Day 8 - At Sea

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Geo: 24.829, -52.1515

I am wide awake at 4am this morning. There is significantly more creaking going on that normal and I can definitely feel some motion from the ocean. Shortly afterwards I hear Peter get up and leave the cabin. He can't sleep either. I arise and head out onto the balcony. It's just getting light. A crescent moon and a twinkling Venus hang in the pre-dawn sky. There are some large swells moving out across the ocean. The Captain later confirms that a storm off the east coast of the USA has stirred up the ocean hence the swells. They are not too bad and are coming at Adventure broadside and lifting the ship up and down in one motion, there is no pitching from bow to stern.

I spend the early morning blog writing. Peter returns shortly afterwards with coffees. We need to breakfast fairly early as we have the All Access Tour today and need to meet up at the theatre at 9am. We are given great seats with a ocean view in the main dining room where our food is served quickly and efficiently. We then head out onto deck 4 and take some ship pics before making our way to the Lyric Theatre.

We are the first of 8 people to arrive for the tour and our greeted by our tour guide Nikki. We are all given All Access badges and once we are all gathered we head into the Theatre. We are introduced to the stage manager and head dancer. They talk about the all the productions they put on, we are taking backstage to see the small area they need to quick change in, see some props, costumes and wigs. The next part of the tour is the highlight. The Bridge.

We have to get security scanned before we are allowed onto the bridge. Once there were are surprised at how big it is. They even have a 3 piece suite on it for relaxing. As you would imagine the bridge is manned 24/7 although the Captain is not on the bridge when we are there. We are met by one of the few female officers on the ship. A young Scottish girl (can't recall name). She takes us through the day to day operations of the bridge. We are then allowed some time to wander about and take pictures. None of us can resist sitting in the captains chair for pics.

Next stop is Studio B where they put on the ice shows. One of the Russian skaters gives us a backstage talk. We stop for coffee and snacks before going down to deck 1. Here we see the engine room where one of the engineers goes into details about the ships propulsion and energy consumption. We are running on 3 out of the 6 engines today, Adventure normally operates in the Caribbean on just 2 engines but as we are travelling a little faster across the Atlantic they are using a third today. The other engines are technically spares should the others need to be turned off for maintenance.

We are then met by the provisions manager who takes us on a tour of the storerooms below deck. I am surprised to learn there are another 4 decks below deck 1. All the fruit, veg, meat & beverages are kept down here. He explains the challenges of storing enough food for a 14 day crossing on a ship designed for 7 day voyages. Halfway through our voyage and there are a till stacks and stacks of food left. All the foods is cleansed, peeled & chopped before it even makes its way to the galley to be made into the delicious foods that are presented to our tables each night.

Our final stop is the galley on deck 3. It's mind blowing how they managed to serve so many different types of foods to so many people in such a short space of time. We are there around midday and they are already working on this evenings meals. Once done we are led out into the main dining room for lunch at the end of the tour. With the additional hour on its 14.30 before we return to our cabin.

The sun is shining and we have been down in the bowels of the ship for most of the day and so we decide to head up to the main pool deck to enjoy some afternoon sunshine. As suite guests we have exclusive access to a special roped off area of the main pool where sun-beds are lined up in terraces up to the Skybar. I spend a few hours there listening to music and enjoy a Budweiser. Peter disappears at one point to go to the gym and I eventually make my way down to the cabin. A bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries have arrived with a note to apologise for the trouble we had earlier in the week with the tuxes. A nice gesture.

Dress code tonight is casual and so we head to the Imperial Lounge. Sue and Malcolm (who is feeling better) join us and we get a little tipsy on the strong drinks on offer. We giggle our way to our table in the main dining room where we enjoy one of the best meals of the voyage so far. Our waiter, Michael, is one of the best we've had and has a great sense of humour. When I ask what flavours of sorbet are on offer for dessert I can't tell if he's joking when he says Jalapeño or Wasabi. I go for the third option, Lemon.

Lady Luck is again a stranger when we visit the casino and so we head to the quite refugee of the diamond lounge for a last glass of wine before retiring.

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