Red Red Hot Head: #2704 vacation day 5: at sea ~ UPDATED! ~

I talked to the ship’s WiFi guy today about why my photos won’t transfer from the phone to the iPad. He told me the signal doesn’t seem to be strong enough for that kind of thing. There was another person in the same predicament. I thought I was annoyed with it, but the other man was pretty irate. I’ll probably have to revise these posts when I get to the hotel in Italy and add photos. I’ll still give you words as we go, though. I mean, I am in the middle of the sea, so I guess I can sort of understand the WiFi issues. Plus, all the customer service runs on WiFi, so maybe there are priorities for the servers.

Today was a day at sea. We left Barcelona last night around 10 pm. We are scheduled to arrive in Gibraltar tomorrow morning. What does one do on a sea day? For us, it’s all about relaxing, reading, and resting. Our time in Barcelona was pretty intense; we packed a lot of action into those two days, in addition to handling the stress of the late-arriving luggage. This relaxing day came at a good time.

We slept in until the sunrise woke us up. We are on the sunrise side of the ship. From the other side of the ship right now, you can see the Spanish coast, but from our room, we only see water. The sea was blessedly calm today, the sky was bright blue, and it was warm and sunny. There are 18 decks on the ship, and our room is on deck 15. Our room has a balcony - we have never had a room like this on other cruises. I admit that it is pretty fucking nice. We had the door open today for awhile to let in the beautiful breeze and warmth. MT sat out on the balcony for awhile in the morning. In the afternoon, he napped and watched a movie.

This morning I took my journal to deck 17 and sat at a table to write. I really enjoyed doing that. While MT was napping this afternoon, I did a fine wine tasting. I haven’t done anything like that before, and I really enjoyed it! There were six wines: a Champagne, two chardonnay wines, and three reds. There was a canapé to go with each wine. I was surprised how much more flavorful the wine was after I ate the canapé. I learned things, I tasted the wines, and I had a great time doing it. There will be another wine tasting, maybe on Wednesday (another sea day). It will be table wines, and will be half the price. I think I might do that one, too. How much was it, you ask? I paid $25 for today’s wine tasting, and I feel like I definitely got my money’s worth.

After the wine tasting, I came back to the room and sat out on the balcony for awhile. MT had just started watching a movie, so after about an hour, I went back up to deck 17 to get a snack and a drink. I dozed a little, too, to be honest. I haven’t been sleeping very well the past few days. Too much excitement, I guess.

Tonight was Formal Night in the main dining room. We sort of got dressed up, not as fancy as some, and just about as fancy as most. Our meal was delightful. We had a very nice Cabernet Sauvignon (thanks wine-tasting class!) to drink. MT started with some kind of smoked salmon dish, followed by a Caesar salad. His main was roasted leg of lamb. For dessert, he had some supremely chocolate-y creation that he loved, loved, loved. I started with goat cheese soufflé (divine), followed by a Caesar salad. My main course was Virginia ham that was tender and flavorful. For dessert, I had Italian cake flavored with nuts and candied orange peel in a sabayon sauce, followed by an espresso. It was perfect. Yes, I have gotten into the habit of having an espresso after my meal. I feel very sophisticated! LOL

MT has been craving an Irish coffee, so after dinner, we went to one of the many bars and got a coffee with whisky and whipped cream. I couldn’t finish mine, but MT sucked his down like a pro.

We didn’t book an excursion for tomorrow in Gibraltar, but we will definitely get off the ship and take a look around the island.