Day at Sea number 1

7th September

So, what was lined up for me today? I had no intention of just sitting there all day and there was nowhere to go except around the ship so.......
13:00- 15:20 Broadway Show Lounge : film : Aladdin (2019)
15:30- 16:30 Broadway Show Lounge  : talk: Glenn Patrick - A Question Of Time
 Excellent, that's the afternoon nicely filled for me and the rest of the time I think I will go for a wander around deck 6/7 for a few turns and give myself a mile of walking and four sets of stairs at each turn.
There is always a lot of activities on offer during sea days;

• yoga or pilates
• coffee and watercolour
• tutorials on reducing pain through acupuncture
• tutorials on weight loss
• tutorials on arthritis; its causes and management
• shops and sale launches
• various bars and lounges hosting different types of live music
• table tennis tournament; quoits competition
• New look, New you; face shapes and hair styles and make up master-classes
• game shows
• sports and film memorabilia sales
• dance classes
• bingo of various types
• three movies and one late night on on the pool deck
• showtime with the entertainments singers and dancers in the evening

So really, there isn't any excuse to be bored and of course there's always eating which can happen at any time of day from 6am until 3am in one of the venues. And there's a lot of that.
for me, what I do find difficult to accept is people's desires to fill their plates and then leave half of it so as to go onto the pudding and custard, the cheese and biscuits and perhaps to make it look healthy, some melon.
I was talking with the sous chef from the Market Place, the buffet restaurant, and he said one of the greatest problems they have is wasted food. 
Let's review the eating houses shall we?

• The Med Tapas including the Italian on deck 11 serving 
• early risers breakfast from 06:30 to 09:00
•  lunch from 11:00 to 17:00
• dinner from  18:30 to 21:00
• late snacks from 22:00 to 01:00

•  Latitude 53 on deck 5
• breakfast from 08:00 to 10:00
• lunch from 12:00 to 14:00
• dinner from 18:00 to 21:00

• Vista on deck 5
• dinner from 18:30 to  21:30

•  Surf and Turf *on deck 7
• dinner from 18:30 to  21:30

• Kora La* on deck 7
• dinner from 18:30 to  21:30

• Umi Sushi* on deck 7
• dinner from 18:30 to  21:30

• The Dining Club* on deck 5
• dinner from 18:30 to  21:30                     * service charge payable in these restaurants

 Not forgetting The Market Place which starts serving buffet breakfast at 07:00 until 11:00, then has a rapid change over so they can get out lunch which starts at 11:30 and goes on until 15:00, with yet another rapid roll over to afternoon tea at 15:00 until 17:00 and then takes a breather to get up and running for dinner at 18:00 until 21:30.
Now, just in case you're feeling there just isn't enough food about, I have to point out the Snack Shack on deck 11 which sells burgers, hot dogs and chips......does a roaring trade.

There are temptations everywhere and the size of travellers waists increases daily. One man I got to know said the shirt he came on board in had trouble doing up as he disembarked!

So this is the ship, full of shops, coffee houses, restaurants and bars. There is a library, a gamers room and a place for the younger ones in their teens to go and Breakout if they want time alone together. There is a play area for the very little ones and long walking decks to stroll round and get blown from on a bad day.
you are confined but if you pay it right it doesn't have to feel like that and if you want alone time, it's easy enough to find.


One of the nooks you can curl up in and just allow the sea to pass you by. Outside is the strolling deck where they play shuffle board. I fine weather its nice to sit out there, but on this trip it wasn't really warm enough unless you had hat, scarf, gloves and thick, warm, boots