Escaping Insanity: A Cruising Trip Report. MORE Chilling at Sea (Part 3)

The previous installment can be viewed HERE.


On the agenda for dinner tonight was Food Republic.  Aaron, who is a big sushi fan, was REALLY looking forward to this one.  We started to make our way down around 5:15, and, at 5:30, when it opened for service, we were the second ones to be seated.

Food Republic is another one of those hidden gems onboard.  Once word gets out, the place tends to get busy; however, if you go there on the first 2-3 days of the cruise, it tends to be quiet.  The menu is crafted by the geniuses from the Pubbelly Restaurant group, including chefs Jose Mendin (a 5-time semifinalist of the James Beard award), Sergio Navarro, and Andreas Schreiner, who are very well-known in the Miami area.  It is an Asian fusion restaurant with a little bit New England sprinkled in.  Guests order from iPads located at each table, and, as a plate is made, it comes out to the table; there is no order of entrees, per se.


The first order of business was the drink selection.  Sheri decided on a “Revolutionary Cure” (Mandarine Napoleon…orange liquor, apple juice, cinnamon syrup, ginger beer, and fresh lemon), while I ordered a Toro Toro (silver tequila, chipotle pineapple syrup, and lime juice…it was interesting!).

We let the boys have a little more free reign on what to order, and it was ALL amazing!

Tiger Roll

Chorizo Dates

Short Rib & Corn

Philly Roll

Pork Belly & Scallions

Chicken Teriyaki w/ Ginger Miso

Dragon Roll (we think)

It was a la carte and not part of the specialty dining package that we had, but we would all agree that it was worth the price!!!!  You pay as you order at Food Republic, so we didn’t have to wait for the final check.  We were out of there around 6:30…less than an hour for our meal!


Both Entourage and Splash had events going on at 7 that the boys expressed interest in.  This was good, because Orly was going to be at District starting at 6:45.  We made our way aft and dropped Aaron off first before heading to the Sports Court to drop off Eric.  Kidless again, we made our way BACK to Deck 8 Forward and headed into the District.  Orly had already about half-way into his set, and he again gave us a “Hi guys!” as we found some chairs.


Before the cruise, I have delusions of grandeur to attempt to taste every beer that the District had; some words of encouragement from a brother-in-law or two made me even more set on trying it.  There was just too much to offer around the ship, however, and the beers I ordered that night were the only ones I had at the District.  I feel like I should turn in my man card.

Orly finished his first set and, during his break, he performed some surgery on his guitar; mind you, we all thought it sounded amazing before he started working on it.  Before he started his next set, I asked him if he was okay with me recording a little bit.  He gave the okay, and I got set up to get some footage of his show.  I then told him that he had an impact on our older son and asked us about starting lessons.  Orly smiled and said that he’d love to talk to Aaron about it and show him a couple of things on the guitar.

Me:  jaw hits the floor

We did tell Aaron that evening; unfortunately, the timing just didn’t work out for them to meet up.  Still, his willingness to talk to him spoke volumes.  I doubt that he’ll ever read this, but I wanted to express our thanks for the amazing job he does on the ship!

Sheri and I were content just staying in the District for a few hours.  It wasn’t too loud in there, the motion wasn’t too much for Sheri, and we were really enjoying ourselves!  Howl at the Moon was slated to start at 8:30, though, and we had heard really good things about that show.  We decided to listen to Orly until 8:10 and then head to Headliners for Howl; we both agreed that we could come back here if we weren’t feeling the dueling pianos show.  We finally pulled ourselves out of the District around 8:18 and did the short walk to Headliners.  We figured it would be close to full – we weren’t expecting there to be no chairs available at all when we got there.


Yes, folks, that was me trying to tell you to arrive EARLY for Howl at the Moon.


We stood in the back, and the show started a few minutes later.


