It was another sunny day when we awoke this morning for another wonderful and relaxing day at sea. The winds were less today than yesterday, and the air seemed a little drier.
I was up about 7:00 AM and not breaking tradition, got dressed and headed down to the Living Room Bar to have a coffee and a muffin, and to work on the blog for yesterday, adding in some pictures and finishing out the latter part of yesterday’s day’s post.
Stephanie joined me at about 9:00 AM, and we headed to breakfast in the World Cafe.
We don’t have much of a plan for today, other than just relaxing.
After breakfast, we went outside on the sunny side of Deck 7 and watched the ocean pass by. We did see several sea turtles near the ship, but it was hard to tell their size that far up from the ocean. They were most likely bigger than we thought.
We headed back to the room, but it was still not cleaned, so we went to the Promenade Deck and went out to watch for more sea life, this time closer to the water since it is Deck 2. We saw several more sea turtles and even a few dolphins. One group of dolphins was jumping out of the water right next to the ship. Of course, we got out our phone cameras to capture the dolphins jumping if it happened again, but we only saw more dolphins jumping a good distance from the ship, way to far off to photograph
We headed back to the room again, and this time it was ready. We spent some time on the balcony, looking for sea critters, but again, only saw some dolphins jumping out a ways from the ship.
We put on our walking shoes and headed to Deck 2 to walk some laps. It had been really crowded with walkers when we went there earlier this morning, but now it was closer to lunchtime, and there were fewer people walking this late in the morning.
On one lap, while we were at the stern, we saw a really large pod of dolphins fairly close to the ship, and many of them were just jumping out of the water, it appeared they were all playing. Of course, with the ship moving at 16 notes, we were not near the dolphins for very long.
Once we finished walking, we cooled off in the shade on Deck 2 and watched the ocean for more sea life, but did not see much, maybe because it was later in the day, just about noon.
Stephanie was able to do a WhatsApp video call with her mother when we were done on Deck 2.
Next, we went to the Living Room Bar for a couple of glasses of water after our walk.
We headed back to the room to look at the lunch menus on the Viking phone app. It did not look like anything special in The Restaurant for lunch, so we just opted to go to the World Cafe Buffet. There were actually some things being served there that were not on the menu, one was seared scallops with small pieces of asparagus, which was really good. They also had roast pork and some excellent mashed potatoes. We had a glass of wine with our lunch and just hung out there until it was getting ready to close at 2:00 PM.
We went out on the deck in the stern right outside the World Cafe where the infinity pool is located along with quite a few deck chairs. There was a nice breeze on the stern so we headed back to the cabin to apply our sunscreen and then went back to the infinity pool to sit out in the sunshine. It was much more tolerable today, it was not nearly as hot as the past few days had been.
We were there for about two hours, and for part of that time, we just stood at the handrail and looked for sea life. Once again, we saw a few sea turtles and quite a few pods of dolphins. Afterward, we headed to the Explorer’s Lounge to get a glass of Pinot Grigio to take to the room. We go there because the bar at the World Cafe does not always serve wine in glass wine glasses, and the same is true for the pool bar, they use plastic wine glasses for safety reasons. I guess we could have gotten glass glasses at the Aquavit Bar if we had gone inside and asked for them since they normally use them in the buffet. It did not really matter, and the distance back to the room was about the same from either location.
We got our extra-full glasses of Pinot Grigio and headed back to the cabin to sit out on the balcony and enjoy the view and listen to some music from Spotify on our Bose Mini Speaker. It was pleasant, and we saw a couple of really large pods of dolphins jumping not too far from the ship.
We headed inside to cool off and to get showers. We have reservations for Manfredi’s tonight at 7:30 PM. We may see if we can go a little early if they are not too busy, but on sea days, they usually are.
At about 6:30 PM, I headed down to The Living Room Bar while Stephanie finished getting ready. I met up with Andre and Andi from north of Atlanta. They were at a table and since there were no seats at the bar, they asked me to join them at a table for four. A little bit later Brandon came to the bar and joined us, and then just a short time later, Stephanie arrived. We grabbed another chair for a nearby table. Stephanie and I enjoyed a glass of wine with everyone while we were waiting for our reservation time.
Andre and Andi headed to dinner, and then Brandon’s mom joined us. Brandon and his mom Charlotte had reservations at Manfredi’s tonight also, but a little after ours. We headed to the restaurant and checked in. We were given a table for two right next to a window. It was a great seat, mainly because there was not anyone close to us, and we had wanted a nice and quiet dinner tonight. Although it was dark outside, we still could see the ocean flowing by from our window.
Dinner was good, but once again, we ate too much, even though we tried not to. We both had the fried calamari again for our appetizers. I had a Carbonara Pasta for my first course, and Stephanie had some type of ravioli. Both were good. For my main course, I ordered the Viking Bistecka, which is a different ribeye steak from the one I had tried the other night, and had not enjoyed. Stephanie ordered the fish special, which was mahi-mahi. We enjoyed some red wine with our dinner that we had tried the other night at the Chef’s Table.
My steak was better, mainly because it was thicker, but it still had way too much fat in it. Ribeyes are fatty by nature, but it was difficult for me to find pieces without any fat. When I did, it tasted great and was cooked to perfection, medium rare.
We both ordered dessert, I had a chocolate brownie type of dessert with a scoop of vanilla gelato. Stephanei just had vanilla gelato with some chocolate sauce in it. The desserts we both good. I also had a glass of Limoncello, which was really good.
Brandon and his mom had gotten a table by the window just behind Stephanie, so we had some interaction with them toward the end of our dinner. Also, Bill and Hedi and their traveling friend Barbara were seated at another table with one other couple. We all took some pictures of each other’s tables, it was fun. By this time, the restaurant was almost empty, so we were not bothering anyone, at least we hoped not.
We headed out and got seats at the Living Room Bar and listened to the music there. Eventually, Bill and Hedi came over, as well as Brandon and his mom Charlotte.
We had a couple of drinks but did not want to stay out late even though we gain an hour of time tonight as we head westward.
We headed back to the cabin to find a movie to watch, but most everything we tried had issues with the volume, just like when we watched Elf several days ago. We had the volume as high as it would go, but it was just not enough without having to pay attention and concentrate on what was being said. We turned off the TV and just went to sleep, we were tired.
Leave a Reply