Travelicious

Ended up not ordering the cake last night, but did get out to see the beautiful sunset. Pookie is enjoying her last day to sleep in. I’m in the theater to hear the GM give us some info on upcoming ports of call. Tonight is dinner with the officers.

I started reading, but the eyes would not stay open. Had about a 45 minute nap, woke up and it was TIME TO EAT! We went to Hudson’s. It was the blah lunch menu. Still haven’t been on a day with the embarkation day menu. I had corn chowder, which was pretty good, shrimp fritters and peanut butter cup cheese cake. Yum! Pookie had Caprese salad - not good with hard, greenish tomatoes, fish tacos (she liked), and banana cream pie. We skipped the alcohol, as we were scheduled for the Latitudes wine tasting at 2:00. We spent a few minutes in the casino, where Pookie has now won enough dice in the coin pusher to play Yahtzee. I quickly lost a $20 bill plus a voucher for $3 something. We headed to the wine tasting, which was rather crowded. Our selections: Ignore lady’s shoulder in the Italy section. She was taking copious notes before the tasting started. We shared a table with a woman who hated all of the wines and only likes moscato, and her husband who commented that he had not drank in 10 years and didn’t know why they were there. Some were good, some not so much. I’ve decided I would much prefer a wine tasting where they pour one full glass of really good wine. After 8 samplings, the casino was calling me. So I grabbed a $100 bill and ventured forth, determined to try some new to me machines. I quickly won $100 and cashed a voucher for $185. I put the $85 in my pocket and played on with another $100 bill. At one point, I was up to $135 on that, but ultimately came back to the cabin with a voucher for $100 and change and $85 and change in my pocket. Not bad for an hour of fun. By this time, the sun was shining brightly on our balcony, and we were able to sit out for a while. It was so warm that I actually put on shorts while people walking around deck 8 were bundled up. We planned to order room service and drink wine, but nothing on the menu was appealing. We made a trip to the buffet - our first of this cruise - and brought food back to the room. Pookie has now gone to return plates to the buffet and grab a couple of cocktails. If we are still awake and up to it, we may order a pot of decaf and some 7 layer cake a little later. Upcoming cocktail may be the end, though. We’ll see.

Up early for the behind the scenes tour. I slept great, only waking once during the night, which is most unusual. After showering and coffee in the room, we headed to the Cruise Next desk, where we were divided into 2 groups. For some reason, we were not allowed to take our water bottles, and they were placed behind the desk. Luckily, we were not in the group with the Cruise Next employee who has no personality. Unluckily, we were in the group with all of the annoying people. One lady dashed to be in the front at every stop, leaving her husband way behind. There were lots of stupid questions and, of course, the know-it-alls who try to prove they know it all by making declarations disguised as questions. The theater portion was interesting. Sadly, we were not provided cookies or any other treats while in the galley. In fact, nothing was going on in the galley we were allowed to enter. I think it was for Los Lobos. After the tour, we headed directly to the immigration check. It took about 20 minutes to get through the line. We stopped by Cruise Next to collect my water bottle. No one was there, but my bottle was visible on the back counter, so I retrieved it. After a brief rest, we got a breakfast snack at Indulge. I must be in the minority, as I find the breakfast potatoes delicious - much better than those greasy hash brown patties they used to serve. Still, an occasional cookie would be nice. Now it’s time to rest and read for a bit until we eat again. 😆

Had a light dinner and heavy drinks. Hopefully rough seas ahead to help us sleep. Here’s me all bundled up this afternoon. Anonymity maintained.

Lazy morning here. Woke up around 9:30, made some coffee and laid in bed watching the newish Little Mermaid movie. This movie, especially, looks great on these TVs! When it was over, we got ready and went to Hudson’s for lunch. We wanted to be there for sailaway, which was supposed to be at 1:00. However, by 1:45 we still were not moving, so decided to go to the balcony then to walk around deck 8. I got all bundled up and watched from the balcony, then went to walk around deck 8. It was COLD and windy down there. Part of deck 8 was closed for maintenance, so we only made it around 3/4 of the way around. That was enough! Now we are back out in the ocean with no view of land. Going to read in the cabin for a bit before going out for cocktails. We need to get up early tomorrow for the behind the scenes tour, so need to be able to get to sleep at a decent time tonight. Accordingly, going to try to refrain from napping today. Also on deck for tomorrow is the mandatory immigration screening, and the wine tasting at 2:00. We have been gifted a couple bottles of red wine, so may order room service tomorrow night and stay in to drink a bottle. I can’t drink red wine anymore without food - too dry. Only 2 more super lazy days before this trip starts getting crazy.

