Key Largo, Montego, Baby Why Don’t We Go (Or, a Week on The World’s Largest Cruise Ship): Part Eightfeatured

by Nicole on July 3, 2013

Our first sea day began bright and early at 8:00 am. I think we’re fundamentally incapable of sleeping in on vacation. Sleep? We can sleep at home. We had a ship to explore.

Mom and Stephanie were already up and perusing the restaurant availability on the TV when I woke up. Yeah. You know those interactive touchscreens I talked about in my last post that allowed you to see what the crowd levels and availability was for all of the restaurants on board? Well there isn’t a fancy touchscreen in your room, but the interactive capabilities will show you what restaurants are open, how full they are and even show you the menus.

It looked nice and sunny out, so we wanted a casual, quick breakfast so we could get to the pool to grab lounges for the day. So we got dressed, grabbed our pool gear, put the Make-Up-My-Room card in the door and headed to Park Café for breakfast.

Park Café transforms into a nice little breakfast spot during the morning hours. The cases that held desserts now held pastries. The counter that had made-to-order salads instead offered made-to-order bagels and the case that held grab-and-go picnic-type items now held yogurt parfaits and fresh fruit. And hot items? There were those, too. Oatmeal and toppings. Hot sandwiches. A little something for everyone. Park Café proved to be a good choice for breakfast. It wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t crowded, either. The breakfast offerings were more concise and curated than the smorgasbord of offerings you’d find at the Windjammer or in the MDR, and for me? I’m indecisive on a good day. I’ll spend a ridiculous amount of time contemplating my choices. Less is more.

The ship was nice and peaceful and I couldn’t tell if everyone was still asleep or if everyone was scattered amongst the many venues open for breakfast. We settled at a table outside with oatmeal, yogurt parfaits, fruit and bagels. Nothing special or standout, but tasty and filling nonetheless.

Full and caffeinated, we headed up to deck 15 to grab some lounge chairs. It was nearing 10:00 am and we were sure we’d never find three chairs together. See, on Carnival, the chair hogs come out early, and the Allure was larger and held far more people than any other ship we’ve been on. We wake up early on our cruises so we can get some primo chairs because it usually takes waking up early to get them. And…well…I made a video of what we found on the pool deck. It’s called “It’s 10:00 am and there’s no one in the pool.” I think it kind of says it all.

There was no one in the pool. There wasn’t anyone really around the pool. We passed the sports/lap pool on our way over. That one only had a few people in it. I can’t imagine the entire ship was crowded into the other main pool or the splash zone area. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. But Stephanie and I had the main pool to ourselves for over an hour and we weren’t complaining.

One thing of note was the towel situation. On Carnival and Princess, beach towels were left in our room for us to use and replaced daily. On Royal Caribbean, you have to go to the towel hut to rent towels with your Sea Pass card. I think it was a max of two per card. It was nice not having to carry a wet towel back to the room with us, but not-so-nice waiting in the lines that formed throughout the week.

The pool starting filling up around 11:30 am and we headed out not long after. It seemed the pools really started filling in around then and we had our fill of swim time and sun for the day (it was really hot out!).

We caught the tail-end of the Dreamworks parade as we headed towards the Boardwalk and it was packed all along the Royal Promenade and the deck above it. Why were we heading to the Boardwalk? To try the donuts, of course! We remembered that there’s donuts put out on the Boardwalk in the mornings and it seemed like a good choice for a mid-morning snack. And they were good. They weren’t Doughnut Vault donuts (Chicagoans? You know what I’m talking about). They weren’t Krispy Kremes. But they were good donuts. And they were free! The offer eight or so different types and they’re only out in the mornings.

We headed back to the room, but Wendy wasn’t quite done making our room up yet, so we headed to the Royal Promenade to people watch for a little while. Oh, and we figured out where everyone was when the pool deck was empty – they were at Sorrento’s eating pizza. It was interesting seeing the Royal Promenade so busy in the middle of a sea day. On our other cruises, everyone flocked to the pools. On this one, no matter what time it was, the Royal Promenade was crowded.

Once we were confident our room would be ready, we headed back. We took turns taking showers (and I discovered I was burned like w-h-o-a despite two applications of an SPF 30 and a 50, respectively, leaving me with some really rockin’ tan lines) and I spent some quality time water watching on the balcony.

We’d decided earlier that we wanted to have lunch in the MDR, and once we were showered and changed, we realized we didn’t have much time before it closed. We checked the availability and once it showed green, we made a beeline towards the Adagio.

We were seated as soon as we walked in, at a table for the three of us (as we had requested) right at a window. Our first glimpse of the Adiago proved it was every bit as gorgeous in person as it was in pictures. Three levels, muted tones and an opulent chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was just lovely.

A server quickly came over to explain how lunch worked – they called it Brasserie 30 and the 30 meant your meal would take no more than 30 minutes if you didn’t want it to. A basket of various breads was presented to our table with an olive tapenade spread that was brined salty delicious.

Our server also explained to us that we had two options: there was the Tutti Salad bar up front, where someone would make a made-to-order salad for you with your choice of four different lettuces and (there had to be at least) 20 different toppings. Out with the Tucci Salad bar was also a small buffet with a handful of hot offerings. Or you could order off the menu. We opted to order off the menu. Our server asked us if we wanted to do the salad, too. You don’t have to ask us twice. We love our salads.

The salad bar was plentiful in offerings. Probably more offerings than I’ve ever seen on a salad bar period. There was one issue though – they throw your salad into a bowl and chop it when they’re done putting everything you want together, and in between each salad, they dip the cutter in the same bowl of water before moving on to chop the next salad. I don’t have any food allergies, but I have major food aversions – most notably to seafood. The man in front of me had a salad loaded with baby shrimp and you can imagine my horror as they grabbed my bowl of salad, took the salad chopper with the shrimp remnants on it, dipped it in a dirty bowl of water with who knows what in it, and then chopped up my salad with it. Stephanie said I was being ridiculous and I probably was. I picked at my salad as I waited for my main course, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have if I had insisted they not chop my salad. If you have aversions and especially if you have a food allergy, insist they use a new utensil to chop your salad or request your salad unchopped.

Our main courses arrived not long after we sat down with our salads. We all had mixed reactions. Stephanie thought her Chargrilled Palm Sugar Chicken was fair and unmemorable. Mom thought her Potato, Leek and Spinach Gratin was bland (but to be fair here, she also didn’t bother trying the colorful sauce in the ramekin beside her gratin). I thought the Royal Beef Burger was decent. The sautéed portabella mushroom confit was a small singular mushroom strip and the burger tasted like it had been sitting in a warming pan for awhile instead of fresh off the grill. The desserts were much stronger than the main courses – my Warm Cherry Custard Crepes were heavy and I only managed a few bites, but they were a perfect juxtaposition of sweet and tart, textured and creamy.

Chargrilled Palm Sugar Chicken