I do enjoy days at sea when we are on a cruise. So many of our trips are hustle and bustle. Some times it’s just nice to slow down and just be. No rush to be anywhere. Just be. And since I was up late and we lost an hour due to time change, I was thrilled I didn’t have to get up before the crack of dawn 🙂
I had a leisurely wake-up and we went to breakfast in the Grand Dining Room. I’m glad we did it today for the first time and not when we were in a rush to get to an excursion. The service was very slow even though they weren’t busy at all. Everything just seemed to take forever and a year. Since we weren’t in a rush, it wasn’t a big deal, just a bit irritating. Maybe they have new crew who are a bit slower? Who knows. We have learned our lesson. On excursion days, we eat somewhere else. And since we are in a suite, we can actually have breakfast brought to our cabin. We’ve done that before and it works well. The menu is limited but that’s okay.
After breakfast Doug wanted to check out the Terrace Cafe for a possible breakfast location and I wanted to get a hand-crafted latte from the barista on Deck 14. I cheated and took the elevator to 12 where the cafe was. Doug took the stairs. The breakfast selections looked good and they had smoked salmon so it met Doug’s specifications :-). Basically you had the same choices as down in the Grand Dining Room. This place was just less formal and it was a buffet set up.
I did climb the one floor up to the barista with Doug. I keep forgetting that this ship doesn’t have Deck 13. It goes from 12 to 14. That messes me up all of the time. The barista was a busy man so I had to wait several minutes but eventually I got my latte. It was good and better yet, it was free. On Norwegian I always had to buy my lattes. Free is always good.
We digested for a bit and I drank my latte. Then we hit the fitness center. I am trying so hard to be good. Obviously there are a lot of people on this cruise trying to be good. The fitness center was full. I was lucky that one of the four elliptical machines was open. I jumped on it quickly and did twenty minutes. It faced outward towards the window so I had a nice ocean view. It actually was less painful than I thought it would be. Doug was still working out when I left so I let him know that I was going to hit the jogging track and walk a bit.
I have to say that I must be a speed demon when walking on a cruise ship. My watch told me I was averaging two minute miles! 🤪 I walk fast but I am not Superman. I’m not sure why it was so out of whack. The only thing I could think of was the watch calculates using GPS coordinates and the movement of the ship was throwing it off. I admit I enjoyed getting credit for walking over 7 miles in 20 minutes.
I felt better that I had exercised, not that endorphins ever kick in for me. I just felt good knowing that I did it even on vacation. I had earned some relaxing time. I relaxed by proof-reading blog posts. Yep, I’m just a glut for punishment today. I knew I would feel better when I got all caught up on that as well. It has been weighing on me.
Less than three hours after breakfast, we headed up to the Terrace Cafe for lunch. You definitely don’t go hungry on cruises. The cafe is a buffet so you can get as little or as much as you want. It was a happening place. It felt like everybody on the ship was eating lunch at the same as we were. Doug grabbed us a table outside while I perused the many choices and got what I wanted. Today they had a Mexican theme going on. I chose what they called a Mexican salad. It wasn’t really. All it was was salad with a bit of corn, cucumbers, and peppers. Then they put tomato chili dressing on it. I had hoped for guacamole but I didn’t see it.
I sat at the table and held down the fort while Doug got his food. He was more successful. He found the guacamole. He got his salad selections from a different location than I did. I obviously didn’t look around good enough. It was sufficient though. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t just eaten oatmeal and bacon as well as half a pain au chocolate. Plus we were going to have high tea at 4 PM. I was saving up for a scone.
We about blew away while we were eating. I had to start before Doug got back with his food because my lettuce kept blowing out of my bowl. It was small enough. I didn’t have any to spare for the fish. I had noticed while walking that the wind was really strong. The top deck with some of the outdoor sports activities was closed due to strong winds. I definitely felt it while trying to keep napkins, straws, and salad from going overboard.
We both finished off our salads and enjoyed some fresh fruit for dessert. Then we made our way down the stairs to our cabin. It was only one flight. We’ve been trying to take the stairs as much as possible. This morning I just didn’t feel like going from Deck 5 to Deck 14 via the stairs. I have a hard enough time going from 5 to 11. I’ve got to get back into shape!
I spent the afternoon out on our balcony proof-reading and posting. It was quiet and peaceful and I could look out and see the ocean which was nice. The wind kept it from getting hot. The wind also coated everything with a fine mist which evaporated leaving behind a sheen of salt. The railing on our balcony was just covered with salt. So was my iPad. I’ve never had that happen on a cruise before. It’s amazing what the wind can do.
I did get quite a bit accomplished. I have two more days to proof and post for the Iberian Peninsula and then I’m done! That will be a load off of my mind. I rewarded myself by reading a new book. I was just getting involved in it when I realized it was time to get ready for high tea. I didn’t want to miss getting my scone.
We weren’t sure how dressy it was so I changed out of my T-shirt into a casual but nice shirt and wore my normal travel pants. We fit right in. Very few people were dressed up. Several ladies were there in their bathing suit coverups. I didn’t think you were suppose to do that but nobody said anything to them.
The lady violin players were there at high tea as well. They played background music. Only two of them were playing but they performed beautifully. They were part of the reason that I wanted to go to high tea. Them and the scones. At least the music was calorie free! I enjoyed the music but it was actually difficult to hear them well over the babbling of all of the voices.
We found an empty table and the servers were quick to bring around the tea selection box and the pots of hot water. After that we waited for a good long while for the food. One young lady brought around a tray of small sandwiches. Doug had a salmon one (he does love his salmon) and I had an egg salad sandwich. I was waiting patiently for my scone. I glanced around and they only had two carts going around with the pastries. The lounge area was full of people. Two carts was not enough. By this time we had been joined by another couple who are frequently fliers with Oceania. They love the high tea but said this one was not as well organized as all of the others they have been to. They were disappointed with the service.
The couple was very nice. This was their 20th cruise with Oceania and because it was their 20th, it was free. Wow! I wish OAT would give us a free trip for having gone on 20+ trips with them. They have also traveled with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean. They are obviously avid cruisers. We had a nice time talking with them and picking their brains about good trips to take with the company.
We had been there for well over half an hour before the dessert cart made it to our table. I got the last scone on the cart. I would have been a sad camper if there hadn’t been one. It was very good although none I’ve ever had has been better than the one I had in August in Botswana at the camp outside of Chobe National Park. That one was scrumptious. This one was worth waiting for though. We didn’t tarry much after I finished it off. The crew was getting Horizons ready for the Captains cocktail party which was starting in 45 minutes. Just as we were leaving, the cruise director made an announcement saying that everybody had to get out (he couched it in a much nicer way).
Back in the room I changed into a dress for the cocktail bash. I figured it would probably be a bit more formal. Plus I didn’t want to have to change yet again for dinner. Tonight we were eating at a Polo which is their steak speciality restaurant. We were hoping that Brandon had managed to change our dining times for all of our reservations from 8:30 to 7:30 so we wouldn’t miss the show. He was suppose to let us know if he was successful. Doug had called earlier and he didn’t come on duty today until 5 PM. So we had to wait until then before calling to see if he had worked his magic. He had. We had a message on the phone that he had managed to change all of our dining reservations. Yea!!!
At six we headed back up the stairs to Horizon again. We met the captain and the general manager of the ship. The captain is from Dubrovnik. He seemed very capable. We found seats and Doug rustled us up some champagne. We weren’t sure if it was self-serve or if they were bringing it around. We waited for several minutes but nobody came by and asked what we wanted. Doug finally got up and grabbed us a couple of glasses.
The Captain introduced his senior crew. It was an international group which always makes it interesting. Doug did notice that the name tags the crew wear don’t specify the country they come from. That’s different from all of the other cruises we’ve been on. It’s always interesting to know where the people working on the ship are from. The captain and the crew didn’t tarry. They had a ship to sail and restaurants to manage. One of the male singers came out and sang two songs. Then one of the girls sang a couple of songs. Both were so talented. I couldn’t wait to see the show tonight.
While we were at the cocktail party we met another couple who are frequent travelers with Oceania. I’m beginning to think that we are the only newcomers on the ship. I believe this couple has made 14 trips with them. They were both very nice. They told us about cruising down the Amazon and cruising from Cambodia to Vietnam with Oceania. Both sounded like wonderful trips.
We spent about 45 minutes at the cocktail party. I was ready to head to dinner. We got there a bit before our 7:30 reservation but the place was practically empty so we had no problem getting seated. It did beg the question though of why when we made our dinner reservations online, we couldn’t get them any earlier than 8:30. No reservation for a specialty restaurant was available before 8:30. Weird. Next time we’ll just wait until we are onboard to make our reservations.
Dinner was really great. I skipped the starter and the salad and just got New England clam chowder which I love. It wasn’t as creamy as I’m use to but it was very tasty. Once I got use to the texture, I really enjoyed it. Doug got Oysters Rockefeller and baked onion soup. Then he got surf ‘n turf for dinner while I went with prime rib which I love. Mine was perfectly cooked and so tender that it all but melted in my mouth. My asparagus and potatoes au gratin were great as well. I know Doug enjoyed his steak and lobster. I had planned to get my leftover prime rib boxed up for a midnight snack but when I asked for a box, the server told me that didn’t do that. At first I thought he was kidding but he wasn’t. I was a bit stunned. There was a good chunk of prime rib left. I hated to waste it but I couldn’t eat it. Maybe next time I’ll bring in a ziplock bag in my purse and sneak it out in that. But tonight I had to leave it behind. Sigh….no tasty midnight snack for me. It would have come in handy for tomorrow as well as we will be missing lunch because of our excursion which we don’t get fed on.
Anyway, I drowned my disappointment in a small slice of key lime pie. I do like key lime and so does Doug. We both ordered it. And we ate it with our new friends from high tea. They were eating in Polo as well and invited us to chat with them over dessert. So we moved over to their table. They were sitting with another gentlemen they had just met. He was from Atlanta and had been in the Navy. We had a nice time talking and then we all had to beat feet to the Marina Lounge for the show. I wasn’t about to miss that.
The show was wonderful. It was about the Brill Building in NYC where so much popular music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s came from. Artists like Sonny and Cher, Elvis, Madonna, the Righteous Brothers, the Shirelles….all of them sang songs from the Brill Building. I liked how they arranged the show. They introduced about the building and then went into little vignettes utilizing groups of songs. One section had three girls having a slumber party playing 45s on their record player. A singer would come out and sing the song they were playing. That was really cute. Another section was American Bandstand. There was an Elvis section, of course. One of the main male singers sang “Unchained Melody” and brought down the house. He was SO good. The show was cleverly arranged and the music great. I’ve seen more polished shows before but I really enjoyed this one. The singers and dancers are all so talented. AND they do it on a moving ship. Speaking of which, the ship really HAS been moving today. I could especially feel it up in Horizon.
The show was a brilliant way to wrap up a good first day at sea. No more lazy days though for the next ten days. We will be in ports and out on excursions. Tomorrow we dock in the Dominican Republic. I had never been there until this year and as of tomorrow, I will have been there twice :-). We are doing a historical and cultural tour that is about three hours. We’ll be back in time for relaxing and hopefully yoga. Not to mention more eating and more shows!
Tales from the Trail 