At the End of the 6th Day at Sea - Update 1/20/10

YEAH! Connectivity! Perhaps updates will be more frequent!

Because of the extra provisioning requirements for a 23 day journey in a port that is not a regular port of call for the line, we were about 7 hours late departing San Diego. However, at this point, we have more than made up the time.

We’re now in our 6th full day at Sea and are becoming very spoiled! We’ve been up early every morning and hit the jogging path for a mile walk minimum. So far that has kept us from over stretching the elastic waistbands! We’ve pretty much restricted ourselves to fresh fruit, fresh vegetable juice and cereal for breakfast. Our vegan friend would be in “vegan heaven” to have the kind of variety all pre-prepared!

This “all inclusive” way of traveling is definitely the way to go! And after being “over-served” (ha!) the first day, we’ve learned that we don’t have to consume all the Dewar’s’ on board. We even found that The Macallan, my favorite single malt, is included in the all “inclusive”.

And the food! There’s lots of it, creative and beautifully presented. And, it is great! It’s been a hard lesson to learn that we don’t have to totally clean our plates! We have been totally amazed that we’re going on 7 days away from the last provisioning and the fruits, vegetables and flowers are still fresh!

The entertainment has truly been fantastic! The ship has a Singers & Dancers group of 6 gals and 4 guys as well as a nine piece orchestra. They have done some incredible shows. It’s hard to believe they manage to learn and present such a variety. The talent here is far greater than what we have seen on other ships.

The orchestra is unbelievable. One minute they’re backing up the singers and dancers, the next they’re backing up guest artists “The Unexpected Boys” (overwhelming talent in this group) and when they’re not on the main stage, select members are in one or more of the lounges playing for listening and dancing, doing so in a “jammin’” fashion!

We have each taken advantage of the spa (Canyon Ranch at Sea) and will probably schedule another session. Albeit part of the “not included” service, it has been worth it.

Last night, we crossed the Equator and today was the “Crossing the Line” ceremony, a watered down and hilarious version of the Navy / Coast Guard initiation ritual commemorating a sailor’s first crossing of the Equator. During that celebration, we lost our (Slimy) Pollywog titles and became (Trusty) Shellbacks!

Well, tomorrow, we’ll see land for the first time in a week. The way the boat has been rocking and our legs have adapted to the rocking, we’ll probably loose our balance walking on terra firma! Another guest commented “we’ll all walk like toddlers with dirty diapers!”

R

PS to my girlfriends: The Captain is “drop dead” gorgeous! And he’s a nice friendly man to boot!