My Caribbean Cruise Blog Day 6

Cruiser’s Log, Day 6 (1/14/10)

Since today was a day at sea, we didn’t worry about getting up with an alarm and I decided I would sleep at late as I could. Apparently I needed some sleep because I had another 13 hour night! Wow! Scott got up at 8am, but I didn’t get up until 11. I got up once to go to the bathroom and thought it must be morning (Scott was in the sitting area with the curtain pulled to keep the light from bothering me), but I didn’t care and went back to bed. I felt bad for making him miss breakfast though, but he said he wasn’t that hungry and had eaten a box of Fruit Loops he had swiped from the dining room a few days ago.

I got a shower and we went down to lunch at the “Garden Café.” After lunch, we came back to the room briefly, then went down to the “Crystal Atrium.” It’s a beautiful room that is two stories high, so up above you can see the restaurants on the next deck up. There is a “Java Café” there, the customer service desk, the shore excursion desk, the shopping consultant’s desk, a giant screen, an area for entertainers, and plenty of cushy places to sit. It is beautifully decorated with a glass sculpture, funky chairs, crystals, and a gorgeous ceiling of pink, purple, and blue (my favorite colors) tiles that look like waves and lighted and twinkling icicles in the center. I bought some t-shirts at a table set up in there (buy two get one free) and then we sat there for a bit. We decided to go to a towel folding demonstration, so Scott stopped by the customer service desk, while I went by our room to drop off the t-shirts and pick up my camera and our daily newsletter that outlines all of the activities for the day. I saw that there was a session in the “Crystal Atrium” where we had just been with a comedian that we had mentioned the night before that we wanted to see. So I went up to the “Spinnaker Lounge” to meet Scott. I asked him which he would rather do and we decided to go back to the “Crystal Atrium.”

To my delight (and Scott’s disappointment), the comedian was not being funny, but was speaking about writing and publishing books! So I enjoyed that while Scott fell asleep. Not to worry though, we are getting a DVD of the towel-folding!

We went back up to the room and I started sifting through receipts and gathering stuff together to fill out customs forms. Scott went down to the casino for a bit and I packed up a few things and sat on the balcony enjoying the view, the rocking, the sounds of the waves, the cool temperatures (around 75 degrees), and wrote on my laptop.

I am learning a few ship terms along the way. We are forward, which means we are toward the front of the ship. The back is called “aft”. Middle is obviously “mid-ship”. I had been confused about the left and right, but I think I have it down now. We are on the “starboard” side, or right of the ship. The left is the “port” side.

When Scott came back, we got ready to go and went to the “Teppanyaki” restaurant, which is a Japanese steak house. You know, the kind where the chef cooks the food in front of you, and as Scott says, includes dinner AND a show. I was a little apprehensive because I am such a picky eater. I don’t like much Asian food because they use so many vegetables in their dishes and I don’t like veggies much, especially not cooked ones, except corn and potatoes. Today is our one month anniversary and Scott had a surprise prepared for me: they delivered a red rose to me at dinner and said “happy anniversary!” Everyone at our table said “aw!” It was really fun watching our chef cook. Dinner wasn’t bad. I was adventurous and tried everything, including seaweed. I really liked the chicken in creamy mustard sauce! I could have eaten a whole plate of that. The staff there was great and picked up on our anniversary and brought us out a cake and sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and took our picture.

Afterwards we went to the casino for a bit and I played slots and won nothing and Scott won a little bit at blackjack. We went to get our pictures taken just to get a free itinerary map. Then we went up to the “Spinnaker Lounge” and watched the comedian David Naster that we heard earlier actually do comedy. We found out that he lives in Kansas City and is partial to firemen, policemen, paramedics, and nurses. Scott talked to him afterwards about some people they both knew and he bought his book, “You Just Have to Laugh,” about true stories that turn a hard situation into something humorous.

We went down to the “Garden Café” for a “chocoholics buffet” which was fun, not only because of the chocolate, but because of the chocolate and ice sculptures. Then we went back up to the “Spinnaker” to see a game show called the “Liars Club” which is basically like the game Balderdash. The three panelists, the cruise director, David Naster, and two other comedians known as Sharkbait gave definitions to obscure words and the audience had to figure out who was lying. It was hilarious, but my favorite part was when Sharkbait did an impression of our captain. It was precise, down to the captain’s favorite phrase, “have a smashing day!” and his Norwegian accent.

We tried to stick around for another game show called “the Quest”, but it really wasn’t thrilling us and we were tired, so we went back to our room.

Scott again stayed up reading and I went to bed around 12:30am or so.