Sunday was a cruising day. No stops at ports. Got up a little late. I didn’t sleep well the night before, mostly due to my cold I think. I was exhausted when I went to bed a little after 10, but was awake an hour later until about 2:00AM. Slept about an hour, then I was awake until about 5:00 AM. I slept another hour or two before I woke up. I had had weird dreams all night featuring movie stars like Tom Cruise. I usually don’t remember my dreams, and I remember little about these, but I do remember they were weird.
The boat rocked all night, but it was fairly gentle. More like gentle turbulence in an airplane, but continuous. As the night and day went on, the waves got bigger, and I think it bothered Jane a little, but I enjoyed it.
We went to breakfast at the free buffet, not knowing if anywhere else would be serving breakfast. The food was generic and not exactly tasty. Like the night before (and all meals afterward, regardless of venue), it wasn’t very warm either. I don’t remember much about the details of the day. I’m writing this two days later. I think we must have eaten lunch at the buffet, too. Supper was at the Italian venue. We looked around the ship and watched TV. The television programming was limited. There are a few channels dedicated to ship activities: from navigation information to live casts of the silly public shows the cruise director puts on. Things like the Newlywed Game and Let’s Make a Deal takeoffs. There was one sports channel, three news channels, one high-end show with what looked like old movies, and one channel with reruns of The Office, Parks and Recreation, and others. I had other things I wanted to do, like keep up with email and write this blog.
One problem was that there was next to no space in the cabin for anything except sleeping or watching TV. Nothing else I might want to do was comfortable to do in the accommodations. There was a shallow, flat surface for a table that had barely enough space for a tablet (since I had to share that surface with two others. There wasn’t a chair per se. There was a sofa, but that was Jane’s mom’s bed. There was an Ottoman to sit on that was not comfortable for even 30 minutes of typing.
We really missed some opportunities on Sunday. We didn’t explore the ship and it’s various features enough. There are quite a few dining spots, many free, that we didn’t know about. Didn’t know some of the features of the smart TV or that messages would be available to see on the TV. Live and learn.
I did decide to make reservations at some of the “specialty” restaurants. Problem with those is that they’re not free. I made reservations for rest of the week. One at the Italian, three at the barbecue, one at the Japanese, and one at the French. I had made a reservation at another place that I had not investigated well enough. It turned out to be a lousy choice for Jane and her seafood allergies. I converted that to the barbecue.
Went to dinner at the Italian restaurant on the ship and it was pretty good. But the noodles were al dente and neither Jane nor I like that. The steaks that they served were huge. I had a serving of lasagna, that was enough to feed me four meals.
I wasn’t able to do anything in the queen-size bed. It wasn’t well suited to working or watching TV. It was adequate for sleeping. Jane’s mother volunteered to take the sofa for sleeping, and I unchivalrously agreed. I think after supper, they watched TV and I tried to write at the lousy desk until around 10:00PM. I ordered three airline-size bottles of bourbon from room service for $24.00 and was able to fall asleep. Didn’t sleep well, but a lot better than the night before. The nose is still stuffy.
Since there wasn’t much going on. I’m posting a few pictures of dinner at the Italian restaurant.
