Sunday, March 27, 2016 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean – Cloudy, Foggy – high 60sF

A foggy gloomy day at sea -

Slept a little better last night.  We kept the veranda door open and the fresh air might have helped.  It’s great to be able to keep the balcony door open (I know it messes with the AC).

At 7:30 AM, I went to breakfast in the Lido – WCP and some scrambled eggs.  Lots of coffee and very good.

Ellen ate the breakfast I brought her on the veranda.  The ship is small enough and the location of our stateroom relative to the Lido Café ensures that the food will still be hot when it arrives.

We are right above our Lifeboat (#7)

After seeing the other speakers struggling a bit with the 45 minute time limit, I’m still trimming the upcoming presentations to fit.  For this, I needed an iced decaf skinny mocha latte so I got my first of the cruise at the Bistro.  It was very very good.

First Iced Decaf Mocha Skinny Latte of the Cruise

There is a Jazz Buffet in the Crystal Plaza but we had lunch in the Lido – Salad, Herring in Cream Sauce, Lemon Meringue Tart.  The buffet set up is very neat and clean and the food was, again, delicious.

The Trident Grille has a very interesting “living wall”, which I needed to document (below).

After lunch, Ellen was needle pointing in the Lido Café while I tried to trim a few more minutes from my presentations. 

Today’s Project

We went back to the room to rest a bit before dinner.  This gave me a chance to work out on the veranda.  It was great out there – the only thing missing was the iced latte.

Veranda Office

Tonight is Crystal Casual – we went to the Crystal Dining Room to see if we could get some seats for dinner.  The Maître D sat us with a couple from Oklahoma and another couple.  The first couple was very talkative so there was little dead air during dinner.  I had the butternut squash ravioli appetizer, mushroom soup, green salad with a jalapeno popper, the Dorado (main dish), and the fruit plate and decaf.  The service was quick and dinner took just over an hour.  

We headed for the Avenue Saloon to hear Mark play for a few minutes.  Passing the Starlite Lounge, I took a picture of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra playing dance tunes.  The music was a bit too loud to stay.  We didn’t stay too long in the Saloon either as Mark was basically background music for the pre-dinner bar crowd. 

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra

The “In Town Tonight” performer was Gary Arbuthnot, a flautist from Northern Ireland.  I’m pretty sure we have seen him before.  We stayed for just a couple of numbers before starting our search for a quiet venue to read. 

We ended up in the Palm Court, where it was pleasantly quiet.  We ordered decaf lattes, which were very good, and sat in the very high backed chairs against the front window of the lounge.  I managed to read about 30 or so pages before the Crystal Quartet started their set.  Then, it was off to the room.

We were unsuccessful in getting any tours for the two days in Bermuda, so we will play it all by ear.