It’s so odd not having any windows, you have no idea what time it is. I thought it was morning, there were noises in the hall, but I had no idea what time it was and my phone sometimes messes up when it hasn’t had service for a while. I found my computer and found out that it was 930am – so Jean and I had slept for over 12 hours. Wow, we needed it. We got up and quickly got ready and got lattes on the 4th floor before heading up to the Lido deck to hang out by the pool. I got a drink for myself and Nick (drink of the day – Raspberry Fizz – quite nice) and we chilled by the pool. I read a lot of my book, Eat Pray Love, which is really good, and finished up writing about yesterday. I had registered for wireless internet, which was available by the pool, and found out that it was much quicker than the other computers for some reason, so I read email and uploaded journals. I think I’m going to buy internet in Orlando for our 3 hour layover. It was really nice just sitting there in the shade by the pool with a gentle breeze and a blue sky. But still far too noisy so I listened to my own music for a while. We got lunch at some point, nothing exiting, just a slice of pizza, and Ruthie also bought me a margarita. I left around 2 to change for wine tasting!
Wine tasting was in the Italian restaurant on the 16 floor. To eat at this place you had to pay a $20 cover, so we never went, but it was pretty nice. It was me, Sarah, Jean, Nick, and Ruthie. They had 6 glasses set up and a place of little finger foods. The guy started talking about what we would be tasting and the waiter would come around and pour us a small glass. We tried a sparking wine first, then 2 whites and 3 reds. I liked all of them except for the last red which was far too harsh. The foods were ok, but there were a lot of meats and fois gras (sp?) so I didn’t eat those. It was a good time though and I think it was a good deal for $25 because the sparking wine alone was $11/glass and we had a full glass of that to start. I’m pretty sure I could drink only champagne for the rest of my life and be perfectly fine with it. Course, what was next but more wine! Well, not for me, but all of us went down to the sushi and wine bar on the 4th floor to have a little pre-dinner snack. The sushi was great – I can’t report what it was – but I know that we also had conch in this light ginger-type sauce that was delicious. Good seaweed salad too, which I had not tried before. We then went to the pursers desk to get our bills, which was actually not as scary as it could have been. Mine was like $115, and $80 of that was a gratuity charge that they tack on every day. You can remove it and tip who you want to tip, but we all decided to leave it be.
Back in the room, Jean and I changed for dinner and Sarah met us to walk down to the dining room. Tonight the Mazzilli’s and their guests grabbed the big table. It was great to have everyone sitting together, although I really like Ruth and Rich. Also, Molly sat with her friend, her parents, and her friend’s parents. Anyways, we had a champagne toast and I had a lovely meal of seafood something (like a mix of scallops, shrimp, squid) with avocado, a cold pumpkin curry soup (should have been hot soup), and scallops with twice baked potato for an entree. Then, they turned the lights down and the waiters paraded around the dining hall with ‘flaming’ baked Alaska. It was TOO cheesy. And the ‘flaming’ is because they weren’t real candles – apparently their was some fire on a cruise ship due to the baked Alaska so there’s no more of that. After dinner, we played a game of Taboo. My team, which included Jean, Liz, and Sarah, kicked ass. Wow, Molly was a little (lot) drunk and was giving the most hilarious clues. Like ‘I don’t want to be this!’ (banker) ‘Sarah got this from a girl I think!’ (disease). It was hysterical. And then we have Claudia, the non-native speaker ‘this is a sauce with meat in it!!’ (bologna – she thought it was bolognaise). After that, we went up to the Lido deck for some snacks and then chatted for a bit and said goodnight. Back at the room, I packed very quickly and now Jean is still packing. We have to be in the casino at 7:15 tomorrow morning!
