Ship Activities

 In addition to our Cruise Critic events, the ship had a lot of activities.  Some I have seen on other ships but some were unique.

 I saw a program on fruit and vegetable carving.

 I'm thinking carrot curls are about as fancy as I get, but. . .

 I took several pilates classes and had a pedicure.

 We ate in the dining room as often as possible. . .

 Dave read on the verandah regardless of weather and I watched the navigation channel to see where we were.

 But, there were painting classes, dance classes, computer classes, trivia, card tournaments, hot glass shows, paper plane building. . . so much, but. . .

 I still found time to have coffee, watch the waves and write in my journal.

 Sometimes we missed lectures, but could always catch them "On Demand" on the TV.

 There were several afternoon and morning shows including the crew talent show.

 The entertainers got on the ship in Spain and couldn't get off until Miami---so some of them gave matinees or lessons in juggling (above).

 Did I mention, I like just sitting and watching the waves?

We even had several opportunities to honor those who fought in World War I on 11/11/11 at 11:11.  All in all, we found plenty to do in the 8 days we were at sea.  Actually, if it hadn't been so rough, we would have done even more.

Cruise Critic

 Almost a year ago, many of us on the cruise started "talking"about various aspects of the cruise on cruisecritic.com This is a forum in which you find your ship, the date of your cruise and can "chat" with others that will be on the ship about arranging private tours, sharing a ride from the airport to the hotel or ship, discussing what clothes to take.  Since this was a Trans-Atlantic cruise, we also arranged activities.  Marvin had to seminars on Kindles giving us each books to upload.  We also arranged for the slot pull, our Qsine dinner partners and these photos are of the Poker/Cabin Crawl.
 
We were given a map and assigned a group. We had one surprise on the crawl---one of the cruise critic people had a penthouse suite (1900 sq. ft.) with a grand piano, dining room for 8 and a hot tub on the balcony.

Another component was the poker crawl.  In most of the rooms, we drew a card, the host initialed it and marked in on our paper (we each paid $5).  Because each room had its own deck of cards I had two Jacks of diamonds and 2 Kings of diamonds---I was forced to re-draw, though so didn't win the poker crawl.

Other activities were Cruise Critic get-togethers with coffee, cookies.  But there was also a wine-tasting (each person brought a bottle of wine to share) and a gift exchange.  Each person brought a gift from their country or part of the country for about $15.  I didn't participate in that or the wine-tasting, but I went to observe.
 The best was pre-arranging our dinner companions each night.

Rhoda and Gary from Florida just asked on Cruise critic if anyone with early seating wanted to dine with them.

Trish and Pat (California), Dave and I stepped forward.  We had a great time and enjoyed their company more than most tables consisting of people we didn't know before the cruise.   I highly recommend cruisecritic.com.  One person had a web site with all sorts of information and another had put together a photo gallery ahead of time.  Although cruisecritic.com is  a little difficult to manage sometimes, the information, activities and friendships are well-worth it.

Qsine

 We had heard that Qsine was an interesting dining experience, so we arranged to meet Dorothy and Bill for an evening at this specialty restaurant which was just named the #1 Specialty Restaurant on a cruise ship.

 The menu was an iPad.  Click here to see how it worked.  The waiter looked at our favorites and created the meal.

 This was the Painter's Filet Mignon

 Here was the salad with, shrimp.  In the back are rolls on a skewer--we'd already eaten the garlic doughnuts!

 Kobe Beef burgers with lemon salted french fries.

 These were cones of crispy vegetables!

 Chicken Kabobs.

 And for a dessert menu, we had a Rubic's cube?

 Bill ordered cupcakes---which came unassembled!  Tubes of frosting and sprinkles with 4 different kinds of cupcakes.

 Dave and I ordered this chocolate dessert which we could not finish and then. ..our waiter brought chocolate covered strawberries on skewers in pots of grass!  This was such a fun restaurant! I recommend it for something very different.

To see a video on the restaurant, click here.

Spain: Gijon and La Coruna

 We woke up to a sunny day in Spain and a sight my brother would have thoroughly enjoyed---coal!

 We were supposed to go to Vigo, Spain but a storm there sent us to Gijon, Spain.  The merchants/ship provided a free shuttle into town.  Dave and I got on the shuttle and just rode it around. :-)

Since our bus driver spoke no English, we didn't exactly get a "guided" tour of the city, but it got us away from the wharves and onto dry land. After a brief over night trip, we were in La Coruna, Spain.

It is one of the wonderful ports where the ship docks downtown.  Everyone loved this port over Vigo, Spain.  But, actually it was our Azores replacement since the weather was too stormy there, too.

 Just past the orange life boats is a large building to the right---that was the entry to downtown.

 We stayed on the ship and enjoyed our beautiful balcony view. We were only in this port a few hours and there weren't many excursions.  In retrospect, I should have put Dave in the wheel chair and explored a bit.

 But, I really enjoyed all of the views from the ship---there wasn't one of shipping containers or coal!

In the background is the last land we would see for 8 days!

Bay of Biscay---First Day at Sea

 Our first day at sea was between France and Spain.  One of the experienced cruisers said, "Bay of Biscay is always rough." Wikipedia agrees, "Parts of the continental shelf extend far into the bay, resulting in fairly shallow water in many areas and thus cause the rough seas for which the region is known. The Bay of Biscay is home to some of the Atlantic Ocean's fiercest weather. Large storms occur in the bay, especially during the winter months."

 We attended one of many lectures made through the "Smithsonian Journeys" program.  This program by Alan Dowty was on sea exploration before Columbus.  He gave about 6 programs on sea exploration including one on Captain Cook, one on Magellan, Mutiny on the Bounty, Shackelton, as well as Chinese explorations.

 The indoor pool although covered with a net still had some impressive waves!

 We finally realized we would need to get a wheel chair for Dave. (in front of the door)

 Before we set sail, about a hundred of us "met" on cruisecritic.com.  One of our first events was the slot pull.  We each put $15 in a pool, took turns at the slot machine.  At the end, we divided up "the winnings".  Well, we actually lost $2 each, but it was over $800 worth of fun and excitement. 

 I also went to the iLounge and set up a wireless account for my iPad!

Finally, we ended the day with "formal night"---the first of three and the only one where I wore heels instead of sneakers.