Wednesday, Day 5, Sea Day

Last evening, from the suites lounge, Charlie managed to capture a video of a sea plane taking off beside our ship. Fun to see!

We returned to Izumi for dinner, but for the sushi, not hibachi.  There were THREE hibachi tables of eight underway, but they were winding down, so it wasn’t too wild.  We both had dumplings and the shrimp and veggie tempura (sorry, no pics), then I had the champagne lobster roll, always good.  Charlie tried the spicy crispy tuna roll and really liked it.

After dinner, a show was about to begin in the Royal Theatre, so on a whim, we went in and found seats.  It was a group of five men, The Boulevards, performing “vintage” rock and roll music.  They were excellent musicians and funny, too.  The lead singer has portrayed John Lennon in five shows in England (they’re all British). We were glad we’d gone.

This morning we awoke to strong winds (as high as 10 on the Beaufort scale, including the ship’s speed), and the barf bags are in place around the ship. The upper decks and pools are closed.  Not ideal on a sea day! We tried to go to the gym, but neither of us lasted long on the elliptical due to the motion of the ship.

Here’s the map of our trip as of this morning:

At 10:15 was the Top Tier Event for Platinum members and above, so we went (mostly for a free glass of champagne).  Four new Pinnacle members (700 points/nights aboard) were introduced.  Here’s the breakdown of those on the ship now.  We’ll be in the Diamond Plus group after this cruise.

Afterwards, there was a “special” backstage tour for Diamond members, so we stuck around for that. Alas, all they did was march us from one side of the stage through a very tight backstage area and back to the stage. Underwhelming! Maybe if the group hadn’t been so large things would have been different. Plus, many of us were having trouble keeping our balance with the ship’s movement. I hope the dancers in Grease tonight don’t have any issues.  I did take one photo from center stage.

We chose to go to Johnny Rocket’s for lunch. Given that we’d have some form of burgers and fries and/or onion rings, we decided to sin boldly and get chocolate milkshakes as well.  A rare treat!

Charlie earned more points in the casino in the afternoon, while I read and learned a little Spanish.

Dinner was at Giovanni’s Table, where we again had arugula salads to start. I tried the chicken piccata, and received a huge serving. It was delicious, if too heavily breaded. I managed about a third of it.  Charlie chose the broiled shrimp with spinach and enjoyed it. No dessert (see chocolate shake above…). 

Tomorrow the ship docks “near” Hamburg, requiring a 45-minute bus ride, plus the forecast is for heavy rain, so we’re staying on the ship.  Thanks for reading (and to my faithful commenters)!