We awoke this morning to the slow of the engine as our captain maneuvered into the small port of Cartagena, Spain. We got up for a quick bite to eat before heading off the ship to explore the city. The Spanish city has a rich history all the way back to Roman times. The most exciting site we viewed today was the Roman Amphitheater dating back between 5 B.C. and 1 B.C.
We have received some great questions about our experience so far and we thought it would be fun to answer a few.
1) What did you do to pass time while at sea for over a week? Playing trivia, reading, sitting in the sun and playing Yahtzee were some of the things we did on sea days. We also enjoyed the headliner shows which included a soprano sax player, a fantastic singer, a magician and wonderful trio featuring Michael Buble’ songs. Our ship had the best entertainment of any cruise we have taken so far.
2) Did you win any trivia contests? Yes! We won the country music trivia night. I’m sure you’re surprised but we killed it! We won a life altering gift – a Royal Caribbean pen.
3) How do you compare the transatlantic cruise to a Caribbean cruise? The cruise activities, dinner and shows were very similar to other cruises we have taken. However, on sea days the time on the ship moved forward an hour everyday. We didn’t have the hour of 12:00pm – 1:00pm for 6 days in a row. This was to help us transition to the time change of 6 hours ahead, but did not make getting up every morning easy.
4) Did you experience choppy waters? The most “motion in the ocean” as our captain called it, was the first day after we left Sint Maarten. The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean was great; smooth waters, beautiful sunshine with a strong breeze. And the best part was neither of us had any sea sickness!
As you can see from our itinerary, we did not wake this morning on the cruise ship but wanted to complete our post since we ran in to an internet issues over the past two days. We are back up and running and can’t wait to share more with you very soon!