Monday
Monday was our first full day on the ship and it was _so_ easy just to fall back into habits of other cruises. It’s almost like coming back home. Everything is in the same place. The schedule is the same. The face are different, but the people -- the stewards and the housekeeping staff and the bartenders -- are the same, helpful, friendly folks that have been on every other cruise.
We got up at 7:00 am and were at breakfast a short time later. Bacon, eggs (too runny), three different kinds of sausage, fried potatoes, and coffee. And then to the spa by 8:00. Chris had a massage appointment then, and since we had signed up for the VIP spa membership, I did that while she got hot stoned.
Now the thermal suite of the spa is something new for us. I had been curious about it on our last cruise, but couldn’t quite justify the price, but the more I thought about the more I had wanted it last time, and so one this cruise I was determined to give it a try.
What is it? First off it has a bunch of contoured, tiled beds facing a giant picture window looking out over the starboard side of the ship. The contours of the bed fit the natural reclining shape of your body with your knees slightly elevated. The tiles are heated from within, to just over body temperature, suffusing your body with an extremely relaxing heat.
Also in the room is a very warm, mineral water jaccuzi. There is a special misting shower that sprays a cold, refreshing cloud of water to cool you off if you get overheated. They play soothing new age music and there is ice-cold water to drink.
And it was fabulous. So relaxing. Nothing o do but lie there and relax, staring out at the North Sea rolling by, reading one of the Bernard Cornwell ‘Saxon’ novels. Every so often taking a break to soak in the hot tub. I spent 90 minutes doing that and then met back up with Chris. We blogged a little and got our computers hooked up to the internet.
It was a sea day, meaning that there was no stopping in any ports, just continuing to sail from The Netherlands north toward Oslo. The North Sea was very calm, with just the smallest ripples across its surface. Hardly the dangerous, deadly, storm-ridden sea I picture.
At noon there was Texas Hold ‘Em tournament that I went to, but there was still not enough people to play, so I still didn’t get any poker in. I determined to try again at the 2:00 tournament.
We had lunch in the cafeteria, though we did it at the height of the lunch hour and had trouble finding a place to sit. I had Swiss steak and potatoes, and a big slab of roast ham.
About this time, we met up with Becca, who was having a bit of a rough time. While there are a bunch of kids on the cruise, there aren’t any other teens. She had spent some time hanging out with the teen coordinator, just the two of them. But she had also been working on project of her own.
Before we left, she had taken part in a YouTube music video challenge. They supplied a song and then challenged people to submit homemade music videos for the song. She wrangled together seven or eight of her friends and shot a video for it on the two days right before we left, on so she had spent Monday morning editing the video together. She and her friends did a fabulous job and since the contest ends on the 19th, we’re going to have to figure out how to upload it over the next few days. Once it’s posted, I supply links.
Much to my surprise, the 2:00 poker tournament did actually happen, though with only four of us. I was the first one out, an unlucky break of a big hand and then I played a small pair too passively pre-flop.
Chris went to a gemstone and jewelry talk, and I went back to the room for a nap. After the talk she joined me, and we slept until about 6:00. We went up tot he Crow’s Nest for the drink of the day -- a Glacial Lemon Drop (a regular Lemon Drop with something blue added to it).
That night was a formal night, so we got dressed up and went to dinner. Becca was feeling tired and uncomfortable in her formal wear, so she left dinner early. That left Chris and I alone for much of dinner so we were able to have a really good talk about the what had worked and not worked the two days before and what we could have done differently. We’re getting much better at having difficult talks like this and we able to have a very pleasant dinner despite the tricky subject of the conversation.
After dinner, Becca was already fast asleep, so Chris and I went to the Best of Broadway show in the big theater, which consisted of five or six Broadway and West End performers doing famous musical numbers. That took us up to 11:00 pm, and so we back to the room and went to bed, because first thing in the morning we would be arriving in Oslo!
