Artwork Aboard the Jewel of the Seas
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Today, I'll be treating our pictures just a bit differently. What I've been doing thus far is assembling all the pictures taken, say, of the ship exterior (assuming they weren't a consequence of taking a picture during some activity or excursion) in one place in this album. If you've been going through the album sequentially, you've already visited the page containing those pictures.

But on this, our last full day aboard ship, most of what we did was simply to wander around the ship, seeing what we could see, and visiting some areas we'd not had time to see before- such as the movie theatre. So if I were to take all the ship pictures from this day and put them with the others of their type, there would not be a whole lot left here. So, I am going to include here enough pictures of the ship, inside and out, as seem to be necessary to provide some continuity for our walks around the decks. If there are some that really belong with the album pages that describe the ship exterior, the ship interior, our stateroom or the plentiful artwork and decoration aboard ship, I will put them there.

Having Breakfast

After an exciting day yesterday at Chichen Itza, we slept in on this, our last full day aboard ship. Today will be entirely a cruising day- no shore excursions to have to get up early for. We got up an out of the cabin about nine, and headed over to the Windjammer Cafe for the buffet breakfast. We followed our usual route, leaving our cabin and going out to the elevator banks, taking the elevator up to Deck 11. There, we could walk outside along the deck to the stern of the ship, re-entering the enclosed part of the ship right at the entrance to the Windjammer.

Today, we finally took a picture of something we hadn't noticed on our first few days aboard, but rather had noticed just a couple of days ago. As you enter the elevators, if you look down at the floor, you'll see that there is a replaceable section of the marble floor. This rounded rectangular section is replaced each night with a piece that has the day of the week inlaid into the marble. I think we'd noticed this along about Wednesday. There are a lot of elevators aboard ship, so there are quite a few of these inlays stored somewhere aboard!

We got to the buffet and I got my usual fruit and some waffle (although I think I went back for some eggs and sausage) and Fred got his usual breakfast and we found some outside seating. (The outside seating is open to the outdoors, although where we sat there are still windows and a deck above us.) You can see me with my breakfast (part 1) here and Fred with his breakfast here.

Watching a Movie in the Theatre

We knew there was a theatre on board (not the Coral Theatre where the stage shows are, but a movie theatre) and we were curious to see what it looked like. We checked the ship diagram/model in the main elevator lobby, and found the theatre was on Deck 6, forward of the casino. So we climbed down a few decks and wandered back through the gaming tables to the Cinema. (We could have gotten there without going through the casino, of course; the ship would never force kids to walk through a casino to get to the movies.)

Just outside the theatre, Fred stopped to take a picture of me at the entrance, and then we went on in to see what it was like inside. Inside, there were I guess eight rows of eight or ten seats each, very steeply stadium-seated. The seats were comfortable, and the screen was a decent size. Perhaps this picture taken inside the cinema will give you an idea of what it was like.

The movie playing this morning was the Adam Sandler feature called "Click," in which he gets some sort of magic remote control that can affect anything. We'd seen previews for it before, but never went to watch it. All we intended to do was see how the movies looked in the theatre, but once we'd watched fifteen minutes of the movie, we got kind of hooked and ended up staying for the whole thing. For being on a ship, the theatre was certainly pretty nice- perhaps just a little smaller than the small theatres at your local megaplex.

Circumnavigating the Ship on Deck 5

By the time we got out of the movie, it was almost noon, but we wanted to wait a while before having lunch. (There is just way too much food on cruise ships!) Since it was an absolutely beautiful day, we headed down to Deck 5 to walk all the way around the ship. From the theatre, which was on Deck 6, we had to go down one deck to get to the doors that we've used before to get out from inside the ship, and then walk quickly forward to the bow where we would begin. As I've also mentioned before, the open area on the bow is actually at the same level as Deck 6, but the Coral Theatre blocks access to the bow on that deck.

The Bow

From the theatre, we exited to the forward elevator lobby/stairway and went down one flight of stairs to Deck 5, and then out the port doors to the open deck. After we came out the A4 doorway, we could look astern along the port side. We could see that this side of the ship (since we were headed generally north and it was before noon, was in shadow, so we knew we'd get better pictures if we went forward to the bow first and then back astern along the starboard side of the ship. So we turned right outside the doors and headed down the accessway to the stairs that lead up to Deck 6 and the open bow.

