Cruising - April 26-27

Day 8 – Sunday

We roused ourselves in time to enjoy breakfast in the Windjammer but we're so loopy from sleep deprivation that we instead went back to the stateroom for a nap.  We arrived back in the Promenade for a T-shirt sale at 3pm.  It was a madhouse when they took the ropes down and announced that the $10 sale had begun. Seems every day the people on this ship are becoming more like the cast of “Lord of the Flies”.  The $10 watch sale was horrible to witness – such savagery in search of a bargain, only exacerbated by an announcement “buy five, get one free!”  

The Internet has been down for most of the day and Pam talked with one of the officers who said he’ll credit us back for the 3 days that we’ve not been able to log in.

Day 9 – Monday

The Lotus Land lassitude continues - slept in again today. After talking with other passengers, everyone speaks of how much they’ve been sleeping in due to the daily time change. Probably doesn’t help that the average age of our fellow travelers is somewhere north of Hillary Clinton.  The ship had another clothing sale today and Pam bought a deep pink wind breaker for 50% off. 

We watched the flow riding surfers again today and played more mini-golf. Norm beat Pam by two points. Pam demands a rematch tomorrow, if we can find caddies to lug our putters around the nine hole course!

    

 

 

We’ve been losing an hour nearly every day as we sail closer and closer to Europe.  The Internet which was billed as “high speed” has been either off-line or weak for most of the time. We’ve been told that it will get better after 5pm today.  We’ve received a $45 credit, but want more! Free Johnny Rocket milkshakes daily for the rest of the cruise. And possibly free foot rubs in the Vitality Spa. We are waiting to hear.

Cruising - April 25

Saturday - April 25

Again…another relaxing day.  While eating lunch in the Windjammer we watched athletic types ride the two Flow Riders, which involves surfing a sheet of water being jetted toward the rider at high speed. Much hilarity as riders fall off and are unceremoniously swept away, smacking contortedly into the back wall. Maybe not so much hilarity for them, of course. There are two areas - one is for stand-up surfing and the other for kneeling.

 

 

We lost another hour today and the next thing we knew, it was time for happy hour again (are you getting the sense by now that we have actually been transported to the Land of the Lotus Eaters?). We sat with Brenda and Bill Chapel who we had met on our first night at dinner. Also at the table were friends that they had met on 3 different cruises, Gary and Pauline Wren. We hit it off and so decided to go to dinner together. Bill is quite the adventurous type and brought his own wet suit and ice skates!

After dinner, Norm and wound down from our exertions of the day with a winner-take-all game of rummy cube and read emails until we noticed Robert & Linda waving to us.  We visited with them until we were close to the last people still sitting in the Promenade. Luckily there is a Sorrento’s pizza open ‘til 3 AM with free pizza.

Cruising - April 20-23

We think we’re finally finding our way around.  The Diamond Lounge has a patio area that overlooks The Promenade and Starbucks.  We are able to watch the raffle drawings and the dance lessons – lots of fun to people-watch – while playing Rummy Cube.

We’ve had two formal nights on board and the majority of people are dressed as “smart casual”.  No one at our table has worn a tux or long dress – thank goodness.  The ship has professional photography sites spotted all over the ship for those one in a lifetime shots. People are lined up.

The ship is rocking and rolling more than expected for such a large ship – Pam is wearing her patch and feels fine, luckily.  In Blaze, where we yet once more partook of the happy hour, we sat with a couple from Germany, Uta and Heinrich.  We told them that we wouldn’t make it to their home town of Hamburg for schnapps at their home this time around, but would certainly wave as we sped by on the autobahn. Of course, they were disconsolate; we all were after several more drinks. Thank goodness we’ve only seen about 6 kids on board. The 5 small service dogs around the ship were cute though and well behaved.

This is the Solarium, where it's peaceful among the palm trees.  There are two large spas jutting out over the water plus a large spa and pool in the central area.

   

                             These are the outside pools:

 

 

 

 

                       These are photos of the Central Park: