After writing this, we agree that this is so boring that perhaps we shouldn’t even have bothered making a record of two such uneventful days. So, again, those of you who might be looking for something interesting to read will not find it here.
November 16: The distance between Miami and San Juan, Puerto, our first port of call, is 924 nautical miles. This means that the first two days of this cruise will be Sea Days. We think that’s perfect. Time to completely unwind before we begin excursions.
We arise late for us at almost 7:30. As is our custom, Steve goes to Horizons on Deck 10 for cappuccinos to bring back to the room. After that, we head for the Grand Dining Room again for breakfast. Their menu really doesn’t change, which is fine with us. Steve has Swedish pancakes and Cathy has the egg special, huevos rancheros.
The day is ridiculously void of activity; again, which is just fine with us. An hour or so in Horizons. Cathy reads and makes a friend of a woman from Vancouver, British Columbia that is doing needlework. Amazing needlepoint from a paper chart, on linen with no pattern! Steve writes a post covering the first three days of this trip.
As we write, we begin to realize that this post is going to be short. We don’t participate in many activities, so there isn’t much to tell. Naps after lunch. Ricarda brings us fleece blankets from the pool deck because our cashmere blankets were apparently appropriated by the former passengers. We don’t even go the bars for the free drinks.
We are anxious to beat the crowd that has taken advantage of the free drinks, so we head for the GDR at 6:20. There are dozens of people already seated at tables, which is puzzling since the place isn’t supposed to open until 6:30. Whatever. We have a great meal as usual. Cathy ends hers with the Papua chocolate volcano shown in the photo at the beginning of this post.
By 8;00pm, we are in bed. There is a time change tonight, so the clock says 9:00pm. Perfect excuse to turn in.
November 17: I guess we really needed the sleep. We don’t arise until 8:45. And we’ve been telling our room steward we get up early. Oh, well.
By the time we are ready to go, we end up having breakfast in the Terrace Café because the GDR closes at 9:30. We close this venue too at 10:00am.
Cathy goes direct to Horizons to meet her needlework friend. Steve picks up his laptop and goes there too. We stay until 12:30. We are really off schedule, and head for the Grand Dining Room. Nice lunch, as always.
To change the pattern, we head for the Pool Deck around 1:40pm. The Showband is playing until 2pm, and the weather is perfect. After about 20 minutes, Cathy leaves because the wind is blowing so hard that she’s having trouble turning the pages on her book. Steve gives it a try, but agrees that he’ll tear the book to pieces trying to read it.
Back in the room, we watch Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. There are many good classic flicks available on the ship television. This is certainly one of them. Then we watch The Birdcage. My gosh, how hilarious, but we have to head for dinner before it ends (gotta keep to the schedule!).
Wonderful dinner. Given our experience, we have been evaluating the service in the Grand Dining Room. From the time we boarded, our impression has been that there are a whole lot of, shall we say, inexperienced staff. The previous cruise, the staff spoiled us. Totally experienced in every way.
Tonight, we determined that the less experienced are on the port side, because this was the first opportunity we had to be seated on the starboard side. A significant difference in how quickly we were served, and thus the temperature of the hot dishes. Tonight was perfect. Both of us had …well, Cathy will elaborate: Steve has ceasar salad, Cathy treats herself to pate en croute, and both have Mediterranean style fish with ratatouille. For dessert, Viennese apple strudel and.
A great end to a pretty quiet day. We’ll be in San Juan at 8am tomorrow.