It was a really beautiful day, and we stayed on the bow for quite some time, looking out ahead of the ship and taking pictures. Here on the bow, the helicopter pad is raised up from the actual level of Deck 6; why, I am not sure. but to get to the absolute bow of the ship (made famous by Leonard and Kate), you have to be on the helicopter pad. Once I'd hung around up there for a while, I went down the short flight of stairs on the starboard side of the helicopter pad, and could look back to see Fred taking pictures.

What was he taking pictures of? Well, looking off to starboard, way in the distance (about twenty miles away, we later found out) we could see what we thought were mountains. The only land that it could be was Cuba, and so we made that assumption (also a correct one as it turned out). Fred came down to join me and take some more pictures of the distant land mass, while I scampered back up the short flight of stairs to snap a picture of him on the starboard side of the bow. Once I'd done that, we both headed down the starboard stairs from Deck 6 to Deck 5 to continue our walk astern.

The Starboard Side

As we left the bow and walked through the corridor at the bottom of the starboard stairs, we came out at the forward end of the Deck 5 Promenade, which stretches from the door near the Coral Theatre at the forward end, to the glass-enclosed atrium amidships.

In the movie that Fred made, you can see this promenade as he pans from the forward end of it to look down most of the length of the ship. Also in this movie, he looks out across the water towards the mountains of Cuba. Have a look at his movie using the player at right.

We continued walking astern along the promenade; there were some people out enjoying the sun (away from the noise of the ship-top pool) as we passed. Soon, we reached the glass enclosure around the atrium; on the starboard side of the ship, the coffee bar and Internet cafe are inside the glass, while on the port side the main elevator banks are just inside the glass. We paused here, and Fred took a picture, looking forward, of me and the promenade behind me, and that is the picture that you see at left.

The promenade actually continues aft of the atrium, but there is also a goo ddeal of equipment along it and so there are no deck chairs here. After another short distance, we reached the glass wall that encloses the starboard side of the Tides dining room. You can see a picture of me beside that glass wall (again looking forward) here. Finally, just before we reached the enclosed corridor that leads around the stern, we found one of the only life preservers that I think I saw on the entire ship. There might have been others forward or on the bow, but I did not notice them.

While we were here near the stern, the Captain came on the PA system with the noon announcements, one of which was that we were, indeed passing Cuba, and Fred took another movie of Cuba to incorporate this new information. You can use the player at left to watch it.

The Stern

The stern is always an interesting place to be. The bow is fun, but all you can see is open water out ahead of you. If you are coming into a port, that's one thing, but if you are in the middle of the ocean, there is much more to see at the back of the ship. Actually, I just like listening to the noise of the water being churned up, and I like to look at the agitated water stretching our as far behind the ship as you can see, just as is shown in the picture at the right that we took while we were here at the stern today.

When I say there is noise and movement to see here, that means that you can't really appreciate from just a still picture what it is actually like to be standing here. So, I made a short movie of what it was like here at the stern today.

While we were here at the stern today, we noticed what looked like exhaust nozzles up above our heads. There was nothing coming out of them, but that's what they looked like. (I made a mental note to ask one of the ship's personnel what they were, but then five minutes later I had forgotten it.)

We stood here at the stern for a while, and then continued through the stern corridor around to the port side of the ship.

The Port Side

The port side of the ship is basically a mirror image of the starboard side so, since it was kind of dark and shady on this side, we did not bother walking all the way back forward to the bow. We just came out of the stern corridor, walked under some of the lifeboats and equipment and then walked forward around the Tides dining room wall to the doors at the main atrium. Similar to the picture Fred took of me on the starboard side of the ship, you can see a picture of Fred with the wall of the Tides dining room behind him here.

In that last picture, the piece of equipment that Fred is standing beside is a mechanical lifeboat (although it didn't look like it). Posted on the wall of the lifeboat container were instructions for its use, although I am not at all sure I'd be able to follow them if the ship were listing and I was in a panic. Make your own judgment by looking at those instructions here.

Lunch in the Windjammer Cafe

We'd completed our morning walk around the decks outside, and we came back inside the ship near the elevator lobbies on Deck 5. The first thing we noticed was that there was an art auction going on in the atrium; we'd seen signs for it throughout the cruise. I recall mentioning it to Greg and he said it's pretty common, but also a pretty overpriced way to buy mediocre art. Anyway, they had the art auction going on on the floor of the atrium while we stood at the Deck 5 balcony watching the scene.

