Saturday was our first day at sea (meaning there were no stops in port). Mike and I woke up shortly before our breakfast arrived at our room. We had coffee, orange juice, some pastries, and breakfast sandwhiches. It was nice not having anywhere to be or any rush in the morning. We showered and got dressed and then wandered around the ship for a while. We ran into some of the other members of our party and went for second breakfast at the buffet, and visited over coffee.
There wasn’t anything planned for the day until dinner time, so we took in some of the information seminars that were happening, such as the presentation on Juneau (which would be our port the following day). There was also a LOT of hype around jewelry shopping, which I wasn’t really expecting on a cruise, but it seems that cruising = the perfect opportunity to buy expensive gems. It seems strange, even now, but I guess that is the norm on pretty much every ship.
It was a leisurely day. We poked around the ship some more, had lunch at the buffet, and generally relaxed. It was cool outside, but not terribly cold. We spent some time on the deck, looking out over the ocean.
At one end of the ship was an enormous outdoor movie screen, where they played films throughout the day. It was situated right above one of the outdoor pool areas, so you could watch a movie from the hot tub or a deck chair (and they provided blankets and popcorn!) Mike and I made a plan to watch Thor later that evening from the deck, as it was playing a few hours after dinner.
Soon enough it was time to get ready for dinner. Saturday evening was one of two formal nights that took place during our trip, and so everyone was dressed up!
We celebrated Ben’s birthday (which was earlier in the month) and he got a special dessert from the kitchen.
There was quite a bit of joking around and laughing, which is pretty much par for the course when everyone is together.
Rommel dazzled us with some magic tricks!
We took a lot of pictures. After supper was over, there was a champagne waterfall in the main atrium! There was champagne and tapas, and everyone could get their photo taken pouring some champagne on the waterfall. It was really quite neat.
We didn’t linger too long, as we all planned to see the illusionist that was preforming that evening. The whole group headed to the Vista Lounge, which is where a lot of the entertainment and seminars took place.
The illusionist put on a pretty good show. Everyone enjoyed themselves. After it was over, we all headed off in different directions. Mike and I went to change and then found some deck chairs and settled in to watch Thor. It wasn’t a bad movie. It was neat watching it outside, it was kind of like being back at the drive-in theater in Ontario, only colder.
After the movie was over, we grabbed some snacks from the buffet and headed back to our room for the evening. The following day was our first stop, Juneau!
Yeah, I really don’t understand why people get all excited about shopping for jewelry on cruises. You’re right. It’s weird