Monday was our first full day on the ship and it was _so_ easy just to fall back into habits of other cruises. It’s almost like coming back home. Everything is in the same place. The schedule is the same. The face are different, but the people -- the stewards and the housekeeping staff and the bartenders -- are the same, helpful, friendly folks that have been on every other cruise.
We got up at 7:00 am and were at breakfast a short time later. Bacon, eggs (too runny), three different kinds of sausage, fried potatoes, and coffee. And then to the spa by 8:00. Chris had a massage appointment then, and since we had signed up for the VIP spa membership, I did that while she got hot stoned.
Now the thermal suite of the spa is something new for us. I had been curious about it on our last cruise, but couldn’t quite justify the price, but the more I thought about the more I had wanted it last time, and so one this cruise I was determined to give it a try.
What is it? First off it has a bunch of contoured, tiled beds facing a giant picture window looking out over the starboard side of the ship. The contours of the bed fit the natural reclining shape of your body with your knees slightly elevated. The tiles are heated from within, to just over body temperature, suffusing your body with an extremely relaxing heat.
Also in the room is a very warm, mineral water jaccuzi. There is a special misting shower that sprays a cold, refreshing cloud of water to cool you off if you get overheated. They play soothing new age music and there is ice-cold water to drink.
And it was fabulous. So relaxing. Nothing o do but lie there and relax, staring out at the North Sea rolling by, reading one of the Bernard Cornwell ‘Saxon’ novels. Every so often taking a break to soak in the hot tub. I spent 90 minutes doing that and then met back up with Chris. We blogged a little and got our computers hooked up to the internet.
It was a sea day, meaning that there was no stopping in any ports, just continuing to sail from The Netherlands north toward Oslo. The North Sea was very calm, with just the smallest ripples across its surface. Hardly the dangerous, deadly, storm-ridden sea I picture.
At noon there was Texas Hold ‘Em tournament that I went to, but there was still not enough people to play, so I still didn’t get any poker in. I determined to try again at the 2:00 tournament.
We had lunch in the cafeteria, though we did it at the height of the lunch hour and had trouble finding a place to sit. I had Swiss steak and potatoes, and a big slab of roast ham.
About this time, we met up with Becca, who was having a bit of a rough time. While there are a bunch of kids on the cruise, there aren’t any other teens. She had spent some time hanging out with the teen coordinator, just the two of them. But she had also been working on project of her own.
Before we left, she had taken part in a YouTube music video challenge. They supplied a song and then challenged people to submit homemade music videos for the song. She wrangled together seven or eight of her friends and shot a video for it on the two days right before we left, on so she had spent Monday morning editing the video together. She and her friends did a fabulous job and since the contest ends on the 19th, we’re going to have to figure out how to upload it over the next few days. Once it’s posted, I supply links.
Much to my surprise, the 2:00 poker tournament did actually happen, though with only four of us. I was the first one out, an unlucky break of a big hand and then I played a small pair too passively pre-flop.
Chris went to a gemstone and jewelry talk, and I went back to the room for a nap. After the talk she joined me, and we slept until about 6:00. We went up tot he Crow’s Nest for the drink of the day -- a Glacial Lemon Drop (a regular Lemon Drop with something blue added to it).
That night was a formal night, so we got dressed up and went to dinner. Becca was feeling tired and uncomfortable in her formal wear, so she left dinner early. That left Chris and I alone for much of dinner so we were able to have a really good talk about the what had worked and not worked the two days before and what we could have done differently. We’re getting much better at having difficult talks like this and we able to have a very pleasant dinner despite the tricky subject of the conversation.
After dinner, Becca was already fast asleep, so Chris and I went to the Best of Broadway show in the big theater, which consisted of five or six Broadway and West End performers doing famous musical numbers. That took us up to 11:00 pm, and so we back to the room and went to bed, because first thing in the morning we would be arriving in Oslo!