After yesterday's full day of hiking and swimming, let's just say we slept like babies last night. I woke up early (5:30 a.m.) and decided to go out on our balcony and see the sunrise.
Sunrise on the 1st day of summer.
I took a couple of photos of the ship just to show some of the fun of it, but i obviously did not get enough. We plan to return and do this cruise again, so maybe then.
This is a completely robotic "bar." You used the computers to enter
your drink order and the robots made your order.
This wall lit up with different messages.
This section was like being at an up-scale
shopping mall.
Dave had an 8:30 Hunter Douglas meeting and then we both had a 9:30 all-access ship tour. I'll try to give some highlights. It was very interesting. It also was three hours on our feet. We were pretty tired from yesterday's excursion and we were ready to sit down after this tour.
Here are some facts that I heard - There are 2090 state rooms, roughly 1600 crew members. Our ship's statistics are in the photo below.
6424 total on board; yet it never felt that crowded.
There is a "galley" for every single restaurant. Room Service has it's own galley. There are 17 galleys aboard the ship. They are all set up the same so that the workers can be familiar with each galley as they don't always work in the same galley. The chefs have to have had 3 to 4 years experience in a 4 or 5 star restaurant before they can be hired. Once they are hired, they go to further training before getting a contract. If the chef has a "yellow scarf," this is his first contract (usually 8-10 month contracts.) You get a "blue scarf" after the first contract. And the supervisor has a "red scarf."
See the red and blue scarves?
We then went to the "bakery" section. It smelled delicious. There were desserts of all kinds setting out. They can use up to 32,000 eggs in one day and 200,000 pounds of flour. Holy moly.
Just some of the desserts.
We then went down two floors to the production area. It was the area where they loaded the ship. Only production workers were allowed in this area. When we dock in Bayonne, New Jersey tomorrow, these workers will unload 500 pallets in 7 hours. The wooden pallets can not come on board, so the workers unload the pallets and transfer the food. Our tour guide, Angel said these workers do not have to work out at the gym.
Production Area
There are 12 coolers on the ship. The 1st day of the cruise there is hardly room to move in the coolers. The ships are 25% overstocked in case of an emergency. The Production manager stocks the ship according to the demographic of the passengers. If there are a lot of kids, he has a lot of burgers/fries/sodas, etc. At the end of our cruise, the items in the back of the cooler will be moved to the front of the cooler following the FIFO method (First In, First Out).
We learned about the I-95. It is the busiest corridor of the ship. It runs from the front of the ship to the back of the ship in the "crew" area.
I-95
We were taken to the engine control room and the "bridge." I have to admit, I was pretty tired by now, but I know Dave found these areas pretty interesting.
The bridge has two captains and one lookout.
Until next time!
I can also tell you a lot about trash and about laundry. I know we walked away with a much greater appreciation of what it takes to run an operation like this. It was very detailed.
We've been sailing all day and the weather is definitely cooler as we head back to New Jersey. It's a nice "rest" day though as we prepare to travel back home tomorrow.
I hope you have enjoyed the updates. This is a great way for me to "release," and then to also have documentation of our trips. Until next time this is the Deters' Dynamic Duo signing out.
Today is almost hard to put into words.Today I did sooooo many things I have wanted to do, but always passed on because of my size and how out of shape I was.
The excursion was called Hidden Gems Exploration and it was marked as strenuous.For some reason I thought we would be at a beach and we'd be able to explore a cave or cliff jump or snorkel on our own.This was not necessarily the case.
We had a group of 15 and an awesome tour guide named Michael.We all piled into a van and he drove for a while giving us quite an extensive tour of the island.We got to our first destination and he asked us to each grab the backpack that was under our seat.He said to bring a towel and something to take pictures with, but leave everything else in the van.
Each backpack had a different saying.
He decides that we will do the cliff jumping first.I was like, c'mon, really?But there was another lady and she was like, it's only 10 feet.I thought well that's like a high dive.I can do this.It's kind of slippery and a little nerve wracking, but I did it.As soon as I came up, I said "You guys!I just recently lost 65 pounds and my whole life has changed.That was so cool."They were all so happy for me and supportive throughout the rest of the day.
