Fourth Sea Day before New Zealand

Last night, Charlie chose some new menu options at Coastal Kitchen and enjoyed them. His appetizer was the hamachi crudo, followed by saffron seafood linguine, with a Black Forest tart for dessert.  I had dishes you’ve seen before on the blog.

Hamachi crudo

Saffron seafood linguine 

Black Forest tart

We are definitely heading south, as the temperature has dropped to 63 degrees outside the ship.  This morning we moved our walk down to Deck 5 (above the Promenade), in order to stay indoors and avoid the strong winds.

As you know, the ship crossed the International Date Line last night, so Friday was followed by Sunday. To avoid losing my streaks in Wordle and Duolingo, I didn’t change the date on my iPad until after working Saturday’s NYT puzzles and Duolingo lessons.  Then I changed the date and did Sunday’s, all but the Spelling Bee, which still hasn’t dropped for Sunday. Yes, I’m really that determined (or crazy) to keep my streaks going.

I went to the crafting group and finally have the heel increases finished on my socks.  People shared stories of previous cruises, especially those about others misbehaving and getting removed from the ship. I wonder if anyone on this ship is under house arrest? We haven’t seen any misbehavior ourselves.

Charlie and I went to Izumi today for another delicious lunch. I tried a new appetizer, chicken thighs marinated in soy, ginger, and mirin, then flash-fried. Very good, especially dipped in the accompanying sweet Thai chili sauce.

Otherwise, we ordered our usual favorite rolls.  We chose the chocolate lava cake for dessert.  Mine was underbaked and was more like brownie batter, so I didn’t eat much of it, but Charlie’s was better and he polished it off.



Today we also received our very official-looking, suitable-for-framing certificates for crossing the equator and the International Date Line.  


Here are maps of our position Sunday afternoon, with an arrival at Tauranga, NZ tomorrow morning.




Tomorrow morning we have a walking tour booked, so I hope the forecasted strong winds of 18 mph with gusts to 33 aren’t too bad!  The temperature will be in the 50s. I’ll let you know tomorrow!

Comments

  1. RachelOctober 26, 2025 at 3:34 AM

    That crudo looks outstanding! A walking tour!! Fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. EleanorOctober 26, 2025 at 7:08 AM

    Good job not losing your streaks! I would have done the same. I remember that crudo! Can't wait to hear about tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ice Skating and Sushi

Image
Yesterday afternoon, we went to the ice-skating show, which was Tarot-themed. Costumed skaters portrayed the Lovers, the Empress, the Joker, etc.  We were as impressed with their skills as we were with the skaters’ on the Wonder in March. Lots of fancy spins, lifts, and jumps! Charlie told me that our ship (Voyager, launched in 1999) was the first in Royal Caribbean’s fleet to have an ice performance rink. There are servers who bring you drinks, so Prosecco it was!  We had reservations at Chops Grille for dinner, and we enjoyed our meal as the sun set. We both tried the appetizer crab cake (not as good as Charlie’s), the lobster bisque (okay), then petite filets with baked potatoes and asparagus. Once again, we failed to capture a pic of the excellent chocolate cake with ice cream.  As I mentioned yesterday, ship’s time moved ahead another hour, but so far we’re adjusting all right. We did have some loud noises overnight from the pool deck on the deck above ours. It sound...
Read more

Off to a Good Start!

Image
Yesterday we left home for our next adventure, back-to-back cruises out of Los Angeles.  We managed to pack lightly, so for the next two weeks I’m going to look like some slight variation of this: Waiting for the elevator Our driver was waiting when we went downstairs, and due to the 4:30 p.m. traffic, took us a VERY circuitous route to the airport. That took about an hour. We got through Security with zero line — although Charlie did get pulled for a “random” bag check.  We went to the Cadillac Mexican restaurant and enjoyed margaritas and snacks until it was almost time to board.  We were the first two to board — no people needing assistance, no Concierge members — so we got settled into our bulkhead seats and were soon sipping some sparkling wine while boarding continued.  We departed at 8 p.m.  I read most of the 3.5 hour trip, finishing a book shortly before landing.  Unfortunately, our plane landed at the remote terminal, which required a short wait f...
Read more

And We're Off Again!

Image
Our highly anticipated trip this time is a month long, as we're taking back-to-back cruises from Vancouver to Hawaii, then on to Sydney, Australia! Royal Caribbean is repositioning Anthem of the Seas for the summer season Down Under.  Yesterday morning at 6:15 a car picked us up to head to the airport.  An hour later, we were through Security and settled into the airport lounge.  We had worried a bit about the government shutdown's impact on TSA and/or the airport itself, but at that hour, at least, all was well.   We tried to pack lightly for this month-long trip, but we didn't attempt to carry on everything. Here's Charlie's luggage: And here's mine: In Charlie's defense, his shoes are bulkier -- I only packed a pair of sandals in addition to the shoes I was wearing -- and he packed a good bit of handy stuff for the cruise ship that we'll both use. The flight to Vancouver went smoothly, although we were a little late leaving. Consequently, our "br...
Read more