We woke today with a determination to do...something. While we enjoyed doing nothing yesterday, it was actually more tiring for us than accomplishing something, no matter how trivial. It's obvious that we are entirely unskilled at this relaxation thing.
Breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room was extremely crowded. We kept it simple; G just had fruit and juices, I had fruit and cereal. I really don't know how the wait staff remains so cheerful when it's crazy busy like that. I would be all "Sit down. Shut up. You get what you get and you won't throw a fit". (It's a shocker that I've never been recruited by the hospitality industry, isn't it?) ;-)
After breakfast, I made a purchase at the sundries store on board. I have been eyeing this spoon rest since we boarded in November.
The spoon rest I have at home is 30 years old and has geese on it. We used to own two mean geese, named Briggs and Stratton, so I had a lot of geese stuff at the time. Frankly, once they were too big to live in the bathtub (so, after the first 1/50th of their lives), I was never a fan of Briggs and Stratton, and the feeling was definitely mutual. I have disliked my geese spoon rest for years, and am thrilled to replace it with something clearly so dear to our hearts...a map of the Caribbean.
G decided he was going to clean out HIS bathroom closet (aka his carry on suitcase), and, in the process, temporarily exiled me from our cabin. We didn't know, until this winter, that I am highly allergic to the Irish Spring soap he uses. As I've said before, at home we live the way God intended for couples to live, with separate bathrooms, and since G's responsible for cleaning his own, I've never been exposed to his bars of Irish Spring soap, in their wrappers or not. All he had to do today was open his suitcase where his extras were stored, and I was reaching for my rescue inhaler. At first, I ensconced myself in the whisper-quiet Adagio Lounge (no. Muzac today- heaven!) and started this blog post. After 30 minutes, I returned to the cabin to find G and cabin steward Raymond the Great moving the beds and vacuuming the corners of the room that hadn't been cleaned since we boarded. Two men cleaning? I knew better than to get in the way of that, and quickly changed into sneakers and fled the cabin again, this time to walk on Deck 19. By the time I returned, the offensive soap was gone, the carry on suitcase had been wiped out and aired out, and our cabin was also dust-free. All this because of my allergy to a soap millions use quite successfully. It should be no surprise that I'm allergic to the Purell sanitizers too.
I keep forgetting to mention, and so will rectify that today, that Captain Stenzel has definitely grown on us. At first, the fact that he was like Captain Nash only in that both are British put me off a bit. But it didn't take long for me to appreciate their differences. Instead of leaving the noon updates from the bridge to the Officer of the Watch (OOW), Captain Stenzel has been doing them himself, and always adds a bit of nautical information. Today's lesson was the history of how starboard and port were so named, and since I was ready with pen and paper at hand to take notes, I will share that information with you now...
Starboard (the right side of the ship facing forward) was the first side named. It comes from "steer board" (although this was spoken as shteer board). The rudder used to steer a ship was always located on its right side; hence, steer board became starboard.
Port (the left side of the ship facing forward) was originally known as laboard. With the rudder protruding on its right, or starboard side, a ship was always docked with its laboard side against a dock. In the 1840s, laboard, being too easily confused with similarly sounded starboard, was renamed to port, as this was the side traditionally facing a port when docked. (Picture this all being explained with the most delightful British accent).
I found that rather fascinating, and think Captain Stenzel is a treasure for sharing that information with us. 80-ish cruises to date, and I had never known that.
We returned to the DaVinci Dining Room for lunch, and went a bit late, hoping to avoid the rush. As waiter Alvin has told us, "These people want to be served". Well, yes, we do. I can do Sweet Tomatoes at home; I want more here. Afterwards, we followed our usual M.O. of walking hand in hand on the Promenade Deck. My husband had just cleaned our cabin, which I consider to be an act of romance of the highest order.
We were cleaned up (though not yet dressed formally) for the evening even before the 4pm Gold and Ruby Captains Circle parties. We had a bet between ourselves as to whether we'd see the same singers doing a Motown medley or the singers from the new production show cast (I won. The "old" singers did it). Afterwards, we returned to the cabin to dress formally for the 21st time this winter (God help me). I really don't mind the dress so much; it's putting the fussy dress and the jewelry away that's getting tiresome.
We took a bottle of Fransican Merlot that we had purchased at Total Wines in Fort Lauderdale to dinner with us, and headwaiter Johannes from South Africa retrieved it from me as we entered the Michelangelo Dining Room. He then proceeded to serve it in Riedel glasses as Darko looked on and instructed him to take care of "Milady".
How did I ever imagine I was ready to go home?!?
The sous chef from Romania who didn't know how to cook beef tenderloins medium-rare has gone home. In his place is an Italian sous chef who can do it better than I could when I used to cook 500 steaks an hour at a Ponderosa restaurant to pay for college. (I know not much about cooking, but when it comes to beef temperature, a quick look and a touch with tongs are all I need to place it within two degrees.). Dinner of a Stilton starter, salad and tenderloins (medium rare), along with Franciscan Merlot was perfection.
In order to get to the 6:45pm Princess Theater performance of I Got the Music (our last time with this cast), we delayed coffee and dessert until later. As we walked through the Piazza en route to the Princess Theater, pianist Pawel spotted us and began playing a song we'd requested a couple of cruises ago.
This really is the life, isn't it?
We loved I Got the Music (37th viewing), and are so excited that this cast we've gotten to know is finally getting to go home. We will miss them, but saw new cast member Rodney later in the Piazza. He said he cannot wait to be back on stage in front of an audience in just two nights. We can't wait to see him dance, either.
Following the show, we swung by the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall to drink bad champagne and enjoy good company. We talked with balance performers Lubo and Lucy and learned they are originally dancers from Bulgaria, but have lived in Orlando for 20 years. These entertainers lead such international lives.
G wanted to see the 8pm performance of ventriloquist Mark Merchant; I wanted not to, so he went solo and I sat in the International.Cafe to talk with cruise friends Richard and Sylvia and make some blog progress. G filled me in on the ventriloquist's show over Dessert with Darko and Coffee with Komang. It sounds like my anti-ventriloquism denied me a chance to see a good show. Live and learn...
It's 10pm and we're done for the evening. We've heard that we're going to be treated to a Carnaval celebration tomorrow in Aruba, so we're not sure of our plans for the day. We wish our friends who are in Rio for the real Carnaval a wonderful few days; ours might pale a bit in comparison, but should certainly be interesting.