Bonnie Wilson, our realtor, came over to see the condo today, and we went to lunch at a grill with an outside patio in the rear, down Sherman a few blocks. It’s called Prairie Moon. The blackened fish tacos were quite good.
I walked back, and on the way stopped at the Evanston Library, which is gorgeous. It’s huge, light and airy, with a faintly oriental or national park lodge feel. They have some extensive collections, including newspapers, magazines, audiobooks, and sheet music.
I walked down to Jewel and bought their pesticide-laced bananas because they taste better than Whole Foods‘ organic ones. On the way back I spent an hour at Cafe Mozart sipping coffee and reading articles from Instapaper, including an interesting one about an art forger named Biro. Then at whole Foods I picked up supplies to make basil chicken and oven roasted brussels sprouts, which turned out surprisingly good.
I walked over to the west of the tracks, took some photos, and finally ate at Flat Top. There’s a new place next door that Dani recommended called Andy’s Frozen Custard, which sounded good at 195 calories per serving — until I got home and looked it up on the web and discovered there are three servings in a small!
She wanted stuffing for dinner, so she had to tell me how to make it. We’re also having a “ham nugget” from Whole Foods that is spherical.
We hung out today, Dani did some chemistry reading and met her friend Kyra for coffee, and for dinner we fixed chicken curry and samosas. Then we played the piano for a bit, working out It’s Too Late, after being inspired at the concert the other night.
We took advantage of having a car and drove North to Wilmette, a rather tony suburb, where we had lunch at Hackney’s, an old fashioned restaurant that reminded me of the places we used to go when I was a kid. Next door we shopped at Trader Joe’s, and then stopped at Sam’s Club.
For dinner we went to Spiaggia, which is supposed to be the best Italian/Continental restaurant in Chicago, although it is owned by Levy Restaurants, which is a bit worrisome. Spiaggia was good, not life changing. The place is a bit like Per Se, but with an Italian focus. Their tasting menu had an interesting theme, of the development of balsamic vinegar, with each course using a vinegar from farther along in the life cycle. The wine pairings were mostly so-so. It was a nice evening.
Dani said that her final exam went well. It took all three hours for her to do it and check it.
We rented a car and picked up the footstools I bought at World Market, which are very nice.
It’s really a challenge to find a place to park the car, though. I think we’ll use it tomorrow and then return it rather than try to figure out what to do with it until Sunday.
We drove down to little Italy and strolled up and down restaurant-laden Taylor street, finally choosing Francesca’s. Great choice. We had an authentic Italian meal, a great bottle of Barbera, and one of the best desserts I’ve ever had, an ice cream and nut and caramel and Oreo crust concoction that combined salty, bitter, sweet, warm, cold, crunchy and soft all in each amazing bite. The restaurant was packed, with many patrons headed for the same concert.
After dinner, we went to United Center to see James Taylor and Carole King. What a terrific concert they put on. It’s amazing that he’s 62 and she’s 68! They played for three hours, with their original band from their 1971 Troubador show plus many others. I had forgotten how many hits she wrote, all the way back to 1960. The concert had robotic video cameras all over the arena, high def screens, LED walls, and good sound (for an arena). Yet even with probably 20,000 people, it seemed quite intimate, and it was clear that they were really enjoying playing, and enjoying the enthusiastic audience response. Dani really enjoyed it, too.
Not too much to report today. I tried to duplicate Yellow Dog Eats tuna for lunch, with cranberries, almonds and allspice, but it really needs five spice, which I bought later at Whole Foods.
While Dani was being tutored I went to Peet’s Coffee and read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which, after a slow start, has gotten good. Much like Harry Potter, it has the feel of a new author learning the ropes in the first third of the book.
I went to CVS to transfer my prescriptions and to Whole Foods to restock the kitchen. The plan for dinner was Roasted Salmon with Orange-Herb Sauce, which turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. Not bad, just not worth the bother.
We spent the day at the condo. Dani is writing a report analyzing the results of her spectroscopic study of arsenic and iron in seaweed from different species and locations. I’m reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which is decent enough, but it’s hard to figure out how it got published, let alone became a hit and got turned into a movie. The author’s handling of viewpoint, and excessive use of exposition seems dubious.
A quiet 4th at the condo, particularly since the Comcast cable/telephone/Internet was out for seven hours. It hasn’t been quiet on the street, though, with sirens every 15 minutes or so. Lots of people busy blowing off their fingers, I suppose.
We grilled burgers and had Dani’s special 4th of July cake for dinner.
