Sea Day 2 - Cruising the Caribbean (No Photos)

Sorry no photos - the internet has been just too flaky today.

Up early for exercise – as one of my breakfast table mates said, it’s hard to fit everything in, first your workout… Dave joined me for stretch class which was full and a good stretch, but took off before Abs class and Pilates, neither of which was good, unfortunately. Too much hip flexor in the abs class, and no Pilates in the Pilates class. Chi did her own workout during Pilates and I ran in to her afterwards, and she was all sweaty. She’d done her own interval class and invited me to join her next time and I think I’ll take her up on it. Dave had already had breakfast at the Lido, so I did dining room breakfast (oatmeal! My favorite!) with a fun group of tablemates.

There was a port talk (about our first port, Cartagena, not THAT kind of port) which I’d thought about attending but I was feeling sleepy, so instead I took a nap while Dave finished his laps around the promenade deck. We both headed to the World Stage for the second Panama Canal talk, which was more about how it works currently. Ryan was interesting and engaging once again. Meanwhile Dave and I had both struck out with getting an assigned seat or reservations at the early seating for dinner, but supposedly if we come between 5:30 and 6 there will be a table for us with a minimum of waiting. Stay tuned.

We had lunch in the dining room with an excellent group of folks – we ended up just about shutting the place down. Then it was blogging time on the Lido for me while Dave went off to wine tasting. I love that we get to do separate things and then get together after and share stories. I had many ideas about working out when I was done blogging – maybe run through the advanced mat pilates, maybe dance through the new Nia routine Cure – but when I walked by the midships pool it was rockin’ and rollin’ and I was hooked. I spent about an hour and a half in the pool having a fantastic time, and then got out and showered and got ready for dinner.

(There's a video of the pool that goes here. It's cool.)

We decided to go right at 5:30, and there was a reasonable line when we got there. It took a few minutes to get started but once it did it moved right along, and we requested a larger table. We ended up at a 6 top with two other wonderful couples, Steve and Ellen and Kay and Bill. Kay and Bill are 5 star mariners, and Ellen and Steve are delightful people, and we just had the best time. Ellen described what they do in upstate New York during the winter – “I play clarinet and he plays the radio” while Kay told a story about her grandson, a former picky eater – “Martin, do you eat green beans? “Not since the accident, grandma” “What accident?” “When I accidentally ate one”. Somehow the food tastes better when the company is good. It turned out that Bill and Dave sat next to each other at the wine tasting, and Ellen was one of the other women playing in the waves in the pool with me. A great time was had by all.

After dinner we went out to 6-forward and it was only moderately windy. Dave used his phone app to identify some of the stars we saw in the South. I’d never heard of most of them. We’re in some fairly heavy swells and the ship is rolling side to side enough that even some of the crew are having to take those little extra steps, but we noticed that outside on deck our footing seems much more secure. Dave’s theory is that when you can see the horizon moving, your brain compensates for some of the motion. It’s the only theory we have, so we’re taking it.

Next up for me was another Permission to Move dance class. Estefanie was leading some sort of music game in the Ocean bar when I got there, so I had a short chat to the beverage manager. Class was terrific once again; Chi and I bravely took the center of the front row. We learned Salsa dance and ended in pairs for the last song. It was fun and hardly scary at all. We finished the evening with the comedian, who was just fine. Not make you cry funny, but funny enough to make us glad we went to the show.  We think we slept well, but my fitbit said I only slept for a little over an hour, and Dave’s said he didn’t sleep at all.