Sunday, 4/20 – Happy Easter at sea!  It is a lovely morning as we arise and head to our normal morning activities:  coffee in Lido, gym (surprisingly not too crowded), then a quick little fruit snack for breakfast and onto the 9am coffee chat with Tjalling, our Nederland born (actually Friesian born and raised – a province in Nederland that has its own language and was originally not part of Nederland – but were conquered ages ago) Cruise and Travel director.  He is adorable, young and really tall – all Friesians are tall he tells us, he is average height for the area.  Then something different for us – the Easter Brunch in Pinnacle Grill.  And extra cost meal for Easter – which was fabulous.  Fresh squeezed OJ Mimosas along with Lobster Benedict and Tenderloin with hollandaise sauce.  Far too much food, but oh so good.

Unfortunately the awesome brunch conflicted with the first guest lecturer, Dr. Steven Griffin who lectured on How to do a Heart Transplant (Don’t try this at home)!  We really wanted to see it, and are hoping it will be recorded on the TV – but brunch comes first.  We were able to see Alexander Sanchez Jones presentation on The Atlantic:  Crossing a Great Blue Wilderness.  He is a biologist focused on sea life, in particular sea turtles, dolphins and whales.  We learned about the 4 layers of the ocean – the Epipelagic being the top layer which is what he will focus upon in his lectures.  Along with all the wildlife to be found there, the most interesting thing we learned is that the Sargasso seaweed we see floating around is living – not just dead seaweed that is drifting away.  There is an entire ecosystem contained in those seaweed clumps – little bulb onion looking things that help the seaweed float, crabs, invertebrates, all sorts of living organisms.  Baby turtles actually live in the Sargasso because they aren’t good hunters when they are small and the Sargasso has all sorts of food to sustain them.  Another strange, but fascinating, fact:  There is a little teeny crab called the Columbus crab that lives in the bum of sea turtles.  Yes, the bum. They aren’t parasites, they are symbiotic, feeding and keeping the turtle clean.  Strange but true!

The rest of the afternoon is spent reading and hanging out on the balcony.  Then the gym, the Neptune lounge for drinks and snacks, where we learn that the new little “cocktail appetizers” that are available for delivery to the suite in the afternoon change every day.  Something we can look at doing in the next couple of days, instead of hanging out here in the lounge – better on the balcony anyway!

Dinner in the main restaurant, on the way we ran into Komang, who asked if we were going to Lido or the dining room.  When we answered the dining room, he made sure to remind us it was dressy night, just taking care of us!  Got it!  Then dinner with Yus, who was excellent but totally slammed – which was fine by us – slower is better, less down time before the show!  He kept apologizing, and we kept telling him it was fine, we were good.  Then after he cleared our mains, he told us to stay, relax.  Then asked if we had any plans.  When we told him nothing until the 9:00 show, he said “Just stay, you understand what I mean?”  Yep – we sure do.  That was hysterical!  So, we stayed – with a decaf coffee for Ed and the rest of my wine for me.  Got him out of another seating, we hope.

Hit the Rolling Stone for a few minutes to hear the band – that place was a zoo!  Then onto the theater and the PITA seats for The Showmen, a trio of male singers backed by the R&B trio who were very good.  Easter and Day one at sea complete!

Monday, 4/21 – Another normal day – up early, gym (blissfully empty because we lost an hour last night and of course not everyone figured that out), Pinnacle for breakfast then a full day of lectures:  Coffee chat with Tjalling and Lilliana, the Beverage Manager; The cooking show – Spaghetti alle Vongole e Gamberi; Dr. Steven with the Women of Picasso – turns out Dr. Steven is an amateur art aficionado who has lived on a boat in France for the last 20 years and studies art and artists.  He gives a fascinating deep dive into Picasso, mostly the man himself, his womanizing and how it affected his art.  He was horrible to the women in his life – and he had many.  He would fall head over heels in love, portray his new love beautifully in early portraits, then, as the relationship went on longer, he became bored or just tired of his latest conquest and the portraits of that woman became more and more strange and ghastly, even nasty.  Dr. Steven talks about his Blue Period, brought on by his guilt from making one of his girlfriends have an abortion – he was quite literally blue and painted everything in that fashion – including one portrait people thought was the Madonna and child, but was in fact his girlfriend and their son, had Picasso not forced the abortion.  Dr. Steven’s last comment and point of the whole discussion:  Was Picasso a great artist?  Definitely.  Was he a nice person?  Certainly no.  Does it matter today?  Probably not.  Should we separate the artist from the art?  Absolutely.  Really interesting.

Then it is off to the Lido for lunch.  Oh boy.  A zoo.  And really only because all the seating is taken – because I’d venture to say 80% of the tables are for 6 or more, meaning you either share, or you have no where to sit.  We are heading out to the Lido pool midship when we luck out and spy the last 2 top table available and grab it fast.  Phew.  Seating solved.  Down time next in the cabin, then off to the World Stage, where we sit on the lower level in the chairs with the table – oooohhhh!  We’ve never ever been down here for a show – may have to change our routine – for Alexander with The Drifting Cosmos.  Another great lecture on the Epipelagic layer of the ocean and Plankton; zooplankton, the animals such as krill; phytoplankton, the plant life, etc.  Jelly fish, which are also plankton.  The fried egg jelly fish (it really does look like a fried egg), the only jellyfish that doesn’t sting.  The Man o’war jellyfish that is not a single jelly fish but a colony of organisms working together.   Very educational.

Then the normal evening activities: Gym, Lounge, dinner and tonight the cabin for TV because the show is a violinist – we’ll pass.  Plus there is another hour forward tonight, which plays into timing for sleeping and waking, etc. 

Tuesday, 4/22 – Normal Sea Day routine: up early, gym, coffee, Pinnacle grill for breakfast, Coffee with Tjalling and the Entertainment Team; Dr. Steven and Medical Art, another interesting discussion about all the great artists who painted medical procedures.  Then off to the crazy lunch seating, which today was actually much easier – we found a 2-top right away.  Score!  The special food corner today was Ceviche, which was a huge spread of every type of fish you could ask for – and you got to choose what you wanted.  The downside of that is that it was all fresh fish, not marinated in lemon or lime juice and onion and garlic as is the normal preparation for ceviche.  Thus, it was more like cubed sashimi.  They poured the lime juice over it, but that didn’t really do anything.  I treated it like sashimi – grabbed some soy sauce, wasabi and chop sticks off the sushi buffet and made a meal.  Worked for me!  Also had a great pork belly slider.  Yum. 

Our last afternoon activity is Alex’s Great Ocean Gatherings which was an interesting talk on all the different ecosystems and habitats fish form in the ocean.  Sea turtles have their own habitat with schools of fish following them, algae and seaweed living on their shells.  Another good lecture day!

Then of course down time, although it’s a little too chilly and windy on the balcony for that, we hang out in the cabin then up to the gym, lounge for drinks, and tonight, we ordered the suite cocktail bites.  Grilled shrimp and beetroot spread/crackers which arrives right on time – although along with the salmon and cream cheese.  Huh, well, whatever!  We ate the shrimp – very good and hot – and 2 of the beet spread, which turned out to be cream cheese on a piece of toast topped with a chunk of beet and a chunk of mango – as well as 2 of the salmon.  The rest went into the fridge for snacks later. 

Then onto a nice dinner in the main dining room, slow, but nice.  Man, those poor waiters in the dining room – once again we think they are understaffed or something. Maybe it’s the kitchen?  They take your order and then disappear in there – must be a nightmare on the line.  But the food is fabulous, the wait staff all wonderful, so no worries.  We have nothing to do – so we don’t care about taking a long time.

As a matter of fact, we really had nothing to do as the show is the StepOne Dance Company and Musicology, which we’ve seen – so off to the cabin and the balcony and TV.  Another sea day in the books.

Wednesday, 4/23 – Groundhog day – Gym, breakfast, Coffee with Tjalling and the head housekeeper from Colombia – then downtime in the lounge and cabin until Dr. Steven at 11 – where we arrive too late to get decent seats.  Man, you gotta get here early to get seats where you can see the whole screen (well at least aisle seats, which we prefer).  But we manage to eek out enough and sit through a very interesting lecture on Modern Art.  He talked about all the different styles of modern art – or the “-isms” – then did a deep dive on a few, including Futurism, which is favored by dictatorial regimes (he showed examples of Nazi Germany propaganda) and then comments that he expects to see more in the next few weeks!  The guy is priceless with his dry humor on the political situation!  Excellent explanations of all the different art styles too.  Just a great speaker.   He talked a lot about Frida Khalo, which was great because while I know to recognize her, I never really knew her background, etc.  But know we do!  We know she was married to Diego Rivero, who was more famous initially, and that she was a medical student, who was in an accident and was quite hurt, then visualized how she felt in paintings.  She was also the first woman to do surrealist art, before her it was all white men.  And of course all white European men – surrealism came to America later, as it “followed the money,” i.e., Getty, Rockefeller, etc.  All artists follow the money and as Dr. Steven says, “Americans have it.”  He also showed this fantastic depiction of all the different artists in a drawing entitled “art school of fish.”  A visual guide to all the artists.

Bottom line on modern art – it’s like music without words, it still produces emotions and evokes images.  That’s modern art – music without words, look at it, try to understand it in your perspective and enjoy. 

Lunch where we score one of the last 2 top tables in the Lido – geez, this huge table thing up here stinks!  Had the “specialty corner” which we have no idea what to call – maybe little shot cup specials?  Everything was in a shot glass – mostly repurposed seafood from the ceviche bar!  But all excellent, ok, well most.  Ed liked the Tuna Tartare, I didn’t. It was like tuna salad paste.  I did enjoy the Salmon Tartare though – and really loved the Lumpia in a glass!  Why Lumpia? Who knows? But they were great.

Then downtime until Alex with The Mountains of the Dolphins, all about islands and seamounts (the large island type formations underwater) that attract dolphins. The seamounts are hotspots for biodiversity but very under protected.  Even the Marine Protected Areas aren’t that formal or protected – just made up areas for legislation or regulation purposes (which is really sad to learn).

The rest of the afternoon is “free time” in which I chose to nap – for some reason I ws exhausted – Ed watched TV and read.  Then its off to the gym, the lounge and tonight dinner in The Pinnacle Grill where we share the candied bacon, and I start off with Asparagus risotto – fabulous but way too much for a starter, that could have been my whole meal! – Ed has the Lobster bisque which he deems perfect, and the wedge salad.  Then we went whole hog and Ed ordered the Dover Sole (extra cost) while I went with my traditional lamb chops.  Ok, I really should have taken a picture, because that darn Dover Sole was the biggest thing we have seen!  It was huge!  And fabulously prepared and tasted amazing, but there was no way Ed could finish it, not even with my meager help.  So good. And my lamb chops were the best seasoned chops I have ever had on a ship – ever.  So good in fact, we took 2 of them to the room with us for snacks later.  Excellent.

Then it was off to the show to see Big Red, Meghan Murphy, with her hilarious blend of big hits and comedy. We’ve sailed with her before, as a matter of fact on the Azamara COVID cruise. The show tonight – as usual – was fantastic and we are looking forward to finding her onboard one day to tell her how much we enjoy her performances and reminisce about our fun time at sea in 2020, as it were. 

And that’s the end of our night – another hour forward tonight….and yet another sea day tomorrow.