I took this opportunity to take yet another movie of the incredible atrium here on the ship, and you can use the player at left to watch it.

I know you've seen other movies of it (if you've been going through album sequentially), but, if you haven't, you should really visit the page having to do with the Interior Tour of the 'Jewel of the Seas' and take a look at some other of the atrium pictures. I am sure the shipbuilders were given instructions akin to "knock my socks off" when given the task of designing and decorating this main focal point of the ship's public areas.

We had lunch in the Windjammer Cafe. Fred had his usual balanced lunch, while I was in hog heaven with my french fries and my frozen yogurt. It will be much better for my health when we get back to an environment where those two things are not constantly available for the taking sixteen hours a day!

After lunch, we stopped by Greg's suite to see what he and Grant were up to. Not much, as it turns out. Grant is pretty much recovered from his bout of feeling bad, so I hope we'll all be together for our final dinner this evening.

The Great Escape

You may remember that a couple of nights ago Fred and I went to the Coral Theatre to see the illusionist Charles Back perform his tricks. Well, this afternoon, he's been billed as performing an underwater escape, and we thought we would come up to the pool area on Deck 11 and 12 to watch him. No sooner did we get a vantage point on the Deck 12 balcony overlooking the pool than we ran into Joe and Virl, and we all watched the show together.

The show began with Charles Bach at poolside, explaining what he was going to do (enhancing the illusion), getting some volunteers to inspect the chains and locks, and then getting both those volunteers and his own assistants to get him shackled and chained. I've picked four of the many pictures Fred took to illustrate this sequence of activities; click on the thumbnails below to see the full-size pictures:

Once Bach was all trussed up, his assistant helped him down to the first shallow level in the pool (it's there, in case you are curious, so that when and if rough water causes the pool to slosh out of its main container, there is a broad, shallow area to hold it). His assistant then brought him to the pool's edge where he paused to take a final breath. Then it was into the water.

The announcer asked everyone to begin holding their own breath and to raise one hand, lowering it only when they had to take a breath. This bit of theatrics seemed to be effective, as people were looking at each other rather than staring into the pool. Fred and I thought that the pool had also been clouded with something, so you could not see much more than a dark shape under the water.

Be that as it may, everything was effective, and I filmed the last minute or so of Bach's underwater escape; use the player at right to have a look.

Once Bach had emerged from the water unlocked and unshackled, it was time for him to bask a bit to the applause of the crowd. Fred took some good pictures of him taking his bows and receiving his kudos, and I have put thumbnails for the best of these below. Click on them to view the full-size images:

As the crowd thinned out, Fred and I chatted with Virl for a while, catching up on what they'd been doing since our excursion to Chichen Itza yesterday. I got a good picture of Virl and Fred before we left to continue our walk around the ship.

The Activity Deck- Deck 12

After watching Charles Bach's escape, it occurred to us that we had not yet walked around the activity deck- having traversed the ship most of the time either on Deck 5 (for our walks around the ship at the rail) or on Deck 11 (walking back and forth to the Windjammer Cafe). By the time you get to this deck, it is a good deal smaller in area than the decks below, and we wanted to see what was here.

The stern end of Deck 12 is the deck that overlooks the main pool; it actually wraps around to the stern side of the pool as well, and I think there is an entrance to the atrium on the other side. But we turned forward to walk along the main part of the deck.

We walked along the starboard side of the deck; there were promenades lined with deck chairs along both sides of the ship. But in the center, just forward of the pool overlook, was the communications array, comprised of the radar dome, the satellite links and other communications gear. This array must have risen another 75 feet above us here on Deck 12. In the last two pictures you can also see the geodesic roof over the solarium, a location I've described before on the page devoted to an interior tour of the Jewel of the Seas.

As we continued to walk forward, the solarium roof sloped back down to be flush with Deck 12 and the promenade ended- at least the portion with deck chairs. We crossed the aft turn of the outdoor jogging track and then walked along the starboard side of the jogging track until we were outside the fitness center- another shipboard facility I've talked about before during the interior tour. Finally, we crossed the forward turn of the oval jogging track and found ourselves as far forward as we could go on Deck 12. From here, we could look down to the promenade on Deck 11 (this would be the area outside the spa), and then all the way down to the helicopter pad on Deck 6 and the bow of the ship where we went fairly often. I know you've seen pictures of the bow before, but this is arguably the best one.

