Cruising

To simplify the entries for our sea days (since they are by-and-large very similar), we decided to consolidate our sea days into one entry, with the one exception being Fannie and Rony’s wedding day. Essentially, our days would consist of waking up, and heading either to Windjammer (the ship’s buffet) or Cascades (the dining room) to start breakfast. From then, we began to do various activities. Our first few days, we were actually very active, spending several hours playing soccer. Our massive Asian group also took part in the table tennis tournament, where we were easily half of the all the participants. We also played in several on ship sports competitions. Norman won 2^nd place in the 3vs3 basketball tournament, and Mandy won 2^nd place in the volleyball tournament. We also spent some time on the rock climbing wall and Mandy and I even did a 7 am gym session on the first day. We didn’t do it by choice, we believed Mendy was going to be there to train us and he subsequently just slept in (Mendy!!). We also spent some time playing some board games, including my first time playing Avalon. I was also dutifully reading a book on China in preparation for work, which took up a lot of my time. I’ve also been playing a lot of video games on my iPhone and we hit up the video arcade a few times for some gun games and Guitar Hero (I am very rusty at that game). It is strange not to have access to internet and I can’t wait to be reconnected back to the world.

Bride to be hanging out in May and Will's fancy window suite

What you lookin at

Cheers! (One of the few dinners May attended)

The old man schooled me in ping pong

Go Norm go!

One of the few photos of us in the Cascade dining room

Suited up for rock climbing

Repelling down

Wohoo reached the top!

Rainbow in the background!

Rock climbing round 2 with Mandy's mom!

Of course, cruising is all about the copious amount of food available. After breakfast, we would typically have a lunch, followed by a pre-dinner and then actual dinner at the Cascades restaurant. On the first several days, we would have a couple glasses of wine, along with several appetizers, entrees and desserts. Overall, the food here is acceptable, not great, but not terrible. It does really depend on the day and what the dishes of the day are. However, I have noticed that the staff has a lot of Indian/Pakistani workers and I feel that the Indian food is considerably better than the other types of cuisine. At breakfast, they offer congee, and it is quite possibly the saltiest and unconventional congee there was.

Formal night

Special napkin rolled for the couple

All in all, 6 days at sea is a tough pill to swallow. Some days, particularly the first day, was extremely rocky and there were many that were sick and could not sleep due to the incessant rocking. And the days do get progressively longer. Especially since every other day we gained an hour due to the change in time zones. Though there are things to do (casino, catching shows, or watching movies), but it does get a little boring eventually. We did see a magic show that was quite good and it is always entertaining to see Rony and his friends lose money at the Roulette table. Though, I must say, after so long at the ocean, I am looking forward to being on solid land again!