Edinburgh, Scotland... July 19

Crown Princess will anchor in S. Queensferry for our visit to Edinburgh (locally pronounced Edinbra). Click here for a map of Edinburgh. One of the highlights is, of course, Edinburgh Castle, a fortress which dominates the skyline. Edinburgh Castle is Scotland's most visited tourist attraction. Some of the Castle attractions include the Great Hall, the National War Museum, the one o'clock gun and the spectacular views: you can see the entire city stretched in all directions from different ends of the castle. Here's a map of the castle. The price for admission to the castle is £14 for adults and you can purchase tickets in advance online.

A walk along the Royal Mile, one of the most famous streets in the world is also a "must do" in Edinburgh. The Royal Mile has Edinburgh Castle located at the top and Holyrood Palace (Scotland's official residence of the Queen) at the foot and is roughly 1.5 miles long. The best way to see the Royal Mile is on foot, but a city bus tour will also give one the feel of it. This is the place to buy your souvenirs... kilts anyone?

Plan to stop at a pub or cafe for a refreshment! Into local cuisine? Then you must try haggis, one of the traditional Scottish dishes. Haggis is a kind of sausage, or savoury pudding cooked in a casing of sheep's intestine, as many sausages are. The haggis is a traditional Scottish dish memorialised as the national dish of Scotland by Robert Burns' poem "Address to a Haggis" in 1787. Haggis is traditionally served with "neeps and tatties" (Scots: swede, yellow turnip or rutabaga and potatoes, boiled and mashed separately) and a "dram" (i.e. a glass of Scotch whiskey. Sound yummy?

After experiencing some history and a tasty Scottish lunch, how about a Scottish whiskey tour? Visit the new Scotch Whisky Experience for a sensational journey! Take a swirling, bubbling barrel ride through a replica distillery as you become part of the whisky making process. Along the way you’ll hear the stories behind this magical craft, with expert tour guides and whisky advisors with you every sip of the way.

Princess offers a variety of excursions for Edinburgh. As Ken & I love to do things "on our own" when we can, we are planning to book the Princess "on your own" tour which will provide transportation to/from Edinburgh. I haven't had much luck in discovering if the city of Edinburgh provides shuttles from the pier at Queensferry that may be less expensive than a Princess tour. So, to be safe, the Princess on your own is on my agenda!

Final day on Oasis of the Seas… back to the real world tomorrow!

Oh what a time!  Late December back in ‘63, what a special night (time!)..Just remembering a song… I digress… This has been quite a time onboard one of the largest cruise ships in the world!  Following a spectacular Cinco de Mayo in beautiful Cozumel, dinner at Chop’s Grille was the icing on the cake!    I really can’t decide which I like better, Giovanni’s Table or Chop’s Grille!  Meeting the cast of Hair Spray following their small, personal performance of Broadway tunes, was a nice touch. 

This morning’s seminar was the final one for this sailing.  Peggy and Monika did a fantastic job; our group of agents rocked the Oasis… oh yes, the seminar was topped off by a complimentary visit to the Cupcake Cupboard, compliments of our BDMs, Peggy and Monika! Delish!  Today’s session was on social networking, among other agenda items.  For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE socializing, networking, facebooking, and I’ll soon be tweeting!  Presentations were made by the groups manager, spa manager, sports & fitness manager, assistant cruise director, and more.  Needless to say, I have gained a lot of knowledge & am loving being a part of the travel industry!

After a fun & informative morning of seminar, lunch at Giavanni’s Table awaited… divine once again!  I will say, though, that we enjoyed a lighter lunch.  Pool time next!!! Beautifully sunny day with lots of poolside activities and music so I found the perfect perch.  Reading my kindle ( a novel written by a local from wilmington, NC about british royalty… in preparation for my next trip.. to the british isles!)  I also wandered round the ship to take more photos… smile everyone!

We have dinner tonight with the group… time to say our good-byes for the moment.  I’ve met some colleagues with  whom I will stay in touch and have thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful experience.

Our flight departs tomorrow at 1:05 pm so we shall be back home tomorrow evening in time to order Papa John’s Pizza… YES, I hear that Southport finally has a Papa John’s! Zoey, little furry friend, here we come!

Jamaica – No Problem Mon! Don’t Worry Be Happy!

We awoke to an overcast sky & scattered showers that gave way to a brilliantly sunny and warm day.  Oasis docked at the new port of Falmouth, the newest port of call in the Caribbean! A partnership between Royal Caribbean Cruises and the Port Authority of Jamaica has set in motion the development of an innovative cruise port facility.

Since Ken & I have visited Jamaica many times, both on cruises, and in resorts such as Sandals, we decided against an organized excursion and just wandered around the town square on our own and enjoyed the ship, as it was a bit less crowded than on sea days! 

Let me back up a bit to our last evening, Monday… I had made advance reservations for the aqua theatre, Oasis of Dreams followed by dinner at Giavanni’s table for fine Italian cuisine in a romantic atmosphere.  As it turned out, we could see Oasis of Dreams better from our balcony than from the theatre seats!!!  So we enjoyed it in private confort.  The performers are worldwide athletes… divers, gymnasts, swimmers and their credentials are overwhelming.  Because we have been watching their practice sessions from our balcony, we feel that we almost know them.  It’s a great show and I encourage everyone who cruises on Oasis to see this special performance!

Giavanni’s Table… was crazy busy when we arrived for our 9:00 pm reservation.  Because our room had been upgraded, they couldn’t find our reservation so we headed back to our stateroom to get the confirmation, which I had thankfully printed!  Oh yes, there we are… sorry… we were seated at a table for two by the window.  Our vino arrived, antipasto, bread, salad, and entrees… Ken with sea bass and me with osso bucco.  The dessert menu was delectable, but after all that, chocolate gelato was my final choice! It’s all here on Oasis!

Now it’s time for another lovely evening in this city of 6000!  What did I choose for a romantic dining venue?  Why it’s Chop’s Grille of course!  Ruth’s Chris comes to mind…mouthwatering cuisine in an elegant setting!  Headliners show to follow – I think it’s a comedy show with a duo… Oh no… I’d better hide in the back row as for some reason, they usually choose me to come on stage and be their stooge!!!

Oops.. Ken is telling me that it’s time to get ready for dinner…… so until tomorrow, I shall sign off. But stay tuned!

My Seminar At Sea on Oasis of the Seas: Day 3 update

Embarkation was a breeze at the new Terminal 18 at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale.  We grabbed a taxi from our hotel, The Renaissance, and were onboard by 11:30 Saturday morning.  There was a bit of the snafu when we checked in for the cruise as they had a credit of 1 penny on our account that had something to do with a service dog charge!  Had I known, Zoey would have certainly been packed in my carry-on bag!  We enjoyed our Bon Voyage lunch at Giavanni’s Table, one of the specialty restaurants onboard Oasis.  It’s a beautiful venue with delightful cuisine and wonderful service.  It’s a complete Tuscan experience, at sea! Giavanni’s is located in the Central Park neighborhood. 

Central Park is the single most innovative feature of the design of Oasis.    This is truly the world’s first at-sea park.  It took a whole lot of dirt to complete this park – 82 metric tons of dirt to be exact! Daily guided tours of the park are led by onboard expert horticulturalists.  The greenery is lush along the paths & walkways.  Two living walls that measure 25 feet across and 5 decks high create an amazing focal point with flowering vines such as Clerondendrom ‘bleeding heart”, Thunbergia ‘stormy sky’, and althernthera ‘purple night’.

As you can see, I am learning quite a lot about this ship and product through the seminar, led by two of Royal Caribbean’s best managers!  We are a group of 30 agents & our guests, so we number about 60!   

Our hosts and leaders, Peggy and Monica, hosted a welcome cocktail reception and group dinner the first evening.  The following day was seminar for me while Ken explored the ship on his own.  The seminar was fun as we were grouped into teams and were assigned a shipwide scavenger hunt with group presentations to follow.  My group worked well together and I have made some valuable friendships already!

We enjoyed dinner in the Opus Dining Room and our evening was topped off by experiencing the Broadway show, Hairspray.  The production was excellent!  I can’t imagine that it would have been better on Broadway!

Today we are in Labadee, one of Royal Caribbean’s private islands, located in Haiti.  I was here about 5 years ago and all I can say is WOW – it is even better than it was then!  & it was pretty perfect then!  The Dragon’s Tail zipline  drew me…. and the roller coaster too!  The location is so gorgeous… beautiful turquoise water, white sand beach, and lush foliage on this mountainous island.  Every type of water activity one could possibly want is offered here.  Several locations for beach barbecues, lots of chaises, personal watercraft, kayaks, parasailing, scuba, snorkel, of course plenty of pocoloco (the famous labadee island drink).

We are back onboard now and I have been watching the high divers practice for tonight’s Oasis of Dreams aquatic show.  They are diving from 17 meters from the surface of the water.  Ken & I have tickets to this evening’s show so I will write more about it tomorrow.  Oh yes, we also have reservations for dinner at Giavanni’s Table.  You all know that I just love Italian cuisine, right? 

Love and Kisses for now!