After our walk, we got a snack in the cafe and then returned to the room for a while before going to the fitness center ourselves to use the recumbent bikes (in an effort to work off at least a few of the calories we'd been consuming).

Final Evening Show and Dinner

Well, this is our last night aboard ship, and we wanted to do all we could. beginning with the pre-dinner show. Tonight, there would be a performer as well as a presentation by the ship's entertainment director.

The performance was by Billy Prudhomme, who was billed as a comedy juggler. He certainly was that. His show was very entertaining (particularly the couple of audience members he hooked into participating), and I made a couple of movies to show you some representative portions of his act. You can watch those movies using the two players below:

Billy Prudhomme

Billy Prudhomme

After Prudhomme's performance, the activity director came out and did some Q&A and a very humorous bit involving the Top Ten dumbest questions passengers asked on the cruise. (I suspect that not all of these questions came from THIS cruise, though.) Among the questions were:
"Does the ship make its own electricity?" (No, it uses a very, very, very long extension cord.)
"Does the crew live on board?" (No; haven't you noticed all the commuter boats?)
"What do you do with the ice sculptures after they melt?" (They become the pool.)
"Is this island completely surrounded by water?" (No, there is water only on one side.)
and so on. Very funny stuff.

When the show was over, we had a few minutes before we met the other guys in the dining room at eight-thirty. Once again, Grant wasn't there; still not feeling a hundred percent, Greg told us. But we did have a really great last meal. I was sorry Grant wasn't there, because I wanted to take some final pictures. But I did get Joe and Virl, Greg and, prevailing on Greg for this one, Fred and I.

After dinner, we bade farewell to the guys, not knowing whether we would see them in the morning (since passengers are let off the ship in groups having to do with where your staterooms are), and went off to explore the nightlife.

We began by going up to Deck 13, a deck we had not been to before. It is the highest deck on the ship, but is only at the stern. Here, we were surprised to find a miniature golf course and a putting green. There was also an adventure club for kids and the rock climbing wall.

We stuck our heads into the Vortex night club as well, but it was just music and dancing. We went back down to Deck 12, and crossed through the Crown and Anchor Lounge whose floor forms the roof of the atrium below. We'd been here a couple of times before, but there has never been anyone here- at least in the evenings.

Finally, we went down to Deck 6 and back to the Safari Club where there was a sing-a-long going on, and where we ran into Joe and Virl one more time. We made a final nighttime visit to the stern and one to the bow before heading back to the room.

It's Saturday morning, and I awoke early to find the ship already docked in Fort Lauderdale. I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to watch us approach and then pass through Everglades Inlet, but I was too late. I don't know exactly how long the ship had been docked. We snoozed a bit more and then got up, dressed and went to the Windjammer Cafe for a final breakfast.

The day before yesterday, I had gone to the cruise desk to check on disembarking procedures. We had been set to go in the next to last group, and wouldn't get off the ship until ten-thirty or so. But I found out that if you are willing to carry your own things, you can disembark in the first group at eight-thirty. It was a bit of a hassle getting things changed, but I finally did. This meant that we did not have to put our luggage out in the hall the night before, and that we could just queue up for our own disembarking a bit before eight-thirty.

We came back to the room after breakfast, and while Fred was taking some final pictures of the stateroom (including the picture at left), I was flipping through the TV channels. About eight-fifteen, we went up to Deck 5 where we'd learned the gangway would be positioned (as it was when we boarded) and found that a line of about seventy people had already formed. So we got in line about a quarter to nine, and other folks continually queued up behind us until at eight-thirty there were about a hundred and twenty-five people waiting.

Right on time we started moving down the gangway, and the disembarkation was extremely rapid and painless. I was surprised there was no customs delay or even check; all we had to do was turn in our ship cards and customs forms and we were done. We were outside waiting for Ron Drew to come pick us up about ten minutes after we left the ship. Ron arrived about nine, and took us over to Enterprise Rent-a-Car where we picked up a car for our last four days in Fort Lauderdale. Both Greg and Grant and Joe and Virl were heading straight to the airport, so we did not see them at all.

The cruise was really great; neither of us seemed susceptible to seasickness (although I'd come prepared), so I guess we'll be able to do more cruises in the future.

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	Artwork Aboard the Jewel of the Seas
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