Monday January 11, 2016 – Sea Day

View from our balcony

We sleep in until 9 am (really 8 as the clocks went forward an hour).  As I write up my blog Bernie heads down to get a latte.

When he returns he says “it has started – the complainers that is”.  A woman at the elevator made sure everyone heard her complain how all the elevators are going up!  
Well they will come down at some time Bernie says.  

We really miss the midship stairs as we are just on deck 8 and we normally would take the stairs.  But fingers are crossed they will put it in during drydock.  (can confirm they are converting the crew only staircase to a public one in Sept).  We try to head forward or aft and use the stairways to access deck 7 but when coming back with coffees you need to take the elevator.

In our mailbox is the invite for the Most Travelled Luncheon which will be held on the last sea day in Sabatinis.  We are honoured to be included and Bernie comments that what a great way to celebrate his birthday but with a luncheon.

We relax in the cabin watching the Wake Show and a few other shows.  We discuss our thoughts for the day and we both agree to just play it by ear.  We are on vacation after all and this trip is all about relaxing.

After a few hours we are down in the Atrium sipping another coffee and reading.  The Atrium is a hub of activities and at noon they are do a tap dance class in the Atrium so we decide to move to the outside deck on Promenade.  I love this area as it is wide with great furniture where we sit for around an hour reading and watching the water.

Weather today is quite warm, but with very strong winds and intermittent clouds which helps keep things comfortable.  But that wind is intense.  

Around one we head up to the Horizon Court for some lunch, we are both hungry.  I didn’t eat any breakfast and Bernie just had fruit and a bowl of cereal.  Have I mentioned how much I love the Horizon Court on this ship.  

There are so many different food areas with so much to choose from.  I see that most people have not realized that there is more food options in the aft section because when I walk closer to the midship buffet area it is packed.  This area tends to serve barbecue, tacos, sandwiches, soup, salads.  Then there is the Pastry Shop with desserts and espresso machine is here.  Then further back is a large buffet that has large selection of food.  A large salad bar is here too!  I especially like the section that is a themed area.  Today it is Asian them and there are dumplings and gingered beef, lemon chicken, spicy noodles! Yummy.

Okay enough about food I am getting hungry again just writing about it.

After lunch we both agree that it is time for our first lay out in the sun this voyage.  We put on our bathing suits, lather on the sunscreen (don’t be fooled, even with the clouds and strong wind that sun is strong), grab books and sunglasses and head up towards the Retreat Pool.  

As soon as we exit outdoors the wind is strong!  It is almost too hard to walk if you are going into the wind.  With a bit of effort we manage to lay out our towels and get comfortable.  I am reading a hardcover book, normally I have a Kindle but a friend gave me this book and I wanted to read it so with the wind wiping the pages I am having trouble.  

People’s items – hats, sunglasses, magazines, towels, bathing suit covers and flip flops are being blown all around.  A crew is walking around collecting many items that have been blow to one end.  He is also collecting towels from lounge chairs that people have put down and there is no one there.  So there were many lounges to grab if you wanted one.

The wind was affecting everyone on all decks at each pool.  

After a half hour I gave up.  Just too hard to read and sit there with my hair slapping my face and holding down the pages of my book.  Bernie stays and I head back to the cabin to sit out on my deck.  We are on the starboard side and it has the sun all day.  This is nice but it is not so nice too.  The sun beats down and makes it very very warm and you need to keep your drapes closed so the sun doesn’t beat in and make the room extra hot.

But out there the wind is at a minimum and I sip my Kiwi infused tea from the International Café and read for around an hour and a half.  Sun is strong and I still had quite a bit of sun – even with 30 SPF.

I should add that when I was down getting my drink they were doing the Festival of the World Steel Pan class.  If you remember last year I took part in these classes and really enjoyed it.  When I did it, it was only the second cruise that they had done them.  It is obvious to see how much more organized the class is now and the group sounds great.

Tonight is a formal night and we have not brought formal wear so we will be dining in the Horizon Court.  But we do want to head down to the Atrium to see some of the festivities from the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Show.  So we dress nicely and head down to Vines.

Remember we bought the wine card, well we tried to use it in Vines tonight but were told we could not use it here.  

This saddened us because last year we used it often here on the Royal in Vines and we also used our Wine Card on the Island in the bars too. I know that they say it is to be used only in the dining rooms but I really don’t like that policy. 

We bought 12 bottles and we shouldn’t be limited on where we can redeem them.  Oh well, we accept it and Bernie heads to the dining room and gets a waiter to get a bottle of wine for us.  He then brings it back and the waiters in Vines open and pour it for us.  Gee seems a little silly to me.

They offer us some tapas which tonight we agree to because we haven’t eaten dinner yet and it is 7:30.  I really wanted to take a picture of the tapas plate but I kept forgetting to take the picture until we had already dug in so here is a picture with a few items missing… sorry.

As I said it is the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Show and the band Atomic is playing – great band!  The Atrium doesn’t seem too busy – I have seen it much more crowded.  

We finally connect with Michael Prasse and we have a bit of time to catch up before the Captain Bob Oliver comes over and we say hi to him and then they are off for their introductions.  

After the introductions Michael comes over and Dylan is with him and we sit in Vines and enjoy some wine and catch up, as it has been a year since we have seen them.  What a joy to not only be on a ship like this but to also get the chance to see so many friends again.

It is late but we head up to the Horizon Court for dinner just after 9 pm.  It is rather quite up here at this hour and we enjoy a light dinner and contemplate what we want to do afterwards.  Colors of the World is the production show tonight and we love this show.  But there is also Remember the Lyrics Trivia at the same time.  We agree we will head to the Production Show but just as we are walking out we see Sanja and Marty at the Crab Shack.

They ask us to sit and we spend over an hour sitting and chatting with them.  We didn’t eat at the Crab Shack tonight but we did enjoy it last year and really loved it. Read all about it here. Make sure to read my blog about that experience and boy what a great deal for $20.  

I tell Marty and Sanja how impressed I was about their shopping talk and how they have the VIP checklist and how they create personalized envelopes for everyone.  

It is so nice to catch up with both of them and it is obvious to see how happy they both are and we couldn’t be happier.

Well so around 11 pm we are heading back to the cabin and we both comment that this was a great night.  Sure it was totally different than what we had planned but sometimes those are the best nights.  It is good advice too.  Sometimes you need to go with the flow and enjoy the moment because you could just be missing the best part of the day.

We put out our breakfast room service menu out for tomorrow.  

We arrive in Aruba at 8 am.  We are meeting up with Dave and Cindy and heading to pick up a rental car and head to the Southern part of the island.

Oh !  Just was reading the next day’s Patter and I am so excited to see the Beatlemaniacs are coming on board for one night!  I can’t wait to see the show, which is probably one of our favorites.