Last night there was a Disney-quality fireworks show visible from the balcony. It must have been up at the stadium. Tonight the crowds headed past the condo for the show at Clark Street Beach. It was a surprise benefit of Dani’s condo that we could see the whole show from the balcony. They were really close, and really big.
Dani and I went to see The Sins of Sor Juana at the Goodman Theatre. It’s a drama based upon the real life of a 17th century woman scholar and writer in Mexico. It was directed by the same person who directed a production of it at Northwestern two years ago, and was very professionally done. Afterward we had dinner at the nearby Catch 35, delicious as always.
My diverticulosis has been acting up, this time on my left side, so I took it easy today. We walked up to the theatre to see a student production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. They did a good job with the show, which, given the weak material, was as good as it could be. My side is still bothering me, so we’re getting dinner delivered by Thai Sookdee, (which has terrible food, but this weird dish they call Pad Thai that isn’t Pad Thai but is quite tasty!) It’s hard to get used to being able to order food in at 9:30.
They’re replacing the wood railing tops on the building. In the morning they come and saw up the old railing, then in the evening they haul up a replacement and attach it. It’s a shame they’re just replacing the wood with more wood, rather than using recycled plastic planks. Actually, it’s a shame they’re replacing them at all, because it looks great without the wood; the view is much better.
I’m using the leftover Coq Au Vin sauce as the starter for barbecue short ribs.
A quiet day today. I walked over to “That Little Mexican Cafe” on Davis for lunch. Decent fish tacos, sturdy chips, very mild salsa. In the afternoon I walked down to a wine shop called Vinica that’s just a block beyond Whole Foods. Nice shop, but not much in the way of high end wines. At Whole Foods I bought ingredients to make Smoked Salmon in puff pastry. It didn’t turn out that great, although Dani was loyal.
Today was pretty quiet, working at home. I walked up to the Theatre and Interpretation Center to exchange some tickets because Dani wants to go to a drama in Chicago this weekend. On the way home I dodged a troop of kids being shepherded on bicycles (there seem to be a lot of kids’ activities in town and at Northwestern) and swung past Whole Foods to get ingredients for several dinners. Tonight I made shrimp and pasta primavera, which turned out pretty good.
Today I went on a five mile walk, up through the Northwestern campus to North Beach and the lighthouse, then across Central to a charming area of shops. I stopped at Mustard’s Last Stand by the stadium for a hot dog. Central Street is a lot more like an old downtown than Main Street was. There’s a stationery store, a gelato and espresso place, a gourmet shop and a wonderful smelling store called The Spice House.
I walked back to the “real” downtown Evanston and bought the makings for Coq Au Vin at Whole Foods. It takes six hours in the crock pot. I hadn’t made it before, but it turned out well.
Another big thunderstorm this morning, but then it turned into a beautiful day.
Our herbs, planted just a week ago, are doing well. The dill is in the lead, although the basil was the first to sprout. The sweet marjoram is far behind. The dill, about two inches tall, was really leaning toward the light; Dani turned it and in less than an hour it had bent back the other way.
We received a package of flower seeds from Linda and I planted them in the planters on the balcony. If I can remember to keep them watered, we’ll see how fast they grow.
Dani and I walked down to Main Street, about a mile south, and explored. We found an impressive rock shop, Dave’s Down to Earth Rock Shop, that had what must be a multi-million dollar fossil collection / museum in the basement. We had a good lunch at a Japanese restaurant, Kuni, and stopped at a delightfully dusty old used book store, Book Den, before picking up some groceries (not the good-for-you organic kind they have at Whole Foods) at Jewel, and walking home.
In the evening we went to what I thought was going to be a play, the first in the Northwestern summer series. But it turned out to be a jazz concert by Luis Rosen and Capathia Jenkins. Dani and I both enjoyed it, and we bought two of their CDs, which they signed. Dani liked South Side Stories for its storytelling, and I liked The Ache of Possibility for its jazz chords and bass riffs.
Afterward, we went to the Celtic Knot for a late dinner. It’s one of the few places in Evanston that’s open after 10pm.
Today was iPhone 4 launch day. Dani’s and mine showed up in a box shipped from my office, because they came a day early but I couldn’t get them sent here. I must say the new display, at four times the density of the old one, is impressive. And it will be nice to have a useful camera.
We had lunch at a new, inexpensive sushi restaurant that is only a block away. It’s called Sashimi Sashimi. You order at the counter, but they make it to order. It’s probably the best sushi in town.
I made teriyaki chicken and grilled brocollini on the barbecue for dinner.
