At Sea

Today was our first day at sea!  Hip, hip, hooray!  I set my alarm for 7 am and went to the fitness centre where I found a treadmill and did some weights. I had a  shower where I didn't get my hair wet.  Mom, LC and I met at 8:15 to enjoy breakfast in the dining room. I always enjoy the fresh orange juice they serve and meeting other travellers at a shared table. For breakfast I had fruit and cottage cheese as well as a dish of muesli. 

Straight after breakfast, at 9:30 am, I went to the culinary arts centre to see fruit and vegetable carving demonstrated.

 Then at 10 am I raced to the world stage at the opposite end of the ship,but still on deck 2, to hear the location guide Ryan talk about the ports of Bonaire, Curaçao and Aruba.  At the end of the presentation the excursion guide said to look at the seat we were sitting in. I found an empty seat next to me with a sticker on it and turned it in for a port excursion in Bonaire. It is for a 1 pm sail and snorkel in Bonaire. I had booked a private excursion drift snorkelling in the morning with Woodwind Bonaire who offer excellent trips. So I will snorkel in the morning and if I have the energy, I will snorkel again in the afternoon!

I attended a Cruise Critic Meeting at 11 am in the Crowsnest Lounge.   I met two other passengers from Florida  who will be snorkelling with me on the private excursion in Bonaire. Fellow CC members just talked about what they enjoyed about the Koningsdam - and it made me want to try the Culinary Arts Centre Meal, called Farm to Table!

The three of us went up to the Lido Deck on 9 for lunch - I grabbed a Caesar salad again and tried the sugar free Pistachio pudding. LC and Mom both had salads and different desserts - as LC says, "I rewarded myself for having a salad by having two desserts!"

In the afternoon Mom laid down for a rest while I went and had a backstage tour of the World Stage. Singers Jonathan and Michael were quite vocal in sharing stories, while dancers Katie (Btitain), Victoria and Vladmir (Kiev) were a little more reserved. The World Stage theatre cost $10 million to build and there isn't a permanent theatre anywhere in the world that can rival it. The singers were not lip syncing and but were singing live.  

It really was a day full of activities - even if this activities were enjoying a drink sitting on the couches on deck 10 overlooking the pool!  Mom and enjoyed watching flower arranging in the Oceans bar.  I took the time to shower and clean up for formal night. The dining room menu didn't appeal to LC and I so the three of us made a reservation for Tamarind - the Asian restaurant. Normally this is priced at $25 per person but as. 4 star Mariner we get extra meals like this at 1/2 price!  It was delicious!

We then raced off to the world stage for the 7:15 show and found not a single seat available. We headed over to the Lincoln Stage to enjoy the Quintet again - it too, had no seats, so we settled in the Billboard lounge across the way. The Commonwealth twin sisters joined us again. We had some great conversation and took on the music trivia challenge together. The Brits on the team solidly answered 14 of our 15 questions about the Beatles and LC answered the 15th. We scored a perfect 15!

I was left holding down the fort for the tiebreaker music trivia question while the twins went to their dinner reservation and LC and Mom wen to get seats in the world stage. Of course I lost without any. True Bestle trivia knowledge!  We enjoyed the show with a ventriloquist and musical impersonator. 

I took in the late showing of the movie Florence Foster Jenkins, starting Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. Early to rise tomorrow morning for snorkelling in Bonaire!