Oilpressure

Most of you know that Susan and I spend practically all of our available vacation going to IndyCar races. While Susan loves going to races almost as much as I do, she has wanted to go on at least one vacation that did not involve going to a race track for a few years now. So I splurged and gave her a cruise for Christmas on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas.

I chose a four-night cruise because she had never been on a cruise and she is prone to motion-sickness. She got her doctor to write her a prescription for the patch behind her ear before we left. To some extent, it worked. She never got queasy or nauseous on the trip. However, there was one problem neither of us anticipated. She got vertigo.

I booked a cabin with a balcony thinking if she got nauseous, she could go out on the balcony, get some fresh air and stare at the horizon. We quickly found out that every time she looked over the railing and saw waves or the ocean going by, it sent her into severe dizziness. So much for both of us enjoying a balcony.

But we dealt with it. Every morning, we had a pot of coffee delivered to our room at 6:30. I would drink mine out on the balcony watching the sun rise, while she would drink hers in bed, playing on Facebook. It wasn’t ideal, but if it kept her from getting dizzy – so be it.

The only other negative we found was that the ship seemed to be overrun with small kids. At 61, and no grandkids – we’re not anxious to be around lots of young children. But a four-night cruise over a holiday weekend gave us just that. Next time, we will probably book a longer cruise (seven nights) and one on a line that doesn’t necessarily cater to young families.

Other than that, we had a blast! My favorite place on the ship was the Main Dining Room. Even though it looked very elegant, it wasn’t stuffy. I wore jeans and a polo most nights. On Friday’s formal night, I wore khakis, a dress shirt with no tie and a sport coat (seen below with an empty wine glass).

I’m not a huge fan of buffets. I tend to think buffets offer mediocrity and a lot of it. Except for two breakfasts in the buffet upstairs, we ate all of our meals in the Main Dining Room. There you can order whatever you want off of a menu that changed everyday and as much as you want. For example – on our last night at sea on Sunday night, I had two appetizers (French Onion Soup and Escargot), three entrees (Grilled Tiger Shrimp, Rack of Lamb and Steak Diane – each with an assortment of accompanying vegetables) and two desserts (Tiramisu and Crème Brule). It’s no wonder I gained over six pounds over four days.

For breakfast our first morning, I had Eggs Benedict and French Toast with Bacon.

My second favorite place was our room and its balcony. There you could enjoy watching the sea go by without having to endure the masses.

Of course, I also enjoyed the pools – mainly because every time I looked up, there was someone wanting to bring us a drink. We would always oblige.

I have been on two cruises now, and the excitement you feel at the initial sail-away, leaving port, is palpable. I dragged Susan up to the front of the ship so we could be on the bow as we entered the Atlantic. It was a bit windy, but we didn’t care. It was 82° and sunny. It also helped that we knew it was supposed to get down to 17° back home in Nashville that night.

Our weather could not have been better. We saw no rain and very few clouds. The coolest temperature we experienced was Friday morning, when it got down to 73°. When we were in Cozumel on Saturday, it got up to 86° with clear blue skies.

We did no scheduled excursions in Cozumel. Instead, Susan suggested we walk into town from the port – which turned out to be a three-mile walk. It was a pretty walk and I felt we got to see some areas besides the touristy port, but we took a taxi back to the ship.

All in all, we had a great time – but it ended way too soon. I would not recommend a four-night cruise. It’s a lot of work and preparation for such a short trip. I think a seven or eight night cruise to three or four different ports is ideal. You are book-ended by two weekends, you get to see a lot of places but you also have a couple of days at sea, which are very relaxing. One thing I like about cruising is that you unpack once and the scenery outside of your window changes daily.

We will probably wait a couple of years to go on another cruise. Next year (or later this year), Susan wants to go to the beach and rent a condo for a few days. I got what I wanted, so I’ll give her what she wants next. But I’m already thinking what I want to do differently on our next cruise. If you have any specific questions about cruising, please e-mail me at geophillips14@gmail.com.

Here are a few more shots. Thanks for reading through all of this. – GP

This entry was posted on February 21, 2020 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.