Sunday April 13th 2008
Noon position: Noon position 29 degrees, 7' North latitude and 73 degrees, 40' West longitude
Bob: The ship had no noticeable motion during the night, so we had a great night's sleep and were up and ready to go the next morning, which was an "at sea" day during which we cruised toward Bermuda. We settled into a routine of attending a stretching class at 7:30, doing the Walk-A-Mile at 8:30, and catching line dance classes whenever they were offered (apparently no ballroom dance classes on the Navigator, drat it!). But at 9 a.m. we attended the lecture + slide show on Bermuda given in the main theater by Dr. Thomas Ryan, a historian by profession and apparently an inveterate cruise ship lecturer. There was, as the old joke goes, a quiz afterwards, and I won a DVD by answering a trivia question about Bermuda correctly. Dr. Ryan was, however, death on the mopeds rented by many tourists in Bermuda and strongly encouraged us to purchase a bus + ferry pass instead of renting a scooter. It would have been good to get that advice earlier, but I had, of course, already paid for our scooter rental for the day we stayed in Bermuda and it was too late to back out. Oh well. |
Monika: On our first day at sea I was curious what activities this big ship had for us compared to the Jewel of the Sea. We went to morning stretching exercise, then had breakfast, and did the Walk-A-Mile. Here the cruise staff member actually walked ahead of us, setting a rather brisk pace. Bob, of course, stayed right with her, I was a little behind, and others stretched at the end around the deck. The walking/jogging trail is well marked and coated with a special bouncy material, so walking is very nice. RCI has done away with the Shipshape Dollars and instead is giving out "Vitality Points". Idea is the same: collect them for physical activity classes and redeem them at the end for merchandise. Why the change, I am not sure. Maybe, these are easier to handle - little round cardboard discs, rather than pieces of paper - maybe they are more difficult to counterfeit. In any case, we are collecting and striving for some heavy nylon backpacks, since this year's model seems nicer than the plastic ones we got last year. At 9 was a destination lecture. It was a power point presentation in the theater, so there was more than enough space for everyone. Everyone could see the screen, and the lecturer was miked so everyone could hear. The lecturer was a retired history professor who had done extensive cruising and lecturing. It was very informative and also interestingly presented. Definitely an improvement in all aspects over what we had a year ago. The lecture was on Bermuda and was a nice summary of the history of the island and included pictures of the interesting spots. We were strongly warned against renting a moped. Of course, Bob has already reserved one, so we are going to ignore the warning. |
Bob: After line dancing in the afternoon we watched a corps of 10 ice dancers perform on the small ice rink down on deck 3 of the Navigator. Given the small size of the rink, the performance was quite impressive. It was a potpourri performance that interspersed very nice solo and dual skater numbers with large-scale ensemble acts using seven to ten skaters. The solo and dual numbers consisted of classic ice dancing and pairs skating elements, and from watching that over the years I had some appreciation for how good these skaters really were. The ensemble numbers were very, very different. Roughly, one number was modeled on a hocky game, another on a Zulu war dance or something similar, and a third seemed to be inspired by the minuets danced in the royal courts in Mozart's time. Each was enjoyable in and of itself, but what, if any, theme conncected them I could not tell. The transitions from the loud, flashy, and energetic group numbers to the calm, quiet, and graceful solo and pair ice skating numbers were occasionally jarring, but it certainly did provide variety! If you find yourself on the Navigator some day, make sure to take in that performance and see what you make of it. |
Monika: At 11:30 the Captain came on the intercom to give us the pertinent information on position, weather, etc. At the end, he told us to set the clocks forward one hour. We were surprised, that this happened in the middle of day, instead of the middle of the night. When we discussed this later at the dinner table, we came to the consensus that this probably was done for the crew in particular, so they would not loose an hour of the little sleep they are getting. In any case, it seems to be a great way of "springing forward". At 2PM we went to line dancing, but there were no ballroom dancing lessons, to our surprise, and also in the evening there was no place listed for ballroom dancing. After that was an ice dancing show. For anyone sailing on one of these ships, a word to the wise: come early to ice skating shows. It is a relatively small rink and fills up quickly. But the show was impressive. They had 2 male-female skating pairs plus an additional 3 males and 3 female skaters for a total of 10 performers for the entire show. They performed a variety of vignettes with the usual quick costume changes. It was very well done and included jumps, spins, throws and lifts by individuals and pairs as well as production numbers. I was impressed how much they could do in the little space. In the middle they had a special couple that did some juggling while iceskating. Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I will go again when they repeat it. |
Bob: My rented pants had arrived as promised during the day, so I could dress appropriately for the evening dinner and Captain's reception. We were pleasantly surprised at dinner to not only have Jeff, Helen, George, and Don at our table, but also Vicky and Sue, a mother-daughter pair from the Jacksonville area. Vicky worked in the airline industry and had some interesting travel stories to tell, naturally enough, so we all got acquainted over dinner. The Captain's reception afterward was held in the large open courtyard in the center of the ship, which was one of the remarkable features of the Navigator of the Seas. The enclosed atrium is roughly five stories high, fifty yards across, and a couple hundred yards long, which is a surprisingly large open area to find in the middle of a ship! The sides of the avenue on the lowest level were lined with shops, bars, and boutiques, so it somewhat resembled a small town mainstreet. But the three decks of staterooms overlooking the mainstreet all had large picture windows, so some of the interior staterooms on the Navigator had a huge window overlooking this "town" area. I thought it distinctly odd to imagine being in a stateroom on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean but be looking out at a small town mainstreet, but I expect that view still beats having no windows at all, as would be the case for the other interior cabins. The reception had free champagne or other drinks, which was nice, but the area was so packed with folks that there was no opportunity for dancing. The band was playing more pop and jazz tunes in any case rather than anything of a ballroom nature, so dancing was clearly out of the question. But I had enjoyed the opportunity to dance at these receptions on previous cruises and rather rued the lack of a chance to get in some more practice on this one. So after the Captain introduced the crew and Monika finished our drinks, we simply headed back to the cabin to read for an hour or so and so to bed. |
Monika: Today was formal night, so I dressed up in black lace skirt and sparkly top, while Bob wore the rented pants with the black jacket. Quite spiffy! At dinner we were joined by the two people that completed our table of eight, a mother-daughter combination and with our table complete we had another enjoyable meal. After the meal was the captain's reception all along the promenade. We managed to snag a glass of champagne each and then wandered up and down the promenade. The captain appeared on a bridge that went across the promenade and introduced his staff. After that we just headed for our cabin, since the show did not sound too interesting. |
| Prolog | Map of Trip | Epilog |
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