Back to Back
This was our first time doing a back-to-back cruise. We had breakfast and left everything in our room and then went to the Gathering Place where we sat with a few other couples waiting for the last passengers to leave around 9AM. Then we were escorted off the ship, went through the immigration scan, and then returned to the Summit. All told we were off the ship for less than 15 minutes. We went to the Solarium, where we had the area all to ourselves. When the pool bar opened at 10:30AM, we had our first drinks of our second cruise, from the new daiquiri machine that had just been installed that morning.
Back to Back
We enjoyed lunch in Oceanview and went down to Rendezvous, where we were greeted like old friends by the bar staff. We were surprised that the drink menus had been condensed between the two voyages with one of Janie's favorite drinks being removed from the menu. We stopped off at the Martini Bar where we met our first entitled passenger, who at first was upset about how long it was taking to be served, which was not long at all, and then angry the bartender would not serve her three drinks on one card and forced her to go get the other cards. The bar had installed an espresso martini maker between the two cruises, so J. R. had to try this new version. It was good, but doesn't hold up to the old Decadence Espresso. Since we didn't need to unpack, we went to the sail-away party with the Seagulls and the production cast.
Dinner and Show
After watching the sunset over Miami, we went to dinner, where, as promised, we were seated by the window. Our experience on this cruise was completely different than the last, with a fun wait staff who were very quick and understood the menu. The show was supposed to be a comedian, Troy Thirdgill, but Alex explained his flight had been delayed and he missed the ship. So instead there was a singer, who was pretty good, but our experience was marred by a family who came in late, sat behind us despite the theater being empty, and proceeded to start talking loudly. We asked them twice to stop talking and the woman said "Calm Down". We told her we were calm and she needed to "Quiet Down". Thankfully we never saw them again.
