We both slept fairly well—the waters were calm, the ship was quiet, and the bed and pillows were sufficiently comfortable. We had scheduled room service to arrive between 6:30 and 7:00 since the only breakfast available that early anywhere on the ship was coffee and danishes—and they arrived a bit early at 6:25, waking us up. While I was impressed with the prompt service, we were less than impressed with the actual food. Tom’s teeny tiny yogurt was still semi-frozen (and once he ate it, he said it was almost inedible until he added some Splenda). When asking for a bagel and cream cheese, I had hoped for a delicious, big, homemade-style chewy bagel, and instead got something resembling your typical store-bought tiny hard bagel. The cream cheese and banana were hard to mess up, LOL. But, it was okay overall since I didn’t really want a huge breakfast—the past few days we’ve eaten so much food that a light breakfast sounded perfect.
Tom headed to the gym as I headed to the spa. A tiny foreign guy did my hair (I forgot to check his nationality on his name tag, but he was Teodoro), and told him to pick whatever colors he thought were best, but I was thinking red or blonde. He ended up doing some medium blonde and dark red highlights—and it turned out very nice. The major luxury was, of course, having him straighten it. Unfortunately, it was still humid as hell, so I decided to be completely vain and stay inside today—not wanting to ruin the expensive ‘do. (Aside from the humidity, it’s really windy by the pool or at the pool bars, and that wind just snarls my hair something fierce.)
Tom came to check up on me and I was almost done so he waited, then we went back to the room and decided to just go hang out in the lobby area. He read a magazine while I wrote in my journal (i.e. this diary) and surfed a little bit.
Here’s me (and Tom!) with my new ‘do:
Interestingly, I got an email from my coworker saying that one of my bosses screwed something up and had emailed me asking how to fix it. Can you say DON’T CARE? Seriously, he had two tiny jobs of mine while I was gone, and he can’t even manage to do them by following the precise step-by-step instructions I left him? She told me he joked that they should have paid for my internet service so they could ask me questions. I told her that was fine if they still wanted to do it, but I cannot guarantee a timely response and I’m not doing anything other than answering emails. We’ll see what response I get when I check my email tomorrow.
Finally, it was time for lunch…and I was Hungry with a capital H. The lines are hit or miss, so I tend to go for the less crowded stations—which in this case was Asian, so I grabbed a spring roll and some type of beef dish, then went around the corner for the nationality of the day, Mexican, and had some yummy soup, homemade jalapeno tortilla chips with cheese sauce, a shrimp quesadilla, and grilled vegetables. I was sure I was missing a lot of food, but I had a plateful which was plenty, and figured I would check out the other stations on other days. I did finish with a tiny ice cream cone. Tom had a piece of fish, some ham, and dill pickles. Interesting, I know.
Then it was back to the room to relax and nap a bit before our 2:30 Meet & Greet—which I actually bailed on when I realized it was at one of the pool bars. I just could not be out in the wind with the new ‘do. Tom stayed to visit, and I headed to the lobby area again to upload my blog and surf—with a great view of the ocean cruising by. Unfortunately, there are VERY FEW outlets anywhere in the public areas of the ship—and the ones I knew where they were? Already being occupied by the photographers who were setting up for the evening. GRRR. So it wasn’t long before my battery died and I had to head back to the room. As soon as I walked in the door, one of our new friends called to say they wanted to hang out later (after their late-seating dinner) because they wanted to see Tom in his dress blues (tonight is formal night). Oh, and she also won the $500 slot tournament so they wanted to buy us drinks! Then Tom came in and we just sat and watched the ocean.
Then we got a call asking when we wanted our hors d’ oeuvres. Wait, huh? Yep, someone else bought us something! We are making guesses as to who it was, but will not find out until we get them—which we actually scheduled for tomorrow since they couldn’t get them to our room in time for tonight (we had to leave early for the Captain’s Meet & Greet). So we got all gussied up—me in a red ball gown and him in his dress blues. We looked good, damn good, LOL. So then it was off to the Phantom theatre where we had a free drink and some finger food. There was no real hand-shaking meet and greet, but rather the Captain and his crew introduced themselves up on stage. Most were foreign, but one girl was from New Jersey.
We left a little bit early, since we had to get pictures taken. If you’ve been on a cruise before, you know the drill. If you haven’t been on a cruise, every night, there are photographers lined up along the way to dinner and you can get your pictures taken. There is never any charge unless you want to buy the photos—which will be on display the following day. Since we were dressed to the nines, we got a few photos taken with the background of our choice. We kept our fingers crossed they would turn out, as we don’t have too many good photos of us in formal wear. Here is a self-portrait:
Our choices for starters included Black Tiger Shrimp Cocktail Served with American Cocktail Sauce (Tom) and I couldn’t decide between the Strawberry Bisque (a Chilled Creamy Strawberry Soup with Fresh Mint) and Spaghetti Carbonara (Tossed with a Creamy Bacon, Cheese and Garlic Sauce) so I had both (the soup was good, the carbonara not so much)! I forgot to order a salad, and Tom had the Wilted Spinach and Portobello Mushrooms with Fresh Bacon Bits with Walnut and Blue Cheese Dressing.
