Day 4 Harmony of the Seas Cruise Trip

GUESS WHAT! We woke up and landed in Jamaica!! We were super excited for more action-filled activities. I think we were starting to feel a bit dizzy or sea-sick on the boat…

The boys went down Park Cafe?) for breakfast. I really wanted to sleep in, so my dear Nancy went down to grab me some food. Bless her soul.
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It’s essentially a big area full of lots of shops selling all kinds of souvenirs and a few bars!

 

Waiting for our bus to arrive! For today’s shore excursion we chose the Good Hope Thrill Seekers’ Pass!

Reminder: bring cash!! You’ll want to tip tbe guides along the way when doing activities on shore excursions.

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Our bus driver and tour guide were super funny and made us laugh the entire way! What’s even funnier was that our bus was originally a bus from Japan (all the warnings and text were written in Japanese, it even used a map of Japan routes).

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We learnt that Jamaica has 41 types of mango!! And we didn’t get to try any :(. I really love this photo btw, it was taken during a bumpy bus ride so bit blurry.

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The boys are ready.

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Okay, I didn’t have fancy go pros like everyone else did to take photos and such during the ziplining we did… So please take this picture as evidence I did go on it! We had three guys that helped a group of us zipline through some beautiful hill tops. They cracked a lot of jokes and made us laugh the entire day!

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It was kind of confusing after the ziplining, because we thought there would be someone guiding us from one activity to another. But they basically drop you off in this area that has everything and you need to kind of manage your own schedule.

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Sorry Brenton, you weren’t looking in this photo. But we had a lot of fun on the adventure course! I’m kind of scared of heights, but I got used to it after a while :).

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TIME TO EAT. Because we said so. This ginger beer was much needed. It was so hot! It tastes like ginger ale but with more fresh and prominent ginger taste.

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This is the most amazing jerk chicken we ever had. The meat was so tender and the flavour was just… amazing. Sugoi. We definitely put some HOT sauce on that 😉

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We would just recommend getting jerk chicken without the sides…

We squeezed in some river tubing! Sadly it started to rain while we were on it. Creds to Nancy for her hard effort in getting a photo out of her gopro video LOL.

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SO, who’s a fan of rum?! I don’t really know my alcohol, but we had to try this famous one since we’re here! Appleton Estate rum. My stepfather has clients that send him this every Christmas. It’s quite expensive x.x

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The history behind this place is incredible.. being established in 1749. That’s like over 268 years old?! Dayum.

 

 

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We tried three kinds: Signature blend, reserve blend, and the rare blend. For those who haven’t tried rum, I’d describe it as liquid fire going down your throat. I’m not sure how appealing that sounds but the burn strangely felt kind of nice.

Signature blend: it’s aged around 4 years and has a beautiful light amber or honey colour. It’s warm and more fruitier tasting, bit of orange peel taste in there.

Reserve blend: This was our more preferred one. Bit stronger, and aged for an average of 6 years. You can taste more spices and the colour is a bit darker.

Rare blend: We were lucky and got to try a newly opened bottle of this! This was REALLY strong, it just hit us. This is aged for an average of 12 years. It has a much darker colour and tastes more woody? I can’t explain it. It was too strong for me… that’s all I remember. XD.

NOTE: do not buy any liquor when you’re on the cruise, because when you go through security before heading back to the ship they actually confiscate it…? I’m not sure why they wouldn’t warn you beforehand?

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As we were leaving we ran up to the top to see the view. There was one guard dressed in a safety vest that waved and shouted us goodbye as we were leaving. He got us to shout something back and overall we were left with such a good impression of Jamaica haha.

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And we’re back to our original dining area! Our servers were so sweet and said they were wondering where we went and that they missed us T^T.

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The Maryland crab cake. The sauce was very yummy but I wished it was more fresh crab meat. I feel like it tasted like imitation crab meat??

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The roasted garlic soup. Nancy says it’s yummy!

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Ahh the french onion soup. Can’t really go wrong with this, other than it’s super oily and you feel like you need a salad after haha.

