For our first sailaway from Southampton we went up on deck by the Mast Bar making full advantage of the drinks vouchers which come with our Crown & Anchor Diamond status. You can use your 3 vouchers in any bar between 5:00 and 8:30. After we watched the sailaway it was then back to the cabin where I managed to post the blog and it was then pretty much time to go to Chops for dinner. So after getting ready we made our way down to Central Park on deck 8 which is where Chops and a few of the other restaurants are. Our booking was for 8:30 and I made it using the Royal IQ app on my phone. We last ate in Chops 10 years ago while on our first cruise and I remember there being a bigger selection, however I can’t complain about last night’s experience as the the food and service was excellent. It was a very enjoyable evening and we were very surprised when we came to leave and looked at our watches to see it had gone 11:00. We had intended to go and see Bobby Davro in the theatre but only managed to catch the last 5 minutes.
We eventually retired for bed at just after midnight and reports on the bed are….. Very comfortable indeed.
Going back to the Royal IQ app, I downloaded it prior to sailing but you are not able to use any of it until you are connected to the ships Wi-Fi. It’s very easy to use and once you have registered yourself on the system it provides you with loads of information as well as being able to make reservations etc..
We have also found out that the Aqua Theatre isn’t finished so there will be no shows on this cruise. A bit of a shame but we aren’t too bothered by it. I’m sure we can find something else to fill it’s place.
I was awake fairly early this morning with my body clock seemingly thinking I needed to go to work. It was nice to slow down a bit and try and take in some of the literature and find out what is what. I have also booked Jamie’s Italian for Tuesday night at 9:00 so at least we will be giving another restaurant a go. Our friends have been allocated the American Icon Grill as their dining room while ours is down as Silk, we are going to try and see if we can dine together at each of the two dining rooms on the remaining remaining 2 nights we have.
Breakfast was taken in the American Icon Grill this morning and I have to report that it wasn’t the best dining occasion we have ever had. Staff seemed unorganized and unprepared for the amount of passengers wanting to take breakfast. Service was slow and some of the food being brought out want exactly the hottest either.
After doing some more exploring we found the morning had got away from us and it was time for lunch and not wanting to go to the bun fight in the Windjammer we elected to go to the American Icon Grill which was a vast improvement on the breakfast experience.
From there on in we struggled to occupy ourselves on what has been a drab looking sea day. We have encountered the same issues we experienced on Explorer of the Seas and after the novelty of apparently having loads to do found that there really wasn’t that much. This ship is geared up so that everything is focused inwards, the majority of venues are either in Central Park or on the Royal Promenade and today you couldn’t get a seat for love or money. We tried for 90 minutes to get tea and coffee with somewhere to sit and eventually gave up. You couldn’t even get them in the Windjammer which I think for a ship this size is appalling.
Tonight we are off to see Grease then it’s dinner in Silk restaurant so let’s hope things improve from this afternoon.
We are quickly discovering that this ship isn’t for us, nice to experience but there is a lot which doesn suit.
A few more photos have been added to Flickr Album which you will find >>>Here<<<