Since it was Formal Night, the main feature of dinner was the Duet of Broiled Main Lobster Tail and Grilled Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp (presented with Mushroom Risotto and Broccoli). I went with that, and since Tom isn’t a huge lobster fan, he had the Roaster Prime Rib of Aged American Beef with a Baked Potato, Balsamic Glazed Tomatoes, and Sauteed Green Beans and Roasted Cauliflower. Tom was impressed because they actually managed to cook the steak as rare as he likes it. Tom couldn’t find anything he had to have on the dessert menu, but I indulged in the Caramelized Apples on Puff Pastry, served with Vanilla Cream and Caramel Sauce. It was good, but I was getting full so Tom finished it for me!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling quite up to par—it was actually the roughest seas we had had thus far (the captain said the waves were about six feet) and the ship was rolling more than normal…so while it wasn’t too bad overall, I was feeling it.
Also unfortunately, I have been feeling a bit like a hypochondriac this trip, as I think I am just paranoid that I am going to get sick and waste the cruise. The night before we left, my throat started hurting. It could have been the weather or allergies, but I was sure I was getting strep or something, LOL. So Tom and I started taking Airborne, just as a precaution (who knows if it actually works, some people swear by it, but others think it’s worthless). Then, once on the ship, I became somewhat paranoid about getting seasick. I am not one to generally get seasick (and on the last cruise, only started to feel bad when the seas were REALLY bad) but somehow I felt more predisposed to it this go-round and every time I had a headache or my stomach felt off, I was sure I was getting seasick. Or maybe I was hungry, but I knew I wasn’t. Or maybe it was just a headache. Or maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that cookie. Or maybe I was really getting sick. Of course, our friends joked that maybe I was pregnant (which is definitely NOT the case). So at dinner, while the food was good, it wasn’t great (even the lobster and shrimp main course) and it didn’t seem to be settling too well and I felt bad for not really enjoying it as much as I normally would.
After dinner we headed back up to the room because Tom wanted to get out of his blues. He had thought he’d want to hang out in them, hit a few bars and whatnot, but once he gets them on, he really remembers how uncomfortable they are. We did stop by our friends’ room so they could see him dressed up and they took some pics of us as well. We also invited them to our high end dinner the following night (the dining room you have to pay a surcharge for, but it’s always worth it) and they were geeked about that, so we are looking forward to that.
We made it back to the room and saw our first towel animal! A dog that happened to be wearing my sunglasses! SOOOO CUTE! We changed out of our fancy clothes and we were both tired, in addition to me feeling oogy (yes, oogy—isn’t that a great word?) so we actually laid in bed and watched some TV shows we had on the laptop. Then there was a phone call…from room service again, telling us they had just received an email ordering us another appetizer tray! Again, we are not sure who ordered this for us, although I swear she said it was courtesy of Abbie—and the only Abbie we know is Jason and Julie’s Boston Terrier puppy (that we just saw in Floriday)…so if that’s the case, Jason and Julie have done too much, LOL. We will find out for sure tomorrow. So anyway, we called our friends to remind them to come to our room early for appetizers before dinner—which is a good thing, since we had to reschedule our dinner for 8:30 instead of 7 (when we changed to four people).
A little while later there was a knock on the door—it was our friends, just getting back from their late-seating dinner, wanting to know if we wanted to go to the dance club later because it was 70s/80s Flashback night. They were a little surprised we were both in bed, but we said we may try to make it. I was still feeling WAY oogy so I didn’t really want to go, but on the other hand, I felt like a schmuck staying in the room when I didn’t really feel THAT bad—guessing it was really just mostly in my head. Also, I had just—seriously, not five minutes earlier—taken out my contacts and taken off all my makeup! So we got dressed, I put makeup on again, and went up to the restaurant to grab a snack, thinking that might make me feel better. I had a Reuben and it was okay, but didn’t make me feel better or worse. We stopped by the front desk to pick up some sea sickness pills (just in case) and then it was off to the bar.
The dance club (Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab) was, well, less than we expected. It had the potential to be a lot of fun, but it was dead in there! You would think that with a ship of—what, 2500 people?—there would be more than 20 people on a Friday night who wanted to enjoy “oldies” music?? The other sucky thing was that other than the two 80s songs they played when they opened the doors (and we were still waiting for our friends), they played a rash of bad 70s music that just wasn’t my thing and I didn’t want to dance to. The husband tried to pull me out on the dance floor—like, literally pull me—but I just didn’t feel in the mood because the music sucked. They all danced a few songs, and we ended up leaving after half an hour to go the comedy show at midnight. The guy was okay, nothing spectacular, and I actually nodded off a few times because I was exhausted (remember, I was up at 6:30 to get to the spa by 8). We went back to the room and crashed. And…maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophecy??? But when I took off my lipstick for the second time that night?? I discovered I am getting another cold sore. UGH. I had one about a week before we left (still have the scar where it was) and now I have another one. And I have no medication or pills for it because, well, I usually get them twice a year, so why would I expect to get two in two weeks? Ugh.
As we were falling asleep, we wondered what the hell our neighbors were doing, moving their deck chairs around so much and making a TON of noise that late at night, but didn’t think much about it… until the next morning…