Marcie's Big Adventure - Day 9/Sea Day

---

Hi Everyone,

Today started out differently for me. The Cruise Critic website that I had joined for this specific sailing organized what is called a "Cabin Crawl" and they included a Poker Run. There were 8 different cabin types that people volunteered to have others come in to see what they are like. Those that wanted to participate could pay $2 to be in the Poker Run. We picked a card out of a new deck at each cabin we visited and used the best hand of 5 cards out of the 8 we received. So you aren't holding your breath reading to see how much money I won, my pair of Kings weren't even close enough to win for me to bother to register the hand as a potential winner. The probably biggest surprise to me was how big the interior cabin was and with the lights on it was very bright. Makes me rethink about potentially traveling in an inside cabin and saving a whole lot of money. The handicapped accessible room was also quite large, which makes sense. The largest cabin we saw was the Neptune Suite. This is the Holy Grail cabin for the casino players that are regulars on Holland America to try to get a free cruise in. They are always gambling a LOT of money to get a free cruise in a Neptune Suite. There are several big casino players who post how much money they play when they cruise and it frequently exceeds $30,000 per trip so that they can get perks. Doesn't mean they lose that money but they've run that much money through the machines and/or on the tables. There is one gentleman who says that when he plays the slots, he never plays for less than $144 per pull. I don't think I've gambled $144 total in a casino in my life. Then I did my usual reading up by the pool. One of the solo cruisers that I meet up with each evening for a couple drinks had what would have been her first wedding anniversary since her husband passed recently. She wasn't looking forward to today. Since someone unanimously sent me a bottle of champagne last week, I had saved it for us all to have last night. We got together in one of the other's cabin for a toast. During the day, one of our solo buddies, Peter, found himself with a 6 PM dance date. After we had our champagne and chatted a bit, all us gals went down to the bar where the dance was to check her out. They looked like a very good match and Peter was grinning ear to ear. We thought she would join us for dinner or he would not join us for dinner. We were surprised when he came over to us without her. After dinner, one of the bars was having an Abba hour of music so we all went to that and she joined us. Then back to my cabin for a little more reading and bed time. We move ahead another hour tonight so tomorrow, I will be 5 hours ahead of Eastern time. Hope you all are doing great! Hugs

---