This morning started out rainy, but by noon it had cleared up enough for me to make a run to Whole Foods to pick up chicken breasts, corn on the cob and ground chuck to give us a choice for dinner. While I was out I grabbed a Chicago dog at Wild Dogz. A Chicago dog has mustard, relish, dill spear, tomato wedges and sport peppers on a sesame seed hot dog bun. Not bad.
Burgers, corn in the husk and baked sweet potatoes for dinner, barbecued during a heck of a lightning storm. It went on for hours, giant bolts striking the lake just offshore, and up north of the campus. It’s weird that there’s no thunderhead to go with it, just overcast or torrential rain.
I spent most of the day waiting for UPS to deliver my box from Orlando and some things I ordered, then went to Whole Foods while Dani’s chemistry tutor was here. Of course, as soon as I left the boxes came. One of them was a rack for hanging kitchen utensils, which I installed near the barbecue.
On my walk I also swung past World Market, where Linda will be delighted to learn I found the discontinued poultry seasoning she loves.
A very busy day. After seeing Dani off to the first day of chemistry class, I rearranged the pantry and fixed some shelves in the laundry, knocked apart the old table on the porch and threw it in the dumpster.
I walked down to Davis and over to the other side of the tracks to the Turin Bicycle shop to get a bolt to fix Dani’s bike. Next door I bought some decent wines at Evanston 1st Liquors. (They have an amazing beer selection, but city code doesn’t let you mix and match bottles, and I don’t want six of anything.) Across the street, at Lemoi Ace Hardware, I bought a washer to try to complete the repair, but I think I’ll need to go back and get a lock washer, too.
On my way back I stopped at Lulu’s Noodle Shop and had a delicious bento box and black currant iced tea. I also stopped at CVS for cleaning supplies.
Back at the condo I cleaned the shower (so you know it must have been bad) and the sliding doors.
Then I walked up onto the Northwestern campus to Norris to deposit some money to Dani’s account for her tuition. I noticed that her old dorm now has air conditioners, but also that there is major reconstruction going on next door.
After some computer time, I walked down to Whole Foods to pick up some lamb chops, Moroccan seasoning, and tropical fruits for dinner. I was looking for flowers or plants to put into the planters on the balcony, but it looks like that will have to wait for a trip to Lowe’s.
Whole Foods doesn’t carry many diet products because they use artificial sweeteners, so I was a bit skeptical when I selected a bottle of Galeos Miso Caesar dressing. It turned out to be the best bottle of Caesar dressing I’ve every tasted! It has almost no calories, since it contains no oil, yet it has a rich, creamy taste, with lots of lemon and garlic. I won’t be making my own Caesar dressing anymore!
Tomorrow will be quieter, because I have to wait for some deliveries.
We headed to the airport this morning to fly (on Southwest Airlines) to Midway Airport. The flight was slightly delayed, but was very quick. In fact, because of some kind of traffic tie-up it took almost as long in the limo (actually a Ford SUV) as the plane. The driver finally gave up on the freeway and drove over to Lakeshore.
Dani spent the afternoon studying chemistry for her summer intensive that starts tomorrow, and I spent it setting up her iMac to be just like mine at home and work. Thank goodness for Dropbox and Mobile Me.
Lunch was sourdough bread and epoisses from Whole Foods, and dinner was Falafel at Pomegranate.
Linda had to work tonight, so I went up to Aji Sushi in the Winter Garden Mall and sat at the sushi bar. It was busy for a Monday night. I’ve always gone at lunch on the weekend, and never sit at the sushi bar.
It’s Memorial Day, a day when we honor those who’ve given their lives for this country, and Chinese people who manufacture rolling chairs. After lunch at Uno, I took Linda to Staples where she picked up a new chair for her desk in the kitchen. You wouldn’t think a chair would come in this many parts, but she got it together.
These are some more shots taken around the house using the TX7’s HDR mode.
Last night I was awakened to a scrabbling sound, and woke up to find something on my pillow. I leapt out of bed and turned the light on. Sitting in the middle of the pillow, nibbling on it unconcernedly, was a mouse. He seemed completely unperturbed by my movements and the light. He calmly continued nibbling as I opened the door and gave him a pillow ride outside. I finally had to push him off the pillow to get him to say goodbye. I’ve had pets that weren’t as tame as that mouse!
