11/13–18– Six days at sea

As always, where did they go?  And what did we do?  Well, the usual.  Hung out, read, watched movies, and all that stuff.  The weather was never very good, only one sunny day, then mostly overcast, windy and rainy.  But we had a great balcony, even though a little wet, and a great room – so the weather never bothered us. And honestly, clouds are better to keep the heat down, so we were sort of happy.  The rest of our activities were, well, boring things, no one wants to hear about, we know. 

So, instead, we will do a quick cruise review here.  

• RCL Jewel of the Seas – 24 days back to back
• Some of the best crew afloat (although the worst bed afloat in our first cabin 9214 FYI). Our cabin steward on the first leg, Mykoo, was the sweetest guy, always smiling and happy, we loved him. And he even gave us a magnet from Naples.  How sweet was that?
• Restaurant staff were amazing.  We lucked out on the first night and got a table with Carlos and Taufik, who are now (after every dinner, except 3) like our family.  Taufik says we are his brother and sister.  Carlos is like a son or nephew or, well just part of us now  – and who, by the way, has been promoted to guest relations (where he will be fabulous!) and will be moving to the Navigator next week for a few months.  Jose, our head waiter, would come by every night to chat, and even sit down at our table with us.  (Oh, and send us chocolate covered strawberries almost every day). And Liz, our hostess, whom we followed from one side of the dining room to the other, just to be able to chat with her and see her smiling face every night.
• Diamond and Concierge lounge staff were equally fabulous – Sergey in the Diamond lounge was sweet and helpful, and Diego, the Concierge, was the loveliest, most personable guy  - with awesome music taste and an excellent eclectic music collection, a portion of which he thoughtfully shared with us.  We loved being in the lounge chatting with Diego every day.
• Kevin at the Pool Bar was another shining star.  So friendly and fun, and able to handle obnoxious guests with a style. 
• Lounge passengers were a mixed bunch, but we did manage to have a few friendly conversations with some.  A couple from Florida who frequented Hilton Head and knew all the performers we used to see when we were there, a couple from Boston, the husband of which was very friendly and had interesting stories and the gentleman from Stavanger (Pinnacle Club member) who gave us the best compliment ever:  He asked us if we were friends, and we said yes, we are married, and he said, oh, I never thought you’d be married, you are always together and always talking to each other – I thought you were just friends, because married couples don’t talk like that. Sweet!

So, you see, six days at sea went by incredibly fast (heck the whole 24 days went by fast) with this type of friendliness around every corner.  We only hope we will see these folks again one day soon – either on a ship or on land.

We definitely had fun aboard, and now we are looking forward to docking in San Juan tomorrow for the last days of our month-long journey.