Day 80: At Sea and 2/3 of the way through the winter

From a weather perspective, today was possibly the worst day we've had since our first visit to Antigua on November 10th. We were awake before 7:00am, and went out to the Terrace Deck to watch a sunrise that, it became quickly obvious, wasn't going to be visible at all. Heavy clouds blanketed the sky, and, while it did get light out, it was difficult to tell where the sun was. Still, we sat in loungers drinking coffee and enjoying that quiet time on the ship. At that hour, It's a bit like morning in campground...people shuffle about looking a bit disheveled, sit sipping coffee, and greet each other with quiet "good mornings". Eventually, more people start moving and the noise level increases.

As we were sitting out there, I was able to get a Skype call out to Mom using ship's wifi that was perfectly clear with no latency. Only a few hours later, I couldn't even get on wifi, due to all the people using up minutes and printing airline boarding passes.

Before 8:00am, we felt the first few drops of rain, and within seconds we were in the midst of a squall. We ran inside to the back of the buffet, and watched as rain pelted against the large windows in sheets.

What a lazy morning! There was nothing we had to do, so we sat there, getting breakfast from the Cafe Caribe. Eventually, Jim and Marcia joined us, and we talked until nearly 10:00am. I then returned to our cabin and did some work on my laptop, downloading photos from my iPhone and backing it up in iTunes (I've learned how imperative that is!). I also sorted through this cruise's pile of paperwork that always seems to accumulate.

G amused himself doing the galley tour and checking out what we call the "garage sale" of off season t-shirts and souvenirs in the Michelangelo Dining Room.

We ate lunch in the dining room, which was quite popular today, with Janet and Bob. Although the rain had mostly stopped by then, it certainly wasn't a pretty day. Mostly cloudy skies were occasionally interrupted by a few minutes of sunshine, although there was more clearing by evening.

We went to the wine tasting at 3:00pm (sommelier Thai conducts the best wine tastings EVER!), then were in Skywalkers at 5:00pm for our final pre-dinner drinks with Janet and Bob and Claudette and Ross. We will miss them!

We went to dinner early, at 5:30pm, to be on the same schedule as Jim and Marcia at the next table for a reason: we took a bottle of champagne and had ordered a cake in honor of their 50th anniversary in May. Sutti, Somphong and other waiters sang, and we all shared the cake and the champagne. It was a wonderful end to the 20 nights we've shared together. We'll miss them too.

We went to the 7:15pm show by Christopher James, the comedy magician of last night. He is really good, and I would definitely see his show again in the future (which is saying something, coming from me about a magician!). Afterwards, we walked on the Promenade Deck watching the Caribbean Princess which, FINALLY, has caught up with us but is quite a distance off to our starboard side. I can't tell you what excitement this brings, as, since we left Aruba two days ago, it's been just a shadow on the horizon until sometime today. I wanted to get a photo of the Caribbean Princess with the moon, and went up to Deck 19 to take it (a little bit scary at night with all the wind), but, sadly, with just my iPhone, it wasn't that impressive.

We're in bed early, really early when you consider we move our clocks back an hour tonight. It's been kind of a lazy day.

Photos 1-3: I've been meaning to post these. They are of the former putt putt golf area, re-worked during dry dock to feature a putting green, croquet lawn and bocce ball court.

Photo 4: the basketball and paddle tennis area

Photo 5: celebrating Jim and Marcia's 50th wedding anniversary with Suttipong in the background

Photo 6: the Caribbean Princess under a full (or nearly) moon

Photo 7: the Emerald Princess from Deck 19 after dark