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This was the ahi tuna steak! To be honest, this wasn’t as good as I was thinking it would be… but the colours are beautiful! 🙂

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In case you were wondering, this is how we ate every night on the cruise. These are only the entrees too XP. And yes. We get quite a few stares.

What a night! we just did more trips to snack places and the mix bar (the guys bought the drink package and really needed to get their money’s worth… LOTS OF ALCOHOL lol).

Stay tuned for the next post whoo!


Michelle is out!

Day 3 Harmony of the Seas Cruise Trip

Day 3 we landed in Labadee! We have to admit we were tired and wanted to sleep in a bit so we left the boat a bit later.

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We were super excited to finally get off the boat. This is also the first time being able to see the whole boat!

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The water is just so beautiful here (as seen in cover photo hehe)! Labadee is one of the spots that the Royal Carribean bought so it’s just a tourist area. And of course a mandatory picture of the place’s name with the ship in the background

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We were trying to find the perfect palm tree to take a photo with. Spoiler alert: it didn’t happen. ahahah

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I got two platefuls of food hehe. The buffet was okay, there was very watered down juices available. But all the fresh fruit that I wanted to eat!! WATERMELON and pineapples MmmMmm.

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Oh look, Nancy’s foot completed this picture. 🙂

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It was here where I first met Timothy.

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He even introduced me to his family.

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We were pretty lazy this day and just played fail volleyball, looking for seashells and splashing in the water! P.c. Brenton

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Justin’s the best ;). Can’t ever be overprepared. P.c. goes to Brenton Chung

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We came back to find our room attendant made some cute animal with towels! Not quite sure if this is a dog or a goat or something… what do you guys think?

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We all have assigned dining rooms to eat at, but today for some reason they brought us to the American Icon Grill? I think we all agreed we liked the look of it better than the usual one we go to. Maybe because it was well lit up with all the open windows to look outside.

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Anyways the MOST important moment you guys have all been waiting for is dinner!

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Terrible photo sorry. But here we have Justin a bit tipsy ahaha.

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The chilled shrimp was okay, it tasted just like the shrimp platter you get at superstore with that typical cocktail sauce.

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Salmon Tartare! Not bad, bit bitter though.

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Justin got the Iceberg wedge. Not really the best tasting and it’s kind of difficult to eat, but if you miss veggies, this is the thing to order. (we’ve been eating way too much meat on the cruise haha)

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The papardelle? Nancy’s theme on the cruise ship was TRUFFLE. It was really good the first beginning bites but then it got to be a bit too heavy.

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The almond crusted haddock. It was alright, not much flavour. I wish the almond slices were thinner and the potato underneath was really dry.

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The grilled New York Sirloin steak. It was kind of dry and tasted like slightly spicy seasoned beef.

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Grilled chicken breast. We’ll just leave it at that.

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Justin ordered the rack of lamb. It definitely couldn’t compare to the Jamie Oliver one we ate. And it was way too overpowering for me. Though Justin says it melts in your mouth (he was also a bit tipsy so I’m not sure about his judgement :p)

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I believe this was a mango cheesecake with passionfruit drizzle. It wasn’t what I expected :(.

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If I remember correctly this is the apple pie with ice cream? It was good!

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For the boy’s room, look what the room attendant did! haha

Anywho the server we had today was super sweet and funny! She called me Michelle, ma belle :3. What did we do the rest of the day? O.O It’s a blur. Was this the night we cracked the wine bottle open in the room?


LOVE.

Michelley

Day 2 Harmony of the Seas Cruise Trip

Day 2 we decided to try out the breakfast in bed. We were really tired and all I can remember is Nancy answering a call and moments later opening the door… some guy walked in. I think I looked around. Half confused… And then Nancy mumbled something and turned off the lights and we went back to bed. :’D

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The strawberries weren’t sweet… neither was the watermelon. We had a theory that they saved the sweetest fruit for the VIPs haha. Oh! And they had lactose-free milk option for Nancy which is absolutely awesome!

PSSSST. We actually went to the gym on this day! Even ran on the track that is half inside the deck and outside! It was so nicee.

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LUNCH at the Solarium❗ This was a buffet place, but did I do a good job in presentation? 😀 Just kidding… not really hehe.

