First day at Sea

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Geo: 49.2605, -123.114

At Sea - Day 1

This is such a short little cruise that we decide to get up early to enjoy the whole day...get started early and make it a long day, you know. Un huh.

We finally got out of bed about 10:30 and when we left our room I had quite the wonderful surprise. There were balloons and a Princess "Happy Anniversary" poster on our door. WOW! That Jeff! In a panic, I said, "but it isn't our anniversary, is it? It's the 25th, right??" Yes, it is the 25th but Jeff thought this was a nice way to do an early celebration. He was right.

By now both of the restaurants serving breakfast had finished with that meal so we had to go up to the buffett. I was so groggy because of lack of caffeine, that when I got to our table I discovered I had a box of mini-wheats, a muffin, two pieces of bread and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Carbs, anyone? The plates were so hot that my peanut butter was melting all over.
More coffee, please.

One of our favorite shipboard activities is to walk the Promenade Deck. It goes all the way around the ship and 2.8 rounds equals a mile. As we went around the bow of the ship we were startled to see a large group set up with tripods and spotting scopes. Thinking they were whale spotting we stopped to see what they were all focused on. Well it was a bird - the whole group was bird watchers and apparently pretty serious about it.

We kept doing our laps, chit chatting, overtaking slower walkers and being zoomed past by speedier ones. We were happy because the sun had come out and the wind/seas were calm; a gorgeous day! Then we saw a whale spout - very close to the boat. Cool!! It is the beginning of the migration of the humpback whales from Alaska down to Banderas Bay in Mexico. The whales travel to warmer water to give birth. We're hoping as we get further south during this cruise we'll see more of them.

This afternoon the only thing we have planned is to go to a Discovery Oceans trivia talk, but first we sit out on our balcony. Our cabin is on the ship's starboard side so we get the afternoon sun and sunsets. I read one of my books while enjoying two mimosa's, Jeff has a glass of wine and falls asleep. So relaxing! Luckily I had taken the chair in the sun and he was sleeping in the shade or he would have been a crispy critter.

The Discovery Oceans Trivia was not at all what we expected, but it was still fun. We thought it would be a talk about Ocean trivia, but it turned out to be an actual trivia contest, based on the Discovery channel's Ocean program. Or something like that. Jeff and I don't have cable TV, and don't watch network TV, except for the news, so we were sure we wouldn't do very well. We got about 1/2 of the questions right and it was a fun way to spend 45 minutes or so.

As Platinum members we know that there are certain events for us on cruises and one of them is special appetizers and a $5 drink of the day special way up in the ship in Skywalkers lounge. But we didn't see anything about it in our cabin. In addition, there is usually a Captain's Circle event where the captain speaks, everyone gets free drinks and meets the Captain. We didn't have that invitation either. So we made our way down to the membership desk to inquire. Yes, there is a Skywalkers event every afternoon, and, no, there is no Captain's Circle event.

The membership staff person didn't have the flyer for this cruise for Skywalkers, but we figured we'd stop up to see what the offerings were.We changed into some nicer clothes and went up. The special appetizer was steak tartare (just perfect vegan fare - NOT); but there were lots of fresh vegies, nice breads and very good olives. We sat with some Canadians and had fun talking about politics - theirs and ours - until we decided to head down to the restaurant for dinner.

Again, we had delightful dinner companions, one man, Dave, was a retired airline pilot; his wife had been a teacher in the Alaskan bush country and told us about the villages butchering 2 whales for food and all. Another couple had lived in Japan for ten years, raising their children there. He was a teacher as well. His wife told us that once their kids hit 5th grade they switched them to an international school because they couldn't speak English, and the family would eventually be returning to the US.

The food was good and the conversation was really entertaining.We sat at dinner until 9:30 or so. Others at the table were going to the theatre for the late production show. Jeff and I saw the show on a previous cruise and decided to go back upstairs to bed.

Nice day - and it is such a bummer to know that tomorrow is our last full day on the ship.

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