Christ the Redeemer and New Year’s Eve!

December 31, 2023

Happy Birthday to me….

Yes – my Birthday is New Year’s Eve – it’s awesome – the entire world celebrates on my Birthday!

For my Birthday, many family members gave me the ever-prized game points for Simhorseracing.com, my husband gave me 2 lovely pairs of earrings, my bestie-should-be-another-brother and his partner Liam and Alan gave me an Eaton Black Watch tartan scarf (which will come in very handy very soon),

and Royal Caribbean gave me (and 664 other World travelers) a trip to Christ the Redeemer. 

John and I met with Alan, Reshika and Anish to make sure we’d get in the same group before heading over to the theater for our bus numbers (bus 2!) (Liam was a little under the weather – slowly recovering from a bug he picked up a week earlier). Our guide, Sabina,

explained some of the history of Brazil and Rio as we drove up to the train station, transferred to the narrow-gauge train that took us up the mountain close to the statue. About 200 stairs further up (or ramp with escalator or elevator ride for those that can’t do the stairs), we were at the feet of the statue

– with about a thousand others, gently jostling to get the best photos and selfies. Not being the most comfortable in big crowds, we got our photos and headed back down to the meeting point. Unlike Chichen-Itza – we had plenty of time, so we hung out and chatted with folks from other groups near the elevators.

Once our group reassembled, we reboarded the train, back to the bus and then on to lunch! We ate at a Brazilian steakhouse called Assador (nice place, just not a name that would take off in the US). Since I don’t eat beef or pork, I had a big salad and some of the roasted chicken. I planned to eat more than two of the little cheese puff breads, but as I was finishing my salad – the waiter whisked away our basket of bread! He ignored my “No-wait!” – I would have grabbed it but I had a fork in my hand – and no – even lovely bread is not worth going to jail for stabbing the server with a fork. 

We returned to the ship, the driver negotiating around a number of closed roads in preparation for the evening’s crowds. The port is in a business area, so not much was open, so we returned to our room and I took a short nap to get ready for the evening. 

John, Liam, Alan, Guy, Karen and I went to Izumi – the Japanese restaurant onboard, to celebrate my Birthday! Liam and Alan brought the sparkling wine, and the entire meal was wonderful, from the edamame, the appetizers, the sushi rolls and poke bowl. For dessert I was presented with a luscious dark chocolate birthday cake! 

We meandered down to Vintages to continue with sipping bubbles (Vintages is the only bar with the really nice Cava onboard), chatting with new friends, listening to music and getting ready for midnight. At 11PM, they had a balloon drop, then up to the top deck to find a place to await the fireworks over Copacabana beach.

The Serenade had prime position for the fireworks – which were spectacular!

Capping off an amazing day.

Next up – a few days at sea and then Uruguay!