This was another port day. We were awake just after 07:00 again and were already docked. We got up and ready. The gangway was on our deck again. We headed straight there, but they were not ready yet. We had a short wait. Still, as we had no plans to get off the ship, we were in no rush. Once they were ready, we headed out to get our photos done and then got back on the ship. We had another short wait as there were a lot of people coming down the gangway and they had to wait for a short gap before they could let us back on.
As soon as we were back on the ship, we headed straight up to the Windjammer to get some breakfast. I was surprised how busy it was that morning. A lot of people had very long days going either to the Cinque Terre or to Florence and Pisa. I figured that most people would get off the ship as soon as they could. However, it took a while until we found a table. Graham had some oatmeal with dried fruit and brown sugar and a glass of orange juice. I had congee with chicken, bacon bits, scrambled eggs, and soya sauce. I also had some apple juice. We both had some coffee.
Once we had finished breakfast, we got some fresh air walking along the sun deck. Then we headed back to deck 5. Graham went to Café Promenade to get some coffee. I quickly went back to the cabin to get my soda cup and my iPad. On the way to the cabin, I took some photos along the Royal Promenade as nobody was around. I particularly loved the bronze tree statues. They had Swarovski hummingbirds on the branches. On the way back I filled up my soda cup with fruit punch Fanta and then I caught up with Graham.
We headed up one deck to the Schooner Bar. Graham decided to do the word search which was all about movies that day. I was trying to get a signal on my mobile. I had no issue getting a signal on the ship in Barcelona or Palma, but it was not working that day. On that day, being on the ship was a little bittersweet. With about two weeks to go before the cruise, I had found out that my team had been shortlisted for a team sales award at the most prestigious award ceremony that Emirates has. Had I not been on the cruise, I would have been in Dubai that day. Instead, two members of my team were representing us. I did promise them that I would be available through Teams and WhatsApp that day. Eventually, I decided to use one of my free internet days. As soon as I was connected, I had updates from both of them. Everything was going swimmingly. I replied to them and then I helped Graham with the word search.
We made good progress with this, but did not quite manage to finish this by the time morning trivia started. We got 12 out 20 and the winning score was 15. We decided to stay on for the next trivia. Graham went down to Cafe Promenade to get us some coffee while we were waiting for this to start. This trivia was called Add A Letter Puzzle. This consisted of words, and each word came with a clue. We had to add one letter to the original word to make a new word that fit the clue. We got 27 out of 28 and the winning score was 28.
After this trivia, we quickly went back to the cabin, and I got changed into my swimsuit. Then we headed up to the pool deck. We did the toe test at all three pools. The sport pool was freezing, but the other two pools were a very pleasant temperature. I chose the beach pool to have a swim as I had learned the day before that this is a saltwater pool whereas the remaining pools on board are freshwater pools. Once the pool started to fill up, we got out and headed over to the infinity hot tub near the entrance to the solarium. I love those hot tubs on the Oasis class ships. We spent about 20 minutes in the hot tub and then we got dried off and headed back to the cabin for a quick shower. Then we went back to the Schooner Bar for some more trivia.
The trivia this time was Who In the World Am I, which was the second time on that cruise that this was offered. About half of the questions were the same as the first time round and the other half was different. We got 20 out of 21, which was the winning score. We were given the choice of some pens or highlighters as a prize. As we already had pens, I went with the highlighters. We had a drink during the trivia. Graham had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and I had a Peanut Butter Tropic cocktail which consisted of Skrewball peanut butter whiskey, pineapple juice, bitters, and lemon juice. This has a really strong peanut butter taste is and is absolutely delicious.
After the trivia, we figured we better get some lunch. We headed up to the Windjammer. Graham had some chicken tenders and pasta. I was delighted when I spotted poblano pepper soup. I had a bowl of this and then had a burger, some chicken tenders and some fries. I also had some Berry Blast Sprite, which is a flavour that is exclusive to Royal Caribbean. Graham had some strawberry kiwi water.
After lunch, we decided to make use of the fact that the ship was relatively quiet and play a round of mini golf. The minigolf course is pretty basic, but it was still fun. Afterwards, we checked out the Crown Lounge. This is such an improvement from the Crown Lounge on Symphony of the Seas where it was a really dark space. However, we did not spend any time there and instead found some seat near Mason Jar.
Once I started to feel a bit too hot, we headed inside and found a seat in Boleros. We had another drink while we were waiting for afternoon trivia to start. Graham ad a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and I had a Paloma, which consisted of Patrón Silver tequila and lime juice topped with Q sparkling grapefruit. This was really refreshing. We scored 16 out 20 and the winning score was 20. We then moved across to On Air for Beers, Wines, and Spirits Trivia. I figured we may do quite well with this, but it was fiendishly difficult. We scored 9 out of 20 and the winning score was 10.
