see a lot of events happening there involving the bungee cords on the app either. They all seemed to do with dances or light exercise.

Once I spotted Mom having fun dancing, I went back down to deck 12 to keep exploring the ship. I found the arcade which was next to Johnny Rockets and all the kids and teens clubs.

At some point Mom and I met back up. We wandered down to the royal promenade, looking at the Gold Inches table. Mom didn’t see anything she liked but I got my bracelet extended a little. My friends had gotten me a matching bracelet with them during the January cruise.

Lunch Time

Later, Mom and I went to our reservation at Chops Grille for lunch. After trying the specialty restaurants back in January, I thought it would be nice for Mom to experience it. At Chops you pay for a three course meal. Our lunch meal was $26 per person after gratuities.

Chops Grille had a nice environment. For some reason I was expecting a Longhorns aesthetic but it was more sophisticated than that.

That being said, imagine my surprise when we sat down; I saw a dust mite type bug crawling on the table! I tried smashing it with a pepper shaker and my Mom said, “Oh nooo.” She flagged down the hostess (who actually may have been a part of the captain’s crew based on how she was dressed) and had us move seats. I discreetly told her that I used the pepper shaker to get it so I hoped they took it away or wiped it down along with everything else at the table.

Of course at the new table, Mom had me scope out if I saw any other crawlers which thankfully I didn’t. If I did I probably would’ve just asked for a refund because I wouldn’t feel comfortable eating there.

Our server kind and quick to serve of us once we had our new seats. I got the mushroom soup, salmon with Gruyère tater tots, and red velvet cake for dessert. Mom got the wedge salad, filet mignon, and also red velvet cake.

Specialty Dining Means Special Food

The food was so good! I’m not sure what the difference is between the specialty dining and main dining room dishes, but it seems like more care is being put into the specialty dining food. Not saying there isn’t care put into the main dining room but because there’s more people they have to cook for, it’s probably difficult to put a lot of effort into a single dish in a timely manner.

My mom took notice that even the silverware was heavier than the main dining room, meaning the quality was better. Even the bread was better.

Food Break Down

They had pretzel bread and onion bread with a ramekin filled with butter. Both breads were warm whereas in the main dining room the bread is always cold which I don’t understand.

Before our appetizers came out, we ordered drinks. My mom got the drink of the day (she can’t remember what it was but she said it was “excellent”). It was $11 ($13 after tax and gratuity). I got the passionfruit spritz which was a mocktail. It said it cost $7 but they didn’t charge me for the drink. I wasn’t sure if that’s because I got the soda package and it counts as a soda or if they genuinely forgot to charge me. Hey, I’m not complaining. It was a pretty good drink.

Moving on to appetizers, the mushroom soup was deliciously creamy and flavorful. I had it at Chef’s Table in January because I didn’t want to risk having the tomato soup course (it would trigger my acid reflux). It was so good I even tried to make it at home. Chef’s Table actually got the soup from Chops Grille because they shared a kitchen so of course I had to get the soup when I was actually in Chops.

The salmon was so tender and buttery. The flavors were simple but delicious. It was such a big cut of salmon I couldn’t finish it all (and believe me I was mad I couldn’t). And that meant I also couldn’t finish my Gruyére tater tots where was so good. They were like fried mashed potatoes!

Dessert Judgement

Even though I was getting full, I made room for my dessert. Red velvet cake is my favorite kind of cake. That being said, I typically only really like the red velvet cake a family friend makes. Nothing else normally compares. I gave this one a chance. It was okay. I’m a harsh judge for it so you may like it a lot. It was a nice balance of sweetness and the cake was spongey. The cream cheese icing was good but I think I would’ve left off the chocolate drizzle.

Afternoon Activities

After our nice lunch, we went down to Schooner’s Bar for Name that Tune: Disney Edition. Since Schooner’s Bar was right next to the casino where they allowed smoking, the smoke smell that carried over was too much for my mom so she went back to the room.

Schooner’s Bar was packed with people for this trivia game. I couldn’t find a place to sit so I had to stand with my paper and pencil. To get points you had to know the name of the song and the movie it was from. They were playing a playlist before the game so I did look up one of the songs. I know what movie it was in just not the title of the song itself. It’s not cheating if I didn’t know if the song would be in their guessing list, okay?

I thought I’d done pretty well, even though I missed a song name or two but one girl got nearly every single song and movie! It was actually pretty in impressive.

Dodgeball

After the trivia I went back up to deck 13 to watch the Adult Dodgeball Competition. The trivia and competition were happening at the same time. Trivia started first so I thought I’d leave early for dodgeball but I ended up staying the whole time.

I watched the last few rounds of the games but I wished I could’ve participated. I loved dodgeball in school. One team won the whole thing but they kept winning games on technicalities. For instance someone on the other team would step over a yellow line so they’d automatically be out and that’s how the other team won most of their games.

Mini-golf

Mom and I met up on deck 13 and went to play mini-golf on the other side of the ship. It was her first time ever playing mini-golf and we had a great time. Not even just with each other but with the other folks that were playing mini-golf ahead of us.

Both of us hit our ball all the way into another course at one point so the people on the other course let us (or rather made us) keep playing from their course. We only played one time but I wish we’d done it more on the cruise. Mom definitely wants to play again.

Afterwards we went back to the room to get ready for dinner because it was formal night on day 2. I wasn’t super dressed up but Mom had a nice dress on.

Formal Night

While we waited for our food, Mom and I snuck out of the dining room to take pictures in our formal wear since the set up was right outside the entrance.

In the main dining room, the theme was French Cuisine. I got escargot and Caesar salad for my appetizer. The escargot was super buttery and fatty so I wanted a salad to balance it out.

For the entrée, I broke my “no red meat in November” rule and got beef bourguignon. I’d always wanted to try it and didn’t know when the opportunity would present itself again. It reminded me of pot roast and to be honest, I’d prefer pot roast over this. I don’t think I liked the flavor the red wine added to the meat.

For dessert I got crème brȗlèe. When I get this dessert I always eat under the burnt sugar topping because I just prefer the custard.

Evening Entertainment

After dinner, we made our way to the Royal Theater which was on the other side of the ship. Because there was no direct path to the theater from the dining room, we had to go up to deck 5, cross, and got back down. We went up to deck 5 because the casino was on deck 4 and we didn’t want to walk through the smoke. It’s actually kind of annoying that they didn’t have a clear path past Studio B (where the ice skating is) to the theater.

The entertainment for that night was “Invitation to Dance” a show with a mix of dancing and singing. They had a cast of dancers and four main singers.

The show was…okay. Everyone was definitely talented but with a title like “Invitation to Dance” I thought they’d be performing songs that would make me want to get up and dance. I didn’t recognize most of the songs and none of them had the fun vibe that invited me to dance. Maybe I, a younger Millennial, wasn’t the target audience. However, my mom didn’t care for it either.

End of the Night

Originally, Mom and I were going to participate in the Quest game show that was 18+ later that evening. Mom also wanted to go to the night club event right after it. Because I was in so much pain from my stomach, I turned in for the night. I told Mom she didn’t have to be with me and she could still go but she went to bed too.

So, that was the end of day two! Next week I’ll talk about day 3 in Labadee, Haiti!

How do you normally spend your day at sea on a cruise? Do you lounge around the pool? Do the sports activities? Trivia? Let me know in the comments!

The vlog to day 2 will up on YouTube on Tuesday.