Graduation Caribbean Cruise Friday, May 30 - June 7, 2014

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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Today is a day of rest and relaxation for us, it is a day at sea. Although the Breton’s don’t normally relax on our sea days, we do take things a little slower, like sleep in a bit, except for Todd.

We had an enjoyable breakfast in the dining room. We met a couple from Belgium. The gentlemen retired at 51 and sold his jewelry business to his brother. He and his wife now travel for fun. Another couple at the table lived in New Hampshire. Quite a diverse groups of passengers our ship. This is one exciting part of traveling is that people we meet on our journey’s.

This morning we decided to play trivia this morning. We normally participate in this activity multiple times, however the scheduled sessions have been when there is dining times or other conflicting activities. After breakfast we headed to the Schooner’s Bar for morning trivia. The Belgium couple also joined the fun, although they played in their own team, Cindy and I made up our own team. There was no particular theme to trivia this morning, normally there is a theme. They did ask movie, location, and people questions. The Belgium couple won with 16 out of 20 correct, Todd and Cindy, 6 correct. Not a good session. We still had fun.

Following the trivia, Cindy and I went to the Windjammer café and picked up a few glasses of OJ. Cindy and I always bring along small airline size alcohol bottles (pack in our checked bags and stuff the bottles in socks and other clothing items) and then we create our mimosa drink. Shh, don’t tell the cruise line, they won’t let you bring your own alcohol on the ship. Ha.

At 11:30 am, Cindy and I headed to the 13 floor to play in the miniature golf tournament. This is a good competition, one that Cindy does well at. Our friend Charles Guo, the dad of Michael’s friend joined us also. After a slight delay and trying to get a staff member to run the tournament, we finally started the tournament. It was super-hot on the top of the ship. We were seriously sweating however we had an awesome time. Charles won the competition and Cindy came in third. Todd, not so good, oh well, it was all fun.

Since we wanted to attend the champagne art auction at 1245 pm, we did not have time to eat in the dining room, so ended eating in the Windjammer. We ate a quick salad and sandwich and off to the Safari Club.

We arrived at the art auction a little late, however all we need to do is register for the auction and listen to the last part of the art dealers talk about the various artists they are offering on the ship. Following the talk, we walked around viewing the paintings and drank the champagne they offered. We were very interested in an art piece by Marcus Glenn (http://www.parkwestgallery.com/artist/marcus-glenn). We purchased one of pieces (lithograph) in our last cruise and it looks awesome in our home. The problem with this painting is it is an original and they wanted $3,100 for the piece, not going to happen. We still stayed around for the art auction. It was exciting and we ended up purchasing a set of three paintings and an extra piece from an artist Anatole Krasnyansky (http://www.parkwestgallery.com/artist/anatole-krasnyansky). We purchased these paintings through a mystery purchase. I included photos we took. Exciting to add to our collection of painting around the Breton household.

Following the art auction, we scheduled an appointment for this evening to settle up the final costs for the art purchase. We returned to our rooms and changed into our swimsuits and headed to the Solarium (adult pool) for a little relaxation and nappage. We brought along our airline alcohol bottles and purchased two cokes. At the pool made us a rum and coke.

We returned to our room to get changed for dinner and before dinner we went to the Vortex lounge, 12^th floor and had the drink of the day. Today’s drink of the day is Caribbean Sunshine. The drink was described as “an incredibly refreshing citrus blast of Smirnoff vodka, triple sec, orange juice and sprite. As in prior nights, we collected our glass to bring home with us.

Dinner was at 6:00 pm. Dinner was good tonight. Tonights theme is Arugula. The ship provided this explanation. Arugula is the Italian name for the salad green native to the Mediterranean, known as a roquette in France and rocket in many English-speaking countries. And it brings the flavors of summer from southern Italy in our Mozzarella Salad with tomato-basil salsa.” For starters this evening, the menu included the Mozzarella salad, melon prosciutto, tomato seafood risotto, bouillabaisse, Genovese-style white bean soup, vichyssoise, mesclun and fennel salad, shrimp cocktail, and escargots bourguignonne. For the main course, the dining room offered ravioli mare monte, vegetable paella, coq au vin, baked perch, royal sirloin, and herb0crusted crispy calamari. Our dinner, as in the past few nights, was fantastic. The wait team is some of the best we have had in years on a ship. Within the first evening, they everyone’s name memorized. Incredible. Dessert was also fantastic, of course, however I was too full to tell you what the options were on this evening.

Following dinner, we went and looked our photos we had available to review. We bought the ultimate package before boarding the ship, all the photos were ours. At 9:00 pm we meet with the art gallery to settle up our account on the art work we purchased. There was also a show this evening; we ended up arriving to that late.

The musical show was well and they sang and danced to several Broadway shows. Two of my favorites, Phantom of the Opera and Flower Drum song performed during the show.

The show was complete at 10:00 pm so Cindy and heading to the piano bar again, Schooner Bar. After a night cap, we headed to the room and calling it a day.



Tomorrow we are visiting the beautiful island of Aruba. I have heard some many good things about Aruba. Can’t wait to share our day with everyone.

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