We still have yet to see a clear and beautiful sunrise, and today was no different. There were quite a few clouds on the horizon, masking the actual sunrise. In addition, the sun is rising at the very stern of the ship, we are almost going directly westward in heading. If anything, the sun is more rising on the other side of the ship, but still mostly from the stern. Therefore, even if it were clear, it would involve packing up the camera equipment and going to the stern of the ship for photos. Not much motivation to go and check it out when there are obvious clouds obscuring the sunrise, and we are located near the bow of the ship making it a long hike to the stern. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
It did clear up later in the morning, and this was probably our best sea day yet. Stephanie and I decided to go to our first ever (ever on any cruise) sit down breakfast. Since there are no two person tables in the main dining room, we opted to go ahead and sit with some couples who were getting there at the same time. It was enjoyable talking to an older couple from Northern Ireland, we talked about politics, health care and several other topics. It was surprising to find there were a lot of the same issues in both countries. Although they do not have republicans and democrats, our being republicans aligned with their conservative party, which they were part of. It was interesting fellowship, and the breakfast was good. We did learn from our breakfast partners that the sit down lunch is actually just a buffet, same as the buffet in the Windjammer, but with less items to choose from. They were disappointed in that, stating it was not as good as a regular sit down, made to order lunch, but apparently, this was directed from the home office before this cruise.
After breakfast, we went back to the room and put on sunscreen and our bathing suits, and headed out to the pool deck. The seas were almost a glassy calm.
Thunderstorm With Rainbow
We had hoped to see some sea life activity, possibly some dolphins, which are sometimes more easily seen on the really calm days, but we did not see anything, not even any flying fish.
Panorama View – Pool Deck
After lunch, we went to see the presentation by the pickpocket and security specialist, Bob Arno. It was informative; he gave information on how to spot pickpocket activity, and how the various ploys work. He also discussed some internet security issues, and some identity theft issues.
After that was complete, we headed back out to the pool deck, and then went to the hot tub for our afternoon soak. Sunset today was going to be the best yet, the skies were finally clear of haze and there were fewer clouds. It was spectacular, as anticipated.
Sunset at Sea
Tonight is the last formal night, so we will be donning our formal wear and going to the dining room, probably our last time in the dining room for this cruise. The highlight on the menu is surf and turf, with lobster once again. We will see if the lobster is any better tonight, but our hopes are not high. Unfortunately, we both have developed a little of the sniffles, mine worse than Stephanie. Seems like a lot of folks are coughing more now than we noticed early on in the cruise. We have been careful to wash our hands, and use the hand sanitizer at all of the meals, but with the close quarters, especially in shows and on the elevator, it is probably easy to spread the colds. Hopefully, it will not be bad, and go away in a day or two.
Tonight, we are also going to try and go up on the higher decks late at night, we are supposed to be able to see the Leonoids Meteor showers, according to the Captain. Tonight looks like the clearest night we have had, so we will give it a shot. With no moon, and no lights anywhere around, it should be good viewing.
The lobster tonight at dinner was better than the other night, but still small. At least it was not overcooked, and had a real lobster flavor. Dinner was actually nice, we ordered a bottle of wine, and had a good table for two next to the window.
After dinner, we tried to figure out which entertainment to go to, it was difficult, there were errors in the daily “Cruise Compass” detailing the shows and times. We did have another two sets of formal pictures taken, we wanted something to compare against the others we had taken a few nights ago.
We decided to go ahead and post the blogs for today and yesterday. We are still going to try and see the meteor shower, and will give a report on the success or failure of that venture in the next posting.