All at Sea

So we come to the first day of this trip which is going to be spent, as the title says, all at sea. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this, as the holiday for me is more about being places than the traveling between them.

We started with Breakfast at 7.00 a.m. then back to the room to sit and read. Those who know me know I love nothing better than to sit and read for a period, and so on and off much of today was given to exactly that occupation. Sometimes sitting on the Balcony, looking out at the waves and the white tops (yes it is a bit rough out in the Bay of Bengal) or once I'd had enough of the humidity (temperature was 88 degrees and humidity 84%) back into the room to cool off.

We decided we would try out some of the events taking place, so at 10.00 a.m. we headed down to the Caberet Lounge where the had chef and the maitre' de were demonstrating some of the signature dishes which the ship offers. They did it really well having a great sense of humour and clear rappore with each other, they are both Italians. No tastings at this demonstration, unlike the next one.

At 11.00 a.m. it was on to the Casino Bar for a 'Martini' demonstration. This was led by Lucas, the bar man who has been looking after us so well these last few days in the Club Bar. He demonstrated the making of four different types of Martinis including two we had already tasted, but it was an entertaining half hour and we got to taste (in small glasses naturally all of them) my favorite was the Cosmopolitan which is Absolut Orange with Triple-Sec and orange juice with a dash of cranberry juice, really refreshing. Note to Janet - well so much for only drinking after 7.00 p.m. !! Still it is only this one day.

After another brief reading session we went at Midday to the Poolside Bar for a demonstration of Cocktail making. This was lead by Ollie, an English barman with a real cockney twang. He and his colleagues demonstrated (and provided tastings of them) for six of the cocktails include the 24K Margarita which has been my favorite find of the holiday. Another nice way to spend half an hour.

After that it was back to the Balcony and then some blogging before deciding to have a siesta. A good idea as it turned out.

Part of the deal in our cabin is that we have access to a free DVD library, so while I slept Drew watched a DVD (the film was Collateral with Tom Cruise).

More reading and it was time to go to Gareth and Hazel's cabin for pre-dinner drinks. Gareth and Hazel have a cabin with a balcony. I'm amazed at how small the cabin's are. More like a corridor than a room, with the bed being so close to the opposite wall that only one person could walk through at a time. I'm really glad we went for a larger Cabin, particularly on a sea day it is nice to have the comfort of a proper sitting room.

Following drinks we went to the Sterling Steak House, this is one of the specialty restaurants on the ship (the other is an Italian restaurant called Sabitinis.) which along with the main dining room and the 24 hour buffet are the food options.

Food and Drink

For breakfast Drew had Orange Juice, Half a Grapefruit and an omelet while I had Grapefruit juice, orange segments and Pancakes (without the Syrup) with bacon, Canadian ham and link sausages (see I'm talking American already!!)

For dinner we had starters of King Prawn cocktail (me) and Cheese and Spinach Quisedillias (Drew), for the main course I had a Porterhouse Steak cooked a bleu as I asked for it, wonderfully tender and delicious, it was served with a Corn Casserole and French Fries. Drew had a Filet, his was much more cooked than mine, but he enjoyed it.

I thought it was only our family which had good long wine nights, but evidently there are others as mad as us, certainly this lot are, it was like some of the better nights at Dad's place. Between the ten of us (we were eight but have been joined by Graham and Margaret from Middlesborough) we had 4 bottles of white (Pouilly Fuisse) and 8 of red Chianti. It all went down well. Clearly we made an impact as the next day barmen were asking us, what not Chianti!!

The big mistake of course was going down to the Casino bar after dinner and listening to Peter, the pianist, we then had four large margaritas each, to be fair to Drew he gave two to Peter when he had finished playing, we finally got to the room at 3.30 a.m. We decided to have a G&T from the mini-bar to finish the night off - Why? We don't know!! But it is another sea day tomorrow so hopefully we will recover.