25/7 Once more at sea

Wednesday 25^th At sea

Both of us were up on the micro-deck soon after 6 for a good yoga stretch thingy. Must have had a bit of a headwind on top of our forward motion because there was quite a wind to make the balance moves interesting. We had a couple of juices and were first in line at the omelette station for our favourite salmon shrimp and tomato. They have beautifully crunchy and tasty shrimps.

Back to the gym for a solid sweat, half an hour in the sun and in to the first quiz of the day. This was music from the movies and turned out harder than we expected. J scored a couple of points with movies I had never heard of. The Italian host mentioned that she had said we would win again today, which would have been nice because they handed out a Costa towel. But we tied with 7 points and lost the tie break (Xmen) L

The English host gave a disembark talk and was telling the Indians in front of us that they would have to write to head office to get their service charge reimbursed. We had our interview with Guest Relations immediately after that *wink*.

Lunch was a good seafood buffet with leftovers of yesterday’s delicious walnut slices. The afternoon featured another pair of trivia, both of which we fancied. Celebrity photos turned out to be negatives and distortions which reduced the contest to guessing and we were 3 off the pace in the cartoon quiz *sigh*. We went up to have another spell in the sun but the wind had blown into a gale and my crocs were actually cartwheeling along the deck. We passed through the very narrow strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily and watched from a second deck window as the pilot boat collected the pilot right next to us. It was quite precarious at high speed and he had to keep going back round the front of the boat to fetch 3 suitcases.  The scenery was spectacular.

Tom and Nava are booked into the pay restaurant tonight so we should have the table to ourselves, followed by a free cocktail session and free photo with the Captain courtesy of the Costa Club. We are rather looking forward to another 4 cruises on Royal Caribbean by which time we will have climbed to Admiral status. Apart from providing a venue for watching passing volcanoes and grossing out the neighbours, the lack of a balcony is going to deprive us of anywhere to dry laundry. We apologise to Southern Hemisphere readers and Poms . . . but the weather here is Glorious.

We had an email from Dan the Sax (from South America) yesterday saying that Celebrity are cutting back on sax players and his contracts have been cut short and cancelled so he is less than happy.

Yes we had dinner all by ourselves – yet another episode of parades, singing and APPLAUSO – God these Italians must be insecure – they just demand constant Applauso. This time it was all the waiters then the chefs and the maîtres d’ (6 of them – what do they all do?). 

We popped out to have a passing look at a volcano perched on its own in the middle of the ocean. It turned out to be the one we passed in the opposite direction about 10 days ago. We now know that it is Stromboli. It was steaming and putting out black smoke as before.

The cocktail function was somewhat constipated – you got one glass of champagne as you went in and then we were all stuck in seats in the theatre watching a handful of guests shuffling round on the stage to the music of one of the bands. It was the longest time before they brought another drink. The previous general cocktail was much better – heaps of whisky sours.

The show was very high energy – Jive Jukebox. Interesting costumes! The girls finished in huge plumed headdresses, legware rather like chaps with the whole crotch area missing and minimalist G-strings. Similarly, they had sleeves but no tops which just drew attention to the microbras.