I had the chef make a custom salad for me, and Darin and I also ordered some of their roast beef san

As I stated in my blog post earlier , Darin and I still needed to do some last-minute shopping before we headed over to the cruise port. We headed over to Macy's at 8am (thank goodness for holiday shopping hours), and he picked up a pair of nice shoes for dinner.
We drove back to the hotel, re-packed (again) with Darin's new clothes/shoes (and maybe I picked up a few clothing items for myself ), loaded the Fiat with our (even heavier luggage), and drove back to the Ft. Lauderdale last minute plane tickets airport to drop off the rental and take a cab to Port Everglades. As we dropped off our rental car, the sales associate said that they offer free shuttle buses to the cruise port (Port Everglades). Score! (We were going to take a cab to take us there.) We rented with National, but it looked like all the rental car companies had free shuttles to the cruise port if you rented a car. Good to know...
We went up to the shuttle buses, and eventually last minute plane tickets we hopped on with a large group of people, and the driver headed to Port Everglades (20 minute bus ride). Even though it was 76*, it was fairly chilly in the shade as we waited for our shuttle- I wished I had brought a cardigan and worn pants.
We had many people on our shuttle bus going on various cruises- Princess, Carnival, Disney, and then us (Royal Caribbean). We got to our cruise line, dropped off our luggage at the dock (the cruiseline will deliver your luggage to your stateroom), and headed towards Royal Caribbean's port at 12:15pm.
We had wanted to get to Port Everglades by 11am, but we got there around 12:15pm.) While there were a ton of people. last minute plane tickets it wasn't "crowded" and we were easily able to enter the RC port and get in line to security.
Darin and I were hungry for lunch, so we headed towards our first stop on the ship: Park Cafe. I had read so much about Park Cafe's infamous roast beef sandwiches, and I figured this would be (the least crowded) time to try it as I assumed most cruisers would be heading last minute plane tickets to the Winjammer (buffet) Marketplace for lunch. We headed to the 8th floor where Central Park was located, and made our way to Park Cafe, which is centrally located last minute plane tickets in Central Park.
The minute you walk through the sliding doors of Central Park, you feel a sense of serenity last minute plane tickets and calmness. It was relatively quiet, and during the daytime, you can hear birds chirping. Albeit these sounds last minute plane tickets are coming form speakers, it really was a lovely and quiet place to stroll with lots of flowers and fresh greens everywhere you turned.
We really liked Park Cafe- it was modern, fresh, and contemporary. Once you enter the Cafe, to the left, there is a create-your-own salad bar (tons of luxe toppings, including fresh mozzarella balls, grilled chicken, alfalfa sprouts to name a few), and then in front is a large selection of chips, desserts, fruit, and the roast beef carving station.
I had the chef make a custom salad for me, and Darin and I also ordered some of their roast beef sandwiches. We sat down in a little hidden alcove, which had huge comfy chaises for us to relax and eat on.
Here is the roast beef sandwiches- the roast beef was tender, moist, and nicely seasoned on top of a kosher salt and fennel-topped crusty last minute plane tickets roll. This sandwich did live up to its hype , and I had 2 of these in addition to my salad.
We were pretty full at this point, but Darin went in and picked up some desserts. He loves cheesecake, so he chose a strawberry cheesecake slice and a sugar-free cookie for me. This cheesecake slice was not good. Darin said it tasted like "cheese last minute plane tickets mush". The cookie, last minute plane tickets on the other hand, was good- not great, but good (I assume for being sugar-free)? I do wish the cookie was warm.
Tip : We wished we would have brought a mesh shower organizer to hang on our shower head. It would have fit our shower items better instead of having to cram our stuff in that small tray (which kept toppling over as we grabbed items)
... instead, we brought our over the door shoe rack organizer , and it was hands down the BEST THING we brought on this trip. Since the counter space was so limited, we put our toiletries, SPF, jewelry, etc in the organizer and it helped keep everything neat, organized, and visible. Also, no worry about toiletries toppling over if the boat rocked since it was securely held in its own pocket.
While we were checking out our room, our luggage was delivered outside our stateroom, so we started unpacking until we had to head out to the Muster Drill (emergency drill) at 4:30pm, but not before we took some pictures on our way there!
I was so impressed by the Boardwalk area- It was outdoor, and I really felt like I was at a festival. You'll the carousel in the background, but they had 5 horses in various last minute plane tickets stages of how they are manually chiseled and hand painted to make the carousel animals:
The Muster last minute plane tickets Drill took only 10 minutes, and by 4:45pm, we were leaving our seats. We decided that this would be a good time to get acquainted with the ship, so we went downstairs last minute plane tickets 1 deck (onto Deck 5) and strolled through the Royal Promenade.
Darin and I weren't originally going to get a soda package ($45+15% tax), but I got sucked into getting one since I found out our ship had the Freestyle Coke Machines . (I guess we're on vacation, right?). By getting the soda package, I could get soda at any bar and any restaurant, and access all the Freestyle Coke Machines onboard using this complimentary souvenir Coke mug. The bottom (black) last minute plane tickets piece has a "sensor" where once you rest your mug in the machines, it will read the sensor and thus allow you to pick from the 100+ soda flavors.
What did we do after strolling through the Royal Promenade?Take a nap. We completely missed our dining reservation last minute plane tickets in the Opus Dining Room, and barely made it to the 8:45pm reservation of Hairspray the Musical last minute plane tickets in the Opus Theater. Luckily, we had reserved all of our My Time Dining and our show reservations online (can do so about 100 days prior to sail date), so we didn't last minute plane tickets feel rushed to map out our weekly itinerary while on board. So glad we were prepared and didn't have to do this added step while on the boat.
Tip #2: Sit in the center section when seeing Hairspray last minute plane tickets (in the Opal Theater)- since we had gotten there late, we saw all the way to the side of the stage and felt we missed some key parts of the movie due to obstructed views.
After the show, the Opus Dining Room was closed, and all we wanted to do was go back to our room and relax, so we ordered room service (complimentary until midnight, and then a $3.95 fee from 12am-1am). last minute plane tickets Here is the Room Service menu: