Sea Day #3

January 25, 2023

The room was pitch black when we woke up at 8 am. And then...I was nearly blinded when I opened the curtains and the bright sun was reflecting off the water!

I made the decision that this morning I would skip the 9 am coffee chat and have some "deck time" and maybe do a few housekeeping chores. Bob and I started with a quick breakfast outdoors by the seaview pool. When he left to play pickleball, I set up camp on the back deck.

Bob came back from pickleball about 10:30 and we went together to the World Stage for what Ryan was billing as his 2nd coffee chat of the day. It really wasn't a chat, but a series of videos that he had filmed the day before showing some behind the scenes looks into departments that usually aren't seen by passengers. (He said he is limited to a a few pre-named activities that he could put in the daily schedule so he called it a "coffee chat" for lack of a more appropriate title.) The videos showed the galley (including what happens when someone calls room service), laundry, tailors, carpentry shop, backstage dressing rooms, etc. Some of the heads of those departments were also on stage in person with Ryan, adding to the information given in the videos. I thought doing the videos was a brilliant idea! There are no behind the scenes tours of any kind offered anymore and these videos showed so much more than what used to be shown during any of the tours. 

Ryan demonstrating what happens when you call room service. The video showed the sandwich being made and then the video camera followed the crew member through the ship and into the theater to deliver the sandwich to Ryan. 

Ryan also included videos of his own cabin (nothing special) and also a typical shared crew cabin. He ended his presentation with some video footage of his interests and hobbies (like beekeeping!) Ryan lived with his Ukrainian wife in Ukraine until the Russian invasion and shared some TV news clips detailing their evacuation from the country. Ryan's hometown is near where I grew up and he graduated from the same university as Bob and I...although many years later. 

At lunch I discovered a station offering Dutch food that hadn't appeared on the menu on the Navigator app. I sampled a few things and Bob had his usual Asian dishes. We ate outdoors by the pool. The seas still remained calm and the noon temps were in the mid-80's. 

Bob and I often ate our meals in this area by the aft pool. At night we would sit here with our tea.

Bob stationed himself on the back deck after lunch while I did a little hand washing in the cabin. By the time I joined him, he was fast asleep. I read a bit and might have closed my eyes for a spell too. Luckily we were both awake to see a pod of dolphins jumping out of the water next to the ship!

I never got tired of watching the wake from OUR deck.
(Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the dolphins we saw!) 

The lounge chairs bothered my back after too much sitting, so we changed gears and did some walking on the promenade deck. We were just getting started and a man stopped us to ask if we lived in South Dakota. Before retiring, Bob worked for a large health network based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and was wearing a t-shirt with the company logo which the guy recognized. Bob explained that we actually live in a small town in Minnesota. When Bob mentioned the name of our city, the guy exclaimed..."that's where I graduated from high school!" What a small world!! We visited a bit and compared names of people we both knew.

It was noticeably warmer today and two laps was all I managed to do before I heard the pool calling my name. Bob continued to walk. I blew up my inflatable noodle and enjoyed floating in the aft pool. (The water is too deep for me to stand so I either swim or hang on to my noodle.) The water temp in the pool was very warm. With the air temps rising, cooler water would have felt more refreshing.

After walking, Bob found some other pickleball players and played a few games while I went back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner. In the MDR we requested to be seated at the same table we had a couple of nights ago because the waiter was so personable. (Bob made sure to submit a positive comment about him on the Navigator app.) Things must not have been going well in the galley because it took a very long time to receive our main course...especially compared to the very fast service the previous time. I know our waiter was flustered and upset so we assured him we were in no hurry.

By the time we finished eating, it was too late to make the early show in the theater so instead we went back to the cabin to get organized for our excursion the next day. A bonus to the change in plans was that we got to see the beautiful sky right after sunset.

Once we felt sufficiently organized, we went to the Mix Bar to listen to Clara Vee. When her set was done, we moved forward on Deck 5 to the main stage where magician, Scott Pepper, was doing a 2nd performance for the cruise. I always say I hate magicians, but he really was good at his craft and good at getting audience participation.

Piano bar entertainer, Clara Vee

Since leaving snowy Minnesota a week earlier, we have seen nothing but cloudless blue skies! What a stark contrast to our Alaska cruise where it rained (or snowed) every single day!