At Sea

December 20^th, 2023

Our last sea day. It was still raining, and had been very rough overnight. This is the strangest Caribbean cruise we have ever done! I’m not sure this ship has the best stabilizers, there’s an awful lot of rocking and rolling going on.

Our morning program was very busy. Brian went to another photography experience; I chose to go to a music experience in the Explora Lounge. Dr Jack Cassidy, the trumpet player from the ship’s band, played a program of piano music. It was meant to be interactive, with the audience asking questions about the music, but it was just so wonderful to hear him playing that no one asked any questions, we just sat back and let the music wrap itself around us.

Meanwhile Brian had moved on to the next experience. This was on “Reinvent yourself from the inside out” by luminary Craig Stanland, and included the gift of the book written by the speaker. I actually don’t suffer from a pressing need to reinvent myself. I feel quite OK as I am, and reinventing myself could only lead to disaster. Still, it seems it wasn’t disastrous for Mr. Stanland. Here he in on a luxury ship talking about himself, and giving away his book, so it must be working for him.

At 12:15 our friend and luminary,  Eliot, was one of the presenters for “Let’s Get Quizzical – Luminary Edition”. The quiz was fun, and somehow I ended up singing the pina colada song. Well, we had recently visited Puerto Rico where the drink had been invented. I got 2 extra points for my performance, and thus we ended up in a tie for first place. Now had we been on a Cunard ship we would have been given a bottle of Pol Acker for our efforts. However, there was no such prize. I just had to content myself with yet another glass of Moet and Chandon.

With all of this activity we had worked up quite an appetite so we went to Sakura, the Asian restaurant, and sat in the outdoor section at the stern on deck 5, eating the most wonderful sushi. It was a bit windy, but not raining, and it was good to be outside for a while.

In the afternoon Beverly Beckham, the Boston Globe columnist, gave her final talk on if you can say it, you can write it. I have so enjoyed listening to her, and being inspired by her. Hopefully some of her excellent advice will rub off on me.

Explora Journeys seem to be very focused on healing the mind and soul, and they have a program called Ocean State of Mind. So far we had not had the time to attend any of the sessions, but today was the day to give them a try. We headed up to the fitness center, somewhere I had avoided until now, and we lay on the floor, looking out on the ocean. A very charming young man guided us through meditation and a sound bath. A sound bath is a meditative experience where you are “bathed” in sound waves. These waves are produced by various sources, including healing instruments such as gongs, singing bowls, percussion, chimes, rattles, tuning forks, and even the human voice itself. Our young man stuck to gongs, chimes and singing bowls. I loved it, and felt quite calm and peaceful which is unusual for me as it is hard to turn my overactive mind off.  Even Brian, who is usually quite skeptical about such things, said he felt calm. We must do this again. Although I thought that lying on our living room floor staring at the coffee table, listening to a CD, may not have the same effect. We may just have to book another Explora Journeys journey.

Feeling all calm and spiritual and stuff, a real sort of bath experience, ie a whirlpool, seemed to be the logical next step. So we had a wonderful time relaxing in one of the huge whirlpools in the Conservatory. We were also in need of rehydration, and an excellent pina colada did the trick. The lighting at the Conservatory in the evenings in very blue, but I suppose that is meant to be soothing too.

We returned to Fil Rouge, the French restaurant, for dinner. No chocolate or Grand Marnier souffle again. However, the coconut souffle was excellent, and perfect for the Caribbean somehow.

The evening’s entertainment was Bal Mythos – A Masked Dance Party. We really should have gone to check it out, and I may even have got Brian up on the dancefloor, but we decided that an early night was a plan. We returned to our suite and were pleased to see a gift – something with which I can wipe my perennially smudged glasses.

 Brian set about his nightly task of doing battle with the light switches.

There are many lights, and many light switches in our suite. Every night it takes a while to get the correct lights on, and then turn them all off. Instead of having an early night, Brian, in his organized manner,  decided to make a list of the light switches, and which lights they operate. His task complete some time later, he took a photo of his list, just in case someone else is similarly confused by the electrical system. Just let me know if you need a copy.

The light switch mystery now under control, it was time to sink into that wonderfully comfortable bed and let our ever rocking and rolling ship lull us into a wonderfully deep slumber.