I thought it would be fun to keep a journal this summer, since I’m planning to travel this summer, and to spend much of it with Dani, in Evanston, Illinois. So I downloaded a journal writing application to see whether or not I can use it, combined with Dragon Dictation in order to make it easy to create a journal and include pictures of what I do everyday. I’ll be using the iPad, which has proven far more useful than I expected, and also a new Sony DSC-TX7 camera.
So this is my trial run, to see if these tools work together.
Last weekend a thunderstorm snapped off some of the dead trees in front of our house. Defying Murphy’s law, they landed neatly by the side of the driveway, ready to be picked up.
The Sony DSC-TX7 is a lot like my previous TX1, but has an HDR mode that produces great color depth and contrast range by shooting two exposures. These are some shots I took around the house.
Miami • Aruba • Panama Canal • Limón, Costa Rica • Grand Cayman
Miami
Friday, March 14, 2008
Since Dani was sick for most of our 2005 spring break trip, we decided to repeat much of that itinerary on a different ship. Besides, it was the only cruise that fit into our schedule and didn’t go to all the usual places. And Aruba will be new for us.
We rose early and drove to Miami, arriving before noon. Dani wanted to get a copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride, so after ascertaining that no one in downtown Miami can read (therefore no bookstores) we drove to a Barnes Noble in Coral Gables which happened to be around the corner from a French place we like, Brasserie Halles. A few books and some cheese later we headed for the port where boarding Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas was quick and easy.
The ship is more or less the same size as the Coral Princess, it’s width — PanaMax — being defined by the Panama Canal. It’s much smaller than the other Royal Caribbean ships we’ve been on, so we’ll have to make do without the ice skating rink.
We booked two cabins this time, a junior suite for me, and a hovel in the bowels of the ship for Dani. At least it’s an outside hovel. Because Dani is too young to have her own cabin, Linda is theoretically staying there with her. I’m trying to imagine it. . . !
I like the more intimate size of this ship, and it has an interesting asymmetry to it, with glass elevators on one side and a single sided promenade in front of the specialty restaurants, much like on the Coral Princess. The passenger makeup is surprisingly old. I guess all the kids were on the larger Royal Caribbean ship that left port before us.
Susie and Rusty — those traditional Philippine names — were really friendly in the champagne bar, and the food seemed a bit better than on previous Royal Caribbean ships, whose cuisine I’ve rated at the bottom of all the lines we’ve traveled.
Royal Caribbean still uses assigned seating in the main dining room. Out table is shared with a family from Mexico, who seem quite nice. We have a lot of reservations in the specialty restaurants, so we might not see too much of them.
At Sea
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Brilliance of the Seas is the first cruise ship we’ve been on where passengers can get to the prow. It was very neat leaning over the railing and watching the azure sea vanish beneath the ship.
Dani spotted something skimming over the surface of the waves below us. At first we thought it was a bird, but then we realized it was a flying fish. I had never realized that they really do fly. As long as they’re headed into the wind, it seems they can stay aloft for a half minute or more, and they could easily out pace the ship. Their silver green bodies looked somewhat alien, and their “wings” reminded me of hang gliders.
It was formal night, We had a lovely dinner with our friends from Mexico and then went to a ‘contemporary’ Broadway show. Funny, I’d never regarded Cole Porter as a contemporary. It was actually fascinating to watch the slightly talented cast struggle to stay with the slightly talented musicians as they performed a show designed by a wholly untalented director. As Dani said, “If they’d tried harder, the couldn’t have sucked more emotion out of each number.”
At Sea
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A lazy day at sea. Although the ship is the same size as the Coral Princess, it seems there’s less to do on board, since they don’t have the ceramics studio or the ScholarShip at Sea educational programs. But it was a good day for reading, writing and relaxing.
Oranjestad, Aruba
Monday, March 17, 2008
Aruba was very different than we were expecting, much more like a desert than a tropical island. An advantage is that it doesn’t get hurricanes, but on the other hand it doesn’t get much rain, either, as a result, there is a lot of sand and cactus, and — incongruously — some really large boulders.
I think this is the farthest south we’ve been in the Caribbean, as we’re only 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela. The island of Aruba is a Dutch colony with an independent government the past few years. The people are descended from natives and Spanish, and speak Dutch, English, Spanish and their own Creole. Despite Dutch being the official language, there was little evidence of it except in street names. Of course, the major industry is tourism, and 75% of the tourists are from the US, so we were well insulated .
To get an overview of the place, we took The Best of Aruba tour, which seemed to be the choice of the old and infirm. Our first stop was at the Casibari rock formations, where a short set of stone steps — and a bit of a crawl through a hole between the rocks– brought us to the top of a really big boulder. The view from there encompassed three fourths of this nineteen by six mile island, but was mostly of sand and Oregon pipe cactus. It was cool crawling through the crack, though.
