First sea day

Monday December 13, 2010 Day 166

This is our second cruise. It is very different from our first one in one major way: in the Caribbean there was so little ship motion that we barely knew we were at sea. This one, in the late autumn Mediterranean waters, is quite different - we can feel the sway of the ship almost all the time. Waves frequently splash against our porthole with a thud. We often had to alter the direction in which we are headed because it suddenly became slightly uphill! Everyone walks as if he or she is a little drunk. Last night I dreamed that our cabin (along with the entire ship) turned upside down! I awoke and began mentally detailing where my clothing is in the event we have to evacuate the ship at night! It is truly not bad. The seas are considered “moderate,” and the motion of the ship is not tremendous, just unexpected because of the calmer seas of the Caribbean in early October.

Sardenia, or maybe Corsica - we passed between them.

Our first day was entirely at sea. We didn’t get up until almost 8:30 and ate a late breakfast. I attended an Art 101 lecture on art collecting - 30,000 year of art in 30 minutes - while Roger explored the ship some more. I stayed awake through all my lecture. Roger then wanted to attend a lecture on Rome. He suggested that we go to the lecture and then to lunch; otherwise, he said he would just fall asleep during the lecture. It didn’t help that he was hungry - he fell asleep several times during the lecture. For a while, I nudged him to keep him awake; after all, if I was going to sit through the lecture, he ought to have to do the same, since it was his pick. I finally gave up and he dozed off and on throughout the 45-minute lecture.
There were two main full-service dining rooms. We dined at the Alizar last night, and planned to dine at the Grand Pacific tonight. It was quite crowded when we arrived, and there was supposed to be a 30-minute wait. We took a beeper and left, and lucked out when it rang after about 20 minutes. We dined, then went to the theater for the evening show called Shout! in which five young women - part of the Jade professional crew - sang and danced to a whole series of ’60s tunes, including “To Sir with Love,” “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” “Those Were the Days,” and probably twenty other songs. It was bedtime when we returned to our room, as we have to be up early for tomorrow’s excursion into Rome.