Day 6 - Mon 25th Mar 2024
Participants: Tam & Kev
I'm awake at
7.30 am to find Tam on the balcony as she's been up for an hour.
It's a pleasantly warm morning for another at sea day.
We get breakfast from the food court at sit on the back deck
overlooking the wake.
We go to the theatre after breakfast for an enrichment talk. There are some unkind folk who would say I need all the enrichment I can get. There are two presentations - the first is about the Panama canal and the second lecture is on navigation of the Ruby Princess. Both are interesting, but the second is more entertaining as it's given by a British officer and he's both funny and informative.
Next is a first for us on any cruise. We go to the gym. Yes, that's right, I said we go to the gym. At home we jog a twice a week for a couple of miles and so try out the treadmills for 30 minutes. It's warmer in the gym than I thought it would be and we can't get our music to work properly as the ear buds seem to clash, so we end up with one each.
Here's the proof of the gym attendance.
Tam always gets hot when she runs, so we go back to the room for her to take a cold shower. I sit on the balcony and see lots of little flying fish and ponder on why they leap out of the water. Catch insects? Just for fun?
'Weeeee ... I
can fly'
Plop!
'Oh, no I can't'.
A quick trip to Google explains that they do it to escape predators and that they can swim up to 35 miles an hour.
At 1.00 pm we
go up the 6 floors to The Sanctuary for the first of our 3
visits. It costs $20 per person and you can stay between 1.00 pm
and 5.00 pm in the afternoon session.
There is waiter service and we have tuna with soy sauce, lettuce
and peas along with a Salty Watermelon Margarita. Very nice.
It's a lovely
area of the ship, really peaceful as there's no music playing and
you can look out to sea as you lie on your padded sunbed. We are
semi covered by netting and there's a nice sea breeze. We are
enjoying blue skies with a few light clouds and a temperature of
28 degrees centigrade.
At 3.15 pm they bring round afternoon tea with a selection of
savoury rolls and cakes including scones with jam and cream (or
is it cream and jam - one of the great philosophical questions in
life). It's been a nice afternoon sat in The Sanctuary, I can see
why it's so popular.
We go back to the room at 5.00 pm to shower and are out to Vines winebar by 6.00 pm. Vines is to the side of the atrium and they are about to have a champagne tower. This seems like a throwback to old time cruising with the captain and other ships officers taking turns to pour champagne into the the top of a tower of glasses. There is a long queue of guests waiting to have a go too, so it's obviously very popular, but it seems a bit old fashioned to me.
Along with a glass of wine in Vines we also have the charcuterie, which has an additional cost. This is really not very good. One of the meats looks (and tastes) like Billy Bear sausage. This was a pressed meat that we used to get from Tesco when the girls were children as it had a bears face in it. Believe me it tasted every bit as bad as it sounds.
On to the Explorers lounge for a quiz on cartoon characters. I'll be honest, I thought we would have been better at this than we are. 14 out of 20. The winning team got all 20, but they had children in their team. That's cheating if you ask me.
The theatre is
next where I get a really nice glass of Pinot Noir from a table
set up outside. The show tonight is called Stardust and features
music from the 30's, 40's and 50's. It's similar to many shows
you see on cruise ships, but enjoyable none the less.
We go to Skywalkers after the show. This is the lounge at the
front of the ship that usually has a disco late at night. I order
an Old Fashioned that is truly awful as it tastes like they've
added soda to it. The music is poor as well with dancy versions
of songs. It's so bad that I leave my drink and we go to the
Wheelhouse Bar where there is a lady playing guitar - much nicer.
I finish with a Rosemary Sour and Tam has a Tia Maria.
Back to bed at 11.30 pm.