Wonder of the Lees, part 2

Aaaaand, we're back! Sit tight ya'll, this recap is going to be a doozy.

After a wonderful dinner and experience at Cafe La Trova, we headed back to our hotel to get a good night's sleep before setting sail the next day. For this short stay, we were at Towneplace Suites by Marriott Miami Airport. I love these locations because they have the kitchenette area and other amenities included that you can make great use of during your time there. We had a slight plumbing issue, but my Mr. Fixit was on duty to get us back working properly. I made the front desk aware but no one was onsite until morning. We got up early the next morning to walk over to the shopping center to hit up the ATM and to pick up our champagne to take on the cruise. Here's a tip: Staying within walking distance to a strip mall/major stores is a big help to grab things you forgot or that you didn't need to fly with (research options prior to booking). You are allowed to take on 2 bottles of champagne/wine per cabin and if you are a mimosa drinker, all you have to do is have room service bring your OJ in the morning. This may be a good time to splurge for something fancy or just to roll with mimosas because you can! That good ol' Andre hasn't failed us yet :) If you are not aware, you cannot take irons or steamers on board nor is one provided for use in your cabin. You can, however, pay for this service on board but we prefer to make use of the hotel iron and press as many of our clothing items as needed before leaving the hotel. (If you pack an empty garment bag, you can keep your clothes "laid out" during boarding and hang up once you get to the cabin.) Also, packing wrinkle releaser comes in handy. Hitting the freshly ironed items with this once you get in the room when hanging them up helps a great deal.

Upon boarding, we headed straight to our room to drop off our bags and head to our brunch reservation at The Mason Jar. We always try to get into some of the specialty dining options on each cruise, especially if it's one we have never tried. Make sure you are monitoring these deals in advance through the Royal Caribbean app once you have booked your cruise. This way you can make sure you have received the best offer for your specialty dining purchases. We had a bit of a wait even with our reservation, but we still were seated and ordered within approx. 30 minutes. The bar was already getting busy and plenty of others had the same idea of booking The Mason Jar for Day 1 boarding. There was a party of 19 seated just before us! After being seated, we took to reviewing the menu. I wanted to try the fried green tomatoes but they, unfortunately, were not available during our dining time. All of the brunch food items were included, but you had to pay additional for alcoholic beverages (unless you had the drink package). If you are adventurous (or just like to eat!) this is your chance to try multiple items, within reason, since you paid upfront for dining. I don't want to encourage people to go overboard and be wasteful, but maybe you can split an extra entree with someone else in your party to experience more of the menu. We started with bread service and I could not wait to dive into the jalapeño cornbread with whipped honey butter. There's also biscuits and a pimiento cheese spread or cajun butter to use, but i have been thinking about that cornbread ever since. Next up, I did the charred watermelon salad which was a unique blend of ingredients and flavors. This included large cubes of watermelon, sliced beefsteak tomatoes, red onion, crumbled feta, crispy chicken skin, and jalapeños. It was topped with a tangy mustard vinaigrette and mint, making it all very refreshing. I also tried the smoked deviled eggs which were topped with capers and more crispy chicken skin. These could have used a little more flavor over all, in my opinion. I think maybe some seasoned or smoky salt could have elevated them, or even some element of pimiento cheese mixed in.

Next up, there was the chicken & waffles and the stuffed french toast. The chicken was very crispy and you can tell it was seasoned throughout. I was pleasantly surprised about that and the mister found that it just tasted okay. Unfortunately, he said his waffle was too crispy and overdone. The stuffed french toast, however, was quite enjoyable! It's one super thick cut of toast filled with peanut butter, chocolate, bananas, and topped with more banana and bacon. You are given syrup to drizzle as you see fit. It could end up being a bit much for a lot of people and I had to leave some of it behind. Lastly, there was the the shrimp po' boy which featured some large, juicy shrimp The breading was light, seasoned nicely and the remoulade added a flavorful touch. We were way too stuffed between the two of us, so the side of fries received no attention. The mister was also able to enjoy the PB&J old fashioned which featured Skrewball peanut butter whiskey and tasted exactly as expected. I could have done one of these myself and I don't even like the drink normally. The skewer of PB&J bites were a nice thought but they tasted a bit meh to me. We were due for a nap after this, but did make our way to do a dry run of the casino floor to see what we would be working with this trip. If you know us, then you know the mister is a casino aficionado. We like hitting the slot machines and you will see this throughout our travels, so stay tuned!

