On Board

Life On Board

April 25, 2005 Formal Night/Captain's Welcome Aboard	Breakfast at the Lido buffet.	Evening of April 23rd - Saturday, they had a seder service for those who wished to attend. A cantor presided who, it turns out, comes from San Rafael. It really was quite nice - the full seder plate and wine, gefilta fish, matzah ball soup, chicken, aspargus, potatoes, sorbet, compote, macaroons, and pudding. Each evening they have a show, bands all over the ship, and karioke in the upstairs lounge - if you are so inclined:( The ships shop and casino are open when ever we are at sea so you can play or shop until you drop. For the shows there will be 5 full productions, a comedian, a banjo player, and 2 singers.
Melon sculpture for the Lido buffet lunch - chinese - April 26, 2005	View of the ocean from our cabin - port side - Dolphin/Promenade Deck	I think there are maybe 4 hours a day where you don't have food service. We tend to eat in the main dining room. Breakfast and lunch (and tea) are open seating. Dinner we are first sitting and have been assigned a table of 10. So far only 8 of us have made it to the table. Normally we end up with about 6. There is buffet dining upstairs in the Lido all day. There is also a place to get pizza if you really need to have a fix, and a steakhouse. Should you want cocktails there are 8 bars. They believe in having something for everyone, so there is a place and times for arts and crafts, a gym with workout equipment, fitness classes, lectures on everything imaginable, 3 full length movies a day, expensive internet access, classes on computers, etc.
Our cabin toward window.	Our cabin toward door and bathroom.	An average at sea day for Robin & Will: 9 am breakfast - main dining room 10 am dance class - Riveria Lounge 11 am Robin to arts/crafts and Will to gym 12 pm lunch - main dining room 2 pm Robin to needlework/knitting circle, Will to lecture (they are doing a series of lectures on History of Navigation and early explorers) 3:30 pm Tea Time (or swimming, or maybe just a nap or ....) 5:15 pm Cocktail party - there will be about 4 of these 6 pm Dinner -main dining room 8 pm Showtime - or off for a drink or dancing or all 3
Robin's craft projects - needlepoint luggage tag - 7 pt plastic canvas and acrylic yarn, and South American yarn wrap. Needless to say I can't leave well enough alone - I had to add initials to the luggage tag pattern. Yes I brought the project for my column and am proceeding on it. It is due in on May 1st.	Wine tasting April 26, 2005 - Italian white, Mondavi Coastal Chardonney, Cabernet by Kendall Jackson, Fetzer Merlot, Krug Champagne & Quady Essensia	The ship, with 1200 passengers, is small enough that you meet the same people time and again. About 700 are American with a large percentage from California and Florida. There are about 200 Brits, 100 Canadians, 100 from Mexico, and the rest well mixed. The staff works very hard. It seems to me that everyone is pulling very long hours - even longer than usual. Monday night was the first of 4 formal nights. It is quite a contrast to the daily very casual or the evening "smart casual". Since this is the most returned to ship in the fleet, most of the people have cruised before; some people many times. Most of the people had beautiful evening clothes -- a touch above even what we saw on prior cruises. This is the next to last cruise of the Royal as a Princess ship. They are playing it up, but there are good bargains to be had on the shopping side :) Tomorrow - Recife.

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