Follow the Yellow Brooke Road: Give the Freedom-A Cruise Tale Pt 2

Day 2-Sea Day

Nicole and I woke up around 8am and took our time getting up and ready. We decided to get dressed and go up for Breakfast, then return to the room and change into our swim/lounge wear.

We had Breakfast at the Lido buffet. In fact, we had breakfast at the Lido every morning b/c we always had bad timing. A lot of people have a lot of things to say about the Lido buffet. Personally, if I don’t have to cook it myself, then I don’t care, lol. However, just for the sake of saying I gave my thoughts…I liked the Lido buffet. Generally, I stuck to the main buffet choosing that differed a little each day with things like: Toast, bagels, pancakes, oatmeal, grits, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon (yes there were bacon police), ham, boxed cereals, carton milk, fresh fruits, etc. For someone who has breakfast that mainly consist of Fiber One shredded wheat cereal this was a feast. Yep, the scrambled eggs are the powered kind unless you go to the egg station place and order them, but I guess growing up in the public school system has made me use to the “fast fix” meal replacements and it doesn’t bother me. The bacon police were out, but you can get as much as you want. Just ask for me. I never once saw someone being told they couldn’t have more bacon, this isn’t “Olilver.” If you don’t want the buffet fixings then the MDR has a breakfast too. I’ve had breakfast in MDR on other lines and always thought it was good. In fact, I had never heard of bananas and cream until I cruised, mmmm. MDR breakfast takes some time so be prepared for that and know that they have a more limited time that they are open.

Nicole getting her sun bathing wears on and hair pulled back

We didn’t go out to the main deck this time, instead we tried the adult pool in the back (I know it’s the aft). It was windy and slightly chilly out as we weren’t quit far enough away from Florida yet. But we decided to hop in the hot tub. Literally, I hate to be seen walking around in my bathing suit with my white legs blinding everyone. I know what you guys want to know…Was the hot tub actually Hot? Eh, more like warm, but it didn’t help that the wind had picked up and they didn’t close the retractable roof, so it kind of cooled the water off. Needless, now we were in the water we had to stay for a while b/c it wouldn’t be worth the utter chill we would get when we got out of the hot tub if we didn’t. We chatted with some people in the tub for a while and then dried for a min. by the pool until we had to get into some warm “real” clothes.

We went back to our room, a hop–skip-jump from the Lido pool area and put some clothes on and checked the Caper (aka Fun Times). They had a 60’s dance lesson in the atrium and some trivia games too, so we decided to head down there and check it out.

Side Note: I had warned my dear friend Nicole about passing ourselves since this was her first cruise, I didn’t want her to feel overwhelmed trying to do everything.

The ship had hit some rough seas at this point so we were swaying a bit. I didn’t feel sick from it, more like I had had one too many. We went down and they were in the middle of a trivia game, so we ordered some drinks and waited for a new game to start. Nicole is excellent at trivia games, so she played the next round, but oddly didn’t fare well.

Nicole not winning trivia

The 60s dance class got under way and it was some basic moves, but enjoyable b/c our teacher was a dancer from the shows and he thought Nicole and I were hilarious. It was quite a feat trying these dance moves with the ship swaying like that, but it was a good workout, lol. After that we decided to just sit down and order another round of drinks and rest for a min. We actually got to talking with these two older ladies who said we “looked like we were having fun.” They were really nice and awesome and we made a point to say hi when we saw them around the ship

Our drinks

Nicole pretending to be asleep after the dance lessons

We eventually got up and went up to grab some lunch from the Lido. Nicole got the turkey sandwich from the deli, which I think she had more than once and I had something. Why I remember what she had I not myself I don’t know. Maybe I got pizza. Again, things are fuzzy. Not b/c of the drinks though :)

I pretty sure we spent some more time walking around the ship learning some things and then made sure to get back to the room early b/c tonight was the first formal night and if you are a lady then you know how much time it takes to get ready for such events. Although, we got worse and worse at timing as each day went by, lol. I’m pretty sure I had the Filet Mignon. Nicole probably had a chicken dish b/c she doesn’t eat red meat. I had no complaints about the MDR food. Like I said, if I don’t have to fix it or clean up I don’t really care. I also don’t eat out at anything usually fancier than the Olive Garden, so the meals were GREAT to me. After the formal night we stopped and got some formal pictures made and then went with our dinner mates to the show for the night. It was suppose to be a dance show, but they had to move that to another night do to the movement of the ship. They instead replaced it with a singer who was supposed to be a Michael Buble like act. Well, I’m a huge Michael Buble fan and let me tell you…..he was NOT anything like Michael Buble. When Simon calls a contestant on American Idol a “cruise ship singer” this is the guy he meant. He didn’t even sing some of the big Rat Pack hits, more of the lesser known. I’m sure the older generations on the ship recognized them, but the younger folk were no doubt confused.

Our Formal wear

We then decided to hit up the dance club and I think it was from then on we didn’t miss a night there. Nicole insisted we brought the party every night. It wasn’t ever overly crowded, but just enough people to have some fun and not get packed in. NOTE: We visited the piano bar once, but as I’m allergic to smoke and Nicole doesn’t like it we stayed away.

Pictures of us enjoying the Dance Club