There were a couple of occasions where we nearly had tears in our eyes from laughing.  The talent of the pianists is remarkable, and they’re quick on their feet with some of the lyrics.  Eric texted to say that he was signing out, and we directed him to head to Headliners, not knowing if he would like the show or not.  He found us about 15 minutes later.  Aaron texted us not long after Eric did, and all 4 of us ended up really enjoying the show; we stayed until around 10:45…a little before the 11:00 cutoff where they were going to amp the show up to an 18+ audience.

Tyler on the drums

For those who have never seen this, I’m going to compare it to something at Disney World, since the current majority of my followers on my blog are Disney freaks.  If you take Jellyrolls and merge it with the electric audience participation that you see with Yeeha Bob over at Port Orleans Riverside’s River Roost and then make it a bit more PG-rated, you’ll have something along the lines of Howl at the Moon.  The video gives a good feel for what to expect with the show.


If you haven't seen the video yet, it can be viewed here:

Tyler, the Cruise Director, made a cameo appearance and ended up staying for a good 20+ minutes.  He even had a singing part, which I won’t spoil.  One of the funnier parts was during his song:  his crew member phone went off during his song, and, in perfect step, sang “I’ll be there in ten minutes” to whomever it was on the other end of the line.  We left before it went to adults-only, but we could tell from some of the other humor that these guys would probably be just as funny, if not funnier, with the handcuffs taken off (or put on, for that matter).

Tyler's (hilarious) solo

I actually grabbed the slip of paper used to request a song and filled out "20-year Anniversary" for the event, and for the song....


...without Sheri seeing it...


...I wrote down Jimmy Buffett's Why Don't We Get Drunk...


I chickened out, though, and didn't turn it in.  I did show it to her, though, and got a good laugh from it.

We shipped the boys out a few minutes before we left in the hopes that they would start getting ready to turn in for the night.  They were pretty much ready when we arrived at the stateroom.  This day turned out to be another fantastic one, but we were all looking forward to tomorrow, when we arrived at St. Thomas!


Day 4 starts HERE.

Escaping Insanity: A Cruising Trip Report. Chilling at Sea (Part 2)

Part 1 can be viewed HERE.

Since the Brew House was scheduled to open at 1, we all started dispersing around 12:45-12:50.  Sheri and the boys were going to chill (interpretation: they were probably ordering a drink or two LOL) at the Atrium while I did the group slot pull and the cabin crawl.  I talked to Michell a bit while we made our way to the casino for the slot pull.  I think we had around 25 people take part, and, when all was said and done, we each only had a net loss of $10.  We had a lot of interest, with that size of a group all watching a single machine!

Once that was done, many said their goodbyes, while the group of us doing the cabin crawl huddled together to hear the logistics and the route that kirkleyv had set up for us.  The first stateroom was a studio.

These first pictures are of the Lounge set up for those staying in the Studios.

Entrance to Studio Lounge

Inside a studio...they're small, but, for many, it is a no-brainer decision to book one of these since it beats having to pay a 100% supplemental fee for a stateroom to cruise by yourself!

These staterooms are DEFINITELY cool for a single cruiser. The Studio Lounge was definitely neat, and that, coupled with the rest of the ship surrounding you, will definitely keep you from being bored (unless you’re trying to be bored).


Stateroom de la Mush was up next, and I went ahead to open things up while the rest of them made their way aft and up to Deck 12.  Joseph was around, so we talked for a quick moment while waiting for the group.  When they arrived, most initially just popped their heads in, thinking it was a standard balcony.  When I opened up the door to the balcony, they saw the angle and all went out to check it out.  Sunshine155 and her husband were curious about the price of the stateroom as they were comparing it to their mini-suite (their cabin seemed a bit bigger, but our balcony had a lot more room).  Speaking of which…


…we went to the mini-suite next, and they had their room decorated really nicely, with chocolates for visitors.  I made a mental note to do more for the stateroom for the next cabin crawl!



After that, we all made our way up to Deck 15 aft for a penthouse suite.

Oh….


My…..


I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

Yes...both a shower AND a tub in there!

Two doors to the huge aft-facing deck!

Awesome views of the ship's wake from the balcony.

Some of the veteran Cruise Critic folks surprised one of the ones doing the cabin crawl who was celebrating a birthday with a delivered cake, decorations, etc. (you can see some in the pictures).  For the life of me, I cannot remember whose birthday it was, though – I forgot to write it in my journal...sorry!  Needless to say, they pulled off a good surprise!



The slot pull and the cabin crawl took about an hour, and the rest of the Mushfam was probably getting a little antsy.  I said my goodbyes to all (declining multiple offers to take a piece of cake for the road) and thanked them for helping put on all the events!


I’m VERY glad that we signed up for the various events that was set up on the Roll Call.  I think we had a good mix of people that seemed to get along well, and, as I mentioned earlier, we found ourselves in the same place as those we met on a number of occasions.  Thanks to all who volunteered to put everything together!



Back to the task at hand…linking back up with the rest of the Mushfam.  The boys were apparently dying of hunger (on a cruise ship with free food 24/7).  I was in the mood for a drink, so, after wandering around Deck 17 and hearing a few minutes of the Mr. Sexy Legs Contest going on poolside on Deck 16, we met up and decided to head to Margaritaville for snacks and a drink.  As we walked up, one of the performers had started singing the theme song for the restaurant.  As he got to the refrain (“Wasted away again in Margaritaville”), I cleared my throat to do my duty as a true Parrothead after the next line.


“Searching for myyyyyyyyy…..lost shaker of saallltt”

That’s my cue.

“SALT!  SALT!  SALT!”

I think I was the only one in the entire restaurant that did that.


At least the performer acknowledged my efforts with a nod and a smile.  “He knows it!”, he said.


By the third refrain, we had about 6 tables shouting it out.  I’ll take that as a victory.



I ordered a bottle of Landshark Lager, and Sheri got something...a zombie, perhaps?  (regular & spiced rum, apricot brandy, orange & pineapple juice, and sour mix):

Even looking at the picture, I couldn’t remember what it was she ordered.  It was good, though!

We also ordered the most-popular appetizer on the menu: the volcano nachos.

Landshark photobomb #finstotheleft #finstotheright

Messy…but good!

The food was good and the beer was cold, but that wasn’t the best part of the experience.  The guy playing the guitar and singing was REALLY good.

He was doing mostly music that you would normally hear on RadioMargaritaville (Van Morrison, Bob Marley, etc.).  He did an awesome calypso rendition of Hotel California by the Eagles, too!  Orly Penate is his name, and I struck up a conversation with him between sets.  He mentioned that he’d be doing a different set of music at Tobacco Road that evening, and I told him I’d try to make it for a little bit.


For those who may have missed it, that is called foreshadowing.


The boys asked about the arcade, and we set them free with the warning that we knew exactly how much they spent in there.  After they left, we talked with a family from Michigan at a nearby table for a few minutes.  Despite their rhetoric about staying in there for the rest of the cruise, the boys did return from the acrade after about 15 minutes, and we bid Margaritaville adieu, giving Orly, who had started a new set, a friendly nod as we left.



It was definitely too windy for the Ropes course, and we didn’t have our swim gear on – our plan was to let people get the water slides out of their system on the first sea day so we could have smaller crowds on the second sea day.  We looked at the lines of the slides, but they didn’t look too bad at all.  Still, we stayed on course and squelched the idea of changing into swimming suits/trunks.  After a little bit of searching around, we figured out which deck we wanted...we headed down to try a cruise ship favorite...

Yes, folks, it’s that age-old game found on every promenade deck of every ship…it’s Shuffleboard!  Now, if we’re going to play it, we’re playing by the rules!  We studied the posted rules for a couple of minutes while another family finished up their game.

It was around 4:00, and the next shot at trivia was at 4:30. We headed to the atrium and grabbed a seat.  This round’s theme was “Where in the World is Norwegian?”.  This could go really well or, if I mixed up the ports from other cruise lines, it could go really badly for me.


I prefer not to say how we did.


Continued...HERE.