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Bermuda Cruise – Day 1, Embarkation

May 27th, 2009

We were extremely relieved to be on board the Grandeur of the Seas. We met the coordinator for the Royal Babies (6-18 months) and Royal Tots (18-36 months) programs. She was very nice. She was from the Ukraine, young, and had a master’s degree in education. We met with her several times throughout the trip.

We noticed similarities right away between the Grandeur of the Seas and the ship we had sailed on previously, Vision of the Seas. They are both in the Vision class of ships and have very similar deck plans. We already felt like we knew our way around the ship. This was nice, but we are both looking forward to sailing on a completely different ship in the fall. We found our stateroom, 4061, and discovered that the beds had not been pushed together. We also did not have the pack-n-play that we had requested or a child’s life vest. We went to the purser’s desk to request these three changes. Our stateroom was definitely smaller than the one we had on the Vision of the Seas. We had an interior stateroom this time (last time we had an oceanview). We had just enough space, and we were still impressed with the efficiency of the space. I will probably write up a more detailed review of the Grandeur of the Seas in a separate post.

We had decided to get spa treatments on the cruise, and I had heard that slots can book quickly. We booked our spa sessions. I booked a regular massage for 4:30pm on that day, and Gabe booked a hot stones massage for the following day. It had been a while since I had a massage, so I was quite excited! I was also glad that Gabe decided to give it a try. He had never had a professional massage, so I knew this would be quite a treat for him!

At this point, it was about 1pm, so we headed to the Windjammer buffet for lunch. Maddie ate a decent lunch but especially enjoyed the fruit tart. She was so cute eating it and got it all over her nose and face. She thought this was hilarious.

We had many people mistake Maddie for a boy on this day. I figured that it was because she was wearing blue. Most of the time, it happened while she was in the stroller. I figured they saw the red stroller and blue clothing and assumed boy. This continued throughout the cruise, even when she was wearing pink and frilly dresses! Again, it mostly happened when she was in the stroller, but it was still somewhat surprising to us. Many times, we would encounter an older couple and the woman would make the mistake. Her husband would correct her, saying things like, “um, I think she’s a girl. She’s wearing a dress.” It’s not a huge deal – I’d always find a way to work in the feminine pronouns, but I am just surprised that it happened so much. I guess that people assume that babies are boys unless they have long hair??

After dinner, it was time for Maddie’s nap, so we took a stroll around the decks. Gabe ordered his second beer for the cruise – we’re officially on vacation! Maddie fell asleep in the stroller. We kept moving while she was asleep since we knew she needed her nap! Later in the trip, we discovered that she would sleep in the stroller even when we weren’t moving, as long as there weren’t too many distractions. She definitely has a better chance of staying asleep if we keep moving.

Maddie was still sleeping when it was time for our muster drill. We grabbed our life jackets and hoped that they wouldn’t require us to take Maddie out of the stroller. Thankfully, she was able to snooze during most of the drill. She was barely bothered by the test sirens. She woke up when the horn was sounding, but she quickly went back to sleep. It’s good to be a baby.

Maddie woke up towards the end of the Muster drill. I went back to the room to return the life jackets, and we made a plan to meet on Deck 10 where we were going to try to get Maddie to sleep a bit more. We knew we could walk in a loop on that deck based on our memory from the other cruise. Plus, we thought it would be a good place to watch Norfolk disappear into the horizon. When I got to the room, I decided to do some unpacking. I just love the way that the space is organized in the staterooms. I’m not usually the type to unpack on a vacation, but I think it’s critical for cruising. We ran into another family who commented towards the end of the trip that they were tired of tripping over suitcases. I was shocked that they had not unpacked anything! I don’t think we would have been able to survive in the tiny room otherwise! We were able to put our suitcases away in the closet, nesting them where possible.

By the time I got to deck 10, it had started to rain for a few minutes. I couldn’t find Gabe and Maddie, and it was about time for me to head to my massage. I didn’t have time to look for them or see our departure, but I wasn’t too disappointed to head to my massage appointment. This was the first time we made the mistake of not having a detailed plan. We wished that we had pagers or walkie talkies on this trip! Plus, it would have helped if we both had watches since our cell phones were not available as time keepers.