The next stop was at the natural bridge, which, in quite a natural way, fell down in 2005. There is a smaller one still standing nearby, with a big danger sign next to the giant crack. Most of the tourists seemed to ignore this, though, and stepped right over onto the crumbling outcrop. I mean, it’s too big to fall down, right?
We stopped at Aruba Aloe, a surprisingly tiny factory where they make a wide range of products using — you guessed it — aloe. These products are mostly packages the same two ways, do to the fact that the factory has only two small bottling devices. We learned that aloe is good for cuts, sunburn, dry skin, hair conditioning, stomach ailments, losing weight, age reversal and reducing the national debt — of Aruba, anyway.
Our final stop was a the California lighthouse, so named because it was erected on the spot where a ship named the California wouldn’t have run aground if there had already been a California lighthouse there.
Then about half the group was dropped off at a mall, and the rest of us were dropped off near the cruise ship. This area is called “downtown” although it’s really just a street of tourist shops and government offices, with a lot of noisy traffic. We had a tasty lunch upstairs in an open air restaurant named Iguana Joe’s, and then retreated to the ship.
Overall I was disappointed in Aruba, because I was hoping it would be less the touristy Caribbean port and have more of its Dutch heritage in evidence. I suppose it’s great for beach lovers, but otherwise a three hour visit seemed plenty.
At Sea
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A quiet day at sea. The cruising was surprisingly smooth, considering the 7-10 foot seas, but they were coming from the stern, and just seemed to hurry us on.
In the evening we attended the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, held in the Colony Club and Portofino Restaurant. Six members of the entertainment cast acted out parts in a comedy murder mystery. During dinner we had a chance to interview each character for clues, and then a prize was awarded to one of the guests who had the correct solution. The acting was quite good, and the characters were very entertaining. It was probably the highlight of the onboard experience.
Panama Canal
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
We began our approach to the canal about 6:30 AM. Although it turned out we could have taken either side since they were both running the same direction this morning, my selection of a Starboard cabin proved to be the correct choice, and we had a great view of the locks from our balcony. An added bonus was that a US Navy submarine made the transit in the adjacent locks, complete with armed escorts. Pretty cool.
The Internet was down most of the day, which was a bit aggravating since it’s the first day of new ed2go classes, but it came back up in the late afternoon. We docked briefly to pick up passengers on shore excursions, but I skipped the two hour visit to the flea market that’s operated by half naked natives. Linda and Dani bought traditional native goods: carved wood, painted feathers and a bent license plate.
We had a nice dinner at Chops Steakhouse, the nicest restaurant on board.
Limón, Costa Rica
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Today we more or less retraced our steps from a tour three years ago, visiting the aerial tram in the rainforest that’s about two hours west of Limón. This time we stopped for a boat ride along the way. Our 17 passenger flat bottomed boat navigated a mile of twisty canal through jungle, where we saw a sloth, a small crocodile called a caiman, a sloth, monkeys, and a Jesus Christ lizard, so-named because it runs on two legs across water while waving it’s front legs like a girl, just like Jesus.
The rainforest was, indeed, rainy when we arrived, but held off for our glide through the treetops. We had a traditional Costa Rican lunch — rice and beans, of course — before taking a nature walk.
Our guide for the walk was extremely interesting, and pointed out dozens of things we would have missed, accompanied by fascinating explanations. The most interestering were the leaf cutter ants, who carry chunks of leaves back to their nest where they use them to grow a fungus that they eat. On top of some of the leaves are smaller guard ants, whose job is to keep a fly from laying an egg on the leaf. The eggs turn into worms that eat their fungus.
After the walk we boarded the bus for the 90 minute drive back to the port. Even though Limón itself is pretty much a dump, I really like Costa Rica. The people take great pride in their stability, health care and educational systems, and lack of an army. And it’s neat being in a place where anything that falls on the ground grows.
One interesting aspect of Costa Rica is the way addresses work. A typical address might read: “From the church go 400 meters north and turn right. After 200 meteres turn left at the store and it’s the third house on the right with the yellow door. ” Needless to say, mail delivery in Costa Rica takes a long time.
Linda and I had dinner at Portofino, where everyone wanted to know what happened to Dani, who decided to relax and have room service in her cabin.
