Entries about sea day

Sunday 9 January 2011

The alarm clock went off at 7 but we lay in bed until about 7:20. The dining room opens at 7:30. I got dressed and was ready to go, but Bob shaved and then showered first. So we didn't get to the dining room until about 8. We find that the breakfast and lunch in the dining room has turned into a mini cafeteria. At breakfast you are told to go and get your own cereals and fruit from the buffet bar, and at lunch it is salad and pasta that you are supposed to get for yourself. If I wanted to go to the buffet, I'd go to the buffet. I do not want to walk around with a plate in my hand. I want someone to serve me.

Steam off the Gulf Stream

Anyway, we had breakfast. Bob did the cereal bar and found that they did not have skim milk although they said that they did, and the 1% milk was in those juice cartons that you drink with a straw. Useless for putting on cereal. If you try to squirt it out of the straw hole it dribbles all over the table.

We came back to the room but didn't find out that the Jets won until it was time for the Ravens game because Fox News was the only channel we could get and all they were talking about was the shooting in Tuscan of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. I took the computer and went up to the computer lab. One of the employees plugged it in under the desk and I had no problem logging on and picking a package. Other people came in and did not see or understand the directions. I tried to help them. I spent some time with a lady from NJ who had two sons that were chiropractors.

Top of the centrum

When we wanted to go to the Cruise Critics Meet & Mingle which was on deck 11, we found that the elevators (the ones that were supposed to go to 11) would not go any farther up than 10, and then would immediately go back to 9. So we had to walk up. I complained and was told that some kids had been riding the elevators last night and they had disabled elevators that went up to the Crown Lounge so they couldn't do that, and had forgotten to turn it back on!!!

Cruise Critics reception

We had a group photo taken, and there was a raffle which we didn't win.

Cruise critics meeting photographer

We also missed a trivia. We did get the little neck wallets which Bob swears blind that he never used before (and won't use now). I'm not sure myself whether he did or not. Of course he has pockets in his clothes - he can just put his door key card in his pants pocket.

At lunch Bob did the salad bar, and I got cream of chicken soup which wasn't very creamy and just had some squares of meat in it. Then I had an

Openfaced steak and egg sandwich

(which was messy to eat) and a

Strawberry napoleon

(which had maybe 5 strawberry halves in it).

It is getting warmer

Steam off the Gulf Stream

and we can see the steam coming off the water that means we are in the Gulf Stream. The steam happens when the warm water meets the cold air

After lunch we had Progressive Trivia which means (we found out) that every sea day we will have trivia with the same people on our team. We were told to pick a name for our group, and the other three people were from PA, so I suggested "Mason-Dixon". The activities person thought that was our names, but of course it wasn't. Someone else had Snowbirds.

Anyway it was a really hard trivia and we only got 7 out of 20 right. They wanted to know who invented the safety pin and who did the Nintendo Wii. Also the flower of China, the first Spice Girl to leave the group and what kind of music Ronnie Scott played. We did know that Bill Clinton's middle name was Jefferson, Princess Diana's maiden name, what HTML stood for, and how many chambers the human heart had.

I called the customer relations desk and asked if I could buy a drink card and pay for cranberry juice. They said that there is absolutely NO cranberry juice anywhere on this ship. Not in the dining room, not in the Windjammer and not at the bars.. [This later proved to be wrong - the bars always have cranberry juice,] They said if I wanted cranberry juice that I should get off and go to a store and buy some. Bob is against doing that, so I don't know. Maybe I will take the shuttle into town and see.

Tonight was formal night and it was a little quieter. I had

Escargots

(a little salty) and Bob had two shrimp cocktails, but he said the cocktail sauce was kind of thin and not very good. Then he had

Bob's salmon

which I think he liked and I had

Filet of beef

which was good. He had ice cream for dessert and I had the

Bittersweet chocolate soufle

After dinner Bob went to the show.

Towel dog

Tomorrow we arrive in Port Canaveral and I want (without much hope) to be able to see the Canaveral lighthouse