The ship was at sea the whole day, giving us ample time to relax, explore and also get our cabin into a functioning little home for the next few days. I unpacked and put everything in its "rightful" place, and moved things around so that the baby has space to move around even with our three huge pieces of luggage and the stroller in the cabin. No easy task, I tell you.
But it was done and we could spend the day at leisure.
There were a couple of highlights, other than the continuous gastronomic indulgences and sea-watching from the decks and cabin.
The first highlight was spending some quality time with the little one. We didn't have to step off the ship, so it was great to just be in one place and play with her through the day. We even spent some time in the nursery on the ship where she went absolutely bonkers playing with the available toys and making friends with the other baby who was present. I have hardly seen her that excited before, so it was very fascinating to watch here.
The second highlight and really big one was further celebration of the husband's birthday. I had written here how I had surprised him with the birthday decor outside and inside our cabin and the further addition to that was a surprise birthday cake that was to be delivered to the dining room post our dinner. I had booked this with the cruiseliner for the first day of sailing,which was yesterday. However, for some reason it didn't arrive and I fidgeted through the last part of the dinner but couldn't say anything as that would spoil the surprise.
This morning, I slipped away from the cabin for a few minutes - in the pretext of picking up a banana for the little one, and went to the guest service officer and asked her about the cake. She said it was some mistake but that she will ensure it gets delivered today during dinner.
But as luck would have it, it didn't come today either. I sat through the dinner, ordering wine and coffee to stay as long as possible but the cake just didn't come. So when we were done and the hubby picked up the little one on the stroller and moved ahead out of the dining room, I slowed my pace down and caught hold of the restaurant manager Marco, the same guy behind the vegetables yesterday, and told him the issue. He quickly checked in the system and realized that yes, there was indeed a miss. He requested me to get the hubby back into the dining room under some pretext and wait, so that he can go get the cake. I was lost. What pretext could there be possibly to go back and stay in the dining room!
At this point in time, the hubby realized that I am left behind and he came back in asking what's going on... I made some story up that I was just checking with Marco whether he could arrange for some mashed vegetables tomorrow morning for the little one. The hubby readily bought that story and was about to leave again, while both the restaurant manager and I were kinda lost how to take this forward. The manager kept gesticulating "stay back... say something" to me and I, very usefully, blinked like a fish.
Just as the hubby was about to exit the dining room once again, he turned back looking horrified and exclaimed "Oh no! The feeding bottle... I think I left it at our table!". He ran towards our table, picked up the bottle and rushed back, before Marco and I could even react. Just then a stroke of genius hit the Marco.. he grabbed the bottle from the hubby and said, "Please let me rinse this for you." The hubby protested, because clearly there was no need for the restaurant manager who is a senior officer of the Royal Caribbean to rinse feeding bottles. However, Marco insisted and the hubby gave in, looking visibly impressed by the service levels of the Royal Caribbean. I, of course, continued to blink helpfully.
As we waited back at our table for the rinsed feeding bottle, the hubby exclaimed a few times about how impressed he was with the whole service and how he thought Marco is real cool. I was pretty happy that he had no clue what's going on still.
And before we knew it, Marco together with other staff members of the restaurant came forward with the cake with the candles and customized message and started singing "Happy Birthday!"
The hubby was blown away!
This was followed by a lot of birthday wishes, cake-eating, my profuse thanking to Marco and also congratulating him on his very quick thinking, and a very happy me!
The surprise cake became an even bigger surprise!
And yes, we got back the feeding bottle - all rinsed and clean!
But it was done and we could spend the day at leisure.
There were a couple of highlights, other than the continuous gastronomic indulgences and sea-watching from the decks and cabin.
The first highlight was spending some quality time with the little one. We didn't have to step off the ship, so it was great to just be in one place and play with her through the day. We even spent some time in the nursery on the ship where she went absolutely bonkers playing with the available toys and making friends with the other baby who was present. I have hardly seen her that excited before, so it was very fascinating to watch here.
The second highlight and really big one was further celebration of the husband's birthday. I had written here how I had surprised him with the birthday decor outside and inside our cabin and the further addition to that was a surprise birthday cake that was to be delivered to the dining room post our dinner. I had booked this with the cruiseliner for the first day of sailing,which was yesterday. However, for some reason it didn't arrive and I fidgeted through the last part of the dinner but couldn't say anything as that would spoil the surprise.
This morning, I slipped away from the cabin for a few minutes - in the pretext of picking up a banana for the little one, and went to the guest service officer and asked her about the cake. She said it was some mistake but that she will ensure it gets delivered today during dinner.
But as luck would have it, it didn't come today either. I sat through the dinner, ordering wine and coffee to stay as long as possible but the cake just didn't come. So when we were done and the hubby picked up the little one on the stroller and moved ahead out of the dining room, I slowed my pace down and caught hold of the restaurant manager Marco, the same guy behind the vegetables yesterday, and told him the issue. He quickly checked in the system and realized that yes, there was indeed a miss. He requested me to get the hubby back into the dining room under some pretext and wait, so that he can go get the cake. I was lost. What pretext could there be possibly to go back and stay in the dining room!
At this point in time, the hubby realized that I am left behind and he came back in asking what's going on... I made some story up that I was just checking with Marco whether he could arrange for some mashed vegetables tomorrow morning for the little one. The hubby readily bought that story and was about to leave again, while both the restaurant manager and I were kinda lost how to take this forward. The manager kept gesticulating "stay back... say something" to me and I, very usefully, blinked like a fish.
Just as the hubby was about to exit the dining room once again, he turned back looking horrified and exclaimed "Oh no! The feeding bottle... I think I left it at our table!". He ran towards our table, picked up the bottle and rushed back, before Marco and I could even react. Just then a stroke of genius hit the Marco.. he grabbed the bottle from the hubby and said, "Please let me rinse this for you." The hubby protested, because clearly there was no need for the restaurant manager who is a senior officer of the Royal Caribbean to rinse feeding bottles. However, Marco insisted and the hubby gave in, looking visibly impressed by the service levels of the Royal Caribbean. I, of course, continued to blink helpfully.
As we waited back at our table for the rinsed feeding bottle, the hubby exclaimed a few times about how impressed he was with the whole service and how he thought Marco is real cool. I was pretty happy that he had no clue what's going on still.
And before we knew it, Marco together with other staff members of the restaurant came forward with the cake with the candles and customized message and started singing "Happy Birthday!"
The hubby was blown away!
This was followed by a lot of birthday wishes, cake-eating, my profuse thanking to Marco and also congratulating him on his very quick thinking, and a very happy me!
The surprise cake became an even bigger surprise!
And yes, we got back the feeding bottle - all rinsed and clean!
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