3/26 Sea Day Off the Coast of Cuba

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Upon weakening this morning, we get good news. As we are traveling westward, the clocks were set back last night by one hour so it's only 7:30am. We have plenty of time before our first activity, a Meet & Greet with Cruise Critic members. We saunter up to the Lido, sitting poolside while Karen tries the scrambled eggs and bacon while I go with oatmeal, English muffin and prunes. All guests aboard are required to eat prunes. Just kidding. I can tell you that four stewed prunes a day will correct any issues brought on from an irregular diet or odd meal times. I never experience any problems in this area.

After breakfast, we travel to Deck 2 to the Billboard Onboard lounge for the Meet & Greet scheduled for 10am. No one is here. I drop Karen off at the America's Test Kitchen program where a chef is demonstrating the preparation of anchos and jalapeños while I consult with Guest Services as to what happened with the Meet & Greet. It turns out it is now at 11; why I have no idea. I join Mom back at the kitchen show and we stay there for the remainder of the program. With a few minutes to spare, we visit the Pinnacle restaurant to make reservations for Rudi's Sel de Mer on March 31, the first of two nights it's offered at $50pp. No worries. We're "Big Shots".

By now it's time for the Cruise Critic get together to begin and a crowd has gathered. We sign in, get our badges and mingle with the crowd. On this cruise, I haven't made any tour arrangements with members here so I really don't know anyone in particular but we manage to mingle our way through the crowd. We find some nice people from Vancouver and Arizona and we converse until after 12 noon. Holland America provides snacks and drinks for all.

Karen wants to try out her fancy spa membership and won't go without me. We return to our room, dump of any superfluous items, grab our swim suits and make our way poolside to the Greenhouse Spa. With our passes we first make way to the changing rooms, his and hers, of course. These are pretty fancy with robes, towels and footware provided. There are private showers and full length windows looking out to the sea. The thongs in my locker are three sizes too small but I manage to use them. No, not the bikini thongs or "banana hammocks". I'm talking foot thongs. Come on! So first I try out the Hydropool, this giant jacuzzi. It's warm and powerful. Karen joins me and we hang out for 20 minutes, long enough for the regular guests to gaze through the large windows and admire the more fortunate, upper class travelers, lounging in the private facilities reserved only for upper crust individuals (or those willing to pay the $400). My British snobby accent presents itself as I step from the spa and motion to the attendant, "It's a bit chilly. My robe, please. I must have my robe." Karen, disgusted at such a display, just gets out on her own.

After a brief shower adjacent to the Hydopool, Karen checks out the ceramic lounge chairs while gazing out at the blue Caribbean Sea as it rolls by at 20 knots. I'm all done and, returning to the changing room, I get rid of the swim suit and don my shorts and t-shirt, waiting in the reception area where Karen soon follows. We must hurry as our complimentary wine tasting program starts at 2pm. We stop by our room to dump off our stuff and proceed to the main dining room, wet hair and all. "No problem, Mr & Mrs Meadows. You look so refreshed. You did bring cash with you?"

"Of course we did, my good man. Here's a few bucks for you, Jeeves. Thanks for asking." and we are seated. As most of my readers are well aware, money is nothing to me. The wine tasting is $20pp but that's nothing to me. Besides, did I mention that we had a "complimentary invitation". That's why I'm here! Actually, the wine and cheese were delicious and the presentation informative but not high pressure. We had already decided to purchase a wine package for this trip and asked about that but they suggested that we make that purchase tonight at dinner through our sommelier.

Returning to our stateroom, Karen takes a nap while I write this blog. I have to write during any slack time we have. I must complete each day by day's end or I won't remember what we did. Yes, I'm old. After dinner, I'm sure we'll wander around the ship before going to see the BB King band at 8:30. Tonight's a dress up night so I'll have to get out my suit. By the time we return to the room, it will be close to 10pm, just enough time to write the rest of today's blog. That's why I have problems putting together the pictures, assembling the blog and sending it out. I'm trying.

Just like I said, we're all dressed up and going to dinner. We sit with two couples from Canada. They're friendly and we have a nice evening. I had shrimp cocktail, beef tenderloin with shrimp, chicken noodle soup and lemon meringue cheesecake. Karen had escargot, shrimp, yellow fin sole and Black Forest cake. We also ordered our 4 bottle wine package, two of the wines Mom picked from our wine tasting earlier today and two more to be named later. We leave early from dinner to get to the BB King show only to find out that I never reset my watch and we're an hour early. That's ok. We'll go to the theater show, then leave before the end so as not to miss the blues show. We do just that only to find the BB King Band is off tonight with two of the group sick. Let's go home.

I finish the blog while Karen and I watch a movie, "50 to 1" and call it a night.

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Photos

Here's the Flyer for the Spa
For 15 Days it $399 per couple

The Fancy Spa Area as Seen From Pool
Inside those windows are the millionaires.