Cruising from Greece back to Italy

---

Our day began with a room service breakfast consumed on the veranda. Although outside looked cold, it was just the humidity that blanketed us in fog for the whole day. Seas were mostly mild with some slight rolling noticeable at times. Impressively, food arrived hot.
After breakfast, Sharon rushed off to mass, and I completed the blog from yesterday. Then it was off to the first of two bingo sessions for the day. The Win-A-Cruise session that we missed the day before had to be rescheduled due to technical difficulties. That’s cruise-director-speak for saying that when the limit of 46 numbers for the bonus was reached, the wrong button was pushed, and the game was reset. People were not happy because not many people had attended and there was suspicion that they wanted more participants.
Next came the Mariner’s Awards and Captain’s luncheon, by invitation only, which Sharon received and as spouse, I got to attend as well. One couple had over 1,000 hours aboard Holland America and Sharon tells me most of those are actual hours at sea, as only in the last year or so did the start counting additional credits for onboard purchases (such as bingo and drinks and laundry and such). Sharon already had received her bronze medal for 100 hours and needs about 150 more to reach silver. The menu offered just a couple of choices for appetizer and entrée and one choice for dessert. We both had the pear-passion fruit gazpacho. Sharon enjoyed the gazpacho, John rated it as tasty, different and his least favorite soup so far. Sharon had the braised short ribs for the main entry… delicious. And John had sole with leeks… also excellent. And we both had a very tart tort of key lime and white chocolate mousse. The best man at our wedding would have enjoyed this.
We did our daily Sudoku challenge in the crow’s nest. After stealing the crown away yesterday, Sharon had to give it back today. A brief stop in the casino saw John quickly make some profits, but Sharon is still looking for that perfect machine. We then had a trivia challenge, and we attracted some unmotivated teammates (we sure miss Beth from our Australian cruise) and came in the middle of the pack. Sharon says we need her brothers on the team. Then we had to rush down to the Showroom for the second round of bingo for the day… we were last in line arriving from the crow’s nest but eventually got our cards. Sharon came close on the final block-out game, but other than that, not much to cheer about.
It was now time to get ready for another formal night (our first at sea day). John had the Greek sampler appetizer, three triangular shaped stuffed puff pastry shells. One was spanakopita, one was stuffed with mushrooms and one with cheese. There was also a tangy relish with a lot of zip that John enjoyed. We both had the Italian Wedding Soup (of course) with we both liked a lot. For the main entry Sharon ordered the Land and Sea (filet with grilled jumbo shrimp) and John had the crusted scallops… and yes, the jumbo shrimps, both of them, were for John. Sharon enjoyed her hot fudge sundae and John had the cheese plate, which was accompanied by candied pecans and large fruit plate.
Afterwards we stopped in the casino and Sharon may have found her machine. She had a really entertaining payout from the goose machine, once she got the 3-goose bonus. John started out really hot at blackjack, but things just got worse after that. Oh well, win some, lose some. Now it catching our breath for Italy, with a 4-hour tour of Mt. Etna on Wednesday, followed by three days of 8 to 12 hour tours.

---