My massage was wonderful. The masseuse used just the right amount of pressure, and it was very relaxing. I had so many knots in my back due to all the stress in the past few weeks as well as the usual hunching over my work keyboard. A few times, I had to giggle. I’m just a tad ticklish in spots. Overall, it was awesome. I also enjoyed the cucumber/strawberry water. Refreshing!

I met Gabe and Maddie in our stateroom just in time to head to dinner. We were very disappointed (especially me) to be seated at a table by ourselves. One of my favorite parts of the last cruise was getting to know our tablemates. I was looking forward to seeing what kind of people we would have at our table for this trip. We also wanted to have tablemates so that we would have company whenever one of us has to leave the table with Maddie. We knew the two hour meals would be too long for her. We asked several of the waiters if they could transfer us to a new table with other guests for the following night, but they weren’t sure what they were going to be able to do. We had initially been on the waiting list for the main seating, and that seating is quite popular. Dinner was very tasty, and Maddie made it through the entree. I had some kind of onion and cheese tart as my appetizer which was probably one of my favorites from the cruise. I liked it so much that I requested a second one! My entree was pork medallions followed by a peach/blueberry cobbler. Everything was great. Gabe had a caesar salad, prime rib, and the same cobbler. He later told me that his prime rib wasn’t great – too bad he didn’t tell me this until after I had ordered one a few dinners later.

After dinner, we went for a stroll on the deck. We hoped that Maddie might fall asleep, but we decided it was too cold and windy. Plus, she was showing no signs of sleep at this point. We went to the Welcome Show. Turns out that our cruise and activities directors are the same ones that we had on the Vision of the Seas. What are the odds of that? John Blair and his wife Katrina were on board with their vibrant enthusiasm. They are definitely good at what they do. They fit the bill for cruise entertainers, that’s for sure! We were a little disappointed that the welcome show was a repeat of the one we saw on the Vision. Turns out that the cruise had many more similarities than just the deck plans. We were surprised given how many people are repeat cruisers. The good part about this is that we didn’t feel like we missed as much as we might have if we had never cruised before Maddie.

Some nice man had given up his seat for us, near the back of the theatre. The seating in the back is in the form of love seats, which was perfect for our little family. Maddie was pretty happy for a good portion of the show. She thought it was funny when everyone laughed at the jokes onstage. She started to get a little fussy after about 20-30 minutes, so we had to leave.

We had a plan for me to go and see the Finish the Lyrics gameshow while Gabe tried to get Maddie to sleep. Then, I would come back to tend to Maddie while he went to the comedy show. We both would have a little bit of time to play some video poker or slots in the casino. Good, solid plan. Then, I walked into the casino and they were paging people to come and play $1-2 No Limit Texas Hold’em. Open seats, right now! I did exactly what I felt Gabe would have done…walked right over, and plunked down my $100 buy-in. I was excited to play real casino poker again, and I knew Gabe would be forgoing his plans to go to the comedy show!

Gabe appeared a little while later with Maddie sleeping in the Ergo carrier. He had a rough time getting her to sleep in the pack-n-play when I left, so he tried the sling in desperation. It worked, and we would use this method in the coming days to get her to sleep at night. Gabe stood and watched me play until the pit boss kicked him out of the casino. Obviously, we were corrupting the sleeping baby…babies aren’t allowed in casinos! He went back to the room and was able to transfer Maddie successfully to the pack-n-play. I called a little bit later, and he urged me to keep playing. I promised he could play tomorrow night.

I’ll probably post more details about the poker separately. I cashed out $26 richer – nothing to get too excited about, but I’ll always take a winning session. You won’t hear me complaining! It was so much fun. I had forgotten how much I love playing the poker! I went back to the room shortly after 11pm or so as I didn’t want to chance getting back after Maddie wakes.

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Posted by kerry on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 4:38am.
Categories: life.

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