We are traveling the White Sea enroute to the Solovetsky Islands, located within this body of water. The White Sea is entirely within Russia, and much of it freezes from October/November to April/May. Today is a Sea Day, so this will be a quick post.
Today is Canyon Ranch Spa Day for both of us. Steve has to use up his shipboard spa credit, and scheduled a 9am appointment for the Euphoric Coffee Scrub (ya gotta love these names), but Preetee, the spa therapist that Cathy has recommended, is a master at the upsell. Before you know it, Steve has upgraded his treatment to the Detoxifying Ritual (the same one Cathy had on the day we boarded) where they add a couple of things. Preetee is a hoot. She is a born entrepreneur, and if she had her way and money was no object, we’d both be up there every day.
As it is, this treatment last eighty minutes instead of the scheduled fifty, and it was worth it. Really worth it. I wander out of there around 11:00am in a daze.
For Cathy, it is the first of her four spa appointments she has booked, this one called the Five Point Star, and it starts at 1:30pm. She explains: “herbal infusions are applied to five key points on your body representing the five elements of Ayurveda: earth, fire, water, wind and ether. Placed on your head, hands and feet, the treatment helps connect your body and mind to promote inner and outer harmony.” In other words, she rubs your feet and hands and head for ten minutes each and it feels really great.
We have our required quiet time, reading time, writing time. We pass up Bloody Mary Jackpot Bingo at Noon, the Old World to New World Wine Tasting at 1:30pm, and even the Taste of New York Martini Tasting at 3:30pm. We just don’t have the stamina for any of the Day Drinking anymore. Oh well.
We do attend one event called the Oceania Club Party at 5:30pm in the Nautica Lounge. This is essentially a marketing event for all of us who have been on more than one Oceania Cruise. We collect points toward a free cruise, and there are awards given for achieving certain levels. We get to meet the captain, who you can just tell abhors these events but knows that it comes with the job. A few people get pins for advancing to some senior levels (in other words, people who have parted with a lot o’ cash to cruise on Oceania). It’s a nice cocktail party where we get free drinks and delicious canapes. We sit with a couple of women our age from Seattle, Shelly and Nola. They are very interesting and fun, so it was worth it to go just to meet them.
After that event, the four of us decide to dine together in the GDR. Then it’s lights out for us lightweights.
We realize that we each have favorite expressions that we use daily: Steve, “I have to get caught up on the blog today, and Cathy, “Oh my god, this is delicious.”
