Today was the worst overall weather day of the cruise. The skies were completely overcast, and from about 10:30 AM onward, it was rainy. We are apparently getting some bad weather from a storm in the southern Bahamas and/or a cold front out in the Atlantic. The seas also got a little choppier but at least the wind direction was mostly from the stern, so it was not that windy outside.
We are changing time as we cross the Atlantic, but it is still dark outside until well past 8:00 AM. We are still two hours ahead of Eastern Time, and will be adjusting the time on the last two nights. That should make getting up early on Disembarkation day a little easier.
I got up about 6:45 AM today and worked on adding some photos to the photo albums and also getting photos added into some of the earlier posts. Getting up early provides better access to the Internet, there are less people logged in and it is faster. Of course, Stephanie slept in.
I went to the International Cafe and got us our two breakfast sandwiches, and we ate them in the room looking out the sliding glass door at the cloudy weather.
We decided to go ahead and get our walking session in while it was just mostly cloudy outside and not raining. The wind was not blowing very hard, and it was fairly warm, around 77 degrees. There were quite a few people on the walking track today, so it was like weaving in and out of traffic. Some people are walking at a fast pace, but a lot of others are just out for a casual stroll. There is a dividing line on the track, one side is supposed to be for walkers and the other is for runners, but it is not as well delineated as on other ships, the Regal Princess only had small painted pictures on the tract depicting the designated running and walking sides. For some reason, this track did not have the pictures, so there are a lot of people walking right in the middle and blocking the entire track, making it difficult to pass.
After our exercise, we stopped by the Seaview Bar, as usual, for some bottled water and to visit with Franz, Rommel and Orville. After about twenty minutes it started to drizzle, and then came some hard rain. That sent everyone who was outside by the pool scurrying for cover, and making it really crowded in the covered areas around the pool.
We could already tell this was going to be an inside day, we were not going to get to sit out in the sunshine because of the weather. We both got one of our morning refreshments and just visited with the bartenders, and some of the other passengers that were hanging out there, including some of our other Bellini’s Bar mates that periodically stopped by on their way to do other things.
At noon, we got an update on the weather from one of the ship’s officers. The forecast was for more rain and clouds for the entire day, and even for tomorrow, which was disappointing news.
We made a stroll through the buffet to look at what was being served for lunch. We decided that we would just get our lunch from the poolside pizzeria for Stephanie and from the hamburger grill for me. It was still crowded around the pool deck because of the rain and limited seating that is covered, so we just sat at the Seaview Bar and ate our lunch.
After lunch, we headed back to the cabin so I could take a shower and Stephanie could take a nap. I headed out to do some computer work while Stephanie slept. There was some type of Mardi Gras celebration in the Atrium area, and it was quite loud. It is disappointing that they feel obligated to have the volume so high for the events in the Atrium. It is no longer a nice and quite escape, and it is unfortunate because there is a lot of seating around the Atrium that people normally use for reading and general relaxation. It is so loud there sometimes that you can’t even have a conversation.
To make matters worse, after the Mardi Gras celebration event, there was some type of rehearsal for the ship’s dancers and singers, so once again, that was very loud and disruptive for about 45 minutes, they were testing the volume for the singers and music. Apparently, there was a show in the Atrium area later tonight.
I headed back to the room to wake Stephanie up from her nap. Once she was ready, we headed to Bellini’s to visit with Nemo. Of course, the normal Bellini’s crowd was already there and we got caught up on what everyone had done for the day. We went and looked at the menu for the dining room and saw some of our favorites listed on the menu.
There is a goat cheese soufflé appetizer that is really good, and seared scallops were being served for one of the main course selections. We headed back to the cabin to change into appropriate attire for the dining room, and them stopped by at Vines for a glass of wine before dinner. The tapas were one of our favorites, they were serving the good quality boiled shrimp, so we enjoyed two tapas servings while we enjoyed our wine.
We decided to eat dinner earlier tonight and avoid some of the crowds. It seems like the last two times we have chosen to go to the dining room, we have gotten caught up in some of the crowds coming from the early show in the Princess Theater. There was no early show tonight, but we still had to go upstairs one deck to the other anytime dining room to be seated. Apparently everyone seems to prefer the dining room on Deck 5 because most of the bars are located near the dining room on that deck, and most passengers visit the bars before dinner or while waiting for dinner.
Dinner was nice, service was good and prompt, and the food was good. I had a double portion of the scallops, so they brought two separate servings, but combined them onto one plate. The only issue we had was with ordering some wine. We had known for a few days now that the ship was running out of certain selections of the better wines. Yesterday, three of the better red wines were already unavailable. Of course, they were wines that we enjoyed.
There is a limited selection of wines by the glass in the dining room, and the one that we enjoy, Zen of Zens Zinfandel, which is not even one of the more expensive selections, was no longer available. We selected another, this time a Cabernet, and it was also not available. Finally, we selected one that was available and they brought us a glass. There are still two full days remaining on the cruise, and several wines are critically low or no longer available.
After dinner, we headed to Bellini’s for some after dinner drinks. We caught up with our usual crowd, but there were also a lot of other folks there tonight. It was almost time for a show by the ship’s dancers and tonight’s show was in the Atrium, or Piazza, as Princess now refers this area on the Royal and Regal Princess ships.
It got really crowded, and the show was very loud. We are not sure why the volume had to be that high, it is a rather small area, and the sound really resonates off of all of the hard marble surfaces. The show was on Deck 5, but the speakers all point upwards and it was even louder on Deck 6 where Bellini’s is located. We could not even talk during the show due to the volume of the music.
Once the show was over, the entire area cleared out and became peaceful again. Unfortunately, about an hour later, there was another show in the same area. The songs were different in the second show, but just as loud. A lady came up to all of us at the bar and was complaining that we were being too loud. She was sitting at a table in the bar area, but at least fifteen feet away from us. We were only trying to have a conversation, I guess she thought we were being rude to be talking during the “show”, but we were not there for the show, and after all, it is a bar, and we were already there before the second show even started.
Thankfully, the show was only about thirty minutes long, and after it was over, the area became deserted, and thankfully, very quiet. We took some group photos with the entire Bellini’s gang, and of course all of the bartenders. We asked about the wines running out, and apparently, there are a lot of people on the all inclusive beverage package on this trip, and a lot are drinking wine. We never had this issue on the last transatlantic in April on the Regal Princess, so we are not sure what the real answer was. Possibly the stock was already lower on this cruise because it started in Europe. The cruise on the Regal started from the USA, where it was probably stocked with a larger inventory since most of the wines come from the USA.
We left Bellini’s around 10:45 PM, and headed up to the Seaview Bar to visit. They were doing a major cleaning of the bar and it was closed. We visited for about fifteen minutes and then headed home. The presidential debate was being broadcast on the large outside TV screen, and we were surprised that there was a pretty good crowd out there watching. We stopped and watched for a few minutes, it was quite entertaining. All the candidates did was berate each other, claim each was lying about anything and everything, and making promises that they would certainly not keep if elected. We have never really understood the benefit of the debates, they do not seem to be productive, just argumentative.
We headed back to the cabin, and watched a little more of the presidential comedy, show, i.e.debate on our TV. We started an on demand movie, but neither of us could keep our eyes open, so we turned off the TV and went to sleep.