Today is Stephanie’s Birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE.
It was another bouncy night last night, but by morning when we woke up, the seas had once again calmed some, only about 5-8 ft. The temperature today is forecast to be 59 degrees, but the sea temperature is 67 degrees, so it may feel a bit warmer. Luckily, the wind is mostly coming from behind the ship on our current heading, so there is not a lot of wind out on the decks. The seas did increase as the day went on, once again getting to at least 10-12 ft. However, since the wind was now almost coming directly from the stern, it was not that rough of a ride. Our cabin steward, Melwyn, had placed Stephanie’s birthday balloons outside above the door, so we were greeted by that when we left for breakfast.
We spent another day relaxing at sea, reading books that we had gotten from the ship’s library. I was actually able to find a book I had been reading before we left, but since I had only a few chapters to finish, I had not wanted to bring it along since it would not take long to finish. We had not thought about using the ship’s library and not bring our own books, now we will know better. We also played putt-putt (Stephanie won both games), and shuffle board (Stephanie also won, must be her birthday), and ping pong.
Tonight, we celebrated Stephanie’s birthday at dinner. We took a bottle of wine to drink with our dinner, which consisted of a “surf and turf” main entrée, filet Mignon and grilled shrimp, which went perfectly with our bottle of Merlot. The wait staff brought Stephanie a special birthday dessert, and about 10 waiters sang her Happy Birthday.
Our dinners have been very nice, there are so few persons on the ship that we get almost personal attention at dinner, and most nights there may be one other couple in our section. We got to meet several of the wait staff, it was surprising to find out that several of the female waiters are married to other waiters on the same ship, and our waiter, Nicoletta is married to one of the head waiters, Carlos, whom we also met. These are the nice things we get to experience by being on a ship that is not full.
After dinner, we went to a show at the Explorer’s lounge and ran into Ricky, one of the assistant cruise directors we had met a couple of nights ago that was teaching Stephanie the Waltz. When Stephanie told Ricky it was her birthday, he preceded to take her up to the stage and have the performer, Maritzio, sing her Happy Birthday in front of the entire audience.
Ricky then gave us a bottle of Champagne. It was a special birthday.
After a couple of dances, we went over to the main bar in the lounge, and happened to meet up with some other couples on the ship, along with the art sales director, who had been on our last cruise. We spent a couple of hours talking with our new friends, and then we retired for the evening. Unfortunately, since we lost another hour tonight adjusting the time changes as we proceed across the Atlantic, it was really 2:00 am before we made it back to the cabin.
Happy Birthday girlfriend! We miss you. Have fun.
The duncans