Day 8 At Sea – December 11, 2013

It took almost the entire cruise, but we finally are getting the weather we had hoped for, nice sunny, warm days without any wind. Today was about as perfect a cruise day, at least weather wise, as you can get.

The seas were very calm, the wind almost non-existent, and the skies hardly had a cloud in them.

As we approach Florida, and the Gulf Stream, we are starting to see more flying fish, and seeing more Sargasso weed floating in the water.  The water temperature is about 75 degrees, as reported by the ship’s weather, and was the air temperature forecast for today was also 75 degrees.

After eating our breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, as usual, we just sat on our balcony watching the ocean go by, looking out to see if we could spot any aquatic nature, such as turtles, whales or dolphins. When the seas are this calm, it is a lot easier to see anything that may happen by. Other than the occasional school of flying fish, and some floating debris, we did not see anything of great interest.

We went to the gym about 11:00 AM for our daily exercise, and enjoyed walking out on the upper decks to cool off. While I was on the elliptical, I did happen to see a small whale swim by close to the ship. Unfortunately, Stephanie was at the other end of the gym on the treadmill, and so I could not get her attention so that she could also see it. With the ship traveling at about 20 MPH, it was not in sight for very long. I did point the small whale out to the lady on the elliptical next to me, and she was able to spot it before we got too far away.

Once we were cooled off, we headed back to the cabin to hand wash our exercise clothes in the bathroom sink. They were starting to get a little ripe from usage at the gym, which is a good thing, but they are just about able to stand in the corner by themselves. The sun was shinning directly on our balcony, so we put up the clothes line and hung the wash out to dry.

We put on sunscreen and swimsuits, gathered up our towels, and headed to the upper pool deck area to sit in the deck chairs. The temperature was perfect, there was just enough breeze to keep us cool.

We stayed out in the sun for a while before heading to the buffet for lunch, and then back out onto the deck chairs for a lazy afternoon. It was a little disappointing that there was no live music out on the deck, normally on warm weather cruises, the band plays music in the early afternoon. I guess the cruise line is not able to shift schedules that easily, so there was no music out by the pool today, and probably won’t be for the remainder of the cruise.

We met up with Mike and Barb later in the afternoon, we happened to see them on the other side of the Pool Deck, also sitting out in the sun, so we headed over to chat. It was a lot nicer and cooler on our side of the upper sun deck, so they came over and grabbed a couple of chairs next to ours. After a bit, we headed back to our cabin to sit out on the balcony and enjoy some Asti Spumante, along with a light snack consisting of some cheese and deli meats Stephanie picked up from the buffet.

Mike and Barb ordered up some champagne glasses and a ice bucket from room service and brought them over along with a bottle of sparkling wine for later on.

This was the last formal night, and there was a final Captain’s Farewell Reception being held in the Atrium at 7:30 PM. We all enjoyed the Asti and snacks on the balcony, took some pictures, and watched a great sunset. We put the other bottle of sparkling wine on ice, and Mike and Barb left to go back to their cabin, it was time for us all to get ready for dinner. Our plan was for them to return to our cabin after dressing for dinner, and we would all enjoy the sparkling wine before heading to the Captain’s Farewell Reception in the Atrium. I was finally able to tie and wear my blue bow tie tonight with my tux, although it was still a struggle to get it tied correctly. It must be a possessed bow tie, this was the second time I struggled with this tie, it just did not want to cooperate. I finally managed to get it tied with Stephanie’s help. Stephanie wore her matching blue dress and we were set for the evening.

Mike and Barb returned, and we enjoyed the bottle of sparkling wine before heading to the Captain’s Farewell Reception. The cruise staff were serving a limited variety of free drinks. Initially, we could not get any red wine from the servers, they told us it was not available tonight, but then Barb saw one of their favorite waiters, Alan, and somehow, he was able to bring us some glasses of red wine.

When the reception was over, we all headed to the Michelangelo Dining Room for dinner. There were some interesting items on the menu, including lobster once again, this time served with prawns. Stephanie had Beef Wellington, and we shared a bottle of Zinfandel Wine. Although it did not seem that late, and we headed to dinner right after the Captain’s Farewell reception was over, the dining room staff seemed to be in a rush to get us out. In addition, my initial serving of lobster and prawns was cold by the time they arrived, and the waiter had removed them from their shells. I requested another serving, and mentioned the first one was cold. The next one was still sizzling when it arrived, and was much better.

The wait staff took our desert orders, and actually mentioned the kitchen was closing and we needed to get the dessert order in before it closed. There were still quite a few people in the dining room, but you could tell that the staff was trying to get the dining room set up for tomorrow.

After dinner, we headed to the Club Fusion lounge for the equivalent of the cruise version of the Newlywed Game called The Marriage Match Game Show. Barb tried to get Stephanie and I to enter, but I was not interested. Barb went and signed them up.  I do not think Mike really wanted to be in the “show” either, but sure enough, since there were only three couples who signed up, the minimum number of couples needed for the show, Mike and Barb were selected to participate.

It was pretty entertaining for us in the audience, not so much so for the participants, although everyone seemed to have fun being made fun of, with the inquisitive, but usually embarrassing questions. Mike and Barb did not win, but all three couples were given a bottle of champagne for participating. To me, it was not enough payment for the embarrassment that was extracted, but in the end, everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was glad we had resisted volunteering, although Stephanie may not have agreed with my stance!!

After the show was over, we headed over to the Atrium, where a band was  playing.  There was a pretty good crowd for this late at night. We were only there about 20 minutes before the band was done playing for the evening. We headed up to the Skywalker’s Nightclub at the stern of the ship. This lounge is the highest one on the ship, and usually the one that is open the latest at night. There were only about 20 people there, and after a couple of dances, we all called it a night and headed home.

Stephanie and I headed up to the highest deck on the ship to see if there was any area that was less lighted so that we could see more of the stars. However, there is just too much lighting out on deck and it is really too bright for good stargazing. We did see an interesting spot where the upper deck actually is out over the side of the ship offering an interesting view forward, out over the side of the ship.

We went back to the cabin and I decided to head back with the camera and see if I could capture the interesting view in a High Dynamic Range (HDR) shot. Stephanie has been fighting a little bit of a head cold, so she stayed in. I was able to capture the shot, although it was not easy due to the railings and glass. I also went back to the Atrium area to take a few more series of images for HDR processing. It was better than the previous time we took late night Atrium pictures earlier in the cruise, there were less people wandering about, so their presence did not impact the multi-exposure shots. I was able to wait until no one was in the shots.

We change the clocks back another hour tonight, so by tomorrow, we will only be one hour ahead of Eastern Time. We did receive our disembarkation schedule and luggage tags, so that is always a sign the cruise is nearing its completion. We are supposed to have one more good day of weather tomorrow, with some rain showers and higher winds expected by Friday.