After this, we headed back to our room to lay down. We had a junior suite for this sailing and it was so nice. Future sailings: upgrade me please! There was plenty of space to move about and we had a walk-in closet (!), on top of a full sitting area. They had robes for us and we also like to purchase the water package, so we had a nice stock of Evian to get through over the weekend. When we got up for dinner, we headed to Coastal Kitchen, which is included in your cruise fare. This dining is only available for suite-level guests; however, dinner is the only option to those with a junior suite. We had to make our way there immediately upon boarding to secure a reservation because you can not book this prior. Be quick if you are interested because it fills up fast. The restaurant is located at the top of the ship and offered some fun views over the recreational activity area outside on the deck. Aside from offering some of the regulars of main dining, they had other specialty items like creamy artichoke soup and crab & shrimp crusted pollock which I enjoyed. It was nice to enjoy some lighter, healthier options after that heavy brunch we had. The mister had the grilled New York sirloin and the classic French onion soup which you can never go wrong with; it's a hit every time. After dinner, we caught the Voices show. They did singing through the decades, beatboxing, and dancing. Prior to starting, they played a slideshow to showcase the new and senior entertainers. They have performers from all over and everyone did really well. There was a medical emergency somewhere on the ship during this and no one missed a beat! They kept right on singing and dancing through the announcement. That's true showmanship. Afterwards, we made our way to the casino to put the machines to the test. We had a decent run and that felt promising. Nothing is worse than hitting the slots with a game plan and hopes of winning, just to get tanked in the first 20 - 30 minutes of your session. It can get extremely packed and loud in there, so beware. We lasted a while and then headed back to the room to sleep.

The next day, we had a small room service breakfast of pastries & fruit and cracked open bottle one of our champagne for mimosas (Veuve Clicquot to be fancy) to get us revved up for our daytime entertainment. We were docked at Royal Caribbean's private island, CoCo Cay, and had prepaid for the Hideaway Beach excursion. Video reviews showed us it could potentially be a good time so we had to see for ourselves. This is another one of those things that you should really monitor the price for because you can book this at a great deal for $50 or less. We arrived a few hours late due to that medical emergency onboard the night before and shared port time with a sister ship, so we lost out on snagging some prime seating at the pool with the DJ. However, upon our arrival, we found they had cubby holes all around the bar where the DJ was setup and there was some open lounge seating and tables. We made it do what it do! Honestly, this was a great alternative because we proceeded to spend our entire time in the large pool with fellow cruisers dancing to the music and people watching. The DJ absolutely killed his set. I'm talking old school and new school bangers that had everybody rockin'. We also grabbed quite a few rounds of the drink of the day from the bar, the Coco Loco (blended to perfection and named for the location). This is another tip: because alcohol here is not included unless you have the drink package, maximize your budget by getting the drink of the day which is usually around $8.50. After a few hours, we took a break to grab a snack to put something on our stomachs and fuel our fun. We love the "secret sandwich" which is their take on a chicken parm on a bun. Mozzarella sticks go on their breaded chicken breast sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and pickle then gets topped off with marinara sauce. An absolute missile! This was as good as we remembered from our August visit and we are looking forward to our next visit to get one. We chilled for a minute and got some more water in us for hydration (I make sure this happens regardless) then got back in the pool to lap around and party a bit more. We finished up our time after about 5 total hours and headed back to the ship. After grabbing a quick ice cream cone at the Sprinkles station, we headed to the room for a nap. Your girl was in the sun all day so I had some sunburn and needed to recollect myself for evening activities.

We reemerged for a quick dinner in the Solarium Bistro, where there were both buffet and menu options available. The setup was nice and reminded me a bit of Coastal Kitchen with the type of offerings. You could get some of the classics but also expect to get some nicer, unique options. I grabbed a little charcuterie plate and lamb kofta. The buffet had items pre-plated in smaller portions and I thought that was so cute! After making it through dinner, we headed off to catch the Tribute to Bruno Mars live band performance. This was a good set and drew a FULL audience. Couples and families alike were dancing together on the floor and the lead even did time in the crowd. Bruno can really bring the people out. We saw him live earlier in May and it was such an amazing show. I was low-key reliving it during their performance. They had drink service during this time as well, but I passed on it. Our next show of the evening was titled InTENse, which was an aquatic, acrobatic show boasting an all-female cast. This was very good! It's so amazing to see how athletic and performative the human body can be. If you're sitting close enough to the stage, you get so wet from them splashing you throughout their performance. I keep telling myself i am going to get down there one show but I haven't been brave enough yet. Afterwards, we ended the evening with our casino nightcap. Once we maxed out on our spins for the night, we headed back to the room to get some much needed rest for our final day.