My favourite from this plate was…the fish (you must get the lemon slice, makes it taste much better) and the curry!
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This was my second plate (I won’t show you the other plates… things got a bit messy after that :p). After being on the ship and eating unhealthily I really appreciate being able to have fruits and vegetables everyday!

Next stop was taking pictures at Central park! It had beautiful flowers, Shrek walking around, and lovely live guitar playing in the background. Notice how I was still kind of pale… be prepared for the next days… I tan so easily.

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We finally waited till our reservation time at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant! We’ve been watching and reading about Jamie Oliver and was so excited to try this out.

It was a tight fit inside and the place soon quickly filled up.

Here’s the menu for you (actually for me to remember what I ate). Once again we learnt we could order as much as we like… ain’t no stopping us now.

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They started us off with this bread platter with your usual balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing on the side.

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Next came the cured meat platter. Perfect for sharing (a little too much for us).  Our favourites were the prosciutto & schiacciata piccante.

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Sorry for the quality of the photos. I didn’t have my camera yet!

The caper berry provides a piquant flavour that really helped us get through that meat platter.

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Nancy’s prosciutto and melon is by far my favourite out of the appetizers everyone got. (Or maybe I had too much meat and cheeses that my taste buds needed something sweet). Though a definite recommend, it’s a nice light appetizer to start off.

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Justin got the tomato and ricotta bruschetta. He said this tasted really good. I’m sorry I’m not much help since I’m not a big fan of raw tomatoes. I know. Heartbreaking. Sorry :(. Though I love everything else that uses tomatoes!

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I got the crispy squid! I’m not sure why I love chewing on tentacles hmm but this was really good. The mayo had some paprika, though I felt the paprika was used more of a decorative reasoning than for flavour.

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Mmmm yummy. I’m actually really lucky that my friends are always the best and save the tentacles for me :3

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Nancy got the truffle tagliatelle (see a trend here? haha). The black truffle produces such a deep flavour. However, with the cream and all the meat and cheese and deep-fried food we had, it really made it hard to fully enjoy and finish this dish. (Yeah yeah we should’ve ordered less is what you’re probably thinking right? :p) Plus the noodles seemed unevenly cooked or perhaps cooled so that certain edges were tough.

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I think Brenton ordered this. Can’t remember how he enjoyed this but I shall update later!

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I got the dry-aged rib eye steak. Bit uneven cooking when cut into but still tender (obviously). For those who haven’t tried dry-aged beef, essentially the collagen is broken down and you’re left with a tender piece of meat. The taste is like a blend of gamey and beefiness (is that even a word?!).

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Look at the juices! Oh boy.

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Justin ordered the risotto caprese. This was by far the most disappointing dish. It didn’t live up to its “cream[iness]”. The rice was hard and just ruined the dish.

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Luckily Justin’s lam chops scottadita made up for it. This is the second best lamb chops I’ve ever tasted! I’m not a big fan of lamb due to the gamey taste but there was none to be found! I can’t imagine the effort they went into making this.

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This was our first time trying polenta and it was so salty. Unbelievably salty.

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This was also so salty and oily that I needed to cradle it in my hands to take a picture. We think this was broccolini (mix between broccoli and gai lan).

And that puts an end…. wait, we forgot about dessert. Crap.

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While on the ship you’ll have these photographers that will come around to take your pictures. This guy was especially enthusiastic (in taking Nancy’s picture huehue).

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The “Can we eat yet Michelle” look.

 

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This was a super rich brownie.

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I have no words for dessert because it was a blur due to how full we all were. All I can remember is trying to pawn off which pieces we would eat to try to put a dent in it. When the server told us he had a surprise for us, we certainly didn’t imagine this!

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After such a big meal we needed to walk it off. here’s a view from the top! The Jamie Oliver restaurant is the glowing red sign at the bottom left corner.

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We booked a show to end off the night! The aqua theatre!

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The guy tricked us into thinking he was going to jump into the water from that height :(.

All I can think about was feeling really full and falling asleep to a movie at night….

Stay tuned weeeee.

 

-Love Mish.