The day at sea, as the name implies,
is a day spent cruising from one location to the next. It’s a great time to
make use of one of the several pools, lounge a bit, read and relax, and re-charge the batteries for the last hundred meters. What it is not is an interesting day to blog about. But that’s OK; even bloggers deserve a rest.
We managed to spend most of the day at sea camped on our balcony working on small projects and staring at the Mediterranean. By sunset, we'd had quite enough of relaxing, so changed into civilian clothes and joined our regular
dinner companions in one of the ship’s dining rooms. Dinner was, as always, an
enjoyable affair. And after dinner things got a little interesting.
We’ve been on board all day, so there's no regrouping or preparation to
occupy our evening. Instead, we spent the evening exploring as many
entertainment venues as possible. Entertainment options are plentiful on a cruise
ship. There are multiple lounges,
coffee-shops, themed bars, and pool-side games next to actual pools! There is a casino on board and if you want to
lose your money the old-fashioned way there are shops with $40 T-shirts and
other outrageously over-priced items. This ship even has cigar lounge and a bowling
lane.
Neither of us being cigar enthusiasts,
we decided to check out the more musical offerings. Our first stop was in the
Centrum, unsurprisingly located in the center of the ship. The floor of the
Centrum is on the 4th deck while the ceiling rises well above the
lights to around the 14th deck. Footlights illuminate the bedazzled stairs and stage, blinding anyone who dares to look down from
above. The piano man sat at the bedazzled piano. While I don’t
remember if the piano man himself was bedazzled, it is a possibility.
The
piano man played competent, middle-of-the-middle-of-the-road arrangements of
classic-rock standards, killing any fond memories in the process. His back-up
band was a laptop computer.
I might be harsh,
I might be crazy.
There was something ‘bout the way
he played, I did not care.
He hit the notes,
It didn’t faze me,
He played all night,
Or so we’re told,
He did alright.
We left the piano man to visit the “Purple
Bar.” This is not a stage where Prince songs are played all night; it's more
of a karaoke event where all the participants appear to be crew members on break. We considered staying for a bit, but just a
few notes of the song being performed convinced us to keep on trucking to the
next venue.
Our
next stop was the jazz bar, which featured a pleasant-sounding jazz
pianist. He was mellow. If you closed your eyes you could drift away in song.
If you closed them too long you’d probably fall asleep. Occasionally this alternative piano
man was accompanied by a guitarist, who would lay down a few smooth
runs and then disappear for the next several numbers. As seemed to be the trend
on board ship, the backup band was a laptop computer.
Our
last stop of the evening was the final performance at the big
theater. The big theater actually had a glitzy name I've already forgotten. I do remember the show, however, a medley of highlights from West Side
Story. It was a competent production and in the dark nobody noticed I was
sleeping.
The
show ended around midnight, and though we had originally planned to return to
the jazz bar, some combination of travel overdose and old age left me too tired for another round of smooth jazz. We decided to call
it a night.
Barcelona
is coming up next and between yawns we are excited about tomorrow. We’ve never been to
Spain. We’d never been to Malta or Sicily before either, but this is Barcelona!
In Spain! It doesn’t escape our attention that the closer we get to Spain the
rougher the seas are becoming. Nevertheless we're going to sleep with noise from the wind steadily increasing, but confident that tomorrow will be an interesting day. 
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