In the pre- holiday PowerPoint presentation I had prepared about our trip, the Day at Sea pages had received some criticism from our friends for lacking detail. I’m going to put that right here by describing what we got upto on our 2nd day at sea.
But first, what activity did we get upto the night before, I hear you ask? Well, after our lovely day in Aruba we had a relaxed evening and met up with Shami and Jo for dinner . This time we ventured further afield to The Glasshouse Restaurant. The Glasshouse is where the lovely cool, indoor pool is that I’ve been using when I get too hot sunbathing. However, at night the tables round the edge are transformed into a small restaurant with waitress service. Tonight we enjoyed tapas and a crème Catalan to finish. The show tonight was called ‘Cogs’ which meant absolutely nothing so we decided to give it a miss. We spent most of the night chatting over dinner and then back in the Atrium Bar.
The next day was our 2nd day at sea. However, today it was very different. Overnight there had been quite a bit of movement of the ship as the Captain had warned. It’s absolutely fine and kind of gently rocks you to sleep but in the morning it was rather overcast and very breezy. We had a leisurely breakfast in 47 Degrees including their daily special French Toast. Yum.
We’d woken up too late to play the bag a sunbed game and the decks were already heaving partly because some parts of the upper deck were closed off as the wind made them too dangerous! Instead, Jane and I decided to go and see the 10am showing of the new Downton Abbey film in the Broadway Show Lounge. This seemed a very chilled way to spend the morning. Unfortunately, however, once the film started it had massive writing all over the big screen describing ever pay single noise and also had subtitles. This is never Jane’s favourite thing but even I didn’t think it was worth trying to watch this as the big words were right in the middle of the screen making it impossible to see the action! We quickly left the arena…
Hm…..what to do now on a breezy day at sea? We decided to further consult Cruise News. There are actually loads of different activities put on by the crew for everyone to enjoy if they want. Yes, Geoff, we could even go to the gym! However, this morning instead of that we decided to go for a walk, 10000 steps around the windy decks! Most people choose to do this early in the morning when the sun beds and sunbathing beauties aren’t out. However, we decided to do the Obstacle Course instead speedily walking between the beds on deck 10, round the back of the ship and the mini golf and rock climbing wall, down the steps to deck 9 round the pool, through the sale of signed sporting memorabilia and dodging the beer spills before doing it all again! Several times. Jane was like a racing snake and I could barely keep up with her.
So steps done what else could we do? Well here is a selection of what was on offer today. How about one of the informative talks at the spa? Choose from ‘Puffy Eye Seminar’, ‘How to increase your Metabolism’ or ‘ Anti-Aging Solutions’. I think it’s fair to say that they know their audience! If the talks aren’t for you how about attending a charcoal drawing class or perhaps a trivia quiz to exercise your brain? Maybe you’d like to learn to line dance or play a board game? If you’re the sporty type there is plenty on offer. A game of Killer Darts or maybe Mini Curling?
Two of our favourite activities are not listed in Cruise News. Firstly, we really enjoy getting lost around the ship. We never know which floor anything is on, which end of the ship things are at and whether we should turn left or right on coming out of lifts. It seems that most passengers also enjoy this new hobby. Secondly, we love phaffing about trying to get WiFi or mobile phone access. I have purchased the extortionate onboard WiFi and Jane bought an e- Sim which doesn’t seem to have worked properly since day 2. It makes keeping in touch a little bit tricky. The best option seems to be when we leave the ship where everyone tries to log into the free port Wifi. Alternatively, access down at the beach bars seems to be pretty good.
Anyway, today we decided that after a rest and a spot of lunch and a bit of blogging that we’d have a game of mini golf with Jo and Shami. Excellent fun in the wind at the back of the ship. Can’t believe we lost!! By now all of the decks had re-opened and we had a little sunbathe before the sun went down.
In the evening Jane and I had booked into one of the ‘special’ paying restaurants, The Kora Lai Indian Restaurant up on Deck 11. We went up in the glass lift all the way and it was like we were going to take off! We arrived in this really sophisticated looking bar area, Bar Eleven. It really was impressive and we had an excellent Indian/Asian meal before meeting up with Shami and Jo for this evening show ‘The Movies’. None of us were really feeling it this evening as evidenced by the fact that Jane fell asleep by the end! we needed the rest ready for the next days visit to St Vincent.
Where shall we go to next? 