Today was another wonderful day at sea on the Ruby Princess.
The seas were calm all night with a little bit more wind this morning, but overall, terrific weather conditions once again. Even though we had another hour of time change last night, I was still up at 6:30 AM on the new time. I guess it was really 7:30 AM on yesterday’s time, not too early after all that we did last night into the wee hours. Each morning, I go and get coffee from deck 5, and come back to the room and work on photos and/or the blog, waiting for the sunrise to occur. Most of the sunrises at sea so far on this trip have not been very good, there always seems to be a layer of clouds on the horizon obscuring the sun as it rises above the sea. The colors of the pre-dawn sky are good initially, but by the time the sun actually gets above the clouds, all the really orange sunrise colors are gone, and only the sun’s bright yellow color remains, which is not very photographic.
HDR Photo From Last Night
After Stephanie woke up, we got ready to go to breakfast at the buffet. Today, she is a little more under the weather, having picked up some type of head cold in the last few days. We have heard that a LOT of people on the ship are sick, and that some of the sinus and cough drugs have run out from the on board pharmacy. I think there were a lot of sick people in Europe, it seemed like they were having their first really cold weather of the winter while we were there. That, coupled with all of the repeat cruisers from the first portion of the cruise from Venice to Barcelona, probably resulted in a greater portion of the cruise population being sick than is normal. Then, throw a large portion of the ship’s population onto excursion buses, or crowded trains, and the result is what we seem to have, sick cruisers.
As bad as I feel for Stephanie, at least we are on relaxing sea days, the weather is warm, and we have our own cabin to stay in without disturbance if we desire. Better than a hotel, or being on the go like we were initially with the land portion of the trip and all of the early cruise port days. Hopefully, with some rest, Stephanie will recover quickly so that by Saturday, when we have to travel home, she is better. Our flights are not too long in duration, although we will spend a considerable amount of time in airports waiting to make connections. The forecast for Atlanta is for about an 80% chance of rain, and not much better for home. Maybe since it is a Saturday travel day, the delays will be minimized. Hopefully, there are fewer flights on Saturdays than during the week.
HDR Photo From Last Night
I went to breakfast in the buffet by myself this morning, Stephanie just wanted to sleep in. I brought her back some breakfast and she seemed to feel a little better after eating.
I went ahead and started some of the packing of my clothes, especially the cold weather items that I know I will not need or wear before we get off of the ship and fly home. Better to go ahead and do a little bit of packing at a time, it seems easier to get things folded and back into the suitcases. Since we will not be taking advantage of the early the “walk off” option, and are getting off of the ship during the regular disembarkation process, we will have to have our bags packed and out for pick up the night before. After thinking about this, we are glad once again that we brought the carry on bag. That will allow us to keep our toiletries with us for use getting ready on the last morning. Once we collect our large suitcases in customs, we can pack our toiletries in them meet airline regulations.
In order to get the weight correct when we pack, we will attempt to put the toiletries in the large bags and get a final weight with our portable luggage scale before we release the bags to the ship’s crew tomorrow night. That way, we will know how much we have to pack in the carry on bag so that we can maximize the 50 pound limit for the checked bags. Maybe we will even be able to gate check the carry on bag for free at the gate as we did for the trip to Barcelona. That possibility is usually dependent on how crowded the flight is.
Once the packing was completed for the items that I no longer needed, I went to the gym. Stephanie met me up on deck to walk a little while I cooled down from the elliptical. I found her right outside on deck 16, where she had actually run into Mike and Barb sitting out on the lounge chairs. We all chatted for a while, but since we did not have sunscreen on, and I had no hat, we did not want to be out in the sun very long. We headed back to the room for showers, and then sunscreen before heading to the buffet for lunch.
After lunch, we went back out to sit in the sun. It was a little more windy today, so that made it a little cooler than yesterday. Mike and Barb had gone to lunch by the time we got to the lounge chairs, but they planned on meeting us in the same area once they were through. We met up after a while and visited, relaxing in the sunshine. As it got a little later, the wind was getting too cool for Stephanie with her cold, so we headed back to the balcony where it was much warmer and less windy. We had not been to the hot tub for a while, so we headed up there, it had really helped me when I had been sick. The soothing warm water seems to make everything feel just a little better, and this was also the case for Stephanie. After about a 30 minute soak, we headed back to the comfort of the room and Stephanie napped while I worked on the blog and photos.
Unfortunately, I lost track of the time and completely missed the sunset tonight. I was not really too late for the sun to set under the horizon, but it had gotten cloudy by this time, and the sun was already obscured behind the low clouds and haze.
We watched a movie on TV so Stephanie could rest, and made the decision that we would not eat in the dining room tonight, it is just quicker and easier to go to the buffet when we have an under the weather passenger.
We got ready and headed to the Horizon Court Buffet. Both of the normal buffet lines were shut down, we are not sure why. Only the smaller line at the stern of the ship was open, and it is normally closed or used only for specialty themed buffets, which was not the case tonight. As our luck would have it, we must have just made it up there after a show got out, there was quite a wait to get into the one way line to proceed through the buffet. This also made it difficult to see what was on the menu for tonight, since normally we can wander around inside the buffet area to see what is being served. In this case, you went through in a one direction line, so you had to choose as you went, not knowing all of the selections to come. It was quite crowded, even though it was about 8:00 PM. After eating, we just headed back to the room for a relaxing evening, and we were both asleep by 9:30 PM, making up for the late night last night.