The last day we docked in good ol' Nassau. We have gotten off the ship here many times and have done many magnet runs here (that's our other jam: scoring a magnet from every place we visit). Before getting off the ship, we headed to breakfast in the main dining room for the first time in all our cruising history. This was nice because it wasn't crammed with a bunch of people and we were able to get dedicated service. I'm a country girl and got a nice serving of corned beef hash and it was really good. The mister had some delicious banana pancakes. Both were a pleasant breakfast surprise for us. We planned in advance to attend another top ranked bar this day. I bet you weren't expecting one to be in the Bahamas. This isn't tied to Royal Caribbean or a cruise excursion in any way, but we just knew we wanted to do this. We got a taxi and made our way to Bon Vivants for some early day libations. Our driver was super friendly and knowledgeable, advising us about the different license plate classifications there, as well as the prominent figures in office. He explained a bit of history to us about the area and how it correlates to American culture and influence. Upon our arrival to our destination, we were pleased to see it was a relaxing and quaint place where we were easily attended to during the couple of hours we hung out. I will make a separate post about Bon Vivants so we can note their classy cocktails and café offerings. We called for a taxi back to port and boarded the Wonder again for our last night.

We had our final dinner at another specialty dining restaurant, Wonderland. This was such an experience. It was Alice In Wonderland themed and the decor and staff were very on brand. Everything was so eye-catching and walking by the entrance everyday really had me anticipating this dinner. The menus presented as blank canvases that you had to "paint" to reveal your food options. You had a chance to look over the menu but without any dietary restrictions, we went on and let them do the tasting as they saw fit. There were 7 courses which all touched on 5 elements: sun, ice, fire, earth, and sea. Our waitress was so sweet and the Mad Hatter was on duty welcoming us in. We started with the Mad Hatter’s Purple Potted Shrimp which was wrapped with Crispy crumb and accompanied by scotch bonnet whipped dipping sauce, the Liquid Lobster made with bone marrow and caviar, and their Reconstructed Caprese presented with olive puree, ricotta cheese & basil. The caprese was the best here. I enjoyed having to break it down and mix it to get the full scope of the dish. The flavors were so refreshing and semi-sweet due to the tomato. Next we were presented with The Bird’s Nest (deviled eggs) under a dome with smoke, and filling whipped with blue cheese & hot sauce and then the Tomato Water which came in test tubes with mini Pepper spherification drops and bread foam. This one was my absolute fave! Think gazpacho shooter. I made sure to mention it to the Mad Hatter when he dropped by to check in on us. Third round included the Crispy Crab Cones that were filled with cilantro and a bit of wasabi in the bottom and had avocado mousse and ohba leaf topping it off. Then there was the Citrus Seas Shhhh of spicy tuna inside of a lime with floral yuzu granité to refresh the palate for the entrees. I had The Rib “I” Luscious Short Rib with Bordelaise sauce, whipped potatoes, and tomato, applesauce, and beet accompaniments. This dish was super yummy and hearty, really an excellent choice. The mister had the Branzino in Crispy Bread, over rice and with a tamarind spice emulsion sauce. He really loved the sauce but said the dish itself was a little underwhelming. Lastly, we had our desserts. There was the very artsy Mystical Mushroom Garden that was made of mousse and meringue with cayenne pepper and sat atop red velvet cake soil. There was a small dollop of mango sorbet and this was another dish to break apart and mix up for enjoyment. The showstopper, however, was The World. This was a chocolate sphere that housed chocolate mousse topped with peanut butter ganache and salted caramel ice cream that was drizzled with hot caramel sauce to melt it down. The hubs also enjoyed a couple of Smoke & Mirrors which were Old Fashions that were presented under a dome and smoked for added flavor. We had a great time here and were so glad to have experienced it. There was also one of the cruise photographers present so you know I was game for a quick couples' photo sesh. I loved the images so we did the buy 2 deal. I love them.

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Painting to reveal our menu.

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The mister's old fashioned with smoke from the caterpillar.

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Our waitress, Mae, pouring the hot caramel sauce over the chocolate sphere.

Our last night of entertainment included the Ice Spectacular. The performers are formally trained and they always have one skater who does something really amazing with props. This time one of the ladies took to being suspended a few times. We were sitting next to her "handler" who had to maintain lowering and raising her harness during her acts. That was a show in itself! This ice show had a lot of popular music and was themed to match the 4 seasons. When we left, we were able to hop into the elevator with the traveling piano player! This is always a nice surprise because you have no clue where they will end up. Be warned, people will try to overload to catch a ride here. We ended the night in the casino of course and were glad to return with some of our gambling funds. We made our way back to the room to pack up for our early departure and catch some Zs. Upon arrival back to port, we made our way to the bus area for our transfer to the airport, which we were able to book through the cruise line. It was nice to have prescheduled, guaranteed transportation to the airport and was one less thing to worry about for the return home. Overall, this was such a fun and memorable weekend cruise. I hope you all take away some tips suggested here and try out some of the specialty dining and entertainment they offer. Feel free to ask me any other questions or details that you don't see addressed here. I would love to tell you even more about our experience.

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Thanks for checking back in!