After having our best weather day yesterday, we had our worst today. It was really cloudy when we woke up, having set a 8:00 AM wake up call to keep us from sleeping in so late. It was not that cool, but with the wind and occasional rain showers, it was not pleasant to be outside, even when protected from the rain.
Birthday Decorations Put Up By Stephanie
Today is my 58th Birthday, and we have plans to eat at 6:30 PM in the Crown Grill. More on that later.
Birthday Decorations On Cabin Door
Other than the weather, it was a good day, and getting up a little earlier made the day so much longer than the past several have been where we have slept in too long and not adjusted to the changes in time. I headed down to the International Cafe for our breakfast sandwiches, even though I had thought Stephanie was going to go get the sandwiches today for my birthday!! I also got a Cappuccino to go and headed back up to the cabin. By the time I got back to the room, Stephanie had added several birthday decorations in the room and on the outside of our cabin door. The ship’s staff had already added balloons on the door overnight. While we ate our breakfast, I opened my birthday cards.
After breakfast, we headed out to the atrium so we could let the cabin steward clean our room. I worked on the blog and added some photos to the albums, and also added photos to some of the previous posts, but the ship’s satellite internet got too slow to actually upload all of the changes to the online version of the blog.
Poor Weather Day
After about ninety minutes, we headed outside on Deck 7 to watch the ocean pass by. There were some sunnier areas for a few minutes, but it quickly passed and then turned rainy. We went by the Wheelhouse Bar, which was being used for the Pub Lunch today, and we visited with Reiner and Zivka. They wished me a happy birthday, but we could not visit long, they were really busy from the pub lunch crowd.
Playing Cards at Vines
We then went upstairs to visit with Ref at the outdoor Seaview Bar. Unfortunately, it started to rain much harder, and was quite cool outside, so we headed back to the cabin to drop off the computer and get a jacket. We picked up our deck of cards and headed to Vines, just to sit at a table and play cards. There was a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration in the Piazza and Stephanie took some photos of the items that were made.
We ran into Sam and Glenda and talked with them for a while, and then resumed our card playing.
Outrigger Bar On The Ship’s Stern
Dinner At Crown Grill
They started to have a line dancing class in the Piazza, and that was a little too noisy for us, so we headed to the Outrigger Bar on the stern of the ship to see if we could catch up with Arturo, who we had not seen for a couple of days. He was there today and we had a couple of drinks and visited with him and met another man from Virginia, who was traveling by himself. His wife did not like sea days, so she did not come with him on this transatlantic cruise because of all of the sea days.
We headed to the cabin to get ready for our dinner at 6:30 PM at the Crown Grill. Since it is right next to the Wheelhouse Bar, we visited with Zivka and Reiner while we waited for our reservation time.
We were promptly seated at 6:30 PM, and got a nice table for two on the side, so we were not near all of the traffic from waiters going to and from the kitchen. The restaurant was really busy, so the service was a bit slow, but not bad. I ordered a Filet Mignon and Stephanie had the Chilean Sea Bass with fried prawns.
Birthday Dinner At The Crown Grill
We both had scallops for our appetizers. Everything was really good. After dinner, we ordered our desserts, and thought they had forgotten that it was my birthday, but after we had already started eating our desserts, they brought out my small chocolate birthday cake, and sang me Happy Birthday. Of course, I had to get the birthday cake wrapped “to go” we were too full from the dinner and desserts to even try a bite.
Our Friends from Berlin, Dagmar and Gerd
After dinner, I headed back to the cabin to drop off the cake, and Stephanie got our usual seats at the Wheelhouse Bar. We listened to Simon play the guitar there, he does a show there every night for about two hours. During the show, he wished me a happy birthday and sang me “Happy Birthday”. Eventually our friends from Berlin, Dagmar and Gerd showed up and also wished me a happy birthday, and sat with us for a while at the bar.
Simon Singing Happy Birthday
A little later, Sam and Glenda also showed up and visited with us. The bar staff had requested that the next band scheduled to play at the Wheelhouse Bar, Seascape, also sing me Happy Birthday, and that was a little much. They sang three versus and really dramatized it, much to the delight of the Wheelhouse Bar staff, who were trying to embarrass me in a fun way.
After the Wheelhouse Bar closed at 11:30 PM, Sam, Glenda, Stephanie and I headed to the Club 6 Bar, and sat a listened to some music there, much longer than any of us needed to stay out. We finally decided to call it a night, but first had to go to the international Cafe one deck down for a snack. It was quite late, and we knew we were going to feel the effects of celebrating and staying out late when we woke up tomorrow morning, especially with losing one more hour with another scheduled time change. It was a fun birthday.
I surely don’t know of anyone whose birthday was celebrated so many times in one day, except maybe your dad, Larry, On that note I must say that a good time was had by all, including the staff!!!!