So, get this, I opened our door to check our mail, and look! A birthday surprise from the ship.
Inside the card was a $50 gift certificate from the Spa, and a $25 one from Calypso Cove, which is the gift store. And notice the rainbow on the door sign? Well, I opened our balcony curtains to see the following picture. Wow....how'd they arrange that? 😳
It made my day.
We had buffet breakfast and then hit the hot tubs and the pool. We picked a good time to come as the crowds were minimal. I think the hurricane scared off a lot of folks.
Here I am on the deck, enjoying my book as Steven hot tubs. He's waiting for his buddies i guess. He met a lot of people in there and they'd sit and schmooze for hours. We now have all sorts of invites to visit folks in Arizona, Oklahoma City and a plethora of other places, including Mexico. Needless to say, I shied away from all that.
We went to the Bordeaux for lunch where we both had a mini chimichanga for a starter. I had a Greek salad for lunch and he had Fritto Misto, a seafood meal. For dessert I had chocolate bread pudding and he had Baba au Rhum. It was all fantastic.
Since today is a sea day, I'll show some pics of the ship.
This is the atrium, which was four stories high, with a glass elevator to zip up and down those floors
This is where all the shops were, the patisserie (for the good coffee), the front desk, and so on.
Some people enjoy a glass elevator far too much.
There were lots of little nooks and crannies to sit and have a bit of silence.
The Wheelhouse was a lounge with live bands every night. There were 9 bars and lounges, and 8 restaurants, so no lack of food and drink.
The restaurants were situated to make it look like you were walking down a street.
After lunch we went upstairs to change and found this on the bed, I don't know who sent it, but it was much appreciated, a selection of cheeses, crackers and grapes.
Steven wanted to hot tub again (seriously, I had no idea he was such a fan of hot tubs.) and I decided to get a few things organized for tomorrow morning as it was an early rise. I went to open the safe and it wouldn't open. It said "error". I tried again, same thing. And I tried again, same thing. What the hell?
I phoned the front desk and they said someone would be there within half an hour, which frustrated me because, #1: the instant I was told I'd have to wait 1/2 an hour I had a sudden desire to instantly do a dozen other things and #2: I was in a dither wondering how to get my passport and money out since tomorrow was the day in Colombia and I (wrongly, as it turned out) thought we needed our passports to get into South America. Were they going to have to send someone with a drill? Would I spend the entire day waiting for a mechanic? Were they going to blame me? And charge me a fee? As I was working my way into a panic, a knock came on the door and a man in uniform was there. He came in and made me type in my code to see that it wasn't working (thank the gods it didn't work that time...that would have been so embarrassing) . He then typed in a secret code, and I have always wonderd how that works, the actual security of room safes because you know there are always those people who leave it locked as "a joke" when they leave. I always figured that there must be a master code, which then negates the safety of your safe. However, as he typed in his code, it showed his ID number and then showed a 6 digit number, and then he had to phone someone else, who then gave him a 4 digit temporary code. He did all that and told me to enter the new 4 digit code. (They can't open the safe themselves at all) Didn't work. Tried a second time. Didn't work. He started the whole procedure over again, and I saw his 6 digit code, which was, for example, 123456. When he told it to the guy on the phone, he said "123465", transposed the last 2 numbers. I didn't say anything, because, well, I just felt like I shouldn't. Of course it didn't work and he had to do the whole thing over again. He was getting frustrated, and he was blaminng the fellow on the other end of the phone. He started a third time, and again he transposed the last two numbers. This time I gently mentioned it to him, and he said "No. I do this all the time." ("All the time"? Is there an issue with these safes?) I said "I'm pretty sure it was 314, not 341" He huffed and told the fellow on the phone the numbers I had said, he got his temporary 4 digit number and told me to type it in, and Hallelujah! It worked. He left and I quickly took out our passports and money and stashed them in our suitcases. I reset the safe and tried it a few times and it worked fine, but I didn't use it anymore. I had visions of it not working on the morning we were to disembark the ship and missing our transfer to the airport.
Anyhow. That was the daily adventure.
Steven returned and changed into dry clothes and we decided to go for a walk and as as we passed the art gallery, they invited us to register for the auction. It was starting shortly and the seats looked comfy and you got free champagne, so hey, why not? The selection of art was really surprising, there was a Renoir etching, a Chagall (for well over $200,000, needless to say, they didn't sell) as well as a few hundred other works of art; some names I recognized, but most I didn't. The auctioneer was really funny (and very cute) and he made the few hours just fly by. He did all sorts of selling for all sorts of budgets, most in the $600-$1000 range, but one painting sold for $6,700. There were also a lot of raffles for small, but limited edition prints, bottles of champagne, gift certificates and the like. I actually won a small print and guess what it was? An ELK! Those who know my husband will understand the humour of that. Needless to say, he was thrilled. It is a Patrick McManus, for those who follow wildlife art.
By this time it was time for supper, so we went to the Bordeaux where I had a rum and honey roasted pineapple for a starter and he had a Caesar salad. We both had seafood pasta for dinner. For dessert I was going to have a creme brûlée, but to my utter horror the staff came over with cake and candle and sang Happy Birthday to me. Nothing is worse for me than being the centre of attention. But the cake was fabulous.
I was so nervous after that, that when I flung open my napkin to put on my lap I didn't realize that a knife and fork were inside and they flew out, very nearly impaling a neighboring patron. Sheesh.
We went to evening show, tonight was a singer named Jenene Caramielo, she sang and told stories of her childhood, she was extremely entertaining. She used to sing with Chicago, back in the day. It was the best entertainment so far. Not a speck of cheesiness. We sat with our Noo Yawk mafia friends.
Up to our room by 11. I seemed to be a bit more used to the engine vibration, but I took two Gravol just in case, since tomorrow is an early rise for Cartagena and I was so looking forward to that!
Good night.
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