January 18 – Sea Day – and My Honey’s Birthday

First thing, Happy Birthday to my wonderful life mate, it is always a joy celebrating his special day with him especially when he wants to sail during it. 

Chris our steward still is a little overwhelmed it seems, we didn’t get our form for our elite canapes until this morning, we quickly fill it out and hand it back to him before the deadline for delivery tonight.  We have to ask for more towels again.  I not sure if he is new or just really busy with a lot of cabins.  He is very quiet and I haven’t really gotten the chance to chat with him – which is odd because normally by now we are already close buddies with our steward and we have normally tipped them a few times.

We dress and head down to the dining room for breakfast sitting with two lovely couples where of course I announce right away how it is Bernie’s Birthday – heck he hates it but I think it is great.

At 9:30 there is Sudoku and you all know how much I love my Sudoku so I head all the way aft and up to Adagio to try my hand at it.  I end up finishing first and then find out there are no prizes for it, really?  Wow okay no biggie, it isn’t like I need another prize to lug home but it is always fun to get something.  So I guess I won’t be doing the Sudoku anymore on this trip.

At 10 is our Cruise Critic meet and greet in Skywalkers a large crowd gathers and it is so great to put faces to names and catch up with friends we have sailed with in the past and meet lots of new friends.  They did organized a gift exchange but since we are doing three cruises we opted out of the gift exchange to cut down on things we had to bring or take home with us but I am glad they did it and it looked like they all had a good time.  We left and wandered down to the coffee bar for my latte and of course we ran into Andy, Anita, and then Greg.  I chatted with Greg for quite a while he is so very knowledgeable about so much on board and the ports as him and his wife Jeannie travel this itinerary a lot and they do some activities we love to do as well so he is a great resource.  Jeannie also blogs and I love reading her blogs and her positive attitude.

I head up to see Alice in her cabin and we sit out on her balcony and I give myself a pedicure and we sit and chat and enjoy our latte…..   ahhhh love those sea days.

Since it is Bernie’s birthday I am letting him decide what he wants to do today and I will help make anything he wants come to fruition, and he is easy cause what he wants now is to go to pub lunch…. No problem that can be done.  We arrive at the Wheelhouse where we are sat immediately and we both enjoy some fish and chips.  It is yummy but when you live so healthy at home and almost never eat anything deep fried we do notice we have upset tummies later in the afternoon from it.  Not that it is bad just we should know better and try and ease into unhealthy eating…. But trust me when we get off  we will need to detox and get back to healthy eating.

We check out Calypso Cove and we see a staff member there who was on the Star when we were in South America, she is from Brazil and we share stories about how great her country is. 

Bernie wants to go to the “Where in the World Am I” trivia game and I am like okay, I usually like those games too.  We are met up with Jeff and Jane, Anita, and Andy and well I can’t take the credit at all but we did win.  We got water bottles and I promised it to a friend whose husband said she could use one, I have a few still at home and Bernie just won one and really I am pretty sure we may win some other ones this voyage.   

We head back to the cabin and we are both tired, and well since it is a sea day, and we are on vacation we can justify a nap and we do just that!

Tonight we are dining in the Crown Grill for Bernie’s Birthday with our friend Alice at 7.  It is also a formal night and lots of things are going on around the ship. 

Of course the Captain’s Welcome Aboard gathering is in the Piazza but is at 7:15 and we will be in dinner.  The Production show is What a Swell Party (three shows 7:15, 8:30, and 10:15).  And Al Katz is performing again, three shows with a different act but we will have to attend his late show.  Also going on is Jewish Sabbath Service, Sports Trivia, Passenger Feud Game Show, and a Blackjack tournament.