It was really rough last night as the ship was passing through a cold front and low pressure system. It was rainy at times, but mostly the ship just tossed and turned and vibrated all night. It was not so rough that you could not walk around, it was just rough enough to wake you up periodically, plus, there were creaks in the walls of the room and in the doorway as the ship flexed from the sea conditions. We have been in rougher seas, but for some reason our room makes a lot of loud noises when the seas are up a bit.
Sunrise At Sea
There was not much of a sunrise today, it was cloudy, but still the best weather we had all day. For the most part, the weather went downhill from there for most of the day. There were periods of sun, but generally was mostly cloudy. At times we passed through several showers, then sun, then showers, then clouds, then showers, well I guess you get the picture, not a great weather day at sea.
Wind Blowing Wave Tops
We thought about going to the dining room for breakfast, but once again, opted for the ease of the buffet. We did not get to the buffet until about 9:00 AM, which for sea days, seems to be the peak time for everyone on board. It was hard to find a seat, which is the main issue when it is crowded. Getting our food is never difficult, no matter how busy it is in the buffet.
After breakfast, we did what we anticipate is the last load laundry for the trip, a load of whites/lights, which should get us through the rest of the remaining days. We did not bring enough warm weather clothes, so we are having to wear the few shorts and short sleeve shirts several times, while all of the long sleeve shirts we brought for use at the beginning of the trip are just hanging in the closet. As is always the case, I think we learned a lot about late season cruises, we just needed to pack half warm weather and half cold weather clothes. Unfortunately, know really knowing how warm it would be during the transatlantic crossing in early December, we opted to bring more cold weather clothes that we have not really needed since leaving Civitavecchia, Italy.
While Stephine waited on the clothes to dry, I headed to the gym for 30 minutes on the elliptical. Stephanie was able to walk a bit on the Promenade Deck for exercise while the clothes were in the dryer. Afterward we both went to walk together once I was finished at the gym, and the clothes were finished at the laundry. It was really windy at the bow of the ship, and the decks were damp from rain and sea spray, so it was almost like skating. If the wind was a little stronger, it seemed like you could just stand still and slide along the deck. I thought this would be a good activity for the passengers, sort of like the horse racing, you could bet on the passengers that slid the fastest. However, after realizing the liability involved, and the age of the passengers on this cruise, the idea did not seem as good! It was funny to try and visualize.
After finishing about 8 laps walking around the Promenade Deck of the ship, we cooled off and then headed to the buffet for some lunch. Once there, we changed our minds and opted to go for pizza and a cheeseburger at the grill out by the pool, we had not eaten those culinary delights yet on this cruise. Stephanie had the pizza, and I waited in line for a cooked to order cheeseburger with fries. As usual, the burgers were really good, they are made with fresh ground beef.
After finishing lunch, we headed over to the Explorer’s Lounge to watch some videos of “Behind the Scenes” activities on the ship. There were three videos, one on Embarkation Day, one on Shore Excursions, and one on the Entertainment. They explained how these three aspects of the ship are handled, and some of the efforts that the crew go through to make these activities a success, efforts that you normally don’t see or even think about.
We spent some time afterward walking around the ship, trying to find out how to access the large viewing platform on the top of the bridge. It was a little confusing since this ship was slightly different than the Sapphire Princess, the ship we were on for our last cruise. The access to this viewing platform on the Sapphire Princess was via an outside gate and steps on the 16th deck. However, I think the Ruby Princess has an additional deck of cabins, so the access to this area is through two nondescript doors at the very front end of Deck 15. This area was closed due to high winds, as we had figured, but at least we know know how to get there if access is given to passengers in better weather.
While we were walking around some more, we ran into Mike and Barb, they were completing their daily walking on the Promenade Deck, so we made a plan to meet for drinks in our cabin before heading to the 6:00 PM comedy show in the Explorer’s Lounge, then to dinner in the dining room, followed by a show called Celebrity Liars Club in the Club Fusion Lounge.
Dinner was nice, we were seated with two other couples in addition to Mike and Barb, one couple from Florida, and the other from Tennessee. Once dinner was finished, Stephanie, Mike, Barb and I headed back to our cabins to replenish our refreshments, and then headed to the show. It was pretty good, the show had passengers try and determine which of four crew members was telling the truth and which were lying on the definition of some rarely heard, obscure words. Some of the definitions seemed to be ridiculous, but then would turn out to be the truth. There were four words with women passengers as judges, then four more words, this time with men passengers as judges. The men won by one correct answer.
It was late and we were all tired, so we called it a night. The seas were still as bumpy as they had been earlier in the day, but the forecast for tonight and tomorrow was for the wind to shift to the northeast, and diminish slightly during the day tomorrow. We hope that it is less rainy and cloudy, we are certainly ready for some sunshine and warm temperatures on our remaining days at sea.