I went and did it again.I didn't try the 15 foot jump, mainly because I didn't feel like I had sure footing to get to it.The water was beautiful.
After our "cliff jumping," we hiked to a cave and again we had to jump in.It was intimidating because to the right you could see the rocks and the shallowness of the water, but we were told to jump just to the left of that. I saw about ten people do it successfully so I hesitated only a moment and jumped in.Dave jumped right in after me.It was very salty water so you were quite buoyant.It was a cave so you had stalagmites coming down.The tour guide took this picture of Dave and I.
Climbing out was a bit of a chore.We then hiked again.This time we needed to pull our helmets out of our backpacks.We would be exploring a "dry cave."Some of the openings in here I needed to duck down, some you needed to squeeze through (I fit!), some you needed a hand to climb up.It was very cool!
After the dry cave tour, our tour guide called our food orders in to the restaurant.Our options were pizza, veggie burger, chicken tenders, or tilapia.Dave and I had tilapia.I also tried my first rum swizzle.
After lunch we headed up and drove to Coopers Island for snorkeling.
I'm all excited until the tour guide says, if you hear me blow the whistle you need to get out of the water immediately.It means a Portuguese man o' war was spotted.(Aka floating terror.). That really kind of killed my enthusiasm.But the teenagers on the tour said, oh come on.You only live once.So I said a little prayer and did a little snorkeling.The water was really blue!
By now we are running the chance of missing our time to get back on our cruise ship. Our ship is supposed to sail away at 4:30 p.m. and we are loading up after scuba diving at about 3:15 p.m. with one more stop to make. We were told that since we were on an excursion that we bought via our cruise ship, the cruise ship would not leave without us.
We stop at Bailey's ice cream and each get a cone that our tour guide asks us to please eat in the van.
We arrive the dock about 4:30 pm and we get through the security checkpoints by 4:40.I swear, no lie, they closed the gangway after we got on.Phew!What a day!
For supper I asked Dave if we could splurge and could I get the surf and turf?Guess what he said?
Two years ago we won a trip from Hunter Douglas to Banff, Canada.The trip was for two people.2 years ago I was over 275 pounds and a HEAVY snorer.It was not even a possibility for Dave and I to take this trip together (unless we paid for a second hotel room.). So we agreed I would invite my sister along.She and I went to Banff.I snored.She talked in her sleep.
So to realize where I am in life two years later, on a dream vacation, with my husband, doing things I've passed on over and over and over, it's just very difficult to put into words how that makes me feel.I could NOT stop smiling today.It's a great feeling.I feel the future is bright!
Waking up early is apparently something I am failing at on this trip. It was close to 8:00 before I woke up and our "excursion" was at 9:00. Once again we find ourselves hurrying to eat breakfast and get to our meeting place.
But hey, I know what day it is!
Today I opted for "A Day at the Beach!" Dave had planned to take this day to go scuba diving, but he caught a cold right before we departed and decided to cancel the scuba and join me on the beach. Today was a holiday in Bermuda and most of the stores in town were closed, but there were some people working to help us enjoy our day at the beach. We had our two chairs under our beach umbrella. We could snorkel, paddle board, kayak, swim, etc. I opted to sit/sleep in the chair for a part of the day. It was absolutely perfect weather. The water was warm too.
Back in 2000 my mom took all us girls and our families on a cruise to the Bahamas. During that cruise, a lot of the family got "braids." I was busy with Joe (age 1) and did not do this. So today on our way out, I asked the lady if my hair was long enough for braids. She was like "I can get two in there." So she did. And then she would not let me pay her because they were so small and so easy for her.
We got back to our room around 4:45 and we had dinner at 5:30 p.m. For dinner the waiter talked me into a blue margarita. That thing was mainly tequila. I didn't even have 1/3 of it gone and he was bringing another. I took one sip out of the new one. Still just as strong. Left 1 1/2 drinks on the table.
In the evening we had booked a glass bottom boat tour/info regarding the Bermuda triangle. That started at 8:00 p.m. and went for just over an hour. It was quite informative and very pretty.
We came back to the ship after the glass bottom tour. Good news is we made it back! We have an excursion tomorrow called Hidden Gems Excursion. It is all day. It gets us back to the boat at 4:00 p.m. and the boat departs Bermuda at 4:30 p.m.
We woke up Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. (or what we thought was 7:30 a.m.) Our digital devices did not automatically set to Bermuda time and it was actually 8:30 a.m. My iFly experience was scheduled for 9:20 a.m. so we set out to get breakfast.
Floor of the elevator
Yesterday all of the elevators said "Saturday." I was like - that's weird. Why would they call all their elevators the same thing. When we stepped in the elevator to go to breakfast, it said "Sunday." Duh, we realized they were helping us with what day of the week it was.
We grabbed some breakfast and the lady sitting near us was like "YOU'RE EATING BEFORE YOU GO ON THE iFLY?" Like I wasn't nervous enough already. So I stopped eating breakfast and drinking coffee. I literally think I psyched myself out about this experience. The night before -- the entire night my right wrist was in pretty bad pain. I haven't had wrist pain for a long time. It hurt so bad that I actually wondered if it was broken. So my wrist hurting and the lady questioning why I was eating, I was beginning to wonder if I should do this.
But losing this weight and doing things I have never been able to do before is a BIG DEAL to me, so I went for it. I told the instructor I was a little nervous. I wondered if there was ever anyone who didn't "fly." I knew I was still "heavy" and I didn't want to not fly. He said that has never happened. Then I asked, "Will I be able to breathe? The wind force looks so forceful." Yes. You will be able to breathe. He gave us some easy instructions and then several hand signals for different things. I couldn't remember the hand signals for anything. But when I first started training with Ryan and we would do deadlifts, he must had said head up about 1000 times. So I thought of the mark on the wall in the NLP room that he made when he told Sonya the same thing. So that was easy to remember --head up! Look for the (imaginary) red mark. Then it was legs straight and arms in a somewhat V. Well that was like holding a Superman. So I was superman and head up, superman and head up, superman and head up.
Finally it was my turn. I stood at the door and honestly almost walked away, but then I was like here goes nothing. I immediately did everything I had told my mind. Head up, legs straight, superman -- and I flew. The only hand signal he gave me was an immediate thumbs up and I understand that signal. I flew for 60 seconds and it was a blast. The video can be found on my Facebook page.
I swear to you - not kidding. When I was done my wrist did not hurt anymore. I think the anticipation/fear was messing with my body. The less we stress, the better we feel.
There's not much that could top that. I was flying pretty high after that. But Dave and I went to the Fitness Center and got a workout in.
Huge fitness center - this is just the spin room
Hunter Douglas had a "gift" for their Centurion Dealers (which we are.) They gave us each a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses. They are super nice.
In the afternoon we sat out by the pool. I finished reading a book.
In the evening it was formal night. We got dressed up and went to the dining room. We sat next to a great couple who was from Boston. We shared strategies with each other on the blind business and I shared my weight loss success story with them. It was funny because that night Dave and I passed on dessert. She was like, "Look, honey, they passed on dessert." We may not always pass on dessert, but we happened to last night. She noticed that though.
Little elephant waiting for us in our room at the end of the night.
It was a great, great day. On days like this when I experience new things made possible especially because of my weight loss, I just am forever thankful for the day Mana and Ryan offered to help me (lose weight.) Those guys are genuises (in my opinion.)
Got myself up early and went to the Fitness Room. It was the nicest fitness room yet that I've seen at a hotel. We were at a Marriott at the Newark Airport. Got my cardio in and then some breakfast. I ordered a spinach and goat cheese omelette and they brought me a ham and cheese omelette. I didn't even notice it was not what I ordered and I started eating it. Our waiter suddenly appeared with my plate of food and I said, "Oh, but I already started eating this." He was like, it's okay. We'll give it to the customer with a napkin over the portion that you've eaten. It just made me laugh! I love that kind of humor. It started my day out right.
The right food.
We got on a big bus with a bunch of other Hunter Douglas people (I think there are 360 on the ship) and headed to the port. The check in was so smooth and easy. Finding a place to eat was not so easy. Breakfast was eaten at about 6:30 a.m. and it was now about 1:00 p.m. We are very familiar with Carnival, but we are on Royal Caribbean so we are adjusting to that. I love it. It seems for lack of a better word, "classier." We finally got some food and then our room was ready. We are on the 9th floor and honestly the easiest way to get to places is the stairs. Probably why I lost weight on the Alaska cruise last year. Lots and lots of stairs.
