April 18th

At Sea

We needed a sea day after back to back ports. Although there was quite a heavy swell, it was not too windy on deck, and we spent the day at the Lido pool, swimming, reading, and snoozing in the sun. We decided not to go to any talks or activities, but to devote our time to relaxation. It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

At her noon announcement the Captain said that there were dolphins on the starboard side of the ship. Luckily that’s where we were, so we had a great view of them as we passed them. There had also been whale sightings today, but alas, we didn’t see them. It is always great to see whales and dolphins from the ship, even if they are in the distance.

We did stir ourselves from our sun loungers and meet up with Ricki and David for lunch. We were lucky enough to get a table right at the back of the dining room, so had a great view of the large waves and the wake. We were clearly pitching significantly, but it really didn’t feel bad at all.

Tonight the theme was the Roaring Twenties which is my favorite formal night. Having been spreading black feathers around the ship from my feather boas for the past several years, I decided to purchase a synthetic boa from Amazon for tonight. It worked perfectly – it doesn’t look that bad, and is totally feather free. Clearly there are other feather boas around, as the ship was littered with little black feathers everywhere. The housekeeping staff must not look forward to the Roaring Twenties night.

As I couldn’t get my previous headbands to work with my hair, I bought a new and what I thought was improved one for tonight. Yay! It actually worked, but when I asked Brian if he thought it was too over the top, he nodded, and said it was. So I removed it and headed out into the night without a headband.

Everyone at our table looked great – especially Norman in his top hat! We had a wonderful meal, and are very happy with the orchids we now have on our table. No one else around has orchids so we are feeling very special. We had been planning to steal the large flower arrangement from the hosted table next to us, and swap it for ours, but now with our lovely orchids I am quite happy not to do this. Maybe the staff got wind of our plan, and the orchids are there to avoid an incident in the dining room.

Tonight’s show was the music and comedy of John Bressler. We were tempted to go, but it also seemed like a perfect night to relax and have a drink in the Commodore Club and listen to the piano. It turned out to be a great way to end the evening, and at midnight we headed down to our cabin, remarking on how we hadn’t actually achieved anything today, but that that was actually OK.