Free!

Ours were brownish in color.

The good news is that there was a cruise shuttle outside the terminal into downtown Reykjavik. The bad news is that there isn’t much happening on a Sunday morning. Still, we had a walk about. When we realized it was Sunday, and that the dentist’s office would likely not be open, we decided not to waste the cab fare to get there. The Fixodent is currently holding. More good news: we found the famous hotdog stand early and there was no waiting. More bad news: it wasn’t really anything special. The only thing I found rather unique was the crunch of the fried onion. Otherwise, it was bland. I don’t quite get the rave reviews, but I guess not everyone has experienced an Oscar Meyer turkey dog roasted over a wood fire, eaten in a Wonder bread bun with French’s mustard and raw onion. We caught the shuttle back to the ship, and walked out around the sea walk and the rock pier. After a few hours, we are back onboard and enjoying a margarita in The Local. It is Cinco de Mayo, after all!

Land ho!

The message about the change of schedule for tomorrow indicates that people should be able to begin leaving the ship around 7:30. I am going to set my alarm for that time, get showered, and grab a light breakfast. Hopefully most will already be ashore by then. The only must do while in Reykjavik is to eat at the famous hot dog stand. We’ll probably try to get Pookie in to a dentist, but if it doesn’t work out the Fixadent seems to be doing the job for now. Otherwise I just want to walk around and see what there is to see. Had I known we would have a full day we would have joined one of the big tours. Oh well. A hot dog and a walk about it is! 😆

We are still trying to find the right balance of when to eat. We are definitely only doing 2 meals per day. Of course, activity level is also greatly decreased from last week, so that doesn’t help. Luckily, we will be in Reykjavik tomorrow and will get some walking around time. Looks like there is about a 20% chance of rain in the afternoon. We should be able to deal with that. We were scheduled to arrive at 2:00 in the afternoon and to depart at 1:00 in the afternoon on Monday. Not ideal times. However, we were notified this evening that we will arrive at 6:00 a.m. due to a medical emergency. Today we actually got up early and went to The Local for breakfast. There was NO LINE! In fact, there were probably only 5 or 6 tables that were occupied while we were there. It was wonderful! And peaceful. We chilled in the room after breakfast and told the steward we did not need service today. It was a mostly sunny day for a change, so we opened the balcony door to enjoy the sights and sounds. A little to chilly in the wind to just sit out. We went out for a walk around deck 8 and then drinks around 2:30. There were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine. There were even some using the pools. Too cold for me! We went to Belvedere’s and both had a Moscow Mule, which was nice and light. For the next round, I had an amaretto sour and Pookie had a whiskey sour. People started lining up for the Commodore Room around 4:45, and it was getting loud, so we headed to the Observation Lounge, where we were actually able to get a seat. We had another Moscow Mule while waiting for Food Republic to open. This one wasn’t as good, but somehow we managed to finish it. Having eaten at Food Republic before, I decided we should pay rather than use a dining voucher. We started with 4 items, and would order more if still hungry. We were both stuffed after sharing the 4 items. Pookie also had 5 ounces of warm sake. I tried a sip. Some things don’t change. I didn’t like Saki 40 years ago and I still don’t.

Finally getting a nice photo of the ocean and some blue sky.

Here’s something I love about the ship in public restrooms: Left is soap, middle is water, and right is DRYER! Maybe not much of a big deal to some of you, but amazing to us country bumpkins!

Breakfast at Hudson’s. No photos, as I forgot to bring my phone. We arrived around 9:20. Service was not great, but not complaining. Slot pull with $100 entry returned $220 each! Great time for all who participated! I a as already lost profits, but not initial investment. Dinner again in Hudson’s. I had lemon-pepper shrimp and Pookie had spinach/ricotta stuffed pepper. Both were very good. For dessert, I had lava cake and Pookie had apple strudel. Mine was cheesy, but need to request without strawberry gelatin/ ook. Pookie said her topping was good, but apples somewhat hard.

My bad! We haven’t tried Metropolitan yet. I meant Belvedere.