When you cruise you have to go to a drill before the ship departs. It is mandatory. They scan your key card and check the cabins to make sure everyone goes. It's like an emergency drill. After the drill we went back to our room and our bags were there. NOTE TO SELF: If there is a possibility of rain at your departure port, cover your clothes inside your suitcase with plastic. Poor Dave, his clothes were all wet inside. Mine had a plastic bag with the dirty clothes from yesterday on top of all my clothes so I made out okay.
We mainly explored the ship until supper at 5:30 p.m. in the dining hall. Our waiter is Francisco. Like San Francisco. He is from the Dominican Republic. Not many dealers were there. We had a 6 top with just Dave and me. We heard some dealers say they were just too exhausted to go to supper. It made us thankful we came in a day early instead of taking a red-eye.
At 9:00 p.m. we went on the North Star. I'll put some photos up so you can see what I am talking about. It goes up 300 feet in the air and rotates right and left slightly. It was pretty windy and foggy so our view wasn't super good, but it was still a new experience for us.
Every night they have outdoor movies on the pool deck. Tonight was Moana. I can't seem to get away from that movie. And then at 10:00 p.m. they were going to play Sully. It's pretty chilly out tonight and 10 is kind of late and we move our clocks forward another hour tomorrow. So we opted out of the 10:00 movie.
Tomorrow I try iFly. It's skydiving inside. I'll definitely post about that. Dave does not want to do it, so I asked him if he would take pictures for me.
Jess, Joe, and Ben had a great time I think. I believe they drove home through the Four Corners. And they have another adventure planned for tomorrow. All I know is they're having an adventure and we are having an adventure.
We started our morning at 4:30 a.m. Got up and got ready and got to the airport by 5:10 for a 6:00 flight. This works in Grand Junction, but it is cutting it close. We got to check a bag for free - thank you Hunter Douglas and we proceeded upstairs to security.
It's nice to "fit
We grab a breakfast burrito and board the plane. We had less than an hour layover in Dallas once we arrived and we had to ride the sky tram to get to the next gate. Phew! We made it. We get in line for boarding and we hear a lot of murmuring. They've been boarding for about 10 - 15 minutes before we even realized it. But the murmuring was that the electronic sign had just popped up FLIGHT DELAYED (40 minutes). Finally the agents boarding the plane realized the sign had changed and stopped the boarding process to find out what was going on. Thankfully we had not got on yet so we got to sit back down in the lobby.
40 minutes later we boarded the plane and started down the runway only to sit an additional 25 minutes (the first time it was due to Air Traffic Control in Newark; the second time because of Air Traffic Control in Dallas.) Finally about an hour later than scheduled we were in the air. It's okay though, that is why we opted to fly a day early.
We're kind of hungry by now so we peruse the menu. The food and beverage service begins in Row 1 and then suddenly we hit turbulence and the captain has the flight attendants sit down for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes they resume service. We are in Row 28. When they get to row 28 Dave asks for a sandwich and she politely says we are all out of the good food. But we have a few items that are packed with sodium for your pleasure. Oh geeze. Dave picks trail mix. I pick hummus and crackers.
You can get free in-flight movies. This is a 3 hour flight but by the time they start the movies (because of the above) we are one hour into our flight. I decide to watch a movie about a boy who was adopted into an Australian family but 25 years later he tries to find his birth family (from India). I am at the dramatic and emotional conclusion where he is walking towards someone who I think is his birth mother and the movie shuts off because we are about to land in NJ. I may never know.........
We make it to our airport and then call for an Uber. My niece and her husband live in New Jersey and have invited us for dinner. Another one of my nieces was visiting her so I was super excited to see them both and be with their children.
My nieces (Leah and Angie) and their kids!
We had a great time catching up and I had fun getting to know the kids a little bit.
Tomorrow morning we have time for a morning workout and some breakfast and then we will board the Anthem of the Seas for Bermuda.
Jessica, Joe, and Ben got up early and headed out. I'll post pictures to show you where they went.