After the trivia, we headed back to the cabin to get changed. Then we headed out for dinner. Dinner that night was at Izumi, which has been a firm favourite for many years. On Allure, Izumi is tucked away on deck 3 near the dining room. As our cabin was on this deck, we could just walk along the corridor, and we were there. On the way, I had a surprise. I found that they had backdrops for photos outside the dining room. I had felt that the photo opportunities were surprisingly limited on this ship compared to Wonder of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas. Now I knew why. We stopped to get some photos done and also found out that there were some more backdrops on deck 4. We decided to check this out after dinner. Once we had done the photos on deck 3, we went to check in at Izumi.
On Allure, Izumi is a restaurant with two halves. On the left side is the normal Izumi offering sushi and various Japanese dishes. This is what we had the reservation for. On the right side is the Teppanyaki. Both of them share one podium. As a seating at the Teppanyaki was about to start, we had a short wait until we were checked in. Then we were taken to our table that was right by the kitchen. Our server introduced himself and explained that as we were on the unlimited specialty dining plan, we would have the set menu. This meant that we would choose one small plate, two large plates and one dessert each. We had done this previously and knew how it works. The menu has had a revamp since the last time we ate at Izumi, and I loved some of the new additions.
Our server took our drinks order and brought out a bowl of steamed Edamame with kosher salt. Graham had the Japanese Strawberry cocktail, which was described as a crisp, fruity sake cocktail with a hint of lime. I had my go to cocktail, which is called She’s A Geisha and consists of fresh berries shaken with cranberry and lime juices, and junmai grade sake. The cocktails took forever to come out. I very much enjoyed my cocktail. Graham was not quite so sure about his.
For food, Graham went with the crispy chicken kara-age, which consists of soy-ginger-mirin marinated thigh meat and is served with a sweet Thai chili sauce for his small plate. This is normally my choice, but I had my eye on one of the new additions. I had the Shrimp and Pork Wonton Soup, which was a clear chicken soup with shiitake mushrooms, scallions, and shrimp & pork wonton.
For our large plates, we went with one portion of sushi and one hot dish each. Graham had the Crispy Philly Roll with salmon, avocado & cream cheese flash-fried in panko breadcrumbs, with Champagne sauce, and spicy aioli and the chicken teriyaki with vegetables in a teriyaki sauce with steamed rice. I had the Champagne Lobster Roll, which consisted of blanched lobster, avocado, daikon sprouts, soy wrap, Champagne sauce, and chili thread followed by the Tonkotsu Ramen with egg ramen noodles, tonkotsu pork broth, sliced chashu pork, menma bamboo shoots, and boiled egg. This normally comes with seaweed, but I asked our server to leave this off.
For dessert, Graham had the Mochi ice cream. This normally comes as an assortment of flavours. Graham had specified no chocolate and just ended up with mango Mochi as they only had mango and chocolate that evening. He was good with this. I had the green tea ice cream.
The food was amazing as ever. The service was a different story. Everything took forever to come out and for the most part, our server was not seen for dust. It was one of the other servers that came over at some stage to apologise for the delay and to advise that our food would be out shortly.
We had some amusement though. When we were on Odyssey last November, we had my birthday lunch at the Teppanyaki. We were reminiscing about this and the fact that I got through the whole cruise without my birthday being acknowledged. This then brought us to a Disney cruise that I celebrated my birthday on where on the first night, they decided to celebrate Graham’s birthday that had happened over a month earlier, but my birthday that actually was on the cruise was not acknowledged. Fast forward to us finally being able to flag down our server for long enough to be able to sign the receipt. We signed this and left only for our server to come after us in a mild panic. I wondered what was going on. He mentioned something about a celebration. We just looked at him blankly. He then mentioned about a birthday. We told him that our birthdays were not until the following month and the month after that. With slight desperation, he then asked him if it was our anniversary. We told him that this was in February. He then showed me a piece of paper where it stated that it was Graham’s birthday. We told him it was definitely not, but he insisted to bring out a piece of chocolate cake and made Graham blow out the candle. We humoured him and then left. Quite apart from the fact that they got this wrong despite having our dates of birth on file, I did not feel it was terribly appropriate to chase us down as we were leaving after the “celebration” had not been acknowledged at any point of the meal. I think if we really had something to celebrate, I would have been seriously annoyed about the way this was handled. As it was, I was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down my face.
We got some more photos on deck 4 and 5. Then we headed back to the cabin to get changed into our swim stuff. Whenever I was on a cruise for a work trip in my last job, it became a bit of a tradition to have some hot tub time before bed. Graham and I have never done this, and I suggested that we should give this a go. Usually, the hot tubs are empty at that time of the night, but we were not the only people to have this idea that night. The infinity hot tub on our side of the ship was closed, but the on the other side was open. We enjoyed this for about half an hour and then we dried off and headed back to the cabin. We both had a quick shower and then we got ready for bed. I read a couple of pages in my book and then I was ready to go to sleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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