Spectrum of the Seas Review: Day 16 – Sea Dayfeatured

I was having trouble sleeping on this cruise.

I wish I could blame the jet lag, but I’m not sure that was it because I wasn’t getting particularly sleepy during the day. I just also wasn’t getting sleepy at night.

So I randomly woke up at five in the morning and every time I wake up on a cruise ship, the first thing I always do is look out the window. That first look out sets the tone for the rest of the day. If it’s sunny, it’s an outside pool deck kind of day. If it’s gray, it’s a stay in the room and watch movies for most of the day kind of day. It was gray and foggy on this morning, but it was also five in the morning, so I turned back to bed and didn’t give it any real thought.

Around 8:00 AM, Stephanie woke me up and told me it was gray and foggy and I indignantly told her that wasn’t possible, it was meant to be a sunny pool day! It really was gray and foggy, though, and my chances of catching sun at the pool were slim to none, so we threw on some comfy clothes and headed up to the Windjammer to plot out our day over breakfast.

There was one non-negotiable on the agenda for the day: 10:30 AM musical theater trivia. Musical theater trivia is my jam. I’ve seen what feels like at least a hundred shows. I upkeep a fairly robust Spotify playlist of Broadway standards. And I play Broadway trivia on any ship that offers it. Disappointingly, this was not trivia of the Name-That-Tune variety. Even more disappointingly, my 18/20 score was not enough to win because apparently the number of Von Trapp children in real life Is not the number of Von Trapp children in the musical. So close and yet, so far. Oh, and funny story: Stephanie asked me if I was prepared for a question about an obscure old school show like Oklahoma. Sure enough, I kid you not, the next question was about Oklahoma (and sure enough, I also got it wrong because the only thing I can tell you about Oklahoma is that it’s where the wind comes sweeping down the plains, and where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the grain).

After such a disappointing loss, there was only one thing that was really going to lift the mood: lunch. And lunch in the main dining room on this ship was quite the affair – a massive salad bar, beef wellington, a hot food buffet and a full on dessert spread centered around a huge chocolate fountain. It was fanc-y!

The sun finally made an appearance after lunch and we made our way outside to get in as much of it as we could. We found a secret little deck that was perfect for some quiet prime sun time where, naturally, in the battle of SPF 50 vs the afternoon sun, the sun won and I came out with a brand new splotchy sunburn.

Our time on the ship was winding down, which meant I was in full-on cram mode: on just about every cruise I can remember, I invariably end up at the end of a cruise trying to take in and experience everything I hadn’t done because I was watching the water or laying out on the sun deck or watching the dancers rehearse in the Two70 over a Kummelweck and a glass of juice. The Spectrum is a magnificent ship – just absolutely beautiful with so much to see and do and I’d felt like I’d barely scratched the surface. So after our skin had enough sun, we headed over to the Seaplex, which was like the central hub of all activity on the ship. It had a really cool fieldhouse feel and it was so multi-functional – it was a bumper cars arena, a basketball court and a hub of active games. And that was just the indoor space! Outside, there was the Skypad (where you could get in on some cool VR while jumping around on trampolines), iFly indoor skydiving and the perennially entertaining Flowrider.

We headed back inside to the tea shop for an afternoon refreshment. I just loved the vibes in this shop, and the drinks were really tasty and reasonably priced.

After our informal tea time, we headed to the room to get glammed up for our final formal night. We contemplated getting a super awkward formal picture for Mom (all she wanted as a souvenir was a picture of us she could frame and, of course, we had to have some fun with the idea!) but we were running late for dinner and headed out towards the main dining room. Dinner was fine – I think we were just getting to the point where everything tasted the same because we’d been onboard for so long!

After dinner, we wandered around for a bit, settling near the casino for an informal photoshoot to get some formal snaps for Mom. Cruise Director Gordon found us and we chatted for a bit. He was super kind, so funny and we really enjoyed cruising with him!

We had big plans after dinner: first up was our reservations to see The Silk Road (…again). We scored some primo seats that left us feeling like we were really in the middle of the show. Seeing it from the floor was such a different experience than seeing it from the balcony and we appreciated the new details we could enjoy being so close to the performers.

After we left the Two70, we headed to the Royal Theatre for the sea debut of a new Royal Caribbean production show – The Effectors. The producer came on to give a little speech beforehand, explaining how this was essentially opening night and that the cast had been rehearsing since January (!!!!) and how the show took a year to write and will continue to be iterated for at least another three months! Talk about a labor of love! The premise of the show was that there are these four superheroes that fight crime with creativity and the show was insane. Like in a good way. It blew my mind because it was so visually compelling. The use of lasers was so captivating and, you guys, there was a scene with drones. Dozens…maybe hundreds of them…just flying over the audience.  The production quality of this show was just incredible.

We ended the night up at Sorrentos for a slice of late night pizza. Outside, it was raining pretty torrentially, which felt like an omen for our last sea day. Maybe a good one, though – we were sunburned, exhausted and we had two and a half weeks of souvenirs to pack up for the long journey back home.