Today is a much-welcomed sea day after our day in Puntarenas.
We woke up to clear skies and fairly rough seas. We had looked on the “Windy” app the other day and it showed that we were predicted to have 25 knot winds today. We first found out about the Windy App from our Antarctic Expedition Cruise, even the ship used a more precise version to anticipate what the winds would be for our daily stops there.
We were pretty tired this morning, it was not so much from our time in Puntarenas, but we had gotten up early yesterday morning after a late night out for our New Year’s celebration.
We both slept in a little, and I eventually headed down to the Coffee Station in the Living Room Bar for a freshly brewed coffee and my usual blueberry muffin. I worked on the blog posts, we had gotten a little behind over the last few days with all of the activities and excursions.
While I was there, I overheard a woman talking about going on the Bridge Tour today, so I was going to see if we could find out more information on when those tours are scheduled.
I was finally able to get Stephanie going at about 9:30 AM, we wanted to make it to breakfast before it closed at 10:00 AM, we had learned that lesson the other day. We first stopped off at the Guest Services Desk and were able to sign up for a Bridge Tour in a few days, on the last sea day before we arrive in Cabo San Lucas.
We headed up to the World Cafe and had breakfast. By the time we were finishing up, and the buffet was closing, a woman came into the buffet area and was telling another woman about the Brunch that was being set up around the pool. We had heard about it the other day but had forgotten. We were now full from eating our breakfast, oh well. We headed out to the pool deck and it was an impressive spread of food set up in various areas around the pool. At least we would be able to get good photos of the food before the brunch officially opened at 10:00 AM. One section was set up where the teatime is held on sea days, and it was full of seafood items, a large area for desserts, a sliced meats section, and a sushi station. People were inside that area starting to get food, but the chef herded everyone out, he needed another 10 minutes to finish getting everything ready!
We grabbed a couple of seats at a small table and had one of the mimosas that they were serving. They were a little heavy on the orange juice, so I asked for a plain champagne to dilute the juice. They were not as good as the ones we had the other day, I think the orange juice was more bitter. They were also serving bloody mary’s.
We spent a little more time looking around once everything opened, but we were too full to eat anything else. The brunch was scheduled to run until 2:00 PM, so we decided we would come back around 1;00 PM to eat there for lunch.
We headed back to the room and I spent the next couple of hours working on the blog and on some of the photos we had taken, but not loaded into the photo albums. This is the first of four straight sea days, so we had plenty of time today to just relax and rest. Of course, Stephanie napped for most of that time, but this is what sea days are for.
Stephanie also spent some time texting NHC about her mom. Her mom was having a bad day and was having to be put on some supplemental oxygen. They were going to do a chest x-ray to check for some pneumonia but had already started her on antibiotics. The pneumonia is usually caused by some aspiration episodes she occasionally has. I was able to text my sister about my mom, and she was apparently doing better with her strep throat after having started her antibiotics. It was sort of ironic that they are both having issues with illnesses, and we have only been gone for 12 days, oh well!
At about 1:00 PM, we headed back to the Brunch for some lunch. It was even more crowded than it had been when it opened earlier, but there was still plenty of food available. We found an open table and we went to get some food one at a time so we could hold the table. We both ended up getting some of the pasta dishes, one was pasta in a fettuccini sauce and one was served with an arabiatta sauce, freshly tossed in the sauces while you waited. We also both got the shawarma, sort of an equivalent to a Gyro sandwich.
I also got us a plate of desserts, two slices of red velvet cake, which was really good, and one slice of some type of chocolate pie with whipped cream icing which was not nearly as good.
The brunch was enjoyable, but as is typical, it was more of a show than a culinary event, but fun nonetheless. It surely took a lot of effort to prepare and put together.
After lunch, we went back to the cabin just to get out of the heat, the brunch was held under all of the glass from the closed pool deck roof, and that area just can’t be kept cool, even with the AC being piped in.
I continued to catch up on processing pictures and trying to get them loaded into the Photo Albums and made significant progress.
At about 5:00 PM, we took showers and got ready for dinner. We looked at the menus for The Restaurant and the World Cafe Buffet, and nothing struck us as being worth the time and effort to go to The Restaurant. Most of the items served there are also served in the buffet, and granted, maybe not as freshly prepared, but also not as time-consuming.
While Stephanie was finishing getting ready, I headed to the Living Room Bar to get us a couple of seats at the bar so we could have a glass of wine or two before dinner. She arrived a short time later and had her usual Pinot Grigio, and I had the French Rose. We were soon joined by the couple we had met from Atlanta, who were originally from The Netherlands. We had a nice conversation while they were waiting for their table at Manfredie’s. They had tried to go earlier than their reservation time, but it was full. Someone came out to get them at the bar when a table was available, and so we also left to go upstairs to dinner in The World Cafe.
Dinner was not bad, and we enjoyed a glass of Coppola Zinfandel with it.
After dinner, we went back to the Living Room Bar for a nightcap. We had planned to make it an early evening, and just stayed there for two drinks, listening to the music being played by the duo, one on the piano, the other on the violin.
At 10:00 PM, we headed back to the room for the night.
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