At Sea
Friday, March 21, 2008
We went on a very interesting backstage tour of the ship’s theatre today. It gave us a chance to visit the lighting booth, sound booth, stage, and dressing areas, and listen to presentations by technical personnel, stage hands, and performers. I was nice to see Alcorn McBride IO64s in the lighting booth, although the lighting technician didn’t really seem to know what they did. There was also a Richmond Stageman system and two lighting boards. The 52-channel mixer is large, analog, and unautomated.
Dani and I discovered that the best lunch onboard is a the Seaview Cafe, a very small table service restaurant at the back of deck 12. It looks like it was designed to be counter service pizza, but now it has about half a dozen tables. Its obscure location and the fact that it doesn’t open until afternoon keep it from being crowded.
We rejoined our dinner companions in the main dining room for the traditional formal night lobster dinner.
Grand Cayman
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Today we had the best Caribbean shore excursion ever. Dani and I took the tender to the island and then a van to the far sight, where about forty of use boarded a dive boat. After a 45 minute trip we arrived at Stingray City, a sandbar that is home to hundreds of stingrays. Wading around in the waist deep water, we fed, petted, held and kissed(!) the stingrays for close to an hour. The stingrays really seem to enjoy being held, at least once they’ve been fed.
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We learned that the large dark ones are females, and the smaller gray ones are males. The males have a unique characteristic: two “willies,” as our guide put it. I’m not sure why this is useful, but it conjures up some interesting possibilities.
Our second stop was nearby, at the barrier reef, where the coral and fish varieties rivaled those of Australia. The snorkeling was easy in the three to ten foot deep water. Our guide coaxed a moray eel from its hideout, which was pretty exciting. I’d never seen both ends of a moray eel at the same time!
This was the same trip I took three years ago when Dani was too sick to go, but what a difference the guides made! There was so much hand-on time with the stingrays on this outing. The trip was also very professionally photography and videotaped. The photographer made CDs right on the boat, and the videographer edited in music and delivered professional DVDs to the ship before we sailed. If I could only do one outing in the Caribbean, this would be it.
We had dinner in the main dining room. Our friends from Mexico didn’t join us because the grandmother — who has Alzheimer’s — wasn’t feeling well. They didn’t miss much, as almost everything on the menu tonight was fairly awful.
At Sea
Easter Sunday , March 23, 2008
After several rocky days at sea due to up to 40 knot cross winds, today was very smooth because we had a 5 knot tail wind. We’re averaging over 20 knots to make the 600 miles back to Miami by early tomorrow morning.
This afternoon we attended an interesting presentation by the Captain and Chief Engineer about the operation of the ship. It’s powered by dual turbines spinning at 7500 rpm, which generate many Megawatts of power to drive the two azipod outboard propellers, which can each rotate 360 degrees. The high speed of the turbines explains why there is absolutely no engine vibration on this ship.
The Captain indicated he didn’t think any more cruise ships would be built this way, because although the small size of the turbines allowed them to add 50 cabins, they require fuel that is now more than twice the cost of regular diesel sludge. In fact, the ship is going into dry dock in two months to have a hole cut in the side and a diesel generator added for times when power requirements are low, such as when they are in port.
Miami
Monday, March 24, 2008
We arrived in Miami before dawn. Total distance sailed: 3,200 nautical miles.
We disembarked at 8:30 and made great time on the drive home, and were back before 2pm, including a stop for lunch. .
Things to remember for next time
Royal Caribbean food is a rung below NCL and Princess. It also seems like there aren’t a lot of food venues. It’s mostly concentrated in the Windjammer buffet. They seem to be reaching to appear to additional venues: The Solarium Cafe is six saran-covered plates of pre-made sandwiches and a thermos of coffee!
Internet access of this class of ship is poor. The cabin jacks don’t work, and expensive wireless is available only in a few areas.
There’s not a lot to do on the Brilliance of the Seas class if you’re an adult who doesn’t want to lie by the pool or gamble. I miss the Princess art and education programs. The larger Royal Caribbean ships also offer more variety, with their interior main street. .
The entertainment on this ship was mediocre at best, except for the Mystery Dinner Theatre, which was wonderful.
Aft on deck 10 turned out to be a less than optimal cabin location on the Brilliance of the Seas, not because it was aft, but because it was under the Windjammer, with its constantly moving chairs and carts of dishes and dropped silverware. Earplugs were a definite must at night.
Panama, Limon and Grand Cayman are all interesting ports. Aruba is not. It’s a poor exchange for Belize’s cave tubing, which was on our previous itinerary in its place.
Stingray City in Grand Cayman is the best shore excursion in the Caribbean.
