It seems, that seasoned ‘cruisers’ have differing opinions on the value of sea days. Some like a lot of them, some don’t like them at all.
Dave and I like the odd sea day, but not too many. Today we definitely needed a rest after a full-on three stops in three days.
We are not, nor do we want to be, cruise passengers who introduce themselves by their status. ‘Hi, my name is Stan and this is my wife Fran and we are platinum plus.’ I mean, who actually cares? Dave thinks it’s funny to introduce himself to randoms by making up the ‘cruise level’ we are on. Usually he doesn’t even use a real level which gets quizzical looks and then often silence as they decide to ignore our ignorance 😉 You may have guessed that it is just what Dave was actually looking for!
Surprisingly, there are actually quite a few Australians on board. You can pick an Aussie accent from a mile off. There are very few kids. Maybe a dozen on the whole ship. That’s a pretty good ratio out of 2000 passengers.
We started the day with a lazy breakfast in the restaurant. The service was pretty slow and we were sitting at a table with four American couples. ‘Where do you come from?’ they asked. Dave replied ‘Australia, it’s a large island in the South Pacific’. Fortunately, they didn’t get his cynicism, and continued to chat anyway. There are quite a few Americans on board, I suppose it is an American cruise line.
Dave is onto book number three for the trip, but I’m still on my first. We both gave our books a good going today. We started in the Crown Lounge upstairs where we had a fantastic view over the sea and the open deck. We had a super comfortable lounge each. It was extremely pleasant to just sit, read and relax. My cocktail was non alcoholic – passion fruit and papaya.
We moved out onto the sun deck in the middle of the day to catch a few rays (and a few zzzz’s, truth be known). It was a warm 23C. Perfect temperature for a little lie on a sun lounge!
You may have noticed a fair bit of this holiday is about food. No excuses from me, life is a fair bit about food, or in my case, a lot about food.
On a ‘sea day’, you seem to roll from one meal to the next. We decided to go to the bistro for lunch so we didn’t eat too much, but still managed a make-your-own salad and some Malaysian vegetable curry (me) and fresh bread rolls with butter and a plate of cheese, lettuce and tomato (Dave).
There are three self serve ice-cream machines on board. No guessing what Dave thinks the chocolate ice-cream looks like…
Dave borrowed my fitbit today and did a lot of walking. The ship has a walking track on the 10th deck and is listed as being a quarter of a mile around. He did 13 laps this morning and another 17 this afternoon for a total of nearly 15000 steps and about 11km. He didn’t walk super quickly but it shows his fitness is returning. I knew this holiday would be good for him! (Note for Grandma: he is not only exercising but eating well too :)) It is pretty amazing that just a few weeks ago he had no hair, took a break after each flight of stairs and had little appetite. We are very glad that treatment is behind us.
I had typed here what I thought was some sage advice. But truth be known, everyone has a different story. Life is often good, but sometimes it is not.
Snoopy seems to have the right attitude…
After all that walking, and my huge effort reading 😉 we deserved a good dinner… so we went to the Italian specialty restaurant. It was all okay. My friends will know I am major risotto snob, and can I say this was far from the best I’ve had. Slightly underdone, a little too dry and shitake mushrooms rather than porcini. Who puts Asian mushrooms in risotto? Antipasto to start was fine, if a little boring. Main course of veal was reasonable but predictable. Dessert, a fair crack at a tiramisu.
Tomorrow we arrive in Malta at 8.30am. We have a car organized to take us on a drive including to two particular places Dave wants to see. Has anyone guessed what one of them may be? Think Military history.
p.s. Sorry about the low resolution photos – it is easier than waiting hours for them to upload 🙂